𝐢 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫

༻ ❁ ༺

May 19th, 2009

Malibu, California

          FOUR DAYS HAD PASSED since the hearing at the Capitol Building, and the world continued to gossip about Tony Stark's impressive success. The reporters who were present had said that he had essentially just given Stern the middle finger when he was ordered to hand his Iron Man suits over to the military.

Charlotte was a little uncertain as to why the army was demanding her dad's suit collection, and anytime she questioned it, the only response she received was that they wanted to use the suits to keep the bad guys away and make the world a safe place. That both seemed idiotic and foolish to her, saying as she had been watching her dad do that single-handedly for the last six months.

Charlotte had always liked the music her dad listened to, and as Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd played around the at-home boxing ring, she was beginning to really appreciate his taste in music. The seven-year-old was lying on one of the sofas, watching her dad and Happy spar in the boxing ring. She had her textbook resting on her drawn-up knees, as she focused on the multiplications in front of her.

Suddenly, she saw her mother enter the room and she smiled. Her mom had been swamped by meetings for the past few days, mainly a result of her father's behaviour at the hearing; Charlotte missed spending quality time with her mom.

"The notary's here!" Pepper called, "Can you please come and sign the transfer paperwork?"

"I'm on Happy time!" Tony told her, managing to duck under most of the bodyguard's strikes, making up for him being physically smaller than Happy.

"Hi, Mom!" Charlotte greeted, beaming at her mom.

"Hi, sweetie. I hope you've finished your schoolwork?" Pepper asked, walking over and placing a kiss onto the top of her daughter's head. She glanced at the textbook and felt proud when she saw that Charlotte had intact finished her school lessons for the day and was voluntarily completing the more advanced homework.

"I'm multi-tasking. I'm doing algebra and I'm watching Happy get his butt kicked." The girl smiled, giggling at the expression on her bodyguard's face.

"Hey, your dad is not kicking my butt.," Happy defended himself. "I'm letting-"Tony delivered a strike that made Happy's head fly backward with a grunt.

"Sorry," he said hastily, not sounding apologetic in the slightest.

"What the hell was that?!" Happy looked dumbfounded, confused by what had just happened.

"It's called mixed martial arts," Tony quipped, hopping back and forth, "It's been around for three weeks now –"

"It's called dirty boxing, there's nothing new about it. All right, lift'em up, Cmon!" Happy snapped at him.

"All right, put them up. Come on," Tony taunted, and out of the corner of her eyes, Charlotte noticed that someone new and unfamiliar had entered the room. 

The woman was very pretty, Charlotte thought to herself; she was probably the prettiest woman she had seen before - apart from her mom, that was. She was dressed in a white blouse and black pants, and her long hair, which was a much darker red than her mom's. It was a similar colour to her own and it fell in waves around her shoulders. Happy also seemed to have noticed her and he stared at her, prompting Tony to turn around to see what he was looking at. 

"I promise you this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company," Before smiling politely at the beautiful woman, Pepper snarked at him as she walked towards her with a folder in her hand.

The redhead stranger opened her folder for Pepper to look at, "I need you to initial each box," she handed over a pen and spoke in a voice that was pleasant and somewhat husky.

Curiously, Charlotte watched the exchange, noting that Happy seemed to be looking a lot at the woman.

As Tony studied the woman carefully, Happy unexpectedly tapped him on the arm, "Lesson one: Never take your eye off–"

Tony didn't bother to let him complete the sentence, given that he didn't do anything to back it up. Instead, Tony's foot collided with the cushioned security guard that protected Happy's abdomen. Both the woman and Charlotte looked up at the sound of a solid thud. Pepper simply continued signing the paperwork the woman had brought with her.

"That's it, I'm done," Happy puffed as she stood and begun to remove his gear.

"What's your name, lady?" Tony asked, pointing a gloved hand in the woman's direction.

"Rushman. Natalie Rushman," the redhead replied.

"Front and center, come into the church," Tony said, taking a gulp of his disgusting looking drink. Charlotte had no idea what he was drinking, but it was green and it did not the slightest bit appetizing.

As Natalie breezed past Charlotte, she turned and glanced down at the child. She had a warm smile on her face, but as soon as she looked at Charlotte, the little girl instantly felt shy.

"Hi" she greeted her, "I'm Charlotte," Natalie nodded at her, smiling slightly.

"No, you're seriously not going to ask her –" Pepper began as Natalie looked on, curiously trying to ascertain Tony's motives.

