A New Beginning

Chapter 26- Falling Star

Noelle was quietly organizing files for Tony one afternoon, while he tinkered with his suits. She found out that she was constantly upgrading them, improving on old features and adding new ones. Currently he was working on what he called "Mark 42."

"This is your forty-second suit?" she asked.

"Forty-second prototype," Tony replied distractedly. Noelle always found that he only paid half attention when he was concentrating this hard on something. She had always thought geniuses got distracted easily, but that wasn't always the case with Tony.

His mental state had been severely declining over the past six months since the Battle of New York. He never wanted to talk about it, or even something related to it– like the Scepter. Noelle had tried to ask him if he knew any updates on what S.H.I.E.L.D. was doing with it, but he always brushed her off when she even so much as mentioned it.

It was frustrating, but Noelle knew what the problem was. Tony was suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. She had experienced it herself after the Clone Wars. She didn't say anything, but she saw his frequent anxiety and panic attacks. He would try and pretend everything was ok, and everything was fine, but it was obvious it wasn't. She could tell he wasn't sleeping either, because the dark circles under his eyes were looking darker every day.

Noelle was genuinely starting to get worried for him. She had thought about trying to bring up the Clone Wars and her experiences of it, and maybe offer some advice, but it was clear Tony didn't want to talk about Loki and the Invasion, so she wasn't sure what to do.

"OW!" Tony yelled suddenly out of anger, breaking Noelle's thoughts.

"What happened? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, hit my hand with the hammer," Tony huffed. "Are you almost done with those files? Pepper needs them today."

"No, not yet." Noelle groaned inwardly. Less than a day's notice was not enough time to organize hundreds of files. Tony was extremely abrupt though when it came to work.

"Umm... can I ask you for a favor?"

Tony didn't seem to be paying attention.

"Tony?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Tony stopped what he was doing briefly to look at her.

Noelle swallowed. Here was the big question. "Can I have some time off over the holidays to visit my cousin? I haven't seen her in years."

"Sure," said Tony.

"Sure?" That was it? Noelle gaped at Tony. She hadn't expected it to be that easy. She had expected at least a little resistance from him.

"As long as you finish those files by today."

Noelle nodded. "I will," she promised. "Thank you."

"Yep," Tony replied absentmindedly. "I... uh. Pepper and I are going to my house in Malibu for Christmas anyway, so I don't know if I'll really need you."

When did he need her anyway? Noelle wondered. She didn't assist Tony with much. Ever since he had hired her, they had gone on fighting missions maybe once or twice and those had ended in disaster. Tony winged these missions without a plan and somehow expected Noelle to know what he wanted her to do. They had always ended in arguing, so now Noelle was resorted to doing things like extra office work. She got paid far too much for the amount of work she was actually doing for him, and wondered how much longer this was all going to last. However, Tony didn't seem to mind her living here with him.

Noelle wasn't sure what else to really say though, so she silently finished with the files, and considered how she was going to plan her trip to see Bern.