Across the Universe

“You’re an ass.” Scarlett shoved away from Tony the moment he landed on the roof of S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in Manhattan. The clouds were thickening even as they landed, making the air feel thick and misty. She hunched over with her hands on her knees and blinked her eyes until her vision stopped spinning. After flying for the last twenty minutes Scarlett’s eyes were so dry that she was pretty sure she was going to have to peel them away from her eyelids if she didn’t get some eye drops soon. “Not just an ass, you’re a colossal ass!”

“You knew what you signed up for, Scarlett!” Tony joked but Scarlett shot him a look that sent a chill down his spine and he grimaced. “You said you wanted to get back here! We’re here now, aren’t we?”

“You know how much I hate flying like that! God, I’m going to puke…” Her stomach was threatening the back of her throat as it had been for most of the ride. It was one thing to fly short distances while being held by Tony outside of the Mark armor but if the flight lasted more than ten minutes Scarlett got sick. Motion sickness had never been a problem for her, not until Tony had taken to flying her around.

“Oh, come on, it wasn’t that bad.”

“Not for you! You’re in a temperature regulated, high tech, comfortable suit! I’m soaking wet and freezing! There was not an ounce of protection against the elements for me and we’ve had this talk before! Maybe a dozen times!”

“We have and I thought we both decided that it was better without protection!” Tony couldn’t help but joke. They both had the same defense mechanism. When things became difficult to discuss or situations became uncomfortable: why not crack a joke? Unfortunately that same defense mechanism provoked arguments rather frequently between the two.

“You’re unbelievable.” Scarlett rolled her eyes and held up her hand to keep him from making a crack about just how unbelievable he was. With a grunt of frustration Scarlett turned away from the Mark, found the door on the roof that would lead her into the building below, and marched toward it. The wind was howling and the mist that hung in the air was soaking her all over again. She needed a change of clothes and something warm to drink.

“I’m not ready to go yet! I’m still all suited up and…”

“I don’t care!”

“Carrying you was supposed to be sexy. Your hero whisking you off to safety. That’s romantic, right? Remember the last time we did this together? You kissed my helmet you were so grateful. I didn’t get a reward, where’s my reward? Are we past that stage already?”

“There’s only one problem with that Tony! I wasn’t in danger.” Scarlett turned away from the door of the building, slamming it closed. She turned her attention toward Tony who she desperately wanted to scream at but was resisting doing so. Yelling wouldn’t help anything. But where did he get off getting upset with her for not catering to him after the night before? Her hands were trembling and she needed to get inside before she said things she would later regret. “I didn’t need your help to get home and you’re more likely for me to throw up on your helmet right now than to kiss the damn thing! We left my car there now! I had a plan!”

When Tony didn’t respond, seemingly weighing his options, Scarlett turned back toward the door and opened it again. He didn’t want her to go inside, not yet, not without him. They needed to talk. They’d needed to talk hours ago and it hadn’t happened. The only thing was that Tony wasn’t sure what to say. Of course, he had about a thousand things he knew he should say but if he said them the wrong way wouldn’t that make things worse? On top of that Scarlett didn’t exactly seem like she was in the mood to do much talking. He knew she hated flying and yet he had insisted, in his jealousy, that he take her anyway.

He had fond memories of carrying her around with him in the suit, so it constantly slipped his mind that she couldn’t stand flying around for too long. Every so often she would say it was okay but it made her sick to her stomach half the time and he knew that. So why couldn’t he know that when it actually mattered? Maybe he just kept hoping she would like it again. Or he kept hoping for that spontaneous kiss on his helmet. Tony dreamt about that moment. He’d gotten to play the hero when he wasn’t sure they would ever trust each other. And while things had gone horribly wrong after that in the span of things, that memory of her lips on his helmet had stuck with him.

“Are you still mad at me?” He finally managed to yell over the wind and unfortunately there wasn’t a part of it that sounded sincere. He winced at how badly it had come out and ran a metallic hand through his hair.

“Yes! Of course I’m still mad at you!” Scarlett let the door go again and reluctantly turned away from it. Every part of her being was telling her to ignore him for the time being and worry about their emotional issues later. Yet she couldn’t walk away, couldn’t leave a question like that unanswered. This was not the time or the place to have this discussion and they both knew it. “And it’s not even because you kissed some other woman, I don’t care about that.” She was lying, of course it bothered her. She didn’t want it to bother her, but it sure as hell did drive her up the wall. Scarlett had never thought of herself as a jealous woman and yet there she was, turning it over in her mind repeatedly.

