Rhodes pulled up to Tony's home, handing off his car keys and stepping into the birthday party Tony was throwing, after having just dealt with even more people trying to interfere with Tony's Iron Man suits. He was beginning to get really tired of sticking his neck out for his annoyingly flamboyant friend.

"Hey, Pepper," he called out, hoping to talk with her about Tony, but she looked as displeased as ever.

"I'm going to go get some air."

Rhodes blinked, surprised. "What's wrong?"

She sighed heavily before leading him to the main room where Tony was dressed in the Iron Man suit, carrying a bottle and tripping over himself—obviously drunk.

"I don't know what to do."

"You've gotta be kidding me," he muttered as Tony toppled off the side of the small stage. I knew he was sick, but seriously? "That's it. I'm making—"

"No, no, no," Pepper stopped him. "Don't call anyone."

"Pepper, this is ridiculous. I just stuck my neck out for this guy!" He snapped, losing his temper and his patience for his friend.

"I know. I know, I know. I get it. Just let me try something and if it doesn't work, you go get Jess."

"Jess?"

"She's resting downstairs in the lab. Her back was bothering her, and she said that was the quietest place. If anyone can stop him, it's her."

"Fine. Handle it, or I'm gonna have to."

She nodded, heading for the stage as Tony stood in front of everyone.

"You know, the question I get asked most often is, 'Tony, how do you go to the bathroom in the suit?'" He took a breath, before scrunching his face and grinning at the crowd. "Just like that."

The crowd cheered as he doubled over in giggles and Pepper stepped up, taking the mic from him with a forced smile.

"Does this guy know how to throw a party or what?" She asked, earning cheers.

Tony leaned to the mic. "I love you, Jess."

Pepper's smile twitched, silently wishing Jess was actually there to hear him, if not help her deal with him.

"Unbelievable. Thank you so much. Tony, we all thank you so much for such a wonderful night. And we're gonna say goodnight now and thank you all for coming."

The crowd whined in complaint that the party was over, and Tony stopped her.

"No, no, no, no, no. We can't—Wait, wait, wait, wait. We didn't have the cake. We didn't blow out the candles."

"You're out of control, okay? Trust me on this one, okay?" She tried to reassure him.

"Where's Jess? She's out of control gorgeous, you know."

"It's time to go to bed. It's time. Jess is already waiting for you downstairs. You're not going to be happy about this later, and you know she won't either. Just send everybody home, okay? It's time to…"

"If you say so," he gave in.

"Okay. I'll take this, you take that." She switched out his bottle for the mic, keeping an eye on him as he spoke to the crowd once more.

"Pepper Potts," he hummed, earning soft claps. "She's right. The party's over. Then again, the party was over for me, like, an hour and a half ago. The after-party starts in fifteen minutes!"

The crowd cheered as Pepper and Rhodey exchanged exasperated looks across the floor.

"And if anybody—Pepper—doesn't like it, there's the door."

His suit basted through the glass between the crowd and the way out, startling everyone for a moment before the crowd grew even more excited. A blonde woman eve began throwing things up for Tony to shoot at, and by then, Rhodey had had enough. Rhodey hurried downstairs, punching in the code for the lab and giving one glance at the sleeping Jess on a sofa before making for the assortment of Iron Man rejects on the wall. Once suited up, he headed back upstairs and spoke loudly to the crowd.

"I'm only gonna say this once. Get out."

The crowd hurried out as the faceplate came down and he faced Tony.

"You don't deserve to wear one of these. Shut it down!"

Tony turned, looking at the DJ stand. "Goldstein."

The DJ hesitantly poked his head back up. "Yes, Mr. Stark?"

"Give me a phat beat to beat my buddy's ass to," he chuckled as "Another One Bites the Dust" began to play and Rhodes grabbed him from behind.

"I told you to shut it down."

Ignoring the order, Tony dropped the mic, allowed his own faceplate to come down, and threw the both of them backwards through the wall, sauna, and into the gym.

"Now, put that thing back where you found it before someone gets hurt," Tony ordered, starting to walk out.

Rhodes though threw a weight and bounced it off the back of his head, preparing to throw another.

