February 8th 2012
Just over two weeks into her rotation on the helicarrier, and Ryan found that she was rather enjoying herself. It reminded her of the time she'd spent at their recruitment and training camps, the crew and agents on board becoming quite close because there wasn't much else to do when they were waiting around for a mission to pop up. They had been correct in saying that the helicarrier was like an army base. The ALPHA Team were definitely accepting her into their ranks, even going as far as asking her to teach them some fighting techniques they didn't already know.
Their first call to action was on the third day, responding to a situation in the middle east that needed reinforcements. They'd responded within the hour, thanks to their proximity to the situation. Everything had been efficiently resolved, with no casualties on their side. From then on, things picked up. They were sent out for a variety of missions every other day. It was nice, having a team of analysts backing them nearby, providing more intel than they would usually have. They were doing something good with these helicarriers.
Her purpose here was clear, with very little gray area.
A knock at her bunk room door pulled her attention away from her thoughts. She folded up the top corner of her book page to keep her spot, placing it on the side table before making her way over to the door and pressing the button that would open it. She wasn't surprised to find Rumlow stood there.
"You skipped lunch."
Ryan shrugged. "Wasn't hungry." She said, before waiting. Rumlow wasn't checking in to talk about her eating habits.
He made in way into her room, reaching around her to close the sliding door behind them. He stood with his back to the door, crossing his arms across his chest. "Rollins mentioned that you were asking about his background before joining SHIELD."
Not wanting to jump to any conclusions, she made sure not to react to what he was saying. "And?"
"I asked around, and he wasn't the only one you talked to. Why are you vetting the people on my team?"
Ryan rolled her eyes, she sure as hell wasn't about to tell him the truth. "It's called making conversation. People tend to talk about their lives outside of work when stuck in a confined space together for six weeks." She explained calmly.
"Since when do you care about making conversation with the guys?" Rumlow asked, still doubting her. "We've been running ops together for years, and you've never asked questions about anything outside of work."
Ryan's gaze narrowed slightly as she detected a hint of… was that jealousy? "What are you really mad about here? That I'm making an effort to get to know the team I'm a part of now, or that I'm talking to someone who's not you?"
He sighed, looking skywards. "Talking? More like flirting." He grumbled.
Her brows raised. He was jealous. Brock Rumlow was jealous of the people she was talking to. He might be more into her than she'd thought… "You've seen me flirt. Asking someone where they went to college isn't it." Well, she might as well continue to play with fire. "Be careful Brock, you almost sound jealous."
"I'm not jealous." He quickly denied. "What reason would I have to be jealous?" Her brow arched further upwards, but he only shook his head in denial. He took a breath, a smirk coming across his face. "No point in being jealous when I know you'd beat the crap out of anyone who'd even try this with you."
Suddenly he was in her space, one hand wrapping around the back of her neck to draw her lips over to his. He wasn't wrong, she'd fight anyone else who'd touch her. She let her body go into autopilot, as she usually did in these situations with Rumlow. It was best not to overthink it. "Who'd to say I won't beat the crap out of you?" She asked, when he'd pulled back slightly, only far enough to but able to tug at the zip at the front of her suit.
"I think it's worth the risk." He drawled, pushing the whole half of her suit off her shoulders, letting it fall by her waist.
She pulled at his shirt in response, all but ripping it off.
Things were getting good. He'd easily hoisted her up onto the edge of her built in dresser, hands grabbing whatever piece of skin he could find. Ryan had reached down to undo his belt and cargo pant zipper, shoving his pants down. She could feel how ready he was, still within his briefs. At least, things were good until an alarm rang through the helicarrier, calling Strike Team ALPHA to the bridge for an operation brief.
Ryan and Rumlow startled apart, Rumlow hanging his head in frustration. "Fucking crap timing." He complained, already fixing himself up. Ryan jumped from the dressed, fixing up her suit and hair as quickly as she could.
"It could've been worse." Ryan said, as she twisted her hair into a bun at the base of her skull. "You could've been about to finish."
He groaned, but followed her out of the room.
Work came first, always.
February 11th 2012
Ryan made sure that the door to her bunk room was locked, so that no one would come in. She quickly scanned the room for bugs and cameras, glad that her sweep came up empty. Then, she made her way over to the built-in dresser, pushing items aside to make it to peel away the false bottom she'd had installed. From there, she took out a small tablet and a set of headphones, ready for another night of listening to things she shouldn't.
