Iceland Safe House
A Few Days Later

Sam squinted at the headlights trying to see through the late spring snow that now covered the windshield of the car while trying to spot through the dark the small dirt road that led to the cabin. He'd run into town for a few supplies to get them through the next few days, leaving Teagan alone since she had wanted to start the Irish warming stew for their dinner. The trip was supposed to have only been about an hour and he'd left late in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, there had been an accident which closed the only road he could take from town to the cabin. A semi-truck had been cut off and lost control on the icy road, partially falling into the ditch and leaving the trailer over both lanes. That meant that his overall trip was now well into hour three, much longer than he had wanted it to be. The snowstorm that they had learned about after lunchtime and that he trying to stock up for had already begun. They had woken up late and had a long make-out session that stopped them from paying attention to the weather report that morning. Hence his late start to the store.

Finally Sam spotted the driveway marked by the solitary tree stump carved into a penguin. Nat had pointed out that when the roads were covered in wintertime there was no distinction between any of them. He slow and carefully drove his way through the barren hills, anxious to finally get back. Making the final turn, he was able to spot the cabin, and he felt his gut drop.

There was not a single light coming from the inside.

He knew that Teagan had a massive fear of the dark, and the fact that she had not turned on any light worried him. Had she somehow been hurt and unable to?

Jumping out of the car, Sam raced through the crunchy snow yard, jumping over the two steps to land on the wooden porch he sprinkled with salt before leaving. Suddenly worried that maybe their location had been compromised, he glanced around the dark yard but saw no signs of intruders footsteps in the snow. Opening the unlocked door, Sam found that the fire was still going in the fireplace, giving a dull glow over the den. The smell of the stew was heavy in the air, a low burn from the gas stove with the pot still on it. His eyes then began darting around trying to spot Teagan but nothing caught his attention.

"Teagan," he calmly called out trying his best to keep the worry from his voice. Sam closed the door behind him without receiving an answer.

The room was chilly, making him wonder why she would have turned the heaters off. Reaching over to the wall, Sam flipped the light switch and nothing happened. He realized that the storm must have knocked the power out while he was gone. There had not been in footprints to indicate that she'd left the house so Teagan had to be somewhere close.

"Teagan, it's Sam, I'm back," he called out making his way towards the fire, letting it show her that it was indeed him while checking the darker corners for her form.

He knew that she was here, hiding somewhere from Keeling. Even after all this time, he was still her greatest fear.

"Sam," the whisper of her voice was coming from off to the left.

Stepping over to the chair that was in the corner of the den, he pulled it away to reveal Teagan wrapped up in a blanket with one of his guns in her unsteady hands. Letting her get a good look at him, he then slowly reached to take the loaded weapon from her. He placed it onto the seat of the chair behind him before sitting on the ground, wrapping his arms around her shaking body.

"Sorry I was gone for so long," he told her trying to help calm her. "There was an accident blocking the road to get back. I didn't think to take my emergency phone with me to call and let you know. Are you alright?"

"I tried…" she whispered.

"Tried what?" he asked.

"Tried to keep it together. I did for a while. After the power went out. It was still light outside...then the sun went down," she told him.

"And it got too dark for you," he finished, showing that he knew her problem. "You don't have to explain to me. I know that it's not an easy thing to just suddenly get over."

For the past few months, Teagan had slowly been telling him pieces of what she'd gone through with Keeling, how he liked to keep her in the darkness. To her, it represented the worst moments in her entire life, being locked away with no hope of escape. And then Ross had inadvertently used her own fear against her, trying to torture her into working for him. But she had been so strong enough to not let it break her.

"I'm sorry I'm so weak, I don't want'a be," she told him.

"You're not weak," he hated that she felt this way. Running his hand over her head, "You have a very real reason to fear the dark. It will get better, you just have to give it some time. For two years you were strong enough to never let your fear be the reason that you finally would give into Ross' demands. You have the strength in you to fight and overcome this fear. In some ways, you're just like Steve…to stubborn to stay down. All you have to do is find that inner strength at times like this and let it help you up."

