Chapter Text
I receive Fury’s call to come in for 6am, way too early for my liking. And short notice. I get out of the bed of some stranger who still sleeps and I look for my clothes that have been thrown around in a flurry. The man – I think his name was Aaron – stirs as I walk into the bathroom to get dressed in last night’s outfit. Natasha and I went out clubbing the night before but she got called away on a mission with Clint so I had decided to go home with some hotshot FBI agent I met there, of course Fury had to ruin a perfectly good start to the weekend.
“Leaving already?” he raises a brow and I detect some disappointment.
“Not by choice,” I retort. “Thanks for the good time.”
“Just good?”
No, it was fucking amazing but I’m not giving a federal agent that kind of satisfaction. “Yeah. Just good.”
He just chuckles, not taking any offense. I always know how to pick the good ones; not overcompensating for what they don’t have, confident in their abilities and no attachment issues. These ones never want to meet up again or grab a coffee and tell me their life stories. And it’s better that way, especially in the line of work I’m in.
“Do you want me to call you a cab?”
“No, I’ve got a ride. Thanks, Aaron.”
I leave the hotel room and send a message to the lower-level agent tasked with getting me to the Triskellion.
“Good Morning, Agent L/N,” he greets and I notice a strong Scottish accent.
I get into the backseat. “What does Fury want?”
“Um, it’s a mission briefing. Then you’ll bring in Ca-Captain Rogers.”
I frown. Steve Rogers? I’ve never worked a mission with him before, why would I now?
“Agent Romanoff was supposed to run point but she had to go to Belarus with Agent Barton.”
“So I’m the second choice.”
“N-no!” the exclaim. “I-“
“I was kidding, Agent. Lighten up. What are you anyway? Level 5?”
“Level 4, actually. Leo Fitz.”
“So you’re really just my driver.”
“Pretty much. I don’t have the clearance pertaining to your mission’s details. Just the basics the Director knew you’d ask about. Have you ever met the Captain?” Fitz asks.
“Once. The first time he woke up, they sent me in to deliver the news. He got really spooked though so he ran through the fake wall of the set we orchestrated. He didn’t like it very much. That was… two years ago,” I recall the event, I don’t get scared but that moment would have been as close as I could get to that feeling if I hadn’t encountered the depths of HYDRA a few years before that.
“I can’t believe you got to meet him. Well, not meet but… it’s Captain America. That is something.”
“Yeah. He’s gorgeous but I don’t get the hype. So what, he’s a good person.”
“And super strong, brave, freed 150 soldiers from the Nazis, sacrificed – or rather, was willing to sacrifice his life for the good of all the cities they were going to bomb back in World War Two. He’s the definition of superhero.”
“Wow, you almost sound like Coulson,” I remark before I stop myself.
“Agent Coulson? The one Loki…”
I stay quiet and Fitz gets the message that he should too. We arrive at the field office and I leave Fitz to go up the elevator to the top floor to see Fury.
Entering, he get straight to the point.
“I’m putting you and Captain Rogers on an assignment together. One of our ships has been hijacked. Rogers will be on rescue and you will be on retrieval.” The screen creates a hologram of the ship.
“And what will I be retrieving?” I ask.
“Intel. Classified. You are not to disclose it to Rogers. It may jeopardise his mission.” He points to an area of the ship. “This is your target.”
“You want me to double cross Captain America?”
“No. I want you to use his mission as a cover and covertly recover SHIELD intel.”
I sigh and take the briefing packet for Captain Rogers.
“You know, I’m taking the Stingray.”
“I know. You think I didn’t see you swipe those keys?”
“I know you didn’t.” I chuckle.
I leave his office and go to the garage, searching for the gorgeous sleek car and smirk when I find it. I unlock the bulletproof glass doors and get in. I hook up my portable communicator to the GPS to locate Captain Rogers.
“Destination: Washington Monument,” the car speaks.
I approach and have the comms send the Captain’s device a message.
I roll up in front of him, illegally parked, yes but who’s gonna fight me?
“Captain Rogers. My name is Agent Y/N L/N, I’ll be your partner for this mission.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“You’re not gonna ask for my ID card or something?” This guy trusts too easily.
“Should I?”
I smirk and my eyes shift to the man next to him. Looks like he can make friends after all.
“Hey,” I say. Yes. I’m a flirt.
“How you doin’?” he replies, putting on his suave face.
“Shall we?” I gesture to the car.
“Damn,” the Captain’s new friend whistles at the Stingray.
I get in and so does Captain Rogers.
“Can’t run everywhere,” he says.
“No you can’t,” his friend says, still admiring the car.
“So what’s the mission?” the Captain asks, turning to me.
I pull out the folder I slotted in the compartment between the seats.
“Hostages on the Lemurian Star, one of ours. Mission is rescue and extraction of personnel.” I choose my words carefully because it’s more his and the STRIKE team’s mission. While mine is to discreetly extract the SHIELD intelligence kept on the ship’s servers onto a secure drive Fury had given to me prior to my meeting with America’s Golden Boy.
He nods with a serious look on his face as he reads over the file for background.
“Pirates?”
“Yep. Hostages aren’t fighters, either. They’re scientists and technicians and only one field officer.”
“Jasper Sitwell,” he fills in as he reads. “What’s he doing on a launch ship?”
“Probably just oversight of operations. Location is off course.”
I drive us to the tarmac where a quinjet awaits and so does the STRIKE team.
