Disclaimer: Marvel owns most of these characters. Just puttering about in their universe.

Author's Note: Characters will be mostly based on Marvel's Cinematic Universe. For any character not yet introduced in Marvel movies, I'll draw either from comic canon or Norse mythology. There's potential for those who have been Avengers in comics to show up here. One major OC, although her viewpoint will not be used. The OC will have a relationship with an Avenger, but this isn't the main theme of the story. Story will contain slash relationships. Future sequel may be a crossover.

Steve Rogers emerged from the common floor kitchen with a stack of plates in his hands. He passed them to Bruce, letting the doctor begin filling each plate with pizza before passing it to one of the gathered Avengers. Even Tony was present, although the grease stains on his jeans testified to his day spent in his workshop. He was a bit surprised, as Tony was far more likely to skip meals if Pepper was out of town. With the engineer sprawled in his favorite chair trading off-color jokes with Clint, everyone except Thor was present.

Tony had just accepted a plate from Bruce when JARVIS muted the television to make an announcement. "Sir, Kate's set off her alert at highest danger zone."

The plate fell to the floor, shattering against the coffee table on the way down and spilling pizza on the lush carpet. "Ready the suit, J, and start hacking any cameras in her area for video or audio. Check biostats on both Kate and Drew, if he's with her." The man was heading for the suit platform as he rattled off orders for the A.I.

"Already underway, sir. The suit will be ready in forty-five seconds."

Steve stood, calling out after Tony. "Wait a minute, Tony. Is this Avenger business? Iron Man isn't supposed to go chasing off as a vigilante."

The cold expression turned on him made Steve want to shiver. Tony was volatile and always animated. To see him shut down so completely was unsettling. "Being a vigilante has nothing to do with me responding to this particular distress call. You can either gather the Avengers and come along or stay out of my way."

"We can't, Tony," he began, only to be interrupted by Clint hitting a button on the bar that opened a weapons compartment. He pulled out a bow and quiver, slipping them on before turning to the remaining team while Tony began the walk up to his launch platform with his suit assembling around him. The archer jogged behind him, calling out to hitch a ride.

Steve turned to Natasha for backup, but judging from the flicker of emotion on her face, she was equally baffled by Clint's instant response to Tony's invitation. Before he could question either of them, he heard the familiar sound of Iron Man taking off and whipped his head back to see the platform empty of both engineer and archer.

"What is so important about this Kate that he suited up and left within sixty seconds of JARVIS' announcement?" he asked Natasha and Bruce.

"You've met her, Steve. The woman who was overseeing the repairs on the Tower. She's been here a few times since then to visit Tony," Bruce answered.

Now he remembered. The use of the woman's first name had thrown him off, since he had only heard her employees call her by her surname. But connecting the dots made him grimace. She had indeed visited the Tower, closeted with Tony when she came and even spending the night several times over the past six months in his penthouse. All her visits had coincided with Pepper being out of town, so Steve had made it a point to avoid her completely. He had more respect for Tony Stark as a teammate than he'd guessed he would when he'd met him on the Helicarrier, but he didn't want to see evidence of the man living up to his playboy reputation.

His distaste evident on his face, he started to ask Bruce about her further, since the scientist had spent time in the workshop with them both. JARVIS had other plans, as he began broadcasting the camera footage on the television. It was all visuals, and grainy ones at best although JARVIS was obviously enhancing quality, but Steve felt his disgruntlement melt away as he watched a man and woman standing back to back as they were advanced upon by four men. The pair was outnumbered, yet engaged their attackers.

"JARVIS, have the police been notified?" Bruce asked, flinching as the woman allowed a blow to land in order to better land one of her own in return. Blood flowed from a cut on her cheek, but even in the poor video quality, Steve could see stubborn determination on her features. It reminded him of someone, though he couldn't quite put a name on whom.

The A.I. answered affirmatively as the woman's male companion landed a blow on an opponent's windpipe that made the man drop like a rock, grasping his throat. Another attacker fell after a vicious kick to the groin by the woman, which merited a sound of approval from Natasha, who was watching the fight clinically.

