Trust | 1 |

Chapter Ten

After Rey exited the room, Nick Fury went to continue speaking with the billionaire in front of him in private. A loud exclamation of "I can stay!" stopped him for a moment though, and he knew Rey was celebrating with someone outside the door. Possibly Maximoff or Romanoff, but either way she sounded relieved. He took a quick note of that while he talked to Stark.

"Look, Stark, I understand you really don't like Miss Silva being here," Fury started. "But she's going to stay here on the account that she's very dangerous and unknowing of civilized culture." He sat back down at the head of the table and looked at Stark. He was currently looked at the table still, and had thoughts racing around his head about what to say. Fury sat and patiently waited for a response.

Tony Stark was a man of many words, and everyone could agree to that, but now he was struggling to find a good response. Of course he really didn't like an ex-Hydra assassin being in his tower, where he was almost murderer at her hand, but at the same time he witnessed something that left him feeling almost guilty for the way he has treated her: an animal.

He merely thought restraining her and having her be watched over would be good and make everyone feel safer (especially himself). But then he realized that he really didn't account for Rey's feelings and past experiences. Of course she really wouldn't like having to deal with this since it's what Hydra put her through for god knows how long. Sure, he didn't exactly care about what she thought at the moment, but she had to have some sort of PTSD, and that he could really understand.

Finally the man spoke. "Yeah I get the gist. I have to be civil towards her at least while she's  here. I can only promise that I'll try," Stark said. He looked at Fury for a moment before letting out a sigh. "I can't forgive her, and I certainly can't be best buds with her. She's just..." he paused for a moment to try and find the right wording. "She's just a difficult thing for my brain to decipher. There's a lot going on with her that we really don't know so I'm of course going to be cautious- with what I say and how I react and the amount of trust I feel like I can give to her."

Fury nodded and let the man think through everything. When Stark didn't say something for a bit, Fury took this as a chance to speak himself. "Stark, I understand the whole trust thing better than a whole lot of other people. Someone else who understands, is Miss Silva."

Stark looked at the Director with a strange look. "You going soft old man? I mean seriously are you really a sympathetic person?" Stark asked.

"There is no way in hell I'm going soft. I am merely trying to understand Miss Silva's point of view. She comes from Hydra experimentation, so obviously she's not going to trust very easily. We have been watching her behavior ever since she came to this facility Stark, and there are patterns that she displays that fall in line with a lot of mental illnesses." Fury sighed, and wondered to himself for a moment if he was really going soft for this one girl. "We're keeping an eye on her and I need you to not be an asshole. Got it?"

Stark was going to comment, when the doors to the room were flung open. Steve Rogers came in and ignored all of the other agents trying to tell him he'd have to wait outside and all that jazz. "Fury are you really just going to put me in charge of something without consulting me first?" he asked, angry as hell. Stark's eyebrows raised and he had a hard time trying to remain serious now. "You should, oh I don't know, meet with me first before adding more responsibilities to my shoulders. The fact that you want me to come up with Silva's entire workout plan is beyond insane to me."

Fury merely looked at the captain during all this. When Rogers hadn't spoken in a bit, Fury took that as his time to speak. "Are you done Captain?" he asked rhetorically. "I put you in charge because you work your ass off more than anyone else I know here. I put you in charge because you were in the military and understand how to get someone else to work their ass off. I didn't do it to piss you off, Rogers. Now don't even think of making her do insane workouts. Be smart and do as I assigned you to do. This is not up for discussion." Fury was so serious, and all Stark wanted to do was laugh and make comments. But the director also sent him a look, so he decided against it.

"Yes sir I understand all that. Another concern I have is that she'd dangerous to the team. You have seen her in a fight and understand how she could just rip all of us apart in seconds. Why the hell did you think keeping her on this team was a good idea?"

"Because she'd be even more dangerous out there. And if she has to stay here, then she's going to be useful. So no, a cell isn't an option either."

"Dammit Fury," Rogers yelled out, and slammed a fist on the table. Some agents came up, ready to restrain if necessary. They never would have to, but it was just in case.

Stark couldn't hold this comment in and said, "Watch your mouth Rogers." When it was received with glares from Rogers and Fury, Stark held his hands up and started standing. "And I'm leaving." No one stopped him as he left the conference room to go to his lab. He could still hear some arguing going on between the two other men, but couldn't careless as it had nothing to do with him now.

Many things were firing around Stark's head as he walked to his lab. The main thing was why the hell was Rogers so fired up about the decision on Silva's stay? If anything Stark should be fuming as he was nearly murdered by her. But really, he had no idea what Rogers was pissed off. Maybe he just didn't trust Hydra people at all. That made sense, but even the Golden Boy should know that this girl isn't even close to an evil Hydra maniac.

Stark's thoughts were stopped, much like his walking, when he ran into a door. He was already at his lab. He shrugged and carried on inside the lab. There was no true reason for him being in here other than busying himself with making different suits. But he had no need to make more suits at this time. He didn't want to go upstairs to the lounging area though, because that meant possible social interaction with Silva and that was something he did not want to do.

When his stomach growled though, he realized that he hadn't eaten hardly anything in the past couple days. "Damn..." he said, and decided to head down to the kitchen area anyways to grab some junk food or whatever he can easily transport back to the lab.

Sighing nearly the whole way there, Stark went down to the kitchen to 'hunt' for something to eat. As he got closer, he heard laughing and could almost feel the joy radiating off the people on the couches and chairs. He didn't want to go in, he really didn't. But when his stomach made more noises, he chose to get food as quickly as possible. He did have some blueberry packets specifically for him in there.

He walked in and nearly got ran into by Wanda. She turned and looked at him surprised. "I'm so sorry Tony I didn't see you there! I was just grabbing some more snacks," she said. Stark nodded and gave her a tight-lipped smile. They went in separate directions, her to the pantry and him to the refrigerator. He opened it and opened the drawer his blueberries were in. "Oh would you mind if I got a packet of blueberries for Rey to try?" she asked him.

Stark turned around while eating the fruit and looked at the set up they all had. There was bunches of food laid out on the central coffee table, most of it being around Silva herself. She held some chips in her hand while everyone looked over at him.

"Sorry," Wanda started and started to head back to everyone else. "I saw them earlier and realized that Rey hasn't had much fruit in her life either. That's just what we are doing: having her try different foods and teach her things that she's missed."

Wanda was about to leave when Stark threw a hand up. She stopped moving and looked at him expectantly. He grabbed a second packet out from the fridge and tossed them to her. "Go nuts," were his parting words, and he left the kitchen. Wanda shouted a thanks to him and hurried back over to the others.

Stark realized on his way back to the lab that he had much to think about.