so bad guys can't see me bleed

•tape six•

"We have to go," Nat says, rushing through the kitchen of the Fuck Tower. "Now. Red, you're coming with me."

"But I just got back here," I say, leaning against the island with a coffee in my hand.

"Fury just got shot."

"Jesus fuck." I put down my coffee and walk quickly after her, putting my mask on as we get to the stairs and starts running and sliding down the railings.

We rush out of the building and hop into her car. She starts it up and starts driving as quickly as possible to get to the hospital.

Just when I was starting to like the asshole, he has to go and get shot.

—

"Is he gonna make it?" Nat asks as her and I get to the window next to Cap to look in at Fury as he goes through surgery.

"I don't know," Cap says.

"Tell us about the shooter," Nat says.

"He's fast. Strong. Had a metal arm."

A woman walks towards us and stops on me other side. Nat glances at her. "Ballistics?"

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable," the woman says.

"Soviet-made," Nat acknowledges.

"So, by killing Fury, what are they trying to get at?" I ask right before the heart monitor inside the room starts beeping continuously and loudly.

"Don't do this to me, Nick," Nat says quietly to herself as the doctors and nurses inside get out the defibulator and talk over each other. They keep bumping up the charge when his pulse stays negative. When it doesn't work, they all start to give up. "Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me."

"They can't do that," I say, turning to Nat. "They can't just stop. He can still make it."

Cap shakes his head and pats my shoulders. "I know you care, Wilson, but there's no more hope for him."

"What?" I ask as Cap start to walk away. "You're just gonna leave? What, like he didn't do shit for you?"

"Leave it, Red," Nat says, shaking her head.

I don't want to care about Fury dying. I wish I didn't care. But I do. And I know that he can't just die like that. Nick Fury doesn't just die.

—

"Babe, she's hanging out with the Avengers!" I hear Dad say as I slip into the apartment. "I mean, like, way to steal my thunder, but, babe!"

"I know," Mom says with a smile, then notices me. "Oh, hey, Cher, how were the Avengers?"

"Um, well, there's a bit of a problem," I say, walking into my room. They share a glance before walking after me and into my room. I grab an old duffle bag and start packing it.

"What's the problem?" Dad asks, then furrows his brows. "Why are you packing?"

"So, weird shit. Crazy shit. Look, I didn't want to go to Fuck Tower, but I went anyways. Everything was explained, and I went with Black Widow and Captain America on this ship to save these hostages from pirates or something." Dad goes to say something, but I stop him. "No, not like Jack Sparrow. Whatever, it's fine. I had to follow Cap around the whole time. Anyway, Nick Fury is dead. And now I have to go and say fuck it. We gotta go and put this hard drive in somewhere in the real world. Cap is now a criminal under S.H.I.E.L.D." I take a breath in and turn to them. "Fury's death wasn't an accident. I'm gonna have to live in the Avenger tower. I think that's everything all caught up. I have to get dressed, but I'll see you later."

—

"Dumbass seriously left a hard drive in a vending machine," Nat says, shaking her head as we watch Cap walk over to said vending machine.

"How did he even get it in there?" I ask, fixing the hood of an old horror movie hoodie on my head.

"That's my que," Nat says, walking over to Cap. She stands behind him and blows a bubble with the bubblegum in her mouth before popping it. Cap slowly turns to her before grabbing her shoulders and pushing her into a room.

"Jesus," I mutter as I see him slam her back into a wall. I shake my head and walk in the room. "Jesus, Cap, slow down, would you?"

Cap glares at me, then turns back to Nat and takes his hood off. "Where is it?" he asks harshly.

"Safe," Nat says.

"Do better."

"Where did you get it?" Nat asks. I sigh and lean against the window, tapping my foot on the ground.

"Why would I tell you?"

We're supposed to be on the same team?

"Fury gave it to you," Nat says. "Why?"

"What's on it?"

"I don't know."

"Stop lying."

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

Cap glances around. "I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?"

"Fury hired the pirates?" I ask, raising my brows. They both ignore me. "Dick."

"Well, it makes sense," Nat says. "The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so did you."

Cap shoves her again. "I'm not gonna ask you again."

"I know who killed Fury," Nat says. Cap calms down, and I look over at her. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that 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."

"I mean, you're almost a hundred years old and you don't look a day over 25," I say to him with a shrug. "Maybe he's like you. Got a serum or some shit."

Nat nods to me. "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 lifts her shirt up a little to show a bullet wound scar. "Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye, bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now," Cap says.

"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried," Nat says. She holds up the hard drive. "Like you said, he's a ghost story."

Cap takes the hard drive. "Well, let's see what the ghost wants."