A New Beginning

Chapter 23- Aftermath

Several weeks had passed since the "Battle of New York," which was what the media had decided to dub the event.

The Avengers were household names, being branded as the saviors and heroes of the world.

The Stark Tower had sustained a lot of damage, but Tony had invited them all to stay there as long as they liked. Steve had an apartment downtown, and Clint and Natasha practically lived at S.H.I.E.L.D., but Noelle had nowhere to go but back to her parents' house, so she took Tony up on his offer, and decided to stay there in the meantime until she figured out what to do.

Thor took Loki back to S.H.I.E.L.D. as their temporary prisoner, while he made the arrangements with Fury to take the Tesseract back to Asgard and ensure the safety of the Scepter.

It made Noelle feel slightly better that Thor was going to keep an eye on it as well. She liked Natasha, but she still was loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. as far as Noelle was concerned.

Noelle wasn't sure what on Earth to do after all this. Fury had offered her a position at S.H.I.E.L.D., to which she had less than politely declined. She still wasn't happy about leaving the Scepter in their hands, but at least she knew who to go to if something did happen with it.

The important thing was that the Stones were kept as far apart as possible.

She and Fury had shaken hands and agreed to be allies, even though she still didn't trust him completely. He had promised that she could go back to the work she had done before, and S.H.I.E.L.D. would not interfere, although Noelle had the feeling Fury would still be watching her anyway.

Before she had a chance to really make up her mind about what to do, Tony announced that he was hosting a goodbye party to celebrate their victory.

Given that he was Tony, she should have seen that coming.

Her stomach had tightened into a knot.

"A party? But I can't do that, I haven't been to one of those since..."

Tony put his hand on her shoulder. "But you have to! You practically live here now."

"I can go hide in the basement. You have dozens of other floors besides this one." She looked over helplessly at Pepper Potts, who was both the CEO of Stark Industries and Tony's girlfriend at the same time.

Pepper only smiled encouragingly.

Tony sighed. "Look, you're the only Avenger that won't be there."

"I'm fine with that. I don't like parties."

"Even Fury will be there."

"That's not... motivating me any more."

"Tell you what," Pepper spoke up, leaning forward. "How about I take you shopping, and we can pick out a dress for the party?"

Noelle looked up at Pepper in surprise. Gratitude overwhelmed her. She really in right conscience couldn't say no to her offer.

Pepper took her out shopping the next day, and Noelle picked out a lacy, medium length pink dress that went down just below her knees, and some brown sandals to go with them. After that, she and Pepper went out to lunch.

Noelle had to admit– it felt nice to just go out and just do something normal, even if it was with someone she didn't know all that well. Pepper was as kind as could be and very encouraging. She was like a fun aunt. Noelle could see why she and Tony went together well. Her calm, thoughtful, and practical demeanor kept Tony's impulsiveness at bay. She had to love him a lot to be able to deal with his constant, rash behavior, Noelle concluded. But it was all the more reason to like her.