In the Still of the Night
A/N: Hello, you wonderful readers, you! I'm amazed at how many views this story has gotten, so thanks to those who have read my story. And a special thanks to the AMAZING reviews I have gotten. Seriously, you readers who take the time to write reviews make me happy and inspire me, so thank you thank you thank you!
Now onto chapter eleven! Review, please, as always. :)
-PenPaperParadise
Chapter Eleven: Plain Talk
Natasha ordered Vera to follow her – despite Vera's protestations – and lead her toward the row of police cars, their flashing blue and red lights illuminating the night. However, they didn't approach a police car – at the end of the row, furthest from the museum, was a plain black car with the white silhouette of a logo on the car's doors. It was a logo that Vera knew all too well.
"SHIELD..." she mumbled to herself, and Natasha gave her a knowing, yet curious, sideways glance.
When they approached the vehicle, a woman with short brown hair and a knowledgeable face came out of the car from the backseat. As she came closer to her, Vera noticed the SHIELD logo on her sleek black jumpsuit.
"I'm Agent Maria Hill," the woman said to Vera. "For your safety, you're going to have to come with me."
Vera hesitated, glancing over at Natasha, who nodded.
"Go with her," Natasha told her. "I'm sure we'll see each other again."
"I'd be surprised if we didn't," Vera muttered bitterly under her breath.
Natasha appeared not to notice that comment. The redhead turned without another word and ran off toward the museum determinedly, just like Steve had merely moments ago.
Agent Hill got into the backseat of the SHIELD car and Vera followed suit. The driver (also wearing the SHIELD logo on his clothes) started the car and began driving away from the museum to an unknown location, which made Vera a bit nervous, especially after nearly being killed only minutes ago. But she took it in stride; she wasn't going to fight it, especially since it looked like SHIELD had something to do with what happened back at the museum. And Vera's curiosity outweighed her desire to get out of this situation.
As they drove along the geometric roads of the city, without any introduction or pretense, Agent Hill immediately starting telling her information that she knew about Vera.
"We know you're a former SHIELD agent, Miss Rochester," she explained in a manner that almost made it sound like she was reciting memorized lines. "Agent Romanoff briefed me before we arrived at the museum. You started working there in oh-nine in the research division as an archivist. Correct?"
"Uh, yes," Vera responded awkwardly. "Um, where are we –?"
"You worked there for two years and left in two thousand-eleven."
"Right, but –"
"This information was hard to come by," said Agent Hill, ignoring Vera's desire to say something, "because according to our employee registration, you still work at SHIELD. Your termination was never recorded in our database."
Vera said nothing. She wondered if Agent Hill was expecting her to act shocked or surprised, but she wasn't. She really didn't feel anything when she heard this news, just a familiar blankness that settled in her torso that occurred whenever her thoughts drifted back to SHIELD. Hill said nothing about her reaction (or lack thereof).
"However," Hill continued, "Romanoff told me she did a little digging, and found out that you willingly left after an incident –"
"Agent Hill," Vera interrupted sternly, stiffening and becoming even more anxious than before. "I'm not going to say one word about my time at SHIELD, because frankly see no reason why that has anything to do with what happened at the museum tonight. What you are going to tell me is where we are going and why you are taking me there."
Agent Hill considered her, her countenance softening a bit (hopefully, mused Vera, because she realized that she practically kidnapped me without answers.) Hill sighed lightly.
"We're going to a SHIELD base," she explained in a much kinder voice than before. "It's located just outside the city."
Hill paused for a moment, while Vera waited for her to say more.
"And why am I going there?" Vera urged, but Hill shook her head.
"I can't say yet," she said mysteriously. She gave Vera a sympathetic look, but Vera just turned away from her in annoyance, gazing out at the dark scenery outside the tinted car windows.
"Miss Rochester," Hill said slowly, in an overly-gentle tone that indicated she was about to ask for a favor or a request. "I know you don't want to talk about it, but regarding the incident I wanted to ask you –"
"You can ask whatever question you want," Vera said tiredly, not bothering to turn from the window to look at the agent, "but like I said, I'm not going to tell you anything about the so-called 'incident.'"
There was a strained silence in which Vera thought Agent Hill was trying to find something to say, but after hearing a nearly-inaudible, exasperated sigh from her, Vera knew Hill couldn't think of anything to say. Vera herself felt like sighing, but she was too determined to put on airs to sigh and show weakness. If Hill won't tell me where I'm going, Vera thought adamantly, then I don't have to tell her about my time at SHIELD.
The two women remained silent for the rest of the journey.
"Hey, Rogers, wait up."
Steve stopped and turned as he watched Natasha stalk over to him. She looked angry, and she had every right to be – after the big fight they had trying to restore order in the museum, Natasha, Steve, and the rest of the SHIELD agents had only managed to capture one of the burglars, while the rest got away. The burglars, whoever they were, were skilled: they knew how to fight well and they escaped the building in unison effortlessly, like it was all planned down to the last second. But SHIELD took the one they arrested and planned to question him because they needed more answers about who these people were.
