Chapter Text
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Constantinople Diner, Los Angeles, June of 1996
Cecily had lived long enough to recognize when she was being followed. Especially when it was by an incompetent federal agent that was yet to realize his pristine suit, dark sunglasses and black SUV really stood out amongst the bright colors of LA.
For three days, every bar she went to, every pathetic excuse for a motel; there it was. The same SUV with government plates and two pink dice hanging from the rear view mirror. Inside always sat the same agent, that would lift up a newspaper to block his face when she passed. As if his face would be easier to recognize from day to day than the exact same car.
Did he not realize he hid behind the same bold headlines every time?
Cecily didn’t see him as a threat, not even remotely. He didn’t seem to have the slightest clue what he was really doing. No men with guns ever came pounding on her motel room door either, so there was no reason for her to feel alarmed. The only thing that bugged her was she couldn’t figure out why she was being followed. She’d actually not done anything illegal in the last while, much to her own surprise. The only law she was in the process of breaking was keeping a single throwing knife strapped to her thigh at all times. She was being followed; it was just a precaution.
Eventually, not knowing what the agent’s intentions were drove her slightly crazy, so she made one slightly reckless but still thought through move; she confronted him. Not the best of choices, but what did she really have to loose?
She waited until he followed her into a diner, then took his seat at a table across the dining room from hers. She caught his sunglasses shielded eyes trailing her as she stood up to use the rest room, and then dart down to his watch to keep track of how long she was out of his sight. She hadn’t done anything to suggest to him that she would attempt to slip out the back window to escape his view, but he was being cautious. No move she’d made prior would indicate her knowing he was following her.
Sure enough, after she waited inside the bathroom door ten minutes, he creeped in after to make sure she hadn’t disappeared on him. That was when she jumped up from behind him, holding her blade to his throat and guiding him into the wheelchair bathroom. As she locked the door behind her, she released her grasp on him, still keeping the knife held in front of her to stop him doing anything stupid like pulling out a gun or trying to fight her out of his way.
“Who the hell are you?” She snarled. He was backing right up into the far corner of the rest room. His hands were held up in front of him in defense, but he didn’t look as scared as he should have.
“Agent Nick Fury” he admitted, as he slowly began to lower his hands. She hadn’t expected him to comply so quickly.
“So Nick…” Cecily tilted her head to the side, pointing the knife upwards towards his throat. “What exactly is your interest in me? I know you’ve been following me, your attempts to hide that were quite pathetic”
“I didn’t have any desire to hide it…” Fury’s hands were completely down by his side at this point, and he’d started stepping closer towards Cecily. “I’m not a threat to you, Ms Faulkner. Please lower your weapon”
Instead of complying, she rose the blade so it sat merely an inch from the skin exposed above his tight collar. She hadn’t been referred to as that name in a long time. No one knew about it. She had an abundance of aliases trailing behind her as she went, but she insured only a limited few knew of her real surname. “How do you know that name? Who sent you?”
She yelled that last part, not caring if she could be heard anywhere else in the diner.
Fury sighed and lowered his voice to try and coax Cecily to do the same. “Margaret Carter”
The instant he admitted his source, Cecily allowed her weapon wielding hand drop to her side, and she shoved the knife back into the sheath beneath her skirt. She didn’t fully believe him, but he’d gotten her name right so she at least wanted to humor him. “So why didn’t the Great War hero come down and talk to me herself?”
“Because this has nothing to do with her” Fury paused and straightened himself up, fixing his tie and correcting his posture, before he continued with booming confidence in his voice. “This is about my initiative, Director Carter wants nothing to do with it. She turned down my proposal, I’m here to prove to her it’s worth her time”
“Initiative?” Cecily asked while raising an eyebrow, not that his initiative was really the strangest part of what he’d just said.
While they both still stood with a toilet between them, Fury proceeded to explain that he called ‘The Avengers Initiative’, stating it did have a working title when she called out it’s obscenity. From what Cecily could gather from the well scripted and seemingly practiced speech, this initiative was effectively a group of remarkable people with super human capabilities that he wanted to come together and kick evil butt on the governments orders. Of course his explanation was kinder and slightly more convincing, but that was the extent of what she’d heard.