"Really?" Tony questioned, dodging it and picking up some barbells.

He swung it at Rhodes, knocking him through the boxing ring and hovering over him.

"Sorry, pal, but Iron Man doesn't have a sidekick."

Rhodes picked up the corner post and began to hit him with it. "Sidekick this!"

Tony grabbed it, only for Rhodes to knock his foot out from under him and throw him through the ceiling into a bedroom.

"Had enough?"

Meanwhile downstairs, Pepper called out to Natalie, who hurried over in concern.

"Miss Potts?"

"Don't you 'Miss Potts' me. Ever since you came here, Jess has had a hell of a time trying to control—" Pepper was cut off as Rhodes and Tony fell through the ceiling and Happy rushed in to get her out of there. "No! No, go get Jess! She's in the lab! Hurry!"

"On it!" He called out, moving her out into the crowd and rushing downstairs himself as Tony and Rhodes continued to grapple.

"You want it? Take it!" Rhodes shouted, the two starting to box before Tony slammed Rhodes into a table.

It was then that he realized the crowd gathered behind the glass leading outside, filming, taking pictures, some looking fearful. He roared at them, sending the group rushing away as Rhodes got up and slammed a sink into him, knocking him into the fireplace. He pulled himself out and lifted his hand, charging up a shot as Rhodes did the same.

"Put your hand down," Rhodes told him.

"You think you got what it takes to wear that suit?"

"We don't have to do this, Tony."

"You want to be the War Machine, take your shot," Tony challenged.

"Put it down!"

"You gonna take a shot?"

"Put it down!" Rhodes shouted.

"No!"

"Drop it, Tony!"

"Take it!"

Neither noticed Jess and Happy standing just outside the room. And just as the two fired off their shots, Jess threw a large disk in between them. The blasts hit the disk, shooting out into the night instead of at the two of them, and they both turned as the woman scowled at them—kitchen mostly destroyed.

"Are you both done?" She snapped, earning at least a somewhat sheepish gesture from Rhodes as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Because if you two hadn't noticed, which I'm sure you haven't, you've destroyed the house! There's a hole in the ceiling, the kitchen is obviously in dire need of a complete reconstruction, and all of this happened because two grown-ass-men can't sit down and talk like adults and instead have to battle it out in metal suits?"

The two were both quiet as she stepped between them and picked up the metal disk, brushing off the scorch mark on the front only to frown down at the star and red, white and blue coloration.

"You know what? I don't even want to know," she muttered, before swinging the shield around and pointing it at Tony. "You, downstairs, now."

He hesitated for only a second before slumping off and Jess whipped around to Rhodes.

"Get out."

"Jess, I—"

"Go. And I hope you can see at least a little bit of why we don't want people to have these suits. Because all this shows me, is that you definitely don't deserve it after this childish display."

"Then, neither does he."

The chilliness in Jess's gaze made him swallow thickly as she snapped back at him. "He's dying. And I hate to break it to you, but all this?" She threw her arms out. "It's a damn cry for help. You're supposed to be his best friend, Rhodey, and even I can see this for what it is. It's him giving up. It's him throwing his life away by jumping into the driver's seat of a racecar, by getting drunk at his birthday party and acting out because he's convinced it's going to be his last one. So, tell me. If you were on your deathbed, are you telling me you wouldn't do whatever the hell you wanted? Even if it meant looking like an idiot, ruining your reputation, and distancing yourself from your friends?"

"I didn't—"

"You didn't think," she snarled, prodding him in the chest. "He's trying to protect himself by being an ass, and you fell for it hook, line and sinker. Now, get the hell out before I pry you from that suit and beat you upside the head with it for being an inconsiderate dick."

He was quick to take off, and the moment he did, Jess let out a long sigh and dragged a hand down her face. A whistle rang out and her glare shifted to Happy who held his hands up.

"Right. I'll just, uh… go."

He rushed off and Jess slowly made her way downstairs to the lab, where Tony was getting his suit removed. He refused to look at her and stepped down off the platform, about ready to brush by her, if she hadn't grabbed his arm.

"Tony. This needs to stop."

