Oh, it feels so good to be home! And hey, four chapters done on the plane - that's pretty good, considering I watched Doctor Strange twice!

And guess what - you guys got a Startha overload here! :D

Enjoy!

***

"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor, which is one more than you have!"

"So let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?"

Steve flipped through the Accords, listening to Rhodey and Sam duke it out behind him. Tony was reclining against one of the chairs, hand over his eyes as he listened. Jessie was lying on one of the loveseats, her head in the Doctor's lap, her husband gently running his hands through her tresses. Pietro and Clara were sitting together in another one, the rest of the Avengers scattered throughout the room. "A hundred and seventeen countries want to sign this," Rhodey reminded Sam. "117, Sam, and you're just like 'No, that's cool, we got it?'"

"How long are you going to play both sides?" Sam countered.

"I have an equation," Vision volunteered.

Sam snorted. "Oh, this will clear it up."

"Go on, Vision," Jessie said quietly.

"In the past years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially," the android said. "And during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."

"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve raised an eyebrow.

"I'm saying there may be a causality," Vision corrected. "Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict breeds catastrophe. Oversight . . . oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

"Boom," Rhodey pointed at Vision.

"Tony," Natasha looked over at the man. "You're being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal."

"It's because he's already made up his mind," the Doctor shook his head.

"Boy, you know me so well," Tony said sarcastically, standing up with a grimace. "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache. That's what's going on, Doc. It's just pain. It's discomfort." He walked over to the sink, scowling when he saw it. "Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?" He ran the sink, pulling up a holographic image in the process of a smiling young man. He looked up, then nodded as if he had just noticed it. "Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA. Had a floor level gig at Intel planned for the fall, but first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul before he parked it behind a desk. See the world, maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where? Sokovia!" Wanda flinched and Pietro clenched his fist; the Doctor's hand stilled in the middle of Jessie's hair. "He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. I mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass!" He popped a pill in his mouth and downed it with some coffee. "There's no decision-making process here," he announced, turning to them, folding his arms. "We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, we're no better than the bad guys."

"Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up," Steve shook his head.

"Who said we're giving up?"

"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blames."

Steve's statement was met with utter silence. "I'm sorry, Steve," Rhodey stared at him, the first to speak up. "That . . . that is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not HYDRA."

"No, but it's run by people with agendas, and agendas change," Steve told him.

"That's good," Tony told him. "That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing."

"You chose to do that," Jessie spoke up. Everyone turned to her as she sat up, crossing one leg over the other as she looked at Tony. "The way I'm looking at this, we're surrendering our right to choose if we sign. Say this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go. What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us?"

"Thank you, Jessie," Steve told her gratefully. "We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."

"But if we don't do this now, it's gonna be done to us later," Saleen said heavily, and Jessie gawked at her. "That's the fact. That won't be pretty."

"You're saying they'll come for me," Wanda whispered.

"We would protect you," Vision shook his head.

"You're agreeing with this?!" Jessie jabbed a finger at the document in Steve's lap.

"You're not?" Saleen stared at her. "Or have you been running around in the TARDIS so much you've forgotten what it's like when you didn't have the entire world on your shoulders?"

"Have you forgotten what leashes felt like, Saleen?" Jessie asked angrily, leaning forward. "The reason we were out of school, what led us to the Avengers in the first place, is the fact that people like us, mutants, were trying to be controlled. We escaped that, joining the Avengers, but we got dragged into SHIELD, too, and we were under Director Fury. The only time I felt like I had choices I could make was when I ran off to the TARDIS in the first place! If I hadn't been under someone else's control, Grant might still be alive! Steve's right. The safest hands are our own."

"The safest? Maybe," the Doctor finally spoke up, steepling his fingers as he thought out loud. "But we know better than anyone what's out there, what others are capable of. Powers, technology . . . mind control." He looked at her. "The Cyberiad."

