Renege // The Avengers

three.

Carmen sat in the command chair still holding an unconscious hand at where she had been shot. She heard the doors part and she knew more agents had entered the flurry of active ones who sat in front of view screens.

"Were at lock ma'm" Hill turned to her and she nodded.

"Good, let's vanish" she instructed and Hill nodded. They rise into the heavens and Carmen stood with the help of Nick as they got ready to continue the new mission. Steve and Banner walked through the glorious bridge and that's when he spotted her. It was easy to tell from her stature and brunette hair.

"Gentleman" Fury spotted them and Carmen turned still holding a steady hand on Fury and that's when their eyes locked. His breath hitched and it was as if he forgot what it was like seeing those eyes. For Steve the glowing hazel of her eyes was new, like the light of day, happy, young, innocent, and pure. Yet now her eyes were a bit more dull and tired and the innocence had long been washed away.

Steve didn't move his eyes from her's as he slipped Fury ten bucks and Carmen chuckled lightly at the proud smile Nick held.

"Doctor" she spoke and Fury helped her over to him as she extended her hand. Banner happily took it as he spotted her.

"Thank you for coming" she told him, a huge smile on her face.

"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?" he asked and Carmen nodded her head towards Fury.

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear" Fury told him and he nodded.

"Where are you with that?" he asked and Nick turned to Coulson who walked over beside Carmen.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us" Coulson explained and Natasha butted in.

"That's still not gonna find them in time" Carmen remembered when Clint brought her back to S.H.I.E.L.D. the two had clicked so quickly Carmen assigned them together as much as possible. She knew what it meant to always have someone to rely on.

"You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce asked and Fury looked on confused.

"How many are there?" Carmen chuckled and patted his chest at his lack of scientific knowledge.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?" Banner asked starting to roll up his sleeves and Carmen looked towards Natasha.

"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please" Nat nodded and walked off leading Banner down the hall.

"You're gonna love it Doc. We got all the toys" Coulson stepped towards Carmen.

"Director Erskine if it wouldn't be to much could I show Captain Rogers to his headquarters" Carmen smiled and removed her hand from her wound and patted his shoulder.

"I would say yes but I'm pretty sure its my turn to have some alone time with the Captain" Coulson nodded and Carmen retreated her hand.

"If you wouldn't mind" she held her hand out towards Steve and he stared at it. He was amazed what had just occurred even occurred. He was almost scared to touch her. Almost as if it would flip a switch inside of him and he wasn't sure what it would do. Slowly he gripped her slim fingers and hooked her arm with his.

"Fury, you're in charge until I get back" Fury nodded and Carmen pointed down the hall to where her and Steve needed to start. They walked quietly for a moment and Steve was sure his heart was thumping way to fast.

"Who would've thought" he turned to look at her and it made his heart ache. She may of still looked like she did 70 years ago but you could read it in her face. She was old and wore out. Her thick German accent had long faded and it made him feel stomach sick. She was here all by herself the whole time watching as their friends and family passed.

"It's the Steve thing to do isn't it. Disappear for 70 years and then surprise. Look who was just actually frozen and was waiting to give me a heart attack" Steve chuckled lightly and his heart fluttered as she said his name. Somehow within that one word her German accent slipped and gave his name some meaning again.

"Well if I knew how to unfreeze myself I would've been here 30 years earlier. Not everything went as planned" Carmen laughed and Steve bit his lip. That's what he wanted to hear. Lucky for him she was still the same Carmen just worn and wise with age. Somehow all anger he has towards her for avoiding him seemed to be forgotten in her presence.

"Your lucky you're my friend. Or else I wouldn't be as amused" another smile broke out across his face as she used her free hand to pat the arm he was guiding her with.

"Can I ask how you were shot?" he mumbled lightly and she looked down to her achy wound.

"It was nothing. The guy we're trying to track down right now had it done so he could get the tesseract" Steve didn't even have time to think about his reaction.

"Carmen are you kidding me! Didn't it occur to you that if you tried to take the thing the bad guy wanted away from him would be dangerous. No wonder you got hurt" Carmen chuckled lightly as he freaked out over her. See for him he hadn't seen her in a month. It didn't feel like 70 years. To him she was the Carmen he saved from being a lab rat who worked in the safety of the base. He hadn't had time to get used to Carmen, super soldier, founder of S.H.I.E.L.D., fighter, and leader.

"Steve. I've had worse. I'm not the same Carmen I was all those years ago. Trust me" Steve nodded as he recalled all the files he received on her. He read them over and over again so proud and amazed and what she had accomplished over the years.

"Why didn't you come see me, when they found me?" he asked, his head down. He remembered Fury telling him how she was still alive and young. Yet she didn't want to see him. He couldn't quite understand. She promised him all those years ago he wouldn't be alone and she left him alone.

"I wasn't ready" she was guilty. She knew he was gonna have a hard time but she was selfish.

"You had 70 years to be ready" she chuckled lightly.

"I didn't know you were coming back. I thought you were dead Steve. I accepted you were dead way back in the 60's. When I found out you were still alive it was like the ghost of my past had finally come to haunt me" Steve had never thought of it like that.

"I was so upset" Carmen's heart clenched as he spoke. They finally came to his door and she stopped him.

"We both made mistakes but now we have a mission. I have some work to do and I have a meeting scheduled. Take time to settle in and in about an hour I'll send Coulson to get you" she unhooked her arm from Steve's and he realized he had made her feel bad.

"What happened to some alone time with me?" he asked and she turned and looked down the hallway from where they came.

"I said everything I needed to say" and with that she held the wall and wobbled back to where she was going to continue what she had been doing for the past 70 years. Life.