Chapter 21 - Allies

Steph's POV

I started to leave the room, but stopped for a moment before I did. Turning back, I asked the group at large, "have we heard anything from the arson investigation yet?"

Clint stepped forward and said, "They found a diamond-tipped projectile that was used to shatter the windows. The incendiary device was a molotov cocktail, but a sophisticated one. Instead of using a wick that was on fire, they used a combination of chemicals that would explode on contact with oxygen after the bottle broke."

"Okay," I said, then I turned and finished walking out, making my way back in the direction of the rooms.

Behind me, I could hear Steve rushing to follow me, so I didn't even need my spidey sense to warn me before his hand slid around my waist. I leaned into him even as I said, "I'm okay, you don't have to come with me."

"Is that you not wanting to bother me if I have other things to do? Or do you want to be alone? Because I can leave you alone if that's what you want, but I'd rather spend some time with you. There's not much more to do before tomorrow morning when we'll hopefully get something big off the tape. I can be done for the day."

I used my outside hand to link my fingers with Steve's on the hand that was wrapped around my waist. Together we walked into the common room, and settled onto one of the couches there. I was sitting idly, not really doing anything, just contemplating the information that had been gathered so far and what I knew about Trenton. Or thought I knew.

Although I used to think of myself as an expert on Trenton, or at least the Burg, it seemed that I hadn't been as aware as I'd believed myself to be. And that grated. Eventually Steve got up and wandered away, only to come back a few minutes later with four different pints of ice cream and some spoons.

"There's more flavors if one of these doesn't look good; I tried to grab a variety. And if this isn't enough, again, there's more in the freezer."

I laughed and leaned over to give him a kiss and whisper my thanks before picking up a spoon. After a quick perusal, I snorted out a laugh and snagged the pint of "Chocolate Therapy" ice cream. Allowing a little sound of glee to escape me, I cracked off the plastic and peeled off the lid. Of course, once I got the first spoonful into my mouth, the sounds changed to moans and Steve started shifting in his seat.

Leaning over, Steve whispered, "it's so much worse now that I know what I can do to make you make that sound in private… or to make even better sounds."

I tried to think of a retort while making sure I didn't blurt out something about how wet that statement had made my panties. Thankfully, I was saved from having to speak by the rest of the team beginning to filter in without Coulson's team. Steve made a selection of ice cream, and when the others came in, Bucky snagged one and pulled Natasha down on his lap on the couch next to me.

Everyone kind of paused and looked at me, waiting to see if I was okay with Natasha being so close. Because I was over it and wanted to make that abundantly clear, I shifted to give them room to make themselves comfortable. Then I leaned forward and grabbed a spoon which I handed to Natasha with a smile.

The remaining pint was swiped up by Sam, and everyone else wandered into the kitchen and came back with snacks of their own- mostly ice cream.

We settled in and Steve asked, "you never did say. Why were you covered in pasta sauce last night when you got home?"

"My skip worked at a grocery store where they do samples in the afternoons and evenings. I went during the pre-dinner rush because he knew who I was and I thought I'd be able to get closer before he saw me."

"I take it that didn't work?" Rhodey asked kindly.

I sighed, "somebody else I vaguely know, who no doubt only wanted the latest gossip, called to me right before I got to him. He was a college track star, and he actually picked me up and threw me away from him and into a table of tomato sauce."

"Did you get him?" Pietro asked.

"Of course I did; I was pissed. All the rest of my skips had come in without a fuss, but that one had to go and ruin the streak right before I called in for an extraction. Do you have any idea how much I would have loved going a week of successful skip-tracing straight without any incidents for the people of Trenton to use as cannon fodder against me?"

Steve tensed up next to me, "you didn't say anything about an extraction when you got back."

"Well, you distracted me. Isn't that why you were there anyway? Whichever of the trio of spies was following me also saw the bad guy following and called you in as backup?"

"No, I was just there because I missed you," Steve said slowly. "If I'd known, we would have left immediately, Steph!"

"Awwww," I responded, feeling warm inside at his revelation.

"Wait," Natasha said, "none of us were following you either. You asked us to trust you to take care of yourself with backup from Rangeman, so we did. Are you saying you had two people following you?"

Probably I should have been worried that I had another, unidentified person following me last week instead of one of Steve's teammates, but I didn't really know what to think of that. It was more fun and less scary to focus on the fact that my boyfriend had missed me too much to stay away.

