aaaah already the last chapter and yeah, i do admit that it pretty much sucks and it's just bleh, I guess i just wanted to finish it as soon as possible haha;;;

also, merry xmas! :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker and Bertie Spencer

Chapter X

In Which This Marks the End of My Journey

"Come on."

"You're not gonna freak out on me, right?"

"I hope not."

"Oh, my God. He's strung up over the oil tank, they're gonna light him up, man."

"Viking funeral. Public execution."

"Yeah, death by oil."

oOoOoOo

A bad lit room with one table and two chairs standing in the middle. A camera installed in one corner, monitoring and recording everything that was happening inside this dark room. The door seemed to function with high security, making it impossible for someone to escape. Not that there was anywhere I could escape to, since this room just happened to be in a big aircraft that was like 20 km high up in the air.

But the more important question was: Why the fuck do I have to sit here? I did absolutely nothing wrong!

I knew I shouldn't have followed Agent May. Now lookie look, I was sitting in the goddamn interrogation room.

Fabulous, this day just continues to bear gifts.

I wasn't sure how long I sat there, waiting for someone to come in. There wasn't a clock hanging on the wall, for which I was quite thankful for. I think the constant ticking sound of the clock in a silent room alone would make me go insane.

Should have known it would end up like this, I mean, Agent May did blindfolded me while taking me here…

I'm never going to trust a SHIELD Agent ever aga-

"Good evening, Jackie." Someone greeted and entered the room.

I whipped my head toward the door and saw the biggest Captain America fan stepping in. Coulson was carrying a tray of food with him. For a few seconds I wondered whether they were meant for me or for him. It would be so asshole-ish of him if he'd eat it in front of me because quite frankly I was starving.

He pulled out the chair and settled the food tray on the table, then pushed it forward to me.

Even though my stomach was growling loudly, I still crossed my arms and looked rather unimpressed and even a little bit suspicious at the food tray. Spaghetti Bolognese, a glass water and a chocolate cake.

"Well, I figured you must be hungry." Agent Coulson explained calmly "And I don't want to take you back with an empty stomach."

"Sure it's not because of a certain idol?" I muttered sarcastically. He wisely decided not to comment on it.

I was sure Steve wouldn't harm Coulson in any way for taking me back with an empty stomach and cold, but I believe he'd be upset at him and I don't think Coulson could live with that.

"I promise the food is not poisned."

Raising my eyebrow and staring at him for a last time, I finally gave in and picked up the fork, pierced it into the chocolate cake, shoveled out a small piece and then ate it.

Chocolate cake has never tasted so good before. The spaghettis could wait, because well, I have priorities.

"You know." I said as I took another bite "You can start bombing me with your questions because I know you're dying to let them out." Then I immediately bit my tongue and covered my mouth, turning red at the accidentally slip out.

That was rude of me, I shouldn't have said that. Oh God oh God, I'm such a embarrassing person to be aouround!

Pretending he didn't hear the last part, Coulson smiled and started: "I think we should talk about our agent and your friend Bertie Spencer first."

And suddenly I wasn't feeling hungry anymore.

oOoOoOo

"God, I'd kill for some armor right now."

"You're right, we need backup."

"Yeah, a bunch."

"You know what?"

"Is… is that?"

"Yep."

"Are those?"

"Yeah. Merry Christmas buddy. JARVIS, target Extremis heat signatures. Disable with extreme prejudice… What are you waiting for? It's Christmas. Take 'em to church. JARVIS, get Igor to steady this thing."

"This is how you've been managing your downtime, huh?"

"Everybody needs a hobby."

oOoOoOo

"You seem to have a lot on your mind."

"There is a lot on my mind." I replied, my eyes not even once leaving the window.

Skye, the new SHIELD recruit specialized in hacking and other complicated stuff like that gave me a worried look and sat down onto the chair opposite of me. Apparently it was her who found my location. Up until now I haven't talk to her that much, maybe just exchanged a simple 'Hi'.

