"They ditched their gear. It's a shell game now. One of them has the payload". Eleanor listened to Steve's words as she landed on the floor after the brief stint of jumping over car bonnets. Nat was only a few paces ahead so she was able to keep the destination in her sights, and bolted after her.

Unfortunately, the lackeys had decided to play keep-away with the biological weapon in the middle of a populated market, so as the two women sprinted through, it caused some confused looks and some shrieks from people jumping out of the way. Though there was no time to apologise, getting to the weapon on time was crucial if they wanted to keep these people alive.

Careful foot placement was needed during the sprint to not trip over anyone's feet that were rudely in the way from not moving out of the way in time. When Eleanor caught up more to Natasha, she could clearly see one of the men harshly pushing through the crowd, not caring that some people were sent stumbling in his wake. At least Natasha and Eleanor had the decency to not turn themselves into a battering ram as they continued their sprint. Though it did help that Natasha was yelling "Out of the way!".

"He doesn't have it. I'm empty", Sam confirmed that his guy wasn't the weapons mule.

As they entered deeper into the market, it became harder and harder to chase down the target. There were bikes and crates all over the place, meaning that the two had to jump over them whilst maintaining momentum if they had any chance at keeping up. Nat hopped over a crate and then side-rolled over a motorbike before she could continue her run.

Behind her, Eleanor managed to run around the crate but also had to jump over the bike by placing her hands down on it and swinging her legs around to one side to land on the floor and keep up the sprint.

Nat intercepted the first guy in front and sent punch after punch and kick after kick, but he did not seem to want to go down. Civilians around them were screaming at the violent display in front of them that was ruining their peace, but again there wasn't time to apologise.

When Eleanor caught up she noticed another guy coming towards them with a gun in hand, so she reached for a basket and tossed it at him as a distraction, which worked, before jumping onto the table in front of her where the basket was and jumping onto his shoulders. She twisted her body towards the ground and then removed her legs so that she landed upright as he landed harshly on the floor, though he quickly stood and lunged at her.

She blocked the punches that she sent and reciprocated with her own harsh blows to the abdomen, chest, and head. He seemed rather dazed, causing a small smirk to appear on her face before she gripped onto his outstretched arm and rammed her elbow down onto it, making him grunt out in pain, and then elbowed him in the jaw. He stumbled back, giving her the opportunity to glance at Natasha, seeing that she was still engaged in her own fight, rolling on the floor after completing the sat-on-shoulders manoeuvre.

Satisfied with seeing Natasha holding her own, she turned back to her own fight and got ready to send a devastating punch that would probably result in a broken nose, but froze when she heard the panicked screams of people around, and the safety of guns being clicked off. Turning around quickly she saw that Nat and the man that she was fighting were in a stand-off, both pointing guns at each other, neither daring to take a shot.

Though her head snapped back to the man that she was fighting when she heard a gruff "Drop it". Seeing the vial, Eleanor sighed and loosely moved her head from side to side, accompanied by an eye roll at now knowing that it was her guy who had the weapon. "Or I'll drop this".

Nat panted slightly, clearly not knowing quite what to do at that moment, and it didn't help that when Eleanor made a move to try and reach the vial, the guy grabbed her by grabbing a handful of the back of her hair through her ponytail, and forcing her to the ground on her knees, keeping her head tugged back so that she was in an even more vulnerable position.

"Drop it!".

"He'll do it", the guy with the gun spoke up, making Eleanor clench her jaw at how useless she felt at a time when someone was aiming a gun at her wife.

It was a tense few moments where Nat's gaze flitted back and forth between, the gun in front of her, the vial, and her now immobile wife and mission partner.

Eleanor's breath got heavy as she stared at the scene in front of her, not able to remove the hand fisting her hair in fear of him dropping the vial in retaliation. It felt like a stalemate. Luckily, the Avenger's best friend Red Wing made an appearance, shooting the guy with the vial with some sort of sedative, freeing Eleanor from his grip. Unluckily, it meant that he dropped the vial, so Nat had to act quick, she shot the man in front of her then turned and dropped down, her back almost touching the floor as she caught the vial and then stood again.

