Well, this is moderately terrifying, but here we are...

She is Nina, and she is 21 with a worn passport that says she has taken this ride seventeen times. (She isn't and she hasn't, but that hardly matters now.)

He is Thomas, and he is 29, and SHIELD didn't bother with giving him a passport. (The phone call is short and to the point, she's in Munich echoing in his ears long after the line goes dead.)

They've had a number of close encounters across Europe but this is the first time they've been face to face instead of a smudge of shadow in a scope or a blur of movement out the corner of the eye. She's bleeding into the sweater she pilfered from a laundry line and the pain when he breathes says at least three ribs are cracked. It's not glorious, but every searing breath tells him that he's still alive. Exhaustion leaves her languid in her seat, but every defiant beat of the pulse at her throat declares she is not finished. (Not yet.)

They sit through two stops in expectant silence before he breaks, because something kept his finger off the trigger at the station and he's going to find out what or die in the attempt. (He is a sniper and he is patient, but this isn't a shot. This is gut feeling and jumping headfirst into the rabbit hole.)

"Why a train?"

There's a mask that tries to form as she opens her mouth to answer, but he can see it crumble to pieces in her hands. It's bizarre, knowing that she has been so many other people for other people, but she can't answer him for herself. (Maybe that's why he couldn't put her down, that doubt that he can't accept imagining.)

She pulls her eyes off him for the first time since he entered the cabin, looking out the window like it had all the answers she was seeking. (Maybe it did.)

"Everyone's traveling somewhere. It seemed like a good place to start."