[tony's house]

[lichfield]

Caroline is not having a good day. To-- Stark's party ended early all right, but not in the way he'd suggested. It ended in chaos and a firefight. If she ever sees Rhodes again, she might be going to prison. Then she got to spend the rest of the night calming down Potts and tallying up the party guests to make sure they all got out unharmed. That was fun. And time consuming. She didn't have a free moment to herself until almost lunchtime. Which is when she realized she hadn't yet heard from Tony in any capacity.

And then Potts roped her into some other meaningless chore that isn't actually her job, and it was mid afternoon before she could get away from that. Still nothing from Stark, not even a "stop calling me I'm sleeping." And not only has Caroline not heard anything from him, no one has. Caroline's beginning to suspect the worst. But she's never been much of an optimist. Then there's something from Rushman, and it takes forever too. This isn't even her damn job, for fuck's sake. The next round of busywork from Potts is enough to get her to yell again. Why didn't she do this twelve fucking hours ago? Christ. The drive to Stark's house is unpleasant. She's wasted so much time on these stupid errands that it's dark already.

She knows it's bad when she hits the alleged construction zone. There's no construction here. This is bullshit. The suggested detour, of course, offers no way to actually get to Tony's house. So she good naturedly thanks the "construction worker" she flagged down and follows his directions... until she's far enough out of sight that she can park her car in a ditch and continue on foot. Caroline can think of at least six people or organizations who'd want to set up a perimeter around Stark's house, and none of them are people she'd want anywhere near him. Hopefully she doesn't get shot today.

It takes a while to get there on foot. Especially since she doesn't want to be seen. When she finally arrives, it's... quiet. Instead of the army or Justin Hammer or some kind of super villain there's... one guy in a suit? Some accountant looking asshole. Very government. But just the one of him that Caroline can see. What gives? The place should be crawling with agents, shouldn't it? Hmm.

He may only be one guy, but Agent H&R Block is a fucking problem. He's pretty damn good at keeping an eye on things. Caroline's not sure how she's going to sneak past... Oh. There's a vent. A vent that's not on this guy's patrol path or in his line of sight. Well that's fortunate. There's just enough cover for her to get to it and be out of sight while she pries the grating off. It's-- she has to smother a laugh. It's Tony-sized. Agent Beige couldn't follow her through this unless he removed some limbs first. Perfect.

As she shuffles through the vent, Caroline gets occasional looks at various rooms in T-- Stark's house. Nobody rifling through his stuff or anything, no government thugs... No nothing. Are they guarding an empty house, or is all the action down in the basement? It's probably the latter. God. She has to pop another grate and climb out to get to the basement. She really doesn't have the time to root around in the vents to find one that'll take her downstairs. Taking the actual stairs down is the big risk. If there are people downstairs, they should be paying attention.

...But there isn't anyone downstairs. Just Stark's music blaring from the lab. She cautiously approaches the door. She peers through the glass, but she really can't see anything. Well. Here goes. Caroline taps her passcode in and pulls open the door. She really doesn't want to do this. But she's been expecting this, honestly, ever since she found out T- he was dying. Doesn't make this any nicer, though.

Comments

[lichfield]

Caroline's off balance from Agent Creepy, so she just kind of stares at Tony for a minute. "No," she says slowly. "No spy school. Just the normal kind of shady past. Working for mob guys and such. Like you do." There. That's the very short version.

She belatedly walks over to help put the model together. There are... a lot of pieces. Oh thank god, those papers are directions. Caroline picks up the instructions and leafs through them. She starts popping trees and little buildings into place, one eye on the diagram.

"Hang on," she says after a while. "What was that about Rushman?" 'Spy school with Natnat.' The hell does that mean?

[anthony_e_stark]

"Oh, well, that's everyone's highschool summer job," Tony's fortunately - or unfortunately, depending - able to rebuild Howard's personal vision of Tomorrowland on recall alone, no Ikea instructions necessary. Her question shouldn't surprise him - even if she's faking things, she'd probably ask - and yet...

"You didn't know?" He pauses for a brief moment to glance over at her, eyebrows raised. He sounds a little like he's engaging in regular water-cooler gossip, not outing a spy. "Natalie's not actually Natalie. She's with SHIELD."

He considers the diorama, then settles on wandering back over to shuffle through all the old footage clips he'd been left with. She's got the Land of Make-Believe under control. "What was that about working for the mob?"

[lichfield]

Caroline has to almost throw the papers and little plastic whosit down onto the table so she doesn't break or tear anything. "She's what?"

Rushman works for SHIELD. Rushman works for SHIELD. Caroline clenches her fists and makes a poorly muffled sound of incoherent rage. Don't break anything, Lichfield, this isn't your stuff. "I swear to god, I'm gonna--" she trails off abruptly as her brain catches up and she realizes something. Oh shit.

"Oh god," Caroline says after a long moment. "You're going to have to fire me when this is all over, aren't you?" She slumps into a nearby chair. "Rush-- whatever her name is, she's the one who hired me. Shit." She belatedly picks the little building back up from where she dropped it and sticks it in place. God fucking damn it.

[anthony_e_stark]

"A SHIELD operative," Tony spells it out. "Mole, plant, whatever lingo works best." He's not really sure what verbage is best to use, there.

The searching is suddenly halted when he hears that angry noise Caroline makes. He stands there a little awkwardly, film reel in his hands, mouth twisted down into a very genuine frown.

"I don't know," He says quietly, after a very long moment. "Just help me get through this right now, okay? Later is something I'll deal with when it happens." If it happens. He looks down at the reel's case, the label. Outtakes. Maybe it'll be funny. "And if I fail and die, I won't have to."

That's probably not a good thing to say, but that's pure Stark for you.

[lichfield]

Caroline takes a deep breath and picks the instructions back up. Between her background and now this, she's probably double fired. Somehow. ...Or not. She looks up from the model at To-- Stark's tone of voice. She'd go over there if today weren't 'everything is a lie' day. Shit.

"Right," she says slowly, turning back to the model. There are way too many pieces to this thing. Time to get to work. "You can always fire me later." Caroline starts popping more little buildings back into place at a much faster pace.

Stark. She looks up long enough to give him a half glare over her shoulder. "Knock it off. You're Tony Stark, failing is what your competitors do."

[anthony_e_stark]

Outtakes. Some of these are probably him interrupting Howard, actually. It's kind of hilarious and maybe even ironic (of the likely Morissette variety of irony) that Tony's stuck hoping Howard can somehow pull a miracle out of his ass from beyond the grave. He's not happy about it, either.

"Yeah," He laughs softly. "I can."

His frown fades a little at the glare and what comes after it. He wishes he had a drink. Maybe a nap. Even with SHIELD's temporary panacea, he's tired, achy. Tony visibly shakes it all off and starts prying open the case in his hands.

"Back to work, Lichfield." Is this thing childproof? Really? It comes loose with a satisfying snap eventually, leaving him with very old fashioned celluloid to deal with. "Clock's ticking."