Disclaimer: The nothing I own is surpassed only by the nothing that I do not own. This is, by the way, my overly wordy and complex method of stating that I own absolutely none of the characters and recognizable plot points in this story. Everything you recognize from somewhere else belongs to the lovely folks at Marvel, Hyperion, and Rick Riordan. Basically, don't sue me. I promise it wouldn't be worth the time, effort, or legal fees.
Quick Note/Warning: The end of this chapter heads in to the world of things further not Cannon. Also lots of make-outage which implies but does not describe anything someone who has watched the movies would be uncomfortable with reading. Anyway, you've been warned.
It takes Cassie about a week to get comfortable in her new home. Most of that time is devoted to trying to figure out where everything is. Avengers Tower is just a really big place and Stark has a lot of stuff none of which seems to be very well organized. The floors used by the normal Stark employees are set up like any other office building on the planet thanks to Pepper, but apparently the woman decided to leave Stark to his own devices on the other floors.
Cassie has the utmost respect for that choice after having met Tony a few times. Picking battles is a crucial war strategy. Maybe she shouldn't be equating a romantic relationship to warfare, but Cassie has met both Aries and Aphrodite and happens to know for a fact that love and war simply aren't that far apart.
When she's not busy trying to figure out where things are, Cassie is mostly kept busy trying to organize the crates of SHIELD and Stark employee files that are currently covering the floor of her new office. In theory, she could farm out that kind of work to an assistant. In reality, she doesn't really want to hire an assistant before her office is organized. She wants to set up her space completely before she invites someone else in to it.
Besides, the people whose lives are summarized in those files are her patients now. They are her responsibility and Cassie takes that seriously. It will take her time to figure out the most comfortable way for her to delegate it. Trusting people isn't something she does naturally.
Cassie officially meets Dr. Bruce Banner on her sixth day after moving in. She's sitting on the floor with a pile of personnel files spread out around her and a large stack of multi-colored sticky tabs she's using to color coordinate the employees by the department they work in. It's been hours since she started her work and Cassie's suffered more paper cuts than she ever thought it was possible to receive.
The work is tedious but not particularly taxing so Cassie has managed to fall in to rhythm that is just his side of mind numbing. A soft knock at the door jolts her out of her headspace and Cassie climbs to her feet and goes to open the door. Stark didn't bother with organizing a company dress code for his employees, especially not those working on the Avengers floor so Cassie's not wearing shoes and the tile floor is cold beneath her feet.
She pulls the door open to find Dr. Banner on the other side and it takes her a moment to be sure that it's him. The only other time she had met this man he had been battered and exhausted in that little diner after the battle of Manhattan. Now, the man is well dressed in a blue dress shirt and slacks under a clean white lab coat. His hair is salt and pepper in color and his eyes are kind behind his glasses. Cassie is suddenly reminded of Percy's step-father Paul Blowfiss.
"Hello," she greats with a smile she hopes will put the other man at ease. Cassie extends her hand to him. "I'm Cassie."
Banner takes her hand almost hesitantly and shakes it with less pressure than she might have expected from most adults. "Bruce Banner," he says before dropping her hand and returning his own to his pockets. He doesn't really meet her eyes and Cassie tilts her head a little. Suddenly it isn't Paul who Dr. Banner reminds her of, it's Tyson. Banner is worried about using too much pressure so instead he uses almost too little to count.
"I thought I'd introduce myself to the new team doctor," Banner says.
Cassie shifts herself a little so that they're facing each other more directly while still maintaining the personal space bubble the man seems intent on setting. "I hope I'm not usurping you," she says with a slightly teasing lilt to her voice. Cassie also makes sure that he can see in her face that all she's doing is ribbing gently.
In her own way, Cassie is also running a bit of a test. If she's going to help the Avengers team, she needs to determine the best way to interact with each of them. Sometimes the only way to learn is through trial and error. However, Cassie is also smart and hasn't survived for this long without developing a sense or potential danger. If she's experimenting, she is going to be damn certain she does it carefully.
Her approach seems to be effective as Banner manages a facial twitch that could almost be construed as a smile. "I'm not that kind of doctor," he tells her. Cassie chooses to see this moment as an opening and it's one she jumps on without hesitation. She manages to ask a few semi-intelligent questions about his work and Banner seems to appreciate the effort even though they're both aware that she's out of her wheelhouse by the forth word out of his mouth.
He leaves about twenty minutes after he arrives with a more open smile and a slightly firmer handshake than the first. Cassie considers it a good first meeting and goes back to her filing. Building the foundations of a good relationships with the only other person around with medical knowledge on a team of superheroes is enough to make the day a good one and this one isn't even half over yet.
