The three soon arrived at the Triskelion after Natasha had almost committed multiple hit and runs whilst weaving in and out of traffic. Eleanor really wished that she could have worn a seatbelt and firmly believed that her time on Earth was up, but her beliefs thankfully did not come true, and they swiftly made their way over to their lockers with spare uniforms in; or in the Captain's case, his only uniform. It had been redesigned since the Battle, it was now navy coloured. Eleanor liked it, the old one felt a lot more "showy" than this one.

"Have you two eaten today?", Steve asked them as they were speed-walking through the halls. He was aware that it was very early and assumed that they had been on the go all morning because of the emergency call in.

"No, we haven't. Why?", Nat replied and looked at him curiously as it was very out of the blue. Eleanor was just as confused, and also very hungry.

"I have some granola bars in my locker, take some, we don't wanna go in on an empty stomach".

"Thanks, Steve", the younger woman felt guilt yet again, and so did Natasha. He had always just shown them kindness in their interactions at work. They hoped that if Steve ever found out about the various ways they've had to go behind his back during their shared time at SHIELD they would understand that it was not personal and could at least remain on talking terms.

The lockers also contained some weapons that were favoured by them, so Natasha and Eleanor grabbed some guns to put in their holsters, and Cap got his trusty shield.

Once the uniforms, weapons, and granola bars had been collected, they headed into the changing area, there was always one near groups of lockers planted around, due to uniforms being the main things that are stored in them.

"Do you think we have time to nap on the way?", Eleanor shouted from her cubicle.

"No!", the other two shouted back at the same time, laughing when they heard a disheartened "Damn", in response.

It didn't take much time to get dressed, they were very well-practised in swiftly changing due to emergency situations, so they would be right on time to the jet, having only been in the Triskelion for a total of four minutes. So, they soon found themselves heading outside to the jet that Rumlow and the STRIKE team had prepared for them.

It was easy to spot which jet it was as Rumlow was outside, he sent a sickly sweet smile Eleanor's way as she hopped onto the jet first, making Nat shoot him a blank look when it was her turn to get on. Anyone who knew Nat though knew that this look said 'back off'.

It was a field day for jealousy.

"Here", Steve handed them both a granola bar, which they gratefully accepted, happily munching on their breakfasts as Rumlow started shouting orders to get the jet into the air.

The SHIELD jets were already fast, but new models had been coming out that were even quicker, so it wouldn't take long to get there at all, they only had about ten minutes of rest time before rumlow was going to go through the briefing, and Cap would outline the plan.

After Eleanor inhaled the breakfast, she huffed and moved to stand in front of Nat, then let her head flop onto Nat's shoulder. "What's wrong?", Nat asked as she gently rubbed circles on her back.

"I'm just tired". She shook her head to nuzzle into Nat's shoulder more, it was comfortable and Nat was warm, it was getting dark out due to timezones, and even though the temperature in the jet remained the same, the darkness from the outside made Eleanor crave some warmth. Her brain was being bamboozled.

"Well, we can take a nap when we get back before we carry on with work", Nat reasoned. But that only made Eleanor internally groan, when they got back it would still be daytime at home and they'd have half a days work ahead of them. The timezones were messing with her brain and she's only been in a different one for five minutes.

Soon enough they were over the Indian Ocean, so Rumlow called them all up to the screen that was set up on the side. Natasha stood in the middle of Steve and Eleanor, resting her chin on her hand and concentrating deeply on the images showing up on the screen.

"Target is a mobile satellite launch platform, the Lemurian Star", Rumlow started as he pulled up a 3D rendition of the ship on the screen, moving around the scene to give the Agents a good look at it. "They were sending up their last payload when pirates took them 93 minutes ago".

"Any demands?", Steve interjected.

"Billion and a half", Eleanor let out a low whistle, that was a big figure, the people running this shitshow were rather stupid to think that shield would play along and hand over that amount of money.

"Why so steep?".

"Because it's SHIELD's", Rumlow replied and Steve immediately tilted his head back slightly and sighed in annoyance. If he was already annoyed at this fact then Eleanor dreaded to think what he would be like if their side-mission was uncovered, so she eyed him anxiously to get a good read on his reaction.

"So, it's not off-course. It's trespassing". He looked down at Nat after saying this, she was still staring intently at the screen.

"I'm sure they have a good reason", she was very nonchalant.

"You know I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor", he was calm but the entire jet could feel the frustration seeping off of him. It was a bit awkward.

