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CHAPTER ELEVEN
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AS SOON AS THEY LEFT the mall, Natasha whipped around with fiery eyes and pointed directly at Emersyn and Steve. The two stopped in their tracks, frightened by her accusing finger.
"Both your prides nearly got us caught," Natasha said in a low, sharp tone. Her voice was not loud or aggressive, but the slow, accentuated words held more anger and threat than a scream would. Emersyn wanted to shrivel beneath her intense gaze. "If you had put your arguing aside, and focused, you would not have cut it that close with Rumlow. You're lucky." She emphasized. "Either one of you could have seen him coming if you weren't so focused glaring- or more accurately- staring into each other's eyes."
The last words struck a nerve, and Emersyn felt both her and Steve tense. They knew it was true, and it was embarrassing to hear aloud, especially because it almost cost them the mission.
Emersyn felt the shame creep into her heart, but she spoke up to apologize and move on, "I'm sorry... I was distracted..."
"No, you were focused, Emersyn, just not on the mission." Natasha corrected, giving her a knowing stare. She could see through Emersyn easily after knowing her ways for so many years, and it was obvious what the underlying cause of her distraction was.
"We made it out didn't we?" Emersyn argued, wanting to defend herself and escape the conversation. While she loved having the spotlight on her, Emersyn couldn't stand it when she was being criticized. She immediately regretted it when Natasha's eyes bore into hers with disdain.
"Luckily." Natasha's voice was seething. "Sort out your issues when the mission is not at stake. There are bigger things at play than your feelings for each other."
Both Emersyn and Steve gaped at her words.
"Somebody had to say it," Natasha said over her shoulder as she walked away.
The burning embarrassment felt red hot, radiating from Emersyn's cheeks. She did not dare look at Steve; her eyes were focused only on the ground. A lump formed in her throat, difficult and hard to ignore, and to swallow it would be like swallowing down her pride and stubbornness too. What Natasha said was true, and she hated to admit it, but it was harder to face it. Facing it meant admitting it in front of Steve Rogers. Emersyn didn't want him to know what she felt, or that the kiss was more than a tactical play.
The tension was painful as the moments progressed, and desperate to escape Steve's uncomfortable presence, Emersyn finally managed to pull her eyes away from burning a hole into the ground and walked quickly after Natasha. She kept her gaze low and followed behind the redhead shamefully.
The trio made a silent walk to the car, and Natasha sat in the back seat without a word to the others. Knowing she wanted to be left alone, Emersyn sat in the passenger seat rather than beside Nat. Steve was left to drive, and he adjusted his seat this time so it would be comfortable. At this, Emersyn shot him an amused smile, but he did not even glance at her. Disappointed, she slouched back in her seat and stared out the window blankly.
The tension from the mission lingered in the atmosphere like a rain cloud threatening to pour. Natasha kept her gaze steadily peering out the window, unconcerned for her partners in the front seats. Her methods of ignoring them were working for the time being. Steve maintained focus on the road, as all good drivers should, but it was also a helpful distraction from his feelings and awkwardness for Emersyn. He turned on the radio in hopes of relieving some of the uncomfortable silence, but the slow classical music seemed to have no effect. Emersyn, lastly, found herself jittery and energetic, with eyes darting from Steve's solemn expression to Natasha's dull gaze every thirty seconds. She was waiting for one of them to change; for Natasha to look somewhere other than the window, and for Steve to have any sort of emotion displaying on his face. Her leg was bouncing up and down subconsciously and her fidgeting hands were adding to her frustrations.
Emersyn wanted to make conversation, but no matter how hard she tried she could not forget about whatever happened on the escalator. Her hope was for one of the others to start a new topic, but neither of them moved for a solid thirty minutes. That was way too long for Emersyn to handle. Unable to contain her energy, she blurted, "Was that your first kiss since 1945?"
"What?" Steve said loudly, narrowing his brows.
"Oh my gosh." Natasha facepalmed.
"I'm just asking!" Emersyn defended herself. "Somebody needed to talk or else this 8-hour road trip would be a nightmare."
"But you had to talk about that?" Natasha groaned.
"It's not an 8-hour drive," Steve corrected her. "It's 4."
Emersyn rolled her eyes. "Well, it feels like 8 with you guys."
There was silence for several seconds until Steve glanced at her, unable to hide his curiosity. "Was I that bad?"
Emersyn tried to wipe the satisfied grin off her face when he brought the conversation back to the kiss. "I didn't say that." She deflected the question nonchalantly.
"Well, it kinda sounds like that's what you're saying.." Steve argued.
"No, no!" Emersyn told him genuinely. "It was...fine." She finished awkwardly.
"So you liked it?" Natasha piped up.
Steve looked at Emersyn's reaction, and upon seeing him, she quickly raised her brows and said, "No-!" She flashed a dirty look over her shoulder. "You're not helping, Romanoff."