She'd bugged most of the Strike Team's rooms, in an effort to figure out who was who in the grand scheme of things. Now that they'd been dismissed for the evening, she knew it would be a good time to review the feeds from the past few days. So, she sat down on her bed, leaned against the back wall and got to listening.
She spent hours without moving, mentally extracting pertinent information and cataloguing it for future reference. It was rather dull, because most of the Team only ever went into their bunk rooms to sleep. Every once in a while, she'd catch one of them making a call to a secret significant other, but it wasn't what she was looking for.
She was about to call it a night, until she realized that the bug she'd planted in Rollins's room was next. He was Rumlow's second in command, his right hand man. Maybe he would reveal something…
Her hunch proved correct, when on the second night after she'd planted the bug, Jack Rollins received a visitor to his room. So, Ryan closed her eyes and tried to visualize the conversation playing through her speakers.
"Boss." Rollins greeted when the door slid open.
"Rollins." Rumlow greeted in return, his heavy footsteps walking further into the room. "You wanted to see me."
"Mind if I speak freely?" Rollins asked.
Rumlow made a sound that sounded like he was agreeing.
"Why are we grooming Agent Stone? She's not ALPHA."
Ryan's brow rose as she listened, surprised that they'd brought up her name.
A beat passed before Rumlow answered, speaking in a low tone. "Pierce wants her. He has big plans for her."
Ryan sucked in a breath because this confirmed that Brock Rumlow was a part of Hydra. Not only that, but he was high enough in the ranks to receive direct orders from Pierce. She'd guessed that Rumlow was involved somehow, but never would have thought to this extent. She needed to be even more careful, and make sure that he continued to trust her.
"Ryan Stone? The same enhanced freak that founded SHIELD? She'd never be a part of this. She's far too entwined within the other side. She'd never agree to switch, no matter how much money or power we threw her way."
Rollins wasn't wrong, but that didn't matter because Rumlow seemed to have a different opinion. The one that she'd been slowly hinting towards, for years.
"She's on the brink." Rumlow confidently disagreed. "She's a soldier, trained to take orders from whoever is at the top. She wants order, just as much as the rest of us. Look at everything she's done for the cause over the last 6 years without even knowing. We haven't needed to use the asset, because she's tipping the scales for us. She disagrees with Fury's vision. It's only a matter of time before she becomes one of us."
Rollins scoffed. "You're just saying that because she's the one wetting your dick."
"Watch your mouth." Rumlow snapped, huffing out a breath. "Think of the bigger picture. Imagine everything we could accomplish with her on our side. We'd be untouchable."
"She's Captain America's girl. She'll never agree to join H- us"
"I'll admit, I was worried when they found the son of a bitch in the ice that the last five years grooming her would go down the drain. We almost had her, before she was shipped off to Dublin then forced to deal with Rogers. I thought she'd see him and fall back into old righteous habits. But, she balked. She didn't want anything to do with the Rogers assignment, even with their history. She's the perfect weapon, able to act logically rather than emotionally. She avoided him as much as Fury would let her, before dumping his ass onto another agent the first chance she got." Rumlow explained. "We don't have to worry about Rogers turning her soft."
Ryan was surprised to learn that HYDRA had been watching her for as long as she'd been watching them. It was a good thing she was careful, or she could've given herself away a long time again. She was playing the game as well as she could, and it seemed to be working. Pierce wanted to recruit her. Once she was in, she would have the means to find everything she needed to bring HYDRA down once and for all.
"How can you be so sure?"
"I've got a good feeling. She hasn't set off any of the triggers." He answered easily. "She's fucked up. Dark. Puts the job before her personal feelings. She likes to hunt, enjoys the control of the kill. She's one of us, I know it. Just needs someone to give her a push in the right direction and the next thing we know she'll have a whole new purpose."
A chill made its way down her spine, hearing those words.
"If you're sure…" Rollins trailed off, letting out a breath. "Who would've thought we'd recruit one of the founders of SHIELD."
Rumlow chuckled once. "And she's going to change the whole fucking world for us."
"Hail HYDRA."
"Hail HYDRA."
Ryan popped her headphones out of her ears the moment the conversation between Rumlow and Rollins finished. In a matter of minutes, she'd learned more than she had over the last few years and it was enough to make her feel slightly nauseous. They confirmed that Strike Team ALPHA was HYDRA, taking orders directly from Pierce. Rumlow reported to Pierce, so it made sense. They also wanted to bring Ryan in as an asset, to 'help balance the scales'.
