Chris dashed out of the elevator and headed to the front desk at the compound, ready for a big day out. The team was on a mission in Siberia and was going to be there for another week yet. Chris had decided it was high time for her to escape the compound and enjoy a day of shopping and checking in with the world.

It had been weeks since she'd last been out of the compound and since her director had turned her over to the Avengers for safekeeping. Not that she was complaining. The compound was an awesome place, the people were great, and she wanted for nothing.

Still, even an extreme introvert like herself needed to get out once in a while.

The young lady at the desk smiled in greeting. "Can I help you?"

"Yes," Chris told her with a smile. "I need a car or a cab. I was going to head into the city to do some shopping and such."

The young woman's badge said "Jeri" and she nodded. "Scan your thumb there."

Chris scanned her thumbprint using the scanner. She didn't like the flat, error sound that came from the screen in front of Jeri as a result.

"Agent Danforth?" Jeri asked.

"Yes," Chris was curious. Why did her smile fade?

"I'm sorry," Jeri told her. "My instructions here say that you need to talk to Agent Coulson."

Why the fuck did she need to talk to Agent Coulson?

"I just need a car," Chris told her. "Does it say why I have to talk to him?"

Jeri shook her head, her expression sympathetic. "Not for someone on my level. I'm sorry. I'll get him for you."

As Jeri went to pick up her phone, Chris's mind scrambled. Did they expect her to take someone with her? Was she limited to where she could go? Chris honestly hadn't thought that going to a few stores and out for pizza would be a problem.

"He's on his way down," Jeri told her before helping the next person.

Phil was as impossible to read as ever as he approached her where she sat on the benches. She thought she picked up on a little apprehension, but it was a quick flash and then gone.

"Danforth," Coulson greeted her with the same tight little grin he always wore.

"Hi, Coulson," she greeted, rising. "Hey, I just needed a car or a cab to take me into the city so I could do some shopping. Is that okay?"

"What did you need?" He kept his tone diplomatic. "We'd be glad to send someone to get anything you like."

"I'd like to get out of the compound," Chris clarified. "I've been stuck in here for weeks. I'm going a little nuts. Can you help me out?"

The tight little smile faded.

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," he told her.

"Allow what?"

"You to leave the compound."

The fuck? "Why?"

"You know why," Coulson told her bluntly. "Your identity as Athena was compromised, you have powerful enemies, many of whom surely know that you are here in this compound. They will be looking for an opportunity for you to leave this compound so they can acquire you."

Chris just stared at him. "Bullshit! It's just a couple of hours out."

"Mr. Stark and Director Fury's orders," he explained.

"I can't go?" Chris wanted to confirm.

"No, you can't."

"Not even if I take agents with me for protection?"

"I'm afraid not," Coulson told her.

Chris furious. She could feel the heat rising in her face, knew he could probably see her turning red by now.

"I'm really sorry," Coulson did say with a degree of sincerity.

"This is unfucking believable," Chris hissed quietly.

"Which part?"

"Oh, I don't know, the part where none of you saw fit to tell me this." Chris shook her head. Steve and Bucky had to have known. "All this time, I thought it was okay if I left that I was just choosing not to. Now that I've been made aware that I can't leave, this place just turned into a fucking prison."

"It was precisely for that reason you weren't told," Coulson explained calmly. "If you never wanted to leave, there would be no reason for you to be upset."

"I am human you know," Chris pointed out. "You had to know I'd want to get out at some point."

"Your behavioral patterns indicate that you go long periods of time without substantial human contact," he went on.

"I'll give you that," Chris told him. "But it's been nearly two months."

"What can we get for you, Danforth?" Coulson kept his tone reasonable, kind. "We can send for anything you want or need."

Chris blew out a frustrated exhale. As much as she might want to raise hell with someone over this, Coulson would only serve to exacerbate her frustration. If she created a scene they'd contact her boys and she didn't want their minds clouded by anything that could jeopardize their safety.

"I understand," Chris told him finally. "Thank you."

Coulson looked surprised at her acquiescing, which was satisfying, but he smiled in return. "I'm sorry. Thank you for understanding. If we can get anything for you, please let me know."

