"Oh, no, I can't do anything about it until they get here, what kinda voodoo shit do you think I smoke, dude?" I asked, looking at Rhodey like he was insane. "I can do fuck-all until they're on planet earth. A.O.S. Can't even do space travel until the episodes that are classed as non-canon. Tony doesn't even do space travel, technically speaking he hitched a ride on the mad-titan's flying donut."

"So, we're just supposed to wait?" Rhodey demanded, as if I owed him something. I debated flipping him off but held it together with an unimpressed look and an over-dramatic eyeroll.

"It's not like the wider community isn't aware of his bullshit, the problem is that no one can stop him," I argued. "The Kree are theoretically the only force big enough to stop him, but they're bloodthirsty war-mongering assholes too."

"So, space sucks?" Happy asked, looking disappointed.

"No, of course not. The Kree suck. Thanos is an outlier. He's one obnoxious grape lookin' fucker with a plan, conviction, and unfortunately for us, charisma and a following of psychopaths."

"Great." Rhodey looked like he was beginning to regret listening to me.

"This isn't even what we're supposed to be discussing," Pepper snapped, looking at her watch in annoyance. She wasn't wrong. The whole point of coming here was so we could discuss immediate next steps. The wider timeline was supposed to wait until after Tony was safe, and Iron Man had been established. "Jim, sit back down. Grey, out of the spiral. C'mon, we've got work to do."

I sighed; she was right. Happy's question had sent me down a spiral of MCU bullshit that Happy and Rhodey were too eager to follow me down. I ran my hands through my hair and huffed out another sigh. Rhodey dropped into his chair, and idly tugged his notebook closer.

"After Dad escapes, Rhodey is going to pull him out of the desert and bring him home. We'll need medical at the house; he won't go to a hospital, but there's nothing immediately life threatening at that point. Bit of dehydration, probably some malnutrition, I doubt they're feeding him well there." I knew they were eating, but still, the terrorist's cave was a far cry from the Michelin rated Amelie I had yesterday. "In the movies, he badgers Pep into a press conference where he immediately shuts down all weapons manufacturing."

"That would kill Stark Industries as it sits! Weapons manufacturing is eighty percent of what we produce!" Pepper looked ashen. I held up a hand, then gestured to myself.

"Which is why we are going to pause manufacturing pending a thorough and legal investigation on how exactly our weapons got in the hands of people that definitely should not have them. And we can assure our employees that they won't be forced out of work, since in the same breath we're going to announce the new direction, our company is going to go in. Pepper, we're sitting on so much brilliance that I can guarantee you that if you give me some time to write, I will triple the profits of Stark Industries before the next election."

Pepper gave me a smile, and I finally understood the term sharklike. She leaned forward almost lazily and kept full eye contact as she held out her hand to shake. I worried for my kidneys as I accepted the challenge.

"Poor Tony," Happy lamented. "He has no idea what he's coming home to."

"Might be safer in Afghanistan," Rhodey added, shaking his head. "Should probably tell the bastard to stay in his hole a while longer. We might be able to put out these two's fires in a few years."

"Decades."

"Centuries."

"Generations."

"Are you two idiots done?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips. I could feel my smile twitching out. I was definitely the first to start laughing, but everyone else quickly joined in.

"Okay, freeze it for the investigation, then what?" Happy asked, pulling the focus back.

"In the movies, Dad lays low while Stane "fixes things" whatever the fuck that means, then convinces the board to freeze him out, on the sly," I explained. "That lasts until the Firefighter Family Fundraiser thing. Tony shows up, dances with the ever-lovely Miss Pepper, then runs into your favorite journalist and mine, Christine Everhart, with photographic proof that bad people are using the Jericho Missile in Gulmira."

"What's special about Gulmira?" Rhodey asked. Happy and Pepper shot him incredulous looks. He held up his hands in surrender. "I know using the Jericho is terrible enough on its own, but the fact that it's mentioned seems important."

"Tony's got a friend in captivity that's gonna kick it on the way out. He's from Gulmira," I said, probably a little harsh, if the look Pepper gave me, was any indication. "Right, sorry. Dad confronts Stane, and he admits he's the one freezing him out. Dad goes home, suits up, flies off to Gulmira. He saves the human shields, kills the terrorists, then blows up his own weapons. Beautiful film shot."

"Who directed it?" Happy asked.

"Kevin Feige and Jon Favreau. Who, ironically is your actor."

"I was important enough to be played by the director himself," Happy said, chuffed. I laughed and smiled at him.

"Uh, then Dad flies home, the Air Force noticed his explosions, sends in two raptors. There's a ridiculous amount of hide-n-seek, but a raptor blows, the pilot dips, but his shoot won't open, so Tony rescues him." Jim frowned. I could guess the dots his mind was connecting, but I wouldn't tell him until he asked. "All through the meanwhile, the audience discovers that Stane travels to Afghanistan to take the recovered blueprints and Mark One back to LA to create his own suit. His scientist lackey manages to make the suit but can't manage to miniaturize the arc reactor."

