Here is my Iron Man fanfiction that has been stuffed in the depths of my hard drive for a while. I only decided to post it since some of the action in this story does overlap with my Thor fanfiction "Storms Within." Please enjoy and review at the end of the chapters to keep experiencing Tony's journey to redemption and finding the love of his life.

For appearances sake:

Tony Stark - Robert Downey JR. James "Rhodey" Rhodes - Terrance Howard Pepper Potts - Gwyneth Paltrow ... and introducing Abygail Wickford - Natalia Livingston

The song they dance to is Jessica Simpson's "Irresistible"

I am Iron Man…since I uttered those words, my life has been beyond chaos. I have tried to redeem myself and my honor by defending the Earth. Enemies from far and wide have tried to kill me on a daily basis. I barely have time for me anymore.

Rhodey has been trying to carry my load while Pepper has tried taking control of Stark Industries, but I found that I needed to be in charge in order just to feel alive. Why should I only be Iron Man and not Tony Stark at least some of the time? I was Tony Stark before I was Iron Man.

While Rhodey was in the bunker checking out the radar, I decided to take the night off and fulfill my fantasy…returning to the social and personal life of Tony Stark.

Carnelian Embassy – Downtown Los Angeles

The music was loud and obnoxious as bodies filled the floor. Every gentlemen was cloaked in the traditional penguin suit while the women were all dressed in luxurious and radiant gowns.

Tony Stark decided to check out the gorgeous females from the elevated bar area. He approached an empty stool and took a seat.

"Greetings," the tender greeted him. "What can I get you?"

"Scotch on the rocks," Tony ordered his traditional starter beverage.

His drink arrived fairly quickly.

He watched the floor of all the people that were dancing. Most of the females were very beautiful in their jewels and gowns, but they pretty much were all taken. So much for finding someone to go home with this evening, he thought.

Suddenly, his eyes were drawn to the cheers and swarm of men that stormed from the dance-floor and toward the front door. Camera flashes went off as a tall, brutish man pushed them aside so his quarry could go into a private lounging area.

Who just walked in, Tony remarked under his breath. The Pope?

"Animals," the bartender said. "All for a girl."

"A girl," he choked out the words. "What girl?"

"Some corporate bigwig who is supposedly bachelorette of the year material," the tender said as he polished and dried a glass. "Supposed to be the newest money in town even though she grew up with it her whole life."

"Gotta love it," he said and took another drink.

The night was boring as he socialized with several of the people that were at the bar. He tried to keep a low profile because everyone only saw him as Iron Man and not Tony Stark anymore.

Finally, he stood there alone; drinking his scotch and was refreshed by the bartender.

"Vodka martini straight-up with a twist," a pleasant female voice joined him at the bar.

Tony took a glance over at the voice that had ordered the drink. She was young with dark auburn tresses that were twisted into hundreds of curls with a jeweled headband crossed along her brow. The dress she wore was a leather corset that barely held her in, but suctioned her to all of her upper body.

The black silk fell in soft vertical waves down. She wore leather gloves that did not cover her hands, but most of her arms to her biceps.

"Rough night, are we having?" he asked as he took a drink of his scotch.

"How can you guess?" she asked.

"The drink."

The woman turned and leaned against the bar; a sultry siren that was staring out her next prey to consume. "I know that I am irresistible, but it's them," she said as she was talking to him. "They see me for my wallet. Not just for me. Now I know what a side of beef feels like."

"Know the feeling," he said to her.

Finally their eyes locked with one another. He looked deep into the abyss of her dark eyes as well as the sparkles that radiated from them. She was gorgeous, despite their obvious age difference.

"Then perhaps it is fate that we met this evening," she said as she turned completely to look to him. "Abygail Wickford," she extended a hand to him.

He was about to take her hand when someone stopped him by speaking to him.

"Well well well," a voice said from behind him. "Anthony Stark. How you grace this place with your presence."

Tony turned around and saw his ex-girlfriend standing behind him. "Ms. Frost," he said.

"Oh, it's Mrs. Frost and you know that," Whitney corrected him. "It's always been that and you know it. I can see that you have not changed in all the years that I have known you Tony."

