Topic: The Mission

Lucy Rogers

Date: 2015-03-10 06:35 EST
In the world of military intelligence, there was no such thing as a covert operation. Every operation was covert, unless stated otherwise. Of course, it was a little difficult to hide the approach of a plane across the ocean and into unfriendly airspace above the frozen Arctic, but S.H.I.E.L.D. had already thought of that. Beneath the ice, the non-covert part of the plan was advancing in a sub, more than prepared to make as much noise as possible when they arrived. Within the body of the stealth plane flying miles above the ice, Captain Steve Rogers' handpicked team were preparing for the drop to come. Well, three of them were. Lucy was having a quiet panic attack as far away from the loading door as she could get. No one had said anything about jumping out of a plane!

Even Captain American and the Human Torch were prepping for the drop. Neither really needed a parachute, but this mission, as most, was all about stealth. They couldn't risk being found out, and so, there would be no fireball streaking across the sky or vibranium shield smashing through the ice. Though Steve looked the epitome of calm, Johnny was secretly a nervous wreck. Fire and ice didn't mix well, and water was one of two elements that could prove disastrous for him, but at the moment, everyone seemed more concerned about Lucy's nerves than anything else. After all, she wasn't a superhero, even in the slightest. Though Johnny had promised Liv to watch out for Lucy, it was Steve's job as her husband and team leader to calm her down. Johnny wondered if it was really necessary to have Lucy along for the ride, but he knew Steve had his reasons.

Finished with his own gear, Steve moved over to Lucy to help her prepare, not only with her equipment, but with her state of mind. Had he made a mistake insisting she be here" He didn't think so. They were going to need a doctor once they got inside the facility, and he trusted her more than anyone else, but unlike the other three on board, Lucy wasn't a soldier, a superhero, or a spy.

"You don't have to do this if you don't really want to," he told her quietly while he went about adjusting all the buckles and belts of her parachute. He wasn't sure exactly what they were going to find down there, but if she wasn't up to the mission, they'd have no choice but to go without her. He could have picked someone else, but he didn't want to risk Banner hulking out or Tony's smart mouth.

Pale and shaking, Lucy looked up at her husband with the peculiar stubbornness that he hadn't really had a chance to see up close before. She'd called on it fairly often while she'd been working in various ERs, but since joining S.H.I.E.L.D., she hadn't needed it. Until now. "Yes, I do," she argued, letting him adjust her straps while her hands clenched and unfurled at her sides. "No one else knows exactly what they're looking for on the research side. I just ....I didn't think I'd be jumping out of a plane." That, and she knew full well how humiliating it was to be panicking about what was the easiest part of this mission. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just Steve and Johnny, but the fourth member of their group had more capability in her little finger than Lucy possessed in her entire body.

Perhaps that was true in Lucy's mind, but Steve had hand-picked this team for a reason. Each of them had their own capabilities, their own special abilities and talents that were needed to make this a successful mission, and that included Dr. Lucy Rogers. "Look, I know it's scary, but I'm gonna be right there, and I promise I'm not gonna let anything happen to you," he told her, knowing words were sometimes not enough assurance, even from him.

"You'll be fine, doc," a drawling voice added from not so very far away. The fourth member of their team, Natasha Romanoff, looked up from where she had been securing her weapons, and nodded to the couple. "You're the brains."

Whether that was meant to be a reminder, or a reassurance, Lucy wasn't certain, but she nodded to the redheaded woman before looking back to Steve, taking a deep breath. "Let's just get this over with."

"You know, if I wasn't already married, I might ask you on a date," Johnny smirked, unable to stop himself from flirting with the redhead, even though everyone knew his heart belonged to Olivia. It was likely the nerves talking. He never could keep his mouth shut when he was nervous. It wasn't the jumping out of the airplane that made him nervous, so much as the prospect of water and ice, but he knew his part, and he was proud Steve had trusted him enough to include him on this little venture.

Steve ignored the other two for the most part, his focus on Lucy for now. "First time is the scariest," he assured her, leaning close to brush a reassuring kiss against her lips. First time and hopefully the last time.

"Sorry, Flame Boy, too busy saving the world," was Natasha's answer to Johnny's flirting, offered with her usual sardonic grin as she straightened up. The pilot flicked the intercom to let them know they'd reached the drop zone, the loading door of the plane beginning to open to let the Arctic wind sweep around them.

Lucy shuddered, half with the cold and half with mild terror, and leaned into Steve for a brief moment. "It's now or never," she muttered, tugging her gloves on tightly. "Just ....don't be out of my sight until we're down, okay?"

"Flame Boy?" Johnny echoed with a chuckle. "Flame Man, maybe," he corrected, fond of the redhead already, and they'd only just met. What wasn't there to be fond of? She was hot, for one thing, and well, she was hot. "Is it true what they say about redheads?" he asked, unable to keep his mouth shut, even as the door slid open. The Arctic air didn't bother him in the least, nor did the jump. There wasn't much Johnny Storm was afraid of, though he'd likely have to face his own demons before the mission was through.

Steve was secretly starting to wonder if he'd made the right choice in picking Lucy to come along. There was no denying she would have been safer back home in New York, but he'd ultimately left the decision in her hands. This had been her choice, not his order. "I'll be right beside you. Promise," he told her, holding her close a moment longer and pressing a tender kiss to her temple.

"Only if what they say includes broken bones," Natasha smiled at Johnny, walking calmly straight past him and out through the loading door. She was revoltingly calm about the whole thing, which wasn't helping Lucy in the slightest.

Sighing softly, the doctor swallowed hard and nodded. "Okay," she nodded to her husband. "I can do this." She fingered the pull that would open her parachute, as though reminding herself it was there. "Here goes nothing." Squeezing her eyes shut, she moved to step out of the plane behind Natasha, and not even the wind could disguise the squeal that erupted from her in the process. Hopefully she wouldn't scream all the way down, though.

Lucy Rogers

Date: 2015-03-10 06:38 EST
Johnny only chuckled at Natasha's reply. If he wasn't already head over heels for Liv, he might have taken that as a challenge. "I like her," he told Steve. "She's hot." And so was he, in more ways than one. Johnny frowned a little as Lucy moved past, flashing Steve a worried look before following her out of the door. Hot redhead or not, Johnny had promised Liv to keep an eye on her sister, and that was exactly what he intended to do. He just wished he didn't have to wear a silly parachute. And out he went.

