The day Irina had been least looking forward to had arrived. The day Otis, Cruz and even some of the others hadn't stopped talking about all week. And that day was the opening ceremony of the month long event that was, the Stark Expo.

Of course the day of the expo was also a shift day, just another reason for Otis and Cruz to be annoyed, the first being the fact that they missed out on getting tickets and seeing Iron Man in real life. But they weren't the only ones annoyed, as Irina was getting there herself, especially when the boys had taken over the common room TV for the sole purpose of watching the expo.

"Move over, you're on my side." Otis mumbled, trying to shove Cruz further down the couch that they currently occupied.

"If I move anymore I'm gonna end up on Mouch's lap." Cruz replied, pushing Otis' hands away from him, the two of them getting on like a pair of children.

"I'm sure he won't mind." Irina mumbled from her seat at the round table behind them, her back to the TV as she didn't exactly want to watch the expo herself.

"Uh, he begs to differ." Mouch replied defensively and in reference to himself as he arched himself away from Cruz who was shuffling on his seat to get into a more comfortable position.

"Shut up, shut up it's starting." Otis hushed the room, turning the TV up even louder that it was starting to hurt Irina's sensitive hearing.

The common room was soon filled with the cheers of the those lucky (or unlucky depending on who you asked) enough to grab tickets to the expo, the bangs and whistles of fireworks and what everyone assumed was Tony Stark's own personal playlist that blasted through the speakers.

"Tony! Tony! Tony!" The crowd cheered, whistles and clapping filling the gaps between chants and making Irina roll her eyes as she read over a newspaper she'd found lying on the table. It was three days old but it was far more interesting to her than what was happening behind her.

"God, I wish we were there." Otis mumbled, watching as Tony Stark himself landed with a clunk on the stage in his Iron Man suit, which he soon stepped out of.

"It's good to be back." Tony's own voice filled the room as the fireworks and music died down, however the cheering and the clapping didn't. "Did you miss me?"

"No." Irina mumbled, earning herself a harsh shush from both Otis and Cruz, one she allowed to slide without retort given that she didn't want to ruin their excitement. Sure she hated Tony and most superheroes with all that she had, but she knew the boys liked them and she knew this was a big moment for them, so she didn't want to spoil it.

But that doesn't mean she wouldn't comment a little on what she was hearing, especially if what she heard sounded ridiculous.

"I'm not saying that the world is enjoying its longest period of uninterrupted peace in years because of me." Tony began, his words catching Irina's attention as she folded her newspaper in half and turned around a little.

"I'm not saying that from the ashes of captivity, never has a greater phoenix metaphor been personified in human history." Tony contained. "I'm not saying that Uncle Sam can kick back on a lawn chair, sipping on an iced tea because I haven't come across anyone who's man enough to go toe-to-toe with me on my best day."

"I bet I could take him. Suit and everything." Irina commented, out loud by accident but thankfully in Russian which meant only Otis had understood her. And he'd also heard her, which had him arching an eyebrow as he turned to her.

"You think you..." Otis gestured to Irina, or more specifically her height. "...could take Iron Man?" His words earned a few chuckles from those in the room, a few of which were watching the expo while the rest were doing their own thing.

"You doubt me?" Irina asked, a slight hint of teasing in her voice rather than annoyance or anger like those around might have expected.

It had been a few months since Irina and Otis had had their little moment outside on the apron, and since then Irina had actually opened herself up a little. She was less angry all the time, yet she still terrified the life out of the others, but they weren't as worried about what they said around her anymore, something Otis was particularly glad about as it's what he'd hoped for that night.

"Not you specifically..." Otis said hesitantly, glancing over at Cruz who was giving him a look that said something along the lines of 'dude you better quit while you're ahead'. "But he's got a kickass suit, I mean, he's Iron Man."

"The suit is what makes him Iron Man, but you take that away and what is he?" Irina asked, not just to Otis but to anyone who was listening.

"A genius."

"And a billionaire."

"Don't forget a playboy."

"Exactly." Irina replied, sitting up straighter in her chair. "You take that suit away from him and he's just a man. One whose ass I'm pretty confident I could kick... In fact I could probably kick all of your asses too."

