From A Certain Point Of View

Part Three

Pepper doesn't have a comment on Iron Man's actions at the Oodnanatta confrontation, neither does she have any thoughts she's willing to share on the identities of the man and woman whose assistance helped turn the tide for the Avengers.

What she does have is Captain America waiting in her office when she returns from the press conference.

Steve stands as she comes in, fumbling to hold onto the flowers which he presents to her – calla lilies in a dusky purple colour – distinctive and elegant and unusual.

"How are you?" She asks as she reaches up to kiss him on the cheek. There's a strain in his face and his body. She's been too busy lately to do more than smile briefly at the Avengers on her way up to her quarters, but between those glimpses, and things Tony has mentioned in passing, Pepper can tell that Steve isn't coping well with Agent Hill's injury.

"I'm fine." He glances at the screen in the corner of the room, presently showing the news conference she did downstairs fifteen minutes ago. "How are you after that?"

"Better now it's over."

"You must get tired of this always being tied to you and Stark Industries."

"It's an occupational hazard of being involved with Tony," Pepper says more lightly than she feels. It's not that she doesn't love Tony; it's just that there's a lot more to being with Tony than just dealing with him, and sometimes all that extra can become overwhelming.

The announcer is noting that the mystery woman was one of the guests at a Stark Industries private party a few weeks ago – seen in the company of Stark's best friend, Colonel James Rhodes. Two pictures are flashed up onto the screen: a fuzzy close-up of Maria in the back of the pickup, a cap on her head, sunglasses covering her eyes as she aims the RPG towards the oncoming creature army, and a paparazzi snap of Rhodey and Maria greeting each other in the foyer of the hotel, clearly easy and comfortable in the other's company.

Pepper orders the TV off.

"It's just gossip," she says, brushing one hand over Steve's forearm as she steps away around the desk. The muscles are like steel, they're so tense. "They'll speculate anything these days. How is Agent Hill's recovery going?"

"Phil says she's woken a few times, but she's still sleeping a lot," he says, waiting until she's seated before sitting down himself. "I'm not allowed to see her yet."

She doesn't wince – not visibly – but she wonders if she should call Phil and talk to him, or if this is a S.H.I.E.L.D. matter. No, she tells herself. Phil would know how Steve felt about being shut out, would know that Steve would fret about Agent Hill – so this must be something about protocol and rules at S.H.I.E.L.D. - probably regarding relationships and the perception of relationships. Which means she can't interfere.

She shouldn't anyway.

"Tony said they're hopeful of a full recovery." Although what Tony actually said was, She's tough. She'll pull through, if only so she can kick our asses into next week again.

"That's what Phil says." Steve indicates the bouquet of flowers. "I hope they're appropriate."

"They're lovely." Pepper brushes a finger across one of the stamens. "Did you get some for Agent Hill?"

"I thought about it."

He doesn't say why he didn't get flowers for Agent Hill. Something else is weighing on his mind, and right now he seems to be wrestling with how it should be said. So Pepper waits. Sometimes Steve struggles to express concepts for which he doesn't have a concrete reference, and she doesn't need to hurry the conversation along. Pepper has a lot of patience.

"How do you do it?" He says at last. "How do you watch Stark go into a fight knowing he might not come back?"

It's a simple question with a simple answer on the surface. But Pepper's quite aware that it's all the other layers that Steve's struggling with.

She starts with the simple answer.

"Tony has never been 'safe'," she tells Steve, folding her hands in her lap and sitting back in the chair. "Even before he created the Iron Man suit, he was a risk-taker. But I knew what he was when I fell in love with him and I knew he'd never change for me."

"But he did change."

"For himself," she points out. "Not for me. I'm with him because he's changed, but I'm not the reason he changed. And what changed wasn't his propensity to go out and make a target of himself while saving the world. I'm not sure there's anything that could change that, and he wouldn't be the man I love if that part of him went away."

Steve grimaces and looks away.

"I'm not comfortable with her putting herself in danger," he says, staring down at his hands. "I don't know how to be comfortable with that. When I realised she was out there..."

The big hands clench for a moment, as though he's reliving that moment of realisation – that someone he thought of as safely away from danger was nothing of the sort.

Pepper remembers the call from Rhodey three years ago, telling her that Tony's convoy had been attacked. She was numb for hours afterwards – days – trying to think past past the blankness, trying to comprehend that Tony was – in all probability – gone.

Yes, she's been there. She knows how Steve felt in that moment.

She knows it's different for him. Because of who and what he is, and the time period that shaped him. But he's not living in the forties anymore, and things have changed.

