Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Four

The glass doors part as Romanoff leads us onto the bridge of the airship, which I now know is called a helicarrier. I marvel at the floor to ceiling windows along the far wall, and the pit below clammers with conversations as dozens of SHIELD agents sit at their viewscreens. Fury stands at his console, looking out over the room. His Second in Command, Agent Maria Hill, stands off to the side, her dark hair pulled back into a tight bun and her blue eyes surveying us with curiosity as we approach Fury.

"Welcome aboard," Fury greets us, and Steve hands him a ten-dollar bill, his eyes wide in amazement as he takes in the scene. Fury pockets the money before turning to Banner, extending his hand. "Doctor, thank you for coming."

Banner reluctantly shakes Fury's hand. "Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind," Fury states.

"Where are you with that?" Banner asks.

Fury turns to Coulson, who explains. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops... If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

"That's still not gonna find them in time," Romanoff states, looking up from a monitor showing an image of a man with sandy-brown hair and blue eyes. The text beside his picture names him as Agent Clint Barton, and from the look on Romanoff's face, I can tell this man means something to her.

"You have to narrow the field," Banner suggests, taking off his jacket and rolling up the sleeves on his purple button-down shirt. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?" Fury questions.

"Call every lab you know," Banner orders. "Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff, could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?" Fury requests.

Romanoff nods and walks off, leading Banner through the doors and down the hall, "You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."

Steve wanders around the room while the agents go about their jobs, but I take a seat at the long briefing table at the back of the room. When she returns, Romanoff takes a seat next to me.

"Lieutenant Y/l/n, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," she informs me.

"It's nice to meet you too," I smile. "And please, call me Y/n. You're... Natasha, right?"

Natasha nods. "You know, I read your file... Combat nurse turned soldier turned SHIELD founder, it's impressive."

My smile faulters as I begin to wonder what else she knows about me, and I decide to test the waters. "I read your file as well. Over the years, I've met a few others with your skill set and I've gotta say, I'm glad you're on our side."

Natasha smiles. "SHIELD could really use your skills as well."

I chuckle, rolling my eyes. "Are you referring to the mission? Or did Fury ask you to try to recruit me?"

Natasha shrugs. "Before I worked for SHIELD, I was trained by the KGB, and my activities drew SHIELD's attention. They sent Agent Barton to kill me, but he made a different call. I guess he just saw someone who wanted out of their current situation, so he helped me defect to SHIELD."

My eyes narrow as I take in her words. "...Why are you telling me this?"

Natasha smiles softly. "Because even though I wasn't given a choice in what I became, SHIELD gave me an opportunity to use my skills for something good."

I smile back and nod. "Thank you, for sharing your story with me."

"I hope one day you'll do the same," Natasha states, standing from her chair to walk away and throwing a wink over her shoulder. "But no pressure."