Author´s notes: Hello! This one took me a while to write, sorry about that! I got a little stuck on my thoughts... anyway, I hope you guys like it! Thanks for the support! Bye!

CHAPTER 16

It is late night in Russia.

Steve, Sam and Natasha are inside their car, heading to Saint Petersburg.

After driving for almost 3 hours straight, Steve stops at a gas station for fuel.

When Steve turns off the car, Sam, who is on the passenger´s sit, says: "I´m going to fill the tank. Maybe you should check if Romanoff is okay. She slept like a rock back there!" Sam gets out of the car.

Steve turns around and studies Natasha for a while. She is lying on the back seat. She hasn´t moved much since they left Moscow. She is lying on her right side, curled up, with her knees almost touching her chest. Her left arm is resting on the side of her leg and the right one is limp, falling off the sit. Her face is relaxed and her breath is even, she seems to be in deep sleep.

Steve calls her a few times, but nothing happens so he reaches with his hand to lightly shake her arm and as soon as Steve touches her, Natasha´s eyes open briskly and she instinctively grabs Steve´s wrist and twist his arm as she sits up.

Steve feels a sharp pain on his arm and yells: "Ouch! Hey, it´s me!"

Natasha blinks quickly and realizes that she is twisting Steve´s arm. She lets it go immediately, saying: "Oh, I´m so sorry Steve. I…I thought I was still in KGB..." she whispers the last part, almost to herself. Her mind is still fuzzy after all that happened to her and the memories of how she escaped KGB are slowly coming back to her.

Steve rubs his sore arm and replies: "It´s fine. How are you feeling?" He meets her eyes but she is looking right through him.

Natasha stays silent; she is so lost in her thoughts that she doesn´t even notice that Steve is staring at her, waiting for a response. They stay like that for a few minutes until Steve asks in a worried tone: "Natasha? Are you going to tell me what happened when you were inside KGB? What did they do to you?"

Natasha now focus her green eyes on Steve´s blue ones. She nervously bits her lower lip and looks down as she remembers the torture she had endured, it was a hard one, her muscles are still sore from being electrocuted, her mind is not fully focused and she considers herself lucky for being able to gather the energy to leave that place when she did. She doesn´t want to tell Steve the details so she answers coldly: "You don´t wanna know Steve. I´m fine now, okay?"

Steve is not satisfied with that answer, he can see how vulnerable she is now and it makes him wonder what they did to her, so he continues: "That bad, huh. Why are you wearing some guys jacket, what happened to your clothes? Did they try to…to…" he can´t finish his sentence because the thought of those men touching Natasha makes him sick.

Natasha looks up to meet Steve´s eyes and says perplexed: "What? No, no…nothing like that. They threw cold water on me, twice. I was wet and cold so I took the jacket from the guard that I killed before I escaped. My pants are still damp." She touches her black leggings to make her point and continues looking at him: "See?"

Steve looks down at her leggings noticing that they are a little damp and then he looks back at her face, saying a little confused: "But why? Why did they do that?"

Steve can be really determined when he wants to know something and this time he is annoying Natasha with all these questions, so she takes a deep breath before she says in an upset tone: "Because they electrocuted me! Okay? That´s what happened!"

Steve is taken aback for a moment and looks at her in shock. He says loudly: "What! Jesus! Natasha, they electrocuted you after getting you all wet! You could have died!"

Natasha loses her temper completely and yells harshly: "You think I don´t know that! But there wasn´t much I could do at the time. I knew they would torture me in there, but yes, maybe I underestimated them. I didn´t expect that KGB´s director himself would come in to interrogate me and take the torture to another level, but I managed to do what I had to do and got out alive! Mission accomplished! Will you stop with the questions and obvious statements, please?" She stares intensely at Steve and notices the hurtful look that appears on his face. Natasha looks down and lowers her voice to continue: "You know that there are risks every time we go on a mission, you have said it yourself, but I don´t think this is going to work if you´re going to worry that much about me."

Steve furrows his brow in disbelieve: "I worry too much? Then tell me, if it was the other way around and I was the one in danger and you were ordered to stand back, could you just watch and do nothing about it?"

Natasha looks up at him with her poker face on and answers too quickly: "Yes!"

Steve notices that her face twitches slightly when she answers, so he chuckles because he knows that she is lying, so he replies in a bitter tone: "Right, cause you´re so good at following orders."

That comment hurts Natasha so she narrows her eyes in anger, looking at Steve for a moment before looking away out the window.

