Not Quite

I shoved my hands deeper into my brown leather jacket, as I made my way back to my small apartment in Brooklyn, around the streets where I'd grown up. Not like they resembled them much anymore, though. I went through the doors to the antique building, the sun casting the shadows of trees through the one-window hallway. I walked slowly up the worn stairs, turned down to my door, and started the long process of unlocking it.

"You know, if you're trying to surprise me, you're doing a really bad job." I looked at the S.H.E.I.L.D. agent standing in the entranceway of my small apartment.

The large man took his hands out of his pockets. "I need to call in a favor, Rogers." I raised my eyebrows. Like I have a choice. Nick Fury doesn't call in favors often. "I need you to find this girl." He handed me a picture of a girl in motion. Going at an obviously fast pace, long, dark brown hair was pulled back into a braid with a few loose tendrils hanging around her face. Violet eyes were watching the sidewalk behind her.

"Who is she?" I questioned, sticking the picture inside my jacket. "Why do you need her?" I tried, not expecting any truthful answer to come out of Fury's mouth.

"Her name's Erin Leigh." He folded his arms. "She's brilliant and we need her for a project," He stated, letting me know he wouldn't tell me anymore. He pulled another piece of paper out of his pocket, along with a thin manila folder. "A plane ticket plus everything you need to know about her. You leave in four hours. I'd start packing." With that, he walked out of the room, and I went to my closet to throw what little clothes I had into my gym bag, and grabbed my suit from the back, mostly because I was comfortable, not because I was planning on doing any fighting where I was going.

I looked down at the plane ticket. Los Angeles. Great. I picked up my cell phone off of my nightstand. It took me a minute to unlock it since I never use it, and I don't particularly like to. I called one of the only numbers I had, once I figured out where the actual phone part was. And how to call him.

"Well, if it isn't the star spangled man with a plan. Whuddup?" Tony Stark's voice greeted me with its normal vibrancy and bounce.

"Can you get me all S.H.E.I.L.D.'s files on a girl named Erin Leigh?" I asked, putting the bag over my shoulder.

"I feel like you only use me for my technology skills." He chuckled into the phone. "Yeah. Get a special mission?"

"Fury was inside my house. And he's sending me to Los Angeles to find this girl." I zipped up the gym bag and moved it to the end of my bed so there was room for me to sit down. "And he definitely gave me less than the essential information on her."

"Dude, I love that city." I knew there was an idea forming in his head. "Why don't we just go together, and figure out what we've got."

"I don't know if we should." I fumbled with the plane ticket in my hands. "I'm not sure if he wants anyone else to know."

"Oh, shut up goody two shoes. We're flying on my jet there," he decided.

"I'm not entirely sure that's a good idea." I sighed, knowing I wasn't going to get out of this one.

"Steve. You do not understand how bored I am."

"You just finished fixing you building, from when we saved New York City, a week ago. How can you possibly be bored already?"

"People tell me it's A.D.D. And that was a week ago. What am I supposed to do for a week anyway?"

"Maybe what normal people do with their time?" I rolled my eyes. "Like help run your company-"

"That is definitely Pepper's responsibility right now."

"Or go out with your friends-"

"Which is what I'm asking you to do."

"Or design new gadgets for your suit, I don't know-"

"Okay, normal people definitely don't design new things for the Iron Man suit. No one else even has one."

"Do you ever stop talking?"

"No."

"Okay, fine. We'll go to Los Angeles together."

"Sweet." I could hear his smug grin through the phone. "Okay, we're leaving in an hour. And we'll look for this girl on the plane."

"Where am I meeting you?" I asked.

"I'm picking you up. I'll be there in like two minutes."

"Tony, you live on the other side of town, and you will not pick me up in the suit." I was not flying across New York City on his back. The country already thought we had a thing.

"But I haven't used since I fixed my building!" He wined.

"No. I'm already agreeing to go to Los Angeles with you. Don't push it."

He sighed like an angst-ridden teen. "Fine. But, for future reference, people call it L.A., you don't have to keep saying it. And I'll meet you at your apartment."

"See you in a few, Tony." I set the phone down on the bed, and went to my bathroom to grab my toiletries, and the shoved them into my bag, and it was only about five minutes before I heard obnoxious knocking on my door.

"You do realize that this is a private building? That you have to use a key to get inside?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

"You do realize I'm genius?" Tony moved past me into my apartment. "Grab you stuff, and let's go."

I rolled my eyes and tried to accept the fact that my best friend was a total ass. "Are we catching a cab?" I asked, swinging the bag over my shoulder.

"I know you know me better than that." Tony led me out my front door, down the stairs, and out to the front of my building. A white limo waiting out in front and a man in a suit to match opened the door for us.

"You are one of the most gaudy men I know." I turned to him as I sat down inside the spacious interior.

"I'm the only gaudy man you know." He smirked as the door shut behind him. "Being a genius has its perks."

We kept driving out of town to a private airport where Tony's jet was waiting for us, and we started our flight.

"And now we start." Tony pulled up a screen as soon as we took off, and began to hack into S.H.E.I.L.D.'s database. I watched New York disappear from us out the window while he worked; I wouldn't be much help to him anyway.

"Oh, and there we go. I truly am the best." The same girl from the picture I'd been given was up on the screen, but now with a full frontal headshot, along with profile and frontal shots of her body. A heart shaped face with sunken eyes and sharp cheekbones stared back at me, and, turned to her side, it looked like she might barely be as wide as one of my biceps.
Tony flipped to a list of facts about her. "Looks like she's a test tube baby, god, there's gonna be some problems there. She's twenty four, her full name's Erin Marisco Leigh, weighs 92 pounds, 5"4', and-" He stopped, and drew my attention back from the window.

"What?" I asked.

"Looks like we found Fury's little secret." He smirked. "She was genetically engineered to be the most brilliant human in the world- wonder why'd they do that, I'm here- but they added 2 percent of bird DNA by accident." Tony raised his eyebrows and waited for me to connect the dots. When I didn't, he continued. "Which means, wonder boy, that she can fly. Like, hollow bones, seven foot wings, the whole shebang."

"That's definitely why I got sent to go get her." I rolled my eyes. "Is it too much to ask for one vital piece of information? It might be nice to know that the person I'm looking for is, you know, brilliant? Or that she can fly?"

"Yes. Yes, it is." He took on a mocking face. "You know, it was on a need to know basis, and we just couldn't risk telling anyone." We laughed. "It looks like she's working at a fine arts center, teaching dance."

"Well, I know where we're going." I stretched out.

"You do realize I'm the one with the car?" He pointed out. "I could totally make us go to DisneyLand first."

"You hate children."

"But I love rides." He smirked.

I knew there was some joke I wasn't getting here. "How long is this flight again?"

"Should be about 6 hours. Which means we have about 5 and half more hours."

"Movie time?"

"Movie time."