ARC I
- 01 -
INDISCRETIONS
'This could be heaven or this could be hell.'
Hotel California, Eagles
November 1, 1999 – Midnight
Trafalgar Square
London, UK
The night was dark and cool. Frosty puffs of air pushed through her nose as she pushed her way towards the imposing statue in the middle of the square.
"Shit," Lily Evans winced both at her language and the sharp pain at her side. She gritted her teeth reminding herself why she was out here. She needed to get to the safe house. Unfortunately her route of escape was made impossible with blood pooling around her hand. Damn – Rosier, the crap-blood got her with a cutting curse just as she Apparated. It didn't help that The Bastard (a term coined by bloody Potter that she rather liked) had been there too.
The mission had been botched. She and fucking Pettigrew were supposed to retrieve the families while the others took care of distracting The Bastard and his crap-blood-idiots. Pettigrew had been near successful in helping her until he got downed by a bit of rock that was the effect of a Bombardia one of the idiot-crap-bloods threw. They had at least gotten the scared family out by Portkey to a safe-location to be Obliviated. However, this also meant she was left defending herself and the unconscious Pettigrew. She now owed Potter and Black a debt. They managed to arrive as reinforcements, procure their unconscious friend and were able to push her back to a safe zone so she could get away. However Rosier got lucky and – her thoughts were interrupted.
"Whoa, there Red," a baritone voice cut through the haze of her vision. "You okay little miss?"
Through fuzzy vision she saw concerned chocolate brown eyes peer at her as they surveyed her body. She must have pushed into someone on the way to the statue. The left foot was where she and Alice had cleverly cast the portkey to their safe house in Godric's Hollow. It could only be activated with a specific rune drawn sequence.
"I'm five foot eight." She retorted, noticing even in her slightly incapacitated state that she was slightly taller than the man now holding on to her shoulders, keeping her steady.
"Hardly matters, you can barely walk." The baritone continued.
"Yes well," Lily murmured. "Pain does that."
Her side burned.
"Oh my God, you're bleeding. Shit, you're bleeding. Right, we've got to go get a medic – Happy!" The baritone got panicked.
"No!" She exclaimed. Fuck if anyone got a hold of any more of her blood samples. "No! No heal – d-d-doctors! Alice, please c-c-call Alice!"
It was getting harder to breathe and think straight. She felt faint.
"Right, move your hand, I've got you." She hesitantly did so as the man requested, for it was a man who was staring at her right now.
"Happy," the man said as he pulled her fingers slowly to glance at the wound. "Help me here. We've got an emergency…"
Lily felt her body relax as gentle hands seemed to frantically stop the stem of bleeding. She slipped into an unwanted sleep. Her body had decided to give up due to the stress of the fight and the loss of blood.
0 0 0
Tony Stark was a rational man. Brilliant even; genius! However, a beautiful yet fainting red head was something that couldn't be explained. Until he of course saw the scarlet staining her left side that had nothing to do with her hair. In the middle of Trafalgar Square, at midnight after another boring press release; he had never felt more alive in his life.
With his driver cum bodyguard he managed to get the lithe woman into a stable position. Happy had managed to pull a MacGyver and wrapped the auburn haired woman's side with part of his shirt to stem the blood flow. Together the pair of men got the redhead a few paces to his waiting car. Once inside the limo he'd rented out; Tony got to work with the First Aid Kit they had inside. Using the trinkets inside they were able to see that the cut the woman had was just below her ribs.
"Boss," Happy murmured. "She needs to go the hospital – I –"
Tony stopped him with a shake of his head. "She didn't want any doctors."
Without compunction he rummaged over the younger woman's body (quite delectable too if she wasn't so pale due to the blood loss and the frightening shade of blue creeping into the woman's lips). He found a little leather notebook with pages that must have been made of parchment. Inside he quirked an eyebrow, the lettering was near perfect calligraphy. He soon found the name the woman uttered as it was the only Alice in the damn thing plus was also on the first page.
"JARVIS," Tony declared into his watch. It was a way for his trusty AI built in a way to emulate the aged late butler he'd had since he was a child who had up until three years ago been his care-taker. "Call 1274-8996 stat. Shit she's getting paler. Quick, hurry up."
A ringing noise could be heard until a sharp voice pierced through the air. "Identify yourself."
"No time, there's a redhead in my limo bleeding out." He replied.
"Fuck. Whereabouts?"
"JARVIS will tell you. Happy take us to the nearest convenience store. We need more supplies." Tony ordered.
No sooner had the driver began moving that a rushing pop, almost like a backfired broke through the noise inside. A brunette with doe like eyes stared at him.
"How the hell did you – "
"LILY! Merlin's hairy balls," the brunette muttered. "Look sir, I am very sorry about this. Stupefy!"
