Pain and Victory

The Hospital

Steve and I stop to get a change of clothes and stash our suits. After we change, we head to the hospital. We walk across the parking lot. I still feel off from the drug they injected me with. Like my body is heavy and I'm walking in a haze. I stop. "Steve, something is wrong." I say, looking at the ground. Steve walks to stand in front of me. "What do you mean?" He asks. I look up at him. "The drug, whatever it was, it is still affecting me." I tell him. I look up at him and see him frowning. "Is that even possible?" He asks. I shake my head. "No, I should have burned it out of my system by now." I tell him. Then a thought crosses my mind. Oh no... I look down at my hand and try to summon some flames. It doesn't work. "Nononono." I mutter under my breath. Steve grabs my shoulders. "Hey, what's wrong? Talk to me please." He says panicking. I look back at him. "The drug. It's what they would use to dampen my powers. I don't know how long it will affect me." I tell him. He looks at me. "Maybe you should sit this one out. Go hang out with tony while we sort this out." He says, worried. I scoff. "And leave you all on your own? Not a chance. We're partners. And I am not helpless without my powers." I tell him. He smiles. "Just don't get yourself killed, kid." He says. I laugh and walk passed him. "Come on, old man. Try not to break a hip." I holler back to him.

We reach the right floor and head to the vending machine. We look for the drive, only to see it missing. We look at each other and here some one pop gum behind us. We turn around and see Natasha chewing gum. I'm about to say something when Steve grabs her and shoves her into a room across the hall. I follow after and see him push her into the hall. I grab him and pull him off of her. "Steven!" I shout. I get up in his face. "I do not care that we are bestfriends! Touch her like that again and I promise you I will rip your arms off!" I growl in his face. He looks at me, genuinely afraid for a moment. Then his face turns cold. He looks at Natasha. "Where is it?" He asks. I turn around and look at her. "Safe." She says. "Do better." Steve retorts. I move to stand beside her. She looks at me. "Where did you get it." She asks. I look at Steve. "Why would we tell you." He asks her. Then he looks at me questioningly. "We can trust her." I tell him. He nods. "Fury gave it to you guys. Why?" She asks. I look at her. "What's on it?" I ask her. "Stop lying." Steve says, getting upset again. "I only act like I know everything, Rogers." She says. "Yeah, gets on my nerves." I say and she smirks at me. I raise an eyebrow at her. 

"But you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Steve asks her. "Well, it makes sense, Fury needed a way in. So do you." She says. Steve takes a step forward and I step in front of Natasha. No doubt she can take care of herself. But it doesn't sit well with me that my bestfriend is being like this to my girlfriend. So I'm making a very clear line in the sand. "We don't have time for this." I tell them both. "I know who killed Fury." She says and I turn around. Please don't say it.. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier." She says. I feel my throat and chest tighten. "He's credited with over two dozen assassinations over the last 50 years." She continues. "So he's a ghost story." Steve says. "Not exactly." I say. They both look at me. I look back and forth between them. I look down at the ground and swallow the lump in my throat. "He was my mentor at HYDRA. He taught me everything I know. From hand to hand, all the way to torturing someone for days on end while keeping them alive. There is no deadlier assassin in HYDRA. He is ruthless and never, EVER, fails a mission." I tell them. I hang my head in shame. They both pull me into a hug. 

We let each other go. "5 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 says, lifting up her shirt. I see the scar. I remember that. But I wasn't allowed to know all the details. I clench my fists. "Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye bikinis." She says, lowering her shirt. "Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." Steve deadpans. "I'll have you know, She is still hot as hell in them." I say with a smirk. Natasha looks at me with a smile. "Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." She says. She pulls out the drive from her pocket, holding it up. "Like you said, he's a ghost story." She says. I grab the drive and look at hit. I look at Steve and we make eye contact. He looks back at Natasha. "Well, let's find out what the ghost wants." He says. With that, we head out. But not before I give Natasha a kiss. And smack Steve upside the head for being an ass.