"This is true," Maeve mused. "Still. Is it, like, in the new-hire pamphlet or something?"

"I don't think it's quite at that level yet." Tony grinned. "It'll get there soon enough."

Maeve snorted.

"I can see it now: 'Bottom-level R&D, type-matching and TM consultations daily between noon and four.'" She grinned a bit.

Tony snorted. "Nah, more like twice a week between noon and four. That way they'll appreciate you more."

"You've thought about this?" Maeve asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning a bit.

"Not until you mentioned it," Tony said with a shrug. "But I know how it goes, SHIELD did the same thing with me. Sort of. Except Fury ignored my consulting hours."

"Every other Thursday between eight and five?" Maeve quipped with a grin. "I'm not surprised."

Tony grinned. "Hey, I thought they were decent hours," he said, grinning.

Maeve just rolled her eyes a bit.

"Anyways," she said, "I need to do this thing SHIELD reassigned me to, and then Coulson mentioned there were other plans that apparently I'm not privy to at the moment, so I'm going to keep an eye out for those..."

Tony snickered. "Good luck," he said with a grin.

Julie rolled her eyes at the two of them. Maybe she should go hobble to another room and leave them to their flirting.

"I'll need it," Maeve said, grinning back and bit.

That was about the point Steve decided to walk in. When he saw Julie there, he grinned.

"Welcome back," he said, going over to her.

"Thanks." Julie smiled at him and shifted to get more comfortable. "I hope these two weren't too much trouble." She petted Electrike.

Tony grinned at her. "So do you need to get going before Coulson comes looking?"

"I probably should," Maeve admitted. "It's a bad idea to keep him waiting. Or any of the top three, really."

"Not at all," Steve replied. "They were well-behaved." He gave her a little smile. "How are you feeling?"

"They wouldn't do anything real bad to you." Tony shrugged. "I'll give you a lift up to the Helicarrier."

"Alright," Julie said with a shrug. "I've been better, but it's not so bad." As long as she wasn't trying to walk, anyway.

"The Director's been in a bit of a bad mood," Maeve pointed out. "Since Jules and my debrief."

"Well, just take it easy," Steve said. "You don't want to make it worse."

"I can understand that." Tony looked briefly very angry. "He'll find out who screwed up soon, though."

"Yeah, remind me of that in a few days when I start getting antsy." Julie grimaced.

"If he hasn't already," Maeve agreed. "But I should go. I want to get these reassignments finished and over with."

"I'm sure if you asked, Clint would let you use his video games," Steve said. He was thinking of anything that would make it so Julie would stay there and rest.

Tony nodded. "We'll make sure Jules stays here and rests." He grinned at Maeve. "And you can always call if you need someone to distract Coulson again."

Julie nodded. "There's an idea. I'll have to ask him later." She stretched briefly before resettling herself. "I'm afraid I won't be much help with anything today, Steve."

"It's not Coulson who will need distracting, I don't think," Maeve said with a bit of a grin. "Jules gets restless real quick."

"Don't worry about it," Steve said. "You just relax and work on getting better."

"This is what Cap is for," Tony said with a grin, steering her over outside. "You ready to go? I just need to suit up."

"Relaxing is the problem," Julie grumbled. "I hate doing nothing."

Maeve raised an eyebrow.

"I can always call for a jet," she pointed out. "Instead of hitching a ride on the armor."

"Don't think of it as doing nothing," Steve soothed. "Think of it as the first few steps of getting back to work."

"Oh come on, this way is more fun," Tony said, moving outside. "Besides, I like to make surprise appearances now and again." He stood at the end of the little walkway, grinning with the faceplate flipped up. "It's just a minute away, and I'm faster than a jet."

Julie grumbled again wordlessly but managed to settle down, closing her eyes briefly. But she really wanted something to do to keep her mind busy.

"So what were you planning to do today?"

Maeve sighed and rolled her eyes. This was one of those times she was just going to pick her battles and not argue. Making sure everything on her person was secure, she waited for Tony to finish with the suit.

"Not a lot," Steve replied, looking a bit embarrassed. "I hadn't made any plans." Not that he was going to come out and say that he didn't want to leave her by herself, though.

Tony walked over once the suit was all secure. "I'll take it easy on you," he said with a grin. "This time."

Julie nodded. "Well, I'm stuck here for a while, so I could help you with history stuff if you want. Or movies, I know Tony keeps mentioning movies to you."

"How generous," Maeve replied, grinning a bit. "May as well, then. Let's get this overwith." Because she was sure she wasn't going to like the trip to the Helicarrier much, but it wasn't worth fighting over.

"There are quite a few things Tony thinks he wants me to see," Steve said. He smiled a bit at her. "Of course, I won't say 'no' if you have something you want to see, as well."