A/N Thanks for the reviews! You know how much I love them, right? Why don't you all give yourselves a round of applause! –claps hands in O formation-

Rhodey's in this chapter guys! Now, I know the actor who plays him is only like five-eight or nine, but I feel he should be just a little bit taller, so pardon my changing his stature.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Alls Fair

Little was sitting on the edge of her bed in her bathroom, staring at the garment bag hanging on her closet door. The party would be starting shortly. Very shortly. She had already heard several people arrive on the floor above them. Her sensitive ears had picked up the sounds of her comrades getting ready. Romanoff and Rogers were already upstairs. She smirked at the thought that they were each other's dates. If a person stood too long in the same room as those two you could feel the tension that was well underway in growth. A sigh passed her lips. She was going alone. That wasn't an entirely bad thing, though, right? Barton had been totally unfair and rude about it all. He had hinted at accusing her of cheating on him and with Banner! The thought alone could have made her laugh under any other circumstances. Banner was like a brother or a father to her! Her interest in him stopped at him being someone she could talk to. Not once had she ever imagined what it would be like should she suddenly become aroused and he would take her on the lab table or some shit like that. Little closed her eyes hard against the mental image. It didn't even look right in her own head. Barton was crazy if he thought she would go for a guy like Banner. He was nice, sweet, and a good listener, but, as superficial as it was, he had neither the looks nor the body type she fancied.

With a sigh she stood and crossed over to the bag on the door. She unzipped it and pulled her dress out. It truly was lovely. An evil grin came to her face. Barton would want to take this off of her, or so she hoped. Now he wouldn't get the chance. The evil presence moved from her smile to her eyes. Payback's a bitch, ain't it, Barton? With that thought she set the gown down on her bed and left the room to head over to Banner's.

She knocked three times. "Bruce?"

The door opened to reveal that Banner was almost ready for the party. He had on his slacks and white shirt with the unfinished tie hanging around his neck. Just passed him she could see his jacket thrown carelessly on the bed. He looked her over. Her hair and makeup was done, but she was in a bathrobe. "Yes, Jo?"

She gave him a small smile. "I told you what Barton said to me." She simply refused to call him Clint now. "And I was hoping you might help me."

Banner's brow rose. "I don't think I should get in the middle of this. I did cause it, after all."

Her lips pursed in a hard line. "No. He caused this by being a Class A prick about it instead of just talking to me. I was hoping since neither of us have dates I could mash Barton's face in his mess a little further by being your date. No coupley stuff, just me on your arm instead of his." She looked at him with almost pleading eyes. "Please, Bruce, I really feel like making this point."

He sighed and nodded. "Alright, but only if you know how to tie a freaking tie."

Little laughed and reached up to fix the bow tie about his neck. "My mom showed Kileigh and me how to do it. She said that there was a higher chance of our guys not being able to tie their own ties than them being able to." She gave it a little tug and made sure it was straight before nodding. "There yah go. Now, I'm going to go and finish getting ready. I just have to put on my dress and shoes. Oh! And Ember's bow."

Banner made a face. "Her…bow?"

"Yep. Stark said if she's going to follow me around at the party she needs to be dressed appropriately, so I got her a bow to match my dress."

The man just shook his head and watched her go.

In her room, Little patted the bed so that Ember would jump up beside her. She began to carefully tie the ribbon around the kitten's neck. "Now, don't go messing with this ribbon. It's very pretty and you can always wear it again if you like. At this party you'll be on your best behavior, am I understood? Good. Don't go fussing and pitching a fit if someone doesn't understand you. People aren't supposed to know that I know what you say. I'm just a lab assistant who brought you along because you have serious separation anxiety." She held the kitten up to her face. "Am I understood, Ember?"

Ember meowed in agreement and patted her mama's nose playfully with a paw.

