Title: Conquer
Author: SLynn
Summary: While Phil and Clint settle back into their normal lives, Natasha begins to see that things are not the same.
xii.
The next few days in the Tower were extremely quiet.
Steve picked up where Tony left off, attending meetings and briefings with Director Fury and Agent Coulson. Thor had ended up accompanying Tony and company to Los Angeles in order to spend more time with Jane. Bobbi and Jasper shuttled back and forth from the Helicarrier in an endless rush of official business. Maria had basically taken over the conference room, prepping for her still undefined role as the head of operations. While all that was going on, Bruce fell back into his habit of leaving early and spending the day with Natasha who was still in confinement, with the evident hope of convincing her that all was going to be well.
Which left Clint practically on his own.
He tried to be productive, but no one was making it easy. Well, no one except Bobbi.
Bruce was avoiding him. He hadn't come out and blamed Clint for what had happened with Natasha, but given his attitude he didn't have to say it. Steve also seemed off, almost angry, but didn't shy away from Clint's company in any way. Maria and Jasper were unchanged, just too busy to notice that the dynamics had changed. Or else they were too oblivious to notice.
Bobbi was the only one who seemed willing to spend any time with him. Not only willing, she actually seemed to want to spend time with him.
It was what he needed.
"Barton," Maria called out as she entered the common living room. It was late in the evening and he'd begun to think that it was going to be another night with just him and Bobbi, but he'd been wrong. Steve was with her, just as he always was as of late, right on her heels as the two of them entered the room. "Help me out here," she said, handing him a tablet without waiting for a reply. "Four years back. That mission in Finland."
"What about it?" he asked skeptically, glancing down at the file and catching sight of Bobbi as she entered the room from the kitchen.
"Look at this," she said, looming over him and flipping through the screens from picture to picture. "Look at these. They remind you of anything?"
Bobbi slid down next to him without invitation and gave the photos a glance. Her reaction was one of surprise as Clint skimmed over the file.
"Where'd you get these?" Bobbi asked Maria.
"Digging around," she answered, arms still crossed as she waited on Clint to reply.
"I know it looks similar," he said shaking his head, "but it's really not. That guy was a hack. We took a look at him and shut him down, but in the end he was just like every other crackpot wannabe. Says so right here. He was just imitating what Tony had already done," he finished, handing the tablet back. "He wasn't even doing a good job of it. I'm pretty sure if SHIELD hadn't showed up, he'd have killed himself with that thing."
"This looks like that Sentry from the Danvers film," Maria insisted.
"It was only six feet tall and didn't even work," Clint returned. "It was a complete waste of time."
"That's what Agent Coulson said," Steve confirmed.
"Yes, well, I'm heading up operations now," Maria said firmly, as if dismissing her predecessor's opinion on the matter, "and this is all we have."
"It is a stretch," Bobbi opined.
"It's a bit more than a stretch," Clint agreed. "Besides, wasn't that thing with Danvers' alien? This guy," he said, reaching up and tapping the screen for emphasis, "is not an alien."
"Well, our only confirmation that this Sentry is alien is a second-hand account from a known liar," Maria continued to argue.
"Thor thinks he's being sincere," Steve added with a sigh as he took a seat in the nearest chair. It looked very much as if he and Maria had been having this argument for some time. Hours, if not days.
"And we're all a bit stupid about family," Maria said, relaxing her posture and sitting next to Steve on the arm of his chair. "Maybe he's right. Maybe he's wrong. All I'm suggesting is that we go and have a talk with this guy. Look at them side-by-side. They are so alike, you can't tell me that this guy didn't at least see one of these Senty things and base his own design off of it."
Maria handed the tablet over to Steve before looking back to Maria and Clint for some kind of acknowledgement.
"I don't know," Steve said with a shrug, handing the tablet back over to Clint.
"It really does look similar," Clint finally relented. "We just assumed..."
"If this guy," Bobbi began, looking to Maria to provide a name.
"Matias Berg."
"Right," Bobbi nodded. "If this Berg guy was basing his own suits off of Tony's, wouldn't they look more like the Mark... whatever number Tony was on back then?"
"You'd think that," Maria said with a nod.
"So what exactly do you want to do about this?" Clint asked, done looking through the file and handing it back to Maria.
"I just want to have a chat with him. Feel him out," Maria said.
"You've already got a plan," Steve said, turning to her not with surprise but amusement.
"Not a full plan," Maria admitted, "but, yes. I thought that tomorrow the four of us could take a little trip."
"Just us?" Clint asked.
"If it's nothing, it's nothing," Maria returned. "If it's not, we can handle him." Clint fixed her with a look. "Okay, you three can handle him," she corrected with an icy calmness. "You handled him alone last time. He's not a major threat."
"Shouldn't we run this by Tony?" Bobbi asked, her gaze shifting from Maria to Steve. "We did elect him leader."
"It's just a chat," Maria reiterated.
Steve looked momentarily conflicted. It was clear that Bobbi and Clint were waiting for his reaction, waiting to see what he wanted to do and were willing to follow his lead.
"How long will this take?" he asked.
"Do we even know where he's at?" Clint added.
"I tracked him down to a lab near Winnipeg. We could be there and back before lunch tomorrow depending on how much this guy cooperates."
"Wait, tomorrow?" Steve asked. "Tomorrow is Saturday."
"Oh," Maria said, looking genuinely troubled.
"Something wrong?" Bobbi asked, her eyes dancing between the two of them before looking at Clint for some kind of explanation.
"No," Steve said, shaking his head but sounding as if he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. "No, nothing's wrong. We can talk later..." he said, nodding at Maria. "This is important."
"So... we're going?" Clint asked.
"Just to talk," Maria confirmed. "If it's nothing, it's nothing," she repeated. "And if it's something, we're being proactive."
"Okay," Clint said, as Bobbi nodded along in agreement, but there was a definite shift in the room.
"I'm just going to go and finish up dinner," Bobbi said, getting to her feet. "When do we want to leave tomorrow? Oh-seven hundred?"
Steve nodded but continued to look pensive.
Bobbi got up and left, pausing in the doorway to beckon Clint to follow along.
Once the two of them were gone, leaving Maria and Steve alone, the two of them exchanged a quick glance and left the room and went straight for the elevator.
"I'm so sorry," Maria said as soon as they were alone together in the elevator. "I didn't forget about us. I just lost track of what day it was."
"It's not your fault," Steve said, looking down at the floor as Maria contented herself with looking up at the ceiling. Anywhere but at one another. "It's kind of been a hectic week. But this is important. It has to be done."
The elevator stopped on Maria's floor but neither of them moved.
"The timing..." Maria said quietly.
"It's pretty bad," Steve agreed with a dry laugh.
"Can I get a rain check?" she asked, smiling a little as she finally looked his way, but the smile quickly melted from her features.
He looked struck.
"Steve? Are you..."
"I'm fine," he lied, unable to look at her. It was too similar. Too familiar. Too much like the last time; the last time being seventy years ago. Maria didn't know that, she couldn't have known, but it stung. It stung and it made him hesitate. Maybe it was too soon. "I just... I should probably go over the mission. Just to be safe. We've got an early roll out."
"Yeah," she agreed, trying to recover but unsure of what she was recovering from. "Of course. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight," he said, watching as she exited the elevator and walked down the hall towards her room.
Maria didn't say anything in return and, although he hadn't thought it possible, Steve felt worse than before.
Notes: Fixed a mistake. Thank you, Alpha Flyer!