The air smelled like cinnamon and coffee.

Maggie knew the look of intelligence people, and she'd have bet her wings that this was SHIELD. Weirdness confirmed, she thought, sparing a glance to appreciate how good Rushman looked in black. Focus, Maggie.

She opened and closed her mouth, frozen in the doorway of the donut shop. "You know what, you guys look busy so I'm just going to-" she turned around to walk out again, but then finally noticed the agents surrounding the store. They'd closed the perimeter, and one of them set a hand on her bike.

"Just a minute, Ms Stark," called the imposing eyepatch-man sitting across from Tony. "We'd like to chat with you, too."

Gritting her teeth, Maggie turned around. Tony's deer-in-headlights look fell off his face and he turned on the other man. "Nuh uh, you leave her out of this-"

"Well you see, normally I would," said the other man shrewdly. "Like our last chat." He shot a knowing glance at Tony, and Maggie's eyes narrowed despite her pounding heart. Tony's met with SHIELD before? "But you're not the only one keeping secrets, Mr Stark."

Maggie's heart skipped a beat even as she frowned at Tony. The door slowly closed behind her. Secrets? She met Tony's eye, and he wore an expression of guilt and confusion that matched what she felt.

Maggie steadied herself, then glanced at Rushman and the guy who seemed to be in charge here. "And who are you?"

The man smiled at her. "Let's not pretend you don't know."

She met his one, glinting eye. "Well I don't actually know what your name is?"

He eyed her for a long, uncomfortable moment, as Rushman and Tony glanced between them, before he finally said: "I'm Director Nick Fury, and this is Agent Natasha Romanoff. We're with SHIELD, as you well know. But I think the real question here, Ms Stark, is who are you?"

Maggie pushed down her rising panic and simply arched an eyebrow. "I don't know what you-"

Fury cut in: "I assume you're both aware that siblings share 50% of their DNA?" he glanced between Maggie at the door, and Tony in his seat, as if he were teaching a science class.

Tony and Maggie shared a bewildered look.

Fury kept talking, his eyes on Tony. "We don't have everyone's DNA in SHIELD's databases, but we do have yours, Mr Stark. Agent Romanoff stole one of your blood samples last week for analysis."

"Great," Tony grit out.

"Uh, why?" Maggie added.

Fury ignored her. "But you see I'm wondering, Mr Stark, if I compared your blood to this blood sample collected from a rooftop in Tbilisi" - he reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a small vial of congealed red blood. Maggie's eyes closed. "What would it tell me?"

Bewildered, Tony blinked at the blood. "I'm way too hungover for this. What the hell are you talking about now?"

"You really don't know," Fury said wonderingly, his head cocked. He turned back to Maggie. "Ms Stark?"

Maggie opened her eyes. She met Fury's knowing eye, then Rushman's - Romanoff's - cool stare. For another second she thought about playing dumb. But DNA didn't lie. She put her hands on her hips and looked down at her feet. "Shit," she muttered to herself, unable to think of a way out. "Shit, shit, shit."

"Rookie mistake," Romanoff said with a small smirk. "Leaving your DNA at the scene."

Maggie scowled at the red-haired spy. "I wasn't expecting to get shot."

Romanoff cocked her head. "Like I said - rookie mistake. The agent whose jaw you broke says hi, by the way."

Tony held up a hand. "Wait, shot?" he glanced from Maggie to Fury, and back. "Broken jaw? What the hell is happening?"

Maggie let out a sigh, then finally moved. She strode up to the mustard yellow booth and made a scoot motion with her hand at Tony. He blinked at her for a second before sliding up the booth, the armor whirring and squeaking on the plastic. He looked rough, with shadows under his eyes and a pale tint to his skin. He kept touching the side of his neck, as if it hurt.

When there was room for her she slipped into the booth beside Tony. She couldn't meet his eye. Everyone looked expectantly at her. She felt very suddenly underdressed, in her jeans and shirt, before shaking away the thought. Oh well, hopefully prison is nice.

She sighed, and gestured at Fury. "Go on, then."

He smirked, and reached into his jacket once more to produce a small screen - a Stark tablet, she realized. As Fury tapped a few buttons on it, Tony leaned into Maggie with a whir of his armor.

