《 It's Been A While 》Steve Rogers X Reader

~ Chapter 12 ~

"Here you are, Captain." I gestured towards the lab doors. Tony and Bruce were analyzing the scepter inside. Steve smiled and walked in, holding the door open for me. When got in though, Tony was toying around with the Doctor.

"Ow," Bruce winced.

"Nothing?" Tony questioned as Steve walked up to them. Me following behind.

"Hey! Are you nuts?"

"Oh, Jury's out. You really do have a lid on it, don't you. What's your secret? Mello jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?" I gave Tony a look and he put his hands up defensively and scooted back from Dr. Banner.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve sighed.

"Funny things are."

"Tony-" I snap at him.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Steve looks at Bruce. "No offense, Doc."

"No, it's okay. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"Steve is right, don't try to get Banner worked up just to satisfy your wants. Curiosity killed the cat, you know." Tony rolled his eyes and pointed to Steve.

"Not even 3 months out of the ice and you've already got S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents wrapped around your finger, Cap."

"Excuse me--"

"Mr. Stark you need to focus on the problem at hand." Steve cuts me off and turns to Tony.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now and not before?" I meet Tony's gaze. "What isn't he telling us?"

"Agent Jay, you're smart. I can tell you've already caught onto Fury's little secrets. Or you've atleast noticed that he's keeping some." I sigh and rest my arms on the table.

"I have noticed things. There's an feeling in my gut that we've overlooked something very important."

Rule #67 Always listen to your gut. Added that one after Steve decided to make a great escape.

"See? Look, I can't do the equation  unless I have all the variables." Steve looks at me, ignoring Tony.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" He asks, softening his gaze.

"I mean, he hid you for months. There's a possibility--"

"An extremely likely possibility. The same possibility that something is happening here, what's up with you two?" Our heads swivel to look at Tony, who is now opening a bag of blueberries. Bruce has an awkward expression on his face.

"What? Am I wrong?" I sigh and Steve brings his focus back to Fury.

"Dr. Banner, do you also have suspicions about Fury?"

"Uh... I just wanna finish my work here, and..."

"Bruce?" He sighs and takes his glasses off.

" 'A warm light for all mankind.' Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it."

"Me too, and I feel like there's more behind it than a little intimidation." Bruce nods to my little comment and continues.

"I think so too, Agent. I think it was meant to be heard by Tony. Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark tower? That big, ugly building in New York?" Tony looks at Steve, tired of his comments. Toddlers.

"It's powered by an arc reactor--self sustainable energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?"

"It's just a prototype," he turns to Steve and brings out his bragging voice. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

"Awe, did the Captain hurt you feelings when he called your tower ugly?" Tony rolls his eyes at me. I get a small laugh from Steve and Bruce.

"So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the tesseract project? It doesn't make sense to have all this energy and no one to use it. What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"Your right, Doctor. Loki was talking about unlimited power and how we couldn't use it. Seeing as this is all known by Fury, the fact that you've just now been brought into the situation is, unusual. They might be trying to use this unlimited energy for something that they don't want to disclose to you guys. Which, seeing as your doing all this work to retrieve it is pretty strange. Right, Stark?"

"Yeah, I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files."

"I'm sorry, did you say--" Steve and I both look at Tony as he snacks.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide."

I turn to Tony. "This might be strange but that gives no right for you to break into secure files. They've been secured for a reason, you know."

"Y/n is right. You're confused on why they didn't want you around and now you have your answer."

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony's eyes meet mine. "Historically, not awesome. Doesn't make sense, does it? Agent?"

"I think Loki is just trying to wind us up." Steve blocks Tony's view of me. "This is a man who's means is to try and start a war, and if we don't stay focused he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them."

"I am against breaking into S.H.I.E.L.D. files, one hundred percent. But..." All eyes are on me. "Asking a few questions and looking around a bit wouldn't hurt."

"Thank you, y/n." Tony walks past Steve over to Bruce, who gives his input on the whole situation.

"Don't you think it smells a little funky? The whole situation?"

I sigh. "I gotta admit, Steve. Something isn't right. There's something we're missing." Steve glares at us, softening slightly when his eyes land on me and groans. He turns to Tony.

"Just find the cube, Stark." And with that he walks out of the room.

"He should really get a costume change. Think all that spandex is cutting off circulation to his brain." Tony teases. I spin around and he immediately gets back to work.

"Tony, I'm not on board with you stealing secured information."

"Borrowed," he mumbles under his breath. I roll my eyes.

"But, I am onboard with doing some snooping. If you find anything of value, that I don't already know, come find me. I'll do the same."

"What do you mean if you don't already know?" He calls out as I meet Steve in the hallway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Preview~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Stark put you up to this, didn't he."

"No, Stark is breaking into sealed files. We'll just take a look around and see if we stumble across anything."

"Same thing, y/n."

"No, Steve. Stark is a stranger. I'm authorized personnel."

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