Little smiled. "Good, now sit here while I finish getting ready." She picked up the dress and doffed her robe. Slipping into the dress made her smile. She simply loved how well it fit her. Sitting down, she pulled the shoebox on the floor closer to strap into her heels. She took back to her feet carefully. It had been a long time since she'd last worn heels, but she had been practicing for a whole week and soon her natural grace had taken over once more. The last thing she put on was a necklace they had rented from a jewelry store. Pepper had insisted that they look their absolute best since they were representing Stark openly and SHIELD and the Avengers secretly. She looked at herself in the mirror and shook her head with a smile. She didn't look like herself. She looked like a woman who went to galas and parties and attending thousand-dollar-a-plate dinners for charity. Giving into a moment of vanity she couldn't help but think that she looked amazing. After grabbing the last piece to her ensemble, she beckoned to Ember to follow her and headed out into the main room.

Banner's brows shot up and his eyes widened slightly. Holding out his elbow to her, he smiled. "You do look lovely."

An undignified meow sounded below them.

Looking down, the man smiled. "And you look pretty too, Ember." He bent to give her head a little pat.

Ember puffed up her little chest as they stepped into the elevator to head just one floor down.

Little smiled at him. "Thanks, Bruce. I can only hope that Barton thinks the same thing." In her mind she was plotting revenge, but in her heart she could only hope that the man who had upset her so much would get the courage to approach her and tell her she looked nice. She would take that: nice. It would be just enough to make her feel even the slightest bit better.

When the elevator doors slid open she felt like her heart was going to beat right out of her chest. This was a new kind of undercover that she wasn't used to. Little never put on masks of another person to get her information. She sat on windowsills as birds or mice. This was a new playing field for her. She was happy though when the room didn't turn around to look at them as they walked in. Plenty of people were right on time. Men were in their best tuxedos and women were in gown of all colors and styles. Little felt a little better that her dress might not stand out as much now as it was certainly a touch flashier than Romanoff's and Pepper's. She left herself smile as Bruce led them into the crowd and towards Stark and the others.

Barton was standing near the host as part of his cover as a body guard. When he saw Banner coming he was shocked to see he had a date. It wasn't until he truly recognized Little that his jaw literally dropped. She looked fantastic. Her short, bouncy curls were elongated. Her hair was straight down to her ears than the now thick spirals hung loose and free, only occasionally pinned with pins he couldn't see. Her makeup was simple, done in slightly smoky-eye effect with purple and thin black liner. It made her blue eyes stand out tremendously. Her lips were slightly darker than usual and shined with just a touch of gloss. If that wasn't enough to make him want to apologize her dress surely finished it off. The gown was strapless with a sweetheart neckline and hugged her figure before flaring out just below the knees. It was a medium hew of lavender with a pale lavender border at the top of sheer fabric that was bunched just right. The bodice of the dress was coated in sparkles that slowly began to disperse as they descended down the gown until only helter-skelter dime-sized clumps were left. Around her elbows was a dramatically long drape of the same color and material as the border at the top of the gown. The last thing he noticed was her neck. Around it was a simple, yet stunning diamond choker. It was the only piece of jewelry she wore. She looked…He couldn't even think of the right adjective that would describe just how amazing she looked.

Stark was beaming. "I knew Pepper would get you something appropriate! And now that everyone is hear I can make a quick announcement to just us. There are going to be reporters here. They always come to these sort of events if they're high enough on the food chain. There's a guy from the Bugle and USA Today along with a few from some magazines like US Weekly and Vanity Fair. So, stick to your stories as if you've lived them your whole lives."

The group nodded and Stark allowed them to disperse.

Romanoff walked up to Little with a small smile. "You look great, Little."

She blushed slightly as Banner walked off for some reason or other. "Thanks. You look good too, and, I have to admit," she looked around the Russian to the tall, blonde man that was her date, "Rogers cleans up pretty well."

Romanoff smirked. "Yeah, he does."

Little looked her over with a knowing grin, but her eyes slid from her friend to Barton for a short moment before she looked back. She nonchalantly walked away so that she could get in a private word with Romanoff. "Do you think Barton likes this?"

The redhead looked over her with a small smile. "His eyes haven't left you since you guys showed up. What's the Banner, by the way? He your date?"

She smirked. "Yeah. I fully intend on mashing Barton's face in his mess. If he wants to accuse me of things that aren't true than I'm going to have my revenge."

