Chapter Text
“Murder, mystery, the macabre.” Tony listens, sort of, to Pepper as she speaks, but busies himself by autographing a girl’s chest like she asks. “Call me when you’re ready to wash that off." She chuckles and gives a sultry wave as she walks away. Tony can feel Pepper's eyes glaring at the back of his head in her Pepper way where it's hard to tell she's glaring before he turns to watch her again.
“What is it about a hard-boiled detective, the femme fatale, and the cold steel of a gun that keeps our bedside lamps burning into the wee hours of the morning? However the spell is cast, tonight we honor a master of the form and celebrate the launch of Storm Fall. The stunning conclusion to his best-selling Derrick Storm mystery series, ladies and gentlemen, the master of the macabre, Tony Stark.”
Tony takes in the applause and camera flashes as he steps onto the stage. He does some more autographs, some books, some chests, shakes a few fans hands. Mostly women but a few men too. And he’s loving the attention, mostly. He likes this part of the launch party.
Steve walks into the crime scene to find a woman laid on a table covered in rose petals with sunflowers placed over her eyes. He takes in the scene along with the other members of the department. “Who are you?” Steve asks to no one in particular. “Alison Tisdale.” Sam speaks up. “Age 24. She was a grad student at NYU, part of the social work program.”
“It’s a nice place for a social worker.” Bucky says from the other side of the body. “Daddy’s money.” Nat tells them. “The neighbors called to complain about the music - when she didn’t answer they had the super check on her.”
“No signs of a struggle.” Steve observes. “So he knew her.” Bucky finishes the train of thought. “He even bought her flowers. Who says romance is dead?” Clint jokes as he goes to examine the body. “I do. Every Saturday night.” Steve replies. “Well a new cologne couldn’t hurt.” Steve glares at Clint. “Just sayin’.” The examiner raises his hands in surrender.
“So what do we have besides roses?” Steve gets them back on track and away from his love life. “Two shots in the chest. Small caliber.” Bruce informs them, moving some of the rose petals out of the way to show the bullet holes to the heart.
“Does this look familiar to anyone?” Steve asks this time. “Ask Nat, she’s got a thing for the freaky ones too.” Sam tells him. “Freaky ones require more. Look at how he left her. Covered modestly.” Steve tells him.
“So?”
“So, despite all of the effort, all of the preparation, you won’t find any evidence of sexual abuse.”
“Did Clint tell you that while our backs were turned or somethin?”
“I’ve seen this before.”
“You’ve seen it before. Where?” Bucky asks. “Roses on her body? Sunflowers on her eyes? Don’t you read?”
“Everybody, Steve’s book obsession is back.” Nat announces.
Tony stands for pictures with Pepper. “You should remove your glasses. Obie will appreciate that.” She tells him. “Ah, he still mad at me?” He asks, pulling them off his face.
“You did kill off your main character. He thinks you're trying to punish me for our divorce.” She explains. “Well I may be petty and shortsighted, but I’m not that petty and shortsighted. Plus, it’s been, what, almost a year now.” He asks, following her as they make their way to another area of the party. Tony is eyeing the bar in the corner.
“Almost two. So what is it then?” He sighs. “Writing Derrick used to be fun. Now it’s like work.” She sighs, "Lord forbid you should work. Why not retire him?”
“Oh where’s the drama in that? So predictable.” He tsks. “So you put a bullet through his head?”
“Oh yeah. I wrote half a dozen best sellers before him. What makes you all think I’ll stop now.” He grins at her and she looks unamused. "Your new book was due nine weeks ago.”
“You can’t rush genius.”
“Genius? Someone told Obidiah you haven’t written in months. He won’t tell me who and I doubt it was Peter.” He signs someone’s copy and waves to them. “If there isn’t a manuscript on my desk in three weeks, Arc is prepared to demand the return of you advance.” He gasps, mostly pretending to be offended, he knows it isn’t her fault. Hell, most of the reason it probably hasn’t come up yet is because of her. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Tony.”
“Alright, alright.” He agrees. Now to find the person that tattled on him.
“You know,” Rhodey says to the teen at the bar, “you’re probably the only kid to ever do homework at a party.”
“I have a test next week.” Peter replies. “Two champagnes please.” Rhodey asks the bartender. "I would prefer a beer." Thor grumbles. "Make it three." Tony tells the baretender, who shoots him a thumbs up. “You must be slipping Tones, they’re only serving the soft stuff.” Rhodey jokes.
“Hey dad.” Peter waves, not looking up from what he’s doing. “Hey kiddo. Sourpatch, Pointbreak, would either of you care to tell me how Obidiah found out I was having trouble writing.”
“Thor.”
"I thought we were friends, James."
"I'm not taking the fall." Rhodey says, taking a sip of his drink. "Obidiah expressed concern for your wellbeing and your writing and simply asked me how you were doing." Thor defends himself. "We had a deal. You can move in but you can't talk about my work."
"I will not do it again, I swear by it." He says. "Look, I can’t have Obidiah telling Pepper to badger me about the next book. It’ll come when it comes. I can’t have you talking about it.”
“What’s there to talk about, you haven’t done any since they moved in.” Peter pipes up. “And that’s how we know he’s your kid.” Rhodey jokes, ruffling his hair. “Haha.” Tony snarks back.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go mingle.” Rhodey walks off. "As will I." Thor agrees, walking away as well. Probably just to get away from the writer. “You should have me committed.” Tony tells his kid. “I think it was sweet of you to invite them to live with us. Especially with Thor being kicked out by Jane. And Rhodey is great.” Peter insists. “It’ll no longer be sweet when I strangle one of them.” The kid chuckles at that, looking up from his homework. Tony goes to hand Peter a glass of champagne. “You know I’m only fifteen, right?”
“You’re an old soul.”
“Yeah, well, me and my old soul can wait.” He sets it back behind the bar. “When I was your age…” Tony pauses, “I can’t tell that story, it’s wildly inappropriate, which, oddly, is my point. Don’t you want to have wildly inappropriate stories that you can’t tell your children?” Peter snorts, “I think you have enough of those for the both of us.”
“Life should be an adventure. You want to know why I killed Derrick?” He sits at the bar next to his kid. “Sure.” Peter puts down his work to give his dad his full attention. “There were no more surprises. I knew exactly what was going to happen every moment of every scene. Just like these parties.” He gestures to the large crowd. “They’ve become so predictable. ‘I’m your biggest fan!’ ‘Where do you get your ideas?’”
