Author's note: Thank you so much for the great response and for all your reviews. So sorry for the delay. I'll try to update more regularly.
Back to SHIELD's helicarrier, Loki was taken to a cell – one that would measure up to his alien abilities.
When Steve entered the command room and wandered about, he saw agent Romanoff leaning over a desk, conversing briefly with the agent sitting there, the screen showing the picture and the data sheet of who seemed to be a fellow member of the organization. It piqued Steve's curiosity as it was the second time today he saw her doing it.
"Who is he?" he asked soberly to agent Hill who was standing nearby, staring at the computer screen agent Romanoff was standing by. Agent Hill turned her head and followed the direction of his gaze.
"Agent Barton," she replied sternly. "One of SHIELD's best agent. He got compromised when Loki showed up, although I can't explain whatever alien trick he used on him."
Steve nodded. That was unfortunate, obviously. But it still didn't explain why agent Romanoff was concerned about a fellow colleague so much. He didn't know her, but so far he could tell she wasn't the sentimental type.
"Did agent Romanoff ever work on a mission with him?" he asked with the most casual and dispassionate tone of voice.
Agent Hill drifted her gaze to him, staring like she was about the state a well-known fact.
"Agents Barton and Romanoff have been working together for many years. They're really close."
It rubbed him off the wrong way. It shouldn't have but it did. Part of him felt this irrational –and totally objectionable – discomfort at the thought of agent Romanoff being close to another man. And how close we were talking, here? Friendly or more? Clearly, the connection she had with Barton was deeper than a simple camaraderie. He could tell in the hint of concern that slipped through the veil she wore to conceal it. She cared for Barton undeniably more than she cared for him, and perhaps just as much as he cared for Natalie. This last thought, as unreasonable it was, scared him somehow. As much as he reminded himself agent Romanoff wasn't Natalie, he couldn't repress nor control the hurt of seeing this beautifully familiar face look at another man with an affection he used to see addressed to him. He didn't know, he wasn't sure about their bond and this was the most unsettling part –imagination could have far greater devastating effects than reality. And he really wished agent Hill had been inclined to be more forthcoming about the nature of their relationship regardless of how unprofessional it would have sounded. He was a man with ethics in theory but when it came to people he cared about, his passions had a tendency to take over – and drastic times called for drastic measures.
Steve watched agent Romanoff give a grateful nod to the agent and stand erect before walking away, but not without casting one last glance at Barton's photograph. The muscles of his jaw tightened a little and he bit his tongue at once for it.
Tony Stark and Thor walked in, Bucky following right behind, side-eyeing one of the newcomers in particular.
Stark paraded around the room (perhaps it was unintended but it sure felt like it) while throwing humorous remarks here and there.
"How does Fury even see these?" he asked, covering one eye with his hand to impersonate the Colonel.
"He turns," agent Hill answered with crossed arms, showing how unimpressed she was with her body language and her look.
"Sounds exhausting," he went on nonchalantly.
Steve threw a glance over his shoulder to look at Bucky and found him looking at him too; they both tacitly agreed Tony Stark was a lot like his father. Bucky seemed to think he was a more annoying version, though.
All of them gathered around the table as Director Fury's interview with the hostile Asgardian came on their screens. Steve listened to Loki's every word, sitting on his chair not astonished, nor afraid to the least. Seventy years had passed, millions light-years had separated them but Loki spoke like any man of power who craved more power. This Asgardian 'god' was as bland and common as any greedy megalomaniac on this good ol' planet. He didn't know whether the thought of a supposedly far more advanced civilization nurturing people with minds and ambitions as narrow and petty as the ones on Earth was sort of consoling or just plain tragic.
Once the usual speech of hate and dreams of conquest ended and the screen went off, everyone remained mute, agent Romanoff seeming to be in deep thought. Somehow he found the sight absolutely fascinating.
"Thor, what's his play?" he asked, pulling himself away from it.
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."
Alright, so the basic greedy guy had an alien army. It sort of complicated things a little.
