Glass Heart

Pepper had gone above and beyond to keep Tony and Scarlett busy over the next few days. She’d made it clear that Scarlett had drawn the line in the sand between them and Pepper was keeping her far behind it to protect her friend. When it came between the strange woman and her boss, Pepper would choose her boss’ side every time. Though, Pepper didn’t quite understand what had transpired between the two because no matter how often she asked or pressed for details, Tony wouldn’t confess the entire truth so her opinion wasn’t based entirely on fact. Whatever had happened, he was avoiding talking or thinking about it and Pepper didn’t think this was very healthy and reminded him on a daily basis.

It was mid-afternoon on a Thursday and Tony and Scarlett were back at the Stark Industries facility in the middle of the California desert to continue their work. They had spent the last few days rebuilding and redesigning the element creation process. Now that they’d had real time to buckle down on the project without complications from Scarlett’s leg, which was well on its way to healing once it had been properly taken care of, or attacks from the people pursuing them from MedCo the project was well underway.

The relationship between Tony and Scarlett had seemingly returned to the normal flirtatious atmosphere they’d created upon first meeting. Despite them having been able to patch things up enough to work and play together there was still the underlying stressful tension created by the incident in the desert a few days prior. Tony continued to make sexual advances on Scarlett but the hesitation he’d felt initially was back and for entirely new reasons.

Of course, he’d also been burned by the first person he’d been willing to share his bed with for more than a romp and that wound was still healing. Scarlett on the other hand was withdrawing mentally with continued conflict. She hadn’t been able to sleep for more than an hour at a time in days, as Jarvis had let Tony in on. Not to mention, Tony had taken to watching the cameras in her room when she wasn’t awake just in case she was up to something. Or at least that was what he was telling himself was the reason for his voyeurism.

Scarlett was trying to keep her emotional distance from Tony until she had the chance to assemble her computer. She was almost finished putting together a laptop for herself but she required a few items that she hadn’t had time to pick up on her own. Since Pepper had been keeping them so busy, Scarlett had barely had time to think nonetheless go shopping. And since she no longer had access to Jarvis in any way, shape, or form other than standard communication she couldn’t use him to place an order online without Tony’s permission. Without any of her personal belongings, Scarlett found it nearly impossible to operate without someone’s hand to hold and she was not the kind to rely on someone else’s guidance.

Not to mention she’d continued having nightmare after nightmare, each more violent than the last. That morning she’d woken up sick to her stomach and had spent a good hour in the bathroom dry heaving. If she didn’t get some proper sleep soon, Scarlett was worried that she was going to lose her mind along with her health.

Sitting beneath the long pipes that had been set up to send the energy beam toward the prism at the center of their laboratory, Scarlett was double checking to make sure the pipes were level and that they were air tight. The plans that Tony had originally created for the elemental creation center had been thrown together quickly and they had found the second day of building that they’d had to spend half the afternoon redesigning for safety issues. Scarlett had ideas on how to expedite the process and make the whole thing run more efficiently. Tony had been grateful to have her working with him on the project despite the emotional grief they’d continued to cause each other.

“Have you decided what you’re going to do about this yet?” Scarlett glanced over at Tony who was lying on his back beneath the mechanism at the other end of the room that would house the eventual element. They had designed it so that it would be properly contained without the assistance of a human hand the way Tony had initially explained. Stopping his fiddling with the wires above his head he rolled out from beneath the platform on his dolly.

Wiping the sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand and then sliding his protective goggles away from his eyes he glanced over at Scarlett. She was still too nervous to wear jeans even if she hadn’t admitted it openly, but he thought she looked in her element in a skirt. In fact, now that she’d been wearing them so often he couldn’t picture her in anything but skirts and dresses.

“What do you mean? Have I decided what about what? You have to be more specific Scarlett!” Tony furrowed his brow, though he had a pretty good idea as to what she was referring to. “Did I make a proposition about that desk over there? I feel like I’d remember something like that. Either way, yes I think I’ve considered it and we should go for it. No one comes and checks on us anymore anyway.”

“You know what I was talking about, smart ass.” Scarlett cocked her head to the side and pulled her hair tie away from her hair, only to fix it since it’d started to fall loose while she was working.

“You’re no fun.”

“I’m a lot of fun or you would’ve kicked me out a long time ago.”

“That’s true.” Tony considered this and smiled fondly at a memory that Scarlett was sure would come and bite her in the ass one day.

“So, have you or haven’t you decided what you’re going to do?” Scarlett leaned against one of the vibration proof platforms that had built against one of the pipes to keep it steady. While she was still at odds in general with Tony, she still wanted to know what he was going to decide on for the project she’d been hired to work on and his motives for doing so. His ultimate decision would say more about his character than anything up to this point had.

