1. Prologue

**Summary:** SEQUEL TO THE LAST SUMMER. Tony and Pepper move on with their busy lives as superheroes, business partners, roommates, friends and confidants – everything but lovers. But when you're destined to be together, you're destined to be together, and nothing you can do – including altering someone's memory of you – will change that.

**Standard disclaimer for all my stories**: My stories are graphic, angsty, frustrating, filled with cliffhangers, drama and foul language. Read at your own risk – medical issues and subsequent bills are not covered by yours truly ;) If you don't like, please don't read. I appreciate reviews and constructive feedback but if you cannot stand the plot, save yourself and me some time and walk away. You don't have to love all IMAA stories :) I don't own IMAA. My stories are better viewed by using the "half screen" option of

_**THIS IS A SEQUEL TO THE LAST SUMMER. READ THAT FIRST OR BE FOREVER CONFUSED!**_

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><p><span><strong>The First Year<strong>

**Prologue**

In the blink of an eye September had ended, the month of October had begun, and with it had come the anniversary of he and Maya's dating time. Today was their two-month anniversary and, at her request, Tony had done all of the expected tasks: breakfast, lunch, gift exchange, movie and dinner; a day together like one they rarely had, be it damned that it was in the middle of the week. It had been fun, he had to admit, but regardless of how much fun he had, the ginger was always in the back of his mind. She had been present when Maya had held his hand in hers and whenever her lips brushed his skin. She had been present whenever he had heard Maya's laugh and whenever silence befell them in between.

Tony had done everything a loving boyfriend was expected to do on anniversary day. He had said the right name when addressing the girl and had written the correct name on the greeting card he had bought. He had opened the door for her and had paid for all she had asked. He had even gone as far as dressing in uncomfortable formal clothes that he had always despised, but every time his eyes had seemed lost and confused and his mind had wandered off, Pepper had been at the forefront of it all

Pepper: who did not see him as anything more than a friend because that had been his request. Pepper: who was happy with someone else, someone who was not Tony Stark; someone who had not broken her heart and then had made her forget he ever had. Pepper: the spunky redhead that had meddled her way into his life and who he now could not push away, no matter how hard he tried. Pepper: the only one woman he ever wanted to be with, but the one woman he could not have.

Maya Hansen was no Pepper, but she was not bad. She was kind, funny, smart and ambitious, and she also did not put up with his antics and flaws just as Pepper did not. But in the end, Tony could not find it in his heart to care for her as more than just a friend, even when he saw Pepper living it large with her boyfriend, Scott.

At first, the inventor had not worried too much about the random stranger that had taken his seat at the ESU orientation. But when his one-time appearance became common in their apartment, he knew Pepper was falling in love. How could she not? The young man was smart, polite, educated, kind and truly cared for Pepper, and while Tony knew he himself could be all those things for her and more, he also knew that none of that mattered if he was still Iron Man.

He had thought about it many times: quitting being who he was, but it was too late to do so now. He was way too into it. Iron Man was ingrained in his life, part of his skin, and not until the day he was no longer able to put on the suit because his decrepit, rotting body could not sustain the hits, would he be able to let it go. Iron Man was who he was; he had even told her that much at some point himself, but the true weight of his words had not hit him until recently, until today, until just now.

He had not planned to catch them like this; he had just wanted to go home after a long day in which he had pretended to love a woman he could never possibly love. He had just wanted to walk away from Maya's disappointed face when she had invited him back into her lonely home since her father was out, and he had declined. Tony had known what Maya had planned for them for the rest of the evening, but he could not bring himself to do that for her, _to_ her, _with_ her. He had already survived the day. He doubted he would have been able to survive the night.

Now, however, he wished he would have gone somewhere else; somewhere where Pepper and Scott had not been making out on his couch when he had walked inside his own home.

"Sorry," Tony said and looked away from them, but in the brief moment his eyes had landed on them, he had seen more of Pepper than he wanted Scott to see of her. They had only been dating for little over a month: were they not going a little bit too fast? If they kept it up, Pepper would end up pregnant in no time.

_Too fast? Says the guy who wanted to sleep with her the day you asked Gene to make her forget about you two ever being together_, his consciousness told him. _Yeah, you're one to talk, Stark._

"I didn't expect you to be back so soon," Pepper said and buttoned up her blouse. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," Tony lied. "Maya's dad caught some stomach bug and she wanted to take care of him," he lied again. Maya's stepfather hardly ever stayed at home. He was always working, always out, always putting his inventions before his own family and personal life. Just like Tony once did, himself.

"Oh, well, that's untimely," Pepper responded with an honest frown. "You two just can't catch a break, huh?"

"So it would seem," Tony shrugged. "Anyway, I'll be out of your hair, Pepper. Summers."

"Stark."

Tony nodded to the man who never removed his sunglasses, claiming that he had an eye condition that prevented him from seeing without them on. Personally, Tony thought he just liked the mysterious aura the sunglasses gave him, which of course had been the first thing that had caught Pepper's eyes. Then again, he was not one to talk – again.

"Goodnight, Tony," Pepper called as he began walking down the hall and away from them.

"Goodnight, Pep," Tony responded and finally made it to his room. He put on his earbuds and tried his best to tune out their laughter and other random sounds he did not want to venture into guessing the nature of, and for the millionth time he cursed himself for not asking Gene to make him forget about Pepper, too.

_Who am I kidding? _Tony thought. _I'd never forget about her, even if I tried._

The saddest part of that fact, however, was that he knew he was too much of a coward to attempt the feat at all.

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><p><strong>AN:** So, who do you think Pepper is dating? I didn't make him up. I just… borrowed him from another show.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: October**

"Wake up, Stark!" the redhead told her roommate as she jumped onto the bed with more force than required to interrupt the inventor's sleep. "We gotta go to the office, even if you just pretend to work."

"Five more minutes," Tony groaned and turned on his right side, avoiding the tugging of his blanket by the ginger. "Please?"

"Tony, come on! I've got a pitcher of cold water in my hand and I'm not afraid to use it."

"Ugh, I hate you, Pepper," he mumbled as he begrudgingly sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes with the balls of his hands to help him wake up. "I hate you, so very much."

"Oh, shush!" Pepper waved a hand dismissively at him, left the pitcher on his nightstand as a reminder of what she would do to him if he did not get up immediately, and then walked over to his closet. "You love me and you know it."

