Time of death
Ivy stood tensely next to Steve in the hospital, staring through a window at Fury lying on the operating table. She tried not to let on how much she was actually freaking out inside. Someone had tried to kill Fury twice and both times she had been with him. Was it because they knew there were traitors in Shield? Was she next? Or worse, were Jack, Steve or Natasha next?
Ivy inwardly tried to count to hundred to somehow calm herself down and also distract herself at the same time. She didn't necessarily like Fury, but she didn't wish him dead. And she knew there were other people who cared about him. She stared down at her hands, hating the sight. Her hands were once again covered in blood. Would she ever get the blood off of her? Would there finally come times when she wouldn't wash the blood off her hands before going to sleep? She just wanted peace and a normal life.
"Is he gonna make it?" asked Natasha as she stepped next to Steve. Ivy looked over at her. Natasha was also trying to hide her feelings. But Ivy knew she was worried. She didn't know much about Natasha, but she had noticed that she and Fury had a father-daughter relationship. Ivy never had anything like a father or anyone close to that role. She did wonder sometimes what it must feel like to have a father who loves and supports you. But you couldn't have everything in life.
"I don't know," Steve replied honestly, looking over at Natasha with concern. The two still hadn't made up, and Ivy hated that they were meeting again under such circumstances. Natasha tried to ignore Steve's worried look, or pretended not to care. Inside, she was longing for someone to take her hand.
"Tell me about the shooter," she prompted them both. Ivy looked down at her shoes and bit her lip. She couldn't get the assassin out of her mind. His posture, his eyes... Ivy couldn't explain it, but she was drawn to him and she hated it. He had tried to kill her and Fury and she couldn't get his damn blue eyes out of her head.
"He's fast and strong. Had a metal arm" Steve reported. Ivy felt Natasha's gaze on her briefly and looked up to meet Natasha's green eyes. Something wasn't right about her look, though. Especially when Steve brought up the metal arm. Ivy got the feeling that Natasha knew who was being talked about. Natasha and Ivy broke eye contact when Maria Hill joined them.
"Ballistics?" Natasha asked the other agent. "Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable" Hill replied. "Soviet-made," Natasha concluded, and Ivy looked at her curiously. "Yeah," Maria agreed with her.
The four watched in shock as Fury's condition got worse. Ivy rubbed her face and didn't worry about getting blood on it. She was a mess by now anyway, a little blood on her face wouldn't hurt. A couple of nurses had tried to take her to one of the rooms to examine her as well, but Ivy had assured them she was fine. Whether it was a lie or the truth she didn't know herself right now.
"He's in V-tach" called one of the male nurses. "Crash cart coming in" replied a female nurse. "Nurse, help me with the drape" the doctor said in response. Ivy didn't know whether she held her breath or did the opposite.
"BP is dropping."
"Defibrillator!"
Ivy put her hand over her mouth as Fury's pulse approached zero. This couldn't happen. He was Nick Fury. He was practically immortal and no one could change that. He was going to survive this, he had to survive this.
"I want you to charge him at one hundred."
"Don't do this to me, Nick," Natasha whispered. Steve's hand approached Natasha's. He waited a small moment to see if she would pull her hand away before their fingers interlocked.
"Stand back. Three, two, one. Clear!" the doctor shouted, giving Fury a shock with the defibrillator. "Pulse?"
"No pulse."
Ivy closed her eyes and threw her head back as she tapped her foot lightly against the floor.
"Okay. Two hundred, please. Stand back. Three, two, one. Clear!" the doctor shouted, giving him another shock. "Give me epinephrine! Pulse?"
"Negative."
"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me" Natasha pleaded softly and Steve squeezed her hand. Ivy turned around and moved a few steps away as they announced Nick's Furys time of death. She couldn't believe Nick Fury was dead.
~°~
Ivy wiped the blood off her hands and let the water ran while looking in the mirror. She had traces of blood on her face and hair. A small bruise was visible on the spot where she had hit her head against the window pane. Her clothes were also smeared with blood. She tried to block out the stench of the blood, as it would probably make her throw up.
She splashed the cold water on her face and wiped the blood from her face. Ivy turned the water off and propped herself against the small sink in one of the hospital's restrooms. Her hand reached into her pants pocket, from which she pulled out the small flash drive. Steve hadn't realized how she had stolen it. She didn't want him to have it. Fury had been killed because of the information on the flash drive and she didn't want to put Steve in that kind of danger.
Steve was with Natasha at Fury's body to say goodbye. Ivy had felt out of place and so had preferred to go to the bathroom to wipe the blood from her face and hands. She looked like she had killed someone.
