Um… it's… wow, it's been over a year. I'm… Jesus, a lot has happened in the past year. I graduated college! Moved to a new state and got a full time job! My attention has also drifted from writing Marvel, to Star Wars, to Dragon Age and back again. Been lots of ups, been some really bad downs in my life too.

So… if you're still here, I cannot thank you enough for sticking around.

We're getting down to the end, two, maybe three chapters left maximum. I can't guarantee when I'll get the next chapter uploaded, but I promise it won't be another year. I'm excited to see the conclusion of this story, because I'm pretty sure that it's the first one I'll have officially finished.

But, I'll save the prose and feelings for the end.

Chapter Twenty-Six:

February 23, 2012, Location: 72nd Precinct, Brooklyn NY

"Agent Dugan, what a pleasant surprise." Nicole blinked at the sudden, harsh fluorescent light of the interrogation room, her gaze slightly unfocused as her pupils adjusted to the shift in lighting.

General Ross was looming—or at least he probably assumed he was looming, she was less than impressed—but he was looming in front of the table, a large pane of one-way glass behind him. Strong indication that they were in a police station, that pane of glass, meaning that Ross was likely trying to play this by the books. And if Ross was playing it by the books, she was willing to bet that he hadn't actually been able to break the encryption software on the flash drive he'd stolen from the apartment.

Except, Ross wasn't an idiot; he wouldn't have been the one to break into her apartment. The political shitshow that could crop up in the aftermath if they didn't get their hands on the evidence they needed could cost him his job. So, it would have to be someone associated with him, but someone who could have been used as a scapegoat if it came to it. Someone with as big of a grudge against Banner as Ross had, with the knowledge and skill base to perform a break in and make it successfully-almost successfully-look like a standard robbery. Nicole could think of only one person who fit that bill so perfectly.

Blonsky.

If he hadn't broken the decryption, then he didn't know for certain what was on the drive, which meant that there was no way he could charge her with anything, least of all high treason and aiding and abetting a government fugitive. He couldn't admit to having taken the drive either, considering the fact that it was illegally seized from her belongings.

Giving her a little bit of wiggle room.

"Is this what we're calling pleasant?" Nicole was starting to really hate the sensation of being handcuffed. "Because there are other, more accurate adjectives that come to mind."

This was not the end to the mission she'd been expecting. It had been a remarkably simple operation; sneak into a laboratory complex and confront the man who had been stealing information regarding Project PEGASUS and selling it. False information, mostly; as soon as Fury had suspected a leak in the system he'd started feeding bits and pieces of lies to the suspected moles, waiting for a lead to turn up. And when Dr. Hughes had reached out and made contact with one of SHIELD's informants, she and Steve had been sent to tie up loose ends.

Nicole had been halfway through convincing Steve to make a detour to check out some of the pre-Mardi Gras parades when everything had gone to shit. It didn't actually take a lot of convincing honestly, to get Steve to agree, he hated mission debriefing as much as she did and was still unbelievably fascinated by so much of the present, but then Coulson had to call. Call and report their apartment getting broken into, things being chaotic enough to make it seem like a simple armed robbery except—

Except one, they were in the middle of a SHIELD building and two, the only thing that was actually missing was the flash drive containing the data used to find Banner. She wasn't all that surprise when Ross had turned up at an inconvenient time to make her life a living hell… just like an unwanted venereal disease. She didn't believe in coincidence, and Nicole was now completely convinced that it had been one of Ross' lackeys that had broken in. Blonsky, probably, given the fact that the man had it out for Banner since getting his ass handed to him twice during the Harlem debacle.

"I'm somewhat impressed to see that you can maintain an attitude even given the severity of your crimes, Agent."

Nicole wondered sometimes what her ten-year-old self would have thought about the course her life had taken. At that tender young age, she had been wide-eyed and full of hope, learning to keep her powers under control and to accept them as a part of herself. The world had seemed so open to her as it oft does to the innocent, and she'd entertained the thought that she could be anything. A veterinarian, an astronaut, even the first female president.

She was certain that as a child she had never imagined herself to be so desensitized to being arrested that she could sit in an interrogation room with absolutely no discomfort no matter how
hard the good General tried to intimidate her.

For that matter, being arrested less than an hour after getting home from Louisiana with Steve probably hadn't figured into how she used to imagine spending her mid-twenties either.