“And the ever popular, ‘Will you sign my chest?’” Tony laughs and takes a sip of his drink, “That one I don’t mind so much.”
“Yeah, well, I do.”
“Just once, I’d like someone to come up to me and say something new.” Peter nods and acts likes he's about to say something but stops.
“Mr. Stark.” He hears a man say, he grabs his pen and turns to the man, “Where would you like it?” The man holds up a police badge. “Detective Steve Rogers, NYPD. We need to ask you a few questions about a murder that took place earlier tonight.” At that moment Tony thinks two things, ‘Oh shit, I’m in serious trouble for something I didn’t do’ and ‘Oh shit, this guy is extremely fucking attractive’. Peter reaches over and grabs his pen from his hands, “That’s new.”
Tony waits in the interrogation room, it’s boring and grey and the chair is uncomfortable. The light in the room is florescent and more than a little annoying. He also can’t stop thinking about that attractive detective. He’s been arrested more than once but never by someone that pretty. He was tall and blonde with striking blue eyes, and damn he was well built.
He wasn’t going to lie, he was more than a little happy when it was Detective Rogers who opened the door and stepped inside the room. “Mr. Stark. You’ve got quite a rap sheet for a best-selling author: disorderly conduct, resisting arrest.”
“Boys will be boys.” He shrugs and smirks. “It says here that you stole a police horse?” The detective looks confused and unamused and he wears it well. “I borrowed a police horse.” He corrects. “Ah. And you were nude at the time.” The detective adds. “Well it was spring.”
“And every time the charges were dropped.” He sits down across the table and glares at him. “What can I say? The mayor is a fan. But if it makes you feel any better, I’d be happy to let you spank me.” He leans in and smiles at the man across the table. ‘Oh this is fun’. Tony is even pretty sure the Detective’s ears turn a little bit pink, though he looks slightly amused and pissed at the same time, it's a fun look, if a little scary.
“Mr. Stark,” the Detective leans in towards him, there’s no more than a foot of space between them, “This whole bad-boy charm thing that you’ve got going might work for the bimbettes and celebutantes you like so much. I work for a living, and that makes you one of two things in my world: either you can be the guy who makes my life easier, or the guy who makes my life harder. You do not want to be the guy who makes my life harder.”
“Okay.” He agrees. The Detective grabs a picture from the files he brought in. It’s a young blonde girl with hazel eyes. She’s maybe 24, 25. “Alison Tisdale. Daughter of real estate mogul Jonathan Tisdale.”
“Cute.” Is all Tony says about her. “She’s dead.” The detective tells him. Ah. “Did you ever meet her? Book signing? Charity even?”
“It’s possible. She’s not in my little black book, if that’s what you’re asking.” Detective Rogers shakes his head a little and grabs another picture. "What about this guy?"
"Less cute."
"Marvin Fisk, small claims lawyer." He looks much older, probably 40's. He's got dark hair and eyes, the picture appears to have been taken from a wedding album. "Most of my claims tend to be on the large side." The Detective rolls his eyes. "I just don't understand what either of these have to do with me." Tony admits. "Fisk was found murdered in his office two weeks ago. I didn't put it together until I saw the Tisdale crime scene." He slides another photo across the table. It's directly out of one of his books. "Flowers For Your Grave." He wonders aloud. It's shocking and a little disturbing.
"And this is how we found Marvin Fisk, right out of Hell Hath No Fury." The second picture is in a Wiccan circle. And he grasps that, but, "Do I have a fan, Detective?" He smiles to himself.
"A deranged one." The detective looks angry and concerned, but Tony isn't just going to let this go. He looks the Detective up and down, "You don't look deranged to me." That is followed by a very quick, "What?"
"Hell Hath No Fury? Angry wiccans out for blood? Only hardcore Stark groupies read that one." He's ignored, but he doesn't miss the flustered look that briefly flashes over his face.
"Do any of these fans right you letters?" Tony nods. "Distrubing ones?"
"Oh, all of my fan mail is distrubing. It's an occupational hazard." Tony shrugs. "Sometimes, in cases like these, we find that the…"
"Killer attempts to contact the subject of his obsession." Tony finishes. "I'm also pretty well versed in psychopathic methodologies. Another occuptational hazard. And did you know, you have gorgeous eyes." He's shaking his head again and taking the photos back. "So I take it that you won't have any objection to us going through your mail?"
"Enjoy. And try not to get too traumatized."
"It takes a lot to rattle me."
"Oh I'm sure it does."
"We're done here." Tony finds himself smirking and checking the Detective out as he leaves the room. Damn.
When Tony walks into the loft he finds Peter, still doing homework, at the kitchen counter. Thor and Rhodey have apparently both passed out on the couch. "Hey kiddo." Tony looks over at the clock. "It's school night. Don't you usually turn into a pumpkin by now." Peter chuckles. Tony grabs some whipped cream out of the fridge and eats some of it. "Not when my dad has been dragged away by cops. How was the slammer? Anyone make you your bitch?" He jokes. Tony gives him a quick look for his language before answering. "Sorry, Switchblade, I still belong to you." He holds out the whipped cream. "Already brushed."
"Your loss." Tony tells his kid before getting some more. "So are you going to tell me about it or do I have to look it up on the fan sites?" Tony chokes on whipped cream, once he's caught his breath again he looks at his kid seriously, "No, we had a deal. Surf the internet all you want but stay off the fan sites. We do have some rules in this house."
"Seriously dad, are you in some kind of trouble?" Peter turns it serious again and Tony shakes his head. "Despite my best efforts, I am not. Come on." He starts leading Peter to his office. "They want my help on a case."
"A case?"
"Apparently, somebody's been killing people the way I kill them in my books."
"That's horrible."
"No kidding." Tony feels more than a little guilty. He has to remind himself that he wasn't the one who did it and that he didn't choose that. But what he can do is make it right, maybe flirt with a handsome detective along the way, and find the story. "How many?"
"Two, so far." Tony starts scouring his shelves for the books. "Are you okay."
"I will be. It's just… senseless." He settles on. "Murder usually is."
"Nope. Murder usually makes a great deal of sense: passion, greed, politics. What's senseless is the choice in books. Hell Hath No Fury and Flowers for Your Grave, my truly lesser works. Why would a psychotic fan pick those?" He asks. "Probably because he's psychotic."
"Alright, it's bedtime, I'll figure it out in the morning. You have school and I have two of your uncles to get to bed."
"You could just leave them on the couch." Peter suggests with a mischievous grin. "Now there's a good idea." He ruffles Peter's hair. "Dad."
