"Thank you again for doing this, Howard. However, as much as I appreciate this, I still don't understand why I have to wear... this." I pulled at the fabric of the dress for the umpteenth time. It was a gorgeous dress, absolutely, but it was something he had "laying around" and was just a tad too small.

Howard looked at me and smiled. "Anything for you, Tiffany. But you do have to stop pulling at the dress, it makes it look like you've never done this before," he said, nearly swatting my hand away from where it kept pulling.

"Why'd I have to wear this, though? This might shock you, but I do have some evening gowns at my disposal," I said after giving him a small glare.

"Because this party is a bit more upscale than you're used to. Well, to clarify, more upscale than what you've become used to. The old you would be very prepared for this," he explained.

The sentence made me grimace. In fact, this whole night made me grimace. These past few days have been too much of a blast from the past for me to handle. I'd been so far removed from this life for so long, I nearly forgot why I left it in the first place.

Let's just say I won't be forgetting for a long time after this whole ordeal is over.

We entered the building without so much as glancing at others around. They glanced at us, though. A lot. The weight of who I used to be and who I was with started to dawn on me as an older woman walked up to us.

"Tiffany Jones! My god it's been so long since we've seen you!" she said, pulling me in to do the weird kisses on the cheeks. So French. When she pulled away, she looked over to Howard. "And on Mr. Howard Stark's arm no less!"

I held my composure and smiled. "Oh, well, just... wanted to catch up with an old friend for the night. You know how it is," I said, waving my hand and trying to remain as casual as I could. "Excuse us, we need to get some glasses in our hands."

I nearly dragged Howard over to the bar and ordered the strongest thing I could before downing it in one.

"You might not want to drink like that all night, otherwise it'll be a lot shorter for you than you want it to be, and not nearly as effective as I know you hope it'll be," Howard said. He stopped my hand from flagging the bartender down for another drink.

I sighed and turned to face him fully. "I don't know why I didn't even think about what these people might think of us being here together. They're all going to start stupid engagement rumors, which will somehow find it's way to my parents and to Jack- neither of which would be great."

As those thoughts sank in, I suddenly started wishing I had told Jack I was doing this tonight.

Howard put a hand on my back. "Relax, Tiff. Yes, those things might happen, but what's more important right now is catching this guy who's been stalking you."

When I first told Howard the real reason as to why I wanted a party to go to, he wasn't excited. He didn't feel right leading me to the guy who has been stalking me, who followed me all the way from Miami. It was weird to see him care and be sincere about it, but I pushed and he finally agreed.

"Let's just hope he's here. I don't think I'll be able to do too many more of these," I muttered, loud enough for only Howard. "But then, if he is here, it begs the question of how the hell he keeps finding me."

Howard shrugged, and that's when I noticed he had found a glass of his own with the same liquid I had downed moments ago. He merely sipped on his, like the respectable man he is.

"Well, you'll just have to ask him that once you capture him, right?" he said, raising one eyebrow and taking a drink.

I smiled, and silently appreciated him trying to get me refocused on what matters. "Right. However, while we wait for him to show up or make himself known, we can't just stand at the bar. That'll just encourage me."

Howard set his unfinished glass down along with a couple random bills from his pocket and held his arm out for me. I took it, and we entered the social scene.

Unfortunately, I was right. Almost every conversation went as follows:

"Tiffany! How good it is to see you again after so long! Where did you go?"

"Oh, yes, I decided to enjoy Florida for a while, get away from the snow and all."

"I can't believe you're here, with Howard Stark on your arm no less." This was usually followed by some sort of look or eyebrow wiggle that had me wanting to throw up.

"Well, we are old friends and all. It's been good getting to catch up, like friends do."

"Oh, well, are you seeing anyone?"

"I am, he works for the government and is very busy all the time. Part of the reason I decided to come to this event with Howard tonight."

Every now and then, Howard would throw in his comments and get the conversation going somewhere else. He's a better friend than I ever thought he could be, because most of the time he would jump in when people got too nosy about anything. These moments, I appreciated his charm.

