Saving Grace

Seventeen

Before leaving Pepper's office, Tony looked at the city model again. Really looked at it. There was a plaque on it that said, "The Key to the Future is Here."

He looked at the center, and he got an idea.

With a few other workers' help, he got the model in his car, and he raced home. Once there, he had Jarvis scan it to make a projected image that he could manipulate.

The whole thing resembled an atom, the center of it the nucleus.

He removed the footpaths, then the landscape, the parking lots, exits, and entrances. He had Jarvis structure the protons and neutrons using the pavilions.

And there it was.

A replacement for palladium.

However, according to Jarvis, it couldn't be synthesized.

According to Tony, anything was possible.

Which is why he's now putting a hole in the wall of his lab with a sledgehammer, jackhammering a hole into its ceiling, and throwing chords down said hole. He puts a large pipe in the hole in the wall, then starts making a train of pipes outward.

Coulson walks in, Grace behind him, and sees everything. "Do I want to know?"

"I'm playing for the home team, Coulson — you and all your Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers," Tony says. "Now, are you gonna let me work or what?"

Grace walks over to her father, looking at what he's building, interested. Tony hugs her to him for a second. "Hey, sweetheart."

"What are you doing?" she asks. Tony starts to explain it to her as best as he can.

Coulson, however, is looking in the box Tony got the pipes from.

A shield is in it. It looks like Captain America's — the World War II hero — but more broken down. Like pieces were missing off its main framework. Coulson lifts it. "What's this doing here?"

Tony turns, a connector for the pipes in his hand. He stops, putting the connector down. "That's it," he says. "Bring that to me." Coulson senses the urgency in his voice and does so without question. Grace watches.

"Do you know what that is?" Coulson asks.

"It's exactly what I need to make this work," Tony replies. "Lift that coil." Coulson grabs the pipe where he gestured to — a place where two pipes connect over a large tool box. Tony wedges the shield between the pipes and the toolbox. "Drop it, drop it." He does, and Tony checks to see if it's level — his whole reasoning for using the shield at all. When he finds that it worked, he says, "I'm busy. What do you want?"

"Nothing," Coulson replies. "I've been reassigned. Director Fury wants me in New Mexico."

"Fantastic. Land of Enchantment," Tony says.

"So I've been told."

"Secret stuff?"

"Something like that... Good luck."

"Bye," Tony says, shaking his hand. "Thanks."

"We need you," Coulson says.

"Yeah, more than you know."

"Not that much," Coulson jokes. He looks at Grace, whose face fell when he said he was leaving. He smiles a little. "Catch you on flip side?"

She walks over and hugs him, surprising him. "Catch you on the flip side," she repeats. Coulson hugs her back.

Once he's gone, Grace looks at Tony, who grabs two pairs of protective glasses. He hands one to her. "If you're staying in here, you're wearing these, and you gotta stay back."