EDIT: This is a re-uploaded version of chapter one. The story isn't going to change, it's just going to be improved with, what I hope is, better writing and reflect some of the things that were brought up in my recent story BG: How They Met. It's not necessary to read that story to enjoy this one since it was written after this story, but it goes into a lot more detail than this story ever will go into. On to the story! And don't forget to leave me reviews. They always make my day better :)

Chapter 1

After rubbing his eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time Colonel Rhodes groaned again.

"How did I ever let you talk me into this?"

"I don't know," Tony responded as he finished his orange juice. It hadn't been very hard to get his friend drunk. After getting a little sake in him it went downhill, and Tony enjoyed every minute of it. Rhodey, on the other hand, was probably thinking of different ways to kill him.

Rhodey looked like he was trying to glare at Tony for a moment, but through his obvious hangover it looked more like he was trying to go to sleep, or not throw up.

"You know you had fun," Tony said in response to the glare.

"That was not fun, Tony. That was wasting time. I was hoping to acquaint you with your bodyguard before we landed, but it doesn't look like-"

"Wait a minute," he interrupted, "What do you mean 'bodyguard'? Since when was that decided? You know I hate bodyguards."

"Do not whine at me," Rhodey groaned with a wave of his hand. "It was a last minute decision I had planned on discussing with you before you decided on throwing a party instead. It won't be that bad Tony. You'll find her quite capable of keeping you out of trouble."

"Her? You hired a woman?" he asked with more surprise.

"You're whining again," Rhodey said flatly before continuing, "I didn't hire anyone. This was not my decision. I was not part of the selection process, but I've read her résumé. She is more than qualified for the job." He pulled out a piece of paper from a file and slid it across the counter.

After quickly scanning it Tony handed it back satisfied and said, "Fine, I guess I can bear it."

This wasn't the first time he had a female body guard. That wasn't what upset him. It was the thought of it being the same woman from a year ago.

He had gone over to Japan to make final arrangements with a company that he was buying out. There were rumors of a possible attack on the billionaire, so a bodyguard was hired as a precaution. JC Wilcox was her name, and from her outward appearance, it was hard to believe she was a bodyguard. During the time there Tony had gotten drunk, as usual, and had done something stupid. Well, technically two stupid things, depending on the way one looked at it. After that, she treated him with disdain, but when the threat was carried out—or at least attempted —she protected him, saved his life.

They never spoke again after the incident, but he knew that if they ever met again, she would no doubt carry out her revenge. He remembered all too clearly that she threatened to kill him, if she ever saw him again. Thankfully she was not assigned here. He would have felt a bit more at ease if he had seen a picture of the woman, but he didn't think it mattered too much. This woman's name was Lieutenant J. Alwin; no possible relation to JC, and no record of ever having been in Japan during his attack. He didn't mind one bit. With that out of the way he could focus on the most important thing today. Go in, make a good impression, make the sale, and get out.

The door of the plane opened and Tony stepped out into the blazing heat in a three piece suit complete with Kevlar without breaking a sweat.

"Tony Stark, it's a pleasure to meet you. We're looking forward to your presentation," one of the generals greeted.

"The pleasure is mine, General," he said and shook hands with the Peacekeepers.

"Well, enough of the pleasantries. Lieutenant Alwin will be here shortly. There was word of a storm moving in, so she went to scout the area."

Moments later a helicopter zoomed past them and pulled up for a sharp landing not far from their spot on the tarmac.

"Speak of the devil. That would be Alwin," the general said and walked over to speak to her.

Tony turned to Rhodey and whispered, "This lieutenant could be interesting, if she fights even half as good as she flies."

"I told you she was good."

He watched as the lieutenant stepped out of the aircraft and saluted the general. After what looked like her probably giving her report she removed her helmet and followed the general.

It was then that a terrible realization sunk in. Average height, shoulder length dirty blonde hair tied back, a sweet angelic face that appeared to be incapable of doing harm. And those eyes, those unmistakable blue eyes that had once seemed so innocent before, he knew would only be cold and calculating or burning with anger at him. Neither were good for him.

"Rhodey, get me out of here. Start the engines back up and get me away from here, now."

"Tony-"

"Don't ask questions. Just hide me before she sees me!" he said through gritted teeth.

"Pull yourself together. What's the problem?"

"You don't understand," he said turning to face him. "If she sees me, she will kill me!" Her threat was at the forefront of his mind. It wasn't just one of those idle phrases where you didn't actually intend to kill a person. She had held a knife to his throat and said, very clearly, if she ever saw him again, she would kill him. Oh, she probably wouldn't do it right there in front of everyone right then. She might wait until they were in the humvee. Maybe she'd even set something up while she was investigating that so-called storm. He didn't put anything past her.

"Mr. Stark, are you ready?" a pleasant voice interrupted.

