NO MATTER how angry she was at Nick Fury, his death was not something she had hoped for. After Steve and Evelyn had parted ways from Peggy Carter, Evelyn had gone to her home in D.C., but she had not even made it out of her car. After all, she spent almost half an hour sitting there, trying to think of her next course of action regarding Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. Evelyn had received an urgent call from Steve saying Fury was in his apartment when he was killed by a man with a metal arm. Evelyn rushed to the hospital without wasting any time.
When she had gotten there, she pulled her jacket further around her as her heels clicked rapidly on the floor. She found Steve and Natasha staring inside of the room where the surgery was taking place. Agent Maria Hill was there as well. Making it to Steve's side, she placed a hand on the glass with a frown on her face.
"Is he going to make it?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know," Steve answered.
Natasha frowned, distress clear on her face. "Tell me about the shooter."
"He's fast and strong. Had a metal arm," Steve said as he furrowed his eyebrows. Evelyn could tell he was deep in thought as if he almost knew who the shooter was, but it was obvious he did not.
"Ballistics?" Evelyn asked next.
Maria Hill stared at the director with her eyes pooling with tears as well. "Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable."
"Soviet-made," Natasha decided.
"Yeah," Maria agreed. In the surgery room, Fury's health began to deteriorate as the machines began to beep irritably. The nurses were running around in a hurry, trying to keep Fury alive.
"He's in V-tach."
"Crash cart coming in."
"Help me with the drape."
"BP is dropping."
"Defibrillator!" Evelyn crossed her arms over her chest as she watched in fear as he began to flatline. "I want you to charge him at one hundred."
Natasha allowed her distress to show as she said, "Don't do this to me, Nick."
"Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear!" Fury was shocked by the defibrillator. "Pulse?"
"No pulse."
They continued to shock his chest as Natasha continued to mumble, "Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me." When nothing seemed to work, Evelyn turned her back to the man, lowering her forehead onto her hand. She sighed to herself, not knowing what to do. As they prepped his body to be brought to the morgue, Natasha walked into the room, placing her hand on his head fondly. Steve and Evelyn stayed back, allowing the redhead to mourn quietly as they waited.
Maria walked into the room after a few moments. "I need to take him."
Steve walked over to Natasha, calling her name once. She ignored him, giving one last look to Fury before storming out of the room. Steve ran after her, calling, "Natasha!" Evelyn followed them out just to see Natasha turn with anger in her eyes.
"Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha asked him.
Evelyn frowned, wanting to know as well. They had argued with him that afternoon and then went to see Peggy that night. There was no reason for Fury to be with Steve, not really.
"I don't know," Steve lied. Evelyn narrowed her eyes.
Before Evelyn or Natasha could say a word, Rumlow walked forward and yelled, "Cap, they want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D."
Steve barely glanced at him. "Yeah, give me a second."
"They want you now," Rumlow insisted, eyes not even glancing at Natasha or Evelyn.
Steve sighed, "Okay."
Evelyn smirked a bit at Steve as Natasha said, "You're still a terrible liar." Natasha turned and walked off.
Steve glanced at Evelyn, walking forward as if he was going to hug her. He placed something in her hand, stating, "Keep it safe for me. I'll explain later."
Evelyn nodded, tightening her hold on the device as Steve backed away and went to leave with Rumlow. Once she was alone, Evelyn looked down at the flash drive with a confused look. Had Fury given it to him before he died? Evelyn pulled the hood of her jacket up and placed sunglasses on her face as she noticed a blur of red hair watching from down the hall. Moving to the waiting room, Evelyn took a seat to wait for Steve to return.
Evelyn had hoped Natasha would leave when she saw Evelyn heading for the exit, but of course, fate was not on the Stark's side as Natasha slid into the seat next to Evelyn. It was awkward for a moment before Natasha said, "So, are we going to this the easy way or the hard way?"
Evelyn rose a brow before Natasha suddenly moved to punch the woman. Evelyn dodged it only just, moving her head and sending her own punch at the agent. Evelyn stood as Natasha sent a kick. She slid on the ground, underneath her leg. She managed to grab Natasha's leg, flipping the woman midair. Natasha groaned as she landed on the ground. Evelyn looked at her from above, a glare hardening on her face before she smirked.
"I guess the hard way," Evelyn said.
Natasha shrugged, not wasting a second to swipe her legs under Evelyn's. Evelyn landed on the ground, her head butting the hard floor. She pushed back just as Natasha landed on her waist, locking her hands above her head.
"Hard way is good. I don't mind," Natasha quipped.
Evelyn sneered, bucking her hips to throw the woman halfway across the room. Grabbing a chair, she threw it at the redhead, watching it crumble on her. Only then did she notice the flash drive had slid across the floor. Natasha had flipped in the air to land right in front of Evelyn, sending a punch to her side. Evelyn grabbed the woman's arm, twisting it behind her back just as she was knocked to the side by Natasha's elbow.
Evelyn was momentarily stunned, and Natasha used that to slide across the ground to grab the flash drive.
With a smirk, Natasha said, "Don't hold back next time, Stark. I can take it."
Evelyn wiped her bloody nose with a smirk and a nod. "The problem was the heels."
"Yeah, bit of an upper hand on my end," Natasha agreed. "Let's clean up that nose."
Steve had shown back up hours later. He was dressed in his own hoody and jeans. When he noticed Evelyn sitting in the waiting room with a broken chair nearby and a frown on her face, he felt something had happened. Making it in front of her, he watched as she pulled her sunglasses down dramatically before pointing reluctantly behind him.
Natasha popped a bubble from the gum in her mouth with a smirk. Steve caught on quickly. Grabbing Natasha's shoulders, he shoved her into the nearest room while Evelyn followed with a satisfied smile on her face.
"Where is it?" Steve asked as he held her angrily to the wall with rage on his face.
"Safe."
"Do better!"
"Where did you get it?"
"Why would I tell you?"
"Fury gave it to you. Why?"
"What's on it?"
"I don't know."
"Stop lying!"
"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."
Steve narrowed his eyes. "I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?"
Natasha only shrugged. "Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you."
"I'm not gonna ask you again," Steve growled lowly.
Evelyn leaned on the door, head hurting from being hungry and lack of sleep. She watched Natasha's eyes flicker to hers before she told Steve, "I know who killed Fury. Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."
Evelyn nodded. "So he's a ghost story?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Natasha nodded. "Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me." As Steve let her go, Natasha lifted her shirt to show a scar near her pelvic bone. "Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis."
Steve backed up a bit, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now."
Natasha smiled a bit before growing serious. "Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." She pulled the flash drive from her jacket pocket. "Like she said, he's a ghost story." Steve snatched the flash drive from her.
"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants," Evelyn called, noticing the tension between Steve and Natasha.