“Moral decisions aren’t my forte, obviously.” Absentmindedly licking his bottom lip, Tony cringed when he got a mouthful of salty sweat from his goatee and then stuck his tongue out in distress. “Deciding what the right thing is for the world is going to take more than a handful of days. Not to mention I’ve been otherwise occupied mentally.”

“Well, if you haven’t decided what you’re going to do yet then I have some bad news for you.” Scarlett started to get up from where she sat on the floor and dusted herself off.

“What? Are you quitting? Because we’ve been through that and you’re on contract. It’s a pretty big legal mess to try and get out of it. Pepper knows what she’s doing.” Tony got up and threw the goggles away from his face haphazardly. “And if you’re about to strip then I suggest you stop calling that bad news because that… that sounds like an answer to a prayer.”

“I didn’t take you for the religious type.” Scarlett had been wiping her hands on her tank top and rolled her eyes at Tony’s remark. Go figure that she’d show a little bit of her stomach in the process and he’d jump to conclusions.

“I’d worship at your altar any day.” Tony was practically wagging his tail in happiness that he’d found such a clever pun.

“I apologize for walking into that one.”

“You shouldn’t, I enjoyed every second of it.” Tony pulled a rag from his pocket and wiped at his face. “So what was the bad news? Clearly you’re not getting naked.”

“We can’t move on here until you’ve made a decision.” Scarlett held up her hands when Tony went to object. “We’ve calibrated and recalibrated this machine three times now. There’s nothing left to do. But… don’t rush the decision, okay?” Scarlett glanced away from Tony’s eyes. When she looked at him for too long she felt guilty and it was a tough feeling to shake. He’d put his defenses back up after she’d deceived him and she could feel it in his body language.

“I didn’t plan on it. Does that mean we get to grab lunch because we finished early?” Tony’s eyebrows shot to the top of his forehead.

“It’s three in the afternoon.” Scarlett walked over to him and stole the rag from his hands so she could wipe her own off.

“Don’t sell that thing on EBay. I mean, I guess you could but I’ll know it’s you selling it and expect a portion of the profits. And who cares what time it is? We didn’t eat lunch so we should have a late lunch.” Tony followed her and pointed at the rag in her hand.

“I’m not hungry.” Scarlett swatted him with the rag and then draped it over his shoulder before walking away from him to tidy up her work space. “I actually have a request and no, it has very little to do with being naked so don’t start okay?”

“How come you never want to do anything that involves being naked?” Tony pouted, following Scarlett toward the door.

“Because you’d enjoy it too much.” Scarlett peeked at him over her shoulder then sighed in exasperation as he pulled the hair tie away from her hair and it fell around her shoulders. This had become such a regular occurrence that she didn’t comment on it much when it happened, just rectified it.

“Don’t sigh at me.”

“I’ll stop sighing at you when you stop pulling my hair down.”

“Stop putting it up and I’ll stop pulling it down. It’s simple math.” Tony shrugged and spoke simply, starting into the hallway.

“That would just be rewarding you for your bad behavior. Someone has to at least try to put a stop to it.” Scarlett slipped her hair back into a spare hair tie she’d started to carry around on her wrist simply because Tony had taken to pulling her hair down while she was working so often.

“I’m not a puppy, you can’t train me.” Tony pouted when she pulled her hair back up again. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much. He just needed to pull her hair down.

“Look, the only reason you get away with stuff like this is because no one took the time to train you.” Scarlett couldn’t help but smile as she spoke.

“Train me? Who says I can’t train you to deal with the way I behave?” It was absolutely absurd, but Tony had to fight her on it.

“I’m stubborn.” She swatted Tony’s hand quickly away from her hair as he made another attempt for the new hair tie. “You know, I very rarely get to the point of what I’m trying to say thanks to you.”

“I always get what I want Scarlett.”

“That’s not what I hear.” Tony stopped walking and pouted dramatically at her, his big brown eyes much like a wounded puppy’s.

“That’s not very nice.”

“You started it.” Scarlett walked to the staircase at the end of the hallway but turned when Tony didn’t’ follow her. “So, are you still mad at me from the other day or would you be willing to help me with something?”

“It depends on what that something is.” Tony didn’t directly answer the question but did join Scarlett on the stairs.

“I picked up some pieces to build a laptop for myself while I was out that day. I know you told me I could use your computers but we’ve been through the reasons why I don’t want to.” Starting up the stairs with Tony at her side, Scarlett chose her words carefully. They’d already argued about her privacy on several occasions and she wasn’t prepared to have yet another fight about it. Pepper had once been on her side on the topic but ever since Scarlett had proved what a threat she could be, Pepper had sided with Tony for every argument and wanted him to take even more extreme measures than was necessary.