"You're going to the archive room, right?" asked Natasha quickly, and Steve nodded.
"Maria told me there might have been a breach down there," Steve elaborated, "so I'm checking it out."
"She told me the same thing."
Steve didn't respond to that, though there was something in Natasha's voice he couldn't help but pick up on. He shrugged it off and the two of them made their way downstairs to the archives.
"You seem to know you're way around here, Rogers," said Natasha with a hint of playful accusation as he led her down the maze-like hallways.
Steve was about to respond, "I've been here before," but something told him not to say that. So he just said nothing.
They got to the room, and, after noticing they needed a keycard to get in, Steve simply smashed the door's handle with his shield to get in. Once inside, they went straight to the nearest computer and Natasha sat down in front of it, immediately typing away. Privately, Steve was glad that Agent Hill had sent Natasha with him because he still wasn't very good with computers. Natasha, on the other hand, was an expert at them, and Steve had great reverence for her.
Natasha clicked around and typed some things, and then a dialog box popped up, saying, "FOLDER EMPTY – FILE ERASED."
"Huh," Natasha grunted in confusion, her eyes glued to the screen. "That's odd..."
"What's - ?"
"Hold on."
Natasha typed some more and brought up a big block of information and words and numbers. Steve could make neither heads nor tails of it, but Natasha nodded along as she read it, clearly understanding it. Steve was impressed.
"Natasha, what –?"
"There used to be a file here," she explained (which Steve was thankful for), "but it was erased. According to its access history, it was a timed file, meaning someone set it so that as soon as it was opened for the first time, it would only be open for a set number of seconds, and then it would be deleted forever."
"So someone did open it?" asked Steve, trying to piece it together. "And now it's gone forever?"
"Yep," she affirmed, glancing curiously at the computer screen. "All its data and memory was erased. There's no way we can access it now. The interesting thing is, I'm surprised this file hadn't been accessed until today."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, according to its history, this file was created several decades ago."
Steve cocked his head in confusion. "It's decades old? And it wasn't even accessed until now?"
"That's right. Strange, isn't it?"
"Very strange..." Steve agreed slowly.
They were silent for a moment, each of them trying to work out this new information for themselves. Then after a few seconds, Natasha said without pretense, "I don't trust Vera Rochester."
Steve blinked. Natasha was known to be mysterious and surprising, but he certainly wasn't expecting that to come from her. She didn't know that he was dating Vera, so Steve was surprised that Natasha even knew who Vera was. However, he didn't feel like revealing that secret part of his life yet so he decided to play innocent. "What...what do you mean?"
"That museum curator you rescued? I visited her earlier today posing as an FBI agent and talked with her. She was acting weird. She knows something about this, that's why I convinced Hill to bring her to the SHIELD base for questioning."
"You brought her in for questioning?" Steve asked before he could stop himself. Natasha nodded, eyeing Steve with suspicion.
"She's hiding something. Not only that, but don't you think it's strange that a group of masked men broke into her place of work the same day that I paid her a visit?"
"That's odd, I guess," Steve admitted slowly. "But I doubt she's got something to do with this...she seems like an average museum curator."
Natasha looked at him. "You know her, don't you?" she said. It was more of a statement than a question, and Steve knew it would be futile to try to convince Natasha otherwise.
"I do know her," he revealed reluctantly. "And I don't think she's capable of pulling off something like this."
"You think you know her well enough to give her that much credit, Rogers?"
Steve swallowed. "I believe so."
"Oh, you sound so convincing," Natasha quipped sarcastically. "I don't trust her. I'm not saying she's the mastermind behind this whole thing, but she's hiding something, I know it."
"I trust her," Steve argued, and Natasha scoffed.
"You trust her, or you 'believe' you trust her?"
"Natasha –"
"She's your girlfriend, isn't she?" she asked simply.
Steve was taken aback. "How...how did you –?"
"I know you've been secretly dating someone," she explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I just didn't know who. You're not so good at subtlety, you know, Rogers."
Steve didn't respond. He didn't want Natasha to be sure that he was dating Vera, but he didn't want to lie and deny it, either. Natasha sighed.
"Steve," she said in a softer tone, "just be careful, alright? My gut's telling me that she's lying about something, and my gut's never wrong."
Steve didn't respond to that either, but he couldn't deny internally that he knew Natasha was right. Though she didn't have super-human strength or a technologically-advanced suit she could fight crime with, one of her strongest suits was her intuition, which was hardly ever wrong. Natasha was smart and she could see people for who they really were. Steve trusted her judgment, but he just couldn't believe that Vera had something to do with this.
Although...Vera was rather secretive about her past and she wasn't one to divulge personal information, other than what her favorite movies were or things to that effect. Could she be hiding something from him?
I wouldn't put it past her to keep secrets, Steve thought morosely. I've been doing the same thing to her.