The Ides of July // Loki - Book 1 ✓

Chapter 12: Help

ANNA PERCHES rigidly on the edge of a black leather armchair across from Tony and Pepper, the former wearing a smirk across his face and the latter watching her with unguarded distrust. Tony's face now sports a blossoming bruise and black eye from his nose, which has been re-set, and he's nursing a glass of scotch under the guise of "medicinal purposes".

The room is empty. Pepper insisted on a member of the security team staying in the room with Anna, but Tony dismissed the notion immediately. While the woman may have broken his nose with surprisingly little effort, he could tell that she is just as surprised by that fact as he is.

"So you're a journalist," Tony concludes. "With a hell of a headbutt."

Anna's face flushes red as she twists her fingers together, picking at her cuticles nervously. She nods, afraid to speak more than absolutely necessary. Sitting across from these two is utterly nerve wracking, but she's stubborn enough to meet their intense stares with little hesitation. Except now, when Tony brought up the whole broken nose thing, which baffles her.

How she managed to escape not one, but two security guards, in order to physically assault Iron Man is beyond her grasp. It was like something in her snapped into overdrive, reacting purely on instinct, and directed her body in ways her mind never knew existed. At least, they didn't exist for Anna. Not until now.

Her muscles ached slightly from the encounter, like the feeling you get after the first time you ride a bicycle in years. They were sore, overly warm, and somehow ever-so-slightly stronger than before, even if she wasn't quite sure she could move properly yet. It was exhilarating, discovering a physical strength she never knew she had.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Pepper asks.

Anna shrugs, "Netflix?"

Tony snorts, and Pepper frowns.

"It was just...instinct, I guess," Anna replies. "I've always had good reflexes. I didn't really think about it. At all, really."

"Hmph," Tony studies her carefully, his brain making calculations. "And you are...twenty-two?"

"Twenty-eight," she replies. "Why does that matter?"

He stands, "It doesn't. I was just curious."

Crossing the room, Tony deposits his empty scotch glass on the bar. His eyes linger on the half-empty bottle, betraying his blatant desire to drain it and move on to another, but he flicks his eyes back to Pepper who watches him with a worried gaze. She's always looking at him like that, concerned about something or other, whether it's his behavior, the company, or his extracurricular activities. This time it's a little of Column A and a little of Column C.

"So, the thing I can't put my finger on is - forgive me if I'm being rude - why are you here?" Tony asks. "Why come to me? Don't get me wrong - I'm glad you're here even if my nose is not, but it isn't exactly a normal behavior for someone to track down whoever she believes is endangering her."

Anna looks up at him, her blue eyes clear. She tucks a thick brown wave of hair behind her ear and exhales only to have half of the hair slip out instantly. Ignorant of this fact, she looks down at her white knuckle grip on her fingers, then back up at Tony.

"I don't know," she tells him. "I didn't...I just...I went to the airport, got on a plane. I didn't even get my suitcase from my hotel - I already had my passport and my mobile with me."

"And how do you know about..." Tony's voice trails. "The girls. His daughters. How do you know about them?"

"After it happened, I-I didn't know what to do. I panicked," she replies, rubbing her thumb over the knuckles of her other hand. "Someone...I was followed. I didn't see a face...I could hardly speak, let alone absorb any information."

She reaches down to open the button pocket on the outside of her right thigh, revealing the white envelope of photos. The edges are worn from her fingers tracing during the flight, and her hand shakes as she lifts it up and holds it out for Tony.

"They gave me these," Anna says, her voice soft as her gaze rests on the envelope burning through her fingers.

Pepper watches Tony carefully as he moves toward the young woman and carefully takes the envelope from her. He slips a finger under the flap, lifting it, and extracts a small stack of photographs. His face goes white at the first one; by the second, he's frozen where he stands. Unable to move, he's clearly no longer looking at the photographs, not even bothering to flick through the rest of them.

"Tony?" Pepper asks gently.

She stands, tugging the photos from his grasp, and looks down at the top one. Inhaling sharply, the two photographs slip through her fingers and flutter to the floor.

"I didn't know what else to do," Anna tells them simply. "After what happened in the Middle East, and New York, I thought...I wanted answers. I'm a journalist. I wanted to know why they had to die."

Tony shakes his head, "I didn't do this. Istanbul - that was an accident. But this..."

"I'm sorry," Anna mumbles. "I shouldn't have come here."

She stands quickly, turning toward the elevator. Tony runs a hand through his hair, causing it to stand straight up, then groans.

"No, wait," he calls after her. "We both want answers. These photographs, whoever gave them to you is involved in this somehow. We need to find out how."

"We?" Anna asks, spinning around to face him. "I...I just watched someone die in front of me at your hands. I'm sorry, but it's difficult to process that fact."

"I understand that, and I don't want to make you feel unsafe," Tony replies. "But I need your help."

Now Playing: "Hurricane" by Thirty Seconds to Mars.

*****
Author's Note

Something is coming. You ready?

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