Chapter 24

I came to in Steve's arms with a happy sigh, thinking for the moment that I must have fallen asleep on his couch and he was carrying me to a bed or something. I threaded my arms around his neck and pulled him down for a thorough kiss, feeling him startle in surprise.

When he pulled back, I smiled happily up at him and tapped his arm to try to get him to let me down so I could walk on my own. Taking in his look of utter confusion, I realized something was off. Looking around, I saw police tape up, crowds of people beyond it, and that many of them were recording our interaction.

"Shit!" I blurted out. "I forgot!"

"You forgot?" Steve asked, sounding worried once more. "Are you feeling alright?"

I struggled trying to get down as I absently said, "yeah, I feel great, why?"

"You passed out less than two minutes ago," he told me, still not letting me down.

"Seriously," I hissed at him. "Put me down. You are completely ruining my street cred right now."

"Get her in the car now, Cap," Natasha growled as she practically materialized next to us, confidently standing between me and as much of the crowd as she could. "She needs to be out of sight though I suspect the damage is already done."

Steve broke out in a jog over to some SUVs, and the back door to the nearest one opened right as we reached it. He climbed in and settled with me on his lap. As soon as he slammed the door shut behind us, the car started driving off, blaring its horn repeatedly to get people to move out of the way.

I scrambled off Steve's lap and onto the seat next to him, pulling my hands up to my cheeks and starting to apologize, "Steve, I am SO sorry!"

"Wait, what?" Steve asked in confusion. "What are you apologizing for?"

"I just kissed you in front of all those people!" I cried out, hands flapping in distress. "Like Natasha said, I just totally ruined your reputation!"

Much to my surprise, Steve looked at me for half a second then absolutely burst out laughing. It was enough to get me to still.

"Natasha wasn't worried about my… my… my…" he trailed off laughing a little more before getting himself under control with a deep breath and starting over. "She wasn't worried about my reputation. She was worried about people getting clear pictures of you that would allow you to be identified in the media and for the people who are after you to figure out where you are and who you are with."

"Oh," I said lamely.

"Yeah," Steve replied. Then with a sigh he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine in a kiss that carried on for what was most likely a few more minutes until Happy loudly cleared his throat before leaving the car. When Steve pulled back he added, "for the record, I had hoped the date would end very differently as well."

I couldn't help it, I blushed hard at that, and I started tingling in all the interesting places.

"Well, you know, we could…" I trailed off, allowing my hand to wander down from where it was resting on Steve's cheek and my fingers to wiggle into the little bit of exposed skin on his neck and hook into his collar.

"Maybe later," Steve said, opening his door and hopping out matter of factly. "First I want to know why you were displaying all the signs of a serious concussion then woke up after only briefly losing consciousness seemingly perfectly fine."

That sounded a lot like going to the hospital, so I narrowed my eyes at him, crossed my arms across my chest when he reached a hand out to help me out of the SUV, and told him, "I am NOT going to the hospital."

"We aren't at the hospital," he told me gesturing around him before reaching back in for me again.

Cautiously I looked around and noticed that we were in one corner of what appeared to be a large parking garage. The section we were in was cordoned off from the rest by what looked almost like some sort of weird forcefield I wasn't even going to begin to try to figure out, and the floor and walls had Avengers logos on them at various intervals. The SUV was pulled up to an elevator that also had the logo on it. Behind Steve and off to the side stood Happy, looking up and acting like he was trying to offer us privacy while also appearing to be barely holding back a laugh.

Grumbling to myself I finally took Steve's hand and climbed out saying, "this had better not be a ruse."

"No ruse," Steve insisted. "We're just going back to the labs where you were doing your tests before, and Bruce is going to check you over. Then we'll debrief."

"I like the sound of that," I thought to myself.

Apparently I said it out loud though. I allowed myself a moment of being glad we were alone (minus Happy, who I had been assured numerous times was like a vault) before switching to disappointment when Steve said, "not what that means." With a smirk as we stepped on the elevator he added, "but I'm sure that if you're good, we'll get to that after."

