Hello, hello all! Here come's the first chapter in the Iron Man verse and man am I so excited! I love the dynamics between Tessa and Tony! They're so much fun to write together! I hope you guys enjoy it and continue to hang out and see where the story keeps leading! Of course, I will throw out the disclaimer that I have no rights over anything Marvel. With that being said, up up and awayyyy we go! Enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn
Tessa sat at the workbench, her fingers wrapped around the soldering tool, carefully attaching the wires to the metal brackets laid out before her. She had been working on plans for a type a exo-suit for the past month, having wanted to develop a way to help people who had suffered paralyzed limbs move about freely. Most of the work she had developed over the years had been centered around medical advances. That part deep within her that had driven her to become a nurse in the first place couldn't help but want to do what she could in helping the wounded and advantageous. She may not have been able to actually work at a hospital bedside anymore, but that didn't mean she couldn't still do her part.
She had come into the workshop in the early hours of the morning to tinker away, not having been able to sleep much the night before. Tony was scheduled to do a weapons presentation for his new Jericho missile in Afghanistan and Tessa's nerves wouldn't let her get sleep. She had never liked his work in weaponry. But she also knew that Tony was…well Tony. She knew he was going to do as he pleased regardless of any opinions she had. She had learned to accept his decisions when it came to running Stark Industries, but she couldn't help but feel that he could do so much more with his life.
Tony Stark was a genius, and he knew it. He had inherited his father's incredible capacity for knowledge and his desire to invent new technology. While he was capable of great things, under the watchful eye and guidance of Obadiah Stane (Tony's long-time business partner), Tony chose instead to design and develop weapons under government contracts. And while it was true Stark Industries had never before held so much profit, Tessa couldn't help but feel that it was blood money.
So, there she sat, stewing in her thoughts, as she worked on the prototype for the leg brace. It had been over a decade since Howard and Maria's deaths. After Tony woke up and sobered up the next day, Tessa had confessed everything to him, or nearly everything. There were certain things from her past, like Bucky, Steve and her time in the war that she was careful not to get into much detail about. But, as far as her powers went and how Howard had helped hide her away for the decades since her transformation…she was totally honest. She told him how she was there to greet him into this world. And she told him how he was the only family she had left.
She was right to trust Tony with her secret. Not only did he do his part in keeping her existence hidden from the world, through the years he had managed to forge a deep bond with her, and he couldn't help but feel like she was the only family he had left either. He found it easy to talk to her. About everything. About all the things he felt about his father. About all the things he was too scared to admit to anyone else. She became his confidant and he found it much easier to deal with loosing his parents with her at his side. He knew that no matter what, she was there to support him, and she knew that he would do anything in his power to help her, too.
One of the perks of his "help" was allowing her night and day access to his personal workshop. As Tessa couldn't live much of a life outside in the real world, she reveled in being able to stretch her mind and tinker away in the safety of the shop. And his obscene wealth meant she was able to experiment in a lot of ways, never having to worry over the restrictions of finances. She was never bored in that workspace. In fact, she had spent the large majority of the past few years in the large space built into the basement of his Miami home. Which is where she sat, music playing softly behind her as she worked away.
As she was focused on the fusing metal in her hands, the door opening caught her attention and she swung her eyes over to find Tony striding into the room, his hair disheveled and a tilted smile on his face. Tessa raised her eyebrow at him, as he shuffled over towards her, before she looked back down at her project. "Aren't you supposed to be halfway to the middle east right now?" she asked, still focused on the melting wire.
"Mmm. One of the perks of owning your own airplane. It leaves when I say it leaves." He responded, coming to a stand behind her. "Besides, maybe I just wanted to spend a little time with you." He said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and giving her a squeeze. Tessa crinkled her nose as the smell of liquor hit her nostrils.
"Mhm." She said rolling her eyes. "Sure it didn't have anything to do with whatever girl you've got up in your bed right now?" she asked, looking up at him with a knowing look.
He just grinned down at her. "So, whatcha workin' on?" he asked her before noticing the large mug sitting on the desk. "Oh! Coffee!" he said, grabbing hold of the still steaming cup of freshly made, caffeine-laced beverage.
Tessa let out a breath of exasperation as she watched him gulp down the coffee she had made for herself. But after all her years of knowing him, she had grown use to his eccentric and bubbly personality. In all honesty, she adored it. He always knew just what to say or do to make Tessa laugh or smile and she wouldn't change him for anything. She just rolled her eyes at him before lifting up the piece of metal that was slowly taking on the appearance of a leg.
"Proto-synthetic robotic limb manipulation." He commented, looking over the device. "Cool, can I help?" he asked.
