The big day is here.
Natalie is already in Monaco, having flown out a few days before to organise the final touches and navigate the last minute curveballs that she's already sure that Tony is going to throw her way.
She's in the bar, in the kind of highly impractical dress that Tony indicated he'd love to see her in, keeping half an eye on the entrance and half an eye on her phone, just in case there is yet another last minute rearrangement, when the furore starts.
She can't see what's causing it, but she already knows.
No one creates a fuss quite like Tony.
Tony is chatting with Pepper as he enters.
He greets her with a wave and a smile.
((But there's the moment Pepper notices.))
((There's the look of almost betrayal that is gone as soon as it appears.))
(Apparently the details that Ed cleared up didn't include informing Potts.)
(It doesn't matter, not really.)
((It does.))
(But it does illustrate that Stark is not above undercutting even his friends.)
(Though she bets that he doesn't think of it that way.)
Natalie, as ever, is utterly professional.
"Hello, how was your flight?."
"Excellent," he says and then his attention is back on Pepper.
(Looking at him, looking at them, she realises.)
(It wasn't Natalie.)
(It was never about Natalie.)
(It was always about Potts.)
(He's trying to make her jealous.)
(It's not entirely surprising.)
(And, from the look of things, he's certainly succeeding in getting under her skin.)
(At least a little.)
Natalie fades into the background, making changes, keeping up with the constant flux that is Tony Stark.
She isn't needed at the moment anyway, and drawing fire won't do her any good.
Tony and Pepper go to the bar, then Tony disappears off in the direction of the toilet, wearing an odd expression, and Pepper returns to the table with a look of frustration on her face.
She doesn't look at Natalie once.
(All in all, that's not a bad thing, Natasha thinks.)
Time passes.
Then there's a murmuring amongst the people in the bar.
Something's happening on the television screen at the back of the room.
It's Tony.
He's...
Tony's going to be driving the Stark International racecar?
(Natasha swears internally.)
(She's been studying him, as much as she's been able.)
(She should've been able to predict this.)
(His file says that he's always been somewhat reckless, but this?)
(He's not been trained to drive in a Grand Prix. And he should have known this.)
(What the *hell* is he thinking?)
(She's been tasked with evaluating him with an eye to recruitment.)
(And she can't complete her mission if he kills himself first.)
Pepper gestures for her, and Natalie is rushing over even before she thinks about it.
"Did you know about this?" Pepper asks tersely.
(And Natasha can hear what she isn't saying. Does he trust you more than me?)
"No," she says. And Natasha is unable to stop some of her own frustration leaking through.) "This is the first I heard about it."
"This cannot happen."
"I understand." (Natalie wouldn't be running through contingencies in her head. She's good, but she's just been blindsided. She'd look for direction.) "What can I do? How can I help you?"
Pepper thinks for a second. "Get Happy."
Natalie nods, and rushes off.
(The limits of the dress quickly become evident. Natasha resists the urge to push them, ripping the material in the process.)
(It'd be a minor risk to her cover, and the extra seconds probably wouldn't matter anyway.)
She finds Happy propping up the bar, a beer in one hand, silver and scarlet metallic briefcase chained to the other.
"Pepper needs you," she says, indicating the direction. "Tony," she says in answer to his unspoken question.
Happy nods and races off, drink forgotten on the bar.
Natalie follows at a slightly more sedate pace.
She's almost back there when the next thing happens.
A man with powered whips is on the track, As she watches, he slices a car in two.
(This *would* happen with Stark on the racetrack.)
(Of course it would.)
(The rules of engagement are clear.)
(On this mission, Natasha is an observer, an infiltrator. But not an active agent.)
(Not an assassin.)
(Still.)
She finds the washroom. It's deserted - everyone is focussed on the drama on the track.
Natalie disappears, and Natasha emerges.
She phones a memorised number. "Stark's in trouble. There's an attempt on his life. Should I attempt an intervention?"
Silence on the other end.
A pause.
One.
Two.
Three.
"Observe only," comes the final, dry, response.
Natasha nods. "Understood," she says and ends the call.
She looks at the phone for a moment, then erases all trace of the call.
A breath, and Natasha hides again, letting Natalie enfold her again like a set of clothing.
Natalie washes her hands, then races back into the main room, to watch the television and see how the unfolding drama plays out.
(And, maybe, to hope.)
When the intruder pursues Tony, there are gasps.
When he's hit by the car, there are cheers.
When, finally, Tony rips the power unit off the front of his assailant, the sense of relief in the room feels almost like everyone has just been watching an action movie.
