Iron Heart

By Hannah Clay

Takes place 1 day after Iron Man 2

Okay, its my first fanfic so be nice to me. ;) I would greatly appreciate reviews. Also, please let me know if this is crap or I should continue. IF you keep the reviews coming I will put at least three chapters up every Monday or whenever I can. I think this story could be a long one. Thanks! It is rated T for major fluff, plus violence and suspense.

CHAPTER 1

"It is a warm sunny day, 95 degrees, a great day to surf or swim," JARVIS spoke to the sleeping form of Tony Stark. "It is almost noon, Mr. Stark. I highly suggest you wake up." Tony grunted sleepily and burrowed deeper in his hovel of covers. "If you will not comply, I shall have to extend emergency measure, Mr. Stark."

"Yeah? Like what?" Tony's voice was muddled, yet cocky in his burrow.

"Miss Potts told me to heat your bed to approximately 200 degrees and turn your music to excessive levels."

"You wouldn't," there was a pause. Suddenly, JARVIS blasted not his precious AC/DC, but Tony's musical horror, country. "MUTE!" He howled, but JARVIS ignored him.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Tony rolled out of the bed with a resounding thunk. "You better stop before my bed catches on fire. AND TURN THE MUSIC DOWN!" Tony yelled over the country beat. JARVIS complied.

"Do that again and I'll rewrite your programming, you pieca smart alik junk," Tony poked a finger the offending AI. Tony ran a hand through his tousled hair and look out his wall-to-wall window at the foamy coastline, bathed in the yellow rays of the noonday sun.

"May I suggest you clothe yourself, Mr. Stark?" JARVIS stated. "Remember the last time that photographer…resolutely….staked out your window to get a picture of you in your underclothes?" Tony chuckled.

"Stark Naked. Headlines," Tony couldn't resist a good laugh. "Anyways, I guess you're right. Good point." Today he would not argue even with JARVIS, no matter how his own creation hounded him like a mother hen. It was going to be a beautiful day with an even more beautiful girl, Pepper Potts. Contrary to belief based on Tony's past experiences, the twosome did not immediently get a roof after 'fighting over their grape'.

No, Tony knew better then that, Pepper was not a sex object to him; he had feelings that extended beyond his own pleasures. Besides, it was not responsible, and his public ego had already been duly tarnished. Pepper was special, and deserved better then a non-committal playboy that he had been.

Tony had swiftly teamed up with Rhodey to coordinate cleanup and removal of Hammar's failed iron soldiers. Tony chucked in remembrance of the butt whooping he had delivered the night before. Then he realized he was still only styling red plaid boxers, so he pulled on his favorite blue jeans and a jade AC/DC shirt, he favorite outfit for working around the house. And socks. Socks were essential.

"Hey, JARVIS, where might Pep be?" Tony asked, while clomping down to the kitchen in his sock feet. He did a double take and loped to the fridge and began to root around in it. Surely Pep had left him a tasty tidbit. She always came through for him. Every time he saw the little things she did for him every day the worse he felt for all the years of short-changing his PA, and now steady-ish girlfriend.

"I believe Miss Potts had a noon appointment. A board meeting and should be back around four," JARVIS responded crisply. "If you'll look behind you, you'll see Miss Potts left a gift for you."

A gift? Tony whirled around. On the counter sat a extremely fresh, still steamy pizza with a note that said, "T, went to meeting be back at 4. P" Tony put the note in his shirt pocket and opened the box of pizza. A heavenly scent wafted from the ajar pizza box.

"Hallelujah," Tony said, but with no emotion in his voice. Inside he was jumping for joy. Tony folded a slice of pizza slightly as he did while nomming on pizza and took a large bite.

"So, JARVIS, today I wanna run diagnostics on the new core. I am having to wear to palladium cores still and I already…feel gassy."

"Yes, sir," JARVIS agreed. "Diagnostics can be completed by approximately three forty five pm. I believe your chlorophyll is on the counter."

"My…whaaa?" Tony complained. "C'mon, Jars, I don't need that crap."

"You must continue to ingest the chlorophyll to keep your health up. You are still wearing the palladium. Maybe a blood test is in order." Tony snatched up a blood tester machine and pricked his thumb. It stung like hell.

"Blood toxicity is only 17%, chill my JARVIS," Tony chunked the tester across the room.

"Please drink the chlorophyll, Mr. Stark. Miss Potts told me to expressly make you consume some,"

Tony made a face. Dummy and Butterfingers were cleaning up a rather ominous looking olive liquid spill, peppered with glass. A rather splashed cup rested on the counter, full of the offensive green guck.

"Hey, you two, stop breaking glasses, or I'll have you working a…a…used toilet paper facility," Tony snapped. The two made ashamed noises.

"Due to your limited current exposure to the palladium, which is thanks to temporarily use of your new core made of your element you named Ironapidom, you will only need six ounces of chlorophyll today." JARVIS noted. Tony threw back the lime colored substance and chugged it down.

"Cool. Let's rock and roll," Tony snatched up the pizza box and disappeared into his workroom.

