Inescapable

Ch. 16

You got back to the tower in record time, asking JO for an update on the quinjet's ETA when your feet touched down in Tony's lab. "They're still an hour out, miss." You nodded pretty much to yourself as you stepped out of your suit. "Get me Hill, would ya JO?" You went towards a whiteboard and looked around desperately for an expo marker. "She's coming down now, miss." Finding one you let out a small little triumphant yell. "Yes! Thanks JO."

You stare at the white board, biting down on the top of the marker, before biting down on it and pulling the marker off the top. You write down Ultron at the top, and then bring lines out of it. Each one saying a different thing: Cho, Vision, Sokovia, JARVIS. Then lines out of each of those, you're about to start filling those out when Maria Hill walks into the lab. "You called?"

You turn around to face her. "Yeah. Call your boss."

"Stark? Can't you -" You cut her off. "No. You're real boss." You see her slight surprise, but as quick as you see it, it's gone. She lets out a huff as she turns as says as she goes, "he did say you knew more than you put on. I'll give him a call." And with that she exited the lab, leaving you to your whiteboard musings.

-.-

Tony was a mess the whole ride home. He had thought about chasing after Y/N when she flew off, but Rogers had stopped him asking Tony to give her some space. He spent the whole flight worried he'd truly messed up the one good thing he had.

When they touched down, they were met by Hill at the door. Tony immediately stepped out, worry on his face. "Where is she?" Hill stepped to the side to avoid him crashing into her as he continued inside. "They're waiting for you." She said as the rest of the team approached the door, trying to keep pace with a frantic Tony. 'Who's they?" Tony asked, stopping suddenly and turning back around to look at her. Hill's smile was faint when she spoke, "oh you're in for a good one boss..." She side stepped him and led the team straight to the lab.

When Tony entered the lab, he practically rushed over to Y/N, his need to hold her and keep her close taking center stage. But he stopped short when the dark, one eyed, no fucks given, mess with me and you'll die face of Fury stepped in the way. "You had to go and create a murder bot, didn't you. Artificial intelligence. You never even hesitated."

Tony turned to Hill, "I get it. Was she ever not working for you?" He heard Hill snigger when he turned back to Fury. "Look, it's been a really long day, like, Eugene O'Neill long, so how's about we skip to the part where you're useful or you move out of my way?"

Fury stood his ground. "Look me in the eye and tell me you're going to shut him down."

"You're not the director of me." Tony said as he tried to sidestep Fury, but Fury followed his step, keeping Tony at bay from reaching his goal.

"I'm not the director of anybody anymore. I'm just an old man, who cares about you very much. And who thinks you're God damned stupid nighty-nine percent of the time." Tony could hear Clint try to stifle a laugh behind him, but he was failing miserably. Fury continued. "Not using your best weapon when you had it all along. Thought you were some sort of genius there Stark..."

"Excuse me?" Tony quipped up at Fury, anger finally reaching its boiling point. "You have no idea. You- you don't understand..."

"You saw everyone die." Her voice broke through Tony's rant and stopped him mid-sentence. No one said anything as she saddled up next to Fury, her face a blank slate. The memory of the scene froze Tony silent, the only thing keeping him from a panic attack was the fact that he saw her physically in front of him. At his silence, she spoke again. "They were visions. Produced by Wanda. You all would've had some sort of vision had I not stepped in today." She then glared at Tony; her face still blank but her eyes full of raging emotion. "I could've told you that Anthony. If you had trusted me enough to be honest with me."