Shawarma turned out to be an Arab dish: different kinds of meat wrapped up in soft bread or served plain. Steve sat across from Banner at with Eleanore, Thor, and Tony to this left, and Darren, Romanov, and Barton to his right. Jet lay on the floor with two servings of every kind of meat in the place set out in front of him. It was crowded, but the silence in which everyone ate made it seem like there were fewer people present.

Steve had chosen the beef, plain, with a side of french fries. He ate as much as he could of it, which was almost the whole thing, before a wave of exhaustion hit him. He set his plate aside and rested his head on his hand.

Eleanore was already at that point almost as soon as she sat down, her head drooping every possible direction. Once she hit Thor's shoulder, and he grinned at her in understanding before wolfing down the food she pushed in front of him.

Darren was done eating in about five minutes, and Steve offered him the untouched food left on his plate. Darren gratefully accepted this, and it was gone in less time than the first batch.

Tony leaned back in his chair, seemingly lost in thought, only eating the occasional bite.

Bruce ate almost as quickly as Darren, his hunger clearly fueled by the Hulk. Tony had gotten him a new shirt and pants from the tower before they had made their way down to turn Loki over to SHIELD.

Natasha and Clint stared into space in opposite directions. Clint looked nearly as tired as Eleanore, which was understandable as he was the only true human in the group. Natasha ate her wrap in slow bites, stopping once in a while to watch the man behind the counter or the woman sweeping broken glass from the shop floor.

Eleanore rested her face in her hands as a final solution to keep from bumping her head into the people next to her. Steve heard her breathing even out in a moment, and he watched to make sure she didn't fall out of her chair. He felt like he could fall asleep too, but they had to report to SHIELD right after this to get some answers and give some about how the battle went down from all sides. He kept himself awake by rehearsing how he was going to ask about the nuke.

Thor, Darren, and Banner finished their food at around the same time, and Barton, Natasha, and Tony wiped their hands and nodded.

Darren nudged Steve and motioned to Eleanore. "Would you tap her on the shoulder? She wakes up jumpy sometimes."

Steve nodded and did as he was asked. Eleanore raised her head with a snort, looking around and rubbing her eyes.

"Was I out very long?" she asked Steve as she stood.

"Just a few minutes," he confirmed, pushing his chair in.

A quinjet was waiting for them right outside the restaurant, and the boarded without a word. Steve sat between Banner and Eleanore, Darren on her right, with Barton, Tony, and Romanov across the aisle. No one bothered to buckle up.

The ride to the helicarrier was short, the landing gentle. They departed into the same hangar they'd left from, and Steve noticed a couple of Harrier jets missing as well. They entered the elevator with a young agent as a guide, and they were taken to a room on the cell block floor. The door slid open silently to reveal a small conference room with a screen-covered table.

"Welcome back," Fury greeted them. Steve felt his fatigue disappear in the face of the man who'd shot a nuke at them.

Before he could say anything, Darren stepped around him.

"What the hell was that?" he asked, almost yelling. "You sent us in there to save people, then just decided to give everyone up? To a nuke?The rest of the East Coast would have been irradiated, and you could have started a war!"

"In case you missed the notice, I'm the one who told you two about the bomb," Fury stated calmly, his good eye narrowing. "I didn't send it."

"Oh," Darren took a step back, and Eleanore stood beside him and rested her hand on his arm.

"Then we'd like to speak to whoever did, please," she said calmly, a friendly smile on her face.

Steve glanced around and saw the rest of the Avengers were frozen in shock at this reversal of roles.

"Then be seated," Fury invited them, gesturing to the table. "And we can begin."

The team filed slowly to their seats at the oblong table, and sat without a sound. The order, clockwise, was Steve, Eleanore, Darren, Tony, Banner, Romanov, and Barton. Jet sat beside the door, watching everything with cloudy blue eyes.

"To start," Fury began, seating himself on the edge of the table, "You should know that SHIELD did not authorize that nuclear strike. It was the World Security Council."

"See, this is why I don't like to get angry," Darren muttered.

