Hello everyone! I would like to take a moment to thank Ranker for the fav. DovahStark, Kaltie, Scott Simeroth, TheWingedBeatle for following. As well as Sabth3607, T-Rex-1000, and w.k for doing both. It means a lot to me! (Note! w.k, I'm sorry for not putting your full username. It kept disappearing every time I saved the changes.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Carrie White, the Avengers, or any other MCU characters.
Chapter 5: The Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist
The medics Fury brought with him survived the crash and set their attention on Carrie. None of the others were seriously hurt, thankfully. The teenager was too exhausted to do more than nod yes or no to their questions as she drifted in and out of consciousness. When she finally went into a deep sleep, she woke up a few days later in the medical ward of SHIELD's HQ.
Phil came to her room minutes after she woke up, a breakfast/lunch tray in hand. It was latter in the day, just past lunch.
Carrie listened attentively as he explained what the current situation was. She noted with relief that he didn't have any injuries – Director Fury had assigned him to oversee the evac, so he'd been away from the fighting, but she had still worried. Phil was nothing but kind to her and insisted she call him by his first name when they first met, which took some getting used to. It was a good kind of different though. She knew that in grand scheme of things she was just an assignment and his kindness was laced with ulterior motives for SHIELD, but still. Carrie appreciated the kindness he extended to her.
"The doc days you're vitals are stable so after you eat, get dress and come with me. I'm on my way to get one of the team members for our response team."
She ate as quickly as she could – it was oatmeal with strawberries on top and a mug of that Oolong tea she had developed a taste for. Carrie made sure to finish it – Phil, by instruction of her doctors, was strict about making sure she ate three meals a day, even if she didn't finish everything. The teen wanted to cooperate, and always tried to finish her plate.
Thirty minutes later they were on their way to Stark Tower. Despite feeling rested there was a sense of weakness in her body, as if she had pushed herself too hard during gym. The girl didn't say anything about it though, it would probably be gone by tomorrow. The food had helped.
Carrie was intimidated by how huge and expensive everything was, and how drab and plain she felt walking in. Phil in his suit and calm, confident stride fit right in, but the teen knew in comparison, she stood out like a sore thumb.
"Hello Agent Coulson."
She jumped.
"Hello JARVIS, I'm here to see Mr. Stark, its urgent." Phil said calmly to the ceiling.
JARVIS? This was JARVIS?
Hearing Phil explain it was one thing, hearing a disembodied voice was another. Mama would be screaming and frothing at the mouth if she knew what her daughter was doing. . .
Carrie shuddered.
"One moment please."
"JARVIS is very polite." She tried to distract herself. Occasionally, she was vividly reminded of what her mother would do to her if she knew Carrie was doing things she expressly forbade or would forbid. Even knowing that the world (the universe) was filled with people and things much scarier and more dangerous than Mama, Carrie couldn't help but fear her most of all.
Phil, as always, noticed her discomfort. He didn't ask though and played along, understanding that she really needed to talk about something, anything.
"Oh yes, much politer than his boss for sure." Phil's smile was wry. Carrie couldn't help but wonder why the lobby was empty. Did JARVIS do the desk lady's job too? Was it the desk person's day off?
"I'm sorry sir and miss but Mr. Stark informed me that he is not in."
"He told you that?" Phil pulled out his phone and started to dial. The elevator doors opened, and she followed her caretaker inside. Had JARVIS or Phil done that?
"Yes." There was a hint of amusement in the very proper voice.
"Alright then," Phil put the phone to speaker "Sorry about this JARVIS." There was a beep and the click as the line connected. "Stark, we need to talk."
"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message." A man's voice said promptly.
"This is urgent."
"Then leave it urgently."
The elevator doors opened into a very big room – much like the lobby her house could have fit inside easily – where two people sat on a couch that was very long and screamed expensive.
Anthony Edward Stark and Virginia 'Pepper' Potts had been part of the lessons to help Carrie catch up on 'basic' knowledge. The former was a self-described genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist and the hero Iron Man. Pepper was his right-hand woman, now CEO of his company and probably one of the most important people in his life. Tony didn't bother to hide his annoyance while Pepper was smiling indulgently.
"Security breach." He grumbled.
"Phil, come in!" Pepper said happily, rising from the couch.
"Phil?" His name is Agent!" Tony protested, following her. Carrie tried to suppress the smile that wanted to break out on her face, the two of them were kind of funny to watch.
After a game of hot potato - Pepper passed the digital folder Phil brought to her boyfriend and took his wine after passing her own to Coulson - Tony sullenly pointed out that consultation hours were between eight and five every other Thursday as his girlfriend helped herself to his drink.
"This isn't a consultation." Phil corrected.
"Is this about the Avengers? Which I know nothing about." Pepper said the last part hurriedly.
"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped Super-Secret Spy and babysitter," Tony said, opening the folder. "Besides, I didn't qualify!"
"Didn't know that either!" Pepper said.
"Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others." The billionaire listed off as he walked to a table further in the room.
"That I did know." The smile on her face was one of reminisce.
"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Phil remained unflappable.
"Yea, Miss Potts, if you will?"
As she went to join her boyfriend, Tony took a moment to really look at Carrie.
"Who's the kid anyway, and why is she dressed like a ye olden schoolteacher?"
"Tony." The ginger CEO lightly smacked his shoulder.
"My name is Carrie White, Mr. Stark. It's nice to meet you and Miss Potts." Carrie fidgeted. "Mama wouldn't let me wear anything else, I'm not used to picking my clothes."
"Yeesh, that sucks." Tony frowned as he opened up the digital files. "Your name is familiar."
"She was the girl from Chamberlain discussed in the papers, Sir." JARVIS' put in helpfully.
Pepper's brows furrowed. The files were on display now, showing information on people Phil had been careful to make sure Carrie would know. The Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and she could even see her own file.
While the other files were displaying images of battles, hers was of prom night. Carrie looked out the window, not wanting to see – she could still taste the pig's blood in her mouth, feel it clogging up in her nose. The girl couldn't stomach pork or any kind of red meat now, and the smell of it cooking was enough to make her nauseous. She felt Phil's eyes on her as Tony and Pepper spoke to each other.
Then suddenly Phil was taking Pepper to the airport and she was left alone with Tony. Carrie had no idea what to say and settled for a nervous smile, noting with relief that the personal file folders had been pushed back. The billionaire was looking at an image of the Tesseract.
"So, kid." He said, making her jump. "How, you holding up? Didn't get through a lot of that article but I read enough to know you had a shitty time."
She ventured closer and admitted. "Uh, some days are easier than others. It's just hard – I'm used to people not liking me, hating me even. I need to remind myself that no one's going to trick me like Chris did on prom night. That can be… hard to remember."
Oh yes it could. Carrie still had nights she couldn't sleep out of overwhelming fear that this was a trick, that one night an agent would slip into her room to perform some kind of humiliation to remind her of her place. She was Carrie White; this wasn't normal, and she hadn't forgotten the nightmarish experience of summer camp years ago. It was like being surrounded by enemies with all her paths of limited escape blocked.
If her fears proved right this would be much worse.
Tony regarded her for a moment.
"Okay kid, that is just sad."
Carrie shrugged.
You had to have friends? People you talked to?" He tried.
"Ms. Desjardin and Sue were nice to me the week before the prom. Sue helped Chris bully me for as long as I can remember but after what happened in the showers, she felt bad, especially when Ms. Desjardin yelled at them. She asked her boyfriend. . . she asked Tommy to take me to the prom so I could be happy for one night." Carrie shifted. "Tommy. . . he was nice. He only took me to the prom because Sue asked but I felt that he really wanted me to be happy. He even said we could just go out for a hamburger if the prom was too much. I… I wish I said yes. He'd still be alive, and Sue's daughter would have her dad."
"Wait? What?" Tony said. This Sue told a girl she'd been bullying for years about her much too soon pregnancy?
Carrie nodded, misunderstanding. "I know. I don't think Sue knows yet. She realized what Chris was going to do but was too late to stop the prank. I felt her and the baby after I started training my powers."
"You felt the baby?" Tony repeated. "You felt that it was a girl?"
"I felt the Tesseract too." Carrie dropped the bombshell on him like it was no big deal. "I think it was bored because it had no problem indulging me. It showed me other planets and outer space."
Tony mentally bumped her file to the top of his homework list and decided to prod further.
"So, what else can you do? I mean, this," Tony opened up her file, thankfully keeping the video miniaturized. "You did this without any hand gestures. Is it always with a thought or do you need to use hand gestures sometimes?"
"The second." Carrie admitted. "It depends on my mental state. I've been practicing but I haven't been able to do that all at once again. I was so angry. . . I shut the doors and windows at once right after shoving everyone back. Normally I'd need few seconds or minutes between each so I can concentrate."
"So, you can't multitask yet." Tony summarized.
"I can if its small things like making breakfast and juggling ingredients. Holding a car above my head and trying to stop another from smashing into me at the same time is. . . doable." Carrie said lamely, remembering the training simulations. She wondered if she would do better in actual dangerous scenarios.
The billionaire looked at her. "That was creepily specific."
"Training simulations." She reassured him. "Even if Director Fury wanted to actually do that, Phil and my doctors wouldn't let it happen."
They talked a bit more. Tony was horrified to learn she knew next to no modern bands and never handled a cell phone before. Carrie wasn't sure how it happened, but he suddenly started writing a list of movies and music she needed to get a hold of 'pronto' in his words.
"Nightmare Before Christmas? Come on tell me you've seen that!
"You've never seen Mean Girls?
"No Beyonce music? Are you serious?!"
Tony acted like it was the highest of crimes the longer the list of her ignorance grew. By the time Phil came back to pick her up, he outright demanded they arrange a movie marathon and said he would personally give her a new phone because. THIS. COULD. NOT. STAND.
She wondered how it was possible to hear all those capital letters, but it was. Phil wasn't able to escape until he gave his word. They left Tony huffing to himself as he went to look through the files. Something about a laptop.
Strangely enough, Phil was smiling as they exited the building. Not his fond-that-was-sweet smile but a matter of fact all-according-to-plan smile.
Carrie didn't comment. She wasn't sure if he would even tell her anyways.
I hope you enjoyed! I will admit, introducing Tony and Carrie to each other made this a very fun chapter to write.
Sincerely,
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