Falling Into Place

"Hello," Olivia said gently, smiling softly as Phil's eyes began to flutter, the man slowly waking up, "Gently now," she added when he seemed about to try and sit up, reaching out to place a hand lightly on his shoulder to keep him resting, "Easy. Your body's had quite the trauma. It may take awhile to heal fully, but you'll make a full recovery, I'm sure of it."

It had been quite the terrifying moment, when the medical team had managed to get Phil to their division and begin working on him. But SHIELD was nothing if not advanced, and though it felt like mere moments to her, it had been much longer when he had finally been stabilized. From what she understood, Fury had informed the others that she was treating people in the infirmary, any SHIELD agents who had been injured where to go there so she could help assist. It was the only way Fury seemed able to keep Steve from barging in. If she was on duty and doing her duty, there was a higher chance she wouldn't be disturbed. And while she didn't appreciate Fury actively wanting to keep the others away, it at least had given her time to make sure Phil would be alright.

Phil's face scrunched as he looked up at her though there was a small quirk to his lip, "Well, I'll be..." he murmured, Olivia moving to help him take a small sip of water.

She was honestly shocked that he had woken up so soon, but Phil was a strong and healthy man to start with, and, according to the other medical professionals, if she had been even a minute later than she had been, she would be looking down at a corpse right now. Her quick action had saved his life.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I thought they were lying..."

"Who?" she continued, trying to be cautious in the questions she asked, it was clear in how he slurred his words just a little that he was a bit loopy from the morphine.

"The reports," he said, "They all said it was an angel. But it was you."

Olivia opened her mouth to ask him what he was talking about, when the old man in Germany, his words, came back to her. The man had said his brother claimed an angel had taken him off the field and protected him, saved his life. Apparently he wasn't the only one to describe it as that if these reports Phil was talking about were what she thought they were. It made sense, in a way, she was the ONLY female medic on the field during the war, any soldier would be a little shocked to see a woman come to help him.

"They were right," he finished.

"I'm no angel," Olivia reached out to take Phil's hand, both in comfort but also to monitor his pulse herself, "I'm just a medic."

"Thank you," Phil opened his eyes once more, "You don't hear that enough."

Her smile was a little sad, "I don't think many Medics do. But thank you."

Phil let out a sigh, the quirk on his lips growing more now that it was clear he was actually going to survive past the wound he had sustained.

Olivia looked up when the door to the room opened and one of the medical associates stepped in. It was a little startling to her to see someone in a uniform like that. She was so used to seeing the nurses and doctors dressed in white during the war, but SHIELD seemed to take a different approach. While their agents tended to wear black, it appeared the medical division wore a navy blue, almost like overalls. Each of them had a patch on their left side with their name under it and what appeared to be their specialty in the field of medicine below that.

She waited, getting up and moving to the side to allow the woman to look over Phil and his stats quickly before she left to give her report to Fury.

"It's because of you, you know," Phil mumbled when Olivia set back beside him, taking his hand once more.

"What is?"

"The Olive Branch."

"I'm afraid I don't follow," she told him gently.

He seems like he wanted to chuckle at her response, but a groan of pain kept him from following through, "Medical branch...the patch," he managed to move his other hand somewhat, not quite seeming in control of his movements just yet as his arm swung across his body to rest over his heart. Though he tapped it where she'd seen the patch the woman had been wearing.

She nodded, slowly understanding, "The patches are olive branches?" and then his first words struck her, "...SHIELD's medical branch is called the Olive Branch?"

Phil nodded, humming under his breath as he let his eyes fall closed, "For you. Help, no matter who. You inspired...a whole generation," he told her, though his words were getting softer and more mumbled, "SHIELD wouldn't have a medical division..."

Olivia sat back just a little as Phil drifted off to sleep, blinking a bit to try and keep the tears that were growing in her eyes from falling as she made sense of his words. Apparently SHIELD hadn't had much of a plan to create a medical division at first, but her efforts in the war were enough to inspire them to do so. The entire medical division of SHIELD came about because of her. All of the technology she had seen those doctors use to save Phil, to bring him back when he had died for a moment or two on the operating table, to stabilize him, wouldn't have existed if they didn't have this branch. It explained why the doctors and the other medical professionals had looked at her the way they did when she had come in with Phil, like they were meeting a personal hero.

