Finding Home

Chapter 2

Peyton walked to the room Fury had someone set up for her and set her stuff down. It was pretty small, just a bed and a nightstand, but it was much better than having just a bunk like many of the agents. The Avengers all got bedrooms, if that's what you could call the closet like space, but again, she appreciated it.

"So, Matilda, is it?" she turned to find Tony leaning on her doorway. She rolled her eyes.

"How did I know you would hack into my file?" she asked. He didn't bother replying.

"So, what's a sixteen year old doing on a team of superheroes?" he asked.

"What the rest of you are doing, trying to protect the earth from outside threats." she replied.

"Yes, but we're adults who know what we're doing." he said.

"You don't think I know what I'm doing, Stark?" she crossed her arms.

"I think you're a kid and Fury has no business bringing a kid into this." he said. She snorted.

"Do you have any idea how much that sounded like something Captain America himself would say?" she asked, knowing it would piss him off. As she expected his face screwed up in distaste before he shook his head.

"Your SHIELD file is about all I could find on you and it's extremely vague, who are you?" he asked, changing the subject.

"That file is the only thing you have because I erased myself from existence. You wanna know who I am? Tough luck. I'm here to do my job and protect my family. Not to make friends and spill my guts. Now, if you'll excuse me, I would like to get some sleep before tomorrow." she said. He looked over her for another second before sighing and walking away. She closed the door behind him and went to bed.

~~~

It was extremely early and Peyton wanted desperately to sleep in, but they all had work to do, especially with the ticking time bomb on the helicarrier, they needed to figure out his plan and fast. Peyton looked over and saw folded up clothes on her nightstand, a white slip of paper on top.

Thought you should look the part, Brainwave -N.R.

She smiled. Soon she would have to poke at Natasha until her tough exterior fully melted because she really needed to talk to that woman. She pulled on the tight leather pants, form fitting black tank top, and red and black leather jacket. She strapped the gun to her side and walked out of the room. She glanced at the glass walls of the labs to see Tony and Bruce working and made her way up to them. The two men glanced at her.

"Need something, pipsqueak?" Tony asked. She rolled her eyes and walked towards them.

"I was going to ask if you needed anything." she said peering over Bruce's shoulder at his monitor.

"Sweetheart, this is a little above your skill set, let the adults handle it." Tony said. She raised an eyebrow, he was beginning to test her patience. Before she could reply Bruce spoke up from the computer.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process." he said.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops." she said before Tony could. Both men looked at her and she smirked.

"What was that about above my skill set?" she asked staring Tony down. He rolled his eyes.

"Alright, alright." he said holding up his hands in mock surrender, "You can help."

~~~

An hour or so later, as they were working in silence, Tony spoke to Bruce.

"You know, you two should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land." he said.