Chapter Two
"You finish your schoolwork, kid?" Natasha cupped the back of Lainey's head.
Since they had arrived in D.C., Natasha took it upon herself to tutor Lainey when it came to her education.
And she took it very seriously.
Usually, after Lainey got back from her morning run with Steve, she and Natasha would have breakfast and then get straight to work.
It was then that Natasha found out just how hard it was to tutor Lainey.
The child wasn't a bad student. Not at all. She was smart and she was good at what she did.
She just couldn't sit still. She always had bursts of energy and excuses not to do her work.
Lainey would much rather be doing something else.
But Natasha always put her foot down and came up with a compromise. As long as Lainey completed her work to the best of her ability, then she could watch television afterwards.
So far, it seemed to be working.
"Almost." Lainey sat on her feet, using the coffee table in front of her to spread out all her work.
The apartment they shared was by no means large, but it was homey. The kitchen was beautiful and the walls were painted a bright white to reflect the natural light that came in through the window, the rooms were big enough that neither of them were cramped inside, and the locks could not be picked.
Lainey had her own little work station in one of the corners of the living room, but of course, she preferred to work on the floor with the coffee table.
Kids.
"Well, after you're done, what do you say we have a little movie marathon?"
Movie marathons were an even greater and more rare bribe.
"What kind?" Lainey perked up.
"Let's see...…I picked last time, didn't I? It's your turn now, so whatever you want."
"Home Alone'?"
"Sounds perfect." Natasha smiled, reaching into her pocket for her phone when she felt it vibrate. "Hill?"
Lainey looked up from her science homework and furrowed her eyebrows at her guardian's change in tone.
Something was wrong.
"Are you sure?" Natasha asked, her face remaining stoic. "I'll be right there."
"Natasha?"
"Put your shoes on." The redhead instructed, ending the call. "We need to go."
"He's really gone?" Lainey asked Natasha, once the woman approached her.
She had been sitting out in the hallway just waiting for either Steve or Natasha to come out to get her. It had been hours since they arrived at the hospital and all Lainey could do was sit down on a chair outside of the room and dangle her feet.
No one would tell her what was really going on, just that someone had hurt Fury really, really badly and he needed immediate medical attention.
Lainey was so curious that she even tried to get a glimpse of what was happening through the glass window, but the curtains were pulled so tightly, she couldn't really see anything much.
Fury was a tough guy. When Lainey met him, she was sure that there was nothing could bring this man down. He was too strong. She had been holding onto the hope that Fury would power through this and make it out alright, but the look on Natasha's face told her otherwise.
She wanted to see him, but Natasha really didn't want her to have to go through that if she didn't have to.
Things like this could really impact a kid. Especially a kid that had to go through as much as Lainey.
The less exposed she was, the better.
"Yeah." Natasha nodded, never trying to beat around the bush. "He's gone."
It looked as if she had been crying, but Lainey didn't say anything. Maybe Natasha didn't want her to notice.
Since Lainey had started living with her, she learned picked up on a few things.
Things like, what her favorite food was or how much she hated it when Lainey jumped on her to wake her up, how she liked her eggs and what her hobbies were, what time she usually woke up in the morning, or what she liked to cook, and when she was in a bad mood, but was trying to cover it up.
This was arguably the latter.
"He's gone." The spy nodded, offering the girl her hand. She needed to feel that she wasn't as alone as she felt right now. She needed the physical contact to ground herself. "Let's go."
Lainey silently slid off the chair and took the woman's hand, allowing her to lead her away from the room.
She knew Natasha was sad, but she was sad, too.
She had just seen Fury that morning and he was fine. Why would someone want to hurt him? He only seemed mean at first, but you had to get to know him to find out that he was actually really, really nice! Maybe whoever hurt him didn't know that...maybe they didn't want to.
But all the same, Lainey would've liked to say 'goodbye'.
She was going to miss him.
"Natasha!" Steve's voice interrupted their leave.
