I've Got a Beautiful Feeling
“Why are they here?” Ren growled. The visitors chose to look inconspicuous, unconcerned or very pleased, as was their wont. Turning to look, Domino actually smiled.
“Because they can do the heavy lifting.”
“Yay, lifting!” squealed Lexi, cheered immensely. Now she would not have to carry all the boxes down the stairs. Score one for being female.
“I have a heart condition,” Tony pointed out, leaning against the door frame.
“You have a heart?” asked Lexi, cheekily.
“Now that was deeply evil insinuation, Miss Lexi,” he chided, pretending to be hurt.
Ren snapped, “Or truthful.”
“Simmer down, kids,” Domino ordered. “We need to pack up Phillipa’s things, not bicker. Her landlord is getting pretty snippy about the vacancy. Grab a partner and get packing- no, Lexi, Dr. Banner is going to help me. The last thing I want is you drooling all over the floor.”
“It wasn’t going to be all over,” Lexi whined. “Just most everywhere.”
“Not happening. Dr. Banner with me, Stark with Lexi, and Steve and Clint with Ren.”
Tilting his head to the side in contemplation, Tony noted, “You know, none of you call me by my first name. Is this because you don’t like me?”
“No, because then we wouldn’t mention you at all, like Ren. I’m taking her bedroom, Lexi in the kitchen, and the rest of you everywhere else. We should be done in an hour.”
Split up, it was still noisier than Phillipa’s place usually was. Lexi started with the dishes, which were mostly little Phil’s. Reaching into the box of supplies they had brought, she found the newspaper. Tony was nosier than she was, and therefore stuck his face immediately into the refrigerator.
“Oh-ho, definitely college-age tenants.” He held up a container that seemed to be all mold.
“That’s Karen’s,” Lexi told him.
“How do you know?” Tony asked.
“Phillipa doesn’t keep anything in the fridge for more than a day. Salad does not last long around her, believe you me!” Wrapping up a plate, she suggested, “You should look in the cupboards. Those three in the corner are hers.”
She heard him opening doors while she boxed up the plates. As seemed to be standard, he made several funny remarks, including a disparaging comment about Mother Hubbard. Moving on to the cups, she resisted a snicker. Phillipa so rarely had more than a few cans on hand. Then he came to the last cupboard.
“Holy hipsters! She has more tea than my grandmother.” He picked up a box and shook it. “None of them empty, either!”
“Little Phil loves tea,” Lexi explained. “Unless it hasn’t got any actual tea leaves in it. Then she won’t have any of it.”
“Well that makes it all much more sensible- no, it doesn’t! What does she do with all this tea?”
“Drink it?” guessed Lexi.
“Yes, thank you. I never would have imagined she might do something so otherworldly as drink tea. I mean, why does she have this much tea?”
Shrugging, Lexi stuffed some more newspaper between the cups. “She drinks a lot of it. At least three or four cups a day. Hey, maybe that’s why she’s got such wonderful breasts and I don’t.”
“Probably not, kiddo.”
“Damn!”
Smartly, he laid the tea boxes on top of the dishes. They were too light to make much difference in weight. Once that was done, Lexi closed up the whole thing and heaved it out into the living area. Everything could be piled up until they were ready to bring it all downstairs in one go. Too bad little Phil’s building lacked an elevator. Lexi had thought they were required by law.
A quick search through the drawers and remaining cupboards turned up nothing that belonged to Phillipa. Not that this fact surprised Lexi in the least. She was well aware that the singer had almost nothing. Paying the bills probably kept her from collecting too much stuff.
“Come help us in the bedroom if you’re done out here,” was Domino’s command.
Dr. Banner was folding bedclothes. In the corner, they had already cleaned out the tiny dresser and the desk was bare. Tony was instructed to take it and the chair out to the living room and come right back. Lexi got to help Domino with the closet. How little Phil had crammed all this stuff inside of it and still had room left over was a real mystery.
“Oh, she hates that thing,” Lexi said passionately when Domino pulled out the white and pink sundress.
“And that’s saying something, if little Phil hates it. I have to say, it’s pretty damn ugly.”
“Hey now, ladies,” scolded Tony with a lopsided grin. “She wears it.”
“Because it’s all she’s got. Who needs a shirt dress that’s pink and white when they’re over the age of fifteen?”
Dr. Banner finished cramming a blanket into a box and said, “She has a point, Tony. It’s pretty juvenile for a young lady.”
Lexi clapped her hands together over her next find. “Oh, here’s her music, Domino! Look, she has the X-Files Theme. That would have been perfect for Sci-Fi night!”
“True,” her friend agreed. “But people haven’t expressed a lot of interest in hearing the piano. They like to ogle the girls, not the butt end of an upright.”
“So turn it sideways,” suggested Tony, reaching for the side table. He almost had the drawer handle in his fingers when Ren appeared and slapped his hand away.
“Get out of there!”
Nodding, Domino told the billionaire, “Help Dr. Banner take down the poster board. Slip it into a garbage bag. We’ll put it on top of everything.”
“And why, pray tell, can’t I deal with her nightstand?”
Lounging in the doorway, Clint drawled, “What’s in your nightstand drawer, Stark?”
Seizing her chance, Lexi said, “Condoms. Condoms as far as the eye can see.”
Everyone laughed over the expression on Tony’s face and his subsequent, “Have you been in my bedroom?” While they were preoccupied, Ren took a garbage sack and slid the drawer out into it. The contents she dumped into the bag. Since it was black, no one could guess what was inside. She put the bag into the box with the piano music and carried it out.
“Aha! Found her CDs. Poor things, they haven’t seen much action.” Domino started loading the cases into the open box next to her.
“Why not?” asked Clint, lifting up a box of bedding.
“Her player broke. We’re going to get her another one for her birthday.”
“Why not an mp3 player?” suggested Tony. Lexi gave him her best skeptical look.
“Because she doesn’t have any mp3s?”
Dr. Banner added, very intelligently, causing Lexi to privately swoon, “No computer, either.”
Steve looked in the door, but, seeing the crowd, did not come in. “We’ve finished out here.”
“Just a few more things and we’re done.”
Even Lexi was startled. “Really?”
Nodding, Domino taped up the box beside her. “Just that picture and her alarm clock.”
Naturally, this prompted Tony to pick up the photo. “That’s not a bad picture of Phil,” he said with the air of one being extremely generous to a real bastard. Clint slugged him in the arm.
“Give me that,” Ren demanded. She snatched the frame from him before he could demand recompense. Thoughtfully, Lexi decided Ren would have kicked his nuts up through his ears because Tony would have proposed a kiss.
It was not as though it was a very good picture. Little Phil kept it on her nightstand because it was the nicest one she had, but the others were pretty bad. In that shot, her father was lifting her up to blow out the candles on her cake, so he was a little blurry. Only about four, Phillipa was almost unrecognizable from the beautiful woman she had grown into. But she was looking up at her father with an adoring smile, like he was the best person in the whole world. Thinking of what she knew of Phillipa’s mother, Lexi supposed he must have been.
Now she had excellent friends, however, if Lexi did say so herself. Therefore he would have tough competition in the long run. And there was the strong, silent one to contend with too. Apparently he did it for Phillipa in the bedroom. Who would have guessed she would actually be a sub? In daily life she was usually too shy to even speak up for herself already. Good grief, how did she even ask for-
Lexi cut off that thought as she claimed a bottle of cleaner and a roll of paper towels. Probably not the best plan: thinking of her friend in intimate situations. Then again, she really did have excellent breasts. Some girls had all the luck.
“Where is Karen?” Ren wondered aloud as she wiped down the inside of the refrigerator.
“I don’t know, but I bet it has to do with a man being hip-deep in her-”
“Don’t you dare finish that thought,” commanded Ren. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Adding a little sashay of her hips, Lexi huffed, “Not everyone is as repressed as you.”
“Amen to that,” Tony agreed from his position on the floor, scrubbing at a stubborn stain on the linoleum. For his trouble, he was kicked. He grinned in response. Clearly, he had a death wish.
“Gosh, Stark, I hate to see you reduced to this,” quipped Clint from the doorway.
“Shut up, Movers-R-Us.”
Domino called from the other room, “Put a lid on it, children. Let’s just clean up and go. I’m sending Steve to pick up little Phil’s deposit.”
“Did you keep something out for her to wear tomorrow?” asked Tony, moving on to a new sticky spot.
“No,” chorused the girls.
“I’ll have Pepper get something, then.”
“She won’t want a handout,” Lexi warned.
Tony ignored her, as she suspected he would. “I was thinking something in green.”
Through careful choreography, the girls shared a three-way glance. It was almost hysterical to be a part of. Since being friends was like having telepathy, they all thought the same thing. However, Domino was the one who said,
“Phillipa never wears green.”
Shaking his head, Tony pointed out, “She was the other night.”
“That’s just Jay dressing her,” explained Lexi.
