Chapter Summary: The revelations just keep coming as four Avengers show up to discuss HYDRA's newfound relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D.
Soundtrack: Silver Lining by Kacey Musgraves
As they drove home from Audrey's apartment, Tony still felt confused by the situation he'd been placed in. He had a daughter, a daughter who was beautiful and healthy and perfect in every way he could see. He turned around to see her staring out of the window with her chin resting on the palm of her hand, looking at the trees and houses as they passed them by at what seemed like lightning speed 'She looks sad,' he thought to himself before correcting the thought 'Of course she's sad, her mother just died,' He turned to face the road as Pepper drove through the streets of Los Angeles. He wanted to make Samantha happy, to see a smile on her face, to see her eyes light up with glee at something, anything and yet he had no idea how he would make that happen.
Numbers started to fly around Tony's head: 17, the number of years since the night he'd last seen Audrey, the number of years since she'd broken his heart; 10, the number of years he'd known Pepper; 9, the number of years since Pepper had started to heal the wounds Audrey had inflicted upon him and 16, Samantha's age and that age meant 16 birthdays, 16 Christmases all of which he'd forgotten and that made him feel guilty, probably just as guilty as she felt about her mother's death – he had based that on the conversation they'd had the previous night. He thought about his break up with Audrey and how he could have stopped her from leaving that night, how he could have – should have – been there for both Audrey and Samantha.
Eventually, his mind drifted off to what he should have been thinking about: The conversation he'd not long finished with Steve Rogers. The young/old man was a fugitive, along with Natasha Romanov and somehow it was all linked to Project Insight and Nick Fury's death. He had the idea that Rogers wasn't happy about Project Insight and Tony wasn't either if he was being honest with himself, he'd thought it stupid to keep a track of ordinary people just in case they turned out to be terrorists. It broke every law that the United States based itself on. He hadn't wanted to work on the project at all but he'd learnt a while ago not to argue with Fury or anything the one-eyed man wanted him to do. He didn't necessarily like it, like he'd said in New York before he knew about the whole thing with Loki Tony Stark didn't like to be handed things, but if it involved anything Nick Fury wanted he did it, not because he particularly liked the guy or because they were friends but because the man was director of an agency that very few people knew about and he did allow him to keep his Iron Man suits. Now that Fury was gone, Tony was unsure as to where he stood on those.
"What's up?" Pepper asked as she turned left at a junction, breaking Tony free from his thoughts.
"Nothing, just thinking," he replied, telling his girlfriend a half-lie, he had been thinking but it wasn't about nothing.
"That's dangerous, last time you thought like that you made me a CEO, what are you thinking about?" she queried, a slightly humorous sound to her voice.
"It's nothing, I'll tell you about it later,"
"It doesn't seem like nothing," the strawberry blonde pried.
"I said we'll talk about it later," he snapped just loudly enough to make Samantha turn her head away from the window.
"Okay," Pepper said with a shrug, she sounded slightly offended but neither person seemed to care.
"Hey do you mind if we stop off at Burger King? I'm starving and a good old-fashioned American cheeseburger sounds heavenly at the moment," Samantha piped up after five minutes of considerable silence.
"Oh my god you two are so alike," Pepper said with a slight giggle.
"What do you mean?" Samantha asked curiously.
"Well, after your father got off the plane and got in the car after the whole... incident.... In Afghanistan, the first thing he said was that he didn't want to go to the hospital, he wanted to get an 'American cheeseburger' and to hold a press conference, we got to Burger King and he ordered like eight cheeseburgers," Pepper explained.
"You make it sound like it's a bad thing," Tony said, feigning offence.
"Well you did eat all eight of them during the twenty minute drive from Burger King to the press conference,"
When they arrived home, after grabbing Burger King, Samantha rushed off to what was now her bedroom and dropped three boxes of stuff and her guitar in her room and rushed out to the living room. She heard talking to what seemed to be air and the 'air' replying with the words 'Yes sir,'
"Holy mother of god, the air talks in this place?" she exclaimed out of sheer shock.
