Glass Heart

“The converter for the arc reactor has been in fabrication limbo since you went over the plans with me yesterday, but I didn’t want to actually get started with it until I struck an official deal with you. Pepper said something about some sort of huge legal trouble I could get into if I used it without your permission. You wouldn’t sue me would you? Don’t answer that. I didn’t listen to her entirely but I got the vibe that using your idea without you on board was probably more trouble than it was worth. In short, she bored me enough to get me to agree just so she’d shut up.” Tony led Scarlett back into his lab, snapped his fingers and watched the computers in the room come to life at his bidding. “Wake up, time to work. Lazy…” The mess that had been made with the broken Mark VII the day before had been cleaned up and the lab was back in the immaculate condition that Scarlett had initially woken up to find it in.

“You have a very clever assistant.” Scarlett walked past Tony and looked around the room curiously. No matter how much time she’d spent in the lab that doubled as a garage, she couldn’t get over how technologically advanced everything was. Every time she thought she’d seen it all, she found something new and interesting to look at. She wouldn’t let Tony know how impressed she was with his technology. The last thing she wanted to do was boost his ego, she was sure he did that enough for himself every day.

Her eyes lingered on the collection of valuable cars. She could see the dent in his hot rod very clearly and couldn’t help but smile despite how frustrated she’d been in the heat of the moment. He hadn’t left her a bill for it yet, but if she found out that he wasn’t behind what MedCo had done she’d buy him a whole new car to apologize for the grief she’d put him through in the long run.

Pausing in front of the car she considered when she’d started actually thinking that perhaps Tony wasn’t behind what had happened to her and Scott in Africa. Once again, upon further thinking, she rejected the notion entirely. It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible. She couldn’t act under that assumption he was innocent simply because he was likable and they had some sexual tension brewing between them. Having spent a good chunk of her career hating him, it would’ve been devastating to her psyche to find out he wasn’t as malevolent as she had initially speculated.

“So, partner, where do you propose we start if the fabrication of the converter isn’t completed yet?” Scarlett turned to face Tony and approached where he stood near his desk cautiously.

“Oh, so I’m partner now am I?” Tony walked around the desk to stand close to her, his arms folded across his chest. “I’m not sure that’s much better than calling Stark, but I’ll take it until it starts sounding like an old western in here. You could just call me Tony. I mean, I heard you say it yesterday so I know you know how to say it. I think you’re just being stubborn.” Stepping around her he walked in front of the glass display cases that housed the older model Marks. Pressing several buttons against the wall near the marks, holographic screens flickering with information appeared in front of him. “As for proposing, it’s too soon for that but I was thinking… that we had a few options.” He cleared his throat and darted his eyes toward her without actually turning to look at her.

Scarlett walked behind Tony and stood on her tip toes so she could peer over his shoulder at the screens that he’d made appear in front of him. The holograms were like a shiny new toy for her to play with. While she wouldn’t admit it, he could likely lure her into any room in the house as long as he promised that she would get to play with Jarvis. Intellectual computer systems were nonexistent in other areas of the world at least not to the same extent. In fact, the last few places she’d worked were still functioning on dial up if they even had internet access at all. The things that Scarlett could do with a set up like Tony’s made her head spin. If it had been under any other circumstances she would have been giddy with excitement.

“What have you been using to test this with, Stark?” Scarlett ignored his comment and instead decided to come up with her own approach to how they would tackle the creation of the arc reactor converter.

“Oh no, I’m back to Stark now. Why was I demoted? Or was I promoted? I don’t know anymore. I can’t keep up with these nicknames you’re giving me. Why can’t you just call me Tony like everyone else?” Without turning to look at her he flipped the screens around and scrolled through the information in front of him. “I’ve been using an amplifier up to this point, to answer your question.”

“I meant as in a power source. Obviously you want to turn the arc reactor technology into a viable clean energy source but what have you been using to test it? You blew the original one up however many years ago now… and well, the only one I see lying around here is in your chest.” Tired of standing on her tip toes, Scarlett walked to stand at Tony’s side still watching the screens, entertained. She wasn’t trying to decipher the information on them, just staring in wonderment but refusing to admit it. After another moment of silence, Tony turned his head to the side to look at her.