"You can't protect her, Steve. Her job involves taking risks. Calculated ones, perhaps, but risks all the same."

"I know that in my head," he says after a moment. "It's just hard to think that I can't-"

Pepper interrupts. "How do you think Agent Hill feels when she has to send you out to save the world, and can't protect you?"

"But that's—" Steve stops. Pepper lets him think about what he was about to say for a beat. Or two. Or three. He looks a little shamefaced, which is a start. "It's not different, is it? Not anymore."

"Maybe it never was," Pepper points out. "From what Tony's told me about Peggy Carter, she didn't have a choice about staying behind when the Howling Commandos went into war. Agent Hill does have a choice – and she made it when she took the job as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"And I have to accept it?"

"You have to accept her for who she is. Because I can't see Agent Hill staying with someone who thought he had a right to tell her to stay home and be safe." She regards him steadily. "You're allowed to be concerned, Steve. But you're not allowed to dictate what she can and can't do."

"She'd kick me off the helicarrier if I tried."

Pepper relaxes a little at the wry comment – a sign that they're out of the woods. "So don't try."

"Do or do not?" He smiles a little.

"In this case, I think it's mostly 'do not'." Pepper says. "And you know, Steve, if I'd had supplies and ammunition that I thought might have turned the tide for the Avengers, I'd have driven out there, whether Tony approved of it or not, too."

"Valkyries," Steve murmurs, then catches her raised brows at the apparent non-sequitur. "You and Maria and Natasha and Jane— It's something Thor said. That Earth makes Valkyries of its women."

Pepper stares at him, surprised and delighted and a little embarrassed. "Really? Wow."

"You're all fighters," Steve says, and looks kind of embarrassed to say so – as though it's not a nice thing to say about women. "Not conventional ones, but you wouldn't go down quietly in a battle."

"Well." Pepper doesn't quite know what to say to that at first. She thinks about being considered a Valkyrie alongside women like Natasha and Agent Hill, and even Dr. Foster, who's brilliant, clever, and has held Thor's interest for running on two years. "That's quite a compliment."

"It is."

"And a reminder?"

She gives Steve a long, pointed look. She likes him – he's a good man – but he does carry some outdated notions with him, and he needs to deal with that.

Steve's smile turns rueful. "I'll keep that in mind."

As the S.H.I.E.L.D. clean-up teams arrive, Tony spots Rogers looking over the personnel, searching for Hill.

Tony presumes the man is searching for Hill since Rogers stops looking when he spots the woman striding across the churned-up field towards Coulson. And Hill is looking for Rogers, too, because her face turns towards him and she smiles – or what passes for a smile on that inscrutable face – and gives him a nod before starting a conversation with Phil that's probably about such mundanities as what needs to be done to get everything in place.

He's kind of disappointed in the reaction – or lack of it.

"It's not the Lieutenant's way to wear her heart on her sleeve," Bruce says as he drags on a pair of trousers inside the back of the Avengers Quinjet. "And she has a job to do."

Tony surveys the clean-up crews spreading across the field in small groups, plastic garbage bags billowing out behind them. "If Pepper didn't at least check I was okay after a battle, I'd be miffed."

"Pepper's not the Lieutenant, and you're not Steve," Bruce points out.

"For which we're all truly grateful," says Barton, coming in with Romanoff and Thor trailing behind, discussing exactly what the clean-up crews will be doing. "And weren't you staying out of that whole speculation thing, Stark?"

"I am!"

"He thinks the lieutenant should be more concerned about Steve," Bruce says when Barton, Romanoff, and Thor all look his way.

Romanoff shrugs. "Steve's walking and talking and clearly in one piece. Maria has other things to do."

"You're all heart, Natalisha. All. Heart."

"I'm exceedingly practical," Romanoff says as she heads for the cockpit. "You don't want to tell Maria what you think she ought to be doing."

Tony watches her go, then turns to Barton, who's putting away his outmoded weapon of choice, waiting for the explanation.

"If Hill thinks she's being herded or coerced, she tends to go off the reservation. Results in the past have been...not pretty."

Something about the way Barton says it cues Tony's curiosity. "Not pretty?"

"Tell Ceiling Cat to look up Madripoor," Barton tells him, closing up the box and likewise heading for the cockpit. "The public files have enough for you to read between the lines; the secure files have the details. Assuming Ceiling Cat can get through the encryptions that is. And you didn't hear it from me."

Tony looks at Bruce, who shrugs, and Thor shakes his head, before going back to the door to look out at the field.