"Not when you wake me up this early."

"It's not early at all, Tony," the girl replied and took out a pair of jeans, boxers, socks and a baby blue polo shirt from his closet and threw them at him before she opened the door to his bathroom, turned on the lights in there and started the shower.

"It's almost nine. We were supposed to be there at eight."

"Pepper," he groaned as he stood up from the bed, clothes in hand. "We own the fucking company. If we don't want to go in, we could just stay here and count the ceiling tiles of the entire apartment all day, if that's what we felt like doing."

"No, we can't," Pepper said with a scowl and a warning tone before she knelt on the floor to look under the bed for his shoes. "We really need to get our shit together with Hammer Multinational. You no longer go to the board meetings but I do, and I don't want to hear good ol' Mitch bitching again about how we're wasting our investment."

"He's just jealous that we're richer than him and we aren't even allowed to legally drink yet," he replied before he placed his clothes on the bed and headed for the shower, taking off his t-shirt in the process and leaving it on the floor.

"Yeah, well, I still don't want to hear it," Pepper said and then pumped her right fist in the air triumphantly when she found his shoes. She stood up from the floor and placed the pair on the bed next to the clothes she had picked for him before she peeked inside the bathroom to see Tony scrutinizing his face in the mirror.

"You better be out in ten, Tony, or I will kill you."

"Make it fifteen," he rubbed his cheeks. "I think I gotta shave."

"Fine! _Fifteen_, but no more, alright?"

"Yes, ma'am," he gave her a salute and she winked at him in response. Once the redhead was gone and Tony was again all by himself, he had to wonder, just like he did every morning when she came to wake him up, what it would be like to wake up _with_ her and not just _by_ her. Sadly, his wonderings were only going to be that: musings of a Monday morning before his day was about to start.

This whole _forget about Pepper and move on_ plan seemed so simple in theory, but every time Scott Summers showed up at their doorstep, Tony just wanted to rip out the guy's heart, offer it in sacrifice to some random, sadistic deity and then be the shoulder on which Pepper would cry away her misfortune. Then reality would hit him and he would be kindly reminded – and sometimes not so kindly – that this was his choice, his decision, his burden to live with.

_Pepper's safe, right? That's what I wanted, right?_

Unfortunately, he had initially wanted her to be safe _and_ with him, but that had not worked well for him so far. It appeared as if he would never be able to have both. The reminder of his failed attempts at being with her and not placing her in danger while she was his girl was not only agonizing but also a mocking aide-mémoire of how his current girlfriend had no trouble staying out of danger at all.

Why was it that his enemies did not pick on Maya? Everyone knew he and Maya were dating now and had for longer than he and Pepper ever did, and yet no villain found it necessary to kidnap the brunette and hold her for ransom. Nevertheless, he was certain that if the world knew he and Pepper were back together, the lamest of villains would immediately jump at the opportunity of threatening the ginger's life to get back at him. It almost seemed to him as if the universe was plotting against he and Pepper living happily ever after in any way, shape or form that was not pure and simple friendship.

_Why is my life like this?_

He finally stripped down and walked inside the shower. He stood under the stream for a few minutes to wash away the remnants of his sleep. He knew Pepper was right and that they had postponed the reorganization of Hammer Multinational for too long. Even though the final transfer of ownership had not become official until about two weeks ago, the preliminary analysis of the status of the company that Pepper had ran showed there was a lot of work to do.

After recovering – only somewhat, actually – from the murder attempt at the hands of the Ghost, Tony had convinced Pepper to become co-owner of Stark Solutions with the excuse that, if something ever happened to him as Iron Man, he would want her to make sure his company continued being the way he would have wanted it to be. Pepper had at first declined the offer, stating that his father would be the best fit for inheriting the billions of dollars the now-large, no-longer-start-up company was worth. But Tony had reasoned with her that his dad would have too much to do with Stark International and that the last thing the blue-eyed boy ever wanted was for his company to end up in the hands of those who would abuse his genius inventions.

The last argument had convinced her of accepting the offer, if only because the redhead knew how important maintaining the sanctity of Tony's mission for his company was to him. It was what friends did anyway, right? Watch each other's back? Take the heat for each other? Save each other's lives? Tony and Pepper had each done those exact same things for the other countless times and, at the end of the day, no matter how you sliced it, Tony and Pepper had only each other to rely upon. He knew it. She knew it. Even their significant others had already resentfully acknowledged this fact a long time ago.

Remembering he was almost out of time, he quickly finished showering and walked out of the stall. He then used the available steam inside the bathroom to shave his face. Moments later, he was out of his room, fully dressed and ready to take on the boring part of owning his company. He stopped midway to the exit of the apartment, however, when he saw that Pepper was still in the kitchen. She was already dressed up and technically ready to go, but she was not waiting for him by the door like she always did. She was, in fact, wearing an apron and held a spatula in her hand. She was facing away from the hall and her eyes were concentrated on the electric griddle before her, humming a nameless song and moving her body all around.

Tony's smile was almost instantaneous. He returned to the hall to rest his arms on the kitchen bar counter and watched her dance. From the smell, he could tell she was making pancakes, which was not uncommon for her since she had been taking cooking lessons in her rare spare time, and he could always tell when a new dish had been learned because she would cook it all week. His eyes traveled up and down her hips as they swayed to whatever song she was listening to with the MP3 player he had given her while at the hospital. Since then, Tony had come up with a better version of that early prototype of music player, but she had insisted that she was happy with the one she already had.

_"It's like a souvenir,"_ she had told him. _"You don't replace souvenirs."_

He watched her flip all of the pancakes on the griddle so that the other side would cook and she then left the spatula on the counter. He decided to take advantage of the fact that no food was in danger of spilling or ruining her work outfit and he leisurely walked around the counter to reach her. He stood behind her, placed his hands on her hips and felt her jump. The surprise did not last long and she shook her head at him as she stared back over her shoulder. Tony just gave her one of his patented charming smiles before he began moving his hips to match her rhythm. He did not know what song she was listening to and he honestly could not care less. All he wanted right now was to enjoy the feel of her body against his.

