Hours later, Brie's in the air, on her way to Rose Hill. Barely out of Malibu, she gets a notification from Jarvis that Tony's life was in danger.

Upon hearing this, Brie curses under her breath, and turns around.

She'd seen the news. She'd seen when Tony flat out invited the Mandarin to his house. She knew the idiot would get himself into uncomprehend able trouble, and that was why, during her hacking to Jarvis, which took a whole day by the way, she securely hid the program that would keep her notified.

Why?

Simple. She considered the Stark her role-model in sophisticated, creative builds. But her role-model happened to be a fairly reckless person. If she could help, she would, only because she knew he'd bode the future a little brighter.

She needed that motivation.

"Where is he, Jarvis?" she asks in haste.
"Thirty feet beneath the waters," Jarvis replies.
"Shit!" she zooms forward.

When the building comes into sight, disintegrated and falling apart, she stops for a moment, taking it in, before targeting Tony's location beneath.

She dives.

As fires rose above, and debris tumbled into the foggy waters, she glimpsed the light from his suit, rushing forward with her improved boots.

His hand was reaching out, she could see, as his body trapped within the wreckage. She rushed to grab it, taking hold of it firmly, boosting the rockets to push them both out.

Finally so, Brie notes he lied limp in her hold. She reaches the nearest piece of land, and tumbles onto it.

Brie then stands to her feet, exiting her suit and rushing towards his suit lying on the floor. "Jarvis, open the suit," she demands. The AI does as told, revealing Tony's unconscious, water-drenched form. She panics.

Brie takes hold of his face, shaking it slightly. "Wake up. Tony, wake up!" she shouts. Nothing happens. Her eyes widen. She feels for his pulse…

Nothing…

"…No. No. No. No…" she breathes frantically. Brie positions his head. "Okay. Okay," she tells herself, placing her hands flat on his chest, ignoring the arc-reactor. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven," she counts, pushing with every digit. She then places her lips on his after opening them, breathing in.

Several tries later, he rises with a jolt into her arms, gasping for air. She takes hold of him to steady him. "It's okay. It's okay," she tells him, and herself, rubbing his head that lied on her shoulder, till he lost conscious once more.

"Tony?" she calls, feeling him go limp again. "T-" she takes hold of his head and raises it to her face, sighing in relief upon realizing he was just out cold.

She lies him back into his suit. "Jarvis, close it up and follow me," she tells.
"Yes, ma'am."

XXXXX

In less than two hours, they arrived into the snowy weathers of Rose Hill.

They land semi-gracefully outside a barn that belonged to that same family-friend she went to visit in New York. Ben Parker owned the property, him and his wife, May, and nephew, Peter.

Brie hadn't checked in with them recently, but being so close with them, she'd managed to put in a few of her inventions, which the nephew loved, into the barn, making it a good detour for her when headed to New York.

She waltzes in, Jarvis following as she flipped the light-switch on. "Ma'am…I think I may be malfun…ctio…n…ing," Jarvis states, stumbling in place. She widens her eyes, snapping to him.
"Let Tony out!" she shouts. Jarvis hurriedly complies. Tony falls into her arms, still unconscious.
"Offf," she lets out in exhaustion, pulling to put him on the couch as the suit falls back onto the floor with a thud.
"Brie!" exclaims a young boy's voice.

Brie freezes, tilting her head from behind Tony's form. Her mask pulls up.

"Peter?" she asks in shock.
"Oh my god!" Peter utters, eyeing Iron Man intently. She ignores him and shuffles back to the couch, shoving Tony onto it.
"Ughh, my back!" she whines, wondering what in the world the Stark ate.
"Oh my god! That's Iron Man!" Peter exclaims from behind her.
"Duly noted," she utters sarcastically. "Peter, close the doors." He doesn't hear her as she pulls up Tony's legs onto the couch.

Noting no sound, she turns irritably. "Peter!"

"Right! Sorry!" he scuttles off, shutting the doors of the barn with little ease.

Once done, Brie straightens from positioning the Stark onto the couch. She walks to where she'd placed a suit charger pod, and exits her armor there, allowing it to charge.

She turns to Tony once more, looming over him as he slept, eyeing him with both frustration and admiration. She pulls over a blanket from the couch's arm, fanning it onto him. The bruises on his face seemed to mock her.

