The walk back to the trailer was awfully long. In the car, it had taken an hour to reach the bridge, and so with speedwalking and the occasional jog in an attempt to get there at a faster rate, it had taken four and a half hours. Both of their clothes were soaked through and remained that way throughout the journey due to the bitter cold of the Norwegian air. Their boots rubbed uncomfortably thanks to the wet socks, which only made the walk even more horrible.

Natasha and Eleanor both spared each other concerned glances during the four hours, with wet clothes and not many layers as is, the risk of hypothermia was high. Eleanor wished that she was back in the warmth of the car with the heater on full blast, happily on their way back to the trailer with a tank full of fuel. But things never seemed to go easy for them. The last simple year in the last ten years that she could recall was 2013, the year that they just worked and chilled in their new apartment.

The only talking that was done was checkups every now and then to make sure that the other hadn't gone into some sort of shock from the cold, the rest of the time was spent contemplating what had just happened and what was to come.

Natasha especially was shaken to the core by her past harshly ramming its way back into her life, and how she hated that Eleanor had been dragged into it too. Though her wife had made it clear many times in the past that she would follow Nat to the ends of the Earth and back. This was proven further by the way Eleanor gripped Nat's hand tightly, rubbing soothing circles on her knuckles as they ventured forward.

Eleanor wanted Nat to be okay, but she knew better than to push her to talk, so opted for her usual method of the love language of physical touch, the way to keep Nat grounded to reality instead of allowing her subconscious to wander down scary roads.

When they arrived at the trailer it was an incredibly quick pitstop. They had no idea who that attacker was on the bridge, or if they knew that Ross was hunting them down. So, to err on the side of caution, they were acting as though Ross knew their location. With guns in hand, they stalked up to the trailer and did a quick sweep of it before allowing themselves to put their weapons back in their holsters and pack their necessities away as quickly as they possibly could after getting changed into some fresh clothes.

Eleanor packed her weapons and enough clothes for a few days, a water bottle with an attached filter, along with some non-perishable food items all into her backpack. It was full to the brim, and it reminded her of the way that young kids stuff their bags full of items when they first start secondary school, making it look bigger than their entire bodies.

Natasha made sure that they had all of the documentation, ID cards, and passports for their new identities stashed safely away in her backpack, before they walked out hand in hand, a gun in their free one. After deciding that they weren't being followed they were able to walk more freely, taking it slow thanks to their feet being sore thanks to the old boots.

Their moral compass was going to be thrown slightly askew, but they had decided to steal a car. It took about half an hour to find one parked down the road thanks to a camping site. Eleanor visibly grimaced at the tent in the distance, who in their right mind would choose to camp in northern Norway?

They weren't completely evil though, they left 2.1k Norwegian Krones, the equivalent of 200 USD in a bag left carelessly by the tent door before breaking into the car and entering the nearest train station into the GPS. Eleanor groaned in the driver's seat seeing that it would be a three-hour drive with a ferry ride in the middle of it. Nat laughed at Eleanor's mini exhaustion-fuelled ramble at how Norway had too many gaps in the land.

Eleanor's voice was enough to lull Natasha into a well-needed sleep. The younger woman had continued rambling about various things for another few minutes before she turned to get Natasha's opinion on something, but ended up smiling gently at the sight of her sound asleep, her head resting on her seatbelt. Worried that talking would eventually wake her up, Eleanor resorted to humming a few songs on repeat to ensure that Nat would remain asleep for the three hours.

---

Unfortunately, upon their arrival at Åndalsnes station, Eleanor had to wake Natasha up. She was impressed that she had remained asleep for the entire three hours, she had been expecting her to wake up on the ferry, but she remained dead to the world as they passed over the etherial waters.

Nat woke up extremely disoriented at seeing they were parked around the corner from the train station, trying to avoid the CCTV with a stolen car. "I slept the whole time?", she asked, letting her jaw fall slack as she took in her surroundings, the station in the distance with the sun just starting to rise, and a very sleepy Eleanor stretching in the seat next to her.

Eleanor hummed a 'yes' whilst cracking her back, she hadn't slept in a bed for almost a week now and it was taking a toll on her vertebrae. "Wow", Nat breathed out and gave an impressed nod before turning to Eleanor with an unimpressed look resting on her features, "You should have woken me up so I could drive half, you look exhausted".

"Aw thank you sweetheart", Eleanor raised her voice an octave and pinched Nat's cheek as though she was a child, laughing when Nat rolled her eyes and slapped her hand away. "You needed the sleep", she shrugged.

