Chapter 4: Secrets and More Secrets

Tyler shifted restlessly in her bed. What time was it? She couldn't sense any light beyond her eye lids… did she wake up in the middle of the night due to Tony moving around outside her door again? With an almost silent moan she opened her eyes and looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table. It was four… in the afternoon?!

It was then that she realized the clock she was looking at wasn't hers. Nor was the bedside table. Or the pillow she was sleeping on. Her eyes stretched wide and she sat up violently, adrenaline coursing through her veins. Where was she? How did she get there? She breathed in deeply to keep herself from panicking as she assessed her surroundings.

It was dark only because the metal shutters over the window to her right were closed… Metal? The heck? She shook her head and continued to look around. To her left was the door leading outside and a metal desk stationed next to it. In front of her, on the other side of the room, was an open door that led to a bathroom. Next to it were two sliding doors built into the wall that she assumed opened to become a closet. There were some arm chairs and a metal coffee table in between the bed and the closet. Was that what this entire place was made out of? Metal? The overall theme of the room made it feel like she was in a jail cell or something. She was surprised that the bed she was on had a comfortable mattress.

It took her a moment to realize that a large bag was sitting on one of the arm chairs in front of her, and that it was hers that she had packed earlier. Then everything came back; Tony had taken her to a giant air strip and dropped her off with Clint and Natasha who took her onto a jet to fly to their secret head quarters. She remembered talking with Natasha during the flight but she didn't recall ever arriving at… oh, no. She moaned and plopped her face into her hands.

She had fallen asleep on the jet and they were probably unable to wake her so they had to carry her or something. How embarrassing! That was not a good first impression. She felt like she should just curl up in a ball and remain in the room so that she didn't have to deal with the scorn of the agents… How many people had seen as she was taken to her room? She didn't really have the urge to find out.

After a deep breath Tyler pulled her face out of her hands and pushed the white sheets that were covering her aside. Her shoes lay next to her bed and she couldn't help but wonder who it was who had taken them off… Yep, she would never get rid of this day. Ever. She would forever be known as Miss Sleeperton or something stupid like that. Joy.

She slipped her shoes on and walked over to the window to open the shutters. Outside there was… water. A lot of water. She couldn't see anything other than water. Was she on an aircraft carrier or something? What kind of head quarters was this?

She turned and went into the bathroom to check that she looked acceptable enough to leave, and, nope. She only needed to glance in the mirror when she was in the doorway to see that her hair was flying all over the place. She walked over to her bag and sifted through its contents to find the small pack she had put all of her hygiene items in. Once she found it she pulled it out and reentered the bathroom. Thankfully, though her hair looked as though it was spazzing out, it wasn't too hard to brush through and in just a couple minutes she decided that she looked well enough to leave. And walk right into a sea of scorn. She moaned again and face-palmed.

Stop thinking about it, Tyler, she told herself. Just go out there and take them by storm. Let them know that you won't make such a fool of yourself again.

Her pep talk barely helped to get rid of the flutters that she now felt in her stomach. Would they just send her away after what happened? That would suck a lot of butt. She would never again venture into the outside world.

She took one last deep breath, turned on her heels, marched right over to the door, and opened it with her head held high. Outside, the hall was made of, surprise: metal. Much to Tyler's relief, it seemed that the place was deserted. She closed the door and looked at its surface to see if there was any number on it so that she knew where to look when she wanted to come back. Thankfully, there was a number and letter on it as though it were an apartment room. That meant she would be at least a little less likely to get lost.

25-B. She had to remember that. 25-B, 25-B. Hopefully she didn't forget it by the time she wanted to return. She turned around and looked from her right to her left, not sure which way she should go. On a gut feeling she decided to go left to see if she could find anyone. Though she was generally quiet when she walked, due to the metal floor her vans made an aggravating tapping noise as she traveled through the hall. For some reason she hated it when she could hear herself move, even if she was alone in her house.

As she continued walking down the hall her gaze searched every door she saw warily. They all had a number on them that decreased as she continued on. 19-B, 18-B, 17-B. If the numbers were decreasing it was good, right? She would end at some sort of elevator or lobby or… something. She didn't want to knock on the doors because she had no idea who, or what, she might find behind them. There could be some type of behemoth guard; not what she wanted to deal with currently.

When she reached the end of the hall there was indeed an elevator. She pushed the button and waited as it went from the top floor down to hers. When the doors slid open she stepped forward and realized just in the niche of time that she was about to run into someone. She stopped and looked up to find a tall, muscular man standing in front of her. He, surprisingly, wasn't wearing black; he looked like just an average guy. Except for the fact that his blond hair was combed to the side and he looked incredibly old-fashioned.

