Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, its characters, or any of its content. I am not making any money, nor do I intend to, off of this story or any of its Chapters.

A/N: Remember tiny Lily from John's Grocery Store in Brooklyn? Someone decides to pay her a visit. Things aren't going to settle down any time soon.

Chapter 13: Friends and Neighbors

Robyn Clark was getting a taste of how frantic and insane Pepper Potts' life must have been while attempting to manage Stark Industries public image. As she stared down at her tablet displaying an article with a censored picture of one unclothed, completely inebriated Tony Stark and a headline that read Stark Naked!, she reached for the bottle of Excedrin she kept in her new desk. She wondered if and how she could fix this, or at least release something that would take it out of the limelight for a while. The noise of the elevator doors sliding open into her office took her focus briefly away from the task at hand. Bryn walked in, smirking and shaking her head, a couple of Starbucks cups in hand.

"Hey there. Guess you caught the news this morning?" She grinned.

"Yes, I unfortunately did. What can I do for you, Miss Mercier?" Robyn politely asked.

"Just call me Bryn. Everyone else does. And I don't really need anything. I was just coming up to drop off some coffee for ya. Figured I'd say hello to my new neighbor while I was checking up on what needs to be repaired. There's always something."

"Oh, thank you...You didn't have to get me coffee, but I appreciate it."

"Anytime. I find it a bit hard to wake up and work without it."

"I noticed you've moved into the apartment across from mine. I must admit, I'm glad I have company on that floor. I'd hate to be all by myself there."

"Ditto. I'm used to noise, so it'd drive me nuts to be alone on an empty floor. Anytime you need anything fixed or moved, just ask. I'm right across the hall. Well, if you can call it a hall. I'm going to call it a corridor because it's freakin huge." Bryn smiled.

"Thank you." Robyn paused. "I know this may seem a little odd, however, I felt the need to ask out of curiosity. Do you know anything about the large room on our floor? I can't find anything in the blueprints on it and something's off about the lock. My keycard doesn't work."

"Now that you mention it, it did seem a bit strange. I mean, my keycard doesn't work either, and, like you said, no blueprints for it. The lock isn't declining the cards either. It looks like it's just...broken, or malfunctioning. When I asked Stark about it, he just brushed it off and said it was nothing important…" Bryn hesitated before her next suggestion. "What are you doing tonight? I'm off at 6:00 or so, if everything goes well."

"I don't have any plans." She was a little nervous and didn't know what the mechanic was about to say.

"If you want to, we could check it out. I'm sure I can fix that lock, or figure out why it's doing that. We can bust in and take a look around. I mean, if it's nothing important, that should mean it's not classified, right?"

"I'm not entirely sure that's a good idea. Without Mr. Stark's permission…"

"Well, seeing as I am sort of the Tower's Appliance Repair and Maintenance woman, it's my job to fix things that are broken. And that lock is broken. I'll just make sure I happened to notice it while I was inspecting the floor." Bryn grinned again. "C'mon, it'll be fun! We might find something cool."

"I'll think about and give you a call…Mr. Stark gave me your number, should anything break and he's not available. I hope that's alright." Robyn smiled back. "The maintenance schedule was posted a little while ago. It actually should be linked to your phone, now that you have a StarkPhone."

"That's convenient."

"Incredibly. I also noticed that we got an order today for Mr. Rogers, but it's waiting in the Maintenance wing. They didn't know where else to put it, so they sent it to your department. It was a part of some sort and they didn't feel comfortable delivering it directly to him."

"Huh...weird. Steve didn't tell me he needed anything recently. I'll go check it out when I'm done with the rest of the list. I'll see you later, Robyn. Thanks!"

Robyn smiled as she watched her walk out the door. She seemed nice. A little unrefined, but not in a bad way, and it was something the Assistant could get used to.

Bryn threw herself into her work that day, finally gaining some semblance of normalcy after her life had been so chaotic as of late. She wanted to prove to everyone around her that, despite her lack of official training and civilian status, she was tough enough to withstand what she went through. She wouldn't bend or break, and she'd be completely fine on her own, provided that people let her work it out in her own way. Which, currently, was taking on projects here and there, making sure all of the little things ran smoothly, and ensuring that today's superheroes had enough up-to-date technology to worry more about the important job they held, and less about how well their washers and dryers were working. She had her moment of weakness and broke down at night in the shower, where she wasn't seen, but while she was in public or around others, she liked to maintain a sense of normality. Bryn silently thanked whatever gods made Tony Stark the way he was, because he was one of the only people in the Tower not giving her an extra glance or a look of concern when he saw the sores above her eye or the bruises on her body. He didn't pester her relentlessly or dote on her in any way; just asked, once in awhile, how she was holding up, and got on with his day.

