Echoes

"Anyone home?" Scarlett gingerly pushed the door to the Malibu Mansion open when she found it wasn't locked. First she'd knocked and waited patiently for Jarvis or Tony to let her in, but no one had responded. There had been a soft click and so she'd tried the knob and there she was. Lights turned on to greet her as the always did in the foyer, but there was no sign of anyone at home. No Tony Stark, no Pepper Potts, no sounds of either in any nearby room. For a flicker of a moment she was paralyzed with worry.

Had MedCo retaliated already? Was this some kind of play after what she'd done in Manhattan? She'd thought for sure that it would take them days to sort out the mess she'd left behind.

No.

There was no way. Scarlett had made her way out of there clean and MedCo wasn't a petty corporation, just greedy and evil. Attacking Tony Stark now wouldn't make sense. He was Iron Man, after all. If they attacked him, no matter how distraught he was, there was no way he'd take it lying down. Scarlett knew just beneath her feet there was an army of Iron Man weapons at the ready to protect their creator.

"Jarvis, is everything all right?" Scarlett closed the door behind her and heard it lock. In the air before her a blue dot pulsed in place then spread left and right before forming a screen that flickered to life beautifully. Upon the screen words appeared as if handwritten. Sometimes Tony Stark's amazing technology was wonderful. It left her with a warm feeling in her chest, easing the worry that plagued her only seconds before.

Mr. Stark muted me.

"Oh, well, he's all right… right?" Scarlett chuckled as she visualized the simple truth. Hooves belonged to horses here, not zebras.

He's downstairs.

"This is very weird. Just throwing that out there." Scarlett walked through the beautiful, albeit eerie and empty, house until she reached the stairs that led down into the basement that doubled as Tony's personal workshop, laboratory, and garage. At the top of the stairs Scarlett hesitated. "Jarvis, if there are zombies down there you better also have guns down there."

Without another word she slowly descended the staircase. Standing in front of the glass door for a moment, Scarlett waited for the computer to scan her and allow her into the secure room. It did so and the door carefully closed behind her with a gentle clank.

The workshop was dark.

Still creepy. All it needed was some fog and a flickering emergency light and this could be the opening of a horror film.

At the far end of the room Scarlett saw that much had been moved and rearranged since that morning. Display lighting glowed around the suits that lined the room, casting shadows that made them almost menacing. One quick search of the room and Scarlett didn't at first notice Tony. Curious. Nothing was amiss or out of place so whatever had happened couldn't have been terribly violent. Was it possible he had gone upstairs and gone to sleep? Jarvis had said he was down here. Well, maybe that wasn't what he meant. Maybe she was just supposed to wait down here.

No way was Scarlett checking the master bedroom, for all she knew Tony slept naked. Or he'd made up with Pepper or something.

That was not what she needed to walk in on tonight, god no. A knot of jealousy gripped her stomach and she cringed. There was nothing to be jealous of, she had to remind herself of that. He's just a friend. If making up with Pepper made him happy, she was also happy.

Nope, still jealous. Scarlett could deal with that later.

Just as she considered flipping on all the lights, Scarlett spotted a familiar silhouette seated on the floor. Tony was next to his Audi R8, either passed out or asleep, liquor bottle in his right hand. Scarlett wasn't sure if this was better or worse than walking in on him with Pepper. At least if he had been with Pepper he would have looked much happier. And sweatier.

Wow, she was all over the place tonight. For some reason she thought of Jinx and cursed her name silently.

With a sigh Scarlett ran her fingers through her hair and turned away as she contemplated what came next. It had occurred to her along the way that Tony may have fallen asleep by the time she got to him. After all, neither one of them had slept the night before. Whatever emotional ordeal Tony had dealt with that day had to have been draining to leave him like this. Sure, one could argue that Scarlett also had an emotionally trying day but it hadn't left her drained. Far from it, it had left her buzzing with adrenaline.

