When The Worst Happens (May 1990)

The moment Steve saw Isabella he dropped his bag and wrapped his arms around her. He had needed this. Needed to be around someone that wasn’t trying to manipulate him. He was quickly learning that this ‘future’ world was not so simple as what he was used to. The hung lingered a bit but eventually he let her go and straightened to look at her. “I would love some soup,” He said simply and smiled at her but the smile did not reach his troubled eyes.

At the table Tony appeared and his eyebrows drew up as he saw Steve. He still wasn’t certain about the man but knew he tried to do the right thing and that was saying something. He shook his hand. “Steve, how are you doin?” Tony asked. Steve had actually wanted to talk to Tony. He wasn’t going to hold anything back, Tony had ultimately been right about...well, just about everything. But Steve had to learn it for himself. Now he had.

“You were right Tony...Somehow...the serum is out there,” Steve said as he release Tony’s hand. Tony was actually quite shocked to hear that. He was and he heard something crash in the kitchen. Isabella had dropped a glass in the kitchen as she was in the middle of setting another plate up for Steve. “That and...and Nick was manipulating me...He used an agent, Hailey Bradford to try and keep me in SHIELD...you were right about everything,” Steve said though it was obvious it wasn’t easy for him. His voice sounded strained as well and Isabella would know that Steve was suffering internally over what happened.

Tony only sighed. “Well I’ll fix you a drink...come and sit down at least,” He said and gestured to the dinner table. The news about the serum though made his blood want to freeze in his veins. Dire news indeed.

Isabella quickly went to set another place at the table for Steve. They had a housekeeper named Anne who stayed with them and Isabella asked her to go change the sheets on Steve's bed to fresh ones and to take his bag to his room. Anne nodded and did as Isabella asked. Anne was very well compensated for her job and liked working for Isabella. Isabella was polite and kind and did not overwork her. Isabella enjoyed doing a lot of the work herself, but she had a full time job (plus another full time job if one included taking care of Tony) and there just wasn't enough time in the day.

Isabella had grabbed a glass down when she heard Steve tell Tony that the Super Soldier Serum was out there. She didn't even feel the glass slip from her hand until it crashed onto the floor. She jumped and then quickly moved to clean up the broken glass. The news was...upsetting. However, she knew it was entirely likely that the information about the serum had already been out in the world since Captain America's creation in the 1940's. Steve had only been out of the ice for a few months. That really wasn't enough time for anyone to get their hands on it.

She set another place at the table, but decided to hold off on serving the soup yet. Steve was clearly upset about what had happened and she decided to give him a few minutes to calm down. She sat down beside him and reached out and took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Steve, the serum being out in the world is not your fault. You should not blame yourself for that. However, it is something we will need to deal with. You know...we almost need...a team. There is clearly bad stuff out there in the world and we have the capabilities of stopping it."

Steve went on to tell them about Hailey, an agent and how much he had grown to really like her. And how she had been set up by Nick Fury to manipulate him. The soup was delicious and they ran out of fresh bread rather quickly between them. Steve always had a healthy appetite and Isabella was an excellent cook.

He told them about an organization called the SSB, Soviet Special Branch and how they somehow retrieved a sample of the serum. From the documents they managed to give it to a young girl but he only knew her first name, Natalya. He saw several original pages from Dr. Erskine’s notes and schematics for part of Howard Stark’s gas chamber.

“I destroyed them with acid but they likely made copies,” Steve added. “Im not certain what to do now, I feel so...lost,” he said defeated.

Isabella put another ladle full of soup into Steve's empty bowl and poured herself a little more wine. She sat back down and tried not to become angry over what Nick had done to Steve. She felt protective of Steve. Not in a motherly way...but more in a good friend or sister kind of way. Steve was still vulnerable right now and trying to find his way in the world and Nick had exploited that. She couldn't believe that Phil Coulson had anything to do with this though. He wasn't that kind of a guy.

When Isabella learned that this SSB organization had put the Super Soldier Serum into a child she became angry, upset, and worried. A person with Steve's abilities, but playing for the other side was not a good thing. It became more and more apparent to her that an team that wasn't affiliated with any branch of the US government was needed. When the government got involved politics came into play and that would cause problems.

She looked at Steve and gave him a hopeful smile. "We'll figure something out. Until then, please stay with us. We enjoy having you here."

“Thank you Isabella, I really appreciate this,” Steve said. “Thank you both,” he added and Tony nodded to him. That night Tony said nothing about what happened to Steve but Isabella would know that Tony had wanted to dig into her with a ‘I told you so’ speech. He only just looked at her as she dressed for bed. When she sat on the bed and began to put cream on her hands he cleared his throat expectantly. If she didn’t at least acknowledge this he would say something.

Isabella didn't even glance at Tony as she began to rub the cream onto her hands and arms. She could feel Tony looking at her though and she knew what he was thinking. "Steve is an adult Tony and you and I can't protect him like he's our five year old child. Steve is independent and needs to figure things out on his own. If we had pushed him away from SHIELD then it only would have made him want to go more. It is extremely unfortunate what happened to him and it makes me angry, but it was HIS decision. I'm not going to treat him like a child. He deserves better than that. The world has changed since he went into the ice and he needs to find his own way. Nothing else is going to make him happy."

