Not That Lucky

#08: Twelve Dollars and a Pack of Cigarettes

"You are worth finding,

worth knowing,

worth loving.

You + all your

one million layers.

Always hold that close."

-m.bliss

__________

Three weeks of being a personal assistant to Tony Stark had come and gone, and I was happy to say that I had not run the company into the ground in a fiery ball of failure. In fact, I had done well enough that Pepper had called me at the end of week two to let me know I was doing fantastic and that she was excited to continue working with me in the future. I was not ashamed to say I spent the rest of the day smiling like an idiot after hearing that. Praise wasn't something I often got, usually it was just a lack of negative attention, but damn I could see why people liked it. Pepper officially offered me the job, Tony cheerfully threatened to buy me the Jeep again, Bruce congratulated me, Clint and Natasha had taken me out for celebratory coffee, and then I also celebrated with Steve the best way we knew how.

Take-out food and the Walking Dead.

Which we were now doing again. It was part of our routine now really. Steve and I were midway through season three and he was nearly caught up since the first half of the fourth season was airing on TV right now.

"Ok, ok, ok." I laughed as the credits rolled on the last episode we planned on watching for the night. We were pacing ourselves. My back was leaning against the couch's arm and my legs were pulled into my chest with a fuzzy blanket covering me. The other half was stretched across Steve's lap who sat half a couch cushion away from me. He looked to me with a knowing grin. "Zombie apocalypse Avengers style."

"Walker apocalypse."

"Correct me again and we're throwing hands." I said back and he laughed, "Now don't evade my question. What's the plan, Captain?"

Steve hummed, "What are my rules?"

"No powers." I said firmly. "I'll let you stay buff or whatever." He chuckled. "But none of that genetically engineered super strength or speed. Just normal buff guy strength. Banner has his brains, but no hulk. Same with Tony. All genius, no suits. Nat, Clint, and I still have our skills obviously because we spent years training and perfecting our talents."

Steve scoffed, "How is that fair?"

"How is that not?"

"Fine, fine." Steve relented and paused to think. Steve had easily become the guy I hung out with the most in the Tower and one of my favorite things about him is that no matter what stupid ass question or scenario I threw at him, he always took the answer seriously. "We definitely need to leave the city."

My eyes widened, "Really? Try to brave it in the wilderness?"

"Of course. You saw Atlanta." Steve motioned to the TV. "NYC would be ten times worse. The hardest part of my plan is getting us all out in one piece."

"The one piece part is important." I hummed. "Tony has tons of cars to use though."

Steve shook his head, "All his vehicles are built for speed though. Speed and being flashy." I snickered, and he continued. "We need something that will get us through a mob of walkers. It'd have to be big too. Steal a van, maybe? Something where we all fit and it's sturdy enough to push through any sort of barrier we come across."