Steve drops a box on Sam's desk. "What are those?" He asks. "Stark's greatest hits. You're going to familiarize yourselves with all of his murder scenes so we don't miss any."
"Do you have them on tape?" Bucky asks, grabbing one of them. "So the first victim was a male lawyer. The second victim was a female social worker. Somewhere in these books you think these two are connected?" Nat asks. "It's starting to seem like a possibility." Steve tells her as she grabs her own stack. "From the library of Steve Rogers." Sam reads. "I forgot you were a Stark fan."
"I'm a fan of the genre." Steve corrects. "Right, that's why your blushing." Bucky teases. "Are you twelve?"
"All three of you are twelve." Nat tells them. "Me? What did I do?" Sam asks. "Can we get back on task? Profiling indicates a perp with low intelligence, someone who has—or thinks he has— a personal relationship with our author. So that's where we start." Steve sits down at his desk to start working on the case himself when Sam sits in the chair by his desk. "I work with dead bodies all day, the last thing I want to do when I go home is read murder books." Steve sighs, knowing what Sam is getting at. "Aren't you curious?"
"Curious?" Sam asks. "About how people can do these kinds of things to one another? Whoever did this read Stark's books, and somewhere in those pages is the answer to where he'll strike next."
"Is all of that Stark's mail?" Bucky whistles as officers bring in boxes behind Steve. "His fans love him almost as much as he loves himself. Take these to briefing, please." Sam nods and takes the box from Steve. "Did we hear back from the lab?"
"Sure did. Scene was negative for DNA and prints just like with Fisk. The guy's careful, that's for sure." Bucky tells him, showing the report. "What about Tisdale and Fisk, any connection?"
"Other than your boy over there? No." Bucky nods his head towards Captain Coulson's office. Steve is begging for Bucky to have made an awkward turn of phrase, but when he turns, he sees Stark talking to the Captain. "What's he doing here?" He asks Bucky. "Maybe he likes you." Bucky teases. Steve makes a face at him that he knows says 'I don't think your funny and your not as charming as you think you are'. Bucky just smiles wider.
"Detective Rogers." The Captain calls to him. "Yes, sir." He walks over to find Stark smiling at him like a kid who just got exactly what he wanted for his birthday and he does not find this comforting in the slightest. "Mr. Stark has offered to assist with the investigation."
"Really?"
"It's the least I can do for the city I love." Stark smirks at him and Steve finds himself seconds from quitting. "Considering the nature of the crime scenes I think it's a good idea." Steve is ready to run, give up, hide, and quit. He's ready to commit his first murder. Absolutely not. "Sir, can I talk to you for a minute. In private?"
"Nope." Coulson walks away and Steve is left standing there, ready to die. Stark stands in front of him with a smirk on his face. Fuck this and fuck his life.
Steve sighs. This is the twelfth time he's caught Stark staring at him over the letters he's supposed to be reading. There is no way in hell he is actually getting anything productive done this way. "What?" Steve finally asks when it happens again. "The way your brow furrows when you're thinking… It's cute. I mean, not if you're playing poker. Then it'd be deadly, but otherwise…"
"Can I ask you a question?" Steve interupts, Stark sets the letter aside he was supposedly reading to give Steve his undivided attention with a charming smile. It should be charming. Steve just finds himself more annoyed. "Shoot."
"Why are you here?" If Stark is taken aback by the question he doesn't show it, so Steve continues. "You don't seem to care about the victims so you aren't here for justice. You don't care that the guy's aping your books, so you aren't here 'cause your outraged. So what is it, Anthony? Are you here to annoy me?"
"I'm here for the story."
"The story." Steve repeats in disbelief. "Why those people? Why those murders?"
"Sometimes, there is no story. Sometimes the guy is just a psychopath."
"There's always a story. Always a chain of events that makes everything make sense. Take you for example. Under normal circumstances, you shouldn't be here. Most smart, good-looking people become lawyers, but you became a cop. And yet here you are. Why?"
"You're the novelist, why don't you tell me." Steve doesn't expect him to reply as he leans back with his own smug look. And even if he tries, what's he gonna come up with? It's not like he can get close to the truth.
"Well let's see. You have a small accent, my guess is Brooklyn. Maybe Queens. No… definitely Brooklyn." Stark nods to himself. So he got one thing right. Big deal. "You probably didn't have a lot of money but you clearly went to college. Probably a good one. Or at least good options. There were lots of drawings on your desk. Maybe at one point you wanted to go to art school." How had he noticed that? How did he know any of that? "Still, you chose this. Something happened. Not to you, you're wonded, but you're not that wounded. And it was someone you cared about. Somebody you loved. and you probably could have lived with that, but the person responsible was never caught." He stops. Now, only when somehow almost all of Steve's story is laid out bare, and only now does Stark seem sheepish, wondering if he's gone to far. "And that, Detective Rogers, is why you're here."
Steve scoffs, hoping to hide how exposed, how broken and on display he feels. "Cute trick. But don't think you know me."
"The point is, there's always a story. You just have to find it." Stark sounds sorry, maybe even a little regretful, like he didn't mean to expose Steve's heart like that. The Detective decides to move on and get back to the task at hand.
Steve grabs the letter back and it's glaring at him right in the face. "I think I just did." He shows Stark the letter in question. A drawing of the victim from Flowers for Your Grave.
"So have you ever shot a guy?" Tony asks. "Yes." Detective Barnes answers simply. "Where'd you get the metal arm?"
"Wakanda."
"Lab's got lifts off the letter." Rogers tells the team of Detectives that Tony has now learned is lead by Rogers but has Barnes, Wilson, and Romanoff. Romanoff is also quite pretty, and Barnes and Wilson aren't bad looking themselves. But at this point Tony finds himself only with eyes for Detective Rogers. "Whose?" Tony asks. "The systems backlogged; it'll take a week to run a match."
"A week?" Tony asks. "Welcome to reality, superstar." Wilson tells him. "Well, I never did much like reality." Tony pulls out his phone and decides to make a call. "Mayor's office."
/"Hi Denise, it's Tony."
"Hi." She says sweetly. "Yeah, is he in?"
"Hold on." She tells him. He can feels the four detectives watching him. "Thanks." He turns to Steve, "Like I said, mayor's a fan."
"Tony!"
"Hey, big cheese! How are you?"
"You doin' okay?"
"Yeah of course."
Steve watches this conversation play out with Sam, Bucky, and Nat. Sam looks like how he feels, absolutely flabbergasted. Tony walks away to take his phone call. "Man's got the mayor on speed dial. The rich really are different." Sam says. "You want him? He's yours."
