Light Up The Night

Playing double-agent eventually became draining.

Darcy wasn’t quite sure when the exhaustion started. The past few weeks, playing the role of student and secretive lover to a wanted fugitive had been Darcy’s life. She went to school, she hung out with Jane and Thor, she even occasionally went out to the club, and then she snuck off to the hospital at least once a day to check on Pietro. Somehow her work in all of her classes remained stable. No one seemed to notice there that she was distracted and unfocused – then again, despite her performance in her classes, she’d never been overly attentive – although it was pretty clear Jane had picked up the fact that something was wrong.

Thankfully, Darcy managed to otherwise navigate any questions that came her way. Misdirection had always been one of her many talents. For the time being, she managed to find answers to Jane’s questions that didn’t lead to additional ones. Yeah, on the one hand it was great that Jane worried about her – it was always nice to know that you had friends – but on the other, there was just too much she couldn’t say right now. She’d already been struggling to explain why Pietro hadn’t been around recently, without suggesting that there was anything bad going on with their relationship.

Although that may have been mostly due to the fact that she wasn’t willing to get into that discussion out of the fear that it might hold some grain of truth.

But today wasn’t the day to be worrying about what would happen once Pietro got released from the hospital – which at this point might be happening any day – and the decisions that the two of them might need to make.

Upon entering the room, Darcy nearly stopped mid-step when she caught sight of Pietro. For the first time in weeks, he was out of the hospital gown and dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. His hair, now with a solid inch of the darkened roots visible, was almost artfully tousled in a way it definitely hadn’t been in quite some time. His skin even held more color, the IV was out, and he looked almost back to normal. If it weren’t for the tension in his muscles and the evident weight loss from several weeks of barely eating and being in bed, she wouldn’t have known he’d been half-dead only a few weeks before.

Pietro’s face lit up the moment he caught sight of her. That in and of itself was surprising and a relief, since that was a drastic difference from the usual stressed out or on edge looks the past few times the two of them had been alone together in the same room. His happiness didn’t seem to be forced, which was a pleasant surprise.

She hoped this might be a sign of a positive turning point for everything.

“Hey. You didn’t tell me you’d improved this much,” she said by way of greeting, as she placed the several packages in her arms down on the nightstand. “Any chance you’ll be getting out today?”

“Not today,” he said. “Hopefully in a day or two though. They finally agreed to let me back into wearing normal clothes, so that’s a positive. Plus I’m finally eating real food again.”

Darcy stilled in response to his first words and then debated whether she wanted to follow up on that or let the day go by without saying anything that might ruin the mood. Pietro’s tone was cheerful and he looked excited about his progress. The last thing she wanted to do was bring the mood down. In the end though, she couldn’t let that statement stand without commenting. Not without getting some sort of answer to the question in her head.

“So, where will you be going once you leave here?” she asked, keeping her tone as light as possible.

“I talked with Wanda and we’ve agreed to go with Tony,” Pietro said, following a slow exhalation that made Darcy worry all the more. “He’s got what he keeps calling a ‘safe house’ nearby, outside of city limits. I’m pretty sure is just some super luxurious weekend home or something like that, but it’s better than nothing. We weren’t ready to head back to the townhouse yet. This seemed to be a good compromise as we figure out what to do next.”

That provided her with another crossroads. She could ask him further questions –what did all of this mean for their relationship? – but given Pietro’s nonverbals as a whole, she figured she’d let things go for now. He wasn’t going anywhere and that was the first important thing. Especially now, when his body language encouraged her to move closer, she wasn’t about to push the questions too far.

She still had to be careful as she slid into bed beside him, wincing the slightest bit as she realized that with the muscle and weight loss, it was easier to do that now than it would have been a few weeks ago. But she still fit against his side, her head nestled in the crook of his neck. For the first time in weeks the first scent to hit her wasn’t the smell of antiseptic but his usual cologne.

