Everly || Steve Rogers

59. Criminals

Steve followed after Everly as she slowly stepped farther into the apartment. If one could call it that. The walls were crumbling and the lights produced a soft hum. The kitchen was fully stocked, indicating that there was indeed someone living there. A faint glow shone through the windows which were plastered with newspapers. A mattress sat in the corner along with a single blanket and a pillow. Everly lightly dragged her fingers through the dust that had collected on the shelf beside her before rubbing them together. Steve grabbed a small leather-bound journal from atop the fridge, flipping it open curiously.

"Heads up, Cap. German Special Forces, approaching from the south." Sam warned. Everly huffed, turning to Steve and perching her hands on her hips. 

"Understood." He suddenly stiffened, spinning on his heel. She followed his gaze and her eyes widened when they landed on Bucky across the room. Not the Winter Soldier, Bucky. There was a bit of fear that flashed across his features for a split second as he glanced between the two. The silence that devoured them was suffocating.

"Do you know me?" Steve asked quietly. 

"You're Steve." Bucky nodded lightly, his eyes flicking to Everly. "And Everly. I read about you in a museum."

"They've set the perimeter." Sam stated through her earpiece, though she had tuned him out entirely. Steve slowly stepped forward and set the journal softly on the counter.

"I know you're nervous, and you have plenty of reason to be. But you're lying."

"I wasn't in Vienna. I don't do that anymore." He hurried, peering anxiously back and forth between them.

"They're entering the building."

"Well, the people who think you did are coming here now. And they're not planning on taking you alive." 

"That's smart." Bucky nodded. "Good strategy."

"They're on the roof. I'm compromised." Everly's heart quickened at the soft sound of footsteps just outside the door.

"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck." She said, watching intently as he walked over to the shelf against the wall and slipped the black gloves from his hands. 

He sighed. "It always ends in a fight."

"Five seconds."

"You pulled us from the river." Steve's tone had quickly grown urgent. "Why?"

"I don't know." Bucky returned, meeting his eyes.

"Three seconds." Everly's hands curled into fists and she braced herself.

"Yes, you do."

"Breach! Breach! Breach!"  

She flinched as a grenade crashed through the window, though Steve quickly batted it away with his shield. A flashbang was tossed through another of the windows, landing perfectly at Bucky's feet. He kicked it toward the pair and Steve flipped his shield over and dropped it to the wooden panels of the floor, concealing the blast in a dome. Bucky flipped up one end of the mattress and ducked behind it as a bullet crashed through a third window. He tossed it aside and flung the table in front of the door which the Special Forces had begun to beat down.

A few men smashed through the windows and Everly ducked beneath a few bullets. The small room erupted into chaos, a line of bullets riddling the cracked ceiling. She drove a foot into the chest of one of the armed men, slamming him against the crumbling wall. Bucky headed toward the back door leading out to the balcony as Steve latched onto his arm.