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Director Nicholas Joseph Fury of SHIELD prided himself on knowing everything. He was The Spy and in charge of the world’s best spy agency. He knew everything. He might not have liked Stark even remotely but he had a point when he said that his secrets have secrets because they do. He was also in charge of the Avengers Initiative and therefore knew everything about them.
Well, he didn’t know much about Thor in Asgard apart from what was written in mythology but he decided to not rely too much on that as that would mean that Thor wasn’t the golden boy he looked like and Loki was the injured party. And he was sure that there were many things that Agent Romanoff refused to let him know about her childhood and the Red Room. But apart from that he knew everything about Captain Rogers, Dr Banner, Agent Barton and Stark. Especially Stark who couldn’t keep a secret to save his life.
Except when he could apparently.
When Fury had ordered all the Avengers to reside together in Avengers Tower he knew that it wouldn’t end well but it was for the best for SHIELD to have all those security risks together – they might be Earth’s Mightiest Hero’s but they were still risks – and Fury couldn’t think about the individual there. Stark and Banner got along well although it was evident Banner sometimes found Stark hard to handle but didn’t everyone. Barton and Stark were alike in their child-like abilities and somehow Stark and Romanoff had come to a truce of some sorts. But it was Rogers and Stark that had the real problems.
Rogers thought that Stark should be like his father Howard and belittled him because Stark wasn’t. Fury understood, Rogers had lost everything and the only person around with a connection to his past life was Stark but he was nothing like what Howard had been like and Rogers didn’t know how to deal with it. Fury knew that he should tell Rogers but he didn’t as anyone who could try to take Stark down a peg or two was very welcome in his books. Horrible but true.
The real troubles started when Thor moved in. He brought his girlfriend, the astrophysicist Dr Jane Foster who in turn brought her assistant Darcy Lewis. Just thinking about Lewis gave Fury a headache. Her actions in New Mexico during Thor’s banishment with the Taser were worrying and meant Fury ordered a close eye kept on her, also the fact that she seemed to be able to keep Dr Foster alive was impressive and Fury could think of a few scientists that could do with Lewis’s help. However, she was too like Stark in her immature behaviour for her to be much use to Fury, and if she left Dr Foster… the consequences were not nice.
Fury tried to put cameras in Avengers Tower to keep an eye on his Avengers but Stark’s AI blocked him so he relied on reports from Agents Romanoff and Barton and Captain Rogers. Romanoff and Barton were not much help as they refused to give up much about what they were doing past ‘Tony’s upgrading all our weapons’ or ‘Tony’s got a movie night tonight and we’re watching Lord of the Rings so…’. Captain Rogers reports were more along the lines of ‘He is a risk to himself and does nothing apart from hiding in his workshop. He leaves Miss Potts to run his company and refuses to work on SI products. Oh, and he is inappropriate with Lewis.’
Fury brushed off Stark’s behaviour with Lewis as one of Stark’s weird quirks and often left Rogers report meetings with a headache and need to have a few whiskeys. It wasn’t until Rogers demanded a meeting with him early one morning that he realised something had gone wrong. Fury could only hope that Roger’s hadn’t killed Stark as Stark was a genius and had created most of SHIELD’s weapons and gadgets so was unfortunately enough needed.
“Well Captain. What is it you need?”
“Stark has a daughter” Rogers exclaimed as he pushed open the door to Fury’s office.
“WHAT!!!!” Fury screamed. Agent Hill and other SHIELD agents came running at Fury’s scream only to find him chocking after having heard Rogers’ declaration just as he took a shot of whiskey to keep him going through the meeting.
“Sir, are you alright?” Hill asked. Fury just waved her and the others away.
“Are you sure Rogers?”
“Yes Director. Lewis told me herself.”
“Wait, Darcy Mary Lewis, Dr Foster’s assistant is Stark’s daughter?” Fury had to resist the urge to hit his head against the desk but that would be humiliating behaviour for the Director of SHIELD to do before a subordinate.
“Yes Director” Rogers confirmed leading Fury to groan.
How had Stark kept that a secret?
“Why are you still here Rogers?” Fury asked after he had recovered and saw that Rogers wasn’t moving.
“Romanoff said that Howard wasn’t who I remembered.”
Fury groaned again and picked up the bottle of whiskey. It was going to be one of those days.
“Read the goddamn file Rogers if you want to know. Now leave.”
Rogers looked at Fury but being the good little soldier, he left Fury alone. He stood up and walked over to the window with the whiskey in his hand. Well, Lewis being Stark’s daughter explained a lot behaviour wise but it didn’t answer how Stark had managed to keep it a secret. He was interrupted from his musings by his private phone ringing.
“Phil, what do you want?”
“I heard that you’ve found out Darcy Lewis is Tony’s daughter” the voice on the other side of the phone said, laughter evident in the usual emotionless voice. Phil Coulson, a man who had died at Loki’s hand during the Helicarrier skirmish but was still alive.
“You knew” Fury knocked back another gulp of whiskey.
“You assigned me to Tony and I met Darcy in New Mexico. After I confiscated Darcy’s iPod I got a phone call from Tony ordering me to give his ‘baby girl’ her iPod back then he changed his mind, told me to keep it as he’d build her a better one. Then he hung up on me. Who do you think had the idea to send Darcy and Foster to Norway during the whole Loki fiasco?”
Fury hung up, stared at the closed door of his office and debated whether or not to call it a day already.
“Sir?” One of the lower level agents poked his head around the door. “We have a situation in the containment area.”
Fury waved him away, groaned, took some aspirins and stood up. So much for that idea.