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“He almost called you Maggie.” I tell Mariah after a couple minutes of pure, agonizingly awkward silence. “Why would he do that?”

“You know about Maggie?” Mariah looks shocked that I knew about her.

“We talked about her when I went to visit him for information,” I reply, “his face lit up when he spoke of her. I’ve never seen my uncle so happy. But that still doesn’t answer why he almost called you Maggie.”

“We’re partners,” she smiles, “we spend a lot of time together. It probably slipped because he misses her.”

“Maybe.” I mutter but deep down, I know there is something more to this. But I’m not going to push it. “But something doesn’t make sense…”

“What doesn’t make sense?” Mariah questions me.

“You’re not FBI.” I tell her, “I’ve been around enough FBI agents to be able to spot one. So how are you partners?”

But before Mariah can give me an answer, my phone vibrates against my hip. I pull out my phone and see a text message from Sharon, telling me to get to SHIELD asap,

“I guess that question can be answered at another time,” I smile, “I’ve got a meeting to get to. Tell my uncle, I’ll be right back.”

“What about my brother?”

“Like he cares where I go.” I reply before jogging out of Jase’s apartment…

**

“Who the hell is this?” I ask Fury, motioning to the dirty blonde haired boy in front of me. No sooner as I get into the building, I’m ushered off to meet the agent that’s getting assigned to help me babysit Jase.

“This is James, the agent I’m sending to help you.”

“When I found out about getting assigned an agent I was under the impression that this agent was someone like Ward, May, even Sharon; you know agents that know what the fuck they’re doing!” I explain, “not some kid right out of the Academy!”

“I didn’t go to the Academy.” James says. “And please call me Jamie, only my S.Os called me James. To everyone else, I’m Jamie.”

“You’re in the military?”

“Navy SEAL.” He says proudly. “My father was in the Army and his father before him, so I come from a long line of disciplined soldiers.”

I take this time to walk up to him, studying him. He was a pretty boy, no doubt about that. Kind eyes, they’re not jaded like most would think. His body language is what you expect from someone with military training. He doesn’t seem shady; definitely a person I can trust. I shoot him a smile of approval before turning towards Fury,

“How are we going to explain this Jase?” I ask. “Stark wasn’t exactly happy with working with me; how are we going to tell him that we’re getting a newbie agent working with us too?”

A smirk appears on the Director’s lips, “I’ll leave that business up to you Barton. I’m sure you can spin a tale for Stark…”

**

“So you’re partners with Stark’s kid, huh?” Jamie asks, trying to make some small talk to fill the silence as we’re stuck in New York’s rush hour traffic.
“We’re not partners,” I counter, “partners tolerate each other. Jase and I are forced to work together because Fury thinks sending in the kids of two Avengers is such a marvelous plan.”

“Not a fan of him?” Jamie asks, “Jase, not Fury.”

“He’s cocky, arrogant and completely gorgeous,” I reply, “he’s a Stark, so he knows all of this and owns it. He drives me crazy. And seriously, what’s with him calling me Barbie!? That’s annoying.”

“So I can’t call you that?” Jamie asks smirking, “Because Agent Barbie has a nice ring to it.”

“If you want to have kids someday, I highly advise you to stay away from calling me Barbie,” I threaten, “and once I figure out why I haven’t neutered Jase for calling me that, he’ll never be able to reproduce either…”

“Anyway, where are we going?”

“To pick up my best friend, Kate,” I reply, “if we’re going to do this, I’m going to need more people to trust. And I trust Kate with my life.”

“And what about me?” Jamie asks. I turn and look at him with a serious expression on my face,

“Don’t make me regret trusting you,” I tell him, “because once you lose my trust, you’ll never get it back.”

Twenty minutes later, we arrive to Kate’s apartment. I walk right in, without knocking, as Jamie awkwardly follows me.

“What’s up Birdie?” Kate asks, looking up from her magazine, “who’s the cutie pie behind you?”

“Kate this is Jamie,” I introduce them, “this is the guy Fury is sending to watch Jase and I like a hawk.”

“He’s SHIELD?” She points to him.

“Is that so hard to believe?” Jamie asks, sounding offended.

