DIPLOMACY
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Time of death, 14:47.
Time of death, 14:53.
Time of death, 15:01.
Time of death, 15:03.
Time of death, 15:13.

Most of the people on the south side of the office building were killed immediately in the blast. They'd all watched as it happened, Sadie on the other side of the markets with Natasha after securing the payload. She'd rushed straight over there, they all had, assisted Fire and Rescue as best as they could but it seemed to all be in vain.

Those who weren't killed by the blast were killed by smoke inhalation or died from their burns before Sadie could properly heal them all.

It was silence on the Quinjet apart from Sadie's typing, as she filed her report. Usually she'd leave it until after their post operation meeting. Every mission before, they would all spend this ride napping, or eating, getting their energy back and keeping each other entertained. Now though, nobody was interested in playing cards. Sadie certainly wasn't, she had to write her report, make sense of it all.

Adrianne had called some half an hour earlier, after Savannah and Shan, her voice worried and a million questions about Sadie's health. After she was satisfied that her best friend was unharmed, Adrianne had asked her "How are you guys going to solve this?"

"However we have to," Sadie had said. "We fucked up. We're going to have to make up for it."

Reaching the Compound, there was more silence still, nobody quite knowing what to do until their meeting that evening. All Sadie knew, was that she couldn't run off back to the city until all of this was dealt with, so she set herself up in her usual guest room, washed the soot and sand off her skin with the hottest water the shower could give her, and changed into loungewear she'd stolen from Natasha's almost a year ago. This particular set of joggers was hers now.

Even once Sadie was clean, she still felt there was blood on her hands. When she switched the television on, the news anchors seemed to feel the same. Sadie lay down on the bed, listened to the news as she closed her eyes.

"And what about our nation's healer, Aceso?" A blonde woman asked in the studio. "What was her role in all this?"

"Slim to none, Christine," a man said in response. "At least, nothing to set her apart from the other Avengers' passivity. Doctor Moore's responsibility is supposed to be saving lives. And yet, even with her enhanced healing, she failed to do so! Which not only begs the question of whether she is suitable to be an Avenger, but also- what makes her suitable to be a doctor?"

"How about a damn degree?" Sadie muttered, entirely aware there was nobody to hear her.

"Isadora Moore hasn't practised in a public hospital or clinic for two years after being fired from New York Presbyterian on grounds of professionalism," the man continued. "All her work since then has been directly tied to Stark Industries, which is what led to events in Paris last fall. Moore is yet to make a statement on the murder without trial of Hugo Vermis, and she's yet to speak out on the events in Lagos-"

"It's been five fucking minutes!" Sadie found herself sitting up, and hurling the remote at the screen. She cast a forcefield around the monitor before it reached it.

"You don't have to listen to them," Steve said from the doorway, and Sadie was almost embarrassed at the timing of it. Things still felt so new between them- even if it had been months since New Year's, the two of them had been single a lot longer prior.

"If they try to re-evaluate my license, then..." Sadie trailed off as he switched off the TV, but she managed to catch a glimpse of the name of the man on the byline. Like the cherry on top, he worked at New York Pres.

"They're not re-evaluating anything," Steve said, sitting beside her. "The criticisms... It'll all pass."

"No, I think he's right," Sadie sighed, leaning against his shoulder. "I think I need to say something, you know? Instead of letting the rest of you deal with the press."

"You step into diplomacy, you can't step out of it," Steve warned her.

"I know," Sadie said. "A journalist reached out about a month ago. Maybe I'll speak to her, she seems... fair."

"The lady from The Bulletin?" he asked, and she hummed in response. "If you're sure."

They both fell quiet, Sadie turning his hand over in her own, tracing the lines, when she noted a large and swollen bruise on his forearm. It was yellowing already, and she knew with his enhanced healing it would fade in an hour, but she fixed it without much hesitation.

Sadie lay down again, exhaustion weighing on her. She tapped on the space beside her, and he did the same, neither of them reaching the pillows and both facing the ceiling, but their hands were still intertwined.

"You need to tell me when you're hurt," she said quietly.

"I do," Steve answered.

"Not just when a bone is broken, or when you're bleeding," Sadie continued. "I know what Rumlow said about Bucky affected you."

He shifted to face her, his sapphire eyes troubled. "I need to find him."

"He remembered you?" An uncertain nod. "Then you'll find him. And if you don't, he'll find you." 

Steve kissed her then, soft and gentle and familiar, but still, Sadie was left spinning. When he stopped, she wished she'd hadn't laid down so many boundaries in the New Year. Yes, they'd been intimate, but... not as deeply as she would've liked.

"I think I'm ready to move past this phase," she said, quietly.

"Past what?"

"You know. Just seeing each other," Sadie said. "Politeness. I want us to just be able to wear our hearts on our sleeves. What d'you think?"

"I'd love that," he said, but there was a far off look on his face.

"You look like you want to say something, but don't want to ruin the moment," she laughed, and he did too, except a little uncertainty lined it.

"Yeah, I wanted to give you a few minutes before I dropped this," Steve sighed. "And, I'm not in an awful rush myself. There's someone we have to answer to downstairs."

"Who?"

"Vision said the Secretary of State," he said, and Sadie sat up abruptly like a reflex reaction.

"Well, shit," she said, the moment's peace completely gone, and replaced with an anxious urgency in her chest. She stood, tightening her hair tie, and dragged Steve up with her. "Let's go!"