I contemplated that for a moment before sticking my hand out to shake and saying, "deal."

Steve laughed and took my hand to shake, then kept it in his as the elevator doors opened and we strode out together.

Bruce appeared busy, so we quietly stood there for a couple minutes observing him before he came over with a gentle smile and said, "sorry about that. I heard you had a bit of excitement. How are you feeling?"

"I feel great, Doc," I told him.

"I'm really not that kind of doctor," he told me on a sigh, shaking his head in amusement. "I help out sometimes."

"You have multiple doctorates though," Steve pointed out.

"I'm not having this discussion again," Bruce muttered all the while busying himself readying equipment around the room. Turning to me once more he said, "okay, Steph. With your permission, since you're feeling alright, I'd like to start by drawing some blood. That way JARVIS can start up an analysis comparing it to your previous samples while we do a series of cognitive tests and anything else that seems like it might be relevant. I'm not sure what all we'll need to look at, but I think I'll know it when I see it."

"Woah woah woah," I couldn't resist teasing him. "Steve told me that 'debriefing' didn't mean that."

Bruce chuckled at that as he started the blood draw process, and Steve looked between us a couple times with an adorably puzzled expression. With a sigh, he pulled out his phone and typed on it with his brow furrowed for a moment. I watched him for a moment, silently counting the seconds until his thinking face turned into a blush.

"There it is," I murmured. Bruce startled for a moment then looked over at Steve and chuckled briefly.

"I've heard the phrase before," Steve defended himself even though neither of us were making fun of him. "I just always took it at face value. I didn't realize the association with it and…"

He trailed off and I thought about teasing him a bit but decided instead to drop it as Bruce had already fed my blood into a machine and was back in front of me shining a light in my eye.

"Pupil response is fine," he told me while Sam and Tony filtered in. "Any headache? Dizziness? Nausea?"

"Nope to all those," I reported honestly. I remembered Steve telling me that Sam was pararescue a few years before and had medical training, and Tony had obviously been studying my… transformation… with Bruce, so I figured they were there to help if Bruce needed it and offer opinions.

"Her speech isn't slurred or slowed," Sam added. "Any obvious cognitive issues you noticed Steve?"

"She seemed a little spacey before she passed out, and then she obviously was confused when she first woke up," Steve said. "But nothing since then."

"I feel FINE," I reiterated. "When I was in the room after the first concussion, I was definitely having difficulty thinking clearly, but that's all gone now."

"The first concussion?" Bruce prodded.

"Yeah, I felt kind of concussed. Then I felt better. Then I hit my head again, and I felt worse again. Then I hit my head a few times. Then I passed out for a hot second and boom. All better," I finished with jazz hands hoping that would be the end of that, but a look around showed me a lot more concerned faces rather than the relief I was hoping to see. Rats.

"Okay, okay," Bruce put his hands up as though to slow me down, trying to figure out what was going on. "I need you to walk me through all that again and in more detail."

"Maybe we should wait for the rest of the team," I suggested. "I assume that's what debriefing is?"

"Got it in one," Tony replied affably. "A whole lot of boooooorrrrr-RING for a word that seems to hold so much promise."

I looked over at him, and felt myself relax a little when he winked at me. "How's it going Firefly?" he continued speaking in his rapid pace without allowing me to respond, "no, that's not it. I'll come up with something better. Speaking of flying though, we're really going to need to work on yours. Bruce, I know there's more medical stuff to do. Why don't you run through that really quickly then we'll set her up for some scans. The rest of the team should be back by then, and she can talk while we look at her brain. Make sure she has one- although I don't know why anyone with one would date a former capsicle. But to each their own and all that. You know, kill a few birds with one stone."

My eyes narrowed and I went to protest, but Steve just squeezed my hand and gave me a look that told me to let it go.

"Brain processing seems good," Bruce said, sounding more amused. "If she kept up with all that."