“I don’t like when you ignore me.” Tony sucked his lips into his mouth for a moment then narrowed his eyes at her.

“Hmm?” Scarlett pretended to look disinterested in him, but smiled after a moment. The awkwardness they’d experienced the day before had finally dissipated entirely. Perhaps the stress she’d been experiencing after what had happened in Africa was finally lessening. Either that or she was becoming comfortable around Tony. The latter worried her but she shook it from her mind. At the moment, all she could do was keep earning his trust until she found the opportunity to get the information she needed. It occurred to her that she would likely be unable to both shut off Jarvis and look at his files so she pondered that while Tony stayed silent. Scarlett would need supplies to complete her mission. Perhaps she could use Tony for that too.

“Very funny.” Tony flicked several of the screens aside before dragging one in particular close to him. “I have been using the reactor in my chest to power previous attempts at creating the amplifier so I haven’t been using an external power source.”

“Why not just create a second arc reactor?” Scarlett reached to touch the holographic window in front of her to make it wider so she could decipher the information on it, but much to her surprise Tony smacked her hand away.

“Jarvis, bring up the videos from the element creation.” Tony turned his back on the screen but pointed toward it vaguely. “Keep your eye on the screen, Scarlett. This is why I haven’t attempted another go at this.”

Simply to spite Tony, Scarlett pulled on the edges of the hologram and extended the screen, pleased that Jarvis obeyed her command. The video popped up on the screen as commanded displaying the first day that Tony had attempted to fabricate the element that his father had discovered many years prior but had been unable to create thanks to the limited technology he possessed. Tony walked back to his desk and sat in his rolling chair. One of the smaller robots came over with a glass of some sort of protein shake that had been mixed together.

“Did I ask for that, Dum-e? Really you’re a robot and you’re going to get into a routine?” The robot made a sad sound and started to retreat with the glass that contained the shake. “I didn’t say take it away.” Perking up, the robot brought the glass back to Tony who took it and took a long drink out of it, his gaze never falling from where Scarlett watched the video of the destruction that had occurred when he’d created the element in his lab. The creation of the element had been a worldwide phenomenon so he was sure she was familiar with. What he hadn’t shared with the public was how the element had saved his life from the palladium that was poisoning his blood.

Once the video had finished playing, the lights that dimmed in the lab turned back on and the screen in front of Scarlett disappeared entirely. Turning around to face Tony who had kicked his feet onto the desk, she contemplated why he’d shown it to her in the first place. Part of her was sure he was just showing off.

“Well, obviously you don’t want to trash this place again to recreate the element.” The more she thought about it, Scarlett was sure that he was just bragging by showing her what he’d done in a time crunch.

“Before I had the element to power my reactor I was using palladium cores to fuel the magnet in my chest.” Tony knocked on the reactor in his chest and took another drink of the protein shake.

“Jesus,” Scarlett curled her lip in disgust, “didn’t that do any damage?” She knew exactly how dangerous that could be.

“Yeah, it was killing me.” Tony kicked his feet off of the desk and stood up, walking around his desk and leaning against the back of it. “I was taking steps to counteract the symptoms but ultimately I couldn’t keep up with the blood toxicity. That’s when I fabricated the element and lucky for me, it was an adequate substitute for palladium. That being said, I haven’t found the time to recreate another one.” Tony didn’t take his gaze away from Scarlett while he took a sip of his protein shake. Was he expecting her to react to his confession of a near death experience or was he testing her to see how attached she’d become? Either way, Scarlett wasn’t going to change the topic.

“After the damage it did to your lab, I’m sure you’ve been avoiding it. But I’ve got to confess I’m not comfortable using you as a battery for our tests.” Before Tony could speak she held up her hand to stop him and continued on. “We need to have a stable power source for our tests. If you short out because of some error in a calculation of fabrication then I’m not going to have any idea how to repair you. I’m good with this stuff but this is your father’s life’s work, Stark. I can’t learn that in five minutes.”

“You figured out my Mark VII in five minutes, why shouldn’t you be able to handle this?” Tony shrugged simply. If he was testing her, he was doing an excellent job keeping a straight face. When Scarlett looked at him skeptically he glanced down at his thick shake. “Oh, I’m being rude. Want some?” He held the glass out toward her in case she wanted a sip of his shake.