“What, you don’t know how to build a computer on your own?” Tony mocked while he walked up the stairs.

“Let me finish.” Scarlett pointed a finger at him which he subsequently tried to snatch from her. “I wasn’t able to get everything I needed before you stopped the car that day so I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind stopping somewhere so I could get some things to finish up my laptop.”

“I have everything you could possibly dream of at home. I can help you and we don’t have to stop.”

“I don’t want to be hooked up to Jarvis or your security system.” Scarlett reminded him as they walked to the main floor and started down the hall toward the front door of the building. Waiting outside for them was Happy who was waiting near the car he’d pulled around for them.

“I know.” Tony nodded his head. “I’ve given it some thought and I don’t want to know what you’re doing on it. And if I change my mind, I’m sure I can just hack into it.”

“You really don’t want to know what I’m up to? Wow. I didn’t see that coming.”

“You’ve made it very clear that your business is your own, Scarlett.” Tony got into the back of the car that was waiting for them. Scarlett stood outside the door and felt a bite in his words. Things would never be the same between them at this rate. She wondered if being honest would even manage to fix things or if she’d forever be stuck in this awkward and painful shadow of what could’ve been between them. It wasn’t what she wanted for them, but she couldn’t bring her selfish wants into the picture either. But why couldn’t she? Happy smiled sympathetically at her and nodded toward the car.

“There’s water in there if you like, Miss Damien.” He seemed to realize that she was going through something extremely complex within her mind and was offering comfort in his own way. It was hard not to form a bond with him after how they’d fought side by side at the charity event.

“Thank you, Happy.” Scarlett patted the man’s arm and then got in the car after Tony. “So you’ll help me then?”

“I already told you I would, was I misleading?” Tony was playing on his phone again, messaging who Scarlett presumed was Pepper. He was clearly feeling as conflicted as she was every time they spoke. He’d let her into his arms too quickly and when he’d shown he was capable of being vulnerable she’d lashed out and wounded him. It was only natural that he kept safe from her claws until he knew she wouldn’t hurt him again. But he wondered as she sat next to him, if her claws had meant to lash out at him at all. If he could figure out what was happening in her mind, he wasn’t sure he would be so defensive. Tony couldn’t help her with what he didn’t understand.

“Okay. Thank you.” Scarlett nodded and took the water bottle that Happy had placed in the car for her. Awkward silence encompassed the ride back until Tony and Happy started discussing plans for the weekend and the days ahead. Scarlett kept quiet and watched out the window, lamenting over the things that had gone wrong in the last year. There was no time for her to feel bad about it or to have a pity party but things were definitely starting to build up. Her white tower was collapsing. Scott had always told her she couldn’t keep living the way she’d been for so many years and she’d kept insisting that things would be fine.

And then she’d almost died in Afghanistan and everything changed. From that moment on life had never been the same. Upon getting back to the Stark Mansion they walked into the laboratory and over to the black couch at the far end where there was a small kitchen and living area set up. Scarlett retrieved the pieces of the laptop she’d already assembled from her room and then joined Tony on the modern looking couch. He had pulled out a box of computer equipment for her to look through. After a few moments of awkward silence, Scarlett couldn’t take it anymore.

“Hey…” Scarlett had avoided calling Tony by his first and last name ever since they fought. She wasn’t ready to call him Tony and calling him Stark only reminded her of the last time she’d called him Tony. Naturally, that was a touchy subject between them but she was guessing only because it hadn’t ended the way either of them had wanted it to. Since they had both wanted the same thing, it was hard to fight over.

“Hmm?” Tony was peering at what she was putting together, holding the next part they were going to assemble.

“I’m sorry, you know.” Scarlett didn’t look up from what she was doing. “I never wanted to hurt you.” Clearly Tony hadn’t expected this confession so he actually looked away and wiped his jaw for a moment before turning back to face her as if she’d said nothing meaningful at all.

“I’m Tony Stark. I can’t be hurt, remember?” Scarlett set down her tools and then held her head in her hands, sighing heavily. It stung to hear her words from days before coming back at her. Things she’d said in the heat of the moment that she hadn’t meant simply to try and build her defenses meant little to nothing in reality.

“We both know that’s not true.”

“It’s okay. You were right. I don’t feel a damn thing.” Tony tapped his knuckles against the reactor hidden beneath his shirt and avoided eye contact. While others may have thought he was joking, Scarlett heard the pain behind his words even though he was trying desperately to mask it.

“Just because you have a magnet in your chest doesn’t make you a machine.” Scarlett pulled his hand away from the reactor in his chest. “I really am sorry.” Desperately she wanted to tell him why she’d betrayed his trust but she couldn’t muster more than an apology. She was hoping that this laptop was the last piece of the puzzle before she could make out the entire picture of what had happened to her in Africa. Tony was surprised she’d grabbed onto him like that, considering he’d instigated most of the physical contact they’d shared in the days prior.

