Scilicet Addendum: Fere Libenter Homines Id Quod Volunt Credunt (Part II)
Title: Scilicet Addendum: Fere Libenter Homines Id Quod Volunt Credunt
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Rachel Wayne (aka Batwoman), Clark Kent, Alfred Pennyworth, Richard Grayson, Tony Stark, JARVIS, DUM-E
Rating: PG / PG -13
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Gender Flip, Crossover, 5+1
Spoilers: Extreamly Low (General info about Scilicet... and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.)
Summery:
There are an infinite number of parallel Earths. Sometimes the differences are so small as to be neigh on unnoticeable… but on this one they are not. For this is a world where Thomas and Martha Wayne died… but Rachel Wayne survived and became best friends with Tony Stark.
AKA Five Times Everyone Thought Rachel Wayne & Tony Stark Were Sleeping Together (And One Time They Actually Were)
Scilicet... Master Chapter List
Scilicet Addendum: Fere Libenter Homines Id Quod Volunt Credunt (Part I)
Scilicet Addendum: Fere Libenter Homines Id Quod Volunt Credunt (Part II)
"Fere Libenter Homines Id Quod Volunt Credunt = Latin for “Men Readily Believe What They Want To Believe”
- 4 -
“You have 1,713 new voice messages… shall I categorize them for you sir?”
“Delete all.” Tony Stark sighs, shrugging off his jacket and tossing it on the couch before he moves to the window. He tries to focus on the dark ocean or the dim stars in the sky above, but his eyes keep drifting back down to the reflection of the blue-white light of the arc reactor.
“Including messages from Stark Indust-”
“Yes.” Tony nods as he slowly looks down at the arc reactor, noting how easily the light penetrates through his button up shirt and wondering if he should start wearing some sort of undershirt to hide the tech which now occupies the center of his chest.
“Very well sir, you have one new message.”
“One?” Tony blinks. “JARVIS, didn’t I say ‘delete all’?”
“Yes sir, however per your orders certain messages are exempt from that command… so you have one new message sir.”
“Certain messages?” Tony frowns, struggling to recall what orders he could have given JARVIS that would result in one message remaining after he ordered them all to be binned… at first he can’t think of anything, but then a name leaps to his mind and despite himself Tony feels a tiny spark of hope start to burn in his chest. “What’s it say JARVIS?”
“The word ‘topiary’ followed by a question mark.”
Tony goes weak in the knees and he reaches out, just managing to grab the edge of the nearest couch in time to stop him from falling over. A strangled noise that sounds something like a bitter laugh tumbles past Tony’s lips before he pressed a hand to his face and forces himself to take several deep breaths. “Who… who’s it from?”
“I do not recognize the number sir, however the security footage shows that the woman at our front door was texting right before the message arrived.”
Before Jarvis has even finished speaking Tony Stark is running, his heart pounding in his chest in a way that has nothing to do with the exercise. When he reaches the front door he ends up skidding to a stop and almost falls over, but manages to catch himself before he can go crashing down. He reaches out towards the door knob, only to hesitate as he sees how badly his hand is shaking and a part of him points out that it could be nothing more than a reporter who had managed to figure out their code word. That would make more sense… after all she’s been gone for more than five years and legally dead for three, so why should she suddenly be not just alive but standing at Tony’s door?
He should tell JARVIS to call up the security footage on one of the many screens which the AI has access to. He should confirm that it’s her and not some reporter… but instead he simply shakes his head to clear his mind as best he can, shakes his hand to try to stop it trembling and he practically throws the front door open.
“Tony.”
“Rachel.”
Rachel Wayne smiles and as she does so her chin dips towards her chest, causing her hair to slip forward so that it hides her face. Without thinking Tony reaches out and pushes the locks of hair back, before he steps forward and wraps his arms around his oldest friend, uncaring that the reporters who are undoubtedly watching his house are probably having a field day. Rachel instantly returns the embrace and for a second the two just stand there, almost desperately clutching at each other. After a moment he pulls back just enough to allow his friend into the house and the two stumble towards the nearest couch as JARVIS closes the front door behind them.
It isn’t until the two of them are sitting down that Tony actually looks at Rachel… the younger woman has always been thin- thanks to a combination of good genes and self discipline- now there is a sort of edge to her physique and a strange sort of determination visible in the lines of her face and her dark brown eyes. Rachel is simply dressed- dark blue jeans, an old black Led Zepplin t-shirt (which Tony thinks he’d given her what feels like a lifetime ago) and a dark tan cotton jacket that dwarfs her slight frame.
“I thought you were dead.” Tony stammers.
“I got back three days after you went missing.” Rachel replies, a tremble creeping into her voice as she reaches out to run a hand down his arm, the same arm which had been in a sling when he’d thrown his little impromptu press conference.
“Where… where were you?”
“All over- China most recently.” Rachel replies. Tony can tell that she sees the glow of the arc reactor through the fabric of his shirt, but she doesn’t comment on it or react other than a her lips briefly twisting into a slight frown of confusion. “I didn’t want to be found.”
“I figured.” Tony laughs and they both flinch slightly at how broken his laughter sounds. After a second’s hesitation Tony reaches up and starts unbuttoning his shirt so that Rachel can see the arc reactor. “My kidnappers had Stark Industries weapons- a bomb went off right next to me. This keeps the shrapnel from reaching my heart.”
“What did they want?” Rachel asks as she gently reaches out towards the arc reactor. Tony is surprised that he doesn’t flinch when her gentle fingers make contact with the tech that now resides in his chest.
“They wanted more weapons.” Tony replies as he reaches up and rests his hand on top of Rachel’s, an action which almost completely hides the arc reactor from view. “They already had crates full of weapons I designed, but they wanted more... they wanted the Jericho Missile.”
“So you’re shutting down weapons manufacturing at Stark Industries.”
“Yeah… I don’t want a death count to be my only legacy.”
For a moment both Tony Stark and Rachel Wayne sit silently next to each other, their hands slowly slipping down from where they were resting over the arc reactor to rest on the couch between them, with their fingers entwined.
“I… I got control of Wayne Enterprises.” Rachel informs Tony. “Kicked Earle out and made Lucius Fox my CEO.”
“Good. William Earle was an idiot- you know he let your father’s train rot?”
“Yeah, but so now I’m not making weapons, and you’re not making weapons… so why don’t we not make weapons together?”
“I like the sound of that.” Tony replies with a smile on his face. “But well… here let me show you something.”
“…Tony is this going to be a ‘let me show you something’ like how you can lick your own elbow or a ‘let me show you something’ like JARVIS?”
“Well I don’t know if it’ll be as impressive as JARVIS, but it’s going to be much, much more impressive than my amazingly flexible shoulders.” Tony laughs as he takes Rachel’s hand and leads her towards the stairs which lead down to his lab.
