Chapter 18

Steve bristled beside her, but she refused to look at him while she shoved through the plastic screening. She kept her attention on the man in the hospital bed in front of them and tried to ignore the weight of Romanoff's eyes on her back.

"About damn time," Fury grumbled before rattling off his list of injuries.

Maria kept her gaze forward and crossed her arms ignoring the soreness in her midsection. Steve shifted away from her.

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?"

His question was directed towards Fury, but she could hear the dig intended for her. She bit back a retort.

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," she simply stated before Fury interrupted.

"Can't kill ya if you're already dead. Besides," he paused momentarily. "I wasn't sure who to trust."

Maria saw Romanoff flinch at the Director's words before glancing over to her. It wasn't often the redhead let down her guard, and she wished she could say something to let her friend know that it wasn't personal at all. Everything had just happened so damn fast. She gritted her teeth.

"We need a plan," Rogers said.

"Give me a few minutes and I'll meet you at the table," the Director replied with a final look at the four surrounding him. His eyes lingered on his second and he sighed. "Hill, a moment?"

She nodded sharply while the others left without a backwards glance.

"How're you feeling?" She murmured.

"I'd be better if we had cable," he smirked, hoping to get a response out of her.

She remained silent.

"It'll be okay, kid."

He briefly grasped her shoulder before hauling himself out of bed. Her eyes softened. He hadn't called her that in years. She gave him a small smile before she took a deep breath and masked her emotions in stoicism. They headed towards the others.

Neither Steve nor Natasha would meet her eyes. She had hoped they would understand she was following orders, and had done her best to warn them that there were some things she just couldn't disclose no matter how much she wanted. She rested a hand on the file on the bottom of the stack in front of her. She knew this one was going to come back to bite her in the ass. She forced herself to rein in her thoughts and focus on the conversation in front of her.

Rogers and the Director were still arguing.

"We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down Shield."

"Shield had nothing to do with this!"

"You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. Shield's been compromised, you said so yourself. Hydra grew right under your noses and nobody noticed."

They continued to debate the destruction of Shield and she was tired of it all. There was no way they could come back from this intact. The percentage of remaining Hydra influence was still too high.

"He's right."

Her quiet interjection surprised everyone, herself included. Fury's expression was wounded. Great fucking job, Hill. Let's just make it four for four and disappoint everyone in the room. Might as well destroy her whole damn life while she was at it. He sighed and turned back to Rogers.

"Looks like you're giving the orders now, Cap."

Rogers stared at them both for awhile before turning away. He paused and the next words out of his mouth were deadly.

"Did you know about Barnes?"

She and Fury remained silent a hair too long, and he slammed a fist on the table leaving a permanent indentation.

"Everyone else out," she ordered.

No one moved.

"You too, sir."

Her words were vehement. Wilson left first, followed by Romanoff, and finally Fury who stopped to shoot his second a questioning look. Her expression remained steadfast.

"Should we, I don't know, stay close to make sure those two don't kill each other?" Wilson questioned.

His words were ignored.

"That was a dick move," Natasha seethed as she gesture toward the Captain and the Commander.

"I had no choice," Fury responded before heading back to the hospital bed.

"What the hell is this all about anyway?"

Wilson waved his hands at the mess of crazy he had found himself in.

"Listen and you'll find out," Romanoff snarked just as Steve's voice rang out.

"You know how important he is to me."

"I warned you. I told you there were things I've done that you'd hate me for one day, so don't act all high and mighty now. You knew exactly what you were getting into when we started this."

"Damnit, Maria!"

Wilson tensed, and Natasha shot him a look that kept him from barging back in the room.

"How long?"

"Since before the Chitauri Invasion," she stated.

There was a huge roar from Steve followed by a loud crash. The table had been thrown against the opposite wall, and Maria sat stock still as papers rained down around her. She trembled slightly, and had a hand pressed against her left side from where the edge of the table had caught her.

"Maria-"

"Don't touch me," she spat.

He shrank back, his hands twitching at his side. She closed her eyes and drew in a shaky breath before continuing on like nothing had happened.

"It's been my side project for years. There have been rumors of an assassin with marked levels of the serum in many foreign cases. He was a ghost, and we couldn't get anything on him till Coulson pulled up a connection to Zola when we were looking for you. I've been compiling information ever since. I took it to Fury after you'd woken up but, against my wishes, he wanted to be absolutely sure we could contain and deprogram him first. I argued that if anyone stood a chance at getting him back it would be you, but we weren't ready. Then the Battle of New York happened, and you know the rest. Think what you want, but I do what I have to to protect the people of this planet. No one likes to get their hands dirty, but you bet your ass I've always done what needed to be done even when it kills me inside. I thought you knew that."

Rogers was silent. She continued to stare right through him.

Romanoff and Wilson didn't even try to act like they hadn't been eavesdropping when she stormed out. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears, but her expression remained hard. Sam decided it would probably be the only time he'd ever see the Commander lose her composure. He avoided looking at her directly. The woman had balls, and he was not about to piss her off.

"We're out in thirty," she ordered and continued on her way.

Romanoff's eyes followed the woman's exit before turning back to the room where Steve alternated between looking forlorn and angry. She sighed and stepped towards the super soldier.

"She knew about Bucky," he repeated.

"Are you more angry about the fact that Fury compartmentalized information or about the fact your girlfriend didn't disobey orders?" Romanoff stated.

Steve gaped at her.

"That's what I thought. I'm not saying what they did was right, but just remember that if anyone had discovered that the Deputy Director made the Winter Soldier her pet project while in a relationship with Captain America and connected that to Bucky, she'd be finished. She was doing it for you."