And the Olive Branch? From what she could gather of Phil's words, to help no matter who. The patch was SHIELD's own insignia for first aid. That those of the medical profession for SHIELD would extend their help to anyone, no matter who they were, if they were injured or in need of assistance. They extended an olive branch, perhaps even to their enemies, because of her belief and her efforts in the war.

She found herself smiling just a little bit and shaking her head in thought. She had always known Steve would inspire so many people with his efforts. But she had never given much thought to what her trials and tribulations were going to amount to. She was sitting in the middle of it now, in a room, in an entire branch of a base dedicated to helping people.

She could finally see it.

She took a deep breath, clearing her throat lightly as she stood. Fury had been very clear that, once Phil had woken up, once she had seen that he was stable and conscious for herself, that she was to come and find him. She was sure the nurse who had checked on Phil would make that report to Fury and if she didn't leave soon he would track her down. She looked over at Phil, smiling at the sight of him sleeping comfortably, all of his stats strong and stable, and stepped beside him. She leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead like Michael had done to her and Peggy so often when they were ill, before she straightened and made her way out of the room.

~8~

"Do you understand?" Fury spoke to Olivia as she stood before him in a small room of the medical wing.

He seemed very serious, and she seemed very angry.

"Let me see if I do," she began, though her voice was like steel, "You want me to lie to Steve, to my partner, and let him think Phil is dead?"

"Agent Coulson's status must remain confidential," Fury agreed, his voice equally as tense and strict.

"You have made it very clear that it should remain confidential," she repeated, "I want to know why Steve cannot know."

Fury let out a long sigh, "The same reason I sent the report that they called it. You saw what happened when everyone was brought together, the fighting, the bickering. They were never going to be able to work together. Unless they had something to fight for."

"You want to use Phil's injury, I'm sorry his 'death,' to motivate a team?" Olivia shook her head, sounding absolutely disgusted with the idea.

"They would honor his memory by..."

"No," Olivia cut in, "I won't do it. I will not. I refuse."

"Major Williams..."

"Director Fury, you listen to me very carefully, sir. I will not lie to my partner."

"The fate of the Avengers Initiative rests on them coming together over this."

"Steve doesn't need any motivation to work as part of a team!" Olivia defended, "It's the others you need to worry about. If they can work as a team, Steve can work with them."

"He didn't seem too willing before."

"Because no one else was willing to work with him either. Look at the people you brought in, Director, and ask yourself which of them actually has any experience being part of a team at all," she gave him a moment to consider it before she continued, "Dr. Banner isolated himself, the Black Widow is an assassin and assassins work best alone, Tony Stark holds a solo career as Iron Man. And Thor, well, Thor appeared to care little about anything beyond finding the cube. Steve was part of the Howling Commandos, he was part of the army, he was part of a team, he has always been part of a larger group. He can't be part of a team if the team itself can't be a team. If the others come together, Steve will too. I will not lie to him about something like this, there is no reason to."

Fury was silent for quite a long while, trying to stare her down, but Olivia would not be moved. Not when her convictions told her that she was right. It was something Peggy had told her once, that when something was wrong it was her duty to plant herself like a tree and stand against the opposition no matter who it was. You had to do what was right.

The others were not her responsibility, she had no say over what Fury told them or did not. But Steve was her partner, in every way that mattered, she would not lie to him, not for anyone, not for anything.

"If you ask him to fight on a team he will," Olivia repeated, sure of it, "He doesn't need something like this to ensure that he does."

Fury let out a long, deep sigh, shaking his head as though he was going to regret this, "Fine. You have my permission to tell Rogers the truth. But," he added, "I will ask that you wait until after I have said my piece to them. Deal?"

