Something New.
Chapter One.
Summary: Bryce Banner should be trying to lay low, shouldn't she? The Military was chasing her, hunting her across the earth and back, so why in the name of William Gilbert was she working as personal assistant to Tony Stark!?
So…This might have been one of my stupider ideas, but it made sense on paper. General Ross was looking for a scientist who plays part time medical Doctor overseas in small villages away from society; the last thing he would be looking for was a woman in the states who works as a personal assistant to an employee of a major technological development company like Stark Industries. Of course I was just looking just a small position.
A small position.
So, could someone please explain to me how I got here?!
Hold on. Let me start at the beginning…
"So…Ms. Bentley is it?"
No, actually it's Dr. Banner, but you can't know that. That would ruin the point of learn how to apply makeup and spending an insane amount of what little money I had to get my hair cut like this. It wasn't even a particularly stylish cut, from what I've seen, but it was still a major step above my usual curly bushy rats nest.
"Yes." I nodded a little, crossing my legs to match the woman sitting in front of me. She was thin, pale, and had ginger hair that was straightened to a point, so maybe matching her was a little overambitious of me. Ms. Potts, she introduced herself as.
"So. Why do you think you're qualified for this position?" She asked me, pen and paper in hand, ready to score my answer no doubt.
"Well, I have a higher stress tolerance than most." That was an understatement. "And I work well one on one with people." I work best alone, but that's not going to pay for my hotel room and the food I need to eat, both of which are insanely expensive in Malibu.
"Now…do you have any experience as a personal assistant?"
"I'm afraid I don't, but I'm always looking for new experiences." Ms. Potts looked impressed. Not sure why, really.
"I see here in your application that you have no current address?"
"Ah…it's a little embarrassing." I forced myself to smile and duck my head down, hoping it looked natural enough. "See, for the past 2 years, I've been traveling independently around India, but I had to come home suddenly and with no time to try and find an apartment, I'm currently living in motel 6."
It's mostly the truth. I have spent the last 2 years in India, and I did have to leave suddenly, I saw US military jeeps on the outskirts of the village I was in. That was enough to send my flying. Of course, I did spend 4 years before that in Tibet, and a year before that in Thailand and really, you could throw a dart at a map and most likely I've been there.
"Would you be opposed to living with your employer?" Ms. Potts asked, causing me to raise an eyebrow. "Your potential boss keeps…odd hours and you would be required to do anything and everything that he might require."
"Honestly, I have to say this all sounds a little too good to be true." My voice was a little shaky. It really did sound too good to be true. I should have checked the underground parking lot across the street for military vans before I came in. This could all be a set up.
"Oh trust me; it's not as great as it sounds." She smiled a little. "It used to be my job, until I became CEO. It really plays havoc with you beauty sleep."
I haven't had to worry about beauty sleep in a long time. "I'm sure I'll be fine." I offered a smile, a bit of the tension in my shoulders fading. What was I thinking? She was far too nicely put together to work for the military. Look at those tiny little hands, I bet she'd never held a weapon before in her life.
"Alright, I'm going to be honest, I like you for this job. You seem like a girl who's able to handle herself and that's exactly what I was looking for; however, I do have one last question for you." She paused to lean forward a little. "What is your opinion on Tony Stark?"
"Oh um… I have to say…I know very little about Tony himself. I know about the company, and his father's work, but I can't say I've paid much attention to the news involving him." Or any news at all. I almost asked who he was for a moment.
"Perfect! You're hired! How soon can you start? Tomorrow? How does tomorrow sound for you?"
I'm so confused. I'm just applying for a small assisting position within the company, not for Tony Stark himself right? RIGHT?!
"Nothing will keep Tony's ego in check more than an assistant who has no idea who he is!"
And that's how I got here, standing outside Tony Starks personal workshop about to be introduced to him for the first time.
"Okay, now, don't make eye contact, don't stare at his chest, don't let him stare at your chest, don't wear too revealing of clothing, in fact, you might want to do up a button or two…or three." My shirt only had two buttons undone, but I did them up anyway. "Good. Now, I would like to remind you that when you signed your contract, you signed that while in the employment of Tony Stark, you will not file for sexual harassment." She punched in the code on the tinted glass door, causing it to slide open. "But really, he's harmless."
