We got back to the compound around ten in the morning. The jet landed and we grabbed our things before heading inside.
"Friday can you let everyone know we're back." Aiden said.
"Your arrival has already been announced and Captain Rogers is waiting in the conference room to debrief you." Friday said.
"Twenty bucks says he's pacing." I said as we walked into the building.
"Of course he's pacing, you've been out of his sight for three days going after an arms dealer." Aiden said. "Probably hasn't stopped pacing in three days."
"Nothing new there." I said as we walked toward the conference room. "So it might be a while until we go out in the field again right?"
"All depends on if anything he told us pans out. Why? Already missing the action?" Aiden asked.
"As fun as that was I thought I'd pick up a hobby. Put some of my to some use." I said. "Maybe find a way to undo whatever happened to you?"
"Wren, Connor and leading medical experts in Wakanda have all tried and failed. You'd just be wasting your time." Aiden said.
"Trying to help you isn't a waste of time." I said.
"Is this part of your bucket list?" Aiden said. "Or is this you trying to stay busy to avoid the real issue?"
"Does it really make a difference?" I retorted and he just gave me a look before he sighed.
"We'll talk about this later." He said as we turned the corner to the hall leading to the conference room.
"I'm just saying what do you have to lose?" I said.
"I forgot how stubborn you can be." Aiden said as we walked into the conference room.
"Coming from the guy that refused to eat his steak and eggs because his steak wasn't bloody enough." I said.
"It wasn't rare enough." Aiden said.
"Any rarer and it would have mooed." I said as Aiden glared at me. I glared at him back before we just started laughing.
"Good to have you both back." Steve said.
"We did say we'd be back in time for brunch." I said as we all sat down.
"Anagnos is in custody, still hasn't talked but he will." Steve said. "I'd like a run through of everything that happened the past three days."
"We showed up in London. Around mid day." Aiden said. "Followed Anagnos and his entourage to a restaurant. We couldn't find any leads on the guest list so we changed tactics."
"Meaning?" Steve said.
"We followed him to a club and I got his attention." I said and Steve nodded while clenching his jaw. "We made small talk until a business associate, Max interrupted us and got his attention. They started talking about how Alec was not happy with the current terms of their deal. They asked for some privacy and we left."
"There was only one Alec on the list and it was a simple interception from there." Aiden said.
"I distracted Anagnos while Aiden incapacitated Alec and took his place." I said.
"We took out the guards and interrogated Anagnos before handing him and Alec over to the authorities." Aiden said.
"And no one saw you?" Steve asked me.
"I avoided any cameras and had Friday monitor any media outlets to make sure my face didn't show up anywhere." I said. "It hasn't and it won't."
"Good." Steve said. "That's everything for now. Write up the report and get it to me before tomorrow morning."
"I'll get it to you by tonight." Aiden said. "Is that everything?"
"Actually Nora can you give us a minute?" Steve said.
"Sure, I'm going to go see if they need help with brunch and grab a mimosa while I'm at it." I said getting up and walking out.
I walked down the hall and made a turn when I heard this incredibly loud screeching sound before some weird sounds.
"What the hell?" I said as I followed it to a lab. Inside Connor was hunched over as he was working on a small microchip. I walked over and got a peak at what he was working on. "Is that a nanobot?"
"Woah!" Connor said jumping a bit.
"Sorry! I just heard the music and I thought someone might need a doctor." I said. "Seriously sounded like you were murdering someone in here."
"Oh sorry I had a minor fire and it smelled like plastic in here so I wanted to air out the lab." Connor said shyly.
"So what are you working on?" I asked.
"Nanite's made out of biodegradable plastic." Connor said. "I had his idea that if instead of having to evacuate the nanites from the body through urine instead they could be broken down into something the body can use."
"Eco friendly medicine." I said smiling. "Guessing the nanites are over heating?"
"More like it's impossible to make a one hundred percent plastic nanite." Connor said.
"Then why not use a metal plastic blend?" I asked.
"I thought of that but you have to account for the byproducts formed and the risk of…" He started.
"Lead poisoning, iron build up, chance of an auto immune response…" I said listing off everything that can go wrong.
"Yeah there's all of that." Connor said frowning.
"So why not make it out of compounds already in the body?" I asked. "You have iron from bones and blood… Sodium that help polarize cells for synapses…"
"Using biorhythms as a power source instead of the usual catalyzed charge." Connor said. "Minimized risk of overheating."
