Who: Natasha Romanoff and Jessica Drew What: Natasha chases an ex-HYDRA lead down in hopes of finding out some useful information about Bucky. When: August 8. Where: Motel, southern US Warnings: Language, discussion of HYDRA doings, vague descriptions of medical care.
Natasha had delegated most of the Charleston cracking work to Skye, but she had been at work on parts of the database on her own, separately. The evidence she'd found had put her on the trail of an old HYDRA foe--ex-HYDRA, if the evidence was to be believed, but Natasha was more than wary after her experience with Pierce and his lackeys--and here, now, her trail had come to an end.
According to the best information Natasha had put together with a little hacking here and there, this motel room was where Jessica Drew was waiting out her recovery from something that had happened recently at a HYDRA base a few hours' drive away. Natasha didn't have a solid lead on those events, but whatever Drew had come across was bound to be useful to the Avengers somehow. With any luck, Drew would want to talk instead of fight. It wasn't as if they'd never crossed paths before. Drew knew who and what Natasha was; Natasha knew the same about Drew. But this time they might not be on opposite sides of whatever was happening.
There was a coffee shop across the street from the motel. Natasha sat there, waiting for Drew to come out of the motel. She'd be across the road before Drew could get into her car and then they'd see what happened.
Jessica never went straight home after a job. It wasn’t that she didn’t miss her girlfriend and her home but because she knew that Carol would worry. The scrapes, the bruised cheek and the quickly healing limp in her step. There would be another discussion about alternate jobs she could do with her skillset and she just didn’t want to put them through that. Rested up and caffeinated, she had decided it was time to go home. Bruised or not, there was only so much bad food and broken air conditioning that she could take.
Her bag slung across her shoulder, she checked out and headed to her car. “Babe, I’m on my way home,” she said after dialing Carol’s number and getting her voicemail. “I gotta settle up with the bondsman and then I’ll be there. I’ll call when I get closer to home and see if you want anything from the Chinese place.” Tensing up, she felt someone nearby her. It could be anyone. She wasn’t exactly good at the hearts and minds thing. Her enemies far outnumbered her friends for the most part. “I love you. I’ll see you soon.”
Two guns. One in her jacket pocket. Hopefully, she could squeeze out a blast of energy should the guns fail her. She made herself a promise that she’d make a renewed effort to find a way to fix her powers. It was getting to be a bit too hit and miss. Turning slowly, she almost smiled when she saw who was behind her. “Am I playing this is your life?” Another blast from the past. “At least this one she didn’t think was dangerous to her without provoking.
Natasha showed both hands, palms forward. "I'm just here to talk." The summer was too hot and sticky for long sleeves, but Natasha was wearing her Bites, just in case. Otherwise, she was in civilian gear: jeans and a black t-shirt, and low boots that could handle any running or acrobatics she might need to do. The gear said Natasha was ready for the worst, but the body language said there were better options. "If you're up for some not-too-terrible coffee before you get on the road, I'm buying." She made the offer with the ghost of a smile.
“Oh, Red, I bet you say that to all the former Hydra assassins.”
She should have been expecting someone to notice her. Violence wasn’t easy to cover up by any stretch of the means and with her powers, as weird as they were prone to being, weren’t exactly normal. Still, she wasn’t expecting Natasha. Didn’t realize that their history was something that even still showed up on the spy’s radar. “We can do coffee but I’m keeping my gun. It’s nothing personal. I just like a little extra precaution. Rough days lately.” She stowed her bag in her car and motioned for Natasha to lead on. She hoped that this was going to be exactly what Natasha said. Coffee and a chat. The last thing she wanted was to have to fight an Avenger in public. Especially an Avenger that she respected. She’d feel bad and she’d definitely no longer be anonymous.
“Girl has to protect herself.”
Natasha nodded her acceptance of the terms. She of all people understood that a girl had to protect herself.
They resumed Natasha's spot in her old booth at the diner and Natasha ordered another pot of coffee for the two of them. A fresh pot that they both drank from was the best way of ensuring that nobody had tampered with their drink.