"What's going on, exactly?"

She still couldn't look at him. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Here we are," said Fury, and turned the tablet around. Maggie didn't know what she'd expected, but it wasn't this: the image on the tablet showed a desert landscape, with a small crowd of women in cloth head coverings embracing family members in the foreground, and in the distance on a hill: a winged silhouette, watching over them. The picture was hazy, but the wings glinted in the sunlight. Maggie was too slow to stop the flash of recognition and surprise that crossed her face.

"For some time now, SHIELD has been trying to figure out a mystery." Fury raised his eyebrows at Tony. "You see, there's a rumor in the intelligence community about a lone operative. An operative you can turn to if you need to find the unfindable. Those in the know even know how to hire this person. This is the only known image we have of them." He tapped the winged silhouette. "It all began with a man named Andrew Choque."

Fury tilted the screen, finding another image, before turning it around to show them a newspaper cover from the day of Choque's arrest. INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS SMUGGLER INDICTED, read the headline. In the mugshot, Choque glowered sourly at the camera. Maggie fought down more surprise at the mention of his name, and the sight of his face. Choque had indeed been her first proper Wyvern case - how did SHIELD know so much? Her stomach writhed.

Fury cleared his throat, explaining mostly for Tony's benefit, who listened with a furrowed brow. "Choque is bad news, a drug runner and human trafficker, not to mention a murderer. So when the FBI got an information dump about his location and the local police found him sedated and locked inside a hotel room, things seemed suspiciously easy."

Tony's frown deepened: "I don't-"

"It took off from there," Fury continued, with the air of a teacher. He was enjoying this, and Romanoff smiled unsettlingly by his side. Fury swiped through more images: targets, newspaper headlines. "Literally took off, I mean. More bad-news people kept popping up on the grid, incapacitated and ready for arrest, along with a very helpful information packet on their recent dealings. Extremists, weapons traffickers, abusers, anyone who preyed on the helpless. In the space of a year, the operative behind this pattern had established themselves as one of the foremost private intelligence operatives in the world, and given themself a name: the Wyvern."

The hair on Maggie's arms stood up at the sound of her name, her other name, spoken aloud. Spoken in front of Tony, who was looking at Fury as if he'd lost his mind.

Romanoff cleared her throat, her eyes on Maggie. "To cut a long story short, the Wyvern made a name for herself. She took down a Ten Rings base by herself last year," Fury found a new picture, this time of a smoking base in the Tajikistan mountains, "and stopped an illegal shipment of Stark Industries weapons that Obadiah Stane ordered," the screen changed to General Rowes's mugshot, as he scowled through a black eye. "And has run dozens of missions since. Still, no one knew much about the Wyvern. Other than that she flies on a pair of metal wings."

"I think the thing about the red eyes is pretty distinctive too," Fury said conversationally, and flicked the screen again - this time landing on what looked like a police artist's depiction of the Wyvern - not much more than a black silhouette with wide metal wings, and red eyes in a concealed face. The details weren't quite right, but the sight of it set Maggie's heart pounding at a painful pace. Fury leaned back in the booth. "Funny, we kept wondering how a lone operative could have tech that hadn't been seen on the market before, and seemingly limitless funds. We thought there must be an organization behind the Wyvern. But it turns out it really was just one person."

Tony glanced from the picture to Maggie, then back again, still frowning deeply. He doesn't get it yet. Maggie wanted to sink below the table.

Fury crossed his arms. "So we thought we'd set up a meet a few days ago. Lay a few clues about one of the Wyvern's targets, and wait for her to show up. Turns out the Wyvern didn't want to talk." He dangled the blood vial again.

Maggie's heartbeat roared in her ears. She should have expected something like this, should have had a plan for what to say if someone confronted her. But she'd been living separate lives so long that the sensation of them crashing together threatened to turn her stomach.

Tony spoke instead. He stared at Fury, glanced back at Maggie, then the tablet with the now scrolling photos, and then back to Fury. "Wait, wait," he held up an armored hand. "You're saying this is Maggie? That's crazy!"