Steve mirrored Johnny's expression. Not only did they look alike, but they were wearing the same look of worry for Lucy, but it was too late to change plans now. He followed the other three out of the plane, keen sight spotting the familiar form of his wife plummeting downward, even in the dark. Steve wasn't too crazy about returning to the Arctic, but he didn't have much choice. Each seemed to have their own fears to overcome if this mission was to be a successful one.

Thankfully, Lucy stopped screaming once her parachute was open, mostly because the jolting catch as the silk filled with air knocked the breath from her body. Below her, she could see Natasha coming in to land, the snow deep enough not to offer any danger to the novice Lucy was. Tilting her head back, she squinted to find Steve and Johnny, all the while trying not to be distracted by how beautiful it was here. Cold it might be, but even without a moon, it was a bright night on the Arctic tundra. Just as well no one had told her about the snipers that were bound to be guarding the surface entrance to the facility.

Steve swooped downward, practically diving through the air to catch up with her, pulling the chute open just barely in time to make a quiet, smooth landing. Seeing Natasha had already arrived, he wasted no time in unclipping, watching the sky for Lucy and Johnny to join them. Of the four of them, Johnny seemed most content with the descent, coming in to land last. He was far more comfortable in the air and knew that the snow and ice would start to melt as soon as he touched the ground.

Of all of them, Lucy was the one who face-planted into the snow, but luckily for her, Steve was already on the ground. Natasha left him to deal with his wife, her own parachute already discarded, moving across the snow to intercept Johnny's landing and get him unclipped before pulling up the map and schematic on her wrist monitor. They had a little over ten minutes before all hell broke loose a couple of miles beneath their feet.

Steve didn't bother to give orders. They'd been over this a dozen times, and each of them knew what was expected of them. As for himself, for now, his job was to protect Lucy and get her safely into the facility. "You okay?" he asked, picking her up off the ground and brushing the snow from her face before working on getting her unclipped from the chute. They were on a timeclock now and there wasn't much time to make a fuss. She had to be okay.

Blowing snow out of her face, she nodded. It looked as though the adrenaline rush from the drop had sorted out her nerves. "I'm good," she promised him. "Everyone down, no injuries?" Not that she expected anyone to get hurt but herself, of course - she was the only one who had no experience of falling from the sky here.

"Cap," Natasha's voice rang across the snow. She gestured toward what appeared to be a natural rock formation rising from the whiteness. "Eight, one battery, changeover twenty minutes ago. Decoy should be in place in seven minutes."

"Everyone's good," Steve assured her. He just barely had enough time to brush his fingers against her cheek, before Natasha's voice reminded him whey they were there. "Four for you, four for me, unless you don't want to share," he teased the redhead. Not only did he have the utmost respect for her, but he trusted her and considered her a personal friend, too. If he didn't, she wouldn't have been there.

"I'll try and leave some for you, old man," the Black Widow teased him in return, giving Johnny a gentle push toward Lucy. "Doc's all yours, Flame Boy." In her dark suit, she should have been easily visible on the snow, but as she accelerated across the snow toward the surface presence of the facility they were here to take down, it wasn't difficult to see how the guards didn't really stand a chance. Especially if Steve managed to catch up to her.

Steve smirked at Natasha's comment. She was forever teasing him about his age, though he didn't look a day over twenty-five, at most. "Yes, ma'am," he replied, letting her get a small head-start so he could momentarily turn his attention to Johnny and Lucy. "Don't let her out of your sight," he instructed Johnny with a brief glance at Lucy before taking off after Natasha. Even though she'd had a head start, he was quick to catch up. "You go left, I'll go right," he told her, tugging the shield from his back.

"Anything you say, Cap." She veered off, taking the climb up over the man-made rocks easily. The guards wouldn't know what hit them.

Behind them, on the snow, Lucy shivered, looking over at Johnny as they started walking toward the facility themselves. "Ever get the feeling you're here as decoration?" she asked, more to keep her teeth from chattering than anything.

Steve veered off, letting Natasha take care of the gun battery and the guards patrolling the perimeter, while he focused on those guarding the entrance to the facility before they could sound an alarm. It was the first time Johnny or Lucy would actually see him in action first hand. There was a distinct difference between Steve's style and Natasha's - Natasha was primarily a spy and assassin with little regard for her enemies' lives, while Steve was a soldier, but one who only believed in killing when it was absolutely necessary. Though Lucy might not know it, Steve wasn't armed except for the shield he carried on his back, depending on his own physical prowess to overcome anyone who stood in their way. Taken by surprise as they were, the guards proved little challenge for Steve. Four against one was hardly fair, but Steve had little trouble taking them out of action.

Behind them, Johnny took pity on Lucy and wound an arm around her shoulders to share his warmth. "Who me?" he chuckled. "Nah, I'm just here for comic relief."

Perhaps it was just as well neither of them could see clearly the combat taking place. Natasha's kills were quick and efficient, removing the guards from the gun battery before she sighted down a silenced sniper rifle to take out the two on the perimeter. Her voice crackled over the radio. "All clear, Flame Boy, bring the doc in." She hadn't even needed to check to make sure Steve had done what he intended; maybe they'd been working together for too long.

Out on the ice, Lucy picked up the pace, grateful for Johnny keeping her body temperature above freezing as they went. "They're quick, I'll give them that."

"They've had a lot of practice," Johnny pointed out. He hadn't been in New York when the Avengers had battled against Loki and his minions, but he knew Steve had and it was there that he and Natasha had first worked together as partners. There were times when he felt left out, but this wasn't one of them, proud that Steve had chosen him to join them on this mission and hoping he made the First Avenger proud.

"All clear here," came Steve's voice on the radio. "Three minutes," he warned.

Lucy Rogers

Date: 2015-03-10 06:39 EST
"Is that three minutes to get to the elevator, or three minutes to get to the right level in the elevator?" Lucy asked in alarm, beginning to run as the warning came across. It wasn't that she hadn't been paying attention during the briefing; it was more that she had genuinely been completely lost amid all the military jargon and hadn't admitted it to anyone, not even Steve. She was beginning to think that might have been a mistake.