“Really?” Tony’s eyes went wide. He ordered Jarvis to begin removing the armor that he was wearing. It did so, creaking away and he winced again as he felt how chilly it really was outside of his suit. Scarlett had been soaked when he’d picked her up and now she was partially dry. The wind on the way back, despite his flying slower than he usually would to accommodate her, would have felt terrible even if she hadn’t been soaked. He really hadn’t been thinking clearly when he’d made the decision but he stood by every decision he ever made, no matter how bad they were at times. “You’re not mad about those girls? Not even a little jealous?” Scarlett gave him a look that told him if he went down that road any further he was going to have a fight on his hands and he was not prepared for that. For some reason he’d expected her to be the type of woman who both handled jealousy well and was hot blooded about it in the same moment. “If it’s not that then why are you so mad at me?”

“I’m trying to start a company. I’m trying to turn my life around and avoid going to prison and while you may not understand or make any attempts to see that I’m doing that, I’m still trying to do it. When I go to speak in front of my lawyers this week? When inevitably I have to talk to the press about these things? You know what they’re going to ask me?”

“What?” Tony was bewildered. The last thing he’d thought about was the media. Then again, he’d known that it was getting to her. It was impossible to ignore everything being said about you in the public eye, even Tony was bothered at times. But considering what he’d actually done the night before, he was surprised to hear about her being worried about her image. Reporters were tarnishing his name, not hers!

“They’re not going to ask me about my patents and how I had to fight for them or how I’m going to run my company. No, they’re going to ask me what it feels like to have my heart broken my Tony Stark! They’re going to ask what it’s like to be dating someone who is most likely going to cheat on you!” Scarlett had, unfortunately, begun to worry about that in the later hours of her morning but had discarded the idea to the back of her mind. She knew the American media cared more about a woman’s sex life and bust size than they could ever care about the things she could accomplish. It was just the way the world worked and if she could manipulate it to her cause then she would and would go ahead with what she planned to do anyway. But now she had to deal with all the drama that was stirred up between them in the public eye when the public barely knew who she was to begin with. That was, of course, her own fault but it was still going to be a problem.

“Is that what I did? Break your heart?” Tony seemed to gloss over the problem of the media relatively quickly, at least that’s what Scarlett saw. In reality he was thinking about ways to fix it. No matter what he said to the media now it would do nothing to help them. It would be seen as a way to cover up his so-called cheating. The suit bundled itself up into about a fifth of the size it had been on top of Tony. It floated in place next to him, waiting to be told what to do next.

“No.” Scarlett shook her head and deflated just enough that Tony felt the guilt rattle again in his stomach along with the remainders of the alcohol from the night before. “You didn’t break my heart, Tony. It’ll take a lot more than media rumors to do that. I know what kind of man you are, whether or not you do.”

“Really?” Tony was both relieved and felt terrible. She should be angrier at him. For a minute he thought he was finally going to get the punishment from her that he deserved but instead she just looked sad again. Why did she always have to look so sad lately? He hated it! There was no way for him to fix sad, especially not when he had been the direct cause of it so frequently. On top of that there were things she wasn’t telling him about that were making her sad. What had happened to telling the truth? Not that he’d been entirely truthful since they’d returned from Russia either, but still. His infractions didn’t harm him as much as hers did, it seemed.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty pissed off.” Scarlett folded her arms over her chest and shivered under the stormy cold air. “You’re definitely in the doghouse but I’m not heartbroken.”

“I have very mixed feelings about this.” Tony was nervous that she wasn’t heartbroken. At first he’d been relieved to hear it but then he immediately went into panic mode when he thought about it, as he always did, far too hard. What if she wasn’t heartbroken because she wasn’t upset by the idea of losing him? What if she wasn’t heartbroken because she didn’t love him? Where were all these insecurities suddenly coming from? Tony hated feeling insecure. It was the one word he would never use to describe himself and yet in that moment he felt more insecure than he had felt since his parents died.

“Good.” Scarlett shrugged her good shoulder and then pointed toward the door. “I’m going inside now so don’t say something to make me come back again. Either come with me or go find something else to do… just… try not to make it so public this time. Maybe exclude how hot they are.” Scarlett opened the door on the roof and walked through it without another word. Tony was about to follow after her and direct the suit to wait for him upstairs in case he needed it but his phone buzzed in his pocket.

He saw the call was from Phil Coulson and almost ignored it so that he could go after Scarlett and make small attempts to at least make her seem a little less sad. Plus, he wanted to take a look at her shoulder. Daniel’s comments had made him worry about it. Considering that he was already at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters Tony figured he should probably pay at least a little attention to the man in charge.

“What?” Tony made no attempt to sound like he wasn’t annoyed with the leader of the S.H.I.E.L.D. group.

