[ WWII AU ] a ghost story

[from_the_outside]

It's been almost two years since she's been home, and little by little, the grief has gotten easier to live with.

It hasn't gone away. But she's able to focus on her job, watch movies, chat with friends, sleep most nights. She still dreams about him, but the dreams are tinged with wistful longing and only sometimes does she wake up with tears on her cheeks. She can't have his picture out in this apartment, Kate's apartment, but it's safe in the mountain house, along with his last letter to her, and she has a scan on her phone to look at when the long day is over and she's in bed, the stars from the lamp he'd given her filling her dark room.

Steve has helped, more than she could ever explain, and she hopes she's helped him in return. Aside from a few deeply classified missions here and there, they haven't worked together all that much, but she still sees him almost every day. In the halls, she's undercover as his mild-mannered neighbor, Kate, but in her secure apartment they can talk over anything, everything.

And it works. Every day is a little easier. They lean on each other when they need to, and they spend hours remembering and reminiscing about Bucky, talking shop, chatting about how Steve's fitting into the future. It's nice. She still misses Bucky, an ache that never really goes away, but they can both breathe through it, work through it, live through it.

She's on her way up from the basement laundry machines when she hears a familiar step in the hall, and has to smile to herself – first her own, then Kate's sweeter, more open one. "Hey, neighbor."

Comments

[marvel_npc]

"Pretty worried," he admits. "It's not just the mission. There's some other stuff, classified stuff, that I just learned about, too. I don't like it, Sharon. I don't like it at all."

[from_the_outside]

She frowns at classified. Her security clearance is pretty high, but if it's not high enough for this...

And she's learned to trust Steve's gut on matters of morality. They've had more than one debate on the role of SHIELD in the world, but she always comes out of those conversations with a renewed sense that SHIELD can only be better if he's there, questioning things, making them question themselves. "I don't like that Fury's keeping you in the dark," she tells him. "It smacks of not wanting to deal with pushback."

But she's not exactly in Nick's inner circle, these days. What are you up to, Fury?

[marvel_npc]

He sighs, long and slow. “To be fair,” he admits, scrupulously, “he was the one who told me about it. Earlier. When I showed up to confront him over the mission stuff.”

Steve meets her eyes. “I gave him my honest opinion. I don’t think he liked hearing it, but I’m not going to lie to save his feelings. Not about something as important as this.”

[from_the_outside]

If he could tell her, he would. But she has enough now to try and force an answer out of Nick the next time she sees him. "You shouldn't," she confirms. "I know you didn't join up to act as Nick Fury's conscience, but it's good for him to have you push him on the calls he makes."

[marvel_npc]

“Someone needs to,” he agrees. “But if he doesn’t listen… I don’t know. I can’t stand by and pretend I’m okay with things, if they’re wrong.”

His expression is truly rueful as he glances at her. “I’ve never been good at that, not really.”

[from_the_outside]

"I know, Steve."

He's a good man. The best man she knows. And as much as she loves SHIELD, she knows he sees some things more clearly than SHIELD ever can. "What can I do to help? Want me to talk to Nat, get the scoop?"

[marvel_npc]

“I don’t know if she even knows it.” He takes a swallow of his coffee.

“I should probably talk to her again myself, now that I’ve cooled off a little. I was pretty mad at her, but she was just following Fury’s orders.” Steve looks up at her. “If you do talk to her before I do, maybe you could let her know I know that.”

[from_the_outside]

"I will," she promises. "And I bet she knows already."

Sharon smiles over at him. "She likes working with you, you know. Even though you're so different from each other."

[marvel_npc]

“I like working with her too. Most of the time.” Steve scowls, but there’s no heat in it. “Even if she keeps trying to set me up on dates.”

[from_the_outside]

That makes her laugh. "She's a busybody," Sharon points out, amused. "It's a good quality in a spy."

Her grin toys across her lips. "Hasn't sold you on anyone yet, huh?"

[marvel_npc]

“Not yet, no. But she’s determined.”

She’s also suggested more than once that he ask Sharon out, and hadn’t seemed convinced by his denial, which isn’t helped by the fact that he can’t really explain to her why.

“I think she’s taking it as a personal challenge.”

[from_the_outside]

"Oh, you're in for it now," Sharon tells him, laughing. "She's like a dog with a bone. But she just wants you to be happy."

She reaches to pat his knee. "So do I."

And so would Aunt Peggy. She doesn't quite think her aunt is the reason why Steve has resisted getting back into dating – although she's certainly part of it – but it's not like she, herself, hasn't spent the last two years focusing on, well... other things.

So she gets it.

[marvel_npc]

He catches her hand and squeezes, careful as always to keep his grip gentle. She does, he knows, just like he wants her to be happy, but it’s complicated for them both in so many ways.

“Yeah, well, there’s no rush,” is all he says.

