11 August 2012
1300 hours
Stark Tower

"I knew the bastard," I said from my place on Tony's work counter. "He tried to sell a suit like yours to the military but it backfired. I was there, it was catastrophic. He tried to get another meetin' with the Army after he claimed to have fixed it but we were forced to tell him no."

Tony was upgrading one of his not-damaged suits to withstand the heat that the Melter put out. The room was incredible and I was surprised he'd let me in there. Technically I wasn't allowed on any of the lab floors but the boss man made an exception that day...especially since he didn't like me out of his sight. "So what, he wants revenge on me instead? What the hell did I do to this guy?"

"You didn't do anythin'," I growled, glaring at my wrapped hands. It was almost impossible to get anything done. I couldn't even take care of myself, although Tony had convinced the hospital to let me out in exchange for the promise that I'd take it easy and let one of Tony's many employees help take care of me. "He wanted to attack you to sell his suit to the highest bidder because he used to run a startup that was destroyed after the government exiled him. He's dirt poor. To add onto that, he saw that I was workin' for you and wanted to kick my ass as much as yours. I was the one who had to tell him no multiple times."

The man of iron turned around to look at me seriously. I hated that look on his face. "You doing okay?"

I scowled and kicked out with his prosthetic, glad to have it back on. "Peachy." Two days sober after a year of hard work. I'd asked my sponsor what the protocol was for emergency medical care when it came to medication, but…I had to start over. I'd had a relapse, no matter that it wasn't my fault.* I'd been sober for most of the last three years but every so often I found myself slipping up. I'd become a drunk after Riley had died. I'd overcome that. I'd become a drunk again after Leo had been lost overseas. I'd overcome that. I'd become addicted to drugs and alcohol after losing my leg. I'd overcome that, too. This one, though…it isn't my fault.

"You and Cap okay?"

My head snapped up at that. "Yeah, why?" Steve was gone on another mission already. The first had only been a test, apparently. That one had been easy, according to the man out of time. The next one was more in-depth and required him to go undercover. As if a six-foot-three, two-hundred and fifty pound man isn't hard to spot. Would I be that worried every time he went out on a mission? I hoped not.

"No reason," Stark said quickly, ducking back under his armor. "Jarvis, update on the Patty-Melt." I rolled my eyes at his nickname for the new "unmelting" armor. Using recordings and blast radiuses and seeing the scorch marks on the Iron Man suit, Tony had devised a formula to discover what technology and heat the Melter used in his gauntlets. Then he was able to build a new alloy on his suit to keep the Melter from winning the next time they met.

"Another failure, sir. I've updated the metal's composition and am running the tests again."

"Seriously," I said after Jarvis said a lot of engineering mumbo jumbo. "Why would Cap and I have a problem?"

"He just...he was pretty worried about you after it all. He didn't leave your bedside and he rushed there as soon as his jet landed. I'm not one to talk about workplace relations but…"

I shook my head, confused and surprised. "There's nothing between me and Steve." It was flattering, to be honest. He was so out of my league that it was laughable. Had I thought about it before, watching him as he worked with children or when he was working out? Hell yes. He was so attractive that sometimes I felt embarrassed to even look at him for fear of letting out a moan or feeling something stir deep down. "He was just concerned. I work with him every day, I'd hope that he would be at least a little worried about me."

I heard something that sounded like a little more than worried come out under his breath.

"Do you have somethin' to say to me, Stark? Speak up." Two months ago I would never have dared to speak to my boss like that. After saving his life a few times and getting into the dirty knowledge of what it was like to be an Avenger, I knew how I needed to speak to him to get any kind of information. "Stop walkin' on eggshells around me."

"There's just been speculation." He threw some stuff up to a holographic monitor, images coming to life before my very eyes. "Pepper and I like to gossip a little. And, you know, so does the entire world."

I flushed when I realized what it was. I'd seen them before of course—images of Cap and I out and about New York. After events I'd set up we would go to lunch or dinner. I'd take him out to experience something he'd never experienced before…and there were always pictures. Steve thought that just wearing a baseball cap and a pair of glasses hid him from the world but no, they definitely did not.

The images on the screen were kind of damning, at least towards what Stark and I were talking about. One was a gossip rag that I wouldn't even use as kindling. It showed a picture of me reaching out to touch Steve's hand at some diner we'd stopped at after a photo shoot. He was smiling sweetly and I was laughing. Another picture showed him wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I couldn't remember why he'd done it but I did remember blushing down to my toes. I could still remember his warmth and muscles and wanting him to do it again.

"You know better than I do that those aren't real news sources." Half the time I didn't care what was in those magazines as long as they didn't say stupid things like 'Cap back in the party scene!' or 'I slept with the Hulk and this is what I found'. As long as the articles weren't damning it didn't matter. Steve and I weren't a thing—and, even if we were, it wouldn't be a bad relationship so it wouldn't need to be hidden from the press. "Next week they'll think that Banner and Natasha are dating. It's nothing."

