Like no one does

Choices

Steve sees Tony sitting off to the side of the dining room table looking defeated and sad. Sitting at the table he sees Ronnie looking as beautiful as ever, but looking just as forlorn as her brother. He gives her a small hopeful smile that she doesn't return as he sits down next to her. Steve inhales sharply when she stands up to sit at the end of the table. Putting as much distance between them as she can. It doesn't go unnoticed by everyone in the room, but no one comments on it with Ross in the room.

Since she had told him what Bucky had done to her parents and he reluctantly confessed the he had figured it out two years ago she had cut him out. He'd hoped that if he gave her time to cool off then they could talk, but that didn't seem likely any time soon, maybe never. Steve wished he'd been able to tell them, but he'd put Bucky over her and Tony because he didn't want to lose their friendship and had needed their help. He'd lost her anyway. Buck had told them the truth and thrown himself on their mercy like he should have done. He should have had more faith in the Stark siblings.

Natasha sat in Ronnie's vacated seat with Rhodey on her other side. Across the conference table was Vision, Wanda, Pietro and Sam with Secretary Ross standing at the head of the table. They listen to Ross going on about a heart attack which was his way of a sympathetic open to get to his point. Which was, perspective.

He gives a long winded speech about them being instrumental in helping save the world before attacking them and their actions. He didn't or doesn't understand what Steve just explained to Wanda. All secretary Ross wanted was control over the Avengers after so many years of them being a private organization.

What he and the rest of the UN didn't understand was they couldn't save everyone. Couldn't help every city or country from being destroyed while they stopped the bad guys. Ross began showing clips of the worst parts of their missions. It was as if he was shaming them for the damage and death done by the Chitauri, Hydra and Ultron.

Didn't he understand how much worse it would have been if they hadn't been there to stop Loki, Ultron or Pierce? Hell! His name had been on hydra's hit list and if it wasn't for some of the people in this room Ross, all of them and countless millions more would have been murdered. Not to mention the fact that they had saved all life on Earth from Ultron and his plan for extinction. Steve tells Ross to turn off the monitors when he sees how distraught Wanda was at the footage of Lagos.

Ross then tells them about the Sokovia accords. How they'd be under the supervision of a United Nations panel that would pick and choose where and when they could go. "The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place. I feel we've done that." He tells Ross starting to get more than a little pissed at this bureaucrat who was trying to put a leash on them.

"Tell me, Captain. Do you know where Thor and Banner are right now? If I misplaced a couple 30 megaton nukes you can bet there'd be consequences." He says as he stands over him trying to intimidate him.

Secretary Ross didn't know who he was talking to if he thought he could intimidate Steve Rogers by trying to stand above him. He'd spent the first twenty-five years of his life having men try to intimidate him by doing that and it never worked out well. Turning around he starts to walk back to the head of the table. "Compromise. Reassurance. That's how the world works. Believe me this is the middle ground." He tells them, looking around the room as he taps the table.

Rhodey speaks up in difference to his superior. "So, there are contingencies." With him still in the military as a Colonel, Rhodey was more likely to fall in line than to fight against what this was. He was so used to following orders that he didn't think that maybe he should question ones like this.

Ross holds his hand out to his assistant who hands him a thick binder and places it in front of Wanda. She reads the title of it before quickly passing it across the table to Rhodey. "Three days from now the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the accords. Talk it over." He tells them before beginning to leave.