I don't own Avengers or anything Marvel related!
She took another long sip of wine and set the glass down and watched as he prepared himself for what was no doubt going to be another overly dramatic sentence.
He adjusted his stance so he was squarely facing her and still leaning against the counter began, "What do you remember about the AVENGERS initiative?"
"The Avengers Initiative?" Evelyn looked at him curiously, "I remember you were incredibly against it," she continued, "In fact, I seem to recall hearing some rumors that you told Fury it was a lost cause with Stark trying to run the show and Banner doing his best to stay human."
"Well," Phil said, "some of the events this past week have made me reconsider my opinion."
"You can't mean that whole fiasco at the Stark Expo?" Evelyn said incredulously, "Or is it that fake gas main explosion in New Mexico?"
"No, it's nothing to do with Stark, but I'm glad to see you've been keeping up with the news," Phil said.
"Oh come on, Phil," She replied, "I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. long enough to know how you cover up your failures, A gas main? Really? At least put some effort into your bullshit."
"New Mexico wasn't a failure, it was a surprise- we'll talk about that later. But that's not what changed my mind," Phil leaned toward her, "A couple days ago, we pulled something out of the ice."
"What? A whalebone?"
"A Captain."
She looked up and narrowed her eyes at him, "You can't mean you found-"
"That's exactly what I mean," He said plainly.
Evelyn didn't speak for a few moments, the silence hanging densely between them. She pushed off the counter and took a few steps away from Phil.
"I wish they had found him sooner," she said, turning around to watch the falling snow cover the frozen trees in her backyard. "but I'm glad they found him now. At least he can be lain to rest at home. Everyone deserves to be brought back home…" her voice drifted off. She blinked away the rapidly forming tears and shook her head to clear away the ghosts. She straightened her back and turned her head sharply toward him, "This isn't my buisness. Don't waste my time Phil, I stopped being interested in what SHIELD does a long time ago. I'm glad you came, I'm glad to have seen you, but don't come here again. I've moved on, I suggest you do the same."
"Evie, he's alive," Phil said quietly.
"That's impossible," She breathed, turning to face him.
"We never expected to find him alive after all this time," Phil put down his glass and rounded the corner of the island toward her. "99 years old and he looks exactly the same as the day he went into the ice- not a single scratch, not a single grey hair. "
"That's incredible, how is his mental state? Any altered cognition or recognition?" She asked, quickly snapping into her doctor-mode
"No," Phil shook his head, still amazed by what he had seen just a few days earlier. "He's in perfect shape. And he's what changed my mind about the Avengers, Captain America is the key to it."
"You wa- You want to put him into the Avengers?" Evelyn looked at Phil in horror, beginning to understand what he meant. "You can't mean that, Phil. He's all alone in a different world, he must be so lost and terrified. How can you be ok with this?" Her voice rising with every word. "I understand Fury wanting to use him. Hell, I'd even understand if Maria signed off on this plan, but you? What happened to you? The Phil I knew would never have let this happen."
"What do you mean 'let this happen'?" Phil reared back and looked at her, confused at her reaction. "He's a soldier, Evelyn, a Super Soldier. You know as well as anyone else that he's going to fight for what's right."
Evelyn leaned back against the counter and looked away from Phil, slightly shaking her head as a sad smile played across her face, "I suppose that's what you do best. You and your friends over at SHIELD. You convince yourselves you're doing 'the right thing' and you take a good man and put him through hell, then when he comes out the other side, you order him to turn him around and march straight back through again."
"He wanted to be brought back into it, Evie. I'm not so heartless that I'd force or coerce the guy to fight for SHIELD if he didn't want to."
"But you're not so kind that you'd tell him to stay away, either."
"It wasn't my place to question his choice."
"How difficult for you," she said, mockingly, looking back toward him, "that his choice was the same as what Fury wants. It must be hard to be so right all the time."