"I'm still surprised Tony managed it, in a friggin' cave of all things," Rhodey said, a strange cross of annoyed and fond.

"What does Stane want with a suit though?" Pepper asked.

"Power?" I guessed. "Fuck if I know. Anyway, Tony gets home and starts getting out of the suit. He sends Pepper to SI to find a file on the servers. She sees the ransom video addressed to Stane, grabs Phil Coulson of SHIELD who is conveniently waiting in the lobby, and heads off to sector sixteen? I think?"

"What is SHIELD?" Pepper asked. Rhodey went blank faced. I looked at him and silently bet he'd been slapped with an NDA or that whatever he knew was considered classified.

"Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement, Logistics Division," I said hesitantly, trying to get them in the right order. "Remember the SSR that Howard was involved in with Peggy? That dissolved? It didn't dissolve, it shifted into SHIELD, after project paperclip."

"Wasn't project paperclip flamed by Anonymous on twitter last year?" Happy asked, looking at Rhodey more than anyone.

"Oh yeah," I said. "America's government basically hired a bunch of Nazi scientists to defect and work for them. SHIELD did it with Hydra, and they got a nasty case of syphilis from getting in bed together, they just don't realize it yet."

"A top-secret non-government funded intelligence agency is infested with Hydra Agents?" Rhodey demanded, looking at me like he was going to puke.

"If you puke, I'm out dude," I said, instantly shattering the tension. "This ain't even all that, Hydra? Psht, peanuts."

"I live in a world where Nazis aren't the worst thing anymore, what the fuck did you drag me into, Tony?" Pepper lamented to the ceiling. We all laughed, which was likely her goal. But it was also a good point. I made a mental note to do something to prevent burnout.

"Anyway. Stane realizes his science guy ain't all that smart and goes to the one place he is certain a mini-arc reactor is."

"He goes to Tony," Rhodey said.

"Bingo. Bastard uses Tony's sound paralysis thingie and yoinks it outta his chest." It was Pepper's turn to go a shade of green. "Pepper, remember, for the plot. Tony was able to get downstairs to the lab, where you had conveniently ignored his instructions to destroy the arc reactor he came home in, and you turned it into a pretty paperweight. Dum-E smashed the casing you put it in, and Rhodey showed up just in time to put it in Tony's chest."

"Tony suits up and wins the day?" Happy summarized for the ending.

"Pretty much. SHIELD tries to give Tony a cover up, but everyone's favorite reporter was front row, so Tony was showboating and admitted he was Iron Man."

"Okay, before we jump in with our ideas based off a summary, tell us how you want it to go." I grinned. I'd been waiting for this moment since 2012. And somehow, I managed to limit my ideas to ones that would only affect Iron Man, and Iron Man 2. With one exception.

"Absolutely not," Rhodey said. The lines in his face said he wouldn't bend, the sag of his shoulders said he would. "He killed Tony's parents!"

"Physically, yeah. But you can't tell me that he would be found guilty in a court of law."

"Jim, he's a prisoner of war," Happy said. Rhodey's face turned sour. I got it, I really did.

"We don't have to keep him, Rhodey," I lied. Not that he could tell. "But we can't leave him in Hydra's clutches, can we?"

"No, of course not." It came out in bursts, but finally Rhodey caved. "Tony…"

"Isn't gonna like it," I admitted. "And he's allowed that. But even he would say this is an advantage better with us. Eventually, probably."

Jim snorted, and finally nodded, "okay fine. But we stay here, in New York, not our home."

"That's fine," Pepper said. "We do that first; we get Barnes out. Grey, figure out a plan, use Jarvis and whatever else you need. We can get him back in the right mindset, and if we set him up with an identity, he can probably go off on his own. Or we keep him."

"What?" Happy asked, surprised. Even Happy wasn't completely sold on having the Winter Soldier as a housemate.

"Can you really deny that Barnes wouldn't be a good asset to the team?" I flinched at the wording, but clearly it was working on the boys. "Even without the brain washing, he was a soldier first, and a damn good one. Imagine what he could teach us. Plus, extra protection for Tony and Grey."

Even I was surprised at this line of thinking coming from Pepper. But gift horse, mouths, whatever.

"If he's mentally stable as Barnes," Rhodey bargained. I couldn't argue against it, it was a fair point. No one wanted an unstable roomie. "How do we get him out?"

"You don't, I do," I said. "You three are all known quantities. Pepper and Happy from always being just a step behind Tony in the media, Jim, those in political circles know you. Me? I don't actually exist. He can run my prints, use facial recognition, even if I give him my real name, there's nothing he can do with it."

