Wherever You Will go

Natasha Romanoff strode into the ad hoc Avengers base - a small, inconspicuous factory on the outskirts of New York City. Having just finished an undercover mission, she wore a knee-length dress with a black and white striped felt top and a solid white skirt which appeared to button on at her hip. Her outfit was complete with a pair of red heels matching with her vibrant red hair. She made her way through the building, her heels clicking and hips swaying with each step. Entering the “conference room,” all eyes set upon her.

“On a date, Miss Romanoff?” Tony playfully asked.

“You could call it that.” she smirked. She noticed Steve staring at her with a strange look in his eyes - that of confusion. She brushed it off and sat beside Clint at the table, starting to remove her earrings.

At the front of the room, Fury paced back and forth. Eventually he announced, “Since S.H.I.E.L.D has been compromised, we have had a lot of work piling up and so we have some catching up to do. So, let’s start with Stark and Banner. We recently acquired some tech that you should take a look at. Any advancements right now would be a blessing. Get going.”

“Could be fun,” Tony shrugged as he and Bruce left.

Fury continued, “Next, Agent Barton. Here is a file about a pirate organization that seems to have their eyes on some forbidden fruit. Go do some recon and take ‘em out if you can.” He handed the file to Clint as he exited the room. “Finally, Agents Romanoff and Rogers. You have experience with Hydra having just fought them so I wanted to let you have this mission - for revenge let’s say. There is a Hydra base of operations not far from here. Clear out all members and save any hostages. Keep your ear pieces in, this could get hairy.” Steve walked out, but before Natasha had the chance to leave, Fury stopped her, whispering to her, “Save any tech and information.” He handed her a flash drive and she slipped out of the room.

Natasha armed herself with two pistols and she started to embark to the mission. Steve stopped her, “aren’t you gonna change?”

“No. Are you?” she retorted, referring to his casual shirt and pants.

“No. I just thought…” he was at a loss for words.

“You thought I look to pretty to fight some bad guys. Well, I can do that wearing anything. Let’s go.” Natasha toyed with Steve.

They hailed a cab since the Hydra base was only about 25 miles away. Steve was silent for the whole ride as he was absorbed in thought. Looking out the window, he questioned if Natasha once again had a different task than him. Could he trust her to not ruin this whole mission, but then what reason did he have to not trust her? She proved herself through that whole crusade against Hydra, and, if anything, she should want to repay her previous shortcomings and his kindness in saving her. But before he could think any deeper into the situation, they arrived. The Hydra base was underwhelming to say the least. It was a fairly small bricked building in the middle of almost nowhere. It was also supposedly “for sale” as a sign on the front lawn claimed. Natasha scoped out the whole building, finding no signs of a potential stealthy entrance.

Steve, getting impatient, said, “I got this,” and he busted in the front door with his foot. He covered his body with his shield, peeking his eyes over it to see where he was going. Natasha creeped in behind Steve, staying behind him and his shield. Hearing the commotion, a few men shuffled down the main corridor, guns in hands. Steve charged them, his shield still firmly in front of him. He attacked one man, and then another, and another, taking them out in droves. Down a side, corridor, Natasha noted another group of men trying to flank them. She quickly rushed over to them, propelling herself off the wall and onto on of them. Skillfully, she knocked one man over into another man, and the whole group toppled like dominoes. She removed one of her pistols from her thigh holster and ended each one of them without mercy. Natasha pressed down her ear piece, calling to Steve to say, “I’ll search the east side of the building and you search the west.”

“Roger. Out.” Steve responded.

Steve carefully made his way down the hall, breaching every door he came upon with no sign of hostages or any more men. Finally he opened a door towards the very end of the hall. Inside he found 3 people - a family with a man, a woman, and a child - strapped down to medical tables, each unconscious - test subjects. He called Natasha, “got hostages over here. Looks like Hydra has been doing some human testing. We have to get them out.”

“I’m on my way.” Natasha lied. She was still clearing rooms and intended to finish doing so. A room to her left appeared to be a lab of some sort, holding various chemicals and computers. There had to be something in there for her to sink her teeth into. She searched what she assumed to be the central computer. “There you are,” she whispered to herself as she found large database of info. “Mine now.”

But as she was occupied, a man in the back of the room shot at her. He wasn’t a very good shot as he hit her leg, but the damage was done. Natasha fell to the ground, turning to face her enemy. She quickly whipped out her other pistol and shot at him before he could react. Natasha climbed to her feet, blood leaking out of her wound. She groaned in pain as she grabbed the flash drive and left to make her way to Steve. She reached Steve with the help of adrenaline and she tried to act normal, not wanting him to worry about her when there were hostages to take care of. Steve remarked, “took you long enough.”

