2014 Washington, D.C. Age 30
For the first time in a long time Natasha was scared. Something had gone seriously wrong with S.H.I.E.L.D. After the Lemurian Star fiasco, things had snowballed out of control. The assassin in her told her to trust no one and that gave her a whole layer of protection just by being suspicious of others.
Fury was dead. She stood there looking at his dead body. Steve hovered by the door. As much as she gave Fury a hard time, the man took a risk for her. He got her out of Russia and gave her a new start. She owed him the same debt she owed Clint. Now she'd never be able to repay it.
Members of the Strike team were demanding Steve return to the Triskellion. But not her? She thought that was fishy.
"Natasha." Steve said softly as he waved off the man in charge.
She gave him a firm look, "What do you remember about the guy who did this? I can start looking…" She had to avenge Fury's death. He couldn't die for nothing.
Steve frowned, "Soldier type. He's fast. Had a metal arm." The man yelled at Steve again.
All she heard was metal arm and nodded. Steve left and she noticed his hand brush by an open vending machine. 10 minutes later she hurried back to the machine and purchased 4 packs of gun to get a flash drive that Steve had hidden. She had seen the drive before, on their mission on the Lemurian Star. Why would Steve have a flash drive of S.H.I.E.L.D. intel that she acquired? With it safely in her pocket her snuck in a private waiting room and processed Steve's revelation.
Based on the description it had to be him. James was back. Since the incident in Odessa, the whisperings about the Winter Soldier had increased. 15 assassinations since 2009. Whoever had James had him good. The scar on her stomach hurt as she thought about him. Anger flooded her. Regret followed suit. She spent 3 hours holed up in the room using her phone hack whatever databases she could get a hold of to find information on James. She discovered her access to S.H.I.E.L.D was taken away. Denied at every turn.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Steve stalk down the hallway. He was trying to blend in but was failing. He stared at the vending machine and his jaw clenched. She appeared beside him, and he pushed her backwards. She huffed loudly as her back hit the wall.
"Where is it?" He demanded, towering over her.
She narrowed her eyes. Steve was normally so docile. He was on edge. "It's safe, what's it to you?" Trust no one. Not even him.
"You're gonna have to do better than that, Romanoff." His hands grabbed her upper arms.
She looked up at him, remaining calm. "Where did you get it?"
Steve laughed darkly, "Why would I tell you?"
Touché. They didn't trust each other. But his eyes flicked just briefly downwards. That was a tell. She knew how he got it.
"Fury gave it to you.. Why?"
"What's on it?" He pressed her harder against the wall.
Natasha scoffed, "I don't know!" She stared at him firmly.
He didn't buy it, "Stop lying!"
She shoved him back, "I only act like I know everything, Rodgers! Back off." She raised her hand to hit him if he tried to push her around again. They stared at each other for a while.
"I'm not going to ask you again." He warned, shoving her back. Her response was instant. She hit in the jaw and spun her leg up to kick him away. Steve was stunned but easily got back up. He rounded on her.
Did she dare trust him? Fury was gone and to her it seemed like S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised. Steve looked around making sure the coast was clear.
"I know who killed Fury." Natasha whispered.
Steve was instantly interested and stopped moving towards her. "Start talking."
She sighed, "People call him the Winter Soldier. He's deadly. Juiced up on a serum like you. He's untraceable. No one can find him. He shows up, kills, and vanishes. No one can touch him."
Steve furrowed his brow, "How do you know?"
"As soon as you said metal arm.." She admitted. "5 years ago I was escorting a scientist out of Iran. In Odessa our tires were shot out. When I got out of the wreckage and protected the scientist, the Winter Soldier was there. I engaged him for a while but he shot the scientist through me. Soviet slug. No rifling." She breathed. "I tried to keep up on him. Honestly I want to get him back for this." She lifted her shirt and revealed the thick scar on her stomach. Despite her quickened healing, the thing scarred anyway.
She fished the flash drive out of her pocket. Steve crossed his arms, "Sounds like a ghost story."
"He's real. I'm not lying." Natasha pressed.
Steve seemed to be weighing his options. Trying to decide if he trusted her or not. She looked up at him and waited.
