"Hey, Nat?", Eleanor called into the living room from the kitchen. She was in the middle of cooking dinner for the two after they had a little power nap, and the cooking had given her plenty of time to think about the events of the day. The whole thing still didn't sit right with her, and she finally wanted to get Natasha's opinion on it as well, as there had been some radio silence from her when it came to it.

"Yeah?", Nat softly called back as she made her way into the kitchen, humming in delight as she smelt the spices from the curry that Eleanor was preparing. After Eleanor had chuckled at her for sniffing the air like a dog, Nat wrapped her arms around Eleanor's waist from behind and tucked her head into the crook of her neck, "What's up, детка?", it came out all muffled as her mouth was still on Eleanor's shoulder, but the younger woman still understood her.

"The mission today..." she paused which caused Nat to nod, "Did anything seem off to you?". Nat's head snapped up and she looked at Eleanor's side profile.

"You felt like that too? I thought I was just being paranoid".

Eleanor turned around in Nat's arms and wrapped her arms around her neck whilst Nat still clung onto her waist, "Me too! Glad I'm not going crazy". Nat gave her a pointed look, "Okay, I may be going crazy but not about this I guess".

"Yeah no, something was definitely up, that intel seemed to make Fury nervous". Nat's eyebrows furrowed slightly and she started fiddling with the bottom of Eleanor's shirt, showing that she was a bit more anxious about the situation than she had initially let on.

"And that file? Might as well have been blank aside from the floorplans, it's almost like he didn't want Cap knowing everything before it was too late to turn back, because he specifically asked us to give one of our files over before Rumlow arrived". Nat nodded in agreement.

"We'll just have to hope that water that intel is and whatever made Fury feel the need to sneak around for it won't cause us too much trouble I suppose". Nat was right, there wasn't much that they could do about it, there was no way that Fury would tell them any more about it, especially since they had already handed the information over, it was completely out of their hands now.

Eleanor gave Nat's forehead a quick peck before turning back around in her arms to tend to the food. Natasha stayed glued to Eleanor for the rest of the cooking time, enjoying the peace together. They could deal with these thoughts another time, for now, they just wanted to be in the present.

---

The peace didn't last long, however. It had just gone midnight, and the pair were snuggled under the sheets, sleeping blissfully. That was until Eleanor's phone began ringing. They jumped up, groaning thinking that they were being called into work again or something.

Eleanor grumbled as she picked up her phone, but her face dropped slightly when she saw that it was Maria, she never contacted her directly this late unless it was something important.

"What's wrong?", Nat asked as she answered the phone, noticing the change in Eleanor's demeanour.

"Maria? Is everything okay?", she started, so Natasha nodded in understanding and held her breath slightly.

"What?", Eleanor's voice was small, and it cracked as she spoke. Nat's heart dropped into her stomach at hearing this, but she knew that she'd have to wait until Eleanor was off the phone to ask about it.

"Okay, okay, shit, we're on our way", Eleanor hung up and ran her hands through her hair as a tear slipped. Nat immediately got up and slowly walked towards her, whilst Eleanor started rushing around to get clothes for the two of them.

"El, what's wrong?".

"Um...", Fury meant a lot to both of them, so she wanted to tell Nat delicately about the situation Maria had called about, but her mind was so clouded that it was hard to think straight.

"Honey, it's okay, take your time", Nat sent a small, desperate smile at her as she took a hold of Eleanor's hand, stopping her in her rush.

Eleanor looked up, "It's Fury, he- he got shot at Steve's, he's in emergency surgery but it's not looking good".

Nat let her hand drop and she visibly paled, tears also threatening to fall, but she pushed them back so that she could quickly put on the clothes that Eleanor had got out for her. It was a tangle of limbs as they both mindlessly got ready in a very uncoordinated way.

They were both ready quickly and headed down to the car outside of the apartment, choosing to sprint down the stairs instead of taking the elevator. As they sped-walked to the car, Eleanor snatched the car keys from Natasha's hand, making her spin around to face her with a look of anger Eleanor had never seen directed at her before.

"Give me the keys, El", she stopped dead in her tracks and held out her hand.

Eleanor just carried on walking to the car, "No, I'm driving this time".

Nat grabbed her wrist with a harsh grip, making Eleanor hold back a wince, "I'm not fucking about here Eleanor, give me the fucking keys".

"No, I am driving, you go fast enough as is without being in this frame of mind", she reasoned before yanking her now reddened wrist away as she hopped into the driver's side. Nat let out a scream of frustration but complied begrudgingly. She didn't say a word to Eleanor on the way, blinded by the grief-stricken anger that she was feeling.

Eleanor knew that Nat didn't mean for her actions to hurt her, but it felt like she was being stabbed in the chest. She wasn't able to park anywhere due to the large amounts of police cars and other organisations, so she just stopped the car in the middle of the road. Nat immediately jumped out and ran towards the hospital, leaving Eleanor muttering a string of profanities as she sped after her.

