Eleanor started frantically switching all of the different controls on the dashboard to make a hasty but controlled landing on the uneven terrain below, what she was doing would most certainly make a person fail the pilot's test for this vehicle.

The surrounding area consisted of a giant lake and a forest, so it was not ideal for an aerial vehicle landing. But a short distance away from the edge of the lake in the forest was the smallest clearing known to man. Eleanor wasn't even sure it could be classed as a clearing, it was more like a place with a two-tree gap, but it was the best that she had without landing on top of one of the trees and the propellers being torn to shreds.

She hovered very briefly over the area for a few seconds before lowering them down, it was slightly faster and rougher than a normal landing, but they hadn't died, so she considered it an absolute win. As she began shutting down the engine, the other three jumped out and started racing towards the lake. From that distance and with how physically fit they were, it would only be a thirty-second sprint, so after it was safe to leave the helicopter parked there, she sprinted after them.

She had expected at least one of them to have dove into the lake already to try and find the fallen soldier, what she had not expected in the short time that it took to land, was Steve lying on the side of the lake. He was battered and bruised, blood pouring out of his stomach, but he was alive. Thank God.

Eleanor's eyes trained in on the footsteps in the mud that moved away from his unconscious figure, however, there was no one to be seen. She furrowed her eyebrows in thought at who would drag him out of the water and leave immediately after, but instead of dwelling on it she rushed back to the helicopter to start it back up when she saw that the other three had successfully lifted Steve up and were heading back to the 'clearing'.

Once all of the buttons that needed to be pressed had been pressed, and the switches that needed to be flipped were flipped, the others had arrived with Steve, and they gently laid him in the back as she started their ascent.

"We can't go in with you for long Sam, is that okay?", Nat turned to him as he nodded whilst working on putting pressure on Steve's wounds.

Their destination was of course the hospital, but two of the people in the helicopter now had to go on the run. Fury was thought of as dead to the world and he wanted to keep it that way now that they knew the world was still teeming with HYDRA. And all of Natasha's legal aliases had been revealed, aside from the one on their apartment as that was never linked to SHIELD.

However, this meant that any Red Room contacts and the KGB would know exactly what city she has been living in and what she has been doing since her escape, it would be all too easy to track her down. So, they would have to go into hiding for a while until Natasha could get more fake identities set up. And of course, Eleanor would accompany her.

"Yeah, not a problem", Sam responded. He knew that they had to go, he wasn't going to decline that.

After a flight that only lasted a few minutes because of the wreckless speed, Eleanor landed on the helipad used for emergencies at the hospital, and everyone aside from Fury aided in getting Steve into the emergency area where the Doctors could make quick work on him.

They watched as he was rushed into surgery, letting out breaths they didn't realise that they were holding. They were all going to be okay. Now all that was left to do for the two women was make their departure.

Eleanor gave Sam a hearty pat on the shoulder, "See you soon, Wilson. Tell Steve we're thinking of him". He just shook his head and smiled before bringing her into a bear hug.

"Bring it in, Hughes", he laughed as he squeezed her, and then released her with a hand still on her shoulder, "Look after Nat, okay?", though he wasn't being serious as he ended the statement with a wink.

"Yeah, yeah", Nat rolled her eyes before saying her goodbyes to Sam as well.

Eleanor was going to miss him, they'd only known each other for a few days, but in that short time, they'd overcome more stresses than some people do in a lifetime. He had their back from day one without even knowing any context, he was a good ally and an even better friend. She sorely hoped that their paths would cross again, sooner rather than later.

After the goodbyes, Natasha wrapped her arm around Eleanor's waist and the two headed back up to the roof. It was time to go into hiding. Eleanor could tell that Natasha wasn't happy with it by the grip that she had, almost like she thought that someone was going to turn the corner and snatch her out of her hands.

The life that they had been living was a good one, it was something that they had never wanted to say goodbye to. But like all good things, it had to come to an end, they were just thankful to have each other.

The plan was to eventually go back to live in their apartment again when the heat of the SHIELD leak had died down, for now though, there wasn't really a plan. It was scary... but left plenty of room for adventure.

---

Fury looked agitated as the pair made their way over to the helicopter and got themselves settled inside. "Took your time, Agents".

"Yeah well... we were saying goodbye to a friend", Eleanor muttered as she put her headset back on.

Once all of them had got themselves ready for the flight and Eleanor had started the engine up, Natasha poked her head in between the two front seats, "Where to?".

"The fuck away from here", Eleanor laughed in response as she took to the skies a lot smoother than the previous times. "Just gonna fly for a while, land in a tucked away clearing and we can hopefully make our way to a motel or something, figure things out from there".

"Sounds good", Nat smiled and leaned back again. Eleanor had checked the amount of fuel and was happy to see that they still had 3/4 of the tank left, the last thing that she wanted to do was crash land the helicopter in the middle of nowhere. That wouldn't be ideal.

