Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers or any related items.


Chapter 12: The Soldier

"C'mon Rogers, I could've killed you 3 times already. You need to strike harder than that!" Natasha was being as amicable as she could master during training. She was clearly still upset about whatever made her go over Penny's office but she wouldn't say a word, especially not after Clint joined them. "Cap. Tasha" she nodded and kept on practicing Kuo Shu with a very spirited Steve. It felt good to learn something new, something he could use. It felt good to feel like life was no longer in pause.

However after 10 minutes Steve felt something else. He had that familiar feeling of third wheeling, only this time, instead of being left out of chat about a guy in spandex, he was witness to a lover's quarrel. And not a pretty one by the look of Clint's bruised face. They definitely fondue. This will be a problem.

"Alright guys, I think it's time to go back to the board. What about Middle East?" Natasha let go of Clint and started chatting about the War on Terrorism and how regimes kept falling all over the place, and how SHIELD was always one step ahead. Eyes and ears everywhere. Agents everywhere.

"It must be hard for you two now, everyone knowing who you are…" Clint twitched a bit, maybe his neck was in slight pain, but he started playing with a Bo while talking anyway, "It was a mistake and now we're stuck here-" "babysitting me, I know." Natasha disregarding Steve's comment and Clint nudged her with his weapon. She was particularly upset about it. "That's not true. We are part of an elite team that handles Outer space threats, or Level 8 threats, not many can do that." She smiled at Steve "It's fun to kick alien's ass."

Clint snorted "I thought you liked dying your hair and pretending to be a stripper from time to time." She lifted her eyebrow to epic proportions and attempted to ignore his comment, continuing her talk with Steve. "We still have assignments; we just need to be more careful. Check not only for security feeds but for anyone with a phone with a camera." Steve half smiled and picked his phone. It was a text. So did Natasha. They looked at each other and then to Clint. He nodded but kept on playing with the bo.

Steve cleared his throat and stopped Clint from poking Natasha again, getting the bo out of his hand and throwing it to the floor. He used that familiar bossy tone of his "Let's go."

After Clint reluctantly started walking, Steve could've sworn he saw a smile on Natasha's face.


The conference room seemed colder than usual. In there they met Fury, Tony and Bruce, who seemed gloomier and more concerned than earlier that same day. He was no longer baring the amused smile he had when teasing him about Penny.

Lord, she looked like a Christmas' tree this morning. He needed to check who was on that room that affected her so. Could it be her boyfriend? A close friend? A relative maybe? It was definitely someone she cared about. Still, when she was drugged she praised his eyes. And on Friday she kept sitting closer to him and always wanted to include him in conversations. She challenged him but at the same time was there for him when he needed someone. He only hoped he could return the favor one day. Maybe he was reading too much into everything, maybe this was how males and females interact in the 21st century. Old rules no longer applied.

He looked around and everyone was getting their usual seats. No one seemed to be bothered about how cold the room felt. He shivered slightly. Maybe the temperature was different and he just needed to adjust. After all, this wasn't the training room. He cleared his throat and asked what the meeting was about. His head started pounding slightly and his ears felt clogged.

He couldn't help thinking how warm the training room felt against this one. And now his thoughts were right back to sparring with Penny. If old rules no longer applied and if they were just friends, if nothing else was going on, sparring with her should've been exactly like the session he had just had with Natasha, with her leg grips and all. But it wasn't. Natasha wouldn't look the other way when he was too near, Natasha's breathing didn't rise when he knocked her down to the floor, Natasha wouldn't tease him… Natasha wouldn't linger around him instead of going on with her chores and most definitely wouldn't blush at a compliment from him.

Still, maybe it was just him. Maybe his own feelings were making him see things where there weren't any. Feelings he realized he had when he felt her head on the curve of his neck and her slow breathing on his skin, when a sudden rush of anger came to his head when he read "husband" and saw Clint so desperate around her.

"Steve, you ok?" Bruce whispered to him, and he nodded. No, I'm not okay, not at all.


"Are you telling me that you had a biological threat and you didn't tell us?" Steve's heart was raising and he felt his face red, he wasn't feeling okay. He hadn't felt this in years… Tony looked down. Tony never looks down. They hadn't heard the worst part yet.