That little comment also caused an array of chuckles, scoffs and "pffts' as those in the room had serious doubts over Irina's new found confidence that she could kick their asses, despite the strength she'd shown that she had.

"You wanna try it out?" Otis said, finding himself no longer interested in the expo as he stood from his seat, his arms held out to his sides. "Come on, see if you can kick my ass."

"Dude anyone could kick your ass." Cruz mumbled to himself, earning a glare from Otis which he ignored.

"Maybe another day. I'm busy." Irina mumbled, not feeling like she wanted to embarrass anyone, especially Otis. "Very important news." She shook her newspaper a little, not bothering to look up at him.

"That newspaper's like three days old." Otis half scoffed as he pointed out the obvious, that Irina didn't exactly care about.

"You're like three days old." She muttered back, making Otis furrow his brows as he put his hands on his hips.

"That doesn't even make any sense." He mumbled to himself, shaking his head a little.

"Oh look, fifty percent off garden sheds... Fascinating." Irina muttered, making the others chuckle a little before Otis just went to sit back down, refocusing his attention onto the expo. And it was then that the doors to the firehouse opened, and in walked Herrmann's wife, Cindy, and their daughter Annabelle.

"Hey, honey." Herrmann said getting to his feet to greet his wife with a kiss, little Annabelle having wondered away from her parents and was now standing next to Irina, looking at her with her head tilted to the side.

Irina caught a glimpse of Annabelle out of the corner of her eye, the young blonde girl reminding her a lot of Yelena, back when she was around Annabelle's age. She tried to pretend not to notice the young girl as she wasn't sure if Herrmann would like someone like Irina, who was angry most of the time, talking to his daughter. But Herrmann seemed pretty okay with it given how he and the others were just standing, or sitting, around looking at the two of them to see how it played out.

"Are you a firefighter?" Annabelle asked curiously, making Irina close her newspaper and finally acknowledge the child standing next to her.

"Yes, I am." Irina replied, a little awkwardly as she was well aware of the many pairs of eyes watching her. She'd never met any of the fifty-one guys' families before, actually she'd never seen any of the guys themselves outside of the firehouse, so it was a little strange for her right now. But with how similar Annabelle was to a young Yelena, Irina began to feel a strange sense of comfort. Of home.

"You sound different." Annabelle half pointed out, half questioned, making Herrmann step forward a little as he stammered out an array of unintelligible noises.

"Sweetheart, you don't say stuff like that to people." Herrmann managed to get out, about to move Annabelle away from Irina before she stopped him.

"It's okay, Herrmann." She assured him, nodding briefly to the flustered father before he returned her nod and just stepped away. Irina turned back towards Annabelle, a gentle smile on her face. "I suppose I do sound a little different. But that's because I was born in Russia... Do you know where Russia is?"

Annabelle shook her head, her small fingers fiddling with the paws of the monkey plush that she held in her hands as her bright blue eyes stared into Irina's dark ones.

Those in the room, except Otis, were surprised to see how good Irina was with Annabelle, lifting her gently onto her lap as she began to tell the little girl all about her home town in Russia. Otis wasn't surprised at all given that he knew just how much Irina cared about her sisters, and more than likely had to take care of them in the pathetic excuse for an orphanage that they lived in.

And from the photo he'd seen in Irina's locker from time to time, it wouldn't come as a shock to him to find out that Annabelle might have reminded Irina a lot of her younger sister, the resemblance between the two of them weirdly similar. Although it could just be the fact that they're both blonde that made Otis think that.

But suddenly he found himself uninterested in what Tony Stark was saying at his expo, as he was too busy watching as Irina answered every question little Annabelle had without ever seeming annoyed. Guess there was more hidden under Irina's rough and rough exterior than Otis had already seen.

Maybe that's why he was growing to like her so much. Otis' feelings for Irina had increased a lot more than he would have hoped over the past few months. Especially since Irina had begun to open herself more around the others and was seeming to feel more comfortable being herself, although she did still get angry sometimes and terrify the life out of the guys, but not as much as she normally did.

It's not that Otis doesn't want to have feelings for Irina, because he does, despite how little he actually knows about her, at least he thinks he does... No, it was more the fact that he knew he wouldn't stand a chance with a woman like Irina, one who, over the year and a bit that he'd known her had never showed any interest towards any of the guys in the firehouse, despite how many times Otis had thought he'd heard Severide flirting with her.

