Make You Feel My Love
~Book IV~

Disclaimer: I do not own Civil War or any other Marvel characters in this story. All I own is the story I've come up with and my own characters.

Chapter 10

Following the meeting, the Avengers all met up in the living room. Everyone but Tony sat down on the couches positioned there, sullen and serious looks on their faces. Whether those looks were there because of what they had just seen, the destruction they had managed to create over the years as a team, or whether it was because they were worried about the decision, Maria could not tell individually on the people around her. Though she knew her own sullen look was there because of the worry for what their future might look like.

Tony walked over to the kitchen area, leaning against a counter there. Without having said a word about what they were going to do in the living room, the Avengers were all silently prepared to begin discussing the matter at hand; to discuss the future and the decision that the Secretary of State had given them all.

While Maria had walked over to sit down next to Steve, she had noticed Tony's eyes had followed her all the way to the couch. Even while she was still seated there in silence, she still felt his eyes lingering on her and it was beginning to annoy her slightly; so she looked up at him to where he was standing. Ever since he had returned, he had barely said a word to either of the Avengers, simply stayed in the back while the Secretary of State did all the talking. It was strange for Stark to not take his place in a room, and the tension in the air told Maria that Tony indeed had intended for the Secretary to give the Avengers that very choice, though there was more behind it; a bigger reason which he was yet to reveal to them.

"See something you like?" she asked with an annoyed tone to her voice, causing Steve to look over at Tony as well.

"You done something with your hair, Dalton?"

Maria raised an eyebrow at him, "No, why?"

"You just seem… Different. Like you're… Oh! Never mind, I won't interfere with your private life," he said, raising his hands in defence.

"Excuse me?" asked Maria, furrowing her brow.

"Nothing."

Steve glanced at her with a confused look, to which Maria shrugged, "It's been a while since we last saw each other. Maybe I've aged."

Tony smirked before going serious again, his eyes holding words and questions that Maria knew he needed to get out.

"You know, it's good to have you back again," said Tony with a simply shrug before he began to walk back towards the couch. "I never doubted you wouldn't come back though, of course. And I'm sure that Banner would have been happy to see you return too."

Maria glanced over at Natasha, as did Wanda, at the mention of Bruce. Though Natasha seemed to not have heard the mention of Bruce, or she was rather good at masking her feelings. Either way, both Maria and Wanda shared a glance.

"It's good to be back," replied Maria before sighing, "though maybe not right now. There's much to be discussed. To be thought over."

As she and Steve looked out over the rest of the Avengers, Maria could, from the corner of her eyes, see Tony lying down on another couch, placing his hand over his eyes to shut out the world. Something was up with him, and Maria was worried about whatever it was. They were friends, and seeing him bothered by something was hard for her.

Vision leaned over towards Steve and Maria, offering them the accords; the thick, giant book, that they were either going to sign or not. Maria and Steve were the only ones who had not looked at it yet, though Maria doubted she would have the patience to actually read through all of that. While Steve only vaguely read it through, turning the pages every now and then, Maria read some paragraphs and understood the language was something you'd have to have gone to school for to understand. Even the sentences that did not include laws were difficult for her to understand, though she still tried. After all, this was her future and she needed to know whether it was a good idea to not sign it.

Might include a safe-net for me if I get the flu, after all… she thought to herself, smirking slightly at her own joke. Deep down, she already knew she was not going to sign it, no matter what the positive amendments were. She was not going to let someone else rule over the only thing in her life through which she had ever done anything good. This whole thing; the Avengers, her new family, was her whole life now, and to think that it would be sullied by some control-freak government was not what Maria would ever allow. In that case, she would rather leave the Avengers and do what Matt was doing – work alone.

It did not take long for some of the Avengers to clash. And it was not a surprise to Maria that it was the two members who had the most history with the army, and the two members who always had the most opinions on things, who had clashed first. Luckily, it did not seem more than a discussion for the moment, though she was ready to interfere if the discussion became a little more heated.

"What does that mean?" asked Maria quietly, leaning against Steve and gently pointing at a sentence she had managed to, again, not understand.

"Basically, it means we have no freedom," mumbled Steve before closing the book.

