A/N How am I at part 91 already? How does this have over 100k reads? And how the heck does it take almost 24 hours to read? I am so grateful to all of you and I can't believe how far this has come. Thank you all for joining me on this journey so far! Can't wait to see you guys in Part 100!
Y/N POV
I was busy listening to the conversation that was happening in the van as I drove toward their new secret hideout area. They couldn't hear me but I could hear them through a device Maria had on her. Well, Maria could hear me, not like she could answer right now.
"It was him." Steve was saying. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me."
"How's that even possible? It was, like, 70 years ago." Sam asked.
"Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall." Steve explained. "They must have found him and..."
"None of that's your fault, Steve," Nat spoke up and I could hear the pain in her voice. I so badly wanted to be with her right now.
"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky," Steve mutters. The poor guy. Like come on, you go through hell and the world is still throwing curveballs?
"We need to get a doctor here. If we don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out here in the truck." Sam said and I jolted to attention.
"Maria... if she dies I swear to god." I say between my teeth before I hear a zapping sound of electricity. Then there is a loud smashing sound and someone grunts.
"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain." Maria says and I roll my eyes. "Who's this guy?"
"That's Sam," Steve tells his backstory all over again and Maria hums in response.
"Alright. Y/N, you can hear me?" She asks.
"Loud and clear. Need me to pick you up?" I ask.
"No. Meet us there. And she's gonna be fine." Maria explains and I sigh.
"She better be," I say before we both hang up and I speed up a bit to get to where I'm meeting them.
When I get down the hidden path I pull to a stop behind their van. They only just beat me because Steve is helping Natasha out of the back. I rush over and she seems so out of it she doesn't realize it's me. The bandage I wrapped around her arm is completely soaked through and I let her lean on me as Steve wraps his arm around her for us to walk in together.
"Thanks for saving my life back there," I say as I look up at Steve.
"I'm just happy that worked. I was worried I was gonna miss." He answers and I chuckle.
"Well, I'm very glad to still be alive," I reply and he smiles at me.
We all walk pretty quickly into the bunker and it's the first time I've been in here. It's not the prettiest but it gets the job done. "GSW! She's lost at least a pint!" Maria shouts as we get far enough in.
"Maybe two!" Sam says from my other side.
"Let me take her!" A man shouts as he runs in our direction.
"She'll want to see him first," Maria says as she marches us down the hall. Wait. She didn't know Fury was alive? Shit.
I glance down and Natasha is giving me such an odd look that I don't know how to answer so I just press my hand against the wound a little harder. Maria leads us into the room where Fury is laying in bed and he slowly opens his eye to look at us as we all walk in.
"About damn time." He says as she shifts in the bed to sit up.
Steve and Sam head over to his bed and I help Natasha into a chair as the man from the hall comes over to address her shoulder. I kneel next to her and take her hand in mine. Every once and awhile she squeezes as something hurts from her shoulder.
Fury starts listing off his injuries and I still don't know what to say to Nat. "Lacerated spinal column, a cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache."
"Don't forget your collapsed lung." The doctor adds.
"Let's not forget that." Fury cracks a smile. "Otherwise, I'm good."
"They cut you open. Your heart stopped." Nat said and she moved to stand but I pushed her back down.
"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so well for him, but we found a use for it." Fury explains. I had gotten this same speech when I had found out.
"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve asks.
"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Maria explains.
"Can't kill you if you're already dead." Fury says with a small smile. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."
I glance up at Nat who clenches her jaw and looks away. Poor choice of words, Fury. "Director Fury-" Sam starts.
"Nope. I'm not Director anymore. That one is." Fury points at me and I raise an eyebrow. "How're you doing with that, by the way?"
"I hate it," I mumble.
"Well, it's a good thing I have someone else lined up to replace you after all this." He smirks at me and I roll my eyes.
The doctor stands up and nods at us before he leaves the room and Maria follows. Sam and Steve sit down in the corner and start talking while Fury watches Nat and me. "Who is it?" I ask him.
"You'll see." He smirks and I narrow my eyes at him.
"Why don't you seem surprised," Nat asks suddenly and I look up at her.
"About what?" I ask, fearing what was coming.
"About all of this." She points around us.
"I told her." Fury says and I glare at him. "Oh. I shouldn't be involved in this."
"Let's go in the hall." I stand up and Nat grabs my hand as we walk outside.
"What does he mean you knew?" She turns to me and I clench my jaw.
"Maria told me soon after I took his place as Director. They needed me to sabotage the helicarriers for Project Insight." I explain and she glares at me.
"First you fail to tell me you are involved with Insight in the first place. Now you don't even have the decency to tell me that my friend is alive?!" She pushes me backward with a hand on my chest.
"It's not like that! I thought you knew. I swear. I would have told you." I try to explain.
"Do you not trust me?" She asks and I quickly shake my head.
"Of course I trust you! I trust you more than anyone else in my life." I take her hands in mine and she studies my face.
"Why?" She asks so quietly and I furrow my eyebrows.
"What do you mean? I trust you because I love you." I say and she glances over my shoulder.
"You don't know what I have done. How can you trust me without knowing my past?" She asks and I sigh.
"Did you trust me before you found out about Tony?" I ask.
"I-"
"Before I told you about Chloe?" I add.
"Yes..." She says quietly.