"Three minutes to get to the elevator!" Johnny clarified, taking hold of Lucy's hand and tugging her after him as he broke into a run, leaving a trail of melted footprints in the snow behind him. Stealth was no longer much of a problem now that they'd taken out the guards, at least on the surface.

"Hurry up!" Steve warned, from where he waited at the elevator. "Natasha!" he called in the radio, summoning her, too. No one got left behind while he was in charge.

At least Lucy was in fairly good shape, kept that way by Steve's insistence that she work out with him just in case something like this ever happened. Still, she was grateful for Johnny to pull her along through the snow, struggling just a little until they rounded the man-made rock formation and left the deep snow behind. As she stumbled to catch her own footing, running toward the elevator where Steve was waiting, she heard a third pair of footsteps join theirs, loping along easily. Natasha had joined them.

Johnny paused momentarily at Lucy's stumbling, tempted to toss her over his shoulder and make a fiery dash for it, but he decided against, more for her dignity's sake than anything else. When at last, they arrived, four guards lay prone on the ground, not the worse for wear, though they'd all be in pain when they finally awoke. Steve didn't question Natasha's tactics, and he didn't expect her to question his either. They'd debated it all before in the past and had decided to agree to disagree. Steve was holding the elevator, the shield back in place on his back, hurriedly waving the others inside. He threw Natasha a worried glance, knowing they didn't have much time before all hell broke loose below them, but said not a word.

Ushered inside, there wasn't much Lucy could do or say. She knew the men they'd passed weren't dead, purely because she knew Steve. She couldn't say as much for the men Natasha had taken on, but it didn't really matter right now.

Natasha checked her watch and tapped in the code for the elevator, watching as the doors closed. "Takes three minutes to descend, three minutes to ascend," she told them, more for Johnny and Lucy than for Steve. "Decoy will be in progress when we reach Level Sub Three. Your call now, Cap. Research lab is the other side of the level to the holding cells. Who's with who?"

Johnny winced, knowing they weren't going to make it to Sub Three before the decoy made itself known, but they were just going to have to deal with it.

"Lucy's with me," Steve replied, without hesitation. He'd decided that a long time ago. Lucy was the key to the success of this mission, and it was Steve's responsibility to protect her, not just because of that, but because she was his wife. "Hold on," he warned the other three, wrapping an arm around the woman who was his wife before the place started rocking.

Natasha nodded; she hadn't expected any less of Steve. "Looks like you and me and all the kids, Flame Boy," she nudged Johnny, taking a firm hold on the railing as the elevator began its descent.

Lucy leaned into Steve gratefully as he wrapped his arm about her, her own hand white-knuckled beneath the gloves with her grip on the railing. As much as she loved Johnny, she was grateful that he'd been sent with Natasha. She knew she, at least, would feel a lot safer with Steve guarding her back while she stripped the computers.

"Just try to keep your hands to yourself, Spider Girl," Johnny quipped back, the nervous tension relieved by a little harmless flirtation. He had proclaimed himself the comic relief, after all.

There wasn't much time for smooching, but Steve took the time to give Lucy's shoulder a reassuring squeeze and press a protective kiss against her head. "Almost there, Luce," he told her quietly. "You're doing great."

"Ooh, careful, I bite," Natasha quipped straight back to Johnny, ostensibly ignoring the tender moment between husband and wife as the elevator shuddered its way down through the ice. From somewhere deep below them came the sound of explosions going off - the decoy had started. A voice crackled through Natasha's communicator, stating that the evac team had arrived topside and were holding position. Everything was good to go.

Under Steve's arm, Lucy took a deep breath. "Too late to back out now," she murmured, wincing at the groan all around them as the elevator began to slow.

"We're more than halfway there," he assured her, knowing the hard part was yet to come. Getting in was one thing; getting out was quite another, but they'd cross that bridge when they got to it. Steve heard the same thing as Natasha and was glad of that. "Stay together," he warned the other two. "And stay in touch. We don't have much time."

Checking her watch again, Natasha nodded. "Thirty-seven minutes to supernova," she informed them all. It didn't seem like long enough, certainly not to Lucy. That meant they had thirty-four minutes in reality, and even that was cutting things extremely fine. The elevator jerked to a halt, the doors sweeping open to reveal an empty stretch of clinical corridor. Natasha stepped out, checking both ways, and gestured for Johnny to come with her, breaking into a run as she headed east.

Johnny wasted no time in following Natasha, knowing time was of the essence. As comical as he might seem at times, he took his duties seriously and when it came down to it, he was just as reliable and dependable as anyone. If there were kids in danger, you could bet Johnny would stop at nothing to rescue them.

Left behind, Lucy looked up at Steve. "After you, Captain."

"Keep your head down, Doctor," Steve told his wife, which just meant for her to be careful. He didn't like her taking up the rear, but he couldn't be in both places at once. He'd prefer to have gone solo, but she was the medical doctor, and they needed her expertise. He stepped out of the elevator and started down the corridor headed west in a light sprint. At least, it was light for him, though Lucy might have a little trouble keeping up.

Down here, out of the bite of the Arctic wind, Lucy didn't struggle as much as she thought she might, breaking into a run to keep as close to Steve as she dared. They'd both memorized the layout of this facility, neither one needing to ask for directions ....which was just as well, really, given that they ran straight into a patrol that was heading straight for the disturbance on the levels below. With a curse that was certainly more offensive than anything Steve had heard from her before, Lucy dove for the cover of the nearest doorway, knowing full well she was utterly useless in a fight.

Steve would have ducked for cover with her, but he'd already been seen. The vibranium shield came off his back again as he stepped into the fray, knocking one and then another soldier off their feet as he spun around to meet each attack. Too fast and powerful to be any match for them really, it was over all too quickly, the patrol scattered across the floor, like a pile of rag dolls, temporarily rendered unconscious. There was a chance they might perish if they didn't wake up to make their escape before Johnny blew the place to kingdom come, but that was a chance Steve was going to take. There were more important things at stake here. "Come on!" he called to Lucy, waving her onward.

