Accidental Avenger [Steve Rogers]

[8]

Natasha's stomach growled and she let out a groan. "God I'm starving. Do you think they have Uber eats here?"

Tony scoffed and looked at her from the corner of his eye. "In a rural English village about two hours from a main city? Yeah of course."

Natasha gave him a snarky smile and narrowed her eyes at him. "You know for that, I'm not gonna get you anything." She picked up up jacket and headed towards the front of the bus.

"Where are you going? You have no idea where the nearest food service is?" Steve asked.

"I'll find something." She shrugged, jumping down from the tall, thick steps onto the grass like it was nothing.

Steve rolled his eyes and looked back at the cameras. What he saw caught his eye, the camera first zoomed in on Wanda and then in on Elodie. Elodie looked deflated as she lost again, she slammed the palms of her hands onto the machine in frustration.

Just then Tony said "I'm gonna see how Rhodey's doing. Being a bouncer for the nerdiest club can't be easy." And headed to the back of the bus to find his walkie talkie. He and Rhodey had an odd but admirable friendship and Tony thought it would be funny to send him in dressed as a security guard that had also dressed up as Detective Pikachu. He had also given Rhodey an IronMan walkie talkie that he bought for Toys R Us' closing down sale. As he walked to back of the bus Steve heard his say through his own walkie talkie, "Detective P, Detective P do you copy?"

You could practically feel Rhodey rolling his eyes and clenching his fist and he replied with a clenched jaw. "Detective T this is P. Over." Tony giggled and stepped out of earshot.

Sam shook his head suppressing a smile and pressed the little black button that allowed him to communicate with Elodie and said "Hey El, maybe it's time for you to get some air."

They walked as she walked out and the camera's switched to follow her. "That's odd." Steve said, springing forward in his seat.

Sam nodded in agreement. "They must be watching her. Should we do something?"

Steve put a hand out to stop him from doing anything as yet. "No, give it time. She's taking a breather, Rhodey's inside and she's wearing her comm. If she needs us she'll ask."

"Damn. What's with you today?" Sam smirked and sat back in his chair, realising that Steve was right. While the team is all around her and she can communicate, she'll be fine.

"I didnt. Get much sleep, *clears his throat*, last night." Steve shifted uncomfortably in his seat and eyes Sam's facial expressions from his peripheral, heightened vision. Sam looked at his with a sly smirk, as if telling him he knew what he had done.

"You shared with Elodie right?" Sam queried.

"Yes." Steve nodded, trying to play it cool.

"You totally kissed her didn't? You are a smooth dog. Damn Steve, I knew there was something going on between you two. You've been more concerned with her than usual. Going to her friends house to check on her, that's when it started."

"What? No. No." Steve shook his head and looked at Sam, trying to gage his reaction and whether or not he should tell him. He was dying to blurt it out. How amazing this morning has been. He really liked Elodie, the first girl to get his heart to flutter since Peggy. Bucky and Sam were always comparing love stories,
dating disasters and flirting with women and now he finally had the chance to gossip from his own experience.

But he felt bad. Of course he did. Steve knew that whatever he told Sam would spread around the facility and soon everyone would know. That's not saying Sam's a bad friend, it's just he had a tendency to over share when excited. Through no fault of his own, Sam would have gone information spreading around quicker than wild fire.

But he told him anyway.

"We did." Steve nodded. "It was more than a kiss it was...passionate. It was hot." Steve said with wide eyes and nodding eagerly, Sam copying with a laugh. "It was amazing and you're right, I do like her."

Sam smiles, happy that his friend was finally finding something that could help him move on. "Well just be careful."

Before Steve could question his there was a beep from comms and Elodie's voice game through the speaker. "Hey guys, are you all hiding in a bus."

Sam snickered and responded. "Yeah. Come on over." He was still caught up in his and Steve's conversation so gave her short answers.

Steve then asked with furrowed brows and a curious expression, "What do you mean be careful?"

"Well you remember when she first joined. She was a bit of an unruly one. Guy after guy came and went as she learned to adjust and adapt to being a goody two shoes avenger." Sam shrugged and continued "Look I'm not judging to saying she was a bad person, we all deal with change and loss differently. But I'm just looking out for you, I want you to be careful. Don't get too invested just yet."

"What you mean loss?" Steve wondered, just as Natasha's panicked voice came through the speakers.

"Guys we have a situation." Natasha sounded like she was running as her breathing was heavy and quick. "It's Elodie. Get out of the van and head a quarter of a mile around the warehouse. Now!"

Steve jumped to his feet, grabbing his phone and heading to the door, as he did so he roughly tapped Bucky on the shoulder to wake him up. "Come on we need to go."

They needed to stay incognito and so ran as fast as the could, Steve ran much faster than Sam and so did Bucky, however Bucky didn't want Sam to feel left out and so slowed down to stay with him.

Steve arrived to see Natasha and Rhodey taking samples on soil from tire tracks in the mud. "What happened?" Steve asked with a heavy heart, wondering if Elodie got lost or fell. "Where's El?" He asked frantically as he saw she wasn't around.

"We don't know." Rhodey said,
Letting his arms fall to his sides.

Natasha stood up as she was placing the tube containing the sample into a plastic bag. "I was heading this way into town as Rhodey game out of warehouse to meet Tony. I saw two guys jump into the front of a Volkswagen and speed away in that direction."

"And what does that have to do with Elodie?" Bucky asked, still half a sleep a he wanted to go back to the bus to finish his nap.

"I saw her head out of the warehouse like ten minutes ago and I can't find her out here." Rhodey shrugged with a seriously concerned look upon his face.

"I just spoke to her on comms. She said she asked if we were in a bus and I told her to come in." Sam told them.

Natasha nodded, knowing this all added up. "It was a Volkswagen bus. You know the ones hippies convert? A lilac purple shade with white details. She must have seen that one and assumed."

Rhodey nodded but the shrugged. "Why would whoever was inside that his kidnap Elodie? For starters she's a trained avenger. Hell most of her moves she learned from you, Nat."

Natasha nodded. "I'm not sure why anybody would want to kidnap her but don't forget the mission. Serpentine, that terrorist organisation, they specialise in drugs and hostage situations. This definitely has something to do with team and after seeing those kids we let our guards down. Now let's regroup and figure out where we go from here."