CW: suicide mention, emotional abuse

Toni was actually starting to feel somewhat safer in her house. JARVIS was learning every day and having Happy around was nicer than she could have ever guessed. She was no longer surrounded by panic when walking outside. Happy was there so Happy could shoot him in the face if need be. And Happy didn't have any normal gun, he had her newest design lighter, less kickback, no overheating, bullets that cause more damage, could shift its range, and quieter. And just having someone seemed to make a difference, not being alone.

Happy had perfected the split the sea of reporters movement so they couldn't touch her but you can't make the internet or TV shut up. Of course, the press had something to say about a new personal bodyguard. Usually some nonsense about him not being from the SI team, Toni ditching those that Obie forced on her or stupid shit like calling her paranoid and discussing the effect the stalker must have had. Toni had only really felt bad when Happy being dishonourably discharged came up. They, of course, didn't mention past commendations or what had gotten him in trouble that didn't matter. Someone had joked his real job was just to catch Toni when she was too drunk to stand, I mean he did that but it wasn't his only job.

Toni was now going to respectable parties so now she got drunk on the most expensive drinks, and she also noticed these parties with people who had money from "real business" had even less food to soak up the alcohol than the parties with B list celebrities. They were also distinctly less interesting old white men talking about stocks and politics, they kinda sucked. The occasional tongue slips letting out dirty laundry was the only real entertainment. Toni actually stayed mostly out of the headlines even in tabloid rags, turned out people would rather get shots of Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio or Uma Thurman which like, duh. And when they wanted business answers and shit Obie was better at answering so she just had to be uninteresting and people left her alone most of the time.

After being able to stay uninteresting for three whole months she got a call from Obie.

"Hello, Antonia."

"What's up?" Toni replied.

"I was thinking you should come into the business in an official capacity. You have shown you have the ability to indulge in your less than press-friendly personal life out of the spotlight. With that newfound self-control, your intelligence can really shine now. I think RND would be a good place to start, you can manage the projects and learn some leadership skills as well as be directly under me."

"Oh. Um." Toni picked at the scab on her arm, the skin was still painfully raw. Being 'directly under him' was particularly disturbing language, but she knew he, well probably, more meant he could watch over her and no middle manager would be fucking it up. "Yes, of course. I will"

"That's wonderful Antonia. I think it would please your father and you are pleasing me."

"Thank you, Obie. I love you."

"Oh, ah right, Love you too."

She felt that odd sense of comfort and fear all mixed up that Obie brought.

~~~~~

Toni learned that managing even just a section of a company took a lot of work and Toni wasn't a particularly organized person, and even if she was the literal owner people assumed she would be weak. Toni would have to wear her armour all day long Not show her anxiety, not get over-excited, make sure people knew everything, not let people get close. This technique meant everyone switched to saying that she was a bitch, but a smart bitch so they all fell in line when it came to her inventions. Next, to bitch, the other common descriptions were disrespectful and distant. But it worked out fine, she didn't need them to like her.

Toni had given the mail boys orders the first day to put everything on the shelf by the door. They thought she was mad but did it. However one day a new person started and they had apparently not gotten the memo. She was on the main floor looking over prototypes when the idiot placed a box in her hands. A surge of fear shot through Toni's spine and dropped the box on the ground and stared at her hands. She simultaneously knew there wasn't blood but somehow felt there had to be, then some other goddamn idiot touched her back which was just not at all helpful. Anxiety had settled into her stomach and the world was blurred.

Toni mumbled incoherently and stumbled back to her office and slammed the door shut. After that day Toni was a crazy bitch. However, if Toni had to describe herself she would be an overwhelmed bitch.

~~~~~

One day Toni found herself at the coffee stand, everyone stared at her because they probably thought she only drank some expensive coffee but caffeine was caffeine. Happy had come with her and accepted the coffee on her behalf without her even prompting him, very nice she didn't want to deal with any of that stress. Not ready to go back to work she slumped on the wall.

"Paperwork is an invention of the devil. It's meant to slowly drive every human crazy!" Toni muttered, sipping the over hot coffee.

