Steve walked into the room where Tony and Victoria were. He saw them standing and he walked to the railing. Seeing that Victoria was almost asleep and unresponsive, Steve decided to ask Tony something.
"Do we know if he had anyone?" Steve asked.
"There was a... cellist, I think." Tony said.
"He seemed like a good man." Steve said.
"He was an idiot, he shouldn't have taken on Loki alone, he should have waited." Tony said.
"For doing what he thought was right?" Steve asked.
Tony looked down at Victoria. Her eyes were closed and her hands loosened on his.
"Is this the first time that you lost a soldier?-" Steve said.
"We are not soldiers!" Tony said with an intense determination.
Victoria stirred and she woke up.
"Sorry baby, I just lost control for a moment." Tony said.
"No, it's fine. I should be awake anyway." Victoria said.
Steve looked down and then looked back up.
"Okay well what does this mean? What was Loki's purpose? To separate us?" Steve said.
"Maybe to get us out of the way." Victoria said.
"Well, what do we know so far?" Steve asked.
"We know that he needs a pure energy source to power the Tesseract." Victoria said.
"Okay, what do we know about Loki?" Steve asked.
"We know that he's going to make his move. Tonight's opening night and Loki's a full tail diva, he wants flowers, a parade, he wants a monument built in the sky with his name plaster-" Tony paused.
Steve and Victoria connected the dots and looked at Tony.
"Son of a-" Tony got interupted by Victoria.
"Come on Tony let's go!" Victoria said.
She walked quickly down the stairs and Tony followed right behind her. Steve followed both of them out.
"What's are move?" Steve asked.
"Well now we know that Loki is using the arc reactor of Stark Tower to power the Tesseract. That means that we have to get to New York and shut it down as soon as possible." Victoria said.
"What if it is already up and running?" Steve asked.
"I'll keep him busy for as long as I can until you guys arrive." Tony said.
They walked down the hall to the lab and to the place where Steve's outfit was. Tony stopped Victoria in the hall.
"I want you to stay here, where it is safe." Tony said.
"What? Tony my power will be really helpful out there." Victoria said.
"You have broken ribs and a failing heart. I want you to stay here." Tony concluded.
"I will just come anyway you know." Victoria said.
Tony sighed and put his hand on his face.
"Fine, but I want you to be careful. You did add that extra layer of your shielding system to your suit right?" Tony asked.
"Yes I did." Victoria replied.
"Okay, I want you to come with Cap. I don't want you to fly all the way to New York." Tony said.
Victoria wasn't going to argue with him.
"Fine, I will. Don't kill yourself trying to distract Loki, if it comes to that." Victoria said.
"Okay, I will be extra careful doing this whole thing, whatever it comes to." Tony said.
"You better." Victoria said.
They kissed each other in the middle of the hall. Steve had stopped and he looked at them. He cleared his throat obviously and hoped to get their attention. Tony and Victoria pulled away from each other.
"Cap, Victoria is coming with you." Tony said.
"Are you sure that she is in good enough condition to go fight?" Steve asked.
"I wouldn't argue with her, unless you want her waltzing around in your mind, that's what she now does to punish me when I do something stupid." Tony said.
Steve didn't even want to ask.
"I'm going to go get Natasha after I get my suit on." Steve told Victoria.
"I'll get my suit and I'll get us a ride." Victoria said.
--------------- Time Jump ------------------------
Steve walked out in his suit and with Natasha and Clint Barton (Hawkeye) behind him. Victoria recognized the man from a file, he was the one that Loki turned. They walked into the hanger and saw Victoria standing in front of a jet.
"How did you get this?" Natasha asked.
"It helps when you have the power to literally make someone go crazy enough to let you do whatever you want." Victoria said.
"Barton is going to fly the jet." Steve said.
Victoria walked over to Steve and whispered in his ear.
"Can we trust him?" Victoria asked.
"He seems to be fine, Natasha is pretty sure that he is back to normal, and she knows him better than both of us." Steve said.
"Okay, I trust Natasha." Victoria said.
They all walked into the jet and Clint got into the pilot's seat. Natasha got into the copilot's seat and put on a head set. Steve stood behind them and Victoria sat on one of the seats on the side of the jet. It was obvious that something was bothering her. Steve noticed this and he walked over to her.
"Hey, are you okay?" Steve asked.
"Yes, yes I am totally fine and ready to go." Victoria said.