"Oh," the man grunted, obviously not expecting to see someone waiting on the other side of the doors.

"Uh, hi," Tyler managed with a smile. "I'm new here, my name's Tyler."

The man offered a polite smile. "Steve Rogers," he said with his hand held out. Tyler took his hand and shook it; his grip was firm. Scary type of firm.

"Nice to meet you," she said as she let go of his hand and stepped into the elevator so that the doors didn't close on them. "I was wondering if you could direct me to where Natasha and Clint are?"

"Actually, they sent me down here to see if you were awake yet," he replied with a respectful tone that somehow made Tyler want to cuddle him like a teddy bear. Was that weird? She watched for a moment as he pressed the button that would take the elevator to the floor just below the deck.

"I see," she said after a moment and then looked away, suddenly bashful. Was he there when she arrived? She hoped not. Then again, it was in the middle of the day that the jet landed; it wouldn't be too surprising if the whole ship had seen her… Again, curling up in a ball seemed pretty darn good at that moment.

Tyler stayed silent, not really sure what she would say to a secret agent. So, you kill any conspirators today? She could only imagine where that conversation would go. If she knew anything about people like Steve it would be that everything was a secret. Her own father couldn't even tell her anything about… well, anything.

Look at that, New York City was demolished. How did that happen?

Can't tell you.

Gee, thanks. You were almost killed in a nuclear explosion and my home was almost entirely destroyed, but that's fine. Your little secrets are more important than me, I get it.

That's how it always was when she talked to Tony about the things that she knew he was a part of. Classified this, classified that. Now that she thought about it, it was probably way worse with S.H.I.E.L.D. Suddenly, her excitement she had from earlier started to fade.

"You don't have to worry about that," Steve blurted out suddenly.

Tyler looked up at him with surprise at the sudden noise. "Huh?"

"When you landed," he explained. "You were asleep but you were able to wake up enough that you didn't have to be carried or anything. I thought that's what you might be a little uneasy about."

Tyler let out a short, nervous laugh. "Spot on," she confirmed. "It wasn't too embarrassing was it?"

Steve shook his head. "Not at all, Miss. You looked perfectly normal until you entered your room. Then you sort of collapsed on the bed."

Tyler smiled; he even spoke old fashioned. Or maybe he was in the military; they often called women Ma'am or Miss there, depending on age. Whatever his reason was, it made her feel a lot more mature than she had been feeling a moment earlier. At least, though, she didn't make a complete fool of herself. The elevator doors slid open and Steve exited. Tyler watched after him for a moment, suddenly a little unsure whether to follow him or not...

"This way," he informed politely as he realized Tyler didn't make a move to go after him.

"Oh," Tyler had almost forgot that he had been sent by Natasha and Clint to find her. "Yeah," she said and stepped outside the elevator. As she followed him down the metal hallway she realized that he seemed familiar. Maybe Tony had talked about someone like him before? She honestly had no clue but if he was a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. then he definitely knew her father.

"So," Steve broke the silence tentatively. "I hear you're Tony's daughter?"

"Yeah," Tyler said with a smile in his direction. She was right! He was a friend of her father's. Damn, she was good. Too bad she wasn't on some game show for that. Not that she realy needed the money…

"I see," he replied with something to the effect of ice in his voice.

She glanced at him with confusion. "Is there… a problem with that?" she asked, unsure where the sudden coldness came from.

Steve looked at her with astonishment and stuttered, "Oh, no, not at all Ma'am, it's just…" he paused and smiled apologetically. "I don't get along with him very well."

Tyler nodded, taking mental note that Steve couldn't seem to decide whether he should call her Ma'am or Miss; it was kind of cute. In a teddy bear type of way.

"Yeah," she sniffed a moment later, "that's not much of shocker. I'm pretty sure he knows how to irk every single person on this planet. Don't worry, though. I do not, for the most part, share his monster of an ego."

This brought on an amused smile from Steve and she just couldn't help but smile back. It seemed that Steve would be able to look past the fact that Tony was her father, and that lifted a little of the weight placed on Tyler's shoulders. She didn't want anyone disliking her for something her father did.

As Tyler followed Steve she tried to take in her surroundings so that she could remember where everything was to the best of her ability. The interior of the headquarters was still all metal; it was just painted white in places rather than left its natural color like in her room. There were several different rooms that contained a number of different things. Some had lab equipment, others seemed like break rooms, and there were a couple that looked as though they held no purpose whatsoever, aside from the armed men stationed inside them.

