Ehe...Hehe...he. Hi.
I'm sorry. I am really, really, REALLY sorry. I've had such a bad case of writer's block, it's not even funny. I've had writer's block for like, a month. I didn't know where I was going with this. I mean, I know what I wanted to do, but I didn't know where I would go, or what bits and pieces I would use for this chapter. It's finally complete, though! Chapter 2. Ugh. I started flailing as soon as I got to the parts I wasn't sure about. It feels SO GOOD to be writing this, you guys have no idea. And I hope you love this chapter as much as I do.
I didn't know if I wanted to put the last part of the story in here. I kinda wrote it just for me, but then I realized how much it would make you guys maybe wanna kill yourselves or cry and I thought 'Oh my God I have to put this in there. Like, right friggin' now.' You guys are gonna love this. I know you will. MUAHAHAHAHA.
REPLIES:
stinkysox: Yes. I'm finally back...again. I know. I took forever to put this second chapter up. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME...but you're gonna want to after this chapter. Oh jeez. I apologize in advance babe. I am so, so, so, so, so, SOOOOO sorry.
hidansgirl1234: Thank you! I'm glad you liked the last chapter, and I hope you like this one. I absolutely love it...but you'll see why...I hope.
Lady Syndra: Er...it's pretty soon? Okay. Yeah. It's been over two weeks. But I wrote that last chapter in advance, okay? Please. Don't kill me. I'm too young to die.
So, yeah...don't kill me guys. Please don't. I had writer's block. You guys are lucky I'm such a dedicated writer. Enjoy this chapter. Please.
DISCLAIMER: Don't own Thor. Or Tony Stark. Or Pepper Potts. Or any Marvel character. Only Ellie. Don't kill me.
I couldn't describe how bad I felt about all of this. About Jane, and Erik, and Darcy loosing all of their research. I felt as if I was the person who led SHIELD here. That because of who I was, and what'd I done in Cali, they came after me. And punished the closest scientist they could for my actions.
"Years of research...gone." I bit my lip, as we sat on the roof, legs swinging from the edge.
"They even took my iPod." Darcy whined. I frowned. An iPod? Really? Now see, I've tried converting an ordinary iPod into some device that could be used for spy equipment or something.
"What about the backups?" Erik asked.
"They took our backups. They took the backups of our backups. They were extremely thorough." The guilt ate at me further. Jane sighed. "The only thing left is this book. We, at the least, don't have to start from scratch."
"I just downloaded, like, 30 songs onto there." I laughed at Darcy.
"Could you please stop with your iPod?" Jane turned to me. "Who are these people?" I sighed.
"They're the government. A different division of it, but still a part of it. A very secret part. You don't hear much from these guys."
"I knew this scientist." We all looked at Erik, as he spoke. "The pioneer in gamma radiation. SHIELD showed up and, um...he wasn't heard from again." I looked down, a feeling of shame coming to me.
My mother might've done something like that. Hell, Gramps could've been the man to chase that scientist Erik was talking about. And I had helped these people...
What have I done?
"That's not going to happen to us. I'm gonna get everything back." I nodded in agreement, placing a hand on Jane's shoulder.
"And you will." She was about to argue, but I cut her off. "Let me handle this for you. You don't understand, Jane, these guys deal with the government's best kept secrets. No one knows the damage they cause better than me." She frowned, looking me in the eyes. I hesitated. "These people tore my family apart. They took my dad away from me, and I think they were the ones that got my mother killed. Please, you need to let me handle this. I can get you all of your stuff back. I promise."
"Let me contact one of my colleagues. He's dealt with these people before. I'll e-mail him, and see what he can do." Erik said.
"They took your laptop, too." Darcy said quietly, and he sighed.
"So it's settled. I'll deal with these people, no ifs', ands' of buts' about it." They all looked at me as I stood up, heading back down to the ground.
Oh, Coulson was gonna pay. And he was gonna bring a message to Fury.
No one fucks with Ellie Stark. Not a single soul, whether living or dead. And I wasn't joining SHIELD. Not in this lifetime.
I pulled up to the site, and drove up to the gate, rolling down my window to get a look at the security guy, holding up my ID.
"Ellie Stark. I'm here to see Agent Coulson." He nodded as soon as I said that, gesturing for the other guards to open the gates.
"Go to the right." I nodded, thanking him before I rolled the window back up, and headed that way. I got out of the car when some other guards stopped me, and followed them to the make-shift building where Coulson was.