Olivia wasn't pleased with that addendum, but it appeared Fury was at least willing to compromise with her on this. She could understand somewhat why he might request that. If he was going to speak to the team as a whole, they would be around each other and see each other's reactions. Steve would have to react as though he truly believed Phil had died in order for the others to believe it too. As much as she hated lying to him, she would have to look at this more as delaying the truth.

But he would be told the truth.

"Deal."

~8~

Olivia slowly approached Natasha as the woman stood outside of a cell, looking through a small window in the door at where Agent Barton had been strapped down, deemed a danger to himself and others while he was still under Loki's control. It appeared, though, that Natasha's method of trying to break him free was actually working from what the scans had displayed.

She had been forbidden by Fury to go with him while he spoke to the other members, Natasha would not be pulled from Barton's side. Fury seemed to think that she would be incapable of holding it together or schooling her emotions as though Phil had actually died, and told her he would send Steve her way once he had spoken to them. So she was waiting in the medical wing, checking on the remaining SHIELD agents, when she spotted Natasha.

"You're worried about him," she remarked as she glanced at Natasha, the woman not even looking away from the window.

"Of course I am," Natasha nearly snapped.

She reached out and put a hand on Natasha's shoulder, squeezing it, "He's a strong man, Tasha. He WILL push Loki's control off him. You both were trained in resisting conditioning like that," she recalled from the files.

"No," Natasha shook her head, "Not like this."

She could only shrug slightly, that was true, this was…magic, not something often taught in training soldiers, "Well…you DID hit him round the head rather hard," she smiled a bit, nudging her, "That HAD to get through even his thick skull."

Natasha cracked a smile at her words, before looking over at her, "You saw the scans?"

Olivia nodded, thinking back to the x-rays and the other scans the agents had taken of Barton while he had been unconscious. It was both in an effort to see if his brain was lighting up differently under Loki's control, and also to ensure no damage has been done in his fight with Natasha, "I have, yes."

Natasha was silent for a moment, opening her mouth once or twice as though trying to speak, "Did I...I didn't...his head..."

"You didn't cause him any damage," Olivia promised her, "He may have a nasty bruise, and quite severe headaches for the next few days, his eyesight may be a little blurry, but we won't know till he wakes. Other than that, he will heal, and he will be fine."

Natasha nodded, looking back at the window once more, "Unlike other people..." she murmured under her breath.

Olivia had to look away, not sure she could face Natasha knowing that Phil was still alive while the woman clearly thought he had died as Fury intended. Luckily, before Natasha could notice anything odd, they could see Barton slowly starting to wake within the room. Natasha gave a glance over at Olivia, nodding her head in thanks, before she keyed in a code and entered the room to be with the man as he came to.

Olivia let out of breath, looking around at the hall and the few people still in the main infirmary area, before she shook her head and made her way out of the room. This was eating her alive, the thought that, right now, Fury was talking to Steve as though Phil were dead. They had no secrets from each other, Fury had to be done speaking to the the boys.

She nodded to herself and left the infirmary.

~8~

Steve paced within the locker room he had been given on the base, having needed to get out of the Bridge and away from Fury and Tony. He just needed a moment, he just needed to breathe, he just needed Olivia, but he couldn't go find her, because she was active as a medic right now, and they had both promised never to interfere with each other while they were doing their duty. But he was going up the walls with the need to just hug her. He hadn't even realized she had gone to the detention chamber, he hadn't even known she had been right there in front of Loki, until after it was all over.

He had heard Fury over the comm., calling out about Phil needing medical assistance. He had heard Olivia shout in the background and his heart had stopped. Because Olivia had been there when Loki had been free, Olivia could have been attacked, she could have been killed by Loki just like Phil. And all he wanted to do track her down and pull her into his arms and reassure himself that she was still there. But Fury had called her in to assist in the infirmary, and it was only for the injured and he wasn't injured. He had ended up pacing up and down the command center, waiting until she was cleared to leave.

Only for Fury to arrive and start talking about Phil and every word out of that man's mouth just made him feel infinitely worse.