- 5 -
Anthony Edward Stark becomes the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company in history and gets rewarded with a party that he doesn’t want to attend, let alone host, at Stark Manor, which he’d rather raze to the ground then see again. All Tony wants to do is go down to his lab and run JARVIS- the AI he’d created two months ago and has only shown to one other person- through some logic puzzles or put DUM-E through his paces as he waits for his new mansion in Malibu to be completed so that he can drive the three of them (himself, DUM-E and JARVIS) cross country to their new home and leave this monument to his father’s life and achievements to gather dust and fall into repair.
Instead Tony is fighting off a headache and trying desperately to find someone worth talking to in the crowd of beautiful but dull faces that are currently filling the halls and rooms of Stark Manor. It seems like every CEO, celebrity, Board Member, Senator and Congressman that has ever so much as breathed near either Howard or Tony Stark is in attendance, along with all their trophy wives, spoiled brats, Mistresses and general hanger-ons. Just as Tony is about to give up and attempt an escape down to his lab he spots a familiar face- who just so happens to look as fed up with the party as he feels- across the room.
Thanks to the fact that he’s the man of the hour it takes several minutes for Tony to make his way through the party guests to the fainting couch that Rachel Antoinette Wayne- heir to the Wayne fortune and a controlling interest in Wayne Enterprises- holds court over the various guests who have decided to flock around her since they haven’t seen Tony Stark. The young woman, who is wearing a simple black sleeveless dress that is longer on the right side then on the left, has a smile on her face and appears to be quite happily conversing with the party guests around her… but Tony knows that the smile is 100% fake and that Rachel is only present because she’d been all but ordered to attend by William Earle, the man who had run Wayne Enterprises ever since the untimely deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne when Rachel was just eight years old.
“Rachel!” Tony cries out in greeting as he half sits, half falls down on to the fainting couch besides his friend.
“Tony!” Rachel replies as he wraps an arm around her waist and leans in to press a kiss to her cheek. “Congratulations- I heard someone say that you’re the youngest CEO in history?”
“So they tell me.” Tony replies before he takes a sip of his drink, using the action to hide his frown over how false Rachel’s “cheerful” voice sounds. Tony knows that his friend doesn’t want to be here anymore then he does, but at all the other parties and events where the two of them had been in neigh identical situations to this one there had been at least a note of actual happiness in Rachel’s voice when she greeted or talked to Tony. “Too bad William Earle’s a traditionalist, or we could have had a joint party- youngest male and female CEOs in history.”
“Too bad.” Rachel parrots weakly, instead of offering her own banter, which is what the two have been doing at high society and business functions ever since they were kids who only came up to the other guests’ knees. It’s obvious to Tony that’s something’s wrong with Rachel, but he still hesitates for a second before leaning over to a one word question in the black haired woman’s ear.
“Topiary?”
Rachel responds by giggling like Tony had just suggested something incredibly improper (but extremely tempting) before she glances quickly around the room before leaning in so that the two of them are so close that their noses are practically touching.
“Topiary.” She replies, her voice pitched so that only Tony can hear her. To anyone observing the two the entire exchange undoubtedly looks like a rich boy inviting a rich girl up to his room for… well what everyone knows boys and girls do when they’re alone together behind closed doors (and sometimes even when they’re not alone or behind closed doors).
Thankfully Tony and Rachel aren’t too far from one of the many semi-hidden staircases which Howard Stark had included in the plans for the Stark Mansion so that he could easily access his lab and the other various things which occupied the Mansion’s basement… such as his liquor “cabinet” which was the size of a small family home. Within only a few moments of their code word being muttered the two Billionaires are alone in a dimly lit stairwell which hasn’t been properly cleaned since Jarvis died. Usually this would mark the moment where the “love/lust struck young adults” act would be tossed aside and the two would either separate or at least adjust so they were engaged in a more “friendly” embrace… but if anything Rachel seems to lean even more heavily on Tony the moment she can be sure there’s no one watching them.
“Ray, what’s wrong?” Tony asks, adjusting his grip on the younger woman so that he can more easily support her as they continue down the stairs towards his lab.
In response the Gotham Heiress simply takes a deep shuddering breath and shakes her head before gesturing ahead of the two of them, where the doors of Tony’s lab can be seen at the end of the hall. Despite the dated nature of the lab and the fact that he’s going to move in the very near future, Tony had put the time into modifying the space to give JARVIS some control over the lab and it’s surrounding environments- nowhere near as much control as JARVIS would have over the Malibu house, but some... enough that when the two Billionaires reach the door JARVIS can open it for them and turn on the lights in the lab.
“Good evening Miss Wayne. Good evening sir.” The placement of speakers in the lab isn’t ideal, so JARVIS’ voice sounds like it’s coming from two places at once and there’s a slight, almost unnoticeable echo due to one wonky speaker that delays any sound it hears by a second or two, but despite the problems with the tech and the fact he still doesn’t know what is wrong with Rachel, just hearing his AI brings a smile to Tony’s face.
“Hello JARVIS.” Although Rachel still sounds completely devastated over whatever it is that is wrong, a small bit of happiness creeps into her voice as she tilts her head back slightly as she greets the AI. That smidge of happiness is joined by the faintest hint of a smile when DUM-E zips over and wiggles his mechanical fingers at Rachel, who reaches out to pat the main support for his arm like the bot is a very large dog. “Hi DUM-E.”
“Ray…” Tony sighs as he reaches up to undo and loosen his tie before running a hand through his hair as he heads over for the sofa that sits towards the center of the room. “What’s going on? Your- I don’t know, more morose than usual.”
“I got a text from Bruce right before I arrived.” Rachel explains as she follows Tony, DUM-E rolling beside her so that she can continue to run a hand up and down the bot’s arm.
“Bruce… he’s your friend who’s interning with the Gotham City District Attorney, right?” Tony asks as he takes notice that, despite the fact that DUM-E can’t actually feel the “petting”, the bot seems to be enjoying the attention.
“Yes, Bruce Dawes. His parents used to work for my family.” Rachel pauses to take a deep breath as she sits down on the couch beside Tony “They’re going to release Joe Chill.”
“What?” Tony sputters, grateful that he hadn’t gotten them drinks when they entered the lab because otherwise he’d probably be covered in his. It feels remarkably like that one time at MIT that he’d slipped on a patch of ice and ended up flat on his back before he was even aware that he was falling. “Why on earth-”
“He shared a cell with Carmine Falcone.” Rachel’s voice is flat, as if she’s talking about the weather or something equally unimportant and not the man who murdered her parents in front of her. She’s stopped petting DUM-E and when the bot bumps up against her to try and get her to start again the relatively gentle contact causes her to lean against Tony, who shifts so that she ends up with Rachel’s head resting on his shoulder as she practically lies on top of him. “The DA thinks he can use Chill’s testimony to take down the Falcone Family.”
Like that will ever happen. Tony Stark mentally scoffs. Everyone knows that the Families run Gotham and that the only reason the DA hasn’t moved into the private sector is because he’s not a good enough lawyer to be snapped up by one of those mob families.
“So what are you going to do?” Tony asks wrapping an arm around Rachel’s waist and gently pulling her towards him in a sort of hug.