"They overrode my orders," Fury continued. "They believed that stopping the invasion in Manhattan was worth whatever else we lost. I disagreed, but they sent a lone, armed jet without my knowledge. I told you as soon as I knew."

"Are we going to talk to the Council?" Eleanore asked.

"Not today. I wanted to give you guys a break from their questions. And besides," Fury grinned just slightly, "They don't know your identity."

"Let's keep it that way," Eleanore sat back in her chair with a sigh.

"Now, let's turn on the cameras to record this meeting for posterity," Fury signaled, and cameras descended from the ceiling of every corner of the room, red lights blinking. "Each of you give your account of the battle, and anything else you'd like to say."

Everyone looked to Steve, so he went first. "The Chitauri relied on numbers to overwhelm our forces. They were easy to take down one-on-one, but they moved in packs. They attacked the buildings so that people would run onto the streets."

"They used the hovercrafts to herd people into corners more easily too," Clint pointed out. "Tony and Darren, and that dragon thing, kept having to break up soon-to-be mass graves."

It continued like that, with everyone giving input about how he battle had appeared from their perspective. Romanov talked about how the Chitauri seemed to be used to being stronger and bigger than their opponents. Eleanore said their weapons blasts were deflected and absorbed by water. Tony talked about how they were terrible at aiming their hovercraft weapons, and Clint backed him up. Banner said they seemed not to talk to each other. Darren said when he'd follow a group and pick them off one by one, none of Chitauri would try different tactics. They flew the same way every time, no matter how many of their group died around them. Thor said the monstrous flying live ships were injured by lightning, but it did not kill them unless it was conducted into their bodies by metal.

Steve asked how many casualties were counted in Manhattan, and Fury shook his head. "Too soon to know."

When they had spoken for around ninety minutes, they slowly ran out of things to say. Silence fell over the room, broken only by a last-minute comment or a yawn.

"Well, I'd say we can wrap this up," Fury stood, and the Avengers followed suit. "On behalf of the human race, thank you for your actions today." He came around and shook each of their hands one by one. "Go get some rest," he suggested when that was done. "We can discuss more tomorrow."

They left the room in a group, and headed in the same direction to the dormitory hallway. Night was quickly approaching as the ship sailed over the ocean, the coastline barely in sight.

Barton's door was on Steve's other side, and Romanov was beside him. They each gave a halfhearted wave as they retired immediately.

"Night, love you," Eleanore said, kissing Darren on the cheek and hugging him close. She turned and gave Steve a smile. "Night Steve."

"Goodnight," Steve replied, noting Tony lingering at his own door a little ways down. The couple turned and he hugged them both in what Steve thought was an uncharacteristic display of affection.

Steve didn't bother reading into it, instead entering his own room and placing his shield on the ground right next to the head of his bed. Loki was on board, which meant anything could still happen.

Steve stripped off his uniform and carefully laid it over the desk chair, opening his bag and retrieving sweatpants and a t-shirt. He knew from television that it was now common to sleep in one's shorts or underwear alone, but he'd never felt comfortable with that, especially not on a ship surrounded on all sides by his teammates. He reached into his bag again, noticing an unexpected sensation, and realized that Eleanore had thrown his dressing gown inside it when she'd retrieved the bag from his room. That seemed like an eternity ago, but Steve was at once grateful for her meddling. It meant he could shower without having to dirty his clothes. He laid the clean things out on the bed, ready for him when he returned.

He put on the dressing gown over his underwear and slipped his shoes on over sockless feet. He thought he remembered seeing a men's bathroom at the end of the hall, and hearing running water coming from there the day before. He made sure he had his access card, and padded quietly on the shiny floor, wondering where a towel was when he needed one.

The bathroom was where he'd expected it to be, and clearly labeled Men. Across the hall was the women's and Steve could hear shower water coming from it as well. He entered the men's room and found a row of toilet stalls in the front, with a walled-off section of five showers in the back. There was a rack of large and small black towels, and Steve assumed the color was to avoid blood stains. There was even a soap and shampoo dispenser on each shower wall. None of the showers were in use, and Steve was reasonably sure the entire bathroom was deserted. He turned on the water of the last shower, disrobed, and stepped into the hot stream.

