Thank you so much for all the reviews, they have really pushed me to keep writing. Here is chapter 5
The plane landed easily on the tarmac and Simmons felt relief to finally step out onto solid ground and breathe in fresh air. She immediately regretted it though as the ice air sliced straight down into her lungs like a knife and produced a sharp pain in her chest. Soon a large jacket was chucked onto her head obscuring her view. Jemma quickly put on the extra winter coat and turned to see Natasha walking away, she smiled. The stoic woman needed no thanks as she would only deny her actions. Over the two weeks that the Captain had been away Jemma had learnt to both fear as well as appreciate the red headed assassin.
"YA vizhu tebya zdes' v poryadke" Jemma looked over to see an older man in his late 50s come over bundled up in many layers of clothes.
"Vy prinesli , chto ya prosil?" Natasha quickly said to him and held out her hand.
"Yesli vy sobirayetes' , gde ya dumayu, chto vy vy sobirayetes' YA dumayu, yeshche raz. Eto bylo ochen' plokho zimoy, drugoy shtorm bystro podkhodit k oblasti." Natasha glared at the man, he sighed before handing over a leather bag.
"My Russian is a bit rusty, do you understand what they're saying?" Steve bent down to whisper to Jemma. The biochemist was glad the cold had made her cheeks and nose go red as it hid her blush.
"Not all of it, Miss Romanoff asked for something she was expecting, he said that we shouldn't be going out somewhere. He said something about it being a bad winter and I think… a storm coming?"
"Ne skazat', chto ya vas ne preduprezhdal Natal'ya" the man said before trudging away.
"Did he just call her Natalia?" Jemma whispered to Steve.
"Yeah I think so."
Natasha turned back to her two travelling companions.
"If you two are done whispering then we should get going. We have a long drive before getting to Bezingi village. Once there we will meet another one of my contacts, we are undercover from now on so even if we seem to be alone if we are out of the car then we are to act accordingly. Is that clear?"
Jemma felt the strange urge to salute but simply nodded her head as did Steve who was next to her.
Natasha led the way to an old four wheel drive parked at the back of the hanger shed they were in. She fished inside the leather bag that the man had given her and brought out a pair of keys. Steve helped to pack all the bags into the back of the car before hopping into the passenger seat. Natasha quickly hopped in the driver's seat and handed the leather bag over to the Captain. Jemma jumped in the back and took out her tablet.
Jemma soon realised that Natasha was quite a slow driver, she had expected her to be fast and dangerous for some reason. It was weird in some way that her driving didn't match her personality. Steve must have been thinking the same thing.
"Why are you not even going the speed limit Natasha?"
"We are on holiday remember, a loving couple out seeing Russia with my younger history buff sister tagging along. We are not driving fast as we don't need to." Natasha replied deadpan. Jemma wondered if the whole undercover thing was a bit overboard but she supposed she should trust that the famous Black Widow knew what she was doing.
Jemma flicked through her tablet at some satellite imagery of the area they were heading to. She was worried as it was winter and Russia was freezing at the best of times. She looked at the mountain, it wasn't the tallest peak in the range but it was still certainly high and if they got caught in a storm… Jemma shook her head, she needed to focus.
"Passports, cash, a few maps, who was that guy back there? Will the jet be safe?" Steve was rifling through the leather bag.
"He owed me a favour, the jet will be fine, we came into Russian airspace with the cloaking device on so we shouldn't have been detected."
"Bezingi Village will be a few hours' drive from here at this pace. We are staying with your contact aren't we Miss Romanoff?" Jemma asked. Natasha nodded affirmative.
The car soon fell into silence, Natasha wasn't a talker at the best of times unless she was giving or taking orders. Steve's mind was off somewhere else, his broad shoulders bunched up and his head tilted to watch out the window.
Jemma was all over the place, her mind was going over and over her cover identity as well as her companions'. She was screening the maps behind her eyelids thinking of possible entry points to the underground facility. The predominant part of her brain though was…thinking about Fitz. Jemma wondered what her best friend was doing. Was he okay? What was he working on? Was he hanging out with Mac?...Did he miss her as much as she was missing him? Jemma knew she should be dedicating that thought process to something else but she couldn't help but contemplate as to her friend's well being.
Jemma looked at the back of Captain Rogers' head. She could only imagine what he was going through. She supposed that Mr Barnes had been as close to him as Fitz was to her. She couldn't even begin to understand what it must be like to wake up decades into the future, everyone and everything you know out of date or gone. Then you finally have hope of someone you love still being there, only to have it tainted by questions and lies and the fact that he was sent out to kill you.
As if sensing the fact that Jemma was thinking about him Steve turned to look at the young scientist. She offered a weak smile that Steve warmly returned.
