Emma Joan Tallis

chapter forty-one: Understood

"But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have."
~ J.R.R. Tolkien

~*~

"I need to take him," Hill said gently from behind me. I put a hand on Nat's shoulder, but she didn't move.

"Natasha," Steve said as he came up next to her. She still didn't say anything, but she tenderly touched Fury's head before walking out without a word. "Natasha!"

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha demanded as she spun around and glared at us.

"I don't know," Steve said. Nat was going to ask more, but Rumlow showed up, and he looked like he was planning on butting in.

"Cap, they want you back at SHIELD," Rumlow said. "You too, Tallis."

"Yeah, give us a second," Steve said.

"They want you now."

"Of course they do," I sighed.

"Okay," Steve said as he turned back to Natasha, but not before pressing something into my hand.

"You're a terrible liar," Natasha said as she walked off. I followed her for a minute, and quickly put the USB somewhere only Steve and I could find. Unless Nat saw me, of which, she'd probably steal it before we even got back here.

"Need anything?" Steve asked as I walked back.

"A drink," I said simply as I walked past him and the STRIKE team.

"Let's go," Steve told them as he quickly joined my side.

"Yeah," Rumlow agreed. "STRIKE, move it out."

~*~

"Hi, Kate," I said as she walked towards us after talking with who I had to assume was the man behind the curtain.

"Emma," she said with a smile before looking at Steve. "Captain Rogers."

"Neighbor," Steve replied coldly.

"Ah, Captain. I'm Alexander Pierce," he greeted.

"Sir, it's an honor," Steve responded when he shook his hand.

"And Agent Tallis, you are a bit of a legend at SHIELD," Pierce said.

"I'd hoped I didn't leave any impression," I said with a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

"The honor is mine," Pierce said before turning back to Steve. "My father served in the 101st. Come on in."

"He looks younger," I told Pierce when he showed us a photo of Fury.

"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met. When I was at State Department in Bogota. ELN rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was deputy chief for the SHIELD 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 ELN didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement, and what did they find? They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil. He saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter," Pierce said.

"So you gave him a promotion," Steve concluded.

"I've never had any cause to regret it. Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?" Pierce asked, suddenly very serious.

"I don't know," Steve replied.

"You know it was bugged?"

"I did, because Nick told me."

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Pierce said.

"I bugged my own apartment," I told Pierce as I crossed my arms. "It's a spy thing."

"I want you to see something," Pierce said as he changed tactics and brought up an interrogation video of Batroc.

"Who hired you, Batroc?" A SHIELD agent demanded.

"Is that live?" I asked.

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

"Are you saying he's a suspect? Assassination isn't Batroc's line," Steve told him.

"No, it's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star and he was contacted by e-mail 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," Pierce said.

"Are we supposed to know who that is?" I asked as Pierce handed Steve a file.

"Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 14-35 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick his mother lived at 14-37."

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

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

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

"Why do you think we're talking?" Pierce replied. "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. 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."

I couldn't tell. Pierce seemed to be a man who wasn't angry that his friend died, but angry because Steve and I weren't giving him the answers he wanted.

"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?" Pierce asked again.

"He told me not to trust anyone," Steve said instead.

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

"I'm sorry. Those were his last words," Steve said as he grabbed his shield and put it on his back. "Excuse us."

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

"Understood," I told Pierce seriously. "Loud and clear, sir."

~*~