Lucy Rogers

Date: 2015-03-10 06:40 EST
From the cover of the doorway, Lucy watched, wide-eyed, as her husband did what he did best, taking out eight armed, well-trained soldiers quickly and efficiently, not one of them injured in any way that might cause permanent harm. Her mouth was still open as she scrambled onto her feet, hurrying to run with him in that same direction. What was she supposed to say to that' She forgot to wait and let him check the lab they were aiming for, bursting in through the door ahead of him and cringing as the door made a very solid hit on the scientist who had been about to open it. He went down with a groan. "Sorry!"

Steve didn't bat an eye as the scientist went down. He didn't want to kill anyone, but he'd do what he had to do for the greater good. Later, they might laugh about it and about Lucy's reaction to it, but right now, there was nothing comical about it. He pushed into the lab behind Lucy to find a couple of techs gaping their way with open mouths and fear on their faces, more than likely thinking they were about to be killed. "Probeg!" he ordered: "Run!" His Russian wasn't the best, but he explained by miming an explosion, hoping they'd understand what he meant.

Despite her surprise at having knocked someone out with a door, of all things, Lucy was quick to do what she'd been chosen to do. This was the main lab, where all the research data was compiled and compared, brought together to form the basis for the project that was being worked on. Her fingers tapped over the unfamiliar keyboard annoyingly slowly, her eyes flickering to the watch on her wrist. Thirty minutes. Up came the research notes ....and here was her dilemma. S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted the notes intact. Her own personal code of ethics demanded that she utterly destroy them.

Steve didn't wait to make sure Lucy was doing what she'd been sent here to do, trusting her judgment and integrity to do what she deemed was right. He had his own objectives and one of those objectives was getting as many people safely out of the facility as possible, whether they were considered enemies or not. "I'll be right back," he told her, leaving her alone in the lab with only one way in and one way out. He wasn't going far and they'd have to go through him first to get to her.

"Don't go far." She glanced over her shoulder as he left the lab, looking a little concerned but trusting that he knew what he was doing. Scanning through the multiple documents, she muttered to herself, inserting a U.S.B. to record what had been done to the four children in the holding cells. If there was any way to reverse this experimentation, then she and her team would need that data. The table shook as another series of explosions went off below them.

Steve wasn't gone long, only as long as it took to tear open a control panel in the hallway and set off the alarms that signaled evacuation. With any luck, the confusion caused by the decoy and the alarms would keep the guards too busy to notice what was going on right under their noses, and though these were their enemies, the fewer lives lost, the better. He didn't bother to look at his watch, his inner timeclock knowing time was growing short. He was just about to duck back into the lab when a group of guards rounded the corner. A few shots rang out, bouncing off the vibranium shield before Steve took them down in his usual fashion.

Hearing the shots in the corridor outside, Lucy jumped, startled, half-turning toward the doorway. That turn saved her life. The scientist she had thought was out for the count was not, and he was armed. His shot caught her in the shoulder, knocking her back off her feet as she cried out in pain, grabbing the nearest thing to hand as she went down. Dazed, the man rose unsteadily to his feet, taking aim at her again, and she threw her impromptu weapon. The syringe hit his thigh, distracting him as he pulled the trigger again. The bullet hit the floor by her head, raising sparks against the metal. "Steve!"

She only needed to call him once, and he was there. He'd heard the shots and the fear in her voice when she'd called his name. He dispatched the patrol of guards quickly and turned to duck back into the lab, quickly assessing the situation with the surety of a seasoned soldier. He knocked the pistol from the man's hand before throwing him across the room, like a rag doll, hard enough to knock him senseless. Without further hesitation, he scooped Lucy up into his arms to examine her wound. "Oh, Christ. Lucy! You okay?" he asked, concern obvious on his face, fear rising like bile in his throat. This was his worst nightmare come true, and he wished he hadn't brought her. "Natasha, status! Lucy got hit! We gotta get outta here."

Lucy winced as he pulled her up, grimacing at the spreading pain from her shoulder. "I'm not done," she told him in a tight voice. "Still need to wipe the data." Thankfully, the U.S.B. was finished downloading what she needed. Even better, the bullet had gone straight through her shoulder, and it didn't feel as though it had done more than scrape bone on the way. "Put me down, I have to finish."

As she struggled back to the computer, acutely aware of the blood seeping down her back and arm, the communicator crackled. "Kids evac'd, Storm's in position," Natasha updated them. "Thirteen minutes."

"Screw that. The data will get wiped when we blow the place," Steve pointed out, though he knew she was just being thorough. "Copy that," he told Natasha. "Get your ass down here and help me." He turned back to his wife who was stubbornly trying to finish what she'd started, despite just being shot. "I can finish. You need to get out of here."

"There's time between me logging off, and this place going up, for someone to download it remotely," Lucy told him stubbornly. "I'm not taking that risk, Steve." He had chosen her for a reason, after all - she might not have been the best warrior, or the smartest strategist, but she knew what she was doing here.

Natasha's voice interrupted again. "Clearing a path - get moving, old man."

Steve knew better than to argue with his wife, whether she was wounded or not. "Can't. We're not finished yet," he informed Natasha with a worried frown. He darted a look at Lucy, "How long?" he asked, knowing they were running short on time and angry with himself for not checking the unconscious doctor for weapons before going to hit the alarm.

She clicked delete, twisting to face him as she pressed her hand to the wound in her shoulder. "One minute," she told him, finally wincing properly as she looked down at her shoulder. "Bastard." This was offered with a good amount of feeling as she glared at the crumpled body of the man who had shot her. "We can go now, Steve. It'll wipe and log out on its own."

In that moment, Steve looked a lot younger than his years, thankful it was only a shoulder wound. It would hurt like hell, but she'd survive it. He didn't bother to follow her gaze to the man on the floor. Though Steve didn't like killing people if he didn't have to, there were bound to be casualties in war. "This is your first and last mission, Doctor Rogers," he told her, scooping her up in his arms to physically carry her from the lab. They'd move a lot faster that way, so long as no one got in their way. "Natasha, headed your way," he said into the radio. "Johnny, power up."

"Copy that, Cap," Johnny's voice answered on the radio, adding, "I always wanted to say that!"