Jessie's eyes widened, and Pietro and Wanda both looked at him incredulously. "Are you seriously saying?" Pietro began, raising his voice.

"Wait a moment, the Doctor is agreeing with me?" Tony did a double take.

"Oh, my God, you really are," Martha's eyes widened.

"Are the safest hands our own? Maybe," the Doctor conceded. "But what happens when something out of our control takes control of us? What happens when they take the power and use it like that? Too much power, even in the hands of the right people, could lead to destruction."

"OK, who's on what position here?" Clara asked.

"No!" Steve and Jessie protested at the same time.

"Yes," Tony, Saleen, and the Doctor answered.

"Maybe they're right," Natasha leaned forward. "If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off . . . "

"Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?" Sam gave her a look.

"I'm just reading the terrain," Natasha defended herself. "We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."

"Focus up," Tony shook his head. "I'm sorry, did I mishear you, or did you agree with me?"

"Oh, I want to take it back now," Natasha sighed.

"No, no, no, you can't retract it," Tony shook his head as Jessie closed her eyes and put her face in her hands. "Thank you. Unprecedented – I've got Natasha and the Doc. OK, case closed. I win."

Jessie stood up abruptly and left, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Win all you want," she tossed over her shoulder. "I'm not signing."

Natasha looked around, knowing that with Jessie refusing, that was a blow. "Is anyone going after her?" Saleen looked around.

"I will," Pietro answered, standing. "Because I am not signing, either."

"Pietro!" Clara called after him, but he just left as well.

Steve was about to stand up and go after them when his phone buzzed. Pausing, he looked down at it, and immediately, his face drained of color.

She's gone – in her sleep.

"I have to go," he stood up, leaving the Accords in his chair, heading for the stairs.

Worried, Martha followed him, and Clara hesitantly walked over to see the Accords. "Clara?" the Doctor asked, leaning forward as she started looking through the pages. "What do you think?"

"I'm the newest one here," Clara answered, taking a deep breath. "I don't think I have as much of a say. But . . . " She sighed, sitting down. "I don't know."

***

Steve leaned against the railing of the stairs, his head lowered, arms crossed, closing his eyes. To know that Peggy, his last connection to World War II, to his past life, was gone . . . that took something out of him he didn't know he even had.

He heard footsteps stop at the top of the staircase, and he looked up. Martha was standing at the top, leaning against the railing, watching him worriedly. Wanting to help him, but respecting his space . . .

Steve's face crumbled, and Martha was immediately down the stairs. "Steve," she whispered, reaching for him.

"She's gone, Martha," Steve choked out, holding her close as her arms went around him. "Peggy's dead."

"I'm sorry," Martha whispered the mantra into his ear over and over as he cried into her shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

***

"Come to convince me to come back?" Jessie asked icily, hearing footsteps behind her.

"When you saved my life, I promised I would always watch your back," Pietro answered, and she turned as he walked over to her, joining her in looking out over the fields of the compound. "Even if I didn't promise that, I would still stand against these Accords."

"My entire experience with the government is that they just want control," Jessie told him, folding her arms. "We make a mistake not under their control, the blame is ours. We make a mistake when the government sent us in, they'll find a way to make the blame ours. Either way, the blame is ours. I'd rather take it when it was our fault, and only ours. I don't want the government involved in the Avengers."

"Neither do I," Pietro shook his head. "But it would appear Stark, Saleen, the Doctor, and Natasha do not see it that way."

Jessie sighed, closing her eyes. "I'm not signing," she repeated.

"I'm not either," Pietro shook his head.

"And if Clara decides she's going to?"

Pietro was quiet for a long time, long enough for Jessie to know the idea bothered him. "I can't stop her from making her own decisions," was all he said.

Jessie opened her eyes and turned around. "God, I hate this."

***

Clara was still flipping through the Accords when the Doctor walked in to check on her the evening before the flight to London for Peggy's funeral. "You're really signing these?" Clara asked quietly. "Even though the Bad Wolf won't?"