The day continues to be good when Steve takes her to Coney Island later. He wears sunglasses and a baseball cap and Cassie brings along a hoodie and pair of Ray Bans. They leave the building through a discrete exit away from the public eye and take the ferry. It's a nice day out and they lean against the railing watching the water below as they enjoy the sun. The wind whips Cassie's hair around her face and she sees a pattern of bluish green scales flash beneath the water. It reminds her of a story Percy once told her about a mini-quest with Clarisse when they were attacked by a sea serpent.
She hopes fervently that that won't happen today. Steve takes one of her hands and Cassie crosses the fingers of her other one. Luck has never been particularly on her side, but maybe today Fortuna will do her a solid. They make it to Coney Island without incident, tourist or monstrous, and Cassie sends up a mental thank you and makes a note to thank the goddess with a proper sacrifice the next time she can procure a ceremonial flame for the purpose.
Both Steve and Cassie are too desensitized with danger to get a real adrenaline surge from an amusement park ride, but it's indescribably nice to be able to simply wander through a crowd without worrying about being attacked at any moment. They buy funnel cake which makes Steve happy in such a brightly innocent way that Cassie almost wishes she could take a picture. Cassie herself has fun bouncing through the different target shooting games and comes away with a wide assortment of plush toys and teddy bears which she randomly dispenses to delighted small children as they pass.
The morning after, Cassie wakes up slowly and doesn't open her eyes for several moments after she regains consciousness. She feels warm and safe and it's a feeling she still can't get used to. After a lifetime of fear and never letting her guard down even in sleep, it will take longer than a week of comfort to get used to the sensation.
Steve has one arm stretched out underneath her and Cassie is using that shoulder as a pillow. His other arm is curled over her ribcage and their legs are similarly enmeshed. He generates heat like no one else she's ever met and the warmth coming from his chest where it's pressed against her back cocoons her almost better than the down coverlet. She tips her head to see the alarm clock on her night stand and when she sees that it's still early she lets her eyes fall shut and burrows back down in to the covers.
Hey, it's Saturday. She doesn't have to work and for once no one and nothing is trying to kill her. She will sleep in if she wants to.
Her movement seems to disturb Steve some because he shifts closer and murmurs something indistinguishable. He nuzzles his face in to the crook of her shoulder and Cassie feels his breath wash over the back of her neck in warm rhythmic waves in time with the expansion of his chest behind her. Cassie lets the natural rhythms of his body sooth her and begins to feel lulled back towards sleep when Steve shifts again behind her and manages to articulate a half formed morning greeting.
It takes some effort, but Cassie manages to form a response that can probably be understood. Steve's a smart guy. She's sure he gets the message.
Even if he doesn't, it doesn't seem to matter because he simply mumbles in response and Cassie feels a light pressure on the hair at the crown of her head which she knows means Steve has pressed a kiss there. Her assumption is confirmed when the pressure moves to the nape of her neck, and this time it's accompanied by the light, warm, brush of his lips against her skin. A happy sound escapes her lips and Cassie tips her head to give him a better angle.
Steve seems to take the movement as an invitation and Cassie has just about decided that this morning is shaping up to be fantastic when their safe and happy bubble is firmly and definitively popped. A voice, a voice Cassie recognizes all to well says "Well, this is simply adorable." The effect is like being suddenly dumped in an extra large bucket of ice water.
Cassie jerks immediately in to full awareness and is upright and out of bed before she can stop to think. It's possible that she should have taken those extra few seconds because one of the things she forgets in the process of her shock is the fact that she's still in her pajamas which currently consist of her underwear and a U.S military tee shirt she liberated from the back of Steve's dresser. If there is one thing more awkward than being woken up by your godly father, it was being jolted out of bed half naked with your boyfriend by your godly father.
Because that's who's in the room. That's the man who spoke. Her father Apollo, the god of the sun, medicine, archery, poetry, music, and prophecy.
And Cassie had been having such a nice morning too.
Steve jumps so badly he nearly puts a whole in the wall and probably would have if Stark hadn't used reinforced building materials when he constructed the team apartments. He's swearing badly enough that it would probably offend a large percentage of the American population to hear. The first words out of Cassie's mouth aren't in English. In fact, they're in ancient Greek and are non too polite. If her father were Zeus instead of Apollo, it's possible her word choices would have been enough to get her smited.
Apollo just stands there beaming sunnily at them as Steve prioritizes and starts searching for clothes. Cassie breathes deeply and tries to work her way back around to English. She takes a deep breath. "Pateras," she acknowledges. She goes with the Greek because she figures a little bit of traditional formality can't hurt at this point. On the other hand, an argument can be made that the time for formality passed when her father walked in on her potentially romantic morning with her boyfriend. "Welcome to my new home. I hope that you have not been waiting long."