"Nah, we're having too much fun watching this. It's more fun than Shark Week." Bucky agrees. "Sam and Bucky agree on something. The world really is ending." Nat jokes. Stark walks back and ends his call. "Okay, you'll have your prints in an hour." Tony tells them. "Half the guys here are waiting for prints. You don't just jump the line."
"I think someone feels threatened." Tony (barely) whispers to Bucky but sitting down by Steve's desk. "I'm not threatened." Steve tells him. "No, no, I get it. I can call the mayor and you can't." Stark smiles like he's figured everything out again. "We have prodecure. Protocol."
"Yeah, and you always come to a complete stop at a stop sign, never speed, and never lie. Tell me something, do you ever have any fun?" Steve is going to choke this guy. He can feel the last few threads of his patience holding on for dear life. "You know, let your hair down, drop your top, a little Cops Gone Wild?"
"You do know I'm wearing a gun?"
"Oooh." He sounds a little more intrigued than Steve would like. And he can't tell what that's supposed to mean. He's about to reply before someone calls for him from across the precint. "Midtown. They just found another one."
As they stare at the new scene, a girl stabbed in the back floating face down in the pool, Tony recognizes it immediately from his books. "Death of a Prom Queen." He says in a barely audible whisper.
"Maintenance found her an hour ago. Kendra Ptiney, she lives in the building." A cop explains to Rogers. "All right, let's get her out of the water." Steve turns to him. "Just stay here and don't touch anything."
Rogers and his partners are discussing something at the other end of the pool while two men, forensics by the looks of it, look over the body. Tony decides to take his chances and go look at the body too. He kneels down next to the girl and the forensics guys. One clears his throat, giving him a suspicious look, with sandy hair and steel blue eyes and quite the suspicious look. The other guy has a similar look, though a little more timid, with glasses, wavy black hair and grey eyes. "Hi, I'm Tony Stark. I'm consulting." He explains. "As in, the author?" He asks. "On my better days." Tony jokes with a smirk.
"Clint Barton, medical examiner." He introduces himself. "Bruce Banner, also medical examiner." The other guy introduces himself. "You know, your books are pretty good." Clint says. "Well I'd like to think so."
"You have a real gift with the details of death." He adds with a smile. Someone clears their throat and the two of them look up to see Steve looming over them. "I thought I told you to stay over there."
"I got lonely." Steve sighs and rolls his eyes before turning to Clint and Bruce. "You got a C.O.D.?"
"Not until the full exam." Bruce tells him. "It wasn't a stabbing I can tell you that much." Clint adds."Lack of blood around the wound suggests she was dead before it was inserted. No foam around the mouth, so you also know she didn't drown." Tony adds. "You should keep this guy around, he isn't half bad." Clint jokes. "Hear that, I'm not half bad." Tony agrees. "So she was killed and then posed like the others." Bruce finishes explaining to the Detective. "Yeah, thank you. Can I have a word?" Steve grabs Tony's arm and brings him back to the original spot. He's not fighting, just letting it happen. "This is a homicide investigation, not a day at Disneyland. If I give you an order, I expect you to obey it."
"Then you don't know me very well." Tony says as Steve goes to walk away. Tony follows behind him. "You know, in my book, the dress was blue."
"Don't change the subject."
"Did Tisdale and Fisk know each other?"
"We haven't found a connection. Why?" Steve turns towards his apparent shadow. "What about motive?" He asks as Steve's phone starts to ring. "He's a serial killer, he doesn't need motive." He pulls out his phone and answers it. "Rogers."
Tony turns back to the body. In fact, now that he's thinking about it, this is not the only crime scene where there was a small detail that the killer got wrong. And that just doesn't sit right with him. "They got a match off the print. Kyle Cabot. He's in Brooklyn. We got him." Steve tells the detectives.
Once they pull up to the building and park, Steve turns to him. "Stay put." He emphasizes his words. "Scouts honor." Tony tells him. Steve climbs out of the car, sheds his jacket and leaves it in the front seat, and goes towards the building. Once he's run inside the building Tony grins to himself. It's a good thing he wasn't a scout.
Steve takes a vest from another officer and starts putting it on while he makes his way to the apartment. Bucky right behind him, then Sam, and Nat bringing up the rear of their group. Other officers meet them at the apartment, having come from different entrances to the building.
Once at the apartment he bangs at the door. "Kyle Cabot, NYPD, open up." When there's no response, after four seconds, he kicks down the door and each head in a different direction. Nat takes the room on the left with Sam and Bucky stays in the main room with Steve. "Well that's not creepy at all." Bucky remakes about all of the Castle photos, drawings, and news paper clippings scattered around the apartment. He also notices a picture of Alison and more drawings of various murder scenes from Stark's books.
"More drawings." Bucky shows him the books that have also been colored in. "You should invite him to join your book club."
"You're not funny." Bucky grins at him like he thinks he is anyway. Steve just rolls his eyes.
"Yo Steve!" Sam calls from the other room. "You have to see this." Nat adds. Steve and Bucky make their way in to find what can only be described as a shrine to Tony Stark. With more drawings, news paper articles, book covers, and pictures pinned to boards.
"Oh that's creepy." Everyone turns to see a surprised Stark. Steve sighs. "I was never a scout." He explains with a smirk and a raise of his brow. Steve wants to wipe that stupid smirk off his face.
"Steve." He turns to Nat who's holding up a shirt with two bullet holes and blood stains. "Alison's shirt."
"So he kept trophys." Steve thinks outloud. "Plus, a twenty-two caliber." Sam holds up the gun.
Everyone jumps at a loud bang against a closet door. Steve holds his gun up in front of him. He makes his way over to closet as a banging starts to become repetitive. He leans against the wall that has the door and waits for his partners to be ready and Stark to have moved himself out of the way before opening the door. "Show me your hands!" He shouts. Cabot is banging his head against the wall over and over. Officers enter the closet and pull him up to make the arrest as he screams.
Tony watches as Rogers leaves the interegation room from the other side of the one-way glass. Cabot is just… sitting there. Rocking back and forth. Something about it feels wrong.
"Cabot is still not speaking." Rogers tells Coulson. "State medical records indicate he's got prevasice developmental disorder."
"Well that explains his fixation with me." Tony says, mostly to himself. "PDD sometimes manifests as an obsession with a single subject." He elaborates for the captain and detective. "Your super fan also has a history of delusions." Steve tells him before turning back to Coulson. "Guess who his social worker was."
