Ashley's eyes grew wide and she took a step back, trying not to stagger under the weight of the news, whilst Natasha had no choice but to jump in.

"Sorry to interrupt, Ash - what was her mutation exactly?" she questioned. The sudden sound of her voice startled the women.

"She draws the energy source of anyone she touches," Ashley explained stressfully. She couldn't shake the concern from her face, and now the women outside the room were even more confused than before. "Basically, she can kill by touch. She put a boy in a coma for three months just by kissing him."

"Good thing we didn't share a lil smooch, huh?" Natasha hummed.

"Why would she get rid of her mutation?" Agent Hill murmured across to Christie.

"Maybe because it sounds like actual hell?" Christie scoffed back quietly, giving her a look as if to say 'duh!' "Imagine not being able to touch anyone cos you might freakin' kill them. I mean there's dramatic and then there's dramatic."

"Does Dad know you've done this?" Ashley suddenly frowned back to Rogue. Rogue shook her head and sniffed, nibbling on the edge of her thumb.

"Cerebro's getting fixed tonight," she muttered back. She dipped her head. "But I ran away as soon as I injected the stuff. I was starting to stumble everywhere and then…well, then it got weird. I passed out like an hour away from the school and I woke up in…some kind of hospital room a-a-and-"

"You went to a hospital? A human hospital, Marie?" Ashley shouted, her eyes wild and frantic. "What the hell did they do to you in there?!"

"I don't know Ashley, but I felt better when I woke up and I unhooked myself from the drip and left as soon as I could, okay? I didn't even grab my shoes," Rogue cried back, the tears shamelessly welling up in her eyes as she recalled the events. "I just had to come and see you, I had to find you so that I could join S.H.I.E.L.D, like you did!"

That was the point that caught Christie, Natasha, Agent Hill and Ashley off guard. Ashley's tense demeanour dropped almost immediately.

"I'm sorry - you extracted your mutation to join S.H.I.E.L.D?!" she blinked blandly.

"No, I extracted it because I hated it. I'm joining S.H.I.E.L.D because I can see how happy you are here and I c-c-can be trained to be an agent, just like you and your sister-" Christie's head jerked back and she had to stifle her laughs of disbelief. Rogue definitely wouldn't want the training she had in France - it was hell.

"I will gladly teach you the rules to becoming an agent," she smirked in amusement once she pressed the talkback button. "Rule number one - always keep a concealed handheld in your bedside drawer-"

"Woahhh there," Agent Hill had to bump Christie out of the way. "I'm sorry - Marie, it's Marie right? Yeah, so we don't let just anyone 'join S.H.I.E.L.D', and if Ashley gave you that impression-"

"Hey now! Don't mention my name," Ashley scoffed back through the glass. "I haven't said a thing about you lot! How can I when, the last time I checked, this organisation didn't even legally exist anymore?"

"Wait, is no one concerned about the fact that the doctors had to handle her at some point and we don't even know who those doctors were? Or what the hell happened to her both before and after she ended up hospital?" Christie winced, quickly redirecting the conversation. Her own mind was racing at about thirty thoughts per minute, and she couldn't keep up.

"Well, I'm still wearing the hospital wristband," Rogue hummed thickly, lifting her arm so that Ashley could read it. There was the name of the hospital, 'Roefield,' and the doctor's name was 'Dr '.

"Roefield?" Ashley repeated blandly. "I've never even-"

"Roefield was once a subdivision medical centre of S.H.I.E.L.D up west, then it was renovated into a civilian hospital," Natasha quickly filled Ashley in, eyes darting across to Agent Hill.

"Hi, yeah - I had no idea Roefield as a subdivision were even still running, regular hospital or not? Didn't we bust them months back for them doing some dark sh*t behind the scenes?" Christie hissed across the room.

"As far as I knew, they haven't existed since Fury had his…situation," Agent Hill murmured back as she began to type something else into the tablet. "They said they had too many HYDRA agents wriggling through the cracks, so they were gonna liquidise so that they could never be traced back. Then after Coulson-"

"HYDRA? Um guys? Then shouldn't we be going to this Roefield place to find out if Marie is…you know, carrying some dodgy thing that could slowly poison her or something? Real hospital or not, this sounds far too random for my liking," Ashley called out to them through the glass.

"Yeah, we'll go to Roefield," Christie spoke back into the mic briskly and taking immediate control, "if something dodgy is going on, putting you right in HYDRA's hands would be beyond stupid, especially after how they tried to get you before. You take Rogue back to the Tower and get her fed and watered and stuff."

Ashley nodded and turned to Rogue again, kneeling down so that they were at the same level.

