"Morning, Tony," Max chimed, walking into the workshop.

Tony looked up at her, lifted the welding mask off of his face, and gave a half smile.

"Hey, Mags."

"Have a good weekend?"

"Uhh...you're looking at it," he shrugged, gesturing around at the messy work areas.

"Well, nothing's on fire today, so that seems good. I brought breakfast. It's in the kitchen. I also took the liberty of pushing today's meetings back a bit to give us more time for a game plan. That sound good?"

Tony gave her an odd look, causing her smile to falter slightly.

"Is something wrong?"

"No."

He stared for a moment longer before using the tool in his hand to point at her.

"Something's off about you lately," he noted, "You look different and you're happy all the time. You stop wearing makeup?"

"I did, yeah. Is it...bad?"

"Nope. I think you look fine. I'm just wondering what the big change was. I guess it's been sometime in the last few months. That's when all this happened."

"Well, nothing really changed much."

"No, something definitely changed. I mean, years of being here by the crack of dawn and you're late a few times a week now. You got a smile stuck on your face every time I see you. Now, you, the makeup addict, have thrown in the towel on all that."

After shuffling awkwardly for a moment, Max shrugged.

"Things are just really looking up, I guess. Maybe I'm a bit more distracted than I realized."

"Hey, you want fresh air? I do."

"Uh...sure."

"Walk with me."

He stood from his stool and walked toward the elevator as she followed nervously behind him. As the elevator started to rise to the top of the tower, Tony sighed.

"Friday, hold up here for a minute."

The elevator came to a stop as Tony turned to look at Max.

"I give. What aren't you telling me, kid?"

"Nothing, other than I'm weirded out by being trapped in an elevator."
"That's not it. I might not know everything that's going on with you, and I don't have to, but I know something's off. Don't look at me like I don't."

"I don't know what to say. I-"

"It's a guy. Isn't it? Wait. Don't answer that. I already know it is."

"Yeah…" she sighed after a long pause, "It's a guy."

"Knew it. Who is he?"

Max was surprised when her father's expression changed to show hints of happiness and excitement for her, rather than concern.

"Where'd you meet him? Why don't I know him yet?"

"Okay, slow down on the questions," she stopped him, "I'm sorry I didn't say anything about it sooner, okay. It's been a little while, but...I'm not ready to bring him into all of this yet."

"All of what? Your family?"

"I don't know if you know this, but this life...it's weird and it's crazy and it's a lot to handle. I want things to work with this guy, so...we're sorta building a good foundation before tossing in everything else."

"Ease him into it gently, huh?"

"Something like that."

"Hey, I get it. I just want to make sure you're alright."

The elevator started to move upwards once again.

"You really like this guy, huh? I mean, to work this hard at keeping things normal."

"Yeah, Tony," she smiled a bit, "I really like him."

"She still won't tell anyone, then?" Wong asked, not bothering to look up from the stack of books as he walked over to the shelf and began placing them in the proper places with care.

"How could you tell?" Stephen grumbled.

"You're pacing."

Stephen looked down at himself to see that he was, indeed, pacing.

"I can't help that," he groaned in frustration, "I hate waiting here. I'm already at the point where I need something to go wrong with the world, so I can focus on fixing that instead of the endless waiting for anything to change with her family."

Wong watched him silently as his pacing continued and he began to rant, as he always did when he was stuck on a problem or bored.

"I can't stand it," he continued, "I can't stop thinking about her. Everywhere I look, I hope to see her there. When she's gone I just count the hours until I can see her again. It's not fair. She's already worked her way into every part of my mind and my life and...her own family doesn't even know about me. I'm just isolated to one corner of her life."

"You're thinking too much," Wong suggested, sliding another book into place calmly.

"I know that. I can't stop. She's driving me completely insane."

"So, you love her."

"Is it that obvious? Is it even possible to know this soon?"

"You're acting like a complete fool, so yes. It's obvious."

"Thank you, Wong, for the real vote of confidence," Stephen snarked dryly, "How am I even supposed to respond to this. She just wants me to wait until maybe she can figure it out. This isn't rocket science. It's not magic. It's just telling people that you're seeing someone. I don't understand it!"

