When A Bright Idea Dims
By Sinead

Author's Note: So. Now we're at the halfway point. This is a movie that I've liked a lot more than the previous one, which is saying a LOT, merely because we can really get deeper into Tony's mind. The first movie really set the stage for what would become a tangled web of life, and I'm doing what I can to piece together what I want to happen with what has happened within the movie itself.

But the most important thing that I, and indeed, many other authors, have to remember is that writing fanfiction has to be as fun for us to write as it is for you to read. I want to thank you for your views and reviews! They really mean a lot to me, and I'm glad that you're enjoying this! I have up to Chapter 9 completed, and I'm working on Chapter 10 right now. I kinda sorta wandered into "holy crap, let's write!" mode last night, and I'm not sure how that happened, but I ran with it! Enjoy!

Also, it looks like the site is messing with some of my formatting, and I just noticed this now. Scene breaks and the symbols that I use for them aren't being accepted anymore. That's wonderful. (/sarcasm) I'm sorry if things in this story look a bit wonky and not divided right between scenes. I'll go back and fix them tomorrow.

Chapter Seven

Thankfully, the jet could touch down in a private airstrip and didn't attract the attention of the media. Once they were in the mansion, however, the phones began to ring off of the hook. Pepper and Natalie started to answer them to begin trying to stem the flow of the political-media tsunami. Tony slunk into the basement with a kiss to Becka's cheek, knowing that he had to replace another core soon by the way that his body reacted sluggishly.

Watching him walk down the stairs and into his work-room, the young woman remained at the top of the stairs in a thoughtful silence before taking herself to the kitchen and preparing tea and coffee. The women on the phones would need it, and she would need the calming presence of a hot cup between her hands.

"Jarvis."

"It is good to see you again, Miss Fahey," The AI replied in his soothing, almost-emotionless voice. "How are you faring from your trip? I've noted that it had taken a rather rough turn for the worse." Along with his words, Jarvis displayed the viral-videos of the battle upon the racecourse upon the night-darkened windows.

"I'll be fine, thank you," she replied, touched by the attentive nature of the AI. There was much to be said about how much of Tony's child the program was, and it often revealed things to her about her fiancé that would have otherwise remained a mystery. The depth of his caring for her, for instance, was often mirrored by Jarvis' queries. "Something is bothering me, though."

"How may I be of assistance?"

"I need you to tell me what exactly is going on with Tony. You know him best."

The program was silent for a moment. "I'm not sure that I understand what you are trying to ask of me."

"What's wrong with Tony?"

"There are many answers that I may reply with, but what part of him are you most concerned about? Surely you are privy to the matters of his heart."

"No, I mean physically."

"He is not performing to your needs?"

Snorting, Becka glared at the panel that Jarvis used as a scanner for the room. Of all those who knew the couple, Jarvis could tell the best that neither were having sex. "Funny. Really. The fact that you're being this evasive means that you have been told directly by Tony not to reveal any information regarding his physical health."

Silence.

"Does the same order stand for his mental health?"

"No."

Well, that was one question answered. Something was physically wrong with Tony, and the fact that he wasn't telling her was enough cause for tense concern that bordered on panic. "Pity, because I can see that most of his actions are due to desperation." She waited for the water for her tea to boil and the coffee to finish percolating.

There was another silence . . . no, a pause! "I would have to agree with you upon that theory."

Stilling herself and her thoughts, the young woman stared out of a blank window, waiting for her mind to make the connections. There was something that Jarvis had let slip, something important. The machine had made a decision against his maker, and already had said too much. It was almost-impossible that this would ever happen.

"Becka."

Startled out of her thoughts by the stern-yet-warm voice, Rebecka turned to stare at none other than Colonel James Rhodes. "Rhodey! Been too long!"

She opened her arms in a silent plea for an embrace, and the man who had become an older brother to her obligingly wrapped the young woman up within his arms. Releasing her, smiling softly, the man murmured, "I saw Tony and Pepper at the hearing, but I knew that you wouldn't be there."

"Yeah. I don't like lawyers or their kind." She shrugged and shook her head. "I particularly hate politicians."

"Politicians make me sick," came the low mutter, "no matter which country that they're from."

"So . . . why are you here?"

Drawing in a deep breath, Rhodey answered, "I need to talk with Tony. He's been this side of AWOL for the last few weeks, and I can't figure out why."

Shaking her head to indicate that she didn't know why either, Rebeckah replied, "He hasn't been telling us any more than he's been telling you, for all that we're trying our hardest to read his mind and motions."