"Alison Tisdale." Tony guesses. Steve gives him a look, what that look means he has yet to figure out. "Yeah." He confirms. "Her files indicate he was on some pretty heavy anti-psychotics."
"Limited intelligence. Thinks he has a personal relationship with his hero, looks like the profile was right. Excellent work, Detective Rogers."
"So, what? That's it?" Tony asks. "What more do you want? Evidence is in his apartment, we can connect with the three victims. Two from the diner where he worked, and Tisdale was his social worker." Coulson tells him and turns back to Rogers, "Call the D.A. Get him legal aid." Then the Captain is walking out. So Tony turns back to his last hope, Rogers. "It's too easy! The reader would never buy it." He tries to explain. "This isn't one of your books, Stark. Out here, we find a guy standing over a body with a gun, he's usually the guy who did it." Rogers walks away.
He wants to explain further. Say every problem he has. But everyone is gone. He doesn't think it was Cabot but he doesn't know what to do.
Sam and Bucky, work together (sort of) to pull the pictures and items off the whiteboard they use to orginaze information for their cases. "Your doing it wrong."
"What do you mean I'm doing it wrong, Barnes. There isn't a wrong way to pull pictures off a whiteboard."
"Well I didn't think so either until you found one."
Steve blocks out their bickering and turns to Nat's desk where she's typing away. "You know, this kid was in and out of the system for years. It doesn't seem like he ever got the proper treatment 'til Alison took over his case file."
"That's right. She's the one who got him the job at the diner. Her notes say he was doing okay." Nat nods but continues, "But our job is done. We let the D.A. worry about that now."
"Yeah." He agrees. Sam goes to grab the box and take it to evidence. "Can you leave it, I'll take care of it tomorrow."
"Sure." Sam agrees, somewhat skeptically. Nat wraps up and logs off. "I'm going home." Sam tells them and heads out. "Remember to get some rest. If I find you here before me in the morning and Rambeau tells me you've been here all night again we're gonna have a serious problem."
"Goodnight Buck."
"Night."
"Well Stark, I'm glad you killed off Storm. Less competition." Strange admits as they all look at their new hands. Every week he gathers with some other mystery author friends to play poker. He was not expecting them all to poke fun at him from Storm's death. But whatever. He made that choice on purpose and he's sticking to it. "20 to you Richards."
"You're bluffing Danvers."
"Cough up some of that TV money and you'll find out." Reed adds a few chips to the pot as well.
Tony notices is this in some part of his brain. But mostly he's thinking about Cabot. "Bets to you, Tony." Carol tells him. "Stark?" Strange asks. "Yeah?"
"Bets to you."
"Oh, sorry."
"He has his story trouble look." Loki comments. "Yeah, you know, you never should've killed off Storm. That was a big mistake. You could have retired him. Or crippled him." Reed tells him. "You won't catch me putting a bullet through Alex Cross's head." Danvers jokes. "Sylvie will be fueling my private jet long after people have forgotten about Derrick Storm." Loki smirks. "Just for that, I'm going to call." Tony says. They all let out groans.
Everyone folds and are dealt new hands by Carol. "Tell us about your problems, perhaps we can enlighten you." Loki suggests. "I'm working on this thing. It starts with a famous author." Carol snorts. "Some psycho starts staging murders like the way he does in his books." Tony explains. "That's pretty self-aggrandising, isn't it?" Strange asks. "This is Tony we're talking about." Reed adds. Tony rolls his eyes but continues. "So, crime scenes are clean. Doesn't leave any fingerprints, doesn't leave any DNA, but the psycho writes the author a fan letter with his prints all over it. Well that leads the cops to his apartment where they find enough evidence to convinct him." Everyone waits for him to continue. To add a twist. But when theres nothing they all seem frustrated. "And then?" Carol asks finally. "That's it."
"That's it?" Strange deadpans. "Yeah, they arrest him."
"That's terrible." Reed tells him. "No wonder your blocked." Loki snickers. "You're trying to convince me that the guy doesn't leave his prints at the scene, but he sends a letter with his prints all over it? That doesn't make any sense." Strange tells him. And Tony agrees. "And what about a twist. You usually are pretty good at those." Carol adds. "Like maybe someone set this kid up." Tony thinks outloud. And he realizes that exactly the problem he's facing. It doesn't quite feel like Cabot did it. Cabot would have gotten the crime scene details correct, down to the dress color, but the killer didn't.
"Your story needs a character who thinks your convicted is innocent and continues to dig until he finds the truth." Loki tells him. "I think I have just the guy." Tony smiles to himself.
Steve is about to commit a murder in the bullpen, or lock this guy up for a few hours. Steve runs over to his desk where Stark is going through his files and sets down his coffee. "What are you doing?" He asks, taking them away from the author. "It's a novelist's habit to poke through other people's mail. Check their medicine cabniets."
"Why are you still here?" He asks, ignoring that damn smirk. "I just came by to give you this. A little something to memorialize our brief partnership." Tony hands over the package with what could be considered a genuine smile but Steve doesn't believe it for a second. "Oh don't be so suspicious, go on, open it." Steve sighs and takes it, opening it. It's a copy of Stark's latest book, Storm Fall. "I got you an advanced copy. I even signed it to you. Not that you're a fan of course." Steve actually finds himself slightly taken aback. "Thanks… that's actually kinda… sweet." Stark's smile gets a little bit brighter. "Well."
"Well."
"It was nice to have met you, Detective Rogers." Steve finds himself shocked as Stark reaches up far enough to give him a kiss on the cheek, smiles and walks away.
He finds himself shocked as he watches the novelist walk away with his bag. Steve sits down, taken aback. He catches himself smiling a little, looking at the book. Before he comes to a moment of realization. "He didn't." He whispers to himself, looking through his stuff. "He did." He says, and he curses.
Tony freezes when he hears the doors burst open. So much for the public library being a good hiding spot. He hears the Detective's footsteps approaching him. He smiles though, he knew Rogers was smart but that was damn fast, he had only an hour with this stuff to try to figure it out. "Anthony Stark, you are under arrest for felony, theft, and obstruction of justice." He calls out. Tony turns and smiles. "You forgot making you look bad." Steve leans in close, giving Tony a real good look at his face up close. "You know, for a second there, you almost had me believe that you were human." He turns to the officers with him. "Cuff him."
The pull him out of the chair with ease. "Ooh, bondage. My safe word is apples." Steve looks directly at him when he tells the other officers, "There's no need to be gentle."
"How did you find me anyways?" Tony can't help but be curious. "I'm a detective that's what I do."