"We're gonna get this sorted out, Marie," she promised quietly, fixing her hair. "Come, let's get you some place warm and get some food down ya."

…

The process of releasing Rogue from S.H.I.E.L.D and into Ashley's care took longer than expected. They had no choice but to call Charles and tell him what was going on, and he was extremely unhappy - distressed, even. He demanded to be updated as soon as they got answers from Roefield. But once all the official bits and pieces were finally sorted, Rogue was finally released to Ashley and she drove her back to the Avengers Tower, whilst Christie and Natasha had no choice but to team up and make their way to Roefield together.

Rogue was in awe of the Avengers Tower before even making it inside. She just couldn't believe that people were living this way, and she had never seen such high level tech in her life. From the car-park-like garage to the lift, to JARVIS, to Ashley's floor - there was nothing that could make her mouth shut from where it hung open in shock.

But Ashley also gave her own gasp of shock as the lift doors slid open to reveal Steve in the smoky kitchen, cooking something with a look of innocent confusion plastered all over his face. "Steve?" she giggled, stepping out of the lift and making her way over to where he stood. She reached over to flick on the extractor fan, allowing the ever-growing smoke to be sucked up through ceiling vents to clear the kitchen.

"Hey, Ash," he sighed helplessly once the smoke disappeared. "Welcome home…?"

"Hey sweetie - what on earth are you trying to cook?" Ashley frowned, trying to make sense of what was in the pans. It was just a burnt collection of sadness. "Are those…are those meant to be prawns? And when I say are those prawns - I really mean were those prawns, because right now…" She bit back her laughter, fluttered her lashes back up at Steve again and she threw her arms around his shoulders. "N'awww, were you trying to cook for me, Rogers?"

"Trying is right," Steve replied with embarrassment, as his hands rested on her waist and a little smile began playing at his lips. "I felt terrible when I woke up and you weren't there but all that food was - which was delicious, by the way. So…I tried to cook for you to make up for it but…well, it kinda failed. Tony was absolutely no help, either. Seriously." Ashley giggled at him again and cocked her head to the side, pouting at that never-ending gentlemanly innocence of his.

"So you really went through all that for me? That is so sweet! I appreciate it," she told him honestly, before pressing a soft kiss to his lips and smiling against them. They broke apart and just stared at each other in silence, almost in a daze with one another - until Ashley remembered who she had actually turned up with. "Oh! Steve, you remember my friend Marie, right?" she gasped, suddenly letting go of him and redirecting his attention to the patiently waiting girl outside the lift. Steve blinked over at her and tried to mask the confusion on his face as he walked over to shake her hand.

"Hi - oh right, I can't touch you," he remembered quickly, dropping his hand by his side.

"You couldn't before, but you can now," Ashley sighed as she shot Rogue an irritable look.

"I can? How comes?" Steve asked them both with a frown.

"Remember that damn mutation killing syringe that I threatened to inject myself with back in the forest?" Ashley murmured under her breath whilst Rogue dipped her head in shame. Steve started to nod, but quickly got the gist of what she was saying.

He turned to Rogue tiredly.

"Did you do it?" he sighed.

"Yeah and ended up in a predicament so Natasha and Christie are off to go figure it out to make sure nothing dodgy happened," Ashley filled him in with a little roll of her eyes. Before they could continue, out strode Tony and Pepper from their bedroom, bickering about something or another. They froze once they saw Rogue standing there - Tony having recognised her.

"Oh! You brought a friend over for the first time!" Pepper beamed, sliding across the laminated floor so that she could welcome her properly. "Hi! I'm Pepper Potts, lovely to meet you."

"Um, Red?" Tony hissed to Ashley whilst Pepper welcomed Rogue. "I might be out on a limb here but isn't that one of your 'X' guys?" Ashley clenched her jaw and nodded, much to Tony's adamant horror. "Oh god. Does that mean we have to face all your…friends…again - but on our turf now? Because I still have some very harsh words lined up for the blind bandit."

Steve raised a brow and glanced over at Ashley as well, having not considered that.

"Actually no - I was the only person that had that stupid 'no leave, no choice' deal. So weirdly enough, I think Marie's free to do as she pleases - which is why we need to find out exactly what happened in that hospital," Ashley answered, running her tongue over her bottom lip in thought.

"Hospital? What hospital?" Steve blinked hollowly.

Ashley took a deep breath and took both him and Tony to the side so that she could explain.

…

Meanwhile, Christie and Natasha were on their way to said place. Christie was driving and Natasha was sat in the front seat awkwardly. They still didn't particularly like each other, and had no interest in working together, but a mission was a mission and neither one of them wanted to be the woman to back down - particularly when Ashley was involved.

