Willow folded her arms like a small child as she walked down the long corridor from her room, making her way slowly to Fury's office. It had taken her until midday to decide to finally go and sort things out. After Bruce had left, she took some time to think to herself about everything and she decided to try her best to make things work, she wanted to help find the Tesseract and she wasn't going to just give up.
Fury was sitting at his desk looking over the new results from the scans SHIELD had been doing on the Tesseract's gamma emission, but so far they hadn't found anything. It was almost as if things were too calm, there was no alien army invading them and there had been no sign of the Tesseract even being used. Something wasn't right.
''You wanted to talk,''
Willow stood leaning on the door frame as Fury looked up at her as if he was surprised she had come to see him on her own. He had allowed her whatever space she needed for now, taking into consideration she had been in a cell for almost two days.
''I do,'' he nodded, gesturing for her to take a seat.
''Don't you want some of your agents sitting in?''
''I was hoping to develop some trust here,'' he sighed. ''I trust you, you trust me, deal?''
''I'll let you know when this conversation is over,'' she folded her arms again. ''I suppose the topic of discussion would be my tantrum, as everyone seems to call it?''
''Partly,'' he nodded. ''But it's been brought to my attention that your actions were somewhat provoked...by me,''
Willow laughed.
''Really? You couldn't see that for yourself?'
''You want to be treated like everyone else on this ship, you have to understand that that's how I operate. I question, I call people out, I demand answers,''
''And I get that, but you've been targeting me as if you're waiting for me to do something wrong,'' she explained. ''I wouldn't have agreed to this deal if I wasn't committed to going through with it. I'm willing to you and SHIELD find the Tesseract, I'm on your side here, but you've been treating me like the enemy instead of an ally,''
Fury nodded his head.
''I know. But you've been living in solitude for so long, you have powers that no one else on this Earth possesses and that no one else understands and you haven't got the best history with SHIELD...''
''You're the one who brought me into this. If you didn't trust me-''
''I didn't know what to think, all I knew is that we needed your help, and still do. We can work together, you can have your freedom as long as I have your word that you we can trust you. And after all of this is over, the bridge between you and SHIELD-''
''No,'' Willow shook her head. ''I'm not staying with SHIELD after all of this, forget it. You have my trust for this mission, but that's it,''
''Willow, there are people out there who know about you. SHIELD can protect you and you can help-''
''I said forget it Fury, drop it,'' she raised her voice. ''I'm on this mission and this mission only, got it? I'll help you find the Tesseract as long as we have an understanding of trust and that I'm on your side, so back off, but you can forget me and SHIELD cooperating again after this,''
Fury watched her expression and knew there was no changing her mind, and so he nodded in agreement. SHIELD had been keeping her safe for years, keeping people off her trail, and Fury would make sure they continued to do so, but Willow would have been better off with them. Willow stood up after they reached an agreement and nodded toward him before walking over to the door.
''Willow,'' Fury called out, stopping her as he stood up. ''What happened to your mother, SHIELD-''
''I don't want to talk about it,'' she shook her head. ''I didn't come here for this, just let it go,''
Before Fury could say any more, Willow walked off away from his office. She had an agreement with him and that's all she wanted, everything else was pointless to her. She was never going to stay with SHIELD, she just couldn't, no matter what happened on this mission, too much had already been damaged.
''Any progress?''
Natasha shook her head as Steve stood beside her, looking over to the computer screens in front of the agents. The Tesseract remained missing, and so did Agent Barton. Whatever spell Loki's scepter had put on him, he wasn't on SHIELD's side anymore, but that didn't make him an enemy. Natasha and Barton were SHIELD's best assassins, they'd worked together on countless missions where they almost lost their lives, always looking out for each other. Barton had spared her life when SHIELD first found out about Natasha, she wanted to make sure she could save him this time as well.
''No sign of him anywhere,''
''We'll find him,'' Steve told her.
''Yeah,'' she nodded, not wanting to talk about it. ''So have you seen Willow?''
''No, I haven't,'' he shook his head. ''I heard Tony was the first one to talk to her when Fury released her so you can imagine how sensitive he was,''
''Not very,''
Natasha and Steve turned to see Willow standing behind them. She looked better compared to how they had seen her on the cell footage, and she even had a smile on her lips. It was nice to know that the team she was meant to be working with actually did care about her, from what Bruce had told her, they'd been rather angry about Fury's decision to lock her away.
''Nice to have you back,'' Steve smiled.
''Nice to not be in a detention cell,'' Willow nodded. ''Sorry I kind of took attention off the task-''
''Don't be,'' Natasha cut her off. ''Nothing's happened, and you needed to clear things up with Fury. Granted it could have been handled better,''
''Yeah, I guess,'' Willow shrugged. ''What's done is done,''
Natasha nodded and looked back over at the screens. She knew there would be nothing new to look at, but it was a habit now, she couldn't help looking over all of the screens that other people were already watching. She had to be alert, ready for anything like she had been trained for. One of their own had been taken, and it happened to be one of the only people in SHIELD, and in the world, that she trusted and cared about.
''You know, I don't think you'll have to go looking for him,'' Willow spoke. ''He'll come to us,''
''What?'' Natasha turned to her, her expression serious at the mention of Barton.
''He's under whatever spell Loki put on them, controlled by the scepter and Loki himself. We have both of them here, sooner or later they're going to come looking for them both, because Barton knows where we are and he'll know how to get in,''
Steve folded his arms and listened in. It wasn't a bad theory, it was actually quite logical, but SHIELD had the best security in the world, there was no way anyone could break in or interrupt them and certainly not without their knowledge.
