Chapter 9

The room was a mess. Complete and utter chaos. Steve stood staring at just how unorganized everything was, while Tony was busy making sure they had enough beer.

"Where does this go?" Thor asked, hoisting up a large table. Sighing, Bruce walked over and helped him set it down gently in the corner. As Steve watched the others set the place up, his eyes fell upon a framed picture sitting on the window sill. Thinking that that was an odd place for a picture, he walked over to take a look at it.

It was an older photograph, faded and worn with time. In it, he recognized Howard Stark. He was standing with a young boy who smiled devilishly at the camera. Behind Howard, hiding, was a little girl with brown hair and scared eyes, peeking out from behind the man's back. Using his powers of deduction, Steve figured that the kids must have been Tony and Lily.

As Steve stared at the picture, Tony looked up from his phone and saw him. Slowly, he walked up next to him. "Yeah, that's Lily there," he said, startling Steve. The captain had been so wrapped up in the picture that he hadn't noticed Tony's approach. "This was taken the day she was adopted. Now, that was a little girl who'd been through hell." He shook his head, staring out the window.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked, frowning. Tony looked at him out of the corner of his eye, then back out the window.

"It may be hard to see, but Lily isn't as happy and carefree as she seems. There's a lot of baggage she has to deal with." Steve looked at the man, confused. "Her mother died in childbirth, and her father was not a very nice man. When she was five, he died. Which was a good thing. Because if that son of a bitch was still out there, I'd have found him and beat the living daylights out of him long ago. No child should go have to go through what she did." He sighed, running a hand through his already messy hair.

Shaking his head, Tony turned to look at Steve. "You like her." It wasn't a question. Steve hesitated, then nodded. Tony smiled. "I can see it in the way you look at her. And I'm pretty sure she likes you. She always loved to hear stories about you." His eyes became stern, expression steely. "If you hurt her, I swear you'll wish you were never unfrozen."

"I wouldn't dream of it." The captain's voice was sincere, honest. Tony nodded.

"Of course you wouldn't. You were raised right." Rolling his eyes, the billionaire took a swig of his beer. "Not all of us had that luxury."

The atmosphere around the two was solemn and tense, and the others noticed it. From where they were setting up the party, they watched the pair silently, waiting to see if they'd need to intervene any time soon.

"Do you worry about her a lot?"

Tony nodded, looking at the photograph still in Steve's hands. "Ever since I first met her, I've felt the need to protect her. Like she's too innocent for the goings on of this world."

"Like she'll break if she's ever exposed?" Steve asked.

"Yeah."

"When she led me around New York, right after I woke up, I got the feeling that she was meant for something other than working for Fury. She deserved more than a life of uncertainty and danger."

"Yet Fury calls, and she'll come, no matter how perilous the job is."

Steve caught the sadness in Tony's eyes, and nodded. "I guess she'll do whatever it takes, to protect the innocent."

"Funny. That's what she said before she left on the last mission she received from SHEILD. She was in the hospital for weeks after. I told her it was crazy, what she did; and she laughed at me." Shaking his head, Tony took a seat on the window sill, facing the rest of the room. "Said that there were more important things than her health. I asked her what could be more important than that, and she handed me a globe." He chuckled. "I tell you, she's insane."

"But amazing." Steve's voice was quiet, almost imperceptible, and reverent. Tony looked at him, thinking.

"That she is."

A/N Oh, wow, it's been a long time since I updated this, hasn't it? SORRY! I'm terrible, aren't I?

I've been kind of busy, but the big thing is that I really need to stop procrastinating. And stop getting writer's block.

Anyway, I hope you like it! :D