Iron Man: It's A Wonderful Life

Chapter Four

December 24 - 10am

The Board of Directors did not at all appear surprised to have Sunset Bain, competing C.E.O. of Baintronics, in attendance at the end of quarter meeting, though some had the decency to wear their guilt like ill-fitting suits. Even sitting in the middle of the long, high-polished table, in her sherbert-colored (and completely ill-suited to the weather), dress, she commanded the attention of every eye in the room.

He hadn't seen her since he was a young man of seventeen, enough in love with the older woman that he'd proposed to her. Unsurprisingly, he'd never received an answer. Tony had foolishly entrusted her with the codes to his father's lab, and she had robbed him blind. She'd taken a lot more than research with her: Tony had lost his faith, his trust, and in nearly thirty years, he had loved only one other woman - until Pepper.

The sight of Sunset in his board room, representing the company she'd created using his father's ideas, made his skin crawl. Tony stuttered to a halt. At his side, Pepper went taut and wary - confused, until introductions were made with forced joviality, by the board president. Only her presence, and the tightening of Pepper's spine in recognition of the name, made the moment bearable for Tony. Thatagirl.

"Why is Ms. Bain here?" Pepper's voice was even, her expression enigmatic; this was her mask of impenetrability, the one she used on Tony, co-workers, business partners, and even the press. Its evocation spoke volumes, and though someone unfamiliar with her Iron Lady demeanor might simply assume Pepper was cold, President Lake's miscalculation registered wanly on his face.

Tony's displeasure, he had been prepared for. That of his titan-haired Fury of a guardian, he'd overlooked.

"When you want the best, you don't settle for less than that." Sunset poured herself out of the chair, breaking the standoff by swaying to Lake's rescue, never once sparing a glance for either Tony, or Pepper. Though her intention appeared to be reminding Lake of their purpose, Tony knew she was speaking directly to him. "When you settle for nothing but the best, you stop at nothing to get it."

Something in Pepper's lower jaw ticced. Reinforced, Lake explained that Sunset had come to him with a business proposal, and he felt that they should hear her out.

Before he even looked at Pepper, Tony knew there would be only one outcome. Without speaking, he could see in her eyes that she knew it, too. Pepper was his assistant and thus, had no power to demand an extraction. Even if she did, or if Tony did so for her, it would put her in the position she'd worked so hard to avoid - being seen as nothing more than 'Tony's girl', and a jealous one, at that. Going against the popular vote of the board, although his right, was also a bad idea, and while Tony rarely cared about things like that, with all the recent media trouble, the smart thing to do would be to hear her out.

And then throw her out.

Besides, a small part of Pepper seemed just as curious as he was to know why Sunset was here. Pepper softened with a flicker of consternation around the lips, and his own eyes flashed with resignation, but he winked at her. He wasn't going to be chased out of his own house.

He didn't want to look at the folder waiting in his place at the table, but Pepper's soft grunt of disapproval told him he had to. Tony opened the cover and he felt her eye him surreptitiously, broadcasting more with one look than words could ever convey.

She was right to worry. More than anyone, Pepper knew how Tony had been behaving lately, and this…

Tony saw her fingers flex at the hitch in his breath, read the expression of impotence in the gesture for what it was, and felt his own surge of helplessness. She shouldn't have to feel that way, not because of him. He closed the folder, pushing it away, but Pepper kept hers open and directed her attention to Sunset, her face set in marble.

"Stark Industries has an unparallelled reputation as a leader in the weapons industry - even years after transiting away from that field of interest." Till now, she'd avoided all eye contact with both Tony and Pepper, but now she met Pepper's eyes for the first time, bestowing upon her a moue of disapproval, as though it were her fault. Pepper remained impassive.

"In light of current events, Baintronics has shifted our interests to addressing the needs of our troops and the growing problem with the strength of the insurgents." The table came to life with a flood of blue illumination, and the overhead lights dimmed to compensate. A series of holographic displays came into three-dimensional being, rotating like jeweled pieces in a glass case to be viewed.

"To that end, we've designed a highly specialized series of drones, to be manually operated and monitored, and used for a variety of purposes." Tony recognized the outward appearances of the drones - they'd been designed to take the form of insects, reptiles, and other small animals native to that part of the world. Ones he remembered quite vividly and briefly, reflexively, he glanced away.

"This isn't new technology." If Sunset noticed Tony's flinch, she ignored him. "Even James Bond uses this stuff, but ours goes beyond standard espionage capabilities. At least, that's what we propose to do, in conjunction with Stark Industries."

