I had done the impossible. I'd stunned Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow herself, into silence as I powered the Quinjet up. She'd been telling me about the new steak house Jared had gone to and when I turned my neck a little, she got sight of the bite mark on my neck from Greg. It'd been silent for the last 2 minutes as Natasha stared at me. I'm not even sure she blinked the entire time.
"There's a bite mark on your neck." Natasha finally managed to get out as I eased the Quinjet out of the hanger.
"Yes, I know." I tried to keep my voice neutral. The rejection hurt. A lot more than I'd ever thought it would. A slap across the face might have been better than my feelings being so fucking broken. It wasn't just the complete rejection of a guy not wanting to sleep with me. It was also the mixed signal that I'd gotten so damn wrong. I was bad at reading people, but I didn't think I was that bad.
"Hang on." Natasha frowned as she sat up straighter in the co-pilot chair. "Rewind and tell me about your part of the night where you had someone over."
"Greg came over with burgers." There was no point lying to Natasha. She'd pester me for the next 14 hours until I gave in. "And ice cream. We were fooling around and I obviously misread the situation wrong, because he walked out on me."
As much as I tried, I couldn't stop the bitter tone creeping into my voice.
"Who kissed who?" Natasha asked, sounding like she was picking her words and tone very carefully. I snuck a look at her face out of the corner of my eye. As much as she was trying to hide it, she looked a little gleeful. But there was also the look of she'd get out of this Quinjet and murder Greg if he'd done the wrong thing.
"I kissed him." I flicked a few switches harder than I needed to as I got cleared to take off. It was quiet, as it should be at midnight. I was the only SHIELD aircraft in the hanger.
"And he obviously kissed back." Natasha furrowed her brow. She reached over and moved my collar to get a good look at the bite mark. Greg had put some force behind it. It'd be purple in a few more hours. My body betrayed my shitty mood as I remembered how damn good it felt. "What happened after that?"
"I went for his pants and he freaked out," I said, pushing down the lump in my throat that wanted to appear. "Told me he ring in the morning when we were both sober."
"You're not drunk," Natasha pointed out.
The beers were light beers. I had to check when Coulson asked me if I was good to fly otherwise we would have had to get a commercial flight out. SHIELD were a bit lax on their pilots and alcohol in their system. As long as they were below the legal driving limit, SHIELD was fine with them flying. We were flying to a safe house in Iran and taking supplies with us before we picked the scientist up. Me being able to fly made life a lot easier for everyone involved in this little operation.
"Neither was he, it was just an excuse to leave." I said miserably, my shoulders sagging in defeat. "I was so ready to get some action. My brain shut up long enough for me to enjoy it while it was happening. For once in my life I didn't feel like the fuck up I usually am."
"If you were a fuck up, we wouldn't be friends," Natasha's carefully schooled face fell into a displeased scowl. "I will punch you. I don't know about Greg. All the signs are there that he's really attracted to you. It's almost like he's hiding something, or doesn't want it to go too far for whatever reason. I'm surprised it took this long for something to happen."
I shot Natasha a disbelieving look.
"I'm serious." Natasha's face softened a little. "But he always hesitates. Like he's that damn unsure of himself. It's not nerves, it's something else but I have no idea what. Maybe it's a bad experience, maybe he's just a bit of a pussy when it comes to having a fuck buddy."
Natasha's brutal honesty made my lips quirk up a little.
"But starting something and then pulling away is a dick move," Natasha said firmly. "So when we get home, you're going to ring Gareth and go down to Hampton and fuck him on every available space of his new apartment. He's not going to say no."
It wasn't the craziest idea Natasha had ever had. I'd been so busy this week I'd nearly forgotten about Gareth moving into his new place this weekend. She wasn't wrong that Gareth wouldn't say no. At least I knew where I stood with him. Gareth had even offered that exact thing, in a more roundabout way of saying it though.
"It's okay to want sex," Natasha continued a little softer this time. "And you need someone who isn't going to fuck with your head while you climb back on the horse."
"Nice analogy there," I said dryly.
"I thought so." Natasha flashed me a quick grin but her expression quickly turned serious. "Greg obviously has some baggage. You don't need that. Gareth had made it loud and clear you can go and use him for sex and there's not going to be any complaints or complications."
I made a noise of non commitment. Though I really needed to let Gareth know I was going to be going dark for a few days. I'd have my phone on me for emergencies, but beyond that it'd be off. I waited until we were at altitude before I fished my phone out of my pocket. I stared at my screen for a few seconds before deciding to do exactly what Natasha had said. Despite everything, I needed to get laid so badly at the moment. My body had finally got to the point where even my head was agreeing that some action needed to be had.
Going dark for a few days. I hope the move goes well over the weekend. I'll come down for the weekend when I get back to see it.
I turned my phone screen and showed Natasha what I'd just typed. She looked up from her own phone and nodded in approval after a few seconds.
"It's a big step you're making, I'm proud of you." Natasha put her phone up a few seconds later.
"I'll explode if I don't get any action that isn't my own hand or vibrator soon," I said dryly. Natasha was right though. It was a huge step in my life. Despite everything that had happened, I did feel ready to make that step. I was probably doing everything out of order, but fuck it. At least I was doing something to help myself move on.