Scarlett wasn't the type of woman to leave someone she would consider her friend drunk and passed out on the floor. Crouching nearby, Scarlett watched him for a moment. He looked peaceful and he was breathing, so that was all very good. The floor, however nice it was, was not comfortable to sleep on, particularly after a night of drinking. Scarlett grabbed carefully at the bottom of the bottle that his fingers were still lazily wrapped around and tugged. Then Tony tugged back and lifted his head, blinking his eyes open at once. Scarlett pursed her lips as he shook himself awake. There were bags under his eyes and what she was sure was a little bit of drool on his chin.

It was hard not to laugh.

"Please tell me this hasn't been going on long." Tony said sleepily, his voice lower and quieter beneath the weariness of sleep.

"I just got here." Scarlett smiled warily and continued with another tug to pull the bottle away from him. Then she stood and set it on the table nearby. "You don't look very comfortable."

"Well, I didn't exactly mean to fall asleep down here." Tony rubbed his eyes and searched all around for his phone before instead looking at his watch for the time. With a shrug of his shoulders he decided it wasn't as late as he had expected and then eyed Scarlett. "You made good time." He began to get up but Scarlett hurried over to him.

"Stay there!" She laughed as he again made to get up.

"I'm fine, really."

"Sure, everyone passed out holding a bottle of scotch against their car is fine. I totally believe that."

"I'm not everyone, I'm me."

"No shit." Scarlett placed her hands firmly on his shoulders and when he pouted tilted her head to the side. "Just humor me, okay?"

"Fine, but only because I like this angle." Tony allowed his eyes to flicker to her chest and Scarlett sighed. "Jarvis, lights." At once every light in the workshop came to life. "Too many! Dimmer, dimmer… Mean, Jarvis is mad that I told him to shut up and go away." He winced, hissing comically at the offending brightness.

"Maybe you are fine." Scarlett blinked at the onslaught of light but then started across the room. "Still, humor me."

"Yes, ma'am." Tony leaned his head back against the car and watched her walk away. His head had been spinning for a short period of time before he'd fallen asleep. He had guessed it had been from the lack of alcohol so he'd taken another drink to help even him out. That had been an hour ago and now he was feeling much better. Just because he wasn't shit faced didn't mean he wasn't going to enjoy the attention. Scarlett opened the fridge at the far end of the room, removed a water bottle, cracked open the top and returned to where Tony still sat. "Thanks." Tony took the bottle of water, held it up to her in salute and then drank. Scarlett sat next to him and leaned against the car with a heavy sigh.

Much thirstier than he had anticipated, Tony drained half the water bottle in one gulp. The cold water was refreshing and did more to wake him up than even the brightest light would have. After setting the bottle down between his legs, Scarlett handed him the cap and he tossed it aside on the floor.

"Classy." Scarlett clicked her tongue in disapproval and wondered how she should approach asking what had happened to him. Obviously something had happened. Yeah, Tony was suffering PTSD but these sorts of things had triggers, even if they were small. Scarlett didn't want to send him into another panic, but she also didn't want to let it go as if nothing had happened. It wasn't normal to call your friend over in the middle of the night this way unless something was wrong. Particularly when that friend ran a fortune five hundred company and was on a five hour flight across the country.

"What's with the whole ninja getup?" Tony leaned forward, both hands on his water bottle as he looked her over. Scarlett cocked a curious eyebrow and then looked down at her clothes. She hadn't quite realized she was still completely dressed in black, minus the lighter color tank top underneath her jacket. Her black one had been too filthy to keep on after all was said and done.

"Oh, uh… I was sort of in the middle of something before you called." Scarlett shrugged it off. The look of guilt on Tony's face was downright depressing and surprisingly immediate. "But it wasn't important, so don't worry." She finished with a smile. While he nodded his head she could still see the well of emotion behind his brown eyes. He'd interrupted her life, something probably important, all because he couldn't keep it together. Damnit, he was Tony Stark, this shouldn't have been a problem for him. And yet it was and he'd reached out for help. That was supposed to be a good thing so why did he feel so damn guilty? "So… what happened?" She hadn't planned on being so blunt, but she was too tired to get creative.

