Hard to Let Go.

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Tony, Steve, and I sat at a table facing Fury, the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. We didn't deal with Coulson's death well, obviously, and Fury brought us all here to talk about something. I wipe away the stray tears falling down my face, and Steve pats my back. I smile weakly in his direction, and Fury pulls out something from his jacket.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them." He throws them on the table, and I shakily pick one up. His blood is still on it.

'Ma'am, they weren't in his jacket.'

'They were in his locker.'

I stare down at the card.

"They needed something to motivate them."

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark and Galactica know this, called THE AVENGERS INITIATIVE. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."

I drop the card back on the table, looking over at Stark to see him getting up, not wanting to hear anymore. I follow him, grabbing his arm and side hugging him. He took what comfort he could, and wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we walked away.

We walked to the lab, seeing Banner with his head in his hands. I let go of Stark gently, running over to Bruce to hug him as well. He stiffened up, but relaxed as he realized it was only us. I let go of him, to look him in the eyes.

"You're not a monster." He shakes his head, letting go of me.

"We saw what happened, well, I saw what happened with you and Loki. Everybody knows about it." Stark comments. I look over at him with wide eyes, ready to explain myself to both of them. Tony raises a hand to stop me.

"We get it." He looks up from the ground to me, "We understand why you have to do that."

I smile, tears in my eyes as I run over and wrap my arms around his neck, hugging him again.

"Thank you." I said shakily. He smiles into my shoulder, and Banner smiles from behind me.

"You should've told us though, before you did it." I look back at Banner, and chuckle, wiping my eyes.

"I know, but I couldn't."

"Yeah, we know."

"Will this happen again, Galactica?" Banner asks softly. I look at him with a soft gaze.

'Tell them.'

'Nothing will happen.'

"Yes, I'll have to help him too. But I'm mostly going to help you guys."

They both smile.

"I guess now we know that we're the favorite side!" We all laugh, our bonds growing closer and closer.

꧁♡︎꧂

"He'll be okay, Natasha." I say, as we watch Clint shake his head. He snaps back to reality, and looks over at us.

"You're gonna be alright, Clint." She says to him.

"You know that? Is that what you know? I got...I gotta go in though. I gotta flush him out."

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