Chapter 67 – A New CEO

A/n – Welcome everyone to the first of the weekly updates of this story. Hopefully I can keep this up and not make you guys wait forever again.

Dragones – I'm thankful to have it back on a schedule myself. Less pressure for me.

Dreamer558750 – Thank you! I'm rather proud of it because I kind of wanted to have one moment where they just couldn't say anything.

The Hand of Chaos – The detailed ones always make me emotional don't worry about me. Believe me a super long chapter from me would be incredibly long and definitely not on time. You're better off with the short one. Thank you for your long reviews they are very much appreciated.

Domergal'16 – I may write them seeing at least the beginning part during the next break since practically all the Avengers mentioned wanting to see it.

Toni wasn't exactly sure how to feel. She had known this was coming and had been prepared for outraged reactions from the team (well the members of it who hadn't already known) but they hadn't reacted in the way she had thought they would. Of course Thor and Bruce had stormed off to let some anger out but mostly it was just quiet. She didn't know how she felt about that. She was happy that they didn't seem to be treating her like she was still dying or dead despite her presence this time of course. That had really annoyed her all through the last movie but she wasn't entirely sure this was any better.

Honestly, she wasn't sure how to feel about anything anymore. Amora's intended result may have been for them all to turn on each other – a goal which was clearly not going to be reached – but she'd certainly succeeded in unsettling Toni. On the one hand there was a lot more acceptance of her actions in this room than even she had been expecting and Steve seemed to be coming around at last. Which while she'd never admit it out loud was something she had been wanting for a long time. Part of it was that she wanted to prove her father wrong. He'd always said that Captain America would never like her and she finally seemed to be on a path that meant that if he was still alive she could laugh in his face. She would almost be willing to experiment with time travel again – normally something that risky was left to idiots like Reed Richards who didn't seem to know the meaning of the word risk despite how he'd gotten his superpowers – just to get a chance to do it. Secondly, she did like Steve when he wasn't being all holier-than-thou and the constant accusations based on false premises had really been starting to affect her relationship with the rest of the team. In fact finally getting them out in the open was something that was good about these movies. It was the only thing however and Toni was in no way looking forward to reliving this time in her life.

"Mr Potts is approaching," JARVIS informed Toni, "I recommend that you inform him…

"Mute," Toni interrupted stopping JARVIS mid-sentence.

"Why would you refrain from telling Mr Potts about your illness?" Thor asked although Toni could tell that the others were interested as well.

"There were a number of reasons. One, even then some of his overprotectiveness was showing and I knew he'd stop me doing anything important from that point on if he could and there were things I needed to put in order both as Iron Man and as Toni Stark before I could take some time to rest," Toni explained, "two, all it would do is make Piper frantic about something he had absolutely no control over. He'd work himself up into a frenzy and I wanted to delay that for as long as I possibly could. And three I really wasn't feeling up to telling anyone yet. Processing something like that takes some time even for me and putting into words wouldn't have been easy."

This explanation seemed to satisfy everyone that it had been a well-considered if perhaps a little misguided course of action. They'd never know what would have happened if Piper had been told this early on but judging by what they knew of him Toni's argument was persuasive.

Piper opened up the door as Toni set her computer screens to show the screensavers of cars instead of the medical results that had been displayed on them. Then she went back to sipping at her smoothie. "Uh-uh," Toni said while pointing at Piper when she saw he looked mad.

"Is this a joke?" Piper asked as he walked over, "what are you thinking? WHAT are you THINKING?"

"Wow! You really make a habit of making him angry at you don't you," Natasha laughed.

"Well, I don't actually do it on purpose," Toni said with a smile, "he just doesn't always understand my reasons for doing things. And sometimes I really suck at explaining them because of the way my brain works. I was at an extra disadvantage this time around because I wasn't going to tell him about my poisoning which was influencing some of my decisions at the time as I was putting some affairs in order in case of my death."

The room went quiet at the mention of the poisoning and the other occupants of the room almost looked frozen in their chairs. Honestly, Toni had preferred the incessant questioning about whether she'd survived things that she'd very clearly lived through. The silence was more than a little disquieting.

"Hey, I'm thinking I'm busy," Toni said bluntly as she drained the glass and standing up, "and you're angry about something. Do you have the sniffles? I don't want to get sick."

The people in the room all flinched including Toni. She'd gotten into it with Piper about that one after he'd found out about the poisoning. Apparently realising retroactively that it had been a slight quip on her part had made him mad that he hadn't been told sooner. She'd basically just sat there in silence until he stormed off. He'd apologised later as he'd remembered that Toni often used slightly inappropriate comments to keep herself in good spirits and that he shouldn't have felt so entitled to know everything as they hadn't even been in a relationship at that point even though he'd wanted one. Sometimes she wished that Piper had been that reasonable about her fighting as part of the Avengers but as he'd always had issues when she was just Iron Man anyway she supposed that had been wishful thinking.

"Did you just donate…" Piper started before promptly being interrupted by Toni again, "Keep your business," she said before moving over to one of her holograms and loading it up.

"….our entire modern art collection to the…" here Piper paused stuttering slightly as if hardly able to believe it.

"The Girl Scouts of America," Toni helpfully interjected as an incredulous Piper echoed it in an outraged tone.

"What did the Girl Scouts do with those paintings?" Natasha asked curiously.

"I believe they auctioned them off to raise money for charity," Toni told her, "in fact I think Piper bought a few of them back eventually because I recognise a few of them that are still hanging in the halls of the mansion. I bought an entirely different set after I recovered to replace it."

"It's a worthwhile organisation and I didn't physically check the crates," Toni stated as she threw a hologram file across the room where it landed in a hologram basket that changed to read the word 'Score', "but, basically, yes. And it's not 'our' collection, it's my collection. No offence."

"That's a fair point," Bruce mused, "it's not like he had the money to buy any of the paintings himself without funds transferred by you. And it's not a big decision like giving up making weapons this time. It's just donating something that you personally own to a good cause. Honestly, I don't even see why he's complaining."

"Because I let him do so much of the work sometimes he just kind of relapses into thinking of everything as ours," Toni said with a shrug, "it doesn't normally bother me except when he nags me about it. After all he does take care of a lot of the things I own."

"No, you know what?" Piper said crossly, "I think I'm actually entitled to say our collection considering the time that I put in – over 10 years – curating that." Toni was still playing with her holograms and not really paying attention.

"It was tax write-off," Toni said simply, "I needed that."

"You know, there's only about 8,011 things that I really need to talk to you about," Piper sighed clearly giving up on the conversation.

"Sometimes I envy you," Phil admitted, "but most of the time I really do not."

"Good," Toni said, "I would keep that attitude. It's the best combination for looking at my life in an unbiased way. Yeah, I have some awesome stuff but I'm ridiculously busy and I have psychos out for my blood all the time over things I sometimes didn't even do. God only knows I wish more people – especially those in the press – realised the distinction. I'd like to see them run a Fortune 500 company one of these days. Even if it was only from the R&D standpoint. I literally create the designs for almost everything that comes out of Stark Industries plus I have a superhero gig on top of that."

"Dummy," Toni said walking over to the AI and flicking it to get its attention, "Hey, stop spacing out. The Bridgeport's already machined that part."

Piper walked around another way to make sure he was in front of Toni now which made him harder to ignore as he spoke, "The Expo is a gigantic waste of time."

"That seems to be a bit of an exaggeration. Surely, Stark Industries was not only getting the excellent press that we saw at the beginning but also business deals with young scientists who were presenting work there," Clint said confused, "plus the whole investing in the future shtick draws people in like moths to a flame to the company promoting that message."

"I think he was concerned about the fact that by law I had to allow our competitors access to the Expo and that some people might swing their way first and foremost," Toni stated, "even though my main 'competitor' there was Hammer and everyone in the world knew he was useless. Also, I think he wanted me to focus more on doing the everyday tasks of running a company despite the fact that we wouldn't be as successful as we are without me taking the time to work up designs behind the scenes. I don't know really. I can't get into his head most of the time because we're so different."

"I need you to wear a surgical mask until you feel better, is that okay?" Toni quipped ignoring Piper's previous comment.

"If he really was sick that would be a good idea," Bruce admitted, "your immune system was already compromised enough without catching a virus on top of it. It might have been enough to kill you much earlier than your estimates even with the treatments you were taking."

"That's rude," Piper sighed.

Toni ignored him and started talking, "There's nothing more important to me than the Expo. It's my primary point of concern. I don't know why you're…"

"The Expo is your ego gone crazy," Piper interrupted.

"It may have been true in the past but really," Toni sighed pre-empting Natasha's similar comment, "I was literally only scheduled to appear at the opening and closing ceremonies and I turned the focus away from me and onto everyone else who was contributing inventions in my opening speech. Was seeing everyone appreciating my work and my theatricality nice? Well, of course but it wasn't the only reason I started the damn thing."

"Wow, look at that," Toni said ignoring him and retrieving a piece of Iron Man art from beside one of the machines, "that's modern art. That's going up."

"You put it up because Iron Man was something you felt you could be proud of didn't you," Steve said putting aside his original thought about Piper being right about Toni's ego because she demonstrably put on a lot of false bravado at times.

Toni nodded at him acknowledging his point. That had of course been why even after being informed that using the Iron Man suit would accelerate her condition she had continued to use it. Being Iron Man made her feel good. It made her feel like she was actually making a difference in the world for once. Moving away from weapons technology had made her feel like that too. Creating technology that made life easier for people with disabilities had three major labs at Stark Industries HQ nowadays as opposed to it being a side project with little to no funding. In fact it was that focus that had created hearing aids for Clint that gave him almost full functionality in his ears again when he wore them and that didn't react badly to the vibrations from his bow string. She also sold them on the market for low prices and gave them away for free on occasion to people who simply couldn't afford them even then. Feeling like you were making a difference in the world was intoxicating in a way that Toni hadn't even thought was possible up to that point. It just saddened her that there were rather a lot of people out there who would prefer it if she went back to being a manufacturer of weapons instead.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding," Piper said incredulously as Toni walked past her with a, "I'm gonna put this up right now. This is vital."

"Stark is in complete disarray," Piper insisted, "You understand that?"

"No," Toni told her, "our stocks have never been higher."

"Yes, from a managerial standpoint," Piper sighed.

"You are…" Toni protested, "Well, if it's messy then let's double back."

"Your arguments are truly spectacular sometimes," Phil chuckled, "Honestly I have no idea how either of you understand the other ones points when you won't stop talking over each other all the time."

"It's an acquired art," Toni admitted, "we didn't used to do it but eventually we realised that even we were talking over each other the argument still made sense and we basically never stopped doing that."

"Let me give you an example," Piper said but Toni was having none of it with a comment of, "let's move on to another subject," and a rush over to a counter to hang up the painting.

"Oh no no no no no no no," Piper protested as Toni climbed up on the counter, "You are not taking down the Barnett Newman and hanging that up!"

"I still don't get why he cares," Steve admitted, "it is Toni's lab and it's not like he spends any amount of time down there. Hey, if he likes the painting that much he could take it home with him and hang it up on his wall."

"I'm not taking it down. I'm just replacing it with this," Toni stated simply, "let's see what I can get going here." She removed the Barnett Newman and hung up the Iron Man painting in its place.

"Fine," Piper conceded moving back to the other topic of conversation, "My point is, we have already awarded contracts to the wind farm people."

"Yeah. Don't say 'wind farm'," Toni protested, "I'm already feeling gassy."

"And to the plastic plantation tree," Piper continued undeterred, "which was your idea, by the way. Those people are on payroll…"

"How long is this argument going to last?" Clint sighed.

"From what I remember not that much longer," Toni informed him which resulted in a half-hearted cheer. Clearly he hadn't quite regained his good spirits from earlier which she wasn't surprised about.

"Everything was my idea," Toni pointed out still standing on the counter looking down at Piper.

"…and you won't make a decision," Piper finished up.

"I don't care about the liberal agenda anymore," Toni informed him, "It's boring. Boring," she punctuated that last boring by jumping down off the counter, "I'm giving you a boring alert. You do it."

"Oh that was smooth Annie," Natasha complimented, "I always wondered how you got away with transferring the power over without raising any alarm bells. That was very spy like."

"From you Tasha, I shall take that as a huge compliment," Toni said with a smile, "I was almost impressed with myself. I thought for sure that would be the hardest part of the whole operation."

"I do what?" Piper said confused.

"Excellent idea," Toni said with a feigned impressed look, "I just figured this out. You run the company."

"Okay," Clint said realising what Natasha meant, "that was very smooth and I am impressed. If I didn't know about the extenuating circumstances I would buy that facial expression as genuine and I'm supposed to be trained to look for feigned facial expressions."

"Yeah, I'm trying to run the company," Piper said obviously not understanding.

"Piper, I need you to run the company," Toni said attempting to clarify things, "stop trying to do it and just do it."

"You will not give me the information…" Piper continued still not having figured it out.

"He's really not listening is he," Phil sighed, "I'm almost impressed. The first time you said it might have been a little ambiguous but if he'd stop talking he might actually have understood you the second time."

"I'm not asking you to try…" Toni started again but Piper was still talking and blatantly not listening to exactly what Toni was saying but she continued anyway, "to physically do it. I need you to do it."

"I am trying to do it," Piper exclaimed angrily.

"Piper, you're not listening to me!" Toni said raising her voice in her exasperation as Piper countered by trying to turn that sentence back on Toni, "I am trying to make you CEO."

"Finally!" the entire room minus Toni exclaimed. That had been a long piece of conversation about essentially nothing.

Piper finally stopped as a stunned expression came over his face. "Why won't you let me?" Toni asked.

"Have you been drinking?" Piper asked puzzled.

"To be fair that might have been my first response too," Bruce admitted, "it must have felt like it came out of the blue for Piper considering the fact that I'm sure you've had conversations like this before."

"Chlorophyll," Toni told her clarifying that what Piper could smell on her breath wasn't alcohol before taking on a more serious tone, "I hereby irrevocably appoint you chairman and CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately." Piper still looked stunned as if this was the last thing in the world he was ever expecting to happen.

"Yeah, done deal," Toni said moving away leaving Piper frozen where he stood, "Okay?"

"You seem to render people speechless a great deal of the time Lady Toni," Thor boomed clearly amused by how dumbstruck Toni had made Piper.

"I've actually given this a fair amount of thought," Toni told him as Dummy brought over a tray with champagne and two glasses on it and she began pouring, "believe it or not. Doing a bit of headhunting so to speak, trying to figure out who a worthy successor would be. And then I realise, it's you. It's always been you."

"This is actually kind of sweet," Clint acknowledged, "I can sort of see why you got together now I think."

Piper finally managed to have found the ability to move as he sunk down onto a nearby couch. "I thought there'd be a legal issue," Toni continued, "but actually I'm capable of appointing my successor. My successor being you." Here Toni passed Piper one of the champagne flutes which he took with a smile as Toni said, "congratulations."

Piper almost seemed ready to give the drink back so Toni insisted, "take it. Just take it."

"I don't know what to think," he said in an almost reverent tone.

"Don't think, drink," Toni teased.

"I hate to agree with Clint because he's going to hold it over me forever but you were kind of cute back then," Natasha said with a glare at Clint to make sure he didn't fist bump the air or something in response to her comment.

Piper laughed in shock as he clinked his glass with Toni's and they both took a sip of champagne. The scene changed to show Ivan Vanko standing in an alleyway as another man approached and handed him an envelope then walked away. He opened the envelope to remove a false passport and tickets to the Monaco Grand Prix.

"I have the distinct suspicion that we're about to see a lot more of Vanko," Steve sighed.

A/n – Wow there was a lot of internal monologues in this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it anyway guys. See you next week.