Steve looks through the window in the operating room. His hands are in his pocket, fiddling with the USB drive that he had been handed. He doesn't shift when Natasha walks in, her eyes drifting over to the window, watching as surgeons work on Fury with speed and efficiency. Her face shows the slightest hint of worry, almost praying that it will go well.
"Is he gonna make it?" Natasha asks smoothly, her hands leaning against the window frame, glancing an eye up at Steve before quickling looking back at Fury.
"I don't know." Steve admits solemnly.
Her face falls ever so slightly. "Tell me about the shooter." She orders, trying to distract her mind, going ito a more professional mode.
"He's fast and strong. Had a metal arm." Steve describes as Agent May walks into the room, her eyes too drifting over to the window.
"Ballistics?" She asks.
"Three slugs, no rifling." Hill tells her, looking at Natasha. "Completely untraceable."
"Soviet-made." Natasha says softly, her eyes internally going wide.
"Yeah." Hill replies before loud beeping goes off in the operating room, and they watch in shock as Fury's state deteriorates quickly, the line on the monitor going from careful arches to the silent line.
"He's in V-tach." A nurse says as a fury of movement starts to happen.
"Crash cart coming in."
"Nurse, help me with the drape."
"BP is dropping."
"Defibrillator!" The doctor shouts and Steve, Natasha and Hill watch in shock as Fury is flatlining. "I want you to charge him at one hundred."
"Don't do this to me, Nick." Natasha says quietly, worry and desperation starting to show in her voice, her hands gripping the windowpane tighter than she was before.
"Stand back!" A doctor orders. "Three, two, one. Clear!" Fury is given a shock with the defibrillator, his body jerking slightly. "Pulse?"
"No pulse." A nurse says.
"No pulse." The doctor confirms. "Okay. 200, please. Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear! Give me epinephrine! Pulse?"
Male Nurse: Negative.
"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me." The three watch the doctors as they continue to revive Fury but Fury is still showing as flatlining, Steve turns away as they finally call his time of death.
"What's the time?" The doctor asks.
"1:03, Doctor." The nurse answers.
"Time of death, 1:03 a.m." The doctor finally says and Steve looks down at the flash drive Fury had given him before walking into another room, where Fury's dead body has been laid out. A white sheet is drawn over to his body, going up to his collarbone. Natasha is looking at Fury's body with tears running down her face as Hill joins them in the room, looking regretful.
"I need to take him." Hill tells them.
Steve nods slightly and goes over to Natasha "Natasha." Steve says carefully but she doesn't respond, instead she tenderly touches Fury's head then turns and walks out. Steve quickly turns and follows her out of the room. "Natasha!" He calls out.
"Why was Fury in your apartment?" She asks him, almost accusingly, glaring at him.
"I don't know." Steve lies, thinking she believed him, but they are interrupted by Rumlow before he can find out if that's the case.
"Cap, they want you back at SHIELD." Rumlow informs him, his hand gripping his belt tightly, his hand itching slightly to his holster, his eyes thin and dark, on edge.
Steve Rogers: Yeah, give me a second.
Brock Rumlow: They want you now.
"Okay." Steve says before looking over at Natasha.
"You're a terrible liar." Natasha warns before she turns and walks off.
Sitwell turned to the others, his finger brushing against his earpiece. "STRIKE team, escort Captain Rogers back to SHIELD immediately for questioning." He says into it.
"I told him." Steve notices the vending machine next to him, we then see Steve walking towards Rumlow. "Let's go."
"Yeah." Rumlow replies before looking over at the agents. "STRIKE, move it out." The agents move away, leaving the hospital. As Steve follows, he walks back past the vending machine, the USB drive having been stuck behind some packs of chewing gum, leaving it out of sight.
Later on, Steve walks back into the hospital. He's dressed in an oversized hoodie, the hood pulled over his head in an attempt to hide his identity. He hurryingly walks back over to the vending machine from earlier, he leans forwards and looks through the glass and notices that the drive is missing. When he notices, he looks up and sees that Natasha is standing behind him, chewing some gum innocently. Steve, in a moment of pure anger, pushes her into a room quickly and looks her right in the eyes.
"Where is it?" He asks her, his voice raising, his eyes hard.
"Safe." Nat replies, her voice even and unassuming.
"Do better!" Steve shouts at her, in a slight panic, his hands gripping tighter.
"Where did you get it?" She asks him, looking directly into his eyes, watching his movements with a practised eye.
"Why would I tell you?" Steve retorts, his grip tightening on her, studying her face.
"Fury gave it to you." Nat tells him, her body lax. She glances him up and down and crosses her arms. "Why?"
"What's on it?" Steve asks, deflecting the question.
"I don't know." Natasha admits, shrugging slightly.
"Stop lying!" Steve shouts, his anger coming back.
"I only act like I know everything, Rogers." Natasha replies dryly and Steve loosens his grip, but still keeps a hand on her, just in case.
"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Steve questions accusingly.
"Well, it makes sense." Natasha admits, not really affected by his words. "The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you."
"I'm not gonna ask you again." Steve's voice is stern.
"I know who killed Fury." Natasha admits. At this, Steve steps back, watching her carefully, intrigued. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists–" She walks closer to him, tilting her head slightly. "–the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."
"So he's a ghost story." Steve remarks, raising an eyebrow.
"They're." Natasha corrects. "Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me." She pulls up her shirt to show him the scar on the side of her stomach, it's slightly pink and looks jagged. "Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis."
"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." Steve chuckles and Natasha gives him the smallest of smiles. Steve looks at her in confusion slightly. "But what makes it such a ghost story? Why does one man cause so much fear?"
Natasha sighs slightly, leaning against the wall. "Since 1963 and the Kennedy assassination, people have mysteriously ended up being killed. A single shot between their eyes, no witnesses. Not a trace is left behind. When I grew up, I was told about the man that was everywhere at once, that once you saw him you were dead." She leans forward. "He's a ghost story because his legend appears to be true, every word. Russia's secret boogeyman. The Winter Soldier, the killing machine." She sighs slightly, rubbing her hands. "But going after him, or them, or whoever it is, it's a dead end. I know, I've tried." She admits before leaning forward, closer to him. "And even more, there's two trials to follow which makes it harder–" Natasha holds up the flash drive to him. "–so like you said, he's a ghost story."
Steve glances back over at her before looking away before whispering; "well, let's find out what the ghost wants."