Grace Period ▹ Steve Rogers [3]

3 | cereal killers

3 | CEREAL KILLERS
(I was trying to be funny...)

"I haven't seen you in days." Steve said as he walked up the steps to their apartment building.

"I was working." Amelia looked away, biting at her nails.

Steve noticed her nervous state, but quickly dismissed it. "We have to talk." Amelia said, breaking the silence between them.

"If this is about the mission, I understand. I talked to Fury, I realized I shouldn't have gotten mad at you. You were assigned a task and you were just doing your job." He replied.

"No... I've been gone for a couple of days, and there's something you need to know." Amelia said. "But, we can't talk here." Steve nodded and followed Amelia into the building and up the elevator.

The two went silently up to the floor of their apartment. Their neighbor, Kate, was dressed obviously in a nurse's outfit and walked out holding her laundry basket while on the phone. Amelia habitually scanned her for any threats; she had only met Kate once before. Amelia was never really home.

Nothing seemed off. Except for, she did notice her nurse's outfit was oddly clean for hospital work. Kate looked over to Amelia and smiled; Amelia immediately lost interest in scanning her.

"My aunt, she's kind of an insomniac." Kate laughed, talking about the conversation she had just had on the phone. Amelia feigned a smile and nodded at her.

Steve noticed her basket and jabbed Amelia side and gestured over to it. "Oh! Hey– you can use our machine if you want, I think it's better than using the one in the basement." Amelia falsely offered.

"Thank you, but um... I already have a load downstairs, and, uh... you really don't want my scrubs in your machine. I just finished orientation in the infectious diseases ward, so." She replied.

"Okay." Amelia said, awkwardly. Odd, she thought. It was a bit strange that the neighbor would always spend that much time speaking to the her as if they were friends.

"Oh, and I think you left your stereo on." She mentioned to Steve.

"Oh. Right, thank you." Steve responded. Kate walked away from their sight and he immediately turned around and pressed his ear to the door to hear the music playing.

"What is it—" Amelia stopped talking when Steve put his hand up.

"Go in through the outside." He whispered walking towards the emergency stairs.

"Actually— I'll wait for you to open the door from here." Amelia said, stepping out of his way. Steve looked at her confusedly, but persisted to go in through the outside.

* * *

Steve swung open the door and paced over to the living room, Amelia followed. "I don't remember giving you a key." Steve commented.

"You really think I'd need one? My wife kicked me out." Nick said, slightly shamefully.

"You're married?" Amelia widened her eyes at the thought.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me." Nick answered.

"I know, Nick. That's the problem." Steve flicked on the light and Amelia went into the kitchen for some cereal.

The two went hauntingly silent as Amelia dug through the box with a spoon. She looked up and saw Nick holding up a phone with ears everywhere written on the screen.

"I'm sorry to have to do this, but I had no place else to crash." He typed up another message, SHIELD compromised on the screen.

"Who else knows about your wife?" Steve asked, and Amelia read us three.

"Just my friends." From Nick.
"We're friends?" From Amelia.

"That's up to you." Nick said, right before three loud bullets shot through the window and into Fury. Amelia ducked and Steve dragged Fury into the kitchen.

"Put pressure on the wound!" Amelia said harshly, pushing her fists down on the bullet holes.

"Don't... Trust... Anyone..." Fury said and placed a flash drive gently into her hand before passing out. Someone busted the door down and Steve got up and readied his shield.

"Captain Rogers? Captain, I'm Agent 13 of SHIELD's Special Service." The voice of the neighbor Kate rang out.

"Kate?"
"I'm assigned to protect you two."
"On whose order?"
"His."

Kate pointed at the very inactive Nick Fury. She notices him on the ground and pulls out a walkie, "Oxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs."

"Do you have a twenty on the shooter?" A SHIELD agent responded through the walkie.

"Tell him we're in pursuit." Steve looked at Amelia.

"Actually, I'll just stay with Nick..." Amelia said, and, again, Steve looked at her oddly but shrugged and jumped out of the window.

* * *

"Is he gonna make it?" Nat asked.

"I don't know." Steve mumbled.

"He's Nick Fury. Of course he's gonna make it." Amelia refused to believe that the most powerful man Amelia ever knew was going to die right before her eyes.

"Tell me about the shooter." Nat commanded.

"He's fast and strong. He had a metal arm." Steve said. Agent Hill walked up next to them from behind.

"Ballistics?" Nat interrogated.

"Three slugs. No rifling and completely untraceable." Maria Hill answered.

"Soviet made?" Nat pressed on with more questions.

"Yeah." Maria answered again.

The machines began to go flatline and Amelia swore she felt waterfalls building up to trickle down her cheeks. "Don't do this to me, Nick." Natasha said, hoarsely. The doctors tried shocking him back to life with the defibrillator.

Amelia placed a hand on the glass. "No..." She whispered. Steve walked away from the scene and the doctors call his time of death, 1:03 A.M.

author's note:

I HOPE YOU LIKED IT :)

btw ILY ALL SO FREAKING MUCH

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