Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Why Hawkeye?" Steve asked. "I thought you wanted me in charge?"

"We do," Nick Fury said, his usually grim expression softening into one of sympathy. "But ever since Peggy died, you've been off your game. I'd usually place Natasha in charge, but…"

Nick's voice trailed off. They both glanced over to where Natasha sat polishing her gun. The small scar between her eye socket and eyeball had faded to a tiny pink dot, but ever since she'd woken up from her coma, something had been a little bit 'off.' None of them could quite put their finger on it, especially in light of Hawkeye's insistence there was nothing wrong with her. But at least Fury was taking Steve's reservations seriously.

"It wouldn't be fair to bust down Natasha," Fury said softly enough that Natasha couldn't hear. "And not do the same with you."

Fury was right. He had been off his game lately, finding himself in neighborhoods he hadn't visited in years with no memory of walking there and spacing out during training, earning more than a few bruises from Hawkeye and Thor. Ever since Peggy had died, he hadn't been able to sleep, hoping fervently when he did drift off he'd be reunited with her in his dreams and, instead of finding Peggy, being plagued with nightmare after nightmare of a village they'd walked into in occupied France during the Great War after Herr Klaiser had decimated it. Shapeshifters. The local villagers had whispered tales of creatures that would suck the brains out of the skulls of the locals and then assume their shapes. If Peggy was sending him intel from the other side, as she'd often joked she would do to make light of the fact she'd been dying, it wasn't that she wished him to pine for her passing.

"Hawkeye's a good man," Steve finally answered. "It will give him experience taking charge instead of always following someone else's lead."

The flawed Avenger with a checkered past, same as Natasha. As much of a pain in the backside as Tony Stark was with his narcissistic personality and tendency to go overboard on just about everything he did, Stark's loyalties had never been called into question. Thor was … Thor. And Banner was never really all that in control of damage the Hulk did whenever his alter-ego took over. But Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton had led a life of crime before being rehabilitated with a little gentle persuasion from the Black Widow. Clint's sole reason for towing the straight and narrow was sitting across the room, polishing her gun.

If Natasha proved unreliable in the line of fire, would it throw Hawkeye off his game, as well? His total trust in Natasha had already almost gotten him killed. Steve just hoped their de facto commander wouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security a second time.

"Let's get this over with," Fury said. He turned to the larger group. "All right, everyone. Listen up! As you all know, our grey-skinned lizard friends have not all left the building as we had all hoped. Some of them have decided to hang around and see if they can't regroup. What their plans are, nobody knows. All we have are puzzle pieces. Some of them pretty old puzzle pieces…"

Fury eyeballed Steve with his one good eye. Steve didn't see the humor in the situation.

"…and some of them pretty new. Doctor Banner. Do you care to tell us what you know?"

Bruce Banner stepped forward and hit the button on a remote control. The green button, Steve noted to himself. Images of the native Melanesian islanders they'd been forced to kill during the botched mission in the South Pacific leaped onto various screens around the room.

"Anybody notice anything peculiar about our victims?" Banner asked.

"They're all dead?" Tony Stark volunteered.