Archive of Our Own ^beta

The quinjet was one of the most sophisticated planes ever designed. It was technically a marvel of modern aviation, and SHIELD was the only organization on the planet that used the aircraft in any capacity. Other branches of the government could only wish they had access to a plane that was technically able to fly through any weather conditions and land unscathed.

And that was why the Avengers, who had all been in various states of frustration before boarding the quinjet after their most recent mission, were more than a little put out when the damned thing crashed in the middle of nowhere.

"Oh, this is fun," Tony Stark grumbled, kicking the downed aircraft and glaring at it like it was Hammer tech. "Did anyone actually make sure this hunk of junk was fueled up before we took off, or were we flying on a wing and a prayer?"

"Fuck off, Stark," snapped Hank Pym, looking up from where he was wrapping Natasha Romanoff's arm in a makeshift splint. "If you don't like it, just fly on out of here. Oh wait, that's right. Your suit's damaged or you'd be long gone without a thought to the rest of us."

Tony glared back at the former - and sometimes still - biophysicist. "You know I really dislike you, right? I particularly dislike you right now." He started to add something else, but instead yelped as Janet Pym got tired of listening to him and hit him with a bio-sting.

"Has anyone given thought to the fact that if we argue less that maybe we can figure out how to get back to civilization?" she asked as she moved to sit by her husband and drop a supportive hand to his arm. Hank finished with Natasha's splint and leaned on his wife. In any other situation, the other Avengers would find it sweet. And while it was sweet, this was not a good time to spend too much thought on it.

Steve Rogers and Clint Barton exchanged a brief look before the latter headed for one of the trees. The former acrobat shimmied up the closest one in a matter of seconds, keeping a lookout for any planes that SHIELD may have sent out to find out what happened to their elite team. Clint knew the organization well enough to guess that their handler would have assembled a recovery team the second that the Avengers went off the grid.

Plus, Phil Coulson was a bit overprotective given that he'd basically died in order for the original Avengers to come together as a team. He might not have made it if not for the Pym particles, so he was fairly attached to the guy who'd all but discovered them.

Steve turned his attention back to the team and sighed softly. When the quinjet had started to lose altitude, Bruce Banner had made every attempt to keep himself from Hulking out, but the Big Guy had gone into protect-save-get away mode and wrenched control from his generally calmer side. That certainly hadn't helped the situation any, and now the Hulk was standing guard over the crash site from the edge of the clearing they'd wound up in. Steve could only hope that Tony wouldn't start his bitching again, or chances were good Bruce would let the Big Guy smack the playboy a good one.

No one except the Hulk and Tony had come out of the crash unscathed, but thankfully Widow's sprained elbow was the worst of the injuries. A few cuts and scratches were a small price to pay for not losing anyone today.

"Okay, everyone," Steve said, walking back over to the rest of the group and sitting down next to Natasha. "Hawkeye's keeping watch for a rescue to come in, and Hulk will definitely keep any natural predators in the area that may be curious at bay. What we need to do now is keep calm and come up with a plan in case SHIELD doesn't have us out of here by nightfall."

"Jan has wings," Tony pointed out immediately. "If nobody shows to get us, she can fly out for help."

Janet shot him a glare from her spot curled against Hank. "And I'm the size of a goddamned Polly Pocket when I have those wings," she responded. "It would be faster for you to walk out of here in that shiny tin can you're wearing."

"And don't even think of pointing out that I can just grow," Hank added. "For one, we're in the middle of the woods and I might accidentally kill some endangered wildlife while stomping around like Godzilla. For another thing, I can't go large without carb-loading first. Size-shifting takes a lot of energy."

"It'll start to get cooler when the sun goes down," Natasha pointed out, keeping her splinted arm against her chest where Hank had shifted it. The limb was held in place with her own jacket, which she'd willingly sacrificed in exchange for immediate first aid; while she could have waited until rescued, she didn't see the point when assistance was offered willingly. "If we're still out here in another few hours, someone should gather wood and see about starting a fire."

"The suit might be trashed for flight, but the repulsers are still working," Tony offered. "A quick blast should get a fire going if we need it."

