After a somewhat long drive towards the Brooklyn hospital, John discreetly pulls into the parking lot of the building, quickly locating Natasha and Steve whom were currently near their vehicles.
He carefully gets out of his van, holding his arm as he does so, Steve and Natasha both look towards him.
"John!" Natasha is the first to approach him as she quickly embraces his frame.
The former assassin winces and Natasha pulls back to see his minor bruises, "Sorry, I didn't--"
"It's alright...you should see the other guys," John tries to ease Natasha's worries with a light hearted joke.
Natasha just shakes her head with a smile, "I'm just glad you're okay."
John exchanges a nod with her before looking towards Steve now, "You get here okay, Cap?"
"Yeah," Steve releases a breath as he and John both exchange a small hug as well, "But, none of this makes sense...Why would S.H.I.E.L.D. think that we would even fathom betraying them?"
Natasha's voice captures the men's attention, "It's because of this."
Steve and John look towards the drive now.
"The drive," Steve says under his breath.
The Last Godfather nods as well, "Yeah...Whatever it is that Nicholas entrusted to you, he wanted to make sure that it didn't end up in the wrong hands..."
"You got any theories on whose hands Fury wanted it out of?" Steve asks the duo and John discreetly shakes his head to Natasha, whom instantly catches on.
"Um, Not yet, no," Natasha just shrugs off, trusting that John had a valid reason for keeping theory a secret from Steve.
Steve sighs and closes in eyes in exhaustion, thinking that they've now hit a wall, "And the shooter?"
"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists," Natasha begins, "...The ones who do...call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."
"So he's a ghost story," Steve says absentmindedly before turning towards John whom was currently sending him a 'really?' look, "...Sorry."
John just sighs and shakes his head before continuing, "Going after him is a dead end. He shouldn't be our number one priority right now. Our first order of business should be finding out exactly what's on that," he gestures towards the flash drive in Natasha's hand, "Besides, if it turns out that he's actually after this flash drive too, then that means that we'll eventually run into him again anyway."
"That sounds reasonable, but how exactly are we going to do this? The minute we decide to hack into the drive S.H.I.E.L.D. will be onto us in no time," Natasha adds in.
John nods, "I've thought about this beforehand," he checks his wrist watch before nodding, "Usually I'd just call in a favor, but this time around, we're gonna need a crowded area to disappear into afterward."
Steve and Natasha both nod in agreement with John, Steve then adds for dramatic effect, "Well then, let's find out what the ghost wants."
A beat passes...
"...Dang it, I did it again, didn't I?"
...
As Steve, Natasha and John all arrive at a local mall in John's black custom 2012 Chevy Silverado, he parks the vehicle in the parking lot, before turning towards Natasha and Steve, "Alright, here's the plan. Natasha will go in first, Steve you can go in after her, I'll be following right behind you. Be sure to keep your head low, there's a camera at the entrance of the mall, and a few throughout the building. Don't worry though, once we blend into the crowd, everything should be easy from there."
Steve tilts his head in confusion, "Wait, how do you know about the cameras?"
"Because," John begins as he and Natasha both exchange a glance, "I've brought my daughters here before...and eventually I just got bored so I memorized the layout of the building...Why?"
Steve just shakes his head, "Nothin'...nothin' at all."
"Let's a get a move on then boys," Natasha gets out the van before the men and they all eventually enter the mall as discreetly as possible, Steve being the most nervous of them as he was basically out of his element in this sort of environment.
They were all currently on their way towards the Mac store when Natasha decided to take a look at Steve, seeing him still jittery, "First rule of going on the run," she comments, " is, don't run, walk."
John chuckles and Steve rolls his eyes before firing back, "If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off."
The former heroes--now criminals--enter the Mac store and go over to one of the laptops.
Natasha takes out the flash drive and holds it near the USB port of the laptop, a moment passes as she then feels John's presence next to her.
He places a comforting hand on the small of her back, as if he sensed her nerves, as slight as they may be under her facade of bravery.