"After Pierce's unmasking, the Avengers have been cleaning up some HYDRA bases in this part of the country. I pulled out some data from one of them and your name came up. Not as an an agent--" Natasha raised her hands to stifle the anticipated protest "--but as a target. Of surveillance. Special surveillance, if you know what I mean."
It took a minute for Natasha’s words, for their implications to register with Jessica. “Oh...Well, that was definitely not what I was expecting this conversation to be about,” she said blandly. It felt good to hear someone else differentiate her and the other agents. There were a lot of things that she had done that she was not proud of. It was all part of why she was doing what she was doing. Some sort of redemption.
Then a cold sweat hit her. They were following her. She was a target just as much as they were hers. They had seen her life, had seen Carol. “How could...I mean, I know a lot of them are pretty damn good but I am pathological about making sure I’m never followed. How did they get to me?” She rubbed her forehead. “God damn it. I should have stayed underground. It was safer when it was just me.”
"When I said special surveillance, I wasn't joking. I was talking about experimental abilities." Natasha tapped her temple to indicate the sort of thing she was talking about. "You know HYDRA's lacking in, ah, respect for personal integrity, shall we say? They had an experimental base where they were working on enhancements to psychics, ESP, that kind of thing. One of the training objectives was to trace former agents. You were on that list. They've evacuated that facility. Some survivors of the program were evacuated abroad, so they may try again.
"When I got a look at your injuries, I thought I might be too late. That you might be down here on the run from them. But I guess you ran into something else." Natasha set that out an invitation. She'd demonstrated her good faith; perhaps it would be enough for Drew to reciprocate with a little honesty of her own.
She whistled softly. The surprise she felt at the revelation was strange. She, herself, had a rather large personal connection to Hydra’s tinkering. Not to mention the countless stories that she had heard about the things they had done and all the things that they had planned. Psychics keeping watch over her should have been an inevitable outcome. “Jesus,” she said softly. “I thought I was out. I really did. I should have known they would never let me just walk away.” Well, blast her way out. “Any idea as to what they had planned or might have planned for the people on the list? I don’t have much in the way of people but the ones I have I’m very fond of.”
Jess shrugged. “I got knocked around a bit. Honestly, I didn’t even know being on the run from them was a thing I should be thinking about. I was following a lead.” She wasn’t sure if the other woman knew and was fishing or was just making a statement of fact. It didn’t hurt to lay one out on the line. “Bumped into an old friend at the last safehouse that I hit. Then a couple of agents caught me unawares on the way out. My powers are a little...come and go and I was low.”
Natasha nodded at the mention of injuries. The thought that the old friend might be the Winter Soldier sparked a hunter's excitement in her gut, but this wasn't the moment. They'd get to it later.
"It's not clear what the plans are, other than not good. It's rare enough for people to survive enhancement if the records I've seen are any indication. I can't imagine HYDRA's brass means to let their assets go permanently." Natasha had her own experience of this, though her escape hadn't been from HYDRA. Her smile was knowing, but a little grim. "In your shoes, I'd be looking at dropping to a backup identity. But the only people I had before I went public would have understood."
She nodded. “Yeah, I guess it was pretty naive of me to think they were just going to let me go.” Her refusal to carry out her first assignment and kill Nick Fury hadn’t won her any fans in Hydra. There had been a lot of comments about not appreciating the gifts and opportunities that had been given to her. A lot of surprises when she had gotten a second chance. She was sure that there had been a lot of anger but a little bit of people saying they had called it when she had finally taken her leave of Hydra. “Whatever they can dish out, I can take it. I’m not going to run from them. I’ve got a life now. It matters.”
“She doesn’t know. About any of it. All she knows is that my dad is dead, my mom isn’t around and I was PI in Los Angeles. I don’t think she’d ever be able to look at me the same way again.” And Jess wasn’t sure that she’d be able to get over that. Carol thinking she was a good person was important to her. Even if it was a lie. “No, telling her isn’t an option either I’ll think of something.”