"How far away are Iron Man and Hawkeye?" Steve asked.

"Having a passenger is slowing flight somewhat," came the reply. "I estimate seven minutes to arrival." Next to the video footage, a timer began its rundown.

With proof in front of him that neither of the pair on the screen was defenseless, Steve felt they'd be able to hold out until either the police or Iron Man arrived. The companion downed his second opponent and turned to assist with the last man. As he did so, the woman jerked as if a blow had landed on her left shoulder, dropping to her knees. Recognizing the signs of a gunshot wound being received, he worried that would be seven minutes too long if guns were in the confrontation, especially as it indicated more than four attackers were involved.

Rage swept the man's features and his palm impacted the final attacker's face in a maneuver meant to kill instead of incapacitate. He reached down to drag the woman to her feet, shoving her behind him, putting his body between her and the direction the gunshot had come from. It proved to be a likely fatal decision. His body jerked, impact rocking him into the woman's shoulder and tumbling them both to the street.

She struggled out from under his weight, calling out in desperation to her companion. Steve was suddenly glad there was no audio as she crouched over him, left arm hanging uselessly as she began to drag the larger form toward what little protection a nearby car might offer from further gunshots. He looked at the timer, seeing five minutes left on the arrival estimate, and cursed himself that he'd not reacted as fast as Clint when a large form emerged into the camera's range, a pistol aimed at the woman's head.

Unheard words were exchanged as the man used the gun to force the woman to abandon her efforts to save her companion. A light-colored sedan pulled up and she was shoved roughly into the back, but not before Steve could see the blood that had begun to soak the back of her shoulder on the paleness of her winter coat. The gunman followed her into the back seat, slamming the door as the car sped away. The car turned a corner and was out of sight before the first police car came into view.

Visuals were replaced by a map grid, with a blinking green dot moving rapidly. "Is that Iron Man?" Steve asked.

"Negative, Captain Rogers. I will display him as well." A red dot appeared, moving far faster than the green one and not restricted to the street grid, changing course to intercept the green dot.

"How are you tracking the car so quickly?" he asked. He'd become far more familiar with technology while living in Stark Tower than he'd have expected he would, but he didn't think even JARVIS could track a random car so easily.

"Kate has a tracking implant imbedded behind her ear. When she activated her alert system to contact me, I activated her implant in return."

"Could you get us there if we suit up?" he asked, feeling guilty he'd not responded to the distress call as swiftly as two of the Avengers had. The woman shot and kidnapped, her companion likely dead, and his concern had been that it wasn't official Avengers' business.

"Of course, Captain Rogers. I suggest a ground vehicle, as it is unlikely there will be a safe place to land the quinjet. The car is entering an industrial area."

The kidnappers had obviously underestimated Iron Man's response time. By the time Steve, Bruce, and Natasha had arrived, Tony and Clint had disabled the guards outside the warehouse and from the sound of it, were rapidly disabling others further in. Relying on JARVIS to relay information since only three of the Avengers present had their ear pieces, they followed the A.I.'s directives until they found Iron Man working on dismantling an electronic door lock.

"Where's Hawkeye?" Steve asked.

"He found a way up into the ceiling. He's keeping an eye and arrow on the guy dumb enough to be holding Kate hostage." Tony finished with the lock, turning to the trio behind him. "Bruce, stay back if you can. We need Dr. Banner more than we need the big guy tonight."

Bruce nodded and Steve readied his shield. "You first, then me, with Widow following for backup behind our cover in case there's unexpected firepower in the room," he directed, falling into directing the rescue out of habit. Tony readied himself to blow the door, and with a crash, it was slammed off its hinges, with the billionaire using the bulk of his Iron Man armor to shield the others until a scan of the room indicated only two occupants. He stepped into the room to allow the others to follow.

Steve frowned as he saw the kidnapper drag the woman in front of him as a human shield, thrusting a gun to her head. If he'd had any doubt from the video that she'd been shot, there was no mistaking it now. Blood stained the caramel color of her coat, a large enough spread to tell him this needed to be ended quickly. He had to admire her fortitude, as she was still aware enough to raise her uninjured arm to grasp at the arm around her.

