Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or the Avengers.
As noiselessly as possible Bruce ushered everyone except for Steve from the living room and quite soon the only sound in the room was Carter fighting her tears that insisted upon falling. Steve went over to his husband and daughter hesitantly pulling them both into a hug and they just sat together, a tangle of limbs holding onto each other.
Once Carter had calmed down Steve continued to card his hands gently through her hair waiting for her to make the next move. With Tony on one side of him, and Carter on the other the Super Soldier felt like the luckiest man in the world although he admitted in his head that the current situation obviously left much to be desired. "I will remember this one," whispered Carter, "I don't always remember what happens when I go under but I always remember these ones. I'm sorry you had to be here."
"I'm not," replied Tony, "I'm glad you're still here sweetheart." Carter ducked at the emotion in her dad's voice and did not respond. "So you've had other episodes like this one?" Carter nodded, not looking at either of her fathers. "How many?" asked Steve who wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to his question; Carter simply shrugged but when Steve tilted her chin up to look him in the eyes she bit her lip and murmured, "Seven. Seven times not counting this one."
"God Carter," gasped Tony, and their daughter hung her head pulling away from Steve to sit on her own.
"It's why I left. I thought if I got farther away maybe it would affect me less and if it didn't no one would be around to hear me cry or watch me die," she confessed, "and then I find myself here…this wasn't what was supposed to happen."
"No?" queried Tony voice rough with emotion, "What was supposed to happen? Were we just supposed to let you vanish? Were you going to put your patented Fury spy skills to work to survive?"
Carter's voice took on a defensive tone, "Training with Nick had nothing to do with this mess!"
"Then why did you do it?" Steve asked, "Why not ask one of us to help you?"
"Because Nick doesn't care about me, not the way any of you do – to him I am just another person to train. He doesn't think I'm fragile. He doesn't think I'm incapable. He knows that I don't want to be a liability and he was willing to help me escape that role," answered Carter in a heated voice, "Nick knows that I am made of iron."
At her last sentence Tony's eyes widened in shock, "What did you just say?"
"That's what he says when I'm lagging behind, Starks are made of iron – we don't bend…"
"No, we just break," retorted Tony, "You are not made of iron Carter – iron can't feel, can't live, it doesn't cry, and it is incapable of love."
"Some days I think it would be easier if I was," she replied.