Chapter 14: Calling It Quits:
//12 Months After Noel’s Disappearance//
~~~~~~~~~~~{Sky’s Point of View}~~~~~~~~~~~
I was at the office early today, well, earlier than usual anyway. I was spending so much time at Tony’s building that Steve and I had started referring to it as ‘the office’ because at the hours I was pulling here, I may as well have been working for the man.
“Anything?” I asked walking out of the elevator with my black stilettos on. Usually, I didn’t wear high heels, just ballet flats or Converse, but I decided to try them out today.
I didn’t get a response from Tony, which was weird, at the moment he’d been getting up early and working on tracking Noel so that Pepper wouldn’t get suspicious or jealous about him ‘running after his ex-girlfriend.’
It had been three months since I discovered Pepper and Tony’s relationship, and according to Pepper, they’d been dating for at least six or seven months. Three months prior to my finding out about it. And that really ticked me off. He’d been keeping secrets from everyone –I’d even checked with Clint, Natasha and Bruce; he hadn’t told anybody.
He hadn’t even taken the time to move on properly from Noel! He was obviously still hung up on Noel –if he wasn’t, he would have called off the search to find her or at least told other people about the damn search. I was just as angry about the fact that this wasn’t fair to Pepper if he didn’t tell her about Noel, but I was also mad about how quickly he moved on. I understood that Tony didn’t feel the same way about Noel, she loved him but he didn’t and that was okay. Wouldn’t the decent thing to do be wait at least a year before moving on?
Ugh! I don’t know! I didn’t even know why I was judging Tony, to be honest. It’s not like I had a great dating history –in fact, I didn’t have much of a dating history at all. I’d gone out with Thomas Cowell for a month during my training days and then Peter North for nine months in my first year of being a full agent –apparently dating your partner in crime is a bad idea.
And then there was Steve, just over a year and still going strong... Okay, maybe not so much. We were having problems now, but we’d get through them.
“Tony?” I called out after a while of still no reply from him. Still no reply. I pursed my lips and frowned. “Huh.”
I went searching for a note in the kitchen, in case he’d gone out or had an unexpected meeting or something.
Nothing.
But he had that expensive chocolate I loved so I took some of that and went looking for him in his bedroom.
“Tony?” I knocked on his door before opening. “You better not still be sleeping. You’re totally hung over aren’t you –OH MY GOD!” I exclaimed before slapping my hands over my eyes.
“Oh Jesus Christ!” Tony exclaimed.
“Get out!” Pepper shouted over the top of him. Literally. Tony was lying underneath Pepper –who had only her underwear on. Tony was...well, he was stark naked. And definitely not having performance issues.
“Shit!” I sprinted out of the room and paced up and down in the lounge room. What the hell!
Jesus Christ! Why wouldn’t Tony give me some warning? He knew I came over every morning to help out with tracking!
Less than three minutes later, Tony emerged from his room wearing nothing but jeans and a less-than-impressed look on his face.
“Seriously Tony?” I whispered harshly as he walked straight past me.
“She’s my girlfriend, I can have sex with her if I want to!” He exclaimed. “You can’t just walk into my room without asking! Boundaries, Sky.”
“A warning note would have been fantastic, Tony. You know I come over every day!” I shot back. “And I knocked! You could have told me not to come in!”
“I was a little preoccupied.” He smirked.
“I could see that.” I rolled my eyes before blurting out something I really, really shouldn’t have. “How far did you go with Noel anyway?”
Tony shut up and walked into the kitchen as a reply. Damn, I really shouldn’t have asked that, but I couldn’t help it. I was always thinking about Noel when I was around Tony –he’d hurt her so much, but she’d hurt him too by leaving. It was like they brought out the worst in each other, and hurt each other by accident, but they still loved each other. At least, I thought they still did. I couldn’t ask Noel and I most likely couldn’t ask Tony now either.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, following him into the kitchen and pouring him some coffee, adding cinnamon just the way he liked it.
“It’s alright.” He shrugged. “I guess I understand why you’re, uh, uneasy about Pepper. But she makes me happy, Sky. You understand right?”
I nodded and grabbed some more of that chocolate from the refrigerator. “Of course I do. I just don’t ... I guess I don’t understand how you moved on so quickly. If anything happened between Steve and I, I don’t think I’d ever recover.”
“I haven’t moved on, Skylar.” Tony admitted quietly. “Not completely anyway, but I’m trying. And Pepper is helping with that.”
“But you haven’t told her about Noel, have you?” I nibbled on my chocolate as he took a long swig of his coffee and grimacing –not because of the taste of his drink, but because I’d struck a nerve. I could tell.
“No,” He replied. “I haven’t.”
“She deserves to know.” I replied. “Everyone deserves to know, actually.”
There was silence for a while, and I could hear the shower running water down the drain. Pepper was obviously in there, I understood that. She was probably trying to calm herself down.
“Alright.” Tony nodded. “Call everyone here. We’ll tell them.”
***
Three and a half hours later, Tony had explained things to Pepper with me out of the room. I’d been calling all the Avengers and trying to figure out a time when they could all be at Stark Tower.
As it turned out, they could all clear their schedules for this afternoon and meet me at four o’clock.
Pepper had left straight after Tony had told her and according to him, she’d taken it better than he’d expected. But things still weren’t good.
Understandably, Pepper had been conflicted –she realised that it was hard to get over someone and empathised with that, but she liked Tony and she wanted to be with Tony, not have his mind off on some other girl that was literally worlds away.