"How do you plan on doing that?"

Little's evil grin returned, but it was masked by a sweet voice so that none around would dare think she was plotting. "I plan on dancing with any gentleman who might ask me, ask a few to dance myself, but anytime Barton comes up to me I'll ignore him and strike up a conversation with the closest person willing to listen."

At her feet, Ember pawed at her dress and mewed.

Little glanced around before nodding to the kitten. "Jarvis will help."

Ember dashed towards the elevator and waited for the doors to open.

Romanoff raised a brow. "What was that about?"

"Ember had to use the little kitty's box. It's a shame I can't openly talk to her tonight. It was nice of Stark to let me bring her and all bu—"

A young man, probably their age, walked up to them with a smile and a recorder in his hand. "Evening, ladies. I'm Joseph Guile with People Magazine wondering who you are and what your relations with Stark are."

Romanoff smiled and held out a hand. The act was on. "Natalie Rushman. I'm Miss Potts' personal assistant, this is my coworker, Kaleigh Little, another personal assistant at Stark Industries."

Joseph nodded. "MmHmm. Tell me, Miss Little, who do you work for?"

How does Natasha do this so easily? "Stark recently hired a new head for R&D. He's my superior."

"A new head? Who's he?"

Little looked through the crowd and pointed out Doctor Banner. "That's him over there."

Guile was insatiable. He asked them a few more question about Stark Industries before thanking them and asking one final question.

"So, tell me, who are you wearing?"

The girls openly smirked. It was obvious he cared more about the business aspect of the questioning than the fashion, but that's what he gets for working for a magazine like People. They happily answered his question before he wandered off to ask more people about their doings and who they were wearing.

Little smiled at Romanoff. "One down, who knows how many more to go?"

The redhead looked around the room. "Well, I'm counting seven other noticeable journalists, but you never know who might ask you a question or two."

"Right. So, I was wonde—"

Little just had no luck finishing sentence that night!

A middle-aged man with slightly graying temples and an air of authority and wealth approached the women. He gave Little a small smile. "Care to dance, Miss?"

The raven-haired woman winked at her friend. "And so it begins." She smiled at the man. "I'd love to."

There were others on the floor dancing to the smooth music. It was quickly decided that this floor was the calm and collected floor whereas the penthouse would be where the heavier music and drinking would be found. Little let the man lead her onto the floor where she kept a respectable distance from him as they moved. Her inner agent was taking mental notes on everything he said. He was a wealthy business man who owned so many buildings and had branches in this country or that country. It was information she would lock away should the need ever arise, but it was boring her practically to tears. When the song was over she smiled and dipped in her best attempt to seem like she knew what she was doing.

The night continued just like that. The occasional man would ask her to dance as she chatted easily with Romanoff, Pepper, or even some other woman or group that caught her interest. Every time she would agree to the dance and as they moved on the floor she would glance around carefully to see if Barton was still in the same room. For many of the dances he was. A small grin would come to her face and she'd make sure he would see her smiling or laughing at something each man said. Yes, she knew it was wrong to play a game like this, but she wanted to make a point. He had hurt her with his words and now she would hurt him with her actions. Alls fair in love and war.

It was during a period that she wasn't dancing when he finally approached her. They were still on the more relaxed floor of the party, but the dull noise of two stories above them could be heard. Barton walked up to her and when they made eye contact he dipped his head slightly in a nod. "Kaleigh."

She was sitting on a barstool with one leg crossed over the other and a drink in her hand. Ember was sitting at the foot of the stool and looking up at Daddy with her big blue eyes that begged for him to pick her up and complement her pretty bow. The kitten has grown to adore her new possession since anyone who noticed a cat was following the blue-eyed beauty around told her that she was absolutely adorable and precious. Those were the few human words she could recognize aside from her name and some simple commands. It was still nothing like the way she understood Mama, but hey, a cat can't have it all.

