After sleeping for a very long time, the two had to continue their jobs. Eleanor would be back at the apartment, continuing her part in the Vanko investigation, which she had now been officially roped into, even though he was thought to be dead, his tech and knowledge in the hands of the wrong people would be horrific. Nat would continue to work at Stark Industries, hoping that Tony would keep his mouth shut.

Both Eleanor and Nat knew that he would find some way to torment Nat now that he knew her real identity, it was only a matter of when.

That afternoon, they would both be flying to New York, for the Stark Expo, once again flying separately.

Eleanor was sitting on the sofa, going through files and replying to emails on her laptop, whilst Nat was getting herself ready for work. She looked up and saw that Nat was rushing around slightly, "Don't worry about packing your case, I can do it when I do mine before lunch".

Nat looked over towards Eleanor before continuing her current task, "Are you sure? I don't want you to feel like you have to".

"No, it's okay, I want to", she smiled, earning a smile in return. Eleanor was more than happy to help her girlfriend out, especially as she was going to be the one dealing with people today, Eleanor got to stay out of it.

"Okay, well I've gotta rush out now, but I'll see you later, yeah?", Nat quickly said as she walked over to Eleanor, leaning down and placing a lingering kiss on her forehead.

"Mhm, have fun", she smirked, making Nat scoff in amusement before leaving.

---

After picking up some paperwork that she needed to give to Pepper, Nat met up with Happy as they both walked toward her office. "Happy", she nodded at the man. He just smiled at her as they continued their journey.

"Oh, I've been told that the flight has been brought forwards", Happy began.

"When is it?", Nat was panicking slightly as she didn't have her case with her.

"25 minutes". She nodded at his answer, she would have to rush home after talking with Pepper and hope that Eleanor had packed it. It was afternoon now, Eleanor had usually eaten by this time she thought, so all being well the case would be packed.

They eventually reached their destination and walked in. "Miss. Potts?", she saw Tony sitting in front of the desk too, making her groan internally.

"Hi, come on in", Pepper sounded flustered, and Tony turned to face Nat, looking shocked as she walked towards the pair.

"Wheels up in 25 minutes".

"Thank you".

Whilst Pepper was going through the paperwork, Nat had to watch a very awkward ordeal between the other three in the room, so stayed quiet staring intently at the paperwork on the desk, not wanting to draw attention to herself.

It was going well until Stark started talking again, "Are you blending in well here, Natalie? Here at Stark enterprises? Your name is Natalie isn't it?". If she hadn't had to keep her cover for Pepper's sake then she would have been tempted to deck him there and then.

She just glared at him hoping that he would just shut up, but her wish was not granted. "I thought you two didn't get along?", he gestured between the two women.

"No, that's not so", Pepper calmly stated. Nat was glad that she wasn't in Pepper's bad books anymore, but was a bit confused about her sudden attitude change toward her.

"It's just me you don't care for? No, nothing?".

Nat would have given anything to not be in the middle of this awkward interaction. "Actually, whilst you're here maybe you and Natalie could discuss the matter of personal belongings", Pepper stated whilst standing and preparing to leave.

"Absolutely".

Now that Pepper and Happy had left, Nat was now able to rip into him a bit as she collected the documents, "I'm surprised you can keep your mouth shut".

"Boy, you're good, you are mind-blowingly duplicitous. How do you do it? You just tear things, you're- you're a triple impostor. I've never seen anything like you. Is there anything real about you? Do you even speak Latin?".

Nat just stared down at him through his little ramble, she didn't appreciate what he was saying about her, some of the stuff she was insecure about. There were real things about her, she wasn't just a faceless weapon anymore. She was also getting a bit bored of hearing his voice. "Fallaces sunt rerum species", she answered smugly. This translated to "the appearances of things are deceptive", but Tony didn't have to know that.

"Which means? Wait. What? What did you just say?", he called after her as she walked back to the door.

"It means you can either drive yourself home, or I can have you collected", she bluntly replied, having had enough of his crap.