As he tensed his fists by his sides, books toppled off of the shelves suddenly. With a silent sigh, Wong continued on, going around to place them all back again.

"Maybe...she doesn't want people to know for a different reason," Stephen wondered, "She's an adult. Her father's approval shouldn't be this big of a problem. What if...what if she just doesn't want to be seen with me? What if she doesn't want people to know because she's ashamed of us? Or embarrassed? Am I embarrassing?"

"To her, no," Wong answered simply, "To me…"

He gave a vague shrug and a nod before continuing around the library.

"Thanks," Stephen huffed in flat sarcasm, "You're a great inspiration."

He stopped pacing for a moment when a thought occurred to him.

"People don't like me, do they?"

"No."

"Alright," Stephen nodded, burying the disappointment, "That was...blunt."

"All the more reason to hold on to this one. She does."

"Then what's she so afraid of?"

It was simply safer not to speculate and encourage the destructive direction that Stephen's train of thought was heading. Suddenly, Stephen's face lifted a bit, lighting up with an idea or revelation.

"Oh, no," Wong shook his head, "I don't like that face."

"That's it!" Stephen realized, ignoring Wong's objections, "I just have to show her that she doesn't have to worry. Without telling anyone about us, I just have to find a way in. If I can get along with her friends and family, she'll realize that we can tell people and that there's nothing to worry about. It's great!"

"Reconsider," Wong insisted

"What? Why?"

"We just agreed people don't like you."

"People used to love me."

"You paid them."

"Not all of them!" Stephen defended, "I was charming. I just need them to like me enough that she'll realize there's nothing to worry about."

"It's a bad idea, Stephen."

"That's never stopped me before."

"This isn't going to end well," Wong grumbled, shaking his head and choosing to return his full attention to the books and away from the walking disaster still pacing the room.

"Where to start…" Stephen wondered,

It had been a few days since Max heard from Stephen and, honestly, she was starting to really worry about it. Maybe he had been more upset about the whole secret business than she'd realized. She picked up her phone to check for any calls or messages, just once more, knowing full well that she'd probably check it again in five minutes. She leaned back into her desk chair with a huff, staring daggers into her blank phone.

"Dammit!" she fussed after a minute, losing her willpower and grabbing the device.

She quickly punched in the number and waited impatiently for it to dial and connect to his phone. It wasn't until it went to voicemail that she started to get really concerned. Stephen had never missed a call from her before.

"Hey, it's me," she spoke to the answering machine, trying to sound as happy as she could, "I haven't heard from you in a while. I just wanted to see if everything was okay. Call me, alright?"

He voice caught in her throat, causing her to pause for a second.

"I miss you."

She dropped the phone into her lap and let out a deep breath.

"This is what I didn't want," she reminded herself, "Great, Mags, you scared him off. You-"

She couldn't even finish the words. The very idea that Stephen was mad at her or didn't want to talk to her stung more than she would have ever thought it would.

"There's an explanation," she tried to convince herself, "He's just...busy. That's it. He's off who knows where, saving the day. There's no cell service in a lot of other dimensions."

And that marked the record for the most pathetic excuse she'd ever given herself.

"Miss Stark," Friday's voice chimed in.

"Yeah, Friday."

"Mr. Stark is asking for you in the lab."

"Tell him I'll be right up."

"Yes, Miss. It also seems we have company."

With a shrug, Max tucked her iPad under her arm and made her way to the lab. She entered without paying too much attention, until she walked into a wall of floating red fabric outside the door. She froze in shock, looking up at the cloak, waiting patiently in the hall.

"What are you doing here?!" she yelled quietly.

The cloak gave her what looked like a vague shrug, unmoving from it's spot. Where the cloak was, its master was. She hurried into the lab to find Tony standing by a display of screens, facing away from them and talking to-

"Doctor Strange," she greeted, "What a surprise."

"Good morning, Miss Stark," he responded politely.

"Good news!" Tony chimed in, "Strange agreed to second opinion the whole new energy project that we started."

"Really?"

"I mentioned that you had approached me before about offering an opinion," Stephen noted, "I'll do what I can to help."

"Yeah, what's this about you and Peter not telling me you got Strange to agree to help?"

"Surprise!" she exclaimed weakly.