The White Queen (S.Rogers)

Chapter 94

By the time Steve and Brooklyn returned from their momentary distraction, which had been highly satisfying for both of them, Stark had returned from checking the tractor in the barn. Brooklyn assumed that the only reason they managed to get away with leaving the team for a time out in the Quinjet without hearing the no doubt snide remarks from Stark, was the fact that he didn't return alone.

He had brought Nick Fury in with him.

The former SHIELD director had looked Steve and her over, as Juliana ran over to them, a look of speculation and almost approval on his face. Brooklyn simply chose to ignore him, instead focusing on her sister who began a rapid explanation of everything she had been doing with Barton on the porch, before Stark and Fury interrupted them. Steve bent and picked her up, holding her a little tighter than normal, before the little girl had enough. Brooklyn would place money on the fact that there was too much happening right at that moment, and that Juliana was just a little over stimulated.

Juliana, once she was put back own, made the rounds again, going between the team members she was most familiar with, sticking close to Bruce for a while, as the doctor watched Fury with combined fear and amazement.

Brooklyn was confused by the fear, asking Steve about it quietly, and receiving the reply that Banner was most likely concerned that after what happened in South Africa, Fury was there to take him in. Apparently what the media had been saying while Brooklyn had been watching the television in the motel was correct, and people were not happy with how the Hulk had conducted himself. Apparently it was a constant fear of Banner's that he would be locked up by the government because of his second personality.

A wave of sympathy flowed through Brooklyn upon hearing this. After all, wasn't that one of the reasons she as afraid of her father's return? That the government would take the initiative to arrest and hold him accountable for things he had done while under HYDRA's control, as the Winter Soldier? She understood the fear of not being in full control of one's own self, having watched and triggered her own father's loss of person-hood.

It hurt to see the gentle doctor living with the same fear. And moved Banner up the list of people who she would burn the world to protect.

She made a mental note, that when this was all over, she would sit down with him and see if maybe she could help him. Or at the very least offer to be a listening ear if he needed to get those fears off his chest.

But seeing Fury interact with the Steve's team, and the way they interacted with each other. It raised so many concerns for her. Mainly in the fact that there actually didn't seem to BE a leader. They were trying, badly, to run themselves in a democratic way. Everyone had a say. She had been under the impression that Steve and Stark traded off the leadership responsibilities. But that, at any given time, one of the was in full control of the mission they were on.

This was not the case.

This was one of the reasons she had continued to let Steve go out with them, without fighting him on it. In fact, she had encouraged his behavior. But this...knowing that they were running the team like they were, was disturbing on so many levels. Mainly because Steve was a fucking idiot. If he trusted these people to have his back and keep him alive, and yet they couldn't even find the solution to the problem, short of going out and waiting to see if Ultron would attack them, she wasn't sure she was going to allow that to happen anymore. She might just have to put her foot down, and keep him at home.

She watched them for a moment, her unease growing, before going to help Laura in the kitchen. She was in the process of laying out a spread that was easy for people to pick up and pick at. Brooklyn and her knife skills were quickly put to use cutting vegetables and fruits. She watched Laura, and followed her instructions on how the pregnant woman wanted them cut up, and where to put them once she was done cutting them up.