CHAPTER 10

Singapore´s Hospital – Afternoon

As Steve makes his way back to Natasha´s room, his heart is already racing with the expectation of seeing her again, because he knows things between them now will change, change for good. A smile played on his lips with the thought of having her as his girl.

After missing his chance with Peggy, Steve thought he would never find anyone to replace the hole she left in his heart, but then Natasha appeared in his life. When they were introduced by Coulson on the Hellicarrier, he immediately felt attracted to her. She was beautiful and had a fearless attitude that reminded him of Peggy. But he knew that she was a spy, the Black Widow is what they called her, so he didn´t trust her because he could never tell if she was lying or not. Then they had to face Loki and his army of Chiutari, and after the battle of New York, he saw that there was more to her than the art of deception. She was also a brave and relentless fighter and, on that day, she gained his respect and admiration. After that they started to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. as partners, going on several missions together, he started to see other sides of her. They became friends, so close friends that she was always trying to set him up to go on dates with other women, but he would never go, at first because he was still trying to move on from Peggy, but then because Natasha was the only woman he wanted to go on a real date, even if it seemed like she wasn´t available. And when they fought together against HYDRA in D.C., he saw a glimpse of the real Natasha, she gained his trust and he completely fell in love with her. She asked him to do her a favor and ask Sharon out, but he couldn´t because his heart was set on the beautiful redhead spy. And the only reason he didn´t go after her on that day, was because he thought she wasn´t interested in him, because she was with Barton and he isn´t the type of guy who betray his friends. But he wrongly assumed that last part.

Steve blissfully opens the door to the room and to his disappointment, only Tony Stark is in there, holding a computer in his hands. Steve asks in a worried tone: "Where´s Natasha?"

Tony turns to Steve and smiles a little: "Hey Capsicle. The doctor came here and said she needed to do some tests to make sure everything is okay." Tony puts the computer on the top of the nightstand and continues: "And I went all the way to the hotel and back to bring her a computer, she wants to see the files she got from HYDRA, now! No time to rest for Ethel!"

Steve looks confused at him and Tony throws his hands on the air: "Ethel is an old woman´s name? Bah…I keep forgetting you are an old man too! You probably knew an Ethel back then."

Steve looks annoyed at Tony and speaks: "Jesus Stark, you got a death wish or something? Her name is Natasha in case you don´t remember!"

Tony gives him a smirk: "Of course I remember, but where is the fun in calling her that! What about you Captain Purity? Have you told her you love her yet?"

"What?" Steve blushes deeply and says in a threatening tone: "That is none of your business Stark!"

Tony grins seeing how red the soldier´s face is and teases him a little more to see if maybe he cracks: "You didn´t deny it, so I´ll take that as a yes! Are you two a couple now?"

Steve looks with disbelieve at him and says abruptly: "I didn´t tell her I love her okay, stop it Stark!"

Tony points a finger at him: "Ha, but you do love her! I knew it!" Tony laughs and claps his hand together, excited with his discovery.

Steve kicks himself for speaking without really thinking and replies bitterly: "Jesus Stark you are unbelievable, don´t you have anything else to do?"

Tony looks at the time in his phone and replies: "Actually, I do, I have a virtual hot date with Pepper! Gotta go! Don´t worry Cap, your secret is safe with me!" he winks at Steve and leaves the room.

Steve takes a deep breath and shakes his head, not believing that Tony Stark is able to keep a secret and that he just handed to him the fact that he loves Natasha, not that it will make a difference if he tells her that now, but because he is pretty sure there will be endless jokes about it.

Steve looks around the room and yawns. He realizes now that he hadn´t sleep much, he is tired. There is a small couch under the widow, he lies on it and tries to make himself as comfortable as he can on the small piece of furniture. It doesn´t take long for him to fall asleep.

Singapore´s Hospital – Sundown

The last rays of sunlight shine through the room as a nurse enters pushing a wheel chair with Natasha in it. They can see the super soldier sleeping on the end of the room. Natasha can´t help but smile at the scene of Steve almost falling out of the small couch, but he looks so peaceful, that she doesn´t want to wake him.

Natasha puts a finger on her lips so that the nurse doesn´t make any noise and then whispers: "It´s okay, I can handle myself now, thank you!" She gets up from the wheelchair.

The nurse smiles, nods her head and leaves the room.

