Midnight Shadows

Carol had taken every precaution in the books to make sure that she wasn’t followed. The things they had taught her to keep in mind, never take a direct route, switch vehicles whenever you can and most importantly keep looking over your shoulder to see if you weren’t followed. Then again, if she was right about who was tracking her then everything she had done was moot to begin with.

Then it was just waiting for when he would show up at her doorstep. Hiking through the woods, through already a thin layer of snow she saw puffs of breath fan out in front of her. Carrying a heavy bag, normally didn’t affect her but right now she felt extremely tired. Ever since leaving HQ, she felt out of sorts.

“Danvers, you’re requested.” A deep baritone voice rumbled through her phone
“What is it about?”
“You damn well know what this is about.”
“No, sir. If I did I wouldn’t be asking.” But she did know. She damn well knew what it was about, and she dreaded going in. Not knowing if she would come out at all.
“Just get your ass here, Danvers”
“Yes, sir. I’m on my way.”

She had gone in, and with her knowledge it hadn’t taken longer than a few hours but when she got out and checked her phone it had been full with missed calls and messages from Nathan and Valeria. Checking the date, she had missed two full days.

Carol felt sick to her stomach, she had gone home stepped into her bathroom, undressed and inspected herself completely in front of her mirror. Nothing. She was clean as far as she could tell but she felt off balance. Like she was missing something.

The snow crunched under her feet, it wouldn’t take long before her tracks would be gone. Snow was already starting to fall out of the sky, and if she had to believe the forecast a snowstorm was heading her way. Panting, she cursed at SentS. When she had tried to leave the city through flight she had been grounded. Her ability just gone, and now she discovered that her stamina and strength had been reduced. It made her wonder what else they had done to her.

She knew that they had been experimenting with the inhibitors, and clearly, they had figured out that she was more than human. Now she was a guinea pig.

It hadn’t stopped her from coming here. She still needed to get clear of Nathan, protect him the best way she thought possible. The wind picked up, snow blowing in her face and she cursed silently. This was not how she had planned things to go.

The objective had been clear. Just that for once it had not come from its usual origin. James was not in the business of asking questions. He was there to get things done. And still it struck him odd, especially that the objective had not come from Carol Danvers. It had been about Carol Danvers. To follow her, record her movement, contacts, make sure they did not lose her.

Also strange. James was usually the operative they involved when people had to die. Surveillance was not his forte. And yet, he had not complained. He acted as instructed. Stay on her heels. Watch, rather than touch. He had not taken photos. Phones were not a tool he cared for much, he hardly ever had one on him. So his recording was done through his implanted tracker. If anyone wanted to debrief him, they had ways to alert him and bring him back to the base.

So when Carol had eventually prepared to leave New York city, he followed.

James had not checked the weather forecast but he could tell that it was not going to be flowers and sunshine. It was going to be cold, and by the looks of it … a snow storm. Oh well. Snow had one advantage. It swallowed sound.

The flakes were falling and James knew he would soon have to switch to white attire was he to hide in this weather. He stayed out of sight, following the small signal on the monitor strapped to his wrist. She was no more than two minutes ahead of him. A little beep on a display. It was not a Services tracker. It was one of his own, to make his life easier.

Silence engulfed him, the storm was drawing closer.

Carol knew she needed to make haste, knew that she had to get to that cabin so she could fortify herself and make a plan of attack in case Barnes would show up. No, not in case. She was quite certain that he was already on his way to her. Cursing some more, she knew that the cabin wasn’t that far ahead but for some reason she couldn’t get herself to go faster.

Her speed had been clipped too, and she was damning them all to hell for this. But she mostly was damning herself for being such an idiot. For years she had worked herself up to the top, becoming assistant-director of operational planning. Getting the right clearance to help out the resistance without SentS being the wiser. And it had all come crumbling down in the past four weeks.

Red flags had popped up on her account. They had been investigating her for even longer. Months even. But this whole Kratos project had been her downfall.

Carol stopped walking, listening to her surroundings and hearing nothing but snow falling. Soft rustling around her, the wind playing with loose strands of hair. She turned though, call it a gut feeling or maybe her flash precog was still working, she stared back at the direction she had come from. Narrowing her eyes as she gazed between the trees.

A black spot moving towards her and she didn’t need to think twice about who that could be.

She turned, and ran thinking that she could easily make it to the cabin before he would reach her, but she didn’t have her super speed. It would take her longer, she was fast though, probably still faster than normal but so was he. When she thought about it, they had probably reduced her abilities to match his.