This changed everything. She finally felt like she was making progress. The last few years hadn't been for nothing. She'd been proving herself to Pierce and Rumlow, apparently passing all their tests with flying colours.
It was only a matter of time before Rumlow approached her with an offer she literally could not refuse. She just hoped that it would happen sooner rather than later, so she could be done with all of this once and for all. She wanted to find the asset and bring everything crumbling down around HYDRA.
She was getting closer to making things right.
February 18th 2012
Ryan stood on the outskirts of the training mats, arms crossed as she observed. She was trying to teach the Strike Team some of her favourite… unconventional take down moves. She'd demonstrated the move, explaining how she did it as she used her body wisely to take down a man who was twice her weight. They were attempting to copy her movements but failing miserably.
"Guys, remember what I said about adjusting. Anatomically, your center of gravity of higher than mine. You need to take that into consideration, not just try to copy the way I move." She critiqued, gesturing for them to stop for a minute. "Peters, try again on me."
The poor guys' brows rose, realizing that he was being put on the spot. A small part of Ryan was looking forward to throwing him back on his ass, for all the little comments he made when he didn't think she could hear him or when his gaze would stay on her chest for a second too long. So, she stepped onto the training mat and waited.
"Any day now."
After hearing his teammates chuckle, he came at her.
He threw some punches and kicks her way, trying to find an opening and quickly growing frustrated. "How am I supposed to try?"
"What? You think terrorists are just going to stand still and let you take them down?" Ryan quipped, blocking a jab to the throat.
"Well we're not going up against fucking super soldiers!" He barked, missing another punch and leaving himself open.
Ryan aimed a punch at his gut in warning.
"You don't know that. What if I was on the other side?"
"You're not." He deadpanned, but countered with an better series of moves.
"I'm also not the only enhanced person out there." She muttered, giving him an opportunity to try the take down technique on her. It would have worked on most people, but Ryan also knew the perfect way to counter it. It helped that Peters was buff, carrying extra weight through his torso. Even though he'd taken her advice and tried to compensate for the different gravity center, he wasn't able to hang on properly. She fully just pushed him further, using his momentum against him to throw him past her, falling in a heap behind her with a groan.
"Better." She pointed out because it was his best attempt yet. A couple more tries on anyone else, and they'd have it figured out. She gave him a few more pointers, that would more or less ensure that he'd get the move down, before moving on to the next one and working her way through the team.
By the end of the training session, Ryan had reduced the majority of Strike Team ALPHA into a puddle of aching muscles and sweat, almost begging to be dismissed.
"Let's hope we don't get a call. You basically just murdered my team" Rumlow pointed out, only fairing slightly better than the rest of the guys.
Ryan shrugged. "That was nothing. They're lucky Romanoff wasn't the one teaching these techniques. It wasn't fun." She cringed, remembering the time Natasha had decided to teach her some of the techniques she'd learned during her Black Widow training. Ryan had dumbed a good chunk of it down and adopted it to males. "She'd made us learn the basics of ballet, to work on balance."
Rumlow simply shook his head at her. "I'm glad you're on our side." He said lowly, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards.
"Oh yeah, you'd all be fucked if I ever went dark."
"I think we'd be just fine."
Somehow, Ryan was able to suppress the chills that threatened to rise along her spine. Instead, she rolled her eyes and walked away.
February 22nd 2012
"Good job out there."
Ryan flinched at the comment, unable to keep a straight face. "Good job?" She repeated incredulously. "In case you didn't notice, we fucking failed. The kid's dead."
She wanted to punch a hole into her locker, all this anger towards the outcome bubbling at the surface. She needed to step away, freak out on her own, but she couldn't. She was stuck on a quinjet with the rest of Strike Team Alpha, head hung real low. There were too many eyes on her right now to freak out.
"We knew we were going to lose this one from the start." Rumlow reasoned. "The kid was never making it out of there alive."
"She could have!" Ryan snapped. "I almost had her out. If you would have waited..."
"Then half of my guys would be dead." Rumlow said, tone equally as harsh. "I know you're used to running the fucking show over in DELTA, but here in ALPHA, I call the shots. I had to choose between the package and my team, I chose my fucking team. In case you haven't figured it out yet, we have each other's backs. There was no other choice, so calm the fuck down and deal with it."
