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After Vanko and the disaster at the Stark Expo, making sure Pepper and Rhodey were alright and no one had been hurt by Hammer’s rogue robots, Tony found himself face to face with Agent Coulson once again. He could admit he had some mixed emotions about the guy. He’d helped save Pepper’s life back during the whole debacle with Stane and seemed like a pretty alright person all in all, but he’d also placed Tony under house arrest and threatened to taser him if he tried to leave. That was… less than endearing.
“Hey,” he greeted awkwardly after several long moments of silence passed between them, “about what you said back there at the house, about tasing me and leaving me to drool on the carpet while you watched Super Nanny, did you mean that?”
Agent Coulson remained almost entirely impassive, only raising one eyebrow inquiringly.
“It’s just, with the metal of the arc reactor in my chest, you know that would have killed me, right?” He forced a laugh he didn’t feel the humor of. “Seems like it would kind of defeat the purpose of trying to save me, is all.”
“You’re still of use to us, Mr. Stark,” was all the agent said in response.
As Coulson turned and walked away, Tony couldn’t help the way apprehension curled in his stomach. SHIELD was something to be wary of, he was sure. Would Agent really have killed him? Something told Tony that he wouldn’t hesitate, if that were part of his mission. So then why had they bothered saving him in the first place? What had been the point of that whole charade with Natalia or Natasha or whoever she actually was? What use did SHIELD have for him?
Well, Tony had been used before. He didn’t plan on letting it happen again.