“I’m going to the hearing.” The young woman replies in a soft voice as she rests one hand on top of Tony’s. “Bruce doesn’t think I should… but someone should be there to stand for my parents.”
Tony Stark has to bite his lip to stop himself from offering to help Rachel in all the ways he shouldn’t... in all the ways which would make her father (and perhaps even his own) disappointed, in all the ways that would break Alfred’s heart and ensure that they lost Rachel forever. It’s so very tempting to offer to use some of his shadier contacts- both those inherited from his father and those who had sought him out because he was a young “playboy” with money to burn- to stop Chill from walking free. It’s tempting because Tony can’t remember what Rachel Wayne was like before Chill walked in and left his mark on her life. Oh Tony had known her- that had been inevitable given how close in age they were and how close in wealth their parents were- but all of Tony’s memories of Rachel come from after that June night which claimed Thomas and Martha Wayne’s lives and made Rachel an orphan.
After taking a moment to control himself, to remind himself that even if he could live with… with dealing with Chill, Rachel Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth wouldn’t, Tony takes a deep breath and makes a much more reasonable offer.
“Want me to come with you?”
“Don’t you have a mansion to move into in a few days?” Rachel asks and despite the fact that Tony can’t see her face he just knows that she’s raised an eyebrow and is silently mocking his little building project which, along with JARVIS’ progress and DUM-E’s most recent escapades, had been the subject of so many of their recent conversations.
“And here I was thinking that because it’s my mansion it would just wait for me.” Tony smirks. “I mean, doesn’t it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own place if you have to arrive at some time? Why not just go to a hotel if you want to have to arrive somewhere at a certain time?”
That gets a laugh- albeit a weak one- from Rachel, so Tony decides to chase that laugh and launches into a rant about how all of his scientists are idiots who couldn’t keep up with him when he was eight and yet are somehow still employed and what is he supposed to do and please can’t he borrow Lucius Fox- just for a year or two, the man is clearly wasted under William Earle… by the time JARVIS informs the two Billionaires that the majority of Tony’s guests have left Rachel has smile- a real smile- a handful of times and Tony has managed to extract a promise from the young woman that no matter what happens she’ll come visit him in California as soon as she’s done in Gotham.
Four days later, just as Tony Stark heads off for California, Joe Chill is shot and killed in front of the Gotham Court house mere moments after being released on parole. By the time Tony hears anything about it Rachel Wayne has already vanished off the face of the Earth. When William Earle has her declared dead less than two years later Tony Stark crawls into a bottle and doesn’t really come out until Afghanistan.
- 6 -
Anthony Edward Stark- who has just started insisting that people call him “Tony” but hasn’t succeeded in getting anyone to do so- is nine years old and the youngest person in the room by at least twenty years… or by at least fifteen years if you’re actually naive enough to believe that the trophy wives are as young as they claim to be. Less then two hours ago he’d been happily occupied in fixing the problems in his dad’s hover car design and making it smaller so that he can put it in a skateboard, but then he’d been lured away from his invention by Jarvis. The Stark family butler had then proceeded to talk Tony into washing up, putting on a suit (complete with a red bowtie which his mother claimed was “just delightful”) and climbing into a limo with his parents so that he could be paraded around some business party like a interesting piece of art.
Oh and this is young Anthony Stark- doesn’t he take after his father? You know he built his first circuit board when he was four? And his first engine when he was six? What were you working on today Anthony? Oh why that’s just darling!
It was enough to make him gag… or at least enough for him to start making gagging noises until he was able to escape and explore the party on his own while his mother practiced her social drinking and his father schmoozed with other CEOs while bragging about his latest inventions.
Leaving his parents behind, Tony heads through the crowd of adults in fancy dress, making his way out of the banquet hall- which is largely devoted to a silent auction benefiting some charity and tables for the dinner which won’t happen for another hour or so- and on to the attached patio, where the appetizer table is set up. The stone patio is larger than the banquet hall and bordered by bushes that have been trimmed into graceful swirling shapes. Beyond these hedges lies the sprawling golf course whose clubhouse has been all but taken over by the party. Even though the sun is starting to set there are still a few golfers out and about, although most seems to be finishing up. In the distance Tony can just make out the houses which surround the golf course, whose lights are just starting to turn on.
Pausing only briefly to pull off his bowtie and stuff it in a pocket as he undoes the top two buttons of his shirt, Tony heads towards the appetizer table, grateful that without his father and mother accompanying him most people will write him off as just some kid who isn’t worth their time. He’s making good time crossing the patio- even though he had to retreat a little in order to escape from a older woman who seemed strangely determined to pinch his cheeks- when he catches a glimpse of someone he would actually like to spend time with.
For some reason there aren’t many kids Tony’s age at the events which his mother and father drag him too- there are kids, sure, but most of them are either several years younger or several years older than him. There are about three other kids either the same age as him or close enough that it doesn’t really matter who end up at the same parties as Tony. Of those three one is almost never there, since his parents spend more time in Europe then in America , one is an idiot who thinks that he’s a genius and one… well one is Rachel Wayne and she’s Tony’s best friend. Or at least she was Tony’s best friend, but then a little less than six months ago Rachel’s parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, had been killed in a mugging gone wrong and Tony hadn’t heard from or seen Rachel until right this very moment.
Rachel Wayne is standing still and silent, her gaze fixed upon a spot just in front of her black patent leather Mary Janes and her hands clasped in front of her. She’s wearing a rather plain dark red satin dress, without any sleeves. The only decoration on the dress, which ends just below her knees, is a thick white ribbon around her waist which is tied into a bow in back. Her long black hair is loose and mostly hides her face, although occasionally she’ll glance up and over at the man whom she is standing beside and Tony will get a quick glimpse of her face. The next time she glances up he follows her gaze to the man whom she is standing beside- a tall, portly man, dressed in a suit that practically oozes not only wealth and power, but new wealth and power, or at the very least a recent drastic increase in wealth and power. The man has thinning hair, which is still mostly blond but quickly going white and is surrounded by a group of men and women who are clearly hanging on his every word and fawning over him. It takes Tony a second to realize that this man, whose name he can’t remember, must be the CEO of Wayne Enterprises… a man who had been all but ignored by those very people urgently fawning over him before the deaths of Rachel’s parents.
As soon as he realizes this Tony knows that there’s no way Rachel wants to be standing at this man’s side, mostly forgotten and only occasionally acknowledged by him or any of the people that are standing around them. Rachel looks so small and so lost that it doesn’t even take a half-second for Tony to decide to go rescue her… it takes him a bit longer to figure out how to do so, since he has to consider and discard a few plans before deciding to go with a tried and true approach- he simply runs up to Rachel and throws his arms around her as he happily shrieks out her name.
“RACHEL!”
At first Rachel flinches, but after a second she returns the childish embrace, although to Tony it feels more like Rachel is clinging to him for dear life then greeting him with a hug.
“Tony.” Rachel whispers back after a second and there’s a strange roughness to her voice, as if she had recently been screaming her head of… or as if she hadn’t spoken for some time.