And when the police and the medics arrive, and carry everyone away, it's like the end of the story.
And Natalie can breathe again. Even apart from her job, she likes Tony.
(And the mission, the mission is not yet over. Not yet a failure.)
When she gets to the hospital that serves the track, she finds Pepper pacing in the waiting area, Happy looming in the background.
Pepper looks up as she enters the room, expectantly, resuming the pacing when she sees who it actually is.
"Ms Potts," Natalie says, tentatively.
"Ms Rushman," is Pepper's only response.
Very well. Ms Potts it is.
"How is he?" she asks.
Ms Potts stops, and looks at her again. "Tony? Tony is 'completely fine'. But, apparently, when the doctor needs to do a simple checkup, all of a sudden he needs his privacy, and I'm ushered out of the room."
(Interesting.)
"And you," Ms Potts says, pointing a finger at Natalie. "How long have *you* been working for him? Didn't it ever occur to you to let me know that little fact?" she asks. "I thought..." she starts to add, with a look of disappointment on her face, when her phone rings. Looking as if she'd like to curse, she answers it, and immediately starts placating whoever is on the other side.
Natalie, about to explain her actions to Ms Potts, somehow, breathes out at the sudden reprieve.
(It doesn't mean anything, of course. Natalie just better than to want to be on the wrong side of a CEO.)
Natalie is almost surprised that she's been spared calls of her own so far, redirected from Tony's phone. And, as if thinking about it causes it to happen, her phone starts ringing.
It's a reporter wanting a quote about today's attack. And it's only the first call of many.
(Natasha notices Stark quietly appear in the doorway.)
(He looks like he's in remarkably good health considering he was in a car crash less than an hour ago.)
(And yet...)
(There's the fact that he's dressed in a suit that covers everything apart from his head, neck and hands.)
(And he's not moving stiffly, but there is a slight discolouration on one side of his neck.)
(He just stands there for a few minutes, eyes fixed softly on Potts as she starts dealing with the hundred brushfires that his stunt and the ensuing attack caused.)
Ms Potts eyes widen as she spots Tony. In between assuring someone that, yes, she is treating them with all due respect, and that she will get back to them as soon as she knows anything, to mouth 'Are you alright?' to Tony.
He gives her his usual grin, then makes a plane motion with one hand, mouthing 'One hour' back.
'Really?' is the silent and sceptical response.
He just shrugs. 'Be there or be...'
She throws up her hand, and rolls her eyes at him, before focussing on her phone again.
Natalie finishes with her current call, looking over at Tony "Apart from damage control, is there anything else you want me to do?"
"I want to fly back a little early - wheels up in an hour."
She nods and phones the private airfield. It takes throwing around the Stark name, cajoling, threats and a few bribes, but she manages to get the flight rearranged and all the luggage transported from the hospital. After that, she phones Legal and gets a standard nondisclosure form faxed to the hospital and goes in search of the doctor who treated Tony.
(Tony didn't ask her to do this, of course. But talking to the doctor might reveal something useful.)
(And Natalie... Natalie can probably defend this as 'initiative'.)
It takes getting in contact with the hospital administrator and more veiled threats and bribes, but she manages to get the doctor to sign the form and also acquires the hardcopy notes from the examination.
(Natasha glances at them.)
(Black lines from his implant.)
(It doesn't sound like anything she's heard of before, but she isn't exactly a doctor.)
(She emerges for a moment to photograph them and email them to SHIELD. With this information, together with Tony's chlorophyll drinks, maybe one of the on-staff doctors will have an idea of what's wrong.)
And then it's off to the airport. Ms Potts is in the main cabin, with Tony pottering around in the galley, cooking of all things. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valour, Natalie contacts the various caterers and suppliers, just in case Tony has any last minute changes he wants to make, and settles into the sleeping cabin.
It seems a fairly safe place to hole up. Given Tony's lack of interest in her, and the general sense of annoyance emanating from Ms Potts, she's fairly certain that Tony won't be getting any further punches in his mile high card this trip at least.
The party... the party goes interestingly.
In the few spare moments Natalie has before the party, in between fielding yet more calls and trying to do yet more damage control, she manages to catch Tony alone.
She continues the dance - flirting just enough that it should engage his interest, whilst maintaining enough distance, enough mystery, that it doesn't make it too easy for him.
It should work.
She can see the flicker of interest, even gives him alcohol, another of Tony's vices, to lower any inhibitions he might have about expressing it.
(For a moment, Natasha thinks she has him - he asks about her history, where she's from.)
(The first step in unravelling Natalie's mysteries, designed to tell her more about Stark then they will ever reveal about her.)