"Grey, I hate to point it out, but you don't have any experience with subterfuge, how are you going to steal the Winter Soldier, from the handlers that brainwashed him to always come back? How are you even going to get out alive?" I looked at Rhodey and smiled. "We all want Barnes away from them, but not at the cost of your life. And you will not get out of that alive."

"Jim's right, Grey, Hydra isn't someone we can screw with, and they're definitely not stupid enough to just give you their top assassin," Pepper said, trying to soothe the sting of Rhodey's blatant rejection.

"How about this, you let me try, and if it blows up in my face, we'll do it your way," I said, still confident. "I wanna see how far reality will let me push this 'for-the-plot' shit it's got going on right now."

"What do you mean, for the plot?" Happy asked.

"It's a callout that writers use when a character suddenly does something completely out of character for no reason other than the plot required it. Like when your favorite TV character who has been monogamous all her life, suddenly decides she wants to date two people at once."

"Finn the vet," Pepper said. I nodded. "And you think this works, here, in real life?"

"I wasn't able to talk Tony out of being kidnapped," Rhodey said. I pointed at him while still looking at Pepper. I decided against pointing out that this wasn't my real life. This was the fantasy world. "That's the most out of character shit I've ever seen from Tony."

"How do fic-writers deal with for-the-plot?" Happy demanded. Then he frowned like he said something he'd never expected to. I understood that. Sometimes life had a way of making you question simple things.

"We usually pretend it doesn't happen in our fics. Specifically for Grey's Anatomy, I wouldn't have introduced the dog. No dog, no vet, no vet no Finn, no Finn, no weird prom sex and no weird three-way relationship."

"And if you can't avoid it?" Pepper asked.

"Run with it. Lean into the crazy. Have Meredith and Izzie train the dog to sniff out cancer."

"How?"

How what? I wanted to demand. How do I correct it when it means Tony voluntarily gets kidnapped? How do I control a genocidal maniac?

"Do the best you can," I eventually said. "They're always fictional stories! Made up. I can read a story where all the good guys die and the bad guy wins, and then start a new story where all the characters are alive again. It's never been real for us! Not like this!"

They all fell silent. Rhodey wouldn't look at me. I could feel the heat that came with my anger, and I tried to breathe through it, now really wasn't the time for me to have an outburst. I fought with my breathing for a moment until I felt I could speak without screaming.

"Look, I can't explain the how's, the whys or anything else that you want out of me. I simply don't know!" I couldn't stop the yelling; the anger was too hot in my chest. "I don't know. So don't ask me why. Just let me do what I know I'm good at."

"And what is that?" Pepper asked calmly. Finally, I smiled, but it wasn't nice or kind. This was the smile of someone with too much anger.

"Why don't you let me show you?"

Line Break

Eventually we left the SCIF and went back upstairs where our devices and Jarvis was waiting for us. I carried five different three subject notebooks, tucked under my arm. Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy each had at least one of their own, Pepper and Jim carried two each. Jim had headed toward his room, and Happy had gone to the kitchen to thresh out a grocery list that wasn't coffee and chicken tenders.

"What the fuck?" Pepper screamed. I nearly dropped my stack of notebooks as I looked over at her. Rhodey came flying in from the other room, slamming into the wall as he looked around for danger. Happy came from the other direction, a gun I didn't know he carried in his hands.

"What happened?" I demanded, holding my hands out so no one got hurt. Pepper was looking at her phone, not a threat. "Pepper, out with it, what the fuck happened?"

"Apparently the stock market crashed while we were gone," Pepper squeaked out. She abandoned her phone for a tablet, pulling up numbers and graphs and throwing them up on Jarvis' holographic screens on the walls. I glanced at my watch; it was 2:49 in the afternoon.

"Pepper, that's almost a thousand points," Rhodey said pointing to the Dow Jones. They were all staring at the wall like the world was ending. Unfortunately for me, I knew it wasn't. Whatever this was, it was temporary.

"The stock market didn't crash in 2010!" I shouted, finally tearing everyone's attention away from the numbers on the wall. "We were doing good, recovering a bit from the Housing Crash in 2008. I mean for crying out loud, Obama was the best president we had since probably George Washington himself."

"Maybe not in your world, but look, everything is dropping! Except for the Volatility Index, that seems to be the only thing that went up!"

"No, look," Happy said, holstering the gun. I made a mental note to ask him about that. It was 2:53. "Look, it's already back up, three hundred points recovered."

"It's a flash crash," Rhodey said. I frowned at him. "It's a brief crash that recovers most of the loss. What caused this one?"

"Greece," I said. "Aren't they struggling like hell right now? I vaguely remember something about that. It's 2010, I'm thirteen right now. So, the fact that I don't remember this is good. Right?"

"She's got a point," Happy said eventually. "Besides, the SEC will investigate this and send out the findings. Worry about our stock and only our stock."

"We've only fallen twenty-four points and look on target to recoup twenty of those points by the end of the day," Pepper said, switching the holograms. I blinked.

