Alba squared her shoulders and tried to hold strong against Tony Stark's withering stare.
"No. I'm not here for…legal reasons." Steve stared between the both of them with a frown etched between his brows.
"Wait, you two know each other?"
Tony gave him a surprised look as he uncorked a beer. "You didn't know? This woman put me in prison like, three times."
"Actually, it was four times," Alba bristled. "And it wasn't prison. It was jail. You never stayed for more than twenty-four hours."
"Really? Because from where I was standing, prison and jail look the same. What are you even doing here, anyway?"
Alba took a deep breath and tried to have the decency to look sheepish. "I need your help."
"No."
"Please?" She understood his reticence, hell, it she was in his shoes she would say no too. But she couldn't give up. Steve stepped between the both of them and gave Stark a serious look.
"Stark. Do it as a favor for me." Tony gave his friend a pained look. It was clear he wanted nothing more than to walk away from the pair standing before him, but he surprised them by taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders.
"Ugh. Fine. But I'm gonna need a drink. C'mon, let's go upstairs."
The living quarters gleamed when Alba stepped off the elevator. She followed the men in front of her tentatively, jaw dropping at the unhindered sights of the New York skyline. Huge, glittering buildings stood tall on the other side of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The large apartment was furnished with modern, clean furniture in pastel hues, giving off a soft, comfortable look.
Alba peeked further into the room and spotted Steve's friend, the man known as the Falcon, sitting before a droning TV mounted to the wall. He glanced up as they walked by him and did a double take.
"Cap, you're here. Nat and I need to talk to you. She's waiting downstairs." Whatever 'downstairs' was, Steve understood immediately. He gave Alba a reassuring nod.
"Talk to Stark. I'll be back in fifteen." He left promptly, disappearing into the elevator as quickly as he'd stepped out of it.
Tony walked to the opposite end of the spotless living room and poured himself two fingers of scotch, showing no hesitation as he procured a glass of wine for Alba. Oh, how she missed wine. Tony lifted the glass to his mouth and wagged a finger in her direction
"Start talking, and make it good."
"I need your help finding someone." Tony made an amused sound and motioned at Alba's briefcase. She pulled out the case file she kept at her house and placed it on the counter, explaining the situation as he thumbed through the folder.
"Her name is Joanna Gibbs. She's the star witness in the Gonzales trial. Joanna was under witness protection in the last few days leading up to the trial, but we just got a call saying she's missing. I think she's been kidnapped." Stark glanced up at her from the file sitting before him.
"So let me just get this straight, you think he's trying to take her out of the picture in time for the trial?" Alba nodded.
"Most of our evidence isn't substantial. What we do have hinges on the fact that she's present to connect the case to her. If she isn't there, everything falls apart."
"Huh." He gave the case file another look before shutting it. "Alright, Lawyer Lady, you've caught my interest. Let's go to my office, I'm going to need my computer." Alba once again waddled behind Tony like an obedient duckling twelve floors down, narrowing her eyes when she realized they were back where they started.
"We were just here."
"I know. I needed a drink." Alba resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "So. House rules," Her host announced. "Don't touch anything. I also want full immunity for everything you're about to see here."
Alba pressed her lips together and tried not to smile. "I'm not a federal officer, Tony. I can't arrest you for what I might see."
"Oh. Well, good, cause I can't guarantee everything I'm going to do will be considered legal." He sat behind three large holographic displays and pulled Joanna's picture out of the file.
"Okay, let's start with the basics. F.R.I.D.A.Y., I need you to run facial recognition on this girl."
"Initiating facial recognition software. Running potential matches now." A stream of photos appeared on one of the holographic display, flipping through pictures so fast the only thing Alba saw was a blur. She pulled up a chair and sat beside Tony, sighing impatiently as his computer worked.
"It's going to take a minute. Any ideas while we wait?" She straightened up in her chair.
"Actually, I do. Can you hack phone records?"
Her host gave her a slow, disbelieving smile. "Are you suggesting criminal activity? I think I'm liking you better already, Lawyer Lady. What did you have in mind?"
Alba pulled out a list from her folder and placed it in front of him. "If Gonzales did this, he couldn't have done it by himself. He's being watched like a hawk, so he would have needed some sort of burner phone to contact backup."
"…And you want to find that burner phone?"
Alba nodded. "On that paper is a list of all of his known associates. If we hack into their phone records, I'm positive we're going to find one number they all have in common." He gave her an impressed look.
"Oh, you're good. You could be a detective, you know." Alba shrugged, flattered.
"My dad was. A detective, I mean." Tony got to work tracking the phone numbers. Alba watched silently as the screens before him began processing data at light speeds.
Once he was satisfied with his tech, Tony leaned back and gave Alba a curious look. "So. You and Cap." She tensed up and tried not to look nervous. "He's never brought a lady home, you know."
"Oh, it's not…like that."
"Really?" He said innocently, "What's it like?"
"That's enough." Alba nearly jumped out of her skin and whipped her head around to glance at the door, relaxing when Steve grinned back at her.
Tony pursed his lips. "You couldn't show up later? All I needed was two minutes. Two. Minutes."
"So you could interrogate her?"
"Well I wouldn't have to interrogate your lady friend if you just told me who she is. You can't just bring a woman home and not tell us anything." Alba gave Steve an uncomfortable glance. She did not want to get caught up in their bickering.
"We're just friends, okay?" Alba interrupted, determined to put an end to this conversation before Tony could even get a whiff of the truth. "Steve knows how much this case means to me and offered to help." He looked like he wanted to contradict what she was saying, but caved at the last second and nodded right along with Alba's story.
Tony gave them a suspicious look and opened his mouth to argue, but a ping from the computer put their staring contest to an end.
"It looks like the verdict is in," He said tapping the screens before him and making a series of holograms appear before them. "But first, I just want to say I don't believe either of you for a seco—"
"Just get on with it." Steve huffed.
"Fine. Alba's hunch was right. All six of them made several calls to a burner number in the past three weeks. And the number is originating from…Queens. Facial recognition also came back. Joanna was in a car running a red light. Also in Queens." Stark leaned back and gave the pair before him a smug look.
"You really are a genius." Alba praised, jotting down the address on the hologram and pulling out her phone.
"Hello, Franc? I have a location on Joanna."
Hey guys! I hope y'all liked this chapter!
Let me know how I did introducing (Tony) the Avengers! Also let me know what you guys think of the new update schedule! Would you guys rather have 2 smaller updates or one larger one each week?