"He's right in there. He's been expecting you." I rolled my eyes.
"Of course he has." I grumbled, and opened up the door, slamming it shut behind me. Coulson smiled at me from his desk, and gestured to the seat across from him. I crossed my arms. "I didn't come here for a visit. I want my friend's stuff back, Coulson, and I want it now." He sighed, sitting back.
"I've already told you, Ellie. You can't have it." I slammed my hands on his desk, glaring at him.
"Then tell me why you need it." He paused.
"That's classified information. I cannot, under any circumstances, give it to you. Even with who you are." I glared further. He sighed again, holding his hands up in defeat. "Alright." I took a seat then, crossing my legs. "We believe that this involves beings from other planets. We've been tracking this for a while, and this just isn't normal. So Fury sent me here to investigate. We took Miss Foster's research because she's an astrophysicist. We believe her research holds the key to finding out what all of this is, and how to track it if it happens again." I nodded slowly.
"Okay. I get it. Can you just...give me what you guys don't need? It's the least you can do, Coulson, honestly." He considered this, searching my eyes. A small smile spread on his face, and he nodded.
"That sounds good to me, Ele-er, Ellie." I frowned, sitting forward when he did that. He kept his cool, stayed completely composed.
So he did know my mom. And, apparently, I reminded him of her. Good to know.
"Why didn't you tell them who I was." He frowned now.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You didn't say my last name to those people. I want to know why." He paused briefly. And then he stood, walking out the door.
"I don't have to explain myself to you, Miss Stark. I'll have some agents return what we can tomorrow afternoon. It was a pleasure to see you, as always."
"It's only a pleasure because I look like her." That stopped him right in his tracks, and sent him right back into the room, shutting the door calmly and orderly. But as soon as it was shut, he glared at me, sitting across from me. I smirked. "You're gonna tell me what my mother did in this organization, why the plane that killed her was targeted, and what your relationship with her was. Right now." He sighed, but nodded.
"Fair enough." I looked at him expectantly, and he sat back in his chair. He was silent and still for a while, what seemed like forever. But he got up, and the next thing I knew, there was a file sitting in front of me. He had grabbed it from his desk-but from where I wasn't sure. I raised a brow, but he gestured for me to open it. "This is everything on what Elena did as an agent of SHIELD. Why she died, how she died, what happened between her and your father." I frowned.
"What do you mean-"
"Just read the file, Ellie. It'll all make sense." I hesitated for a minute, then reached out and grabbed the file. But I didn't dare open it.
Okay, I'll admit. I thought I had wanted to know what happened-thought, being the operative word there. I thought I wanted it, but now, holding it in my hands, I wasn't so sure anymore. I didn't know if I wanted it. But I sure as hell knew that I needed it.
And so I read. I read until the sun fell and the stars came out. I read until my head hurt, until my eyes ached, until my muscles became stiff, and I was stuck in the chair I was sitting in.
She had been recruited by Fury, of course. He'd seen her potential in New York, when she ran into a burning building when she was around seventeen and helped civilians out of it since the fire department was taking too long. He'd found out later on how she knew about SHIELD before being recruited, but she had proven herself, and therefore wasn't an acception in the slightest.
She'd been assigned something that had involved being in California. More specifically, Malibu. It had been a job that had involved-wait for it-Stark Industries in some way, but no other information but that had been written down. Top Secret stuff. But back to the story.
Mom and Dad had an on again/off again relationship their entire lives. They were each other's first loves. It wasn't really a surprise that they had me. No, what surprised me was that she had left him, went back home, and she ran right into the arms of none other than Agent Coulson. They'd been in a relationship. But when he found what about her and Dad, he broke it off. Two years after I had been born.
I didn't remember Phil. Probably because either A. I wanted to forget everything about my life before the plan crash, and also B. because he had broke it off when I was two. It took Mom two years to figure out that I was of Stark origin, and it took her another six years to get me out of Cali and uproot us to the Big Apple.
She'd wanted better for me. She had wanted to give me a chance to harness my genius, but she didn't want anyone getting suspicious. She was planning on quitting her job at SHIELD and finding another job, one where she wouldn't have to go on missions constantly. She'd wanted to give me a good life. But it'd been taken away from the both of us on that horrible day. The only thing SHIELD knew about that day was that the plane had indeed been targeted, and what had shot the plane down, how it had happened, who had survived, the casualties, the passengers, the pilots, the flight attendants. The only thing they didn't know was who had targeted the plane. They just assumed it had been an enemy of my mom's, and that was it.
