Archive of Our Own

  Each one on the team had some kind of problem with someone else. Yelena and John were always fighting, no matter what. Bucky couldn't stand Alexei and his whole shtick. Ava and Bucky were always disagreeing with everything and the discussions between Bob and John reached truly dangerous levels — like the time when Bob shattered all the windows of the Watch Tower because Walker was being a real pain in the ass.

The only ones who didn't have any problem with each other were Yelena and Bob, and it was because she had to control everything in the Tower — and Bob had to control Yelena, or that scheme would not work.

But Ava and John really hated each other. 

No one knew how all that hate started. Maybe it was because of the joint living. Ava lived alone for as long as she could remember, and to start to share space with others wasn't something she was excited about.

So, it was common to wake up with her and Walker screaming at each other at breakfast. Or find John things thrown away by the house, just because he ate her protein bars, which she had marked with her name on colored tape.

Living with them was a battlefield. But something nobody could disagree with was that when they wanted to do a great job, they really did a great job. When they worked together — alongside the rest of the team, obviously —, the success rate was always high.

But that was not enough for Valentina. A good job done wasn't something she was looking for. She was more concerned with the PR, and nobody could convince her of the opposite — Mel and Yelena had tried, and although she was a subordinate of the team, There were times when Valentina's wish was the only one that was fulfilled.

That was one of them.

“You want what?” Ava asked, sitting in Valentina's office with her arms crossed. 

“You heard, dear.” She opened that cynical smile. “Things continue to happen. People need to be saved, criminal organizations are still active… You all are heros, and we need to show the people that you can be the Avengers.”

“New Avengers.” Walker corrected her, reminding Ava that he was there with her. With his annoying voice and arrogant posture sitting in the chair at her side.

“Avengers, John,” The woman pointed at him with a pen. “We are not sure how to make it official, yet.”

“I am not going to do this.” Ava vehemently denied.

“Is just one mission. A testing phase.” Valentina requested. “We need to divide the team for the little troubles. Keep you all active until there is a major threat that needs a reunion. The public can buy the idea of an Avengers team that is working for the people instead of just staying sitting while the disasters happen.” She picked up the tablet and showed graphs on the screen. “You know that Spiderman's approval rate grew up after he defeated the Tombstone?”

“This is a small potato thing.” John rolled his eyes.

“Excuse me?”

Ava chuckled, shaking her head. “It's a thing Yelena said. It kinda catches up.” 

Valentina shook her head, putting down the tablet. “Anyways, let's see if you two can do this ‘small potato thing’ for me, okay?” She made air quotes with her fingers. “If it does not work, we can change the pairs. Right?”

Ava took a deep breath. The idea of working with Walker made every cell in her body want to destroy itself again. 

“Fine,” he said. “What do we have to do?”

“Great!” Valentina smiled. Damn, Ava really hated that cynical smile. “We tracked a base of operations of the Serpent Society. Not only did they obtain adamantium, but they are also forcing some workers to manufacture an adulterated version of the metal, to sell for absurd prices.”

“This wasn't a Sam Wilson's thing?” Walker frowned. “I am truly sure that the leader of that… Serpent Society was arrested.”

“Yes… Sidewider was arrested. But Captain America couldn't dismantle the organization. They are under a new command, someone called Viper.”

“Fine. Where is this base?” Ava shifting uncomfortably in the chair. She hates that synthetic leather and was desperate to execute that mission, so she could give some excuse when they came back and she wouldn't need to work in pair with John Walker ever again.

“Near the border between Mexico and the USA. On the Mexican side. You can take the jet after lunch and arrive there in the afternoon.”

“Right,” Walker leaned away from the chair, looking at Ava before coming back to Valentina. “Let's finish Sam Wilson's job.”

“That's the spirit!” Valentina nodded, confident. “I always liked to work with you, John.”

He frowned at her. “Thank you, I think.”

Ava rolled her eyes when she stood up.

“After lunch, right?”

“Yes. I'll ask them to prepare everything for your departure.”

“Right… Yelena agreed with this?” 

Valentina seemed disconcerted for a second, disguising blinking her eyes and showing a trembling smile.

“Yes,” Valentina shook her head, but Ava didn't feel so much confidence in that gesture. “Yes! We… are working on this. Together.”

They were not working together. Ava knew really well that Yelena's interests disagreed with Valentina's interests. But wasn't the time to discuss that, she had something more important to do — preparing herself to stay some hours in a plane with John Walker and try not to kill him.