“And he has excellent taste. Although I’d like to see her in something darker. Maybe with a belt.” Tony wagged a finger at the girls, narrowly avoiding a flick from Ren’s towel. “Listen here, every girl needs something nice, and I think the day she gets out of the hospital, recovering from a nasty wound would be a very good time to acquire some new armor against the world.”
“And you know so much about girls,” grumbled Ren.
“What can I say? I’m a worldly individual.” This time he did get smacked.
“Are you all done yet?” demanded Domino. “Ren, quit flirting.”
Furious, Ren pointed at Tony. “He started it! And I am not flirting!”
Dr. Banner looked solemn. “He usually does start it.”
“Hey! Whose side are you on?”
“The winning side, of course,” Clint told the billionaire.
Giggling, Lexi tossed the last paper towel in the garbage bag they had designated for this purpose. “I’m done.”
“Here, Stark, I’ll help,” offered Steve, after handing an envelope to Domino. He took a rag and got down to clean the floor. More acquainted with this type of cleaning, he speeded up the process immensely. That induced the others to pitch in in other areas of the kitchen, but there was no room left for Lexi to help out. Best of all, Dr. Banner was finished too, so Lexi could simply ogle her childhood crush in telling silence.
Of course, he had not been her first crush. There had been that embarrassing thing with the boy band- but Lexi matured much faster than other girls in that regard. She was so over them before she turned fourteen. With science classes being the most interesting, it was only natural that she transfer her affections to a real scientist. She had, as most girls did, considered Tony Stark. For a wickedly cool and congenial genius, though, he was kind of an asshole. So, Lexi had searched elsewhere.
Running across a well-written article about the under-studied field of gamma radiation, Lexi had curiously looked up the author. That was pretty much that. He was a bit older than she was, but gray hair was so distinguished. As for the whole turning green issue: well, if Miss Piggy could love Kermit and be loved in return, what was a little rage between lovers? And she was dying to know if every part of him got bigger when he turned into the Hulk. Every part.
“All right, this is probably better than when the pair of them moved in,” Domino announced. “Let’s take this to the chute and get out of here. This is way too many people for one tiny apartment.”
“I’m amazed we all fit in there.”
“They’d all fit in Karen, too,” whispered Lexi to Ren cheerfully. The older girl glowered, but did not contradict her. It was proven fact: horrifically, disturbingly proven fact.
“What time tomorrow?” Dr. Banner asked Tony as they made their way down the stairs.
“Ten, if she’s awake. If not, they’ll wake her up at eleven. According to the lovely Dr. Simmons, we can feed her lunch, but then she has to get to her new diggings to lie down.”
“Oh, where is she going to stay?” Lexi inquired, very interested.
Looking very smug, for all that he was out of breath, Tony proclaimed, “In a lovely little dorm room all her own. She’s even got her own bathroom and shower. To be sure, it’s the farthest one from the stairs, but she can avoid the noise of everyone sneaking in late at night after curfew.”
“Do they even have curfew anymore?” questioned Clint, looking suspicious.
“Probably not,” confessed Tony. “But, the other bonus is that she isn’t on the floor with the communal bathroom, so she doesn’t have to deal with that, either. Although, I suppose for girls it’s less disturbing.”
“Not if you meet Cousin It in your shower room,” Lexi quickly reminded him. “Or the girl with the freakishly long toenails. Creepy!”
“Well, there you are, then.”
With elbow at the ready, Ren demanded, “Doesn’t she have to audition to get into that school?”
“Well, by rights, she should. But I admit to dropping a little money for a scholarship when the Dean said he wanted her on the roll. He is counting her videos as her primary audition. All she has to do now is have an instructor test her skill level.”
“You paid for her to get into MSM?” Dr. Banner asked.
With a vehement shake of his head, Tony clarified, “No, the scholarship is because they were out of funding for new students. It’s summer term, so that’s not surprising. And she couldn’t afford it on her own, so I was happy to help out. Just in case you’re all ready to come down on me about being selective, I did endow the scholarship with enough funds for three new students. It only makes sense for me, since I am so unartistic. Someone has to make up the lack.”
“You are totally weird,” Lexi declared. “But super nice, too.”
Nodding solemnly, Tony said humbly, “Thank you. I try.”
“You’re very trying, it’s true,” agreed Steve cheerfully. Incredulous, Tony obviously struggled for a moment. Then he put a hand on the taller man’s shoulder and said,
“I’d be mad at you, but I’m too damn proud.”
“Very touching,” said Domino. “But the girls and I need to get to work. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Adieu,” Lexi called several times over her shoulder, just to make sure Dr. Banner knew she would miss him terribly.
“Stop it, runt,” ordered Ren grumpily.
“What’s the matter? Sad that Tony didn’t kiss you?” Ducking her first punch, Lexi danced ahead. “Ren and Tony, sitting in a tree-”
“I swear to God, Lexi, I am going to massacre you!”
Laughing, Lexi hurried forward. This was how life was supposed to be: carefree and happy. That was just about enough dwelling on dark things and changes. Pretty soon, Phillipa would be back at work and honestly happy. She was going to love school and not have to pay for very much. Maybe she could save up and they could go on a bar crawl! Yep, everything was going to be just fine.
***
In as dark a mood as he had ever been, Loki fervently wished himself completely alone. Not only had Thor and his idiot friends come tromping through several times, but the All-Father himself had condescended to personally scold Loki for his nonattendance. Trying to keep his eye on his bride, Loki found his temper sorely tested. If all of Asgard wished to busy themselves in his chambers, they could at least send word ahead of time.
Even Frigg had come to see him, although she was not a surprise. She was gifted with the manners the other brutes lacked. Besides, Loki did have a bit of a soft spot for his adoptive mother. She had not abandoned him after admitting the truth of his origins. Neither did it hurt that she frequently brought him hearty, but wholesome food. As he often forgot to eat, it was an easy avenue to his black heart.
Not so easy as the path his betrothed walked, however. How was it, he marveled, that she slipped into the forefront of his mind so easily? No matter the subject, always his thought traveled back to her. She was rapidly becoming everything to him.
On Midgard, she was slowly recovering from the assault. It had already been one mortal week! His desire for her company nearly overpowered his common sense. Several nights had been spent at her side, watching her dreaming face. Skillfully, he could steer her dreams to more pleasant paths. For his own sake, he wished her a speedy recovery.
Evading the security had been laughably easy. The small-minded fools looked only for strange movements in their camera view. So Loki crafted a simple loop and foisted that vision off onto the camera. No one had noticed at all. So much for the glory and intelligence of SHIELD. As previously, it was all too simple to overcome their pathetic strategies. Of course, even if it had taxed his abilities, he would have done what was necessary. His bride was worth the effort.
He could not wait much longer before having the pleasure of the touch of her naked flesh against his own. And her shockingly erotic tendencies! It had been more than mere enjoyment to dominate her as she had wished; it was fulfilling as well as gratifying. Alluring in every respect, even as he watched from afar she was becoming his one and only fantasy.
What delicious torments he planned for her! Those clothes she wore, for example, provided him with many delightful plans for future encounters. And there would be many. Having sampled her body once, he would be returning for the entirety.
From time to time, his daydreams turned to a tender nature. Indeed, he did want to hold her close in a loving embrace. How sweetly she had told him that she returned his feelings, although it clearly frightened and confused her to feel so strongly. She knew not how long they had been together. Soon, the time would come and he could tell her everything. Until then, he would hold her, loved and jealously guarded, in blissful ignorance. Loki knew he could not trust her yet to understand all of his past actions, and she would have much to hold against him. He needed her so desperately, craved the adoration he could feel clasping him as close as her arms, yearned for the tenderness felt in her words. If he should lose that-
But he would not lose. Too often, he had known the bitter tang of defeat. This was one victory no one would yank from his hands. She was his, now and forever. In the very near future, she would say the words and no one could gainsay such a vow. Even the All-Father must acknowledge its sovereign nature. It would be his ultimate triumph.
Neither would her side of the bargain be without compensation. How well he knew her lonely heart. For her, this would be the honest and faithful love she so longed for. Never would he desert her, nor leave her in terror and fear. It had been a mistake to not attend her properly in this last incident, and he knew now he could not risk such a thing again. She was his betrothed; his responsibility. Against all things, Loki would defend her.
It would not be long before he could return her proper name to her. Poor little woman, having thought that she must name herself in honor of her greatest traitor! She could not help it, having been so grievously deceived as a child, even as Loki himself had been. What lies she had been fed upon! Such pain they had brought to her! Truth would release those chains.
And he would give her such chains as she desired. He could hardly stop picturing her with arms held above her head, entire body exposed to his lusty gaze. With those beautiful eyes locked on him, anticipation making her breath come quickly, waiting desperately for his touch. And he would make her beg! She would learn to please him better than he could pleasure himself, and then he would reward her well. As she had before, she would submit wholly and deliciously to his every whim. He would own her!