I opened up my camera and motioned for Natasha to get in the frame. I'd been sending Alexi little video messages when I couldn't make it over there. I was hoping sending one now might avert any meltdown Alexi might have about me going away for a week. I'd been a scarce visitor in the Evans household the last few weeks. At first it'd been avoiding Seb but then I got too busy to make it over there as much as I usually did. Evans made the comment that Alexi would watch my video messages before going to bed and kiss his phone. After that I made the effort to send her something every day.
"For Alexi," I explained to Natasha. "I make her good night videos."
"Spoilt little Munchkin," Natasha said with a small chuckle, but moved into the camera frame anyway. "We better make it a long one for her."
The video went for 3 minutes. I barely had enough cell service to send it by the time we were done. I turned my phone off and threw it in my bag when it was done. It would stay off now until we get to our rendezvous point in Odessa.
"If nothing else, this mission should be a week away and not too much stress." Natasha stretched out as I put my phone away. "It'll be fun to do something besides train, eat, sleep, repeat that is our lives at the moment."
It was a bit of an odd mission. We'd land at a secured SHIELD safe house in the middle of nowhere Iran. The scientist, Dr Malone, was terrified of flying so Natasha and I would drive him from Iran all the way to Odessa in the Ukraine. It was over 2000 miles and it would take us a few days. We'd be armed to the teeth, there was GPS tracking on the car but SHIELD wasn't expecting too much trouble. We all had fake documents to get us across country borders. The route was fairly safe. We'd travel through Iran, hug the coastline up through Armenia, Georgia and then up into the Ukraine. Nice and simple. Whatever Dr Malone was working on was of great importance and we had orders to shoot to kill anyone who looked like threatening him.
The flight was long and boring, like most long haul flights. I was thankful Coulson got approval for some stimulants otherwise it would have been a struggle. The half a one I had kept me awake the entire time. Coulson even had the foresight to stock the fridge for us. It was the only advantage of doing these type of flights. The Quinjets used for them had a bathroom and a small kitchenette tucked away in the side of them. It was only a fridge, microwave and coffee maker. But it made all the difference in being able to eat and pee in comfort after 14 hours in the Quinjet. Natasha dozed on and off while I flew. I alternated between reading a book I'd grabbed off the shelf at home. It was surprisingly good, despite being one of Jared's books. When I got bored of reading, I was re-doing my reports from yesterday. It kept my mind busy enough that it didn't wander. I didn't need to be going into a mission, even one as simple as this, with my head all over the place from what Greg did. I could be upset when I got home and not before then.
The safe house was 3 hours west of Tehran. Stepping out into the mid morning sun was very disorientating. Damn time zones. It was almost like the house in Egypt I went to with Rumlow. It was completely derelict on the outside, but surprisingly comfortable on the inside. What surprised me the most was the person greeting us as soon as we stepped inside the door. For once I recognised the person in front of me. But Natasha beat me to greeting her.
"Bobbi." Natasha said with a genuine smile. "So good to see you."
"Its good to see both of you." Bobbi Morse looked tired, but very pleased to see both of us. "Thank you for yanking Rumlow's towel off the other day Kari. You made my day."
So that's who the mystery person was who called out thank you. I thought the voice had thought vaguely familiar. Bobbi was always friendly to me when we ran into each other at the Triskelion. Sometimes being Jared's sister was handy. People who were polite to him were always polite to me.
"You're welcome," I said with a laugh. "Hows things going out here?"
"Boring." Bobbi motioned for us to move into one of the other rooms. We followed her into the small kitchen and sat down at the table. "Dr Malone is up in his room and ready to go when you two are. Its quiet. No one followed us during the extraction. The only thing tripping the motion sensors out here are rabbits and the occasional fox. It's very quiet. Coffee?"
The house was surrounded by scrubby bush and dessert. We were miles from civilisation so that wasn't a surprise.
"Got any food?" I asked. I needed food more than I needed coffee right now. I was still buzzing a little from the stimulant. I was really glad I only had half. SHIELD's stimulants were a little stronger than the ones I used to use in the Air Force.
"Help yourself." Bobbi motioned behind her. "There's enough food to feed an army."
I got up and made some sandwiches, listening to Natasha and Bobbi's conversation. It didn't take Bobbi long to brief both of us on the situation. It was exactly as Coulson had said it. All we had to do now was get Dr Malone in the car and start driving. Natasha and I would drive in 10 hour shifts, giving us both enough time to sleep so we didn't have to stop for the night. It would be a long trip, but at least it wouldn't take long with both of us driving.
"If I take first driving shift, are you good to leave now?" Natasha asked, stealing half a sandwich off my plate.
I nodded, my mouth too full of ham and cheese to respond properly.
"I'll go get Dr Malone." Bobbi stood up, stretching as she went. She looked a lot like Natasha when she did that.
Natasha and I both ate silently until Bobbi and Dr Malone came back into the room. He was a balding, middle aged man. He looked a little like a mad scientist with his hair sticking out everywhere and mismatched clothing.