Knowing that the pancakes still had a few more minutes to fully cook, Pepper turned around and rested her arms on his shoulders and continued their dance. Tony's grip on her hips tightened and he took a step closer toward her to make their virtually tuneless dance work. After realizing he was having a difficult time following her lead without listening to the song, she took out one of the wireless earpieces from her ear and placed it in one of his. Tony quickly recognized the song as one of her favorites, and he immediately adjusted his movements to lead the redhead into a more graceful dance.

Within seconds, they were moving as one and ended up in the middle of the kitchen. With more room to move, Tony began twirling with the ginger only to force her to have to press herself against him even further to keep her balance and from falling on her butt. Her smiles and giggles were music to his eyes and ears, and a couple of times he joined her bouts of laughter. It was so easy to be like this with her because it was her, and with her he did not have to pretend he was enjoying every second they were together. He actually did.

As the song was coming to an end, the inventor pressed the side of his face to hers before making them both twirl in fast spins. His left hand rested behind her back to keep her steady and his right arm shot up straight to the side with hers mirroring it, just to look silly. With every crazy spin he put them through, her fingernails dug deeper into his skin, sending shivers down his spine. When the song finally ended, he stopped their rotating motion, but he did not let go of her.

She stared up at him with a bright smile that reached her eyes as she caught her breath, and in between deep inhales she spoke.

"I sometimes wish Scott was you," she began and missed the split second his heart skipped a beat at her words. "He hates dancing and I love it. Thanks to you, though, I'll never be satisfied with another dancing partner, _ever_."

"Geez," he said with a smirk. "I'm not sure if that's an insult or a compliment."

"A little bit both of both," she said with a nod. "I can't give you a straight compliment or it will make your ego that much larger."

"Well, even if you give me half-compliments, you do it so often that we may soon have to move to another place where there's more room for it."

Pepper laughed aloud before she gave him a chaste kiss on his cheek and took a step back.

"See that? That's why I put up with your big head."

"Really?" he crossed his arms over his chest and watched her return her attention to the pancakes that were now done. "I thought it was because of how ridiculously attractive I am."

Pepper scoffed. "You wish."

"Ah," Tony took a step toward her. "So, you don't deny you find me attractive."

"Fishing for compliments again, huh?" she asked, placed the pancakes on a plate and covered them with a cloth. "You only get one per day, honey. Sorry."

"Boo!" he said and followed her to the already set table. "Hey, I thought you said I only had fifteen minutes to get ready," he pulled her chair out after she placed the plate in the middle of the two-person table.

"You did," she gave him a quick thankful nod for the gesture and sat in the chair. "If I'd given you more, you'd take longer and I didn't want the food to go cold."

"Oh," he said and sat in his chair, opposite to the redhead. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Don't," she warned. "You don't know when you really have fifteen minutes or not."

"Hn," he mused as he evenly split the pancakes between them. "True, but all I gotta do is take you out dancing and you'll forgive me for being late."

"Hey!" Pepper narrowed her eyes at him. "No fair! You know I can't refuse a good dance!"

"Ha-_HA_!" he pointed his fork at her. "I know your weakness, Potts! And that, my beloved, is why you will never be able to stay mad at me forever. I'm your dancing partner for life."

"Ugh!" Pepper groaned and violently stabbed the pancake. "One day, Stark. One day I will find your damned weakness and you'll just have to do as I say. No questions asked. Mark my words."

"Marked," Tony said while he gave her a sad smile she could not see as she was currently pouring syrup on her pancakes. If only she knew she already knew his weakness. If only she knew his greatest strength _and_ weakness was her.

xxxXXXxxx

Last week, Tony and Pepper had relocated their offices from Stark Tower to the former Hammer Multinational headquarters. The ribbon cutting ceremony would be taking place next month, so that left them with at least a couple of weeks to make sure everything was up and running by the time the press was invited to the grand reopening of the building as the new home for Stark Solutions. The business partners had agreed that, unless a background check proved otherwise, no employee affected by the transfer of ownership would be let go, which meant the two teens had to find a job for everyone to do.

In addition to extending their work days to accommodate for the extra duties, their commute time had also been increased due to the relocation of their offices. The solution to said predicament had seemed simple enough: moving to the penthouse at the new building. The problem with that solution was that they liked their apartment way too much to move. Besides, the last thing they wanted was to work and live at the same place for now, as they feared it would end up shooting whatever privacy they could get at their current home.

In response to the distance predicament, Tony had resorted to storing away his _Stark Bike_ to be used only when needed – a.k.a. when taking Maya out on a date – and he and Pepper now opted to use their suits as their sole means of transportation from building to building, sometimes even to school. It was now becoming common to see either a red and gold or a silver and purple speck flying high in the sky or maneuvering in between the skyscrapers at some point during the day, even when villains were not around – and, most of the time, the two suits were flying around together at the same time.

Just as it was the case right now.

The two armored heroes flew side by side for a while until their paths were inevitably separated and they waved each other off. Tony headed in the direction of the new Stark Solutions building and Pepper headed to the Stark International building. Even now, weeks after getting into the routine, Rescue's sudden arrival at the entrance of the Stark International building still made heads turn.

She landed gracefully a few feet away from the automatic doors and, as soon as her armor-clad boots touched the ground, the redhead double-tapped the center of her suit and began her walk. Without bothering to stop her trek inside the lobby, Pepper ignored the eyes of the bystanders that watched in awe as her suit retracted from her, crunching together until only a normal-looking backpack attached to her back remained. At first, Pepper had taken the time to nervously wave at the jaw-dropped Stark employees, and she had even gone as far as explaining what she had just done. Yet, at this juncture, it was pointless to continue doing that. If they did not know who she was by now and what she was doing here, they did not deserve to ever know.

Shortly after the Ghost incident, Tony had dug up the specs for the armor backpack he had originally designed for her before high school had ended, and the convenience of having her armor with her – and the fact that the purple and silver backpack looked 'really cool,' had earned the inventor one of those hugs and kisses on the cheek he had not received in a long time from the excited ginger. That gesture alone had been the highlight of his day.

For a moment there, while the two of them had been alone at the Makluan Temple and Pepper had been squealing like a fangirl as she ran around with her new armor backpack in hand, Tony had felt as if nothing terrible had ever happened to them. That brief instant felt just like old times: when the worse thing they had to worry about was having to stay up all night for a mission and hope they made it back home before class. It had only been five months since Pepper had showed up at the temple per Tony's request to calibrate the virtual design of the backpack, but for Tony it felt like years had already gone by.

