"Miss Carter, Mister Stark as directed me to issue you a wakeup call for the press conference this morning," Jarvis chimed in and I groaned.

"Tell Howard he can go straight to hell," I grumbled, sinking back into my pillow, not feeling it since my return from the game last night. Tasha had done me up to the nines just for me to return to the tower, just in case someone snapped a pic. Just incase there were paparazzi outside the tower. I immediately went upstairs to the common room and slumped down.

"Good game kiddo," Tasha had said as I left the elevator, electing to stay in and go back to her personal floor.

I was the only one besides Tony and Peter who got out on this floor, Steve heading back to his floor again as well. I rolled my shoulders and went to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water and running a hand over my face as I stood at the counter. Peter perched on one of the stools by the island and observed quietly. I looked to Tony and waited to see if he was going to say something. He seemed content at the silence as he tapped away at his phone. I however was not.

"Tony," I started.

"Yes Princess?" he asked using my old nickname.

"How come you came to the game tonight?" I asked.

"To support you," he replied. "Football's important to you, is it not? It's the first game of the season."

"Yeah but, aren't you mad at me?" I asked.

"Not anymore," he replied. "Pepper told me I was being childish."

"Why were you so mad at me, anyway?" I asked.

"Well Princess," he sighed, putting his phone down. "A lot of reasons. You know I didn't get along with my father, so there was the initial annoyance of you bringing him out of the past to interact with me. Then there was the you disappeared off into a war zone with him for shits and giggles, scaring the hell out of everyone who cared about you. And, because I was scared, things fell so far out of my control. I was trying to protect you from the past, even though it was your future. It had already happened so it was going to happen to you."

"But if we're being real? Mostly my dad."

"Tony, I'm sorry things were so shitty for you," I sighed, sliding down on the counter. "I couldn't hate him for what he'd done to you, when he hadn't done it yet. I couldn't see him as the old tyrant when what I was seeing was a goofy, young guy who reminded me so much of you. He was my best friend I didn't even think about him being your asshole dad. I went back because I'd hurt him, and I felt awful. He'd only been nice to me, he'd treated me like an equal and not as an idiot, which a lot of the people smarter than me do. I couldn't bare to have him look at me or think of me with anything other than friendship so I went back to make it up to him as much as I went back for Bucky. As much as I went back to not disappear suddenly and suspiciously."

"I know, Pepper berated me about it a lot," He replied.

"I'm glad we're friends again," I sighed contently. "We got along so well before, it was killing me us fighting."

"You and me both," he smiled and then went back to the elevator, seeming achieved all he'd wanted to on the communal floor.

"So," Peter started. "Who's Bucky?"

I wandered over to the couch, Peter following behind me and I slumped down on top of it, laying my head back and clutching the slightly wet water bottle in my hot hands. I ran my damp hand over my face and sighed while he waited patiently for my answer.

"You got time? It's a long story.." I started and he smiled at me.

"I want to hear everything," he replied and I nodded. I'd missed this. Peter was my best friend too, Peter was my brother.

I spilled my guts out to him, I told him everything, from being dragged down into the water in the docks that fateful day, the letters, the proposal in the park. The photos, the dancing, the theatre. The battlefield, the train, the rescue, I told him everything. It poured out of me like a waterfall and I couldn't stop it. He listened quietly, letting me talk, rubbing my back as I sobbed when we got to the sad parts. Brushing my hair behind my ear and away from my face.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, Bon Bon," he smiled sadly at me. "But I've got your back now you're here with us. Team American Spider has officially made it's resurgence."

"We should go bowling," I said after a while as we sat on the plush white leather.

"We should," he grinned. "I believe I owe someone chilli cheese fries."

"I'd forgotten about that, it's been so long," I laughed quietly.

"It's settled then, tomorrow night," he decided. "Just you and me like the old days."

"Just you and me," I smiled back and yawned. "I'm headed to bed, I'm exhausted."

"Amen to that," I heard Tony say as he barged in.

"Sorry Tony," I mumbled, snuggling in closer to my pillow.

"Nope, up," he poked and prodded. "Busy day," he shook me. "You can come back and sleep, just get through the pampering and the press conference."

"Nooooo," I moaned into the pillow.

"Come on, it's not that bad," he teased.

"Fine," I grumbled, sitting up and rubbing my eyes.

"Good, shower up and the team will get you ready," he grinned and I rolled my eyes.

"Great," I muttered, climbing out of bed and just managing to make it to the shower without killing myself. I slipped off my pyjamas and turned on the water, slipping under the heavy streams and melted into the shower wall as the water blasted into my skin, only missing my hair because I'd moved it out of the way.


"You'll be okay kid," Tony said as he looked me over while I was standing backstage in the next room over to the press conference. "They're really not that bad," he followed as I felt nauseous and probably looked rather green.

