A red, red rose

Chapter 16

Charlie opened her eyes from the back of the car and immediately felt tension which wasn't there before she fell asleep. Natasha was looking out of the window with her arms crossed, thinking about something. Steve was driving but didn't look as uncomfortable as Nat did.

"Are we almost there?" Charlie decided to ignore the obvious tension.

"About 20 minutes out," Steve informed her. "How was the nap?"

Charlie smiled at the man's mundane question, "It was alright. Sleeping in a car isn't really that comfortable." Charlie stretched out her muscles in the back seat. "Nat you okay?"

"I'm fine," Natasha didn't even look at Charlie. The other two in the car glanced at each other and Steve just shrugged.

The rest of the car journey was spent in silence as Charlie watched the countryside around them speed past the window.

They pulled up to a gate and all got out of the car. "This is it." Steve announced as they got closer.

"The file came from these coordinates." Natasha put the device that she had been holding into her pocket.

"So did I," Steve stated as both of the women stared at him.

"Must be a really old then," Charlie joked at the man who just ignored her. "Let's get this over with."

The trio entered the compound, Natasha was holding up some kind of scanner to try and find exactly where the file came from. "Change much?" She spoke up.

"A little," Steve answered quietly. Charlie watched him as he seemed to be having some kind of flashback to when he was here.

"Steve you alright?" Charlie broke the man out of his trance. Steve just smiled at the brunette and moved closer to where Natasha had gone.

"This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off." Natasha concluded. Charlie then noticed Steve looking puzzled at something on the other side of the lot.

"What is it?" Charlie asked the blonde.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." Steve started to walk towards the building as the two women followed him.

"Only you would know that. Nerd." Charlie taunted the super soldier. Her remark once again being ignored by her company.

They walked up to the entrance of the building and Steve broke the lock with his shield. Once they were inside, all of the lights turned on to reveal a S.H.I.E.L.D logo on one of the walls. They walked into another one of the rooms, inside there were lots of desks. One of the walls had pictures of people that were important to S.H.I.E.L.D.

"And there's Stark's father." Natasha looked at the picture of a man who resembled Tony.

"Howard." Steve stated, knowing all of these people personally.

"Who's the girl?" Natasha asked Steve, even though she probably knew who she was and was just trying to gauge the man's reaction.

"She's hot," Charlie blurted out and got a death glare from Natasha. "What! She is."

Steve didn't answer Nat's question and walked of. Natasha turned to Charlie and pointed at the man, silently telling her 'look what you did' with her eyes. Charlie sighed and quickly caught up to Steve who had found something interesting behind a bookcase.

"If you're already working in a secret office," Steve pulled the shelves open to reveal another entrance. "Why do you need to hide the elevator."

Natasha hacked into the keypad on the side of the door and managed to open them. The trio stepped into the enclosed space and ordered the elevator to head down. The silence on the way down was deafening. Charlie felt like the walls were closing in on her the further and further down they got. Charlie could feel that her breathing was getting quicker and her heart rate was going up. She closed her eyes to try and push the nauseating feeling away. Suddenly she felt a hand enter her own and she immediately relaxed a little bit.