Frustrated, Loki turned from the mirror. He could not wait much longer. Tonight, when she was at her most lonely, he would go to her. Until then, he must find something to do with his time- he had it! Grinning wickedly, Loki went to make good on his promise of a gift. Very shortly, she would bear his mark and not even the Avengers would be the wiser. Fools!
***
Phillipa was having yet another surreal experience. Lately, her life seemed to be comprised of them and little else. There were, at last count, exactly one dozen people waiting on her to leave the hospital. Where had all these apparently interested parties come from?
Pepper, Stark’s secretary, had brought her a shopping bag with brand new clothes in it, much to her chagrin. The tags were off, but no doubt they were expensive. Having no other choice, Phillipa gave in and allowed Jemma to help her change into them. She reserved the right to secretly hate them, but rather lost her impetus when she caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Damn the man, but these were very nice.
Scoop-necked, with three-quarter sleeves and a zipper that went all the way down the front to the hem, the dress also had a clearly tailored silhouette. To her surprise, it was a deep green, and knee-length. She had never worn anything like this in front of Tony Stark, nor anyone else for that matter.
Also in the bag was a dark gray cloth wrap belt that fit with equally suspicious perfection. It was less a shock to find the black, shiny flats with adorable lace trim on the top of the toes and canvas strings with charms on the ends fit her. Jay practically posted their shoe size outside of the dressing room door. Since everyone shared most things, girls had to know who was to blame when the right shoe went missing.
Most embarrassing were the undergarments. She had taken absolutely not one peek in the mirror. But just looking down had been enough. Gold was apparently her color, which was all the better with their plain cut. How had he figured these out? Who was she going to murder for this?
“Oh, I have great taste,” Stark crowed when she stepped out of the bathroom.
“Do you?” asked Pepper sharply.
He gave her a bow, “When aided by your extremely capable interpreting skills, of course.”
Mollified, Pepper merely sniffed. The rest of the crowd was more vocal. While they offered an overlarge amount of compliments, Agent Ward came up with a wheelchair. As in movies, no one could walk out of the hospital. Too bad she could not make it fun, or honestly cool.
“Probably the least exciting chariot you’ve had,” Stark noted.
“I used to scoot along on a single rollerblade with a friend. That was probably the least exciting.”
“Hopping on one foot?” Lexi asked.
“Exactly.”
“Oh, I used to do that too, but because we only had one. Did you ever get up to the top of a driveway and balance on one foot as you go down? I used to get so much road rash!”
“And how do you get road rash now?” leered Stark, earning him thwacks from Pepper and Ren simultaneously.
“Well, I am popular,” was his only comment.
Yet another marvel was awaiting her outside. Instead of a regular car, or even a sports car, Stark had brought the limousine. This explained the crowd. Gasoline was not so cheap that everyone could come on their own. So, here he was being generous again. It was so aggravating!
“What do you want for lunch?”
“Whatever I can scrounge,” she insisted firmly.
Grinning like a Cheshire cat, he said, “The best place to scrounge is at a restaurant. Come on, kid, it’s a celebration.”
“Yeah, totally, little Phil!” urged Lexi.
With poor grace, Phillipa relented. “Wherever I can have a decent salad, then.”
While Stark talked gourmet with various members of the party, Jessica patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll go as soon as we’ve eaten, so you can sleep a little more.”
“Where’s Karen?” Phillipa inquired softly. “I kind of thought she’d be here.”
Leaning around Lexi, Agent Sitwell told her in equally quiet tones, “Miss Orwell hasn’t been heard from since the night of your kidnapping. Your landlord officially terminated her lease yesterday.”
“But where will she go? Wait- where will I go?”
“You just have to spoil the surprise,” scolded Stark. “You could have waited for her to have a good meal in her first. Or be taking a drink- that would at least be fun to watch.”
“What surprise?” demanded Phillipa, suddenly furious.
“Take it easy,” Jessica cautioned, but she was past that point.
“No, damn it! I’ve been kidnapped, stabbed, almost killed by some creepy science experiment, he bought me a whole new outfit including underwear and now I can’t even go home? What did you do to my life? I don’t want to go out to lunch- I want to sleep in my own bed with all my own stuff! This isn’t fun or fair!”
“That isn’t a nice way to talk to someone who’s done a lot for you just lately,” Natasha commented coolly.
“No, it’s fine,” Stark insisted. He put a hand on Phillipa’s knee. “I know it sounds like I’m an interfering bastard. I am. But in this case, I didn’t do anything but give your name to the dean of the Manhattan School of Music. See, he was looking for you to see if you wanted to enroll in the fall. Everybody here knows you couldn’t afford that and that seemed like such a damn shame to me.
“Kid, you’ve got more talent in those vocal chords than I ever will. Ask Pepper.”
“He sounds like a frog being strangled,” Pepper confirmed with a little too much enthusiasm.
“Okay, I meant later, but that will do. Maybe I am spoiling you by giving you a scholarship, but there was lot I wanted to do for your dad that I never could. So let me spoil you a little bit for his sake. He wouldn’t want you to never have your chance, Mini-Phil, and that’s the plain truth. And please stop crying, because I swear to God, I will buy you something enormously expensive.”
Phillipa took a deep, shaky breath. “Fine. But there had better be a GPA requirement or something, or I won’t do it.”
“Three point five or better, cross my heart.”
“Don’t do that,” warned Banner. “Something might explode.”
“Why, Bruce, I didn’t know you paid so much attention to my heart.”
Lexi glommed onto Banner. “Don’t you look at him like that. He’s all mine!”
“Uh, do I have a say in this?”
“Sure, as long as you say yes!”
“Sit in your own seat, Lexi,” Steve directed the tiny woman. “You can bounce around later, on your own.”
With a massive pout, Lexi went back to her seat. Phillipa took the momentary break to count heads. Stark, Pepper, Natasha, Clint, Steve, Lexi, Ren, Jemma, Leo, Banner, Skye, Agent Ward, Jessica and Agent Sitwell were all sitting around her. That made fifteen people in the limo, not counting the driver. What restaurant would be able to seat all of them with zero notice?
“I have an idea,” Clint offered, leaning forward slightly, elbows on his knees. “Let’s get shawarma, and Phillipa can have a salad. We can eat in Central Park, or something.”
Rubbing his chin, Stark considered the plan. “It’s not far from her new place, and shawarma is food of the gods- well, Thor anyway. Do they have salads?”
“Yes,” Natasha said from her place next to Clint. “The usual.”
“What is shawarma?” came the five-way chorus, mostly female.
“Oh ladies, and gentleman, this is an experience not to be missed. That settles it for me. Any objections, Agents?”
The senior, apparently, Agent Sitwell smiled. “If it agrees with Phillipa, I have no problem with that.”
“I can have a salad?” Phillipa asked.
“Absolutely. I’d got to the trenches for you to have leafy green things.”
Steve frowned at the billionaire. “Not the nicest way of describing salad.”
“I wasn’t about to wax poetic for rabbit food.”
While the group discussed their options, Phillipa leaned back and gave her eyes a rest. Salad or no salad, she would much rather be asleep. When was this exhaustion going away? Someone tapped her shoulder, and she reluctantly opened her eyes.
“Mr. Rogers advised me that you might want this,” Agent Sitwell said gently, handing over a small rectangular package. “It is yours by rights, so I convinced the director we didn’t need to hang on to it.”
Tearing the simple brown paper, Phillipa saw a photo frame. Confused, as seemed her ground state at present, she carefully tugged the frame from the envelope. She turned it over to came face to face, figuratively, with her father and herself.
It was a profile shot, taken on a sunny day. She was a chubby baby, laughing and reaching for his face. He was laughing too, probably nibbling at her little fingertips. Since her fingers were on his lips, it was a good guess. Better than anything she had ever had, the quality was magnificent. Studio portrait, she thought.
“He kept that on his desk. He always missed you when he was at work. One time he brought you- I thought our administrator would hit the ceiling. But he got away with it. And you were a very cute baby. Most importantly, you were quiet.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course you can,” Agent Sitwell assured her.
“Did I know what he did?”
Sitwell actually thought this question over. “No, I don’t believe you did. You were a little girl, and it would not have been easy to explain.”
“What do you think of your dad’s job, Mini-Phil?” inquired Stark with a grin. “Big hero?”
“Actually, I kind of thought. . . This is embarrassing, but I thought he was a car salesman.”
Eyes bugging out, Stark breathed, “Oh, how I wish Phil were here to hear you say that!”
“Why did you think that?” Natasha queried, languid as ever.
“Oh well. . . He wore a suit to work, but he wasn’t a lawyer. And he loved cars, so. . .”
“But what about the name of the organization?” wondered Steve.
“I didn’t remember it. It was something to do with knights and princesses-”
“SHIELD,” chorused all the agents.