Fury had flung the trading cards that Phil had collected on to the table, some of them covered in blood. He could see Olivia's signature on some of them, but there were ones of him without any penmanship. Fury had remarked about how he just didn't get around to signing them. It was such a simple thing that would have made Phil so overjoyed yet he hadn't made the extra effort Olivia had to actually DO it.

And hadn't that been exactly why he and Olivia did things as soon as possible? Because tomorrow was never guaranteed?

Fury didn't stop there, going on to remind them about their situation. They were dead in the air, the communications were knocked off, all the programs running to locate the cube had been corrupted, Bruce was gone, Thor was gone, and Phil was dead. At least Fury had admitted to the weapons SHIELD had been building, but that hadn't been the main game plan, not for Fury, not just building up an arsenal of Tesseract-powered weapons. There had been something more he hoped to gain from bringing them together over the search for the cube.

He told them about the Avengers Initiative. How he wanted to bring together a group of remarkable people, so that they could work together when the Earth had a true need of them, to fight enemies and battles that average people could never handle. It made sense now, why the specialists, as Fury had called them, had all come with their own strengths and uniqueness and weapons. He brought up how Phil had believed in that initiative, how he died hoping it could work, the unspoken part about how he had probably doubted it in the end after seeing them all together was clear. Phil Coulson had believed in heroes, both old fashioned and new, Phil just wanted to help people and protect his planet.

They had let him down.

He had died never seeing that initiative able to take off.

And all Steve kept thinking about was all the people he used to know who died never able to see the fruits of their labor. He felt his mind drifting back to Bucky, how the man had died before the war was even over and never got to see their victory. Olivia had reminded him of everything Bucky believed in when he had wanted to give up, she had gotten him up and fighting again, because Bucky believed in what they were doing and just because he had died it didn't mean the cause had died with him.

It was the same now, Phil had died believing the Avengers could be something, just because he was gone didn't mean that that dream had to stop.

But God, he really just needed a hug right now and he couldn't even admit it to anyone but Olivia because he was Captain America, the man who had to be strong, the man who always had to have a plan. But what plan did he have now? He had failed Bucky. He had failed Phil. He just...

He nearly sagged when he felt two arms wrap around him from behind and hug him tightly, feeling Olivia press up against the back of his suit. She snuck up on him again, even while his pacing brought him within sight of the door. But he'd never been more grateful for her sudden appearance because it pulled him out of his darkening thoughts.

He squeezed her arms for the moment, before turning around so he could hug her more fully, winding his arms around her waist as he held her tightly to him. The two of them taking a minute, maybe a few longer, to just hold each other, relieved to be together again.

"Are you alright?" Olivia murmured, her voice next to his ear.

"Now," he admitted to her, letting out of breath and closing his eyes, just feeling her with him, reminding himself she was alive and well and with him again.

"I meant were you hurt?"

"No, were you?"

"No," Olivia pulled back to look at him, tears in her eyes as she saw the utter devastation in his own.

"Thank God you're ok," Steve leaned forward to rest his forehead to hers, taking a moment to breathe, "If anything happened to you..."

"I was well-protected," she reassured him.

"When you were on the Bridge," he countered, pulling back to look at her again, "You went into the detention chamber with Loki..."

"Phil was injured, I couldn't stand by and do nothing."

A part of Steve wanted to ask her, beg her, never to do something like that again, never to risk her life the way she had for someone else. But a larger part of him knew she always would, she would never be able to stand aside while someone was hurt or in pain. Just like he would never be able to stand to the side while someone was in danger. They both understood the risk involved when they joined the army, they both understood their lives would always be at stake for someone else's safety. But it never stopped the flash of selfishness and wanting her to always be safe that appeared whenever she wasn't.

"I'm sorry," he said instead, reaching out to touch her cheek, knowing it must devastate her to have lost Phil the way she had, "You did everything you could and..."

"Steve," Olivia cut in gently, reaching up to touch his hand and pull it from her face to hold it in her own. She slowly moved to the side, sitting down on a small bench and moving him to join her, "What I tell you must stay between us," her hand moved up to touch the end of her necklace, and he knew it was serious, she only ever did that before a battle, when something was touching to her, or when something was truly serious.

