"Quinn." The familiar voice echoed through the phone, before reverberating around the kitchen of Quinn's apartment.

"Steve," Quinn replied. "You've gotten yourself in a fair share of trouble over the last few days, haven't you?"

"Yeah, yeah. I know, Quinn." Steve said. "Listen I need your help."

"With your special spying stuff?" Quinn joked.

"With my special spying stuff," Steve replied with a chuckle. "Listen, I need you to come to the address I've just texted to your phone, alone."

"Yeah, this isn't shady in the slightest."

"Please, Quinn." Steve pleaded. "And bring your Smithsonian key card as well."

"I'll be there in the next twenty or so," Quinn replied, gathering her things and heading downstairs to where her car was parked on the street. "And Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't exactly know what's going on, but I can promise you that everything is going to be okay in the end."

Quinn exited her car under the green leaves, her eyes narrowing slightly at the strange concrete structure in front of her.

"Quinn." Steve greeted, although Quinn could immediately sense that something was seriously wrong. Not from their phone call half an hour ago, but in the tense stature of his shoulders and the hard set line of his mouth.

"Hey," Quinn said with a slight smile following Steve into the concrete bunker.

"Leave her be. She needs to process everything by herself." An unknown voice echoed off the walls.

"Things are just a little tense on our end," Steve said, as Quinn's eyes picked up a brunette storming down the hallway at the other end.

"Is that?" Quinn asked, her voice quivering slightly.

"Aquila? Yeah, it is." Steve said, before leading her into the room where Aquila had just exited from by her shoulders.

The conversation that had already been occurring in the room came to an instant halt as everyone turned to observe the blonde wringing her wrists together again.

"You must be Quinn." A darker-skinned man said from where he leaned against the wall. "Steve doesn't shut up about you."

"Yeah," Quinn breathed out nervously, her eyes darting around the room to the redhead sitting down who she immediately recognized as Natasha Romanoff before drifting towards Nick Fury and another brunette woman sitting nearby. "Yeah, I am."

Once introductions were complete, Quinn leaned against the farthest wall as the conversation continued in front of her.

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said, 'Peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility.' See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch." Natasha Romanoff stated.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Nick Fury said, opening a case containing three chips, Quinn leaning forward slightly to get a better look.

"What's that?" The man who Steve had introduced as Sam asked.

"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized."

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Nick Fury continued.

"We have to assume that everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA. We need to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left. ."

"We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down S. H. I. E. L. D." Steve interrupting angrily.

"S. H. I. E. L. D. had nothing to do with it."

"You gave me this mission, this is how it ends. S. H. I. E. L. D.'s been compromised, you said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

Quinn breathed in a sharp intake of breath, as the tension in the room only rose higher.

"Why do you think we're meeting in this case? I noticed."

"And how many paid the price before you did?"

"Look, I didn't know about Barnes." Nick Fury continued as Quinn furrowed her brows in confusion.

Was Nick Fury talking about Bucky Barnes?

"Even if you have, would have told me? You didn't tell Aquila. Are you just going to compartmentalize that too? S. H. I. E. L. D., HYDRA, it all goes."

"He's right." The brunette introduced as Maria Hill stated looking over to Fury.

Fury only responded by looking towards Natasha, then back at Quinn and finally to Sam.

"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower."

"Well. . . Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

"So how long have you known Steve?" A voice called out to Quinn as she turned around, the air leaving her lungs briefly as she noticed Natasha Romanoff standing there with a smirk.

"Steve? A good few months, we met on a whim, he came to the Captain America exhibition at the Smithsonian and then just kept showing up after that."

"Hmm," Natasha muttered, Quinn suddenly feeling quite small under her calculating gaze. "Well I'm glad he met you, he's seemed different the last few months and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with you."

"I highly doubt that," Quinn said nervously. "But a chance, even if it's brief to talk things through can go a long way."

"That it can," Natasha replied, before pulling a gun seemingly out of nowhere. "You handy with a gun?"

"A gun? No way, much handier with a torch if you get what I mean." Quinn attempted to joke nervously. "Besides you guys just need me to get you into the Smithsonian, I'm not the saving-the-world type."

"Well as you just said little things can have a big difference," Natasha said, beginning to walk out of the room with a smirk. "I'll see you around, Quinn."

"Yeah," Quinn muttered, her heart racing.

It didn't take long for the blonde to meet the last 1/4 that was making up the team to take down the Helicarriers.

Aquila Cadman was every bit as intimidating as Quinn had first thought her to be when she first saw her on the TV in the staff room. But as she burst into laughter in front of them all, Quinn couldn't help but find her amusing.

"Pardon? You want us to do what?" Aquila managed to burst out between her laughter. "Well, I've been trying to organize a trip to the Smithsonian. But I don't think it was a part of the itinerary to steal from the museum."

"We don't have time for sightseeing, Aquila."

"But. . ." Aquila protested.

"No," Steve replied sternly, his shield held in his hand.

"Regardless, whenever you wanna come just let me know, I can give you a free tour." Quinn joked as the eagle's eyes came to rest on hers.

"We better go," Steve said, gathering the team that would be coming to the Smithsonian. "Quinn, have you got your keycard?"

"Yeah, I do," Quinn said sighing. "God, this is so going to get me fired."