Chapter 2: Confusion

Police and Paramedics appeared in no time, and everyone seemed to be fine. Stefano, the coffee shop owner, was bleeding where bullets had grazed his shoulder and arm, but miraculously, was otherwise unharmed. Steve felt terrible and tried to offer to help pay for repairs, but Stefano looked positively offended.

"Don't be ridiculous good captain! I change insurance after last time aliens invade, new insurer covers everything! Shootings, explosions, aliens, it is all in the contract!" and with that, he waved Steve off and began to pick up the undamaged coffee cups and saucers from among the broken ones which littered the floor along with the broken glass.

"It's kind of hilarious that there are insurance companies that cover this kind of damage," Natasha said from behind him, and he turned. She had finished debriefing the NYPD detective who was now wandering away scribbling notes. Her bag was already on her shoulder, and she held out his book to him.

"Let's go now, the press will be all over this place soon."

They slipped out the back, Stefano ushering them through the back room where he kept his stock to the delivery entrance, where they could leave the scene unnoticed.

Pepper knew better than anyone that Tony could be a difficult person to get along with. She knew that maintaining friendships had never been Tony's strong point, and that it had probably never occurred to Tony that the Avengers weren't just his team, they were in fact friends. So she had taken the liberty of giving them all higher level security clearances in the Stark tower and assured them that they were always welcome. Finding an apartment to sublet whilst in New York was a pain in the ass, so more than once members of the Avengers found themselves staying in at the Stark tower when they were in town.

However, Pepper was surprised to see Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff stepping out of the lift when JARVIS announced that Avengers – level clearance guests had entered the building. Saving her open spreadsheets and snapping her laptop shut, she stood to greet them.

"Steve, Natasha, how are you?" She smiled, and despite themselves, both Natasha and Steve smiled back. There was something very warm and welcoming about Pepper, you couldn't help but feel a little bit better in her presence.

"Steve, how's your Brooklyn apartment? I know it's smaller than the place you had in DC," Pepper asked as she crossed the room to the bar. "and what can I get you both to drink?"

"Water is fine," Steve responded.

"Stolichnaya Elit?" Natasha said in surprise as she scanned the bar. "Always thought Stark was more of a whiskey man,"

Pepper smiled "you know Tony, he's always up for trying something new. And he likes to indulge in a martini from time to time." She said turned to grab the bottle off the shelf as Steve turned to look at Natasha.

"It's barely gone 3pm."

"Yeah, and people have already started shooting at us. Outrageous, I know."

"Straight?" asked Pepper as she poured the clear liquid into a glass.

"On the rocks," Natasha answered, preferring her vodka ice cold. Back home in Stalingrad, Natasha had a vague memory of bottles left outside in the snow. Of opening a door and running outside barefoot, the snow stinging the soles of her feet as she ran to the bucket of water that the bottles had been left in to bring them inside. In the middle of a particularly harsh Russian winter, it had been somebody's birthday. Her grandfather maybe, she wasn't sure. It was one of her earliest memories; one of her only real memories.

Steve was glaring disapprovingly at her as he opened his bottle of water. She smiled sweetly, raising her glass in a toast, then brought it to her lips.

"So what happened?" Pepper wanted to know.

Steve explained the afternoons events. When he had finished, Pepper sat on one of the bar stools, thoughtfully chewing her lip.

"It sounds really amateur. Do you think it's just some Hydra fanboys going after you because of the internet leak?"

Steve shook his head. "It wasn't just amateur, it was feeble. Like someone really couldn't be bothered."

"After the internet leak, everyone knows what we are capable of." Natasha chimed in. "We took out an alien invasion in New York. Steve and I pretty much single-handedly took down Hydra. The details are all over the internet. Nobody could have possibly thought they could take us out with half a dozen barely armed untrained men."

"Yes, but an attempt at what?" Pepper wanted to know.

"A distraction?" Steve asked. "Something to occupy us briefly while something else took place?"

"Maybe," Natasha nodded. "But it wasn't a very good one. They must know we would investigate."

At that moment, the doors of the lift slid open and Tony stepped in to the room, and strode towards them.

"What the hell did you do to Sefano's?" he demanded.

"You know Stefano's?" Steve asked incredulously

"Best damn coffee joint in lower Manhattan, of course I know Stefano's!" Tony said. "What did you do to his shop?"

"Technically we didn't do anything," Natasha commented. "We're the victims in this situation."

Tony snorted. "You? A victim? I don't think that word means what you think it means."

"What she's trying to say," Steve interrupted before they could start bickering, "was that we didn't instigate this. We were attacked out of nowhere."

"Was it definitely you they were attacking?"

Everyone in the room was silent. Thinking back to the afternoon's events, neither Steve nor Natasha could remember a point where the shops attackers seemed specifically interested in them.

"I hate to say this guys... but there is a chance this was a general crime, and you guys happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"The right place at the right time as far as Stefano was concerned," Pepper added.

"The point is, it's New York City, and shit like this happens all the time. Not everything is necessarily about you."

The other three looked at him, Natasha raising an eyebrow, Pepper with an expression of pure exasperation on her face, and Steve completely open mouthed. Tony looked back at them with completely unabashed, perfectly aware of how hypocritical his last sentence was.

Natasha shook her head and took a large gulp from her glass.

"Stark." She said. "Just tell us what you've found."