There is a bit more cussing in this chapter than in previous sections. Happy reading!

Tony Stark stared at the teenager in confusion as he watched her remove the batteries from his clock. What was going on with her? After the girl had interrupted him in the living room, he had sent his… friend… home. It had suddenly felt wrong to be in Amelia's presence while making out in front of her. He felt embarrassed. That was a new one for him.

Stark decided to go down to his lab to see her progress. The place was a mess, for sure. Nothing seemed too out of order though.

"Hey JARVIS?" Stark asked.

"Yes, sir?" was the response.

"Can you play me the videos of Amelia's work?" He asked, sitting down on a stool to watch the videos. They had been sped up so her actions looked very fast. Stark tilted his head at the screen when another feeling of recognition came over him. Where did he know her from? As he was pondering this, the screen suddenly lit up with bright colors.

"Hold up, play that back at normal speed." Stark watched as the kid accidentally started a fire in his lab. He made a face as his robot, Dum-E spayed the table with extinguisher foam. Amelia coughed, expelling a large number of expletives.

"Shit shit shit! SHIT!" she yelped.

"Jesus Christ," Stark swore in response to her cussing. How old was this kid? Nevertheless, he couldn't take his eyes off of how she handled the situation. It was similar to how he would have handled the situation, only, her way involved more work.

"JARVIS? Please clean the suit while I fix the…" She paused to come up with the correct words. "…mess that I made?"

Stark paused the video and looked around the lab. There was no proof that the fire had even taken place. She covered her mistakes well. That fact only made him more curious.

"JARVIS?" Stark asked aloud.

"Yes, sir?" Came the accented reply.

"Bring me everything you can on Amelia Mason. I'll be back soon." He got up and moved to the stairs.

"I'm not sure Miss Mason would appreciate your nosiness, sir."

Stark didn't look back as he jogged up the stairs. "When has that ever stopped me before?"

He had no trouble navigating his house in the dark, but he faltered once he reached the guest bedroom where Amelia was sleeping. Was this okay for him to be doing?

Of course it was. This was his house, he should know who his guest is.

Stark opened the door just enough so he could slip into the room. Amelia was fast asleep. He proceeded to her closet where he could truly search for any clue about her. After pushing some clothes out of the way, he found her laptop. This was too easy.

Stark was about to leave when Amelia shifted in her sleep, rolling over to face the wall. Uncharacteristically, Stark moved closer to the bed and pulled up the bedspread to her shoulders. Then he left quickly, trying to ponder what had just happened as he took the stairs back down to his lab.

"What have you got for me?" Stark asked. JARVIS was quick to compile all of the information to the two centermost screens. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else that SHIELD had missed. That left the laptop computer. The firewalls weren't too difficult to get by, and soon enough he was in. The files on repulsor technology immediately caught his eye, and he engrossed himself in reading.

Meanwhile, Amelia suddenly woke up to the sound of her phone, which was giving signals that her security had been breached. She immediately threw back the covers and pulled up the device, looking to see what had occurred. Someone had accessed her computer. Amelia checked the closet. Her laptop was gone! How long ago had it been taken? Did SHIELD have anything to do with it?

Amelia went back to her phone, turning on the locating device she had programmed. Her laptop was still in the house, and the signal looked to be coming from the lab. Tony Stark. Amelia groaned and decided to make her way down there. Stark would not be pleased with the "consequences" she had programmed into her computer if anyone tried to hack her. The thing was, if there was a firewall breach, a shit ton of viruses would be sent to the nearest computing systems. That would mean that JARVIS and the computer mainframe of Stark's electronics would soon be crashing.

Amelia came down into the lab in her socks and pajamas. She cleared her throat to pull Stark out of his reverie.

"Is that my computer?" She asked, knowing full well that it was, in fact, hers.

Starks eyes jumped to her and he slammed the laptop shut, saying, "What?"

"Why did you take my computer, Mr. Stark?" she asked, waiting nonchalantly for his answer.

"How can you be sure that this is yours?" he replied.

"The sticker on the back of the screen says Amelia Mason, so I'm pretty sure that its mine." She countered, coming closer and pointing at the sticker. It blatantly spelled out her name.

"Right." Stark said, trying to come up with a good excuse. "I—"

Amelia shook her head, interrupting. "You know, I did have some security precautions up that—"

"They weren't all that hard to get through." Stark criticized cheekily. Amelia rolled her eyes, and replied, "I know, but you're not going to like what happens when those firewalls go down without my permission."

Stark gave her an inquisitive glance. "What happens?"

Amelia yawned and squinted at the bright glow from Stark's computer screens. The viruses were already in effect. "Check your computer."

Stark whirled around to see each of the screens flash the words "ERROR: MALFUNCTION. VIRUS COUNT: 14." Then the screens went black, one after the other. He turned around to face Amelia again.

She smiled tiredly and shrugged. "Karma's a bitch."

Stark stared at her. Why was she so familiar? Amelia, though he didn't know it, was asking herself the same question. He finally told her, "You've got to fix this, you know."

"I figured you'd say something like that." She muttered and started to pull her hair into the shape of a bun and secured it with a pencil from Stark's desk. Amelia went around the tables to where Stark was sitting and shooed him out of the way with her hands. He made a face, though he did move out of the way.

"You do know that this is my lab, right?" Stark acknowledged. Amelia nodded vaguely, opening up her laptop and beginning to work.

Stark, who was not used to being ignored, tried to initiate more conversation. "Nice pajamas."

"Pepper bought them for me, Mr. Stark." Amelia glanced down at the dark gray pj set that included a soft button up shirt and matching drawstring pants.

"Why am I 'Mr. Stark' when you call Miss Potts by her nickname?" He asked, genuinely curious.

Amelia shot him an odd look, saying, "I don't think you want me calling you 'Tony', Mr. Stark."

He had immediately cringed at the thought of being addressed as his first name by the teenage girl. "You make a good point."

"Thought so." She mumbled, continuing working. After a minute or so, she looked up again. "You should be all set." Spinning around in the swivel stool allowed her to dramatically point at each screen when it came back up.

Amelia stopped spinning and stared at Stark, who was leaning against one of the tables, arms crossed over his chest. She had a curious gaze that made him uncomfortable, and he shifted in his spot.

"Mr. Stark, I've been wondering this for a while," Amelia began. "Do you know me in any way? I just feel like—"

Stark was already nodding, "I've been thinking the same thing, kid."

Amelia sighed in relief, "Really? I thought it was just me."

"I've been trying to figure that out too." Stark glanced at the clock, which read somewhere near one in the morning. "You should probably get back to bed though."

"Yeah, right." Amelia grimaced. "I don't sleep much, you know."

"Just like me." Stark commented. "How about a deal?"

"What are you suggesting?"

"We'll figure out how we know each other in the morning together, but only of we both get four hours of sleep tonight." Stark offered.

Amelia cracked a smiled and held out her hand to shake, "I believe I'm already ahead of you then."

The two shook hands and retired for the night.