Steve had dragged Sitwell down the stairs and thrown him into the car again. Just like the last time, Eleanor had ended up sitting next to him.

Sitwell was unaware of their new plan, they had planned it whilst he was locked in the car, and they spoke in very hushed voices outside in order to keep him out of the know. They were heading back into the lion's den, SHIELD HQ. They needed a way to get onto those helicarriers, and using Sitwell was the only way to do so their clearance was surely revoked, and so they needed to use the rat to get in.

The car ride was uncomfortable, the tension in the air was thick, just like with the road trip to New Jersey, Eleanor wanted to barrel roll out of the car, but this time she was in the middle seat so the idea of that wasn't even an option.

After about ten minutes of sitting next to Sitwell, she couldn't take it anymore, the guy was a sloppy guest.

"Christ, will you give me some room, man!", she shoved Sitwell to the side more as he was taking up a portion of Eleanor's middle seat.

"I don't have any more room to give you!". Eleanor scowled at him, he had plenty of room and he knew it. Though Steve wasn't going to tolerate any bickering, so he looked at the people in the back through the mirror and yelled a "Hey!". Everyone immediately silenced and stared at the Captain like they were kids about to be put in time-out. "Be quiet, all of you".

Nat suddenly looked quite offended, "I didn't even do anything?". Steve just rolled his eyes in return, wanting to continue the silence. Eleanor and Sitwell gave each other the occasional side glare, but other than that they did as the Captain said.

Natasha also noticed the amount of side glares that Sitwell was giving, so tugged Eleanor closer to her as she squished herself further against the door, wanting as much difference between her girlfriend and the HYDRA snake as possible. Eleanor happy leaned into Natasha's side, it was much better than her previous position.

Once they were on the highway, Sitwell started to get antsier, as though it had only just kicked in that they were actually driving somewhere and weren't just trying to intimidate him, "HYDRA doesn't like leaks".

"Then why don't you try sticking a cork in it?", Sam immediately retorted from the driver's seat. Eleanor felt a little smug at how easily that shut Sitwell up, but she didn't show it.

Nat suddenly leaned over to poke her head in between the front car seats, shoving Eleanor slightly in the process, she went to ask Nat what the hell she was doing but she began talking before she could. "Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here", Nat said with a little smirk at the end, not that Eleanor could see that, but she could definitely hear it. She cocked her head slightly once again wondering what the hell Nat was doing, smirking at the fact that they were running out of time.

"I know. We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the helicarriers directly".

Nat sat back in her seat properly, so Eleanor nudged her shoulder against Nat's as a pathetic payback for just being shoved. Nat just shoved her back harder.

"What? Are you crazy?!", Sitwell responded to Steve as he now leaned forward. Eleanor was sick of her space being encroached upon. "That is a terrible, terrible idea". Eleanor was going to tell him to back up but she didn't want Steve giving her the annoyed dad look again.

She wouldn't have had a chance to berate him anyway, as Sitwell was cut off with a thud sounding from the roof of the car. Before those in the car could even look up, a hand smashed through the back left passenger window, and yanked Sitwell out of the car, throwing him into oncoming traffic. Eleanor and Nat leaned over towards the broken window and looked out of it, horrified. What the fuck just happened?

Eleanor felt slightly nauseous at having just watched someone die in that way, even if it was Sitwell.

The figure on the car then moved back to the middle of the roof, the two women looked up before Nat threw herself into the front onto Steve's lap just as gunshots rang and went into her seat. Eleanor flinched and removed her seatbelt so that she could shift to the side, not wanting to end up with bullet holes in her.

Gunshots then fired at Steve and Sam's heads, so the people in the front had to duck. Steve decided to pull the handbrake in order to send the unknown figure on the roof flying onto the road in front of them. It worked, but they landed facing the car in a crouched position as they skidded away, using their meal arm to slow the movement, looking very unphased.

Everyone clocked the metal arm, it was The Winter Soldier, things were going to get nasty. Eleanor remembered when she had seen Nat in hospital after her girlfriend's last encounter with him, she was suddenly very fearful of the possible events that were going to play out.

Natasha aimed her gun at the now standing figure, but just before she could shoot, another car slammed into the back of them, people and gun flying forward. Due to not being strapped in, Eleanor was sent straight into the centre console, winding herself as her abdomen slammed against the side.

The car was pushing them forward, they were clearly working with The Winter Soldier, who was standing in the road as the car was being pushed towards him at a moderate pace. Eleanor stared in disbelief as the soldier flipped himself over the car and back onto the roof.

