Maria spotted Clint walking towards them and she quickly moved over to him, noticing that there was no-one behind him.
"What happened?" She asked him, trying to stop her mind from thinking about what could have happened to them all and from looking at Clint, something terrible most have happened.
"Everyone's safe, we checked out the New York safe house on the way back and you're never going to guess who we found there," Clint began.
"Coulson," Maria guessed, knowing she was right. Who else would be in the New York safe house? The last she knew of Nick was that he was Europe. Coulson had been working in New York a few days before the takeover since he had visited Maria a day before.
"How did you know?" Clint asked, wanting to give Maria a surprise.
"I just do," Maria said before getting the group together and heading out with Clint to the safe house, Bethany slipping her hand into Maria's.
They got there an hour later and Clint told Maria were Steve was. She went straight there finding him sat up on the bed in a room with Sam and Natasha. Maria stopped at the door and Steve turned his head to see who it was.
"Maria," Steve breathed, relief flooding through him. She didn't care Natasha was there and in fact didn't mind Sam being there either. He pulled himself up, wincing slightly as he did so. He looked up at her, a smile forming on his lips as his eyes filled with tears.
"You're an idiot," Maria told him before pulling him gently into a kiss. Steve winced but didn't let it affect him.
"Sooo, I think it's time we leave," Sam said, getting up.
"Now be careful with him Maria. I know he's a super soldier but remember he is hurt," Natasha teased playfully before walking out of the room with Sam following him.
Steve wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her closer to deepen the kiss. The feeling of her in his arms brought peace to his racing mind, brought peace to his beating heart. For a second he completely forgot where they were and what he had been through.
She slowly pulled away from him, sitting down on the edge of the bed. Steve sat down next to her and Maria turned her head to look at Steve, finally taking him all in. He had bruises on the side of his face that ran down his neck and disappeared behind his top. His hair was greasy, not as golden as it normal was. His eyes were dull and full of pain, a hint of happiness and love shining through. She ran her fingers gently through his hair before taking hold of his hand, wanting physical contact with him.
"May I ask why I'm an idiot?" Steve asked her, breaking the comfortable silence.
"For getting yourself into that situation," Maria said to him. Steve smirked, a slight laugh escaping from his busted lips. Maria smiled at him, placing her free hand on his cheek. She rubbed her thumb gently across one of the many bruises on his pale face.
"You know me, always getting into trouble," Steve said, looking into her blue eyes that sparkled in the light from the ceiling. Steve brought his own hand up, brushing his fingers through her hair before resting it on her cheek. Maria moved her own to place over Steve's. She turned it towards her and kissed him on the palm, squeezing his other hand.
"Yeah, I know you," Maria said. It felt like a dream, to actually be together again after what felt so long. She stood up, sad to break this perfect moment.
"I need to check up on everyone else, on Bruce," Maria said to him. Steve stood up slowly before walking after her. She placed a hand on the door handle about to open the door but Steve stopped her, his own hand coming to rest on hers. She turned her head to look at him.
"I missed you," Steve told her. "Without you, I know I wouldn't have gotten through it all," Steve said to her and Maria took a deep breath. She loved him but she couldn't bring herself to say it first. She slipped her hand from under his, professionalism conveyed on her face. "You're my… rock," Steve said and Maria laughed.
"Oh god, let's go before you say something else that's even more embarrassing," Maria said, pulling open the door.
"What?" Steve asked, pretending to look innocent. Maria walked out of the room closely followed by Steve who took hold of her hand as they walked, wanting to be as close to her as possible at all times.
"Oh, there's someone I'd like you to meet," Maria said as the little one ran around the corner. "She's a fan," Maria said and Bethany stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth open and eyes wide. Steve glanced at Maria who just smiled.
"He's not your boyfriend," Bethany protected. "He can't be," and Maria laughed.
"Steve this is Bethany, Bethany this is Steve, Captain America," Maria said before Bethany ran over to Steve and hugged him tightly.
"I've been researching on some of the HYDRA base's around the world," Sam started. "If we want to get control of HYDRA's main security and have control over their troops we'll have to get into their base and hack their systems. Best way to take them down is from within." Sam said and Coulson nodded.
"Me and May have been running scanners over all the HYDRA base's and came down to two. Washington or the one in Canada," Coulson said.
"However, they won't put their main base next to the must protected place in the world, so Washington is out," Bobbi commented.
"HYDRA has another base up in Canada, in Val-d'Or and that's where we believe the main base is," May told the group.
"We've run scanners through this place and its way underground; best way to keep out of sight. We've got a detailed enough layout of the building to know that it's their main base," Coulson told the group sat around the table. He pulled up the layout of the building, the blue hologram showing the main base, its entry points and exit points.
"How do you plan on doing this then?" Steve asked from where he sat next to Maria. Coulson looked up at him before glancing around the group.
"Well, that's what we need to plan," Coulson said and Clint sighed.
"God, this is going to take ages. I'm getting some food. We better have coffee or I'm gunna flip," Clint said as he walked out of the room. Natasha rolled her eyes before turning to look at Coulson.
"You believe we can do this? HYDRA has the advantage of man power and I'm guessing they've got their best guys surrounding that place," Natasha said.
"We're a team," Maria remained them all.
"Which means, together we can take them sons of a bitches down at last," Steve said, finishing off Maria's sentence.
