"How were the bullets?" Stark asked.
"They're fine if you load them right before you fire." Bucky replied. "If you leave them, they start to melt, and they get loose in the barrel." It was Saturday morning. All the Avengers were in Stark tower for breakfast. Barton was managing an impressive number of pancake pans, Sam was eating a bagel, apparently he was too hungry to wait for pancakes, Romanoff was dozing on the couch. Steve had returned his stolen car last night, and left a hundred dollars in cash in the glove box.
"So the aim…" Stark continued. "I see. So we'd need a way of keeping them cold in the barrel, or picking something with a higher melting point."
"Like what?" Banner asked.
"Maybe a sulfur polymer of some sort? Something silicone based?"
"You do any of that, you'll leave a bullet for the coroner to find."
"Okay, what about a vulcanised lipid coating of some sort?"
"Vulcanised lipid?"
"Yeah. You can do sulfur cross links on hydrocarbons, why not lipid chains."
"Because you'd just create stinky gas, Tony."
"So we're in the clear for this?" Bucky asked.
"It's not made national news." Rhodes said. "Certainly not when Lucy Vysoren gave birth to twins last night."
"Who the hell is she?" Bucky asked.
"Non-critical pop culture." Barton called from the stove. "You can worry about people like her when you've seen all six Star Wars films."
"We doing that this morning?" Banner asked, breaking away from his incomprehensible argument with Stark.
"All six is a bit much." Barton said. "Definitely one, maybe two."
"Starting at four or one?" Sam asked.
"What?" Bucky looked between them.
"Four." Barton said. "If only for that line at the end of five hitting like it's supposed to. Anyway, breakfast's up. You'll like Star Wars, Barnes. The bad guys are basically Nazis with the wrong hats."
Barnes nodded. "Might be why I've never heard of it."
"And lots of prosthetic hands." Stark added. "Like… five prosthetic hands."
Bucky actually laughed.
"How's the book going?" Barton asked.
Bucky sighed heavily. "Balin's dead and we just lost Gandalf. There's no one left from the Hobbit now."
"He nearly threw the book across the room." Steve said.
.
Natasha heard the lift doors open as Princess Leia awarded the medals. She looked, but didn't make it obvious that she was looking. He looked odd without his trademark eyepatch. She decided to ignore him until he wanted to declare himself.
Once the credits were rolling, he spoke.
"Avengers." Everyone except her jumped.
"How the hell did you get in here?" Tony asked.
"I asked Maria Hill real nicely."
Tony blinked. "I will talk to her about that later. What are you doing here?"
"I came here to talk to you all." He looked around. Natasha saw his eyes linger on Barnes. "What you got there Rogers?"
"Star Wars: A New Hope." Steve said calmly. "You missed it, I'm afraid."
"Huh. I thought that there might be a wanted HYDRA agent who tried to kill both of us." There was a silence.
Wilson stood up. "Sir, you might want to try 'US Army Veteran who's been a HYDRA prisoner longer than most of us have been alive.'"
"When were you planning on telling anyone about that, Rogers?" Fury pressed on.
"When we had Avengers contracts we were happy with." Steve replied.
"We've brought hostile agents in before." Clint said. "Sometimes they're alright."
"What made you change sides?" Fury asked Barnes.
Nat answered before Barnes could. "The Winter Soldier is a program more than he's a person. It's not so much about him changing sides as it is the program wearing thin. Not being routinely electrocuted can change a person."
"Underneath The Winter Soldier's programming, there's still a person." Steve said. "A person with a skill set we can use, who wants to work with us."
Fury sighed. "Right. About those contracts. One of your demands in the last round of negotiations was to meet your handlers before you signed anything." He spread his hands. "Here I am."
"You and who else?" Clint asked.
"One I have a faint idea of: Ex SHIELD, and I'm very sure he's not HYDRA."
"The other?" Clint pressed.
"They haven't told me."
"And they're hoping we'll sign on that much information? No." Clint said. "Tell them thanks, but we need more than that."
"But in principle, you'd be happy with me being one of the three who knows about you?"
"We'll take a vote on it later." Steve said. "But we discuss this without oversight."
Fury nodded. "Of course. Agent – Sorry. Natasha, could you show me out? I feel like I'll get turned around in this place."
Nat got up. "Of course, Nick." He was lying. There was no way you could get turned around in Stark Tower.
.
Once they were in the elevator, he turned to her. "Just between you and me, Romanoff, did you know that an aide of a senator, Christopher Murphy, was found dead at a birthday party last night?"
"It came up on the news in passing." She said. That was true. "Was he ill?"
"No. He was found covered in his own blood with a huge hole in his chest."
"Do they have a suspect?"
"No. Other than a young woman only described as slim, tan, blonde and beautiful, wearing a red dress, who walked away from the party with him."
"Are you asking me to look for her?"
"No." He squared up to her. "Agent Romanoff, did you kill Christopher Murphy?"
Natasha raised her eyebrows. "No."
Fury was a good reader, but, Natasha flattered herself, she was a better liar.
"Did Clint Barton kill Christopher Murphy?"
"No. I saw him last night. I let him practice glamour makeup on me."
Fury stared at her for a long moment. "Okay. You have my cell phone number. Let me know how the vote goes."
Nat walked back in to the room.
"What did he want?" Barton asked.
"To ask if you or I killed Murphy." She dropped back in her seat. "Which I know for a fact, we didn't." Barton smirked.
"Did you tell him who did?" Steve asked, talking like Captain America again.
She gave him a look. "No."
"Okay, let's get on with this. Natasha, do you have anything to say about Fury before we vote on this?"
Nat drew a deep breath. "Fury is a spy at heart. He lies as easily as breathing, he doesn't trust anyone under any sun. He understands information as power, but his instinct is to hoard it, not trade it. This makes him a good choice for someone to know our secrets. If he thinks it's smart to keep something hidden, he'd go through more than most people to not give it up."
Steve nodded. "Okay, motion we're voting on is 'Nick Fury should be one of our three named handlers to know real names and so on'. This doesn't necessarily mean he's giving the orders. Options are yes, no, abstain. One man, one vote. Two thirds majority." Nobody said anything. "Hands for yes." Clint and Nat didn't hesitate, Steve, Tony, Rhodey, and Sam weren't far behind. "That's six. Hands for no." No hands went up. "Abstaining?" Bruce and Barnes. Steve looked questioningly at them.
"It's a foregone conclusion anyway," Bruce said. "but he has a history of being manipulative too."
"I don't know the guy." Barnes said. "I just shot him. All I know is that he's a stubborn sucker who won't stay dead, but," he pulled a strange grimace "some days I have a soft spot for those."
.
"You sure this is a good idea?" Bucky asked.
Steve shrugged. "Not completely sure, but hey."
"What if I'm recognised?"
"By what? The arm? Stark's got a dozen men running round New York with metal arms now."
"Or by any other…"
"It's St Patrick's day. There are going to be that many people out."
Bucky drew a breath slowly
"Come on, Buck. It'll be fun."
"What if someone asks about the arm?"
"Say you're one of Stark's lot. Say it was an IED in Iraq or Afghanistan and you don't want to talk about it."
"I haven't had a drink in a while."
"Buck, your metabolism's like mine. You took a lot of anaesthetic, you'll be able to take a few beers." Bucky looked at him. "I know. Shoe's on the wrong foot. It'll be fine."