The reluctance to tell all was something Natasha understood well enough. Spilling all her secrets to the internet hadn't worked out terribly so far, but it was early days yet. She couldn't hide behind Tony Stark forever. Still, what had happened to Drew hadn't been entirely her own fault, and less so than what Natasha had done. It was likely enough that whoever it was would come closer to forgiveness than Drew knew.
The arrival of fresh coffee gave Natasha a moment to work through that before she had to answer. What she came up with was, "The thing about secrets is that you can decide when they come out, or you can let someone else decide. If you can break it to her on your own terms, that'll be better than her hearing it from someone from HYDRA. But that's not the point today. The point is to make sure you're not in immediate danger, and you don't appear to be. I've got a medical kit if you need any more patching up before you go home."
Jessica couldn’t but laugh softly as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “Do you ever stop and wonder if your life was actually your life? Or if it was just some sort of cosmic joke? I spend years of my life trying to not be Jessica Drew, Hydra Assassin. Keeping it in my past and now I have to seriously consider letting people know who I was.” Natasha was right. She definitely did not want Carol hearing about it from someone else. Especially from a Hydra Agent.
“I appreciate the information and the heads up.” She took a sip of coffee and sighed softly.. “And the coffee is definitely good.” She rubbed her leg and shook her head. “I think I’m alright. I took a couple of hot showers, iced the bruises. Well...wait, There’s a nasty cut on my ribs that probably should be looked at.”
"Yeah, let's do that." Natasha had the bag on the back of the bike she was riding. She'd come prepared in case she'd had to fight her way out of trouble. Apart from the goodwill--and goodwill never hurt--it would give her a chance to assess whether the injuries had come from the Winter Soldier. "But let's get a little more caffeine in both of us first."
“You always were a smart one, Red.”
It didn’t take long for them to finish up the pot. That didn’t really surprise Jess. She was pretty sure that the parts of her DNA that weren’t spider related were caffeine related. Checking to make sure her gun’s safety was off, she took off her coat as she followed Natasha outside to where she was keeping the first aid kit. “I think it was a knife. Could have been a piece of glass.” She rolled up her tank top to show the bloodied bandage that covered the cut.
“I don’t think it’s from the Winter Soldier” Might as well get that elephant out of the room..” I think it was the last guy I took out on my way.”
Bingo.
Natasha gestured to Drew to sit on the bike and opened up one of the panniers to get the medical kit. "Nasty. It's going to take a little more than neosporin." The bandage was going to need to be taken off and replaced; that was clear. Natasha got the scissors out to cut them away. "I need to get a good look at this. I may need to stitch it up afterwards." She waited for consent before actually starting to remove anything.
“Chicks dig scars, right?”
Sliding up on the bike, she positioned herself so that Natasha could get a good look at the wound.”Go ahead,” she agreed. “I...Well, I trust you about as much as I would trust anyone else I let get this close to me.” If Natasha wanted her dead, she was pretty sure they would have already started fighting a long time ago.
Natasha bit back an inappropriate smile. "I'm an Avenger now. We're the good guys, or at least that's the plan I signed up for." With that permission, she cut away the bandage and put it aside, taking a good look at the injury underneath.
She had tried to bandage the cut herself. Bandage and get back home. Have it looked at a local hospital and blame some nice generic scumbag for the attack. However, the long and jagged cut had landed just barely within her reach, closer to the back of her ribs than the front. Her attempt to patch it up had been the equivalent of putting a bandaid on a papercut.
“What are they like? The Avengers?” she asked curiously. She bit her lip before looking at the other woman. “I heard about Fury. I’m sorry.”
Peeling away the bandage, Natasha evaluated the length and depth of the cut. She poured out antiseptic and applied it, giving enough warning by her actions that a callout was unnecessary.
Fury's story wasn't Natasha's to tell. She had enough conflicting emotions that the scowl that came to her was natural. "Thanks," she said. "It was the Winter Soldier. Before he made his own exit from HYDRA."
