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They'd had hours of discussion about these ugly Accords with Tony a dark, brooding presence in the corner before he finally decided to weigh in. Steve tried to shut him down quickly before he could catch too much momentum, saying dismissively, "This document just shifts the blame."
Rhodes cut in, "Steve, that is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations."
Tony added, "No, it doesn't. It makes us take responsibility. It lets the world see us doing it. There has to be a division between the ones doing the actions and the ones judging us for those actions. Don't you get that? We have a conflict of interest here. You do," Tony said, and something in his voice made Steve's counter argument die in his throat.
Natasha took the opening to, of all things, agree with Tony. Steve gave her an incredulous look.
"I'm just reading the terrain," she said earnestly. "We've made some very public mistakes. We need to earn their trust back."
Steve's pocket buzzed, and he started to pull out his phone, but Tony said, "Nuh-uh. Didn't we say no calls or texts during this meeting? FRIDAY, if you would?"
Steve's phone went dark before he could read the screen, and he gave Tony a glare. Tony's face was unresponsive and bleak, and he finished swallowing his pills – was that why he'd stepped back from the Avengers? Was his health compromised? – and joined the group again.
"Look, this isn't just about Charlie or Sokovia. The reason I first chucked SHIELD's little strategy of shunting Iron Man off onto my "bodyguard" wasn't for the kicks of signing autographs. I get plenty of that during my day job. I wanted the accountability. I needed it, and not just for myself. I'm responsible for over 200,000 employees, worldwide. Do you get what that means?"
Tony's eyes traveled over them, so Steve's did as well, taking the temperature. Wanda looked a little lost, but Vision and Rhodes' faces reflected grim understanding. Sam just stood with his arms crossed stubbornly as if waiting for Tony to stop speaking.
Tony zeroed in on Sam. "That means Stark Industries can't continue funding the Avengers if such deadly fuckups keep happening. I can't put my employees at risk of retribution, either physical or financial, from people that will come after them in trying to get to us. Does that help clear things up?"
"Oh, it's about money," Steve said under his breath, but Sam heard him, and so did Rhodes, apparently, from the scathing look.
Tony turned to face the rest of the room. "So, sign the Accords. Or lose the credit cards, the quinjets, the housing, the stipend, the gear, yadda yadda." He waved his hand carelessly, but his eyes were dark and serious. "Stark Industries won't fund the Avengers without oversight from the Accords Committee."
"You're joking." Steve gaped.
"You know me," Stark said. "I find everything funny."
Steve grimaced at the reminder. "Tony, we're Avengers. We need those things to do our job."
"Oh, right. Your job." Tony pulled his phone again and flipped out some type of spreadsheet and graph, expanding it so it displayed in front of them. "Speaking of which, I found this a little funny, too – here are the fuel expenditures for the quinjets over the past 2 years."
Steve shifted in his seat.
"I thought we were discussing the Accords," Natasha said. Stark shot her a sharp glance.
"We are. We're discussing accountability. And accounting. See this steep rise, here? This marks a sudden increase in fuel expenditures after your adventure over the Potomac. Now why would that be, I wondered when I was prepping for this meeting. Possibly to do with HYDRA, I thought."
"Right," Steve said, a little breathless. He darted a look at Sam, who could never understand why they didn't use Tony's networking expertise to help find Bucky.
Tony's eyebrows arched in fake surprise. "But, no... I dug into the data dump – and let's just have a little chat about what a fucking disaster that was sometime when you have a year or two. Jesus Christ. No, the locations of HYDRA bases in the dump didn't in any way correlate to the locations you two were jetting off to so secretly. Funny, indeed."
"We were looking for—" Sam's explanation died on Tony's glare. He knew. He definitely knew. Steve could feel sweat gathering in his armpits.
Tony's dark eyes glinted ominously with the blue light coming from his gadget. "Do you have any idea how much it costs in fuel to hop to Bangladesh? Well, let's see..." While Steve's stomach iced over, Tony tapped merrily away on his phone. "That's 7,875 air miles, and my lovely quinjet has a cruising speed of 800 mph, so say 9.84 hours at a fuel burn rate of 239 gallons per hour for the first hour and then 179 for the succeeding hours...then multiplying that at the average cost for jet fuel per gallon, we get a grand total of..." Stark snapped his fingers and the number blinked in bold, accusing red. "$9,489.29. For a one-way trip." He leveled a hard stare at Steve and Sam. "Of course, I could make it more fuel efficient by switching to arc reactor tech, but someone might steal it and then where would I be?"
Steve swallowed.
"Now shall I add up all your little jaunts and tell you what you owe me for trying to do Interpol's job tracking down the international assassin who murdered my parents?"
The others started making noises, but Steve yelled over them, "Bucky didn't k-kill - " He was ready to defend his best friend, but something went wrong with his throat.
Stark tapped his phone with a shaky hand and lights flickered. "That, by the way, was me revoking your security access to this building and the quinjets, canceling your SI credit cards, and declaring you persona non grata on all Stark Industries properties." He closed his eyes and when he opened them, they were red with grief. "In other words, get the hell out of my house. Security will see you to the door, Rogers."
Steve eyed the security guards suddenly hovering in the doorway, two young women who couldn't be more than twenty, thin and fragile-looking, eyes calculating. Both were armed with what Steve recalled was the tranquilizer gun Tony and Bruce had developed to put down the Hulk.
"Goddammit, Tony."