---

Meanwhile, Eleanor had had a very uneventful afternoon, slowly getting through her work, and packing their bags whilst listening to some acoustic versions of popular songs. She was looking forward to spending a bit of time with Nat before her flight in an hour or so, it wasn't much time but it was enough for her, she would take any time she could get.

Eleanor had almost finished tidying after making lunch when Nat burst through the apartment door.

"That man makes me want to murder people!", she yelled across the apartment, making her way to the kitchen.

"Tough day, huh?", Eleanor replied whilst wiping down the counter.

"Oh you have no idea, he's toying with blowing my cover, he thinks it's a game".

"Yikes, well if it makes you feel any better, bags all packed ready for when you need to leave later".

Nat visibly cringed, causing Eleanor to tilt her head. She sighed, "When do you have to leave?".

"Now", Nat grimaced, she felt awful.

Eleanor gave a bit of a disappointed chuckle, not at Nat, just that they're having to do this joint case pretty much separately. "Well, it's a good job I packed your bag, come on I'll see you out", she took Nat's hand and guided her to the door, where the suitcase was conveniently placed.

Nat smiled in appreciation of her girlfriend, the little action of leaving it by the door really got to her for some reason, she was still getting used to someone looking out for her 24/7. She squeezed Eleanor's hand three times, one of their ways of saying 'I love you'.

The two walked down to the ground floor and said goodbye at the door before Nat clambered into the car that would take her directly to the private jet.

Eleanor would be flying commercial again and had about an hour before her flight, so went back upstairs to make sure that she had everything before making her way to the airport, and had a mooch around the different shops to distract herself before catching her flight.

---

Eleanor was stationed in a car near the expo, in her shield uniform, once again hanging around to be of service if anything goes wrong. This time she wasn't in heels and a tight dress so she would actually be able to do some ass-kicking if it came down to it. She was once again on comms with Nat for emergencies.

She watched Nat get out of the car she had arrived in and smiled to herself softly.

Nat opened the door for Pepper as Happy said, "I'll keep the car down here alright?".

"Thank you Happy".

Once inside and seated comfortably, Nat intently watched the presentation that Hammer was doing, it was quite surreal and scary seeing a bunch of murder bots that could be used on a global scale. The crowd was loving it though, and they loved it, even more, when none other than Tony Stark showed up.

Whilst everyone else was distracted, Nat noticed that the conversation between Stark and Hammer seemed to be getting heated, then all of a sudden the murder bots started moving and Tony flew himself backwards. Everyone had started to run out of the building when it was clear that control had been lost. Shots were being fired at the flying Iron Man, causing the glass ceiling to shatter and fall.

Eleanor was getting anxious in the car, after hearing some loud noises coming from the expo. "Uh, everything okay Nat? I'm hearing gunshots", Eleanor said into the earpiece as she was getting out of the car and running to the front of the building, putting on a jacket whilst running so that people wouldn't see the SHIELD logo.

"Not really, no, we have a bit of a situation, I need you in the backroom, me and Pepper are heading there now".

Eleanor nodded and started running through the crowd of people, helping up those who had fallen due to people panicking on her way.

"Who are you talking to?", Pepper asked Nat, confused.

"The girlfriend". Pepper would have replied but they reached Hammer and the two women had heard someone say that they'd been locked out of the mainframe.

"Who's locked you out of the mainframe?".

"Please, please. Go away, go away", Hammer tried to usher them away just as Eleanor showed up. She wasn't particularly happy to see Hammer trying to usher Nat and Pepper out in a rude manner but she bit her tongue for now.

"I've got this handled!", he said. Yeah, sure you do, Eleanor thought, once again having to bite her tongue.

"Have you now?!", Pepper raised her voice at the delusional man.

"Yes I do, in fact, if your guy hadn't shown up, none of this would be happening, so please now go away, thank you".

Nat was about to go up to Hammer as he started walking away, but Eleanor got there first, grabbing his arm and yanking it behind his back, then shoving him face-first into the table. "You will tell us who's behind this or so help me God", she seethed whilst adding pressure onto his bent arm, making him cry out in pain.

Nat went a bit wide-eyed at the very sudden hostility, Clint was right when he mentioned that she could make grown men cry on the field all that time ago.

Hammer groaned, "Who are you?".