"Actually this is Jarvis, he pretty much does everything around here, like housekeeping and a couple of other things," Tony explained to her, turning around to see her standing rigid in place.
"Okay," she managed after a couple of moments.
Pepper had been stood in the kitchen during the entire exchange and shouted "It takes a bit of getting used to," before walking towards both of them "What does everyone want for dinner?"
"Uhh Pepper about dinner..." Tony said nervously.
"Tony what did you do?" came Pepper's reproachful reply whilst Samantha had to prevent herself from giggling.
"Ummm Steve, Nat, Bruce and Clint might be turning up," he said, trying to sound as casual as possible.
"So... takeout?" Samantha suggested.
"Yup you two are definitely related," Pepper joked.
"Like you needed any more proof," Tony joked before Samantha made the decision to retreat to her room.
Once in the bedroom that had been claimed as hers, Samantha decided to ask Jarvis a question "Jarvis do you have any files on these friends of Tony's that'll be round for dinner?"
"I certainly do Miss Montgomery, may I ask why?"
"I would like for you to bring them up so that I'm at least a little prepared for this dinner thing," she explained.
"Okay Miss Montgomery,"
"And please can you call me Samantha, my mom was Miss Montgomery," she said politely but with a hint of sadness in her tone.
"Certainly Samantha,"
The files were brought up around her and Samantha began to stare at what had appeared around her before questioning "Hey Jarvis, how do I see what is in these files?"
"Like you would an iPhone or other touchscreen phone,"
"Okay thank you," she said and began to read the files in alphabetical order beginning with Dr Bruce Banner.
Name: Dr Bruce Banner
Occupation: Doctor/Scientist
Other Names: The Hulk, Brucie, Banner
Nationality: American
Age: 39
Description: After a gamma radiation experiment went wrong, Dr Banner was left with a mutation which turns him into a giant, green, supposedly uncontrollable rage monster known as the Hulk. He chooses to live in seclusion and until he was recruited for the Avengers Initiative by Nick Fury lived in India. Now lives in Stark Tower in New York City, working on chemistry stuff.
Samantha tried to flick past the page but found herself unable to, as she began to get frustrated Jarvis decided to tell her what was going on "I'm afraid that you don't have enough security clearance to see past the executive summaries of the files Samantha,"
"Okay thank you Jarvis," Samantha said flicking Bruce Banner's file away and focussing on that of Clint Barton. "Okay Mr Barton what have you got for me?"
Name: Clint Barton
Occupation: Spy
Other Names: Hawkeye, Legolas, Barton
Nationality: American
Age: 33
Description: Apparently, the greatest living marksman on Earth and one of S.H.I.E.LD's most important agents. Uses a recurve bow and a set of specialised arrows to defeat any enemies, also great at hand to hand combat. When not on S.H.I.E.L.D. missions he resides in Washington D.C.
"Okay... Jarvis what is S.H.I.EL.D?" Samantha asked confused.
"It is a top secret global organisation,"
"Thanks," she said before moving onto the file of one Steve Rogers. He looked familiar to her and she couldn't quite explain why.
Name: Steven Rogers
Occupation: Superhero
Other Names: Captain America, Steve, Capsicle, Captain Crunch, Buck Rogers
Nationality: American
Age: Looks like he's 24 but is actually in his 80s
Description: Was turned into the superhero he is in the secret super soldier programme run by the military during World War 2. Crashed a plane into the Arctic Ocean and remained frozen until 2011. Now has to deal with the entirety of the last 70 or so years. Works freelance for S.H.I.E.L.D.
Finally, Samantha moved onto the file of Natasha Romanov, the first thing she noticed was that she was uncommonly pretty.