"Easier to control the byproducts of the decomposition reaction." I said.
"We'd need something stable… organic…" He said.
"That will degrade when we need it to…" I said.
"If we add a catalyzing agent in a capsule of some sort to be released when we were done…" Connor said.
"But how would we trigger the release?" I asked.
"We could…" Connor started.
"Hey nerds, we've been calling you for the past ten minutes." Ellie said with Wren smirking behind her. "Dad and Aubrey are here. You can geek out later."
"Right." Connor said putting his pliers down. "I'll meet you guys there, just need to clean up a bit."
"We'll save you a seat." Ellie said heading out.
"How was London?" Wren asked.
"Good. It's different than it was thirty years ago but still great." I said. "And we got the guy."
"I heard." Wren said looking me over for injuries.
"I'm okay." I said. "No injuries, I promise."
"Better safe than sorry." Wren said giving me a small smile.
"I told you she'd be fine." Ellie whispered to Wren and I smiled.
"There she is." Sam said.
"Hey Sammy." I said hugging him.
"How was London?" Aubrey asked taking me by surprise with a hug.
"Just like riding a bike." I said with a smile.
"Mimosa." Ellie said handing me one.
"Thank you." I said before I saw Bucky eying me up and down. "I'm fine. The doctor already looked me over."
"She's fine." Aiden said as he walked in. "couldn't have done it without her."
"Food's ready." Steve said. "Where's Connor?"
"He'll be here in a minute." Ellie said.
"Food looks great." I said taking a sip of my mimosa. "And the drinks are great too."
We all sat down and I ended up sitting between Bucky and Aiden and right across from Wren.
"How are you adjusting Nora?" Aubrey asked.
"I don't think there's a word to accurately describe how weird this situation is. And this is coming from someone who went back in time and was her grandfather's wingman, took her father to see Star Wars when it first came out, talked to her mom about hooking up with her dad and conceiving her and was named after herself." I said and everyone just stared at me in silence.
"But I made the best out of those situations and that's what I'm doing here." I said smiling.
"Always the optimist." Sam said with a grin.
"How are things at work Wren?" Steve asked.
"Were good. My patient finally got a new heart and he's being discharged tomorrow." Wren said.
"That's great." Bucky said.
"His mom's going to have his hand's full with him." Wren said. "Kid can barely lie still."
"Transplant patients bounce back fast." I said.
"That they do. I actually used this new technique using stem cells to close his sternum, cut his recovery time in half." Wren said.
"That sounds awesome." I said. "Did you get them to differentiate pre op?"
"During the operation." Wren said. "we collected…"
"Ehem…" Steve cleared his throat.
"Sorry, forgot. No shop talk during brunch." Wren said.
"How was the second honeymoon?" Bucky asked Sam and Aubrey.
"Incredible. The people in Bali are so friendly." Aubrey said. "And the food…"
"That's the best part about traveling." Sam said.
"And teleporting." Wren added making everyone chuckle.
"Oh Auntie, We were cleaning out the attic in the townhouse and we found some things we thought you might want." Ellie said. "Mostly photos and drawings."
"Yeah that'd be…" I started when Aiden nudged my foot with his under the table. "good as long as it's okay with other me. You know, spoilers and everything."
"Don't think it'll be that big of an issue. Aya would probably interfere if you stumbled into anything." Wren said.
"Isn't there anything you want to keep?" I asked.
"I haven't really gone through any of it." Wren said. "Kind forgot we even had an attic."
"Mostly used it for storage for your da… Wren's…" I said correcting myself.
"My dad's things." Wren said. "It's okay mom. You can say it."
"I don't mean that you're not…" I said turning to Steve and Bucky. "I know better than anyone that blood isn't everything…"
"Doll it's fine." Bucky said.
"Really Nora…" Steve said.
"Sorry this is just new for me." I said struggling to hold back tears. "A month ago you were my four and a half month old baby and now you're older than me."
"Trust me it's weird for me too." Wren said and understood the hidden meaning. "But like you said we have to make the best of the situation."
"Yeah." I said forcing a smile.
"We should host brunch next week." Ellie said thankfully changing the subject.
"No." Everyone said immediately.
"I wasn't going to cook anything. Just have everything delivered." She said.