Tony sighed and leaned his head back against the car before looking away. How could he form the words to explain what had happened without it sounding like some stupid teenage reason to be as torn up as he was? He wasn't sure there was a way to do that. Sometimes, as childish as this drama felt, it was the most painful. Tony and Pepper were adults, they should have been beyond this childish nonsense. Yet again, here they were. Pinching the bridge of his nose while Scarlett sat waiting patiently he decided just to say it, damn how it sounded. She wouldn't have asked if she didn't really want to know.

"After you left I got into it with Pepper." Tony didn't look at her, afraid that she would roll her eyes or scoff but instead she waited patiently for him to say as much as he was prepared to say, or rather as much as he needed to say in order to get that weight off of his chest. Never before had Tony questioned every word out of his own mouth. Hell, half the time he put little to no thought into what he was saying. Now he was over thinking everything. Anxiety was a bitch. "I think it might actually be over." That was the first time he'd really said it out loud.

An odd feeling washed over him, like someone poured ice water over his arms and legs and then it was gone. It was oddly soothing. Something he'd so feared to say, to admit, was out in the open and nothing terrible had happened at the sound of his words.

"She was my best friend for years." Tony turned to face Scarlett and furrowed his brow. Had he said this at all before? To anyone? Maybe to Rhodey. His thoughts were fuzzy. Somehow it felt different saying it to Scarlett and her thoughtful blue eyes. "In the months past it's become this nagging fear of losing my friend and my assistant but god I don't want to be in this relationship anymore. What was I supposed to do about that? It's toxic, the whole thing is toxic and not… in the fun sexy way where you're doing something you know you shouldn't be doing but it feels oh, so good… it's exactly the opposite." Now that he looked, Scarlett's eyes didn't seem so blue tonight. In fact, she looked overall off color. It had to be a trick of the light.

"She did something I never thought she was capable of. I always held her to such higher standards than I ever expected from myself. Which is unfair, I know, I'm a giant hypocrite." Tony furrowed his brow. "I tried to be the man she deserved and I don't think I ever could have been. But god, I tried. I tried to be better for her, for us." Tony couldn't stop talking now that he'd started. It felt so damn liberating just to say the things that had been trapped in his mind for months. "I still can't wrap my head around what she did… and what's worse I just keep wondering if it's my fault. Did I drive her to it?"

"Tony…" Scarlett began but he held up his hand and continued. She wanted to comfort him, but he wasn't done talking.

"It is my fault, part of it at least… Maybe I held her up to these unrealistic standards from the very beginning because she was always my loyal assistant. Was she always a woman who capable of this kind of hurt? Or did this… all of this, this garbage I'm going through, trudging through and stuck in half the time… did my struggle change her? Is it my fault she became a woman capable of betrayal?" He looked away and smiled, but there was nothing happy about any of what he was saying or what he felt. "I feel this weight on my shoulders, I have since we started dating. I had to keep her safe, keep us both safe and I had to be better, to change, to be different than who I was because she deserved more than a playboy. I feel like I failed. Like I ruined Pepper by pushing her so far away."

"Cut it out." Scarlett smacked his leg and looked to him seriously, brow furrowed. Tony widened his eyes in surprise.

"I'm just being honest."

"This self deprecating bullshit isn't you." Scarlett shook her head. "It's okay to do what you need to do to be… all right. Healthy. Relationships, from what I am told, aren't supposed to be like that. It's not all about her, Tony, it's about you too. You had to do what was best for you and you felt like you couldn't. So you shoved it away like a big dumb man and shut yourself off. The point is that she was supposed to do what was best for you too. It's a two way street, I'm told."

Tony stared at her in disbelief.

"You deserve happiness as much as Pepper deserves happiness."

"Are you sure?" Tony said jokingly but his voice waivered.

"There are a few things you should already know about me, Tony and one of those things is that I'm always right." Scarlett couldn't help but smirk just for a second. "Maybe after you've cooled down you two could discuss things and it won't seem so terrible."