It is quite possible that she has never spoken truer words, but Cassie would probably have to consult some kind of a record to check.
Her father spreads his hands magnanimously. "Not at all Liakada."
Cassie winces a little at the pet name but tries to shake it off quickly. Her father never just appears unless something major is going on. When nothing is going wrong, she's gone actual years with absolutely no contact. "May I ask why you are here?" she asks, trying to sound as polite as she possibly can. Steve is finally done cursing and seems to have dropped in to stunned silence. He passes Cassie a sweatshirt and she skims in to it gratefully and waits for her father to answer her question.
"Can't a father simply visit his daughter when she moves in practically next door to me?" Apollo asks. His tone is cheerful but their is something in his eyes that Cassie doesn't like. They seem deeper and darker than the last time Cassie had seen him. She's never really been able to read him before, but right now it's impossible. Whatever he's worried about, it can't be anything small.
Basically, there's a high probability that Cassie's life could be about to go absolutely ass backwards.
For now Cassie pulls together her patience and decides to play the game at her father's pace for the time being. "You never have before," she says as neutrally as she can. "The last time I saw you, you were attempting to make amends with Zeus to regain godly status. Of course," she ads on. "I am absolutely delighted to see you returned to your rightful place of power."
It's fairly smooth speaking as far as Cassie's concerned. She doesn't have the same gift with oratory as some of Apollo's other children and descendants, but she can pull it off pretty well if she has to. Steve is giving her a questioning side eye but if her father smells a rat he doesn't say so. He's never been a god for protesting flattery, false or otherwise, anyway.
Apollo brushes away her words. "Nonsense! I've checked in on you all the time. I'm sure I have. Anyway, I heard you had moved back in to glorious Manhattan after your graduation and felt I simply had to come by and view your new dwelling. Did you know that this building was created in my honor?" he asks with typical self-absorption. "Seventy-seven floors! It's perfect!"
"I'm sure Tony Stark will be thrilled to hear that you approve," Cassie says, and this time she can't quite contain her rolling eyes. Inwardly she shudders over the idea of Tony Stark and her father in the same room together. Although it's possible that she would have to ask Annabeth to design a room big enough to fit both of their egos first. Keeping the two of them apart at all costs becomes her next important mental note. Judging from the look of daunted dread on Steve's face, he might be willing to help her out with this new life sub-goal.
Apollo grins at her with an amount of enthusiasm that just borders on maniacal. "Now there's one clever mortal. We all asked Athena if he was one of hers but apparently he is one hundred percent human being."
"Debatable," Steve mutters from behind her.
Cassie decides at that moment that it's time to start cutting to the chase. If she can get her father to leave quickly it's possible that this day can be salvaged. "Lord Apollo," she says. "The last time that you payed a visit to me at home it was to warn me that a war was imminent. Is that why you are here now?"
Apollo's smile doesn't disappear but it does freeze across his face. "I watch the future," he says. Cassie doesn't say anything. She has the feeling he's working up to something and she knows from experience that when he's building something up dramatically it's probably best to just let him get there on his own time. "And I have discussed things with the fates. So I have come to warn you." Cassie waits, the buildup is about to resolve itself. "A new age is coming," he says. "An age of steel and an age of miracles."
With that he does something rare and takes off his sunglasses, revealing the August skye colored eyes that mach Cassie's, marking her as his daughter along with her golden blonde hair. He steps closer to her and lays his hands on her shoulders. Suddenly Cassie is suffused with a golden warmth that she knows comes from healing and feels practically abuzz with power. It's as though she's just absorbed five shots of espresso at once.
Her father leans over and kisses her forehead, leaving a fresh suffusion of warm power behind him. "Goodbye i kori mou. I would be very upset if you died." Then with a flash of sunlight bright enough to give her a new tan, her father is gone.
Cassie blinks after him for several moments, partially in surprise, and partly because she's waiting for the red spots dancing behind her eyelids to go away. "Huh," she says. She looks over at Steve who's staring at her with wide eyes and a frown pinching his forehead. "That was kind of weird."
Steve opens and closes his mouth a few times before he manages to articulate what he wants to say. "What the hell was that exactly?"
"That," Cassie says slowly. "Was my father." She gives him the best smile she can pull off. "Congratulations. You just survived meeting the parents. In some relationships, this moment would be a really major landmark."
"Your father the god," he says as though he's double checking. Cassie nods even though it isn't really a question. "He looked like he was thirty at the most," Steve continues, still sounding half shocked. "And he's the immortal god of the sun."
