To the end of the line - stucky

Makeshift Haircuts

Nat watched the interrogation from behind the two-way mirror. She wasn't allowed in the room because of the recent mission, so the man probably knew who she was, but if he still didn't respond, then she'd be sent in. She was wondering if it was one of the avengers he was waiting for. The tactics by highly trained shield agents did nothing, so he really wasn't going to say anything, or he was waiting for someone.
Why would he hand deliver the note if he was just going to sit silently and refuse to cooperate? There would be a bigger agenda here, but Nat couldn't work it out.

So far, no one knew who he was still. He was like a ghost, completely unrecognisable and untraceable, yet here he sat, very much alive.

"He said anything yet?" Asked Maria from the doorway.

"Not a word", Nat replied.

"You know, something about this just doesn't seem right".

Maria had been thinking the same as Nat. They might have wanted to scare them by sending one of their own, which wouldn't be much of a surprise. (And they're definitely not against sacrificing a person or two). But still, what's the point? The day before the letter arrived, they were fighting. They didn't need a reminder of their enemies, so why not post it?

"I'm going to go see Clint", Nat said as she turned and walked out the door.

She found him lying in his hospital bed, holding pieces of paper over him to try and read in the awkward position.
Nat let out a chuckle before he looked towards the door and smiled.

"How did Laura take it?"

"Eh". he shrugged it off until Nat gave him a look, and he changed his tone.

"Yea, she wasn't happy about it. She shouted at me, then cried a little, and then shouted at me again and told me I better be home as soon as we find the other two".

Nat sat on the edge of his bed and started looking through the papers scattered around.

"Well, we're going to find them soon, so everyone will be back home in no time".

Clint didn't answer that, he didn't know how. Two of his teammates were god knows where and they had no idea if they were even still alive, let alone surviving long enough until they were found. But no one talked about it. They all had this unspoken rule, as if Steve and Bucky were at the supermarket. Everyone spoke as if they were fine and would be back soon, in time for dinner. Absolutely nothing was going to go bad.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" Nat indicated to the papers.

"Ugh, sitting in this bed is boring already, and I haven't even been awake for a day", he complained.
"So I'm reading over your notes, trying to find something. But we just have a lot of dead ends and no actual leads, except that man downstairs. But he's also just one big dead end. Maybe if we knew who he was, it would tell us something".

"He isn't going to tell us, we have to rely on facial recognition to identify him, but so far, nothing. I don't even know why they sent him", she added.

"Mmm, because he hasn't said anything", nodded Clint, and Nat did it back.

"Maybe they just wanted to show us that they're everywhere, even in our own city", he questioned.

He was right, it could have been as simple as that. However, these were extremists and had already surprised us at the big building, so Nat was sure there was something else.

*

On the way back to the cave, Steve had fallen asleep after using all his energy on a panic attack, so Bucky dragged him back and looked around at the scenery.
It was snowing slightly more, and more of it was settling on the floor. Soon, the ground wouldn't be slippery and icy, instead, it would be covered in a thick layer of snow, and Bucky was not excited about it. If they didn't come and save them both soon, he would be making these trips in the freezing cold, and there was no way Steve could get to the river to clean his leg, which would mean even more trips for Bucky!