"Yeah, right, that's how things will play out." Tony scoffed and stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"Hear me out!" Scarlett sat up straighter and continued. "You're not the only person in your relationship whose losing a friend. You were her friend too before you started dating, right?" Tony nodded. "Do you really think that Pepper wants to throw away your friendship? Maybe after the hurt is sorted out and you two are angry for a little while you can… fight for what friendship is left or whatever you decide you both want."

Tony had never thought about it that way before. Was it possible that Pepper was being such a raging bitch because she was, in her own way, trying to salvage her friendship with Tony? He'd been acting strangely trying to save his relationship with Pepper too so it really didn't seem so odd anymore.

"Huh." Tony leaned back against the Audi and considered it. The whole thing seemed so obvious now. Pepper was scared too, it wasn't just Tony going through this. Sometimes he really was still such a selfish asshole, even when he'd been trying so hard not to be. "You know, for a woman who the media says is really, really bad at relationships that advice is pretty sound." Tony pointed at her, smiling sincerely for the first time that night. He had perked up at last, a hint of who Scarlett knew him to be finally appearing. Scarlett sighed with relief. His entire demeanor had changed.

"You can't believe everything in the papers Tony, you know that better than most." Scarlett smirked. Tony pointed to the liquor bottle Scarlett had placed so far away on the desk.

"Want a drink?"

"No, actually. My stomach is not happy with me." Scarlett laughed, placing her hand gingerly to her stomach. Tony scowled and before he could question her she continued. "Too much caffeine, too much sugar… it's been a long day. We really have to stop pulling all nighters, we're not that young anymore." Realistically Scarlett wasn't worried about the sugar or the caffeine, or honestly even about her age or exhaustion. Her stomach really was feeling sick and instantly she thought she'd over exerted herself. While she had fought admirably Jemma Simmons words had repeated over and over in her head.

She was sick.

"That's as good a reason as any. I have already had way too much anyway. It's remarkable I'm not puking."

"Honestly, Tony, your alcoholic stamina is legendary. I'm pretty sure it takes way more than most could handle to get you puking."

"Oh, don't get me started about my stamina, Scarlett."

"Someone's feeling better." Scarlett chuckled but immediately diverted the conversation. The flirting was too difficult right now. With her so tired she could make a stupid mistake. Tony was vulnerable, he could make just as stupid a mistake. This friendship with Tony Stark felt like the only bit of normalcy Scarlett had left. "Did you get to do anything else amidst all of this?"

"Yes! Actually very much so." Tony jumped to his feet, stumbled and then regained his balance. "I'm fine, fine, just wobbly."

"Sure." Scarlett got to her feet and leaned against the R8 before admiring it. Tony owed her a ride in one of those cars after a bet from the other day. Now wasn't the time.

"After we got off the phone I was actually feeling a bit better so I picked up where we left off this morning."

"And?" Scarlett followed him to where the Mark XLII was still set up. It had been moved from where they'd left it but overall everything looked just about the same.

"Watch." Tony turned to face her and walked backwards but then nearly lost his balance again and knocked over a tray of tools. "Okay, not as suave as I had hoped." Scarlett laughed beneath her breath and walked slowly along with him.

Tony held up his hand to keep her from coming any closer and then stepped onto the large cushioned squares they'd set up for tests. Shaking out his arms and legs, Tony took a deep breath and then silence. Scarlett watched eagerly and honestly expected nothing at all to happen. Tony was being ridiculous, the whole thing was ridiculous.

Then parts of the suit came to life, the gloves and the boots. One by one they unfolded and thrust through the air toward Tony, still too quickly, but not so much that they would punch a hole through anything this time. Then the metal pieces unraveled and surrounded Tony's hands and feet, just as they had always hoped they would. The force of the armor collapsing around his form made Tony nearly fall off of his feet but afterward he regained his balance and looked back to Scarlett, pleased.

She clapped her hands together and let her mouth hang open in disbelief.

