Chapter 3
"Miss Cotton," Anneliese called from her office, "Can you contact the number the SSR provided us and organise a phone call."
The tall blonde woman did exactly she was told, scurrying from her desk to find the phone book to ring the SSR. Anneliese had plenty of work herself, and could not find herself interested in playing secretary for Howard, instead, she worked on the damage both Howard and Alexander had caused to the company's name over the weekend. Again.
Alexander Gray's name had been in headlines since the day of his birth, and it was out of character for his name not to be feature in a gossip column each month. Scandal after scandal, Anneliese was used to them all: rumours about his true hereditary, his playboy antics and his ungodly sweet talk to married women. Anneliese had seen it all. By now, she believed herself an expert in redeeming his name.
She would set him up for extra charity work, or to do a press conference, or invite the press to watch him work and mingle with their regular employees. All in the sake to maintain the company's name. To make him seem humble, a word she would never associate with Alexander.
Howard was more difficult. His name was new, and the press had an unquenchable thirst for him. Especially his scandals that always stirred the public, both outrage and adoration. Yet, unlike Alexander, he always made the front page. Every. Single. Time.
She's be a terrible press secretary if she didn't understand why. Howard was the youngest CEO in society, and at only 27 - he was highly desirable. Following, he was the only CEO that openly expressed his playboy antics, no future in sight for when it could end.
It was damage control Anneliese wasn't used too.
Her eye brows creased as she read the latest article titles:
HOWARD STARK: PLAYBOY MILLIONAIRE?
PLAYBOY STARK OR CEO STARK?
NEW GIRL FOR STARK INDUSTRIALS CEO?
Letting out a loud groan, she wanted to murder the man. How was she meant to make his reputation better if he was so keen to be caught with a new girl every day, calling them his Monday girl or Friday girl.
Hearing the usual clink-clink-clink from Alexander's shoes, she didn't bother raising her eyes to say hello, instead, burying her face into her arms.
"Don't you look absolutely overjoyed," Alexander begun, taking the seat in front of her desk, "What are you working on?" He asked in curiosity.
A single glance on the newspaper articles on her desk was enough to make Alexander laugh again. Deciding to make plenty of comments about how talkative the Friday girl was on Howard's arm, or how he was envious that he stole his Sunday girl. Raising her head from her arms, she sent a dirty look his way, she was not impressed.
"I blame you for making my life hard."
A toothy grin appeared on Alexander's face, as he brushed the blonde hair away from his forehead. "We both know the perfect solution to this little press issue," he said, as if the topic was both amusing and boring.
Anneliese wished her eyes would light up in excitement, but she knew exactly what Alexander was going to suggest. To avoid the question, she collected some paperwork to her left, reading over the words as she waited for the entible speech Alexander would start. The same declaration he had been saying since she was promoted as press secretary-
"-Get him settled down", He begun with his voice low, "Find him a lady that can wrangle him into a suburban lifestyle. With no more so-called bad press, the business will be booming... and after that... Howard can go back to his antics."
Raising her eyes from her paperwork and meeting Alexander's, his boyish grin forming across his lips and becoming far too common for a man of his age. Sighing, she hissed in his directions, "You mean the antics you taught him. If you stopped going out each weekend, I'd have my own weekend worry free from the press I would have to cover come Monday morning."
Angling her head, Anneliese watched Alexander lean across the table to be as close to Anneliese as possible, not that she wanted him a mere whispers away.
"You know who would be able to wrangle Howard?", he whispered, the question begging Anneliese to ask who. But she already knew, Alexander was trying to bait her, to make her furious.
A quirk in his lips, and she knew the very words that left his lips.
You, Anneliese.
A swift slap across Alexander's face caused her office to silence briefly, before they continued answering phone calls from the press, or asking for interviews, or whatever Anneliese had asked them to do. For Alexander, he slowly moved his face to meet her's, a toothy grin across his lips as the side of his cheek was painted a colourful rainbow of red and pink.
"You two could just fake date?" He said, his grin gone and suddenly his face sharp; an art of all seriousness. "For about 5 years, and then break up, by then Stark Industrials should be an established household name, everywhere." He straighten his shoulders, a lazy grin returning to his face, "And the breakup must be you having an illicit affair with myself, and unsurprisingly that wouldn't even hurt the company's name."
Anneliese's eyes widen. This was new.
"Don't be so crude!", Anneliese hissed.
"You'd think after two years working here, you'd be used to this..."
