The Original Genius

10 - Descent into Madness

“Excuse us if you don’t mind Steve?” Howard hisses out, with too much condescension for your liking.

You scowl at Howard and notice Steve dip his head and go to walk into the headquarters. You shake your head at Howard and then smirk.

“Steve, wait up. I won’t be long and we still have much to discuss” you wink at him and he beams back at you.

Howard steps forwards, once again inches from you and subtly whispers to you “Evie, what are you doing? Don’t go ruining this for us after everything we’ve worked for. Everything you’ve worked for, just to prove a point.”

The anger was curdling your stomach, making you feel sick. You take a step back from Howard and look at him with surprise and disgust, he immediately realises his mistake. You watch the panic sink in and his skin washes pale.

“Evie, no, no, please I didn’t mean it like that” he pleads and reaches out for you.

You swat your arm out of his reach, taking a step forward in his face. Scowling and taking deep breaths to calm your nerves, urging yourself not to scream in his face for his pomposity.

“Howard Stark, you are my dearest friend and I love you whole heartedly, but if you ever question my motives when it comes to Stark Industries again, I will make your life a living hell and you know I can do it. The only one ruining things is you, by following her ideas, so she can stroke your ego, just because she won’t stroke something for you, like every other woman does for you.”

Howard goes wide eyed and you see anger flood them. “You’re way out of line Evelyn”

“Am i? Or did I just touch a nerve Stark?”

“Don’t call me Stark, you know how I feel about you calling me Stark”

“Well you should know, when I call you Stark, you’ve really fucked up. So, if you’ll excuse me, I have some business to attend to and I need to carry out an examination of Captain back there”.

You smile at Steve, and he smiles back, Howard watches you both before the realisation sinks in. “You told him? You told him his title?”

“I did. What of it?”

“Evelyn, why are you doing this?”

You look back at him, straight faced and assertive “You know exactly why Howard” you look and see the sadness in his eyes, causing you to feel a pang of guilt in your heart.

You did love him, he was your bestfriend but his association with her clouded his judgement severely.

You take another step towards him and gently place your hand on his cheek, he quickly grabs hold of it, giving it a tight squeeze. “Howard I-“

“What is going on out here? Come on Howard, we have posters to plan. Evelyn did you manage to get the outfits or not?”.

You look at the floor, taking an breath and look back at Howard, tears lining your eyes and Howard is taken aback, worry quickly etching his face. “Peggy, take Steve and sort it between yourselves or just take the rest of the day off. Me and Evie have personal matters to attend to.”

Before you had time to react, Howard had wrapped his arm around your waist and opened the car door. You look back at Steve and he smiles and winks at you. You look confused at Howard but get in the car anyway.

“Jarvis, you know where to go”.

“Right away sir”.

You watch as Howard walks over to Steve, patting his back and they both laugh. Howard returns to the car and slides in next to you. As he leans back, he puts his arm around you and pulls you to him, kissing the top of your head.

“You can’t look at me like that nugget and not expect me to react. You always come first. Always and it hurts me that you don’t know this by now”.

At least that’s what you hoped would happen, instead as you looked at Howard tears filling your eyes and blurring your vision, he was looking frantically between you and Peggy. You could see the panic in his eyes, you shook your head and sniffled back the tears.

“Steve, shall we?”

“Of course Evelyn”

You walk up to Steve, forcing a smile and he gives an understanding smile in return. As you walk side by side, you feel his comforting hand rest on the small of your back.

You keep your head low and remain quiet for the rest of the day, head flooded with thoughts and confusion.

“Evelyn? Evelyn you still with us?” Peggy’s overly chipper voice ringing in your ears.

“Hm? Oh yeah sorry, world of my own there”

“Yes, we could see that. If you don’t mind joining us back in the real world. We have quite abit of work to be getting on with” you could hear the patronising tone to her voice.

You glance to Howard looking for support because you didn’t have the energy for it yourself.

To your disappointment, he lowers his head pretending to look interested in the work. You sink back into your seat and the tears once again pool.

“Peggy, I think you owe Evelyn an apology”

“I’m sorry?”

You whip your head up and gasp out. “Steve”

“No Evelyn I’ve heard enough” he turns to face Peggy directly “You’ve been nothing but disrespectful towards her since we arrived here and I don’t see any reason why that is, unless you would like me to dig a little deeper ”

Peggy looks utterly dumbfounded and a little shaken. You and Howard share the first proper look since being in the lab, both as confused as eachother.

“I have no idea what you’re on about Steve. It is not my fault that Evelyn can’t handle that Howard has a new agenda” Peggy tries to sound confident.

“Peggy, don’t” Howard finally speaks up.

“No, you all jump to her defence when quite frankly she has been acting like a child since she found out about this campaign. We are putting your innovation out there Evelyn, your research, your priz-“

“Don’t you even dare finish that sentence Carter. If that is how you view Steve, then it is no surprise you come up with this campaign in the first place and the plans look exactly like one of Howard’s conventions. What is this truly about?”

“It’s about Howard. She’s been trying to figure out a way to separate you two. She hates the thought of you two being close” Steve blurts out, but the instant regret floods his face and Peggy goes white, looking between you and Howard.

You scoff and look up at Howard “How’s your ego now Stark?" You shake your head, as Howard looks in shock and as he goes to speak, you pack up all of your things and put your coat on.

"I’ve had enough of this for today. I will see you all in 3 days. Since you two have already booked it all in, wouldn’t look good from a company perspective to not attend. Apologises Steve that your chance to defend your country was of secondary importance to her sexual gratification.”

“Evel-“

“Don’t even go there Stark. I’m not interested. You can’t lecture me, you can’t tell me I’m wrong anymore. I warned you about her. You wouldn’t listen, now look. She got under your skin, she manipulated you into thinking this was a good idea and she convinced you to do it all behind my back. And you let her”.

Your voice broke at the end, this was truly breaking your heart, for so many different reasons. Howard stood in shock, barely moving, as Peggy timidly looked at the floor, every so often looking up through her lashes to see Howard's reaction.

“Steve, don’t suppose you’re in the mood for a drink? I could sure use one.”

“It’d be my honour”

Steve offers you his arm, you loop yours through it and you both walk out of the lab. You weren’t happy, you weren’t angry, but you knew one thing.

You were right.