Today's board meeting was a special one, hence why it was taking place on a Monday morning rather than on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon. It appeared that the haters on the board were very upset about being _blindsided_ by the acquisition of Hammer Multinational by Stark Solutions, and they had wanted to discuss the matter with Tony Stark himself. Pepper showing up instead of him was going to be the final insult to them, she knew, but she could not bring herself to give two fucks about it, especially knowing that neither Tony nor Pepper had ever blindsided the board about the acquisition; the same day Sasha had signed the contract, Tony had told the board about his plans.

How could she forget; it had been the day before her birthday.

_Besides_, Pepper thought with a roll of her eyes as she used the elevator to reach the meeting room. _It's our company. We can do whatever the hell we want._

The ginger laughed inwardly; she was starting to sound just like her boy.

_Whoa!_ She was taken aback by her own thought. _My boy? Where did that come from?_

To be fair, Tony _was_ her boy as much as she was _his_ girl. Maybe not in the sense that would first come to anyone's mind who would hear them address each other as that – there was no romantic interest between them, she was sure – but it still sounded weird for her to think of the crazy inventor, whose ass she could barely get out of bed in the morning, as her _anything_. Yes, he was her friend and mentor and business partner and practically the only person she had left in the world – save Loretta, who had been honestly trying to make an effort to reconnect, and her dad, who she did not know when she would see again.

_My Boy Friday_, she amended her thought. _That's what I meant to say._

The elevator dinged as it arrived at the highest level it could go without the card key and code she was now inputting to unlock the next level, where the board meetings took place. Seconds later after completing her task, the elevator doors closed for a brief second, raised her to the next floor, and then opened again to reveal the entrance of the lobby of the "ground floor" of the penthouse.

"Hey, Trish!" the redhead practically skipped over to the large reception desk. "Oh, my gosh! Did you watch it last night? Did you? It was_ brutal_!"

"Oh, girl, I KNOW!" Trish said and shook her head. "It was so sad to see Dakota leave but he had it coming. He totally tried to trip his dancing partner."

"I know! What a douche! He was the best dancer, though. I gotta give him that. But you're right: he had it coming."

"So, are you still set that Robert and Gwyneth are going to win? They're such an amazing couple!"

"Yes, I'm down for them. They better win this season or I'll be very, very mad."

"Well, they're almost at the finals so it's going to get tough."

"I have faith in them," Pepper said in an exaggerated manner and placed her right palm onto her chest. "As I have faith that I'll survive another meeting today. How are the pools going?"

"Well," Trish said and began typing something in her computer. "Mitch, as you know, is P.O.'d that you guys bought Hammer Multinational, and Robert Hutchinson wants to make sure you guys didn't use any of their funds for the acquisition."

"As if," Pepper scoffed. "Anything else?"

"Oh, yeah! Guess who's also attending the meet –"

"Pepper?" Howard's voice coming from the entrance of the meeting room interrupted the two women and they quickly returned to their business poses. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark," Pepper said with a smile and then turned to face Trish. "Thank you for the information, Trish. It was a pleasure speaking with you."

"Oh, it was nothing, Miss Potts. Have a good day."

"Why, thank you. You do the same," Pepper said before she turned on her heels and then walked over to Howard. The door to the meeting room was partially closed, and even though she could hear the conversations of the other board members, she knew they had a very limited visibility of her vantage point.

The ginger glanced back and forth between the door and Trish, who was now busy on the phone, before her eyes narrowed at Howard and gave him a triumphant smile.

"Pay up, Howard. Your boy, Dakota, got canned last night!"

"Ugh!" Howard said and discretely gave her the money he had already had in his hand, knowing that this was coming the moment the guy he had been rooting for was voted off _Breakdancing with Celebrities_. "So close! I hope Robert and Gwyneth don't make it to the finals!"

"Keep dreaming, Stark," Pepper said with a smug smile and put away the five dollars she had bet the older inventor. "By the way, Tony says: hi."

"Is he doing alright?"

"Peachy," she said with tongue-in-cheek. "Although, it's getting harder to wake him up in the morning. I actually _took_ the pitcher with me today to his room."

"Maybe you should just kiss him. That'd wake him right up," Howard suggested with a knowing smile, wishing that Tony had not chosen to have Pepper's memories of them together removed. He could tell Tony was trying his best to keep his feelings at bay, but he could also see what his decision was costing his son. Howard really liked Pepper and had started seeing her as a daughter, and he knew that the redhead was just perfect for his too-smart-for-his-own-good son.

"That's what Maya's for, not me. All he's getting from me is a _bucket_ of iced water rather than an itty bitty pitcher next time he's not up on time."

"Record it."

"I will," she said with a haughty wink before her business face appeared again and she walked inside the meeting room with Howard in tow. "Very well, Mr. Stark. I will consider your suggestion. Thank you for the feedback. Tony and I appreciate it."

"Glad I could help, Miss Potts."

Howard, Trish and Pepper acted as anything but business-like among each other when alone, but they had to keep up the appearances in front of the board. Diane Tincher sometimes joined in the relaxed friendship the three of them had, but they all knew that as soon as the entire board was present, nothing but a professional demeanor would suffice.

The room became silent the moment Pepper took her seat on the opposite side of where Howard typically sat. As always, the ten board members were sitting on either side of the table, five on each side. The half that already liked her smiled and got ready for another round of _Pepperisms_ – what they called the redhead's quick remarks – and the half that despised her was trying to see if they could just wish her presence away by simply glaring at her.

Pepper observed everyone with a smile regardless of whether they considered her a friend or foe and. As she looked around the room, she was visibly taken aback when her eyes fell on the guest whose presence she had just noticed.

"General Fury," she tilted her head in curiosity. "It's odd to see you here."

"Glad to see you're feeling better, Miss Potts. Last time we saw you, you weren't this alert, I'm afraid."

Pepper gave him a one-sided shrug and she briefly acknowledged the presence of Maria Hill behind the head of S.H.I.E.L.D with a nod. "That's what a few weeks in captivity do to you. What are you doing here, if I may ask?"

"We're here to discuss business."

Pepper frowned in confusion and then shrugged. "Alright. Should we start, then?"