"If it pleases the court, which it does," Tony interrupted, causing Pepper to sigh, exasperatedly.

"No problem," Natalie responded plainly, smirking a little. As she was heading to the boxing ring, her heels clicked on the ground.

Pepper attempted to apologise profusely, "I'm sorry about my husband, he's very eccentric."

The ropes were lifted by Tony, and Natalie slipped off her shoes, ducking under them as she crawled inside the ring. She straightened up and eyed Tony again as if he were measuring him up, which troubled Charlotte as to why they looked at each other that way.

Tony eyed Natalie and took another drink from his bottle. She smiled at him.

"What?" he asked after taking the bottle from his mouth. Natalie just stared up at him and tried to size him up. It was like she was trying to disarm him with a stare, but Charlotte never grasped that, of course.

Tony suddenly gestured to Happy, "Could you, uh, give her a lesson?" he asked, stepping out of the boxing ring and heading straight over to his wife, who had since moved onto the sofa next to her daughter.

Happy stepped up to Natalie obligingly. As Tony went to sit down, she cast a glance over her shoulder.

"Pepper. Who is she?" Tony whispered at once, "Hey, honey," he quickly ruffled Charlotte's head, making her giggle.

"She is from legal," Pepper sighed exasperatedly, "And she is potentially a," as she bent closer to Tony, she lowered her tone, leaving Charlotte unable to hear her next words, "very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if Happy keeps ogling her like that, especially in front of our daughter." She added, leaning back again.

Tony frowned, "Happy's harmless. Also, I need a new assistant, boss." Tony quipped.

"I've got three excellent potential candidates," she insisted, "They've lined up and ready to meet you."

Tony, however, was still watching Natalie being given a lecture by Happy about boxing before saying, "I don't have time to meet. I need someone now, I feel like it's her."

"Why her, dad?" Charlotte wondered.

"Yes, Tony, why her?" Pepper repeated, trapping him in the question with Charlotte.

"Uh, no reason honey. I have a really good feeling about her, don't you?" he asked his daughter, trying to look innocent. Before paying attention to the boxing ring, as she did, Charlotte looked confusedly at her dad, Pepper gave Tony a scowl, and at least he looked embarrassed but still with a smirk on his face. The seven-year-old was watching the two chat, well, happy was the one doing most of the talking, Natalie just couldn't stop looking their way, making Charlotte somewhat shy.

Just when Natalie appeared defensive about Happy's questions, Tony called out. "How do I spell your name, Natalie?" The little girl couldn't look more confused as she looked at him.

"R-U-S-H-M-A-N," Natalie spelled out for him, looking slightly nervous.

"What are you doing, dad?" Charlotte asked, peering over his shoulder.

"What are you going to google her now?"As Tony reached for the holographic table, Pepper sighed and typed in the name to open up a lot of Natalie Rushman files.

"I'm investigating her, honey," Tony told Charlotte, "And Pepper, I thought I was ogling her?" he snarked.

"Ogling?" his daughter repeated.

"Watching." Tony quickly corrected himself, "Oh, wow," he said approvingly, "Very, very impressive individual."

"You're so predictable, you know that?" Pepper stated.

"She's fluent in French, Italian, Russian, Latin – who speaks Latin?" Tony went on, all the while ignoring Pepper's point, finding an array of rather attractive photographs.

"No one speaks Latin," At this point, Pepper sighed, trying her best not to even look at Tony, looked at Charlotte and smiled comfortingly, "It's a dead language, sweetie."

"Wait, no one really speaks Latin?" Tony scoffed.

"You can read Latin or you can write Latin," as Tony unintentionally pulled up pictures of Natalie modelling in underwear on the main screen, she snapped suddenly, "but you can't speak Latin–TONY!"

"You saw nothing." He sent the photos away quickly and stammered at Charlotte, "Sorry, I thought they were normal photos! I swear!" he told Pepper this time, his voice urgent.

Charlotte giggled, "What's wrong? Natalie was wearing a bikini," she found it funny that her dad and mom were stammering over the photographs. "Is that bad?"

"NO!" her mom and dad exclaimed, simultaneously, "I mean," her dad continued, "We were just surprised because we weren't expecting to see those personal photos of Ms. Rushman. Even though they are available in the public domain for some reason" Pepper cut him by smacking her document across the back of his head, "I mean–don't think much about what you just saw, okay?"

