Disclaimer: Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing associated with Marvel, Captain America, the Avengers, etc. Only original characters and ideas are mine.

AN: I am so sorry for not posting this sooner. It isn't easy going off of an original film, but I've done my best.

Please enjoy, and don't forget to review. Thanks!

Chapter 1: Missions:

For me, the Avengers team wasn't the same without Tony, Bruce, Clint and Thor.

Even months later, it was still difficult to turn around and not hear Tony and Bruce exchanging science banter and inventing new technology off the top of their heads. I also missed seeing Thor, Barton and Steve joking on the sidelines, comparing war stories or talking about weaponry that could be used for future battles.

At least I still heard from Clint, who kept me up-to-date on how his family was doing. Laura loved sending me photos of little Nathaniel, though the downside was that Steve occasionally got that look in his eye that said he still wanted kids someday.

Still, the group we had now was good -different, but good. Well, for the most part, anyway.

Vision and Cyan were the calmest members of the team by far. Endlessly curious about everything, they spent days (or weeks) at a time linked to the internet, researching humanity and our emotions, trying their best to figure out a way to 'fit in' whenever they left the base. I tried telling them that we gladly accepted them as they were, but they wanted to make the rest of the world more comfortable by showing they were more humane, and no Ultron.

Rhodes and Sam sort of took the place of Thor and Barton, at least when it came to trading war stories with Steve. During our little social gatherings at the base, I sometimes had to pull the trio apart, so that they could get some sleep and not stay up half the night talking.

Wanda and Pietro were a bit of an awkward fit. Being the only two human members of the team with powers, they sort of tended to stand out. Pietro couldn't stand or sit still for too long, and had to be kept amused if Wanda was busy. When it came to learning about things or keeping busy, Vision and Cyan were the only ones who could really keep pace with him -their ability to process information quickly, then move on to another topic of conversation or action, was sometimes the only thing keeping Pietro from going crazy from boredom.

Wanda was the calm to Pietro's speed and hyper activity, and with her telepathy, she liked being around people with calm demeanors and orderly minds. That was why she liked Natasha, who could keep her emotions in check. The cool, calm assassin-turned-heroine had taken Wanda under her wing, and was teaching her how to stay focused when it came to using her powers.

Looking at Sunny, I heaved a sigh. I had hoped that Scott would have joined the team, but considering he was still working on getting Hank Pym to even talk to us, the chances of that were low. Maybe he would, if I called him in for something I felt the team couldn't handle, but I wasn't going to hold my breath.

"Miss," Sunny chimed, getting my attention, "The others are in position and ready to begin their current mission."

From the main observation room in the Avengers Base, I tucked an earpiece into place and took a comfortable stance. "Alright, loop me in," I said, nodding at one of the communications techs. "It's time to get this party started."

I can honestly say, on every mission that I helped the team with, listening in on their conversations was half the fun. The playful banter mixed with their tactical observations, mission information, and attack ideas eased the tension that always built right before they charged into action.

Even though Tony wasn't around to add his unique sense of humor anymore, that didn't make the mission any less interesting –today was no exception.

Today's team included Steve, Wanda, Sam, Pietro, Cyan, and Natasha. Their mission was to take down Brock Rumlow, a HYDRA agent who had turned mercenary after the secret organization fell. The man was ruthless; his new line of work had him pulling jobs for the highest bidder, and trading in all kinds of illegal things, from weapons to drugs. If anyone got in the way, he took them down, without mercy.

It had been decided after a meeting last week that only part of the Avengers team was going to assemble for this particular undertaking. Rhodes had agreed to stay behind, as had Vision –since he was so incredibly powerful, thanks to the Mind Stone in his forehead, it was a unanimous decision that Vision would only be included if a certain level of 'fire power' was needed to defeat the bad guys.

Instead, Cyan had been included, but only as backup. His abilities were nowhere near as powerful as Vision's, but Cyan could pack a lot of punches, and was very handy in a tight spot.