"Of course," he promised, his own hand going to where he could just barely feel the end of the necklace she had given him under his uniform, "What is it, Liv?"

"Phil is still alive," she told him, lowering her voice as though afraid someone might walk past his locker door and hear her.

Steve stared at her and blinked, "...I'm sorry?"

Olivia nodded, "He was still stable when Fury made that call. I was with him all the way to the infirmary, and even in the operating room for a Time. He's stable, Steve, he's alive."

Steve blinking rapidly, shaking his head, "But Fury...why would he...he told us...I don't..."

"He thought it would help motivate the others to come together as a team," she told him, "He tried to order me to keep it from you."

"What?" he looked at her.

"I refused. You are my partner and I will keep nothing from you. You are the only one who doesn't need motivation to be part of a team."

"He ordered you not to tell me?"

She nodded, "But it wasn't right to keep this from you. So I told him I was going to tell you no matter what. He asked that I just wait until after he had spoken to everyone."

Steve had to look away for a moment, a very large part of him was completely thrown by the fact that Phil Coulson was still alive, was completely disgusted with the fact that Fury had tried to use it to get what he wanted. He was disturbed by the feeling that he had almost fallen for it, that he HAD fallen for it, that Fury would have let him carry that burden and that guilt for the rest of his life and now he was questioning the leadership of SHIELD that a person like that could do something to the people he wanted on his team, manipulate them the way he had.

But there was a smaller part of his mind niggling him at the back, that told him it was also a little bit about the fact that Fury had ordered Olivia to remain silent, and she refused. She have been given an order, and she had questioned it, she had fought back against it because it wasn't right.

When he had first come out of the ice, when he realized nothing was the same except him and Olivia, he felt lost, they both had. They both struggled to find a place in this new world, a soldier and a medic out of time, as Loki had described. Being given this mission by SHIELD, he had thought it might be the chance he needed to really find his place again. To work with a descendant of the SSR, to be the soldier fighting HYDRA once more. He had been so desperate to feel like he belonged and had a purpose again that he had blindly followed Fury's orders. Even when Bruce and Tony had been questioning it, he had been going along with it, even though he knew on some level that there was something off about it as well. He had been an obedient little soldier.

What if Fury had ordered him to keep this secret from Olivia? A large part of him wanted to say he would refuse exactly as she had, because she was his partner and he kept nothing from her.

But that small part whispered that maybe he wouldn't, that maybe he would have just followed orders.

He didn't want that, he didn't want to be an obedient soldier. How different would that be from the compromised SHIELD agents Loki had gotten under his control? Perhaps it was Olivia's role in the war, as a medic as opposed to a soldier, someone who had a little more freedom in when it came to following commands than a soldier did. But her words, her will, it was starting to remind him of who he was, of why he had become a soldier. It reminded him of why Dr. Erskine had selected him.

Dr. Erskine had not picked Hodge because he was a mindless soldier following orders, the man had picked him because he had a mind of its own and a good heart.

He felt like he had lost himself a little bit since waking up on the ice, but right now, with Olivia beside him, he felt like that part was coming back.

He looked over at Olivia, "I love you," he told her, for so many reasons that he couldn't name. For telling him the truth, for disobeying orders, for saving Phil, for reminding him of who he was, for standing with him, for just...everything.

Olivia seemed a little thrown by the change in the direction of the conversation, but smiled anyway, "I love you, too."

He began to nod to himself as he thought back on her words, "Whether Phil is alive or not, he believed in this initiative, he believed in heroes. I think it's time we gave the world the team they deserve."

Olivia nodded and squeezed his hand, "I'm with you."

~8~

Steve and Olivia walked into the detention chamber of the Base to see Tony standing there, looking at where the circular cell had once stood, silent.

"I'm sorry," Steve spoke, "He seemed like a good man."

