Firstly, massive apologies for not updating over Christmas and New Year... I've been busy with work!

Anyway, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters that may be used or any Marvel storylines or arcs.

Claimer: I only own the character Elizabeth Jones (Lowri Jones and any other names she uses) and her story past, present and future.

Recap

Lowri threw herself from the broken window without thinking and flew after it with urgency. They had fought so hard and long to get that sceptre, she wasn't going to let it escape now.

The suit cleared its flight path of any tall buildings, tilting higher and higher into the air as it climbed steadily. Lowri flew right behind it, climbing with the suit.

The wind whipped past her but Lowri didn't feel the cold. Her fire was hotter and stronger than before, Lowri pressed herself to go faster and she reached out her hand, she focused the fire in the palm of her hand and she grabbed hold of the suit's left leg and heated her hand up as hot as she could go. She felt a resistance from the suit, but she tanked the leg and the foot came away, including one of the engines powering the suit.

The suit jolted as it lost half of its power but before Lowri could even think of reaching for the other leg to take out the only working thruster, the suit spun on her swiftly and stabbed Lowri in her side with the sceptre. Lowri let out a sharp yelp when the suit dragged the sceptre up and out of her, the sceptre opened a wound in her side. The suit drew back its arm and punched Lowri on the shoulder hard.

Lowri was thrown away from the suit as quickly as the blood poured from her side, she felt lightheaded and she felt weak. As the suit flew away, Lowri felt her fire flicker drastically and she fell a few feet before she stabilised herself. She cussed out loud and stared after the suit, taking a short moment to decide whether or not to follow. She fell another few feet and that solidified her decision, she was too weak.

Lowri grimaced in pain, pressed one hand to her side to try and staunch the blood flow and then she turned back for the Tower.

She grew dizzier and dizzier as she slowly made her way back to the Tower, she was barely grasping onto consciousness as she got within feet of the Tower and she pulled herself through the broken window, labouring to stay awake.

Lowri heard thudding footsteps, those of a heavy-set man and hands gripped her shoulders, trying to shake her awake and pay attention but all of Lowri's attention was on her hands and knees. She felt a dull pain in her hands and knees, her eyes were fuzzy and dim, she couldn't settle on anything.

"Lowri? Lowri, where did the sceptre go?" She had no clue who was asking her but she mumbled her reply before her arms buckled and she fell to the floor. Lowri lost consciousness at this point, lying in broken and sharp glass, steadily bleeding out in many places along her body.

Lowri has no idea how long she was out for but when she eventually came around and woke up, she was lying on a cold, steel table with someone at her side stabbing her with something very sharp and they weren't using any local anaesthetic.

"Tony, hold her steady. Stop moving her." Someone ordered. Lowri felt firm hands on the top of her shoulders press down slightly harder.

"I'm not moving her. Holy crap she's moving." Someone else replied.

Lowri's ears were fuzzy and all the sounds sounded far away, she tried to move her arms but she felt sluggish.

"Lowri, Lowri, stay with us. Hey, come on. Open your eyes." Someone ordered. Lowri opened her eyes slowly, squinting at the light. "Hey, keep your eyes open."

As Lowri's eyesight grew clearer, she saw that it was Bruce above her and he was using a needle to stitch her up.

Tony was stood at Lowri's head, his hands on her shoulders and he looked at her worriedly.

"We need you to stay awake." It was Bruce talking to her, he seemed to be using a gentle and calming voice but Lowri struggled to hear him.

There were other noises going on in the background, more voices but it was too much for Lowri to sort though and understand.

"Why do you sound funny, Bruce?" Lowri mumbled, she turned her head from one side to the other, still struggling to see but it was slowly getting clearer.

"She's delirious." Tony said, he moved closer to her and took a little pressure from her shoulders away.

At this, Lowri immediately tried to sit up but Tony put more pressure on her and Bruce almost had a panic attack.

"Whoa! Careful! Do you want me to do more damage?" Bruce asked quickly but he didn't expect an answer. Lowri closed her eyes again, wanting the bright light above her to be turned off but then Bruce practically barked at her to keep her eyes open.

"She'll heal quickly." Tony muttered but he gripped her shoulders tighter.

"Not quick enough, Tony. She should be healing a lot faster but she's not." Bruce said, he continued stitching with surprising concentration. "Pass me that box."

