Somewhere over the Atlantic

Spring 2015

The ground was humming beneath Nadine as she came to, her eyes snapping open as she realized she was in a vehicle. No, that was wrong. It wasn't just any vehicle. They were flying.

She was airborne.

"Hey Cap, she's wakin' up."

And as she tried to roll over and sit up, she realized she was tightly bound on top of it. Strong ties bound her wrists behind her back, while her ankles were similarly tied and linked to her wrist bindings so that she felt trussed up like a bird ready for the roast. And someone had stunned her; her muscles were still twitching from the aftereffects of the voltage used...probably Hawkeye... It must have been some sort of taser arrow that hit her, she realized, recalling that last instant before she'd blacked out.

A few strands of blonde hair tickled across her cheekbone, irritating in her momentary inability to brush them aside. She bit back a huff of frustration.

While she wanted nothing more than to snap herself free and show the Avengers precisely how she felt about their poorly-considered decision to restrain her, she knew she needed to play this carefully. After all, not only were they all confined in rather limited—and airborne—quarters, but Captain America and Hawkeye weren't run-of-the-mill Mercs or thugs. They had their respective reputations for a reason. She needed to be smart about this.

As she shifted in preparation to right herself, automatically testing the ties as she went, a large, solid body lowered down beside her. Still awkwardly lying halfway between her back and side, her legs bent so her ankles were up near her hands, she was forced to crane her neck back to meet the blue eyes looking down at her.

Classically handsome was the first term Nadine would have used to describe the Captain as he knelt by her side, one arm propped on his knee as the other rested on his hip. The second was far less kind. He watched her for a moment, his gaze thoughtful and intent as he studied her. She kept her face carefully blank as she stared back, her left hand slowly beginning to migrate toward her utility belt.

"I wouldn't do that." Her gaze flashed to the left, locking on Hawkeye as he lounged against another bulkhead just behind the Captain, his sharp eyes fixed on her. At her impatient huff, his eyes flicked to her belt before he casually dropped them to where he was fiddling with the guard on his hand. "She's probably got something for helping to break free of zipties on that belt, Rogers, so stay sharp." Biting back a sigh, she gave up on the surreptitious movement, ignoring the nearly amused raised eyebrow Rogers was giving her. Well, it would have been too simple otherwise, she supposed. More a test than a plan, her mind automatically changed track. She shifted again to find a better position; there was a bulkhead behind her that was digging sharply into her shoulder-blade.

"You're both awfully friendly considering I killed your friend," she said pleasantly. Behind Rogers, Barton snorted before glancing over toward the centre of the main part of the cabin. Given that the soldier was kneeling between her and whatever the archer was looking at, Nadine couldn't see what he found so amusing, but Hawkeye's reaction alone had her anticipating the voice that spoke up next.

"If this is dead, I'm not impressed." Nadine's eyes slid shut with a painful mixture of frustrated despondency and relief as Natalia—though apparently she went almost solely by Natasha now—sat up with a groan from the stretch of seats serving as a makeshift cot beyond Rogers and Barton both, just barely visible over Roger's shoulder from where Nadine lay. The blonde assassin allowed her head to fall back with a dull, metallic thud against the bulkhead.

She had to pull her shot...all because she couldn't control her reaction at seeing Natalia again.

And for that, she had risked everything.

"Should you really be getting up?" Nadine nearly smiled, easily imagining the look Natasha was likely giving Barton as he spoke, "you did just die, apparently." Nadine groaned at the archer's lame attempt at a joke, and apparently Black Widow was just as impressed.

"In that case, recovery is going to take longer than I thought," she replied dryly, earning a bark of laughter from Hawkeye and even a light chuckle from the Captain. At the sound of the slow, lighter steps coming closer, Nadine let her eyes open again, reinforcing that her expression was still blank. A pair of familiar green eyes looked down at her, a flurry of emotion written in them even as they studied her carefully, taking her measure. Nadine simply studied her right back. With a faint but unreadable grin, the redhead gingerly settled herself down beside Barton, the archer shifting to make room next to him as he watched his injured companion with wary eyes that belied the easy expression on his face.

"Nadya," Natasha greeted softly, her voice betraying little.

"Natalia," Nadine replied, her voice saying less. Her grey eyes took in the field dressing packed against her old friend's side, "you didn't die."

"Were you actually trying?" Nadine blinked at the knowing smirk that played about Natasha's full lips before an inadvertent one of her own tugged at her mouth. It was such a familiar expression, she couldn't help it, another flutter of relief going through her. Apparently some things never changed. On some level, Black Widow was still her lisichka.

"Obviously not hard enough," she said back, the familiar, teasing tone returning easily before she could stop it. The smirk solidified.

"I thought The Ghost never missed," the Redhead said impishly. Next to Natasha, Hawkeye started, his eyes darting between Natasha and Nadine with before settling warily on the bound woman on the floor. It took a great deal of willpower not to right herself. Rogers, on the other hand, looked faintly lost, his brow creasing.

"Ghost?" Natasha looked over to him, taking in his questioning look before answering, a calculating glint surfacing in her eyes as she watched Nadine thoughtfully. Nadine recognized that look. Natasha was assessing her reactions. Well, Nadine wasn't intending to give her much to go on, easily schooling her features as Natasha filled him in.

"The Ghost; an assassin who hunts assassins. Can track them down and take them out when no one else can, then vanishes without a trace. Exists and lives completely off the grid, only surfacing to take contracts. And The Ghost has never missed," she smiled again, an oddly satisfied look on her face, "at least until now." Nadine nearly rolled her eyes.