Lucy Rogers

Date: 2015-03-10 06:41 EST
Ordinarily, Lucy might have complained about being carried like a child, but even she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep up the necessary speed while bleeding out. She didn't really have any dignity to lose after her panic attack in the plane, anyway. "First, anyway," she muttered against his shoulder as he headed out, unsurprised to find that the unconscious and groaning bodies they were passing seemed to have stacked up since they'd first passed through.

"All clear, old man," she heard Natasha say as they reached the first intersection. "Medic on board."

He cradled Lucy like a child, though there was no time for tenderness now when time was of the essence. Once they were clear, he'd give Johnny the signal and it would only be a few minutes before the whole place was blown to smithereens. "I wish you'd stop calling me that," he complained to Natasha, sounding tired, angry at himself for putting Lucy in danger and for letting her get shot, even if it really was no fault of his own. Next time, maybe he'd take a chance on Banner - if there was a next time. "Hang in there, baby. We're almost there," he told Lucy gently. "Natasha, lead the way." Whether the mission was accomplished or not, none of it would matter if he lost her now.

"I'm fine," Lucy mumbled, fighting to stay conscious. One of the worst things about being a doctor was having to follow your own advice when you got hurt. "Really, it's just a flesh wound." A flesh wound that hurt like blue blazes with every step he took, that was.

Natasha ignored the complaint, simply nodding to him as she lead the way, taking out whatever resistance lay in their path before they reached the elevator with a certain amount of deadly grace. "All aboard, last trip to the surface coming up."

"You better be," Steve murmured back, feeling the blood seeping from the wound to even soak his uniform. Natasha's calm was almost annoying, though Steve was privately grateful for it. He couldn't very well fight his way out of there with Lucy in his arms. It was one of the reasons he'd insisted on Natasha coming along, not to mention the fact that she knew the facility inside and out. Just, Steve's mind echoed. Just a flesh wound. It could have been worse, but she'd have the reminder of a scar for the rest of her life.

The elevator shuddered as it began to rise. As Lucy's head drooped onto Steve's shoulder and jerked back up again in a futile attempt to try and stave off sleeping until she stopped bleeding, Natasha spoke into her communicator. "Okay, Flame Boy, start heating up. Three minutes to evac here, we want you out fast."

Though Johnny had been quiet for some time, he'd been following everything that had been going on via the comm link. He'd made a promise to Liv before they'd got here, and it was a promise he intended to keep. "Don't worry about me. I've got my own way out. You just get Lucy out of here. You hear me, Steve?" he asked, worry in his voice.

"Yeah, I hear you," Steve replied. This mission had been a success so far, but at what cost. Four kids rescued and perhaps countless future lives saved. Steve wasn't sure any of it would matter if he didn't get Lucy to safety.

"If you don't get out, Liv is going to kill me," Lucy pointed out, forcing her eyes open. Her uninjured hand poked at Steve's chest. "Don't let me fall asleep. Hurt me if you have to - no sleeping until the medic patches me up." Beside them, Natasha discreetly turned her back, not bothering to hide her smirk. It was certainly an education going on a mission with a married couple.

"I'll get out. Don't worry," Johnny assured her. "I'm Flame Boy, remember?" The comm went dead, just after his voice was heard saying, "Flame on!" There would be no more communication from him. They could only hope he knew what he was doing.

Thankfully, Steve didn't notice Natasha's smirk, too worried about Lucy to care what she thought, trusting Johnny to finish the job. "You're gonna be okay, Luce," he assured his wife with a faint smile, wondering why it was taking the lift so long to reach the surface. It hadn't seemed to take that long to descend.

"I know I will," she informed him with the stubbornness she hadn't really displayed before tonight. Going into fear with her eyes open was something she'd learned to do when she was seventeen; she hadn't thought she'd need to know how to do it again. "I'd just about kill for a decent drink about now."

Natasha chuckled a little, bracing herself as the lift ground to a halt, doors opening to admit the blast of icy snow thrown up by the turning blades of the aircraft waiting for them.

"Baby, you can have anything you want for the asking, once we get home," Steve promised. He knew Lucy enough to know she wouldn't wish for anything but a happy, peaceful life for all of them, but that was one thing Steve wasn't sure he could give her. He turned a little to shield her from the cold blast of snow and air as the elevator doors opened. A few more steps and they'd be safe. He couldn't say the same for Johnny.

Loaded onto the aircraft in double-quick time, they took off smoothly into the night just as heat began to rise in wavering columns from the air vents set beneath the snow, melting pools of water forming, proving that Johnny was getting up steam - quite literally, in fact. Lucy was taken into the medic's care immediately, complaining all the way as her suit was cut away, her skin cleaned, and a rough bandage was pressed into place. She barely even noticed when they put a bag of O-Neg up to replace what she'd lost. Natasha spoke briefly with the pilot, leaving Steve to keep an eye on his wife and make sure she didn't cause the medics too much trouble.

The aircraft disappeared into the cloudy sky too quickly to see what happened to the facility under the ice or to ensure that the fourth member of the team got to safety. There was no fireball seen shooting through the sky to tell them of Johnny's escape, nothing but ice cracking and melting and falling into the sea. Steve felt sick at heart, almost as sick at heart as he'd felt when he'd lost Bucky, when he'd awoken to find he'd lost Peggy, but he wasn't going to lose Lucy. He'd make sure of that. Until that moment, he hadn't quite realized just how much this little family meant to him - not just Lucy and Jamie, but Liv and Johnny and Fliss and Peggy. And his friends, too - Nick and Natasha, and yes, even Tony. He'd have given his life for any one of them, but of all the people who'd touched his life over the years, there was one person he simply could not bear losing, and that person was Lucy.

Natasha came back from the flight deck, flexing her arm up and down as she walked. Her gaze flickered out the back, searching - as everyone was - for the tell tale comet that was Johnny Storm, before glancing down to where Lucy had been laid on a stretcher, finally sedated to make her stop arguing with the medic at work. The redhead found herself looking at the wedding ring for a long moment before dragging her eyes back to Steve. "Not bad for a fossil," she complimented him. "What happened?"