“Come on, let’s go get food!” Tony smiles, grabbing Rachel’s hand and heading off, practically pulling the slightly smaller girl after him before the CEO of Wayne Enterprises or anyone in the group standing around him can say anything or do anything more then look slightly confused at the speed at which Rachel Wayne had vanished from their midst. As they head towards the appetizer table Tony glances over at Rachel and almost trips over his own feet- his friend’s eyes are still downcast and she looks about two seconds away from crying. Tony instantly slows down and- since he hasn’t released her hand and Rachel has made no move to reclaim her’s- gently pulls her close to him, so that they are shoulder to shoulder.
“Are you okay? Do you want me to…” Tony stumbles for a second, trying to figure out who he should offer to get. Obviously he can’t get her parents, and he’s pretty sure she won’t want him to get the CEO of her family’s company- but then Tony thinks about who he would want Rachel to call, if their positions were reversed. “Do you want me to get Alfred?”
“He’s not here.” Rachel whispers, her hand squeezing Tony’s as she sniffs softly. “Mr. Earle didn’t want him to come.”
“Well then we’ll go to the car-”
“No Mr. Earle brought me. Alfred’s back in Gotham.” The two of them finally reaches the appetizer table and Rachel briefly glances down at the food on display there before looking back over her shoulder in the direction they’d come from. “He’ll probably come looking for me soon…”
“Then we’ll hide!”
The tablecloth covering the appetizer table doesn’t reach all the way to the ground, the tables inside have central supports so it wouldn’t be comfortable to hide there, especially when people start to sit down for dinner and all of the smaller rooms inside the golf courses’ club house are probably closed off or jam packed with cooks and servers. As Tony glances around looking for somewhere to hide… and his eyes land upon one of the sculpted hedges. It looks like at some point the hedge was actually two hedges, which had grown together at the top while remaining separated at the bottom. Part of that hedge has died, creating an entrance to a sort of tunnel which, while a tight squeeze for an adult, should be roomy enough for two nine year olds and looks like it leads to a point further along the hedge where there is a sort of “skylight” through which a thin tall hedge that has been trimmed to look like a spiral protrudes.
With a smile on his face Tony leads Rachel over to the “opening” in the hedge and releases her hand before he ducks down and heads inside. The tunnel formed by the two hedges is high enough that Tony doesn’t have to crawl and the leaves which form the top of the tunnel are thin enough that he can see where he is going. He takes a few steps into the tunnel before turning around to see if Rachel is following him. She hesitates for a second, glancing between Tony and the party before biting her lip and heading in after him. The two continue ahead until they reach the section where the hedges part to allow a thin one to poke out and, after a second’s consideration of the ground, Tony takes off his jacket and puts it down so the two of them can sit on it while leaning against the trunk of the tall hedge. This time Rachel does not hesitate to follow Tony’s lead, although when she first sits down she places herself as far from Tony as she can while still sitting on his jacket and her gaze immediately goes to her shoes.
“Why’d you stay?.” Tony mumbles after a moment’s silence passes, without Rachel even glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes. Slowly Rachel shifts, tilting her head slightly forward and towards him. Tony can see the confusion in her eyes, despite the fact they are mostly hidden by her hair, so he clarifies. “With what’s his name- you could have said you were gonna get food or something.”
“His name’s Mr. Earle.” Rachel mutters as she pulls her knees up to her chin and wraps her arms around her legs. “He’s the CEO of my dad’s company.”
“I know that, but why didn’t you leave?”
“I did that last week at a party in Gotham. It was at this house, so I went to the library to get away from everyone. Mr. Earle found me and he got mad.”
“What- why?”
“He thinks I’m weird.” Rachel whispers. “I heard him talking to Alfred yesterday, he thinks something’s wrong with me.”
“What, cause you don’t wanna talk with grown-ups at a stupid party?”
“No… cause I don’t want to talk with anyone.”
“Do you want me to go?” Tony offers. “I’ll leave my coat.”
“No!” Rachel suddenly turns towards him, wrapping her arms around Tony like he’d wrapped his arms around her only a few minutes ago and clinging to him like she’s just had a nightmare. “You’re… you’re my friend Tony. You got me away and I didn’t even have to ask you too.”
“If Mr. Earle wouldn’t want you to leave then he probably wouldn’t want you to ask.” Tony points out, wrapping his arms around Rachel as leans back against the sculpted tree behind him. “We need a code word.”
“Code word?” Rachel mumbles.
“Yeah, so if you need to get away from people you just say the word and I’ll figure out a way to get you away.” Tony explains. “Or if I said the word then you’d figure out a way to get me away.”
“So what should our code word be?”
Tony Stark and Rachel Wayne spend the next two hours alternatively discussing possible code words and filling each other in on everything that has happened since they last saw each other. Tony does most of the filling in, telling Rachel in detail all of the projects he’s been working on and making sketches in the dirt to help explain what he’s built and designed over the last six months. In return Rachel does most of the suggesting of code words, since she’s spent the last six months most reading her way through the books in her family’s library and following Alfred Pennyworth like a small three dimensional shadow.
Neither one realizes that the wait staff had seen them enter the little hedge tunnel and neither one of them notices that from time to time one of the two or three taller waiters will peak in through the skylight of their hiding place to make sure the two are okay… especially not when they fall asleep at around the same time that desert is being served back in the banquet room. In fact the only reason they eventually figure out the waiters were watching them is when one of those waiters reaches down into their hiding spot to gently shake the two awake and inform them that people are starting to leave. Despite having just been woken up Rachel manages to thank the man before they head back down towards the tunnel… only to freeze at the end.
“Ray?” Tony asks as he has to come to a stop since Rachel is blocking the way out.
“We didn’t pick a code word!”
“What about this stuff?” Tony asks, gesturing to the hedges around them. “What’s the word for when trees are all cut up like this?”
“Um… I think it’s called topiary.”
“Well then that’ll be our code word.” Tony decides, gently pushing Rachel so that she steps forward and out of the hedge tunnel.
“Topiary?” Rachel frowns.
“Sure! Besides we can always change it later if we don’t like it.” Tony nods. “So if you need to get away but can’t ask-”
“I’ll say topiary.” Rachel agrees. “But you gotta do it too, okay?”
“Okay!” Tony smiles darting forward to hug Rachel for one last time as Maria Stark steps out on the patio, calling out Tony’s name at the exact same time that William Earle, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises starts looking around for the Wayne Heiress.
The End
Author’s Notes: This is all thanks to theflashisgone, who asked me to write a fic where "Rachel Wayne meets Tony Stark at some high society mixer event." and then when I got like three ideas for how that could happen and suggested writing a 5+1 fic she encouraged this insanity and helped with a million different details in the fic, ranging from what Tony and Rachel's code word should be to that Rachel would threaten to throw up on Tony's armor.
I didn’t exactly sit down and figure out how the timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the timelines of Scilicet… fit together. I think I ended up just aging Tony down by like 15-20 years so he’d be (roughly) the same age as Rachel.
All of the outfits worn by Rachel Wayne can be seen here.
