A/N: I think you will all be pleased to hear that I am actually at long long long last done with this story, and will be posting the remaining chapters when my sister is done striking out all my unnecessary commas and filling whatever plot holes remain :) If you just can't wait for me to finish posting, I have good news: I've written more in this universe! Just go to my profile and I've organized the fics under 'Phil Coulson is a Squib-verse'. I also have it all linked as a series on Ao3 if you prefer that platform!


After about ten seconds of getting AC/DC blasted into their eardrums, Phil and Ms. Potts removed themselves from the workshop and went upstairs. Phil pulled out his phone once they reached the living room and started to check his emails, and Ms. Potts retrieved a tablet, presumably to also get some work done, although it wasn't ten minutes before her phone rang.

"Hello, Colonel Rhodes," she said, answering it after a brief glance at the screen. Phil couldn't help looking up in interest.

"Yes, he's a little busy… no, it was, and I've told him that."

There was a short pause as the Colonel responded, and Phil couldn't hear what he said, but it made Ms. Potts burst into a peal of laughter.

"I certainly won't stop you," she said when she'd recovered. "When will you be here?"

She nodded at whatever he told her, and then said, "We'll see you then, Colonel," and hung up. Phil looked at her questioningly, but she glanced up towards the ceiling instead.

"Jarvis, Colonel Rhodes will be arriving in the next half-hour," she said. "I don't suppose you could overlook alerting Tony when he arrives?"

The AI took a moment to respond, processing the request.

"As Sir has given Colonel Rhodes unrestricted access to the premises, I see no reason to inform him unless he specifically requests to be alerted."

Ms. Potts smiled sharply and triumphantly, and Phil experienced a brief moment of both terror and extreme desire to recruit her to SHIELD. She would be an excellent negotiator, or even interrogator. With that thought, his mind couldn't help but wander to Harry, and the interrogation she had left to conduct.

Phil regretted not being able to accompany her, but he'd seen that he was needed here more. However, he couldn't deny that the sight of Harry conducting an interrogation would be… well, very intriguing, to say the least.

"Agent Coulson, would you like anything to drink?" Ms. Potts asked from the kitchen, pulling Phil from his daydream.

"Just water, thanks," he said, and a few moments later she came back with bottled sparkling water for them both. Phil opened his and took a sip, but Ms. Potts sat with her fingers resting hesitantly on the cap, and he could tell she wanted to say something.

"Do you think Tony's in danger? Whoever it was, I mean, will they try again?"

"Most likely, yes," Phil said, deciding not to mince words. She needed to know the truth. "But Stark has always had a target on his back. What your question should be is: will they succeed? And I can't promise they won't, but I can promise that we will do our absolute best to prevent it."

Ms. Potts seemed unable to speak, her eyes shining with unshed tears. The interminable silence was broken by Jarvis.

"Thank you, Agent Coulson. Your candor is appreciated."

"Yes, thank you," Ms. Potts echoed, finally finding her voice.

Phil nodded. "Just doing my job," he said, gently deflecting. Although he appreciated the words, it did feel odd to hear them. His time was largely spent behind a desk or planning and directing ops, being the voice in his agents ears. He rarely took active roles in any missions anymore, even though he was still more than physically qualified, and SHIELD seldom operated as openly as they were in this case.

It was another thing he and Harry had in common — they were both absolutely terrible at accepting praise.

"Alright, I've got it, let's go," Stark announced as he walked into the living room holding a small silver flash drive in his hand.

Phil stood, ready to tell the billionaire that he wasn't going, but Ms. Potts beat him to it.

"You're staying here," she said, authoritatively, and then kept speaking as Stark opened his mouth to protest. "It's after hours, and you're rarely in your office as it is. I'll be less suspicious."

"But —"

"I do know how to use my wand, Tony."

The use of his first name seemed to deflate Stark, although he still didn't look happy.

"I'll be going with her," Phil told him.

"Fine," the billionaire bit out, only appearing somewhat mollified.

"Be very careful," Phil said. "We don't know who you can't trust."

Phil did trust Stark's incredible AI to protect him, but he knew that it was possible that the person who'd ordered Stark's kidnapping was close enough to him to bypass all of that. On the other hand, he also didn't want to leave Ms. Potts without backup.

"Yeah, yeah," Stark tossed the flash drive at Ms. Potts, who caught it with two hands. "I've got a few suit repairs to make, anyway. Just go, already."

Phil wasn't reassured by this in the slightest, but he followed Ms. Potts down to the garage anyway.

"Would you mind driving?" Ms. Potts asked as she picked a set of keys off of a large board.

Phil shook his head — who would say no to driving any of the cars in Tony Stark's collection? — and accepted the keys, clicking one of the buttons to find that they belonged to an understated Aston Martin halfway down the line.

The vehicle drove like a cloud, and Phil was pleasantly distracted by the feel of it for the entire drive down to Stark Industries. It was nearly as enjoyable as driving Lola.

There was a gate at the entrance to the building, and Ms. Potts handed her badge over to Phil to show the security officer. They had to wait there, idling for a minute, as the officer went back to his guard shack to make a temporary credential for Phil.

"Sorry," Ms. Potts said, her fingers tapping impatiently. "I should've remembered; I could've called ahead."

"Well, it's comforting to know you have good security," Phil said mildly. Ms. Potts laughed a little at that, some of the tension that Phil had seen building in her on the drive down releasing. The laughter, however, trailed off at the approach of a vehicle which slowed down and came to a stop in the exit lane.

The driver's window slowly rolled down to reveal Obadiah Stane.

"Ms. Potts!" The man cried, with a joviality that rang a little false in Phil's ears. "Have you left Tony alone somewhere to entertain himself?"

Phil did not like how that question had been phrased. Ms Potts didn't either, if the stiff smile she pasted on her face as she leaned over the center console to answer him was any indication.

"You know Tony," she said, with a laugh that almost convinced Phil, "he's always got at least a dozen things he's working on at once."

It was a good answer, Phil thought. It gave the impression of a confirmation, but was in fact noncommittal.

"Alright, Ms. Potts," Stane laughed, just as the security officer was coming back out of the shack, "don't stay in the office too late, now."

The presence of the security officer thankfully cut that conversation off; Ms. Potts smiled and waved at Stane as drove off, and Phil accepted their badges. Ms. Potts let out a shaky breath as Phil parked them in the spot marked 'Tony Stark' right up front. He figured Stark wasn't about to show up and need it, and it was the man's car, anyway.

"I don't know why I reacted that way," Ms. Potts said as they entered the building. "I've known Mr. Stane since I started as Tony's PA, and he's always been a little… slimy, I suppose, but he's never creeped me out like that before."

"I was equally disturbed," Phil told her, and she looked at him gratefully.

They weren't really in a rush, but Phil found himself following Ms. Potts at a fast clip down the hallways to Stark's seldom used executive office. The computer took a few moments to boot up, since it hadn't been used in months. Ms. Potts dug around in her handbag for the flashdrive, and slid it in the port as soon as she was logged in. And then they waited.

New windows popped up every time the program Stark had cobbled together unlocked another project file, but it took almost a minute to crack each one. Phil was simultaneously impressed and frustrated at Stark's security. Every time a new window opened, Phil watched eagerly over Ms. Potts' shoulder as she scrolled through the file, but each one was clean of any nefarious plotting.

It felt like an hour later, but was maybe more like twenty minutes when Ms. Potts made a small noise of exclamation, and Phil looked up at the screen again to see that the latest file included a collection of shipping manifestos for Stark missiles going to Afghanistan — and a signature of approval from Obadiah Stane.

"Make sure those are copied to the drive," Phil said urgently. "It's not quite the proof we need, but it'll help."

Phil needed hard proof that Stane was behind Stark's abduction because unfortunately, Stane was a high profile businessman and that meant there was no way SHIELD would be able to put him away quietly. The public would notice, and so, they needed presentable evidence.

Ms. Potts nodded, and with a few strokes the file was copying over. While they were waiting on it to finish, the next project file opened, and they were confronted with what looked like a bodybuilder version of Stark's suit.

"Where is Sector 16?" Phil asked, reading the label at the top of one of the design schematics.

"Other side of the building, beneath the arc reactor," Ms. Potts said tightly, efficiently copying that file as well. "Stane's personal projects."

Stane must have found the suit Stark had built in the cave and was attempting to make something bigger and better, Phil concluded, but he doubted Stane had been able to duplicate the arc reactor and runic sequence accurately… and they had just left Stark alone in his home, with no knowledge of Stane's betrayal.

"We've got to go," Phil said, pulling his phone out and dialing up Stark. Ms. Potts immediately pushed back her chair and was just reaching for the flashdrive when another window popped up, and a video file automatically began to play.

Seven armed men stood in front of a flag displaying the insignia of the Ten Rings, and in the middle of them a man sat in a chair with a sack over his head. Unfortunately, they were speaking a language that Phil was unfamiliar with, but a few moments into the video Phil distinctly heard 'Tony Stark' as the sack was taken off of Stark's head, followed by 'Obadiah Stane'.

Ms. Potts viciously hit several keys on the keyboard, pausing the video and saving it to the drive. The moment it was done she yanked it out of the computer and turned to Phil with an expression that could've intimidated a dragon.

"Let's go get that son of a bitch."