Refusing to meet his eyes, Anneliese returned to sorting out her paperwork, signing documents that required a signature from Howard or Alexander. Neither did their designated paperwork, leaving it all to her. "I'm not going to date Howard, not would I ever have an affair with you. Unlike you boys, I am a woman of class... I simply do not throw myself at a man whenever I have a problem."
The two paused, the only noise being their breathing, until Alexander's mouth twitched to a smile, "Just wait and see, just you wait."
Had it not been Miss Cotton walking back into her office, Alexander would have more than a red mark across his face. Possibly scratches at his neck, all in hopes he would need to visit the hospital.
"Good Morning, Mr Gray," she said in a surprised tone, quickly patting down her skirt as she took another step into Anneliese's office. "Miss Lorenz, Mr Stark has pushed the meeting with the SSR forward, he has asked me to inform you, and I guess also Mr Gray, that the meeting will commence in thirty minutes in the board room on the fifth floor."
The two groaned, knowing Howard struggled to keep to his own plans, and he would do anything to avoid the 4pm budget meeting. This meeting would definitely take seven hours, as he would do anything to avoid listening to Harold Locke lecture the other departments for spending too much money, and especially his squabble with Theodore Edwards for messing up his spreadsheet.
Miss Cotton left the room, and Alexander glanced down at Anneliese's finger, "Want to gamble how long it takes for Howard to make you a Stark instead of a Lorenz? I'd say by 1944."
Ignoring his comment, Anneliese opened her bag and found her makeup to touch up her face, listening to Alexander moan over how his oldest brother, Fredrick, always bragging about his wife birthing another son. As she pressed the cushion powder to her cheeks, Alexander begun acting out the scene he experienced on his Sunday dinner with his family.
"It's so gross, he will be talking only nice and cutesy things about his wife in front of daddy dear, but the second the four of us go out back for some burden, he is telling us how tight and sensitive she is during sex-"
Slamming her cushion powder down sharply, she gave him a slide glance to change the conversation. He took the clue, as he moved onto the next brother, George, who was on the verge of being disowned as he had fallen in love with a Vietnamese man.
Alexander, always the ignorant man, went on to loudly and proudly say for Anneliese's liking, "I met the bloke and he could actually speak English'.
Groaning as she reapplied her red lipstick, she often wondered the extent of Alexander's ignorance, especially to those not being a white son to New York's best banker. Without a surprise, Anneliese knew he wasn't completely to be blamed... after all sometimes it's hard to come down to earth when everything was handed to you on a golden plate.
Anneliese could understand that.
But he was not humble, and that annoyed Anneliese to new heights.
Interrupting him, she sharply snapped her eyes to meet his as she spoke slightly harshly, "Are you for real Alexander? America isn't the only place that speaks English-"
"Yeah, so? I doubt they speak English from his home-"
Packing up her make-up, and took a few deep breaths before she continued speaking to Alexander. "He could've been born in America for goodness sakes, not all white citizens are immigrants. Regardless, it's possible for non-white individuals to speak outside of their mother's tongue. Catch your tone next time," Anneliese snapped at him, "When you ignorantly offend him, and all those already disadvantage... you offend me."
The atmosphere shifted, and so did Alexander. Taking a new found interest in readjusting his tie. His mumbled a quick apology before he started up again, reminding her that George is still his favourite brother. Anneliese and Alexander both left her office and walked towards the hallway as he moved onto the third brother, Samuel. Alexander moaned loudly for the entire hallway to hear that Samuel acts the sensible man, but at night he is far too interested in his father's wives friends, and Alexander had heard rumours that the women don't even finish...
Nudging her elbow into his waist, he stopped the conversation automatically. Moving on, Anneliese informed him of the series of articles from the press that wanted Howard to join the war cause. Both finding it ridiculous to expect a newfound company to support the government, without any financial support.
"Oh, and did I tell you about Daddy's latest mistress?"
From that very statement, Anneliese was engrossed in the newest family drama for the Gray family. It was always an interesting walk with Alexander, as he would always stir the conversation in the most obscure and improper way, Anneliese wanted to smack him for his improper behaviour and encourage him to spill the gossip.
This was how the entire walk to the fifth floor board room meeting was Anneliese sending warning glares to Alexander to tone down how explicit he was being, and Alexander forgetting about the warning and getting himself nudged harshly into the rips, or slapped in the elevator. The two were dysfunctional, but they worked well together... and that was why he was the only American she had ever unwilling brought home to her father. Which, seemed to be as big of an interest to Alexander as woman where.
