[AU] How much - how little - is within our power

[from_the_outside]

 "No," says Sharon, for what feels like the thousandth time. "That's not acceptable."

The rest of the flight had been uneventful, and once they landed she'd been grimly unsurprised to see that Stark had sent Happy Hogan, his erstwhile chauffeur, to guide them to the apartment they've been assigned. Stark himself had apparently gone somewhere to get out of his armor, somewhat mollified by having gotten them here and under his thumb.

Except Sharon won't stop kicking up a fuss.

Hogan stares at her as she inspects each corner of the apartment. "I can't cut these rooms off from the central security protocols," he says, slowly, like he thinks she's just misheard him.

"Well, you can," she tells him. "Or I can force a cascade in a couple load-bearing subroutines that will shut the whole damn thing down. It's your choice."

Comments

[from_the_outside]

Without batting an eye, she repeats her demands.

Hallway surveillance. Access to the exterior cameras. Audio and video on both. Her own security override on the door and windows. And so on.

"By the way," she adds, "I know what Vision and Wanda Maximoff are capable of. I don't want either of them within five hundred yards of this apartment at any time."

[marvel_npc]

“Out of the question,” Tony snaps. “This is their home. I’m not limiting their movements in it.”

He paces over to the kitchen, fiddles absently with the sink faucet, and turns back to her.

“Override on the apartment we can talk about. Hallway, limited, maybe. Outside, no. I’m not having you fuck up my systems.”

[from_the_outside]

"You should have thought of that before you decided to jail us here," Sharon snaps back.

"I don't think you're remembering our conversation before clearly. I said all security for this apartment will be at my discretion. You agreed. I bet your AI recorded the whole thing."

He's all nervous motion; she's standing still, arms crossed, watching him. "And if you don't meet my conditions and insist on keeping us here, you better believe I will do much, much worse than screw with a couple of cameras."

[marvel_npc]

“Security for the apartment,” he enunciates. “Not the compound. Don’t try to split hairs with me, Agent Carter. If you don’t like it you’re free to leave at any time, but Barnes stays.”

[from_the_outside]

Her lips thin.

"That wasn't the agreement, either," she tells him, and takes the few short steps needed to get her backpack from the table. She glances at Bucky. "We're leaving. Both of us."

[marvel_npc]

Barnes moves toward her side, and Tony steps quickly between them and the door.

“No.”

[from_the_outside]

When he's not in his armor, she's as tall as he is. She moves to a few feet in front of him and looks him in the eye.

"Get out of the way."

[marvel_npc]

“Not happening.”

He doubts they know how fast he can activate the glove in his watch if he needs to, among other things. He keeps a sharp eye on Barnes, who’s not speaking at all.

“I’ll give you the apartment end the hall, just to be a good host. The rest isn’t your business or your problem.”

[from_the_outside]

"You made it my business when you decided to throw your weight around and forced us to come out here," she reminds him.

"Don't give yourself airs, Stark. You're not a host and we're not guests. Guests can leave. You decided to make yourself our warden. Sit with it."

[marvel_npc]

“Fury must love you,” he observes. “Either that or you drive him even crazier than usual.”

He shakes his head. “You’re the one not acting in good faith here. Making wild demands just so you can say I didn’t meet them isn’t going to work with me.”

[from_the_outside]

Her eyebrows almost hit her hairline.

"I'm not acting in good faith? Of the two of us, who threatened to blow up a house with people still inside? Who used coercion and threats? Who is now trying to renege on a verbal contract? Speaking of which."

She takes another few steps forward. Either he'll move, or he won't: it's his choice. "I told you: you don't get –"

There's a scuffle of some kind further down the hall, then the sound of rapid, running footsteps, and Steve Rogers comes barreling around the corner and through the door. "Stop, stop," he says, throwing up a hand. He's a little out of breath; she wonders if he's just sprinted the entire length of the compound.

He glances at Bucky and Sharon. "Happy told me – what happened? Is everything okay?"

"No," say Sharon and Tony at the same time. They glare at each other, and Sharon lifts her chin, turning to Steve.

"Tony is putting us under house arrest," she says, flatly. "He showed up at my parents' house this morning. Things went downhill from there."

[nerves_of_ice]

He can read the deep worry in Steve’s eyes as plain as print. “No fighting,” he murmurs, holding himself still. “Nothing physical. We talked. He wants to know I’m not going anywhere until this business with Zemo is all over.”

He keeps to himself what he suspects Stark wants after that. This is already going nowhere good, and if he can make it easier for Steve and Sharon, he will.

“Agent Carter has some requirements for the relocation.”

[marvel_npc]

“Oh, now he talks,” Tony informs the air. “Great. That’s just what this situation needed.”

He already doesn’t want to hear whatever Steve’s going to say in that disappointed voice he uses that tears on Tony’s nerves like a cheese grater.