What was I supposed to do here anyway? Sure, I was safe and sound, possibly even away from any danger, but that doesn't guarantee that Aldrich Killian wouldn't send another British guy after my ass. I really couldn't just sit here and chat away with other people, while knowing Iron Man and Rhodes are out there to save the world and that Pepper had Extremis stuff inside her.

God, sometimes I wish those people would just stay fictional, it was already bad I got feels for them, but knowing now those supposed fictional characters were real just made everything a lot worse.

As we two girls sat there in silence, I kept repeating the things Coulson and me conversed about. It was mainly Bertie here and Bertie that, he was trying to justify his reasons and actions for sending that lad to spy on me.

I was mad. And hurt. And I really didn't want to hear anything about it. But when Coulson revealed he was in the hospital I dropped my mask and started to worry for him. Bertie was in the hospital because he was trying to protect me. And all the time I was thinking so many bad things about him.

I was a huge bitch sometimes.

But I did find it weird that Coulson didn't ask me what happened in the warehouse/mansion. It made me think he knew something, or he had other reasons not to ask me about it. Either way, I had to be cautious.

"… Why isn't SHIELD helping Iron Man defeating the Mandarin?" I spoke up after a long time.

This seemed to caught Skye by surprise. She thought about it and then responded: "Well, I can't answer that for you, since I joined SHIELD only a few days ago…"

"I mean, obviously the know something grand is about to happen. And I know Tony doesn't want any SHIELD in it, but I still think- it's just- aargh!"

Too much thinking and brainstorming made me lost my ability to form a proper English sentence.

"Stark is facing is own demons." A third voice joined the party.

Both Skye and I turned our head to see Coulson standing there, Agent Grant Ward not far away.

"His own demons?" I repeated what he said, wondering what he meant by it.

Own demons? Did he even have those kind of enemies? Sure there was a lot of people who wanted him dead, but 'facing his demons' sounds so dramatic and serious.

Hang on-

"You mean Aldrich Killian?" I inquired, remembering few snippets from the conversation between Tony, Maya Hansen and Killian, how those three were acquainted before. Something with Switzerland ten years ago. I'm not sure who ditched who though…

"That man has been on SHIELD's radar for quite a long time now, but we never had the right evidence to proof him guilty. And even then, it would be risky to send out our agents against Extremis soldiers."

I stared at Coulson for a few seconds, before pointing out: "Or you could just admit you don't feel like seeing Stark again." Smiling cheekly, I had to remember the few movie scenes where Coulson encountered Stark. I don't think they liked each other all too much.

Coulson did not answer it and said instead: "We will arrive in New York in an hour." Then he turned around and walked away.

Shrugging my shoulders at it, I basically resigned my struggle and slumped back into my seat. "Oh, by the way, I think Pepper was injected with the Extremis drug too."

That piece of information actually made Phil Coulson stop dead track. He looked over his shoulders. "… Are you sure?"

Gotcha.

"Weeeell, Killian showed us a hologram of it, so yeah, I'm sure."

Skye looked at Coulson and then back at me, slightly confused.

"Skye." The SHIELD agent called "I want you to find out the whereabouts of Iron Man as fast as possible."

Satisfied that it worked I put my feet on the table and smirked proudly at myself. I knew mentioning Pepper would completely change his mind.

oOoOoOo

"Well I'll be damned. The prodigal son returns… Whatever."

"You really didn't deserve her, Tony. It's a pity, I was so close to having her… Perfect."

"Okay, okay! Wait, wait! Slow down, slow down! You're right, I don't deserve her! Here's where you're wrong, she was already perfect… JARVIS, do me a favor and blow up Mark 42."

"Nooo!"

oOoOoOo

"Jesus Christ, did you see that huge explosion?!" I yelled loudly, watching from above how flames and other explosion stuff exploded.

"I saw it, but I cannot believe it!"Skye responded, but then smiled widely. I watched her with wary eyes. I knew that smile all too well. It was the typical smile I had whenever I heard the word Loki and/or Tom Hiddleston and anything related to it. But thank God that phase was over.

