"They'll only use you, Scotty. They'll use you and let you take the blame for their mistakes."

"Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it Tony?"

"Pep, I'm not trying to sound like a hypocrite. Really. I'm not. But S.H.I.E.L.D. and I are not affiliated. Nor will I allow myself to be affiliated with them. Even indirectly. It's unacceptable."

The tall, beautiful, strawberry blonde woman stood up, patting the strong shoulder of the woman next to her—Scotty. Pepper's warm hand felt nice on Scotty's ice cold shoulder after having taken a deep, thoughtful walk by the rocky shore. Tony Stark, holding his freshly poured glass of scotch, let Pepper slink past him, threatening to slam her bony shoulder into his. His eyes lingered over his shoulder at the lovely woman he had recently begun loving and holding without regret. He could feel Scotty's sad eyes bearing into his chest, just next to his arc reactor.

Immediately, his chocolate eyes fell back to her blue cesspools that were rotting under the image of the two co-workers in love. Their eyes met, and hers hardened like concrete that had been sitting in the sunshine; no mercy was digging up the soil of this woman's pupils.

"I'm going." She stated with a shrug, leaning her elbows onto her knees, intertwining her fingers.

He rolled his eyes and slightly stepped away, looking surprisingly more incredulous than she expected him to, "I can't believe this."

"Can't believe what, Tony? That I'm wanting to branch out? That I'm taking a step forward despite the fact you've been trying to convince me it's a step back?" she argued, trying not to lose her temper.

"It is a step back Scotty. You aren't getting yourself any further to that hero status you want." He sighed, his voice low.

Blinking, she cocked her head, "Honestly, I wasn't getting anywhere with you helping me out, now, was I?"

"Hey, I was under the impression that we were making a lot of progression. And that you enjoyed my help." He shrugged, placing a hand over his chest, fluttering his lashes.

Scotty just shook her head, looking at him rather desperately, "If you won't even tell me how to turn on my mechanics, I'm not seeing help or progression of any kind. So if you want me to stay, well, in a manner of speaking, turn me on Tony Stark."

Her bluntness caused him to cough a bit, mid sip of his drink. Pepper, from across the room could be heard snorting and flipping a page in a file labeled S.H.I.E.L.D. Scotty tried not to smirk as Tony wiped the corner of his mouth.

"You know, no matter how many times you say that, it always gets to me."

Shuffling around, he advertently did his best to avoid the topic, playing with things on the table or wiping his cup and his face with his shirt. Scotty, nervous, shifted on the couch so she could face him a bit better than before. She narrowed her eyes and folded her hands in her lap.

"So, are you going to show me?"

"I don't think you're ready."

"Not ready? For what, control? Tony I can never learn except from experience." She protested with a scoff, looking at him like his IQ was beginning to drop before their eyes.

"It's just not something you could easily handle. Control can't be taught." He sighed nonchalantly, like the subject was becoming increasingly boring. Her eyes narrowed further.

"That's what I was saying Tony, I have to learn from experience."

"Not gonna happen!" he said in a quiet singsong voice, wanting her to drop it all together.

With a slight growl in her voice, she spat out, "You know, S.H.I.E.L.D. would let me handle this—let me do what you're not letting me do!"

Menacingly, he began to chuckle, wagging a finger at her as he turned towards his bar, "You know, I'm gonna miss that about you. That snarky sarcasm you managed to pick up from me."

"So you're letting me go?" she questioned, standing up, glaring at him like she would suddenly read his mind. He continued laughing and shook his head.

"No. You see," Tony slowly poured himself a smaller portion of scotch, "S.H.I.E.L.D. would let you turn your mechanics on so they could use you…not really knowing of the consequences for you, and, for them—AND without knowing how to correctly turn you on in the first place, you could possibly self-destruct with one flick of the wrist and clip of the wire. See, babe, they don't know you like I do."

"You're seeming to know more about me than I do." She muttered. He smirked to himself.

"That's because I made you—"

"You did nothing of the sort!" she blew up, spitting across the couch out of sudden frustration. "You rebuilt me after you destroyed me! I was made by my parents—out of love and family and life! You "made" me out of guilt! After those five months in that cave, you should've just let me suffer."

Tony shut the scotch bottle; setting it on the counter, looking at her with stone cold, dead set eyes, "I rebuilt you."

"Out of guilt." She repeated.

