Soldier Boy

On the run

After we changed out of our uniforms we headed back to the hospital to retrieve the drive. We stopped in front of the vending machine. It was gone. Nat showed up behind us and blew a bubble until it popped with her gum. Steve grabbed her and dragged her into an empty room. He pushed her against the wall.

"Where is it?" Steve asked.

"Safe." Nat answered.

"Do better." He said.

"Where did you get it?" She asked.

"Why would I tell you?" He asks.

"Fury gave it to you. Why?" She asked

"What's on it?" He asked

"I don't know." She said

"Stop lying." Steve grew angry.

"I only acted like I know everything, Rogers." Nat says.

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" He asks.

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you."

"I'm not going to ask you again."

"I know who killed Fury." Nat said. That grabbed my attention. Steve slowly backed off. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years."

"So he's a ghost story." I said.

"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 through me." Nat pulled up her shirt and showed us her scar. "Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye, bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." Steve says.

"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." She held up the drive. "Like you said, he's a ghost story." I grabbed the drive.

"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants." I said and headed out with Steve and Nat behind me. We headed to the apple store at the mall. Steve looked around us.

"First rule of going on the run is don't run, walk." Nat told Steve.

"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off." Steve said, looking around again.

"Stop looking around. You're gonna draw attention." I told him. We walked into the apple store and straight to the laptops.

"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." Nat said and I handed her the drive.

"How much time will we have?" Steve asked.

"About 9 minutes from," She plugged in the drive. "Now." She started typing. "Fury was right about that ship. Somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands."

"Can you override it?" I asked.

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me." Nat said. "Slightly."

"Try running a tracer." I suggested.

"Right, this is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D. developed to track hostile malwares, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from." Nat said.

"Can I help you guys with anything?" A male worker asked us.

"Oh, no. I'm just helping my brother and my future sister-in-law find some honeymoon destinations." Nat told him.

"Right. We're getting married." Steve said as he wrapped his arm around me.

"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?" He asks. Steve looks over at the laptop to show a map of New Jersey.

"New Jersey." Steve tells him.

"Oh." He says.

"It's where we met." I told him in a lovey-dovey voice. The worker just stared at Steve. Steve gave him a confused look.

"I have the exact same glasses." He told Steve.

"Wow, you two are practically twins." Nat said.

"Yeah, I wish." The worker chuckled. "Specimen. If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron." Aaron says.

"Thank you." I said and he walked away.

"You said nine minutes, come one." Steve said.

"Shh. Relax." Nat said "Got it." Wheaton, NJ. Steve looked closer at the map. "You know it?"

"I used to. Let's go." He grabbed the drive and we left the store. "Standard tac team. Two behind, two across, and two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you two hit the south escalator to the metro." Steve says.

"Shut up and put your arm around Mason. Laugh at something she said." Nat said.

"What?" Steve and I ask.

"Do it." Nat said. Steve wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. Nat leaned closer to us and they laughed as the two men walked past us. We were safe. We made it to the escalator and headed down. I stood in front with Nat and Steve was behind us. I saw Rumlow and Nat turned to Steve.

"Kiss me." She said. "Or Mason."

"What?" Steve was caught off guard. We both were.

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable."

"Yeah. they do." He says. Nat cupped his face and kissed him. I looked away. I felt hurt. Rumlow passed us and Nat broke the kiss. I started walking down the stairs with them behind me.

"You still uncomfortable?" Nat asked.

"It's not exactly the word I would use." He said. I stayed silent. Steve hotwired a blue truck and we all got in with Steve driving, Nat in the front seat, and me in the back. We took off to New Jersey. I looked out the window at all the trees.

"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Nat asked.

"Nazi, Germany." He said and Nat hummed. "And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash." Nat does as he says.

"All right, I have a question for you, which you don't have to answer." Nat said. I rested my elbow against the window and leaned my head onto my hand as I closed my eyes. "I feel like, if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

"What?" He asks.

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" She asked. I can hear the smirk on her face.

"That bad, huh?"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, that kinda sounds like that's what you're saying."

"No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you've had."

"You don't need practice."

"Everyone needs practice."

"It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm 95, I'm not dead."

"Nobody special though? What about Mason?" She whispers the second question. They probably think I'm asleep. Steve chuckles.

"Believe it or not, it's kinda hard to find someone with shared life experience." He says.

"Mason shares somewhat the same. Just a little differently." Nat says.

"What do you mean?"

"You both are only child, served in the army, bullied, etc..."

"Bullied? Mason?" He sounded shocked.

"Not in the way you're thinking."

"Abused?" Nat hummed a 'yes'. "By whom? How long?"

"Not my place to say. It took a while for her to open up to me about it." She tells him.

"Let's not talk about it." I spoke up still with my eyes closed.

"Mason-"

"Just don't." I cut Steve off.