“Are you still suited up?” Coulson wasn’t bothered by Tony’s attitude, he never had been. Tony was someone he had to deal with, and he wasn’t above being nasty or manipulative to do it. Over time they’d learned to tolerate and accept each other.

“No, I could be though if necessary. What’s the situation?”

“There’s some heavy lifting that needs to be done here on the scene. I’ve called in some machinery to do it but you’re a lot faster and a lot more efficient.”

“That almost sounded like a compliment, Coulson.”

“If it makes you feel better than sure, it’s a compliment.” Coulson didn’t sound amused. In fact, Coulson never sounded amused, at least not to Tony.

Tony stared at the door to the roof then back at the suit that hovered next to him. What would Scarlett want him to do? Instantly he knew the answer. He should go help Coulson and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. who were still on the scene at the mall in New Jersey. Scarlett would want them to help out and get things under wraps as soon as they could. If he could make her feel a little bit better about his recent life decisions maybe it would help. She was right. She was trying to turn her life around and become a better person and Tony knew that working for S.H.I.E.L.D. was something she saw as a step in the right direction for her.

If he could help her close this case, put an end to this anomaly, and prevent it from hurting anyone else than maybe it would help her feel a little better about her progress. He thought she was doing a great job making the transition from her old life, but maybe she wasn’t so sure. It wasn’t like they talked about it all that frequently.

“I guess I can do that.”

“Pretend it’s a compliment or come and help? You have to be more specific, Stark.” Coulson retorted.

“I’ll come help your boy scouts, just calm down. I’ll be there in twenty minutes at most.” Tony hung up without waiting for Coulson to respond. Every part of him wanted to follow after Scarlett and selfishly sort things out but he knew that this was the right thing to do. Tony hated doing the right thing for everyone else; he wanted to do what was right for him. With a few grumbles beneath his breath about how tiring it was being selfless for a few minutes, Tony ordered the suit back on. Within seconds it had wrapped around his form and he was taking off into the low hanging clouds back toward New Jersey.

Scarlett hadn’t expected Tony to follow her but she wasn’t expecting him to run back to the bottle either. Instead, she was sure he was going to go work on his suits or take out his frustrations elsewhere. Part of her had hoped he would follow her so that they could get things resolved. If he pushed her and pushed her they’d finally talk and the tension would finally dissipate. Or they’d do something naughty in the stairwell and make things worse: one of the two. Either way, it could feel like progress… or something.

But he hadn’t followed her. Instead Scarlett returned to the first floor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building alone and walked out of the stairwell. No one paid her a second glance so she walked through the halls unchecked. She figured that Dr. Banner was going to need space to work and would likely want to know what she’d witnessed firsthand.

So she found the laboratory that he had surely been working in after some prying and walked inside. There was a white board filled with calculations and the computer on the far end of the room was displaying, across three large screens, scans over the entire eastern seaboard searching for radiation of the same caliber. Several hits appeared in several places but nothing as significant as what they had picked up at the scene in New Jersey.

Dr. Banner was clearly a brilliant man and she admired how modest he seemed. Every great mind she knew was self absorbed and had an ego the size of Manhattan, including herself. Maybe she’d learn a few things from Dr. Banner.

Leaning against one of the seemingly unused tables at the far end of the sophisticated laboratory Scarlett braced herself. Slowly she removed the Tesla glove, piece by piece to make sure that nothing was destroyed. It had worked just fine despite being banged around but as she pulled it apart she found parts of the energy coil had been blackened beyond repair. It was a miracle that it had worked as well as it had for so long. She bagged the black pieces and placed them aside, marking them for what their uses were, how much the electrical current had been that had flown through them at her command and what had happened when she’d been attacked in the mall.

Maybe if they could decipher what had happened to her Tesla weapon then they could learn a bit more about what they were dealing with. She hoped that at the scene of the crime in New Jersey they’d uncover more physical evidence. But in case they didn’t, she was sure that no one had been more involved with the shadow that afternoon than she had except for maybe Mitchell and she’d disappeared into the cover of night.

Scarlett unloaded the remainder of her weapons and then pulled away her leather jacket. It hadn’t been damaged as much as she had expected it to be with the way that the shadow had pulled at it. Still, it needed to properly dry or at least get cleaned before she wore it again. Maybe they had something she could change into temporarily without having to call Pepper to ask her to get some clothing. Scarlett hated asking Pepper for favors even if they had made up that morning. She was Tony’s assistant, not hers, and she didn’t want to take advantage of a woman that deserved to make way more than what she did for having to put up with Tony’s antics on a constant basis.