“Yes. But I didn’t know that until Agent Ward came to tell me to be careful, and I didn’t have time to look it up before now.”
Shaking his head, Stark declared, “You have got to get a computer. You’re a student; it’s practically required by law.”
“Oh, I can send you SO MANY emails,” Lexi squealed.
“No!” snapped Phillipa, Ren and Jessica.
“You never let me have any fun,” Lexi accused them huffily.
“Right, pile out everyone- well, except you, Mini-Phil. Hang out for a minute while we fill the cash register in there.”
Released from all social obligations, Phillipa put her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. She had yet to recover her usual energy level. Thus far, she had blamed the wound for her sluggishness. But Jemma had said she would resume bathing and living normally, so long as she took things easy. Then, what was keeping her so tired?
“Whoa, don’t go to sleep just yet, Mini-Phil,” Stark ordered. He pressed a plastic container into her hand. “Your salad, madam.”
“Sorry,” she said bashfully.
“It’s okay,” Steve quietly assured her.
Having come to come kind of decision, Stark announced, “We’ll spread out a blanket so you can nap in the park. It’s been a nice day so far, if a little cool.”
As good as his word, Stark brought out the promised cover for her. Everyone ate, but Phillipa was fading fast. Only Steve was finished before she was asleep again. He put his coat over her, but she was already so far gone that she did not even thank him.
She woke up in her new rooms, being set in a chair. “What?”
“No worries, little Phil,” Jessica said. “You’re home.”
This new place was small, but still larger than she had expected. Compared to her old apartment, she seemed to have a little more room. The appliances looked about of the same quality, though. What struck her as honestly unusual was that it came furnished. She suspected Stark, but he was quick to allay blame.
“Jemma suggested the chair, for your back. Everything else came with the room. Wait until you see the rent. But that money comes right out of your scholarship, so don’t worry about it.”
Jessica offered her a pamphlet from the table. “It looks like someone is going to come by tomorrow afternoon to give you a tour. For now, I suggest you relax. Most of your things are put away- don’t worry, we didn’t let Stark peep at your underwear drawer.”
“I wasn’t interested, just curious. Do you know, even Jay wouldn’t give me your measurements?”
Ren swiped at him. “Quit being a pervert!”
Hands up, Stark insisted, “I said I was only curious.”
“Out!” She chased him with a bottle in her hand. Phillipa wondered where she had gotten it.
“We’ll be back tomorrow for lunch,” Jessica said firmly. “But we’re all working tonight. Now, this is your paycheck from last week, with your tips included. Jay says it is absolutely useless to argue with him about the amount. Here’s your deposit back from the apartment. And this is from Agent Sitwell. Says he got lucky and picked up another. I don’t know what the hell this is.”
“It’s blue juice,” Phillipa tried to tell her, although it was not exactly helpful.
“Sure, it is blue and it is juice. Listen, you can have a shower- you have your own shower. Or you could put away the last of your things. And Lexi picked up some fresh greens for you, so you can eat something for dinner. And there’s always tea. Pots are in the drawer under the stove.
“Don’t forget your pain medication, Jemma wanted you to be reminded. She said at seven would be the best time to take another pill. Go to bed before it gets too late. That’s made up for you.”
“Yes, Mother. Thank you, Mother.”
“Don’t get smart with me.” Jessica playfully cuffed her head. “Like I said, we’ll see you tomorrow. Take care of yourself, little girl.”
“I will. Thanks, Jessica. Can you thank the others for me?”
Giving her a little kiss on her forehead, Jessica promised, “I will. After Ren finishes pounding Tony. I think she’s sweet on him. Never seen her so actively involved in beating a customer before.”
Making a face, Phillipa warned, “Don’t let her hear you say that.”
“No worries, little Phil. Be good! See you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” agreed Phillipa.
Alone, she got up to see what there was left to put away. It was the only way she could think of to acclimate herself to the new apartment. Each room was generally the same cream, but not the institutional shade she had expected. Every window had both curtains and blinds, an unheard of luxury. Most of the rooms were hardwood floors with plain black area rugs, except for the bathroom, which was black and white tiled.
As she had been told, there was a full shower in the bathroom, a rather large stall, in fact. The sink in there was smaller to make up for it. Also, the kitchen was somewhat small, but it had a stovetop and a microwave, and even a deep sink. Facing into the living space where the chair, end table and shelves were situated, there was a small breakfast bar to sit at and eat. Lastly, she looked in the bedroom.
Immediately, she found it much nicer than her former room. The closet was smaller, but there was a full-size dresser and her desk fit into the corner with plenty of space left over for the bed. A slim swivel chair was tucked against the desk snugly. Someone had put a black garbage bag on the bedding, which was unfortunately that awful bedspread Stark had sent to the hospital. She was going to need that paycheck to buy something less hideous.
Checking the drawers of the dresser, she found all of her clothes, save for that awful dress. As she had sort of expected, there was room left over in every single drawer. Some of the things she usually kept in the bedroom she had seen out in the living area, like her piano music and CDs. What, then, was in the bag?
Sitting down on the ugly blanket, Phillipa reached into the plastic sack. Almost at once she knew where the bag had come from. The first thing she pulled out would be the vibrator Lexi had given her for Christmas. She had slammed it into her nightstand drawer as soon as she had gotten home, along with the condoms Lexi had also presented her with. Phillipa had not been able to refuse them, because Jessica had told her they were eminently practical gifts for a single woman. That fact aside, she did not want them. Where was she going to hide them now?
For now, she jammed them under the covers and dealt with the rest of the bag. It was not much, her nightstand drawer having been a sort of catchall. Hairbands, safety pins, band-aids, and bits of paper with song titles written on them were the main contents. After sorting them out, she took the piles to the various places that suggested themselves as the best. That left the hateful sex toy to be dealt with. It was so- so inappropriate!
Leaving it behind, she went back out to the living area to look at the check Jay had given her. Considering he had insisted via Jessica that it was non-negotiable, she expected it to be quite a bit lower than usual, or a bit higher. Pity pay, she thought irritably. With fumbling fingers, she finally managed to break the seal and pull out the pay slip.
It was more than a bit higher. The accompanying note warned again that she was to take what she got without complaint, and explained the extreme spike. Someone- obviously Stark- had tipped Ren very well, and since everyone shared tips, all the employees had partaken of the bounty. So there was no need, the note read, for Phillipa to get in a tizzy. Besides, Jay continued, since her debut there had been a dramatic increase in both customers and tips. If Phillipa kept this up, he was simply going to have to marry her.
Fantastic, thought Phillipa. She had now been proposed to by a man who had been gay since he could first toddle in his mother’s pumps. This day could not possibly get any more weird.
Cue the knock on her door. Gravely suspicious, Phillipa glanced out of the peephole. The young woman who appeared in view looked much less dangerous than anyone at Dark of the Moon. Instantly, Phillipa put her guard up. Her definition of normal was, for the moment, terrifically skewed.
“Hi,” said the new girl when Phillipa cautiously opened her door. “I’m Amanda. Phillipa?”
“Yes,” admitted Phillipa reluctantly.
“Excellent! I’m your mentor. I know the tour isn’t until tomorrow, but I wanted to introduce myself and give you a chance to see me ahead of time, in case you had any questions.”
“I have thousands,” Phillipa warned her. The older girl just laughed.
“We all do in our first week, trust me. Have you read the pamphlet?”
“Not yet.”
Spreading her hands wide, Amanda said, “Don’t worry about it. I heard you were in an accident or something? so, don’t push yourself too hard. We’ll go super slow tomorrow, too. Are you all moved in? Have something to eat?”
“Mostly moved in, and my friend left me food.”
“Perfect. Listen, I have to go out for about an hour, but I’ll be back by three. After that, you can slip down the hall and ask me anything- well, not how atomic fusion works, because I don’t know anything about science, but school stuff. I’m room 206. My roommate is Nelly, but she knows you might come around. And if you need more food, or to borrow anything, just come by and ask. Trust me, anything you need.”
Slightly overwhelmed by this outpouring of generosity, Phillipa managed to say, “Thank you. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thank you for the offer.”
Smiling, Amanda explained, “Someone did it for me once. I’m just passing it on. And hey, if you’re lonely, or a little homesick, come hang out with us. We’re going to watch Dr. Horrible. How totally awesome would it be if we could do that for the musical this year?”
“My God, that would rock my world,” Phillipa breathed, awed by the very thought.
“I know! So let’s hope Neville and Anthony can convince the professors. Most of them are cool, but some of the most senior ones are a little- well, priggish is a good description. Don’t worry, though, none of them teach first year students, so you’re safe for a while. Okay, I’m going to head out. If I don’t see you tonight, which might nearly be sacrilegious, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Phillipa rapped out, and even added a salute. The older girl grinned and Phillipa felt about ten feet tall as she closed the door. She had had a positive social interaction with a total stranger and not completely flubbed it. Maybe, she thought, looking around her new rooms, she had finally found the place where she fit in.