In this particular instance, however, Cyan was staying out of sight. Thanks to Tony's latest piece of technology, the blue android now possessed the ability to make himself invisible to the human eye. Vision had also been offered this technology, but refused it –he liked himself as he was, and possessed enough powers.

So, hovering over the city like an invisible guardian angel, Cyan waited for Steve to signal him to get involved. Usually, Cyan (and occasionally, Vision) flew in at a critical moment, when things were looking a bit bleak for the team. Basically, if the group felt the fight wasn't going their way, Cyan or his brother was called in to even the odds.

The others were set up in various positions around a square in Lagos. Natasha and Wanda were made up to look like tourists, sitting at an outdoor café while Steve stood in an apartment building close by. Sam had the next best view, standing atop a nearby building with his new drone, Redwing, incorporated in his wing pack. Pietro, with his inability to stay still, was running laps outside the city with a box of donuts in his hands (to keep his energy levels up, of course).

Through the com links, I heard Steve remind everyone that Rumlow wasn't the subtle sort of person, and that he'd destroy everything in his path to make an escape route. He also pointed out a car down the road, which Wanda commented on as being 'cute.' Natasha, ever the spy, listed the unusual features the vehicle had, such as bulletproof windows, heavy armor, and other things private security used on their cars.

"It could be a headache for a lot of people, namely us," she stated.

"You know I can move things with my mind, right?" Wanda reminded her, sounding insulted and amused at the same time.

"Looking over your shoulder should become second nature," Natasha lectured her.

"Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?" Sam chimed in as he crouched at the edge of his building, eyes darting around the nearby streets.

"Not to my face," Natasha responded, sounding a little worried. "Why, did you hear something?"

"Eyes on target, people," Steve gently ordered as I struggled to keep from snickering into their ears. "This is the first lead we've had on Rumlow in months. I don't want to lose this chance."

"Not likely," Sam muttered. "The guy hates us. We did drop a building on him, remember?"

Behind me, someone coughed. "Mrs. Rogers?" a soft female voice whispered. "You have a call from Miss Pepper Potts."

I stared at the messenger as Maria Hill came to stand beside me. "Is it important?" she asked, clearly annoyed with the interruption. "We're kind of in the middle of something right now."

The woman shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but she sounded distressed. Apparently it has something to do with Mr. Stark. I can transfer her to a private screen in your apartment, if you'd like."

Sighing heavily, I handed Maria my headpiece and headed towards the private quarters I shared with Steve. As much as I wanted to help my husband, I knew that Pepper wouldn't be calling unless she deemed it necessary. She had only ever called Avengers Base when there was a crisis involved.

And if her call concerned Tony, I knew it was important to her. Just like Laura Barton and me, she'd supported Tony's "avenging," since she felt it brought out a sense of responsibility and determination that he never really put into any other aspect of his life. True, she sometimes felt as though she took second place in Tony's affections, but in the end, she knew how much Tony loved her, and had stood by him until he left the team.

Once I was in my living room, I had Sunny put Pepper up on the large flat screen television. The worry lines on her face convinced me that I'd made the right decision to talk to her.

"Pepper, you look terrible," I said. "What's wrong?"

"It's Tony," she replied, looking and sounding exhausted. "He was delivering a talk at MIT about some new tech he'd designed, and to grant funds to the most brilliant minds the school currently has. When it was over, someone cornered him."

"Cornered him?" I said in disbelief. Considering the security that usually lingered around the head of Stark Industries, I was amazed anyone managed to get close to him. "What did they do or say?"

Pepper swallowed hard. "It was a woman. She told him about her son, who died in Sokovia last year, and said that Tony was only trying to alleviate his guilt by throwing money at things he thought would make the world better."

