Chicago Safe House

It was four days before Nat felt that the information she had gathered was sufficient enough for them to discuss and make a decision on. The others had, for the most part, given her some privacy as she researched and talked with her contact numerous times. There were of course the glares if they caught only a piece of the conversation, making them pause while wanting to hear more. She would just wave them off, or even better, give them one of her looks.

Nat could tell that as the first day passed with nothing being discussed in the group that Teagan had started to act a bit more skittish, as if even little noises the house made was a sign of a preemptive strike from Hydra. She knew that with the knowledge of Keeling still being out there, alive and active again, that it was hard for her to deal with.

Last night, she had even heard the low scream of her being woken out of a nightmare. The last time she had heard such pain like that had been during the first few days being back with them after leaving Clint's place. Over the months, Teagan had managed to find a much better, peaceful sleep…especially once she and Sam had begun sharing the bed.

Walking into the doorway to the den, she paused when she saw the pair lying together on the couch. Sam was sitting against the armrest while Teagan was curled up against him sleeping. Her hand had found a death grip on his shirt's hem. Even in her sleep, she could see the whites of her knuckles has she held onto him for dear life. When she had first seen Teagan this morning, the dark circles under her eyes that had been forming over the past few days were clearly visible. She now seemed to almost be back to how she was just after being given her freedom.

Maybe letting her at least join them on the mission and staying in the jet would be the best. She could still remember the frightened look Teagan had when they had returned to the Spanish villa and found her scared with all the lights on. If they left her behind again to go after Keeling, Nat knew without a doubt that Teagan would once again find herself in that lonely, frightened place where he was behind every door waiting for her. Nat couldn't be the one to mentally put her back there. If Steve decided that Teagan should go, she would back him in the decision.

Giving her throat a simple clearing sound, Sam turned his head to see her standing there. Raising his eyebrows in silent question, she nodded in response. It was time for them to discuss what she had found.

"The supply request that I was contacted about gave a date for the equipment to be procured and delivered by, and that being three weeks out as of the first contact seven days ago. That seems to indicate that they are still in the very initial stages of setting up this new base. Without that equipment already being there for setup, I highly doubt that they have brought in the scientist or medical personnel who will be using it," Nat informed the group assembled in front of her, eager to hear what she found out.

"So then the only ones at the base will be low level agents preparing it for everyone else's arrival?" Sam asked her.

"That is a big possibility," she told him. "I would at least suspect some type of security people setting up alarms and getting the computer systems working. Keeling may be there to personally see preliminary setup or he may pass that along to one of his flunkies to take care of. It depends on how much control he would like to have over something like that."

"As much as possible," Teagan jumped in. "He never kept a second-in-command around for very long. After a specific incident, he wouldn't keep anyone on his project for too long, worried that they would become too attached or emotional. He liked to swap out guards after only a few weeks, I'm not sure of the actual time."

"Then it sounds like he's the type that would personally oversee the setup of a base possibly designed to house only his own new project," Steve stated. "I think that a few days of recon on the location would be advisable. Getting actual eyes on Keeling before moving in would be the best case scenario."

"Do you know which of the bases they are at?" Steve asked her glancing at the map with two areas in red circles.

"After narrowing down over a dozen bases for different reasons to only two, I'm confident that it is this one," she stated while pointing at the dot highest on the map, located north-west of Denver over the mountains.

"Why?" Sam asked.

"Because I had a guy that owed me a favor, and that I trust, to check out this one," she pointed at the most south-east dot, "and found zero activity of any kind for the past decade. Plus, parts of the interior were falling down, making it very unstable. It would be too much construction work to get it ready for use."

"So does this mean we are heading to Colorado?" Teagan asked, a mix of nervous, anxious excitement in her voice.

They all turned to look at Steve for the final decision. She knew that he was going to agree to the mission, but it was Teagan's involvement that still had him worried. Even though she might be wary of letting her actively join them when they made their move, Nat knew that with the powers that Teagan had that she could be very useful.

"We will take as many days of reconnaissance as necessary before we move on this base. If we see no activity, then we will continue to wait in case they are not moving in until all of their equipment is ready. We have time on our hands, and we are not going to rush into this at the first sign of a low-level agent. The mission is to locate, capture, and turn over Keeling to the authorities, along with a copy of Project Cherry Tree's file so they know exactly who they have in their possession and the crimes that he's committed," Steve firmly stated, looking specifically at Teagan and Sam. "Pack your bags, we'll leave in the morning."

"Are you sure you want to go with us?" Sam had to ask her later once they were just finishing getting ready for bed. Teagan was turning on the small lamp that she still preferred to have on at night. "I know that I would feel much better if you would at least stay at the safe house during the raid."

"I have to see him, I have to know for sure that he's taken down," she told him.

There was something in her voice. She hadn't sounded so small since they had first met.

He knew that Keeling was her greatest fear but for the past few months she had grown determined to not let him control any part of her life. The nightmares were almost all gone, only coming back over the past few days. She was able to go out into small crowds without thinking that every person making eye contact with her was a Hydra operative waiting to capture her. Her wonderful, playful personality had reemerged so much and he was worried that it was all about to go away.

