In the weeks after the rapid rescue and acceptance of James 'Bucky' Barnes in to Avengers tower , the ex-HYDRA assassin and captive was making remarkable progress in regaining more of his memories and accepting his role in the killing of so many people when under control of HYDRA. When Steve and Sam wanted to find a therapist for Bucky to talk to, they wanted someone who could help him but still be able to handle the situation if his therapy triggered a embedded responses in his mind. They were both pleasantly surprised when Bruce suggested a friend of his by the name of Leonard Samson. It seemed that like Bruce, Dr. Samson had been exposed to gamma radiation and was now stronger and more able to withstand damage. He also didn't get stronger like the Hulk when angry, so he wouldn't accidently hurt Bucky if he needed to restrain him if the need arose and wouldn't be hurt quite as easily at the same time. Dr Samson was more than happy to help out Bucky as he saw the case as a challenge to undo all the brainwashing and damage HYDRA had done. Dr Samson also approved of the new arm that Tony had made Bucky, stating that the look and feel of the arm helped to ease the stress of what had been done to him physically and mentally since it was more natural looking than his previous metal arm. So all and all Bucky was well on the way to a better future.

Pepper was glad they had been able to help James Barnes since he was Steve's best friend and a hero turned victim, but when it boiled down to it, it had been the right thing to do. It also helped that helping James also brought out the caring side of Tony and she would never not love when that happened because it just made her love him more and able to deal with him disappearing into his lab for days at a time sometimes.

She also loved the idea Tony had about dedicating a floor to a medical center for rapid response in an emergency with one of the Avengers, but also providing low cost healthcare for Stark Industries employees. After a month of renovations and a round of hiring reliable discreet nurses and doctors, one of which was Dr Samson since she thought the Avengers could do with having him around, the center was ready to open.

But that was not the reason she found herself entering Tony's lab to find her wayward fiancé. After seeing the result of Tony's work on a new arm for James, Pepper had talked him into drawing up simplified plans of the design to market as next generation replacement limbs for amputees. If they worked half as well the one Tony build for James, Tony's genius could give mobility back to lots of deserving people. They were looking into providing no cost artificial limbs to returning wounded vets and also to injured first responders hurt on the job.

Only problem was that Pepper had not seen Tony in three days after he said he would head down to the lab to get on the simplification of the plans. She feared that he had got sidetracked by an idea and lost track of the days. She would have checked on him before now, but she had been overseeing last minute decisions for the medical center and discreetly finding James the best lawyers for when the world learned that they were housing the Winter Soldier and decided that they wanted to use him as a scapegoat for the revelation of HYDRA and its horrible acts.

"This way Gwen, I think I spotted him over in the corner. I swear if he is working on one of his Ironman suits when I waiting on those plans, he's going to need to go to the new medical center to remove my Manolo high heel from his ass." fumed Pepper as she and her personal assistant Gwen Stacy walked through the lab.

Gwen covered her mouth with her hand to hide her laugh as she imagined Pepper kicking Tony in the ass. As she brought herself under control, she said, "Ms Potts I'm sure he hasn't intentional been holding up the progress of the new product launch. He probably had an idea and got sidetracked."

"Pepper. I keep telling you it's ok to call me Pepper, not Ms Potts. We work together on a daily basis, it's ok to relax a little. Loosen up a little."

"Yes Ms Po-, I mean Pepper." Gwen quickly corrected when Pepper shot her a look. Luckily she was saved from further conversation by their arrival at the area were Tony was busy working on a metal arm.

Once he was done welding and had flipped his dark goggles up on his head, Pepper tapped him on the shoulder. Tony just leaned back and looked at the two women upside down. "Hi Pepper! What brings you here? I thought you said you were done with my labs when I made you CEO." Then with a sudden frown, "You hate coming here. Oh shit, what did I do? Forget a date? Make one too many snarky comments on twitter? Forget to feed the dog? Oh wait we don't have a dog. I'm just about done with the prototype of the simplified artificial limb. I had to rework it some because regular people don't have super soldier strength and wouldn't be able to handle how robust that build would have been. End of the day at the most and then you can yell at me all you want ok sweetie? Who is that? That's not Jules. Where's Jules?"

As Gwen stared at Tony and the amount of word that came out of him while he looked at them upside down, Pepper shook her head a little before asking, "J.A.R.V.I.S., how much coffee has Tony had? Or what kind of coffee has he had? Because he is about five seconds from bouncing off the walls."

"Sir has had a dozen cups of what Mr Barton calls trucker coffee." answered the AI.

"What exactly is trucker coffee?" asked Gwen.

"Its coffee that has been brewed through three times, adding new coffee grounds on top of old to make a super caffeinated drink that truckers drink while driving to stay awake," Pepper told her. "J.A.R.V.I.S. informed Natasha what Clint did to Tony. She'll take care of making sure he doesn't do it again. Meanwhile Tony is cut off until he comes down off the caffeine high."