The severity of her crimes, he'd said, and if that wasn't a laughable joke in of itself. If it weren't for the fact that this actually was a somewhat serious situation she found herself in Nicole would be laughing in his stupid mustached face. If Blonsky did happen to break the encryption on her flash drive, if he got access to the information stored on it… well, aiding and abetting a fugitive of the country carried a very serious sentence.

"My situation, General." The redhead leaned forward, metal handcuffs clinking and shifting as her palms touched on the cool table surface. "Is that you're accusing me of committing a crime. And, as per my rights as an American citizen, I don't actually have to say a thing until my lawyer arrives. A right I plan on exercising to the fullest in fact."

Given the things she'd already said, it was actually a right she was exercising to almost the fullest.

She didn't jump at the loud slam of hands on a table, loud enough to make the guard by the door shift uneasily. "Do you think this is a game, Agent? I know you've been helping Banner hide. And I will prove it."

Silence reigned at the end of the accusation, a sort of stillness that was pressed up against the edge of self-control; Ross was frustrated, he had been chasing Banner for over half a decade now, so close to finally meeting its conclusion. In a way him losing his temper was understandable, but Nicole only had to think back to that day for her sympathy to disappear. She remembered the chaos, the destruction and pain of people injured, losing life, limb and their homes. The terror of seeing these massive titans fighting in the streets of Harlem and the knowledge that one of them had never meant for this to happen. Banner had tried to disappear, live as quiet a life as he could, away from the horrors in his blood only to be shoved right back into it by their meddling.

Gray eyes stared down into unflinching browns waiting for some response that wasn't going to come. Even if they could prove, irrefutably that Nicole had been harboring Banner's location, SHIELD wouldn't just throw her to the wolves. She wouldn't be a scapegoat, and she trusted Fury implicitly not to fuck her over in the aftermath of this debacle. She was a trained Agent, after all, she would endure whatever interrogation techniques Ross decided to try until her lawyer arrived.

Thankfully, she wouldn't have to wait long, because after a few minutes-it felt like eternity-the door opened. "General Ross, there's a Ms. Gonzales here who claims that she's Agent Dugan's lawyer."

Nicole felt the tension loosen in her body, shoulders slumping and losing some of their rigidity. "That must be some lemon you're chewing on General."

If looks could kill, she was certain that they'd be needing a body bag to haul her out of the police station. "Ms. Gonzales, your client—"

"Has been arrested on charges of high treason, yes I am aware." Michele Gonzales swept into the room with a quick, cutting glance at it's inhabitants, briefcase in hand as she approached the table, a wrapped danish in the other. "Who was that man that called me, by the way? He sounded cute."

Nicole grinned at the woman, accepting the food that was offered to her. "How did you know I was hungry? You're a God-send Mick."

Michele Gonzales was one of a small number of private lawyers that dealt with SHIELD employees that weren't actively on SHIELD's payroll. She had been recommended by Nicole's old lawyer, actually, who had been SHIELD employed up until he decided to take a sabbatical. A well earned sabbatical in fact, given the things the man had to put up with. Michele was one of a very few people-the only person directly affiliated with Nicole outside of the organization that employed her-to have access to most of her professional files. Protected under the client confidentiality clause, she knew to some extent exactly what was on the missing flash drive.

"General Ross." She set the briefcase on the table, hooking her foot around the leg of a chair to slide it out. "While I am impressed that you made the arrest following the exact legal protocol, here's what I should be seeing right now; the evidence you have against my client."

"Agent Dugan was at Harlem at the time of the attack, and as an agent of SHIELD had access to highly classified information regarding the attack." Ross bit out, straining for professionalism. "As soon as the warrant comes through—"

"So it hasn't?" Michele paused in the act of sitting down, slowly straightening back up. "You don't actually have any substantial proof of my client's alleged guilt?"

Nicole finished the danish and tried to mask her expression as one of perfect innocence; it wouldn't do to look too smug at the moment. It wasn't so much that she enjoyed the way Ross blustered, or his weak explanation. Except she kind of did-it had been a long flight, she was tired, and being immediately arrested had put her in a bit of a cranky mood. Well, cranky was actually an understatement and she wanted nothing more than to pass out in her bed.

Of course, she couldn't even do that when she got home because there was the matter of the apartment that needed cleaning and more than that, they needed to find that flashdrive.

"You don't have any evidence to back your arrest." Michele's expression hardened at that, eyes flashing. "Uncuff my client, we're leaving."

