"Angela, can you take these folders to Rebecca and have her email me with any questions?" Lennon asked as she picked up a large stack of folders and walked them over to the elder woman.
Angela grabbed them out of her hands and gave her a nod with a smile firmly in place, "Of course, Miss Williams."
Lennon hadnt realized how much she missed her old job until she actually say down and did it again. It was familiar, and brought back good feelings to her. With it being her first actual job, there was some sentimental value with it.
Lennon had spent the night before talking to Dean until a late hour, and it was nice. The conversation made her feel good knowing that even though she hadn't been able to give Dean a lot of attention, that their friendship was still strong.
Everything was going well for Lennon that day, and she was in high spirits. There's was nothing that could ruin that day, not even Susan.
"Miss Williams, I would just like to say I'm sorry, again." Lennon resisted rolling her eyes as she looked up from her computer screen to the woman standing just insider her door. "I was just telling you what I had heard, and I was just curious."
"Susan, once again, this is not the time or place to be talking about this." Lennon was really considering the no firing rule that she told herself. "And your apology is accepted, now please get back to work." The apology wasn't really, but she just wanted the woman to leave her alone.
Susan, not really known to be the brightest bulb pushed forward with what Lennon assumed was supposed to be a charming smile. "So there really is nothing going on between you and Tony Stark."
Lennon's head snapped up and she shot the woman a nasty glare, there was no more playing nice. "Susan, I want you to grab your things and take the day off."
The woman's mouth dropped opened and she quickly took a few steps closer to the desk. "No, please. I'm sorry. I'm just-"
Lennon had cut her off and was holding her hand up, not wanting to hear another word out of the woman's mouth. "No, I don't want any excuse, I just need you to go for the day. Your job will still be here for you tomorrow."
Susan, with her shoulders slumped in defeat slowly made her way out of the office. Lennon let out a large groan and placed her head in her hands as soon as she knew she was out of war shot. She really didn't want to do that, but had become extremely frustrated with the woman.
It was only eleven o'clock in the morning, and she felt the need for a shot of Jack. With another loud sigh she began her work again.
"I feel bad." Lennon said into the phone as she placed her head in her hand and watched people move about through the open office door.
"From what you've told me, you should have fired her." Lennon had finally told Pepper all that had gone on with Susan and how she had snapped.
But apparently Pepper agreed with Tony, that Susan should have been fired. And the only reason she'd even decided to speak with her was that she couldn't get through to Tony.
"What's her last name? I'll speak with her when I get back." Pepper, as confident and strong as she was, still had her insecurities. And sad much as she tried to hide it, Tony was her biggest.
Lennon once again sighed and turned around to look out the large window. "It was more annoying than anything."
"It was incredibly unprofessional." Pepper snapped back through the phone. The anger could be heard clearly in her clipped tones. "I'm sorry that you were left to deal with everything."
The response she got was a laugh from the younger woman. "If I can't handle one woman's stupid questions there's no way I could be your future relief."
Silence was all that Lennon got through the phone before Pepper allowed herself a quiet laugh. "I suppose so." Lennon pushed her hair back and leaned further back in her seat as she heard pepper talk to someone on the other side of the phone "I have to go Lennon, I'll see you tonight."
"See you tonight." It had barely left her lips when she heard the line go dead. Suppose when you run a company for so long you kind of lose the goodbye pleasantries. Or it may have been that they were more like friends than business co-workers.
Lunch, that is what Lennon had decided she would do to calm herself and get her mind off of what she had done. So as she got up and walked out of her office she began dialing Dean's number.
As she walked through the room all eyes were on her, by now there had to have been at least ten different versions of what had happened between her and Susan.
She tried her best to ignore it and had done really well. Holding her head high, she crossed the room and entered the elevator, ignoring all of the looks she was receiving. In the elevator she told Dean to meet her at the diner the block down from Stark Tower and hung up, not leaving any room for him to protest.
It wasn't until she was out of the building and halfway down the block when she received a text from him, saying he would be there in two minutes.
When Lennon sat down her phone began to ring, and Tony Stark's face flashed across the screen. With a roll her her eyes she pressed the ignore button and went back to looking at the menu.