"I don't change for anything or anyone for that matter. You should have known that before you walked out."

"That is the reason that I walked out," she replied in a whit-filled tone as she locked eyes with the woman that he had been talking at the bar with. "And who is your pretty friend here? The next on your list of numerous conquests. Take it from me sweetheart, he may be attractive, but he is not all he appears to be."

His bar-mate stood up from leaning on the bar with a smile on her face and extended a hand to her. "Abygail Wickford of Teradyne Technologies," his friend introduced herself. "And who might you be?"

"Whitney Frost," Whitney introduced herself although with the tirade that she was currently on, she had made herself known enough.

"Do you know Mr. Stark from work or personal?" she asked.

"Personal. Very, very personal," Whitney replied. "Mr. Stark is always full of surprises."

"But no more," Tony corrected.

"All because you wouldn't save my father," Whitney replied, stroking the front section bang of her raven hair to hide a section of her face.

"I resent that," he said. "There was nothing that I could do and besides, your father was trying to kil…" He changed his choice of words. "Trying to keep me away and threatened my life."

"He was just sensitive."

"I'm sure," he replied.

"I'm going to go," Abygail Wickford said. "Let you two work through your issues."

"No, wait. We are almost done," he told her.

Whitney grabbed a drink from the bar and tossed it into Tony's face. "We'll never be done…hero," she snapped and walked away. Her silver dress shimmered as she walked away.

He opened his eyes and looked for Ms. Wickford, but she was gone. He looked around the bar and dining areas, but his fellow drinking partner was nowhere around.

"Barkeep, a towel and another please."

The evening progressed and nearly reached the following day and Tony Stark was still at the bar talking with the bartender and taking down yet another martini.

A crowd hooted and hollered, whistling like a bunch of men that swarmed the hallway of a local school over the new girl in the short skirt.

He turned around and watched as Abygail Wickford was walking out to the dance floor. All the men were swarming around her, just wanting her to select them to dance with.

"Barbarians," he said and took one final swallow of his drink.

"Who sir?" the tender asked him.

"Those men down there treating that poor, little rich girl like a piece of meat," Tony replied and turned to look back at the men that kept asking for a dance and she kept turning them down. "See, she knows what she wants and they keep coming back for more abuse. Another, please."

"That will be your last one Mr. Stark, then I have to sadly cut you off," the bartender informed him and went to make another drink.

Tony turned around in the stool and watched as Abby was dancing with yet another one of her suitors, but when he went close enough to grab her from behind, she grabbed the perv's arm and twisted it around behind him before kicking him back into the crowd.

The boys all hooted and cheered at her crass as well as her bluntness to get the suitors away from her.

"Why do they even try?" he said.

Then it donned on him. If they weren't her type, what if he was.

He quickly took down the martini and headed down the steps to the dance floor.

The song was over and the DJ was in the middle of changing the discs as he made his way to the floor. "Excuse me gentlemen," he said as he gently pushed aside some of the suitors, while some of them stepped aside when they realized who was coming through the crowd.

He finally arrived to where the young Abygail Wickford was standing.

"Well, this is quite a place to find you Mr. Stark," she said to him.

"Yeah, it has to be the alcohol that brought me out here," he replied, "because I think these boys need to know how to treat a lady."

"Oh really?"

"Really. Now if the lady will grant me permission to enter her sacred space and not break my arm or embarrass me further, may I show you what it is like to treat a lady?"

"Do you think that you can, considering the scene I had to witness up there?" she asked.

He stepped closer to her and gently took her black gloved hand in his and brought himself to be right beside her. There was music, but there could be silence for all he cared and he still would have been able to dance with Ms. Wickford.

"What are you doing Mr. Stark?"

"Beats me," he replied. "Don't you hate it when you are not in control of your body?"

Before she could answer his wisecrack however, he spun her out before him and snapped her back to where her back met him.

She traded hands with the one that he currently had and was able to spin her around to where they met face to face.

"Very nice," she said to him.

"Wait," he answered back.