"We should," Howard said and motioned for Fury and Hill to take a seat, but they both declined with a light shake of their heads. "Suit yourself. The reason we're here today is to discuss the matter of Stark Solutions acquiring Hammer Multinational. Parties interested in the logistics and potential repercussions of this acquisition have called for this unscheduled meeting to take place."

"We were expecting Tony Stark to be here and not his proxy," Mitch said and glared at the redhead.

"I'm not his proxy, Mitch," Pepper said without missing a beat. "I thought we had already made that clear."

"Well, he's the one who thought it was a good idea to buy Hammer Multinational, so I think we should be discussing our concerns with him," Clark Morrison said.

"Actually, it was my idea," Pepper said.

"Your idea? You told Stark to buy it?" Mitch spat.

"I didn't tell him to do anything. I just pointed out the benefits of the acquisition."

"What benefits?" Minerva Gonzalez asked. "What good could come from this acquisition?"

"Our reasons for acquiring Hammer are our own, and none of your business," Pepper responded. Her reply surprised Nick Fury and Maria Hill and it made them wonder if the girl they had once met a long time ago even existed anymore. "All you need to know is that Tony agreed with my idea and Hammer is now ours."

"What funds were used to buy Hammer?" Keith Sutherland asked as he took out a notepad and a pen.

"Disclosing the allocation of our funds is against company policy and the terms of our contract with Stark International," Pepper deadpanned.

"_Your_ funds?" Minerva scoffed. "Honey, don't let it get to your head that just because you're sleeping with the boss, that his money is your money."

"Aw, Minerva," Pepper gave her a condescending smile that Howard knew she had picked up from his son. "Still bitter that Tony doesn't like cougars?"

The woman pursed her lips. Minerva was a hateful, 40-something-year- old woman who was in her fifth marriage. She had no kids and apparently never wanted to have them, and Pepper could only imagine how much more annoying she was outside the board meetings. Minerva had been one of the board members against Pepper joining Stark Solutions, but that had not automatically placed her on Pepper's hit list. What had, however, was the fact that the woman had actually tried to_ seduce_ Tony the first and only time she had personally visited Stark Solutions. It had happened just last week, actually, so the memory was still fresh in Pepper's mind.

"Minerva," Claire Beaumont came to Pepper's aid. "Remember that Patricia is now co-owner of Stark Solutions. She has a say on how the company funds are used."

"By chance," Minerva said and crossed her arms on the desk. "I'm just concerned that she's pulling tricks on us the same way she more likely pulled them on Tony Stark to get him to do whatever she wants. He's just blinded with love. He's eating up all the lies she's feeding him."

"Look," Pepper began and pointed a threatening finger against the woman, "First of all: leave Tony out of this. If I hear you say anything bad about him one more time, the board is going to hear what you did to him not long ago."

Minerva's eyes widened at Pepper's words and she became flushed when everyone stared at her with questioning eyes.

"Secondly," the ginger continued, "I don't know in what way I can make it clear that Tony and I are just friends. And even if we weren't, what we do in our spare time is not your damned business. And lastly, unless you have a legitimate, LEGAL reason why you're seeking information about our recent acquisition, I think this meeting is pointless and a waste of my time."

"I have a question," Nick Fury, who had been watching the argument with keen interested, chirped in. "What's going to happen to the weapons manufacturing division of Hammer Multinational?"

Pepper's attention was redirected to the man and she gave him a knowing smile.

"Huh. Now I know why you're here, Fury. And do you really have to ask? You know Tony's stance on weapons."

The fact that Pepper has just addressed him without his title surprised him, but he did not let it show. He was aware of how much interest Pepper had once had in joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and she had always tried to impress him or any other S.H.I.E.L.D. representative as much as she could, but he now saw that trying to use her dream of becoming one of his agents was not going to work on her to make Tony do whatever he wanted about keeping his weapons supplier intact.

"What is _your_ stance?" Maria Hill asked.

"Same as Tony's."

"Is it?" Nick questioned and walked closer to the redhead, hoping that closing the distance would somehow intimidate her. "Or are you just saying that because you two are friends? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you two use high-tech armors on a daily basis? I'm pretty sure your suits double as a weapon."

Pepper smirked.

"Is that your play? Telling me that since our armors can be used as weapons, that we have no choice but to endorse making more?"

"I just want to know where my weapons are going to come from now. Hammer Multinational had a five-year contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. for Mandroids and many other weapons we need to fulfill our mission. I'm sure you understand that," Nick said in a tone Pepper did not like one bit.

Oh, if only Fury and Hill knew how lucky they were that it was her and not Tony who was hearing this!

"We're aware of that contract, Nick, and I can tell you that you will be generously compensated for its early termination."

"What?" Fury spat. "You can't terminate that contract!"

"Uhm, our attorneys say we can," Pepper tapped her chin with her index finger as she looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember the exact conversation between Tony, herself and their legal advisors. "There's a clause in the contract that states that if the company is suddenly sold or transferred, that the new owner does not have to honor the contract at all."

"Hill?" Fury called out to her while staring back at her over his shoulder. Maria pulled up her electronic tablet and tapped it a few times before she looked up at Fury with a face that confirmed Pepper's words.

"This is ridiculous!" Fury began and stood up straight when he realized he had at some point bent down and was practically towering over the redhead with his body. "I need to talk to Stark."

"That won't be necessary. This is not a discussion, Fury. I'm just informing you of our position."

"You keep saying that," Mitch began, "but how do we know that's what Tony would want. Do you even tell him everything that you do?"

"Again, I don't have to tell you what I do or how I work, but if you must know: yes, Tony knows what I do or say."

"And he agrees with this?" Fury barked. "You know what? I'm not putting up with this. Hill, get me Stark on the line."

"Yes, sir."

Nick Fury waited a few seconds while the call connected to his wireless earpiece, and as soon as the first ring echoed in the board room, everyone shifted their gaze from Fury to Pepper. The girl eyed her ringing phone with a smile before she lazily grabbed it, placed it to her ear and answered it.

"Hey there, Nick!"

"What the…?" Nick Fury turned back to stare at Maria, who had a shocked look on her face, and she stared back and forth between her tablet and Pepper.

"I dialed Stark's number," she said. "Did you take his phone?"

"No," Pepper said and hung up. "All his calls are routed to me. That's how I keep him away from people that waste his time."