As soon as those words left her mouth, a small muffled explosion came from inside the workshop. Through a thick cloud of grey smoke, a man's coughing sounded. "That was a weird reaction!"
"Tony!" Pepper, as she had asked me to call her, cried. "Are you okay?"
"Fine! Fine!" Out from the smoke came a shorter than average, but still taller than myself, man. He was attractive, with a small amount of finely groomed and maintained facial hair. Solely because Pepper asked me not to, I took a quick glance at his chest. Though the ACDC band tee glowed a blue circle just above where his heart should be. I looked away before he could notice. "Just a mild calibration issue with the smoke bombs for the new suit and who…is this?" I'm pretty sure I could feel his eyes dragging over my body, judging me.
"Tony, this is your new personal assistant, Rebecca Bentley." I liked that Betty chose my Mother's name for my alias.
"Personal assistant. Personal assistant? Peps, I thought I had you for that."
"Well, you did, until you made me CEO. I can't do both Tony, I'm not Superwoman." She said, holding her stack of papers to her chest.
"Well, I'm Tony Stark, as I'm sure you're well aware." He smiled, and good lord, it was like this man was breed to constantly be in a photo-shoot. Even with shoot and oil on his hair, face and clothing, he still looked perfect. He didn't offer me a hand to shake, but I didn't question it. Some people aren't into physical contact; I can more than understand that.
"I'm going to be honest with you Mr. Stark, before yesterday, I'd never really heard of you." I smiled, and tried very hard not to laugh at his bewilderment.
"Pepper you're killing me. Where did you find this one, the dark side of mars!?" He looked shocked, and even slightly offended.
"Actually, Mr. Stark, I spent the last 2 years in India, and before that I spent a considerable amount of time in Thailand and Brazil." This is actually the first time I've been on American soil in almost ten years. I don't like to think about that time in Harlem, as nice as it was to see Betty again. In my mind, that didn't count.
"Same thing." He said, suddenly over his disbelief.
"Rebecca will also be living wherever you will be living, be it in Malibu, or whatever other buildings you chose to build." Pepper explained. "Happy moved her things in this morning."
Happy was a sweet man. I liked him. He drove my back to my hotel last night, and picked me up this morning, he even insisted on taking my back from me. It was just one bag; I could have done it easily.
"I like how I'm totally not consulted on this." Tony said, heading back over to his work station.
"Tony, I asked you about this last week when I started interviewing." Pepper sounded exasperated.
"And you think you found yourself a suitable replacement in 7 days? Do you know how long it took me to find you in the first place?"
"Five days."
"Yeah that's right, Five days…wait…Five days? Really?" Pepper nodded. "Huh…Well, how do you know she isn't like the last one?" He raised an eyebrow.
Last one? There was a last one? I was the first to attempt to replace Pepper?
"I've already done a background check." Pepper sighed. "I can safely say there is no way Rebecca Bentley is, or ever has, worked with SHIELD."
Actually, while I've never worked with SHIELD myself, but the background check for one Rebecca Bentley was nothing by very nicely done falsified files created with the help of Betty. She still had some ties to the government it would seem. I suspect that she might have had a thing with that boy from the secret services, not that it was important. I was just glad to have the false identity.
"Well if Pepper likes you, I guess I can tolerate you." He nodded in my direction, apparently remembering I was in the room. "Even if you clearly stole those clothes from a homeless lawyer."
I looked down at the clothing I'd just bought the night before with the little bit of money I still had left. The blouse was a pale pastel purple and the pencil shirt was a nice charcoal colour. I thought that it was a nice outfit. Sure I wasn't in the kind of clothing Pepper was in, but it looked like her clothing was all custom made and her heels did not look comfortable at all. My flats seemed much more practical, if I was going to be running about as much as Pepper said I would be.
"Ignore him." Pepper said softly to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "He's just grumpy I won't be around as much."
