Chapter 23
“Take us to the meeting please Jarvis,” Steve commanded as soon as they were both in the elevator. Celia was still giving the sides as wide of a berth as she could. He knelt down to whisper in her ear, voice oozing with mock fear. “I bet Jarvis could get you through the floor too.”
“Watch it, or I’ll make you carry me,” Celia grumbled out, pushing him away. She couldn’t hide the small smile that snuck through. Steve was glad he could lighten the mood a bit after he dampened it earlier. He wasn’t meaning to get into the heated discussion with Celia right before the meeting with Fury, but he couldn’t help himself. It was the last chance they’d have alone and he wanted to make sure she wasn’t going into this thing ready to roll over and submit.
Steve couldn’t get Celia’s question from the night before out of his mind. Did he really trust Fury? He wasn’t expecting her to call out his non answer and may have let a little more of his true feelings slip through than he wanted to. He wanted to trust the organization Peggy helped build. He wanted to trust the man who brought them together to save the world. But he just couldn’t. Trust had to be earned and they just hadn’t yet. And now Celia had to put her life in their hands. The elevator doors opened to the common room floor, Bruce waiting just inside to greet them.
“Cutting it kind of close eh?” Bruce chuckled, leading them to the dining table from the night before. Everyone was sitting where they had the day before, turning to greet the newcomers. Bruce sat down next to Tony this time, across from Natasha. Celia followed, sitting next to Bruce. Steve stood in the entryway, wanting to meet Fury at the elevator before he got to the team.
“Celia, love the outfit. Much better than the time you accessorized with your and Cap’s blood,” Tony joked, a bright smile on his face.
“Tony!” Steve howled, rubbing his temples.
“I don’t know, I kind of liked it. Can I borrow some of yours?” Celia shot back, an innocent smile on her face. Tony looked scandalized for a moment, before smiling and going back to chatting with Bruce about something that went way over his head. Something about thermonuclear fusion. He was glad Celia felt comfortable enough to verbally spar with Tony. Maybe he had been worried about nothing. Steve turned back to watch the elevator, anxious for Fury to show up so they could get started. The anticipation was always the worst.
“What the hell is that?” Tony asked suddenly, making Steve turn back toward the team. Celia was spinning the damn marble on the table and Clint was outright cackling. Celia smirked and rolled it over to the laughing man, who pawed it right back.
“What’s this?” Bruce asked, looking amused and confused.
“Are we cats now?” Tony wondered, looking thoroughly befuddled. Clint regaled them with the story of the marble, embellishing a few details here and there. Natasha was scoffing at the more blatant lies, but didn’t correct him. Celia was rolling her eyes, but still looked amused. So maybe Steve had overreacted about the incident.
“Director Fury has entered the building,” Jarvis’ voice called over the speaker. Celia’s hand slapped down suddenly over the marble, a quiet “sorry” falling from her lips as she tucked it back into her pocket. The rest of the group sat up straighter, preparing themselves for the meeting. All of them except Tony, who slid over to the bar to get himself a drink. Steve stifled a groan, watching Tony pour a healthy amount of brown liquid into a glass. What a nice morning beverage. Steve left the room to go stand next to the elevator. He wanted to get a feel for where Fury’s head was at before he met the whole team, so he could signal Celia to stay quiet if necessary.
What was he prepared to do, if Fury decided Celia needed to be taken into Shield custody, or some other situation she didn’t want? Would he quit the Avengers and never work for Shield again? Could he make that decision for a woman he barely knew? Could he put her life above the lives of all the people he would be saving in this job? Steve knew the answer had to be no. That Celia wouldn’t even want him to do that. But would he be able to stomach working for a company that could take over an innocent person’s life? He knew he was getting way ahead of himself at this point, but he wasn’t called “The Man with the Plan” for nothing. Steve liked going into a situation knowing the moves that were going to be made. All this just felt unnatural. The elevator doors slid open, Fury stepping out with his signature coat trailing behind him, carrying a black leather briefcase.
“Director,” Steve greeted, giving the man a polite nod. Fury gave him a once over, before nodding back.