She rushes to her desk, pulling out the first aid kit from a drawer. She then turns back to the Stark, smirking at Peter's dazed form by the doors. "Star-struck, Pete?" she asks in amusement.

Peter eyes her in utter bewilderment. "I just…I…Iron Man!" he simply lets out, approaching her as she opened the kit. Brie pulls out a cloth and adds some sanitizer. She softly reaches out to the Stark's face, gently wiping down the blood.

"What happened to him?" Peter asks worriedly. She exhales.
"He was being an idiot. I saved his ass," she tells simply, smirking at the thought of Tony hearing them. Peter widens his eyes at her.
"You saved Iron Man!" he exclaims, causing her to laugh slightly.
"Yeah, I did," she grins. "What are you doing here, kid?" she then asks. Peter snaps out of his excited-daze.
"Oh. Um. We were attending one of uncle Ben's friend's wedding. They're with him now," he explains. Brie takes it in, nodding contently.

After cleaning his wounds, Brie insures he's tucked in warm, then turns her attention to his dysfunctional armor.

With help from Peter, she hefts it onto her work table, studying its form and attempting to identify where the problems were. Once done, she and Peter worked to fix what little they could so the suit would fly once more.

The system was down, and that would take time to pull back up again.

About fifteen minutes later, Tony starts to come to, or so it seemed. He was mumbling in his sleep, causing Brie and Peter to turn to him warily.

"N…no…" he whispered, face crunching as if painfully. Brie pulls away from the desk and approaches him in concern.
"Is he having a nightmare?" Peter asks in concern.
"Think so," Brie replies uncertainly.

She scoots beside the Stark, placing one hand on his shoulder, and the other on his cheek, applying the smallest of pressure to awaken him calmly. "Tony," she calls. He doesn't hear her, and continues to mumble. She calls again. His eyes snap open, evidently panicked. She pulls back just as he jerks up, panting heavily.

"Hey! Hey! Tony! Look at me," Brie tells as his eyes dart all around the room. She takes hold of his face, forcing his eyes to hers. He freezes. "Easy," she tells.

A moment passes, her eyes locked intently with his, causing her heart to race involuntarily.

Tony's brows then furrow, and he eyes her as if he'd seen an alien, but he calmed somewhat, causing her to pull her hands back, and turn to Parker.

"Peter. Water," she tells. Tony snaps to him warily, causing he thirteen-year-old wearing glasses to panic internally, his mind taking a moment to process the demand whilst gripping his cool. He steps forward, then halts and moves in the opposite direction, backing out of the barn in a rush.

Tony eyes around frantically. Once Peter is out of sight. Brie turns to the Stark.

"Nightmares happen often?" she asks in sympathetically. Her question confuses him further.
"How…Where?...Why!" he stumbles for words, struggling to comprehend.
"The Mandarin's men paid you a visit, because you stupidly told them to," she glares as he processes, slowly recalling what had happened. "They bombed your house. I saved your dumb ass," he cocks an eyebrow at her, "and here we are. That's the 'how'. As for 'where', we're in Rose Hill. And 'why', because the world thinks you're dead, and until we take the Mandarin down, it's best to stay that way. Any more questions?" she smirks. Tony wears a still, perplexed look on his face.
"…You saved me?" he asks in confusion, remembering close to nothing of that.
"You're welcome," she retorts, grinning. He wasn't exactly thanking her.

Peter scurries back into the room, re-attracting their attention. He frantically, and quite nervously pushes the glass of mineral water to the Stark.

Tony takes it, eyeing the boy quizzically. "Who's this?" he asks Brie.
"This is Peter, nephew of a friend," she replies.
"Mister Stark, it is such an honor! You may not remember, but you saved my life once, two years ago, during the Expo incident," Peter says joyfully. Brie smiles at the boy's expression. Tony nods nonchalantly, still not fully aware.

His open suit on the table grasps his attention. His eyes widen. "What are you doing to my suit?!" he exclaims, rising to his feet and approaching it. Brie grins slightly from the accusation, strolling towards him casually, Peter following with a skip in his step.

