Renege // The Avengers

five.

Carmen groggily woke up. She had gone to bed after her conversation with Steve and even then it didn't feel like enough sleep. She tossed and turned and she woke up Julia a few times. She looked to the now sleeping peacefully girl and smiled. That little girl was her world.

Carmen got up and prepared for her day. She was still slightly on edge with Julia being here but she knew she would be safe. Carmen exited her room dressed in some black jeans and light pink blouse with her white lab coat hung over her shoulders. Her hair was still slightly damp and her heels clicked as she walked down the corridor.

"I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit" she heard Steve say as she entered the lab.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked her as Natasha and Thor entered behind her.

"Know about what?" she was ignored as Natasha stepped forward and spoke.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment doctor?"

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed" Julia peeped her head around Thor where she held tightly onto his red cape. Carmen immediately noticed her and pulled her towards her.

"Loki's manipulating you" Natasha told Bruce and he chuckled.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Natasha glared and stepped closer and Carmen peered towards Fury, curiosity consuming her from the previous argument.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you" Natasha cooly stared.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction" as if a lightbulb went off Carmen had finally been filled in and her heart ached. She didn't want Steve to know.

"Because of him" Carmen said pointing to Thor and Steve's head snapped towards her. He had assumed she was oblivious to the modern versions of the WW2 weapons. She had seen what they had done.

"Me?" Thor asked and Nick nodded along with Carmen.

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned" Nick explained as Carmen continued nodding.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet" Thor said and Carmen chuckled pulling Julia closer to her.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled" Carmen let go of Julia's hand and stepped towards Thor. Julia felt suddenly to revealed in the adult world. She couldn't quite understand why a lot of her favorite people were yelling at each other.

"Like you controlled the cube?" Julia heard Steve and almost as an immediate reaction she ran towards him and grabbed his fingers. Carmen on the other hand was stunned to see Steve being so rude towards her.

"You're work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war" Thor explained and Steve looked down to Julia and she looked up to him with confused eyes. His heart ached and naturally he pulled the girl closer to let her know he was protecting her while Mommy was busy.

"A higher form?" Steve asked and Fury stepped forward.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something" he explained and Carmen nodded.

"Nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything right down" Tony sarcastically stated and Julia moved herself further behind Steve's body as she felt the tension rise in the room.