Ava leaves the office straight to the elevator, desperately pressing the buttons.

“This never works.” Walker said, putting himself at her side. “Bob makes this every time.”

“I prefer to see it as some kind of attraction law.” Ava didn't look at him. The buttons really did look more interesting.

“Are you rushing for what?”

“To make the most of the time I have left before I have to waste it with you.”

John chucked at her sentence. The elevator finally opened. They entered together.

A new sound system was installed after Bob accidentally destroyed the ancients while was training his abilities with Mel and Yelena. The new one featured elevator music that Alexei had suggested as the New Avengers’ jingle. It was a consensus that after two weeks, they hated the song.

“Look, you know I never ask anything to you,” John started, his hands behind his body while turning to Ava.

“So don't ask,” She gave him a side look. “I won’t give you anyway.”

He snorted. “Can you be a good person for once in your life?”

“That's not my way.” Ava smirked. She still remembers at the time Yelena told her she wasn't a good person. It was cruel, but she had just become hopeless after they lost that clash against Sentry and, after that, Ava took what she said as an ironic observation about herself.

“Starr, I am being serious,” John insisted. “We need to get this right. I need to make her… Fuck it, you don’t even care.”

Ava pressed her lips together. “Are you talking about your… wife?”

John remained silent. That shitty song was still on replay.

“Yes.”

Ava didn't stick her nose into other people's business. After all, she doesn't want to be bothered, so she doesn't bother anyone when things get tough. But everybody saw the divorce papers. It arrived at the Tower some weeks ago, and since then John was… well, Ava thought he was an idiot all the time, but now he was being a sad and ignorant idiot, even more so than usual.

The doors of the elevator finally opened.

“Yeah, you're right,” she looked at him before leaving. “I don't care. See you after lunch. Hangar.”

John nodded, and when they entered the penthouse, they followed diametrically opposed paths. 

  The jet landed a little past the border. John and Ava continued on foot, sighting the Serpent Society’s base after some minutes of walking.

“It's going to be easy.” Ava said, more to herself than to Walker. It was like she was trying to prove that she could do that. To fulfill a mission alongside John Walker. “Just go in, save some civilians, take pictures and go away.”

“Yeah,” He nodded, taking his shield off the back of the suit. “That ‘small potatoes’ thing Yelena says.”

Ava gave him a suggestive look. “I'm gonna tell her you really liked this thing.”

“Don't you dare.”

She lowered her helmet and disappeared. Walker used to hate it when she did it at home, just to provoke or to scare, appearing out of nowhere in the rooms of the Tower.

At first, the mission was easy. Ava entered the base using her invisible abilities and opened the entrance for Walker from the inside, while he punched and shot at the guards. It wasn't long before more criminals appeared, trying to stop them, but that was a simple operation. They were Avengers, and could do anything. Still, Ava didn't feel like the place was secure.

“I’ll look for the workers,” she turned to John when he threw one of the mercenaries on the ground. “You stay here.”

“Who said you give the orders?” Walker put the shield in the back again.

Ava rolled her eyes. “Don't make me fight with you.”

“So don't try to give me orders."

“Fine.” She lowered her helmet again. “I will take off the civilians. You do whatever you want.”

She passed through one of the concrete walls, leaving Walker alone. He reloaded the bullets into the pistols and continued on alone.

Inside, the base looked so much more precarious than it did outside. For an organization which was smuggling one of the most valuable metals around, they were keeping the business in a place that was falling to pieces. John looked for more criminals — or better, more people to punch.

He liked the adrenaline. And he could get so lost in it that sometimes he lost control. “They’re bad guys”, he convinced himself, to justify the violence. And when he finally found the ones that deserved punishment for their crimes, he channeled the frustration in the gun barrel. He had done it so many times that didn't even seemed to have some kind of effect on him, just like his punches and blows seemed to.

He was angry, frustrated with what his life and relationship had become. That mission needed to be successful. He needed Olivia to accept him back. Needed just one more chance to fix things and…

“There are people down below!” Ava yelled, coming from nowhere, as always. “There's an underground installation. That's where they're manufacturing the adulterated adamantium.”

Walker dropped whoever was the person he was hitting. Unlike him, Ava was more stealthy than a fighter. Not because of her powers, but because of her S.H.I.E.L.D. training. She knew exactly when to shoot, when to punch, when to run and when to come back.

It didn't make any sense that they were being sent in pairs for that mission. They should not work well together. While Ava got the civilians out, John shot and punched the criminals. One of them was thrown on one of the pillars that supported the installation and the whole building seemed to tremble. Dust fell from the ceiling, soiling Walker's helmet and his suit.