Ryan's hands were balled into fists at her sides, anger growing inside her when Rumlow referred to an innocent kid caught in the crossfire as a package. Not only that, but he'd told her to calm down. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would know that telling a pissed off woman to calm down probably wasn't the wisest decision. People didn't talk to her like that. Most were too scared by her reputation to even dare. "What did you just say to me?" She hissed.
But Rumlow wasn't most people, not afraid to get in her face. "You heard me, Agent Stone."
She was seeing red at this point, but still forced herself to take a long breath because she knew they were causing a scene. She could feel everyone else's eyes on her, waiting to see what would happen next. She shouldn't be letting her anger get to her like this. She needed to stay in control, not challenge Rumlow because she didn't agree with the way he'd handled a mission or told her to stand down in front of everyone. She needed to think rationally, not let her anger get the best of her at this point.
"This is fucking bullshit." She growled, stalking over to her seat on the side of the jet. She sat, plopped in her headphones and stewed silently in her anger for the rest of the flight back to the helicarrier. She was too pissed off to think about damage control and how that little outburst could have set her back. She needed to keep herself in check, or else all this shit would be for nothing.
The moment they made it back to the helicarrier, Ryan disappeared. She needed space, to clear her mind and make sure she didn't lose her shit again.
She'd deal with everything later.
February 23rd 2012
"You're not still mad at me, are ya?" Rumlow smirked.
Ryan responded by aiming a punch right at his face, gaze narrowing when he caught her fist before it could connect. She followed it up with a swift knee to the stomach, feeling the slightest bit of satisfaction when he doubled over, breath knocked out of him.
"That's a yes." He wheezed.
Ryan shrugged. "Don't be an ass and I won't be annoyed." With Rumlow, that was far easier said than done.
He surprised her, holding his hands up in peace. "You were right. I jumped the gun, and got the kid killed."
She tried not to let the surprise show on her face. "Or, you saved your team from a trap. The team should always come first. You made the right call, based on the information you had. I just… don't like losing. I should've been faster. Maybe…" She trailed off.
Rumlow stood straighter, still catching his breath. He held her gaze, something… Ryan couldn't quite figure out hiding in his gaze. "We don't know that the outcome would've been any different. We're all carrying the loss on this one."
Ryan let out a breath. This was not what she'd expected when Rumlow had first walked into the room. She didn't think he cared. She never would have thought he'd blame himself for the outcome of yesterday's failed mission. It made him… a little bit more human. He always hid it, behind sarcasm and crude jokes. She wasn't used to seeing Rumlow being real.
She didn't know how to process that.
"Let's just… not let that happen again."
Rumlow nodded, agreeing with her statement.
A beat passed, before a smirk started to line his face once again. "Does this mean we get to have make up sex?"
Ryan rolled her eyes, shoving past him and leaving the room. She could hear him laughing to himself even as the door automatically shut behind her.
Just like that, everything was back to normal.
February 28th 2012
Ryan rushed back into her bunk room, careful not to touch anything. She was covered head to toe in soot, itching for a nice warm shower after the operation they'd just completed in the middle of what was supposed to be an abandoned coal mine. It hadn't been abandoned, housing one of the people at the top of SHIELD's Most Wanted list and about 50 of his closed armed militant friends. Things had gotten messy, but they'd captured their mark and handed him off to a transport team to bring him to the States for questioning and prosecution.
She wasted no time, cranking up the hot water in her ensuite shower, quick to discard her clothes and step under the warm spray. She took a few moments to herself, soaking in the warmth and cleaning herself off. It took longer than she would have liked to get it all out of her hair, but at the same time she didn't mind avoiding the debrief for a bit longer.
Once she wrapped up in the shower, she quickly changed into a fresh uniform and braided her clean hair back and out of the way. She took a second to check her phone, finding a text from Natasha letting her know that she would be off the grid for the next little while chasing down a lead to find her sister. There was also one from Phil, asking her how her time on the helicarrier was going. Biting her lip, she checked her burner phone as well, not expecting to have missed anything while she'd been away.
Only there was a text waiting for her.
'Can we talk? I have some questions.'
Ryan starred at the screen for far too long. It had been the first time he'd reached out in months since she'd told him the truth on New Years Eve. She'd told him that this line would always be open if he needed anything but hadn't expected him to actually reach out.
'Can't call, on assignment out of range. Won't be in New York for a while. Anything that I can answer quickly over text?'
