A/N: Spoilers for Iron Man 3.
"Did you find the arrangement satisfactory?"
Natasha Romanov pushed a lock of her thick black wig out of her face and squinted through the glasses at the document in front of her. "Looks fine to me," she drawled in a thick Southern accent.
She handed the folder to Clint Barton whose normally spiky hair was plastered flat to his head, with flecks of grey sprinkled throughout. He carefully examined the paperwork one final time before nodding his approval and signing his cover's name with a flourish. He slid the folder down the table, where Natasha uncapped her own pen and wrote her alias on the only empty line.
Epson, the middle-aged man sitting across from them, eagerly took back the document and slid it through an electronic scanning device.
"You may expect your delivery within the week," he said, standing and extending his right hand. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."
Clint and Natasha both stood and shook their mark's hand. Everyone was wearing wide grins as Epson personally escorted them to the front foyer where he handed the contract to the company's secretary before politely excusing himself. Having successfully completed their mission, Barton and Romanov were about to leave when a burly security guard stepped in front of the exit.
"Mr. Kirkpatrick?"
Clint tensed slightly, covering it by an overall shift in his posture. "Yes?"
"I'm afraid there was a problem with the paperwork. If you'll follow me," he motioned back toward the bank of offices.
"Let's just do what he says, honey," Natasha threw herself against her cover husband and wrapped her arm around his. "I just wanna go home."
"Of course, sweetcheeks," Barton tilted his head so it rested on top of hers. He met the security guard's even gaze and nodded his agreement.
The receptionist, who had been not so subtly listening to the entire conversation, hit a button on her desk, allowing them through the opaque door that separated the offices from the foyer. The exchange didn't strike her as unusual so she returned to filing the interoffice memos.
It was only at the end of her shift that she realized she never saw the couple, or the security guard, again.
Few things changed for Tony Stark after the Mandarin incident. He was still a genius, inventor and all-around badass. He was still dating the most perfect woman in the world. He was still co-CEO of Stark Industries which, by the way, was set to launch the first affordable, clean energy system later this month. He still hung out with the other Avengers and improved their weapons whenever possible. He still tinkered in his lab and occasionally got so caught up in redesigning his new beach house that he forgot to eat or drink. Finally, he still consulted with SHIELD every other Thursday from 11-3 because, let's be honest, he never got up before 10 unless the world was ending and those occasions were few and far between.
There were a few improvements though: shrapnel was no longer crawling toward his heart, his chest no longer ached with the weight of the arc reactor, and he didn't have to worry about always being in the vicinity of an extra reactor in case the current one malfunctioned. Now that he wasn't building suits, he found himself with a plethora of free time that he was determined to put to good use. The first few weeks were spent stabilizing Extremis and, after using it to fix the gaping hole in his chest, he had disabled it in both himself and Pepper so it could never be activated again. Since then, he tried to be a better co-CEO, showing up to at least one board meeting a quarter in a state of relative cleanliness. He still had a slight issue turning in paperwork on time but, when he did hand it in, it was thorough and complete so Pepper agreed to let his tardiness slide.
He'd be lying though if he said it wasn't damn hard watching his former teammates leave for various assignments, knowing he couldn't be out in the field watching their backs.
The first time the Avengers had assembled after the Mandarin, Tony's absence was the subject of many newscasts. The situation had only worsened when Captain America limped up to the press conference table a few hours later, having severely twisted his knee during the battle. It didn't matter that he would be completely healed within the week; the damage had been done. The people were in uproar, not caring if, in fact, Iron Man could have helped or not: they had needed him and he hadn't shown.
More press conferences were held to mitigate the damage but a majority of the city still felt abandoned by their superhero. In fact, the only people who were happy that Iron Man was out of commission (besides Pepper) were the senators who believed the suit had done more damage than good.
"Sir, you have a visitor." JARVIS announced, snapping Tony out of his thoughts.
"I'm busy, dear," he replied, patting the ground beside him in search of his wrench.
While Pepper was out of town presenting the next iteration of the clean energy project to the board, Stark had had his Malibu storage facility emptied and transferred to the Tower. It turned out he had moved quite a few of his collectible cars there in order to make room for his suit showcase. The moment he had spied the still crushed AC Cobra being unloaded, he knew what his next project was going to be. Queuing up his favorite AC/DC playlist, he had lain on a scooter and rolled himself under the hood of his favorite vehicle, determined to remedy the damage he had done three years ago by landing on it with Mark II.
"Mr. Stark," a decidedly un-British voice said from directly next to him.
Tony jerked in surprise, banging his head on the underside of the chassis. Cursing creatively, he slipped out from under the car, scowling and rubbing his forehead.
"Initiate lockdown and get security up here," he ordered his AI. "We've been compromised."
"I do apologize, sir, but I granted Agent Coulson access. He has documents I believe you would be interested in viewing."
Something cold brushed against Tony's shoulder and he glanced sideways to see the newly rebuilt DUM-E offering him an instant ice pack.