"We can gather wood," Janet offered, her husband nodding his support for the thought. "And water might become an issue by that point, too. I might not be able to actually find a rescue for us, but I can probably fly far enough to find a stream or something."

"If you do, honey, I want Clint keeping an eye on you," Hank added. "I doubt that you'd have trouble stinging anything that tries to make a meal of you, but I'd prefer that you didn't head off alone right now."

Steve nodded in agreement. "Sticking together is probably for the best right now," he offered. "That way whenever SHIELD's rescue crew tracks us down, we won't be spread out all over the forest."

"For now, Clint and Bruce's other half are keeping watch," Natasha pointed out. "No one has a concussion, so I'd suggest we all get a little rest."

"Good idea, Nat," Steve said. "I'll fill Clint in and offer to take over watch from him if he decides to catch some shut-eye, too. We'd already had a long day before the crash, a few hours' rest would do us all some good."

He pushed himself to his feet and headed over to Clint's current nest to fill him in on the current plan. The archer agreed to get him up in two hours' time if he hadn't spotted a rescue crew by then, and the super soldier headed back to the rest of the group. In the short amount of time he'd been away, the Pyms had managed to contort themselves into a potentially-comfortable tangle of arms and legs with Janet already asleep; Hank opened one eye when Steve walked past them but shut it again quickly, and it seemed unlikely that he'd be awake too much longer himself.

Tony had settled in next to Natasha, the pair of them leaning against one another speaking quietly in Russian. The fact that the inventor had taken the time to pick up a new language just so one of his teammates could converse in her native tongue was unusually kind, but on occasion Tony took the philanthropist part of his self-title to odd extremes. The two of them both looked up when Steve returned, Natasha shifting to offer a spot to him.

Steve dropped down next to Widow and lay back, tucking his arms behind his head. "You two should try and get some rest yourselves," he said. "It'll probably be at least an hour before anyone finds us, you know."

"Go ahead, Steve," Natasha said. "I won't be awake too much longer, and I doubt Stark has too much more in him without a caffeine infusion."

"The only problem with the woods is a severe lack of Starbucks," Tony lamented. Steve snorted a laugh and closed his eyes.

The next thing the super soldier was aware of was a hand shaking his shoulder gently. "Hey, Cap," came Clint's voice in a stage whisper. "Time to get up, we'll be getting out of here soon."

Steve opened his eyes and pushed himself into a seated position, noting that Tony and Natasha were curled up on the ground sound asleep. The Pyms were still wrapped around one another, but they both had their eyes part of the way open and would likely be fully awake within the next five to ten minutes.

"You spotted something?" Steve asked, rubbing his eyes with one hand and wincing. He hadn't realized how tired he really was until he'd settled in for a nap.

Clint nodded. "Scouting plane about a mile to the north, maybe ten minutes ago. I shot off a flare" - which Steve interpreted as shot off a flare arrow - "and they signaled an acknowledgement. I expect Coulson or one of his favorite underlings to turn up in the next ten or fifteen minutes." He grinned and added, "You wanna wake Stark and Tash or should I?"

Steve snorted and said, "Nat likes you better. You get to deal with Tony on no coffee." With that, he climbed to his feet and headed towards the last place he'd seen the Hulk hovering around. When he arrived at the clearing's edge, he found no Hulk but Bruce, who had at some point not only shifted back but had also wandered into the makeshift camp sight and grabbed his spare pants and a jacket.

Bruce turned and smiled at him. "The other guy said it looked safe enough for him to go back to sleep," he offered before Steve had a chance to even think of asking. "Did I hear a plane a little while ago?"

"Yeah, Clint's waking everyone up," Steve replied. "He estimates the ETA for rescue at ten, fifteen minutes tops."

The scientist nodded and stood up. The two of them made their way back to the group to find that the Pyms were both on their feet and Tony was complaining loudly about being awake.

That was how Coulson found them ten minutes later when his rescue team entered the clearing. The feeling of relief was almost tangible on all parts, and it didn't take long to bundle his Avengers onto the rescue plane to shuttle them back home.

The entire team, Coulson included, slept the entire flight home.