Chapter Text
“Michelle, are you still in the office?”
There was absolutely no good way to answer that. If she admitted the truth, Ms Potts would eventually chastise her for working late again. It wasn’t as if she was putting in more actual work than anyone else. As PA to the CEO of Stark Enterprises, Michelle put Pepper Potts' schedule together for her daily. That was a workload she didn’t even remotely envy. It was just that Michelle was occasionally slow and absent minded. It got worse when she got bored. In the doldrums of a secretarial existence, she’d often find herself mentally checking out by midafternoon. To conceal that, because being the PA to the CEO of Stark Enterprises was a cushy, comfortable, and well paid job that she didn’t want to lose, Michelle would happily stay past her end of day to finish up whatever she’d not prioritized highly enough during normal hours. All the filing, data entry, accounting and non-priority contacts regularly got pushed back past the standard 9-5. Pepper Potts knew this, had spoken to her a few times about maintaining a work/life balance, but otherwise was not seemingly bothered by her habits so long as the work got done.
The work wouldn’t get done, and Pepper wouldn’t get what she needed, if Michelle lied about still sitting at her desk at 9:30pm.
“I was just heading out, Ms. Potts.” She tried for a diplomatic answer. “What do you need?”
“To wring Tony’s neck.”
Michelle paused, creating a visual. “In that case I’ll need the bail money wired right away.”
A muffled laugh from the other end. “How about I take you out to lunch when I’m back from London? I just need the Braxton paperwork from the penthouse. Tony was supposed to review them, sign them and give them back to me this afternoon. I forgot to check in with him before I left for the airport. Bradford will be in my office tomorrow morning looking for them, and if they’re not ready his entire project goes under. The client won’t approve another delay.”
“Not a problem, Ms. Potts. I’ll run up there right away. Do you need a chain of custody?” Michelle asked, mostly because she knew that Bradford worked primarily on government projects, even if she knew almost nothing about the specifics or what was included in the Braxton paperwork. It was better to ask and be sure then assume and be wrong.
“There’s nothing proprietary inside. Just alert JARVIS when you arrive. Check to make sure they’re signed, and leave them on my desk.”
“Will do, Ms. Potts. Have a pleasant flight.”
“Thank you again, Michelle. Good night.”
Michelle hated the elevators here. They were all super fast, hyper modern things that moved between the 92 floors of Stark Tower with optimal efficiency. They didn’t jolt or shimmy or make even the slightest noise, which only left the rush of blood at the back of her eyes and sinuses as evidence to the change in altitude. To be fair, it was really heights that Michelle hated. She wasn’t sure it qualified as a phobia in that she still functioned everyday working inside a skyscraper. It was just uncomfortable, and the elevator to the penthouse was the worst of them all. It sat on the north face of the tower and was made entirely out of glass.
Because, of course it was. It was the one elevator leading directly up to Tony Stark’s residence. No other stops. Its only purpose was to take people up to or away from the penthouse. Of course it had to be fancy. Of course Tony Stark would approve of enchanting visitors to his personal space with a breathtaking view of the skyline as you rapidly flew towards the top of the tower. You were going to see Iron Man after all. May as well fly like Iron Man. It only surprised her that the door was matte gray rather than gold and red.
Fortunately, Michelle didn’t have to go up to the penthouse that often. Pepper usually worked on the admin floor, and Michelle worked wherever Pepper worked. In the few times she had to ride in this glass bubble, she handled it exactly how she was handling it now. Arms around her chest, ID badge clutched in one fist, staring firmly at the brushed steel door in front of her. She could still make out the blurry outline of her form as well as the shifting of lights shining in from behind her. Even so it was easier to focus on the blue of her button up. Her charcoal slacks blended into the blurry tones of the door, which led her eyes down to the next blotch of color in the reflection, the toes of her cyan shoes. Flats, because there wasn’t a paycheck big enough to ever get Michelle in heels. They were nice flats though, because she worked for Pepper Potts. There were standards to maintain.
Her mind had only been wandering for a few seconds when the stream of consciousness she was using to distract herself drew her eyes down to the actual shoes peeking out from under the hem of her pants. That was a huge mistake, as the floor of the elevator was as transparent as everything else. She caught sight of the far away sidewalk before her vision swam away from her, and her knees buckled. Her eyes pinched closed. She managed to keep her feet under her by putting one hand on the steel door in front of her. One deep, settling breath willed her knees back into a density that would hold her upright. Michelle had enough time to shove a ringlet of mousey brown hair back towards the bun it had fallen out of before the elevator dinged and the doors opened.