"An army?" he repeated with a slightly sulky expression. "From outer space?"
"Whatever," Bucky commented. "Those Chitau-thing can't be uglier than Red Skull."
Steve's corner of mouth slightly rose into a smirk. Bucky had a talent at mentioning random stuff that always turned out to be pretty accurate.
"He's a friend," Thor said showing concern as he heard Banner mention Dr Selvig's name.
"Loki has them under some kind of spell," agent Romanoff finally spoke. The features of her face hardened taking a grimly expression and the tone of her voice went sullen as she voiced out the next words. "Along with one of ours."
Steve watched her from the other end of the table trying to conceal his frown (or perhaps even hurt look) as he took in every detail. Her arms crossed on the table, her chin slightly down, the way she sorrowfully dropped her gaze, all those signs disclosed her uneasiness. And he had no doubt the person she was referring to was agent Barton. She cared about the missing agent, there was no questioning it –and it didn't leave him indifferent.
Dr Banner and Stark had been working together for several hours. Steve was sitting silently in the conference room finally on his own and reflecting on the recent events. He endeavored to discover what Loki's plan was, but no matter how hard he tried, his mind always wandered back to agent Romanoff.
"Captain Rogers?" a feminine voice took him out of his reverie. He shifted his eyes up and found agent Hill standing before him.
"Is there anything I can do for you? Can I get you anything?"
She stood with her arms behind her back expectantly. She really seemed to mean it.
He smiled politely. "I'm alright. Thank you."
She responded a slight nod with a faint twitch of disappointment.
"You think Loki has a hidden plan?" she asked.
Steve rubbed his jaw. "I think he's got more under his sleeve than it looks. His capture was too easy."
Agent Hill nodded. "I guess we'll find out soon enough."
She turned and started towards the exit. She then stopped and spun around.
"I'm sorry," she blurted out, making Steve furrow his brows. He looked at her with a puzzled expression. Agent Hill seemed to be carrying a guilt that she was determined to let off her shoulders. "I promised you I would try everything to find your friend and I broke my word. And I owe you an apology for it."
A wistful smile came to his lips. The timing was highly ironic.
"You don't have to apologize. I am sure you tried your best as long as you were allowed to. But orders are orders."
Her jaw was tight but her eyes expressed gratitude for his understanding.
"I hope you'll find her somehow," she said.
He hoped she was right although she was completely oblivious his hope relied upon her very fellow colleague, agent Romanoff, to be the key to it.
"I don't like it," Bucky said after he walked up to him. "We know Loki is up to something and all we do is sit and wait for it to happen instead of acting."
Steve winced. He had to admit his friend was right. They both made their way to the lab to check on Stark and Dr Banner's progress in locating the Tesseract.
Just when they passed the door, they found Stark stinging the physicist with some type of electrical shock. That had to be one the most irresponsible and inane thing he had ever seen. Bucky seemed to share his opinion, only more strongly as he probably labelled it the most irresponsible and inane thing his eye had ever witnessed.
"Are you nuts?" Steve yelled –and which had no effect on Stark whatsoever since he went on with his conversation with Banner. "Is everything a joke to you?"
Bucky had his arms folded over his chest, implicitly reiterating Steve's question with his posture.
"Funny things are," he replied.
"If you can call that an attempt at being funny," Bucky muttered under his breath but still loud enough to be heard by the person targeted.
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve blurted out hardly. He was immediately caught up by Dr Banner's presence and immediately regretted his burst of frankness. "No offense, doctor," he added right away, genuinely apologetic.
Dr Banner didn't seem offended, although actually one person in the room had taken offense and it was Stark…from Bucky's comment. He gawked at him with a rush of offensive thoughts flashing across his face.
"No, it...it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."
"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." Stark said to him.
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve chimed in the conversation.
"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."
"You think Fury's hiding something?" he asked sort of agreeing with the man for the first time.
"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Stark turned to Dr Banner. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"
The two best friends looked at him with much attention. Perhaps with too much attention that it made the doctor uncomfortable.
