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Steve woke the following morning in an unfamiliar setting. He was alone and it took him a second to recall how exactly he ended up in a hotel bead.
Naked!
Were they on a mission? But no wait, he went out with Nat last evening to tear her out of her foul mood and then …
With a shock Steve jumped out of the bead, hectically searching the room for his clothes and the woman he barley new but went home with yesterday. What was he thinking! Why on earth would he do such a thing!
He found his stuff but Lena was nowhere to be seen. As he dressed his eyes fell onto a small piece of paper which had fallen off the table as he snatched his shirt from it.
Calmer, know that he knew he was alone, he went to pick it up. The note was from Lena: "Good Morning. Had a very nice time, but I have to go now. Thanks, Buy."
Steve turned the little piece of paper over in his hands as if he expected to find any more information there. Did this mean, she just up and left? How was he supposed to respond? How could he respond to that? All he knew of her was her first name and that she was a Biologist in town for a meeting. He felt he had to … apologize?
Steve felt thoroughly confused. This was not how to treat a woman. This was not how HE wanted to treat a woman. But how could he change that now. He still didn't understand himself what had happened. He had been mesmerized by her, unable to say no and unwilling to tear himself away from her. In hindsight it was all Natasha's fault. She was the one who made him dance with her and then up and left him without even saying that she was going back to the Avengers facility.
The Avengers!
He suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be in a post-mission meeting. And he was running spectacularly late. Hastily Steve grabbed the last pieces of clothing and sprinted out the door. He found his car where he had parked it the night before (so Romanoff had been considerate enough to leave him with a plan of escape, not that he had enough wits to use it) and drove off towards the facility.
When he finally made it to the meeting room, everybody else had already assembled. If nothing else, Nat looked much better today, wearing a smug smile instead of her stone hard expression that made you think of a thunder storm looming at the horizon. She was staring at him, but she didn't say anything.
"You are late" Wanda complained.
"Yes. I apologize. Let's start the meeting shall we?"
Steve new, that he may be able to deflect Wanda's attention but he would certainly have to face Nat later. What was he going to tell her. Steve tried to push the embarrassing thought out of his mind and focus on the mission debriefing instead.
Maria Hill, who had coordinated the op from the Avengers facility was there with them and he asked her to recapture the progress for everyone. Wanda restarted her argument about what they had planned as the covert part of the op. Natasha sneaking into the lab, under the disguise of a foreign researcher interested in the progress made in chitauri-biotec weaponry.
"How would she have convinced him of that. She is not even a scientist." Wanda repeated her argument from the day before. Apparently she had decided over night that she was not going to let this slide and rather argue for what she believed to have been the better plan.
Steve through a glace to Natasha but she still seemed very relaxed.
"I couldn't have. But that's not what we were aiming for Wanda." She now responded rather calmly. "I was never going to drag this out long enough for him to become suspicious of me."
"But if he had asked just one question and you wouldn't have been able to answer it. Then everything would have been in jeopardy."
Of course they had counted on the fact that the researcher would have been much too occupied with staring at Natasha to ask any sensible questions. Wanda looked unconvinced. She had leaned forward and was scrutinizing Natasha with an intense stare.
"That may well have happened which would have meant I would have to improvise. But you bursting into the lab and triggering the security alarm meant that I had to improvise for sure.
In any case Wanda, when we have made a decision on how to execute a mission it is not your place to change the rules in the middle of the game. This puts everyone at risk."
By now Natasha looked distinctly less happy but Steve was relieved to see calmly explaining the stakes to the much less experienced Wanda. He was well aware that the young woman, seeing that she had so much greater offensive powers than the Black Widow, sometimes underestimated her team mate.
One of the problems the new team was still facing, was the inexperience of some of its team members. And the resulting trust issues.
As a matter of fact, he trusted Natasha to finish just about any job that she set out to do. Wanda however still had to learn that telekinetically ripping robots apart could still not compete with years of field experience and training. She had doubted Natasha's abilities more than once and it was beginning to strain their relationship. Natasha was here as a teacher. To pass on her vast knowledge on how to plan and execute anything form a rescue mission to an assassination of a terrorist cell. He did not doubt that she would have been much more effective operating on her own but she had agreed to be part of the avengers team so they would benefit from her skills. Wanda was having trouble seeing it.
Of course as the team leader it was essentially his responsibility to see to a good working relationship between all of his team mates.
He was going to have to talk to Wanda.
For now she seemed to have gotten the Widows point. Leaning back in her chair she had stopped staring at Natasha and was fiddling with the hem of her T-shirt to dub her sudden embarrassment. The rest of the meeting continued in relative peace.
Maria Hill had an update on Sam, who was recovering nicely from his harsh landing. The clean up crew had arrived quickly and injured civilians were ferried off to safety. It could have been a lot worse.