Sam slammed the brakes on in an attempt to regain control of the car, but it wasn't working. Natasha reached onto the floor to reach for her gun, and Eleanor saw that she was struggling so pulled out her own gun and aimed it onto the roof, but The Winter Soldier once again foiled their plans. He smashed the front window with his metal arm and ripped the steering wheel out of the car.

"What the-!", Eleanor began but was interrupted by Sam yelling "Shit!". Natasha had managed to reach her gun so began shooting at the man on the roof, Eleanor snapped back into reality and began shooting at him as well. All of their shots missed as it was hard to am at someone moving whilst there is a roof between you.

Eleanor had started to feel helpless, she knew what the soldier was capable of, both she and Nat did. They had learnt a lot about the guy during their research on him, they just weren't able to locate him. But she knew enough to know that even with the four of them against him, they were outgunned.

The Winter Soldier jumped onto the car behind, Sam sped up in an attempt to get away, even though he had no control over the steering, she didn't know how they were managing to stay in a straight line. Eleanor looked behind her through the glassless back window and gulped when she made eye contact with him. "Fucking drive", she mumbled loudly.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?!".

The car behind then sped up and slammed into the back of them again, this time sending them into the barrier on the road due to the lack of being able to steer. Eleanor clung to the front chairs as though her life depended on it, which it kind of did.

When Natasha spotted Steve readying up his shield against the door she frantically scrambled to get into a better position for Eleanor to be able to climb onto her as well. It was clear that the car was about to flip.

"El, now!", she yelled as she gripped onto Eleanor's arm. She immediately swung herself around on top of Natasha, their fronts pressed against each other. It was a tight fit but with the grip that Nat had on her, there was no way she'd fall off.

"Hang on!", Steve shouted as the car skidded to the side, Sam also jumped on top of the group and clung onto them as Steve slammed the door off of the car, the group flying out with it and landing on it, just before the car flipped and started rolling in front of them.

The four skidded down the highway on the door at a relentless speed, it was like going sledging in the winter, if you did it in hell.

Glass and pieces of debris from the car were flying at them, all Eleanor could do was dig her face into Nat's side and hope that death wasn't coming for them today.

At some point, Eleanor felt Sam's grip falter, but before she could even think about making an attempt to grab him he fell off and started rolling painfully, it wasn't a surprise that one of them fell off considering the tight fit, but it wasn't an ideal situation. It made Eleanor cling to Natasha even more as she was now the one on the edge.

When the door came to a halt, along with the HYDRA car, the trio stood up and shook themselves off before hoping to make a plan. Eleanor immediately turned to face Nat to see if she was okay but turned around when she saw her wide-eyed gaze fall behind her. The Winter Soldier was right there, aiming a large gun at them, one that would shoot out an explosive.

Steve pushed Nat out of the way as she was closest, who yanked Eleanor along with her. Steve used his shield to take most of the blast but was still sent flying into a car and off of the bridge that they were stood on. Eleanor audibly winced as she saw Steve being flung away, he was a super soldier so would hopefully survive that. If it was any of the others they would be pancakes right now.

Sam caught up to the two women, and Eleanor was glad to see that he seemed okay after his tumble. They sprinted behind a car as a multitude of bullets were being fired at them. Sam ran to hide behind a car further away, whilst Nat and Eleanor hid behind a minivan. Nat shot at the soldiers from the front side of the van, whilst Eleanor shot at them from the back end.

None of their shots were meeting their targets, they weren't able to aim for long enough to get a good shot in before bullets went flying past their heads. "We're as good as fucking Stormtroopers right now", Eleanor frustratedly mumbled as she reloaded her gun.

Nat moved more out into the open to try and get a better aim, which made Eleanor nervous, but an explosive was fired at her as soon as she did, so she had to roll over the barrier in between the two roads of the highway, right into oncoming traffic.

Eleanor watched motionlessly as Natasha rolled out of the way of incoming cars, and as she ran to take shelter. Just as Eleanor let out a sigh of relief, another explosive was suddenly fired at the car she was behind. She had to stifle a yell as she ran towards Natasha's previous position, expecting to see Natasha dead but was able to let out another sigh as she saw her falling from the bridge.

Most people would be horrified to see that, but Nat was falling in a controlled way. Eleanor had been on countless missions with Natasha and so knew her tells, the way she manoeuvred herself in the air meant that she would use the grapple shooter concealed in her sleeve, and she would land okay.

The Winter Soldier seemed to know that she wasn't dead as well, so Eleanor hid behind another car before he could spot her too.

He started aiming over the other side of the bridge and onto the road below, so Eleanor took aim at him, knowing that Natasha would run out from under there soon, but she couldn't press the trigger as shots started being fired at him by Natasha, making him move away. People just seemed to keep interrupting her today.