Both women breathed out a sigh of relief, and as Nat turned to Eleanor concern was etched onto her features as she saw her rubbing the back of her head as she stood. "Are you okay детка?", Nat hurried over and placed a hand on her waist.

"Yeah, you looked so cool! The way you just flipped and didn't even touch the floor? Man, that was awesome". Nat smirked as she listened to her wife practically fangirling over her, and squeezed her waist lightly in appreciation.

Now that Nat knew that Eleanor was okay, she turned to Red Wing who was still hovering nearby and held the vial up slightly, "Payload secure. Thanks, Sam".

"Don't thank me", Sam smugly responded, knowing just what Nat would say.

"I'm not thanking that thing".

"Aww, come on babe, it's just as much a part of the team as we are", Eleanor put her best lecturing face on before turning to Red Wing and speaking to it in her 'talking to a dog voice', "Aren't you Red Wing, yeah you are!".

Nat looked unamused whilst Sam's laughter rang through their earpieces. "Come on", Nat placed a hand on Eleanor's shoulder as she pocketed the vial, "Let's get this to Steve". Eleanor smiled and nodded before turning her head to place an unexpected peck on Nat's cheek before she walked ahead with a bounce in her step. Nat faltered before she moved to catch up, even after years Eleanor still had that effect on her.

Natasha caught up with a childish grin on her face as she took Eleanor's hand in hers and swung their arms up and down as they sped walked, ignoring the horrified looks from people who had just witnessed them killing someone. Eleanor giggled at the sudden carefree outburst from her wife, feeling a warmth spreading through her chest as she saw the genuine joy on Natasha's face.

Though that look was soon gone, and the two women were left frozen in place at hearing what Steve had to say.

"Sam... we need- fire and rescue... on the south side of the building. We gotta get up there".

"What's going on?", Eleanor spoke into her earpiece as the two began to sprint back to the IFID building as quickly as they could. The response that they had gotten was "There was an accident", which didn't help them break down what had happened at all.

Eleanor's chest felt tight as they continued the run, Steve sounded terrified, and it wasn't often that the super soldier showed that side on missions. Usually, he was confident and fearless. This could only mean that the worst had happened.

After a few minutes of relentless running, they neared the building and both of their breaths hitched as they saw the smoke and flames in the distance coming from the top floors. Eleanor gulped as they continued running past the crowds of people who had gathered to witness this tragedy. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Getting closer, they spotted Wanda on her knees on the floor as her body shook, only making the two women run faster to reach her. She looked broken when they were able to get a good look at her. Her hand was slapped over her mouth as she tried to conceal her cries, and when her hand lowered her lip quivered as she looked ahead at the building. Nat and Eleanor crouched next to her, though she barely noticed it as she had completely dissociated.

"Hey", Eleanor spoke softly, trying to ignore the screaming of sirens nearby, "What happened?". Wanda's head snapped to face her as tears escaped her eyes.

"I-I didn't mean to", her voice was broken and strained. Guilt. Eleanor and Nat shared a brief, knowing look before their attention turned back to the younger woman on the floor. Wanda had caused the accident. "He had a-a bomb... I tried to get him in the air but I couldn't hold it... it's my fault", she began sobbing. Eleanor engulfed her in a hug which Wanda leaned into as if it was the very thing keeping her alive, and Nat placed a reassuring hand on her back as she rubbed soothingly up and down.

The murmurs of the people around them had grown, catching Natasha's attention. Eleanor couldn't see them so as to not disrupt the hug, but Nat could very clearly see them looking over at the trio with disgust and fear, making her worry about what they could do if a mob formed. They had to get out of here. "Steve, we're headed to the jet, can you hold the fort?".