They could only find traces of her remains. Not enough to collect. My family buried an empty coffin, I was put under the custody of Anthony Edward Stark, and that was that, case closed. That's all they knew. And that's apparently all they'd ever know, they'd traced the trail back as far as they could with no luck. This file was all I'd ever know about my mom's life as a SHIELD agent. And that was that.
I shut the door to Coulson's office behind me, shoving my hands in my pockets, and staring at the ground with my hood over my head, letting the rain poor, walking at a slow pace.
I'd been looking for that information for months. I had so much hope about what I'd find, I'd hoped for some sense of relief, knowing what had happened to my mom. But I just felt empty. I didn't feel any sense of relief. I didn't feel anything, actually. It was something I'd strived for twelve years to find, but this...this didn't help me, in anyway whatsoever.
"Why the long face?" I snapped my head right up, my eyes wide when I met his green orbs, and wild, ebony hair.
"H-" He tsked, wagging a finger.
"The name's not Harry, love. It's Quinn. Adam Quinn. Agent of SHIELD." I frowned. He grinned. "Yeah. I was undercover, pretending to be your tutor to keep an eye on your father, and more importantly, you." I blinked. He chuckled. "So, did you find what you were looking for?" I blinked again, opening my mouth to speak, but was cut off by an alarm going off. I frowned, but Har-Adam grabbed me and took off, with a firm grip on my hand, muttering into a walkie-talkie while he was running.
"Stark is secure, I repeat, Ellie Stark is secure."
"What's going on?" I asked, as he stopped running finally, but still held my hand. We were now inside the fortress that had been built on the site of the satellite crash, watching the satellite from above. "Wait, is the satellite a fucking hammer?"
"You know about this?" I turned to Adam, and nodded as he looked at me with concern.
"Yeah. Yeah, I heard the locals talking about it. And this is definetly not what I was expecting." I turned back to look at the hammer, and my eyes went wide as I realized, and finally pieced it all together. "Holy shit."
"What is it?" I reached over, and snatched the walkie-talkie from Adam, keeping him away from me at all costs as I spoke into it.
"Do not hurt him, I repeat, do not hurt the giant hunk with the golden locks and the blue eyes. He calls himself Thor. He magically popped up in a storm, and you guys probably think I'm high or something, but I swear he thinks he's the God of Thunder. Hammer looks like Thor's. The guy is calling himself Thor, they both showed up on the same night, both showed up through storms. You hurt that guy, you're gonna get you're asses sued like nothing." Complete and utter silence. Until Coulson started talking, that is.
"Stand down. I repeat, stand down." I grinned, but handed Adam back his walkie-talkie, and watched as Thor stormed in, drenched in wet mud. He looked at the hammer in glee, as if he were a child, and had finally found his most favorite toy he'd lost weeks ago. He reached out, grabbed the handle, and pulled on the hammer. But it didn't move. He frowned, but tugged again, with no luck. He pulled on it as hard as he could, but it would not budge. Not at all.
He stared at it, for a long moment. And then he looked up at the sky, and yelled at the top of his lungs. My heart broke at the sight of it. And a memory, long forgotten hit me hard.
It was a perfectly sunny day. Pepper had suggested that Tony take me to the beach, since the weather was perfect, and the waves were great, and I could try my hand at surfing again.
We'd been there for a couple hours, me trying my best with the meesly little boogie board I had. I was getting the hang of it, but I needed an actual surfboard. Tony didn't like to buy things, though. He liked to build things. And he's been really caught up with the company, considering that he'd taken so much time away from it for me, trying to spend as much time as possible with me. I didn't want to bug him, so I'd just have to wait.
The sky got dark. Lightning struck, thunder rolled, and it started to downpour.
"Ellie!" I turned, and got myself back to shore before the waves got bad, and ran over to Tony, letting him lift me up and head to the car. "It just had to storm today, didn't it?" I laughed at his furstration. He grinned at me, and as I got into the car, I realized what I'd been forgetting the entire time. My eyes went wide, and I yelled in protest as Tony went to pull out. I jumped out of the car, ignoring the concerned look he shot me, and raced down the beach, stumbling and loosing my sandals as I trudged through the sand. I fell a couple of times, and I knew Tony was yelling at me to get in the car, and that I was going to hurt myself, but I couldn't loose it. I just couldn't.
