ONE YEAR LATER

I let out deep and calm breaths as I did crunches while hanging upside down on one of the bars in the gym. It's been another year since I've been a part of S.H.I.E.L.D, and things were relatively still the same. I still haven't been back to camp since I left, but I sometimes meet up with a few old friends in New York for lunch. I just can't bring myself to return even if I've been told by Chiron, who had come to visit me once, that there's a cabin waiting for me.

However, a cabin all to myself sounded too lonely to even think about. I mean my siblings-some of which I haven't met yet-live in the cabin as well, but only when they only visit during the summers. And I'm too busy to return anyway. Though it be nice to spend a few days in a cramped cabin again. I had gotten so used to living in the cramped cabin of Hermes that it had taken me a while to use to having a bedroom to myself. When I moved to my apartment near the HQ, I hadn't slept well for weeks. Everything was too quiet for me, which had me on alert nearly 24/7. It didn't help that I was always told to be on high alert while outside the protection of camp. So a day or two in a cramped cabin actually sounded like a good break, but a part of me wasn't ready to return.

"Hey, Kai, if you don't slow down, you'll pass out."

I blinked pausing in my crunches to just hang there. I saw Clint, who appeared upside down to me, walking my way.

"Phil wants to see you anyway, so hop on down." Clint said.

I curled up to grab the bar with me hands before unhooking my legs from around the bar. Once they were free, I dropped down to the ground. Clint held out a towel and bottle of water towards me, which I took. I dabbed at the sweat on my forehead, which I hadn't known collected there. I must have been here longer than I thought. I then downed some of the water.

"A new mission?" I asked.

"I heard that Fury needs a security detail for Tony Stark, and Phil wants you on the team." Clint said. "Natasha is already there."

I nodded my head while remembering that Natasha had went with the cover of being a secretary, so to observe Stark up close.

"So I'm playing babysitter." I said.

I guess it was better than working out while left alone to my own thoughts that always led to dark places, but I am doing a lot better. I'm more back to the old me than I have been in years. Though I'd rather have a more exciting mission. But I guess now I'll finally meet Tony Stark officially like I had wanted a year ago.

"I hear it won't be for too long." Clint assured me. "When you get back we can take some time off. Go to the farm for a few days."

Well, I did like the sound of that. It'd be nice to see the kids and Laura again after all this time. Plus I was starting to feel cramped being in the city for so long. I much prefer being out in the country.

"I like the sound of that." I said nodding. "I need out of the city."

Clint chuckled putting his arm around my shoulders as we left the gym and the smell of sweaty agents behind.

"There's a quinjet waiting for you upstairs." Clint said. "It's ready to take off when you are. They'll drop you off where Phil's waiting."

"Then I'll go get dressed now." I said. "See you when I get back."

Clint nodded before we parted ways. I went towards the lodging I had while on HQ grounds where I kept my spare uniform if I didn't have time to return to my apartment. Once I was inside the room, I stripped down out of my gym clothes. If I had time to take a shower I would, but I really didn't, so I just grabbed my suit to slip on. It was similar to the one Natasha wore on missions except it was sleeveless, and my back was bare since there was an oval cutout in the material.

After I pulled on the suit, I grabbed my boots to slip on next, and then my belt. Finally I pulled on my fingerless gloves that went up to my elbows. Once I was completely dressed, I put the comm into my ear. I put in on the quintjet frequency as I was leaving my room.

"This is Agent Cortez." I said. "I'm in route to the roof. Be ready for takeoff."

"Roger that, Agent Cortez." The piolet replied. "We are ready for takeoff as soon as you arrive."

I cut the connection then let out a soft sigh. I really hope this mission won't be too tedious. I'd really enjoy something much more fun. Like Budapest. Budapest had been a real blast. I wouldn't mind doing that all over again. I chuckled sure that Clint and Natasha wouldn't be so quick to agree with me. I reached the elevator before pushing the button that would take the elevator to the roof.

"So how long am I playing babysitter?" I asked Phil as I walked through Stark's place with him at my side as two other men carried a container in front of us.

The moment I arrived in Malibu, Phil had been waiting for me with an SUV ready to bring us to Stark's home. Now we were finally here, and Phil was leading me inside.

"Until Stark finishes his work." Phil said.

I blinked as I wondered what kind of work we were talking about. I haven't been given all the details. I was just told I was going to be an extra set of eyes to watch Tony Star work. I then looked around the house seeing that it was completely trashed. I heard it was due to Stark going wild during his birthday party.

"I love what he's done with the place." I said sarcastically as I gestured around to the mess.