After a few moments of silence between the, she practically whispered, "When the lights first went out, I thought that Keeling had found me. I got your gun. I was going to fight him."

Teagan's body then began to shake, and he knew it wasn't from the cold.

Her voice was broken when she spoke, "I can't go back. I'd brake. Why couldn't he have died? Then I would at least know he wasn't out there."

Sam gave her forehead a single kiss, his arms squeezed her just a bit firmer.

"Even if he is out there, I'm right here for you."

"I don't think I deserve you," she whispered, making him think of her tattoo.

Reaching over, he rested his palm right over the spot where it was located on her chest.

"Yes, you do…you only have to accept it."

They sat quietly for a while longer before he was finally able to get Teagan to stand. While she went to see how the stew had fared, he stoked the fire and found Nat's stash of emergency candles. After going out to the get the groceries and supplies from the car, making him glad it was a snowstorm since it kept the food cold, they sat and ate the warm stew.

Not knowing how long the power would be out, he then pulled the two mattresses from their beds and made a space for them to sleep on right in front of the fireplace on the floor. They even grabbed all the pillows and blankets they could find from the other bedroom to make a very cozy nest. The generator that Nat had set up worked only the stove and water heater since this location was not used often.

With no television to distract them, he turned on the emergency battery-powered radio and found a station playing music, neither one of them understanding a single word. To distract Teagan and make her feel a bit better, they ended up having an incredible make-out session while the heavy snow fell outside. He was sure that during those two hours that she never once thought about how dark the cabin was or that Keeling was still alive.

By the time he fell asleep, Sam had curled their half-naked bodies together, him spooning her back to his chest as he listened to her steady breathing. He would make sure that he did everything he could so that she never felt that scared or powerless again.

"So, how about a walk in the snow?" Sam was looking out the window over the sink where he was washing dishes while she dried and put them away.

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" she asked.

"The weather forecast says the there is a small break for the next few hours before the next wave of storms moves in. If we don't get out of here for a little while, we might not have the chance again for a few more days," he told her. "Just a short walk down the drive to the penguin and back to help forgo the cabin fever a few days longer."

Thinking of a possibility, Teagan couldn't stop the smile before saying, "That would give a good reason to snuggle for some warmth together afterwards."

A pair of strong arms slid around her waist, pulling her against the hard body behind her. Sam had been so good to her, taking their blossoming relationship at a slowly increasing pace that he had let her set. Every so often when some touch would draw her mind back to that dark place, Sam was there to help her back into the light. After the past few months of such wonderful touches, especially last night, her fear of being intimate with Sam was quickly and steadily dropping to non-existence. Her thoughts were already moving towards the next step.

"I don't need to go outside to find a reason to do that."

Sam then began to trail kisses across the back of her neck, tickling her sensitive skin with his lips to where she drew up her shoulders while almost giggling.

"I've been meaning to ask, what does this tattoo represent?" Sam's lips then began to kiss the center back of her neck.

In that spot was one of her favorite tattoos…a four-leaf clover. The clover itself was a bright green, but she'd had it designed with numerous dark blue curly wisps of swirls coming from it. Dotting in-between the curls were small yellow stars.

"It just shows the lucky clover blowing in the wind on a starry night," she told him as his finger began to trace along the swirls. "Luck be in the wind."

"It's beautiful," he told her. "So, exactly how many tattoos do you have?"

Teagan turned around to face Sam.

"Well, I guess you'll just have to wait and eventually find out," she grinned sure that he understood what she was getting at.

"As long as I get to kiss every single one of them you're still hiding, just like I did last night," he then did that grin of his that made her knees weaken.

"I'd hurt you if you didn't," she teased him.

After bundling up in their winter gear, they walked outside, basking in the fresh, crisp wind. She had not realized how stuffy the cabin had been since she'd hardly stepped outside of it since arriving. There was not much to do here being so far out of town, making her miss the Spanish villa which had been in walking distance. It reminded her more of South Dakota, where she and the others had to occupy each other, also being more away from prying eyes.

