Frost In Fire | S.Rogers

✪ CHAPTER SEVEN ✪

"Running wild and running free,
Two kids, you and me."
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Chapter 7: One Happy Family.
Keeping her breathing as even as she could, Brooklyn hurried after Steve Rogers, as the two hastily made their way down the hospital hallway they were down hours ago.

So much had happened, and Brooklyn felt that she had lost more in the last day than she had her whole life. She internalised the thoughts that threatened to overpower her, swallowing them down into squiggly letters, as she conducted a mental list.

One, she had lost Nick Fury. The thought of the Director growing cold behind one of the many identical doors turned her empty stomach. When she pressed down on glass or smooth surfaces, she could sometimes see the hint of red that was left behind. Blood she could never wash out between the crevices of her identity.

Two, she had lost her home. She had been quick to call Steve's cramped apartment her home, and she felt she was disloyal to her compound that had weathered through so much of her, but it was true. The dusty smell of the many shelves were washed away by the metallic burning of the bullets, the fuzzy carpet dirtied by the rubble of splintered brick and plaster. History no longer danced though that small, comforting apartment, Silence did.

Three, she had lost S.H.I.E.L.D. Her facilities were gone, her face plastered on every digital wanted poster. Her friends and co-workers, people she grew up around, trained with, were now after her.

Four, she felt like she had lost her closest friend, her ally, her brother, Nathan. The hallways that flashed past them only resurfaced her words, her eyes lingering on the very bench they had been sitting on, only hours ago-God, so much had gone wrong in only a few hours- as Natasha had said her goodbyes. The essence of her words that she had spat at him wrapped around her neck, tight against her pulse. Pure, burning anger. It had taken one second of anger to destroy her relationship with him. She felt like it would never come back, that she would never reconcile. She did not think he would, and the she could not bear to think that particularly terrifying thought any longer.

She could have weathered so much and not have batted a fair eyelash, but she had lost herself with every element of her life she had ripped away from her. She had nothing left. Nothing except...

Except the man that was hurrying in front of her. Steve Rogers who had been fighting for much longer than she had, and who she knew would not stop until he had won. She knew they were fighting.

She just wished it did not have to be her life.

Steve suddenly paused, and Brooklyn almost tripped over her feet as she steadied herself to not crash straight into him. Looking up, Steve's eyebrows were furrowed in agitation as his eyes darted all over the vending machine he had stopped in front of, his muscles tensing with each second he did not find what he was looking for.

"What's wrong?" Brooklyn asked, peering around him to see the problem. Following his gaze, she sucked in a quick breath.

The flash drive Fury had given him when...when...before everything had gone wrong, that Steve had hidden when Rumlow had called them into S.H.I.E.L.D, was missing from where Steve had hidden it behind a pack of bubble-gum.

"What now?" Brooklyn thought out loud, but before Steve could answer, a reflection passed behind them in the glass of the machine, a feline smirk painted red, bright pink gum flashing behind them as Natasha Romanoff chewed obnoxiously loud.

Brooklyn spun around, her eyes immediately finding Nathan Romanoff's, who was draped on the ledge of a door behind Natasha, his hands tucked into his pockets and a dark glare fixed on any doctor, nurse or civilian who looked his way for too long.