The Boy Who Fell From The Sky
Chapter Fourteen
Tony exited the door to his therapists office and walked down the hall to wait, as he usually did every month, for five minutes before the door marked with the name Dr Harleen Quinzel opened up and out walked his now fifteen year old charge in Clark Kent.
The boy looked deflated, as he usually did, after these talks but the small smile on his face spoke volumes about his mental wellbeing.
It had taken a while to convince the Kent's, or the Potters as he now knew them, to allow Clark to go to therapy. The kid had seen someone he knew murdered right in front of him and had to save someone he cared about from the same fate. Then on top of that, the boy had survivors guilt and thought that Howard dying was his fault.
It took a while to convince him that this wasn't the case but even then Tony didn't think he got through to the Kid. Part of the problem was that Clark Kent was very good at hiding his feelings, he would go about his day, finishing his chores, going to school, come back home, cook with his Mom or Dad; whoever was cooking dinner that day, laugh with his Gran, if Andy wasnt abroad and help his Dad with farmwork.
But there was a hardness to his gaze, he wouldn't meet Tony's eyes sometimes and refused to even be in the room with the recovering Maria. Only Lily could pull him out of his funk, but even then, as soon as she was out of sight; his smile would dim and his head would droop and he would retreat into himself.
Finally after not being able to help her son herself, Hermione had turned to Tony and asked for his help. Tony had immediately lined up a list of psychologists and psychiatrists that Jarvis had compiled for him. He isolated the ones that were experts in dealing with children and the list shortened significantly.
Clark had being seeing Dr Quinzel once a month for the last one and half years. Half a year into his own therapy Clark had convinced Tony to see someone himself. Tony had argued that he was fine but Clark had pointed out that after quiting alcohol he had picked a up some other self destructive vices as compensation.
Having not realized that his womanizing and daredevil risk taking ways had been noticed Tony froze with his hand caught in the cookie jar.
"If I need to see someone, then you do too," said Clark stepping up to him, at thirteen the Boy was almost his own height. "You say that you can't bear to see me suffer? Well why should it be any different for me, in regards to you?" he asked Tony his blue eyes shining with unshed tears. "Or maybe you don't think that you mean that much to me?"
Tony had walked a few paces back and pointed at him with his wrench. "That's emotional blackmail, you know that?" he asked the teen rhetorically. "There should be law against it." He sighed as he slumped over his work table looking at the disassembled parts of the drone he was working on. "JARVIS, book me an appointment with one of the doctors at the twerps clinic and make sure that it's at the same time that his is."
'Right away, sir.'
Clark smiled, satisfied and that was all that mattered.
As the door closed to Clark's therapists office he caught a glimpse of the pencil skirt and tight top wearing leggy blonde with thick framed glasses perched on her upturned nose.
"Figures you'd get a hot blonde librarian type while I have to spill my secrets to the crusty old fossil down the hall."
Clark smirked, well at the age to be able to appreciate the members of the opposite sex but his inherent moral compass refrained him from commenting on Tony's perverted laments.
"I didn't choose her Tony," he replied instead falling into step beside his brother.
"Neither did I," said Tony nodding his head down the hall. "I blame JARVIS."
Clark shook his head as they walked down the hall of the Metropolis Mental Health Clinic, his hands in the pockets of his ever present red jacket. Tony was dressed smartly today, foregoing his usual ratty metal band t-shirts and ripped jeans in favor of a smart suit and tie ensemble. Of course with Tony he had to let his eccentric nature show, hence the bright orange sunglasses clipped to his front jacket pocket.
"So kid, JARVIS just reminded me after my session that I have to interview a PA in half an hour."
Clark glanced at him in surprise. "Since when do you need a PA?"
Tony smirked. "Since my dear old mother convinced my AI that I required handling."
Clark nodded his head, Tony was his ride back home, but if he was busy. "I... I could catch the train back home?" he proposed hesitantly wondering if his bus pass would work here. Probably not. He really needed an after school gig.
Tony stared at him, incredulous. "Don't be stupid, I'll drop you off as soon as I send interviewee number six packing."
"Number six?" he asked the older man in surprise. "what happened to the previous five?"
"Well let's see, the first one was too old, the second too young, the third wouldn't sleep with me, the fourth did sleep with me and the fifth one was a man."
Clark rolled his eyes. "And you say that you're improving?" he asked pointedly.
