Rip My Heart Out (Avengers Age of Ultron)

Chapter 21

"Tony, what the hell?" Steve's voice was the first thing I heard in the quinjet. I hadn't teleported fully, so my arrival went unnoticed. I was still invisible to them.

"She can handle herself, Cap. You should have seen her out there. She saved a lot of people." Tony said, pointing at Steve.

"So you repay her by leaving her there, alone." Steve took a step towards Tony. Steve seemed to tower over Tony.

"Steve, she can teleport. I had to get Bruce out of there, and I had no idea where she had teleported to. I didn't have time to stick around and find her. She'll find us." Tony argued.

"And what if she was hurt, huh? What if she needed someone to help her? Did you ever consider that?" Steve was fuming. His chest was puffed out and I could see the veins in his neck bulging from where I stood.

"If you had seen what she can do, you wouldn't be worried either. She teleported some one hundred and fifty people away from danger all at once." Tony stressed the numbers.

I took a deep breath, relieved to hear that my attempt to get those people to safety was successful. That did nothing, however to diminish my bitterness over being left in the rubble.

"I don't care what she can do, Tony! That isn't the point." Steve yelled. "I told you I didn't want her involved in any of this, and you got her involved anyway, and then to make things worse, you abandoned her."

"She's a big girl, Cap. She can make her own decisions. I didn't force her to do anything. I needed help and she was the only one standing. She volunteered!" Tony's replied.

I saw the muscles in Steve's arm flex, but I didn't realize what that meant until Steve drew his arm back. I gasped as Steve's fist collided with Tony's face.

I smirked, but decided it was probably time I did something.

I teleported to a spot right next to Steve. I wrapped my arms around Steve, holding him back from doing even more danger to Tony.

"Emelia?" Steve sounded incredulous.

"See, I told you she would show up." Tony said, lying on the ground and holding a hand to his jaw. "Not the best timing, by the way. You couldn't have showed up about three seconds earlier?"

"Oh, I've been here for a few minutes. I just figured I'd let Steve handle you for me." I snarled at Tony.

Steve tried to free himself from my grasp to get to Tony. I tightened my grip. "Steve, stop!" I said.

He hesitantly listened, and gently pushed himself away from me, holding me at an arm's length. "Are you okay? Where did you go? Why are you covered in dust?"

"I'm fine." I lied, fully aware of the pain still shooting through my head. "I didn't go anywhere. I woke up next to the destroyed building."

"I thought you said she teleported out of there." Steve practically growled, turning to Tony again.

"She did! You had to! You teleported all those other people out of there! I assumed you went with them." Tony said defensively.

"Well, I didn't." I said. I glared at Tony. "And don't think that I'm not angry at you just because I stopped Steve from hitting you again."

"Look, I get that you're angry. What I don't understand is why you didn't get out of there while that building was tumbling to the ground." Tony replied.

Steve looked at me with curiosity, joining Tony's questioning look.

"I... " I began, trying to figure out a reasonable excuse.