There were many people who walked through the halls quickly as though they were high school kids that were about to be late to one of their classes. Some were dressed with armor, others dressed in blue uniforms, and still others had lab coats. None of them seemed to pay any attention as she and Steve walked by. This made her hopes rise a little, maybe not everyone paid enough attention to notice her sluggishly moping through the halls led by Clint and Natasha.

As Tyler looked to her left through a window that just appeared she found that she could see a large room filled with at least forty agents, all stationed on their own computers. There was a floor that was raised slightly above the computers that had a large table in the middle where Clint and Natasha were currently seated. Beyond the table, towards the very end of the platform, several monitors that overlooked the rest of the computers were placed in a half-circle. Tyler guessed it was for the captain who was currently absent, as there was no one standing there.

Tyler looked forward again in just enough time to see Steve walk through the automatic door that led into the large room and she hurried to catch up.

Clint and Natasha broke off of their conversation and looked up as they noticed the new comers. This time Clint didn't have his sunglasses on and Tyler decided that she might never be able to make direct eye contact with him; it was as though his eyes were made of steel. They were a sort of silvery gray and currently they held... irritation. To say the least. She sincerely hoped that it wasn't her he was mad at. Natasha, on the other hand, looked at her with a warm smile.

"'Afternoon, Sleeping Beauty," she greeted playfully. Tyler sighed.

"Don't bring it up," she begged as she sat in one of the chairs across from the elder woman, "I can't believe that I did that to you on the first day; I am so sorry. I'm not even going to try to explain how embarrassed I am about that."

Clint looked as though he was about to say something but he stopped as a thump sounded from underneath the table. Did Natasha just kick him? She began speaking again so soon after it happened that Tyler didn't have the time to tell.

"Oh, no," Natasha soothed, "don't worry about it. We were actually sort of glad because we hadn't had any time to prepare for your training or even rest after our last mission." She smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry; we won't hold it against you. This time."

Tyler returned the smile gratefully. "Thank you. And I promise there won't be another time that you would have to hold it against me."

Natasha nodded and glanced over to Steve who had taken a seat a couple chairs away from Tyler without a word.

"I'm assuming he's introduced himself?" she asked.

Tyler nodded with a smile. "I almost collided with him when I went to enter the elevator. Neither of us really expected each other."

A look of amusement glinted in Natasha's eyes. "Did he only tell you his name?" she asked curiously. Tyler's brow furrowed at the strange question and her eyes flicked over to Steve before they came to Natasha again.

"Yes," she said with uncertainty. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Natasha waved it away with her hand. "Just wondering, that's all."

Tyler nodded slowly and again looked at Steve who was suddenly interested in the glass table in front of him. Exactly what was it that they weren't telling her? She found it hard to believe that they expected her to work with them if they had however many zillions of secrets that they seemed content to keep from her.

"Anyways," Clint spoke up, drawing everyone's attention. "Generally when we train our spies we start them off with the basics. Self-defense sort of things. Have you had any experience in that aspect?"

Tyler nodded. "Recently I took a couple defense classes, but I wouldn't say I'm much of an expert."

"Well, I'll be the judge of that," Clint replied with... was that a threat she heard in his voice? She was suddenly freaking out internally. She already made it to her trainer's bad side and she had absolutely no clue what she did. Was it because she fell asleep? That would really make her want to strangle someone.

"I'll be training with you for flexibility," Natasha informed. "It's one of the best things a girl can have in battle. Steve will help you with strength training."

Steve nodded in agreement.

"Once we decide that you can move on," Clint continued, "then we'll narrow down our focus to things like being able to shoot, honing your ability to persuade a possible hostile, fine tuning your senses so that you're not caught off guard, etcetera. If at any point during your training we find that you're particularly good at a certain skill then we'll shift our focus to bring that skill up to its height. Pretty straight forward. Questions?"

Tyler paused a moment before nodding. "Will I be able to get a tour of the place? I don't exactly know where everything is..."

"Of course," Steve spoke up. "Since we don't have enough time left in the day for training I'll take you around."

"Alright, cool," Tyler smiled. "One more thing, though, when will we begin everyday?"

"Breakfast for us is at seven," Natasha informed. "We'll start everyday when we're done eating and the day will go until dinner which is served from five to seven. Hopefully our only break will be at lunch eventually, but we don't want to kill you on the first day so we'll have more than one."

Tyler nodded. "Sounds good."

"Well then, go take your tour," Clint dismissed. "We still have things to do."

Natasha looked at Clint and Tyler thought sure she could see a warning behind the agent's eyes, but her attention was ripped away when Steve stood.

