Thallium | Captain America: The Winter Soldier [7]

Ding...Dong...

Steve and I stood, or sat in my case, in front of the window in the operating theatre as Romanoff came in. "Is he gonna make it?" The Spider sounded legitimately worried. "Tell me about the shooter," She demanded. "He was fast, strong. Had a metal arm," Maria Hill appeared next to Romanoff, looking in as well. "Ballistics?" She asked.

"Three slugs. No rifling, completely untraceable," Hill reported. "Soviet-made," She realized. "Yeah," Hill confirmed as a long, unrelenting beep sounded from the theatre. "Defibulator!" A doctor called as they fiddled with the device. "Don't do this to me, Nick," Romanoff whispered.

"3...2...1!" Nothing. They tried again, with a charge of 200. Still nothing. He was gone. "Time of death: 1:03 AM," The doctor said, pulling off his mask as they unattached the wires.

They let us into a separate room with the body, that was covered except the head and shoulders. Romanoff stared at the body as Steve and I watched from a distance. I was rubbing circles into the back of Steve's hand, something my mother had done to calm me down when I was upset. "I need to take him," Hill said solemnly. "It's so odd seeing them like this," I admitted, looking at Steve and Romanoff.

Natasha stormed out of the room, Steve and I following. "Natasha!" I said, and she stopped. "Why was Fury in your apartment?" She asked. "I dunno," Steve was a horrible liar. "Cap, Darness. They want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D.," We turned to see Rumlow standing there, in full tac gear.

"Yeah, give us a second," Steve said. "No, they want you now," He said firmly. "Okay," Steve said, and he walked off. "You're a terrible liar," Romanoff informed him, then walked off. The place was swarming with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, which was reasonable considering the director just kicked the bucket.

"You really are,"

a/n The title's a reference to that old song (I think) that goes "Ding...dong...the witch is dead, which old witch? The Wicked Witch!" From Wizard of Oz.