The shampoo had almost no scent, only smelling faintly of clean laundry, and the soap was the same. Steve had grown used to strong-smelling men's soap over the past couple of weeks, so it was a change. He kept smelling himself to make sure he washed every bit of sweat and dirt off.

About halfway through his shower, Tony came in. Steve could tell it was him because loud, obnoxious music was playing from some type of portable speakers.

"Cap, that you?" he asked, turning on the water in the shower next to Steve.

"Yeah," Steve answered. He didn't want to encourage conversation in the shower. He lathered up a second time and just as quickly rinsed off, finishing with his hair. The shut the water off and reached around the corner for his towel, drying himself quickly with the rough material.

"Dad, is that you?" Darren's voice came with a rush of cold air as he opened the door.

"Yeah, Cap's here too." Tony said over his running water. "Post-battle shower party."

"I… might use my own shower," Darren sounded disturbed.

"You can shower with me," Clint came in, and Steve rolled his eyes, reaching for his robe.

"No thanks."

"Hey Steve, didn't know you were a boxer-briefs man." Clint winked at him as he opened the shower curtain.

"Um, yep." Steve had never liked talking to people in the showers. In the Army, before the serum, he'd risen early to get in and out before the bigger men. They often wanted to wrestle, and it both hurt Steve and made him uncomfortable. He still wasn't over the feeling, because it seemed to only have happened a little over a year ago.

He made sure his robe was tied tightly, picked up his dirty underwear, and threw his towel in the hamper provided next to the towel rack. Then he slipped his shoes back on and quickly left the bathroom.

Eleanore's laugh floated out of the women's bathroom, and Steve heard Natasha say something in return as he entered the hall. Their words were lost in the water and noise coming from the men's room, but Steve could tell they were happy. He was glad. Romanov did not show affection to anyone in a group, except perhaps for Barton. If Eleanore was friends with her too, that meant the team was that much stronger.

Steve padded down the hall and took his room card out of his pocket, opening the door and entering into the darkness and blessed quiet. Most of the time he chose to surround himself with distractions to keep the memories away, but tonight he welcomed whatever the stillness would bring. He changed into the clothes laid out on his bed and slipped under the covers, feeling warm and clean for the first time in over a day.

Steve focused on relaxing his muscles and falling asleep. Some nights it wasn't difficult, and some nights it was. With the battle still rattling around in his head, Steve guessed that this was going to be a difficult night.

He sighed and rolled over onto his back, thinking through every attack, every advance, every move he'd used and how they could be better. He thought about what he'd seen of his teammates, and how he could work them into future plans. Tony needed to be monitored to not sacrifice himself again. Darren could be useful as a sniper and spotter, but his real value was in his flying capabilities and artillery. The team was well balanced, Steve thought, with three to four people in the air, and the same number on the ground. They were all flexible, all willing to help each other out.

Banner would want to avoid battle as much as possible, but he could be useful if he stayed ready to jump in and monitored everyone, maybe helping Eleanore if someone was injured and needed to be moved off the field. Jet should avoid tight spaces because of his tail and wings. Steve wondered if he was effective as a dog, or another animal in a close-quarters fight. Eleanore should learn to use her water in the air more, because that would be a potent weapon, one people wouldn't expect. Steve pictured the opposing elements, water and fire, working together with satisfaction.

He was feeling more restful, and he closed his eyes to speed the process up. Images of his own mistakes flashed behind his eyelids. Not watching his surroundings and getting tackled, being too slow to help Romanov out, watching Loki from the ground, unable to do anything as he flew by overhead. They weren't deadly, but they bothered him. He planned how to avoid them in the future, and that comforted him.

In the middle of his thoughts, he unknowingly drifted into sleep.

A/N: So this is my new story. It seems the same as the old one right now, doesn't it? It's not, though, so please keep reading for the new stuff.

Have a great week!

~PettyWhiteRose