The Fall

171. Oh god, I need a pen...and a notary!

DECEMBER 24, 2019  — AVENGERS COMPOUND — RÉA

"Hey, kiddo," Tony says as I enter the workshop.

"Hey," I reply.

"Thanks for coming by."

"No problem," I say as he turns his attention back to his project. "Is that Adam's cybernetic arm?"

"It is," Tony replies. "He has an appointment at nine-thirty..."

He briefly pauses his soldering to glance at his watch.

"...so, in an hour-and-a-half. I'd originally told Caroline it would probably be two months before it was complete—wanted to give myself a large window so I could really make sure it's perfect—but I finished last week. I've just been fine-tuning it; this is the final adjustment. Well, until I can get his anchor implanted. I'm going to ask Caroline if she'd like to have that done today; Stephen's actually on standby, waiting on me to call. According to him, the surgery should take about two hours...which is why I wanted to talk to you."

He pauses, setting down the soldering iron and looking at me.

"So, you know I have the Regeneration Cradle two-point-oh, but I...well, I wanted to ask if..." he clears his throat, "...if, instead of having to use the Cradle, if you wou—"

"If I'd heal Adam once the surgery is complete?"

Tony nods.

"Yes," I say without hesitation. "If Caroline and Adam are both okay with that, yes."

Tony nods again.

"Okay. I'll have Caroline sign an N.D.A.—"

"No. I don't think that's necessary."

"Ré—"

"Tony. People have seen Thor, and Loki, and Hulk. They've seen the Chitauri; they've seen Wanda, and Doctor Strange, and Wong. Some have seen the Outriders; some have seen Rocket and Groot. I'm just a drop in the bucket in comparison. So, if Caroline and Adam want to say anything, let them. But my gut tells me they won't...at least not to anyone who would use the information maliciously or nefariously."

A small grin forms on my face. "I imagine that Adam will want to tell Jacob, since they are best friends."

Tony chuckles. "Yeah, yeah, I expect so."

"Also," I say. "On the subject of Caroline and Adam: I didn't get to see them last time they were here, because Bucky took me away so that you could remove the cameras. Wait...did they still come? And what did you tell everyone else? I never asked...what with...well, with everything else that happened."

"They did. I made a...well, to quote Sam, a 'Cone of Silence'. It's actually really similar to the one in that movie he thinks is hilarious...just without the glitches. I used it during Adam's appointment. We didn't get to do the fire and s'mores, though. Caroline had something come up, and she and Adam left right after his appointment. As for everyone else, I told the team—minus Mitchell, Harris, and Sharon, obviously—that somehow more cameras were installed and that it would take me a little bit to figure out how to remove them without tipping off the mole."

He pauses.

"Also. I wanted to let you know that after we learned about the cameras the first time, I left them up...for a week. And then I found and removed every single one. And I had been thinking that maybe I missed some, but that wasn't the case. Sharon installed more, and I figured out when she did it."

He clears his throat then continues.

"When Rumlow took control of the system...even though I put F.R.I.D.A.Y. through several anti-malware, lockdown upgrades afterward...it left a back door of sorts. It allowed Sharon to gain access to the system and bypass several security protocols, including F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s notification system. With this access, she was able to loop the camera display feeds, but because of the upgrades I did, F.R.I.D.A.Y. was still able to be F.R.I.D.A.Y.. She recorded live footage...it just got buried because—"