'They should be used to it by now. I'm always banging my head on something or somehow hurting myself at work. It sucks that it happened the way it did, but it's not as big a deal as they're making it, I swear. I've got this...'

As she supervised the finishing touches on the electrical in one of the office level's new bathroom, she thanked the maintenance man working with her to install all of the hand dryers, lighting, and wiring.

"I'm still a little rusty when it comes to commercial grade stuff, but I'm getting there." She smiled at him.

"You have a real knack for it. It doesn't surprise me that you ended up working here." Karl Gunner replied. "What school did you go to?"

"NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. I took a mix of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering courses, but couldn't stay long enough to get my degree. Couldn't afford it."

"How did you end up here, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, Mr. Stark was watching me fix my friend's phone in one of the bars I went to. Ran into me by accident I guess. He gave me his business card. I called a few weeks later. Someone broke something here, and he said if I could put it back together, he'd hire me. I managed to, but it was a tough test. That's my story, though. Right place at the right time. What about you, Karl?"

"Georgia Institute of Technology. Got my Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering and moved to New York to be closer to my parents. I ended up becoming a part of Stark's maintenance department when he took over Stark Industries from Stane. He replaced most of the staff. Can't say I blame him."

The two chatted as they finished up their work and Bryn found herself enjoying Karl's company. As two Engineers, they had quite a bit to talk about and realized that they had a lot in common, even outside their field. They agreed to partner together on several upcoming scheduled renovations, provided Tony gave Bryn approval to work outside the building on his other properties.

As she clocked out using the StarkPad she was given and recorded all of her work, checking off all of the tasks assigned to her that day before arriving on the Maintenance Department's Inventory Storage Room. As expected, there was a package sitting there, waiting to be checked in with the other recent deliveries, with Steve Rogers' name on it. It bore the signature of Wesley Donovan on the invoice.

'That's right; Wes was in the office today. That explains the message I got from him saying there was something sent here by accident. This must be what Robyn was talking about.'

Though she knew she shouldn't snoop, she was a tad bit curious as to what was in the box. It was a weakness of hers, being so nosy.

"Awesome!" She yelled.

Bryn had her eyes set on the brand new Kuryakyn Mach 2 Co-Ax Air Cleaners.

'They must be for his Harley. His awesome, gorgeous Harley that I am totally going to sneak a picture of.'

She felt like a giddy teenage girl as she sealed up the box again, carefully put the package on a handtruck, and made her way to the elevator after leaving a note for Wesley.

"Hey Jarvis, would you mind helping me find Steve's place?"

In a matter of minutes, Bryn was standing at Steve's door with the package on the handtruck. Carefully slipping it off the truck, she left it at the door with a small note attached, returning to floor 65 with a smile plastered on her face. Just as she entered her apartment, she received a phone call from a number she didn't recognize. Her phone immediately supplied the information, and the caller was identified as Robyn Clark.

"Hi there!" Bryn answered cheerfully.

"Hello, Bryn. I gave what you said some thought. My curiosity is going to win out on this one."

"Good to hear. I'd hate to be the only one exploring our floor. When do you want to take a look?"

"Would you mind meeting me at that door in about half an hour from now? I have a few more things to finish up, and then I'm calling it quits for a couple of hours. I need a break."

"Job driving you crazy already?"

"A little, but don't tell Mr. Stark that."

"Your secret is safe with me. I don't envy you; I'd much rather do hands on stuff. See you in a bit!"

Thirty minutes later, Robyn was watching the mechanic rip apart the paneling on the lock to get to the wiring. She managed to keep Jarvis quiet because, as she suspected, this floor wasn't a security issue or even a priority to Tony, and she really was going to fix the lock when she was done.

"Damn." Bryn growled as she tried to take a closer look behind the panel. "What the hell happened to this thing? It's like it hasn't been used in ages. It's...weird. And slightly melted. All the other locks are newer. This one looks older."

