Eleanor had drifted off to sleep for the first two hours of the journey, they hadn't slept since before waking up for work before the boat mission, aside from half an hour before being woken up with the news of Fury. But that didn't count. The adrenaline had been keeping them going, but now that she was sitting in the back of a car with no sounds keeping her mind occupied, she quickly drifted off to sleep. Her cheek was resting on her seatbelt, when Nat turned around she wondered how she was able to stay asleep in that position, as her neck looked like it was on the brink of just snapping. But that was Eleanor, she could sleep in very awkward positions.

Natasha was starting to lag behind as well, but she couldn't bring herself to fall asleep as Eleanor had done. With not being on the best of terms with Steve, her brain wasn't shutting down fully as subconsciously she didn't feel safe with the man. Especially with Eleanor being in such a vulnerable state right now, it was even more reason why she couldn't seem to shut down, she had gone into survival and protection mode. Every now and then her head would dip because she wanted to sleep, but she would wake up again immediately.

When they passed the "Welcome to New Jersey" sign though, she soon woke up fully. She placed her foot on the dashboard to try and get more comfortable, Steve didn't seem to notice at first.

Now that Natasha had woken herself up from the half-asleep state she had been in, she decided to take a shot at conversing with the Captain, because quite frankly, this was the most boring road trip she had ever experienced. She turned to him and stared at him for a few seconds, debating on how to start. "Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?".

"Nazi Germany". Nat hummed in understanding and turned back to the front. "And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash". Natasha turned back to him as she put her leg down and smirked slightly at the Grandpa-like behaviour.

Now that there was some conversation, Eleanor woke up and groaned whilst stretching and yawning. Now Nat felt bad for starting to talk, she had wanted Eleanor to have gotten as much sleep as possible whilst they were on the road, because who knows what could happen next. Nat turned to face the backseat and saw Eleanor giving her a dopey smile. "Sorry we woke you up".

"That's okay", Eleanor responded whilst yawning again, but Nat smiled as she understood it. "So, what are we talking about?", she leaned forward and grabbed Steve's seat to get better access to the front.

"Just how Steve learnt to steal a car", Nat leaned back into her seat. Eleanor hummed and rested her forehead against the chair, it didn't sound like the most liveliest of conversations.

There was another minute or so of silence before Nat spoke up again, "All right, I have a question for you, which you do not have to answer". Eleanor lifted her head up again with sudden interest. "I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?".

"What?", Steve interjected, sounding kind of annoyed. Eleanor internally rolled her eyes at the hostility that was still within the trio.

"Have you not kissed someone since 1945?".

"Huh?", Steve was confused and so was Eleanor.

"It's just that back at the mall you looked like you didn't know that people still did that", Nat smirked. Eleanor laughed and said a few words of agreement.

"I know that people still kiss. Why do you wanna know?".

"Just wondering how much practice you've had", Nat smirked.

"You don't need practice".

"Everybody needs practice".

"That's right, because of Nat I am an expert", Eleanor smiled proudly.

Nat scoffed and turned to look at her with amusement shining in her eyes, "You're gross... but that's true, see Steve, practice makes perfect", Nat continued mocking him. Steve rubbed his forehead in exasperation at the two.

"I have kissed someone since 1945, I'm 95, not dead".

"You'd have a hard time convincing me", Eleanor mumbled before giving Steve a pat on the shoulder and leaning back into her own seat.

"Nobody special, though?", Nat was genuinely interested in getting this gossip type information from Steve now, though that might just be because she had just had the most mind-numbing two hours, so this was the jackpot.

Steve scoffed and paused briefly, "Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience".

"Well, that's alright. You just make something up". Eleanor tilted her head at what Nat said, it was true, sometimes you need to present yourself in a certain way to build a bridge with someone.

"What, like you?", Steve directed towards Nat.

"I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstance. It's not all things to all people, all of the time. Neither am I".

Eleanor leaned forward in fake shock, "Do I know you? Is your name even Natasha?", she joked, knowing full well that she was the only person that Nat had ever shown herself fully to.

"Shut up", Nat laughed and placed her hand on Eleanor's face to push her back towards her seat.

Steve seemed to be in thought whilst the other two were messing about, "What's up?", Nat spoke to him after the laughter had died down.

"Just seems like a tough way to live".

"It's a good way not to die, though", Nat got serious all of a sudden. Eleanor nodded her head in understanding, both of them didn't show themselves wholly at work and had gotten used to faking parts of themselves for missions, it was a good strategy in their line of work. But, for Natasha, that had been her entire life for a long, long time. Eleanor was well aware of the personal costs that it had for her, but it had meant that she was still alive now.

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust people when you don't know who they really are", he spoke to both of them this time. Eleanor frowned slightly, they had tried being friends with Steve before their fall out, but it's just not in their nature to give away their entire selves to someone and peel back all of those layers.

"Yeah", Natasha agreed as she looked away in thought before turning away, "Who do you want us to be?".

"How about friends?".

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers", she smirked again but there was a tinge of sadness to it this time.

Eleanor suddenly felt very uncomfortable with the energy that was in the car and didn't like that Natasha had been left feeling a bit sombre. "We can be friends", Eleanor stated quietly, and Nat felt a twinge in her chest at the vulnerability showing in her voice.

Steve gave a half-smile, "I need to know you, not you as Agents".

"Well...", Eleanor started before trailing off slightly, "We're not so different, me and the Agent. We both like coffee because we both struggle to wake up, we both have to point at cows if we pass them in a field, we both love cooking now, though I don't know how that one came about, point is they're the same person. Just, when you work with people with hidden sides a lot it's hard to show your vulnerable side in that environment. But you can still trust both".