“Captain. How’s the shoulder?” he asked in his usual brusque manner.
“It’s coming along nicely, sir. Should be fully healed in the next day or so,” Steve answered, putting his shoulders back to stand taller. He didn’t want to look anything but 100% in front of the other man. Captain America couldn’t show weakness.
“Well, let’s get this long overdue report over with, shall we?” Fury said, striding over toward the dining room. Steve followed along silently, grinding his teeth harshly. No red flags had popped up yet, but he was still on edge. Tony was still lazing around the room, giving off an air of confidence that was just slightly tense, if you knew how to spot it. Fury was standing at the opposite end of the table from everyone else, his briefcase sitting closed on top. Steve took the seat next to Celia, giving her a supportive pat discreetly on the arm. She wasn’t showing any nervousness on her face, but her fists were clenched under the table.
“Fury, so nice of you to visit! You just don’t come over often enough,” Tony said, dripping with fake sincerity. Fury just ignored him, staring down at everyone at the table. Steve felt kind of like a schoolboy, waiting to be lectured
“Ms. Burke, so glad you could join us. You’re a hard woman to find,” Fury said, looking into Celia’s eyes. Steve could feel her tense a bit, but he kept his eyes on Fury. It made sense that Shield knew who she was already, since Tony had no trouble finding out some info either. But he didn’t like the way Fury said it.
“Not really. I’ve known where she was all this time,” Tony quipped, tipping his glass to the other man before drinking down the contents. Steve would be shocked if he left this meeting without a cracked tooth, with how hard he was clenching his jaw.
“Shield would’ve too, if you hadn’t whisked her away after the incident.”
“That was Cap’s call,” Tony said with a bright smile, happy to get Fury’s focus onto him.
“Yes, my agents informed me of that. Care to explain Captain Rogers?” Fury asked, staring at him now. Was this the right time to explain what happened? Steve didn’t feel like it was. But what else could he say to justify going against protocol? Clint’s girlfriend excuse sprang to mind, but he didn’t want to lie like that.
“Everything just happened so fast,” Steve answered vaguely, knowing how thin of a bullshit excuse that was. Fury squinted at him briefly, seeming to let that answer slide, at least for now. He unfolded the top of his bag, grabbing a folder out and sliding it to the middle of the table.
“Harold Marvin, former molecular biologist,” Fury said, as the team glanced through the file on the table. The picture of the man showed a meek, mild mannered sort of guy. Not the slightly deranged version Steve had encountered in the elevator.
“Former?” Steve asked, figuring Fury meant for a reason other than his recent death.
“He lost his job and was blacklisted after performing unethical tests on animals in his lab. Following the loss of his wife to a degenerative muscle disease about four years back, he became obsessed with the idea of extending a person’s lifespan. When Captain America was found alive in the ice after all these years, his focus changed to you,” Fury explained, pausing when the team got to a photo of what looked like a basement with walls covered floor to ceiling with articles and pictures of Steve. Most of it was from before the ice, but there was a good chunk post Battle of New York. The worst was the section that had been taken of him without him knowing, walking on the street in plainclothes. How long had he been stalked without noticing?
“Someone call Kathy Bates,” Tony muttered, flicking at the corner of the page a bit. Even he looked frazzled, and Tony had his fair share of admirers. Steve didn’t know who Kathy Bates was, but he hoped she could help with whatever she did.
“Marvin became kind of a recluse after his professional disgrace, so we haven’t found any known associates. I have agents going over his whole life with a fine tooth comb, so we’ll find anything that needs to be found, but at this point I’d say his case is closed,” Fury stated, crossing his arms over his chest. He didn’t look happy, even though his report had been mostly good news. Fury’s gaze shifted back to Celia, who was staring down at the table.
“Well then, it was so nice to see you Nick,” Tony said cheerily. “Say hello to Hill for me and don’t be a stranger.” Fury just ignored him and continued staring at Celia. Well, no more avoiding things now.