Pulling his hand away, but not because he didn’t want her to touch him, he brushed his thumb against her cheek gently. Scarlett closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. Why couldn’t she tell him that this was exactly what she wanted? Even if she was right about what Tony had done, he made her feel butterflies and see sparks. Didn’t she deserve that? That was where Scarlett truly got stuck. There was clearly some sort of turmoil going on within the strong woman on Tony’s couch. For the first time since he’d met her Scarlett seemed fragile.

“I’ll accept your apology when you’re finally honest with me.” Tony wondered if maybe he could finally get her to talk and explain what was going on behind the scenes in her mind. If he could find out the truth behind her actions then they could both finally move on. Until she spoke, they’d be stuck in limbo. Tilting Scarlett’s head up with his index finger he urged her closer.

“Tony, are you ready?” Pepper walked into the lab, checking her phone as she did and then sighed heavily when she saw the two over in the corner. It clearly displeased her to see that Tony was still making moves on a woman who had caused him such grief. “You’re not even dressed. Again. Do I have to start following you around all the time again? Because I can do that but you’re going to hate every second of it.”

“What are you talking about, Potts?” Tony sighed in annoyance once again. He really thought her interruptions were going to stop since he’d already managed to get laid, but this was simply becoming ridiculous. “Where am I supposed to be and why are you so grumpy? It’s okay to be laid back for a few seconds you know. Particularly since you work for me, you’d think that would be incentive to take a break. You’re going to give yourself an aneurysm.”

“And I’m going to name it Tony. You have a dinner tonight with the energy company in New York, remember? They want to talk to you about the tests you want to run for your new clean energy source. We set it up months ago when you started on this little project, if you’ll just use your brain for a few seconds. It’s important to establish he parameters, is what you said if I recall.”

“New York?” Scarlett cocked her head to the side curiously. If Tony lived in California, why would he be looking to run tests in New York?

“I forgot about that.” Tony sighed and then glanced back at Scarlett to address her inquisition. “I’ve been looking into doing more work on the east coast again. I started there since that’s where I was raised and eventually moved out west. But it’s hard not to fall back in love with Manhattan once you go there. It’s like going home.” Shrugging his shoulders, Tony got up. “Can I reschedule to tomorrow? You’re right, I’m not dressed for this.”

“They’re probably already on their way to the restaurant Tony and they took a six hour flight to get here.” Pepper sounded irritated at the notion. “You have to go.”

“I don’t suppose you want to come with me.” Tony glanced down at Scarlett who immediately shook her head in objection.

“You saw what happened the last two times I went out to dinner with you.” Scarlett grumbled under her breath. “I would prefer to keep people out of trouble this time. I do have just one request since you’re going to essentially put the house on lockdown when you leave so I can’t do anything stupid.”

“What’s that?” Pepper echoed Tony’s sentiment which resulted in Tony glancing over his shoulder at her and pursing his lips in annoyance.

“Tell Jarvis that I can leave for a little bit on my own accord? I’m not going to go very far but I’d like to maybe take a walk or try to get my identity back. I have to start sometime, right? I’ll never be able to pay you back if I can’t get into my accounts.”

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea.” Pepper seemed skeptical while Tony was musing over the idea of it.

“Jarvis, if Scarlett wants to go out you can let her use the Aston Martin she already defiled.” Tony glanced back at Scarlett and away from Pepper’s judging gaze. “Just don’t drive to Vegas or do anything stupid.”

“It’d be rude of me to go there without you.” Scarlett smiled just a little, still surprised by the amount of annoyance Pepper was sending her way. Tony chuckled and then started out of the lab without saying goodbye, Pepper leaving behind him after staring at Scarlett for a good few moments with contempt in her gaze.

Scarlett had never been alone in the Stark Mansion before of her own accord, other than the night where she’d shut off Jarvis and gotten into this mess in the first place. That first night didn’t count, considering Tony had practically locked her up in the guest room.

Spending another hour putting the finishing touches on her laptop and then loading the software necessary for it to run, Scarlett then carried the machine upstairs to the room she’d been allotted. The rest of the house was off limits to her and she was told to treat it like a hotel since she’d broken the bond of trust between her and Tony. Despite it all, Scarlett still thought that Jarvis trusted her or at least wanted to, if a computer could function that way. Maybe he understood more than he’d let on, but then again he was simply a machine and acted the way he was programmed to act.

Digging around in the drawer where she kept her socks, since she was sure that if Tony were to dig through any of her drawers it would be the one with her unmentionables, she pulled out the pen drive she’d stored the information on.

