chapter forty-five
not a friendly blonde

"𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 this?" Steve asked Grace for the hundredth time and she sighed. "We can just have Sam to do it. He seemed pretty eager to do it."

"Steve." She turned around and put her hands on his shoulder. "I love you for worrying about me, but he can't do anything to me in public. Even if SHIELD has been compromised, he has to be nice to me to keep up his charade."

"I just don't want you to get hurt."

She sighed and kissed his cheek. "I've been through much, much worse. And I'm still here, aren't I? Let me do this."

Steve let out a breath. "Okay. But Sam is your backup just in case." She nodded and he kissed her. "And be safe."

"I always am."

A short time later, Grace was standing in front of a restaurant, scanning the area for the man she needed to find.

"Ah, Agent Sitwell," she said, walking over to the man who immediately turned when he heard her voice. "How was lunch? I've always heard good things about the soup here."

"G—Grace. I mean... Miss Stark," he stuttered out and she crossed her arms. "What a pleasant surprise."

"I'm sure," she replied in a bored tone. She glanced at the men behind Sitwell. "Would you gentlemen excuse us for a moment? I have things I'd like to discuss with Agent Sitwell that I don't think he wants people to overhear."

The men nodded and moved down the stairs just as Grace turned back to Sitwell with a sweet smile. "Th—Things to discuss?" he asked and she nodded. "What kind of things?"

"You're acting awfully nervous, Agent Sitwell," she said, tilting her head at the man. "You've always been a man of great confidence. Is something worrying you?"

"No." He cleared his throat and shook his head. "Not at all. What can I do for you, Miss Stark?"

"You have a meeting you're going to be late for," she said with a smile. "Down the corner to your right, there's a gray car, two spaces down. You and a friend are gonna take a ride."

"I'm sorry?"

Grace shook her head. "You really are slow at grasping concepts today, so let me make it easier for you," she said, stepping to the side. "You're going to get into the gray car that's two spaces down. You're gonna meet with a friend of mine. And if you don't..." She looked down at the man's tie. "Well, your tie is gonna be ruined. And I'm not paying to replace it." He followed her gaze and saw a red laser pointing directly at him. "The choice is yours, Agent Sitwell."

She smiled sweetly at his nerves as he walked away in the direction of the parked car. Just as she was about to text Steve that the plan could continue, she felt someone gently grab her shoulder and she looked up quickly.

"I'm sorry," Maria apologized and Grace put a hand over her racing heart. "I didn't mean to scare you. I've been looking everywhere for you."

Grace furrowed her brows. "If it's about SHIELD, I already know about that," she said, looking back down at her phone.

"It's not about that," Maria replied and Grace looked up in confusion. "Well, I mean, it's part of it, but not the main reason I've been trying to find you."

"Spit it out, Hill."

"There's somebody you need to see," she said. Grace crossed her arms. "And I can't tell you about it in public, so you need to trust me. And come with me."

"Well, Steve and everyone are—"

"Don't worry about them," Maria interrupted and the brunette raised her eyebrows. "I'll make sure everything goes smoothly. But this is very important, so if you would please come with me."

Grace sighed. "Fine. But if I get an angry phone call from Steve asking where I am, you have a lot of explaining to do."

A short time later, Grace and Maria were walking into a cave with the former still looking incredibly confused.

"You know, I've spent a fair share of my time in a bunker, but I'm not usually led here to meet somebody," she said, looking around the bunker. "Who could I possibly be meeting here?"

"I thought you disappeared off the face of the earth with how long it took Hill to find you."

Grace froze at the sound of the voice and turned her head to see Nick Fury sitting on a hospital bed, very much alive. "Oh, you have got to be shitting me."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐅𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 ground as Steve and Natasha followed him. "Tell me about Zola's algorithm," Steve demanded.

"Never heard of it," Sitwell replied.

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" Steve asked, impatiently.

Sitwell shrugged. "I was throwing up. I get seasick." Out of frustration, Steve forced Sitwell to the edge of the rooftop and the man smiled. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers."

"You're right," Steve said, letting go of the man and smoothing his jacket. "It's not. It's hers."

He stepped to the side, leaving space for Natasha to kick him off the roof. Sitwell started falling down while screaming. "I'm sure she's fine," Natasha told Steve. "She can take care of herself."

"She promised that she would call," Steve said with a sigh. "That's all."

Suddenly, Sam and Adelaide appeared with his jet-pack with wings. Adelaide threw Sitwell back on the roof and Sam gently lowered her to the ground.

"Zola's algorithm is a program..." Sitwell said, holding his hands up in fear at the four of them. "For choosing Insight's targets!"

"What targets?" Steve asked.

"You!" Sitwell exclaimed. "Grace Stark. A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future."

Adelaide furrowed her brows. "The future?" she repeated. "How could it know?"

Sitwell laughed. "How could it not?" he asked. "The 21st Century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it." Adelaide and Steve glanced at each other in confusion. "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, emails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future."