Although now that Irina was joining Squad he knew Severide would have to cool it on the flirting as the last thing he'd want to do was get involved with a firefighter under his command.

But even if Severide didn't cool it, it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, because either Irina was completely ignoring his attempts at trying to flirt with her, or she had no idea that's what he was doing. Either way, Otis was kind of glad.

There was even times when other firefighters on different companies had tried their hand at flirting with her, but all they got in return from Irina was a stare that soon had them shrinking back into their boots and they quickly retreated back to their own Truck, with their tail between their legs so to speak.

So that didn't exactly instil Otis with much confidence that Irina was interested in anyone, at all. Not men, not even woman as there'd been a few times when he'd caught Shay checking her out or even trying to subtly find out if she was into woman or not. But Irina was a hard woman to read at the best of times let alone when it came to anything to do with romance, sex or relationships in general.

So if Otis wanted to do anything about his feelings, he'd had to try harder. You know, if he could manage to even get a sentence about said feelings out without making a fool of himself or melting into a puddle once she started glaring at him. This would honestly probably take a lot longer that he thought.

Later that night, when the excitement of the Stark Expo had died down and everyone in the house was sound asleep, Otis found himself sitting on the couch in the common room with a book in his hand, having had the bad luck of drawing night watch.

However Otis has been a little incorrect in assuming everyone else was asleep, as it wasn't long into the night when the doors to the common room opened and in walked Irina, a slight shimmer of sweat glistening on her forehead.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" Otis asked, folding his book over closed but keeping his finger between the pages to keep his place.

"Couldn't sleep." Irina breathed out, using a towel she had over her shoulder to wipe at her forehead. "Thought I'd get a workout in instead."

"At one in the morning?" Otis questioned, his face scrunching up a little at the mere thought of doing exercise outside of calls, let alone at 1am.

"I like the quiet." She shrugged, moving further into the common room, the breathlessness to her voice now gone as she'd already managed to get her breath back due to the serum coursing through her veins. "What are you reading?"

"Oh..." Otis chuckled out nervously, a hint of redness creeping up on his face. "It's a uh, a book on... conspiracy theories."

"I didn't take you for the conspiracy type." Irina said with a slight smirk as she folded her arms and leaned against the partition that separated the common room from the hallway.

"I like to dabble now and then." Otis explained, feeling a touch embarrassed that she'd caught him reading it, despite everyone in the firehouse knowing how big into conspiracy theories he actually was.

"I'm surprised." Irina pushed herself off the wall and walked towards the couch, settling herself on the arm of it, and pretty close to Otis himself. She glanced down at the now open book in her hand, and huffed out a chuckle at the words on the page.

"What?" Otis asked nervously, both from the expression on her face and closeness of her body to his. Her body that was practically radiating heat and felt like a literal furnace.

"You believe in mermaids, and what is that..." Irina leaned down, forcing the book open again as Otis had quickly closed it to hide the pages from her. "The bermuda triangle? You believe in those but not the Red Guardian?"

"Who says I believe in them?" He half stammered out, nervously scratching the back of his head as the blush rose to his cheeks again.

"The look on your face." Irina pointed out before she stood up, allowing Otis at least a tiny bit or relief and the ability to breath properly again. "Mermaids I get... The idea of underwater half-fish people sounds cool... But a triangle in the ocean that causes people to disappear? Please. I've flown over that triangle myself, and trust me, there's nothing there but ocean and sky."

"How do you explain all the disappearances then?" Otis asked, not having taken in her comment about her flying herself over the triangle, as he just assumed she meant on a commercial airline and not a jet that she'd literally flown herself.

"Planes crash and boats sink, Otis... There are no more number of disappearances in the triangle than there is in any other part of the ocean." She explained, making her way towards the kitchen. "I'm making myself noodles, do you want any?"

"No, thanks, I'm good." He replied, closing his book but keeping a hold of it. "I'm still pretty full from dinner." Otis glanced back over his shoulder, watching as Irina lifted not one, not two, but three packets of ramen noodles from the cupboard.