Tessa set her creation back down on the table. "No." she told him, looking up at him like he was out of his mind. "I'm not letting you use me as your scapegoat when Rhodey comes storming in here looking for you." She said in refusal. While Tony's best friend didn't know everything about Tessa, he knew enough to know that Tessa was in hiding. He had assumed it was some sort of extreme witness protection program or something and had never asked more than that. He worked for the military, so he was good with secrets. So, Tessa was comfortable with him knowing about her part in Tony's life. Which was good considering Tony and him were so close and it would have been damn near impossible to stay hidden from him, too.
"Ah, come on." He persisted. "Just a little then I promise to head out to the airstrip." He promised.
Tessa looked up to his imploring face, his lip ridiculously stuck out like a begging child's. "Fine." She relented with a laugh. "An hour, then you get your ass out of here." She told him, pointing her tool at him.
"Yay." He let out like a child who was just told they could help bake cookies with their mom. He pulled over a stool to the other side of the table and began working with Tessa. Tony had pulled up a screen in front of him and was jotting down ideas to improve on Tessa's design, bouncing his ideas off of her while she would tweak or alter certain aspects to better fit her needs. They worked together like two well-oiled gears. They bounced their ideas off of each other and worked on constructing the models, using J.A.R.V.I.S. to help store their ideas. She always found that her designs would come together much quicker with Tony's help.
It was well past an hour when Tessa finally sat back in her chair as she watched Tony work on the hinge mechanism. She crossed her arms as she watched him work and couldn't help but think that this was the type of thing she wished he would invest his time and money into….not weapons.
"I can feel you staring." Tony said, not looking up from work. She let out a deep sigh, turning her head away. Her serious mood caused Tony to pause and look up at her. "What?" he asked.
"I was just thinking that Stark Industries would be better served if focused on projects like this. Projects meant for helping." She admitted.
"Stark Industries is up four hundred percent from last quarter. We're doing better than my father even dreamed of." He stated flatly.
"Not everything's about profit, Tony." She said, looking back over at him, her face drawn down in seriousness.
Tony dropped the hinge down on the table, crossing his own arms as he gave her his full attention. "What I'm doing is helping. People don't win wars. Weapons do." He said, Tessa finding it ironic that he had unknowingly said the direct opposite of what Philips did all those years ago the first day he met Steve.
"Wars don't need stoked. They need extinguished." She countered with a shake of her head.
"War is part of the human condition. I'm just doing my part in making sure we win it." He said back.
"Is that Tony Stark I hear talking, or Obadiah?" she asked, not liking him sound more and more like the man every day. It was true, Tessa was not a fan of Obadiah Stane or the thoughts he put in Tony's head. "War is hell Tony." She continued. "No." she then said with a shake of her head "No, it's worse than hell. You'll only find guilty men in Hell. War doesn't discriminate against who it takes. Sinners. Innocents. Men. Women. Children. War takes them all and it's Stark weapons doing the killing." She said, sick of men's eternal desire for carnage.
"So, what? You think I'd be disappointing the old man?" he asked Tessa with a scoff. "In case you haven't noticed Stark Industries was built on war." He said in defense.
"I never said your father didn't make mistakes." Tessa said, knowing how sensitive a topic Howard was to Tony. "Hell, we've all made mistakes. Me more than most." She admitted with a sigh. "But that's why you have got to learn from the mistakes we've made. I don't expect you to fill your father shoes Tony, not when you can outgrow them. You're capable of being a better man than he ever was. And you are capable of so much more than a legacy bathed in blood." She said, hoping at least a trace of what she was telling him would sink in. "I'm proud of what you've accomplished Tony. And I'll always be proud of you, but one day you're going to realize that you could do something to change the world. I mean really change it. And I just hope you're not to busy trying to overcome the shadow of a ghost to let that opportunity pass you by."
They sat in silence for a moment, Tony's eyebrows pulled down as he processed her words. He opened his mouth to say something before they heard the door's keypad being activated and they both turned to find Tony's assistant, Pepper Potts, pulling open the glass door. She looked rather annoyed and in a hurry as she strode into the workshop. "You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now." She scolded.
Tony's hand shot out and pointed at Tessa across the table. "It's her fault." He shot out quickly. Tessa rolled her eyes at his antics, glad to see she hadn't spoiled his entire mood.
"And by she, I'm assuming you mean the half-naked woman strolling around upstairs." Pepper shot back, looking down at the papers in her hand, clearly not buying his attempts at passing the blame onto Tessa.
Tessa's lips drew up in a smile. She had grown rather fond of the red-haired woman over the years she had been employed by Tony. Pepper was one of the only people who wasn't afraid to put Tony in his place and put up with his nonsense. In fact, there were times that she liked Pepper Potts more than Tony himself, if that were even possible. The woman kept him in check and his life running smoothly, which she was immensely grateful for. Tessa was positive that Tony's life would fall apart without her constant overseeing of everything. There was a part of her that wished Tony would just come to his senses and appreciate that woman for the powerhouse she was instead of constantly filling his bed with the endless parade of cheap women.
"How'd she take it?" Tony asked, looking back at Pepper.
"Like a champ." She said with a sigh, finally looking back up from her paperwork to him. "You're flight was scheduled to leave hours ago." She told him exasperated, before her eyes slide over to Tessa.
"Don't look at me, I told him the same thing and tried to force him out of here the moment he walked in." she said with a raised eyebrow.
"And I'll tell you the same thing I told her." He said, pointing from Pepper to Tessa. "My plane, my time."
Pepper rolled her eyes, knowing it was of no use to try to argue the matter. "Tony, I need to speak to you about a couple things." She said instead, turning the topic to the endless list of matters she had to attend to on a daily.
"I mean, doesn't that kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane?" he said, ignoring her words. "If it departs before you arrive." Tessa kicked her leg out and connected the tip of her boot with Tony's shin. Reprimanding him for not listening to the busy woman. "OW." He said, far too dramatically for how gently she had kicked him. Tessa gave him a firm look as he glared across the table at her. "She just kicked me." He told Pepper, motioning in her direction.
"Good." Pepper said looking over her papers again. "Larry called." She said starting to relay the information she had for him. "He's got another buyer for the Jackson Pollock in the wings. Do you want it, yes or no?" she asked shortly.
"Is it a good representation of his spring period?" he asked.
"Uh, no. The Springs was actually the neighborhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked. Not spring, like the season." She tried to explain to him.
Tessa couldn't help but let out a snicker as she listened to Tony try to talk about art like he actually knew what he was talking about. Tony took his turn in kicking her shin then. "What's your opinion on it?" he asked Pepper.
"Uh…I think it's a fair representation." She said with a tilt of her head. "I think that it's incredibly overpriced though." She told him honestly. Tessa shook her head, knowing that wouldn't stop Tony. In fact, it would probably make him want it even more.
"I need it." Tony said, confirming Tessa's suspicions. "Buy it. Store it." He told her.
"O-okay." Pepper replied, making a note on her papers. "The MIT commencement speech." She then said, moving onto the next topic.
"Is in June." Tony said. "Please don't harangue me about stuff that's way, way down the line." He told her, not being able to handle anything more than a few days away.
"Well they're haranguing me, so I'm going to say yes." She responded, letting his comment slide off of her. "I need you to sign this before you get on that plane." She said pushing a paper in his direction.
"What are you both trying to get rid of me so bad for?" he asked, looking between the two women as he scribbled his name down on the paper. "What, you got plans?"
"As a matter of a fact I do." Pepper told him and it was then that the date registered in Tessa's brain and she knew why she couldn't shake the feeling that she was forgetting something all morning.
"I don't like it when you have plans." Tony told her.
"It's her birthday Tony. She's allowed to have plans." Tessa said, knowing if she forgot, then Tony absolutely forgot.
"It's her birthday?" Tony asked Tessa in surprise before swiveling back around to Pepper. "It's your birthday?"
"Yes." She said with a sigh.
"I knew that." He defended.
"No, you didn't." Tessa said, calling him out.
"Yeah, isn't it strange how birthdays fall on the same day every year." Pepper said, doing her best not to let it affect her that Tony had forgotten….again.
"Well, get yourself something nice for me." Tony said, feeling bad.
"Don't worry, Tessa already did." Pepper told him, referring to the antique pearl necklace and matching bracelet she had gifted the woman last week knowing her birthday was coming up, and also knowing Tony's remarkable ability to forget the mundane things like that.
"And?" Tony asked, looking from Tessa back up to Pepper.
"Oh, it was very nice." She told him with a smile. "Thank you."
"Well, you're welcome." Tony said with a smile as he came to a stand. "Happy birthday. I'm sorry I forgot."
"How about you get out of here and onto that plane and we'll call it even." She told him with a smirk.
"Deal." Tony said with a nod, brushing past her. "Tess! Don't burn my house down while I'm gone!" he called back to her as he walked through the room towards the door.
Tessa rolled her eyes at him. "Goodbye, Tony!" she called after him. "Be safe!" He threw up a thumb over his shoulder as he pulled open the door and left, jogging up the stairs until he disappeared from view.
Pepper looked back down at Tessa once he had left. "Seriously, thank you for the gift. It means a lot." She said in appreciation.
"It's the least I could do, considering all you do for Tony." Tessa told her, standing up and walking around the table. "Happy birthday Pepper." She said, pulling her into a quick hug. "Now, get out of here and enjoy it without worrying about Tony Stark for five minutes!" she told her with a laugh as they pulled apart.
"Thanks." Pepper said with her own smile. "Bye." She said, turning around and heading out the door as well, leaving Tessa alone once again.
Once silence filled the air again, Tessa's mind began to circle back to the thoughts that had been plaguing her earlier. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She never got a chance to get a response form Tony about what she had told him. She just had to wait and hope that he would consider her words. Until then, she made her way back over to the table and continued her work as her mind continued to worry about Tony's choices and where they led him.