"I can." He knows that he can. He'll do whatever he needs to do. But: "It won't be easy, and it won't be pretty. It'll be a step back for me. But I also know I can't act out too much. Won't look good, given the circumstances." Not that it looked good when he first started out, but many years on he should know better. Being more or less cleared of having something magic tampering with his head can easily be walked back.

"They are gonna wanna be more independent. It's a SHIELD project overall, but half the team aren't affiliated but through circumstance. Fury's burned a lot of goodwill after Stark's hacking. They trust you behind the wheel, or at least, given your near death experience helped glue some of the more disparate pieces back together, you're definitely an ally. Banner's the oddball, but it seems like he and Stark get on like scientifically-inclined peas in a pod, and he shouldn't have any objections to you. Group's gonna need more wiggle room than your average strike team."