My head hurts, my armpit hurts, my boobs hurt, but I'm not going to get COVID any time soon, so I think that's a fair trade.
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Midtown, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Tony sat down at his desk and sighed. It was finally the day he had been dreading, board meeting day. He had been avoiding the board of directors all week and he could not put it off anymore. The only mercy he had been granted was that most of the board was at Stark Industries Headquarters in Malibu. So, he would not have to deal with the rage in person. Just on Skype, but he figured that it would be easier to handle since you cannot hit people over Skype. However, there was still one person he would have to face in person during this meeting.
He still had not talked to Pepper. It was not like he had not had a chance to. They had seen each other since their argument, but they only discussed company-related matters and the lawsuit did not come up at all. It created an uncomfortable strain between them, but he would rather deal with that than get into an argument about it again. Overall, he just wanted it to go away, but he knew Pepper would not let that happen. She wanted everyone to be held responsible and for that, Tony could not blame her. If there was a way to try the hotel and the police without the video footage, he would, but that just was not possible, so hence the impasse.
So, he and Pepper were still at odds, which considerably soured Tony's mood. Then there was the fact that his personal assistant was out fighting to keep her ex away from her. As annoying as Lara could be, Tony still enjoyed her company and not having her there would make things a little bit harder, but at least he was expecting her not to be there. What he was not expecting was the person who walked straight into his office without even knocking.
"Good morning, Mr. Stark," she said without preamble. "I hope I haven't run late." Tony looked at her like she had three heads.
"No, you're not," he said. "Especially considering you're not supposed to be here. What are you doing, Romanoff?" She pushed back a loose strand of red hair and sighed.
"Miss Conroy asked me to cover for her today." Tony raised an eyebrow.
"She asked you?" Romanoff confirmed this. "Why?"
"Because she knew I worked as your personal assistant in the past…"
"No," Tony cut her off. "You've spied on me in the past. You've never worked as my personal assistant." Romanoff rolled her eyes.
"That's semantics," she said.
"No," Tony said. "It's the truth."
"I did the job, didn't I?" Romanoff's voice raised a bit with each word she spoke. Tony scoffed.
"Yeah, you did," he said. "And I'm sure Fury was very proud." Romanoff sighed again.
"Listen, Stark," she said. "I don't want to fight you on this."
"Sure, you don't," he dismissed.
"I'm doing this as a favor to Lara," Romanoff explained. "So, if you don't want to talk to me, that's fine, but let me do what I promised to do."
Tony took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. Realizing that was not going to help him to keep from snapping at her, he got up from his chair and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Across the hall." That answer proved to be enough to keep Romanoff from following him. However, because he answered with that, it ended up being the only place his brain could think of to go. As such, he did not realize what he had just done until he was already in Pepper's office, taking in the surprised look on her face.
"Tony?"
Shit! He tried to figure out what to say as Pepper got up and rounded her desk to approach him. The only thing he could think of was "I know we're kind of fighting and avoiding a certain issue right now, but can we just not talk about it and can you help me to avoid dealing with another issue entirely?" Yeah, he had a feeling that would not fly with Pepper, especially with the concerned look she was sporting.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "I wasn't expecting you this early."
"Nothing, nothing." Tony hoped that he was coming across as unbothered but could not definitively tell due to Pepper's worry. "I was actually wondering if you'd be willing to talk right now?" It was a lie, but it got Pepper to drop the concerned look in exchange for one of surprise.
"Oh," she said. "Yeah, of course. Just wait one second." She gestured to the small sitting area before turning to go back to her computer. "Sit down. Make yourself comfortable."
Tony did exactly that, sitting down on one of the leather couches. Pepper added that she just needed to finish replying to an e-mail and she would be right with him. Tony did not mind. It gave him more time to figure out what he was doing.
Being an idiot, his mind instantly supplied, much to his chagrin. Still, he had no idea where to take this. All he wanted to do was get out of the frying pan and ended up in the fire. …Actually, it would probably be more apt to say he got out of the fire only to end up in the frying pan, as his issues with Pepper were far less serious than his issues with Romanoff.
