Marble Statues ⏃ Captain America [4]

eight

08. | THE TOWER

THE QUINJET LANDED BACK at Avengers Tower after a flight that felt shorter than it was. Tony was on his way to Norway on his own and Steve's small group was only supposed to deliver Bruce to safety again. Though as Bruce made his way off the Quinjet and inside of the Tower, the Quinjet didn't take off.

            Christina glanced over at Natasha with a confused look on her face; not quite understanding anything. Clint and Steve hadn't moved from their positions, so who or what were they waiting for?

            With a sigh, Natasha stood up and walked over to Christina.

            "I think it's better if you stay here too."

            Natasha's words repeated in Christina's head over and over again as she stared at the assassin next to her.

            "Why?" Christina asked quietly.

            "You can't concentrate when you're in this state," Natasha half-heartedly explained. "We all figured it would be better if you stayed behind."

            "You all had a conversation about this?" asked Christina, beginning to feel more and more upset by the second. "About me and the state I'm in?"

            "Chris, please," Steve said from where he was seated, looking over at her. "Don't make this any worse than it already is."

            "Yeah, you going behind my back and talking about me and my mental-state is pretty bad. But what's worse is that you all think that you can make decisions for me. I'm not leaving this Quinjet and that's final."

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With slouched shoulders and a defeated look etched on her face, Christina watched as the Quinjet took off from its docking station inside the Avengers Tower. How had they convince her, you ask?

            Well, they hadn't. But when Christina felt the anger toward her fellow teammates become hotter, she figured the best thing to do was cooperate as she knew the last thing she needed on her conscience was another fight. They had a point when it came to her lack of concentration, but Christina was too stubborn to admit it, especially not in front of everyone.

            But anger was—and always will be—the emotion she feared the most and seeing as she had felt anger quite a lot lately, she wanted nothing more but do as they told her to guarantee no more anger would be apart of her week.

            Bruce walked up to her quietly, his hands stuffed in his pockets. It wasn't until the Quinjet was a little black dot far off in the horizon, that either of them walked away from the window. They walked together—in silence—to the trashed living room. Plastic tarps had been put up over the holes in the walls to ensure that no rain would enter the building, but apart from that, the place had remained untouched.

            "Now you know how I feel most of the time," said Bruce, dusting off some of the sofa before sitting down.

            "We don't leave you behind because of your emotions though," Christina replied, joining Bruce on the tattered sofa. "Well, technically we do, but it's not the same."

            "It's not and just so you know, I was against the meeting."

            "You all had a formal meeting about me?" Christina asked, looking at Bruce with an unsettled look in her eyes. "Do I seem that unstable to you all?"

            "Christina, last night you stayed away from all of us. Barely spoke a word. Not to mention you look pale and tired." said Bruce with a trouble look on his face. "And just now of the Quinjet, you stared at the same spot on the floor the entire journey. I think giving you a break from the mission was nothing but a loving action. They didn't say anything bad about you behind your back. Steve was just worried."

            "Yeah," Christina scoffed. "I bet he was."

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Tony had finally returned from his trip to Oslo which, surprisingly so, had only taken him 24 hours. He had gone to visit the Nexus in hope to find the ally Fury had been telling them about over at the farmhouse; the one that had been making sure that Ultron couldn't get his hands on the nuclear launch codes, changing them constantly. Tony was meant to go over there to find out whoever this ally was, and Christina truly did hope this person was an ally of theirs as if felt they could need some good news for a change.

            "So, did you find our unknown helper?" Christina asked as Tony walked into the Tower, slowly taking off the sunglasses he had been wearing, although Christina didn't see what sunlight he had been shielding his eyes from.

            "I-I think I did. But I need to do some more research to know for sure," Tony said absentmindedly, walking past both Bruce and Christina without saying another word to them.

            "That was...strange," Christina noted as she watched Tony disappear up the stairs into the lab.

            Bruce nodded, "I agree, even for Tony, that was strange."

            They decided to drop the topic of Tony's odd behavior for the time being and move toward the kitchen. No one had come by to clean up after the party—Bruce wiped some drywall dust off the counter and sighed at the state of the tattered kitchen around them.

            "You're worried."

            His statement shouldn't have surprised her. She knew she was. She had a strong urge to caress her lower belly—caress a bump that didn't even exist—she was worried more than ever.

            "He's Steve Rogers, I've never seen him give up without a fight. Plus, he's got Natasha and Clint, I don't think we should be worried," said Bruce, nodding his head absentmindedly.

            "Speaking of Natasha," Christina began in a desperate attempt to change the subject. "What's been going on between you two? I've noticed some chemistry building."

            "Uh, Nat? Oh, uh, n-nothing." Bruce cleared his throat. "Nothing."

            "Oh, I'm sorry," Christina said quietly, shaking her head. "I shouldn't have asked. It's not my place."

            "It's okay to be curious about the people you live with." Bruce assured. "We should all try to lead as normal lives as possible."

            "Maybe, though it doesn't seem like normal relationships are supposed to be apart of our lives." Christina added with a sour tone. "Have you seen Pepper lately? Because I haven't."

            Bruce's sympathetic expression pulled down into a frown. "No, actually, I haven't either. But that doesn't mean...no, I'm sure they're fine."

            "Tony hasn't said anything about it to you then?" Christina prodded, curious.

            "No, he hasn't."

            A soft silence wrapped around them again before Bruce suddenly began to chuckle.

            "Look at us," he said. "Two sad heroes."

            Christina chuckled sadly. "The dark reality."

            They're light mood was abruptly cut off when Tony burst into the kitchen.

            "They're back!"

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