Wouldn't Leave You (A Captain America Fan fiction)

The Welcome Wagon

Chapter 10 - Steven Rogers

After about another 30 minutes, the Quinjet was getting too small and Rachel looked like she felt the same way. When the pilot started to land the plane, Rach and I both stood up quickly and made our way to the back of the jet. We looked at each other as the ramp began to lower. On the other side of the door, a woman with flaming red hair was standing to greet us. Rachel's body language immediately relaxed and she let out a big sigh.

"Natasha!" Rach exclaimed, throwing her arms around the woman's neck.

"Hey, Rach. It's been a while." the woman says with a big smile on her face. The two break off their hug and Rachel turns back to face me.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers." Agent Coulson said, pointing between us. I nod my head in greeting. 

"Ma'am?" I say.

"Hi," she says. She sends me a crooked smile and then turns back to Phil. "Coulson, they need you on the bridge. They are starting the face trace."

"See you there," Coulson says. And with a nod, he is off. I turn back to the two girls in front of me. 

"You're going to like it here Steve. It's pretty impressive." Rachel says, leading Natasha and me away from the quinjet. Natasha catches up to Rachel and they share a few words.

"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Romanoff says, turning her head around to face me. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon," she says to Rachel. "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?" I ask, feeling the confusion etch into my features. Rachel shoots me a gorgeous smile over her shoulder. 

"They're vintage, he's very proud," Romanoff says, also amused.

"Unfortunately, no autographs were given. Our Quinjet ride was already awkward enough. Phil told poor Steve over here about the time he 'watched Steve sleep'," Rach says, rolling her eyes and making air quotes. Natasha and Rachel shared a little bit of laughter. Rachel's laugh is so beautiful... I am snapped out of my thoughts as we walk past a lost-looking man standing by another jet. I quickly try to identify him with all of the pictures and photos I went through in my debriefing packet. 

"Dr. Banner," I walk up to him, relieved when his head snaps up in recognition. I reach out to shake his hand.

"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you were coming." He says, wringing his hands together as he pulls away.

"Word is you can find the cube," I say, thinking back to the part of the file that covered Dr. Banner and the conversations about him on the quinjet.

"Is that the only word on me?" Banner asks, even though he looks like it doesn't matter to him.

"Only word I care about," I say, tucking my hands back into my pants pockets. Banner looks around the deck of the ship.

"Must be strange for you, all of this," Banner says, waving his hand around, gesturing to our surroundings.

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," I reply. And it is. Even though the machinery is way more advanced than anything during my time, underneath it all, this is still the army. A group of recruits runs by us, snapping me out of my thoughts and proving my point. 

"Hey, Bruce," Rach says from behind me. She steps around me, leaning forward, and offering her hand for Bruce to shake. 

"Hi, Rachel. I haven't seen you since the last time we were researching that Oscorp thing." He says, pointing at her in recognition. Rachel chuckles.

"Yep, that was a fun one." She says in response, stepping back. A pause fell over the four of us, as we stood there awkwardly and Rachel sucked in a breath. Then Natasha spoke up.

"Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside now. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

Dr. Banner and I look between each other and then walk over to the edge of the Helicarrier to look over.

"Is this a submarine?" I ask, looking back to Rachel and Natasha, who stayed in place.

"Really?" Dr. Banner spoke up. "They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?"

Suddenly, the water around the boat becomes choppy and a propellor-looking contraption makes its way out of the water, causing the whole deck to levitate. I look around in awe as Banner smirks and Rachel just laughs.

"Oh, no," Banner says over the noise, "This is much worse."

"Guys, why don't we go inside?" Rachel says, walking up behind us and resting a hand on each of our shoulders.

Bruce and I both nod in agreement and she has us follow her and Natasha to the bridge. We walk down long hallways until we reach a large room that clearly stands as the command center. Nick Fury is in the center of it all, screens on either side of his body. He quickly shifts his attention to our group of four and makes his way down off of his podium.  

"Gentlemen," he says with a smile. I silently pull out my wallet and hand Fury the ten bucks I owe him, because, in fact, I was amazed. Rachel was right, I think I am going to like it in here. 

"Doctor," Fury says, turning his attention to Bruce Banner, "thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely." Banner says, "So, uh... how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear," Fury says. After that, I zoned out. I just started thinking about Rachel. My eyes shifted over to where she was. She was standing off to the side of the main pathway, looking over another agent's shoulder. On the screen in front of her looked to be some sort of readings, maybe radiation? She looks so beautiful when she is focused on something. 

"Agent Stark, would you please show Captain Rogers to his room?" Fury asks. She looks over to me, obviously catching me in the act of staring at her. To my surprise, she smiles at me, easing my awkward feelings. 

"Of course Director Fury," she says, turning her attention back to me. "Let's go, Captain Rogers," she says.