AN: Yes, yes, yes, I decided to go on! Welcome to A new story! There's a lot of description in this first chapter, but I'll just tell you, this story takes place about 5 years afterth end of Haunted. For your enjoyment, When It All Falls Apart! PS: Womanizer belongs to Britney Spears...
Womanizer, woman-womanizer, you're a womanizer,
Oh womanizer, oh you're a womanizer, baby You you you are, you you you are Womanizer, womanizer, womanizer (womanizer)
Nicole opened her blue eyes slowly. She could swear that the song had played at least 25 times, if not more, in the past hour. She swore as she reached for her Blackberry, her eyes landing on the digital clock as well; it was four freaking thirty in the morning.
"What!" Nicole barked finally answering the phone.
"Good morning."
Nicole groaned. Tony Stark's voice was anything but pleasant, or even welcome... Much less so that it sounded like he was talking through a wind tunnel.
"I can already sense what you're going to say, Stark," Nicole growled. "And the answer is fuck no."
"I'm going to die out here," Tony sounded dead serious. Nicole could tell he must've been fighting for a while, but that didn't lessen her resolve.
"I have a five year old asleep in her room, Tony," Nicole snarled. "I can't fucking leave her alone!"
"For god's sake, do you have an AI house unit or not?" Tony demanded. "Nicole, I fucking need your help or else I'm not coming back to the states!"
Nicole growled, "Where the fuck are you?"
"Iraq."
Great. Just fucking great. Nicole climbed out of bed after she hung up with Tony. It wasn't enough that she worked with him everyday, no, he had to drag her out to IRAQ of all places...
"Sophie," Nicole yawned as she trotted down the stairs. "Sorry, friend, but I need you up to keep an eye on Natalie."
"Of course, Nicole," Sophie, the AI house unit responded. "Where are you off to?"
"Stark Mansion, and then to rescue the fucking bastard."
As Nicole sped through the empty streets of Malibu in her navy Audi R8, she reflected silently on the entire situation between her and Tony. She smiled grimly as she thought of the last five years. After Natalie had been born, Tony had proposed to Nicole and they'd married within a year. Everything had been fine until six months ago; Nicole had been out of town, and Tony had gotten a little too drunk. She'd came home to find him asleep with Pepper in their bed. That had ended their marriage, but not the ties that bound them.
Natalie Stark was the baby Nicole had given birth to while dating Tony. She didn't know for sure if Natalie was really Tony's biological daughter as she had been raped at the same time she'd been sleeping with Tony. But Tony had loved Nicole endlessly during her times of hardship, and he'd given Natalie every single thing a baby could ever want or need. After a mess up with the paternity testing, neither one felt like they really needed to go through with the process again, but as Natalie got older, she looked more and more like Tony in Nicole's eyes.
There was too much history between Tony and Nicole to break them apart entirely, but that didn't mean Nicole didn't loathe him for his actions. Their company, Lion-Stark Industries & Laboratories hadn't been broken apart. It would take way too much time and effort to try and do so, and really, what was the point? Nicole could live with Tony as a business partner, so long as he didn't piss her off royally. Besides the fact, they were on different floors all day long, so their paths didn't really cross all that much unless there was a meeting.
"A goddamn pit bull," Nicole mumbled as she sped up the driveway of the Stark Mansion. "That's what all this shit has turned me into. A vicious, heartless, pit bull."
Nicole entered the mansion through the garage, which instantly sprang to life the second she opened the door.
"Hello, Miss Nicole."
"Hi, Jarvis," Nicole sighed. "Tony's getting himself killed out there, huh?"
"Very much so," Jarvis sighed. "Shall I initiate Iron Woman assembly?"
"Please."
It took a matter of minutes for Jarvis to fully assemble the armor around Nicole's body, but the second he was done, she flew off. The HUD before her gave her various readouts on the condition of the armor and her body.
"I'm surprised this thing isn't telling me I need to go back to sleep," Nicole mumbled to herself as her locator found the jackass she was looking for. Within an hour, she found herself in Iraq, in the middle of a fight between Iron Man and a bunch of terrorists. But that wasn't all there was. Tony was also fighting what appeared to be two crummy versions of their own armor.
"You've got to be shitting me," Nicole growled as she began firing her repulsor rays from her hands.
"Nice of you to join me," Tony's voice sounded sarcastic, but weak, even through his armor.
Nicole ignored the comment, but observed Tony's armor. It was smoking, and Nicole was pretty much sure that his repulsors were the only thing still working.
"How long have you been out here?" Nicole inquired at last as she fired several missiles.
"Too long."
