STEVE HAD HEARD something from inside his apartment, the sound of his record player playing the old 1940's music Diana had saved for him over the years, and he climbed in through his window quietly, different books about presidents and history to his right, a picture of him, Bucky, Diana, and a man named Logan Howlett wearing a helmet and a cigar dangling from his lip was to his left. He grabbed his shield from the floor, hooking the straps onto his arm, and, very slowly and quietly, leans against a wall as he begins to look around the corner. Nick Fury looks at him with his one good eye. Steve relaxes and puts most of his body weight on his left leg, his left arm brushing against the wall softly. "I don't remember giving you a key," he tells his boss, glancing at his feet.

Nick grunts softly as he straightens up on the chair he laid in, "You really think I need one?" His phone was in his hand, the silver polish of it gleaming brightly in the air. "My wife kicked me out." This came as a shock to Steve; Nick had a wife?

"Didn't know you were married," Steve responds, looking at him as Nick's head moves from side-to-side. "A lot of things you don't know about me," Nick retorts, Steve rounding the corner and reaching for the light switch. "I know, Nick. That's the problem." He turns on the light, but Nick just holds up a hand before reaching for the light next to him, tugging at the string and letting the darkness consume him. He begins typing something on his phone, Steve raising his eyebrows in confusion.

Ears everywhere.

Steve understands, but he continues to play at the small game that Nick was playing at. "I'm sorry to have to do this, but I had no place else to crash," Nick apologizes, and Steve could clearly see the sweat that lined his eyebrow and soaked his face, Nick turning his phone with a new message:

Shield compromised.

"Who else knows about your wife?" Steve asks, seeing Nick stand up, grunting at the effort of it, holding out his phone, holding onto his arm. "Just my friends."

You and me.

"Is that what we are?" Steve asks the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick nodding at him. "That's up to you," Nick responds. A bullet rips through the wall, puncturing Nick's back, sending him to the floor with a cry of pain. Steve rushes over, seeing multiple bullets make their mark inside Nick's chest, finding their homes, Steve using the man's trenchcoat to pull him over to a safer spot. Nick was letting out groans of pain, his crimson blood staining the floors, a flash of metal on the apartment roof catching Steve's attention. Nick holds on to Steve's arm as he breathes deeply. When he slowly lets go, a flash drive is sitting on his palm. Steve takes it, "Don't. . . trust. . . anyone."

A banging at the door alarms them, Steve's head turning towards it, and when he peeks through the slits on his bookshelf, the nurse from across the hall is holding up a gun, Diana was standing beside her with her sword and shield raised. "Captain Rogers?" The nurse was formal, but Diana just called out his real name. "Steve?"

"Captain, I'm Agent 13 of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Special Service," the nurse introduces herself, Steve not even relaxing, Diana had the same reaction as him, her eyes wide, on alert, as she rounds the corner to where Steve hid. She looked down and sees Nick's fallen body, an audible gasp falling from her lips as she stares down at him. "Kate?" Steve asks as the blonde woman turns. "I was assigned to protect you," she just says. "On whose order?" Steve questions. Agent 13 looks and sees Nick, nodding towards the dark-skinned man, "His." She drops her gun as she falls to her knees, pressing her hands on the Director's neck, feeling a very faint pulse pounce rhythmically against her fingertips. She takes out a walkie-talkie, "Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need E.M.T.'s." Diana settles down beside the boss, placing her arms behind his back gingerly, the person on the other side replying, asking if they've got eyes on the shooter. Steve turns at this message, seeing the flash of vibrant metal on the roof, getting smaller as the person who owns it runs away. "Tell him I'm in pursuit," Steve says to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and when Diana picks up a moaning Nick, he uses his shield to protect his face from the shards of glass as he runs through his window, breaking into another window in the office building across from his home.

He rolls on the ground and runs along the halls, keeping watch for the man that shot down Nick, breaking down a door, the wood flying everywhere. He's breaking through doors and walls, not caring for the damage he's creating, and as soon as he turns right, he has too much velocity and creates a large, dome-shaped indent on the wall, but he has too much adrenaline to care; he just wants to catch Nick's assassin.

He sees the man drop down from the floor above him and roll. Steve jumps through the window and lands on his shield, quickly standing up and throwing his shield at the opponent. At the edge of the roof, the man just catches it easily, with what looked to be a metal arm. Dark makeup around his eyes made the steel-blue color much more vibrant yet menacing, his long, dark hair fluttering in the wind as he glared at the blonde. The bottom half of his face was covered by a mas, protecting his identity, making Steve wonder who he was. He lowers the shield, and, with a snap of his arm, throws it back into the blonde's stomach. Steve hunches over it, groaning in pain, and as soon as he looks back up, the man was already gone. No trace left. Running to the edge, Steve looks over it, but the man was gone.

Like a ghost, he was never to be seen.