*Charlie*
Fury was fuming, his eyebrows narrowed and his one eye scrutinizing each one of the new heroes. Tony nibbled on the inside of his cheek in frustration as he stared ahead in thought. Dr. Banner looked somewhat calm, only the quick run of his hand through his salt and pepper hair gave the impression that he was moody. As for Barton and Romanoff…their faces were stone cold and unreadable. Though Charlie guessed that they weren't very happy either. After all, who would happy be after a failed mission?
"I have a few questions running through my head." Fury's voice boomed. "It's giving me quite the headache."
Charlie shifted uncomfortably in her seat. The Extremis bubbled inside of her uneasily, but a few shaky breaths calmed it down a little. She did her best to focus on Fury; the last thing she wanted was to explode in the middle of this meeting. He paced around the room and then stopped, turning to all of them.
"First question: what made you even think that it would be okay to defy the evacuation orders? You understand that you risked the lives of not just yourselves, but of your parents?" His eye bore into Charlie.
She huffed. "My dad is Tony freaking Stark. Iron Man. I'm pretty sure he's been put through riskier ordeals."
Fury clenched his jaw. Out of the corner of her eye, Charlie saw her dad smirk approvingly.
"And I'm pretty sure it would take more than a man with a cane to defeat an Asgardian," Noah piped in as he shot a glance at Isabel. They shared a soft smile.
"We're a team," Charlie added. "We're sure as hell not gonna abandon each other on a mission. The Avengers would never do that to each other, so why would we?" Captain America tilted his head and raised his eyebrows in agreement.
Fury blinked, staring at them. Then his rock hard expression broke into a grin. "Good."
Noah frowned. "Sorry…good?"
"Yes. Good."
"What happened to the whole 'you risked lives' part?" Isabel asked with a puzzled expression. Natasha Romanoff stepped forward, her boots clicking on the floor.
"What you all portrayed was a deep loyalty to each other," She said. "Something SHIELD values immensely in their heroes. Although you did disobey a direct order, it only proved that we could rely on you to protect not just the world, but each other."
"Though I am pretty insulted that you broke the earpiece," Coulson teased to Noah.
Charlie smiled, glancing down at her Chuck Taylors sheepishly. It was nice to know that their efforts proved to suffice. She looked back up, swallowing her goofy smile and sharing a happy glance with Isabel. Though Fury's face returned to the serious look as quick at it had disappeared earlier. He began pacing again; leather trench coat swinging at his sides.
"But I still have questions. Why did NARA know we were coming? And second, who told them? The only ones who knew about this op are right here in this room. Nobody at HQ knew about it – I made sure of it."
Everyone fell silent, processing what Fury had just said.
Dr. Banner glanced around. "Are you suggesting that one of them – One of NARA – is working here on the inside? One of… us?"
"That's exactly what I'm suggesting."
*Melissa*
It was hard to pinpoint the emotion that Mel was feeling – it was somewhere between complete horror and total shit. She was pretty sure her heart stopped beating altogether, and suddenly she had forgotten how to breathe. It wasn't until she noticed her mother looking at her that she remembered to play it cool. She met her mother's glance as calmly as she could, hoping to god that her dread couldn't be seen in her eyes. The Black Widow had an uncanny ability to decipher even the subtlest type of body language. Mel swallowed and took a deep breath.
"Who?" Captain America's voice spoke in a surprising growl. He stared down at everyone.
Stark patted him on the shoulder. "Calm down Capsicle."
"We will uncover who it is," Coulson stated at the tense soldier. "Agent Hill and I will be taking you all through extremely thorough psychological tests and interrogations to see if we can break whoever it is."
"Of course," Agent Maria Hill began. "It would be so much easier if you just told us who you were."
"But that's not as fun," Coulson winked.
Mel shivered and glanced down. This was going to be soo bad. She flipped out her Blackberry and quickly sent a text to Shaden. Her fingers hesitated over the keyboard as she pondered over how to break the news to him in the best way.
They know. She typed. I've gotta get out of here now.
After writing the coordinates that she would meet him at and pressing send, she stuck her cell back in her pocket and crossed her legs nonchalantly. If she was going to evade the questioning then she needed to vacate the mansion. Immediately.
Fury, Coulson and Hill had stopped talking and were now staring at all of them intensely. The air was filled with a suspenseful silence. Finally Coulson spoke again: "We will begin the interrogations immediately, starting with the new heroes. Raze," He motioned to Isabel. "You're up first."
*Isabel*
"So… Raze."
Coulson's voice was mocking. Sarcastic. That was the weird thing about the balding agent, he had a peculiar way of making everything he said sound so witty and sarcastic that half the time Isabel never knew if he was joking or not. Though right now, he was definitely not joking around.
"So," He continued.
"Are you gonna keep saying 'so'?" She couldn't help but ask. Coulson leaned back and cocked his head at her retort. Behind him, Agent Hill raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips.
"I can see you've gotten comfortable here," Said Coulson. "No longer the sweet, shy and shameful girl we first met – which could mean lots of different things. None of which would help you in this situation."
Isabel ran her fingers through her long brown hair and sighed, deciding to just cut to the chase. "I'm not double crossing SHIELD."
"That's what a liar would say."
Isabel shifted, the wires around her body getting quite annoying. Hill and Coulson had strapped her up with all these body monitoring devices that tracked her temperature and brain waves. Just to see if she was speaking truthfully or not.
"Can we just get this over with? Please?" She was dying to know how the current book she was reading ended. There was exactly 47 pages left – which would only take her about twenty minutes to read. But of course she was stuck here answering stupid questions.
All of a sudden there was a loud bang on the door. Isabel jumped at the noise. The door swung open and Clint Barton stood under the frame. His eyes were narrowed angrily.
"Where's my daughter."
"I'm sorry?" Coulson said. "Everyone is in the room waiting to be interrogated, like you should be right now. It was an order given by Fury himself."
Agent Hill stepped forward. "What are you talking about Clint?"
"Mel." Hawkeye said. "She's not here. She's gone."
Coulson glanced at Isabel, knowing now that she was not guilty. Isabel ripped one of the wires off of her, meeting Coulson's gaze. Thanks to Melissa's little disappearing act Isabel was saved from the boring questions. And NARA's secret agent was now revealed.
Okay, so I haven't really gotten a lot of reviews on this - which leaves me wondering how good this fic actually is. If you like it, please review and tell me! If you don't like it, also review and tell me! I gotta know how to make this better for the readers.
