2: The Captain is a Girl's Best Friend, Part I
Since it was night in Calcutta when I got Bruce, and SHIELD's home base was currently over the Atlantic, we had to double back over the International Date Line to catch up. Trust me, me being me in an airplane that long was not a pleasant mix, so I bonded with a bucket while Banner rubbed my back and at least tried to be sympathetic. Y'know, when he wasn't chuckling over the fact Tony Stark's kid sister can't hold her breakfast in an airplane no matter what she does. Still, Mina bringing the plane down onto one of the two tarmacs SHIELD's "aircraft carrier" supported was an immense relief, and I managed to get up and pitch the fairly-recent contents of my stomach over the side while Banner went to explore a little, though obviously not much. I'd just finished emptying out said bucket when I saw another SHIELD plane on approach, and I grinned a little.
Of course, that grin vanished when a redhead came out from the tower portion of the carrier. Even though her hair was a much brighter red and waved down to just above her shoulders, there was no mistaking the determined stride of Natasha Romanoff, more fondly known to me as Natashalie. She'd been a plant to watch Tony and me while we were palladium-sick, and I was just as much not fond of her as she was of me. I was still surprised when she gave me a nod of greeting, and I managed to return it.
"Still get airsick on planes?" she asked, ever so calmly, and I did my best not to strangle her. Despite my respectable hand-to-hand rating from training, I still wasn't anywhere near Natashalie's grade.
"It's that obvious?" I asked, and I think I was able to get a smirk out of her before the other plane landed. Remembering Fury's assignments on who-gets-whom, I approached the plane and offered Coulson a grin as the back hatch opened.
"Okay, Phil, make my day," I said by way of greeting. "Tell me Tony isn't with you."
"He's not, but I left him with homework and a bribe from Miss Potts," he informed me as clean and crisp as ever. I dared to glance at Natashalie, who, ironically, was glancing at me. Ever since I'd seen the two of them – Tony and Pepper, that is – practically making out in the aftermath of stopping Justin Hammer from completely blowing up the Expo – thanks to Vanya, who'd let his hope for revenge get to his head – I had been afraid of Pepper and Tony becoming ever more "serious".
"…great, now they're going to get worse," I commented to the both of them. "So who's with you?"
Coulson nearly didn't have to answer. Coming up behind him was a man about six-one, neatly-combed blond hair arranged out of his blue eyes in a military style despite the civilian clothes, which looked like they belonged to another era entirely. Even though I had never seen his exaggerated image without the red, white, and blue uniform, I felt something like shock grab into my chest. Coulson was doing his best to hide a faint smile; I knew just how big a fanboy he was of Captain America, and there he was in the flesh, alive and well.
He knew Dad. He knew Mom.
"Captain Rogers, Agents Romanoff and Stark," Coulson introduced us, and it wasn't Natashalie that had caught Rogers' attention. Those blue eyes were fixed on me, as if he knew exactly who I was. A very unfamiliar shiver shot down my spine, and it became persistent as he extended his hand for me to shake.
"…nice to meet you, ma'am," he said, extremely friendly and polite. It was everything I could do to blink, breathe, and take his hand firmly. The warmth of his skin meant he was very real, indeed.
"Andy," was what I eked out in reply. "Short for Andrea. Please, not ma'am."
"I'll try to remember," Rogers answered with a smile, and my stomach did a weird flip as he let go of my hand and moved back.
"Coulson, you're needed on the command deck, they're starting the phase trace," Natashalie told Coulson while I was struggling not to notice that Rogers was staring at me like he was trying to place me from somewhere. I had a feeling he was either going to hit on Mom or Dad, but Natashalie interrupted the both of us.
"Caused quite a stir when you were found buried in the ice," she said as the three of us started walking towards, I saw, where Bruce was looking around a little hesitantly. Great. Last thing we needed was him panicking. "I thought Coulson was going to swoon."
"…wait, you knew about him getting found, but didn't tell me?" I asked. "Gee, thanks, Nat, I thought we were better friends than that…"
"You knew who I was when you threw me into the mat of your brother's boxing ring."
"Because he was going off to Google you and wanted to banter with Pepper…besides, I bet Coulson forgot to ask him to sign those Captain America trading cards he's had for, what, ever?"
"Trading cards?" Rogers asked, sounding surprised. I glanced at him and saw, yes, he was surprised. Duh. Right. I had to stop double-checking that people looked like what they sounded.
"You were the biggest thing anywhere for a long time," I explained. "The comics and movies with you in them are nothing compared to the cards and costumes and action figures…"
"Andy. You're going to send him into overload," Natashalie chastised me, but I just stuck my tongue out at her because that's what Tony would've done. Hey, it still got a chuckle out of Rogers.