Cassie just shrugs. "Just feel glad that he didn't show up as a twenty year old," she tells him. "When I see him he tries to look older than me up to a certain point. That'll probably be stopping in the next five years or so though." Steve is still frowning so she sinks down on to the edge of the bed and folds her legs up underneath her. "The gods are thousands of years old Steve," she says gently. "They're hardly going to chose to look like it. Thor flies around without looking a day older than thirty and he's at least a thousand years older than my dad."
Steve gives a small involuntary shudder as if he's trying to slough off the information he's having trouble conceptualizing. "What was he calling you?" he asks instead. "When he was talking to you in Greek."
"Which time?" Cassie asks, allowing the change in subject because she doesn't particularly like it to begin with. "That last time, all he said was 'my daughter'. The thing before that was just a pet name. It means sunshine."
He frowns. "I don't get it," he says. "So he just pops in to your life early in the morning, double talks for a while, gives you vague warning and then vanishes? And he's your father?"
Cassie lets out an actual laugh at his indignance on her behalf. "You oughta see him on an off day. This time he nearly hugged me, topped off my energy, didn't ask me for any favors, and said he'd be sad if I died. From a godly olympian parent, that's practically a declaration of paternal love."
Steve seams to arrive at some kind of conclusion because he sits down next to her and boosts her up and over in to his lap as easily as a normal person might lift a backpack or a small child. She doesn't protest the motion, though it surprises her enough that she lets out a small squeaky sound before she twists and settles herself in to his hold. She loops her arms around his neck and looks up at him but Steve is looking at the wall across from him and doesn't meet her eyes. Cassie settles in to the extended hug. She has the feeling that Steve isn't sure what to say, so he's holding her like this as some sort of gesture of comfort.
"I'm more worried about why he showed up here in the first place," Cassie says, thinking out loud. "That warning he gave... that worries me. Like I said before, the only other time he's delivered a warning to me in person we were about to start fighting a war with the Titans that could have potentially resulted in leveling the entire world as we know it. That he did it again now is... not good."
Her concerned tone seems to get Steve to snap out of whatever thoughts he's combing through inside his head. "Do you have any idea what he meant?" he asks. "When he was talking about the age of Steel and the Age of Miracles? Are they part of your mythology somehow?"
Cassie shakes her head. "Not that I've ever heard of. The Greeks tended to number their ages. When the Titans ruled the Earth they called it the golden age. It was a major misnomer, but they went with it anyway. Now I think we're in the fifth age but I've never really kept track of that kind of thing. I have people I could ask who would know. I've never heard of any time span called the Age of Steel, or the Age of Miracles." She shifts her shoulders to get more comfortable against the firmness that is Steve's chest. "I guess I could call around."
It's the closest she's ever gotten to straight out telling Steve that there are other people out there like her, that their are other demigods populating the world he lives in and making life more complicated for some people. Steve blinks down at her and seems to be deciding how far he wants to push it. "Who," he starts and then stops, biting off the back end of the question. "Who would you call?"
Cassie bights her lower lip and twists her fingers in to the cotton collar of the tee shirt Steve had managed to procure right after Apollo had woken them up. "Probably my friend Annabeth," she says quietly. "She's normally the person who would know about these kinds of things. Possibly my friend Rachel. She lives here in New York and she understands prophecy. Maybe my teacher Chiron," she looks up and meets his eyes. "Or my brother."
Steve inhales deeply and seems to hold at the top of the breath for a moment before letting it out. "You have a brother." His tone is calm and steady and very carefully without much inflection. It's hard to tell weather he's asking a question or making a statement when he talks this way.
"Two of them," Steve says carefully, dropping her head and addressing his shirt again. "Will and Austin. Both younger than me. And one younger sister. Her name's Kayla. She's actually on the archery team for the Olympics." She fumbles her phone from the bedside table and pulls a photo up on to the screen.
It's a picture showing the Apollo cabin from before the summer she'd spent trekking through the Labyrinth with Percy, Annabeth, Rachel, Tyson, and Grover. In the picture, the cabin had just started to glow golden in the growing evening and Cassie and her siblings are standing out on the front steps. Cassie's standing on a top step between Michael and Lee with an elbow on each of their shoulders. Those two boys are on the step below Cassie, and on the step below them Will is sprawled out taking up too much space with Austin on one side and Kayla on the other. They all look happy, alive, and smiling brightly. Cassie knows on reflection that this photo is the last time they ever looked like that. The next photo of the Apollo cabin won't have Lee in it, and Michael will be missing and presumed dead, his body unrecoverable.
