Chapter 21.

They landed in Holland a few hours later. Steve and Natasha claimed the motorbikes, Sam and May hopped in the SUV.

"No," May told Skye when she made to get in the back seat. "You stay here with Fitz. Barnes is too dangerous."

"But…" Skye started.

"No. Natasha can do any on-site hacking we need. You stay here. We've all got cameras on. You're Mission Control, Skye; don't fuck up." And with that stunning statement, May climbed into the driver's seat and was gone.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Skye raced back up the stairs to the control room and sat down, swiftly manipulating the screens. After a moment, she decided to use Steve's feed as the primary focus. He was most likely to be the one any trouble rained down on, after all.

They'd analysed the planned movements of the target for the next few days, and Natasha, after consulting with Clint before he left the Tower, had picked out the most likely times and locations for the Winter Soldier to make another assassination attempt. At the very least, they hoped to save the International Court of Justice judge's life. With any luck, they'd capture Bucky Barnes in the process.

For two days, they checked out likely spots and found nothing. They rested when the target did, although Steve and Natasha appeared to need less sleep than the others and took turns standing guard at the judge's apartment. Trying to stay covert, they avoided letting the target know they were there. By the third day, they were all thoroughly fed up and beginning to think the mission was a bust.

Exhausted, Skye rubbed at her eyes. "Okay, one more possibility tonight. The sniper post Clint marked as likely, once the target leaves the building." The judge was having dinner at a friend's house. The target would be briefly exposed as he walked to his car and Clint had pointed out several potential sniper nests, marking one of them as the one he'd personally choose. Since Barnes had been an expert sniper, they were assuming that he would use the same selection criteria as Clint.

May and Steve were at ground level in the street, keeping an eye on the house, Steve hoping to be able to use his shield to protect the judge if necessary. Sam lifted Natasha to the roof of the building Clint had selected and then flew off to check out some of the other possible sniping spots.

Natasha said something in Dutch, and May barked over the com, "Widow, report!" Skye hastily flicked to Natasha's camera feed, and saw it tilted up, the Russian obviously looking up at the two tall, black-clad men towering over her.

"Widow has company," Skye said into her mike. "Two probable hostiles. Make that definite hostiles," as Natasha glanced down and Skye saw a gun.

More words in Dutch, softly spoken in a beguiling tone, and May said "Cap, go!"

Skye watched through May's camera as Steve went sprinting away down the street. Wow. He was insanely fast. "What did she say, May?" Skye asked.

"A code. She thinks they're guarding the sniper nest," May said crisply. "Looks like Clint was right. I'm staying here in case there's a backup assassination squad."

Natasha was still talking in Dutch, though Skye could hear the men's voices too, and they didn't seem very friendly. Natasha suddenly let out a sigh. "All right, my friends. We'll do it the hard way," she said in English.

Skye blinked as the camera suddenly whirled and looped. "Whoa. What the…" and then Natasha straightened up, looking down at the two men unconscious on the floor.

"Two down," the Russian said softly. "I'm going in."

"Natasha, don't you dare!" Steve shouted. "If the Winter Soldier's in there…"

"I'll take my chances."

"Wait, I'm just coming in the door…"

Skye brought Steve's view up alongside Natasha's and saw him literally run through the door into the apartment building, using his shield as a battering ram, and go pounding up a flight of stairs. Natasha, meanwhile, was calmly picking a lock.

"Widow, you should wait…" Skye began, and Natasha pushed open the door, dropping flat to the floor at the same moment.

Bullets whizzed past, and then there was a crash of breaking glass and the bullets stopped. Sam, who Skye had almost forgotten about, had gone smashing in through the room's window about two seconds after Natasha opened the door.

Skye sat helplessly watching the battle, a total blur. She caught glimpses of the man Natasha and Sam were fighting, clad all in black, his metal arm bared, black hair flying as he moved. Wow, the Winter Soldier was about as fast as Steve. And then Steve was there, crashing into the room with his shield up, shouting "Bucky! Bucky, it's me, it's Stevie!"

The Winter Soldier froze. Only for a few seconds. But it was just long enough for Natasha to whip out the ICER gun Fitz had given her and empty the magazine into his face.

"They got him," Skye gasped. "May, they got him!" Three cameras focussed on Barnes as he slowly keeled over, and Natasha was on him in an instant, locking on some vibranium cuffs Tony had given them. "He's down, they're disabling him."

"On my way," May was running for the SUV.

"Report," Skye swallowed past a dry throat. "Team, report! Any injuries?"

"A few bruises," Natasha said laconically.

"I'm glassed all to hell and I think I damaged a wing," Sam said a bit more dismally. "Tell Fitz he'll get to look them over after all."

"I'm fine, Skye," Steve said quietly. "We'll see you back at the Bus shortly. Rogers, out."

Skye let out a sigh of relief, watching as Steve hauled Barnes over his shoulder and they all headed down the stairs. She waited until they'd loaded Barnes into the back of the SUV, Natasha squatting over him with a fresh magazine of ICERs in her gun, and Sam and Steve went to get the motorbikes, before leaving the control room and heading downstairs to speak to Fitz.

"Fitz?" she called as she entered the lab. She'd hardly seen him for the last couple of days. He'd taken responsibility for feeding them both, but since his idea of cooking was collecting takeout, he might not actually be here right now. Although he was supposed to check in with her before going out. "Fitz?" she peered around. Or maybe he was asleep… she turned to head back upstairs to the sleeping compartments, grinning to herself that she was already thinking about asking Stark to help her install a mini-JARVIS on the Bus to help keep track of people. Coulson would have a fit.

Fitz wasn't in his capsule. Or in the kitchen. Wondering if she'd somehow missed him, Skye walked back towards the command centre, calling his name. She thought she heard a response and looked back towards the computers. There was someone there, but it wasn't Fitz.

Skye froze. Fuck, she wasn't even armed! May was so going to kill her ass – if she survived this – she looked up over the barrel of the gun pointing at her and her eyes widened.

"You!"

"Interesting," Brock Rumlow said, taking a couple of steps closer. "The hacker. The prize Garrett promised Ward."

"I'm no-one's prize!" Skye spat, enraged at the mention of Ward.

"No?" His eyes raked over her. "You might be wrong about that." He glanced back at the screens, still streaming live feed from the team out on the ground. Skye looked too, hoping desperately that they were close, but she knew that they had to be still at least ten minutes out. She had to delay Rumlow at least that long – she looked frantically around for something to use as a weapon.

"I'd planned to steal the plane, but your electronic overrides are a bit too tricky to bypass in the limited time we have. Well, you and the engineer will have to do as compensation. For now."

They have Fitz! was all Skye had time to think before Rumlow held something that looked like a tiny aerosol can out towards her and pressed a button. She gasped before her brain kicked in. Don't breathe…

Too late. Skye's body hit the floor in a limp pile of limbs. Rumlow smiled.

"Not Ward's prize now, sweet thing." He stooped and lifted Skye, slinging her easily across his shoulder. "Mine."

Oh, shit…

Hehe. I am such a bad person. Cliffhangers R Us!