Loyalties Lie [s. r.]

.17

It was a strange feeling, digging her old uniform out of the boxes she had never bothered to unpack. The material was rougher than she remembered, not quite as tough as kevlar, but still strong. She knew she needed to do this. She needed to help Natasha save the hostages. They were children after all, meaning it was a higher risk mission. Children were more unpredictable. They were harder to covertly give directions to.

She looked at herself in the mirror as she adjusted the vest, tugging it down in the front. Her eyes wandered to the picture trapped in the edge of the mirror, a picture of her as a princess and Christopher as a ninja from Halloween when they were little.

"I'm doing this for you, Chris." She said softly, reaching out and holding the edge of the picture.

She took a deep breath, stepping out of her room and moving down the stairs. She went to Steve, holding her hand out without a word. He had promised he wasn't there to try and bring her back to Shield, yet here he was, able to hand her her gun and badge.

She clipped them both to her tactical belt, intending on turning around and walking away. A hand on her wrist stopped her, tugging her close.

"Cami..." he said softly. He wanted to explain.

"Don't. I don't want to talk about this now. We have bigger fish to fry other than you making a promise you never intended to keep."

"I did intend to keep it! That's what you don't get. Fury is the one who told me how to find you. I had to make a deal with him to figure out where you had gone. Please, doll. I wasn't going to bring you back to Shield... I just wanted to bring you back to me." He said, refusing to let go of her wrist until she listened.

"Then you should have just said so." She snapped, shaking her head and shaking him off. "I have to go."

By the time the two women were leaving, it was late. They had quite a ways that they had to go, and they needed to go in the cover of night.

Steve had been prepared with a lie to tell her parents when they got home from their respective activities. She was out with an old friend she reconnected with, which wasn't entirely a lie. But that's what made the best lie.

You wrap it up in a bit of truth.

The location of the hostage situation was out of the way, at an abandoned school, shut down years prior due to unsafe conditions. There were tall fences to discourage people from entering. But it was clear no one ever patrolled the area, the outside walls of the school covered in graffiti.

It was the perfect place to keep a bunch of children without being noticed. There was nothing around for at least a mile.

"I remember when this place shut down. A freak earthquake took out most of the houses, and half this school was in a sinkhole." Camryn said softly as they hopped the fence. "They never rebuilt. Everyone relocated. It kind of became a ghost town."

"Well, it made for a great place to keep a bunch of kids held for ransom." Natasha said. "They want information from Shield."

"Why these kids then?"

"They're all sons and daughters of former or current Shield agents. They took twenty three kids. Which means these guys must be organized since there are only six of them. They had to have known these kids' schedules. Where they would be, when they would be the most vulnerable."  Natasha explained.

"Which means they definitely know what they are doing. These guys are pros." Camryn said, nodding.

"Which means we have to be careful. If we alert them that we are here too soon, they could kill those kids."