The redhead shot him a dirty look before leaving.

"Anything else you'd like to add?" Steve asked the man beside him.

"Yeah," said Sam. "On your left."

Steve let out a choked laugh.

Shieldshieldshieldshieldshieldshieldshieldshield

Natasha found the other woman sitting in a room off to the side. She had her shirt off, eyes closed with a grimace, and leaned back while the medic wrapped her ribs. The skin had blossomed into various shades of blue, yellow, and green and Natasha cringed internally at the condition of her friend. Maria cracked open an eye and wearily glanced at the assassin.

"Have you come to yell at me too?"

The Commander did little to hid her resignation. The medic eyed the two woman and quickly finished his job before slipping out of the room. Natasha slid down in a chair while Maria tugged on her shirt.

"I hate you a little bit right now," she eventually stated. "But I know why you did it."

Maria's snort was self-depreciating, and when she raised her head her eyes were sad.

"It was never personal. I've always trusted you, but I was in deep cover before I even knew what was happening, and there were too many people at the hospital-"

"It's fine, Maria," Natasha interrupted. "You're beating yourself up about it enough as it is."

"I'm glad to know there's at least one thing in my life I haven't ruined," the brunette stated.

"Yeah, you did crash and burn pretty spectacularly today."

"At least we'll always have Paris," Maria dryly referenced.

Natasha laughed.

"You and Barton and your obsession with old movies," the redhead stated with a shake of her head.

Her expression shifted and Maria shook her head in response.

"There hasn't been a spare moment, but he's safe and in deep," she told her friend.

Natasha hummed in approval.

"He's going to be pissed he missed this," she said.

"Yeah well the next time we embrace anarchy and burn our life's work to the ground, he can lead the committee."

Natasha's look was fondly amused. Sam Wilson walked by at that moment and caught them both with eyes closed and a half-grin dancing across their faces. He shifted his weight.

"You two are both terrifying," he said. "Especially with that expression. But I think we're almost ready."

They both shifted back into work mode, and headed towards the small armory to grab the last of the supplies.

Shieldshieldshieldshieldshieldshieldshieldshield

They left her alone in the communications room, but she always was proficient at multitasking. She'd already shot two Hydra infiltrators who attempted to access the room and she could see another small group approaching. She swore and ordered Falcon to head Rumlow off before he could get up to the Council. They were down to a few minutes before Insight loaded the target list and she switched between eyeing the door and the monitor. She counted at least five agents approaching with no way to tell if they were friend or foe. They neared the door. She grabbed her gun, and swung around. The first woman entered with her hands raised, and Maria held her fire.

"Agent Carter," she acknowledged.

"Ma'am, we're here to help. Captain's orders."

Sharon warily eyed her as the others trailed in beside her. Maria stared them down, looking for any sign of duplicity. Her gaze shifted back to Carter before her earpiece went off again. She reluctantly lowered her weapon and bit back a prayer that she wouldn't get a bullet in the head as soon as she turned her back.

"You have two minutes, Rogers."

Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she continued to coordinate their small rebellion. When she could spare a few seconds she turned back to the blonde agent.

"Evacuate everyone you can, then get your asses out of here. If we're lucky, you have less than four minutes before those carriers come crashing down."

The targets started loading, and she was slightly surprised to see her name first on the list. It was an odd bubble of masochistic pride that rose for a brief second at being Hydra's most wanted.

"If we're lucky?" Another agent replied.

"The other option is we're all dead in ninety seconds."

Every agent but Sharon quickly exited the room.

"Go, I'll be fine," Maria stated.

"No disrespect ma'am, but I saw that list too."

The door swung open, and Sharon eliminated the intruder right as Maria swung around with the gun. She quirked an eyebrow in thanks, and began to count down the time remaining. Her voice remained even in spite of the immediacy of the situation. The screen flashed green, and the list targets disappeared. Relief soared through her veins when their chips triangulated at the last possible second. She barely heard Agent Carter let out a prolonged exhale while she waited for her people to check in.

"Get out of there, Rogers," she ordered.

"Fire now," his disembodied voice replied in her ear.

A handful of emotions rushed through her in that second, and she was unable to bite back her reply.

"But Steve-"

"Do it now."

There was no time for heartfelt declarations or apologies. Her throat constricted and she felt like she was slowly being strangled. Her words from earlier replayed in a continuous loop throughout her brain and she wished she could just have one fucking second to think. But time was a luxury she didn't have.

She pressed the button.

It only took minutes for a lifetime of work to come crashing down. She let out a shuddered breath, ordered the others to get out, and grabbed her gun. She tried not to think of what she had just done. She could see Carter sending her concerned glances out of the corner of her eye, and she grit her teeth. The explosions began to rock the building and she reached out to steady herself against the wall. They ran faster. Her side was aching, but she knew that with Project Insight destroyed any available Hydra operative would be doubling down on her position next. Fury and Romanoff should be in the helicopter by now. The grounds around the Triskellion were a bloodbath, and she slipped away as quickly as she could. It would take a few hours for her to make absolutely sure she had no tails before she could contact any of the others.

She kept running.

A/N: So it's been a year. I'll just say that miscarriages and depression suck, and hopefully I'm back to regular writing again now! I've really enjoyed reading stuff this last year to eep my mind off everything. I tried to go back and rewatch some of the movies to refresh my memory on what was happening and where I was going with this. Thanks y'all! PS- any dialog you recognize is from the Winter Soldier.