Something New.

Chapter Two.

My New Assistant.

I think Pepper is slowly trying to kill me.

First she stops acting as my personal assistant, what I hired her to be in the first place.

Then she goes and hires this replacement! What's with that? I don't even really need a personal assistant now that I'm not in charge of my company anymore. Really, JARVIS can remind me of my appointments and shit. Sure he can't feed me, or force me out the door anywhere, but neither can this woman. She's like 5'4 and 125 lbs, and seems about as aggressive as a honey bee.

And I'm sure Pepper could have picked someone sexier than her! Oh sure, she was cute in the librarian/school teacher sort of way, but there was no sex appeal what so ever. Mousy brown hair that was starting to grey at the roots, cut to shoulder length with layers taking away the thick bulk of her wavy locks. Black framed glasses that gave a sense of maturity to her face and brought attention to her cheek bones, which had a simple amount of blush on it, and her warm almond shaped eyes, hazel in colour. She was no model, that's for sure. Her hips, shoulders and chest were fairly curvy and her legs seemed fairly muscled for a volunteer overseas. But hey, maybe she liked to jog.

Yeah…she really wasn't the type of girl I had ever been interested in.

But then again, that could have been what Pepper had had in mind when she hired this Rebecca Bentley. Didn't take Pepper to be the possessive type, but it was sweet. Sort of. She just didn't want me to be distracted by a sexy assistant like I had been with one Natalie Rushman AKA Natasha Romanoff.

It wasn't my fault SHIELD knew my weakness was hot red heads. Actually, it felt like the whole world knew that some days. Damn…I was a slut not that long ago, thank god for this monogamist relationship with Pepper. It wasn't the kind of relationship I had ever pictured myself in, but it was worth it. Pepper was worth it.

I worked for a little while longer on the prototype smoke bombs, before JARVIS reminded me that my food was going cold. I placed down the soldering gun and sun my chair around to look at the plate she'd brought me.

Stir fry. And it looked home cooked. Honestly, I was just expecting her to call take out. She didn't have to go to the trouble of making me a meal from scratch. I almost felt a little guilty. Almost being the key word here. Well! Waste not right? Using the fork she'd brought me, I started to eat. It was alright. Not even a four star meal, but it was warm, and there was no unpleasant taste. It was a little bland, but at least it wasn't overly seasoned.

This is when I noticed she'd brought me down a glass of water. Oh man…why didn't JARVIS tell her I eat all my meals with an alcoholic beverage of some kind? A nice red wine would have made this meal all the better.

"JARVIS. Where is my new assistant?" I asked, mouth half filled with food. Wordlessly, JARVIS brought up the security feed to my living room, where the curly haired brunette was hunched over the coffee table, reading through what looked like an insane amount of paper work, but knowing Pepper, that's the history of Stark Industries and she wants Ms. Bentley to become educated on past dealings or some bullshit like that.

I zoomed in on the screen to look over her shoulder, and yup. A list of Stark Industries past and current business partners and important things to remember in case she'll have to do business with them. I can see a crinkle forming in her brow. I bet she's making all kinds of judgements about me and my actions, I see the same look on self-righteous reporters who came with me to bed anyway.

Which was in the past now, completely.

That does remind me though, what was that one blondes name? This is gonna bug me now. Oh! She's on Hammers file. God, I almost miss that laughable idiot, he was so entertaining with his pitiful attempts to become my rival. If he didn't try to kill me, I would have assumed he was flirting with me.

I could see, out of the blurred edges of the zoomed in few, the corners of Ms. Bentley's mouth turn up, and I heard a light chuckle escape her throat. Good to know I wasn't the only one to find Justin laughable.

I turned off the feed, because watching my new assistant work was both boring and creepy, and finished off my food, before handing the plate off to Dummy.

"What do you think Dum-dum? Do you think I need an assistant?" I asked the mechanical arm on wheels.

He beeped and chirped and I took it as a positive. "Thanks bud. Great vote of confidence there."

Dummy made a few more noises, as he rolled away to put my dish in the sink.

"So JARVIS, what's your opinion?" I looked up to the ceiling. "What do you think of this Ms. Bentley?"

"I believe that her presence is needed in this house hold sir."

