Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 13

And now it's time for Bernice to have that big job interview.

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Chapter 13

"Miss Potts will see you now," the secretary said.

Bernice lurched to her seat, the bagel and lox she'd foolishly eaten for breakfast this morning on the way over here sitting like a lump of clay in her esophagus. She grabbed her portfolio and teetered towards the enormous carved mahogany double doors which separated the lair of the Chief Executive Officer of all of Stark Industries from the rest of the world. Her three inch heels snagged on a phantom in the carpet, threatening to catapult her right into the secretary's desk. Whatever had possessed her to wear such foolish footwear on the most important job interview she would ever have?

The secretary opened the door, gliding in before her with a stack of folders. Bernice wandered in behind her, awestruck at the enormity of the room and the vast skyline opening up behind the desk. The office was sleek, stylish, and ultra-modern. Everything Jacquie represented and Bernice did not. How had she ended up with this interview and not her more deserving friend?

"It's good to see you again, Miss Rosenthal," Pepper Potts said, rising from her sleek leather chair to shake Bernice's hand. Bernice jumbled her portfolio and her purse, muttering apologies the entire time at her lack of grace, until she had a hand free to take the long, slender hand. "Why don't you have a seat?"

"T-Thank you," Bernice said, forcing herself not to stammer like a blithering idiot. She sat in the oversized leather chair, sinking into its depths like a toddler into a couch. Even with the three inch heels, her feet didn't quite reach the floor.

"I took the liberty of doing a little research before our interview," Miss Potts said, gesturing casually towards an enormous stack of folders neatly piled on one corner of her desk. "You come highly recommended."

"All that's about me?" Bernice squeaked. "I mean ... me?"

She forced her voice to sound calm and low, a trick they'd tried to teach her when she'd taken an acting class as an elective her first semester. She was a lousy actress. But the technique served her well whenever she had to wait on an obnoxious customer at the coffee shop and pretend she didn't want to smash in their face. Stark Industries produced the most cutting edge technology, alternative energy products, and now that Earth had been invaded by aliens, once more it was producing offensive weapons. Bold. She must be bold. Or at least not stammer like a meek little mouse!

Miss Potts pulled a thin, newer folder off the top of the pile and flipped it open. The ones beneath it were old and a much darker color. As though they had been dug out of some storage bin buried deep within some musty basement. She flipped through the contents and pulled out a single sheet of paper.

"I have a letter of recommendation here from a Professor Crowley," Miss Potts said, her blue eyes filled with interest. "He says here you have the sharpest eye for the human form of any student he's ever had."

"Professor Crowley said that about me?" Bernice asked. She craned her neck enough to see the Academy of Visual Arts letterhead, but resisted the urge to snatch the letter out of Miss Potts hand and read it for herself.

Miss Potts smiled, a schooled gesture obviously intended to put her at ease. It wasn't the smile which helped Bernice relax, but the way the freckles just barely visible beneath Miss Pott's makeup subtly matched her ginger red hair. Pepper. All of a sudden the nickname everyone used to refer to Virginia Potts clicked. Bernice's mouth made a surprised little 'o' as her mind put two and two together.

Miss Potts shuffled through several more papers. It began to dawn on Bernice that there were far more papers in that folder than she had submitted along with her resume when Miss Potts secretary had first telephoned her to set up an appointment. Including references from people she hadn't asked to give her references … like old sour-puss Professor Crowley. She'd always thought he didn't like her. She made a mental note to thank the taciturn professor for saying such nice things.