It was another thirty seconds before her phone began to ring again, Tony's face once again flashing. As she picked the phone up, Dean flopped down in the seat across from her, so she pressed ignore again and tossed the phone in her purse.
He had barely flopped down in the chair across from her when he groaned loudly, "Today sucks."
Lennon laughed and pushed her iced tea over for him to take a drink. "I agree." Dean took a large drink out of her glass and then slid it back across the table. "You first."
"You remember Jessica, right?" She did. She was a nice woman. She was probably a couple years older than her, extremely nice, and had a kid. Lennon nodded. "So, she nice, and my co-worker, and she asked me out to dinner tonight."
Lennon choked on her tea and looked up at the man across from her with a raised eyebrow. "You have a strict no dating co-workers rule though."
He nodded. "I do, and I don't want to go out with her anyway."
Lennon's shoulders relaxed and she let out a laugh. "Oh, so you told her no."
Lennon was looking at her menu, and when she looked up, he was trying not to make eye contact. "Not exactly."
She scoffed and continued to state at him until he finally looked at her. "So you told her yes."
Dean let out a loud groan and placed his head in his hands. "Yes and it was stupid of me." Lennon just nodded and waiting for him to continue. "She's just so nice, I didn't want to hurt her feelings or reject her."
"So you're going to wait until after your nice date, and she falls totally in love with you." Lennon picked up her tea and took another sip.
"Well, when you put it like that it makes me feel like an ass." Lennon's phone was ringing for what seems like the tenth time. "Who keeps calling you?"
"Tony." Lennon said as she picked up the phone. "I should probably take this." Standing up she walked over to a corner of the room and called him back.
"Where the hell are you?" Was the first thing that came from Tony's mouth. "I don't really care, you need to evacuate the building, right now."
Lennon's eyebrows furrowed together and she scowled. "Why?"
"Okay, remember that bad guy that I was talking about before?" Her head was nodded before she realized that he wouldn't be able to see her. "He's on top of the tower, building some sort of portal or something."
Lennon was extremely confused, but as soon as he told her that he was on the tower she was began gathering all of her things and motioning for Dean to follow. "Okay, I'll get everyone out. Where are you?"
"On my way to the tower." It was then when she realized that there was the sound of wind and almost what sounded like the backfire of a vehicle. "Just make sure you have everyone out, and take care of yourself too."
"I will," She grabbed Dean's hand with hers and began hauling him down the street behind her, as fast as she could go in a pencil skirt and high heels. "Be safe Tony."
"Always kiddo," and then he hung up on her. She dropped the phone into her purse and kept going.
"Where are you taking me?" Lennon just gripped his hand tighter and pulled him even faster, almost going into a jog. "You're freaking me out Len."
Shoving the large doors open, Lennon went straight to the front desk where the head of security was standing. "I need you to get everyone out of the building " She told him quickly and looked around the room where there had to be at least twenty people standing around.
"Why would I do that?" He asked the younger woman with a raised eyebrow. "I only take orders like that from Tony Stark, or Ms. Potts."
Lennon was quickly losing her patience, this was not something that she could be dealing with. There was a crazed bad guy, who wanted to take over the world on the roof. "This is a direct order from Stark, and he would not be pleased with you not following his order." He still didn't seem to be convinced. "If you're not going to take my word I will call him, but he will not be pleased at all."
The man finally took a couple steps back from the desk and lifted his radio to his mouth before telling the rest of security that the building needed to be evacuated. "This better be an order from Stark."
Lennon quickly grabbed Dean's arm and drug him to the elevator behind her. She had a feeling that the security wasn't going to be in too much of a hurry, so she was going to take it into her own hands.
As they entered she pressed the button that would bring her to the top level. "I'm sorry Miss Williams, Mr. Stark has told me not to let you up to the top floor."
The voice shocked Dean and he began looking around the elevator, trying to find where the voice had come from. "That's fine Jarvis, I need you to help me out though."
She looked over at the man next to her, who was standing and just watching her. She could practically hear all the questions that he wanted to ask. "Of course Miss Williams, whatever you need."
She then pressed the floor to H.R before stressing Jarvis. "I need you to set off all of the fire alarms on all of the floors." She looked at the man next to her and gave an apologetic smile. "I need everyone out of the building as soon as possible."
