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The sound of Jarvis's voice pulled me from my memories. "I'm sorry Miss Stark but Mr Stark has restricted all access to the top level."
Although this was my first visit to the Stark tower, I hadn't expected to be restricted in a building that had my name on it. "Call him. Don't tell him it's me, just say it's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."
"Call declined."
"Try again," I insisted. I could just get Jarvis to tell him it was me trying to enter but sometimes it was fun to do things the hard way.
"Call declined."
I smirked. Okay, hard way it is. But even the hard way was pretty easy. Luckily for me, after working with my father for so long, I knew his computer skills and techniques better than he did. All it took was a little hacking and overriding on the elevator display screen. Within a minute I was being whizzed up to the top level.
The elevator chimed and the doors slid open to reveal Pepper and dad sitting on the floor, toasting with their champagne glasses in the air.
"Morgan!" Pepper said with glee as she rose to stand. "Why didn't you say it was you?"
"I wanted to surprise you."
"'Morgan?' Uh, her first name is agent now," dad said accusingly as he stood.
"Yes it is," I replied with a proud tone, trying to get a rise out of him. As usual, I watched dad's eyes track my every movement as I stepped into the room. He watched my feet, my gait, everything. It was like he was expecting me to suddenly collapse and be paralysed again. After 9 months I would have thought he would have gotten over it but obviously it was an experience that was going to scar and haunt him for the rest of his life.
"Grab a glass," Pepper said. She slipped a glass filled with champagne into my free hand. "We're celebrating."
"Just because my daughter now works for S.H.I.E.L.D does not mean she can start drinking underage." Dad immediately removed the glass from my hand.
"That's alright, I can't stay long. I just need you to look this over as soon as possible." I extended the tablet to dad and after a moment's hesitation he took it.
"In the future agent, official S.H.I.E.L.D consulting hours are between 8 and 5 every other Thursday."
"This isn't a consultation. It's an invitation."
"Is this about The Avengers? Which I know nothing about," Pepper hastily added.
"The Avengers initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify." Dad walked over to his bench as he opened up the tablet.
"I didn't know that either," Pepper insisted.
"Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."
"That I did know."
I rolled my eyes. "I think everyone knows that. But this isn't about personality profiles anymore." Dad typed away on the tablet before opening up the files and bringing them up on holograms surrounding the desk.
I watched Peppers jaw drop as she looked at the holograms displaying the selected members of The Avengers initiative. The videos being played showed a raging Hulk destroying Harlem, Captain America giving orders to his commandos, the aftermath of Thor's battle in New Mexico and Barton and Natasha fighting side by side in the infamous Budapest battle. The holograms displayed information on each of the members but the most important information was on the centre screen. It showed everything we knew about Loki, selected information about the Tesseract and even showed security footage of the destruction of the campus.
"Were you here when this happened?" Dad asked as he watched the campus crumble in on itself.
"No. Why would I be?" I walked over to join him at his desk and I could see the doubt in his eyes.
This is it, I thought. Just tell him now and get the argument over and done with. I opened my mouth, ready to confess what I really did at S.H.I.E.L.D.
"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm a research analyst, I sit behind a desk in an office in LA." The words had poured out of my mouth before I had even realised what I was saying.
I absolutely hated lying to my father but I wasn't quite ready to tell him. I knew it was inevitable that he would eventually discover the truth. Bringing him in meant he would definitely find out the truth, and soon, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell him. The words always got stuck in my throat. I told myself I just needed more time to word the conversation out in my head before I had it. When the time comes I wanted to make sure he understood just how much this meant to me.
He seemed to believe my lie as he left the subject alone and turned back to the screens. His eyes scanned through all the information about the Tesseract and its abductor in seconds. "So this Loki guy, who's basically an alien, created a portal using the Tesseract and then stole it but not before placing a bunch of people under mind control?"
"That's about the gist of it," I said while Pepper mumbled her disbelief. "S.H.I.E.L.D wants you in on this as soon as possible. Look over all of this tonight and call me tomorrow."
While he was displaying only a casual interest I knew he was enthralled. This was exactly the kind of thing he would be interested in. A stolen object, spies and aliens. He was loving this and it hadn't even really begun yet.
"You're not going to stay?" Pepper asked.
"No, I have a flight to catch." I gave her a quick hug before retreating to the elevator. Dad waved a quick goodbye but he was too absorbed in the files to even look away. I smirked to myself as the doors slid shut. Recruiting dad had been as easy a taking candy from a baby. I only hoped Fury and Natasha had been just as successful.
"Please, just be careful. I know you can take care of yourself but accidents can happen and I still worry."
I sighed but a small smile still tugged at the corners of my mouth. "I know you do Daniel. But I promise you I'm going to be okay. With the people and resources we have, it won't take us more than a few days to find the object. I'll be home by the weekend. Have a pizza ready for me."
I heard his soft chuckle through the phone and I pictured the grin on his face right now. I hated leaving him for missions. I missed his smile, his smell, his touch. But it was always the sweetest reunion when I came home.
"I'll have a meatlovers pizza sitting on the table when you walk in the door," he promised. "I love you."
"I love you too. Now go be an amazing doctor and save people's lives." After another round of 'I love you' and 'be safe', I ended the call.
I was glad the only other people in the jet was Agent Coulson and the pilot. I would have hated for any other agents to have listened to that.
We were in the jet heading for the helicarrier. Everyone on the team should be arriving this morning, where we will devise a plan about how to get the Tesseract back and Loki in our custody.
"Sorry about that," I said. Agents weren't really supposed to take personal calls during missions. It was a rule that I often struggled with. Not being able to see Daniel was hard enough, let alone not even being able to hear his voice. I often snuck away during mission to call him and let him know I was alright. Coulson and Natasha both knew but never said anything.
"That's alright," Coulson stated. "Daniel's good?"
In the 7 months since I had joined S.H.I.E.L.D I had grown particularly close to Coulson. Dad would be horrified to hear it, but he was like a second father to me. I couldn't count the number of times he had been there for me and helped me out, especially in the early stages of training. Whenever I'd thought about giving up or believed I wasn't good enough and thought Fury had made a mistake hiring me, he'd always been there. I would be forever grateful for our friendship.
"Yeah he is. He's just concerned, like he always is when I'm away." Coulson and Daniel had never actually met but when you're staking out a target for hours on end with someone you tend to start talking about personal things. Natasha and Coulson knew practically everything about Daniel and I.
And I knew a lot about both of them. "How's Audrey?"
"She's good too," he replied. "I haven't seen her in a while. I was going to fly up to Portland before all of this happened." Audrey was a cellist Coulson had saved while on a S.H.I.E.L.D mission just before I started.
"I'm sure you'll be able to get some time off to go see her when all of this is over," I said.
I glanced down at my phone, checking for the hundredth time if I had missed a call from dad. Nothing.
"What was your fathers reaction when you told him he was finally joining The Avengers?"
"He played it cool but I could see he was dying with excitement inside."
"So you finally told him about…?"Coulson asked.
I sighed. "No."
He gave me a look that I could only describe as 'disapproving father'.
"I know, I know. I should have just told him from the beginning. But haven't you ever put something off because you were scared of the consequences?"
Coulson shook his head. "Nothing as big as this."
"Our last big fight was in the hospital and I just…I hated it. I didn't want to go through that again." Ever since dad had created his suit and revealed his identity to the world, we'd had more fights than we'd ever had before. And the one in the hospital had been one of the worst. It still gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach every time I thought about it.
"No! No way!" Dad's bellowing could be heard echoing through the halls of the hospital. "You are not going to be some experimental lab rat!"
To say he was not happy with the idea of me undergoing experimental surgery was an understatement. I'd watched his facial expression go from joyous when I told him I'd walk again, to disbelieving and outraged when I explained how. As soon as he heard the words 'experimental prototype' he completely lost it.
I showed him the research papers that Fury has sent to me, explaining how the biostimulant chip was developed and how it worked. The chip would be implanted at the level of the injury and would reroute the neural signals around the injured nerves. It converts electrical signals into a wireless transmission, then a receiver picks up the information and converts it back into the original electrical signal which then stimulates the nerves.
It had been in development for 8 years and had taken millions of dollars in research to develop the current prototype. This was the first time the chip would be trialled in a human. I could understand why dad was apprehensive about it all but it wasn't him who would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life if we turned down the offer.
"I'm sorry but this is not your decision." I was trying to remain calm and refrain from yelling. I wanted to have a rational discussion about this but that was hard when he was pacing around the room yelling and gesturing wildly.
"Yes it is!"
Pepper, who was sitting in an armchair beside my bed, was trying to play mediator. "Tony please calm down."
"No, it isn't," I said to dad. "This is my body and I'm in control of what happens to it. If I want to have the surgery, I'll have the surgery."
He stopped his pacing to stand at the foot of my bed. "I'm your father and what I say goes," he said matter-of-factly.
I scoffed at his words. "Since when?" I didn't want to play this card but I thought after a while I'd be able to convince him to do the surgery. He left me with no other option. "You can say no now but I'll be 18 in 2 weeks and in charge of my own medical decisions. Either I get the surgery now or I'll get it then."
