Author's Note: I am not happy with this chapter. This has been written and rewritten for over a year or so simply because I wasn't happy with the flow. However, if I need to keep the story going, this needs to be updated. So! Here you go.

~The American Dream~

Chapter 14: Chaos

The door closed behind her and Tess found her legs weakening. Slowly Tony let her sit on the bed as she gathered her thoughts. She was all jumbled and she felt herself shaky at the thoughts that Loki had put into her head. Looking down at herself she grew disgusted at how she looked. She tugged her hair roughly, she began removing the pins in her hair; Tony got the hint and turned around to face the wall, but she did not care; she wanted out of the outfit. Tugging the nightgown, she threw it across the room then shuffled to find large sweatpants and a giant t-shirt. Once the shuffling ended, Tony turned back around and opened his arms.

Something in her broke as soon as he engulfed her in a hug and she found herself crying while she curled against him. He didn't say anything and she didn't know if it was because he wasn't sure what to say or if it was the proper thing. Slowly she curled against the wall and he took the outside spot.

"I get it Tess" he whispered softly finally breaking the silence. She knew it meant something when he said her name. "Your rose-colored glasses are off"

Turning over to face him she looked at him as he stared back at her. He looked a bit pained but it was clear he felt for her. She refused to wince as he moved his hand to push the hair out of her face.

"Are they really as bad as he said?"

He pulled her closer. As she hid into the crook of his neck she finally murmured the things that Loki had told her and how horrible that the people around her were. He stayed quiet and listened before speaking up once more.

"I think that they've lived less than normal life than you have. So yes, they've made mistakes and have taken dangerous actions, but if they did not care for a greater cause, they wouldn't be here" he murmured.

The rest of the night he reassured her that she was on the right side and that Loki had fed the worst in her. He had been kind enough to stay with her until she dozed off. It had been an uncomfortable sleep, but one she definitely needed.

….

Once she looked properly out, Tony found himself wondering just what kind of trouble he had brought her in. He thought of her as fragile, not so much physically as emotionally. She was delicate. To him she was a dreamer probably hadn't done one bad thing in her life. A rarity in itself and he didn't want to sully her nor did he want the world to devour and destroy something so unique. But something that was clear to him was that the pedestal she built for them had been marred by Loki's words. It was in the midst of those thoughts that the door to her room opened.

Tony was surprised at first and wondered why someone would be here, but as soon as he saw who it was, his eyes hardened. He would be damned if he tried to come here. Kissing the girl's forehead he climbed out of the bed delicately and pushed the taller man from the room.

"She doesn't need you here"

"I just wanted to see if she was okay, that's all" Steve said calmly.

Tony was frustrated over the idea of someone being so dense. It didn't take a genius to figure out that her panic attack was over this Capsicle. And he wouldn't be surprised that Steve fed into Tess the idea of them being more than just friends. Even if she blamed herself, Tony did not see it as such. Steve Rogers was older and he had to have known better than to give mixed signals to Tess. No man his age was as naive as he pretended to be.

"I thought she told you she needed space. Did you just decide not to respect that?"

Steve furrowed his brow at the tone.

"Don't you think it's inappropriate to be in her room this late?" Steve clearly tried to avoid the question.

"If it's inappropriate then why were you trying to come in?" Tony scoffed, "Look Captain, she might like you but I don't. And I don't appreciate people coming in and playing around with her feelings."

Steve looked taken aback but stood straighter once he realized that Tony was looking for a reason to argue. He tightened his fist and took a deep breath before responding.

"You don't have a right to say what she and I are: which is just friends. But since we are on that track, I don't appreciate your treatment of her. She is not under you ownership so stop acting like you own her. Tess thinks for herself and it's unfortunate that she misconstrued our friendship, and that's all it is."

Tony grew furious at the blame that Steve clearly placed on Tess. Pushing Steve away, it was clear that if this conversation continued a fist-fight would occur. He was about to do a rebuttal when footsteps from the hall stopped him.

"I think you both need to cool off somewhere else" Natasha said annoyed at their childish actions.

She had seen enough to know that the stress of the night had affected a lot of people. As they walked away angrily she shook her head; Loki had done more damage than he would know.

…

The morning had been one where she found herself unwilling to get up. The reasoning behind it had been a multitude of reasons: for one thing she felt foolish at having Loki win her over in his plans to bring down the people around her. Did S.H.I.E.L.D. really cause such destruction? The Hulk? Steve? Tony? She shook her head. No, if she fed into it, she knew that she would have let him win. The other stream of consciousness came from sheer embarrassment. Rejection. The rejection from Steve had hurt more than she cared to admit. It was a blow to her ego; her idealism had caused her to fabricate emotions from the situations that weren't real. He didn't like her, he said it himself, he was just being nice. She covered her face and groaned.