“You’re not jaded looking enough to be working for SHIELD.” Kate shrugs, “I meant no offence.”

“If she wanted to offend you, she wouldn’t be subtle about it.” I smile before turning to my best friend. “Kate, you love me right?”

“Is the Pope Catholic?”

“I need your help finding my dad and the rest of those dumb asses that managed to get themselves kidnapped.”

“Don’t trust Jase to come through?”

“There are only a few people in this world I trust and Jase will never be one of them…”

**

“Who the fuck are these people?” Jase asks as soon as I walk into his apartment. Jamie is standing behind me, awkwardly looking around with his hands shoved in his pockets. Kate is standing by my side, waving at Jase like the smart ass we know she can me. She stops waving when she sees Uncle Barney standing there.

“This would be the agent Fury is sending to help us.” I reply, motioning to Jamie, not mentioning his name because I know Jase couldn’t care less about a SHIELD agent’s name.. “And this would be my best friend, Kate; my partner in crime.”

“He’s got to go,” Jase states, pointing to Jamie., “we don’t need more of Fury’s puppets working on this, plus my apartment isn’t Grand fucking Central. ”

“They’re staying; both of them.” I say, standing my ground. “Your plans are clearly not working. You tortured my brother for nothing. And you’re bringing in people that couldn’t be more shady if they tried. You may trust them but I don’t. I trust Kate with my life and I may not know Jamie well but he’s a SEAL, he’ll never leave anyone behind. I’ve played by your rules long enough, Stark. It’s time to play by mine.”

“And your rules will be?”

“Everything done by the book.” I reply, “I dare you to argue with me over this, you will lose.”

“Really now?” He smirks.

“Jamie and Kate stay right here.” I repeat myself, my voice is stern. “Working with SHIELD agents isn’t going to kill you, Stark. We might actually get something done.”

“You still invited people into my house without bringing it by me first.” He has a point and I do feel slightly bad. Only slightly though.

“Then let’s go to my dad’s place, would that make you feel better?” I question him, “are you really that afraid that someone will find something incriminating and tell Fury? Afraid someone is going to tell Fury you’re more than what you say you are?”

“We’ll meet at Barton’s apartment,” Jase says, “I suggest you leave now or I’ll escort you out.”

“Let me grab my things first then we’ll be out of your hair.” I narrow my eyes into a glare, bumping his shoulder, hard and on purpose, as I walk passed him to get my things….

**

"So are we going to talk about it?" Kate asks, plopping down on my dad's couch as soon as we get into his apartment.

"Talk about what?" Jamie asks, awkwardly standing around, unsure of what he should do.

"That amount of sexual tension between our little Austen and Stark's spawn." I just roll my eyes as I make my way into the kitchen,

"I have no idea what you're talking about Kate!" I yell out towards her as I grab three beers out of the fridge before rejoining them in the living room. "There is no sexual tension between us. Just plain ol' tension. Seriously he's annoying and if I didn't need him to get my dad and Bruce back, I'd would have probably killed him."

"Why do you care about Bruce?" Jamie asks, "if you don't mind me asking."

"He's my godfather." I reply as I hand him and Kate their beers. "He's really the reason why I really went after a science major, well besides my mom."

"Yea, whatever!" Kate scoffs, not wanting to give up on her topic, "your mouths say one thing but your body language says another thing. You and Stark are surrounded by a thick cloud of sexual tension. You've got to cut this type of tension with a chainsaw."

"Whatever you say Katherine." I roll my eyes before sitting down next to her.

"Austen, you know I'm right." Kate smirks, "you just don't want to admit it. You hate when your best friend is right and I'm always right when it comes to the boys in your life."

"Well last time you were completely wrong." I bitterly mutter. "And you're wrong this time too."

“What are we suppose to be doing?” Jamie asks, changing the subject thankfully. “How can we be so sure Stark is going to come here.”

“We don’t know,” I point out. “The only things we can do are sit here, watch Doctor Who, drink beer and pray that Stark isn’t stupid enough to do this without us. He’s going to realize sooner or later, he’s going to need us to get him out of trouble. But he’s a Stark, they won’t admit they need help until it’s too late…”