"That's Will," Cassie says, pointing him out. "He's in medical school out in California. He's the next oldest after me. And there's Austin," she points. "He's a real sweetheart. Loves jazz. He just started college. And then there's Kayla," her thumb moves to the corner of her sister's face.
She looks up at Steve who is looking at the picture intently. "The other two?"
He leaves the question hanging but Cassie fills in the blanks as succinctly as she can. "Dead," She states. "We fought a war a while ago. The first real battle happened the year I turned fifteen. We were prepared as much as we could be, and the battle didn't last longer than a day, but at the end of it Lee was dead. He was sixteen." Cassie swallows hard
and pushes her hair back over her shoulder. "The end of the war took Michael," she says, forcing herself to continue. "He helped blow up a bridge to keep the enemy from crossing but we never found him again."
Steve hands her back her phone and tightens his arm around her in silent comfort and solidarity. He then very tactfully alters the subject. "Some of you look alike," he says. "Some of you don't. Is that... normal for demigods?"
Cassie nods, thankful for the subject change. "Yeah. You don't get a lot of familial resemblance when you're dealing with gods. They can look however they want so 'looking like your parents' gets kind of subjective. Every now and then you see something. A whole group with the same grey eyes or brown hair. Like you saw in the picture most of my father's children are blonde with blue eyes. But you see more commonalities with how we act." She takes a breath and wonders how careful to be with what she says next. "And with out abilities. Temperament and power, those two things are highly dependent on godly parent."
She stops talking then because she doesn't know what else to say. So much has been said already that she thinks it's possible one or both of their heads will explode if she says any more. Now though, for better or worse Steve knows more about the truth of her life. Suddenly she's led to wonder if that might have been a part of Apollo's reasoning for showing up so early. She shakes that thought away quickly, desperately hoping that her father the Greek God isn't beginning to meddle in her love life.
Steve leans back a little ways so that Cassie has room to turn and face him for what he says next. "SHIELD doesn't know," he states. It's not a question really but Cassie shakes her head in answer anyway. Steve blinks once as he absorbs that information and nods as he assimilates it in to whatever thoughts are running through her head. "And you want to keep it that way?"
This time it is a question but Cassie gives herself a moment to think through her answer. Steve hates to lie and Cassie has never wanted him to do it on her behalf, but if SHIELD finds out who she is and what she can do they will have questions Cassie doesn't want to answer. Never mind the fact that they will likely start using her for combat missions and her already probably short life span will shrink even further.
"Yes," she says finally, her voice starts small but grows involute as she speaks. "Yes I would like SHIELD, whatever is left of it not to know. The government is okay with Thor showing up because as far as they can tell all he does is hang out with Jane and defend the world. If they found out that Greek gods frequently pop in to their world and hook up with mortals, and to top it off those hook ups can result in kids, I don't want to think about what would happen. So many of those kids really are just kids, some of them as young as four years old. I can't and won't trust any government with their lives."
The words or the conviction she puts behind them seem to hit home with Steve. It probably also helps that the last government agency Steve worked for ended up being corrupted by nazis. Steve leans forward and kisses first her forehead, and then her lips. "Okay," he says. "It's your call."
That works out pretty for a time and for the next month or so things are about as calm as they probably ever will be.
Steve's days are mostly spent doing paperwork to handle the residual SHIELD fallout and new Avengers Initiative. He also drops in on Sam's therapy group once or twice, and Cassie doesn't pry but she thinks that that's probably a good thing. She will always listen and talk with Steve if he wants her to, but nothing can change the fact that she just isn't trained in psychology at a high enough level to give him the help he probably needs after seventy years of built up PTSD. Steve does a good job of handling things, but Cassie knows he has nightmares he doesn't like talking about and he flinches when he feels cold.
Cassie spends her time doing routine medical exams and getting her files in order and a system established. When some of the support staff for the Initiative complain about having to redo their yearly physical exam, Cassie likes to remind them that the last person to give them their exams is a) a nazi and b) dead. It shuts them up pretty damn quickly and Cassie gets her work done without incident. Of course, the higher up the totem poll she goes, the more complicated scheduling becomes. Cassie learns to make herself proficient in the twenty minute average exam.
Dr. Banner comes to her of his own volition and equipped with a file containing his entire medical history including the results of several tests he's done on his own blood and DNA since his exposure to the gamma radiation that created the Hulk. She incorporates the information in to her files carefully and proceeds with her exam. Banner makes small talk and Cassie concludes that, aside from some likely age related joint damage, he's healthy. He leaves with a wave and a smile and Cassie spends the next two hours reading the file he gave her.