"Ow." Lowri mumbled. Her head cleared and her senses came back to her, Lowri opened her eyes again and she looked around. This time her eyesight was clearer, she could see things more than two feet away from her and she could focus on things easier. She looked up at Tony, who smiled warmly down at her and then she looked at Bruce, he was leaning down by her side, right where she got stabbed and sliced by the sceptre. Bruce stopped stitching her as soon as she mumbled the word ow and he watched her carefully. "Go on." She said, he went back to stitching the wound and she grimaced in pain.

Lowri looked around, trying to find something to distract herself from the pain. Her eyes landed on Steve, who was standing rigid just behind Bruce, watching her carefully. He looked relived when she looked at him.

"Been in the wars, missy?" Tony asked, drawing her attention back to him.

"Ow." Lowri muttered again, "Why the hell did you make a killer crazy robot for?"

"Not what I intended." Tony said quickly.

"Those suits are a menace. I can see why Pepper isn't a fan of them." Lowri said, she pulled a face when Bruce jabbed the needle in too hard. "But I melted its foot off so I'm happy."

Tony pulled a face at her and Bruce tied off the stiches and then dressed the wound with dressings and bandages and tape.

"Most of the cuts from the glass has cleared up, there's still some embedded glass so I'll get that out for you." Bruce said, dropping the tape. He picked up some medical tweezers and began digging in her arms and shoulders for the glass shards.

"Ow." Lowri mumbled again. Tony let go of her and stepped back but Bruce kept on working.

"That's what you get for rolling in glass." Bruce murmured as he worked.

"Didn't intend on finishing off my night rolling in glass to be fair." Lowri said slowly. She looked up at Bruce. "How did you get rid of the rest of the suits? Did you-"

"No. There wasn't a Code Green." Bruce said quietly. "Nat pulled me out of the way, but it was pretty intense."

Lowri looked behind him and she spied Rhodey holding an ice pack to his shoulder and Maria was sat down with her heels off, picking glass from the soles of her feet. Everyone else seemed unhurt.

"It looks it." Lowri said, she looked back at Bruce. "So… Ultron?"

"Tony's idea. But, I must admit I helped." Bruce said, he dropped the tweezers and wiped over the cuts with an antiseptic wipe. "I think you're all good." He tossed the used wipe in the bin and packed away the kit.

Bruce stepped backwards and Steve stepped up, he held his jacket in his hand and he offered it to her as soon as he helped her sit up. Lowri pulled herself up but Steve kept his hands up in case she fell.

"I'm not cold." Lowri said, pushing his hand away.

"Your dress is ripped." Steve replied quickly, he pushed the jacket towards her again and she slipped it on. "Are you okay?"

Steve's hand lingered on hers for a long moment and her eyes were drawn to his.

"Other than the hole in my side, just peachy." She said almost sarcastically. "What the hell happened?" She shuffled to the end of the table, wincing every time she moved and draped her legs over the edge.

"Ultron happened." Tony said from the middle of the room.

Bruce worked his way around the computers in the room, turning them on. He went to one and began typing.

"All of our work is gone. Ultron cleared us out. He used the Internet as an escape hatch." Bruce sighed.

"Ultron." Steve scoffed. He leant against the table beside Lowri and crossed his arms over his chest, his side brushing against her leg.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Nat said, Lowri looked over at her and saw that she had changed out of her pretty, but unsuitable, dress into a vest and jeans.

Lowri glanced down at the floor, knowing full well that no one in this room knows her full story. Even Steve, who now held a journal containing her thoughts and words doesn't know her full back story.

"He's in your files, he's in the Internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey asked, wincing slightly as he moved his arm.

"Nuclear codes." Maria said with realisation.

"Nuclear codes." Rhodey confirmed. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes?" Nat asked sharply. "He said he wanted us dead."

"He didn't say 'dead'." Steve said, "He said 'extinct'." Lowri scoffed and Steve looked at her sharply.

"Good luck with that." She murmured.

"Not all of us are immortal, Ri." Clint noted. Lowri looked up at him and he raised an eyebrow at her. "He also said he killed somebody."

"There wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria said slowly.

"Yes, there was." Tony said, he sounded grieved. He stepped into the middle of the room again and he seemed to toss something into the middle of the room. An orange scrambled mess of lights floated in mid-air in front of him.