Chris nodded, acted like she was heading for the elevators. Once she was reasonably sure no one was paying any attention to her, she headed down to the lower levels of the compound. First, she stopped at the ATM, because the moment she used a card they'd have her. Then she found the car assignment station. Finding a bench, she had a seat, pulling her Starkpad out and began looking through the network for car assignments.

After delving through assignments, she found one car that was being prepped for someone in accounting. They were leaving in ten minutes. Perfect. The car was assigned to one Lilia Drake. Chris made a couple of small adjustments, managed to override the thumb scanner with little problem, found her car and jumped in.

Within a few short minutes, Chris was on her way. She'd turned off her Starkpad, disabling its tracking, and turned off her phone as well. It took her a few minutes of using the road signs to find the mall, but find it she did. Within the hour, she was enjoying cheap mall pizza and contemplating which shops she was going to start with.

She didn't spot Coulson until she was in the checkout line with an adorable pair of ballerina flats. Shaking her head, she dug out her cash and politely greeted the saleswoman as Coulson along with three huge suited agents waited for her by the door.

Well, fuck my life.

Steve was pleased with the progress they'd made as they stopped for the day. The team had set up in a safe house in the outskirts of Siberia and almost ready to execute their plan. He'd gotten in several hours of chopping wood the old-fashioned way today and he was happy. It had him tired enough that he could probably sleep well. He was getting as bad as Bucky, not able to sleep well without Chris there. He and Bucky were keeping separate rooms on the missions too which made it worse.

"Hey, Cap," Tony greeted, wandering over with his hands shoved in the deep pockets of the cheap parka he wore. "Some news from home."

"Yeah?" Steve asked, not liking Tony's expression. "What's up?"

"Your girl hit the front desk today, wanting to get a car to go do a little shopping," Tony explained as Bucky walked up behind Steve.

"Well, shit," Bucky mumbled, knowing as well as he did that it was the moment they'd been dreading. Worse, it hit while they were away. Chris wasn't going to be happy that she was confined to the premises for the foreseeable future and they weren't even there to explain why.

"Oh, it gets better," Tony told them. "She got mildly upset, according to Coulson but seemed to accept it. Then she hijacked a car, took it to the mall anyway."

"What?" Steve couldn't believe she'd do that. "Is she okay?"

"Relax, big guy," Tony told him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Coulson caught her shoe shopping and they safely escorted her back to the compound. Just wanted to let you know what happened. We've upped security around the compound just in case anyone was aware of her little adventure."

"How long did it take him to figure it out?" Steve wanted to know.

"About an hour," Tony answered. "She'd turned off all tracking, of course, but with the car gone, Coulson put it together pretty quickly. Glad he was there."

Steve was really not happy. "Thanks."

"Yep," Tony told him with a sympathetic glance before leaving him and Bucky there at the foot of the stairs.

"Steve?" Bucky asked cautiously. "You okay?"

"No, I'm really not," he snapped, climbing the stairs by twos on the way up to his room.

Bucky was on his heels, leaning in the doorway as Steve dropped heavily onto his bed and began pulling off his boots.

"Are you really surprised she tried this?" Bucky sounded way calmer than Steve felt.

"No, I'm not surprised she tried," Steve told him angrily. "I am surprised she turned right around and left anyway, knowing what danger she could be in."

Bucky blew out an exhale. "You're right. Still, no one told her. That probably pissed her off."

"Probably."

"And she is an FBI agent," Bucky pointed out. "In her mind, she had it covered."

"Was an FBI agent," Steve replied. "And she didn't have it covered. Any number of enemy agents could have snatched her off the street and you know it."

Bucky's brows shot up, telling Steve he wasn't nearly as upset as he was. And while he did appreciate that Bucky was trying to argue her side, it didn't excuse the fact that she had, very deliberately, placed herself in danger. She could have been snatched away from them.

It also wasn't lost on Steve that while and he and Bucky were much alike as she pointed out, they were also very different.

In the last several weeks that the three of them had been together, Steve had completely lost his heart to their girl. And he loved very differently from Bucky. In Bucky's mind, she was theirs. There was no jealousy when she talked to another man or concern when she needed girl time to hang out with Nat and Wanda or to work on her endless stream of computer programs in her job for Tony.