Fury levelled Tony with an unimpressed look, then turned to Maggie expectantly. Tony stared at Fury for a few seconds more before he turned to Maggie with a half-smile, as if expecting her to refute it all. She looked from the pictures, then to Tony, opening and closing her mouth. She wasn't sure what her expression revealed to him. Panic, probably, since that was all she could feel coursing up and down her spine. She had the sudden instinct to run.

When Tony realized Maggie wasn't going to deny it, the half smile dropped off his face. He stared at her with an intensity she'd forgotten he could possess, his eyes wide and panicked. "No," he said.

She still could not speak.

"This is what you've been so cagey about?" he said in a higher octave. "This is why you've got the bruises, and-and the burns, and the… the bullet wounds?" he ran his eyes over her as if expecting her to keel over right that minute.

Maggie felt all their eyes on her, Tony and Romanoff and Fury, and her skin crawled with it. Her stomach flipped and sank and rose like a ship at sea, threatening to have her throw up right there on the table. She couldn't handle the panic in Tony's eyes, the fear. This is what I've been trying to protect him from.

But he deserved her answers. After all these years of lies, he deserved it. She realized, in that moment, that she'd avoided telling him out of fear that it would be the end of any relationship they had. That he would see her for all she was - the lying, secretive vigilante with a heart of vengeance - and turn his back on her.

She swallowed, then looked up to meet Tony's eyes. "Okay, so, um… have you ever seen Dexter?"

Tony stilled. "Maggie, tell me you aren't-"

She held up her hands, frowning. I wish I'd had time to plan this. "Okay, not a great example to start with seeing as I haven't actually, uh, seen Dexter, and I'm not killing people, but I know the general premise. I'm not serial-killing serial killers, I'm just… kidnapping bad guys. I'm a bounty hunter!" There's that point I was trying to get at.

Tony ran a hand over his face. "Like Boba Fett? Are you kidding me right now?"

She shot him an offended glare. "I have wings, not a jetpack. And anyway, I think I'm much more of a Han Solo than a Boba Fett."

Fury and Romanoff glanced between Maggie and Tony, looking bewildered and annoyed.

High pitched and panicked, Tony replied: "Han Solo wasn't a bounty hunter."

"Not really, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm a Boba Fett in occupation, but I have Han-Solo-eque tendencies of changing the plan to do the right thing and help people and save Hogwarts. If that makes sense."

"It doesn't."

"Well I usually don't even get paid, so-"

Tony threw up his hands. "So you're not even a bounty hunter! Maggie if this is some kind of joke I swear-"

Fury looked deeply unimpressed. "I think we're getting a little off-track-"

Maggie rallied herself and turned fully to face Tony, blocking Fury and Romanoff out. "Okay, I can… so I built the wings," she said. "And then I realized that I could help people. I'm good at getting information, and finding people. At first I was just doing that, but then I realized that with the wings… I could do it myself. Keep people from getting hurt." She shrugged. "It just sort of happened." Then she laughed under her breath. "When you came back and told me about building your suit of armor, you have no idea how much I understood."

Tony sat there, staring at her, processing. "You're a bounty hunter who doesn't get bounties. With wings. Maggie… how long have you been doing this?"

She swallowed. "I don't know when it really started. But I suppose when…" when I promised the Winter Soldier that he was my mission. "When I left. The first time."

He looked ashen. "That was three years ago. You were twenty. You're only twenty three now!" It seemed to be sinking in for him now. She caught the first spark of anger in his eyes.

Maggie pushed back the threat of prickling tears. "Tony, I… I am so sorry I didn't tell you. At first I didn't because I thought you wouldn't understand, and then… with Afghanistan, and Obie, I didn't want to give you more to worry about, and then I'd been keeping the secret too long and I…" her voice caught and she looked down, frowning. "Those are just excuses. I… I'm sorry."

She couldn't look into Tony's face any more but she could feel him staring at her.

On the other side of the table, Romanoff touched a hand to her earpiece, then leaned toward Fury and murmured something. He nodded, then cleared his throat.

"Believe it or not," he said, drawing Tony and Maggie's attention, "We're not actually here to break long-held family secrets. Ms Stark, we will deal with the Wyvern later. Mr Stark, you want to share what we're really here for?"