Lucy Rogers

Date: 2015-03-10 06:42 EST
Steve was seated beside his wife, one hand held ever so gently in his, a sheen of tears in his eyes that he was unashamed to let Natasha see. If this wasn't what made life worth living, nothing was. He shrugged, sniffling once before answering. "Doctor had a gun on him. I knocked him out, but didn't check him for weapons, so this one's on me."

"Could've been worse," Natasha pointed out. "Could've been you." She looked down at the sleeping doctor once again, a little envious of the obvious bond between Steve and his wife, but glad at the same time that he'd found it when he most needed it. She'd met Jamie, and despite her complete lack of any kind of maternal instinct, he'd charmed her easily. "She did good, Steve."

He'd rather it had been him. He had better stamina than Lucy, than any of them - superhuman stamina. A shoulder wound would hardly have even slowed him down. "Wish it had been me," he replied, dashing the tears from his eyes with a hand, not really caring whether or not she noticed. "Sometimes I wish I was more like you, Tash," he admitted quietly, his gaze never leaving his wife's too-pale face.

"No way in hell would she have been able to get you back to the elevator in time," Natasha pointed out. She was a mercenary at heart, with all that entailed, able to make the harder decisions because she had more experience at seeing the bigger picture in an adrenaline-fueled situation. Her eyes didn't leave him as she answered his admission. "And no, you don't. If you were more like me, you wouldn't have a wife and son, or a family beyond them. You'd have a lot of red in your ledger."

"Yeah, well, I'm thinking you're well on your way to wiping that out," he told her, lifting his gaze to hers with a faint smile on his face. "I'm glad you're here, Natasha. I don't have many friends, but I'd like to think you're one of them." Not just allies or team-mates or even partners, but friends. He glanced toward the window, the worried expression returning to his face. "Johnny make it out yet?" he asked, worried for every member of his team. He'd asked them all to be part of this, and they were his responsibility.

"Not that I can see," she admitted, looking out into the darkness again. "He'll be out soon. He did good, too. I'm not the best with kids; he had them out and in the elevator faster than I could have done." She paused, scowling at what they'd discovered about those children in that short trip. "They're street kids from all over Europe. Just picked up and taken back for experimentation."

Steve noticed how she'd avoided or sidestepped his mention of friendship and turned back to Lucy with a frown. Maybe it was too soon for that or maybe she just wasn't interested in his friendship. He made a mental note not to mention it again. "Yeah, he's a regular Pied Piper where kids are concerned," Steve admitted. Maybe he'd feel better once they were all home, safe and sound and Lucy was recovering, and Johnny was laughing about it with Liv. "You did good, too, Natasha. I'm sure it won't go unnoticed."

It wasn't intended to offend him. Natasha Romanoff had spent a lifetime avoiding friendships and attachments; either they ended badly, or they got other people killed. It was a difficult thing to unlearn. "I'm expected to do good," she shrugged. "We got in, we got out, minimal casualties. We all did good."

It wasn't like he was expecting her to join them for Sunday brunch, or maybe he was. Maybe it was just too much to ask or expect from her right now. He rubbed a thumb against the back of his wife's hand. "We did the right thing, didn't we, Tasha?" he asked, letting her see a few of his own inner demons. He hoped Nick Fury hadn't lied to him; he hoped they'd weren't just puppets of S.H.I.E.L.D., like Tony seemed to think. He remembered what someone had told him so many years ago, the night before he'd been changed into a super soldier. "....Stay who you are ....a good man." Steve could only hope he would have made Dr. Erskine proud.

Leaning against the bulkhead of the aircraft, Natasha sighed quietly. "If it keeps people from trying to replicate you, or wanting to experiment on your son, then we did the right thing." How could he doubt her friendship, even if she wasn't prepared to put a name to it' Her eyes remained on the dark sky outside, searching for any sign of the Human Torch. "Sometimes the right thing doesn't look right for a long time after."

"Experiment on my son?" Steve echoed, jerking his head toward Natasha, blue eyes wide with horror at the thought of that. "They wouldn't dare!" Would they' Jamie did share Steve's bloodline, but whether he'd inherited any of his father's abilities as far as the serum went was not yet clear. Steve followed her gaze to the window again, frowning. Though it seemed the mission had been successful, Lucy had been shot and who knew what had happened to Johnny' Liv would kill him if anything had happened to Johnny on his first mission. He'd only been there at Steve's insistence. "He'll be okay. He has to be," he murmured aloud, more for his sake than Natasha's.

"Fury shut down the research that was going on as soon as your wife got pregnant," Natasha told him very quietly, her voice low enough that only Steve could possibly hear her. To anyone else, she might have been mumbling to herself incoherently. "Anything that flags up super soldier in the system gets knocked out fast." She tilted her head as a column of steam shot upward from the ice now miles behind them, filling the sky with clouds. A faint smirk touched her lips, acknowledging that the deed was apparently done.

"Sir" Ma'am?" a voice interrupted - a man of lower rank in a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. "We've received confirmation of an 8.5 tremor at the target location."

Steve turned to acknowledge the man, knowing Johnny had completed his part of the mission and then some. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Any sign of Mister Storm?"

The lieutenant frowned just before replying. "No, sir. Nothing yet. I'll keep you posted."

"Thanks," Steve repeated, turning back to Lucy and Natasha. "We couldn't have done this without him."

Natasha didn't even acknowledge the report given to them, her eyes still on the dark sky as they flew toward the heli-carrier awaiting them over the ocean that would take them home. Steve's comment, however, made her bristle, frowning at the seeming implication that Johnny Storm hadn't made it. She'd seen the man in action, after all. "He'll get out," she said simply. "He's tough to kill."

Steve didn't want to believe Johnny hadn't made it. Maybe it was the memory of losing Bucky that worried him so. As far as everyone else was concerned, it had happened over seventy years ago, but to Steve it felt like yesterday. "Yeah, he'll be okay," Steve said, hoping Natasha was right. Of the four of them, Steve thought Johnny was the least vulnerable, but then, he had no idea what was going on beneath the snow and the ice, and he knew Johnny wasn't invincible. "He doesn't give himself enough credit, you know. He's just as much a hero as any of us." Or Lucy, for that matter.