Steve, come to find out, was jealous natured. He didn't even like it when she play-flirted with Sam and he was pretty sure Sam had figured out what their arrangement truly was. Even Sam referred to her as "their girl." When Chris needed time to herself or time to hang out with her girlfriends, he wasn't fine with watching sports and enjoying time for himself. He pouted. In his mind, he'd spent enough time alone and now that he had someone special, he wanted as much time with her as he could get. The darker side of life had shown him more than once how easily and quickly the things he loved could be taken away from him.

And now this? Oh, they'd be talking about this. Chris had never been flat out stupid with her safety before and Steve wasn't having it. She'd been told she couldn't leave the compound by Coulson and she damn well should have honored that. He knew she'd be upset, he expected that and had been prepared to deal with it. Even if she'd been waiting to shout at him and Bucky both the minute they returned, he would have been much happier dealing with that than her dumbass decision to steal a car and go out anyway.

"Are you okay, Stevie?" Bucky asked carefully.

"What do you think?" Steve again snapped at him.

"Hey, Pal, I get it." Bucky put his hands up in front of him defensively. "I get why you're pissed. Me too. We'll talk about it when we get back."

"We're going to do more than talk about it," Steve informed him. "There's going to be a lesson here. We're just lucky that Coulson was aware of the situation and that he figured it out as quickly as he did. An hour, Buck. An hour under different circumstances and she could have been on her way to some obscure HYDRA base being tortured or killed or…"

"Gotcha," Bucky told him. "Okay. When we get back, we'll deal with it. We'll make sure she understands that can't happen again."

"Oh, she will understand."

Bucky's expression was a mixture of amusement and curiosity, but he knew his oldest friend would go along with him on this.

When they got back, Chris would understand that she would never willingly place herself in such a stupid position ever again.

By the week's end, Chris was getting antsy. She knew Coulson had gotten word to Tony about her little shopping adventure. Tony likely told her boys but she didn't think they'd be too upset about that. There'd probably be a lecture or, at the very least, an attempt at one. Chris wanted to know from them why she had to find out she wasn't allowed to leave the compound in such a way. They owed her an explanation. They should have told her.

She'd made friends with another occupant of the compound, one Darcy Lewis. The young woman worked for Dr. Jane Foster and was a lot of fun to hang out with when she wasn't on the job or Darcy wasn't doing scientific things. Darcy had explained it wasn't the first time someone had been restricted to the grounds. Apparently, the same thing had happened to Wanda just before the Avengers had all gone at each other in Germany when Steve had been trying to get Bucky back.

Chris wanted to talk to Wanda about that.

It was just before 3 AM and Chris was about to go to sleep, tucked away in her own apartment when her phone chirped at her.

A text message from Steve. Ah, so they were on their way home.

SR: Hey, beautiful. How are you?

Chris smiled when the next one Bucky came right after. She'd missed them. They'd nearly been gone for a month.

BB: Hey, doll. Can't wait to see ya. ?

Chris: Can't wait to see you both. I've missed you.

BB: We'll be home by lunch tomorrow, baby doll. Any chance you can blow off work and be there waiting for us?

Chris's mind scrambled, trying to think of what was on her schedule for the next day. She had a couple of meetings with Pepper after lunch so getting out early wasn't going to work out.

Chris: I can't tomorrow. Sorry. Wish I could.

SR: Take the next day off.

That stopped Chris cold. Was Steve telling her to take the next day off? That really wasn't like him. Still, they had about a month to make up for so…

Chris: Okay, I'll request Thursday off. Shouldn't be a problem. Anything special you wanted to do? ?

It was several moments before either of them answered which was weird. It went on long enough that Chris began to worry something had happened or their communication had been intercepted.

SR: We'll see you tomorrow, Sweetheart.

Chris read over the single line of text a couple of times. It was out of character for Steve but maybe he was tired or they'd just had a difficult mission.

Deciding she'd find out soon enough what was up with Steve, Chris snuggled into her bedding and went to sleep.