"Are you kidding me, Potts?" Fury screamed. "Is this how you pay us back for finding you when you were kidnapped?"

"Uh, actually, Nick, _you_ didn't find me. Tony and Gene did."

"But we helped!"

"Of course you did! You had to! Or, did you forget that it was _your_ lack of security that got me kidnapped in the first place?"

"What? How was it our fault?"

"You were supposed to keep Whitney locked up and you didn't. You didn't even know she was gone until Tony told you."

"That could've happened to anyone," Fury defended himself.

"True, but if you can't even keep track of your prisoners on your own ship, how can we trust you with our badass tech?"

"You're forgetting who you're speaking with, Miss Potts. I can have you arrested right now for being a vigilante."

"A vigilante that helped save the world from an alien invasion," Pepper pointed out. "My arrest would look great in the papers."

"This is pointless," Nick said and then turned back to stare at Maria Hill. "Get Stark on the line, but get his suit, not his phone."

"On it," Maria responded and half-expected Pepper's phone to ring again, but when it did not and the call went through, she placed the call she had connected through her tablet on speakerphone. "Mr. Stark, this is Maria Hill. General Fury wants to have a word with you."

Maria handed the tablet to Fury and he immediately spoke up. "Tony, this is Fury. I need to talk to you."

"_Fury? Why are you calling me to my suit? Did you clear this with Pepper?"_

"What?"

"_This call,"_ Tony said. _"Did she approve this call?"_

Nick Fury's eyes landed on the smiling redhead who had an I-told-you-so look all over her face.

"Tony, I'm not one of your corporate puppets. I need to know what you –"

"_Pepper didn't approve this, did she?" _the inventor asked again.

"I don't need approval from a… Hello? Hello! Stark, did you…" Fury looked up from the tablet and back at Hill. "He hung up! Little bastard just hung up on me!"

"Nick, I think that's enough badmouthing of my son," Howard said with a warning tone.

"Your son is making a mistake. The same one you made 18 years ago. We need our weapons contract with Hammer Multinational to be honored!"

"What you need is to make your own stuff, Fury," Pepper said. "Stark Solutions is NOT making weapons for you or anyone else. Get over it."

"I want to talk to Stark!"

"Clearly, his bitch won't let you," Minerva mumbled.

"Minerva!" Claire chided. "Stop that now! Where are your manners?"

"Manners? For this girl? She's the one who should be showing us some respect!"

"It's OK, Claire," Pepper said. "Minerva's right. I should be respecting my elders… very _much_ so, elders…"

"Why you little —!"

"Stark!" Fury said. "I need to talk to Stark, now!"

"Me too!" Mitch said.

"What does it matter?" Diane said to calm everyone down. "Pepper's word is equal to Tony's."

"No, it's not!" Robert screamed, and not a second later everyone began talking all at once. Pepper rolled her eyes and grabbed her phone, ignored everyone's shouts and began playing games on her pod. It took Howard a couple of minutes to get everyone back on track and once he did, Pepper looked up again.

"Are we done now? I've got things to do."

"You're not leaving until I hear from Tony's mouth that you're honoring this contract," Fury warned. "If I have to arrest you right now, I will do so."

Pepper sighed loudly and stood up. As she did so, she doubled-tapped the center of her backpack, and while the suit began covering her, she approached Nick Fury. Once she was standing in front of him as Rescue, she extended her arms toward him and spoke.

"Arrest me."

"Pepper, I don't think that's necessary," Howard said. "Fury was just exaggerating, right?"

"I guess we'll see, Mr. Stark," Pepper's disguised voice said. "So? What are you waiting for? Arrest me."

"Is this how far you're willing to go to keep me from talking to Tony?"

"You're the one who said you would arrest me if needed. You wouldn't have to do this if you'd just believed me."

"I just want to make sure that Tony's decision is the one I'm hearing from you and not just your attempt at impressing me with your determination."

"I lost interest in S.H.I.E.L.D. a long time ago, Nick. Besides, why would I lie to you?"

Fury did not have a good answer for that question. Whatever else Pepper was about to tell him, however, was interrupted when the tablet Maria Hill was now holding began ringing. Everyone's eyes landed on the second-in-command of S.H.I.E.L.D. as she walked over to Fury and handed him the device once more.

"It's Stark, sir."

"Answer it," Fury said without removing his eyes from Rescue's armored face. In seconds, Tony's voice in the speakerphone echoed in the room.

"_What the hell do you think you're doing to Pepper?"_

Fury was taken aback and looked all around him, as did everyone else, expecting to see Tony standing somewhere near.

"_Stop looking for me, I'm not there. I can see you and hear you from Rescue's helmet."_

"You _tricked_ me," Fury muttered with anger at Pepper. "You put on your suit so that _he_ could see us."

"No, I didn't. But I know that if you took me, you'd take away my backpack and I can't let you take the armor. If I have it on, there's no way you can take it from me."

Despite the sudden and unwanted turn of events, Fury would not deny that he was impressed with the young woman's bravado and her unwavering loyalty towards her friend. "I see your true colors are coming out, Miss Potts."

"As are yours," she deadpanned.

"_Fury, what's your problem? Why are you trying to arrest Pepper?"_

"Because she won't let me talk to you."

"_About what? You arresting people for pissing you off, now?"_

"My weapons contract. I asked her what Stark Solutions plans to do with my contract. Do you want to know what she told me?"

"_I don't care what she told you. Whatever she said, that's what will happen."_

"Do you mean to say that you _don't_ know she wants to terminate the contract?" Fury tilted his head to the right, his eye narrowed in curiosity at Rescue's faceplate.

"_Oh, I know that, and it's not just her, it's me, too. My point is that Pepper's word is like mine. If she says you're shit out of luck on your weapons, then you are. Fact of life."_

Nick eyed Rescue up and down. "It's a shame that you trust her this much, Tony," Fury said bitterly. "You'd do so much better without her. She's clearly holding you back. Maybe you should've never found her. Or at least not alive."

The aghast and sharp intake of air inside Rescue's helmet was echoed by everyone in the room; even from the board members who did not like the redhead that much. Nevertheless, no one other than Tony could see Pepper's eyes widen at hearing the more-than-clear inference on the little value her life carried for the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., and only the inventor could too see her throat struggle to swallow down the hard knot that suddenly constrained her breathing.

