HPOV

I looked into the cold eyes of the terrorist in front of me and dared him to deny my offer. It was bad enough that the other adults would become their prisoners, but I would rather die than have this young girl in those sadist's hands.

SPOV (Steph)

I screamed as I bolted upright in the bed from a restless dream, my face and the sheets drenched in sweat. The shock of my frantic scream and look of sheer terror in my eyes had Steve scanning the room in a panic, ready to rush into combat at any second. Seeing that there was no immediate threat he blew out a sigh and voiced his concern.

"Steph, Doll, what's wrong? What is it?"

"Something is terribly wrong. That didn't feel like a nightmare, it was more like a warning. I couldn't see anything clearly, just flashes of what looked like a dirt floored cell and Hal. Oh my God! Hal is in trouble!" I gasped out.

"Honey you have to calm down." He pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly to him, rubbing soothing circles up and down my back as he continued. "We'll find out what's going on. Why would you think Hal's in trouble? He was on vacation right?"

"He is ... or was. Steve this was too horrible to be just a dream. This has to be real. Hal is in trouble. We need to find out if Ranger knows where he is." I stutter as I jump up and start searching frantically for my phone.

Steve rose gracefully from the bed and gently grabbed my arm to halt me mid-pace. "It's 3 a.m. Ranger is probably asleep. Give it a few hours then we'll try to contact him. Okay?"

I reluctantly nodded my head in agreement. "Fine. You're probably right, like always." I say with a smirk.

So we laid back down to try to get a few more hours rest. I knew sleep would not come for me until I had answers. Where is Hal and what is wrong? My spidey-sense is never wrong. And it's telling me that something is most definitely wrong. I will find out exactly what that is. My Merry Men have never let me down and I refuse to fail if one of them needs me now!

Just as I thought would be the case, I lay there in the darkness staring up at the ceiling while my brain reeled with ideas of what could be wrong with Hal, and none of them were good, in fact they were all bad, horrifically bad. I was giving myself an ulcer with worry.

Finally I got up after I couldn't take it anymore. I located my phone and after double checking the time on it; 6:25 a.m.; I sighed with some relief, at least I could call Ranger and find out what he knew.

After a lengthy conversation, I know amazing for him; I hung up my phone pressing the 'end' button a little too roughly. He wasn't aware of a problem. He hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary. As far as he knew, Hal was still in Georgia on vacation, at least for another week.

But I knew better. Something was wrong, alarmingly so. I could feel it deep down inside, my soul ached. I broke down in loud, wrenching sobs.

The noise alerted Steve to my distress and once again he soothed me and calmed me down slightly. He promised we would get to the source of the problem. He ushered me to the shower to get my day under way. I didn't realize he slipped out the bedroom door in order to keep his promise to me.

When the water turned cool, I dried myself and wandered back into the bedroom. Steve paused as he passed by me on his way to the shower. He looked down at me with kindness and love shining in his blue-green eyes as he spoke softly.

"I spoke to Tony. He and JARVIS are looking into things for you. We'll talk to him about what he's found out when we go down to have breakfast with the team." I smiled up at him and said.

"Thank-you for believing me, I love you my captain. Now get your gorgeous tush in that shower." I swatted his butt playfully as I said so and heard him chuckle as he sauntered away.

As soon as Steve was back out of the shower and dressed, we rode the elevator down to the Avengers common floor. When we reached the breakfast bar, laden down with delicious looking food; Tony jumped right in to reassure my obviously distressed looking face.

"JARVIS found a hit on Hal's personal credit card in a small town in the center of Georgia called Summerville. Is that where he was supposed to be?"

"Yes, he was visiting relatives in Georgia while on vacation and I remember him once mentioning they lived in what he called 'the back-woods'." I supply.

"Great. Now what you don't know is that when we last teamed up with Ranger and his men, when we were all looking for Bucky; Ranger and all of his men agreed to have a small subdermal Stark Industries GPS tracker implanted in them. His exact location has been found and has been stationery for the past hour." Tony finally finishes his explanation.

"You know where he is?! Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I practically yell at him.

"Not so fast Torch, we need to figure out what's going on and plan accordingly. Capsicle, that's your specialty, what do you suggest?"

"If Steph is having such a strong feeling and reaction to what she feels, I say we need to get going as soon as possible. Whatever is going on is not good, but we can handle it."

