The Winters Shadow

C.33: A New Day

I still can't believe we're married. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes... I smile, looking over at him asleep. He looks so peaceful and content. Me on the other hand, I can't sleep. We're still at the Avengers Compound since we aren't going on a honeymoon yet. We were going to, but I told him to wait. I just can't shake this feeling of absolute dread. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it's those people looking for me, at least that's what I keep telling myself. It doesn't feel like it, though. It feels a lot more sinister.

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"Good morning doll, well... wife" Buck smiles, pulling me in. "Good morning, husband" I laugh before pulling away. I ended up watching movies all night. "You okay, baby?" he asks, concern written all over his face. "Yeah, I just didn't sleep well last night." I head towards the bathroom, cutting the shower on as he follows me in. "Why not?", he asks before leaning over the sink to brush his teeth. "I don't know really. I was just restless I guess." As I step in there's a knock on our bedroom door. "Come on guys, time to eat breakfast" Peter says. He seems very happy this morning.

We make our way to the kitchen and see everyone gathered around. "There's the happy couple" Pepper smiles. "What's all this?" I ask, taking a seat at the table. "Well we figured we could all enjoy breakfast together today. Since you aren't leaving until this threat is over, we've got a lot to do. So let us take this time to relax and enjoy each others company." Tony answers, bringing me a plate of food. "Cause we all know how these things go, we'll be arguing by 2PM." Sam says. I laugh, cause he's right. During missions, we argue all the time.

I drown them out as I look over the food. Pancakes, waffles, sausage, eggs, bacon. Why did they make pancakes and waffles together? I don't question it though. Thor and Loki come in, taking a seat too. Apparently they decided to trust him enough since he saved me to leave the cuffs off. He's still here, so I guess that's a good sign, maybe. "After we eat, we'll head to the meeting room. Something happened last night that we need to discuss" Steve announces, grimacing. "Lets eat" Pepper says, and that's all she needed to say. I take a bite of the pancake, syrup all over it.

It's dark, and the air feels wet. I can barely see. I fumble around until my hands feel a wall, it feels like stone. "There you are. I knew you would come"

I feel a hand squeeze my thigh, "You ok?" Buck asks lowly. My throat is suddenly dry, so I take a sip of my water before answering. "I'm fine. Just zoned out." Which isn't really a lie, I did zone out. Just not in a normal way. He gives me another reassuring squeeze before returning to his conversation. I feel Loki's eyes on me.. I forgot he can read minds. I double check that my mental shields are up, and they are. "We need to go shopping" Nat says, "I agree" I tell her. Sam groans, rolling his eyes. "Once this mission is over, we're going. You're going with us" she laughs telling Sam.

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In the mission room, I lean back in the chair waiting for Tony to get here. He was helping Pepper with something after breakfast and it seems they still aren't done. Go figure. Peter sits beside me, circling in his chair. Buck and Sam are talking with Steve, while the rest of us just sit around.

"Alright, here we go" Tony says, walking to the front of the room. He pulls up a visual of what happened last night. Two hooded figures walk down an alley, holding some purple globe thing. My veins run cold. I don't know what that is, but it's full of power. Especially if I can feel it just through a video. "We still can't ID these two, but they just disappear right here. No more trace of them. Until 5 hours later," Tony continues, fast forwarding the video. They reappear, holding the globe still, but a young girl tucked between them. "This time, we were able to track them all the way to a building just outside the city.

Steve pulls up footage of a brick building, tucked into the trees. "Nothing else around for miles. We need to figure out who they are, what they want, and what that globe thing is." Steve finishes, looking back at the screen. I should probably say something, right? "It's powerful, the globe. I feel it just by looking at it." They look to me, reeling in my words. "That's probably how they just disappeared and came back. They are using whatever that is." Nat states, looking lost in thought. "Seems like it" I agree. "Here's a file for each of you to look over with everything we know so far, which isn't much. We need to get this done tonight. The sooner we figure this out, the better." Steve says, handing out the files. Buck grabs ours, handing me one. "We will meet back here at 8PM. We will go over anything else then, and head out afterwards."