He jerked his arm away bitterly. "Stop? Stop what, Jess? I'm dying and nothing's going to stop that. Trust me, I've looked."

"And you need to take a step back and get a fresher start," she pressed. "Self-imploding like this is only going to make things worse, and when you live—because you will live—you'll really regret pushing everyone away like this."

"What do you know! You think you can help me, but you can't! Nobody can! So, just leave me alone, Jess!"

"No, I won't!" She shouted in return. "Because unlike Rhodes, unlike Pepper, unlike every damn idiot who believed every word you said, I'm staying to help you, whether you want me to or not! Because I love you!"

The lab suddenly felt too quiet with those words; words neither had admitted to each other even in the six months of their relationship. Jess flushed a bit, squeezing his arm slightly.

"Just… Just don't give up thinking that nobody will care, because I do. I want to help you, any way I can. So, just… just tell me how."

"I don't know how," he muttered. "I haven't found any element that would—"

"Not just that," Jess cut him off. "I want to help you. In any way I can. You want to do your bucket list, or just go out with a bang, then tell me how I can help you achieve that. What do you want right now?"

"Right now?" He asked, raising a brow.

Jess rolled her eyes. "No, a week from now. Yes, right now."

He shot her a look. "You know, you're always so full of sarcasm. Don't know how anyone believes what you say in court. Who did you get that from?"

"My mother," Jess cracked a smile. "Where'd you get that shield from?"

"It's a, uh… favor for someone. A commission."

"Right. Something you're going to tell me about?"

"Well, it's not happening right now. Probably not for a while, actually, so no."

"Right. So, it has nothing to do with that file called, 'The Avenger's Initiative' that I found tucked away under some magazines in your office desk the other day?"

He winced. "Remind me to hide things better."

"Yeah, no. Not if they're going to be hidden from me. Besides, Jarvis would give up anything if I ask him politely enough."

He wrinkled his nose in a frown, lightly placing his hands on her waist. "I hate when you two team up against me."

Jess just smiled, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around him, her head lying on his shoulder. "So? What does Iron Man want today?"

"Hm, how about doughnuts? I'm thinking powdered sugar, maybe chocolate sprinkles. Buttermilk for the lady."

Jess snorted, lightly smacking his back before pulling away. "Well, then I guess we're getting doughnuts. Should I get Happy to bring the car around?"

"No need." He smirked then, gesturing back to his suit. "Would you like a lift?"

"Depends. Are you drunk enough to get a DUI if it were a car?"

"Not even close."

"Something tells me that's a lie, but… all right. I'll trust you on this one."

He grinned. "Excellent."

Flying was the opposite of fun. It was terrifying, to be honest, even with Tony's arms wrapped securely around me to prevent my inevitable death if I fell. And I couldn't feel anything but an insane amount of fear for a while until he spoke—probably sensing I wasn't screaming with joy.

"Look to your right."

I did, my breath catching in surprise instead of terror. The sun was rising up over the top of the mountains and it lit up the city beautifully, finally breaking past the unease that had settled in me at being in the air. Now that I'd calmed down, Tony settled the both of us in front of a doughnut shop and I stepped out of his arms with a shaky wobble; him grabbing my elbow to keep me upright.

"You okay?"

"We just flew," I muttered, turning and looking at him with wide eyes. "That's fucking terrifying."

His helmet sank into his suit, revealing a confused expression. "That's… not what I expected to hear."

"I mean, the sunrise was great, but Christ." I bought a hand to my chest. "I-I think I'll stick to planes. They at least feel safer."

He chuckled, nodding to the shop. "Are you ordering or me?"

"God, no. I will. Just think of the ruckus you'd cause by stepping in there. You want a quiet breakfast, you stay out here. It's on me."

"Order a dozen. No, two dozen. Powdered sugar, chocolate sprinkles, those weird apple fritter things and like, ten jelly-filled."

I raised a brow. "You know, you might pay me well, but I think two dozen doughnuts is a bit much. And unlike a plane, we're not taking a box back with us. I'd probably crush it or drop it the moment we took off again."