"Of course Miss Williams." It was only a few seconds later when the alarms began going off and lights were flashing. "Anything else?"
"No, thank you Jarvis." Dean was standing against the wall, staring at Lennon, waiting for an explanation. "Tony called and said we need to evacuate everyone from the building."
"I got that part." He told her as he crossed his arms. "I want to why you drug me in here to evacuate all these people." He stopped and waited for an answer from the woman, but she didn't know how to answer that.
Sensing her hesitation he stepped forward and placed his hands on her upper arms, looking her straight in the face. "There's a man from another planet on the roof trying to take over the world."
Lennon quietly stared him in the face, waiting for him to say something. He looked like he was going to laugh at her, but when he noticed her somber expression his faced dropped and he let out a large sigh. "You're not joking, are you?" it wasn't really a question, but she shook her head anyway.
Stepping away from him, his arms fell to his side's and she gave him as apologetic look. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this, but you were already with me. Tony called me while were at the diner."
"I knew that I never liked you working for him, nothing good would come from him." She knew he was just upset about the situation, so she chose to ignore what he was saying. And it was the perfect time for the elevator to reach their destination.
There were a few different things going on as the doors to the elevator opened. First was the most obvious, being that the majority of the people were grabbing their things and leaving the room.
The next thing she noticed was that there were some people who looked to be completely disregarding the alarm and were still sitting at their desks doing work. That is the thing that really seemed to get to her, these people were risking their lives just to do a little more paperwork.
The last thing was that Susan was in the corner of the room, and she was talking to a man who couldn't be too much older than Lennon. The first emotion that came to her, was anger, of course. But then she realized that she really needed to just focus on getting everyone evacuated and to safety.
Making her decision she went for the ones who were still doing work. She hoped that Susan would realize that she was there and leave on her own. Dean followed behind her closely and stayed silent as she approached the two still working away on the computers.
"You need to leave, immediately," Dean stepped up beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
One man, who she remembered as a Pete looked up at her for a moment before looking back to the screen. "This is important, I'm not going to leave for a fire drill."
The anger began to seep in with his response. "This is not a drill, you need to leave now." The man just rolled his eyes at her so she looked to the other, who was trying hard to not make eye contact.
With a groan she loudly called out to Jarvis, hoping that she would get a response. She had never needing him anywhere but the elevator or top level before, so she wasn't sure if he would answer.
The man at the desk was watching her with a strange look before the AI answered and a look of shock passed over his face before she addressed Jarvis. "I need you to shut off all power to this level."
Dean once again stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Right away Miss Williams." Looking over to Pete she saw the panic cross his face before the power shut off, and his screen went blank.
The other person next to him didn't seem to care too much, but Pete looked like he was ready to explode. He glared at Lennon before his eyes slowly shifted to Dean standing behind her with a protective hand on her shoulder.
Deciding to go with better judgment, he picked up his bag and stomped off towards the stairs with his silent companion following right behind him. Lennon reached up and placed a hand over the one on her shoulder. "This is why I needed you."
In the corner of the room, Susan and the man were still standing, not moving a muscle. And Susan looked to have had a defiant glare on her face. This wasn't going to be easy.
Lennon hasn't even made it all the way over before Susan snapped at her. "I don't think that it was fair of you to send me home today, I was only asking you questions and telling you what I had heard. Just because you didn't like that everyone knew your secret didn't mean you had to make me leave."
Dean and Lennon had already spoken of the Susan situation, so when she heard him groan, she knew that he understood what was going on. "Susan, now is not the time to be talking about this. This is an emergency situation and we need to leave this building, immediately."
"I'm not leaving until we discuss this." Her tone had risen and she looked a little hysterical. Lennon stepped closer and Susan did just as fast, leaving only two steps between them. "What you did was not fair, and besides, you're not even my boss."
With a loud groan she looked over to Dean and gave him a nod towards the man. Then he turned and addressed the man whose name she could not remember. "Could you help me out please, and show my friend Dean here how to get out of the building."
The man looked to Susan and she stepped forward leaving very little space between them. "He doesn't have to listen to you, you're not his boss,"
Lennon couldn't help the eye roll that happened and looked back at Dean for a moment. "Actually, I am. Tony has left me in charge being directly in charge of everything. He has given me permission to use any means necessary, including letting people go."