Being worried that she might stand out with her red hair, she'd always made sure to tuck her red hair under a cap to go pick up supplies. Natasha had a program running to inform her of anything that got posted about all of them possibly being spotted, but she didn't want to the be one to actually cause it. So far, they had managed to stay out of sight, and Teagan hoped it continued.

Walking down the drive, hand-in-hand with Sam, she hoped that they had a few more days alone together. Maybe they would get lucky and the storms would keep Steve and Natasha away.

Sam felt a warm hand sliding over his bare chest, and it brought a smile to his formally sleeping face. The first kiss laid upon his shoulder is what made him open his eyes. The glow from the fireplace made Teagan's hair shine like fire as her body began to slide atop of his. Her lips trailed kisses over his collar bone, up his neck, and finally landed on his lip. All the while, her body ground nicely down onto his.

When her hand began to travel down to his bottoms, sliding underneath of the material to take a hold of him, he couldn't stop the moan of pleasure that escaped his lips.

"I vote for being woken up just like this all the time," he mumbled into her ear as she stroked him.

"Glad to hear it," she told him, taking a nip at his earlobe.

"If you're going to tease me this much, you better be ready for some real tit-for-tat," he grinned up at her, placing his hands on her butt cheeks so that he could pull her down just enough so that she now firmly rested against this body.

"No more tit-for-tat," she told him, making Sam pause as he was reaching for her own panties. "I want ya' ta' scuttle me like I've been dreamin' 'bout."

His chest, and something a bit lower, swelled knowing what Teagan was admitting to him.

"Are you sure? You don't have to rush into this. I will be here for you if your not ready. We can wait until…"

"No!" she interrupted him, placing her fingers over his mouth to silence him. "I need this…you, right now more than I ever have. I let my fear hold me back from you for far too long, but I will not let the memory of that gobshite hold me back from enjoying sex anymore. You are not him and I'm through living in the past."

His chest swelled with delight at hearing her say the words that he had been holding back from uttering, worried about how she might take them. But it seemed that the two of them might be on the exact same page.

She quickly removed her night shirt, tossing it aside. Teagan then pressed her hips down into his waist, the warmth of their bare chests together his making him grow even harder.

"Then I really hope scuttle means what I hope it does," he told her, knowing that it would be best to stay lying on the bed with her atop of him. He knew that if she felt confined that there was a chance of a small panic attack starting. He didn't want her to associate them being together sexually with anything that Keeling may have done to her so letting her start out on top seemed the best idea. Sam somehow doubted that she'd ever been forced into sex in that position.

"It absolutely does, Falcon."

His cheeks were almost hurting with the wide smile upon his face.

"Well then, Erin, we are going to take this at your pace," he told her, running his hands up her back to pull her down for a kiss.

They only lasted a few moments with heavy kissing before both of them felt the need to finish stripping down.

With her hands on the elastic hem of her pajama bottoms, pulling them down every so slightly, "Have I ever shown you my little birdy tattoo?" she seductively asked him while rubbing a spot just hidden by the material.

"No, can't say that I've seen that one," he admitted while his eyes eagerly looking forward to her reveal.

Coming up to a kneeling position over him, Teagan then made a show of lowering her bottoms to expose her her hip area. Sam instantly noticed that there was no sign of a bird tattoo at all.

"Where is it?" he asked, seeing her confused look as she rubbed her skin searching for it, while he wondered how she could loose a tattoo.

"I can't find it," Teagan told him sounding a bit disappointed. Teagan then looked him in the eyes and boldly stated, "Oh, well. I guess my pussy ate it."

After a moment of shock at the crude joke, his laughter filled the room, knowing that if anyone had been anywhere nearby the house that they would have heard him.

"You, Teagan, are an Irish gem," he told her as he grabbed her sides and began to tickle her until she was laughing as hard as he had.

Rolling off of him to get away, Sam took that moment to pull her bottoms all the way off. She laid there watching as he removed his boxers, making her do that lovely blush of her cheeks.

