"Dr. Grey, Dr. Shephard we're so glad you decided to join us." Agent Coulson greeted them as they entered the private jet.
"Will Tony be joining us?" Meredith asked. She'd noticed the Stark Industries logo on the side of the plane when they entered.
"The jet is on loan from Mr. Stark." Coulson explained. "He said he wanted to make sure his sister arrived to the city in style."
"That sounds like him." Meredith laughed.
"However," The agent continued. "Mr. Stark will not be involved in your project. His particular skill set is not needed at this juncture."
"When do we get to know more about our mystery patient?" Derek wondered.
"I'm glad you asked, Dr. Shephard." From a briefcase nearby, Coulson produced two identical dossiers. He handed one to Derek and one to Meredith. "Your patient's name is Steven Rogers."
"Steve Rogers?" Derek repeated in disbelief. He flipped open the file and scanned the first page of information.
"Who's Steven Rogers?" Meredith asked.
"He's Captain America or at least he was." Derek told her as he scanned the files.
"Tony was obsessed with Captain America when we were kids. He had a poster in his room and everything." She remembered.
"I used to have a full set of his baseball cards." Derek commented. "I'm pretty sure one of my sisters sold them."
"But I thought he was dead?" Meredith looked to Coulson for an explanation.
"He was presumed dead after the plane he was flying deliberately crash landed in the arctic ocean." Coulson told her.
"It's all here in the files Meredith." Derek agreed. "A group of explorers found him by accident. They were tracking global warming patterns when they found his plane. When they realized exactly what they found, they chipped him out and brought him back to the US. As soon as the government got wind of it they snatch him up. This says he's showing signs of brain activity. How is that possible?"
"We were hoping you could tell us." Coulson answered. "Captain Rogers is still in a coma as of the last update I received, but we think the brain activity is a good start."
"You want to try and wake him up!" Meredith didn't believe what she was hearing.
"We want to try and wake him up." Coulson confirmed.
"I don't know what to tell them." Derek confessed later that evening. He and Meredith had both been invited to Tony's uptown apartment for dinner. The three adults sat on the floor of the billionaire's living room. With a collection of pizza boxes and take out containers scattered around them. "I think Coulson expected me to take one look at Captain Rogers' readings and tell him exactly what had caused his state of suspended animation."
"Derek thinks Phil asks too many questions." Meredith clarified as she popped a soggy French fry in her mouth.
"Because he does ask too many questions." Tony agreed with Derek.
"He's just excited." Meredith told them both. "Aren't you the least bit excited that we might actually be the ones to wake up Captain America?"
"I don't see how that's going to happen, Mer." Derek frowned. "I mean that super soldier serum was a cocktail of who knows what. On top of that Captain Roger's metabolism is so high it will make prescribing any medications a shot in the dark." He turned to Tony, half joking, and added. "I don't suppose you've got the super soldier formula locked up on a family vault somewhere?"
"What do you think this is, McDreamy, a Batman comic?" Tony laughed. "Not all rich people have basement vaults where they keep their family secrets."
"Right, ours are in a storage facility in New Jersey." Meredith joked. "If Howard ever saved the super soldier serum formula there's no way he'd tell Tony, or I where it was. We were practically still kids when he died."
"Yup. The old man kept all the good secrets to himself." Tony sighed.
"Speaking of secrets, Fury mentioned not so casually that you're being sued by the Department of Defense. What's that about?" Meredith questioned him.
"I'm not being sued; I'm being publicly harassed. There's a difference." Tony huffed getting to his feet. "They think that if they put enough pressure on me, I'll cave. They want the Iron Man tech for themselves. I've already tried explaining to them that I won't do another weapons contract with the U.S. Government."
"I'm sure that went over well." Derek chuckled.
"Like a lead balloon." Tony then mimed a crash and burn with his hands. "They're hoping the more public pressure they put on me that I'll eventually cave."
"What about Fury, there's nothing he can do to make it all go away?" Meredith wondered.
"Technically SHIELD doesn't exist on paper. That makes it pretty hard for them to put pressure on the Department of Defense. I'll figure something out though." He was confident. "You guys focus on your thing."
"We should get going soon." Derek pointed out after glancing at his watch. "We've got another early morning tomorrow."
"One more thing before you guys go. If you need anything while you're here in the city, money or a place to stay, I know the place SHIELD usually puts people up at it's nice but…"
"Are you trying to offer to let us stay here? With you?" Meredith asked.
"Would that be so terrible?" Tony rubbed the back of his neck as he waited for an answer. Derek looked at Meredith. He knew Tony and Meredith's relationship was messy. It might not survive them living under the same roof again temporarily. Meredith looked at Derek. She knew it was hard for Tony to invite other people into his space.
"You know what, forget I asked." Tony waved them off. "It was a terrible idea. Why would you want to stay here? You're probably in some nice place with room service and…"
"Well, I'll take you up on the offer even if Meredith doesn't." Derek interrupted. "There's holes in the sheets in my room and a lamp that doesn't turn on."
"We'd both love to stay, Tony." Meredith told him.
A/N: Welcome back friends! If you guessed that the mystery patient was Steve you were correct! red, white and blue stars all around! Not much to say about this one as we're just doing a little bit of world building here. Thank you as always to everyone who favorites, follows, reads, and reviews the story! A special shout out to niki0610, dauntlessofthesea, aussieKay, & tim04 for your reviews of Chapter 15!