It was the real moment of truth at long last.

Scarlett sat down on the floor next to the bed and set the pen drive down on top of the laptop and stared at it. Did she really want to do this? There would be no turning back after she finally unlocked the secrets hidden within Tony Stark’s computer systems. If he was behind Scott’s murder, the underhanded weapons development, and her captivity there would be traces of MedCo’s existence on her pen drive. Even if Tony had made attempts to erase the information or encrypt in the rare event she got into his systems, she would find traces of it. Any communications made with the people who ran the company or the orders she’d been given would be a dead giveaway.

This was one of the things that Scarlett found she was best at. Finding evidence against people who thought they were untouchable. Tony had the biggest immortality complex Scarlett had encountered in a long time, so she wouldn’t put it past him to assume he was above detection in whatever underhanded dealings he’d been involved in. Part of her was afraid of what she’d find while the other knew she had to do it to put an end to the madness she’d created one way or another. The truth would set her free, so to speak. Then again she wasn’t sure it was freedom she would find on that pen drive.

Scooping up the pen drive at long last, she pulled the protective cap off of it and plugged it into the USB on the side of the laptop. Tapping her fingers nervously against the body of the laptop, Scarlett furrowed her brow while the computer read through the large files and prepared them to be opened. Time was indeed relative.

Finally the window popped up onto the screen allowing Scarlett to browse at long last. Sitting with the computer screen tilted slightly downward so that Jarvis’ cameras wouldn’t be able to spy on her properly, she started her search for anything that involved her, MedCo, underhanded weapons deals, unauthorized biological research or Scott. At first Scarlett had found the disturbing things she’d expected to find, like an absurd amount of tabloid gossip columns saved to memory and awkward porn in Tony’s search history. It seemed very typical and uninteresting to her. She didn’t want to look at most of his unfinished projects if they didn’t involve MedCo. His ideas were his own and she had no desire to steal them from him. She had plenty of her own to satisfy her curiosities.

An hour into searching, Scarlett found MedCo files amongst energy research and her heart dropped into her stomach. Scanning over them and absorbing every detail she could find, she discovered what she partially already knew from what Tony had revealed. Looking away from the screen, her stomach turned with unease.

Tony had been going through old files from something called Sector Sixteen within Stark Industries that had been stored away in the business computers. Within it was a list of dirty dealings that had been done behind his back and then locked away and marked as a classified project so he wouldn’t investigate it further. Many of the names on the list of corporations that had done business with one of the former corporate heads had been crossed out, but along with a few others MedCo was written in red, and circled next to several transactions completed by an unnamed buyer. It was the only name in the long list that didn’t have any contact information available or records of purchase.

Continuing to browse through the files that followed, Scarlett discovered that Tony had been attempting to track down MedCo for nearly a year since he’d uncovered the common link between the unnamed sellers. He’d followed several seemingly successful leads but each had eventually ended up being cut off abruptly, or leading him on a wild goose chase and wasting his time.

Clicking through the files hungry for more information she found satellite photographs of the building where she’d been held hostage, labeled with the date before she’d been rescued from the facility. If those were accurate, it meant that Tony didn’t know about the building at all until that morning. Wiping the hair away from her face, she continued to find mission logs of Tony’s attempts to stop those who had been using his weapons without his permission. There had even been attempts to flush out anyone who may have still been communicating with these less than reputable companies from within Stark Industries to no avail. It seemed that Tony suspected that there had been other links to these companies besides Obadiah Stane.

Scarlett had seen enough to know that Tony hadn’t been lying to her. Urging the mouse to the corner of the window to shut off the computer, she stopped when something caught her eye in the mass of text on the screen.

Her name was there near the bottom of the page she’d stopped reading on. Deciding she’d take a risk, Scarlett continued scrolling through the files looking for more information pertaining to her. Much to her surprise, there was more stored within Tony files about her than she’d expected. There was the search history from his browser from when he’d tried to discover more about her, a file with her fingerprints as well as records of her health from when Tony had first found her in the desert. But then there were photos stored in folders as well, each dated from when they were taken by Jarvis.

At first she found that they were just photos of the wounds she’d sustained in the explosions and their progress but then later on there were pictures of her simply around the house when she was alone. Naturally, she’d jump to the conclusion that Tony had been spying on her to make sure she wasn’t doing anything she wasn’t supposed to be doing. But that suspicion quickly faded when she realized the photos were simply stills of her either sleeping or smiling. The last photo on record of when she was awake was when she’d been seated in his lap and cleaning his wounds in the living room. There was a small series of them, like he’d been trying to capture the memory of that moment they’d shared. The photos of a later date seemed all to be of her looking upset or sleeping.