A chill went down my spine at the reminder that we were going to have to fly back home, but I pushed it aside as I stepped into the shop and ordered half a dozen doughnuts. When I stepped back outside though, I looked around in confusion.

"Tony? Tony, where—Ah!"

I nearly dropped the doughnuts as I was lifted by the back of my shirt and flown up to the doughnut hole of the giant sign on the shop; getting dropped into Tony's lap as he chuckled at my expression.

"Don't laugh at me, you dick!" I complained, smacking his chest in annoyance as I tried to calm my heart. "I will die of a heart attack because of you. That's a given at this point, I hope you understand that."

He took the box of doughnuts from me and pulled one out as his arm wrapped around my waist to keep me secure at our height. "Well, then we won't be apart for long, right?"

A somber mood fell over us and I sighed, leaning back against him with a minor wince.

"You need some outer cushioning or something. It's hard to lay on you when you're all angular metal and sassy depression."

"Now you know how I feel, seeing as you're all skin and bones and stubbornness."

I shot him a look, taking a doughnut for myself. "I've never been able to gain weight, you know. Between the child neglect and ridiculous amounts of study time to get to where I am now, food was never a big thing for me."

"Is it now?"

"Well, it kind of has to be, because if I don't feed you, then we'd both be starving."

He hummed, reaching out and using a finger to push a sprinkle off the corner of my mouth. "Well, then I suppose I should thank you, for keeping me from being an utter mess."

"You better," I quipped, glad to be drawing the conversation away from his condition. "Say, you should come up with a way to take on and off the suit without all the…" I waved my arms. "Robot bits. The suitcase was a good thought, but a bit obvious and dangerous if someone stole it."

"I'll get right on that. Maybe an instant recall system? Make it come to me wherever I'm at?"

"How would you get it to know though?"

"A motion trigger? Place a chip just under my skin and when it registers a certain movement or gesture, it initiates a recall to summon the suit?"

"Sounds fun. Just means you need to install a flight plan for every piece you call to you. Put Jarvis in charge?"

He nodded. "Put Jarvis in charge."

"Sir!" Someone called out then, making me jolt and nearly drop the last of doughnuts if Tony hadn't caught them. "I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut."

Tony blinked down at him, pushing away the sunglasses I'd snuck him to help with the oncoming hangover as the man with the eyepatch stepped into the shop.

"Friend of yours?"

"Not really," he grumbled. "He's the one who offered the Avengers Initiative thing. Nick Fury."

"Really?" I questioned as Tony helped me get down. "Seems a little more James Bond villainy type than gatherer of superheroes."

"Feel free to tell him that." Tony grinned then. "Actually, do. Do tell him that. You two seem like you'd get along."

"And by 'get along' you really mean we'd butt heads," I concluded.

"Oh, absolutely."

"Great," I sighed, following him into the shop and heading for the front. "Coffee?"

"Please."

"Just grab it yourself," Fury said, catching sight of me. "Shop's empty for security reasons."

Oh, he's one of those people, I mused, rolling my eyes and grabbing the coffee for the three of us as Tony started off the conversation.

"I told you, I don't want to join your super-secret boy band."

Fury chuckled. "No, no, no. See, I remember. You do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?"

I handed the coffee over to everyone and plopped down beside Tony, catching Fury's gaze as I drank my own coffee, eyeing him.

"Or, well, that's what you told me, anyway. Seems you've managed to keep hold of some help."

"Don't call me his help," I grumbled but offered my hand politely. "Jess Norris."

He managed a smile as he reached over the table to shake it. "I know."

I cracked a sickly-sweet smile in return. "By the way, your Avengers Initiative? Shit plan."

"Excuse me?" He questioned as Tony snorted, unable to help but chuckle quietly as I let Fury's hand go and pulled out another doughnut from the box on the table.

"It is. Believing that you can somehow gather super-powered individuals, expect them to get along, fight for you—because it will ultimately be for you—and somehow this will not only appease the rest of the world but will make it easy to clean up after them?" I scoffed. "You'd be better off buying twenty dogs at the same time and locking them in a room to see which digs its way out and which starts attacking all the others."

"And what would you know about handling any of that?" He countered, making me raise a brow.

