Thank you all for reading Family Reunion! Now, onto the sequel. If you haven't read Family Reunion, I highly suggest that you do. So enjoy the new series, I might be already planning out the sequel to this one as you read this!


"Your drink Miss Stark," a young blonde offered her boss.

"Thank you Sharon," She replied.

Aria was waiting backstage at the 2010 Stark Expo. Around her were scantly-clad dancers in Iron Man costumes. She brought the glass to her lips, letting the liquid burn her throat. The sound of a rocket roared off in the distance, cueing the dancers to start evacuating the backstage area. This signaled Aria to finish off her drink, grimacing at the taste of it. Once she had set the glass down, her assistant swiftly took it away to refill it.

The sound of AC/DC pumped through the sound system and the roar of the crowd increased exponentially. As the last notes of the song faded, her brother's voice echoed throughout the plaza. Her eyes were glued to the editor's monitor backstage watching the keynote speech being given through different angles.

"Thank you Sharon. This is my last for the night," Aria informed her assistant, relieving her of the freshly filled glass.

The young assistant watched her boss consume the whole drink in one gulp. "Yes mam," Sharon replied.

"Aria!" Her brother shouted, walking from darkened part of backstage.

"Tony!" Aria grinned, "that was quite the entrance!"

"We've got to go!" Happy shouted over to him from the door leading outside.

"I'll call you tomorrow to see how your speech went," Tony called over to her as he left.

"We've got sixty seconds Miss Stark until your out there," the director informed her.

Aria passed the phone in her hands to Sharon, black heels adorned her feet while a burgundy cap sleeve dress hugged her curves. Her hair had been curled and styled, giving her a 'pinup girl' look. The director appeared next to her, motioning for her to take the stage as the video faded to black. Her hand reached to her back where her wireless mic's battery pack was located and turned it on.

"This year at the Stark Expo we will be showcasing to the world how we can and will make not just America, but every country a better place. Starting tomorrow all of our exhibit halls and workshops will open and be available to all of you and anyone else who wants to see just how bright our future really can be," Aria explained, walking toward the center of the stage. Various clips appeared on the screen behind her of the various buildings. "You can discover on our website all of our upcoming events. So once again, thank you for visiting Stark Expo."

Applause, cheers, and catcalls erupted from the audience as she finished her speech. Her eyes were bombarded by flashing lights of the press from the side, documenting the momentous event. Her feet swiftly took her offstage as she continued to smile and wave. The backstage are wasn't as hectic before. It only a skeleton crew mani g the essential functions of the plaza.

"Miss Stark?" Her assistant called over to her. "Miss Potts called while you were on stage to inform you that Mr. Stark received a subpoena for a hearing in Washington DC. She would like to know if you would like to fly up there with her."

"Call her back and tell her I'll be at the jet in an hour. Enjoy the weekend off," Aria replied to her assistant.


"Aria, hey. How are you?" Justin hammer called over to her.

She had spotted him earlier and had tried in vain to go unnoticed by him. "I'm doing good. And yourself?" She asked out of curtesy.

"I'm doing good. I was wondering, are you free later because I know this great restaurant near the mall," he asked her with a Cheshire grin.

"I'm sorry, I can't. Once this is over I have a few meetings to attend to later today and then I need to head back to New York. Things I need to over see for the Stark Expo," she explained, hoping that would get him to not bother her any more.

"Maybe some other timed," Justin Hammer winked.

She kept wander the hall until she had found Tony and Pepper. Arias face still held a look of disgust as she came upon the two if them.

"Hammer?" Tony inquired.

"Yeah," Aria confirmed, her mouth set in a thin line.

"Have you told him you're not interested?" Pepper asked.

"Numerous times," Aria sighed. "I don't think he understands what the word no means."

Before Tony could give a snarky reply, the doors to the chambers opened and everyone started to enter. Aria followed in behind Tony while keeping an eye out for Justin Hammer.

The press entered last as Pepper and Aria were surrounded by military generals from various branches. Tony had felt he'd rather flirt with Pepper than wait for the senators heading the hearing to start.

"Mr. Stark?" Senator Stern asked loudly, attempting to grab Tony's attention.

Pepper motioned for Tony to turn around. "Yes dear?" Tony answered the Senator, gaining a round of laughs from the room.

"Can I have your attention?" the senator stated.

"Absolutely," Tony smirked.

"Do you or do you not posses a specialized weapon?" Stern questioned.

"I do not," he answered.

"You do not?" Senator Stern confirmed, his annoyance of Tony already showing.

"I do not," Tony repeated. "Well, it depends on how you define the word weapon."

"The Iron Man weapon," he clarified.

"My device does not fit that description," Tony lectured.