"Well, the piles of falling rock from your dismantled house certainly didn't serve it well," she draws, brushing a hand across the desk's surface as he eyed his armor sorrowfully. "I'm recalibrating the system, getting it back on track. It might take a while. Fortunately, I have something that'll keep us busy," she grins. Tony turns to her in confusion.

She walks past him to her computer on the opposite desk, next to the pod where her suit lied. She tabs a few keys, and touch several spots on the semi-decent holographic screen.

Brie pulls up a picture, as Tony goes to stand by her, of Chad Davis, former-soldier, suspect of bombing a nearby site in town, and was rumored to work for the Mandarin.

Of course, Tony already knew that. The Mandarin wasn't Stark's problem, it was the government's, until one of the bombings severely hurt Happy, his good friend and head of security. Investigating the crime-scene himself, using the security cameras to see the full incident, Tony notes that, as he struggled for breath, Happy pointed intently at something on the floor.

And it was then that he'd found the bombings' occurrence itself awfully suspicious.

Peter stands in the background, fiddling cautiously with the suit. He was awfully smart for his age, and Brie encouraged this greatly, teaching him whenever she could about the laws of mechanics and physics. Safe to say the kid knew what he was doing. Tony doesn't notice his fiddling.

"Remember him?" Brie asks the now concentrated Stark about the soldier. He nods. "Good. Now, you think that he worked for the Mandarin, right?" she asks.
"Yeah," Tony replies, slowly grasping at the fact, currently, he was, seemingly, under no threat, even though the woman before him had attempted to rob him, what he would assume, mere hours ago.
"Wrong," Brie states, re-attracting his attention. He furrows his eyebrows at her. "It's a crazy story, but hear me out. Do you know a man by the name of Aldrich Killian, smug little bastard?" she asks in evident despise. Tony thinks for a moment.
"It…sorta rings a bell. Why?"
"He's founder of the A.I.M," she notes.
"That definitely rings a bell," he smirks, ironically, and almost unwillingly, observing her features intently.
"Supposedly, he's been researching ways to help the disabled…heal, somehow. He was disabled himself once, and hell-bent on changing that…My... sister…worked for him for a couple of months," Brie almost painfully says. He notices. "Long-story-short, I think he went as far as human-experimentation. I know you looked into the Mandarin bombings. They're pretty suspicious, aren't they?" she asks coyly.
"…Yeah," Tony replies, attempting to note what she was getting at whilst still accepting the fact that she knew so much.
"What caught your attention?" she asks. It takes him a moment to pull his concentration from studying her, and into her seemingly important questions.
"Well, the…temperatures, of the bombing, and the victims themselves, seemed pretty off," he offers tensely. She nods happily, admiring the fact that he'd picked it up.
"Exactly."
"So, you think they're connected?"
"That's what we're here to find out."
"Right. We." Tony notes sarcastically. She turns to him suspiciously.

Okay, time out. Again. This woman had attempted to rob him. And afterwards, evidently kidnapped him, after claiming she'd saved him.

Whether or not he believed her, the Stark worked best alone, or with people he knew. He didn't know her, just her facts. Moreover, he didn't trust her.

"Look. Brie. I appreciate you saving me, but I'll take it from here," he smiles, unintentionally annoying her. She hides it with her own smirk. Peter watches warily.
"Mmm, that's not how this is gonna go, Tony," she draws seductively, or at least he thought it was. His eyes fall to her lush lips for a mere second before pulling back to her eyes intently.
"It's dangerous," he tells.
"You don't think I know that?" she retorts, seriously this time.
"Then why are you getting yourself involved? Boredom?!" he asks in mock. This time, her anger shows.

Brie approaches him, stopping a foot away. He stood his ground, eyeing her in slight confusion and hesitance.

"My sister's been missing for two weeks," she says, causing the Stark's eyes to widen, as well as Peter's. "I'm not helping you, Tony, you're helping me."
"Trice is missing?!" Peter exclaims. Brie turns to him, having forgotten he was there.
"Yeah," she breathes tiredly.

All too Suddenly, Tony's mind seems to fade.

XXXXX

Coming to, the first thing Tony catches is the sound of birds singing. His brows furrow, and eyes slowly flutter open. It takes a moment for his sight to adjust to the light, soon found to be sunlight, as he stared up into clear skies.

His senses return and it feels as though he was lying on grass. Tony sits up, eyeing around in utter confusion, where, for miles, there was nothing but grass, and a sole tree opposite him.

Tony rises to his feet, slightly off balance. He strolls to the great tree warily.

"Tony!" a voice exclaims. The Stark turns from staring out into the horizon in confusion, to find Snow (CRYSTAL REED), hurrying towards him.

She engulfs him in a tight hug. It shocks him a bit, but he returns it in confusion. "Oh my god! Are you okay?! What happened?!" she asks warily.
"I…I'm fine. Don't worry…about me-is this the valley?" he asks suddenly, referring to Snow's claim of possessing the ability to communicate with others in an unknown territory. She rolls her eyes at his untimed question.
"Yes. What happened, Tony?" she questions seriously.
"…Well, Ieee made an enemy, you might say," he winces, recalling the scolding he got from both her and Loki for the stunt he pulled with threatening the Mandarin on live tv.

After Loki's execution was declined on Asgard, with the help of a suspiciously caring Snow, Loki was, instead, banished to Earth, as punishment for attempting to invade it, the council refusing Snow's original claim of Loki subjected to brainwash for the year he was thought missing.

Once hearing what Snow and Thor had done behind everyone's back, Fury fought strongly against it, even though Snow insisted that she would handle it, that he'd be living with her.

After a heated argument, Fury's problem decrease to the idea of containing Loki, should he slip. So, because Snow was a good friend of Stark, having fought side by side during the war, he told Fury they'd be staying with him, to keep an extra eye, and stating that the tower was more secure.

Eventually, and reluctantly, Nick agreed.

They'd been living together for nearly a month now, all content with keeping it civil, though it was fairly difficult at first, what with Loki's emotional state due to the grand changes in his life, it soon died down, growing a friendship between the three that was starting to blossom.

Snow cocks an eyebrow at Tony's words. "Anyways, it might be…a while before I can come back…Best he thinks I'm dead till I can figure out how to deal with him," he repeats Brie's words, intent on reassuring the White across him. "But don't worry, we're working on it," he says.
"We?"
"Long story. How've you guys been?" he asks worriedly.
"We're fine-"
"You sure? Loki behaving himself?"
"Yes, Tony," she defends.

The Stark knew well that there was more between those two than they led on. In fact, had Loki not descended to earth, Tony would have tried his luck with Snow. She was a good person, genuinely. Smart, sophisticated, and madly brave. She had a way with words that convince a nation to stand down. He admired her greatly. He still does, but since Loki, those feelings had to automatically decrease to a sense of mutual respect.

You'd think he'd given up too quickly, but everyone knew that the White held a soft spot for Loki and vice. Tony never would have won that battle, and he was smart enough to know it.

"Tell me where you are. I'll come help," Snow tells determinedly.
"No. I'm doing this on my own," he tells firmly. He would get no one else involved in the consequence of his mistakes.
"Bu-"
"Snow. It's not open for discussion. I'll be fine! I have...help," he says weirdly, confusing Snow further. "I'll be back before you know it," the Stark insists seriously.

A long moment of silence passes as she glares intently, and he glares back, utterly serious. She then sighs tiredly, trusting he was capable, but still concerned.

"…Okay…Just…be careful," she tells worriedly. He smirks.
"Always am."

XXXXX

"Tony!" Brie calls a second time. He snaps to her, shocked. "You alright?" she asks suspiciously. He furrows his eyebrows. "You sorta zoned off, for, like, a full minute," she says weirdly.

So he was back. That was an odd experience.

"Uhh, yeah. No. I'm fine," he dismisses, further arousing her suspicions.
"What was that?" she asks seriously. He rolls his eyes at her persistence.
"Just…a friend with creepy powers," he gives tiredly.

Realization falls upon her. She smirks. "Snow?" He eyes her weirdly.
"Ooh! Snow! Oh, she's so powerful!" Peter exclaims happily.

Brie held a complicated past. Nowadays though, all she had was time. And in the time that was not spent inventing stuff, or working at the garage she owned, she was looking stuff up. The good stuff, stuff like details about the newly found Avengers, and all she could find out about them.