"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are," Natasha begins under her breath, even though she knew that John was aware of that, as Steve is on look-out.
"We're going to have about nine minutes before their onto us from their headquarters in New York," John says to her, not moving an inch, "You can do it...I mean, you may not be as good as Veronica, but..."
Natasha smiles at his attempts to ease her racing mind, "Well, now it looks like I have a reason to prove my hacking skills," she plugs the flash drive in without any hesitation now before she types away at the laptop, finding comfort in John's hand that had yet to leave her back.
Steve also discreetly smiles at their interaction as he had his back turned towards them whilst looking out at the crowd.
A moment passes and Natasha suddenly tilts her head, " Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI, it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands."
"Can you override it?" Steve asks.
"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me," Natasha begins working faster, "Slightly."
John's watch starts beeping, he looks down at it before sharing a quick glance with Natasha, "You've got 2 minutes left."
"I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from," Natasha attempts to finish this quickly.
Just then an Apple Employee approaches, "Can I help you guys with anything?"
Both John and Natasha notice Steve beginning to stutter, so she just takes a hold of John's hand that was on her back and wraps it around her waist, "Oh, no. My fiancé and brother-in-law were just helping me with some honeymoon destinations."
John shoots her an amused look and Natasha just winks at him.
"Right! They're getting married!" Steve plays into it a little too excitedly, "They make a good couple don't they?"
"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?" John and Natasha were about to answer. but Steve, getting a little too into the act looks at the monitor and sees the signal traced to somewhere in New Jersey, "New Jersey."
"Oh, " the employee pauses and looks at Steve for a moment, whom becomes nervous, "I have the exact same glasses."
Natasha whom had turned back to the laptop now pipes up, "Wow, you two are practically twins."
"Yeah, I wish," the employee didn't quite catch his sarcasm, "Specimen. Uh...if you guys need anything, I've been Aaron."
"Thank you," Steve just waves before turning back to Natasha and John, "You said nine minutes, come on."
"Shh, relax. Got it," they find the signal is coming from Wheaton, NJ.
John notices a look of familiarity cross Steve's face, "You know it?"
"I used to," Steve begins lowly just as John's watch goes off again, signaling that they were now behind schedule.
"Alright, let's go," John pulls the flash drive from the computer and they walk out of the store.
As they were walking, John begins talking, "Steve, you see that pillar," he gestures ahead of them and Steve nods, "I want you to break off from the group and use the stairs to go down to the Southern exit."
"Are you sure?" Steve asks as John tosses him the keys to the van.
"I'm sure," John begins, "Natasha and I will break off to the East and West exits after a while, be sure to pick her up at the West exit," a moment passes, "And...Go!"
Just as they pass the pillar Steve briskly walks away just as John and Natasha both notice a standard tac-team of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives. Two behind, to across, two coming straight at them.
"Um, hubby," Natasha spots them out quickly, "You seeing what I'm seeing?"
"Way ahead of you, honey," John says as he allows Natasha to grasp his hand and wrap it around her waist on her own accord.
John and Natasha both bring their heads closer and laugh with one another as the agents pass them by without so much as a second glance. They bypass the floor as if it was second nature without being caught and step onto the escalator.
As they are going down the escalator John spots Rumlow on the escalator next to them going up, he turns to Natasha, whom had also noticed.
"Now, Nat, I mean no disrespect whatsoever, but," John thinks quickly, "I need you to kiss m--"
Natasha didn't let him finish as she had already wrapped her arms around his neck, closed her eyes and connected their lips hungrily. John instantly responded to her needy kiss by wrapping his arms around her waist and closing his eyes as well.
As The Black Widow felt him respond, her heart rate increased and the heat in her body skyrocketed as she could feel John almost lift her off of the ground, one of her legs then wrap around his waist as he leans her on the railing of the escalator slightly.
