DYER | STEVE ROGERS

𝐈𝐈𝐈.𝐈𝐗

〚 HIM 〛

Everyone stood around in the lab, all waiting for someone to say something. Darla sat in the corner furthest away from everyone.

"All our work is gone." Bruce spoke up. "Ultron cleared out. He used the internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron?" Steve spoke.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha explain. Darla's head snapped up and her eyes narrowed on to Tony.

"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey questioned.

"Nuclear codes." Hill muttered as she pulled glass from out of her foot.

"Nuclear codes." Rhodey repeated. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes? He said he wants us dead." Natasha cut in.

"He didn't say 'dead'. He said 'extinct'." Steve corrected.

Darla pulled her legs up closer to her chest and buried her head in her knees. The fact that Ultron had access to their files meant that he knew about Mateo, and everything that happened to him. Things that Tony even decided to keep from her about him.

"He also said he killed somebody." Clint reminded the group.

"There wasn't anyone else in the building." Hill shrugged it off.

"Yes there was." Tony spoke for the first time and projected an image of Jarvis.

"What? This is insane." Bruce muttered as he looked at Jarvis.

"Jarvis was the first line of defence. He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." Steve said softly.

"So now," Darla stood up angrily. "this, Ultron knows everything about us? Everything about me?" She glared towards Tony. "You promised me that nobody would ever find out."

"I'll fix it." Tony muttered, hating the fact that he had disappointed the girl.

"You can't fix this." She snapped and turned away from the man.

"No. Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy. This is rage." Bruce said correcting Steve.

Thor came in and instantly wrapped his hand around Tony's neck.

"Come on, use your words buddy." Tony muttered. Darla stepped forward but Tony placed his hand out, telling the girl to stay put.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Thor seethed.

"Thor. The legionnaire." Steve reminded the man. But still Thor didn't put Tony down, so Darla placed her hand on Thor's shoulder making him reluctantly let go of Tony.

Despite her being angry with Tony, she didn't didn't want to see him get hurt.

"Don't ever touch him again." Darla said and continued to leave her hand on Thor until he fell to the ground. She released her grip once Steve pulled her back, she pushed him away once again and went to stand in the corner. "Don't touch me."

"Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north. And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again." Thor said as he stood back up.

"Genies out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron." Natasha said.

"I don't understand." Uttered Dr Cho "You built this program, why is it trying to kill us?"

Tony began to laugh, causing everyone's attention to turn to him.

"You think this is funny?" Thor questioned, his jaw tightening.

"No. It's probably not, right? This is very terrible. Is it so-" Tony cut himself off by laughing. "Is it so, it is. It's so terrible."

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor took a step closer to Tony, only for Darla to step beside the man, making Thor back off.

"I'm sorry. No. I'm sorry. It is funny." Tony said as he advanced towards Thor. He knew Darla was watching their every move carefully. Over the past few years the two had grown incredibly close and would do anything for one another, despite if one was upset with the other. "It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." Spat Tony.

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time." Bruce suggested, his eyes flickering to Darla, who had a light blue aura forming around her.

"Really? That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?" Tony snapped, he didn't even noticing that Darla was getting angrier.

"Only when I've created a murder bot." Bruce nodded.

"We didn't. We weren't even close. We're we close to an interface?" Tony questioned Bruce.

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here." Steve spoke up. "The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD."

Steve walked over to Darla, his arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her into his chest. Despite the pain he was in, he needed her to calm down before she hurt herself.

"You're okay, baby." He whispered into her ear and began to hum the all to familiar tune.

Darla closed her eyes and relaxed into the man's grip as he traced patterns on her skin.

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony questioned, watching the interaction between the two. Steve's jaw was tightly clenched so he didn't let her know how much pain he was in.

"No, it's never come up." Rhodey muttered sarcastically. "Never heard that."

"Saved New York? Recall that?" Tony questioned. "A hostile alien army can charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there, that's, that's the endgame." Tony paused. "How we're you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together." Steve spoke, finally not feeling any sort of shock from Darla. She was calm and at peace.

"We'll lose." Tony stepped forward.

"Then we'll do that together too." Steve reassured the man. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us." Steve spoke calmly. "The worlds a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

Tony didn't miss the way that Steve was no longer wincing. He didn't miss the small smile that appeared on Darla's face.

It all slowly began to click in Tony's head, Steve was the only one who made Darla truly and completely happy without any form of alcohol or physical exercise.

She didn't need any distractions, she just needed him.