THE LEAK

Time had either slipped away from her or was moving slowly. Abel didn't even know how long she must've just sat there with her phone plastered to her ear. Maybe she was hoping for some delusion to give her an answer for the sickening question. She wasn't sure what to think or even go about breaking down the message. It just…left her speechless.

Abel continued to sit there motionlessly long enough for an unknown hand to drop down onto her shoulder, startling her enough to turn around in a flash to see who it was. She quickly recognized that it was Tony though and noticed that he had already gotten dressed for bed. He must've come back downstairs to check on Abel. Since she had to of sat there for at least an hour after the call died.

Once he realized he startled her, Tony immediately backed away and put his hands up. "Wow! Hold on!" he said while waiting for her to calm down. "Did you seriously not hear me? Did I really just sneak up on you?"

"Wha…?" Abel spoke with wide and quivering eyes. "I'm sorry. I was just…everywhere else…but here," she said while laying her hand over her chest, feeling her heart thump under her hand.

Tony furrowed his brows and just stared at her. "Ok…I'm really not in the mood to Da Vinci Code what you mean, so can you just tell me? You look pretty spooked right now. Were you on the phone with someone?"

"I was?" she said that in a questionable way like she wasn't even sure herself. It took another second, but she finally pulled her phone down and truly saw that the line was dead. It had been for a while now. "So it would seem," she said dishearteningly.

She slowly got over her shock, but it was quickly replaced with suspicion and dread. Abel hunched forward in her seat and rested her head on her hands, thinking deeply about everything that had happened on the phone. The voice, obviously male. His breathing rhythm, middle age. The tone, confident and arrogant. She thought up all those things and tried to place a voice to a face, but nothing was popping up in her head, nothing concrete at least.

"So…are you going to leave me in the dark or…?" Tony asked after a while.

"I would never," she said and gestured for him to take a seat. "Could you sit down with me for a second? There is something I need to talk about regarding the phone call I just got."

Tony didn't like the unease he heard in her voice and sat down close to her. "What's wrong? First time ever getting a prank call?"

"This wasn't a prank…because they wouldn't have thanked me for making them immortal."

Tony quickly turned perplexed. "Wait a moment. Could you rewind for me a bit and tell me exactly what they said?"

Abel huffed and bit down on her lips. "Well… I know it was a man's voice, middle-aged, and pretty confident in himself. He didn't say much though, just 'Thanks for the immortality', then hung up," she said.

"Are you so sure that it wasn't just someone who got a hold of your number?"

Abel thinned her lips and just stared at him. "Tony, this is me we're talking about. Who would possibly have my number? My sisters would never give it away, and I'm sure no one else from the Avengers would do it either."

This made Tony ponder for a while. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Yeah. I can't imagine someone trying to steal a phone from any of your siblings…but what's with the actual message. Immortality? I thought that couldn't be achieved," he asked.

Abel whimpered a bit and hunched over, rubbing her hands down her face. She could already feel the makings of a throbbing headache coming about. "It's like Staine all over again, but no…no one can achieve immortality through us."

"Would there have been a leak from SHIELD?"

"I doubt it. Fury keeps all records of our existence and any personal information on paper. I don't see him making a mistake when it comes to our case," Abel muttered through her hands and groaned. She leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. "Why does this have to happen now? We're finally getting back to normal, and now I have to deal with this?" She breathed in deeply and turned her head towards the table. She stared long at her phone until a thought crossed her mind, suddenly and swiftly. "There is one person though that the leak could come from," she said while grabbing her phone.

"Who?"

"Macy Clark," she said while pulling up the text messages on her phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Asking her if she wants to meet up at the bar tomorrow."

Tony perked up to that. "Do you need me to come with you?"

"Don't you have dinner with Rhodey?" Abel lowered her phone and peered up at him. "It would probably be a good opportunity to ask him about the recent bombing attacks."

"Yeah, but…I'm worried more about you," he said concerningly.

"And I'm worried more about that," she said while gesturing to the TV screen where they watched the Mandarin's message. "Listen. This could just be a fluke, but these terrorist threats are something else. Something big." She moved her hand up to the side of his face and give him her signature sun-like smile. "It's going to be fine. I promise."

Usually, he would be delighted to see her smile at him that way, but instead, it only gave him a sense of trouble. He wanted to help her. Give her some kind of support. Anything, but it was nearly impossible because of who she was. She was more than capable of figuring out the situation by herself, and if that was the case...what good could he do?

Nostalgia was the first thing Abel thought when she drove up to the old bar she first met Macy at. It wasn't much different from the last time she came. She could still smell the stale aroma of cigarette smoke coming off the wood, the loud people from within and outside the building, and she could even swear it was the same drunks from last time walking out of the bar with their bodies swaying side to side.

"Place is as charming as ever, huh," Abel muttered while brushing past the drunks and heading inside. It wasn't hard to spot Macy within the crowd, and it seemed she was in the same spot at the counter from the first night they met. Though luckily, she was by herself this time and not being harassed by a drunken fool. "Macy!"

Macy turned her head around to the sound of her name and smiled instantly the moment she saw Abel. She quickly got up from her seat and rushed over to hug her tightly. It's been far too long since they've seen each other in person, and after the battle for Manhattan, both girls had been extremely busy with their own lives.

