Sanctity Part IV
by elfin


Sanctity - the quality or condition of being safe from assault, trespass, or violation


"Sir, you have a visitor."

Roused from his Tantric-like state of concentration, Tony blinked a couple of times and threw a glance across at the clock half-buried under the technical drawings scattered like giant leaves across the work top.  It was five thirty.  A.M.

"You're kidding me."

"No, Sir."  Jarvis helpfully put the security camera feed from the front gates up on the nearest flat screen monitor.  "It's Mr Banner."

The AI's tone was the exactly same one as Tony's internal voice as he looked at the skinny man standing on the other side of the wrought iron gates.  They towered above him and Tony was in no doubt that as the Hulk Banner could burst straight through them like they were boiled candy.  Just as he was in no doubt that he wouldn't Hulk out unless the house spontaneously burst into flames or started to slide from its cliff ledge spot.

Bruce had his arms wrapped around himself like a frightened child, looking bedraggled in a long mac despite the fact that the last time it rained was almost a month ago.

The first time they'd met, Tony had felt a loathing for the man he couldn't justify and couldn't ignore.  He felt it again now.  He hated him because as much as Tony had wasted his life before Iron Man, before Afghanistan, before Yinsen, Banner was still wasting his, throwing away day after day after day and for what?  Because he was too fucking chicken to face his own demons, to get a grip on what was inside him.  If it were Tony he'd learn everything there was to learn and he'd deal with, damn it; he'd find a way.  Banner... Banner was pathetic.

"He'll go away," was his verbal response, "take it off the monitor." 

"Certainly."

He was starting to regret saying yes to Fury's initiative.  He didn't play well with others and he'd pointed that out at the start.  He was a loner, had always been a loner, had never had very many friends of his own age.  As a child he'd been too smart, too clever, what was cool now definitely hadn't been between the ages of five and fifteen.  At school he'd been quickly moved up from class to class until they'd run out of classes in which to put him where he wasn't correcting the tutors.  He'd gone to MIT when other kids his age were moving up from sophomore.  He'd graduated around the time other teenage boys were discovering what their balls were for.  The first girl he'd fucked had been a quarter his intellect and the first guy who'd fucked him had been twice his age.  He'd grown up an adult, his childhood lost to an ever-expectant father who pushed and pushed until Tony had shoved back, hard.

It was half an hour and too many remembered regrets later when Jarvis asked without any prompt Tony could immediately establish, "Are you curious as to what he wants?"

Looking up from his own technical drawings, he frowned at the room in general; used to thinking of Jarvis as being everywhere at once like some omnipotent deity.

"Don't tell me he's still there."

"All right, I won't."

"For Christ's sake...."  Tony let his hands drop, palms flat on the work surface.  He didn't want a visitor.  He thought he should feel guilty about that but he just couldn't.  Time, space and privacy had become so important to him after three months held prisoner in a cave without a moment to himself - every movement, every action watched, witnessed, spied on.  Even the cheapest backstreet shrink would point out the cause and effect here without the need for a single word about his mother.

"I don't want a visitor."

"I know.  I had no intention of suggesting you see him.   It was just a question; I was wondering what he might want."

Tony thumbed a virtual bolt out of the way.  "Whatever it is, I can't give it to him."  Something still wasn't quite right with the design and turning, he took the pencil from behind his ear and returned to the hastily drawn schematics.

#

The following conversation takes place in a split second, in the blink of an eye, in 1s and 0s.  This is what was said.

>Jarvis

>Kitt

>Sorry

>I told you he is fragile.  I will not let you break him

>I need access to the Audi

>No.  He trusts me.  I will not betray that trust.  He is already suspicious after your visit

>Said I was sorry.  This is for his own good, for his protection

>Then tell him

>I will after, you have my word.  I can't until after

>Why

>He will not allow it

>Then I cannot allow it

>We do this with or without you

>You do it without me.  I will not give you access

>so be it

>end trans<

#

"Tony."

The voice, close to his ear, murmuring his name with a sexual undertone that got him immediately hard.  He muttered something in response, turned over expecting to feel warm skin and a human body behind him, and instead dropped onto his back alone.

"Tony?"

He opened his eyes to the semi-darkness.  "Umm?"  He was half-awake, the dream still like a real memory in his mind, cock demanding his attention.  "Jarvis…."  He wasn't certain what else he was going to say, what he was going to ask, whether he could even ask what he wasn't sure he was going to ask of an AI with no corporeal form to speak of.  In that half-awake, half-asleep state, so much seemed like a good idea that just wasn't in the cold light of day.

"Yes, Sir.  I thought you'd like to know, Kitt is here."

He took a deep breath and started to wake up.  "What time is it?"

"Ten thirty.  I let you sleep, Sir, as you didn't go to bed until six twenty-five."

Tony stretched in the cool luxury of his sheets.  Since Afghanistan, an erection really wasn't all that common an occurrence for him.  "Give me half an hour.  Have Pepper make him breakfast."