Crap; if there was one thing the Avengers were sensitive about, it was Sokovia. The losses hadn't been more than 200, but the fact that an entire city was now a pile of rubble was very hard on the team. Tony in particular had taken the whole incident very hard –in all the years I've known him, the only time I'd ever seen the man look crushed and guilty was when he thought about Sokovia.

"So, what do you want me to do about it?" I asked, genuinely puzzled. To be honest, whoever the woman was, she had been right about Tony and his money; it really was the only thing that made him feel better, and lifted a bit of guilt off of his shoulders. But I had no idea what Pepper needed me for.

"I'm sending him out to the Base," she bluntly replied. "He should be there tomorrow. I would try talking with him, but I'm in Europe right now on company business, and Tony really needs a friend. Can you try and talk to him? Other than me, you're the next best person when it comes to getting Tony to open up."

I honestly didn't think that Tony thought that highly of me, but I couldn't refuse her, not when she looked so scared and worried. "Sure, send him over. I'll make sure his rooms are ready for when he gets here."

Some of the anxiety on her beautiful face eased. "Thanks, Adena. I owe you one."

No sooner had our call ended than I received an urgent summons from Maria Hill.

"Okay, let's start that again," I said, looking over at Maria, who stood beside me, wearing an earpiece of her own so she could listen in. "I was only gone for fifteen minutes. What happened?"

Apparently, the minute I left, the mission had gone south. Steve figured out that Rumlow wasn't targeting a local police station –the mercenary had instead headed to the Institute of Infectious Diseases, to procure a biological weapon.

Rumlow's people had gassed the building and swarmed in to take the vials they wanted. Ordering the rest of the Avengers to stay back, in case there was another attack elsewhere, Steve, Sam and Wanda had moved to deal with the guards outside.

While Sam kept watch on the perimeter, Wanda had used her powers and launched Steve into the building to deal with Rumlow's people; since he was immune to all poisons, including gasses, my husband was the best choice for the job. Meanwhile, under Steve's orders, Wanda had used her powers to the extreme, pulling the gas out of the building and launching it into the air to disperse above the city.

Inside the building, once Rumlow's people had what they were looking for, they fled the building, doing everything they could to take out whichever hero came to stop them -namely by blowing them up with tanks and grenades. In the commotion, Rumlow's people had then split up in order to confuse the Avengers as best they could.

Now, the Avengers were much better trained than anyone would think. After all, they had Steve Rogers, Captain America and one of the best strategic minds in the world. He was able to see the potential strengths and weaknesses in each of team member, and help them create a solid foundation to build their abilities on.

Still, all the training in the world meant nothing when chaos pops up and improvisation is needed.

As I expected, as soon as the bad guys split up, the Avengers did the same, racing to chase down their targets. Cyan remained above the city, as a backup plan, while Sam, Natasha, and Steve raced to obtain the vial. Steve had the unfortunate luck of being the one to chase Rumlow himself.

The two had gone head-to-head as the others ran down the fleeing mercenaries and obtained the container that had been stolen. Rumlow had come to the fight loaded down with all kinds of weaponry, and used them liberally on Steve, who did his best to avoid being blown up, shot, stabbed and beaten to a pulp. I nearly cried when I heard how many times Steve had come close to death –Rumlow still carried a grudge because of the horrific wounds he'd gotten during the battle in Washington D.C., and he absolutely blamed Steve for it.

In the end, it was really no contest –Steve spent hours a day learning and practicing combat techniques, and it wasn't long before Rumlow was on the ground.

But he wasn't beaten yet. In a last effort to torture Steve, Rumlow had taunted him about the fate of HYDRA's favored assassin: the Winter Soldier, aka: Bucky Barnes.

Now, there was no way for Rumlow to have known Bucky's fate after Washington, but as long as he got in a few mental kicks to Steve's brain, that was all that mattered. And there were two things that ticked Steve off: people who threatened me, and people who taunted him about Bucky's past.

