World's Best Assistant
The Black Widow wasn’t new to the idea of children in this line of work. She knew what it was like to be a weapon as a teenager. That didn’t make her any more open to the idea of a teenager being an Avenger. Peter Parker was a sweet boy, a teenager that she liked. She thought he was too young to be doing the things he does, but he was strong and always on top of it. She could accept him. But she didn’t have to like it. She did like that Keener was never in the field. He stayed put in a lab like a good teenager should. Oh what a poor choice of wording sweetie. There were other teenagers around the tower daily. Like the friends that Peter and Harley adored. And like Pepper’s assistant. She was young. Way too young to even be doing assistant work.
“You should be in school.”
“Maybe. But you should be in a meeting with the Director of SHIELD, Ms. Romanov. Not judging my life choices.”
“But I’m so good at it.”
Chloe only stared at her.
“Right. Got it. Going. Tell Pepper I’ll see her at 8:00.”
“Of course, Ms. Romanov. Have a fantastic day,” she said, smiling sweetly.
Natasha had gone up to Pepper’s office before the meeting hoping to catch her. Taking the CEO of Stark Industries on weekly dinner dates was something she prided herself on. She had perfected the art of making Virginia Potts swoon, and she had been hoping to do it that morning. Only when she arrived in front of her girlfriend’s office, her itty bitty assistant was there to tell her that Pepper had an emergency meeting with a stockholder and wouldn’t be back in the office until 11:00.
That wasn’t uncommon. She loved Pepper for her work ethic and flawless ability to walk for hours in three inch heels. It also wasn’t uncommon for Chloe’s attitude to be bitter sweet. She always let Natasha know that she wasn’t a fan of the judgey comments, but also was never disrespectful. The spy could appreciate that kind of emotional control. It scared her a bit though. The way that Miss Simmons could change her face and voice with such immediate control set off all kinds of redflags in Natasha’s mind. She just didn’t know why.
Natasha watched as Chloe turned back to her work, effectively ending their conversation. Before she said something that she might regret, the spy spun on her heel and strutted away.
***
Katerina watched as Natasha walked away, pencil at the edge of her lips. She always enjoyed talking to the Black Widow. She knew that there was good intent behind those judgemental comments, and it kind of made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But if anyone asked, it 100% did not, and she actually hated everything about it.
Although Pepper was in a meeting, which usually means Kat would be standing inside a viewing room taking notes and ready for anything, her boss had asked her to wait until Natasha showed up before heading down to her. Kat had to admit that she found it adorable. Pepper and Natasha were totally meant for each other.
Now that Pepper’s girlfriend was on her way to meet with Nick and the rest of the Avengers, Kat packed up her stuff and basically sprinted to the secret elevator in her boss’ office. It was way faster than the one that came up from the lobby, and FRIDAY would always block out noise and turn off the lights for her. She appreciated that the AI could tell what she needed, and that even if she could never tell anyone else in this tower how her body worked, at least FRIDAY would always be there to help her out.
Pepper’s meeting was over quicker than expected, seeing as the man she was meeting with was a mega asshole, and was thrown out by security before any deal could be made. Kat went through the motions of removing him as a stockholder, banning him from any Stark owned building or business for life, and ordering her boss another coffee from the cafe in the lobby, all in the time it took for security to finish removing him from the premises.
“I’m assuming he’s all taken care of, Miss Simmons?”
“Yes ma’am. I’ve also put in an order for your iced strawberry mocha. It should be ready in the next five minutes if you’d like me to go retrieve it.”
“Yes please. Bring it to me on the Avengers floor, Colson is meeting me outside of their conference room.”
“On it.”
She left Pepper by the elevator and made her way to the end of the hall, where the door to the emergency staircase was. She loved taking the elevator, but she’d be much faster on the stairs.
***
Chloe Simmons was an enigma. He didn’t understand why Fury insisted Pepper take her on as an assistant. She didn’t have any qualifications or, from what he knew of her, a highschool diploma. Granted, his interns didn’t exactly have highschool diplomas yet, but they were geniuses, and working towards a diploma. Chloe was at the tower with Pepper all day, every day. Except for when she wasn’t. He noticed that every once in a while, she’d disappear for seemingly no reason and show up an hour later like nothing happened. He wondered about her. Like today: Pepper got out of her meeting and came up to the conference room to talk to Coulson. Chloe was nowhere to be found.
“Stark! Would you like to pay attention to our meeting or should we all take a trip into your head and watch that movie you’ve got playing?” Fury snarked, his eye trained on Tony’s.
“You don’t wanna watch my movie, Fury. It’s scandalous,” he winked, ignoring Parker’s groan from behind him.
“Gross, Mr. Stark! We don’t wanna hear about that!”
“I’d love to hear about that,” Barnes said from the opposite side of the conference table, eliciting more groans from around the room.
It was the first mission Bucky would be a part of after rehabilitating in Wakanda, and both him and his fiance were ecstatic to work together. It took the two a long time to figure out how they really felt about each other, their pasts being so traumatically intertwined. But they were getting married in a month and they loved each other. The rest is left for late night conversations in the bed that they share.