"Your client is being charged with treason!" The General began, shooting a warning look to the distinctly uncomfortable and very confused officer.

Nicole felt bad for the guy; it had to suck to be caught in this situation. It wasn't exactly easy to just refuse to follow the order of a high ranking army general, after all. She was less sympathetic than she could be, and her attitude certainly hadn't made things easier, but-again-she wasn't exactly in her best mood.

"Last I checked, General," She was pretty sure the temperature dropped in response to the ice that crept into Michele's voice. "You need probable cause to make a legal arrest. And probable cause is not determined by a string of coincidences and a hunch. Until you can, definitively, prove that Agent Dugan-who, if I recall, was there assisting the citizens caught up in the destruction of Harlem-has directly committed treason, then we have nothing more to say to one another."

Hazel eyes turned to the officer, brooking no further discussion. "Officer, I will ask again, please uncuff my client."

The tension that filled the interrogation room was thick enough to cut with a knife as the officer moved to pull the keys out.

Ross was glowering at her, and she was almost certain that she could see his mustache bristling before he offered a single, ominous, "This isn't over, Dugan."

No, she supposed it really wasn't. Ross would continue to search for Banner, doing whatever he could. Whether he was still pursuing a replication of the Super Soldier serum she wasn't certain, didn't think it actually mattered in the long run. The only true success was Steve; anything else would always pale in comparison-not be as effective, have terrible side effects, or just run down the test subject too quickly. She had heard rumor, talk among SHIELD and speculation about whether or not, now that they had Steve alive and breathing, there would be another push for the formula but… She liked to think that Director Fury had bigger things on his plate than whether or not to go back down that road.

"Come on," Michele was waiting expectantly when the cuffs came off, and Nicole pushed out of the chair as she rubbed her ankles. "Let's get you home, you look like shit."

"Long weekend, work stuff." The redhead shrugged in response, rubbing at her eyes. "You know how it is."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I do not know how it is." Michele snorted. "You and I have very different jobs."

The two women walked out of the police station, their conversation passing between topics such as the weather, Nicole's upcoming birthday, and whether there were any new movies that looked interesting. The weather, as it happened, was unseasonably warm and most folks could get away with wearing just a light jacket or a thick sweater. Nicole didn't actually plan on doing anything for her birthday, though the odds were that she'd end up working during it, and she was considering dragging Steve out to go see the Woman in Black.

Michele waited at least, until they were relatively alone, nobody likely to overhear their conversation before pulling Nicole to a stop. "Alright, I'm going to ask you yes or no questions and you're going to either nod yes, or shake your head no."

The redhead frowned, shoving her hands into her pants pockets as she nodded.

"That flash drive, does it contain potentially damning evidence?" Nicole nodded once.

"Evidence that could get you arrested for treason and locked up in Guantanamo bay?"

She nodded twice.

"Does General Ross have that evidence?" She shook her head. If Ross had the evidence, he would have arrested her already.

Michele looked relieved to hear that, her hand snaking up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Okay, good. That's a start. That's good. Do you know who took the flash drive?"

This nod was a little uncertain, but Nicole was almost positive that Blonsky was the one who had broken into her apartment. She wouldn't be able to tell for certain, however, until she got to the scene of the crime and could check out the situation herself.

"And can you get it back? Without causing an incident?" At the final nod, Michele let out a long breath. "You may speak again."

Nicole felt her lips lift into a brief smile as she reached up to rub at her eyes. She was drained from her flight, from the previous mission, and while the adrenaline had worked to push her through her detainment, her energy was starting to flag.

"You know, when I took you on as a client, I didn't think you were going to be this much of a pain in the ass."

"Aw, Mick." The redhead chuckled. "I'm not doing it on purpose, I promise. Blame my job."

"Oh, I do." She shot back, glancing down at her watch when it started to beep. "Shit, that's my cue to cut and run; I have to go pick up my daughter from school. Gotta hurry if I want to get there on time."

Nicole nodded, reaching out to grab Michele's hand and give it a grateful shake. "Thanks Mick, for having my back. And I know technically it's what I pay you for, but, y'know, thanks."

"No problem Nick," She grinned. "Buy me a beer some time. And tell me about that guy who called me!"

Nicole made a non-committal noise as they parted ways, though her smile was genuine as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. She considered calling a cab, but in the hubbub of getting home and promptly getting taken into custody, she had left her wallet, and phone, in her carryon bag… which was currently sitting on her bed.

