XXXV. A Bit Uptight
Connie strolled slowly toward the briefing area where Phil had informed her Skye was waiting. She had been told Skye was the hacker of the team and worked brilliantly with computers and other electronics, more-so than Natasha was, apparently. Skye's job was to help assist Connie in finding out potential Hydra facilities around the world that Ward could have taken Bucky, though Skye didn't know that as of yet. All she knew was that she was helping locate Hydra facilities across the globe, and it was Connie's job to explain why.
Connie soon approached the door to the briefing room and punched in the code she had been given, making her way inside once the door was unlocked. Skye was inside typing away on the ever-so-advanced computer Phil had ordered for the Bus, but she looked up from her station the moment she took notice of Connie's presence.
"Agent Jones," Skye smiled and stepped towards her, holding a hand out for her to shake. She'd been so excited for the chance to finally speak with her since she'd shown up on the plane the previous day. "We didn't get to be properly introduced yesterday. I'm Skye."
Connie grabbed her hand politely and shook it, feeling a slight aura of comfort around the young girl. "It's very nice to meet you, Skye."
Skye then stepped away from her and headed back to her station. "Coulson instructed me to see if I could locate any potential Hydra facilities, and he told me that you would be the one to explain exactly why I'm doing this."
"Your buddy Grant," Connie said as she moved to stand beside the brunette. "He and some of his men infiltrated my safe-house in Bucharest, Romania and recaptured a former Hydra agent I had been working on helping. It's safe to say that I need to get him back."
"Is this former Hydra agent dangerous?" Skye asked as she tried to steer far from the topic of Grant, though she doubted she'd be able to. She was still tore up from his betrayal, not to mention furious because of it, so she was willing to do whatever it took in order to help Connie find him.
Connie let out a breath and looked over at a disgruntled Skye. "No, but if we don't get him back he will be."
"I'm sorry that Ward is responsible for this," Skye apologized to Connie.
"I am, too. I've always thought Ward was a good kid, not to mention a good and loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," Connie muttered as she, too, continued typing away on one of the computers.
Skye watched her work rather intently, wondering what her intentions were; as she was currently witnessing, the two of them had more in common than Phil had originally let on. "He had us all fooled, especially me."
"Was he your boyfriend or something?" Connie asked as she glanced over at Skye.
"Something like that," Skye muttered.
"You deserve better."
"Thank you," Skye chuckled, her eyes scanning over the code Connie had typed into the computer. "What exactly are you doing?"
"My agent said something to me before they took him. I think it was something of reassurance that I very unfortunately waited until now to pay mind to," Connie explained to her as she pulled up a map of Russia. "He said they couldn't take him far or anywhere that he didn't know how to take care of himself. My theory is that they're taking him to a base in Russia; the bases in Russia are the only ones I can think about that provide them with the proper Hydra technology needed to turn him back into the loyal agent he used to be."
Skye's brow furrowed in confusion. "Proper Hydra technology? What do you mean by that? Hydra is advancing far beyond anything we've seen at the moment. I feel as if they should already have the technology needed to make him into what they want."
"Not exactly," Connie answered as she continued the search for Hydra facilities. "During our time together, he would often explain to me what it was that they did to him. This agent isn't a modern agent; he's been working for Hydra for over fifty years, so there are specific protocols that need to be taken into consideration when prepping him."
"Fifty years?" Skye asked with wide eyes. "How old is this agent?"
"Just a few years older than me," Connie answered her.
"I keep forgetting that you're not from this particular period of time," Skye chuckled. "So, this agent? Did you know him back when you were. . .y'know. . .alive?"
Connie stopped what she was doing and turned her head to look at Skye, her brows raised in curiosity. "I'm assuming you're aware of my background, right? Or at least the background Phil persuaded everyone into believing?"
"Yes, you were found perfectly preserved in the ice of the Alps back in 2008 by a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents," Skye told her. "Phil was the head of that team, and so he took you in and recruited you later that year."
Connie let out a snort and turned back to the computer monitor. "That's not exactly what happened. In 1945, I took off to find the agent I'm looking for now, only I was captured before I could. I spent sixty years killing innocent people for who I thought to be the Soviet Union, only to find out in April that I had been working for Hydra all along. And the funny part? I never stopped."
"Wow," Skye breathed out. "Who exactly is this agent, Agent Jones?"
"Bucky Barnes."
Skye's mouth parted in slight shock and she ran a hand through her hair. "I thought he died in 1945."
"Yeah, a lot of people thought that."
"Now it all makes sense," Skye said to her.
