First I wanna thank the people for their reviews. It is nice that people take the time to leave a comment. So this is the second part of 'Brothers in arms' and it takes place in Afghanistan.

Three months later

Without making a single noise, the group of soldiers and agents approached the backside of the building. With Jeremy at the front they positioned themself next to the backdoor.

"Tasha, you ready?" he asked Natasha, who was currently with her team, at the front site of the building.

"We are" she responded. With a sign from Jeremy both teams breached their door to enter the building. The first two guys whio noticed the soldiers didn't have time to react before they were put down. The next one was able to fire a shot, but missed Jeremy who sliced his arm and knocked him out cold. The last guy aimed his rifle at Jeremy, but Natasha quickly jumped on his shoulders and shocked with her wrist. Nat gracefully jumped off the falling man and throw Jeremy smile.

Jeremy who smiled back at her pointed at the upper Floor. While the soldiers stayed on the ground Floor, Jeremy and Natasha took the stairs. Another guy who approached the two at the end of the stairs was immediately greated by Jeremys sword who stabbed it through his chest. The next man, who stood in the middle of the room was attacked by Natasha who punched him hard in the face before stabbing a knife into his head.

"Damn it!" Nat heart Jeremy yell.

"What happened?"

"We are wrong" Jeremy told her, pointing at a bunch of White packets laying on a table.

"Those guys are not Prometheus, they were just drug dealers. We wasted our time." Jere said before punching the door hard.

xxx

Back at the base, Natasha sat at the desk, looking over the old Prometheus file again. For nearly 3 months now, Jeremy and her had been in Afghanistan, searching one hideout after another. Still they never got anything what brought them closer to their target.

Natasha laid the file down and looked over to Jeremys bunk. She placed her chin on her hand and watched her friend a moment. He looked a bit awfull. His face was pale and he had blue bags under his eyes. She didn't like it at all to see him like this. Ever since the two of them were in this place, Jeremy acted like this. He was constantly working to find Prometheus, he never gave himself a rest.

Closing the folder Natasha stood up and walked over to Jeremy.

"You alright cutie?"

Jeremy closed the Laptop he was using and put it on the bedside table.

"Yes, I'm OK" he assured her with tired eyes.

"You don't look so. When was the last time you slept?"

Jeremy shrugged his shoulders. "A few days ago."

Nat placed her hand on the back of his head and stroked his hair. She learned from Laura that this would always calm Jeremy down.

"You should sleep."

"I'm not tired Nat" Jeremy replied smiling at her.

Natasha frowned. She already experienced this kind of behavior from him. He always assures everyone he is okay, becasue he thinks he needs to do everything alone. He does that until it gets to much for him.

Natasha continued to stroke his hair for a few minutes, trying to get him to rest, when suddenly Agent Rumlow entered their tent.

"Romanoff. Barton." He said, giving Jeremy name a nerved tone. Natasha didn't know why, but Rumlow and Jeremy just couldn't stand each other.

"Fury is on the com. He has something you need to see."

xxx

"Barton, have you found something usefull on your last trip?" Fury asked over the screen.

"No, Sir" Jeremy replied, shaking his head. "Another dead end."

"Sorry to hear that. But I might have another track for you to follow."

Furys face disappeared from the screen and was replaced by another picture.

"Is that the place your squad was attacked?" Natasha asked from beside Jeremy.

"Yes" Jeremy answered with gritted teeth.

"Why are we looking at this?"

"The surveillance missed this before you got there."

The picture switched and showed the same area but covered in orange and blue. A thermal picture. One string of red took Jeremys interest. It was under the surface, leading away from the terrain.

"What is that sir?"

"We don't know that yet. But I think that's the reason your squad was attacked. You were too close to that tunnel."

"So we need to go there again" Jeremy stated.

xxx

A few minutes later Jeremy , Nat and some soldiers from the base were outside, preparing the humvees.

"Rumlow and his mens are not coming with us"

Natasha told Jeremy while holstering her guns. Jeremy smiled at her when he noticed Rumlow in the background, a bruise formed around his eye.

"Did you hit him?" Jere asked.

"Maybe." Natasha said not looking at him.

Jeremy crossed his arms and gave her a stern look.

"He called you a freak" She finally said.

"He said he doesn't want to risk his life for some 'freaks' vendetta"

"So you hit him because he insulted me?" Jeremy asked with some blood rushing to his cheeks.

"Yes. Nobody calls you a freak on my watch."

With that they both climbed into the humvees which hit the road immediately.

Natasha sitting beside Jeremy, looked at a map of the area they were heading to.

"How long is it gonna take" she asked him.

"6 hours maybe" he answered looking out the window.

"What are you thinking Jere?" she asked looking at him.

"It's just...about what Rumlow said. Sometimes I don't know myself, why I'm looking into this." Jeremy told her.

"When are you doing it?" she asked before laying her head on his shoulder.

"My friends died that day. I just want to know why." He answered before closing his eyes and leaning his head on hers.