She was the common denominator at the end of the day.

So they sat there in silence, both of them grateful as they saw the hospital approaching on the left. "Alright, if they have renovated into a civilian hospital, have you got a cover story ready so we can raid their CCTV?" Natasha yawned as Christie pulled up in the car park.

"I mean I did all the driving - couldn't you get the damn cover story?" Christie scoffed back. Natasha mocked her silently and rolled her eyes. "And more to the point, why would we need a cover story? Roefield was once our building. We have clearance."

"Was once," Natasha repeated her own words back as if it was obvious. "I.E./ is no longer. We can't just barge in there and demand to see the recent surveillance tapes."

"Well if you'd actually used your brain to think of a cover story instead of expecting it from me, I wouldn't be resorting to such stupid measures!" Christie gasped sarcastically before whacking the car door open and jumping straight out. Natasha counted to four and held her tongue, before opening her own car door and hopping out too.

"Look, Christie - you are being about twenty times more irritable than usual as if that were even possible," she told Christie as she stomped over to where she waited. "Now I don't know what the hell your problem is, but leave the attitude at the door. Got it?" Christie sucked in her cheeks and dropped her gaze, not having a counter argument this time.

This simply baffled Natasha even more - something was so off.

But Christie didn't want to talk about it - she just spun on her heel and walked towards the hospital again with nothing but determination. Natasha blinked at her a few times before briskly following.

Once they both got into the reception, a familiar face met them there.

"Coulson, you again?" Christie groaned once she noticed him. "Will you guys stop double sending us on missions?!" Coulson smirked up at her and shook his head from where he was sat behind the reception desk.

"We were tapping into Ashley and Marie's conversation from the interrogation room, of course we had to get here first. It never got fully renovated and we still use this as a medical base, so we're holding all the Roefield workers in custody already - think of it as a time saving situation. You're welcome," he explained breezily, leaning on his fist. Natasha and Christie exchanged annoyed looks.

"More interrogation. Great - can I beat these ones to a pulp at least?" Natasha grumbled. Coulson just gestured towards his far right.

"Bottom floor and to your left. And be easy on my team - they're new." Christie rolled her eyes and started making her way towards the stairway with Natasha at her heels. They skidded down to the bottom floor and took a swift left where a number of hospital workers handcuffed and seated on chairs, in front of a handful of S.H.I.E.L.D agents attempting to squeeze information out of them, but failing miserably. The agents seemed pretty young - one of them was actually quite aggressive in her approach. Natasha rolled her eyes and gestured forwards, implying that this was all Christie's. She preferred the bigger stuff, the tougher guys - hospital workers were hardly her style.

Christie pushed her tongue into her cheek and stepped forwards before clapping her hands. The hospital workers and S.H.I.E.L.D workers stopped speaking and immediately fell silent. Christie cleared her throat.

"Ahem! Hello all, I'm Christie and this is my dearest assistant Nat-"

"Natalie," came Natasha's swift but firm correction, shooting them all a forced smile. "Christie and Natalie - and I'm not her assistant."

"Right. Anyway, we're here to ask a few simple questions and once we do that, you can all go home. Got it?" Christie called out to them.

"Nooo," one of the hospital workers drawled out in boredom. "We've answered all your stupid questions already! We don't know who the hell that doctor was that operated on the girl, he said he was a transfer!" Natasha glanced over at Christie with a frown.

"So you're telling me the doctor had no link to the hospital but you guys let him in to operate on a girl he randomly found on the street?" Natasha clarified in disbelief, taking a few steps forward. The workers glanced down a little ashamedly, hearing firsthand how ridiculous it sounded. "No seriously, is that what you're saying?"

"It sounded feasible in the moment, a-alright?" another one of the workers held up her hands in defence. "We get transfers like…all the time!"

"Transfers within S.H.I.E.L.D, yeah!" Christie yelped with her hands now dramatically outstretched as well as Natasha pinched the bridge of her nose in disbelief. "Since when did-"

"Sorry to interrupt - first of all Christie, such a pleasure to meet you, I read all about your time in Asgard," another sweet faced woman jumped in, practically gushing. "My name's Claire, you're awesome - anyway when I scanned the doctor's retina on his first day at reception, he was on the S.H.I.E.L.D database! So I-"

"Woah, hang on! So now you're saying that he was on the database? What was his name?"