We gear up, Rogers changes out of his sweats and into a SHIELD issued special Captain America suit. Still doesn’t feel real that the hero of our history books is standing right in front of me.
“Captain Rogers, this is the STRIKE team,” I introduce. “They’ll be having our backs. This is Agent Brock Rumlow, the unit leader.”
“It’s an honour to meet you, Cap. It’s good to work with you again, Agent L/N. If everyone would look to the screen,” he starts the mission plan. “Target is The Lemurian Star, a mobile satellite launch platform. Pirates intercepted and took personnel hostage demanding a ransom of $1.5 billion. This was 93 minutes ago.”
“Why so steep?” Rogers questions.
“Because it’s SHIELD’s,” Rumlow replies but even I think that’s quite the ask, especially for a launch platform.
“In the Indian Ocean? It’s trespassing, not off course,” Rogers frowns then looks at me.
“I’m sure they had good reason,” I say confidently.
“So you just have blind faith in Fury while he gets us to play janitor.”
“Careful there, Cap,” Rumlow warns. “Don’t be pulling that thread.”
“How many pirates?” I ask, steering the conversation back to the mission details.
“25. Mercs. Georges Batroc’s their leader.” Rumlow gives us a rundown of Batroc’s history and experience as I run my own mission brief in my head.
“I’m sweeping the deck to find Batroc. L/N, kill the engines then await further instruction. Rumlow and STRIKE sweep it for hostages, get them to life-pods then get them out, take down any and all hostiles. Let’s move.”
The jet approaches the target and we check the security of our comms.
“Secure channel seven,” Rogers speaks into his wrist comm.
“Seven secure,” I answer to mine. I look through the armoury and pick up some throwing knives, batons and a pistol. “Do anything fun this weekend, Captain?”
“Considering everyone I know is dead… not really,” he replies as he fits his earpiece.
My eyebrows raise and I smirk. “Who knew Golden Boy had a dark sense of humour?” I ask rhetorically. “Very different attitude to when we first met.”
He frowns as he thinks but before he can say anything else our pilot comes on the radio. “Coming up on the drop zone, Cap.”
He puts on his helmet and the doors slide open letting in the unforgiving cold. He attaches his shield to his back and approaches the end of the ramp.
“You don’t remember do you?” I ask over the loud noise of the engines.
“We’ll talk about that later!” then he jumps out of the plane.
“You’ve met him?” Rumlow asks.
“When he first woke up.” I strap on my parachute and jump out.
I land and fall into step with him as he walks as if he hadn’t just taken down a handful of men in the time it took for us to float down.
“Was it at Stark’s afterparty?” he asks as I unclip the parachute.
I smirk knowingly. “Are you saying I’m not that memorable, Captain?”
“I-“
“Why don’t I secure the engine, I’ll give you two more guesses.” I jump over a railing to get to the engine room more efficiently.
There is a lone pirate guarding the room and he doesn’t notice me as I slide down the banister. He gets an order through the phone and turns to be greeted by me.
“Bonjour marin,” I tease then hit him where it hurts and then I wrap a grappling hook around him and scale down, shooting at any pirates I see on my way. I navigate the room, taking out the hostiles and tying them up with the ropes hanging on the walls. “Engine room secure,” I say into my wrist comm.
I make my way to the main server room. Inserting the USB drive from my pocket I get to work. I use my own log in to access the SHIELD intranet and then pull up the computer’s source code.
“Hostages en route to extraction,” I hear Rumlow announce.
Damn it.
“L/N missed the rendezvous point, Cap,” he says. “Hostiles are still in play.”
“L/N. Batroc’s on the move. Circle back to the STRIKE team and protect the hostages.” I turn my comms to radio silence to concentrate on working faster now that they know I’m missing. Over-riding the current firewalls using the commands that Fury gave me, I was able to access the classified files stored in the ship’s separate intelligence. I wait for all the files to download then Rogers and Batroc come barreling in.
“Well, this is awkward,” I say as Rogers knocks him out. So much for discreet.
He looks up in surprise as if a ghost started talking to him. “Rumlow needed your help,” he says in an accusing tone. “What are you doing?”
“Just backing up the hard drive. Harmless.”
“The hostages are priority and I gave you orders.” He walks towards me and looks at the monitor. “You’re covering for SHIELD?”
“It’s my job.”
“The mission was to get the hostages out safe and extract them.”
“Sorry, Captain. That was your mission.” Once the download was complete, I code a total deletion of intel on the ship. “And you’ve done a great job of it.” I pull out the drive and make my way to the door.
He stops me with a firm grip on my arm. “You just jeopardized this whole operation, Agent.”
“That’s an exaggeration, Captain.”
There is a shuffle behind us and Batroc gets up, throwing a live grenade at us. As quick as a blink, Rogers deflects it with the shield and picks me up as I shoot at the glass window of a control room to break its integrity and we jump in just as the blast detonates.
We shuffle up against the wall, panting. “I admit to that one.”
“You’re damn right,” he says as he stands, making his way to the extraction point in a huff.
I sigh, strangely feeling bad that our first mission literally ended up in flames. Well maybe it’ll be our last.
I get up from the floor and dust myself off.
“Where were you?” Rumlow asks as I approach while the STRIKE team guides the hostages into the life-pods.
“Codeword classified,” I reply which he accepts with no suspicion or distrust. Suppose it has to do with the fact that he has been an agent for so long while Captain Rogers isn’t used this kind of pecking order.