Natasha and Barton present themselves to her on their own time though they do show up together. They are suddenly just there when she goes in in the morning which is somewhat impressive considering her door to her office is still locked when she arrives and she's the only one who knows the code or has the correct palm print necessary to enter. She supposes it's possible that they repelled from the roof and came in through the window. It's also conceivable they came in through the vents.
If that's the case Cassie would like to know what kind of lint remover they're using because their clothing appears to be immaculate. Natasha's hair doesn't even look messed up. That fact alone makes the entire endeavor one that Cassie will never be able to accomplish.
As has long been her habit, Cassie decides to roll with the situation at hand and passes out matching clipboards of medical forms to be filled out. Barton sighs as he adjusts the clipboard position to suite a lefty but makes no other comment. Cassie is beginning to believe that that one sigh may be Barton's equivalent of a drawn out complaint. She may have to learn to speak a new dialogue dealing with him. Romanov raises a rye eyebrow and turns to the form, filling it in with tiny, precise letters. "Mine always go so quickly," she says as she hands the clipboard back to Cassie. "Writing the word 'unknown' just doesn't take very long."
"I get that," Cassie returns with a matching expression. "The whole side that's supposed to be about my Dad is just one big list of 'I don't know'. Eventually i just started leaving that half blank. Makes it fun when I'm asked about inheritable issues." She gives Natasha's paperwork a cursory scan and then begins her exam while Barton finishes his paperwork. He follows them in to the exam room and Cassie thinks about asking him to leave as per normal protocol, but Natasha seems to expect his presence so Cassie let's it go. It's not like this is a normal patient in an average hospital. Being sued over breach of privacy probably won't be an issue.
The exam goes fairly typically and she and Natasha talk about the city. Mostly, they talk about food and the best ethnic restaurants. Natasha also suggests they arrange a time to go out for coffee and a chat which seems like it might be out of character but Cassie is prepared to admit that she doesn't actually know much about the other woman apart from what she's gleaned from their few interactions and what she's heard from Steve. She agrees and Natasha grins at her, showing a few too many teeth for Cassie's comfort and she gets the sudden feeling that it's possible she may have agreed to a potentially dangerous undertaking.
Barton hands in a slightly more complete set of paperwork and his exam is considerably quieter. It's also over much more quickly because Cassie makes the executive decision that giving a man with the code name Hawkeye a vision test is patently ridiculous. The man's pupils are also hyper reactive to light in a way Cassie recognizes as similar to the functions her own eyes perform and surmises that his vision is likely as unimpaired by darkness as it is by distance.
Arranging any kind of appointment with Pepper or Tony proves to be absolutely impossible. Pepper splits up her day in five minute increments and Cassie is beginning to think that the only way that woman will ever make time for a yearly check up is if someone actually manages to invent a real life remote control and lets Pepper borrow it to take advantage of the pause button. Tony simply refuses to make appointments on principle and prefers to simply drop in on people unexpectedly. She thinks that some day he'll probably just drop in on a random Tuesday when she has a million other things to do and expect her to drop everything to meet with him.
Underneath everything though, between paperwork, physicals, board meetings, and black ops, something else has started too. What's started is a search. Steve has quietly begun to look for Bucky Barnes.
He bounces ideas off of her sometimes but hasn't outright asked for her help in the search just yet. Cassie takes to reading the information he gets on the subject of Barnes over Steve's shoulder and when it makes her head swim too badly she retires to the couch in their living room with a cup of tea or hot chocolate. Then, ten or fifteen minutes later Steve will bring whatever he's working on over to the sofa from his desk and lays out with his head in her lap, reading sections of different files out loud to her. They trade roles for an evening when they get to a section of files written in Greek. Apparently, the Winter Soldier did some work there during the seventies.
Cassie helps Steve create a timeline of Barnes' movements over the years from the pieces they can string together. There are some stretches where things are incredibly well documented and those periods coincide pretty well with times of major world wide political upheaval. However, these stretches are pretty short in the grand scheme of things and the blank periods make Cassie nervous in a way she can't quite put a label on. She can tell that they worry Steve too, but neither of them put those particular thoughts in to words. It's like they're both clinging to the idea that if the words aren't said, they won't be real.
The other thing Cassie does is start compiling a mental list of all the people who might be in the mood to do her a favor if the search for Barnes requires it. Most of her friends will help her without a seconds hesitation she knows, and there are yet other people whom she thinks she can probably influence around to her way of thinking. You know, if she asks really nicely and smiles real pretty.
Because blackmail is illegal.
Oh and wrong. Very very wrong. No blackmailing being done here.