Lainey noticed that his face was frantic and he looked like he was in a rush. Natasha must've rushed out of the room without saying anything and now he wanted to catch up with her.
"Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha whirled around on him, wasting no time in asking that question.
"I don't know." He shrugged, his lips curling into a frown.
But even Lainey could tell he was lying.
And he wasn't very good at it.
She couldn't blame him, though. It was hard lying to Natasha. She knew everything!
One day, Lainey had snuck a couple of cookies before dinner and Natasha confronted her about it. She tried her best to remain calm and collected about never having touched the cookie jar that day, but once she looked into the woman's eyes, she folded.
And that was just about cookies. This was something worse. This was bigger than that.
"Cap, they want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D." Rumlow cut their conversation short.
Lainey honestly didn't know what it was with this guy, but she didn't like him.
They never really interacted, and he never thought to spare her glance, but if they did end up in a conversation with one another, Lainey was positive her views wouldn't change.
He just didn't seem like that good of a man.
But he was working for S.H.I.E.L.D., so he had to be good guy.
Right?
"Yeah, give me a second."
"They want you now."
"Okay." Steve nodded, turning his attention right back to Natasha.
"You're a terrible liar." Natasha smirked before leaving him with his thoughts.
All Lainey could do was turn around and wave goodbye as she led her away.
She didn't really want to inject herself into this adult business, but she couldn't help but really wonder what exactly was going on.
What was everyone hiding?
"I don't like hospitals."
Lainey really despised, hated, loathed, and abominated doctors.
But what kid didn't?
The only doctor she'd let get close to her, was Bruce.
She loved Bruce. He was nice.
He didn't stick her with huge needles and poke and prod at her like she was some science experiment. If he ever needed to check her over, he always told her what he was going to do before he did it, and if she didn't understand the procedure, he'd explain it in a way that made it not so scary.
Lainey bet that the doctors in this hospital didn't care about their patients the way Bruce did.
And Bruce wasn't even that kind of doctor.
"I know, honey, but that's not why we're here."
The nine year old thought that yesterday would've been the last time they stepped foot in this place, but she guessed she was wrong.
"Why then?" Lainey asked, fiddling with one of her dutch braids the older woman had done for her before they left their apartment. "Ooh!" Her attitude made a complete 180 when she saw the vending machine in the hallway. "Can I have candy? Please? Pretty please?"
Candy could always turn her mood around. What kid didn't like candy?
"I don't think you need any sugar right now." Natasha had to hold in a laugh. "You're already bouncing off the walls."
"No, I'm not!" Lainey, ironically, bounced on the balls of her feet. "Please? I've been so good!"
"That is true." The Russian mused. "You've been making all of this easier on me."
If Lainey wasn't so desperate to get what she wanted, she would've asked Natasha what exactly she was making easier on her, but that would've put her pining for the delicious treat in danger.
Some things were better left unsaid.
"So, can I?"
"Alright." Natasha relented, though, not for the reason Lainey thought.
She had seen when Steve put something in the vending machine the day before, which, in her opinion, was an awful place to hide anything of importance.
"You like 'Hubba Bubba'?"
"Yes!" Lainey was practically chomping at the bit for some sugar.
"Good." Natasha pulled a few dollars from her pocket and purchased the entire row of gum, handing one to Lainey. "One piece big enough for bubbles and that's it." She told her. "You haven't had your lunch yet."
"Thank you." Lainey smiled and took one piece, popping it in her mouth.
Even Natasha herself took piece of her own.
And she wasn't very big on sugar.
"What's that?" Lainey asked in between her chews, looking at the item Natasha had acquired from the machine. "What was it doing in there?"
"It's a flash drive." Natasha shrugged, choosing not to answer the second question. "Wanna hold it?"
"I can?"
"Just keep your voice down and keep it in your pocket no matter what happens."
Now, Natasha knew that there was some extremely valuable intel on that flash drive. She wasn't crazy. She'd take it from the kid before her possession of it became even remotely a cause for concern.