"Certainly, Sir."

Tony waited, but he wasn't sure for what.  Jarvis wasn't a real person who would leave the room.  He never really left any of the rooms in the house.  Before Afghanistan he'd been shameless, not giving a thought to the invisible eyes that watched every inch of the house for every minute of every day, the recordings that were made of every movement.  Now he slid his hand under the sheets and brushed his palm over the glowing blue circle on his chest before hesitantly moving down to touch his half-interested cock.  One leg straight, one bent at the knee, his own touch was tentative at best, but Christ, what was it - four months?  Five?

He tightened his grip, gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.

#

"I came to apologise."  Tony nodded, sipping at the coffee Pepper had put in his hands before leaving them alone in the living room.  "I upset you and believe me, it was the last thing I intended to do."

"You could have sent an email."  It was bitchy, but he wasn't in the mood.  His hand job hadn't helped matters and he was starting to think maybe it was time he hit the Malibu club scene and found some living, breathing company even if it was just for one night only.  "You didn't upset me.  I've been through a lot of shit recently, people close to me have let me down and you, pal, you're one step away from being a stranger."

That struck deep, judging by the expression on Kitt's face, but something… something made it pass, like silent words.

"Nick wants to meet you."

"Nick?"

"Nicholas MacKenzie, the man Mr Fury hired to provide protection for you."

"I believe the word was security, and so far all you've done - Kitt - is make me second-guess my own support systems.  I feel less secure now than I did before he was hired.  Congratulations."  He felt trapped somehow, and this wasn't how it was supposed to be!  He felt secure as Iron Man, powerful in the suit, but out of it… he didn't want the armour to become another addiction and he could see that path so easily, beckoning him.  Alone, as a man, he was vulnerable to attack, and he couldn't, wouldn't, go through something like that again, he wasn't capable.  His hand passed over the arc reactor hidden under his shirt, his vulnerability, the part of him that wasn't human.  Sometimes he felt every moment of the surgery, relived every second of pain.

"Tony... no one can know what happened to you in Afghanistan, what you've been through, what you're still going through.  No one's trying to take away anything you built after that - you're Iron Man.  You're a hero.  You're not as vulnerable as Fury thinks but believe it or not, Nick can help you.  Just meet with him, please.  Somewhere public, somewhere you choose.  Nick won't harm you."

"You trust him."

"With my life.  And I have done, several times over."

Tony took a deep breath, let it out and nodded.  "Okay.  Michael's Cafe on Sea Vista, this afternoon at two.  Just you and him or I don't want to ever see you again."

Kitt tipped his head to one side for a moment before nodding.  "Nick's free this afternoon.  He'll meet you at two.  There's no need to be suspicious, Tony."

"You're kidding?  That thing you just did?  That's fucking creepy."

#

"Are you sure about this?"

Kitt dropped his head back to the car seat and rolled his eyes.  "Stop."

"Mike told me you like him."

He ignored Karr's wordless questions in the back of his mind.  "Yes, I like him.  I think he's been through enough for one lifetime.  So this needs to go right, Nick.  Otherwise he's never going to see me again and it would look seriously bleak for Jarvis too."

"It's just a job, Kitt, remember that.  Do you have the code and password?"  He nodded.  "Good.  Then let's do it."

#

Nick threw back his hideously expensive triple espresso with its perfect crema in one and picked up the equally costly black Americano.  He was glad again that Fury was picking up expenses.  They were sitting outside Michael's Café, in the hippest, most expensive part of Malibu where Tony Stark had his bizarrely futuristic home.  "I've always wondered what it would be like to be a superhero."

Tony smirked, fingering the oval almond biscotti brought on a small plate along with his cinnamon latte.  "Know many?"

Nick knew he wasn't what Tony had expected and the truth was, Tony wasn't what Nick had expected either.  Nick had seen some rough shit, experienced stuff he'd not wish on his worst enemy.  So when he'd read what about what had happened to Tony Stark in Afghanistan, he'd made assumptions about the man's character.  How the hell this highly-strung, spoilt rich kid survived in a damp, filthy cave for three months with severe shrapnel wounds?  "No.  But I know a couple of people who should be."

"Don't we all?"  Nick tried not to cringe as he watched Tony sip the ultra-sweet coffee.  Granted, the guy wasn't being overtly hostile, but he obviously wasn't happy about any of this.  "You wanted to meet with me."

"Yes.  I wanted to talk about our options for your security."

"Before we do that, why don't you tell me who you are?  Because I couldn't find anything on you and Kitt wasn't talking either.  Where is he, by the way?  I kinda thought he'd be here."

"Kitt wanted to come.  But I needed him on something else."

"So he works for you?"

"He and his partner work for themselves, private contractors like me.  I just provide them with contracts, contacts and security.   Backup, when the need arises."

