X

Brooklyn

"You probably already know what I'm going to ask you."

"To finish someone else's half-finished story? That's usually the only thing you ever ask me after we conclude business."

Fury chuckled as he nudged his knight and captured his opponent's rook. "You know me too well, Mr. Carter."

"Call it experience," Harrison Carter said, wrinkling his nose at the loss of his rook. Pushing his last pawn forward one spot, he leaned back in his chair and asked, "So whose story do you want finished?"

"Your daughter's."

Carter paused, frowning until he realized who it was Fury was asking about. He snorted. "Sharon? I'll be lucky if she talks to me again within the week, much less at all," he said resignedly.

"She's a good girl, there's no doubt about that. I just can't exactly trust her very much right now because she deliberately withheld information from me, and how do I know that's a habit of hers? Or worse yet, how do I know that this potential habit of misplaced loyalties won't flare up again and possibly result in the death of her fellow agents? I take very good care of the men and women who work for me, and if I can justify the death of one to protect hundreds, then so be it," Fury said as he moved his bishop and captured Carter's last pawn.

"Please don't punish her for something I instilled into her years before she ever joined S.H.I.E.L.D.," Carter said, not bothering to hide the slight plea out of his voice. He inspected the chessboard on the café table between the two of them, clearly desperate for something to distract himself with. The two men were sitting at a nice little outdoor café, prolonging a long-overdue lunch meeting, which was one originally scheduled the past Thursday. Since they'd concluded the business portion – renewing contracts – the two were just killing time now.

Carter didn't know it, nor did he ever have to, but Fury was still working on last week's fiasco even while sitting in front of the chessboard.

Carter finally leaned back in his seat, having finally made his move. "Check," he said, glancing up at Fury.

"Oh, I'll be checking all right," Fury replied, but somehow they both knew he wasn't talking about the game. "In a way, I'm glad that last week happened. It gives me a chance to not only fix things up within the infrastructure, but search elsewhere for potential problem spots," Fury added, moving one of his pieces to defend his king.

"Don't thank me. I lost my only daughter because of it, and I still wish I could reverse time to tell her something less harsh, maybe a tamer version of what she wanted to know, just an attempt to patch things up between us," Carter said moodily, moving his next piece. "Check."

"You know, you could still tell her. Or better yet, tell me and I'll tell her," Fury suggested mildly as he took a risk to move his rook a little closer to the other side of the board. He just had to make sure Carter didn't see it.

Carter snorted. "Fury, sometimes being subtle is not your forte," he said, moving his piece again. "You're too smart for your own good, your standards are next to impossible for anyone to achieve, but being subtle is not a strength of yours."

"On the contrary, what if I was so subtle that you completely missed it? And I could continue probing for information uninterrupted?" Fury replied, eliminating the nearest threat to his king.

"Nice try, but I've been at this game for almost my entire career. If I recall correctly, you haven't."

It was at points like these that Fury felt a little guilty for pulling the wool over Carter's eyes. Just a little though, not enough to make him actually stop. "Well, you got me. Sorry, but I don't have a witty comeback for that," he replied calmly before he relaxed in his seat again.

Carter shrugged before making his own move.

"But enough about me," Fury said abruptly, causing Carter to jump a little. "How is your sister doing?" he asked as his queen took Carter's bishop.

"Sister? Oh, Maggie. She's fine," Carter said without looking up from the board. Fury caught the little verbal slip but didn't betray anything. "What did Sharon say about her?" He glanced across the board and then added, "Check."

"Not much. Just that she was the family member you were trying to protect. What she didn't say was from whom were you trying to protect your sister," Fury said mildly as he casually removed Carter's other bishop.

"Ah, it was from no one important," Carter said calmly.

"Dr. Faustus?"

Carter shrugged. "Maybe," he replied.

Fury silently contemplated his next move. His knight was in perfect position for a crippling blow to Carter's defenses.

Back in the helicarrier, he knew that Steve Rogers had begun the slow process of getting close to Sharon Carter, who, at this moment in time, would be assisting Sergeant Wilson with afternoon training classes. The recruits would be unbearably difficult, and Wilson most likely would rope in extra help once he saw it. Rogers, at this point, only wanted to make sure that Peggy was doing well, and to ease any lingering pains from the end of the war. Nothing more, the time for that was gone and unsalvageable. Sharon was going to be a difficult customer, no doubt about it, so Steve was going to have to tread carefully so that she didn't throw up her defenses around him like she constantly did with Captain America. It would definitely take time, there was no denying that, but Fury was going to let Steve do things his way this time.

"Well, lucky for you, Faustus is no longer a variable in this investigation. Neither is Hans, he committed suicide just yesterday to avoid interrogation from us and retribution from his boss," Fury casually remarked, his knight finally capturing Carter's queen. "Check."

Carter's strongest player was now out of the game. All Fury had to do now was keep Sharon Carter in line.

"Yes, I believed it was Hans that prompted the argument that drove Sharon away, she was afraid of Hydra catching up to her. Shame to see that it was all for nothing," Carter said bitterly, moving a knight to protect his king, leaving his left flank exposed.

"Well, how was I supposed to know that Hans was going to meet up with you? Maybe I should have been monitoring you instead of him," Fury replied as his knight moved into position.

In her office, Fury knew, Teresa was double-checking Virginia state records and cross-referencing them with birth certificates from all over the United States, to check if a 'Maggie Carter' even existed. If Carter truly had a sister named Maggie, which he didn't according to the Virginia state census records, then Maggie would show up as a legitimate individual and Fury would back off. One buzz to Fury's phone would indicate yes, Maggie Carter did in fact exist and Fury would have to pursue his leads on Peggy elsewhere. Two buzzes would indicate no, Maggie did not exist so that had to mean that the fourth person living in the Carter household (again, courtesy of state census records), had to be Peggy.

"If you had in fact monitored me, I would have sued you for invasion of privacy. That and I promise you that I am not a very interesting person to begin with," Carter said, rolling his eyes.

Trust me, my security teams agree whole-heartedly with you. You bored them all to death until late Thursday night.

"That's too bad. Where's Maggie living now?" Fury asked as Carter moved his rook forward in an attempt to delay the inevitable.

Buzz, buzz.

"At home, with my wife and me," Carter replied, looking up at Fury.

"Thank you," Fury said. He leaned forward, captured the rook, and then calmly said, "Checkmate."

While Carter's eyes widened and began to search the board to confirm the news of his loss, Fury stood up and gathered his coat. "Well, I have to get back to work now. Good day, and thank you for the nice chat, Mr. Carter," he said grimly.

Then he left without another word.

Game over.

-Finis-

A/N: THANK YOU to everyone read/alerted/favorited/reviewed this, and I hope you enjoyed reading this fic as much as I did writing it. There will not be a sequel, however I do have another story with Rogers and Carter planned, and I promise Rogers will have a bigger role in that one than he did here. Captain America and all related media belong to Marvel Comics.