CHAPTER 7: THE PERKS OF NOT LOCKING YOUR ROOM
Rosie was asleep. Fast asleep. So far into the REM cycle she wasn't dreaming. She had gotten in late last night and therefore slept in late as well. That was until something or someone came slamming through her doors screaming her name. "ROSIE! ROSIE!"
Had she seriously not locked her door the previous night? She wasn't sure exactly who it is but she had a guess and groaned, "Stark leave me alone."
The annoying billionaire himself came over and took a seat on her bed, "Why?" She still wasn't looking at him but he was definitely looking at her, "Are you nude under there?"
Rosie jumped up blushing furiously and shoved him off the bed harshly, thankfully it wasn't too hard. "Go away."
That earned her a whine, "Fury needed someone to get you and I volunteered. It seems a majority of the agents here are afraid of you. I'm not sure why, it's not like your exactly known for your ferocity, at least not like Banner." He had been waiting to see the women's room for a very long time, it was less exciting then he assumed.
"Why does he want me?" The real question was why did Stark volunteer? "It's too early for this." She lay back down and put a pillow over her face hoping it would keep out the annoying substance bugging her. As for the agents scared of her, she couldn't care less. At least now they were too afraid to break into her room, if only Tony would feel the same way.
"Early? Dexter it's almost noon."
This time she really shot up, tucked something into her shorts, and ran from her bed into the connected bathroom. She had a large MIT sweatshirt on and super short shorts, those made Tony grin. Before he had time to even mention her pajamas, she yelled from the connecting bathroom, "Oh shit, really?"
"Yep really." When he stood up from her bed, he tripped over a little black bag on the floor causing a bunch of computer screens to pop up around the room. Impressed he went to play on one of the screens but the minute he touched them the minute they all locked up and decreased significantly in size. Shocked he tried to fix it, only making the screens shrink even more. Unsure of whether or not to continue his admits at fixing the screen, he deciding ongoing back to the original little black bag that he kicked and picked it up.
"You're too quiet Stark and I know you didn't leave." She came out of the bathroom with a tooth brush in her mouth and her bed head pulled up in a pretty bad ponytail. Once she saw him scramble to hid the black bag she turned around to the sink and spit out her toothpaste, "What the hell Stark? Why are you hunting through my stuff? Stalker."
"Don't look at me. This bag kicked me not the other way around," He shrugged the blame off effortlessly, though that didn't throw her off.
"That's really weird because last time I checked that bag couldn't kick anyone because it was animated." She opened one of the drawers built into the wall, and she began to rifle through folded her clothes. As she did Tony found himself trying not to focus in on her butt in the shorts but was seriously lacking self-control. Though she was definitely beautiful, he kind of felt wrong staring. Rosie on the other hand seemed to have forgotten that she was still in her pajamas until i suddenly hit her like an anvil in a roadrunner comic and she turned around bright red.
To which she saw Tony grinning, "Don't worry I'm enjoying my view."
"Do you want to find yourself on the floor again?" Holding her clothes haphazardly in her hand she sauntered to the bathroom refusing to admit defeat to the obnoxious man. Not before going out of her way to grab the black bag, shut down the computer screens, and pull it into the bathroom with her. Four minutes later she emerged dressed and ready to go.
And upon seeing her shirt Tony grinned, "I didn't know you were a fan of Dexter's Lab."
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"Ms. Snow--" Director Fury sat at the table, directly across from her, a classic disappointed look on his face that Rosie guessed was regular-- "It's come to our attention that the security measures around the room you're staying in have been discreetly disabled. We would like to know how that came to be." Phil and Agent Hill sat right next to him; each of them with their own unique scrutinizing stare.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
That got Agent Hill angry very quickly. This Rosie Snow made her angry; she broke the law and yet here was Fury allowing her into the group. Espionage was illegal in the United States via the Espionage Act of 1917 and Maria wasn't about to let her off. And that wasn't her real name, it was just one of the many she dawned. There was evidence of her forging important documents too. "So you're saying you have nothing to do with the security measures, specifically in your room, being broken into and rewritten?"
"Yes that's exactly what I'm saying." This little lie was nothing to her. Everyone in the room knew that she was the one that fixed the security measures, there was no need for them to ask.
"What are you talking about?" Maria Hill's face flushed red with anger, "You are a hacker. The best hacker in the world and probably every other world."
"Oh why thank you." Rosie knew she was pushing it but there was no way she could ever talk about her job with these people. What she had done gave her a ticket straight to the Raft and while she was exceptional at breaking out of prisons, that one was a different story. And she didn't want to cooperate because Agent Hill was really getting on her nerves, "But I haven't the slightest idea about which you speak."
"You are..."
Maria Hill would have started a more heated debate but Fury cut her off, "Agent Hill."
"What?" She pointed at Rosie angrily, "You know she's lying." Honestly Rosie was really starting to wonder why they were so surprised she tinkered with their security. They should have known what they were signing up for inviting her on board.
Rosie put her hand on her chest and looked genuinely shocked, "Me. Lying. Never." Then she turned to Agent Coulson, "Phil. How can you sit there and let her talk to me like that? I thought we were friends."