"Maybe I should've paid better attention to politics as a high schooler," I said thoughtfully. "Damn, I didn't even think about real work events. I should sit down with my timeline and add what I can. Like those fucking clowns?"

"Clowns?" Rhodey asked, looking away from Pepper's continued examination of the stock market. Even Happy looked a bit unnerved.

"Yeah, 2016, shitload of people dressed as clowns and terrorized America. Few of 'em killed people? I think. I'm not sure, I spent most of 2016 in a haze of depression."

"I think I hate the world," Pepper said quietly. "You lived through a clown epidemic?"

"No, I forgot about the clown epidemic. That's how inconsequential it was, that's how much shit I lived through. I'm praying that I don't have to live through the last three years again. Are you kidding me?"

"Hey, Grey, it's okay." Happy said, reaching over and catching my arm. "Look at me?"

I looked at him.

"You've been through a lot," Rhodey said. "Like, way too much, and it's not fair for us to ask you to predict everything in the world so we have it easier."

"Note down what you can, but if you miss something, we're not going to hold it against you. You're only human." Happy tugged me over so he could give me a hug. I leaned into it and sighed. "You need more notebooks, don't you?"

"No. Yes." I pretended to pout, causing Pepper to start laughing at me. "Can I get like three more three subject college ruled notebooks? And I need to steal more graph paper from Dad's lab. Oh, Pepper, this is yours."

I handed her a notebook. It was simply labelled New York. It was another three subject, this time filled with our New York activities. The tower and the compound, the Expo, and the business side of the Avengers. How we would pay them, how we could fund repairs, whether or not we caused the damage. How we could liaison with National Guard and local LEOs.

"And what does this contain?"

"The answer to the next twenty questions you plan on asking me about the Avengers," I said with a grin. "And the answer to at least ten questions about Stark Industries."

Pepper looked at me, and I looked at her. Happy took three steps back from me. I smiled, but I didn't think it was a pretty one.

"Hey Grey," Rhodey asked, tapping the cover of his own notebook. "You have any plans for the government or the military?"

"Do you want me to have plans for the government and the military?"

"No. No, the mere thought of you having plans for the government terrifies me," Rhodey admitted. "But it seems like the type of thing you'd do."

"Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, McCarthy, DeSantis, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and what's his name. Amy Coney Barrett? No, who the fuck was it? I'm blanking so hard right now." I stared straight ahead, trying to remember the name of Trump's lackeys. I knew I wasn't thinking of Pence, I was trying to find the name of his other Supreme Court choice – the first one but it was gone, lost in the haze of the thousands of other bad choices Trump made as president.

"And you keep those names memorized why?" Happy asked. I glared at him.

"Pray you don't find out," I said, grabbing my stack of stack of notebooks and heading to the office space I'd claimed as mine. "Jarvis, pull up my timeline? I wanna do some work on it."

"Of course, Miss Stark. Is there a year you'd like to start with?"

"Yeah, pull up 2016, 'cause I swear all this fucking bullshit started with that gods damned gorilla."

Line Break

"Grey has done fantastic work here," Pepper said, flipping through the new notebook to look at her notes on the Expo. "This is better than anything the marketing team has ever put together for anything."

"Really?" Jim asked, leaning over to look at her notes. Grey's handwriting shifted from a perfect print that anyone could read, to a half-cursive scribble that Jim could only understand with context clues. There were sketches, and footnotes and arrows pointing to different paragraphs. "Oh wow. Is that… payroll?"

"We're getting paid?" Happy asked. "That's exciting."

"She averaged it out by factoring in what police, federal agents, and soldiers make," Jim explained, flipping the page of Pepper's notebook. "She's even factored in taxes, social security, a health insurance plan, 401k? Who is this girl?"

"I think she's a genius," Pepper said, turning another page. "She set up raises for us. I don't remember the last time Tony gave us a raise."

"2007," Happy said firmly. "Stark Industries globally raised our personal minimum wage from the federal rate of 7.25 per hour, to a firm 20.50 per hour. I got a twenty percent raise; I think you said you got…"

"Thirty three percent," Pepper said, remembering. "I remember, because I moved to a larger condo. How did she do all this? Never mind, I don't care how. She did it, that means I don't have to. What else is in here?"

Pepper and Jim kept flipping through the pages, while Happy started placing an order for the groceries they were going to need for the next month or so.

"Did Grey say anything about Barnes' eating habits?" Happy asked eventually, looking up from his tablet. "I'm planning groceries."

"Miss Stark has stated that Sergeant Barnes, Captain Rogers, and eventually Spiderman are going to have enhanced metabolisms, and will therefore require an increased number of calories in order to live comfortably," Jarvis said from the walls. Happy nodded and increased the amount of meat he was ordering. "Miss Stark has also suggested several different subscription services to assist in taking care of everyone. I will send her suggestions to your tablet."

