Saving Grace

Twenty Five

While Tony was at home with Grace, Happy and Pepper were at Stark Industries. Tony recently made Happy the head of the security, and Happy was taking it very seriously.

Pepper, however, noted that complaints among the staff had risen by three hundred percent. Happy thought it meant someone was hiding something.

And, then, Pepper's four o'clock meeting arrived — a man she used to work with who would ask her out all the time, so Happy stayed close.

She met him, and he'd changed immensely. He was presenting his idea to her — Extremis. He showed her a projected image of his brain in real time. "Now, Extremis harnesses our bioelectrical potential, and it goes... here." He points at it. "This is essentially an empty slot, and what this tells us is that our mind — our entire DNA, in fact — is destined to be upgraded."

Meanwhile, Happy was waiting outside the office. He got a call on his tablet from Tony, and it took him a while to answer it as he wasn't good with the tech yet. He held the tablet up high, trying to get his face on the camera. He succeeded in only showing the top half.

"Is this the forehead of security?" Tony asked.

"What?" Happy lowered the tablet. "You know, look, I got a real job. What do you want? I'm working, I got something going on here."

"What? Harassing interns?"

Happy rolled his eyes. "Let me tell you something; you know what happened when I told people I was Iron Man's body guard? They laughed in my face -" Tony, appropriately, laughs "- I had to leave while I still had a shred of dignity. Now I got a real job, I'm watching Pepper."

That's exactly what Tony was calling to hear in the first place. "What's going on? Fill me in."

"For real?"

"Yeah."

Happy sighed. "Alright, so she's meeting up with this scientist. Rich guy, handsome."

"Right."

"I couldn't make his face at first, right? You know I'm good with faces."

Tony glanced across the table at Grace, who was mostly preoccupied with the lunch he'd just made her. "Oh, yeah, yeah; you're the best."

Happy continued. "Yeah. Well, so I run his credentials — I make him Aldrich Killian. We actually met the guy back in... where were we in '99? The science conference?"

Tony thought for a moment as Grace looked up at him. "Switzerland," he replied.

"Right, right, exactly."

Tony frowned. "Killian? No, I don't remember that guy."

"Of course you don't," Happy replied. "You were a bit busy with-"

"There's a child present," Tony cut in quickly.

"No, I wanna know," Grace protested.

Tony shook his head. "Unimportant. Go, Hogan."

Happy sighed. "At first it was fine, they were talking business, but now it's, like, getting weird. He's showing her a big brain."

"A what?"

"Big brain, and she likes it. Here, let me show you. Hold on... See?" But all Tony could see was Happy.

"Look at what? You watching them? Flip the screen, and then we can get started."

"I'm not a tech genius like you. Just- Just trust me, get down here."

"I can't." He had Grace; he couldn't just take her to Stark Industries with him, out in public like that. "Flip the screen, then I can see what they're doing."