Dear Diary,

After all that insane action going on, I got word of what was going on with Nick- that they were working on his wounds and that I definitely had to go see him and see if he was doing alright.

I kinda just wanna sleep, seeing as it's 1 o'clock in the morning already but, it's fine. I have to check on Nick.

—————

I was allowed in the viewing room for the surgery because, well, S.H.I.E.L.D. knows someone everywhere they go and since I work for them, I get special access.

I stood at the glass window and leaned on the ledge there, looking in at Fury on the table and the multiple scrubbed in doctors all around him. After about 15 minutes, Natasha came running in and stood on my left, looking in as well.

"Is he gonna make it?" she asked me, seeing as I'd been there longer and I was there for the attack.

"I don't know," I replied honestly. It got silent for a moment.

"Tell me about the shooter," she whispered.

I felt my body twinge as his unblinking, expressionless blue eyes popped into my mind yet again. It seemed as though the attack was years ago in my head, though, it had only been about an hour.

"He's fast. Strong," I looked down, closing my eyes, seeing him again. "Had a metal arm."

I looked at Nat's reflection in the mirror and she seemed... odd. It was like she knew something I didn't and it was written clear as day across her face.

Maria Hill approached and stood next to her, to which we both stopped talking about the mystery man. "Ballistics?" she asked Hill.

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable," she relayed to the two of us.

"Soviet-made," she said, allowing me to realize why she had seemed so- shellshocked.

"Yea," Hill agreed, looking at her.

I heard the nurses start talking to one another as the monitor started beeping. "He's in V-tach," one said aloud.

"Crash cart coming in," another announced.

"Nurse, help me with the drape," the doctor requested.

"BP's dropping," the one nurse called out urgently.

"Defibrillator!" the doctor yelled out. "I want you to charge him at 100."

"Don't do this to me, Nick," Natasha whispered to herself as we watched them all struggling to keep him alive.

The doctor approached him with the defibrillator, "stand back. Three, two, one. Clear!" They shocked him, I watched his body jolt on the table. "Pulse?"

"No pulse," a nurse answered.

"Okay, 200, please," the doctor requested. "Stand back. Three, too, one. Clear!" His body jumped yet again. "Get me epinephrine! Pulse?"

"Negative."

"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me," Natasha murmured again.

I started to walk towards the door when they called it. "What's the time?" the doctor asked.

"1:03, doctor," a nurse replied.

"Time of death, 1:03 a.m.," the doctor announced. I walked out.

Later, they brought me and Natasha into a room with Nick's body. She stood over near him, while I stayed agains the wall, holding the flash drive he'd given me in my hand.

Hill walked in. "I need to take him," she told Natasha more so than she told me.

I looked at her, then proceeded to approach Nat. I stood behind her. "Natasha," I said, telling her that we had to go. She walked right past me and out the door, visibly upset. I'd never seen her like this before.

I followed after her. "Natasha," I called over.

She turned around."Why was Fury in your apartment?" she asked.

I sighed. "I don't know."

"Cap," a man called from behind me. I turned around and saw it was Rumlow. "They want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Yea, gimme a second," I told him, spinning back around to continue talking to Nat.

"They want you now," he restated.

"Okay."

"You're a terrible liar," Nat informed me before she walked away, leaving me alone in the hallway.

Before I moved, though, my ears picked up on something. "S.T.R.I.K.E. Team, escort Captain Rogers back to S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately for questioning." Rumlow then replied, "I told him."

I was focused on the vending machine in the room to my right, though. That could be a really good hiding place for this flash drive. I put it in there, continuing to listen to the rest fo their conversation, making sure they wouldn't see me as I did so. They were coming towards me, so I went with them.

Once I got there, I changed into my uniform and walked the halls making my way towards my destination.

I saw Kate- er, Sharon is actually her name. Agent 13. She greeted me as I passed her, "Captain Rogers."

"Neighbor," I replied, never once looking at her and her lying self.