"Hey I'm feeling much better about my father preferring to look for his super soldier than be home for his three year old son. And she's the only woman I slept with since the last one!"
"And when was the last one?" Clark asked knowingly.
"A week ago?" he ventured absently. "I forget. Anyways let me take care of this next hopeful, it shouldn't take more than five minutes, then I'll take you home. Think your dad will mind me bunking over?"
Clark rolled his eyes. Of course his dad wouldn't mind, his dad loved Tony but didn't want him to know that since according to Harry; Tony had a big enough head as it is."
They arrived at the Metropolis branch of Stark Industries in record time with Tony running four seperate sets of lights and Clark keeping an eye out for cops through the buildings.
They came to a screeching stop in the underground garage and boarded Tony's private elevator and entered his seldom used top floor office.
"Hey Jay," said Tony. "She here?"
'Yes, sir," the voice in the walls replied. 'She's been waiting for half an hour.'
Tony shrugged as Clark grinned at the sardonic tone of his disembodied friend.
"Yeah well she can stand to wait a little bit longer," he muttered as he scrolled through the woman's credentials. "She's a looker alright," he commented crudely earning a scowl from the teen in the room, which he waved off.
'She comes highly recommended from Ms Catherine Grant herself.'
Tony's eyebrows rose at that. "Cat Grant recommending someone instead of firing their ass is a first, now I have to meet her. Send her in JARVIS."
'At once, sir.'
Kara Danvers stared out from the floor length window of the skyrise she was stood in. At one time she would have been nervous. Unsure of herself as she stood waiting to be interviewed, especially since she had arrived on time and was still waiting half an hour later. But working under a formidable and inspirational boss such as Cat Grant had given the former Kryptonian a spine of steel, so to speak. She was no longer the wilting flower that was discovered by SHIELD fifteen years ago crash landing on American soil completely bewildered and scared.
The sudden influx of powers that made it impossible for her to touch anyone without hurting them, look at anyone without burning or seeing right through them, breathing too hard and freezing them. She had been fortunate enough to be stumbled upon by two of SHIELDs Agents that didn't see her as an asset, but for who she truly was, a scared young girl whose whole world, life and family had been taken away by a catastrophe.
Agents Coulson and Fury had not sent word of her discovery up the chain of conmand, instead they took her to a retired SHIELD scientist who had left his job in light of the birth of his daughter two years ago.
Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers had taken her in despite the danger she posed to their family and Kara got a new set of parents and a little sister to boot. She had never had siblings, the closest being Kal, who she could not find. So she vowed to never abuse the trust the Danvers had put in her and she slowly fell in love with her new parents and more so with her little sister Alex.
During her early years and discovering her powers she was wary of playing with Alex in fear of hurting her. Out of necessity she had learned to control her powers to the extent that in two months she could touch the near three year old without fear of hurting her. Alex in turn was overly affectionate towards her big sister and idolized her. Now she was preparing to leave for medical school and Kara couldn't be prouder.
Kara thanked her year working at CatCo for preparing her for the strange new world that she now lived in. Cat Grant, as brash and unfeeling as she might have appeared, took Kara under her wing and taught her to stand up for herself and be proud of who she was and where she was from. Kara took her words to heart and ventured out on her own to pursue her goal to be a reporter and use CatCo's massive global reach to finally find out where her cousin had gone.
But when Cat left the company to take an indefinite leave of absence Kara felt empty inside. Most of her colleagues aside from her best friend Winn hated her because they could never garner so much as a thank you from Miss Grant while Kara had her mentorship, never mind that Cat never managed to once say her name right.
Working for Snapper Carr was not all she expected but as Cat had guided her she stood up for herself and made him see her worth, however soon she heard of a vacancy that gave her hope anew.
Tony Stark was looking a Personal Assistant. While most woman would either baulk or salivate to work for Stark, knowing his reputation, Kara had her sights set on something more intriguing that Stark possessed. She had once written an article for CatCo magazines Tech Corner about the amazing creation that was Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, which was anything but.
Starks AI was rumored to have been able to hack into the pentagon in less than ten minutes and could possibly locate anyone from anywhere in the world in seconds. If this was true then she had to get her hands on this AI. On Krypton she had some experience with AI and maybe this JARVIS could actually provide her with some hope in her erstwhile fruitless search of finding her long lost cousin.
