Everyone in tower had watched the press conference through a live video feed and Steve knew he wasn't alone in sighing in relief when it became apparent that the woman was very much on the avengers side of the debate.

When Tony arrived back in the communal area of the tower Steve couldn't restrain himself from giving the genius a clap on the back coupled with a heartfelt "thank you."

"No problem, Cap". Was the reply from the billionaire. "It went well though didn't it? I mean it was one of my plans so it was always going to be a success but I really expected to work harder for it."

"Was it true then? Was she really in the city?" Clint asked with slight disbelief.

"The scar was certainly real. She definitely seemed sincere. " Tony said, thinking hard.

Phil, who had been on the phone took this opportunity to hang up and join the conversation, "Her medical record corroborates the story. She was definitely here at the battle."

"Lucky for us i guess." Clint said.

"Not lucky for her though," Tony added.

The next morning it became clear that Jen's dream of peace was going to be further away than she'd hoped. The press were certainly telling her side of the story and pictures of her and the scar on her shoulder were the front page of most tabloids. Captain America seemed to be back to a hero in the eyes of the press after all, how could he have known John Scott wasn't single?

It seemed however that John had already got in touch with some journalists telling his side of the relationship painting her as a harpy who pressured him into proposing, who didn't pull her own weight in the relationship despite being the larger earner, who disappeared for months on end to shoot films in strange countries without giving him more than a few days notice. Some of the more scandalous tabloids were even printing about how they barely even had sex because she was so frigid and uptight.

The tabloids seemed to have picked sides. All of the worst ones were on his side, enjoying the dirt on 'Americas sweetheart' but there were some refusing to believe his remarks - showing some journalistic integrity by looking back on her history, finances and most recent interviews and painting John's words as unlikely.

Jennifer heaved a sigh and decided to continue with her plans for the day. She had been scheduled to meet Pepper Potts for lunch but made a mental note to call ahead to make sure the business woman could be seen with her at the moment.

She sent an email to Tony congratulating him on managing to get his teams name out of the shit-pit for the moment and then headed to her nearest Starbucks for her caffeine fix with a book and her I-pad (call her old fashioned but she hadn't decided if she liked stark-tech yet).

There were a few folk from various media centres outside her apartment but they seemed mostly content to take pictures and film her. She spotted a photographer for the Daily Bugle who she'd worked with before, "hey, Peter right?" He nodded and she said, "just to let you know I probably won't be back till mid afternoon at the earliest." Peter thanked her and she went on her way ignoring the flashes and presenters around her.

Using the free wifi (the gods of coffee's second greatest gift) she decided just to email Pepper about their lunch date and settled in to read Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy and marvel over how much less unlikely the story about an intergalactic bypass seemed. It's funny how much difference a few months can make.

For Tony, the next morning rather predictably found him in his workshop working on a new shielding system for the suits. He was taken by surprise when his phone started ringing but smiled a little when, checking the caller ID saw that it was Pepper calling.

"Yup, what can I do for you?"

"Tony," she sighed a little, "congratulations on the press conference yesterday. Seems it had the desired effect."

"Yes it really went well didn't it."

"Don't be hasty, form what I hear you didn't say much at all." Pepper replied with a smile in her voice, "not like you at all really."

"Humph" was Tony's only reply to that -admittedly true - insult.

"I'm calling to ask what you thought of Jen" her voice turning serious.

Tony considered for a moment. "She's different anyway. Not what I expected. Why do you ask?"

"Well I'm about to go out for lunch with her which may well cause Stark Industries media trouble."

"Why would it do that? She seemed to come off quite well yesterday even if she swore more than I expected her to." Tony was quite genuinely confused.

"It's not her that is the problem. It seems her ex-boyfriend wasn't willing to be the ultimate bad guy in this triangle. Or at least wasn't willing to give up his five seconds of fame so soon. "

"JARVIS will you pull up the appropriate articles? Pep when you go for lunch with her make sure she knows that SI and the avengers are on her side."

After Pepper hung up, Tony started looking through the articles, quickly noting that it was the most notorious tabloids that were printing stories against Jen and that they were posting things that she couldn't refute without stooping to his level - discussing her sex life and monetary habits, things that most people would object to talking about.

It was obvious that by helping his teams reputation Jen had possibly irreparably damaged her own. And he had no idea how to help her.