It wasn’t the first such offer she’d been given with her abilities. Although, that one from Howard really didn’t count. All he did was ask her to wait around after he gave her the powers, while he tried to form something like it because he hadn’t been prepared enough to do that in advance. At least Fury seemed to have a plan for where he wanted his initiative to go. He wanted her to join a special forces division in the government. And Peggy had sent him…
Cecily tilted her head to the side and asked, “So you told Carter you were looking for more superheroes and she sent you to me?” The disbelief was prominent in her voice.
“Not exactly…” Fury stepped around Cecily and made his way to the bathroom door. “I really think we should have this discussion outside of a bathroom stall. How about I buy you lunch?”
“You just sat there and watched me eat already” she scoffed, crossing her arms.
He smiled and shook his head. He must’ve known he was walking right in to that one. “Fine, coffee?”
In her life, Cecily had made decisions far stupider than accept a government agent’s offer of a free drink. She didn’t even know that he was a real agent. He could easily have his own signature shades and fine suit and allude his own unnecessary confidence. Her paranoia had died right down over the years since there was nothing that really posed a threat to her, so she didn’t fear him even slightly and she saw no reason to question whether or not he was who he said he was.
She rolled her eyes then turned and turned the lock on the door, before proceeding to step out while calling behind her head. “Fine, but you’re paying”
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A few weeks prior…
“I really think it’s a good idea. The world could do with an organization like this. Something to defend the people against what they can’t themselves”
Fury’s pleading was getting him nowhere. He knew he should have called the board together to hear his pitch all at once, he just didn’t want to go behind his boss’ back. Now that he’d pitched his idea to her and she’d turned him down, there was no way he’d be able to get the board to listen. She wouldn’t let him. Peggy Carter was as stubborn as they come.
“Agent Fury, I have given you my final answer” she said as she slipped her reading glasses up her face and put her nose back into the file she’d been invested in before Fury walked into her office.
He didn’t want to relent, so he approached her desk and spoke calmly so as to not provoke her. He knew he would never get a word in if she started yelling at him. “But director, if you’ll just listen to what I have to say…”
She sighed, not taking her eyes off her readings. “I’ve heard your entire pitch Fury. There is nothing I can do for you. Let it go”
Fury didn’t say anything, he just stood over her desk in silence. He was both trying to think of what to say, and intending that his little sulking routine may change her mind.
Peggy Carter was never able to focus on anything while there was something irritating her. Fury’s unsteady breathing and eyes flickering around her office were doing just that. She pulled the glasses away from her face and sighed, looking up to Fury with her eyes kind and apologetic, without demeaning her authority. “Danvers hasn’t even accepted a placement. You don’t have any contenders. It’s a waste of your time and everyone else’s”
Fury looked down at his leather shoes in defeat. He didn’t think his idea was a waste of anyone’s time. He decided to try his hand at convincing her of that one more time. “There’s a whole other world out there director, more than we ever had any idea. I know about that now. All I’m asking for is the funding and the time off duty to find out how the people not of earth can be used to help us”
The maintained eye contact accompanied by Peggy’s hesitation gave Fury the slightest spark of hope. That was until she glanced away and at the door behind him. “I’m sorry Nick. We need you here”
Her attempt at an apology was half hearted and insincere, and it caused the blood in his veins to boil as he calmly escorted himself out of her office, then stormed down the adjoining corridor.
He’d spent the entirety of his career working under her, trusting her, abiding by her rules. What does he get in return for such loyalty? Not even five more minutes of her precious time.
Why should he remain loyal to someone that can’t even spare him the time of day? Someone that won’t listen to what he has to say, and what he thinks could better the future of her organization. Better the future of the world for that matter.
Peggy had never met Carol. She didn’t know her like Fury did. All she knew about her was what he’d written in his mission report that she’d surprisingly decided was worth her time reading. Of course, there was no way she gave it her undivided attention. If she had, she would know how crucial finding more people like her that had the means and the will to help the general population was to the survival of the human race.
