The previous night

"So what is she doing here?" I asked Fury as we stood on one side of the glass barrier to Interrogation Room A.

"Great question. Yelena Belova is a highly trained assassin—she trained with Natasha in the Red Room."

I nodded even though I was still extremely confused.

"Anyway, one of our agents picked her up. Got a signal ping that led us straight to her location."

"Seems suspicious," I commented.

"Indeed," Fury agreed. "And get this: she claims she was supposed to be meeting Natasha."

"What? How is that possible? Nat's been—I mean we've—um—"

"Cap, I don't need to know the intimate details of your life with Natasha," he said.

"Right." I felt my face heat up. "Anyway, so Nat was supposed to meet up with Yelena?"

"Correct. Yelena said that her sister is never late. And no one else knows the meeting spot."

"Let me go in and talk to her," I said.

"I can't let you do that, Steve. Yelena is a valuable asset. She needs to be approached cautiously," he replied.

"And I can't approach cautiously?" I protested.

Fury laughed. "That's not exactly what I mean. She has a lot of training—the same training as Natasha—but she'll use her advantage against you. And there is a chance she knows about you and Nat."

"If Yelena is her sister, then why shouldn't she know?"

Fury shrugged. "Alright. I'll let you talk to her. But if you need help, just send me an SOS."

I nodded and headed into the interrogation room.

"So you're the one they call 'Captain America', hmm?" Yelena said in a thick accent.

"If you don't mind, I'll be the one asking the questions," I replied.

Yelena smirked. "You're cute. I like you."

"I need to know why you were meeting Natasha," I said.

"Ah yes. You and my sister are quite close aren't you?"

"Yelena."

She clucked her tongue. "Fine, fine. I was meeting Natasha for a debrief. We do this occasionally. The details are strictly confidential between the two of us, I'm afraid."

"That's good enough for me to work with. Now, did you notice anything odd when you went to meet Nat?"

"She lets you call her Nat? Wow, you must be pretty close. You sleeping together?"

I cleared my throat. "Please just answer the question."

"I've been trained to notice my surroundings. But no, I didn't notice anything strange," Yelena said. "How long have you and Natasha been together?"

I slid my hand down my face. "Yelena, please. Work with me here, ok? Why were you meeting your sister?"

"I needed to discuss something personal with her. You're not gonna ask me to break the bonds of sisterhood, are you?"

"No, but I do need to know when you contacted Natasha and if you told anyone else. If someone else knew your plans, they might have set you up to get caught."

Yelena smirked. "Caught? What, am I a criminal now?"

"You've been on the run, right?"

"I've stayed under the radar. It's what I've been trained to do. But to answer your question, no one knew we were meeting. No one knew where we were meeting."

"Is there anything you can tell me?"

"Nope. I don't know who could've told your agents where I was."

I sighed. "Well, thank you." I left her in the room and went out to talk with Fury.

"Well that was brutal," Fury commented.

"Yeah, I know."

"We're keeping her overnight. For protection. If someone really is after her, we need to make sure she is safe."

"Do you want me to stay or can I head home?" I asked.

"I don't want Natasha to know about her sister being here until we absolutely have to tell her."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Nat is one of my agents. And this would be mixing your personal life with your professional life, something you know better than to do."

"I think that ship sailed when I started dating Nat," I muttered to myself.

"Anyway, there's a cot in my office that you're welcome to use tonight. If Agent Romanoff calls you, don't answer. We need to get more from Yelena before we get her involved."

"Thanks, Fury," I said.

Fury nodded. "See you in the morning, Cap."

I headed down the hall to Fury's office and ran into Maria Hill on my way there,

"Heading home?" she asked.

"Nope. Fury doesn't want Nat to have any knowledge of what I'm doing here, so he wants me to stay overnight. I'm setting up in his office—apparently he has a cot?"

Maria nodded. "Yeah. He only brings it out under certain circumstances."

"Well, I guess this is one of those times."

"Hey." She rested her hand on my arm. "It doesn't always have to be personal or professional. You and Nat have a bond that is unbreakable. Nothing can tear that apart."

"Thanks, Maria."

"Get some sleep, Cap. See you in the morning."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

I woke up the next morning to light streaming in through the window and a very stiff back. I attributed that to the cot and not the fact that technically, I was 106. Technically.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead," Maria called as she entered Fury's office.

I groaned and rubbed a hand down my face. "It is way too early."

Maria laughed. "C'mon, Cap. It's never too early here." She nodded to my phone. "Has Nat called?"

I checked my messages and groaned again. "Yup. Multiple times. Maria, why can't I just tell her that I'm ok?"

"There's nothing stopping you from doing that. But she can't know why you're here." Maria paused. "In fact, Fury revoked her card access."

"What?!" I jumped up. "Nat is going to kill him!"

"Cap, take a breath, ok? It's only temporary because she can't know that her sister is here."

"I still don't understand why."

"Fury's rules."

"But if Nat was supposed to meet Yelena, why shouldn't she know?"

"We're trying to approach this very carefully. We have reason to believe that Yelena might have connections to Kristina," Maria said.

"What else is new," I muttered. "What can I help with?"

"You can start by talking with Yelena again."

I raised my eyebrows. "You sure that's a good idea?"

Maria nodded. "You're not scared of your fiance's sister, are you?"

"I'm not scared of her as my fiance's sister. I'm more scared of her as Yelena, the assassin."

"Valid. Look, Steve, I know this is hard. But you have to just trust the process, ok? Doesn't mean you have to like it. But we're the professionals."

I nodded. "Well, if Nat hates me after this, I'm blaming you."

"...you have a wedding to plan, don't you?" Fury's voice carried through the open doorway.

"Is that Natasha?" I asked.

Fury waved me off. "Sorry, Agent Romanoff. We have other business to attend to."

"What did you do?"

"My job," Fury replied. "Steve, I told you I was taking care of things."

"Then why did you revoke her access? SHIELD is her life!"

"Because her sister is part of Kristina's scheme, Steve. And she's in real danger."