Phil slammed his fist on the granite island, "What the hell was I supposed to do? He fought his way out of the medical facility, right into the middle of Time Square. He thought we were the Nazis trying to fuck with his head. The guy looks around and nothing's the same as when he left. He didn't even know we won the war, for god's sake. He was frantic. The only thing that finally got him to listen was the truth. We told him who we were, about Peggy and Howard and how they started SHIELD after he went into the ice. You think we could have kept him away after that?"
"You could have lied," Evelyn said, knowing it was unreasonable but unable to resist a last barb at Phil.
"To a Super Soldier?" Phil scoffed and looked at her, "As much as I love Captain America, I don't want to die by his hand… or shield," he added wryly.
"So what now? Even if you have the Captain on your side, there's still the issue of your other Avengers. I know you're not so naive as to think SHIELD can control Tony Stark. And does anyone even know where Banner is?"
"That's just it, Evie, we don't have to control Stark. The others will keep him in line. And don't worry about Banner, we've got someone on him."
"Should I be flattered that they sent you to get me instead of Banner? Speaking of, why do you need me? It looks like you and Fury have this all figured out. Once you get Banner, I'm sure their training drills will prove to be a fantastic success and Fury can be right once again."
"Actually there's little problem with the timeline, we're not going to have quite that long to figure it out, and we're not planning on having training drills…" Phil awkwardly trailed off at the look on Evelyn's face.
"Um… well, exactly how long will you train them before you unleash all their glory and righteousness onto this poor, sad world?"
Phil looked at his watch and replied hesitantly, "If everything is going as per the schedule, Banner should be on the Helicarrier in a few hours."
"So what, your brilliant plan is to toss a frozen guy, a Jekyll-and-Hyde type scientist, and a man with an ego like Naomi Campbell's into a test tube and shake it up a little? Have you gone completely mad?"
"I know it sounds insane, but I trust them. Even Tony. I think that when it's important, they'll all do the right thing."
Evelyn raise her eyebrows at him, "I'd love to say I'm surprised by that, but honestly, you always did see the best in everyone," she sighed in defeat, "Ok, then why do you need me? I assume you came by for more than just a glass of wine and a chat."
"I did. But this is good wine," Phil reached past her to grab the bottle. "I want you to come back," He said casually as he uncorked it. "Actually, I need you to come back. I don't trust anyone else for this job."
She watched as he refilled both of their glasses, "Why?"
"You're going to lead the Avengers' medical team."
"You have better doctors than me at SHIELD."
"You're the right person. Not many people talk back to Fury, Evie," Phil reasoned, "But you do. He's going to push the Avengers. He's going to want them to be better, stronger, smarter. And when he does, they're going to try to deliver. You need to step in before they kill themselves trying.
"Isn't that your job?"
"I can't be everywhere and do everything," Phil replied, "You care so much about Captain America's well being? Prove it. If you think Rogers won't run himself into the damn ground trying to obey his C/O, you're the one that's being naive. He already killed himself once trying to save the world."
"What about Maria?"
"She can't stand Stark, and she's too close to Fury. Even if there was another choice, I came here because I trust you. And even if you don't want to hear it, so does Fury."
Evelyn looked at him dead on, "If I do this, I'm not doing it for you, and I'm sure as hell not doing it for Fury, I'm doing this because it's the right thing."
Phil paused for a moment and nodded at her, "If you say yes, we're leaving now."
"I need to send in a letter requesting an emergency leave of absence. The hospital needs to rearrange my surgeries."
"Ok."
"Did you bring Lola?"
"Did I bring Lola?" He chuckled, "What kind of question is that?" He pulled out the keys and shook them in front of her.
"Fine."
"Fine?"
"Let's go."
"Alright, let's go."
Authors Note: I won't even give you all an excuse because I know I suck but I hope you enjoyed this!
If you got any alerts saying I updated recently, I'm sorry! I was just making some edits but deleted the whole story by mistake so I had to re-upload it and that became a whole issue.
Reviews are always appreciated, and if you have any ideas/suggestions- send them my way!
WILL UPDATE SOON, I SWEAR!