"It worked." She stared in disbelief. "I mean, it's mostly worked the whole time but you… I half expected it to never work properly."

"Oh ye of little faith."

"And you're not just pulling my leg, right? You didn't just put the sensors back in when it was bad decision o'clock?" Scarlett laughed, tilting her head curiously, searching for puncture marks like he'd been trying to pull a fast one just to impress her or something silly.

"I fixed most of the issues. It was power cycling improperly since we had to reroute the power source entirely. That's why the wires kept frying and short circuiting signals from the relays." Tony wiggled his metallic gloved fingers.

"Amazing." Scarlett placed her hands on her hips with a content sigh.

"However the propulsion system is still buggy. I haven't been able to tweak it yet but when I did initial scans I couldn't see why. Maybe it needs recalibration or something…" Tony muttered, peaking at the gloves and the boots he was wearing curiously as he considered how to fix the very least of the problems they had with this particular Mark.

"Let me take a look." Scarlett pulled off her leather jacket, draped it over the back of the desk chair and then hurried over to where Tony stood at the center of the testing platform. "Stay still." Scarlett crouched in front of him and Tony widened his eyes and had to focus every bit of his energy not to make a joke about her on her knees in front of him.

It was very difficult.

Reaching for the side of the metallic boot, Scarlett pulled a few of the latches and manually released the exterior plates near the bottom of the armor. Tony squirmed in place and swallowed the lump in his throat but decided the sudden physical discomfort was well worth watching her work near his feet. Curse the continued vividness of his imagination.

"Ah, look. Fried." Scarlett unhooked several wires and revealed a microchip where the corner was just a little bit damaged. "I knew it wasn't your tech, you're too good for that."

"What?" Tony ignored the compliment and instead tried to squirm so that he could see what Scarlett was pointing out.

"It's certainly not my tech. I'm pretty sure I've proven I'm pretty good." Scarlett grinned confidently and then smacked the side of Tony's leg to get him to stop squirming. "Cut it out!"

"I want to see!" Tony pouted.

"Just stop it!" Scarlett grabbed his leg to keep him still. "Jarvis, can you help him out."

"Un mute, Jarvis." Tony waved his hand.

"If you could stand back for just a moment, Miss Damien." The computer seemed relieved to finally be allowed to speak. Scarlett did as she was told, leaning hunched over still as she watched the computer scan the boot. Then she got to her feet as Jarvis showed the inside of the affected area of the armored boot.

"Son of a bitch!" Tony scoffed in a higher pitch than normal. "How the hell did I miss that?"

"Glenmorangie probably had something to do with it, I would guess." Scarlett pointed to the bottle of scotch that was more than half empty on the desk.

"You have no idea." Tony laughed, in disbelief. "You're amazing."

"What about the gloves? How are they doing? Looked a little off course and a little fast." Scarlett pulled Tony's right hand close and turned it over in her grip, searching for the clasp along the side of it. No matter how many times she worked on his suit, it was still all foreign to her. Remembering all the clasps, openings, wires, connections, it was impossible. Tony, however, knew it like it was an extension of his very being.

"Same error. Worse actually." Tony nodded, watching her curiously and wiping away the schematic that Jarvis had thrown in front of him. He had plenty to look at already. Scarlett's hair was messy, all over the place.

That was his favorite. It was criminal to see it tied back.

"Let me see." Scarlett turned his hand over and unsnapped the entire back panel of his glove. With a content sigh, she pulled out wires and pulled apart pieces. She even resorted to putting piece of it between her teeth. "Where is this thing." She mumbled, focused all the while on the task at hand.

Tony couldn't believe her sometimes and he didn't mean that in a bad way. She was exhausted. It was written all over her being. Everyone else in the world, at least who he knew, would have gone home and slept then checked on him in the morning.

Not Scarlett.

It wasn't like she didn't have a million things to do every single day and yet she had come for him, to make sure he was doing all right. Hell, before he'd woken up he was almost sure that she had been preparing to help him get into bed. That was an interesting thought. Was he technically still dating Pepper? No, not really.

