Lea got in the car cautiously, settling herself in and buckling her seatbelt. "Why did I agree to this insanity, again?"

"No idea," Tony said, grinning a bit as he eased the car out onto the highway like a normal person. Then he grinned again and floored it.

Lea yelped and then clung to the car, for a few minutes at least. After that she relaxed and grinned slowly. Okay, this she could get used to.

Tony easily wove through traffic; this was something he was used to. They pulled up the winding drive to the mansion, and he left it in the driveway as he turned it off and got out.

"Home sweet home," he said as he grabbed his bag.

"You drive like a crazy person but that was fun." Lea made a vain attempt at forcing her hair into some semblance of control before she shrugged and left it loose and wind-blown for the moment. "And it's a good thing I don't mind heights. You forgot to mention the part where your house is built off a cliff."

"Slipped my mind," Tony said. "And really, who hasn't seen pictures of the place? I know there are a few, there's another section of cliff the press loves to stake out about a mile up shore."

"I didn't need pictures, I borrowed a satellite to get a good look," Lea said with a shrug as she followed him inside. "The army never noticed."

Tony raised an eyebrow, impressed.

"So that's why Rhodey had to change his password again," he commented. "And he blamed me for that. i'll point him at you next time."

"Well it still is your fault, I got it from you," Lea said with a grin. "I mean, really, you have a program dedicated to keeping track of and storing his passwords, it's great."

"Note to self, delete that program," Tony said, although he couldn't help grinning a bit. "I've noticed he's started using War Machine as a password lately. Predictable guy."

"I don't blame him. I mean, he gets an awesome suit to fly around in and do what he loves to better serve his country and protect people. I don't blame him for that at all." Lea grinned. And yes she was aware she was complimenting Tony too.

"He stole the Mark 2," Tony pointed out, although inwardly he was preening. "And totally violated it when he added HammerTech to it, I swear. I've offered to upgrade it for him, but no."

Lea snorted. "Well, he'll just be stuck with his outdated version then and be leagues behind whatever you've got hiding in your garage. What version was it in New York? Mark 7?"

"It was briefly the Mark 7," Tony replied. "And was quickly supplanted by the Mark 8, and since when were we talking about that incident? No, I won't have it, let's talk about something else, something not relating in any way to that stretch of time."

Lea noticed how edgy he seemed about that and was quick to change the subject, because gods knew she knew all about not wanting to talk about periods of time.

"So are you going to give me the grand tour or am I going to have to rely on Jarvis? I'm sure his directing is flawless, but it would be nice to not have to ask him how to get everywhere."

"What is there to figure out?" Tony asked. "This place was designed to be intuitive, seriously, upstairs are the bedrooms, the whole downstairs is my workshop, and this floor is living space. Makes perfect sense." He grinned.

Lea snorted. "So I can just go upstairs and pick a room to sleep in?" Although she did want to see the lab.

"Pretty much," Tony replied, nodding. "There are only like, what, six guest rooms? Seven? Jarvis, how many are there?"

"Five, sir," Jarvis responded.

"Well, I'll go pick and then you can show me this workshop of yours." Lea grinned.

Tony waved a hand at her and headed downstairs, muttering about how he should have brought at least Dummy with him for the workshop.

Lea dropped her stuff in the first guest room she came across and then headed back down to get a look at his workshop. Because if it was anything like the lab back in New York, it was going to be great.

Tony was already downstairs tinkering with bits from one of the suits. He barely glanced over when Lea wandered in.

Lea didn't go over to bother him immediately, instead poking around some before settling in to watch him work. She was a quick study and picked up what he was working on while she watched.

"So why don't you connect that there instead?" she asked, pointing to a few things. "Wouldn't it work better that way?"

"Not for long," Tony replied as he carefully picked apart some pieces. "It would burn out too quickly. One use only kind of thing. Which is great, if it's only designed for one use, but it's not."

"But the connections down there aren't stable either," Lea said with a little frown. "They'll burn out too. Not as fast, but they will."