Taking a few moments, Sam reached over and put another log on the fire to help keep the cabin warm, not that he expected them to get cold anytime soon. But Sam could easily see them being worn out and falling asleep right after only to wake up to a chilly house. Laying back down, he held out his hand for Teagan so that she would once again be on top where she would be comfortable.

"Wait," he told her as Teagan went to throw her leg back over him. Jumping up, he ran to the bathroom to get the purchase he had made after their first make-out session. Grabbing the box of condoms, he saw a smile on Teagan's face as she saw them with his return.

"Hopeful much?" she asked with a grin as he fell back onto the mattress next to her. She was atop of him before he could even get comfortable.

"How would you feel if right now I had to run to the store?" he pointed out.

"Good point," she stated before capturing his lips with her again.

With an almost forgotten skill, Sam managed to get the box open and the condom unrolled onto him with only the use of his hands, not his eyes. Teagan moving to kneel again had moved higher up onto him, giving him some room but placing her beasts at the perfect spot for sucking, which he did as a multitask.

With his hands now free, he traversed her pale skin, finding the same ticklish spots he had noticed the other night. He liked to see her smile and would make sure to have her do it he could, his lips would press kisses over her numerous tattoos, letting his tongue swipe just enough to make her giggle.

Letting her set the pace, Teagan began to rotate her hips over him, making him even more eager than he already was. Her hands explored him even more than she previously had, almost like she was trying to memorize his body. In a way, he thought that maybe that was exactly what she was doing. Green eyes traced over every inch of him, as if trying to make sure he was there. Sam became worried that she might be letting her mind slip to a bad place.

"I'm not going anywhere," he whispered to her, bringing her wrist to his mouth to kiss.

"I have to make sure," she told him. "I can't have you disappear right now. It would break me."

Sam felt his chest tighten with pain at her words. He knew that she would sometimes fall into a state where she thought all of this a dream. He couldn't let her do that right now.

"Teagan, I'm going to roll us over. Do you trust me?"

"Absolutely."

Carefully Sam held onto her as he rolled so that she was now lying on her back looking up at him. Without putting too much weight down on her, Sam began to explore her body with his mouth. His hand slid between her legs, caressing her until his ears picked up the mewing sounds that she couldn't hold in. Feeling her hips circling for the touch of his hand, Sam hoped that she was ready.

Slowly he slipped inside of her, Teagan giving a sharp inhale as she tossed her head back. The flush of her cheeks and the biting of her lip to stop the smile told him she was fine. They rocked as one, her nails finding the perfect hold on his shoulders. She wrapped her legs around him, as if trying to keep him from leaving her. Supporting himself on one arm, Sam ran his other hand under her, lifting her hips harder into his.

He was able to restrain himself from finishing by planting kisses over her exposed neck and breasts. By the time Teagan screamed his name, between the heat of the moment and the stoked fire, they both had a sheen of sweat over both their bodies. Sam managed to hold himself up over her for only a few seconds before needing to lay at her side, panting heavily to match her own as he did so.

"How do you feel?" he was able to ask once his heaving chest calmed down.

"Brilliant," Teagan responded as she rolled onto her side and curled up against him. Her head rested on his chest with his arm wrapped around her. Her leg was thrown over his and her arm hugged him firmly. This was probably the most content he'd known her to be in a long while.

Not long after, he was almost asleep when he felt a drop of something run down his side from where Teagan's head was resting. Glancing down at her face, he saw that there were tears in her eyes. Now that the excitement of the moment was over, was she now regretting what they had done?

"Teagan, are you alright?" he tried to shift position but she latched onto him with her arms.

"Sam..." her voice once again sounded unsure of his name.

"Yes, it's me."

"Tell me your real. Tell me that this is not another dream."

Reaching to tighten his own grasp of her, he realized that she had indeed slipped back into the 'dream' mentality, not sure if she was really free.

"I'm here with you. You're safe, and this is real," he told her, kissing the top of her head.

Wiping away the remaining tears, she whispered, "I'm tired but I'm afraid...", her words dropped off but Sam could guess the rest.

