*** Here's the sequel! It takes place immediately after where 'It's Been a Long, Long Time' ended. A lot more action-packed and fast paced than the first, so the tone is different – hope you all enjoy, and, as per usual, I own nothing in the entire Marvel universe, but my OCs are allll mine ***

Fucking SHIELD, she thought resentfully, they were always dirty. The day after Hannah had seen Steve on the news, arrested with his fellow Avenger, Black Widow, by the organization they each once served, she found herself angry at the information that was leaking into the press. Information being leaked by SHIELD saying that the two of them were bad, traitors, murderers, disloyal to their own cause.

She didn't believe any of it. She may not have seen Steve in a couple of years, but she knew his inherent goodness. They hadn't parted ways because he was a bad man. They parted ways because he was simply too loyal, too much of a hero, too devoted to the protection of all those he saw in need of it, mostly through the work he did at SHIELD.

It was SHIELD and their unending need to know everything, and to control everything, which left her truly filled with hatred. She loathed them to this day for upending her life and making her realize that her own freedom, her own privacy, was really only granted at their will.

The day after watching Steve being labelled as a criminal on national TV, all hell broke loose when every secret SHIELD had ever held was leaked onto the internet, unbeknownst to her. Hannah herself was too busy staring out a window of her office building with her co-workers, watching in horror as giant airships crashed into the Potomac, utterly destroying the government facility that they had been launched from.

She found herself praying for the people who worked at that building, and praying for Steve, hoping he wasn't in there somewhere, now dead. Everyone left work early that day, Hannah included. The streets were absolutely thronged with people. People were unsure about what was happening: was it terrorists? The military? Aliens again? An accident?

Hannah didn't care, she just ran through the crowds until she reached Alex's daycare, where several other overwrought and concerned parents were also desperate to get their children. Hannah almost cried when she laid eyes on her and Steve's son, sitting complacently in the baby play area of his daycare, sucking on his pacifier and playing with a stuffed bunny. Daddy's in trouble kiddo, she thought wildly, as she scooped him up into her arms, and now the sky is falling.

She loaded Alex into his stroller, waved goodbye to the daycare attendants and fought the crowds until they were home. Getting up the stairs was always a nightmare now, with baby, stroller, and baggage always weighing her down, so she had taken to just bicycle chaining the stroller to the mailboxes in the lobby, and no one said a thing to her about it.

Once back in their apartment, she plopped Alex on the floor to play with his toys, and fielded several frantic calls from friends and family out West, all of whom had seen the disaster unfolding on the news. However, sometime after dinner, the strange calls began. Reporters. Old 'friends'. Someone claiming to be from the FBI. All asking about her past relationship with Steve. The only personal relationship Steve Rogers had been known to have since being unfrozen.

Dread growing heavily in her stomach, Hannah finally snapped and screamed at the last person. "What the hell are you talking about? How does everyone know?!" Alex was startled and began to wail in the background. "Don't you know, Ms. Baker?" The man on the phone said, "It's all over the internet."

"What is?!" She cried, picking up Alex and soothing him, while cradling the phone between her face and her shoulder.

"Everything, SHIELD was breached, everything that organization ever knew or ever did is all over the internet for anybody to see!" The man was almost frantic with excitement and Hannah was disgusted. She hung up and put the phone on silent. Not answering you again tonight, she thought at the phone in irritation, making soothing shushing noises at Alex as she bounced him up and down lightly.

When Alex had settled down, she put him back on the ground to play, and Oliver, her stripy-orange cat, strolled up and began to loll around on the ground in front of Alex, much to the baby's delight.

Hannah went on her computer and jumped straight down the rabbit hole. The guy on the phone wasn't kidding. Everything about her was all over the internet, as were a lot of other things, obviously – but it was her phone number, name, and address that concerned her. The pictures of her. Pictures of her with Steve.

Someone knocked at her door and she spun in her chair with a little cry. She glanced down at Alex who was pushing a matchbox car over and around the cat's belly, and then walked slowly to the door and peeked through the peephole. She didn't recognize the person who stood without, but he just looked like a reporter. How the hell did he even get in the building without a key?

She turned away and the knocking continued. Long into the night knocking persisted, some hard knocks, some small and polite, some fast and eager. She slept uneasily, phone at her side and a knife next to her bed, fearing that someone who wasn't a reporter, someone who just wanted revenge on Captain America, might come calling and wouldn't bother knocking. Hannah called in sick for work the next day and began to research plane tickets, thinking she and Alex might need a little break from DC.

Noise outside her window drew her to it and she saw that there was a news van out front. She knew that by now, a day later, a lot of the secrets on the internet had been pulled from the internet as quickly as possible, by the government and other authoritative agencies, for national security most likely. People were left with easy access to the unimportant secrets left behind, and she assumed that her being the only person to have a personal connection to Steve Rogers since he'd come into this new age, to actually have been intimately involved with him, was news-worthy enough fodder – especially after he'd been 'arrested' in the street and then disappeared.

