Plucking the Bird

Mariah's hands remained zip tied even though she was alone in the room. Having the Super Soldier serum in her blood meant that she was stronger and faster than the average human and she was extremely well trained. Fury didn't want to take any risks at this point, even though she didn't appear emotionally capable of hurting anyone at this point.

Nick looked over at Steve as he walked in. He decided to simply state the truth. "It turns out that Mariah is the masked person seen with the rest of Ibrahim's group. She attacked and tried to kill Sam tonight."

Steve was absolutely floored by this news but refused to believe it. Not Mariah, she would never do such a thing. "Where is she?" He asked. He had to hear this from Mariah herself. As Nick led Steve to where they were holding Mariah Andrew fished out his phone thinking he should be here for his wife. Oddly enough he wasn't picking up his phone despite a few attempts. He sent a message to Zoe to see if she had seen her brother.

The door leading to Mariah's room opened up and Steve walked inside his heart breaking seeing how glassy eyed she looked. "Mariah?" He asked approaching her trying to get her attention

Zoe was starting to get ready for bed when she heard her phone ding, signaling that she had a text message. She opened it up and blinked when she read it. She hadn't seen James in several days and honestly didn't know where he might be. "No, I haven't seen him. Did you try calling Mariah? She might know."

Mariah just sat there staring down as Steve walked in. Hearing his voice the knowledge of what he had hidden from her came back to the forefront of her mind. He had lied to her and she had ruined her life and her career by doing whatever it took to keep the information about the affair out of the hands of the press. She had kept quiet about this for too long...and finally she exploded. She looked up at him...seething anger and pain.

"You lied to me! You told me that you and my mother only shared one night together and that you didn't love her. That wasn't true. You were with her for over two years!! How could you lie to me like that! Did I not deserve to know the truth?!"

She didn't realize it but tears were streaming down her cheeks and she was nearly sobbing by now.

Andrew cringed a little when Zoe asked if he tried Mariah. "Yeah..Mariah hasn't really seen him tonight either. If you see him would you mind having him give me a call?" He said trying to be as vague as possible without tipping his hand. He had thought of calling Alex but felt she would be able to detect something was wrong almost immediately if he was asking about James. Not to mention why he had just up and left the house earlier.

Steve was surprised by Mariah's outburst but listened to what she had to say. He weathered her outrage knowing it was justified. He wanted to know how she found out the truth and why she was behaving this way. "I had my reasons Mariah." he said. It was far more painful for him to admit that he loved her mother so much and for him to abandon her..it was the greatest shame that he had to bear all these years. "I loved your mother...not a day goes by that i dont think about her. What i did..." He hesitated and closed his eyes.

"How do you know about this Mariah?" he asked looking at her

Zoe was growing more and more suspicious even though her father was being rather vague. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

Mariah felt herself becoming angrier and angrier. She was trembling now that she knew what Ibrahim had told her was the truth. It made her feel sick to her stomach that she had to find out that way. "Ibrahim told me and in the next breath told me that if I didn't do what he asked of me that he would reveal your affair with my mother to the world and destroy you! What the hell was I supposed to do?! He cornered me and turned me into his puppet and I felt I had to protect you even though I was angry at you for lying to me!"

"No no nothing's wrong just wanted to talk with James." Andrew said. "Hows the little one?" He asked thinking she was took way to much after Alex.


Steve rubbed his eyes as Mariah informed him that IBrahim had been blackmailing her using what information he had on Steve. He took a seat trying to process all of this. So they had been hutning Mariah down the whole time. "You could have come to me Mariah." he said hating himself so much more. Just his damn reputation and what others needed him to be. Mariah was acting like Eve had done by not sharing that Mariah was his. SO many people protecting his reputation...

"To hell with my reputation.." He said getting up to speak with Fury.

Zoe didn't believe her father, but if he wasn't going to tell her then there was little she could do about it. "Finn's fine. He's finally asleep. I'm going to get some sleep while I can. If James calls or texts I'll have him call you."

Mariah slowly looked over at Steve as he began to get up, her cheeks tear stained and eyes red. "Did you also know that she killed her husband and then committed suicide for you?"

