A Place In This World (Beginnings and Goodbyes, #1) {Completed}

let the parties end

"Two minutes. Stay close," Cap's voice crackles over the intercom. Dad, in the pilot's seat, flies us remaining three in the Quinjet over the building we've just dropped Cap off on. The U-GIN Genetics Research Facility comes into view, a distant focal point a few blocks away. Cap must maneuver his way to the lab and find Dr. Helen Cho. All the while, Dad, Natasha, and I wait for his report on his findings. I stand at my father's shoulder, watching Cap's minimizing form blink out as he disappears to the far streets below. We idle in the air, my father's steady hands on the controls.

The anticipation kills, and my worries grow the longer Cap takes to check in again, and I have to return to my seat beside Nat, who monitors the multiple screens at our station. Heat signatures, security footage, airport manifests and flight schedules. Natasha has her web entangled everywhere, and I lean forward in my seat, scanning the screens with her, but I don't want to admit that I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be keeping an eye out for.

And before I can admit that, the communication link carries the voice of a woman to our ears. I sit rigid in my seat, the weakness of her voice stopping the flow of everything around me, and the severity of the situation pinches the nerves at the base of my neck. This woman is dying, and Cap can't save her. I don't know how or why, but it shocks me that a human life is harmed, ending, and my eyes dart to Dad, who listens intently to what the woman is saying, something about getting something to Tony, but I am still trying to get my brain to register that I'm listening to the last words of a dying woman.

Natasha's hand rests on top of my own, my fingers clenched tightly to the arm of the chair. I glance to her, but nothing shows on her face, as she too listens to Dr. Cho.

"Did you guys copy that?" Cap asks.

"We did," Dad answers, and he eases the controls forward, sending us towards the lab.

"I got a private jet taking off across town. No manifest. That could be him," Nat says, enlarging a flight schedule and surveillance footage on a monitor screen. I remain silent beside her, watching her work. Dad surveys the busy traffic lanes below us.

"There. It's a truck from the lab," he says. "Right above you, Cap. On the loop by the bridge. It's them. You got three with the cradle, one in the cab. I could take out the driver."

"Negative. That truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron," Cap counters. I rise from my seat and look over Dad's shoulder. I locate the super soldier in seconds. He's standing on the upper part of the winding road ramp, backing up to run and jump onto the lab truck.

"He's not serious," I say, looking between Dad and Nat in utter distress. The man is crazy. There's no way that this was how things were done around here.

"He's serious," both Dad and Nat say without a look in Cap's direction. The legend sprints and leaps over the side of the ramp in three bounds, rolling over onto his knees as he lands on the truck's container. He slides to the back doors and clings on when one is blasted open. I gasp, surging forward to cling onto my father's seat and watch in horror as he's slammed into the side of the truck before the doors are blown off their hinges. One door manages to get stuck on the truck's bumper.

"Well, he's definitely unhappy," Cap says, way too chirper. "I'm gonna try and keep him that way."

"You're not a match for him, Cap," Dad says, starting to look a little worried now.

"Thanks, Barton," Cap sighs.

"He means, be careful, sir," I say, giving Dad a look that earns me rolled eyes.

"Thanks, Cara," Cap says under his breath, and he continues to climb up the stuck door and into the container. I can't look away until Nat comes up behind me, and she chances a look at Cap's situation.