“No thank you, I make it general practice to avoid drinking anything that’s a putrid green color and smells like lawn clippings.” Scarlett placed her fingers on the top of his glass and pushed it out of her line of sight.

“Your loss.” Tony took a sip out of the glass after pulling it away from Scarlett who was looking at her fingers in disgust since she’d gotten some of the liquid on them. “You know, I was going to argue over building another reactor but I can see just how concerned you are about my demise so I think the first step is to recreate the element.”

“It has nothing to do with concern, Stark.” Scarlett peered over the desk in search of a napkin to wipe her hands on. “It’s a liability and if you like, we can have Pepper come in here and explain what that means.”

“You don’t have to hide your true feelings for me, Scarlett. You can confess how much you care. As terribly Shakespeare as it would be for you to mourn over my untimely death if my reactor shorted out, I think I’d prefer for this one to stay where it is.” Tony grabbed her wrist and looked at her fingers to figure out what she was trying to wipe off of them.

“Well, I would hate for this to turn into some sort of tragedy so what do you propose we do? There has to be a better way to recreate the element other than to tearing up the lab you’ve clearly repaired.” Scarlett tried to wiggle her wrist to remove it from his grasp.

“There is a much better way and I’ve already thought of it.” Tony brought her fingers to his lips in an attempt to lick away the shake that had tainted her skin.

“Cut it out,” Scarlett laughed at him and pulled her hand away. Tony grabbed her wrist again and pouted.

“I’m helping!”

“You are not helping.”

“You’re clearly bothered by the mess that my shake made and I’m already drinking it so…”

“You are not going to lick my fingers!” Scarlett couldn’t hide her amusement and managed to get her hand away from his, only for him to grab her other hand and pull her close before she could pull away entirely.

“I don’t see what the problem is! I’ve licked a lot worse things before in my life, this is incredibly benign in comparison.”

Instead of responding, Scarlett flipped around to face him and then wiped her fingers on his shirt. Tony pursed his lips and stared at her for a moment before looking down at the mess that was now on his shirt.

“There, problem solved.” Scarlett walked away, wiping her hands together. “So what were you saying before you interrupted me?”

“I interrupted you? You interrupted me when I was trying to help you. And no, the problem is not solved because now my shirt is a mess.” Tony started to pull at the bottom of his shirt to take it off so he could get changed.

“Are you going to strip everyday we’re down here? Because I don’t have any singles on me and honestly I’m not getting enough out of this to give you a twenty.” Tony stopped tugging on his shirt and stared at her in surprise.

“I can make it worth a twenty, hell I can make it worth a fifty.” Grinning from ear to ear he couldn’t help but chuckle. Maybe partnership wasn’t going to be as terribly taxing as he had expected it to be. Though, he was sure if Pepper had been with them she would’ve been appalled by their unprofessional conversation and warning him every thirty seconds about potential sexual harassment law suits.

“We’re never going to get anything done, are we?” Scarlett exhaled deeply after laughing at his last remark.

“I think we’re making excellent progress. You don’t?” Tony had obviously decided to keep his shirt on and instead started shutting down computer screens. “There’s a lab at Stark Industries I’ve been having set up for this particular moment. It’s a safe zone to create the element in and the power there is on its own grid so I won’t piss off the power company this time.”

“So, road trip then?” Scarlett was surprised that Tony had managed to bring the conversation back around to their plans for the day. Perhaps their partnership could work out after all. Then she reconsidered. Why did she have to keep reminding herself that this was only temporary? Working with him was a means to an end, not a lucrative career decision. Then again, there was no harm in her actually enjoying the work she was doing with him in the process, right?

“Yeah, though I’d recommend shoes.” Tony peered down at her feet, but making a point to look at the rest of her on the way down. Scarlett rolled her eyes and slumped her shoulders. “And as terrible as I feel for making this request… probably pants too.”

“Yeah, yeah… I’ll go get changed. I got the point during the whole lingering stare thing you did on the way down.” Scarlett turned toward the door but stopped halfway there. “Is there any way that we can stop somewhere so I can get some parts to build my own laptop on the way back? And there are a few other amenities I’d like to pick up.”