"Seems the roles have been switched," whispered Maria gently, trying to lighten Steve's mood even though her own was not much better. "With these sort of things, you're the one who knows it all. But when it comes to technology…"

Steve's lips twitched up into a soft smirk and he glanced over at her, "You know, soon I'll actually understand the need for Facebook too, and you'll not be able to say that anymore."

Jokingly, Maria pouted to which Steve patted her knee, still smirking. His hand stayed resting on her knee, and their eyes connected again. Another tension briefly come to life between the two of them, one no one else in the room noticed thanks to Rhodes and Sam discussing – the two had even stood up, as if that would help with their own arguments. Though the tension – the sweet, warm tension – was soon gone as their attention was brought over to the two discussing Avengers.

"Secretary Ross has a Congressional medal of Honour," argued Rhodes from behind Maria and Steve. "Which is one more than you have."

At the annoyed look on Steve's face and the glare he sent towards the accords, one would think that he was trying to vaporize it with his non-existent laser-eyes. Gently, Maria placed a hand on his arm to try and calm him down, and although his features smoothed down slightly when he looked over at her, she could still see the annoyance in his eyes.

"So let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?" asked Sam who, too, was standing behind the couch Maria and Steve were sat in.

From underneath his hands, Maria could see Tony was rolling his eyes at the discussion Sam and Rhodes were having, though Maria couldn't help but think Sam had quite a solid and good argument.

"117 countries want to sign this. 117, Sam, and you're just like, 'No, that's cool. We got it,'" argued Rhodes, doing a rather awful impression of Sam to which Maria would have laughed, had it happened under different circumstances.

"How long are you going to play both sides?" argued Sam back while Rhodes was still talking.

Luckily, Vision interfered.

"I have an equation," he said loudly, causing both men to quiet down, while the others all looked over at him.

"Oh, now this will clear it up," said Sam with a hint of sarcasm mixed with seriousness.

"In the eight years since Mr Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. Amongst those people you'll find both me, Miss Maximoff and Miss Dalton," began Vision.

"Which is a good thing, right? People are finally ready and brave enough to come out… uh, come out as enhanced," said Maria.

Vision held up a finger, signalling to her that he was not done yet, "During the same period the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."

"Are you saying it's our fault?" asked Steve, the hand on Maria's knee tightening slightly; an action he probably accidentally did unconsciously.

"I'm saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict... breeds catastrophe," said Vision solemnly. "Oversight. Oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

"Boom," said Rhodes, clearly agreeing with what Vision had just said.

Maria gently shook her head, not being able to help the annoyance that arose in the pit of her stomach at the way Rhodes had reacted to that fact.

"Tony. You are being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal," said Natasha, saying what Maria had been thinking all along too.

Being addressed caused Tony to remove his hand from his face, and he once again rolled his eyes.

"It's because he's already made up his mind," stated Steve solemnly.

"Boy you know me so well," scoffed Tony, standing back up again and once more walking over to the kitchen area. With a sigh, he continued; "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache. That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort." Another sigh escaped him as he turned away from the sink; "Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?"

It was Maria's turn to roll her eyes, though she said nothing, wanting to hear what Tony's argument was; what his reason was to even decide to put the Avengers in check. Because that was what Tony had made happen after all, right? He was the one who brought that Ross guy to the facility after all. And something told her that Tony had something to do with the accords as well – though she did not want to believe that. She wanted to believe that it was her mind assuming things because Tony had brought Ross with him and that she was unconsciously seeing them as allies because of that, but there was still a nagging doubt in her mind…

"Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way," said Tony suddenly, and as Maria looked up, she saw Tony was showing to them a holograph of a boy. "He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA... had a floor-level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul before he parked it behind a desk; see the world, maybe be of service... Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor - guess where: Sokovia. He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. We won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were 'kicking ass'. There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less... we're no better than the bad guys."

"Don't say that-" began Maria with a shake of her head.

"It's the truth," spat Tony, causing Maria to look away from him.

"Tony…" warned Steve, referring to the harsh tone he had used, before he calmed down, "Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up."

"Who said we're giving up?" asked Tony.

"We are for not taking responsibility for our actions," continued Steve. "This document just shifts the blame."

