Bloody Tongues ⏃ Captain America [1]

two; revealing the truth

REVEALING THE TRUTH
(REWRITTEN)

"Stow the captain's gear." Phil ordered two low ranking agents as the three of them walked down the Quinjet's ramp and onto the Helicarrier's deck.

Christina let out a breath, running a hand through her hair. That flight seemed as though it were going to last forever. She had been the first to exit the Quinjet, breathing in the fresh air with relief. It was like she hadn't gotten a lungful amount of oxygen in weeks, but Steve smiled fondly at her reaction. The bright sun caused Christina to squint her eyes slightly and shield them with her hand as she allowed her retinas to adjust to the drastic change in scenery. Natasha Romanoff. Black Widow: a lethal red-headed agent. She walked up to them and gave Christina a faint nod, telling her that her cover was safe.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers and Christina Sitma," Phil introduced them to the redhead.

"Ma'am," Steve acknowledged her with a nod as he offered her his hand to shake.

"Hi." Natasha said briskly, dropping his hand after a solid handshake and turned to Phil. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace."

Phil turned to the couple, "See you there." He said and walked toward the Helicarrier's bridge.

Christina had taken that time to survey her surroundings – it had been awhile since she had last actually been a real mission and she suddenly realized that she missed the blood pumping adrenaline that settled within her when she entered any sort of action. But with everyone running around, grounding planes and many of those people in uniforms reminded Christina of her days in the force.

This situation with the Tesseract was bad, and Christina could tell just by looking at Coulson. She'd never seen him so abrupt or urgent before, and it was a bad sign. Without a doubt, SHIELD needed to get the Tesseract back, or something terrible was going to happen. Christina could feel Natasha's eyes on her, but she didn't make eye contact with the agent.

"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha said smoothly to Captain Rogers as she began to walk away. Steve and Christina quickly followed her. "I thought Coulson was going to swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
"Trading cards?"

"Their vintage. He's very proud."

Steve looked around, aimlessly trying to take everything in. The three of them spotted Dr. Banner walking in circles and trying to avoid being trampled by busy crew workers. Steve sped up slightly. Christina and Natasha remained at the same speed, and Christina placed a firm hand on Natasha's forearm.
"Make sure he doesn't say anything." Christina commanded, subconsciously pulling rank, knowing that whatever she told Natasha to do – she had to do it.

"Your wish is my command, Lieutenant Sitma," Natasha grimly responded as she tried to get used to the fact that Christina was now back in the line of active duty of being an Agent of SHIELD.

"Doctor Banner." Steve called.

"Oh, yeah, hi," Banner said, sounding almost grateful to see something that wasn't swarming past him as he walked over to shake Steve's extended hand. "They told me you'd be coming." He turned slightly to look at Christina. "Ah, Lieut – ow!" Banner was cut off by Natasha slamming the heel of her boot into Banner's right foot. His face contorted with slight pain as he shifted his weight to his left foot. Natasha brought a hand to her mouth in fake shock.