Chapter Seven

A/N: Hey you guyssss! Sorry it took me awhile, I had wrote this chapter about a month ago, but I decided to go back and I ended up changing almost everything because it was terrible… it's still fairly lame, but a wee bit better lol. Thanks for reading :)

2 Weeks Later

"You need to keep your guard up, Raelynn. You always drop your guard when you throw a right hook." Raelynn groaned as she reminded herself once again to keep her guard high.

"Don't be discouraged; you're a natural at kicking ass. Just remember to guard that gorgeous face."

For the past two weeks, Natasha had been teaching Raelynn how to fight, after Raelynn had requested learning. She hoped that it would distract her and keep her mind busy from the fact that she hadn't heard from James in two weeks. She had caught on quickly, to Natasha's delight, although sparring with Natasha was absolutely terrifying.

Raelynn barely blocked a lethal left hook from Natasha and countered with a body shot, ducking low to avoid Natasha's equally lethal leg. While fighting, just with everything that she did, she was calculating and precise, which made her very dangerous and virtually impossible to beat.

She racked her brain quickly to remember the list of weak spots on the human body that Natash had pointed out to her. Raelynn threw a strike that she knew that Natasha would easily block and when she returned with a strike of her own, Raelynn used her weight against her, twisting her arm behind her back, making sure not to put too much pressure on it. Natasha smiled wildly at Raelynn. "Good! Really good! You're getting better; that's the first time that you've benn able to get the drop on me. Clint can't even do that." She told her proudly.

Raelynn wiped sweat from her brow, while Natasha sipped from her water bottle, looking flawless as usual, barely even sweating. How does she not look like melted garbage right now?

She half heartedly helped Natasha push the couch back into the center of the room and Natasha settled herself on it, a bag of pretzels clutched in her in her hand.

"I think I'm going to take a nap," Raelynn told Natasha as she shoved a handful of pretzels into her face. She nodded and Raelynn jogged upstairs to her room, faceplanting onto her bed, not even bothering to shut the door behind her.

Falling asleep was difficult enough with the sore patch of skin on her side thanks to Natasha, but staying asleep was even more of a challenge. Disgruntled, she flipped onto her back and stared at the ceiling in annoyance. She gazed up at the ceiling, trying to find patterns in the tile to keep her mind occupied. Hiding from a terrorist organization was exceedingly dull. According to Natasha's requirements, Raelynn wasn't allowed to leave the house or use her phone, which would have been fine except that in the rush of packing, she had neglected to pack a book. I'm going to lose my goddamned mind.

"Hey," Natasha's quiet voice came from the doorway breaking Raelynn from the boredom induced catatonic state she was in.

"Howdy."

"So, I just spoke to James and Steve…" Raelynn bolted upright so fast that her head spun. She tried her best to keep her voice even keeled as she replied.

"Yes, and?"

"Well, it looks like the intel I received was false. It looks as if Hydra is already back, but we can't get a lock on just where it is that they're operating from." She paused a bit before continuing. "And it looks as if they want to reboot the Winter Soldier program. So…" she didn't even bother to finish her sentence.

Raelynn knew exactly what that meant, but she asked anyway since she couldn't bare the heavy silence in the room. "Does that mean that they're going to use James again?" Natasha nodded solemnly and Raelynn flattened herself against the bed again.

"That's great, there's strong possibility that my boyfriend is going to be kidnapped, brainwashed and used to execute people and I'm locked away in some random house in upstate New York. And to add insult to injury, there's no goddamn television." She shoved her face into her pillow forcefully. Natasha joined her on the bed and gave her a small, reassuring pat on the back.

"He'll be fine, Raelynn. Steve isn't going to let anything happen to him, and James is determined to come back to you."

"Rae."

"What?"

"Call me Rae. Only my mother called me Raelynn. Well, her and James when he's annoyed with me."

Natasha smiled. "Alright. But as I was saying, James is going to be fine. I'm positive."

"I'm sure that he'll be fine as well." She turned onto her back once again. "I miss him though. It's the not knowing part that kills me. I miss his cold metal arm and the way that he swears in Russian sometimes." Natasha chuckled lightly.

"Can I ask you something Natasha?"

"Call me Nat. And of course you can."

"Are you and Clint a couple? I've asked James, but all he told me is that it's complicated."