"And another intro…Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Steve, Bruce, Andy, Natashalie," I said once we'd caught up with Banner, though Natashalie gave me one of those looks that meant 'you are crazy and I'd hit you if you weren't actually my co-worker'.
"…didn't know you were going to be here," Banner said in surprise while he shook Rogers' hand.
"Well, I've heard that you can find the Cube," Rogers replied calmly, though Banner glanced at me before back at Rogers.
"Is that the only thing you've heard about me?"
"The only one I care about," Rogers answered. Smart man.
"Andy, they'll be taking off in a minute, how about you get them inside before low oxygen hits?" Mina advised in my ear, and I guess Natashalie heard it since she started heading for the nearest door.
"Guys, I know you wanna chat and get acquainted and all," I smoothly interrupted since I was abandoned, "but we'd better get inside. It's gonna be kinda hard to breathe soon."
Sure enough, the proximity alarms went off, and the "skittles" manning the various flight crews scurried to get the planes tied down. Rogers and Banner looked around with some concern, though Banner more so than Rogers.
"Is this a submarine?" the latter asked.
"Really, putting me in an underwater pressurized container…" the former muttered as they approached the edge of the deck, but I smirked because I knew what they were going to be seeing. Rising up from the otherwise-calm ocean were four ultra-powerful maglev turbines, which could effortlessly lift and hold the otherwise-normal aircraft carrier under our feet in the air and still perform all sorts of operations. The general term was helicarrier, and I loved the sound of it so much that, early in my SHIELD career, I'd mapped out the entire damn thing, built Mina a new server, and set about upgrading and tightening the place to be even more impregnable than originally designed. I heard the rotors picking up speed, but it didn't block Banner's deadpan comment, "No, this is much worse."
At least I knew I wasn't going to be sick. Not an airplane, after all.
"So, inside, gents?" I asked, and both Rogers and Banner fell in behind me as we entered the helicarrier's interior. Since I essentially had an entire schematic of the carrier in my head, it was no problem to escort them through the efficient military corridors to the sleek command deck, with Fury manning the "captain's stand", since he didn't have a chair. I settled in at the conference table as the helicarrier rose up to thirty thousand feet in about a minute, and was rocking back comfortably once the reflection panels were engaged, essentially causing the helicarrier to disappear entirely. I only half-listened to Fury meeting with Banner and Nat taking him off to his lab – which left me with Rogers.
"…looks like you're my tour guide, then," he commented about a second after I'd realized it, and I managed to give him a smile. In all honesty, I was trying to avoid saying anything about finding the comics and the toys and how I always "played" him when Tony and I were little enough to do that sort of thing.
"Sure does; armory first," I told him once I was on my feet. Usually, I'm proud for my height; without the thick-soled boots I was wearing, I was a comfortable five-foot-eight, five nine-ish. With the boots, I was standing nearly six feet tall, and very nearly eye-to-eye with my childhood hero. "I mean, if that's okay with you."
"Definitely, ma'am," Rogers answered with that smile of his, but it didn't stop my little wince. Mom was ma'am, I was guessing.
"…Andy, Cap. Please, Andy. Andrea if you really have to."
"Right. Andy, yeah, sorry…"
"Don't worry about it, I'll remind you if you forget," I assured him with a grin of my own before we ventured into the corridors again.
"Place is a lot more than I expected," Rogers admitted after a few turns. "Had to pay up a bet and everything."
"Fury?" I asked, and when he nodded I whistled a little. "His bet? So he's a gambling man…gotta remember that…"
"Definitely his bet," Rogers insisted, and I laughed at that. I hadn't needed the confirmation, but the way he'd said it was…I don't know. It was different. No one talked like that anymore, not really. But he gave me a smile anyway, and I decided to take the long way through the helicarrier than the direct one, if only to mull over the sudden development that had just gotten thrown at me. This was the guy who, essentially, had brought my parents together, and maybe, just maybe, he could tell me stuff about them that I never had a chance to know before.
I would've started questioning him if he hadn't started getting long, hopeful looks, admiring looks, and a couple of folks even stopped us to ask to shake his hand, get an autograph, if only to say they had seen Captain America. I was trying to hide a smile, but it was impossible because of the awkward ease with which Rogers obliged them. Unlike Tony, he was almost embarrassed to be famous, and after about the third autograph I decided, well, I had to say something.
"People still talk about it, you know, what you did," I started, feeling more than a little awkward, myself. "It changed everything."
