The elevator in Stark Tower didn't ding like normal elevators did. Tony had designed J.A.R.V.I.S to alert anyone getting off the elevator that 'They had arrived at their destination'. J.A.R.V.I.S was a highly intelligent, basically fully functioning, artificial intelligence, and still Evelyn could almost hear him rolling his eyes in sarcasm every time she stepped out of those metal double doors.

"Eva!" Evelyn heard when she stepped into her brother's portion of the tower. Pepper's long strawberry blonde hair was soon encasing her. And Pepper's arms were suffocating her along with the scent of her expensive perfume.

"Hi, Pepper." Evelyn sighed, pulling the woman off of her. She hadn't seen Pepper or her brother in quite a long time. Even a couple months since before Steve came into her life, and she felt he had been there for ages.

Evelyn stood there awkwardly in front of her soon-to-be sister in law. She could have made small talk with Pepper, ask about their flight back, how the California weather treated her, or even about Pepper's own family. But she didn't. Maybe pre-Afghanistan Evelyn would have, but it wasn't in her now.

But somehow she knew Pepper wouldn't want to talk about the weather, or her parents, or the turbulent flight home.

"Have you been going to your group lately?" Pepper asked.

Evelyn sighed and shook her head. "I don't like the one here in Manhattan. I just call Sam when the anxiety hits. And I've met a new friend who kind of understands everything and we've gotten really close."

"A new friend huh?" Pepper asked with a smile. Evelyn rolled her eyes. Pepper really was like her nosey older sister.

"Yes." Evelyn chuckled. "You'll meet him soon hopefully."

Pepper's eyes widened at the word 'him'. "Are you really moving on from Tommy?" She asked in concern.

Evelyn frowned. She could never move on from what she thought was the great love of her life. She could never forget about the love and the compassion that Tommy showed her when he was alive. And she never thought she was betraying his honor by being friends with Steve until Pepper put that thought into her head.

"I'm not moving on." Evelyn almost growled. "How do you move on from something like that?"

"Something like what?" The unmistakable voice of Tony Stark popped up into the room. He waltzed across the carpet with Happy Hogan trailing along behind him and a bag of gummy worms in his hand.

Evelyn smiled and walked over to greet her big brother in a hug. "How do you move on from having such a douche for a brother?" She chuckled, stealing several pieces of candy from him.

Tony pulled her off of him and kissed the top of her head. "You find a way, little sister. You find a way."

Evelyn and Tony were fourteen years apart in age, and that put them not really getting close to each other until Evelyn was a teenager and Tony was already making billions with Stark Industries. And while after their parents death, Tony had become the legal guardian of Evelyn, she was basically raised by nannies, J.A.R.V.I.S, Peggy Carter, Nick Fury, and Phil Coulson.

Tony had Stark Industries, and Evelyn had S.H.I.E.L.D.

"So, I made us a reservation at Maggiano's at 7. I figured we could all catch up since we've been in California for so long?" Pepper suggested, switching between looking at Evelyn and her blackberry.

"Can't. I need to get the suit linked up online in the tower." Tony said, popping a yellow gummy worm into his mouth.

"How's it working for you?" Evelyn asked.

"It's a giant rust bucket that barely stays in the sky." Tony responded.

Evelyn deadpanned at him causing him to roll his eyes.

"It's amazing Eva, alright. The response time on it is outstanding. "

Evelyn smiled in pride. "Good. My design wouldn't have failed you."

Tony would tell anyone that he was Iron Man, but he had a less easier time telling the world that his baby sister made the suit he flew around in.

"Tony, we've been gone for months! Don't you want to catch up with Eva!" Pepper asked, exasperated.

"Still working at the library. Still can't cook. No longer on medication. Still brilliant." Evelyn shrugged.

"And I'm still me. There, all caught up." Tony said, kissing Evelyn on the head once more before heading to the steps that led to his lab.

"I'll see you later, Pepper!" Evelyn called out, practically jogging to the elevator.

"You damn Starks." Pepper mumbled watching as both Tony disappeared downstairs and Evelyn was gone in the elevator.

~

Evelyn was at work the following morning when two men in suits approached her desk. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her book. "Tell Nick I said no." She mumbled, her eyes unwavering from the pages in front of her.

"We've been instructed to escort you outside, Dr.Stark." One of them answered.