Tony went unconscious as did Happy. For what felt like moments later, both men were shaking their heads with JARVIS announcing they had reached their destination.
"Good job Happy," Tony grinned brightly. "We are here at last. Good time for a party don't you think. Don't wait up honey."
"Wouldn't dream of it sir." Jarvis replied dryly. "Oh and sir, you may wish to fix your shirt.
Tony looked down at himself and frowned. The front of said dress shirt and coat were slightly rumpled. The back of his head itched. He scratched. He smoothed his suit and shirt. He felt as if something had just happened that he couldn't fathom. As if he should know why he – never mind, he thought as he was greeted with his door being opened. He closed the front of his suit with a sharp tug at the button of his dinner jacket. Flashing a smile at the sudden fire-crackle of camera lights; he became what he touted himself as. Tony Stark the billionaire, playboy, philanthropist genius. Thankfully he had no one at the hotel who minded much that he had arrived so late.
0 0 0
November 1, 1999 – 05:27
Fairmont Hotel
London, UK
Tony still couldn't shake the feeling something had happened last night. He woke up overlooking the dull, dreary London skyline with a frown. He should have remembered something from last night.
"JARVIS, did anything happen last night."
"American physicist and spy Theodore Hall passed away; as did Walter Payton."
"Oh come on, Hall? Really – he passed away. Well I'll be damned. I'm serious what happened last night in the car." Tony commanded as he glared at the poor cup in his hand. They called this sludge coffee? Damn Brits.
JARVIS seemed to pause. The AI never paused. He was never created to pause although the personality codes he'd given his butler were truly a thing of beauty. Finally, even though it had only been a second longer than usual, his trusty companion responded.
"A Lily was in your vehicle last night at approximately three minutes and thirty-seven seconds past midnight."
That was a bomb of information. Suddenly he was interested. JARVIS gave him energy readings and playback of him with a beautiful redhead who was laying half on the back seat of the limo. Then the video screen cut out just as a figure of a petite brunette.
"What did I just see? JARVIS speak to me."
"I'm sorry sir but my system access to the vehicle was cut at the appearance of the second female. I was able to access the video feeds about forty-five minutes later by which point we reached the hotel."
The genius frowned. Something broke through in his memory as he asked his AI to replay what he had seen. He kept asking until something occurred to him that he didn't like. He didn't know it was possible but there were apparently people who could mess with his mind. He asked JARVIS to start looking up things regarding memory tampering. It was well into the night before he finally muttered.
"JARVIS, get Happy we're going back to the scene of the crime."
0 0 0
Lily took a shuddering breath. She had just finished her brief shopping at Diagon Alley. At half past ten, she had only a few moments to get to the square and to portkey back home. The fact she got into the alley through disguising herself in the finest black robes she had while masking her red hair with the head gear she could afford that was worn by Pure Blood witches and the magical equivalent to sun shades; was still a mystery. There had been many of The Bastard's cronies or sympathizers around now in the streets. Although the Alley was starting to resemble a deserted wasteland than the bustling hub of activity from her youth. Finally out in muggle London; she could breathe. Almost. She still felt misplaced in her trench coat, scarf and red hair pulled underneath her hat. She had changed in the muggle bathroom of a local eatery that was approximately five blocks away from the Leaky Cauldron before making her way back to the square.
Seeing the statue she towards it ready to do a disillusionment charm upon her person but froze at a familiar baritone. The square was usually filled with people and granted there were still people milling about. However, it was not chaotic. In fact, there were only a few people about dashing to and fro. Most were tourists but they were yards away from where she stood.
"Well, it looks like coming back here was a good idea." She whirled around to face the voice.
A slightly shorter man with messy hair, soulful brown eyes and a slight curl of his upper lip faced her.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Your friend did something to me while I was only doing what I could to help you. I'm not fond of people tampering with this." Here the man tapped to his temple with a slight frown on his face. Behind him a taller man with a receding hairline leaned against the limo.
"Tony Stark." The man greeted her. The name rang a quiet bell; she scrutinized the man in front of her and raised a brow.
"You're what – a – model?" she asked.
He paused in silent shock. "Well, you could say that."
"That's fantastic." Lily replied. "This was truly an interesting conversation but I must hurry to my next appointment."
Tony took a step forward. "Not too fast sweetheart, we've got much to discuss."
Author's Note: Well, we're moving right along. This isn't beta-read so, if you see any plot holes or holey paragraphs; help me make more sense of this fic by saying something. Also thank you to the 26 people who followed; 8 people who put me on their favourites and to SLYNRR for the review. In response to your review I shall reply in kind: THANK YOU AND YOUR REVIEW IS ENCOURAGING, I'LL WORK ON THE MORE PART. (End shouty text.) Toodles.