Jay

Chapter 9

I laid in Central Park on the fountain, looking up at the sky. It was empty. Everyone had evacuated, so it was peacefully quiet. A nice change to the way things had been for the past few hours. My head was still reeling, though, from the whole day.

We had been attacked on the hellicarrier. Coulson had died. Clint had wiped Loki out of his head. We had fought for three long hours to save New York. We had nearly lost Tony. Probably had nearly lost Steve more than once.

And yet here I sat, while the others were bruised and wounded, I was completely fine, the only thing to show for it was a few new scars, some which would be gone by the morning. Some I'd have for the rest of my life.

I sighed. I lost a friend today. A mentor, a man I had seen as a father-figure. And all I could do to avenge him was punch a demi-god in the gut and take a few scars.

I didn't even know if I would stay at SHIELD. If I did, it would be a sore reminder of Coulson. If I didn't, well, I didn't really have anywhere to go.

I sighed. Maybe I'd just take a few months off. Find myself, or whatever it was people did after they lost someone they loved.

I'd miss the action within days, I thought, and smiled. I'd miss my family in days. And whether I liked it our not, Fury and Hill were my family. So were Tasha and Clint.

No, I'm sticking with SHIELD. But I am taking a few days off. Maybe on a warm beach somewhere.

Sighing, I waited for Tony's call.

vvv

We sat around the two tables in the shawarma joint that Thor and Tony had pushed together so we could all fit. The place was a mess from the invasion, and I think that Tony paid the owners a lot to make us food and let us sit there. Turned out Shawarma was a sandwich, with shaved roasted meat. It wasn't half bad.

So, we sat at the table, in silence, all of us too tired to do anything but eat. I sat with Steve on the left end, picking at my food, tossing chunks in lazily.

Steve leaned his elbow on the table, face in his hand as he did the same. On his left was Thor, who held the sandwich, taking huge bites, then chewing slowly. I was waiting for him to finish, throw the basket down, and yell "Another!" Probably wouldn't happen, but a girl can hope, right.

Bruce sat next to Thor, not all that interested in the food, and just picked at. Tony sat on the other end, leaning back in his seat, head kind of tilted as if he were trying to decide if he liked it or not.

Tasha sat next to him, Clint between her and I. Tasha watched Clint, eyes narrowed, knowing at any second, Clint would try to take some of her food. I had a fork by my hand, ready in case if he tried to take mine, but after over 14 years of trying to take my food, and getting smacked or stabbed with a fork for it, he learned Tasha was an easier target. Which was kind of funny if you thought about it. He ate his food it huge bites, and was giving her a puppy-dog look, trying to get her guard down.

When I was full, I laid my head down on the table, and napped until Clint would undoubtedly wake me up when we left.

Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, I felt my chair shoved out from under me, and I fell on my ass on the ground.

"Clint, I swear to God, I'm going to kick your ass!" I shouted at him.

He laughed. "Love you too, little sister," he said.

"Come, my friends, to the tower of Stark," Thor said, and we agreed, all of us heading up there.

vvv