Caught In The Widow's Web

Ch 36

"Meals at eight and five. Toilet privileges twice a day. Raise your voice, zap. Touch the glass, zap. You step out of line, you deal with me. Please, step out of line. Hmm? So how does it feel? To spend all that time, all that effort...and, to see it fail so spectacularly?" Everett Ross talks to Helmut Zemo, the so called doctor in a chamber while Tony and I watched from a monitor.

"Did it?" Zemo asks lifting his head up meeting Everett's gaze.

My jaw clenches as I sit back in my seat while Tony scoffs. We see Ross leave the screen and after a few moments the door to the room we were in opens and Ross comes in taking a seat across the table.

"So where do we start? Handcuffs?" Ross asks as he looks at me.

"Well I was expecting more of an apology for my brother." I state and purses his lips with a clenched jaw sitting back in his seat.

"Where is Rogers and Barnes anyway?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.

"They're somewhere safe until I know they can step out in public without the feds being on their ass." I tell him and he nods slowly.

"So we'll start by releasing my friends from that prison I heard you're keeping them in. And it not being on their records." I tell him.

"They broke the-

"They broke nothing. What? Just because they had my back in something I was right about all along?" I raise an eyebrow and his jaw clenches again.

"And I want Bucky safe. No more running from the feds." I add.

"He needs to be locked away-

"Mr.Barnes will stay in the Avengers Tower. Since everything classified has been transferred over to the Compound. We don't have to worry about anything being compromised in case things went south while getting the mind control out of his mind. When we are successful he'll be moved to the Compound and instated as an Avenger if he so chooses to help." Stark speaks making Ross turn to him.

"You two think you have all the control here?" He asks in disbelief.

"You need us. Without the Avengers, Earth is defenseless. So we know what we're doing. You need to trust us." I tell him seriously and he smacks his lips turning away.

"What about you?" He then asks eyeing me making me furrow my eyebrows confused.

"What about me?" I ask.

"What do you want?" He nods at me.

"I don't want anything. If you want me to sign the contract and step back I will. I got my brother back. I completed my last assignment." I shrug and he shakes his head in thought.

"Everything just discussed. Done. Your status?...TBD." He says and gets up from his seat leaving the room.

"Well that went surprisingly well." Tony says turning to me and I nod slightly.

"Thank you, Tony, for your help. I really owe you." I tell him sincerely.

"Well turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it. *makes peace sign* I just want peace." He tells me making me smile softly.

"I still really owe you." I tell him.

"I'll remember that. Now back to other business. Why are you getting an apartment when you know you can stay with us?" He asks making me sigh.

"Buck is in the Tower and the compound is upstate. If I really step back from the Avengers I want to be in my own space. Not be in the way of your guy's Avengers duties. And the apartment is near the Tower." I tell him.