"Have you ever been to Russia Dr Simmons?" Jemma blinked and looked out at the passing scenery. Because they had flown and landed straight in a private hanger out in the middle of nowhere and they were currently driving through outer country she supposed she really hadn't seen that much. It is not like they got to go to Moscow or St Petersburg or anything. Snow was everywhere and the landscape shone with the little bit of sun glinting off the untouched powder.
"No I haven't, the landscape is beautiful." It was, with pristine white snow occasionally interrupted by white capped trees and rocks scattered across hills and mountains.
Not ten minutes later did Steve turn to Natasha with a guilty look on his face. "Hey Natasha sorry but-" The red head just sighed before pulling off to the side of the road near a clump of trees.
"Hurry up." Jemma giggled as the famous and legendary Captain America smiled gratefully before leaping out of the car to stroll over out of view behind some trees.
Just at that moment a Ute pulled over not far up ahead and a tall man in bulky coat and warm looking beanie hopped out and started to come over, his big boots leaving craters in the snow.
Natasha looked back at Jemma and she nodded, they both hopped out to meet the man.
"You people aren't from around here. What are you doing on this road during this time of year? Are you lost?" The man's accent was thick but his English was very good.
"No we aren't lost, we just stopped because my husband had to relieve himself. We are on holiday. We are actually on our way to Bezingi Village." Jemma was shocked at how easily Natasha's accent disappeared and an easy smile appeared on her face. She sounded just like a happy tourist.
"Well you picked a terrible time to travel up this way, the snow is deep and it is one of the coldest winters I've seen." Jemma watched the small scar near the side of the man's mouth change shape as he talked. He looked like his expression was permanently serious, but then again, Jemma mused, so was Natasha's. Perhaps it was a Russian thing.
Steve soon came wandering back fully alert to the new person. The man looked slightly taken aback by the sight of Steve. Jemma supposed it may have just have been the fact that he was so big, along with the big winter coat he could almost rival Thor.
"Who are you?" The man looked from Steve to Natasha to Jemma then back to Steve.
"My name is Natalie and this is my husband Stan" Natasha turned and put a hand on Steve's chest. "Honey this man was just asking if we were lost or in need of any assistance."
Jemma felt something in the pit of her stomach as she watched Natasha sticking closely to Steve's side.
Steve coughed before smiling at the unfriendly looking man. He quickly wrapped an arm around Natasha. "Thank you very much but we should be okay I think, got the four wheel drive, got the chains, got a map." The man seemed to look suspiciously at the two before glancing over at a wide eyed Jemma.
"Sorry, that is my younger sister Jenny, she has always wanted to see Russia so we said she could tag along." Natasha chuckled good naturedly but the man did not even blink an eyelash before he turned his eyes back to Steve.
"May I ask your name?" Steve asked uncomfortable.
"Anton"
"Well Anton it was very nice to meet you, I am afraid we should probably get back on the road and out of this cold." Steve said smiling and moving back towards the car.
"Yes you should hope to get to the village before nightfall; the road is even more dangerous in the dark. Enjoy your stay" without much else the man trudged back to his Ute.
Steve, Natasha and Jemma all quickly jumped back into the relative warmth of the car and watched as Anton began to head off in the opposite direction as them.
"Well he was friendly." Jemma exclaimed sarcastically from the back. Steve nodded his head in agreement.
"Do you think he recognised me?"
"I don't know, but let's hope nothing comes of it." Natasha replied, she soon put her foot to the pedal and started to head off toward a big looking mountain.
Jemma sat in the back seat, there was no doubt it had been a weird exchange. All Jemma could think about though was how easily both Miss Romanoff and the Captain could slip into the role of being happily married. She supposed it mustn't be too hard if they are already…..what, dating? An item? Lovers? None of the words quite seemed right to describe two members of the avengers who were in a relationship.
Jemma was brought out of her thoughts by Steve's voice "I wonder what it will be like once we get in closer amongst the mountains."Said man was peering out his window. It wasn't long before they found out. An hour or so later they were on a windy road curving upwards over a mountain.
"Watch it!"
"Look out!"
"We are going to die before we even get there."
Steve held onto the door with one hand and braced himself against the dash with the other. Jemma was currently in a ball and white as a ghost in the back. Natasha had no expression on her face as she concentrated on getting the car over the rough terrain.
Jemma felt the contents of her stomach swirl as they turned a very sharp corner, the back wheels almost going over the edge of the cliff face to their left. Jemma peered out the window over the edge but could see nothing in the snowy fog that was surrounding them. How could this be a tourist destination? The road to get to Bezingi Village was a death trap.
Suddenly a rumbling could be heard and all three occupants of the car looked out to see rocks coming flying down the mountain. Natasha quickly put her foot on the accelerator.