So she was walking.

Not a huge deal, it was only a 20 minute walk from the precinct to her apartment and it would give her time to enjoy the city. A breath of calm before the inevitable chaos that was certain to follow. Going from one mission to another crisis was never ideal, it didn't give her time to decompress, and while her time in Louisiana hadn't been awful-the mission hadn't turned south or anything-she still liked a little time to settle afterwards.

It was a lovely day in Brooklyn, the sun was out and the birds were singing as they flitted back and forth between the bare branches of the trees. Nicole was tempted to stop at one of the food carts near Greenwood, but the combination of not having any money, and an eagerness to get back home prevented her. Still, her spirits were a little lifted by the walk, and by the time the apartment building came into view Nicole had released some of the tension that had bowed her shoulders.

"Hey, Jimmy." She smiled a greeting to the young man in the lobby; he lived down the hall from her and Steve and his father worked in Communications. They had invited her and Steve to a small party for the building to celebrate New Years, which had consisted of sparklers and plastic jewelry on the roof.

"Hey Ms. Dugan." He greeted, shouldering his backpack as he pulled a stack of mail out of the box. "Heard about what happened to your apartment. That sucks, a break in is shit."

"You know your dad will be pissed if he hears you speak like that." She warned good naturedly. Gabe was dedicated to raising a perfect gentleman, and while Jimmy was an exceptional young man, he was still a teenager with the mouth of a sailor. "But yeah, a break in is shit."

"Man, Pops is always harping on me for my language, wondering where I get it from." Jimmy rolled his eyes at that, making a face. "But insurance is gonna cover what you lost, right? Like, you're not gonna be completely left in the cold."

She nodded, following him to the elevator. "It will yeah. I don't know what all we've lost, but it shouldn't be too bad. It's less the stuff and more—"

Nicole made a waving gesture as she leaned over to press the button for their floor. "-more the implications of it. The mess."

"I feel that." Jimmy nodded sympathetically. "Well, I mean I don't. We've never been robbed but. Yeah."

He brightened slightly when the doors to the elevator swung open again on their floor. "Hey, y'know if you want to stop by for dinner. I'm making beef and cheddar pot-pie. My mom's recipe. With just me and Pops, you know there's gonna be extra."

"Thanks sweetheart." Nicole smiled warmly at him. "I'll ask Steve, see if we can make it."

"You just let me know. If not, I'll bring over some leftovers tomorrow."

"You're a peach, Jimmy." She could hear Steve moving around in the apartment through the door, heard the rustling of trash bags, and paper, and assumed that he was cleaning up the aftermath.

An assumption that was proven right when she twisted the door handle and stepped inside. The apartment was still a mess, though she could see where some effort was being made to neaten it up. The coats had been picked up and returned to their respective hooks, the picture frames picked up and glass swept out of the hall. Those would need replaced, unfortunately, though there weren't many of them.

"I'm back." She called needlessly, because as soon as the door handle twisted, Steve was waiting for her. "Hi."

"You're-I'm sorry. I wanted to be there, but it was advised against." He offered. "I was half tempted to go anyway, I should have."

Nicole shook her head, lifting her hands to quiet him. "It's fine, Steve. And. Probably for the best that you didn't. Did you talk to Coulson?"

"I did." Steve stepped back to let her pass into the living room. "He said that they would do what they could to block any legal action Ross might try and take, bog him down in red tape and the like. He also said that finding that flash drive was top priority."

He took a deep breath, leaning in the archway of the hall as Nicole surveyed the mess of the living room. "What exactly is on that flash drive?"

"An algorithm." Nicole let out a shaky breath as she looked around. Logically she knew that it wasn't bad, just a mess made for show, they could clean it up. But in that moment she felt the tenuous grasp on her anxiety start to flare up. It looked worse than it was, especially considering the fact that Steve had spent the past few hours cleaning, but it was still. It was bad. Blonsky had invaded her space, had walked in with complete autonomy and just…

She blinked at the prickling of tears, pressing the heel of her hand hard against her brow line as she tried to keep herself from becoming overwhelmed.

"An algorithm designed to scan traces of gamma radiation across the globe, to follow and locate Bruce Banner." A part of Nicole wanted to just throw everything away, to get rid of it all until she had the bare minimum needed to survive. "As well as all of the information on him; his previous whereabouts, the data from his experiments, everything we know about him and the Hulk is on that drive. If they manage to get their hands on any of that information it would be disastrous."

