So happy that a lot of you stayed with me on this new story! Oh, Melody's new boyfriend is portrayed by Grey Damon and Melody's personal trainer is portrayed by Douglas Booth. And don't worry, loves. Clint will show up, but just not right away. Enjoy!

Melody began to throw clothes out of her closet as a loud rock song played. She was getting rid of all of her innocent looking clothes and replacing them with sexier ones. Her boyfriend, Kyle, was lying on his bed with his shirt off, watching her. He had a flawless, defined face, finished with a five o'clock shadow. He had green blue eyes and an absolutely toned body. One thing you could automatically pick up from him, was the obvious bad boy persona. "We haven't done much talking since you've been back."

"And that's how I like it." She told him as she moved to her mirror and put a bra top over herself, trying to picture how she would look with it on.

"Babe," He began as he got up to stand behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "How was DC?"

"Infuriating." She admitted as she put the bra top down, turning around and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I saw you on TV flicking off Senator Stern." She nodded while biting her lip. "It was really hot." He picked her up swiftly and threw her down on the bed as she rolled her eyes with a smile. "You want to go for round two?"

"Kyle!" She yelled as she hit him on the arm, both of them leaning into each other's smiles. "I got an early flight. Tony is on a plane coming back right now and you know you're banned."

"Who cares about Mom?" Melody laughed, but on the inside, she wanted to slap him in the face. She hated it when he referred to Tony as a mom, but she put up with it because she wanted to be bad and stupid for once in her life. "Why don't you come to my apartment and stay all day with me? You'll never have to get out of bed."

She pushed him off of her, alarming him with her strength. "You have to get out of here before Tony comes home."

Kyle stood up from the bed and put on his shirt while Melody put on the bra top she was looking at and some tight leather jeans. The two hurried down the stairs, knowing Tony was going to be home any minute and right when they opened the front door, Tony was standing there. Melody cringed as she watched his face fall once he saw Kyle. "Get out of my house." Tony told him instantly.

Kyle looked to Melody, leaning forward and giving her a kiss, trying to make it long and passionate to annoy Tony. It was working too. Tony rolled his eyes as they kissed and once they broke apart, Kyle looked to Tony with a nod. "As you wish, Mom."

Melody gritted her teeth as he walked out of the house and Tony turned to look at him. "I hate you. Just letting you know." Kyle turned around, about to say something else when Tony slammed the door and turned to Melody. "Why?" He asked like he didn't understand. "Why do you stay with him?"

"Because I like him." She told him as she turned around so he wouldn't be able to see her face.

"No you don't." Melody rolled her eyes, knowing Tony was able to see right through her. "I'm pretty sure you hate him." Tony sighed as she made her way down into the workshop, knowing she wasn't listening to a word he was saying. "I liked Clint. What happened to Clint?"

"You know what happened to Clint!" She yelled as she turned back to him.

"Yeah," He sighed out. "He turned out to be an agent from SHIELD, but he was good for you. You loved him. He loved you. He didn't change you." He furrowed his eyebrows, realizing something. "Why exactly did you two break up?"

Melody bit her lip once she made it down in the workshop. She hadn't told Tony. Strike that. She hadn't told anybody about what Clint told her about her mother and what she really was to SHIELD. She didn't want to tell anyone. She wanted to keep it all to herself even if she knew that wasn't the healthy thing to do. "Everything he said to me was a lie. How can I trust him enough to be in a relationship with him after that?" Melody sat down on one of the chairs in the workshop and picked up a nearby wrench, beginning to play with it sadly. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Tony sighed as he walked up to her and planted a kiss on her head, causing her to give him a slight smile. Tony loved that even though she had changed her personality completely, he, and only him, could still bring the old Mel out on a good day. He moved over to his work station and clapped his hands, causing all his technology to turn on. "Wake up. Daddy's home."

"Welcome home, sir." Jarvis's voice came through, causing Melody to smile. "Congratulations on the opening ceremonies which were such a success. As was your senate hearing with Miss. Barnes. Good job, Melody." She smiled up at Jarvis as a video of them walking away from the committee came up on one of the monitors. "And may I say how refreshing it is to see you in a video with your clothing on, sir."

Both Tony and Melody laughed until they heard a sound from the sink. Dummy was trying to make a smoothie, but looked like he was just making a mess. "You!" Tony called, causing Dummy to stop what he was doing. "I swear to god I'll dismantle you, I'll soak your motherboard and turn you into a wine rack." Dummy put his head down as Melody gave him a small smile. She really did love Dummy even if he was a screw up. Tony looked over at Melody nervously to see her smiling at Dummy. "Hey, Mel." She looked over to him as he began working on his computer. "I left my phone upstairs. You mind getting it for me?"

