When I walked out of the building, fully planning on hailing a cab, I saw the familiar sight of Mr. Jarvis standing in front of his car. "Hello Agent Jones, wonderful to see you again after our lovely adventures," he greeted.

I came up to him and pulled him into a hug. "Always a pleasure, Mr. Jarvis." We separated and he opened the passenger door. I got in and a few seconds later he came around the driver side.

"Mr. Stark was quite thrilled at your lunch request. I prepared a delicious meal per his request," he said as we drove.

"Well, I'm always excited for any dish of yours, Mr. Jarvis. I'm also truly glad that Howard's in town- part of me was worried he'd be in Europe or California. Something like that," I said.

"He was just in the Los Angeles area last week. He's been venturing out there occasionally to build a studio lot," Mr. Jarvis added.

I turned and looked at him in surprise. "Really? I shouldn't be surprised because it is Howard after all but it's quite a detour from weapons manufacturing," I brought up.

"Mr. Stark is no stranger to doing... different things as a means to expand his name across the globe. With no war going on, weapons aren't in high demand, so it's time to explore other paths," he said.

It was a fair point. "Well, I'm sure I'll hear enough about Howard from the man himself over lunch. How about you? How's your life going after all that adventure?" I asked him. Mr. Jarvis hardly ever talked about himself and, like I said, I'd get enough Howard from Howard.

Mr. Jarvis hesitated a bit from surprise but answered my questions. "Quite well, actually. Ana and I have gotten a bit closer after she learned of my adventures and near death experiences...." He trailed off and I knew there was a 'but' wanting to come through.

"But...?" I asked, pushing him to talk to me.

There was a beat of silence before Mr. Jarvis gave a light sigh. We were stopped at a light so he turned to me slightly. "The adventure was thrilling, if I'm being honest. I do love my job and Mr. Stark is a very kind employer in several senses, don't get me wrong, but there were several moments during my time with Agent Carter that the adrenaline rush was almost... addicting, maybe."

The light turned green and we moved forward. "I get it," I said. "It's one of the reasons I decided to be a field agent."

Mr. Jarvis smiled lightly. We silently agreed to enjoy the sights of New York as we drove the rest of the way. I assumed we both had a lot on our minds that we were trying to deal with. Luckily, I would try and talk to Howard to sort through all of it.

When we arrived, Mr. Jarvis opened my car door and led me inside and out to Howard's patio area where the man himself was sitting. Howard was sipping calmly on a cocktail until he looked over and saw me.

"Tif! I'm so thrilled to see you made it. Please, come sit! Jarvis we're ready for the first course," he said as he stood up.

Howard set the drink down and met me halfway to the table to pull me into a hug. "It's wonderful to see you too, Howard." We let go and both sat down. I appreciated the fact that he wasn't as proper as Jarvis. That would be too awkward for me.

"I just know Jarvis has prepared a great meal, but I will let you know I am on a tight schedule. Work can't always be put on hold for hours," I said and laughed.

Howard took a hold of his drink again. "Well, don't worry about that. I made sure he only prepared three courses: salads, the main course, and dessert. He wanted to do at least seven when you called."

I shook my head. "Sounds about right. You, Peggy, and I will have to schedule a lovely dinner one night so Jarvis can prepare his many courses for us," I suggested.

Jarvis brought me a water and then continued on with the food. "So, I heard you were out in LA for business purposes. Tell me, what's it like not being hungover and/or drunk the whole time?" I asked in a joking tone.

He laughed. "It was wonderful, thank you so much for asking. I'm sure Jeeves already told you, he's quite a gossip, but I'm buying a lot for movies," he explained.

I nodded and sipped on my water. "Impressive, why movies?" I asked.

"Well, weapons aren't exactly in high demand during peace time. But movies... they're the big thing. Families pay half a buck to entertain themselves for an hour or longer. The movie business never goes out of style, so I can do some of that while still using my mind to draw up plans for new weapons but I'll still be bringing in money in a peaceful way," he explained.

"So, what genre are you thinking? And are you going to hire directors, writers, crewmen?" I asked, happy to get my mind on something new and not stressful.

He thought for a moment. "Well, I figured I could give a hand at it. But I can't imagine it would be too hard to find people to work for the Howard Stark!"

We laughed and I admired his confidence. Yes, it was arrogance, possibly borderline narcissism, but I still admired it.

"Now we both know you didn't come here to talk to me about me. What's up with you?" he asked. At least he's also self-aware.

I sighed, and Jarvis brought out the salads. As I got mine dressed and mixed up, I spoke. "Well, my past and present seemed to have collided in the worst way possible. I was out at dinner with Jack last night when we ran into my parents."

Howard grimaced. "Yeesh," he commented as he stuck a bite of salad in his mouth.

"Yep," I agreed. "It was a fun conversation. Jack was fine- it was my father than caused an issue. But then today he insisted we talk about it so I talked to him, Peggy, and Daniel about it." I stabbed a few leaves and other things and took a bite.

"I bet that was an excellent conversation. I see Peg being the most understanding of the group, that Sousa guy would understand, but the boyfriend... that's rough."

