RED AND GOLD EDITION
“I HAVE ONE,” TONY PIPES IN. “Why didn’t you tell any of us this… oh I don’t know, before we risked our lives together?” Olivia shrugs.
“You never asked,” she dismisses. “Plus, how was I supposed to know the intelligence agency was stupid enough to think that I was one of the Masks?” Natasha leans in.
“Then why be Fox, if you worked for MEDUSA, and not the Masks?” she wonders. Olivia tilts her head from side to side.
“Anonymity,” she supplies. “Most of us disguise ourselves as members of some other mob. The enforcing department in particular wears masks. Not that they aren’t affiliated with the Masks at all; but the Masks are kind of a joke. If I ran into them back then, they would be more obligated to follow my orders than anything else. Not because I was their boss, just because I could wipe the floor with them easily. With basically no consequences, I should add.”
She jumps a little at a sudden hand on her shoulder, her head whipping to the side. Clint is sitting on the other side of her, probably the only one looking at her with just sympathy, no judgement attached. Damn, she forgot he was there.
Natasha is also not judging her, but she doesn’t look immensely sympathetic. Mostly just solemn. It’s pretty appropriate, as expressions go.
“I’m sorry,” Bruce finally sighs, his head dropping. Pretty much everyone but Olivia blinks at him, surprised.
“Too late to change the past now,” she replies dismissively. “Best you can do is suck less now. Which you do.”
“Did I miss something?” Tony wonders, looking between the Banner siblings.
“No,” Bruce sighs, “I did.” Tony’s eyebrows rise, but he makes the wise decision not to touch on the sibling drama right now.
“Okay, circling back to the present,” Olivia sighs, leaning forward with her elbows on the table. “Something about the timing of all this is suspicious to me. I’m their most valuable asset, they should have kept me around for at least another year. I know the boss, he doesn’t like to throw away useful things.”
“So, what? You think something’s got him spooked?” Natasha prompts, brows furrowing in concern. Olivia tilts her head side to side.
“I don’t know, exactly,” she admits. “But Dagger said the boss got a message that morning, and then he started tying up the rest of MEDUSA’s loose ends. This, in the same day that HYDRA comes out of the woodwork of SHIELD. The timing’s too perfect, there’s no way that’s a coincidence.”
“Dagger, who’s that?” Clint interjects. “You think we can trust him on this?” Olivia shakes her head.
“Let’s be clear,” she states. “I don’t trust Dagger as far as I can throw him. But I know him— I trained him, I worked with him for years.” She shrugs, dropping back into her chair. “He’s too stupid to lie to me and get away with it.”
“…so, MEDUSA starts tying up loose ends the same day HYDRA comes out of the shadows,” Steve says, his eyes fixed on the coin. “What does that mean? You think they’re connected?” Olivia sighs out a long breath.
“No idea,” she replies. “They weren’t exactly monologuing about it. I just did what I was told. Asking questions is dangerous.” Steve frowns, troubled.
“Here’s an idea,” Tony pipes up, “how do we know you’re telling the truth?” All eyes turn to him, but his are locked on Olivia. “I mean, you lied before, who’s to say you’re not lying now?”
“Why would I?” she shoots back, maybe a little too fiercely. “If I lie to you, I get kicked out, and I’ve got nowhere else to go now. I’m not going back to Ohio just so I can get Mom killed too, so it’s here or die.” There’s a brief, stunned silence.
Some part of her reminds her that she could always take Loki up on moving to Asgard. But that’s a stupid idea— if she stayed there and Thor found out, Loki would be found out, and sent back to the dungeons.
No; without his mother to advocate for him, it would probably be the axe this time.
“Liv,” Bruce interjects, sympathetic yet firm. “I would not just leave you to die.” She hears the ‘again’ echoing in the silence, and he turns on Tony once he’s sure she understands. “She’s telling the truth. And I don’t appreciate you calling her a liar, especially when she never did. What she did in the past is her business, not yours.”
“It is when she’s living in my tower,” Tony contradicts.
“Okay, hey, hey,” Steve interrupts. “It doesn’t matter anymore. We know now, and right now what’s more important is a game plan. We know HYDRA’s back, so what are we gonna do about it?”
Reluctantly, Tony lets go of the topic.
“Fine,” he agrees, “we’ll come back to this later. For now—,”
“Mr. Stark,” JARVIS interrupts. “There’s a visitor at the front desk asking to be let up.” Tony swivels to give the corner between the wall and ceiling an incredulous look, as if he could see the AI.
“Why is that— why are you bugging me about this, JARVIS? We have a receptionist for a reason. I’m in the middle of a meeting right now, they can’t come up,” Tony points out, looking downright affronted by the interruption.
“Sir,” JARVIS persists, “he’s claiming to be Ms. Banner’s boyfriend.” All heads swivel to hers in shock, and her own eyes widen.
“Could you… pull up the footage, please?” she requests. A hologram of the front desk unfolds neatly in front of her, and she groans at the sight of her disguised lover.
“You know him?” Tony wonders, looking bewildered and alarmed. Olivia slumps back, arms crossed.
“Unfortunately,” she grumbles. “I’m sorry, can I take this?” Tony is so taken aback that he shakes his head instead of nodding.
“I— please,” he agrees, “go for it. I’d love to see this.” Olivia rolls her eyes good-naturedly.
“JARVIS, patch me through please,” she requests politely.
“Right away, Miss Banner,” he agrees, just as politely, but without the edge of exhaustion.
She watches as the phone on the front desk rings and the receptionist picks it up, then gets a little flustered and holds it out to Loki. He takes it easily.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Leo,” she states flatly, not even bothering to try and make it sound like a question. She watches him smirk through the camera, and then she hears it in his voice filtering through the speakers.
“What, do I need an excuse to come and visit my girlfriend?” he wonders, sounding so smug about it that it immediately rings false.
“I told you twelve times— more, probably— not to come. Very specifically,” she reminds him, raising her eyebrows as though he could see her. “This is a terrible time.” He chuckles.
“Actually,” he corrects, “you said I shouldn’t storm the place. As you can see, absolutely no storming. I’m even making use of the front desk.” Olivia sighs deeply.
“You are so lucky you’re cute, cause otherwise I would have kicked your ass by now,” she warns him wearily. He chuckles again.
“You would have tried,” he muses. “Let me up now?” Olivia glances at Tony.
“This is a terrible time,” she denies. “I’m at a meeting right now.”
“No, no,” Tony contradicts. “This is a perfect time, actually. Why don’t you come right on up, I’ll have JARVIS let you in.” Olivia looks at Tony, betrayed, and Steve’s brows furrow. Loki stills briefly, then smiles widely.
“I’ll be right there,” he agrees. “See you then.” He doesn’t wait for a response, handing the phone back to the receptionist as JARVIS puts away the feed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Steve interrogates immediately. “We’re in the middle of a meeting.”
“Yeah, and I’m wondering how Sydney Bristow over here got a boyfriend,” Tony replies, raising his eyebrows.
“I’m not a spy,” Olivia interjects. “Save that one for Natasha.”
“Sure thing, Sydney.”