Sometimes, the conversation would drift to my parents and how they're doing. I didn't always know how to answer, considering I didn't know what they were up to. Luckily the people on the other side of the conversation knew enough to carry it.

Other times, the conversation would drift to what I had been doing all these years. I wasn't ashamed of what I did, helping the war effort and now working for the government.

I just... didn't want to deal with the prying questions I couldn't answer, the distasteful glares many would give me, and the classic 'oh but you'll stop once you get married' comments.

So, my go to: "Oh, I did what I could down in Florida and now I work for a telephone company up here. Not too far from where the man I'm seeing works."

That was enough for them, and Howard would always swoop in and get the conversation going somewhere else. I don't know how I'm going to repay Howard for all he's done tonight, but I'll find a way.

"Howard, you'll have to come to my next party on Saturday. It's going to be held at our newly refurbished penthouse in the downtown area, not too far from here actually..."

As the woman across went on, something caught my eye from over her shoulder. Someone.

I zoned back into the conversation when I noticed there was a pause. "Oh, if you all don't mind, I'm going to go freshen up in the ladies room," I said, smiling politely and letting Howard release my arm.

We shared a quick look and he seemed to understand what I was actually doing. He quickly squeezed my arm- a silent 'good luck'- before I left to deal with him.

Derek Peters. The man stalking me.

He seemed to know I was onto him, as he led me back and away from the party. Peters slipped through a door labeled 'Staff Only' in fancy lettering, but not before casting a glance back at me. The eye contact told me he had baited me, not that I was sneaking behind him.

When I slipped through the same door, I barely saw his figure disappear around a corner to the left. I carefully hurried behind and turned the same corner.

Finally we stood, face to face at opposite ends of a seemingly empty hallway.

"Tiffany Jones," he said, the first time I've heard him speak. His voice was low and gritty, as if he hadn't drank water in days and swallowed sand in the meantime. It made goosebumps crawl down my arms.

"Derek Peters." I responded, making my voice low as well. "For future reference, if you wanna talk to a girl, don't stalk her and lead her to an empty hallway."

He smirked. "It worked on you."

On the outside, I remained stoic and calm. On the inside, however, I realized my grave mistake. I had wanted to isolate him so I didn't blow my cover or put civilians in harms way. The problem with my plan is my lack of backup. Howard can't fight and I can't imagine anyone else here could either.

I was on my own with a man nearly twice my size. I knew I could take him, at least usually I could. But tonight, I was wearing heels and an evening gown, not my ideal outfit for taking out a guy like this.

Peters was itching for a fight, that much I could see by the way his fingers twitched and his eyes glinted. I, on the other hand, needed answers first.

"Why have you been following me?" I asked, loud and authoritative. It seemed to catch him slightly off guard, but he certainly was far from scared.

His weird smirk turned into a creepy smile. "Well, now, I can't just go rattin' out my boss, can I?"

I huffed. "Anything you do want to share with me?" I asked, not expecting anything of use, most likely some quippy one-liner that made him sound all cool, like those radio shows Peggy hates so much.

To my surprise, he did share something useful, although it was still a quippy one-liner. "Just know you're coming in alive."

With that and a yell, Peters and his 280-something pound body was storming towards me. He was surprisingly quick on his feet, but I was quicker and able to side step his advance and send a kick to his leg, causing him to stumble.

This didn't deter him quickly. Instead, he turned right back around and tried again. I went for a more hands-on defensive mode, and tried to use his body weight against him. Peters went in for a punch, so I grabbed his hand and moved where his momentum was going.

Each time he tried, I did my best to side step and change what direction he was going. After a few seconds of this, Peters got tired and switched up tactics, sweeping my legs out.

I let out a yelp and crashed to the floor, my behind taking a decent amount of the damage. Peters tried to land his weight on top of me, but I rolled out of the way and sprung back up to my feet while he was still trying to figure out what happened to the target that hand been under him.

