At sunrise, in Washington D.C.
Laura was on one of her morning runs, in shorts and a t-shirt as she jogged around the reflective pool with the Washington Monument was in the background.
She still hated running but Steve was insistent on her running with him, saying it was "good for her" when she was down here consulting for a project for SHIELD.
But she was pretty sure he just wanted a running partner.
Her and Steve became really good friends the more and more time she spent down here.
To the rest of the world he was Captain America but to her he was just Steve.
"On your left." she heard Steve say as he sprinted by her.
"Shut up!" she hissed while panting heavy, covered in sweat.
Meanwhile, a man was running way ahead of her as he jogged along at the bottom of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
"On your left." Steve passed him quickly.
"Uh huh, on my left. Got it." he replied.
He made another lap and was coming up upon Laura just as fast.
"On your left!" he passed her.
"I hate you! I hate you! Ugh!" she tried running as fast as she could along the side of the reflective pool but her legs felt like they were on fire.
The man Steve passed earlier was resting against a tree, trying to catch his breath as Laura ran up to him.
"Need a medic?" he asked them as he walked up to them.
"This is why I have a suit so I don't have to do this crap." she said while sitting down on the grass, exhausted.
"Dude, you just ran like 13 miles in 30 minutes." the man didn't exaggerate.
"I guess I got a late start." Steve joked.
"Oh, ha, ha, ah." Laura rolled her eyes.
"What unit you with?" Steve asked the man.
"58, Pararescue. But now I'm working down at the VA. Sam Wilson." he offered his hand.
"Steve Rogers." he helped him up.
"Laura Watson." she introduced herself as Steve helped her up.
"Yeah, I kinda already knew that." he joked as they shook hands.
"Fame does have it's drawbacks." she joked back.
"Must have freaked you out coming home after the whole defrosting thing." Sam told Steve.
"It takes some getting used to. It's good to meet you, Sam." they began to walk over to Laura's Tesla Model S parked on the street.
"It's your bed, right?" Sam spoke up.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Your bed, it's too soft. When I was over there I'd sleep on the ground and use rocks for pillows, like a caveman. Now I'm home, lying in my bed, and it's like..." he clarified but Steve interrupted him.
"Lying on a marshmallow. Feel like I'm gonna sink right to the floor." Sam smiled and nodded in agreement.
"How long?" Steve asked.
"Two tours." he answered.
"You must miss the good old days, huh?" Sam asked.
"Well, things aren't so bad. Food's a lot better, we used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful. I've been reading that a lot trying to catch up. She's been helping me." he pointed at Laura.
"I made him write a list." she smiled.
"Marvin Gaye, 1972, "Trouble Man" soundtrack. Everything you've missed jammed into one album." he suggested and Laura smiled.
"Marvin Gaye is already on his list." she said, immediately liking him and he smirked back.
"You have good taste." he complimented.
"I know." she joked as her Stark Phone and Steve's phone vibrated and they read a text sent to the both of them reading.
"Mission alert. Extraction imminent. Meet at the curb. :)"
"You too?" Steve asked confused.
"Yeah, I don't do missions." she frowned.
"Must be urgent." he shrugged his shoulders.
"Alright, Sam, duty calls. Thanks for the run. If that's what you wanna call running." they shook hands.
"And that Sam is the oh so humble Captain America." Laura said dramatically while shaking his hand.
"As long as he doesn't make me run with him again I'm good." he joked and she nodded and smiled back.
"Any time you wanna stop by the VA, make me look awesome in front of the girl at the front desk, just let me know." Sam asked Steve.
"I'll keep it in mind." he nodded back as Laura walked around her Model S parallel parked on the side of the street and opened up the door as Nat pulled up and rolled down the window.
"Why did I get asked for this mission? I don't do them." Laura asked her annoyed.
"Nick says it's urgent and he's asking nicely." she answered and she looked over at Steve who shrugged his shoulders.
"Guess you're with STRIKE now." he said while getting in the passenger seat.
"I had a date." she mumbled to herself while getting in her car and Sam crouched to get a good look of Nat and her Corvette.
"How you doing?" he smiled.
"Hey." she smirked.
"Can't run everywhere." Steve told Sam.
"No, you can't." Laura sped off, burning rubber, and Nat followed suit.
At night, in a Quinjet over the Indian Ocean, Laura was in the Black Bird Mark XLVll with Steve in his new suit.
Nat, Rumlow and the rest of the STRIKE TEAM were crowded in the jet as Rumlow explained the mission.
"The target is a mobile satellite launch platform: The Lemurian Star. They were sending up their last payload when pirates took them, 93 minutes ago." he brought up the ship on a monitor.
"Any demands?" Laura asked, knowing the purpose of The Lemurian Star but not knowing that it had trespassed into Indian waters.
"A billion and a half." he answered.
"Why so steep?" Steve asked.
"Because it SHIELD's." he revealed and Laura and Steve shared a look.
"So, it's not off-course, it's trespassing." he corrected.
"I'm sure they have a good reason." Nat said innocently.
"You know, I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor." he said annoyed.
"Relax, it's not that complicated." she reassured them.
"Yeah I'm sure that's why I'm here." Laura rolled her eyes.
"How many pirates?" she asked Rumlow.
"Twenty five, top mercs, led by this guy. Georges Batroc." he showed them a photo of him.
"Ex-DGSE, Action Division. He's at the top of Interpol's Red Notice. Before the French demobilized him, he had thirty-six kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties." he clarified.
"Hostages?" Laura asked.
"Uh... mostly techs. One officer, Jasper Sitwell." he pulled up his image on the monitor and she frowned, wondering why he was there.
"They're in the galley." he added.
"What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship?" Steve and Laura shared a suspicious look.
"Alright, Laura and I are gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc." Steve ordered and she nodded in agreement.
"Nat, you'll kill the engines and wait for instructions. Rumlow, you sweep aft, find the hostages, get them to the life-pods, get em out. Let's move." he ordered as Laura's helmet came on.
"STRIKE, you heard the Cap. Gear up." Rumlow ordered as everyone got ready to jump.
"Secure channel seven." Steve spoke into his communicator on his wrist.
"Seven Secure. Going dark." she said and it appeared on her Hud while her Night Vision went on, making the red glow in her suit eyes disappear.
"Seven secure. Did you do anything fun Saturday night?" Nat asked Steve.
"Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so... No, not really." he joked while pushing a button, lowering the ramp.
"Coming up by the drop zone." Laura heard the pilot in her helmet.
"You know, if you ask Kristen out, from Statistics, she'd probably say yes." Nat suggested.
"That's why I don't ask." he countered.
"It's just a date Steve. You chicken?" Laura joked.
"No! Too busy!" he dove out and Laura followed suit.
An armed pirate was walking around the ship when Laura landed hard on him, taking him out instantly, and throwing his body overboard.
Steve climbed over the railing and they gave each other a nod and ran off.
They approached the poop deck and Steve through his Shield at two guards and it bounced between them, knocking them out as he caught it.
They ran around to the other side of the ship and Laura blasted a guard over the edge and Steve took the other two out quickly.
They ran towards the bridge when Laura blasted a guard into another guard.
She kicked one of them over the railing and punched the other one's head into the wall, hard.
Steve disarmed a knife from a guard and looked over at the guards Laura took out and she gave a thumbs up.
They ran towards the center of the ship and Laura blasted a guard over the railing and Steve tossed his Shield between two of them.
It ricocheted against a wall as Laura swept the legs of a guard, flipping him over but one aimed his gun at Steve's head.
She froze, calculating her options but a bullet struck his neck from behind, taking him out as Rumlow and the rest of the STRIKE team parachuted him.
"Thanks." Steve nodded.
"Yeah. The two of you seemed pretty helpless without me." he said sarcastically as Nat and other agents parachuted onto the deck.
"What about the nurse that lives across the hall from you? She seems kind of nice." Nat offered causally.
"Secure the engine room, then find me a date." he ordered.
"We're multitasking. It's for your own good Steve." Laura joked.
In the galley of the ship, Sitwell and other agents were being zip tied and being held hostage by the French pirates.
"I said to Batroc, if we want SHIELD to pay, we have to start sending them bodies now!" one said in French.
"I have a bullet for someone. You want a bullet in your head? Do you want one? Eh?" he aimed his gun at them.
"Move that leg. Want a bullet in your head?" he kicked it aside.
Laura and Steve were making they way towards the bridge where pirates had control of it.
"I do not like to wait. Call Durand. I want the ship ready to move when the ransom arrives." Bartoc ordered.
"Yes, Batroc." the pirate made the call.
"Durand. Start the engine."
"Ok." he said while in the engine room. He turned around but saw Nat waiting for him.
"Hey, sailor." she used her cables to strangle him, slide down and shoot several pirates as she repelled down.
Back in the galley, "Shut up. What is it? Want to be a hero?" he taunted the hostages.
"Well, I've waited long enough." he locked the door and knocked on it, getting the attention of the guard outside.
"Hey, look for Batroc. If I do not hear anything in two minutes, I'll start to kill them!"
"Ok. I'll find him!" he turned around to leave but saw Laura aiming her hand at him, stabilizer armed with Rumlow with a stun gun.
"Wrong move." she blasted him in the face, taking him out.
Rumlow gave her a nod and he placed a bomb at the door.
They ran out and he and the other agents began repelling down the side of the bridge and Laura hovered next to Rumlow, her HUD highlighted the targets.
"Targets acquired." she told the team.
"STRIKE in position." Rumlow confirmed.
"Natasha, what's your status?" Steve asked on the deck and she didn't respond.
"Status, Natasha?" he asked again as she repealed down.
"Hang on!" she jumped on a pirate and electrocuted him with her cuffs and took a few more out with ease.
"Engine room secure." she took a pipe and swung it at a pirate trying to get up, knocking him back down.
In the galley, Sitwell noticed Rumlow's head peak through the window.
"Time is up. Who wants to die first? Hey, you! Take the girl." the pirate threatened as Laura aimed her guns attached to her suit wrist.
"On my mark. Three. Two. One." she fired the bullets, taking all of them out at once.
"I told you, SHIELD doesn't negotiate." Sitwell repeated.
Back on the bridge, one of the pirates was trying to make contact on the radio.
"Hello? Batroc, the line is dead. I lost contact with them." he said as Steve threw his shield into the window, taking him out.
He jumped in but Batroc kicked him, managing to escape.
"Hostages en route to extraction. Romanoff missed the rendezvous point." Rumlow said as he and Laura escorted them.
"Cap. Hostiles are still in play." Laura warned.
"Natasha, Batroc's on the move. Circle back to Rumlow and protect the hostages." he ordered and she didn't reply.
"Natasha!" he demanded but Batroc suddenly kicked his shield, knocking him down.
He kicked him again and they exchanged several kicks and blows but Steve managed to knock him down with his shield.
"I thought that you were more than just a shield." he mocked in French and Steve but his shield away and took off his mask.
"Let's see." they swapped more kicks and punches but Steve kicked him backwards.
Batroc regained his footing and launched for him but Steve kicked him in the face and he collapsed backwards.
He managed to get up but Steve tackled him through the door of the bridge and punched him in the face one final time.
"Well, this is awkward." Nat spoke up from a computer, downloading something onto a drive.
"What are you doing?" Steve asked annoyed.
"Backing up the hard drive. It's a good habit to get into." she joked nonchalantly.
"Laura needed your help. What the hell are you doing here?" he walked over and saw she was she was backing up.
"You're saving SHIELD Intel." he accused.
"Whatever I can get my hands on." she admitted.
"Our mission is to rescue hostages." he reminded her.
"No. That was yours and Laura's mission. And you've done it beautifully." she corrected.
The files downloaded and she pulled the drive out but Steve grabbed her arm.
"You just jeopardized this whole operation." he accused.
"I think that's overstating things." suddenly Batroc got up and threw a grenade as he ran out.
Steve deflected it with his shield, grabbed Nat and jumped through the glass of the other room as the bomb blew up the bridge.
"Ok. That one's on me." Nat admitted as they caught their breaths.
"You're damn right."