Name: Natasha Romanov
Occupation: Spy
Other Names: Agent Romanov, Natalia, Nat, Black Widow, Red
Nationality: Originally Russian but has defected to America
Age: 28
Description: One of the world's greatest spies and assassins, used to kill men whilst dating them, now sticks to just killing them before that is even an option. Spends most of her time, when she's not on missions, working on readjusting Steve Rogers to 21st Century life and probably flirting with Clint Barton.
After finishing off reading the executive summaries of the files, Samantha closed her eyes and lay on the bed "Great so I'm going to be meeting with another four of the Avengers, that's fun," she told herself sarcastically. She heard footsteps coming down the hallway and told Jarvis to close the files. She heard a knock on the door and told whoever it was to come in. It was Pepper "Hey," Samantha said.
"I was just coming in to tell you that Chinese is on its way, I hope that's okay,"
"Chinese sounds great," Samantha said before sitting up quickly "What time is dinner?"
"Should be about ten or twenty minutes away,"
"Okay thanks," Samantha said and watched as her father's strawberry blonde girlfriend left the room and continued down the hallway. For whatever reason, Samantha wasn't sure why, but she started to think about her ex-boyfriend, Matthew. She thought that he was a sweet, kind guy but it turned out that he was a total asshole. She walked over to her guitar and began to play one of her new favourite songs, singing along to it as it went.
Woke up on the wrong side of rock bottom
Throw a lot of pennies in a well
That done run dry
Light up and smoke 'em if you have 'em
But you just ain't got 'em
Yeah ain't we always looking
For a bluer sky
If you're ever gonna find a silver lining
It's gotta be a cloudy day
It's gotta be a cloudy day
If you wanna fill your bottle up with lightning
You're gonna have to stand in the rain
You're gonna have to stand in the rain
Hoo hoo hoooo
Hoo hoo hoooo
Hoo hoo hoooo
Hoo
If lemonade keeps turning into lemons
And you wear your heart on a ripped
Unraveled sleeve
Been run through the wringer
And pushed on to your limit
Say you're just unlucky
But luck ain't what you need
'Cause if you're ever gonna find
A four leaf clover
You gotta get a little dirt on your hands
You gotta get a little dirt on your hands
And if you wanna find a head
That fits your shoulder
You're gonna have to go to the dance
You're gonna have to go to the dance
If you wanna find the honey
You can't be scared of the bees
And if you wanna see the forest
You're gonna have to look past trees
If you're ever gonna find a silver lining
It's gotta be a cloudy day
It's gotta be a cloudy day
If you wanna fill your bottle up with lightning
You're gonna have to stand in the rain
You're gonna have to stand in the rain
Hoo hoo hoooo
Hoo hoo hoooo
Hoo hoo hoooo
Hoo
Hoo hoo hoooo
Hoo hoo hoooo
Hoo hoo hoooo
Hoo, hoo, hoo
She hadn't realised that Tony was stood in the doorway until he said "It's good did you write that?"
"No, I'm no good at songwriting unfortunately but that song is one of my favourites," Samantha replied with a sigh.
"Singing it about anything in particular?"
"There was a guy, Matthew, he broke up with me a couple of weeks before Mom died, said he couldn't handle it. My mom was in the hospital and he couldn't handle it I mean how sucky an excuse is that?"
"A pretty stupid one,"
"I should have known he was going to break up with me, it should have been obvious, he'd tried to bring it up a couple of weeks before but I blocked it, told him to leave it be, then he took me out to a public place and got me excited for my first date with him since the accident, took me to the goddamn Ivy and broke up with me in front of all those people. When Mom died I was left alone for the first night and I decided to go out to a couple of bars and got totally drunk and called him, he answered by accident and I heard him. He and one of the cows who went to my school were having sex and I could hear it," she explained before bursting into tears.
Tony couldn't watch his daughter in tears without doing anything so he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her in a protective hug. After a while she decided to break free of the hug and afterwards said "You're a really good dad. At least I think so. I've never had one before but from what I can see you're doing pretty well so far,"
"Yes! Another thing I'm good at!" he exclaimed happily and Samantha couldn't help but laugh at the statement "You're not too bad at being a daughter either," he said with a kind smile.