Scarlett slammed the computer screen closed and pushed it far away from her as though it’d snapped at her fingers when she’d been typing. Tony Stark was innocent of at least the crimes that had been committed against her. But he was guilty of something that Scarlett wasn’t sure she could wrap her mind around quite yet. Her chest was aching again and she was finding it hard to breathe. The same panic she’d felt in the Stark Industries facility where she’d been working with Tony was creeping into her body again.

Head in her hands and breathing in quick, short bursts she barely heard Jarvis as he spoke to her. How long had she blamed Tony for something that had never been his fault in the first place? In captivity she’d longed to see his legacy destroyed and him in as much misery as she was sure Scott had suffered through. She’d stayed alive and kept planning her escape under the impression she’d be able to find justice only to realize she’d lived for a lie.

She’d too quickly put the blame on a man who was guilty of nothing other than offering her sanctuary and kindness. For nearly two weeks she’d been accusing him of selfish motives and dirty dealings when he’d been trying so desperately to prove to her his innocence. Even after she’d been so terrible to him he’d still gone out of his way to show her his intentions when he had nothing to prove to her. He could’ve thrown her out on the street and told her to go to hell after what she’d done but he’d only continued to try and find reasons to trust her.

Then there were the pictures. At first they’d made sense but the later ones seemed more like sentiment. Shaking her head and gripping her hair she jumped to life when she heard the sound of Jarvis, much louder than before, breaking through her agonizing thoughts. What was happening within the confines of her mind was torturing her.

“Miss Damien, I’m detecting a drastic spike in your heart rate. Should I call a doctor for you?”

“No.” Scarlett got up from her spot on the floor and kicked the laptop beneath the bed without bothering to look at it further. She had all the proof she needed but now what would she do? There had to be a way to calm her nerves and stop her panic without Tony to help her. It had been easy enough to contemplate getting to this point but now that she was here she had no idea where to go next. No matter how many times she’d tried to prepare for the fact that Tony might not be guilty of the crimes she’d accused him of within her mind, she’d always expected him to be the man behind the mask. Now instead she was left with more questions than answers and no clear cut way to go.

Rational thinking was helping her calm down, if nothing else. As far as she could tell there were only two options left for her. One was to team up with Tony, if he would have her, but that would require putting him in danger to fight her battles. She knew he was Iron Man but after watching what had happened at the charity event the other night, she didn’t want to responsible for more blood on her hands. Besides, what had happened to her was her battle to wage not his. That left only one option for her and that was to tell Tony the truth, because she owed him that, and then to pursue MedCo like she would on a job. They’d be her next target and possibly her last.

Whatever the end result, she would’ve done the right thing and could clear her conscience of that at least. The idea of leaving Tony made her sick to her stomach. Of all the things to panic about, why was that the thing that was getting to her?

“Is there something I can do for you? Should I contact Miss Potts?” Jarvis still sounded concerned, even if he hadn’t been programmed to feel such a thing.

“No, Jarvis. I just need some fresh air. Would you mind opening the garage for me?” Scarlett choked out, her voice clearly sounding strained. She’d even deceived the house computer in her mad quest for truth. Everything she touched she destroyed. Her life was never meant to be lived in a mansion in Malibu. There was no home for her, only the next mission.

But if that was the case then why did the idea of leaving make her so sick to her stomach?

“As you wish.” Scarlett didn’t bother to get cleaned up from the work she’d done with Tony and started toward the lab. She needed two things. One was to get out of the house and the other was to get incredibly drunk. Alcohol was the only way she could think to deal with the panic that was destroying her insides. Decisions could be made in the morning, right now she needed to stop thinking or feeling anything.

Once downstairs and inside the Aston Martin she’d been allowed to use, the computer systems within the car came online. Scarlett programmed the GPS to take her to a low key bar in town. She didn’t want attention. She didn’t want to deal with anyone or anything. All she wanted was to drink and drown her sorrows.

A half an hour later she was sitting at a corner table in a bar with a tall glass of Jack Daniels, prepared to drink until she couldn’t see straight.

An hour later and she was getting upset that the alcohol was not giving her the results she desired. Drinking was the only way she’d known to distract from the destructive thoughts in her mind in the past, if it didn’t work now, then what the hell would she do?

The bar was packed with people just getting out of work and looking to take the edge off just like she was though she doubted anyone was dealing with quite the same situation. Scarlett had expected to have a few drinks and for her worries to disappear entirely. In the past, after a hard job she’d go drinking, have a little fun with the people at the bar, play games and usually pick up some poor bastard who didn’t know better. But now everyone around her seemed like an enemy. Every man who looked her way had motives and secrets. Knowing someone was out to get her wasn’t the way that it used to be. She was used to taking risks, but the people she’d hurt in the last few weeks had made her think twice.

