Trust | 1 |

Chapter Sixteen

It was the next day when they came home from Lagos I later found out. Wanda immediately went to her room and stayed there. Nat and Rogers went off to do something else, possibly go over the mission, and Sam decided to sit me down in the common room and tell me everything that happened.

"So Wanda thinks it's all her fault?" I confirmed. Sam nodded his head and I sighed, leaning back into the couch. I brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of my nose and then sat back up. "I assume she went to her room?"

Sam nodded, but when I tried to get up he brought his arm up to stop me. "Leave her be for a bit. She's going through some stuff and may want some alone time to try and sort everything out in her head."

I sat back on the couch. "I don't want to just leave her alone, Sam," I whispered. There was an implied 'like I was' at the end but neither of us needed to comment on it to understand what I meant.

We were sitting on the couch in silence when Rogers came into the room. "Where's Stark?" he asked. It took me a moment to register that he was asking me, as I would be the most likely to know out of Sam and I.

"He went to a college for a presentation thing? Something about barf?" I offered. "He had left in a hurry, muttering things about how he forgot and how he was going to be late. I didn't feel like pushing for an answer so I just picked up on the little things." Rogers gave a small nod and 'thank you'. He left, walking towards the hall of rooms. I assumed he was going to talk to Wanda.

Sam and I sat there in silence once more. Then, FRIDAY spoke up. "Mr. Stark has arrived with a Mr. Thaddeus Ross with him. He's the Secretary of State." It was the last sentence that caused Sam to almost literally jump up from the couch.

"Is there a meeting about to happen?" he asked the AI while also getting me to stand up.

"In the conference room." Sam grabbed my metal arm and started to pull me along with him to the conference room. He offered no explanations or any words at all as we walked. Well, it was sort of crossing over to jogging, but civil enough to be called a fast-paced walk.

In the conference room, Nat and Rhodes were already sat and waiting. Stark was seated in a chair on the edge of the room. Then I noticed the man at the front of the room. He was in a suit and had gray hair and gray facial hair. The serious and almost threatening look on that man's face confirmed that he was Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross. I didn't have a clue on how to properly greet him, so I just sat down in the seat I was being offered by Sam. We all then sat and waited in silence as more people came to join us, including Rogers, Wanda, and Viz.

That's when a presentation started. "Five years ago I had a heart attack..." Ross struck a pose as if he was playing golf. "...and dropped right in the middle of my backswing." He dropped the pose and put his hands on the table in front of him. "Turned out it was the best round of my life, because after thirteen hours of surgery and a triple bypass, I found something 40 years in the army never taught me." There was a small pause. "Perspective." I sat in my own bubble of confusion, as I had no idea where he was going with this.

Ross finally moved on, and started to walk around. "The world owes the Avengers an unplayable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives....but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some who prefer the word 'vigilantes'." I noticed that this man talked pretty slow.

"What word would you use, Mr. Secretary?" Nat asked across from me.

He wasted no time in saying, "How about 'dangerous'. What would you call a group of US based enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind."