Next chapter! I hope you like it, even if it's very short. The whole story with Maria and he hacking comes to an end here, I'm sorry that it was so long. The idea just came to me and once I'm writing something like that, I can't stop anymore. I hope you liked that part either way. Please let me know what you think! In the next chapters, we'll get more of Tony and Pepper.

I don't own the characters and places!


"Stop it." Pepper muttered.

Tony raised his eyebrows at her. "What do you mean? I'm not doing anything."

"You were thinking of standing up and walking around." She argued. "I could see it from the look on your face."

He shook his head. "I wasn't." He said simply. When she just looked at him sceptically, he sighed. "Alright, maybe I was thinking about it just a little bit. But of course I'll just remain sitting here, after all, I'm still injured." He held back the urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he smiled at her charmingly.

Pepper didn't take the bait, her expression remained sceptical. "Once I'm gone, you'll not behave this good anymore."

"I remained calm the past three days. I'll manage two more days, don't worry about that. And besides, I've got lots of things to do today. So it'll be unlikely that I even get out of here." He didn't want to remind her of the meeting with Maria, but since Steve would arrive with her soon, he couldn't simply talk himself out of it. He really hoped that they would finish this chapter now, it was really annoying him. After this, he would release Hill from her duties as his assistant. He'd already mentioned that to Pepper the previous night. To his surprise, she's been very happy about it. And she also showed him this. At that thought, Tony had to grin.

Pepper looked at her watch. "They'll be here soon. I should leave."

Tony nodded reluctantly. Pepper wrapped her arms around his shoulders carefully and smiled at him. "I hope you can solve his problem now."

"Me too." He whispered and leaned in to kiss her. She drew back far too early for his liking.

"I'll see you later." With one last smile, Pepper left the lab.

He sat there in silence for a few moments. When he was allowed to go outside again, he would have dinner with Pepper in some fancy restaurant. There were a few places here she liked, maybe he could already make a reservation. They could also leave the city for a day, a trip would be nice. Just the two of them, alone. And he would drive north, probably with Steve, to look at the piece of land for their new facility. He needed to meet a few architects there before everything could start.

"JARVIS, did you analyse the movements of our skyscraper man by now?" Tony asked in the silence of his lab.

"Yes Sir, and it is very interesting. It seems as if the person, it is indeed a man, holds onto something. The material seems to be like a thin rope, but it is far more stable and elastic. And he did not place it there." JARVIS explained and showed Tony the records again.

Tony looked at it closely. "You're right, I can't see a rope." He muttered. "And I didn't notice one when I was there myself. But how does he do it then? He can't carry it with him, he wouldn't be able to place it on another building and he only holds into it after he jumped…" He thought about it for some time and looked at the records again, but he couldn't find the solution to that riddle. At least, not yet.

The sound of the elevator doors opening ripped him out of his thoughts.

Steve and Maria entered the lab. Steve smiled at Tony and sat down on the chair next to him, which left the couch for Maria Hill. Tony and Steve exchanged a look. Hill was looking tired and serious. She didn't greet Tony, but he didn't expect her to do it either. After breakfast, Tony and Steve had talked about their tactic for this conversation. They wanted to see if she told them the truth first. If she wouldn't, Steve would be nice to her while Tony tried to get the truth out of her in the hard way.

The look Steve gave Tony was reassuring. Did he already talk to Maria? Maybe, he looked confident that this would end well. The previous afternoon, after he'd accompanied Maria to her quarters, Steve had visited Tony in his lab. He'd been shocked by her behaviour, he also didn't expect Maria Hill to act like this. They came to the conclusion that it had to be something personal, otherwise she would tell them the truth. But why was she so scared that they'd find the real reason for the hacking? They would have to find out about this now.

"So do you want to tell us the truth now? I'm really tired of your games, Agent Hill." Tony said and raised his eyebrows at her. Next to him, Steve also looked at her questioningly.

Hill sighed. "I don't have a choice, unless I want SHIELD to be thrown out of here." She muttered. "And you won't leave me alone, if I don't tell you why I did it in the first place. But this is something personal, you have to keep it to yourselves."

"That won't be a problem." Tony said slowly, not promising her anything.

"We won't tell anyone." Steve assured her and at his words, Maria relaxed.

"Alright. And the information for SHIELD wasn't a lie." She said with a look at Tony.

"But not the whole truth either." He argued.

"That's true." She answered after a few moments of hesitation. "As I said, it's complicated."

"Then make us understand everything." Tony requested.

"Two weeks ago, a man who's been working for the government vanished." Maria Hill began her story. Tony and Steve exchanged a look but didn't say anything. Government? Wasn't this about SHIELD? "His name is Ben, the last name isn't important for this story. He was out on a mission in Nigeria, they should find the leaders of a secret organisation which trades with drugs and people. And probably weapons, they weren't sure of that yet. I wanted to find out what happened to him."

"And why are you interested in his fate? Do you know him?" Steve asked calmly.

Maria nodded. "Yes, I do." She said simply. "We were in contact, even when he was out on missions. He worked for SHIELD many years ago, but he left us to do something else. He wasn't always happy with the way Fury saw things."

