The Fixer

Much needed chats

When Joanna had told them that they could lose one or more of the team it was a wake-up call for Steve. Maybe they weren't doing as well as he'd hoped. He wasn't blind. He knew they needed to get back on track, but he didn't think they were this bad. Tony and him had put enough of their anger and hurt feelings aside to get the team back together after they briefly separated for a few months. The accords situation was a deal breaker that even Tony realized was wrong.

Between him, Tony and Fury, they got it amended so that they didn't necessarily answer to the countries who had signed initially. The way it worked was they had set rules the team had to follow. Mainly they had to notify the head of the country on their way to do their jobs and continue to help the wounded, the families of any innocents who died and help rebuild anything destroyed. All of which they had no problem doing. Once the world saw how they really operated they all had backed off of them.

The call to Fury was pointless. He'd told them that Joanna had complete discretion over this situation and any decisions she made were final. Tony and Steve couldn't believe that he would relinquish that much control to anyone. Speaking of, even teaming up with Tony they couldn't get him to change his mind. Fury said they either worked with Joanna or they were both off the team. That went for anyone who didn't want to comply with her rules. Not getting anywhere they decided to take the rest of the day to collect themselves.

Everyone was looking to Tony and him to make sure they stayed together. Good teamwork comes from good leadership and right now apparently neither were being good leaders. Him and Tony needed to work together and that meant finally setting aside their differences. Steve could try to do that, but could he?

For a couple of hours he had gone around and talked to each member of the team so he could get a feel for where their heads were at. As far as Steve could tell no one had a problem with what Joanna was here for. They all mentioned one thing or another they thought they could work on. He was hurt that it took for them to get here for any of them to finally voice their concerns. Maybe if they had they could have avoided Joanna being brought in at all. The thought that he'd probably never would have met her had him feeling just as bad.

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After dinner Steve went back to his apartment to collect his thoughts. Bucky wanted to talk, but he needed to be alone for a while. He could tell Buck felt particularly responsible based on the comments from Joanna that were directed to Tony. Steve hated that no matter how well he was doing that would always be thrown in his best friend's face. Asking FRIDAY to let Buck know he had to do something, but that he would check in with him after. First he needed to have a chat to Tony.

Seeking him out in the most likely place Steve thought he'd be. Sure enough Tony was working on something in his lab. Loud 70's rock music blasting per usual as he tinkered around. He glanced up when he noticed Steve by the door, telling FRIDAY to turn down the music a bit.

"What's up, grandpa?" Steve rolled his eyes at the nickname, but didn't give into it and got straight to the point.

"We need to set aside everything for the good of the team. I don't want to lose one person because we can't get along." He tells him as he leans against one of the work tables with his arms crossed. Tony placed down the tools in his hands and nodded his head in agreement.

"Not gonna lie, it's gonna be hard for me. You're just so easy to rile up, but I get what you are trying to say." He says with a halfhearted grin. His usual witty and sarcastic air seems to have been dimmed. That seemed to be going around today. Joanna certainly had a way about her that could either make you feel great happiness or cause self reflection that brought up your own doubts and fears and self hatred.