The Irony of it All

54

There was something so strange about being normal. To sit around a table as people ate, drank, and laughed. Clint looked across the table and caught Banner's knowing smile.

Coulson was explaining to them how he'd survived Loki's attack. Miracles were just sprouting up everywhere it seemed. It didn't make him any less thankful for them.

Coulson's team was sitting with them too,  listening. Their rookie, Daisy, was also trying to get as much information out of them as she could. She reminded him of what Lila might be like if she were to ever become an agent.

Sam and Wanda were there too, listening even though they hadn't known Phil at all. T'Chala and his sister were sitting with them as well. Even Tony was present, although his mind was less so.

He'd heard that Bucky was somewhere around. He was wisely staying out of Tony's sight for the time being. And Nat... was probably at Steve's side.

"I have a question," Tony asked after being so quiet for so long. Everyone turned to him, but his eyes were on Clint.
"Why were you there? On that ship? Why were any of you there?"

Clint cleared his throat. "Natasha has a sister." Everyone's brows shot up. "Not biological," he clarified. "They were raised together for a time. I knew that if Natasha had gone back to her home country, her sister would have tracked her."

"It's nearly impossible to actually find a Red Room agent," Coulson piped in, bewildered.

"Yeah, well...I've done it once before haven't I. And I had a name, so it was easier. Yelena's out. I'm not sure Natasha knows that or believes it, but she's on the run from the Red Room. She knew about the baby. She knew Ivan wanted her. She knew where Ivan would take her.

"From there it was pretty simple," he continued. "He couldn't take her by air or land, so that leaves the sea. I arrived at the port and a ship named Vdova was a pretty clear sign."

"And you?" Tony asked, turning on Coulson.

"Well," Phil began, "I don't know if you've heard about it but there was a really weird monster attack in New York about two months ago."

Everyone stared at him. It was Bruce that spoke first. "You've gotta be kidding me."

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"Fury got in touch with me, ordered us to track it down and contain it. Well we've tracked it all across America and Eastern Europe. We thought we were close in Ukraine, but all we had was a blood-smeared old Red Room building.

Then, finally, we picked up rumors of a undocumented ship, which is a perfect way to smuggle a monster across the Eastern Sea board. Of course we never expected to find the Black Widow shooting Captain America in the boiler room."

"So you haven't found your monster?" Sam asked.

"Eh, no."

"Do you even know what it is?" Wanda piped in.

"Uh yes, yes we do. It's the Red Guardian."

"Red Guardian?"

"A Russian experiment gone wrong," May explained. "Like the Hulk." Banner winced, and she continued. "He was supposed to be a super soldier that could combat Captain America. Ever since then he's been leaving a trail of life drained corpses behind him."

"It's probably an ultra hyper metabolism," Banner thought a loud.

"Something so simple?" Jemma questioned.

"One of the main properties of any super soldier is that they're regenerative. Their entire system works so much faster than the average human's. It's why Steve and I aren't affected by poison, or viruses. It's why we heal so quickly, it's why we have to eat so much."

Catching on, Jemma added, "So if someone made a super soldier with even faster regenerative abilities, their metabolism would also move faster."

"Yes! So fast that their body couldn't possibly keep up."

"But how can he drain life forces?"

"That would depend entirely on what they gave him and how they administered it."

Everyone sat in silence, pondering. Then T'Chala spoke up. "I think the most important question is... How do we stop something like that?"

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"I ...uh."

She watched his side profile, smiling as he tripped over his words.

"Steve?"

"Well I was wondering... just thinking out loud here."

"Spit it out."

"What if...we could?"

Her brow furrowed and she nearly laughed. "Could what?!"

The Sun was setting over the trees. The grass was soft under her bare feet where they had collapsed after their sparring session. This was the same place they stood just a year before after one of Tony and Bruce's experiments had left them feeling empty and she'd blundered through trying to express her feelings to him.

He turned and faced her, looking so innocent and vulnerable that she felt herself melting.

"Be a family?"

Her green eyes blew wide.

"I mean... we could also just stay like this. This is fine," he quickly tried. "I just thought... I'd really like it if I could call you my home forever... and if I were yours."

"Are you proposing?"

"...I'm trying." He offered her an awkward smile. Her lips pressed into a returning one. The kind she only made when she was trying to suppress her feelings.

To call him home? Was this even real?

"Are you sure?" She asked him.

His face split into a grin. "Of course I'm sure. I'm terrified you'll say no."

"Yes."

"What?"

She jumped him then, knowing full well that he'd catch her. Knowing he wouldn't drop her. "Yes!"

"Nat."

"Natasha?"

Her eyes fluttered open. She didn't feel like she was in danger, or afraid. Instead, she felt warm. Fingers, warm and calloused brushed across her forehead, moving her hair from her face. She startled then. Because she recognized his touch.

Her head jerked up, blond locks flying in every direction, and green met blue.

He smiled at her, fully sitting up in bed against his pillows.

Confusion filled her. She wanted to touch him. To feel that he was alright. Instead, she backed up  and pulled away. His face fell.

"Nat?"

"I didn't mean to."

She backed up further. His brow furrowed in concern. "I know."

Somehow, that was worse, she realized. Because he remembered what she did. "I didn't- I'm so sorry." Her eyes went from burning to going numb. She didn't think twice before she hit the door to go out.

"No! Wait!"

His voice was still hoarse, she registered, from unuse. She heard the racket of him getting up and tearing off his monitors and IVs. "Steve-" she warned him, moving towards him again only to back up again when he started - shakily - towards her.

"You're not well yet," she told him. "You need to be in that bed." The closer he got, the more she panicked. "You- You didn't have a heart. Don't you understand? Stop! I shot you!"

He grabbed a hold of her wrist and pulled her into him. In that moment, her damn broke and her tears began to fall, and they never stopped.