The problem was, much like she'd been warned in the past, back before she and Steve broke up – there were people who would hurt her to get to Steve. And right now it seemed like someone bad wanted to get to Steve, if his altercations with people over the past couple days were any indication. Shit rolls downhill and you're standing at the bottom with your arms open, waiting for it.

Hannah didn't know what to do. She looked back at her computer and wondered if it was possible to get a hold of someone who could help her. Help make this go away, or something, without revealing too much, without revealing that Alex was who he was. The leak on the internet made it surprisingly easy to find the phone number she was looking for.

"Hello?" He answered shortly, sounding busy and distracted.

"Hi, you might not remember me, but –"

"If this is about Loki and that damn sceptre, I've already said 'no comment' more times than I'd care to, don't make me come find you," his tone was threatening and impatient.

"No! I don't care about that, I'm calling because Steve Rogers – "

"No Fucking Comment! What don't you people understand?" He yelled and hung up. Hannah stared at the phone. She recognized the voice, she knew she had the right man. She dialled again.

"Don't hang up this time!" She cried, but he immediately did so. She growled in frustration and then growled louder and made claws out of her hands when Alex looked over at her in concern. He giggled delightfully at the ruse and turned back to his blocks. Hannah dialled again.

"I need help!" She cried this time, hoping that would stall him long enough to allow her to explain.

"Yeah, professional help, you vulture, fuck off." CLICK. Hannah glared at the phone and decided to pull out the big guns this time.

"I called you a caveman!" He didn't hang up, and there was a pause on the other end which seemed to indicate that he was surprised. "You broke me and Steve up, like a total asshole, remember?" She snapped, a little churlishly. There was more silence.

"You remember me, right? Hannah Baker? I'm being hounded too, I need help," she insisted.

"From SHIELD?" Clint asked in disbelief. She shook her head and replied, "No, as far as I can see, SHIELD's not doing so hot, plus we have such an unpleasant past, SHIELD and I."

"How are you being hounded?" He asked gruffly.

"They're calling me, the press, other agencies, random people, all asking about Steve: where is he now, do I know what's going on, am I involved – it's freaking me out and now they're all camped out downstairs. I can't stay in here forever!" She got it all out in one gust and Clint was silent again. "Well?" She asked him impatiently.

"Why did you call me," he said flatly. Hannah got to her feet, her hand fisted over her stomach. "You warned me before, about SHIELD watching me, to make sure I was a good guy, but also to keep me safe from people who were out to get Steve," she told him slowly, trying hard to modulate her voice, "And now everyone knows everything." She glanced down at Alex who had a block in his mouth and was smiling at her around it. "Well, almost everything."

She crouched down and pulled the block from the baby's mouth, replacing it with a pacifier. He flopped down on his side and used the cat's belly as a pillow as he rested for a few moments.

"I'm afraid right now," she finished, her voice quiet.

"Have you spoken to Steve since –"

"No, not once since the day we broke up."

"Yeah, I got an earful for that, you know," Clint complained. He let out a long exasperated sigh.

"Clint, please, I'm worried for my safety and I have… I have a child now, and I'm terrified, that all these people, everyone who knows, that one of them will hurt me, or my baby, because they're trying to get to Steve. You've seen the news, you saw him carted away – he's involved with something bad, some bad people, a bad group, something. I'm afraid they'll come after me because now everyone knows I was his only truly personal connection," she hated to plead, but she had absolutely no one else she could turn to who had even the slightest chance of being effective at helping her.

"I'll be there in a couple of days," he told her, "I'm nowhere near DC and it's going to take some time to figure this out," and then he hung up. She stared at the phone as her heart beat fast and hard. Am I overreacting? She asked herself, pacing back and forth through the living room. Alex and the cat were sprawled out on the floor, napping companionably together. No, I don't think so.

Hannah left the room, leaving the two loves of her life sleeping together on the soft living room carpet, so she could pack bags. He wasn't going to be there for a couple of days, but she was antsy and wanted to be ready. She had no idea how Clint would be getting her out of her home, but she assumed it would be by car. She didn't want to pack heavy, but travelling with a baby meant that she normally had to. She packed lightly for herself, very basic clothing, very little of it, and then just the staples for toiletries – it hardly filled a regular sized backpack. She filled Alex's diaper bag with baby toiletries and diapers, then stuffed more of his things in on top of her own in the backpack.

She lay the baby Bjorn she still used for Alex on top of everything; the stroller was just too much to bring along with her and she figured she would probably need her hands free. Never been on the run before, though, or gone into hiding, maybe it's easy, she thought, though she seriously doubted her own wishful thinking.

She was in the kitchen gathering up extra bottles, jars of baby food and some formula to stuff into outer pockets on the diaper bag and in her purse, when her eyes caught on the tins of cat food lined up neatly along the counter. Oh Ollie, what do I do with you? She thought worriedly. Will we be gone for days? A week? Months? Oh shit, what about work? She quickly made a beeline for the phone again, ignoring the message on the screen that said she had 25 voicemails and 36 missed calls, and dialled up her work line.