"Oh, Captain," a man said as I then passed him, too. "I'm Alexander Pierce," he introduced himself, extending his hand. I took it.

"Sir, it's an honor," I replied.

"The honor's mine, Captain. my father served in the 101st. Come on in," he walked in and I followed him.

He handed me a stack of pictures that I started to look through. It was a lot of Fury, seeing as he'd just passed. There was one of him and Nick Fury, even, and they both looked young.

"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met," he told me, "when I was at State Department in Bogota. E.L.N. rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was Deputy Chief of the S.H.I.E.L.D. station there, and he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, 'no, we'll negotiate.' Turned out, the E.L.N. didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement, and what do they find? They find it empty," he came and sat next to me. "Nick had ignored my direct order, and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil, and saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter."

"So you gave him a promotion," I jumped in.

"I've never had any cause to regret it," he replied. "Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?"

I shook my head. "I don't know."

"Did you know it was bugged?" he asked.

"I did, because Nick told me," I told him.

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" When I didn't answer, he turned. "I want you to see something."

"Is that live?" I asked, looking at the screen with a man on it. It was Batroc, that French pirate from the launch ship.

"Yea, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers."

"Are you saying he's a suspect?" I questioned. "Assassination isn't Batroc's line."

"No, no. It's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star. And he was contacted by email, and paid by wire transfer, and then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts. the last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech."

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" I asked as he handed me the file.

"Not likely. Veech died 6 years ago. His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 1437."

"Are you saying Fury hired the pirates?" I asked. "Why?"

"The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death," he explained.

"If you really knew Nick Fury, you'd know that's not true," I said, looking at him.

"Why do you think we're talking?" he proved my point further before he stood up and made his way to the windows. I followed him. "See, I took a seat on the Council not because I wanted to, but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists. We knew that, despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies," he started walking towards me. "Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today- makes me really, really angry... Captain, you were the last one to see Nick alive- I don't think that's an accident. And, I don't think you do, either. So, I'm gonna ask again. Why was he there?"

"He told me not to trust anyone," I blurted out, knowing I couldn't get away from this unscathed without telling at least a little bit of the truth, seeing as I was a terrible liar.

"I wonder if that included him," Pierce pondered.

I thought about that for a moment. "I'm sorry. Those were his last words," I said. "Excuse me." I picked up my shield and placed it on my back and made my way to the door.

"Captain," he started again. "Somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. Anyone."

I nodded. "Understood," and made my way out.

I waited at the end of the Hall for the elevator, just wanting to leave this floor and get away from that Pierce guy.

It arrived and I stepped in. "Operations Control," I said to the computer. "Confirmed," she replied and the doors began to close.

I heard a voice behind me, as I had been facing the window and looking out upon the city. It was Rumlow, he stepped into the elevator behind me with some of his men. "Keep all S.T.R.I.K.E. personnel on site," he was saying.

"Understood," one replied.

"Yessir," said another.

"Forensics," Rumlow announced to the computer. "Confirmed," she replied.

I stayed where I stood and didn't look back just yet. I wanted to see if he'd initiate a conversation now that I knew more about everything that had been going on with the Lemurian Star.

"Cap," he greeted me.

I turned around. "Rumlow." We started to descend.

"Evidence Response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see," he turned to me and informed. "You want me to get the tac team ready?"

"No, let's wait and see what it is first," I relayed, thinking that acting too soon might be pushing our luck here.

"Right," he agreed with a twinge in his voice, looking away.

I looked over at the men he was with and they were all armed and seemingly ready... they had their hands on their guns that were in their holsters as if they were ready to strike at any given moment. It was... bizarre, to say the least.

The elevator made a pit stop at another floor. A bunch of business type men with briefcases entered, talking. "Administrations level," one man said.

"Confirmed," the computer clarified before closing the door and moving down yet again.

