A Lost Marriage|Romanogers AU

The Mission

~~November 1943~~

Steve was tired of being a dancing monkey. He was finally capable of doing everything that he had always wanted to do. He no longer got sick. His asthma was nonexistent. Everything that kept him from being admitted into the army was gone, and here he was being a poster child.

He was currently in Italy. He arrived a few days early for his show and was staying on a temporary SSR base. Steve was lost in thought and decided to draw. It was always the way that he got his mind off of things.

"Hello Steve," he heard from behind him. He turned around to see Agent Carter.

"Hey," he said with surprise. "What are you doing here?" he asked. Agent Carter took a seat beside him.

"Top secret mission."

"Uh huh," Steve replied. "What kind of top secret mission?" 

"I'm here for an interrogation. I'm not permitted to tell you this mind you, but the SSR has been tracking a very elusive spy. It took us several months, but we finally caught her. Well, we think we caught her. I personally think that she wanted to be found," she said. Steve nodded understandingly.

"Not that I doubt your skill or that I'm not happy to see you, but why did they need you specifically for the interrogation? Is it because she's a woman?" he asked curiously. Carter shrugged.

"Something like that. We've had her here for over a few weeks now. She's shared nothing but her name, and she shared that without persuasion."

"What else do you need to know?" he asked, continuing his drawing.

"We need to know where she came from. The SSR has made six different attempts to catch her. On the first five, she went up against anywhere from 5 to 15 of our best men and got away every single time. On the sixth attempt, we sent 24 agents and she didn't put up a fight. In other words, she's deadly. Many people underestimate her." Steve nodded. He couldn't help but think of Natasha. He supposed it wasn't appropriate to think of her as an enemy to the SSR, but she was deadly, and often underestimated. What was left of his mood was crushed by thoughts of Natasha and he frowned. 

"What is it?" Carter asked. Steve shook his head.

"Nothing," he said softly, continuing to draw. The pair heard loud footsteps come behind them.

"Agent Carter! She's still not talking. Do you really think that you can get her to talk?" a man that Steve knew as Agent Thompson asked. Carter shrugged.

"We'll have to wait and see." She turned to Steve. "Would you like to come? You can be there for intimidation," she joked.

"Is that even allowed?"

"Actually," Agent Thompson began. Steve and Carter both turned to him.

"I wouldn't mind if you were there for real," he said. "We have this method of making prisoners talk. It's called the carrot and the stick. I used four sticks on this girl in half an hour and she didn't make a sound. She didn't cry, pass out, nothing. When I ran out of juice, she laughed." Carter looked angry at him.

"Agent Thompson, I believe you were given strict orders by Phillips to not use the stick until we were finished using peaceful methods," she scolded. "And what were you asking Captain Rogers to do, exactly?" she asked incredulously. Thompson scoffed. 

"She has a smart mouth when she's not answering questions, which is always. And I'm just asking Captain America to lend us a hand in serving his country."

"Wait..." Steve started. "You mean you...hit her? For half an hour?" he asked in a horrified voice, ignoring Thompson's manipulation. Thompson shrugged.