"Maya needed help and I helped her. I thought it'd end with getting the bad guy off the streets." He was admitting messing up? This was major. "It didn't. It was bigger than yourself and thanks to you not telling us this could be a worldwide problem, otherwise you wouldn't be here." Steve had to take a break. Stark wasn't replying with smirky comments, which could only mean one thing "What else are you not telling us?"

"I controlled the "threat", got the bad guy. Then I realized that I may have underestimated the guy's plan a bit" Steve thought of getting up but realized he was feeling too sick to move. "What's the main threat?" Cut to the chase. Know the target. Acquire intel. Get the target. Move on to the next assignment. Keep it simple.

Tony clicked his phone and information came on the main screen "Mandarin's HQ. Last night he kidnapped Maya and stolen the Extremis formula and I'm sure he's already pushing to get it viral." Steve took a deep breath "How much time do we have?"

Tony hesitated, Tony never hesitates. Bruce decided to speak "If they already have a viable formula it can take them 24-36 hours to turn it into a virus. I think we need Dr. Morse's skills on this one."

Clint nodded "We also need Hoban, he's specialized in Genetics. If this remaps the DNA, he's our guy." Steve looked at him "Hoban?" Tony decided to fill him in "Dr. Quinn's new henchman. Or boss. I don't know."

Natasha decided to speak "If they have Maya, does it mean she's working with them?" Tony disregarded her comment "Not a chance. She was kidnapped last night, I heard about it this morning." Natasha went on "Ok, let's say for the sake of argument that the kidnapping was staged. It's her formula, she can get it working in no time" Tony got more upset "Not possible. She wouldn't do that. Not in her character."

"She did use a person for her test trials." Tony cleared his throat "Yes but she wouldn't work with terrorists. She's funded by the Army, your best friends." Bruce didn't appreciate the remark.. Clint spoke again "They don't need her to cooperate, she can be forced to. Physically. Or with drugs. It's been known to happen." He looked briefly at Steve and then back to Stark "I don't think she'd break that easily."

Clint chuckled "Yeah, well, there are all kinds of fucked up people out there, I bet this Mandarin dude is one of them." he turned his gaze at Natasha, who seemed to clench her teeth "She can be forced to cooperate, but it'll take them at least 12 hours to try and break her down with threats and physically. If she doesn't as you say, then, well, they'll move on to drugs."

Steve decided to change the topic. This seemed to hit too close from home to everyone around the table: serums, army, genetics, drugs… "Do you have a sample? Anything our docs can work on?" Tony took something from his left pocket and slid it on the table, Steve missed catching it and Bruce caught it, doing a nervous laugh. "It's a thing we've been practicing. Anyway" Bruce was covering up for his lack of reflexes. Since they had been spending so much time together no one seemed to mind, except a jealous Tony.

Steve got his bossy tone and started planning with the team how they'd breach the HQ. "We leave in 4 hours, prep up" Bruce came closer to him "Not you Bruce, I think you better sit this one out. Help Penny and um, the other guy with this" The rest of the team started leaving the room and Bruce caught him by his arm "you're coming with me."

Steve looked puzzled. His ears were still a bit clogged and he wasn't feeling okay. He feared Bruce was upset for him pulling him off the team, but he had been picking up on Bruce's mood swings and he couldn't risk it. They took the stairs and Bruce checked Steve's neck and confirmed he had a fever. When he saw the camera on top of the stairs he started adjusting Steve's shirt collar. "You had it all turned up. I know how you worry about those things" Steve caught his eye and half smiled, he could see Bruce's worries on his eyes but he knew he wouldn't say them out loud.

"Thanks Bruce. No hard feelings about not coming with us today"? Bruce disregarded him with a wave of his arm "Don't worry about it. Gives me a chance to work with Penny on this." He realized that this wasn't about Extremis, it was about him. Anyone besides them knowing about this would mean he'd be a lab rat 100% of the time. She was the only one person they could trust checking on Steve, and she was out.

Against all odds, the super soldier was sick.