"Someone who could quite easily break your arm, so answer the damn question".

"Ivan Vanko", rushing the words out, hoping he would get his arm back.

"Where is he?", Nat interjected.

"He's at my facility".

Eleanor let go and started walking away with Nat to the front of the building, "Vanko and Hammer? Seriously?", she mumbled.

"We honestly shouldn't be surprised at this point, this whole thing has been a shitshow".

"Touché".

They waded through the crowds of people calmly before reaching Happy, "Nobody's answering the phone, what's going on?".

"Get in the car, take us to Hammer Industries".

"I'm not taking you anywhere". Eleanor rolled her eyes, now was not the time for this kind of attitude, they needed to go now. She was going to interject but Nat beat her to it.

"Fine, you want me to drive?", Nat responded, if looks could kill Happy would be dead.

"No, I'm driving, get in the car". Eleanor scrunched her face up at the complete 180 of his attitude of him suddenly being the demanding one but got in the car immediately regardless.

Once seated Eleanor piped up, "Well aren't you a real gentleman?". She then took her jacket off making Happy frown when he saw the uniform in the front mirror.

"What are you wearing?".

"Nothing".

Happy looked like he was going to say something else but Nat needed to lay out the plan, "When we arrive I need you to watch the perimeter, we're gonna enter the facility and take down the target", she then started getting changed into her own SHIELD uniform, leaning on Eleanor for support.

When Eleanor saw Happy looking at her girlfriend changing through the mirror she saw red, what is his problem? she thought. "Hey buddy", she snapped, causing him to swerve slightly.

"Yeah?".

"Eyes off", she glared.

"Mhm, got it", he gulped. As much as Nat didn't like the idea of Happy staring at her like that, she smirked seeing this other side of the younger woman coming out tonight.

---

After arriving at Hammer Industries, Eleanor and Nat hastily left the car, heading for the door, until Nat saw Happy following, "Stay in the car". Eleanor shook her head in annoyance and started trying to bypass the electric lock system for the door.

"I'm not staying in the car", he sounded annoyed.

"I said, stay in the car", Nat responded sternly before reaching Eleanor at the door who was punching in a few numbers on a device.

"You done with your mother's meeting?", she smirked, causing Nat to kick her shoe lightly.

Happy looked at the two of them, "What are you wearing?", he once again asked.

"Nothing!", Eleanor responded as the device beeped, signalling that the locks were down.

Happy started walking toward the door, but Nat tried to stop him, "You wanna help? Stay in the car". Happy didn't listen and instead lunged at the door handle and quickly opened it, before sprinting inside. Nat and Eleanor briefly looked at each other with blank faces showing their annoyance, and swiftly followed suit, Nat entering first.

They just wanted to get through whatever security Hammer had and deal with Vanko, they didn't need someone who doesn't know what they were doing slowing them down, but Happy seemed to be an annoyingly persistent man.

The alarm system started going off when they had entered, and someone immediately ran up to the trio and tried to tell them to leave, but Happy punched them in the jaw.

The two Agents used this opportunity to advance on the actual target, Happy seemed distracted enough, and they were sure he'd be fine... maybe. They ran through the hallway, slipping past a guard who somehow wasn't able to grab either of them as they ran past. Nat turned and used some widow bites to shock him, immediately sending him crashing to the floor.

When Eleanor looked at Nat and briefly made eye contact she winked, earning an eye-roll from Nat before they continued their advances.

More guards started pouring in, Nat jumped over a trolley that was conveniently left in the hallway, and did a backflip to kick one of them onto the floor with power. Eleanor did a less cool move of simply jumping onto another guard, tackling him to the floor, and delivering a hard punch between his eyes.

Yet another wave of guards tried to stop them, but they quickly got through them all without being hit themselves, they were an efficient duo.

Once they thought the coast was clear they looked at each other looking to see if the other was hurt, but they both nodded in reassurance and so jogged a little bit further down the hall.