Tony glanced back at Fury then away, out the window. Maggie frowned. Beneath the booth table, her hands were shaking.

Fury leaned forward. "He might still be cross at us, given we injected him with lithium dioxide just before you arrived."

Maggie still felt raw and exposed, but that caught her attention. "Uh, why?"

Romanoff answered: "It eases the symptoms of Palladium poisoning."

For a second Maggie only frowned. But then realization hit.

It felt as if she'd been suddenly cast in ice, as if she'd looked into the eyes of Medusa and been turned to stone. And in that frozen stillness, she saw the whole picture far too clearly: the shadows under Tony's eyes. The way he seemed to be getting older, folding in on himself. The smoothies - chlorophyll, she now realized. The strange decisions. Pushing her away. And the Arc Reactor, of course, powered by Palladium; Maggie knew the compound was corrosive, but she hadn't thought about how closely Tony was linked to the reactor, how it powered his very heart. And she…

I have been such a colossal fool.

She turned to Tony slowly, her eyes wide and barely able to focus on one thing. This time, it was he who couldn't meet her eyes.

"How bad is it?" she whispered.

After a long moment, he met her gaze. "Last time I checked, my blood toxicity was at 89%."

Maggie felt as if the booth seat had been yanked out from under her. Her breath was certainly yanked from her chest, and she had to steady herself against the table with one hand. She might not be an expert on Palladium's impact on the body, but she knew what a figure like that meant: Tony didn't have months, or weeks. He barely had days. 72 hours at most, she'd guess.

Tears sprang to her eyes and Tony looked away. She didn't have to ask why he hadn't told her. He didn't want to see her like this.

Past the roaring in her ears she heard Romanoff speak; not tauntingly, anymore. She explained how Tony had given the company to Pepper, the suit to Rhodey, and rewritten his will recently: leaving everything else to Maggie. The house, J.A.R.V.I.S., the robots, the other Iron Man suits.

Once had Maggie had enough breath to speak, she murmured: "Tony."

Sitting in his red and gold armor, his face gaunt, Tony avoided her eyes. So she put her hand over his metal gauntlet, and he finally looked up to meet her gaze. She didn't know what to say, so she just searched his face. She saw the weariness there.

All this time, he knew death was coming for him. He's been trying to say goodbye. And she'd been pushing him away.

"You're not going to die," she said firmly.

Tony just smiled tiredly, but across the table Fury nodded.

"That's what we've decided."

Tony's tiredness turned to annoyance. "You can't just decide-"

"Yes," Maggie interrupted. "I can."

Fury smiled briefly at the determination in her expression, as if he'd been hoping for it. "The lithium dioxide will take the edge off. We're trying to get him back to work."

"Sure, give me a couple boxes of the stuff, I'll be right as rain," Tony murmured, utterly unconvincing.

"It's not a cure," Romanoff said smoothly. "Just abates the symptoms."

Fury leaned forward, eyeing Tony's neck. "Doesn't look like it's going to be an easy fix." Maggie stretched forward to follow his gaze - and finally spotted what he'd been hiding from her for months. Thin, dark blue lines snaked up the side of his neck, glinting dully. Like metal. She realized this was why he had been pushing her away: because he could no longer hide this with shirt collars.

"Trust me I know, I'm good at this stuff," Tony said tiredly. "I've been looking for a suitable replacement to Palladium-"

"Why didn't you ask for my help?" Maggie breathed.

Fury raised his eyebrows. "That's a fair question."

"I didn't want you to worry," Tony said under his breath. "And if I couldn't figure it out, then you probably couldn't."

Maggie drew herself up. "Okay I'm offended by that insinuation-"

"Stupid to be offended by the truth," Tony snarked, even though he was confessing to his imminent death.

"You ass, even if I couldn't help, you should have told me!" she exploded. "Of course I'd want to know, I'd want to try to help even if I-" she cut herself off, angry and knowing she had no right to lecture about secrecy. But her nerves were alight with fear. She looked to Fury and Romanoff. "You think you can help him?"

"We think he can help himself," Fury responded. "And we think you can help as well."