Jemma silently took back anything she had thought about Natasha's driving as the woman sped the car around another corner. Anything loose in the car was thrown about. Jemma tried to catch her tablet as it went sailing into the opposite door. The car shook as it bumped over stones and clumps of snow. A boulder landed not two feet away and Jemma bit back a scream. Smaller rocks could be heard bouncing off the roof and more and more larger ones were landing not far from the car.
Natasha turned another corner and then had to quickly yank the wheel to go around a fallen pile of stone. Everything in the car flew in the opposite direction. Jemma felt her head bang against her window with a crack. They sped off quicker as more and more rocks and snow continued to rain down on them. Jemma shook off the pain to grab onto the back of Natasha's seat and brace herself as they flew around another corner, the rumbling only getting louder.
Suddenly a cascade of rocks fell a few meters in front of the car. Jemma swore she saw her life flash before her eyes, they were going to crash. Natasha let out a curse in Russian and Jemma latched onto her arm rest and held her breath. Natasha slammed on the brakes and spun the wheel.
The car started sliding to the side, dirt and snow being flung up by the wheels. They came dangerously close to edge and to the rock pile before finally rocking to a stop. The rumbling continued for a few seconds as more stones bounced off the roof before finally stopping. Silence reined except for the heaving breathing of the two passengers in the car.
"Is it over?" Steve was the first to break the silence.
"I knew the mountains would be dangerous but I didn't think we would be caught in a rockslide on the journey there." Jemma whispered, almost as if afraid that if she talked too loud it would start another one.
"This is a dangerous area this time of year, most tourists wait until after winter before coming up this way usually. The heavy snow makes the rocks unstable." Natasha didn't seem all to freaked out as she restarted the car and slowly squeezed the car past the pile of rubble and back onto the road ahead.
"Are you okay?" Steve looked back at the biochemist as she rubbed the side of her head.
"I'm the doctor, aren't I supposed to be asking you that" Jemma joked as she quickly did a scan of the two in the front for injuries.
"Yeah but I wasn't the one who had their head smashed against a window."
"I'm fine, no signs of a concussion, no bleeding just a head ache and a small bump."
Natasha glanced back. "Okay but we are going to keep an eye on it, tell us if you feel woozy or sleepy."
Jemma smiled back at the red head and nodded. They were soon on their way again and it wasn't long before the road dipped back down again. It brought them into a bowl surrounded by mountains. In the centre was a cluster of small buildings and houses with a single narrow road leading out the other side and off into a gap between two mountains.
The three drove the car down towards it. A small sign was built off to the side that read Bezingi Village.
"Looks like we're here" said Steve as he tried to see better through the fog at the small cluster of huts.
Natasha seemed almost like she knew where she was going as she drove through before pulling in next to a banged up jeep outside a log building. Steve and Jemma went to unfasten their seatbelts but Natasha shook her head and motioned for them to stay where they were as she went to go inside. The cold air quickly seeped in without the heater going and Jemma hoped that the deadly spy wouldn't take long.
As the silence lay heavy in the car between the scientist and the Captain Jemma wished she could make some kind of conversation. She could crack a joke about the scary journey here, make a comment on the surrounding area, ask how the man was feeling now that they may be close to finding out about his long lost friend, or enquire about the beautiful old compass he would occasionally get out to glance at…anything! Jemma sat there thinking of anything to say.
Steve wasn't fairing much better, he wanted to say something, ask again if the young girl was alright. He had panicked when he had heard the bang of her head hitting glass, he was relieved to see she hadn't received much damage. He wanted to say something but his mind was a whirlwind of thoughts.
The Captain had been tense the second they had landed in Russia. Would they find out anything about Bucky? Or was this whole ordeal for nothing? He worried that if they did find anything that he would probably wish he hadn't. What could have changed such a good man into a member of Hydra?
Steve was also worried about Sam back at the base, was he doing okay? Was he over seeing Skye's training? Was the team managing okay? He sighed as he shook his head.
He was also thinking about Natasha, Dr Simmons had told him about the possibility of this organisation being the roots of the black widow project. Steve knew that Natasha's past haunted her to no end, he hoped that this mission wouldn't transport her mind straight back to those memories.
He felt down to his pocket where his compass was stored, he hoped that Jemma would forgive his silence. He wished to speak to her, talk to her, let her voice wash over him to calm his nerves. Nothing came out of his mouth though as he gripped the compass in his pocket.
Natasha came back soon and Steve stamped down the ridiculous feeling of annoyance. It was not like he had even said a word to the young biochemist, why should he feel annoyed at Natasha for interrupting. Another man hopped into the jeep outside and started down the small road, Natasha quickly started the car and they followed him.
Steve had the sinking feeling, as they pulled up in front of a bigger log building, that he wasn't going to enjoy this visit to Russia very much.
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