At four forty pm Tony had already had JARVIS repaint a Iron Man prototype suit to replace his out one, due to it being totaled in the last battle, run all known and needed diagnostics on the new core, and made backup cores, although the new element ran 3 times longer then the palladium.

"JARVIS, shouldn't Pepper be here by now? She promised to meet me for dinner at four thirty," Tony wasn't as much worried as he was suspicious.

"In theory, yes sir…" JARVIS paused. "Traffic is normal. Unless she went to dinner."

"She didn't. She's not allowed to have plans without discussing them with me first,"

"I wasn't aware that was in your contract, sir," JARVIS said with sarcasm. Tony rolled his eyes. He didn't feel like lecturing his mother hen in 21st century dating and his cheery mood was gone without Pepper.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Tony waved his hand in the air dismissively.

"May I suggest calling Miss Potts?" JARVIS suggested quietly. Tony snapped his fingers.

"Genius. Phone Miss Potts,"

JARVIS dialed and put the ringer over the room's built in speaker system which was compatible for input and output calling.

"What's going on?" Tony demanded.

"She is not answering her phone, sir,"

"I know. Why?"

"There are a number of possibilities, Mr. Stark. She could has misplaced it, broken it, had it pilfered, left it at home."

"No. Pep's Blackberry is an extension of her hand," Tony smiled but found no true humor in his comment. "Let me call…well…whoever she is having the meeting with!" Tony slammed the hood of his hot rod down and wiped his hands on a rag.

"Should I obtain this information from Miss Pott's daily schedule?"

"Dammit, yes, JARVIS!" Tony fussed. "If I'm mad at her now and she's hurt I'm gonna feel bad, but if she is standing me up…" Tony trailed off. No, Pep wouldn't do that. "Wha? What is that?"

"It appears to be your cell phone, Mr. Stark," JARVIS said dryly.

"Thank you," Tony said sarcastically. "Tony Stark," he answered.

"Tony! Let me talk to Pepper!" came a disgruntled voice.

"Rhodey?"

"No, duh," Rhodes snapped. "Pepper. Now. I don't care what you're doing, I need to talk. Now."

"Pepper is not here."

"She's not?"

"She is not,"

"What the…?" there was a pause and Tony could practically see Rhodey running his hands over his head. "Where is she, then?"

"Meeting, I guess. I can't get ahold of her on her cell,"

"Me neither, and the meeting was supposed to be with us,"

"Us?"

"Dammit, the military, Tony!" Rhodey yelled.

"Okay, settle down. Mood swings in during PMS are to be expected,"

"Tony…just…" Rhodey sighed. "They're about to release the hell hounds over here."

"Call of Duty! You see, I like how you -"

"Be serious, Tony. This obviously is. Pepper is not late, she is not lazy, or uncommunicative. Something has to be wrong."

"So, what do you want to do?" Tony choked back a wave of panic.

"General Powell is about to have my head. Pepper committed to come to discuss the future of the Iron Man suit in the military,"

"Or lack thereof," Tony interrupted.

"Whatever, anyways. This is a very important, pertinent issue. Something you may know nothing of."

"Hey, now -" but Rhodey cut him off.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know."

There was another long pause.

"Is she okay?" Rhodey's voice was quite troubled but Tony knew he had to play it down.

"I don't know. Why…why wouldn't she…be…?"

"Everyone knows you're Iron Man, and after last night and so on everyone knows you and Pepper have a relationship."

"Who said that?"

"Oh, so that little stunt on the roof was you seeing what you had for dinner was?" Rhodey's voice dripped with mockery.

"Shut up, Rhodey."

"…we gotta find her,"

"I will, since obviously everyone knows we are together, I will see if I can find her," Tony snarled. "Stay put."

"What?" Rhodey was visibly already ticked.

"I'm the one with the suit," Tony snapped.

"Actually, you're not,"

"Gosh, Rhodes, you owe it back. It was a lend. Technically. Well, not even technically cause…what was it? Oh, that's right, you stole it!"

"This isn't about you, Tony," Rhodey was patronizingly calm.

"Whatever," Tony bit his tongue. "Stay put and leave MY suit alone until you return it. Thank you, bye," Tony hung up briskly. "Get the suit ready, JARVIS." Tony went to his desk to get his undersuit on.

"Mr. Stark, there is an unauthorized individual attempting user access to the system and is alarmingly close to your current position." JARVIS warned.

"How unauthorized?"

"Not in the system at all,"

"Put me in the suit and I'll deal with them," but as Tony turned, a damp rag was shoved over his nose and mouth. He tried to struggle, but everything went black.

To Be Continued.

I will be happy to continue this story if I get some good feedback. Could you please tell me your favorite line from the chapter? And also, I need a little reader participation. Please include in reviews what you liked or disliked, your favorite line and who you think should have kidnapped Tony. Hammar? Ivan? Nick Fury? Obadiah? Christine Everheart? ;) Whoever picks or get majority vote on the kidnapper will have their names listed on their winning vote or idea listed solely. So R&R!

Luv,

RomanceDoneWrite