Fury thought his director would understand. She’d fought alongside Captain America after all. She knows from her own first hand experience how much easier things are when you have a person with an unfair advantage on your side. She should get it. She should listen to him.
He had to make her listen to him.
That mindset was what led to Nick Fury spending hours without end throughout the next weeks flicking through every file his level five clearance gave him access too, searching desperately for any piece of dirt on Peggy Carter he could find. Anything she did that was outside a direct order. Any move she made against the organization. Anything she did behind her husband’s back. Anything.
Anything he could hold over her head to make her sit through all twenty seven slides of his seamless PowerPoint presentation on why saying yes to forming The Avengers would be the best decision she would make in her entire career.
Coulson had begun to grow concerned for his partner. Fury spent every free second of his time curled up in his office, a large stack of files perched on the floor beside his desk. Just a single bulb lamp illuminating the dark room all through the night. Coulson would occasionally bring coffee and try to talk him out of his insanity, failing miserably with each attempt.
“She doesn’t see it yet, but she needs to!” Fury would quip every time, leaving Coulson to walk out of the room and get some fresh air by himself, because he didn’t really have any friends other than Fury in the organization. It had always been the two of them working together.
After weeks of the same anti social and unhealthy behavior, Fury made his first discovery. With pride and a spring in his step, he brought said discovery to Coulson so he had someone else to revel in his success with.
“And what is this supposed to mean then?” Coulson paused his round of throwing a tennis ball against the wall of his office, and looked down at the account transaction document that Fury had slammed onto his desk. He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to figure out why Fury was so excited by the large numbers in boxes.
“Those numbers are SHEILD funds, Phil. SHEILD funds that director Carter has been siphoning into an offshore account. She’s allocating the organization’s money into her own pocket!”
Coulson looked up to where Fury was leaning over the other side of his desk. He didn’t exchange his partners passion. “So…the director is stealing money from her own organization? You know, the one that she founded”
Fury’s eyes narrowed down at Coulson before he backed away from the desk and stood up straight. “Yes, it is her organization. But the board hasn’t approved this! She’s stealing money from right under their noses and she has been every few months or so since 1991” Fury slammed a file filled to the brim with previous transactions onto the desk.
“It’s not a whole pile of money, Nick” Coulson said as he examined the sheet of paper already before him. “Director must make fifty times this in a month. Why on earth would she risk her position for a measly bonus?”
Fury didn’t have an answer for that one. He turned to face the door while he ran through options in his head.
She couldn’t just want an extra trans Atlantic holiday; she could easily afford that on her high salary. It definitely wasn’t for any kind of retirement fund. Technically, she already was retired. She’d stepped down from her position as director for a grand total of five minutes, until Howard Stark passed away and she feared the future of the organization having lost both its founders. That was the only reason she was back behind her desk.
Now that he thought about it, the date of the first transaction did seem rather familiar…
“Phil, I’ve got it!” Fury exclaimed, regaining the hopeful light in his good eye.
Coulson scoffed and began to shake his head, briefly glancing up to see Fury’s growing excitement. He hadn’t seen him like this since Carol left. Not that he liked that Fury was going directly against director Carter, but at least the guy was happy for a change.
He sighed. “So, what is it then?”
Fury looked Coulson directly in the eye, a wide smile growing on his face. “She’s paying someone off”
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“Don’t you want to know how the account statements led me to you?”
Fury must’ve noticed Cecily had stopped listening to his story momentarily after the bubbly waitress brought her hot chocolate over to their booth by the window. She doesn’t much like coffee and Fury was paying, so she’d gone for the good stuff. Marshmallows, cream, a flake; the lot.
She paused her sipping and looked up at him, raising her eyebrows and dropping the cup from her mouth. “Well you look far too eager to tell me, so I wouldn’t dare not let you”
Fury smiled at her, probably content he’d found someone that was actually willing to give him their time of day. Someone that was actually willing to listen to what he had to say. And boy did he have a lot to say.