"Such language. What would your mother say?" Tony turned to address the rest of the room. "Please do join me in signing the Accords. I think you can see why accountability is a necessary thing. Everyone is fallible. But having a dividing line between the people who act and the ones who judge is imperative. Absolutely imperative." Tony's voice was rough, broken. "Otherwise, you get these kinds of situations – " He waved at Steve. "Where someone loses all perspective of right and wrong." With that, Tony nodded to Rhodes and then strode out the door.
Silence eddied in his wake, the blood beating hot in Steve's face.
"That's totally unfair," Steve said, unable to bear the stares, and Wanda said, "Steve, what just—" but Sam interrupted with, "Is it true? Did Bucky kill his parents?"
"The Winter Soldier was brainwashed by HYDRA," Steve said through his teeth. "He wasn't in control of his actions."
"Yeah, Tony said you would say that," Rhodes interjected. "Justify it to yourself all you want, asshole."
"Jesus Christ, Steve. That is so not the point. Did you really have us searching for him on Stark's dime? On Howard Stark's dime?"
"Not – I – we needed to – " Steve tried to find the words, but he was stuck on what Sam said about Howard. The money wasn't just Tony's.
Sam was still going. "I can't believe you – I know the stories. Everyone knows the stories! Howard helped make you what you are! He made your shield! Jesus, Steve, wasn't he the guy that helped you rescue Barnes the first time?"
Steve heart dropped. He heard Rhodes growl agreement, and Natasha's face was strained and white. He shouldn't have lied to her about informing Tony. As soon as he found out she'd known, as well, Tony would kick her out, too. Probably.
Sam backed away from him. "You let me be complicit in this – you let me go merrily along using Stark's money to find your pal when you knew the whole time he killed Tony's parents; you had me do this shitty thing with you – "
"I didn't know – Bucky didn't – it was The Winter Soldier, it was HYDRA – "
"Oh my God. Oh my God. You've been protecting them, too." Sam stared at him then crossed his arms. "Because if 'it wasn't Bucky,' why didn't you just tell Stark?"
"I... I couldn't count on him."
"I guess that's why you didn't tell me, either," Sam said bitterly, and Steve bowed his head. "Now Stark despises me – rightfully so – "
Steve looked up. "It's not your fault – "
"Yeah, that's your out for everything." Sam raised his chin at the Accords resting in Steve's lap. "Hand those over. I think I'll give them a better look-see than just taking your word for it."
Rhodes said, "And I think we've heard enough of your bullshit, Rogers. You can go now. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."
"No, wait. I have a question," Vision said as Sam tugged the Accords away from Steve. "Captain Rogers, just out of curiosity: what would you do if you had found Mr. Barnes? He is, after all, wanted for countless murders, whether you want to accept that or not."
"Do? What would I – "
"Yes. What would you have done with him?"
"I guess, take care of him."
Vision's face did something complicated, like it did when he was accessing information. "You don't mean that in the gangster idiom? As in 'take care of this guy'?"
"What? No! I'd never hurt Bucky. He's my best friend in the world. He's all I have left from my old life."
"What he means," Sam said, sighing heavily, "is he'd buy a little house for Bucky – probably using SI money, because I helped Steve with his VA benefits and they weren't much based on two years of active service. He'd probably hire a psychiatrist for Bucky, too, because that dude is pretty much in need of one, considering the heavy PTSD and disassociation I witnessed. Again, on Tony's dime, I reckon, and doctors aren't cheap."
Steve cringed. He hadn't gotten that far. He'd only thought as far as bringing Bucky closer to him. Getting him somewhere safe.
"So, no justice for the dead." Wanda spoke up from beside Vision, her voice tremulous. "Just more injustice."
Steve wanted to protest it wasn't justice if you pursued the wrong person, but he could tell no one wanted to hear it.
"Well, look at this here," Sam said suddenly. "Says in Article 24, Section 10, paragraph c: 'If a leader or team member is physically or emotionally injured or compromised, they are to be relieved from their role by the Council until such time as they have been cleared by a physician or mental health professional.'" He stared meaningfully at Steve. "You know what? This document is starting to make a lot of sense to me."
"Sam..."
"I'm going to finish reading it, but if it holds up, I'm going to sign it. Even if I'm not an Avenger, I'm still the Falcon."
"I will, as well," Wanda said, looking at Vision, who nodded in agreement.
They were all slipping away from him.
Rhodes cleared his throat and when Steve looked at him, tapped his wrist meaningfully. "Time for you to clear out, Rogers."
Steve bowed to the inevitable. It was time to regroup. He could play this game for now; in time, Tony and the team would see how much they needed him. They needed his strength. They needed his shield.
Steve's youthful security guards flickered with a strange blue energy as they walked beside him – more of Stark's tech no doubt – when he went back to his room to pack. He threw a bunch of clothes and his old leather bomber jacket into his rucksack. His phone started to beep insistently with all the messages he'd missed, but he ignored it, intent on getting his journals, artist pad, and compass, most precious to him, included in the bag. Finally, he topped it off with his dopp kit. Stark thought he had one up on Steve, that Steve needed him and his money so badly, but here was all Steve really needed. He turned to the corner and reached for the final piece, his shield, only to discover it was gone.
His shield was gone.
It should be there. It was always there, clean and ready for him, straps stitched up tight, shield ready for the next call to action. Where the hell was it? Steve stomped closer and noticed a folded slip of paper on the floor; he bent and picked it up then opened it.
It was a bill. Itemized. Jet fuel: $284,678.57. Hotel rooms: $18,201.22. Meals and room service: $6,149.80. Vehicle rental: $9,280.74. Total: $318,310.33. Payable upon receipt.
Steve crumpled the bill in his fist and walked out the door.
.....