Still he went through the motions asking me a series of questions, not all of which seemed connected or even to make sense for what he was doing, but I figured he was the professional and I just answered them as they came. Then he made quick work of testing my reflexes.

By the time I was asked to lie on the table so they could scan my head, most of the rest of the team had wandered in.

"Alright, tell us what happened," Natasha prompted.

I had expected Steve to take the lead, but maybe he was disqualified from that responsibility due to either being my boyfriend or also being an involved party at the restaurant. Far be it for me to question an Avenger anyway, so I just walked them through everything that had happened as I remembered it.

I even admitted to my time serving as a human pinball. My retelling was peppered with questions, so by the time I was done, they didn't have many more for me to answer. Thankfully the scans at least were also finished, so we moved to a conference area off to the side while Tony and Bruce worked.

"So," Darcy started, and I whipped my head to look at her in surprise, not realizing she had joined us as well. "How as the date?"

She offered me a big grin as she asked, so I couldn't help but laugh. Deciding to rib Steve a little, I told her, "it was great. Even if Steve did spend a good portion of it calling me a liar!"

"Steven!" Darcy scolded, shaking her head sadly. She barely finished saying his name before she started laughing.

"Punk always was terrible with women," Bucky said with a remorseful tone, clearly trying to prolong the lighthearted moment.

"Ha ha ha," Steve said dryly. Then he pointed at me and accused, "mischievous."

I stuck my tongue out at him impishly and put a heavy dose of feigned innocence when I said, "what? Did you or did you not say that I was a liar?"

"I did not," Steve argued. When I made a shocked noise, he clarified, "I said you were good at lying."

"Well that's not any better," Darcy protested.

"Yes it is," Natasha, Bucky, Clint, and Steve all said at once.

Darcy narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Clint, so Natasha began by addressing Darcy, "relax. He's an okay liar on the job, but he's terrible at it in his personal life, Darcy." Then to me, she said, "it's a valuable skill, as is your ability to use your lies to manipulate people into doing what you want."

"So now I'm not just a liar, but a manipulative one?" I asked indignantly.

I'd started this as a joke, but now I was starting to feel offended.

"Saying someone is good at lying or manipulating others is exactly that- a statement about their skillset. There are plenty of morally good applications for those skills like being a bounty hunter or an undercover cop. Or going outside of law enforcement, you could say that a lot of actresses and actors have those skills as well," Steve began to dig himself out of the hole he'd gotten into. "Calling someone manipulative or a liar, which you certainly are not, implies a lot about their character- and it isn't anything good."

I pursed my lips in thought for a moment before nodding my head and saying, "okay."

When Steve let out a sigh of relief, I tugged him toward me and dropped a kiss on his lips. My stomach growled in the process, so I went back to Darcy's original question and said to her, "and short. The date was too short. We'd barely begun eating the first course when everything went to hell."

"I can help with that," Darcy told me. Then she tipped her head to the ceiling and called out, "JARVIS- pizza!"

"Do you have any special requests for kind of pizza?" Clint asked me.

"All the pizza," I responded.

"See, you ARE a good person," Clint told me in return.

"Did you catch the person at the hotel?" I asked Natasha.

With a frown she told me, "no. JARVIS immediately IDed the primary hostage taker as Roger Cabot, a busboy at the establishment. From there it wasn't difficult to find his girlfriend, Ashley. I had associates check out his apartment while we searched for you. Unfortunately when they arrived, they found the decomposed bodies of the couple sealed off in a bathtub and they appeared to have been there for months."

I felt like I was going to be sick and put a hand to my mouth and the other to my stomach as I asked, "how is that possible."

"There are a few ways," Bucky started.

"But the most likely is that they used a photostatic veil," Steve supplied.

I exchanged horrified looks with Darcy, and asked, "what is that? And do I even want to know?"

"It's SHIELD tech," Sam finally said after nobody else seemed eager to answer. "It's this crazy ass digital mesh thing that can be put over someone's face and make them look like anybody else. Disguises their voice to match as well, as long as you have a viable vocal sample."