Steve gave only a short reply due to helping the rescue team but agreed with the idea of getting Wanda back to the jet. So, Eleanor let go and both women helped Wanda into a shaky standing position as they began to walk swiftly down the street to reach the jet waiting for them on the outskirts of the city. Nat looped an arm around Wanda's and pulled her close to her side, and Eleanor had an arm wrapped around her shoulder. People had begun shouting angry comments their way, mostly to Wanda, so they felt the need to keep her as close as they could. Herd mentality was a terrifying thing.

Wanda's body was tense at all of the harsh words thrown her way, but they couldn't do anything about it. Nat and Eleanor desperately wanted to do something to defend her, but that would only throw them into an even bigger frying pan. They could only move forward and try to reach the jet, fast.

Eventually, they managed to escape the growing crowds of people and walked the rest of the way in somewhat peace as Wanda worked on trying to explain what had happened. When the jet was reached, Wanda basically collapsed into her chair, and the other two sat opposite her, and watched, trying to think of what to do. "It's not your fault Wanda", Nat tried to start, causing a deep divot to form in between the brunette's eyebrows.

"It is", she twisted her rings over and over to try and ease her anxiety about the situation.

Eleanor shook her head and inhaled a deep breath, trying to formulate words before she spoke. "No, no it isn't. Yes, mistakes were made", Eleanor spoke confidently, causing Wanda to bore her eyes into her, clinging onto every word. "But you were dealt a shitty, shitty hand, and you played it the best that you could, and for that, I am so proud of you Wanda. We can't save everyone, we can only save as many as we can, and you did that, a lot more people would have died if it exploded on the ground. Those are the things that people don't see or don't understand. You did what you could, okay?".

Wanda weakly nodded and sighed, trying to believe the words that Eleanor said, but wasn't quite able to.

---

A month had passed, and not much had changed. Wanda had barely been out of her room, against every effort made by the two women. Eventually, they had to tone down their attempts. They didn't give up on her, they would never do that, but they didn't want to push her away either, so they met her in the middle, which caused fewer outbursts when they tried to give her meals and other necessities. They hadn't seen her like this since Pietro, it was hard to see all of the progress she had made be torn down by this, but they were determined.

Nat and Eleanor spent most of the month working together to try and get people off of their backs, they had done publicity work before with SHIELD, so they were hoping that their experience would aid in dousing the fire. The media had been slating them and continued to do so with no rest bite. Many people were calling for the Avengers to disband, or to be locked up. However, they were mainly out for blood for one person. Wanda.

Her enhancements meant that they were given a leg to stand on when it came to the whole 'locking up' idea. She was 'dangerous'. She wasn't a regular human, so it was easy to run a smear campaign against her. People kept trying to get her to stop watching the news, but most of the time when people walked past her room, they could hear news anchors constantly. It wasn't good for her, but she couldn't seem to stop.

The entire team kept getting beaten down by waves and waves of guilt and doubt. It got to the point where they sometimes believed the media and had to remind themselves that for the most part they had saved lots of lives, Ultron had been a blip. A rather large one, but most of the Avengers hadn't been involved with Ultron's creation. Other than that, they had worked for the greater good. Right?

As Eleanor was deep in thought at reading another article about them and wondering how to put out that particular fire, Natasha bolted into their shared office and stood holding the door open, chest heaving she breathed out, "Secretary of State is here with Stark, an urgent meeting has been called".

Eleanor's eyes widened as she slammed her laptop lid down, "The Secretary of fucking State? With Stark?".

"Mhm", Nat reached the hand out that wasn't holding the door and did a 'grabby hand' motion at her wife, and smiled slightly when Eleanor stood and took it. The younger woman allowed herself to be led through the halls and to the allocated meeting room, trying to wrap her head around what could be happening. Were they going to be disbanded? Thrown in jail? If Thaddeus Ross had shown up then that must mean that the ball was rolling with something that had been suggested in order to deal with this predicament.

The only question was what?