Iron Man (H a r r i e t and mad hatters revenge)

[mad hatters revenge]

There were a few problems she had being a freelancer, work was seldom, and being a women, work was rare, which meant when she got a real job offer, she had to take it. Bartending was barely making ends meet, so when Justin Hammer himself sat down at her bar and told her he wanted to hire her, she wasn't foolish enough to say no. He was offering more money than she had dreamed of ever making in her life time, which was understandable considering the man she was going after was Tony Stark, probably the only man who had more money than Justin.

It did take her a few days to consider, going after Stark wasn't exactly the easiest, or safest thing to be attempting. However, she'd never been a fan of Starks, she thought he was an egotistical, selfish, power hungry jackass. Every time she saw his face on the television she wanted to hit him, it was that annoyance with the mans personality that had her agreeing to take the job. His assistant Pepper was apparently just as sick of Stark as everyone, and had requested personal leave the day after Elizabeth had accepted the job, which was perfect. Justin wrote up a resume for her, put down his personal recommendation and apparently had paid off a few other companies that looked nice on paper to do the same, and Pots hired her after five minutes of talking to her on the phone.

She'd been hones with the women, did she like Mr.Stark? Not very much, but it wasn't her job to like or dislike him, it was her job to make sure his day went the way it was suppose to, with as little problems as possible.  There were thankfully skills of the resume Hammer didn't have to lie about, she was fluent in multiple languages, had the highest training levels of multiple martial arts, and after years in the military, was more than familiar with Starks company and what it's focus was.

How does one go from being a marine to an assassin? Easy, it had been the plan from the start. It was kind of the family job, since she could remember her father had been all she had, her mother had been murdered shortly after her birth, which was probably why he'd been determined to make his daughter into the perfect killing machine. He sent her to the finest schools and convinced her to serve the military as not only training, but a cover. Some believed living off the grid was the only way to kill and get away with it, but the truth was you simply had to be the last person they'd suspect of it. They always assume assassins to be a mysterious figure, when in reality it could just as easily be their best friend.

She'd buried her father 7 years ago at the lovely age of 17, without him, she fell out of touch with work for a while, bartending was a job she could take days off at a time without anyone noticing or caring, and it was a job that really didn't ask a lot of questions about your past or your family. Pepper hadn't asked much about it either, though Elizabeth was sure she'd checked the lovely, clean background of her first, both parents deaths were 'normal' enough that it raised no questions, and the girl had never gotten so much as a parking ticket.

Now, her she was, dressed up like a working women, waiting around for her new boss to arrive at the office for her first day. Her outfit had been suggested by Pepper herself, black dress pants, black button up blouse, and black heals, simple, easy, and without a skirt he'd have a hard time feeling flirtatious. Not that a skirt was needed, her job was to get close to Tony, and Justin hadn't hired her just because of her job, but because she made sure to look great for her job. It was wonderful how easily men could be talked into almost anything by a pretty lady, especially when those women were smart.

Elizabeth had even gone out and got her hair cut, the long dark brown, straight, strands had once reached the small of her back,  now they layered, barely grazing the bottom of her shoulder blades, angling angled with her face up to her bangs falling just above her green eyes. Manicure, pedicure, everything Hammer suggested women did before trying to seduce a man she did, now all she had to do was mentally prepare herself to spend the next few weeks being sweet, polite, and following the orders of a man she couldn't stand. She could kill him, but if she wanted to get paid, Hammer had to get everything he wanted first.

Glancing at the clock on the desk, she sighed and rubbed her temple, Pepper hadn't been joking when she said he had the tendency to be late, fifteen minutes late today, and the first thing on her list of important things to do was a handful of documents that needed his signature.

[H a r r i e t]

"Yes, and I understand that," Tony muttered into his ear piece, actually not understanding a word of what Pepper had said to him through it.  "But if you're on personal leave, who's going to feed the cat?"  Of course, Pepper's only response to him was, 'Tony, you don't have a cat.'  As Tony finished pulling his blazer on, he pulled a face in his full-length mirror.  "See, exactly.  If you're gone, who's going to remind me that I don't have little vermin running around, screwing everything up?"  Naturally, he wasn't able to stop the soft chuckle from slipping from the back of his throat, but it was quickly put on pause at Pepper's response.  With a sigh of his own, he nodded his head on his way out of his bedroom, despite the fact that she couldn't see him whatsoever.  Letting her speak more about the reasons why she was going on personal leave, Tony's lips pursed, tempted to interrupt her, but he quickly decided against it.  "Alright, Pepper.  Yes, I-  No.  Of course I'm going to have wild parties; no parents in the house, remember?  Not for another two months," this time he grinned through his response, and he heard a bit of a smile through Pepper's voice- as much as she was trying to contain it.