Olivia had mentioned that Fury didn't want anyone to know that Phil was still alive, but Olivia had argued to tell him. Which he assumed meant no one else had been given that same permission. He didn't want to get her in trouble with Fury, so he had to play along that he still thought Phil was gone.

"He was an idiot," Tony countered.

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He wasn't alone, in the end," Olivia reminded him.

"A lot of good that did him, didn't it?" he sounded like he meant for it to be a snap, but it just came across this more mournful.

Olivia reached out a hand to Steve's chest when he opened his mouth to defend her, and shook her head for a moment, "Don't allow your hurt, to grow into a desire to hurt others."

Tony swallowed looked away.

"...is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked after a minute.

"WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS!" this time Tony did snap, spinning fully to face the two of them, his face an angry mask, but his eyes showing the true sorrow he felt, "I am not marching to Fury's fife!"

"And neither are we," Olivia answered calmly, reaching down to take Steve's hand and squeeze it, knowing how instantly defensive he could get when people raised their voice at her, but understanding Tony knew Phil better than they did and clearly the man was a good friend of his. He had every right to be angry and upset.

"He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does," Steve agreed. And it was true, whether or not Phil was still alive, Fury wanted them to think he was dead, and it was Fury who had ordered Phil to secure the detention chamber and put him right before Loki, "Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done."

"If I understood any of your scientific jargon, Loki is going to need a power source," Olivia added, "Is there a way to rate the different power levels of reactors around..."

Tony turned his head, as though to roll his eyes, when he caught sight of the blood still drying on the wall, and a thought hit him, "He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Steve argued.

"That IS the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"Destroy the foundation and the structure itself will fall," Olivia answered.

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right," Steve nodded slowly, catching on, "We caught his act at Stuttengard."

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..." he suddenly stopped, his eyes widening as he figured out exactly what power source Loki was going to use, "Son of a bitch!" and stormed out of the room, two very confused super soldiers rushing after him.

~8~

"Tasha?" Olivia called as she approached the room Barton had been tied up in, not seeing the man but Natasha sitting calmly on a chair, "We need to go."

"Go where?" she frowned but stood, instantly ready.

Steve appeared In the doorway with her, "We'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?"

"I can," a voice called as a door to a restroom opened and Barton walked out, the eerie blue blow that had been around his eyes gone.

Steve glanced over at Natasha for confirmation that he was clean, and the woman nodded, "You got a suit?"

"Yeah."

"Can I say it?" Olivia looked to Steve who gave us small smile and a nod, "Suit up."

~8~

Olivia, Steve, Natasha, and Barton made their way into a quinjet only to find a young SHIELD pilot standing in their way to stop them, "You are not authorized to be here..."

"Son..." Steve cut in with us single shake of his head, "Just don't."

"We've got clearance," Natasha told him as they headed into the jet, leaving the pilot no choice but to step off of it as they got the craft up and running and shot out of the base after Tony in his Iron Man suit leading the way to Stark Towers.

A/N: Phil lives! :D When I was watching the scene where Loki attacked him, I was just like 'no! Don't do that! Don't sit that way! Pressure!' and other things that Olivia tried to do to help keep him stable. I felt, with her there and tending the wound the way she was, Phil might not have lost as much blood and might have stood a better chance of surviving. He did die on the operating table briefly, but came back. I haven't seen much of the SHIELD TV show, but I do know Phil had quite a painful and traumatic revival as he did completely die before SHIELD brought him back days later. It broke my heart what they put him through, how he actually begged for death at one point, and I just couldn't put him through that. So here, Olivia's efforts saved him. He still has a very long way to go before he fully recovers, but he's alive! :D

And the Olive Branch :) Based on the movies, I feel like we didn't see much of the medical side of SHIELD, we mostly saw the soldiers and the weapons and the fighting. There HAD to be a medical side, agents would get hurt and I'd imagine bringing them to a hospital every time would get expensive. So I expanded on the little we did see. SHIELD really grew into what it was because of Steve, I feel, and the people who he knew who fought to make it what it was. I felt like it was fitting the medical division grew too, but somewhat off-screen, in a similar sense of Olivia and her Medic efforts. The medics were somewhat in the background, not getting as much attention or thanks as they deserve for their efforts, and so the medical division grew in the background too, pushed more and inspired by Olivia. The OLIVE Branch, the medical branch, of SHIELD :)

