/ A Lot of Speculation \\\ 02 – Ohio
He joined the team as they climbed into the quinjet and immediately contacted Hill for an update. Hydra was attacking a small town in Ohio for no reason that anyone could understand so Phil asked Jarvis to begin searching as he told the Avengers that were assembled – Steve, Bucky, Tony, Bruce, and Clint, what little he knew.
"What's in Ohio?" Tony asked.
"Something Hydra wants," Clint called back from the pilot's seat.
Phil nodded. "We need to stop them."
Tony rolled his eyes and walked towards the back of the plane. "Keep me up-to-date, Agent."
Phil didn't even bother to respond as Tony flew out of the plane.
It turns out that not-so evil anymore Hydra scientists thought that the best place to hide was in a small town in Ohio where they were unlikely to meet anyone that was connected to their old life. But, Hydra had caught wind of them and their knowledge was apparently worth hunting them down to kill them. Phil wanted them brought into S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers wanted to stop Hydra from killing the scientist's seven year-old daughter.
Phil was running the op from within the StarkJet with Bruce who was monitoring everything and, as always, hoping that the other guy wasn't needed. Phil didn't see the Hydra agent but he did see the gun. Before he was able to call out the warning the gunshot ran through the comms and Steve was falling, tucking his body around the seven year old. The screams of the ex-Hydra scientist jumped up to a pitch that made Phil turn the speaker off.
"Stay here," Phil told Bruce. "I'm getting the child and coming back. We do not need the Other Guy, we need you watching."
Bruce nodded and Phil checked his gun and then slipped out of the StarkJet and started moving towards Steve. He could hear a body thump to the ground off to the right and could see Bucky lowering the gun and rushing, eyes wide with caution, towards Steve who was bleeding heavily into his uniform but was still protecting the small girl while the ex-Hydra agent was trying to kill the people between him and his daughter.
Phil kept low and remembered when he'd been young enough not to have even noticed his body's reaction to this, but it didn't stop him. He paused behind a car and felt a hand on his lower back and knew it was Clint.
"I'm going for the child," Phil told him.
Clint tapped his back once and then stepped away. Phil kept moving until he was on one side of Steve and Bucky was on the other.
"Captain," Phil said, pressing on Steve's shoulder. "I've come to get the child and protect her in the StarkJet, can you let go."
Steve did immediately but the child clung on.
"Captain America is it okay?" she asked in a small voice.
"Yes," Steve said softly. "You can trust Phil and we will get your dad to you as soon as possible."
The girl had rushed at Phil then and he'd felt Clint's hand on his back then the archer stepped in front of them and they starting moving towards the StarkJet. With the girl protected between Clint's back and Phil's chest. They got her into the StarkJet and Phil pressed a thankful hand to Clint's shoulder.
"What are we going to do, Sir?"
"The child is safe," Phil said, knowing that Clint would be able to read the order in those words.
The fight was over not long after that and the ex-Hydra scientist was in the StarkJet and agreeing to tell them everything he knew as he held his daughter tightly.
When the paperwork was done, the team had had their post-fight food, and Steve was sitting on the couch, Bucky perched protectively next to him, being shown some movie or other; Phil was distracted by the photo that had shown up on his regular feed. It was a photo of he and Clint. Amelia, daughter of the ex-Hydra agent, was not visible between them but the photo kept flicking and showing them as they moved from the danger to the safety of the StarkJet. There was nothing even remotely soft in his expression or in Clint's and yet the blog – AgentHawkisREAL, seemed to think that the way they worked in unison, the fact they hadn't even needed to talk to make the rescue work…and there were other photos, Phil crouched with Clint's hand on his lower back, one of Clint, arms tensed as he held the bow ready and tracked Phil. This person was convinced that they were in love because they had a good working relationship and knew one another well enough not to need to talk to know what the other one was going to do. Phil had to think that these gifs were even worse than the photos he'd seen before.
"Hmm," Natasha's soft voice in his ear would have startled him if he hadn't trained that reflex out of him. He hit the home button on his StarkPad and wriggled the watch on his wrist. "Interesting assumptions being made on the internet."
"There are a never-ending series of assumptions that people can make when they don't have any facts."
Natasha inclined his head and disappeared.
/