She put the jar of cream away and turned and looked at Tony for the first time. "Now, that that matter is settled, are we going to have sex or not?"

Tony narrowed his eyes at Isabella. The woman would never capitulate to him, never. She was extremely stubborn. There wasn’t a yielding nature in her body but he knew that when he married her. It may have been ‘why’ he married her. She did not put up with his bullshit. Not ever and she absolutely ‘hated’ saying sorry. But when he grabbed hold of her though and pushed the covers down to his feet she straddled him as if it were her plan all along. She lifted up her pink lace nightgown to reveal she wasn’t wearing anything else and Tony who never wore clothes to bed felt the warmth of her center as she rubbed herself on him. Her lips attacked his as she seductively shifted atop him and his hands felt her firm breasts over her gown. “Take this off,” he whispered and in an instant it was off to reveal her soft, olive skin and dark nipples. Tony leaned forward and took her right nipple into his mouth. He felt her shift him to her opening and they both moaned softly when she pushed down upon him. Isabella often got her way when she was aggressive like this but he also guessed that she could be ovulating and wanted him for that reason as well. They were having much more sex than usual in the past couple of months and Tony didn’t mind that at all.

For good measure she attacked him early that morning as well and after they showered and dressed they found Steve drinking coffee at the large kitchen table with James. The two were chatting idly as Anne made them omelets and bacon. “Hey, there’s the sleepyheads, you two getitng lazy on me?” James asked as he turned to face them. He was in a blue, pin striped suit and his brown briefcase was next to his chair. He stood to give Isabella a quick hug and peck on the cheek. ‘Steve told me everything,” He murmured quickly and softly so only she could hear. “So am i going to be an uncle or what?” He asked as if the delay in her getting pregnant was an inconvenience for him.

Isabella smiled as she walked into the kitchen and found James there. Over the years James had become a very good friend of hers and she always enjoyed seeing him. She was especially glad he was there to help with Steve. Isabella could see that Steve was still upset and likely hadn't slept very well the night before.

She took a seat next to James as Anne brought her a cup of coffee. She added a little sugar and stirred it around. She then smiled and laughed at James' question. "We're working on it...believe me."

“Well I wanted to thank you Tony for the upgrades,” James said. “Sometimes I feel as if War-machine is an after thought but I appreciate it nonetheless,” he said and tilted his coffee mug to Tony. “Well I can’t have you going around looking all obsolete like you do in person,” Tony said jokingly. James just shook his head. “I’ll remember that when the board tries to steer the company back towards a weapons division,” James said as he bent over and removed a white folder from his briefcase.

“So i did what you asked Tony, I used a contact at the state department and got you everything they have on the SSB,” he said as he set the folder down. Both steve and isabella looked stunned that Tony had called James without talking to them about it first. But Tony only picked up the folder and began to look at it.

The SSB was much like the Russian version of SHIELD. They had access to modern weaponry, spycraft and advanced sciences and technology. Most of it is stolen and they have agents almost everywhere. They are known for their ruthless way of operating and often supply mobs and gangs with weapons and intel to create havoc when it suited them.

There is high confidence that there is an SSB agent that has infiltrated SHIELD but as of yet the agent has not been identified. After Tony read it he let the others read it.

Isabella and Steve looked at each other in shock and surprise when they heard that Tony had asked James to gather some information about the SSB. She let Tony and Steve look at the file first and then she looked at it very closely. The SSB sounded a lot like a combination of SHIELD and Hydra and that was rather terrifying. She didn't know why she hadn't heard of them before. There was a picture of Tatiana, the director of the SSB, but she didn't see any information about Natalya. She sighed as she closed the file and gave it back to James.

"If they are experimenting on children with the Super Soldier Serum that is quite terrifying. How do you think a child could even survive the injection process?"

Tony had picked up the folder again and had been reading some of the technological advances the SSB had actually brought about recently. In answer to Isabella’s question he said, “Genetic engineering. Selecting 2 people and modifying the embryo prior to birth.” Tony had read that and wondered what such a person would be like. He sipped his coffee and set down the folder.

“If knowing that that Makluan you took down was an actual Extraterrestrial being wasn’t bad enough, now we have an evil SHIELD org to deal with,” James said concernedly. “Isabella and I are working on something big James. Really big but nothing is finalized yet. Soon I’ll have those wrist communicators ready so if anything big goes down we can come together in a hurry if need be,” Tony said. “In the meantime Your satphone will have to do,” he said then looked at Steve. “We’ll have to get you one as well Steve,” Tony said. Steve looked up from the table right at Isabella. He wasn’t happy to hear any of this at all.

“I had HYDRA to deal with in my time and now there’s this SSB?” Steve said but it wasnt a question. “The difference is,” james said. “We knew what HYDRA’s motives were.”