"So do you", Nat raised an eyebrow. The younger woman sighed at Nat being so stubborn, but just decided to get on with the day, it was going to be a long one, "I can sleep on the train, don't worry about me, okay?".

"I mean I'm always going to worry about you, but fine", Nat mumbled with a small smile and got out of the car to stop Eleanor from grabbing both of their bags, and they emptied their weapons in the boot of the car, not wanting to be stopped by security with masses of guns on them.

The two looked towards the station and then at each other, communicating with their eyes. They didn't want to be doing any of this, they were supposed to be in hiding, not out risking their lives again. But they admitted defeat to the plans of the universe and began walking.

Natasha snaked her arm around Eleanor's waist and pulled her closer as they walked over to the small building whilst looking around for any threats, keeping her close to try and keep her safe. Eleanor just smiled at the contact, completely oblivious to the reasoning behind the tight grip that her wife had on her.

When reaching the ticket kiosk, Nat let go of Eleanor only when she had done a brief scan of the room and got out their passports whilst asking for tickets with the final destination of Budapest, the location where the vials had originally come from. Eleanor didn't understand Norwegian but gave pleasant nods at places she thought were appropriate due to how kind the kiosk woman sounded.

Though her eyes grew wide as she saw the number of tickets being placed down in front of them each. At four she thought that it would stop, but then it reached nine. "There are nine crossovers?!", she turned to Nat with her face scrunched up. Natasha just nodded with a grimace as she thanked the kiosk lady and grabbed the tickets.

She flicked through them quickly whilst mumbling a bunch of numbers under her breath as they made their way over to the platform. A frown appeared on Natasha's face that only seemed to deepen with every passing ticket, making Eleanor terrified of what she was about to say. "This is gonna take a day and thirteen hours", Nat stopped in her tracks, her arms hung loosely at her sides.

There were barely any people thanks to the time of day, so they weren't getting in the way by hovering in the middle of the walkway. "You what", Eleanor said in a loud register and took the tickets from Natasha, mumbling the calculations out loud just as her wife had done a few moments prior, sighing when she figured out that Nat's calculations were correct, "What the fuck".

She looked up from the tickets to see Nat chewing her lips anxiously, prompting the younger woman to reach out and take her hand. "What's up?".

"It's just we need to get there ASAP", she spoke sounding worried.

Eleanor took a step closer, even with the lack of people she still didn't want people prying, "But the train is the safest way for us to get there that's relatively quick".

"No, I know", Nat sped out, "I just don't know how I'm going to be able to sit on a train for a day and a half without just constantly thinking about what all this could mean", she practically spoke in a whisper.

"I'm sorry", Eleanor offered a half smile and pulled her into a tight hug, "It'll all be okay though, I promise". Natasha nodded at her words and cleared her throat as they moved away from each other, "Yeah, it'll be okay", she nodded, more in reassurance to herself than anything. She was absolutely terrified at the prospect of meeting Yelena again.

After twenty minutes of waiting at the platform, with both women watching their backs the whole time in case anyone from Ross' squad showed up, their first train of many arrived. As soon as Eleanor sat down in the plush seats, the tiredness caught up with her and hit her like a train. This was of course noticed by Natasha who watched Eleanor's head dip before she jolted awake again.

"Let yourself fall asleep, детка", she leaned in to speak in a calm tone, rubbing Eleanor's back in soothing circles as she curled into Nat's side. "I don't want you to be alone", she croaked out, trying her hardest to stay awake, though at that point her eyes had fluttered shut from the warmth radiating off of Natasha.

"I'm okay, and I'll feel a lot better if you get some rest", she tried to reason, to which Eleanor grumbled in response, pushing her face further into her and hooking a leg over Natasha's. "Please sleep", she whispered, and not even thirty seconds later she heard Eleanor's breath even out, causing a smile to spread across Nat's lips before she placed a small kiss on the younger woman's temple.

---

Eleanor didn't know how she survived the day and a half of constantly being on a train or waiting on the various platforms, especially with how most of the trains had very uncomfortable and thin seats, yet here she was alive and well nine trains later in Budapest. It was a lot busier than some of the other stations had been, but it was a reasonable time of the day in a busy city, so it made sense.

Natasha made her way off of the train first, Eleanor trailing behind, though they soon linked hands again as they continued walking, both checking out their surroundings as they moved forward, still paranoid about being hunted down.