"How's Joseph?"
"It's Josef", Anneliese corrected.
Alexander shrugged off the correction, and begun talking about his new obsession, Josef Lorenz. It was certainly ungodly, and it wasn't like she willingly allowed them to meet up... Alexander forced the scenario. Rocking up to her house and entering the home unannounced, it's fair to say Anneliese was massively surprise when she entered the kitchen to find her father on top of Alexander.
Yet, as they entered the board room, the two were the first ones to enter the room, and Alexander took that as an opportunity to continue talking, as if not speaking could cause his certain death.
Taking her seat next to Alexander, which was directly left to Howard, Alexander to her right. As per usual. Alexander continued, "You know, I actually think Josef likes me. I mean, I reckon he would like me more than Howard because I'm charming, rich, wealthy, powerful, and the American dream. No one would question you with my last name, and it would basically make him royalty."
"I just don't understand why he always glares at me on Thursdays when I pick you up? Like he is always waiting on the porch, and is always staring at me as if I'm the prey... is that a German tell-tale that I have managed to seduced him though my sheer beauty and charm?"
Letting out a small laugh, Anneliese started taking out her notes in preparation for the meeting before responding, "Trust me, You're the last person my father would ever have me married up too," she paused briefly as she remembered what her father had said earlier, "And you would be behind a long line of old money Germans, who surprisingly have never entered my home unannounced."
His nose scrunched up in disgust, not from the fact that they were German, but that fact he did not receive the answer he wanted. Furthermore, he ignored her comment about her father as his face remained disgusted as the SSR agents slowly filled into the room, followed by one of Howard's chemical engineers, Conner Bryant, and the last three to enter were who she assumed to be the SSR's scientists (she made this observation completely based on the fact that the three men all wore white lab coats).
It wasn't until five minutes before the meeting begun, that she heard Alexander whisper in her ear, "Look's like you're not the only female in the room," causing her eyes to drift to the female agent to walk into the room and sit directly in front of Anneliese, next to the leader of the SSR unit.
The women was dressed in military uniform, two badges on the collar of her belted blazer, and Anneliese couldn't but help be envious of how she styled her hair, or how the red lipstick complimented her clear skin and her striking honey brown eyes. She'd be lying if she wasn't envious of her beauty, even dressed up in the hideous uniform imaginable.
Anneliese didn't stop staring at her until the man-of-the-hour, Howard Stark, decided to enter the room fashionably late. Making his way to the end of the table, he sat comfortably in his too-big of a chair, and begun the meeting.
"Thank you for coming on such short notice," He begun, his charm dripping from his tongue, "I was only aware of your obsessive phone calls today, and decided to let my press secretary be free from your constant requests."
Anneliese's eyes darted to meet Howard's disinterested gaze as he flicked his wrist for a woman to enter and pass out glasses of water, leaving the room just as quickly. It was a smart move on Howard's behalf, to be courtesy of their guest, but to show how well they all worked together - every rank included. Anneliese had to elbow Alexander under the table to sniffle his laughter.
"I'd like to introduce the potential team you will be meeting with, firstly is my left hand man, Alexander Grey," Anneliese closed her eyes briefly, refusing to witness whatever charming smile he let loose to the table to cause numerous chuckles from the SSR agents, "Next is Conner Bryant, our best chemical engineer," A small hello came from one of the scientists who shook his hand, "And lastly is who you will be working with directly is my press secretary and the brains behind all of Stark's plans, Anneliese Lorenz."
The room grew silent as one of the scientists dropped the glass cup onto the table, and the glass shattered all over it. Everyone instantly stood up, with the female agent quickly by the elderly scientist's side, making sure he wasn't injured whilst one of the SSR agents begun to cleaned up the mess. Until the same woman entered the room, quickly cleaning the mess, and leaving again.
"Sorry, sorry," He said with a German accent, that made Anneliese's eyes widen in surprise, "Old man hands, ay?"
Everyone reseated, and laughed at the man's joke. However, Anneliese remained uneasy in the room as the man stared at her questionably. Germany was a big place, but a reaction to her name meant a few things: He knew his parents and he either adored them or hated them. There was never anything else. And his bright sparkling eyes gave nothing away, but a sense that she knew the man... which was never a good feeling. Suddenly, Anneliese wanted to dart out of her chair.