Tony dipped her backwards and spun her in a half-arc and brought her back level again.

"My, you are full of surprises as your ex said up near the bar," she told him.

They danced together, closer than ever, but she was not resisting him, but sort of guiding her the way that she wanted to be led.

With his arm above, she walked around him, but their eyes did not look away from each other.

He spun her around again and she was back to his front again, but this time her hips sensually moved against him.

"Oh, you devilish temptress," he whispered in her ear.

Abby turned herself to face him all her own. "You have yet to see half of what I can do," she whispered to him, before wrapping both her arms around the back of his neck.

He repeated the throw back dip motion, but this time before bringing her back to her standing position, Tony stroked a hand from her neck, across her necklace and front to the leather corset of the dress that she wore, and brought her back vertical.

"I long to see," he replied to her earlier sentiment.

Abygail smiled at him and they simply stared into each other's eyes while they finished their dance. People frolicked and watched as they showed-off to them, but what did he care.

It would take the attention off him being Iron Man and put it back on his personal life again.

Before he sent her down for a final reverse bow, she hooked the back of her left foot behind his right and she did not fall all the way to the ground. She looped an arm around the back of his neck as the music silenced.

He knew that he had triumphed.

He was now in control.

Alec Wickford was sitting in the private booth with his father Alexander with their security and with the Prime Minister talking about a potential deal, when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"What is it Charles?" he said. "Can't you see we are in a meeting with the Prime Minister?"

"Yes sir, but you may want to reel your sister in," Charles suggested.

"Why?" he asked.

"Just look," the guard said as stepped aside.

He looked over to see his sister was dancing very seductively in her dress with someone whom he could not identify because Abby's head was in the way.

Her dance partner drop dipped her to the floor and then stroked his hand across the front of her body before allowing her to stand back up.

Now Alec knew who Abby was dancing with: Tony Stark of Stark Industries.

"I believe that you are right Charles," he told the bodyguard. "Come with me." And he headed toward the direction of his sister and Stark.

The song was over as he arrived to where Stark had his sister near the floor in a dip and she had her hand on his neck to prevent from hitting the floor. Their faces were so close together that either of them could have kissed the other.

"Having fun flirting with the competition sis?" Alec said to his sister.

Abygail's head dipped back further to look at her oldest brother from the position where she was. "And look, it's the party pooper," she said to him. "You know you are worse than a parent busting a party thrown by their underage children at the house when you're supposed to be on vacation."

"Will you please stand on your own two feet please?" he asked in a formal tone. "I do not need to be talking to someone who is acting childish."

She looked to Tony who had just been watching the siblings argue. "Tony," she said patting him on the lapel of his jacket lightly.

Her dance partner did bring her back to her feet and she stared off at her brother. "You told me to go off and take my suitors away before they interrupt your precious meeting with the Prime Minister."

"So I did," Alec replied, "but I didn't mean to go off and make a fool of yourself with the competition of our company."

"Whoa, whoa man," Tony came to his own defense. "I don't know about you, but it looks to me like she is young woman who can make her own choices; especially when it comes to dancing with whomever she wants."

"As long as it is not the competition," her brother said, grabbing her around the forearm and dragging her away. "Dad wants you to use some of that formal education you have to talk to the Prime Minister anyway."

Soon, Tony Stark was out of her sight.

Tony Stark stood there as if he had been stood up at the prom, but decided that it was getting late anyway. He was going to be heading for home. His reactor was running low anyway and he did need to get charged back up.

He headed to the valet stand to wait for his car.

Alec Wickford dragged his sister away, but suddenly, she smacked him in the arm and took off back into the dance floor.

"Abby," he shouted, but she was going to hide or go back to Tony Stark. "Charles," he called for his guard.

"You called sir?" the guard asked.

"Find her," he ordered.

Abygail Wickford dove deep into the crowd, realizing it would lead either her brother or his private hit squad through the men who idolized her to chase her.

But she tried weaving in and out of the couples and made her way out of the ballroom and out to the main lobby.

She found a curtain that was wrapped around a pillar by a window and hid underneath the luscious red fabric.