"Why don't you trust me?" She asked.
"I know nothing about you. Except what others have said." He replied.
"What do they say?" She asked, more curious about the whispers of others than she should be.
"Fury doesn't trust you." He said quickly.
"Correction. He did trust me. I had to earn it. People talk because there's nothing I won't do. My moral compass switches directions when I need it to. Blessing or curse, you can decide, Rodgers." She handed him flash drive.
He picked up the flash drive and stuck it in his pocket. "Where can we go to look at what's on this?"
"I have an idea. C'mon." She pulled her hood back up over her head.
It was a 10 minute walk to the mall across the street from the hospital. Steve wasn't so good at blending in. He stood out with his muscles and good looks. On their way into the mall she stole a hat and glasses. "Put these on. People are going to recognize you."
He seemed to be at war with the idea of her stealing. She knew how to blend into a crowd, he didn't. "You're out of your league here. Let me help you. S.H.I.E.L.D. is tracking us. We can't use anything that they've had access to. No bank accounts. No phones."
He reluctantly put the items on. "What about you?"
She laughed, "You're kidding right? I could disappear into this crowd and you'd never see me again. You need a crash course in spy 101."
He stuffed his hands in his pockets as they walked. "How do you know we're being tracked?"
She pointed towards a store on their left, "They put an APB out on you. They've blocked me from everything. They assume I'm probably helping you. It's a good thing the others are away. This is already messy."
"How'd you get access to that intel then?" He followed her toward a computer store.
"I broke into the governments computers and got access to S.H.I.E.L.D. from a higher clearance level." She smiled.
He raised his eyebrows, "You hacked the government?"
"You better stop being so judge-y, Rodgers. I wasn't raised to walk the straight and narrow. I've got a feeling hacking the government is going to be the least of our worries." She headed over to a bank of laptops and held out her had for the flash drive.
He handed it over. "How does using a computer here help us?"
"They can't figure out it's me. Public computers are our best shot. We'll have about 9 minutes from when I plug it in to when they'll get an accurate trace on us. You keep an eye out." She plugged in the drive and her fingers flew over the keyboard. For a few moments it seemed to be going well, but Steve didn't know what was going on.
She huffed and bit her lip as she worked, someone was fighting her on breaking into the program.
"How can I help you folks today?" A young man came over to them.
Natasha didn't waste any time. She leaned up and curled her arm around Steve's arm. "Oh! My fiancé and I are looking at honeymoon destinations!" She smiled brightly and looked up at Steve. He fumbled a bit before nodding at the man.
"Oh, where are you headed to?" The employee asked.
Steve glanced at the screen as Natasha went back to work. "New Jersey." He said quickly. Natasha rolled her eyes. He was awful at playing along.
"Nice." The young man said and studied Steve. "You know what I have the same glasses at home." The man seemed to not know when he wasn't wanted around in a conversation.
Natasha gasped excitedly, "Oh, babe! Come look. Should we go here? It has beaches, I know how much you love my little bikinis." She winked at Steve as she slid her arms around him. She had locked in on the location already.
The employee blushed and made his exit from them. It was like flipping a switch on and off. Natasha pulled away and enlarged the location. "Whatever they're hiding it's in here. Know it?"
Steve was impressed with how easily she flitted from act to act. It had him guessing if he even really knew her at all. Or even well enough to trust her to not cross him. "Yes. Let's go."
She yanked the drive out and shoved it in her pocket. She hurried out into the crowded mall. Steve cleared his throat as they walked. "I count 8. See them?"
She nodded, "Saw them before you did." She smirked.
"You create a distraction, I'll take them down?" He said quickly.
"Shut up." She said as two approached them. "Put your arm around me and laugh. Now!" She hissed. Steve this time didn't miss a beat, he grabbed her around the shoulders and laughed.
They slipped by the two men easily. He laughed softly and headed for the escalators to get them to the ground floor. Natasha spotted two more on the opposite escalator. She huffed and turned to Steve. "Kiss me."
"What?"
"Damn it, Steve. Kiss me. Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable.." She grabbed his face and kissed him. He momentarily paused before playing along.
