Just A Normal Kid

Chapter 8

Everyone came back within the next two days, as promised, but Pepper, Romanova and her dad were all incredibly busy putting out fires caused by the incident in Monaco. (Apparently, Pepper had found Romanova more suitable as an assistant than Tony, which did not help Rosie's concerns about the spy.) Sure, Tony had declared that no one else would have his tech for the next twenty years at the Senate hearing, but he'd been proven wrong by the maniac in Monaco. She was pretty sure that SI stocks would have plummeted like crazy by all the combined events of the last week, so Pepper wouldn't have any more free time in the near future.

Her dad had stopped by to say hi, but couldn't stay long either as he'd had to go and convince National Guard not to bulldoze over the property and take away all of Tony's suits. Rosie did understand, but she was worried as well. She had planned to tell all three of them and Happy about Romanova at the same time, but that was definitely not happening now.

Swallowing her nervousness, Rosie went down to Tony's workshop and knocked on the glass partition. "Hey Tony? Mind letting me in?"

He buzzed her through without looking away from the screen where J.A.R.V.I.S was running a search.

Rosie hesitantly sat down beside him, laying a hand on his arm. "Uncle Tony? Could you, um... initiate lockdown in the 'shop for a few minutes? I've got something to tell you."

"Lockdown?" He asked dully, looking as tired as he did after a three-day binge in the workshop. There was a huge bruise on one side of his face that was thrown into sharp relief when he turned to face the light.

"Yeah. I'm not sure if you already know, but if you don't, you have to hear this."

He stared at her for a few seconds, before making up his mind. "Jarvis, Initiate Code Lockdown. Full blackout. Nothing in or out."

The shutters closed over the glass and many of the beeping machines fell silent. Rosie waited till she saw the CCTV cameras in the corner power down as well before deciding not to beat around the bush.

"Natalie Rushman is a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Tony. She's here to supposedly keep an eye on you and compile a profile or something to check your eligibility for the Avengers Initiative."

He jerked upright, all laziness gone from his posture. "Where'd you learn about the Avengers Initiative?"

Rosie looked down at her shoes when she answered, "I might have hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D?" Before he could scold her for it, she hurriedly continued, "Look, the real reason I asked for the lockdown is because Natalie's name is actually Natalia Romanova, codename Black Widow. She's an assassin and a skilled infiltrator."

Tony cursed under his breath and Rosie was only able to catch one word that sounded like 'fury'. "How far did you get into their system?"

Rosie blinked. "Um... Personnel files and mission reports?"

"Has she said anything about you?"

"Nope. I'm pretty sure she thinks that I was just visiting the last time and went back home soon after."

The relief was palpable in his voice as he said, "Good. Let's keep it that way, okay? I don't want you getting mixed up in S.H.I.E.L.D anytime soon and neither does Rhodey."

"Yeah, okay. But Tony, she's an assassin! You're letting her into your house and she's spending all her time with Pepper!"

"I'm not worried about that," he wrapped an arm around her shoulders comfortingly before explaining. "I've known about S.H.I.E.L.D for some time now and as much as I don't like Pirate, he's not gonna order a hit on me. If Romanova's file says that she's here to do a profile on me, then that's what she's here to do."