Agent Potts and the Man in the Iron Suit

IX

Virginia huffed as she scrubbed at a stain on the coffee table. She didn't know why she was bothering to clean her apartment so thoroughly. It's not like it mattered what he thought of it. They were merely getting together for business matters - somewhat forced business matters, at that. He wasn't a guest she had invited over because she actually wanted to get to know or visit with them. It didn't even matter how much she tidied the space anyway. It's not like she would be impressing him at all. The entire apartment was probably the size of his Malibu mansion kitchen or something ridiculous like that.

Virginia applauded every point she had made to herself, but for some reason kept working at the stain.

A few hours later, the dreaded knock came from her front door. She took a deep breath and opened it. Virginia stifled a giggle at what she saw.

It was difficult, but she could manage to recognize the person in front of her as Tony behind the cap pulled low over his face, very dark-tinted sunglasses, and jacket zipped all the way and pulled up to shield the lower half of his face.

When he spoke, any inkling of doubt that remained vanished. "So glad you find this amusing. I thought you would appreciate it more than the attention Tony Stark strolling into your building would warrant."

"I do appreciate that, thank you," Virginia said, a hint of laughter still in her voice. She opened the door wider.

Tony began removing his getup as he stepped through the doorway. While he unzipped the jacket, he looked around the space. "Nice place you've got here."

"You expect me to believe you mean that when I've seen your residence?" Virginia asked. She checked that the door was securely shut and locked behind them.

He slumped into a chair at the kitchen table, where Virginia already had her laptop set up and a few files scattered around, and shrugged. "Not everyone wants to live that way. So yes, your place is nice too."

"Thanks," she mumbled. Virginia joined him at the table and logged into the database on her laptop.

"Y'know, if we're going to be working together for a while, I should give you a nickname."

Virginia started opening some of the files she had on Hammer as she replied, "Wouldn't it be strange for you to use a nickname while I still address you as Mr. Stark?"

"Good thing that won't be an issue, since you don't call me Mr. Stark anymore."

Virginia finally bothered to glance his way and raised a brow. "And why do you think that's the case?"

He leaned forward, propping himself up with his elbows on the table. He gazed at her. "Because you called me Tony at the gala."

"That's only because 'Sally' was supposed to be a long-time friend of yours," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Still, wouldn't it feel weird to go back to 'Mr. Stark' when you've already crossed that bridge?" Tony asked with a grin.

She looked back at her screen. "I don't have any issues with it."

"Now, what would be a good nickname?" he mused. Tony leaned back in his chair and stared thoughtfully at her.

Virginia sighed and continued prepping information for them to look through while they discussed plans for moving forward with the mission.

He snapped his fingers. "How about Ginny? That's a classic, right?"

Her head whipped around. She stared him down as she said, "Never call me that again."

Tony's eyes widened, and he actually shrunk back in his seat a little. "Noted."

She gathered the loose files on the table and sorted them in the order she thought would be best to look through.

"I've got it! Pepper - for your fiery hair and personality."

Virginia looked at him again. "Really? Your second best idea is a food?"

Tony smiled. "Are you saying you hate it?"

"I'm not saying I like it."

"So, Pep, what are we working on today?" he asked, eyes twinkling.

She made a face at him, but answered the question nonetheless. "We're figuring out the plan moving forward. Your familiarity with Hammer and tech-wizardry should be useful."

"I will help any way I can."

Virginia was struck by a thought. "Wait. Tony-" As soon as the name left her mouth, she pressed it into a thin line and squeezed her eyes shut.

When she risked opening them again, she was met by the person whom that name belonged to smirking at her from across the table. "Go on," he prodded.

Virginia decided that battle wasn't worth fighting anymore. She continued, "Why don't you just hack into Hammer's system for me? Then I wouldn't have to sneak around at headquarters and risk blowing my cover."

"Bad idea. The issue is that there's always a risk of being detected in the system, no matter how seamlessly you get into it. I wasn't concerned about if I was noticed in your database because either way I had something you wanted and a bargaining chip. In this case, if Hammer catches wind of any security breach, he'll go on high alert, and possibly start destroying the evidence you need."

She frowned. "Okay. Back to the original idea, then. I need to find a good stretch of time to get into his office and figure out the most efficient way to extract information from his computer."

"I could tinker with a thumb drive to optimize the download time on it," Tony offered.

Virginia nodded and made a note. "That might work. Is there a way you could make it recognize unimportant apps and files so I can hit 'download all' and not waste time?"

"Give me a little time and I'm sure I could sort that out," he answered with full confidence.

She passed some of the paper files to him. "Here. Maybe getting an idea of the kind of information we're looking for will help you program a system that knows what isn't that."

They spent the next little while combing through files. Tony looked for information that would be useful in his programming. Virginia studied the comings and goings of Hammer that the unit had documented and combined that with the notes she had gathered from her first few days of work.

Eventually Tony glanced at his watch and said, "I should head out. There's a conference I'm supposed to go to. Obie will try to figure out where I'm at if I don't get there on time." He stood and slipped back into his jacket and cap. Virginia saw him to the door. "See you soon, Pepper," he said with a wink before slipping his shades on.

"Bye, Tony," she muttered back. Then she shut the door on him and all his ridiculousness.