She stood up from her seat with a sigh and headed upstairs. He made sure she was out of earshot when he leaned down to get out a bottle with the black liquid he was forced to drink and he asked, "How many ounces a day do I have to drink of this stuff?"

"We're up to 80 ounces a day to counteract the symptoms, sir."

After he finished the bottle he needed to drink, he pulled out the device he had made while Melody had spent a whole week at Kyle's apartment. "Checking palladium levels."

He pricked his finger on the device and frowned once he saw the number. "Blood toxicity: 24%. It appears that the continued use of the Iron Man suit is accelerating your condition." Tony lifted up his shirt and took out the arc reactor, ready to change it out. "Another core has been completed." Jarvis announced as he pulled out the palladium core in the arc reactor.

"God, they're running out quick." He told Jarvis as he pulled it out and opened a case with more of the cores, putting it inside the arc reactor.

"I have run simulations on every known element and none can serve the survival replacement of the palladium core." Once he put it back in his body, he picked up his shirt and began looking at it in the webcam. "You are running out of both time and options. Unfortunately, the device that is keeping you alive is also killing you." He stared at it, noticing the way it was making a pattern throughout his body in black. "Miss Barnes and Miss. Potts are approaching." Tony quickly put his shirt down and looked to the two women who were obviously arguing about Melody's outfit. "I recommend you tell them-"

"Mute." He spoke once the door opened and their arguing was audible.

He picked up the bottle he was drinking, ready to finish all of it. Pepper looked away from Melody and then turned her attention to Tony. "Is this a joke? What are you thinking?"

"Someone's in trouble." Melody sang as she leaned against one of his computer monitors and handed him his phone.

He gave her a look as he took it from her and then snapped his fingers before turning back to Pepper. "What?"

"What are you thinking?!" She then turned to Melody. "We're still not done with our conversation!"

Melody looked away from her and Tony put his hands up while scooting his chair away from her. "I'm thinking I'm busy and you're angry about something." He stood up from his chair and moved away from her, but Pepper kept following and Melody jumped up on one of the counters, watching with an amused face. "Do you have the sniffles? I don't want to get sick." He told her, trying to get any excuse to be far away from her.

"Did you just donate our entire modern art collection to the-"

"The Boy Scouts of America." He finished for her as he crumpled up a hologram of a file he didn't need.

"The Boy Scouts of America?!" She screamed at him as he turned around and threw the hologram into a target which deleted the file for him and gave him a score for his throw while he gave her an excuse for donating the art collection to them.

"And it's not our collection. It's my collection. No offense."

Pepper's eyes grew wide and Melody smiled a little bit. She was starting to enjoy chaos a lot more. "No. You know what? I think I'm actually entitled to say our collection considering the time I put in. I spent over ten years curating that."

"It's a tax write up. I needed that."

"You know," Pepper began as he walked off and she looked down at the tablet in her hands. "There's only about eight thousand and eleven things I really need to talk to you about." She took a deep breath as she followed him and Melody adjusted herself so she could watch them. Tony tried to move away from her, but she went around and got right in front of him. "The expo is gigantic waste of time."

He moved up to her and put his hands on her shoulders as she coughed, her nose obviously red from rubbing it. "I need you to wear a surgical mask until you feel better."

He walked away from her, but she just followed. "That's rude."

"There's nothing more important to me than the expo. That's my primary point of concern."

"The expo is your ego going crazy." Melody commented as she began to stare at her nails.

"Whose side are you on?" Tony asked and Melody just shrugged. He leaned down to pick up an Iron Man picture and began admiring it. "That's modern art." Melody and Pepper looked at each other and then back at Tony. "That's going up."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Melody spoke as she got up from her seat. She didn't like to show it, but she cared about the modern art collection just as much as Pepper did.

"I'm putting this up right now." He began to walk around, trying to find a place to put it.

He and Pepper began arguing about stocks as Melody followed him worriedly trying to stop him from putting the picture up. "No!" Melody screamed once she saw where he was going with it. "You are not taking down the Barnett Newman and putting that up!"

"I'm not putting it down, I'm just replacing it with this."

Melody turned to Pepper with panicked eyes. "Do something."

"Oh," Pepper spoke like she was surprised with her. "You actually care about something?" Melody let out a frustrated growl as Tony ignored them, continuing to put up his picture. "I cannot believe that Melody Barnes actually cares about something. Someone call the Huffington Post."

"I literally want to strangle you!"

"You mean figuratively?" Tony asked.

She turned to him with angry eyes. "No. I mean literally."