Rumlow immediately averts his eyes as he passes them going up to the floor they were previously on. John and Natasha then force themselves to stop their kiss as they step off of the escalator, the crowds of people all passing around them as the two former hired killers rest their foreheads against one another, drowning out the noise of the background as they caught their breaths.
"...Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable," Natasha suddenly feels the need the make known as she breathlessly lets out.
"Yeah, they do," John just smirks lightly.
"You uncomfortable yet?" Natasha asks him, a little part of her already drawing up negatives.
John is about to respond, but isn't given the chance to as his phone bings. Seeing that it was from Shadow's burner phone, he immediately separates from Natasha to check his message, "It's from Jack."
"Is it about the girls? Are they okay?" Natasha finds herself asking immediately, some sort of instincts kicking in, she didn't know what it was, but all she knew was that she couldn't help it.
EXTRACTION COMPLETE :)
I also took the liberty of making sure your daughter (AND MY BEAUTIFUL NIECE BY THE WAY) never has any boy trouble...
EVER
Your Welcome
John just raises a curious brow before looking back to Natasha, "The girls are safe."
Natasha releases a breath of relief, "Oh, thank God."
John smiles, seeing her genuine relief at the mention of his daughters' safety, she really did care about them.
"C'mon, time to split up," John checks his watch again, "Steve should be outside by now."
"Yeah," Natasha is about to turn to leave, however, before she does she looks back to John, "Hey!"
She calls him and he turns to give her his attention.
"See you in a minute?" She smiles.
"See you in a minute," he smiles back.
...
As they were currently driving towards New Jersey, John can be seen in the driver's seat with Natasha in the front passenger seat and Steve in the back, currently resting.
"Hey, I have a question for you," Natasha suddenly asks John and the man just glances at her questioningly, "Which you do not have to answer by the way, but if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"
John just chuckles, "Alright, fire away."
"Was that your first kiss since adopting the kids?" Natasha doesn't waste a second.
John just laughs now, "That bad, huh? Have I lost my touch that much?"
"I didn't say that," Natasha clarifies.
"Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying," John presses.
"No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you've had," Natasha shrugs off nonchalantly.
"You don't need practice for that sort of thing, Natasha," John tries to defend.
"Everybody needs practice," Natasha sticks to her point and John sighs.
" No, It was not my first kiss since adopting Nikki and Nellie. I'm a single-father, I'm not dead," John finally gives in.
"Nobody special, though? No one that you're dating or dated?" Natasha 'discreetly' interrogates.
John chuckles, "Funny story actually, when I first adopted the girls I did try the dating thing once or twice, but believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone that's willing to settle for a ready-made family..."
"What?!" Natasha was genuinely surprised, "You're kidding?"
"Nope," John just huffs in amusement, "By the time most of them told me that they weren't ready for a family I knew...I couldn't do it. So, I just gave up on my love life. Focused solely on raising the girls."
"Do you ever regret it?" Natasha asks as she lays her head on the seat and gazes at John as he stares ahead at the road.
"Not for one second," John replies.
Natasha hums and smiles, "...Well, for the record..." she looks away from him and stares out the window, "Those women, whoever they were...weren't worth it if they never even considered giving Nikki and Nellie a chance."
John darts his head to Natasha, whom still refused to look back at him as she closed her eyes and tried to control her heartbeat, desperately trying to play off as if she was asleep now. The Last Godfather just huffs with a smile before looking towards the road.
"...Then I'm glad that you did..." John says under his breath as he adjusts the radio to keep him company as he continues driving.
Steve, whom was secretly listening to them, smiles in content, 'And so the ship starts sailing...Wait...is that what Jack called it? Or was it...'
...
(A/N): Hey guys and gals! Sorry again, but this is another short one, originally I wanted to make this chapter AND the previous one into one large part, but had decided against it at the last minute since I just wanted the push to start updating again.
Anyway, the next chapter after this one is going to be VERY dialogue heavy until the FINALE of Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2014 so please just be patient with me! I also hope that you have all been well!
-trinikirito