He slowly turned to see the lieutenant looking at him with an innocent look, whereas Tony, who had gone a shade paler, felt like he was staring at the Grim Reaper. He saw neither anger nor coldness in her eyes as he had expected. Instead, there was feign innocence on the verge of mischief. He wasn't sure which was worse: mischief or anger.

"Mr. Stark, may I introduce-"

"That's not necessary, sir," she interrupted. "We've met before. I was his guard in Japan last year."

Tony squirmed ever so slightly at the mention of Japan. It was obvious she had not forgotten from the coy smile she wore. That affirmed it. Mischief was definitely worse. That could only be a precursor to some plan of revenge.

"Lieutenant Alwin? You never mentioned the military, and last year you were Wilcox," Tony said, keeping as much of his composure as he could.

"It wasn't exactly necessary information that ever came up in conversation, and I am allowed to change my name. If you are ready to go, Mr. Stark, we should get under way. General," she said saluting her superior.

He did the same replying, "Dismissed."

Lieutenant Alwin, now known as JC, motioned for them to follow her to the waiting convoy while she went back to her chopper to remove her flight suit. He watched her for a moment as she seemed to be conversing with someone in the helicopter. She looked vaguely unamused and even a little irritated. He could only assume the conversation was about him, and the topic was unsavory. There was a moment where she smiled wickedly which made Tony's blood chill. Just one more confirmation that she had horrible things planned.

The ride out to the test site was silent. This annoyed Tony; awkward silences always annoyed him. He looked over at JC noticing she was not wearing the customary military fatigues. Compared to the others she was dressed normally with khaki cargo pants and a dark brown poncho that he was sure was hiding plenty of weaponry. Although, he was surprised to see nothing else on her. As a soldier, he didn't think that she would have any reason to hide her weapons. It wasn't like Japan where she had to pretend to be normal. He doubted anyone would think she was anyway.

"Since when do you travel so unarmed?" he asked trying to break the silence.

"Who said I was unarmed?" she replied without looking at him.

"I don't see a single gun with you."

In response she pulled aside the top fold of the poncho to reveal an array of weaponry he was accustomed to seeing on her person. She wore a vest adorned with throwing knives he had seen before, and still scared the hell out of him. Two guns sat in shoulder holsters while several extra clips were attached to a strap slung across her body. For her, this was traveling light. "There's also an M-16 under the seat. I just didn't feel like holding it," she said with a smirk.

That was more like it. All that was missing now was her Mary Poppins backpack that had an endless amount of toys. He doubted there were anymore hiding places left, which meant he probably wouldn't see it this time.

"Are you sure knives were the best choice? I don't think you'll be getting close enough to use them, if you have to."

She turned and glared at him as if deeply insulted. "I don't need to be too close. You know that," she said menacingly.

She was right about that. She had somehow managed to hit a man in the neck that was almost two stories away in a cramped stairwell. Tony cringed at the memory. There weren't many things that made him cringe, but watching the things she had done…there were just no words to properly describe what it had done to him, what it would have done to any normal person. Only an incredibly cruel, soulless person could be unaffected by what had transpired that day.

"So how did you get pulled into this? Japan wasn't on the record I saw, so I'm doubting it was because of prior dealings," he asked changing the subject. That was something else he had found odd. He had seen lists of several employers and jobs she'd had within the past five years. He didn't remember seeing Takeshi, her employer in Japan, on the list anywhere. He thought of asking her about it, but decided against it. The less he brought up that day, the longer his life might last.

"One of the generals wanted to have a personal guard along in the convoy. You're not exactly a popular person around here. Personally, I thought you were behind this. I'll admit, I had doubts about that considering what happened in the past," she explained.

"I swear I had nothing to do with this. I didn't even know about it until I landed," he said, holding his hands up defensively.

"As I said, I had my doubts. Why would you want to bring me on after being such an ass last time we met? You know, you're lucky I didn't kill you right then and there," she spat. She was right, because she nearly had.

"I thought we settled this a long time ago," he said trying to avoid a fight. This is what he had feared would happen. The look in her eye had been warning enough that this moment was inevitable. So much for prolonging his life.

"It was never 'settled'. You don't just settle things like that."

"What do you want? An apology? I already gave that to you," he said, irritation now slipping through. Granted, she had been incapacitated when he'd said it, but he'd still said it. Didn't that count for something?

"It would have been nice if it was sincere," she mumbled under her breath.

"Women," he grumbled.

"Men."

From then on they rode in silence.

Perfect. The demo had gone as planned leaving the generals thoroughly impressed.

The only unhappy person was JC, and Tony didn't have to guess why. They never planned on seeing each other again under any circumstances after Japan, and here they were, forced upon each other again. Last time, she had been forced on him. This time, it felt more like he had been forced on her.

Once again they were enveloped in a silence that Tony had to break.

