Reality in Motion

never seen, never heard

The phone in his hand had been softly, rhythmically vibrating for several moments. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to press either of the buttons that were lit up as options for him. One to answer, one to deny. The caller ID was blocked, but only about ten people had his number and half of them were taking up space in the quinjet with him. Deep down, he knew who it was.

Before, he had been looking forward to this moment. The moment when she finally returned his countless voicemails. He imagined what she would say, what he would say and the countless directions the conversation would take. He could be angry, upset, forgiving, or whatever else came to mind. But at that moment, with his phone vibrating in his hand, he didn't feel any of what he had felt in the past. All there was, was dread, and a little bit of confusion.

Not that he dreaded talking to Q, it was just that he dreaded hearing the impact of whatever happened to her, and learning what they did to her in the Hydra facility. He wasn't prepared to handle that quite yet.

And the confusion came second; why was she calling him now at all times. She had plenty of time before to give him a call back - and get a quicker response than the slow reaction time it was taking him then.

That being said, his slow reaction time caught up to him. The call, as quickly as it appeared on his screen, disappeared. Screen turning dark, Steve immediately swiped his finger over the surface to light it up again. There was no sign of her missed call nor any voicemail he could listen to. She had made the decision for him and hung up. Damnit.

Almost instinctively, he went to call her back, only to be distracted by JARVIS' voice alerting them to how they were arriving back at the Avengers tower. He moved from his seat and crouched down near Tony's pilot seat to slip his phone into one of the pockets of his duffel bag. There wasn't any time to call her back at the moment. It would have to wait until later.

Once landed safely on the dock, the quinjet's ramp lowered. Clint was taken off first, with Nat by his side along with a team of Helen Cho's assistants and Bruce behind them. His wound took precedence over everyone else, which was more than understandable. Thor ambled off next, the case with the scepter tucked under his arm and hammer in the other hand. As he walked off, Maria Hill walked on, already summarizing what was happening at the Tower. A role he could see Q fitting perfectly in, if she ever decided to come home. Maybe that's why she was calling. He couldn't think about that now, though, not with Maria coming toward him.

"What's the word on Strucker?" he pushed out of his crouch and took his duffel with him. He had been wondering what happened to the man he had left in the back of the van after getting zero answers as to what he did to Q.

"NATO's got him." Maria answered sounding almost disappointed by it. In truth, Steve was too; NATO made him untouchable. The Avengers operated outside the government, meaning while they were able to help anyone anywhere, it made things a bit tricky when it came to what happened after they caught the bad guys. Usually they were shuffled off to whatever foreign national government there was - or, in this case NATO. Steve wouldn't be getting anymore answers on Q anytime soon. At least not from von Strucker.

"The two enhanced?" he walked over to her, both of them turning to walk off of the quinjet. Maria tapped at her tablet as she did, pulling up their information.

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins." she passed off the tablet which was now displaying a video of the pair of siblings she named. The woman looked familiar, the man not so much; that might be because he didn't really get a good look at him...

"Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building." she explained while he let the video of them at some sort of rally play. They were speaking some foreign language that Steve didn't understand, but based on the signs it looked to be about peace and war, "Sokovia's had a...rough history." The phrase she used made it clear that the country had been at war for what probably was forever, "It's nowhere special, but in a way, it's on the way to everywhere special." she compared and contrasted as they walked into the Avengers tower itself.