Natasha's eyes widened sarcastically as if to say: really? She turned to Steve and said casually, "She's wondering how much practice you've had."
Emersyn whipped around again to the backseat with glaring eyes. "What?" She mouthed angrily to Natasha.
"You don't need practice," Steve argued.
"Everybody needs practice," Natasha fired back.
Steve defended himself quickly, "It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm 95, I'm not dead."
Emersyn tilted her head and gazed at him coyly. "You really don't have anyone significant?"
Steve chuckled dryly. "Believe it or not it's kinda hard to find someone with shared life experience."
"Really?" Emersyn exclaimed with mock disbelief. "I've been frozen in ice loads of times..."
"You can just make something up," Natasha suggested.
"What, like you?" Steve asked in a softer tone, looking at her through the rearview mirror.
Natasha cocked her head and remained silent for a moment. "I don't know.." she replied. "I'm not all things to all people all the time."
Steve lowered his voice. "That's a tough way to live."
Natasha had a faraway look in her eyes when she replied softly, "It's a good way not to die, though.."
Emersyn gazed at her reflection in the mirror and said, "I've always thought that if I just be myself and not try to change for anybody, people will find me and like me for who I am."
Steve turned his head and looked at her, slightly surprised. He waited for her to continue with intrigue sparking in his eyes.
"No point in tryna change myself to be something I'm not, cause that's a waste of the person I am," Emersyn said casually, just speaking her mind. When she realized Steve's gaze was lingering on her, she turned and blinked at his expression.
His eyes appeared wide and kind with a glimmer of admiration in them. Emersyn couldn't help a small smile tug at her lips.
"Eyes on the road, Rogers..." she teased him softly.
Steve returned his gaze in front of him but said, "Then you know the people who surround you truly like you for who you are, not anything else."
"Yeah," Emersyn agreed. "You attract the most genuine people by not trying to attract them. Sometimes I think the best people in my life were the ones I met on accident." Her eyes landed on Steve, and he met hers with a gentle, understanding gaze. The most genuine smile she had shown him appeared on her face. It was simple and warm, and innocent. Steve returned it with equal sincerity.
They fell back into silence, but it was comfortable now. The tension had been broken by Emersyn's playful humor (as she had intended), and a blossoming intrigue was forming between Steve and Emersyn as they learned there was more to each other than what met the eye.
At ease, now, Emersyn casually leaned her head against the window and spoke her thoughts aloud. "Do you like classical music or modern music more, Steve?"
"I'd have to say classical, but jazz is always more of a comfort to me," he answered. "Reminds me of home."
"Yeah.." Emersyn's voice drifted off. "Rock is my jam."
"Rock?" Steve repeated.
"Yeah, it keeps me upbeat," Emersyn explained. "But not exactly something you could dance to," she chuckled, glancing at Steve.
"No.." He laughed quietly.
"Do you ever wonder if birds are government spies?" Emersyn asked randomly.
"What?" Steve scoffed.
"Well, they fly everywhere, see everything, congregate, and have meetings on telephone poles..."
Natasha had a small smile growing on her lips as she watched Emersyn babble. It amazed her to think that after all she had gone through, after all the events of the past few days, she still managed to laugh about the smallest things. It seemed Emersyn's conversations never grew dry, and she never ran out of ideas. Some days she thought Emersyn was a child in an adult body, filled with endless curiosity and a yearning for understanding random things. She was innocent, despite all the difficulties and traumas she had faced, and it was beautiful.
"Have you ever stolen a car?"
"Yeah... Nazi Germany..."
"So how many war crimes did you commit?"
"I'm... not answering that."
"How short were you before the serum?"
"..."
Steve seemed unbothered by Emersyn's pestering and chuckled and grinned in anticipation of each bizarre question. It was relieving for him to take some pressure off his back and forget about the mission for a while. Not everything had to be intensely focused on the job, or planning the next thing to do. Emersyn had shown him that. By the time an hour had passed, he was the one asking the questions.
"Why is it that everyone I pass on the street has their head down? No one says 'hello' anymore?"
"Well, I expect when all you guys had was newspapers and yo-yos, life was boring enough to say 'hi' to strangers..."
"What is the difference between ice cream and gelato?"
"OOHH... gelato is soo good! Have you had it? No? We need to have it after this is over..."
Their laughs were pure and genuine, taking enjoyment in each other's company and silly questions. Emersyn was glad to see Steve finally warm up to her and let loose of his cold, serious demeanor.
"What did your parents do?" Steve asked.
Emersyn's smile fell and she hesitated, the words seeming to have been stripped from her tongue. She recollected her mother and father, whom she had not thought of in many years. Only when the file labeled with her name appeared on the Lumerian Star was Emersyn reminded of her past.
"Emersyn?" Steve prompted her.