Tony made a wounded sound that his coffee supply was being cut off temporarily. Pepper turned to him after hearing his distress. "It's your own fault. What have I said about accepting anything from Clint? That he's probably bringing it to you to mess with you. As to why I'm here, it's actually about the prototype you're working on now. You've been down here for three days and I thought that you were just making up plans for the tech division to use. Also this is Gwen Stacy, my new personal assistant. Jules was promoted to head up the LA offices awhile ago."

Tony snapped his fingers and spun around on his stool saying, "Oh yeah! Now I remember. I congratulated her right? She was great, didn't take any shit off anyone especially me. Guess that's why you promoted her though huh?" Looking back at the prototype he was making, he said, "I spent the first day on trying to make the plans for Bucky work for others before I scraped that idea and decided to pare down the build to make it more cost effective and easier to use. Plus I had to help Jane a little since she accidently created another small black hole again. The assistant who thought it was funny to play with her equipment was not laughing after a pissed god of thunder held him upside down over the edge of the building. I told him if he does it again I was going to let Thor drop him. Luckily we were able to shut it down easily, so minimal damage. Bruce and Betty went to the sub-basement after the Hulk made appearance due to Bruce losing his glasses to the black hole. Last time I checked on them, Betty was reading Dr. Seuss to the Hulk while he held her in his lap. I promise that I will have it done by days end."

As Pepper cupped his cheek and kissed him, saying thank you as she stepped back, Gwen was looking at a separate screen that had the artificial skin Tony made for Bucky's arm. When Tony noticed her interest, he asked her opinion of the invention. She answered absently as she stared at the screen, ideas flowing in her head, "I was just thinking that if you tweaked the formula some you could make a simplified version of Mr Barnes skin for your prototype so that people have the option to choose a more natural look. Also if you work it in a different direction, you could possibly make universal skin grafts for burn victims or even self sealing emergency bandages that could help save lives. Maybe if you used type O blood or plasma when making it." When she realized that the other two were staring at her, she started to fidget in embarrassment. Luckily she was saved from her embarrassment by the arrival of one Darcy Lewis.

Darcy walked up to the three of them and promptly pointed Gwen in the side. When they all looked at her, she said, "What? You were looking at her like she was some undercover alien. I wanted to make sure she was real and not in disguise. Could have been worse. Could have thought she was a demon and threw salt on her. By the way why does Tony look like he's about to vibrate off his seat? I mean I know the girls are awesome, but they're not seizure worthy."

Pepper put her hand over Tony's mouth to stop the snark fight that almost always happened when Darcy and Tony got within ten feet of each other. She immediately regretted it when Tony licked her hand, only to get him back by smacking him in the face with said hand. As he rooted through his workbench for a rag, she answered the curvy brunette, "The reason Tony seems to be vibrating is Clint fed him over caffeinated trucker coffee. As to why Tony and I were staring at Gwen is that she just gave two, possibly three ways to develop the artificial skin Tony designed for James's arm. Idea that could only come from someone with a very deep understanding of science, since Tony never explained the formula on the screen. So she had to be able to read it, understand it, and expand on it, all in a very short time."

"Oh, she slipped one pass the net and now you wondering if it was a fluke, she's a corporate spy, or why someone as smart as her is working as a Personal assistant. I reserve the right to taser her if she turns out to be a spy." Darcy said, catching the drift of the mood.

Gwen looked like she was getting ready to pitch a fit at the accusation of being a spy. She was cut off by Tony as he started speaking, "Gwendolyn Helen Stacy, genius level IQ, graduated early from Midtown Magnet Highschool, earned a Bachelors in Biology and Genetics at the same time all while interning at Oscorp in their science division. Cited as designer of cure during Lizard event at Oscorp, earned a masters in Biology and Genetics, hired as a lead researcher in science division, let go after Electro incident for undisclosed reasons, blacklisted by science community by Oscorp. Also says that you are suppose to be dead. I got to say you look very well preserved for a corpse."

"Uh thanks? Where did you find all that? Did you hack in to Oscorp? God they're probably going tp blame that on me too. Not like they didn't blame everything they could before kicking me out. And why? Cause I wasn't willing to go all evil mad scientist for them. Fire for having morals. Assholes! I mean going mad scientist is fun, it's the evil part I could n't do. And since I didn't disclose this too you, I'm probably fired. Typical. I was planning on trying to finish my degree and get my doctoral in Biology and Genetics too."

After Pepper sharing a significant look with Tony, Pepper turned to Gwen to say, "When interviewed you for this position, I knew you had a genius level intellect and half a semester of school left. I didn't know it was to get your doctoral in two majors. If I had this information when I hired you, I probably wouldn't have hired you as my Personal assistant. It explains why I've been feeling like something is off, that you're not suited for this position."

"Are, are you firing me? I promise I can get better. Please I need this job." asked a shocked Gwen. Even Darcy was taken aback at Pepper's actions.

"Yes Gwen I am firing you as my assistant. Sorry I promise to give you a glowing reference to your next boss."

"Ha, thanks. Who going to hire me after being shitcanned by Oscorp and the CEO of Stark industries? Who huh?" the young woman asked as her eyes teared up.