Little looked him over and tried not to let her inner wants show. He was clean shaven, but had left that sexy stubble on his upper lip and chin. God, she loved that…That, and he looked absolutely amazing in a tuxedo. What should wouldn't give to push that jacket off his shoulders and…Little blinked slowly, ridding her mind of the sudden mental image. He pissed her off, but that wouldn't stop her from daydreaming. "Barton." She took a deep breath through the nose and caught a whiff of alcohol. He had probably had a strong drink or two by then.

Something flashed through his eyes. Hurt. Hurt was evident on his composed face. He didn't like the way his last name sounded on her lips. He was supposed to be Clint to her, not Barton. He cleared his throat. "You look amazing."

Her emotionless face didn't change. "Thank you."

Time for a shot in the dark. "Would you like to dance?"

It was like she pricked his skin just enough to hurt with an imaginary blade.

"No."

Barton watched as she sipped at her drink and looked out over the crowd. He was at a loss. Oh, he knew she was doing this to get back at him, but he wasn't sorry enough to apologize and beg her forgiveness. He had made his point. She did spend too much time with Banner and he refused to think otherwise. Now she was just being petty about the argument. What was worse was that it was working…He continued to stand there in silence beside her as a tall black man walked up. The man was dressed in military finery and had a confident, but not overbearing way about him. Barton recognized him from reports Romanoff had done while undercover at Stark Industries. It was Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes.

Rhodes approached them with a small smile and tipped a nod to Little. "I see you're talking, Miss, but I was wondering if you'd care to dance?"

Barton's eye twitched when she smiled and held out a hand.

"Gladly."

He watched as Rhodes led her out onto the floor and began to move with her.

The military man looked down at her. "I thought you might need saving. It looked like he was getting on your nerves."

Little smiled. "Thank you, Rhodes." Shit! She wasn't supposed to know who he was.

He grinned a brilliantly white smile. "Anytime," his voice dropped to a whisper, "Agent Kaleigh Little."

Her eyes widened.

He nodded his head. "Don't worry, you haven't been compromised. Stark told me you guys would be here tonight. That, and I've got some pretty high security clearance. That's not the point, though, I honestly did just try and save you."

Little looked over her shoulder at Barton who had a new drink in his hand. She sighed and shook her head. "Thanks, it wasn't all that bad. In fact, you helped me piss him off further."

Rhodes' brow rose. "Meaning?"

She smirked slightly. "He's my boyfriend. Just recently he decided to bitch at me for spending time with Doctor Banner, who's my closest friend on the team. He accused me of possibly cheating on him. You could say I didn't take that very well."

"To be fair, were you cheating on him?"

She huffed. "No. Banner's like a big brother to me. I have absolutely no feelings for him that go any further than friendship. So, I'm taking tonight to try and stick it to Barton as best I can."

He nodded. "I'd hate to be him right now."

She smirked. "But he'd sure love to be you. You walked up not long after I refused his request to dance."

Rhodes just laughed before spinning her out and back to the music. "So, tell me, you were never supposed to be part of the big team. What happened?"

She frowned. "I was there when Loki killed Coulson. I could've stopped it from happening, but I didn't. Coulson died because I didn't step up. I had a right to avenge his death as much as any of us and Fury knew that. When we were getting ready to go the Captain just sort of initiated me into the group."

Rhodes smiled. "I saw some of the footage from what happened. You're a force to reckon with, if you ask me. So, is it only animals or can you become people too?"

Little smiled and shook her head. "This is my only human form, but so long as the animal has a backbone I can do it." She nodded over to the stool she had vacated where her beloved Ember was sitting. "That kitten over there is my little girl, Ember. She was a gift from Stark when we all moved in. I can talk to animals, too. She's a sweetheart."

He looked over at the kitten with the sparkly purple bow that matched Little's dress. She was watched her owner dance across the floor with intelligent eyes. He had never seen such knowing eyes on a cat before. She seemed smart than your average cat just by looking at her. He smiled. "She's cute."

The woman was about to laugh and thank him, but something caught her eye. Across the room there was a blonde woman in a dress with a slit so high it would probably even make Tony Stark blush. In Little's mind she was painted up like a cheap three-dollar hooker. Now, a woman like this would usually just a disapproving frown from her, but this one was doing the one thing that pissed her off. Blondie was leaning against a man who was leaning against the bar. The man she happened to be leaning on was Barton. What really bothered her was that one of his hands was sitting a little too low on Blondie's backside for comfort while Blondie ran her hands up his chest, a flirtatious grin on her too-red lips. Fake nails drew a line along his jaw and his hand went up her arm.

