Unravel

One of Elizabeth’s favourite parts of her job was the required physical activity. It was something she needed to function, allowing her to blow off steam in a healthy manner and to clear her head.

She used to be her high school’s lacrosse captain and since she was highly competitive she had no excuse to not be as fit as physically possible.

The first time her athleticism had paid off was in Quantico. The following extra training was never as hard but she still had an advantage to many others.

She loved it, really. But her problem with it was that most of the time she had to work out when it was already dark outside. She would start her morning run at five, sometimes four, in the morning. It was usually dark and since Central Park wasn’t really somewhere she wanted to be at this time of the day, she usually stuck to the streets.

But this early morning she had chosen to run along Central Park’s perimeter.

Her dog Vito, who had conveniently been named after a New York mobster by her niece Victoria, didn’t mind these morning runs by now. When she had first taken him with her to New York a few years prior, he had been sluggish but maybe this had been just because her brother’s family liked to feed him too much.

Now the German Shepherd was not only her running buddy but also her best friend. Well, if one didn’t count Agent Donovan.

She had met Ewan Donovan during basic training in Quantico and she had been surprised to be placed in the same city as him. It was rare enough to be placed in New York City but two people at the same time could have been almost considered a miracle. Though she guessed that the government wanted extra agents on their side because of the spike in vigilantism.

Anyway, it had happened and she had been glad that there was at least one familiar face with her in New York. Having to move from Oregon to New York had stung quite a bit but it was part of being an agent and she was slowly getting there. New York still didn’t feel like home but she kept trying.

She was also not much of a people person which might have made trying to feel at home a little harder but Vito - who was running beside her, tongue lolling, tail wagging and now and then looking back at her with a look that might have been saying Yes, Yes, Yes! Awesome! - was all the ‘home’ she needed. Or so she tried to persuade herself.

New York City was unusually quiet this morning, she noticed. Normally there were at least a few people around, if only the homeless. But there were not even the creeps that usually littered the streets at night.

She wouldn’t admit it to anyone but herself but the strange feeling she had in her stomach made her tread on the pavement a little bit harder and faster. When she was a kid the ‘only’ creeps she had to be scared of were thieves, killers and rapists with normal human strength. Now that list had extended over the last few years - with aliens, gods and enhanced people that were stronger, faster - or god knows what - than they should have been. She wouldn’t have been surprised if that list soon contained the word ‘mutants”.

But she tried not to think about it as she jogged along Central Park North. This was her time. She was going to relax and clear her head. But a crash made her stop in her tracks.

She heard someone struggling, gasping for air, which made her frantically search from where the sounds were coming from but apart from two or more black silhouettes in the park she couldn’t see anything. So she pulled out her phone and hoped for the best.

Until she came across what suspiciously looked like a hand. Vito had obviously smelled it since Elizabeth had to hold him back from reaching it.

“Sit,” she ordered and he complied. “Stay.”

She could hear him whining beside her but she could care less about her dog wanting to have a human hand as a chewing toy. So she tied his leash to a bench.

Slowly but surely she approached the hand that was lying a little bit to the side of the road. There were two possibilities. Either this was a severed arm or the rest of the person was lying in that shrub beside it.

But one closer look confirmed what she had feared. She pulled out her phone and dialled the number she by now knew by heart.

“Hey, Melissa. It’s Liz,” she greeted the FBI’s receptionist. “I need you to connect me with Hawk. I found a body in Central Park N-”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence as suddenly her phone was snatched away from her. Even though she immediately turned around, someone hit her over the head.

The blow was hard enough to make her stumble and fall to the ground. But as soon as she could orientate herself again she tried to get a look at whoever had struck her. The moment she saw his face she could have laughed at the irony of everything.

“No police, no FBI, no CIA,” he snarled at her and his metal arm crushed her phone in his fist like it was made out of cheap plastic. (It wasn’t, just to clarify.)

Vito was whining and barking behind him and Elizabeth tried to make use of the moment he looked back at the dog to get up and strike his chin with her elbow. He stumbled back but didn’t fall and immediately striked back, only to land a hit on her stomach.