Peering out between the curtain and the pillar, she watched as Charles, her brother's personal bodyguard was running, but lost sight of her. He looked around, but passed the pillar where she was hiding and she breathed in relief.

She looked to see if it was clear and saw Tony Stark walking toward the front door.

"Psst," she whispered out into the open area.

Tony stopped in his tracks when he heard a "psst" coming from somewhere.

It repeated again and he looked to see someone hiding underneath one of the curtains near a pillar and a window.

"Whitney?" he called out her name.

But it wasn't her. It was Abygail Wickford.

"Not even," she said and ducked back behind when she noticed someone coming.

He saw that it was the bodyguard that was with Alec Wickford when they were so rudely interrupted after their dance. Their eyes locked and he was squeamish as the man walked up to him.

"What are you looking at Mr. Stark?" the bodyguard asked.

"You quite frankly," Tony replied. "What did your mother feed you when you were younger? Growth hormone pancakes? Miracle-Gro muffins?"

The guard grabbed him by the lapels of his tuxedo in an effort to scare him. "Look, I know that you think that you are some big-bad superhero, Iron Man, but one of these days, you are going to say the wrong thing and it is going to come back and bite you."

"I have no doubt about that," he replied, "but I'll make sure that I keep my suit in the trunk and then I'll let you hit me."

The burly man put him down on the floor to get the crowd that was watching him to disperse.

"Just a slight misunderstanding," he said. "Thought he was the valet manager."

The guard wanted to hit him, but knew it would not make his boss happy. The man walked away from where he was standing and where Abby was hiding.

He backed up slightly and suddenly when no one was looking, he was pulled behind the curtain.

"Now isn't this a little juvenile?" he asked Abby as they were hiding behind the curtain. "It's like elementary students hiding underneath the bleachers to make out."

"What's wrong with that?" she asked and came as close to him as he would allow her.

"Nothing at the moment."

"Good answer."

Not a minute later, he and Abby were making out in their tight confinement. It was as if the past ten minutes of separation didn't even happen and they were right back on the empty dance floor doing what they were doing.

Abygail smelt and tasted as good as she looked, but knew in his heart that this was forbidden by not only her family, but everything that he held dear since he became Iron Man.

Their hands explored each others' bodies. His hands felt the smooth leather of her corset while she had one arm by his hairline and the other staked across his dress jacket.

Suddenly, the communicator in his jacket pocket was going off.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," he said after pulling himself away from her. Abby did not stop as she nuzzled on his neck while he reached to open the communicator.

"Sir, priority one signal from Middle East," JARVIS told him.

"Well, send Rhodey instead," he told the computer.

"The signal is from him sir," JARVIS replied back.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"Work unfortunately," he told her and reached to hold her face in her hands. "I have to go."

"Go? Go where?"

"You don't want to know," he said, kissed her forehead, and left from behind the curtain. "I'll call you."

Tony did not want to leave Abby high and dry like that, but he needed to get out of embassy, back to the house, and get suited up before he could help Rhodey with his problems.

He climbed into the silver car and took off down the street at a high rate of speed to get back.

Abygail Wickford rushed out to the steps and watched at what she assumed to be Tony's car as it raced away.

She did not understand where he was going in such a hurry, but once they were done with him after he had left, the reporters started charging toward her.

She rushed back into the embassy to prevent from being trampled.

Tony drove down the freeway as fast as he could without hitting any cars in the way.

"Call JARVIS," he commanded of his in car equipment.

"Hello sir," JARVIS replied. "What is your command?"

"I need you to get the suit prepped and ready for me to jump into after I get out of this suit," he ordered as he drove. "I should be there in five minutes."

"Should I contact Colonel Rhodes, sir?" the computer asked.

"Tell him I am on my way," he told him. "Hang loose till I get there."

It took him just over fifteen minutes to get home, he took off the tuxedo to change into something more qualified for the Iron Man uniform, and had JARVIS hook him into the metallic suit.

After he was all suited, he took off out of the garage and into the darkness to face whatever and wherever he was going that requested his services.

Remember to review and see how this relationship between Abygail and Tony is going to work out...or will it?