They followed the crowd of people through and out of the station. "How far away is your old place?", Eleanor asked, referring to the safe house they were heading to that Nat had once stayed in.

"About a fifteen-minute tram ride away", Nat answered simply, confused at the annoyed grumbling sound that tumbled from Eleanor's lips in response. "More vehicles?", the younger woman practically whined as Nat shook her head with amusement, shoving her towards the queue for the tram services away from the station.

The short ride went by fast, and soon enough they were walking into the entrance of the apartment complex. Eleanor looked up in awe at the complexity of the layout, it was weird. The building was a circular shape with a hole in the middle that was like a courtyard. The outside was inside. She chuckled to herself at her train of thought, missing the way that Nat looked at her like she was crazy.

"It's weird that there are cars parked inside, no?", Eleanor turned to Nat who pursed her lips and let out a nasal laugh. "You're the weird one", she bumped shoulders with her, making Eleanor sway to the side slightly. "Thanks", she deadpanned before cracking out into a grin as they arrived at the front of the elevator.

"Oh, I don't like this at all", Eleanor clung onto the elevator railing for dear life as the rickety, creaky old thing made its ascent. Nat merely hummed with a small nod, her mind clearly elsewhere, and Eleanor took that as a cue to be quiet and let Nat evaluate everything, even though she wanted to let out a small screech at the harsh stop of the elevator.

"I'm gonna go in first", Nat said as she unstrapped a gun from a small cupboard outside of the elevator, clearly having prepared for a potential return years ago, though only leaving one gun, not accounting for the fact that she may have been married by then. "You don't have a weapon so I want you to wait as long as you possibly can outside, okay?", she spoke to Eleanor with a stern voice as they started walking up the large spiral staircase.

"You think she'll attack you?", Eleanor gulped slightly, one pace behind Natasha. "I'm expecting something to happen", Nat spoke in a small voice.

Eleanor didn't like the idea of Nat going in alone, at all. But if she needed to do it alone first then so be it, and there was also the issue of only one weapon for defence. "Okay", she agreed hesitantly, "But if I hear fighting for more than a minute I'm coming in, deal?".

"Deal", Natasha whispered with a nod as they rounded the corner, the apartment door now in sight. Nat raised a finger to her lips, and Eleanor nodded in understanding. They had reached the safe house.

Natasha started picking the lock after both women put their backpacks down, and Eleanor stood against the wall next to the door, remaining out of sight so that she could use the element of surprise if need be. Almost immediately a woman with a thick Russian accent spoke from the other side of the door, "I know you're out there".

"I know you know I'm out here", Nat spoke calmly and yanked the gun out from the back of her trousers, opening the door then grasping her gun with two hands, kicking the door behind her once she was fully in. Eleanor winced at the harsh bang and practically held her breath knowing that Nat was in there alone.

After a few seconds, she could hear the muffled voices of her wife and sister-in-law, and so far she was counting her lucky stars that talking was all she could hear. 'Maybe it's going well?' she thought to herself, though she soon winced yet again at hearing muffled grunts and bangs coming from inside the apartment. "Okay, maybe not", she muttered to herself and placed herself in front of the door, hand hovering over the handle, counting down from sixty in her head.

The noises coming from in the apartment were concerning, especially when there was a high-pitched squeal followed by a plate being smashed, but Eleanor kept her promise of not coming in before the minute was up.

Sixty seconds had been counted and the sounds had not stopped, so Eleanor threw the door open, following suit by kicking it closed behind her, and sped walked through the apartment, and when she turned the corner she saw Nat and who she assumed to be Yelena lying on the floor with a curtain wrapped around both of their necks. Though apparently, the fight stopped as soon as she entered the room as Nat had her hands held up in a truce position and they both gasped for air.

So, Eleanor hung back a few steps from the entrance of the room, not wanting to escalate things again. "You've grown up", Nat spoke in Russian, which Eleanor could clearly understand thanks to being taught by Nat. "No shit", Yelena returned in her mother tongue as she unwrapped the curtain from her neck.

She seemed to still be angry, but her demeanour wasn't defensive anymore, but that all changed when she turned and saw Eleanor standing near the edge of the room, slightly out of breath due to the panic that she had been having outside.

Yelena quickly shot up into a standing position, defensive yet again. Both Eleanor and Nat's eyes widened as Eleanor took a few steps back and Natasha scrambled up onto her feet too, going after her sister who was now lunging towards her wife, "Who the hell are you?!".