She shared the cool, not so dangerous stuff with Peter. Just Peter. Her sister wasn't very open to her habits. And she wasn't close enough with anyone else to share.

Tony turns to Peter in shock, then Brie once more.
"How'd you know?" he asks, utterly bewildered.
"I know a lot of things," Brie declares proudly. Tony cocks an eyebrow at her. There was that tone again. "More than I should," she smirks mischievously, fairly liking the evident effect she had on the Stark. Tony knows she's teasing him, and plays along. The two had a bad habit of bad-timing.

"Really?" he asks in amusement, subconsciously inching forward.
"Mmhm," she draws, also taking a step forth, locking eyes intently with his. It was as if they were challenging one other, to see who'd give in first. And when Tony saw she wouldn't back down, he was as impressed as he was aroused.

Peter smirks knowingly at them from behind Tony's suit. Brie catches his eyes. She cocks an eyebrow at him as Tony turns to look as well.

"What're you looking at, brat?" she questions.
"Nothing," Peter notes quickly, pursing his lips like he'd been caught doing something wrong, and found it funny. He turns his gaze to the suit as the two adults across him smirk.

Tony turns to Brie once more, curiously wondering the nature of the relationship between her and the young boy. He liked the way they spoke. More specifically, he liked the air of playfulness she put between them.

"So, what's the play?" Tony asks, getting back to topic. They still stood fairly close. Brie turns to him.
"First, we'll go to where the bombing happened. Then we'll pay Mrs. Davis a visit," she notes.
"Okay. Let's go," he nods, amused by the fact of the partnership, yet, still reluctant about it.
"Not yet, pretty boy," she smirks. He cocks an eyebrow at her. "Your celebrity life puts us in jeopardy. You need a disguise," she tells.

Immediately, Tony's memory clicks to the fact that Loki was fairly capable of, literally, magically making creating a disguise, considering it awesome, and quite useful in that moment.

He then grimaces at the fact that Brie was right, always somewhat regretting exposing his identity to the world.

"Come on," she beckons. Tony heads to follow, and stops short when he alas spots Peter by the suit.
"Hey! Kid, don't touch that," he tells. Peter widens his eyes warily, snatching his hands away. Brie turns as well, placing a hand on her hip.
"Relax, Stark. He knows what he's doing. I taught him," she winks at Peter, who then grins sheepishly.

Tony is fairly hesitant, but doesn't argue, knowing the background-reading he'd done on Brie and her suit. At least he trusted she was smart, though he'd half-suspected someone else had built the suit for her before.

Shutting the door on Peter and telling him to stay put, Brie leads Tony into the house. Surely Ben and May wouldn't mind her borrowing some clothes for Tony freakin' Stark.

She rummages Ben's closet uncomfortably, thanking god the man was somewhat fit. She hands Tony a pair of fresh clothing, and a cap.

Coming out of the room minutes later, he notes the long, leather jacket the Smith had now had on. He furrows his eyebrows. She leads him out the house and into the snow-covered clearing, on their way to the roads. The cold slaps them across the face, and their feet crunched against the coated grounds with every step.

She notes he's observing her, and smirks, knowing he was confused by the coat. "What?" she asks.
"…Nothing. Just…didn't think long-leather jackets were your thing," he notes casually.
"Like you know me so well," she states in amusement. He smiles in agreement. "But, you're not wrong. It's not my style. It is, however," she shoves her hand into one of the two, large pockets on the side, "very practical," she grins, pulling out a metallic, below-elbow glove, handing it to him.

He takes it, eyeing it quizzically. He notes the material, smart choice, and the fact that it was a force-blaster, much like his, but slightly lesser quality, and fairly less protective.

And soon enough, impressment shows in his eyes, causing her to jump internally at the fact that Tony Stark was checking out her build.

Again, he doubted the situation. "You made this?" he asks.
"Mhm," she replies proudly. He smirks.
"It's…pretty cool." Tony hands it to her once more, after debating keeping it for himself. "You expecting a fight?" he asks.
"You never know. Here," she hands him a gun. He hesitantly takes it. "You know how to use it, right?" she asks.
"Uh, yeah," he replies, pushing it into the coat she gave him. "Just not my first choice."
"Me neither."

XXXXXXXXXX