"I will. Even give you a bonus for pissing off Oscorp and a pay raise for having to deal with me. You be my Personal assistant, or at least until you finish your two doctoral degrees and then I'm going to hire you as a full fledged member of the growing Science Family we got going on down here. We mad scientists got to stick together." interjected Tony as he sat on his stool fiddling with the prototype on his worktable.

As Gwen first gaped, then excitedly accepted Tony's offer, stating it was more then she had ever dreamed of, Darcy sidled up to Pepper, saying "You guys are mean. Was that really necessary? You freaked the poor girl out with the whole firing thing, you could have just transferred her down here couldn't you?"

"Actually, no I couldn't. In the contract for the CEO Personal assistant position, in order to leave, you either have to give a month's notice, transfer with the board's approval, or get fired. Those were all put in when I was Tony's Personal assistant since he was such a pain in the ass. He had that all added so if he screwed up really big, he'd have a chance to convince me to stay and not quit. As for Gwen it would have been difficult to get the board to approve a relative unknown to be so close to the owner, so it was easiest to just fire her. No body tells Tony who he can hire or not hire."

Upon hearing the explanation of what had just occurred, Gwen asked Pepper, "How did you know he wanted to hire me?"

"Knew it as soon as you started talking about the artificial skin. When he looked up your credentials and after the look we shared, where his eyes were practically begging to keep you, was the real clincher though. But now that is settled, I have to find myself a new Personal assistant since Tony just stole mine. Ugh, I just got done with all that. Half the applicants just want to meet the Avengers, others are like what Darcy thought earlier, spies to try to make a quick buck in selling some secret. The rest are a bunch of pretentious rich kids who want to be able to brag that they work at Stark Industries. It really take a certain type of person to handle the position. J.A.R.V.I.S. you better order a case of my favorite wine so I can deal with this. I can feel the headache coming on already." Pepper said to Gwen before throwing herself in a chair and ending up with her head tilted bad looking at the ceiling.

Pepper's dark mood almost instantly disappeared when Darcy started talking, "How about I be personal assistant? I've already met the avenger, in fact I live with them. I'd taser anyone who even thought to steal from you and Tony. The only people I'd brag to is a scientist who works for you already and a god from Asgard. Plus I already know how to be an assistant so bonus."

Pepper was excited that answer to her problem was so easy, she only saw one problem with the whole thing. "That's all well and good, but aren't you Jane's lab assistant? Won't she have a problem with you quitting on her?"

"It won't be a problem. I mean back when we were in the desert, when our equipment was held together with duct tape and hope, yeah she needed me. I helped her then and when we had the whole evil space elf invasion, but since we came to the tower and Tony started to build her equipment to last and gave Jane her own lab and minions to terrorize, I've slipped more into being just her friend. I have a Masters in Political Science, not actually science. I just hang out with Thor and watch Netflix on my laptop. Frankly I'm kind of bored, so hell yeah I'd like to do something of use. If you don't believe me about Jane, lets go ask her. Five bucks says she hugs me and wishes me good luck before telling me to get the fuck out of her lab and not to touch anything."

With a skeptical look on her face Pepper motioned for Darcy to lead the way as the left Tony and Gwen babbling in science talk. They got on the elevator and rode it up a couple of floors to where Jane's lab as located. They walked in to find Jane carefully turning a dial on a piece of equipment only to smack it with a wrench when it wouldn't set right. As they reached her, the machine in question gave off a different tone and with a satisfied nod Jane stepped back. When she turned around and saw Pepper and Darcy, she gave a little shriek of surprise, which made a poptart crumb covered Thor seem to appear out of thin air. Once they realized that there was no danger and Darcy quit laughing, Darcy explained what she and Pepper were doing there. True to her prediction, Jane hugged her, wished her good luck and booted them out of her lab. Pepper was about to comment about not being told not to touch anything when Darcy held up a hand with all five fingers extended. As they walked away, she counted down from five and as she hit zero, they heard Jane throw out to not touch anything on their way out. When they entered the elevator, Pepper handed Darcy a five dollar bill with a smile and a shake of her head. Darcy just snapped the bill a couple times and stuffed it in her pocket.

As they rode the elevator down to the secure underground walkway that connected the Stark industries corporate offices with Avengers tower, Darcy suddenly asked if what she was wearing was appropriate for being a personal assistant. When Pepper took a good look at Darcy's flowing peasant blouse and faded blue jeans with sandals, she admitted that it was comfortable looking but really business attire. Darcy then started to fret as she said, "I'm going to have to buy an entire new wardrobe for this job and it was going to be a bitch finding professional looking attire that fit on my curvy figure. Also its going to kill my bank account to buy all that."

"Don't worry about it. I'll take you shopping tomorrow. It will be fun and Tony can pay since he stole my personal assistant. The least he can do is outfit my new one with a new wardrobe. Maybe we can see if Natasha, Betty, Skye, Jemma, May and Jane want to go. We'll make a girls day of it." Pepper said.

When Darcy nodded in agreement, Pepper had J.A.R.V.I.S. extend invitations to all the afore mentioned ladies, only to quickly add in Maria Hill when she remembered her. Once they arrived in Pepper's office, they had received confirmations from all the women with them all saying it would be nice to get out and enjoy a day of relaxation.

