Book One - Part One: Dark Knight

Chapter Seven

It takes time for them to gather the supplies Tony asked for leaving them in their little room to do nothing. Though they have given them a note book and pencil, Elena scribbles down her notes, her mathematics, her idea. Tony offers corrections, alterations, even though the cuffs are off he hasn't ventured far from her side, brushing against her every time he shifts. He clears his throat a little sat with her on the cot and she glances to him.

"Who's Dick?" Tony asks her, she raises an eyebrow at him. "You said his name in your sleep" he offers. "Boyfriend? Husband?" she smirks a little.

"Would it bother you if he was?" she asks him back, he shrugs.

"Just wondering who you have waiting for you when we get out of here"

"He's my brother" she answers.

"Oh" Tony draws out.

"Kind of anyway" she corrects herself. "Unofficially adopted....two of them, Jason and Dick" she looks to Tony. "Both orphans....Dad gets all dewy eyed for orphans" she teases a little.

"Right" Tony offers. "I remember my mother telling me about what happened to the Waynes" he takes the pencil off of her and adjusts something in her notebook.

"World is full of awful people, Mr Stark" she comments, he lifts his eyes to hers. "Do you need any more proof then where we are currently sat?" she asks. "My father lost his parents young, mother of his child took off and then...got locked away, lost one of his sons, and is now highly likely to loose his only biological daughter"

"Your mother walked out?" Tony asks. "Rough" he tells her dryly.

"Look I know it's no...dead parents, okay? But my mother is a very sophisticated and dangerous criminal...."

"Really?" he asks brightening up a little. "You got some bad blood there, kiddo?" he nudges her a little and she rolls her eyes.

"You ever hear of Catwoman?" she asks, he raises an eyebrow.

"Leather wearing, whip wielding kitty cat burglar?" he asks, she nods.

"Yeah, that's my mother" she admits.

"Wow...." he breaths as she takes her pencil back. "You never thought about it?" he asks. "Donning the suit and turning to a life of crime?" she shakes her head.

"Nah" she answers. "Seems fun, I guess, for a little while...but I bet it gets boring" he nods and pulls a face as she looks back to her notes. He watches her face a moment, the lines, the concentration, that little scrunch between her eyebrows. Even with the dirt and dried blood she is beautiful., how has he never noticed her before? Back in the real world?

..............

Now they're uncuffed Elena expects to be sleeping alone. Tony can go back to his own cot. What she doesn't expect is him standing over her holding his own blanket looking like a toddler, all that's missing is him sucking on his thumb, he looks over the cot and then back to Elena.

"Hey, scoot over, will you?" he nudges her slightly, she scowls at him and shuffles towards the edge of the cot, he climbs into her cot and wraps his arms around her as if they are still attached, and she can't help but find that it comforts her, having him at her back, and she likes to think that he needs to lay with her just as much as she seems to need him. "You know" he starts against her ear. "Your plan is gonna work" she turns her head slightly to look at him. "It's a good plan" he assures her. "Great plan with us both working on it.....I should have figured Bruce Wayne's princess would be as smart as he is..." she scoffs and looks to him.

"Hey, I'm smarter, okay?" she corrects, he smirks a little.

"That's the issue with that statement not the princess thing?" he asks her amused.

"I am a princess I'm not arguing that" she pouts at little and he chuckles.

"Alright" he starts. "So you took up the engineering stuff cause of Daddy then?" he asks.

"Yeah, I mean, grew up with him tinkering and building stuff, always building something...I guess it stuck" she glances to him. "What about you? You start with the engineering cause dear old dad did?" she asks, he shrugs.

"Part of it, I think I just liked pulling things apart and then making them better as a kid" he comments brushing her hair back from her face. "Howard never really cared all that much" he admits touching her cheek careful of her bruised jaw, now yellowing. "Your jaw looks better" he comments, she hums a little and reaches for her face.

"Feels better" she counters adjusting her jaw slowly testing it.

"Get some sleep" he offers. "Hard work starts tomorrow" he adjusts slightly getting comfy against her back, she hums in agreement resting back against his chest and closing her eyes.

.........

Elena pulls her hair up onto the top of her head tying it up with a length of string, Tony pulls open a missile-housing and removes a glass ring from the inner workings of its guts. Then he leads Yinsen up to a large missile crate. They remove the chip-rack cylinder from a larger warhead.

"You do know they've removed all the explosives before they brought this to us" Yinsen points out.

"I know, they're crazy not stupid" Tony counters as he walks the heavy chip-rack to the work-bench where Elena then removes a tiny palladium strip.

"This is what we're looking for" she comments sharing a look with Tony. "I need eleven of these" she adds.

"Eleven?" Yinsen asks her, she nods.

.............

Yinsen removes chip-rack cylinders, bringing them to Elena, she extracts palladium strips carefully and sets each strip into a small bowl.

"Heat the palladium to 1825 Kelvin" she tells Yinsen as she hands over the bowl to him. Yinsen carries the palladium across to the furnace.

"How will I know when it reaches that temperature?" Yinsen asks.

"The palladium will melt" Tony answers flicking through Elena's notes.

...............

Tony wraps a copper coil around the glass ring, he glances across at Elena who sleeps in the cot, he glances back down at his work.

...............

Elena yawns into her hand as she writes more notes, sketching away in her book. She and Tony sit back to back as he works behind her.

...............

Tony drops palladium strips into a crucible on the fire.

.................

Elena sculpts a sand-mold for the palladium ring.

..................

Yinsen bringing the crucible of melted palladium to Elena and Tony.

"Careful, careful..." Tony warns.

"Relax. I always had steady hands. It's why you're still alive"

"Oh yeah, thanks. What do I call you?"

"My name is Yinsen"

"Nice to meet you"

"Nice to meet you too"

"Really?" Elena asks amused. "Now you're asking for his name?" Tony nudges her a little and shrugs, they share a look, Tony actually smiling a she rolls her eyes.

...............

Elena lifts the palladium ring out of the mould with a pair of tweezers, Tony sits across from her watching. She has the smaller hands meaning that this work is easier for her, she also seems to have better balance and steadier hands. He'd say gymnast but he's not sure, he's not sure about a lot of things any more and more so when it comes to Elena. She's beautiful, clearly, intelligent, he's not debating that, but there is something else about her too, he's not sure what it is yet, what it is about her that's affecting him like no other woman, even in captivity.

"What are you building?" Yinsen asks them snapping Tony out of his thoughts, he looks up at the older man.

"A better mousetrap" Tony answers.