I got too cocky, however. When he was back on his feet, Peters moved with a newfound speed I wasn't ready for and landed a right hook on my face, right on the mouth. I went crashing to the ground and let out a cry of pain, not expecting Peters to actually land a punch. He seemed too uncoordinated.

While I was down, Peters sent a kick to my stomach, really taking away my confidence in this fight.

"Boss never said I couldn't ding you up a bit first," he said, mainly to himself, and I could hear the sick smile in his words. I tried to get up and say something, but he sent another kick my way, this time hitting about where he punched, and I was down again.

"Hey!" Despite the pain I was in, my eyes flew open at the sound of Howard's voice. He stood at the end of the hallway, and I had no clue when he thought to try and find me.

He continued now that he had our attention. "Step away from the nice lady." Howard held a hand out as if he were taming a wild beast and was using the most serious tone I think I've ever heard come out of him, possibly the most serious he could muster.

Peters let out a single, humorless chuckle, and said, "Or what? You're gonna do somethin' about it?" He clearly knew who Howard was and knew he wasn't a fighter. I also had no idea what Howard had planned.

It seems he didn't really know, either, because he hesitated long enough that Peters knew he didn't have much to fear.

Scouring my brain, I remembered seeing a telephone down the hall, right before I saw Peters turn left into where we were now. "Howard! Call English!" I yelled, not wanting to use Peggy's name, just in case Peters was smarter than he looked.

Howard knew exactly who I was talking about, and he hurried down to his right in the direction of the phone. This clearly had Peters freaked, I could see it in his body language and how he didn't know what his next move should be.

I tried to stand up and find a way to incapacitate him, but Peters finally figured out what to do and swept my arm out from under me, sending me back to the ground, before he hurried off in some unknown direction.

"Tiffany!" Howard called, coming back around the corner a moment later. He immediately bent down to help me up from the ground. I appreciated that fact that he was a bit sturdier than I was at the moment.

"Well, that confrontation was shorter and less helpful than I had hoped," I grumbled as we got to standing positions. I looked up and met Howard's eyes and saw his face quickly turn into a grimace. "What?"

"Looks like he got you pretty good," he said as he pulled something from an inside jacket pocket- a handkerchief or similar. He put it on my bottom lip and I winced instantly.

I replaced his hand with mine to continue holding the fabric to my obviously busted lip. "This is just perfect. Now I have to explain this to people as we leave and people at work tomorrow. I can't believe I was stupid enough to do this without anyone for backup."

"Hey," Howard said, offended. "I was backup."

I raised a brow at him. "Howard, you and I both know you wouldn't have been able to take that guy down."

For a moment, it looked like he wanted to argue, but then shut his mouth and nodded in agreement. "You wanna fix yourself up as best you can?" he then asked. "There's a mirror down the hall."

I nodded, and Howard retook my arm in his and led me down to the mirror, where I could really take my appearance in. My hair was horribly dissolved, my face was red, and when I removed the handkerchief the busted lip was the new star of the show.

I groaned and replaced the fabric. "Splendid," I breathed. I then did my best to redo my hair and get it as flat as I could. Howard said we'd be leaving for obvious reasons, and if anyone asked I would just say I tripped on some loose tile and busted my lip on the sink or something.

"All right, let's go. The sooner I get back to my apartment, the sooner I can just go to bed and sleep all the aches away." I kept a hold of Howard for safety, because Peters really did a number on me and I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk on my own very well.

The walk out was quick. Some people asked where we were going and others asked if I was okay. Howard did most of the talking for me, because it hurt with my stupid busted lip. Just as we were nearly free, a photographer snapped a picture.

I ignored it and we finally made our way out of the party.

A/n: I love Tiffany and Howard's friendship! I love writing it and might just have to find excuses to keep writing them

Also, I'm thinking Fridays at noon? That feels good, give y'all something to look forward to in the week (if that's even possible)