After those plans were made, Pepper sat down with Darcy to explain what she expected in her personal assistant. After listening to her, Darcy said she could handle whatever Pepper wanted, it had to be easier than making sure Jane didn't die, the data was inputted in time for grant applications, making sure Jane ate, pretty much running and supporting Jane's life so she could science her pretty little off. Pepper laughed at that, saying she could relate, only she had to deal with a bratty CEO and playboy on top of all that. Pepper was starting to think that Darcy was going to be a perfect fit as her personal assistant. She then sent Darcy down to get a security badge for the corporate offices.

As Pepper started to overlooking a several tentative plans of how to handle having the Winter Soldier living with them, she was treated to a surprise when a new document pop up on her screen with a very well thought out solid plan to sway public opinion to see the Winter Soldier as a victim and not as bogeyman of HYDRA. The plan called for J.A.R.V.I.S. to leak some facts from anonymous sources so it would be out there for when the Winter Soldier was found out. It also called for the reveal of the Winter Soldier's real identity so people could put a face to man, while also leaking he was rumored to be Captain America's long lost best friend. Select release of some of the most brutal things done to him would be done only to be taken down, which would only fuel to need to know what had happen to him. With the right spin and timing, they could make Bucky a martyr if the government ever came for him.

On the legal side of the plan, they would document his progress in recovering from the conditioning and brainwashing that was done to him. They would also provide details in a closed chamber meeting with a judge if need be so that the information didn't get out. Also include the torture and the procedure they used to attach his arm. Include scans Tony and Bruce did to show how it was attached with minimal care to pain or long term well being, only functionality. Prove HYDRA only cared about how useful he was as a weapon and not a person.

Have records researched for any and all signs of him fighting the programing while in HYDRA custody and trying to escape. Include details of kill switches he had implanted into his body as way of control.

Pepper was absolutely blown away by the with the perfection of the plan. If it was pulled off according to the way it was written, anyone who came after James from the government would make themselves a hated pariah and kill any career they had. Pepper checked to see who in PR had came up with the idea, quickly finding that there was no document code that anything written in the offices got so that it could be tracked if a security breach occurred. As she pondered where the plan had come from, Darcy arrived back from getting new security badge. When she stepped over to Pepper's desk to see if she could do anything for her, she happened to glance at her computer screen, giving a surprised gasp.

"What's wrong?" asked Pepper looking at her new assistant, noticing where she was looking, "Darcy do you know what this is? Have you seen it before?"

"Uh yeah I've seen it before. I wrote it the other day when I couldn't find anything to watch and got bored watching Thor moon over Jane. I got to thinking how I'd make sure Captain America got to keep his best friend after doing all he did to find him. I thought of how I'd sway the public to rally around James Barnes instead of trying to tear down the Winter Soldier. Why? How did you get it?" answered Darcy, wondering what her hobby was doing in Pepper's hands.

"It popped up on my screen and I started to read it. I was blown away with how brilliant it was. In fact I'm going to proceed to implement this plan as is, to be tweaked as needed to produce as positive outcome as we can. If you think of something like this again, I want you to bring it to my attention immediately."

"Ok, I will. Still would like to know how you ended up with it." pondered Darcy.

"I'm afraid the blame for showing Ms Potts your plans rest with me, Ms Lewis." answered J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Why did you show it to me J.A.R.V.I.S.?" asked Pepper.

"It was the best plan to date and I thought that it was vital that you should see it as I have already proceeded with my part of the plan. I have managed to institute a 5% increase in positive opinion of Mr Barnes. With the entire plan in motion, I predict a 97% percent chance in keeping Mr Barnes from incarceration and blame in HYDRA operation." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them.

Both Pepper and Darcy were stunned at J.A.R.V.I.S.'s prediction. Darcy was the first to recover, saying, "Holy shit. That's great. Wow I rock. Go Operation Save Barnes. I wonder if Operation Green Playdate would work too? Aw, I'll keep working on that one."

Pepper started to write emails to the lawyers she had hired to help with keeping James out of prison, calling the PR department to start work on the sharing of information about the Winter Soldier and the man behind the name. She sent Darcy out to her desk to field calls to the office and to get a feel for the job.

Pepper was finalizing some of the last details when she heard raised voices from outside her door, then a loud buzzing and a sudden thump as something hit the ground. She quickly ran to the door, flinging it open to see Darcy standing over a man in a well made suit, who was twitching on the floor. When she looked to Darcy, her new personal assistant said, "He came bursting in here demanding to talk to that bitch Potts. When I stepped in front of him and informed him you were busy and would be for the rest of the day, he told me to get my big titted slut ass out of his way. When I told him no, he asked if I knew who he was. I said no and he went to shove me out of the way, so I tasered. By the way I didn't taser someone I shouldn't have did I?"

