The Real Threat (October 1986)

Frank felt and heard her move around him. Shift to be in front of him and felt her arms go around him. Her dark eyes, tired and also worried looked up at him. Her voice cut the darkness like a knife and her tone softened his heart. Within moments he felt his anger simply slide away and turn into passion for her. He had missed her, yearned for her, needed her. He would not apologize for his selfishness. He could only feel that way with Isabella and held no shame in that.

“I do trust you Isabella,” Was all he could say as he looked down at her. When she drew him down to her lips he felt that her cheeks were damp from her tears. She was so tired he knew but he lifted her up anyway and carried her to the bed. He’d let her sleep...after he made love to her.

Her alarm was like needles in her head and when she looked at the clock she noticed that it had been blaring for almost 40 minutes. She had slept too long...again and Frank obviously did not want to wake her as he got up and went to work. He had made her a coffee and put it in a thermos to keep hot and she’d find that a post it note pointed to a bagel breakfast sandwich which he put in tin foil and left it in the toaster oven for her. Frank had been a little rough last night and her muscles groaned when she flexed them to move the covers off and get out of bed.

The news popped on when she turned the tv on and as she began to brush her teeth she heard another special report of a large explosion that destroyed a large warehouse downtown. Firefighters were still trying to put out the resulting blaze and 12 bodies had already been recovered. There were no survivors and all of them were identified as gang members.

When she arrived at the office Jennifer handed her her messages and a fresh copy of her own sitrep report. “Isabella, you look like hell, everyone is here, their waiting for you in the east conference room for your 9 o’clock meeting. Lauren and Gerald and General Steven Talbert are already here,” She said in hushed quick words. She took Isabella’s coat and her purse. “Good luck,” she said.

Isabella knew that she and Frank had some things they needed to work through, but she was confident that they could. She just needed to get through this mission then she and Frank could sit down and really talk and figure things out.

The following morning when she finally woke up she realized that she was running late again. Frank was gone and the alarm clock was still going. She got up and took a quick shower and then turned on the news while she brushed her teeth. She paused for a moment when she heard the story about more gang members dying in a warehouse explosion. She was growing more and more suspicious and was now confident that the same person/people were involved in all of these explosions. However she didn’t have time to think about that now.

It wasn’t until she was in the building that she remembered her meeting. She cursed under her breath but was grateful when she saw Jennifer there with her report.

“I overslept,” she admitted as she took the report. “Thank you. Do I look alright?”

Jennifer looked her over and removed a bit of lint off of her blouse. “You look good...oh, I forgot to mention, a Pepper Potts is also in the meeting, she came in with Mr. Hughes, do you know her?” She asked curiously.

The conference room was also surrounded by glass. The table was a thick piece of lacquered dark wood and the chairs were black leather and stainless steel. The floor was a white tile and the ceiling was a white, drop ceiling with recessed lighting. When she stepped into the hallway she could see everyone inside. The entire room was filled and one seat was not occupied. It was at the head of the table, her seat and she also noticed that everyone had a copy of her report. Jennifer had made copies for everyone without having to be asked.

The moment she entered all of the men stood for her though she saw Lauren purse her lips and lift an eyebrow toward her. There were several men in the room she didn’t know and after she asked everyone to sit Gerald began from his left.

“This is General Steven Talbert, Major James Rhodes, Colonel Alex Jordan and Miss Pepper Potts, Tony Stark’s personal Assistant,” he said. Lauren and Alonzo were also there. “Colonel,” Gerald said and Alex Jordan shifted as he looked at her report.

“You say that the threat level is medium, I disagree. The closest Taliban base in just over 100 miles away and it's a small base. To have the extra air support for a negligible threat will be costly. It is my recommendation to drop the threat level to low where The Air Force under Colonel James Rhodes here, is willing to provide 1 Iowa Scout helicopter and 1 Apache attack Helicopter,” he said. There were a few of the others that nodded with that assessment.

Isabella took a deep breath before walking into the conference room. She glanced around at everyone and took notice of Pepper Potts. She took a seat at the head of the table with her copy of the report. She was barely seated when Alex Jordan spoke up about the threat level she had set.