She just wanted to have her feel as if she was doing something productive for a few minutes to keep her still.
Because now with that sugar in her system, it was going to be harder to keep her under control.
"Keep your head down." She instructed, pulling Lainey's hood over her hair, ignoring her whines of protest about how it was too hot to wear a hood.
But Natasha had spotted Steve strutting down the hallway with purpose, and he looked like he was hiding from someone.
But she wasn't at all surprised when he took both of them by the arm and dragged them into an unlit storage room.
He must've been having a rough day.
He even made a point to push her up against a wall, but keep his hold on Lainey.
Though she had gone through years of abuse, Lainey didn't even flinch.
That's how much she trusted Steve. She knew he'd never hurt her.
He was incapable.
"Where is it?" He growled, finally loosening his grip on the child to hold both of Natasha's arms.
"Safe."
"Do better."
Always one to want in on the action, Lainey thought that maybe she should keep a lookout and see if anyone was headed their way.
She could be a great spy when she grew up. Just like Natasha if she'd let her.
"Where did you get it?"
"Why would I tell you?"
"Fury gave it to you, why?"
"What's on it?" Steve answered a question with a question.
How irritating.
"I don't know."
"Stop lying!" He grit his teeth, tightening his grip.
But to Natasha, he wasn't at all threatening.
She could probably lay him out if she wanted to.
It'd be really messy, though…..
Plus, the kid really liked Steve, so she would have to keep him around for a little longer.
"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."
"I bet you knew Fury hired those pirate, didn't you?"
"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you."
"I'm not gonna ask you again."
"I know who killed Fury." Natasha decided to divulge. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones that do, call him the 'Winter Solider'. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."
"So, he's a ghost story."
"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out. But the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him, straight through me." She lifted her shirt, showing Steve the scar that had been left behind.
She wanted Lainey to hear the story and see the scar as well, because recently, she had been going on and on about how much she wanted to be a spy when she got older.
And if it's one thing Natasha didn't want, was another teen spy.
So, if she could scare that out of her, she would.
"Soviet slug, no rifling, bye-bye bikinis."
"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." Steve calmed down considerably.
Natasha wasn't his enemy. She was just as lost as he was.
They'd need to lean on each other in order to come out of this.
"Going after him's a dead end. I know, I've tried." Natasha motioned for Lainey to hand her the flash drive. "Like you said, he's a ghost story."
"I kept it safe." Lainey innocently grinned up at Steve. "See?"
"I do see." He rested a gentle hand on her head. "And I really appreciate it. I don't know what I would've done if it got lost."
"You're welcome."
"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants." Steve turned his attention back to Natasha, who was smirking at how quickly his mood could change when he spoke to Lainey.
She couldn't really hold it against him. Lainey had that effect on people.
"First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk."
"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off."
Lainey giggled quietly at his expense as the three walked through the mall as casually as they could.
She knew they were now, technically, on the run, but Natasha was calm, so there was no need to be nervous.
Her childish innocence was admirable and entertaining to say the least.
She didn't think much of their disguises, though.
How could no one see that they were walking right by Captain America?
Every single person they passed by was blissfully unaware of what was happening around them.
What, were the baseball cap and glasses throwing them off?
Lainey couldn't understand (but she was grateful), she'd know Steve from a mile away even if he had on a clown nose and giant shoes.
Now, that would be funny. She'd love to take pictures of that.
"What're you giggling about, over there?" Steve asked her, his hand tightly clasped around hers.
She had a history of taking off towards things that caught her eye, so they had to keep her close.
Tony had actually suggested they use a leash, like the ones available for toddlers, and for a minute there, Natasha was considering it.
She had literally just had an experience where Lainey ran off right before he brought it up.
She had taken Lainey to the grocery store to buy some ingredients they needed for a dish they were planning on making for the team, and she turned around for a second!
It was all it took for Lainey to disappear from her sight.
She didn't even know how it happened, she was usually so attentive!
