Chapter 9

Rosie flicked through the radio channels, hoping to find something worth listening to, other than the shit that was on the radio most days. She'd driven through Italy, Austria and a bit of Slovakia by now and had had no coffee or sleep, so was begging to feel quite tired. "Make sure you don't go near Budapest." Alisa cautioned while Rosie flicked, and Rosie stopped as she remembered that Slovakia bordered Hungary and how close to the border Budapest was. Fury sent Alisa to Budapest too?

"What shit happened when you went there?" Rosie questioned, testing the girls boundaries. Could she get her to open up a little? This whole car journey Alisa hadn't slept, no matter how much Rosie had tried to make her. They were going to have to trade off driving soon, if Rosie could bear to let someone else touch her car, and Rosie didn't need her falling asleep at the wheel. Rosie assumed it was because she couldn't trust her, but how could she? They had barely talked, other than the shouting.

"Just some cunt. I got stuck in a stairway with about twenty five guards." Of course this wasn't what Alisa remembered, only background details of what happened in Budapest. "Some other stuff too. But you know, what happens in Budapest stays in Budapest. What happened to you?"

Rosie smirked, looking over at the younger girl, "Oh shit went down in Budapest. I was with-" Rosie's face fell. She re-though her sentence and began again. "I was about fourteen, fifteen maybe... Nat... Natasha impersonated some boys mum. He- Jayden- flirted with me. Hydra followed us. One of the later... Black Widow's followed us. I got glass in my foot. We had to get the train to Switzerland. Shit definitely went down in Budapest." Rosie knew Natasha was a sensitive subject, especially since their 'mission' was about her, not that she had told Alisa. The brunette nodded, though remained silent.

"You don't talk much." Rosie commented. She didn't mean to sound rude, it just came out like that. She was a total chatterbox and had grown up always around people, at the orphanage, at the Tower, at S.H.I.E.L.D. There was always someone to talk to.

"Haven't ever needed to." It had just been her and Thalia then she avoided most people around S.H.I.E.L.D. "But I talk when I want."

"So tell me about yourself?"

"I lived with mum's friend Thalia and she visited from time to time, made most of my birthdays. Then for my sixteenth she came and died. And Thalia did too. So I went with Fury. Became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. That's basically it." Rosie knew Alisa was holding back details, but it was private and Rosie knew she shouldn't be so nosy. However she was a Stark and it was in their nature to be so.

"Boyfriend? Obsessions? God I don't even know how old you are."

"Twenty one. Birthdays 14th of May."

"Boyfriend?" Rosie teased, noticing the slightest tinge of pink that creeper in to Alisa's pale cheeks.

"I might be going out with another Agent. Possibly. Highly unlikely, of course I'm not I mean Its again protocol. But what about you?" The red flowed freely through Alisa's cheeks, making it known that she was indeed going out with a fellow agent.

"Ah, which one is it? And there's a complicated situation with Jayden and myself but we're talking about you." Rosie insisted. Alisa turned to look out the window in to black nothingness of night. She didn't want to tell the ginger. Her and agent-

"He's great. Blonde, tall, blue eyes, I brought him in to S.H.I.E.L.D. a few years back."

"Just like your parents..." Rosie muttered under her breath. She didn't think Alisa would be able to hear and was therefore surprised when she was met with a wave of sound.

"CAN EVERYONE JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT MY PARENTS?! EITHER YOU TELL ME WHO MY DAD IS AND BRING MY MOTHER BACK TO LIFE OR JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE!" There was a slight pause in which Rosie regained composure and Alisa drew a breath thinking about her words. "Sorry, I'm sorry, this is why I don't talk I end up shouting at people for the tiniest things then go in to a monologue and ramble about how bad I feel about shouting at them. I'm sorry, Rosie, I really am. I just don't like the secrets that surround me. The secrets that should be mine, but I seem to be the only one that doesn't know what the secret is. I mean, who is my father and why won't anyone tell me? It can't be that much of a big deal or no one else would know, either. I'm going to shut up now, sorry again." Alisa turned back to face the window, feeling ashamed that she had lost it. Everything she had said was true, but she could have put it nicer.

Rosie on the other hand, was pleased to be shouted at. It meant that the girl was opening up to her. Fury had never specifically told her not to tell the brunette.

"His name was Clint..." Rosie whispered. They had gone rogue and no longer answered to S.H.I.E.L.D. after all. "Him and N-Natasha were partners. He brought her in to S.H.I.E.L.D. from the Red Room... She was a monster there okay, and earlier, that Naccari was dealing shit with the people who have red stars tattooed on their arms, those pieces of shit were the Red Room and they said Natasha was alive. Natasha, my friend, your mother, is apparently alive." Rosie glanced over at Alisa who was now staring straight ahead possibly in shock. Rosie knew what it felt like to have no parents, then suddenly have both, but this situation was different. The younger girl had never known whom her father was so assumed him dead, her mother had been dead, so dead they couldn't find a body... so dead that they couldn't find a body...

Rosie pulled in to a petrol station an forty five minutes later, in Nitra. She may have been going at 150KM an hour, which is around 90mph if you're awkward. She hadn't looked over or spoken to Alisa in this time but let her thoughts mull over. She was going to have to ask the younger girl to drive. Coffee could keep her awake, but would also make her hyper, not a good thing in a small car, not that the car was too small. Rosie looked over at Alisa before she got out to connect the pump. Alisa was asleep, finally. Could Rosie wake her? No. It proved she thought Rosie trust worthy, which was good considering what Rosie had told her. Rosie filled up the tank, paid and grabbed a coffee and two Fidorka, wafer bar which she had tried last time she was in Slovakia, and paid. She went back to the car and took off again, getting back up to speed.

As far as Rosie knew, they were in the middle of nowhere she Alisa woke up. It had been a further forty five minutes, and Rosie was drunk with fatigue. She had drunk the whole coffee within five minutes, scalding her mouth more than once. The wafer had followed a few minutes later, and Rosie had saved the last one for Alisa. She had been glancing over to the younger girl every few minutes, checking to see when they could swap and she sleep.

"Do you want to switch?" Alisa asked, a few minutes later after she had woken up properly. Rosie eagerly agreed and was asleep within minutes of the switch. Alisa drove for the next few hours, through the rest of Slovakia and Ukraine, thinking about what Rosie had told her. She had had one mission to do with the Red Room before, but every time she got close to her target he had long sleeves on. She had got him eventually and killed him. Her mother could still be alive? No wonder Rosie was spooked. The Red Room... They had launched the attack that day, they had killed her, or had they just taken her?

Alisa drove for ages, possibly as long as the owner of the car, until Rosie awoke just in time to get to the Russian border.