Clint spoke up from somewhere to my left, "I agree. We all know the importance of listening to our gut feelings and Steph's is never wrong."

The other's nodded and voiced their ascent, with Bucky adding in his own flair; a touch of humor to defuse the tension in the room. "Sweet! My first official mission as an Avenger."

I couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm then giving him a tight hug as I whispered my thanks to him for caring enough about my friend to help out. He whispered back to me. "I'm doing this for you Doll-face and the punk over there." Steve with his super soldier hearing fixed his stare on us and mouthed back to Bucky, "jerk". I laughed softly to myself. I loved my crazy family.

And since Ranger, Hal, and the rest of Rangeman were also my family I snapped out of my revelry and told everyone to "eat up and eat fast, we need to suit up and head out".

So after packing away an enormous amount of food for so few people, we parted ways to our separate quarters and got dressed and ready to head out. We met back on the roof of the tower where a quinjet was sitting fueled up and ready to fly.

Clint and Natasha took over the pilot and co-pilots chairs while the rest of us strapped down in the rear seats. The whole team was eager to get under way knowing how scared I was. Steve was right beside me trying to calm me again; Sam, Bucky, and Bruce were sitting across from us giving me reassuring smiles; and Tony was checking on the status of Hal's tracker on his phone. The only one missing was Thor, but he was back on Asgard handling a dispute between his father and some other ruler of another realm.

I looked down at Tony's phone and noticed that the blip was currently flashing at the same spot. It still hadn't moved any and it had been about another half an hour. 'Hang on Hal, we're coming' I thought to myself.

An hour and a half later Clint was landing the quinjet silently in a clearing in the woods half a mile from the site where Hal's GPS ping was still coming from. It has been steady and unmoving for the past 2 hours, making me worry that something is off. We stood outside of the jet planning our next move; well Steve was in planning mode, but the rest of us were paying close attention to what he was saying. He was a master tactician you know.

The plan was to first send Widow in to infiltrate and gather intel and possible get captured herself to throw them off our scent. I looked over to wish her luck and noticed she was already gone. Geesh she reminds me of Hector, gone in a flash like a puff of smoke.

The rest of us split up on our own after doing a comm check to make sure we would stay in constant communication. Steve was reluctant to let me go by myself, but I drove that thought out of his head with my patented Burg death glare. I can take care of myself, thank-you very much! I have been training with Tasha in one on one combat, Bucky has been teaching me the art of stealth, (eat your heart out Ranger), and Clint has been keeping me in the range for hours at a time making my marksmanship better than it has ever been. Not to mention I have my own stash of widow bites, those thing come in SO handy!

I was creeping around the south side of the dilapidated old barn Hal was being held in when all hell broke loose. Two armed guards came running toward me. I took the first out with a quick shot to the chest from the Glock in my right hand, while at the same time I took the other down with a widow bite thrown from my left.

I also heard the sounds of battle coming from all around the inside and all sides of the barn; I heard Iron Man's repulsors firing, Hulk roaring, the swish and light explosions of Clint's arrows, the sound of gun fire, and the muffled thumps of blows from Cap's shield against bodies. Sounds like Steve and the rest of the Avengers are giving them hell!

I saw a small explosion to my left that created a hole in the back wall of the barn, one of Clint's exploding arrows no doubt. I crept through the hole while there was still cover from the smoke.

Once inside, I took in my surroundings quickly. I could see most of the team in battle taking out what seemed like 30 to 40 armed hostiles. I took out three more on my way to aide Tasha, who was what I thought out numbered 6 to 1. We took them all down easily.

I didn't see Bucky any where in the action and I knew he would not be missing what he called 'the fun'. I spoke into my comm unit.

"Hey Jerk, where are you? You're missing out on all the fun." I had gotten used to calling him 'jerk' like Steve does. He doesn't seem to mind, in fact the huge grin on his face when I do it tells me he actually enjoys it. I heard a small chuckly in my ear before he responded.

"Got some action of my own Dollface, get your asses down to the east basement corner when you get done up there. All of the hostages are located there."

"I'll stay here and take care of any stragglers, the rest of you can go on down. The hostages are the most important thing here." I hear Clint say.

"Affirmative." Steve tells him back. "Steph, you stay with Tasha, I'll team up with Stark. We need to watch each other's backs on the way down."