"Well, the first one was definitely not a threat," I said. "Which is why I didn't say anything. I figured it was just one of you even though that was overkill with the Rangeman SUV that was following me. If I'd known it wasn't you or thought it was dangerous, I would have told when I checked in!"

"We are going to need to work on our communication," Bucky practically growled.

"Tell us about the second one," Vision urged.

"He, or she I suppose, just showed up that last day," I explained. "It felt similar to how it would feel when I had stalkers before. Except in the past I always wondered if I was imagining things, and this time it was obviously actually my spidey sense."

"Did you see anyone?" Clint asked.

"No," I admitted. "But I know someone was there!"

"We believe you," Sam reassured me. "About both people."

"Did Ranger's people see anyone?" Clint asked.

"I think they would have told me if they had, but hold on a second," I replied. Whipping out the original phone Natasha had provided me the first time, which had been replaced by an inconspicuous one for my trip to Trenton, I pulled up my contacts. Before I could dial Ranger, however it started ringing. "Shit, it's Grandma Mazur; I have to answer. Just give me a minute."

I started trying to get up, but Steve just held me where I was and pressed speakerphone as he mouthed, "just in case she's in trouble."

I nodded my head, as I answered, "Hi, Grandma!"

"There's my baby granddaughter! Why didn't you call to tell us you were okay? We heard about your apartment almost as soon as it happened and we were waiting for you to call!"

"Didn't Ranger stop by and tell you I was okay?"

"Yes, and thanks for letting me have the opportunity to ogle him and his men, but I still like to hear from you! Plus, I want to know the story. I have a hair appointment in an hour, and I have to know what's going on. The ladies will be expecting me to know."

"Well, you know how my life is," I said. "Someone firebombed my apartment. No big surprise there."

"How'd you get out of there? I hear it was one pip of a fire!"

"I wasn't home, Grandma; I was on a date!"

"A date!" she practically crowed with glee. "Did he put out?"

Steve made a choked sound of surprise, and I could see Bucky and Natasha in my periphery stifling laughs, so I just sighed. "So, don't you need to be heading to the hairdresser soon?"

"I've got a few minutes," she said. "Oh, that reminds me. There's a viewing I want to go to tonight. Any chance you can swing by for dinner with your young man and then give me a ride to the viewing? This is the second time you've mentioned this man of yours. When do we get to meet him? Are you bringing him to dinner this weekend? How's his package? More important, does he know how to use it?"

Over his initial shock, Steve was now shaking with laughter right along with Bucky and Natasha. Everyone else crowded around so that they'd be able to better hear what was going on. They really needed to get a life, but I knew they didn't mean anything by it, they were just curious about my gun-toting Grandma.

"I actually don't think I can make dinner," I explained. "I'm staying with my boyfriend until my apartment gets fixed, and he lives in Upstate New York. It's a bit of a drive just for dinner."

I thought it best not to mention the Nazis trying to kill me and just general security risk involved in my life these days.

"Don't forget about the viewing!"

"Even with the viewing, Grandma. I don't think we'll make it down for dinner and a trip to the funeral home today," I said calmly, ignoring the looks of amusement I was getting from everyone now that they could all hear.

"How are you going to catch your skips from all the way up there?" Grandma asked.

"I'm taking a break from bounty hunting," I said.

"Oooh, that's good!" Grandma said, "I can use that one. No one else has mentioned that yet, that'll be a hot scoop for sure. What are you doing now for money? You got one of them arrangements going like Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman?"

"No!" I exclaimed, looking at Steve in panic as I scrambled to come up with a suitable fib. "Ranger's got a few friends from his army days out here, and I'm doing some… security consulting for them."

Technically, not untrue, and I could see Steve's small smile and nod to go with it.

"Well, you're going to have to come back to Trenton to deal with your apartment, right? I expect you to stop by for lunch at least when you do. And you bring that young man of yours with you. Your mother would tell you the same thing, but she's too busy tippling and ironing right now. The phone hasn't stopped ringing since last night!"

"I'll try, Grandma," I said. "But Ranger might deal with my apartment for me. Something tells me my landlord might finally kick me out after this one anyway."

"Then we'll have to go apartment hunting together! I love apartment hunting!"