"Good boy," Tony patted his robot's arm and pressed the ice pack against his throbbing forehead.
"Mr. Stark," Coulson began again, sitting back on his haunches. He was wearing his customary suit and was carrying a thick file folder under one arm.
"No. It's Saturday," Tony hauled himself to his feet, walked over to his desk and pressed a button. "Happy—"
"Barton and Romanov have been compromised." Coulson tossed the file onto the desk, sending Stark Industries documents flying in all directions.
"Yes, Mr. Stark?" Happy inquired over the intercom.
"False alarm," Tony pulled his finger off the button and gave Coulson his full attention. "Compromised how?"
"They were tasked with infiltrating a suspected terrorist cell. Two days ago. We haven't heard from them since."
"What do you want me to do?"
Phil pointed to the papers spread all over Tony's desk. "This is everything we know about the compound and about the cell. We're hoping you can review it and point out anything we have missed before we send in Captain Rogers' team."
Tony nodded absently while he paged through the file. "Yeah, I'll get right on it. When's the Capsicle leaving?"
"0300. We'd need anything you find an hour before then."
"Okay." Tony dropped into his desk chair and detached the first page of the file. After a moment, he glanced up to see Coulson still standing opposite him. "You found your way in, you can see yourself out."
Phil nodded, an expression similar to disappointment flickering across his face, before he thanked Stark and left.
By two o'clock, Tony had analyzed every piece of information in the file and, with JARVIS' help, was able to bring to light a few details about the way the structure was organized so as to best approximate where Barton and Romanov would be held. JARVIS had also analyzed aerial footage of the exterior security sweeps and had suggested a more efficient entrance. Stark had given this information to Coulson who immediately handed it off to Steve so the Cap could readjust his strategy.
That should have been the end of the story…yet, Tony couldn't explain the odd churning sensation in his gut. He did his best to ignore it and returned to restoring the Cobra.
Less than ten minutes later, he slid out from under the car and pulled the file off his desk, staring for the umpteenth time at the slightly blurry picture of the assumed entrance to the base. He couldn't explain it but he felt like he was a step behind, like he was missing something that should be painstakingly obvious.
"JARVIS, can we make that any clearer?" Stark held the photo up to the light and scratched at a whitish sunspot to the right of the compound's doorway, approximately two feet off the ground.
The AI didn't respond but, after a moment, a slightly improved, holographic version of the picture appeared in front of Tony's face.
"Not much better is it?" Tony put down the original and squinted at the projection.
"I did not have a lot with which to work."
The inventor spun the picture in a horizontal circle. "Let's try this. Get the lowest angle of aerial footage and overlay. Merge and sharpen."
After a moment, the hologram slipped into better focus.
"May I ask what you're looking for, sir?"
Tony drew a circle around the glare. "We're trying to figure out what that is."
"If I may." The hologram darkened noticeably, then the small area around the white spot was harshly contrasted.
"Not bad, J," Tony put his index fingers and thumbs together and quickly pulled them apart to zoom in on the image. "Now, clean it up using your best approximation algorithm."
"As you wish, sir." After a few moments wait, the white spot faded into a small metal box fixed to the inside of the doorjamb, with a whitish line extending out of its left side.
Tony felt the churning in his gut rev up another notch and his heartbeat raced. "JARVIS is that..."
"I believe it is, sir."
"Get Coulson on the line," he demanded.
"I have already attempted to do so. I cannot get through to either Agent Coulson or Captain Rogers. I can only conjecture they have already taken off."
Tony tilted his head quickly from left to right as he considered his next move. The box on the footage was a home security alarm that he had developed a few years back. The board of SI hadn't been impressed and the project had been shelved. It wasn't particularly difficult to disarm but, if he couldn't get ahold of Cap, his team would be made before they could enter.
Also, and this was the thought that worried Tony the most, if that supposedly rejected invention was present, what else would Rogers be facing? He had built many such toys that SI thought wouldn't amount to anything...
He groaned loudly as he realized what he needed to do.
"JARVIS, book the nicest restaurant in town for tonight. Have Happy buy Pepper flowers—he knows the ones she likes—and maybe a new dress."
"Of course sir. May I inquire as to the occasion?"
"Consider it 12% of an apology for what I'm about to do," Tony replied as he raced out of the lab.
He hurried to his bedroom closet and threw all his shirts to one side. He laid his hand against the back wall of the closet and watched as blue light ran up and down his palm, reading his biometrics. After a moment, a wood panel clicked open, revealing a singular Iron Man suit.
He quickly pulled out his phone and keyed in the appropriate code, causing the suit's reactor to hum to life as its eyes glowed a bright blue. With a groan, the chest plate unhinged and the overlaid metal plates in the legs and arms retracted, leaving just enough space for his body. Without hesitating, Stark stepped into the opening, adrenaline racing through his veins as the suit that wasn't supposed to exist assembled around him.
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