But it's only for just a moment, a single question.
And then they're back to his favourite subject - himself, albeit in a more maudlin note than usual.
(Which is information of a different kind.)
(And it's fairly clear that, no matter what the problem is, Stark believes that it's terminal.)
The party itself is, in many ways, what all the newspapers say that a Stark party should be - loud, spectacular, and completely focussed around Tony.
The main difference is that halfway through, he decides that it would be a good idea to get into an Ironman suit.
(Natasha *knows* that this is a bad idea.)
(But, no matter how much she contorts Natalie's character, it's difficult at best finding a version that would stand up to Stark about this.)
(And, besides, she's just here to observe and evaluate Stark.
(Not save him from his own disintegration.)
(There's movement, something that attracts Natasha's attention, over by the entrance.)
(It's Potts.)
((Somehow, at some point, she's become someone to watch.))
(She enters the party room tentatively, almost resignedly.)
(And *crumples* when she sees the state Stark is in.)
((There's an unfamiliar sense of anger, buried deep within.))
(This drama, this push and pull between Potts and Stark, it shouldn't matter.)
((It does, anyway.))
(Potts retreats outside, only to come back in with a man, Stark's military pal. Rhodes.)
(Potts is obviously trying to placate him, and heads towards the stage.)
Ms Potts does her best to disperse the crowd, but Tony, with an uncharitable similarity to a sulky child, refuses to let the party end.
And then the explosions start.
At first, it's just Tony playing around, managing to avoid injuring partygoers mostly by accident.
And then Rhodes comes onto the scene, somehow clad in another Ironman suit, and, faced with an angry man in a suit of powered armour, suddenly *everyone* is happy to leave.
Tony, naturally, doesn't take this too well.
Everyone apparently doesn't include Ms Potts, who is staying around for who-knows-what reasons.
(Natasha suspects that it's to try and somehow defuse the situation.)
(Because neither Stark nor Rhodes seem to want to.)
((But still...))
(She's a civilian, and she needs to get out of here. One miscalculation by a drunken genius or a soldier who has just tried on the suit for the first time, and all the good intentions in the world won't save Potts.)
"Ms Potts," Natalie says, running over to her as the last of the guests and staff are ushered out.
But Ms Potts seems fired up, angry, heedless of her own safety. "Don't you 'Miss Potts' me."
((And there's an unexpected ache, at the reminder that she used to be just Pepper.))
"You know," Ms Potts continues, "Ever since you arrived..."
(There's something there, but Natasha files it for later, because there's still an active situation on the grounds.)
BANG!
(The sting of stony shrapnel.)
(Something the size of a baseball blurs past her head.)
((Pepper!))
(Potts is seemingly fine, but now the situation is *here* - two metal juggernauts in the room, slugging it out.)
(A quick scan shows no one down, but it's only a matter of time.)
Natalie wavers and disappears - there's no room for doubleguessing, or thinking what a civilian would do.
Natasha judders towards Potts, the instinct to just *get her out of the way* taking precedence over everything else, but Hogan's already moving towards Potts, and Natasha-
Natasha isn't necessary here.
Without some serious hardware, there's nothing she can do to either of the powered suits, and Potts is being dragged from the building.
The only thing she can do is keep her head down and try and find out *more* about what is happening and why.
Luckily, there's someone who might have the answers.
She stands outside of Stark's fortress of technology, looking in through a clear wall.
She could probably break in, but not without leaving traces.
And there's no need - for all the technological wealth the other side of the door, that's *not* her mission.
She's an expert hacker, but with the level of technology Stark has at his fingertips, her skills in that area are probably of minimal use.
Luckily, she has talents in other areas that might be of more use.
It's time for Natalie to come out again.
(There's no immediate threat, Natasha thinks.)
(Probably, she revises, as another concussion thrums through the structure.)
"JARVIS?" Natalie asks.
"How can I help you, Ms Rushman?"
"Am I safe here?"
(It's not what Natasha wants to know, but it's the first thing Natalie would ask.)
There's a slight pause. "The structure down here is reinforced, madam. At the current levels of conflict, the chance of damage are..."
There is another concussion, the loudest yet, and the walls shake a little.
"Minimal," JARVIS continues smoothly.
Natalie sags against a wall.
(In the circumstances, Natasha thinks, even the most efficient civilian would be allowed a lapse. And JARVIS is human-like enough that it might fall for weakness, just like a man.)
"If it helps, Ms Rushman, I believe the hostilities are over for the evening."
"There's something wrong with Tony, isn't there?"