Natasha swore she looked everywhere for her and found the nine year old in the freezer section, looking at all the flavors of ice cream they had behind the glass doors.
Needless to say, Lainey did not get any ice cream that day. But Natasha received the scare of a lifetime.
Anyone could understand why she would be considering the leash.
But Pepper and Steve thought the idea was a little ridiculous.
Pepper never really had to go out one-on-one with the child, so she didn't quite comprehend what all the fuss was about.
To her, Lainey was this sweet, well behaved child that couldn't possibly do anything wrong.
Tony couldn't wait for her to find out just how wrong she was.
And it was impossible for Lainey to really sneak away from Steve with his enhanced hearing and speed.
So that went out the window just as quickly as it came.
Lainey would have to thank them one day.
"Nothing." She shook her head, looking at all the tech in the Apple Store.
On second thought, Tony was probably right.
Because if Steve wasn't holding her, she definitely would've run off somewhere by now.
Too many cool things to see to stay still.
And Steve looked as if he had caught onto that, and held her a little tighter than necessary, making her pout.
It was like he didn't even trust her. What was up with that?
"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up, S.H.I.E.L.D. will know exactly where we are."
"How much time do we have?"
"Uh….about nine minutes from…." Natasha plugged the drive into a MacBook. "Now."
Lainey watched her work for a couple of seconds, before getting bored and trying to slip away.
"Lainey, cut it out." Steve muttered underneath his breath, pulling the child to stand directly in front of him from his place by the table, and locking her in, ignoring her petulant little whine when she tried to wiggle away. "Behave."
Natasha snorted a laugh, but continued on the task at hand. "Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of A.I., it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands."
"Can you override it?" Steve asked, lightly smacking Lainey's hand away from her mouth to keep her from biting her nails.
"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly." Natasha kept typing. "I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D. developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from."
"Can I help you guys with anything?" An Apple employee caught Steve completely off guard.
"Oh, no." Natasha smiled sweetly. She didn't know why Steve was so jumpy, they had plenty of time. "My fiancé was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations. My niece wanted to tag along with the grown ups for the day. She's hungry, so she's a little cranky."
"Right." Steve had a brain fart. "We're getting married."
"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking of going?"
"New Jersey." He looked at the screen.
"Oh." The employee stared at Steve for a couple seconds. "I have the exact same glasses."
"Wow, you two are practically twins." Natasha deadpanned, still focused on the task at hand.
"I wish. Specimen. Uh…...if you guys need anything. I've been Aaron."
"Thank you." Steve spoke politely before the man walked away. "You said nine minutes, come on."
"Ssh. Relax. The kid has more patience than you do." Natasha waved him off. "Got it. You know it?"
Steve looked down at the location she managed to get and nodded. "I used to. Let's go." He swung a slightly struggling Lainey up onto his hip, exiting the store. "Standard tac-team." He observed. "Two behind, two across, two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro."
"Shut up and put your arm around me, laugh at something I said."
"What?"
"Do it!" Natasha hissed.
Lainey buried her face in Steve's neck just he did that, as not to be seen.
She was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, but she didn't want to take the chance.
All the sugar she had consumed was beginning to wear off anyway.
Now she was a little tired, so she stopped trying to fight Steve and relaxed.
"Kiss me." Natasha ordered once she saw Rumlow on the escalator opposite to them.
"What?"
"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable."
"Yes, they do." Steve agreed, unable to get another word in due to Natasha grabbing the back of his neck and pressing her lips against his.
And just like that, Rumlow turned away.
"You still uncomfortable?" She quipped, walking down the rest of the way.
"It's not exactly the word I would use."
"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?"
Since the two didn't have a getaway car ready and waiting for them, they had to steal someone else's.
But knowing Steve, he'd drop the car off with a sweet little apology note on the windshield for the owner to find.
"Nazi, Germany. And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash."
Bossy.
"Alright, I have a question for you, of which you do not have to answer. But I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"
"What?"
"Was that your first kiss since 1945?"
"That bad, huh?"
"I didn't say that."
"Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying."
"No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you've had." Natasha couldn't help but smirk at his expense.
She had asked the question out of pure curiosity, but now that he was flustered, she couldn't fight the urge to tease him.
He made it so easy.
"You don't need practice."
"Everybody needs practice."
"It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm ninety-five, I'm not dead."
"I never kissed anyone either." Lainey innocently joined the conversation.
"And it's gonna stay that way." Natasha looked back at her from her place in the passenger seat. "I thought you were asleep?"
By the time they left the mall, Lainey was completely asleep and Natasha thought that she'd stay that way for a few more hours.
With the late night and very early morning she had, she needed the sleep.
"I can't sleep." The nine year old shrugged. "You guys are really loud."
"Well, we're sorry to inconvenience you." Steve joked, making her smile.
"Nobody special, though?" Natasha wouldn't let the previous topic drop.
"Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience."
"That's alright, just make something up."
"What, like you?"
"I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people, all the time. And neither am I."
"That's a tough way to live."
"It's a good way not to die, though."
"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is."
"Yeah." Natasha nodded. "Who do you want me to be?"
"How about a friend?"
"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers."
"I can be your friend!" Lainey piped up.
"See?" Natasha smirked lazily. "Lainey's your friend."
"I appreciate the offer, Buddy." Steve smiled at her through the rearview. "But we're already friends."
"Yeah, but you looked sad, so I thought I'd remind you."
How did this kid get to be so sweet?
"Tasha's your friend, too. She just wants to be difficult."
That's what Natasha called it. So she was using her own words against her.
Whenever Lainey tried to avoid doing her schoolwork or wanted to stay up later than she was allowed to, or even when she was being cheeky, Natasha said that she was being difficult.
Natasha never meant anything negative by it, but Lainey bet she didn't think that she'd turn the tables on her.
"Alayna!"
"What'd I say?"
"This camp is where I was trained." Steve looked around at his old stomping grounds.
The flash drive had sent them all the way to Camp Lehigh in New Jersey where he had been trained before being injected with the serum.
The sun had gone down, and it was pretty dark, but Steve had spent enough nights in this place to know it by heart.
"Changed much?" Natasha questioned, hiking Lainey up onto her hip.
It was way past the girl's bedtime and that much was evident from how sluggish she was following them.
Her feet were dragging and she was a lot more quiet than usual, so Natasha made the executive decision to put her out of her misery and lift her up.
"A little." Steve stared off at nothing in particular.
"This is a dead end." Natasha glanced down at her phone. "Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."
But Steve had stopped listening.
"What is it?" She followed him, seeing the determined look on his face.
"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." The blonde used his shield and broke the lock to the door of the building they had come to stand in front of, allowing them access inside.
And the big S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem proved him right.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Maybe where it started." Steve nodded, taking notice of three framed pictures that were hanging on the wall."
Lainey lifted her head to look at them, recognizing the people in two of those pictures.
One was Margaret Carter and the other was Tony's father, Howard Stark. Tony didn't speak much about his father, but Lainey read about him in her history book and he was a really interesting man. Tony got his intelligence from him.
"There's Stark's father."
"Howard."
Steve had known both Howard and Tony. The two couldn't be more different. Howard joked every now and then, but he knew when to get serious. But everything seemed like a joke Tony; Bruce turning into the Hulk, him going under the ice, Loki. They just couldn't seem to get along. He hoped that someday they could, but it looked like Tony was holding something against him. What? He didn't know.
"Who's the girl?"
And to that question, Steve didn't reply.
It was the woman he had fallen in love with all those years ago. The woman he'd never be able to be with.
Lainey didn't really believe that Natasha didn't know who Agent Carter was. Because if the woman had a part in founding S.H.I.E.L.D., the very organization Natasha worked for, there's no way she didn't know.
She may have just been trying to get a reaction out of him.
"If you're already working in a secret office….." He muttered, looking at the empty bookcases in front of him, before pushing one to the side. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"
"Here, take her." Natasha handed Lainey over to him once they entered the elevator, so that she could figure out the number code to make it work.