Sure enough, Happy's tablet exploded with notifications. He expertly silenced the device, already used to Grey's tendency to send everything in a separate text message.

"Here, I forgot to include these," Grey said, reappearing from her office with a manilla envelope. She handed them to Happy. "Security clearance ideas. You can change them if you want, I don't have real world experience with this. I got what I know from Field Trip fics."

"Field trip?" Pepper asked.

"Oh, yeah, Dad finds a new baby enhanced trying to do good and goes to recruit him, only to find out he's fifteen. So, he starts mentoring him, and no one at his school believes him. So, most of the fics focus on him and his school going on a field trip to the Tower, where inevitably the bully gets put in his place, and everyone realizes he's not lying."

"It's a trope," Happy said.

"It's the tropiest of tropes," Grey said with a laugh. "I think I've read two hundred different versions of it. Don't worry, my little brother is protected."

"That's what changed Tony," Pepper said. "It was the kid."

"Ten points to Ravenclaw, Miss Potts," Grey said. "And don't worry, several people yell at Tony for recruiting a fifteen-year-old, but I'd like to point out that he was only brought along because it wasn't supposed to be a fight."

"The civil war, in 2016." Jim was looking at Grey the same way he had the first time he met her.

"Exactly. But remember, I'm doing everything I can to keep everyone safe."

"We know, Grey, that's not an attack," Pepper soothed, sensing another fight about to sprout. "More of a surprise. Tony hasn't historically made the best decisions, especially when it comes to kids."

"I get it. I do know what Tony was like before me," Grey said. She had a smile on her face, like she was remembering things. And maybe she was. Pepper didn't have the relationship with fictional characters the way Grey did. "But I promise, we'll all take care of him."

"When are you going after Barnes?" Happy asked, changing the subject. "I don't want to order these groceries until we're going to need them."

"I had Jarvis find me Pierce's schedule, he's out of the office until Wednesday, so I figure I'll meet him there." Grey smiled. "Pepper, on Wednesday, can you help me with my hair? I'm terrible at styling it."

"Sure. How early?"

"Unfortunately, unless you want to come to DC with me, it'll have to be early. I want to be in Pierce's office before he gets there. But don't worry, I have help." The unholy gleam was back in Grey's eyes.

"We're coming to DC with you," Jim said, leaving no room for argument. "We aren't risking Barnes going off the rails and killing you on Hydra's orders."

"Awh, Rhodey, you do care," Grey teased. "Fine. Happy, would you be a dear and get us flight clearance. Silently. Classified itinerary, classified manifest."

"I can do that. I'll also start helping to get the investigation lined up. With Tony officially missing, I have a good excuse to go through the security department and make some cuts." Happy looked through the envelope Grey handed him and tried not to smile. He had everything he needed to make Stark Industries more secure than the White House. "And this?"

"Has to wait till Dad gets home," Grey said. "He'll agree it's a good idea, but I can't activate any of his AIs without his clearance code."

"Makes sense," Happy said. "Grey, when he gets home, this is going to be the biggest shake up since 1982."

"What happened in 1982?" Grey asked, looking around for an answer.

"In 1982, Howard Stark's PA was killed by a Widow from the Red Room, in an attempt to get closer to him. Howard used the murder to increase his security and successfully privatized the company. Fifteen thousand employees lost their jobs at Stark Industries." Jarvis said.

"Interesting. Jarvis, add that to the history folder. And if you have time, find me more tidbits like that, from when Howard was in charge. After that, find me, I have an idea," Grey said, tapping at her chin. She had an idea, and a look in her eyes that said they were going to lose her for the weekend. They all watched her walk back to her office, then exchanged looks.

"She is exactly like her father," Jim said with prejudice. "How the hell can we manage two of them?"

"Don't look at me, I'm too busy trying to not start calling everyone dude the way she does," Pepper said holding up her hand. "I'm pretty sure that I'm going to call President Obama, "my dude" when I update him next month. Do you know how much I won't be able to live that down?"

"I don't think we're supposed to manage them," Happy said. "I think we join them. I think if we just let them do what they want, things will have a way of working out."

"You really believe that?" Jim asked, surprised.

"Oh, fuck no," Happy said, laughing as he did. "I think if we let Grey and Tony out together and unsupervised, they'll take over the entire world. The three of us, we aren't enough, we need support staff, and we need them yesterday. At the very least, we need a chef on staff so I can start ordering groceries and stop with the takeout."

"I want to bring in Samantha, from legal? I want her eyes on these plans, and also Grey's list of politicians she doesn't think I wrote down." Pepper said, flashing an index card with the list of names Grey rattled off like a hit list earlier. "The Avengers are going to need a legal department, domestic and international. Samantha has domestic on lock, but we're going to need someone for the international side of things. Samantha should know someone."