"…I was just doing my job," Rogers answered humbly, and that was something I knew I'd never get out of Tony. Sometimes I felt that way, wearing the suit: you're just doing what you needed to do, what you wanted to do. Maybe I'd said to Banner that I hadn't wanted to be different, but I had chosen to live with it, chosen to be different. Rogers had done the same thing.
"…doing your job helped to end a war. And, so you know, Hitler killed himself."
"Really?" he asked, almost bemused by that. "Here I was thinking he'd fight to the end."
"Couldn't take losin', I guess," I replied with a shrug, and he nodded in acceptance of the fact. Besides, I was silently adding, Rogers had almost entirely decimated Hitler's weapons development program by knocking off Hydra. I glanced up when I noticed we were coming up on our destination, so I cleared my throat in the most clichéd thing ever.
"Here's the armory…your uniform's in there, along with your shield…hey, they even put on some fresh paint," I commented while peering inside. Undoubtedly he wouldn't want to get in there and get it on right away, but I was proved wrong as he got the door open and stepped inside, sighing almost heavily as he looked at the stars-and-stripes that were virtually the same as what he had worn back in the forties. I wondered what it had to be like, to go "under" like that, to practically die, and nearly a lifetime later wake up and find the world had blown right past you. I dared to ease up next to him and rest a hand on his shoulder, mustering my courage to just say something.
"…the world needs you, Cap. More than any of the rest of us, really."
…great, Stark, just great. But he turned to look at me, almost out of curiosity.
"Aren't the stars and stripes a little…old-fashioned?" he asked me, and something in me flinched in horror. Unlike Tony, who loved the bleeding edge of the new and different, I had an almost-painful soft spot for the past. After all, without that, who were we?
"…never," I answered after a moment of thought, then amended it to, "Not really. There might be folks who forget what it means, but every so often…there're folks who remind them. Like you."
When he smiled at me, I'd swear I felt like something inside me was going to…I don't know, explode. It was as if I was hot and cold and everything at once. To be fair, this is a new sensation for me; I've never been the dating type, and if I were I still don't think I would've known how to react on feeling like this. So my face started burning as the only way to express it. Smooth. Really smooth.
"…how about I take you over to your rooms, so you can settle in…I'm sure we'll get word of Loki at the very least soon," I stammered a little, managing to drop my hand though I couldn't help but aggressively rub at my palm. Rogers' smile didn't even waver.
"Sure thing, ma'am – Andy. Sorry."
I chuckled weakly at him, even as we left the armory.
"It's all right, really."
"I'm going to remember. Andy. Andy…Stark."
His face clouded a little as we turned for the personnel area of the helicarrier, and I dared to wonder how it was he remembered my father. Were they friends, professionals, rivals forced to work together?
"…Howard's…daughter?" he asked me, and I nodded a little. Maybe SHIELD just didn't equip him with a file about me. Rogers still grinned faintly anyway. "So he had the decency to get married after all."
"What, was he a womanizing jerk like my brother?" I dared to ask, trying to keep the hungry note out of my voice.
"Well, I saw him kiss a model at his World of Tomorrow show," he thought aloud, and I felt like I'd nearly gotten slapped.
"…the Stark Expo? There was one back then?"
"Yeah, that was it. Why?"
"…you missed the one Tony just had," I informed him, and immediately my heart wrenched in my chest. It was like some kind of connection between space and time had appeared between us, just because we were part of the same event, nearly seventy years apart.
"I bet it wasn't any crazier," Rogers insisted, but when I grinned wryly and shook my head he looked at me worriedly. "…was it?"
"I'll find you the footage sometime," was all I dared to say. I doubted he really wanted to watch Howard Stark's two kids flying around in their mechanical suits indirectly causing havoc and mayhem on the Expo grounds, but whatever.
"…maybe you can help me get to speed," Rogers thought after a few moments of silence. "Not history, I've had plenty of time for that, but…tech. Like…there's this company…something fruity…"
"Apple?" I clarified, a little surprised at this sudden change. He'd had time for tech, too, if he was caught up on his history since 1943. Rogers nodded anyway.
"Yeah. I got one of their phones, but, uh…I – I haven't even taken it out of the box."
Thankfully I remembered that, in the event Tony wanted to steal his own Mobile off me – he's taken seven so far – I had a spare that I always kept in a back pocket. This I pulled out and placed easily into Steve's hand.
"Don't bother, you have something better," I informed him briskly. "I guess I should get you equipped with a number and teach you how to use it, huh?"
"…yeah, that'd be…great," he agreed, very nearly beaming at me.
It didn't occur to me that, just maybe, Captain America was trying to flirt with me.