"And what then?" Adelaide asked, crossing her arms.

"Oh, my God," Sitwell said, starting to panic. "Pierce is gonna kill me."

"What then?!" Steve asked more forcefully.

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list," Sitwell answered, looking up at the group. "A few million at a time."

Meanwhile, Grace was standing in front of Nick's bed with a frustrated look on her face. "What the hell, Nick?" she asked, throwing her hands in the air.

"I'm sorry," he said calmly and she rolled her eyes. "I wasn't sure who we could trust. It had to look believable that I had died."

Grace shook her head. "You know, I have backed you for many years, Fury. I don't know why you didn't think you could trust me."

"Because you would've told Rogers," he replied and she scoffed. "Look me in the eye and tell me that you wouldn't have told Steve Rogers what was happening."

Grace leaned forward and looked in his eye. "I wouldn't have told Steve," she said in annoyance. "God, does everybody in my life feel the need to lie to me?"

"Grace, I know you're a trustworthy person," Nick told her and she gave him an incredulous look. "And I know we have a lot of history together, but it had to be this way."

Grace crossed her arms. "So then why are you telling me now?" she asked, tilting her head. "As far as I'm concerned, you could've continued to be dead and we would've never known."

Nick sighed. "That's a bit more complicated..."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

"𝐇𝐘𝐃𝐑𝐀 𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒𝐍'𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒," Sitwell said as Sam drove the group of five toward the Triskellion. Steve and Sam were in the front of the car while Sitwell was forced between the two SHIELD agents.

"Then here's a suggestion," Adelaide replied in annoyance. "Why don't you shut up? Your voice is giving me a headache."

"Insight's launching in sixteen hours," Natasha told the group. "We're cutting it a little bit close here."

Steve nodded. "I know. We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly."

"What?" Sitwell exclaimed and Adelaide rolled her eyes. "Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea—"

Suddenly, there was a thump on the car roof and before anybody could react, Sitwell was pulled through the window by the Winter Soldier and thrown into traffic, killing him instantly. Adelaide ducked when he began shooting at them and moved forward, pulling the emergency brake and throwing him from the car. She was jerked forward when a car behind them crashed into their car. The Winter Soldier jumped back onto their car and pulled the steering wheel through the windshield.

"Shit!" Sam exclaimed.

"Hang on!" Steve called and as he, Natasha, and Sam escaped out of the vehicle, Adelaide was pulled out of the car. "Addy!"

Adelaide groaned as she landed on the road of the highway and looked up to find a familiar blonde standing over her. "Wait... I know you."

Kennedy smiled and tilted her head at the younger blonde. "I would sure hope so," she replied, crouching down to Adelaide's level. She cleared her throat. "'Are you... Are you Steve Rogers?'" she said in a sweet tone. "'I had heard you were in the Battle of New York. I remember learning about you in school.'" Adelaide's eyes widened ever so slightly making Kennedy's smile grow. "There's the realization."

"So, I take it you're not a friendly blonde?" Adelaide asked, groaning to sit in an upright position.

Kennedy shrugged. "Blonde? Yes. Friendly? Well, that's up to you, I guess," she said, standing up and glancing behind her at the Winter Soldier. "Oh, my friend didn't hurt you, did he? He's been working on his anger for years, but nothing seems to work."

"Gee, I wonder why," Adelaide said sarcastically, pulling herself to her feet with a groan. "It couldn't possibly be because of the blonde he works with."

Kennedy chuckled to herself and looked back at Adelaide. "I haven't introduced myself, have I? Oh, I'm so sorry. That was rude of me."

"I could really care less."

"The name is Kennedy," she continued, playing with the ends of her hair. "Kennedy Sullivan. Or, that's the name I chose for myself."

"'Chose for yourself'?" Adelaide repeated, furrowing her brows. "What, did you ditch your parents' name just to spite them?"

"Well, parents are overrated," Kennedy replied, leaning against the barricades of the highway. "But, you'd know all about those, right? Now, what about you, Adelaide Snow? Born January 17th, 1987 in Portland, Oregon. Abandoned by her parents and left a fire station when you were five years old. Bounced around foster homes around the country due to getting into so many fights in school that eventually everybody gave up on you."

Adelaide pressed her lips together. "It seems you have me all figured out, don't you?" she asked and Kennedy shrugged. "Well, there's one thing you left out."

"Oh?" Kennedy questioned. "And what's that?"

Adelaide kicked Kennedy in the stomach and she fell to the bottom of the highway. Adelaide looked over the edge and shrugged. "I guess you'll never know." She looked down at her leg and saw a knife jammed into her thigh. "Aw, that's really gonna put a damper on the whole friendship thing."

Groaning, she pulled the knife out and threw it onto the ground, breathing heavily. From her position on the highway, she saw Steve fighting the Winter Soldier on top of a car. Ignoring the stabbing pain in her leg, she ran in the direction of the fighting. She arrived just as Steve threw the Winter Soldier away causing his mask to fall off.