"Relax. It's not that complicated". Natasha's reassurance seemed to have worked slightly, even though when Eleanor was worked up and she told her to relax it had the opposite effect. It was either that or Steve knew that he wasn't going to be able to get anywhere by going on a tangent, so he turned back to Rumlow.

"How many pirates?".

"Twenty five. Top mercs, led by this guy. Georges Batroc. Ex-DGSE, Action Division", Rumlow pulled up a photo of Batroc, he looked like he packed a punch. "He's at the top of Interpol's Red Notice. Before the French demobilised him, he had thirty six kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties". Okay, so she wasn't far off with her hunch of him packing a punch.

"Hostages?", Steve carried on shooting questions.

"Oh, mostly techs. One officer, Jasper Sitwell", he pulled up Sitwell's image on the screen in replacement of Batroc's, "They're in the galley". Eleanor didn't know Sitwell that well, they had interacted a grand total of one time during the search for Loki before the Battle of New York, but she knew enough to know that his job description didn't really include launch ships.

"What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship?", Steve thought out loud, making Eleanor wonder if he was a mind reader. Nat glanced at him briefly, a tad annoyed at him questioning so many things about this mission.

Eleanor just sighed, wanting to get this over with, she was still confused about the whole intel situation. She had always been told that all of SHIELD's information was stored in one very secure place to be accessed from anyway, if you had the clearance. Like iCloud but less hackable. So, why on Earth was there suddenly this ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean with sensitive SHIELD information that Fury couldn't access from the Triskelion. He wasn't asking them to wipe the data from the area, he was asking for them to collect it. Wiping would have made more sense to her.

If Natasha shared the same concerns then she did a hell of a good job of not showing it, much like when Eleanor felt uneasy about the file that they were recently given. Natasha didn't question that or ask for more information. Eleanor shrugged it off for now, she could ask her later when they were back home.

"All right, I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nat, El, you kill the engines and wait for instructions. Rumlow, you sweep the aft and find the hostages, get them to the life-pods, get them out. Let's move", Steve gave out his orders and they seemed easy enough, aside from the fact that they would have to sneak off after doing their job, to go and do their other job.

Steve started moving to the back of the jet, so everyone followed to go and secure parachutes onto themselves. Yep, parachutes, Eleanor was really not happy with this arrangement, but there was no other way to stealthily get onto a ship in the middle of the ocean from in the air.

"Secure channel seven" Steve spoke into the communicator on his wrist.

"Seven secure", Nat spoke, which Eleanor repeated into her own communicator.

"Did you do anything fun Saturday night?", Nat started. Eleanor smirked knowing that this would probably be the start of pissing him off. Sure she felt guilty, but friendly banter was fun so she felt no remorse about that.

"Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so, no, not really", he smirked whilst putting an earpiece in. Nat smirked back as they heard the pilot speak through comms, "Coming up on the drop zone, Cap", so Steve opened the hatch.

Eleanor very suddenly didn't feel in a very jokey mood at hearing that, her mouth went dry and she felt a shiver go down her spine, Natasha seemed unaffected however.

"You know, if you ask Kristen out from Statistics, she'd probably say yes".

"That's why I don't ask".

The hatch was now fully open now, and Steve was equipped with his helmet and shield. Eleanor seriously wanted to sob when she looked out into the open air. Did Fury hate her? Is that what all of this was, because so far she was not having a great time. She was having the opposite of a great time.

"Too shy, or too scared?".

"Too busy!", he then suddenly leapt out of the jet without a parachute on, Eleanor's eyes went wide and her eyebrows shot up. Super soldiers were on a whole other level.

"Was he wearing a parachute?", one of the STRIKE team members asked Rumlow.

"No. No he wasn't", he chuckled in response whilst continuing to make sure that his own chute was secure.

Then it was their turn, a few members of the STRIKE team went first and Eleanor visibly paled. "Hey, you'll be okay, it's not high", Nat cooed in reassurance as she placed her hand on Eleanor's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze before guiding the two to the edge. She was right, due to the height and needing stealth they'd have to open the parachutes only a few seconds after jumping, it would be a nice slow glide down... over the friggin' ocean.

She inhaled and briefly closed her eyes whilst nodding to calm herself down, she really hated heights. "Yeah, yeah I got this".

"Mhm", Natasha was seemingly bored of waiting for Eleanor to jump, even though Eleanor would argue that it hadn't even been that long, as whilst her eyes were still shut, Natasha gave her a shove that sent her tumbling out of the hatch. The last thing Natasha heard before her girlfriend was out of sight was a pathetic squeak as she plummeted.

Nat smirked and readied herself to jump, "That'll cost you later", Rumlow laughed.

"Oh, I know".