“Why can’t you just use my computers?” Tony followed behind her to the door. “I’ve got to change too, thanks to someone who seemed to object to my tongue for whatever reason.”

“Keep your tongue in your mouth, Stark.”

“That’s the most boring place it could be.” Tony whispered in his best seductive voice and opened the door after walking around her. “I guess we can stop to get those things on the way back but I still don’t get why you need them when my things are so much better and I’m allowing you to use them.”

“I’m a private person, Stark. The last thing I want is for you to see what I do on the computer in my alone time and reading my personal emails when you’re bored.” Scarlett walked behind Tony up the stairs and into the living room.

“First of all, what makes you think you’ll have any alone time? Secondly, I assure you there is no porn on the planet strange enough that could possibly turn me off.” Tony turned to face her while he walked up the second set of stairs to make his way to his bedroom.

“I would hate to find you searching through my internet history and emails in search of some love letters pining for you, Stark. You’d be so disappointed and I’m already so mean to you without that. I’m trying to spare your feelings, really.” Scarlett walked past him and to the door of the guest room. Tony leaned against the wall near her door and smirked.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you ran one of those websites dedicated to what a huge slime ball I am. You know, a hate forum or whatever the kids are calling it these days.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t have that kind of time. Besides, all of the nasty things I have to say to you I can just say to your face right now. A website dedicated to it would seem redundant at this point.” Scarlett opened the door to her room but stopped as Tony spoke again.

“I do appreciate that you’re so brutally honest.” The guilt churned in Scarlett’s stomach. It wasn’t that she’d been outright lying, but there had definitely been nothing very honest about what she’d been doing. Then again, she couldn’t think of when she’d hidden anything from him deliberately other than the things she’d made him aware he was missing out on. The fact that she was even considering her honesty was dangerous. “I wish you’d at least sugarcoat it a little bit, though. Call me an ass, go for it, but then follow it up with how pretty my eyes are or something.” Tony theorized a way to make it easier on his ego.

“Your whole life has been sugarcoated, Stark.” She leaned against the frame of the door and shook her head. “Something tells me that you’re not crying yourself to sleep at night because I don’t think you’re a shining example of humanity at its best.”

“Never slept better, actually.” Tony tapped his fingers against the wall near where she stood. “So I’d offer to help you get changed but I’m pretty sure I know the answer to that and I don’t want my nose broken.”

“Oh, you’re learning.”

“Are you proud of me?”

“Not at all.”

“I’ll meet you back downstairs in ten.” Tony turned away, waving his hand at her in amusement. Scarlett walked into her room to get changed as she’d been instructed to. Tony returned to his own room and changed into a clean shirt, ordering Jarvis to get them a driver with one of the Stark Industries SUVs to escort them to the building where they’d rebuild the element in his chest for another arc reactor so they could start testing the converter once it’d completed the fabrication process.

Ten minutes later the two were meeting downstairs and walking out the front door of the Stark mansion. The sun was shining as brightly as it usually did in California and the air was warm and dry.

“I miss your legs already.” Tony sighed, glancing down at the jeans Scarlett had put on.

“They’re still in there.” Scarlett walked past him and down the path to the curb, pulling her hair back and out of her face into a messy ponytail. Tony joined her on the curb when a black SUV pulled up in front of the luxurious home. The driver came around and opened the door for the two of them.

“You know, you could just leave your hair down.” Tony suggested, peering over at her.

“It gets in the way while I’m working, trust me.”

“It looks sexy in the way though.”

“Thanks, but you’re having enough trouble picturing us working together without me looking like I’ve just crawled out of bed.” Scarlett got into the black SUV, taking the hand of the driver to assist her in. Her leg was in a lot more pain than it had been the day before. Was it possible that the shock of her experience was still wearing off? The sore spot on her side and her arm had started to heal but her leg seemed only to get worse.

Scarlett could only hope that it was because of how she’d tossed and turned in bed the night before that her leg was so uncomfortable. Tony stared at Scarlett in the car for a moment, making no attempts to get in.

“What?”

“I was just enjoying the mental image you shared with me there.”

“You were already enjoying that before I said anything, get in the car.”

“Hey, it’s different when you say it.”

“How is it any different?” Scarlett laughed her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

“It gives what was once mere conjecture, validity.” Tony shooed the driver away so he would get back into the front of the car and leaned against the opened door of the sport utility vehicle with a smirk on his face.

“You are such an ass sometimes. Get in the car already.” Scarlett pointed to the seat next to her.

“If you insist.” Tony climbed into the car and closed the door behind him before taking his seat next to Scarlett. “Turn on the air conditioner will you? It’s stifling in here. Make it a cool 68? Thanks.” Tony glanced over at Scarlett and was about to add onto the comment he’d made but she stopped him.

“I swear, Stark, if you make some sort of pick up line out of how hot it is in here…”

“You’re no fun.”

“Actually I’m way more fun than you can handle.” Scarlett laughed and looked out the window as the car drove down the extensive driveway, toward the main road.

“Is that a dare? Because I’m pretty sure I can handle you just fine.” Tony flipped his phone out of his pocket and started to fiddle with the screen again. “Pepper keeps texting me…” He sighed heavily and spoke as he texted what he planned to say. “I don’t text unless it’s for sex, you know that.”

Scarlett rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. Sometimes she wondered if what he did was for show, but sure enough when she peered over at the screen to spy on his text messages, that was what he had actually typed.

“And now who’s nosy?” Tony hid the screen of his phone from her defensively.

“I just couldn’t tell if you were being serious or not. Weren’t you the one who was talking about validity a second ago?” Scarlett didn’t bother to hide what she’d been doing. “Besides, I’m kind of curious about your phone.”

“I bet you are.” Tony grinned and held it out for her to take. Scarlett looked surprised and didn’t make a move to grab it. “Go ahead, play with it. The vibrate button is over there by the way…”

Scarlett glared at him but took the phone from his hand and flipped the screen sideways. Tony started to rattle of statistics of the highly advanced phone that he’d built on his own for his personal use. Flipping through the interface Scarlett was impressed with how much he’d managed to fit into such a small device. Apparently, technology was limitless to Tony Stark. As much as she wanted to believe that he wasn’t as incredible as the hype surrounding him had led the world to believe, she was discovering that the hype hadn’t even scratched the surface of what he’d become capable of over the years.

“This is remarkable.” Scarlett muttered, before handing the phone back to Tony but instead nearly dropped it when the machine vibrated to let him know that he’d gotten another text message from Pepper.

“It is, isn’t it?” Tony couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear, since he could see that Scarlett was flustered by the fact that the phone had gone off in her hands. “Pretty powerful, right?” Laughing he pulled the phone back from her and flipped open the text message. “It’s more of a multi tool than anything else.”

“I swear if that phone has been anywhere gross and you just let me touch it, you’re going to be in serious trouble.”

“What would you do? Spank me?” Tony tapped at the screen and ignored Pepper’s text message in favor of giving commands to Jarvis.

“Trust me, it wouldn’t be something you’d enjoy so much.” Scarlett wiped her hands, a disgusted look on her face.

“It hasn’t been anywhere sexual, calm yourself down. The worst place it’s been is in my pocket.” Tony flipped through screens on his phone, not looking back up at her but still wearing that permanently amused smile on his face.

“Good.” Scarlett wasn’t sure she trusted him on the matter but was also partially amused that he’d put those quirky designs into his phone. The good things he did with technology could almost be trumped by all the pointless things he’d done with it. Silence fell between them so Scarlett took to observing the pretty standard looking SUV. It was a nice one, but nowhere near as nice as the car they’d taken out the night before. Tony seemed blissfully distracted by his phone and making arrangements for the rest of the day.

“So what’s with the men in black routine here? No Lamborghini today?” Scarlett scratched nonchalantly at the wound on her leg through the denim of her jeans but stopped herself once she realized she was doing it. The denim was making the wound itchy.

“I suppose we could’ve taken a nicer car but I was trying to avoid drawing attention to us.”

“What? You’re avoiding attention? Are you feeling ill?” Scarlett thought that perhaps he didn’t want there to be pictures circulating of his disheveled appearance accompanied by the bruises and sores visible on his face. The rest of his wounds were decently covered by his t-shirt but tabloid gossip would circulate no matter what.