She interlaced her fingers with his own and pressed a kiss to the side of his throat. Pietro responded with a content hum that almost would have made her feel like they were back at her apartment and everything was normal if they weren’t sitting in a hospital bed, still surrounded with beeping machines.

It wasn’t the best she could have asked for but it was still better than it had been. She really wasn’t going to be asking any of those questions to herself or him when she could instead turn her attention to pretending they were a normal couple on a normal day.

No, she wouldn’t question anything yet. Not on Valentine’s Day.

-~-

For the first time in weeks, Wanda wasn’t camped out at the hospital. From everything she could gather, particularly when her brother conveyed to her that he would prefer to be able to spend Valentine’s Day alone with Darcy, his relationship was back on track. Maybe that shouldn’t have made her as happy as it did but there was something nice about the fact that at least one thing in her brother’s life was going positively. It didn’t hurt that they had taken up Tony on his offer of a place to stay.

Which meant that Wanda took the day off to spend at Shield. Recently there had been definite issues related to Shield, with the mob wandering in there and Clint getting hurt, but she trusted that the others would ensure that she remained safe during her visit. Besides, a recent update on her hair dye and style, as well as a hooded jacket provided a significant amount of cover as she hurried down the street. There was no way anyone catching sight of her would think of her as one of the twins from the news reports, not even someone who was specifically looking for her. She was as anonymous as she could have asked for.

Then again, Pietro likely thought the same thing the night he’d been shot. She’d spent the previous night at the townhouse; relieved to see that the tension she’d noticed the last time she was there had appeared to run its course. She’d spent the majority of the evening watching her friends pile together on the couch, while she snagged the chair, trying not to think of how much she wished her brother was there to watch movies along with them.

Perhaps, given recent events, walking from the townhouse to Shield probably wasn’t the best decision but none of the usual suspects had been able to take her and she refused to remain hidden once again. Especially with the gun she now carried with her.

The shop was only a few blocks away when she suddenly caught sight of something that made her stop in her tracks. A mere several feet in front of her, a figure with a shock of white hair darted into the alleyway. Before Wanda could stop herself, she followed. She barely managed to stop herself from calling her brother’s name as she hurried after the figure, only just managing to put the pieces together and remind herself that there was no reason her brother would be out of the hospital and moving that fast on the streets. Her breath caught in her throat as the other option – that this might be a trap – ran through her head and she froze midstep, her hand moving to the gun holstered just above her knee, hidden by her long coat, just in time for the figure to turn towards her.

He was smaller than Pietro by at least a few inches and younger as well, closer to 14 or 15 from what she could gather. The overall resemblance was a little disconcerting though, particularly with the hair color, but the longer she looked at him, the more she couldn’t understand how she’d mistaken him for her brother.

Her eyes darted from side to side, scoping out the area to make sure there was no one hiding there, waiting to jump her. Then she took a step back, towards the entrance of the alley, despite the fact that she saw nothing to cause alarm.

“Sorry,” she said quickly. “I thought you were someone else.”

“That’s okay, I get that a lot,” the kid said, and Wanda wondered what a teenager was doing on the streets instead of in school. “My name’s Tommy. What’s your name?”

“I’m Anna,” she said, the fake name still coming to her lips more easily than she ever would have imagined.

He tilted his head to study her. “Anna, huh?” Then his lips curved into a grin that was more of a smirk. “Interesting. That’s not what the man says. Which makes me think you look more like a Wanda.”

And with that, he turned on his heel and ran. By the time her mind finished processing those words and her feet started pounding on the pavement in pursuit of him, he’d already gotten enough of a head start to remain just out of reach. Despite his size, he was fast, faster than her, and by the time she reached the end of the alley, she could see there was no reason to try and catch up with him when that would never happen.

Instead of going back through the alley, she kept to the streets, keeping her eyes open all the more. While that kid hadn’t laid a trap directly, the last thing she needed was to be followed.

