Frostbite

Two

Steve insisted that I came with him to Fury's office. I didn't think it was a good idea and wanted to be anywhere else in the building, but you couldn't argue with the Captain's orders.

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Steve demanded as soon as we entered his office.

"I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours," Fury replied. He was sitting at his desk with his back turned to us.

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share," Steve argued, reaching the front of his desk.

"I'm not obliged to do anything."

"Those hostages could've died, Nick."

"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen," Fury told him, finally turning around to lean forward on his desk. His gaze flicked over to me for a moment, but he didn't seem surprised to see me hovering several feet behind Steve.

"Soldiers trust each other, that's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around, shooting guns," Steve argued. His posture was rigid, showing how pissed he felt.

"The last time I trusted someone; I lost an eye. Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything," Fury said, rising from his seat.

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

"It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all."

"Except you," Steve pointed out slyly.

"You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that," Fury responded in a clipped tone. He motioned for us to follow him. I narrowed my eyes at Steve, but followed, not wanting to argue. We went down the hall and entered the elevator.

"Insight bay," Fury announced. The doors closed, and I leaned against the railing, crossing my arms as if I could shield myself from the tension.

"Captain Rogers and Agent Stark do not have clearance for Project Insight," the computer informed him. Project insight? Tony told me a little about the project when Fury had asked for his help. They were new helicarriers that Tony had some part in designing.

"Director override, Fury, Nicholas J," he instructed the computer.

"Confirmed," it said as the elevator started descending.

"You know, they used to play music," Steve remarked. I couldn't help but smirk at his observation.

"Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. My granddad worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say 'hi', people would say hi back. Time went on, neighborhood got rougher. He'd say 'Hi', they'd say, 'Keep on steppin''. Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter," Fury shared.

"Did he ever get mugged?" I asked curiously.

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

"What did he do?" Steve asked.

"He'd show 'em. Bunch of crumpled ones and loaded twenty-two magnum," Fury recalled smiling, "Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much."

I noticed Steve's expression shift and I glanced out of the glass behind me and saw that we had finally reached the underground floor. There were three huge helicarriers being worked on by dozens of agents. I didn't even know that there was a sub level this large.

"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a twenty-two," Fury chuckled. We exited the elevator, and Fury led us across the floor.

"This is Project Insight. Three next generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites," he explained.

"Launched from the Lemurian Star," Steve realized aloud.

"Once we get them in the air, they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight, courtesy of our new repulsor engines," Fury boasted.

"My brothers doing, I assume?" I scoffed, raising my eyebrows at Fury.

"Well, he had a few suggestions once he got an up-close look at our old turbines. These new long-range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We're gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen," he divulged.

"That's a bit extreme," I admonished. We walked up a set of stairs to the catwalk to get a closer look at one of them.

"I thought the punishment came after the crime?" Steve criticized warily. We had stopped walking at this point. I could tell by the way Steve was clenching his jaw that he wasn't going to let this go either.

"We can't afford to wait that long," was his reply.

"We? As in the World Security Council?" I guessed. He nodded looking between the two of us, gauging our reactions.

"After New York, I convinced the World Security Council that we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once we're way ahead of the curve," he elaborated.

"By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection," Steve said angrily, not bothering to even look at Fury.

"You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff," Fury commented coolly.

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

"S.H.I.E.L.D takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. It's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap," Fury suggested, taking a step closer to Steve.

"Don't hold your breath," Steve grumbled, storming away. I pursed my lips and tilted my head to look at Fury, not sure what he was going to say. He sighed and shook his head.

"Go home Stark. I'll see you tomorrow," he dismissed me, walking in the opposite direction. Not willing to challenge that, I quickly chased after Steve. I managed to catch him right before he got onto the elevator.

"Steve, wait!" I called, grabbing his arm to stop him. He turned to face me, still visibly irritated.

"It's not-" I started to say but he interrupted me.

"Please don't justify this," he berated me, gesturing towards the carriers. I crossed my arms across my chest and huffed in frustration.

"No, that's not what I was going to say. Believe me- I don't agree with it either, but there isn't anything we can do about it," I shrugged.

"So just shrug it off? You know I can't do that."

"I know."

"I have to go, there's something I need to take care of," he sighed, looking away.

I knew better. Every time he said that he went to visit Peggy in her nursing home. The only reason I knew about it was because I visited her from time to time. I had happened to go right after Steve one day. His name had been on the visitor sheet.

She had visited frequently when Tony and I were younger, but after she lost her husband, she kind of just drifted away. She focused most of her attention on her children. I know how close she and dad had been, so I visited her mostly for him.

"Steve... I know about Peggy. You don't have to hide it from me; I understand. You love her. She was your first love and you both deserve to have that link from your past," I told him softly. He looked at me in surprise at first, but it quickly changed to guilt.

"I'm sorry," was all he murmured before quickly getting into the elevator, his head hanging. The doors shut, and I sadly watched him leave, knowing he needed space.