"Been a while since we sat down for a drink. Thanks for the invitation," Macy said while pulling away. She sat back down at the counter and Abel took the seat next to her.

"I wish it could be a simple drink, but there is actually something I want to ask you," Abel said with a growing frown, already hating the fate that she had to ask. She really would have liked to just sit down and play catch up with her. Since a lot had happened in the past year.

"Huh? Like what." Macy said casually while taking a sip of the drink she had ordered beforehand.

"Like a leak, Macy. Someone got a hold of my number and said something…rather concerning. I'm in no way accusing you of giving away my number…but I want to ask if anything weird has happened."

Macy stiffened and slowly lowered her drink. "Something 'weird' isn't really all that specific anymore. You have a really well-known name now, and there's a lot of people who would love to know more about you. My books are about as close as they're gonna get. A documentary of an immortal," she stated.

Abel huffed but could see where Macy was coming from. Nothing had been the same since New York. Over a million people have suddenly become aware of her family's presence overnight, warranting attention she wasn't used to getting. It was kind of a discombobulating experience.

"But…maybe there was this one guy. Here a couple days ago," Macy suddenly recalled, squinting her eyes to try and remember the night.

"What happened?"

"Good question. I was drinking…so things were a little, uh, you know…hazy," she said while tapping her finger aggressively against the table. "Damn. I feel like he told me his name, but I can't freaking remember. I feel like it was a really weird name, too."

"But he was asking about me, right?" Abel tried to confirm.

"Hell yeah. Bordering near obsession. That much I can remember," Macy said enthusiastically. "It was beginning to freak me out too when he started to ask really personal questions about you. I was looking for an out, so I dipped into the bathroom until he…left." She paused for a moment as those last words fell slowly from her lips. Macy's face soon twisted up into a scowl before dropping her head onto the table.

"M-Macy?" Abel stuttered by accident, and at first, didn't know what to do. She thought comforting her friend was the best idea and started to pat her back.

"I remember now," Macy muttered against the table before reaching into her coat and pulling out her phone. "I was so freaked out and drunk…that I left my phone on the counter when I went into the bathroom," she said with a dark realization.

"That means he could've done something to it during that time," Abel said and held her hand out. "Can I see your phone?" she asked.

Macy didn't think twice about it and unlocked her phone before handing it over. "Sure."

Abel briefly flipped through the contacts in the device and skimmed over the most recent text messages they had exchanged. Hoping to see some sort of anomaly in them. "How long were you away from your phone?" she asked while scrolling.

"Five minutes, maybe. But the bartender said he left after three. I don't know what he could've done. He can't get in unless he knew the password."

"People don't always need a password to get information inside a phone. He could've used a device that simply downloaded everything that was on it. I don't imagine it taking a long time." After a minute of searching, Abel decided she wasn't going to find anything odd on the phone and gave it back. "Do you at least know what he looked like?"

Macy pondered on that for a bit. "Some. He was probably in his 40's. Not terribly tall and had dark blonde hair. He was well put together too and seem to know what he was talking about. Came off as smart, if you know what I mean." She then smiled sheepishly and slowly looked over to Abel. "But… you look like you could name over a hundred people with that description."

Abel gave an even more sheepish smile. "Maybe a thousand, but yes."

"I'm sorry. I'm trying my best, you know. I didn't mean to have your number leaked," Macy said sullenly.

Guilt quickly bubbled up within Abel's face. She hated that she unintentionally dragged Macy into this mess. All because they were friends. "I know you didn't. It was a simple mistake, but what he said to me over the phone…well," she said as her smile vanished.

Macy could feel her stomach drop while listening. "For a simple dude to freak you of all people out… What did he actually say?"

Abel could feel her lips fall further into a deep, unsettling frown. "Something that's not humanly possible." She took in a breath when her phone suddenly started to go off in her pocket, warranting both her and Macy to jump.

"Oh no. Please don't tell me…" Macy paled and leaned away from Abel as she pulled her phone out.

A quick look of relief flew past Abel's face when she saw that it was Rhodey who was actually calling her. "It's not. It's someone I actually know. Excuse me." She gently waved her hand and walked quickly outside to answer the phone. "Rhodey, it's good to hear from you. Congrats on the paint job on the suit. Iron patriot, wasn't it?" she laughed the moment the call went through.

"Very funny," Rhodey answered dryly on the other end.

"I thought it was. But really. How are you?"

"Well, I was doing fine…but I don't think Tony is," he said grimly.

Abel immediately felt her body clench up. "What do you mean? Isn't he with you?"

"He was until he freaked out and flew away in his suit not so long ago."

"Freak out?" The perplexed look on Abel's face quickly faded away after a moment when it finally clicked for her. The reason why Tony acted the way he did. "Oh, I know what this is about. Thanks for giving me the heads up, Rhodey. I'll take care of it."

"That's fine," he said before scoffing. "It seems like we do this pretty often now, you know. I call you whenever he falls off the wagon."

"And I always seem to be at a bar when you call. Yeah, I'm beginning to see a pattern." Abel dropped her head and nodded it slowly. "Thanks again, Rhodey. I'll call you once I calm him down."