"Uh," he started bashfully." I just wanna finish my work here and..."
"Doctor?" Steve said gently. Of the two scientists, Dr Banner's opinion was the one he valued the most at this moment.
"A world for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube," he quoted.
"I heard it," Steve said. Bucky nodded.
"Well, I think that was meant for you," Dr Banner continued, addressing Stark…who awarded his awareness and deduction skills with a blueberry. Dr Banner dove his hand into the pack of dried fruit Stark had handed out to him and took one to his mouth." Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."
"The Stark Tower?" Steve frowned, surprised and clueless about why Loki would take close interest in it. "That big, ugly…," his comment was interrupted by Stark's unfriendly glare. "…building in New York?"
Bucky didn't even try to conceal his smirk while staring at the billionaire.
The conversation went on about Colonel Fury's real motives regarding the Tesseract. Steve had protested they should all stick to the orders they had been given.
"Following is not really my style," Stark said munching the remaining of his blueberries.
"And you're all about style, aren't you?"
"Of the people in this room, which one is; a-wearing a spangly outfit, and b- not of use?"
"Funny. I was asking myself just the same about your vanity," Bucky retorted with a deep voice and a stern look. "That and the goatee. It's so 2005."
Although the first comment slid into Stark's ear and out the other with an easiness that betrayed he was quite accustomed to hearing it, the second remark had a harder time slipping out though. Stark looked at Bucky with the most defiant outrage while the other relished the moment realizing all those hours spent browsing through decades of men's fashion had finally paid off.
Stark opened his mouth, ready to snap.
"How about we postpone all this fashion chit-chat for another time and focus on what Fury really wants?" Dr Banner spoke.
It calmed the two men down. To some extent.
"Just find the cube," Steve said then headed toward the door, closely followed by Bucky.
"So what do we do?" Bucky said as soon as they walked out of the lab.
"Fury is onto something," he spoke firmly, feeling deceived.
"Yeah. I should have known the eye patch was a dead give away," Bucky replied sarcastically. "What are you thinking?"
Steve looked at his friend. "I'm thinking we should do our own digging?" he answered with a spark in the eye.
Bucky agreed with a smirk. "And no one ever believes me when I say you're the snoop."
After twenty minutes, the digging turned out to be very informative. Steve finally found weapons stored into crates in one of the many rooms he searched while Bucky was on watch outside the door stored. The armamen looked unlike anything he had seen before. He walked out of the room, carrying one of the guns and Bucky gave it a long look.
"Shocker. A governmental organization that aims to make even more deadly weapons. This new world never ceases to amaze me," he commented with an apathetic tone.
"Let's see what Fury's got to say about it," Steve said sternly walking toward the command center with a determined gait.
"You're gonna make a dramatic entrance, aren't you?" Bucky mused aloud, slightly amused.
They were walking past the lab when he caught sight of Fury having a heated conversation with Dr Banner and Stark.
"… When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile. And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss," Dr Banner was saying. "What is Phase 2?"
Steve came up to the table and deliberately dropped the gun loud on the table. It had the knack to pique everyone's attention once and for all.
"Phase 2 is SHIELD use the cube to make weapons."
And here it was for his dramatic entrance. All eyes were glued on his discovery.
"Sorry," he said ironically, "the computer was moving a little too slow for me."
He shot the Director his most judgmental look. He certainly didn't expect him to be a saint, but one thing he wished was that the world had grown to have defenders of their nation that actually cared to keep the world in peace. With people like Fury detaining high authority, the world wasn't safe to enter yet another world war.
"I was wrong, Director," Steve said after Stark showed the result of his hacking and the evidence that SHIELD was indeed working on alien weapon prototypes. "The world hasn't changed a bit."
Agent Romanoff walked in the room and put all her attention on Dr Banner, displaying a certain defensive demeanor. It caught Steve's curiosity.
"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" she said with an intent gaze and a grave voice.
"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," Dr Banner retorted.
"Loki's manipulating you," she continued.