Exiting into the garage of his penthouse, Tony stopped in front of his Audi, checking his pants pocket to make sure the keys were still in there.  "Uh huh.  Yeah.  Yes, I'm going to make whats-her-face feel at home," he started, opening the driver side of his car before getting in.  "You know, I'm actually offended that you'd think that I'd put my sexual desire over my company, Miss Potts.  And if you're not careful, I might just hire, uh... whatever her name is, and leave you back home with family."  The tone he used was obviously a joking one, as if the large grin that he wore while he said it wasn't enough to tip her off on that.  She gave a soft joking response, and then started to close up the call, saying she had to get ready for dinner soon.  Stark wasn't too happy about that, considering this was literally his first time without Pepper being at arms length, and he had to bite the inside of his cheek for a moment to prevent himself from saying so.  "You worry too much, Pepper.  I'll be fine.  Really, as fine as I've always been," he assured her, surprised at his own tone of voice.  He sounded extremely confident that he'd be alright without her, even though on the inside, he was about ready to start begging for her to come back.  After he hung up, Tony pushed the key into the ignition of his sports car and pulled out of its space.  Exiting the garage altogether, he sped down the bend of his street and headed towards Stark Industries.  Naturally, he leaned forward and pressed the CD button on his dashboard's console, and instantly AC DC came over the speakers, blaring the sound into the mountain side, the wind in his hair.

It wouldn't have taken him so long to get there if he hadn't stopped to grab a bite to eat along the way.  To be honest, he was purposely wasting time, sitting through McDonald's drive-thru.  It wasn't his nerves, per say, but Tony couldn't really say he was too excited to meet this Elizabeth character.  Pepper had hired her completely alone, so Tony couldn't get a chance to get his word in before the final say was done.  Meeting new people, new people that were working strictly as his assistant, always made Tony a little flustered.  No one, in his entire life experience of running Stark Enterprises, he had never met someone who worked as well, and efficiently as Pepper.  Not only that, but there was a very soft spot for the redhead in his heart, and that feeling was extremely irreplaceable.  Trying to replace that image with some stranger that he literally knew nothing about - barely even her name - wasn't something Tony was in a rush to do.  Unfortunately for Elizabeth, that meant she'd be dealing with a much more stressful issue than she thought she would be.  Which, for Tony Stark, was perfectly alright.  His schedule always worked around him, after all, and nothing else.

When he finally arrived, carrying his McDonald's take out bag in tote, he entered the building after parking and made his way up to his office.  Once he stepped out of the elevator, he pushed his red sunglasses into his hairline, counting the doors until he reached his office.  Once he was outside, he raised his hand slowly, taking a small sip from the beverage in his hand, counting down the seconds it was taking him just to open the door and walk through the entrance.  Finally, when he was done swallowing, he grabbed the handle of the door with his free hand, pushing it open.  Letting it close behind him, he walked straight over to his desk, his eyes catching Elizabeth's figure, though he made no attempt to look her over, or even made it seem like he was interested at all in talking to her just yet.  Once he was at his desk, he flopped into his chair, rolling a bit closer to the desk.  Leaning back, he lifted his legs, propping both his feet up, his sneakers holding his interest for a moment as he leaned forward a bit to set his drink down.

"So." he started abruptly, shoving his hand into his McDonald's bag, only now raising his eyes to hold her own.  "What's your name again?" he asked, eyes narrowing to show that he was genuinely serious in not remembering it.  While waiting for an answer, he pulled his hand out, a few fries gripped between them.  Biting the ends off, he chewed, eyes still on her.

[mad hatters revenge]

'Good morning' was actually on the tip of her tongue as the sound of footsteps in the hallway reached her ears. The only reason she knew it was him was because the footsteps didn't fade, they just stopped, and he stood outside the door for a while, and she felt like this was just the first of many trials on her patience with him. When he finally did walk in, she said nothing, acting as if she were politely waiting for him to get comfortable at his desk before speaking up.

His question, as much as it irked her, was something she'd been warned about. Pepper had told her that chances were high he would forget her name, multiple times a day, for possibly the entire time she was working with him, whether it was on accident or on purpose she wouldn't know for sure. Just like how he'd be late more day than he was on time, and probably fight and whine the entire way through any paper work or scheduled meetings. So, instead of looking offended, flustered or waiting more than a few seconds, she smiled as sweetly as she could manage before replying, "It's Elizabeth Namara sir, or just Elizabeth or Miss. Namara if you'd prefer."  Boundaries were set on the titles he could call her, Liz and Liza were the two she couldn't stand, though she hoped by not saying so, he simply wouldn't think of them, she'd rather keep reminding him of her name than here either of those two being directed at her.