"It was Thor, wasn't it. Or was it Rhodey? Also, by the way, the rose petals in the Tisdale murder are grandiflora, not hybrid teas." They start taking him away while Steve gathers up everything he was working on. "I'll make a note of it." He waves it off. "Yeah, you probably should, since that combined with the dress mean Kyle Cabot is innocent." He can feel the confused puppy look Steve is giving him from here.
"Thank you officer." The Captain says to the Officer escorting Tony out of his holding cell. He sees Peter, Rhodey, and Thor standing next to Detective Rogers. "Hello Father." Peter sighs. "Hello son."
"I wish I could say I was surprised." Rhodey sighs. "I blame it on his lack of a father figure. What say you, Peter." Thor jokes. Peter laughs and Tony gives his son a hug, glaring at the man. "I see you've met Captain Coulson and Detective Rogers."
"They've agreed to drop the charges if you agree to leave the case alone." Rhodey tells him. "No more interference with this case, Mr. Stark. Do we understand each other?" Coulson asks. "Absolutely," He agrees, "but you still got the wrong guy." Rogers gives that annoyed half smile of his and shakes his head. "Come on Tony." Rhodey starts pushing him towards the exit.
Steve stares at the reassembled 'murder board'. Something about the case isn't sitting right with him. And not just because of Stark's insitance. "Don't tell me he got to you." Sam says. "He didn't. She did." He nods his head towards Alison's picture. "What do you mean."
"Marvin Fisk, first murder. Kyle knew him from the diner. Then he kills Alisosn, his social worker. Then he kills Kendra Pitney, who was also from the diner."
"So?"
"So he starts with a muder of convenience, escalates to someone he knows well, and goes back to convenience. It just doesn't make any sense."
"Somebody set up Kyle to take the fall." Tony explains to the car while he drives. Peter sitting next to him in the passenger seat. "Somebody who knew enough about his fixation with me to use it to get away with muder. That menas we're not looking for a serial killer, we're looking for a good-old-fashioned murderer. Someone with motive." Rhodey and Thor look at him like he's crazy while Peter looks at him with curiousity.
"You think the victims were somehow related?" Peter asks. "If they were Rogers would have found it by now. Now, if I were writing the story, the killer would have wanted only one of the victims dead. He would have killed the other ones just to cover up the crime."
"How do you get away with one murder by committing two more?" Rhodey asks like it's on of the most stupid things he's ever heard. "At one death you look for motive, at two deaths… at two you look for a connection. At three you look for someone like Kyle. With three, you don't need motive because mentally unstable serial killers don't usually have one."
"That makes about as much sense as that musical that Loki took me to see a few weeks ago… the 25th Spelling Bee I believe. I still don't know what it was about." Thor tells them.
"Stark was right. If Kyle was trying to follow his books, then the roses on Alison's body were wrong. Fisk should have been suffocated by a plastic bag, not strangled with a necktie. And Kendra's dress should have been blue. For an obsessive, it would have been impossible not to get the details right." Steve sighs, he can't believe Stark was right. "So it it wasn't Cabot, who was it?" Sam asks him.
"The killer had to have known both his intended victim and Kyle fairly well. Only victim that knew Kyle or his condition was Alison." Tony explains.
"Alison's the key. She's the one who the killer actually wanted dead." Steve explains his theory. "Well as far as we know, she wasn't seeing anyone and none of her other case files fit the profile."
"Well, somebody had to know something about her."
"So if the killer found out about Kyle through Alison, then Alison must have been the intended target. Somebody wanted Alison dead. Just have to figure out why."
"If I have to keep bailing you out, you're going to have to raise my allowance. By a lot." Peter tells him. "Mine as well." Thor adds. "Me too." Rhodey agrees. "You know I can kick two of you out at anytime right." Tony glares at the them in the rear view. But still, he's got an idea.
Tony strides up to the front desk of Tisdale's office and lays on the charm with the secretary. "Hi, I'm Tony Stark. I have an appointment to see Mr. Tisdale."
"Yes. Mr. Stark. He's expecting you."
"Is he now?" Detective Rogers says, Tony turns and thinks for the second/third time since meeting this Detective 'oh shit' as Rogers holds up his badge and walks past the desk. "This is not what it looks like… this…" Tony tries to come up with a lie to explain what he's doing that doesn't involve him getting arrested while Steve presses the button to call the elevator, "Okay this is exactly what it looks like, but I can explain."
Rogers smiles at him, "You comin?" He asks, stepping into the elevator, holding it open. Tony finds himself caught off guard before heading towards the elevator himself.
"Did Alison ever mention having enemies of being threatened?" Rogers asks. Johnathan Tisdale seems weighed down and he sighs, "People loved her. All she wanted was to make the world a better place. I told all of this to the other detective."
"I know, sir, we're just following up."
"Did Alison know anybody who could have profited from her death?" Tony interjects.
"Mr. Stark, I may be rich, but my daughter was not. She abhorred money. What little she had, she gave the charity." Rogers glares at him before turning back to Tisdale. Maybe he'll start making a game out of how many glares he can get.
"Thank you, sir." Rogers turns to leave but Tony isn't having that. "Mr. Tisdale, Fortune magazine estimated you net worth at nearly 100 million dollars. Is that true?"
"I don't check day to day." He says, messing with his hair. "But it's in the ballpark?" Tony tries to confirm. "I've been lucky, yes."
"Thank you for your time." Rogers tries to get Tony on the 'leaving' page but he isn't having that. "What happens to all that money if something happens to you?"
"Stark." Rogers warns. "Half of my estate goes to my charitable foundantion and the rest to my children. I mean, my son." He corrects himself. "Thank you." He follows Steve out of the office.
"What was that about?" Steve asks once they've made it to the street. "He's dying."
"Who's dying? Tisdale?" Stark appears to see something that catches his eye. "You want a cheeseburger, I want a cheeseburger. What do you take on your…" Tony turns back and Steve acts on instinct, reaching out and grabbing his nose. "Ow! Ow. Apples, apples, apples." He cries out. "What makes you think he's dying?" Steve asks and then lets go. Something about Stark must really get under his skin because that is not something he would normally do. "Did you see the pictures in his office?"
"Yes."
"He's much thinner now. Like sick thin, not work out thin." He says, messing with his nose. "His daughter was just murdered. Most people don't think about food once that happens." Steve points out. "And the way he kept touching his hair, like he's self-conscious."
"He wears a piece?" How had he missed that? "It's a good one. But it's new to him. Chemo's relatively recent. And he was wearing makeup. A little was on his collar."