"I don't know why I'm feeling like this, I've lived through worse," I said breathing heavily and thinking about the last time I did something in front of the media. I was probably nervous because last time, Erskine and I both got shot. I rested my hands against the wall over a tall garbage bin and tried to even out my breathing. It didn't work, I wasn't sure if it was the wafting smell of garbage that made me throw up or if it was just the fact that I was terrible in high stress situations.

"Oh princess," Tony sighed and pulled out a pocket handkerchief and a box of breath mints.

He wiped my mouth clean for me and then handed me a couple of breath mints and I took them gratefully. He held into my shoulders and rubbed soft circles on them with his thumbs.

"Okay Princess, look at me," he directed and I looked him in the eye. "You can do this, nothing bad is going to happen. You are strong and can take on anything. You can do this."

"Okay," I breathed and nodded. "I can do this."

"Good afternoon. Welcome to this Stark Industries Media Conference. You will be hearing from the Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries and Chairman, Tony Stark, Owner and Majority Share Holder and several other speakers from Stark Industries. Before we introduce them as a group and then individually, I am going to explain how today's Q&A will work. You will limit one question per turn and all speakers reserve the right to leave some questions unanswered," I heard someone say on the other side of the wall.

"We're ready for you," a slender woman in a pencil skirt said leaning in and we nodded. I straightened my shoulders, put my head back and walked with purpose. I was behind Pepper and Tony attempting to copy their walks as we made it out into the crowd of people and walked up onto the stage, sitting behind a table with microphones and glasses of water.

I reached out softly and took a sip of my ice cold water, swallowing it down to wash away any residual taste of vomit and swirled the quickly dissolving breath mints around my mouth. I sat up straight and attempted to look bored but powerful like Tasha had suggested while I waited to be bombarded with questions I really didn't know how to answer.

"Ladies and gentlemen, CEO Pepper Potts and I are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. We will now introduce our other panel members for today. We have Stark Industries Publicist Michael O'Brian, Designer of the new Stark line Keeley McDermott and the manager representing the talent Jeanette Keane," Tony introduced. He then gestured to me who was sitting on his left and in the middle of the table. "Lastly, we have Bonnie Carter, the new Face of Stark Industries and model for the new Stark line."

"It's important we save all unrelated questions for another time," Pepper started and I was thanking her for warning everyone to keep to the line. "And focus all questions towards the new line and the new Face of Stark."

"Mister Stark what lead to the decision of choosing Miss Carter for the Face of the line?" A reporter asked and I almost breathed a large sigh of relief that the question wasn't directed to me. Although my ears did prick up to what he would say. I mean, it wasn't like he was going to say ''She's my reckless asshole friend and I did this to keep her out of trouble'' so what would he say.

"A lot of things went into the decision to make her Face of Stark," Tony started typically. "She fits the line, she has the skills necessary, she's of course beautiful and makes a good model, but most importantly, I am able to trust Miss Carter. She makes an exemplary representative of Stark Industries."

I was flattered. It was bullshit, but I was flattered.

"Miss Potts," someone else asked. "Can we expect more lines brought out after this one?"

"It's of course, greatly dependant of the success of this one," she started. "But we've had very promising results so far and we haven't officially launched the line yet. So it wouldn't be too early to be expecting more from Miss McDermott."

"Miss Carter," Someone said and I tried not to shit myself on stage. "You're a high school student, footballer and involved in community service projects already, how do you plan to mange the time spent between these activities and the new responsibilities brought by being the Face of Stark?"

"Effectively," I replied causing Tony and Pepper to laugh and then because they laughed, so did the crowd. "If I wasn't able to undertake all of these activities, I wouldn't. I love football, like a lot of Americans so I wouldn't be giving that up, and I'm confident in my ability and my manager, Jeanette's, ability to manage all these and my time effectively. I see no problem continuing my studies and my community service projects while I also model and represent Stark."

I spotted Tasha in the crowd, probably posing as Natalie Rushman again and she nodded at me. Good, I was doing well.

"Will we be seeing you at the Stark Expo, Miss Carter?" Someone else asked and before I could look awkwardly at Tony for help, the question was answered for me.

"The guests for Stark Expo haven't been revealed yet," Stark's publicist announced. "So unfortunately, Miss Carter can't answer that."

The rest of the morning went similarly, and I couldn't remember any of the questions or my answers but eventually I was able to leave and I tried not to run towards the doors as I got up to leave. I climbed into the limo Stark had hired and got in after Pepper, Tony and the other Stark people I'd already forgotten about only to find Tasha already sitting inside.

"Natalie," Tony greeted. I was right, she was undercover again.

"So," I said after a moment of sitting beside her and getting comfortable.

"Will I be making an appearance at Stark Expo?" I asked and Pepper nodded.

"If I have to show up, you have to," Tony replied going into the minibar and pouring himself a scotch. "So, where are we taking you kid?"

"Peter and I are going bowling," I replied looking out the tinted windows a moment and then checking my watch. Almost lunchtime.