"Not too bad? I'm freaking awesome!" she exclaimed with a laugh.
Once Natasha, Bruce, Steve and Clint arrived, Samantha decided to re-enter the living room and had to hold back laughter when she saw the faces of her father's friends/co-workers.
"Uh Tony why is there a teenage girl in the living room?" Clint asked confusedly.
"She's my daughter, Samantha meet The Avengers bar one, although I'm pretty sure you know who they are based on the fact that you went through the front pages of their files." Tony announced with a big, beaming smile.
Samantha blushed slightly before saying "Jarvis said it was fine and I couldn't be bothered to hack my way past the executive summaries, you make it sound like it was difficult, all I had to do was ask,"
"How is that even possible?" was Natasha's first worded reaction.
"Well Natasha when a man and a woman love each other very much they have sex and by the chances of probability and some biology make a baby," Samantha said snarkily.
"Seriously is that Stark sarcasm genetic or something?" Clint asked.
"No Howard was never sarcastic," Steve stated.
"Wait if you're Stark's daughter how come we haven't heard of you yet?" Natasha asked suspiciously.
"Well he just found out about me yesterday and that was because my mom died. Plus surely S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps things from The Avengers Red," Samantha replied with a smirk.
"The smirk's genetic too?" Clint asked, shocked.
"Howard didn't have that one either," Steve responded.
"Did you hear that? She just called me Red! Stark I swear to god you'd best tell her not to call me that if she wants to keep her life," Natasha started.
"Don't call her Red, it annoys her," Tony warned.
"All the more fun for me,"
"No seriously she's a-"he started but Samantha finished it off.
"Ninja assassin with the abilities to use a large number of weapons I know. So... food?" Samantha said as she noticed Pepper serving the Chinese on the table.
After dinner and desert and a good conversation with all of the Avengers in the house, Samantha had gone to sleep and Pepper had made a similar decision. "So what's going on at S.H.I.E.L.D. that's so top secret that we have to meet here in this cloak and dagger sort of way?" Bruce asked.
"Fury isn't dead," Natasha announced "Project Insight is probably the worst thing you've come up with Stark, we've got to destroy it somehow before it's used against us,"
"And Alexander Pierce or as Stark will probably call him the old guy who took over is working for HYDRA," Steve continued "Oh and Nat and I are fugitives,"
Tony looked at Clint who was looking at Natasha with genuine worry on his face "Right so this is a strategy meeting I'm assuming," Tony said.
"You need to destroy it from the inside," they all heard and Tony could have sworn it was Samantha "What? You guys really aren't being quiet at all and I couldn't sleep so I figure if the whole house is going to hear it the whole house should get involved in it," everyone stared at the young brunette for a good minute or so.
"Okay so how do you suppose we go about this whole destroy it from the inside thing then?" Natasha asked, eyes narrowed.
"Steve needs to fake his own death, they're assuming he's the reason that you ran off, they've probably painted some slightly screwed up love affair and sold it to the agents who are after you, so faking your death is probably your best bet Captain. Then one of you needs to get on Pierce's good side it can't be Red because they're going to try and interrogate her for info and Pierce is going to be too careful to even go near Bruce so Clint I'm afraid it's going to have to be you. In the meantime, Dad you're going to have to help me hack into S.H.I.E.L.D's mainframe and shut down Project Insight for long enough to make it easier for the Captain to disappear. Bruce you need to lay low so that you don't get into trouble... for now just maintain phone contact with at least one of the others,"
"She's good. You ever thought about working for S.H.I.E.L.D?" Clint asked.
"Actually I wanted to work in crisis management," Samantha stated "But you've not let me finish, Clint once you're inside you need to recruit a couple of agents onto your side but make it completely covert. Once the computers are shut down, you'll be able to get more. Once you've got enough for a sort of revolution type thing wait for a day when Pierce's reputation would be on the line and sort of... revolt,"