She turned to Pepper who turned back to Tony, continuing to argue with him about business as Melody took the Barnett Newman and began dusting it off as if to make sure it was okay. "I'm trying to make you CEO." Melody turned over to look at Tony and began to smile as she moved over to the fridge to get the champagne. "Why won't you let me?"

She leaned forward and smelled him. "Have you been drinking?"

"Chlorophyll." He knew that answer would make both Pepper and Melody happy since they had been trying to get him to drink it for years. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes intensely. "I hear by irrevocably appoint you chairman and CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately."

She stared at him blankly as Melody reached up into the cabinet to pull out three champagne glasses. "He's actually given this a fair amount of thought." She told Pepper as she handed her and Tony their glasses. "Believe it or not."

Pepper looked at her as she pushed her down into a seat. "What about you? Don't you want to be CEO?"

Melody scoffed as she began to pour her glass. "After all the drama that went on six months ago with all of that, I never want to hear my name and CEO in the same sentence ever again." She looked to Pepper as she finished pouring her glass. "I love my job at Stark Industries anyway."

She moved over to Tony and began pouring her glass. "I thought there would be a legal issue." Tony told Pepper. "But I'm capable of appointing my own successor. My successor being you."

She shook her head as Melody began to pour her own champagne glass. "Congratulations." She told her once she was finished and raised her glass to hers.

"I don't know what to think." She spoke as she looked back and forth between Melody and Tony.

"Don't think." Tony told her as Melody sat down in front of them. She laughed as they all clinked their glasses and began drinking. Even though both of them drove her crazy, they were the best things in her life. "I say we celebrate at your favorite restaurant, Pepper."

"Let's go." Melody spoke as she put her champagne glass down and began helping her up.

"You're not going like that." Pepper commanded while pointing at her outfit.

Melody rolled her eyes as she pushed her towards the stairs. "Fine."

Once they got upstairs, Melody changed into a dress that was still revealing, but not as bad a s the bra top and leather jeans. When she walked down the stairs to the living room, she looked all around for her phone and then sighed, knowing exactly where it was. "My phone is in the workshop. I'll be right back."

Melody hurried down the steps of the workshop and pulled her phone out of her purse, going to the new app she had designed that she could use with Jarvis. "Hey, Jarvis?"

"Yes, Miss. Barnes?"

She made a hologram of the pictures she had gotten from the Washington DC security cameras while she was there. "What are the results for the current search on Emily Barnes?"

She began to zoom in on the picture, almost positive this woman in the crowd was her mother. "I have not found the record of Emily Barnes anywhere in the United States."

Melody sighed as she continued to study the picture. "Then SHIELD is doing a really good job at hiding her identity."

"Miss. Barnes," Jarvis began in a cautious tone, knowing Melody was going to shoot down his suggestion anyway. "I think you should tell Mr. Stark about what Mr. Barton revealed to you about your mother and why the two of you broke up and that you're searching for your mother right now."

"Jarvis," She sighed out. "What have I told you about keeping secrets?"

He sighed. "You told me to remember to quote from Benjamin Franklin."

She nodded with a smile. "And what quote is that?"

"'Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.'"

"Precisely." She called as she made her way up the stairs and gave Tony and Pepper an innocent smile. "Ready."

The next day, they were in the gym. Melody had been going there every single day. She loved boxing. It was a great way for her to get her anger out that didn't involve alcohol and sex. She started her training with Happy, but she quickly got too good for him. She had to end up getting a personal trainer that she could beat the crap out of. A personal trainer that she had a few nights with from time to time.

As Tony was training with Happy and Melody with Joey, Pepper walked in to the gym, sighing when she saw all of them boxing. "The notary is here! Can you please come sign the transfer papers?"

"I'm on Happy time!" Tony called out as they all continued their boxing.

"That all you got, Joey?" Melody taunted after throwing a punch at his face.

"I can see where she gets her attitude, Mr. Stark." Joey commented after wrapping his arm around her neck and flipping her over.

"I know." Tony called out as he ducked from a hit from Happy. "She's like a mini me lately." Tony went up quickly and elbowed Happy in the nose, causing Happy to give him an instant death glare. "Sorry." Tony told him quickly.

"What the hell was that?!" Happy asked him as Melody and Joey cracked smiles as they continued to fight.

"It's mixed martial arts. It's been around for…three weeks."

"It's called dirty boxing and there's nothing new about it."

The two began boxing again as Melody and Joey continued to beat the crap out of each other. When Melody looked up from dodging a hit from Joey, she saw a woman with dark red hair wearing black slacks and a white blouse. Something about her looked familiar. It was something she couldn't quite place. She was immediately brought out of her trance by being hit in the face so hard she could hear her teeth chatter. She had gotten used to hits like that, though. After that, she got right back up and began fighting again. Natasha…I mean Natalie was quite impressed. "I promise you this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company." Pepper called as Natalie moved forward with a document.