"Just when I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. agents couldn't get any more mysterious," Tony remarked. "JARVIS get me everything S.H.I.E.L.D. has on Madripoor. Store for the flight home." JARVIS gives his assent and starts the downloads. "So are we going to blow this taco stand, or are we standing around forever waiting for Rogers to make kissy faces at Hill?"

Thor coughs, and Tony turns around, already knowing what he's going to see before he meets eyes as cool as ice.

"I'd have thought you had better things to do than play matchmaker, Stark." Hill puts her hands on her hips. "Rogers is doing PR with the locals. Apparently there are some local fans of Captain America and the instant they realised the Avengers were here, they came out in force."

"Are kissy faces involved?"

Tony rather enjoys prodding Hill; she simmers. He wonders what the explosion would look like and whether he'd rather be a fly on the wall or very very far away.

"I didn't ask, but it'll be a few minutes before he's along," Hill says with a saccharine smile that Tony immediately distrusts. "Although if it's kissy faces you want, there seems to be at least one local fan of yours, Stark. Perhaps you'd like to go out and talk to her?"

She steps past him on her way to the cockpit, a slim package in her hand.

Thor peers out the door. "There is a woman with a sign that reads, 'Tony, I am your soulmate,'" he begins.

"I can guess the rest." Tony glares out the back of the Quinjet at the tall red, white, and blue figure crouched down to talk to what looks like a little girl in a sparkly, spangly dress of red, white, blue, and glitter that wouldn't look out of place in one of the old USO chorus lines. "Why do I get the crazies?"

"Because you're Tony Stark." Bruce smirks as he pulls on a shirt.

"I'm not sure what that says, but I know I don't want to know."

"Then don't ask," Hill says as she comes back, pausing at the top of the ramp with one hand on the doorframe.

"Lieutenant Hill? Are you well?" Thor moves to take her arm then thinks better of it as she gives him a warning look. "Is your injury paining you?"

"It's fine," she tells him, starting down the ramp before stopping at the bottom with a frown.

Thor shoots Tony a questioning look, asking whether he should override Hill's insistence that she's okay – which might possibly be one of the stupidest thing a man or god could do – but possibly a better option than watching the woman collapse in a fit of sheer stubbornness.

However, a moment later she turns back. "Stark. My relationship with Rogers – non-existent or otherwise – is none of your business. And I'll thank you not to speculate on it."

A nicer man than Tony Stark wouldn't prod the Lieutenant, but he can't resist. "Oh, I'm just hoping that you'll name your first child after me."

She snorts, a faint smirk twitching across her face. "Oh, no. This one is being named after Phil."

And with that she turns on her heel and strides off across the field, passing Phil some thirty yards out, and pausing to exchange a few words before nodding and changing course – for Rogers and the small band of locals, most of whom appear to be watching for her.

"I am still not fully accustomed to your idiom," Thor breaks the silence. "But did the Lieutenant not just intimate that she is with child?"

"But they're not-" Tony stops. "Are they?"

"That would be under the heading of 'none of your business,' Stark," says Natasha from the cockpit as Phil reaches the ramp and enters the Quinjet. "Are we waiting on Steve?"

"He'll be returning with the S.H.I.E.L.D. clean-up teams," Phil says. "It seems that Maria has some fans of her own here."

They peer out to where the kid in the USO chorusgirl's dress seems to be staring up at Hill with a degree of awestruck worshipfulness that's not usually reserved for S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

"What's with the kid with the dress?" Barton asks.

"She's a big fan of Steve's – inherited the cards from her grandfather." Phil almost comes close to cracking a grin. "Her mama made the dress for the July 4th town parade this year. But then she saw the footage of Maria in the truck at Oodnanatta and decided she wants to be The Lady Who Saved The Avengers when she grows up. And when she mentioned this to Steve, he asked if she'd like to meet the Avengers-Saving Lady."

Tony watches for a moment – the way Rogers is watching Hill and the little girl with a grin the size of Texas, the confiding tilt of Hill's head as she says something to the kid, then turns to look up at Rogers. He'd bet his share at Stark Industries that Hill's actually smiling at Rogers.

"They should just take an ad out; they're so obvious."

"Aww, don't be jealous, Stark," Barton says cheerfully. "You'll always have Pepper."

Tony glares at Barton, who promptly retreats into the cockpit. Coward.

Phil is looking at him with the steady, 'you're tap dancing on thin ice' look that Tony's been getting since he was old enough to come back with a smart retort. He figures he might as well derail the incoming lecture.

"Is Hill actually pregnant?"

The look Phil gives him is decidedly mystified. "Where'd you get that from?"

"The horse's mouth. She was kidding, right?"

Phil doesn't quite smile. The effect is annoying and typical of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. "I'd say Agent Hill won that round. Agent Romanoff, we're good to go when you and Barton are ready."