"_Pepper?"_ Tony began after what felt like a long silence.

Pepper gulped again to keep her voice steady. "Yes, Tony?"

"_Make an appointment for me and One-Eyed Fury, and make sure you send him with a copy of the weapons contract."_

"A copy of the contract?" Fury asked, clearly not following Tony's logic. "What for?"

"_So that I can roll it up and shove it up your ass right after I have my attorneys seize any and all weapons you've ever received from Hammer Multinational."_

"What?" Fury's head whipped to where the tablet that held the call lay in Maria Hill's hands. "You can't take away my tech! I already paid for it."

"_You can have your money back and shove it, too. Contract says we can recall the products for any reason as long as we compensate you. You wanted me to honor the contract, right? Well, there you go. I'm honoring it by taking everything back."_

"This is ludicrous, Stark!"

"_I'm done talking to you. Pepper, come back to headquarters. We need to start drafting those recall orders."_

"I'm on my way," Pepper said, turned around and headed to the door.

"Wait, Potts, come back! We need to talk this out," Fury said, closed the distance between them and grabbed her by the arm. The redhead stared down at his hand and read on the armor's pressure gauge that, if she had not had the suit on, Nick Fury's grip on her would have left a bruise.

"I'm also done talking to you," she said and pulled away her arm. "Good luck talking Tony out of taking back your weapons. He's more stubborn than I am."

"This conversation is not over, Tony," Fury warned as he watched Rescue leave the room.

"_Yes, it is,"_ Tony deadpanned and ended the call.

xxxXXXxxx

"_I've had enough of you!"_

_Pepper struggled underneath the mercenary, and Tony struggled to pull him off her. Neither one of them was gaining any ground. The more they tried, the fiercer Ghost became. Ghost solidified himself once more, long enough to hold down Pepper, and then placed the tip of the dagger on the left side of her neck to make the cut. The blade was so sharp that she started to bleed by the simple move. He then pressed the long edge of the dagger against her skin, and as he was about to set it in motion to end her life, his hands suddenly went limp._

"No!"

Pepper sat upright on her bed, startled, and her right hand flew to her neck. In the darkness of her bedroom, she could not tell if she was bleeding or not, but it took her only a few seconds to remember that she had made it out alive from that painful moment thanks to Tony's intervention, and that all she had just seen was nothing but a memory of it. Ghost was dead and Whitney was locked up, physically and mentally – although she was not aware of the mental part. Neither of them could physically harm her anymore, but they refused to abandon her dreams.

The ginger shook her head to clear it of the images, blinked away stray tears, held onto the edge of her blanket with practically inhuman strength and then took in deep breaths to calm down. However, and after five long minutes of repeating the same process several times with no improvement, she resigned to all this effort being for naught, for she knew there was no going back to sleep now unless she did the same thing she did after every nightmare she had.

Cursing herself for her weakness, she stood up from the bed and quickly shortened the distance between her bed and the door. Without even bothering to check the time, she walked across the hall to the other door, which she knew was unlocked, and made her way inside his dwelling. She took hasty steps to his bed and climbed into it, curled into a ball under the covers and closed her eyes, hyperventilating as she did so.

"Pepper?" she heard his sleepy voice utter from his side of the bed but her only response was to continue her deep exhales. "Pepper, is that you?"

"Yes," she said in between breaths. When she felt his body approaching her from behind, she felt her muscles finally begin to relax. Seconds later, she uncurled herself and pressed her back against his chest and he immediately rearranged their positions so that he was embracing her and his chin rested on her left shoulder. He placed a small kiss on her cheek and then pressed his lips closer to her ear.

"Whitney or Ghost?"

"Ghost," she responded, shivering by just saying his name. The inventor felt goosebumps taking over her body, so he pulled more of the blanket over her and wrapped one of his legs around hers.

"It's alright," he whispered to her and held her tighter by her waist. "He's gone, Pepper. He's dead."

"I know. I know. It's just… it always feels so real."

"Because it was, but it's over. He'll never lay a finger on you again."

Pepper nodded slightly to make sure he knew she was listening to his comforting words. After a few minutes of hearing him breathe near her ear and feeling his arms holding her protectively, she began to completely relax… or as much as she could after a dream like the one she had just had.

"I'm sorry I woke you up," she said. "I need to stop doing this."

"No, it's alright. That's what I'm here for, right? You watch my back and I watch yours, right?"

"Yes," she said and remained silent for a moment as the dream replayed in her head again. "Do you regret it?"

"What?"

"What you did to stop him. Do you regret it?"

"No," he said without missing a beat and then rearranged her hair so that it would stop tickling his nose. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I had to."

"Really?"

"Yes. He deserved what he got, Pepper. Don't feel sorry for the son of a bitch."

"I don't. It's just… I wish you hadn't had to do that, you know? It must've not been easy for you either. It must be hard for you, too."

"At the moment, I didn't think anything of it. I just saw it as the only way to save you. It shocked me later, but then I remembered he had tried to kill you and me. I did what I had to do."

The redhead exhaled and then turned around in place so that she now faced him. His arms remained around her waist and her hands rested on his bare chest. She looked up into his eyes as much as she could in the dark and she then lifted her face to press a quick kiss on his lips. The inventor was surprised by the move but did not make any effort to show he wanted her to continue and remained as calm as he could.

"What's that for?"

"I never got to thank you for saving my life. There's nothing I can ever do to repay you. Nothing at all other than saving your life too. But that would only remind me I'm there to save you because you saved me first."

"You don't need to thank me, Pep, or repay me. I thought you'd know that by now."

"I do," she assured him. "But sometimes, when I'm told I'm not doing a good job, that I'm not doing you any good, I start wondering if they're right."

"You mean what Fury said a few days ago?" Tony frowned. "Is that what it is?"

Pepper nodded, closed her eyes and pressed her face to his chest. "He may be right, you know? Maybe I _am_ slowing you down. You probably haven't done a lot of things because I'm around."

"That's true," he said and felt her tense up with his response, perhaps believing that he agreed with Fury, until he continued his response. "Maybe you being around is the reason why, instead of being under my father's company's wing, I have a building of my own. Because you're around, I don't live in a mess of a lab or a crappy dorm room in MIT, wondering what my life would be like if it was any different. What my life would've been if you were still here with me."