Ivy heard the door to the restroom open and saw Natasha stand behind her through the mirror. "Why was Fury in Steve's apartment?" she asked seriously, and Ivy raised an eyebrow. She'd reacted quickly enough when she'd heard the door open and had jammed the flash drive under the sink.
"Have you asked Steve that yet?" asked Ivy, peering at Natasha through the mirror. "Cut the crap, Ivy. You were at Steve's apartment with Fury when Steve came home. The blood was on you before the three shots were fired" Natasha replied, stepping closer to her.
"You're blaming me?" asked Ivy, turning around to look Natasha straight in the eye. There was maybe a good yard between them, but Ivy kept the neutral expression on her face.
"No, but I think you know something" Natasha replied and Ivy took a step towards her. "I don't know any more than you do. Fury was at my front door all of a sudden and I helped him in and got blood all over me. A few minutes later Steve broke in through the window and after that we know how the story goes on" Ivy lied without batting an eye. Natasha looked at her closely and seemed to analyze her and find a clue that she was lying.
"I don't think this conversation is getting us anywhere" said Ivy, after which nothing more came from Natasha's side. Ivy walked past Natasha and started walking toward the door.
"Shield wants you to go to the headquarters with Steve" Natasha told her and Ivy turned around to her. "Okay," she said, nodding. "And Ivy," Natasha said before she could leave the room. "Please be as convincing as you were just now."
~°~
"I don't have a good feeling about this," Ivy muttered as she took off her motorcycle helmet and looked at Shield's headquarters in front of her. Natasha's words rang through her head as she did so. "Be as convincing as you were now." She hadn't bought her lie. She knew Ivy had lied, but she had advised her to lie to Shield as well. Natasha knew her to some extent and was one of Shield's best agents, of course she had seen through Ivy's lie. Whoever Ivy would talk to, though, would buy her lie. She hoped they would.
"I don't either. But we can't just not show up" Steve replied, taking off his helmet as well. "Are you okay?" he asked her worriedly and Ivy turned to face him.
"Me?" asked Ivy, pointing a finger at herself in confusion. "I'm fine," she lied, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. "No, you're not fine" Steve objected, giving her a knowing look. "When you're ready to talk, I'll be ready to listen" he said and Ivy smiled weakly at him.
"We should go in" Ivy said and Steve nodded, at which point the two friends started moving. "Did you talk to Natasha?" asked Ivy as they stood in the elevator waiting for it to stop at the right floor.
"Not really. It wasn't the right moment" Steve sighed and Ivy nodded slowly. "She needs you, Steve. No matter what the problem was before, don't let her go through this alone. Even if she won't admit it, she needs you" Ivy advised softly and Steve looked to her. Before he could say anything, the elevator doors opened. The two friends remained standing in the elevator for a moment, however.
"Do we have a safe word?" asked Ivy, not taking her eyes off the hallway. "A safe word?" asked Steve, a little confused. "Yes, if something goes wrong or one of us understands that now would be the time to leave we need a signal, a safe word" Ivy explained, turning her face to Steve. "I'm not sure if-"
"Waffles. It's waffles" Ivy decided before Steve could finish his sentence and stepped out of the elevator. "Waffles? Why waffles?" Steve asked himself before hurrying after her and quickly catching up.
Ivy walked past Shield agents, paying little attention to them. But when she saw her neighbor with a slightly older looking man, they had caught her attention. She walked right up to them and Steve followed behind.
"For whatever it's worth, you did your best" Ivy got how the slightly older man said that to her neighbor. She wondered why she hadn't suspected Shield would go as far as spying on her in her, or rather Steve's, own apartment.
"Thank you, sir," the blonde neighbor thanked him and turned to leave. Her eyes met Steve and Ivy, neither of whom had friendly faces. "Captain Rogers. Agent Ivy," she greeted them both. Ivy said nothing as she walked past her. Sometimes silence was better than words. She knew the blonde agent had only done her job and couldn't help it, so she said nothing offensive in her direction.
"Neighbor," Steve greeted rather coolly. "Ah, Captain. Miss Stark. I'm Alexander Pierce" the older man introduced himself. Ivy automatically disliked him. She didn't know why, but she didn't have a good feeling about this.
"Sir, it's an honor" Steve replied politely, shaking his hand. Whether he meant his words was another matter. But it was Steve Grant Rogers, manners he had. "The honor is mine, Captain. My father served in the 101st" Pierce replied while shaking hands. "I've also heard a lot about you lately" Pirece said to Ivy as he shook her hand. Ivy forced herself to smile, but Steve knew how forced the smile was.