“Well, this is Tony Stark. He’s extremely high profile and he is bringing weapons. If word of this gets out it will make him a target. My job is to ensure his security and I cannot do that without proper air support.”

Alex smiled a dry smile and leaned forward. “The verbage I am having trouble with is ‘proper air support Miss Corsetti. You are a CIA analyst with very little experience out in the field,” he said dismissively as he leaned back. The man was far above her paygrade with extensive military experience and an asshole. Clearly James Rhodes disagreed with him but he said nothing.

“The scout will do a sweep before the meeting in a 30 mile radius. If they give us the all clear your convoy can move in and get this done. The officers will arrive in the blackhawk,” he said as he looked at James. James didn't seem to like this but he nodded reluctantly. “The scout will return after its sweep, refuel and be on standby with the Gunship. When the presentation is done the officers will leave via blackhawk and the convoy will head directly back to base,” he said. His rendition was similar to what she had written up but required far less resources.

“How much total time will boots be on the ground Miss Corsetti? I would prefer Mr. Stark was not in an exposed situation longer than 2,” Potts asked as she seemed poised to write in her notebook. She was the only one without Isabella’s report in front of her. Isabella had projected 3 hours. 1 hour for the sweep, 1 hour for setup and detonation, 1 hour for questions and answers. 2 hours would mean hurrying up the sweep and shortening up the questions at the end.

Isabella had to force herself to relax her jaw when Alex went on to dismiss her suggestion further. He clearly did not respect women in positions of authority. One glance at James Rhodes was enough to tell her that he did not agree with Alex, but unfortunately he said nothing. She put her into a position of having to relent and some of her authority was stripped away. She did not like that...at all.

"Well then let the record show that this was your call and not mine," she said, not even attempting to hide the irritation in her voice.

When Miss Potts spoke up, Isabella looked over at her. She heard her question and then realized that Pepper did not have a copy of the report in front of her. She slid hers down to her before answering her question.

"My estimation is 3 hours. 1 hour for the sweep, 1 hour for set up and detonation, and 1 hour for questions. The set up and detonation time was given to me by Mr. Stark. The only way to shorten the time to 2 hours would be to cut both the sweep and question and answer times in half. I would not recommend cutting short the sweep time. We need to ensure that the area is clear and safe for Mr. Stark."

James Rhodes turned and spoke to Pepper in low tones. “I can get it done in 30 minutes,” He said. “You’re certain? I’ve tried to talk Tony out of this altogether,” She said. “Well you know Tony, he likes to show off,” James responded. “Like I don’t know that but this risk just isn’t necessary,” Pepper replied concernedly. Gerald audibly cleared his throat. “So we can all agree to a minimal air support and 2 hours of exposure. Agent Corsetti, nice work. Jennifer will have your travel arrangements,” He said as everyone began to get up from their seats. Pepper flashed Isabella a very unpleasant look. It only lasted a moment but it was clear that she didn’t seem to like Isabella. Not at all from her scowl.

“Agent Corsetti, i’d like to speak to you...in private please,” Pepper said as everyone else began to file out. “Nice work,” Alonzo said and he squeezed her arm as he passed her. Lauren winked at her as she filed out and Gerald closed the door and they were suddenly alone. Pepper gather up her notebook and left the report on the table. She moved up to Isabella and gave her a scrutinizing look.

“Are you fucking Tony?” She asked with more than a little disdain in her voice and in her expression.

Isabella didn't even know why she was in this meeting. She had worked her ass off trying to ensure Tony's safety, because that was her job, but no one was taking it seriously. It angered her and frustrated her. This mission had nearly ended her relationship with Frank and now it seemed that her hard work was for nothing. She didn't believe that it was a good idea to not have air support or to shorten the initial sweep of the area.

As everyone began to file out Pepper asked her to stay and so she did. However, Pepper's rather direct question floored Isabella. After how she had been treated at the meeting she was not exactly in a great mood.

"No, I'm not Miss Potts," she responded sharply. "I'm engaged. And I would like to point out that I did not petition to be involved in this mission. Mr. Stark asked for me and I am just trying to do my fucking job and keep him safe, but no one in this meeting actually seemed to think that is necessary. I have worked my ass off these past few days trying to work everything out. I'm doing all of this for Mr. Stark because he asked me to and I take my job very seriously. I can tell you this much Miss Potts, shorting the initial sweep and not having proper air support is not providing the level of security I want for your boss."