As the man in question groaned and rolled over, Pepper got a good look at him and wished she could taser the man her self. She looked back at Darcy and told her, "You tasered Justin Hammer. He's CEO of Hammer industries, a former competitor from when we used to make weapons. They tried to build their own version of the Ironman suit and sell it to the government. It literally blew up in their faces. He blames Tony for ruining him, so he tries to sue us all the time. He also tries to bully his way in to see me to demand that we stop destroying his company when he gets drunk. My other personal assistants usually just ran in ahead of him, locked the door and called for security. Good job of taking care of it yourself. Call security and have them dump his ass outside. Then have them track down how he got in here again. If someone is helping him, have them escorted out too."

"You got it boss lady! Get rid of the trash and track down why it keeps showing up, check." Darcy said as she gave Pepper a sharp salute as she reached for the phone to call security. As Pepper returned to her office, she heard Darcy tell Hammer to sit still or she would zap him again. She smiled as she thought she got the better end of the deal with Darcy as her new personal assistant. She couldn't wait to rub it in Tony's face tonight.

Just after Pepper and Darcy left

"So Gwendolyn, you want to help me finish this prototype? There are lab coats in the corner if you don't want to ruin your clothes. You can dress in whatever you feel most comfortable to do science starting tomorrow" Tony said to his new assistant.

Gwen narrowed her eyes, saying , "Call me Gwendolyn again and you'll need that prototype. Call me Gwen. I'll be right back with a lab coat and I'll help you finish your prototype so that we can get the plans to Ms Potts.

Tony laughed and said, "I think I'm going to like you. I'm definitely voting to adopt you into the Science Family. I think Bruce and Betty would like you too. Now lets finish this prototype and then you can walk me through your ideas for the artificial skin. Ok?"

Gwen just nodded as she walked back up, buttoning up her lab coat. She was already planning to show up in more comfortable clothes the next day. She and Tony set to work finishing the prototype Tony was building to send to the tech department so they would have a model to refer to when he sent the plans to them. In almost no time at all they had the prototype finished and sent off to the tech department with J.A.R.V.I.S. transferring the overall plans to the tech servers.

Tony then invited Gwen to expand in her ideas about the artificial skin. As she started to talk about how she thought the skin could be modified to maybe give simple feedback to help the user or maybe just for the cosmetic effect of having a closely matching limb. As she looked up to see what Tony thought, he nodded in approval before he looked her in the eye and asked, "I like it. By the way why does Oscorp think you're dead? Because I bet it's good story. Besides my caffeine high is wearing off, I've been down here for three days and I'm hungry. Let's go raid the kitchen and you can tell me how you died."

Gwen had to shoot out of her chair to follow Tony as he headed out the lab. She caught up to him at the elevator as he stepped on and motioned for her to join him. Gwen tried to not start fangirling when she thought about possibly meet some of the Avengers, which drew her up short when she realized she was now a personal assistant to a Avenger. She kept telling herself to chill out, she could handle this. Besides she was the girlfriend to a hero dammit, this was no big deal. That then started her to thinking about how Peter was going to react when she told him about what happened. He was going to flip out, he practically worshiped Tony Stark and the Avengers. Maybe she could get Dr. Banner's autograph as well as Tony's.

Gwen was jolted out of her thoughts as they arrived on the communal floor of the tower. She stared at two people sitting on a couch watching what looked like a nature show on birds. The woman as a stunning redhead while they man was a little hard to describe as he was laying with his head in the woman's lap with a large ice bag on the side of his head. Tony asked "What happened to the birdbrain?

"Pepper had J.A.R.V.I.S. inform me that Clint fed you trucker coffee and I might have smacked him in the head a little too hard." answered the redhead.

"How hard is too hard?" Tony asked in return.

"Hard enough to knock him out for about an hour. Right now he's faking while I let him lay in my lap and watch a show about birds as way of apology of hitting him like that." said the redhead.

Tony laughed as the man in question grinned from the woman's lap. Tony then introduced Gwen to the two informing her that they were Clint and Natasha. It took a moment for her to realize they were Hawkeye and Black Widow. Natasha gave her a small smile to show she knew Gwen had just figured out who they were. Clint when with being an ass as usual, saying "Does Pepper know you're cheating on her with a blonde teenager?"

"Haha, funny Tweety. I'd like to introduce Gwen Stacy, Pepper's former personal assistant and now mine. Turns out she is a scientific genius and Pepper let me keep her. When she finishes her Doctorals I'm going to hire as a full fledged scientist and give her own lab." Tony snarked back as he poured a mug of coffee.

"So she going to have to work with you all the time till she graduates?" Clint asked Tony, who nodded. He then turned to Gwen, asking "You think you can survive being around Tony for that long? He blows up his lab a lot."

"I think I can make it another four months." Gwen answered with a smirk.

Both spysassians blinked in surprise at her answer, realizing Tony had found another genius to surround himself with. He was like a bloodhound the way he sniffed them out.

Tony splashed hot coffee on himself when he laughed at the look on Natasha and Clint's faces when Gwen quipped how long she had to go for her doctorals. It took a lot to surprise the two of them. As he walked back towards the others, he spoke to Gwen, "Now that you have done the impossible by surprising Blackhawk over there, maybe you would be so kind to explain why Oscorp has in their records that you are dead? Cause that has to be a hell of a story since you're standing our living room." Natasha cocked up an eyebrow at Tony's question while Clint's arm shot out with remote ane turned off the tv to better hear the story.