"I'm actually not sure what I'm going to do," I said. "But when I figure it out, I'll let you know. Oh, hey, look at the time. I've got to go do a very important security thing."

"Okay, well, visit when you can!"

"Will do, love you, Grandma," I said. Then I had a thought of trying to make my mom's life easier and said, "hey, when you go to the viewing. If the casket is closed, leave it closed."

"Love you too, Baby Girl!" she said, hanging up without promising to be on her best behavior.

I sighed, "she's going to pry that thing open."

"She sounds like fun," Pietro said. "Suddenly the fact that she got arrested with an illegal weapon is not so surprising."

"I've lost track of the number of guns my mom has confiscated from her," I said.

"And she mentioned going to a viewing, and you mentioned a funeral home, so I understand that to mean there has been a death. I'm sorry for your loss." Vision said.

I waved him off and said, "no one I know. She just likes to go for fun."

"For fun your grandmother goes to viewings and forces open caskets?" Rhodey asked.

"She takes it as a personal offense if there is a closed casket," I explained. "She thinks that if she makes the effort to get dressed up and go to the viewing, the least they could do is display the dead body. No matter what happened to it."

Not really wanting to go any further into that conversation, I dialed Ranger.

"Yo," he answered.

"Yo yourself," I shot back.

"Babe."

"Did whoever was on guard for me yesterday happen to see anyone following me?" I got to the point and asked.

"No, they would have reported it to me if they had. Why, did you?"

"No, it was more of a feeling I had," I said. "Don't suppose you had two teams on me? One in the car and one in the shadows?"

"No," Ranger replied again, clearly sounding upset at the information.

"Oh, well, just wanted to check," I said. "I'm sure it's nothing."

"Babe." Ranger trusted my gut.

"Yeah," I said, allowing some of my worry to come out in my voice. "Hey, I hate to ask it, but any chance you could-"

Ranger cut my off to say, "I've got a team on your family. They're staying out of sight, but I'm rotating shifts of people your family has seen before so as not to make them too nervous."

I blew out a relieved breath, "thanks, Ranger. Uh, you might want to warn whoever is on duty tonight that Grandma is planning to go to a viewing at the funeral home."

I could almost hear a sigh come out of Ranger just before he responded, "Babe."

I snorted a small laugh at that response because I thought it might mean that Ranger was planning to take the shift now that I'd mentioned a possible stalker. "Don't get shot," I told him.

"Don't go crazy," he retorted before hanging up.

"You think we're weird?" Clint asked dryly.

"I may have a few quirks of my own," I said. "But I don't go to viewings for fun, that's Grandma's thing. I usually just, I don't know, watch a movie if I happen to have some downtime."

Wanda spread her arms out wide as though indicating that we weren't doing anything at the moment and said, "you know, it has been awhile since our last movie night."

"Yeah, Steph! You pick because you're the new kid!" Clint called.

"Ummm… Ghostbusters?" I tried tentatively.

Sam snorted, but nodded his head in agreement before teasing, "you're girl's got classic taste, Steve. I'm guessing you haven't seen this one yet?"

Steve confirmed that he had not, and I smiled at being the one to introduce him to one of my all time favorite movies. Apparently FRIDAY had been listening, and when there were no objections, a giant screen slid down from the ceiling, in front of the windows, and all the lights were turned down as seats were shifted to the optimal viewing angle and the theme song rolled.

By the time I finished my ice cream, I was feeling much better. It only got better when Steve shifted us so we were cuddled completely together. The emotional wear and tear of the past day combined with not enough sleep and several rigorous rounds of sex started to catch up to me, and I felt myself start to drift off on Steve's chest. Who could blame me? It was soothing to rest against him while he fiddled with my hair and occasionally chuckled at the movie.

I probably would have fallen completely asleep if it hadn't been for the sudden intrusion of real thunder outside. "That's odd," I murmured. "It didn't look like it was going to storm earlier."

"Thor," chorused the room around me, but no one seemed to be getting up to go greet the man. Alien? God? I didn't know what to call him, even in my head, but I took my cue from the group and I stayed where I was, feeling Steve press a kiss to my head when I settled back down. Several minutes later, FRIDAY paused the movie and raised the lights as a bustle of noise hit the room from the entryway. A loud, female voice was hissing out, "Thor, Jane, I'm sure they don't want me in here! I'm working for them; I'm not one of them."