"It would be just as easy to show you his pictures once we take him prisoner," he pointed out taking her hand as she tried to walk past him to her side of the bed. Pulling Teagan to his chest, her beautiful green eyes boring into his, he decided to not hold back. "Please. I don't want you to be there. I need to know that you are safe."

Teagan's hand slid to the back of his neck, pulling his head towards hers where they met in a passionate kiss. Grabbing onto her hips, he locked their bodies together, determined to show her how much he cared for her. Beyond the pounding in his own chest, he felt the increased heartbeat from her. Already growing hard, he felt her body push even more into his, her hips beginning to grind against the only part of him that he couldn't control right now. His body wanted hers in a way that he had managed to hold off on for so long.

Breaking their kiss, he saw that the green of her eyes had turned into dark pools with her arousal. They had blown out so much, the green almost hidden. They heavy pants became synchronized as they stared at each other with matching grins. He could see that just from that kiss her red lips were plumped.

"Staying back, that's not going to happen," she broke the silence, denying him the answer he wanted to hear from her.

Teagan didn't seem to have a problem with it as she hastily ripped her shirt from her body, tossing it away before moving right on to her bra. In no time at all, she was half naked resting over him as he sucked both of her breasts until her nipples hardened in his mouth.

Her hands then traveled to the button of her jeans, undoing it before slowly beginning to lower the zipper.

Sam reached up to pull her mouth back onto his, wanting to taste more of her. Teagan's fingers began to trail the hem of his shirt seconds before it was gone, tossed away.

"If you start to reminisce, I want you to tell me," he told her between kisses. "Don't wait for him to get to you."

"I won't," she promised, grinding her hips down onto his lap.

"Then how about letting me take the lead?"

Teagan's eyes shined with a playfulness he'd only seen a few times before.

"I'm yours, Falcon."

"I know, Erin."

With that, Sam helped Teagan into a standing position as he knelt before her. Taking the waist of her pants in his hands, he slowly began to drag them downward, placing kisses over the skin which became exposed on her legs. Stepping out of them, she stood there only in her panties, which he wasted no time in also removing.

Turning her around as he knelt in place, Sam sat her down onto the edge of the bed, her legs spread for him. Trailing kisses higher and higher up her thighs, he listened to the heavy panting coming from Teagan.

Teagan slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle the scream of pleasure as her rode higher on the pleasure that Sam's tongue was inducing. His hands had not been idol either, having found their way up to her waiting breasts. With each wonderful nip of his teeth he would take, she also received firm pinches to her hard nipples.

As she lay there after already having fallen onto her back, she felt Sam's warm body start to slide higher over hers, his mouth leaving kisses over her hips, to her breast, before finding the sensitive flesh of her neck.

"You taste so sweet," he whispered in her ear as he glided his naked shaft hard against her core, causing a sharp intake of breath for the pleasing move. She lay there eagerly waiting for him to finally make that final thrust. Instead, Sam told her, "Hang on."

Teagan had already mindless wrapped her arms around him once he was atop of her, but now she clamped down as Sam rolled the two of them over so that he was now lying on the bed with her straddling her. Reaching over to the nightstand, Sam opened the drawer and pulled out a wrapped condom.

The second Sam had finished sliding the item on, she slammed her body down onto his, both of them ready to forget about what would be happening in a few days.

Colorado Safe House
Days Later

Arriving at Clint's safe house, the group was quiet as they wandered through it and claimed the different bedrooms as their own. Knowing that they were possibly so physically close to the target had everyone on edge. Steve wasn't sure who felt it more, him or Teagan. Her connection to Keeling was one that he would never wish on his worst enemy. But as leader of this group, everything that happened from this point forward would be on his shoulders.

After settling down for a few short hours, Natasha went about preparing the small security cameras that would be situated around the possible Hydra base. He and Nat were the only two heading out tomorrow night. Flying as close as they dared, a long hike through the woods would finally get them to the base. They would spend only a couple hours learning what they could about the location while setting up the cameras. Until this initial reconnaissance found proof, he knew that there was always a chance that Keeling might not actually be there.

The intel he had gone over showed that Hydra appeared to be readying to move into the base, and it seemed that the genetic information procured from Keeling's project was the reasoning. But there was always a chance that Keeling himself might not make an appearance. He may be running the project from the base he held Teagan at, for all they knew.

Since they were so close to a possible Hydra base, he had also instructed Nat to make some additional upgrades to this safe house's security. He didn't want to take the chance of leaving Sam and Teagan here without being ready for anything that might happen. If he and Nat were somehow discovered, Steve wanted to make sure that nobody would get into here before some form of backup appeared. Nat had already contacted Clint, who said that if necessary that he would beg Laura for permission to come help them. Wanda had checked in with him and was still over in Europe, so he didn't expect her to drop everything and run back here. And he knew, also thanks to Nat, that Scott was under house arrest and couldn't help.