He continued the explanation of his detective work with the utmost enthusiasm; “So I figured out that each transaction corresponds to a crime committed against enemies of Carter’s. Crimes that no one has been able to pinpoint the culprit of. Thefts, murders, etc. Witness accounts claiming they saw a pretty woman kicking far too many people’s asses to be possible. Not one of them was able to identify the girl with what they could only call ‘super human’ abilities”
Cecily put down her drink altogether. She’d grown genuinely intrigued by what he was saying.
“That was each pay off made except for the first one. Which happened December 22nd, 1991; the day after Howard Stark’s funeral”
Cecily tensed upon hearing Howard’s name. Had it still been in her grasp, she probably would have dropped the white mug.
Fury didn’t seem to remotely notice her eyes widening and her mouth laying agape. He just kept telling his story. “First I thought that was because she was paying someone off for assassinating him on her behalf. That didn’t really make much sense, I have no idea why she would have done that. So I looked more into it before I brought that case to Carter. Accusing her of assassinating her partner with no proof but a bank statement would have been out of line.
That was when I first went to your little Goliath National Bank, where the account the money was being transferred to was. I had a few weeks of paid leave owed, so I took it and stooped outside for two days.
Sure enough, along you came. You were wearing brown sunglasses and a baseball cap, but I still recognized you immediately. You didn’t see me that time, did you?”
Cecily had doubted Fury’s competence as an agent based in the fact she’d known he was right on her tail for the last few days. The last time she was at the bank was over a week ago though, she hadn’t noticed him at all then.
She narrowed her eyes at him, knowing with near certainty what route his story was about to head down. “I can’t say that I did”
Fury smiled, seeming rather proud of himself. “Of course you didn’t. I didn’t want you to know I was there. Contrary to the last few days where I intentionally let you know I was here”
Cecily had narrowed her eyes out of confusion, so he elaborated. “I wanted you to know I was watching you to grow your intrigue. I wanted you to want to talk to me. If I’d just approached you at your motel three days ago, do you really think you would have sat down to hear what I have to say?”
Cecily didn’t answer that. She didn’t really know what to say. Had he just one upped her? Her being the practical super soldier with upwards sixty years experience on her back. Was that even possible?
Instead of verbally expressing her slight impress at what he’d succeeded in, she remembered one of the many previous parts of his story that had confused her. She kept her facial expression as one of utmost disgust, seeing as he had in fact one upped her and she was not at all happy about it. “What was that you were saying about ‘recognizing me’? Where might that be from?”
Fury nodded, having forgotten to elaborate on that slightly important point. “My partner, Phil Coulson, he has a minor obsession with anything and everything associated with Captain America. That includes collecting over priced trading cards and comic books and stalking Howard Stark and Peggy Carter. I’m almost certain the only reason he joined SHEILD was so he could meet them”
Cecily tilted her head to the side while she listened to him speak, no idea what any of that was supposed to mean to her.
“Every time he’s promoted and bumped up a clearance level, he uses it to snoop through all old case files that contain their war stories and some from after that” Fury must have noticed how Cecily winced at how weird that sounded. He threw his eye to heaven and said, “It’s creepy and Carter has no idea he does it. Anyway, one such story he was very excited to have found was the one where Howard Stark attempted to recreate Erskine’s serum following the death of Captain America, and he wound up screwing the whole thing up and killing his test subject”
Fury had his eyebrows raised and his eye widened at Cecily, nodding as he said each part of that story like he expected her to already know it. Of course he knew she did. It was her story after all.
“So I made the correct assumption that Stark somehow messed up the serum and instead of killing you, it made you immortal? Seeing as you’re still alive and you don’t look a day older than the picture that ran in the papers the day after your ‘death’. And Stark lied about what happened out of the kindness of his thought cold and dead heart so that you could lead a normal life”
Aside from that last sentence having a few flaws, Fury was right.
Cecily had completely frozen. She was incapable of speech. There wasn’t even anything at the tip of her tongue. Nothing. He’d managed to get every detail right all within the space of a few weeks, when no one else had the last fifty years. She should be impressed. Instead she was just stunned.
