Steel Hearts

- 26 -

After calming down enough to join the others and catching me up to speed as to the new threat to Earth. Aliens. Steve and I find them in the hallway, all with confused looks on their faces; questioning where Steve had gone before their eyes fell on me.

Without a second glance, Sam had already hoisted me into the air and spun me in a circle. God, I had missed him. I was now beginning to wish that I hadn't run from them, but with them.

"Can you not do that again?" He asks, squeezing my arms.

"I'll try not to," I smile weakly at him before getting thrown into another hug by Natasha.

"I will kill you if you scare us like that again, you know."

"I'm not leaving again."

Sam was now holding up Wanda so she could hug me as well. It takes a moment for her to speak up, but when she does her voice is somber, "I missed you."

I whisper back to her softly, "I missed you too." Not letting go until she does and offering Vision a curt nod, unwilling to injure him further with a hug himself.

All of us gather our wits and enter the workshop where Rhodey was still speaking with Ross' hologram. I was flanking Steve on his right, Nat on his left with the other three behind us. The beeping of the door caught their attention as we entered. I made sure that my face showed no emotion. Ross has been after me for over a year and I'll be damned if he tosses me back into a prison cell like an animal.

"Mr. Secretary," Steve addresses the hologram.

"You got some nerve. I'll give you that," Ross says, the hologram approaches us.

Nat responds snarkily when the hologram stops in front of her, "You could use some of that right now."

"The worlds on fire. And you think all is forgiven?"

"I'm not looking for forgiveness. And I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender. So we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too," Steve's face was hard, unmoving as he took a step down the stairs.

Ross' hologram turns back to Rhodey, "Arrest them."

"All over it," he swipes away all of the holograms from the room, ending the call he was on as the computer beeps nearby, "That's a court-martial."

"Anyone keeping tallies? That's my second one," I mutter, earning a smirk from Rhodey.

"It's great to see you, Cap."

With that, Steve shakes his hand and we allow ourselves further into the room and down the stairs to meet him. I give him a quick thankful hug for not arresting us immediately. At least someone was still on our side.

"Wow," he sighs, "You guys really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple of years."

"Yeah, well, the hotels weren't exactly five-star," Sam responds, still holding up Vision.

"You don't even know the half of it," I chime in.

"Uh, I think you look great," Bruce appeared out of the shadows of the room, sauntering down the stairs timidly and letting out a small chuckle, "Yeah, I'm back."

I glance over to Natasha who was clearly in shock, it's been years since we've seen him and she says, "Hi, Bruce."

"Nat."

Sam mutters, "This is awkward."

I flick a small force field his direction, hitting the side of his head sharply to shush him. Not soon after we moved to the lounge that was directly off of the workshop to speak. Bruce had explained what he had seen before returning from  Sakaar as well as Wanda explaining what happened before Steve and Nat had found her and Vision. I, personally, was still lost in the entire situation. I had yet to see these aliens and their abilities, but they were clearly a threat that needed all of us together to deal with.