Olivia rustled through her purse in an effort to find her keys amongst the massive clutter as she left the lab of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. She made a mental note to organize it when she got home. Her hand grazed the key fob and, as she pulled it from the depths of her bag, she suddenly became aware of the man standing in front of her car. She clutched the pepper spray dangling from her key chain.

"Dr. McClain?"

"Who wants to know?" She asked, narrowing her eyes and stopping several feet from her car. Suddenly she was trying to recall the self-defense class she took as her PE elective in college.

"I'm Agent Coulson," the man responded, flashing her an official-looking badge. "I'm with SHIELD, otherwise known as Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

"Um, okay. And you are here because?"

"We're here because we require your assistance with a series of projects."

She remained silent for a moment, but pulled her heavy coat around her as the wind whipped her face. She was not particularly thrilled to be chatting casually outside in the November cold.

"Why in the hell would Homeland Enforcement, Strategy, and whatever need help from a wildlife biologist?"

"We plan to inform you of that during your debriefing."

"Um, okay, and what if I turn down this, um, opportunity?"

"Doctor, that really isn't an option."

"Let me see that badge again, please, Agent."

He seemed reluctant, but did indeed show her his badge. Looking it over and determining that it looked mostly authentic, she agreed to join him, but did not let loose of her pepper spray. She climbed in the back of his blacked-out sedan and rode with him to a helipad.

"You've got to be kidding me," she mumbled, upon arrival.

"Surely you've been in a helicopter before, Dr. McClain?" Agent Coulson asked.

"Of course I have. I'm sure you've seen my résumé. I just don't see why all this is necessary, but okay."

About halfway through the flight from Washington DC to New York, Olivia tapped Agent Coulson on the shoulder.

"What about my belongings? How long should I anticipate working on these projects?"

"We've already had your belongings sent to your temporary living quarters in Manhattan," Agent Coulson informed her.

"How did you get into my apartment?"

"Well, we are a government entity, Dr. McClain."

What have I gotten myself into, she thought to herself.

The helicopter landed on another helipad and Olivia followed Agent Coulson into an elaborate building in the middle of Manhattan. Once inside, they took the elevator to the 12th floor and made their way into an office. Behind the desk sat a straight-faced bald, black man who was wearing a black eye-patch.

"Dr. McClain, nice to finally meet you," he spoke. "Please have a seat. My name is Nick Fury and I am the Director of SHIELD. As I'm sure Agent Coulson informed you, we require your assistance with a number of projects. The first project includes wildlife damage control for Iron Man."

"Iron Man?" She asked incredulously. "Why does Iron Man need help with wildlife damage control? What is this all about?"

"Yes, Dr. McClain, Iron Man," the director answered, ignoring her latter questions.

"And the other projects?"

"We'll debrief you on the rest once you've completed this one. You will find your belongings in your suite on the 57th floor. Plan to spend the remainder of today settling in. You have a 9 AM appointment with Tony Stark to begin work."

And with that, Olivia was ushered out of Nick Fury's office and back onto the elevator with a keycard. She arrived on the 57th floor and found her suite – it was unsurprisingly the one with a doorplate that read O. McClain on it. She keyed herself into the suite to find a huge studio apartment, larger than the one she was currently renting for $1500 a month in downtown Washington D.C. The king-sized bed had crisp white linens on it and the room smelled like freshly cut flowers. The kitchenette in the corner was complete with a microwave and mini fridge, which, along with the pantry, was stocked full of groceries.

She found her luggage at the foot of the bed and began unpacking her clothes into the chest of drawers. SHIELD's professional packers had even brought along some of her framed photos.

Well isn't that thoughtful, she thought as she sat the frame on the bedside table. It was of her holding her PhD and giving a thumbs up to the camera. By far, it was one of her happiest days.

Looking at her watch and realizing that it was not only 8:45 PM but that she was long overdue for a shower, she quickly finished unpacking, grabbed her pajamas and made her way into the bathroom. She was used to early mornings at the museum, so a 9 AM appointment would be too bad. She wasn't sure what the remainder of the day would entail, so she decided it would be smart to go to bed early rather than lately.


Olivia sat in the lobby on the 12th floor as she prepared for her meeting with Tony Stark.

"Dr. McClain, welcome to Stark Tower! I hope you enjoyed your first night. You should have found any and everything you could have needed, but if you find that to be untrue, just ask Jarvis and he will be happy to assist."

"Who's Jarvis?" She asked. She had met Nick and Agent Coulson, but no one by the name Jarvis.

"He's an artificial intelligence and basically my right-hand man. He makes everything run smoothly and monitors the entire tower, except for things that are automatically set to private, of course, such as bathrooms," Tony explained. "So if you need anything, just call his name and he will lend a helping hand. Well, he doesn't actually have hands, but you know what I mean. Anyway, follow me."

Olivia did as she was asked and followed Tony to one of his technical labs, where she could see he had been hard at work. They stopped short in front of a tall, glass enclosure, which housed a battered and broken Iron Man suit.

"Hmm," Olivia said to herself.

"My main issue is structural and mechanical damages caused by bird impact. Most of the collisions occur during flight but there are frequent incidents on the helipad during testing or takeoff/landing," he informed her.

"Okay, let's start by taking a look around the helipad," she requested, sliding into her coat. Once on the helipad, she took a look around and began to take notes on her iPad. "There are a few things that I see first hand that could be causing problems. I'm not sure what those structures over there are," – she pointed to her left – "but they look like a prime opportunity for cover. In fact, it looks like there's a couple European Starlings roosting there as we speak."

"Those are just design elements," Tony informed her.

