Agent Hill: New Beginnings

chapter twenty four

"You wanted to see me?" You call, walking into the lab, not bothering to knock since your mind was clouded with new thoughts of how you would not be in danger, whilst being able to help her new masked friend.

"Hill" Tony smiles turning around to her, tilting her head she walks closer to him looking at what he has been working on, she relaxes when she notices it. "Here" He tosses her the phone, making her quickly catch it before glaring at Tony.

"No need to throw it" She grumbles, as Tony rolls his eyes. "No worries, anytime" He snarks. Raising a brow, she steps closer, just as he turns his chair to face her. "Stark... thank you" he smiles, but tries to hide it. "So, are you going to go?" he asks, fingers tapping on the tabletop. "Oh.. yeah I'll leave you to it" She goes to turn around, but Tony makes some undignified noise making her turn back around. "No, sorry I meant are you going to go to Fisk's gala," He says huffing out the name with a twist of his lips.

"Oh," She pauses, surprised. "Yeah, I'm going to go" his face deflates before he props his chin on one of his hands. "Ok," his response was short. And the two stared at each other for perhaps a moment too long. Clearing her throat she looks around the room.

"Well..." She starts, and Tony hums watching with a small smirk. She bites her lip, furrowing her brows. It wouldn't hurt to have more people she knew going, right? She gulped looking over at him. "Why are you so smug" She mused, walking toward him. He grinned shrugging his shoulders, "No reason, but, please. Continue" She rolled her eyes. "Since you've been to this kind of... events before" He nodded, humming with an amused grin as he looked up at her since he was slouched in his chair and the closer she advanced the more he had to crane his neck to look at her.

"It would probably be helpful knowing that you are there...." She mused, he nodded but his eyes narrowed briefly as he thought it over. "Helpful?" He mused, she huffed, ducking out of his gaze as she tapped the phone against her empty palm. "Amongst other things" he hummed again.

"Like?"She chuckled. "You're annoying" She scoffed and he grinned. "Ok. I'll come with you" Blinking she stared at him, a mix of surprise and excitement. 

"Cool" She blurted, he smirk and turned his back to her, facing his desk. "Cool?" He teased. She sputtered. "Yeah, uh the gala is not for a couple of days so you have time to -" "I've got a suit" He interrupted, looking over his shoulder briefly. Nodding to herself she curses "Of course, well... I'm going to call it a night"

"Good night Hill" Tony says softly turning around and leaning back on his hands. Quickly spinning on her heels she begins to leave. "Good night Stark"

And when she left, Tony began his extensive research into Wilson Fisk, his gala, and all attending it. Because no matter what, he was going to ensure you were safe.

He was going to protect you.

And whilst he was doing that, she stared blankly at her mirror reflection. It's not like she was freaking out, more just waiting.

She hadn't exactly planned to go to the gala with anybody, but she did not plan to go with him, playboy mother fucking Tony Stark. 

She was waiting for the other voices to chime in, and call her ridiculous or pathetic. But they never said a thing. Or even appeared. Instead, she stared back at herself. She still looked ill. And although Mal had healed her along with Bruce, she couldn't get the image of herself out of her mind. She saw herself aching and coated in dust as she coughed up blood after Ronan's attack. She would blink and saw herself strong, and tall but glowing purple with a dark gaze as she stared back at herself.

She shivered at that reflection.  Because it wasn't her, and she dreaded knowing what had happened to turn her into that. She pushed the thought away along with the daunting thought of meeting Wilson Fisk. Instead, she showered washed everything including her hair and then got ready for bed, and tried to sleep.

Tried but ended up staring at the ceiling.

And then something weird happened. 

She didn't exactly know what happened but she had been berating herself for not being able to fall asleep. Then her room lit up in a low hum of colours, a mix of mild reds, greens and yellows. And it was odd because those colours blended and eventually she saw no colours, she fell into a blissful sleep and awoke when the light bled into her room.

And her phone rang.

Incoming call from... Samuel