EIGHT MONTHS LATER
"Good to go on this end. The rest isup to you two,"
Pepper Potts and Charlotte Watson stood side by side in the living room of Stark Tower, watching the computer monitors closely for anything out of the ordinary. Tony's voice floated though the room from his Iron Man armor as they looked to the small screen that showed his face.
"You've disconnected all transmission lines?" Lottie questioned, looking at the man on the screen. "We're totally off the grid?"
"Stark Tower's about to become abeacon of self-sustaining cleanenergy,"
"Well, assuming the arc reactortakes over and it actually works," Pepper reminded him, the two women sharing a quick smile.
"I assume. Light her up,"
Lottie stood back, allowing Pepper the honors as she flipped the switch. The two couldn't see their handiwork from inside, but they new Tony could see it all out there. Lottie took a few steps toward the window with a small smile.
"How's it look, Tony?"
"Like Christmas...but with more me,"
Lottie only shook her head, staring out at the vast New York skyline before her as she allowed Pepper to share a few words with Tony, before she finally decided to rejoin her at the monitors.
"This is fun an all, but I really do miss Venice. I can't wait till he takes a break and we can catch up on Game of Thrones, though," Lottie joked with Pepper, earning a laugh from her friend as they thought back on their short Venice vacation only three months prior, and their tradition of sitting together and watching Game of Thrones ever Sunday night.
"Once we get the next three buildings zoned and ready, I swear we'll go back," Pepper and Lottie turned for a moment, seeing Tony reentering the living room with that classic smirk on his face. "Levels are holding steady...I think."
"They are, Pep," Lottie informed her with a reassuring smile.
"Of course they are, Lottie and I were directlyinvolved. Which leads me to my nextquestion: how does it feel to be agenius?"
Both Tony and Lottie shared a smile as she walked away from them, moving down into the sunken living room to pour them all a drink. Plus, she didn't need to be in the middle of their couple moment.
"Well, ah, I really wouldn't knownow would I?"
"What do you mean? All this camefrom you,"
"This all came from that," Tony looked to Lottie, who was pointing down at his arc reactor. He rolled his eyes, looking back and forth between the two most important women in his life.
"Give yourself some credit guys, please.Stark Tower is your baby. Giveyourselves twelve percent of thecredit,"
"Twelve percent?"
"And argument can be made for fifteen," Tony quickly corrected, noticing the looks he was getting from both of them. Pepper only rolled her eyes, joining Lottie on the couch as she handed Pepper one of the glasses of champagne she had poured, the pair watching Tony fumble over his words. "Well, I did do all the heavylifting. Literally, I lifted theheavy things and sorry but, thesecurity snafu? That was on you."
"Oh?"
"Oh yes, you did all the heavy lifting. I didn't work on the plans every night for two straight months at all," Lottie mumbled under her breath, though she knew both Tony and Pepper could hear her as the woman beside her let out a small chuckle.
"It's my private elevator-"
"-our elevator,"
"- it was teeming with sweatyworkmen. And Lottie...yeah whatever, I concede. I'm going to pay for thatcomment about percentages in somesubtle way later aren't I?"
"It won't be subtle," Lottie deadpanned, taking down the last of her champagne as her and Pepper high fived one another.
"Look, I'll cut you a deal, Pep. Next buildingis gonna say 'Potts' on the tower,"
"How about Potts and Watson on the lease," both women laughed at Pepper's comment, doing another high five as Tony just stared at the two of them.
"You two will be the death of me,"
"Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid myprotocols are being overridden,"
Lottie and Pepper watched as Tony rolled his eyes, picking up his cell phone and hitting the answer button.
"Mr. Stark, we need to talk," Lottie perked up slightly at the sound of Phil Coulson's voice on the other end of the line.
"You have reached the Life ModelDecoy of Tony Stark. Please leave amessage,"
"This is urgent, I need you and Watson,"
"Then leave it urgently,"
Lottie rolled her eyes as Tony hung up the phone, looking over to her.
"You're insufferable, Tony,"
"You survived my dad, I doubt anything trumps that,"
The bickering was cut off immediately when the elevator doors opened across the room, Phil Coulson stepping out into the living room. The trio on the couch looked over, Tony throwing out his hands.
"Security breach!"