"And then you change from SHIELD to the government? Both not the best choices, I'd say." Tony muttered sceptically.

Hill's eyes narrowed. "He's a warrior and he wanted to fight. The army was the best choice."

"There are more possibilities than just those two." Steve threw in. "But that's nothing we have to discuss now. So he vanished. And you were in contact. Did he leave you a message?"

She nodded. "In fact, he did. Two days before he disappeared."

"What did the message say?" Tony asked and when she looked at him angrily, he held up his hands. "Just asking."

"Yes, and I just wanted to tell you that." She muttered. "He just said that something strange happened, which might be of interest for SHIELD. He didn't go into details, just that the organisation wasn't what it seemed to be. And he mentioned supernatural events. That's all he could tell me before the line went dead. Two days later, his whole regiment was reported missing."

"Supernatural events." Tony repeated. "Seems to be perfect for SHIELD."

"He was close to you, wasn't he?" Steve asked softly. Tony had also noticed the sadness in her voice, but he didn't plan to ask. Of course Steve would want to know something like this.

"Yes, he is. Back when he was at SHIELD, we always worked together. We were a team, just like Natasha and Clint." Maria explained and hesitated again. "And he's my brother."

Tony and Steve exchanged a short glance again. A brother? That was a surprise. No wonder that she wanted to find out what happened to him. "And when no one could tell you what happened, you tried to get those files." Tony suspected and she nodded.

"It was a stupid idea, I knew that. But what other choice did I have?"

"You could have talked to us." Steve said softly. "We could have found a solution for this together. Something less illegal." At the last words, his voice became serious again. Steve hated everything illegal.

She sighed. "You wouldn't have helped me." She muttered and avoided looking at them. "And you can't help me, even if you want it. It's not like you can just call the government and ask for the essential information."

Tony ran a hand through his hair. He thought about this for a few moments, considering his next action. To his surprise, he believed her. And by the way she sat there in front of them, looking completely defeated, it didn't look like she would still lie to them. So what could he do now? He could say too bad and let her deal with this alone. But Steve would be very angry at him then. Tony could tell from the look on his face that Steve had already decided to help, even if she'd acted pretty bad in the past days. Could he help her? He knew a way to get the essential information, but would he use that possibility? After all, he was still very angry at her, for lying and for making Pepper feel uncomfortable. Nevertheless, he was an Avenger and they helped people… He forced back a sigh. Seemed like his decision has been made already. Maybe he could still find a way to make her pay for lying… "What if we can do that?" He asked simply.

At his words, she stiffened and looked at him attentively. Maybe her expression was also suspicious, but he ignored that.

"Colonel Rhodes?" Steve asked quietly and Tony nodded with a slight smile.

"Rhodey." He agreed. "I bet he can ask someone, after all, he's also working for them. And he still owes me a favour. For the suit." Tony explained at Steve's questioning look.

Then he turned to Maria again. "Telling us this wasn't difficult at all, was it?" He asked slowly, still not happy with her.

She shook her head. "No. And I'm sorry. I just thought that I could solve this alone."

"Everyone needs help sometimes, that's nothing bad." Steve explained softly.

"Doesn't mean that lying was alright. And that we forgive you that easily." Tony added sternly.

"If you want to throw me out of your tower –" Maria started, but Tony interrupted her.

"No one will be thrown out." At least not yet. "But it will have consequences. JARVIS already enabled most actions in the internet from your computers which could lead to illegal activities. And he will observe all your actions. When he finds something, he'll inform me immediately. And next time, I'll not be so nice to you."

Maria Hill nodded, looking relieved. "Thank you, Tony – Mr. Stark." She corrected herself quickly.

Tony nodded. "Tony's fine." He muttered. "But not in front of Pepper." He warned her. "You'll stay away from her. And you won't be my assistant anymore. We'll find another job for you."

"Alright." She frowned, not looking very happy with the changes. "So I will have to make an appointment when I need to talk to you?"

"Why does that surprise you?" Tony raised his eyebrows.

She looked at her hands. "It's nothing."

"So you'll ask Rhodey for that favour?" Steve changed the subject quickly.

"Yes, I'll call him. He's in Washington, I think. Or he'll be there this weekend. I'm not sure about that. I'll ask him about Ben Hill. I need the other names. And the organisation they observed."

"I can send you a list." Maria said quickly.

"However, I'm not sure if the Avengers can help you with this, Agent Hill." Tony said in his most official tone. "Maybe SHIELD has to deal with it alone. After all, we've got our own missions."

She nodded, this time she looked more confident. "We can deal with it by ourselves." She said in a challenging tone. "Just tell us where to go, then I'll not bother you with it again."

To Tony's surprise, Steve didn't say anything else. He'd already expected him to offer their help, if SHIELD really needed it. But when Tony glanced at him, he saw a serious expression on Steve's face. The past months had lessened his trust in SHIELD as well. And it was true, it wasn't a task for the Avengers.

Steve asked Maria to tell him something about her brother, but Tony wasn't really listening anymore. He asked himself why on earth he had asked her to tell the truth. As if they didn't have enough problems already.