That is when it clicked with him. He was not as upset with Pepper as he was with Romanoff for sharing the video. Everyone else he could forgive for watching the video. Steve, Clint, Bruce, and Lara needed to in order to find him and Pepper and Happy were just concerned for him. He could even forgive Pepper for filing the lawsuit. She wanted people to be held accountable for what happened to him and he could understand that.
What he could not understand was why Romanoff shared the video. The most plausible reason to Tony was that she wanted to hurt or humiliate him, and if that really was her intention, then she succeeded. However, there was one thing that kept him from fully believing that and it was the fact that she sent the video to Pepper instead of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the media. If she really wanted to hurt him in the worst way possible, she would have sent the video to one of them, but she did not, and he could not ignore that.
Still, if she did not want to hurt him, then he could not see why she would even bother in the first place. There had to be a reason. If there was one thing, he could give Romanoff, it was that she never did anything without a reason. He respected that about her.
After about a minute or so, Pepper finished replying to her e-mail and came over to sit beside him. Only then did Tony start trying to string together what he wanted to say.
"So," Pepper said. "What did you want to talk about?"
"It's about the lawsuit." Slowly, Pepper nodded.
"Okay." She kept the word soft and short and gave him a look that gently urged him to explain further.
"I understand what you're doing and why you're doing it," he said carefully, still trying to figure out exactly what he was doing. "If the situation were different, I'd be right with you."
"But…" Pepper trailed off.
"But," Tony said with a sigh. "I don't want to relive that night." Pepper nodded.
"Understandable," she said. "But you won't have to. We do not need your testimony. You can see everything happen in the video."
"I know," he said. "That's not what I'm worried about."
"Then what are you…" Then it clicked in Pepper's head. "You're worried about the video leaking."
"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" Pepper rolled her eyes at the remark, but quickly shifted to a more reassuring expression.
"I don't know what to tell you, then," she said. "I told JARVIS to protect the file because I knew it was the safest thing possible to do."
"That's good," Tony said. "That reassures me a bit." Pepper frowned.
"A bit?" she questioned. "Not totally?" Tony shook his head and a disbelieving look crossed Pepper's face. "Why? I mean you trust JARVIS with everything. I can't imagine why you'd doubt him."
"I don't doubt JARVIS," Tony said solidly. "But I know you're eventually going to have to hand the video over to the court. They're the ones I don't trust."
"I still don't know what to tell you," she said. "It's an inevitable thing that's going to have to happen as we proceed with the lawsuit."
"So, I take that to mean it's too late to talk you out of this." Pepper gave him a small, sympathetic smile.
"I'm sorry," she said. "But you know this isn't right." Tony looked down but nodded.
"I know," he said. "As I said, I'd be right with you if the circumstances were different."
"I get it," Pepper said. "You don't need to explain it again."
"Yeah," Tony said. "I can agree to disagree, though, and I won't try to stop you." The look on Pepper's face perfectly encapsulated the surprise Tony was feeling inside.
"Are you serious?" she asked. "You won't delete the video?"
"No," Tony said, and he genuinely meant it. "I know the consequences of doing it outweigh the risks of not, and if it makes you feel better, I promise I won't." Pepper's eyes widened.
"Wow," she said. "Thank you, but now I just feel worse about filing the lawsuit without talking to you first."
"Yeah," Tony started to say, but he stopped himself as a regretful look crossed Pepper's face.
"I'm sorry." Her voice was sincere, leaving no doubt in Tony's mind that she meant it.
"I can't blame you," he said. "But I can forgive you." Pepper let out a breath of relief.
"Good, good," she said. "I'm glad."
"Do you know why Romanoff sent you the video, though?" Pepper looked around, unsure of how to answer.
"I assumed it was because she was concerned about you."
"Did she say that?" Tony asked.
"No," Pepper said. "I haven't talked to her since then."
"What exactly did she say when she sent you the video?"
"Not much," Pepper said. "It was just an e-mail with the subject 'you need to see this,' a brief rundown of the situation, and the video." Tony leaned back, pinching the bridge of his nose. "What's wrong?" Tony let out a breath as he pulled his hand away from his face.
"Conroy asked Romanoff to cover for her today." Pepper looked unperturbed.
"Okay," she said. "What's the problem with that?" Tony looked at her like she had four heads.
"Let's start with the fact that she's nowhere near qualified for the position," he said.
"Yes," Pepper said. "She's extremely overqualified for the position. We went over this last time."
"And last time she used her position to spy on me," Tony said. "So, I think I have a right to be a bit wary of her."
"She still did the job, though," Pepper pointed out.
"You can't be serious." Pepper shrugged.
"Alright," she said. "I'll admit that I didn't like that she did nothing to stop you when you threw that crazy party…" Tony winced slightly at the memory. "…But outside of that she didn't do that bad of a job."
"Except for the part where she spied on me." Pepper was non-pulsed.
"And that's all even now, right?" Tony furrowed his brow.
"How could it be even?" he asked.
"Well, you're on the same team now," Pepper said. "You've saved the world together. That has to account for something."
"Yeah," Tony said. "We saved the world together with a team she didn't even want me on. Nothing accounts for anything here."
"Has she had any objections to your presence since you've been on the team?" Tony's face fell.
"Well, no, but…"
"No buts," Pepper said, holding up her index finger to silence his objection. "Has she, or has she not?" Tony looked down.
"No," he admitted.
"So, what does that tell you?" Pepper asked.
"That she hasn't gotten around to it yet." With everything that had been going on at the time, it was plausible. However, the tone of Pepper's voice made it clear that she believed otherwise.
"Or maybe she's willing to put the past aside and work with you for the good of the team." Tony gave her a disbelieving look.
"'Iron Man, yes,'" he quoted. "'Tony Stark, no.'"
"I know," Pepper said.
"I mean, how else am I supposed to take that?" Pepper put a hand on his shoulder.
"I know," she assured again. "And I understand that you have reason to doubt her but give her a chance. She could really want to make amends."
"I have a hard time believing that," Tony said.
"One chance," Pepper said. "Everyone deserves at least that."
"Yeah," Tony said. "And I'm sure Romanoff's wasted more than her fair share of those."
"And so did you." Tony's eyes locked on to hers. "But eventually you stopped wasting them. Give Romanoff the benefit of the doubt. Who knows? She may surprise you." Slowly, the air deflated out of him.
"Alright," he said. "But if office supplies go missing, we know who the culprit is." Pepper raised an eyebrow and had trouble keeping the laughter out of her voice.
"I highly doubt Romanoff would go to the trouble of acting as your PA for the day just so she could steal office supplies." Tony snapped his fingers.
"Your right," he said. "It's more likely she and Barton would stage a heist at the nearest Staples." Pepper let out a short snort of a laugh.
"I'd love to see that," she remarked.
"So, would I," Tony said. "Unfortunately, they don't sell tickets." Tony sighed. "I have to go face her now, don't I?"
"You say that like she's an evil witch who put a curse on you."
"Well, it's an apt description." Pepper's expression softened.
"As I said, just give her a chance. She might surprise you."
"Yeah, yeah," Tony said as he stood up. "Or it could completely blow up in my face."
"But you won't know that until you try." Tony frowned for a moment, realizing that Pepper did have a point. He did not like that point, but he could admit she had one. He managed to wipe the begrudging look off his face before exchanging parting words with her. At the very least, he was glad he was able to make amends with Pepper and despite his mindset when he first went in, he did not feel like what he was agreed to be a bad deal. All in all, he felt good.
Now to deal with Romanoff…
He ended up not confronting her. At least, he was not going to right away. He was not rude to her either. Instead, he acted like it was just another day and went through his normal routine. It was the safest way he could see going about the situation. Romanoff just went with the flow and fulfilled her duties as needed. For the most part, things went smoothly on that basis. That was until the board meeting started.
At that point, it became clear why Lara asked Romanoff to fill in for her. It was because Lara took all of Tony's remarks about skipping the meeting seriously and she wanted someone to make sure he went. Looking back, he probably should have made it clearer that was joking. After all, he did understand that the longer he put off facing the board, the more upset they would be. As such, he was not going to avoid it any longer than he already had. However, it did irk him that Lara apparently thought he needed a babysitter. He was forty-one years old and he had been CEO of the company for nineteen years. He could take care of himself and accurately make decisions on what the best thing to do would be.
Either way, the ultimate outcome was that Tony had to go to the board meeting, forced or not. He did not put up a fight when Romanoff came to collect him (which came as a surprise to her) and took his usual spot next to Pepper once he made it to the meeting room. Romanoff sat to his right with a laptop open in front of her, fingers poised to start typing away. Likely she was taking notes for Lara so she would know what was going on when she came back. Lara always seemed to like to have detailed notes. Tony never really understood why.
Because Stark Industries was still headquartered in Malibu for all intents and purposes (which Tony was still working on changing,) the board of directors still largely resided and met in that city, leaving Tony and Pepper no choice but to teleconference with them. While Tony technically had the technology to make the teleconference a holoconference, there were still some lag problems and bugs to work out, so he hadn't made it standard across SI yet, leaving them only with good old-fashioned video calling to work with. That was not a problem. In fact, it just served to add even more distance to the call as far as Tony was concerned. More distance could only be a good thing here, right?
A few minutes after they got seated and settled, a holographic screen came up and began transmitting a video feed from the executive conference room at SI's Malibu offices. The members of the board were sat around a long conference table with a camera and their holographic screen projecting their side of the transmission at the head of the table. Pepper called the meeting to order as she usually did. From there, they were off.
Right away the board was arguing about stocks. Tony would not have expected anything less. The talk of stocks easily transitioned to the public's perception of Stark Industries as a brand. Given the co-dependent relationship the two topics had, it was only natural. Everyone seemed to have their own opinion on that, most of which Tony found to be negative. Noticeably, though, they all had a similar origin point, that being the company's ties to this new "Avengers project."
To say that the board had not been quite thrilled with Tony's newest undertaking would be an understatement. They had initially been angry about it because they had to find out about it the same way as everyone else – by watching the Battle of New York unfold on live TV. None of them appreciated that, but it was not like Tony had any way of giving them a heads up. He was too busy fighting sky-whales and almost dying, but in the board's opinion that was no excuse.
The other thing that the board had a problem with was that the relationship and role Stark Industries was going to have with the Avengers was so undefined, but Tony was working on that. The first step he took was the allocate some of Stark Industries funds into clean-up and rebuilding throughout the city. Pepper had agreed to it without hesitation and as a result of all of this, SI entered a joint venture with the US government to create the Department of Damage Control.
The board did not like this because it made it seem like SI was admitting culpability to what happened when it was clearly S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avenger's mess. Tony was adamant about doing it, though. He as an individual had played a part in all the damage that was caused and all the lives that were lost. Because of that, he was going to use all the resources at his disposal – including SI – to try to fix as much of it as he could. Many of the board members backed off on that once they saw the positive effects their part in the recovery effort had on the stocks.
However, they were still vocal about their worries and skepticism towards the Avengers. Who were these people? Who was in charge? Was this solely a S.H.I.E.L.D. project or would Stark Industries be getting involved in this, too? All these questions were valid, and Tony was working on answering them as best he could. He had to admit that he did not know all the answers, but he did know what he wanted. He was just stuck in the process of solidifying those wants into real answers.
The board could not wait for that process to finish, though. They wanted answers ASAP. Tony could not blame them. Well, at least partially. He was not known to be the most patient person when he wanted answers. He did hack into S.H.I.E.L.D. after they would not tell him what they wanted with the Tesseract, after all. However, instead of having the ingenuity of finding the answers themselves, the board members would rather pester Tony about it for all eternity, which was just a joy.
So, Tony was forced to listen to the board's questions and concerns about the Avengers all over again, only to give them the same answers. It was worse now, though, given the disaster of the Washington D.C. trip, and now they had the bio-terror attack to prosecute him about. Additionally, the some of the board members had taken notice of Lara's absence and that she was seemingly replaced by the woman formerly known to them as "Miss Rushman." Now that they knew that she was more commonly known as the Black Widow – a former KGB operative-turned-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and now apparently an Avenger – they were not exactly thrilled about it.
Romanoff dealt with it well. She did not bat an eye at any of the passive aggressive remarks that some of the board members threw at her. Although, she had most certainly heard worse being a spy who had the unfortunate crippling disability of also being female. Still, Tony had to admit that he himself wouldn't be able to deal with some of the things they said without repressing it deeply until he cracked, leading him to try to drown it all under gallons of alcohol, so he could admit he could admire her for that. Now he had two things he liked about her and he could say that he would not have known that one if he had not given her a chance.
That's it, Tony! Look on the bright side! The bright side always makes everything look better than they really are!
Eventually the conversation got more heated as Tony had been sure it would. With everything that happened and the fact that they had someone in their midst that most considered to be a traitor, the tone in the room was a bit more biting than usual. For the most part, it did not cross the line into intolerable. That was until one board member – Mr. Hector Fair – had to open his big, fat mouth.
"What I don't understand is why we're still even bothering to talk about this at all. I mean, there is no point. Miss Romanave or whatever her name is will just leak it back to S.H.I.E.L.D. as soon as this meeting is over. So, why even bother?"
"Excuse me?" Pepper held a hand up to silence Romanoff.
"I can assure you, Mr. Fair, Miss Romanoff is not intending to leak anything back to S.H.I.E.L.D. or any other party. She is only filling in as a favor to Miss Conroy, whose judgement I trust."
"Isn't Conroy the one who pulled a fire alarm or something juvenile like that a few weeks ago?" Tony raised an eyebrow, wondering how that little detail had made it all the way to Malibu.
"That incident has been acknowledged and dealt with, and it has done nothing to make me personally distrust her," Pepper answered smoothly. "I am sure Miss Conroy took all the proper considerations necessary in asking Miss Romanoff to fill in for her."
"With all due respect Miss Potts," Fair said. "Miss Conroy is Miss Rushman's successor, meaning that she wasn't under Mr. Stark's direct employment at the time and doesn't know the damage this woman has caused." Romanoff responded before Pepper could stop her.
"And what, prey tell, would that be?" Fair was left sitting open-mouthed and blinking. Clearly, he had not been anticipating anyone questioning him. As soon as it was apparent that he had nothing, another member of the board jumped right in.
"I'm sorry, but were you not working for S.H.I.E.L.D. during your time of employment under Mr. Stark?"
"I was," Romanoff answered coolly. "There's no sense in denying that."
"And you did everything they asked you to do?"
"That is correct."
"So, if they asked you to steal information from the company, it'd be safe to assume that you would do it, right?"
"It would be," Romanoff said. "But I didn't."
"And we're supposed to just take your word for that?"
"No," Romanoff said. "But how about you take the fact that none of your technical data nor any of Stark's inventions went missing before, during, or after my tenure as his personal assistant."
That caused Tony's eyebrows to knit together. Alright, he could admit that was true. Once he went back to Malibu following Stark Expo, he did check to see if anything went missing in his lab and had JARVIS to a total system scan for any files that were changed or tampered with. The only changes, uploads, and downloads that were done while she was there were ones that he had done himself. Likewise, there was nothing suspicious that happened after he left her alone in his lab while he talked to Steve. Nothing was touched while he had his back turned and once he left to go deal with the crazy rock guy, the only thing she did – according to both Steve and JARVIS – was turn off the holographic screens and the lights in the lab. That was it.
So, she was telling the truth there and it was a truth that Tony had not considered before. If she wanted to, she could have easily tried to use her position to steal from him. Not that she would have been able to do so, but she could have tried to, and she did not. Even if S.H.I.E.L.D. did not ask her to, she could have at least tried to take something to earn extra brownie points, but she did not. Tony was not quite sure what to make of that, but before he could consider it further, another board member chimed in.
"Even if that's true, she still tried to sabotage the company in other ways."
"How so?" Romanoff asked.
"What about that party you and Stark threw?"
"What about it?"
"You can't tell me you didn't strategically plan that to make Stark – and by extension, the company – look bad. For God's sake, the video footage of Stark and Col. Rhodes' fight went viral!" Romanoff took a deep breath.
"That's a lot harder to explain."
Tony did not bat an eye. He knew what she was going to do; she was going to deny her part in what happened that fateful night and settle all the blame on his shoulders, just like everyone else. She encouraged him to go all out that night. She watched him drink until he could not talk in a straight line anymore. She saw him get into the armor and did not stop him. Yes, everything he did that night was his decision and he was responsible for his own actions, but she did not stop him from doing any of it. She just passively watched his destructive behavior and enabled every bad decision he made. Undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. operative or not, there was no excuse for that. So, Tony just sat there, patiently waiting to see what lies came gracefully falling from the world-renowned spy's lips.
"Yes," she said. "I had a part in what happened that night. I cannot deny that. Did I do everything I could have to keep the situation from getting as out of control as it did? No, and to be fair, I did not really want to. I take responsibility for that. However, it was not my intention to sabotage anyone that night, let alone the company."
"Then what was your intention that night?"
"Honestly? Fun." Tony covered his mouth with his hand as he tried to suppress the urge to laugh. He could not tell if it was from disbelief or because he found Romanoff's remark funny.
"There's no need to be wise, Miss Romanoff," one of the board members warned.
"No, there's not," she said. "There's also no need to grill me on past transgressions. They happened. I acknowledge they happened, and I take responsibility for my own actions. However, they have no bearing on why I'm here today, nor do they affect the job I'm here to do, but if you want to waste all of our valuable time bringing them up one-by-one in agonizing detail, go ahead. I'll be happy to answer them."
Oh, she really should not have said that. Hector Fair – who seemed to have regained the ability to think – took those words as encouragement to open his mouth again.
"You know what, Agent Romanoff, I don't know how much I trust that."
"Really?" she questioned. "What, specifically, don't you trust?"
"All of it," Fair said. "Everything you just said. I don't think I trust you." Romanoff smiled, but the fury in her eyes could not be disguised.
"To be completely fair, sir, you don't need to." Fair scoffed.
"But Stark has to." Tony's stomach began to sink. "Tell me, Mr. Stark, do you have faith in this woman who has lied to you, stolen from you, and endangered your life already?" Tony tried to speak, but Pepper beat him to it.
"That's enough," she tried to say, but Fair just shouted over her.
"Stark is a grown man, Miss Potts," he said. "He doesn't need you to speak for him."
"I'm sorry," she laughingly scoffed. "Since when did you get permission to speak to me, Mr. Stark, or anyone else that way?"
"Since Stark started to lose his mind and made his girlfriend CEO and a Russian traitor his secretary."
"That's enough!" The words were shouted over Fair's and echoed in the silence that followed. Instantly, Pepper and Romanoff's eyes were on him and everyone in Malibu had their eyes glued to the screen in shock. The only expression that differed was Fair's fearful one. Tony loosened his tie a bit and let out a huff of air before continuing. "No. I will not be answering any of your questions, Mr. Fair and that's because I don't want to. They do not deserve a response. Not after you spent this whole meeting undermining me, Miss Potts, and Miss Romanoff."
"I was just asking questions," Fair defended. "For the sake of Stark Industries, I think I have a right to be concerned with the company you keep."
"If you're so concerned with the company I keep, why didn't you question my relationship with Stane?" Fair clearly did not have anything to say to that. Tony turned his attention to the rest of the board. "That question goes for all of you. Do you have anything to say about that? Anything? No?"
The other board members were just as silent as Fair. Tony allowed the silence to linger a little longer, just o really let the shame and guilt set in. Eventually, though, he had to break it.
"Well, seeing as none of us can be civil, I think we can all agree to adjourn this meeting," he said. "What do you say? Same time next week? Do you think that's enough time for all of you to grow up?"
The screen went black before automatically shutting down. Tony leaned back in his chair and completely undid his tie.
"Well, that was fucked."
Thank you to Radiant Arabian Nights for the review and follow on FFN, as well as BludgeoningofChance and Saidra on AO3 for the kudos! You guys are awesome!
Remember kids, get vaccinated.
Originally uploaded to FFN on 10/19/22.