"He's trying to look healthier than he is." Steve realizes. "Doesn't want his shareholders to know would be my guess."
"So he's got cancer, that doesn't mean that he's terminal."
"But it's a much better story if he is." Steve just stares. This man and his stories. "You interview the brother?"
"There was never a reason to." Stark smiles, "Well, now there is."
Tony snacks on his cheeseburger as they pull up to the warehouse that Harrison Tisdale is running.
Steve walks them over and asks one of the workers to direct them. Once they find him Steve calls out, "Harrison Tisdale?" Harrison barely looks. "Yeah… Hey Mitch! Let's get these pallets on the truck." Tony watches him as Steve tries to get his attention back. "I'm Detective Steve Rogers and this is Tony Stark. We'd like to ask you some questions about your sister." He nods. "Yeah, anything I can do. Let's head inside."
He leads them to an office inside the warehouse. It's nicely furnished. Harrison dismisses the worker in there, giving them some privacy. "Last time I saw her was about a month ago at Dad's. You know, I still can't believe she's gone." He says as he sits down at his own desk. "Were you close?" Steve asks.
"Everybody loved her. My sister… she just wanted to see the best in people. Even that kid who killed her. You know, she did everything she could to help that guy. Even brought him around here once to see if I could get him a job." He scoffs. "But you didn't?" Tony asks. "I can't afford to, all right?" He defends, "My employees mess up, I lose my bond. I don't know. Maybe if I'd helped him things would be different."
"How did your sister react when your dad told you he was dying." Harrison was definitely not expecting Steve's question and it shows. "She was upset. We both were."
"Now that she's dead, your inheritance stands to double." Tony thinks outloud. He blinks a few times, taken aback, standing up like he's outraged. "What are you suggesting? You already caught the killer."
"Yeah, we did. but the first thing his lawyers will do is shift suspicion to someone else. Someone with motive. Then they'll stick me on the stand and ask me why I didn't investigate then the jury will have doubts. We don't want them to have doubts, do we?" Steve tells him. "No." Harrison agrees. Tony guesses that explains what Steve is doing here. Figures. "So you'll have to excuse me for asking but where were you the night of your sister's murder."
"I was traveling. On business. Actually, I was out of the country for all three murders." He rummages through his desk, Tony shakes his head at Steve, showing that he isn't buying it, but Steve's look is unreadable. Harrison grabs a passport and shows to the detective. "Here, check the stamps on that if it's useful." Tony swears to himself when the stamps turn up real. Or real enough to the naked eye maybe. But Steve seems convinced. "Thank you for your time."
"A U.S. passport." Tony sighs once they're back on the streets. "Absolutely unassailable." Steve tells him. "I was sure it was him!" Tony insists. Steve smiles, "Oh, don't take it so hard. After all, you're just a writer." Tony falters, he looks so happy. Like he knows or suspects something that Tony hasn't figured out yet. "What?" Tony asks. "Nothing." Steve waves it off. "No, tell me!" Tony steps in front of Steve, a pretty good feat considering Steve has much longer strides then he does. "Oh come on." Steve asks, like he really can't believe Tony hasn't figured it out yet. "He's lying."
"Excuse me?"
"I get him knowing where he was the night of his sister's murder, but the other two victims? He didn't pause. He didn't ask for dates. He didn't even check his calender, but he was ready with an alibi. In my expereince, innocent people don't prepare alibis." Well hot damn. "So I was right." Steve rolls his eyes and moves around Tony to keep walking.
"Okay, give me the dates and flights." Sam says to his phone. "Why can't you just admit I was right?" Stark asks again. "Because he totally fooled you." Steve says. "Did he buy it?" Bucky asks. "He totally bought it." Nat agrees. "I had a fleeting moment of self-doubt." Tony defends. Steve just snickers. Sam puts down the phone. "So?" Steve asks. "His credit card company confirms he paid for three roundtrip tickets. The dates coincide with the three murders."
"So according to his credit card, Tisdale was out of the country." Nat sighs. This just got a lot harder. "Wait a minute, now I'm not right?"
"Which means the passport stamps were forged." Steve guesses and starts heading to his desk to get a warrant. "I'll call passport control and have them check the logs." Bucky goes to walk to his desk and make the call. "That's not how he would have done it." Tony says, stopping all the detectives in their tracks. Steve turns back, "You got a better idea?"
"Second passport." Tony smiles up at him. "And how would he get one of those?"
"Oh, with his money? Trust me, on the black market it'd be a piece of cake."
"So he leaves the country on his own, comes back with the other passport, commits murder, flies out and then comes back in on his own."
"Perfect alibi, perfect murder…"
"… but almost impossible to prove." Steve finishes Stark's thought. "Unless you can find the second passport."
"He's gotta be freaked out after your little meet and greet." Sam points out. "Keep eyes on him, if he moves, I wanna know." Steve tells Nat. "On it." He starts moving and mutters to himself, "The things that people will do for money."
"This guy kills his own sister in cold blod and killed more people to cover it up. He's either a world-class sociopath or there's a lot more tot his story than just money." Tony tries to say. Steve ignores him and grabs the phone. He's seen enough bad people to know that sometimes people will just kill for money. "Judge Xavier, please."
"Oh! Xavier! Tell him I say hello." Steve looks over a glares will Tony just smiles brightly.
"Now. They're redoing the entire back nine." Xavier tells him. "Oh man, I love that course. When are the going to re-open?" Tony asks.
"Judge, I hate to break up 'Golf Digest'" Steve pointedly glares at him and Tony just tries to give his best apologetic look as they make their way to the front of the courthouse with the Judge, "but I have an exigent sitation here." Steve shows him the warrant waiting for a judge's signiture. "Very well, Detective, play through."
"We need a search warrant. He needs a search warrant." Tony corrects himself. "For the home and office of Harrison Tisdale." Steve adds. "Jonathan Tisdale's son?" Charles asks. "Yes." Both Steve and Tony say at the same time. Tony continues and explains to the judge, "He murdered his sister and killed two more people to cover up the crime."
Xavier stops his chair in its tracks and looks to Steve, "And your sure about this, Detective?"
"Harrison's father is terminally ill, sir."
"I just saw him at a benefit."
"I hope you took a picture." Tony tells him. Steve gives him a glare again before turning back to the judge. "With the sister out of the way, Harrison is set to inherit everything." Steve gets a call and he picks it up. Tony turns to Charles. "There's also a twisted, emotional angle in there; I won't bore you with the details. Very Shakespearean."