With everything that had been going on lately he'd obviously lost track of time and forgotten about my upcoming birthday. I watched him mentally do the math as he realised what the date was. "I can't believe you would do this."
"And I can't believe you wont let me do this! Is it because its experimental? You literally have an experimental piece of technology stuck in your chest for crying out loud!" My voice was beginning to rise in volume as the fight wore on. "This would let me walk again!"
"Could let you walk again! The surgery could do more harm than good! It could-"
"What? Paralyse me? Already there. Kill me? At this point that is a risk I'm willing to take."
Dad looked like I'd just slapped him across the face. Even Pepper looked taken aback. "How could you say that?" he said, his volume considerably lower.
"Because I'm the one sitting in this bed unable to walk. I'm the one who will be like this for the rest of their life, not you! It's easy for you to stand there and say everything will be okay when it's not happening to you. I've got a tube going up me so that I can pee, and I will have to have one for the rest of my life. And let's not forget the lovely other health concerns that come along with paralysis like blood clots, pressure sores, hypotension, autonomic dysreflexia." I'd done way too much research on paralysis the last few days. The more I read the more scared I became. I finally had to get Pepper to take my laptop away from me.
Dad ran a hand through his hair as he finally stopped his pacing and sat down next to the bed. It was obvious the full magnitude of my condition hadn't hit home. He hadn't thought about all the little things that come along with paralysis.
"I know it's experimental and that's gotta be scary for you but S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn't be offering this unless they truly believe it will work." I hadn't even mentioned to dad Fury's offer of going to work for S.H.I.E.L.D after the surgery. I decided to save that bit of information for another time. One fight was enough for today. "I had Daniel take a look at all of the research and he agrees that it's my best shot."
"Oh, well if some random kid thinks it's okay…"
"He's a doctor, which you know since he took care of me the last time I was in the hospital after a crazy man attacked us," I said, referencing the time Obadiah broke into our house, stole dad's arc reactor straight out of his chest and sent me crashing through the glass waterfall in our living room onto the stairs below. "He was genuinely amazed by the research and thinks this could be the solution for thousands of people with paralysis."
"But why do you have to be the tester? Why can't someone else do this and then if it works you can get the chip?"
"Because that will take too long and I'm impatient. The chip has to be implanted and monitored for at least a year before S.H.I.E.L.D can even begin to think about mass producing it for the public. I can't wait that long dad." I reached over to grab his hand which I then squeezed tight. "Plus, if I do this, I get to be a part of history. One day, years from now, this chip is going to be available across the world. Hundreds of thousands of paralysed people will be able to walk again. And I'll get to know that I helped to make that a reality."
He let out a long sigh as he looked down to our joined hands. He was fighting a losing battle and he knew it. There was still one card left he wanted to play. "Pepper, what do you think?"
Pepper, who up until now had been successfully avoiding being pulled into the argument, squirmed in her seat. She was use to playing mediator when dad and I were having arguments. She often tried to remain impartial and rationalise each of our opinions. But this argument was too important to remain neutral.
"I think what Morgan said is right. It's her body, it should be her decision." I was so grateful that Pepper agreed with me. If she had taken dad's side, it would've started the argument all over again. "And if the situation were reversed, I think I'd make the same decision."
With my free hand I grasped a hold of Pepper's and squeezed it. To have her support meant everything. Even though it was never said aloud, we all knew I thought of Pepper as a mother figure. I knew one day the title would be official, although it was taking them longer than I expected to get together.
We both looked over at dad expectantly. The war was lost, the argument was over. "Okay," he sighed. "But I want to look over every piece of research they have on this thing."
"Thank you Dad." I beamed at him. "Everything is going to be okay." He may not believe it, but I did. Everything would work out the way it's supposed to be.
Dad had tried to change my mind a few times before the surgery, promising to make the worlds most innovative wheelchair or designing a brace that would hold me up and let me walk again. But I held my ground and went ahead with the surgery. It had been a success, but even if it hadn't been, I would still have no regrets.
"But it has made the fight you're going to have in the end so much worse by waiting," Coulson said, pulling me from my memories.
"Probably," I admitted. "But at least this way what's done is done. He can't stop me or convince me not to join S.H.I.E.L.D in the first place this way."
The jet started to slow and lower in altitude. The butterflies in my stomach kicked into overdrive as I spotted the helicarrier coming up quickly. While I did have some nerves about the mission, the main cause of my discomfort was the unknown whereabouts of my father. If he was already down there on the helicarrier, it meant that in a few moments I would be having a very uncomfortable conversation with him. The second he saw me on the helicarrier, he would know I was not just a simple research analyst like I had been claiming. He would start asking questions and the truth would have to be told. The whole truth.
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