“You wanted me to think about it. I thought about it and decided I didn’t want your army buddy disappearing again before I got some answers. So while all of you were off on your playdate this morning, I invited them here. Don’t even start with me, Rogers, I’m not in the mood to deal with it.”

[from_the_outside]

"You got answers."

Sharon is nearly vibrating with indignation, but she holds herself as carefully still as possible. "We answered every one of your questions. And you didn't invite us, you coerced us under threat of violence."

[marvel_npc]

God, what a mess. He glances at Bucky again, then at Sharon, who is facing down Tony like a cat with its hackles raised, and finally at Tony himself, sighing when he hears everyone's explanations. "Oh – Tony!" he says, disappointed and worried all at once.

"I told you, we would handle this together once you cooled down."

He's starting to regret leaving Tony under the eye of only Happy Hogan before heading out. Christ, he should have known. He runs a hand distractedly over his hair. "What requirements?"

[marvel_npc]

"She flies the jet, apartment and not some cell - which, please --" Tony waves his hand at the room around them pointedly. "She handles security for the apartment --

The emphasis on those three words could etch sheet metal.

"--no access to Barnes without the two of you, and I can't hurt him, whatever."

He crosses his arms and levels a flat stare at Steve. "You were busy. And I was perfectly calm."

[nerves_of_ice]

This is exactly what he didn't want to have happen. Bucky's not sure if he's going to make things worse if he says anything, but he is sure that Sharon's ready to punch Stark in the face, and he's also sure that if Steve starts defending him to Tony now things are going to get a lot messier, fast. But maybe there's a way to thread the needle that'll get them through. If Sharon doesn't explode. If Steve follows his lead.

"I'm currently under Agent Carter's authority," he tries, very carefully, framing it like a reminder for Steve, even though they've never actually talked about anything of the sort. "She's JTTF. The Winter Soldier is considered a terrorist threat. I've agreed to comply--"

(Ready to comply he hears in his memory, a whisper in his own voice, and has to fight the shudder.)

"--in order to help resolve the threat to the Avengers. Whatever you need from me, I'll do."

That part is definitely not meant for Stark, and he knows Steve'll pick up on it - and on the silent plea that he's making.

[marvel_npc]

He realizes in an instant the assumption Tony must have made and the dangerous game Sharon's playing with it – if Tony realizes she's not under orders from the JTTF, she'll be as much an enemy in his mind as Bucky is. He nods at Bucky to show he understands, then looks at Sharon. "Agent Carter?"

"The apartment," she says, tightly. "Access to the hall cameras for fifty yards in each direction so I get a heads up before any visitors appear." She shoots a glare at Tony, but manages to refrain from doing anything like pulling out a gun, though Steve has no doubt she's considering it. "And I'll consider my requirements met."

[marvel_npc]

“Fine,” Tony snaps. He taps quickly on his watch. “Done. Happy now?”

[from_the_outside]

"Ecstatic," she says, desert-dry. She'll be damned if he sees how hard it is for her to maintain her calm.

"Now please leave so we can get set up."

[marvel_npc]

He opens his mouth to blaze back at her only for Steve to interrupt with the absolutely frustrating sense of timing he sometimes has.

“Tony, we need you for debrief in 30, anyway. We didn’t find what we expected this morning.”

“Fine,” he says again, and heads for the door, ignoring Carter and Barnes both.

[nerves_of_ice]

Tension lashes him like a whip, but he waits until the door closes behind Stark before he asks.

“What do you mean, you didn’t find what you expected?”

[marvel_npc]

"Karpov is dead," he says, turning back to them.

"We found him strung upside down with his head in a sink. There was a big hole in the wall where someone smashed through the brick with a sledgehammer and removed something hidden there."

He sighs again. "That's it. Karpov was a shut-in, as far as we could tell; windows papered over, nobody in the neighborhood really knew or ever talked to him and they said he never left or had visitors. A neighbor across the street said he saw a car run up over the curb of Karpov's property; Karpov let the man in and he left an hour or so later. Neighbor didn't think anything of it."

"Did the man match Zemo's description?" Sharon asks, and Steve nods at her.

"Seems like for this, at least, he was working alone."

[nerves_of_ice]

“He didn’t talk,” Bucky murmurs. “Or he did and Zemo killed him anyway. The book must have been what he had hidden.”

[marvel_npc]

"So what now?" Sharon asks, giving Steve a chance to take refuge in protocol.

"Now, I'll debrief the team," he says. "And Fury. Has he sent any word about Zemo?"

Sharon shakes her head. "Zemo was... out of commission for a little while," she says, delicately. Under Steve's quizzical glance, she amends: "He had to have surgery. Fury says he's fine and should be able to answer questions soon. Broussard is helping profile him."