Except that probably didn’t matter. Because everyone already knew where they were. That kid had obliviously been sent after her for some reason – and why any of the branches of the mob would use a kid that young to get information made no sense to her and made her angrier at how fucked up this situation was. The last thing she wanted was to bring even more trouble down on everyone else.

She also couldn’t help wondering about what he’d said, with that reference to “the man.” There were far too few options that came up for her in response to that; one that raised the hair on the back of her neck and made her shudder outright.

Wanda all but breathed a sigh of relief when she reached Shield and stepped inside. Bucky greeted her from behind the register, his feet propped up on the display case despite Steve’s repeated requests for him not to do that. She hadn’t seen much of him over the past several weeks but from everything she could tell, he looked better than he had those few times she’d caught sight of him. If nothing else, he greeted her with a grin that faded when he took in her expression.

“Shit, what’s wrong?” He quickly swung his feet down to the floor and stood up to meet her, Winter padding along at his side. “What happened? Is it your brother?”

She shook her head. “No, my brother’s fine. I just had a weird experience on my way over. It’s funny that you mention my brother because I met a kid who looked like him. Thing is, this kid… this kid seemed to know me Said his name was Tommy.” She noticed his brows furrow in worry and quickly added, “No reason to worry about it, Barnes. He didn’t threaten me or anything. Just let me know he knew who I was.”

“That’s not nothing,” Bucky said warily. “That’s definitely something. I wish I’d known you were walking over here alone. I would’ve offered to meet you midway or something.”

“There was no need for that,” Wanda assured him.

She couldn’t bring herself to mention exactly what Tommy had said. Referencing “the man” would lead to far too many questions. Questions she wasn’t ready to answer at this point. Besides, it was probably nothing. Nothing more than she already had to worry about, at least.

She added, “I made it over here just fine. I’m just a little weirded out, that’s all. Like I said, no threats, and the kid looked barely fourteen. He didn’t pose a threat.”

Bucky’s expression darkened. “Never judge someone’s threat by their age or size. That’s one of the biggest lessons I learned while deployed.”

“That’s in a war zone,” she gently pointed out.

“Kid, I hate to say it, but that’s exactly what the streets are turning into right now. You’ve gotta be treating it the same way, as though it is a combat zone and someone could take a shot at you at any minute.” He trailed off, frowning. “Or, hell, maybe that’s the PTSD talking.”

“It could be. You didn’t see him. He didn’t seem dangerous at all. Anyway, that’s not important now. I’m here and safe and thankfully nowhere near the disgusting display of affection my brother’s probably engaging in with Darcy.”

Bucky’s expression remained wary but the hints of a grin returned. “It’s good to have you back. We missed seeing you around.”

Before she could respond, there was the jingle from the bell over the door and Wanda instinctively moved towards the hallway until she recognized the dark haired girl who stepped inside. “Oh, hi, Kate.”

Kate waved. “Hey, guys. Happy Valentine’s Day and all that jazz. Glad to see you didn’t put any sickening decorations all over the shop.”

“Nah, nothing like that,” Bucky said, with a faint grin. “Although I did try to convince Steve to do a two for one special for any pair wanting a couple’s tattoo.”

Immediately, that stopped the conversation between Bucky and Wanda in its tracks. She tried not to breathe a sigh of relief as Bucky shifted into easy conversation with Kate, ending any further discussion about things that Kate was not to know about. The last thing Wanda wanted to do at this point was to continue discussing the strange appearance of Tommy or anything to do with her brother, even if Pietro was doing better now. She preferred to let the conversation shift into routine, easy topics, as though there weren’t major problems she’d have to deal with one of these days, some sooner than later.

After all, she and Pietro still hadn’t discussed what would happen once they took Tony up on his offer and moved into the safe house. For all she knew, this might be one of her last times visiting Shield.

That thought made her sadder than she would have expected.

