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( AND THAT'S ON LEGACY )
CHERRY COULDN'T TAKE MORE THAN TWO WEEKS OFF FROM HER JOB, SO SHE WAS THERE WHEN THEY GOT THE CALL ABOUT TONY. She was sat at her desk, a hand on her mouth as she stared at her computer. Obadiah walked by, a lot of people following him, but he didn't motion for her to follow so she stayed seated. Renee laid her hand on Cherry's back and rubbed it soothingly as Cherry tried to work out the emotions that were storming inside her.
She was so happy that Tony was back, but she didn't want to think about the sorrow that was clawing its way up her throat. It had been three months. Three months of Tony trapped and held hostage while whoever had taken him had done unspeakable things to him. Cherry leaned closer to Renee, let the warmth of her hand comfort her. She didn't cry. Not again. But she did sit at her desk, breathing through her nose with her eyes closed to keep herself calm.
She wished she would have been able to meet Tony at the airstrip, like Happy and Pepper did. But, she was working and had to be working. It was a terrible excuse, she really should have taken up Pepper's offer to come and pick him up, but Cherry knew that both Pepper and Happy (and Jim, but he had found him) were Tony's people more so than she and he needed to see them first. Cherry was just going to have to wait her turn.
It was a few minutes, but Cherry knew Tony had walked into the lobby when people started clapping. She opened her eyes and looked at him, finding him beside Obadiah, who had his arm around Tony's shoulders and was leading him through the gathered crowd. Tony's blue eyes immediately found her in the crowd, and Cherry sent him a blinding smile, so glad to see that he was okay. There was a some cuts on his face, and he was a little sunburned, but he was okay.
Tony sent her back a smile. It wasn't like the ones he gave the press, but something more private and personal and it made Cherry warm up from the inside out. He was gone in the next moment, a flow of people following him. Cherry got up and found Pepper in the crowd, Renee on her other side as they stood at the back of the room. Together, they watched Tony walk to the podium at the front of the room. Cherry reached beside her and grabbed onto Pepper's hand, squeezing tightly. Pepper squeezed her hand back, a comfort among the group of journalists that filled the room. Why Tony called a press conference as one of the first things he did being back on American soil, Cherry didn't know. She guessed she was about to find out.
"Miss Potts? Miss Armstrong?" A masculine voice caught their attention and Cherry turned to see a man in a black suit, some sort of badge clipped to his breast pocket. Cherry didn't recognize him as one of the usual reporters that came to the press conferences, but then again, she didn't pay a lot of attention to them. "Can I speak with you for a moment?"
"We're not apart of the press conference," Pepper answered, pointing her free hand towards where Tony and Obadiah were getting on stage, "but it's about to begin right now."
"I'm not a reporter," the man said, briefly looking at the big group of people before turning back to focus on Cherry and Pepper. "I'm Agent Phil Couslon, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."