When her glass was once again emptied, Scarlett got to her feet, unsteadily at first, and was about to walk to the bar to get a refill. Even though paranoia and confusion were continuing to get the better of her, getting blitzed seemed like the only logical end to the night. Scarlett was nothing if committed. Before she moved too far from the table someone held a drink out for her.

“Saw you’re drinkin’ alone over here.” A handsome man with green eyes, long tied back but well kept brown hair and who had obviously had as many drinks as she had was smiling cunningly at her. “Couldn’t help but notice you. Pretty girl like you alone at a bar... Damn shame.” Scarlett sat back down at the table. She wasn’t one to turn down a free drink. But then again she wasn’t the type to mope in a dark corner of a bar either. It had been a confusing day. She’d always been the life of the party even on her bad days, but then again she’d never been through this particular sort of conflict before either. “Mind if I join ya?”

“I’d rather you didn’t actually.” Scarlett took a sip out of the drink she’d gotten from the man. She didn’t want to be bothered with flirts and drunks at the moment. Then again, she was at a bar, what exactly had she expected to encounter?

“Come on now, I bought ya a drink. The least ya can do is let me keep ya company.” The man’s smile had faltered temporarily when she’d rejected him but it clearly hadn’t thrown him off his game too severely.

“I didn’t make you buy me a drink. I appreciate the gesture, but no means no.” Scarlett peered over the top of her mug while she spoke before taking another long sip of the caramel colored alcohol. It burned as it went down as it always did. Why wasn’t it making her feel any better? It was starting to make her angry, if nothing else. But why was it making her angry? Should she be angry given the circumstances? Scarlett didn’t know what she was supposed to feel anymore. She kept thinking about the photos she’d found in Tony’s files and what they could mean and it continued to tear her apart.

The sound of the chair scraping against the concrete ground of the bar made her cringe as the man who had bought her the drink she was sipping sat down next to her anyway. She had far more important things on her mind than some idiot in a bar.

“Listen, sweetheart. Once you get to know me you’ll realize you’re missing out and what kind of a man would I be if I deprived you of this opportunity?” He threw an arm around her shoulder which set off Scarlett’s already fragile nerves. It took all of her willpower not to grab the fingers that were creeping onto her shoulder and bend them backwards to break them.

Shrugging his hand off of her shoulder instead of breaking his fingers, Scarlett pushed the drink back toward him and shook her head.

“I don’t take drinks from men that come with conditions.” She did her best to sound uninviting.

“Come on,” he leaned closer to her, stale alcohol on his breath accompanied by whatever he’d had for dinner. Scarlett’s lip curled in disgust at the stench. “You’re lonely, I can tell. Sitting here all alone in the corner… You’re pretending you don’t want anyone to sit with you but I’ve seen girls like you before and it’s always the same story.”

“Oh really?” Scarlett scooted her chair away from the intruder at her table and waited expectantly for his next move. He had chosen the wrong woman to get involved with.

“Pretty, beautiful if she cleaned up a bit, waiting for someone to come and tell her just how lovely she is to brighten up her day. All you need is a little attention from a man like me. A pick me up, so to speak, and here I come to the rescue.”

“To the rescue, huh?” Scarlett sounded skeptical. “So I should be grateful?”

“Sure, because every woman whose alone in a bar getting a drink is waiting for someone to pick her up.” The woman seated at the table behind her with a few of her friends turned to argue with the man too. “I’m sure this young lady has nothing but how pretty she is on her mind.”

“You stay out of this.” The man didn’t even bother to look at the woman now addressing him.

“Honey, you can come and sit with us if this dirt bag is bothering you.” The woman spoke to Scarlett this time and she merely held her hand up to let the kind woman know that she had the situation under control.

“Don’t listen to those hags. They wouldn’t know a good time if it hit ‘em in the face. Ya know why they wouldn’t?” He spoke loudly and purposely so the women at the table next to them would hear him. “Because women who look like that don’t get men comin’ up to ‘em with free booze!”

“Look,” Scarlett narrowed her eyes at the surly man across from her. He’d been benign at first but now she was starting to get really mad at him and to be honest she was already mad enough to hit him before he’d started making ridiculous and sexist accusations. “I’m not sure you know what you’re doing here with this whole sad attempt to pick me up. So, let me give you a few tips. When a woman tells you she doesn’t want your company you walk the hell away. I know how to think for myself and I don’t need you belittling my ability to choose whether or not I want your company. Secondly, if you’re going to insult the lovely woman next to me who was being far too kind to you, if you ask me, then you definitely lost your chances with any woman with half a brain in the entire bar.” The women who had spoken up along with several people around them were listening in, despite the loud chatter around them in the busy bar.