The man raised himself. He straightened his jaw and went after Walker again. He protected himself with the shield — the guns ran out of ammunition, and, much to the humiliation of John's ego, Ava was his only salvation at that moment.

She was up there. Helping the workers leave in safety and looking for the rest of the organization. The cowards seemed to have fled at the moment they arrived, leaving the people to die or something, like they were replaceable. The thought made Ava frustrated, but the real problem was when she found the reason for the Serpent Society having abandoned the place.

The base will explode.

She barely had time to get to Walker. And he was still fighting with that henchman. 

“Walker! Walker, we have to go!” Ava screamed, hoping that he would listen to her.

The place trembled again, and John seemed to perceive. He looked up, the dust falling from the ceiling in a rain of debris.

He noticed that something was wrong. Ava ran in his direction, but before he could figure out what she was talking about, he received a punch in the nose, falling flat on his ass.

The henchman ran away. Ava tried to lift Walker by the arm, but he pulled back, muttering something she couldn't understand. Pain spread to his face, just like the anger.

“The civilians are all out there. Valentina's team had already taken them away. There's a bomb. This place will explode in…”

A loud bang came from the upper floor, followed by the structure collapsing right behind John and Ava. He stood up, but he couldn't move fast enough to outrun the cloud of dust and concrete. And  before they could reach the exit, everything went dark.

John woke up, coughing dust and smelling dirt. It was strange that he first thought was about how hard it would be to clean his suit, although it had passed for worst situations. His shield was alright too. Valentina's team paid a lot for a new metal alloy to revest after Bob, as Sentry, had turned it into a dammit taco.

After checking his most important things at the moment, Walker finally stopped to notice the new state of the place where he and Ava were now. The underground installation had collapsed, and there was no sign of where the exit was supposed to be.

He stood up, finding Ava a few steps from him, with an iron bar lodged in her shoulder.

“Oh, shit.” He ran at her. For a moment, it was disturbing to see her like that — unconscious, her guard completely down.

He was not good at those things. John remembered his time in the army, and the number of times he saw his comrades wounded, and of how he wasn't the best person to help.

Even then, he tried to reach the bar lodged in Ava's shoulder. She would wake up with the pain, and probably would hate him and curse him for the rest of his life. But it had to be worth it.

Although, before he could reach the bar, she woke up, the adrenaline alive in her eyes. Well, he would be a fool if he thought that Ava Starr was really with her guard completely down.

“What… Oh, shit!” She tried to move, and her body trembled, ghostly versions of her good arm moving in layers. “No, no, no. Not again. Not this… My suit— My suit was damaged," Ava looked at Walker, and it was the first time he saw something like fear in her eyes. “Take this away from me, Walker. Take this away from me!”

“I don't know if this is the smartest decision now…” He looked at her arm, or better, at the kind of three almost invisible arms she had now. “I don't even know if there's a new…”

“Take this thing away from me!” She screamed, swinging herself against the iron bar. Her scream became a groan of pain. “This is your fault! If you hadn't kept hitting that guy, we would already have been out when the building collapsed!”

“Okay, someone is freaking out right now. Let's keep calm and try to…”

“Shut up!” Ava screamed again and the building trembled. 

“It looks like they were working in a place that was doomed to collapse." Walker put his arms on the hips, looking up. “A dangerous way to get rid of the dirty work in case of being caught."

“And they ran, in the end.” Ava grumbled. “The Serpent Society left underlings to do the work instead of showing their faces.”

John frowned. “Oh, no way.” 

“And now we're stuck here.”

“There has to be an exit this way.”

He walked around the destroyed place. There were pieces of concrete and stones for where John could walk. He felt something burning in his right leg, noticing he wasn't as unharmed as he thought; and the pants of the pants of his suits badly torn, besides all the dust covering him.

“Come on…” he almost prayed, wishing for a way out.

But all that was dark, and a fallen structure that still seemed to be collapsing under the effects of the explosion that had one off above them. Where the old exit was, the passage was obstructed by stones. Walker held the shield and started to punch them, trying to reach any light.

“You will only scratch this shit you call a shield.” Ava said. Her voice looked less angry and more… conformed.

“Valentina can pay for a new one if this gets us out of here.”

And, to Walker's surprise, Ava… laughed. “Your damn liar,” he turned around to her. “You practically have a sanctuary for that shield in your room.”

“Have you ever entered my room?”

