Bring Me Home // Bucky Barnes

Chapter XXII - Mission Focus

April 2014 - Somewhere Over the Indian Ocean

"Rumlow, lead Strike in getting those hostages out. Got it?" Steve looked over at the team assembled before him. These men were highly skilled, highly dangerous and highly important S.H.I.E.L.D operatives. None of them matched her though.

Casually leaning against the side of the quinjet, twisting a small knife in her hands, watching him do what she called 'activating Captain mode', was Agent Natasha Romanoff: graduate of the Red Room, former Soviet spy and now one of the most deadly agents S.H.I.E.L.D had to offer.

Steve grinned as she rolled her eyes at the newest Strike member.

"Okay Chatty Cathy... Let's get this done and then maybe we can talk sometime." She sauntered away from the man, swinging her hips as the agent watched her, and winked at Steve.

He raised an eyebrow as she came closer to him.

"You know teasing him is going to make these missions a little uncomfortable eventually," he spoke quietly so that only she could hear.

"Yes Cap. But it's also going to amuse me and well, being uncomfortable is a part of life." Nat grinned as Steve rolled his eyes and tapped his coms.

"Romanoff and I will neutralise the threat. Once the hostages are clear all units back to the jet and back to the compound."

*

Elizabeth sat with her feet on the desk and her chair swung back as she threw blueberries into the air and tried to catch each one in her mouth. The whirring of machinery filled the air around her as her staff waltzed in and out of the state of the art medical suite located in the basement of the Avengers Compound.

"Damn it," she groaned as yet another blueberry bounced off of her cheek and rolled across the floor.

Sitting up and kicking away from the desk, she wheeled over to the small screen that tracked the Quinjet's location and flicked on the communications function. The deep, rich tone of Steve's voice suddenly filled the space and Elizabeth smiled to herself as she listened in.

"Romanoff and I will neutralise the threat. Once the hostages are clear all units back to the jet and back to the compound." She could picture him now, throwing his shield over his shoulder with nonchalant confidence so that it can rest on his back.

"And while you all do that," she chimed in, "I will sit here looking pretty until one of you inevitably screws up and needs me."

She glanced up at the M.D. certificate Stark had framed for her last year after her graduation. Without Stark and Banner she wouldn't be here, the teams resident doctor, with a fast-tracked degree and a medical suite that could do things she never dreamed would exist all those years ago.

Steve's laughter was light, comfortable. It had taken them both a long time to adjust to life in this century, but now that they had The Avengers it was a little less lonely, and Steve seemed a little more like the old Steve.

"Of course, Lizzie. My bets are on Romanoff." She could hear his smirk. He was probably watching Nat's every move, like he always did on these missions. "Again."

*

"My bets are on Romanoff. Again." Steve winked as Nat shook her head, trying not to smile, and then he was gone.

"Nat," Lizzie sighed loudly over the coms and Nat laughed a little, "he jumped without a parachute again, didn't he?"

"Yep." Nat took a step out of the open doors of the jet, her hands ready to pull the chord on her own chute in just a few seconds. "My money's on stitches for Steve!"