"It's like- I've always wanted to see the Iron Man suit from up near, and maybe meet Tony Stark in real life, and today I'm gonna- It's just, wow."

While I watched her slowly turning into fan girl modus, I wondered whether I would have acted the same way as her. I mean, I was excited and nervous when I met the Avenger, but to her those heroes were part of history, while I only saw them as fictional characters first.

And I still cannot believe it took me less than a year to accept and adapt to my situation.

"That radar reads a lot of armors flying in the air, and two Extremis soldiers standing. It's too dangerous for us to land here." Simmons read from the monitor, while pointing at the moving dots on them.

What the hell happened here? And two Extremis soldiers? Where were the rest? The more I thought about the more anxious I grew. I prayed that one of them was Pepper.

Coulson looked at me with unreadable eyes, and then turned to Agent May.

"Agent May, prepare a small aircraft for her, but make sure you stay undected."

oOoOoOo

"Honey."

"Oh, my God. That was really violent."

"You just scared the devil out of me. I thought you were…"

"I was dead. Why? Because I fell two hundred feet? Who's the hot mess now?"

"It's still debatable. Probably tipping your way a little bit. Why don't you dress like this at home? Hmm? Sport bra, the whole deal."

"You know, I think I understand why you don't want to give up the suits. What I am gonna complain about now?"

"Well, it's me. I'll think of somethin'. Come here, babe."

"No, don't touch me!"

"No, don't worry about it."

"No, I'm gonna burn you!"

"No, no, you're not. See. Not hot."

"Am I gonna be okay?"

"No, you're in a relationship with me, everything will never be okay. But I think I can figure this out, yeah. I almost had this twenty years ago when I was drunk. I think I can get you better. That's what I do, I fix stuff."

"And all your distractions?"

"Uh… I'm gonna shave them down a little bit."

oOoOoOo

It smelled like fire and burned stuff. But thank it wasn't all too dark, so I could still find my way around. Admittedly, at first I didn't know where to start to look for them: Because this was a huge place, half of it falling apart.

Then I heard the familiar sound of an Iron Man armor flying off in the air. At first I thought it was Tony who found me, but then I followed the armor with my eyes and noted it landed somewhere not so far away from me. The view was only blocked by destroyed building parts. Then metal clashed against each other, and lastly a shot rang out.

… Do I really have to go there?

Yeah, I had to. Because that was a sign of living being there and it was either the bad guys or the good guys.

I sprinted forward to it, the harsh winter wind cutting my face. I saw two figured coming into my view, and then slowly turned the sprint into a jog until I stopped good right five three meters away from them.

Tony and Pepper were embracing each other.

And I was probably disturbing their alone time.

Wow, I had really good timing.

What should I do, call out loudly to get their attention? Well, that wasn't necessary anymore. Since Tony was standing with his back to me, Pepper opened her eyes and then lifted her head up, surprise written all over her face.

"Jackie!"

At that Tony let Pepper go and also turned around, confusion and shock on his face. Before he could even open his mouth to say something, I picked up my sprinting, ran as fast as I could into their direction with my arms wide open and then embraced them both tightly.

"Oh my God, Pepper, you're okay! I mean, you're not okay because of that asshole but you're alive! And I haven't seen you for such a long time and Tony is such a jerk and I just want to punch him in the face for being so stupid and mean and I'm just glad you two are fine!"

I was rambling and I was crying a lot of tears. To me, the worst was over, and both of them were alive. I don't know what happened to Aldrich Killian, but I guess he was dead, and I really hope that he'd stay dead. And somehow I couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

"You're exaggerating, JayJay." Tony mumbled under his breath and sighed. Suddenly he was looking a lot older than he actually was. "Do I even want to know how you found us."

Whipping my tears away with my long sleeved, I shook my head.