Suddenly he felt free.

Carefully he moved closer to her, watching as her curly hair fell in her face. Tony pushed it behind her ear. She hadn't noticed he'd moved closer to her and now his heart was racing with anticipation. His chest, his reactor, felt warm.

"Thanks." She muttered, pulling the wires from between her teeth and placing them back inside the glove. "Not sure this is the exact same problem after all. I don't see any damage."

"Uh huh." Tony humored her but continued to observe her work.

"Let me check the other one, we're going to have to pull it apart and start over." Scarlett stood up straight and reached with her other hand for the other glove.

But Tony instead grabbed her wrist gently and stopped her.

"Can't look at it if you're in the way." Scarlett spoke in a sing song voice. Tony gently held her fingers with his gloved hand pulled her them close to his lips. Closing his eyes he gingerly brushed his lips against the back of her hand before placing a soft kiss against it. Scarlett stopped all at once, actually dropping the plate she'd removed from the back of his glove and felt her heart basically jump right into her throat.

Tony opened his eyes but didn't let go of her hand, staring down into her dulled blue eyes. He didn't have to say anything, his eyes were saying it all. Damn them, Scarlett thought. Expansive pools of honey filled with lust and something more, something far more complex.

"You're drunk." Scarlett whispered though her tongue suddenly felt like it filled her whole mouth and her lips felt dry. There was a very simple way to solve all of that and it was only a few inches away. When had he stepped so close to her, practically pressed up against her, just an inch or so between them?

"I'm not." He shook his head just slightly, never taking his gaze away from hers. Scarlett was searching for an excuse and finding it harder and harder to find one. Without Pepper in the picture she had no real reason to pull away now. Worse than that, she didn't want to pull away.

"Tony…"

"You have no idea what I'm like when I'm drunk." Tony smiled and placed another kiss on the back of her hand. The maintained eye contact was probably going to kill Scarlett and she felt her insides squirm. "This is definitely not drunk."

She made to say something but there were no words. After everything that day with Nathan the guilt was overwhelming. Was it terrible of her to want this? It wasn't like she was in denial, she knew very much what she'd wanted. Hell, she'd fantasized about it a dozen times in the last week alone but after all was said and done it felt selfish. Her baser instincts couldn't dictate her life anymore.

Carefully she tried to pull her hand away from his lips but he didn't allow her to and his other arm snaked carefully around her waist and pulled her close to him.

"Don't run." He pled, watching the gears turn behind her eyes. This was hard for her. Part of her had been using Pepper as an excuse to deny that anything had been going on. They both knew that. She was scared of something, scared of him, not because of what he'd done but because of something unsaid.

She didn't run.

She wanted this, she wanted it so desperately that her very insides shook at the thought of it.

But what about everything she'd told Nathan that day? What about him? What about what had happened with Scott? If anyone had ruined any partner in their relationship then it had been Scarlett. Death and decay followed her wherever she went, including inside her very own body. She felt weak, a chill ran down her spine and she turned her gaze away from Tony's hypnotic one. Only seconds had passed in what felt like an eternity.

Tony pulled his arm from around her and tilted her chin back up to face him. It wasn't going to be so easy to pull away this time. They'd had one too many close calls and all the things holding him back were no longer there. When he let go of her chin she didn't look away. She wanted it as much as he did. She wanted him to remove any excuses plaguing her.

The anxiety was killing him, he had to take the plunge. Ten minutes ago he hadn't considered what he could do with his newfound freedom. Since then it had taken a toll. Her whole body was tensed up, he looked her over.

But something wasn't right when he did. Was it a trick of the eye? He looked again.

It was blood.

Holding her hand still he pulled her back and stared at her, mouth agape. Scarlett snapped out of the stupor he'd put her in and looked at herself in panic.

"Fuck." She cursed, pulling from Tony's grasp. There was a large stain on her side, seeping through her shirt. She was bleeding.