Natasha's POV

We were called to Fury's office with no previous information. We were all chatting in the meeting room, me, Steve, Thor, Clint, Wanda, Pietro and Bucky, since they decided to keep Peter away from this case, Tony was no longer able to help and it was not like Steve counted now, they called Bucky for reinforcement. Also, Strange and Bruce were fully occupied with Tony's case.

Bruce volunteered after we knew what they were planning for Tony, so he insisted to be on the case alongside Strange to protect Stark more.

We had no clue of why we were there. I was sitting by Steve, he had an empty look on his face like he was a ghost.

"Hey,hon, are you sure you don't want some time out?" - I whispered to Steve

Before he could answer Fury came into the room.

"Good afternoon. Pay attention to what I'm going to say, I know you all are still shaken by Tony, I am too, but we need you to protect the ones you can, we have Tony in the best hands"

Everytime Tony's name was said the whole room got heavy, cause everyone was feeling a hole inside, we all missed him.

"We've been detecting some unusual activities in the city, someone is hurting a series of people and threatening them and the Police asked for our help"

"Really? They want us to arrest criminals?" - Thor said with disdain.

"It's not an usual criminal, some reports say it may not be human and all the victims are frightened and very traumatized, unfortunately they don't have a description of this person or creature, just that it acts most at night in alleys or bars and some of them also stated that this got in touch with them before meeting with them, but through another person probably"

Fury dropped on the table all the documents and folds they had about the case with the police reports and all.

"I ask you guys to do this homework quickly, cause you can be summoned anytime, I gave you all pagers so the police can contact you. I'll let you guys get to it."

He said and left the room closing the glass door behind him.

"We're doing the police's job now? " -Clint said indignant.

"Yeah, seems like it " Steve said rolling his eyes.

"I'm sure it's boring, but if they need our help....also it's going to be easy and fast for us"- I said and they just shrugged and accepted against their will.

...

We spent all afternoon looking through the information they got us.

Bruce got into the meeting room in his lab coat and came directly to me avoiding eye contact with the others.

He pulled me aside and lowered his voice.

"Listen, they got new leads on the suspects of Tony's case, but they won't release the files, so we're trying to access them secretly, please don't tell anyone"

"Ok, got it, thanks for updating me, love you" - I said and kissed him briefly before he left.

I saw on the corner of my eye Bucky staring at us, but he looked away when he realized I was looking.

"What was that about?" - Steve came closer to me.

"Some plans between me and Bruce, privacy please " - I tried to divert him.

He was the one that could not know about everything .

"I heard Tony's name, Nath, please, I'm blind here, I can't take it anymore"

I felt so bad for him, I couldn't see my best friend like this.

"Ok, but promise you won't tell anyone or do anything stupid because it could ruin it "- he nodded and I continued- " Bruce said they may have a lead on Tony's suspects "

His eyes sparkled for the first time in a long time.

"But please, Steve, they still don't have access to this list, so just wait patiently and don't do anything." - I looked directly into his eyes. - "For Tony"

I said his name and he immediately changed his expression, I knew he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize Tony's case.

I received a message on my phone asking all of us to meet Stephen and Bruce later at the tower, except Steve, so I asked Pepper to call Steve to her house for whatever reason so we could divert him.

It hurt me to do this to him, but it was for his and Tony's own good, cause when it comes to this subject Steve has no control of himself or his actions, almost a year had passed and we haven't gotten closer to Steve.

...

We were all already at the tower's living room, Stephen and Bruce were about to start talking.

"So, we have some news" - Stephen began. - "As you all know, we are trying to protect and recover Tony, behind S.H.I.E.L.D's back, cause they don't have the same interests as us to protect Tony at all cost as a human being"

The room got tense even though we all already knew that, but it was always hard to believe.

Strange continued.

"We want to preserve Tony as he is, so I was concerned about the most important thing about a person, memories, so I sort of uploaded some images, videos and audios to Tony's mind so we could keep this areas working in his brain"

"Well, did it work?" - Clint asked.

"I believe it did, cause when Steve's memories were playing, Tony had not just brain but body reactions too, which means we still have Tony and we can still save him"

When Stephen said that everyone just smiled and cheered, hugged each other on the couch.

"But please" - Bruce interrupted- "We cannot tell Steve"

"I'm not a scientist,but wouldn't it be better if he went there? His presence would help Tony, no?" - Thor asked.

"Yeah, but Steve is not allowed to go there for now, because of the last events, which reminds us he can't control his actions when it comes to Tony. " - Stephen answered.

"It's too hard doing this to him" - I said.

"I know, it hurts in all of us, but it's for his own good and Tony's too, all of our progress and plan could go away, the good part is that in the end he'll have Tony back." - Stephen said and we were all surprised that he was routing for Tony and Steve together.

We all agreed with them and finished the meeting. We all headed up to bed, Bruce was chaotic, anxious.

"What happened, sweetie?" - I asked him lied in bed while seeing him sitting on the edge of it with his face between his hands.

"I'm sorry, it's just too difficult, it never occurred to anybody, he was my best friend, I miss him and it is too damn hard being there seeing him like that"- he let it All out.

I felt bad and ashamed cause I was not paying attention to him, Tony was indeed his best friend for years and it never occurred to us that he was suffering a lot with that too, not as much as Steve, but, more than us.

"I'm sorry I didn't pay attention before, I'm here for you, you know that" - I said and hugged him from behind pulling him to lay on the bed. - "It's going to be okay, baby, he'll be back, he's Tony fucking Stark, he's Iron Man."