"Yes, boss."

"Happy why has god forsaken me?"

Happy just rolled his eyes, shaking his head in amusement.

Toni squinted her eyes at the suddenly interesting scene in front of her.

A man, presumably someone who worked there, was grabbing some poor girl's ass. She asked him to stop and like every other asshole he didn't, then she slapped him, Toni smiled at that. The giant dick then grabbed the girl's arm making Toni's heart rate jump. She turned to Happy and with an unspoken agreement they walked over and Toni slid her sunglasses down

Happy tapped his shoulder, and Toni said: "You're gonna stop now."

"Why should I?"

"I'm Antonia Stark and I can fire you, but more urgently Happy here has rather large fists and an unreleased Stark gun," Toni said, her heart beating in her ears, years of conditioning trying to get her to stop, shut up or run.

He fumbled some words that Toni couldn't care less about and backed away.

"You didn't need to do that." The strawberry blond lady said.

"I did, I figured you were tired of trying to stop him." Toni drawled, "and I wouldn't mind watching Happy beat some rapey dude's ass."

"Ugh well, thanks. He is the worst. He clearly doesn't understand the word stop. You think he would he's in the PR department."

"Are you PR?"

"Yup."

"I'm really sorry. I'm Toni Stark." Toni smiled

"I'm Virginia Potts." Ms Potss returned her smile.

"Nice to meet you."

"I'm going up," she gestured to the elevator.

"What a coincidence we are too."

"You know you are a nightmare for our team. You can go out the back door, you know?"

"But they like taking photos of my drunk ass," Toni said, mock apologetic.

"It's not the drunk photos everyone expects, it's when you say words."

"Yeah, those are not my best. I mean paperwork is all useless words, I was just saying that it's a curse from the devil! All words nothing to build and half of isn't even numbers, I do science!"

"See I like words, my best subject was English. The boss also seems to think calendars aren't your thing, did Hades invent those too?"

"I think it was Loki, he does the tricks right?"

"It was nice meeting you, Ms Stark." Ms Potts said, stepping out of the door with a soft smile.

"And you Ms Potts"

The door shut and then Toni pressed the down button, shooting Happy a sheepish look.

"I think we made a new friend." Toni smiled, "Hey J?"

/I am already following the "Who the fuck is this' protocol./

"Thanks, bud," Toni said

"You do realise when you talk to yourself you look a bit crazy?"

" Oh Happy you're behind we all know I am crazy."

~~~~~

Toni looked over the file that laid out the life of Virginia Potts. Born February third 1980. Her mother resided in Florida, no other living family. Other side of the country? Not close then. She was currently the PA to the newly replaced vice manager of PR which Toni was honestly unsure why that was a thing. She went to NYU and got a degree in Public Relations and was currently trying to get an MBA. She had a few complaints in her company file and one from college for what amounted to "I'm not gonna let douchebags walk all over me" and she talked her way out of actually being punished, as well as a parking ticket. Toni smiled, she liked Ms Potts and Toni needed an assistant it was deeply unfair she hadn't even been offered one.

Toni walked up to see Pepper staring at a stack of papers.

"Hello, Ms Potts," Toni said.

"Hello, Ms Stark."

"I'd like a word."

They stepped into the office that had been recently vacated.

"I was wondering if you would like an upgrade to be my PA," Toni said after Pepper shut the door.

"You're firing yours?" Ms Potts looked suspicious.

"No it seems Obie didn't think I needed one, but I'm not too proud to admit that I can't keep my own schedule, let alone follow it. And honestly, I'm rather useless at anything that isn't a machine."

"I'm not buying you drugs."

"Oh, so neither PA's or African princes will buy me drugs." Toni sighed over dramatically

Ms Potts just raised her eyebrow, which was apparently a universal reaction to Toni.

"I wasn't going to ask you to do anything that you don't want. I respect the word no."

"I think we should have a business lunch," Pepper said, meeting Toni's eyes.

A sly smile slid across Toni's mouth and she clicked her tongue. Toni checked her phone. It was eleven-thirty it seemed JARVIS had let her sleep in. "So now?"

"Why not?" Pepper shrugged.

They took lunch at a ridiculously expensive but highly tasty bistro-like thing. Toni didn't even need to order the Chef knew hers, Ms Potts got a salad and soup made with meat from some sacred cow and clams from the Caribbean or some such nonsense.

Toni gave the pitch; the salary was triple, she had killer benefits (which Toni loosely defined as vacation and you won't have to pay for surgery), the hours would probably suck, Toni didn't expect her to do anything illegal she wasn't going to do already, she would get to travel for free as Toni now had to go check on other RND sites, and Toni wouldn't sexually harass her.

Ms Potts then asked her all kinds of technical questions Toni didn't have an answer for.

"Okay I have a suggestion, you can write your own contract, I and a lawyer will go over it. I'll probably sign it as long as you aren't like making me do something really crazy like give you the company or my firstborn."

"I'm gonna write my own contract?"

"Yeah I'll print out with a nice Stark Industries logo and we can sign it."

"You just have no idea what you are doing?"

"With hiring people? No, Howard did it, then Obie. The only person I ever hired was Happy and our contract was a handshake on a bench."

"That's not legal."

"I had people write something up later, apparently the IRS likes to arrest people for income that just happens."

Pepper couldn't even say anything. Getting to write her own contract, getting ridiculous amounts of money and free travel sounded like a dream job. However, staring at the woman, well really a girl only nineteen, told her this would be a ridiculous job and something told her she would probably be attempting to hold Toni from falling off a cliff more than organizing papers.

"I don't think you know what you're doing with life." Mrs Potts slowly nodded slightly, eyes slightly narrowed.

Toni smiled, the kind of smile she gave Rhodey warm and not at all like she was currently considering murder you, or like she was stoned out of this reality.

"Oh hell, I like a challenge." Ms Potts gave in

"You can email me anytime with your version of a contract."

Toni was pleased that JARVIS informed Toni that the contract drawn up by Ms Potts was satisfactory. Toni threw in that she would give Ms Potts time to finish her degree. So in two days time, Ms Potts entered Toni's house as her official PA.

"Welcome to my home, Ms Potts. Like anything to drink?"

"That would be good. But I'm here to organize your schedule. This isn't a social call..."

"I know that." Toni rolled her eyes," JARVIS start some coffee for the lovely lady."

"At Once" JARVIS answered

Ms Potts jumped at the voice from nowhere and marked the coffee pot coming to life on its own.

"You have a robot house?" She said amused honestly that was the least surprising thing about Toni Stark.

"JARVIS is my pride and glory, the most intelligent of my children."

"Right." Ms Potts said, of course how obvious.

They sat on the couch and Toni listened to Ms Potts go through schedules and budgets. Ms Potts was very organized which was opposite to Toni but her voice told Toni she found a lot of it extremely annoying too. Of course, it couldn't go completely like a real business meeting because Ms Potts attempted to hand Toni the tablet and she flinched back. Toni stayed stiff for a second taking a long breath.

"I'm sorry I don't like being handed things," Toni muttered in explanation.

"Right Ms Stark," Ms Potts said, setting it on the table allowing Toni to take it up. They continued like nothing odd had just happened. It was deeply appreciated, Toni didn't feel like discussing bloody mail.

After two weeks they had slid into a pretty comfortable pattern Ms Potts dragging Toni to things she absolutely must attend but she was a PR person through and through able to diplomatically get them out of anything non-essential. Ms Potts quickly learned to cover for Toni's weirdness, and was better at keeping her from calling random people names or using not so polite language to the reporters who hung around randomly.

~~~~~

One day they sat in Toni's lab while Ms Potts was reading a suggestion from RND and Toni gave approval and Ms Potts expertly signed Toni's signature.

"Ms Potts... what.. Can I call you something else? Ms Potts makes me think I'm talking to a teapot."

"My friends call me Pepper."

"Pepper Potts, I like that solid nickname."

Pepper was caught off guard when they got upstairs and a man in an army uniform, who she guessed was probably Rhodey, stood guard at the lab door.

Toni pushed past Pepper and leapt into Rhodey's arms. It was a surprise but her Rhodey Bear was back, sure without warning but how could she complain?

"Hey Baby girl."

"Rhodey bear."

"Have you eaten, and when's the last time you slept ?" He said seriously, giving her a very serious once over.

"Always the mother. Give Mama Rhodey a run for her money."

But Toni put up no fight as they ate take out in the living room. Pepper felt a bit out of place as the other two seemed to be able to talk without words, but not unwelcome as they were willing to catch her up. Toni eventually fell asleep curled into Rhodey. Pepper was a bit surprised as she watched Rhodey expertly put the younger girl to bed like it was something he did every day.

"Ms Potts we have things to discuss," Rhodey said sternly once it was just the two of them.

"We do?" Pepper said challengingly.

"Toni is everything to me, and if she wants you around then I'm not gonna be mad at her for it robots really can't be your only social interaction, ah no offence JARVIS."

"I am not offended, I know Ms Toni needs more than I can provide" JARVIS sounded sad. Could an AI be sad? Pepper guessed Stark AI probably could, it seemed to have sassed her before.

"So you have to decide if you're going to be a distant professional, keep your distance or not. She is difficult and god knows aggravating. But you must understand more than anything she is fragile and self-destructive. She plays at an in control rude socialite but she'll let you run all over her if she likes you. Don't take advantage of that."

"I'm the employee, doesn't it generally go the other way? The boss takes advantage of the PA?" Pepper said annoyed.

"Look I don't have a problem with you, but I'm saying don't let her get attached if this is just a stop off to better things in six months. And if you can't hack the crazy I suggest you leave now. But if you want to help me, the bots and Happy in keeping her alive. You have some things to know. So do you intend to stick it out?"

"I took this offer, aware I this would not be a traditional job,"

"Okay then. Mostly just try and make sure she doesn't die? She's stupid about taking care of herself. '' Rhodey explained, "besides that, don't let yourself get too stressed out by the drama of Stark's and JARVIS you hook her up?"

"Certainly," JARVIS said

"You are now on the emergency Toni service. It means JARVIS can alert you in an emergency. SOS green means she's fine but might be about to dumb. SOS yellow means real danger is possible. And SOS red is for during an attack or if she has... harmed herself."

"What do you mean?" Peper asked

"Toni has attempted suicide in the past," Rhodey said sliding his hand over his chin, it wasn't really his job to tell anyone Toni's secrets but he always felt guilty being gone so much and having someone else in their corner was crucial.

Pepper's breath caught in her throat she met Rhodey's steady gaze. She shouldn't be caught off guard. It wasn't surprising, but Rhodey was basically telling her he was trusting Pepper with Toni's life and that was a lot.

"I can't tell you why, if you have to know to ask her. And thank you ."

"Right"

"Also Ms Potts you will find your phone has received other upgrades. A thank you for helping me protect my creator." JARVIS said.

"Oh yeah, thanks."

The next few days Toni and Pepper were both surprised how easy it was for Rhodey, Happy Pepper and Toni to work in a seamless manner. Toni enjoyed having her there a lot and she got along with Rhodey very well. Even when Rhodey left it didn't trigger the same destabilization. It was like maybe they could reach some kind of new normal.

Toni was doing better lately. Turns out Peppers ruthless but caring nature was good to help keep her focused. She also had a death glare to rival Toni's. Turns out not being seen as a complete failure meant now she could be seen by and used in polite society.

Toni hated being part of corporate culture more than anything but schmoozing seemed to be part of the Game, so Toni played. Even if every benefit or dance made her soul ache for the original Jarvis. Every blank face was her mother's, every dominating handshake was Howard's hands. And Obie generally likes to be with Toni after these events adding a new layer of misery when they came around knowing she wouldn't even have her own home as refuge afterwards.