Romanoff doesn't quite smile as she passes Tony on her way to the cockpit – do they teach them that specific expression in S.H.I.E.L.D. agent training?

"So she's not pregnant then?" Tony is going to get an answer from someone about this, or else there's going to be rumours. Terrible, vicious, overdramatic rumours. "How, exactly, do you know she's not?"

Phil's expression grates on his nerves all the way back to the Tower.

JARVIS greets the Lieutenant and duly informs her of the location of all of the Avengers, allowing her to determine who she wishes to see. He starts with her fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and Mr. Barton. When neither receive any reaction, he progresses on through the others only to be cut off in the middle of telling her Dr. Foster is in the lower labs.

"Where's Stark?"

He's been programmed not to reveal Sir's location unless directly asked. "Mr. Stark is presently in the penthouse suite with Miss. Potts."

"Good." And rather than stating her destination, the Lieutenant punches the floor button for Captain Rogers.

JARVIS stores that information for future reference and notes that the Lieutenant is also among those people authorised for access to that level and that the access authorisation is recent – a matter of days.

A number of flags pop up in his sub-processes, brought up by a routine that JARVIS hasn't noticed before. Which most likely means it's a S.H.I.E.L.D. routine left by Agent Coulson, who occasionally reprograms him through backdoors that neither JARVIS nor Sir ever manages to find.

Those flags don't require action yet, so he leaves them, and goes about the business of small talk with the Lieutenant, although his history indicates that she is unlikely to respond positively.

"I'm glad to see you have recovered from your injuries during the Oodnanatta confrontation, Lieutenant. Broken ribs?"

"And rainbow bruises." She slants a narrow-eyed glance up at the ceiling. "You record what takes place in all public areas of the Tower, don't you, JARVIS?"

"Correct, Lieutenant. Unless explicit orders are given, all private and personal areas in the Tower remain off-limits to recording devices."

"Useful," she mutters as the elevator stops at Captain Rogers' floor.

She walks out of the elevator into the lobby of Captain Rogers' apartment, and presses the buzzer. A moment later the door opens and Captain Rogers looks out, smiling.

"Hey. I'm glad you came."

"Don't be. I'm already rethinking thi—"

The kiss is...awkward. At least by the standards of Sir's kisses with Miss Potts. Captain Rogers doesn't seem to quite know where to put his hands, or if he should open his mouth or not. But this bothers the Lieutenant not at all, judging by the way her hand slides up around Captain Rogers' neck, discouraging him from moving away.

"Not out here," she says when they finally break off, and glances towards JARVIS' sensors.

"Right." Captain Rogers clears his throat and steps back against the door, clearing the way for the Lieutenant to pass him.

She pauses in the doorway with her hand on her chest and looks up at the ceiling. "JARVIS, protocol 611A, authorisation code 'Fury dances with the devil in the pale moonlight'. Initiate."

"'Fury dances with the-' Do I want to know what that does?"

"Probably not."

Captain Rogers catches her hand as she goes by him, drawing her in to him as the door closes.

JARVIS doesn't 'feel' per se. But if he could, he would say that the experience of having his protocols and authorisations overridden by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents is extremely annoying. Especially when the authorisation is immediately contradicted by the flags which are rapidly building up in his sub-processes.

He has a certain amount of flexibility within his programming, unfortunately, this area is off-limits to him.

He lets it be, runs his tasks, does the research Sir has set him, and works at breaking the encryptions on the Madripoor files. Sir made a number of snide comments about spy agencies and secretiveness when JARVIS initially told him about the encryptions.

Some three hours later, he notes a higher-than-customary degree of heat emanating from Captain Rogers' bedroom. This is not a matter for any concern so far as JARVIS knows. Monitoring the enviromental levels of the Tower is one of his tasks, particularly with regards to Dr. Banner and management of his Other Guy, but generally to ensure that nobody burns to death in their beds or other such human inconveniences.

Additionally, such heat levels are well within parameters commonly found in Sir and Miss Potts' quarters, the dual suite shared by Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton, Thor's rooms when Dr. Foster is in the building, and a number of times in Dr. Banner's lab.

So he notes it, but doesn't raise any alarms.

However, some ten hours after that, when Captain Rogers' door opens to show Lieutenant Hill walking out into the lobby, JARVIS finds those flagged sub-processes composing an email to Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D.

No-one ever asks how the book on Cap and Lieutenant Hill getting together is determined.

Well, except for Tony.

And even JARVIS can't tell him.

fin

NOTES: Thank you for reading and for leaving lovely comments!