Nat was speaking to the receptionist by the time that she did catch up to her, but she sped off before she could get a word out. Eleanor just carried on following, knowing that she would lead them both to Fury anyway. It was a couple of minutes of weaving in and out of Nurses and Doctors before they reached the correct room.

Nat hurriedly opened the door and rushed in, Eleanor a couple of paces behind. She watched as Natasha immediately went to stand next to Steve as they watched through the window into the surgery room where Fury was being operated on.

Eleanor could only stand by the door horrified as she looked through the glass. There was so much blood.

"Is he gonna make it?", Nat asked quietly.

"I don't know", Steve responded. That didn't sound optimistic.

"Tell me about the shooter".

"He's fast. Strong. Had a metal arm". Both Eleanor and Nat had a realisation simultaneously, The Winter Soldier. The man that they had tried tracking for a few years before they eventually had to call it quits.

When Eleanor saw Maria move from the other side of the room towards the glass as well, she followed suit, standing between the other two women in the room. "Ballistics?", Nat continued.

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable", Maria answered this time.

"Soviet-made", Nat said as Eleanor puffed out a breath and looked down at the floor.

"Yeah?", Maria looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering how they clearly knew something.

Eleanor and Maria both swiftly looked up when the nurses began rushing around, "He's in V-tach". "Crash cart coming in". He was flatlining. Eleanor shook her head continuously as she looked through, not believing what she was seeing.

Then they started calling for a defibrillator. Eleanor desperately wanted to reach out to Nat, but didn't want to push a boundary and cause her to lash out as she did outside.

"Don't do this to me Nick", Nat started repeating as they started on the defibrillator.

"Pulse?". "No pulse". Eleanor choked back a sob, so Nat instinctually took a hold of her hand and pulled her closer.

"Pulse?!". "Negative". The nurses started inspecting him as they stopped with the defibrillator, the outcome of this was obvious, the flatline was still flat. But the two held onto the slightest bit of hope as they watched.

That was until the time of death was announced. "Time of death, 1:03 am".

Nicholas J. Fury was dead.

Both Steve and Maria left, leaving Nat and Eleanor still looking through the glass in disbelief.

After a minute they took a step back, with Nat still clinging to Eleanor's hand. Eleanor didn't know what there was to say, the man who had taken them both under his wing when they needed it was gone.

"I'm sorry", Nat whispered when turning her head to face a distraught looking Eleanor. She was met with a slightly confused face, "For getting angry. I'm sorry".

Eleanor nodded slightly and pulled her in for a hug, "It's okay", she whispered back. Grief and fear does things to people, she wasn't going to hold it against Nat, especially as she apologised very soon after. "Let's- let's get out of this room".

Natasha nodded against Eleanor's shoulder and they both went to wait in the hall hand in hand, choosing to stand near Steve. Nat wrapped an arm around Eleanor and pulled her into her so that she could stand comfortably, they didn't know how long they'd be there.

It was a few hours later when Maria found them and told them that they could say goodbye in a private room.

Eleanor was hesitant as she walked in, not liking the idea of seeing his dead body resting on a table in front of them, but Nat was ever so slightly less phased by it than Eleanor, so she went to stand near him, crossing her arms as she said her goodbyes.

Eleanor gave Steve an awkward look before moving forward a few paces behind Natasha, a few tears falling as she stared at the man lying before her. Her shoulders slumped forward as it all hit her. He was really gone. Natasha's posture was rigid, indicating that she was holding back her emotions as best as she could, Eleanor decided to remain standing back slightly, knowing that she needed a minute.

The last words that Fury had spoken to the pair of them were swirling in her mind. 'I'll see you tomorrow'. The fact that he wouldn't was a sad reality.

SHIELD would never be the same, but she didn't care about that right now. What she cared about was the man who had looked after her for so many years, who always looked out for her wellbeing, and made sure that she felt safe and happy when she first arrived at SHIELD, had been killed. She would never be able to talk to him again, receive an awkward side hug from him because he wanted to show that he cared but also had a reputation to uphold, and would never see the sparkle in his eyes when she suggested something good in a meeting.

Someone had ripped that all away. Anger was eating her away as well as the sadness.

How dare someone come into their lives and think that they could just rip someone so special away from them.

She hadn't even realised that she had started frowning, almost scowling until Maria came in and her face softened. Maria moved to stand by Steve, "I need to take him". She took in Maria's appearance, she was very badly hiding the fact that she was trying not to cry.

Eleanor sheepishly walked over and offered a sad smile. Maria appreciated the gesture and leaned forward for a gentle hug, Eleanor was one of the few people who brought her comfort. Her circle was small.

She let go as Steve moved forward to try and tell Natasha that it was time to go. Nat gently pressed her hand onto Fury's head, a final goodbye, before swiftly turning to walk out, stopping to tug on Eleanor's arm slightly as she wanted her to follow, which she did. The two women walked out into the hall, Steve following closely behind them.