"By whose authority?" Evelyn asked, still not looking up.

"Director Fury." The second man answered.

Evelyn chuckled and shook her head. Nick Fury did not give up. And if he was banned from the library then he would obviously find a way around that.

"Well, I know Nick wouldn't authorize you to use physical tactics to get me to go outside with you. And even if you tried, I'd fight my way through the two of you fairly easy. So what are two rookie agents going to do when the woman who ultimately pays their bills won't cooperate with them?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at the pair and leaning back in her seat.

The two men looked to each other before slowly walking back out to the exit.

"That's what I thought." Evelyn mumbled before grabbing a stack of books to re-home back on the shelves.

But when 5 o'clock rolled around, she knew Nick Fury would still be waiting outside. She didn't even try to avoid him that time.

"Come on Nick, how many times do I have to say no!" Evelyn sighed in exasperation as she walked up to Nick who was leaning against a black SUV.

"You know I'm a stubborn man, Eva!" Nick chuckled, arms crossed against his chest. "Lets talk in the car."

Evelyn rolled her eyes and climbed in before Nick followed into the backseat.

"I don't want anything to do with that cube. I know you've made weapons with it and you don't even know what they do."

"First off, they're prototypes, and second of all how the hell do you know that? You're supposed to be S.H.I.E.L.D.'s silent partner. All you wanted to do was keep S.H.I.E.L.D afloat when it as going under and you did that, but you created the World Security Council to handle everything else."

"You need to update your firewalls, Fury." Evelyn responded, glancing at the passing scenery outside the window.

Nick groaned, rubbing a hand on the top of his head. "Eva, were at a loss, okay. We want to create an energy source with the cube and we just don't know where to go from here."

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe the space cube belongs in space?" Evelyn asked. "That it isn't ours to tamper with?"

"The tesseract has been on earth for centuries. What do you want us to do, leave it on the moon?" Nick asked sarcastically.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Dont think I don't remember what you and Carol were trying to hide from me when I was a kid! And that incident in New Mexico a couple months ago? We aren't alone, not even a little bit."

"Maybe it's better the cubes in our hands instead of someone else's." Said Nick. "Like HYDRA."

"There's probably HYDRA agents in S.H.I.E.L.D, how many are there is the real question." Evelyn told him. The SUV had been circling her block for ten minutes, they passed the same Starbucks four times just now.

"Well why don't you tell me Ms.I break into S.H.I.E.L.D's computer system whenever I feel like it."

Evelyn chuckled and punched him lightly in the arm. "It's not gonna be in their resume, dumbass!"

"Back to the cube. You're the smartest person we know, you even supersede Tony. We need you to at least come look at the cube, please. Tell us anything that might be helpful in our research." Nick Fury and the word please didn't often go hand in hand.

"Nick, my degrees are in mechanical engineering and robotics. What the hell do you think I'm going to be able to do with a cube from space?" Evelyn asked.

"We've got astrophysicists, Bimolecular experts, dozens of scientist's of some shit I've never heard of and still they can't figure out this fucking cube! What we don't have, is an Eva Stark, who always was able to blend science and reality and look at things in a hundred different ways."

Evelyn chuckled at the foul mouthed man who had been in her life since her childhood. When he was just a S.H.I.E.L.D agent who got assigned to watch over the Stark child after her parents died. He was less than thrilled at the job, but in the end he ended up asking for an extension on his duty of protecting her.

"Nick, I wasn't able to say no when I was taken to Afghanistan. I wasn't able to say no when I was taken by Justin Hammer. Please, you have to let me be able to say no to this." Evelyn told him, closing her eyes and leaning her head against the warm window.

Nick sighed suddenly feeling guilty for all the persuasion he's been pushing on her lately. He didn't want Evelyn to feel like she was being pulled back into someone else's fight, the last thing he wanted to do was cause her more anxiety. Nick didn't have a family, his family had always been S.H.I.E.L.D, but Evelyn was like a daughter to him. And he wanted her to be safe, always.

"I'm sorry, Eva. I guess I wasn't thinking." Nick told her. The SUV pulled up in front of Stark Tower and Evelyn hand hovered over the door handle.

Evelyn glanced over at the man who was like family to her, "I'll think about it." She mumbled before leaping out of the truck and into the warm New York City air.