If only hearing his words had ripped her infatuation. Instead her brain overanalyzed everything wondering why she totally misunderstood his actions. The touches, the hugs, the looks, the blushes. All that was just him being friendly? 'You are the biggest idiot Tess' she thought to herself. At least she wasn't in love with him. She shuddered at the thought. At almost twenty-one she had no reason to seek out another relationship after Ben. That had been a learning experience and she would never do that again.

"You are capable of growing from your crush and accept it" she said aloud to herself in hopes her conscious would accept it.

Yet as her eyes trailed towards her bed, she curled back into it and hummed softly. So life wasn't perfect, especially not outside, but she decided that it wouldn't hurt to just wallow a little more before taking the world in. She didn't ask to be apart of this so she wouldn't sweat it.

…

She wasn't avoiding everyone, at least that what she told herself. In truth, since the day of the incident, she remained in her room going over more theories, papers, opinion pieces that could make her useful yet not have to interact with anyone.

"Permission to enter Hermit"

Well except one: Tony made it very clear that she could pretend that she didn't exist in this ship but not with him. He constantly tries to ease her into interactions with others but it was neither effective or subtle.

"Hermit, really?" She called out with a whiteboard marker cap on the side of her mouth. "See if you read all the information as needed"

"Then what use would you be?" An indignant gasp was all Tony got before he kissed her forehead making it clear there was no harm meant in his comment. Closing her eyes at the intimacy she grinned.

"Alright pip-squeak, what do we have in store for this one? And I don't mean the essays that have kept you busy."

Her eyes shifted around while Tony did a scan of the room. "All clear" he murmured.

Once she got the signal, she took out the laptop and began to populate the process that they had made during the hacking process. After the situation that occurred, Tony had the feeling that S.H.I.E.L.D was hiding something. So while he went on with his normal schedule, Tess was hacking into the delicate system.

…..

It was the moment she pushed the door she found herself taking in the scene before her. Tony and Dr. Banner were looking intently at the screens. When the door closed behind her both turned to look at her like kids caught doing something. Looking at the pair curiously, her boss signaled her to lock the doors.

"Do your job kid" And with a screwdriver thrown her way, she kicked the keypad door to give her access to the wires. Her eyes took in the wires and began to mumble something about it being disappointed while the two older men stared curiously.

"I'm impressed with how she simply jumped board on this plan," Bruce said.

"I've trained her well" Tony replied simply.

A scoff from Tess was all he got in returned as she immediately cut the blue wire and the doors stopped working. "That joke is getting old Tony" she commented before walking towards the screens they were working on and taking everything in.

"So where do I start?" she asked suddenly.

"No other questions? No speeches about how we're breaking their trust? Just who are you?" Tony touched her hand briefly asking her those questions in a seemingly teasing tone; but the truth in his question was clear.

"Not a rule breaker?" Bruce asked.

Tess smirked softly and took a seat in front of the computer before her hands began to click into the program hoping to find some holes. "I'm usually not" she began to explain to Bruce. "But S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't always given us a reason to trust them. Especially not to me, so I say, why not give them a taste of their own medicine and intrude into their personal files?"

With a rakish grin thrown his way, Bruce had to admit that Tony's prodigy was more than met the eye. Despite her sweet and somewhat naive disposition that he had picked up when they first met, there was a definite cunning nature in her. And it was clear that her teacher was proud from the loud kiss on her cheek that he gave her.

"I've brought you to the dark side!" he exclaimed proud of himself. "Now work those fingers for magic"

"I always do Tony, I always do"

….

She was in the midst of cracking the second code while Tony ate chips beside her and Bruce murmured encouraging words. It was somewhat funny to her how they both seemed to have stopped and simply gave her advice on how to hack, or hummed in agreement in her actions. It was during this time that the door was pushed hoping for it to be opened.

The three of them turned to take it in the noise. It was clear that S.H.I.E.L.D. had realized that they purposely locked themselves in and so they began to push the door. Tony signaled her to continue and the three of them tried to ignore everything going on behind them. It was the moment that she successfully hacked, when the door was opened.

"Just what do you think you are doing?!" Fury entered taking the three of them in.

Tess tensed, but Tony seemingly didn't get fazed by the anger.

"Uh- kind of been wondering the same thing about you." he replied with a smile.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." His fist clenched.

"We are, the model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." Bruce easily.

It was interesting that both men seemed to easily vibe from one another. Both of them ignored that Tess was working on a computer and keep here from Fury's gaze. Still, her fingertips clicked on the keyboards and there was no point in hiding her.

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss. What is Phase Two?"