A pause, then: "It's probably a little late to stitch this up, so let's hope she digs it." She looked up to meet Drew's--Jessica's--gaze. "There's no good way to describe the Avengers. Stark's what his reformed reputation makes him out to be, both good and bad. Rogers is what you expect Captain America to be, except his sense of humor is a lot funnier. Thor is a Viking god whose magic seems to be super-high tech. Bruce is a smart, nerdy guy who happens to have a terrifying second personality with its own body. And Clint you probably already have the goods on, from SHIELD."
She couldn’t help wincing slightly at the antisceptic’s sting. Steeling herself towards the pain, she sighed softly and didn’t say anything more, Honestly, she wasn’t sure what else there was to say. It was a terrible situation all around for everyone involved. She had really liked Fury but she remembered what it was like to be the pawn in someone else’s game. It was hard sympathizing with everyone. Not to mention the bit of guilt she had. If she had killed Fury when it was time for her to try, Barnes never would have had to.
“I think she will. Once she stops worrying.”
Smiling slightly. “I like Stark and I talked to Rogers a little on the internet. It was like a guppy willing to swim with the sharks. Too adorable to ignore.” The others she definitely knew of. The Hulk was famous world wide while Barton was well known in the circles she used to run with. She tried to keep track of them for her own reasons. “I’ve got some of his file. Know thy...potential seekers of revenge?”
"Clint's got better things to do than seek revenge." Natasha said it with authority, as if she were intimately familiar with his thought processes. "As opposed to, say, the Winter Soldier." She left that there, hanging out, for Jessica to answer as she would, while she considered what sort of cover story she'd be concocting in the shoes Jessica appeared to be in and how to re-bandage the injury. If she had some dissolving sutures in the kit, that might be what Jessica needed, plus whatever binding would keep her from re-opening the wound by stretching the wrong way.
“Girl can’t be too careful.”
Jessica thought of all the things she had seen with her time with Hydra and sighed softly. “He’s got a right to it, Red. If I were you, I’d sit back and let him take them all out.” She looked over at the other woman. “Rogers wants to bring him in, doesn’t he? Make Barnes Barnes again?” She understood the urge. The Winter Soldier was out in the cold. It couldn’t be easy for his best friend to see him like that.
“I’m not sure if I can help any. I mean, most of my intel comes from a few loyal lowlifes I’ve met along the way. I can keep you in the loop but I’d prefer to not be on anyone else’s radar in that tower of yours. Apparently I’ve got enough eyes on me.”
"I'd like to say I can keep you off the radar, but the truth is somebody does know where I am and what I'm doing. Girl can't be too careful." The smirk Natasha gave Jessica was knowing. "Having said that, I can certainly keep my sources confidential and the rest of the team has respected that so far. It'll help if I have something to bring back to them, even if it's only confirming our existing intel."
Natasha fished out the sutures and some numbing agent so she could do the necessary without it hurting Jessica any more than necessary. She held up the anesthetic and sutures to show Jessica what she was doing and went to work.
"I'm not interested in forcing Barnes to do anything he doesn't want to do. But you know what HYDRA can do to people. He was a disposable weapon and nobody knows what modifications they made besides the arm. Even if you don't think Barnes will ever be Barnes again--" and Natasha honestly didn't "--he deserves a chance for something more than bare survival and revenge. He deserves a life. Rogers is his best chance for that.
"And you--even if you don't want to be under the Stark aegis, you need to find friends. Because HYDRA isn't finished, and we don't know where else they've insinuated their tentacles. The psychics aren't the end of your problems, just the beginning. And if I can find you, they can." By the time Natasha finished speaking, she'd was ready to suture up the wound and put a gauze pad over it.
She understood Natasha’s answer. The world was a dangerous place and it had been a really long time since she had seen her. People changed. She wouldn’t have gone into Avengers tower without figuring out a way to let people know where she had gone. Jessica frowned as she tried to think if there was anything actionable she might have. “There is a flashdrive in my car. It’s got some things on it,” she said after a minute. “You can have that.”