"I'm handling him, aren't I?" I challenged, nodding to Tony. "I can imagine twenty other Iron Mans trying to get along. Hell, I can imagine other people trying to get along with him. There's going to be conflicts in personality. And conflicts lead to actions, which lead to disaster if it's not controlled properly. And some eye-patch wearing, scary guy isn't going to be enough to just say the word and stop them. No offense."

"Offense taken." He scowled, making me shrug.

"That's all right. I'm a lawyer. I'm used to people not liking me, so join the queue."

Fury's gaze shifted to Tony's amused ones. "You've sure caught yourself some woman."

Tony scoffed. "Please. She caught me. And, I'm sorry. I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye?" He joked, lowering his sunglasses again. "Honestly, I'm a bit hungover. I'm not sure if you're real or if I'm having—"

Fury leaned over. "I am very real. I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet, sans your lady friend over there."

"Just my luck. Where's the staff here?" He asked, looking to the side and Fury caught sight of something, lightly tugging at the edge of Tony's suit to see something on his neck.

"That's not looking so good."

"I've been worse," Tony said, giving me a look as I eyed the marks crawling up his neck in concern.

We're running out of time. I've got to figure something out. I've got to help him and not be so damn useless, especially now. Someone approached the table then and I blinked in surprise at Natalie decked out in a skin-tight suit.

"We've secured the perimeter, but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer."

Beside me, Tony nearly dropped his coffee cup in shock.

"Huh. You're fired."

"That's not up to you," she replied, settling herself beside Fury, giving me a nod of acknowledgment. "Jess."

"N-Natalie," I greeted, still shell-shocked as Fury smirked at us both.

"Tony, Miss Norris. I want you to meet Agent Natasha Romanoff."

"Hi," Tony greeted, with a hint of frustration as he rubbed at his face.

"I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury."

Some dots in my mind connected.

"Hold on. S.H.I.E.L.D.? As in that ridiculously long supposed business that Agent Coulson made up?"

Fury gave me a glance. "Yes, he told me about you. You gave him quite the trouble when we sent him in for reconnaissance."

"Well, who would believe in a company with that long of a name?" I argued. "It was obviously a fake and he hardly looked like anything other than a government employee, making both of us not really keen on getting to know him."

"Yes, I do believe he reported back that Tony had sicked his guard dog on him. An apt description, now that I've met you."

"Oh, believe me. I've been called worse. Though, this explains my questions regarding your resume, Natasha. Nobody has time to get that much knowledge crammed into them while working a nine-to-five. Trust me, I've tried."

Natasha cracked a small smile. "Your form could use some work."

I groaned, remembering how she beat me when we first met. "Yeah, well, it'd been a while and I was pissed. More coffee?"

Tony passed me his cup and I took my own to get a refill, keeping an ear out as they continued discussing things.

"You've been very busy," Fury mused. "You made your secretary your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know better—"

"You don't know better," Tony stopped him. "I didn't give it to him. He took it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, no? He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit? Is that possible?"

"Well, according to Mr. Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage," Natasha answered, as I spoke up from behind the counter.

"I let him take it."

"Oh, what? Now, the girlfriend has the power to hand out your suits?"

I resisted the urge to rise to his bait. "They want to cause problems, then they can deal with the mess it makes. They won't be able to accurately recreate the suit without Tony's cooperation. And giving it to Rhodes means he'll have his eyes opened to what the military wants to do with it. Knowing him, he'll ensure he's the only one in the manned suit. This will at least keep the senator and the military from bursting into our home for a little while until we can figure out how to handle things."

"Ballsy move, Norris," Fury chirped, and I could feel his eyes on my back. "What makes you think that's going to work?"

"I told you. I'm just buying time. We're trying to focus on too many things at once, so I put a few to the side for the moment. What do you want from us?"

"What do we want from you?" He questioned. "Nuh, uh, uh. What do you want from me? You, Tony, have become a problem. A problem I have to deal with."

"Join the party," I grumbled, reaching over and grabbing yet another doughnut, plopping it in my mouth as Fury continued.

"Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe."

"Yeah, I get it."

"I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with."

