[ 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

[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.

[from_the_outside]

Her breath comes fast and shallow as her mind races. SHIELD, compromised. What's the extent? Nat, Maria Hill – her friends and colleagues, how many of them are in danger?

She can't look at it too closely. Her career, her life, is splintering and falling apart around her, but Fury's here. Steve's here. The three of them can work together, they can find allies. Fight back. "Is that what we are?" she hears Steve say, challenging even now, and suddenly she wonders if this is happening now because of the talk he and Fury had earlier.

Maybe Steve wasn't supposed to know about whatever it was Fury shared with him.

[nerves_of_ice]

The time it had taken to disperse the team after the target escaped into the labyrinthine systems under the city had given the target enough of a head start that the Winter Soldier hadn't been able to catch up with him until he entered the civilian building. Storming it would draw more attention than desired, the kind of attention that can't be as easily explained away as a fatal conflict between a Black man and the D.C. police due to an unfortunate case of mistaken identity.

It won't matter, in the end. After studying the building from every angle, the Winter Soldier determines the most likely apartment for the target to have taken shelter in. He can't see the man through any of the windows, but the target will have to move eventually. He waits patiently through the rest of the afternoon into the early evening, through the fall of darkness, and keeps his rifle trained on the building.

His eyebrows rise when a blond man crawls out a window and into another that leads inside the apartment he's watching, followed by a blonde woman with a pistol in one hand. The Winter Soldier trains every bit of his attention on the apartment, tracking any hint of movement through his sights.

He still can't see the target, but he doesn't need to. The blond man's visible through the window, leaning against the wall and talking to someone. It's not the woman, because he sees her move past the man and out of view in a different direction. The Winter Soldier triangulates the most likely position and angle, and waits for the right moment.

The blond man's gaze changes, shifting higher as his conversation partner stands, and a slight flicker of movement shifts at the edge of the field visible through the window. It's all he needs.

The bullet slams through the wall, and he watches as the blond jerks back half a step and as the target falls forward into view and collapses to the floor.

[from_the_outside]

"That's up to you," Nick says, and then the wall behind him explodes as three shots smash through brick, insulation, and drywall, straight into him. "Nick!"

She doesn't hear the word as it rips from her throat. He falls, and she runs to him, training her Kahr on the wall to cover as Steve drags Fury into the other room. No other shots come, but every nerve is on high alert as she backtracks to join them, then falls to her knees at Fury's side. "Nick," she says, more urgently, checking him over as she reaches for her radio, trying to get a response.

A second later, she thumbs the radio and brings it to her lips. "Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs."

[marvel_npc]

He'd reacted on instinct, dragging Fury out of the line of fire, even while his mind whirls with confusion. Someone had shot him through the wall - but who? How? Why?

Fury presses something into his hand, rasping a warning for him to not trust anyone, and Steve steps back as Sharon rushes to him, checking his injuries and calling for help.

The dispatch operator responds, asking if they have the shooter's location, which jerks the world around him back into sharp focus. Steve scans the room, looking out the window, and sees a glint of metal on the opposite roof. His jaw sets.

"Tell them I'm in pursuit."

Glass shatters as he leaps through it, smashing his own window and the one in the building across the way with his shield as he lands.

[from_the_outside]

A crash of glass and then Steve's gone, going after whoever it was who could target Fury through the wall.

It shouldn't have been possible, but she can't think about it right now. She rips the bottom of her scrubs and does her best to staunch the bleeding as Dispatch gives her the ETA on emergency response and continues asking her questions, many of which she simply can't answer.

And all through it, her mind rings with Nick's warning: SHIELD compromised.

SHIELD is coming to assist. But can she trust them?

[nerves_of_ice]

He holds position, trying to confirm the kill, watching through the window as the blond man drags the target out of sight while the blonde woman covers them with her weapon before falling back to join them. As intent as he is on the scene inside, it's easy for him to see the moment when the blond man steps back into view and spots him.

The Winter Soldier quits his position at a run. It niggles at him to leave the kill not entirely confirmed, but from the way the target had fallen all three shots hit, and the probability is high that if he's not dead already he'll bleed out shortly. If he doesn't, the Winter Soldier will make another attempt. In the meantime, it would be far worse for operational security and Command's interests for him to engage.

He races along the roof toward the far side where it gives way to a lower level and leaps down, tucking into a roll and coming up on his feet without losing momentum. Glass shatters behind him, but he keeps going, until he hears the soft, hissing sound of something being flung at him from behind.

(the shield)

He reacts by instinct alone, catching the metal shield in his left hand with ease, and holds it at arm's length while he studies the blond man over the top of it with a cool, distant flicker of professional appreciation for his skill.

In the next second, he flings the shield back at the other man as hard as he can, aiming for center mass, and uses the moment of distraction to leap from the edge of the roof.

[from_the_outside]

By the time Steve returns, the EMTs have filled his apartment and Sharon is off to one side, reporting to Rumlow. He watches her with sympathy that feels a little performative – they've never quite meshed, her and Rumlow – as she tells him what happened.

Or a version of it, anyway. Rumlow isn't anywhere near the security clearance needed to know about how she and Steve are acquainted. As far as he knows, she's been undercover next door this whole time. "I heard the shots and entered the apartment to investigate," she tells him.

She'll have to remember to break down Steve's door later, so no one will question her story. Right now, no one's paying attention to it. "Upon entrance, I observed Fury down on the ground, with Captain Rogers nearby."

Glancing up as Steve re-enters, she gives him a warning glance. "Captain. Did you apprehend the shooter?"

[marvel_npc]

"No. He was too fast. Strong, too," he says, grim. The force the assassin had put into throwing the shield had hit him hard enough to slide him back a couple of steps. It shouldn't have been possible.

He nods to Rumlow and looks between both him and Sharon. "How's Director Fury?"

[from_the_outside]

"Not looking good," Rumlow tells him, and Sharon fights to keep her expression neutral. Nick. "We're getting ready to airlift him. He'll need emergency surgery if he's gonna make it."

"He'll make it," Sharon says, short.

[marvel_npc]

He nods. "I'll go with him." Don't trust anyone, Fury had said. He'd been running for his life, coming to Steve both to warn him and hoping for help, and Steve had failed him.

"The assassin could try again."

[from_the_outside]

"I'll report to Secretary Pierce."

The buzz of EMTs around Fury shifts, and she glances over as one raises his head to call out to Steve. "Sir? We're ready to move him."