One Week Later: SHEILD HEADQUARTERS NYC
In a desperate attempt to stop the pain without the dulling effects of pain killers, Katherine saran wrapped a bag of frozen veggies from the cafeteria kitchen to her side. At first, it didn't seem to do anything for the pain except having the lumpy shape of the vegetables poke the bruised area. After an hour, the area was sufficiently numb, and her full concentration was on the computer at her borrowed station.
Aren't you supposed to be resting?
Angie's message popped up over her center monitor.
I've got an ex-SHIELD agent to track down. I can rest later.
Moving the chat box to the right monitor and out of the way, she continued sifting through the tracking code she'd tagged Slater's hacker with. It only worked when he was online, which surprisingly wasn't often the last week.
You were SHOT, let someone else take point on this.
It's the equivalent of a paintball injury. I'm fine.
Not that she'd ever been paint balling, but the theoretics behind her injury and that from a non-lethal ball of paint projected at a high velocity in tight quarters was close enough.
Fine :P Hit me up if you need help. And you might want to email Johnson. He's freaking out thinking you're abandoning us for New York.
Enough for me to negotiate an expresso machine for our office?
I think you could get a full coffee bar complete with barista. Aim high.
An alert on her monitor had Katherine canceling out of her chat with Angie. Slater's as of yet unidentified hacker was back online. Fingers flying over her keyboard, she started slowly zeroing in on his location. If she could gain access to his system not only would she be able to locate him, but she could also identify him. And she could volley a direct message to Slater, setting a trap instead of fighting their way out of one.
"I thought I'd find you in here," Clint said, setting an iced coffee on the desk by her mouse and pulling a chair up beside her.
"Thanks," she said. Leaning forward, she took a sip of the coffee without taking her fingers off the keys or her eyes off the screen.
"So, how's it going?" He asked, leaning back in the chair, his gaze flicking from the screens to Kat.
"Five minutes ago, I would have said nowhere. Now I can confidently say tediously slow." Even with the virus she'd planted the night they'd stopped a nuclear war, her progress was slower than she liked. "I have to tread carefully. I don't want him to realize what I'm doing."
"And what are you doing?" He took a sip of his own coffee.
"Gaining remote access to his system, eliminating his anonymity and planting a setup for Slater through him."
"That seems like a lot." He only had one job: go where Coulson sent him to take out Slater. He'd spent most of his time at the indoor shooting range or at the gym sparring with Nat.
"It's what I do," she shrugged. "And lucky for us, I'm good at what I do."
"Unlucky for Slater." Clint smiled at her, his eyes glinting with admiration. "Anything I can do to help?"
"Unless you're a religious guy, not really," she said. "You can just sit there and look pretty."
"Pretty?" He challenged, his smile widening.
"Pretty, handsome, sexy, you can choose your preference." She glanced away from the monitors long enough to send him a wink.
Leaning towards her, he rested his hand on her knee.
"I choose sexy," he whispered in her ear, his voice husky. It sent a shiver down her spine even as he removed his hand and leaned back in his chair.
"Maybe tone down the sexy a little until I'm done."
'I have no control over it' he signed, recalling how she found his signing distractingly sexy. Verbally he added, "But I'll try."
…
It took a few hours, but Katherine finally gained remote access to the hacker's system. Unfortunately, he had safeguards set up, so his identity remained a mystery, but she managed to maneuver a set-up for Slater. Problem was, for it to be convincing and work, both her and Clint needed to be there. And though she might be tech savvy, and not completely useless in a fight, she knew with Slater's skillset she wouldn't be a match for him and would only get in the way if she went in the field this time. She quickly found SHIELD always had a solution when the door to her temporary living quarters opened and Natasha entered with a small briefcase.
"Take your clothes off," she said, setting the briefcase on the table beside the SHIELD registered laptop.
"What?" Kat asked.
"I'm your stand in for the Slater meetup," Nat said, pinning back her red hair and slipping on a wig in the exact cut and color of Kat's hair. "If I'm leaving here as you, I need the clothes you were wearing in case someone's monitoring our cameras."
"Oh, is that what's happening?" She shrugged out of her jacket. "I hate to inform you we're the farthest thing from doppelgangers."
The clothes might hide the extra curves Natasha had, but as soon as Slater got close enough to see Nat's face the ruse would be over.
"That's where Fitz comes in."
"Clint told you about Fitz?" He went from being Kat's secret engineering guy to the go to engineering guy. It was great for him to get the recognition he deserved, but she kind of missed him being her guy.
"Fitz came to us. He wanted to help." Pulling out a translucent looking film from the briefcase, Natasha cupped it in her hands then moved her hands to her face. With a push of a button, when she turned around, it was like looking in a mirror.
"Damn." Fitz really was a genius. His face altering mask could change the spy game completely.
"I have a few inches on you, but I'm hoping Slater won't pick up on that," Nat said, motioning for Kat to keep stripping.
It was extra surreal once Nat had the full getup on. Snapping herself out of her stunned stupor, Kat briefed her on the specifics of the set-up. Since Slater thought he was setting them up, Natasha may be required to do some coding. Now, Slater might not be familiar with Kat's coding style, but if he had anyone remotely tech savvy monitoring the computer Nat used, they'd pick up on it pretty fast.
"If you get in a jam, use this," she said, handing her a discreet flash drive. "It'll run code I personally designed for a good ten minutes."
"What does the code do?" Nat asked as she pocketed the drive.
"It sends anonymous emails with cat videos to Director Fury."
"Okay, I'm definitely keeping this," Natasha smiled.
A knock on the door had Kat shuffling into a spare pair of black SHIELD sweats and a tank. Natasha slipped on identical frames to Kat's glasses before opening the door. Clint stood, blinking at the two of them.
"Okay, that's just creepy," he said, gazing from one to the other. Nat's watch beeped with the alarm telling her it was time to leave.
"Better say your goodbyes lover boy. We've gotta go," she said, backing away from the door to let the two have some semblance of privacy.
"We're going to get him," Clint said when Kat stepped towards him.
"You better," she said. Reaching out, she pulled him closer by his jacket so she could kiss him. He easily returned it, wrapping his arms around her, trapping her arms between their body's. Another beep from Natasha's wrist had them pulling apart.
…
Hours later and Kat sat at the tiny desk in the corner of the same bunk room. With Natasha out there pretending to be her, it was best she stay put in the room where there were no cameras to hack. She passed the time listening to Clint and Natasha through coms. The meeting was just about to take place when the door to her room opened. Holding up a finger to whoever walked in, a throat clearing had Kat turning towards the newcomer.
"Director Fury," she said, her face paling realizing she'd basically just told the Director of SHIELD he wasn't a priority.
"Fury's there?" Clint asked, his voice buzzing in her ear through the comm.
"Agent Lee, I'd like to introduce you to Steven Rogers." Fury motioned towards the blonde man beside him. His hair was combed to the side in a style that reminded her of her grandfather, and though he stood several inches taller than the Director, he seemed to hunch in on himself.
His name seemed vaguely familiar. Some of the other agents around the New York headquarters had been whispering about the arrival of some miracle man who'd been a hero during the second World War and who'd managed to survive decades encapsulated in ice. Apparently, someone at SHIELD managed to thaw him out.
"He's a new recruit and needs a crash course on the 21st century. Since you are currently out of commission, I figured you had the time to help."
"But my mission," Kat said. Clint and Nat hadn't even met up with Slater yet. How was she supposed to help this Steven Rogers guy and keep up with their end of things?
"If I'm not mistaken your part is already finished," Fury said, leveling her with a serious gaze. "I'm assigning Rogers to you. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," Kat said. She waited until Fury left her and Steven Rogers alone before addressing Clint again. "I've got to go. Fury's orders. Please be careful. I won't be here to help bail you out of trouble."
"Don't worry, KitKat, we've got this." Clint's confidence might have relieved her worry if she didn't know just how fast things could go wrong on missions even less complicated than this.
Turning off the comm, she pulled it from her ear to avoid the temptation of ignoring Fury's orders. Steven still stood awkwardly where Fury had left him. Realizing he must feel completely out of place and probably like a kid dropped off on a playdate with someone he'd never met, she smiled at him.
"What is that?" He asked, pointing towards her comm.
