Chapter 3

Back in Washington Steve stormed straight to Fury's office at the Triskelion, shield's headquarters. Abi followed with a calmer stance.

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Steve said angrily as they walked in.

"I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff, had a different mission than yours." Fury said from behind his desk.

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share." Steve said.

"I'm not obliged to do anything."

"Those hostages could have died, Nick." Steve countered.

"I sent the greatest soldier in history and the most powerful individual I've ever met to make sure that didn't happen." Fury span his chair to face them both.

"Soldier's trust each other. That's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running round shooting guns." Abi interjected.

"Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." Fury said standing from his chair. "Look, I didn't want you doing something you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything."

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own." Steve defended.

"It's called companmentalisation." Fury said. "Nobody spills the secrets because no one knows them all." He said with a glance at Abi.

"Except you." Steve said.

"You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that." Fury beckoned them to follow as he left the room. They got into an elevator. "Insight bay." Fury said to the computer.

"Captain and Agent Rogers do not have clearance for project Insight." The computer replied showing that the pair where security level eight.

"Director override. Fury, Nicholas J." Fury said.

"Confirmed." The computer replied.

"You know, they used to play music." Steve muttered.

"Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these thing for forty years." Fury said looking round the elevator. "Grandad worked in a nice building. Got good tips. He'd walk home every night with a roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say hi, people would say hi back. Time went on, the neighbourhood got rougher. He'd say hi, they'd say keep on stepping. Grandad got to gripping that lunch bag a little tighter."

"Did he ever get mugged?" Abi asked.

"Every week some punk would say, what's in the bag?"

"What would he do?" Steve said.

"He'd show them. Bunch of crumpled ones and a loaded twenty-two magnum. Yeah, grandad loved people, but he didn't trust them very much."

They all turned round. Abi and Steve were shocked to see three helicarrier's.

"Jesus." Abi muttered.

"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a twenty-two." Fury said.

They got out of the elevator and went to get a closer look to the carrier's.

"This is project Insight." Fury explained. "Three next generation helicarrier's synced to a network of targeting satellites."

"Launched from the Lemurian Star." Abi said.

"Once we get them in the air, they never have to come down. Continuous sub-orbital flight. Courtesy of our new repulsor engines." Fury said.

"Stark?" Steve asked.

"He had a few suggestions once he got an up-close look at our old turbines." Fury said with a smile. "These new long-range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps out of his spider hole. We're gonna neutralise a lot of threats before they even happen." Fury concluded.

"Thought the punishment usually came after the crime." Abi said as she looked at the carriers.

"We can't afford to wait that long." Fury said.

"Who's we?" Steve asked.

"After New York I convinced the world security council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once, we're way ahead of the curve." Fury said.

"By holding a gun to everyone on Earth and calling it protection." Steve said.

"You know, I read those SSR files. 'Greatest Generation'? You guys did some nasty stuff." Fury countered.

"Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so people could be free. This isn't freedom. This is fear." Steve stated.

"Shield take the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. And it's getting damn near past time for the pair of you to get with that programme." Fury defended.

"Don't hold your breath." Abi said as the pair of them walked out. They got changed into their normal clothes. Steve got on his bike and Abi got in her car. They headed straight for the Smithsonian museum. They had set up a Captain America special gallery. As the pair walked in there were pictures of them both and the other howling commandoes.

"A symbol to the nation. A hero to the world." The voice over started. "The story of Captain America is one of honour, bravery and sacrifice."

They walked in wearing hats pulled down so no one saw their faces. They walked past a board showing the difference in Steve's height before and after the serum.

"Denied enlistment due to poor health, Steven Rogers was chosen for a programme led by a group of scientists that included his own sister, Abigail, unique in the annals of American warfare. One that would transform him into the world's first super soldier."

Abi nudged Steve as a small boy in a Captain America shirt noticed them. Steve put his finger to his lips and the boy nodded. They continued in. They passed old footage shot during the war. For them, it seemed not that long ago.

"Battle tested, Captain America and his howling commandoes quickly earned their stripes."

The main display held all of the commando's uniforms in front of picture of them. It went: Jacques Dernier, Gabriel Jones, Timothy 'Dum Dum' Dugan, Steve, Abi, Bucky Barnes, James Montgomery Falsworth and Jim Morita. They stood and looked at the people who were the closest to them.

"Their mission, taking down Hydra, the Nazi rogue science division."

They turned away and faced something neither of them wanted to remember.

"Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes, Abigail and Steven Rogers were inseparable on both schoolyard and battlefield. Barnes is the only Howling Commando to give his life in service of his country."

Abi clutched the ring Bucky had given to her in her hand as they looked upon the display. Steve put his arm around her shoulders.

"You know, you and Nat keep trying to set me up maybe you should meet someone else." Steve muttered quietly.

"I don't care if loneliness kills me, I don't want to love someone else." She murmured back. As tears pricked the corners of her eyes she turned and left. Steve stayed a little while longer but then left. He went to visit Peggy in hospital and payed a quick visit to Sam at the VA.