"Out of love and family and life. Just like your parents—"

"You're lying! If that were true, I would be in Peppers place, wouldn't I? Standing by your side with your arm around me so you could protect like you "always want to"—but I'm not! I'm an obligation to you…a piece of art that you can drag around. You can point at me and say, "I saved her life, I built her, I can make her do neat tricks—and that's what only I can do"…You use me." She growled, advancing towards the bar, pointing a slim, slender finger at him. In context, she would point to herself and then to him to intensify how serious she was about this.

When she was finished, Tony didn't say anything. His jaw, in its frightening way, just sort of locked and popped to one side as he stared at her like she was a shadow.

"And you don't deny it." She whispered through a possible quivering lip that she tried to hold back.

"Go."

Pepper awkwardly looked up from the files, trying to not to listen after hearing Scotty's comment about her relationship with Tony. Her friend was letting out her feelings, and she felt sorry for having been there to witness and the probable cause of her pain.

"What?" Scotty asked.

"Go to S.H.I.E.L.D. Go be treated like the robot that you are. See what I care. See if I need you."

"Tony—you're acting like a child." Pepper suddenly said, staring at him sternly.

Without another word, Scotty pushed herself away from the bar, watching him, never looking away from him. She managed to slip on her sandals and walk over to Pepper. Holding out her hand, Scotty took the file carefully from Peppers twitching fingers. They both watched Tony, and Tony couldn't look at either of them.

Jarvis piped up; finally, opening the door, "Shall I send your things to S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury?"

"Yes, please." She muttered.

There were a few beeps and suddenly a car pulled up for her, "S.H.I.E.L.D. has been notified of your impending arrival and will be expecting you on a private plane in one hour."

"Thank you Jarvis."

"You're welcome."

Pepper rubbed her hands together nervously and stood up, watching her friend in heartbreak as she waited for Tony to turn and look at her. Scotty was in the doorway when Jarvis chimed in again, "Do you need a jacket, Ms. Accion?"

Half-heartedly, Scotty shook her head, "No thank you, Jarvis."

"Good-bye." She followed, shouting it so Tony could hear. His only reaction was to pick up his glass and walk over to his window to stare out at the ocean.

"Madam, this will never be good-bye." Jarvis' playful tone rang through their ears and Pepper smiled, wringing her fingers.

"Of course not. See ya' Peps." Scotty muttered, her voice breaking, before stepping out the door and into the car, leaving a trail of tears for Tony to watch evaporate.

Scotty opened her tired, blood-shot eyes and stared across a large table towards Director Fury, who stood on a round platform between four monitors, looking out colossal windows that stared out at the ocean and sky. At other parts of the table sat Agent Coulson and Agent Hill, one of the two slightly battered and bruised. Lifting a gloved hand up to her temple, she rubbed at it profusely, trying to comprehend the situation.

"I've already called up Agent Romanov. She's on her way here now." Agent Coulson reported.

"What happened, exactly." Scotty sighed, running her hands through her hair, feeling exhausted.

Agent Hill leaned back in her seat, "Last night, at approximately 20:30, the Tesseract began to act up. Upon director Fury's arrival, a demigod named Loki blasted out of the Tesseract and proceeded to kill and harm a few of our men and brainwash Agent Barton and Professor Selvig and take them with him…along with the Tesseract."

Nodding slowly, she quirked a brow and leaned her elbows on the table, "What is the Tesseract?"

"A powerful energy source with unknown, cosmic potential." Fury called from ahead of them.

Scotty rolled her eyes and slammed her head onto the table, causing Coulson to jump a few inches out of his seat. Ever since she had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. almost a year and a half back, they had been just as helpful as Tony. They didn't tell her a lot of things, they didn't inform her that certain things could happen or that they were capable of doing things that they originally had no control over. One thing they had done that she had found positive, was at least find a way to equip her already sufficient, albeit dormant, mechanics with new guns that could pop out whenever she needed without unlocking her original Stark mechanisms, and were able to safely unlock her skin guards for armor.

And, not only had she not known that they had such a thing as a Tesseract cube, capable of cosmic energy, but she hadn't known it had been stolen, despite having left the base an hour before the incident and only being an hour away. No one had informed her that the base had imploded until two hours prior to this present meeting at hand.

Lifting her head and resting on her chin, she mumbled to Coulson, "and he uses his staff to do all of this?"

"Exactly." Coulson nodded professionally, intertwining his fingers, adding, "with the help of the Tesseract."

"Oh, of course." She muttered, sitting all the way up.

"What do you suggest we do, director?" Agent Hill asked, turning to Fury. Coulson also spun around and Scotty looked up through bundles of brown hair that had fallen around her face.