Bruce walked through the mess slowly, a look of complete disbelief on his face.

"What?" He asked, "This is insane."

Steve crossed his arms over his chest again and looked down at the floor.

"Jarvis. He was the first line of defence. He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." Steve said. Lowri chewed on her bottom lip anxiously. So much for retirement.

"No. Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy. This is rage." Bruce said, looking up as his point was made.

Suddenly, all eyes swivelled towards the door as Thor stomped his way through, dressed in his full Asgardian battle gear. He made a beeline for Tony and he wrapped a hand around Tony's throat, he lifted Tony off the ground and stepped forwards.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rhodey stepped towards the angry God but it was clear that he could do nothing. Lowri jumped down from the table, right into the glass shards but she didn't feel any of it, she headed for Thor.

"It's going around." Clint remarked unhelpfully from his balcony.

"Come on, use your words buddy." Tony breathed out heavily and he pulled at the hand around his throat.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Thor said, Lowri reached him and placed her hand on Thor's arm, calming him.

"Thor. The Legionnaire?" Steve asked, stepping forwards. Thor turned and looked down at Lowri, she dropped her hand and stepped back as Thor turned to look at Steve. He shoved Tony away from him and Lowri stepped closer to Tony with a concerned look on her face but he waved her away.

"Trail went cold about 100 miles out but it's headed north." Thor looked back at the Tony. "And it has the sceptre. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"Genies out of that bottle." Clint said.

"Clear and present is Ultron." Nat said firmly.

"I don't understand." Dr Cho said slowly, she was peering at the destroyed Legionnaire that had housed Ultron. "You built this programme. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Lowri moved to beside Maria and leant against the wall.

Tony let out a laugh and turned from the group but Bruce tried shut him up.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked.

"No. It's probably not, right?" Ton asked, spinning to face the rest of the group. "This is a very terrible. Is it so…" Tony let out another laugh. "Is it so… it is. It's so terrible."

Lowri narrowed her eyes at Tony, wondering if he was going off the rails.

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor said.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." Tony began.

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time." Bruce warned.

"Really?" Tony asked sharply as he wheeled around to look at Bruce. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?"

"Only when I've created a murder bot." Bruce replied as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we that close to an interface?" Tony asked.

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here." Steve said, Lowri could see his posture change as he spoke. The leadership stance, she calls it. "The Avengers were supposed to be different than S. H. I. E. L. D."

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony asked.

"No. It's never come up." Rhodey shot back immediately.

"Saved New York?" Tony asked.

"Never heard that." Rhodey replied.

"Recall that?" Tony asked, completely ignoring Rhodey. "A hostile army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all live long day, but that up there, that's… that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together." Steve replied simply.

"We'll lose." Tony said, stepping closer to Steve.

"Then we do that together too," Steve said simply. "Thor's right. Ultron is calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

This seemed to be the signal for everyone to disperse and start working on intel and recon.

Everyone left, except for Lowri and Steve, standing on opposite sides of the room.

"You look exhausted. I think it's time you went to sleep." Steve said, a smile came onto his face as he stepped across the room to meet her.

"Are you trying to send me to bed?" Lowri asked with a laugh. "We've got a loose cannon robot wishing for all of our deaths, and you want to send me to bed."

"No." Steve said firmly as he came to a stop in front of her with the smile still on his face. "I'm taking you down to your bed because you're bleeding out onto the floor again."

Lowri looked down at the floor and was marginally surprised to see blood coming from her feet.

"Oh." Lowri said slowly. She wriggled her toes and winced as pain suddenly shot up her feet. "Ow. That's not good."

"Ow is the right word." Steve chuckled. He stepped closer again and wrapped an arm around her shoulder and then he leant down and swept her up into his arms before she could protest.

He quickly grabbed the first aid kit that Bruce had left out and then Steve walked out of the lab and over to the elevator, with Lowri still in his arms.

"You're loving this." Lowri laughed as he moved swiftly across the destroyed main room.

"I am." Steve confirmed.

"I would accuse you of being drunk but I know for a fact that you can't get drunk, like me. Are you using my injuries as a chance to feel manly?" Lowri smirked.

"I'd be lying if I said no." Steve said, the elevator opened and Steve stepped in, he didn't let her down, even though she squirmed.