"Or I could just show up and do the cooking." I offered.
"It is my turn to host." Aiden said and I nudged him. "Think Nora will mind missing brunch again?"
"I'm sure she'll be fine." Steve said giving him a look.
"We should actually start heading out." Wren said getting up and pulling out Ellie's chair.
"You're right, have to scout a few venues for the next show." Ellie said.
"And I… well I miss my lab." Connor said getting up.
"Speaking of lab…" I said turning to Aiden. "It's later…"
"Not late enough." He said giving me a look as he stood up. "If you excuse us, we going to head home. Been a long couple of days and we have to write a report."
"We do?" I asked.
"If I have to do paperwork so do you." He said.
"That's fair." I said. "Thanks for brunch. It was fun."
"Uh I was actually wondering if you were free tomorrow… I was going to be in the area and thought we could grab a coffee and talk..." Steve said looking unsure of himself.
"Yeah… that sounds okay…" I said immediately regretting what had just come out of my mouth. Everyone just stared at us. "We should probably go try and beat traffic. Unfortunately that'll never go away."
That got a laugh from Sam and Aubrey who were probably just trying to diffuse some of the tension.
"See you tomorrow." I told Steve before we all headed home.
"That was painful to watch." Aiden said while he drove us home.
"I know, the okay just kinda slipped out." I said. "Should have said nice. Nice is neutral. Okay is…uh." I groaned.
"Let's hope you get more than okay tomorrow." Aiden said.
"Why did I agree to it." I said. "I'm just going to lie to his face even more."
"Don't think of it as lying, think of it as… omitting a few details he's better off not knowing." Aiden said.
"I'm more nervous about getting coffee with Steve than I am about going after dangerous arms dealers." I said.
"You've dealt with worse. It's coffee. You'll sit down in awkward silence for a few minutes and he's try to apologize for how he's acting. You'll brush it off and everything will be fine." He said.
"If he tears up I'm going to lose it." I said.
"You mean like you almost did in there?" Aiden said. "Sam sent me three messages asking if you're okay which you're obviously not."
"I'm fine. I've been through worse. I was physically tortured by Nazis. I watched my grandfather become someone I didn't recognize and at times hated. I let my mom die. I buried my best friend. Lost my soulmates. Lost the love of my life. I survived that I'll live through this." I said before I realized what I had just said. "Or not, that was a poor choice of words."
"Wren always said I wouldn't have to protect you from the world, I'd have to protect you from yourself." He said.
"He told me you needed someone to keep you grounded, to make sure you wouldn't go over the edge." I said.
"What a Jerk." Aiden said without any bite.
"I know… I miss him too." I said. "Have you noticed how Wren crinkles his eyes when he laughs or smiles?"
"He has your smile but he gets that from Wren." Aiden said smiling not looking away from the road. "Connor looks just like Sam did at his age."
"He has Jess' dimples. Ellie though… looks just like her mom. She even laughs like Jess." I said.
"She's fierce and protective like Sam. Connor though he has his focus." He said.
"They're the dream. They're why we do what we do. Why we get back up no matter how hard it is." I said. "So that they won't have to."
"We have to be better. For them." Aiden said.
"For them." I said agreed taking his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.
The Next Day-
I got up early the next morning. Guess I was still running on London time. I jumped out of bed and put on some dark navy tights and a dark grey twisted open back top.
posts/2017/10/14/59e28315a88e7d70230329d6/m_
I slipped on my earpods and headed out. It was cold out, it usually was this early in the morning but it was pleasant. As I started running it didn't feel as cold and watching everything blur by, the music playing in my ears slowly blending into the back ground. I kept going, kept pushing myself until the sun started to rise and I started to feel the burn. I stopped and when I looked around I was in front of Avengers Tower. Except it wasn't Avengers Tower anymore. The A was gone.
I stared at it for a minute remembering how proud dad was when he told me about his plans to make the first of many self sustainable buildings. The model for all buildings that would be built after it and it was. He always had an eye for architecture.
"If you could see it now dad. You'd love it." I said before shook it off and took a breath before turning around and running home.
I took the elevator up and walked down the hall only to see Steve waiting by my door. He was pacing and muttering to himself.
"Hi Nora…no uh good morning…" He said pacing back and forth.
"You're up early." I said and he jumped a bit.