“I never got to hear the story of what went down in that elevator, but my techs found the most curious thing,” Fury started, fishing out something from inside his bag. He slid another folder over, opened to show a small stack of crime scene photos. Steve felt his stomach turn at the sight of the close up of Marvin’s head, the side partially caved in due to his punch.
“Jeez, remind me not to spar with you Cap,” Clint muttered, looking at the dead man’s head in disgust.
“My agents were sure, during their brief time in the presence of Ms. Burke, that she was uninjured. So, if you could explain to me how a significant amount of the blood found in that elevator was hers, I would be very interested to hear your answer.”
“Who all knows about the blood?” Steve asked grimly. This was bad news if word had already spread through Shield about Celia. If the agents and techs knew she should be injured but wasn’t, there would be no hiding anything.
“The techs only know about the blood, not about anything else. But I’m ready to hear the rest,” Fury demanded.
“I’ll tell you the truth, but we need to keep this information private for now,” Steve said firmly, hoping Fury would accept what he was saying instead of pushing back.
“And whose idea is it to keep things quiet? Because I know Ms. Burke knows all about hiding things.”
All the eyes in the room turned to face Celia and Steve couldn’t stop himself from doing the same. Celia was still looking down at the table, just the slight hint of a frown on her face. It was the first bit of outward emotion she had shown since the meeting started. Steve knew she didn’t want people to know about her past, but Fury didn’t seem to have any qualms questioning her about it.
“After we figured out your name, it wasn’t too hard to find the address you have listed on your license. When my agents went there to bring you in for questioning, imagine their surprise when they ended up at an abandoned building,” Fury said, sliding a picture of a run down apartment that looked like it hadn’t been inhabited for years in front of the group. “So to recap, a significant amount of blood from a seemingly uninjured woman whose address is a lie.” Steve glanced between Celia and the photo. It put Celia’s mostly bare apartment in a whole new context. Was it even where she lived or had that been a lie? He tried to brush aside these new questions, feeling like he was being disloyal to Celia with these doubts.
“My agents started digging deeper, going through less mainstream channels. We found some interesting information, but it didn’t help us with your current whereabouts. Lucky for us, you showed back up at the tower yesterday with Agent Romanoff.”
“You didn’t mention you told Shield Celia was here,” Steve said to Natasha, trying to keep it from sounding like an accusation.
“I didn’t,” Natasha responded, turning back to face Fury. “How’d you know?”
“I’ve had agents watching the tower since yesterday,” Fury answered matter of factly.
“Excuse me? You have people staking out my tower without my knowledge or consent?” Tony asked, bristling at the intrusion.
“There was an attempt made on a member of this team’s life. Of course I’m going to have surveillance until I know the threat is neutralized.”
“And you don’t think we can take care of ourselves? I thought we saved the world not too long ago, or am I mistaken?”
“And none of us knew that Captain Rogers was being stalked since he came out of the ice, did we?” Fury shot back. He was right about that point. Steve had no idea he was being followed. His skin itched at the thought. “You also had no idea you were being tailed when you went back to Ms. Burke’s real apartment.”
If Celia wasn’t tense before, she sure was now. Steve could feel sitting next to her that her muscles were tensed tight enough to snap. If there was anything that would trigger a reaction from her, it would be anyone finding out about the women she helped.
“Breathe,” he told her quietly, gripping her wrist firmly under the table. Celia looked like what he imagined Bruce did when he was fighting against letting the Hulk come out. He thought back to what Dr. Erskine told him about the serum. It would amplify whatever was inside a person, which is what caused Schmidt’s outsides to match the monster he always was on the inside. Celia had been quick to anger in a few situations, but had also been quick to forgive.
“When one of my people almost gets killed and then I don’t hear anything from them for days after, I take things into my own hands. And when there is a witness to all that with a highly suspicious lifestyle, I’m going to find out the truth, one way or another.”
“She can explain-,” Steve said, before being cut off by Fury.
“Okay,” Fury started, sliding another folder to the team. There was a picture of a man with the word “missing” printed underneath. Celia sucked in a sharp breath, meeting Steve's eyes for the first time since the meeting started. “Explain this.”