“Really didn’t need to hear that, Barnes.” Fury looked like he was about ready to choke somebody.
“I just enjoy speaking the truth of the world, Fury.”
“Speak that truth later, sweetie, the Director might pop a blood vessel,” Natasha told him.
“Fair enough.”
“Thank you. Let’s talk about–” Fury started to turn back towards his PowerPoint presentation, cutting himself off when he saw Simmons appear at Pepper’s side, coffee in hand, eyes wide as she looked through the glass doors into the room.
Pepper’s attention swiveled down to her assistant to grab her coffee, pausing since typically the teenager would put it in her hands the second she had it. Following Chloe’s line of sight, she locked eyes with a surprised and mildly terrified James Barnes.
The Winter Soldier had been calm for a while now, his time in Wakanda had given him time to reconcile his old self with his new. He still had nightmares, though, and this one seemed to be looking straight at him.
“Pебенок…”
“What was that, Buck?” Steve asked, looking between his best friend and Pepper’s assistant, who he noticed had also stopped to stare in at him.
“She’s dead. She’s supposed to be dead…”
Bucky was murmuring now, his words hushed and haunted, as his closest friends watched him with concern. On the other side of the glass, Chloe Simmons was just as close to a break down.
“Miss Simons? Are you alright?”
“What?” she looked up dazedly at Pepper, who was hunched slightly to meet her eyes, “Oh, um, yeah! Yeah, I’m great! I’m just gonna go to the restroom real quick, if that’s alright?”
“Of course, sweetie. Are you sure?”
“Yep!” she told her, nodding fervently to mask the falsity of the word, “I’ll be right back!”
Chloe started to turn away, Pepper’s drink still in hand, when she heard the doors behind her open. She had been so panicked that she hadn’t heard Barnes get up from the table, hadn’t heard him move.
“Wait!” James panted, his eyes locked on the back of her head, his hands trembling at his sides where he held them in tight fists. “Turn around.”
Chloe knew that she shouldn’t. And that technically, if she was truly just a regular employee, she would have no reason not to. So she did what any other dumbass teenager would, and faced her former training partner.
The Winter Soldier said nothing before he was knocking Pepper’s drink out of Katerina’s tiny hand, his hands forming cuffs around her wrists. The slam of the drink against the white wall had the rest of the Avengers moving towards the door finally, while Pepper herself flinched away from the scene. Barnes wrapped his leg around her smaller one, a move he had used multiple times against her. It had only ever worked on her twice. The first was when he first showed up to train her, and the second was in that very moment, knowing that if she fought back she would land herself in a very uncomfortable position. Although her position on the floor was not one she would describe as comfortable.
“You’re supposed to be dead.” He whispered. Despite his anger, the Winter Soldier looked more scared than anything, like she was there to take him away. To take him back.
“I’m sorry?” she didn’t need to fake the tremble which laced those words, “I don’t know what you mean, Mr. Barnes. Why would I be dead?”
The man looked down at her, his eyes starting to tear up, his large hands pushing her wrists into the ground with extreme force. The metal which made up his arm had been called the “рука смерти” amongst the kids in Hydra, because their superiors had always told them, “Don’t mess with him, if you do, he’ll kill you”. Katerina herself never believed that, she had trained with him so often that it was almost comforting to have the death arm aimed against her. He had never genuinely hurt her, never once had he truly aimed to injure her, unlike the majority of her former trainers. She knew he was good, and although she was on the verge of a panic attack, and the cold metal was eating at her trembling wrists, she couldn’t truly find it in her to be afraid of the man. But she was a fantastic actor, if she did say so herself, and she had a job to do.
“Mr. Barnes, please,” she whimpered, tears forming at the corners of her eyes, “you’re hurting me.”
“Buck! Let her go!”
James looked up at Steve Rogers, the man in stripes himself, and scoffed. “Why would I let her go? She’s dangerous.”
“How is my assistant dangerous, James?” Pepper asked, honey coating her words.
“She’s,” he looked back down at her, watching the tears roll down to her temples, “She’s…”
“Mr. Barnes, please,” she whispered, pinching her eyes shut in the illusion of fear.
“I,” his voice trembled, his hands loosening their grip, “I’m so sorry.”
He shot up quickly then, his hands no longer around her wrists. His legs no longer straddled her trembling form.
“Please forgive me, Pepper. And you, what is your name?” He asked, offering his hand, the one made of flesh and bone.
“C-chloe,” she stammered, letting him help her up, “Chloe Simmons.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Simmons. I am so sorry, you just…reminded me of someone.”
“It’s okay, Mr. Barnes. I understand,” she offered him a kind smile, one that she didn’t quite feel like giving, and turned to Pepper, “Miss Potts! I’m sorry about your latte, I can go fetch another one for you.”
It seemed like Pepper was going to shoot it down as unnecessary, but saw the plead in her assistant’s eyes. “Yes, that would be lovely, Miss Simmons. Thank you.”
Chloe waved politely goodbye to the man who had just kickstarted her first panic attack in months, glancing briefly at the rest of them, before turning on her heel and marching down the hallway once again. She chose the stairwell instead of the elevator, confusing the group who watched her walk away. The door closed behind her, and she broke into a sprint.