The man looked like he was taking what she said into consideration, and he must have taken her vague threat seriously. "You can follow me."
Dean took a step forward and placed his hand on her arm. "I hope you know what you're doing Len." She gave him a small smile with a nod. He then leaned down and pressed his lips to the top of her head. "Hurry, and don't do anything stupid."
She scoffed at him and gave him a slight push towards the nameless man. She watched them until they disappeared through the door that led to the stairwell.
Slowly she turned to Susan, who looked like she was a teenager pouting, the way she had her arms crossed and her lips pushed out. "Susan, I know you wish to discuss this, but now is really not the time, or if you really feel we must, let's discuss this out of the building." Susan didn't seem to budge. "I'll even take you to lunch."
"You can't bribe me to stop." Lennon was beginning to realize that. "Just tell me why, why did Tony Stark choose you?"
Her voice went quiet and Lennon saw the look of defeat on her face. She looked like she had just lost the thing that meant most to her in the world. And that's when Lennon realised why she was pushing so hard to know about her and Tony. She was in love with him.
In that moment, Lennon felt sympathy for the broken woman in front of her, and just as she reached for her, the sound of broken glass went throughout the room, and a large ugly, inhuman like creature came rolling into the room.
The creature jumped up, and before either of the women could do anything It pulled a gun off it's back and took aim at them. Lennon saw it before Susan, and tried to reach out for her, but it was too late.
It shot, and a bright blue light shot out and hit Susan square in the chest. Lennon watched as she was flung back and onto the floor right in front of her. Her eyes were wide in fright, and she was completely lifeless.
Lennon couldn't move for a moment, all she could see were those lifeless eyes. And then everything came back, she felt warmth over her arms and face, and taking a second to look down she saw blood splatters across her front.
And then there was another bright blue light, this one just barely missing her and blasting a hole into the wall behind her. She looked up and the creature was taking aim again. Not wasting anymore time she took off sprinting for the door to the stairwell.
Behind her the creature was chasing her. She had barely pulled the door open and stepped in when another blast hit the door and sent her flying down the first flight of steps.
Pain went tearing through her body, and she could feel a warm liquid begin to run down her back. But She also knew that the creature would be right behind her. She ripped off her heels and jumped back up and began running as fast and she could.
While running she barely noticed that her skirt had ripped up the side, allowing her a much larger stride. It must have been a record breaking run down the stairs, and the whole time the creature was right behind her firing it's gun.
When she finally hit the bottom of the stairs she pushed herself even harder and slammed the door open, not slowing down a bit.
The lobby was empty, but through the large glass windows she could see the madness going on outside. There Had to be at least twenty more of the same creatures running around just in front of the building.
She didn't have much of a choice though. Not slowing at all, she ran right out the doors and pushed herself as fast as she could down the street.
Lennon tried not to focus on anything around her, but about half a block down the street she noticed the man that was supposed to show Dean the way out of the building, and he was trying to hide behind a large piece of cinder broken off the building next to him.
Lennon quickly cut off the course she was taking and ran straight for the man. He was hunched down and the fear shown clearly on his face. As she reached him, she saw him as he noticed her and watched his face drop when he saw that Susan wasn't with her.
There was no time for that right now, and he knew it. A look of determination quickly became plastered on his face when see came to stand in front of him. "Where's Dean?"
He shrugged his shoulders before pointing in the direction that she was heading previously. "All I know is he went that way before all of this started."
Lennon nodded and took off in the direction he had pointed. She didn't know where she was going, or what she was going to find. All she knew was that she needed to keep moving, and try to find Dean.
Turning the corner of the street that the man pointed, she came face to face with one of the ugly creatures. In a quick decision, she launched herself at the creature in a last ditch effort and closed her eyes as she felt her head smash into it's hard body.
A large bright light flashed behind her closed lids and she felt the air get knocked out of her. In the tackle, she had somehow gotten flipped around, and she was lying in her back and the creature was standing over her.
She was going to die. This was going to be her last moment in this world, and it was looking into the ugly face of a creature from another planet.
The creature raised it's gun and took aim. Lennon quickly closed her eyes and turned her head away, waiting for the blast to hit.