"Nobody told you to deal with him," I countered, hearing Tony's frustration and noticing that Natasha had walked over to him.

"Hit him," Fury ordered, and Tony jerked when Natasha injected something into him.

"Oh, God. Are you gonna steal my kidney and sell it? Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds?" Tony complained as I hurried over to where Natasha was looking at his neck.

To my surprise, whatever they'd given him made the marks disappear, though I still frowned.

"What was that?"

"That's lithium dioxide. It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work."

"Give me a couple of boxes of that. I'll be right as rain."

"It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms," Natasha informed us, handing me a small box. "One more dose. Give it to him in twelve hours."

I took it deftly. "Right… Hold on. I'm a bit confused here. He's causing you trouble, and you want him to continue causing said trouble?"

"He causes more trouble acting out like this than he does as a functioning human being," Fury corrected. "Though it doesn't look like that's going to be an easy fix."

"Trust me, I know," Tony grumbled. "I'm good at this stuff. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I have tried every combination, every permutation of every known element."

Something about that rang bells in my mind, making me frown. Something… There's something that he said… What? Combination? Element?

"Well, I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all, and it looks like your girlfriend might be useful after all. You have an idea, Norris?"

"Something he said," I muttered, drumming my fingers on my coffee cup. "Say it again."

"What?" Tony questioned, but Natasha quoted him.

"'I have tried every combination, every permutation of every known element.'"

I snapped my fingers. "There. The end bit. Every known element. Have you tried making one?"

Tony blinked. "A new element?"

I shrugged. "Why not? If you've tried all the ones we know, then there's nothing left but to try the ones we don't know. Right? I'm… not a chemist, so I don't know how difficult that would be, but—"

Tony suddenly stood up and pressed his lips to mine, startling me as he pulled away, holding my arms as I blinked dazedly up at him in shock. "You're brilliant."

"Y-Yeah?"

"Absolutely." He looked to Fury. "Any ideas of where to start?"

Fury smirked. "Where it all started." He got up and nodded. "Come on. Let's bring you two home and get you out of that suit. We can talk there."

"No flying?" I questioned cautiously, though still a bit stunned by the sudden kiss.

"No. I've got a car, though you're welcome to fly back with him."

I shook my head. "Yeah, no. I think I've had enough unsecured flying for one lifetime."

"Oh, it wasn't that bad," Tony huffed as we headed out. "What if you were in a suit? Would that help?"

"Maybe," I muttered, though not entirely thrilled by the idea, but he grinned.

"I'll add you to the authorization codes then."

"Tony!"

"That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology," Fury explained to Tony as they sat in what was left of the destroyed kitchen at his home.

"No, it was finished," Tony argued. "It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my…" He gestured to his chest, but Fury shook his head as Jess wandered in with a sigh, nursing a scotch despite the early hour.

She'd been dealing with back pain ever since they'd flown around, and instead of taking the pain medication she was prescribed, she claimed it wasn't that bad and just needed a drink. Tony didn't bother arguing with her, knowing better than to try, especially when she had spent the evening and most of the day dealing with his little temper tantrum.

"No. Howard said the arc reactor was the stepping stone to something greater. He was about to kick off an energy race that was going to dwarf the arms race."

"So, a superpowered battery?" Jess commented, making Fury shoot her a look.

"You are far more intelligent than I thought, Miss Norris."

She snorted. "Please. I hardly know anything compared to Mr. Know-It-All over there. I'm just good at connecting the dots. And call me Jess. Miss Norris makes me want to call you Nickolas just to spit you."

"He was onto something big," Fury continued, nodding to Jess. "Something so big that, as Jess said, it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery."

"Just him? Or was Anton Vanko in on this too?" Tony asked, pouring himself something as Jess grunted, getting up.

"That reminds me. I need to check up on that guy," she muttered, looking around for her laptop.

"Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin," Fury explained, watching Jess go out of the corner of his eye. "Anton saw it as a way to get rich. When your father found out, he had him deported. When the Russians found out he couldn't deliver, they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next twenty years in a vodka-fueled rage. Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in; the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco."

