A Tragedy Told In Metals: Copper & Arsenic
Playlist (Youtube)
Playlist (Spotify)
Songs 1-3 apply to this chapter
CW: chronic illness, mild injuries, past abuse
[I’m just jumping to posting in real-time w/ my AO3]
Toni drummed her fingers on her desk watching the chemical formulas for different filaments swirling in front of her eyes. And then what she was almost positive would happen, happened: a red marker reading “failure” blinked in front of her. She dropped her sweaty head on the cool surface of her desk.
“We can keep trying,” JARVIS said.
The formulas, graphs and test results continued to mock her from the screen and Toni sighed. She felt tired but grabbed the stupid chlorophyll shake and downed it. The disgusting drinks were meant to slow the poison. She was going through the motions, pretending this wasn’t as bad as it was. Just pushing through, she wasn’t dying, absolutely not. Except she was and had been since, well, probably since forever, but this particular threat had started the day she survived. It was horribly ironic that the stupid glowing light in her chest, which had saved her life, was now slowly killing her.
That level of irony was honestly funny but she was laughed out. Now it just left a bitter taste in her mouth along with the smoothie. Toni ran her hands along the hardened veins on her chest. The brittle feeling made her feel slightly ill, but that might just be part of the constant nausea she was going through.
Toni was really only going through the motions now. She had already finished writing her will The money was split four ways between charity, Rhodey, Happy and Pepper. Stark Industries went to Pepper. Rhodey got the suits, JARVIS’s mainframe and the Bots. Happy had his choice of cars. Properties, expensive stuff she had and shares of SI would just be split between her friends. Rhodey’s family also got some shares of the company to set them up past the cash Rhodey had.
Toni had it all planned out, it wasn’t guess work. The business had to go to Pepper, she was the only one Toni trusted to not turn Stark Industries back into a weapons company. Rhodey was the only person she would trust in a million years to take care of the Bots and JARVIS with the love they deserve, and, well, he did get the suits; he was the only one who could figure out how to use them if necessary.
“Toni!” Pepper said walking into the lab, her high heels clipping along the floor.
“Yes, Pep?” Toni re-buttoned the top button on her shirt before she spun to face Pepper.
“You returned these forms to me.” Pepper brought up a form on her Stark pad.
“Yeah I did, my signature is there and everything,” Toni replied pointing at the screen
“You signed this page, and the last one but there were a bunch of signature lines between them.”
“Oh,” Toni said with a sigh.
“This is like the fifth time you've done something like this. All of your work is like you’re trying to do it in your sleep.”
“I’m really not Pepper I’m just, ya know, tired. I’ve been busy with SI, and the Iron Queen and just like sleeping and life things.”
Peppers deep suck of breath at the words ‘Iron Queen’ did not go missed by Toni who directed her eyes away from the other woman.
“Well, you can’t leave me to do everything just because you want to fly around in your metal toys. It’s your company and half-done work, late reports, and missed meetings just aren’t fair to everyone else.”
“They aren’t toys. None of this is a game!” Toni shot back.
“Nor is your company! At least not to me, you’re the CEO and no one else is here to do your work for you anymore.”
Toni ground her teeth together as an image of the men who had run the company before filled her mind for a moment. She breathed out, steadying the immediate way her hands shook just thinking about them.
“I know that, okay? I do.”
Pepper sat heavily into the couch and looked to the side, her fingers resting on her lips. She shook her head softly, “I know you’ve been through a lot lately and all. But I’m being the CEO right now.”
A switched flipped into Toni’s head. Why not make Pepper CEO? It was her plan after she died anyway. Toni looked up, “Why aren’t you?”
Toni stood up, she grabbed a long piece of scrap metal from her table.
“Ta’ da you’re the new Stark Industries CEO” Toni mimed knighting her.
“Haha, this is important Toni,” Pepper said sliding the scrap from her shoulder.
“I thought we established we weren’t joking tonight.”
“Well umm, I think we should have the actual paperwork done up.”
“Sure, yeah, we can do that.” Toni nodded.
“Toni,” Pepper said in that “I’m about to say or ask you something you don’t want to answer” tone of voice.
“Yeah?” Toni replied exhausted
“I’m still going to need you to do some work though. You still own Stark Industries, and I assume you will want to continue working on product development.”
“Yeah, I know that. But now you don’t have to do two jobs anymore. You’re the only person I would ever trust with SI anyway. You’re better for the job anyway; you have the degree, the attention span and people skills.”
“Thanks, Toni. Can you still sign this though?” Pepper pointed to the tablet on the table.
