"You're worrying," Pepper replied. "I know you, Tony. And when you gut two cars in one week, you're worried."

"Yeah well there's not much else I can do, is there?" Tony said, getting up and starting to pace instead.

"You could take a bit of a vacation to Europe," Pepper suggested, moving away from subtle and into overt. "I'm sure your pokemon wouldn't mind the chance of scene for a bit. And a week isn't that long, I'm sure Rhodey will cover for you if anything comes up." She paused for a moment. "And it would give you a chance to find Maeve and give her a hand."

Tony sighed but didn't outright protest. "Maybe," he said after a few moments. "We'll see." He didn't stop pacing, either.

"Don't take too long to decide," Pepper warned, picking up her tablet again. She'd ignored the shareholders long enough. "You said yourself that her cover won't hold for more than another week or so."

Tony growled a little at that logic and stalked out. If he was going to Europe for a while, he had some preparations to make.

Pepper settled into the couch a bit more. She got the feeling that Tony was going to be leaving soon. At least the others knew her well enough to know that she would leave on her own.

Tony made the necessary arrangements, packed up his team and his gear, and set a flight for that night. He'd arrive early enough that he could get a lot done, and he could see about discouraging some potential threats from much closer.

Meanwhile, Maeve was still trying to lay low. She'd cobbled together a cover and was living in a small apartment in France, just trying to ride out the aftermath of the fall of SHIELD. She'd dyed her hair, and she'd taken to having Ditto transform into something a little less conspicuous. Her SHIELD file said she was brown-haired with a Gardevoir, Chandelure, and Ditto, not a red-head with a Gardevoir, Chandelure, and a Chimecho.

Her cover was wavering, though, she could tell. She just didn't have an exit strategy in place yet.

It didn't take long for Tony to get a hotel room and set about getting to Maeve's apartment. He only took Ninetails out with him into the city, though. Easier that way.

And it helped that he knew she'd be there when he knocked on the apartment door.

Maeve's heart jumped into her throat when there was a knock on the door. She wasn't expecting anyone, she knew that for a fact. Grabbing her gun, she went over to the door and opened it a little. Gardevoir was right behind her, ready to defend her trainer if needed.

"May I help you?" she asked through the crack, in slightly wobbly French.

"Yeah, you can drop the French, I haven't had to use French in years," Tony said with a shrug. "And you can let me in. It is really strange standing out here, I don't think I've ever had to wait outside an apartment before, this is a first for me and I'm not really enjoying it."

"...Tony?" Maeve asked, a hopeful tremor in her voice. She opened the door a little more so she could see him. "Jesus, Tony, what are you doing here? How did you even find me?" She didn't let her guard down all the way, though; there was no way to tell if someone was Hydra, anymore, and she couldn't afford to take chances.

"That implies that I lost you in the first place," Tony said. "Now, are you going to let me in or not?" Ninetails peeked around Maeve to look at Gardevoir.

"That depends," Maeve said, a bit quietly. "It's... hard to trust people right now. What have you been up to since the incident at the Triskelion?"

"Cleaning up," Tony said with a snort. "Keeping people off of my people, trying to track down Hydra. I helped destroy a few bases. Gave Clint and Natasha rooms, well, more like they finally moved in, they've had rooms for a while."

"How did you manage to track me down?" Maeve pressed. "I did everything I could to disappear."

"I'm a genius," Tony said, as if that should be self-explanatory. "I always knew where you were, Maeve. I've been keeping tabs."

Maeve bit her lip a little at that.

"So why show up now?" she asked. His answer to that would likely determine whether or not she ended up letting him in.

"Because you're up shit creek," Tony said bluntly. "There are too many interested parties narrowing in on you now, it would be a lot safer for you back in New York."

Maeve glanced at Gardevoir, who nodded. Tony was being honest. Sighing softly, mostly in relief, Maeve clicked the safety back on her handgun and opened the door.

"Come on in," she said. "We can discuss this more inside."

Tony stepped inside and glanced around. "I don't know how much there is to discuss, really, there should be more packing than discussing."

"I can't imagine New York is all that safe right now, when it comes to SHIELD agents," Maeve pointed out as she set her gun on the table. She couldn't help but smile a bit as Ditto cooed a little and morphed back out of Chimecho form and went to greet Tony, turning into a Porygon2 as it did. "I figured I was better off laying low here. I've been trying not to call attention to myself."

"You've been doing better than some others," Tony agreed, holding a hand out for Ditto. "But the Tower would be safe, no one's attacked us. I've already got two ex-SHIELD agents living there, one more won't make a difference."

That made Maeve pause.

"The Tower," she said. She looked at him. "You really mean that?"