Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing related to Marvel, either the comics, movies, TV shows, etc. All of that belongs to the Disney Corporation (though I might try kidnapping Captain America and Hawkeye some day, just for fun).
AN: Hello, all. Sorry for not updating sooner; I was down with a nasty cold, which I'm still feeling the effects of. But anyway, here's the next chapter; please enjoy, and don't forget to review. Thanks!
Chapter 10: Hidden Anxieties:
A walk on the beach was the perfect way to end the day. Happy waited for us in the small parking lot while Cap led me down the steps, the two of us digging our toes into the sand and surf as we took in the peace of the empty beach and the sound of the waves crashing.
"You know, I've always wanted to collect seashells," Cap softly commented as he retrieved a small sand dollar from the ground. "They are just so beautiful and fascinating." He smiled at me, a slight touch of pink in his cheeks. "Kind of like you."
I gave him a skeptical look. "Which one does that make me? Fascinating or beautiful?" I honestly didn't think I was either, but it was sweet of him to say.
"Both," he replied, grinning as I snorted in disbelief. "You make things interesting for me because you are interesting. And you are beautiful, at least to me."
Unable to stop myself, I threw my arms around his neck and gave him a kiss. "You really are the best boyfriend ever."
Cap chuckled and held me close. "Thanks."
The rest of the walk was spent holding hands and picking up whatever little shells or stones we wanted to keep. No one could ask for a more perfect setting –the sun was warm, the water nice and cool on our toes, and a constant gentle breeze flowed off of the water. It was wonderful.
Soon, Cap's pockets were full of tiny mementoes, and I was surprised to see that the sun was sinking. That's when my stomach told me it was almost time for dinner, and my skin said I'd better get out of the sun, before I regretted it.
Up we went to the car, where Happy looked relieved to see us. "Mr. Stark called me an hour ago. He asked that I tell you that he and Miss Potts will be working until late this evening in his office at the house. He wanted to know if you would be able to fend for yourselves, of if you'd like to order out?"
I voted for ordering out. Okay, I was feeling lazy, but it'd been a long day and cooking wasn't high on the list of things I wanted to do tonight. Cap apparently felt the same way, because we quickly decided on ordering pizza.
Reaching the mansion, I raced upstairs for a quick shower and a change of clothes, then ran down again, asking Jarvis to pull up a list of pizza joints that were decent, close by, and delivered. In minutes, I was on the phone, giving our order, and by the time Cap came to help set out the plates, our food was on its way.
After we'd finished eating and put the dirty dishes into the washer, I was so exhausted, I was ready for bed. Even though Cap clearly wanted me to stay up with him, he wished me a good night, and promised to let me sleep in tomorrow if I needed it. I gave him a kiss in thanks, and headed up to my room. There, as I changed into my pajamas, I heard JT let off a stream of odd beeps.
"JT, what is that?" I asked, heading over to see what the matter was. "You're not having technical issues, are you?"
JT was quiet for a minute. "Apologies, Miss. It appears that there is a large influx of electronic advertisements being directed towards your inbox. I merely took the opportunity to delete and block them as they arrived."
Ugh, spam –I hated having my inbox stuffed with it. So far, JT had been effective when dealing with it, but he'd never made those odd beeps before. "Are you sure that's all?" I asked. "Just spam?"
"Yes, Miss. It is merely an unusually large amount, and it has been dealt with accordingly," JT replied.
Well, I had heard reports on the news of people or small bands of hackers sending out hundreds of thousands of spam messages a day, sometimes to just a handful of people. Maybe this was one of those instances? It certainly wouldn't be the first time I had my e-mail flooded with hundreds of ads.
"Good job, then, JT," I congratulated him as I slid into bed and turned out the light.
"Thank you, Miss. Sleep well."
"Sir, a message from Miss Philips's device," Jarvis said, jarring Tony out of the work-induced haze he'd been in. "Apparently it's important."
Frowning, Tony looked over at Pepper, who was giving him a suspicious look. Pepper didn't know what exact programs Tony had put into JT, but she obviously had her suspicions. Now, though, she was going to find out some answers, whether Tony wanted her to or not.
Sighing, Tony put down the legal contract he was reading through and sat back in his chair. "Okay, Jarvis, patch him through."
"Pardon my interruption, Mr. Stark," JT apologized over the wall speakers, "but I thought it prudent for you to know that Miss Philips has recently received a barrage of hostile and rather threatening messages via e-mail and text message."
Pepper gasped in outrage as Tony scowled. "Can you trace who sent it?" he asked, reaching for his own phone.
"I regret to say I cannot," JT replied. "I'm afraid that is beyond my programming and capabilities."
Damn it, he was right –Tony hadn't designed JT with that kind of thing in mind, especially since it was supposed to be a significantly less advanced version of Jarvis.
And speaking of Jarvis…
"JT, forward all the information you have on those message to Jarvis," Tony ordered, invoking his right to command and interfere with the other computer. "Jarvis, once you've got them, I want you to try and track down whoever is sending these to Adena."
"Understood, sir," Jarvis replied, immediately getting to work. "However, if the sender is highly intelligent and resourceful, the messages will take a great deal of time to track."