"Hmm." He let it drop, which I was grateful for. I wasn't grateful for: "So what happened to your time off?"

My stomach ached from lying to him. "Don't want the family to see me like this." My mom had called, freaked out after seeing the news replaying the incident. "I'll get to go eventually." Then mom had told Sam and Sam had told my brothers. Kenton was the only one who'd known before the others (because he worked for SHIELD) and he'd gotten an earful from Mom. My dad was the only one who hadn't freaked out, just sending a badly-worded text saying that I'd handled the situation well. (He'd obviously used voice-to-text on his smart phone.)

Tony looked like he was going to ask something else when his phone rang. "Better watch your back and cover your tracks, kick your foot through the door, hit the deck know the score!"

"Aren't you gonna answer it?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He held up a finger. "Wait for it."

"War Machine! War Machine!"

He rocked out to the song for a second before he finally picked up. Rhodey appeared on one of the screens that Cap and I had been on. "What's up, honeybear?"

I wanted to laugh at the nickname until I heard Rhodey's ragged breathing and the whirring of damaged motors. He looked a little worse for wear. "Not the time, Tony. You remember your friend the Melter? Well, he got me."

I stood up as Tony jumped to his feet. "Dammit. Are you okay? How's the suit?"

"The suit's damaged. Not as badly as yours was a few days ago. He said something about a bidder wanting to make sure it worked on War Machine, too. It turns out it does."

I pulled out my Stark phone and was ready to contact SHIELD. "Where are you at, Rhodes? I'll send an extraction team."

"No need. I'm here."

Rhodey fell through the launch pad that was attached to that lab. Stark and I rushed to grab him. We pulled him from the suit, Tony analyzing the damage while I pulled the soldier to sit down. "Stark where's your first aid kit?" I asked when I saw the blood coming down James's forehead.

"On the wall by the door." I grabbed it and sprinted back to the man.

James allowed me to step between his legs and assess the damage to his head. I soaked a cloth with some rubbing alcohol and then dabbed it on his forehead. He hissed between his teeth. "What the hell happened, Rhodes?"

He looked up to me with his attractive brown eyes and sighed, obviously relieved to be somewhere safe. "Similar to what happened to you. I was doing a weapons demonstration with the Marines. Somehow he found out where we were."

"I heard about that," I said as I dabbed at the few cuts and bruises along his jaw and neck. "They were supposed to be getting some new UAV software. Were you just there to look good?"

James smiled in that cute way of his and reached up to touch one of the healing scratches on my cheek. "Still have contacts in the service, huh?"

I smiled a little, glad for some human contact for once in my life. "Yeah." I wasn't sure if he was being flirty or just friendly but I wasn't going to push away someone's gentle touch.

"They wanted me there to represent the strength of the government or something equally as stupid." James was pretty built for his older age. He was stability and safety which is what my life felt like it needed. "We would have taken the software anyway. But somehow the Melter figured out where I was."

"I mean, I figured it out and I'm not actively listenin' to open channels," I offered up. He hissed as I took out some antibiotic cream and smeared it along his open wounds. "I don't think it'd be too difficult to do some readin' and find out where War Machine is gonna be."

"What's the damage?" Rhodes asked, peering around my body to look at Tony. I didn't bother looking back because James needed tending. I was almost done anyway.

"Like you said, similar. Not as bad as mine but enough to knock you on your ass. I'm working on a Melter-proof material right now."

"What do we know about the guy?" James asked, grunting as I placed some butterfly bandages across the large laceration on his forehead. It was actually kind of difficult to do with my hands all wrapped.

Tony must have gestured. "Ask Captain Marvel over there."

I scoffed and asked, "Is that supposed to mean me?" When he didn't answer I turned back to Rhodes and checked him out from head to foot. "I met the guy once. You might've been there, too. I can't remember his name but I already told Tony about his failed attempt to sell the government a weapon a few years back. He's bitter and poor and desperate."

"So he'll try anything." James smiled and stood up, thanking me with a wink. "That means we just have to upgrade our suits and find him."

I looked over to Tony who was pulling something out of a smelter in the back of the room. "Already ahead of you. Let's make it interesting though." We waited for him to finish his statement as he sent Jarvis to do some work on the Iron Man suit. "First one to find him gets his new suit polished by the loser."

Rhodey smiled. I felt a little left out as Tony's best friend said, "Deal."

*This could be totally wrong. I have no knowledge of AA meetings or most of the rules and I can't really find any. Even though it wasn't Joan's fault for relapsing, she was given drugs. Even if it isn't an AA rule, it would be a rule for Joan.

Also I love me some Rhodey. He's not the LI for this story but he likes to flirt like any red-blooded man. Especially a man who doesn't have a cannon LI *cough* Captain Marvel *cough*.