Protective

When I arrived back at the bridge, I saw Fury standing in front of the large glass table with Steve and Tony sitting on either side of it. I looked around the room, but nobody else other than a few stray SHIELD agents were in the room. I wanted to ask where everyone else had gone, but a part of me was too scared to know. Without asking, I sat back against the railing behind Fury with my arms crossed.

He pulled a few cards out of his jacket and slapped them against his hand a few times before tossing them onto the table in front of Steve. "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them." As Steve picked up one of the cards and stared blankly at it, Fury sighed and took a small step back so that the three of us were in his field of vision. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor..."

At the answer to my unasked question, I sighed through my nose and pulled my arms tighter against my chest while Fury continued. "I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye... Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."

Tony pushed himself out of his chair, standing there with a faintly confused expression before walking silently out of the room. Fury walked around the table and patted the back of the abandoned seat before crossing his arms behind his back. "Well. It's an old-fashioned notion."

Steve followed Tony's lead by pushing away from his chair and exiting through the same corridor. I might have followed if I wasn't so busy thinking. I was so busy, in fact, that I didn't even notice Fury joining me against the railing until he spoke up. "You seem the least disappointed in me at the moment."

"I'm plenty disappointed," I scoffed, watching my foot as I kicked it lightly against the textured metal floor. "I just try not to focus on the negative."

"What are you focused on right now, then?"

I had to think on that for a moment. There were plenty of things to think about, none of them exactly positive. "I was telling Bruce back in the lab that he reminds me of my niece," I semi-answered.

"Whiny, I think you called him." I chuckled at Fury's dry humor and nodded.

"That too. That's not what I was thinking about, though." I glanced up at Fury and saw that he was watching me with an expectant look, waiting for me to continue. "Cass was born with a congenital heart defect," I explained, returning my gaze to my feet. "She's still young, so it isn't really a huge problem for her yet, but... It makes her different. We all- her parents and I- we have to make sure she doesn't exert herself too much or things could go south pretty fast. The way Bruce treats his... condition. How careful he is. That's what really reminds me of her. Maybe that's why I want to protect him so much. Although," a small half-smile tugged up at the corner of my lips, "Cass is anything but careful. It drives her parents crazy, the way they have to keep her in check to make sure she doesn't hurt herself. I don't know. Maybe they aren't so alike after all."

Fury was quiet as he considered what I'd said. I almost thought that the conversation was over, but just as I was considering leaving he said something else. "He just might need you to protect him someday." When I looked back up to him, I saw that an almost undetectable smirk had settled on his face as he nodded towards the hallway Steve and Tony had disappeared down. "You should probably check on Stark and Rogers. I'm not sure I trust the two of them alone together for long."

With that, he turned and walked down the steps to speak with Agent Hill and various other scattered agents. I sighed before shoving off the rail and heading towards where Fury had directed me. I didn't get very far in, however. Only a few steps down the hallway I ran into Tony and Steve hurrying back from the detention center when they had been keeping Loki. "Woah, where are you two off to?"

"Stark Tower," Steve explained without really explaining anything at all.

"Wait, what? Why?" I asked, pulling a 180 degree turn to star following back down the hall after them.

"He's touching my stuff!" Tony pouted before rounding the corner, headed for the room he kept his Iron man suit in. "Nobody touches my stuff."

Well, that cleared up absolutely nothing. I turned to Steve when Tony separated from us, raising a questioning eyebrow. "Loki," he clarified. "Long story short, Loki is at Stark Tower and we're going after him."

"I have no idea how you two figured that out, but... okay. I can get on board with this. So, what's the plan here?" Steve glanced down at me, and I didn't exactly like the look on his face. "We don't have a plan, do we?"

"There's a plan." He nodded, turning his eyes front. "I'm just... not exactly sure what that plan is."

While that certainly boosted my confidence- sarcasm intended- I was still left with no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I didn't even know where I was following Steve to until we passed under a sign that read 'Medical Bay'. There were four metal doors, and he pointed towards the second one on the right to signal that this was our destination before pushing the button to open the door.

It hissed open, and from my spot looking over Steve's left shoulder I saw Natasha standing next to an empty bed. Steve did a quick sweep of the room before returning his eyes to her. "Time to go."

"Go where?"

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?"

Another door at the back of the room was pulled open, and I turned to see Clint tossing a rag onto a sink before walking out. "I can."

While I was staring at the bruise on Clint's right temple that was already turning purple at the edges, Steve turned to Natasha. When she nodded, he copied the action before facing Clint. "You got a suit?"

"Yeah."

"Then suit up." Steve looked down to me and patted my shoulder before turning on his heel to go back the way we had come. I followed him for a few steps, but then a thought occurred that made me backtrack so I was looking at Clint again. Tapping my temple, I half-smiled. "Sorry about that, buddy, but you were being kind of an asshole at the time."

Natasha smirked and brought the back of her hand up to her lips while Clint simply shrugged. "I don't blame you."

"And I don't blame you." I winked with a growing smile to show my sincerity. "Glad you're back on our side." With what I felt needed to be said out of the way, I went back to following after Steve, though I did have to rush a bit to catch up.

Hey guys! We're just about finished with the story now, with only 3-4 chapters left. There will be a little bit of story after the end of the Avengers movie, just to wrap some things up. I'll also be posting a sequel, but I'll talk more about that later.

I'm going out of town for a few days and will have little to no internet, meaning I won't be able to update. I'll write as much as possible while I'm gone, though, so hopefully I'll be able to continue posting as soon as I'm back.