[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

[anthony_e_stark]

House arrest sucks.

Even in a house as comfortable and spacious - and currently, kinda partially trashed - as Stark's abode is, it sucks. It's like being put in time out or getting grounded by mom. Except mom in this case is an overbearing questionably intentioned alphabet soup organization. Tony doubts their sudden zeal in keeping him alive has anything to do with any theoretical goodness in their hearts.

If they have any. Government agencies, and all. He doesn't have any doubt when if he fails and dies, both him and his arc reactor will end up in some shady lab somewhere. For science or the greater good or whatever they deem their motivation.

Also, his chest itches. A lot.

The SHIELD guys drug his dad's stuff into his lab just fine, but they didn't bother with anything useful after that. So many notes, so much archival footage. Tony shuffles around all day in his bathrobe looking through everything. The disassembled bits of the Stark Expo diorama sit in a sad pile off in the corner, retrieved from Tony's old office - Potts's new office, he reminds himself - and saved from a sad death in a dumpster.

Seems a little bit of a shame to leave it there while he whiles away the day digging through Howard's old notes, for all the good that's done him. He turns up his music, shoves a few tables together, and goes about halfheartedly piecing it back together from memory. That's where that vendor goes. This path connects to that one there. Wait, he's missing a shrub, where'd he put that thing? He finds it after a moment of searching, hidden underneith another food vendor, but he finds himself pausing before he snaps it into place. Looking over his shoulder. Maybe it's all the SHIELD agents crawling all over his life lately. Maybe he's paranoid, who knows. He has myriad reason to be.

Tony puts the little model plant in its place then pads away. Ok. He's probably just paranoid, wasting time, but it's his time to waste. He'll jump at shadows if he wants to. It's probably just Coulson again.

He stops just short of the corner and peeks around it very quickly. Too quickly. His second attempt is a lot slower, a lot more careful. Maybe he can try to get some outside contact again. He feels a little like a kid trying to sneak out, or something.

It takes Tony a beat or two to realize there is a tiny redhead ninja standing in the lab doorway. He blinks, stares, leaning further around the corner. "Caroline?"