Thallium | Captain America: The Winter Soldier [7]

Forgive Me, Brooklyn, I Have Sinned

"Come on, we need to change out of these. We stick out too much," I said, gesturing to our clothes. "I need your sizes, both of you," Romanoff said, confirming at the same time she would get the clothes for us. "Medium for shirts, 16 for bottoms," I said nonchalantly. "Large for shirts, 20 for bottoms," Steve said, rubbing the back of his neck, embarrassed. An hour later, I had on some dark jeans, an old band t-shirt, a thin grey zip-up hoodie, and a leather jacket.

 Romanoff had on jeans, a t-shirt, a striped zip-up hoodie, and an army green jacket, Steve with a graphic t-shirt, some jeans, a blue zip-up hoodie, a brown jacket, and a hat with some glasses to disguise himself. We all had old tennis shoes that were about to come apart. "First rule of going on on the run is don't run, walk," I said, getting a raised eyebrow from Romanoff. "Or roll, depending on your situation," Steve had insisted he was going to push my wheelchair, even though I was perfectly capable of maneuvering myself. I had swapped into an old hospital wheelchair, ditching my fancy one in an alley in case they could track it.

We went to an Apple Tech Store, where we could use the laptops to figure out the hard drive that had started this whole mess. "The drive has Level 6 honing, so as we boot up S.H.I.E.L.D. will know exactly where we are," Romanoff informed us, typing on the computer. "How much time do we have?" Steve asked, looking around. "About 9 minutes from...now," She plugged the drive into the computer. "Fury was right about that ship. Somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI, it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands," She said.

"Can you override it?" He asked. "The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me," She glanced over at the two of us. "Slightly," She stressed. "I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program S.H.I.E.L.D. developed to track hostile malware. So, if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from," A man with long blonde hair approached. "Can I help you guys with anything?" He asked.

"Oh, no, my sister was just helping my fiance and I find honeymoon destinations," I lied, slipping my hand into Steve's. "Yeah, we're getting married," Steve said like it wasn't the most obvious thing in the world. "Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?" He asked. "New Jersey," Steve said, glancing at the screen with a look that screamed Forgive me, Brooklyn, I have sinned. A look of realization dawned on his face, and I was worried our cover was blown.

"I have the exact same glasses," Whew, we're safe. "Wow, you two are practically twins," I said dryly, looking at the screen again. "Yeah, I wish," He gestured to Steve. "Specimen. Uh, if you guys need anything, I've been Aaron," He held up his tag. "You got one thing right," I mumbled under my breath.

"You said nine minutes," Steve said, checking his watch. "Shh, relax. Got it," Wheaton, New Jersey appeared on the screen, alongside a look of realization. "You know it?" Romanoff asked. "I used to. Let's go," He pulled the hard drive out and we exited the shop. "Standard tac team. Two behind, two across, two coming straight at us," A pair of men in black were walking straight towards us.

"They make us, I'll engage, take the south escalator to the metro," He planned. "Shut up and put your arm around me, laugh at something Rue said," Romanoff ordered. "What?" He asked. "Do it," I snapped from in front of them. I twisted so I was looking up at them, laughing along with them as the team walked by.

"Here, Rue," Steve scooped me up, getting on a step then dropping my legs. I folded up my wheelchair, using it and the side as support as we rode down. "Kiss me," Romanoff said, spotting someone. "What?" He asked. "Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable," She informed him.

"Yes, they do," Having enough of his crap, she pulled their faces together and I looked away.  When the person passed, Romanoff pulled away. "Still uncomfortable?" She asked. "Yes," I said. I nudged him a little, encouraging him to answer.

"That's not exactly the word I would use,"

a/n The title's a reference to that one meme. If you know, you know. And, since today is Tom Hiddleston's birthday, I decided to treat y'all to an extra update. The upload schedule will remain the same.