Tony was also confused by this woman's presence. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her, finding her one of the most attractive person he had ever seen. Happy punched him in the head while he was staring, trying to get him back in the fight which kind of upset Tony. "Lesson number one," Happy began as Tony moved towards him. "Never take your eye off-" He was cut off by Tony punching him so hard that he was thrown into the edge of the boxing ring.

Tony turned to the woman after Happy was down and Melody called a time out with Joey, just wanting to know where she knew this woman from. "What's your name, lady?" Tony asked her.

"Rushman." She answered instantly, kind of like she was nervous which made Melody knit her eyebrows in confusion as she took a long drink of water. "Natalie Rushman."

"Front and center." Tony called. "Come into the church."

"No." Pepper protested instantly. "You're not seriously going to ask her-"

"If it pleases the court." Tony told her with a shrug. "Which it does."

"I don't mind." She told Pepper politely with a smile as she began to walk up to the boxing ring.

"I'm sorry." Pepper told her. "He's very eccentric."

Tony and Melody both moved over to lift the ropes for her, Melody trying to get a closer look at her face to place her with a memory. Tony drank his black fluid while staring at her and all she did was smile back. Once Tony was done drinking, he leaned forward and asked, "What?" All she did was smile wider at him, both of them knowing that he wouldn't of heard anything she said if she even did talk. "Can you give her a lesson?" Tony asked Happy.

"Yeah," Melody spoke as she turned to Joey. "You help out."

Melody and Tony both went under the ropes and moved over to Pepper, sitting down on opposite sides of her while still watching Natalie. "Who is she?" Tony asked her.

"She's from a legal and she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that."

"She looks familiar." Melody spoke as Tony and Pepper began their usual bickering by talking over each other.

"I don't have time to meet." Tony spoke to Pepper about new assistants. "I need someone now and I think it's her."

"No. It's not." Pepper told him while shutting her phone, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

They all looked back to Natalie, Happy and Joey, Melody feeling like the memory of her was on the tip of her tongue. "How do I spell your name, Natalie?"

"R-U-S-H-M-A-N."

"What? Are you googling her?" Melody asked as she leaned over to the table Tony was currently using, trying to get a good look.

"Very, very impressive." He spoke, ignoring Melody. "She's fluent in French, Italian, Russian, Latin." He turned to look at Pepper. "Who speaks Latin?"

"No one speaks Latin. It's a dead language." She answered.

"I speak Latin." Melody spoke before taking a long drink of her water.

"You're a genius." She told Melody quickly before looking back to Tony. "You can read Latin or you can write Latin, but you can't speak it."

"Did you know she modeled?" Pepper scoffed while looking away from the tablet and back to Natalie, starting to feel threatened. "She's everything I'm looking for."

Right as Melody and Tony looked back over to Natalie, she blocked a hit from Happy and flipped him over before knocked Joey to the ground.

"Shit!" Melody exclaimed.

"OH!" Tony yelled.

"Oh, my god!" Pepper hurried to stand up as Tony and Melody continued to watch. "Happy! Joey!"

"That's what I'm talking about." Tony spoke as he stood up, but Melody kept watching Natalie. Those moves had something to do with her memory, but she couldn't quite place it.

"I slipped." Happy spoke, slightly offended.

"Really?" Tony asked. "Looks like TKO to me."

"What happened, Joseph?" Melody asked as she finally stood up from her seat, again only to try to get a better look at Natalie.

"Shut the fuck up." He told her with a smile as he got out of the ring, followed by Natalie.

"I need your impression." She told Tony as Melody continued to watch her as Joey told her the new workout plan she needed.

"Quiet. Reserved. Kind of an old soul."

"I mean your fingerprint." She told him with an innocent smile.

He did as he was told on the legal document to make it official and then looked to Pepper. "You're the boss."

"See you later?" Joey asked, ripping Melody from her stare.

"Yeah." She told him before leaning in for a hug and then watching him walk out before turning back to Natalie, Tony and Pepper.

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" She asked him in a preppy voice.

"No." Tony spoke as Pepper said, "Yes. That will be all Miss. Rushman. Thank you very much."

Natalie walked past Melody, causing Melody to give her a slight smile as she walked by before hurrying over to Tony and Pepper. "I want one." Tony spoke once he was sure she was gone.

"No." Pepper spoke instantly.

"I swear I know her." Melody spoke confidently.

"Drop it." Tony spoke as he moved past her, followed by Pepper, but Melody was not going to drop it. She was going to find out everything there was to know about Miss. Natalie Rushman.