'Hello, Ms Danvers,' said a voice startling her out of her ruminations but she didn't let her body react only turning to the speaker in the wall where the voice came from. 'I am known as JARVIS,' speak of the devil. 'Sir will see you now.'
A door to the far right opened up silently. Creepy, but she decided to go with it and walked in.
Entering the spacious top floor office the first thing she noticed was that there was more than one person in the room.
Stark of course was sat at the lone desk in the centre of the room, the very antithesis of the poise and grace that Ms Grant exuded, he was leaning back on his chair, legs crossed ontop of the desk, he was swiping through his interactive desk display and didn't even look up at her entrance.
She adjusted her glasses and took in the other person in the room. The boy stood tall, taller than her and probably Mr Stark as well. He was well built, though not overly muscular, he had sweeping dark black hair that seemed to have a stubborn fringe falling over his forehead. He was dressed in jeans and a deep red jacket with a blue t-shirt underneath. He was probably very close to Alex in age. When he turned to look at her she was arrested by his sky blue eyes. There was power in those eyes but instead of feeling fear she felt comfort from his gaze. She was confused. Who was this boy?
The boy offered the answer to that question himself. He moved towards her and offered his hand. "Ms Danvers," he asked rhetorically. "Clark Kent, pleasure to meet you," he turned back to Stark. "Tony I'll wait outside for you to finish," turning back to her. "Don't let him push you around," he said smiling disarmingly. Kara couldn't help but return his smile, she decided she liked this kid, even though his presence in this office was a mystery.
"Be nice, Tony," was his parting word to Stark to which the man sat at the desk threw a pen at the kids back, who caught the projectile without looking and tossed it back to Stark who fumbled with it before letting it fall on the floor. He scowled at the kids retreating back as Clark chuckled and left the two to their interview.
With Clark's laughter echoing in the large room Stark looked her up and down making her shiver involuntarily under his gaze before getting a hold of herself.
Stark smiled charmingly. "Take a seat Ms Danvers," he offered and she accepted folding her legs and waiting. She had chosen a slightly conservative pencil skirt and blouse combo that didn't scream sunshine and rainbows but wasn't dreary and dark either. Professional three inch heels and minimum make up completed her ensemble and she had purposely left her hair free to fall around her shoulders. She knew she looked nice, but not smoking hot and definitely not slutty but she could still feel Stark mentally undressing her. She tried to deny the internal voice in her head that said that this was not a completely unpleasant feeling.
"It says here that you were an aspiring journalist?"
Kara nodded, not knowing why this was relevant but going with it. "Yes, sir. I was a freelance reporter for a couple of years before working for CatCo, I kept a blog that I wrote articles for, it didn't really get much traction," she admitted reluctantly.
Stark nodded. "A total of four hits in three months, impressive," he commented and Kara tried desperately not to blush, her blog was one of her less prouder accomplishments that she chose not to speak of, ever. "And drop the sir," he stated firmly.
"Yes, si...," she cut herself off. "Sorry si..." this time she did blush. "I'll shut up now."
He had her on the back foot already, channel Cat she told herself, channel Cat and you'll be fine.
Stark, surprisingly, grinned at her and let his legs drop to the floor and stood up striding around the table to stand in front of her. She unconsciously checked him out and found absolutely nothing unappealing about his outward appearance, he obviously kept himself in shape and was a very attractive and charming man, if she was a more confident woman then...
She shook herself out of those thoughts. She was here for Kal, nothing else, she told herself.
"So tell me Ms Danvers," he asked still smiling. "from working under Cat Grant to working under... me?" he grinned. "How will you adjust?" she didn't like that pause after he said 'under' and shifted a little in her seat.
"I'm adaptable, Mr Stark," He didn't know how adaptable she was.
"Indeed?" He asked as he pushed off his desk to stand uncomfortably close to her. Wanting to gain a little power in this confrontation she got up herself to meet his his gaze, he wasn't much taller than her thankfully.
"I suggest you drop the Mister as well Ms Danvers," Stark whispered, he was too close.
"Then what would I address you as?" she asked equally as softly.
"Tony is fine," he said moving impossibly closer. She could feel his breath on her lips..
"T-that seems awfully familiar," she said with a slight stutter that she hoped he didn't notice.
"Familiar is how I like it," he responded as he moved in but stopped when a finger got in between their lips and Kara pushed him away from her.