"Let the woman go. This only gets worse for you if she's hurt worse than she already is," he stated. He heard the Iron Man armor readying weaponry of some sort, but he didn't dare look to see what exactly it was. The kidnapper loomed desperate and on the edge of terror, but when he glanced back at the woman he was impressed to see that her green gaze was calm and assessing, as if she were waiting for a signal.

"I let her go, I die," the kidnapper managed, his voice cracking.

The mechanical voice of Iron Man made the man shudder. "You've got that backwards. You let her go, I might have mercy and let the good Captain take you down. Continue to use her as a shield, and death will be the most merciful thing I will let you experience."

Before Steve could try a more diplomatic reply, his attention was drawn to the woman's hand, which was moving in a countdown. When she reached the last finger, she slumped as if in a dead faint, her body weight wrenching her free of the man's hold as he was hit simultaneously by both an arrow and something from the Iron Man suit. On the floor, the woman rolled into the man's legs, knocking him to the ground in time for Steve to throw his weight on the man to prevent him from reaching the gun he'd dropped. The man beneath him began to scream, and Steve realized that the combination of the fall and being tackled had shoved the arrow through his shoulder, tearing the flesh. Apparently the screaming annoyed Natasha, who promptly knocked the man unconscious.

As Bruce entered the room, Clint dropped from the ceiling, joining Natasha in covering the door. Tony dropped to his knees beside the woman, his mask retracting as he spoke soothingly to her while Bruce began to cut away her coat to examine the gunshot wound. Steve realized he'd never heard the man speak so quietly to anyone, including Pepper. He also realized it wasn't English, but it didn't sound like French or one of the other languages he'd heard.

He heard Bruce interrupt the gentle flow of words. "I've done all I can here, Tony. She needs a hospital, and soon."

"No, no hospitals." Hearing the woman's steady, determined voice reassured him, but he hoped she'd see reason. No one walked away after losing that much blood.

"Kate, you have to go. I'm not qualified to handle this level of injury."

Tony laughed softly. "You'd be surprised," he said. "If you'll come home, no hospitals."

"Tony!" Bruce's stern admonishment held everything Steve would have said if the scientist hadn't beaten him to it.

"Trust me, Brucie. She has reasons not to want modern medicine mucking around." Tony eased Kate out of the remains of her coat as Steve started to argue the decision.

Clint beat him to speaking. "If she wants to miss out on SHIELD cleaning up here, you need to be long gone before they arrive." The archer ignored Steve's incredulous look and the sharp one from Natasha. "Nat and I can stay for a cleanup crew to get here, but Cap ought to ride along. He sucks at withholding information if he doesn't know why he should."

Steve's eyes narrowed at the insult, but it made him grit his teeth. Something had two of his team willing to bend to the woman's demand for no hospitals. Tony's insanity he was used to, but Clint's assent puzzled him. The archer hadn't moved into the Tower until the repairs had been completed, and he didn't remember him spending time with the woman like Bruce had. As Natasha nodded, content to trust Clint for now, he sighed and gathered up the torn and bloody coat. Bruce maneuvered himself to supporting the woman's good side, which left Tony to take the rear as Steve led the way back to the SUV they'd come in.

"Capsicle, you drive. I'll watch from above."

Deciding he was demanding a complete explanation as soon as they were safely back to the Tower, Steve agreed, sliding into the driver's seat as Tony and Bruce assisted their charge into the back seat and Bruce joined her.

As they drove away, he missed her soft inquiry to Bruce under the sound of Iron Man's takeoff. Her quiet sobs at the sad shake of Bruce's head he saw in the rearview mirror made him realize she must have asked about her male companion. Despite his disquiet about who this woman seemed to be, he felt relieved when he saw Bruce put an arm around her and let her cry on his chest. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, knowing that even if he'd reacted faster to the situation, saving the man hadn't been possible.

His need for answers paled in comparison to the heart-wrenching sounds of grief.