So have you guys seen the new Infinity war trailer? It's freaking awesome! I shed tears after watching the trailer and holy shit bearded Steve Rogers just made my ovaries explode into a million pieces.

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Captive

by: penandpathways

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Bridge

50 hours earlier...

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The car ride was filled with silence. Steve hadn't said a word since they got off from the quinjet and Sam was beginning to worry. Even if the blonde did not want to admit it, Sam knew that Pierce's words made a huge effect on the captain—particularly the one involving his girlfriend.

A wave of uneasiness washed past him as Steve continued to stare at the dashboard. His jaw was clenched and his eyes were filled with rage and hatred. It was a good thing Alexander Pierce was in the other compartment of the truck or else he would sure the captain would lose it. It took him a great deal of force to try and hold him back from struggling the man.

"Cap," Sam said quietly, careful not to take his eyes off the road.

No answer.

"You've been quiet for a while now." he added.

Steve took a deep breath. "I've got a lot on my mind that's all." he answered, his tone as dismissive as possible.

"So, what do we do with Pierce?" Sam asked, anticipating their next move.

It had been extremely difficult for them to kidnap the SHIELD director but they both managed to get it done. But they made it seem like it was a scene of a murder, so how were they going to return this person being fully alive? Surely it would cause some suspicions to arise with people, especially on their part.

What was Steve planning to do?

"Return him and expose the truth." Steve answered simply.

"And by exposing the truth, you mean...?"

The captain sighed, "I mean exposing the truth about everything. About him being a director of not just SHIELD but HYDRA as well. Tell the people what they deserve to know. HYDRA grew under their noses without them seeing it."

Sam paused, pondering for a moment. "But it would mean the murder set-up we created would come out as fake. The blame would most likely be pointed to us, you know."

Steve nodded. "Exactly. We're only after the truth, the set-up was merely an act to find it."

A clever move for HYDRA to create a newfound organization by hiding in the shadows of SHIELD. The fact that the captain found out his sacrifice of giving up his own life by going down in the ice meant nothing at all—that's what angered him. How could life be so cruel to him? They won the war... but for what? What's the point of winning from the start when they were all just going to lose in the end?

"But what about Natasha?" asked Sam.

The blonde stiffened but nevertheless asked. "What about her?"

"If we're going to expose all of SHIELD's lies... won't that..." he trailed off, not knowing exactly how to finish his statement.

Yet Steve knew all too well what he was wanting to say. He thought about it for a while too. He knew that exposing everything would require literally everything. It would all of SHIELD's dirty records, data, and files would go out in the open. All would be a sight for the world to see. How everything about them was lies.

But since Natasha Romanoff was an agent of SHIELD, exposing everything would mean exposing her too. The world would see the spy for who she really is.

"I know." Steve had a huge respect for people's privacy. And he deeply cared about Natasha's privacy too. That was why he couldn't exactly pry her about something when she wasn't keen on sharing it with him. It would hurt, yes, but he figured that once the time comes she's ready to open up to him—she'll tell him. It was all about respect and patience. That was what made him gain Natasha's trust in the end, and eventually, gain her heart.

So once the thought crossed his mind about this, about the possible expositions about herself, he confronted her immediately. Before he went on this mission, he already a hunch that something like this was going to happen the minute he found out SHIELD had been HYDRA all along.

Steve glanced at the redhead from the mirror. Her face held a look of worry and anxiety. Her emerald-green orbs were confused and disturbed. She seemed rather bothered than usual.

After drying his hands in the towel, he took the chance to ask her about it. "You okay?"

"Yeah." she answered, slightly startled.

He immediately sensed something off about her tone. He could tell she was lying. There was something she wasn't telling him about. Steve knew better than to force her into telling him about things she preferred to keep to herself, but this was going way too far. He was only concerned about her and wanted to know he was here for her.

If she really did trust him, then she would tell him what was bothering her so much.

Steve took a seat on the bed situated across. He looked at her. "What's going on?"

Natasha hesitated to answer.

"You know you can tell me." he assured, reaching out to take her hand in his.

The redhead sighed, "I know I just..." she struggled to answer, only feeling more nervous as the warmth from her boyfriend's hand caressed her trembling one. She took a deep breath. "When I first joined SHIELD I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for HYDRA."

Steve listened in silence.

Her tone was laced with sadness and regret. "I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but... I guess I can't tell the difference anymore." She put up a sad smile.

But she didn't need to look so strong. Steve could see right through her, his eyes glancing down to her trembling hand, noticing the way her voice break, and the complete dullness of her eyes. She looked vulnerable as she is, and he wanted to show her that it's okay. That's he's here for her no matter what.

"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." Steve repeated her words back to her, his voice was all but sincere and filled with assurance.