This is Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich, the painting which conceals an entrance to the Batcave which Tony, Rachel and Clark use in the first vignette.
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Rachel Wayne (aka Batwoman), Clark Kent, Alfred Pennyworth, Richard Grayson, Tony Stark, JARVIS, DUM-E
Rating: PG / PG -13
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Gender Flip, Crossover, 5+1
Spoilers: Extreamly Low (General info about Scilicet... and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.)
Summery:
There are an infinite number of parallel Earths. Sometimes the differences are so small as to be neigh on unnoticeable… but on this one they are not. For this is a world where Thomas and Martha Wayne died… but Rachel Wayne survived and became best friends with Tony Stark.
AKA Five Times Everyone Thought Rachel Wayne & Tony Stark Were Sleeping Together (And One Time They Actually Were)
Scilicet... Master Chapter List
Scilicet Addendum: Fere Libenter Homines Id Quod Volunt Credunt (Part I)
Scilicet Addendum: Fere Libenter Homines Id Quod Volunt Credunt (Part II)
"Fere Libenter Homines Id Quod Volunt Credunt = Latin for “Men Readily Believe What They Want To Believe”
- 4 -
“You have 1,713 new voice messages… shall I categorize them for you sir?”
“Delete all.” Tony Stark sighs, shrugging off his jacket and tossing it on the couch before he moves to the window. He tries to focus on the dark ocean or the dim stars in the sky above, but his eyes keep drifting back down to the reflection of the blue-white light of the arc reactor.
“Including messages from Stark Indust-”
“Yes.” Tony nods as he slowly looks down at the arc reactor, noting how easily the light penetrates through his button up shirt and wondering if he should start wearing some sort of undershirt to hide the tech which now occupies the center of his chest.
“Very well sir, you have one new message.”
“One?” Tony blinks. “JARVIS, didn’t I say ‘delete all’?”
“Yes sir, however per your orders certain messages are exempt from that command… so you have one new message sir.”
“Certain messages?” Tony frowns, struggling to recall what orders he could have given JARVIS that would result in one message remaining after he ordered them all to be binned… at first he can’t think of anything, but then a name leaps to his mind and despite himself Tony feels a tiny spark of hope start to burn in his chest. “What’s it say JARVIS?”
“The word ‘topiary’ followed by a question mark.”
Tony goes weak in the knees and he reaches out, just managing to grab the edge of the nearest couch in time to stop him from falling over. A strangled noise that sounds something like a bitter laugh tumbles past Tony’s lips before he pressed a hand to his face and forces himself to take several deep breaths. “Who… who’s it from?”
“I do not recognize the number sir, however the security footage shows that the woman at our front door was texting right before the message arrived.”
Before Jarvis has even finished speaking Tony Stark is running, his heart pounding in his chest in a way that has nothing to do with the exercise. When he reaches the front door he ends up skidding to a stop and almost falls over, but manages to catch himself before he can go crashing down. He reaches out towards the door knob, only to hesitate as he sees how badly his hand is shaking and a part of him points out that it could be nothing more than a reporter who had managed to figure out their code word. That would make more sense… after all she’s been gone for more than five years and legally dead for three, so why should she suddenly be not just alive but standing at Tony’s door?
He should tell JARVIS to call up the security footage on one of the many screens which the AI has access to. He should confirm that it’s her and not some reporter… but instead he simply shakes his head to clear his mind as best he can, shakes his hand to try to stop it trembling and he practically throws the front door open.
“Tony.”
“Rachel.”
Rachel Wayne smiles and as she does so her chin dips towards her chest, causing her hair to slip forward so that it hides her face. Without thinking Tony reaches out and pushes the locks of hair back, before he steps forward and wraps his arms around his oldest friend, uncaring that the reporters who are undoubtedly watching his house are probably having a field day. Rachel instantly returns the embrace and for a second the two just stand there, almost desperately clutching at each other. After a moment he pulls back just enough to allow his friend into the house and the two stumble towards the nearest couch as JARVIS closes the front door behind them.
It isn’t until the two of them are sitting down that Tony actually looks at Rachel… the younger woman has always been thin- thanks to a combination of good genes and self discipline- now there is a sort of edge to her physique and a strange sort of determination visible in the lines of her face and her dark brown eyes. Rachel is simply dressed- dark blue jeans, an old black Led Zepplin t-shirt (which Tony thinks he’d given her what feels like a lifetime ago) and a dark tan cotton jacket that dwarfs her slight frame.
“I thought you were dead.” Tony stammers.
“I got back three days after you went missing.” Rachel replies, a tremble creeping into her voice as she reaches out to run a hand down his arm, the same arm which had been in a sling when he’d thrown his little impromptu press conference.
“Where… where were you?”
“All over- China most recently.” Rachel replies. Tony can tell that she sees the glow of the arc reactor through the fabric of his shirt, but she doesn’t comment on it or react other than a her lips briefly twisting into a slight frown of confusion. “I didn’t want to be found.”
“I figured.” Tony laughs and they both flinch slightly at how broken his laughter sounds. After a second’s hesitation Tony reaches up and starts unbuttoning his shirt so that Rachel can see the arc reactor. “My kidnappers had Stark Industries weapons- a bomb went off right next to me. This keeps the shrapnel from reaching my heart.”
“What did they want?” Rachel asks as she gently reaches out towards the arc reactor. Tony is surprised that he doesn’t flinch when her gentle fingers make contact with the tech that now resides in his chest.
“They wanted more weapons.” Tony replies as he reaches up and rests his hand on top of Rachel’s, an action which almost completely hides the arc reactor from view. “They already had crates full of weapons I designed, but they wanted more... they wanted the Jericho Missile.”
“So you’re shutting down weapons manufacturing at Stark Industries.”
“Yeah… I don’t want a death count to be my only legacy.”
For a moment both Tony Stark and Rachel Wayne sit silently next to each other, their hands slowly slipping down from where they were resting over the arc reactor to rest on the couch between them, with their fingers entwined.
“I… I got control of Wayne Enterprises.” Rachel informs Tony. “Kicked Earle out and made Lucius Fox my CEO.”
“Good. William Earle was an idiot- you know he let your father’s train rot?”
“Yeah, but so now I’m not making weapons, and you’re not making weapons… so why don’t we not make weapons together?”
“I like the sound of that.” Tony replies with a smile on his face. “But well… here let me show you something.”
“…Tony is this going to be a ‘let me show you something’ like how you can lick your own elbow or a ‘let me show you something’ like JARVIS?”
“Well I don’t know if it’ll be as impressive as JARVIS, but it’s going to be much, much more impressive than my amazingly flexible shoulders.” Tony laughs as he takes Rachel’s hand and leads her towards the stairs which lead down to his lab.
- 5 -
Anthony Edward Stark becomes the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company in history and gets rewarded with a party that he doesn’t want to attend, let alone host, at Stark Manor, which he’d rather raze to the ground then see again. All Tony wants to do is go down to his lab and run JARVIS- the AI he’d created two months ago and has only shown to one other person- through some logic puzzles or put DUM-E through his paces as he waits for his new mansion in Malibu to be completed so that he can drive the three of them (himself, DUM-E and JARVIS) cross country to their new home and leave this monument to his father’s life and achievements to gather dust and fall into repair.