"Yes," the Doctor said quietly, sitting down by her side. "I know what it's like to be the one that takes a burden like Steve has, to be the leader . . . and when you make a mistake, it hurts. It is very rare when everyone lives . . . and even then, there are those that get hurt. The Avengers have had a lot of power. And too much power, if used the wrong way, can lead to catastrophe. Vision is right – that is something we can try to avoid."

Clara stared long and hard at the documents. "Pietro isn't going to sign them."

"No, I figured he wouldn't," the Doctor admitted. "If partly because they have Tony's full support." He put his hand on top of hers. "After the funeral, a jet is leaving for Vienna. I've told Natasha and Saleen I'll be joining them. Whether you come with is up to you."

Clara nodded distantly. "I'll let you know."

The Doctor patted her hand before standing and leaving, letting Clara stew over the Accords some more.

***

Steve was one of the pallbearers in the lead at Peggy's funeral. He, Sam, and Martha were in full dress attire, there for him when he walked back down to sit with them. Sam clapped a hand on his shoulder, Martha slipping her arm in his when he did.

"And now, I would like to invite Sharon Carter to come up and say a few words," the priest said.

Steve didn't look up until Sam nudged him with his elbow. Steve looked up with a frown, only to straighten in surprise, because the blonde stepping up to the pulpit . . . she was the SHIELD agent who had supported him when HYDRA revealed itself. "Margaret Carter was known to most as a founder of SHIELD, but I just knew her as Aunt Peggy," Sharon began. "She had a photograph in her office. Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK. As a kid, that was pretty cool, but it was a lot to live up to. Which is why I never told anyone we were related. I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage in a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either. And she said, compromise where you can. But where you can't, don't." She looked at Steve when she said her next words. "Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right, even if the whole world is telling you to move . . . it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say 'No. You move.'"

***

Steve stood at the front of the aisle, looking at Peggy's picture long after everyone else was gone. He heard heels clicking, and he recognized them. How many times had he heard those heels when he was at press conferences when needed? "When I came out of the ice, I thought everyone I had known was gone. Then I found out that she was alive . . . I was just lucky to have her."

"She had you back, too," Martha told him.

Steve looked down when she took his hand, and he held it tightly. "Who signed?"

"Tony, Natasha, Saleen, Rhodey, Vision," Martha listed, then swallowed. "The Doctor . . . and Clara."

Steve sighed heavily. Poor Jessie . . . and poor Pietro. "Clint?" he asked.

"Says he's retired."

"Wanda?"

"TBD," Martha looked at him. "But we both know who she's more than likely to side with."

Steve could have answered that in a heartbeat. Wanda would side with who she would always side with – Jessie. "Natasha's off to Vienna for the signing of the Accords," Martha added. "The Doctor, Saleen, and Clara are going with her. She said there's plenty of room on the jet." Steve stayed silent. "She also said that just because it's the path of least resistance, doesn't mean it's the wrong path. Staying together is more important than how we stay together."

"What are we giving up to do it?" Steve asked, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Martha . . . I can't sign it."

"I know," Martha nodded.

"Then why did you tell me what she said?"

Martha looked up him. "To show you exactly where I'm standing. Where I've always stood is where I plan on standing." Steve finally looked at her to see tears in her eyes. "I hate this as much as you do . . . but I can't sign them, either."

Steve blew out a breath, tears stinging his eyes as well, lifting Martha's hand to his lips and kissing her knuckles. He pulled her close, hugging her tightly, Martha hugging him back as he cried again.

***

Yeah, there was no way Startha was splitting up.

So this is where you see where everyone's lined up - Jessie, Pietro, and Martha are this universe's additions to Team Captain America, and the Doctor, Clara, and Saleen are this universe's additions to Team Iron Man.

Well, that's gonna make for one hell of a fight later.

I'll try and upload more tonight! For now, I actually get air conditioning and a washcloth! Yay! I missed those in Europe! XD