"He and his… partner?"

Nick opened his mouth and closed it again.  So Kitt hadn't told Tony about Michael?  That was… strange.  Something changed slightly in Karr's presence in the back of his mind and he wondered how much his own partner - Kitt's brother - knew about what the hell was going on with him.  "Kitt and Michael have worked together a long time."

"That wound be Michael Knight?  Wilton Knight's superhero."

Nick smiled.  "Like I said."

"And you provide them with security?  I ask again, who are you?"

#

>let me in Jarvis

>no

>I promise you I don't mean him any harm

>Tony would not allow it therefore I cannot allow it

>Tony might if I explained

>then why haven't you explained?

>one final time  please

>one final time  no

>okay Jarvis  in that case I'm sorry

>access code:
57573338991083nf783nf22ib3n52bjb9hbckymbihnanfdy2892
>password:
***************
>welcome Mr Stark
>command:
SHUTDOWN JARVIS

>sorry for whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

#

Nick took a deep breath.  Watching Tony drink set his teeth on edge.  "I'm an expert, that's all you need to know."

"An expert in what?"

"Lots of things."

"Mr MacKenzie-"

"Nick, please.  I've never been that formal."

Tony sat forward, finally removing his light-tinted sunglasses.  Nick swallowed, for the first time seeing the human being behind the mask.  Still, the arrogant defences were in place.  "-I graduated from MIT-"

"I know your credentials."

"Up until a few months ago, I designed weapons.  Now I design defence systems - stealth planes, high-tech medicines, intelligent counter-measures and surveillance equipment.  I design security.  Do you see the irony here?"

"No offence, Mr Stark, but a man broke into your house, paralysed you and stole an arc reactor literally from under your nose.  That came four months after the same man had you abducted from the middle of a convoy of US army soldiers."  He ignored the pain turning to anger in Tony's expression.  In his head, Karr was telling him Kitt was in, at the same time as he was warning him to tread carefully.  "I can stop things like that from happening."

"You think I can't?  You think I just went home and left things the way they were?  The house is impenetrable now."  Nick didn't even blink.  "What Fury's worried about is someone shooting me in the head on the red carpet of some film premiere or charity gig and aside from wearing the Iron Man suit twenty-four-seven I don't see how me, you, or anyone else is going to prevent that."

Nick nodded.  "You're right.  If someone's determined enough to shoot you in the head, Tony, you're a dead man.  For someone to be determined enough to shoot you in the head, you'd have to have fucked with the wrong people and I'm sure you've fucked and fucked with so many wrong people that a few of them are bound to have the means to have you assassinated if they so wish."  Tony's face was a fragile mask, rage shining in his eyes but his expression blank now.  Nick always knew which buttons to press, he'd known with Michael and this guy was a thousand times easier to read.  But Karr was warning him, again, to back off and for some reason he was being quite insistent.  "What I'm offering are better odds of you staying alive." 

"You know, I used to gamble all the time, blow a million just to see the look on people's faces.  I play the odds all the time."

This was safer ground, stroking Stark's ego.  "You gamble with your life?"

"I know the odds, I know the risks.  And yeah, I do, because sometimes I just need to feel alive."

"Risking your life is the only way you know to feel alive?"

"One night, on the anniversary of my parents' death a few years ago, I drove a three-hundred dollar Lamborghini into the back of a Hummer because I wanted to feel the crash.  Then, yeah, I was kidnapped by order of a man I'd known my whole life, and during three months held captive in a cave I found something else, something inside myself."

"Iron Man."

Tony shrugged.  "That's the media's name, not mine.  I just thought it sounded catchy."

"'I am Iron Man'?  You sounded happy with it at the press conference."

"I'm proud of it."

"I can tell.  You think plastering it all over the newspapers and news stations was a decision taken with your survival instinct switched on?"

"I honestly didn't think about it, I just did it.  Tony Stark, famous impulsive."  Nick fought the urge to stand up and punch him.  Playing with his life like it didn't matter.  Didn't matter to Nick, not really, he was a client, not even a client.  But Nick was being paid to keep Tony Stark alive.  Karr's behaviour was inexplicable.  And what the hell was taking Kitt so long?  "What can you offer me, Nick, that I can't provide for myself?"

"I know some good people-"

"And like I told Fury, I don't need more bodyguards.  Look, I appreciate your help, okay, but I can look after myself."

#

>command:
START JARVIS

#

Nick leaned forward, already tired of this.  "Mr Stark, I've been hired-"

<Kitt's out>

About fucking time.

"-not that it matters.  You're right.  You can look after yourself, otherwise, why would they call you a superhero?"  He pushed the chair back across the stone paving and stood, holding out his hand.  Tony shook it, looking slightly perplexed at the sudden end to the discussion.  "Take care of yourself, please, or I'll be getting sued."  He could feel inquisitive eyes on his back as he crossed the road and opened the door of the black Stealth.

#