Nomad (Steve Rogers)

6

I can feel Steve watching me over my shoulder as I tap away at my laptop, trying to gain some access to Ross's computer as well as government files. They're all going to be encrypted as hell but it's worth a shot. If I can just open the General's then it may hold some answers as to what he's up to.

"Are those security cameras?" He frowns, "Won't they detect you're trying to hack them?"

I shake my head, "Not with this – it shows or leaves no trace. I can probably get Ross's files; it's just trying to open them that will be the tricky part." I admit. "So don't hold your breath."

"And if you can't?" He asks. "Then what?"

I look up at him. "Then I'm going to have to go back to DC and do it the old fashioned way."

"Wait...you mean go into his office and do it there?"

"It's the only way." I shrug. "You guys come with me then they'll shoot you on sight. It's better I do it alone and come back to you with what I have." I carry on scanning through the files until I come to one's that are in the General's folder, and in the Highly Classified section. "Bingo..."

"You think that could be it?" Steve looks closer at the screen.

"Yep...wait..." I frown as I spy something. A hidden folder – and those are only hidden for a perfectly good reason.

Steve settles next to me, and I cast a curious glance sideways before turning back to the screen. "Where'd you say you got this technology from again?"

"Black market." I muse

"I should've guessed." He says. "That everything?"

I pull the drive from my laptop, so I have a backup in case anything happens. That will stay on me. "Yep, done and dusted." I sit back and exhale.

Steve gets to his feet, "Take a break, you've been on there hours."

"And I'll only spend more on there trying to open them." I get up and stretch, my back aching from being hunched over the laptop for so long. He chucks me a can of drink from the vending machine down the hall from our room. "At least we're one step closer."

He watches me intensively before breaking the silence that's hanging over us both, "Why were you taken to the Red Room?"

I stiffen at the mention of it. "Because my father was high up in the government. He had a lot of enemies. It was a widow who killed him and my mother y'know? They took me as some kind of payment, to try and make me one of them...that's why I won't be associated with them fully." I half laugh. "I know you think I'm a hypocrite, saying that and then going around assassinating people myself, but I don't do it because I enjoy it."

"Then why?"

"Because I have to survive. I've been on my own since I was a kid, and I had to use anything I could to defend myself, including my red room training."

Steve doesn't say anything for a moment. "I'm not here to judge you."

"There's a 'but' coming isn't there?"

"Nope, I'm just saying I'm not going to judge you for the choices you've made."

"Trying to kill you was a big mistake for a start."

"Well I'll judge you for that." He smirks. "But when it comes down to survival, sometimes you have to do the things you don't want to in order to keep yourself alive."

I look at him now, "Like the war? I'm guessing you never wanted to kill Germans for the fun of it."

He shakes his head. "No, not exactly. But I had to, just as any other man out there had to. Then I wake up here and find myself doing the same thing all over again but in a different way."

"War, fighting, defending...it's all you know?"

"Pretty much, I used to get beat up in alleys all because I stood up for myself or other people." He smiles to himself.

I get up his old war file I have on my phone. "Can I ask you something?" he nods, "With this many ailments on your medical record – pre serum may I add – how the hell did you not die?"

Steve shrugs, "Probably my mom managing to keep me alive. Winters were the worst, you used to catch everything, asthma would kick in stronger...."

"And now all you have to do is cut yourself and it's healed and gone without a trace within a few hours...Erskine was a genius..." I mutter the last part to myself, but he hears.

"He was the only one who gave me a chance."

I take a sip of my drink. "Well...we've managed to get through a conversation without wanting to kill one another so it seems. That's an achievement."

"It's a start." His phone rings and he answers it. "Yeah? Ok, Where? No, the bunker's probably the best, you know where it is right? and Sam? Good lie low there for a little while. No we're heading to Switzerland soon."

"Switzerland?" I mouth but he says nothing and turns away from me.

"No, still better to split, I'll tell you when we need to rendezvous. Just don't get killed ok? alright...talk soon."

As he hangs up I look at him. "Since when was the plan Switzerland?"

"Since you agreed to come with me. We have to keep moving, you know we can't risk staying too long in once place. We've been here two weeks already, that's long enough."

I cross my arms. "And are you ever gonna give me a heads up?"

"Nope."

Here we go again, reverting back to the usual tension that's between us. "What because you still can't trust me?" Steve says nothing in reply, and I shake my head and settle myself back at my laptop on the bed. "Forget it."

Steve opens his mouth to say something before his phone goes again. "Fury..." He answers and I look up immediately. Of course Nick Fury is still on the scene, even if he mostly stays behind it. He went his own way when SHIELD was destroyed. "Are they on their way...ok, I'll see them there. Send me the coordinates." And then hangs up, grabbing a few bits and pulling on his tactical suit.

"I'm guessing I'm staying here then..."

"You're darn right you are." He says as he rolls up his suit sleeves.

I huff "I'm an assassin I know exactly what it's like, I go it alone all the time." And try to plead my case with him. It falls on deaf ears.

"Yeah, but you're not assassinating anyone anymore." He states flatly. "I can't take that risk of taking you along with me."

"But you can take it by having me go from motel to motel with you, and now leaving me behind when you go swanning off with the others?"

"That's different." He argues back and then shoves his phone into his pocket. "You're heading to the next motel and you're gonna stay there until I'm back. We clear?"

Now I'm pissed. "So what? You're back giving orders now?"

"I always give the order." He glares. "And don't argue with me on this Aster, my mind's made up."

"Or what? You'll just handcuff me to the motel bed until you get back?"

His eyes look feral. "If it got you to stay in check, then I'd have no problem doing so."

There it is.

Well...this is new for Cap at least. He's always come across as the one with the morals and being a gentleman, however in the last two weeks I've spent with him, it appears that being on the run has somewhat changed him. He doesn't give a shit and I kind of like this side of him. "And then what would you do to me..." I press, my eyes narrowing.

He walks over and takes my laptop, closing the lid and placing it on the table before caging me in against the mattress. "Don't. Argue. With. Me." He warns me again slowly, my eyes now going to his lips and then up so I can look at him with just as much of a sultry expression as I can. "Go to the next motel. Stay there until I'm back, talk to no one. Understand?" He now orders and I know I have to heed it. 

I have to stay behind and chip away at finding out about what Ross is doing. Hopefully I can hack the files...

I smile sweetly at him before my patronising tone utters, "Yes Captain."