8539.
Lainey sighed lethargically, resting her head on Steve's shoulder, while her left hand played with a loose thread on his shirt. Her other arm just laid limp at her side.
Natasha felt really bad about having her on this mission.
Irresponsible even.
But she didn't have any other choice.
S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't be trusted. Maria was occupied, Fury was gone….
And she couldn't leave her with Clint or Tony. She didn't trust this situation enough to drop Lainey off somewhere.
The safest hands were her own.
She just hoped it didn't escalate beyond this point.
"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient." She scoffed at all the computers that looked as if they had come straight out of the eighties.
But there was a modern adapter right smack dab in the middle to which she inserted Fury's flash drive.
And just like that, every computer in the room was activated.
"Initiate system?"
"Y-E-S, spells 'yes'." Natasha typed. "Shall we play a game?'." She joked, wiggling her eyebrows at Steve. "It's from a movie that was really popular—"
"—I know." Steve cut her off. He had been out of the ice for three years now, why did everyone think he hadn't managed to catch up on at least a few things? "I saw it."
"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918." A voice in the system spoke. "Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Serrano, Alayna. Born, 2004."
At the sound of her name, Lainey lifted her head and furrowed her eyebrows.
How did this thing know all of that?
"It's some kind of recording."
"I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but, I am." The accented voice explained, revealing a picture that seemed to spark some recognition in Steve.
"Do you know this thing?"
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years."
"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body, my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."
Lainey gaped at all the technology. Some part of her was in awe. She had never seen computers so old or real reels spinning.
And all of this was keeping Zola's brain alive?
"How did you get here?"
"It was Operation Paperclip after WWII." Natasha said. "S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value."
"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own."
"Hydra died with the Red Skull."
This was what Steve went down in the ice for. This was the reason he missed so much time. To get rid of Hydra.
It all couldn't be for nothing.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."
"Prove it."
"Accessing archive." Zola showed the three some footage that had been collected over the years, but was kept well hidden. "Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded and I was recruited. The new Hydra grew. A beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For seventy years, Hydra had been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed."
As various images flashed, Lainey could have sworn that she saw a picture of her mother, but she couldn't exactly be sure. Because once she blinked, three more images flashed right after.
Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her. After all, she was tired.
"That's impossible." Natasha shook her head in disbelief. "S.H.I.E.L.D. would have stopped you."
"Accidents will happen." A photo appeared on the screen, revealing that Howard and Maria Stark's deaths were no accident. "Hydra created a world so chaotic, that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, Hydra's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life; a zero sum."
Lainey could feel Steve's anger rise throughout his body as his muscles tensed.
The man respectfully handed her over to Natasha, before slamming his fist into Zola's main monitor, cracking the glass.
"As I was saying….." Zola continued on another screen as if nothing happened.
"What's on the drive?"
"Project Insight requires insight. So, I wrote an algorithm."
"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha asked, urgency evident in her voice.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."
And just like that, the elevator doors in which they had just came out of, began to close.
There was no way they were going to be able to run and get there in time, so Steve threw his shield in that direction, but the shield didn't make it in time either.
"Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic, thirty seconds tops." Natasha read off of her phone, setting Lainey down on her own two feet.
"Who fired it?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D."
"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us….out of time."
The two adults in the room, frantically looked around for an escape.
And given the situation, Lainey felt as if she should've been a lot more frightened than she felt.
A missile was coming their way and she didn't feel scared in the slightest bit.
It was like she knew that neither Steve nor Natasha would ever let anything happen to her if they could help it.
And that was comforting enough for her.
Luckily, Steve found a grate on the floor, and ripped it up, motioning for Natasha and Lainey to jump down, before doing the same.
They got down in mere seconds before the missile hit.
All Lainey could remember was a huge explosion that made her shriek in surprise, and Steve covering them with his shield as rubble and debris fell all around them.
Then everything went black.