"You guys think you're seriously slick?" Natasha said "Tess just stop"

Before anyone else could properly say anything, Steve walked in with a strange gun in his hands. As he slammed it on the table she winced at the loudness but her ignored the way her stomach twisted as he immediately made eye contact with her.

"Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. used the Cube to make weapons." his eyes trailed from Tony to her and his lip twitched. "Sorry the computer was a bit slow for me"

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-"

Fury was interrupted as Tess pressed the button showing exactly what their plans here and Tony clapped his hands. "I'm sorry, Nick." Tony interrupted and turned the screen towards him. "It shows a plan for some a missile. What were you hiding?"

There in front of them showed the whole purpose of this mission, it was not to save the world and return the Tesseract to its rightful place, it was to use it as a weapon against the people that S.H.I.E.L.D. deemed as enemies. The disappointment was palpable and Tess herself wondered if Loki was right all along.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit."

The disappointment in Steve's tone was clear; SHIELD had once against lied to them. As Bruce, Steve, Tony and Tess took Fury and Natasha in, it was clear that they had no shame or guilt in what their goal was. Thor entered taking in the scene with confusion as well. But the quiet and mellow Dr. Banner was the first to break the silence.

"Did you know about this?" he asked Natasha.

"Do you want to think about removing yourself from this environment Doctor?" she responded clearly ignoring the question at hand and in turn making an underhanded comment.

"How could you do this?" Tess spoke up, disgust evident in her tone. "You made Loki seem like the villain when you yourselves want to do the same! You tricked us."

Natasha scoffed. "Please. Loki is clearly manipulating this situation to make us turn against one another."

"And you're not manipulating us?" Bruce responded. "I was very clearly removed in Kolkata yet you had no trouble bringing me here"

"You didn't come here because I batted my eyes at you" She drew closer to him anger evident in Natasha's tone.

"And I'm suddenly not leaving because you get a little twitchy" he turned back to view the monitor. "What matters here is why is S.H.I.E.L.D using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction"

Silence loomed over everyone and Natasha purposely avoided the gaze of disappointment from the girl. It was clear that since this was now in the open, an answer would be needed.

"Because of him" Fury stated and had no shame in pointing his finger at Thor.

A look of surprise took over everyone's expression.

"Because of me?" Thor repeated in surprise.

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town." Fury popped up the pictures and the destruction was evident. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly hilariously, out-gunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor replied as softly as possible.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury's voice was reminiscent of a conspiracy theorist. "And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"And you're always wanting to control things don't you!" Tess exclaimed. The fury in her tone was clearly building up over time. "You control people, actions, political actions...futures. Don't you ever get tired?"

"There is no way you could control the Cube" Steve added.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for A HIGHER FORM OF WAR" Thor's own anger rose.

And the mention of a higher form of war brought shivers down Tess' spine.

"A higher form?" Steve muttered confused.

"You forced our hand! We had to come up with some-"

"Nuclear deterrent!" Tony interrupted, "'Cause that always calms everything right down."

The tension in the room rose and people began to take shots after one another. Fury started by taking a shot at Tony.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep in-" Steve snidely added.

"Wait-Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Tony raised his voice defensively.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

That sparked Tess to actually take a stand.

"Don't pretend either of you know anything about Stark Enterprises! Tony wouldn't lower himself to work on these things like S.H.I.E.L.D"

"Don't talk about things you don't know about Tess" Steve lighted patted her shoulder in a way that meant well, but to her patronized her more than anything.

Slapping his hand away she pointed her finger and pressed on. "Do you think I'm just some pretty face or arm candy for Stark Enterprises? I will one day be a COO so don't you dare think that I am not part of plans that come out of there. Tony wouldn't allow these kind of shadiness, and I won't either."

"Exactly, Captain senior, so you don't you go back to your frozen hole and come back when you know what the hell you're talking about" Tony smirked glad to know that Tess was not taking this shit backing down and defended his and his company's honor.

Thor stepped in and shook his head.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this."

"Oh shut up" Tess groaned.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury responded to the comeback.

Voices rose and it was clear no one was listening to anyone anymore. Thor and Fury argued back and forth in regards to the destruction that Thor and his people did to the planet. Thor argued that he was defending earth. Tony and Steve were taking his opportunity to take more shots at one another, and Natasha and Bruce throwing remarks back and forth. And within all of this the Tesseract sat inside Loki's staff shining brightly.

"Are you boys really that naive? S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threats." Natasha scoffed.

"And Captain America is on the threat poll?" Bruce asked.

"We all are!"

"You're on that list?" Tony smirked at Steve. "Are you above or below angry bees?"

"I swear to God, Stark, one more crack…" The threat was real.

"You're a threat. VERBAL THREAT! I FEEL THREATENED!" Tony waved his hands around dramatically.

"Tony stop!" Tess placed her hands lightly over his arms.