Phil didn't comment, which had me pouting at being ignored, as we finally met up with Fury who was talking to the guy I'm supposed to help babysit. The men set the container in front of Stark as Fury was standing up.

"I've got a two 'o clock." Fury said as he looked at his watch.

"Wait, wait, what's this?" Stark, who had stood up as well, asked.

"You're good, right?" Fury asked. "You've got this, right?"

As Stark tried to protest, Fury ignored him as I grabbed Fury's coat to help him slip his arms into it to put it on.

"Thank-you, Kaira." Fury said as he adjusted his coat.

I nodded my head then stepped back to stand beside Phil who had his hands folded in front of him.

"Now, Natasha will remain a floater at Stark Industries with her cover intact, and you remember Agent Coulson, right?" Fury asked. "Well, he'll be watching you very closely with the help of Agent Cortez."

Fury pat my shoulder as Stark turned his eyes on me, and I could see slight recognition in his gaze. I smiled and waved, but he didn't seem all that happy to see me. Eh, maybe I'll grow on him. How could anyone resist my impeccable charm? Fury then started leaving, but he paused to turn back around.

"And, Tony, remember I got my eye on you." Fury said.

He finally left as Stark stood there looking from Natasha to Phil to me before back to Natasha to start over.

"We've disabled all communications to the outside world. Good luck." Natasha said then looked at me to give me a wink.

I smiled at her in return as she left to probably return to Pepper Potts who's the new CEO of Stark Industries. Stark turned his eyes on Phil.

"Please." He said. "First, I'm going to need a little body work. I'll put in a little time at the lab. And if you could send someone from your goon squad down to the Coffee Bean for a Starbucks run or something like that, it'd be nice."

"I'm not here for that." Phil said. "I'm authorized by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave, or play any games, I will tazer you and watch Super Nanny with Agent Cortez while you drool into the carpet, kay?"

I coughed trying to hide a laugh, but a few chuckles managed to slip anyway.

"I think I got it." Stark said.

"Enjoy your evening's entertainment." Phil said. "Agent Cortez will being joining you. She really enjoys home movies."

Stark turned his eyes on me as Phil walked away to do Phil things…And trust me I had no idea what those things were. Phil is a mysterious being.

"So…what do I call you?" Stark asked. "Agent Cortez?"

"Kaira will work just fine, Mr. Stark." I said. "I'm not big on the whole agent thing. Now, shall we get started?"

I reached down to pick up the container on my own. It wasn't hard for me due to having a bit extra strength as a half-blood. Stark seemed a bit surprised at how easily I picked up the container.

"Where do you want to take this, Mr. Stark?" I asked.

"Uh, downstairs." He said. "Lab."

I nodded my head then started taking the container down the steps with Stark following behind me. It was rather dark in the lab, but not too much that it made it hard to see. I set the container down while glancing around.

"Can I help you with anything else, Mr. Stark?" I asked.

"Uh, no, and you don't have to call me Mr. Stark." He said. "Since we're going to be spending a lot of time together we might as well skip the formalities."

I nodded my head as I sat down out of the way to let Tony set things up how he wanted after he opened the container. As he was getting a screen set up for the projector, he glanced at me a few times.

"Kaira, how old are you?" He asked. "Or are you not allowed to tell me?

"I'm 22." I replied.

Tony looked at me seeming a bit surprised to hear I was so young, but I didn't think of myself as young. Half-bloods sometimes joke that getting out of the teens is like reaching senior citizen age.

"And when did you join Fury's agency?" He asked. "I mean, were you a newbie still when you brought that file to General Ross."

I shook my head as I thought about General Ross. I've heard he hasn't really been doing much almost to the point of not being on the grid, which actually made me more anxious than if he was being caught doing something he shouldn't. If he's this quiet, I worried he was cooking up something big.

"When I was nineteen." I answered. "Though Fury started wanting to recruit me after I broke into the White House for kicks when I was much younger."

Tony paused in what he was doing to look at me in surprise. It was a look that I was used to. People always gave me that look when I told them about the whole White House fiasco.

"You broke into the White House for kicks?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, I'm a bit of a kleptomaniac." I replied shrugging. "I broke in without being caught, posed for the security cameras, printed the picture off after breaking into the security room, signed the picture to put it in the Oval Office, and I then walked out. About an hour later, I was hearing chatter over secure lines that the C.I.A and F.B.I were looking for me, and that they wanted to keep my little break in as quiet as possible."

Tony gave a laugh with a grin on his face as he continued fiddling with the projecting equipment. He finally got the screen up before walking over to the projector to get it ready.

