Hydra's shadow

Chapter 7: A New Home

*NATASHA'S POV*

As we boarded the quinjet, I could feel a tense atmosphere clouding us all, glancing subtly around to the team who were all clearly tired and almost dragging themselves as they took a nearby seat, buckling together their belts in preparation for the flight. Luckily the mission was only a half an hour away by jet, so they wouldn't have too long to process and dwell on what happened back in the kitchen this morning.

"All clear my end Banner." I heard Stark say, Bruce echoing his words in response, a few seconds later the familiar rumbling of the engines drowning out the awkward silence that hung in the atmosphere around me.

I noticed James take the seat next to me as I felt his eyes on me the entire time he buckled himself in. I turned my head slightly and tilted my eyes up to meet his, but when I expected anger or resentment to greet me in his expression, there was only a warming affection to his eyes, leaving me surprised he wasn't affected by what had just happened back there. I at least expected him to react in some way, but here I was feeling no different around him, the feeling clearly reciprocated. No words were exchanged, none were needed. His expression alone was enough to let me know how he was feeling. I guess he got used to that during his time as The Winter Soldier, his facial expressions being one of the only things he could control, the rest seeming to come so naturally like on autopilot. I can still remember that day on the bridge, though it was only a few years ago the chilling image of James as The Winter Soldier will never be erased from my mind no matter how hard I try to forget it. I'm quickly snapped back into reality from my trance-like state with a small nudge to the side of my ribs from James, his signal to me we weren't far off course. I could start to feel that the quinjet had begun to descend, looking out of one of many windows onboard to see the land below us slowly coming into view.

*ECHO'S POV*

I jolted my whole body in reflex, whacking my head against the wooden slightly splintered headboard behind me as a winced out in pain. I clutched the back of my head with my hand as I twisted round to slip my shoes on. I'd only been a sleep for a couple of hours but a nightmare like that was enough to keep me awake for the rest of the day. They're all the same, it's like my brain is a broken record, playing over and over in my nightmares that same thing in The Room, the same experiments, and he's always there, just by my side. I shook my head lightly as I tried to forget about it all, and made my way to the door, hovering as I remembered Natalia's words advising me to not leave my room. As I opened it I assumed she would understand, after all I never got that breakfast Stark came to offer me, and I couldn't remember the last time I ate something if I'm being honest.

Greeting me as I stepped out into the hallway was an almost eerie silence as I seemed to be the only one here. I still had a few hours until Peter got home so I figured I'd take a walk around and try to navigate this monstrosity of a maze. Quickly making myself a sandwich from the bread and jar of peanut butter left on the kitchen table from breakfast, I made my way around the compound, taking care not to spill any crumbs as Stark already seemed pretty mad at the fact I was no longer contained in a secured chamber, let alone walking free around his tower. Just across from the kitchen seemed to be Natalia's room as I could just see the jumper she was wearing this morning crumpled and strewn across the end of her bed, and a pair of pyjama shorts too that seemed to belong to a man. So that must be Natalia and Bucky's room. I kept on going, up what seemed like a million flights of stairs, carefully nipping in and out of doors and hallways trying to get a sense of whose room was where in the tower. It would give me a little sense of comfort and security to know exactly where people were, just in case he came looking for me by chance, then I could be prepared. I wouldn't be alone now.

The sound of distant doors clicking and murmured chatter from the living area made my heart drop in an instant, as I was stuck four floors above my room, where I was supposed to be in that very moment. There's no way I could've made it down in time, let alone without anyone noticing me, so I decided to make myself apparent before panic could set in again as they would soon discover I wasn't where they left me just a few hours ago.