Disclaimer: I, of course, don't own Tony/Rhodey/Pepper, but I do own my OC P The rest of the Marvel world, of course, belongs to Marvel!
Chapter 1
It was 6:45 am according to the digital clock next to his bed. Tony Stark had been surprisingly deep in sleep when his cell phone began blaring.
"Hello?"
"Tony, it's Rhodes."
Tony felt an immense rush of anger charge through his body, "Rhodey, it's 6:45 am, on a Sunday morning. I didn't go to sleep until 45 minutes ago! You better have a damn good reason for waking me up."
"We need your help," Rhodey said, a slight urgency in his voice. "Actually, Nicole Lion needs your help."
Hours later, Tony Stark slid his chair back from his newest 'experiment' as his assistant, Virginia 'Pepper' Potts walked into the room.
"Was it successful?" His assistant asked hesitantly.
"As successful as it's going to be," Tony responded. "You can wake her up now."
Tony was referring to the young woman asleep in the chair in which Pepper had once switched out his Arc reactor. If he would have had it his own way, this wouldn't have happened. The woman should have been dead, but of course, he owed Rhodey a lot, and it really would have been a shame if she would have died.
"Nicole," Pepper said, walking over to the sleeping brunette. "Wake up."
The sound of her groan of pain reached Tony's ears and he just had to look for her reaction. As the brunette woman opened her eyes, they immediately fell on the glowing reactor, now installed in the middle of her chest.
"Shit," the woman mumbled. "How I wished that would have been a dream."
"Sorry to disappoint you, Nicole," Tony's voice showed the woman no mercy. He knew Nicole Lion very well. She had a reputation much like his own. Her family owned Lion Laboratories, a pharmaceuticals company that also dealt with the US Army like Stark Industries. He and Nicole had been at MIT together, both of them having gotten in at an extremely young age, and they'd been the biggest rivals the school had ever seen. Now, years later, her parents had retired and given the company to her. She made millions everyday from the drugs her company put out for the US Army alone. But that had been the beginning to her downfall.
Nicole had offered to go to Pakistan to help as a relief aide. Many people owed their lives to her company, and she finally decided she'd wanted to see what her drugs had been doing all that time. But while there, she'd been attacked, almost fatally. The same fragments that inhabited Tony's body from his own missiles now inhabited hers.
It wasn't really an option to let the woman die as she did so much for the people overseas, so of course, Rhodey had called Tony to help him. But, Tony knew this was a huge risk….
"This is just great," Nicole said, standing up and looking at herself in a mirror. Her hands flew to the gleaming reactor and she gave it a look of disgust.
"It's better than the alternative, Nicole," Tony rolled his eyes. "But if you'd really rather die, I can still remove it."
"Insensitive as always, aren't you, Stark?" Nicole faced him, her brilliant blue eyes glimmering. "You never change."
"Oh, and I suppose you have?" Tony raised his eyebrows.
"Don't be bitter against me just because my company's just as successful as yours is," Nicole said coolly. "Or should I say, as it was, considering how bad the explosion was a few months ago?"
"Bitch," Tony snarled.
"I think that might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"Enough!" Pepper's sharp voice cut across the room as Tony opened his mouth to respond. "You two are acting like children! Like it or not, Nicole, you owe Tony your life now. That reactor is keeping you from dying."
Nicole rolled her eyes while Tony laughed sarcastically.
"And you," Pepper turned on Tony. "You start acting like an adult. Yes, you didn't want to put the reactor into her, but then again, Rhodey didn't give you much of a choice, did he? Think of it as a new experiment. You can see what effect reactors have on other humans, and maybe you can get Stark Industries back to where it was."
"I don't need her help to get Stark Industries back up and running," Tony snapped. "The only reason she's alive is because of Rhodey. I don't need anything else from her, nor do I want it."
"Like I'd even help you," Nicole mumbled.
Pepper shook her head, "You both never know, you may need each other's help one day."
"When hell freezes over," Both inventors snarled.
TBC!
AN: Hey guys, I hope y'all enjoyed the first chapter! This is my first Iron Man fic, and I've been debating whether or not to put it up. I'll see what y'all think and then decide. I know the first chapter might've been a bit confusing, but I'll explain it all next chapter! Till then!