"And does your parents know about this?" He questioned. "Are they okay with you being a secret agent? How'd they react to you breaking into the White House of all places?"

I frowned because my parents were a touchy subject for me to talk about openly. I sighed guessing he might become more comfortable if I speak with him honestly…well, somewhat honestly. I can't start telling him what I am.

"Well, my dad died of tuberculosis when I was five." I said. "I don't even remember what he looked like…and sometimes I wonder if my mom even cares if I'm alive or not."

Tony paused in what he was doing to look at me as I picked up some doohickey to look at. I wondered what would happen if I pushed the button on the side. Probably something bad albeit awesome.

"My mom dumped me on my dad's doorstep the night of my birth." I said. "I didn't even know she was alive or dead until I was about twelve. We really didn't speak much until about three years ago, but that was at my brother's funeral."

"Looks like you have mommy issues just as much as I have issues with my old man." Tony said.

"Well, something I've learned, Tony, is that sometimes parents fall short of their children's expectations." I said.

The gods were doing better after Percy made them swear on the River Styx to claim all their children and to give us minor born half-bloods respect. But it didn't really patch up the rift between my mother and I.

"Ain't that the truth?" Tony murmured.

He finished getting things set up, and as the video started playing, Tony got out his dad's notes to shift through. He sat down in a chair as he started reading the notes. I remained silent while blocking out the voices coming from the video. I leaned back against the wall behind me while bringing my knees to my chest. I closed my eyes while falling into a light doze. However, even while I was resting my eyes, I was very much aware of Tony flipping through his dad's notes. I didn't open my eyes until I heard Tony get out of his chair.

"And where are you going?" I asked.

Tony stiffened while turning to look at me as if he hadn't expected to get caught.

"I was going to go get a snack from the kitchen." Tony said. "And I didn't want to wake you."

I quirked my brow while wondering if he was really this bad at lying, or if he thought I was stupid.

"You're lying." I said without missing a beat. "But I'll give you an A for effort. Now, where are you going?"

Tony frowned as I moved to sit on the edge of the table I had been sitting on top of.

"I need to go to my office." He said. "I really, really need to go to my office to speak with Pepper. I don't know what my father was planning exactly, and I don't know if I could even accomplish it even if I did know. What I do know is that I need to finally tell Pepper what's going on before it's too late. And I think there might be something in my office that might help me understand my father's notes."

I looked at him closely to see if he was lying, but he seemed to truly believe he needed to get out of here to his office for something. Besides, I could understand why he wanted to speak with someone he was close to. I've heard many rumors about him and Miss Virginia Pepper Potts.

"Well, I'm not allowed to let you leave." I said. "…but…if you happen to just slip away while I grabbing a bite to eat…I guess it can't be helped."

Tony seemed surprised I said that, but he then smiled while looking very grateful.

"Thank-you." He said.

"For what?" I asked. "It's not like I said I'd be getting you something to eat too."

Tony grinned with a chuckle leaving his lips as I started heading up the steps.

"All of you take a walk." I said to the surrounding agents as I made it to the top of the stairs. "That's an order."

They frowned though left since I was of higher rank than them even though I am younger. Once they were out of sight, I literally did go into the kitchen because I was hungry. However, as I was looking around I saw that Tony must live on alcohol because there was like no food at all.

"I guess I'm ordering pizza." I said to myself.

"So, you're like a computerized butler." I summarized before taking a bite from my pizza.

After receiving my pizza, which was a meat lovers with extra bacon, I came back down to the lab. I even started a lovely conversation with JARVIS, who happens to be an A.I system that Tony created.

"That is one way to put is, yes, Agent Cortez." He replied.

"That's pretty cool." I said. "And you can just call me Kaira, JARVIS. No reason to be so formal."

"Understood, Kaira." He said.

I smiled knowing that he wasn't like an actual person, but I was enjoying his company. I then heard a car pulling into the lab through the tunnel connected to it. I looked over seeing Tony was back, and he brought something with him.

"It's about time you got back." I said. "The pizza is getting cold."

"There's pizza?" Tony asked as he got out of his car.

"And I had someone from the "goon squad" make a coffee run." I added.

Tony seemed surprised to hear this before looking over to where coffee and pizza awaited him.

"Kaira, I don't know too many agents, but you are definitely my favorite." Tony said.

I shrugged modestly then finished off my fourth piece of pizza. I could probably eat the entire pizza since I have such a high metabolism, but I'm sure Tony would like some pizza.

"Can you give me a hand with this?" Tony asked gesturing to what was in his car.

I nodded my head as I jumped down off the table. I wiped off my hands then walked over to him. I helped him get the folded up popup from his car. I moved it over to a table to help him unfold it.