Nicole rolled her eyes, "Fuck it." She flew into the air, bullets ricocheting everywhere as her armor deflected them. She let her repulsors charge for a few moments, "I'd fly your ass up here if I were you," She said to Tony. Once Tony was in the air, she fired both full power repulsors at the ground, spraying dirt, sand, and other debris everywhere.
"Let's go."
Nicole shot off, back towards home without more than those two words to Tony. She had not wanted to fly all the way around the world at four thirty in the morning just to save Tony's ass, nor had she wanted to leave her daughter alone.
"Sophie," Nicole said to the AI as the AI helped guide her home. "How's Natalie?"
"Still sound asleep, Nicole."
"Good," Nicole smiled. "Her father's going to be getting some shit from me in a few hours."
"Mommy! Am I going to work with you today?"
It was a few hours later, and Nicole's mood had improved slightly when Natalie had woken her up just after eight. Nicole loved her daughter with all her heart, and she could never stay angry at her for long. Nicole had showered and dressed Natalie herself, and was now in the process of dressing for work.
"Yes you are, baby girl," Nicole hummed as she twisted her long brown hair into an elegant knot.
"No school?"
Nicole sighed and then smiled as she ruffled the five year old's hair, "Nope, we gotta find you a new school, Nati. One that's going to let someone as brilliant as you succeed."
Nicole had been through the hellfire of arguments with Natalie's first school. Natalie was clearly brilliant, anyone could see that (blame having the genes of two brainiac parents jammed together). But the damned principal of Malibu Academy would not allow Natalie to skip grades at such a young age, so Nicole had pulled her daughter out of the school.
"See where that gets them," Nicole smirked as she sprayed two puffs of her Armani Code perfume out. "When word gets out that Tony Stark and Nicole Lion's daughter got pulled out... Ooh, I wouldn't want to be them."
After a quick breakfast, Nicole walked with Natalie to the garage and strapped her into the carseat of the black Audi Q7 that was sitting beside the R8. Nicole never drove Natalie in the sportscar, she was too scared to do so, which was why she even had the Q7.
The entire trip over to Lion-Stark Industries & Laboratories, Nicole was smirking. Once she dropped Natalie with her PA, Lala, she was going to give Tony hell.
"Stark is looking for you," Lala hummed the second her boss entered the building.
"Really?" Nicole grimaced. "That's funny, I was actually looking for him too."
"Hi Auntie Lala!" Natalie ran to Nicole's PA to hug her.
"Hey cutie," Lala responded, lifting up the child in her arms. "So, you want me to watch her?"
"If you would not mind," Nicole nodded.
"For you to kick Tony's ass," Lala smirked. "Never would I mind."
Nicole walked straight into Tony's office to find him sitting behind his desk, talking to Pepper. Pepper's face turned bright red and she immediately looked away from Nicole. The woman couldn't even look her in the eyes; not that Nicole minded. Hell, if Pepper could look her in the eyes after what she'd done with Tony while he was still married, Nicole just might've torn the woman apart.
"You were looking for me?" Nicole inquired, not giving a damn that she had interrupted a conversation.
Tony nodded, and Nicole couldn't help but notice he had a bruise on the side of his face, "I never said thank you."
Nicole shrugged, "Whatever. But you're in so much trouble in my book... What the hell are you playing at, making me leave OUR daughter alone at four thirty in the goddamn morning?!"
"I was going to get killed out there, Nikki," Tony snarled. "What the fuck should I have done?"
"Don't you fucking raise your voice at me!" Nicole's temper rose rapidly. "I did you a fucking favor by going out there; especially since I don't want to do that shit anymore because of Natalie, and you know that fucking well."
"Good, so next time I won't bother calling you," Tony said. "Then you can explain to Natalie why her father is dead."
"Fucking bastard!" Nicole shrieked as she slapped Tony across the face, making Pepper gasp. "That's what the fuck you are; a fucking heartless and soulless bastard!"
Tony said nothing to the fact that Nicole had just slapped him across the face, but he stood up, "Watch that fucking temper of yours, Nikki; It could get you into trouble."
"Are you threatening me?" Nicole's blue eyes narrowed.
"It's neither here nor there," Tony shrugged. "I'm just warning you for your own good, and for Natalie's sake. I'm taking her this weekend for the fourth of July, right?"
Nicole nodded, "I'm going away for the extended weekend."
"Where to?" Tony inquired.
"Not that it's any of your business," Nicole snarled. Her expression suddenly softened, "But I'm going to Gotham."
Tony's eyes narrowed, "You're back with Wayne?"
Nicole smirked, "It's neither here nor there."