"Dr Malone, I'm Agent Romanoff and this is Agent Lyngley." Natasha stepped into his cool professional role instantly as she stood up. You wouldn't know half a second ago she was shoving a sandwich in her mouth. and chewing with her mouth open. "We'll be leaving right away. If you need to get or do anything, please do it now."
"Thank you Agent Romanoff, I have everything right here." Dr Malone motioned to a small suitcase behind him. His crisp British accent didn't quite match his appearance. "I'm ready to leave when you are."
"We'll get changed and go." Natasha nodded, glancing over to me. Right, I'd forgotten I was in my flight suit still. Natasha was already in civilian clothes. I shoved the last of my sandwich in my mouth, grabbed my bag and found a quiet corner tog et changed in. It took me less than 2 minutes to get civilian clothes. I found the group waiting in the kitchen for me. As soon as I stepped in, Bobbi motioned for us to follow her.
Bobbi led us out to the garage where we had a nondescript grey SUV waiting for us. It was beat up enough on the outside to not stick out like a sore thumb. But inside it was comfortable and modern. As long as the air conditioner worked and the seats were comfortable, I didn't care about much else. I slid into the passenger seat and made myself at home. We'd be living in this car for the next few days, may as well be comfortable while we were doing it.
"Headscarf," Natasha reminded me with a look of minor disgust on her face. I wrinkled my nose, but went rummaging through my bag for one. I'd forgotten we'd be driving along civilian roads so we had to obey the local customs. Natasha already had hers on, so I had to fiddle to get mine on. At least no one could comment about my still very light pink hair.
"Have a safe trip guys," Bobbi said, tapping the top of the car.
Natasha shot her a grin in response. Nothing else was said as Natasha pulled out into the harsh sunlight. The car kicked up dust as we Natasha swung the car around and we took off into the bright morning sun.
As the sun got higher, the rocky desert of Iran turned into lightly treed areas the closer we got to the coast. At the first major town, Natasha stopped and got us a weird pita bread called shawarma. The pita stuffed with meat, sauce and salad was surprisingly good. After lunch, I lulled into an easy sleep listening to Natasha make conversation with Dr Malone. He was a quiet man, but he seemed to enjoy the conversation when it happened. I was feeling surprisingly rested and it was dark outside when Natasha shook me awake to take over driving. I don't know how she did it, but she had a coffee waiting for me.
"It's not going to be very hot," Natasha warned me as she handed it over, along with some kind of pastry. "I figured you'd want something though. Come on, my turn to sleep."
We were pulled over in the middle of nowhere. I could see lights of a city in the distance and the road was paved, so we weren't too far from civilisation. Dr Malone was sitting in the back of a car with a flashlight, reading Jared's book. He gave me a brief smile as I caught his eye in the rearview mirror. I got out, stretching and feeling the relief as my back cracked. I was stiff, but not too horribly sore right now. I wandered away far enough from the car so I could pee in peace. Natasha and I took turns behind a bush a few feet away from the road.
There wasn't much to say as I climbed into the drivers seat. Natasha was asleep about 5 minutes down the road. I took a few gulps of my barely warm coffee and nibbled on the pastry to fully wake myself up.
"I hope you don't mind me borrowing your book Agent Lyngley," Dr Malone broke the silence. He held the book up, showing me he only had a handful of pages to go.
"Not at all." I looked back at him in the rearview mirror. "I finished it on the flight over here. It's my brothers book."
"It's quite a good series, I have the rest at home in London," Dr Malone said, almost absently staring at the book. "My daughter gave this one to me for Christmas one year and it became a tradition after that."
I thought it was a stand alone book. I'd have to go and find the rest of the series now. I'd really enjoyed it and was mildly impressed about the accuracy the author had gone to.
"How old is your daughter?" It was nice to have a bit of conversation while I woke up properly.
"32, she's due to give birth to her first child any day now," Dr Malone smiled, looking lost in his own memory. "My first grandchild. You can imagine I'm quite keen to get home."
"We will make sure you get there as quickly as possible." I smiled back at him. Despite his odd clothes and mad scientist appearance, he seemed like a nice person. "That's one thing you can't miss out on."
"Do you have children Agent Lyngley?" Dr Malone asked.
"No, I don't but I do have a very demanding god daughter," I said with a small chuckle. "In fact, I better get her something some trinkets along the way, otherwise she'll be very unhappy."
I'd have to find something for Lila and Cooper as well. I felt like I'd barely seen them except for pizza night and the 3 times I'd been at Clint's for dinner. I
"Are you by any chance related to Paul Lyngley?" Dr Malone's next question was an abrupt change of topic. But I wasn't surprised by it.
"That's my Dad." I always felt a little proud to be saying that. Dad had done a lot of work within SHIELD over the years. It was only since I'd joined I'd known the scope of it. A lot of people within SHIELD spoke very highly about my Dad.
"Is he now?"
The tone in which Dr Malone said that made me smother back a giggle. He sounded very old school English professor the way it came out. I could only nod in confirmation.
"He must be very proud, having a daughter in Enforcement," Dr Malone mused. I could see him staring at me in the rearview mirror again. "Though I do believe you have a brother?"
"I do." I nodded again. "He's in Enforcement of SHIELD as well. Dad was a little disappointed one of us didn't follow in his footsteps. He used to say he had one smarter than the average child. I think he was hoping for that child to go to MIT and be like him."