"I was toying with the idea of having Grey hold a press conference," Jim admitted. "Have her plead for her dad back, it'd be a great human-interest piece, and a good way of introducing her, but my gut's telling me it's a bad idea."

"It's too late at this point. If we wanted to do that, we should've done it on the 29th, after the news went public that Tony was missing," Pepper said, shaking her head. "At this point, if we want to introduce her publicly, we'd need a reason to put her in front of the camera. I think we might have to wait until Father's Day."

"Unless the news gives us something to react to," Happy put in. "Grey said the next three months were reactionary, right? Eventually, someone is going to say something, and Grey is going to want to respond. Should we prep a statement, just to be safe?"

"No, probably not." The boys looked at Pepper in surprise. She merely raised an eyebrow. "Please, Grey already has something planned, I'd be willing to bet money. However, we can start the process of buying out Marvel Comics. I know Grey wanted them for Avengers Merch to fund this. Let's start that. I'll schedule a phone call with Samantha for Monday."

"Anything else we need to schedule?" Jim asked, turning his notebook to the calendar he's drawn out for the next seven months.

"I need an official on-the-record Heiress to CEO sit down with Grey when we get back to Los Angeles. She and I have to discuss the actuality of the fatality clause and how we're going to handle that," Pepper said, looking grim.

"Schedule a meeting with that Dr Cho that Grey mentioned," Happy added. "Grey was more than excited about what she could bring the Avengers, let's bring her into Stark Industries first. Medical advancements galore, who knows, maybe they can correct the damage to Grey's leg."

Jim wrote quickly, before voicing his own contributions. When they were met with agreement, Pepper sent an email to Grey on Jim's behalf, letting her know what they'd decided. She shouted her thanks down the hall, sparking laughs.

"Alright, I'm tapping out, I'm exhausted," Jim said what felt like days later. "I do not have the ability to think anymore, and I still have to email General Morrow tonight."

"At least it's Tom, I've got to set up the quarterly reports and send them to Stane tonight," Pepper complained.

"I get to draft pink slips for at least a thousand employees," Happy said cheerfully. "I get to get rid of the dead weight that I've wanted to clear out for ages. I can finally bring our security department into this century. Pepper, we still have CCTV security cameras."

"We're a fortune 500 company, your departmental budget is more than what most CEOs make in a year!"

"And yet, here we are," Happy said. "IT and cybersecurity gets a most of it. Our physical security is all mall-cop types. Not anymore."

Line Break

"This might be the dumbest thing you've ever done in your life, Stark," I mumbled to myself as I lounged on Alexander Pierce's couch.

"This is definitely the dumbest thing you've ever done," Pepper's tinny voice sounded from my earpiece, Rhodey had pulled a masterstroke and managed to get us proper comms devices from a friend in the Navy Seals.

"Good morning, Alex," I cooed as the door finally opened. The lights flicked on, and I forced myself to remain still as Pierce trained his gun on me. I smiled, flashing him my dimples. "Now, that's not a nice way to greet a friend, is it, love?"

He didn't move the gun. But to be fair, I hadn't expected him to. I put away the dimples and raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to make the next move.

"Who are you?"

"Me? I'm a myth. You? You're interesting, aren't you Mister Secretary? Naughty boy." I smiled, this time without dimples. Alex's weight shifted from one foot to the other. The longer I stared, the less he liked it. "Why don't you put away the gun, and then you can give me what I came for."

"I don't give things to thieves," Pierce said as Pepper exclaimed in my ear about the gun. I could hear Rhodey shushing her. "So why do you think I'll give you what you want?"

"For the same reason you'd give it to Jasper Sitwell, Jack Rollins, John Garrett, Brock Rumlow, Grant Ward, Baron Strucker, Daniel Whitehall."

"Alright enough!" Alex holstered his weapon and slammed the door closed behind him.

"Really? Seven names was all it took? Darn, I had so many more, oh well. I'm not the only one with that list of names, so it's okay. I need a favor. I made a mess, and I can't clean it up by myself." I sighed and leaned back on the couch. "I know, it was sloppy. Can I borrow your lovely Winter Soldier for a week?"

"No."

"I'll bring him back, I promise," I lied. "They have someone with my name in her mouth in protective custody. I can't get to her. But he could."

"You want me to hand you my asset, for free?" Pierce asked. "Absolutely not."

"Oh, I didn't say he was free. I'm giving you a choice." I spoke like I was convincing a five-year-old I was a scary vampire. "You loan me your weapon. In return, I don't call up Nick Fury and out every single one of your squid-men."

"You wouldn't."

"Sunil Bakshi, Doctor List, the Sheikh, the Baroness, the Banker, Octavian Bloom? Mitchell Carson that's staking out Pym Tech right now. Those still at the preparatory academy? Not to mention Malick and his friends. Vasily Karpov? He's not very good at keeping secrets, Mister Secretary."