Tony glanced over at her for a moment and his expression softened before he turned back to play on his phone.

“No, I’m avoiding drawing attention to you.” Tony looked out the opposite window as he spoke. “I don’t know what I’m up against when it comes to these people you were in bed with and I think it’s best if you lay low for a bit after what happened last night.”

The guilt churned in Scarlett’s stomach again so she neglected to respond to his comment. If she didn’t know about Tony’s past and his sordid history and could only base him on the man she’d met since she’d woken up the day before, she would’ve guessed he was a halfway decent human being.

All he’d asked her for was a few answers about what she’d been through and what had happened to her in Africa and she had done nothing but cause trouble and answer with disdain. Tony hadn’t owed her anything but had gone out of his way to keep her safe and meet her halfway.

Her mind drifted to the nightmare she’d had. Closing her eyes, Scarlett leaned against the framing of the car window and tried to clear her mind but it was no use. Scott’s green eyes were staring at her and judging her. He blamed her for his death. She tried to reason with herself that no one was blaming her for anything, particularly not a dead man.

What was it that Sergei had told her in her dream? She couldn’t save everyone. The reality of it was that Scarlett hadn’t saved anyone. In her attempt to escape Scott had died and the worst thing he’d ever done had been to care for her. The guilt made her sick to her stomach and the movement of the car on the California streets wasn’t helping the situation. How could she have ever suspected that Scott had something to do with what had been done to her?

Scott deserved better than what had happened to him and Scarlett felt her resolve renewed with that thought. But then again there was the matter of Tony Stark and the attachment she’d been avoiding making to him. He’d been kind to her after a traumatic experience. That had to be the extent of it and she would have to try harder to keep it that way.

Tony interrupted her thoughts by grabbing her wrist. Scarlett instantly recoiled out of instinct but found that he was grabbing it tighter than she expected. Glancing down at where her hand had been she realized she’d been scratching at the bandages hidden beneath her jeans. All Tony was doing was stopping her from doing more damage to her leg. She hadn’t even realized that she’d been doing it. The stress must have gotten to her more than she’d thought it had. The hope that the post traumatic stress had passed dimmed.

Once her hand had relaxed, Scarlett caught her breath. When had she started to breathe heavily? Cursing mentally she shook her head and avoided looking at Tony. He let go of her wrist and patted her knee reassuringly. After a moment of sitting quietly in the car he broke the silence.

“You don’t have to tell me anything yet, Scarlett.” He was looking back at his phone again but she could see that he was just scrolling through the home screen and not doing anything of any importance. It was simply something to keep him from having to look at her. Maybe he was as nervous to look her in the eye at that moment as she was to look at him, or maybe he was avoiding dealing with whatever post traumatic stress she was experiencing.

“Why?” Cursing again mentally, Scarlett had no idea whys he’d even bothered to question him. She should’ve taken the break she’d been given and ran with it. It was just what she needed to buy herself more time. The guilt was taking over. She was no longer in control of everything she was doing. Her emotions had never stood in her way prior to waking up in the Stark mansion and now here she was, acting on impulse and emotion at every turn.

“I get it, that’s all.” Tony finally pocketed his phone and looked over at her. He had the usual look of bemusement on his face but there was an underlying seriousness to his tone that Scarlett had only seen emerge in his anger the day before.

Scarlett averted her eyes and furrowed her brow. Was she playing into what he was saying or was she being legitimately sincere? Sometimes it was easy to forget what Tony had gone through in the desert and how the arc reactor had made its way into his chest in the first place.

“I still don’t talk about what happened in Afghanistan.” Tony gave her knee a squeeze. Being compassionate and empathetic was out of his comfort zone but if anyone understood what it was like to feel completely overwhelmed after a situation like the one that Scarlett had gone through, it was him. It was like becoming a different person; being reborn so to speak. But there would always be a part of him stuck in that cave, wondering what he could’ve done differently to save the man who had saved his life. “It takes time. Focus on work.”

Scarlett nodded her head and placed a hand over his on her knee. After a moment she pried his hand away and set it down on the seat between them, patting it afterward. Tony scoffed and shook his head.

“You’ll be just fine.”