"Ma'am?" he asked as he motioned for her to take the lead. Tyler stood with a smile and exited the room. It was official; Steve was Tyler's teddy bear. No oneelse could have him. He was so polite she found it hard to believe that he was some sort of secret agent or assassin. Then again… he did have whatever secret he was hiding. That had to mean that he was the real deal.

The tour took a little more than an hour, and Steve told her that he only showed her the parts that would be important to her training. How big was this darn thing? Steve said that even he wasn't exactly sure. The last place that Steve took her was the kitchen so that he could show her how to get from there to her room. It was the first place she needed to be everyday and generally she would travel with either him or the other two to wherever they needed to be afterwards, so if she knew how to get to the kitchen she should be set for a while.

Again no one had confronted them as Steve had shown Tyler the whereabouts of most of the important things, but that changed once they got to the kitchen. As soon as she and Steve walked through the door they were greeted by a kind looking doctor who held a steaming cup of coffee in his hands. He had short, wavy brown hair and dark eyes that seemed to be hiding something dangerous, but he didn't at all seem hostile. He wasn't too tall and he wore extremely nice clothing. Like, button-up shirt and slacks kind of nice. What kind of person would wear that on an aircraft carrier, of all things?

"Steve," the man looked surprised as he saw the agent. "I thought you had gone off somewhere to rip up a punching bag."

Steve smiled as he stepped forward to shake the man's outstretched hand. "Dr. Banner," he greeted. "I'm equally as shocked to find you here, since you're supposed to be… avoiding stressful situations."

Dr. Banner shrugged and placed his free hand in his pocket. "You know the Director. He insisted that I help with the uh... ongoing investigation."

Steve nodded in understanding as Dr. Banner took a sip of his coffee.

"You sure you should be drinking that?" Steve asked a moment later with uncertainty. The doctor smiled as though he expected the question sooner or later.

"It's decaf," he smiled.

"Oh, gotcha," Steve said with relief. Why was it that the agent was worried about someone drinking coffee?

Tyler simply stood there as the two conversed, feeling rather awkward. The way they paused before saying some things made her feel like they were hiding still more information from her. Yay, more secrets! She had hardly spent an hour and a half with the people here and she was already tired of being kept in the dark. That was a pretty challenging feat to overcome considering she lived with an over protective Tony Stark who told her next to nothing.

She didn't want to irritate them with a bunch of questions, but still... Who was this Director guy? And the "ongoing investigation"? And the coffee. What was with the whole worrying about coffee? It was a liquid that was made for people to drink, was it not? Had she been lied to about that her whole life as well? Scary thought. Before she was able to try to get the two men's attention herself, Dr. Banner looked over to her with a small smile.

"I assume this is the new recruit?" he asked. Steve practically jumped as he realized he hadn't introduced them yet.

"Oh, yes, sorry," he apologized as he motioned to Tyler. "Dr. Banner, this is Tyler Stark. Tyler, Dr. Banner."

"You can just call me Bruce," Dr. Banner informed as he took his hand out of his pocket and held it out. Tyler took it with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Bruce," she greeted. As Bruce pulled his hand back Tyler could see the bewilderment in his eyes. He didn't have to ask the question for Tyler to know what it was.

"Stark," he began slowly, "as in Tony Stark?"

Tyler smiled and nodded almost mechanically; it was going to take a while for her to get used to everyone knowing her father personally. Normally when she met new people and they asked who her father was she replied with something to the effect of, "Oh, he's just your average Joe with this or that job and he isn't really all that interesting. Let's change the subject to your dog, he's so cute!"

"I'm his daughter," Tyler informed. "Adopted."

Banner looked surprised as he connected the dots. "I see. Didn't really expect him to uh... Y'know. Be a father."

"Yeah, I'm still not sure why he did it," Tyler laughed. "My best guess is that I just challenge him in the way of his pestering skills. It's hard for us to get on each other's nerves."

For the most part, Tyler grumbled to herself. Bruce must have noticed that her eyes flashed because he looked a little uncertain that was the case. Thankfully, however, he didn't try to discuss it further.

"Well, it was nice seeing you, Doc," Steve pardoned, "but I still have a few things to show Tyler."

"Of course," Bruce smiled. "See you around."

Tyler waved before she followed Steve back out into the hallway. He turned to the left and followed the walkway until they came back to the room they had first gone to meet Clint and Natasha. Then, he made another left and went straight until they arrived at the elevator.

"Pretty simple," Steve said with a smile as he stopped in front of the door. "Well, that part was at least."

Tyler nodded and replied, "Thank you so much, I would have been so lost without that."