Pepper set her notebook down and crossed her arms over her chest as she sat on the edge of the table. She just looked at Isabella a moment as what the woman said filtered down into her brain. “James Rhodes will be piloting the scout, he’s the best there is but these Talaban are difficult to spot in the desert. And Tony is too stubborn for his own good. James is Tony’s friend as well. If you took up this assignment thinking it was going to be easy than obviously you don’t know Tony at all,” she said in a cutting tone. “I think you let them bully you into relenting. Its obvious you have no business leading this detail and I can only hope that it doesn’t blow up in our face!” She said and narrowed her eyes at her.

Isabella stood there calmly as she looked at Pepper. "I never once thought this assignment was going to be easy and I took the time to think about every possible scenario that might happen. I noticed that neither you nor James Rhodes spoke up about doing everything possible to ensure Mr. Stark is kept safe. I did everything I could and now all I can do is hope that nothing actually does happen."

She walked to the door and then turned back and looked at her. "I trust you can find your way out."

She didn't wait for her to respond, but walked out and went to her office.

Jennifer gave Isabella her travel packet. She was traveling on a mac flight along with the rest of her team and with other military personnel that were going to the region. Mac flights were not comfortable and were basically a seat on a C170. There was no flight attendants, no comforts, just a seat on a plane. There was nothing really left for her to do but go home, pack and prepare for a very long day tomorrow. It was 4:30pm and Frank would be getting home soon.

When she was about to put her key into the door to her apartment she could smell the aromas of garlic, tomatoes, fresh herbs and fresh baked bread. When she opened the door and came in Frank was in her cooking apron and he had sauce cooking and a loaf of fresh, baked bread on the counter. He paused as he saw her come in and he shifted and picked up two wine glasses half filled with red wine. “Well, my baby’s home,” He said as she set her things down on the floor near the counter and accepted the wine. Frank leaned in and kissed her. “I’m so happy your home,” He said and he looked at her with love in his eyes. He did love her, more than anything and he wanted her last day home to be a good one.

Isabella knew that the next few days were going to be long. She was already exhausted and she planned on getting a good night's sleep that night. She decided to leave work early. She took the travel packet from Jennifer and then headed home. Before she even reached the door she could smell the food Frank was making. She walked in and smiled when she saw him in her apron. Everything smelled amazing and it caused her mouth to begin watering. She hadn't eaten much for lunch. She had lost her appetite after the meeting that morning. But now it was back...with a vengeance. She put down her things and then gratefully accepted the glass of wine. She kissed Frank back and then smiled at him.

"I'm so glad to be home too. My meeting this morning did not go the way I had planned. I'm just looking forward to this whole mission being over and us getting on with our lives."

Frank clinked his glass to hers and frowned at what she said. He could tell that she was disappointed but there was more to it he thought. He sipped his wine then sat it down. “Well tonight you can relax, I got everything covered,” he said as he shifted around behind her and began to massage her shoulders with his large, strong hands. “I made you that bread you like as well as my sauce. The pasta is drying but I can toss it into the water whenever you feel like eating,” he continued as his hands began to knead her flesh on her shoulders and back. He shifted her hair out of his way and got up higher with his fingers on the base of her neck. “I think maybe a nice meal then a nice, hot bath?” Frank said as his hands worked their magic on her stiff muscles.

Isabella closed her eyes and practically moaned when Frank began to massage her shoulders. He hadn't massaged her in over a week and it felt wonderful. She didn't realize just how tense she was until his fingers began to knead into her flesh.

"That all sounds wonderful."

She went to go get changed and when she came back out the pasta was ready and Frank was plating it up. They ate together and then she took a nice, relaxing hot bath. That night they made love before she fell asleep in his arms. She slept soundly and the early morning alarm came all too soon. She woke up and dressed and ensured she had packed everything she needed. Frank had gotten up as well to see her off. A car was waiting downstairs with the others to take them to the plane.

Once she knew she had everything she looked at Frank. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him and kissed him deeply. She slowly and reluctantly pulled back and looked into his eyes. "I love you...so much."