She really was a mystery to him, one that he was very eager to solve. Much like his own conspiracy theory if you will.

It came as no surprise to Otis that Irina chose to eat her noodles from the pot she'd cooked them in, only this time she opted to use a fork as they weren't exactly the easiest things to eat with a wooden spoon.

"So, are there any conspiracy theories besides the Red Guardian that you believe in?" Otis asked, resting his arm on the back of the couch as he leaned his chin against it.

"Not really." Irina replied, followed by a quiet slurp as she sucked up her noodles like you would spaghetti. "I'm not one for conspiracies."

That wasn't a total lie, as Irina knew most conspiracy theories had logical explanations for how they happened. She even knew the real truth behind a few of them, as the Red Room and Hydra had been involved, but that wasn't something Otis needed to know.

"Unless they're Russian." Otis added humorously, something he wouldn't have done had they not had their little moment out on the apron a few months ago as ever since then they'd come to an agree to disagree stance on the Guardian.

"Unless they're Russian." Irina agreed, twirling some noodles on her fork and blowing gently on them to cool them down quicker.

🔔 Truck 81. Squad 3. Engine 51. Ambulance 61. Battalion 25. Explosion 🔔

"Ugh, my noodles." Irina complained as she had to set her barely half eaten bowl aside. "I just made these." She added in an annoyed mumble, making Otis chuckle as he tossed his book onto the coffee table before the two of them headed out to the apparatus floor, the others following swiftly, and sleepily, behind.

The word explosion didn't fill the guys with much of anything other than dread as they headed towards the scene, sirens blaring through the quiet streets and the flashing of their lights filling the darkness surrounding them.

"What happened?" Boden asked the small crowd, most of which wearing pyjamas, that had gathered outside an old apartment building, one that was quickly filling with smoke and flames.

"I don't know." One guy coughed out, his face covered in thin layer of soot. "We were sleeping when suddenly there was this huge explosion, it shook the whole building... It even cracked the floors and the walls, that's when the fire started coming up through the gaps."

"Sounds like a boiler explosion Chief." Casey added, getting his gloves and masks ready. "These older buildings tend to use outdated boiler systems. Landlords way of saving a buck."

Boden just let out a soft sigh before he turned back towards the building, getting a feel for the situation before he decided whether it was safe to send his men in

"If the explosion caused structural damage we could have broke staircases with people trapped." Severide pointed out, the Chief having been thinking the exact same thing as he just gently nodded his head in agreement.

"Truck give me a primary search of the basement. Squad, take the upper floors, and be careful around the stairs... 51, drop two lines, cover them. One in the basement and one on the first floor. Ambulance 61, set up triage, we may have multiple victims." Boden called out his orders, to which everyone got to work. "Severide, take Irina with you... You might need her." He added, in reference to her free climbing skills.

"Copy that, Chief." Severide nodded, motioning to Irina to follow them in as he and the other Squad members began to mask up. "Squad 3, follow me."

The companies soon got to work following their instructions, those on Truck not too amused at seeing Irina go with Squad as they were still carrying a little resentment over her choice to join them, despite the fact that she was still midway through her classes and nowhere near completing her certification yet. But they wouldn't say anything out loud, at least not to Irina or any of the Squad guys themselves. They knew better than that.

Taking the stairs up to the second floor, the flames were already quickly climbing the walls, having travelled through up the gaps inside them from the basement. So far they'd found a few victims, ones that they could easily get out, but once they reached the stairs for the third floor, they ran into a little problem.

The problem being that the stairs had been badly damaged in the explosion, although they suspected they'd been on the verge of collapse long before it as they whole building seemed like a hazard, and where completely and utterly gone. And lying in a pile of broken wood and concrete debris, was a victim they expected had tried to run down them, only to have them collapse underneath him.

"Hadley, give me a hand with this guy." Severide called over, Hadley being the only Squad guy left with him as Capp and Tong had left with some victims, and only Irina remained with nothing much to do.

She glanced around her, looking easily through the thick smoke for anyone else who may have been downed or hurt, and that's when she saw it. The hand dangling over the edge of the third floor railing, there clearly being a downed victim lying just above their heads.