Unfortunately, as they rounded a corner there were more guards than before. Nat used a cord to strangle one of them whilst kicking and punching any more that were coming at her simultaneously. Eleanor kicked one in the chest sending him flying, then turned and punched one square in the face that had been trying to sneak up on her. When another guard ran at her she dodged out of the way and turned to grab the back of his clothing, throwing him back onto the floor, and delivering a roundhouse kick to him when he slowly tried to stand.

She then looked over at Nat who was doing her classic move of using her legs to throw someone to the floor with her legs, and pepper spraying someone. Once done she looked at Eleanor and was about to gesture for her to follow, but one of the guards suddenly grabbed Eleanor by the ankle and yanked her to the floor. To which she responded by quickly turning and jumping up. Nat went wide-eyed and was about to throw him into a wall or something, but Eleanor held her hand out towards Nat who promptly threw the pepper spray over, and Eleanor used it.

Turning to Nat, she nodded in satisfaction and threw the can in the air and caught it again, "Effective".

The pair then started walking towards the room that Vanko would be in, pretty sure that there were no more guards in close proximity as they couldn't hear heavy boots running towards them.

"So what do you want for dinner tonight?", Eleanor asked when she had caught up.

"Not something too heavy so maybe just some pasta?", Nat shrugged and turned to look at her.

"Sounds good". Eleanor was always thinking about food.

The two continued speedwalking to their destination when Happy rounded the corner and ran to them. "Oh hey man, what's up?", Eleanor said calmly, causing a very confused and shocked look to be sent her way from seeing all of those guards knocked out, to which she shrugged her shoulders in response.

Nat got her guns out, indicating that they had reached the room, triggering Eleanor to hover her hands over hers, ready to get them out if needed. Nat kicked the door down and looked around, before sighing in disappointment at the empty room, "He's gone".

"Why does nothing ever go right", Eleanor whined before following Nat over to the computers in the corner.

Nat started getting the controls for Rhodey's suit, whilst Eleanor was looking at the list of which murder bots were still online. "What are you doing?", Happy asked.

"I'm rebooting Rhodey's suit". Once it worked she pulled up a video call with Tony.

"Reboot complete, you got your best friend back".

"Thank you very much Agent Romanoff", he sounded a bit petty still about the 'Agent' situation, however.

"Well done with your new chest piece, I am reading significantly higher output and your vitals all look promising".

"Yes, for the moment I'm not dying, thank you".

Suddenly Pepper's face appeared on the other monitor, 'oh boy', both Agents thought. "What do you mean you're not dying? Did you just say you're dying?".

"Is that you? Uh, no I'm not. Not anymore". The two women in the room just stared at the screens in a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

"What's going on?", Pepper continued.

"I was going to tell you, I didn't want to alarm you".

"You were gonna tell me? You really were dying?", Pepper half-shouted.

"You didn't let me".

"Why didn't you tell me that?".

"I was gonna make you an omelette and tell you! Romanoff, if you gave someone... say your partner or something an omelette he'd forgive you right?". Nat turned to look at Eleanor and smirked.

"No, she would be livid actually", Eleanor answered for Nat.

Nat looked back at the screen and they saw realisation sweep his face, "Wait are you-!". However, Eleanor had looked back at the murder bot map and saw some of them closing in n Stark's location, so she nudged Nat to look.

"Save whatever that was for the honeymoon. You got incoming Tony", Nat interrupted his verbal train of thought.

The three watched the screens intently as Tony and Rhodey fought off the other bots, the technology was quite impressive.

Just when they thought that it was over, something else appeared on the map, "Heads up. you got one more drone incoming", Nat started.

Eleanor squinted her eyes at the screen, "This one's repulsor signature is significantly higher, don't think this is gonna be a fun one, Stark".

They then heard a Russian accent via Stark's audio, "Vanko", the two women said at the same time.

---

They went back to just having to watch as the scene unfolded, staying at the computer to keep an eye on the situation. However, there was immediate panic in the room when Rhodey stated that all of these drones were 'rigged to blow'.

Everyone's minds were now on Pepper, she had left the call but was still on-site, where all of the bomb drones were.

"Shit, shit, we're too far", Eleanor thought out loud, both women looking at each other with a defeated look in their eyes. They could only hope that they would hear Tony grab her as he started off his fast flight to reach her.