"The experiment that was meant to replicate the super soldier serum?" Steve asked, placing a soothing hand between her shoulderblades. "Take a breath."

Nicole followed his instruction, grounding herself to the heat on her spine. "Yeah. He ended up experimenting on himself which is beyond stupid. It was military funded research, things got personal for Banner and there was a strong push for results."

She bent over and picked up one of the throw pillows, tossing it back onto the couch.

"Let me guess, Ross was in charge of it."

"Yeah, Banner was working on a project initially supposed to research radiation resistance, but it was a guise to duplicate Project Rebirth. He worked with another doctor, Elizabeth Ross, who he was romantically involved with." Nicole explained.

Steve paused at that, resuming the cleaning as she helped. "Ross? Was she any relation to the General?"

"His daughter. It was obviously a conflict of interest if you ask me, and like I said, Banner took to experimenting on himself, injecting himself with the serum and then overdosing on the gamma radiation. It should have killed him, but instead…"

"Instead it turned him into the Hulk."

"Yup." Nicole let out a noise of hopeless annoyance, throwing herself down onto the couch and wincing as she encountered something hard and pointed-a book. "Banner isn't actually a bad guy. That's evidenced by the fact that he's spent most of his life in hiding, trying to keep his alter ego under control and away from the government. There are a few reasons why SHIELD wants tabs kept on him, but the main one is to keep other interested parties off of his back."

She looked up at her friend. "You've seen the footage of what happened at Culver University, what happened at Harlem. I was there, I lived it. Can you imagine what would happen if that amount of power was harnessed by someone who wanted to use it for their own gain?"

He looked about as tired as she felt, and in that moment Nicole really wished they'd spent the night in New Orleans. "Okay. So obviously we've got to find that flash drive-I mean, I knew that from the moment it was stolen-the question is. How?"

"The good news is that they shouldn't be able to break the encryption. At least not easily." Nicole offered. "It's been locked several times over, and more importantly it requires a program that exists only in SHIELD to unlock it. What I need to do is get my laptop and get to my work desk, that way we'll be able to trace it. It'll take some time; who knows how much of a head start Blonsky's had, where he is, but we'll be able to find it. From there we just need to retrieve it."

"Blonsky?" Steve cocked his head at that. "Wasn't he—"

"At the meetings with Tony and the Army, yeah. The blond guy, british accent, creepy stare." She nodded. "He was the second experiment. They gave him the-hold on. Where's my dog? Did you pick him up yet?"

Nicole stood, looking around. It should not have taken her so long to realize that she hadn't seen Chauncey, and she felt a swell of guilt that she'd forgotten about him.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. He's in my room; I wanted to keep him out of the way while I cleaned so that he didn't step on any glass." Steve explained, going to his bedroom door to crack it open. She heard the scrabbling of his paw on the doorframe before she saw his nose poke into the crack, trying to nudge it open.

Nicole reached down to pet her dog when he rushed over to her, smiling when he licked at her hand. "Thanks. Sorry. It's okay I just-it occurred to me that I hadn't seen him and, y'know, worry."

"It's fine." Steve told her gently. "It's been a day. We didn't even get a chance to put our bags down before we got hit with this mess."

"Yeah. All in a day's work and that fun stuff." Nicole straightened, bringing Chauncey with her. "Which, we should head to the Bank soon. I need to get in there as quickly as possible to start the trace on the flash drive so we can get it back."

"The sooner we get that information away from people like this Blonsky guy, the better." Steve agreed. "But why a personal flash drive? That seems… dangerous to just send it home with you."

In a way he was right; with the things that could be done with the data on the drive, one would expect it to be more heavily protected. Perhaps locked in one of the vaults in the Bank, or kept at the Triskelion. Not stored on a deceptively simple pink and green flash drive and carried around like a key chain.

"Technologically speaking it's beyond secure." She answered. "As for physically? Well, we do use it. Not often, but we use it. And I am one of a very small number of people who know all of the passwords, keys, codes, whatever you want to call it. The idea was to hide it in plain sight, keep it on hand where I could-if necessary-use it to find Banner's location. And, as far as all things go, I am a high ranking field agent. The odds of someone forcibly removing it from my person are slim."

"And yet it was still stolen." Steve pointed out.