"It's a comm. It goes in your ear and connects to people through radio waves. It's how I communicate with agents in the field," she said. When his brow furrowed, she searched for an explanation he might better connect with. What technology did they have in the 40's again? "Like a more discreet, new age walkie talkie almost."
"That thing functions like a walkie talkie?" The units he'd used had been big and bulky. That thing looked so…fragile.
"Sort of. It has an open communication function, so you don't have to hold a button down to converse with the people on the other side. You can just talk freely back and forth."
"Interesting," he said. "May I?"
Stepping closer he held out his hand. She dropped the earpiece into his palm and watched as he studied it closely.
"You use these often?" he asked.
"On the daily. I work with field agents, help them with tech issues and get them out of jams." Comms were a godsend. She couldn't imagine having to use the old-school tech. "Some agents need a little more help than others."
She smiled to herself, thinking of all the ways Clint had needed extra help. Some had been an excuse to talk to her, others had been much too real for her liking.
"You were helping an agent before Fury interrupted." It wasn't a question, but she still nodded in answer. "I'm sorry to pull you away from the mission."
"No, Director Fury was right. I'd completed my part of it. I just…I wanted to hang on the comm to make sure it was successful."
Steve studied her closely for a moment.
"You care about the person on the other end."
"I'm sure he'll be fine." He had Natasha with him. She'd watch out for him and make sure they didn't get killed. Sliding her hands into the pockets of her sweatpants she forced another smile. "How about we get started on the whole learning thing. We can start with the new and improved computer and ease our way into the internet."
Pulling up another chair to the desk where a SHIELD laptop sat, she booted up the computer.
"Internet?" Steve asked, taking the seat beside her.
"Don't worry, it's cool, but kind of hard to explain unless you grew up with it. Just let me know if I'm going too fast. I can get a little overzealous with tech."
Steve smiled to himself, thinking about how much Bucky would love learning about all this. He was always more into innovations than him. Steve was perfectly happy sticking with his pens and paper. Forcing his attention back to the present, he stared dubiously at the machine Agent Lee had called a computer. It was considerably smaller than anything he'd seen before. He was a little nervous about his learning curve when her fingers flew over the keys of the machine, and the screen came to life, but she was surprisingly patient and took as much time as he needed reviewing everything. Out of all the agents he'd dealt with, she seemed to be the most understanding, picking up on cues of him becoming overwhelmed and slowing down accordingly and yet never making him feel dumb.
"How about a break?" She asked after a few hours of teaching. "I don't know about you but I'm starving."
She was about to stand when she realized she was stuck indefinitely in the room until given the all clear that Nat and Clint had made it out. Chewing on her lip, she glanced at Steven.
"I know you're new to this century, but I'm not supposed to leave this room until notified by a superior officer. Think you can wrangle us some food on your own?"
"Are you being detained for some misdemeanor?" he asked.
"Do I seem like a troublemaker to you, Steven?" She asked with a playful smile.
"It's Steve, actually," he corrected her. "And I don't know you well enough to answer that, Ma'am."
"Kat," she said. "And I only make the occasional fun kind of trouble. Coincidently, that's not what landed me in here. It's for the safety of the agents on that mission I was pulled from."
"If I get us food, will you elaborate further on why you staying in this bunk room is keeping them safe?" He asked.
"I can try." They hadn't quite graduated to Fitz level technology. "The cafeterias on floor 4. I have no dietary restrictions and can quite literally eat just about anything."
He nodded, moving towards the door before pausing.
"I don't have any money," he said, his ears tinging pink.
"Just tell them to put it on Fury's tab. He owes us both I think."
That seemed to appease his worry as he left without any hesitation afterwards. As soon as the door clicked shut, Kat slipped her comm back in. She hadn't wanted to make Steve feel bad, but she really wanted to check in on Clint and Nat. Hitting the button to turn the device on, her stomach plummeted when it didn't automatically connect with their comms. The batteries on them were built to last. If neither of them was answering that meant either they'd disconnected their comms on purpose, or something happened to disable the comms for them.
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this update! Kat finally got to meet another Avenger. I had a lot of fun writing her and Steve together. Let me know what you thought!
Rach
xoxo