Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Nicole trotted into Tony's bathroom after her shower to find him bare-chested in front of a set of mirrors. He was examining his shoulders where ten semi-circular marks were now visible; looking like they'd only just stopped bleeding.

"Ouch," Nicole hissed as she walked over to him. "I'm sorry."

"It was worth it," Tony repeated his earlier statement.

"At least I'm not the only one with marks now," Nicole sighed, indicating a small mark on her right cheekbone. "From when my father hit me," She explained when Tony gave her a look of confusion.

"Why do you still have it?" Tony inquired. "I thought Sensei Stick healed you."

"Some wounds never heal," Nicole responded. "God help me if I ever have to go through getting the shrapnel torn out of my heart again."

"That hurt?"

Nicole gave him an 'are you kidding me?' look, "Speaking of that topic, I need to talk to you about something."

"What's up?" Tony inquired, walking out of the bathroom and into his closet.

"You know how my mind was basically going crazy because I was hearing so many thoughts at once in Nick Fury's office?"

"Yeah," Tony responded as he pulled a t-shirt over his head.

"I could hear thoughts from all the people on our floor, the floor above, and the floor below," Nicole continued. "But I couldn't hear Nick Fury's."

Tony gave her a confused look.

"Don't you dare say it," Nicole snarled.

"Say what?"

"What you just thought."

"What, that I think you're reading too much into it?"

"Exactly," Nicole hissed. "I am not reading too much into it. I just think it was very strange that I could hear everyone around me, but I couldn't hear the thoughts of someone sitting two feet away from me. Beside the fact that Fury was so dismissive when I told him I didn't want to keep the power."

"Nicole, what you just said entirely contradicts itself," Tony said. "If Fury was trying to hide something from you, don't you think he would have had Stick take the power away from you, not let you keep it?"

"You're fucking me, right?" Nicole's eyebrows arched. "Tony, he's hiding something from me specifically. Something's up and I don't like it!"

"You want to know what I think?"

"Not particularly," Nicole responded. "Considering I already heard it."

Nicole's face fell as she walked out of Tony's room and began walking down the stairs.

"Nicole!" Tony called after her as he too went down the stairs.

"What?" Nicole snapped. "What the fuck now?" She groaned as she sat on the arm of one of the leather couches, "Goddamn it, Tony! Why is it always like this between us?"

"Why is it always like what?"

"Why does it always seem to get bad between us after we have sex?"

"Even I can't answer that," Tony admitted with a slight shrug. "But where are you going?"

"I'm going home, I'm going to get my car, I'm going to confront Nick Fury, and then I'm going to go shopping, is that okay with you?" Nicole crossed her arms, "And before you even say it, I don't give a fuck whether or not you support me going to Nick Fury. You should know by now that my hunches are usually always right."

Tony sighed, "Can you just ignore that damn mind radar of yours for two and a half seconds?"

"If I knew how to control it, I would," Nicole snapped. "Another thing I need to talk to Nick Fury about."

Tony knew in both his mind and heart he wasn't about to win this argument, "Fine, go to Fury. But don't be surprised if he brushes you off."

Nicole got to her house with the help of Tony's chauffeur, Happy Hogan. Nicole's AI house unit, Sophie, was ecstatic to see Nicole home again.

"It's wonderful to have you back home at last, Nicole," Sophie said as Nicole walked into her garage. "I missed you!"

"Missed you too, Sophie," Nicole responded. Her eyes glittered as she examined her navy Audi R8. She couldn't wait to drive it again…. But to do that, she needed keys. She began searching the house for them, unable to remember where they were.

"Sophie," Nicole said as she walked into her living room, "where are my—" Nicole's throat seemed to close up on her as she saw the figure sitting on her couch. Her father was sitting there, his legs crossed, just staring directly at her. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Looking for the ungrateful woman they say is my daughter," Ben Lion snarled. "So, the word on the underground was true. You're sneaking around with Tony Stark."

"What the fuck does that have to do with you?" Nicole crossed her arms directly below her revealed reactor. "And I'm not sneaking around. His reactor saved my life."

"Tony Stark mysteriously took over Lion Labs around the time that they say you went 'missing.' You sold him the company."

"Hey, money's all the same to me," Nicole shrugged, her manner unusually nonchalant. "I have better things to be doing than spending all day in labs anyways."

"Oh?" Her father challenged her.

"My club," Nicole smirked, knowing how much she was pissing her father off. "Now, how did you get into my house?"

"Disabled your AI for a few moments," Ben Lion smirked himself. "If you sold Lion Labs, you can get it back, just as easily."

"I can," Nicole agreed. "But then that'd give you just too much control in my life. Sorry, Dad, but that ain't happening while I'm alive."

"I'll bring down Stark's reputation."

"Tony's a hell of a lot stronger than you think he is," Nicole said. "I'd like to see you try it."

Ben moved directly in front of her, "You little bitch…. I should have given the company to the highest bidder when I had the chance."

His eyes gave her a once over and landed on her collarbone, "What the fuck…?"

Before Nicole could stop him, Ben's hand was around her throat. He yanked her towards him, his eyes bulging slightly.

"A hickey?" Her father questioned, his voice on a high octave. "You're doing more with Tony Stark than I thought."

Nicole's instincts roared in her head and she kicked her father away from her, breaking his grip on her throat.

"I am not 16 anymore!" Nicole roared. "It's none of your goddamn business what the fuck me and Tony Stark do together!"

Nicole's hand felt her throat, she was sure she was going to be getting a bruise there later. Goddamn, it wasn't bad enough that it was her first day back on her feet, but she had to deal with her father too? She glared at the man she'd kicked away from her. He'd fallen over and was slowly getting to his feet. Nicole clenched her jaw and stood her ground.

"Get out," Nicole snarled. "And this time, stay the fuck out of my life."

'You're going to regret it…'

Her father left without another word. Nicole collapsed against her couch, her hand once again by her neck.

'Forget it! I'm so not dealing with Nick Goddamn Fury today.'

"Sophie," Nicole finally voiced about five minutes later. "Where are my keys?"

Nicole was able to locate her keys two minutes later with the AI's help and went to the closest grocery store merely to buy bread, cereal, eggs, peanut butter, and Pepsi. That was all she needed to get through the next few days. She could already tell they were going to be long ones.

The familiar ringing of her blackberry reached her ears as she was piling the shopping bags into the small trunk of her R8. She looked at the screen and smiled. It was Lala, her best friend.

"Hey," Nicole said with as much energy as she could.

"Oh. My. Gosh. You're back!"

Nicole smiled, wishing that her best friend was in front of her, "Yeah, I am."

"Can you at least give me a straight answer as to what the hell has gone on the last two months?" Lala asked.

Nicole sighed, chewing on her bottom lip, "I'll tell you what. Come sleep by my house tonight. We'll have a girl's night in; order some pizza, move through those horrible chick flicks that I have in my movie collection, and talk."

"Sounds good to me," Lala laughed. "What time should I come?"

"Did I ever, in the ten thousand years that I've known you, given you a time that you need to come over?"

"I'll see you in a bit then."

Nicole smiled as she hung up her phone.

'Screw Tony for now,' Nicole thought with a sigh. 'All I need right now is my best friend.'

TBC!

AN: Okay, wow, I KEPT forgetting to tell you guys something that I should have said WAY back in the beginning of Rivals. In the novelization (and I think the movie as well,) Tony was born in 1973, which would make him 35 in 2008, BUT in my AU, I made him and Nicole both born in 1983, which would make them both 25. I did that merely to make it seem more real to me, and hopefully a little more real to everyone else. ALSO, just another random note; I'm taking Sociology 21 in college. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's Human Sexuality. Random as hell course, but very good to keep me on track with my love scenes lol, so hopefully those will get better too in time! Well, that's it for my rambling!