"HYDRA?" The horrified gasps echoed through the room. 

Maria nodded, "Helmut Zemo, who ran the Echo Skorpion, a Sokovian covert kill squad, had ties with HYDRA. He blames the Avengers for Sokovia and was working with Ross to ensure that the  Accords would be passed to help him execute his master plan of dividing the team and pitting them against each other. In his words, 'I knew I couldn't kill them. More powerful men than me have tried. But, if I could get them to kill each other...'" 

Maria shook her head sadly. "We received a confidential tip-off from a perfectly trustworthy source."

"A S.H.I.E.L.D informant?" Clint asked.

Maria shrugged, "Not officially, but yes."

The President said, "Well, the government owes them a big debt. God knows what else Ross might have done. Do convey my gratitude to your informant, Director."

"Will do, sir. Thank you for your prompt response." The video switched off.

"Did that just happen?" Clint asked incredulously. "Did the fricking President of the United States just interrupt our briefing to arrest the Secretary of Defense?

"Yeah." Sam sounded awed. "I think it did. So, are we supposed to hash this out now?"

"No time like the present, as they say." Tony quipped, unceremoniously dumping Ross' Accords on the floor and slamming his booklet in the middle of the table. "But first, I wanna know this informant of yours is Director-Lady."

She winced slightly, an action that would have gone unnoticed if Clint hadn't been watching her like a hawk, pun intended. "You know her pretty well..." she trailed off.

There was a loud groan from Rhodes who was banging his head on the table. "I told her to stay at home to keep her out of trouble and this is how she's exacting revenge, isn't she? By exposing the Secretary of State as a HYDRA agent and preventing a worldwide catastrophe." 

This was when Clint realised who the informant had been and burst into laughter, just as Natasha cracked a small smile showing that she had realised the same thing. Everyone else took a few more seconds before unanimously bursting into laughter.

"She insisted on going through the footage of your mission and said she found some abnormalities. Apparently she was able to trace them back to Zemo who led her to Ross." Maria explained to everyone once they had calmed down a little. 

"What's our timeline, Maria?" Steve asked. 

"Ross was going to give you only till the UN meeting at Vienna, which is in three days, to decide whether you wanted to sign or not, but that isn't happening now. I would advise you to lay the groundwork today so that we can get an idea of what you want from the situation and bring those ideas to the UN meet while you all recuperate from your recent mission and get Rosie in the loop. Her abilities will be helpful here." The Director advised.

"Alright then. Anyone objecting to signing these Accords?" Steve asked.

Tony shook his head, "Let's not decide that right now. First, I'm getting a couple of my lawyers in here so that they can tell us exactly what the legal jargon means, then we make our suggestions, as he said-" he jabbed his thumb at the screen where the President's video had been, "-and discuss signing only when all of that is done. Capische?"

He was met by nods from all around the room. Clint spoke first, "I would like it if there was something to protect the people signing, y'know? Safeguard their identities if they don't want to reveal themselves and security measures for their families."

Nat made a sound of assent, "Maybe put in something for minors? There's gonna be some kid or the other who has skills and has a hero-complex. We already know one-" They chuckled, remembering Rosie's begging and pleading to come on missions with them when she was younger, "They should get their chance, but maybe not before checking if they're good at it and won't seriously injure themselves trying to be like us? They won't have to sign, but they could be assigned mentors and they could take over once we're too old for this kind of thing."

There were murmurs of agreement from around the table, after which Wanda spoke, "It is not just about protecting the heroes, we need something to protect the mutants, or enhanced, whatever you want to call them."

"I second that." Her brother said, standing beside her, "We are considered freaks, abnormalities of nature. People are either in awe of us, scared of us or wish to experiment on us to find out what gives us our abilities. As of now, we don't get many rights and most live in fear of being captured and experimented on."

Tony acquecised. "That is a given. Maybe we could add in something about compulsory community service?"

"Stark? You good in the head? Since when did you think about the community as a whole?" Clint teased.

"Har dee har. But I was being serious. You have no idea how happy the kids are at the Hospital when Rosie drags me along with her to visit them. It does wonders for the kids who are cooped indoors all day long."

"That reminds me, what the heck is Rosie doing? Exposing government plots and getting the Secretary of State arrested?" Pietro asked.

Rhodes just shook his head in despair, "It's just in her desire to help people. She's got a much worse hero-complex than you lot do, it's just that she prefers to work from the shadows while we stay out in the open and in the public eye. I don't think they told you that she was the one who orchestrated the data dump while protecting S.H.I.E.L.D intel. The kid is literally the only reason why S.H.I.E.L.D is still standing today."

Natasha let out a small snort. "Our original plan was to use the Insight Helicarriers to destroy each other, which in hindsight, would have been a really bad idea. We had no plan on how to stop the launch in the first place. It's only thanks to her and her skills that we were able to cancel the launch completely while the agents took down HYDRA operatives."

Maria smiled, which Clint had rarely seen her do, "Rosie hacked into the systems and removed every bit of SHIELD data hours before the launch before managing to somehow get into the Helicarrier control system and shutting them down. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people owe her their lives and barely a handful of them know what she did for them."

"There was STARK tech in the engines. She must have recognised the unique programming type we use and exploited the backdoor I installed into the systems." Tony muttered, surprising them all again.

"A backdoor?"

"You seriously don't expect me to implicitly trust Pirate after New York, do you?" Tony shot back.

"I wasn't there at the time, so I don't have a right to judge. But I'm telling you guys, the kid deserves a medal." Sam declared. "If we had gone with our original plan, the destruction caused by the Helicarriers falling into the Potomac would have been horrible. Public opinion on the Avengers would definitely have been worse. She immediately rubbished our plan and gave us a much better one."

"You do know that she does it because it is what is right and not for the recognition or the limelight, don't you?" Clint asked, remembering when she had hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D to delete his personal information from the database.

"Getting back to the Accords-"

Tony was interrupted by Steve's phone buzzing. Clint saw a vast array of emotions flash across the man's face before he steeled his features. "I-I have to go." He muttered, before striding out of the room, everyone's concerned gazes following him. 

"Does anyone know what happened?" Clint asked.

"No-" Colonel Rhodes pulled out his phone and glanced at it, before paling slightly, "-Now I do." He looked downcast.

"What is it then?" Nat demanded.

"Aunt Peggy's gone." A scratchy voice sounded from the corner where Tony was, just as Steve walked back into the room, valiantly fighting to contain his emotions as he said, "I've gotta fly back. I-I can't leave the girls alone at such a time." Clint was taken aback by the news. Margaret Carter, founder of S.H.I.E.L.D and legend was...dead? While his mind reeled from the information, the others were already springing into action.

"I'm coming with you." The Colonel had leapt to his feet and was walking towards the door. "I'm sorry guys, but there is no way in hell I'm letting my kid deal with this alone. Tony, do you wanna come?"

Clint turned to look at the billionaire who had apparently not heard, busy staring at his phone. "Tony?" The Colonel sounded concerned. There was no reply from the man. Rhodes hurried over to his friend and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Tones? You coming?" Tony started at the contact, seeming to break out of his trance. "Yeah. Gotta. Say. Goodbye." He gritted out, standing up unsteadily.

Clint watched the three men go, knowing how much of a loss the woman's passing had been. Peggy Carter had had a profound impact on so many people, changing their lives for the better and despite having spent only a few hours in her company years earlier, Clint felt the loss of the great woman hit him hard. He could only imagine how it was for Steve, as she had been the only link he'd had to his past, and for Tony, Sharon and Rosie all of whom had called the woman Aunt Peggy. He wished he could be there to support them but knew that he couldn't leave the Accords.

Everyone else looked stricken, but they knew they had to do their jobs first. Clint could see Natasha furiously blinking away the moisture in her eyes as she picked up a booklet again, pulling up a hologram to note down their suggestions. Steeling himself again, Clint returned his attention to the Accords, while hoping that the others would be okay.

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ROSIE'S POV:

Rosie was sitting in the middle of the very front pew between her father and Sharon at the church with swollen eyes and a blotchy tear-stained face. The only thing keeping her going was the memory of Aunt Peggy's wrinkled face smiling at her and telling her to show those stupid sexist idiots what a woman was really made of. 