"Slim but not impossible." Nicole sighed. "We'll get it back before anything truly damaging can be done with it."

"We'll go to the Bank, but get a shower and something to eat first." Steve told her. "You haven't had time to rest since we got back."

"A shower would, admittedly, be very nice."

Her room had gotten the worst of it, clothes thrown around, books and magazines ripped off the shelves. Things were broken, smashed and shattered worse than anywhere else in the apartment that she'd seen. Nicole felt her anger flare up as her fingers curled into a fist. Blonsky had taken the destruction of her possessions personally, had likely enjoyed himself as he cracked the picture frames, threw her things around. Her throat tightened, panic clutching at her heart and digging into her spine as she hurried to pick up her parent's wedding photo. He had come into her personal space, had just waltzed right in like it was nothing.

She shook her head, forcing a tight breath of air out of her lungs and sending it hissing past her clenched teeth as she went to gather enough things for a shower. She would come back, would make sure to clean up everything once they got the flash drive back. Then she would allow herself to give into the anger, the fear, the outrage that was building up in her chest. Right now they had a mission and she needed to remain level-headed.

The bathroom at least wasn't touched for the most part, nothing broken or anything worse than rifled through. There wasn't time for it to be luxurious though; Nicole moved through the basics of a hygiene routine as quickly and efficiently as possible, at least changing into a comfortable sweater when she was done.

There was something to be said about the effects of a warm shower on a person's mental state, because as she toweled off her hair had to admit she felt much better. Steve was already in the kitchen, and before Nicole had an opportunity to complain about being hungry, or not wanting to cook, he turned to reveal a plate stacked with grilled cheese in one hand, and a steaming bowl in the other.

"I figured you'd be hungry, and this seemed like the easiest thing to make." He shrugged, using his arm to shift some of the stuff on the table out of the way to set it down. "How was it? Are they taking any legal action?"

Nicole shook her head, plopping down in the chair and reaching for one of the sandwiches while he went to get some water. "They can't. Now I'm sure that Ross would love to charge me with treason, but all he has is insubstantial evidence and a hunch. Technically he shouldn't have arrested me in the first place, but he jumped the gun. Unless they crack the decryption, there's no guarantee what's on that flash drive."

And Ross had no case before that happened. In fact, he had nothing except for bad publicity and a breaking and entering charge against Blonsky.

"That's bullshit." Steve snapped angrily. "What right did he have then, arresting you?"

"Well I—"

"He didn't have any damn right!" The blond steamrolled right over her, his indignation flushing his face. "They wanted to use fear tactics to trick you into confessing something when you've done nothing wrong. That's not right, and it sure as hell isn't justice."

In the nine months that Nicole had known Steve, she had learned the hard way when and how to pick her battles. And in this moment it would be more energy efficient to continue eating while he ranted. He was right, in all honesty, it was shit what Ross had tried to do to her. It was—

"Petty intimidation techniques is what it was." The blond railed, "Not befitting of a member of the United States military, let alone a high ranking member. But he evidently doesn't care, does he? So long as he gets his hands on this Dr. Banner, the end justifies the means?"

Nicole watched her friend as she continued to eat, lifting her eyebrows as she dipped the corner of one of her sandwiches into the tomato soup.

"Well I'm not having it. We're going to find that flash drive, we're going to get it back, and he'll consider himself lucky if I decide to leave it at that."

Nicole reached for a napkin when she finished, dabbing at her mouth before cleaning the residual grease from her fingers. "Steve, your Captain America is showing."

"My—" He cut off to look at her. "I know you're mad about this."

"I am." She was. "And I agree with everything you just said, but I'm also used to things like this. This isn't the first time I've ever been arrested, hell it isn't the first time I've ever been wrongly arrested. I guess I've just become desensitized to shit like this."

His lips turned into a sour frown. "That doesn't make it okay. This isn't something people should become desensitized to. When the people that are tasked with protecting the American citizens fail to perform their civic duties, when they abuse their positions of power, they should be punished. Not brushed off, not given a slap on the wrist, not excused with platitudes about the greater good."

"If what you're doing treads on the rights of the citizens you're supposed to protect, there's nothing good about it."

"You're right." Nicole nodded as she stood. "You're absolutely right. Something does need to be changed, but right now? Right now we have to find that flash drive, or something much worse is going to happen."