"I know that! Just do it," Tony snapped. "JT, how is Adena reacting to these messages?"
The computer was quiet for a moment. "She is unaware of them," it said.
Tony and Pepper looked at each other in surprise and confusion. "Can you explain that?" Pepper asked aloud.
"Such messages would do a great deal of harm to her, both emotionally and psychologically," JT explained. "As you created me to keep Miss Philips safe from harm, and she asked me to sort through her incoming messages, I deduced that the better solution would be for me to divert the harmful ones and inform you of their existence, rather than have her read them and become distressed before she approached you or Captain Rogers for help."
Since that actually made sense, Tony really couldn't be angry –it was, after all, exactly why he created JT, and the computer was only doing what Tony had programmed it to.
"Thanks, JT. I'll look over these messages and see what I can figure out about them," Tony said. "Keep a good eye on Adena, and make sure that you let me know the second you think she's got trouble creeping up on her."
"Yes, Mr. Stark." There was a quick series of beeps, and then the link was closed.
Seeing the look that Pepper was throwing his way, Tony threw his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, what is it? You know I hate it when you look at me like that!"
"I want to know everything that you know about this whole mess, as it happens." The tone of his girlfriend's voice and the look in her eye said that if Tony argued about it, he'd be paying for it for a long time.
"No problem there," he hastily promised with a smile. "So, back to work? Jarvis can take it from here with the tracking."
After a warning glare, Pepper picked up a folder from her briefcase and flipped it open. Tony, meanwhile, breathed a silent sigh of relief as he got back to work on the contract he'd been looking at.
Even though I did my best, I couldn't get my brain to stop working while I slept. That encounter in the restaurant with that woman had triggered something inside me, and I couldn't stop the flood of thoughts, concerns, and doubts that filled my head the minute I was unconscious.
Consciously, I knew that Cap cared about (and dare I say, loved) me, but when a girl finds her boyfriend being hit on by another woman, it kind of does things to her psyche. And all of those things tend to come out in dreams, which is where the brain is frantically trying to work things out.
In those dreams, part of my brain imagined losing Cap to someone who was a lot better than I was. Dad had always told me that, no matter what, there was always someone out there who was better at things than you are –and so I imagined Cap falling for someone who was not only beautiful, but also a skilled fighter, a trained spy or soldier, and who would easily be able to hold her own in any situation. What chance did I have against a woman like that?
That's when the nightmares set in.
In a one scene, I was standing outside a door, listening to Cap complain about how much of a burden I was to him. It was torture, listening to him describe me as an annoyance, a girl who couldn't fight or protect herself, and who constantly needed a 'babysitter' to keep watch over her and make sure she stayed out of trouble.
The second dream was that I saw Cap walking away from me for a vague figure in the distance, one who held her hand out to him, inviting him to join her. I called for him to come back, but he kept walking, his hand lifting to take the hand of the other figure as he left me to fall down into nothingness.
After that, my brain played ping-pong with my thoughts, sending me back and forth over the idea that Cap was happy with me, but there was always the chance he would leave me high-and-dry when someone better came along.
Okay, call me insecure, but given that Cap was (at least in my mind) almost perfect, was it any wonder I felt this way? He was literally in perfect physical shape, he was handsome, sweet, funny, well-mannered and respectful to women. What had I done to win over such a great guy?
And more importantly, how long could I hope to hold onto him? Couples broke up all the time, so how long could I manage to keep a man like him interested in me?
At last, after hours of tossing back and forth, my exhausted body and mind let me slip into dreamless sleep.
When I woke, it was a couple hours after dawn, and a trip to the bathroom was very much necessary. As I was thinking about taking a shower, I caught a look at my reflection in the mirror, and immediately decided it might be best to head back to bed. Besides, I felt drained, and it'd be okay for me to sleep in, so why not?
After a second round of sleep, I woke up around noon feeling more rested, but still a bit like crap. A peek in the mirror showed that the dark circles around my eyes had faded quite a bit, and a quick application of makeup took care of them. I only wore makeup during special occasions and "emergencies," but given how exhausted I looked, the situation definitely counted as an emergency.
Obviously, it was too late for breakfast, and Tony and Pepper had decided to high-tail it down to his secret "lair" in the basement, so that left me and Cap to piece together a nice lunch of salad and sandwiches. Over the meal, we discussed what we'd do today, and quickly decided that a 'day in' was probably best. We didn't want to see everything L.A. had to offer too fast, and Cap didn't want to wear me out with traveling back and forth, so it was the best bet.
"How about a swim in the pool?" he asked, surprising me. With everything that had been going on during this trip, I'd completely forgotten that Tony had a lovely pool not far from where we were sitting and eating lunch.
"A swim sounds perfect," I agreed.
Plus, I'd give me the chance to see Cap shirtless again…
A day on Tony's large back patio was exactly what I needed –as was the sight of Cap in nothing but dark blue swim trunks. The weather was perfect: sunny, not too warm, but not too cool, so I was happy to slather on my sunscreen, pop on my shades, stretch out on a lounging chair, and soak up some rays while Cap dove around the pool like a dolphin.
