MS3T2 The Press Conference (April 1996)

Isabella was forced to take several steps back as men and women began to bring in vase after vase of roses in every color imaginable. There were hundreds of them and they filled her office with color and a beautiful, floral scent. She didn't have to ask to know who they were from, but as they left she saw him. Isabella was still head over heels in love with Tony. He drove her crazy, but he was the only man she saw herself spending the rest of her life with. In his mouth he had a card and she couldn't help but smile a little as she stepped up and took it. She turned it over and read what it said. She had to take a moment to gather herself.

"Wow...this was just like what you did for me back in school."

"Well, that sounded...familiar. I don't believe we've ever met before," he said as he took up her hand. "I would have remembered I think," he said then lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. He did it as if they were in an old movie. An English gentleman and a young lass meeting for the first time.

"I hope you're not busy, I plan on taking you out for lunch," he said. "I have a car waiting for us and reservations," he said.

Isabella looked at Tony. Damn, he could be so romantic that it made her head spin. However, she knew she needed to convince him of this. "You're developing a prototype for your new suit, which is based on Repulsor technology. The mini arc reactor in your chest uses .45 grams of palladium and you secretly love Fruity Pebbles and ABBA. You try to deny loving ABBA, but I've heard you sing Mamma Mia one too many times in the shower."

Tony tilted his head a moment to think about what she said. "Some of that you could have learned reading playboy or penthouse. But I've not told a soul about the suit, the technology and the palladium. So, either you are some kind of spy...or...or what Isabella?" he said as he turned and closed the door.

Isabella looked at Tony and waited for him to close the door. "Ok, what I'm about to tell you is going to sound crazy, but I think if there is anyone in this world that is going to believe me it's going to be you." She took a deep breath. "I'm not from this timeline..." she stopped there, having heard what she said. "Wow...that just sounds crazy coming out of my mouth. But it's true. I come from another timeline where you and I are married." Tony didn't interrupt her so she just kept on going. She told him everything. She told him how they had met at Philips Academy and how they had broken up when she had decided to train to be a CIA agent and how they had met again a few years later and she had been there with him in Kazakhstan when they were attacked and had been taken captive too. She went into detail about their captors and the environment they were held in. She talked about the car battery that was initially keeping the shrapnel from his heart, but how they had created the arc reactor using palladium instead. She talked about making the first suit and about how he escaped. She talked about him coming back for her and them getting married. She talked about the Tower and Logan, Steve, Kate, and Natalya. She talked about Serena and about how he had shed several tears when he held her for the first time.

"So, that's how I knew where to have the military look for you...because I was there. They marked me...just like they marked you," she said as she showed him the scar on her left shoulder. "I need you to believe me Tony." She spoke his name with such love and affection.

Tony listened to Isabella and didn't interrupt her. He listened, marked what she said and how she said it. She sounded as if she believed her words. And several of the things she had said were not things that someone could have learned unless they had lived it.

"Well, then all this buttering you up was unnecessary," he said. "Having to relive being captured...twice. Not having you there the second time," he said. When her eyes looked about to pop he lifted up his hands.

"Ok, bad joke, that was a bad joke," Tony said as he took a step toward her. "So...in this other timeline, we're husband and wife, have a little girl...that would mean we've had sex...probably alot of sex," he said.

Isabella looked at Tony. She had almost forgotten that while he could be 'sweep her off her feet' romantic, that he could also be immature. She sighed and looked away from him. "I need to find a way to get home Tony. I was planted here in place of a different Isabella and I have lost all of those memories. All I have are of the life I lived in this other timeline. I miss my daughter...I miss my husband."

Tony looked at her for a few moments. "Well, I'm not certain I can help you Isabella. I'm not even certain I believe all that you're telling me. I mean, would you believe you without any kind of frame of reference? You've said somethings that you couldn't possibly know but another timeline? I'm not too sure about that," he said.

Isabella felt emotionally drained. She was exhausted and wanted more than anything to curl up in Tony's arms in their bed. He always had a way of comforting her and making her feel like she could achieve anything. She had Frank here...but it was all a lie. She wasn't the Isabella he knew. 

She looked over at Tony and thought about the first kiss they had ever shared. It had been under the stars on a chilly evening when he had given her his coat. He had put it around her shoulders and then he had gently pulled her towards him and had kissed her. She had known in that kiss that she loved him, but it had been the kiss they had shared in the cave when they both thought they might die that had made her realize that they were connected...they were supposed to be together. 

She slowly walked over to him and without a word she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Into it she poured her heart and soul and everything she was. Even across timelines she felt that connection to him...the truth that they were meant to be together.

Tony felt it coming and he didn't stop her. He wasn't certain about Isabella's claims but knew she believed in them. When her lips touched his he felt the chemistry. It was like electricity that shot up his spine from his toes to his eyeballs. Her lips felt oddly familiar and yet no woman had ever kissed him like this before. He kissed her back. Warm, moist lips kissed his with a desperate urgency. Tony stopped into her, his hands moved to her butt and then up her hips to her back. His lips never ceased on hers and he shifted with her so she was forced to sit on her desk. His hands didn't miss a moment as they went to unlatch and unzip her pants.

It was lunchtime and she knew that everyone around her office was gone. The walls were also pretty sound proofed so she wasn't concerned about them being heard. Everything about Tony was so familiar and comforting and she needed that right now....

...A while later Isabella re-buttoned her blouse and slipped her heels back on. She looked over at Tony. "You can't trust Obediah. He's going to try to force you out of Stark Industries and take over. He's also going to steal your mini arc reactor technology to build a suit of his own."

Isabella was leopard...No, a Jaguar in a forest and he was her prey he thought as he buckled his belt. He wiped his brow again, he was sweating but no wonder from what they had just done. She seemed to know just what to do and what he liked to do. She seemed to know him so well. 'Could she be from another timeline?' 'Did it really matter?' 'What was the harm of going along with this to see where it led?' He thought. "What do you need me to do Isabella? And...I'd like to hear...about our daughter...sometime," He said. And that was most surprising of all that he'd have a kid.

Isabella was racking her brain as she tried to think of a way to get back to where she was supposed to be. She wasn’t entirely sure Tony believed her, but he at least seemed willing to go along with it and there was no denying the connection between them. Suddenly, a thought hit her. “Well, there is one man I know of that might be able to help...Dr. Stephen Strange. He lives at 177A Bleeker Street in the Sanctum Sanctorum.”

"I've never heard of this man. But...If you know...you know," Tony said. And then something occurred to him. It wasn't her going back but...but what the hell right?

"What if...if you stayed," Tony asked then as his mind grabbed hold of the idea he continued. "What if you stayed and we...we were together? What if you helped me accomplish what you say I did in the other timeline? You and me," Tony said. "Would that be so bad? You don't even know why you were sent to this one. Would it matter if...if 'we' were together?" Tony wondered aloud.

Isabella sighed as she thought about what Tony was suggesting. She walked over to him and gently placed a hand on his cheek. "I wish it would be that easy, but in this life I have a husband and a son and I miss my daughter so much. I don't belong here. I need to talk to Dr. Strange and figure out what's going on. But I would like for you to come with me and meet him. He's a member of our Avenger's team back in my other world."

Tony just nodded politely but he was disappointed. "Alright, I'll make a call," Tony said. And when 'Tony Stark' said something like that. He usually got results.