“I get bored sometimes,” Ava shrugged with her good shoulder. “And having the ability to pass through walls can be very helpful.”

“You're so weird.” He frowned. But then a thought passed through him. “Hey, why can't you get out of this thing if you can be intangible?”

Ava didn't liked that question. Her face contracted in a hidden rage mixed with some kind of bitter feeling.“I spent my whole life trying to be tangible. It's not like I could be the opposite right now.”

Walker narrowed his eyes. “Or… you don’t want to.”

Ava pressed her lips together, and Walker somehow knew he was right. Slowly, he started to approach her again. “You are needing me and hate this.”

“I don't need you.”

“So, get out of this iron thing.”

She looked at him defiantly and raised her arm. See it like that, in the way she spent years being, and that she thought she was never going to be again… That scared Ava. Deeply.

Janet van Dyne had been able to heal her, taking her pain away, but she had kept the quantum ability, and the suit helped her control when and where to disappear. Now that the suit was damaged, she barely could control her cells and make them hers again.

Walker noticed the fear in her eyes. An acknowledged type of fear. 

Ava feared herself.

“Don't.” He stopped her, and he bent down until he could reach her height.

They looked at each other. There was no more impetuosity in her green eyes, neither fear — Ava will never let herself look scary next to John Walker. She wouldn't give him ammunition to provoke her later — there was a plea. One she wouldn’t ever say out loud.

Please.

Walker sighed, and put the shield aside.

“I am not good at those things,” he started. Looking at the iron bar and the chunk of concrete she was stuck in. “I was never much of a doctor, you know.” John stood up, putting himself at Ava's side. “So, sorry if I let you die.”

“If you let me die,” she raised her eyes at him. “I will come back just to kill you.”

Ava closed her eyes, squeezing them shut. She was ready for the pain, for the intensity of the heat that would spread to her body when the bar was going to be out of her. 

But… nothing happened.

She turned her head towards Walker. He was… hesitating?

“Walker, why are you…”

“What's next, Ava?” He asked, his hands on hips again. “You will bleed until death?”

“We're gonna find a way out and…”

“Ava, your suit is broken. Your body is a bizarre layer ghost,” he started to list, numbering in fingers in a way that made her angry. “You'll be a burden to me.”

“Oh, how sensible you are, Walker.”

“I am being realistic.”

“An asshole.”

“Pragmatic.” He corrected.

“Eat shit.”

“Stay stuck there, then.”

She roared, while he turned his back on her. “You can’t do this to me!”

“Actually I can.” Walker raised his shield again against the stone wall. “And it is for your own good.”

Ava snorted and letting her head fell against the concrete wall behind her. She looked at her wounded shoulder. It was burning, and there's blood dripping down the black suit. The fear of her body destroying and rebuilding itself again took away the real pain. And now, she was finally feeling the effects of having a dubious iron bar carved in the arm.

Sweat dripped in her forehead, and her eyes grew heavy. Ava didn't know if she fell asleep or fainted with the sound of Walker trying to open an exit like some kind of miner or something like that. The thought was funny.

  “Ava! Ava!” Someone was slapping her face. “Shit, Starr, wake up!”

“Five more minutes, Yelena…” she mumbled.

Walker rolled his eyes. “You have a fever, Starr. This shit should be infected or something. Low quality metal, it doesn't surprise me that this place fell down.”

She mumbled something nonsense.

“I think Valentina's team will look for us. Soon, I hope.” he snorted, frustrated. “I couldn't find a way out. And I don't even know why I am talking with you. So… just don't die, okay? It would be really bad if you did.”

  It seemed darker when Ava opened her eyes again. Her head hurts, and her whole body seems to be begging her to get rid of the bad arm. She felt the molecules in her body disintegrating, trying to pull her free from the iron bar and leave the wounded arm behind. Ava could not make a new one grow, but her body will settle for just one.

Maybe she could ask Bucky for some tips on how to live with just one arm, even he still had the vibranium one. She was right-handed, so learning to write again wouldn’t be a problem.

She groaned, trying to get concentrated to keep her right arm tangible to grab the bar. If Walker would not do that for her, fuck him — She would do it herself. And she would find a way out just to provoke him.

Ava grabs the bar. The effort put her body in pain, the same pain she felt when she still had to spend hours inside a quantum machine, trying to stabilize herself.

This had to be a nightmare. She had to be in the Void again. It was so painful to be true again.

