Venus | James B. Barnes✔️

xxv. 𝚙𝚎𝚐𝚐𝚢

RAGE WAS clear on the faces of the two supersoldiers. Evelyn walked ahead of Steve as she shoved open the door to Nick Fury's office in the Triskelion. After everything she had ever wanted S.H.I.E.L.D. to be, this was just disappointing. The world was not anything like she had envisioned the future. How was this right? Fair? Evelyn scoffed. Nothing was fair; she had learned that during the war. Life took and took from her without any regard, and no one had a problem doing it.

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Evelyn snarled out as the door slammed from her enhanced grip. "You build up even a smidge of my trust, and you break it all at once."

Nick Fury did not seem bothered, quite frankly, and it bothered Evelyn. "I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours."

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share," Steve added.

"I'm not obliged to do anything," Fury stated simply.

Evelyn frowned, realizing he really did not care. It hurt her to see her idea transform into this organization. It physically hurt. "Those hostages could've died, Nick," she whispered.

Fury stood up. "I sent the greatest soldiers in history to make sure that didn't happen."

"Soldiers trust each other, that's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around and shooting guns," Steve stated boldly.

Fury pointed at his eyepatch. "The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye," he paused when he noticed the discomfort on the two soldiers out of time. He sighed. "Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything."

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own," Steve said.

"It's called compartmentalization," Fury said as he walked around his desk to stand directly in front of them. "Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all."

Evelyn let out a wry laugh. "Except you."

Fury shook his head with an odd glint in his eye. "You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that."

He began to lead the pair to the elevator. Evelyn felt Steve squeeze her hand once as he walked ahead of her to stand between the director and the agent because he could practically feel the hostility fuming off of her.

When the doors shut, Fury called, "Insight bay."

The automated voice spoke immediately. "Captain Rogers and Agent Stark do not have clearance for Project Insight."

Evelyn scoffed. "Access to everything, isn't that what you told me?"

Fury ignored her. "Director override, Fury, Nicholas J."

"Confirmed." The elevator began to move down, deeper into the building. Evelyn realized they were going underneath the building—underneath the ground.

Steve and Evelyn stood awkwardly until Steve blurted, "You know, they used to play music."

"Yeah," Fury said with a small laugh. "My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. My granddad worked in a nice building, he got good tips." Fury looked at the ceiling with a fond smile on his face. "He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say 'hi,' people would say 'hi' back. Time went on, neighborhood got rougher. He'd say 'Hi,' they'd say, 'Keep on steppin'.' Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter."

Evelyn frowned at the turn of the story. "Did he ever get mugged?"

Fury was always in awe of the compassion that leaked through Evelyn's rage—no matter how angry she was. He shrugged. "Every week some punk would say, 'What's in the bag?'"