Steve paused, looking as though he had seen a ghost. Adelaide looked between the two men. "Bucky?"

"Who the hell is Bucky?"

He raised his gun at Steve before it was kicked away by Adelaide who momentarily forgot about her injured leg. She cried out in pain just as Sam landed and kicked Bucky off the ground. Bucky disappeared in the smoke of an explosion and soon, sirens were heard surrounding the group. Steve steadied Adelaide as she looked over in the direction of the sirens and saw Brock Rumlow leading a group of agents.

"Great..."

"Drop the shield, Cap!" he ordered, he, and his agents, pointing their guns at them. "On your knees! Get on your knees! Now! Get down! Get down!"

"Does it look like I can get on my knees?" Adelaide asked him before putting her hands up when he pointed his gun at her. "Geez, it was just a question." She sighed as they forcefully put her arms behind her back. "You know, HYDRA is really starting to get on my nerves."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐃𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐌𝐄𝐀𝐍 they've been taken into custody?" Grace asked, standing in front of Nick's bed. "Taken into custody by whom?"

"Rumlow."

She nodded, clenching her jaw. "Great. Great, just what I needed today. You know, things were a lot easier before the Avengers and SHIELD started working together."

"Grace—"

"If you tell me to calm down, I will scream," she said, pointing at him. "How can I calm down? The man I love, the girl I think of as a daughter plus two of my friends are being held by the people who are trying to kill them!"

"Grace—"

"You know, none of this would be happening if you just told everybody the goddamn truth!" Grace snapped in frustration. "Actually, no, none of this would be happening if I just never agreed to do anything with my brother. This is what I get for giving him the benefit of the doubt."

"Grace!" Nick all but shouted and she looked at him. "They're all okay."

"How do you know?"

"Because they're behind you." Grace furrowed her brows and glanced behind her, seeing the group of four, two of whom had injuries. "About damn time."

Grace hurried over to Steve and Adelaide, the former holding onto the latter who was still in pain from her leg injury. "What happened?" she asked, looking over the young agent in concern.

"A blonde happened," Adelaide replied and Grace glanced at Steve who shrugged in response. "Have I mentioned how much I hate HYDRA? Also, I have a bone to pick with you, Fury. Actually, a lot of bones."

Grace looked back at Steve as Adelaide hobbled over to Fury with Sam following her to keep her from killing him. "Are you okay?" she asked softly, gently rubbing at his face with the sleeve of her shirt.

"He's alive," he mumbled and she tilted her head.

"Who is?"

"Bucky."

Grace raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"His mask came off," Steve explained and she sighed. "It's him, Gracie. He looks exactly the same." Grace cupped his cheek before pulling him into a tight hug. "I thought he died."

"We all did," she said quietly, her hand resting on the back of his neck. "Did he recognize you?"

Steve shook his head, pulling away and looking at her. "He looks just like him but doesn't have any memories. What did they do to him?"

"I don't know," Grace replied sadly, resting her hands on his shoulders. "But that just means that he's in there somewhere. You just have to bring him back out."

The couple turned when they heard Nick's voice. "Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache," he listed his injuries while Grace sat on top of the table, leaning her head on Steve's shoulder.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor reminded him.

"Oh, let's not forget that," Nick said with a sigh before turning to look at the group. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open," Natasha told him, her and Adelaide getting treated for their injuries. "Your heart stopped."

"Tetrodotoxin B," Nick replied. "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"But why all the secrecy?" Steve asked, crossing his arms. "Why not just tell us?"

"I've already asked," Grace said and he looked at her. "Apparently we can't be trusted. Or I couldn't be trusted that I wouldn't tell you. Something like that."

"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Nick added. He picked up a photograph of Alexander Pierce. "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."

"We have to stop the launch," Adelaide said from her chair.

Nick shook his head. "I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." He opened a case that contained three chips.

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized," Maria explained to the group.

Nick nodded. "We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own."

"One or two won't cut it," Maria added. "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."

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA," Nick said and Grace looked at him. "We need to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left..."

Steve shook his head. "We're not salvaging anything," he denied. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD."

"SHIELD had nothing to do with it."

"You gave me this mission," Steve said, pushing himself away from the table. "This is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised, you said it yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave?" Nick retorted. "I noticed."

"And how many paid the price before you did?"

Nick sighed. "Look, I didn't know about Barnes."

Steve paused. "Even if you have, would you have told me?" he asked. "Or would you have compartmentalized that, too? SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes."

"He's right," Maria said.

Nick looked at Natasha before glancing at Sam. "Don't look at me," he said. "I do what he does, just slower." Nick turned to Grace who looked at Steve out of the corner of her eye.

"You know he's right, Nick. It has to go," she said quietly. Steve looked back at her and she nodded. "The order's yours, Captain."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

an: this isn't my favorite
of chapters, but here it
is...

only one more chapter
of winter soldier left but
there will be some
extra cute steve-grace
chapters before age of
ultron starts