The flight to Wakanda took 15 hours. At some stage or another, everyone fell asleep, and the flight was mostly quiet, each lost in their own thoughts. Natasha, Steve, and Clint divided up the piloting duties as they flew through the dark skies over endless oceans.
It was mid-afternoon local time as they approached Wakanda.
"Man," Clint said as they touched down on the runway. "This place nicer than JFK. A lot jungle-ier, but that is one nice looking airport."
"It was completed in 2013," Natasha said, once again in the Captain's seat, "They beat to their own drum here, but they certainly get things done."
"And that one huge Qatar Airways plane," Clint went on. Natasha wished he'd just be quiet unless talking to Ground Control. "Is that a Dreamliner?"
"It's a 777-400," Sam said, standing behind them.
"Please remain seated until the plane has completed taxiing," Natasha said. She needed a proper sleep, and was not the only one of board who had reached the end of their tether.
"I have spent the last three days and 15 hours with Scott Lang. I will damn well stand where I like, so long as it is as far away from Lang as possible."
"Love you too, bud!" Scott called, and waved, giving his unshakeable goofball grin. Scott had hardly stopped talking since he'd woken from a sleep. They'd still been a good hour from the coast of Africa then.
"Ok, everyone," Natasha said, "We will ignore Mr Wilson, a former member of the United States Air Force, breaking air-safety codes as we come to a stop. Game faces, people. Until we're at the compound, we don't know what the play is."
Once the Quinjet was in completely stopped, and they were cleared by the ground tower, Natasha opened the door. Hot, fuel smelling air filled the cabin.
"Nothing like the smell of aircraft fuel," Sam said, breathing in deeply as he lead the way out of the plane.
"Look's like we're getting a royal welcome," Clint mumbled, following Natasha. On the tarmac they were met by a welcoming party of four guards, T'Challa's private secretary, and none other than Maria Hill.
"Who's the lady?" Bucky muttered to Steve, to whom he was holding onto for support. Bucky had drifted in and out of sleep during the flight, and he still didn't feel very well after the fight with Stark. Scott had offered to look at his arm, but without proper equipment or lighting, it was too hard to do so on the plane.
"Who? Maria Hill?" Steve asked. Hill stood before them with her hands clasped in front of her, wearing a smart navy blue dress and cream patent court shoes.
"That's Hill?" Bucky mumbled.
"Yep."
"Wasn't she in New Zealand?" Bucky said.
"Yep."
"Queenstown to Auckland, Auckland to Doha, Doha to here. Sergeant Barnes. Nice to meet you, again. At least you're not trying to kill me or my people this time," Hill said stepping forward and holding out her hand. Bucky let go of Steve and shook it.
"Hi. Sorry about that."
"It happens. Just don't let it happen again. This is everyone?" Maria asked, looking at the motley group. "Right, let's go."
Four white Jeeps were lined up. The security personnel and the secretary divided themselves between first and last Jeep, with the group splitting between the other two cars; Natasha, Clint, Maria and Bucky in the second, and Steve, Sam, Scott and Wanda in the third.
"Africa is amazing," Scott said, as they walked towards the car. "That jungle is amazing. It's like Tarzan jungle. Wait, is Tarzan based here? I love airports. That is a huge plane. What other airlines fly here? Do you have giraffes? My daughter really like giraffes."
"Has anyone got a gag?" Sam asked, "So I can gag Tic-Tac here?"
"It won't be long," Steve smiled, putting a hand on Sam's shoulder.
"Rogers, he is a special kind of punishment."
"The sky is really blue here. What's the average temperature? Does it get cold in winter? Wait, we're in the southern hemisphere, right? So it's - spring? Do you have spring in Africa? Oo, I like that guy's sunglasses. Your sunglasses are cool," Scott said to a guard who held the car door open.
"Get in the car, Lang," Steve said, opening the car door and gesturing for Scott to enter. Steve looked over the door and saw Natasha climbing into the other car. She looked up and gave him a nod. Steve smiled and nodded back. If he was going to trust anyone with Bucky, it was Natasha.
"This is a nice car. It has new-car smell. Do you think I can get a burger? Not in the car, I mean, but I really want a burger. Or pizza. Or a burrito. Or just an sandwich. Who do we ask for food? Mostly, I'm really hungry."
