Fury walked into his office seeing Arden sitting in front of his desk, waiting for him.
"Captain Rogers is requesting to see me." Fury informed her, taking a seat in his chair.
She scoffed, sitting up straight. "Yeah, he's not very happy with me, so he won't be happy that you had different orders for me."
"He'll get over it." Fury assured her.
"He'll never trust me." She commented.
"Give it time." Fury added. "You change your mind about Project Insight?"
She shook her head, getting up from the chair. "No, leave me out of it."
As soon as she walked out of his office, Steve was walking towards her, didn't even glance at her and walked past.
Since she didn't have much to do for the day, she went to visit an old friend. Knocking on the door, walking in, she smiled at the woman laying in her bed.
"Arden Lee. Or should I say Cora Johnson?" Peggy smiled, surprised to see her.
"Hi Peggy." Arden greeted, pulling up a chair next to her bed.
"You look young. As always." Peggy let out.
Arden chuckled, nodding. "Sunscreen helps with the aging."
Peggy chuckled, letting out a breath. "What are you doing here?"
"Fury asked for a favor." She lied.
"He's pretty stern on those favors." Peggy played along, and she nodded.
"It's so good to see you, Peggy. Thank you for keeping my secret, old friend." Arden held her hand.
"He looks good doesn't he?" Peggy asked, referring to Steve.
Arden scoffed, narrowing her eyes at her. "How'd you know I saw him?"
"You only hide a smile like that around a man like Steve Rogers." Peggy informed her.
"Was it that obvious I was crushing on him in the 40s?" Arden asked and Peggy nodded.
"I would never do that to you." She added.
"You were always there, even if he didn't know it." Peggy reminded her.
"He doesn't like me very much." Arden informed her, and Peggy chuckled, shaking her head.
"That's because he's intimidated by strong women."
They both laughed, Arden releasing her hand when she received a text from Agent Hill.
URGENT. SHIELD COMPROMISED. FURY DOWN.
"Peggy, I gotta go. I'll come see you soon, okay?" Arden stood up.
"Duty calls." Peggy understood, and Arden smiled, walking towards the door.
"Arden." Peggy calls after her, she turns around to look at her. "Take care of him for me."
Arden gave her a weak smile, then running out the door to her car. She drove quickly to the address Hill sent her on their secure line, running into the room. A glass window into the surgery room, seeing Steve and Natasha standing against the window watching.
"Tell me about the shooter." Arden demanded, walking up to the window.
"He's fast. Strong. Had a metal arm." Steve answered lowly, turning to look at her.
Arden could feel herself lose herself. Everything around her starting to crumble, everything from her past starting to catch up with her, squeezing her hand into a fist before she lost herself to her emotions in front of everyone.
"Ballistics?" Natasha asked Hill.
"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable." Hill informed them.
"Soviet-made." Natasha commented, Maria looking over at Natasha surprised how she knew.
"He's in V-tach." The nurse announced.
All of their eyes went back through the glass window watching the surgeons and nurses move fast to try to revive him.
"Come on, Nick." Arden whispered.
The nurses kept hitting him with the defibrillator paddles, but no sign of a heartbeat. They all looked away, Natasha walked out of the room. After they prepped Fury, they got to see him in a private room. Natasha and Arden standing over Fury's lifeless body, while Steve stood by the door watching them.
"I need to take him." Hill announced, Steve nodded and Natasha took a step back, but Arden stood there with a tear falling down her face.
"Arden." Steve walked behind her.
She gently put her hand on Fury's head, before wiping her tear and stormed out of the room.
"Arden!" Steve called after her.
"Why was Fury in your apartment?" She asked him, turning around, noticing Natasha close behind him.
Steve looked away for a second, letting out a breath before looking back at Arden. "I don't know."
Lie.
"Cap, they want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D." Rumlow informed him from behind.
"Yeah, give me a second." Steve replied, keeping his eyes on Arden.
"They want you now." Rumlow repeated with urgency.
"Okay." Steve jerked to Rumlow, when he looked back at Arden she shook her head.
"Has anyone told you that you're a terrible liar?" She asked him, looking at Natasha and tilted her head quickly for her to follow.
Arden looked back, seeing Steve place something into the vending machine discretely and chuckled. Natasha turned and noticed, shaking her head at Arden.
"Rookie." Natasha insulted Steve, walking back to the vending machine with Arden.
They got the janitor to reopen the machine, taking the flash drive, and leaving together.
"You got a plan?" Nat asked in the passenger seat.
"I'm working on it." She answered, focusing on the road.
"Fury talked about you before. Best agent he ever had." Nat informed her.
Arden didn't say anything, Nat shifted to face her.
"You're hiding something." Nat added.
"I have a feeling you'll find out soon." Arden replied.
When they heard word that there was level one search hunt on Steve, and what happened at the headquarters, Arden had an idea where Steve would be heading. The both of them waiting in the parking lot for Steve, and when they spotted him walking inside in a pair of sweats with his hood on, they followed him inside. Arden followed behind him as he walked up to the same vending machine as earlier, looking into the glass, seeing the entire row of gum gone along with the flash drive. Steve noticed Arden in the reflection as she popped a bubble of her gum.
He immediately turned around facing Arden and seeing Natasha standing against the wall. He grabbed her by the arm, walking her backwards into a room, pushing her against the wall, pulling off his hood.
"Where is it?" He asked her sternly.
"Steve." Natasha scolded behind them.
"Safe." Arden answered blankly.
"Where did you get it?" Arden asked, looking up at his eyes as he was inches away from her own.
"Why would I tell you?" Steve countered, confirming her allegations that Steve didn't like or trust her.
"Fury gave it to you. Why?" Arden countered.
"What's on it?" He inquired.
"I don't know." She answered truthfully.
"Stop lying." Steve demanded, gripping her arm more.
"I know a lot of things, Rogers, but not everything." Arden defended.
"Steve." Natasha pleaded from behind, he looked back at Natasha for a split second before turning back to Arden.
"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Steve mentioned.
Arden raised a brow, looking past Steve at Natasha and she sighed.
"Well it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you." Arden commented.
"I'm not gonna ask you again." Steve pressured, putting both hands on her this time.
"Get your-"
"I know who killed Fury." Natasha jumped in, Steve releasing Arden's arms, turning around to listen.
Arden let out a small breath, thankful Natasha jumped in or her secret would have came out sooner than she wanted.
"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with almost two dozen assassins in the last 50 years." Nat explained.
"So he's a ghost story." Steve comments, stepping away from Arden.
"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. Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye, bikinis." Nat continued, lifting up the bottom of her shirt to reveal a healed bullet wound.
"Yeah, I'm sure you look terrible in them now." Arden joked.
"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." Nat added.
"Like you said, he's a ghost story." Arden repeated, holding up the flash drive in front of Steve, and he slowly takes it from her.
"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants." Steve declared.