"I only care about who you are today. Please understand that." I press my lips to hers for a brief kiss. "Are you still mad?"
"Yes." She decides and I pout. "I just can't believe you wouldn't tell me!"
"I thought you knew!" I say right back.
"If I thought you knew that our friend was actually alive I would still talk to you about it." She says and I sigh.
"We weren't really together at the time! Things have been all over the place." I try and she rolls her eyes.
"We were in your lab for a long time. That might have been a good place." She shrugs before pulling away from me.
"Nat!" I call after her.
"Let's just save the world. Then we can talk." She decides and I stop trying to follow her. God damn it. What just happened? Did I mess this all up that bad? I guess she did have a point, I should have talked to her about the whole thing even if I thought she knew. That would have made sense. But I haven't been thinking clearly for a long time now."
I finally get moving again as I join everyone else back in the room. Fury is sitting up and holding a paper in his hands. Nat is next to Steve and he glances my way when I walk in. I stand next to Maria as I turn to Fury. I feel awful.
"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility. See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues." Fury says as he drops the photo of Pierce.
Natasha glances at me before talking, "We have to stop the launch."
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury says before looking at me.
"They won't listen to me with this. They are set on launching. But I have the new upgrades going into the ships so... your devious little plan will work now. If we can pull it off." I look around at everyone else.
Fury opens a small case with three chips in it and Sam narrows his eyes, "What's that?"
"Once the hellicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized," Maria explains.
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury adds.
"One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die." Maria delivers and everyone looks at each other. This is it.
"We have to assume everyone abord those carriers is HYDRA." Fury says and I can tell Steve doesn't like that. "We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left-"
"We're not salvaging anything! We're not just taking down the carriers, Fury. We're taking down SHIELD." Steve says and I look over at him.
"Excuse me?" I ask, suddenly feeling kind of protective of my position. "SHIELD had nothing to do with this."
"Really, Y/N?" Steve turns to me.
"Yes. Really!" I answer and he just shakes his head at me.
"Fury, you gave me this mission. I'm making this call." Steve decides. "SHIELD's been compromised. You said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed." Fury said.
"How many paid the price before you did?" Steve asks and I sigh, I guess he kind of has a point.
"Look. I didn't know about Barnes." Fury says.
"Even if you had, would you have told me?" Steve asks. "Or would you have compartmentalized that, too? SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes."
"He's right." Maria agrees.
Natasha leans back in her chair and she glances at me again. Fury then looks at me. "I guess I agree with you, Steve."
"Well... It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain." Fury says as he leans back into his chair and sighs.
Steve nods before walking out of the room with Sam at his heels. Fury and Maria start whispering with each other and I walk out as well. Though I don't follow the guys. Instead, I lean my back against the wall and shut my eyes. I wish I hadn't come back here. I should have kept heading toward SHIELD and let them do their thing.
"Am I interrupting?" Nat asks and I open my eyes to see her leaning against the wall across from me.
"Here to yell at me some more?" I ask.
"Maybe." She shrugs. "Why did you help them with Insight, Y/N?"
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"You said you didn't want any part of this." She reminds me.
"When Fury asked for my help I couldn't say no. It was simple stuff he just needed drafts and then minor improvements." I shrug.
"Why don't you tell me these things? Why don't you trust me? You say you do but you don't act like it?" She slowly walks toward me and I sigh.
"You can't pull that," I respond.
"Why not?"
"Because I think it's pretty fucking obvious that I trust you. Did I get mad after you kissed Steve? No. I didn't. Do you know why? Because I trust you, Natasha. I knew it meant nothing to you. At least I hope it didn't. But here you are acting like you're the completely innocent one and I'm the problem." I spit at her and she takes a step back.
"That's different." She says.
"How? Have I really not proven to you that I care about you? After all this time? Natasha, you gave me this ring and said some really amazing things. Did you mean what you said?" I ask and she freezes.
"Of course I did." She answers.
"Then maybe start acting like it means something to you. Instead of me just being something you can boss around. I'll admit, I should have brought this up to you. But I make mistakes! We all do!" I say and she sighs.
"I know. I'm sorry." She shakes her head and walks toward me again. She reaches down and pulls the ring off my finger.
"What are you doing?" I ask, suddenly scared.
"I'm adding something." She looks up at me as she slides it back on. "Y/N... I promise to stop jumping to so many conclusions and bossing you around. I accept that you make mistakes." She smirks and I roll my eyes.
"I love you," I murmur and she leans up to press her lips to mine.
Her arms wrap around my neck and I grab her hips, pulling her body flush with mine. "I love you too." She whispers.
Before anything can escalate too much Fury's voice rings down the hall, "Y/N!"
"Yes?" I call back as my hands are still on her hips.
"Can you come here? I have to talk to you!" He calls out and I glance at Nat.
"We're good?" I ask.
"Yes. We're good." She nods and pecks my lips a few times.
"I'll let you know what he wants, ok? I promise." I smile at her as I pull away to head down the hall.
"Ok." She laughs. "Don't let him start talking about his eyepatch."
"I won't!" I blow her a kiss as I walk into Fury's new makeshift office.
A/N Hope you liked this chapter everyone! If you have any suggestions for what you want to see after this movie let me know! I always am in need of ideas from you talented people. Hope you had a great day and I'll see you in the next chapter!!! Love you guys <3