The journey to the unknown was quite peaceful. The views were immaculate, she had flown them over many farmlands, lakes, and forests, it was hard to not be mesmerised. There was some conversation but most of the time they just sat and took in the surroundings, it had been a hectic adventure, so it was nice to have downtime. God knows that they needed it.

Eventually, though, Eleanor got a little bored of the serene silence, and of course, she was hungry. "So uh, should I take this thing through a drive-thru or what?", she said as she patted an empty part of the control panel.

Fury gave her a 'really?' look while Natasha played along, "Oh yeah, you thinking of a McDonald's or?", she smirked when Fury turned to give her the same look.

"We just need to get to a safe area and get into hiding as soon as possible".

"Killjoy", Eleanor mumbled, and Natasha had to stop herself from laughing as the ex-Director was clearly on edge, understandably.

After they had gotten a fair few hours away from D.C., they found themselves flying through Indiana airspace, so, Eleanor went to a lower altitude to start searching for small-looking towns that were a lengthy distance from other places. Fury had mentioned that he would need to go back in a week to "burn everything", whatever that meant, so once she had passed a place that fit the criteria of isolated and looked to have a car lot, she landed a few miles out from it.

She couldn't land near the place as that would cause quite the stir, so she landed in the middle of nowhere, around them were just trees, trees, and more trees. But they had taken note of the location of the small town, and so they started a fast-paced walk over, at their speed, it would take a couple of hours, and it would certainly be even darker when they arrived. The sun had already begun setting a few hours ago, so it was going to be a late one.

Fury had taken the position as the leader of the group, he walked a few paces ahead. Eleanor wasn't sure whether it was to have some alone time, whether it was to scope out the area, maybe possibly a protective streak revealing itself. The only thing that she was sure of was that it would take her a while to get used to the new sunglasses that he was sporting instead of his eyepatch.

The eyepatch was an iconic Fury statement piece, so of course, it had to go, and he switched it out for sunglasses.

As Eleanor and Natasha walked behind him as they neared the town, the two were quiet. Eleanor was in comfortable silence, but she could tell that Natasha seemed very on edge again. When their tired gazes occasionally met, Natasha's eyes were filled with an almost guilty expression, of which Eleanor was unsure of the source. Though she still gently ran her thumb over Nat's knuckles as reassurance that whatever was going on, she was there.

The night got colder as time went on, and consequently so did the people travelling, their breaths coming out as little puffs of smoke. The forest looked quite unforgiving in the dark, the shadows that the trees cast from the pale moonlight caused an eery vibe that made the hairs on the back of Eleanor's neck rise. She was thanking her lucky stars that Natasha had a tight grip on her hand.

She felt ridiculous, she had fought literal aliens but felt afraid in a dark forest. There was just something about the place that had set her mind off. Natasha didn't seem phased by it, she was clearly distracted by her thoughts.

When they had reached the border of the town, Eleanor practically skipped into it, she was beyond ready to get out of the forest.

The town was smaller than they had thought it was from the air, it only took a few minutes of aimlessly walking around the streets to find a very run-down motel. It looked seriously awful.

The neon light sign for the place was flickering on and off, though it was off a lot more than it was on, the paint on the walls was peeling off to reveal the grey brick underneath, and the trash containers outside were overflowing which had attracted wildlife.

"Well, this looks... pleasant", Eleanor mumbled as the three got closer and were able to take in more of the place. Fury kept quiet but the other two could clearly sense distaste from the man, and Natasha just hummed in agreement. It wasn't good, but she had slept in worse places.

Walking in, the first thing that they saw was a young man running the front desk, scrolling aimlessly on the computer with his mouth slightly agape, he had clearly been put into an almost hypnotic state from whatever media he was consuming.

He hadn't even noticed them approaching even though the little bell above the door had rung as they entered. After a few seconds of standing and staring at him expectedly, Fury cleared his throat to try and get his attention, which didn't work.

Eleanor frowned, she was tired and wanted to go to bed, so she took the matter into her own hands and walked around to his side of the desk. As she looked at what he was looking at, her eyebrows raised when she saw that the thing that had gotten him so distracted was a video of a tortoise slowly walking across a garden.

"Excuse me", she patted his shoulder and he jumped out of his skin at realising that there were people in front of him. "Hi", she smiled at him as he looked at her with wide eyes, she still had her face covered in stitches so that probably wasn't helping her come across as harmless. "We'd like to book two rooms if possible?".

He began stuttering a few words saying that it was fine and pulled up the booking page, so Eleanor took her place back next to Natasha. "So is it one of you with him?", he pointed to Fury when trying to get the rooms organised with how many people would be in each and who to give the keys to.

Natasha pursed her lips slightly and shook her head, "No, it's us together", she tilted her head to gesture at Eleanor. He made an 'O' shape with his mouth and muttered a small apology at his assumption as Fury looked over at them with a small, teasing smirk.

Luckily, after the kerfuffle that they had to endure first, they were given their rooms. Fury was in a room that was across the motel from them, it was a surprisingly busy business, so he said that he would be round in the morning with supplies for them before heading off in the opposite direction.

Eleanor was just glad that the prospect of a bed was now in view, it was nearing 2 am and so sleep was very much needed after the utterly exhausting few days that they had just endured. Hand in hand again, they walked into their room, and it met their expectations, though the bar was low.

The carpet was mucky, the walls had some water stains, and the desk had names carved into it, but the bed looked clean which was the main thing. Eleanor immediately jumped into bed after inspecting it and sighed in relaxation as she sunk into the pillows, but she frowned when she didn't feel the bed dip beside her.

When looking up at Nat she saw a lot of hesitancy. "You okay?".

Her jaw tightened and she seemed to be glaring at the bedspread, so Eleanor scooted closer, "What's wrong?".

Natasha did eventually look up to meet the eyes that were looking at her with concern. "This wasn't supposed to be your life".

"What do you mean?".

"This!", Natasha's voice raised along with her arms in exasperation, "Being on the run, on the run from my past, it's not what I wanted for you, I promised myself that I would keep you safe, safe from them and now we're in hiding, El! This wasn't supposed to happen".

Eleanor's eyes went wide and she had flinched slightly at the sudden, small outburst, it was something that she doesn't see from Natasha very often, at all. "It's not your fault, Nat", she tried to reassure but was cut off by another small outburst.

"No, but it is! I never should have thought that my life could go to normal forever, and I selfishly dragged you into it! You should have gone with everyone else, you deserve be-".

"Hey! Don't finish that sentence. I'm here with you because I want to be. I love you, in all of the highs and all of the lows, I love you and want to be with you. Hell would freeze over before I let you go into hiding without me, I would turn over every rock in the world to find you again. There is nowhere I would rather be than here, in this grubby motel room, and you know why?". Natasha sheepishly shook her head as she began to calm down.

"Because you're here, wherever you go I go, baby, that's how it works", she stood and wrapped her arms around Natasha. "Forever and always".

Nat let out a shaky breath, but she didn't feel worked up anymore and reciprocated the hug by clinging onto her as though afraid that Eleanor would change her mind and level. Even though Natasha would rather that Eleanor be in the safety of their apartment, she couldn't deny that it would break her heart if Eleanor thought the same and left her there.

As if Eleanor could read her mind, she muttered into the crook of her neck, "I'm not going anywhere".

Nat nodded and squeezed tighter briefly before letting her go, "Come on, we need sleep", she smiled slightly as she guided them both into bed. It was slightly more uncomfortable than normal as they had no spare clothes, so Natasha was still in her suit, and Eleanor was still in the clothes that she had been wearing for a couple of days. But they didn't dare remove them just in case the bed wasn't as clean as it looked.

Nat immediately scooped her arms around Eleanor's torso and brought the top half of her body to lay on hers, her chin resting on the crown of Eleanor's head. "Goodnight, I love you", Eleanor whispered as she let her eyes close.

"I love you too", Natasha's eyes were wide open though as she lay there with her thoughts racing. She had been on the run countless times, and each was just as bad, if not worse than the last. But as she was lying there, girlfriend in arms, she kept thinking back to what Eleanor had said.

'There is nowhere I would rather be than here'.

And Natasha agreed wholeheartedly. Sure, their apartment might be more comfortable than the motel, but wherever Eleanor was, was home.

This confused her, how she was relatively fine with being in hiding again. She had always dreaded the idea of ever having to be on the run at this stage in her life, but with Eleanor here, she was okay. She felt safe even though it was likely that the awful people who took her life from her were hunting her down as she lay in that motel room.

So, she breathed out two words that she didn't think would leave her mouth for another few years yet.

"Marry me".

Even though she was on the brink of slipping into a deep slumber, Eleanor's eyes shot open. She wasn't even sure that she had heard her correctly. She tilted her head up to look at Natasha, "What?".

Nat gulped, she couldn't believe she had said that and she was now terrified that she had ruined everything, but she couldn't back out now. "Marry me".

Eleanor broke out into a wide grin but didn't know if it was just an in-the-moment thing, or if it was something that Natasha was actually ready for, so she sat up, "Are you sure?".

"You are the only thing in my life I am sure about", Natasha followed her into a seated position on the bed, "Now I know I don't have a ring, and we are sat in a disgusting room...", her face scrunched up slightly as she looked around again, making Eleanor chuckle. When Natasha turned back to look into her eyes she just saw pure adoration, and suddenly her confidence soared, "But I want to marry you, so much".

"I don't care about a ring", tears had now threatened to spill from Eleanor's waterline, "I want to marry you too".

"So, is that a yes?", Natasha teased.

"Yes, of course it's a yes", she beamed before pulling Natasha closer and pressing her lips against hers desperately. Though it was gentle and sweet. Full of love. Both of them expressed just how much they cared for one another as they moved together in sync.

When they pulled away for air Natasha immediately brought the younger woman into her hold and rested her head on her shoulder, "I adore you".

Eleanor was in shock at this turn of events, but she had never felt so ecstatic in her life.

"We're getting married".