Instead Tony is fighting off a headache and trying desperately to find someone worth talking to in the crowd of beautiful but dull faces that are currently filling the halls and rooms of Stark Manor. It seems like every CEO, celebrity, Board Member, Senator and Congressman that has ever so much as breathed near either Howard or Tony Stark is in attendance, along with all their trophy wives, spoiled brats, Mistresses and general hanger-ons. Just as Tony is about to give up and attempt an escape down to his lab he spots a familiar face- who just so happens to look as fed up with the party as he feels- across the room.
Thanks to the fact that he’s the man of the hour it takes several minutes for Tony to make his way through the party guests to the fainting couch that Rachel Antoinette Wayne- heir to the Wayne fortune and a controlling interest in Wayne Enterprises- holds court over the various guests who have decided to flock around her since they haven’t seen Tony Stark. The young woman, who is wearing a simple black sleeveless dress that is longer on the right side then on the left, has a smile on her face and appears to be quite happily conversing with the party guests around her… but Tony knows that the smile is 100% fake and that Rachel is only present because she’d been all but ordered to attend by William Earle, the man who had run Wayne Enterprises ever since the untimely deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne when Rachel was just eight years old.
“Rachel!” Tony cries out in greeting as he half sits, half falls down on to the fainting couch besides his friend.
“Tony!” Rachel replies as he wraps an arm around her waist and leans in to press a kiss to her cheek. “Congratulations- I heard someone say that you’re the youngest CEO in history?”
“So they tell me.” Tony replies before he takes a sip of his drink, using the action to hide his frown over how false Rachel’s “cheerful” voice sounds. Tony knows that his friend doesn’t want to be here anymore then he does, but at all the other parties and events where the two of them had been in neigh identical situations to this one there had been at least a note of actual happiness in Rachel’s voice when she greeted or talked to Tony. “Too bad William Earle’s a traditionalist, or we could have had a joint party- youngest male and female CEOs in history.”
“Too bad.” Rachel parrots weakly, instead of offering her own banter, which is what the two have been doing at high society and business functions ever since they were kids who only came up to the other guests’ knees. It’s obvious to Tony that’s something’s wrong with Rachel, but he still hesitates for a second before leaning over to a one word question in the black haired woman’s ear.
“Topiary?”
Rachel responds by giggling like Tony had just suggested something incredibly improper (but extremely tempting) before she glances quickly around the room before leaning in so that the two of them are so close that their noses are practically touching.
“Topiary.” She replies, her voice pitched so that only Tony can hear her. To anyone observing the two the entire exchange undoubtedly looks like a rich boy inviting a rich girl up to his room for… well what everyone knows boys and girls do when they’re alone together behind closed doors (and sometimes even when they’re not alone or behind closed doors).
Thankfully Tony and Rachel aren’t too far from one of the many semi-hidden staircases which Howard Stark had included in the plans for the Stark Mansion so that he could easily access his lab and the other various things which occupied the Mansion’s basement… such as his liquor “cabinet” which was the size of a small family home. Within only a few moments of their code word being muttered the two Billionaires are alone in a dimly lit stairwell which hasn’t been properly cleaned since Jarvis died. Usually this would mark the moment where the “love/lust struck young adults” act would be tossed aside and the two would either separate or at least adjust so they were engaged in a more “friendly” embrace… but if anything Rachel seems to lean even more heavily on Tony the moment she can be sure there’s no one watching them.
“Ray, what’s wrong?” Tony asks, adjusting his grip on the younger woman so that he can more easily support her as they continue down the stairs towards his lab.
In response the Gotham Heiress simply takes a deep shuddering breath and shakes her head before gesturing ahead of the two of them, where the doors of Tony’s lab can be seen at the end of the hall. Despite the dated nature of the lab and the fact that he’s going to move in the very near future, Tony had put the time into modifying the space to give JARVIS some control over the lab and it’s surrounding environments- nowhere near as much control as JARVIS would have over the Malibu house, but some... enough that when the two Billionaires reach the door JARVIS can open it for them and turn on the lights in the lab.
“Good evening Miss Wayne. Good evening sir.” The placement of speakers in the lab isn’t ideal, so JARVIS’ voice sounds like it’s coming from two places at once and there’s a slight, almost unnoticeable echo due to one wonky speaker that delays any sound it hears by a second or two, but despite the problems with the tech and the fact he still doesn’t know what is wrong with Rachel, just hearing his AI brings a smile to Tony’s face.
“Hello JARVIS.” Although Rachel still sounds completely devastated over whatever it is that is wrong, a small bit of happiness creeps into her voice as she tilts her head back slightly as she greets the AI. That smidge of happiness is joined by the faintest hint of a smile when DUM-E zips over and wiggles his mechanical fingers at Rachel, who reaches out to pat the main support for his arm like the bot is a very large dog. “Hi DUM-E.”
“Ray…” Tony sighs as he reaches up to undo and loosen his tie before running a hand through his hair as he heads over for the sofa that sits towards the center of the room. “What’s going on? Your- I don’t know, more morose than usual.”
“I got a text from Bruce right before I arrived.” Rachel explains as she follows Tony, DUM-E rolling beside her so that she can continue to run a hand up and down the bot’s arm.
“Bruce… he’s your friend who’s interning with the Gotham City District Attorney, right?” Tony asks as he takes notice that, despite the fact that DUM-E can’t actually feel the “petting”, the bot seems to be enjoying the attention.
“Yes, Bruce Dawes. His parents used to work for my family.” Rachel pauses to take a deep breath as she sits down on the couch beside Tony “They’re going to release Joe Chill.”
“What?” Tony sputters, grateful that he hadn’t gotten them drinks when they entered the lab because otherwise he’d probably be covered in his. It feels remarkably like that one time at MIT that he’d slipped on a patch of ice and ended up flat on his back before he was even aware that he was falling. “Why on earth-”
“He shared a cell with Carmine Falcone.” Rachel’s voice is flat, as if she’s talking about the weather or something equally unimportant and not the man who murdered her parents in front of her. She’s stopped petting DUM-E and when the bot bumps up against her to try and get her to start again the relatively gentle contact causes her to lean against Tony, who shifts so that she ends up with Rachel’s head resting on his shoulder as she practically lies on top of him. “The DA thinks he can use Chill’s testimony to take down the Falcone Family.”
Like that will ever happen. Tony Stark mentally scoffs. Everyone knows that the Families run Gotham and that the only reason the DA hasn’t moved into the private sector is because he’s not a good enough lawyer to be snapped up by one of those mob families.
“So what are you going to do?” Tony asks wrapping an arm around Rachel’s waist and gently pulling her towards him in a sort of hug.
“I’m going to the hearing.” The young woman replies in a soft voice as she rests one hand on top of Tony’s. “Bruce doesn’t think I should… but someone should be there to stand for my parents.”