Natasha watches Steve for a moment, his chest slowly rises and falls, his face is relaxed. She smiles again and silently makes her way to the bathroom and closes the door behind her. She takes off the hospital´s gown, wearing now only her black panties. She looks at herself in the mirror and touches the scar on her left shoulder, where the Winter Soldier shot her when she was with Steve and Sam in D.C. Then she looks down at the bandage around her abdomen. She takes it off and sees the other scar the Winter Soldier gave her, on the left side of her belly, when she was trying to protect a Russian scientist. And now on the right side a little lower on her belly, a fresh one. The cut got 8 stitches, she notices that there is no inflammation around it and it is healing well, but it will leave a mark. She touches her back and feels the stitches around the entry wound from the blade. Now bikinis are really out of question for her, she takes a deep breath felling a little down. She takes her panties off and go into the shower. She is still sore so she slowly washes her body trying to cause as minimal pain as possible, and lingers a little longer under the hot water, letting it relax her muscles.

When she is done, Natasha wraps a towel around her body. She opens the bathroom door and takes a peek into the room. The room is dark now, Steve is still asleep. She doesn´t want to wake him, so she leaves only the bathroom lights on and slowly makes her way to the small storage space across the room and opens it. Someone had brought her things to the hospital while she was unconscious, probably Clint. She grabs her bag and picks out a white panties and a dark green silk nightgown, with black laces on the top and on the hem, just because she thinks it will be easier to put on than a t-shirt and a shorts. She puts them on the shelf above. She turns to look at Steve. He hasn´t move. So she turns her back to him and let the towel fall to the floor. She picks up the panties, raises her right foot and pull it up on her right leg, then when she shifts her weight from the left to the right leg, she feels a sharp pain on her injury and loses balance. She holds the opened storage door not to fall and it makes a loud creak. She hears Steve shifting on the couch. She quickly pulls her panties the rest of the way up and puts an arm around her breasts thinking: "Damn it!"

Steve wakes with a creak sound and quickly sits up straight. He looks forward and sees Natasha´s bare back, she is wearing only a small panties. He can´t see the details because the light is dim, but he sees enough to make him blush. Her body has perfect curves. He can´t help but stare at her, she is beautiful. He says in a rough voice: "Natasha?"

Natasha closes her eyes tight as she hears him and curses herself for waking Steve on that moment, she looks at him over her shoulder to find him staring at her. She gives him a half-smile and replies calmly: "Hey Steve. Sorry, I didn´t mean to wake you."

Steve looks down the moment she looks back at him, blushing even more for getting caught staring at her, he can feel his face burning and says embarrassed: "Uhm…sorry. Do you…want me to leave the room…until you get dressed?"

Natasha turns back again and answers: "No it´s fine." She grabs her nightgown and quickly put it on; ignoring the light pain the movement sends thought her body. Then she walks to the couch, sitting beside Steve.

Steve looks up at her face, still slightly blushing as he asks: "How are you?"

Natasha looks at him: "It still hurts a little when I move, but I´m getting better. They did some exams on me to see if there is any damage left from the fall. The doctor said they will have the results by tomorrow morning."

Steve nods, but he can´t get over the fact that he just saw Natasha almost naked and that now she is sitting very close to him with a very sexy nightgown. He tries not to look at her cleavage, like a gentleman, and locks his gaze on her face, taking a strand of her wet hair with his finger and putting it behind her ear. He says softly: "You´re so beautiful Natasha."

Natasha smiles at him, then her eyes lock on his lips and she leans in, kissing him.

Steve lips immediately responds to hers and he puts a hand on her lower back, pulling her closer. Natasha puts a hand on his neck and let her fingers go through his blonde hair. Then she parts her lips to let his tongue access her mouth. When their tongues touch, as the kiss gets deeper, Steve senses the electricity it sends through his body, he was longing for this moment and it feels so good that now he can´t resist, he wants more. So he grabs her legs putting them on his lap and presses her chest against his. He starts to trail her jaw with kisses down to her neck and then moves his hand up on her thigh, pushing the hem of her nightgown up. Natasha lets a low moan escape her lips and Steve squeezes her bare thigh. Natasha bites her lips with pleasure, his kisses and his touch are inebriating and Natasha is losing control too, so she says in a husky voice: "Steve…maybe we should stop…"

Steve looks up meeting her eyes, he is panting, he doesn´t want to stop, but he knows she is right, so he replies: "Sorry…I got carried away." He takes his hand off her thigh.

Natasha takes a deep breath. She is always so good at keeping control, she is amazed of how Steve makes her go to the edge, so quickly. She mutters: "It´s okay." She kisses his lips lightly and gets off his lap saying with a half-smile: "I thought you didn´t have much experience with woman, you surprised me!"

Steve smiles too, and says: "Like I told you before, I´m old, not dead. I had some experience. But I think we should take one step at a time, maybe I should ask you out on a date first, huh?"

Natasha laughs at the old-fashioned soldier: "No…it´s fine, I don´t go on dates anyway." Which is true, she wasn´t looking for anything romantic or long-term with anyone, not even Steve, until now. And they have been through so much together that she thinks they can skip the dating part.