"I guess I'll need to change my business cards," she bit back sarcastically. Natasha chuckled, though she cut off with a wince as she jostled her bullet wound. Nadine fought back a flicker of guilt-tinged concern; she couldn't afford to think like that. Barton tensed, his hand unconsciously edging toward the holster on his thigh as he processed what Natasha was implying.

"Wait, she's The Ghost? And she was after you?" But Natasha ignored Barton, her attention still on Nadine. Next to her, Rogers straightened at the realization, though Nadine purposefully paid him little mind. It was almost amusing, their unease upon realizing who she was. A disbelieving near-laugh huffed out of the female Avenger.

"I have to say, I didn't think it'd be you. I thought you were long dead." Nadine shrugged as best she was able, allowing herself a faint wince as the ache in her side from one of the Captain's hits flared far more painfully than it should have thanks to her awkward position. Beside Natasha, Barton shifted, his unease poorly hidden as he watched her. Once again, she fought back the urge to right herself. Natasha glanced to Rogers. "Really Steve? You could at least let her sit up." The soldier shot her an admonishing look before shifting forward, a hand closing around Nadine's arm and helping to ease her into a sitting position, his grip lingering to ensure she was steady. As Nadine settled on her knees, relaxing and shifting against the bonds still restraining her wrists and ankles, she eyed the cautious soldier for a moment with veiled curiosity before looking to the woman sitting across from her.

"Evidently not. I managed to give them the slip before they could finish me off." Natasha's eyebrows raised with surprise, that alone indicating just how unexpected the implications of Nadine's comment was.

"You ran away!" Nadine hesitated at the faint disbelief in her tone, frowning for a moment before the reason why hit her. She hadn't quite anticipated that.

"None of you realized I'd run away. They just let you think I'd died," Nadine replied tonelessly. Really, she should have expected as much; she remembered far too easily precisely how that place had worked. Natasha nodded in confirmation.

"It wasn't out of the realms of possibility," Natasha admitted, "they just treated your sudden disappearance the same way they treated deaths any other time. We all just came to the conclusion that you'd died, like some of the others in your group." Nadine nodded absently in agreement, easily picturing the sort of response Madame B would have provided within the facility for the other girls. She shifted again, almost enjoying the way the two men tensed at the movement. Every time she did, they were reacting a little less. Simple. Besides, she could tell they were interested in what was passing between her and Natasha; they were intrigued by the latent ease and familiarity between them despite the lingering wariness. She glanced up at Natasha. The redhead was eying her thoughtfully, eyes beginning to narrow before Nadine spoke up.

"I imagine they let you all think that to keep the rest of you from realizing running away wasn't impossible, to keep it from happening again," Nadine offered softly, the statement not really requiring a response. Natasha shrugged and nodded in vague agreement of her own after a moment of thought. She met Nadine's eye.

"Yeah. They simply refused to talk about you. Let us come to our own conclusions. But just think how proud they'd be now of what you became," Natasha said after a moment, a wicked gleam in her eye. Nadine smirked darkly in response.

"An assassin who is good enough to hunt assassins? I should hope so." Rogers had been content to this point just to listen, but as he sat back on his heels he fixed Nadine with a hard look.

"Is that why you tried to kill one of my team? Because Romanoff is a trained assassin?" Nadine couldn't help the patronizing huff that escaped her as she turned to Rogers.

"I tried to kill her because I was hired to. And I was hired specifically because she is one of the world's best assassins," she shrugged, "so you are sort of right." Rogers frowned. Nadine glanced up at him, absently intrigued that he ignored her needling.

"So why Natasha?" Nadine shrugged. There was little point in being evasive at this point...well, at being excessively evasive. Besides, there were benefits to allowing them some information.

"They didn't tell me that. They just gave me her name and a list of the locations you all were likely to target next."

"Our targets?" Natasha exchanged a startled glance with her teammates, "someone in HYDRA, then." Internally, Nadine smirked. As they all looked away from her, Nadine shifted subtly again, silencing a noise of discomfort as the sharp pressure on her fingers sharpened before it abruptly eased. That was one. Natasha's critical gaze jumped back to Nadine, her tone baffled. "Why would they give you a list of our targets in the first place? Half your reputation is being able to track down your marks when no one else can." Nadine shrugged.

"Normally? Yes, that's true."

"This wasn't normal?"

"Depends what you mean by normal. Normally, I have to track down my targets from square one and I'm given the time to do so, but sometimes they send me everything, right down to possible locations and a timeframe they'd like me to have it done by. This time they gave me a list of locations you were likely to hit and instruction to get it done ASAP. I only had to make an educated guess about which ones were the most likely, investigate then deduce which one would give me my best chance and then simply keep my ear to the ground for hints when you were about to move on it. There was still tracking involved, it just wasn't so intensive as usual."

"They? Care to share who 'they' are?" Steve asked. Nadine only shrugged again, causing Rogers' frown to deepen at something he saw in her face, "you don't know who hired you." Nadine bristled at the statement, shifting again, her face going blank again out of sheer habit. Truthfully, she hadn't expected the soldier to ask the one question that she hated that she didn't have the answer to. It was enough to confirm his suspicion, the Captain's expression growing even more troubled. Natasha leaned forward.

"How do you not know?" Nadine glared at her fellow assassin. While Rogers had figured out her nonverbal response to the who, it was Natasha who quickly put together why; Nadine could see it in her eyes. Somehow the redhead knew that there was more to this than a simple contract and she already suspected what that more was.

"With missions I choose for myself, I make a point of knowing," Nadine finally said softly. Her eyes dropped, fixing angrily on a point on the floor. "But some marks are chosen for me."

A/N: Thanks for reading!

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