"SHOW SOME RESPECT." Steve drew closer and Tess tried to make room between the two.

In the midst of it all it was clear that the pent up distrust grew with everyone. Thor was disgusted at how much humans were all just simpletons. Natasha had no shame in making it clear that S.H.I.E.L.D tricked everyone here because the so called 'threats' would help them out for weapons. Steve and Tony were at each other's throats ready to take punches and in all of this Tess just wondered why she didn't just stay home.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out." Steve shook his head and drew himself closer. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Tony!" Tess' disappointment was clear.

Steve merely smirked.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds"

It was in the midst of the petty remarks when something hit the ship. The explosion threw everyone across the room. Fury and Thor hit a desk, Tony and Steve broke the window, Tess was thrown over the table and across the room and glass fell on her and Natasha and Bruce fell to the floor beneath them.

…

"Wake up Holmes! This is not the time"

Those were the first words she woke up to as Fury violently shook her. The explosion had made her black out that much was sure. Her head hurt, her body ached, but nonetheless as soon as she got up, Fury left her to follow.

As she rushed through the halls, she tried not to let her anxiety get the best of her. She needed to be useful, she needed to help in some kind of way, one that involved her behind a screen and not so much in the fighting. So the moment she reached the main room behind Fury, she rushed to a computer and put on her head gear.

"Tony, talk to me"

"I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors, work on dislodging the debris. Rogers, I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."

" On it"

Tess held her breath as all she heard was shuffling.

"What's it look like in there?"'

Silence.

"It seems to run on some form of electricity."

Tess cursed.

"Tess" Tony's tone of annoyance was clear, make sure to fix this now.

"Steve" she began. "Explain to me what you see"

"The panels are orange and they're all connected..There are some with blue wires, but they aren't glowing."

Tess closed her eyes to try and imagine what they looked like. "Are they broken up into four or six batches of batteries?"

"What?"

She bit her lip. "Um...are there four or six big circles in the middle that are running"

"Four"

"Okay good, which ones are radiating the most heat?"

"The first and third one"

"Are they making a buzzing noise?"

"No"

"There's your answer Tony! Okay Steve, turn those two in counterclockwise position until the blue wires light up"

Shuffling was heard once more with a slight curse word from Steve.

…

"'Kay, the relays are intact." he pushed the engine control panel back in. "What's our next move?"

"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump...I'm gonna have to get in there and push."

"Tony no!" Tess interjected. "That's dangerous"

"Then Rogers, stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage maglev and that should-"

"Speak English!"

"See a red lever? Stand by it, wait for my word."

"Please be care-"

Her communication was blocked as a great explosion was heard from the background. Her line was dead.

"Tess?" Steve called through.

"Concentrate Rogers" Tony gritted his teeth as she began to enter the rotors. "She'll be fine...she always is"

…

When the ship tilted, that's when Tess knew that they were royally screwed. Somehow a simple arrow managed to lower the defenses of any network power and shut down all engines. She gripped the railway as people fell against the glass windows. Her only silver lining at the moment was that if they managed to fall from the sky, they would fall into the sea.

But at this moment, she couldn't hear Tony or Steve or anyone and she refused to show how scared she was. This wasn't a simple adventure anymore where having a sharp mind and knew how to work behind a computer was enough, she needed to step up, if not for herself then for Tony.

Though it seemed her boys powered through as sure enough the ship leveled out and she allowed herself to fall over knowing that the battle was at least over.

…

Her feet wobbled as she continued to run towards the lower portion of the ship just knowing that she had to see her boys. She tripped a few times and as soon as she felt the wind towards her left, she knew that's where they were. Pushing the sham of a door over, her shoulders drooped once she saw them standing. She walked towards her boys, and dug her hands as best she could to the metal uniform. Tony immediately hugged her in return and it was only then that she could really relax. He was safe, a bit bruised but absolutely safe. While clinging to him she looked over his shoulder to Steve who stared intently at her. She smiled slightly before being put down by Tony.

"We're okay Bunny, no need to worry," he kissed her forehead and clearly tried to move away before she fussed over his uniform.

Once he walked away, he left Steve and Tess alone for the first time. She wasn't sure what to do with herself or to him. She was glad he was safe and not as bruised, but the awkwardness not to mention the embarrassment was still there. Thankfully she didn't have to do much as he pulled her into a hug. It was tight and she felt completely engulfed by him; it was hard not to simply melt against him. So she did just that. He sighed and placed his head over hers resting comfortably.

"We're okay right?" he asked.

"Yeah" she whispered.

It was easier to lie wasn't it? She could get over this and they could go back to normal, she knew she could be mature enough to do that.

Yet all those thoughts disappeared through the message over their intercoms.

Agent Coulson was dead.