Daisy paced in front of Steve, looking up to the protest line periodically. The leaders of the march were discussing the possibility of a full press forward in spite of the police perimeter, inflicting real damage on the U.S.'s negotiating position. The argument was getting heated, lots of yelling, and Steve had doubts that it would end well whichever way it went.
"Can't believe they're banning press," Daisy complained, fiddling with her press badge.
"Lots of important negotiations get done behind closed doors," Steve said, leaning against the wall of some office building so that Daisy was between him and the crowd. "I've seen the posturing Senators do today on C-Span, not impressed."
"You watch C-Span?" Daisy said, looking at him like he was an alien.
"You're a reporter."
"I only watch C-Span for work. It's boring."
"Well, I like to get my news straight and spin-free when I can," Steve said, glancing over at the perimeter of guards and the military hardware behind them. He didn't like seeing that kind of militarized presence on a city street. The protestors had tried blocking them, but they'd just carried them in shrunken on helicopters and deployed them inside the barrier line – A clever bit of maneuvering, though it had to be expensive. Steve kept tabs on the cost of Quantum Tunneling and the price right now was level around twenty dollars per pound.
"Right, so shouldn't you want to get inside?" Daisy said, her pacing slowing to a stop as she focused to win the argument. Daisy had strong opinions, especially on anything related to government trust.
Steve hesitated, rubbing his beard. She had a point, he did want to know. He didn't like things being kept from him – Reminded him too much of his SHIELD days, reminded him of Fury, reminded him of that doctor's table that reminded him of Auschwitz. There were upsides to discretion and private negotiations, but also Steve didn't have the most trust in the governments of the world right now. "I'd like to," Steve said.
"And if you deserve to know, doesn't everybody deserve to know?"
When you asked it like that, it made it sound bad, which credit to Daisy's interrogative skills on that front. "Alright, maybe it would be good if the press could see in there."
"Now we're back on our game," Daisy said. She was shaking her hands and stretching as if limbering up. "Finally, a good place to break into. If you'd toasted me on it, we could've been doing this half a year ago."
Steve laughed at that, "I don't think we should break into a meeting of the world's leaders."
"Nat and I have gotten past harder lines that." Daisy said, her tone bold and a little taunting. She looked alive, the fight was in her now that he'd agreed that the press should be in there. She was sure she had him and, to be fair, she did.
"I fought in World War II," Steve said, a little offended. "I just don't want to break in."
"So what should we do then? Let them cloak and dagger through the most important event in a century?"
"I've only been up for seven years, but I feel like there's been a lot of most important events of the century recently," Steve rubbed his beard, trying to figure out a good idea that wouldn't risk the peace negotiations but would get him and Daisy in. "Somebody should be in there, know what's being said, who's agreeing to what. But they're right that maybe what needs to said won't be said in public."
Daisy leaned up against the wall and slid up to Steve's side, looking out at the crowd of protestors. "So how're we going to set square that circle?"
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"I'm going to need a razor."
----
Daisy grabbed Steve's arm as they approached, a sudden case of nerves, "Do you really think this will work?" She was still dressed business casual, but her press badge had vanished and she'd put her hair up into a formal bun. She had clip board with papers that had a hastily scrawled itinerary on the top of a short stack of old first drafts Daisy had fished out of her car. If the cops grabbed it, they were both going to jail. But if they thought to grab it, they were probably going to jail anyway.
"I hate to say this, Daisy," Steve said, leaning down to whisper to her, "It will absolutely work." It wasn't fair. It didn't make sense to Steve. But it had never, ever failed him so far.
They walked up to the military line a long way from the leaders of the protest. Steve walked up to the barrier, smiling at the police on the barrier line. "Gentlemen," he said, nodding at them. "I'm here to consult on the possibility of hostile contact."
"Sir, I'm going to need to see some identification," one of the cops said.
His neighbor elbowed him, "The hell is wrong with you, Jack? That's Captain America, for God's sake."
"The rules say," Jack said, obstinate.
"It's fine," Steve said, pulling his driver's license out of his wallet and handing it to them.
"You had a beard in this one," Jack noted, looking at the license.
"Oh my gosh, sir, do I need to call Michael," Daisy interjected, her voice pitch-perfect annoyed.
"Alice," Steve said. The chance that Daisy's name had made it down the line or onto a watch list was too long to risk it. "Jack's just doing his job."
"Just doing his job? He doesn't know what Captain America looks like? Is this New York's finest? Tall, handsome, piercing blue eyes – He has to know."
"Alice," Steve said, getting genuinely embarrassed and looking at her with what he hoped was a stern glare, "That's no way for you to talk about a law enforcement officer. Apologize."
Daisy managed a bit of a fake blush, or maybe a real one, and looked at Jack, "Sorry," she said, her voice quaking. "I'm sorry, I just… it's really important that we get there and it's a lot of pressure for me because I'm new and-" she managed to sniffle a little bit.
"No, it's fine, it's fine," Jack said, "I know who he is, you guys come on through."
The wall of police officers parted and they walked right in without any further obstruction. "Piercing blue eyes?"
"You know you're good looking, no need to preen," Daisy said, looking around the front of the United Nations and pointing, "Let's head for your old colleagues."
They were hovering in the air, floating around a central point that had to be important. Steve and Daisy made it just close enough to see that they were guarding Thor and Loki.
What was Loki doing back on Earth, Steve wondered, right before a red circle of fire appeared around their feet and then vanished them. Steve immediately scooped up Daisy and started moving toward the building to get inside as the Fireflies started to react. He made it inside just in time to watch the Fireflies start scattering across the yard.
"What the hell just happened?" Daisy asked.
"Language," Steve said.
"Yeah, yeah, put me down now."
Steve blushed, He had forgotten he was holding her, in all honesty. Security guards were looking at him and he held up his hand in a gesture of greeting, "Gentlemen," he said, "I'm here to consult on potential hostile contact. Mind letting us through?"