Steve frowned. He didn't really know nor understand why agent Romanoff had come to the conclusion that Dr Banner was in Loki's radar but she showed an unquestionable assurance about her statement.
The tension slowly increased as everyone argued over the alien weapon manufacturing secret behind the Tesseract.
"A nuclear deterrent." Stark said. "Cause that always calms everything right down."
Stark's expression was sarcastic and judgmental, and Steve couldn't help finding it ironic. Stark Enterprise was known for selling the best weapons on the market. Even though this business belonged to the past (but still a past that went over decades), the blasé remark smelled pretty hypocritical right now.
Director Fury had the same thought.
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" he told him.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons," Steve chimed in. "Stark would be neck deep-"
Stark held his hand up and stepped forward.
"Wait, wait. Hold on," he reacted quickly. "How is this now about me?"
Hands on his belt, Steve turned to him with an apparent frown on his face. Bucky stared at the billionaire with a similar expression. Stark's second ironic comment of the conversation.
"I'm sorry. Isn't everything?" Steve retorted as he combined sarcasm with an unapologetic expression.
The tension in the room reached its peak but most especially between Stark and him. Dr Banner had also started to grow irked getting wary and guarded looks from agent Romanoff.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Stark dared to tease yet another time at such a critical time, one hand pressed on Steve's shoulder to emphasize the nonchalance.
"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve rose his voice, pushing the billionaire's hand off of him.
Stark stepped into his personal space with a glare. "Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," he muttered.
Steve sensed the animosity which had made its way here quite at a wrong timing. Or at least he should have realized if it weren't for him being just as busy responding with the same level of resentment.
"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"
Stark cocked an eyebrow then pouted. "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," he answered matter-of-factly.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Steve answered back more aggressively than he anticipated. Dugan, Morita, Jones, Sawyer, Falsworth, Pinkerton, Peggy. It brought back vivid memories from the field. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guys crawl over you."
"I think would just cut the wire," Stark countered offhandedly. The casualness in which he answered had the knack to irritate far more than what was probably intended. All those soldiers –and comrades he had seen died – whose sacrifices and heroism were diminished with the back of the hand by an arrogant, spoiled businessman.
"Always a way out," Steve smirked humorlessly. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero like you?" Stark took a step forward. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
Bucky unfolded his arms and started toward Tony Stark in a belligerent way. Steve held his arm out, motioning to him to remain standing where he was while holding a firm gaze to his interlocutor.
"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds," he murmured hardly with a challenging smirk, whole-heartedly wishing his request would be granted. And fast.
The other people in the room chimed in with their comment or resumed trying to remove Dr Banner from the lab although Steve was too engrossed in staring at Stark's face and anticipating how satisfying it would feel to put a fist on it.
"In case you needed to kill me well you can't!" he heard Dr Banner yell; "I know. I tried."
Steve, Stark and everyone else in the room froze. Steve turned and gave the physicist a sad and sympathetic look. This poignant revelation upset him in more ways than anyone would have expected. Part of him couldn't help feeling partly responsible for Dr Banner's fate – after all the creation of his green alter ego resulted in the experiments to replicate his own super-serum. Part of him felt for him as he recalled the long days and nights he had spent alone in New York after waking up from his coma; if it hadn't been for Bucky being here with him, those two miserable weeks waking for him would have turned into months and years; and soon, the prospect of living a life of solitude would have been just plain unbearable. It had frightened him to no end to just picture it the eventuality that Bucky would never wake up; and the mere thought of it had plunged him into melancholy. Who knew how many times a night Dr Banner had felt the same way, and enough to try to end his misery.
"I got low," Dr Banner justified as he understood he had made everyone uncomfortable. "I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show, and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff?"
Hearing him say her name and addressing her directly with a such a hard tone made Steve stand erect and alert. His eyes instinctively drifted across the room and found her discreetly unbuttoning her holster to take hold of the gun at her hip all this while keeping a close look at the physicist's every motion.