-~-

For the first time in longer than Bucky could remember – though it really must have been weeks, not months – his shift came to an end and he hadn’t spent the last half hour watching the clock because his level of exhaustion was too high. This time, he’d barely noticed the time ticking down to the end of the day. It had come as a shock when Steve walked out with his last client of the day and turned the “open” sign to closed.

Granted, part of that had been due to the fact that he’d had Kate and Wanda to keep him company between his own appointments. It had been great to see Wanda in the shop again, after the past few weeks of her being AWOL following the attack on her brother. Given that Kate was there, they hadn’t exactly had the opportunity to talk openly about what had been going on recently. In most ways though, Bucky considered that to be a good thing. Wanda needed a distraction and the relatively close proximity of age made Kate a good person to provide that distraction.

Kate shot Steve a pleading look as the sign flipped to closed. “That doesn’t mean I have to leave, does it?”

“Sad to say that it does, Kate,” Steve said. “It’s been good to see you though. As I keep telling you, feel free to start chatting with me about a tattoo as we get closer to your 18th birthday.”

“That’s in, like, forever,” she said, making a face. “No chance I can convince you to make one for me sooner?”

“You know the rules, kid. I’m more than happy to ink you up once you’re legal but up until then, you’re just hanging out here until closing.”

She made a face as she headed towards the front door. “Alright, I guess I’ll see you guys around. Happy Valentine’s Day, and all of that.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Steve and Bucky echoed as she stepped outside.

Steve locked the door behind her before glancing questioningly at Wanda. “What about you? Where should we be taking you? Or are you crashing here for the night?”

Bucky couldn’t believe he hadn’t asked Wanda that himself. Now he regretted not realizing that the kid had limited places to go, given that Pietro and Darcy were spending the day together. He had to assume that the townhouse may have been out of bounds for the same reason. While he wanted to do everything he could to keep her safe, he hadn’t exactly been expecting to spend Valentine’s Day with a third person.

“No, I - ” Wanda started, then stopped as there came a knock on the door.

From behind the counter, Bucky could only see a blurry figure but given that Steve, who was much closer to the door, unlocked and opened it, it was someone they knew. The fact that Steve rolled his eyes as he reached for the lock clued Bucky into the figure’s identity before he stepped inside.

“Sorry I’m late,” Tony said, unwrapping the scarf from his neck in an uncomfortable indication that he might be planning on staying for more than a few minutes.

“Probably best you are,” Steve said dryly. “I’m not sure I would’ve wanted you and Kate to have a bonding session.”

Steve’s tone wasn’t quite antagonistic but it was verging on that. Not that Bucky was surprised, given that Steve’s mood regarding Tony had been decidedly dark recently. He’d shared the basics of their latest disagreement with Bucky – and Bucky thought he’d handled it well, given his previous insecurities about Steve’s relationship with Tony. Then things escalated when several text messages hit Steve’s phone in the middle of the night, startling both Steve and Bucky awake a few nights ago. To Bucky’s knowledge, Steve and Tony hadn’t spoken since then.

“Kate who?” Tony inquired, taking a seat on the couch and stretching out comfortably. “Did you adopt someone new? Or is that Barton who’s adopting everyone? Either way…” He trailed off, his expression expectant.

“Kate Bishop,” Wanda reluctantly supplied. “Also, I thought we were heading out.”

“We are.” He brushed off her concern easily. “Oh, you mean Katherine Bishop. I know her father.”

“Yes, we know you know everyone,” Steve muttered. “Is there a reason for this stretched out visit?”

Tony’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly but Bucky couldn’t quite gauge the emotion behind it. There was a strange formality as he said, “I’d hoped to speak with you.”

That was as far as he got before Steve, who was already shaking his head, cut him off. “No, not tonight.” Tony tried to protest and Steve cut him off again. “I said no, Stark. For fuck’s sake, it’s Valentine’s Day. There’s nothing so urgent it can’t wait another 24 hours.” He narrowed his eyes before adding, “After all, last time you had information, you didn’t see a problem sitting on it for days, even when it was necessary and helpful for us to know sooner.”