Coulson smiled and Fury ignored her in order to address Agent Hill, "Yes we know very well she's lying but that doesn't mean we need to raise our voices at her." If only someone had told her brother that when they fought.
"Geez!" Rosie added with a huff and crossed her arms with a scolding look like a mother would give their evil child. "What are you thinking?"
"You stay out of this." Hill grumbled at her.
"A minute ago I thought you were begging me to stay in it." What can she say? Rosie just liked a good fight and she didn't get those very often.
Fury looked at Coulson, unamused by the childish antics between his agent and avenger, "Take Ms. Snow to the lab to continue working with Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner." Then he addressed Rosie, "As for you Ms. Snow stay out of SHIELD's databases or you will find yourself in more trouble."
With a nod Rosie stood up and curtsied to Fury, "This was a nice talk we had. I look forward to our next date. However by then you will have learned to treat me to lunch if you're going to take me on a date. I most definitely enjoy my food."
In the hallway on the way to the lab, she turned to Agent Coulson, keeping up the façade, and asked, "Phil, if it was a discreetly disabled how did you all find out about it?"
He looked unsure, "We were checking the footage around your room and the security locks when we found that all of the controls had been first redirected to a user that we can't find on any of the satellites and then the information was erased."
"Wow that person must have known what they were doing," After she was done a massive grin spread across her face that gave her away.
As they were rounding the corner that led to the lab as Phil looked over to her one last time and smiled, "I'm glad Agent Romanoff suggested bringing you in on the Avengers Initiative."
"And why is that?" They had stopped just outside the lab; Bruce and Tony working on the inside, Tony no doubt making jests to test Bruce's control like a dumbass.
Coulson shrugged off her question and tried to usher her into the room. So Rosie just gave him a hug, "Don't worry Phil I'm sort of glad that Nat brought me in too." And with that she walked into the lab grabbing Bruce and Tony's attention.
The first person to notice her entrance was Tony who looked up from Loki's scepter and smirked, "So, Dexter, what did Fury want?"
Even Bruce looked up a little bit interested in the proceedings, "Well it seems as though someone broke into the security measures placed around my room, redirected the information, and then erased it altogether."
Both of the boys brightened up, Tony outright laughing and Bruce cracking a smile, "And did they catch this hacker?"
"I think they know who it was but they don't have evidence to do anything," She winked and moved over the the work table. "So what are we working on?"
"The scepter is almost stabilized and transmitting data." Bruce smiled, it was then that Rosie noticed Bruce's smiles always had a sad aspect to them. They made her want to cry and she had seen plenty of sad smiles. That whole lifetime chase with General Ross must have been worse than she could guess. At least when she was being chased they didn't know what she looked like and she didn't turn into a massive green super monster.
"Alright and how is your hacking going?" There was a sharp sense of humor as she added, "You know since you kind of stole my job. Still haven't broken through to the important files?" The last part of the question was really aimed at Tony because she knew his program wouldn't be able to.
"Good, JARVIS almost has access to all of the necessary files," His smile was very clearly meant to serve as proof that he was better, you know since he felt it necessary to prove himself to her.
"Good." She smiled wickedly right back to him like she knew something he didn't and she did. Rosie had found the signature of the hack and was monitoring it. Let's just say Tony was being generous with his description. "And how's the evil psychopath?"
"Still an evil psychopath." Bruce said with a smile that had slightly less sadness embedded within it. "But that's old news."
Taking her place next to Dr. Banner, she began to work simultaneously stealing Tony's place from right under his feet, "So Bruce tell me how was Calcutta?"
"Nice." He didn't seem to talk about himself much, whether that his own fault or just no one asked she couldn't tell. Either way, Rosie was interested in relieving that sadness in his eyes and to do that she had to learn about him. "You know, besides all the sickness. I like helping."
"I understand. Now I've never saved someone who was sick but I have helped out in some organizations with research." For once she gave a genuine smile, one that seemed to piece them into her life. There was a hint of sadness that rivaled Bruce's, in fact from any perspective she seemed more melancholy. This was something real. This set her apart. Sure she was rather young but the sad smile on her face aged her greatly. That was when Tony Stark without a doubt realized that she was unique, someone he needed to know. "You know after hurting so many people you just want to help."
That was all their stories, right? Black Widow falls in love and regrets her past. The Hulk gets angry and Bruce goes to help someone. And when Tony Stark sees his weapons being used against his people he fights back. They all helped others because of how many they've hurt them.
The look that Bruce seemed to morph from surprised understand to plain sadness, "Trust me you haven't hurt as many people as I have. And I have no control."
She smiled sadly at him, "Maybe not directly but at least you had no control. I knew exactly what I was doing."
Before Bruce had a minute to think about a response, Tony took a step forward from his shocked position and blurted out, "Go out with me."
"What?" Rosie's eyes went wide, that's not what she was expecting when she'd committed to hurting lots of people and being completely aware.
Suddenly his cocky arrogance flooded back in with the return of his confidence, "You heard me. Go out with me tonight."
"Umm..." She didn't know what to say and unfortunately it wasn't Steve that held her tongue.
"8 o'clock sharp." Tony smiled and left the room.
There was a quick exchange of glances between Rosie and Bruce that led to her verbally admitting that she had no idea what just happened, "Umm...?"
"I have no idea."
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