Tony Stark has to bite his lip to stop himself from offering to help Rachel in all the ways he shouldn’t... in all the ways which would make her father (and perhaps even his own) disappointed, in all the ways that would break Alfred’s heart and ensure that they lost Rachel forever. It’s so very tempting to offer to use some of his shadier contacts- both those inherited from his father and those who had sought him out because he was a young “playboy” with money to burn- to stop Chill from walking free. It’s tempting because Tony can’t remember what Rachel Wayne was like before Chill walked in and left his mark on her life. Oh Tony had known her- that had been inevitable given how close in age they were and how close in wealth their parents were- but all of Tony’s memories of Rachel come from after that June night which claimed Thomas and Martha Wayne’s lives and made Rachel an orphan.
After taking a moment to control himself, to remind himself that even if he could live with… with dealing with Chill, Rachel Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth wouldn’t, Tony takes a deep breath and makes a much more reasonable offer.
“Want me to come with you?”
“Don’t you have a mansion to move into in a few days?” Rachel asks and despite the fact that Tony can’t see her face he just knows that she’s raised an eyebrow and is silently mocking his little building project which, along with JARVIS’ progress and DUM-E’s most recent escapades, had been the subject of so many of their recent conversations.
“And here I was thinking that because it’s my mansion it would just wait for me.” Tony smirks. “I mean, doesn’t it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own place if you have to arrive at some time? Why not just go to a hotel if you want to have to arrive somewhere at a certain time?”
That gets a laugh- albeit a weak one- from Rachel, so Tony decides to chase that laugh and launches into a rant about how all of his scientists are idiots who couldn’t keep up with him when he was eight and yet are somehow still employed and what is he supposed to do and please can’t he borrow Lucius Fox- just for a year or two, the man is clearly wasted under William Earle… by the time JARVIS informs the two Billionaires that the majority of Tony’s guests have left Rachel has smile- a real smile- a handful of times and Tony has managed to extract a promise from the young woman that no matter what happens she’ll come visit him in California as soon as she’s done in Gotham.
Four days later, just as Tony Stark heads off for California, Joe Chill is shot and killed in front of the Gotham Court house mere moments after being released on parole. By the time Tony hears anything about it Rachel Wayne has already vanished off the face of the Earth. When William Earle has her declared dead less than two years later Tony Stark crawls into a bottle and doesn’t really come out until Afghanistan.
- 6 -
Anthony Edward Stark- who has just started insisting that people call him “Tony” but hasn’t succeeded in getting anyone to do so- is nine years old and the youngest person in the room by at least twenty years… or by at least fifteen years if you’re actually naive enough to believe that the trophy wives are as young as they claim to be. Less then two hours ago he’d been happily occupied in fixing the problems in his dad’s hover car design and making it smaller so that he can put it in a skateboard, but then he’d been lured away from his invention by Jarvis. The Stark family butler had then proceeded to talk Tony into washing up, putting on a suit (complete with a red bowtie which his mother claimed was “just delightful”) and climbing into a limo with his parents so that he could be paraded around some business party like a interesting piece of art.
Oh and this is young Anthony Stark- doesn’t he take after his father? You know he built his first circuit board when he was four? And his first engine when he was six? What were you working on today Anthony? Oh why that’s just darling!
It was enough to make him gag… or at least enough for him to start making gagging noises until he was able to escape and explore the party on his own while his mother practiced her social drinking and his father schmoozed with other CEOs while bragging about his latest inventions.
Leaving his parents behind, Tony heads through the crowd of adults in fancy dress, making his way out of the banquet hall- which is largely devoted to a silent auction benefiting some charity and tables for the dinner which won’t happen for another hour or so- and on to the attached patio, where the appetizer table is set up. The stone patio is larger than the banquet hall and bordered by bushes that have been trimmed into graceful swirling shapes. Beyond these hedges lies the sprawling golf course whose clubhouse has been all but taken over by the party. Even though the sun is starting to set there are still a few golfers out and about, although most seems to be finishing up. In the distance Tony can just make out the houses which surround the golf course, whose lights are just starting to turn on.
Pausing only briefly to pull off his bowtie and stuff it in a pocket as he undoes the top two buttons of his shirt, Tony heads towards the appetizer table, grateful that without his father and mother accompanying him most people will write him off as just some kid who isn’t worth their time. He’s making good time crossing the patio- even though he had to retreat a little in order to escape from a older woman who seemed strangely determined to pinch his cheeks- when he catches a glimpse of someone he would actually like to spend time with.
For some reason there aren’t many kids Tony’s age at the events which his mother and father drag him too- there are kids, sure, but most of them are either several years younger or several years older than him. There are about three other kids either the same age as him or close enough that it doesn’t really matter who end up at the same parties as Tony. Of those three one is almost never there, since his parents spend more time in Europe then in America , one is an idiot who thinks that he’s a genius and one… well one is Rachel Wayne and she’s Tony’s best friend. Or at least she was Tony’s best friend, but then a little less than six months ago Rachel’s parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, had been killed in a mugging gone wrong and Tony hadn’t heard from or seen Rachel until right this very moment.
Rachel Wayne is standing still and silent, her gaze fixed upon a spot just in front of her black patent leather Mary Janes and her hands clasped in front of her. She’s wearing a rather plain dark red satin dress, without any sleeves. The only decoration on the dress, which ends just below her knees, is a thick white ribbon around her waist which is tied into a bow in back. Her long black hair is loose and mostly hides her face, although occasionally she’ll glance up and over at the man whom she is standing beside and Tony will get a quick glimpse of her face. The next time she glances up he follows her gaze to the man whom she is standing beside- a tall, portly man, dressed in a suit that practically oozes not only wealth and power, but new wealth and power, or at the very least a recent drastic increase in wealth and power. The man has thinning hair, which is still mostly blond but quickly going white and is surrounded by a group of men and women who are clearly hanging on his every word and fawning over him. It takes Tony a second to realize that this man, whose name he can’t remember, must be the CEO of Wayne Enterprises… a man who had been all but ignored by those very people urgently fawning over him before the deaths of Rachel’s parents.
As soon as he realizes this Tony knows that there’s no way Rachel wants to be standing at this man’s side, mostly forgotten and only occasionally acknowledged by him or any of the people that are standing around them. Rachel looks so small and so lost that it doesn’t even take a half-second for Tony to decide to go rescue her… it takes him a bit longer to figure out how to do so, since he has to consider and discard a few plans before deciding to go with a tried and true approach- he simply runs up to Rachel and throws his arms around her as he happily shrieks out her name.
“RACHEL!”
At first Rachel flinches, but after a second she returns the childish embrace, although to Tony it feels more like Rachel is clinging to him for dear life then greeting him with a hug.
“Tony.” Rachel whispers back after a second and there’s a strange roughness to her voice, as if she had recently been screaming her head of… or as if she hadn’t spoken for some time.