Obviously, it was meant as a distraction, so that Rumlow could not only blow himself up, but hopefully take Steve with him. It would have worked, too, if Wanda hadn't used her gifts to contain the blast, isolating it so that it only tormented the former SHIELD/HYDRA fighter.

That was when things went even further downhill.

Unable to contain the blast for very long, Wanda attempted to propel the explosion away from Steve and the crowd of innocent bystanders. However, with all her attention focused on the rapidly burning Rumlow, it was clear that she wasn't going to get her burden very far.

That was when Cyan entered the scene, rushing forward towards the force field Wanda had created, and motioning her to let it down so he could work. Wanda managed to weak it just enough for Cyan to grab Rumlow, the two of them working together to haul him high into the air above the city, where the explosion sent down a shower of falling debris –some of it bits and pieces of Rumlow himself.

Needless to say, the populace wasn't thrilled about having human remains fall on them, but at least they weren't in pieces themselves.

"So where do things stand right now?" I asked, looking at the team through the large screen.

From where he was seated at the communications computer in the Quinjet, Steve sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, a sure sign he was drained. "Most were grateful to us for stopping the theft and saving lives. The property damage was minimal, at least, and the Institute for Infectious Diseases isn't suing us for reimbursement because Rumlow was the one who caused the damage."

He looked over at Cyan, who took over. "I was able to tap into the communications grid of the city, and the local authorities have taken over the arrest and handling of Rumlow's followers. There are several nations who are grateful for their incarceration, and they are eager to begin the questioning of these men, to see what information can be obtained."

"We're on our way back now," Natasha chimed in from the pilot's seat. "Be there in about 8 hours."

I sighed. "I'll have everything ready for when you get here."

At a subtle signal from me, a team of workers headed out to the private apartments to get them ready for their tenants. Food supplies would be delivered and stored away in fridges or cupboards, while each room was tidied up by the cleaning crew.

The other Avengers fell back from the screen, leaving Steve the last one standing there. I smiled as he glanced behind him, clearly warning everybody off before turning his attention back towards the monitor.

"Try and get some sleep," he softly urged me. "I'll be home soon."

I gave him a reassuring smile. "I know. I love you, Steve."

He smiled back. "I love you, too, Adena."

Behind him, I could hear someone snort in amusement, closely followed by the sound of a person getting smacked on the back of the head. There was a muffled curse, then some quiet laughter, and Steve heaving a sigh of annoyance.

Chuckling, I blew Steve a kiss and signed off.

It was dark when they landed, and very clear that they were all starved and exhausted.

Steve was the first I greeted, but only because he was the first off the plane. I gave him a swift kiss and hug, which he returned enthusiastically. When I pulled back, he pressed another kiss to my lips before heading off to the changing rooms, to get out of his damaged suit.

The Twins got off next, and the minute I saw Wanda, I went and gave her a reassuring hug. She clung to me tightly, as though she needed to be reassured that I wasn't mad at her for what had happened on the mission. I quietly whispered that she'd done very well, that no one had been hurt, and that she needed some rest. Pietro agreed, and he quickly swept his sister up into his arms, carrying her out of the room in a burst of speed-induced wind.

Natasha gave me a quick hug and a smile, as did Sam, the two of the going their separate directions towards their own rooms. Cyan came last, as he sometimes did after running diagnostics on the Jet. He wasn't used to close physical contact yet, but he was starting to accept hugs from me as a starting point.

With the last of the team seen to, I headed to the apartment I shared with Steve. I heard the shower running, so I rushed to set out a large meal –given how long the mission had been, he would definitely need it.

An hour later, the plate was empty, and the two of us were curled up on the couch, watching a nice romantic comedy as we snuggled close together. I couldn't focus on the movie, though; something inside me said that things were going to get rough really soon, and my instincts told me to enjoy the quiet moments while I could.

With Steve's arms around me, I became determined to do just that.

AN: There's the first chapter. More to follow soon! Please be kind and review. Thanks.