We turned from where we were seated and saw a big mountain of a man who had to be Thor standing next to two much smaller women. The one with the wavy brown hair caught sight of me cuddled up to Steve, and a huge grin spread across her face. "Did you finally find yourself a lady friend, Cap?" she asked excitedly.

Steve chuckled and said, "it's good to see you again, Darcy. Hi Jane, Thor. This is my girlfriend, Steph. Steph, this is Darcy, Jane, and Thor."

I stood and started to walk over to them with my hand out, only to be scooped up into a giant hug by Thor. "It is so wonderful to meet you, Lady Stephanie!"

"Uh, just Stephanie is fine," I said. Squeaking out an uncertain, "Thor?" at the end. I had no clue how to address him, but Jane just smiled and nodded as though she understood what made me uncomfortable and wanted to confirm that I had made the correct selection.

"There is something about you I find odd," Thor said. "Are you Midgardian?"

"I don't know what that is," I stammered, fully aware of the fact that this man, who was still holding me had become more tense. Thor could crush me easily from the hold he had on me and without my feet on the ground, I would have a hard time stopping him.

"Hey, Big Guy," Darcy said. "Think you can put Steph down? She looks like a regular Earthling to me, and I'd like to greet her myself. Any woman who can get Cap's attention has gotta be worth meeting, am I right?"

"There is power in you that does not belong in one from Midgard," Thor said with a frown, but he set me down nonetheless. I offered my hand to Darcy and Jane in turn, and each took it quickly before Steve pulled me into and then behind him.

He was standing between Thor and I, and had even picked up his shield from I don't know where- I guessed it had to have been sitting next to the couch somehow. Thor warily took in his stance, hand tightening on his hammer and moving Jane and Darcy behind him, as he squared off with Steve.

"What troubles you, my brother?" Thor asked, shadows visible in his eyes, "that you would greet me so."

I tried to move to Steve's side, but his hand tightened and he commanded, "Bucky."

Bucky moved forward, and I felt him gently pull me away from Steve until I was behind Bucky. I had a two super-soldier wall between me and a freaking god, and I was starting to feel very nervous about why I would need that.

"Steven," Thor said again. "Please explain; is she not Midgardian?"

"She is," Steve explained. "However, she is Inhuman; she has just days ago undergone a process called Terrigenesis-"

Before Steve could explain further, Thor hollered, "then she is not safe. You must let me take her to Asgard."

I gasped as my body felt a powerful wave of danger and rage directed my way. At once, I stopped trying to get around Bucky, choosing instead to shift more fully behind him.

"She is staying here," Steve said firmly. "I trust her, and she is the newest member of our team."

"You speak of things you do not understand! These people, they are made to be weapons!"

"So was I!" Steve yelled. "And so were Bucky, Natasha, Pietro, Wanda, and Vision!"

"Vision can lift Mjolnir; he is worthy. Therefore, I trust him implicitly. You are allowing yourself to be compromised by nothing more than a pretty face; I thought you wiser than this!"

Vision floated over between the two men, facing Thor he said, "I have studied Stephanie, as has Wanda. She represents no threat to us, of that I am certain. In fact, she is a fiercely loyal person, and she will be a great ally as our teammate."

Wanda floated herself next to Vision, and stared at Thor. "I have seen what she can do for our team; you must welcome her."

Everyone else assembled in front of me in a protective half circle, and Thor eyed them warily. "This is the will of all?"

"Yes," they chorused.

"Then so it shall be," he said. Shifting, Thor made eye contact with me once more as he relaxed his stance, "it is a pleasure to have you on our side. Please forgive me for the manner of our meeting, fellow warrior. The people who created your ancestors and my people have a long and vile history. Your kind have been a danger to Asgard for many generations- you were created with our annihilation in mind as well as others who live in realms which I am sworn to protect. However, if all these who I trust dearly believe you to be an ally, than so to shall I. I hope, in time, you will forgive my rudeness and we may become friends."

I took a deep breath then took a wary step forward. Bucky allowed me to pass him, and Steve, who had dropped his shield, pulled me encouragingly to his side. "I am sorry for whatever was done to your people in the past, but I had nothing to do with it. I assure you that I mean no harm to you or any realm; hopefully you can believe that for yourself… in time."

Thor bowed his head, and I returned the gesture. Our silence stretched only a few seconds before Darcy cut in, "so, what exactly is an Inhuman?"