Tony’s back stiffened and his expression closed off entirely. “Fair enough.” He rose to his feet and glanced over at Wanda. “C’mon, kid. We need to get you back to your brother.”

Wanda made a face. “I think he’s still with Darcy.”

“Duly noted. In that case, I guess you’re with me for the evening. I hope you don’t mind if we spend a little time in the office first.” He nodded to Steve, then Bucky. “Enjoy your evening, gentlemen. Steve, I’ll see about scheduling a time when we can properly talk about shop business.”

Steve locked the door behind Wanda and Tony as they stepped outside. He stood there for several seconds. From Bucky’s angle, he couldn’t see more than Steve’s reflection in the glass. Unless Tony and Wanda had stepped right outside, he couldn’t imagine there was much more than that for Steve to see. Still, he stood there, staring for several long moments before exhaling raggedly and running a hand through his hair.

He turned back to Bucky. “Sorry about that.”

“Sorry about what?” Bucky asked, ensuring that his tone remained light and even. “I mean, that’s pretty much your usual reaction to things with Stark.”

“I know.” Steve sighed. “I don’t know why I’m apologizing. I mean, you know about our fight. You know about the text messages I got from him. I know we need to talk but I just didn’t want to do that tonight.”

“Which I appreciate. Like I said, nothing to apologize for. You did nothing wrong. Hell, he was actually on relatively good behavior. He didn’t press the issue of talking to you tonight. So, how about we put that behind us for now? He didn’t ruin our evening.”

Steve crossed the distance between them and grasped Bucky’s t-shirt in his hands, tugging him closer and leaning up to kiss him. Bucky ducked his head enough to meet Steve’s lips with his own. Letting himself go in those moments wasn’t hard anymore. His thoughts no longer went racing through his head, analyzing everything from the quality of the kiss to the stressors of the day. Instead, kisses like this – long, drawn out, and intense – quieted everything inside of his head. Kisses like this slowed the world down, or maybe just brought the world to its actual speed, and made everything calm in a way he hadn’t experienced outside of the comforting warmth of Xanax.

He barely even noticed when Steve’s hands slipped beneath his shirt and maneuvered the cloth up his body and over his head, to fall on the tile floor.

-~-

“Who is this for?”

Tony glanced up in response to Pepper’s question, glancing over as though he had no idea exactly what she was referring to. Certainly she couldn’t be referring to the rather substantial basket containing chocolate, assorted other candies, and a teddy bear, not to mention the balloons that were attached to the basket. Pepper stared at it, almost accusingly, before turning her attention to Tony, the hard look in her eyes clearly stating she expected an explanation.

When he didn’t respond, she followed up her first question with, “Tony, why does it say Pepper on the card?”

“Because that’s your name,” he said, returning his attention back to his computer and returning his attention to his latest programming project.

He hoped she didn’t notice that his usual multi-tasking wasn’t exactly happening and that despite resting his fingers on the keys, he wasn’t exactly typing in code.

“I know that, Tony,” she said, and this time she sounded a bit frustrated. “What I’m asking is why my name is on this card.”

“Because it’s for you. Obviously.” He felt his shoulders rise in what was probably a shrug. That wasn’t the best idea. Pepper wasn’t going to take him shrugging all that well even if he hadn’t meant to. “You’ve put up with a lot from me over the past couple of months and even in the last week or two. I figured I owed you.”

“So you bought me a Valentine’s Day gift.”

“I don’t know exactly what you want me to say, seeing as it’s right in front of you, so, yeah, I did?” he responded, still keeping his gaze focused on the task at hand rather than her.

There were a few, far too uncomfortable moments of silence before she exhaled slowly. “Tony, I don’t know what to do with this. A part of me wants to be angry and lecture you about little things like boundaries and how it’s inappropriate to give a Valentine’s Day gift to someone who is your employee.”