''But how long would it take?'' Natasha asked. ''It's been almost three days and there's been no sign of any of them,''
''Then we'll just have to wait it out,'' Willow shrugged. ''They're bound to show up, they're not total robots, they can still make mistakes. We just have to be looking for them,''
Natasha looked away, thinking about Willow's words. It was true, Barton would know exactly how to get them there and get inside the helicarrier to take whatever they wanted, and with this knowledge, Natasha was going to be on a much higher alert for anything unusual.
''Maybe,'' she nodded.
''It's something to keep in mind, and so far it's our only theory,''
''Then I hope I'm not wrong,'' Willow chuckled. ''And I hope we're ready,''
Willow wandered down the corridor again a few hours later after spending most of the day with Steve and Natasha, gaining as much knowledge as she could about whatever she had missed while being in her cell. Not much had happened at all, but she wanted to stay in the loop. Just before she made it any further, she heard a voice that made her become invisible to everyone.
''There is no decent food on this ship,'' Tony complained as he walked into the lab. ''Apple?''
''No thanks,'' Bruce shook his head. ''This tracking algorithm seems...wrong,''
Tony frowned.
''Can't be,''
''I know, it's like the computer changed it though,'' Bruce shook his head. ''I can fix it, it'll just...it'll take a while,'' he sighed.
''Got plenty of time Banner, it's not like things are moving fast around here,''
Willow walked into the room, wandering around and looking at the work they'd been doing. Bruce seemed like he never took a break, busying himself, but Tony always had work to do in other rooms for some reason, something he had brought onto the ship himself. Tony was sitting on a stool over by the side, munching on his apple as Bruce started inputting data again, rewriting something they'd completed the day before. Willow smirked as she saw Tony leaning back on the stool, unable to stop herself from walking over and swiping her foot beneath him, kicking out one of the legs and watching him fall to the floor.
''What the hell!'' Tony groaned as he pulled himself up to sit on the floor, looking around. ''What was that?''
''Is this a bad time?'' Willow appeared over at the door as if she had no idea what had happened.
Bruce smiled and suppressed a chuckled as soon as he saw her, he knew she had been the one to kick Tony's seat from beneath him. However Tony just glared in her direction, pulling himself up and leaning against the bench, unable to trust the seat once again, especially with her in the room now.
''No, it's fine,'' Bruce answered finally. ''Anything new happening out there?''
Willow shook her head.
''Nothing, a few theories getting tossed around but so far nothing's happening,''
''Yeah it's pretty boring around here too,'' Tony chimed in. ''Hey how about you heat things up again? Bursting into flames will sure bring some more excitement into this place,''
Willow looked over to Tony with a smile on her face as if his comments didn't bother her. He was doing it to tease her, to provoke her, and she wasn't going to bite at his bait.
''And how about you actually help out instead of trying to be funny, I'm sure that will shock people just as much,'' she continued smiling in his direction.
Tony laughed and shook his head. Bruce watched as the two of them looked back at one another with a smile on their lips, but they weren't genuine. They were like children arguing with one another.
''Yeah, I just might,'' Tony nodded, walking over to the door. ''I'm sure you've got the annoying Bruce part down, no need for me here,'' he remarked with a smirk on his lips before disappearing down the corridor again.
Willow groaned and pushed Tony's chair away from her, kicking it to the ground.
''Don't let him get to you,'' Bruce looked over to her.
He noticed how easy it was for her to lose her temper, having not had to deal with people in a long time, he knew how that used to feel.
''He's not,'' she shook her head in denial. ''He's just...I can't stand that guy,''
Bruce chuckled.
''He's okay,''
Willow hopped up on the bench next to where Bruce was working, picking up a piece of paper with a lot of confusing numbers and words written all over it. She had no idea how Bruce or anyone else understood it. Bruce watched as her eyes scanned the piece of paper, and he couldn't help grinning at how curious she was about everything he did.
''What's all of this?'' she asked.
''It's an algorithm, well it's the formula for one, to track the Tesseract's signals,'' he explained. ''I'll show you,''
Bruce turned the screen around and showed her what he was working on, laughing as she immediately shook her head that she didn't understand. He didn't know why, but he wanted to explain everything to her, to show her everything she wanted to know. She had lived a life of solitude and he knew what that was like, however where Bruce began that life later in his, solitude and alienation was all Willow ever knew. Bruce felt as though she was the only person on the ship that he could relate to. No one had taken an interest in having anything to do with Bruce in such a long time, it was nice that Willow always came to the lab and spent the rest of the day there, Bruce didn't know how Tony could think it was annoying at all. In fact it made him happy.
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! By now you can basically see where things are starting to form, but I guess like any other story it won't be without complication and all that other stuff. Please, please review, I love hearing from all of you and I'd love to know what you guys think or any ideas? I'll be most likely updating one more time before Christmas, maybe twice, I usually get chapters written pretty fast. Thanks for reading.
ALSO, I have been working on a new chapter for 'Heroes...' but honestly I've hit a brick wall with it. I know where I want to go with it, it's just getting there...and it's quite difficult considering I have no ideas or anything right now, I have nothing. If anyone would like to lend some ideas or help, I'd be grateful, although that story isn't exactly priority, I'd still like to work on it. Thanks.