"Thousands of years ago, a faction of the Kree came to Midgard to create a slave warrior army through genetic modification of humans that would be unlocked through a process called Terrigenesis. They were shut down by another faction of Kree, and their experiments were, for hundreds of years, believed to have been a failure. That is until the first of the Diviners, devices that contained Terrigen Crystals, was discovered and used to activate the genetic modifications," Thor spoke, still eyeing me cautiously though I no longer felt the danger emanating from his presence. "The abilities unlocked by the Terrigenesis can be unstable, unsafe, powerful, unpredictable, and are highly variable."

I could feel the wide-eyed fear that must have still been obviously displayed on my face because Darcy and Jane stepped between Thor and I. Smiling kindly, Jane said, "it really is nice to meet you. I apologize if Thor seems a little on edge, he has been gone investigating danger on the universal level, and he brought us here to be safe. He just wasn't expecting someone unknown to be here."

I smiled at her kindly and nodded in understanding. Then, figuring I should offer an olive branch, I said, "Thor, I don't want you to be surprised, so I will tell you that there are two others like me here on the compound. They've been helping me with my transition and learning to control my powers. I would appreciate it if you didn't… smite them?"

When Thor's frown returned and he didn't say anything, Darcy reached around Jane to elbow him. Hard. Then she smiled at me and said, "he'll be on his best smite-free attitude unless someone proves himself untrustworthy."

"Coulson vouches for them," Natasha reassured Thor from my side, and I managed just barely not to jump as I hadn't realized she'd moved there.

"So you were right," Thor said with a smile, "Son of Coul lives?"

"Yes," Clint said happily. "And he trusts the two he brought with him with his life."

"Then they must be honorable as well," Thor said with a nod. "My people can be a bit stuck in our ways at times; I will evaluate the situation. Perhaps we should be looking to these Inhumans as allies. For in times like these, the need for allies is great."

"So, what can you do?" Darcy asked bluntly.

I glanced sideways at Steve who nodded to reassure me that it was okay to share before I replied, "well, I absorb energy and then I can do things with it. The absorbing part is easy to figure out because it's just one thing, but we've been trying to figure out what all I can do with it… when we haven't been trying to figure out what HYDRA's deal is."

"They're a bunch of cowardly mother fuckers," Darcy said gruffly. "That's what their deal is. The energy stuff sounds awesome. Can you do anything else?"

I shrugged, "I have this intuition thing that lets me know if people are near and whether or not they're a threat to me, but… that one's pretty vague at the moment."

"You have a spidey sense?" Darcy asked. When I doubled over in laughter, she asked, "what?"

"That's what she called it before she went through the Terrigenesis thing and it got more powerful," Steve explained.

"Of course you did," Darcy said offering me a fist bump, which I accepted. "That's the only thing that makes sense to call it! So… what's your Avenger name if you're on the team?"

"My Avenger name?" I asked.

"Everyone but Vision or Thor has one," Darcy said. "And his name is Vision, so he gets away with it. And Thor, well, it's the name of a freaking mythological God, even if he technically isn't that, so he really doesn't need another one. There's nothing wrong with the name Steph, but you really can't be Captain America, Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Falcon, War Machine, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Thor, Vision, and Steph. That would be so 'one of these things is not like the others' of you."

I looked over at Steve with an expression that very clearly said I hadn't even agreed to be an Avenger yet, so he smoothly cut in with, "she doesn't have one yet, in fact, she just agreed to join. We've been trying to get her to join ever since she got her powers, and Coulson's team was trying to get her on their team as well."

Darcy rubbed her hands together and said, "oh, goody! I can totally help with that! Now, are you going to the gala week after next? Because we will probably want to introduce you there as the newest Avenger. It's up to you and Steve whether or not we introduce you as his girlfriend. What color is your uniform?"

I opened my mouth to say I didn't have one of those yet either, when Tony Stark entered the room saying, "that's what I'm here for. New uniform designing, complete with custom material creation if needed. Which I'm assuming it will be, given the whole energy thing. Now, here are my initial designs."

I gaped as I saw a several life-sized computer generated version of me appear on the walls around us, all wearing various uniforms. Steve and I would have to talk about this later, but this seemed a little like a runaway train headed where I was planning to go anyway.

It seemed I was an Avenger.