Fury crossed his arms and slumped back in his seat, proud of the shock he’d managed to sprout on his company’s face. “Then I was confused how Stark’s old test subject wound up on Carter’s pay roll. Eventually I figured out you’re an old friend of Stark’s; you’re an old friend of Carter’s. You’re an old friend of Carter’s; you’ve earned her trust”
Trust wouldn’t really be a word that would come to mind when Cecily thought of the bizarre relationship she’d had with Peggy throughout the years, but Fury had been right about everything else.
“So she assigned you off the record jobs that she needed doing and no one else could know about. Carter never gave you a real position because I’m assuming you don’t want one?”
Again, Cecily decided against answering his question. Shouldn’t it be obvious? Who in their right mind would ever want to work for the government? It was a system run by old white men and a few more interesting people that barely get a say in matters, that all like to make an insufferable number of irrelevant rules and regulations all people must obey.
Of course it’s even worse for people working for the government that aren’t on top, because they’re given a whole list of protocols they must follow or they’ll wind up fired without a retirement fund or imprisoned because heaven forbid someone decided to choose the great over the plain old good.
Why would she want any part in that?
She opted for changing the subject instead, having regained her ability to form words. “If it was all going to be so difficult, why not just scrap the Avengers? Surely Carter is smart enough to know what she’s saying”
His eyebrows lowered like he took offense to that comment. “No, of course not. It’s a genius idea. Why on earth would I drop it?”
Cecily shrugged her shoulders and took another sip of her hot chocolate before continuing. “I mean she said you have no contenders. That was correct, was it not? And what if I don’t want to join your superheroes?”
There was a short silence while Fury started drinking from his cup, so Cecily sat back and listened to the incessantly annoying music playing in the diner. At least it slightly drowned out what they were saying from anyone who may have been listening.
After wiping his foam mustache away with his napkin, Fury stuck his nose up and looked at Cecily. “I haven’t actually said you’re a contender yet”
Cecily had starting drinking from her cup again, and almost choked on her cocoa when he said that. “I’m sorry, so you stalk me and then tell me all about your little future organization, yet you’re still not even sure if you’ll let me be in it?”
Fury shrugged. “Well I need to ask you some questions first. That’s why I’m here, not just to drink cheap coffee and pay for your six dollar hot chocolate”
“And I assume you have these questions prepared in advance…” Before Cecily could finish, Fury reached his hand into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a sheet of white paper that had been folded over a few times. Cecily rolled her eyes. “Would you look at that, of course you do”
Fury stopped once he had the sheet unfolded and looked up at her, as if he were mentally asking permission to start her informal interview. “By all means, proceed…” she said.
Fury straightened himself in his seat and put his shoulders back. He cleared his throat and read straight from the sheet of paper. He seemed to have been taking it way more seriously than he was meant to. “Have you ever committed any degree of murder?”
Fury kept his eyes on the paper while he awaited her answer. He’d actually expected her to immediately give one. He was surprised when all he could hear was Alanis Morisette. He turned up to Cecily. Her eyes were wide and her brows almost touched at the bridge of her nose. “What?” he exclaimed, clearly not seeing any problem in the overtly forward question.
Cecily laughed bitterly. “Ok, was that really number one on your list there? That is what you’ve decided to open with?”
He tilted his head forward and asked sarcastically, “That a sore subject Ms Faulkner?”
“It’s…” She hesitated. No one called her that. No one, ever. Not even Peggy did anymore during the few occasions they met up. She was too paranoid someone would hear her and identify the surname associated primarily with Stark’s mistake. Carter had been the one to assign her alias; and even that one she hardly used anywhere.
She sighed and continued in a far sterner voice. “It’s Anderton you asshole. You don’t know me long enough to call me Faulkner” Cecily began to shake her head. “Anyway, what’s next on the list of things you need know?”
Fury picked up the sheet of paper again. She watched him scan the first few lines, wincing at each one of them. She took that to mean they were as unnecessary as that first. Eventually, he got to a line near the bottom of the page while he recited, “How did you first come to work for Howard Stark?”
Cecily smiled, briefly reminiscing that older part of her life. The life that she’d lost alongside the conclusion of the war. The life she would do anything to get back, but knew she had to live through the rest of her immortality with no way possible of getting it.
“Well I guess that has to start with the story of how I met James Buchanan Barnes…”
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