Distressed // Steve Rogers

32 - Belarus

*

Steve stared at the note on her phone. He had read it countless times. He had it memorised, and yet he couldn't tear his eyes from it now.

When he woke he had felt a shift in the atmosphere - like the air had dropped twenty degrees and the light had gone from brilliant white to a dull grey - and his heart felt heavy. Talia was no longer in his arms, and despite Bucky's snores at the foot of the sofa, he felt alone. When his eyes landed on her phone on the coffee table his worry had become abject terror. She hadn't left the compound without her phone since Matthieu...

*

"Rogers, I know. Okay? I know." Tony was furiously typing commands into the computer in front of him as Steve paced the room, frantic energy pouring from him as he tried not to fall apart.

"FRIDAY said she left at 4am Tony, but she just disappears. There's no CCTV, nothing." Steve's voice was shaking with his hands as he reached out to push Tony aside and tried to search for her in the hundreds of faces that filled the screen now. "Tony, I have to find her."

"Cap!" Tony's voice was firm as he placed his hand on Steve's shoulder and pulled him back. "I agree, I do. And I know that right now all you want to do is help. You feel like you need to control this because you are scared, but right now you are making it worse. I can't work with you like this, okay. We have nothing on her Steve. Nada. And I'm going to keep looking, I'm going to find her, but I need you to just wait it out okay."

"I ca-"

"Go sit with Barnes. The two of you are just getting in the way." Tony raised his eyebrows as he looked over at his friend and he tried to remain firm. "As soon as I know something you will know something."

Steve nodded as he passed Tony, his hand still holding tight to her phone, and he felt the grip of his friend's hand on his wrist.

"Cap?"

"Tony."

"We will find her."

Steve felt the wrap of Tony's arms as he pulled him in for a hug, uncharacteristically soft for the man who prided himself with being the emotionless one of the team. He felt Tony pat his back in a sign of comfort and he couldn't hold it anymore. With that Steve crumbled.

*

She had not been here since she was seventeen. She did not want to be here. Staring through the thick fog that was rolling in she scanned her surroundings as she waited for Zemo on the tarmac. She pulled her jacket tighter around her body and shivered as she waited, the creepy old guy from before watching from the top of the stairs.

"Would you like a thicker jacket Miss?" He called down over the roar of the wind.

She shook her head, unwilling to pull her eyes from the empty runway before her, and tried to keep her mind on the task ahead of her.

The rumble of an engine approaching made her turn around and she couldn't help but smirk as Zemo pulled up in a steel blue 1976 Cadillac Eldorado. She knew it wasn't necessarily the fastest car he could have chosen, but she also knew it was a beauty. 500cid V8 engine, construction steel body and chassis, and a top speed of 109 miles per hour. They may not get to their destination quickly, but travelling in the last American Convertible was definitely going to make it less of a bitter sting.

"Get in Talia," Zemo smiled widely as he watched her run her fingers over the hood of the engine before she opened the door. "Our work is about to begin."

She slid in to the passenger seat and sighed a little as she felt the supple leather give way to her. Her fingers instinctively reached for the dial on the radio and she grinned as Zemo pulled away from the jet and put his foot on the gas.