Charlotte seemed nonchalant about the whole situation, "Okay!" she shrugged. "Well, I think she's pretty. Really pretty."

The conversation was enough to get Natalie to turn her head and try to see what was going on.

"Rule number one is, Charlie?" She heard Happy speak and turned to see he was talking over Natalie's shoulder. The redhead was observing the girl, seemingly taking in her small and inquisitive actions.

"Never take your eye off your opponent," Charlotte spoke with confidence. Since the events of the previous year, and with it now being public knowledge that he was Iron Man, her father had insisted that Charlotte take up some form of self-defence classes. And who better for the job, than the man who had been protection her father for years, long before she was even born.

"Bingo," Happy pointed a gloved hand in her direction. "I taught my niece the same rule. She's around your age actually, Charlie. I should really bring her around here sometime."

"That is an excellent rule," Natalie responded with a smile. She snapped her head up and closed around Happy's right arm with her left hand. She pushed her arm sideways, and in a moment, her body turned around completely, her feet floating over her head, her legs clasping around Happy's throat. The man toppled her as if were weightless.

"Whoa-ho-ho!" Charlotte cried involuntarily, she was genuinely surprised.

"Whoa!" Tony laughed.

"Oh, my God! Happy!" Pepper said anxiously as Natalie stood up and made her way out of the boxing ring.

"Happy are you okay?!" Charlotte got up from her seat, making her way to the ring. "Ms. Rushman kicked your butt!"

"Charlotte Stark!" Pepper scolded, sending a stern glance down at the child. She muttered an apology and shrunk.

"That's what I'm talking about." Tony praised Natalie, making his way there as well.

"I just slipped," Happy insisted easily, climbing to his feet much slower than Natalie.

"You did?" Tony rang the bell, "Looks like a TKO to me!"

"What does that mean?" Charlotte asked, still looking rather concerned over Happy.

"Technical knockout," Natalie, smiling at the same time, responded to her. Charlotte stared at her in awe. Natalie had fallen nimbly out of the ring and down to the floor in front of Tony by that point, "I just need your impression," she said as she put on her shoes.

Tony squinted. "You have a quiet reserve? I don't know, you've got an old soul–"

"I meant your fingerprint," Natalie clarified, she picked up her file and opened it for Tony.

"So, how are we doing?" With her most professional smile, Pepper asked, walking up to the pair as Tony was shown the page the fingerprint had to go to.

"Great," Tony told her earnestly, "Just wrapping up. Hey," He punched the sticker down on the page in Natalie's folder, "you're the boss."

A few days precious, Charlotte's parents had told her that her mom would now be in charge of her dad's enterprise. Tony told her that in the contract, it would still be Charlotte's in the future if she wanted to continue on for him after his or Pepper's retirement. He told his daughter, however, that she was still too young to even focus on it now. Charlotte had a similar thought, as the whole conversation brought up the recollection of the conversation she had with Obadiah, that she was not good enough to be the next Stark genius that the world wanted her to be.

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" Natalie asked.

"Yes, that will be all, Ms. Rushman, thank you very much," Tony stated with a smile.

Natalie had started to walk away when Charlotte, unexpectedly called her out. She walked up to her, getting everyone's attention. "Can you teach me how to do that? Happy won't teach me anything like that." She asked shyly, looking up at the woman through her lashes.

Tony was taken aback, he and Pepper shared a look. Charlotte had previously expressed an interest in practicing the same martial arts that he did. Even though Tony had acknowledged that ever since he announced to the world that he was Iron Man, there would undoubtedly be a time in her life when Charlotte would have to protect and defend herself, he had tried to explain that she was a little young to be doing that. He could still not fully comprehend why his sweet and innocent daughter felt that she needed to actively protect herself.

Natalie seemed to be caught with her guard down, she was speechless for seconds before she looked at Charlotte and this time with a sincere smile, she replied, "Maybe one day." And with that, though Tony pouted, Natalie went back to deliver the file.

Charlotte kept looking at Natalie until the redhead disappeared down the hallway and around the corner; the young girl was extremely intrigued. She had appeared out of nowhere, kicked Happy's butt like it was nothing and she was very, very pretty. Charlotte pouted to herself, confused as to why she was fixating on that specific detail.

Charlotte squealed to herself excitedly, "I like her!" she exclaimed, a look of pure admiration and awe was etched on her face - her voice was almost dreamlike as she gazed after Natalie Rushman. 

Tony arched his eyebrow at his daughter, "Oh boy." he mumbled.