Before she could turn toward the door and find someone in the hallway to help her, Jinx appeared in the hall silently. Scarlett shook the chills away from her shoulders and averted her eyes. Those multicolored eyes were creepy as hell, no matter how often she reminded herself of the cause.

“I don’t want to hear it. I’m not in the mood.” Scarlett laughed before Jinx could open her mouth, turning her attention back to her jacket and then to her shoulder that was sore but seemed not to have continued bleeding through the gauze wrapped around it. Maybe Tony’s trip had done some good after all. The gauze was no longer wet and the wound seemed to have closed. Still, she’d have to check her stitches at some point. Jinx had a stack of cards in her hand and couldn’t help but smile even though she had been called out by Scarlett almost immediately. Resistance wasn’t going to stop Agent Bennett so easily! When she wanted something, Jinx was very persistent.

“Just one reading. Then I’ll leave you alone.”

“I told you, I’m not into fortune telling or any of that nonsense. No good luck, no bad luck, no predictions, no premonitions, no sixth sense. Not even any religion. I’m a woman of science, Jinx.”

“Really? Because you sounded awfully curious about it over the phone.” Jinx reached into her pocket and handed Scarlett an earpiece to replace the one she’d lost in the fray.

“I was making conversation.” Scarlett didn’t look back up but she could hear Jinx turning the cards over on the table next to her Tesla glove regardless of her disapproval. She didn’t look at them, afraid her curiosity would actually be piqued. No, Scarlett wanted nothing to do with fortune telling. She didn’t want to know what lay ahead for her. Maybe she really was worried that something bad was going to happen. There was already enough bad in Scarlett’s life, she didn’t need someone nagging her repeatedly to remind her of that. Not looking at the cards wouldn’t make them go away and it certainly wouldn’t make Jinx stop reading her future without her permission.

“Oh, I sense romantic trouble.” Jinx tapped one of the cards in front of her, hoping to catch Scarlett’s gaze and get some attention. Scarlett, however, seemed far more interested in her shoulder and walked toward the cabinets at the far end of the room. “It’s going to pay off in the long run, even if it seems insurmountable now.”

“That’s not fortune telling. That’s not even up for debate.” Scarlett laughed, still not turning to face Jinx and instead digging through the cabinets. If she couldn’t talk to Tony about it then how would she talk to a woman who was a practical stranger? “You saw some tabloid gossip and took a guess.”

“Tony loves you. Even if you have your doubts.” Jinx responded and Scarlett finally turned to look at her. The shorter woman had a smile on her face and tried to look reassuring, even comforting. It was obvious that she meant well.

“This isn’t one of those romance novels you and Mickey gossip about in your cute little book club.” Scarlett finally approached Jinx and instead of looking at the cards that were laid out, she slid her hand over them and pushed them back toward Jinx. “It’s not some fairytale where we all end happily ever after. Things don’t always work out for the best. You know as little of the future as I do.”

“You’re right, it’s not some fairytale.” Jinx nodded and picked up the cards at long last upon realizing she wasn’t going to get what she wanted from Scarlett. Even if she got to be part of some juicy gossip, she would consider this a win in her corner. Eventually she would bother Scarlett enough to get a reading. “It’s way better than any book I’ve read.”

“Oh, sometimes I worry about S.H.I.E.L.D. priorities.” Scarlett laughed and walked toward the door. Laughing was all she could do at this point. “I have to find something to change into. This smells terrible. I was stuck in some mystery water.” She tugged at the bottom of her tank top and diverted the conversation.

“It’s better than those books because it’s really happening! Not just because it makes for good water cooler conversation, either.” Jinx followed after her despite her deflection. “I’m not wrong about this. Those books? We spend our days fantasizing about the kind of thing you’re actually living through. Who cares what the ending is like?”

“It’s not as great as your fantasies make it out to be. It may sound like a fantasy to you, but this is my life.” Scarlett grunted and went to say something more about it when there was a rumble from outside. Apparently the clouds they’d seen taking over the sky on the flight in had formed into a storm violent enough for thunder. She hadn’t gotten a really good luck since she’d felt so sick to her stomach when Tony had picked her up. They hadn’t seemed threatening when they were flying through them, at least not the kind that would cause that severe of a thunderstorm.

“Oh, hey you’re already here! Glad to see that.” Bruce’s voice interrupted her as he walked down the hallway. He grimaced upon seeing the bloodied gauze on her shoulder. “You should get that looked at. They’ve got some pretty excellent doctors here I’ve heard.”