"It's a model of the Stark Expo." I said.

"Right you are." Tony said. "But I believe it is actually much more."

I blinked looking at him curiously. It was something more? Tony blew some dust off model before he took another look at it.

"JARVIS, could you kindly vacuum a digital wire frame?" Tony asked. "I need a projection."

JARVIS did immediately as Tony wanted as said man snapped his fingers a few times. JARVIS completed the scan of the model, and Tony literally picked up the scan to move it away from the model.

"Ah, how many buildings are there?" Tony asked.

"Am I to include the Belgium Waffle stands?" JARVIS asked.

I grinned getting the feeling that JARVIS might be throwing in a bit of sarcasm in there.

"That was rhetorical. Just show me." Tony said as he set the hologram down.

I stood behind him while looking down at it all. I was a bit confused as to how he would be finding an element in all this. He snapped his fingers then made a spinning motion that had the hologram spinning around before turning vertically as Tony grabbed a chair to sit down in in front of the hologram.

"What does that look like to you, Kaira?" He asked me.

"Kind of looks like at atom with this globe being the nucleus." I said as I pointed towards the globe.

That's right, I'm not completely stupid even if I barely passed any of my classes in every school I went to. And trust me, I went to a lot of schools. Even my luck couldn't keep me from being kicked out of school after school.

"Exactly." Tony said as he touched the globe. "Now, JARVIS, highlight the interceptor."

The globe glowed gold instead of blue like the rest of the model, and Tony made it larger than before.

"Lose the floor panels…get rid of them." He said then swiped away the floor panels from the hologram.

I frowned still not understanding what was going on through Tony's mind at the moment.

"What is it you're trying to achieve, Sir?" JARVIS asked.

"I'm discovering—uh, correction—rediscovering a new element, I believe." He said as he cupped his chin thoughtfully. "Lose the landscape—the shrubbery and the trees. Parking lots, exists."

I continued watching as Tony quickly worked with JARVIS to get rid of the parts he didn't apparently need. I wasn't exactly sure what kind of element he was trying to find, but I was interested in finding out. He finally stopped getting rid of things as he continued staring at the model.

"Stretch the protons and the neutrons using the pavilions as framework." Tony said.

JARVIS started doing all that as Tony sat back and watched it happen. I tilted my head as I watched what was looking like an atom taking form. Tony then blew it up to move around us.

"Whoa." I said looking around.

"Whoa indeed." Tony said while chuckling. "My dad has been dead for nearly twenty years, but he's still taking me to school."

He then clapped his hands together with everything shrinking to fit into the palm of his hand. I leaned over his shoulder to look at it as he moved it around in his hand.

"The proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for the platinum." JARVIS said as I could have sworn I heard Tony say "thanks, Dad". "Unfortunately it is impossible to synthesize."

I looked at Tony's face seeing he didn't look perturbed in the slightest as he got up from his chair.

"Get ready for a major remodel, Fellas." Tony said as he walked towards the door. "We're back in hardware mode."

I followed after Tony towards the door as he was punching in the code to get the door to unlock.

"Hey, Tony, need any help?" I asked. "I might not be overly knowledgeable in the way of science, but if you need any heavy lifting done, I can do it. I'm a lot stronger than I look."

"Well…I do have a sledge hammer you can use." He said grinning.

I grinned as well while glad I can help in some way. Just sitting around was killing me. I needed something to do.

"Now let's get to work." Tony said.

I stood back watching as Tony tried to bust a hole in the wall with his sledge hammer, but when he didn't get very far, I shook my head. This guy definitely needed to work out more before he started trying to bust down walls it seems.

"Step back." I said to Tony. "And give me the hammer."

Tony paused in what he was doing to look back at me as I held out my hand with my brow quirked.

"Okay, Ms. Muscles, you give it a shot." He said as he held out the sledge hammer.

I took it from him then spun it around in my hand as if it was a baton and as if it weighed just as much as one. I then took a swing at the wall with a large chunk of the wall falling to the floor, and we could see through to the next side of the wall. I took another swing with another large chunk that was as big as Tony wanted in the wall. I turned to look at Tony as I put the hammer on my shoulder. He blinked as he looked at the wall before turning to me.

"Show off." He said.

I laughed shrugging my shoulders before following him to continue with the demo work since it was about all I could do to help. We went upstairs, and as he was using the jackhammer to get to the electrical box under the floor, I used the sledge hammer to bust a whole in the marble floor above the lab. It took me a few extra swings since the thick marble was hard to crack. Tony was going to have to pay a lot to get this redone.

