Not Quite a Soldat

3

Aside from the kind of plain, cramped apartment, Bucharest was nice. Chanel's place was complete trash when she first bought it, until she had cleaned it up and used the first bundle of money to furnish the place. But overall, the small one bedroom place was nice. And the best part was Chanel's neighbors were quiet. She had actually only met one of them, the older couple on the ground floor. Everyone else moved on different schedules. So she never saw any of them.

Chanel was eating an apple when the special phone buzzed. It was a text from Sam on the small group chat. It was Maria, Sharon, Nat, Nick, Steve, Sam, and her in the chat. Basically the remnants of former S.H.I.E.L.D. She sent back a picture of her hand on top of the notebook she was reading through.

She couldn't publish anything now, probably never could ever again but Chanel still enjoyed going through everything. She was also recruited by Nick to be the historian of new S.H.I.E.L.D. once they started up again. Nick thought her decoding skills and amazing work ethic was something they could use. Everyone agreed even when Chanel pressed that she couldn't do what they did. In the end, it was Nat who convinced her.

Nat had told her that it wasn't always just about the fight but the papers and documents as well. Chanel had agreed afterwards and put up the military histories, mostly. Any soldier that had even a remote link to either HYDRA or S.H.I.E.L.D., she was still going to read through and figure out everything. After that, she already had an ongoing list of projects once S.H.I.E.L.D. started again. Chanel was about to be in the backdoor of every country on Earth.

She got up to pour herself coffee and then realized the bag was empty. It was time for a trip to the market. Which wasn't a problem, Chanel needed more fruits anyway. She changed out of pajamas and into a light summer dress. Grabbing the cloth bag on the coat rack, Chanel locked up and headed out the apartment building. She turned a nectarine in her hand before setting it back down to grab another one. Her hand brushed against a rough glove that was reaching for the same nectarine as her.

"Sorry," Chanel said before realizing that she probably needed to switch to Romanian.

Learning the language had been the hardest part, and not one Chanel was very good at. So far she had only the basics and skirted by with English and a language dictionary that she didn't bring with her to the market. She looked up from the fruit to apologize again in Romanian when Chanel froze. Even under a hat and in long sleeves, she couldn't shake those blue eyes. Chanel sucked in a breath and dropped her bag, turning on her heel and running. There was no way he was tracking her.

She was supposed to be safe in Romania, Nick promised her. Chanel turned down an alley. She was going to have to take a roundabout way to the apartment. She made a wrong turn looking at the wall in front of her, it must've been a left she should've taken not a right. Chanel freaked when a hand grabbed her and reached for the serrated knife that was almost permanently attached to the thigh strap worn under her skirts and dresses. She turned around, lunging with the knife when it was grabbed from her as if Chanel hadn't even tried. The wall had trapped her in, there was nothing Chanel could do but cower against the wall. Her hands held up in front of her in the weakest defense.

"Please, Soldat, don't hurt me," Chanel mumbled over and over as she sank against the wall.

She heard him hum in disapproval before he crouched down to her level. Chanel turned her head. She looked at him in confusion when he gently grabbed her hands. In Chanel's right hand, he placed the knife. In her left, the bag of groceries she had dropped.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

Chanel stopped looking in his eyes when the glint of the chain on his dog tags caught her gaze. She still couldn't say his name but she knew he was telling the truth.