𝒑𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒕 || s. rogers & b. barnes

10||; 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕

⤷ march 28, 2014
━━━━━━━━━━━

"So, the question is, who at S.H.I.E.L.D. could launch a domestic missile strike?" Romanoff asks the group as they sit around the kitchen.

Sam butters a piece of bread at the counter, looking over as he does. Irina takes a long sip of the coffee he'd made for them. She'd been the one mostly chowing on it. In fact, the only reason she was still awake was because she was riding off of five cups of damn caffeine.

"Pierce," murmurs Steve, lifting his head from his fist as he comes to the conclusion.

The name is enough to have Irina stiffening in her seat, mug almost slipping from her grasp. Romanoff — Natasha catches it, eyeing her with slight concern, but she doesn't call the brunette on it.

"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world," says Natasha as she gets up and walks across the room.

Steve picks at his finger nail distractingly, thinking hard. "But he's not working alone. Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star."

Her and Sam share a glance across the room. He raises an eyebrow at her, but she can merely shake her head.

She hasn't been active with S.H.I.E.L.D. in years.

"So was Jasper Sitwell," Natasha points out.

Steve's expression breaks as he comes to the realization. "So, the real question is, how do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a S.H.I.E.L.D. officer in broad daylight?" He asks.

Irina tries not to seem too happy at the inclusion of herself, instead going to hide her tiny smile by taking another long swig of coffee.

"The answer is, you don't," says Sam, coming up to them, a file in hand. He slides it across the table to Steve, who stands up from his chair to look at it.

"What's this?" He asks.

"Call it a resume," replies Sam, leaning back.

Natasha picks up a photo. "Is this Bakhmala?" She asks. "The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you? You didn't say he was a Pararescue."

Slowly, Irina gets up to make her way over to the gathered group around the file. Steve examines the photo, and glances over at Sam. "Is this Riley?"

Sam nods. "Yeah."

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use? A stealth chute?" Natasha asks.

"No," says Sam. He steps up to the table, handing Steve the file. "These."

Steve looks at the photos inside. "I thought you said you were a pilot," he says.

"I never said pilot," chuckles Sam.

Steve looks at him, then looks back at the file, and begins to shake his head. "I can't ask you to do this, Sam," he says. "You got out for a good reason."

Sam fixes him with an incredulous look. "Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no other reason to get back in."

Steve sighs, tapping the file in his hand. "Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" He asks.

"The last one is at Fort Meade. Behind three guarded gates and a 12-inch steel wall," Sam answers, unsure if they can get it.

Steve looks at Natasha, who looks at Irina, who shrugs her shoulders. Nothing they hadn't done before, she was sure.

Natasha looks back at Steve with a simple shrug. He looks back at Sam with a smirk. "Shouldn't be a problem."

𓆩*𓆪