Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man. I do own Derek Redfield, Whitney's assistant.

Summary: follow up to "Drink and Drive" and "Car Wash". Rhodey should've realised that he and Tony would never last forever. No matter how many times Tony said "I love you", he was never going to change. Tony/Rhodey slash – don't like, don't read! Warnings inside.

Rating: M – slash, smut, swearing and lots and lots of angst... all the good stuff :)

Changing Gears

Chapter 7: Reverse

"I'm being serious. We should be going after them right now." Tony said, slamming his hand down on the desk as if to emphasise the point. "If we can track down Madame Masque she can lead us to the Maggia. Surely you guys have some ideas of who she is and where the Maggia headquarters is. You've been investigating them for ages!"

"Tony, we have no idea who Madame Masque is and where the Maggia operate from." The General said. "They're smart. They move whenever we come close to finding them and the trail for Madame Masque always goes cold – we can never find her. We're starting to think she's more than one person."

"But..."

"I know that you're emotionally involved with this, but this a military investigation. This isn't a job for Iron Man to go in and blow everything to bits."

"It will be if they hurt Rhodey."

"We're waiting for a confirmation from our informant on the inside as to their current whereabouts." The General said. "After he calls us we will be moving in on the Maggia and we will get Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes back."

"Well he should hurry up and call." Tony folded his arms across his chest. "Or I'm going to take this into my own hands and there is nothing you can do to stop me. I'm not a part of your goddamn military."

"Sir! I've got Captain Redfield on the line!" One of the soldiers in the control room announced. "He says he has news of the Maggia whereabouts and can clarify that Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes is fine."

"Put it on speaker." The General announced.

"Sir, this is Captain Redfield reporting from the Maggia compound."

"Captain Redfield, what's your status?"

"I have Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes with me now. I'm tempted to leave him here though, because he fucking BIT me." There was a chuckle from Rhodey in the background.

"If you leave him there, I swear –" Tony snarled, leaning over the speaker phone.

"Tony, it's a joke." The General placed a hand on Tony's shoulder and pushed him back slightly. "Redfield, cut to the chase."

"We're in a warehouse by the docks." Derek said. "I have all the evidence I need to bring the Maggia down and I know who Madame Masque is. She has no idea that we're on her trail and they're planning to attack Tony Stark."

"Why do they want to attack me?" Tony asked.

"I've given Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes all the data we need to take them down. I need a team to come in to extract him and the data."

"You got it."

"I want in." Tony said.

"Tony, we'll talk about this later." The General scowled. "Redfield, you said that you know who Madame Masque is?"

"Yes, I – oh shit."

"Redfield? What's going on?" The General demanded. The line went dead.

"Now can we go after the Maggia?" Tony asked.

xXx

"So what was that about?" Whitney asked, placing the phone down on the receiver and she removed her mask. "It sounded like an important phone call. Who was it too? Anyone I should know about?" She walked over to Derek and glanced at Rhodey, and then back at him.

"That was no-one. It was just a salesman." Derek said. It was probably the most unconvincing lie anyone could ever tell, but there was still a chance that Whitney would believe it.

Only a chance.

Whitney slapped him across the face and punched him in the stomach with her other hand. Derek crumpled to the floor beside Rhodey, the breath knocked out of his lungs. Rhodey dragged himself forwards and nudged Derek with his foot. Derek wheezed and nodded, telling the other man that he was okay.

"I knew I couldn't trust you from the start." Whitney said. "Using your real name was a poor idea to start with."

"It said I was ex-military on my form. I didn't think you would realise I was currently in the military." Derek gasped.

"I know. That's why I hired you. I thought you would be handy to have around." Whitney said. "But then I started getting suspicious when you started making all of the outgoing calls. I bugged your office, I bugged your office phone, I bugged your mobile and I bugged you." Whitney stood in front of Rhodey and Derek and pulled a gun out of her holster, aiming it at Derek, and then at Rhodey... and then back at Derek. "Now, which one of you should I kill first?"

"Madame Masque!" A Maggia thug said, charging into the room. "We have to leave – Iron Man is here and he brought the army."

"What?" Whitney said. "This day just got better... get all of our files out of here. Everyone else should engage the military."

"What about Iron Man?"

"Leave him to me." Whitney said. The thug ran out of the room.

Whitney placed her gun back into her holster and placed her mask on her face.

"I have a more pressing engagement." She said. "I'll be back to deal with you two later." She walked out of the room and locked the door behind her, making sure that Rhodey and Derek couldn't escape.

"Bitch!" Derek snarled and punched the floor. "If she had come back a moment later I would've finished the call and they would be on their way to get us out of here. The Maggia wouldn't know about it until the last minute."

"Derek, will you get over here and untie me!" Rhodey snapped. "You can whine about Whitney's poor sense of timing when we get out of here and we're back home!"

"Dead or alive?" Derek asked, crawling over to Rhodey, beginning to undo the binding on his ankles.

"Alive, preferably." Rhodey said. "You can't whine if you're dead!"

"I'm pretty sure you can." Derek grinned and freed Rhodey's legs. Rhodey kicked him in the shoulder. "Ouch!"

"Get on with it!" Rhodey hissed. "I don't want to be here when Whitney comes back."

xXx

"Where's Rhodey?" Tony demanded, firing a repulsor blast at a nearby Maggia thug who had been aiming a gun at him. "Even if you don't tell me, I will tear this place apart trying to find him, and if you've hurt him I'll tear you apart."

"Like I'm going to tell you." Madame Masque relaxed her stance slightly, still pointing the gun at Tony. "I have some unfinished business with him... and Derek. I'll shoot you if you come any closer – surely you remember how powerful this gun is from the hospital? It won't matter that you're wearing your glorified tin can if this hits you."

"Oh please, it didn't do any serious damage." Tony aimed one of his gloves at Madame Masque. "Now tell me where he is, or I fry you."

"No." Madame Masque squeezed the trigger.

Tony ran forwards and tackled her to the floor. He wasn't going to fry her just yet – he was going to try and find out where Rhodey was first and then take her into military custody where she could face the real justice system and would regret the day she had messed with him for the rest of her life.

They wrestled on the ground, Madame Masque clawing at his helmet, trying to find some way to rip it open and find a way to hurt Tony – there was no way she could win this fight unless she could get Tony's armour open. Tony pinned her to the floor and punched her in the hip, leaving her immobile for a few seconds.

Tony reached up and hooked his fingers under the bottom of the mask and ripped it off. He slumped backwards in shock when he saw who was under the mask. He recognised her features – especially the scarred half of her face.

"W-whitney?" Tony spluttered.

Two more chapters left to go!

Thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing!

I Caught Myself