Flawed Minds

Chapter Twenty One

Avenger's P.O.V.

Steve paced the room, partly uncomfortable with Fury in the building, partly stressed that he had upset Nova. He had yelled about the newspaper article, admitted why she was in so much danger and told her about Hydra all at the worst possible time. He felt awful for partly causing her panic attack and he just wanted to speak to her and apologize. Tony and Nat followed him with their eyes as he walked back and forth; Bruce was busying himself by looking through his notes on Nova and trying to figure out a pattern in her powers as they appeared, while Clint reclined in a chair with a book covering his face, evidently the most calm person there, trusting that Nova could handle anything- even if he wouldn't admit that in front of her.

"Would you stop with the pacing?" Tony requested, watching Steve walk past him once again. "It's starting to make me dizzy."

"I'm sorry, he's just been in there for a long time." Steve responded, sitting down in a chair to stop himself from pacing and instead began to tap his foot. "I don't like it when he does this, speaks to one of us individually and doesn't tell the rest of us anything."

"Nova will be fine," Nat responded. "Fury probably just wants to talk to her personally- especially after even more new powers surfacing. He might want to discuss protocol on any new powers she discovers just to be safe."

"Actually, I just asked her to join the team." Fury's voice came from behind them causing Clint to shoot upright, launching the book that was on his face across the room. "Although a 'new power protocol' might be a good idea too. Anyway, she had her own conditions but she has agreed. Her strengths will be a great asset, I trust you have trained her well enough."

"She can fight well enough to match me," Nat admitted. "She outsmarted Steve and had him beat a few times," Steve sighed loudly.

"You had to bring that up?" He asked with a half smile, slightly embarrassed but proud of Nova's progress.

"Yes she's well trained, but what does this mean for her?" Tony asked, irritation coloring his voice. "Does she get to join us for missions? Oh! Can we stop keeping secrets from her now? Maybe clue her in on the homicidal maniac that's after her?" Fury sighed and turned to him, already expecting at least a little hostility.

"Yes, Stark. And you know why we had to keep her separate from everything for a while-"

"She was in danger the whole time, and she only found out ten minutes before they dropped a bomb on her- literally." Tony glared at him. "And that's only because we couldn't keep it from her anymore. She's probably going to struggle to trust us because of that, but I'm sure that doesn't matter to you, since she's just a 'powerful asset'."

"That's enough backtalk, Stark." Fury warned. "I understand you care for her, but I don't trust that easily. I had to make sure that she wasn't a spy or a serious threat."

"If you actually spent time around her you'd have figured that out a lot sooner." They stood there for a moment glaring at each other in silence.

"Okay..." Clint spoke after a couple of minutes. "Let's look on the bright side for a second- Creep is now an Avenger, she can join us on missions just like she's been wanting to, and we don't have to hide anything from her anymore." Fury raised an eyebrow.

"Uhm. Creep?"

"Oh- her eyes, I found them kinda creepy when we first met." Clint chuckled as Fury nodded slowly.

"Clint's right, we can be completely open with her now" Nat agreed. "She will understand and she'll trust us again. We should let her recover from what happened before any mission though. She'll need her strength just in case."