She snapped out of her blank stare and stammered, "Uh, yeah.. yeah. My mom was a, uh, nurse and my dad was a car salesman."
"My mother was a nurse.." Steve said with a wistful tone.
"Yeah?" Emersyn prompted him. "What was her name?"
"Sarah." He answered with a small smile.
Emersyn took it to heart and joked, "Look how much I know about you from just one conversation. Steve Rogers, whose mom's name is Sarah, and who used to put newspapers in his shoes." She ended with a chuckle.
"And don't forget that I think birds are government drones," Steve added.
"Can't read that in the history museum," Emersyn laughed.
They shared a joyful glance, their smiles brightening their whole face with a pure glow, and eyes alight with sparkles of laughter. Emersyn looked at Steve in detail for the first time; she noticed the crystal blue of his iris that she never thought was so striking until now. It was intense, but not frightening, and held such a deep color that seemed to openly express all his emotions. She imagined she could dive into an ocean of those eyes, and the waves would never crash against her, only ripple gently.
There was something special about them because Emersyn noticed a specific quality in Steve's eyes she rarely saw: sincerity. He gazed at her with honest, pure, genuine eyes. They held no deception, no underlying feelings; they were full of care, and while looking into them, she felt a warm tingling sensation bubble in her stomach, as if her butterflies had just sprouted wings.
—+*+—
The rest of the drive was peaceful and calm, and when they passed the sign welcoming them to New Jersey, Emersyn was surprised to see how quickly the road trip had passed. Natasha was giving them directions from the tracking device on her phone, and the car had turned off the main road onto some dirt paths.
Emersyn looked at their gloomy and bare surroundings with great anticipation and piped up, "Are we sure this isn't a trap? It looks real unwelcoming."
"These are the coordinates," Natasha said as the car slowed in front of a large fenced property.
"The hard drive led us here, I don't think anyone expects us to come..." Steve said to ease them.
The buildings behind the fence were dull and gray, appearing forgotten and lifeless. Paint was chipping off of rotting wood, and bricks were cracked and filled with grime.
"Well if it is a trap I have every right to say 'I told you so'," Emersyn said as she left the car. The sun had set by the time the trio walked toward the fence gate. Natasha looked up and confirmed, "The file came from these coordinates."
Emersyn followed Steve's eyes to a worn sign on the fence. It read, Camp Lehigh, U.S. Army Restricted Area. "So did I," Steve said.
They broke through the gate and walked slowly through the old buildings, with Natasha scanning for any signs of life. Emersyn's eyes wandered around in the dark, enjoying the cool breeze blowing against her cheeks.
"This camp is where I was trained," Steve said wistfully as he walked beside her.
"Change much?" Natasha asked.
Steve gazed at a tall flag pole and paused. "A little." He seemed to be lost in the memories of the past, so Emersyn left him and followed Natasha.
"Nothing?" She prompted her, looking at the blank phone screen.
"Yeah... this is a dead end," Natasha told them. "Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."
"Ugh," Emersyn groaned. "We came all this way for nothing?" She and Natasha turned to look at Steve for a reply, but he was staring with a puzzled expression at a building in the distance. "What is it?" She asked.
Steve began walking past them and explained, "Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place."
They approached a steel door with a rusty lock. Steve did not hesitate to use his shield (which they had stored in the back of the car) and slam it against the chain. The lock snapped, and they all looked at each other in anticipation. Steve turned to open the door, and with a loud groan, it revealed a pitch-black room.
"Well, this is fun," Emersyn's voice echoed in the dark.
She walked forward into the dark carelessly, and then suddenly felt the ground fall out from underneath her. Emersyn let out a squeal as she slipped and flailed her arms out, hoping to grab onto something. Her fingers felt a metal bar and she grasped onto it as her knees fell onto the ground with a bang.
"You okay?" Steve asked loudly, unable to see where she was.
"Yep!" Emersyn sighed as she felt around her; there was a higher platform above her and a lower one below. "That was a stair..." she realized.
Natasha chuckled and turned on her phone flashlight, looking down at Emersyn, whose tense body was holding onto a handrail for dear life. "Never gone down stairs before?" She teased.
"Shut up.." Emersyn muttered as she picked herself up. They followed the stairway down into a wider room, and Natasha found the lights to illuminate the expanse. Rows and rows of desks were lined up like an office, and at the end of the room was a large symbol of a bird and the words, Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha realized.
Emersyn looked around breathlessly and thought to herself, both the questions and answers were held by S.H.I.E.L.D., and the conspiracy only grew the more they tried to unravel it. She couldn't help but feel apprehension send shivers up her spine and make the hairs on her arm perk up. Something didn't feel right.
A/N
Updates are gonna be at LEAST once a week for the summer, but probably more often!
I love this car scene sm! Lmk what your thoughts are, and stay tuned for more :)