At least I'd been accepted to MIT. Though I'd never told Dad about it. I was sure he'd either kill me or drop dead of a heart attack for going Air Force instead. Then again, I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for my decision all those years ago. It's funny how one decision can change your life in ways you could never imagine. I never imagined this would be my life a year and a half ago. It was a far change from going to work every Monday to Friday, hoping for flying hours or begging for an overseas tour to get flying time and listening to my noisy neighbours wondering if they were going to fight or fuck loudly that night. There had been bumps in the road but I wouldn't want my old life back now.
"I'm guessing the smart child was you?" Even in the dark I could see Dr Malone's eye's sparkling in amusement. I nodded enthusiastically, shooting him a small grin. "So, why did you join SHIELD?"
"I was actually Air Force first." I took another sip of my nearly cold coffee and a mouthful of pastry. Whatever the weird pastry with fruit and nuts made up for the dodgy coffee. "SHIELD threw me an offer I couldn't refuse and here I am." "SHIELD are good at doing that," Dr Malone said dryly. "I'm not bothering you, am I?"
"Not at all, I appreciate the conversation," I said honestly. It was going to be a long 10 hours and having a few hours pass by quickly would be a blessing. "Can you tell me about your work in SHIELD?"
"Of course, I'm guessing they wouldn't send someone without the correct clearance to hear about it."
Dr Malone launched into a brief explanation of what he was doing. When I could understand that, he went into quite a lot of specifics. It was obvious he was very passionate about what he was working on. I only understood about 20% of it, but at least I could vaguely follow what he was talking about. It had something to do with new nuclear fusion technology SHIELD was hoping to use. But it was a fascinating way to whittle away a few hours. Dr Malone eventually grew tired and about 0100 local time I was left with nothing but my thoughts and a wide open road as we came up upon to Armenia border.
"Tasha." I reached over and shook Natasha awake just before we got to the border check.
I got a grunt from her as she woke up, bleary eyed and grumbling under her breath in Russian. She instantly sat up a little straighter when she saw where we were.
"Hang on, I'll get our papers out," Natasha smothered back a yawn as she spoke. "Shouldn't be too much of an issue."
Natasha was right. The officials at the border didn't bother looking at anything of ours. Our passports were stamped and we were waved through without even waking up Dr Malone. The border guards looked at tired as I was starting to feel. Maybe they wanted to get rid of us quickly so they could all go back to sleep. Either way, I was very glad for no issues. It was thrilling and a little terrifying to be using a fake passport in an official way.
Natasha fell back asleep as soon as we pulled away from the border. The mountainous terrain of Armenia made the driving slow in the dark. At least the roads were maintained well enough that it wasn't completely terrifying getting around. We passed through 2 smallish towns before it was time for Natasha to take over. I was barely able to keep my eyes open by the time I pulled up. I crawled into the passenger seat and was asleep nearly instantly.
The trip through Armenia and Georgia passed much of the same. It was eat, sleep and stop for toilet breaks. The sandy hills of Iran gave way to dense forest and mountainous terrain. It made some of the night driving fairly interesting. But it was still relaxing. It seemed stupid to be wasting Natasha and I on a mission like this. Secretly, I was glad to be well away from DC and the problem I left behind there.
It was also good to get my head sorted out. While Dr Malone slept, Natasha and I had a long conversation about Greg. It didn't solve anything, but it did steel my resolve to wait until he contacted me first. For all I knew there could be a barrage of texts waiting for me when I turned my phone on. Or he could ignore me for the rest of my life. But I wasn't going to chase him. Natasha was definitely right about me needing someone who wasn't going to fuck with my head. Greg had so much baggage and too many secrets. I didn't need that right now.
When Natasha and I weren't deep in conversation about my complete fuck up of a love life, Dr Malone would join in the conversation. Overall it was a pleasant time to spend a few days. We were about 100 miles of out Odessa and Natasha was driving. I was awake, much to my displeasure after only sleeping for about 4 hours. But it wasn't long to go now. We'd have a Quinjet waiting to take us home at the safe house. It wouldn't be long until I could satisfying the gnawing curiosity I had about turning my phone on. It kept growing with every passing mile. Despite my resolve about not talking to Greg unless he spoke first, I was dying to see if he'd said anything. I was too damn curious for my own good. It was going to get me into trouble one of these days.
"You drive like a crazy person," I said casually to distract that train out thought. My feet propped were up on the dash and I was enjoying the last bit of Autumn sun on my face as we sped down a quiet road. We still had another hour to go before making our rendezvous point, but Natasha had been right. As usual. Coming along for this pick up had been a bit of fun. It was no stress and very low key. The weather was beautiful in the Ukraine for this time of year. I thought it'd be freezing cold, but the days had been pleasantly warm.
"I am a crazy person," Natasha said, grinning at me. Her hair whipped around her face as she looked at me, carefree and happy. We kept the windows down to enjoy the warm evening air as we sped along the mountain side road. It was quite pretty at the moment. The setting sun cast orange and pink shadows along the higher mountains, giving everything a beautiful golden glow. The air was fresh and crisp, only a small bite of cold in it promising a brisk night. I took in a big lungful of the fresh air. We were miles from any type of civilisation, everything was so crisp and clean out here. As good as it'd been to get away, I couldn't wait to get out of this damn car and home to a real bed.