Tony sighed. "I've tried every combination looking for a substitution, every permutation of every known element."

Fury cocked his head and smiled. "Well I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all."

Shortly afterward, Romanoff put her hand to her earpiece again and frowned. Apparently SHIELD could no longer hold the donut shop perimeter, so Tony and Maggie were escorted outside.

"We'll drive you back to your place and talk there," Fury said, gesturing to a dark sedan with tinted windows.

Maggie glanced over to her bike, parked haphazardly near the door. "Oh, but my-"

"We'll handle your bike," Romanoff cut her off, heading for a different car.

Maggie looked mournfully after her bike as she slid into the back seat of the sedan. Tony got in the other side, clunky in his armor. Fury sat in the front seat.

The ride back to the mansion was utterly silent. Maggie sat with her hands clasped in her lap, looking downward. Tony looked out the window, watching the city slide past.

But the air inside the car was loud with thoughts and unspoken questions. Maggie could feel Tony thinking. But she knew they'd both rather wait until they no longer had an audience.

Hammer Industries Headquarters, New York

Justin Hammer tried to contain his frustration as he looked from the suit Vanko had made - not a suit, since there wasn't any room for a pilot - and back to Vanko. "I need to put a person in that suit, you understand?"

Vanko shrugged. "Drone better."

"Drone better? Why is drone better?"

"People make problem," Vanko said, admiring his stupid bird. "Trust me, drone better."

After another tense, irritating minute of Vanko's glib replies, Hammer leaned in and hissed: "These drones better steal the show, Ivan." He strode away, trying to shake off the frustration. "You understand? Better rock my world, Ivan."

Edwards Air Force Base, California

"Good work Colonel, you've made your country proud," said the General, saluting Rhodey with a smile. He at least seemed happy. But after hearing that Hammer would be coming in to fit out the silver Mark II armor, Rhodey was not. And though he knew Tony had left him with no other choice than to take the suit, he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty.

"Thank you sir." He sighed as the General turned and left.

Everyone else in the hangar was staring at him, murmuring to each other like they did whenever Tony visited. Rhodey had known when he showed up in that armor that nothing would be the same again.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Glad of the reprieve, he pulled it out and checked it. A text from Maggie:

I'm handling it. You're an ass for taking the Mark II, but I understand why you did it.

Rhodey sighed again. He didn't know what handling it meant when it came to Maggie. But whatever it was, Tony probably deserved it.

Stark Mansion, California

Maggie barely noticed when they pulled up outside the house, too caught up in her own thoughts. She'd managed to send off a quick text to Rhodey, at least.

But then her door opened, and she glanced up to see that Fury had opened it for her. Tony had already climbed out of his door, and was being escorted inside by agents. He needed to get the armor off.

"Congratulations, Ms Stark," Fury said as she climbed out of the car, blinking in the sunlight.

"Did I win something?" she asked. She let the sifting ocean breeze wash over her skin.

"It's not often that I'm surprised," Fury confessed. She could feel his one eye on her. "You managed that today. So congratulations." She glanced at him, and he levelled a look at her. "It won't happen again."

"If you say so," she shrugged. She eyed him back. "What are you going to do? Now that you know the truth?"

"For now, I'm tasking you on this mission with Mr Stark," he said, hands clasped behind his back as he ran an eye over the ocean view. "SHIELD will run an assessment and debrief you later, once we have more information."

"I don't work for you," she retorted, slightly offended.

"No, you don't," he agreed. "If you did, you'd be getting paid. Regardless, you are on SHIELD's radar in a big way now, Ms Stark. And we have a common interest. Keeping that one" - he jerked his head at the mansion - "alive. So get on the mission, Wyvern."

Once Fury's SHIELD agents had cleared the mansion and established a perimeter, they let Maggie inside.

She hurried through the front foyer with its smattering of party decorations and made a beeline for her bedroom to oh-so-casually check that the lockbox under her bed was untouched. Reassured, she strode out and bumped into Tony in the corridor outside. There was a moment of awkward silence. He'd changed into a pair of dark slacks and a shirt, and pulled on an embroidered robe which made him look like a fashion runway reject. He was flanked by two SHIELD agents.

"If you'll make your way downstairs, Mr and Ms Stark," said one of the agents, touching his earpiece.

Tony and Maggie made eye contact. Neither of them much liked being bossed around in their own house. But they obeyed, turning and heading to the stairs in unison.

"So did you really get shot?" Tony asked.

She glanced at him. She'd expected more anger than this. "The bullet barely went in, you don't need to worry," she reassured.

But Tony's face just went white.

Sighing, Maggie pulled up the side of her t-shirt, revealing the adhesive wound dressing which she re-applied to the side of her abdomen each morning. "Really, it's just a pain having to clean it all the time," she said as she peeled down the corner of the dressing.

Tony stopped walking and peered at the wound she'd just bared to him, grimacing. Two small, stitched-up openings in her skin, stained slightly orange from the antiseptic wash she used, already healing.

"Gross," was all Tony said after a moment of examination. One of the SHIELD agents cleared his throat, so Maggie reapplied the wound dressing and they walked on.

It was at the stairs that Maggie remembered all that had happened in the mansion last night. The glass wall around the staircase had been completely shattered, glinting on the ground like ice. Tony went tense and quiet, and Maggie stared. They kept walking, and her eyes tracked from disaster to disaster: a hole through the wall from the dancefloor to the gym, the wood and plaster broken through like cardboard. There was a hole in the roof of the gym, from which sifted fine concrete powder. If Maggie had the blueprints right in her head, that hole led up to Tony's bedroom. There were scorchmarks on the walls and dents in the floor and ceiling.

They walked downstairs to the entertaining area that led to the main balcony, and Maggie stopped in her tracks. The whole area was trashed. There was another hole in the ceiling, larger this time, and the walls, floor, and ceiling were scorched as if a bomb had gone off. The entire area was littered with shattered glass, chunks of concrete, and upturned tables and chairs. A seagull pecked at a fallen plate of appetizers on what used to be a low coffee table.

Fury waited in the middle of the debris, his hands behind his back and his eye on them, with the serene backdrop of the glittering ocean behind him.

"Tony," Maggie gaped, staring around.

He winced. "I know, I know. I'll fix it."

"Home decor should be lower down the priority list," Fury suggested. "Let's pull up some chairs."

Tony and Fury found a pair of metal wire chairs and set them in the shattered glass just inside what used to be the entertainment room, with the wide open balcony before them. Maggie pulled up a suntanning chair and sat on it, cross-legged. There were SHIELD agents everywhere, watching every angle and guarding every entrance and exit. There were three on the balcony, with binoculars. One of them had found a pitcher of water and some glasses, and set them on a small table between where Tony, Fury, and Maggie sat.

For a few moments they all sat there in the ruins of the entertainment space, illuminated by the warm California sun, all of them seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Maggie looked out to sea, unable to catch onto a single thought and complete it.

Finally, Fury turned to Tony. "That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology."

Maggie dragged her gaze back, frowning, but Tony answered: "No, it was finished. It's never been particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my-"

"No," Fury cut him off calmly. "Howard said the Arc Reactor was the stepping stone to something greater."

"You knew him?" Maggie interjected, leaning forward. The tanning chair creaked beneath her.

Fury raised his eyebrows. "Yes. He was about to kick off an energy race that was going to dwarf the arms race. He was on to something big, something so big that it was going to make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery," he finished with a smile.

"Just him?" Tony asked, pouring himself a glass of water. "Or was Anton Vanko in on this too?"

Maggie's eyes narrowed. Vanko. Related to the assailant at Monaco?

"Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin," Fury explained. "Anton saw it as a way to get rich. When your father found out, he had him deported." Maggie's eyebrows raised. Tony didn't seem shocked; he must have kept everything he'd learned the past few days from Maggie. "When the Russians found out he couldn't deliver, they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next 20 years in a vodka-fuelled rage." Fury cocked his head. "Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in, the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco," he added, raising his water glass to Tony.

"So Monaco was what, revenge?" Maggie surmised. "A way to get back at the man who deported his father, by kicking Tony's ass with the very same tech."

"He said as much when I spoke to him," Tony shrugged. Maggie's eyes narrowed further, but he moved on quickly, turning to Fury. "You told me I hadn't tried everything. What do you mean I haven't tried everything? What haven't I tried?"

"Howard said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started," Fury told Tony. His eye darted to Maggie. "He told me this before you were even a twinkle in his eye."

She just frowned.

"He said that," Tony uttered sceptically.

"Mhm," Fury nodded. "Are you that guy? Hm? Are you?" He leaned forward. "Because if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart."

Maggie watched Tony slowly shake his head. "I don't know where you're getting your information, but… he wasn't my biggest fan." His eyes darted toward her.

"What do you remember about your dad?" Fury pressed.

Maggie loosed a breath and leaned back in her chair.

"He was cold," Tony shot back, sounding more tired than angry. "He was calculating. He never told me loved me, he never even told me he liked me, so it's a little tough for me to digest when you're telling me he said the whole future was riding on me, and he's passing it down - I don't get that." He glanced back at Maggie, almost guilty, and Fury followed his gaze.

She sighed. "I was young, but… yeah. I don't…" she thought about it. "I don't have a single memory of him where he was smiling." The image of dad's red, pulped face flashed over her eyes and she had to fight not to flinch.

Tony gestured at her, as if to say see? "You're talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he had another kid who'd be less of a screwup." Maggie's gaze softened, but he didn't meet her eyes again.

"That's not true," Fury told them.

Tony leaned back. "Well, then clearly you knew our dad better than we did."

Fury finished his water, and Maggie was distracted by the sight of two SHIELD agents walking onto the balcony, carrying a silver lockbox. "As a matter of fact I did," he told them. "He was one of the founding members of SHIELD."

Maggie's head snapped back and at the same time she and Tony both exclaimed: "What?"

Fury checked his watch and got to his feet. "I've got a 2 o'clock."

Maggie and Tony both jumped to their feet as well.

"Hang on, what do you mean he founded SHIELD?" Maggie burst out.

"Wait, wait," Tony said, hands out. He spotted the silver lockbox which the SHIELD agents had set on the ground. "What's this?"

"Okay you two are good, right?" Fury said, "You got this, right?"

"Got what?" Tony replied. "I don't even know what I'm supposed to get-"

"Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact," Fury informed them, gesturing to Romanoff as she appeared a few feet away. Maggie sensed another presence approaching from behind her, and looked over her shoulder to see - son of a bitch.

Agent Coulson stood with his hands clasped in front of him and a pleasant smile on his face.

Fury pulled on his jacket. "And you remember Agent Coulson, right?"

Maggie grimaced, and Tony muttered: "Yeah."

Fury made for the exit. "Oh and Tony, Maggie?" He looked back. "Remember. I've got my eye on you." He stared at them for a moment, a hint of amusement on his face, and then disappeared around the corner.

Tony and Maggie stared after him, and then shared a glance.

"We've disabled all communications," came Romanoff's even voice, and they both looked to her. "No contact with the outside world." Tony and Maggie shared another glance. Sure. "Good luck," Romanoff smiled, before she too turned to leave.

They turned to Coulson, who still stood there with that ever-present smile. Maggie stared him down, but then Tony began running his mouth, asking for coffee, and Coulson politely explained that he was there to keep them both on premises.

Maggie's mind buzzed. Why did Dad never tell us about SHIELD? Because if she'd known… Maggie had been struggling with secrets her whole life. Maybe SHIELD could have helped her. Why was she kept from it?

Coulon leveled a glance at Tony, then leaned over to look at Maggie as well. "If you attempt to leave, or play any games, I will tase you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet. Okay?"

"I think I got it," Tony grimaced.

Coulson stepped past Tony and came up to face Maggie directly. "I'll hand it to you, Ms Stark, you know how to keep a secret. When we met in Peru I thought you were a rich girl on the run."

"When you met where?" Tony questioned, but Coulson ignored him. Maggie shifted.

"You'll have to show me your wings sometime," he continued. "You were making those in Manaus, right?" She smiled, but said nothing. "And in the meantime… you might be good at keeping secrets, but I don't imagine this has been an easy one to carry." His eyes flicked to Tony. "You might consider sharing."

After a moment of eye contact, Coulson turned and walked off. "Enjoy your evening's entertainment."