If things get really desperate, Cassie figures she can call Rachel as a last ditch effort. It's not that Rachel isn't helpful, or her friend, and actually one of her favorite fringe benefits of living in New York is that she and Rachel have managed to meet for coffee twice since she moved. No, the problem is that asking Rachel to find someone or predict the future isn't actually asking Rachel. It's asking the Oracle of Delphi, and that particular spiritual being is not one that Cassie has never been anxious to cross paths with, weather or not the oracle was created by her father. In her experience, seeking out prophecy or answers from that source is basically equal to purposefully diving head first in to a deep pit of trouble.
That pit starts looking considerably deeper when Steve unearths a file on a mission that the Winter Soldier took on dated December sixteenth 1991. Cassie recognizes the date as they day Tony Stark's parents died. There are too few true coincidences in the universe for either Cassie or Steve to believe that the matching dates is one of them. For her part, Cassie has met the fates personally, and happens to know for a fact that the three crones are for more likely to be vindictive than they are to be lazy.
Steve reads the entire file at hyper speed and Cassie would be impressed at the speed with which he absorbs information if she weren't busy focusing on the way whatever he's reading is making Steve's hands shake and his face go white. When he's done Steve hands the file to her saying only, "read it," before getting up and pouring himself a drink at the kitchen counter.
This behavior is genuinely frightening to Cassie. Steve can't get drunk to begin with given his increased metabolism and has told her before that he normally only drinks socially or for taste. The fact that he's drinking now combined with his words and shaking hands tells Cassie that whatever is in this file, it's bad. Really bad. Like, the world might be about to shift on its axis and fall over the edge of a cliff in the universe, bad.
Cassie forces herself to read and understand each and every word before she turns back to Steve. He's staring in to the amber contents of his glass with angry, furious, darkness mixing with an untamable portion of grief in his eyes. Cassie doesn't know how many times his glass has been filled and subsequently emptied while she had read, she supposes that technically it doesn't really matter, but the idea and general symbolism of the gesture doesn't lose it's value because Steve can't get drunk.
She plants herself squarely in Steve's field of vision because it seems like the best way to make sure he's actually seeing her and not whatever might be playing inside his head. Very carefully, Cassie take his hand, offering him a more substantial to the here and now. After a drawn out moment of silence as both of their heads spin with the information they've just absorbed, Cassie speaks. "Are you going to tell Tony?"
"I don't know," Steve says on a strained exhale. "God I just don't know." He stares up at her and for a moment Cassie feels like she could drown in the deep blue-blackness there. "How do I tell him?" he asks, his throat rasping. "How do I tell my friend that the man I've spent months trying to find- the man I told everyone deserves to be given a fair chance, killed his parents? I don't know-" he swallows hard. "I don't know how to do that Cassie."
He's staring up at her because he's sitting and she isn't and the look on his face is just so sad and so lost that Cassie thinks she might actually be feeling a piece of her heart break. She wants to hit something, or shoots something, or use her abilities to heal. But there isn't any magic for something like this and Cassie suddenly feels horribly and impossibly helpless.
The only thing she can think of to do is to step forward so that she's standing between Steve's knees where he sits at the breakfast bar and tugs his head down gently so that his face is buried in her shoulder. He fights her for a moment, but he doesn't try very hard or for very long before he gives in lets his head drop as Cassie works her fingers through his hair and over the back of his neck and shoulders. Bit by bit, more and more of his weight drops forward in to her and she spreads her feet slightly to compensate the added pressure.
The helpless feeling doesn't go away, and Cassie isn't sure that she's doing the right thing until Steve's arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer so that her body is pressed flat against his. Cassie simply moves with the tug and continues to move her fingers over his back in what she hopes are calming patterns. She counts his breaths, then her own, and eventually Steve exhales more deeply than he has before which Cassie only feels as a stream of hot air blowing over her skin. His shoulders relax and Cassie can no longer keep the question screaming at the front of her mind inside. "How can I help you?" she asks desperately. "What do you need me to do?"
Steve shakes his head, still pressing against her and the movement causes his hair to brush softly against the underside of her jaw and cheek, tickling like a feather. "Nothing," he says, voice thick. "You're doing it." He shifts locking his arms more stiffly around her to pull her up in to his lap and turning so that she's pressed between him and the counter. His hands move to grip the edges of the counter on either side of her and his head tips forward but isn't in the crook of her neck anymore.
He's taking his breaths in measure and Cassie realizes that he's trying to shut down what he's feeling, trying to lock it away so that he can think. Steve is trying to switch himself off so that the Captain can take over and just this once, Cassie is determined not to let him. She runs her fingers through his hair and down his neck and shoulders, applying firm and steady pressure to the muscles Steve is trying to tense as part of the physical switch. She forces the muscles to loosen and she can actually feel Steve shudder as the tension he had called up collects and is forced to release.