“I got a little caught up. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“I heard gunshots, everything alright?” Steve asked.

“Fine.” She followed him into the room. She observed all of the hostages. It was a sight that would likely be filed into the database of disturbing things in her brain. At this point in her life, she was too world-weary to react to even the worst monstrosities. They unbuckled all the straps, freeing all of the subjects. Faintly, she heard footsteps outside the room and she quickly alerted Steve. But his reaction was too late. A man had already entered holding a machine gun. He fired the gun right at Steve. Time seemed to pass in slow motion for Natasha who watched as each bullet zoomed through the air and straight into Steve’s torso. Natasha couldn’t think about what to do. This was the first time in a long time her mind had gone blank. Finally she snapped out of her trance just as the man moved his gun to face Natasha. She felt a wave of anger over her and she knew in that moment that she didn’t just need to kill that man, but she wanted to. She quickly dived out of the way and, charging the man, she jumped onto the man’s shoulders as she kicked the gun from his hands. With her legs, she pulled the man down. Grabbing his machine gun, she discharged the rest of the clip into his body. When she was done, she seemed to remember Steve and she ran over to him.

She shook him, trying to get him to wake up. She felt for a pulse and she sighed when she felt a very faint one. She tried to use her ear piece to call to Fury, but it was gone. It must have fallen out and she hardly had time to find it. She paused, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, a sharp pain ran down her entire right leg and she remembered the gunshot wound she had. Natasha quickly grabbed Steve’s ear piece and used it to call to Fury. “Fury, it’s Romanoff. Steve is down and I need help getting him out. Send help.”

“Roger. Get him out of the building in case there are more enemies.” Fury said.

“Hurry.” she said. Her head was fuzzy from the blood loss. She clinged desperately to her consciousness as she sat Steve up and pulled him up to her chest, dragging him to the exit. Once she reached the exit, she continued to drag Steve outside to a small hideout in the underbrush. She sat next to Steve, the pain taking over her whole body. Just as she saw Tony flying in the iron man suit towards them, she called out to him. Tony landed near them, ready to haul Steve back to base. Natasha informed, “he was shot...a lot.”

Tony placed Steve in a random street car and Natasha got in by herself. Tony grabbed the car and flew it with haste back to the base. Natasha laughed, the pain starting to blur her mind, “doesn’t this seem a little unnecessary?”

“It’s the fastest way to get you both back safely.” Tony said, pushing himself to keep the car in his grip.

When they made it back, Tony carried Steve into the building as Natasha limped behind them. Fury greeted them, directing Tony to take Steve to Bruce. “What went wrong?”

“We were caught off guard trying to rescue…” she just remembered the hostages that she had left back at the base.

“Rescue who?” Fury questioned.

“The hostages. How could I forget the hostages? I need to go back and get them.” she said, feeling so guilty that the pain was now nonexistent.

Fury noticed blood pouring from her leg. “Are you hurt?” he was worried.

“I think I got shot a while ago.” she collapsed. With her last remaining bits of consciousness, she pulled out the hard drive she stored in one of her holsters and handed it to Fury as she said, “I got this.” and she passed out.
Fury observed the hard drive, realizing what Natasha had sacrificed to get this information. He picked up the spy and brought her to Banner. Fury turned to Tony and said, “they left hostages back at the Hydra base. Go get them.”

Tony took off his mask just to show Fury that he was rolling his eyes and he left.

Steve awoke to the sight of Natasha looming over him, her majestic green eyes filled with worry. He stared into her eyes, seeing the genuine concern she had for him. He didn’t even know she had genuine anything. It was that moment that he felt something stronger between himself and her than the bond of teammates. “Where are we?” he asked, trying to sit up, but falling back down in pain.

“Somewhere safe.” she replied, helping him sit up.

He moaned in pain before realizing, “you saved me.”

“Well, I had help. You are really heavy.” she laughed, their eyes connecting again. She saw the way he looked at her. It was different from this morning. It was no longer a look of confusion, it was that of longing.

Suddenly, Steve remembered, “the hostages?”

“Safe. Tony got them after I hauled your ass outta there.” the guilt rose in her once more. She was responsible for those people and she let them down and for what? For her teammate?

They stopped talking. They spoke only with their eyes, maintaining that eye contact for a long time. Deep down she felt a little flutter in her heart, but she quashed that feeling, breaking eye contact with Steve and letting her gaze fall to the floor. Steve felt the same thing, though. He felt like he was soaring free, a bird with anywhere to go but nowhere to be. He wanted to express how he felt for Natasha but was afraid of the rejection that might follow. But he had to do something. He couldn’t let something as potentially great as this slip out of his hands. “I love you.”