The meeting begun again, by the commanding officer of the SSR Colonel Chester Phillips, "The president, as you're already aware Mr Stark from our conversation three months ago," The man continued talking as both Anneliese and Alexander quickly stare at Howard, to see him avoid both of them, as Chester Phillips continued to speak, "With me, I have a few agents here, however the only one you need to know the name of is Agent Peggy Carter," His voice was rough, but his eyes seemed to become gentler at the mention of Agent Carter.
"She will be in charge of the SSR in my absent, and the agent who rescued and will remain by Abraham Erskine side."
Her eyes grew. That name seemed too familiar, and Anneliese quickly hid her hands under the table as they begun to shake, increasing every second the man glanced in her direction. She had long stopped listening to the conversation, missing the names of the other two scientists. Until Chester Philips got to the very reason the SSR had reached out to Stark Industrials.
"It is believed that numbers will not win this war, but the skills we possess," Chester Phillips begun to say loudly, "So when we heard of a serum to make super soldiers with the inventor trying to flee Germany, we intervened. The President has decided it would be America's duty for its allies to create an army of super soldiers to defeat the axis powers."
At the end of his speech, Alexander started laughing, "Is this some sort of practical joke by President Franky?"
Elbowing Alexander in the side, Conner begun asking questions about the serum, and Anneliese begun to cringe from the basic questions. He shouldn't be asking about what it does, but what is in it, and he shouldn't be asking how long will it take to mass produce it but what the effects of it. Yet, they weren't completely the questions she wanted to know. Who was making such a serum.
The scientist, Abraham Erskine, begun talking about how it was created. A strange mix of chemistry, physics and biology. All of it piquing Anneliese's interest, to the point she had forgotten her positions and her fear for the man across the room. She started asking questions, doubting his theories and suggesting new ideas. The room was silent, and Anneliese was unaware that her American accent she uses in nearly all aspects of her job had disappeared. To the room around them, it was two Germans talking about a serum that could either win or lose the war.
"You mean to say radiation is the key?", Anneliese asked, "That the ionising of the so-called-secret compound is what makes the serum no longer life threatening?"
Abraham laughed, "Indeed, that is the only thing that separates this serum to the one Johann Schmidt has created."
Her question was answered as all colour drained from her face. She hadn't heard that name since she was thirteen years old and escaped Germany. The man plagued her dreams, and neither herself or her Papa mentioned him by name, it was always 'the man', or 'the fool', or 'Hydra', but it was never Johann or uncle or brother-in-law.
Her fingers quickly gripped the edge of the table, "Johann Schmidt?", she asked quieter, and she could feel Howard's eyes on her, as she maintain eye contact with Abraham, "You mean Hydra's Johann?"
A simple nod was enough for Anneliese to gasp, alerting the majority of those in the room to star at her in curiosity.
"By chance, are you related to Josef and Erna?", He asked, and there was no need to respond. Her shock gave it all away. Nonetheless, he continued, "Mr Stark, if it is alright with you, could Miss Lorenz be in charge of the project for Stark Industrial?"
Howard's eyes did not move, and Anneliese hadn't even noticed she had shifted her gaze to him until she realised when his gaze shifted to meet her's, "As I said... she will be working directly-"
The scientist interrupted, "No, no, no," The man muttered alongside a bunch of inaudible words to his fellow scientist, "You simply do not understand the knowledge Miss Lorenz has, her father... well he is a renowned scientist-"
"Mr Erskine, you're overstepping-", Agent Carter slowly started to say, before she was was interrupted by Howard, "If it's fine by Mr Bryant to remove himself from this project, then I'll happily replace it with Miss Lorenz."
Conner, who was to her right, gave her a gentle smile, knowing he had no option but to forfeit his role as leading operator in the project. Regardless, Anneliese knew he was rather glad he was removing himself from the project, he already was busy with countless other projects and supervision shifts. He picked up what items he brought in, and informed Howard that his team will begin looking into a new fuel for the a car model he was designing.
Slowly the room begun to empty, with only Howard, Alexander, Abraham, Agent Carter and herself still present. Looking across the table, the scientist smiled at her before saying one final thing before he left.
"I am sorry about your mother," He whispered.
Eyes widening, he spoke the final few words in german, "It was a brave thing for her to stand up against your uncle". Leaving the three other individuals in the room confused about what was said.
The agent and scientist left the room, and it was just the three again.
This felt like danger, not luxury.