With Severide and Hadley both carrying the victim towards the stairs down to safety, and Capp and Tony mostly likely on their way back up to them, Irina knew it was now or never. So, moving back as far as she could away from the railing above her, she took a running start towards it before, using all her super soldier strength to do so, she jumped, easily, and at least fifteen foot into the air, up and over the railing, landing lightly on her feet next to the victim.

"Irina?" Capp called out, having been told by Severide that she was still somewhere on the second floor, only now she was on the third floor with no reasonable explanation as to how she got up there.

So, choosing to ignore Capp and pretend she didn't hear him, Irina picked up the victim with as much ease as jumping up onto the landing had been, and carried him into the apartment next to her.

"Chief, this is Irina." She called into her radio, using one arm to hold the victim over her shoulder like he weighed nothing, which to her, he did. "I got a victim but we're trapped on the third floor. Need the aerial and a stokes basket to the south A side window... This place is about to flashover."

"Copy that." Chief Boden replied, the call coming through all the firefighters radios too and confusing the hell out of Squad as they had no idea how she'd have gotten up to the third floor without any stairs. And no matter how good a climber she was, there was no easy way for her to have climbed up.

Irina could see the aerial moving towards her and she quickly lifted the window, reminding herself to put on the act of the victim she was holding being a little heavy, and pretending to be straining as she carried him. She could see Severide and Casey climbing the aerial, the stokes basket between them. But the same time she could see the fire seeping around the door behind her, about to explode through at any second.

Gently setting the victim down by the window, Irina ran towards the door, mustering all the super solder strength she had in her to hold it back and stop the fire from forcing the door open and flashing over... and potentially killing anyone inside, herself included. She may have been an ex widow and current super soldier, but she wasn't invincible.

"Irina!" Casey called towards her as he climbed through the window, pulling the stokes basket in with him.

"Get him out! I can hold it." She shouted back, not showing one ounce of struggle as now wasn't the time to worry about keeping up her act.

Casey nodded his head, working quickly to get the victim onto the basket and through the window to Severide, who was positioned at the top of the ladder waiting to pull the victim down.

"Okay, Irina, come on!" Casey called over, beckoning with his hand that she should come towards him as the victim was now on his way down to the ambulance.

"No, get yourself out first... If I let go this whole room will flashover." She shouted back, keeping her stance at the door and refusing to move until Casey was out of the building and safe.

She knew fully well that the moment she let go of the door it would fly off it's hinges and the room would flashover, so she knew she had no time to worry about getting safely onto the aerial as it would be more likely that she burned up before she'd even gotten one leg out of the window. So Irina knew what she had to do, only she would have no explanation as to how she was about to survive what she was about to do.

"Irina let's go!" Casey called worried from the top of the aerial, holding his hand out as if to grab onto her once she dived out of the window. He couldn't see it now, the look on Irina's face, but once the door began to jiggle harder behind her back, he saw the way her eyes were glued to the window. Only not the window that he was outside of, no, it was the one to his left. The one with no aerial under it, and a three story drop to the pavement below. "Irina!"

Taking a huge deep breath as she knew she was most likely about to expose herself after she survived a three story drop to solid ground with nothing more than a few bruises to show for it, Irina let go of the door and made a run for it.

"Irina!"

The window smashed as Irina dived headfirst through it, causing those on the ground surrounding the building to look up in horror, gasping as they saw Irina falling, shards of glass surrounding her as she fell closer and closer to the ground.

Otis himself almost felt his heart stop when he saw her and hearing the thud of her helmet when it hit the ground made his blood run cold.

And it wasn't long before the others felt their hearts stop too when Irina's body landed with a loud thud, the smashing of glass, and followed by the blaring of an alarm, right on top of a car that had been parked below...

-

uh oh little cliffhanger as this chapter was getting way too long, it's already 500 words over my main word count for chapters so y'all will have to wait for the next one to see what happens ;)

but yeah, i hope you liked this chapter and the official beginning of iron man 2 which we will see more of, but again mostly news reports as irina has no need to actually be there :)

anyways, hoped you liked this chapter... i can't help but feel like some of my chapters in my books are pointless and boring but that could just be me... so i hope no one else feels like that and that you enjoy each chapter

if you enjoyed this one don't forget to leave a vote and maybe even a comment too? really helps me out!

okay bye!