"I feel like I'm being driven to a court martial. This is crazy. What did I do?"

As soon as the words were said he was sure he would regret the last statement.

"Do you mean today or shall we review the past year?" JC said disdainfully.

"What is your problem? I apologized already for what happened. What more do you want from me?"

"It would be nice if you actually meant it, Stark. You're like a five year old that apologizes just to get out of time-out instead of being sorry for what they did," she said, her tone raising a notch.

"You're blowing this slightly out of proportion. It was an accident."

"An accident?" she gasped. "An accident is bumping into a table and breaking a glass. Getting purposefully drunk and trying to seduce me is not an accident!"

All of a sudden the humvee in front of them was blown apart.

"Contact left!" the driver yelled as she grabbed her weapon and stepped out. In the next instant she was on the ground unmoving.

JC already had Stark pinned to the floor board grabbing her own gun from under the seat. She was now in the moment. In those few seconds she transformed from spiteful woman to bodyguard; of course, you wouldn't want to tangle with either, as Tony had learned.

Tony tried to stay calm. Freaking out wasn't going to get him anywhere. He'd lost control of himself in Japan, and that had only managed to get him in trouble. Not this time. He wasn't going to screw up this time. This time he would completely trust JC. He knew that she knew what she was doing. She would get him out alive and safe, if he would just let her.

Their other escort ran out, but his fate was just as fast as other. JC sat there hovering over Tony obviously trying to figure out what to do next. That decision was quickly made when a spray of bullets went through the door.

"Out!" she yelled.

"Are you nuts?" he exclaimed. Part of him wanted more than anything to trust her. However, she had a tendency for doing things that were…well, nuts. It was when she said things like 'get-out-of-the-vehicle-like-those-other-guys-that-just-died' was when it got really hard to do exactly what she said.

"We're no safer in here than out there. Get out!" she yelled, pushing him out the door. She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him behind several large rocks shooting at anyone she saw along the way. She went for a fresh clip and winced. She had been grazed in the shoulder when the humvee door was turned into Swiss cheese.

"Are you okay?" Tony asked noticing the injury.

"It's nothing. It's just a flesh wound," she huffed.

Tony watched her as she looked around. The look on her face was one of calculation. One possible question going through her mind was the likelihood of them escaping, if back up didn't arrive. A moment later it was obvious her calculations were done, because she removed her poncho and removed the spare ammo and guns in their holsters and threw them back at the humvee.

"What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?" he exclaimed.

Trust her, the little voice in his head was saying.

Yeah, right. Trust the woman that wants to kill you and is now throwing away all her means of defending us? No way, he thought back.

"They're getting closer. If we get captured with these weapons, they'll kill us on sight," she explained as she removed the vest of knives and discarded it with everything else. All she had left was a Kevlar vest and the M-16 for all the good it would do.

"What, you're going to let us get captured?!" he demanded with wide eyes. She'd pulled a similar stunt before, let herself get caught before subduing the enemy. But she'd had her knives that time. Knives which were now probably beneath their destroyed vehicle.

"Shut up and stay down," she ordered as she popped up and shot off several more rounds. Now he was worried. What if this was Japan all over again? What if it was even worse? He didn't want to think like that now, couldn't afford to. He had to trust her, though that was becoming harder with her dwindled supply of weapons.

"Give me your phone. I might be able to contact base for back up," she demanded as she held out her hand for the phone.

As he did so, a mortar landed two feet from them. Stark saw the logo and knew immediately what it was.

"Move!" she screamed, tackling him as the mortar exploded, sending them flying.

Then he was on the ground, dazed from the impact.

Tony couldn't move. There was too much pain from the blast and body slam he had received. The pain became sharper around his chest as he tried to move. He tried to move to see what was wrong, but someone was already hovering over him.

"Stark, are you all right?" a distant female voice asked. He groaned in response, not able to make intelligible words at the moment. "Tony, talk to me."

"Pe…pper?" he groaned. It couldn't have been Pepper. Could it? Her hands were on him pressing into his chest. Why was she doing that? He was wearing Kevlar. He shouldn't be injured that badly.

"Keep talking, Tony," she urged. The image of the woman grew fuzzier until he could no longer see. His mind drifted. He wasn't unconscious yet, but he was nearly there. He heard her yell, "Tony!"

There was a light pressure on his neck and a wisp of hair brushed his cheek. She must have been checking his vital signs. Was he dying? He wasn't sure yet. If the pain he felt in his chest was any indication of his mortality, it would be safe to say he was in danger of death.

There was yelling that seemed far away. He didn't understand a word of it. Whether it was because he was so out of it or the fact it was in another language he wasn't positive of. The person responded back in the same garbled sounds, and he felt himself being hauled away. From there he could only guess what would happen as he fell completely into unconsciousness.