Jess returned, wearing glasses and holding her laptop in one hand, her drink in the other as she sat in a chair next to Tony. "Speaking of, says here there was an explosion at the prison he was in. I don't like that. Couldn't identify the body due to the disfiguration of the face but the number on the uniform was the same? What is this? Some cliché movie bit?" She looked at Fury. "Can we look into this? I don't like the fact that the only other person with the capabilities of making a suit might or might not be dead."

He nodded. "I'll get someone on it, though don't expect immediate results."

She scoffed. "From a government organization? Never."

Fury rolled his eyes as Tony tried to bring the conversation back around.

"So, Jess mentioned making a new element. You think my father had something on that?"

Fury shrugged. "Don't know about the new element thing, but he said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started."

"He said that?" Tony questioned, not sounding convinced.

"Are you that guy? Hm? Are you?" Fury challenged, making Jess look between the two of them cautiously. "'Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart."

Jess couldn't help but snort at that line, earning a small glare from Fury as Tony shook his head.

"I don't know where you're getting your information but, uh, he wasn't my biggest fan."

"What do you remember about your dad?" Fury questioned, making Jess frowned as she thought about her own father and rubbed at her arm as a phantom ache appeared at the thought.

"He was cold. He was calculating. He never told me he 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. You're talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school."

"That's not true."

"Well, then clearly you knew my dad better than I did."

"Could have been worse," Fury shrugged. "Could have had Jess's father. How often did he say he cared for you, Jess?"

"Don't drag me into this," Jess grumbled, but Fury waved her off.

"Come on. Enlighten us."

"He didn't. Not even when my mother was around, happy?" She grumbled. "What do you want me to say? That maybe Howard just had a hard time expressing himself and pushed Tony because he wanted him to be the best? This isn't a soap opera. It's not my job to try and justify a neglectful parent, especially when my own parent was a piece of shit."

Two men brought in a large silver case then, drawing Jess's angry gaze away from Fury as he spoke.

"Howard was one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I did know him more than you think."

Even Tony was shocked. "What?"

Fury checked his watch, getting up to leave. "I've got a two o'clock."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," Tony tried to stop him, getting up as well. "What's this?"

"Okay, you're good, right?" Fury ignored him.

"No, I'm not good."

"You, you, you got this, right? Right?"

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

Again, he was ignored as Jess got up to look over the box.

"Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact. And you remember Agent Coulson, right?"

"Oh, joy," Jess grumbled.

"Oh, and Tony? Remember, I got my eye on you."

Jess raised a brow. "That is the lamest joke I've heard from a half-blind guy."

"Right back at you, Jess."

She scowled at the quip as he walked off and Natasha explained what was going on.

"We've disabled all communications. No contact with the outside world. Good luck."

"Hold on," Jess stopped her. "Me too?"

Natasha quirked her lip in a sort of half-smile. "Director Fury seems to think you'll be helpful to him. You're as in on this as he is, Jess."

"Oh, come on! I wasn't even offered a job in his little superhero pact!" She complained to the agent's retreating back, before huffing. "How are we supposed to get food if we have no contact with the rest of the world?"

Her gaze shifted to Coulson, who shook his head with a grin.

"I'm not here for that."

"What good are you then?" Jess huffed. "Am I allowed to leave for that?"

"No, ma'am."

"Don't call me ma'am." She scowled. "We've gone over this."

Coulson didn't seem to care, too pleased with the payback he was getting. "I've been authorized by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on-premises. If either of you attempts to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet, okay?"

Jess didn't even blink. "The fact that your go-to show is Supernanny says a lot about your character. Can you be any more of a wuss?"

Coulson's brow twitched, but he didn't rise to the bait. "Enjoy your evening's entertainment."

As he walked off, Tony gave Jess a look as she ran a hand through her hair.

"He really meant it when he said you two don't get along, didn't he? What did you do last time?"

"Ran through a list of threats and things I could get away with because I can be my own lawyer in any lawsuit case he'd attempt to file against me if he didn't piss off." She shot Tony a look. "I really hate government people."

"I can see that. So, shall we?" He questioned, nodding to the box that had been left behind for them and Jess sighed.

"Not like we have a choice."