"Go to sleep. I promise that I will be here when you wake up."

A few minutes went by before he could tell that her breathing had evened out and that she was finally resting. He had been worried that maybe they'd gone too far too quick, but instead, she had only wanted insurance that it was real. Even after all of these months of being with them, he hated that some part of her was still so scared that none of it was real.

Sam decided that he would make sure they had a few more long discussions about those fears and why they still worried her. And he would do whatever he could to make them disappear.

They had three more days and nights together before the storm let up with the power coming on, making Teagan very happy…and a little disappointed at the same time. With the house heater back on it meant that there was no real reason to stay sleeping on the floor with Sam anymore. Those nights sleeping in his arms were the best rest that she'd had in a very long time. After that first time of being with Sam, not once had any of her dreams even hinted at Keeling. He was now reserved only for the briefest of moments during her waking hours.

This morning Sam received a text letting them know to expect company by that night now that they could fly in. Only a few hours after they had the cabin looking back to normal by reassembling their bunk bed, Steve and Natasha arrived. Sam told them about the power going out during the storm, but he left out the part where she'd cowered in fear in a corner. They all were involved in the discussion about leaving for a new safe-house and when they would want to do so.

"It doesn't get very warm here, even during the summer," Natasha informed them. "I would suggest somewhere either warmer or more populated."

"So, where should we go?" Steve asked the group.

"Anywhere in the U.S.," Sam them offered, getting two sets of eyes on him, curious as to his suggestion. "I told Teagan about Chicago-style popcorn and I don't think I'll find it anywhere else but there."

"That's how you want to decide where to hide out? Basing your decision on your stomach?" Natasha teased. "That sounds like something Tony would do."

"It really doesn't matter to me," she tried to offer. "I'm just along for the ride…"

"No, you're not," Sam then stopped her. "You're part of this group too."

He had taken her hand into his as he spoke, and she couldn't miss the sly grin on Nat's face or the wide one on Steve's. Did they suspect that they had taken their relationship a bit further than kissing? Now she felt her face flush with embarrassment at what they might be thinking about the two of them doing when they hadn't been here.

And for what had been done.

"So, then? Somewhere near Chicago so we can get the authentic stuff?" Natahsa offered as she pulled out her phone to check something.

"Why not?" Steve stated as he went to the kitchen for a snack with the decision being made that easily.

Chicago Safe House

Three weeks later they were all walking into the new safe-house in a suburb west of Chicago. Natasha somehow had an ability to find houses where they could hide a jet very close by but also being near necessities, such as grocery stores and restaurants with only a short drive. This house reminded Teagan of the first one, but it backed up to a small tributary river and had a larger backyard area. They could land the jet and leave it on stealth mode to hide it.

Walking up the stairs with her bag, Teagan found three bedrooms consisting of one single bed, a queen bed, and two twin beds. Not wanting to presume anything when it came to sleeping arrangements with Sam, she stood in the hallway as he glanced at the options.

Standing at the door where the queen bed was, Sam turned to her, put on a charming smile, then commented, "Would it be too presumptuous to think that you might like to share this room with me, my girlfriend?"

Teagan felt her body ease up a bit at hearing that.

"What about Steve and Natasha?" she hesitantly asked. "Do you think they might say something?"

"No. I think that have an idea that we've gotten closer. Besides, I enjoyed those couple of nights curled up together in front of the fire. So unless you would feel too uncomfortable sharing, then we could take the two twins," he pointed out.

"No," she answered a bit too quickly, making Sam smile. "I liked those nights too."

Reaching out, Sam took her backpack in his hand and placed both of them on the bed that the two of the would be sharing in just a few hours…with Steve and Natasha actually in the house. They hadn't said anything about how she and Sam had been acting together, the holding of hands or kisses they shared where they could see. They hadn't seemed to care about them sharing the bunk bed room. But how would they react to them 'sleeping' together? Would they think that she'd done something to Sam to make this happen?