"Apparently not, if you know this much." Pierce looked like he was trying to stave off a headache. I brought out the dimples again. "Where?"

"I borrowed Stark's jet to get here, send him there," I said, smoothly standing from the couch, and crossing the room. "Don't worry, I'll send him home in two weeks' time, or however long it takes to clean up my mess."

"Fine." He was already dialing a number. I smiled again, this time to myself as he started calling the people that were holding Barnes.

"Thank you, Mister Secretary," I said as I left the room. I could hear my heels clicking on the floor.

"How the hell did that work?" Pepper breathed out. I giggled, finally relaxing as I made it to the elevator. "There's no way that worked."

"Did I ever tell you about the time I convinced an entire summer camp I was the head of the Mafia?" I asked out loud in the empty elevator.

"No, but at this point, I'm with the kids that believed you," Rhodey said. "I'm officially scared of you."

"Already? You need to raise your standards, Rhoades." I left the elevator in the lobby and forced myself not to smile at the bewildered looks I was getting. I was very clearly not a SHIELD agent, nor an agent of any kind, with my young age, high heels, and the glam makeup look.

"Ma'am, how did you get in here?" Security demanded.

"Personally, I came in through the front door, but the thief that got me in? She went in through a window on the tenth floor, I think. I'm not sure, I'm afraid of heights. Normally I'd suggest you ask her, but Parker is already long gone." I flashed my dimples at the guard and kept walking. "Besides, my meeting with Alex is already over, so I'm leaving. Oh, I think Parker used the binary to get in through the window, so you might have to replace that. Sorry sunshine."

I pushed the doors open and nearly strutted down the street until I got to the car that was waiting for me. Happy hit the gas and drove us off, taking easy lefts and rights in case we were being followed.

"He just… gave you the Winter Soldier?" Jim asked after twenty minutes of driving. "Just like that?"

"Well, I did name easily a dozen well hidden Hydra agents, including one that's legally presumed dead, but still doing sketchy inhumane surgeries on people. I'm not surprised he caved; I'm surprised I managed to remember that many names. I still can't remember that Hale woman's first name."

"I still can't believe Hydra is a small part of what we're going to be dealing with. Hydra's a pretty big thing." Pepper said. I gave her an exhausted shrug. I couldn't understand it either. Happy pulled us through a Starbucks and rattled off our orders.

The soldier beat us to the jet, fortunately. He was lurking in a shadow under the stairs. Happy parked next to the jet, and the four of us got out. I could see the soldier reach for a weapon.

"Good to see Pierce kept his word," I said, loud enough to be heard. "Soldier, you're with us."

He said something in Russian that went right over my head. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Bless you. Alex signed over custody, so you're with me, ignore them, they didn't want me risking my life alone," I said as I started up the stairs to the jet. "Soldier, move it."

He finally started moving, taking longer strides to catch up with me. I sat down in my usual spot with the table. Barnes took the seat in the corner opposite me, able to watch the entire plane. I glanced over my shoulder to see Happy and Rhodey head to the cockpit to get us in the air. Pepper sat on the couch across the aisle from me. Barnes gave her a wary look but didn't say anything.

As we started taxiing, Barnes pulled a small handgun out and sat in in front of me.

"Thanks, but not necessary, we're only hopping over to New York, so it's a short flight." He didn't move the gun away from me. "Anyway, now that we're moving and you can't escape as easily, this is where I tell you we aren't part of Hydra, nor allies with them. I just wanted to break you out, cause they're terrible people and you deserve better."

"Grey, you can't just tell him that," Pepper protested. "He's gonna think you're a lunatic."

"You called me a lunatic yesterday, Pep. You can't say anything here."

"Sure I can. He's got more weapons on him than your dad has ever invented, he's the big scary guard dog, I'm going to remain wary around."

"Guard dog?" The soldier asked quietly, in English. I turned and smiled at him. Then I frowned.

"Oh, damn, sugar, I'm sorry, you can totally take that mask thing and the goggles off, I'm not Rumlow or Pierce, I'm not gonna muzzle you. I'll probably interrupt you a billion times, but I don't mean any harm by it."

Achingly slowly, Barnes removed his goggles and the mask, as if he was worried it was a test. I just gave him a gentle smile.

"Since she's never going to remember to do it, she's Grey Stark, I'm Pepper Potts. The other two with us are Lieutenant Colonel James Rhoades, and former Sergeant Harold Hogan, we call them Jim and Happy. We have plans on setting up a team of people who want to make the planet a better place to live, and also maybe protect it from weird threats."

"And you want me to join."

"Do you want to join?" Grey asked. "'Cause rule number one is consent. If you don't want to, you don't have to. Unless it's your turn to load the dishwasher. Then you absolutely have to."

"I don't understand." I just snorted.

