Chapter 13
Natalie Rushman got a three day weekend, so she used that time to go check in with Fury. In truth, it was a break as a congrats for helping the Winter Soldier with his mission, but nobody needed to know that.
As Natasha walked into Furys office, she regretted coming in, seeing his face matched his name.
“Romanoff.” He growled. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“Sir?”
“You were caught in the first degree murder of the fucking President of this damn country, and I have no clue how you're still here. And on top of that, care to inform me what the fuck led to this?!” He demands, sliding a photo across his desk. On it was Natasha, face clear, a gun in one hand, shooting, a knife on the ready in the other. And right next to her, working with her, was the Winter Soldier, fight ready, metallic arm flexed.
“Sir, what's the issue?”
“What's the issue? What's the issue?! You're asking me what's the fucking issue, Romanoff?!”
“Yes sir, that's what I said.”
“How about we start with the assassination of the President issue. What got into your damn mind?”
“You told me to take the hit.”
“Yes, you said it as if it were a rival scientist or a civilian who spoke out or even Hammer or Ross, not President Ellis!”
“I never specified because you never asked.”
“How about the part where you got caught blowing out the brains of the First Man?”
“I got uncaught just the same.”
“Thanks to the intervention of Stark.”
“It was mostly Coulson.”
“Coulson was there? I was informed of the Secret Service, FBI, and CIA.”
“And Agent Coulson from SHIELD and Colonel Rhodes from the army. And then Stark was called in because he was nearby and he was needed to verify Natalie Rushman.”
“How thoroughly is that cover blown?”
“Stark knows all of my history, sir, likely from Yelena.”
“Dammit. And what possessed you to do this.” He demanded, pushing the photo a little closer.
“Dreykov wasn't dead. Now he is.”
“I don't care about Dreykov, I care that all of SHIELD has this photo of you working with the Winter Soldier on a hit.”
“You got a clear image of him as a bonus.”
“We don't even know who dropped these photos on my fucking base.”
“The hit could only have been ordered by Stark.”
“Are you sure?”
“Not completely.”
“Which Stark?”
“No clue. But I do have valuable information.”
“What.”
“Stark's base has a full enhanced training arena, and not only was the Winter Soldier there, but Captain Rogers as well, as was his shield.”
Fury stood up and when he started pacing, Natasha saw something was truly wrong. Fury never paced.
“Romanoff, we have an issue.”
“Barton, break’s up.”
“Coulson.”
“Sir.”
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“Sir?”
“I didn’t send any orders to get Romanoff out.”
“She’s our best Agent, of course I went to get her out.”
“And Stark?
“It was a mutually beneficial partnership. Neither of us wanted Romanoff behind bars, much less in a very public trial, and talking her out of it together was much easier.”
“They have records and film we can't get and erase all of which, shows Romanoff on the spot, taking the shot.”
“And Stark already sent in her alibi of being in New York at the same time, working on paperwork in her position as his personal assistant. That’s an alibi we couldn’t have gotten her, and like it not, everyone trusts Stark a lot more than they do SHIELD.”
“How did you talk her out?”
“Used the excuse of disguise and an attempted framing, since Romanoff had an alibi, we threw Melina Vostakoff under the bus, Stark took Romanoff to the Raft to drop her off, the official story is that he disabled disguising tech along the way, really picked up Vostokoff and took Romanoff back. As proven by Romanoff being in this office right before me, it worked perfectly.”
“Have you thought about the part where it will be a very public trial where they bring Melina Vostakoff up on charges?”
“I went to check that Stark dropped her off, talked to her, I don’t know what was done to her, but she saw me, and the first thing she did was swore she did it and begged for a plea deal if she pleaded guilty, swearing she would do it anyways. The press release from the White House is out, the world knows she’s the one who murdered the President, and that the very public trial starts in 2 days, they’re almost finished with jury selection from across the country. There is no way they would grant extradition now, and the result is practically predetermined.”
“Why her?”
“She killed Akela Amador in tests of the most effective mind control substance possible. We wouldn’t be able to get her for that because that would involve explaining Amador’s off the books mission, but this is second best.”
Fury was reminded there was a reason Coulson was his second in command, and it wasn’t for being a cinnamon bun in a suit.
“I’ll let it slide, but I want to know next time you frame an enemy for presidential murder that our best agent did.”
“Sir, with all due respect, the chances of this happening again are absolutely none.”
“Get out of my office, Coulson.”