Toni was laying on her couch with ice on her knee, shoulder and head all at once. A particularly bad day of “Iron-Queening” had left her feeling really banged up. Everything hurt, but Toni almost didn’t mind. She was used to being in pain and destroying the Stark weapons cache was something worth getting hurt for anyway. Plus, she actually remembered how she got these injuries, which was cool.
“Ms. Toni, Ms. Potts and an unknown woman are at the door.”
“She armed or suspicious or anything?” Toni said sitting up slowly.
Toni sat all the way up and kicked an empty beer bottle under the couch and blinked till her vision cleared up. Pepper was trailed by a woman around her age with bright red hair and light skin.
“Toni, how are you?” Pepper asked.
“Peachy, all these ice packs are for fun!” Toni snarked.
Pepper sighed and rolled her eyes, “JARVIS and the legal department drew up the papers to change Stark industry’s CEO.”
“That's good, but who is she?” Toni pointed to the new lady.
“This is Natalie Rushman. She is going to be your new PA.”
“You're CEO shouldn’t you have one?”
“Oh I will I’m still looking for one suitable. I think you need one or you will never get anything done on time.”
“Hey, JARVIS reminds me of stuff.”
“Yes he is. He's almost as bad as Rhodey.”
Natalie walked forward and tried to hand Toni what she assumed were the papers from the legal team. But even if she rationally knew what it was she still flinched back.
“I don’t like being handed things.” Toni explained, “Can you put it on the table?”
“Oh. Yes ma'am,” Natalie said placing it down.
“Oh yuck, just call me Toni. We’re like the same age.” Toni leaned forward and signed the papers, and smiled at Pepper. “Now you're the boss.”
“I’m the boss?” She said returning Toni’s smile, which much to Toni’s annoyance made her stomach swoop. Apparently, that crush she had was not going away and it was really frustrating.
“Yup. Can you stay for dinner?”
“Actually I’m trying to learn to cook. So I'll make some Pasta. Apparently, cooking is a good skill to reintegrate into life, connecting with the body something, something.” Toni waved her hand as she walked stiffly into the kitchen.
“JARVIS better make sure you don’t burn the water,” Pepper said
Toni shook her head. It was quick work to make spaghetti, not something hard to do. Having Pepper with her made it more enjoyable, though. While Toni was working on making the pasta, she watched Natalie from the corner of her eyes. Something was off with her. Even with a permanently distracted state of mind, Toni could clock signs of Natalie not being what she seemed.
She was really stiff, unnaturally, so. Most people would be really fidgety when in a new place. She didn’t look uncomfortable, per se, and she wasn't so comfortable that it seemed like she had no emotions at all. Natalie just seemed...chill. Toni decided to test Natalie. Was it nice? Probably not, but she needed to figure out what was going on.
“So, Natalie, where are you from?” Toni asked.
“I’ve only been to Portland. Do you have any siblings?”
“No, I’m an only child like you. I’m not really close to my family.”
“That sucks. But friends are so much better than family, if your family’s shit.”
“I just moved here so I’m not close with anyone yet.”
“Well this is kind of a crazy place to meet people but the parties are still really fun.”
“Ah, partying hasn’t been my thing recently.”
“Recently? So was there a time it was?”
“Well, I had a bit of wild stage in high school and college. But I got my head back on straight at the end of college. I had to make sure to get good enough grades in class to get a job like this. ”
“What was your poison of choice?”
“Rum, weed the usual stuff”
Toni traced her eyes over Natalie, there hadn’t been enough pause, hadn’t been enough shame. She did smile, though, and lean into the table. Gave Toni a bright smile. It was charming, and she was for sure hot, but Toni knew fake people, had lived with them.
After eating Toni sucked in a large breath. It was time to enact the next part of her plan.
“Hey, can I show you something in the lab?” Toni asked.
“Sure. Visiting the lab is always a mix of cool and a disaster” Pepper said, turning to Natalie who shrugged and slid off the chair.
Down in the lab, Toni sat in her chair glanced behind her. Both women were watching her expectantly. Toni clicked on the keyboard and the design for her next Stark Pad came up.
“In between my Iron Queen life and having to go to your meetings I actually finished this design.” Pepper walked forward and slid through the specs on the screen. While Pepper was looking away, Toni kicked her foot under the table and caused a pile of stacked up raw material and tools crash to the ground. Pepper jumped and yelped like any normal person should. Toni watched Natalie closely as the redhead also quietly jumped, and then quickly assumed a fighting stance. Natalie’s eyes snapped around the whole room, not to the site of the crash. Yeah, she wasn’t someone ex-party girl PA.
Great, someone was in her house who was lying to her about, well, maybe about everything. Why did people keep making her life so fucking complicated?