"You wanna know how I stay calm?" the latter continued, his voice dropping down an octave. Steve watched cautiously as he reached for Loki's weapon behind him. His chest and fists tightened as the realization that if Dr Banner were to lose control, every sign showed agent Romanoff would be his first target. Or so he feared. And this was a risk he wasn't willing to take. Not with her.
"Dr Banner," Steve spoke calmly but ready to step in. "Put the sceptre down."
The physicist looked confused, even quizzical about the reason why everyone was staring at him with such a guarded expression. He glanced down and came to the realization he was firmly holding Loki's sceptre.
The tension was evident in the room as it was a minute ago with the only difference that all the attention was now turned on Dr Banner and the danger for everyone on board his transformation would bring.
A beeping went off from the computer, putting everything on pause.
"Sorry, kids," Dr Banner said as he put the sceptre back on the table and headed toward the computer. "You don't get to see my party trick after all."
"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.
"I can get there, faster." Stark exclaimed and already lurking at the exit door.
"There's no way you're going alone!" Bucky hollered.
"And what are you gonna do? Cling to me while I fly over there?" Stark retorted hardly.
"I just might. I won't be heavier than that ego of yours you carry around," Bucky snapped back.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor chimed in.
Stark started toward the exit listening to nothing but his arrogance. It seemed he had made it a point to go collect the Tesseract himself less for humanity's sake and more to piss Captain America and his sidekick off.
"You're not going alone," Steve exclaimed, reaching for his arm.
Stark immediately pushed it away. "You gonna stop me?" he threatened him.
Steve gritted his teeth. "Put on the suit, let's find out."
Bucky grunted behind, disappointed Steve had beaten him to the idea.
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Stark said, and at this moment, he seemed to mean it whole-heartedly.
Steve's blood boiled inside. He couldn't concentrate on nothing other than erase that cocky look from Stark's face. "Put on the suit," he hissed.
"Oh my God," Dr Banner whispered in astonishment.
The sound of a strong deflagration took them by surprise as the explosion that had abruptly gone off shook the whole helicarrier up and made them fall to the ground in a blinding and burning light. Steve's eyes alarmingly looked out for agent Romanoff and caught a glimpse of her being thrust out of the large window glass along with Dr Banner.
His heart pounded harder than it already did and he got on his feet, starting towards the burst window. Bucky was propping himself up to the door frame nearby; he was soon standing on his feet, looking perfectly fine.
It was clear to everyone the explosion was what Loki had in mind all along and that his very presence in the helicarrier was to lead to this moment.
"We gotta move," Stark yelled to him. Steve didn't really hear him, busy listening to his instinct only. His guts had countless reasons why her safety was his priority – because regardless of how erroneous it was, it did feel like leaving Natalie in danger if he didn't go; because agent Romanoff could be related to Natalie and he owed it to her to protect her too; because he couldn't possibly take the risk of losing the last link to Natalie – if she indeed were. And nameless other reasons.
The billionaire grabbed his arm to hold him back.
"Hey…I'm sure the other guy and Pippi Longstocking are fine," Stark said, pulling him toward the opposite direction.
Steve's eyes were fixed on the spot he had just seen her being propelled through. He tried to suppress the unreasonable fear he felt in the pit of his stomach and reluctantly drifted his look away.
"Put on the suit," he told Stark who nodded obediently and staggered out of the room, still a bit shaken up, one hand over his mouth to prevent himself from breathing the toxic smoke. Steve followed to the door then glanced behind him, caught up by his instinct again. It tore him to have to go on to help somewhere else when all he thought about was check if she were okay.
"Steve," someone took him out of his thinking. He detached his gaze from the broken window and drifted it to whoever was talking to him. Bucky was staring intently at him, a hand pressed on his shoulder.
"I will find her," he assured him gravely and with the frown he had every time he made him a promise.
It soothed him as strongly as if he had made the decision to go for her himself. He trusted Bucky with his life, and he trusted him with hers.
Steve nodded and Bucky gave him a squeeze on the shoulder before they parted, running out of the room in opposite directions.