Natasha nodded slightly, everything Eleanor said was true. Sure, a mask might be worn at work because you work with spies and it's not always the best idea for them to know everything about you at the drop of a hat, but it didn't mean that you were an untrustworthy person. When in the intelligence business, there is a divide between the whole person and the person at work, except for the very small circle of people that you form. Steve didn't fully understand it. They had shown him a genuine self, more than what they had shown others around the workplace, he needed to take it.

But Natasha was also right, if Steve wanted a friend from work where he needed to know all there is about them to be able to trust them, then he was definitely in the wrong business.

Steve was quiet for a moment, sitting in thought, "We'll work on it".

This was enough for Eleanor, so she sat back with a small smile. Natasha turned her head ever so slightly to look at him out of the corner of her eye, his body language seemed less tense, so he was telling the truth.

The rest of the journey was silent, but this time it was more comfortable. They had addressed the elephant in the room, or well... car, and so there was a more common ground of understanding.

After a further half an hour, the sun had started setting, and the trio had arrived at the location where the file had come from. Nat was using a device that had the coordinates hooked up to it that would also scan for radiowaves, heat signatures, electrical signals, etc. It was a handy device.

They pulled up outside of a seemingly abandoned area, in front of some metal fencing. After getting out of the truck Eleanor had decided that it was even eerier outside. "This is it", Steve announced.

"The file came from these coordinates", Natasha pocketed the tracking device as they stood still and looked around.

"So did I", Steve breathed out when looking at the sign, 'Camp Lehigh', a U.S. Army Restricted Area. Nat and Eleanor both turned to face him, it looked as though he had seen a ghost.

They slowly trudged forward to the fence, it was of course locked. "Don't happen to have a key with you, Steve?", Eleanor spoke whilst inspecting the padlock, it was incredibly rusted.

Steve leaned over and took a look as well before letting out a small chuckle. He lightly pushed Eleanor away from it and yanked the door part of the fencing open. "Nevermind", Eleanor gulped, making Nat laugh and give her a pat on the shoulder as she walked past her.

In the time that they had wandered around the front of the camp in silence, it had gotten dark, and Natasha had been using the device to try and find any signals that might pop up, but nothing had. This place looked like a ghost town, and Eleanor didn't like it. With every step she expected some guy with a chainsaw to pop out and start chasing them.

"This camp is where I was trained", Steve broke the silence. The other two had deduced that already, but they let the guy have his moment.

"Change much?", Nat questioned.

"A little".

Eleanor had been walking alongside Steve but took the stairs up to the concrete platform that Natasha had been walking along. "Hullo", she drawled out.

"You sound happy", Nat smirked as she continued looking at the device.

"Oh, I am, this definitely ranks in my list of top five days", Eleanor continued with just as much amusement lacing her words, Nat shook her head as she continued looking at the device.

"This is a dead-end, zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio", Nat pocketed the device again, "Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off". Steve then looked to have zoned in on something in the distance. "What is it?".

"That building over there, come on", he started leading the other two over there. They were confused but followed, still expecting this to lead nowhere, as that's usually how these things went when tracking somewhere that ended up with no signals. You regroup and attempt the file again.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place".

They analysed the door, and then Steve used his shield to break the lock. "We need one of those", Eleanor gestured at the shield to Nat, who hummed a 'yes'. the time that they have previously spent on picking locks to get into places was a lot.

Once the door was open it was still pretty dark, not easing Eleanor's fears about the chainsaw guy. But, they ventured on, hoping to find the semblance of a clue in this building.

They cautiously took the stairs down, this place seemed abandoned but you can still never be too careful, you don't want to alert people that you're there before getting a lay of the land ahead of you. Once it seemed okay, Natasha found a light switch, and they were blessed with the gift of sight.

In front of them was a very large office space, that looked like it hadn't been touched for at least forty years. The most interesting part though was the very recognisable old SHIELD logo painted on the fair wall. "This is SHIELD", Nat stated.

"Maybe where it started", Steve thought out loud as they started making their way through the office.

"This is so weird", Eleanor was looking at the things on people's desks. Even now she was able to get an idea of the personalities of the people who were doing the same job as her, almost a lifetime before she did. Some people's desks had notes on them from partners, or simply had stationary lined up in neat forms. One desk stood out to her though, one with slinkies and miniature dog figurines, this was her kind of person. She smirked as she looked at it, it had a sense of familiarity with her own desk that had little trinkets lying around.

They then ventured on into the next room, which looked just as abandoned as the last. It looked to be a room for mail storage, with some filing cabinets dotted around as well. "And there's Stark's father", Nat stated, drawing Eleanor's attention to the framed photos of the founders in front of them. There was no doubt about it, Tony looked like his dad.

"Howard".

"Who's the girl", Nat asked Steve. Eleanor had to keep herself from sighing disapprovingly at her, everyone in SHIELD knew Peggy Carter. She was sure that it was legal for people to be thrown off of the top of the Triskelion if they answered "Who?" to the question "Do you know Peggy Carter?". She was simply asking to get a reaction out of Steve.

Steve just slowly walked off, not wanting to answer, leaving Nat and Eleanor to look at the photos for a few more seconds before following.

Just as they had thought that this was going to be yet another dead-end, Steve seemed to find something interesting in one of the empty, cobweb-covered shelves. "If you're already working in a secret office...", he pushed one of the heavy looking shelves away, revealing the double doors ahead, "Why do you need to hide the elevator?".

Eleanor took a few steps forward, grimacing slightly at the creepiness levels slowly rising, "Well, what a fucking plot twist".