"Lots of different ways to be a hero," the redhead said, turning away from the window to stretch her arms once again. "Don't have to save the world to be one." She glanced down at Lucy, a faint flicker of sardonic amusement on her face. "Don't have to be anything but ordinary."

Steve followed Natasha's gaze to that of his wife, pale and silent, but looking peaceful in her repose. "She's definitely not that," he countered. "She's special," he said quietly, perhaps more to Lucy than to Natasha, though Lucy could not hear him just yet. He leaned closer, taking Lucy's hand between his own and pressing it to his lips. "Never forgive myself if anything ever happened to her."

Lucy Rogers

Date: 2015-03-10 06:43 EST
"She got you to marry her without even going on a date," Natasha drawled in amusement. "That's pretty darn special." She flashed her rare, open smile to Steve, wiping the expression away before anyone else saw it. "Seen the doc in action - she catches you being noble and taking the blame, she's gonna stripe your ass for it."

"Can't help it, Tash. I love her," Steve said quietly, just loud enough for Natasha to hear, or Lucy if she was awake. It was pretty obvious to anyone who saw them together how they felt about each other, and Steve wasn't ashamed or shy about his feelings for Lucy, and yet, those feelings were a private matter between husband and wife. "Promised her I'd take her dancing, but I haven't gotten around to it yet," he mused, holding her hand between his own and watching her pretty face. Behind them, in the night sky, there was a brief flash of light, mostly hidden behind the clouds and the steam - too brief to identify for certain.

Natasha smiled once again, turning away to give the couple a little privacy, missing the brief flash that illuminated the clouds for that brief moment. "Should take her to one of the retro tea dances," she told him. "Party like it's 1945."

"Retro tea dances?" he echoed, a puzzled look on his face. It had only been a few years since Steve had thawed from the ice that had kept him frozen for seventy years, and there were still things about the modern world he didn't understand. Apparently, a retro tea dance was one of them. "I'm not following," he told her.

"You know, there's a couple of places in Brooklyn that do 1940's nights," she told him in her drawling style, tilting her head as she looked down at the man out of time. "You get dressed up in the style you're accustomed to, you go there, you dance the way you know how to the music you know. Better that than she takes you dancing." The thought of Steve Rogers being the centerpiece for his wife bumping and grinding on a nightclub dance-floor was enough to make Natasha's eyes sparkle with amusement.

"But ..." Steve started, uncertainly. "I can't ....I mean, I never learned how to ..." Except for one brief lesson from Olivia the night before his wedding, he had two left feet, or so he thought. Still, it was something to think about. The last woman he'd promised to go dancing with was Peggy, but he didn't want to think about that either. "What's wrong with her taking me dancing?" Steve asked, somehow miraculously oblivious to the finer points of modern culture.

Natasha's expression was a picture, attempting not to laugh and yet failing to keep her laughter from showing on her face as she looked down at him, swaying with the motion of the helicopter as it turned to come into land on the heli-carrier, miles above the Atlantic Ocean. "Dancing's come a long way since you last tried it, old man," she told him. "Watch Dirty Dancing, you'll get it."

"Dirty Dancing?" Steve echoed, blond brows arching in puzzlement. He had no idea what she was talking about. A dance show on television, perhaps" But why was it called ....And then he realized what she must mean by that and he actually blushed. "Oh, I see." He frowned a little. Perhaps he was an old man. Old fashioned, at any rate. "Maybe you're right. A ....retro tea dance sounds more my speed."

"It's a movie," she explained with another flash of her grin, bracing herself as the helicopter landed neatly on the air deck of the heli-carrier. As the loading bay door opened up, she stepped smartly out of the way of the medical team that ran into the interior of the helicopter, ready to take charge of Doctor Rogers and see her safely settled in the infirmary below decks.

Steve stepped out of the way of the medical team to stand beside Natasha as they took charge of his wife. He had every intention of following them to infirmary and remaining by her side until she had recovered. "Do me a favor?" he asked as they tended to his wife.

"I don't think hamburgers are on the menu," she smirked flippantly, before schooling her expression, watching as the stretcher was lifted and carried out of the helicopter. She looked up at Steve. "What do you need?"

Normally, Steve would have appreciated her sense of humor, but at the moment, he was too worried to do so just yet. "Would you debrief Fury on the mission' I want to stay with Lucy, until she wakes up." He'd done more than his fair share, and he figured Natasha was just as capable of filling in their commander as he was.

"He'll want to see you," she warned him, but that wasn't a no. It was simply that, a warning that the Director wouldn't consider an injured wife a good enough reason not to debrief with Captain Rogers before dawn. She nodded to him in agreement. "I'll buy you some time. Hopefully she'll be awake before he gets away from me."

"He can wait. I need to be there for her," Steve explained, not really expecting her to understand, but hoping she'd try. There was a time when he'd been a soldier first and foremost, but now he was also a husband and a father, and his family came first. "I've given them my whole life, Natasha. It won't kill him to wait a little bit more."

"I'll do what I can," she promised, stepping aside as the medical team headed onto the deck and toward the interior of the carrier. "Go and be with your wife, old man. I got this."

"Thanks, Tash," he told her, offering her a strained smile and actually leaning over to brush a brotherly kiss against her cheek. Was Steve Rogers getting soft in his old age, or was he just needing to show Natasha he both cared about her and appreciated her friendship?

She smiled her sardonic smile rolling her eyes at him, and strode out onto the deck, over-taking the medical team easily to slip into the carrier. Fury was likely to be tied up in all sorts of unnecessary mission details, and he wasn't stupid enough not to know why. One of the medics turned to gesture to Steve as they, too, slipped inside with Lucy on the stretcher between them.

Steve didn't seem to notice the sardonic smile, or if he did, at least he didn't mention it. Now that the mission was over, his main concern was taking care of his team and the survivors - Lucy, Johnny, Natasha, the children they'd rescued. He knew he'd have to debrief Fury before long, and he'd have to check in on the kids to make sure they were all right. It might be difficult if they didn't speak English, but there were enough translators with S.H.I.E.L.D. that he'd manage. And he had to find out for sure what had happened to Johnny, maybe even send a search and rescue back for him, if he didn't show up soon. But first and foremost on his mind right now was Lucy, and until he was sure she was going to be all right, Lucy was all he wanted to think about.

