Their next stop was right outside of Seattle, Washington. Tony had decided to leave Happy with the jet and drive from the airport for the sake of space…and because he wanted to drive.
"Good god! No one warned me about the rain!" The billionaire grumbled as he nearly swerved off the road for the fourth time. It was about ten o'clock in the evening, and the torrential downpour started right after they got onto the mountain road.
Pepper braced her hand against the dashboard. "The Seattle area is known for its rainfall, Tony." She gritted through nervous teeth. "Maybe if you'd slow down just a little, you wouldn't swerve so much!"
"It's not my speed, it's the tires!"
"The speed limit's 45 miles per hour." Jane pointed out, "And you're going 70."
"I'm aware of that ma'am…thank you."
"Tony! Look that's the turn coming up!" Pepper warned pointing at the street, but Tony saw it too late and sped past it.
"Sh…" He bit back a curse as he slammed on his brakes. But the SUV didn't stop, in fact it spun out all across the road. "Hold on!" Tony yelled bracing his arm against Pepper's chest as they swung back to the right and went off the road, straight down the hill, and into the woods.
"Stark you idiot!" Natasha shouted at him as he swerved to avoid every tree that came into their path.
"No back seat driving please!" He replied calmly. "There's the road!" He jerked the car to the right and suddenly they were on the dirt road that they were originally meant to be on.
"Oh my god!" Jane gasped clutching her chest.
"You ladies need to be more trusting of my expertise." Tony pretended to be hurt.
"I'm sorry, who destroyed a 4 million dollar race car?" Nat snapped.
Tony hesitated for a moment, "The Russian Octopus…" He muttered as they approached a large cabin. "Pepper, if you want to go in I'll have to go in too. There's no way you'll be able to get a wheelchair through the mud." He informed her as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
"Fine." She relented, "But you better behave!"
Nat waited until Jane and the Pepper toting Tony were on the porch before ringing the bell. After about a minute of waiting, she was about to ring it again, but stopped when the door opened. A woman with long dark hair and piercing blue eyes poked her head out.
She stared at the four sleepily, before it finally registered. Her eyes widened as she opened the door all the way. "Mr. Stark?" She gasped. "Are you here about Bruce?"
/
"So we were thinking of just having the party in Central Park." Steve told Maria as he walked into his bathroom. Agent Hill was sitting on the bed looking over their plans.
"I don't think that's a good idea Captain." She warned.
"Why not?"
"Because, you guys are all wanted by some bad people. And having a party in the middle of one of the largest parks in the country would be just asking for trouble."
Steve mulled over this for a moment as he brushed his teeth. "Fine." He sighed. "Then what do you suggest we do?"
Maria shrugged and smiled at him when he came back into the room. "All I will say is that if you want this party to go as simply as possible, you would have it somewhere in the tower." She suggested flippantly, "There's a ballroom on the tenth floor with a mezzanine, it's stunning."
Steve gave her a look, "Stunning?"
"Yeah. I said it!" She replied defensively. "It's a lot nicer than some silly park with its trees…and grass…"
Steve laughed before giving her idea some thought. "You know it would be a lot easier to set up." He mused, "And the security will be airtight considering Stark made this place into a fortress."
Maria nodded as though this were all old news. "This is why you always listen to Maria." She reminded him, climbing onto her knees and kissing his cheek. "Now, I'm going to bed." She got up to leave but Steve grabbed her arm.
"Wait, you're leaving?" He pouted, "I thought…"
"Oh no mister!" She wagged her finger at him, "You still owe me that date!" She gave him one more look before swaying out of the room.
/
"I saw you all on the news last summer." Betty Ross told them as she poured them each a cup of tea. "I saw…him…even from an aerial shot." She forced a small laugh.
"It was on the news?" Jane sighed, "I really need to get a TV…"
"You don't have a TV?" Tony stared at her in shock.
"You probably wouldn't have seen much." Natasha assured the woman, "The only reason she saw Dr. Banner was because he was swinging from the rooftops."
"Wait…you REALLY don't have a TV?"
"Tony, drop it!" Pepper snapped, punching his arm. "Ms. Ross, we were here actually to ask you a favor."
Betty stared at the redhead for a moment before nodding, "Sure, what do you need?"
"We'd like you to come to New York with us." Pepper continued. She took the way Betty abruptly set down her mug as a bad sign and continued, "You see, with Valentine's Day coming up, we thought that it would be nice for Dr. Banner…Bruce…to see you again. That is, if you aren't seeing anyone…"
"No! No of course not!" Betty replied quickly, as she stood up and walked over the fridge. "I mean I have dated here and there, but nothing ever really…stuck." She sniffled as studied some pictures hanging on the refrigerator.
"You do want to see him again don't you?" Natasha asked gently.
Betty turned to look at her before quickly directing her gaze to the ground and nodding. "Of course I do. I just thought that…" She let out a shuddered breath, "I thought that maybe he didn't want to see me."
Tony decided to take his turn, "See, that's where you're wrong." He muttered taking a sloppy sip of his tea. "I think he wants to see you more than anything in this whole world."
"Then why hasn't he contacted me? At all?"
"Because the last time he did, he had to leave you again. He didn't want to put you through that hurt anymore." The billionaire tried to look dismissive as he explained it to her, but Pepper could see right through it. She bit back a smile, and took hand under the table.
Betty stared at him for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Fine…okay…just, I need to pack!" She exclaimed before disappearing into the living room.
The kitchen was silent for a moment before Natasha spoke, "Nicely done Mr. Stark." She complimented giving him a cheesy grin.
"What? I can't be a little perceptive every once in a while?" Tony shrugged and wiped his nose with his thumb in a desperate act of masculinity.
"You did good sweetie." Pepper soothed him with a kiss to the cheek. "I'm proud of you." She rested her head on his shoulder and shared a discrete smirk with the other two women.
/
"You see…space-wise, I don't see how it makes sense." Bruce sighed rubbing his forehead. "I mean, this thing would be huge."
"No! Come on!" Clint groaned, "We could make it work!"
"Who would use it?" Banner asked.
"We would!" Thor replied gesturing himself, Barton, and a reluctant Rogers.
"Okay, who would use it, and not destroy it?"
"Oh come on Banner! They make Bouncy Houses a lot stronger than they used to!" Clint reasoned, "I mean, think of all of the fat kids at birthday parties nowadays!"
"He said no Barton, now let's move on." Steve sighed before looking over the plans he had worked on the night before. "Look, I kind of organized everything around the whole tenth floor idea. It seems to work a lot better than any of the other venues we looked at."
"It does make the most sense." Bruce replied, putting on his glasses and studying the paper. "And we won't have to worry about cleanup that night, which is key for a Tony Stark party apparently."
"Dr. Banner! Could we have a Clown?" Thor's voice boomed from the couch where he was watching Shrek 2…again.
Confused, Bruce looked up from the plans, only to let out a frustrated sigh when he saw an all-too-casual Hawkeye sitting next to the Asgardian. "No Barton!" He growled before going back to planning with Steve.
A/N: So, this was another filler-esque chapter. I hope you guys liked it! I LOVED Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, so I kept her in mind when writing this. I've seen Thor like twice now (which is about 1,998 less times than I've seen any other Marvel film) so I don't have a full grasp on Jane's character, so please tell me if I get anything wrong! I might add Darcy into another story later on, but right now I want to stick to the MAIN characters! I hope that's okay!
The next few chapters after this will have a lot more to them, so it might take me longer to put them up.