Don't You Worry Child

How To Save A Life

Chapter  Summary: The case of Senator Ross' missing daughter leads Samantha to face the Red Room for the first time since Samantha returned. Meanwhile, a British heiress begins work with the team and she isn't without her own agenda.

Soundtrack: How To Save A Life by The Fray

It was her first day back at S.H.I.E.L.D. and Samantha had been called into Fury's office. It wasn't too uncommon, he'd called her in a couple of times during her previous week of training. He said he was checking up on her, she thought otherwise. She thought he was making sure that she wasn't too annoyed with him over forcing her to work with Steve. She knocked three times, was told to come in and was surprised to see not only Steve Rogers there but also Senator Ross "Steve, Senator," she said, nodding politely to each man before turning to Fury and asking "What was it you wanted from me?" She remained professional in her manner, trying desperately – perhaps too desperately - to avoid revealing her true feelings regarding her ex-boyfriend.

Fury was sombre, that was odd enough. He was sat in a chair across from the senator instead of at his desk like normal, something was up. Samantha could tell that much "My daughter is missing Miss Stark and I have it on Fury's good authority that you have proven very good at finding people," the Senator stated, his eyes filled with sadness and she felt for him. She smiled sympathetically and nodded.

Steve handed her a file "We believe that this man is behind it," the super-soldier stated, pointing to a picture of a man. Tall, Russian, a scar above his left eyebrow, she knew the face. Her conversations with Natasha in the midst of their investigation had taught her exactly who this man was and what he did.

"His name is Alexei Volkov. He's a... recruiter of sorts for the Red Room," she said sombrely.

"How would you know that?" Steve asked suspiciously.

"Romanoff told me. We were looking into my disappearance and his name came up," she answered. The Senator looked confused "The Red Room are a sector of KGB, they train young girls to become spies and assassins. They were fairly prominent in the 90s but Putin's been bringing the whole lot back again. The Red Room normally take from the poorer areas, for a while they were taking out of Crimea. So, either the Red Room is getting more ambitious or Volkov is branching out on his own. Senator, I'm sorry to ask this but... when do you think your daughter was taken?"

"Yesterday, around about 3pm. Our driver was supposed to pick her up from school like normal but she wasn't there. Not long after, I received package with these photos," he said, handing them over to her. They were horrifying photos really. They showed the girl running on a treadmill as blood trickled down her cheek, probably from a head injury. The worst part was that it could have been taken in any room, anywhere in the world. It'd take an age to get any form of analysis that gave anything regarding the location away and by then – if Volkov was as good as his reputation claimed him to be – they would have packed her off elsewhere. She couldn't be any older than ten, maybe eleven.

"I'd suggest we get Romanoff in on this,"

"Don't you think you're becoming a little too reliant on Romanoff?" Steve asked impertinently, maybe her façade of professionalism would have to be broken momentarily.

"Says the man who's never completed a mission without her. She's our best asset, she was instrumental in finding you the other year and she knows the most out of any S.H.I.E.L.D. agent about the Red Room and Volkov. How did we come to the conclusion that it was Volkov anyway?"

"We ran facial recognition on the security footage, got a 99% match," Fury said.

"Did you match it against bone structure?" she asked.