She knew it there were talks about extending the ALPHA's team's rotation on the helicarrier to train the other teams. She didn't know when they were going to be sent back to New York and didn't particularly care to find out. Things were easier up here, out of the way where the only thing to do to pass the time was work. She was glad to stay up here as long as they needed her.
His answer came sooner than she was expecting.
'Not really. Can we talk in person when you get back?'
Ryan let out a long breath, thinking it over before sending her response. She wanted to see him and talk to him. It had been two months, if you didn't count the time she'd seen him in the hallways at SHIELD and forced herself to ignore him because she'd been with Rumlow at the time. But, she couldn't afford to let him distract her again. Not when she'd gotten so much closer to ending this whole thing.
'I don't think that's a good idea.'
His reply was almost instant. 'Forget I asked.'
Ryan groaned, turning off the device and putting it back where it had been hidden. She'd probably just made things even worse, but it was the only way she could get through this. She needed to be completely focused on the task at hand, or she would never be able to pull it off. She couldn't worry about Steve, or how he felt about her, good or bad.
She pushed all thoughts of Steve Rogers to the back of her mind, getting back to work.
March 4th 2012
"Agent Stone, do you have a minute?"
Ryan paused on her way to the kitchen, turning to face Agent Noah Peters. She nodded, lifting her empty coffee mug, and motioning for him to follow along. She'd been catching up on her reports, and was in desperate need for a refill if she wanted to stay awake. "What's up?"
He almost looked nervous but followed along. "I guess I just… wanted to get your advice on something."
Ryan slowed slightly, as they turned the corner and walked through the sliding doors into the main kitchen. She mindlessly scanned the room, noting that it was empty. So, she made her way over to the coffee machine on the counter and refilled her mug, not bothering with any milk or sugar. Peters was one of the newer recruits, still in his mid-twenties, having been recruited into SHIELD right out of college due to his great potential. He was the youngest on the team, and still had a lot to learn. "Giving advice isn't generally my strong suit, but I can give it a shot."
He watched her for a moment, as though trying to decide if he could trust her. Ryan kept her face neutral, hiding her curiosity. "Have you ever been in a situation where something just… didn't add up?"
Her brow furrowed. "All the time. As field agents, we don't always have the luxury of knowing all the information. We do the best with what we have."
Peters shook his head. "Not so much information, more like reasoning. There are things we do, that no one else knows or questions why we do it."
Ryan shrugged, knowing that she needed to be careful with how she answered. This line of questioning was starting to be a little concerning because it almost seemed like he was fishing for something specific. "We're a covert black ops strike team. It's the nature of the job. If we spent our time questioning whether we were doing the right or wrong thing, nothing would ever get accomplished."
Peters seemed even more confused. "But what if you know what they're asking you to do is wrong?"
Ryan bit at her lip. "There's no such thing as right or wrong. It's all perspective. People on the other side think they're in the right and that we're in the wrong."
"How do you get that perspective? How do you not let it all… get to you?"
Ryan let out a breath, because if she was honest, she had no fucking clue... Instead of telling him that, she made up a placating answer to appease his worries. "You have to look at the bigger picture. Not let a single moment or outcome define the type of person you are. Trust that what you're doing is for the greater good. Sometimes, that means the line gets a little blurry…"
Peters contemplated that for a minute, before asking his next question. "What if you were being asked to completely abandon everything you believed in, for the greater good? What if you didn't have a choice… How do you live with that?"
Ryan frowned, making sure to keep her surprise contained. "Peters… What are you saying?" She asked him, even though she had a pretty good idea. HYDRA wanted him too, but he was questioning it. He couldn't say it out loud, or he would be in serious trouble. He was lost, and looking for guidance.
Ryan had no idea how to help.
She never got her answer, because the kitchen doors slid open as someone else walked into the room. Ryan scanned the entrance, spotting Jack Rollins. Peters eyes widened slightly, and he took a step back. She could see him mentally pulling away as well, startled by the interruption. That conversation was over.
"Is that a fresh pot?" Rollins asked, completely oblivious as he made his way over to the coffee machine.
"No, it tastes like crap." Ryan easily answered, lifting her mug,
Rollins still filled his own mug, though poured far more sugar into it than a grown man should. "What's going on in here?"
Ryan's gaze flicked over to Peters for a split second, gathering that he didn't want anyone to find out what they'd just been talking about, so she lied. "Peters was asking about that thing I did in the fight yesterday. He wants to learn the move."