“Because they can do the heavy lifting.”
“Yay, lifting!” squealed Lexi, cheered immensely. Now she would not have to carry all the boxes down the stairs. Score one for being female.
“I have a heart condition,” Tony pointed out, leaning against the door frame.
“You have a heart?” asked Lexi, cheekily.
“Now that was deeply evil insinuation, Miss Lexi,” he chided, pretending to be hurt.
Ren snapped, “Or truthful.”
“Simmer down, kids,” Domino ordered. “We need to pack up Phillipa’s things, not bicker. Her landlord is getting pretty snippy about the vacancy. Grab a partner and get packing- no, Lexi, Dr. Banner is going to help me. The last thing I want is you drooling all over the floor.”
“It wasn’t going to be all over,” Lexi whined. “Just most everywhere.”
“Not happening. Dr. Banner with me, Stark with Lexi, and Steve and Clint with Ren.”
Tilting his head to the side in contemplation, Tony noted, “You know, none of you call me by my first name. Is this because you don’t like me?”
“No, because then we wouldn’t mention you at all, like Ren. I’m taking her bedroom, Lexi in the kitchen, and the rest of you everywhere else. We should be done in an hour.”
Split up, it was still noisier than Phillipa’s place usually was. Lexi started with the dishes, which were mostly little Phil’s. Reaching into the box of supplies they had brought, she found the newspaper. Tony was nosier than she was, and therefore stuck his face immediately into the refrigerator.
“Oh-ho, definitely college-age tenants.” He held up a container that seemed to be all mold.
“That’s Karen’s,” Lexi told him.
“How do you know?” Tony asked.
“Phillipa doesn’t keep anything in the fridge for more than a day. Salad does not last long around her, believe you me!” Wrapping up a plate, she suggested, “You should look in the cupboards. Those three in the corner are hers.”
She heard him opening doors while she boxed up the plates. As seemed to be standard, he made several funny remarks, including a disparaging comment about Mother Hubbard. Moving on to the cups, she resisted a snicker. Phillipa so rarely had more than a few cans on hand. Then he came to the last cupboard.
“Holy hipsters! She has more tea than my grandmother.” He picked up a box and shook it. “None of them empty, either!”
“Little Phil loves tea,” Lexi explained. “Unless it hasn’t got any actual tea leaves in it. Then she won’t have any of it.”
“Well that makes it all much more sensible- no, it doesn’t! What does she do with all this tea?”
“Drink it?” guessed Lexi.
“Yes, thank you. I never would have imagined she might do something so otherworldly as drink tea. I mean, why does she have this much tea?”
Shrugging, Lexi stuffed some more newspaper between the cups. “She drinks a lot of it. At least three or four cups a day. Hey, maybe that’s why she’s got such wonderful breasts and I don’t.”
“Probably not, kiddo.”
“Damn!”
Smartly, he laid the tea boxes on top of the dishes. They were too light to make much difference in weight. Once that was done, Lexi closed up the whole thing and heaved it out into the living area. Everything could be piled up until they were ready to bring it all downstairs in one go. Too bad little Phil’s building lacked an elevator. Lexi had thought they were required by law.
A quick search through the drawers and remaining cupboards turned up nothing that belonged to Phillipa. Not that this fact surprised Lexi in the least. She was well aware that the singer had almost nothing. Paying the bills probably kept her from collecting too much stuff.
“Come help us in the bedroom if you’re done out here,” was Domino’s command.
Dr. Banner was folding bedclothes. In the corner, they had already cleaned out the tiny dresser and the desk was bare. Tony was instructed to take it and the chair out to the living room and come right back. Lexi got to help Domino with the closet. How little Phil had crammed all this stuff inside of it and still had room left over was a real mystery.
“Oh, she hates that thing,” Lexi said passionately when Domino pulled out the white and pink sundress.
“And that’s saying something, if little Phil hates it. I have to say, it’s pretty damn ugly.”
“Hey now, ladies,” scolded Tony with a lopsided grin. “She wears it.”
“Because it’s all she’s got. Who needs a shirt dress that’s pink and white when they’re over the age of fifteen?”
Dr. Banner finished cramming a blanket into a box and said, “She has a point, Tony. It’s pretty juvenile for a young lady.”
Lexi clapped her hands together over her next find. “Oh, here’s her music, Domino! Look, she has the X-Files Theme. That would have been perfect for Sci-Fi night!”
“True,” her friend agreed. “But people haven’t expressed a lot of interest in hearing the piano. They like to ogle the girls, not the butt end of an upright.”
“So turn it sideways,” suggested Tony, reaching for the side table. He almost had the drawer handle in his fingers when Ren appeared and slapped his hand away.
“Get out of there!”
Nodding, Domino told the billionaire, “Help Dr. Banner take down the poster board. Slip it into a garbage bag. We’ll put it on top of everything.”
“And why, pray tell, can’t I deal with her nightstand?”
Lounging in the doorway, Clint drawled, “What’s in your nightstand drawer, Stark?”
Seizing her chance, Lexi said, “Condoms. Condoms as far as the eye can see.”
Everyone laughed over the expression on Tony’s face and his subsequent, “Have you been in my bedroom?” While they were preoccupied, Ren took a garbage sack and slid the drawer out into it. The contents she dumped into the bag. Since it was black, no one could guess what was inside. She put the bag into the box with the piano music and carried it out.
“Aha! Found her CDs. Poor things, they haven’t seen much action.” Domino started loading the cases into the open box next to her.
“Why not?” asked Clint, lifting up a box of bedding.
“Her player broke. We’re going to get her another one for her birthday.”
“Why not an mp3 player?” suggested Tony. Lexi gave him her best skeptical look.
“Because she doesn’t have any mp3s?”
Dr. Banner added, very intelligently, causing Lexi to privately swoon, “No computer, either.”
Steve looked in the door, but, seeing the crowd, did not come in. “We’ve finished out here.”
“Just a few more things and we’re done.”
Even Lexi was startled. “Really?”
Nodding, Domino taped up the box beside her. “Just that picture and her alarm clock.”
Naturally, this prompted Tony to pick up the photo. “That’s not a bad picture of Phil,” he said with the air of one being extremely generous to a real bastard. Clint slugged him in the arm.
“Give me that,” Ren demanded. She snatched the frame from him before he could demand recompense. Thoughtfully, Lexi decided Ren would have kicked his nuts up through his ears because Tony would have proposed a kiss.
It was not as though it was a very good picture. Little Phil kept it on her nightstand because it was the nicest one she had, but the others were pretty bad. In that shot, her father was lifting her up to blow out the candles on her cake, so he was a little blurry. Only about four, Phillipa was almost unrecognizable from the beautiful woman she had grown into. But she was looking up at her father with an adoring smile, like he was the best person in the whole world. Thinking of what she knew of Phillipa’s mother, Lexi supposed he must have been.
Now she had excellent friends, however, if Lexi did say so herself. Therefore he would have tough competition in the long run. And there was the strong, silent one to contend with too. Apparently he did it for Phillipa in the bedroom. Who would have guessed she would actually be a sub? In daily life she was usually too shy to even speak up for herself already. Good grief, how did she even ask for-
Lexi cut off that thought as she claimed a bottle of cleaner and a roll of paper towels. Probably not the best plan: thinking of her friend in intimate situations. Then again, she really did have excellent breasts. Some girls had all the luck.
“Where is Karen?” Ren wondered aloud as she wiped down the inside of the refrigerator.
“I don’t know, but I bet it has to do with a man being hip-deep in her-”
“Don’t you dare finish that thought,” commanded Ren. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Adding a little sashay of her hips, Lexi huffed, “Not everyone is as repressed as you.”
“Amen to that,” Tony agreed from his position on the floor, scrubbing at a stubborn stain on the linoleum. For his trouble, he was kicked. He grinned in response. Clearly, he had a death wish.
“Gosh, Stark, I hate to see you reduced to this,” quipped Clint from the doorway.
“Shut up, Movers-R-Us.”
Domino called from the other room, “Put a lid on it, children. Let’s just clean up and go. I’m sending Steve to pick up little Phil’s deposit.”
“Did you keep something out for her to wear tomorrow?” asked Tony, moving on to a new sticky spot.
“No,” chorused the girls.
“I’ll have Pepper get something, then.”
“She won’t want a handout,” Lexi warned.
Tony ignored her, as she suspected he would. “I was thinking something in green.”
Through careful choreography, the girls shared a three-way glance. It was almost hysterical to be a part of. Since being friends was like having telepathy, they all thought the same thing. However, Domino was the one who said,
“Phillipa never wears green.”
Shaking his head, Tony pointed out, “She was the other night.”
“That’s just Jay dressing her,” explained Lexi.