Michelle rushed out as if she expected the whole thing to fall away from her feet. Once standing on a floor she couldn’t see through, her nerves calmed. It became easier to breathe. A left and then a short walk down a marbled hallway brought her to a fancy door. This one was in fact red and gold, just in case you forgot who you were here to see. One more deep breath and she put her ID card to the sensor above the door knob. There should have been a beep to indicate that the home system had scanned it and a second beep to confirm her access. Then the door should have unlocked. None of that happened.
“Jarvis?” Michelle prompted. Technically she didn’t have access to JARVIS directly, but she knew enough about the tower system to know that it was always aware of her. It could inform Tony of her presence outside his door and open said door at his authorization. Failing to get that authorization it could do anything from informing her that her access was denied to alerting the security desk. It didn’t seem to be doing any of those things. The door stayed closed. She frowned in confusion, reached out and wiggled the door knob. That helped about as much as she expected it to.
With a sigh, Michelle resolved herself to calling Pepper back. She’d taken a step away to dig into her purse for her phone when she heard the door swing open.
A man in a mask stood in the doorway. It was the wrong sort of mask to be anyone remotely helpful or expected in this situation. The room was dark behind him. Not a single flood light, mood light, display light, counter light, electronic device or digital clock was lit. There were people behind him in the first of four living spaces the penthouse had to offer. One of them was kneeling on the floor. In the seconds it took her to recognize Tony Stark, the man in the mask stepped towards her. Michelle’s hand in her purse closed around the pepper spray instead of her phone.
There wasn’t time to think. All the safety videos she’d ever seen were right about that. The man was half the hallway away from her by the time she got her brain actively engaged in the process again. He was yelling in a language she didn’t know, pulling the black ski mask off his face that was now saturated with stinging liquid and marked with the bright purple uv dye. She saw more of them emptying out of the penthouse when she turned the corner towards the elevator. Echos of angry voices, bangs and thumps reached her when she slammed her hand against the elevator call button. It took a full two seconds to realize they’d be on her before the elevator ever made it to her, so she turned around and moved towards the standard issue emergency stairwell with its standard issue emergency “push to open” alarm.
Michelle never saw them coming. A hand grabbed her by the shoulder, and she flew backwards before she ever touched the emergency exit. She slammed into the drywall next to the elevator, hearing it ding as she slid to the floor. There were more hands on her, dragging her up, ripping her purse away from her and scattering it down the hallway. Someone yelled out from the penthouse, but she didn’t understand them. That might not have been because they weren’t speaking English. It could have just as easily been the ringing in her ears and how badly her head was spinning. Either way, she gave them absolutely no trouble on the way back into the penthouse. They dropped her to her knees across from Tony, but it was hard to really focus on him right then.
“Leave her alone!” Were the first words said that Michelle’s brain could handle making sense out of. She lifted her head to watch Tony struggling against a group of men in matching ski masks, all except one guy in a suit and the very angry looking man with bloodshot eyes and purple dye over the bridge of his nose. The latter moved behind her with what looked like a zip tie and mangled her wrists together with it. Michelle winced when he jerked it tighter, and then tighter again.
“She’s not part of this.” Tony’s voice drew her back out of dizziness that threatened her continued somewhat upright position. It was weird how much this felt like her knees going out inside the elevator. “Just let her go. She’s nobody. ”
“A Ms. Nobody? I find that very hard to believe, Mr. Stark.” Said a voice with an accent Michelle had no hope of placing. A round face appeared in front of her eyes. Her head was pulled back by the hair to meet it. If they’d let her go right this second and the police asked for a description, Michelle would have not been able to retain enough of a visual on the man to be of any help. She’d remember the sound of his voice though, and the pungent sweet and sour of his breath. She must have made a face because someone behind her suddenly twisted her hands, causing her wrists to bite into the plastic of the zip tie. Michelle hissed and pinched her eyes closed. Her head was jerked back by the hair once more and she opened again, the round face still hovering in her vision.