Andrew did his best not to exhale that sigh of relief when Zoe focused on Finn. "Oh right thats a good idea hon. Ok i appreciate your help sweetheart, get some sleep." He said bidding his goodnight.

Steve froze in his steps when Mariah dropped that little bombshell. "what?" He asked facing her. She could tell that he had absolutely no idea what had happened to her. "No, she was on a mission she.." He breathed out thinking about it. He looked to Mariah and he could tell she was teling the truth as far as she knew and the person who reported her death to him was Fury. Steve's breathing grew heavy as he thought of what he gave up on for the country. His hands turned to fists and he decided to seek out the truth from Fury.

He shoved open the door and stepped out into hall seeing Fury give out a few orders to some men. "Fury!" Steve hollered making his way over looking rather pissed. Sam and Andrew looked up hearing that tone and saw Steve approach.

"woah hey big guy.." Sam started to say to get Steve to cool down thinking this was about Mariah. Steve shoved Sam to the side roughly as he was just going to choke the information out to Fury. Andrew stepped in to try and subdue Steve as he looked a bit unhinged. Steve resisted his grapple and Andrew tried to give him a shock but to no avail. Steve grabbed hold of Andrews collar and lifted him up quickly forcing him up into the ceiling tiles only to come crashing back down. Sam attempted again but this time was thrown threw a glass table as Steve stalked over to Fury.

"How did Eve die?" He asked pointing at Fury

Nick had been about to walk away and go to his office to start ensuring that the press hadn't gotten wind of what had happened. If so, an elaborate cover up would need to happen. He was hoping that no one knew what had happened since he was already going to have to create a reason as to why Mariah wouldn't be on duty for a while.

Suddenly, he heard Steve approach and he could tell he was pissed about something. Much like Andrew and Sam, he thought at first that Steve was just angry that Mariah was being held. He was about to open his mouth and remind Steve again that Mariah had almost killed Sam when he suddenly asked him point blank how Eve had died. Did Ibrahim have that information? If that was the case then they had a very serious matter on their hands. However, for right now he needed to just deal with Steve. He glanced over at Sam and Andrew who were both suddenly very interested in what he was going to say.

"Let's talk privately in my office," he suggested. He wanted to continue to protect Eve's legacy and what she had done did not necessarily paint her in a great light. If he got Steve to follow him down to his office he would shut the door behind them and then walked over and around his desk to sit down. He pulled out a cigarette and lighter and lit the cigarette and took a long drag before finally responding.

"Eve shot and killed her husband before killing herself. Her husband found out about...well everything. He knew about the nearly two and a half year affair you two had and about Mariah's existence. He apparently was threatening to take all of that information to the press. He may have threatened her...I'm not sure. But she shot and killed him and then recorded a video confessing to the entire thing before taking her own life."

Steve followed Fury curtailing his anger for now. He waited very patiently, his knuckles turning white as he lit a cigarette. He closed his eyes as his mind thought of what was going through Eve's mind. he had betrayed her and she had chosen to protect his interests despite that. He hated himself so much at this moment, more than he ever thought possible. He hated what he was and hated how selfless and blind he had become.

"Why didn't you tell me Fury?" He asked finally his eyes opening in a glare at him.

Fury sighed and took another much longer drag of his cigarette and exhaled it through his nose. "Would you really have wanted to know this? Would you have preferred to know that Eve, the woman you loved, had killed herself? She was protecting you so I had to protect you and Mariah. I had no choice Steve and to be perfectly honest if Ibrahim hadn't found out about this and used it to blackmail Mariah then I never would have told you."

Steve watched Fury and heard him out and he really thought of the implications if he had told him the truth. It would have hurt Steve beyond belief knowing that he caused Eve to make such a decision. "Despite all of the pain Fury..i would have wanted to know the truth." He said.