He had even admitted that he was trying to find her, but not so they could get back together, but because he needed to know that she was okay –we all did, especially Clint. He was falling apart.
Pepper Potts had finally cracked and told Tony that she needed some time to think. I could understand that, I think Tony could as well, but he was still finding it hard to deal with.
“The others are going to be here soon.” I said slowly, “You’re sure you want to tell them?”
“They need to know. It’s been tearing your relationship apart, Clint is desperate for any news on Noel and it just seems unfair that we’re keeping this from people.” Tony replied as the elevator opened and Clint, Natasha and Steve walked in.
Within ten minutes, Starlie and Bruce had arrived and Thor and Jane had migrated from their apartment below Stark’s to the penthouse.
“Why are we here?” Bruce had his arms crossed over his chest, not looking at anyone or making conversation with anyone who shared a different view on Noel’s disappearance than him –it was strange, seeing him so judgemental, but I guess in dire situations, people changed.
His daughter, Starlie was a mirror image of her father except a little more open, being polite to people –which was ever weirder. She was usually such a hard ass.
Clint and Natasha were sitting with Steve, keeping each other company and chatting –Thor and Jane doing the same with Tony as he filled them in on what had happened with Pepper.
“Before I say anything, I would just like to mention that we are doing this for everybody’s benefit and you can hate us if you want to, it still won’t make us regret our actions.” I announced looking at Tony, Thor and Jane.
“Oh Christ,” Natasha muttered, “Who did you kill?”
“No one!” Jane exclaimed.
“It’s okay Jane, let Skylar handle this.” Thor replied as Steve stared at me intently.
“Okay, about six months ago, I was on a mission in London when I found an old necklace of Noel’s.” I started and I saw Tony slip behind Clint and hand it to him. “I didn’t know what to do with it at first –I didn’t know if she’d been on Earth or if it was planted. Either way, I knew I couldn’t go to Bruce, Starlie or Steve because you would all go straight to S.H.I.E.L.D and if they found her, she’d never get a fair trial. So I went to Tony.”
I let the first part of the story sink in and I could already tell I was putting people on edge. Clint looked like the first time Tony had told him that Noel was gone –a massive slap in the face reminder that his sister was gone. Bruce, Star and Steve looked pissed that they’d been kept out the loop of a possible lead on the person they hated most at the moment.
“As it turned out, Tony was able to identify some dark magic particles on the necklace which only confused us more, so we decided to start a search. Thor and Jane helped us create an algorithm in order to track the particles left behind after an Asgardian portal is made. We’ve had several leads but they’ve all ended up in dead ends –which is why we’re telling you now. I believe you should all know and I also believe that it’s time to call it quits.” I declared. “All these leads are just toying with our emotions and our mental states so it’s time to end it, it’s clear that Noel Barton doesn’t want to be found, if she did, she would have made contact with us by now.”
At the back of the room, I saw Thor, Jane and Tony nod in agreement.
The aftermath of that conversation was stranger than I expected. Sure, Bruce and Starlie were pissed but they understood –a little. And they were grateful that we were giving up the search and letting go.
Clint was more than a little devastated that we were giving up, all he wanted was his baby sister back and now there was the possibility that he would never see her again.
Natasha was a rock for her boyfriend like she’d always been, but there was sadness in her eyes that told me that she was upset about letting her oldest friend go.
Jane was upset too, and Thor just looked... neutral, like he was still trying to decide how he felt.
Tony had left the room a while ago; presumably, he was sulking in his room.
Steve’s reaction was by far the worst. After everyone had left, after dinner we were stuck in Tony’s guest room by ourselves in the most uncomfortable silence I’d ever been in.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He accused, breaking the silence but building the tension.
“Because I knew how you’d react.” I replied quietly. “I’m really sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner, I know I promised no secrets...”
“I do understand why you did it, Sky.” Steve huffed, “But that doesn’t mean I’m okay with it, nor is it that fact going to change any time soon.”
“I’m sorry, Steve.” I repeated, tearing up. I knew where this was headed. “You don’t know how sorry I am. If I could take it back I would.”
“No, sweetie, don’t say that.” Steve stood up and took my hands in his. “What you did was honourable, I respect that, but it goes against my views.”
I nodded mutely.
There was a long stretch of more tension filled awkward silence before I took a shaky breath. “Is this the end?”
Steve sighed and rubbed his hand on the back of his neck like he did when he got nervous or agitated. “I think so. I think... Sky, I think we need a break from each other to give each other space and time to cool off and time to find ourselves again. I’ve only ever loved you and Peggy. I need to figure out where I stand right now. And I think you need to do the same.”
I was holding in a sob, but the tears were still streaming down my face. I didn’t want this to end. I was... I was so happy. We might not have been in a good place but I still loved Steve and I didn’t want to let him go –but he was right.
“A break.” I nodded and hugged him one last time. “Um, just... I guess I’ll call you or you’ll call me when you’re ready?”
“Of course.” Steve replied, leaning down to kiss me one last time before I walked out of the room and found myself curling up on the black leather lounge chairs with a soft blanket cocooned around me.
“Sky?” Tony turned on the light. “Are you alright?”
I let out a quiet sob and shook my head as he sat with me, wrapping his arm around my thin shoulders as the sobs continued to shake my body.
“Steve and I...” It took me a while to get my mouth around the words, they were so painful to say out loud and I couldn’t help thinking –was this how Noel felt? Is this why she left? Because of this... horrible, indescribable pain? If it was then I could completely understand why she did what she did.
“Steve and I are taking a b-b-break.” I stammered out before falling into hysterics.