She tried to push the iron bar, and then she screamed, tears rolling from her eyes. Ava's body didn’t react well. She trembled, hitting the quantum threshold between tangibility and intangibility, her cells destroying and rebuilding themselves in defense.

She was a fool to think it will end someday.

“Ava!” John screams, going to her. He kept his distance, seeing his teammate looking some kind of defective TV. His eyes stayed in her arm in the bar. “Let it go.”

Ava shook her head.

“You are hurting yourself! Let it go.”

“I… I don't take orders from… y-you!” It was surprising that, even in chronic pain and a state of molecular instability, she still had strength to argue with him. Walker could have smiled if he wasn't so… afraid.

“Ava, let it go, you are going to kill yourself!”

He tried to approach, but then she screamed. The whole building trembled again, so much this time that he almost lost his balance.

“Ava, Ava,” Walker called her again. “Starr, look at me.” The truth was, they barely could look at each other. It was probably night, and it was darker than before. But, somehow, Ava reached his gaze. A little blurred by darkness and… scared. Stress, the word made more sense in her head. “Let it go,” Walker says slowly, approaching her again. “You're gonna let it go and you will be okay, right?”

He was the worst at whatever he was trying to do. Acting like she was an angry puppy or a skittish cat. Ava felt him closer, standing at her side. The pain in her body started to decrease, and his hand rested on hers. Solid, dirty and calloused and… warm.

She let the bar go. Her good arm hanging aside her body. Ava's chest rose and fell rapidly, and when Walker took his hand off the bar too, she let out another groan of pain. 

“Good.” Walker crouched beside. “Don't do this again. Please.”

Ava remained silent. Part of her was ashamed of letting him see her like that. “Why do you care?”

John let out an ironic laugh. “Are you really asking me this?”

“Just respond. I don't have enough force to argue with you.”

“For the same reason you would do the same for me, you little shit. We're a team. Never leaving the other behind.” 

If there's one thing Walker learned in the army, it was this — well, besides shooting and kicking enemies ass — Never leave the other behind.

It was like a silent promise they made, at the moment they brought Bob back from Void. It wasn’t only Yelena and him that stuck together, but the whole team. Even if it was only for circumstances, when the missions came out, when someone was hurt or even if some journalist was talking shit about one of them, all of them were involved. They were the New Avengers, the Thunderbolts. Some kind of dysfunctional family that was united for Bob and Yelena.

John took a while to realize that, but now, stuck with Ava, responsible for keeping her alive until they are rescued, he finally did.

“Thank you,” Ava said, assimilating his words. “I guess.”

Walker chuck. “Did I hear right, or did you just thank me?”

Ava was grateful that it was dark, so he wouldn't see her smiling. “Don't get too used to it.”

She tried to move herself, straightening her body. It hurts, and she made a sound that stopped looking like a groan and made her look like a cornered animal.

“Are you alright?” 

“Yeah,” she snorted, tired. “It's just my cells in that annoying cycle of destruction and reconstruction.” Ava raised her good arm to touch John, and laughed when he shivered, feeling his discomfort at the sensation of her passing through his body.

“Damn, this was weird,” Walker made a face in the dark. “How does it feel to you? That thing of being a literal ghost?”

Ava remained silent and he thought that she would not respond — that his question was another dumb question that she probably had listened to a hundred times.

“When my father was alive,” she started, cautious. “Before the experiments, before Hank Pym… We always go out for a swim. I don't remember exactly the place or its name, I just know that I loved it. I spent most of the day in the water, floating to the rhythm of the calm lake.” Ava sighed. She was tired, bleeding and in pain. There was nothing wrong with allowing herself to be a little vulnerable, a little honest.

Walker was sincerely with her when said that he would not let her behind, despite their problems.

“There's a name for the feeling of when your body spends so much time in the water that it starts to float when you're lying down. Phantom Motion. That's how I feel. Even when my body was fixed, I couldn't swim again. I couldn't… bear with this feeling again.”

“This is… a shit. I’m sorry.” Walker said, like he was measuring his words. It didn’t work at all. Ava had the feeling that he would never say the right thing at the right time. He was bad enough to do that. And she liked it.

“That's alright.” she shrugged. “It's not the first time I had to deal with it since I was fixed.”

Walker narrowed his eyes. “You… you see this in the Void?”

Ava nodded, even though he couldn’t see her clearly. “I saw myself. At the time I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D and they told me that they could cure me. That was not true.”

She lowered her gaze, trying to look at her fingers while feeling the dirt among the nails.