Maggie and Tony were left alone on the scorched balcony, save for a few SHIELD agents and the silver case Fury had left behind. Black letters emblazoned on top read: PROPERTY OF H. STARK.

Maggie strode past the case and to the edge of the balcony, where she set her hands on the edge, closed her eyes, and drew in a deep breath. The sun warmed her face, but did not ease her whirling thoughts.

After a few moments, footsteps crunching in glass announced that Tony had walked up to stand beside her. For a few moments she enjoyed the silence, the knowledge that he was there beside her. There weren't many people she could be quiet with. And he didn't seem impatient, she couldn't feel tension rolling off him in waves. As if he was enjoying the moment too, looking out over the water.

But the silence had to break. They were on a time limit.

She opened her eyes. The light bouncing off the water hurt her eyes. "I lied to you," she said without looking at him. "For years. I didn't even… I didn't even feel very bad about it, until recently." She swallowed the guilt. "I didn't want that world to touch you. I wanted to protect you from all of it, from me. And then it reached out and grabbed you anyway."

Tony sighed tiredly. "Tell me why."

She knew what he meant. "Because… because I could. Because I saw that I could help the people who needed help, and stop the people who needed stopping. Isn't that why you became Iron Man?"

He didn't answer her. After another long moment he murmured: "We've both kept so many secrets from each other. We've both lied, so much." He let out a long breath.

Maggie closed her eyes again. The weight of their hidden lives hung between them.

"And now," she said eventually, "it turns out we might have learned that from Dad." They turned in unison, looking back at the case that read PROPERTY OF H. STARK.

"Yeah," Tony murmured. He rested his elbows on the edge of the balcony. "You have any idea what eyepatch there was on about?"

"No. I was only five, Tony."

"Yeah."

Maggie straightened, then finally turned to face her brother. He looked exhausted and downtrodden in his fancy robe. "So."

He met her gaze. "So."

She held out her hand. "I don't want to lie to you anymore. I don't want to keep my secrets to myself. I want to tell you everything, when we have time. I want to help you with this, I want to save your life and figure out what Dad was keeping secret. I don't expect you to forgive me for what I've done," she said heavily, "but I think it's time we started working on the same team." Her gaze dropped. "Things are better when we're on the same team."

She felt Tony eyeing her for a long moment, his focus intense. And then he took her hand. "That sounds pretty damn good to me."

She looked up, grinning, and a second later he tugged her into a hug. His robe crinkled under her grip, and his arms banded around her, stronger than she expected.

"And I do forgive you, Maggot," Tony sighed. "I might not completely understand yet, and I might be furious at you for a while, but I do forgive you."

She gripped fistfuls of his robe. "I won't let you die."

When they finally pulled apart, Tony eyed her. "So. Wyvern, huh?"

"Yeah, I… I don't know if you remember my old call sign-"

"Dragon," he said without missing a beat. She grinned. "We are going to have so many more talks about you being a vigilante bounty hunter, because holy shit, and your wings, but for now…" his gaze drifted back to the case. "Let's get to work."

"Sounds good."

The Triskelion, Washington D.C.

Clint pressed his phone to his ear, his eyes wide. "Coulson, hang on, say that again - the Wyvern is who?"

Reviews

The1975Love: Haha I'm going to try get back to midweek updates but idk if I'll be able to manage it just yet, life has gotten busy. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

DBZFAN45: Maggie and Tony were really on fine form last chapter haha, but they've gotten over themselves a bit this chapter. I'm so glad you liked the introduction of Natasha last chapter! I hope you enjoyed all the secret reveals and conversations this chapter :) We'll get more of Jane in future!

Guest: We'll have to see what happens in Maggie's relationship with SHIELD!

Guest: Someone's not a natasha fan haha. As for Maggie pairings, don't worry she's not going to end up with Steve or Thor!

Wyrleen: Thank you, you're kind! Your lovely reviews are a highlight of my week. I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter with all its reveals ;)

Guest: You're right haha, Maggie should have learned to keep her phone on (especially when her brother is partying). Thank you so much, I'm so glad you enjoyed!

Zariah: Here you go!