“Fuck.”

James kept his pace equal to hers. He had nothing to carry, so keeping up was not a problem. He had a general idea where her cabin was but she would have to lead him to the intended destination. He refused to comb through the forest with a fine tooth. That would be a waste of time. So instead, just keeping up had been a good way to handle this.

And just as he appreciated how simple everything was progressing, she stopped. James frowned when she turned. He ducked, moved to the side but knew she had probably seen him. So as quickly as he had gone down, he pushed back up. Danvers was running from him. So, pursuit it was. If he was to lose her here, it would be very hard to trace her steps again. This was the last stop for her he knew of. If she got away now, he would have a problem.

Strong legs pumped beneath him as he cut through diagonally in a long arc towards where Carol was running.

The snow was falling harder now, and the wind was picking up. The cold was biting at his face and hands.

When eventually, he cut onto the path she was on, James did not notice the clearing just up ahead. The cabin lay obscured by low hanging pine branches. His focus was completely on Carol. He pivoted, caught the woman with his artificial limb around the waist and lifted her up before slamming her down.

He was not exactly sure how to proceed afterwards, but somehow, in some way he felt a very strong urge to stop her from getting away. Carol Danvers just could not get away from him…

She ran, she ran like her life depended on it and might as well be. Barnes was after her, she knew it. Knew that he was getting close, and why hadn’t she lost the god damn bag yet? She shrugged it off, giving her more speed and figured she could get it later as long as she made it to that damn cabin. She could bolt herself inside and hole up for a while.

It was the only thing in this world she would be safe from him. Designed it that way, spend a lot of money on it to get it build.

The wind slapped in her face, snow biting and she wanted to scream in frustration. She wasn’t fast enough, not anymore and then he had her. Arm around her waist, and then air escaped her lungs in a woosh as he slammed her down on the ground.

Carol blasted him, just enough to push him back, the impact to the ground haven given her just enough of a boost to scramble backwards. Away from him, getting up and facing him. Normal people would run, try to make a break for it but she wasn’t normal. She charged him, hoping for the love of god that she at least had some super strength left.

She tackled him, pushing him to the ground and using her fist to punch him a solid one to the face. It hurt, ever since her accident she didn’t feel pain, but this hurt like a mother f….

It didn’t matter, she hit him again and again. She was not going down this easily. Carol would survive, would get back home to Nathan.

James prepared for impact in the fraction of a second he had. Her blasts were something to behold and would certainly put at least ten yards or more between them. But what came was … surprising. James found himself catching and deflecting the blast. No more than a yard or two. He blinked, surprise registering in his eyes. What had been done to her powers? Because she certainly was not sparing him. Carol Danvers knew what he was capable of, knew that it was not a good sign to have him set onto her heels.

And yet he was not here to kill her. His objective was to keep her alive. Maybe he ought to tell her. If she stopped running, he could let up, stop shadowing her. Maybe she could help him shed light onto why he was suddenly shadowing his own handler. His handler. James could not help the memories of her sitting with him and patching him up while debriefing him time and time again. She was on his side, had looked after him for so long. James doubted she would have just stopped now… the idea that she had switched sides, possibly had never been on their side to begin with? No. James could not believe that.

Then she was onto him, tackling him to the ground and landing a solid blow to his face. He groaned, but once more noted that the impact was by far not what it could – or possibly should – be. Blinking several times, he forced his sight to properly focus once again. He grabbed her by the collar, pushed and yanked up and over his head. He flipped her around, onto her back over his head. Then he pushed around to come to sit astride her waist. One hand tight around her neck, squeezing her windpipe just enough to deprive her of oxygen. He needed her to stop.

The other drew back, ready to strike and deal a blow directly to her jaw much like she had just done with him.

“Danvers!” he pushed out through gritted teeth. She needed to stop.

Part of her didn’t want to fight him, didn’t want to do this but it had been made clear to her that her actions would have consequences and Carol was pretty sure that James Barnes was one of those. She hated this, hated that she couldn’t just escape and that she had been reduced to this…

Her punches hit, but they weren’t causing the damage that they needed to do. And she growled at herself for being so weak. For not seeing what came next, him flipping her over his head on her back and once again the air rushed out of her. Any other time she would have been a match, hell she would have been certain that she could take him but memories of her taking care of him flashed in front of her eyes. Conflicted emotions ran their course.