Little stopped dancing and started glaring.

Rhodes followed her line of sight and grimaced. "Well, it looks like two are playing your ga—Kaleigh?"

The raven-haired woman was stomping across the floor, her heels clicking viciously as she went. When she was upon the handsy couple she grabbed the blonde by her shoulder and yanked her off and away from Barton. She glared up at the woman since the blonde was quite a bit taller than her. "Get off of my boyfriend. Now." Venom dripped from her lips as she spoke.

Blondie returned the glare. "If he's your man than why was he all alone while you've been dancing with every other guy at this shindig, huh?"

Barton spoke up. "Kaleigh, Christine, chill."

Recognition flashed through the smaller woman's eyes at the second name. Christine? As in Christine Everhart? She had to be. This had to be the woman who had done spread on Stark before. She had to be the Vanity Fair reporter Stark mentioned earlier. Instead of calming down, she heated up even more. "Why do you find it necessary to try and get into every man's pants at this shindig, huh?"

They glared daggers at one another.

"What did you say, bitch?"

Barton's face paled slightly. That was a bad choice on Christine's part to call her that.

People were beginning to stop and watch the catfight. Word had quickly gotten upstairs about the situation and the rest of the Avengers were now amongst the group, ready for crowd control should something bad happened. Reporters were at the front of the group starting to gather, ready with recorders and cameras. Everyone had a feeling shit was about to go down.

Little narrowed her bright eyes at the woman. "What did you call me?"

Christine smirked her red lips. "I called you a bitch." She took a step back when she heard a loud growl coming from the same direction as the black haired woman. Was that coming from her?

Barton stepped up to Little. "Calm down, Kaleigh."

She shoved him away from her. "No! I will not calm down! Not after watching you put your hands all over this…this…this slut!" The last word came out more as a snarling growl that an insult.

And suddenly, screaming.

Christine Everhart was pressed against the bar, screaming like a banshee while on the brink of possibly fainting from terror. The group behind the arguing women was surging towards the elevator aside from the few ballsy reporters who had cameras. They wanted to be certain that they got the evidence that a petite woman had just turned into a large black bear that was roaring a challenge at the wailing reporter.

Barton rushed in, whatever haze or buzz he had from the drinks was long gone now. He stepped boldly between the bear and the woman, holding his hands up. "Kaleigh! Kaleigh, calm down!" His efforts went unnoticed as she swatted him aside like a bothersome fly.

That's when it hit her. The sound in her ears wasn't the profanities she was hearing in her head. No, she heard a monstrous roaring. Still on her hind legs, Little turned and looked at the terrified faces of those who were looking over their shoulder and pushing for the staircase and elevator. She turned and saw Barton holding his head and side as he got to his feet. Her eyes hit the floor and she saw the beautiful diamond necklace laying there. Jewelry was the one thing that didn't remain a part of her when she shifted. The clasp had broken, but the necklace itself remained unharmed. Her eyes cast around the room before turning back on the frightened Christine. She huffed and growled before shifting back. She was looking around in terror. She wasn't used to this. At the school her gifts were applauded. In SHIELD her powers were useful and respected. During the battle she remembered people looking upon her with awe. Yet this—this endless terror—was impossible to bear. Shaking her now mussed curls she ran over to a window and threw it open. Sirens assailed her ears. Someone had called the police. Without looking back she hiked up her gown and leapt out the window.

Barton was on his feet and leaning out the window. "Kaleigh!"

He watched her fall for a story or two before turning into an owl and flapping off through the skies above Manhattan. His heart was pounding in his chest. Where the hell is she going?

There was a bigger issue to think about, though. In the next few days articles all over the news, internet, and print would out Kaleigh for what she was.

A/N Massive, huge, big ass props to KD Skywalker who put the idea into my head to bring Everhart into this. Thanks!

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