Gwen huffed out a breath in resignation before starting, "Do you guys remember the Electro incident that happened a few months ago?" After getting nods from the others, she continued with her story, "I was working for Oscorp at the time and discovered that Electro was a employee by the name of Maxwell Dillon, am electrical engineer that fell into a tank of genetically modified electric eels. Somehow he didn't die from the exposure and became a being of pure bio-electrical energy. When I found this information and brought it to my superiors attention, I was told they were taking care of it. I naively believed that they were doing just that. When Electro attacked Spiderman in Times Square and was captured, I found out that Oscorp was holding Electro hostage and experimenting on him, while they erased all evidence of his employment from their computers. Only problem is I knew about it and they were willing to kill to hide their crimes. I was able to get out of the building and evade their goons. Meanwhile Electro escaped and broke in to a power plant to supercharge his powers so he could kill Spiderman. I wanted to try to help Electro since the accident wasn't his fault, but he didn't want help, the experiments they did to him warped his mind. So I teamed up with Spiderman to stop him by building a giant electromagnet to drain off his power. Just as we succeeded, the Green Goblin showed up to fight Spiderman, he grabbed me to use as a hostage, which I fought and ended up falling through a skylight in an old clock tower. Spiderman disabled the Goblin's glider long enough to grab me with a web-line just as I reached the floor. I hit my head on the floor which knocked me out. I guess Spiderman got rid of the Goblin and got me to a hospital, because the next thing I remember is waking up a week later and being told I had been handed to a nurse on a smoke break and rushed into surgery. I had cracked my skull and had a brain bruise that caused a coma. When the authorities asked what happened to me I told them everything, after which they thought it would be best that I let Oscorp keep believing I was dead. Since I didn't have any physical proof, they couldn't bring a case against them without getting shredded by their lawyers. So I decided to find a new job in a unrelated field and try to get on with my life. That's how I came to be Pepper's personal assistant. I was surprised to get the job. I didn't even have close the right skills for it."

The others sat taking in the information, impressed at the young woman's story. After a few moments to let Gwen's shoulder relax after relating such a draining story, Natasha asked her, "So Gwen, how long have you been dating Spiderman?" Gwen started sputtering, denying that she was doing any such thing. Clint just shook his head as Tony looked confused as her looked between the two women. Clint then said, "You might as well give it up, Natasha is a expert at reading body language and extracting information from nonverbal cues. To her you might as well wrote it across the sky. If you had told this story to anyone else but her, it wouldn't be a problem. I had my suspicions, but that's from spending so much time with her."

"Besides we have been trying to figure out why he has been fixated on the tower lately. He has started to patrol the area around here a little more heavily. At first we thought he was just a fan of the team or one of the members. But he never seemed to fixate on our coming and goings, or try to come meet one of us. In fact he seems to run away when approached by us, according to Captain America and Falcon. Cap thought he was being tracked and because of HYDRA, he tried to get the drop on the tail. Once he realized that it was Spiderman, he tried to talk to him, to offer our help if he ever needed it. Falcon spotted him another time when he was out flying. He tried to land on the same roof, but Spiderman took off and lost Falcon in the maze of buildings, which is an accomplishment since Tony made those wings fast and maneuverable as hell." explain Natasha, as she stared at the young woman, daring her to deny her statement.

Gwen sighed and stood up as she said, "I don't know what you're talking about. Like Spiderman would date someone like me. What is so funny?" she asked when Tony and Clint started laughing, while Natasha grinned like the cat that stole the cream. Tony motioned for her to turn around. When she did, she saw security footage of her from Pepper's office. In it she can be seen shooing Spiderman away on the other side of the window. Spiderman keeps making over exaggerated kissy faces and signs of love, only to drop out of sight when Pepper enters the room. The tv then switched to another of Spiderman watching Gwen while she works, only to keep switching showing many more incidents. Gwen just dropped her head into her hands, cursing her boyfriend for crawling all over one of the most technologically advanced building in the world and blowing their carefully planned strategy to keep her safe to bits. When she looked up, Natasha tilted her head in her direction wondering if she was going to bother trying to deny it anymore.

Gwen then squared her shoulders before taking a deep breath to say, "Yes I'm dating Spiderman. No I won't tell you who he is. No I won't help trick him to let you catch him. If you want to fire me because I won't betray him, I can be gone in no time. Wow, I feels like weight has been lifted off of me by telling you that. Still not tell anything."

Tony looked at her like she had grown two heads, before saying, "Fire you? Why? I respect that you have that kind of loyalty. No one is trying to get you to betray him. In fact we want you to help us. We want you to pass along a message that we are offering to help if he ever needs us, without having to reveal his identity if he so chooses. We could also offer to help him train and develop his skills if he wants. Also if he knows any other, for lack of a better term no offence, street level heros that would also take advantage of the offer, have him spread the word. We are the last people to deny someone the right to do some good, we just want to provide them the best basis to do that. And if any of you ever tell anyone that I just gave a Captain America speech, I will hurt you. That means you Feathers."