My thoughts on the Steve vs. team thing. I feel like, before Phil, none of them really knew they were supposed to be there as a TEAM. It seemed like they were all under the impression they were there for individual reasons separate of each other. Steve sort of acted like he wanted to take command because he thought there was no team, it was just him and Olivia and they had more experience with the Tesseract. Had he known these were his teammates, I feel like he would have handled everything much differently. Yes, Olivia called it a team earlier, because she thought that was what it was supposed to be but when no one else acted like it, she just assumed she was wrong. I couldn't see Olivia lying to Steve about something like this just to 'motivate a team' when Steve was really the ONLY one brought in who had any experience BEING part of a TEAM. Everyone else had always been solo acts, Steve and Olivia had the team experience. So Fury's logic there, to Olivia, was off and gave her the loophole to fight to tell Steve :)

Fury's compromise with telling Steve, I think is him also manipulating the situation a bit. As far as Olivia knows, having been in the medical wing since Phil went down, she doesn't know that Bruce and Thor are gone. She thinks Fury is about to talk to ALL of them, not just Steve and Tony. And Fury lets her think that if it gets him to make the others believe Phil is dead. If TONY believes it, being the closest to him, in a way, the others would too. For Tony to believe it, everyone in the room when he tells them has to believe it too. Steve is not happy with Fury lying to him or making him think Phil died, he's going to be hesitant and questioning a lot of things when it comes to Fury from that point ;)

I feel like Steve had a bit of an epiphany here that I hope sets the stage for the following movies where he's less a soldier taking orders to questioning what's right. It was such a big thing in the first movie why Erskine picked him over Hodge, I felt like a part of it was Hodge was a soldier who would not question his orders whereas Steve would do what was right. Here, he's lost so much he's trying to find a purpose and sort of veered down that mindless soldier path. But with Fury hiding the weapons and now learning Phil is alive, he's remembering more of himself and why Erskine chose him. Because he ISN'T a mindless, obedient soldier. He's a good man with a good heart, and if something is wrong, he CAN stand up against it :) He is very angry with Fury for all this, but it was a bit overshadowed by his own realizations about himself and his own actions, once he's back on his feet, Fury may see the full brunt of what happens when Captain America doesn't trust yup ;)

And, lastly, I can say we're going to see Olivia's 'weapon' in the next chapter ;)

Some notes on reviews...

I don't think I can get rid of Fury too soon, but he's definitely going to face some opposition and challenge from Steve before the end ;) But yup, Steve knows the truth now :)

I definitely think the scepter scrambled quite a few things lol. He 'remembers' Thor tossing him into an abyss, but not the reality where he let go and let himself fall into that abyss even when others tried to save him. But his comment to Olivia is more meant to be human women, not Asgardians like Sif and Frigga. He knows they are a match and powerful, but, to him, a puny human, even a 'super soldier' one isn't. Or he thinks they aren't. Especially because he's never seen Olivia fight, he's seen her in action, but not in combat, and she was tending to Phil rather than stopping him so he sees her as weak. That she MUST know HE is far too powerful and THAT's why she's not trying to stop HIM sort of thing ;)

Very true, I could see Olivia being devastated by the first option, but ultimately trying to use it as motivation to be better. Now she's seeing more of what Natasha and Maria were saying, that if she fights the enemy, she can stop them before others get hurt (in a sense, since she couldn't have fought Loki before Phil got hurt, since he got hurt before she got there). But also, if he lives, she's now more sure of herself and her skills. She's more sure of her role and her calling. She's a medic, she doesn't have to fight to make a difference :) And, if word got out that Phil lived, that would have been something Maria and Natasha would come to realize as well. Fighting to prevent injury is important, but being able to TREAT that injury is SO important too :)