But Steve is a romantic, he wants to sweep Natasha off her feet and thinks that the dating game is perfect for that, besides it is a way for them to do something normal. So he looks at her with disbelieve: "What? Oh, come on Tasha, you have to go on a date with me, it´ll be fun!" he holds her hand and continues: "Please?"

She can´t say no to those bright blue eyes, so she smiles and says: "Okay…we´ll talk about it when we get back to New York. But now, there is something I need to do."

Natasha stands up and goes to the light switch, turning it on. She goes to the storage space again and grabs a small gun with a black strap. She lifts her nightgown a little to tie it around her thigh.

Steve watches her, amused by her assassin´s habit, she always manage to hide a weapon on her, no matter what she is wearing.

Then she gets her pen drive with the files she hacked from HYDRA and shows it to Steve: "I gotta see what we have here!" She makes her way to the computer Stark left for her, picks it up and climbs into bed with the computer on her lap.

Steve is curious too, so he stands up and stops beside the bed, watching Natasha working on the computer. He looks at the screen as the files start to show.

After a few minutes, Natasha speaks without taking her eyes off the screen: "So, we have all the delivery points of HYDRA´s weapons and names of some high level HYDRA agents. Oh, Stark is going to love this! Prototypes of new weapons that HYDRA is developing."

Steve looks at the intel passing on the screen: "Good job, Natasha, that´s a great piece of information. Can you send it to Fury?"

Natasha starts typing: "Yes, I have his contact. I´ll send him an encrypted message. And I´ll also send it to Stark." She does that and when she pushes the enter key she says: "Done. Now, this one better be good too, since it almost cost my life." She clicks at the Winter Soldier file.

Steve glares at Natasha, his jaw muscles tensing up as he remembers how terrified he was of losing her. The memory of her limp body is still fresh in his head and it bothers him. And all because she was trying to help him find Bucky, he feels distressed.

Natasha can feel his eyes on her; she looks at him: "Steve…are you okay?"

Steve just nods to her and says seriously: "Yeah, go on." He moves his eyes back to the screen, but he´s still tense.

Natasha sigh because she knows this isn´t easy for him, but she lets it go. She turns her attention back to the computer. She goes through the file of the Winter Soldier speaking: "Well , he was off duty for sometime, or maybe he took a while to report back in after our meeting in D.C., because there is only one entry after that day."

Steve says in a concerned tone: "Or maybe he was running from HYDRA and they manage to find him and brainwash him again." His hands turn into fists and he presses his nails against his palm. The thought of not being able to help his friend again is frustrating.

Natasha looks at Steve, felling sorry for him and replies softly: "It´s possible." Then she continues her reading and her eyes widen: "Shit! He is in Russia. He infiltrated KGB at HYDRA´s command!"

Steve is surprised and confused: "What?! But why?"

"It doesn´t have the details of his mission here, but I think I know" she opens up another window: "Do you see this man?" She points at a profile photo on the computer and continues: "Lieutenant General Donskoy of Russia´s military forces, also a HYDRA secret agent according to the files I hacked. The only one above him in the chain of command is General Basov. HYDRA probably wants the General dead, so they can take control of Russia´s military forces. That´s why they sent the Winter Soldier to KGB, he is trying to get close to General Basov…"

Steve completes her sentence: "To kill him…Jesus! And if HYDRA succeeds, they might as well start World War III."

Natasha looks up to Steve: "Yeah, they probably decided to change their course of action after we messed up their plans inside S.H.I.E.L.D. We have to tell the others."

Steve nods at her, then stares at the wall, lost in his thoughts, remembering the information on the file Natasha gave to him when they were at the cemetery on D.C. He knows Bucky was revived by Russian scientists, who attached a bionic arm on him, and then KGB trained him to be a ruthless Soviet assassin under the name of the Winter Soldier. But somehow, HYDRA got his hands on him and turned him to their side.

Realization hits Steve as he recalls Clint saying: "…she is almost as old as the Captain." So he turns to Natasha, who is looking at the computer again and asks: "Did you know him?"

She looks up at him, with a confused look on her face: "Who?"

Steve leans closer, never leaving her eyes: "Bucky...I mean, the Winter Soldier, were you with KGB during the Cold War?"

Natasha bit her lower lip, recalling what Tony said before, that Clint told them about the version of Super-Soldier serum in her blood, so there is no point in hiding it now. She takes a deep breath before answering: "Yes…" she hesitates because she hates that part of her past, but Steve´s glare is intense, he will demand answers and she can´t lie to him, so she continues: "He trained me when I was in the Red Room Academy, during the Black Widow Program."

Steve brown furrows. He backs away from Natasha, perplexed, he doesn´t know what to think or how he feels about that.

PS: Okay, another chapter ending in cliffhanger! How is Steve going to react to that news? To be continued...

And thank you again for the support! See you soon!