He didn't need telling twice, and the two of them made their way to the meeting room, Sadie practically at a run, and even more embarrassed to find they were the last two arrive.

As expected, Secretary Ross stood full on at the front of the room, a figure she recognised instantly from newsreels and television debates. Sadie took a seat, trying not to project her anxiety to the room as Steve sat beside her.

"Now that the Captain and Dr Moore have graced us with their presence," Ross began, quipping an eyebrow in their direction. Sadie kept a poker face. "We can get started."

The room was tenser than it had ever been when Sadie was in the presence of her friends and colleagues. Tony sat just behind her, quieter and more reserved than she'd ever seen him, and a security guard lingered just to her left. She wondered if the Secretary truly was so afraid of them.

"Five years ago, I had a heart attack, and dropped. Right in the middle of my back-swing," Ross explained, not even having to demand the attention of the room as he continued his fable.

"The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives," Ross continued, but his words didn't feel so genuine. "And while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some... who would prefer the word vigilantes."

Sadie almost lost her poker face at that- she couldn't help but take it as a personal affront. Vigilantes, when they were saving lives and making change? She stopped herself from speaking, knowing that to snap so early wouldn't benefit anyone.

Natasha was much more diplomatic.

"And what word would you use, Mr. Secretary?" she asked, ever cool and collected.

"How about dangerous?" Ross said, bluntly. "What would you call a group of US-based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?"

The screen behind him activated to show a map, with yellow dots Sadie instantly recognised to be the locations of past missions. Her eyes were drawn to the marker over Paris, and she couldn't understand why it would be pinned on this chart as if it was something they'd planned. From the look on Steve's face, he didn't either.

"New York," Ross said, and the map zeroed in on their home, playing footage of the city in ruins.

Sadie remembered it all- she had been a civilian then. She'd spent hours and hours at the hospital, pulling in all her staff to deal with the influx of patients with horrific injuries. There hadn't been enough space in the trauma bay. Her interns were overwhelmed and her nurses made extra beds in the hallways.

That had been the only day since the fire that Sadie had used her abilities. She'd done so discreetly and in moderation, and only for pain relief. It was all she could bring herself to do without collapsing.

It had also been her hardest day as Chief of Medicine, made even harder by the fact that Adrianne was trapped downtown unable to manage her surgeons. Made harder still by the incessant worry for her mother, whose nursing home had been in one of the evacuated areas.

"Washington DC."

This was footage Sadie had never seen before. The Triskelion destroyed, crashing Helicarriers, fleeing citizens.

"Sokovia."

More terrified civilians. The city rising and the damage beneath- the damage she had abandoned, prioritising the fight over the people. Buildings collapsing.

"Lagos."

Sadie didn't need the images to remind herself. But it showed the chaos from such an unbiased perspective, there was no denying the fact that this was their doing. And she had been complicit. She knew the risks, and yet she'd went along anyway. She had given up fighting for it from the moment she was outvoted.

There  was one image that stood out the most. A dead girl, with ash and rubble in her hair and skin. A girl Sadie had failed to heal, failed to save.

There was no avoiding it. They all deserved consequences. But still, she was deathly afraid of what those might be.

"Okay. That's enough," Steve said, and Secretary Ross nodded to his assistant. The images disappeared.

"For the past four years, you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate," Ross said, simply, and Sadie's heart was in her mouth.

"But I think we have a solution." Ross presented a thick document directly to Wanda. Sadie waited patiently for it to reach her.  "The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries, it states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they'll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary."

Sadie took a moment to unravel it all in her head. They'd be led by diplomats, given assignments and orders. It sounded a lot like what S.H.I.E.L.D had asked of her all those years ago, what had been exposed as so evil.

And yet, Sadie thought back to the footage on the screen. Back to their meeting where her warnings had been ignored, and she wondered: would the outcome have been different, if their team had people to answer to other than themselves?

"The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place," Steve said, and it wasn't clear if it was an argument or a statement. Sadie sent him a look that he ignored. "I feel we've done that."

"Tell me, Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?" Secretary Ross asked, pointedly. "If I misplaced a couple of 30 megaton nukes, you can bet there'd be consequences."

"Except we aren't on the topic of nukes, Mr Secretary," Sadie said, carefully. Sadie couldn't hold her tongue then, her worry paramounting. Was this how they would all be seen under these Accords? "We're on the topic of people."

"That's real sweet," Ross responded, and Sadie pursed her lips at his condescension. "Compromise. Reassurance. That's how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground."

Sadie didn't doubt that it was. Had they been held accountable for the deaths in Lagos and Sokovia on an individual basis, and not as an organisation... Her main fear was incarceration.

"So, there are contingencies?" Rhody asked.

"Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords," Ross said, and her worry returned. They had no choice, then. It was done. "Talk it over."

"And if we come to a decision you don't like?" Natasha asked, as the Secretary moved to leave the room.

Ross paused, but barely. He didn't seem at all concerned as he replied: "Then you retire."

Sadie didn't think she was quite ready for that.

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A little movie dialogue heavy at the end there, but this is just an initial hump I need to get over to continue with the rest of the story, so thank you for bearing with me.

Also thank you all for the love and support during my break. To make up for the three weeks without updates, I have a double update for you guys, and the next chapter is one of my favourites!

Let me know your thoughts and opinions!

-Amber.