He was on her, straddling her, one hand around her neck to cut off her oxygen intake. One of her hands wrapped around his, trying to pry his fingers away so she could breathe properly. Yet he was matching her strength every step of the way. Which shouldn’t be possible. It just shouldn’t.

His fist connected with her face and for a moment it dazed her, black spots appearing in front of her eyes as she tried to focus back on the man on top of her.

Carol struggled, trying to buck him off of her but another punch stunned her. No. No she was not going to end like this in the snow. Far away from her friends, her family. Fight of flight, the emotions ran high within her and she could feel the energy build up. Another punch, her name being called over and over like he tried to get her attention.

She didn’t want to pay attention she wanted to escape him. Carol pushed, finding a bit of strength left until she was on her knees in front of him, one hand wrapped around his fist and the other grasping his jacket and the energy just exploded from her.

A concussive blast that sent her flying backwards until she hit something hard, pain bloomed from the back of her head and she crumpled to the ground. Her vision wavering, trying to fight to stay awake, knowing that if she fell unconscious now that he would get her. But her body told her no, her head pounded and darkness claimed her.

His head hurt. James waded out of the dark but it was hard. So damned hard. His body would not move. His shoulder hurt. Like hell. His good shoulder, not the metallic one. He groaned when finally his mind could pair the odd sensation of numbness with reality. He was cold. Cold to the point where it caused pain and his mind had blocked out what his pain receptors was passing on.

James cursed as it all came back to him. Danvers’ punch, paired with a concussive blast. It had knocked him down, and out. He was gritting his teeth, already beginning to contemplate how he would catch up with her again. Certainly, she had gone and disappeared on him after knocking him unconscious.

James sat, pushing out his arm that held the small display. He pulled back the protective cover, surprised to find the blinking dot … right there at his position. Pushing wet dark hair out of his face, he looked around. He had trouble pushing up onto his feet. His shoulder hurt. The blast had torn through the fabric and he could smell his own blood. The liquid compounds of it had frozen already. Other than that and a pounding headache, he was intact.

Giving up on the attempt to stand, James turned and pushed towards Carol Danvers’ form on all fours. She was unconscious. “Danvers”, he tried, pushing her head to the side with gentle strength. He could see the dried red in the snow next to her. The earth beneath her head was drenched in a dirty red hue. “Shit”, he murmured. Apparently she had not just managed to knock him out, but herself as well.

Snow was dancing in the air around them, and James could tell that the storm was drawing closer. They would have well over a foot of new snow within the hour. They would need to get inside somewhere. Trekking back to her car was pointless. He would never make it in time. Despite his added strength and stamina, he was dazed from the cold and hurt as well. So forward it would have to be. Her cabin …

Pushing his arms through her smaller, slender form, he pulled her up from the ground and against his broad chest. James looked up, clenching his jaws to ignore the pain in his shoulder. It was just a flesh wound, he was sure, and once he was warmed up it would heal in no time. But for now it was giving him grief. Yet her state worried him more. His objective was, after all, make sure she survived. They needed her alive. And she was colder than he felt – less body mass, less muscle. With her head wound, James wondered whether her state was already critical.

He stood, turned towards the direction she had been headed into. And then he saw it. The clearing, the cabin beyond that sat nested between the low hanging branches of pine trees.

James stumbled ahead, her form pressed against him as he made his way to the cabin. She remained unconscious, and he was sure it was good like that. He was certain, she would pick up the fight instantly, no matter that she was in no state to do so. James set her down, jamming his artificial shoulder into the cabin’s door. The lock splintered and gave. He pushed inside, putting Carol down on the couch in the center of the room. Then he turned around and locked the door from the inside with a horizontal bar barricading it.

His vision blurred and he had trouble standing up but nonetheless, he forced himself to keep walking. He went for the fireplace, throwing a generous pile of the wood stacked next to it onto the hearth and lighting it. He held his human palm open, facing the blooming flames as they began claiming the dried wood. He was still shivering. Slowly, he pulled off the glove. His palm was bloodied.

James stood, gazing towards Carol. She was covered in snow, and her clothes would soon be drenched. With achingly slow motions, he stood and it took effort to get out of his own snowy and partially wet clothes. He grabbed one of the blankets from the large armchair when he had stripped off jacket and shirts he wore. The pants were made from sturdier material. They were damp at best for now. His shoulder was but a flesh wound. It could wait.