She spoke briefly with her boss, whose tone was knowing and almost amused, as she explained that she would need the next two weeks off. He agreed, and seemed about to ask her more, when she ended the call in a hurry. I definitely do not want to get into a conversation about all of this now.

She looked down at the phone in her hand when Alex started to crying on the ground. She had been about to call around to try and find a cat sitter for Ollie, but Alex's face was getting red and angry, so she dropped the phone and picked him up. He grabbed for her shoulder with a chubby hand, still crying in little hiccups.

"You stink, kiddo," she murmured to him, nuzzling at his chubby neck. He chuckled then, tears forgotten because of the attention, and tried to duck his head as she carted him off to the bedroom for a changing. As he lay kicking and grabbing at every item within reach, Hannah changed her son's diaper and ran through cat care possibilities in her head. Every turn seemed to require leaving the apartment building, which she was not keen on doing. I guess as a last resort I could leave the window open and he could run to that lady upstairs…

As she was zipping Alex back into his overalls, she paused to consider, again, that perhaps she was overreacting. "So everyone knows I dated him, what's the big deal? All the leaked files mention that "contact appears to have been terminated" 2 years ago," she spoke to Alex, smiling at him and using her cartoon-happy voice, and he gave her a big gap-toothed smile back, pleased with the attention, "Maybe nobody cares about an ex-girlfriend?" Alex seemed to grow disinterested with her worries and squirmed to get down, so she put him on the floor and watched him lumber off down the hallway, moving into a waddly little trot halfway to the living room which had him careening off the walls, laughing as he went.

Such a happy baby, she thought to herself, knowing he didn't get his generally sunny disposition from her; that was Steve to the core. She considered putting fleeing with Clint Barton on hold as she settled onto the couch to watch the news; she wanted to get a sense of what was going on out there. As Alex grunted along loudly to a toy that was singing 'Bah Bah Black Sheep' at him, Hannah took in the latest news.

Local authorities are staying mum at this time, but our sources have confirmed that Captain America has gone missing. As you may recall, he was found unconscious on the bank of the Potomac River late yesterday evening by officers patrolling the area. They took him into custody but they were attacked by people believed to be compatriots of Captain America's, and he was taken from police.

Hannah gaped at the earnest reporter on the scene of the horrifying wreckage where the SHIELD facility had once stood. The reporter explained that a manhunt was once again underway for Steve Rogers and his friends.

The scene changed and now a different reporter was standing somewhere familiar. Outside her building. Hannah felt her stomach drop and roil.

We are live on the scene outside the apartment building where Steve Rogers, otherwise known as Captain America, once lived. It was here that he met and began dating a young woman. Her name is Hannah Baker. A photo of Hannah, taken from her Facebook profile flashed on the screen. She cringed. It was a good picture of her, but it was very obviously her; there could be no mistaking her for someone else. The reporter discussed details about Hannah, her age, how she was originally from Seattle, even the company she worked for.

The files released by SHIELD seem to indicate that their romance was passionate and short-lived; she broke things off after only a couple weeks. For a man with such a deeply private personal life, we are left to wonder if the couple ever truly broke things off, or if they have remained together in secret all this time.

Baker has refused to comment, and hasn't left her apartment since yesterday according to her neighbors. The reporter turned to a woman that Hannah recognized, an elderly woman who lived in the unit below Hannah.

"Ma'am, they say you're her neighbour now, as well as Captain Rogers' neighbour when he lived in the building, what can you tell us about them?" The reporter asked, her white teeth shining as she spoke. Her neighbour looked uncertainly towards the camera and then back over towards the reporter.

"She's a good girl, always quiet up above me, keeps to herself up there, her and her baby," the woman explained, "Never saw the two of them together, but he was such a nice boy, always helped me with my groceries up the stairs."

"Has he ever come back to visit that you know of?" The reporter asked breathlessly, and the neighbor shook her head. "Not that I've ever seen, but then I don't spend time staring out at the hall, you know," the neighbor explained, "I suppose it's possible."

The reporter spun away from the old woman and stepped to the side, reclaiming the attention of the camera all to herself. "There you have it, two nice people, seemingly meant for each other, one of whom still lives here – is it so far out of the realm of possibility that these two people stayed together when they had such chemistry? Does Hannah Baker know where Steve Rogers is hiding?"

The screen cut to a picture taken from the internet, one of the handful of shots of her and Steve together, from the night they had their date – apparently being followed at a distance by SHIELD even then. It was a cheesy picture, from when they were sharing a milkshake, but the zoomed in photo showed a lot of body language that spoke to more than just sharing an innocent ice cream treat. Hannah groaned – it was so much stupid speculation, but they were making it sound very convincing, and given all the secrets and lies floating around, she wondered how long it would be before people began to suspect that Steve was hiding out in her apartment.

She watched carefully, but no pictures of Alex appeared to have been released. She kept him off her social media presence entirely, and while they had his name, Alexander Baker, they had nothing more to go on. One station managed to get his birth certificate, but without a father on it, that was as far facts went – that didn't stop people from speculating further about who his father might be, though.