I nodded. "It was. Didn't help when I mentioned coming here and how you already knew of my parents and all that. I tried to offer him an explanation, but I don't know if it helped."

Howard swallowed a large bite. "Considering the man doesn't like me very much, can't say I'm surprised there. Did you tell him why we knew each other before? Other than the same circles bit."

I shook my head vigorously and swallowed my bite of salad. "Oh god no. I think Jack would come down here and murder you himself. He can be a pretty determined guy, too, so I would be pretty worried for you."

If Jack found out my parents were setting up a marriage proposal between Howard Stark and I? He'd be pissed. Peggy and Daniel would be amused up until they realized Jack was on the verge of committing a federal crime.

We sat in silence after that, me not knowing what to do. Howard spoke up before I could. "How are you after seeing them?" he asked, and for the first time, Howard Stark seemed to not be self absorbed.

I sighed. I hadn't really thought about that too much, too worried about how others would now perceive me. "Well... I don't know. It's like this thing I've been putting off for so long decided to slap me in the face instead of letting me approach it. Now that they know I'm back in New York, I'm worried they'll want to talk or have dinner or even worse, invite me to one of their parties. Do they still have those?"

Howard nodded as he took a sip of his drink, then set it down. "Get invites for them all the time, even though I haven't gone to any. First because of the war, then because I was a wanted man, now because I'm busy making my Hollywood debut."

"They haven't changed a bit, then. Even after the war and after..." I cleared my throat and continued to push food around my plate. "They still can't seem to stop their mission to entertain the elite."

"Have you ever thought that was their only way of functioning?" he asked. I titled my head in confusion, deciding to take another bite of food rather than just play with it. "Think about it. When you lose someone, sometimes it's easier to keep going because if you stop, it'll all catch up to you."

My face scrunched up. "I hate it when you make sense, it freaks me out." Howard let out a loud laugh and then called for Jarvis to get him another drink. "At least that's not the only thing on my mind. I've got a few other things I could dwell on, switch back and forth."

Howard raised an eyebrow and accepted the new drink. "Well now you have to tell me," he said and taste-tested it.

I thought back and realized he had no backstory to the case file Frank was sending me. "Well, to keep it short I got into something sticky right before I left Miami. The SSR branch down there took care of the stickiness and I came up here to ignore it. Well, they've got some stuff they want to send up to me and I should be getting it very soon."

"Sounds like something I'd be focusing on," Howard muttered. "I know you can't really tell me about what the details are, confidentiality and all that, but you know I can always find ways to help. It's nice when you've got a friend in a high place."

I nodded and said, "You're absolutely right about that."

For the rest of lunch we talked about almost everything, including Howard trying to convince me to move into the wing Angie and Peggy were staying in because the Griffith was too dangerous and terrible to live in. "The offer will always stand," he said as I left.

Jarvis took me back to the office and I thanked him, letting him know we should get together one day as well, because I enjoyed his company, too. We'd work on that later.

I was starting to think about more lunch plans with people I hadn't eaten with in a while, going down the list of Peggy, Daniel, Jack (of course), Jarvis, Angie, et cetera, even considering the offhanded comment Howard made about meeting up with parents and talking.

When I spotted Peggy, I went right to her desk. On the way, I popped into the Chief's office to let him know I had returned.

"Can you come to the file room with me for just a second?" I asked Peggy once I was at her desk.

She looked up and nodded, closing the file she had been working on and grabbed a stack she had on the edge of her desk. "Works perfectly, I have all these to take care of," she said.

We quickly made our way down- well, I was hurrying, so Peggy had to hurry as well. When we entered the file room, I did a quick look around to make sure no one else was there. To my satisfaction, it was empty, so I closed the door behind Peggy and turned to her.

"What's wrong?" she asked, extremely worried.

I told her everything Howard and I talked about at lunch. She listened intently as she put all her files away, even when I started pacing around.

"Then he offhandedly said I should have lunch with my parents. Which I thought was ridiculous at first, until I thought about it harder and realized it's actually not a bad idea, so now I'm thinking about going into the lion's den."

I finally stopped moving and looked at Peggy, who had been leaning on a table waiting for me to stop. She had an eyebrow raised and a look on her face that reminded me of my mother.

"I think you should, too," she said. I sighed and leaned against some shelves. "It won't be the end of the world."

"You don't know that," I scoffed.

When Peggy gave me that look again, I stopped and let her go on. "All I'm saying is to give your parents a chance. You haven't seen them in years, and they haven't seen you. They might've changed."

I sighed and let my head roll forward. Then, I groaned and pushed myself off of the shelves. "Fine, you're right. I'll get something set up for tomorrow- given that they don't already have plans."

Peggy walked over to me and gave me a side hug. "I promise, Tiffany, it'll be better if you just rip off the bandaid."

A/n: we'll see how this goes. also, DEEPEST apologies for my long pauses between posts. I am just drowning. But! Soon, I'll be done with my little study away program and I'll be back to the world of consistent schedules! It shocks me how excited I am.