“It’s not nearly as bad as it looks.” Scarlett directed his attention instead to what she could see approaching down the hall behind him. Thunder shook the building again, making the computer monitors blink. The storm had come on fast and the power was flickering already, even in S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Had the backup generators been repaired after the incident weeks prior? Probably. It was S.H.I.E.L.D. after all. They were pretty on top of that sort of stuff.

Mickey was pushing a cart loaded with sample boxes and containers that had been transported from the scene in New Jersey via helicopter. Scarlett hurried over to help grab the cart, mostly to avoid further prying by Dr. Banner and more fortune telling by Jinx. The people at S.H.I.E.L.D. were awfully nosy, though their hearts were in the right place. Did she like that or hate it? Scarlett wasn’t sure yet. Learning to be a good guy was tedious as hell.

“That was very fast, Agent Pierce.” Bruce looked impressed.

“Oh, uh… Thank you!” Mickey seemed unsure if that was the right response or not but when Bruce seemed receptive of it she went with it. With Scarlett’s help she guided the cart into the lab and began to unload the crates. “The weather’s insane outside right now, so there were plenty of people willing to help unload. Coulson should be here within the hour. This storm’s really thrown everyone for a loop.”

“You’re soaked!” Jinx couldn’t help but laugh at Mickey who was dripping wet standing next to the cart but didn’t seem to care.

“Well, it started pouring when I was coming in…” Mickey drifted off. “It was kind of unavoidable.”

“Go get changed.” Scarlett nodded toward Jinx who looked surprised. “Miss Cleo over here will help in your stead.” Bruce stifled a laugh but then averted his eyes as to not draw attention to the joke.

“Really? You don’t mind finishing up for me?”

“Not at all!” Jinx was just happy to be away from her desk, Scarlett was sure. Scarlett nodded her approval since Jinx didn’t seem to realize that hadn’t been directed at her. Mickey started out of the room afterward but the thunder startled her into stopping again in the doorway.

“This storm doesn’t seem right… It feels weird.” She looked to Jinx for confirmation and Jinx nodded her head, that same uneasy feeling from earlier still bubbling in the pit of her stomach.

“You two are ridiculous. Did you drink the Kool-Aid?” Scarlett sighed, still unloading boxes from the cart. “I’m pretty sure that the explosions are done with for tonight, okay? So Mickey go get changed and Dr. Banner, if you could help me with these?” As she spoke the lights flickered again. Jinx and Mickey stiffened at the sound of nature’s fury and looked all around them, in search of some kind of a source. It was like they’d never seen a thunderstorm before.

“I came as quickly as I could!” Steve rand own the hall and into the room, dripping wet and dressed in his civilian clothing. “Is everyone alright?”

“What does it look like?” Scarlett rolled her eyes when she noticed that Jinx and Mickey were staring at Steve who was blissfully unaware of how happy they were that his clothing was stuck to him. Steve visibly relaxed when he noticed that everyone in the room seemed to be intact and that no one in the building was in a state of panic.

“There were reports of explosions in a shopping center. Were there civilian casualties? No one contacted me!” Steve made an attempt to fix his wet hair but it wasn’t having it, not at the moment. The thunder shook the building again, this time with more ferocity. Even Scarlett had to admit that something seemed terribly wrong with the weather outside.

“Do you have your phone?” Scarlett pointed toward his coat and Steve groped around in his pockets and then visibly winced. He didn’t have to answer. “No casualties.” Scarlett was pleased to report and Steve smiled with relief. She’d half expected him to scold her after the night they’d had before but now he seemed glad that she had been on the case. Maybe Steve was prone to mood swings in his old age. Internally amused by her own humor, Scarlett walked past Steve and to Mickey who was still staring. “You, go get dried off. Jinx, take her away before I push you both out the door.”

“You’re still all bloodied up.” Steve interrupted, nodding toward her shoulder. He thought they’d taken care of it the night before but apparently he was wrong.

“You’re obsessed! Every single one of you. My shoulder is fine. It’s not currently bleeding. I pulled it during all the chaos in the mall and the stitches bled okay? It’s fine now, don’t worry about it. Can we move on?” Scarlett chuckled but Steve exchanged a dark glance with Bruce and Scarlett hung her head back in annoyance. “If you had any idea what my life was like before S.H.I.E.L.D. you would know this is no big deal. Can we please move on? I know my limitations.”

“Since you asked so politely…” Steve began but then the building shook around them with a jolt so severe they could have mistook it for an earthquake. Each of them grabbed onto something nearby to maintain their balance.

“Okay, now that was definitely not normal thunder.” Mickey shouted in alarm, hands on either side of the door frame to stay upright. Before anyone could comment, agree, or object, the building shook again. The lights flashed, some of them sparked and then the power went out completely.