Steve turns forward to sit up straight on his sit and grabs the steering wheel of the car, trying to calm his nerves down. He hates when Natasha lies to him.

Natasha then opens the back door, gets out of the car, and goes to trunk. She tries to open it, but it is locked. She lets out a breath and yells to Steve: "Can you open the damn trunk, I need my bag!"

Steve pushes a button under the steering wheel to open the trunk for her and then gets out of the car too, turning to Natasha´s direction and watching as she aggressively grabs her bag and then loudly closes the trunk. She then turns around and makes her way to the bathroom in an angry stride, without a single glance in his direction.

Sam, who is making his way back from the cashier of the gas station, notices the way Natasha is walking away so he asks when he is standing beside Steve: "What did you say to her? She looks pissed off."

Steve takes a deep breath and answers in a sarcastic tone: "I guess I worry about her too much."

Sam replies playfully: "Yeah, I noticed that. So is this your first lover´s quarrel?"

Steve looks in disbelieve at Sam, who has a smirk on his face, and says: "Am I that obvious?"

Sam replies: "I had a feeling that there was something between you too since I got here in Russia, especially from the way you´ve been acting around her. I´m sorry to say man, but you´re really bad at hiding things."

Steve lets out an exasperation breath and says sadly: "Yes, I guess I am."

Sam taps Steve on the shoulder: "Don´t worry, wait until you have make up sex. It´s definitely the best part!"

Steve blushes a little and looks down at his feet: "Ah…we haven´t…done that yet."

Sam looks surprised at the soldier: "What! Look, Steve, I know you want it to be special, but in this century you don´t have to be married to have sex with the girl you like."

Steve looks back up at Sam with a shy smile: "Yes I know that Sam. I have thought about it, quite a lot lately to be honest…but we just didn´t have the time for that."

"So, you´re are not nervous to do it with a beautiful and experienced woman like Natasha?" Sam teases him.

Steve gulps with the thought of making a fool of himself in bed with Natasha and replies: "You know, you´re not helping…"

Sam notices Natasha walking back to the car, changed into a skinny jeans, her black boots, a tight red top and a black overcoat, so he interrupts Steve: "Damn, you´re really lucky Steve. That girl´s body is fine! I would be glad to have a piece of that!"

Steve elbows Sam on the ribs for that remark. Sam coughs and puts his hand where Steve hit him. Steve says in a serious tone: "Watch it! She is my girl!"

"Hey, no need to get jealous! I´m just messing with you!" Sam replies trying to smile through the pain he is feeling, he makes a mental note not to tease the super-soldier too much.

As Natasha is making her way back to the car, she notices that the two men are still in their combat suits, Sam has taken off his wings and has a black sports coat over his suit and Steve is still wearing his dark blue Captain America uniform, so she stops in front of them and speaks playfully: "You know, I love men in uniform, but maybe you two should change too."

The two men don´t make a move, they are just staring at her, Sam has a goofy smirk on his face and Steve is giving her a lust look, going up and down her body, so Natasha raises an eyebrow and asks: "What?"

Steve suddenly steps forward and grabs her waist, kissing her hard on the lips.

Natasha is a little surprised by his move and she is still mad at him, so she doesn´t respond at first. But when Steve tightens his grip around her, pressing her body against his, she slowly gives in and kisses him back, letting go of her bag and throwing her arms around his neck to deepen the kiss.

Sam is just watching as his friends make out, with a smile on his face because he knows that Steve wanted to be with Natasha since they fought together in D.C. Maybe even before that. He had no idea for how long Steve had waited for this girl, but now he is very happy that they finally end up together.

Steve breaks the kiss, leaning his forehead against hers, he says softly: "I´m sorry."

"Well, I´m not!" Natasha replies with a playfully smile on her lips before giving him a quick and soft kiss.

Steve chuckles: "That´s not what I meant, I like kissing you too, but I hate when we argue."

Natasha smiles at Steve: "I know, I sorry too. I guess KGB brings out the worst in me." She looks at him for a moment and then continues: "I know that it must´ve been hard for you to wait for me to get out of KGB on my own, but I appreciate that you trusted me to do it."

Steve smiles back at her and says: "I´m glad that you made it." And then hugs her tight.

When they let go of each other, Natasha glances at Sam over Steve´s shoulder and then back at Steve: "I take it that you told Sam about us?"

Steve replies a little embarrassed: "He kind of…found out before I told him."