It worked. She smiled lightly.

He smiled back.

"I owe you, Steve." she said quietly, remembering that he was the reason why she was practically alive and breathing right now.

He shook his head. "No, it's okay. I made a promise that I would protect you right?"

Sadness was evident in her features as she spoke, "Now that you know everything about SHIELD is a lie. Sooner or later, we have to tell the world the truth about it." she stated. "Their files... and..."

Steve was unsure of where she was getting at. "Uh... that's most likely to happen. Why? Is there... something wrong?"

Natasha swallowed a lump in her throat.

Immediately, realization dawned on the captain's features. His confusion immediately turned into something of an understanding. He knew what she was so troubled about. "Look, Nat..."

"It's okay, Steve." she intervened. "I knew that eventually, this would happen. Secrets would come out no matter what you do. It just so happens for mine to be one of those dirty little ones that SHIELD has."

He sighed, hanging his head low. "I'm sorry you have to go through this."

"But that's not what I'm worried about."

His ears perked up at this as he looked at her, perplexed. "Then what?"

Natasha bit her lip, her eyes were slightly glistening. "I'm afraid of you knowing those secrets."

Steve was shocked at her conclusion.

"I have a dark past, Steve. It's not exactly a fairy tale fit for a princess. If anything at all, I'm the bad guy of the story. Natasha Romanoff is a mess. Her past is her permanent scars. So, I'm giving you a chance, Steve. I don't blame you if you want to leave now. You're too good for me and I knew that right from the very start that I don't deserve you. But believe me when I say whatever this is between us isn't a lie. It was and never is a lie. I love—"

Natasha's voice immediately died down when she felt Steve took hexr in his arms. She felt his bigger frame enveloped her petite body, with her face buried in his shoulder and strong arms wrapped around her. Her heart continued to thump louder and louder.

"Are you really that desperate to get rid of me?" he murmured. His eyes held so much passion and love. What any girl would die for just to get a guy to feel for them the way he felt for Natasha.

He felt her froze.

"Don't think you're getting rid of me that easy, Nat." Steve tried to lighten up the mood. "When I said I love you, it means loving you for whoever you were in the past. And if it weren't for that, you wouldn't be the girl I fell in love with today."

He slightly pulled away to tip her chin upwards and meet his gaze. "Chin up, sweetheart."

His blue eyes locked onto her green ones.

He smiled lightly.

"Because I'm not going anywhere."

The memory came rushing back to him.

Steve had made sure to know Natasha's say in all of these before he attempted to continue with his plan. Well, he loves her; that's why he talked about it with her first.

"She knows." Steve said, responding to Sam's earlier statement.

A nod of understanding came from him. "Then it's settled then. I just want to know what the hell is this Project Insight they're talking about."

"Well, we're cutting it a bit close here. Since we couldn't get any information out of him, let's just use him to bypass the DNA scans and access all of SHIELD's files directly. From there, we can really conclude what's this Insight." he stated.

Then, as quickly as lightning, a loud explosion reached their ears. Steve watched in horror from the side mirror as the car behind them suddenly got hit by an incoming missile.

Sam had apparently seen it too. "What the hell was that?" he exclaimed.

Steve didn't have the time to answer when he heard a thud right above them. The sound was becoming louder and louder until his mind quickly caught on to what was going to happen. His eyes widened. "Get down!" he immediately leaned forward, grabbing Sam's arm to drag him forward. Luckily, his gut proved to be correct when a bullet went straight to both of their headrests instead.

He quickly pulled on the brakes to stop the truck to a halt.

Then the person on top of them suddenly broke through the glass and ripped the steering wheel in front of their faces. "Shit!" Sam cursed.

Steve quickly grabbed his shield, when his body jolted forward when something hard crashed into the back of the truck. The impact was enough to make the truck move on its own. Besides, their truck was a complete fetus compared to the one in the back.

Thinking fast, the captain gave the door a few grudges before grabbing Sam. "Hang on!" he yelled, giving one last push, making the door completely fall off. Taking Sam with him, they slid across the highway. Once it came to a stop, he immediately stood up and took his shield in his arm.

"Watch out!" he pushed Sam out of the way when a fire was aimed at them. Whatever gun they used, it was strong enough to send the captain flying off from the bridge and crash onto a bus below.

He groaned. Losing feeling in his back, arms, and legs. Everything ached badly. The glass had somehow cut his face but he would have to deal with that later. He struggled to stand up, prompting the other people in the bus to leave immediately.

Then multiple shots suddenly came firing all at once. As swiftly as possible, he crashed through the other end of the bus and grabbed his shield to take cover. He couldn't exactly step a foot forward when the impact was too strong, but Steve, being the clever and tactic soldier that he is, thought to use his shield to fling back the shots against the men until it left only one.