“Come on, let’s go get food!” Tony smiles, grabbing Rachel’s hand and heading off, practically pulling the slightly smaller girl after him before the CEO of Wayne Enterprises or anyone in the group standing around him can say anything or do anything more then look slightly confused at the speed at which Rachel Wayne had vanished from their midst. As they head towards the appetizer table Tony glances over at Rachel and almost trips over his own feet- his friend’s eyes are still downcast and she looks about two seconds away from crying. Tony instantly slows down and- since he hasn’t released her hand and Rachel has made no move to reclaim her’s- gently pulls her close to him, so that they are shoulder to shoulder.
“Are you okay? Do you want me to…” Tony stumbles for a second, trying to figure out who he should offer to get. Obviously he can’t get her parents, and he’s pretty sure she won’t want him to get the CEO of her family’s company- but then Tony thinks about who he would want Rachel to call, if their positions were reversed. “Do you want me to get Alfred?”
“He’s not here.” Rachel whispers, her hand squeezing Tony’s as she sniffs softly. “Mr. Earle didn’t want him to come.”
“Well then we’ll go to the car-”
“No Mr. Earle brought me. Alfred’s back in Gotham.” The two of them finally reaches the appetizer table and Rachel briefly glances down at the food on display there before looking back over her shoulder in the direction they’d come from. “He’ll probably come looking for me soon…”
“Then we’ll hide!”
The tablecloth covering the appetizer table doesn’t reach all the way to the ground, the tables inside have central supports so it wouldn’t be comfortable to hide there, especially when people start to sit down for dinner and all of the smaller rooms inside the golf courses’ club house are probably closed off or jam packed with cooks and servers. As Tony glances around looking for somewhere to hide… and his eyes land upon one of the sculpted hedges. It looks like at some point the hedge was actually two hedges, which had grown together at the top while remaining separated at the bottom. Part of that hedge has died, creating an entrance to a sort of tunnel which, while a tight squeeze for an adult, should be roomy enough for two nine year olds and looks like it leads to a point further along the hedge where there is a sort of “skylight” through which a thin tall hedge that has been trimmed to look like a spiral protrudes.
With a smile on his face Tony leads Rachel over to the “opening” in the hedge and releases her hand before he ducks down and heads inside. The tunnel formed by the two hedges is high enough that Tony doesn’t have to crawl and the leaves which form the top of the tunnel are thin enough that he can see where he is going. He takes a few steps into the tunnel before turning around to see if Rachel is following him. She hesitates for a second, glancing between Tony and the party before biting her lip and heading in after him. The two continue ahead until they reach the section where the hedges part to allow a thin one to poke out and, after a second’s consideration of the ground, Tony takes off his jacket and puts it down so the two of them can sit on it while leaning against the trunk of the tall hedge. This time Rachel does not hesitate to follow Tony’s lead, although when she first sits down she places herself as far from Tony as she can while still sitting on his jacket and her gaze immediately goes to her shoes.
“Why’d you stay?.” Tony mumbles after a moment’s silence passes, without Rachel even glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes. Slowly Rachel shifts, tilting her head slightly forward and towards him. Tony can see the confusion in her eyes, despite the fact they are mostly hidden by her hair, so he clarifies. “With what’s his name- you could have said you were gonna get food or something.”
“His name’s Mr. Earle.” Rachel mutters as she pulls her knees up to her chin and wraps her arms around her legs. “He’s the CEO of my dad’s company.”
“I know that, but why didn’t you leave?”
“I did that last week at a party in Gotham. It was at this house, so I went to the library to get away from everyone. Mr. Earle found me and he got mad.”
“What- why?”
“He thinks I’m weird.” Rachel whispers. “I heard him talking to Alfred yesterday, he thinks something’s wrong with me.”
“What, cause you don’t wanna talk with grown-ups at a stupid party?”
“No… cause I don’t want to talk with anyone.”
“Do you want me to go?” Tony offers. “I’ll leave my coat.”
“No!” Rachel suddenly turns towards him, wrapping her arms around Tony like he’d wrapped his arms around her only a few minutes ago and clinging to him like she’s just had a nightmare. “You’re… you’re my friend Tony. You got me away and I didn’t even have to ask you too.”
“If Mr. Earle wouldn’t want you to leave then he probably wouldn’t want you to ask.” Tony points out, wrapping his arms around Rachel as leans back against the sculpted tree behind him. “We need a code word.”
“Code word?” Rachel mumbles.
“Yeah, so if you need to get away from people you just say the word and I’ll figure out a way to get you away.” Tony explains. “Or if I said the word then you’d figure out a way to get me away.”
“So what should our code word be?”
Tony Stark and Rachel Wayne spend the next two hours alternatively discussing possible code words and filling each other in on everything that has happened since they last saw each other. Tony does most of the filling in, telling Rachel in detail all of the projects he’s been working on and making sketches in the dirt to help explain what he’s built and designed over the last six months. In return Rachel does most of the suggesting of code words, since she’s spent the last six months most reading her way through the books in her family’s library and following Alfred Pennyworth like a small three dimensional shadow.
Neither one realizes that the wait staff had seen them enter the little hedge tunnel and neither one of them notices that from time to time one of the two or three taller waiters will peak in through the skylight of their hiding place to make sure the two are okay… especially not when they fall asleep at around the same time that desert is being served back in the banquet room. In fact the only reason they eventually figure out the waiters were watching them is when one of those waiters reaches down into their hiding spot to gently shake the two awake and inform them that people are starting to leave. Despite having just been woken up Rachel manages to thank the man before they head back down towards the tunnel… only to freeze at the end.
“Ray?” Tony asks as he has to come to a stop since Rachel is blocking the way out.
“We didn’t pick a code word!”
“What about this stuff?” Tony asks, gesturing to the hedges around them. “What’s the word for when trees are all cut up like this?”
“Um… I think it’s called topiary.”
“Well then that’ll be our code word.” Tony decides, gently pushing Rachel so that she steps forward and out of the hedge tunnel.
“Topiary?” Rachel frowns.
“Sure! Besides we can always change it later if we don’t like it.” Tony nods. “So if you need to get away but can’t ask-”
“I’ll say topiary.” Rachel agrees. “But you gotta do it too, okay?”
“Okay!” Tony smiles darting forward to hug Rachel for one last time as Maria Stark steps out on the patio, calling out Tony’s name at the exact same time that William Earle, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises starts looking around for the Wayne Heiress.
The End
Author’s Notes: This is all thanks to theflashisgone, who asked me to write a fic where "Rachel Wayne meets Tony Stark at some high society mixer event." and then when I got like three ideas for how that could happen and suggested writing a 5+1 fic she encouraged this insanity and helped with a million different details in the fic, ranging from what Tony and Rachel's code word should be to that Rachel would threaten to throw up on Tony's armor.
I didn’t exactly sit down and figure out how the timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the timelines of Scilicet… fit together. I think I ended up just aging Tony down by like 15-20 years so he’d be (roughly) the same age as Rachel.
All of the outfits worn by Rachel Wayne can be seen here.
This is Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich, the painting which conceals an entrance to the Batcave which Tony, Rachel and Clark use in the first vignette.