Once his mouth was full of fries, she walked over, heals clicking against the floor,  pulling the greasy bag out of the way as if it were diseased before placing 5 different documents in front of him. "These all need your signature so they can be sent out in the next..." She glanced at her watch and had to fight not to glare at it, the documents had to be sent out in thirty minutes, and could've been out hours ago if he'd gotten here at a decent hour. "Twenty-five minutes." She replied with a smile, giving herself five minutes for him to delay the process, another tip Pepper had suggested.

Grabbing a tissue off the desk, she handed it a long with a pen to him, the last thing paper work for other industries needed were greasy fingerprints.

[H a r r i e t]

Tony's dull, uninterested glance didn't fade as she introduced herself.  It was rather formal, and Tony was having a hard time paying more attention to her than the food he was currently chewing.  Her patience seemed... unrealistic.  Like there was some sort of barrier between her lashing out and letting everything he did slide.  Tony didn't like that.  Half the reason as to why he did the things he did was to get a rise out of Pepper, or whoever else he was working with or against.  When he was given nothing at all to go on, it just made it boring.  That, and it made him more determined to get on the nerves of whoever it was that was denying him of his fun.  However, he remained quiet as she approached his desk, giving her an unpleasant frown when she moved the bag of McDonald's out of her way on the side of his desk.  The fact that she replaced his food with paperwork had his frown being that much more pronounced.  "Elizabeth's a mouthful, and Miss Namara sounds like you're trying too hard," he started as he grabbed the tissue after pushing the last of his fries into his mouth.  Wiping his hand off carelessly, he grabbed the pen and grabbed the stack of paper, eyebrows pulling together as he skimmed over the first couple lines.  "What're these for again, Liz?  Can I call you Liz?" he asked, though the tone in his voice made it clear he'd do it regardless of her answer.  It was a lot better than wasting so much breath on a long name like Elizabeth.  Might be a habit he had gotten from Pepper's name being so short.  And the fact that she hadn't made Liz or Lizzie an option for him to call her, Tony figured she had a few problems with being called those names, which was always a bonus.

Slowly, he scribbled his signature onto the first two documents, tossing them onto his desk once they were done.  Pursing his lips, he reclined back in his chair a little more, looking back up at her.  "What time did you say these had to be sent out?" he asked, though the look on his face made it obvious that it was a rhetorical question, one that he already remembered the answer to.  "Hm.  You know, as my replacement assistant while Pepper's busy abandoning me with strangers... I think we should get to know each other a little better.  Or, me get to know you, I guess, considering you're supposed to know about every little thing about me."  Pulling his legs down from his desk, he dumped the other three unsigned documents onto the desk and wheeled his chair out from behind it.  And for the first time, after Tony had stopped moving and leaned back into his chair, he got an actual good look of her.  He didn't do much to hide the fact that he was checking her out, from the very top of her head all the way down to the heels on her feet.  It took him a moment to realize why it seemed so familiar, and then he let out a soft laugh, the sides of his eyes crinkling with humor.

"Nice outfit.  Pepper tell you to stick to slacks?" he asked, raising his eyebrows as his eyes slowly came back up to hold her own gaze once more.  The smug smile he wore wasn't there on purpose, and was just a natural response to picking that out, but even if he hadn't figured it out all on his own, he was positive that the grin would still be in place.  After all, the easiest way to find out how someone ticked was to make them frustrated and angry.  All he had to do was break that first barrier, and he'd be in control for the rest of the two months that she'd be with him.

[mad hatters revenge]

There it was, the awful nickname she couldn't stand, being used my the most arrogant man on the face of the planet. Though his tone made it clear  her didn't care for her answer, she gave it anyway, "I'd rather you didn't, but I'm sure you'll do what you'd like." Surprisingly, she was able to keep it from sounding snippy and a bit more playful. Pushing her buttons wasn't something she normally enjoyed, but depending on how they were pushed, annoying could be a little funny. Like how he was trying to think of reasons to procrastinate signing the paperwork on time.

Out of habit, the moment the pushed away from the desk, she took a few steps back, people didn't touch her very often, and even when they did she didn't always welcome it very warmly, aside from the occasional drunk night stands, she was human after all, she had needs, just not ones she let control her life.

When he explained he wanted to get to her know her better, at first she almost replied he could read everything he needed to know in her file, but doubted it would do anything other than waste time. Unable to help herself, she actually let out a small laugh of amusement. "Pepper wasn't kidding, you really know how to try and talk your way out of working. I'll tell ya what..." Pausing, she steps forward to set the planner and other various papers on the desk before taking the chair in front of it. "If you sign all those papers in the next few seconds, I'll give you the next..." Stopping, she glances at the slim silver watch around her wrist. "Five minutes to ask all the questions you want to get to know me better." He was a business man, surely bargaining with him was her best shot at getting close to him. Smiling, probably the first real one of the day, she did something she hadn't all morning, she got her body to relax. "I'll count that first one as a freebie. Yes, she said I could wear a skirt if I desired, but that sexual harassment was her biggest concern."