"How much longer do you think they're going to hold us captive here?" Derek whispered to Meredith. The two of them were staring at a monitor studying Steve Roger's most recent MRI & EEG scans.
"Coulson thinks we're making progress." Meredith sighed. "So as long as our project supervisor thinks we're making progress, we'll be here I guess."
"But we're not. We're not making real progress." Derek huffed. "Nothing seems to be working! I mean we've given him doses of medication that should have killed a normal man. It barely even registered in his bloodwork."
There was a knock on the door. Derek and Meredith looked over to see Coulson standing in the doorway. He was carrying a tablet and his most neutral expression.
"Sorry to interrupt." He said. "But Fury wanted you to see this, Meredith." Coulson pressed play before handing the tablet to her. She held the tablet in her hands so that Derek could also see the video.
They watched together what seemed to be news coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix. It was a racing even that Tony, Pepper, Happy and their new assistant Natalia had flown out to watch. Derek had driven them all to the airport less than forty -eight hours ago. As the coverage continued, it showed Tony getting behind the wheel of the Stark industries owned formula 1 car.
"I didn't know Tony was a race car driver." Derek was impressed.
"He's not." Meredith corrected. "He's such an idiot. Did he crash?" She asked Coulson.
"Keep watching." Was his answer. So Meredith and Derek continued to watch as a man in an orange jumpsuit walked out onto the track. The man produced two weapons that could best be described as electric whips. Strapped to his chest was what looked like an arc reactor which seemed to be powering the whips.
"I thought Tony convinced the Senate that no one else could even get close to his technology." Derek pointed out.
"Well obviously someone has." Meredith said. The clip ended with the man in the jump suit slashing cars in half with a crack of his whip.
"His name is Ivan Vanko." Coulson explained. He filled in the gaps telling them that in the nick of time Pepper and Happy were able to get Tony's suit to him. Tony was able to subdue Vanko long enough for him to be apprehended by local authorities.
"You said Fury wanted me to see this. Does he think I can talk Tony into or out of something?" She wondered.
"I don't think he wants either." Coulson shrugged. "He just wanted you to see it."
"And now I have." Meredith handed the tablet back to Coulson.
"I'll let you two get back to work." Coulson nodded.
"Back to nothing." Derek mumbled when it was just the two of them in the room again.
"Maybe it's like a mid-life crisis thing." Meredith commented. "I mean sure, Tony is reckless but even Tony's wild decisions usually have a level of calculation to them. This isn't like him."
"You think something else is going on?" Derek asked.
"I don't know Meredith shook her head. Let's worry about what our plan is here." She nodded at the screens before them.
When Meredith and Derek returned home that night to Tony's place, Pepper and one of the Stark Industries employees, Natasha, seemed to both be on the phone attempting damage control from incident in Monaco. Tony was nowhere to be seen, which was entirely in character for him. Meredith was waiting for her chance to ask Pepper where Tony was, when James Rhodes came stopping up the stairs that led to Tony's lab.
"Meredith." Rhodey was surprised to see Tony's sister. He knew the two were talking again but Tony had told him things were still touch and go. "What brings you all the way out here?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing." Meredith laughed.
"We're just in town for the party." Derek interjected. Their Captain America project was still top secret and highly classified. Tony's birthday party happening the next day luckily provided convenient cover.
"Right, the party." Rhodey cast and almost wistful look over his shoulder at the staircase behind him. He turned back to Meredith and Derek. "Look I know you guys probably had a long flight in from Seattle, you probably haven't spent much time with him, but has Tony seemed off to you at all?"
"Are you talking about that?" Derek pointed to the display behind Pepper and Natasha. It was playing news coverage of the Monaco event from several different outlets.
"That among other things." Rhodey nodded. "You should talk to him Meredith. I'll see you tomorrow." He left the apartment without saying anything else.
"What am I supposed to do?" Meredith asked Derek.
"Talk to him, I guess." Derek shrugged. "I'm gonna go take a shower."
So Meredith kicked off her shoes and walked down the steps to Tony's lab. She noticed he has most of the lights dimmed, he was practically sitting in the dark. There was a low blue glow coming off a screen similar to the one Pepper and Natasha had been watching upstairs. This one was displaying documents and files of information on Ivan Vanco.
"You wanna tell me why Rhodes looks so pissed?" Meredith asked, when she descended the last two steps into Tony's lab.
"Because it's just the way his face looks and can't help it?" Tony guessed.
"C'mon Tony, it's me." Meredith sighed. "I'm not one of your employees or your friends. You don't have to lie to me."
"Well, he's not happy about this, that's for sure." Tony gestured to his screen. "And neither am I. Listen, Mer, This is nothing to worry about. This guy will be old news in a month. You and McDreamy should focus on your special project. I've got this covered, I promise."
"Alright, just don't forget that I'm right here, okay?" Meredith reminded him.
"Couldn't forget if I tried." He told her with a wink.
A/N: sorry it's been a minute y'all! I went and got pretty wrapped up in the Loki show and forgot about this. But I'm here with an update and fingers crossed for more soon!
As always a huge thank you to everyone who supports this story via reading, favoriting, & following! A super special thank you to gottoluvme11, aussiekayz & 1 guest for your reviews of Chapter 16!