Saving Grace

Sixteen

"Coulson, I need you to watch my daughter," Tony says, keys in hand as he heads for the ground floor of the mansion.

Coulson, who had been sitting in one of the living rooms watching Supernanny, jumps up. "What-?"

"She's asleep, it won't be too hard. Jarvis can alert you if anything goes wrong."

Coulson runs over and gets in front of Tony, his hand on a weapon in his belt. "Remember what I said about the tasing?"

"I need to go to Stark Headquarters," Tony says. "Pepper is there, I need to talk to her."

"I don't-"

He puts his hands together, his keys in between them. "Please. I'm begging you." Coulson hesitates, so Tony adds, "I'm dying, remember?"

Coulson finally sighs. "Fine. But if you don't come back here within the hour, I will find you, and Fury won't be happy."

Tony turns and leaves immediately. "Great, thanks, Mom, love you."

Coulson sighs again. "I'm so getting fired."

~~~~

On the side of the road, right next to the beach, a man sits in a chair with an umbrella hanging over it. Next to him is his truck, which has strawberries in the trunk. He's selling them.

He watches the cars go by, waiting for someone to stop. No one does.

Not until an expensive white car suddenly pulls off the road and drives straight toward him, kicking up sand in its wake. It stops abruptly. The man stands, grabbing a small box of the fruit out of his trunk. The man in the car asks, "How much?"

"Six dollars," the strawberry man says.

The man in the car takes off his watch. "I don't have any cash. Here." He hands it to the strawberry man.

"No, no, that's too much," the strawberry man replies.

The man in the car insists. "No, just take it. Take it, it's fine."

"No, señor-"

"Take it," the man in the car insists. Finally the strawberry man does. He holds the box of strawberries out to the man in the car. "I don't like people handing me things, so if you could just sit that in the seat- Yeah."

The sand in the air has cleared by now, and it's then that the strawberry man recognizes the man in the car. "Are you Iron Man?"

"Sometimes," Tony Stark replies, driving away.

The strawberry man smiles. "We believe in you!"

~~~~

"Agent Coulson?" a small, tired voice asks.

Coulson, who had gone back to watch Supernanny, jumps a little, then turns. Grace is standing there, in her pajamas, rubbing her eyes. Coulson says, "... Yes?"

"Where's my dad?"

"He's, uh, he's at Stark Headquarters," Coulson replies. "He said he needed to talk to Pepper."

"Oh," she says. She goes quiet for a few moments after that, still waking up. Then, she asks, "What are you doing?"

"I'm watching Supernanny," Coulson replies.