It was a grudge that she carried. Even though she was recognized on the streets like the Ghost, the New Avenger, the superhero with the abilities of passing through walls, a part of Ava Starr will always see herself like the accident that killed her parents and left her alive for the misfortune of herself. Like the furtive agent that was used and discarded from S.H.I.E.L.D.

“I saw my wife.” Walker said, breaking the silence that was established between them. “Everytime I see them. Olivia and my son.”

“Do you sign the papers?” Ava didn't see, but somehow she felt Walker raising his head to her question. “Not my business but Bucky and I made a kind of bet. And now I have to know if you signed those papers or not.”

“My life was just a game for you two?”

She chuckled. “All of our lives are a game for each other. Well, except Bob’s life. Yelena is just a bit from killing you just for you to mock him.”

Walker rolled his eyes. “Yeah. There's no denying it.”

“So…”

“I signed,” he replied curtly. “I thought that if I kept going on good missions or appearing on TV, she’d notice me. Wanted me back. But…” John sighed. “She told me she is meeting someone and I’m sure he looks… better than me. In any aspect. I guess she deserved it.”

“I am sorry,” was Ava's turn to say that. “You really looked to like her.”

“I think our time were gone. I was a bad dad, a bad husband… A bad… person.”

It was a painful realization. Being Captain America means being a good and decent person. Walker was none of those things.

“I guess the New Avengers maybe are a kind of redemption to people like us.” Ava tried to say, as if that would ease the tension.

“The New Avengers was Valentina's trap.” He retorted.

“But you like it.”

“You too.”

After a brief moment of silence, they laughed in that dark.

“Yeah, I like it.” Ava confessed. “Man, we are in a Wheaties box! That's really cool.”

“Yeah, and they are making those figures for collectors. Since Bucky left politics, a lot of them have appeared with him as the Winter Soldier.”

“Yes! And I discover that Bob sleeps with a little Black Widow plushie. We are like rockstars.”

“It's that glory Alexei said.” Walker added. “Is good.”

“More than being Captain America?” 

He smiled. “Yeah. More than being Captain America.”

Ava gave a deep breath. “You know, you're not as bad as I thought.”

“Thank you,” John nodded. “You are not so annoying either.”

“It's only because I'm hurt. If not, I would be that ‘little shit’ you always call me.”

“Yeah… maybe you’re a little right.”

“I am always right, Walker.”

“Not always, Ava.”

A little smile painted Ava's face. She has never been so grateful that it was dark. 

“Sounds good.” she said. “The way you call my name.”

John frowned. He put his hand on her forehead. “Fever again.”

She laughed. “Nah, I really like it.”

“Rest, Ava.” Walker leaned against her side. “If we have luck, they will come for us tomorrow.”

“Please,” she groaned. “I won’t hold on anymore with this thing on my shoulder. I will become Bucky.”

“A grumpy pain in the ass?”

“No. This one is you.” Ava doesn't take long to fall asleep again, this time with her head on Walker's shoulder.

  Ava woke up with lights in her eyes. For a moment, she reacted in astonishment, remembering the times when she stood in the quantum capsule, stabilizing herself.

But she was safe. It was only the medical wing of the Watch Tower. She was laid in a soft bed, her arm was free of that bar now. She was bandaged and had a tube connected to her skin, with quantum particles injected into her veins. 

“What is this?” she asked, a little stunned.

“A gift from Scott Lang,” Valentina's voice came from behind her. She toward Ava, in that fake maternal and careful manner. “Sorry for the delay. We were having a little problem with Captain America. I guess he didn't like us taking care of his unfinished business.”

“He's gonna sue us.” Walker's voice projected itself in the room. He was at the side of the door — cleaned, hands inside his old sweater's pocket.

“John,” Valentina complained. That probably was a topic they wouldn’t discuss at that moment. “We are in the middle of something here.”

“Sorry,” he raised both arms in surrender. “I just came to see if she was alright.”

“I am.” Ava said. It was good to see him in the light again. “Thank you.”

They exchanged glances. It seemed like they shared something that was only theirs now. She didn't know how to describe it, but seeing John Walker standing there, Ava wanted him to stay there. Perhaps approach a bit.

“You two did a great job together!” Valentina's annoying voice brought Ava back from whatever she was stuck in. “Would you like to try again, or do you really want to change the pairs?”

Once again, Ava reached for John's gaze. He had that thing in his eyes— When he wanted to, he never looked away.

“No,” Ava replied, without taking her eyes off him. “It's good this way.”

“Ava is right. It's good this way.”