Natasha gives a half-smile to the soldier: "Oh Steve, you´re hopeless!" She then steps aside to look at Sam, he has a huge smile on his face and he says: "You two look great together! I´m happy for you!" He comes closer and gives a friendly tap on Steve´s arm.

"Thanks Sam, you should be honored cause you´re the first one to know about us." Natasha replies despite of feeling a little exposed.

Steve knows that Natasha doesn´t like to reveal her secrets, so he speaks: "Don´t worry Tasha, Sam is my best friend and he isn't going to tell anyone before we do."

"I wouldn´t dare!" Sam replies quickly, putting his hands up in surrender while looking at the redhead assassin.

Natasha gives Sam a half-smile, pleased with his reply, and then asks: "So, how far are we from Saint Petersburg?"

Steve expression turns serious as he answers: "About 250 miles. What are we going to do there exactly?"

Natasha replies looking at Steve: "A wealthy businessman is throwing a charity event there. The General is on the guest list."

Sam looks at Natasha confused: "So, you think that the Winter Soldier is going to make his move there? In a public place?"

Natasha turns to Sam and responds: "General Basov is a very reserved person, his house is heavily guarded and his agenda is confidential. It´s hard to know when he´s going to be out on work related tasks, and he´s always surrounded by several bodyguards. This event is different though, there is a day and a time to happen, Basov will be more open and the Winter Soldier is an expert sniper, so he doesn´t even need to get too close to kill him. This is a great opportunity for him to get Basov."

Steve knows that Natasha understands better than anyone how the Winter Soldier thinks, especially now that he found out that they trained together at KGB, so Steve has no doubt that Natasha is right and that she is the best person to determine a course of action on this situation, so he asks: "Do you have a plan?"

Natasha looks at Steve and replies: "Yes. Go change. I´ll explain everything on the way."

Steve nods at her then opens the trunk. He throws Sam´s bag at him saying: "Think fast!"

Sam clumsily manages to catch the flying bag and replies: "It´s kinda of hard to do things faster than a super-soldier! You know I´ve tried!"

Steve laughs a little as he grabs his bag. Then they both go to the bathroom to change.

In the meantime, Natasha grabs her phone and decides to call Stark.

Tony answers right away: "Hey, red! What´s up?"

Natasha replies: "Hello Stark, just checking in. How is your mission?"

Tony answers in a conceited tone: "Done and done, it was too easy! What´s taking you so long?"

Natasha says sarcastically: "Well, we had to figure out where to go first, so not a quick task like yours! We are on our way to Saint Petersburg. Our mark is going to be there."

Tony replies: "Huh, still on the run then, I thought you guys would be back in time for dinner, what a shame. We´re going out to a fancy restaurant tonight, Rhodey´s treat!"

Natasha knows that Tony mentioned that to brag about something, so she asks: "Really? What was the bet, Stark?"

Tony says a little surprised: "Ha, the cunning little spy! Nothing goes by you unnoticed! War Machine lost the race back to New York for Iron Man, obviously!"

Natasha rolls her eyes as she answers: "Of course he did…how is the rest of the team? Is everybody back in one piece?"

"Yes, I mean, the elven prince managed to get bit by a dog on his ankle and destroy his bow, how shameful for the elven kind…"Tony starts to laugh and then she can hear Clint shouting on the back: "Not any dog, a freaking adamantium hound, I´m not that slow Tin Man!"

Tony stops laughing and continues to talk to Natasha: "Anyway, funny story! The doctor said he´ll live, so don´t worry!"

Natasha shakes her head, disapproving Tony´s bad timing for jokes and then says: "Okay, so I´ll keep in touch."

"Okay, looking forward for that!" Tony says in a playful tone.

Natasha takes a deep breath and speaks coldly: "Bye, Stark." She hangs up before he can answer.

Steve and Sam are coming back from the bathroom in their ordinary clothes. Steve notices the distressed look on Natasha´s face as she puts her phone back in her pocket, so he asks: "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, fine. I just had a conversation with Stark Smartass." Steve gives her a sympathetic smile and she continues: "They are all back in N.Y., missions accomplished. Now, let´s get our part done too." Natasha enters the car, sitting on the back sit.

Sam put his bag in the trunk and says turning to Steve: "Give me the key, my turn to drive!"

Steve is tired so he gets the key from his pocket and hand it to Sam without a protest.

Sam gets in the driver´s sit.

Steve puts his bag in the trunk too and makes his way to the passenger's sit.

And so, they continue on their late night road trip to Saint Petersburg.