"Get any more familiar with me, Tony and there won't be enough of you left to get familiar with anyone ever again!" she said with fire in her eyes.
Tony gulped as she moved in closer. "I came here for an interview not a sexual dalliance, I'll see myself out."
She whipped around and went to storm out, almost at the door before...
"You're hired!" he yelled straightening himself up and striding forward to stand in front of her blocking her way out. "I'll triple your pay from CatCo, quadruple it if you want, you'll have a company car and a personal car, all your bills covered by SI, anything you want is yours if you work for me."
Kara thought this was his way to smooch up to her because he didn't want her going to the cops or worse the press with what happened between them.
"I'm not going to report you, Mr Stark," she sighed rubbing her temple, she had just wanted a shot at finding her cousin.
"I don't care about that," he said shrugging it off. "Do you have any idea how many sexual harrasment cases I have against me, most of them merit less but there you go. What I want is that fire in your eyes when you put me in my place. I need that for the face of my company, I need to know that when push comes to shove my PA has the balls to shove right back."
Kara glared at him. "So all that back there was a test?!" she asked angrily.
Tony smirked again. "Well you've got an amazing body, nothing to be ashamed of," he said appreciatively roving his eyes over her slim form once more making her roll her eyes in exasperation. "I have to admit that if you were susceptible to my charms, I would have loved to take you to bed."
Kara huffed at him waiting for him to get to his point and trying to not let him know how much his words were affecting him.
"However, I have no shortage of women wanting to sleep with me," he said arrogantly and Kara shook her head at him in disbelief. "I didn't think I needed a PA until I saw your credentials, you essentially ran Cat Grant's life for her back in CatCo didn't you Ms Danvers?"
"Umm..."
"That's a yes, in my books!" he said cheerily. "Here's the thing, I love my job, I love inventing things and figuring out things that would take most engineers and scientists eons to figure out. I'm your basic mad scientist slash evil genius inventor, you get the drift. However the beaurecracy and the politics of being the head of a company? The hassle of meetings and decisions and sexual harrasment suits and stuff like that? I've got not time for that. So if you can handle all of that for me? It's yours for five times the pay that Cat Grant gave you."
Kara bit her lip and studied his over eager, handsome face, God she was stupid.
"Give me double Cats pay and unfettered access to your AI and you've got yourself a deal."
Tony pulled back at that. "JARVIS? What do you want with Jay?"
'Yes ma'am I find myself intrigued as to why you're interested in me?'
Kara blinked at being addressed from the AI itself. "I just find him fascinating and want to know all about him," she said admitting to herself that her explanation was not a strong one.
Tony hesitated a little more but finally nodded. "Prove to me in one week that you can handle this job and I'll show you everything you want to know about my first born," Kara frowned at the first born comment before realising that he thought of JARVIS as his son, it was kind of cute if she had to admit it.
"Fine, it's a deal." she said and Tony stuck out his hand which Kara took hesitantly but all he did was shake it and drop it.
"Great I'll have the contracts drawn up by morning and we'll see how you fare, Ms Danvers."
Kara nodded. "I'll see you then Mr St- I mean Tony," she adjusted as Tony gave her the stink eye.
She turned on her heel to leave the room again. This time in higher spirits but paused when with a knock Clark entered the room.
"Hey guys," he said hesitantly as he stepped into the room. "I'm sorry to interrupt but I heard some loud voices?"
She turned back to see Tony give Clark a knowing look, what was that all about?
Tony got back up from his desk, "Nope, everything's fine, bud. Here," he said as he stepped next to her, not too close this time. "Meet my new Personal Assistant and manager of my life for the unforeseeable future. "Ms Kara Danvers."
Kara smiled awkwardly and waved at Clark at the introduction to which he grinned and offered her his hand in congratulations.
What Kara didn't know was that Clark had a million questions running through his head but at the forefront was one loud one. 'Why, when he used his Xray vision to see into the room, couldn't he see through Kara Danvers?'
Oh will you look at that, I jus completed yet another chapter. That's two in two days. Don't get used to it folks, keep reviewing and I'll be faster in posting updates.
If you're looking for another unsolicited fanfic recommend than you should check out this Star Wars fanfic that is possibly the best competed story I have ever read.
Its an Obi Wan/Padme pairing fic titled One Path by Lionchilde. Seriously good read. Take some time for it though since it's an 800k word behemoth.
Til the next one guys, see ya. Ciao.