He passed the first aid kit to her so he could press the button and open the door to her room when they got there.

Steve carried her through the living and right into her bedroom, where he laid her down on the bed before turning the light on and turning back to her.

Lowri pulled herself up against the pillows, careful not to plant her feet on the bedding in case she damaged her feet even more.

Steve moved back over to her and took the first aid kit from her, he opened it up as he sat down beside her and rummaged through.

"What are you looking for?" Lowri asked, she sat up and grabbed some pillows, she propped her feet up and then leant back against the pillows with a sigh.

"Tweezers." Steve said, "And antiseptic wipes. And bandages." Steve replied, he glanced up at her and smiled. "Ah. There we go. You got a bowl going spare?"

"A bowl?" Lowri asked, "Why on earth would I have a bowl going spare?" She chucked over the tissue box she keeps on her bedside table, "Use a couple of tissues."

Steve took the box and all the equipment he had taken from the first aid kit down to the end of the bed. He moved one of her feet down onto his lap and he began pulling out the glass splinters and wiping away the blood.

Conversation was easy between them and spending some time like this, picking glass out of her feet and talking about anything and everything that isn't the murder crazy AI that Tony and Bruce brought into the world and called for their extinction.

"What did you mean when you said that Dum Dum was protective?" Steve asked, he looked up at her and Lowri smiled at him. "You said he was protective of the team, and you."

"Well he was." Lowri said, she shrugged her shoulders and looked down. "He would never let any harm come to the team."

Steve kept his eyes locked on Lowri and he silently urged her to continue.

"He was the person that always spoke of you fondly. He didn't shy away from me when I teared up. He was so kind to me after you went down with that plane. I uh, I never told you this but when you went down, I was heartbroken."

Lowri looked back up at him and Steve looked at her with sorrow. He stopped with the tweezers. And for a long moment, no one said anything.

"I gave myself two days to grieve you and I walked around London city in tears and then I spent the next day in the Whip and Fiddle, trying to drink it away." Lowri began, "I came back to the base the day after and the Howling Commandos and Chester were talking about them attacking the rest of the smaller bases and I volunteered to go with them. You know I fought with them."

"I stayed with them even after the war, we came back to London for VE day and we went to a small pub, and as I tried to get the drinks in, a soldier was rather insistent on getting a kiss from me." Lowri looked at Steve, "Howard noticed me trying to edge away, I mean, I didn't want to dampen this guy's mood, we'd just won the war. So, Dum Dum sorted him out for me."

"No punching?" Steve asked.

"Nope." Lowri said, she smiled. "No wahooing, either."

Steve chuckled and resumed picking the glass splinters out of her feet.

"He was a great guy." Steve said slowly.

"He remained a great guy right up till the end." Lowri said, "They kept on fighting because of you, you know."

Steve paused and looked up at her.

"Your memory is what drove them on." As she spoke, Steve resumed picking glass out of her feet. "If they knew that you were alive now, they would love it."

"I miss those guys." Steve said, he dropped the tweezers on the bed and began dabbing at her feet with the antiseptic wipes, which stung. "You wouldn't believe the amount of teasing I got off them because of you."

"I think I do." Lowri said, she took a deep breath and looked at him. "Dum Dum liked reminding me that I was your girl. And I still am."

Steve fought to keep the smile off his face and kept his eyes downward. He grabbed the bandages and began dressing her feet with dressing pads and then bandaging around it.

"I didn't mind." Lowri said slowly, Steve glanced up and smiled, "It reminded me of you."

Steve tucked in the final bandage and then moved her feet back onto the pillow and he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Lowri asked, watching him as he gathered up the used wipes, the tissues full of glass splinters and the tweezers, now packed in the first aid kit.

"To get refreshments." Steve said, smiling at her. "You, do not move an inch. You're on bedrest." Steve ordered, he pointed a finger at her.

"What are you gonna do if I move, Captain?" Lowri asked with a smirk.

"Tie you down." Steve replied, he smirked at her and headed out of the room.

Lowri was left in the room in her torn dress, with Steve's jacket wrapped around her shoulders and her feet all bandaged up tightly.

"Good. You can actually listen." Steve said upon entering the room again, this time instead of holding the first aid kit, he held a six pack of bottle beers.

"Ah, beers." Lowri sighed, she pulled herself up into a sitting position and Steve climbed onto the bed beside her.