Rhodey sighed and leaned against the counter, rubbing at his face. "There's so much going on, and I don't know where to look anymore, or who to point a finger at to show that they're doing the wrong thing, or even if anyone is doing the wrong thing. It's like I'm sitting on my ass and watching a pile of explosives, seeing three fuses all leading in to the center, but unable to tell who lit which fuse, and if any of the fuses even go to a bomb."

"I know one pile of ordinance that you won't have to worry about." Jerking her chin towards the living room, the survivor muttered, "Pepper hates Natalie. Natalie is working around that to assist everyone in the house and their particular needs; personal assistant for Tony, Pepper's on-call assistant, and my tutor on how to deal with certain situations regarding the public and public appearances."

"Fun. What else?"

Seeing that Rhodey was in the same put-the-puzzle-together mode that she was, Rebeckah continued her assessment of the multiple situations. "Senator Stern just wants to show that he's not going to be one-upped by Tony, and is looking to show his victory over this as a way to make sure that his star shines brightly in the eye of the American public."
"Said like a true political analyst."

"I hate politics, but the way that some politicians act is just a glorified high school kid who is trying to out-drama and out-maneuver the person they perceive as their enemy. Moving on." Touching a third finger onto the counter, she continued, "Tony's playing 'hide the truth' about something and that's causing tension between everyone, which is why you're here."

Nodding his assent of her assessment, Rhodey indicated that she continue on.

"The whole 'Russian terrorist is blown up in jail' thing smacks of a cover-up for something. It's too clean of an ending."

"Woah, woah, now."

"I'm serious," she replied, leaning forward and looking up at the Air Force man. "Trust me, I know it sounds like a conspiracy, but sometimes, conspiracies are actually true. Rare, but it happens."

Rhodey didn't like that last bit, but knew that Rebecka had seen some tough times. He didn't like to think about last year, and the horrors that the young woman had personally encountered. She never acted as if she had been through anything life-altering, which had worried him for a long while until he found out that she had been going to talk with a specialist. He had thought that she was just bottling it up and denying things had happened, when in fact, it seemed that she had excellent acting skills when around people that didn't know most of the story.

In fact, he had been there when she had come to another breaking point just over three months ago, and Tony had been on a mission. Pepper and Happy couldn't calm her down over the phone or get her to open the apartment door. Only Rhodes had managed to not only get her to open the door, but had calmed her down and then promised to stay with her and guard the apartment until Tony returned. There were deep moments of insecurity where she felt inconsolably vulnerable and unable to defend or protect herself, which he knew stemmed from Obadiah Stane's attack. It was why he had suggested that she take up martial arts, as well as helping her through getting a gun license. Since those moments of receiving her first handgun and her first advancement of a belt in martial arts, as well as in tandem with the help of a therapist, he had seen her strength move from being a façade to the genuine thing.

The Air Force man had it on Tony's word that she would still wake up in the middle of the night in tears, calling him to make sure that he was still alive. But it was what Tony didn't say about those calls that made Rhodey remember that horrific night that they had lost the unborn Stark heir . . .

He sighed and gathered the young woman into his arms again, resting his chin upon her head and rocking back and forth, his voice quiet, going back into the soothing tones that happened to be taken up the instant that he felt that a family member was beginning to become distressed. "He doesn't remember dates well."

"I know. I don't want to remind him."

"Yeah. He's fragile right now."

"Yeah."

Drawing in a deep breath, hearing the coffee pot signal that the brew was finished, Rhodey sat the young woman down while he moved to make coffee and tea for the current inhabitants of the house. "Been ten months, almost eleven, since you came back home."

"Yeah." She really didn't want to remember the passage of time. It was starting to hurt the closer the one-year mark was coming.

"Becka, you know that if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here, right?" He turned from pouring the coffee, making sure to catch her eye-contact. "And everything would be off the record, never to be seen in any military report or anything."

Smiling at how he had to put a disclaimer on that statement, the young woman nodded. "I know."

Knowing that not much else could be said, Rhodey smiled and brought a tray of coffee, sugar, and milk out to the ladies, placing it between them. He had made sure that there would be two spoons, keeping an eye on the details. Getting dual looks of appreciation, he returned to the kitchen to see Becka making her tea and looking out over the darkened ocean again, lost in her thoughts. Smiling at her reflection and bringing his and Tony's coffee down the stairs and to the basement, Rhodey put his game face on. He had news that Tony wasn't going to like.

Never would he have assumed that he would receive news from Tony that he wasn't going to like.

Natalie was watching Becka carefully as she assisted the young woman in preparing for Tony's birthday party. She liked what she saw, and would put a word in that this woman could be, and perhaps would be, necessary to helping Tony achieve the puzzle of his heart. "You don't like that Tony's throwing this party."