“And he has excellent taste. Although I’d like to see her in something darker. Maybe with a belt.” Tony wagged a finger at the girls, narrowly avoiding a flick from Ren’s towel. “Listen here, every girl needs something nice, and I think the day she gets out of the hospital, recovering from a nasty wound would be a very good time to acquire some new armor against the world.”
“And you know so much about girls,” grumbled Ren.
“What can I say? I’m a worldly individual.” This time he did get smacked.
“Are you all done yet?” demanded Domino. “Ren, quit flirting.”
Furious, Ren pointed at Tony. “He started it! And I am not flirting!”
Dr. Banner looked solemn. “He usually does start it.”
“Hey! Whose side are you on?”
“The winning side, of course,” Clint told the billionaire.
Giggling, Lexi tossed the last paper towel in the garbage bag they had designated for this purpose. “I’m done.”
“Here, Stark, I’ll help,” offered Steve, after handing an envelope to Domino. He took a rag and got down to clean the floor. More acquainted with this type of cleaning, he speeded up the process immensely. That induced the others to pitch in in other areas of the kitchen, but there was no room left for Lexi to help out. Best of all, Dr. Banner was finished too, so Lexi could simply ogle her childhood crush in telling silence.
Of course, he had not been her first crush. There had been that embarrassing thing with the boy band- but Lexi matured much faster than other girls in that regard. She was so over them before she turned fourteen. With science classes being the most interesting, it was only natural that she transfer her affections to a real scientist. She had, as most girls did, considered Tony Stark. For a wickedly cool and congenial genius, though, he was kind of an asshole. So, Lexi had searched elsewhere.
Running across a well-written article about the under-studied field of gamma radiation, Lexi had curiously looked up the author. That was pretty much that. He was a bit older than she was, but gray hair was so distinguished. As for the whole turning green issue: well, if Miss Piggy could love Kermit and be loved in return, what was a little rage between lovers? And she was dying to know if every part of him got bigger when he turned into the Hulk. Every part.
“All right, this is probably better than when the pair of them moved in,” Domino announced. “Let’s take this to the chute and get out of here. This is way too many people for one tiny apartment.”
“I’m amazed we all fit in there.”
“They’d all fit in Karen, too,” whispered Lexi to Ren cheerfully. The older girl glowered, but did not contradict her. It was proven fact: horrifically, disturbingly proven fact.
“What time tomorrow?” Dr. Banner asked Tony as they made their way down the stairs.
“Ten, if she’s awake. If not, they’ll wake her up at eleven. According to the lovely Dr. Simmons, we can feed her lunch, but then she has to get to her new diggings to lie down.”
“Oh, where is she going to stay?” Lexi inquired, very interested.
Looking very smug, for all that he was out of breath, Tony proclaimed, “In a lovely little dorm room all her own. She’s even got her own bathroom and shower. To be sure, it’s the farthest one from the stairs, but she can avoid the noise of everyone sneaking in late at night after curfew.”
“Do they even have curfew anymore?” questioned Clint, looking suspicious.
“Probably not,” confessed Tony. “But, the other bonus is that she isn’t on the floor with the communal bathroom, so she doesn’t have to deal with that, either. Although, I suppose for girls it’s less disturbing.”
“Not if you meet Cousin It in your shower room,” Lexi quickly reminded him. “Or the girl with the freakishly long toenails. Creepy!”
“Well, there you are, then.”
With elbow at the ready, Ren demanded, “Doesn’t she have to audition to get into that school?”
“Well, by rights, she should. But I admit to dropping a little money for a scholarship when the Dean said he wanted her on the roll. He is counting her videos as her primary audition. All she has to do now is have an instructor test her skill level.”
“You paid for her to get into MSM?” Dr. Banner asked.
With a vehement shake of his head, Tony clarified, “No, the scholarship is because they were out of funding for new students. It’s summer term, so that’s not surprising. And she couldn’t afford it on her own, so I was happy to help out. Just in case you’re all ready to come down on me about being selective, I did endow the scholarship with enough funds for three new students. It only makes sense for me, since I am so unartistic. Someone has to make up the lack.”
“You are totally weird,” Lexi declared. “But super nice, too.”
Nodding solemnly, Tony said humbly, “Thank you. I try.”
“You’re very trying, it’s true,” agreed Steve cheerfully. Incredulous, Tony obviously struggled for a moment. Then he put a hand on the taller man’s shoulder and said,
“I’d be mad at you, but I’m too damn proud.”
“Very touching,” said Domino. “But the girls and I need to get to work. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Adieu,” Lexi called several times over her shoulder, just to make sure Dr. Banner knew she would miss him terribly.
“Stop it, runt,” ordered Ren grumpily.
“What’s the matter? Sad that Tony didn’t kiss you?” Ducking her first punch, Lexi danced ahead. “Ren and Tony, sitting in a tree-”
“I swear to God, Lexi, I am going to massacre you!”
Laughing, Lexi hurried forward. This was how life was supposed to be: carefree and happy. That was just about enough dwelling on dark things and changes. Pretty soon, Phillipa would be back at work and honestly happy. She was going to love school and not have to pay for very much. Maybe she could save up and they could go on a bar crawl! Yep, everything was going to be just fine.
***
In as dark a mood as he had ever been, Loki fervently wished himself completely alone. Not only had Thor and his idiot friends come tromping through several times, but the All-Father himself had condescended to personally scold Loki for his nonattendance. Trying to keep his eye on his bride, Loki found his temper sorely tested. If all of Asgard wished to busy themselves in his chambers, they could at least send word ahead of time.
Even Frigg had come to see him, although she was not a surprise. She was gifted with the manners the other brutes lacked. Besides, Loki did have a bit of a soft spot for his adoptive mother. She had not abandoned him after admitting the truth of his origins. Neither did it hurt that she frequently brought him hearty, but wholesome food. As he often forgot to eat, it was an easy avenue to his black heart.
Not so easy as the path his betrothed walked, however. How was it, he marveled, that she slipped into the forefront of his mind so easily? No matter the subject, always his thought traveled back to her. She was rapidly becoming everything to him.
On Midgard, she was slowly recovering from the assault. It had already been one mortal week! His desire for her company nearly overpowered his common sense. Several nights had been spent at her side, watching her dreaming face. Skillfully, he could steer her dreams to more pleasant paths. For his own sake, he wished her a speedy recovery.
Evading the security had been laughably easy. The small-minded fools looked only for strange movements in their camera view. So Loki crafted a simple loop and foisted that vision off onto the camera. No one had noticed at all. So much for the glory and intelligence of SHIELD. As previously, it was all too simple to overcome their pathetic strategies. Of course, even if it had taxed his abilities, he would have done what was necessary. His bride was worth the effort.
He could not wait much longer before having the pleasure of the touch of her naked flesh against his own. And her shockingly erotic tendencies! It had been more than mere enjoyment to dominate her as she had wished; it was fulfilling as well as gratifying. Alluring in every respect, even as he watched from afar she was becoming his one and only fantasy.
What delicious torments he planned for her! Those clothes she wore, for example, provided him with many delightful plans for future encounters. And there would be many. Having sampled her body once, he would be returning for the entirety.
From time to time, his daydreams turned to a tender nature. Indeed, he did want to hold her close in a loving embrace. How sweetly she had told him that she returned his feelings, although it clearly frightened and confused her to feel so strongly. She knew not how long they had been together. Soon, the time would come and he could tell her everything. Until then, he would hold her, loved and jealously guarded, in blissful ignorance. Loki knew he could not trust her yet to understand all of his past actions, and she would have much to hold against him. He needed her so desperately, craved the adoration he could feel clasping him as close as her arms, yearned for the tenderness felt in her words. If he should lose that-
But he would not lose. Too often, he had known the bitter tang of defeat. This was one victory no one would yank from his hands. She was his, now and forever. In the very near future, she would say the words and no one could gainsay such a vow. Even the All-Father must acknowledge its sovereign nature. It would be his ultimate triumph.
Neither would her side of the bargain be without compensation. How well he knew her lonely heart. For her, this would be the honest and faithful love she so longed for. Never would he desert her, nor leave her in terror and fear. It had been a mistake to not attend her properly in this last incident, and he knew now he could not risk such a thing again. She was his betrothed; his responsibility. Against all things, Loki would defend her.
It would not be long before he could return her proper name to her. Poor little woman, having thought that she must name herself in honor of her greatest traitor! She could not help it, having been so grievously deceived as a child, even as Loki himself had been. What lies she had been fed upon! Such pain they had brought to her! Truth would release those chains.
And he would give her such chains as she desired. He could hardly stop picturing her with arms held above her head, entire body exposed to his lusty gaze. With those beautiful eyes locked on him, anticipation making her breath come quickly, waiting desperately for his touch. And he would make her beg! She would learn to please him better than he could pleasure himself, and then he would reward her well. As she had before, she would submit wholly and deliciously to his every whim. He would own her!
