Carry On My Wayward Avenger

Jean Le Roux

Isabella Wolfe dressed for the gala in her bedroom. Logan and Jazz took Cassi out to an amusement park on nearby on a pier, so she could think in peace. Stew might've been a better word and it wasn't in peace. She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror. Izzy looked good enough and turned away to face her closet for shoes. She loved the dress but the mood was just meh. Cassi had gotten to calling it, 'Starry Night' due to the black lace and sparse glimmering white stones littering across the mermaid-style dress.

Izzy slipped on the platform heels(bought earlier that day and honestly, easier to move in.) and clasped on jewelry that didn't mean anything to her. Just to fit in with the socialites. She inspected herself, again. Good enough. Izzy left and still hadn't made up her mind. Her mind was still clouded when the valet opened the door of her car and a hand helped her out onto a red carpet. Izzy remembered to duck back inside to grab her sparkling clutch. The valet attendant handed her a slip that she mindlessly tucked away into the clutch. She wanted a drink, desperately.

"Isabella! Isabella!"

Isabella ignored them and she climbed the stairs to the doors with single minded intent. The cries grew considerably louder and erratic. Isabella scowled. She knew who it was. Anthony Edward Stark. Man of the evening. She huffed and picked her lace skirts up to move up the stairs, better and quicker. She darted in the grand event space and honed in on her goal. Grab a drink(or two) at the bar and go wall flower on the patio. "Two Tequila sunrises, please." Isabella murmured and added. "And a five hundred dollar tip if you can send one out to the patio to me, every half hour."

"Done and done, Ms. Wolfe." The young bartender chimed.

Isabella crinkled her nose at him in distaste. When younger people called her, Ms., it really annoyed her. Nearly made Xavier's unbearable with all of the kids running around. "Another three if you never call me that again. It's Izzy or Isabella."

"Got it, Izzy."

"Take it easy, kiddo. I don't want to have to drag you home." A familiar voice greeted her from behind. "I'll have a scotch neat."

Izzy's mouth fell open and spun to face the source. "Jean?!" She threw her arms around the older American. "What are you doing here? I thought you were in Europe?"

Jean Le Roux was supposed to be in Europe with other members of the Brotherhood after he helped Isabella and SHEILD with sniping Stark Industries' ties to the criminal world. He was older than he looked too. Older than Erik. An Energy manipulator who could pull other's energy for himself hence his youth and age or turn it into a weapon against who he wished. His mutation was still something that Izzy was trying to master but has only managed to turn the energy into a weapon. Jean and Erik were the closet things she had to calling a father.

"I was but I wanted how you were coming here with Wolfe Corps." Jean smiled down at Isabella. "Also, this is a charity gala. It's good PR."

Izzy pursed her lips at the bald man but smiled up to him. "How about we go out to the patio and I tell you some of it? I'm trying to avoid someone as of the moment." She plucked the glasses from the bar to spin on her heels and added to Jean in a whisper. "I can be sober at any moment, I just rather be drunk for this fucking nightmare of an event. Thanks to my friends from above."

"I'd be delighted to hear more." Jean agreed. Isabella knew from the darker note in his voice that he would be. She glanced back over her shoulders to catch a glimpse of Tony Stark entering his own gala, fashionably late. Hecate's words weighed heavy on her mind about the brothers. She had no idea what to do with any of it. "Tell me of your woes, my Bella."

"I will." She promised. "I could also use some advice as well, Jean." Izzy admitted to the older man after the pair found a quiet table away from prying eyes and ears.

He studied his glass of Scotch as Izzy sipped her drink in silence. "So, Tony has found out about my time with you and Erik." She started, carefully. Finding the safe thing to say was like tiptoeing across a minefield and Izzy had to choose words with utmost care. Jean didn't say anything but remained silent, so that Izzy could continue. "My friends from above let it slip through the cracks and he knows. Aunt T was meddling and someone else thought it could be used to bring him to me for the current mission... I don't know how I want to handle it, Jean. He knows more than most before that due to Jazz's mistaken trust. I feel like I want to run away at a drop of a hat but that's not my life anymore... Cassi deserves better. Jazz deserves better... Aunt T gave me advice, naturally but still-... I don't know what to do?"

"Well, I don't think that Jazz is mistaken. I believe that you don't realize how perceptive your sister is. She grew up with a sister who followed Tony Stark like his own shadow and five older brothers. Jasmine grew up and watched her siblings' lives for fun." Jean answered. "You only see her as someone to protect and not the family that was stuck with you through those difficult years."

Isabella pursed her lips, angrily. "I do not!"

The knowing look on Jean's face told her otherwise. She scowled and another voice interrupted her night for the second time. Isabella's scowl deepened, Clint. "What are you doing here? Didn't I tell AC to fuck off?" 

"Easy, little wolf."

"Director Cat said that you were so full of shit. Her exact words to be precise." Clint quoted and set a tequila sunrise with extra cherries in front of Isabella's two empty ones. She was right about that. Isabella's biggest issue was how to deal with Tony. Honesty and trust or lie through her teeth. "The bartender was also bringing this out for you. Clint Barton, I've been working with Isabella as her assistant."

"Jean Le Roux. Let's say I'm a family friend of Bella's." Isabella could hear the threat, clear as day. Hidden under Jean's deep rumble of a laugh and handshake. 'She's my family, don't fuck with her or else'. "Our last meeting was so brief that I couldn't introduce myself." In other words, 'Sorry that I didn't threaten you or anything sooner. I was too busy due to following Isabella out of a window'. 

"Don't worry about it, Le Roux." Clint grinned. 'I know who you are'. "Izzy has told me so much about you, over the months... I think you've been a wallflower for too long. Shall we make a round?" AKA, Izzy trusts me that much and I'm done with this conversation. Isabella rolled her eyes and stood up to leave the table.

"We'll get together for dinner while you are in town? So, you can see the girls?"

"I wouldn't leave without doing so."

"See you." 

Clint led the way into the event hall. He was a gentleman and opened the door for her to step inside. "He can kill you in less than a minute without even touch you." Isabella informed the SHIELD agent as he swept her into a dance. She let him lead her across the dance floor. Her sparkling, lace skirts sweeping after the sharply dressed pair. Eyes seem to follow the pair as they glided smoothly with the skill of an assassin and a spy. Quiet and graceful. Each move wasted little energy and had a purpose. "Just so you know after telling him to fuck off."

"I don't miss."

Isabella laughed. "That's good and it's good that you are on the same side."

"For now."

"Yeah." Isabella agreed with a smirk. Clint would remain wary of Jean with good reason. The Brotherhood and SHEILD weren't exactly friends nor allies. Even more unlikely than X-Men and the Brotherhood.

"Can I cut in?"

Isabella frowned, turning her head to the stranger to decline. This was the third time someone has interrupted her, that night. However, her eyes meet the familiar dark brown eyes of Tony Stark. Izzy wasn't ready for this, yet. Damn it.