Halo

Author’s Note

This is a one-shot, a very short one-shot.

Tell me what you think, and I hope you enjoy.

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Tony remembered the first time he met her, her naturally quiet nature that made him just want to hear her voice, even if it was just once. The first day they met was one that he would always remember.

“Tony, this is Isabella, she’s your new intern.” Pepper announced making the introductions, she turned to Isabella. “Isabella, if you may can you please step into Mr. Stark’s office for just a moment. I have some business to deal with concerning Mr. Stark.”

Tony’s head turned to follow her as she walked into the room. “OW!” He shouted as he rubbed the back of his head and turned back to Pepper. “What the hell was that for?”

“For checking out your new intern!” Pepper said with a shake of her head. “Listen to me, this girl is a genius, I’m sure in time she’ll be rivaling your brains. She is recommended by the highest officials, and it is important for you to recognize that she is to be here for a year, and you cannot sleep with her. Isabella is a very special girl, and if you do anything to hurt you’ll come to regret it.”

Tony sighed, “Got it.” He responded dismissively turning just slightly to get ready to head back to his office.

Pepper nodded with a smirk, “One more thing.” She said with amusement. “Isabella doesn’t speak.”

Tony groaned, “Just great!”

Tony smiled at the memory, it had taken several weeks before he knew anything about her personal life. And the only reason he was able to know anything was because he had illegally hacked into government files. Isabella had been born to two parents, one of which went off the deep end and killed the other, leaving Isabella an orphan. After that he couldn’t find anything on her, not on her adoption, who her parents were, nothing, to him it was like she only began to exist the moment she went to university.

He had also easily gotten used to the text messages he would receive from her; it was the only real way she communicated with him. He had no idea why she didn’t speak, but he knew eventually he would get it out of her.

Tony helped Bella off the plane, “Don’t worry, Bells, we’ll be back in the states by Thursday morning, we just have to get business done.”

Bella rolled her eyes but stood at Tony’s side, she followed after him looking around at what felt like plain desert land. She followed after Tony and got into the car behind him, pressing herself to the door giving Tony a little more room. She watched with interest as the soldier took a picture with Tony, only further feeding into Tony’s ego. Before she could roll her eyes at the absurdity of the situation, her eyes widened as the car flipped over.

As quickly as she could she unbuckled herself and kicked out the door, she managed to pull Tony out of the car and block them from the gun fire. She wiped at the blood that was dripping from the side of her head, a wound that she would surely need to deal with later for now she needed to take care of Tony. She shook Tony as best as she could, she just needed for him to wake up. She smiled widely as his eyes opened and he was looking at her. She nodded her head and ran her hand down to his cheek, gently wiping away some of the blood there from a small cut.

Tony blinked his eyes swearing that in that moment he believed his Bells to be his own personal angel, or at least that’s how it seemed to him. “Will you ever speak to me?”

Bella smiled and nodded her head, she leaned down and kissed Tony’s cheek. She watched his eyes roll to the back of his head. She went to try and get him to wake up, her hand was on his shoulder, only she fell back in pain as a bullet from behind her pierced her shoulder. Bella felt onto her back clutching at her shoulder, she wasn’t prepared for this sort of pain, she went to use her gift only to be hit in the head by a man with a gun.

-A little bit of time has passed-

Tony looked over at Bella, unconscious for almost a month. He left the work he was working on and walked over to her. He kneeled beside her and watched her quietly, he gently ran his hand through her hair. “Just a few more days, Bells, and then we’ll get out of here. I’m on the verge of a breakthrough. It would be faster if you would stop playing sleeping beauty and wake up to help me.” Tony stood and kissed her forehead before returning to his work.

Minutes later he turned his head as a startling blue light was glowing through the room. His eyes widened as the light was coming from Bella. Having no idea what was happening, he dropped what he was working on and rushed over to her. “Bells, honey, what the hell is happening? This isn’t the time to start going radioactive on me.”

Tony reached out trying to somehow hold her down, he groaned out as he was thrown back by the force of the light that was coming from her.  He tried to blink his eyes open but found that there was a large pain in the back of his head that was preventing him from doing anything but feeling the pain.

“Tony…” He heard a soft voice calling out to him. “Tony… please wake up, I need you awake.”

Tony blinked his eyes open and was relieved to see Bella’s face. “You spoke.”

Bella rolled her eyes and leaned away from Tony. “From all of this you take that from it? Not, oh, you’re awake and not in a coma anymore?” Bella said sitting down on the floor across from Tony and rubbing the temples on her head.

“That’s all I’m paying attention to! It’s been over a year, and this is the first time you’ve ever said anything. Excuse me if I find that to be amazing. Now that I know you can talk, I will find out why you didn’t do it sooner.” Tony said rubbing the back of his head.

“Precaution.” Bella whispered standing up. “I have a banshee’s voice, it’ll drive some people to madness, you already looked at my background, that’s what happened to my mom, it’s why she went crazy. The fact that you can still talk is a sign that my voice doesn’t affect you, it doesn’t work that way for everyone.” She walked over to the working table and looked over Tony’s work. She began to twinkle around the tools and taking in the layout of the plans Tony had.  