“Yeah, I know, I get it, I fucked up, I always fuck up,” Tony said before she could get another word out.

That was disgustingly self-deprecating but maybe if he took full responsibility for everything, it would cut things off here with Pepper. He’d known better than to buy her something like that, after all, she’d always been the person to discuss inappropriate relationships between him and employees before – Steve being the prime example of that. Sure, it probably hadn’t been the best decision to buy Pepper a gift but after he’d been an asshole these past few weeks, he’d needed to do something and Valentine’s Day just happened to coincide with his decision to try to make things up to her. A gift seemed as good a way to repair things as anything else did.

“Tony,” Pepper said, exhaling again, although this time it sounded more like a sigh. “You didn’t even let me finish. There were two parts to that statement. That was only the first part.”

When she didn’t immediately follow that up with anything, he pointed out, “I’m not stopping you from continuing, Pepper.”

“What I was going to say, before you went off on your self-deprecating spiral, was that the other part of me really likes the gift. Who doesn’t like to receive a present on Valentine’s Day?”

Tony finally chanced a look up, once he was certain his expression wasn’t about to betray him because he couldn’t completely gauge Pepper’s response just from her words. As per usual, she looked somewhat exasperated but also, might he dare think, pleased?

Raising an eyebrow, he simply inquired, “You sure your boyfriend’s not going to have a problem with it?”

She met his gaze almost too intently. “He might, if there were one.”

He couldn’t look away, especially not when Pepper bit her lower lip. He also couldn’t seem to help himself from pushing himself to his feet. That immediately changed everything. Suddenly her entire demeanor shifted, her shoulders straightening, her eyes going back to the stack of papers in her hand.

She cleared her throat. “Is that all, Mr. Stark?”

He didn’t even have it in him to remind her that he hated it when she called him by his father’s name. Instead, he simply sank back in his chair and turned his attention to his work – or at least the work he played at for the time being.

“That’s all, Miss Potts,” he returned, because two could play at this game, if that was how she wanted to play.

“Thank you for the gifts,” she said, managing to carry both the basket and the papers in a rather impressive display of dexterity. “And for the apology. Happy Valentine’s Day, Tony. Is there anything else you need before I leave for the night?”

He simply shook his head in response to that and kept his gaze lowered until she walked out of the room. He couldn’t help but wonder how she’d respond once she saw the bonus check included with the card in the envelope. Then again, wondering about that wasn’t going to do anything for him at this point. If she got pissed off at him, she’d be pissed off. He could live with that.

Tony let a few more minutes go by before getting to his feet, assuring himself that by that point Pepper would have left the building. She’d stayed later already than he would have expected and he figured and despite her assurance that she didn’t have a boyfriend, she just might want to leave as quickly as possible to meet up with someone on this holiday. His body protested as he straightened up and he found himself longing for just a little bit of alcohol, just a few shots of whiskey, anything that would loosen and relax the muscles in his back, all knotted up from the hours he spent leaning over his computer and workbench throughout the day and most of the night.

Never mind that the mere smell of alcohol at this point still made his stomach turn over unpleasantly after his last encounter with drinking. Or that he’d been put on notice by both Pepper and Rhodey, who had made it very clear that another bender might end with a much stronger intervention. Besides that, he had Wanda with him this evening. He wasn’t about to subject her to that.

While he typically avoided sharing his place of residence with the majority of people in his life, Wanda didn’t have anywhere else to go. Tony wasn’t about to leave her alone somewhere else. He’d briefly considered having both of them stay at what he’d only semi-jokingly been referring to as the safe house, since she’d be needing to get used to staying there with her brother, but that was a good 30 miles outside of the city, too far away for the two of them to be. Tony didn’t expect anything to happen to her brother while they were gone but he also recognized that the moment they weren’t nearby was probably also the exact moment time would be of the essence.

Come to think of it, that was probably his cue to retrieve Wanda from his “break room.” Pepper swore that he couldn’t call it then when he was the only one allowed to use it but that was what it was to him. He had plenty of amenities in the lab but the break room was equipped with couches – including one pull-out couch bed – and all the snacks and caffeine he could ever need during a long night at work. While the building was pretty much empty already at this time of the night, the break room had one of the tightest levels of security. Even if someone else was wandering around the halls, they wouldn’t be able to enter that room.

Tony ensured that everything had been properly put away. He asked JARVIS for one extra scan to ensure that in his hurry he wasn’t leaving something out that could cause significant damage or problems in his absence, as well as double-checking his security systems, and then put everything non-essential to sleep for the night. A glance at the clock showed it was much earlier than he usually went home, but Wanda probably needed proper food and rest. He wasn’t enough of a dick to make her wait any longer, especially when it wasn’t as though he had an important project to be finishing.

At least that was where Tony’s thoughts were going when suddenly JARVIS informed him, “Your friend appears to have had a nightmare. She seems distressed.”

“What?” Tony blurted out, pretty much automatically, then determined that wasn’t necessary at all because if that were true – and why would JARVIS lie to him about that? – he needed to get to her as quickly as he possibly could.

“Never mind.” He ran out of his lab and straight to the break room.

Making it through the security system took a matter of seconds. By the time the door opened, he could hear Wanda’s erratic, ragged breathing. He found her sitting on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest, and muttering something to herself over and over again. He hesitated before approaching her, starting with announcing his presence with a soft, “Hey, Wanda, it’s just me, Tony.”

When she blinked and looked up at him, he cautiously sat on the couch near her but not quite beside her.

From that distance, he could more clearly hear her words, “It’s not real, he’s not here” being repeated over and over. That easily clicked the pieces into place in his mind and he tried out saying something else to see if that might calm her.

“You’re right, you are safe and your father’s not here,” he offered up gently.

Wanda immediately shook her head and hunched her shoulders all the more. “No. Not my father.”

Tony frowned at that but quickly came up with a new hypothesis. “The man who shot your brother then. He’s also not here and you’re still safe.”

Wanda shook her head more vigorously this time and forcefully stated, “No. Not him either.”

At that, Tony found himself out of ideas but given Wanda’s willingness to respond to him, he gently inquired, “Then who, Wanda? Who are you afraid of?”

“The Baron,” she said, and her voice broke the slightest bit. “I haven’t… I haven’t dreamed of him in so long.”

“Who the fuck is the Baron?” Tony asked and immediately regretted the question when Wanda withdrew all the more.

“No one important,” she said quietly. “Nothing for you to worry about.”

“But I am worried. Obviously dreaming about him shook you up. You don’t have to tell me who he was or anything else. But also don’t tell me that it’s nothing for me to worry about because I am damn worried about both you and your brother.”

He immediately wondered whether his absolute lack of tact and ability to say the right thing to someone clearly suffering had pushed her away from him even more but a moment later she managed a faint smile and said, “Thanks, Tony.”

“Don’t mention it, kid,” he said quickly, before whatever magic words he’d managed could fade. “Now, how about we get you out of here? Grab something to eat for dinner, head back to my place, and do whatever it is that might help you relax a little?” He let a moment go by before he quickly added, “I know how that sounded but you know I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I know,” she said, and this time her smile was a little bit wider and more genuine. “That sounds nice.”

Tony offered her hand once he’d gotten to his feet. As he walked her through the building and out to the garage, he filed away the bits of information she’d provided - the name, “the Baron,” for starters – and swore that he would follow up on it, running any and all connections between that type of title and Jonathan Talbot. He hoped that this was merely a nightmare and nothing to worry about but on the off-chance it was something more, he wanted to be prepared. He refused to be caught off-guard like the last time with her brother, or through his delay in providing the information on the Irish to the others.

He wasn’t going to let someone else get hurt if there were any way he could prevent it.