"Phil!" Lottie called out with a smile, moving to hug the man before her as Pepper followed along.
"Phil, come on in! We were just celebrating,"
"His first name is agent?"
Lottie ignored Tony's comments as she gave the familiar SHIELD agent a hug, pulling back with a smile as Pepper followed her movements. Tony finally joined them, just staring at Phil as he looked between Iron Man and Slate.
"I can't stay long," Phil took a laptop out of his briefcase, turning to Lottie and handing it over to her. "We need you and Stark to look this over, assoon as possible."
"Official consulting hours arebetween eight and five every otherThursday," Lottie rolled her eyes as she bumped shoulders with Tony, moving past him as she began to open the laptop.
"This isn't a consultation,"
"Is this about the Avengers?" Lottie shot Pepper a look, as she wasn't supposed to know about the Avengers, and she quickly tried to backtrack. "Which I know nothing about."
"The Avengers Initiative wasscrapped, I thought, and I didn'teven qualify," Tony reminded Coulson, moving to walk toward Lottie who was standing and waiting with the laptop for him to join. "Yeah, apparently I'm volatile,self-obsessed, don't play well withothers."
"We know," Lottie and Pepper spoke at the same time, earning a look from Tony.
"This isn't about personalityprofiles anymore,"
"Yeah whatever," Tony looked down at Lottie, nodding over to the desk area to their right. "Get that thing hooked up to the hologram board, I'll be there in a sec. Ms. Potts, got a sec?"
Lottie conceded, giving Tony and Pepper their moment as she hooked the laptop up to the hologram boards. She opened the decryption file and began to unlock the files on the laptop as Tony and Pepper joined her.
"This seems serious. Phil lookspretty shaken," Pepper stated, looking down at the laptop in Lottie's hands. "What is all this?"
The files loaded as Lottie took a hold of them, throwing them up onto the hologram screens before them. The trio stopped in their tracks, eyes wide as they looked at the information presented on the screen.
Their were videos of Lottie back in World War Two, fighting her way through HYDRA bases followed by CCTV footage of her fighting alongside Natasha at Hammer industries just months ago. It was followed by a screen of footage of Tony in his Iron Man suit from various places and battles over the last year and a half.
Bruce Banner was featured on another screen, mainly footage of him working in the labs. There was some footage, although shaky, of him turning into the Hulk.
Natasha and Clint Barton had their own screen as well. Lottie had grown rather close to the pair, training under them in the last few months as she gained official clearance levels at SHIELD. The footage spanned from training sessions to missions they had been on. There was even a slide for Thor, a Norse God from outer space, something that Lottie was still trying to wrap her head around.
Her breath caught, though, as she looked at the final screen. It was Steve. All the footage was from the 40s, pictures of him in his uniform flashing across the hologram screens as Lottie appeared in some of them. The specs of his shield were shown at the top, and Lottie couldn't wrap her head around what she was seeing.
"I'm going to take the jet to DCtonight. You two have homework, lot's of homework,"
Pepper didn't give Tony a chance to protest, walking out of the room to pack her things. Tony sighed, looking back down at Lottie, only to see tears forming in her eyes as she stayed locked on the screen before her.
"Khaleesi? What's wrong?"
"Why's there video of Steve, Coulson?"
Phil Coulson wasn't sure what he was supposed to due, meeting the shocked and confused eyes of Tony Stark and the saddened eyes of Charlotte Watson. He stumbled over his words as he tried to find a way around the topic.
"Charlotte, Director Fury has informed us that-"
"Phil," Lottie cut in, her voice shaky as she pointed to the screens of Steve. "This is the Avenger Initiative. Why is Steve up there?"
Phil took a deep breath, praying to god that Director Fury wouldn't kill him for this, before he looked back at Lottie and Tony.
"We found him in the ice eight months ago, right after you took down Vanko. Captain Rogers is alive,"
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SHE KNOWS! LOTTIE OFFICIALLY KNOWS THAT STEVE IS ALIVE!
Ugh, I am so excited for you guys to see what's going to happen, I love this story so much. ALSO, if any of you know any really talented artists who are good at making manips or drawing like cartoons, please refer them to me! I would love some art of Lottie and Steve and I would do it myself but I'm not very good at it!