The insectoid, mammalian, and reptilian drones flicked, lurched, and blinked to life, then converted to their proper sizes. Around them rose a tryptic of scenarios, in which a tent exploded following the intrusion of an airborne drone; an Islami leader appeared to fall victim to a terrible disease after a bad bite; and worst of all - a barely perceptible infestation of geckos in a small village not only confirmed the location of an imminent threat to the U.S. but decimated the area to stop him.

Tony could barely move.

"The last is extreme, of course." Sunset still wasn't looking at him, but continued to address him obliquely. "Largely, we intend these to be self-contained detonations, targeted to whatever we desire with little chance of harming civilians or soldiers. They could not be stolen, or corrupted, since the command center would be here, and additionally, with them, we could achieve Tony- Mr. Stark's goal of reclaiming Stark Industries' property."

Tony had long lost his ability to look at Sunset, but he surveyed the members of his board. They were impressed. Not one noticed the tension in their C.E.O.'s jaw, threatening to break his teeth, nor the tell-tale flush rising over Pepper's neck, that has always been his warning sign that he'd gone too far. Her hand was on his thigh, fingers digging into it, and Tony realized he couldn't remember when she'd placed it there; whether it it was meant in strength, or support; for her sake, or his.

For the first time since he'd entered the room, Sunset turned to look, looking only at him, eager for his reaction. Tony did not look at her. He continued, in fact, looking at Pepper. Here eyes were still fixed on Sunset.

"I've thought it through from every angle, Tony, it's a good plan. You have to see that. It'll get everyone off your back." When he didn't answer, she jutted her hip, resting it against the table, and fought the urge to fold her arms in a gesture that displayed her impatience with his refusal to simply do things her way. He knew that gesture well.

"We could do a lot of good together." The soft intimacy in her voice struck a nerve, like a discordant stroke of a violin string, and Pepper tightened her hand over his tensing muscles.

"These drones." An explosion of air from a held breath he'd been unconscious of. "They're not the end, are they? I mean, why stop there?" Reaching into the hologram, he pulled out one of the undamaged geckos and prodded it to open it up. Sunset chirped in protest, but Tony shot her an explosive look. "Why not a drone based on the suit? The government's been after me for years to do that."

Sunset's slow blink and barely restrained enthusiasm told Tony what he'd suspected - she'd been hoping for something like that. "It's not a bad idea," she said coyly. "Drones are saving lives, and I know you-"

"And when the terrorists get ahold of my tech?" He stood up, leaning across the table so violently that Sunset backed away and several board members gasped. Tony lowered his voice to almost a growl. "What about you, Sunset?" This was his first good look at her. Age had not dulled her beauty, but all he felt for her was loathing. "What happens when you get ahold of my tech?

"No," he shook his head. "No, I don't think so. I don't trust them. And I sure as hell don't trust you."

Rising, Pepper cleared her throat. "This meeting is adjourned till next month. I'll have Ms. Learner show Ms. Bain the door."

Pepper, Tony realized, had never taken her eyes off of Sunset. Not once in the entire meeting.

He remembered that later after he'd betrayed her.

December 24 - 1:43pm

Moving to New York had been a strategic business move, but returning to the city he'd grown up in had been revitalizing for Tony. He and Pepper had started out in this city, but coming home to it had felt like a new start. Sunset was a cloud on that horizon, a reminder of his failures in love, and in judgement.

Tony couldn't remember how he'd ended up in her apartment, or the amount of alcohol he'd consumed along the way, but he did remember his intention to tell her exactly what he thought of her, which amounted to a slurred string of unimaginative insults, delivered from an increasingly slumped position in a particularly plus chair.

"A liar, a snake - a cheating, manipulative, techno-thieving, man-eating… harridan."

"...harridan?"

"It's better than what I wanted to say." Tony sat up and his body immediately drooped heavily forward like a marionette whose strings had been cut. He caught himself with his forearms rested on his knees.

"Please, don't hold back on my account."

" 'm being… the bigger man. You wouldn't know about that."

"Ah. You mean you're doing what she would would want you to."

"No." His head wobbled in the negative. "She would call you a bitch. I called you a harridan. It's gentlemanly."

"So you think I'm a bitch?"

"No, Pepper thinks you're a bitch. Keep up."

Sunset made a moue of disapprove. A pretty, pouty expression of someone who all too often got her way and wasn't happy when she didn't. "I don't think I like this Pepper of yours."

"That's fine. She doesn't like you, either." A drink had appeared in his hand, though Tony didn't remember getting up to get it, and he could only vaguely remember Sunset moving to the bar and back to her place on the loveseat across from him.

"We've never been properly introduced," Sunset pointed out.

Tony snorted. "Pepper's like… she's classy. More class than you and me combined. Why would she want to have anything to do with a- a-"

"Bitch?"

"No, not that one. A… blood-sucking harpy, who broke my heart and tricked me into letting her steal from my father so she could start her own company?"

"Another drink?"