"Since when did you two become a married couple?" Sam asked.
"Since the second they first locked eyes on each other," Tony said, before taking a gulp of his drink.
"I haven't missed this," Steve said.
"Oh don't kid yourself Steve," Natasha said with a smirk. Steve let his face crack into a smile as the rest of the group chuckled. The door opened and Clint walked back in.
"Look what I found," Clint said, walking into the room with the coffee pot in his hand. He sat back down in his chair with a heavy sigh and a smile on his face.
"This plan is all good and well but they have the upper advantage. More men, more weapons and they know the building better than us. How can you expect us to go in and not suffer any loss?" Sam asked the group, waiting for someone the answer.
"People are going to get injured, badly. We've got to except that one or more of us could die." Maria began. "We're talking about taking HYDRA down; we're not all going to get away with no injuries. And if we do go down, we need people back here to look after the civilians," Maria said, saying the reality no-one really wanted to face.
"We can get an advantage over them," Bobbi began. "We've got surprise on our side. Cut the lights, save the ammo. We may not have numbers on our side but we're more skilled. We can't have people here when we'll need more there," Bobbi stated.
"She's right," May said, backing Bobbie up.
"Yet Maria's right too," Steve said, causing Maria to glance over at him. "We'll need people back here in case something goes wrong. Get everyone back as safely as possible with people back here providing protection for the civilians and also medical care for the group once we get back from the HYDRA base," Steve continued. Natasha smirked down at the table, seeing how Steve was backing up Maria. After all this time the people she had been suggesting meant nothing to Steve once he saw Maria years back.
"Coffee?" Clint asked her, holding the coffee pot out to her. Natasha shook her head and Clint shrugged.
"More for me," Clint said before Tony took the coffee pot to refill his own cup.
"I'll stay back," Pepper said, putting herself forward. "Out of all of you I'm the least train in this sort of thing. I can stay back and look after Bruce and the rest of the people," Pepper said.
"You still kick ass honey," Tony told her.
"Oh I know, but its better if I stay than someone like Steve stay," Pepper said. "I have an injury and I have some medical skills too," Pepper stated, referring to the time she went on a medical course a while back. Steve, being the leader, began to speak up.
"Right, so we have that settled then. Let's get into the business of what people will be doing," Steve began. Steve was cut off with the lights flickering and a loud bang from above them on ground level. Everyone looked up. May and Natasha were the first ones to reach, Clint and Bobbi following close behind. They made their way up the steps to the ground level and moved to go outside. May entered the code to get out and the metals doors started to slide open. Natasha went out first, looking to the right with her gun up. Clint to the left and May forward, Bobbi checking everyone's back with her batons held in her fists.
"Thor?" Natasha asked, looking at the man lying on the ground. He grunted and began to pull himself up. He whipped his cape back and then stood up, dusting himself off.
"My friends," Thor said. His face and clothes were covered in dirt, with a cut running diagonal down his right cheek. "Finally, I found you," Thor said. Bobbi and Clint checked the surrounding areas as Natasha moved over to him.
"What's happened to you?" She asked him.
"I've been looking for you all. It took me a while to get away from Asgard after I heard the news of what is happening down here. I ran into a few HYDRA agents but managed to get away and find you," Thor informed the four.
"Let's talk more inside," Bobbie said and the five made their way into the safe house. May brought up the rear, looking through the surrounding areas before shutting and locking the metal doors.
The five of them walked back down to the briefing room where everyone conveyed the same shock the four agents had had when they saw Thor.
"Nice to see you mate," Steve said and Thor smiled.
"Same to you," Thor said back.
"I'm gunna go check on Bruce," Tony mumbled to Pepper while the rest of the group welcomed Thor. Pepper nodded, a small sad smile appearing on her lips.
"Ok honey," Pepper said before Tony placed a kiss on her lips and silently exited the room.
He gently knocked on the door to Bruce's room before slowly opening the door. He knew Bruce wouldn't hulk out on him even if Bruce did get angry. The man was too tired and drained of energy to even think about letting the hulk out.
"Hey Brucey," Tony said quietly as he looked over to the man. Bruce was propped up against the head board, knees pulled up to his chest and his head placed on them. His arms were wrapped around his head, blocking himself from the outside world.
"How bad is he?" Bruce asked, his voice not even a whisper.
"He's ok, the serum helped him heal quicker," Tony told Bruce knowing who he was talking about. Bruce nodded slightly and let the room fall silent. "How you doing?" Tony asked him a couple of seconds later. Bruce stayed in the same position, not even looking up at his science buddy. It took the man a while to reply to him, trying to figure out the words before he spoke them.
"I'm still wondering if this is a dream," Bruce said. It was the same responds he had given early. He couldn't... HYDRA had messed with him so much. He had difficulty with breathing let alone determining if it was reality or not.
"Trust me, this is real," Tony said. Bruce then lifted his head up from his knees to look at Tony. He had dark circles under his eyes.
"We're in deep shit aren't we," Bruce stated rather than asked.
"Yeah we are, but we'll get out of it," Tony said and Bruce just put his head back in his arms.
So I've been trying to work on this chapter but well not feeling it. This is kind of just a, I dunno, a link chapter to just get thinks sorted out. Anyway, the next chapter will be up real soon. But for now, tell me what you thought :)