She smiled wistfully as she tucked her wavy hair into a bun. "Well, he's not wrong. Clint and I have an understanding. We see something in each other that no one else does, or wants to."

"Well, you guys are adorable; whatever the hell it is you two are.

"Thanks Rae. I think the same thing of you and James. I'm really glad that he finally found someone that makes him smile again."

"I'm happy to be that person for him. Although, I'm really pissed at him for cutting his hair, I miss playing with it."

"Yeah, I always wanted to braid it, but I was too scared to ask." Natasha replied giggling. There was an incessant beeping from Natasha's pocket suddenly, interrupting their conversation. She pulled a small phone from her pocket and answered it in a low voice, slipping out of the room into the hall. Raelynn strained to catch bits of the conversation.

Just as quickly as she left the room, she returned her face swathed in worry. "That was Director Fury. He told me that there's an emergency at HQ and that he needs me, urgently."

"Excuse me? Wait, wait, wait, you can't just leave me here all the fuck alone!"

"I'm sorry Rae, but this is Fury that needs me. It's… important. You'll be fine, after we restarted SHIELD; we got rid of all of our safehouses. Nobody knows about this place, so you'll be fine. Steve and James are positive that they're not after you, but James just wanted to keep you safe, just in case."

"Fine. Just go take care of your important thing. I'll be fine." Raelynn tucked her face into her pillow again.

"I'll be back, I promise." Raelynn simply grunted and Natasha backed out of the room leaving her in stillness.

I guess I'll go back to staring at the ceiling again until Nat gets back.

After an entire hour of staring at nothing, Raelynn had fallen asleep. She jerked awake when she heard a thud outside of the house. I guess Natasha's home. She padded from her room into the hall to greet Nat when she heard a crashing sound, as if someone had dropped something. Natasha never drops anything... Then it hit her—the sound was the crash of a broken window.

"Black Widow is clear. Check the upstairs." Footsteps crunched over the broken glass in the living room and came closer to the stairwell. Shit, shit, shit. Raelynn instinctively dashed back into her room slipping the door shut as quietly as she could muster. She slipped into the closet adjacent to the door, forcing herself to control her breathing.

The door of her room creaked open slowly and heavy footsteps made their way closer to the closet as Raelynn steeled her nerves as the doorknob of the closet twisted. Throwing her weight against the door, she barreled into the man clad in a tactical uniform on the other side. A second man entered the room, blocking her escape. He stretched out his hands, reaching for her, but Raelynn ducked low and wrapped her arms around her waist and slammed him into the wall.

Her body carried her to an empty spare bedroom at the end of the hall and she hurled herself throw the window, rolling when she hit the ground to avoid injury, ignoring the searing pain as the glass ripped at her skin.

Get up, run. She pushed herself to her feet and forced her legs to carry her as fast as she could away from the house.

There was a loud cracking sound and Raelynn idly wondered in the back of her mind what it was when she felt it; a white hot pain in her right side. She stumbled behind a tree, pressing her hand to her shoulder. When she pulled it away it was covered in her blood. Her head began to spin, her mind starting to go dark at the edges. Still, she forced herself to control her breathing and stay calm. They're going to have to do worse than that.

Suddenly, a pair of gloved hands grabbed her roughly, wrenching her out into the open. Raelynn shoved her elbow into her assailants ribcage as hard as she could, satisfied when she heard a sickening crack and a low groan. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, she flung her legs out from under her, pulling him down to the ground with her.

There was another pain coursing through her body, this time it was electric. She lost control if her body, convulsing violently. She struggled to focus on the voices close her.

"Who the fuck shot her? The orders were to bring her in, unharmed."

"Did you see how she took Smith out? How else were we going to bring her down? Shit, is she the Widow's sister or something?"

"Supposedly, she's the Soldier's girlfriend. Dose her before she causes anymore trouble."

While they made their way over to her, she played possum, discreetly slipping the stun gun electrodes out of her back, As a masked man knelt over her pulling out a small syringe, she wrapped her legs around his neck, clamping her thighs down tightly. She jabbed the electrodes into the base of his neck, electrocuting him as well.

Raelynn screamed as the needle of the syringe plunged into her neck. Reality began to fade away as she lost consciousness and the last image that flashed through her mind was raking her fingers through James hair as he was sound asleep on her chest.

Then there was nothing.