"It's strange. Tony built this tower. There shouldn't be leftovers from any other building here."

"Oh, it's not that old, just a little dated. Like a project someone forgot about. All things, if not used, get a bit stiff and give out eventually."

With one final twist, a green light appeared on the keypad and the door slowly opened. The air that came out of the room was rather stale, as if it hadn't been opened in a while. Stepping carefully into the room, Bryn looked around.

"Jarvis, could you turn the lights on for this room? I can't see where I'm going."

Jarvis complied, and soon the entire room was bathed in bright light, illuminating the forgotten space before them.

"Holy shit…" Bryn muttered.

Lily Tisdale was a proud employee of John's grocery store. She was often thankful for her job and benefits, and worked tirelessly on whatever was asked of her, no questions asked or objections given. That being said, she was dead-on-her-feet, completely drained, and most definitely not in the mood for any more unpleasant surprises. The small grocery store had been packed that day, and she'd forgone her lunch break to take the heat off of some of their less experienced cashiers. It was days like this when she ended up missing her original mentor, Bryn, who managed to keep a cool head and work out whatever issues arose during a hectic shift. She briefly wondered what had become of her before collapsing into her comfortable recliner and kicking off her shoes, falling into sleep moments later. In her rush to get an adequate amount of rest, she didn't realize she had left one of her windows open.

Approximately four hours later in the middle of the night, the small redhead woke up feeling slightly stiff and a little cold. Rising from the chair and turning on the light, she froze at the sight in her kitchen and nearly fell backwards. Her gasp alerted her visitor that he had been spotted. Alert blue eyes stared her down, his large form tensed; clearly ready to defend himself. Lily blinked and tried to catch her breath. She hadn't been this terrified since she ran into a bear on her camping trip in Upstate New York the year before. Glancing at the Fire Escape window, she mentally berated herself for forgetting to close it. It was, however, alarming that this very large man managed to find her way into her apartment without making so much as a peep. She looked back at him, trying to hide her shaking behind a brave face, and failing miserably.

"I don't have any money, so, um, you're out of luck if you need cash because I'm totally poor…" She squeaked.

He just stared at her, almost confused, and shifted, clutching something in his arm, as if he thought she was going to take it from him. His very large, quite terrifying, metal arm. When Lily looked at him, she realized it was a bowl of mac and cheese she had left on the counter after heating it up and being too exhausted to even bother eating it. Had this guy seriously broken into her apartment to steal her mac and cheese of all things? What the fuck was going on here?

"Um...you can keep that, if it's food you're looking for. You can have whatever you want. Just don't hurt me, please."

She watched him as he moved to look back down at the bowl. She wasn't an expert with the feelings of other people; to be honest, she tried to avoid them most of the time, but she swore he looked confused and lost. He looked like a man who had seen better days. His clothing was tattered in spots and clearly hadn't been washed recently. The ball-cap covering his head was smudged with dirt a bit. He didn't seem to want to hurt her, but she was cautious nonetheless. Lily felt a small pang in her chest when he clutched the food a little tighter. She was startled when he finally spoke.

"I won't hurt you. You're not my mission."

"That's...good to know…" She answered. "If you're still hungry, I have more food. I can make you something better to eat, if you'd like…"

He met her eyes and nodded.

"Okay. You can sit down with that, you know. No one is going to take it away from you."

The man moved to sit at her small kitchen table, still eyeing her warily. Lily carefully walked into the kitchen and went about finding something else for him to eat. She had a ton of pasta, as it had been on sale that week, and set out making some spaghetti.

'Not entirely sure what the hell I'm doing. Making food for some strange man that broke into my home. I really, really have to get out more…I should probably call the police...but he looks so lost, and hungry. Mom always said I would get myself killed someday being too nice to strangers.'

"What's your name?" Lily asked.

"...James." He replied, almost as if taking a minute to think about it.

"It's nice to meet you, James. My name is Lily. I hope you like spaghetti."

James seemed to perk up a little at the idea of spaghetti, but it didn't stop him from devouring the mac and cheese anyway.

'Goddamn, this is awkward as hell.' She thought, glancing repeatedly over her shoulder to make sure the strange man didn't spontaneously kill her in her kitchen.