Her teeth clenched tightly for a second as Natasha administered the numbing agent and then relaxed. “I know.” Hydra broke people. They broke them and put them back together all wrong. “I just...I guess I can’t see it clearly. It’s too close.” Bucky Barnes did deserve his revenge but she was right. He deserved a chance to regain whatever life he would have had if he hadn’t ended up in Hydra’s hands. “I want to believe he can be Barnes again, I do. I just…”
She sighed softly. “I just don’t really know how he would be able to move on after. Though with friends and people who know him, he could have a chance. Maybe not the man he was meant to be but something besides what they made him.” Her time at Hydra had been a failure for the most part she had killed. She had done things that she wasn’t proud of and moving on had been hard.
“I just..I know they mean well but I’ve had my fill of science and scientists.” Jessica knew Natasha was right though. Hydra had her in their sights and she wasn’t sure what she was going to do. As much as she would like to kill them all, she wouldn’t survive it. She couldn’t do that to Carol. “I know that you’re right. I do. I just...making friends? Never really been my strong suit. At least as myself.”
"Everybody has to learn how to make friends at some point." Natasha pressed her lips together as she began to wind bandages around Jessica's torso to hold the gauze in place.
After a moment she began again. "It's hard to come clean. It's hard to move on. But if you don't, you'll have that weakness forever, either as a lever on you or as a stress in your psyche that someone will use to attack you." Memories of Loki and his insinuations were echoed in Natasha's darkening expression. "But if you're not ready to make that decision, you're not ready. You can tell your girlfriend that you ran across HYDRA while you were chasing your bounty and I patched you up afterwards. It's a good story and has the advantage of being mostly true. And it leaves your options open for later.
"As for Barnes--he'll find a way to move forward. Even if he can't see it just yet." Natasha knew because Natasha had.
“I’ll give it a shot. I have been told I have a sparkling personality,” she deadpanned.
Jessica thought of her time in LA and nodded. “I know you’re right. Logically, I know that I need to tell her. That if I don’t, it could endanger her as well as me. Make me vulnerable.” She just wasn’t sure how she’d go about doing it. There really wasn’t a card to tell your girlfriend that you were a superpowered former assassin. Especially with her powers on the fritz as it was. “I’ll have to work myself up to it. I can take on a bunch of men with guns but my Air Force girlfriend? I’d rather just have her mad because I forgot to get milk again. I’ll tell her though. I will.” There was also the fact that Carol was pretty tough in her own right and might be able to handle it better than she thought. “I guess I should stop underestimating what she can take.
“He’s lucky. He’s got friends looking to try and help him. It’s a very good start.” She waited until Natasha was finished before rolling down her top. “If it helps...it looked a lot like he was searching for something. It wasn’t just violence for violence sake.”
"That helps. Thanks." Natasha finished winding the bandage around Jessica's midsection and taped it into place. "All set, at least for now. You'll want to follow that up with your own doctor. Whoever you use that won't look at you funny when you come in banged up like this." She smiled again, faintly, and started to put away the supplies. The old bandages she set aside to let Jessica dispose of, since they were a piece of a trail to her.
"Go home," Natasha suggested, "tell your girlfriend you love her, and think about filling her in on what she needs to know."
It was a small thing but she couldn’t help but feel pleased that she was able to help just that bit. “Thanks for the stitches, Red,” she said smoothing things down and tucking her shirt back into her pants. “You’ve got a real knack for that. I’ve got a guy. I’ll check in with him when I get back to the city. He’s used to me showing up looking much worse than this.” Shady doctors were pretty much the only way she got first aid. Even her day job didn’t inspire much trust in others. Also, doctors did have to report gunshots.
“I will.” She slid off the bike. “Come back to car and I’ll get you that flashdrive. You can get your guys to see if they can get more off it than I did. Hopefully it will be some help.”