“And finally, if you put your hands on me one more time you’re going to regret it. If you won’t leave me be, then I’ll find another table.” Scarlett got up from her seat and started to walk past him even though the room spun because she’d moved too quickly. She’d sit at the bar and get a drink there instead. People seated at the bar tended to be more fun anyway. Somehow she’d managed to attract the biggest creep in the bar it seemed. Not that it was the first time that she’d been hit on by a creep, but her nerves were already shot. Stumbling as she walked toward the bar, she nearly fell as the man grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him, his other hand going straight for her back side to give it a playful squeeze.

Before he had a word out of his mouth to defend his actions, Scarlett decked him square in the jaw. He let go of her and fell backwards into his chair, tripping over it and landing on the table which fell over thanks to the momentum of her blow. In an attempt to get up he knocked over another man who was carrying a tray of beer that splashed all over the ground.

From there Scarlett wasn’t sure how the chaos unfolded. The alcohol in her system made it far too hard to focus. Someone else threw a punch and then suddenly everyone was fighting and shouting, spilling alcohol and shoving people aside. Some people were trying to get out the door and away from the chaos while others were just sitting back and hoping to stay out of the way. Bartenders were yelling and trying to get things in order but the chaos had erupted too quickly for any chance of that.

Scarlett was dizzy. The last thing she wanted to do was to get into a fight in a bar but the creep hitting on her had just made her so irritated. She’d warned him and he’d decided to grab her ass anyway. It was amazing that men would try to play the same kind of game Tony would play but only he could somehow get away with his often terrible behavior. Why did it seem so appealing and endearing when he did it, but vile when another man had tried.

Squeezing her way through the crowd, Scarlett made it as far as the bar before someone grabbed her arm to pull her back into the fray. Guessing it was the same creep who had made advances on her and ultimately caused the bar fight, Scarlett was more than ready to take another swing. If he was coming begging for more she’d be happy to be the one to show him what a lonely woman in a bar could do if provoked.

Before she got the chance to turn around, she was shoved against the bar, chest first. She wasn’t sure if it had been deliberate but she could smell the stale alcohol and bar food on his breath again and knew exactly who the culprit was. She elbowed him hard in the ribs and then grabbed the closest thing on the bar, which happened to be a beer bottle, and turned around to smash it right over his head. The bar around her went silent when she smashed the bottle.

Blind with anger, pent up frustration and alcohol she grabbed her attacker’s wrist and swung him around and shoved him hard against the bar the way that he’d done to her. Grabbing a fist full of his hair she practically snarled at him.

“What did I tell you, huh? I warned you! You keep your damn hands to yourself, you creep! Go ahead, try again! Let’s see just what I break next!” Scarlett didn’t realize the entire bar had stopped to watch her until she heard a glass drop behind her. Glancing around her and clenching her jaw, Scarlett grimaced. Still fueled by anger and disgust, she smashed the man’s head against the bar, not hard enough to knock him out, but enough to give him a headache the next day at the very least.

Letting go of the man now trembling in fear, Scarlett stepped away from the bar only to see the crowd of onlookers back away from her in fear. Alcohol had not been her friend. Pulling a wad of cash out of her pocket, Scarlett threw it at the bartender and then slowly started to stumble out of the bar. The patrons made a path for her to get out of her way, afraid she’d lash out at them even if it was an irrational fear. Where would she go now? She couldn’t drive back to the Stark Mansion with that much alcohol in her system. Maybe she’d sleep in the Aston Martin if she could find it.

Once outside the bar Scarlett was surprised when men in navy blue police uniforms came from across the street and shouted at her. She should’ve seen it coming, but somehow hadn’t expected it.

“Freeze! Get down! Hands above your head!” They continued shouting orders at her, but they were essentially repeating the same things over and over.

“Damn.” Scarlett muttered. It hadn’t been the first time she’d gotten in trouble with the law due to drinking a little too much and she was certain it wouldn’t be her last. “What seems to be the problem, officer?” Scarlett cringed as she slurred her words. Of all the times for her drunkenness to rear its ugly head, it had to be in that particular sentence. From behind her in the bar noise erupted. The man whose nose she had apparently broken with that last smash against the bar came out the front door and pointed at her accusingly while blood dripped down his face.

Sighing heavily, Scarlett put her hands in the air above her and hung her head in misery. If nothing else, getting arrested would sober her up a bit. When the officer walked over to her and pulled her hands down and behind her back to put into handcuffs while they tried to decipher what actually happened inside the bar, Scarlett closed her eyes.

At least now she didn’t have to try to figure out where she was going to spend the night or how she was going to get home. Instead, she’d have to worry about lawyers and criminal charges.