"How's the hole in the floor coming?" Tony asked. "The marble making it hard?"

"I'm already done." I said as I glanced back at him.

He looked at me with a look that was stuck between shocked and annoyed.

"What are you?" He asked. "Supergirl?"

"Please, Supergirl's got nothing on me." I said as I flipped my hair in a sassy manner.

Tony let out a snort of amusement as he continued playing around with the wires he had. Once he finished hooking up what he needed hooked up, he brought some wires over to the whole.

"And down they go." He said dropping them in.

We moved back downstairs to the lab once we were done upstairs, and Tony brought out a large crate that had Manhattan Project on the side. I frowned because thinking of Manhattan was still something I didn't like to do. I shook my head knowing I couldn't be distracted by that. Tony opened the crate to reveal large tube conductors.

"Kaira, I need your muscles again." Tony said.

"Well, I'm still here to help." I said.

I grabbed the conductors then took them where he wanted. I helped to hook them up all around the lab, and through the hole we made in the wall. As I was helping him try to level the conductors, Phil appeared, and I frowned knowing I was probably going to get a scolding for letting Tony loose. However, if I hadn't then we wouldn't have gotten this far.

"I heard you broke parameter." Phil said as he stepped inside then he looked at me. "Care to explain, Agent Cortez?"

"Uh, my stomach was demanding to be fed…I didn't know he could disappear so quickly as I getting a snack." I lied as I grinned innocently.

Phil gave me an unconvinced look, which had me looking away from his gaze. I was going to be put on desk duty for sure after this. I pouted at the very thought.

"Hey, don't be too hard on her." Tony said. "And one that was like three years ago. Two, where were you?"

"I was busy doing some stuff." Phil replied.

"Well, she was busy getting a snack." Tony said. "Can't work on an empty stomach, Coulson."

Phil chose not to reply as he walked over to see probably what we were doing.

"Anyway, we were doing some stuff and it worked." Tony added then handed me something to connect two conductors together.

I quickly went to connect them as Phil went over to the crate where we got most of our materials out of earlier. As Tony was making a snide comment, I finished connecting the conductors.

"What's this doing here?" Phil asked.

I turned around to look to see what he was talking about, and I saw what looked like an incomplete shield in his hands. What even was that? Looked pretty useless. In a fight, the person using it wouldn't be very protected.

"That's it." Tony said. "Bring that to me."

I looked at Tony wondering what was so important about a shield that was poorly put together, and that wouldn't defend against attacks very well.

"You know what this is?" Phil asked as he brought it over.

Well, I'd sure like to know what is it, and why Phil is acting like it's so important. Phil handed the shield to Tony who was looking at one of the connection points of the conductor tubes.

"It's exactly what I need to make this work." Tony said. "Kaira, can you lift up this coil?"

I stepped up with Phil getting out of my way. I lifted the coil up, so Tony could move the shield under it.

"Now, drop it." Tony said.

I did so carefully before moving back out of the way. Tony brought out a balancer to put on top of the coil.

"Perfectly level." Tony said then looked at Phil. "We're busy. What do you want?"

"Nothing." Phil said. "Goodbye. We've been reassigned. Director Fury wants us in New Mexico."

I frowned when he said "we've" and "us", and I could see that Tony seemed a bit confused as well.

"By us you mean…" Tony trailed off.

"Agent Cortez and I." Phil said. "I'm taking her with me."

My frown deepened because I definitely didn't want to leave now. I wanted to help Tony. He's grown on me, and I'd feel bad if I left him before everything's finished.

"The land of enchantment." Tony said.

"So I've been told." Phil said.

"Secret stuff?" Tony asked.

"Something like that." Phil retorted. "Cortez, get ready to leave."

He gave me a look that said not to protest, and I sighed fighting the urge to do exactly that. If I didn't respect him so much, I probably would ignore him all together.

"Hey, Kaira, thanks for all the help." Tony said as he held out his hand to me.

I smiled while reaching out to shake hands with him as well. People said he wasn't a good person, but after spending time with him, I could see we could definitely be friends in the future…if he's still here in the future.

"I hope things work out for you, Tony." I said. "I've been told we need you."

"More than you know." Tony joked.

"Not that much." Phil cut in.

I laughed then left the lab with Phil after he gave his goodbyes to Tony who I hoped did okay.

"So, New Mexico?" I asked.

"Yes," Phil said. "Barton will be meeting us there, and you two will be part of a security detail."

"Another security detail?" I asked frowning.

"Would you rather I put you on desk duty?" Phil asked.

"Nope." I replied quickly.

"Didn't think so." He said.