[from_the_outside]

Her smile gentles at that and turns a little crooked as she squeezes his hand back. She could ask Nat to lay off him, she supposes... but her friend might get the wrong idea if she tried. "No rush," she agrees.

"It's not like you aren't plenty busy already."

[marvel_npc]

He huffs out a wry breath of laughter. "Just a little."

Steve thinks of the conversation he'd had with Sam Wilson earlier and opens his mouth to tell her about it, then stops, listening intently to the faint sound of big band music.

[from_the_outside]

Whatever he's about to say goes by the wayside, though she's not sure why, for a moment. His hearing is better than hers, but after a second, she hears it, too, and frowns at him.

"Did you leave your record player on?"

[marvel_npc]

"No. I didn't." He discards the coffee onto the table as he gets to his feet. "Someone's in my apartment."

[from_the_outside]

She sets her own mug down and reaches under the coffee table, where she'd stashed her Kahr and a walkie-talkie. Checking the load on the pistol, she goes to the door, standing to the side and waiting to open it until Steve's ready.

When she gets the nod from him, she silently turns the knob and pulls the door towards herself, then follows him, silent as a cat, down the hall.

[marvel_npc]

He doesn't bother trying to tell her to stay behind. She's good, he knows it, and backup's not a bad idea.

Steve listens at the door just to be certain, but there's no question the music's coming from his apartment, and it's a sure thing that he hadn't started it. Whoever's inside'll expect him to come through the door, and is likely to have trapped it or be listening for the squeak of the hinges when it opens - a squeak he'd left in place on purpose to alert him, if he ever needed it.

Steve tips his head to the hallway window instead and slides the casement open. He takes a careful look outside just to make sure the ledge is wide enough for her as well, then makes his way out and over to his own window.

[from_the_outside]

Sharon edges out along the ledge after him, one hand on the wall and the other keeping her Kahr at the ready. His safety us her priority, regardless of the fact that she's letting him go ahead of her. After all this time, they know how to work together and around each other, and she'll be damned if she doesn't do her duty.

The music is stronger from here, especially when Steve slides the window gently open. She waits for him to enter, landing softly, then follows him inside.

[marvel_npc]

He waits for her to join him, then ducks into the hallway and against the far wall, claiming his shield in a single swift movement as he does. Cautiously, he moves along the wall toward where it opens out into the living room, hyperaware of any sign of movement or trouble.

He clears the corner with a quick scan and spots a figure sitting in the dark in the armchair next to the stereo system. Steve's eyes narrow as he recognizes Fury, and he lets himself relax a little and leans against the wall to signal Sharon things aren't what they'd thought.

It doesn't do anything to help his annoyance with the man, though. "I don't remember giving you a key."

[from_the_outside]

It's a quick flash of inputs – Steve getting the shield, her back pressed against the wall, her Kahr in her hands and at the ready, Steve relaxing. She lowers the Kahr, but doesn't put it away, skirting the corner with a swift, smooth step.

Fury's one-eyed glance tracks to her, then back to Steve. "You really think I'd need one?"

Sharon scowls at him and lets her Kahr point toward the floor as Fury goes on. "My wife kicked me out."

[marvel_npc]

"I didn't know you were married," he says, as dry as he can make it. All the stuff Fury was saying earlier about trust, and now he pulls a stunt like this. Even as the thought presents itself, Fury's admitting it. "There's a lot of things you don't know about me."

Steve sighs. Maybe this is the only way the other man knows how to hold out an olive branch. He relaxes further and comes the rest of the way into the room, reaching for the light switch as he does. If they're going to have a real talk, they're going to need light, and something to drink, and a commitment to honesty on both sides. "I know, Nick," says. "That's the problem."

The lamp flicks on, mercilessly illuminating the side of Fury's face and the damage he's taken in what must have been a hell of a fight. Steve stares in shock, but before he can get a word out, Fury makes a sharp gesture for silence and reaches to turn off the light once more.

[from_the_outside]

She stops herself from moving toward her boss with ruthless determination, but shock is an icicle stabbing into her gut. What the hell happened to him?

Nick glances between them, then types out a message on his phone. She can see the way he's laboring to do even that, as he finishes and turns his screen so they can see. Ears everywhere.

Which they already know. She and Steve chat in her apartment because his is bugged; bugs that Nick himself had ordered.

But if he's worried about who might be listening in...

"I'm sorry to have to do this," Nick continues, typing out another message. "But I had no place else to crash."

He turns the phone again, and this time his eye meets Sharon's, something bitter and sorrowful and furious in it. Which she can understand, when she reads his message and her whole world stops cold.

SHIELD compromised.

[marvel_npc]

SHIELD compromised. His voice sounds dim and distant in his own ears, and he's just barely able to keep it level for the sake of not alerting anyone who might be eavesdropping. "Who else knows about your wife?"

He can't look at Sharon. This is a disaster. Fury pushes himself to his feet with a soft grunt and turns the phone back around as he starts toward them.

you and me

"Just my friends," he says, tipping his head toward them.