Tony looked down. His glass was indeed empty, and Sunset unfolded herself from the loveseat like a cat and stretched with the same graceful feline fluidity. Long-legged and lean, he had caught her in sweats and a long sleeved cotton shirt, but the fit her as elegantly as the dress she'd worn earlier. Her red hair - a darker shade than Pepper's - caught in the golden lamp light, and he noted again that Sunset had not lost any of her beauty.

"Are you going to drug it?"

She gave him a look and passed him a scotch.

Every move she made was a study in sensuality. Pepper, meanwhile, was precise and economic in most of her movements, not wasting time. In contrast to Sunset, Pepper's beauty was classic and elegant. In his youth, Tony had found Sunset stunning, and her charm had swept him of him feet. The old adage that looks were fleeting held true though, and while Sunset's beauty was still in bloom, Pepper's ran more than skin deep. Tony would not trade the one for the other at any cost.

Champagne was in his hands. It was pale pink, and he watched the bubbles for a long time before drinking the generous serving of some expensive label. Effervescence tickled his nose, and Tony tried to rub at it, but missed. Now he could not remember how much he'd had to drink since arriving.

That seemed to be happening more often. Stress over the last six months had been building, and the drinking he'd gotten under control since starting his relationship with Pepper had begun to spiral out of control again. It had been two years since he'd last spent Christmas Eve drunk, and he should be heading home to make dinner with Pepper - their fledgling tradition. He was too ashamed to be seen like this, to see in her eyes the disappointment, and to know he'd let her down.

That she deserved better.

"You seem to be doing well for yourself." He did not intend it to be a compliment, rather an accusation that she only succeeded due to the hard work of others. 'Leech', he thought. Another good word for her.

"Baintronics is catching up with Stark Industries." Far from appearing chagrined, she seemed proud of her achievements, and leaned closer to refill his flute.

Tony snorted, a mouthful of champagne spilled over his chin, and he wiped it away with a careless swipe of his white shirt sleeve. "Over my dead body, Sunset. I will not let a floozy without an original idea in her head overtake me. If you think you can, you're-"

"Floozy? Now I'm hurt."

"You used me to steal my father's intellectual property, right after I proposed to you. It's fitting."

Pursing her lips, Sunset peered at him thoughtfully, and refilled his glass once more. Tony drank it sullenly, ignoring what might have been hurt in her eyes, and possibly traces of regret. He wanted none of her remorse, genuine or false. He had come here only to unburden himself of the emotions he'd carried around for years following her betrayal, and to tell her off for returning to invade his space and propose an idea that picked at he scabs of old injuries, and went so entirely against everything he stood for. Revisiting his memories though, he just wanted to leave, and didn't know what he hadn't.

He drained his glass.

"...were good together, though," Sunset was saying. "Before. You always had your nose in a book, or were working with your robot. I showed you how to loosen up a bit. Have some fun."

"You aren't dissuading me from the floozy thing."

A frown deepened the faint wrinkles on her lovely face and brought others. "Don't tell me you don't remember how good it was. How good we were. I didn't know what I wanted before I met you, you grounded me. I helped you come out of that shell your parents put you in. We're where we are today because of each other, and now that we're in the same industry, we could be assets to one another, Tony."

Laughter pealed drunkenly from Tony, who fell backward, heavily, in his seat. "You've got to be kidding." He looked for the bottle - any bottle - and lurched to his feet to fetch it for himself, then stumbling back and nearly fell into the chair again. "What in the Hell makes you think I'd ever work with you on anything?"

Sunset took the bottle from him, meeting with little resistance, and poured the clear liquid into a tumbler. Probably vodka. "Are you sleeping? I can only imagine; so much pressure from the government, and in the press."

Her sincerity, and her genuine concern, shook Tony. It caught him off guard, and finding a small chink in his defences, caused him to stutter, "I'm- I'm not-"

Whatever he'd actually been saying, Sunset took it as confirmation of her fears. She pouted with concern, radiating as much empathy as any devout charity worker he'd ever met.

"It just isn't fair, what they're saying about you." She refilled his glass. "I know you'd never do anything of the sort." Sunset's hand fell lightly over his. "But you're in for a rough time ahead. You know that, don't you?"

Tony was staring at her hand, but his mind wasn't on it. He was thinking about her words, and about the future. It was going to be a rough time ahead, that was for sure. A rough time that would drag, not only himself down, but those he loved, too. He was going to hurt Pepper, no matter what choice he made, but he couldn't bear to let her go. She would, he knew, willingly face the maelstrom with him and go down with the ship if it came to that, but she deserved better. She had always deserved better.

His heavy, rubbery hand wiped sweat away from his face, and he drank again. Drank more, as long as there was something to drink, he didn't care what it was, or how many had preceded it anymore. He didn't even care what it tasted like.