We three returned to a comfortable silence, and since the battle finally died down (not that I saw much anyway) I suddenly realized just how cold it was. And I should really consider myself lucky because tony was only standing there in an AIM top. Pepper had it even worse, she was wearing a black sport bra, but didn't even look like she was freezing at all.

I hugged myself tightly and looked up at the sky. It was darkened and I couldn't see the stars, mainly because smokes from faraway where blocking the view.

"JARVIS? Hey?" Tony spoke up after quite some time "You know what to do."

I wondered what he meant with that, and when he stated it was Christmas so screw it, all the Iron Man armor exploded high up in the air into millions of tiny pieces. From down here, it looked like a firework being set off.

… Why did Tony had so many armors to begin with? Actually no, I did not want to know that. But I think there was something else…

The reality suddenly hit me like a brick in the face. Horrified, I turned around to face Tony and Pepper again, screaming incredulously: "It's Christmas?!"

Somewhat worried, both of them confirmed it with a nod.

"That's just, oh my God, horrible!" I continued.

Well shit, I was supposed to have Christmas dinner with my father and his colleagues, and now I wonder what he was thinking now that I didn't turn up. Does he even know what was going on in my life? Like, was he still the same father I had from my own world?

I was really scared to face him the next time, which o hope will not come this soon. Maybe if I'm lucky work will prevent him from having to check up on me once in while.

Pepper was still confused why I called Christmas horrible, but Tony quickly figured out what was going through my mind. He knew I didn't get along with my father and that I barely saw him, but he didn't know why I always avoided him so much.

So trying to act as Uncle Tony, he fatherly put a hand on my shoulder and advised: "JayJay, I know your father may be a dick, and that you just missed Christmas dinner with him – not you'd want to go there anyway, I know you – but I think he at least deserved a call. Just let him know you're fine, terrorists attacked or whatever happened to you."

I stared at Tony and bit my lower lip. That sounded way easier than done. I never call my father, usually he's the one who calls me (rarely, but it happens), though Tony did have a point. I really should at least let him know I was fine and things just got in the way. Maybe I could just send him an email.

Yeah, I should do that."

"What happened while I was gone?" Pepper finally dared to ask.

Tony and I both exchanged a knowing glance, and in synch we shrugged our shoulders, breaking into a huge smile.

"It's a long story."

oOoOoOo

"And so, as Christmas morning began, my journey has reached its end. You start with something pure, somehting exciting. Then come the mistakes. The compromises. We create our own demons. Of course, there are people who say progress is dangerous. But I'll bet none of those idiots ever had to live with a chest full of shrapnel. And now… Neither will I. Let me tell you, that was the best sleep I'd had in years."

oOoOoOo

3rd January, 2013.

Goodbye 2012, and hello a complete new year. I wonder what kind of surprised you've got up in your sleeve for me.

I certainly hope for a calm and uneventful ear because I really need that, at least until 2014. After that I am done with school and well, basically free to do whatever the hell I want to do. Quite honestly, 2012 was the weirdest year I ever had in my life.

"Can I help you miss?"

"I'm here to visit Roberto Spencer." I said and pointed at the flowers I bought for the visit.

"Sure, just let me check which room it is." The woman at the reception started to type something into her computer.

While I waited for her to finish the search, I kept mentally face palming myself for getting flowers. I mean, really flowers?! For someone like Bertie?! What was he, my grandmother?

But then again, what else was I supposed to bring to a hospital visit? My math homework?

The woman interrupted my train of thought by writing down the room number on a sticky note and gave me some vague directions, which wasn't entirely necessary. This was actually my third time I came to this hospital to visit someone.

First it was Pepper who had an OP to have the Extremis stuff removed from her body, then there was Tony who had the arc reactor removed from his chest. Times like this I wish there was some way to remove the Tesseract from my body. But apparently this wasn't entirely possible due the energy being attached to my DNA now or some shit like that.

Yeah whatever, biology was never really my forte.

Taking a deep breath I navigated my way though the long white corridor, some people were smiling at the sight of me holding flowers. It didn't take me all too long to find the room I was looking for.