"Really? You don't want to catch him? Try to figure out how his powers work? That's what most scientists want to do when they try to meet him. Had a lot of problems with some guys named Pierce and Rumlow from SHIELD trying to catch him. Had another named Fury offer help like you guys." asked Gwen, hoping she was trusting the right people with this.

"Well Fury was director of SHIELD, him you could of trusted. Pierce and Rumlow were in SHIELD, but turned out to actually be part of HYDRA. Spiderman did good to stay away from them. HYDRA would have probably experimented on him ruthlessly to figure out his powers and try to replicate them." answered Natasha, making a tight fist in anger at the betrayal she still felt.

Tony took up where Natasha stopped, "Gwen all we want is to meet him and offer our help if he wants it. I understand the want and need to do what he's doing on his own. But its also nice to know you have back up if you need it if you run into a situation where you find yourself in over your head. Who knows? Maybe we'll offer him a spot on the team in the future. Natasha might decide she wants to be a momma spider to his baby spider and adopt him." As soon as the words left his mouth, he found a knife quivering between his legs stuck in the chair. Clint fell over on the couch in laughter, as Tony clutched the arms of the chair trying to keep as far as possible from the knife. When Tony looked at Natasha, she raised an eyebrow making him say he wouldn't do it again, after which she reached over and retrieved the knife.

Gwen took in all that they had said and took a leap of faith. The Avengers had done nothing but try to help and she would feel better if Peter had some help if he needed it. Besides he didn't have to reveal his identity, just talk to them. Deciding to trust them at their word, she reached up and pressed the beacon Peter had made into a pendent she could wear so he could find her if she was in trouble. Then she pressed it again to turn it off so he knew it was important but not an emergency, so he wouldn't come flying in attacking first and asking questions later.

After giving Natasha a dirty look, Tony turned back to Gwen to talk to her more about trying to convince Spiderman to meet with them, only to be cut off as he opened his mouth as she started to speak, "I'm taking a huge leap of faith right now. I just signaled him that I need to talk with him and he is probably on his way here now. I'm going to step out on the balcony so that I can talk to him and tell him what you are offering." Tony just nodded, trying to figure out how she had signaled Spiderman without them noticing.

After Gwen had stepped out on the balcony, Natasha pointed to her neck and said, "Pendent." When Tony looked at her in confusion, she said, "You're wondering how she signaled him. She pressed her pendent twice. Must be some kind of device and a code they have." Tony looked out at his new personal assistant and made a note to ask about her pendent. Then he looked up and spoke to J.A.R.V.I.S., "Hey J, did you capture any foreign signals coming from Gwen just now?"

"A signal of five seconds emitted from Ms Stacy's pendent before being terminated. It bounced off of several cell towers before being received by a pre-paid cell phone in the Queens area. The cell phone is currently traveling towards the tower at a very rapid pace. I estimate that it will reach the tower in approximately 25 minutes. Shall I inform the other Avengers, Sir?" J.A.R.V.I.S. answered.

"See if Steve can come up here will you? Lets leave meeting Thor and the Hulk for later." Tony told his AI.

A few moments later Steve, Sam, and Logan stepped off the elevator. When Tony asked why the other two came, Sam said that he just wanted to meet Spiderman since he had heard good thing about him. Logan said he came to see if Spiderman was a mutant and if so, to extend an offer from the Institute to help him with his powers if he needed it. He also wanted to tell him that he didn't hold a grudge from the last time the met. When Tony expressed surprise that Logan had met Spiderman, Steve asked what happened.

"I was in the city at a rough biker bar throwing back a few while taking some alone time away from the school. Anyways, I was walking down an alley towards my bike when some stupid gangbangers decided to make about the dumbest mistake in their lives in trying to mug me. I started kicking the shit out of them and trying to just knock em out till two things happened. One of them kicked me in the balls from behind and another shot me. Well I'll admit that I was planning on not being as nice as I had been before. I had slashed a couple of them and cut the gun to pieces when I got a wad of webbing in the eyes. By the time I got them cleared, Spiderman was snatching the gangbangers up and taking them away. I was royally pissed and threatened to carve him up the next time I saw him."

"Yeah that was probably not the best first impression you could have made. Could have been worse though, he could have broken his hand punching you in your thick metal skull." Clint said, getting popped in the head by Natasha for it afterwards. The rest of them just laughed and settled in to wait for the arrival of Spiderman.

A short time later J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them that there was a person climbing up the side of the tower. They all watched as a red spandex clad head peeked over the railing of the balcony, visibly relaxing when the its sight landed on Gwen. As she motioned for him to come on to the balcony fully, Spiderman slowly climbed over the side only to perch on the railing like he wasn't sitting on a two inch wide piece of metal more than ninety stories up I the air. They watch as Gwen had a silent conversation with him with a lot of hand waving. They could have had J.A.R.V.I.S. broadcast the audio from the balcony, but they decided it would be better if they let the couple speak in private (Well Tony wanted to listen, but Steve and Natasha threatened to tell Pepper, which shut him up). After about fifteen minutes Gwen started to walk towards the door to come in only to turn around to point at the door and as they could clearly see her say 'Get your spandex clad ass in there and talk to them.' As Gwen and a skittish Spiderman walked into the living room, they could hear Gwen tell him, "And whatever happens, try to not go all full-blown fanboy in front of them. You're a hero too."