"I'll miss my girlfriend." He whined like a child.
"You'll still see me."
The two continued to talk for a few more minutes, and honestly, being around a couple made me a little awkward. I turned them out and started to look around the workshop. While I was no engineer, I was still able to recognize some of the tools that littered the tables.
A robot rolled up to me and whirred. I was a little startled at first, but quickly recovered myself. "Hello." I greeted it. It wasn't the most advanced robot I've seen. It looked a lot like a claw machine arm on wheels, but from all the late night reading I did on Tony Stark last night, something tells me it was a lot more than that. "What's your name?"
The robot beeped and tilted its claw to the side. Alright, so it was a non-verbal unit.
"His name is Dummy, Ms. Bentley." Came a voice I'd never heard before, causing me a jump a little, looking around for the source of the lightly accented voice. There was no one around by Tony and Pepper, who were still engrossed deeply in conversation. "Greetings and Welcome to Stark Manor. My name is JARVIS, I am the AI system that controls the home."
I had to supress a laugh. This was like something out of Red Dwarf from my college days. "A pleasure to meet you JARVIS. So, Dummy huh? What do you do?" I asked, turning my attention back to the bot, who simply chirped and beeped.
"Dummy is a helper bot, Ms. Bentley. He is also Sir's first functional AI."
I reached out carefully and touched the top of Dummy's claw. "Are you a good helper Dummy?" I felt like I was talking to a dog, but something about this bot…Just like a dogs amazing ability to make people open up and talk.
"He's a terrible helper." Tony spoke from behind me, causing me to jump a little in my skin. "He can't even make a damn smoothie right."
I turned around to look at my new boss, no doubt a light flush on my cheeks from being caught like that. "I'm sorry Mr. Stark. I didn't mean to distract him from his duties."
"Eh, it's not like he does his duties anyway." Tony shrugged. "You better get used to him though. He gets attached to people pretty quick."
I just smiled a little and looked down at my flats, unsure how to proceed.
Pepper spoke up from the other side of the lab. "I've got a meeting to get to Tony. Don't break her on her first day, please! I like her!" And with that she was gone, out the door.
An awkward silence filled the workshop. "Well Mr. Stark…is there anything you need me to do?"
"Yeah, I'm starved. Can you get me something to eat? Kitchen's upstairs, JARVIS can show you were it is." He gestured towards the door.
"As you wish Mr. Stark." I nodded my head a little and started to walk out of the lab.
With JARVIS's instructions, I found myself in the most beautiful kitchen I'd ever seen. I wasn't much for cooking, but I could appreciate amazing interior design. With a low whistle, I made my way into the kitchen that looked like it jumped out of a rich person magazine that women like Betty and my Mother would have pored over.
I started to make something simple with the assortment of food I found in fridge. Just a basic stir-fry. It was filling and healthy. I put some into a container to reheat later, and placed the mix of rice, beef, and assorted vegetables onto a plate for my new boss. I don't think personal chef was in the job description, but I didn't mind. I wasn't much for cooking, but I was able to cook just fine. After spending ten years on the run, I've learnt some really interesting recipes.
With the plate still hot, I ran the sink for a glass of water and brought them back down to the workshop where Tony was now hunched over a bit of metal, several blue see through screens floating around him.
"Mr. Stark? I've brought your lunch." I spoke from the doorway, unsure where exactly I should place the meal.
"Stick it over there." He pointed to a free spot of table behind him and I quickly did so. "Don't you have work to do?" He asked me sharply. Guess I wasn't welcome in the workshop anymore.
"Of course. Call me if you need me, Mr. Stark." I once again bowed my head and quickly left.
I found my work pretty quickly. A massive pile of files in the living room topped with a post it note with my 'name' on it from Pepper.
I got myself settled and began to make my way through the paper work once file at a time.
So. Here I am.
Dr. Bryce Banner. Age 37. Still single, still on the run from the military, just now I'm getting paid $35 an hour, with medical that I'll never have to use and am living in the world's most famous man's home. Oh yeah. Nothing horrible could come from this.