Fire and Ice

•15•

Kate and Nat quickly leave the engine room, heading to the computers in the control room silently. This is the part of the mission Steve doesn't know about, and Kate suspects Fury let her in on it to prove that he trusts her. It's been in doubt since New York, though not as much by now.

"Hostages en route to extraction," Rumlow says over comms. "Romanoff and Carson missed the rendezvous point, Cap. Hostiles are still in play." Kate looks at Nat, but she just moves faster, forcing Kate to keep up.

"Natasha, Kate, Batroc's on the move. Circle back to Rumlow and protect the hostages," Steve instructs. Kate reaches for her comm, not even knowing what she's going to say, but Nat shakes her head. "Kate, Natasha!"

They reach the computers, and Nat plugs in the drive, begins typing while Kate stands guard. No pirates show up, but she hears fighting outside for some minutes before Steve busts through the door, using Batroc as a battering ram. Kate's hands flash out of pure surprise as he punches Batroc, knocking him out, before looking up. He locks eyes with Kate, who's glad she was standing to the left of the door instead of behind it.

"Well... surprise, surprise, surprise?" she says, trying to lighten the tension, not even sure if he's gotten to Gomer Pyle on his list yet.

Steve gets up, glancing between her and Nat. "What are you doing?"

"Backing up the hard drive," Nat replies. "It's a good habit to get into."

"Rumlow needed your help. What are you doing here?" He walks over, looks over Nat's shoulder. "You're saving SHIELD Intel." Kate grimaces, looking at the wall. Beige. Boring.

"Whatever I can get my hands on."

"Our mission is to rescue hostages."

"No, that's your mission — and you've done it beautifully." She grabs the flash drive, walking past him towards Kate.

Steve looks at both of them. "You just jeopardized this whole operation." Kate swallows, her eyes going to the floor instead. Blue-gray. Also boring.

"I think that's overstating things," Nat replies, turning back to him.

Suddenly, Batroc gets to his feet, tossing a grenade. Kate runs after him. "Hey!" She blasts at him, missing as she hears the explosion behind her, glass breaking. She turns, looking for Nat and Steve, but she can't see them through the destruction.

When she turns back around, Batroc is still running. This time she hits him, his shirt catching fire as he hits the deck, but he gets up and barely slows in stride. He's going to get away. And there's not much she can do for Steve and Nat now besides hope.

She runs for Batroc, but he's at the ship's railing when she catches up, grabbing at his shoulder.

He slips out of her grasp, flinging himself over the side of the boat, disappearing under the water. Kate presses her comm, gazing down at the water below. "Batroc just jumped ship."

Steve and Nat arrive soon after, battered but relatively okay.

"It's about time," Kate comments, relieved.

Steve sighs.

~_~_~_~_~

When they make it back to the Triskelion, Steve heads straight for Fury's office, and Nat, after handing Kate the flash drive, goes in the other direction. She looks between the two of them, then decides to join the one that's mad at her to try and remedy it. He's never been actually mad at her before, unless she counts the short argument about Tony hacking into SHIELD's files, which she doesn't. It was brief, and he changed his mind quickly.