With all of the hostiles in our path taken down, we head to the east side of the building and hurry down the stairs. When we reach the bottom I am amazed at the sea of bodies littering the floor. Bucky has been hard at work it seems.

I hear muffled cries coming from my right, where the hostages should be. Steve and Tony head straight to the sounds. Then I hear "Bomber" from my left and spin around to see Hal sitting in a cell on a dirt floor, just like I saw in my dream. I rush over to him, with Tasha right beside me.

"Hal, honey are you Okay?" I ask as I take in his appearance. His face is dirty and covered in dried blood and bruises, his short hair is matted to his scalp, and his clothes are torn and filthy. He groans in reply.

"Stark! I shout into my comm unit. I need you over here, now!"

Tony is by our side within seconds. "What's up? Bucky and Steve have all the other hostages on the way to the jet. What's the hold up here?"

"Need your blasting power, no key for the lock here. Duh!" I tell him saucily. "Hal get back and take cover." I warn him. He scoots to the rear corner of the cell and puts his body between the door and the young girl who I just now noticed was in the cell with him. He crouches over her with his back hunched over to us.

Tony rapidly makes the door lock no more using the lowest power setting on his repulsors to do just the right amount of damage with as little debris flying as possible.

Tasha and I rush inside. Hal's voice is weak as the utters. "Take her out first. I can wait."

Tony moves forward and carefully lifts the girl into his arms, holding her close to his chest for protection and shuffles out toward the jet.

"Can you stand and walk?" I ask Hal.

"My left ankle is broken, but I can steady myself on you two I think." He answers.

Tasha and I both get an arm under his armpits and assist him to a standing position. I glance over to Tasha when I notice her jolt in reaction to the first touch of Hal's arm against hers. I wonder what that's about?

Once Hal is standing up aided by us, he looks over to Tasha and quietly tells her. "Thank-you ma'am." I see Tasha's eyes get slightly bigger in response as she replies. "No problem big boy, anytime." This time the shock on my face is evident.

I shake myself out of my stupor long enough to say. "Let's get going before they call in reinforcements." Tasha's response is a short, terse nod in my direction.

We slowly make our way across the basement, with poor Hal grimacing in pain the whole way. We finally reach the bottom of the stairs when I suddenly realize the problem.

"Crap, how are we supposed to get him up these stairs?" I complain.

"I got him." I hear from the top. I look up to see Steve's smiling face, thank goodness! Steve takes the stairs down three at a time to reach us in two seconds flat. He picks Hal up in a fireman's carry and walks back up calling down over his shoulder to us to hurry and follow him back to the jet.

We all traipse out the back door and the half mile down to the area where the jet is. I don't see it and start to worry until I remember that it can be cloaked invisible. Steve reassures me.

"We cloaked it just in case there were any more hostiles left." He then speaks into his comm unit. "Ramp down Barton, this is the last of us."

The jet appears again as the ramp lowers to allow us to board. Once we are inside, Steve carries Hal over to the small medical bay and lays him down on the stretcher. Bruce is already back to human again and has been looking over the other hostages. He finishes applying a bandage to a young boy's arm and immediately turns to examine Hal. I know Hal is in good hands now, so I take Tasha's hand and drag her to a corner for a private chat. I hear Tony address Clint once my back is turned. "Take us home Legolas."

Once we were out of earshot of anyone, execpt maybe the super soldiers, I started in on Tasha.

"Where are yours? I've seen those words in black on Hal's bicep. Where are his on you?"

She told me calmly around a small smile. "I can't show you at the moment. On the outside of my right thigh."

"Wow. This is great. I've always wanted all of my Merry Men to find someone special who will accept and love them as they are."

"Yeah, so are you done with the inquisition? I'd like to go check on my soulmate." She sasses back.

"Sure, go on. But let me tell you, you better not hurt him. I may not can kill you, but I know there is someone out there that I know who can!" I warn her.

"Easy tiger, I have no intentions of hurting him." She replies before turning to walk away.

I lean back against the wall and quietly watch their interactions. They are talking quietly with looks of tenderness. When they both reach out at the same time to rest their palms on each other's cheeks, I know everything will turn out fine. I sigh in contentment in the knowledge. #######

FINIS! Let me know what you think. This was a one-shot prize for a friend of mine. Dee, I hope you enjoyed it hun. :-) ~~~~~~~~~~ J