Chapter 20

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I walked down the hall and knocked on the open door. Wanda turned away from the news and at me.

"Can I come in?" I asked. She nodded and I walked in. I sat down next to her. She leaned her head on my shoulder as she continued to watch the news. Suddenly the t.v. turned off and I saw Steve in the doorway from the corner of my eye.

"It's my fault." Wanda told him as she lifted her head from my shoulder.

"That's not true." Steve told her.

"Turn the t.v. back on, they're being very specific." Wanda stated to him. Steve pushed off the doorway and came walking into the room.

"I should have clocked that bomb faster than Rumlow knew what to do with it. Rumlow said Bucky then all the sudden I was 16 years old kid again in Brooklyn." Steve admitted, sitting down on the opposite side of Wanda. "People died. That's on me."

"It's on all of us." I interrupted Wanda before she could even form the words that were going to come out of her mouth. Steve looked at me and I held out a hand behind Wanda's back. He grasped it, holding it tightly.

"This job......we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. We have to find a way to live with that. Next time, maybe nobody get saved." Steve told her. All three of us jumped when Vision walked through the wall, scaring us.

"Vis, we talked about this." Wanda complained to him but also reminding him. Steve let go of my hand and it fell to the bed.

"Yes but the door was open so I assumed that. Captain Rogers wish to know where Mr. Stark has arrived." Vision told him.

"Thank you. Be right down." He said back to him.

"I'll use the door. Oh and apparently he brought a guest." Vision added to his earlier comment.

"Do you know who it is?" Steve asked him.

"The Secretary of State." Vision answered him.

"Shit." I complained as all three of them turned to me this time. I got up off the bed, moving past Vision and into the hall.

"Huhhh, five years ago I had a heart attack. I dropped right in the middle of my back swing. Turned out, it was the best swing of my life because after 13 hours of surgery, a triple bypass, I found something forty years in the army never taught me. Perspective." Secretary Ross told us. My jaw hardened as during his pause, knowing that was the end of his story telling and that it was time for business. "The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives, but while a great many people see you as heroes. But there are some who would prefer the word 'vigilante.'"

"And what word would you use, Mr. Secretary?" Nat asked him.

"How about dangerous? What would you call a group of U.S. based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who frankly, seems unconcerned about what they leave behind." Ross said. He moved as the screen in front of us started playing. "New York. Washington D.C. Sokovia. Lagos." Wanda looked away from the screen as the building burning appeared.

"Okay, that's enough." Steve told him.

"The past four years, you operated under unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution. The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries, it states the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead they'll operate under the supervision of the United Nation Panel. Only when and if that Panel deems it necessary." Ross told us, as Wanda passed the huge stack of papers over to Rhodey.

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