Sim did pause and turn on the coffee machine on her way out, and then she invaded the kitchen again and started baking. She wasn't even surprised when the oven worked for her without a fuss.

About a month later, Ella was out at a small cafe with Steve and Bucky. They were having a sort of day out, and had stopped for lunch. It was a nice enough day outside that they had picked a table out on the sidewalk, although Ella still found herself sitting nearest the wall, with Steve and Bucky both between her and everything else.

Everything had been going well so far, so Steve and Bucky didn't necessarily expect anything to happen. Right up until AIM grunts marched out into the street and fired at them.

Steve dove to cover Ella while Bucky pulled out a handgun he kept on him at all times and took down the first five. "More incoming," he said, his voice low and very even.

"I know." Steve pressed the Assemble button that Tony had installed on everyone's phones.

Everything happened so fast, Ella wasn't quite sure what had happened. She found herself on the ground with Steve, their table flipped onto its side, and Bucky guarding them with a hand gun. As soon as she really registered the shots, though, she just stayed quiet and close to Steve. Her Omega instincts told her that her Alpha and Beta were protecting her, and to not make their job any harder than it was already.

"Steve."

"I know." The one terse word had given Steve a world of information; more incoming, rampant instincts, rising Winter Soldier. None of which were good things. "The others are on their way, we just have to defend this spot."

"Then give me your gun."

"Buck, maybe you should move back here."

"Rogers. Gun. Now." Bucky held out his hand without looking, keeping track of the enemies advancing again.

They didn't have to defend the spot long, though; barely a minute later, Tony came blasting by in the Mark 8, dropping Steve's shield down to him as he went past.

Steve stood in front of Ella, working on keeping himself on the line between protecting her against everything and just defeating the AIM soldiers for now. Bucky was in a similar position, and neither of them wanted to let anyone else too close to Ella.

Ella just stayed still behind Steve, not moving or making herself a target. It didn't help that she was putting out fear pheromones, but she couldn't help it.

Tony followed the AIM soldiers back to their source and worked on wiping them out. Thor was right behind him, eager for the chance to work off some tension on things he was allowed to beat up.

When the fight moved away, Steve and Bucky didn't follow, instead both moving back a bit so they were closer around Ella. This time, they had no desire whatsoever to go follow the fight.

"Tony, everything under control?" Steve asked into his phone, which was wired into the comms.

"I hope you know just how pathetic your little nemesis squad is, Rodgers," Tony replied. "Honestly, truly pathetic, I'm surprised they lasted so long, how have you not gotten rid of them before now?"

"We weren't going to run after them this time," Steve said. "Not with Ella here." And for once he really wasn't in a mood to put up with Tony's ribbing and rambling.

"We've got this," Tony said. "Thor's having a great time. Hell, all that's really left is the cleanup, and I can pay someone to do that, I can totally pay someone for that, can't I?"

"You normally do. We'll see you back at the tower." Steve hung up and crowded close to Bucky and Ella. "Time to head back now."

Ella just nodded a bit, staying close to her Alpha and Beta. She would feel safe again once they were back home in the Tower.

Steve and Bucky wasted no time in whisking her back to the Tower, and then straight up to their floor and into their bedroom. Steve actually even locked the door, not that it would really do much in that building.

Ella let them take her into the bedroom, and even climbed up onto the bed herself. Holing up with her Alpha and Beta sounded like an excellent idea.

Steve didn't unlock the door for much of anything for the next few days. Someone brought food down for them, which he brought in after the person was long gone, and they had plenty of water. So they didn't need to come out for anything for almost a week.

Ella's heat had come on during that week, which was what had dragged out the time. None of them emerged until it was over, and by that point they were a properly bonded trio.

Since they were properly bonded, Steve and Bucky both felt more comfortable relaxing with her in the living room or showing her open affection in front of the others, although Steve was still the more private of them. And occasionally the smarter one.

"Huh. That's odd. I would have expected one of them to have called Simona by now."

"Hm?" Ella asked, looking over from where she was tucked into Bucky's side. Tony, however, was just in the next room, and he froze when he heard that.

"Shit," he muttered. "Jarvis, do that now."

"She has been around a lot, before this," Steve pointed out, stretching out a bit.

"That is true," Bucky agreed. "Someone forgot and is going to be in trouble." He snickered.

"She did not answer, sir," Jarvis replied after a minute.

"Shit shit shit," Tony swore. Sim was definitely angry, and he wasn't sure what to do. The instincts he usually ignored (except when it came to Bruce) were telling him that he needed to placate his Omega immediately and make things better, and he just had no idea how.

Sim was mad at him. She already knew everything was fine and that Ella was okay, because Natasha of all people had been on top of things and had sent her updates once a day. But she was kind of mad that Tony and Bruce hadn't thought to call her or text her or anything.

And on top of that, she was slammed because she didn't have Ella to help, and one of the others had just quit. So she really didn't have time to be answering her phone.

Ella had noticed the lack of texts from Sim. Even when Sim wasn't in the tower, they were usually still in contact, so she sent her friend a message.

Is everything okay?

Busy as all hell, but yeah, Sim sent back a few minutes later. I know you've been holed up with your pair. I'm glad for you, you deserve those two.