"Nora! I… uh thought you'd be…" He said pointing at my door.
"Morning run." I said walking to the door. "When you said you had things to do I thought you'd be by later…"
"I can come back later." Steve said.
"No no it's fine just… going to need some time to get ready." I said looking at sweaty appearance.
"Oh… I can just…" He said pointing to Aiden's door.
"Oh don't do that." I said turning Steve around. "Trust me unless you're holding coffee and breakfast do not wake him up before ten."
"I guess I'll just go take a walk." Steve said.
"Or you can come inside and watch TV while I shower and change?" I suggested.
"You wouldn't mind?" Steve asked.
"I wouldn't have offered if I did." I said unlocking the door. Steve just watched me but didn't move. I swear it wasn't even this awkward when we first met. "I promise I won't blast you through a wall again and you know for sure it won't happen because I don't have any powers."
Steve just tilted his head confused before he cracked a smile. "Funny though I'm pretty sure you don't need powers to put me through a wall." Steve said and now it was my turn to be confused. "You left a pretty big crack in the training room wall last time you and Aiden sparred in there"
"Guess I don't know my own strength." I said chuckling a bit as he walked in. "Can I get you anything… Water, milk… pretty sure that's all that's in there... And the milk's probably expired so water?"
"I'm okay, thank you." Steve said giving me that adorable smile of his.
"Well the living room's right there. Make yourself at home I'll just be upstairs." I said before heading up.
Well we're making jokes… that's progress.
I jumped in the shower and after changing a few times I finally settled on a dark grey knit romper with black tights and a black hooded cape coat with black heeled hoodies.
.
I kind of looked like the grim reaper with the hood on but I needed something to balance out the brightness of my blonde hair.
"Sorry I took so long." I said as I walked down the stairs. "Still trying to get the hang of modern fashion."
"Well you look great." Steve said. "Like always."
"You still look great in blue." I said.
"It's your favorite color." He said and stared at each other. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah." I said grabbing my phone and keys. I locked up and we headed out. There was a small coffee shop down the street from the apartment building. We grabbed a table in the back corner so we could
"Aiden picked out a good apartment. It has a great view." Steve said.
"It does." I said. "You still don't like that I'm living there."
"I don't but I didn't have to be a jerk about it." Steve said. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. You were just doing what you thought was best." I said.
"Still I should have tried talking to you it's just… been a while." Steve said.
"That's good." I said and Steve looked at me with wide eyes. "Means Aya didn't give Wren a hard time like she did me. She didn't right?"
"No no, she eased him into everything." Steve said. "Those two… they work well together. Just like you two did before."
That made me laugh. "Yeah we worked well together." I said laughing. "You do remember we met because she left me stranded in the middle of a Hydra base right?"
"You got off to a rocky start, every team does. The first time the team met Thor and Tony went at it. Tony and I fought all the time, we still worked well together." Steve said.
"That you did." I said. "So if we're apologizing I should also say sorry about being so… difficult the past month."
"You weren't…" Steve started and I gave him a look. "You've been through a lot the past couple of months, mostly because of what I did and..."
"You lost your son. You were grieving and weren't in your right mind." I said. "I know it's not remotely the same thing but I've been away from my baby for a month and I feel like someone ripped my heart out of my chest but at least I know that he's okay because he grows up to be the amazing person I always knew he would be and judging by the fact that he calls you and Bucky dad you had a big part in that. So thank you for being there for him."
Steve just took a shaky breath as he watched me with watery red rimmed eyes. "Sorry." He said wiping his face. "I just never thought I'd be having this conversation with you… Past you that is."
"I get that." I said feeling my eyes get misty as I reached out and took his hand. "Is it 5pm yet? I think I need something stronger than coffee."
Steve chuckled a bit before getting out of his side of the booth and moving to hug me. I wasn't expecting it but I didn't push him away. I hugged him back and just held on for a minute.
"Sorry I shouldn't have…" Steve said pulling away.
"It's fine and let's just agree to stop apologizing already. We're okay Steve. I promise." I said wiping tears off of his face. He didn't say anything just pulled me into another hug and kissed my forehead.
Maybe this didn't mean things were going to go back to the way they were before and it wouldn't change the fact that my days were numbered but it just reassured me of something Aya had been telling me since the first day we met. Everything happens for a reason, there's a bigger picture even if we can't see it.