Frustrated, Loki turned from the mirror. He could not wait much longer. Tonight, when she was at her most lonely, he would go to her. Until then, he must find something to do with his time- he had it! Grinning wickedly, Loki went to make good on his promise of a gift. Very shortly, she would bear his mark and not even the Avengers would be the wiser. Fools!
***
Phillipa was having yet another surreal experience. Lately, her life seemed to be comprised of them and little else. There were, at last count, exactly one dozen people waiting on her to leave the hospital. Where had all these apparently interested parties come from?
Pepper, Stark’s secretary, had brought her a shopping bag with brand new clothes in it, much to her chagrin. The tags were off, but no doubt they were expensive. Having no other choice, Phillipa gave in and allowed Jemma to help her change into them. She reserved the right to secretly hate them, but rather lost her impetus when she caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Damn the man, but these were very nice.
Scoop-necked, with three-quarter sleeves and a zipper that went all the way down the front to the hem, the dress also had a clearly tailored silhouette. To her surprise, it was a deep green, and knee-length. She had never worn anything like this in front of Tony Stark, nor anyone else for that matter.
Also in the bag was a dark gray cloth wrap belt that fit with equally suspicious perfection. It was less a shock to find the black, shiny flats with adorable lace trim on the top of the toes and canvas strings with charms on the ends fit her. Jay practically posted their shoe size outside of the dressing room door. Since everyone shared most things, girls had to know who was to blame when the right shoe went missing.
Most embarrassing were the undergarments. She had taken absolutely not one peek in the mirror. But just looking down had been enough. Gold was apparently her color, which was all the better with their plain cut. How had he figured these out? Who was she going to murder for this?
“Oh, I have great taste,” Stark crowed when she stepped out of the bathroom.
“Do you?” asked Pepper sharply.
He gave her a bow, “When aided by your extremely capable interpreting skills, of course.”
Mollified, Pepper merely sniffed. The rest of the crowd was more vocal. While they offered an overlarge amount of compliments, Agent Ward came up with a wheelchair. As in movies, no one could walk out of the hospital. Too bad she could not make it fun, or honestly cool.
“Probably the least exciting chariot you’ve had,” Stark noted.
“I used to scoot along on a single rollerblade with a friend. That was probably the least exciting.”
“Hopping on one foot?” Lexi asked.
“Exactly.”
“Oh, I used to do that too, but because we only had one. Did you ever get up to the top of a driveway and balance on one foot as you go down? I used to get so much road rash!”
“And how do you get road rash now?” leered Stark, earning him thwacks from Pepper and Ren simultaneously.
“Well, I am popular,” was his only comment.
Yet another marvel was awaiting her outside. Instead of a regular car, or even a sports car, Stark had brought the limousine. This explained the crowd. Gasoline was not so cheap that everyone could come on their own. So, here he was being generous again. It was so aggravating!
“What do you want for lunch?”
“Whatever I can scrounge,” she insisted firmly.
Grinning like a Cheshire cat, he said, “The best place to scrounge is at a restaurant. Come on, kid, it’s a celebration.”
“Yeah, totally, little Phil!” urged Lexi.
With poor grace, Phillipa relented. “Wherever I can have a decent salad, then.”
While Stark talked gourmet with various members of the party, Jessica patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll go as soon as we’ve eaten, so you can sleep a little more.”
“Where’s Karen?” Phillipa inquired softly. “I kind of thought she’d be here.”
Leaning around Lexi, Agent Sitwell told her in equally quiet tones, “Miss Orwell hasn’t been heard from since the night of your kidnapping. Your landlord officially terminated her lease yesterday.”
“But where will she go? Wait- where will I go?”
“You just have to spoil the surprise,” scolded Stark. “You could have waited for her to have a good meal in her first. Or be taking a drink- that would at least be fun to watch.”
“What surprise?” demanded Phillipa, suddenly furious.
“Take it easy,” Jessica cautioned, but she was past that point.
“No, damn it! I’ve been kidnapped, stabbed, almost killed by some creepy science experiment, he bought me a whole new outfit including underwear and now I can’t even go home? What did you do to my life? I don’t want to go out to lunch- I want to sleep in my own bed with all my own stuff! This isn’t fun or fair!”
“That isn’t a nice way to talk to someone who’s done a lot for you just lately,” Natasha commented coolly.
“No, it’s fine,” Stark insisted. He put a hand on Phillipa’s knee. “I know it sounds like I’m an interfering bastard. I am. But in this case, I didn’t do anything but give your name to the dean of the Manhattan School of Music. See, he was looking for you to see if you wanted to enroll in the fall. Everybody here knows you couldn’t afford that and that seemed like such a damn shame to me.
“Kid, you’ve got more talent in those vocal chords than I ever will. Ask Pepper.”
“He sounds like a frog being strangled,” Pepper confirmed with a little too much enthusiasm.
“Okay, I meant later, but that will do. Maybe I am spoiling you by giving you a scholarship, but there was lot I wanted to do for your dad that I never could. So let me spoil you a little bit for his sake. He wouldn’t want you to never have your chance, Mini-Phil, and that’s the plain truth. And please stop crying, because I swear to God, I will buy you something enormously expensive.”
Phillipa took a deep, shaky breath. “Fine. But there had better be a GPA requirement or something, or I won’t do it.”
“Three point five or better, cross my heart.”
“Don’t do that,” warned Banner. “Something might explode.”
“Why, Bruce, I didn’t know you paid so much attention to my heart.”
Lexi glommed onto Banner. “Don’t you look at him like that. He’s all mine!”
“Uh, do I have a say in this?”
“Sure, as long as you say yes!”
“Sit in your own seat, Lexi,” Steve directed the tiny woman. “You can bounce around later, on your own.”
With a massive pout, Lexi went back to her seat. Phillipa took the momentary break to count heads. Stark, Pepper, Natasha, Clint, Steve, Lexi, Ren, Jemma, Leo, Banner, Skye, Agent Ward, Jessica and Agent Sitwell were all sitting around her. That made fifteen people in the limo, not counting the driver. What restaurant would be able to seat all of them with zero notice?
“I have an idea,” Clint offered, leaning forward slightly, elbows on his knees. “Let’s get shawarma, and Phillipa can have a salad. We can eat in Central Park, or something.”
Rubbing his chin, Stark considered the plan. “It’s not far from her new place, and shawarma is food of the gods- well, Thor anyway. Do they have salads?”
“Yes,” Natasha said from her place next to Clint. “The usual.”
“What is shawarma?” came the five-way chorus, mostly female.
“Oh ladies, and gentleman, this is an experience not to be missed. That settles it for me. Any objections, Agents?”
The senior, apparently, Agent Sitwell smiled. “If it agrees with Phillipa, I have no problem with that.”
“I can have a salad?” Phillipa asked.
“Absolutely. I’d got to the trenches for you to have leafy green things.”
Steve frowned at the billionaire. “Not the nicest way of describing salad.”
“I wasn’t about to wax poetic for rabbit food.”
While the group discussed their options, Phillipa leaned back and gave her eyes a rest. Salad or no salad, she would much rather be asleep. When was this exhaustion going away? Someone tapped her shoulder, and she reluctantly opened her eyes.
“Mr. Rogers advised me that you might want this,” Agent Sitwell said gently, handing over a small rectangular package. “It is yours by rights, so I convinced the director we didn’t need to hang on to it.”
Tearing the simple brown paper, Phillipa saw a photo frame. Confused, as seemed her ground state at present, she carefully tugged the frame from the envelope. She turned it over to came face to face, figuratively, with her father and herself.
It was a profile shot, taken on a sunny day. She was a chubby baby, laughing and reaching for his face. He was laughing too, probably nibbling at her little fingertips. Since her fingers were on his lips, it was a good guess. Better than anything she had ever had, the quality was magnificent. Studio portrait, she thought.
“He kept that on his desk. He always missed you when he was at work. One time he brought you- I thought our administrator would hit the ceiling. But he got away with it. And you were a very cute baby. Most importantly, you were quiet.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course you can,” Agent Sitwell assured her.
“Did I know what he did?”
Sitwell actually thought this question over. “No, I don’t believe you did. You were a little girl, and it would not have been easy to explain.”
“What do you think of your dad’s job, Mini-Phil?” inquired Stark with a grin. “Big hero?”
“Actually, I kind of thought. . . This is embarrassing, but I thought he was a car salesman.”
Eyes bugging out, Stark breathed, “Oh, how I wish Phil were here to hear you say that!”
“Why did you think that?” Natasha queried, languid as ever.
“Oh well. . . He wore a suit to work, but he wasn’t a lawyer. And he loved cars, so. . .”
“But what about the name of the organization?” wondered Steve.
“I didn’t remember it. It was something to do with knights and princesses-”
“SHIELD,” chorused all the agents.
“Yes. But I didn’t know that until Agent Ward came to tell me to be careful, and I didn’t have time to look it up before now.”