It was enough for him to come bolting his way. Leaping on top of the car for good footing and tumbling forward to knock him down.

Once the coast was clear, he made sure to check out on Sam. Fortunately, he was still in good shape. Steve rushed to get up the bridge once more, avoiding the missiles while heading straight for their truck.

The second he faced the compartment, and just as he had assumed, Alexander Pierce was nowhere to be found.

He let out a sigh of frustration. Sam came his way and noticed his look. "He's gone?"

"SHIELD took him back. They certainly got us there." Steve grumbled, looking around to see if there were any traces of them left. "Nothing. There's nothing else here."

"Steve, look, we've been set up. Someone must have known our whereabouts when we took Pierce with us." Sam asserted.

His fists were clenched together. "Son of a bitch." he gritted his teeth.

"Just call Natasha to tell Fury about this. Tell them this whole mission was practically a mole hunt." The frustration was also noticeable in the black main's tone. His gaze hardening.

As he was told, Steve took out his phone and quickly dialed up her number. It was a handy thing that Natasha taught him how to use a phone.

Ring... ring... ring...

He waited in anticipation until she picked it on the fourth ring.

"Nat? I need your help. Is Fury there? SHIELD just got our work cut out for us. It was nothing but a setup." Steve spoke hardly, but when he received nothing in response, his eyebrows furrowed. "Nat?"

No answer.

"Nat? Are you okay?"

Then a screech was heard.

Followed by a muffled voice; glass breaking; a hard object trashing in the background.

Steve felt his breath hitched in his throat as he listened to it in horror. His heart pounding more loudly than ever as he thought of the worst possible scenario. "Nat!?" he yelled through the phone.

Sam jumped at the sudden rise in the captain's tone. From the way he gripped the phone so tightly; almost crushing it; things weren't going so well.

"Nat what are you—"

Then the line went dead.

His eyes widened in horror. He fumbled for his phone, dialing her number once more but became even more agitated when her phone was disabled.

"Dammit." he muttered under his breath, deciding to call Maria instead.

She answered on the second ring. "Captain?"

"Maria. I need to talk to Natasha." he stated.

"Uh... she went out to get some lunch—"

Steve felt his blood boil. "You let her out just to buy some food?" he demanded.

"Fury let her out. She insisted on her own, and just for the record Steve, she's locked in here for almost a day now."

"Look, her line went dead and when I tried to call her again, she wasn't answering." Steve informed. "Do you have any idea where she could be?"

"Wait... I'll breach Fury about this. Try the nearest convenience store downtown. Just across the building with the gold doors. In the meantime, I'll call you once we track her phone down."

"Thanks, Maria."

The second they arrived in the store, Steve got out of the car and slammed the door shut. He practically leaped for the doors and pushed it open. He jerked his head sideways while trying to find a glimpse of a redhead.

To no luck.

He sighed exasperatedly, "She's not here."

Sam tried peering through the aisles. "Maybe we missed her. Try calling Maria again."

Just when Steve reached for his phone, he felt relief flood his chest when it lit up to reveal the caller id to be Natasha. He quickly pressed the green button.

"Natasha?" he asked. "Where are you—"

"You can always tell someone's character by the way they treat those they don't need to treat well."

He felt his rage crawling up the back of his neck as his eyes were filled with nothing but vengeance and fury. He gripped the phone tighter. All relief in his chest quickly dissolved into anger.

Steve's nostrils flared. "If you hurt her I swear—"

"Don't threaten me. Just don't." Pierce warned, not caring a damn about what he was trying to say. "That flash drive I picked up from the Triskelion, the one you took from us? Contains the algorithm I need to launch Project Insight. You're going to get it and bring it to me. The algorithm. Captain, you had a watch the last time I saw you. You have 48 hours starting on my mark."

"Wait, wait—"

"Now call me at this number when you have it."

"Just wait—"

"Natasha's life for the algorithm. You have 48 hours or she dies."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Steve rambled on, attempting to slow him down.

When Pierce hung up.

As if on perfect timing, the police and the other SHIELD agents managed to track him down. One that he recognized as Brock Rumlow, pointed a rifle at him, his expression clearly annoyed. "Get down!" he shouted.

"What?" he questioned, bemused.

"Condition 1-116. All units on the scene." he said through his transponder.

"Rumlow? What the hell is this?" Steve asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Sorry, Cap." he said nonchalantly. "We were told to bring you in."

"By who?" he demanded.

"By Alexander Pierce."

Great. Just perfect.

He was getting arrested for a crime he did not commit while his girlfriend's life is basically hanging on the line. With the 48 hours running so swiftly, Steve knew he needed to get out of this as soon as he could.

Or he might lose the one thing that mattered to him the most.

reviews please?