So for the immediate future, it would still just be the four of them. How Steve suddenly missed being surrounded by all of the Avengers, especially Tony with his irritating inappropriate comments that helped to lighten the mood. A bit of levity would probably have helped Teagan right now.

After Teagan turned down Sam's offer of riding with him to the grocery store for some fresh food, Nat passed him a knowing sad look across the table from where she was working. Teagan had practically been Sam's shadow for the past few months, not once refusing to go with him on such a simple trip.

Seeing her sitting in one of the arm chairs staring out of the window towards the driveway Sam had left at not long ago, Steve took up a spot on the couch nearby.

"He'll be back and everything will be fine," he tried to reassure her. "You could have gone with him."

Teagan didn't even look over at him as she responded, "I can't take that chance."

Steve knew, just as they all did, how hard finding out about Keeling and this base had been on her. They'd all been woken up from her night terrors multiple times in the past week or so.

"We're almost two hundred miles away from the base," he explained. "They don't know we're coming, they don't know where we are, and they're not looking for us in the suburbs."

Teagan turned to him, "How can you be so confident when all it would take is one slip-up and they could find me…I mean us."

He knew that he'd just heard her worst fear…being recaptured by Hydra and Keeling.

"You'll just have to trust us to keep you safe," he hoped he sounded as confident as he was trying to be. Steve knew that no matter how much planning or preparing they did for a mission, there was always a chance for something to go wrong. Bucky was proof of that.

He and Nat were about halfway down on the opposite mountain's shoulder over from the Hydra base. And just from the little bit of activity that they had managed to spot so far, Steve knew without a doubt that a Hydra base was exactly what it was.

There were only a handful of guys moving around on the open concrete area that he could see with the binoculars that Nat had provided him. They must be on the lowest rung of the Hydra totem pole since they were in the middle of painting markings on the open flat area that looked like it was perfect for a helicopter landing pad. The outlying area past the concrete had been recently cleared of undergrowth so he could see freshly turned soil. That also meant that there was no cover for them to use to get inside of the doors, it was all open area where footprints would be well spotted.

The only other way to get to the base was a very old dirt road that was mostly grown over with vegetation from the surrounding thick forest. Before they had come to their current location, Nat had taken their hike on a detour to it so they could ascertain how much it was being used to bring in supplies. There were a few single file tire marks to indicate that motorcycles had recently used the dirt road, but no larger vehicles.

They did manage to find a large clearing very close to the base's fence, big enough for them to land the Quinjet at. It was not visible from the base due to the trees but they could just make out the landing pad's open area. They could easily land here if and when they moved in on the base.

His gaze traveled to the small guard house located by the simple metal wire fence's only visible gate. It was closed and chain locked. There was not any type of equipment he could spot to clear the road, so Steve guessed they would be ignoring it.

Most of the base was situated inside of the granite mountain, with the only visible entrance resting atop a jutting ledge that was a fairly good size. Angled concrete walls jutted out on each side, also complicating any stealthy attempt to get inside. Right now, the large metal doors which led into a very enormous empty garage or storage area were wide open, giving them a decent view inside.

It was too small for planes and maybe helicopters to enter, but it would easily hold a couple of vehicles, of which they only spotted three motorcycles. But there were a couple of large wooden crates that looked new sitting closer to the opening. He guessed that the interior of the base was not ready for whatever they held.

"Looks like we won the lottery," he comically commented as he crouched next to a pine tree.

Even from their higher vantage point, there was little chance of them being spotted by the Hydra workers. From what they could tell, they didn't even have lookouts posted yet.

"Yeah, us," Nat dryly stated from next to him from where she sat on a fallen log. Glancing at her watch, "We still have a few hours until dark. I would rather wait until then before moving around to put up the cameras."

"I agree," he told her. "It looks like the intel was spot on. These guys haven't been here very long at all, maybe a few days at most."

"With them turning up the soil that much, we're not going to get a second chance at moving in on them," she pointed out. "No sneaking in for a closer look."

"That's fine. All I'm looking for is proof of Keeling being here for us to make a move on it. If we don't spot him after a reasonable time, I'll consider turning the information we have on this location over to Shield and let them deal with them."

He felt Nat's eyes turn on him.

"You'd hold off on taking down a Hydra base? That doesn't seem like you."

"Whatever these guys are readying for, it probably means that whoever shows up at this base is most likely going to be more along the lines of scientist and technicians, not combatants. If we head in there, I would suspect a small number of armed security and a lot of defenseless others."

"Makes sense," she told him, "but if we do go in, we will still need to be able to contain them."

"If they are here before we move in. Even if Keeling shows up, it could only be for an inspection lasting a few hours, or even a day, of the ongoing work. We need to move in on him not long after he arrives so that he doesn't get out of here."

"You sure I can't have a few hours alone with him? I'll make sure there's nothing visible when I'm done."

Steve looked over to see Nat with one of her amused smirks that told him that she was serious but knew that he wouldn't go along with it.

"Don't tempt me like that, Nat."

He was treated with one of her rare soft laughs.