A Gift From Below
She was looking up at a man her subconscious was labeling 'dad'. He was talking to another man whom she did not recognize. It didn't matter though. Dad would protect her and she knew it, so she decided sleep was the best option at the moment, and closed her eyes to do so.
She opened them and was now walking over to the man, who was hunched over a car fixing up the engine.
'Can I help? Please?' She was aware she had said.
'Alright Tony, but don't tell your mother.' The man replied with a smile.
'Thank you, thank you, thank you!'
'Right, now grab the socket wrench from over there and look here. This is loose, which causes...' the scene faded away before more was said.
Things started to flash in front of her eyes. Going to school, school being boring, graduating early, being at ease in front of a camera, when suddenly...
She was crying, sobbing might actually be a better term for it. She felt this sense of loss, so much worse than what she felt when she was younger. She looked at a car that had yet to be finished. The last thing they worked on. She stopped sobbing and got to work. She didn't stop for three days, when she passed out from exhaustion.
She awoke to signing a CEO contract, party after party flashing before her. The incident when she hired Pepper, more parties, and then, Afghanistan.
She went through it, everything that occurred. From the shrapnel in her chest, to losing Yinsen she saw. She felt the satisfaction of escaping, the betrayal of Stane, even joy of knowing she stuck it to Coulson, because screw the note cards. Everything shown in a neat little timeline up until the party last night.
She saw herself stumble into a bathroom, to throw up, she assumed. Then she went to the work shop only to come up when Pepper demanded it, to find herself again, reliving the past few moments, grabbing her arm to prevent her from leaving.
"What, was that?" Tony asked Phil as Lily fell to her knees clutching her head in her arms. You'd think she'd be at least a little used to the pain by now, but nope. It still hit her every time, like an alcoholic does his wife in a drunken rage. She stumbled toward where she vaguely recalled Pepper getting to aspirin from and taking a few. She didn't bother to count.
"That is not my place to tell. Sorry, Stark." Coulson replied. He knew Lily wouldn't accept his help, not anymore, so the best he could do was wait to see if she was alright.
"Like hell it isn't! I just saw my life literally flash before my eyes, and it's not your place to tell?" Tony was furious.
"It is mine, though." Lily spoke from her place in the kitchen where she was with her head against the cool of the counter top. "Phil, I need my purse, would you locate my phone for me? You have my number, so you can just call it."
"Are you going to explain what just happened to me? Because I am very confused right now." Tony said, the fear sliding subtly through the cracks in his mask.
"Once I have my phone and my purse, yes. Until then shut up because you brought it on your self." She said to Tony, voice laced with irritation and venom.
"Got it." Phil handed her phone to her.
Lily unlocked it and pressed a few buttons. "JARVIS, there is a purse somewhere with a rather obnoxious tone omitting from it, would you be so kind as to direct Agent Coulson to the room it's in?"
"Of course miss... I have just become aware that I do not know your name."
"As much as I would love to tell you, I don't plan on seeing here ever again, and I'd like to eliminate the possibility that he finds me through my name."
"Hey! No fair!" Tony began to pout as one would expect their younger siblings to at bed time.
"Got it." Coulson as he came in, tossing her purse at her. She grabbed a pill bottle and dry swallowed one.
"Sit." She told Tony. He did. "What essentially just happened was we went through your life, from the beginning until now. I have seen everything you have been through, up until the point where you grabbed my arm. It happens with anyone, all I need is physical contact. You grab my arm, we both live through your life, which is why I'm in immense pain, especially right after. While you just go over what you already know, I get another life time of memories. S.H.I.E.L.D. created a medication that suppresses it to the point where contact lasting less than five seconds does nothing, and being drunk eliminates it almost completely." Tony and Pepper looked shocked, while Phil allowed a small bit sympathy to escape the carefully crafted mask of indifference.
"So, you now have my entire life locked up in your head. Why hasn't S.H.E.I.L.D. done anything to you?"
"She is an asset, and in ten years she has done nothing with any of the information she has gathered. She helps us if we need it, we provide her with the medication so she can live without fear of normal human contact." Coulson replied for her.
"Phil, take me home please." Lily said as she stood up
"That's it? Dump this on me then leave? Come on, I wanna know more! At the very least tell me your name." Tony shouted as they were walking away. Lily looked at Coulson with a look that said 'I'm going to regret this aren't I?'. He responded with a look that said 'probably'.
"My name," she said, still debating if the really wanted Tony to know it, "is Lily Magers." She said as she walked out the door.
AN- than you to my lovely reviewers! Same rules apply if you don't like something as last time. To those of you who are all like "Yes! Next day update! Woo hoo!" I apologize, because it won't be like that often, though I promise to update whenever inspiration strikes. Thank you for reading, you're the best!