“What is your name, little dove?” Michelle blinked, trying to process that question alongside the stress of the situation. First of all, little dove? What a stupid descriptor. She was thirty, taller than average and wouldn’t be featured on any swimsuit calendars in the foreseeable future. She wasn’t Rosanne Barr, but she was hardly little or dove-ish. Maybe he wanted her to feel small? Maybe it was some twisted comfort play? The round faced man’s creep factor went up by a thousand instantly. She definitely didn’t want him to know her name. It wasn’t that she had anyone to protect. Michelle had work acquaintances, a cat, and no family that she would have cared to protect from whatever these people were. Still, something about this man saying her name in that voice gave her an abundance of pause. Her eyes tracked left, and met Tony Stark’s stoic gaze.
“Nobody.” She squeaked out. The side of her face exploded. She listed sideways and was brought back to center by her wrists and the back of her head. Michelle blinked the haze out from her eyes and tried to focus on something other than the sharp heat in her tongue and the blood dripping down her chin.
“It was a very simple question, little dove. You should know that I don’t abide rudeness.”
One deep breath to get her head back on straight. Michelle turned her eyes back to him directly. “I’m not trying to be rude. My parents were just assholes.”
Her heart didn’t beat for a second, convinced that her mouth had made a life altering mistake. Then the round faced man laughed. “I like you.” He said pointing at her, as if she needed clarity on whom it was he liked. He’d backed up enough that she got a better look at him. His face wasn’t the only thing that was round. He was suddenly pointing at Mr. Stark. “This one also hides weakness with humor.” As if making some profound point, the round man circled around Tony Stark and put his hands on the restrained man’s shoulders. Michelle was forced to look at both of them. The round man nodded at someone behind her.
There were boots stomping away, down the hallway once more. Tony Stark’s eyes tracked that way, but she couldn’t. It occurred to her that at some point, very soon, she was most likely going to die. It will probably be quick. Hopefully, it will be painless. She probably wouldn’t see it coming because the guy she’d pepper sprayed was still behind her, holding her head straight with his fingers threaded through what was left of her bun. “Surely you’ve seen as much, working with the great Iron Man. You’ve surely heard all his jokes, so you know his weaknesses.”
Self preservation brought the next words out of her mouth before she thought them through. “Actually, I work…” She caught a sudden, frantic look in Tony’s eyes that stopped her mouth from working properly. Right, Pepper. These people probably knew plenty about Tony Stark, but they didn’t seem to know anything about whom Michelle worked for. They’d not mentioned Pepper as of yet. It was not a good idea to put her name in their heads. “Ah..Awork… Awkward…. I’m socially awkward. I don’t always get jokes.” She stumbled, hoping that maybe it sounded like fear rather than frantic backpedaling. “My therapist says I’m making progress.”
Round man was pointing at her again, laughing, patting Tony on the shoulder. Boots again. Tony’s eyes tracked towards the main door, and one of the masked men was handing over her ID badge to the Round Man. Said ID badge had her full name on it underneath her photo and system identifying QR code. “Ms. Sanchez.” The round man said to her with a smile. Her name sounded just as terrible coming out of his mouth as she anticipated. “We have very important plans for Mr. Stark and you have already taken up too much of our time.” He said, dropping her ID badge on the ground. Michelle stared down at it, a tight knot forming in the center of her chest. “But you have amused me, so I’m going to offer you a choice.”
She saw Tony stiffen before she heard the click. She saw him struggle against the men holding him down before she felt the round piece of metal touch the back of her head. “We can shoot you now, painlessly in the back of the head, and all of this will be over for you, or…”
“Taking the second option.” Michelle choked out, feeling the dizziness threaten to overwhelm her.
“The second option is you, coming with us. Joining Mr. Stark on his future endeavors. I can not speak to your comfort or the hospitality of my comrades.”
She needed no further assurance that Round Man was a creepy bastard. “Yeah, but… He’s Iron Man.” Michelle pointed out. “I think Newsweek said he was oh and one versus kidnappers so…”
“One and O.” Tony said, in a tone that might have also included an eye roll. Michelle hadn’t looked down quickly enough to see it.
“One and O. That’s what I meant.” Another deep breath to keep herself from throwing up. “It’s not really a choice and I’m pretty sure you know that.”
The Round Man grinned. He pointed at her again. She was getting really tired of being pointed at. A moment passed, then the Round Man shrugged his shoulders. “Very well.”
A loud bang. Michelle only felt the pain for a split second. Her vision collapsed inward like a tunnel. Then the hands on her let her fall the rest of the way to the floor.