"Okay, so perhaps we should consider removing them or altering them in such a way that they no longer provide a good hiding place for the birds," she said. "There are also a variety of ways to simply frighten birds away, but ideally we would like for them to stay away permanently and that method tends to be more temporary."

Tony nodded, but said nothing. Olivia scrolled through her notes.

"Okay, so the Migratory Bird Act provides some legal hurdles when it comes to messing with birds, so we'll have to work around that. And to do that, here's my plan: I will spend the next several days conducting observations around the tower to inventory what species are here. Whatever birds you have in the area will also likely be ones that you're going to encounter during flight. Following that, I will make some suggestions for improving the helipad area and other places around the tower. And then we will do some observations and trial runs with the suit to assess in-flight damages," She said. "How does that sound, Mr. Stark?"

"Splendid. And call me Tony," he said.


Olivia was awake at 4:30 AM to begin her observations. She setup on the helipad, bundled in heavy layers to combat the blistering cold. She sat close to the door and farthest away from where she suspected most of the bird activity would occur. Sprawled out next to her were her iPad, a pocket notebook, pencil, and binoculars. In the first hour, she had already observed two European Starlings, a white-throated sparrow, and a hermit thrush.

Around noon, she had a full list of the species she'd seen on or near the helipad accompanied by a list of possible attractants causing them to interact with the helipad and possible ways to remove or deter them. She packed up her things and returned to her suite. No sooner had she walked in the door than a voice echoed through the room.

"Dr. McClain, Mr. Stark has requested your presence in his lab. Please take the elevator to the 30th floor," Jarvis requested.

"Sure thing, Jarvis, I'll be down soon."

Olivia made her way to the 30th floor where she met Tony in his lab.

"Doc, what's the status of your observations?" He questioned.

"Well it's only day one, Mr. Stark – I mean, Tony – so it's a little early to tell, but I found five different species of birds, two of which are covered under the Migratory Bird Act. That means we cannot use any means of removing them such as shooting them or –"

"Wait, that's a thing? Wildlife biologists just go around killing wildlife? Isn't that counterproductive? Aren't you supposed to be saving the animals, hugging the trees, etcetera, etcetera?"

"Well, it's complicated. Not all wildlife are endangered and therefore not all wildlife need saving. Wildlife biologists do lots of research on wildlife, but we also have to manage them, and that sometimes means culling them, particularly if their population is too high or they're a nuisance."

"Culling? Don't you mean killing?" He asked.

"Well, culling is the scientific term for reducing a population by, basically, selective slaughter. I don't do much of it in my job, but I have in the past and it's an important part of wildlife management and biology."

"Oooohkay, so we aren't going to be doing that or are we?"

"We're going to try our best to modify and deter."

"Great. So I can expect less blood on the helipad and a formal plan in a week?"

"Should be done before then, but that works great," Olivia smiled. "Also, while I'm thinking about it, is there a gym anywhere nearby that I can use?"

"Of course. Stark Tower has its own, 17th floor."

And with that, Olivia returned to her suite to change into some workout gear.


The following morning, Olivia was back on the helipad, walking across it for what seemed like the 40th time in just an hour. She referred to the list she made the day before regarding what she suspected was drawing the birds onto the helipad, making additional notes as she went. By lunchtime, she had started a rough outline of the plan for the helipad and requested that Jarvis ask Tony to meet her in the technical lab to start an analysis of the suit damages.

After spending an hour going through the suit with Tony and making notes, she had an initial plan to prevent birds from crashing into the suit.

"One last question, how big are the birds that impact your suit?" She asked.

"Pretty big. I mean, there's small ones, but there's also eagles and hawks, usually," he said. "I actually have some footage from impacts. You can see how the impacts affect the technology."

"Alright."

They watched a series of videos showing several different impacts over time and how they damaged the suit.

"Got it. Okay, I think my plan will work. I'm going to do some research this evening to get all of the logistics figured out and hopefully we can start working on it soon."


As she made her way to Stark Tower's Gym, Olivia's mind was filled with random, yet interconnected, thoughts about the logistics of her plans.

Bald eagles, red-tailed hawks. Falcons, maybe? We definitely need a deterrent, but nothing that they can become habituated to. Plus, nothing that would be detrimental to Iron Man. Obviously no gunshot sounds or anything that could give away his whereabouts. Although maybe we could just –

Her thoughts were interrupted when she collided with another body.

"Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry," she apologized.

"That's alright." Standing before her was a man just shy of 6 feet tall, with brown hair that was slightly spiked in the front, and very large, very muscular arms. "Looked like you were deep in thought."

"Yea," she chuckled, embarrassed. "I was."

"Clint, nice to meet you," He extended his hand.

"Olivia McClain."

"I've never seen you before."

"Oh, uh, yes, I'm actually doing some work with SHIELD. I was just recruited, I mean, I just started today, really," she said.

"Oh, okay. And I see you've already found the gym. Very important," he laughed.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to take that?" She quipped, raising an eyebrow and offering a slight smile.

"Oh, uh, I didn't mean you needed to use the gym, because you look great, you're not, uh, like, overweight or anything. Just that, you know," he sighed, "working out is good…."

"Ohhkay," she laughed. "That's good to know. Thank you, um, what was your name again?"

"Clint."

"Clint, yes, very nice to meet you, thank you very much. I'm sure I will see you again soon."


Author's Note: Hi guys! I've been reading and writing fanfiction since like 2007, but I took a bit of a hiatus while I was in college. Now that I've got more time, I decided to try my hand at writing again. Please, please, please give constructive criticism. It will help my make the story into what you guys are wanting! If you like it, let me know. It will encourage me to write more and post more often! Thank you so much.

Also, huge thanks to my amazing beta - wantfanfics.

-LBD