Just A Normal Kid

Chapter 26

Rosie had been within arm's reach of her newest breakthrough when MARLENE told her that Tony and Pepper wanted to see her in a conference room. Setting down her tools with a sigh, she straightened her clothes and followed MARLENE's directions. Knocking on the frosted doors, she heard Pepper's voice call out, "Come in!"

There were three other men sitting around the table, along with her dad, Tony and Pepper. The men were all impeccably dressed in perfectly tailored suits, including her father and Tony, much to her astonishment. Tony hardly ever wore suits inside the building unless he was giving a press conference, so this must be a high profile meeting. She noticed Pepper's stiff body language and clenched jaw, along with her father's unnaturally blank expression, groaning in her head.

She recognised all the signs of these visitors being sexist idiots who had no doubt questioned Pepper's capability to run the company and wondered why she had been called in. "Ms. Potts? Mr. Stark? I would like to apologise for the delay in my arrival."

Pepper gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Not a problem, Rosanna. We're still waiting for another guest to join us."

Just as she finished talking, the door opened once again and another man strode inside, followed closely by Natasha who gave Rosie a discreet wink. When they had all settled themselves down at the long table, MARLENE powered on the presentation about the newest VR technology that Rosie had helped create a few weeks ago, detailing it's versatility for various scenarios, emphasising on combat training.

This led Rosie to assume that the men were probably high-up officers in the Armed Forces who had come to negotiate a contract for the technology. The man who came with Nat looked must be from one of the alphabet-soup agencies and she was definitely here on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D. Once the video had finished playing, the lights came back up, and Pepper spoke, "Do you have any questions?"

"It was my understanding that Mr. Stark did not work on this project." One of them said.

"I didn't work on this," Tony agreed, "That's why we called someone who did." He gestured to Rosie.

The man looked insulted, "You brought in an asisstant to take care of such an important contract? We specifically asked for Dr. Carter."

She could see her family members make a visible effort to hide their smirks as she herself bit back a grin while answering, "I am Dr. Carter. Rosanna Carter, sir. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr-"

"Major Stell."

"My apologies, Major Stell. Do you have any questions?"

The man sneered and turned his nose up at her. Another one of the men stood up. "Stop! Do you think you're fooling us, Stark? Do you honestly think we're dumb enough to believe that this child is a scientist?" He asked, puffing his chest out as if to exert his dominance over this room. Rosie could feel Tony do a mental eye-roll despite his face being a pleasantly blank 'press smile'. Major Stell spoke again, "And if this... teenager -" he spat the word like an insult, "-really works here, then I would love to know how she is at her current position. You used to hire the best of the best, Stark. Charity cases like this one isn't going to help your company. You need good, strong men, not useless and weak women."

Rosie hid her hurt as best as she could, their words cutting into her like sharp knives. Every single one of her family members glared at the bigoted man, their eyes blazing with fury. Tony stood up, his voice hard, "If you gentlemen would be kind enough to leave my building, it would be appreciated. Miss. Potts and I have tolerated your slights against her character, but neither of us will condone such language towards an employee who does not deserve it."

Major Stell let out a loud booming laugh. "Do you really want to lose this prestigious contract over two women, Stark?"

Tony gave him a feral grin, "That's where you're wrong, Major. You need this contract more than I do. There are dozens of companies willing to pay more for this technology than you are, and make it freely available to the public, without limiting the production and distribution as you have demanded. I merely asked my CEO here to set up this meeting to give you the first bite at the apple." Major Stell looked thunderstruck. He glanced at the man next to him as if asking for confirmation, receiving a only slight nod in return.

Nat's companion spoke up, "I have faith in Mr. Stark and his company, as does the CIA. We would be pleased to work with Dr. Carter and her team."

"Pah! You are all fools!" The third man spat. Natasha looked livid and was fingering a knife in her belt. Hoping to prevent the murder of an army official, Rosie hurriedly spoke up, "If you do not wish to sign the contract, sirs, then you are requested to leave."

When they did not move, Pepper said, "If you do not remove yourselves from this room, then I shall be forced to call security. Your choice, gentlemen." The glare she levelled at them was frightening to say the least. Major Stell paused at the door to look at her father, who stayed seated. "Colonel?"

"No offense, Major, but I don't see any problems here. The quality of work is all that matters, not who does it" The Major turned heel and left, looking very much like a scolded child. As soon as he was out of earshot, everyone in the room burst out laughing. "Their faces!" Tony wheezed. "Babygirl, please tell me you got that on camera."

"Of course, sir." FRIDAY sounded rather smug.

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It was thus that Rosie found herself being escorted through an air force base a few months later to supervise the setting up of the systems.

As per her dad's request, she had also developed a flight training system that worked without the big bulky simulators used so far. Instead, the pilots merely wore visors, headsets and haptic gloves as they stepped onto the VR platform which hardly took up any space and ran almost fully on solar power.

The airman escorting her directed her to the warehouse to wait for an air force pilot to join her for the final tests. Doing her last-minute checks, she had crawled in under the main control cabin to calibrate the last few parts when she heard the sounds of military-issue boots clanking across the room.

"Anyone there?" A familiar voice called. Rosie paused what she was doing, to answer. "Gimme a sec, Suzie. Almost done here."

Then she heard someone else walk towards them. There was a whispered conversation, after which her best friend yelled, "Are you done yet? Major Rambeau is here for the final flight test. We aren't getting any younger here, kiddo!"

Rosie ducked out from under the control panel and lifted the metal sheet back in place, re-attaching the screws before standing up and dusting off her hands. "Don't call me that! I'm not fifteen anymore!"

All Suzanne did was ruffle her already messy hair and say, "Six inches shorter than me, five years younger and still haven't lost your baby fat. Face it, honey, you're practically a toddler." Rosie batted her hand away, sticking her tongue out at her friend. "You know that you aren't helping your case, right?" Suzanne asked, grinning.

At that moment, an african-american woman about a decade older than Rosie stepped into her field of view from where she was examining a rack of VR headsets. She breathed a sigh of relief, happy that the Major wasn't another one of those idiots who had come to SI for the negotiations. "Major Rambeau, pleasure to meet you." Rosie held out her hand. The older woman shook it, a pleasant smile on her face. "Likewise..."

"Rosanna Carter."

"Doctor Carter?" Her eyes widened. Major Rambeau was the only person so far who had made the connection. Most people at SI were so set in their belief that Dr. R. R. Carter was a man; they never even considered that Ms. Potts' occasional assistant Rosanna Carter and the mysterious genius scientist had the same last name and initials.

No one had bothered to correct their misconception and Rosie had a hilarious time listening to the surveillance feeds of employees speculate about why Dr. Carter never showed up anywhere and all they had to prove his existence were projects and assignments signed with a 'Dr. R. Carter' She usually worked alone or with Bruce, Tony or the two other Heads of Research who didn't give a damn about her gender.

"Yeah, but I prefer Rosie." Rosie smiled nervously, hoping she wouldn't get criticised for her age once again. Major Rambeau merely clapped her on the back and let out a small laugh. "Call me Monica then. I must say that I am very happy to see you here. Some people here could do with a good dose of feminism."

That was the beginning of another wonderful friendship for Rosie. Major Rambeau was a no-nonsense woman who had been hardened by the trials she'd faced in her journey of becoming a Major in the Air Force, and was ready to share her experiences and encourage other women to enter similar male-dominated professions.