"I'm sorry, Steve. That is dangerously arrogant," argued Rhodes. "This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not Hydra."

"No, but it's run by people with agendas, and agendas change," argued Steve, standing his ground.

"That's good," countered Tony, walking over to the living room area once more. "That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands... I shut it down and stopped manufacturing."

"But, Tony, you chose to do that. Don't you understand that Steve is trying to tell you that you won't be able to choose the next time if you sign these accords?" argued Maria.

"What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own," argued Steve.

"Amen," added Sam under his breath.

Tony looked down at Maria and Steve both looking up at him and once more rolled his eyes. The rolling of Tony's eyes was beginning to annoy Maria even more.

"If we don't do this now, it's gonna be done to us later. That's the fact. That won't be pretty," explained Tony seriously, yet his tone was soft, as if he was worried for his family's sake, even though he knew perfectly well that they could handle anything. After all, they could handle aliens attacking New York and they could handle an AI attacking the world.

"You're saying they'll come for me," said Wanda quietly.

"We would protect you," stated Vision quietly.

"Maybe Tony's right…" said Natasha suddenly. "If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off..."

"Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?" asked Sam incredulously, raising an eyebrow over at Natasha who squirmed slightly under his gaze.

"I'm just reading the terrain," she explained. "We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."

"Focus up – I'm sorry, did I just mishear you, or did you agree with me?"

Natasha glanced once over at Wanda and Maria before looking back at Tony, "I want to take it back now," she said with sarcasm over his way of talking to her.

Maria glanced at Wanda. Over the past couple of months, the three women had grown rather close. It was strange to Maria to see them all suddenly become so split and… disagree. Steve looked rather saddened to hear Natasha disagree with them as well, though there was not much to do.

"No, you can't retract it," said Tony, waving a finger at her before becoming serious, "Thank you. Unprecedented."

"This isn't a game," said Maria with a sigh at the same time as Steve's phone buzzed. "It's not something you either agree with Tony on or Steve. This is something individual. Either you're in with the accords, or you're not."

"But if it were like that," said Tony, pointing a finger at Maria, "you would probably be on Steve's side, right?"

"I would be on my own side," countered Maria.

"No – you would be on Steve's side. I know that, because that's always the case," replied Tony nonchalantly.

"You have a problem with me happening to have the same opinions on things as Steve?" shot Maria back, narrowing her eyes.

"They simply have the same opinions. No reason to make that personal," defended Wanda with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh really? No, it's more than that. It's more like you're a puppy following its mummy – or daddy in this case. Yeah, Steve's your daddy-"

"Will you shut up about that!? You're being rude. And – euw – that sounds wrong!" exclaimed Maria.

"I have to go," breathed Steve, pushing the accords into Maria's arms before standing up and walking away in a hurry.

"Steve?" asked Maria, though he simply walked out of the room, not replying to her.

Silence ensued over the room and Maria's eyes went down to the book in her hands.

"I think you offended him…" whispered Rhodes.

A rush of anger washed over Maria and she stood up, "To say those kinds of things," she said, pointing a finger at Tony in a threatening way before taking a deep breath. Without another word, she dropped the book straight to the ground before turning and following Steve, counting to ten on the way to make sure she did not talk to Steve while angered.

He had entered the stairwell and she assumed he was going to go downstairs – though she found him sitting down on one of the steps, his back to her. In his hands, he held the phone that had buzzed before he had left so suddenly.

"Steve?" she asked quietly as she walked down the steps to him. "If this is about what Tony said… It's not like that. I just simply agree with you…"

Slowly, she sat down, inspecting his face. Her heart sank as she saw tears in his eyes, tears he was obviously trying to hold in in front of her. She carefully placed a hand on his arm, to which he reacted immediately. Like the innocent young man Maria knew he was deep down inside, he sought comfort in her by resting his head in the crook of his neck, leaning against her. Albeit it was a rather awkward position, seeing as Steve was larger than her, she still tried her best to sooth his pain away by gently brushing her fingers through his hair, while holding her other hand on his arm, gently stroking circles up and down his arm. He was still holding his phone in his hands, and she managed to catch a glimpse of what was written on it.

It was text message that simply read; "She's gone. In her sleep."

"Oh Steve…"