"We'll find you something. And Lang, we don't need to hear every thought that comes into your head." Steve said, thinking how much he needed to go for a run. Steve climbed into the back of the car, with Scott in the middle and Wanda on the far side. Sam was riding shot-gun.
"Ok, yeah. Of course. Totally. Wow, I just got an order from Captain America." Scott looked at Steve and Sam. "Ok. Zipping it now."
"Please," Wanda said. "No."
"No?" Steve said.
"Scott… don't stop," Wanda said, avoiding eye contact with anyone. "I need to hear your thoughts. It gives me something else to focus on. It stops my thoughts from wandering off. It keeps me present. Please. Please keep talking."
Everyone was silent, the driver started the engine and the convoy began to move.
"Seriously, Tic-Tac? Wanda gives you permission to ramble on and you freeze up?"
Scott looked around the car: Sam with his arms folded, Steve looking out the window, his mind in the car in front of them, Wanda looking desperately at him. "I - I don't think I've been in a car this new before," he began tentatively, "I mean, that dashboard has nearly as many gadgets as the Quinjet. That was a nice plane. Hey, Cap, one day you have to teach my how to fly that thing, ok? If Barton can, I can too."
"Barton was a SHIELD agent for a lot of years," Steve said.
"Yeah, well I wanna learn," Sam said. Sam put his hands over his ears. Wanda took Scott's hand. "What exactly is SHIELD, anyway? Never made much sense to me. And that lady who's with the others. Damn, she looked like she could whip some serious shit into folks. Is she SHIELD? Hey, look! There's a pigeon. You guys have pigeons in Africa? That's cool. We have them in San Fran too. Hey, Mr Driver, sir, do you also have seagulls? Are we near the sea? I don't actually know where on a map Wakanda is. We should do more geography at school. I don't know in place of what, though. That's the problem. Not math. I love math. I'm an engineer. Did you guys know that? So is Hope. She's my girlfriend. Have I told you about Hope?"
"You can do it again," Wanda said. Sam groaned.
"Ok, great. So…"
...
In the car ahead, Natasha and Bucky filled Maria Hill in on the finer points of the clash with Stark, and Clint told of the arrest and the few days in prison.
"Even if I'd been around," Hill said, "I don't know if I could have helped."
"I think we got lucky you weren't," Natasha said, "If you were embroiled in this mess, it'd've made it harder for you to help get us out."
"Yeah," Hill said, "You owe me big time, Romanov."
"Don't worry, I know," Natasha said. Natasha, squeezed in the middle between Bucky and Maria, looked out the window at the winding black road, with jungle right up the curb. It had only taken minutes before they had left any signs of the city of townships behind them as they headed for the compound in the jungle. The car was comfortably air-conditioned, in stark contrast to the humid outside, or the blustery Pacific, or snow-storms of Siberia.
"Hey Barnes?" Hill said after a few minutes of silence.
"Yeah?" Bucky said. He'd rested his head against the window and had closed his eyes, but now he sat up properly again.
"Once we get to the compound, you'll be prepped for surgery. Gotta do something about that shoulder. T'Challa made sure there'd be a med team on stand-by. Didn't know what shape you guys would be in."
"Wanda'll need a psych eval," Clint said from the front seat, "Kid wasn't ready for something like that."
"She'll be looked after," Maria said, "There's doctors here who can help her too."
"I shouldn't have brought her. She should be off at college or something."
"She's over eighteen," Maria said, "She's legally an adult. This isn't on you."
Clint sighed and looked out the window. Bucky leant back against the window. His leg touched Natasha's.
"Maria, you reckon you could call ahead? To the medical team. If possible, the prep-nurses and anaesthetist need to be women."
"Black dudes are ok…" Bucky mumbled. "Never saw any Soviet black dudes…"
"Am I missing something?" Hill asked.
"And I'm not big on needles," Bucky said.
"Oh…" Maria said, realising what Bucky was referring to. "No, you should definitely be all right for all that here. I mean, not the needles, but…"
"S'ok," Bucky said. Natasha let her hand slip off her leg and rest in the crevice between them. Bucky slid his hand across his leg so that his little finger touched Natasha's thumb. If Maria noticed, she never said a thing.