I was just starting to drift off into a doze when I felt water dripping on me. Looking up through my sunglasses, I saw Cap standing over me with a smile. "Aren't you going to join me?"
Slowly lowering my glasses, I gave him a skeptical look. "You aren't going to dump me in the pool, are you?" I asked, eying him closely. "Because if you do, you'll be sorry."
Instead, he held out an inviting hand. "Come on, hop in with me," he said in a pleading tone.
Unable to resist those eyes of his, I got up and pulled off the wrap-around skirt I'd been wearing over my suit. "Fine, but no splashing."
Once I was up to my neck in water, I had to admit, Cap was right –the water was perfect. Before I knew it, I was coasting through the water, going from one end of the pool to the other in a variety of strokes and kicks. When I was finished, Cap seemed to be giving me a look of surprise and respect.
"I didn't know you could swim so well," he said admiringly as he handed me a towel.
Getting out, I accepted the towel and began drying off. "My mother never learned to swim, so she wanted me and my little brother to learn. We started out pretty young, and we managed to get pretty high up in the course levels that the school had. I was close to the top level, but I couldn't dive very well, so I stopped just short of getting there."
I grinned. "Luckily, Mom didn't mind if I stopped there, otherwise there'd have been hell to pay."
Cap laughed. "And your brother?"
I shrugged. "He learned the basics, but that's it. He was afraid of water for a long time, so it took a lot of private sessions with me to help him get over it –well, just enough to learn to swim, anyway. He can manage to save himself if he has to, but that's it."
Leaning down, Cap gently pressed a kiss to my lips, surprising me. "What was that for?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"For being such a good older sister," he replied nonchalantly. "And for being the good person I know you are."
Then it was my turn to kiss him. When we parted, I gave him a teasing smile. "How about we dive in together?"
He grinned. "No cheating in a fight, though."
My only reply was to push him into the pool, then laugh when he came up sputtering. My amusement didn't last, though, because he quickly climbed out and threw me in, which caused another water fight that I had to cheat at in order to win.
All in all, I'd say it was a pretty darn good day.
"So, any idea as to who's sending the hate-mail?" Pepper asked, setting an open can of soda by Tony's hand.
"None," he grumpily replied, picking up the can. "Whoever they are, they're good. My trace program being run through Jarvis has been bouncing all over the globe for twenty-four hours, and still nothing."
Pepper smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "As good as they are, you're better. It might take a bit of extra time, but I think you'll get them in the end."
That was true enough –after all, Tony was a tech genius. "You're right; I'll get them. Whoever this person is, they're banking on me, or whomever is tracing them, getting fed up and quitting before the trace is complete."
"Guess they don't know you that well, then, do they?" Pepper teased with a chuckle.
He grinned. "Nope."
That was when he felt a wave of seriousness settle over her. "So, are you going to tell me what the messages say?"
That made Tony pause. "Let's just say that they don't like the fact that Adena is with the dear Captain, and they aren't taking the fact that they're dating very well."
Pepper's quick mind put that all together fast. "But the only people who know about them are The Avengers, me, and a few of her friends at SHIELD. Since we know everyone who knows Steve and Adena are okay with them dating, who does that leave?"
"I'm betting that someone in Fury's little group of spies found out, and doesn't approve of someone 'ordinary' dating a valuable SHIELD asset," Tony replied, typing a few commands into his computer. "Either that, or they've got a crush on the Captain, or a huge admiration of him, themselves. But I don't think that's the case -besides Phil, Natasha, and Agent Barton, he wasn't introduced to many agents. Who gets a crush on someone they don't even know?"
Pepper scowled. "Possibly someone who, like Phil, is a huge fan of his," she murmured. "Adena was a fan of his, but she's grown to actually know him and fall for the man he is, rather than the legend she was told about."
She paused. "What if this person has the same sort of background: someone who heard stories about Steve when they were little, and when they got older, their admiration went straight to obsessive when they actually got to see the man himself?"
The two of them went quiet, remembering all the wacky fans that had emerged the minute that Tony had revealed to the world he was Iron Man. Those who'd had crushes on him from afar when he'd merely been a handsome bachelor billionaire had turned downright crazy when he'd been dubbed a 'superhero' by the media. Since then, it'd been a nightmare to keep people like that away, and security at every event he attended had to be extremely tight.
It made them both very glad that this particular house was on a cliff that was almost impossible to scale. The tall electric fence helped, too, and the airspace around the house was monitored at all times by both Jarvis and the local government, to make sure no news crews or fans with aircrafts could get within a mile before being turned back by either Air Force planes or Iron Man himself.
"If it is a fan-turned-bad, then Adena's in trouble," Tony sighed. "We should tell her."
Pepper didn't like that idea. "This is supposed to be a vacation for them. I don't want her – or worse, Steve himself – freaking out over this. Steve might just have them head back to New York, where we can't keep an eye on them, or he'll ask Director Fury for guards to be put on Adena. And you know she'd never forgive him for that."
She hesitated. "And if it is a SHIELD agent behind this, that person could try and do something very reckless and dangerous if they think someone's onto them."
The room was quiet as they tried to think about what to do next.
AN: Review?