Hearing footsteps behind her, she saw the two of them coming up to claim their own bedrooms. Noticing which bedroom they had jointly claimed, a smile appear on Natasha's face as she then held out her hand in front of Steve. Seconds later, he was passing over a five-dollar bill to her.

"I don't know why he doesn't just give up," Natasha told her as she took the room with the single bed, letting Steve have the two twins.

They all watched as he then pushed the two smaller beds together to make a larger one.

"That's better," Steve stated happily. "Alright, so who's heading to the store for this special popcorn?"

Unknown Hydra Base
Days Later

Marcus Keeling sat at the conference table as Henry Bradshaw looked over the pile of papers given to him for this meeting. It had taken far too long in his opinion, but he and his small team of tacticians had finally managed to come up with that he considered to be their best course of action when it came to re-capturing Teagan.

He had informed them of his suspicions concerning the possible growing attraction between her and Falcon based on the report given by the terrorists who had seen the two of them together. Holding her hands, disappearing together for a few moments, carrying her away from the balcony…there were too many subtle hints for him to think they were just coincidences. And even if somehow he had misread the situation, they would still be capturing someone she considered a friend to use against her.

It was her fault if she'd forgotten how he'd told her numerous times that having friends was dangerous.

After outlining that he wanted a plan that not only captured Teagan but one that also took Falcon into their grasp, he had let his new team go at it. They had come up with no less than three other plans that left much to be desired. He had tried to make it abundantly clear that Teagan needed to be taken with minimal damage to her person. If she was unable to perform with her powers, then there was no point in going after her to begin with.

As for Falcon, they just needed him alive. Damaged was fine, just not dead.

The hardest part of dealing with Falcon was the idea of trying to capture a quick moving target. Luckily, Hydra had a couple of weapons that had been down in a lower storage area that had not been used in quite a while. After a few days of searching through the items available to them, his team agreed that using an electrified net-gun they found would be perfect to contain Falcon. They only had to be inside of the gun's range and the fired netting would encompass his wings and body, and the electrical field would disrupt his pack, making flight impossible. He would have a rough landing, but nothing they felt would be fatal.

The biggest problem would be separating Captain America and Black Widow from the other two. Since they had no special equipment or abilities such as flight, the team all came to the conclusion that once they arrived at the location chosen for the mission, that the two of them would be limited to ground movement. They only needed a spot that would not give them multiple accesses to escape routes.

There were a couple of locations that were in the report for Henry to consider for them to use. All of them were abandoned bases since the fall of Hydra. A few were even older, left over from the cold war era, being nothing more than underground bunkers and storage facilities. They would easily be believed as a location that Hydra would use to help build themselves back up.

"This is a very bold proposal," Henry's skeptical voice echoed in the quiet conference room, tossing the folder down on the table in front of him.

"It has to be," Marcus pointed out. "She's not just driving a car alone like last time. We have to separate her from the others for the plan to work."

"You do realize that one of the secondary circumstances that could arise from this mission as it is laid out would be the death of Captain America and Black Widow."

"And? Is that actually a problem?"

Henry's lips turned up on the ends in a twisted smile.

"Not really."

"I'm only suggesting putting a plan into place that would incapacitate them for the time necessary to capture our initial target, and hopefully the secondary one as well."

Henry's eyes narrowed, "And you are sure that it is necessary to take Falcon into custody also? Are you sure that you're not cutting too big of a slice of cake?"

"If my team and I did not feel that it was possible to take him also, then we would have come up with a plan to just eliminate him. But I have a strong suspicion that he will come in handy once Teagan is back with us. She's been broken once, but after so long with freedom, she going to be stubborn. If need be, having access to her friend and possible lover to use against her will help ensure her compliance. If it comes to it, we will just eliminate him in front of her. That would shatter her spirit."

"Instead of wasting him, I may have another use for Falcon instead," Henry's comment surprised him. "Once you have regained control of Teagan, I want him to be turned so that he is loyal to Hydra."

Marcus' curiosity was now very heightened at hearing that.

"May I ask as to why? He's not the best combatant out there."