Steve cracked open two of the beers and passed one over to her, she took a deep drink and he took a sip.

"When I first set eyes on you, I wouldn't have thought that I'd be sitting beside you in another century, drinking beers while a robot calls for our deaths." Steve said as calmly as he could.

"Do you realise how normal that sounds?" Lowri asked with a laugh.

"That's completely abnormal, Ri." Steve said firmly, he turned his head to look at her. "Do you remember when I said that you've only scared me twice?"

"I remember. The taxi thing and the safe place." Lowri said, turning her head to look at him too. She took another sip of her beer.

"Well, I lied." Steve said, he turned his head from her and looked at the beer in front of him. "On the first day of training, do you remember how we were all stood in a line and Agent Carter punched Hodge in the face?"

"Yeah. I never liked that guy." Lowri said, "Though, he did apologise for being an idiot once."

"And why do you think he apologised?" Steve asked, he smiled at the wall and didn't look at her. Lowri narrowed her eyes at him curiously.

"Wait." Lowri said, this time Steve looked at her and she sat up straighter. "That split lip you had…"

Steve shrugged his shoulders and pulled a 'whatever' face.

"That was you? You made him apologise?"

"Yeah." Steve said, "He was being disrespectful to you."

"You didn't need to get yourself punched in the face because of me." Lowri said firmly.

"That's in the past now, Ri." Steve said, he half smiled at her. "I remember the first time I laid eyes on you. I was terrified. You stepped down from that truck with this authoritative air about you and you stood beside Doctor Erskine with this impressive look on your face, you were looking down the line of men and when you looked at me, I felt frozen. You were so intimidating and a little bit enticing." Steve finally turned his head to look back at her, a small smirk on his face. "I had this yearning to earn your favour."

Lowri looked ahead of her, she pressed her lips together.

"When I first saw you, I thought that you looked out of place." Lowri admitted. Steve looked at her sharply and laughed.

"Well, yeah, I guess so." Steve laughed.

"It's just, your height struck me most. I know I'm not the tallest person in the world and you were practically the same height as me, but seeing you standing between all those tall men… you looked out of place." Lowri paused. "And then you looked up at me and your eyes… they spoke to me."

"I may or may not have been telling you not to look at me because I was shaking and I was intimidated." Steve replied with a smile.

"And all these years, I thought you were the only soldier not scared of me." Lowri laughed, she took another sip of her drink, "Okay, so all the soldiers I met were or could have been scared of me at one point. God, we were fighting a bloody war, I could have been nicer."

Steve chuckled and looked at her.

"I wasn't scared of you after we spent some time together and after we kissed, I felt like I was the luckiest man on the planet. I couldn't keep the smile off my face and when I got back to the room I shared with Bucky, I was grinning like an idiot and he teased me until we both fell asleep." Steve said, "And then you saw me and that private… I felt so stupid."

"Good." Lowri said firmly, her smile dropped from her face. "That really did hurt."

"I'm sorry." Steve said quietly, he grasped her hand and squeezed gently.

"It's alright, Steve. It only hurt because I fell in love with you so quickly and so easily, and I was the happiest woman alive at that moment in time." Lowri said, she looked up at him and watched the numerous emotions run through his eyes. "Of course, I was more upset and angry with myself than you."

"Why?" Steve asked slowly.

"Because I was stupid for letting myself fall for you so quickly. I never do that." Lowri said, "But I know you weren't at fault either. What were you going to do when this beautiful young woman throws herself at you to thank you for saving so many lives? She saw you as a new hunk of meat, a hero on the outside. She saw the muscle. But she didn't know you as I do." Lowri shuffled back against the pillows, careful not to move her feet much. "I saw you as a man overcoming so much, I knew you as an honest man, a remarkable, honest, charming and caring man. And you don't even know it."

"I'm just a kid from Brooklyn." Steve said quietly after a long moment.

Lowri nudged his arm with hers, making him look at her.

"Who just so happens went on a joy trip to Austria to save his best and ended up saving more than four hundred men in the process, and much more."

Steve rolled his eyes at her and then looked down at his beer.

"Who'd have thought that we'd be in this position, seventy years later?" Steve asked with a small smile.

Lowri nodded her head and took a sip of her beer. She certainly didn't.

Thank you all for reading, I am very sorry about the last few weeks.

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