"Harrison just left work." Steve tells them. "He's probably heading home to destroy the evidence." Tony tells the judge. "Are you sure you can link him to the other victims?"
"Through a patient of his sister's he was trying to frame." He sighs and signs the warrant. "Thank you sir." Steve says and they rush off. "Let's go out to the course soon!" Tony calls to him.
"What do we have guys?" Steve asks when they pull up. "Harrison's business is going under, he's tens of millions in debt." Romanoff explains. "And with his sister's share he can pay off his debt and then some." Sam adds. Tony smiles when Steve turns to him. The Detective puts a hand on his shoulder. "Stark, if you're going in you should be armed. My backup's in the glove compartment." Tony nods and opens the car to door and glove box. "I can't find it." He admits. Tony feels his wrist gets grabbed and realizes he fell for it. His right hand is now cuffed to the inside handle of the car. "This time, you're staying put." Steve tells him sternly.
Barnes, Wilson, and Romanoff are giggling as Roger's takes off and they follow behind him. "Okay Rogers! Very funny. Joke's over." But they've run into the buildling. "Come on!" He shouts. Once he's sure their gone he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the key he hid for cuffs there. "Cuff me once, shame on you. Cuff me twice…" Just as he's about to use his free hand to unlock the cuffs he drops the key. "Damn it."
Steve knocks on the door to the apartment. "Harrison Tisdale, NYPD. We have a warrant." He calls out. "Just a minute." Is the response, but it's muffled and something is going on in there on top of it.
Tony reaches as far as he can, he's almost fallen onto the ground completely twice now. He's really glad theres no one around to take pictures of him right now. People would have a field day with this. He doesn't know if Pepper would think it was hilarious or kill him. Maybe both.
"Open the door, Harrison. It's the NYPD and we have a warrant." Steve calls out one more time. No answer. Steve breaks down the door and the apartment is empty.
Tony finally gets the key and cheers to himself, unlocking the cuffs. As he does he notices Harrison coming down the fire escape with a trashbag and gun in hand. "Hey!" He calls out. That… was not his smartest move. Well, too late for the element of surprise now. He chases after Harrison and opens his phone. He calls Rogers. "He's coming down the fire escape."
Steve decides to worry about how he got his phone number later. "He's out back. Cover the front." He tells the officers with him.
Harrison created a real mess with shreds of paper everywhere. He throws the trashbag and Tony to try and slow him down. "Stop police, don't move!" He hears Steve shout from above, but Harrison doesn't care. "Dammit Stark, stop!" He also shouts. Tony pointedly ignores that. "I got him!" He shouts back.
"Stark!"
Steve moves into the alley, pressing his back against the truck parked there, moving slowly. Dammit where did Stark go? When he makes it to the front of the truck Harrison appears, holding Stark hostage with a gun to his head. "Stay back! Stay back! Don't come any closer." He shouts. "Easy! Easy!" Tony shouts. "Let him go, Harrison." Steve stays calm. "Easy, easy, okay." Tony says. "You okay, Stark?" He asks. "Psycho here needs a breath mint."
"Shut up!" They're moving, and Tony and Harrison are almost completely out of view. Steve follows after, slowly.
Well, this is certainly not the smartest idea Tony has ever had in his life. "Okay. You know what's bothering me, Harrison. If you were that deep in debt, why didn't you just ask your father for the money."
"Not helping, Stark." Steve shouts at him. "I think you did ask. I think you asked and he said no. I think he always said no. A self-made man like that, I bet he thought you were weak for asking."
"He was the one who was weak. I was trying to make osmething of my life and all he cared about was her!" Tony gets it now. "You didn't just kill her for the money. You wanted to punish your dad before he died. Take away the only thing he loved. That's a pretty good story."
"Who the hell are you?" Harrison asks.
"Harrison, let him go. It's over." Steve steps up. "It's not over. It's not over. Drop the gun or I swear to…" Harrison points the gun at Rogers and Tony uses the opportunity to elbow Tisdale's nose and snatch the gun from the killer's hands.
"Tell me you saw that!" Tony shouts. "You're gonna put that in your report, right?" Steve sighs. "Can I see the cuffs, please?" Steve asks, Tony hands them over and Steve cuffs Harrison, unconcious on the ground. He must have hit his head on the way down.
Once he's cuffed Tony goes to give Roger's a pat on the back and finds his arm shoved away. "What the hell were you thinking? You could've gotten yourself killed." Steve pokes him in chest, slightly shoving him into the wall.
"Safety was on the whole time." He explains. Steve sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You know, you could've told me."
"Where's the fun in that?" Tony smirks. This appears to make Rogers frown deeper. This is fun.
Steve turns to Stark once Harrison is in the back of one of the officers cars. "Well, guess this is it." Steve nods to the author. "Well it doesn't have to be. We could, uh, go to dinner. Debrief each other." Steve finds himself smiling at shaking his head. "Why, Stark? So I can be another one of your conquests?"
"Or I could be one of yours." Tony smiles, probably the most sincere since Steve has met the man. "It was nice to meet you, Stark." He holds out his hand for a shake. "It's too bad. It would've been great." Stark shakes his hand anyway. Steve smirks at him and walks back towards his fellow officers and feels Tony staring after him.
Tony sits at his desk and writes. He finally has the inspiration, and idea. "You know it's time for bed." Peter smiles at him from the doorway. "It's time for your bed. I'm an adult." Peter sighs. "It's good to see you writing again."
Steve knocks on the door to Coulson's office. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Yeah. Come in." Steve sits down at his desk. "I just got a call from the Mayor's office. Apparently you have a fan."
"A fan, sir?" He asks. "Tony Stark seems to have found the main character for his next set of novels. A tough and savvy male detective."
"I'm… flattered." Steve doesn't know what else to say. Sure he's flattered but it still feels odd, and clearly the Captain has more to say. "Don't be. He says he has to do research." And then it dawns on him. The real reason he was called into the office. "Oh no."
"Oh yes."
"No way."
"Rogers, listen…" Coulson tries to reason with him. "Sir, he is like a nine year-old on a sugar rush. He can't take anything seriously. And now you want to let him follow me around."
"But he did help you solve this case. And when the Mayor's happy, the Commissioner is happy, and when the Commissioner's happy, I'm happy." Steve sighs, knowing there is no getting out of this. "How long, sir?" Coulson nods over his shoulder. "That's up to him." Steve looks over to see Stark smirking at him in the door to the Captains office with a raise of his brow. Steve sighs, lord give him strength.