"My pleasure," Steve assured. "Now, Natasha said that there should be some clothing waiting for you in your room, my guess is that it's a uniform of sorts. She asked if you could wear it to dinner."

Tyler nodded, albeit she did grimace a little. She wasn't much one for uniforms but if she had to, she would wear it.

"Alright, so, I'll see you at dinner?" Steve asked. He didn't really need to form it as a question but Tyler just couldn't stand the thought of dashing the hope that she heard in his voice. It was probably just the way he was used to talking with women, but it still reminded Tyler of a teddy bear.

"Yep," Tyler answered with a smile. "Thanks again, Steve."

Steve nodded before he walked back the way he came and left Tyler to herself. She sighed and entered the elevator as the doors slid open, a little relieved that she would have time to rest before she tried to eat dinner with anyone. There seemed to be so many secrets surrounding the people here. First, there was Steve. Apparently there was more to him than a polite, old-fashioned, extremely strong-looking guy. Then there was Clint; why was he so mad at her? What had she done to blow his top off? Next, Bruce. What had Steve meant when he was talking to him about "avoiding stressful situations" and drinking coffee? Did it have something to do with whatever she felt the doctor was hiding behind his dark eyes? Lastly, "the Director." Tyler assumed that he, or she, was the boss of this whole thing. So why hadn't she seen them? Wouldn't it be a little important for her to know who the boss was so she didn't accidentally step on his foot or something?

She sighed once more as she left the elevator and made her way to her room. She was going to become really annoyed if they didn't tell her at least one thing. She always hated secrets. Mainly because the only thing Tony seemed able to do was keep secrets.

Upon entering her room and turning her light on, Tyler found that her bed had been made and a black suit that looked almost exactly like Natasha's lay on the sheets. It was skin tight and had several attachments that looked like they could be holders for guns or other weapons. The only difference was that, instead of long sleeves, the material cut off at where she assumed was the middle of her bicep. Like Natasha's, there were S.H.I.E.L.D. symbols on the left and right shoulders that were barely visible.

Beside the suit was a pair of fingerless gloves that looked like they had some padding around the knuckles; she guessed it was so that her knuckles didn't hurt quite as much as when she punched someone with bare fists. She fought back a snicker at the thought as her eyes then traveled to the floor next to the bed where a pair of black combat boots were resting.

Overall, she could tell she was going to obtain many wedgies and itches with this suit. Oh, well. As long as she looked bad ass, right? Seriously, some people just don't understand that comfort should be a little more important than style.

She didn't want to have too many foul thoughts, however, or she wouldn't even put the suit on. She pulled off her vans and tossed them aside somewhere, then took her T-shirt and jeans off. This new get up would be so different than what she was used to. She could almost see Pepper having a fit about it. She always tried to get her to dress up a little nicer but Tyler saw no point in it and continued to wear her tomboy-type clothes. Now she was going to wear something that made her look like a public menace. Ha! Take that. Pepper: 0 Tyler: 25

As she picked up the suit she realized that a hood hung on the back of the neck, and there was some cloth on the front of the neck that looked as though it was used to pull up over her nose and act as a mask. How exactly did these people know her so well? It made the whole thing worth it; now she could truly be mysterious and unknowable. You'd think she'd have enough of that considering Tony kept her hidden all of the time, but the idea still seemed pretty epic to her.

She hastily stepped into the suit and was glad to find that it fit perfectly. Did they sneak into her room and look at her clothes to see what size she was or something? Creepers. She pulled on the boots and gloves, perfect fits again, and walked into the bathroom to see what she looked like. Her breath caught in her throat as she turned from side to side. Even though the suit covered most of her skin, she had never felt this exposed before. All of her clothes were normally loose and baggy, so it was weird to see how her body curved. She thought she was embarrassed before, but now? Maybe she should give the point to Pepper…

She pulled the cloth on the neck over her nose and the hood on top of her head and nodded with approval. Now no one would be able to tell who she really was, ha ha! Whoever designed the suit was a genius. A creepy genius, but a genius nonetheless.

She reentered her room and looked at the clock with a sigh; it was only six. What was she supposed to do for two hours before dinner? To answer her question, a quiet knock came from her door. She suddenly felt awkward answering her door with her face all covered so she pulled the hood and cloth off as she walked over to answer it.

When she opened the door her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Was she hallucinating? She definitely was not expecting the person who was standing there. At all.

Had to end it off there or the chapter would be 10,000+ words... XD Hasn't been too much action so far but next chapter the story will get a little meatier. Please review to tell me how I did, PLEASE. I will give you a cookie if you do. Well, that's all for now, so peace off! (Teehee Tobuscus reference. :3 )

-KC