"And anything that SHIELD had," I started, catching on quickly.

"HYDRA had," Darcy finished my thought for me. "Well, that's awful."

"They have access to worse things," Clint input grimly. "But photostatic veils are troublesome."

"But, wait. If they'd been there for months…" I trailed off, genuinely confused.

"It wasn't actually about you this time," Natasha said with a wry grin. "Near as we can tell whoever they were had, as I mentioned, been in place for months. Smart money is they were waiting for an opportunity where anyone on the Avengers came in with someone they thought could be used for leverage. It took a while because most of us go in larger groups or Stark and Pepper use it for business meetings, which again, tend to be larger rather than one-on-one."

"You were just caught at the wrong place at the wrong time," Steve told me.

"Story of my life," I said with a shrug. "Not the first time and not the last."

"Uh oh," Darcy said, eyeing Steve warily. "He's doing that whole self-sacrificing hero face where he's trying to gear himself up to say that it's too dangerous for you to be with him."

At that, I couldn't help myself. I started laughing hysterically.

Everyone eyed me cautiously, clearly wondering if I'd finally cracked from all the pressure. I tried a couple times to explain myself, but I couldn't quite get the words out, gasping and crossing my arms to hold onto my aching sides instead.

"Dating me is dangerous," Steve finally said when I'd slowed down. "You might want to consider-"

"You can cut that shit right the fuck out," I scolded, causing Steve's eyes to widen in surprise. Whether at my language or at my vehemence, I wasn't sure, but I just continued on. "Why am I here, physically at the Avengers Tower right now? Because I unknowingly got into an extremely dangerous situation all on my own that made some nut want to experiment on me and turn me into his own little superpower trial toy or whatever. And that's not even the most dangerous situation I've been in! What about the time that a former SVR agent came after me just to mess with Ranger? Or the time I stumbled across a robbery in progress, becoming the only person who could identify the suspect known as the Red Devil which then brought an entire gang, HITMAN AND ALL, down on me?"

After a few beats of silence, Bucky asked, "Red Devil...?"

"He wore a mask," I said, gesturing absently at my face. "It was a whole thing. Only his molotov cocktail didn't explode and it got thrown back at him. He turned and lifted his mask to try to breathe after all the smoke and whatnot, but he was facing me. Anyway, my point is that life is dangerous, or at least my life is. And no offense to you all and your superhero brand of villains, but I don't honestly think this type of situation is any MORE dangerous. Especially because if they were going to use me for leverage, then they were going to keep me alive. And I've been kidnapped multiple times by people who had every intention of killing me from the get-go."

Natasha's grin turned into a big old smirk and she clapped saying, "see, Steve. You've been looking for someone with shared life experiences, and you were right— it makes you a good fit. I particularly like that she calls you on your shit."

"He didn't even scold her for her language," Sam teased.

Steve held his hands up in mock surrender and said, "all I said was that she might want to consider the danger-"

I cut him off again and said, "considered and disregarded. It's going to take more than that to get rid of me."

"I don't want to get rid of you," Steve reassured. "I just want you safe."

"I'm not going to be safe either way- with or without you," I told him honestly. "So I'd rather be with you."

"Safety is relative anyway," Natasha reasoned.

"Damn straight," I agreed. When Steve opened his mouth, I could just tell he was going to say something about me at least trying to be safe. Before he had a chance to say anything I cautioned, "don't even ask it. I don't have a death wish, and that's the best you're going to get. This kind of stuff just happens around me anyway. Asking me to promise you to be safe will force me to lie to you. And you know I can."

The last was said with a teasing tone and a wink, and I sighed with relief at having at least forestalled that conversation for the time being when Steve just chuckled.

"I see what you mean about the manipulating," Darcy stage-whispered to Natasha, which brought a much needed round of laughter to the entire group until Bruce walked over and cleared his throat.

A/N: I mean. It isn't REALLY a cliffhanger.