As Natasha turned back to the road there was a deafening bang. Before any of us could react, the car spun out of control and started to flip. The sound of metal giving way under pressure was deafening. Any noise I thought I might have made was drowned out by car being obliterated as we rolled. My head hit smashed against something hard and I blacked out.
I woke up coughing. The movement in my chest made pain flare through my body. I opened my eyes, seeing double and stars dancing around my vision. I could feel something trickling down the side of my head. Now I was conscious, I really didn't want to be. Everything hurt. I was hanging upside down by my seatbelt, pinned between the door and what was left of part of the car. Even with my double vision I could see I was alone in the car.
"Nat?" I tried to call out. My voice came out as gasping wheeze, sending shooting pains through my chest. I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to breathe through it and not scream. Screaming wasn't going to help the pain go away. If anything it would make it worse.
"Kari!" Natasha appeared, poking her head through my broken window. She looked fine, except for a scrape on her cheek. "Hang on. I've got nothing to cut you out of the car with. Just hang on."
Natasha reached in and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. My fingers wouldn't cooperate in squeezing her hand back. For a horrible moment I thought I was paralysed. The thought made my entire body jerk a few seconds later. It hurt like a fucking bitch, every muscle on my body screamed at the sudden movement. I definitely wasn't paralysed.
"We blew a tyre," Natasha said, looking calm despite the situation. "Went over the cliff. I pulled Dr Malone out. You're gonna be okay. Stay put."
I didn't have much of a choice in the matter. I was very well wedged in-between what looked like part of the roof and the door. If I only had a few broken ribs, I was going to be lucky. Judging by how much it hurt to breath, I was very sure they were broken too. But Natasha's calm tone kept me from freaking out too much. As soon as we were late to our rendezvous point, a search party would be sent out. We wouldn't be sitting out here for days. It was a mildly comforting thought as I finally squeezed Natasha's hand back.
The sound of rocks sliding down the hill made both snap our heads to the sound of it. Judging by how still Natasha went, I knew it was a very bad sign.
"Gun?" Natasha asked, dropping her voice to a low whisper.
I had it strapped to my thigh earlier because of how soon we'd get to base but I couldn't feel it there now. I shook my head, making my blurry vision worse. Natasha pulled out a knife from her boot and pressed it into my hand. She put her finger to her lips and I nodded in confirmation. All pain from my body very quickly left as adrenaline kicked in. She slipped away, hugging the side of the car until she was out of my sight.
I stayed still, straining to hear what was going on outside. My spinning head wasn't going my vision any favours, so I closed my eyes and listened. There was nothing but the scuffle of feet on rocks and what sounded like heavy boots. I jumped as a gunshot rang out across the quiet. The sound of a high calibre rifle echoing around the mountain was enough to spur some more adrenaline into me. I reached up and cut my seatbelt, sending my body crashing into the roof of the car. My power was on my fingertips before my brain caught up to what I was doing. The door I was wedged against shattered a few seconds later, sending me tumbling out onto the rocky outcrop. I slid for a few feet before stopping. It was a damn near vertical drop out of the car. I couldn't bring myself to look down thinking of how much of a drop it might be. Dragging myself up to my knees, I took in the sight around me.
It was nearly dark. I could only barely make out the outline of the figure walking back up the hill. Tall and well built, he walked like a predator, completely uncaring about what was behind him. A rifle slung over his shoulder and 2 unmoving bodies a few feet to his right was enough to tell me he wasn't a friendly.
It took every ounce of strength I had in my body to raise the knife, aim and throw. Despite my spinning head and blurry vision, it was a perfect throw. Even Clint would have been impressed by it. The knife cut through the air with a gentle swoosh, right on target of hitting the guy in the back of the neck. A glint of metal flashed in the failing light as the figure turned and knocked my knife from the air. Soulless blue eyes stared down at me. His lower face covered by a mask. The glint of metal from before came up and it took a moment for my mind to process that the metal was his arm.
I fumbled for the gun on my thigh, my hands meeting thin air. In the second it took for me to fumble for my weapon, he was in front of me. The movement was too quick for a normal person. I'd barely seen or heard him move. The metal hand picked me up by the jaw, strong, cold fingers squeezing my face as he effortlessly lifted me up.
If I was in pain before, it had nothing on the agony I was in now. It felt like my bones were being crushed under his fingers. It was going to be crushed to death like a bug by a metal armed assassin. He held me there, staring but not making the final move. It was terrifying looking into the eyes of someone who was about to kill you. I couldn't move, I couldn't think straight and I could barely breath. This really wasn't the way I wanted to die. His fingers closed around my jaw a little tighter and I could feel the crunch of bone on my face. The agony coursing through me made me start to see black edges in my vision. I was going to pass out if he squeezed any harder.
"You weren't meant to be here," the harsh and accented Russian nearly didn't process in my brain. It was a really strange accent. It almost sounded like an American who hadn't learnt to speak it properly. His grip didn't loosen as he spoke, but it gave me a few seconds to let me think. "Mission statement said 2, not 3."