"Hey, I might not be able to read someone's mind but I can tell when someone is lying. Come on, I know that I'm not a therapist but I want to help. You can tell me anything." Steve said.
"I-I'm just worried about Tony. He can be rash and go throw his life away when he fights. I know that I should believe in him, I mean he has fought before but this is- this is aliens and space stuff. This is not like the Stark Expo, and it is definitely not like Obadiah." She paused and started to fidgeting with her fingers. "Why is it that when these things happen me and Tony are somehow separated?" She asked.
Steve knew that he couldn't answer that question.
"I don't know, but what I do know is that Tony loves you. And he wouldn't so rashly throw away his life, knowing that you are still around." Steve said.
"Does the universe just want us to be apart? So that if one of us dies then we will die alone? Knowing full well that the other thinks that your alive but you can feel your life leaving your body, not able to talk, not able to warn them...not able to tell them that you love them...one last time." Victoria said.
"You can't think like that." Steve said.
"Steve you are a soldier, have you ever had someone that you truly care about die and you didn't get to tell them how much they meant to you... One last time?" Victoria said.
"Actually I know perfectly well what that feels like." Steve said.
Victoria's eyes were misty and she looked at Steve sort of surprised.
"What?" She asked.
"My best friend, James Buchanan Barnes, but I just called him Bucky. He was in the army with me, we were tracking the head scientist of HYDRA, he was on a train. They knew that we were going to come, or they just planned for it. We were attacked and I was pushed to one side of the train and Bucky was on the other side. The gun that the HYDRA soldier used had blew a hole in the train. Bucky picked up my shield, he held it up but the impact blast was too much for him. He flew out of the hole. I took care of the guy and looked out of the hole. I saw Bucky holding on to a bar on the semi stable piece of the train wall. I was relieved for two seconds...then I tried to go get him. I asked for his hand but he slipped and let go, he plummeted down a three hundred foot drop. I never got to tell him how much he really meant to me, to tell him that I appreciated every moment that he didn't judge me for the skinny kid that I used to be... Never got to tell him, that I never would have gotten to where I was without him." Steve said.
The feeling in the room dropped. That experience wasn't in any file that Victoria had read. He really did know what she was talking about. Steve looked down as if it was almost physically painful to recall that memory. Victoria put her hand on Steve's shoulder.
"I am sorry, I had no idea." Victoria said.
"It's alright, it was a long time ago." Steve said.
"Just because something happened a long time ago doesn't make it any less painful." Victoria said.
"You sound as if you come from experience, do you?" Steve asked.
Victoria was quiet for a couple seconds.
"When I was ten my father had an affair with another woman. My mother took me away from him, like any reasonable parent would. Later, when I was about sixteen, I came home only to find my father in the doorway with a woman that I didn't recognize. He smiled and walked to me with the woman. He said to me,
"Hey kiddo, did you miss me?"
I couldn't believe that he would show his face here. My mother saw what was happening from inside the house. She went outside through the back door. She got into her car and she slammed on the gas with blistering rage. It all happened so fast I didn't even know what had happened for the first couple seconds. Then I realized, my mother hit my father and the new woman. And in doing that...she died as well." Victoria paused. "I guess that is why I was so...so bitter and hesitant towards Tony at first. Someone who just went through women like that...it reminded me of my father. But, Tony is nothing like my father, he actually changed when he wanted to. When he claims to love someone he loves them with all his heart, he wouldn't leave just because another pretty face walked by." Victoria continued.
Steve was absolutely speechless, he was almost confused on how a woman like Victoria came from that kind of background.
"I am sorry, did you tell Tony about that?" Steve asked.
"Yes, I told him. And he told me that he would never leave me, and that I was his whole world and that he loved me with everything he had, every fiber of his being. And I didn't have to read his mind to know that he was being honest." Victoria said.
"That just proves my point even more. Tony would not throw away his life unless he had to, unless it was for a good reason." Steve said.
"No reason is good enough for me." Victoria said.
She pulled her hand down from Steve's shoulder and put her head back on the head rest. Steve put his hand over her's.
"You're right, sometimes for people who are meant for each other...no reason is good enough for them. We will try to make sure that no reason arises that needs that kind of sacrifice." Steve said.
Victoria's smiled at him then the jet started to lift off of the ground. Off to New York, to face something that none of them were ready for.