She kept kissing him until she saw the two men pass them. She pulled away and watched Steve look more than uncomfortable. "Relax, Rodgers." She teased as her actions had safely gotten them out of the mall without being seen.
Steve surprised her when he knew how to boost a car. As they sped away she gave him a shit eating grin. "Knock it off."
"I'm not doing anything.. yet." She reminded.
"Yet.." He repeated and merged onto a highway.
"How does Captain America know how to steal a car?" She laughed. "Enlighten me."
"Learned it in Nazi Germany." He said simply.
She laughed, "Oh… not nearly as exciting as I had hoped." He was easy to poke at. She liked that.
It was silent for a while before she decided to poke again. "Okay… So I have a question. That you don't have to answer. But really if you don't answer it's like answering anyway."
"Out with it, Romanoff." He groaned and cast a weary glance at her.
"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" She smirked and propped her feet up on the dash. "Oh… Was that your first kiss, Cap?" She added excitedly.
He rolled his eyes. "Was it that bad?"
Natasha grinned, "Oh my god. It was?"
Steve sighed loudly, "No, that was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm 95, not dead, Natasha."
"Hey, alright then. No worries, everyone's got to practice." She laughed.
"It's kissing, you don't have to practice." Steve corrected.
"Really… You're gonna stick with that? I might be your last kiss for the next 95 years if you keep that mentality up." She teased. "Plus practicing is fun." She smiled suggestively.
He turned down a less active road and sped off again. He noticeably blushed after he laughed again. "Practice is hard to come by when someone doesn't share the same life experiences."
She knew how that went but she wasn't about to reveal her own sordid problems with her 'practicing'. "Just make something up."
He looked over at her, "Oh you mean like you?"
Touché. She raised an eyebrow. "Truth is a matter of circumstance. It's not all things to all people, all the time."
He looked at her a little bit worried, "That's a tough way to live, you know that?"
She grimaced, "Yeah, but it's a good way to not die."
Steve looked forward, "You know it's hard to trust someone when you don't know who they really are."
She got what he was saying. Being subtle at his poke at her. "Who do you want me to be, Steve?"
He seemed disappointed that she asked that, but answered anyway. "How about a friend?"
"I think we're in the wrong business for making friends." She reminded. "A few hours ago my supposed new friend was slamming me into some walls." She teased.
Steve didn't bite, "Why do you do that?"
She frowned, "Do what?"
He glanced over at her. "Say something remotely telling that you have feelings and emotions and instantly follow it with sass and sarcasm."
He had her pegged. "Oh, we don't have time to figure that out. I'm a mess. You don't want to go down that road."
"A friend would." He reminded. "How bad can it be?"
She frowned, "Bad."
Steve looked concerned. Natasha shook her head, "See that is exactly why. Pity."
"I don't.." Steve corrected. She pointed ahead of them. Their destination ahead.
She hopped out of the car and looked around. It didn't take them long to discover the data bank and the odd fact that a scientist trapped his brain in machines. Her phone chimed and she grabbed it, having just avoided being shot by the computer. She hadn't even had time to process that S.H.I.E.L.D was over run with HYDRA or that HYDRA had their claws in James. Details she knew that Steve did not.
She gasped at her phone, "Steve.. We've got a bogey coming. 30 seconds. S.H.I.E.L.D. fired it."
He leapt into action grabbing her and running for a grate in the floor. He ripped it open as the missile hit. The explosion hurled her into the hold. Steve slammed into her. His shield raised above them to protect from the fire and falling debris. She curled up and covered her face, a stray slab of concrete crashed onto the shield and slammed her into the ground, her head connecting with the floor and knocking her out cold.
Natasha came too in the car. She gasped and sat up. She was laying down in the back seat. Steve looked over his shoulder. "Hang in there, Romanoff. You took a big hit." He looked roughed up too as she gingerly touched her forehead.
He parked the truck and opened the back door, offering to help her out. "I'm fine, it'll be healed up tomorrow. Where are we?"
"The only safe place I can think of. We've got to get off the street and figure out our next plan."
Natasha nodded, "I don't know about you but my next plan involves blowing up the asshole who blew us up."
"Language." He chided and knocked on the door of a small white house.