He looked over his shoulder dramatically before spinning around slowly. Individually he looked each and every one of them in the face, especially Agent Hill. He smirked, "It's time to call in the cavalry."

"Sir—" Agent Hill began.

"Yes, Agent Hill?" he interrupted gradually.

She cleared her throat and blinked a few times, "—Sir, is that really necessary? Bringing those people together could be catastrophically dangerous."

"If we let Loki run around with the Tesseract, don't you think that could be even more catastrophically dangerous, Agent Hill?" Fury questioned, folding his arms behind his back and cocking his head questioningly.

"Point taken, Sir."

"Now!" Fury's voice boomed, "We must spread out to retrieve these special operatives and bring them here to deliberate. We can't just send them off without a little order, can we?"

To himself, Coulson shook his head.

Scotty on the other hand couldn't move her head whatsoever because she barely knew anything about the situation. She had been told that her part was to be in the Avengers Initiative, just as Tony had been tested for—leaving her to come out on top. Guessing by the look on Agent Hills face, and what was probably an excited look on Agent Coulsons face, it was about the Avengers.

"It's time to assemble." Fury smiled.

Coulson and Hill stood up simultaneously, followed by Scotty. Hill ran past Fury down to the computers below, while Coulson flew around his chair past Scotty. Confused, she looked between Fury and Coulson and decided to follow Coulson; Fury creeped her out too much.

"Wait—Phil! Who exactly are we getting? Who do I get to work with? Do I get to have a free for all and just pick?" she asked, trying to keep up with him.

Barely, he looked over his shoulder at her with a calm demeanor, "Fury has already given us jobs to go and get the others. He will be off to get Captain America in a moment."

The name echoed through her head and she couldn't but squeal. For years in her childhood, her father and grandfather told stories of Captain America. He was the walking representation of an American Soldier, a true hero, pure and strong. Steve Rogers was basically the poster boy for every man that she had ever wanted to marry, besides the being frozen part. When she had found out they had melted him, she couldn't wait to meet him. The first time was after he had woken up. She had witnessed the moment and got to chase him outside into Times Square. It was sad to see how lost he looked when he found out he had been asleep for 70 years. But now she would get to see him again, and hopefully he would be cheerier.

Throwing a few fist pumps in the air, she did her little jig and then continued to follow Coulson calmly, "that's very nice, and it will be a pleasure to work with him."

"I will be going to get one of my favorites," he sighed, obviously speaking with utter sarcasm, "and you are going to get The Big Guy."

He stopped in his tracks and handed her a well-sized file. Peering up at him, she sneered, "The Big Guy?"

"The big guy. You might like him. You have a lot in common."

Thinking of the nickname, she couldn't think of anyone that anyone had ever called the big guy. The only "big guy" she could muster up the courage to think of was—

"Oh no, Phil you can't send me to get Tony."

"Excuse me?" he asked, blinking a few times and then furrowing his brows. She looked around awkwardly and shrugged.

"I can't go and bring Tony back here. We—didn't part on good terms and it wouldn't be a very smart decision to send the girl he practically made, into exactly what Fury wanted, out to convince him to join the group that stole his "creation"." She explained rather bitterly, air quoting.

"But…we're not."

"Wha—you said the big guy. Tony is a big guy, isn't he? He's important."

"Yes, but he's figuratively big. We're talking about—" Coulson reached out and opened the file laying flat in her hands. "—the BIG guy."

Immediately catching her eye on the first page was a fuzzy picture of a large green monster roaring to the sky, holding onto scrap metal…or maybe a person…or a tank. She cringed and shrugged, "Well, I guess that's a little better."

Coulson patted her shoulder, "Trust me. You'll be fine. I hear he's really nice."

The tone in his voice, a not very reassuring one, set her off kilter and her eyes widened as he walked away. She looked around, holding the folder to her chest. Already, Coulson had led her into the hanger with a plane preparing for her boarding.

Pressing her lips together and squinting, she looked down at the file again and read that she would be traveling to India.

"Well…Mr. Bruce Banner…you sure pick interesting places for people to find you." She muttered before stepping right onto the plane, just as the steps touched the floor.

It was time to put her professional face on.

Oh hey guys!

So, I saw the Avengers and fell in love with Bruce.

My OC that I had had from Iron Man (who was originally supposed to end up with Tony) seemed perfect for him (not trying to toot my own horn).

The whole plot is starting to line up with all of the movies and I AM SO HAPPY.

You'll get to know Scotty a lot more over the course of the chapters (more of her past with Tony, more about her temper and her powers, etc.)

Well, I hope you enjoyed the first one!
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