To their credit, the S.H.I.E.L.D. medics were very good at what they did. It took barely twenty minutes for Lucy to be checked over, stitched up, bandaged, and settled in a bed in the infirmary, the curtains pulled to allow Steve some privacy with her from the others who were being kept there overnight. She wasn't quite ready to come out of the sedation just yet, but knowing Lucy, she was fighting it all the way.

Whether she regained consciousness or not, Steve wasn't leaving his wife's side, unless ordered to under threat of court martial. He'd remain with her in the infirmary both here and once they were back at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. If Fury wanted to see him, he was just going to come to him.

Lucy Rogers

Date: 2015-03-10 06:44 EST
After what may have seemed an age, but was only around half an hour, Lucy stirred, small and pale in the bed but fighting against the sedation keeping her down. Her hand twitched in Steve's as she took a deep breath, forcing her eyes open blearily in the dim artificial light. "Baby?"

Steve breathed a sigh of relief, already leaning forward, his head close to hers. "Hey," he said in a soft voice, a faint but worried smile on his face. "You okay' You had me worried," he admitted, touching his fingers to her cheek and through her hair.

She swallowed against a dry mouth, the hand of her injured arm groping toward the nasal tubes that were attached to her, wanting them and their drying influence off her. Moving that arm made her wince and groan, stilling before she hurt herself again. "Ow," she informed her husband with bleary matter-of-factness, blinking rapidly to try and focus her eyes. "What happened" Did we get it all done?"

"Shh," he told her, gently taking her hand before she could pull out the tubes that he knew must be annoying, but necessary. "You don't remember?" he asked. "No, I don't suppose you would," he answered his own question. Not with all the painkillers they were pumping her full of. "Yeah, mission successful, thanks to you. You did good, Doctor Rogers," he told her, smoothing her hair back from her face, an adoring smile on his face, his eyes suspiciously wet.

She pouted with childlike annoyance at the way he kept her from removing the oxygen, turning her head toward his as he smiled. Her own lips curved in a sleepy echo of that smile, the fingers of her good hand gripping his loosely. "I jumped out of a plane," she murmured, still slightly incredulous that it had happened at all. Getting shot was nothing compared with that.

"Yeah, you did," he said, chuckling a little now that it was over. He wondered if he'd been right in picking her for the team, but she'd exceeded his expectations and maybe even her own. "I promise you'll never have to do it again, unless you really want to," he told her, rubbing a thumb against the back of her hand. He leaned closer to brush a kiss against her brow. "Love you, Luce."

She smiled, owlishly proud of herself not for completing the mission but for making him proud of her. "Love you, too," she murmured, squeezing his hand affectionately. A yawn caught her lips, but she suppressed it quickly, a low frown touching her brows. "Where's Johnny?"

Steve's smile faltered briefly, though with any luck, she wouldn't notice it in her grogginess. "He's ....he'll be along. He did it, Luce. He destroyed the facility. At least, as far as we can tell." He didn't want to think about how many people may have died in the fire and explosion, but of all the lives that may have been saved. "There will be plenty of time to explain things later. Right now, you just need to rest."

"Don't want to," she informed him with a petulant pout, though it was fairly obvious that she was going to lose the fight against falling asleep sooner rather than later. At least she hadn't noticed the flicker in her husband's expression at the mention of their brother-in-law.

"It's okay, Luce. I'll be right here when you wake up. I promise," he told her, gently stroking her hair, soothing her back to sleep. He couldn't make the same promise about Johnny, but he was hoping Natasha's instincts were right in that he made it out okay. If he'd had time to really think about it, it might occur to him that Johnny hadn't bothered to stop to let them know he was okay, but had headed straight home to New York. There was no way to know for sure, not yet anyway, and Steve could only hope for the best.

She yawned again, fighting the urge to sleep all the way, and wriggled a little way over the wide infirmary bed, holding tightly to his hand all the while. "Get in," she told him, not taking no for an answer. It was often quite correct to say that doctors made terrible patients - this one had the potential to be the worst patient ever created.

He arched a brow at her, unsure if his much larger form would fit in the bed beside her, but she was insistent, and he only wanted to make her happy. Besides, there was nothing he wanted more at that moment than to hold her in his arms. "Is that an order, Doctor?" he teased, a small smile on his face, as he very carefully eased his tall, broad self onto the bed beside her.

"Yes." Stubborn, she certainly was, and it wasn't as though they hadn't done this before. Last time, he had been the one with the injury, but even then, they'd managed to fit themselves securely on a hospital bed to sleep away the night. Rolling onto her good arm, she laid her head against his chest, and the instant relief that came with knowing he was well and safe and right there was palpable as a low sigh left her lips. "I was scared," she admitted in a low tone, nestling gently into him.

He drew her against him, careful of the tubes and wires and especially careful of the wound to her shoulder, his heartbeat slow and steady in his chest. "You wanna know a secret?" he asked her quietly, unsure if she would even hear him before she drifted back off to sleep. "I was scared, too." But for a different reason - not for himself, but for her and the others, too, but mostly for her. Natasha and Johnny knew how to take care of themselves, but Lucy wasn't like them. She wasn't a solider or a spy or a superhero; she was just a woman, human and vulnerable, and mostly importantly, she was the woman he loved.

Drifting, Lucy laid her hand gently over his heart as he drew her against him, relaxing in the one place she knew she would always be safe - his arms. "You're the best part of me," she mumbled, rubbing her cheek against his chest as her legs tangled with his. Whether Director Fury wanted his debriefing or not, he was going to have to get through the formidable Doctor Rogers to get to Captain America, and this time, she was on drugs.

Steve smiled, his eyes tearing up again at the heartfelt words from his weary wife. "I think you've got that backwards, Doctor Rogers," he whispered back. "Love you, baby," he told her quietly, touching a protective kiss against her head as she drifted off to sleep. Fury was just going to have to wait because Steve wasn't leaving her side. The mission had been accomplished, though not without its hairy moments. This time belonged to them.

((Mission accomplished! What happened to Johnny Storm' Will S.H.I.E.L.D. be able to reverse what was done to the children" Will Liv ever forgive her sister for getting herself shot' Stay tuned to find out!))