Shaking his head, Stark declared, “You have got to get a computer. You’re a student; it’s practically required by law.”
“Oh, I can send you SO MANY emails,” Lexi squealed.
“No!” snapped Phillipa, Ren and Jessica.
“You never let me have any fun,” Lexi accused them huffily.
“Right, pile out everyone- well, except you, Mini-Phil. Hang out for a minute while we fill the cash register in there.”
Released from all social obligations, Phillipa put her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. She had yet to recover her usual energy level. Thus far, she had blamed the wound for her sluggishness. But Jemma had said she would resume bathing and living normally, so long as she took things easy. Then, what was keeping her so tired?
“Whoa, don’t go to sleep just yet, Mini-Phil,” Stark ordered. He pressed a plastic container into her hand. “Your salad, madam.”
“Sorry,” she said bashfully.
“It’s okay,” Steve quietly assured her.
Having come to come kind of decision, Stark announced, “We’ll spread out a blanket so you can nap in the park. It’s been a nice day so far, if a little cool.”
As good as his word, Stark brought out the promised cover for her. Everyone ate, but Phillipa was fading fast. Only Steve was finished before she was asleep again. He put his coat over her, but she was already so far gone that she did not even thank him.
She woke up in her new rooms, being set in a chair. “What?”
“No worries, little Phil,” Jessica said. “You’re home.”
This new place was small, but still larger than she had expected. Compared to her old apartment, she seemed to have a little more room. The appliances looked about of the same quality, though. What struck her as honestly unusual was that it came furnished. She suspected Stark, but he was quick to allay blame.
“Jemma suggested the chair, for your back. Everything else came with the room. Wait until you see the rent. But that money comes right out of your scholarship, so don’t worry about it.”
Jessica offered her a pamphlet from the table. “It looks like someone is going to come by tomorrow afternoon to give you a tour. For now, I suggest you relax. Most of your things are put away- don’t worry, we didn’t let Stark peep at your underwear drawer.”
“I wasn’t interested, just curious. Do you know, even Jay wouldn’t give me your measurements?”
Ren swiped at him. “Quit being a pervert!”
Hands up, Stark insisted, “I said I was only curious.”
“Out!” She chased him with a bottle in her hand. Phillipa wondered where she had gotten it.
“We’ll be back tomorrow for lunch,” Jessica said firmly. “But we’re all working tonight. Now, this is your paycheck from last week, with your tips included. Jay says it is absolutely useless to argue with him about the amount. Here’s your deposit back from the apartment. And this is from Agent Sitwell. Says he got lucky and picked up another. I don’t know what the hell this is.”
“It’s blue juice,” Phillipa tried to tell her, although it was not exactly helpful.
“Sure, it is blue and it is juice. Listen, you can have a shower- you have your own shower. Or you could put away the last of your things. And Lexi picked up some fresh greens for you, so you can eat something for dinner. And there’s always tea. Pots are in the drawer under the stove.
“Don’t forget your pain medication, Jemma wanted you to be reminded. She said at seven would be the best time to take another pill. Go to bed before it gets too late. That’s made up for you.”
“Yes, Mother. Thank you, Mother.”
“Don’t get smart with me.” Jessica playfully cuffed her head. “Like I said, we’ll see you tomorrow. Take care of yourself, little girl.”
“I will. Thanks, Jessica. Can you thank the others for me?”
Giving her a little kiss on her forehead, Jessica promised, “I will. After Ren finishes pounding Tony. I think she’s sweet on him. Never seen her so actively involved in beating a customer before.”
Making a face, Phillipa warned, “Don’t let her hear you say that.”
“No worries, little Phil. Be good! See you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” agreed Phillipa.
Alone, she got up to see what there was left to put away. It was the only way she could think of to acclimate herself to the new apartment. Each room was generally the same cream, but not the institutional shade she had expected. Every window had both curtains and blinds, an unheard of luxury. Most of the rooms were hardwood floors with plain black area rugs, except for the bathroom, which was black and white tiled.
As she had been told, there was a full shower in the bathroom, a rather large stall, in fact. The sink in there was smaller to make up for it. Also, the kitchen was somewhat small, but it had a stovetop and a microwave, and even a deep sink. Facing into the living space where the chair, end table and shelves were situated, there was a small breakfast bar to sit at and eat. Lastly, she looked in the bedroom.
Immediately, she found it much nicer than her former room. The closet was smaller, but there was a full-size dresser and her desk fit into the corner with plenty of space left over for the bed. A slim swivel chair was tucked against the desk snugly. Someone had put a black garbage bag on the bedding, which was unfortunately that awful bedspread Stark had sent to the hospital. She was going to need that paycheck to buy something less hideous.
Checking the drawers of the dresser, she found all of her clothes, save for that awful dress. As she had sort of expected, there was room left over in every single drawer. Some of the things she usually kept in the bedroom she had seen out in the living area, like her piano music and CDs. What, then, was in the bag?
Sitting down on the ugly blanket, Phillipa reached into the plastic sack. Almost at once she knew where the bag had come from. The first thing she pulled out would be the vibrator Lexi had given her for Christmas. She had slammed it into her nightstand drawer as soon as she had gotten home, along with the condoms Lexi had also presented her with. Phillipa had not been able to refuse them, because Jessica had told her they were eminently practical gifts for a single woman. That fact aside, she did not want them. Where was she going to hide them now?
For now, she jammed them under the covers and dealt with the rest of the bag. It was not much, her nightstand drawer having been a sort of catchall. Hairbands, safety pins, band-aids, and bits of paper with song titles written on them were the main contents. After sorting them out, she took the piles to the various places that suggested themselves as the best. That left the hateful sex toy to be dealt with. It was so- so inappropriate!
Leaving it behind, she went back out to the living area to look at the check Jay had given her. Considering he had insisted via Jessica that it was non-negotiable, she expected it to be quite a bit lower than usual, or a bit higher. Pity pay, she thought irritably. With fumbling fingers, she finally managed to break the seal and pull out the pay slip.
It was more than a bit higher. The accompanying note warned again that she was to take what she got without complaint, and explained the extreme spike. Someone- obviously Stark- had tipped Ren very well, and since everyone shared tips, all the employees had partaken of the bounty. So there was no need, the note read, for Phillipa to get in a tizzy. Besides, Jay continued, since her debut there had been a dramatic increase in both customers and tips. If Phillipa kept this up, he was simply going to have to marry her.
Fantastic, thought Phillipa. She had now been proposed to by a man who had been gay since he could first toddle in his mother’s pumps. This day could not possibly get any more weird.
Cue the knock on her door. Gravely suspicious, Phillipa glanced out of the peephole. The young woman who appeared in view looked much less dangerous than anyone at Dark of the Moon. Instantly, Phillipa put her guard up. Her definition of normal was, for the moment, terrifically skewed.
“Hi,” said the new girl when Phillipa cautiously opened her door. “I’m Amanda. Phillipa?”
“Yes,” admitted Phillipa reluctantly.
“Excellent! I’m your mentor. I know the tour isn’t until tomorrow, but I wanted to introduce myself and give you a chance to see me ahead of time, in case you had any questions.”
“I have thousands,” Phillipa warned her. The older girl just laughed.
“We all do in our first week, trust me. Have you read the pamphlet?”
“Not yet.”
Spreading her hands wide, Amanda said, “Don’t worry about it. I heard you were in an accident or something? so, don’t push yourself too hard. We’ll go super slow tomorrow, too. Are you all moved in? Have something to eat?”
“Mostly moved in, and my friend left me food.”
“Perfect. Listen, I have to go out for about an hour, but I’ll be back by three. After that, you can slip down the hall and ask me anything- well, not how atomic fusion works, because I don’t know anything about science, but school stuff. I’m room 206. My roommate is Nelly, but she knows you might come around. And if you need more food, or to borrow anything, just come by and ask. Trust me, anything you need.”
Slightly overwhelmed by this outpouring of generosity, Phillipa managed to say, “Thank you. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thank you for the offer.”
Smiling, Amanda explained, “Someone did it for me once. I’m just passing it on. And hey, if you’re lonely, or a little homesick, come hang out with us. We’re going to watch Dr. Horrible. How totally awesome would it be if we could do that for the musical this year?”
“My God, that would rock my world,” Phillipa breathed, awed by the very thought.
“I know! So let’s hope Neville and Anthony can convince the professors. Most of them are cool, but some of the most senior ones are a little- well, priggish is a good description. Don’t worry, though, none of them teach first year students, so you’re safe for a while. Okay, I’m going to head out. If I don’t see you tonight, which might nearly be sacrilegious, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Phillipa rapped out, and even added a salute. The older girl grinned and Phillipa felt about ten feet tall as she closed the door. She had had a positive social interaction with a total stranger and not completely flubbed it. Maybe, she thought, looking around her new rooms, she had finally found the place where she fit in.