"It's up to you and the girls of your generation to show the world that you're not going to take it standing down. I did all I could and it's your turn to show everyone that no woman is going to put up with their crap just because they expect her to."

This was something Rosie had taken to heart and Peggy's death had only fuelled her desire to make herself better. It was high time she overcame her stupid shyness and aversion to crowds. "For Aunt Peggy." She whispered, holding her father's hand tightly as the coffin was carried towards the front.

Steve was one of the pallbearers and he did not look any better than she felt. The dais was covered with beautifully arranged white flowers and a black and white framed photograph of Peggy from her days at the S.S.R was propped up at the side. It seemed so wrong that everything could look so beautiful when Aunt Peggy was gone, but Rosie had learnt from a young age that life was not fair.

She had only known her great-aunt for a little over seven years, but the biweekly visits to the nursing home had helped her get to know her oldest relative quite well, making the loss that much harder for her. In what seemed like no time at all, Steve was sitting next to her as the priest addressed everyone.

"And now, I would like to invite Sharon Carter to come up and say a few words."

Sharon took a deep breath before getting up from her seat and walking up to the podium. "Margaret Carter was known to most as a legend, the epitome of feminism... but I just knew her as Aunt Peggy. She had a photograph in her office. Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK. As a kid, that was pretty cool. But it was a lot to live up to. Which is why I rarely told anyone we were related."

She paused to glance at Rosie and Steve. "I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage in a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either. And she said, compromise where you can. But where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move . . . it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say " No, you move." This is something that shall stay with me for the rest of my life."

There was pin drop silence as she sat back down, the priest then saying, "I would also like to invite Steven Rogers to say a few words."

Steve got up and took Shaon's place at the podium. "I'm quite sure all of you know me as Captain America, but there was a time when I was a ninety-pound shrimp who wanted to do my bit for the country and fight in the war. That wasn't exactly possible when I had a list of medical issues that was longer than I was tall." There were a few scattered laughs at that.

Steve smiled wryly, "It was that asthamatic kid who got his first look at Peggy Carter when she decked a cocky soldier in the face for being sexist. From that moment on, she had earned my lifelong respect for following her heart and doing what was right despite the dozens of dissenters. 

She was one of only two people who believed in me, looking past my plethora of medical issues to see the real Steve who was begging for a chance to prove himself. Margaret Carter was the first woman to voluntarily carry out a conversation with a boy a full foot shorter than her and befriend him."

He paused for a minute, gathering his emotions, "Peggy-she renewed my faith in humanity by showing me that there were people ready to look past physical appearances and not judge you the minute you met. Without her, I would not be the man that I am today; so thank you Peggy, for being an amazing friend and helping me become the best version of myself."

The rest of the service was a blur to Rosie and in what seemed like no time, the coffin was being lowered into the ground at the cemetery. As her father led her out, Rosie was so distracted that she barely noticed the names of the other famous and influential people buried in the same area. As soon as they were in the SI limo that Happy was driving, her dad reached up and pulled off the disguise tech that he had used at the funeral, removing the voice modifier as well, before opening his arms wide.

Rosie climbed onto his lap like a small child and hugged him, burying her face in his neck as she tried to suppress her sobs. He rubbed circles onto her back, whispering soft, comforting words throughout the drive back to the Tower. Steve and Sharon were holding on to each other, taking comfort from the other's presence. Opposite them were Tony and Pepper, the billionaire's face was pinched and drawn, and he had a death grip on Pepper's hand.

When they got back, everyone disappeared to their rooms to change into comfortable clothes before gathering in the Living Room in a show of silent solidarity. None of them wanted to be alone that evening, so they all brought down blankets and pillows, having an impromptu camp-out in the living room. 

It was a quiet evening, the only sounds in the penthouse being their whispered conversations and the soft murmuring of the T.V, but it was a much needed silence after the funeral.

Wedged in between her dad, uncles and aunts, Rosie began to feel better. The loss of Aunt Peggy didn't seem to weigh upon her that much now that she had a family willing to share the burden with her. She fell asleep in the middle of the third Toy Story movie, her arms around her father with a soft smile on her face, hopeful for a brighter future.

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