"No, but his friends are," Henry now had a grin going. "Even if Captain America and Black Widow are eliminated, I believe he will still be able to contact all of the other Avengers. He can set up meetings where they are captured one by one and then turned to Hydra's side. And that may only be the beginning. Think of having the king of Wakanda on our side...his country may be nothing of importance but consider all the other political heads that he can gain us access to. Falcon will help us to take over the world."

Sitting back in his chair, Marcus started to realize how powerful he would become. It would be up to him and his project to rebuild Hydra with the most powerful superheroes on the planet. He would be personally responsible for turning possibly all of NATO and the U.N. members into Hydra agents. He could easily word their commands to sway them to only obey him, making him essential to Hydra Command. His own station inside of Hydra would increase ten-fold.

Trying to contain his excitement, he calmly responded, "I will see about having him turned once Teagan is back under my thumb."

"Has there been any sign of them since the last confirmed sighting?" Henry asked.

"Not really. They have been laying low, but reports have come in of unconfirmed sightings for the past few months. None of our feelers have come back with anything concrete as to their whereabouts. Our spies inside of the U.N. and Secretary Ross' group have also informed us that their teams have had negative results too," Marcus told him. "But if we leak the information of the location as planned, they will be coming to us, no matter where they are hiding."

"A bit risky using yourself as a target, isn't it Marcus?"

"It's only a ploy," he pointed out. "Just because the information is leaked that I'm at the location does not necessarily mean that I will be."

Henry seemed to consider that before speaking again.

"I think that if I approve this mission, that you do need to be."

"Why?" wondering if his superior was trying to get rid of him.

"Hydra base or not, having a visual conformation of you being at the location would guarantee them assaulting the base. They will be going after the base not only because it's Hydra, but for their friend as well. You can't just tell the horse you have a carrot, you need to dangle it in front of them."

Marcus had already considered that as a possibility but he'd didn't like the idea of putting himself into harm's way. Even if he didn't say it aloud, he considered every other member of the strike team that he planned to use on this mission as expendable as long as he got Teagan back. Decades ago he would have been the one leading the strike team, not just overseeing the mission.

"Are you going to disapprove the mission if I don't go along with the strike team to the location?" he asked.

"No, I'm just pointing out that if we are going through all of this trouble of going up against Captain America and Black Widow to get Teagan back, then I don't want it to fall apart all because they decided to not accommodate us by refusing to expose themselves. Your plan is based on the fact that they will show up because they know of your relationship with Teagan and will be seeking revenge for her. It only makes sense that we give them exactly what they are wanting."

Marcus stewed a bit, knowing that Henry was correct.

"Then I will accompany the strike team to the base and make sure that I put in an appearance."

Henry reached over and pushed the file to slide it across the table to him.

"Then I would suggest using a location I know of in Colorado for this mission. It is listed in our files as Northmount Outpost and has been abandoned for decades. Also, it was not one of the compromised locations with the Hydra files that made it to the internet, just like here. Pull up the schematics and I think you'll agree that it is a suitable location."

"It will take a few more weeks to have everything put into place," Marcus had to try hard to keep from grinning like a Cheshire cat. "I'll keep you informed of our progress."

Henry leaned forward over the table, glaring daggers at him now.

"I want Project Cherry Tree back in place and operational ASAP. And yes, I understand that it will take some time to break Teagan again. Just don't let it drag on for too long, Marcus. With the loss of true Hydra agents inside of the government, our blackmailed spies can only get us so far. We need her to command the targets I have pre-selected to be turned into double agents."

Marcus now understood another reason why Henry had agreed to this bold mission. They could not keep kidnapping family members and holding them so they were forced to supply Hydra with information. If too many people began to go on 'extended' trips or such without returning, someone may eventually become suspicious of them.

"I'll have it back on track as quickly as I can."

Rising to leave, Henry gave one final comment.

"And I expect you to use every type of torture, mental and physical, to do just that."

Knowing exactly what his superior meant, it finally made that smile surface.

"Yes, Sir."