The first step to that was to head to the Bank and, given the weakened structural integrity of their door, Nicole decided to bring Chauncey with her. Technically it was against the rules, and something that was only to be done in absolute emergencies under penalty of a chewing out from Fury, but she was willing to push the envelope on that given current circumstances.

"Oh, Jimmy invited us to dinner." Nicole added conversationally as they pulled out onto the road. "Beef and cheddar pot pie."

Steve gave her a disbelieving look. "I'm not sure, but I don't think we'll be able to make it."

"I know that." She wrinkled her nose at his obvious sarcasm. "I was making conversation."

"Conversation? You only do that when you're worried." She was sorely tempted to argue with him because she most definitely did not only make conversation when she was worried, but he was sort of right.

She was worried.

"Well, yeah." Nicole admitted, leaning back in her seat and turning to stare out the window. "In spite of the fact that I'm trying to emotionally disassociate from this situation, it's got some pretty big implications Steve. This is some pretty high level information. And it's dangerous in the wrong hands. There's always that possibility that we'll fail, that they'll decrypt the drive, they'll find Banner and cause another Harlem."

"Or maybe they'll capture him this time, take his blood, kill him. Continue to try and replicate Erskine's experiment. Or maybe they'll give up and decide that a bunch of Hulks fitted with some sort of neural inhibitor would be better. Things like that, huge bulletproof beings who can level entire city blocks, it's too dangerous for anyone to have access to."

"And yet you let Banner go with only minor monitoring." He pointed out.

"That was different." She said. "Banner's proven himself trustworthy. If he wanted to use the Hulk for personal gain, he wouldn't be living in poverty, barely scraping by, helping people and trying to keep as low a profile as possible. I've read some of his work, in the scientific community, and the man is a genius. He could be-if he wanted to-as successful as Tony even. But instead he worked at a bottling factory in Brazil, he worked as a doctor in poor areas of rural China."

"Enough of his life has been taken from him and Fury feels that, as long as he doesn't become a danger to the public, he should be allowed to live as freely as he can."

Silence filled the car at that, a deep, contemplative thing as Steve watched the road in front of them and Nicole continued to stare at the passing buildings.

"We won't let them get their hands on that information." He promised. "No matter what it takes."

Nicole smiled, head turning to look at him. "I know. The 'what it takes' part is somewhat concerning though."

"Maybe things won't go horribly south on us this time?"

IOI

February 24, 2012, SHIELD Base: The Bank, Location: New York

"The flash drive is roughly twelve-hundred miles off the shore of Port Delgada, Portugal." Nicole announced as she walked in, drawing Steve out of his reverie with a slight jump as he tipped forward in his chair.

Feet landing on the ground with a thump of rubber soles against tile, he looked up at the display map that she'd brought up. There was a small, pulsing red dot that was puttering around in the atlantic ocean, with a label that identified it as the NRP Almirante Gago Coutinho.

"What do we know about that ship?" He asked, reaching out to expand the ship's information.

"It's a frigate that was out of service since the eighties." Nicole answered, opening her bag and pulling out some snacks. "Officially decommissioned in eighty-nine, so it shouldn't have functional weaponry."

"Why use that one at all?" Steve mused thoughtfully. "Ships are usually decommissioned because they're too old, or damaged. And if you don't have the weapons of a frigate, what's the point of pulling it out of storage?"

"It seems like Blonsky used some old connections in the Royal Marines to get the ship. Cited it as training exercises and there weren't a whole lot of questions asked." Nicole answered, tossing him a foil bag. "Doritos for the dorito, and a bear claw for me."

Steve rolled his eyes as he opened the bag, his attention locked on the map. "If he used government connections to get the ship, would infiltrating it create diplomatic issues?"

"No." Coulson said as he walked in, sliding two files across the table. "Blonsky took the ship over international waters, most likely because what he's doing is highly illegal."

"Unless they crack the encryption, in which case the ends justify the means in bringing Banner in." Steve added with a sigh. "So technically, getting it back can't be met with legal repercussions either."

"Nope, but it also means that we don't have the law on our side to get it back either. So, whatever resistance we meet, we're on our own." Nicole said.

He looked at her, a slight grin on his face as he ate a chip. "Don't tell me you're scared of a little armed resistance, Dugan."

"Well, I prefer to avoid getting shot if I can help it." She rolled her eyes. "I'll just hide behind you and let you do all the work."