"Not. At. All." Becka was trying to choose a dress from the many that had become part of her wardrobe. There was a hesitation as she moved them one-by-one from right to left, looking carefully at one here and pulling it aside, handing it to Natalie, then continuing on until she came up with three that could work for this venture. "I don't know who's coming, I don't know what's going to be happening, and he's been increasingly distant in the last few days."

. . . she didn't know what was happening with the miniaturized Arc reactor in Tony's chest? Natalie masked her shock with a light frown of concern. "Perhaps he wants to surprise you?"

"I sure hope not." Taking the dresses one-by-one and holding them up against herself while facing a mirror, the jean-clad middle-class woman narrowed the dresses from four to two, then looked at the two again. Right now, the style was to have a slim skirt that clung to the hips. Well, she'd been getting lifted lips from the adherents to "modern fashion" about how she was dressing in "strange" styles, so why stop now? Putting back the thin-skirted dress and putting the one that sported a broader skirt, one that flowed to just above her knees in a demure sweep. The dress was strapless, and was fit as if it had been made with her just in mind. Hanging it on the door, she looked at the massive shoe collection that Tony had insisted she splurge upon.

"Miss Fahey, may I be so bold as to offer an opinion?"

"Go right ahead," came the distracted reply, coupled with the minor irritation that came from the super-subservient attitude that Natalie would often put on.

"Do you think that he's acting out like this for attention, or that it's out of desperation?"

Pausing and turning a measuring glance to the woman, Rebeckah stalked closer. Despite Natalie's mastery of martial arts and espionage, she found herself beginning to feel intimidated, almost scared.

"Listen hard, and listen carefully, because I'm only going to say this once," Rebeckah said, her voice soft and smooth in her anger. Dark eyes flashing, she continued without a pause. "You have one chance, and one only, to tell me everything you know about Tony, why you're here, how you got so close to him even though you're just a simple paralegal, and what you're planning on doing now that you're this close to him." Taking a step closer until she was just out of striking range, she hissed, "And I want the truth. I will know if you're lying to me."

The first thought that raced through Natalie's head was, I'm so screwed.

The second one: She could kick my ass in this mood.

The third? Director Fury would love to have her on his team, and he's gonna kill me because I'm going to connect her to him.

Drawing in a deep breath, she dropped the façade. "Okay. You want the truth? We're worried that he's become too much of a liability for America and her interests. Furthermore, I can't tell you everything, but I can connect you with someone who can."

That seemed to shock Becka into a thoughtful moment of silence before she replied with, "And what are you going to do with Tony?"

"He's become our responsibility. Right now, he's in a bad place, and we need him to get his act together. You, more than anyone, know that he's coming apart at the seams, and while he thinks he has everything together, he really is moments away from death." Dramatic, but it would get the point across.

Straightening her back, Becka processed this news, coupled with Tony's strange behavior, and the hints she had received from Jarvis. Nodding, things added up. "It's the palladium in his chest."

Relieved that she didn't have to say that bit, Natalie nodded. "Yes."

"It's killing him."

"Yes."

"Does Pepper know?"

"Not that I know of."

"Then keep it that way. Whatever you're manipulating so that he survives, I want in on it."

Wincing, the agent replied, "He may not forgive you."

Shaking her head and reaching for a pair of heels that were comfortable and yet sleek, Becka straightened and looked squarely into Natalie's eyes. "You don't understand the relationship he and I share. Nor do you understand the circumstances that forged our bond. If he doesn't forgive me, that doesn't matter."

Natalie found herself almost shrinking from the ferocity that was to be found on Becka's face. It was as if she had uncaged a hungry tigress, and she was the closest source of meat.

"Tony's life is what matters. You get your boss on the line and tell him that whatever he's planning, get it done fast. I'll help."

"I think that I may have blundered."

There was silence on the other end of the line, a clear indication of Fury's, well, fury.

"Becka knows. She cornered me. I couldn't get out of the conversation."

"Oh. So long as it's not Tony or Potts. Rebeckah could well be the only mitigating factor that could work in our favor. You said there's a party tonight?"

"Yes. That's the other half of my blunder. I thought that I could steer Tony into trying to slip his way out of the party by insinuating that he should do whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted to do it with . . ."

"Which would have brought Becka into the playing field nicely, as they're engaged and seducing one or the other would have removed him from the location and into a place where we could approach him."

"Right. And he didn't take it the way I thought he would."

Fury paused on the other side before emitting an eloquent, "Oh?"

Looking carefully through a doorway at the party in full swing and an infuriated and close-to-murderous Rebeckah glaring death at her armored and drunk-as-shit fiancé, Natalie whispered, "This is going to become a problem. A big one."