"Needed?" I asked, slightly offended by my own AI would think such a thing. She's basically hired to be my nanny and I'm a grown man with billions of dollars at my fingertips. I can handle myself.

"I believe that, while you do have Ms. Potts around, she is often busy with her work and if it is not out of my place to say, you require more social contact then just Ms. Potts and Mr. Hogan."

What the hell was he talking about? I've got tons more friends than just Pep and Happy. Well…I haven't really talked to Rhody since he stole my suit. That can't be it, can it? Huh. That sucks. I can throw a party and hundreds of people can show up, but I'm only really close to two people. Maybe JARVIS was right.

Why was my AI smarter than me?

Whatever. I need to get these latest StarkPhones fixed because if I don't have them ready for the release date, Pepper's going to rip my head off.

It wasn't until two when I finally dragged myself out of the pit, as I was starting to call it, finally finished that update. Now none of our customers would get their hands burned off because the phones actually over heated when too many things were happening at once.

I headed up the stairs and stopped dead in my tracks. There was a person asleep on my couch. The fuck was thi- Oh…right. Her. I guess I was so wrapped up in work I forgot.

Seems she did too. She's asleep here on the couch, curled up on her side, flats kicked off, papers in different piles on the floor and coffee table.

Funny. Pepper probably wanted this girl to make sure I didn't work too hard, and here we are both working too hard on the first day.

"JARVIS which guest bedroom is she in?" I asked, as I raised an eyebrow, internally debating on waking her up, or just carrying her there myself.

"Ms. Potts had Mr. Hogan bring Ms. Bentley's positions to guest room number 3, Sir. I believe she thought the view of the ocean would be best from that room."

"'Best'? We live on a cliff overlooking the ocean. All the views are best." I rolled my eyes as I knelt down and placed my hand on her shoulder to gently shake her awake. It would be too creepy for me to carry her into her bedroom. Pepper likes her, and I'm pretty sure getting her to quit on the first day would be a big no no.

The next thing I knew, my nose was aching, my head was pounding, and my whole body was knocked over, slamming my back into the coffee table. Through watery eyes, I watches as Rebecca scrambled to get off the couch. Something warm and wet was dripping down my upper lip and I quickly realised that it was blood.

"You punched me!" I cried, amazed that someone, someone I'm paying!, would punch me!

"Oh my! Mr. Stark, I'm so sorry! I didn't know it was you!" I could hear the panic and worry in her voice. Damn right she'd better be worried! Bitch broke my nose! I battered her hands away as she tried to look at my face.

"You punched me!" I cannot get over this fact! She punched me in the nose!

Her hand finally grabbed hold of my chin and held my head in place. "Let me see, I can help you." Her tone was firm and her eyes were glued on my nose, as she tilted my chin up and down, left and right, observing it from all angles.

"It's not a break; you're just bleeding a little." She said, starting to stand up. "Pinch your nose, and bend forward. Don't swallow it." I followed her instructions, wondering why exactly I haven't fired her yet.

She came back with something wrapped in a kitchen cloth, and presses it on the bridge of my nose. I couldn't hold back the hiss of pain as the cold compact hit my tender trunk.

"That should bring down the swelling." She said softly, in almost a kind and nurturing tone. I was reminded a little of my mother, but I pushed the thought away. I was not going to compare my new assistant to my mother. That was wrong on so many levels.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Stark. I was asleep, and I didn't know where I was." Her voice cracked a little through her apology, emotions getting the better of her I presume.

"If there is permanent damage to my face, it's coming out of your paycheck." I grumbled. It was sort of understandable. She had spent however many years in the slums of the world alone, she must have learnt some self-defence skills to protect herself. That stuff becomes second nature, I hear.

"It's only fair." She kept her head down, as she used a damp cloth to clean up the smalls drops of blood on my hard wood floor.

"Now. I was going to wake you up to tell you, that you should probably sleep in your own bed."

"Right. Of course. I'm so sorry." She nodded, standing up and brushed the dust of her clothes nervously and awkwardly.

"Good night, Ms. Bentley." I said, standing up myself. "Oh and by the way? This is strike one. Next one, your gone."

I didn't look back as I walked to my bedroom. Just because I understood, didn't mean I wasn't still mad.