I thought about stopping and maybe mentally prepare myself to knock on the door and then step in, but then I saw that the door was actually wide open so I threw that idea out of the window. Guess I'll just have to suck it up.

Regardless I still stopped at the door. Bertie sat on the bed and was reading a book, so he did not notice my presence. I simply knocked loudly on the door, and when he turned around to see who it was, his eyes went wide.

"Jackie."

"Hi hey." I greeted rather awkwardly and then pointed at the room. "Can I come in?"

Bertie nodded and gestured me to come in quickly, telling me to close the door, which I did.

Now that I was inside, I stood there in complete winter clothes and flowers in my hand. "I brought something for you." I started and hold them up "But now I that I think about it, it's a stupid idea."

"Yeah, I' not your granny." That asshole actually had the nerve to agree with me instead of jus thanking me.

Rolling my eyes annoyed, but somehow also relieved to see that he was still the same, I put the flowers on the table and took off my jacket because it was getting warm. Dragging a chair next to Bertie's bed, I sat down and then stared at him thoughtfully.

He raised an eyebrow. "Is there something?"

I took notice of his bandaged right arm. "He only punched you in the face." I really don't remember that the British guy did something else to Bertie.

"You blacked out when I tried to attack him again."

"And he gave you a nasty burn?"

He nodded. Oh well. My fault I guess? But that's now what I came here for.

I have been preparing myself for this moment for good four days. At the beginning I didn't even plan to visit Bertie, I honestly just wanted to forget about him for the rest of my life. But I guess Coulson somehow managed to convince me to at least pay a visit to him. And now here I was.

"How long do you have to stay here?" I inquired while staring at the awfully painted picture that was hanging on the wall.

"I don't know, probably two more days?" He answered.

"Okay."

And then we fell into a silence. But strangely what wasn't uncomfortable at all. It was just the kind of silence where no one has got anything to say, because you don't need to say anything in this moment, everything was okay and there's was nothing to say. Unfortunately this was not the case here. I'm sure the both of us had a lot of things to say. Though it certainly felt like the 'old times'. Sadly you cannot live forever in the past and the moment where you have to be honest with each other has to come sooner or later.

It's now or never.

"You know, Bertie." I carefully approached the subject while looking at his face. He stared back with his green-grey eyes, I realized I liked them a lot. "You're an even bigger dick than Stark,"

I guess this took him completely by surprise, because he blinked a few times before stuttering a confused "W-what?"

That was so a kodak moment! That was the first time I saw him being confused and stuttering!

"I thought about it for a long time. Obviously you had this mission to keep an eye out on me, and I guess since you are pretty young – 18 right – you were the best candidate for it-"

"19 actually." He corrected me with a straight face, which made me pause in the middle of my speech. Okay, I certainly felt young now sitting next to him.

"Long story short, I don't blame you for anything, but I am angry and mad at this… Situation. I don't know how SHIELD works, but it think now that the cat is out of the bag, your so called mission ends here and I won't see you again."

Unsurely where I was heading with it, he nodded slowly at what I said.

Well, now comes the rather more emotional part. Taking a deep breath, I continued: "I really liked hanging out with you, even thought 80% of the time I just wanted to punch you in the face – I still want to – but I guess, I should let you know, I really treasured the time we had together. It's a really big shame that you were forced to hang out with me." With that I stood up and put the chair back to its place and grabbed my jacket. "That's all. I thought you should know about it. Goodbye then."

I grabbed the door handle, ready to twist it and walk out, but Bertie suddenly called out for me: "Well, if you walk out of this door, then who's going to save your ass in math?"

Furrowing my eyebrows, I turned around again." Excuse me?"

Mocking my 'excuse me' in an annoying high pitched voice, he repeated his question: "As far as I know you never did the math exercises. And do you honestly thing I'm gonna let you walk out of this door after I spent 80% of our time trying to explain some basic math to you?"