"Oh, Sugar, you're free now. No more Hydra sending you on murder missions, no more training little girls in the Red Room, no more Cryostasis or that fuckin' chair they put you in. Only occasional household chores. And therapy."

"I don't understand," he said again. I sighed and looked at Pepper.

"How about we break it down for you, okay?" Pepper asked, leaning forward now that we were finally at cruising altitude. Jim left Happy in the cockpit and joined us in the back. "Do you remember how you started working for Hydra?"

"I fell from a train. They found me and gave me purpose and skill." It sounded like something they drilled into him.

"And the truth behind the lie?" I asked gently.

"They found me, gave me the arm, erased me. Made me fight, made me kill until I wanted it. Every time I forgot, they put me back in the chair." He looked at his metal arm like he blamed it for what he did. And maybe he did.

"Actually that's pretty accurate," I said. "Hydra hid within SHIELD and the American government. We even think a few of our employees are hidden Hydra agents."

"Who do you work for?"

"Stark Industries," I said. Barnes' face changed.

"Tony Stark, DNI order, Do Not Interact."

"Why?" Jim asked.

"Too smart. Wouldn't bend under conditioning, death would be avenged by United States Military."

"Huh, there is fact behind the theory," I mumbled to myself. "Sugar, do you mind if we call you Barnes again? We don't want to upset you."

"Sergeant James Barnes, that was me?"

"It can be again," Pepper offered. "It doesn't have to be right away, or ever, but we have the resources to bring you back to life."

"Not yet," Barnes said quickly. "I don't know, things."

"Hey, look at me, sugar. There's no pressure, we're just giving you options so you know what you can do. If you want to just stay with us and recover, that's an option."

The rest of the flight passed in silence. Pepper was drafting emails; Jim was reading a James Patterson novel. Barnes just sat there and waited. I was adding pieces to Grey's life on my tablet. Barnes had the training of a superspy, there couldn't be any doubt that I was Grey Stark, and only Grey Stark. With that in mind, I sent a message to Pepper.

Well, that wasn't helpful. I put my phone back in my pocket and looked out the window. Okay, it was easy. I had two options, make someone up completely, or pull someone from the comics. I yanked my phone out and text Rhodey.

T
hat was perfect. That would explain the "powers" we were going to give me. That would explain away any mistakes I made about talking about the future. I opened a secure J-Chat window on my tablet and sent Jarvis all the information I had on Emma Frost and the X-gene and asked him to make the changes to my bio.

"Where are we going?" Barnes finally asked, his voice quiet. I glanced up and smiled at him.

"We're going to my New York home. It's secluded, but not as tech friendly as our Malibu house. We'll set you up here, and we plan on staying in New York for a while, mostly until you're able to adjust to being free." He looked at me with a carefully neutral expression. "This isn't a test, Sugar. We want you to adjust and recover, and maybe even learn a bit about the twenty first century. If, after you've adjusted, you want to join us and help out, we're happy for it. If you want us to set you up on a farm with chickens and goats and no one around for miles, I'm sure we can do that too."

"And if I want to go back to Hydra?" Barnes asked. I felt like that was a test. So, I looked at him and squinted, pretending to be suspicious.

"You want to go back to the Nazis that torture you?" I asked. "I mean, if you want to make bad personal decisions, I can introduce you to my ex-boyfriend. He was thirteen years older than me and married."

Barnes actually laughed. Which startled me and Pepper, but we laughed too, until Pepper sent me a look letting me know we were going to talk about my bad taste in men.

"Are they going to come for me?" He asked after a moment. I shrugged.

"Probably. If I'd been using you as an assassin and suddenly found you stolen away, I'd try like hell to get you back. You have secrets, and they probably don't want those getting out." Barnes' eyes darted around the plane like he was expecting someone to jump out of a shadow and attack him. "Relax, they don't know who I am. Or what my real purpose is. Pierce thinks I need you for wetwork, which is hilarious, cause Rhodey over there won't let me kill politicians."

"No elected officials without absolute proof they're a bad person," Rhodey pretended to scold. He didn't even look up from his book. "And no making public figures disappear either."

"He won't let me have any fun," I teased, winking at Barnes. He gave me a small smile in return. "But yeah, we're pretty sure that eventually, Hydra will wisen up and send someone after you. If that happens, you are allowed, and definitely encouraged to defend yourself with any means necessary."

"Within reason!" Happy, Rhodey, and Pepper all called out. Rhodey glared at me, while Pepper looked up from her emails in alarm. Barnes looked at her, startled.

"Within reason, you're allowed to do whatever you need to protect yourself. Please don't blow up the entire house with all of us in it."

"I won't?" Barnes asked, like he was afraid that was an option.

"My dad has very little in the way of self-preservation," I explained. "He just recently got his dumb self, kidnapped by the Ten Rings! After I told him not to go!"

"You are Mission-Protect," Barnes said after a few minutes of staring at me. "I will stay."