Using her disorientation, he pinned her to the nearest tree, his fingers painfully digging into her clavicle and throat.

“What are you gonna do now?,” she taunted him, out of breath and he pushed harder against her, making her gasp. “Am I going to be the next one they find, gutted and hung up to dry? We’re going to get you, I hope you’re aware of that.” At her words his dark eyes darkened even more.

She would have given everything to have her gun with her but jogging attire never gave her that option.

To her wonder he gave her one last push and let go. A few seconds of a staring-match later she knew why. She started hearing sirens in the distance.

After one last look around he took off running. Elizabeth knew she wasn't able to outrun him, so she slid down to sit on the grass, her hand probing on everything that hurt.

“Asshole.”

/////

Apparently, there had been another body not too far away from the first. With these two, the Winter Soldier’s estimated kill count had risen to forty. Each time she thought of this, she recalled his dark eyes. The thought of him made her shudder. She would never understand what prompted people to kill others. ‘Justified’ or not.

“Stop sulking, will you?” she heard Agent Donovan’s voice from the adjacent cubicle.

“I won’t,” she replied. “I’m pissed off.”

“Wow, Elizabeth Moore is pissed off. This is a completely new thing no one has never seen before. Come and marvel at this miracle!”

“Stop being a smartass, Ewan,” she threatened although her partner’s antics made her slump in her chair.

It was true, she was angry. She was angry at the Winter Soldier but mostly at herself. Having him right in front of her and being unable to detain him and bring him to justice - that made her angry. Considerably so. But she wouldn’t let him get away with pushing her around. No one got away with that.

So she pulled up every murder they had linked to him on her computer and got to researching. There had to be a way to find out where he was living, or at best, staying. There had to be an area or two he favored. She was determined to investigate this until he would finally do time.

She spent most of her work days after her personal encounter with the Winter Soldier looking through the reports. At times she really wished that these pin boards where she could connect evidence with pieces of string were a real thing because her desk was overflowing by now. She still had to do her regular work which made it even harder. But she was determined. She always was.

“Moore,” someone said from beside her. Turning to her left she saw her superior, Director Hawk. “I need the transcript of the Ludwig-interrogation.” His request made her freeze and thoughts ran wild. Had she even transcribed it?

“Right, right. It has to be here somewhere,” she told him as she tried to locate the folder but the abundance of reports made it hard. When she finally found it, she held it in the air with a grin on her face and a gesture that said here it is!.

But Director Hawk didn’t seem as excited. His facial expression told her that he was less than pleased.

“What have you been doing?”

“I just-.. went through some paperwork to make sure I hadn’t... missed anything,” she lied.

He narrowed his eyes at her and opened the folder she had given him.

“I expect you to direct your full attention on the assignments that are given to you. Am I understood? No deviations, disturbances whatsoever. None.” He pointed his finger at her and closed the folder.

Elizabeth nodded her head eagerly. “Understood.”

“Good,” he said and left her in her cubicle to slump. She didn’t like to lie to Hawk, she understood why he had to make sure everything was going according to plan. But she just couldn’t for the life of her let it be. She knew there were other agents tasked with finding the Winter Soldier. But this was her personal revenge by now.

Just then her ever-curious partner stepped into her cubicle, all wide-eyed and alarmed. “What in God’s name are you doing?” He took a step closer to look at one of the reports, his eyebrows immediately furrowing. “What are you doing with these?”

“None of your business, Ewan,” she retorted and went to gathering all the reports together and also taking one from his hands.

“Don’t tell me you’re looking for Stubs.”

“I’m going to punch you if you keep that up,” she told him.

“Worth it,” he replied in a mock-whisper. “But in all seriousness. Are you? That would be a death sentence. But I do know you so I’m probably right. Are you looking for him?”

“As I said before,” she said, shifting the reports in her hands and sending him a pointed look, “None of your business,” she told him and left him standing in her cubicle.

No one needed to know that she was looking for him. She could give the FBI an anonymous tip when she finally found him. But right now, she slept just a little bit better, knowing she could have a hand in finding him.