I fell near the spot where I'd last seen the shell, and dug through the wet sand, finding it a few inches below the surface. I rubbed the sand from it, and held it tight, yelping slightly when Tony lifted me over his shoulder. I smiled sheepishly at him when he set me down, slowly loosening my grip on the shell, staring at it with my cheeks growing red. Tony paused mid-rant, but knelt to my height, getting a good look at the shell, and then looked me in the eye.
"Elena's favorite thing to do was look for seashells." I nodded. "She always kept a single one, and threw the rest in the ocean. She'd always bury it when no one was looking." I nodded again. Tony smiled. "I have the perfect thing for you to put that in. We're gonna need to clean it off better when we get home." I smiled.
"Okay. Can we go home now?" He nodded.
"Yeah. Let's go home."
And, as promised, as soon as we got home Tony found a jar where I could pu the shell, and start my own collection. He then went into the kitchen on a mission-fixing macaroni and cheese that was consumable.
My eyes went wide, as thunder rolled, and the rain picked up even more. A smile spread on my face, and I ran up the stairs to my room, gathering every blanket and pillow I could from there, along with the guest rooms. I threw it all over the railing and into the living room. But when I got back down the stairs, I ran into a problem.
I couldn't move the furniture by myself. I pouted, staring at the pile of blankets I'd found.
"Curse my wimpy muscles." I stated, staring at the furniture with a glare.
"What up with the assortment of blankets, kid?" I turned to Tony, biting my lip.
"Uh..." He raised a brow. "It was something that I started doing, whenever a storm hit." I pointed to the window. "The first storm I remember happening, I got scared. Mom told me that if I was scared, then I should hide. And she helped me make a fort. It's been a tradition since then." He nodded, kneeling to my height for the second time that day.
"What's the problem, soldier." I pointed to the furniture.
"Your furniture's too big for me to move. I can't do it on my own." I looked Tony in the eyes. "Will you help me?" He slowly grinned at me.
"Do you even have to ask?" I grinned as well, and shook my head.
"Nuh-uh." He laughed, and bounced back to his feet, rushing over to the furniture.
"Come on, bug. We got work to do."
Tony moved the couch around, with very little help from me. I could barely move the thing. It looked light, but man, that thing was heavier than a knight's armor. So instead, I grabbed all of the chairs I could without having to bring some down the stairs, and used them to set it up so that I could use every blanket and sheet I'd gotten my hands on. In the end, I sat in the thing, smirking.
"Muahahahahaha." I laughed evily, looking around at my-sorry, our-creation. "SUCCESS!" Tony ducked down, and looked into the fort, sharing a grin with me. "This. Is. AWESOME!"
"Yeah?" I nodded enthusiastically.
"Best fort I've made. EVER!" I announced proudly, flinging back onto the pillows, staring at the patterns the light I'd brought into it made.
"Mind if I join in on the fun?" I shook my head, listening to the thunder rumble, and the crack of the lightning. Tony managed to crawl in, and layed down next to me. We stayed there in silence, just listening, and waiting for the storm to end. A thought came to me, though, and I looked at Tony with a frown.
"Would it be weird if I started calling you Dad?" He looked at me with wide eyes. I backtracked as soon as he did. "If you don't want me to, then I won't. I just thought-maybe I should-I-"
"NO! No, it-it's okay. I'd love it if you called me that, actually, now that I think about it." I nodded, and Tony smiled at me. "It only took you, what, a year?" I laughed. "Happy lost the bet then." I pouted.
"Poor Happy." Tony laughed with me. I yelped, when lightning struck without me knowing. Tony had grabbed me, and hugged me to him. I frowned, looking at him. He smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry. Guess my papa bear instincts kicked in." I raised a brow. He sighed. "Alright, fine. They kicked in as soon as I layed eyes on you, but you can not, under any circumstances, tell someone that. I have a reputation to uphold." I smiled, laughing. "C'mon. You gotta swear to me that you won't tell a soul. That it's our little secret." I nodded.
"Science swear." He still didn't let go. So, instead, I just threw my arm over him, hugging a pillow with my free one, listening to the storm. I started to fall asleep, just as the lights grew brighter, and the sun set behind the storm clouds. "Thanks, Dad." He kissed the top of my head, humming in acknowledgement. A blanket was draped over me, as I lost consciousness.
"No. Thank you, Ellie. For saving me."