The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 2

Barton Home, USA

Fall 2015

Honestly? Natasha was still a little surprised that Nadine had come along to the Bartons' with as little objection as she had.

She knew her sister was still adjusting to the idea that she was, for all intents and purposes, free from the life she'd had before Prague. Nadine was still getting used to the idea that she didn't need to look over her shoulder every second of the day anymore, or the idea that she was no longer beholden to anyone; that she was free to do as she pleased. That, deny it as she might, she wasn't even strictly obligated to Steve or the mission he'd settled on her to find Barnes. Not really. As much as he was relying on her to find Bucky, Natasha knew that, were Nadine to express a wish to move on, Steve wouldn't hold it against her. He'd be disappointed, sure, but now that he'd gotten to know her? Now that he'd learned more about her past? Natasha suspected he would understand if Nadine were to ever express the desire to leave that part of her life behind for good.

Not that Natasha could ever see that happening. She might consider leaving the Compound, but Nat didn't believe for a moment that Nadine would voluntarily give up on her search for Barnes if she did. Not considering how long she'd been looking.

The idea that Nadine would want to search for him on her own hadn't really been all that much of a surprise. It was more just how long she'd been working on finding him that Natasha hadn't expected. That Nadine had been already been looking for him? That she'd been searching almost from the moment she'd run? And just how much work she'd been putting into her search! The risks she had taken by actively chasing the Winter Soldier? Natasha had been all but transfixed by the spread Nadine had set up in her Workshop and the sheer amount of material she'd managed to scrounge up. It hadn't been just a casual project.

Not by a long shot.

But then, very little her sister did was casually done. She threw herself into everything she set herself to, be it finding Barnes or as the self-proclaimed training consultant she was serving as at the Compound.

No one was spared when Nadine was in charge. Not that the training in general was easy—Natasha pushed her charges just as hard, her exacting standards nearly pushing Wanda to snap at her new mentor over the pressure the week before—but Nadine had a gift for pushing those under her tutelage to just shy of their breaking point. Aches and pains and bruises were commonplace after one of her training sessions. Not even Natasha was spared, the younger sister spy coming out of the sessions with aches and pains of her own that she hadn't had in longer than she cared to admit. And she was an instructor herself!

But Nadine was getting results, and her pupils were, under the blonde assassin's high standards and punishing pace, thriving.

It seemed Madame B had indeed been onto something when she'd pegged Nadine as a threat to her position; Nadine would have been utterly formidable had she gone on to take over the Red Room programme as their former training mistress had feared.

And it wasn't just the Avengers recruits taking advantage of her knowledge anymore. Since she started taking over instructing their three young recruits in hand to hand and weapons training, more and more of the Compound's agents and general personnel had been trickling into the training area to watch, some of the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents looking like they were mentally taking notes.

It had gotten to the point where, just a few days ago, Nadine had started pulling them into the lessons as well, having as little interest in an audience as two of her pupils did—not surprisingly, Pietro wasn't bothered by an enthralled and awed crowd. And naturally, she hadn't gone easy on her conscripts either. It was not uncommon at the moment for limps, sore muscles and bruises to be spotted all over the Compound. But interest in the sessions had not waned in the slightest. It had become worth the chance of being pulled onto the mats just to watch. Not that the physical punishment was anything but worth it itself.