As he spoke, my brain finally kicked into gear and worked through the pain. I reached up, digging my hand into the metal plates holding me up and let me power take over. The assassin stared as the ice wound its way up his metal arm. Even with his face half covered, I saw his brow crinkle in confusion. His grip loosened before dropping me a fraction of a second later. I fell to the ground, gasping for the air I didn't realise I needed. Before I could regroup and make another attack, the metal fist came flying at my face. I blanked out as soon as it hit me in the face.
I don't know how much time passed, but it was really dark when I was slowly dragged back to consciousness. I could taste blood in my mouth and the left side of my face felt like someone had taken a hammer to it. I couldn't see out of my left eye, and keeping the right one open make me feel sick from dizziness. The moon was giving off some light but it wasn't helping me see in the dark. The temperature had dropped dramatically, making my entire body shiver uncontrollably. I rolled over, groaning at the immense amount of pain I was in. Everything hurt. But at the moment my face was the worst of it, then my ribs. I felt like I couldn't draw enough breath in to get the oxygen I needed. I rolled over, trying to relieve some of the pressure of the awkward slump I was in. In the distance, I could make out a form of what looked to be 2 bodies.
Natasha.
I don't know how I did it, but I was on my feet and I managed to stumble over to her. It was the extent of the exertion I could do. I collapsed next to both of them as soon as I got there, panting and sweating heavily. Even in the dim light I could see the puddle of blood around her. She was laying face down over Dr Malone, pale as a ghost with a gun shot wound through her hip.
"Natasha." Talking was excruciating and my voice sounded slurred. I reached out and fumbled to find a pulse in her neck. It was there, weak and erratic, but there. "Please wake up."
I got no response. I pulled off my shirt, feeling strangely numb as I pressed it to the wound to attempt to stop the bleeding. My arms didn't want to work properly and it probably took longer than it should of to get my shirt off. But I couldn't think of anything else to do. As I put as much pressure on the wound as I could, I bent over to check for a pulse on Dr Malone. There was none. My heart ached thinking back to the conversations we'd had in the car. He had a daughter back home and a grandchild who was never going to see her Grandfather. My chest constricted as I forced back my feelings. I couldn't think of the crisp spoken gentleman now. I had bigger problems to worry about.
I needed to move Natasha. We were stuck on the side of a cliff with no means of getting back to our checkpoint. Both of our phones would be in the wreckage of the car. I was in no shape to go searching through the mangled piece of metal that was our car. My watch was missing so I had no way of telling the time, except that it was dark now. But we would have missed our rendezvous. Someone would be looking for us. I needed to get us somewhere that we could be seen. Even though it was dark I could tell we were on the side of a cliff. We were lucky we hadn't gone all the way down, a small lip had stopped the car crashing down another 200ft.
My shirt was fast becoming soaked through with blood. A crazy idea popped into my head as I stared at the dark fabric under my hands. I took a deep breath and took the shirt away, grateful for no blood spurting back at me. I put my hand over the wound, mustering every bit of concentration I had. The ice fanned out under my hand onto Natasha's skin, forming a seal over the wound. Her skin was already cold so the body heat didn't begin melting it straight away. I made it an inch which before turning Natasha over and inspecting the damage on the other side. The bullet had exited and a quick glance at Dr Malone showed it to have hit him directly in the chest. The mess of fragmented bone and tissue made my stomach turn. Whoever the assassin was, had surgical precision with his gun. Natasha was still alive, meaning the bullet wasn't meant for her.
I didn't waste time pondering my next move. My vision was starting to swim again, I could barely keep myself upright. But I forced myself to focus and keep going. I made the ice bandage on the front of Natasha, reaching up the check her pulse again. It was getting thready, judging by the amount of blood on the ground, I wouldn't be surprised if she was going into hypovolemic shock. The thought to it was enough to jolt my body into action. A blessed hit of adrenaline somehow managed to get me back on my feet with Natasha propped up against me.
"You can do this," I coached myself, my voice slurred and weak. "Come on Kari, you can do this."
I put one foot in front of the other, dragging Natasha's limp form with me. My body screamed in protest, but I made my foot move again. And again. My body screamed at me in protest. Every lungful of air I tried to take in felt like fire was scorching my chest. My head and face were pounding with a horrid ferocity. But I kept forcing one foot to move in front of the other.
I don't know how I did it, but it felt like one-second we were on the side of the cliff and the next I was hands and knees down on the road, gasping for breath with Natasha lying beside me. I couldn't breath any more, the fire in my chest was getting worse. My head was pounding with such force, I was sure it'd fall off. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to will the pain away. But the fire kept spreading. This time it radiated down my right arm. I hadn't noticed before but it was at the strangest angle. I had no idea how I managed to throw the knife with how my arm looked. My arm looked like it was a few inches too long. Even with my blurry vision and pounding head I could tell it was dislocated. Strangely it was about the only part of my body that didn't hurt. That wasn't a good sign. There was no way I would have thrown with my right arm. It must have done it with my left. I had no idea though. Everything was blurring together.
"Agent Lyngley? Agent Romanoff?"
The voice sounded miles away. There was a very vague familiarity to it. My head hurt far too much to try and piece it together in my mind. The sound of footsteps forced my eyes back open and I was suddenly surrounded by light. A glint of metal was the first thing I saw.
Instinct was the only thing making me move. A fresh hit of adrenaline made my body bend over Natasha's and my fingers closed around the gun still in her thigh holster. I had no idea how she'd managed to keep on it while I dragged our asses up here. I only made it to my knees, but I had enough strength to hold the gun in my left hand. Thanks to Clint, I could shoot nearly as well with my left as my right hand these days.
"Whoa, easy there Agent Lyngley," that familiar voice again came in a soothing tone. "It's okay, we're friendly. Do you remember me?"
I shook my head. I couldn't see straight let alone make out the face of the person in front of the lights behind him. But he was armed and Natasha and I were surrounded by more armed men. I'd stared down death once already today. I wasn't feeling afraid to do it a second time. By the weight of the Glock, it had a full magazine in it. I had 15 shots. I'd go down fighting and take 15 down with me. One shot, one kill. Clint would be very proud of me.
"We met in Bagram," the person speaking inched closer to me. "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Maning."
Why was the name something I knew? My fuzzy head couldn't concentrate on trying to place that name with someone I knew. Him inching closer was making my trigger finger inch closer to its mark. I could barely stay upright let alone aim. But I was confident I could inflict some maximum damage if I could.
"Remember that day at the range when you outshot Riley?" The man stood his ground, hands up in a non threatening manner. "He joked about handing his balls over to put in your purse?"
I remembered that day clearly. It had been Riley and I, plus his old SEAL team at the range shooting because we had nothing else to do. All of a sudden the name clicked in my head. Maning was Riley's old SEAL team commanding officer. What the fuck was a SEAL team doing out here near Odessa?
"What was Riley's favourite drink?" I managed to rasp out. Pain flared in my face again as I spoke. My mouth filled with blood again and I tried to spit it out. It ended up dribbling down my chin more than getting on the ground. My jaw and tongue didn't want to work properly at all. I wasn't going to give in so easily. This could be a trick.
"Heineken or Jim Beam," Maning said instantly. "He liked his Jim Beam old and expensive, but would settle for the cheap stuff if he had to."
I dropped the gun, feeling a sudden rush of relief. The relief was quickly following by dizziness and I found myself swaying. My body wouldn't work anymore and my last conscious thought was to faint away from Natasha so they could see the extent of her injury first. I could wait.
When I woke up again I was moving and there was bright lights above me. It was so disorientating. I only had my eyes open for a second before I shut them again. Someone was holding my hand and I could hear people speaking rapidly around me. It was too quick and my brain was too fried to process any of it. But the voice I knew cut through the mess of voices clear enough.
"Kari Lyngley, I don't have anything else on her besides she's a SHIELD agent." It took me a moment to place Maning's voice again. "Car accident as far as I can tell. Did the emergency chest tube on the chopper ride, she was conscious and vaguely responsive when we found her."
"Anastasia," I murmured. My jaw felt strangely numb. Actually my entire body felt pretty numb. I felt like I was drunk. It was a blessed relief from the pain I'd been feeling earlier. "My middle name is Anastasia. You need to call Coulson."
I rattled off his number and my SHIELD number as well. Or I hoped I did, my mind was a fuzzy jumble right now. I could have been reciting my old USAF number for all I knew.
"We've already been in touch with Coulson," Maning's voice sounded distant and far away. "Is your friend allergic to anything or have anything the doctors need to know about?"
"Natasha."
I immediately struggled to try and push myself upright. It was useless though. Soft hands pushed me back down onto the bed and kept me there. I didn't have an ounce of strength left in me. It took my ages to try and get my head to focus again. I needed to focus. This was important.
"No allergies, she hates morphine though," I said, fighting to keep the slur out of my voice. "Makes her hallucinate."
I have no idea why I knew that. It was probably from one of our completely random conversations we tended to have. I could feel myself being sucked back under into the land of unconsciousness before I could fight it.
"Don't ring my mum, she'll worry too much." I managed to get out. Everything was becoming all jumbled again. "Tell Coulson that he isn't allowed to be angry at me for having sex in the Quinjet with Riley cuz it was Barton that stole the truth serum."
"I'll tell him that," Maning sounded like he was laughing but it was so far away. He said something else but I was too tired to process it. I drifted away again, enjoying the peace and quiet of the nothing.
The first thing I noticed when I started to become conscious again was someone's hand through mine. It was about the only thing I could concentrate on. The world around me felt very fuzzy and dim. Judging by the roughness and very specific callous on the palm, it was Clint's hand. It took every ounce of energy I had to tiredly squeeze his hand. My face hurt way too much to try and open my eyes.
"Hey."
I was right, it was Clint. I would have smiled if my face muscles would cooperate.
"Don't try and talk, you've broken your jaw," Clint said in a gentle tone. "It's wired shut so don't freak out."
I grunted some sort of noise out in response. I tried to pry my eyes open, but I could only get the right one to cooperate. The left one felt like it was glued shut. The white room was nothing but a blurry mess and my head started to pound. I shut it again just as quickly.
"We're at Ramstein Air Base," Clint supplied for me, his thumb running over my knuckle. "Natasha's fine. She's out of surgery and stable. Did you get a look at your shooter?"
I nodded weakly. Even with his face covered, I'd never forget those soulless blue eyes. They'd haunt me for a long time.
"We'll talk later then," Clint said gently, squeezing my hand. "Go back to sleep."
I didn't need to be told twice. I was asleep the second after Clint finished speaking.
When I came to again I could make out Coulson and Clint's voices. The jumbled blur of sound was like gibberish for the few seconds. But the more awake I became, it got clearer.
"You could have waited," Coulson sounded extremely exasperated. "3 hours Clint. 3 fucking hours. That's all you would have had to wait."
"I did pick Linda and Jared up on the way," Clint's comeback was extremely defensive. "You know how much she freaks out when Kari is hurt."
"Still doesn't change the fact you stole…" Coulson began.
"Borrowed," Clint cut in.
"Either way, a Quinjet got taken without permission and you flew it all the way to Germany."
That made me crack an eye open. What the fuck had Clint done? Clint and Coulson were standing with the backs to me, having a serious conversation. They were both oblivious to me being awake.
"Fury likes Linda far too much to shoot me down." Clint was completely unapologetic.
"And she's taking most of the blame saying she coerced you into it," Coulson huffed out an unamused laugh. "You have no idea how lucky you are she's taking the fall for this one."
"Can you blame her though Coulson?" Clint's tone turned a little more gentle. "She gets a call saying her daughter has been shot off the road by an unknown assassin and she's being medivaced to Ramstein. Jared's never been here so he couldn't teleport her over. What else was she meant to do? Even if I wasn't already on the way to New York, she would have done anything in her power to get here."
The silence was near deafening in the room. It felt like hours before Coulson spoke.
"After Pripyat, I never ever wanted to have to call her with news like this again." Coulson's voice sounded a little shaky. "This was meant to be a need to know mission only. A very simple escort. I have no idea how it went sideways so quickly."
"Kari said she saw the shooters face," Clint's tone was firm. "Jared and I can go hunting once they're both stable enough to go home."
I wanted to go hunting too. I'd quite happily put a bullet in the head of the guy who did this to me. Actually, scratch that. I'd put a bullet in his chest for Dr Malone. It was only fitting. I managed to crack open both eyes
"Me too," I managed to slur out. The words came out funny, but the sound of my voice made them both jump and whirl around in surprise.
"Hey there slugger," Clint recovered first, a bright smile coming over his face. "You look like shit."
"You should see the other guy." Fuck it hurt to talk. I felt like I was drooling everywhere. I tried to reach up and wipe my face but Clint gently detoured my hand.
"You aren't drooling," Clint said, looking a little amused. "I've broken my jaw before. Believe me when I say don't touch anywhere near your face just yet. Time to work on sign language again."
About the only thing that really stuck in my head from Clint trying to teach me ASL was fuck off. Which I happily tapped out with my hands, much to Clint and Coulson's amusement. It was good to see Coulson smile. The second before he turned around he looked so worried. He was such a mother hen with us sometimes. I think he worried about me as much as my parents did.
"What else?" I tried to finish the sentence but my jaw hurt too much to keep going. I pointed at my body, hoping one of them would get the picture.
"Your cheekbone is fractured, along with your jaw," Coulson filled in. "You dislocated your shoulder and fractured 4 ribs. One of your ribs punctured your right lung. One hell of a goose egg of your head, but you'll live."
A few broken bones were a small price to pay. It could have been much, much worse. I could have easily been in a body bag.
"Nat?" I asked, growing more tired by the second. I closed both my eyes and sunk back against my pillow. Another little nap wouldn't hurt as soon as I found out how Natasha was.
"We're going to have matching scars," Clint chuckled. "But she's going to be fine. She's already harassing the nurses about getting up and moving. Jared went to find her a cheeseburger."
I could definitely go for a cheeseburger. I didn't get to voice my opinion, I was quickly sucked back into the land of unconsciousness. The last thing I remembered was Clint holding my hand. For now, I felt safe. That was all I needed to pass out again.
Authors Note.
So now I have come to the end of the chapters I've written ahead for this part of the story. So updates may get a little spotty again. I will aim to get another one out before the month is up though. I was excited to get to this chapter. Its one of those ones I've been planning from the beginning of writing. Although her life may be going to shit at the moment, it's a big defining moment for Kari and who she becomes. So I hope I didn't disappoint.
Thank you so much for all your reviews! I love and cherish every single one of them. I love this story and it makes me so happy to see other people enjoy it too. Even if you don't review, every favourite, follow or hit on the story makes my day. Its hard to believe looking at it, 61 chapters in and 379 reviews as of posting it. I didn't expect it to be this well loved. It all started with a scene in my head that wouldn't go away until I wrote it down, and then it snowballed from there. Funnily enough, that scene is still yet to come!
Also thank you for the well wishes about my health. Its been a long and slow process after a bad run of doctors to get somewhere and have someone listen to me. So as I type right now, I'm doing prep for some procedures tomorrow that will hopefully give me some answers. Fingers crossed anyway.
Until next time.