"It might get done with minimal explosions then." Coulson deadpanned. "We can mobilize a strike team, if you absolutely need it, but Fury seems convinced that you can handle it on your own. As am I, to be fully honest. That's why I'm letting you two take the reins entirely. Your infiltration plan, how you play it, is entirely up to you."

Nicole studied the map again, brown eyes focusing on the ship bobbing on a dark background of ocean water while her bear claw hovered by her chin. "It seems mighty straightforward, if you ask me. Go in, kick ass, come out."

"We shouldn't make any definite decisions until we know what we're dealing with." Steve pointed out. "What sort of recon do we have on the Almirante? We at the very least need the blueprints, and an idea of how many people we'll be facing."

Coulson made a move, sort of sweeping a hand at the ship and flicking it outwards. As he did so, a holographic floor plan of the ship appeared, each floor a different layer in the 2D rendering. Abandoning his half eaten snack, Steve stood to approach the display.

"Current footage is taken from satellite display." The blond turned his head slightly at Coulson's words. "Once you get closer, you can send in a drone to get a better look."

"We'll be taking one of the quinjets then." He mused thoughtfully, blue eyes flicking over the layout and committing it to memory. "I don't want us to be outmaneuvered when we get there. Honest opinion, Nicole, do you think you can handle this, just the two of us?"

It wasn't so much that Steve doubted their abilities. If anything, being in the field together made them a good team; Nicole knew how to move around him, and they'd adapted to a complimentary fighting style. But this was a little more high stakes than their retrieval missions; with a botched version of the Super Soldier serum, Blonksy was more of a threat than Steve had initially assumed. Given who knew how much backup… he just wanted to make sure that they could do this.

An image of Nicole, after that mission in Norway had gone so horribly south, came to mind.

Steve didn't want a repeat of that.

If she took any offense to the question, and to anyone else it might sound doubtful, Nicole didn't give any indication. She looked up at him, away from where she was picking at the skin of her nail beds, as her hands stilled.

"If we're careful about it, yeah. Yes." The redhead nodded decisively. "Even the best armed forces that Blonsky can hire won't be able to stand up to us. Because they'd have to be private sector security; his connections to the Royal Marines might get him the Almirante, but it's not going to get him the marines themselves. My biggest concern is Blonsky himself, if he goes full Abomination."

She whipped around, staring at the senior agent. "We got anything for that? Anything the science nerds whipped up in the lab? Bear tranquilizer mixed with like, whale tranquilizer? Maybe add in some elephant tranqs too?"

Coulson lifted a brow at that, ever the picture of professionalism even as he struggled not to let his amusement show. "We might actually have something yeah."

"No shit. Really?" Nicole gaped, as Steve turned.

"As you know, Banner's attempt at the serum was one of many, some marginally more successful than others. Blonsky is a unique case, mixed with a partially successful batch, and Banner's blood." Coulson began. "One of the projects we've had the labs working on, from what you brought back Dr. Sterns' research from Harlem, was finding a way to neutralize the gamma radiation from Banner's blood."

Nicole's brow pulled together in confusion as she followed. "Banner's been looking into that since this whole mess started, he's never been able to find something that stuck. Though… Sterns' work had proven successful."

Steve watched her mouth work silently, the gears turning in her head as her brain started filtering through the information analytically.

"They mixed up a stronger dosage in the lab, and though it's never been tempted we believe that introducing the mixture into Blonsky's bloodstream will remove the gamma from his system. Whether it's permanently, or temporary, if it works—"

"If it works, we won't have the Abomination to deal with. Just an enhanced Blonsky." Nicole finished.

"And between the two of us, we'll be able to handle him." Steve nodded. "How much of this stuff do we have?"

"Limited supply; they were able to spread it out between a few shots. You'll need to shoot him with it." Coulson warned. "It's already been prepped and stowed with the rest of your equipment."

Nicole's features relaxed, face going lax as her eyes brightened. "Looks like you thought of everything Phil."

"Well, forewarned is forearmed." Coulson shrugged.

Steve sighed, the slightest bit of motion, prompted from a new alert on the data-display, drawing his attention. "So, is that it? Are we doing this?"

"Seems like it." Nicole nodded. "Saving the world or-at the very least, saving one man's life. It's what we do."

"You two had better go get your gear on then." Coulson warned, tapping the notification. "They just tried to crack encryption software."

The two shared a look at that, grim determination hardening their features. This was a high risk operation, one that they couldn't afford to fail. It was time to get to work.