A/N: This took longer than expected because I came down with a cold but here you go! :) Hope you enjoy!
It's over a week after that first meeting that Steve's newly returned team is unceremoniously called into another meeting. They've been warned that there will be more participants this time and any unprofessional conduct will be dealt with according to the actions taken by the offender and the offended. It's irritating to read between the lines and know that Steve's team will be in a room of unbiased and impartial people that don't have the full story and don't like Steve and his team because of that.
When the get to the meeting room they're greeted with the sight of Pepper once again standing at the head of a long table. Standing a little behind and to the side of her is a man Steve doesn't recognize. He's wearing an impeccable three-piece suit in all black down to the shirt and tie. The cut is expensive enough that Steve almost misses the slight bulge of a gun in a shoulder harness. His black hair is parted down the middle and brushed back, the strands a little longer than Bucky's hair but more styled. His facial hair was immaculately trimmed along his jawline.
Altogether, the man didn't look like he belonged in the room with the Avengers at all. He looked like he should be in a board meeting or something.
The three blondes, Eric, Sookie, and Pam, as they'd come to learn, are seated on the side of the table opposite the door. Tony and Rhodey are also on that side of the table along with a blonde man that shared a resemblance with Sookie, a redhead who Steve is pretty sure is a teenager, and a darkly tanned man about the same size as the blonde, Eric.
Steve's slightly enhanced senses smell the familiar scent of snow and copper from Pam and Eric, but now from the redhead, too. Steve would have to keep an eye on her if she was related to the blondes.
The larger man, his thick, black hair falling in messy loose curls around his face and ears, smelled like pine and dirt with a slight animal tinge. Maybe he has a dog.
Sookie and the man that looks like her both smell like cookies and sunshine. Something about it bothers Steve but h doesn't have time to think about it because the man standing behind Pepper smells like gun powder, oil, and steel. Steve knows that smell. It's the way Natasha smells after a mission, or the way Fury smelled all the time. Maybe not now, since retirement, but Steve doubts that.
"If you would all kindly take a seat, we can get started." Pepper says and no one objects this time since everyone else is already sitting except for the man behind Pepper. He stays standing, face empty and his left hand clasping his right wrist in front of his body.
Steve takes the opportunity to look down the table at his teammates. Sam is on one side of him with Natasha on the other side. Clint is next to her, followed by Wanda. Bucky is sitting a couple seats down with Scott beside him and Steve has to work to keep from frowning.
He knows Bucky isn't completely comfortable around other people yet and Tony and the so-called new members of the Avengers are only making it worse by being so divisive. Steve can't help but notice that Bucky keeps shooting glances at the man behind Pepper and when he looks at
Natasha her eyes have narrowed infinitesimally. It's nothing anyone else would notice but it's enough that Steve lightly nudges her and she barely glances at him before looking at the man Bucky keeps looking at.
Steve doesn't understand why they keep looking at the man like that, like they know something that everyone else doesn't, but he figures he can ask them after the meeting. If there's something wrong, he needs to know so that he can keep his team safe.
Tony hasn't always been the best judge of character and, apparently, Pepper and Rhodey are no better as evidenced by their history with Obadiah Stane, Justin Hammer, and Aldrich Killian, not to mention the three new blondes.
So, this new man needed to be watched and, if necessary, removed from the Avengers Compound.
"Miss Potts," Natasha speaks up in a soft and polite voice that Steve's never heard before. I don't mean to interrupt but I was wondering if you'd forgotten to add a name to the meeting itinerary that you sent us."
"It's Mrs. Stark, Ms. Romanov." Pepper says with a polite smile. "And, no, I didn't forget a name on the itinerary. If you'll recall the list said that I would have a plus one. He is not part of the Avengers Initiative, not directly."
"Would you mind explaining what he's in the meeting for then?" Natasha asks in that same voice. "I mean, as I recall, it was stated that the meeting was for Avengers Initiative members and prospects."
"You're quite right, Ms. Romanov." Pepper says before straightening and pulling up something on her tablet that is then displayed as a hologram in the middle of the table. "But an addendum was added that stated that since I am not an active Avengers Initiative member and only a reserve member, but that I am the CEO and co-owner of Stark Industries and therefore have a certain weight with the Initiative and the Council that I am required for certain meetings. And as I am required for certain meetings while also holding a reserve membership and a very high position in an international company with many political, military, and environmental connections that I require an extra measure of protection under certain circumstances."
"And those circumstances include the Avengers Initiative itself that you are, self-admittedly, a part of?"
"No, Ms. Romanov," Pepper says with another smile. "Those circumstances include being around individuals that are deemed mentally, physically, or even financially, dangerous to myself and Stark Industries. It includes circumstances that require me to be around individuals that hold no respect for laws of the land or codes of conduct or even friendship."
"That still doesn't explain who this man is in a way that I feel comfortable with to the extent that we're required to talk about Avengers business in front of him."
"I assure you, Ms. Romanov, Mr. Wick is quite inconspicuous when the need arises." Pepper says in a way that suggests the subject is closed.
Steve doesn't miss the way Natasha and Bucky both flinch at the man's name, though. And he can almost swear that the man's lip twitches for just a moment before his face is once again impassive.
A shining glint in his eye is the only sign of his amusement. If Steve didn't know better, he would think the man is less human than Vision.