Sunset's voice was low, a whisper as seductive as the words she spoke, and they enveloped him, tantalizing as rich perfume and warming as fine brandy. "I can help, Tony."

His spine drew up, shoulders tightened. "Don't need your help. Don't want your help."

"Don't you?" Delicate fingers cradled her glass like a priceless object, betraying her finishing school education. "They're not going to leave you alone, Tony. Those vultures calling for your blood; it isn't right, but they've got you in a vice. If you don't do what they want, you'll be eaten alive."

Eyes heavy-lidded by the influence of alcohol, Tony glared at her beneath translucent hoods. "This isn't helping."

Her smile made him nervous, sly bordering on predatory. This was why they were here. "I want to help. That defense contract it's your personal sword of Damocles. Why don't you sign it over to me?" Before he could voice the violent protest that twisted his face with disgust, she stopped him with a sharp flick of the wrist. "You'd be doing your part for the good of the country - no one would be able to deny that you were acting in the best interest of your country. With so much suspicion focused on you, it makes more sense to pass on your resources to someone who is willing to do the job you won't. To even work with them, and restore faith in your name."

Tony's eyes drifted closed, letting Sunset's voice wash over him like the warm Caribbean surf, the imagery she presented heating him like the sun on his body. Her words were seductive, but impossible. Alluring only because he desired an end to his misery, and because she, with her sickeningly familiar beguilement, knew exactly what he wanted. "It wouldn't work," he protested, wishing he sounded as convinced as he felt.

"Sure it will." She was a religious leader, a missionary converting him to her faith, and when Tony dared to look at her, her reassuring smile was beatific. "We can take this burden off your shoulders, and you can return to the work you're meant to be doing. The more important things that will truly make a difference. Wouldn't it be a relief? To be able to focus?"

The room spun, chairs moving like carousel horses, taking Sunset along with them. Tony sat up, but he was fighting gravity, and rubbed at his face with useless hands. It was too much to think about, and he needed air. He needed to clear his head. He needed another drink.

Melting ice puddled on his shoe, and Tony noticed, looking down, the tumbler on the floor. Rubbing at his jaw, his face rearranged itself into a frown. "I need to think…" his head ached. Tony bent to retrieve the glass, mouth parched.

Sunset's hand intercepted his, bringing her face, briefly, within inches of his own. She smelled of oranges. He'd forgotten that. "Don't think," she urged him. Tony thought she would stay close, but Sunset pulled away and went to her briefcase, lying abandoned on a desktop, and withdrew a file.

Kneeling at Tony's feet, she pressed the documents into his hands. "I spoke with your board president, and we had these drawn up, just in case. We just want what's best for you, Tony."

He blinked at the papers, grasping for the tendrils of focus. Not only had she made it possible for him to rid himself of that burden, she'd gotten his board to agree - enough of them, at least. It was a way out, but it was a deal with the devil, desperately wanted, but sure to have unforeseen consequences.

The panic he'd been struggling with for months began tickling at his chest. Tony should say no. He should leave, should have done so long ago, and would, just as soon as he was done with his drink. He wasn't certain where it had come from.

"You want me to do this now." More than a cursory glance was too much for him to stomach, and the document drooped toward the floor, his fingers kneading the confusion from his eyes.

"And then you'll be free." It was too simple. Too easy. But Sunset, on the floor at his knees… her eyes were clear and ardent, begging his faith. He wanted to believe her. "Just think of the weight that would be lifted. Or…" Sunset hesitated, suddenly so uncertain that Tony became concerned.

She looked down, demurely. "I said before - we were good together." Pulling herself forward between Tony's legs, bracing herself with her hands on his thighs, Sunset pressed her lips to his.

It happened in slow motion: Tony saw her coming, felt her kiss, and yet could not make himself react to prevent it. He sat, stunned in shock, and though Sunset was unrestrained, his failure to respond in kind made her brief. She withdrew to study him impassively. Revulsion nearly undid Tony, held captive by Sunset's eyes, and the cool calculation that had replaced all traces of human feeling.

Leaning across to the side table, Sunset took up a pen and extended it toward Tony without a word. Undisguised disgust altered his features, but it made no difference to her. His desire to get away overrode all his sensibilities, and Tony took the pen from Sunset quickly, signing each document on the pages indicated by an arrow tag without bothering to read them.

Thrusting file and pen into her hands, Tony rose clumsily to his feet and lurched for the door like a landed sailor.

"Don't come near me again," he whispered, hand on the knob. "And don't even think of going near Pepper."

"If that's what you want." Sunset didn't sound in the least regretful.

But then - she'd gotten exactly what she wanted from him.

Tony slammed the door. He was going to be sick.