Tony snorted into the drink he was holding while Clint and Natasha both just grinned. Logan grunted and Sam placed his hand over his mouth to hold in the laughter. Steve swallowed a laugh, plastering a smile on his face as he stepped forward extending his hand to greet their guest.

"Spiderman, it nice to finally meet you. Both my friend Sam and I have attempted to speak with you on previous occasions. You are a hard man to catch up with." said Steve as he shook Spiderman's suit covered hand, noting that he wasn't a very big guy but he had a strong grip.

"Yeah, I'd apologize for that but I didn't know you were Captain America when you came after me. All I saw was a very agile guy who I had watched run at a pace that would kill a normal person scaling the building I was on. That usually means trouble. As to your friend with the wings, I wasn't aware he was an Avenger at the time. So all I saw was a guy with wings chasing me. Don't know if you heard but I have an enemy with wings, I was in defense mode on the spot, not really in a position to tell them apart." Spiderman said as he looked around the room at everyone there, giving a small start at see Logan there. Logan just chuckled and told him that there was no hard feelings, he was glad Spiderman had stopped him from killing those gangbangers. Maybe he had scared some of them straight.

Spiderman sighed, "I'm glad. After seeing you in action, I really don't thing I could survive being on your bad side. People there seem to become unalive on a regular basis. Any ways, Gwen told me that you wanted to talk to me about helping me. Thanks but I stay solo to protect those I care about. I heard you figured out Gwen and I are dating. I'm sure I can trust you guys, since you're the Avengers and all, but I others I have to protect. I don't think I can do that if I'm seen with such visible heros. So I'm going to decline."

"Ok. That's up to you. The offer will be there if you ever want to take advantage of it. Here take this. It is an earwig communicator should you ever need to call for help. It will connect you to J.A.R.V.I.S., who will alert us to your need of assistance." replied Steve, handing Spiderman a small concealable case.

As Spiderman stepped forward to take the case, Natasha whipped a concealed dart at Spiderman. He snatched it out of the air while everyone else went still. Spiderman turned his head to look at the red haired assassin. Before he could speak she said, "I had heard you processed a built in danger sense. Let me ask you, has it ever failed you? Lead you astray?"

"No, it hasn't failed me at all. It senses when I'm in danger all the time. Me catching your dart is proof of that." countered Spiderman.

"Yes you caught my dart. But it was never the danger you had to look out for. He was." answered back Natasha.

"Who are yo- oof. What the hell was that? I didn't sense you at all." said Spiderman as Clint clipped him in the ear.

"That's because I wasn't truly trying to harm you. Just give you a love tap to teach you a lesson." answered as he walked back to Natasha's side. "The point my lovely wife is trying to make is, if you rely on you danger sense only, there might come a time you get blindsided because an enemy can conceal his intent from you. Of you trained with us, we could make you nigh on unbeatable. As it stands now, Natasha could beat you in your untrained state."

Spiderman scoffed, not believing what the two spysassians were saying. As they held is gaze, he started to wonder if they weren't telling the truth by the way they never wavered their eyes like they were uncertain of their claims.

"Yeah, ok whatever. Think I'll be going now. Gwen I'll see you later ok?" a spooked Spiderman said as he backed toward he balcony door. Just before he slipped out the door, Tony cleared his throat to get his attention, saying, "Before you go, take this with you. You can read it later. Just tell me if anything in there interests you ok?" as he walked forward to hand Spiderman a medium size manila envelope. Spiderman tucked it into the waistband of his before stepping out the door to dive off the side of the tower.

As Tony walked back to the bar for his drink, Steve asked, "What was with the dart Natasha? And you Clint, we were trying to help him, not embarrass him. If I had to guess from looking at him, I'd say he was still a teenager. If I remember correctly, teenagers don't react well to being embarrassed like that. We'll be lucky if we ever hear from him now."

Gwen stepped forwards saying, "Actually, by show him that there is something he doesn't know is just going to drive him to learn it. They just proved that they could back up what they said to him. I've never seen anyone sneak up on him like that since he got his powers. That alone is going to drive him crazy."

"Don't worry. Spiderman will be back. I can guarantee it." Tony inputted fro the bar.

"How can you do that?" asked Steve.

"Simple. I handed him plans for a new suit made out of a more protective material and a contract to an internship under his real name. He'll be back just to find out how I figured it out." answered Tony, stunning the entire room as he sipped his drink as he breezed towards the elevator to head to his floor. Pepper was about off and he wanted to meet her to let her know what had happened.

That night both Tony and Pepper swore they got the better end of the deal in the personal assistant swap that happened. They finally agreed that they both came out pretty well and that they both rocked.