She watched as he crouched leaning against the wall, and took this as an opportunity to try and get to Nat. When she looked at Sam they gave each other curt nods, signalling that he was fine to stay up here and that she was fine to leave. She plunged her own grapple that was concealed onto the side of the bridge opposite the soldiers, and hopped off of the side, slowly lowering herself to the ground.

She cringed when she heard more gunshots, but she had eyes on her girlfriend now and saw that she was okay.

Eleanor started jogging over to her, but when she saw that Natasha had begun sprinting away down the street, her pace picked up as she darted between the cars that lay on the road, trying to avoid the shots that were now being fired at her.

It only took a minute or so to catch up to Natasha who had slowed down slightly now that they were temporarily out of danger on a quieter street. "Nice of you to show up", she smirked when she saw Eleanor in her peripheral.

"Yeah, thought it'd be best if I didn't abandon you", Eleanor joked back.

Once Natasha had decided that they had run far enough, she reached her hand out to slow both her and Eleanor down, "We need a plan, we can't run forever". Eleanor nodded in response as Nat took out the device that she used back at the camp in New Jersey, "I'll do a recording, lure him over, and we can use the element of surprise when it turns out we aren't there".

"Sounds good", Eleanor smiled slightly. This situation was awful but she still wanted to show Natasha that she liked the plan and not be blunt to her.

"Ammunitions being used by armed men. Both bullets and explosives. Taking fire above and below expressway. Civilians threatened. Repeat, civilians threatened. I make an LZ 2300 block of Virginia Avenue. Rendezvous two minutes. They are on the move".

Natasha finished the recording and rested the device against the tire of someone's car, it would probably get blown up but it was worthy collateral damage considering there was a madman on the loose.

She pressed play and put it on repeat before they took cover across the street behind some hedges with a gap in so that they would be able to see him when he inevitably walked down the street.

After a few minutes, just as expected, The Winter Soldier showed up, slowly walking in the middle of the road as though he owned the place. He had clearly twigged onto the recording but thought that it was Natasha as the two had planned. He crouched and rolled an explosive under the car, blowing it up. Also just as expected.

The two ran forward, Natasha jumped onto a car so that she could leap onto him and kick the gun from his hand. The element of surprise worked. Natasha pulled some cord out as she sat on his shoulders and began to choke him. They slammed into the side of a car before he threw her over his shoulders. She painfully hit another car in front of them and dropped to the floor.

Now it was time for another element of surprise. Eleanor ran at him, she too used the hood of the car for momentum as she jumped forward and slammed both of her feet into his back. He flew forward as she hit the floor in a controlled way, both immediately jumping up. He turned to face her and slowly walked over to her, it was incredibly scary the way he stared her down.

Eleanor took a step backwards before taking another run at him, moving herself to be clinging onto his back and wrapping him in a headlock. She threw her body backwards to try and drag him to the floor, but it was no use. With the hand that wasn't trying to pry her arm away, he reached behind and grabbed her leg, then whipped his arm forward, flinging her away from him as though she were a ragdoll.

Her head hit the floor with an audible crack that even made Natasha cringe in her slightly dazed state. "Why is it always my fucking head", Eleanor groaned as she rolled onto her front whilst The Winter Soldier reached to pick up his gun.

He aimed at Natasha first but she was fast, she threw a widow bite that landed on his metal arm, rendering it useless for a moment.

Natasha locked eyes with Eleanor and gestured for the two to begin running, they bolted down the street, knowing that they were no match for this guy right now.

They started yelling to the civilians who were still on the street to "Get out of the way", as the soldier was almost definitely going to follow them. Though Eleanor's choice of words was "Haul ass".

It was hard to keep running, as the continuous lack of sleep that the two had been experiencing was hitting them hard, but the adrenaline that was attempting to keep them alive was doing its job.

Just as they thought that they would be relatively safe as they approached another car to take cover behind, the crack of a gunshot rang in the air, and Eleanor watched in alarm and horror as Nat's back arched and she grunted in pain.

Eleanor took ahold of Nat's wrist and dragged her to sit down on the floor behind the car. "Asshole", the younger woman seethed as she took sight of Nat clutching her shoulder in pain. Luckily, judging from Natasha's hand position it had only hit muscle, no organs, but blood loss was still a terrifying reality.

"You'll be okay", Eleanor breathed out as she placed her hand atop Nat's, trying to increase the pressure. Her heart shattered when she saw Nat begin to tear up, "I promise you'll be okay", her voice cracked towards the end, it always broke her to see Natasha in pain.

Nat nodded slightly before the two whipped their heads up when they heard a thump nearby. He was back, on top of a car, and aiming a gun at their faces. Yeah, this was terrifying.