"I can neither confirm nor deny that."
"I'm his PA. I need to know if..." (Natasha crafts an elegant break in Natalie's normally flawless speech patterns.) "He can't do this by himself. He needs support, help."
There's a long pause. "Mr Stark has forbidden me to talk about the matter," JARVIS finally says.
"Has he forbidden you not to talk about the matter?"
"Not as such, no." A note of almost amusement enters the AI's voice.
"So you can tell me if I get something wrong, just not if I'm correct."
"That would be within the letter of Mr Stark's commands, if not quite the spirit."
Together with the continued cessation of noise from upstairs, the conversation relaxes Natalie a little.
"But this is for his own good. He can't continue like this."
"I do not recall agreeing to any such conclusion."
"I didn't hear you disagreeing, either."
"Indeed." The amusement is somewhat pronounced by this point.
"He said that this is his last birthday. Does he has health problems of a physical nature?"
Silence.
"Is it cancer?"
"No."
(Natasha knows it is not, but it would be best not to jump to the correct answer too quickly.)
"Heart problems?"
"Not as such, no."
"Not as such... Is it to do with what happened in Afganistan?"
Silence.
"Mr Stark has a heart implant, doesn't he?"
"I believe such is common knowledge, yes?"
"Is he suffering from complications from the implant?"
Silence, again.
"On a completely separate matter, can you list what health problems might be caused by an implant of the type Mr Stark has? Theoretically speaking."
"I can of course answer such questions of purely theoretical nature. As long as you understand that the answers would, of course, have no connection to any actual cases." Natalie's phone beeps. "I believe you will find a file relevant to your interests downloaded to your mobile device."
"Thank you, JARVIS. I'll try to help him the best I can."
"I believe you will, Ms Rushman. I believe you will."
"I need to talk to Fury," Natasha says into the comm.
There is silence for a moment, and Natasha idly wonders if she's earned enough credit within SHIELD to have her judgment trusted this much yet.
"State your reasons," replies the dry voice.
Apparently not.
"Stark is disintegrating. He's dying - poisoning from the implant - and he's not handling it well. I'm sure you've heard about the situation tonight. I need a decision about whether to continue this mission, and now, before it becomes irrelevant."
Silence again.
"Understood. I'll pass your request into Director Fury."
No doubt making sure to emphasise to Fury that this was only happening because of the unreasonable ex-Russian agent.
Still, he is far from the worst handler she'd had.
Minutes pass while she waits in the memento-strewn bedroom of Natalie's apartment. Finally, Fury's voice crackles over the comm.
"Why the hell did you feel the need to disturb my evening, Agent Romanoff?"
"The Stark situation is going critical, sir."
"I heard about that. On the goddamn evening news! What the hell is going on?"
"The implant. It's killing him, and he's going off the rails. From the information I gathered, it doesn't look like he has long left. I need to know if we're going to continue the mission."
There's silence for a moment. "What's your evaluation, Agent?"
"He's not an agent, but he's still a potential asset. He's brilliant, but he needs direction. He's not getting that and, in all frankness, I'm not suited to give it to him."
Natasha has given Potts' words earlier in the evening some thought.
Stark's decline isn't her fault, but she is an enabler.
It's how she works.
And it's absolutely the last thing that stark needs at the moment.
"Suggestions?"
"Coulson has worked with him beforehand, and... motivating him properly is within his skillset. More than that, he needs time and hope."
"I've forwarded your notes to the medical division. Hopefully they can come up with something for the former. As for the latter... I have some ideas."
"Suggestion: Stark suffers from an acute case of 'I'm the smartest man in the room'. It might help if he's shaken up a little."
"What do you have in mind, Agent?"
"A simple reminder that he doesn't know everything might help open his mind a little."
Fury's meeting with Stark the next day goes pretty much as predicted. Her appearance manages to throw Stark off balance, helping Fury deliver his message that all hope is not lost, and that Stark needs to perform a reverse cranial-anal insertion manoeuvre.
It seems to work, and Coulson takes over to make sure that it *continues* to work.
Her cover is blown, with Stark at least, but that's not a problem.
Her assignment there has been pretty much concluded in any case.
Which is not to say that her dealings with Stark International have come to an end. With Stark's recent departure as CEO and chairman, not to mention his possible imminent death, the situation there is in enough flux that she successfully argues that it's enough of a loose end that a monitoring presence there would be useful. There are an awful lot of advanced designs and equipment that could do a lot of damage if they ended up in the wrong hands.
She still, technically, has a job with Legal, but that doesn't stop her aiming a little higher.