There were a lot of men in there right now and I was all the way at the back of the elevator. I knew my stop was the first, before the Admin and Forensics levels, so I stepped to the front so that I didn't have to get in anyone's way.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Fury," Rumlow said to me, trying to start up conversation again, seemingly. "It's messed up, what happened to him."

"Thank you," I replied, not trying to sound standoffish. He nodded.

I looked around, particularly at the men who had just walked in. Something was off, though, I couldn't quite figure it out yet... nor did I know what the Hell I could do right now even if I knew.

I saw the one man in the corner was sweating. Sure, it was summer, but it was cool in the elevator because, well, air conditioning, as far as I know.

We stopped again. Three men got on and they were big- not me big, but still big.

"Records," the first man in relayed to the computer as he and his friends stood in front of me.

"Confirmed," she answered, yet again, the door closing.

Christ, there had to be at least 10 of us in there now and this really, really felt like a set up. Nick told me not to trust anyone and I think this is a good reason to start if I wasn't planning on it before, even though I was.

I had to act before any of them did. "Before we get started," I weaned into it, pausing for a few seconds. "Does anyone wanna get out?"

No one said a thing. We all simply stood there for a moment before the man in front of me powered up some sort of electricity device and turned around, trying to strike me with it.

I pushed him out of the way, but then everyone went for me. They all grabbed me and pinned me to the wall, removing my shield and trying to- what? Kill me?

One man had me in a choke hold while the others tried to cuff me to the wall- they pushed the emergency stop on the elevator car. I hit as many of them as I could out of the way with as much might as I had in me.

Rumlow kicked my arm to the wall, activating the cuff- I was stuck. He electrocuted my back with a stick next, but I quickly elbowed him in his face and threw him off guard. I was breaking the elevator, too... the glass all around me was fracturing, but, at least I eventually got my arm off the wall.

That freed me up to fight those that remained until it was just me and Rumlow. "Woa, big guy," he said to me like I was some sort of monster. "I just want you to know, Cap, this isn't personal."

He went for me, but did he possibly think in his puny mind that he could win? Seriously? He thought, against all the odds, he could be that fraction of a percent that could take me out? On nothing but sheer luck?

I threw him to the ceiling and he fell, knocked out. "It kinda feels personal," I replied, looking down at him and the other 9 guys on the floor. I stepped on my shield and it came right up to me. I caught it and held it on my arm.

I pressed the elevator button and the door opened. There had to be 15 or more guys out there with guns- it was the S.T.R.I.K.E. force that Rumlow was talking about when he walked in before.

"Drop the shield and put your hands in the air!" a man yelled to me.

I spun and threw the shield at the elevator side and we started free falling. When we finally stopped, I forced the door open, but there were men running right at me. I closed the door and looked out the glass. We had to be 20 floors from ground level at least, but, this was my best bet to get out of there.

"Give it up, Rogers! Get that door open!" they yelled from beyond the elevator doors. "You have nowhere to go!"

I backed away, then ran straight at the glass and broke through it, shield first. I hit the glass ceiling of the secondary building and fell through it, hitting the pavement below me on top of my shield. Everyone around gasped and spread away from me.

I composed myself and stood, finally, running away and out of the building and towards the garage. I got on my motorcycle as soon as I arrived and sped out of there, barely making it out before they tried to close the bridge ahead of my departure.

A Quinjet flew ahead of me. "Stand down, Captain Rogers," the pilot announced aloud. "Stand down." A machine gun dropped out and started rotating. "Repeat, stand down."

I started swerving to avoid the bullets as I got closer to the jet, then, I threw my shield at the propeller. I braked my bike and flung myself on top of the jet to fetch my shield, then continued to demolish the aircraft before I, eventually, jumped off and continued on my way.

—————

I knew I had to lay low... I was, at this point, a fugitive from S.H.I.E.L.D. perhaps because I didn't give Pierce the information he wanted regarding Fury and his death.

There isn't much left for me to do other than work an investigation on my own, I suppose.

~ S. Rogers