Before Connie had the chance to respond, two of Phil's very excited scientists were hurrying into the room. Connie and Skye stopped what they were doing in order to look at the two.
"We don't mean to interrupt," Simmons spoke cheerfully. "But we've talked about meeting you for so long, Agent Jones."
"Coulson talks about you a lot," Fitz added.
Connie hummed in response and turned back to the computer screen. "Does he now?"
"A little too much, actually," Skye chuckled. "He said I reminded him of you."
"That's funny, because he said the same thing to me back in Washington D.C. after the whole Triskelion-helicarrier incident," Connie chimed. "I can see where he might be right, though."
Fitz and Simmons made their way over to the pair, not bothering to shut the door behind them.
"So, how was it?" Fitz asked Connie.
Connie raised a brow in question. "How was what?"
"Fighting alongside Captain America and Black Widow, of course," Simmons answered her excitedly. "The thought of three legendary S.H.I.E.L.D. agents working together to put a stop to an organization as evil as Hydra just makes me so happy."
"It's really a routine thing for me, or at least it used to be," Connie told Simmons with a small smile on her face. "Agent Romanoff is my mission partner, and Captain Rogers is, as you all know, is very close to me."
"What's he like?" Skye asked her.
Connie shrugged. "He's nothing like what the media depicts him as; he's much more than just a mask and a shield, but people refuse to look past what everyone else has to say in order to see who he truly is."
"So, you're one of the few who know?" Fitz inquired.
"Of course," Connie nodded. "And one day I hope everyone else is granted the opportunity to know as well."
"I do, too," Simmons chimed.
No one had the time to respond before the phone Connie had taken from the safe-house rang inside her pocket; she'd since had Phil configure the device to the information on her old phone, so it was almost as if she hadn't broken hers in the first place. She pulled it from her jeans and pressed it to her ear without so much as checking the caller ID, though she soon found out what a mistake that was.
"Hello?" she answered as she stepped away from the group of three.
"Where the hell are you?" Steve's voice barked through the speaker.
Connie's eyes widened slightly, and she moved toward the opposite end of the room to prevent anyone from hearing who was at the opposite end of her conversation. "Well, hello to you, too."
"I'm not calling to play games, Constance," Steve retorted. She knew the use of her first name meant that he was being nothing but serious with her, but he was also mad at her as well, which Connie couldn't begin to understand why. "Where are you? And don't you dare lie to me."
"I'm in Bucharest," Connie lied. The last thing she wanted to do was lie to Steve—she'd been lying to him since April—but she couldn't shake the thought that she needed to keep him in the dark about what was going on. She wasn't prepared to deal with him just yet, especially now that her situation with Bucky was the way it was.
Steve hummed on the other line. "And why are you in Bucharest?"
"Beautiful scenery, good food, very reclusive," Connie said with a laugh. "You should definitely come visit me soon. The condo I've rented out is absolutely stunning—very vintage."
"Condo?" Steve chuckled dryly. "Don't you mean safe-house?"
Connie's eyes widened as his words met her ears, and the only name that popped into her mind was Phil's. He had told Steve about everything after she told him not to, and she honestly didn't know how to feel about it. "W-what do you mean?"
"Save it," Steve countered. "I know what's going on, so why don't you tell me the real truth about your location so we can talk about it?"
"I'm sorry," Connie apologized. "I'll explain everything to you, but I can't right now."
"Constance Mae, don't you dare—"
"I'm sorry," Connie said to him before hanging up the phone.
The brunette let out a nervous breath and shoved the phone back into her pocket. She turned back around to face Skye, Fitz, and Simmons, all of whom were staring at her very curiously. They wondered who Connie could have possibly been on the phone with to invoke such a feeling of nervousness inside her.
"Who was that?" Skye asked with a slightly amused expression on her face.
"Just a close friend of mine," Connie answered as she moved back to her previous spot at Skye's side.
"I wasn't aware friends could invoke so much nervousness in someone, especially when that someone is a hardcore S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," Fitz mused.
Connie shrugged and glanced over at Fitz. "Well, this friend can be a bit uptight from time to time."
"Uptight?" a new, and terrifyingly familiar, voice sounded. "Is that so?"
The four in the room turned their attention towards the door to find none other than Steve Rogers standing with his arms crossed in the doorway. Fitz, Simmons, and Skye shared similar expressions of shock and surprise on their faces, while Connie was simply terrified of the fact of his presence. She definitely had not been expecting him to show up, nor had she been anticipating dealing with him so soon.
"You have got to be kidding me," Connie breathed out as her wide brown eyes met his angry blue ones. It appeared as if she was in more trouble than she had originally bargained for.
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