“Are you going to explain the light?” Tony questioned moving to stand beside her.

Bella shook her head, “No.” She continued her work and looked to Tony for a moment. Through a silent conversation they agreed the discussion would be for a later time. Bella handed Tony the work in progress machinery he had left off on.  “Here, finish this and I’ll get started on your arc reactor.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my reactor, and how did you even know about it?” Tony said looking down at his chest trying to see if it was really that visible through his shirt.

“I could hear you in my coma like state.” Bella responded with a slight smile, before getting back to work. “I could hear everything…”

Tony knew that Bella was something special the second they begun planning their escape. She slowly and steadily began to tell him all about her gifts. Her voice and her force, the thing that healed her from the bullet wound, it was all the main way they were going to get out of the hell hole they were stuck in at the moment.

Bella had used her gift to give them enough leverage to get home. In turn, he kept her secret away from everyone and took on a protective role over her.

Tony remembered the first time they kissed, it was forever burned into his memory, because that was the day that without a doubt he was hooked on her forever.

“You’re being an idiot.” Bella said quietly as she worked on a new phone for Stark Industries ignoring Tony’s lecture as he worked on his suit. “I think you really need to just focus on one thing, and leave my love life out of your mind. You could mess up on that suit of yours.”

“All I’m saying is, the guy is an egotistical asshole who is only asking you on a date because of the fact that you don’t speak.” Tony said shrugging his shoulders and returning to his work.

Bella rolled her eyes, “I said no, I thought the same thing, so I replied to his message with a no.”

Tony turned towards her and watched as she tinkered with the prototype for a new phone. “You said no.” He stated in surprise.

Bella nodded not moving her eyes from the device in her hands. “His ego is too big for me, not to mention that I don’t find him the slightest bit of attractive.”

Tony kept his eyes on her knowing she was out of it, too focused on the phone in front of her, but some part of him hoped this was his chance.

“You ruined any chance a guy has on going out with me.” Bella mumbled as she worked, Tony was sure she didn’t even hear herself.

“Want to grab dinner later?” Tony questioned leaning against the table and watching her.

“Anything but Chinese, you always choose Chinese.” Bella responded mindlessly

Tony nodded, “It’s a date then.” He turned back to his work and knew Bella was watching him. He turned back around and looked at her with a smirk in place. “You okay there?”

Bella nodded, “Of course.”

Tony moved and stepped away from his table and towards Bella. “Would you say yes to a date with me?”

Bella smirked and shrugged her shoulders. “No, you’re my boss, it’s against the company rules.”

Tony nodded his head as he got closer. “Your fired.” He responded before leaning in and finally kissing her. 

Tony sighed in thought as he thought of his Bells. “JARVIS, where is Bella?”

“Sir, Miss Bella is currently in her room.” JARVIS responded, his voice drifting over the room.

Tony nodded, he set his things aside and decided to go find her. It was rare when Bella wouldn’t come down to join him in his lab.

After moving into the tower with the rest of the team she had slowly pulled away from working in the lab as often as he did, so she would have time to work on bettering her gifts more. He missed her throughout the day, but he always knew she was always around in the tower somewhere.

When she finally explained that after the death of her parents she was put under the protection of Nick Fury, it was the official eye opener as he now knew why Fury disliked him so much, and why Bella’s background was practically invisible.

Tony entered the elevator and pressed the code to go to Bella’s level of the house, because of her fear to have someone walk in on her talking, he had made her floor inaccessible to others. Tony entered the floor and could already tell where she was by the large sound of her stereo playing through the walls.

“Halo?” Tony questioned entering the room, “Beyoncé right?”

Bella closed the sketch book in her lap and looked up. “It’s been on repeat all day, got it stuck in my head earlier when I was training with Steve. I thought you’d be down stairs having some science bros time with Bruce.”

Tony shrugged his shoulders, “He’s not as interesting as you.” Tony responded, he glanced at the sketch book. “Drawing again? You’ve been spending too much time with the Cap, soon you’re going to be running around in red white and blue.”

Bella smiled down at the sketch book, “After the song got stuck in my head, an image got stuck there as well, and I had to draw it out, or at least that’s what Steve told me to do. I’ve been holed up in here trying to finish it since 7am. I was just about to go downstairs to your workshop to ask if you wanted to get some dinner.”

Tony nodded, “Chinese?”

Bella rolled her eyes, “Fine, I’m going to go wash up, you need to change your shirt. I don’t know how you always manage to get oil all over you.”

Tony rolled his eyes and walked towards the bed and picked up the sketchbook more than curious to see her work. He opened it up to the most recent page and was struck in awe as he saw her handy work.

Him.

Every feature was perfect. Even the rare true smile he usually showed no one, because he preferred people to believe he was an asshole.

Tony felt Bella’s arms wrapping around his neck, her head resting on his shoulder. “That’s how I remember your face being the day when we went on our first date.” Bella kissed Tony’s cheek. “That’s what I remembered when I heard the song.”

Tony smirked and closed the sketch book. “You ‘re a huge sap.” He stood and kissed Bella “Love you, too.”

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