"Well then how would you define it?" Senator Stern pressed further.

"I would define it by what it is, a high tech prosthesis. That's actually the most apt description," Stark described.

"Its a weapon and my priority," Stern started.

"If your priority was the well being," was all Tony could get in before the senator cut back in.

"My priority is to get the Iron Man weapon turned over to the people of the United States of America," the Senator explained.

"Well, you can forget it. I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you're in. You can't have it," Tony replied, defending himself.

The senator stared at Tony with a look of frustration settling on his face. "Look, I'm no expert," he started.

"In prostitution? Of course not, you're a senator. Come on!" Tony interrupted, each sentencing oozing with sass. His response once again filled the room with laughter.

"I'm no expert in weapons, but we have someone here who is," Senator Stern started.

Aria's phone started to vibrate in her hand, Phil Coulson appeared on the screen along with his photo.

"I need to take this," Aria whispered to Pepper before getting up to leave. "It's important."

Pepper just gave her a questioning look before turning back to watch Tony sass his way through the hearing.

"Phil, what can I do for you?" Aria smiled.

"How long can you stay in DC?" He inquired while she paced the foyer.

"I can stay until tomorrow. I've got important Star Expo things that I need to over see and I'm flying to Monaco on Tuesday," the young woman responded. "Why? Has something happened?"

"There's been a sort of development that we would like your advice on which will require you to meet with Director Fury tomorrow," Coulson explained.

"When I'll head over to S.H.I.E.L.D. once Tony's hearing is over. Actually, I came with Pepper and I would rather they not know where I'm going," Aria confirmed, trailing off towards the end.

"There's already a car waiting for you. You'll recognize the agent picking you up," he added.

"I'll see you soon," Aria spoke into the device, noticing the doors open and people flow out.

"Goodbye Miss Stark," Coulson replied.

She pulled the phone away from her ear and searched for her ginger friend. When her eyes spotted the woman she darted through the crowd to join her.

"What happened?" Aria interrogated her.

Before Pepper could reply Tony appeared, with Rhodey by his side, and interjected his own answer, "Long story short: I'm keeping my suit and Hammer lost his military contract."

"I'm proud of you," Aria smirked, placing her arm around her brother's shoulders.

"Well, we've got to head back to LA. Do you want a ride to the airport?" Pepper asked Aria.

"No thanks, I have some business I need to attend to in DC. I'll see you guys Tuesday though. Nice seeing you Rhodey," Aria replied.

She gave her brother and friend a quick hug before navigating through the still crowded foyer and right past Justin Hammer. Her feet carried her swiftly down the steps of the building, looking for a familiar face by a black Ford. When she spotted the agent picking her up, she couldn't have been more surprised.

"Sharon!" Aria cried in shock. "You're the one Coulson sent to pick me up?"

"Yes I am. Let's head go. You can ask me any questions you might have on the way over," she smiled, gesturing for the brunette to get in.

Aria climbed into the black sedan and buckled herself in, still in shock from the news she discovered. Sharon looked over at her passenger with a smile, proud of how she well she had kept her secret.

"So, you're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent?" Aria hesitantly asked.

"Yes. You are a valuable and important asset to S.H.I.E.L.D. and when you told Coulson you were going to hire your own personal assistant he sent me to obtain the position. They wanted to keep you safe and having a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent keeping an eye on you was the best plan of action," she explained. "Director Fury thought it would be fun to put Peggy Carter's niece on assignment to protect Howard Stark's daughter."

"Couldn't they have just told me that they wanted me to have one of their agents as my assistant slash body guard? I would have agreed to it," Aria replied, her eyes glued on the moving scenery, unsure if she wanted to look over at her assistant.

"You seem really okay with this," Sharon tested.

"I understand that S.H.I.E.L.D. has secrets and that's how they work. S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know that I would act so positively about this," Aria sighed, placing her face in her hands.

"We're here," Agent Carter announced, causing Aria to lift her head up as they pulled into the parking garage.


"Director Fury, hello," Aria greeted as she shook his hand.

"We'd like your help with a few things today and tomorrow is like to have you part of a new project," Director Fury stated. "Let me show you what our engineers are having trouble with."

Director Fury led her to the elevator. He ordered it to go to basement level. The two stood quietly in the elevator, Aria silently wondering where Sharon had gone to. Quickly the two sunk bellow the ground to a vast open area. Her mouth dropped open as she witnessed the site before her.

"How long has this been here?" Aria asked with a laugh. "No wait, secrets. I'm not allowed to know probably."

"Exactly. You can see that we are building a helicarrier. Inside it is where we are having our problems," he explained. "We were hoping you could figure out what was wrong and help fix whatever's it is."