The meeting ended on the usual antics. "We have to learn how to function together as a proper team." "We need to trust in each other." Steve was well aware that no matter how often he gave that speech, unless they started having some real success it would mean very little. In the end only time would tell.
After the meeting the team dispersed. He saw Wanda and the Vision leaving together. They had been seen accompanying each other often lately. Wanda would choose a topic that she thought the Vision needed to be introduced to and make it her responsibility that he got the hang of a new "human" activity. Last weekend it had been going-to-the-park.
Steve smiled watching them leave. Wanda's difficulties with Nat were really just rebellious teenager attitude remnants. She had a good heart and she got along well enough with almost everyone on base. He was not sure why she had decided to bud heads with Nat. Maybe it was their contrasting personalities. Wanda was open and direct in how she felt. She was quick to like somebody and showed her feelings easily. If something bugged her you could see it on her face immediately.
Nat was of course the complete opposite. She kept her feelings close to her chest, so close in fact that some still believed she didn't have any. Which was of course ridiculous but never the less a constant source of rumours around the facility. Steve knew first hand just how deeply she felt about certain people but it was not his place to discuss this with anyone. So he was left with only being able to put a stop on the gossip if he happened to be close enough to her it.
Rhodney still had other responsibilities beside the Avengers and had left for Washington after the meeting. Which left him and Natasha.
She smirked as she got up from her chair and rounded the table. "Didn't make a fool of yourself after all." She stated smugly.
"What?"
"You seemed very comfortable dancing yesterday. So what's her name?"
"What you don't know already?" Steve joked.
"No. I've never seen her before."
"So why did you pick her out for me then?"
"I don't know. She seemed kind 'a nice. I was right though wasn't I?"
Steve smiled and fidget uncomfortably. He had no idea how to get out of this conversation with his dignity intact. Also, he realised as he glanced at Natasha, he would need some help. He didn't know what to make of the whole situation. But she would. Steve tried to prepare himself internally for what he was about to confess. It didn't really work. The words got stuck in his throat. He just couldn't tell her something so shameful.
Natasha studied him carefully and his internal struggle was not lost on her. She realized his problem phrasing what was going on and grabbed his arm to drag him out of the conference room. They were heading towards the roof where Sam together with a couple of R&D guys had set up a grill and relax area. The place was unoccupied at the moment and they sat down in a couple of camping chairs facing the warm sun.
"What's the matter Cap? What happened?" Nat inquired. "I had the feeling the evening was going well for you?"
"It did."
"But?"
"Well first of all. This was supposed to be about you. I wanted to ask you how you were doing!"
"And you had a whole lot of time for that. But you didn't."
"Yes because I wanted to …"
"That's actually not what we are talking about here. Don't change the subject. Spill it out."
"Well. The evening might have gone a little too well for me." Steve confessed turning such a bright shade of pink that he would not have looked out of place in Lila's bedroom.
The Widow raised one of her delicately shaped eyebrows. "Too well? You mean you had Sex?"
"Oh please Nat. Don't say it like that." Steve groaned and buried his face in his hands.
"So you did." She smirked at him. "Good for you Steve."
"But this is not… I shouldn't have done that. You are not supposed to…"
"Steve it's not 1940. Not every kiss has to end in marriage."
"I didn't say that but it' just not right to …"
"Steve really. Two consenting adults. She initiated this didn't she? I can assure you that she was definitely OK with it."
"But I am not. This is just not like me. I don't even know her full name. Hell I don't even know if she really told me her real first name."
"Do you think she was lying?" Natasha's brow furrowed. "For what reason?"
"I don't know? No. I don't think she was lying. All I am saying is I don't even know her and that's no right. What do I do know?"
"Well did she leave you with a way to contact her?"
"No." Steve pulled out the small note he had found on the floor this morning.
"She left only this." He handed the note to Natasha who glanced at it with an unreadable expression.
"Well from this, I would say that to her this was just a one-time thing." Natasha looked up at Steve and he could see her glance suddenly softening.
"Look Steve. I understand that you are not comfortable with this. I am not saying go out and repeat the experience. But don't beat yourself up about it either. I am sorry she up and left. But maybe it was just not meant to be. I don't think you hurt her feelings in any way, if that makes you feel better."
She continued to look at him and Steve could clearly see the compassion in her usually guarded and stoic face. So much for her being a robot or no capable of feelings. She reached out to squeeze his hand.
"I am sorry. I didn't expect it to go this way. I was not trying to set you up to get hurt."
"I know that."
"You would have preferred to have the chance to see her again."
"No. I mean I am not looking for … somebody right now. But she seemed nice."
Natasha smiled and let go of his hand. "I am sure she was. But sometimes it's just bad timing."
With that she stood up and headed for the door. "Heads up Steve. If it makes you feel any better, you definitely succeeded in distracting me."
Steve smiled after her as she left the roof. It was true it did make him feel better to see that she was doing better. And he would just have to forget Lena. Not that he had any other choice.