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the show must go on

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"Why is she still here?"

Cara gulped. It was the day after she was supposed to have left, and she thought she'd be more stubborn when this confrontation came, but she was wrong.

When Nicholas Fury stepped into the common area of the Avengers Tower, it was as if the relaxed atmosphere had been sucked away by a vacuum. His face was expressionless and impartial until he'd seen Cara sitting on the couch. Then his eye darkened, and he took a threatening step closer.

"I said, why is she still here?" His booming voice was loud enough to grab the attention of everyone seated in the room. Which was everybody.

Cara just rolled her eyes at the big deal he was making, while Steve stood up.

"Because she knows everything," he said, "and she's not useless anymore."

"Thanks, sweetums," she muttered. "Because I was useless before."

"You do realize that I am the one that brought you all together to fight the forces that go against us? If it weren't for me, you'd all be alone, wondering what the hell to do with your lives!" Fury's voice was dangerously low as he spat the words.

"You don't own us," Nat put in, and stood up to face him, arms crossed defiantly. "Besides, we do all your dirty work for you."

He shifted his weight and sighed. "Agent Romanoff--"

"No, you just listen for a second." She stepped closer to the director, glancing at Cara with an unreadable look on her face before moving her gaze back to Fury. "This kid--uh, Cara, tried to jump me, yes. She also brought her annoying sarcasm into the tower, yes, which I can only handle a certain amount of. And yes, I kind of agreed when you ordered her gone, but that is not fair anymore, not now, not when she's made relationships with us that have changed our lives. For better or worse, I'm not saying," she shot Cara with a pointed look as she said it, knowing that she'd take it as an invitation to be friends.

"And we all know you hate not having control. Not everything we do is going to be under your watchful eye, Fury. It's about time you let us live our own lives."

"I never--"

"Do you really want to go the denial route?" Cara sneered at him, "because if you do, shit's about to hit the fan."

He faltered.

"Anyway," Nat interrupted, "since I'm the only one that'll deal with this as calmly as possible, I'm just going to say this: Rogers wasn't completely wrong. Cara may have been a waste of space when she first got here--"

"Thanks," Cara huffed.

"--but that doesn't dismiss the fact that she's helped us loosen up around here. She's literally been here for a week, and she's already managed to go on a Shawarma raid with Stark, train with Clint, and...almost get into Rogers' pants." Her smug grin was the widest Cara had ever seen, and she scowled.

"Not true," she defended herself, but knew she wouldn't get any assistance from Steve, who was blushing furiously.

Nat turned to continue. "And I can't believe I'm saying this, but she's begun to grow on me. Yeah, she can be annoying as fuck sometimes, but she's either the luckiest shot in the world, or the best. And lately, I've been starting to lean towards the latter."

Fury turned to look at her. "Is this true?" His trench coat swished by his ankles as he walked nearer to her and the rest of the Avengers.

Cara nodded. "You wanna see?" She challenged.

He didn't answer, but gave a little tip of the head. Nat waved a hand at her, motioning for her to go to the training center where she would put on the most important performance in her life.

With the fiery redhead leading, Cara trailed behind and was followed by the rest of the group, Steve on her right side. When they entered the large room, Cara inhaled a breath, feeling the surge of fresh air meet her lungs, filling them up to the max.

"Cara," Nat called, holding out the handgun she'd used on her first go. She took the cold weapon in her hand, savoring the feeling of it touching her skin, the power it gave her.

She could sense everyone in the room, waiting for her to make a move. The earsplitting silence roared in her ears, her blood pounding through her ears, the thrum of her heartbeat hard on her ribs.

And then with a whirl towards the first target she saw, she felt the trigger being pulled, a bullet shooting out of the barrel. She didn't wait to see where it landed before she proceeded onto the next one, knowing each one would pierce the exact center of it. She continued to shoot until there were no more targets.

"So? She's a good shot. So are you, and so is Barton," Fury scoffed.

Cara's anger was hot and overbearing. "Hold up," she snapped, trying to keep her cool. "You haven't seen the half of it."

Nat understood what she meant, and met her in the middle of the large room, ridding herself of all her weapons. Except for one, glinting silver bladed knife, which Cara had as well.

They circled each other for a beat, like two predators about fight for their prey. Cara switched her grip on the handle of her knife, so she could go for a strong stab right out of the gate.

Of course, she wasn't actually going to stab Natasha, it was only for training. But even after that inspiring, only half-hurtful speech, she wasn't sure Nat would pass up the opportunity to stab her.

Still, she circled the redhead, and waited for the perfect moment to strike.

It came.

And the two girls were fighting tooth and nail, but without punches. Because as a girl, you could fight with everything you had, including legs and hands. Nat swiped her knife close to Cara's arm and missed, but not failing to rip the fabric. Cara kicked her leg up and wrapped it around Nat's middle in a moments' time, jumping up to make her collapse back onto the floor, taking a hard hit on her back. She groaned, but despite all her very real attempts to push the teenager off of her, her movements ceased when Cara's knife found its way to be held against her throat, a hairsbreadth away from a life-ending stripe across her flesh.

But then Cara pulled away, standing up. She held out a hand to help Nat to her feet, and after wiping the sweat off her forehead, they both turned to stand in front of the group of men, identical smirks growing on their faces as they saw six(oops, five and a half) sets of wide eyes matched with slacked jaws.

"Not bad," Nat said, still breathing heavily. "You almost had me scared back there."

Cara knew she was only joking. "Oh, I'm sure," she grinned.

"Well I must say, Romanoff, you've been overstepped." Fury said, though still in a serious, emotionless tone.

"Not overstepped," she defended herself, holding up a hand, "I've just found someone as good as me."

"Whatever it is, Cara's great," Clint commented, "we could really use her on our missions."

Cara grinned. Going on missions with these guys seemed fun. If Fury would let her, she'd have the best time. If he didn't...well, she'd do it anyway.

Fury looked as if he was thinking it over, but then held out his hand to be shaken. "Don't make me regret this," he said in warning, "I don't usually make decisions like this."

Cara shook his hand firmly. "So it's official?"

He nodded. "Welcome to the Avengers."

-

YES UPDATE WOOP WOOP

BUT ONLY THREE CHAPTERS LEFT OH NO

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOT READY WBU