Before We Fall

Chapter 37

I trailed behind them and I could feel Steve keep looking back at me, multiple times. I slid into the random select car as Steve hot wired it. I leaned my head against the window as he drove down the road. I closed my eyes, faking to sleep, but listening to their conversation.

"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Nat asked him.

"Nazi, Germany and we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash." He ordered her. I heard some shuffling as she probably did so.

"Alright, I have a question for you? Which you do not have to answer. I feel like you won't answer it though,-""What?" Steve interrupted her.

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" She asked him. No, it was wasn't.

"That bad huh?" Steve accused her of saying he was a bad kisser. In my opinion and experience, he was actually quite good.

"I didn't say that." Nat quickly said.

"Well it sounds like that's what you're saying." Steve replied to her.

"No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you had." Nat admitted.

"I don't need practice." He told her.

"Everyone needs practice." She said back to him.

"That was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm 95, I'm not dead." He told her.

"Nobody special though?" She pushed further into the hole.

"Huhh. Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experiences." Steve admitted. I kept my face emotionless as I heard that.

"Well that's alright, make something up." Nat suggested to him.

"What, like you?" Steve turned on her. I heard her huff.

"I don't know, the truth of the matter of the circumstances. It not all things talking all the time. Neither am I." She said.

"That's a tough way to live." Steve told her.

"It's a good way not to die though." She shot back at him.

"You know it's hard to trust somebody when you don't really know who that somebody is." Steve stated.

"Yeah, who do you want me to be?" She asked him.

"How about a friend?" He suggested.

"Well there might be a chance where you're in the wrong business, Rogers." My heart broke after her answer. I opened my eyes as a few tears slipped down my cheek. "Riley, you awake?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Steve look back at me. I reached up and wiped away the tears and I felt a hand on my knee.

"Riley?" Steve called my name.

"I'm fine." I roughly jerked my leg away from his hand and more into the door. I huddled into the door, not looking away from the passing trees. My legs throbbed in pain from being shoved against the door roughly but I ignored it.

I looked around at the gated base, as Steve and Nat got out of the truck.

"This is it?" Steve asked her.

"The file came from these coordinates." She told him.

"So did I." Steve stated. We looked around when I saw an old tree. I gasped as I remembered it.

I laughed as I leaned back against the tree. My father was sitting in front of me.

"No, really. He said 'Would you like some pretty fish eggs for the lovely lady, I would kindly get her some.' " I laughed as my father continued the story. I leaned forward and grasped his hand, which laid on the set I had placed on the ground.

"I love you, father." I told him.

"As I do you."

I was sucked out of the memory as I looked away from the tree. Footsteps neared me as Steve appeared next to me.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked me yet again. I looked at him with a blank look on my face.

"I'm fine." I lied through my teeth. I walked away from him as he continued to keep the conversation with Nat. You could say, I was jealous. Really jealous.

"This camp is where I was trained." Steve told her as I slid my hands onto my pockets.

"Changed much?" She asked him, holding up her phone in the air.

"A little." Steve admitted.

"Well this is a dead end. Zero heat signatures , zero waves, not even a radio. Whoever wrote the file must of used a router to throw people off." Nat said. Then I noticed something off. I let out a sound and both Nat and Steve turned to me. "What is it?"

"Army regulations forbids storing ammunition from 500 yards from the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." I told them.

Steve cocked his head and I moved out of the way. He slammed his shield down on the lock and we walked in. I stepped down the steps and ran my hand along the wall. I flipped on the switch once I found it. The first thing I saw was the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. Then a bunch of tables and chairs.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D." Nat said, looking around. Steve glanced at me then at Nat.

"Maybe where it started."