"Come on in," Pierce invited them both into his office. Ivy's feet wouldn't budge. She didn't want to be here. She hated this place. She couldn't stand all these organizations, no matter how good their intentions might seem. They wouldn't always stay this good, and people with good intentions wouldn't always run these organizations. She had partially trusted Fury, but now without him here, she had no trust in this organization at all.
"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met" Pierce recounted as he showed the two an older photo of him and Fury. "When I was at State Department in Bogota. ELN rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was deputy chief for the SHIELD station there. And he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, "No, we'll negotiate." Turned out the ELN didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement, and what did they find? They found it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil. He saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter."
"So you gave him a promotion," Steve concluded. Ivy watched Pierce discreetly, trying to find something about him that would confirm her bad feeling toward him. "I've never had any cause to regret it. Miss Stark, why was Nick in your apartment last night?" asked Pierce, looking at Ivy for answers.
"Ivy, just Ivy. I don't use the Stark name much lately," Ivy stated. It felt wrong to have Howard's last name. Wrong because he wasn't there. She had never felt like a Stark and he was the only reason she had worn that last name. Without him, it felt wrong to wear his last name.
"I see. So, Ivy, why was Nick Fury at yours?" asked Pierce again. Ivy could see the impatience in his eyes. "I don't know" Ivy replied calmly, no kind of emotion on her face.
"You know it was bugged?" Pierce asked the two friends. Ivy tilted her head to the side and looked to Steve, who was also looking in her direction. "I did, because Nick told me" Steve replied and Ivy scoffed inwardly. "Yes, he had told us yesterday, just before he was killed" she thought, but continued to show no emotion on her face. She had become good at hiding her emotions over the years.
"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" continued Pierce, and Ivy felt Steve's gaze on her again. Fury had left that out, but Ivy had already figured it was Fury's doing, so it wasn't a big surprise to her. "I want you to see something" Pierce added, showing them footage of the interrogation with Batroc.
"Who hired you, Batroc?" asked a Shield agent. They were in an interrogation cell that looked a lot like the one Ivy had been in the first time. She would definitely recognize those gray walls.
"Is that live?" asked Steve, while Ivy just raised her eyebrow slightly. "Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers" Pierce confirmed Steve's suspicions. "Are you saying he's a suspect? Assassination isn't Batroc's line" Steve said, while Ivy already knew which way things would go here. They would try to blame Fury and portray him as the enemy to get the necessary information out of Ivy and Steve.
"No, it's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star and he was contacted by e-mail and paid by wire transfer" Pirece began to explain. "And then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts, the last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech."
"Am I supposed to know who that is?" asked Steve in irritation, and Pirece handed him a file.
"Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 14-35 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick his mother lived at 14-37" Pierce explained and Ivy smirked inwardly. So she had guessed correctly. Fury had hired the pirates to get the information he needed about Shield and now someone was pissed that he had succeeded. And her stomach told her that this man had something to do with it.
"Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?" asked Steve in confusion and Ivy rubbed her chin, again no emotion on her face. Something Pierce didn't like, because he couldn't size her up one bit and didn't know what he was dealing with.
"The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death" Pierce said, staring at Ivy, who once again didn't respond to his words.
"If you really knew Nick Fury you'd know that's not true" Steve defended the dead man. He was tense, Ivy could tell that from his posture.
"Why do you think we're talking? See, I took a seat on the Council not because I wanted to but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists" Pierce told them and Ivy would have liked to laugh. She was sure Pierce had wanted that seat. He couldn't fool her by trying to look modest. She knew liars, and she knew when she was sitting in front of one.
"We knew that despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies. Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today, makes me really, really angry." He hesitated a moment before continuing.
"Captain, Ivy, you were the last one to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident, and I don't think you do either. So I'm gonna ask again, why was he there?" he asked, looking directly at Ivy.
Ivy leaned forward in her chair and propped her elbows on the table while keeping eye contact with Pierce. "Like I said earlier. We have no idea" she said calmly, too calmly for Pierce's taste.
"Do you? What were you talking about before Steve came?" Pierce pressed on, but Ivy didn't drop her composed facade. "What should we have been talking about? About waffles?" Ivy asked sarcastically before frowning with purpose. "I thought you guys had the place bugged? Didn't you? You should know what we were talking about" she asked, looking at the man with false curiosity.
"I don't think we can help you. Excuse us" Steve added and picked up his Shield. He had gotten into his Captain America suit, while Ivy's blood-stained clothes had been traded for black jeans and a white T-shirt with a small V-neck.
Ivy also got up from the chair and followed Steve toward the door. "Captain. Ivy," Pierce said, and the two friends stopped and turned to Pirece. "Somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. Anyone."
"Understood," Steve said, while Ivy simply analyzed Pierce silently. The two left the room and Ivy couldn't wait to get out of this building.