A/N: Reviews! Yay! I write faster! This is another short one, but the last chapter was also short, so you get two for the price of one today.

Also I have done a drawing of Evie: go to imgur*.*com*/*Qp9JG90 - take out the *.

While the team was in Sokovia, Evie stayed behind, keeping Pepper company at the tower. They'd fallen into a good routine – when Steve went away, she moved into his suite at the tower, which is where he sometimes stayed, but 'home' was her apartment. They got a good balance of socializing and recovering this way. She still worked in the café six days a week, but she'd cut back her hours and given Anna full time, promoting her to manager. She'd also hired two more part timers – once Tony had started getting his coffee there, it had made the papers, and suddenly it was a happening joint, more than she could keep up with on her own, anyway.

She bustled around behind the counter, making coffee faster than Anna could ring it through the register. Gone were the days of sitting on the couch with her feet up. The money was nice, though.

Newcomers stared at her curiously. Her eyes, a strange shade of blue/green, artificial retinas glowing on occasion, were pretty much the main attraction. While she could have grown out her hair over the implant, she was kind of rocking the half-shaved look. Steve had come around to it, too, because he liked stroking the soft peach fuzz. Velvet, he called it, trailing his finger down the side of her head.

She'd had a dream the night before, about a city in the sky, and a feeling of impending doom.

She shook her head, and got back to work.

When the team got back from Sokovia, Tony threw a party. They were all gathered in the lounge, swapping stories and drinking. Thor's hammer made an appearance, and everyone took turns trying to move it. They had been just about to bust out the drunken karaoke when Ultron showed up.

And man, could that thing ruin a party.

She hadn't been able to do anything but cower behind a table. Jarvis, both her own version and Tony's, wasn't responding. Her Iron Legion suit never appeared.

When the dust settled, Ultron was gone, and Jarvis with him.

The team decided to go after them. Tony uploaded a new AI for himself, and gave an edited version of a different one – this one entirely in French – to Evie. He also keyed in her Iron Legion suit to this one version, so if Ultron returned, he couldn't override it.

"Salut, mademoiselle," the AI said when she activated it. He introduced himself as Guillaume – Guy for short, and she told him to prepare a tutorial mode for later.

"It's best if you stay here at the tower, with Pepper," Steve told her. "Your apartment might be the safer place to hide from Ultron, but you can do a better job of protecting yourself with Tony's resources."

She kissed him on the mouth. "Be careful, Slick."

"Always. Love you."

He jogged off down the corridor, pulling his mask over his face, shield at the ready.

She and Pepper had a girls' night in, chatting about their respective relationships while munching popcorn, Disney movies on in the background.

"Well, see, Steve isn't that different from Tony, in the long run. It's just Tony drinks to forget his problems, Steve doesn't have that option, I don't know if he'd take it if he did, but he does internalize things. He has nightmares," Evie revealed, sipping on her Diet Coke. "I've woken him up a few times and he's just sobbing."

"Wow," Pepper bowed her head. "They all have it rough, don't they?"

"Ships are safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for," Evie smiled at her. "They have abilities they feel they need to use to keep us safe. I can't fault them for that. I wish it were different, that we were just normal and Steve had a job, I don't know, driving trucks, and we just had an apartment and went hiking in the Adirondacks on the weekends – but it's not. So it's either live with it or leave. And I'm not gonna leave. Even when it gets hard to live with his ghosts."

"You're good at pep talks," Pepper grinned at her.

"I hang around with Steve, that's basically all he does. I swear, I felt lazy last Saturday and he pep-talked me into the shower."

"Did he get in with you?" Pepper teased.

"No comment."

"I think that's answer enough, no?"

"Ben, toi, farm ta yeule," Evie pointed at her. "Shut your mouth, before I start grilling you on whether or not the Iron Man is iron everywhere."

They collapsed in peals of laughter.

It was good to laugh.

The news was on all the time now, from the fuzzy, slightly orange and wibbly CRT TV in the corner above the door of the café. What was happening in Sokovia was being broadcast, and she watched in horror as the city was raised into the sky – the city from her dream. Her premonitions were disturbing her, she'd have to do something about that.

After she closed the café, instead of heading straight to the tower, she sidetracked to church, lighting a candle and kneeling in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary, saying a Novena for their safety.

She wasn't the only one in the church. After her prayer, she went to sit in a pew, and sat quietly, her head bowed, in silent solidarity with the others who were there praying for intercession.

A feeling of meditative calm came over her, as she relaxed into the pew. The candles, the smell of incense, it was all calming to her.

What could it hurt? Thor was real, after all.