Dedicated to Kyla, who will probably call me after reading this chapter thereby waking me up and squeeling my ear off as soon as I pick up

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Fury kept his back to the table as people filed in bit-by-bit and sat down. After a few moments he turned and took an internal head count. Angel and Sharon were sitting together with Steve and Tony sitting across from them; Tony was sending glares towards Angel who kept silently chuckling to herself. Clint was left leaning on a wall close to the table, his eyes on Sharon who was staring at the table.

Fury walked up to the table and put his hands on a chair, "After getting out of his cage, Loki managed to trap Thor in it and send him out of the helli carrier. Lucky for us, Thor had his hammer and was able to break out of the trap before crashing to earth. He then flew up to the helli carrier and started fighting with the Hulk, who later went after one of our planes and was thrown down to earth. Thor went after him and we haven't had contact with either," Nick stood up straight, "Agent Romanoff is now in a coma after a severe head trauma she received after being dropped by the Hulk when Thor attacked. The prisoner succeeded in not only escaping but also taking the Tesseract with him."

Fury sighed and shook his head, "As of right now we are hopelessly outnumbered. It is my hope that we can work together to get back Banner and Thor and go after Loki as a team. We have pin pointed the location of the portal device Loki has created, we need you to get there and stop them from opening the portal and bringing the Chitauri to earth."

Tony shrugged, "Sounds like an easy deal. Loki is a diva, he wants a place where everyone sees him and what he does, a monument to himse-" Stark stopped talking and his eyes widened, "son of a bitch."

Everyone looked at him confused when Angel suddenly burst out laughing and nearly fell off her chair clutching her sides laughing.

"Someone mind filling the rest of us in on the joke?" Steve asked, getting frustrated at the siblings odd behavior.

"Loki is using Stark Tower," Tony said through gritted teeth while Angel continued to laugh in her seat.

"God I never thought that ugly ass thing was going to come in handy for anyone. And it turns out to be the best resource for the bad guy," Angel said between guffaws, having a hard time reigning in her laughter. Sharon started to chuckle a bit herself.

"Aren't you supposed to be my supportive little sister? Not a little demon who tries to get me killed in turbines and laughs at my misfortune!" Tony pouted in his seat a little.

"Hey, I gave you a warning before turning them on!" Angel said with a shrug.

Tony scoffed, "You gave me less than three seconds before turning the damn thing on with me still in it!"

"Yeah well I never did believe that slow and steady won the race." Angel said with a chuckle. Sharon let out a laugh beside her and shook her head.

"You're such a bitch Angel," Sharon said with a laugh, finding amusement in the sibling squabble that was occurring.

"Alright, alright," Fury said, "Play time is over, Stark I want you to approach the tower and see where they are at with setting up the portal. Agent Barton will be right behind you in a jet holding Rogers, Ms. Carver, and Ms. Stark who will all descend to the tower. One they land Rogers will stand guard as the ladies turn off the portal and take back the Tesseract while Stark gets Loki. With any luck Thor and Banner will get there and will help us out. I want us all ready in one hour."

With that, Angel and Sharon stood and made to leave the room. As they walked around to leave the room Angel's eyes met Steve's. To her surprise, he smiled at her and waved. Angel lifted and eyebrow and looked away and left with Sharon.

"What the hell?" Angel said out loud as they walked down the corridor.

"What?" Sharon asked.

"Steve just randomly smiled at me."

"That's sweet of him."

"No it was like a weird smile, like one of those robots about to sing 'it's a small world after all'."

Sharon's eyebrows came together and she thought it over, "That doesn't sound weird at all…"

"Yeah it was kind of creepy."

"Maybe he's trying to get back into your good graces. He's probably nervous."

"Oh yes, because a smile is totally going to make up for everything." Angel said with a laugh, rolling her eyes. They went straight to their quarters where they found their new SHIELD uniforms. They were black leather skintight suits that were flexible for them to be able to move around and fight in.

"I'm going to the weapons room to get some fire power on my person, meet you at the jet?" Sharon said, Angel nodded as she checked to see if the suit was fitting her right.

Sharon went down to the weapons room and took her time looking at her options and weighing the possibilities. In the end she strapped thigh holsters on her legs and stuck a couple handguns in the holsters with a few magazine clips so she would have plenty of ammo.

She was tinkering around with a sniper rifle when Clint walked in. She didn't notice his presence until she looked up and saw him staring at her intently from the doorway.

"Are we ever going to talk about what happened in Germany?" He asked. Sharon looked away and continued tinkering with her gun.

"You know I'm rather fond of the saying what happens in Germany stays in Germany…"

"That only applies to Vegas," Clint said as straightened up and walked over to the archery wall, grabbing some arrows down and an extra bow to store on the jet as back up, "I don't want you getting hurt today Shar." He said quietly.

Sharon sighed, "I'm going to be fine, Fury wouldn't send me out if he didn't think I couldn't handle it."

Clint knew that, but he still couldn't get the picture of Sharon lying on the floor in that hallway back in Germany, sick from the power build-up and growing pale and shaking. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to gather his senses.

Sharon continued playing with the gun to keep her occupied when she felt two hands grasp her shoulders and spin her around. Her breath was caught in her throat when she saw how close Clint was to her. She didn't have time to dwell on it when he ducked his head down and crushed his lips to hers.

Sharon's heart stopped in her chest as everything disappeared around her. Clint started to move his mouth against hers, urging it open and letting his tongue slide into her mouth and play with hers. Sharon let out a moan and circled her arms around his waist as Clint cradled her head in his hands and kept drinking her in. They held each other close as they continued the kiss like it was the only thing that would keep them alive.

Clint slowly pulled away from her and tried to catch his breath. Sharon closed her eyes and breathed heavily, all of her senses being completely overloaded from the kiss. Clint gently placed his forehead against hers and breathed deeply, "Promise me you'll stay alive."

Sharon opened her eyes and met his, "I promise." She whispered.

He kissed her hard that time, before suddenly letting go and leaving. He looked back over his shoulder before exiting, "We're going to have a long talk after this mission is finished," he said, then smirked, "Don't think that I'm going to forget."

With that he left the room, leaving a completely breathless and stunned Sharon leaning against the counter her sniper laid on abandoned.

It felt like hours when she finally was able to get her body moving as she packed up her sniper and made her way to the jet. Once she boarded she stored the sniper and sat next to Angel quietly.

Angel lifted an eyebrow as she looked over her best friend, who seemed flustered and out of breath, "You feeling alright?"

Sharon nodded, "Just anxious to get going."

Angel nodded in understanding and looked to her side and saw that Steve was watching her. He smiled again at her; Angel's eyebrows wrinkled together in confusion before looking away feeling confused by his sudden odd behavior. She could tell that he looked a little nervous that time and her heart squeezed. She was too scared to let him get close, but she missed him so bad.

-sigh- I do love a good kiss, it's always my favorite part of any story. Don't you all feel the same?

Alasiel