Rollins nodded eagerly. "That would be a good one to know. You should do another team session."
"That's what I was getting to." Peters went along with it.
Ryan shrugged, finishing off the rest of the shitty coffee. "We'll set it up when I get back to New York in a couple weeks."
With that being said, she left boys in the kitchen and went back to her mountain of reports. She refused to overthink what had just happened, because it would only make everything that much more complicated. Peters had just confirmed that HYDRA was getting bolder, actively expanding within the Strike Team. She just needed to make sure she was next to be recruited, so she could get a move on.
She was getting that much closer to her endgame.
March 16th 2012
Ryan quickly regretted having agreed to stay onboard the helicarrier for an extra two weeks.
She had immediately learned that she had very little patience when it came to the Bravo and Charlie Strike Teams. It was also clear why these people weren't Alpha or Delta, not having as much training or field experience as the other teams. They mostly worked security or provided support on bigger scale missions. It was rare that she worked with them, so they weren't aware of who she was in the agency or her reputation. Meaning, she had to put up with one too many sexist comments before she finally had enough and flattened half the team in a training exercise to get them all to shut up.
It went far more easily once they were all scared of her. Rumlow got a good laugh out of the situation, having stayed behind to train them as well. Those extra two weeks had really dragged on, and to say she was glad when they were flown back to the Triskelion would be an understatement. They were released for a mandatory two week 'vacation', due to having spent two consecutive months on call on the helicarrier. It was a stupid protocol, if you asked her.
"How are you planning to spend your two weeks off?" Rumlow asked curiously, as they walked towards the parking garage with their bags thrown over their shoulders.
"Who knows…" Ryan shrugged. "Is it bad that I'm hoping for something big to happen so they have no choice but to call us in?"
Rumlow laughed lightly at that admission. "You really don't like having time to yourself, do you?"
"God no."
"I'm the same way." He said, before he cocked his head to the side, considering something as they stood side by side in the elevator. "You know, I have another way to spend the two weeks."
Ryan rolled her eyes. "I'm not spending the next two weeks in your bed."
He smirked to himself but shook his head. "That's not what I meant."
"Really?" Ryan said, feigning shock.
"Well, not the whole two weeks. That's too impractical, we've got to train to stay in shape." He joked.
She rolled her eyes a second time.
But then, his face grew serious. "Actually no, there is something else you could do to pass the time."
"And what would that be?" Ryan asked curiously.
He turned to face her, watching her to gage her reaction as he spoke. "I have connections that could get us a couple of side gigs. The pay is fucking fantastic if you're okay with getting your hands a little dirty."
This was what she was waiting for. The in that she'd spent the last 6 years waiting for. She needed to be smart, and navigate the opening carefully. She couldn't afford to mess this up. "What kind of gigs?"
"Whatever you want." He said lowly.
She met his gaze head on, standing tall. "I'm assuming it's all off books, shit we'd lose our jobs if we got caught, or worse."
Rumlow's smirk stayed firmly in place as he nodded. "But we both know you're too good to get caught."
She raised the corner of her mouth. "How good of a pay are we talking?"
"Too good to turn down."
She nodded, pretending to consider it for a moment. "Oh, why the hell not. It's not like I have anything better to do." She spoke a beat later, watching a look of pride cross Rumlow's face. Good thing she managed to keep her chills in check, reciprocating the smile.
"I'll call you when I have something." Rumlow said once they reached their vehicles. "See you later, Stone."
"Mhm." She hummed in return, throwing a half-hearted wave before carrying on to her own car a few spaces down.
It wasn't until she was safely in the driver's seat of her car that she let out the breath she'd been holding, shoulders sinking. It was working. Rumlow trusted her. He was going to test her, and hopefully bring her into the fold soon. It was only a matter of time before she had all the information, she needed to find the winter soldier and finish this off for good. Besides, how many more lines could there possibly be for her to cross? She'd already made such a mess, she might as well keep going.
She wondered what this first side gig would be, knowing that he wouldn't get her started with anything too crazy.
One thing was for sure, everything was about to get a whole lot more interesting.
A.N: And there we have it! Things are getting messier the deeper Ryan digs into all of this... We have at least one more update (maybe two) before officially starting the Avengers plot!
I hope you guys liked this one, now that the ball is really starting to roll on all the HYDRA stuff.
As always, I'm looking forward to reading your reviews :)
See you all soon with the next one!