All Along - Steve Rogers {1}

Chapter 16: Introductions

"Steve, are you ready?" Nellie called from her room as she threw her hair up into a low ponytail.

"As I'll ever be." His voice was a lot closer than she expected and she jumped slightly as he appeared in the doorway to her bedroom, basically filling the whole space as he leant against the frame. He was dressed in a plaid shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to reveal his thick forearms, the shirt was tucked into a pair of dark slacks. She smiled at him, he had even styled his hair. "What?" He asked, noticing the corners of her mouth twitching up, his own doing the same.

"You look cute, that's all." Nellie said with a grin, he was dressed in something that she could imagine Arty in, an outfit for an older gentleman for another time. She could imagine one of her great great nieces or nephews commenting with a similar quip.

"Cute?" Steve frowned as he straightened himself out, he had really tried to make an effort. He thought his outfit was sensible, he couldn't see himself in those skinny denim jeans and bulky sneakers other men seemed to be wearing today.

Nellie giggled lightly. "I meant handsome. You look handsome, Steve." She complimented as she turned towards her bed, chucked her hairbrush into the open duffle bag and then zipped it up, her packing complete. "Thank you for doing this." Nellie tightened her elastic before turning back to Steve, placing her hands on her hips.

An awkwardness had followed them home last night, Nellie's words left a foul taste in the air that even a nice smelling candle couldn't mask. They were to be friends and friends only... nothing more. Steve felt like he had been slapped in the face. Admittedly he hadn't exactly been a doting boyfriend the last few months, he hadn't really been anything, but with it out there in the open, it just felt wrong.

Nellie tried her best to fill the silences, she set up the briefing packet as Steve dished out the food. She sorted each file topic into piles and controlled the monitor with the corresponding videos. Once they were settled they began their homework, listening and reading and watching the information provided regarding the key players in their mission.

They caught up on everything Tesseract related first, it seemed for the majority of the time it had been kept under lock and key and out of anyone's hands for the majority of the last seventy years, it wasn't until recently Shield believed they could use it as a sustainable energy source.

"Why wouldn't they involve me in this?" Nellie had asked Steve as she took a swipe at his Thai Green Curry. "I know I'm not exactly one of the smartest people out there anymore, but I've held the Tesseract in my hand, I've witnessed it's power. I have it's power."

Steve had smacked Nellie's hand away with the back of his spoon. "Maybe it's intimidation? Maybe they don't want to be told what to do? Or simply they just don't believe us." Steve had offered, he did not entirely trust Nick Fury, he also believed Nellie had too much faith in him.

They moved onto Erik Selvig. This was more interesting for Nellie than Steve. A wad of notes, two inches thick, made up the bulk of the briefing pack, and they were everything that Selvig had on the Tesseract, including it's ability to create a portal if controlled. He had built a machine, but hadn't successfully stabilised it yet. She decided his notes would be a good read for the plane journey.

Loki was next. When Nellie saw the words God of Mischief across the top of the page the realisation hit her like a tonne of bricks. Schmidt had always rattled on about the Gods, and Loki was one of them, alive and breathing. He had entered through a portal with an alien sceptre, hijacked the minds of Selvig, a high level agent of Shield named Clint Barton, and a few other agents, and stolen the cube. The notes and Nellie came to the same conclusion: Loki needed another portal. The question was why and for what?