Golden Eyes

Arms.

Beautiful, glorious, huge, metal arms.

I was slammed into by Stark in the Iron Man suit as he caught me in mid-air. I had never sobbed for joy before but there was always a first for everything. His suit was basically putt putt puttering, like an old beat up car, making me realized how much he was struggling to keep me from falling to my demise. He needed to get back to the helicarrier and fast.

I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck and I held on for dear life. I don’t think you could have pried me off even if you tried. My adrenaline was racing throughout my entire body and I was shaking like a leaf. Stark had one arm wrapped around me to hold on as he fought with his suit to make it back up. I peeked up through my windblown hair and saw that I had fallen quite a ways down.

The term ‘Holy shit’ did no justice for how I felt.

I just kept muttering ‘I love you I love you I love you,” over and over again. Working as a field agent I was obviously always at risk of dying but there was just something different about being shot at to falling down thousands of feet to your death. It took the wind right out of you, pun intended.

“See. I always knew you secretly had a thing for me. All that pent up sexual frustration must really have finally worn you down.” He commented to my chant that I seemed to have on repeat.

“Mhmm yeah, sure. Let’s go with that.” I said gripping on harder to him as we neared the opening of where I was just tackled out of. As Stark landed he dropped his arms to put me down.

I didn’t move from my spot.

“As much as I love the idea of you and I getting it on, I’m sure Pepper wouldn’t appreciate it.” He said with a laugh as Steve ran over to us. I still didn’t move. “Vanessa you can let go now. You’re safe, for right now at least. I promise.”

My whole body was shaking in fear, relief, shock, and happiness. I felt Steve wrap his arms around my abdomen and pull, causing my arms to loosen but not quite release.

He started pushing my hair back from my face and cooing at me telling me it was going to be alright, that I was alive. I felt the tears spring to my eyes once more as he pulled my arms off of the suit and held me to his chest as I sobbed.

God I was such a baby.

As my legs touched the floor I fell to the ground and hugged it. Oh sweet joyous flat solid flooring! I didn’t care if I looked like a blubbering idiot, I was just happy to be alive.

“I think she’s broken.” Stark said, and I could only imagine the look of wonder on his face by his tone.

“You wouldn’t exactly be okay if you fell to near death either from miles up in the sky.” There was so much pity in his words that I felt it snap me to attention. What was wrong with me? I needed to be strong, not pitied like a defenseless fool.

I pulled myself up and wiped away any last bit of tears that were still on my face. “Right, I’m okay.”

“Do you need anything? Caffeine? Alcohol? A toss in the hay?” I looked at Stark as he wagged his eyebrows at me causing me to laugh. A shaky laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.

“Now’s not the time Stark.” Steve said rolling his eyes. I put my hand on his arm to help steady my shaking legs. He put his hand over my fingers in a protective manner and I smiled gratefully.

“Right now I need to see Loki. I need something to beat the shit out of.” I answered honestly.

“That will have to wait Agent Carson. Everyone in the briefing room. Now.” I whipped my head around to face Fury who had walked in as silently as the grave. How on Earth did he manage to escape my hearing?

“Yes Director.” I said nodding at him.

As Fury gathered Tony and Steve back into the briefing room he broke the news to us. Everyone there had a look on, as if in a daze. Myself included. A look of numb shock and devastated faces.

“Oh my God. Coulson.” I whispered in horror covering my mouth with my hand in disbelief. I turned my head away and put my face into Steve’s arm as if I had witnessed it myself and couldn’t bare to look at it. Coulson was an odd guy, but he was an amazing agent and an even better friend. He was one of the few I actually trusted with my life. To hear that he was dead, because of Loki, was enough to engulf my face in raw hatred and heat. Coulson didn’t deserve that.

“These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them.” Fury throws Coulson's Captain America trading cards on the table towards Steve. Steve picked them up, and I noticed he looked guilt stricken. I sucked in my breath as I realized that they were stained with blood also. “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.”

He paused a beat and looked at Tony and then the rest of us grimly. “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 Carson knew 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.”

Tony gets up and walks off, not wanting to hear it anymore. Meanwhile I watched him leave before turning my golden eyes on Fury with a questioning look. He was milking this death. Fury never gave inspirational speeches unless he was up to something. He looked away from me and in that instant I knew I was right. I remembered the fight Stark and Steve had before everything went to shit. Was he trying to get them to work together to beat a common enemy instead of fighting each other? If so he was brilliant but why did he have to use Coulson as the one piece to get them to spring to action?

I still didn’t say a word. I turned to Steve instead and spoke gently. “Come on, Cap.”

The walk down to the detention section where Loki was held captive was slow and in shambles. Debris was everywhere and I knew instantly that he wasn’t going to be there even though we had already been told of his great escape. Damn it all to Hell! Could we not do anything right?!

Tony was looking at the empty cell container, standing, and not saying a word. Steve looked between us. “Was he married?”

“No. There was a uh...cellist, I think.” I said sniffling and pulling myself away from Steve. “In this field there isn’t much time for dating outside of the workforce. Unless the person works with you.”

“I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man.” Steve said softly as I nodded that he was in fact an amazing man.

“He was an idiot.” Tony said finally breaking his moment of silence. I bristled at his comment.

“Why? For believing?” Steve questioned looking shocked.

Tony shook his head. “For taking on Loki alone.”

“He was doing his job.” I said sharply. How dare he talk bad about someone who wasn’t even alive anymore to defend their actions.

“He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have-.” His voice gave him away in an instant and I had to swallow the lump that began to form in my throat.

“Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony.” Steve remarked hearing the same thing I did.

Tony began shaking his head and walking away. “Right. How did that work for him?”

“Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?” Steve asked. You know I would have never came to that conclusion. In this kind of work people die all the time. At first its hard but then it’s like you almost get used to it. Even expect it. Not that it got easier but it was never as hard as the first few times. The first a friend of mine died was Bucky after the experiments when he fell from the train, then it was Steve, and then so on.

Tony turned around sharply, causing me to jump. My nerves were already on the breaking point and he’s going around startling me. Asshole.

“WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS! I am not marching to Fury's fife! That’s obviously Carson’s job.” He said glaring at me. I raised my eyebrow at him questioningly. I was daring him to say something else with my face. I knew it looked emotionless and stone cold because it was the face I was trained to make in certain situations. He didn’t say another word, simply looked away.

“Neither am I! He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list.” Steve replied and I could swear I could see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to come up with something for us to do.

I turned and began looking at the blood stained wall behind us. “He made it personal a long time ago.”

“That's not the point Vanessa.” Oh it’s not?

“That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?” Tony asked scratching behind his head in frustration. I could see how angry he really was and I was surprised he wasn’t blowing up more. Thankfully he had gotten out of his suit so it could begin mending itself, otherwise I would be afraid he would start shooting out missiles randomly.

“To tear us apart.” Steve commented standing up straighter and unfolding his arms.

“He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience.”

“Right, I caught his act at Stuttengard.” Steve said getting lost slightly once more. I shook my head as I jumped in. Something wasn’t adding up.

“Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered-.” I said before Tony erupted, shouted out as he realized something.

“Sonofabitch!”