NATALIE had brought her to a car, practically shoving her in before Lyra could understand what the fuck was happening. When she turned to face the woman, she noticed her get into the driver's seat and immediately pull off the jewelry she was wearing. She pressed a button on the car, and a familiar voice entered the car.
"Romanoff?"
"He's gone off the rails. Rhodey is going to take one of his suits before the end of it. Find him, and I'll have Agent Redfield and myself meet you there," Natalie—or Romanoff?—said.
"What the fuck is going on?" Lyra asked. "I'm getting tired of the fucking lies, sir."
Fury laughed. "If I told you I was sending Romanoff to do your job, you would've been mad. I needed fresh eyes to watch his actions. Agent Redfield, meet Agent Natasha Romanoff, Barton's partner for most missions."
Romanoff grinned as she took off as there were still explosions from the house behind them.
"Great. Clint was in on this? Was this before or after he showed me his family, Auntie Nat?"
Romanoff's jaw dropped. "You met his family? Damn, he must trust you."
Fury chuckled. "Just lay low until I find him," Fury said.
"Yes, sir," Natasha said with a smirk as Fury disappeared from the call. "So, Lyra. You've been climbing high in the ranks. A Level four? Two away from me," she finished with a smirk.
"What are we doing?" Lyra asked.
"We have to pick up something you were working on that Fury sent over," Natasha said.
"What?"
"Remember the lithium dioxide injection we asked for?" Natasha asked. "That was for your beloved Stark. Once we find him, we can give him the necessary tools to save his life."
Lyra shook her head. "I cannot believe you all risked his life. You should have told me I could've given it to him!"
Natasha shrugged.
The next morning, early, Fury sent them coordinates to meet him. Lyra did not recognize the place, but as she stepped out, she felt the heat from the sun hit her. She sighed, fixing her jacket that held the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on it. She wore all black, but her hair was allowed down since there should be no fighting involved.
"Perimeter," Natasha said.
Lyra nodded, doing a perimeter check as she noticed Fury and Tony inside the donut shop. She scoffed at him, but a smile tugged on her lips. She was just glad she would be able to help him. Finally.
"That's not looking so good," Fury said as the pair walked inside. She fidgeted with her hands as Natasha walked confidently next to her.
"I've been worse."
"We've secured the perimeter, but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer," Natasha said as Tony looked over his glass to see Natasha and Lyra.
Tony pointed to Natasha. "You're fired." He pointed to Lyra. "You're in trouble."
"That's not up to you," Natasha said as she took a seat next to Fury as Lyra took a hesitant seat next to Tony.
Fury smiled. "Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff."
"Hi," Tony grumbled.
"I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury," Natasha explained as Tony swiveled his head to Lyra.
"I suggest you apologise for telling them."
"I didn't! He already knew," Lyra grumbled.
"You didn't tell me about Romanoff."
"I didn't know that."
"You didn't tell me your missions included me."
"I didn't know that either!"
"Well, do you know anything—"
"God, get married already," Romanoff said with a scowl. "She was forced on missions to stay out of this until we were ready, Mr. Stark. She's not to blame."
Fury nodded. "You've been very busy. You made Miss Potts your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know better—"
"You don't know better. I didn't give it to him. He took it," Tony said with a roll of his eyes as Lyra's hand went to his thigh to squeeze it in some form of reassurance.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit?" Fury glanced at Agent Romanoff. "Is that possible?"
"Well, according to Mr Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorised usage."
"What do you want from me?" Tony said loudly, pushing off Lyra's hand.
"What do we want from you? What do you want from me?" Natasha leaves to grab the injection Lyra had been working on. "You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with." She returned with the injection and handed it to Lyra. "Hit him."
Tony's eyes widened as Lyra hurriedly stabbed the injection into his neck causing him to take a deep breath. "Oh, God, are gonna steal my kidney and sell it?" Lyra smiled as the rash went down. "Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds? What did she just do to me?"
"What did we just do for you?"
Lyra smiled. "That's lithium dioxide."
"It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work," Fury said seriously.
"Give me a couple of boxes of that. I'll be right as rain," he said to Lyra.
Natasha sighed. "It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms."
"Doesn't look like it's gonna be an easy fix."
"Trust me, I know. I'm good at this stuff. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I've tried every combination, every permutation of every known element," he said, allowing his fingers to intertwine with Lyra's, showing his forgiveness as he was never really mad at her to begin with.
"Well, I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all."