Outraged, I opened my mouth, wanting to throw insults at him, but somehow I couldn't say anything. Instead of his usually unamused face expression he would have, he was now sitting with a smug grin on his face. Then it finally clicked in my head.

That was Bertie's way of saying he enjoyed the time he spent with me too. At least I think so.

Actually no, I was pretty sure that was what he meant by it. My cheek reddened and I felt a huge grin beginning to spread out on my face.

Flipping the bird at him, I said loudly and clearly: "Fuck you." And then turned sharply on my heel and waltzed out of his room.

As I closed the door, I heard him laughing and shouting at me: "Friday three o'clock at Café Mischief. And don't you dare be late!"

oOoOoOo

"Finished your hospital visit, JayJay?"

"Yeah, I did."

"So how did it went?"

"I don't know, not as much as I expected."

"Are you still mad at Bertie?"

"… Not as much as before I guess."

"Did you say farewell to him?"

"… No?"

"Interesting. How old is he anyway?"

"Nineteen apparently."

"You're still sixteen, which makes him three years older than you. Not such a huge gap difference, if it wasn't the fact he's an adult and you're still a minor."

"Tony, what are you implying?"

"I'm implying a lot of things, for instance, I could use this information to blackmail you to Steve."

"I'll just pretend I did not hear that."

"A wise choice."

"… What's in that bag anyway?"

"My chest arc reactor."

"Ew."

"Not 'ew'. I've been living with that thing for a couple of years now."

"Whatever. "

"By the way, I'm seeing Bruce later. Maybe you wanna tag along, it's a good chance to check up on your health again."

"Eh, no thanks, there's still something else I have to do."

"Alright whatever you say, JayJay."

oOo

"So if I were to wrap this up tight with a bow or whatever, I guess I'd say ,y armor, it was never a distraction or a hobby, it was a cocoon. And now, I'm a changed man. You can take away ma house, all my tricks and toys. One thing you can't take away … I am Iron Man."

oOoOoOo

I guess that was the story of how I did not finish my school project and thus failed a class. How Extremis is kind of like the lizard serum but also not like the lizard serum. There will always be those maniac who wasn't to take over the world coughLokicough.

Material things from dreams can also mysteriously appear in your pocket and save your ass once or twice. For now, I have wrapped that blue stone in five layers of newspaper, locked it into a box and stow it away in the deepest corner of my closet, in the hope it won't randomly start glowing and disturb my sleep. I did not tell anyone about it, and I think this shall remain as my secret

For now.

So yeah, at this point, a huge THANKS YOU FOR ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE FOLLOWED MY STORIES SO FAR, WHO HAVE REVIEWED AND ALRTED THE STORY AND PUSHED ME TO CONTINUE IT. I am well aware there was that one or two month break in between haha;;;

So yeah, I hope you'll keep follow Jackie's adventure next year for Thor 2 ^^

gosh, has it really been one and half year since i started writing it? xD

Epilogue

"You know, Peter, thank you so much for swinging by and check up on me. I mean I know you're really busy with Gwen and school and your aunt. But damn, it feels good to get this off my chest. I always knew you were a good listener. Well, normally I would go to Bruce and annoy him with those kind of things, but I think Tony is already doing that, and I really don't want to go to Steve for that. He'll most likely lock me up for the rest of my life. And I did I already tell you that Coulson is still alive?"

"…"

"… Peter?"

"…"

"… Peter!"

"Wait, what?"

"Were you even listening?"

"I was, I mean yeah, I was listening!"

"No you were sleeping and snoring."

"I was not!"

"What's the last thing I told you?"

"That… You were too dumb to do some basic maths."

"That's the beginning of my story!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just… I barely have the time to-"

"To help me with my math homework?"

"No, no, to sleep."

"You know what? Now that I think about it, oh man, I used to sleepwalk. I was… 12?"

"Yeah?"

"I mistook the bin for the toilet and sat on it. My nanny had to wake me up. I had a nanny? That's embarrassing."