What If? Episode 907

Deals And Arrangements

Whatever Scott had been expecting out of his second trip to the Helicarrier - it had not been for him to just be sitting quietly with Captain America while his self appointed guardian went nose to nose with the director of SHIELD - loudly, colorfully, and ... with markedly positive results. Not that it looked positive to start with.

By the time that Logan and Fury had stopped the rapid fire back and forth - Fury was red faced and fuming - but smiling in spite of it. Logan was glaring at him until the director offered him a cigar and pulled out a folder full of paperwork.

"It all gets very civil from here," Steve said in a whisper to Scott as Logan and Fury started muttering quietly as they signed documents.

It took another ten minutes just with the vast amount of paperwork before the two of them finally stopped, stepped back, and Fury offered Logan his hand to shake. "Your uniform's waiting for you in the next room over. I'd like the two of you to get to work as quickly as possible."

Logan did a fine job of looking surprised to hear it. "You sure you got my size?"

Fury gave him a dry look, though it was clear that the Director was unsure if Logan was joking or not. "It's one of the ones that Department H had made for you," Fury said. "We removed the tracking devices they had in them. We have three, two of which you have access to."

"And the third?"

"We're keeping it to make more," Fury replied. "Go on - change. You can trust Cap with the boy for five minutes, can't you?"

Logan turned to look at the two of them and Scott very discreetly nodded, earning a little frown from Logan before he went the way Fury directed to get changed.

"You can leave him with me, Rogers. Time's wasting," Fury said, hardly looking up as he looked over the paperwork one more time, adding his own signatures to a few of them in several places.

Steve and Scott shared a glance and Steve rested a hand on Scott's shoulder. "You know what? I told Logan I had it covered. So just have him meet me on the flight deck." He turned toward Scott and jerked his chin toward the door with a whispered 'come on' before the two of them high tailed it out of Fury's office without giving the director a chance to argue it.

"So ... my friend that will be staying with you," Steve said slowly. "He's a little different, but perfectly capable of keeping anyone off your case." They came to a stop outside of a small room. "I'll take you to him in just a few minutes, but right now, I need to get ready too. Can you keep an eye out for Logan for me? I'll be ten minutes. Tops."

"Yeah, I should be fine," Scott said with a nod, though as soon as the words left his mouth he found himself wondering if Captain America could spot a lie as quickly as Logan could.

"Great," Steve replied with his most winning smile before he stepped into the room for a moment, only to stick his head out a few seconds later. "I don't suppose you can you hold something for me while I finish up ...it'll keep the guards from bothering you."

"Sure," Scott said almost automatically, though he couldn't help goggling when Steve's response was just to hand out his shield. The Captain America shield. He didn't notice that Steve was smirking when he saw Scott's reaction - and he didn't hear the door close as Captain Rogers went back to suiting up.

Scott was holding the striped shield with the single star almost reverently. It was lighter than he had expected it to be, and smaller somehow too, but he couldn't stop grinning as he ran his hands over the edges, not even hearing it himself when a whispered 'wow' slipped out.

Steve took his time, and when he finally stepped out into the hall again, he was in the full uniform - except the helmet. He gave Scott a little smirk. "Ready to head back home with Thor?"