"You are not The Captain right now," she tells him firmly, forcing him to look at her. "You're Steve, okay? Just him and you aren't alone because I'm here with you. And tonight we're just Steve, and just Cassie, and tomorrow we'll go back to being functioning people and we'll figure out what to do with... all of this," she gestures in the general direction of the coffee table where she's left the file. "But not now," she says, forging ahead. "Tonight, we get to feel like hell and be depressed and screwed up because you're a super soldier, I'm a demigod who's dad has no sense of personal space and keeps delivering cryptic warnings about end times, and your best friend is a cry frozen super human with a metal arm who was brainwashed and used as a weapon to kill people."
Steve grunts in something that sounds almost like disbelief and Cassie tightens his grip on her neck and waits for him to meet her eyes again. "And tonight we get to ignore it," she tells him firmly. Steve's eyes widen in shock and he opens his mouth to speak but Cassie rolls ahead. "Because we have to sometimes," she insists. "You can't always hold the world on your shoulders." She gives a small, sad smile as a memory presents itself at the front of her mind. "You know, the story of Atlas?" she asks.
"Only that he was a titan who got trapped holding the sky," Steve says, clearly wondering exactly where this conversation is going.
Cassie nods. "Right, but he hasn't held it forever. Hercules took it from him once, and other people have held it since. Sometimes those stories are found, but what they always seem to leave out is that you can't actually force someone in to it. You can trick, manipulate, or threaten, but you can't force. No one, human, god or tighten can make any other being take that burden unwillingly." She brushes her fingers over his cheeks. "Don't lift this right now," she whispers, almost imploring him. Her fingers move to cover his lips so that she can finish speaking. "I'm not saying to ignore it forever. In fact, I think that's the last thing you should do. I'm just saying, wait until tomorrow to carry it. Wait until it's a little bit lighter."
"So what do we do instead?" Steve asks. "What do we do tonight?"
Cassie bites her lower lip, giving a helpless shrug. "I don't know," she says. "Honestly, this whole concept isn't any more familiar to me than it is to you. I was kind of improving there. I have to admit it sounded better than I thought it might have."
Steve tips his head and nudges his forehead against hers. "Keep improving," he says, voice low. "Guess. If we're ignoring everything that makes us more than just who we are, what do Steve and Cassie do?"
"Whatever," Cassie says, her words coming out on a breath. Steve is so close that they are practically sharing breaths. "Whatever keeps us alive. Whatever we want."
His eyes darken to such a deep blue that even with Cassie's enhanced vision she can barely see the lines that divides his irises from his pupils. Those eyes dart from her eyes to her lips and his tongue darts out to moisten his own. His arms move closer together behind her back, effectively caging her in. "Whatever we want," he echoes. "For tonight."
"Until tomorrow," Cassie confirms. "Until it's not so late, and not so dark, and we can figure out what to do next. Just... she trails off, distracted by one of Steve's fingers as it winds a slow path over her ribs and to her shoulder, tracing the pattern of veins below her skin towards the inside of her wrist.
"Okay," he breaths, kissing the inside of her wrist, then her palm, and then the point where her pulse thrums in her veins.
Cassie tries to steady her breathing which has gone shaky with his actions. "Okay?" she asks. She thinks she know what Steve means but she's having trouble stringing her thoughts together coherently right now.
Steve nods. "Yes," he says. Then his lips are on hers and his mouth and hands suddenly seem to be everywhere all at once. His hands are in her hair and on her hips and spanning her ribcage and sliding under her tank top to get to bare skin. His mouth is against hers and tis tongue is in her mouth before it's tracing a burning line over and along the lines of her cheekbone and jaw, coming to a stop for a moment below her ear. "What we want," he whispers. Then his teeth give a light nip at the skin there and Cassie rapidly begins to form the foggy conclusion that they are both wearing too many clothes.
In the end they manage to leave the kitchen and make it to a bed. When they're both exhausted they sleep and Cassie wakes up to the first tinges of pinkish golden dawn light streaming in through the window. Her newly open eyes find Steve's already watching her and he pulls her to him without hesitation.
They sit together, with his arms wrapped around her and Cassie's head resting on his chest over the beating rhythm of his heart. They don't speak, they just watch. The new day is rising.
And thank all the gods this one looks lighter than the last.
A/N: So what did you guys think? I know this one took a while and I'm sorry for that. School has been seriously busy. Anyway, I felt like that was a good place to leave the chapter and the next one will be very non-cannon. I hoped you all liked the make-outage but like I've said it isn't something I write very often. If anyone has any pointers for that or anything else in this chapter let me know. I am completely open to any suggestions! Anyway, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxooxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxo