Title: Protect My Heart

Author: Erik-in-CT

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to Stephanie Meyer or Marvel Comics, and not myself.

Despite his best efforts, Edward found that he couldn't stay away from Stark's estate for too long. He was just too worried about what might happen in his absence. And so he tortured himself by hanging around the grounds outside the house. After the red-haired woman had left earlier that morning, and the sounds of Bella and Stark...well, he had almost left right then. Instead he just tried to listen to anything but the sounds coming from the house, opting to scale down the cliff and sit next to the ocean, trying to concentrate on the echoing sounds of the waves breaking against the rocks.

Actually seeing and talking to Bella again, he found himself even more convinced that he should just stay out of her life, even though he still ached for her in every thought. But he had promised her that he would give her the space to figure out what she wanted, what she needed. And it seemed she had, in Stark. Doing his best to put aside his own emotions, he thought about the whole thing. Bella did seem to be happy with Tony, and it was obvious from his thoughts that Tony had quickly become devoted to her. And he definately had the means to make her happy. Edward sighed as he resigned himself to the knowledge that he was had to truly let her go. But he would make sure she was safe first. He owed her that much, since it was his fault she was in danger now.

For awhile he sat, tossing pebbles into the oncoming waves and listening to the crash of water on the shorline, and thinking about the upcoming hunt for Victoria. He had to admit that he was impressed with the amount of technological skill that Stark possessed. The system he programmed and built into his suit in just a few hours had proven most impressive. When they had gone on their test run of the device, Stark had been able to track him easily through the heavily wooded area around his home. The trail was only visible to him for a few seconds after Edward had passed though, but it was enough to follow Victoria if she started running. And the repulsor blasts that Tony had happily demonstrated on some unsuspecting trees had been quite powerful. Maybe not enough to destroy a vampire, but at least enough to knock her down until Edward could rip her apart.

He hated the thought of having to fight and to kill again, but he knew there was no other way. Even the peaceful Carlisle had consented to the destruction of James when he had proven that he wouldn't stop in his hunt for Bella.

The sky was just beginning to grow dim when he heard the sounds of life coming from the house up above. Making his way back up the cliffside, he slipped back around front, politely knocking on the front door. Popping the locks and letting himself in didn't seem like the best way to continue peaceful relations with Stark, and he knew Bella would be angry. After a moment, he heard the door click open, no doubt controlled by the house computer that seemed to have a mind of it's own. Letting himself in, he settled on the couch in the living room, waiting for Bella and Stark to come downstairs.

Bella stirred and stretched, sighing happily as she felt Tony's arm tighten briefly around her shoulders before he pulled away. Her body ached a little, the soreness was not unwelcome. It actually felt a little nice. Opening her eyes, she glanced over at the man laying next to her. He was looking at her with an oddly soft expression on his face, his lips twitched slightly upward, eyes bright and piercing. She smiled back at him, leaning up to press a kiss against his cheek. "Good morning...or afternoon, I think," she said.

"Same to you," he said with a chuckle as he turned to glance over his shoulder towards the windows along one wall of the bedroom. "Almost evening," he said, and then she noticed that one of the windows had a nearly transparent display showing the time, along with other info that she couln't quite make out from where she was. "Vamp boy is downstairs," he said as he stretched and slipped from the bed, disappearing into a closet.

Despite their earlier activities, Bella found herself blushing slightly at the sight of a nude Tony walking across the bedroom. She clutched the sheets around herself as she sat up, looking about for where she had set her clothes. "Play nice with Edward, Tony," she said as she grabbed her clothes from the neat pile next to the nightstand and began getting dressed. Suddenly she found her head covered with a dark green fabric that Tony had tossed towards her. She pulled it off to discover it was a t-shirt.

"Wear that, it's cleaner than the shirt you were wearing," he said, and she reluctantly agreed that he was right. She hadn't been planning on spending the night when she came over yesterday, and hadn't brought a change of clothes. And so she slipped the soft fabric of the shirt over her head, grinning slightly at the way it swamped her thin figure. "Hmm," she heard Tony say from behind her. "Good look for you," he said, and she threw him a mock glare over her shoulder. He just laughed.

Running her fingers through her hair and pulling it mostly straight, she headed out of the bedroom and made her way downstairs, Tony following behind her. They found Edward in the living room, trying to figure the controls for the large flatscreen that was mounted on the wall. When he heard the coming, he gave up trying to make sense of the touch screen coffee table remote control thing, and instead turned his attention to them.

"Hey Edward," Bella said as she moved into the room, perching herself on the arm of one of the chairs.

"Afternoon Bella," Edward replied. "Tony," he said with a nod of his head.

"Edward," Tony replied.

Bella sighed silently. Well, at least it was civil. She supposed that was all she could ask for right now. "So what's the plan," she asked with a lightness of her tone as if she was just asking what movie they should go and see, instead of the seriousness the situation called for. It seemed that both Tony and Edward thought her briefly relieved of her sanity, then Tony smirked, and Edward rolled his eyes.

"We wait until it's dark," Edward said, glancing out the window at the sun slowly disappearing under the horizon, "then I'll go out and pick up Victoria's trail, and we'll start tracking her down. Hopefully we can catch her somewhere outside of the city and..." he let the sentence die off, giving a shrug of his shoulders.

"And you will stay in the workshop with Jarvis, with the house on lockdown," Tony said. "But we'll be in constant communication through him, so you won't be left out of the loop," he added.

"How will you know where to start looking?" Bella asked.

"I have a few ideas," Edward replied. "She's been visiting a few of the same places over and over, following you, so I'll start there and try to find a fresh trail. And Tony will stay here until I do." Edward glanced over at her, not needing to read her thoughts to know what she was thinking. "Don't worry. We'll both be perfectly safe. I can take care of myself, and Tony's armor is...impressive in it's strength."

"I'll still be worried," Bella said.

Bella wished time wouldn't move so fast. The few hours of daylight left had gone so quickly, it felt as if the world had sped up in it's spinning just to annoy her. And now she was a nervous wreck, sitting in Tony's workshop, watching Tony get secured into the armor while they waited for word from Edward. Despite their assurances, she still couldn't get the thoughts that plagued her to leave her mind. If Edward or Tony got hurt because of her, she didn't know that she would ever be able to forgive herself.

"Hey," Tony said, interrupting her thoughts.

"Yeah?" Bella asked, glancing over to where he was stepping heavily off of the assembly platform. He had raised the faceplace of the helmet, but it was still a little disconcerting to see Tony inside the suit.

"You don't need to be so worried," he said, obviously picking up on her stress. "That Edward kid is able to handle himself, and I have a few tricks up my sleeves to keep me safe."

"I know," she said with a sigh. "But I just hate being left behind while everyone else puts themselves in danger to protect me."

"No danger," he said with confidence. "And it's my job to protect you. Not only as the invincible Iron Man, protector of men" he smirked, "but also as the man who loves you."

"Just promise you'll come back to me," she said, raising her arm to lay her hand against the cold metal that protected his heart.

"Of course I will," he said, and she tried to take some comfort in his assured demeanor.

Then the com unit crackled, and she heard Edward's voice come through the receiver. "Got her," he said. Bella felt her stomach turn to knots at those two words.

"Gotta go to work honey," Tony said with a grin as the faceplate of the helmet clanged shut. Bella stepped backwards as he moved towards the entryway, firing up the thrusters on the suit and shooting off up the ramp and out of her sight.

"Here we go," she said under her breath as she turned towards the monitors that kept an eye on the readouts of the armor.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay. Life has been nuts! And to add onto the craziness, my "Iron Man" dvd seems to have gotten lost in the move! :(

Anyway, we're nearing the end of the story! Oh no! But don't worry...there's always the hope of a sequel! Right now, we have 3 more chapters left of "Protect My Heart", so we'll see where it goes!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review!