"I don't remember…I wanna say Dan something, which is why when you guys asked about a 'Dr. G Luka' I said I didn't know him. But from the description that you gave, it sounds exactly like him…but I didn't sign in a 'Dr. G Luka'. And I never move from reception. In fact I take my role here very seriously," Claire explained boldly. Natasha and Christie exchanged more looks of confusion, Natasha with a little more boredom at this point.

"So he used an alias? Run all the Dan's down the database and through the backlogs," Christie told the young S.H.I.E.L.D group next to her, "keep going until you get an answer and show Claire here each one until she recognises the man she signed in. That's all we have going for us right now so we gotta move fast." One of the agents nodded, brought the official database up and logged into it before crouching beside Claire.

"In the meantime, do any of you have access to the CCTV cameras in the hospital ward?" Natasha briskly questioned the rest of the workers. "Roefield was notorious for its surveillance cameras, there's gotta be at least one still hooked up to the room that Marie was in."

"There was," another S.H.I.E.L.D agent popped up, pulling out a tablet and showing Christie and Natasha. Christie took it from him with a frown. On the screen depicted the doctor and Rogue - she was completely knocked out on the bed and her body was limp, and there was a liquid being extracted out of her. The doctor was literally pulling something into a syringe that was stuck deep into her arm and the liquid filling the tube was an icy blue - Christie had never seen it before. Before long, the doctor had yanked it back out and placed it into an open briefcase at the foot of the bed, stood up straight again and gone to wash his hands. Then he scrawled something on a piece of paper, shoved on his long black coat and left the room.

"Well, he definitely did something," Natasha murmured over Christie's shoulder before looking back over at the hospital workers. "I take it this was the last time you guys saw him?"

"Correct," the first male worker sighed, lowering his shoulders. "Look, I know we didn't handle this the right way. But please don't tell Director Coulson - I know Director Fury would be turning in his grave right now."

"Grave? More like his sunlounger," Christie muttered to Natasha quietly, forcing her to hold in her laughter. Christie gave a little smirk before clearing her throat again. "The liquid he took out - what the hell was that? Did he write anything down? Was anything left in the room?" The workers all looked at each other helplessly, none of them knowing a damn thing. "Oh my lord. Alright, Natalie and I will go and search the ward for a sign of…anything. Claire, you keep looking for the guy's face on the database, and the rest of you guys just…sit tight and stay useless," Christie grimaced to the workers before taking Natasha's arm and running out. The place was cordoned off with tape, but it wasn't hard for them to rip it down and skid into the room that Rogue was last in. The ward looked relatively normal at a glance, but there were a bunch of papers scattered all over the floor. This 'doctor' was clearly careless as he had left in such a flurry.

Sloppy, especially for HYDRA.

Natasha got to picking up the files and began scanning through them, whilst Christie decided to call Ashley.

Ashley picked up the call within a few rings, stepping away from the small group of people in the living room.

"Christie?" she whispered as she slipped into her own room.

"Ash, we've got footage from the CCTV and…well, we've found some evidence of tampering," Christie broke the news to her awkwardly, nibbling on her bottom lip.

"Evidence of tampering?" Ashley repeated a little nervously. "What do you mean? Who tampered, the doctor?"

"Well first of all, the doctor wasn't even a doctor that the workers knew, and they still let him take the damn case," Christie explained shortly, pacing the ward as her eyes darted around for any evidence. "From the CCTV footage, it looked like he extracted something out of Rogue and then literally fled the scene, leaving her there. Apparently he never came back after that."

"Extracted something like what? What, like an organ or something?" Ashley spluttered as she began to worriedly run her ringers through her locks.

"From the looks of it, he extracted something from her arm with a syringe. It was like…an icy blue?" Christie tried to describe it as accurately as she could.

There was a deafening silence over the line, immediately letting Christie know that this wasn't a good thing.

"Ash? Talk to me!"

"Sh*t! F*ck, Chris, this isn't good," Ashley suddenly blurted out, going from deadly silent to worryingly on edge in the space of a few seconds. "That icy blue stuff is her mutation in its liquidated form. He wouldn't even be able to source it if she didn't inject herself with the counter liquids earlier, F*CK!"

"So some random guy has got her reasonably dangerously powerful mutation bottled up somewhere? And we don't know who the hell he is, where he went afterwards and what he wants to do with it?" Christie broke it down further. Her words caused Natasha to glance up at her whilst holding a few pieces of paper out for her to see.

"I think this'll answer at least one of those questions," she muttered. Christie took the papers from her with her one free hand and flicked through them all, her heart plummeting further and further into her stomach as she continued to gulp in the information.

"The Winter Soldier? They want her mutation…for James?" she breathed shakily, neither at Ashley nor Natasha - but to herself.