If Steve had known the truth, he would have raised Mariah like he should have. He would have retired to a simple farm life and raised her with love and affection far from pain and struggling. "I dont want your protection Fury...I quit." He said. "The world can move on without me.." He said turning and walking out the door discarding his badge. Walking back into the hallway he simply discarded his shield knowing he needed to get back to Mariah

Alex had been trying to get a hold of Andrew, but he wasn't answering his phone or texts. She had become worried and finally called over to SHIELD, who informed her that he was there. She could tell something was going on so she got into her car and drove over to HQ. She was walking down a hallway looking for Andrew when she nearly ran into Steve. She looked behind him and saw his discarded shield and could see from his eyes that something was very wrong.

"What's wrong Steve? Has something happened?"

Steve stopped when Alex came into view and while he cared about her a great deal now was not a great time. Not to mention his brief spat with Andrew which he felt guilty about. "I'm sorry Alex, i have to speak with Mariah." He said hoping she wouldn't hold this against him for too long. "Just a lot of..personal issues i ahve to take care of. Excuse me." He said

Andrew straightened up rubbing his back as Sam checked him over. They had watched Steve and Fury go off and talk unaware of what just occurred. They spoke about how they were goihgn to deal with Mariah where Andrew just simply asked if they could just drop all of their concerns about it.

Alex could tell whatever was happening was serious and she immediately stepped out of Steve's way as he headed quickly down the hallway. A moment later Fury stepped out of his office and walked over to Alex. He handed her a large brown envelope and asked her to give it to Steve for him. She then watched as he walked past the shield, just leaving it on the ground as he walked down the hallway in the opposite direction. Alex walked down the other way and eventually found Andrew and Sam. Her concern for Steve immediately shifted to concern for her husband when she saw the state he was in.

"What the hell happened?"

Mariah meanwhile just sat in the room she was behind held in just staring ahead. She wouldn't talk to anyone who came in and concern over her mental state was starting to grow

Andrew was stilla little hunched over asking Sam to just straighten him up really quick. Sam wasn't up for helping him do that fearing that he would just hurt him further. So Andrew leaned back feeling a few things pop and crack and he just cursed. His eyes flew open when he heard Alex's voice and he cursed yet again. "God tonight sucks, i'm not helping you anymore." Andrew said looking to Sam obviously in some pain. "Ummm..i fell?" Andrew asked.

"Not really a lie actually." sam said looking up at the ceiling tile. Andrew glared and looked to Alex.

"something about Eve set Steve off..probably has to do with Mariah." Andrew said. He looked to Alex and breathed out explaining what they knew at this point in time.

Steve walked into the room ignoring the other agents questions. He kneeled down in front of Mariah. "I know you must hate me Mariah. I didnt want to tell you about how long i was with your mother. I thought..i thought by making it sound like it was a one time thing would make it more bareable to you but i was wrong to deny you." Steve apologized.

"I loved Eve...i still love her. I've never felt anything close to how i felt about her." Steve said. Thinking back despite social events Steve never really dated. Mostly out of shame of what he did to Eve. He wanted to tell Mariah what he had done but thought enough emotional trauma had occurred. "Sam is alright, i'm sure he doesn't hate you or blame you for the situation." He said looking to Mariah. He hoped that he would be able to provoke some sort of response out of her.

Alex glanced up at the ceiling tile and then looked back at Andrew. She was very confused as to what was happening and felt rather overwhelmed. She remembered Eve as being Mariah's mother, but she thought that Steve had just had a one night stand with her. What about her would set him off like that then?

"Well, I'm not sure what is going on but I'm pretty sure Steve just quit. He left his shield outside of Fury's office."

Mariah didn't move or even seem to acknowledge that Steve was there in the room next to her talking. In her mind she could hear his voice, but it sounded extremely distant. She barely blinked and her eyes almost looked glassy.

OOC-So in the brown envelope that Fury gave to Alex is the flashdrive with the video recording Eve made on it and also two letters. One to Steve and one to Mariah. When Mariah reads the letter to her that is what is going to really set her off and trigger her full emotional breakdown.

OOC: Woo! so how do we get Mariah out of here or are we bringing the envelope to Mariah?

OOC-My thinking is that Mariah is going to be locked up for a while. She's going to need psychiatric help and is going to be considered dangerous. The letter is going to have to be brought to her, but let's wait until after Steve watches the video and reads his letter.

OOC-new thread