He started to lead her down the path to the flight deck of the helicarrier. She kept staring at it in awe and tried to mentally figure it all out.

"Can she do anything special? What's her purpose?" Aria curiously inquired as they passed jets having their onboard systems checked.

"She'll have a camouflage system. The outside panels will mirror what is around them effectively cloaking them in the sky," he answered. "And that's all I'm going to tell you. Can't have you learning all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets."

He took her into the heart of the helicarrier and into the command room. There were cables running everywhere, threatening to trip someone if they were careful enough. Aria's eyes scanned over every inch of the room, noticing a man waving over to the pair.

"This is where I leave you. I'll see you tomorrow Miss Stark," Director Fury informed her.

Aria made her way over to the man in a S.H.I.E.L.D. work suit. When she approached the man he hindered her a pair of safety glasses and started to explain the problems he was accruing.

Aria's day had been spent working on the helicarrier, assisting with the installation of their screens and fixing the software problems they had. She spent the night at her assistant/S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's apartment. It was in a quaint building. The next morning Aria Stark had the meeting that would change the world. The young women entered S.H. .D. headquarters, Agent Carter escorting Miss Stark to the conference room where Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, and a hand full of other people who she didn't recognize. Agent Carter joined her in the room, signaling to Director Fury that the last member was present.

"You've all been asked here to be part of one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most important projects," Director Fury explained, motioning to the screen on the wall that would soon display the visual elements of the meeting. "In 1942 Howard Stark and Dr. Abraham Erskine created the formula and method of how to create a super soldier."

The screen now showed a picture of Dr. Erskine and Aria's Father. Her eyes were glued to the screen, as she was still in the dark about some of what her father had done.

"With the first and only chosen participant, he went from this to this," Fury continued, showing the before and after pictures and statistics of the patient. "Dr. Erskine was killed minutes after the experiment, leaving the test subject as the only one. Steve Rogers had become America's chance for victory. After taking down the Nazis sub organization Hydra, he disappeared in a valiant move to save America. After years of searching, the U.S. Government deemed him missing in action."

Everyone had watched as the screen showed various images of Hydra, The Howling Commandos in action, and Steve Rogers.

"As much as I appreciate this interesting history lesson, why are we here?" A pudgy, balding man asked.

"You are all here to because three days ago we discovered Captain America. He was frozen in the ship he crash landed. We are moving his body, to DC to thaw him and run tests," Fury concluded. "You will all be brought in on various stages of the project. Any questions?"

An assistant began passing out large Manila envelopes with labels marking the owner. Aria took hers in her hands and started to unwind the string that was securing the closure.

"The information in those are highly sensitive with classified documents. They are for your eyes only," Fury warned. "You're dismissed."

Aria stood with her purse slung over her shoulder and arms hugging the envelope. She made her way over to Phil, knowing he must be excited as excited as her about the discovery.

"Phil! On a scale of one to ten, how are excited are you?" Aria smiled, the corners of her mouth reaching her ears.

"More excited than when you finished your work on Lola," he laughed. "There is one more thing that Director Fury would like to talk to you about. It won't be long. Your plane leaves in two hours doesn't it?"

"Well, it's my plane and all, I think that it would just wait for me to get there before it takes off, so I can leave whenever really," She quipped.

"Aria, if you'd follow me," Fury called out, motioning her to join him.

He led her to a small room where Agent Sharon Carter was already waiting. Aria looked a little worried, afraid she might lose her new friend and fabulous assistant. The room was a standard S.H.I.E.L.D design, sound proof and grey with the S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol on the wall. The three sat down at the table, Aria next to Agent Carter but across from Director Fury

"I want Agent Carter to stay as your assistant. You're too important to not have someone keeping an eye on you. We will have her reassigned once Rogers is thawed and introduced back into the world. She has her own part to play," Fury explained. "I'll find someone to take her place when the time comes. Or you could just officially join S.H.I.E.L.D. and work here full time."

Aria let out a sigh of relief, "I'll think about it. I think Tony needs me at Stark Industries at the moment, what with me in charge of the expo and him taking care of things in California."

"Keep it in mind, you're always welcome here. I have one more thing. Agent Ramanoff was placed as a shadow in Stark Industries. I need you two to go along with whatever she says. It's vital that you don't blow her cover," Fury added.

"How long as she been at Stark Industries?" Aria inquired, a look of shock adorned her face.

"Almost six months now. Everyone seemed too busy with Stark Expo and Tony being Iron Man to notice," he explained. "Anymore questions?"

"No," Aria answered while the woman sitting next to her simply shook her head.

"Alright then, I believe you two have a plane to catch," he responded, dismissing the two women.