He grabbed the other blanket, approached Danvers. She was still out like a light. He knelt down beside her. His fingers still shaking, he did have some trouble examining her head wound. From what he could tell, it was probably a mild concussion. Split skin that had blead but was already fusing closed again. She had a healing factor, did she not? Though he wondered, with all of her powers dialled down – was that down as well?

What he noticed most was how incredibly cold she was. With clumsy fingers he unbuttoned her jacket and then her hoodie and shirt. She had somewhat dressed for the cold and James found himself working on four layers of clothing. Most of them wet by now. He swallowed and paused for a moment after he had torn down the top she wore underneath it all. No bra underneath. Her upper body exposed like that, he couldn’t help the moment that passed when he just stared. James had never noticed the proportions of her body before. Slender, but tall for a woman. Breasts of a lovely size on a woman so muscular. He exhaled with a shiver as he unbuckled her pants. Her jeans and the leggings underneath were completely wet.

Part of him was grateful she wore panties.

He stood, dropping his own pair of pants. A shiver raced through him. The cold had crept into his bones. He, too, needed to warm up quickly. Pulling the blanked closer around his shoulders, James bent down and lifted Carol Danver’s unconscious form into his arms. He silently willed her to not wake. Not just yet. Turning, he shuffled towards the fire that had claimed all the wood he had thrown onto the hearth for it.

James sat down, placing Carol in his lap. Another shiver raced across him as her bare upper body came flush against his. He folded her arms around his shoulders, wincing when her skin brushed against the slowly fusing skin of his shoulder. He folded his legs, making her pull up her legs against her stomach so she eventually sat somewhat sideways leaned against him. He bunched up some of the blanket against his bionic arm where her head rested while pulling both blankets close around them.

He could feel warmth sparking into existence where her body leaned against his bare skin, he just hoped that her concussion kept her down long enough so he could explain to her that warming up with a supposed enemy right now was favourable to dying the snow storm that was picking up momentum outside.

“Carol Danvers.” Her name flowed out of his mouth, and the way he said it made her skin crawl. “Take a seat.” Steven pointed at the chair on the other side of his desk, in front of him.
“I rather stand.” Because if she sat down she would be vulnerable. And with him in the room she really didn’t want to be. Even if he was just a human.
“Suit yourself, but I think you should sit for this.” That smile on his face, another shudder ran through her.
“What is it, Steven? Why did you call me in?” She glared at him, trying her best to hide the unease she was feeling.
“You know why.” He picked up a remote, clicked on a button and the tv behind him flicked on. Her eyes moved up, her gaze locking on the screen. There she was, her blue and red body suit and her arms coated in energy. Her eyes blazing as she took aim at the convoy guiding the truck that had housed Jenna and the others.
“I see.” She told him.
“I don’t think you do, Carol.” He murmured, staring at her with those cold dead eyes and she felt something sharp enter her neck. A needle. Distraction was a bitch, and he had caught her off guard. Lights out for her. Fuck.

Pain. Cold. Mostly pain. In her head. In her hip. Something told her that she needed to move but she was so toasty warm right now. She didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to leave this warm cocoon. Her mind kept nudging her, telling her to fucking wake up because something was wrong.

It was trying to tell her that there had been a reason why she was in pain. Carol flipped her head off mentally. The throbbing was painful but manageable and slowly sensations started to return. Like how she was feeling bare skin against her own, and fabric of blankets on her other side. For a moment she thought she had fallen asleep against Nate, that he was holding her and that they were sitting in front of a fire…

Nate…

Her heart contracted painfully just thinking his name.

Slowly, ever so slowly, memories came back to her. She had been on the run, snow slowing her down but no that wasn’t right. Something else had been slowing her down as well. Her speed was gone, as was flying. Somebody had been tracking her, no not somebody, she knew who it had been who had come after her.

They had ended up in a fight, her last attempt to use a blast strong enough to knock him away from her and she had knocked herself out in the process. Hence the painful noggin.

Awareness, she was in someone’s arms, sitting on his lap. Yes it was a him, she could clearly feel something pressed against her hip. Her hand had slipped down from his neck to his chest and her fingers were sprawled there. Her cheek was resting against something hard, not skin, but metal like. It told her enough, told her exactly who was holding her right now.

Carol swallowed, groaning as her head decided that being awake meant that you could be in more pain.

“Are you going to embrace me to death?” She asked, her voice sounding hoarse. She didn’t dare to open her eyes, afraid for what she would see in his eyes. “Because I have a few requests beforehand.”