"I'm sure Maya would've gotten you out of your seclusion at some point."

"Not in the same way you would've. Maya may be my girlfriend, but you are my friend. You both serve two different purposes in my life, just as Scott and I serve two different ones in yours."

Pepper considered his response for a moment and saw the truth in his words. She loved Tony, so dearly, but not in the same way she loved Scott. She felt equally close and comforted by both men, but she did not see herself being romantically involved with the inventor. She knew it would just not work since their friendship was already too strong, too intricate, to be suddenly morphed into something else without risking what they already had; what they had worked so hard to build and maintain. She figured it was the same for him even though he flirted with her a lot. He was a handsome, rich, confident young man, so flirting with all the girls that crossed his path came with the territory; it was probably just the overload of testosterone in him. But she was certain that at the end of the day, Tony would definitely prefer to bring Maya to his bed at night rather than herself.

Then again, she was also pretty sure that _she_ herself had spent more time in Tony's bed than Maya had so far, although for different reasons. Then again – _again _– Tony and Pepper were roommates, so she had the home advantage, so to speak. Tony had not even given Maya a copy of the keycard to their apartment, and now that she thought about, neither had she to Scott.

When she felt better about the topic of conversation, she could not help to utter the response that suddenly came to her. He was a flirt, true, but so could she be, and it was always entertaining to watch _Mr. I'm Sexy and I Know it_ be caught off guard when she flirted back at him.

"So, Maya's purpose is to sleep with you, and mine is to drag your ass out of bed every day? When the hell did I sign up for that, and how do I swap positions?" she chuckled.

Tony's head recoiled, his eyes widened and his mouth went agape, giving the ginger even more encouragement to continue her act.

"Seriously? How did I end up with the short end of the stick? Maybe we should've done some tryouts," she said and then, in the blink of an eye, ended up sitting on top of him and pinned his arms above his head on the bed. "I bet you that I didn't even get a chance to show my skills."

"Uh," he swallowed hard and cleared his throat. "Pepper, I… uhm… what are you… _what_?"

"Scared, Mr. Stark?" she teased him with a smile and then leaned down until their faces were inches from each other. "Is this your first time?" she asked him in a slow and provocative tone.

"I-I-I… uhm, ahem… well…"

The redhead then brushed her lips on his, and when he closed his eyes and tried to reach her lips again, she pulled back, let go of his arms and started laughing.

"Oh, my God! You're seriously deprived! Do you want me to talk to Maya? Tell her you need some?"

"Huh?" Tony was still trying to recover his senses. "What?"

"Oh, poor Tony!" she playfully slapped his cheek twice. "I'll talk to her, I promise," she said with a confident nod and then got off him. She then returned to the bed, gave her back to him, adjusted her position until she was comfortable and then briefly closed her eyes as a serious thought came to her.

"Thank you for saving my life, Tony. There're things _I_ wouldn't have been able to do if you hadn't been around." her tone was solemn and much obliged. "I would've never met Scott. I wouldn't have seen Rhodey go to the Air Force. I wouldn't have been around for when my dad returns from Afghanistan, and I would've never been given the chance to search for my real parents. I would've lost out on all of that if it wasn't for you. I'm so happy that you were around. Thank you so much, Tony."

The blue-eyed boy, who was still breathing hard from what she had just put him through, cleared his throat and swallowed hard again.

"It was nothing, Pepper."

"For me, it was something," she said, her slurred words telling him she was about to fall asleep.

Tony pushed aside the need to pull her back onto him to continue what she had started and reminded himself that this was not his plan. His plan was to fall in love with Maya and let Pepper marry Scott or whoever she wanted to be with after that. That was just the way things had to be. In turn, he readjusted his position in the bed, trying to get comfortable and ready to go back to sleep as well. He then closed his eyes and exhaled slowly when he felt his body starting to shut down again, and had he not had to scratch an itch on his left arm, he would have missed the ginger's whispered words.

"I love you, Tony."

Those words, despite how wonderful they sounded, only served to make his heart ache. They only reminded him that she would never say those words in the way he could say them to her, and that one day another man would hear those same words from her in the only way he ever wanted to hear them himself.

"I love you too, Pep."

After a content sigh, she fell asleep. And after half an hour of pondering, so did he.

xxxXXXxxx

_ "This is the second case of a family reporting the sudden disappearance of a young woman overnight, and at this point, the victim's fiancé is suspected of foul play. Police reports state the last time the couple was seen together was at the famous club, _The Rotary_, which denies any involvement in…"_

"So," Maya began when her eyes drifted away from the newscast to stare at her companion, "Why does Scott wear those sunglasses all the time?"

Both Maya and the redhead were waiting for their pedicure to be done. Pepper was currently reading a magazine that Maya had just finished reading herself and Maya was now resting her eyes, but not her mouth.

"At first, I thought he was just trying to look sexy – which he does, by the way. But now I wonder if he's just perpetually stoned."

Pepper laughed aloud and shook her head, her eyes never leaving the page she was reading.

"He's not perpetually stoned. He has an eye condition that forces him to wear them at all times. Without them, he can't see."

"You mean you haven't seen the color of his eyes?"

"Sadly, no. But he says he has brown eyes."

"Brown eyes, huh? I bet they are more like hazel, like yours."

Pepper shrugged. "I guess it doesn't really matter. His personality makes up for me not being able to see his eyes. It's a shame, really. You can tell a lot of a person by their eyes."

"Oh, I bet that there's more than his personality that makes up for it, right?" Maya opened one eye and wigged her eyebrows at the redhead.

Pepper felt herself go red in the face. "Maybe…"

"That blush tells me it's not a maybe but a 'heck yes'."

"I don't kiss and tell," Pepper smiled.

"But you totally did it with him and are going to totally let me know about it!"

"What? No! We haven't gotten _that_ far… not yet."

"And, why not?"

"What do you mean: why not? We've only been dating for less than two months!"

"So? You need to know if he's good at it, girl. Otherwise, you better dump him so that you don't waste your time."

"Oh, really?" she asked with a smirk. "Then that means that Tony is REALLY good at it if you haven't dumped him yet."

"Uhm," she cleared her throat. "Sure?"

"He's not?" Pepper was taken aback.

Maya avoided her gaze at all costs and when she began wringing her hands on her lap, the ginger knew what the problem was.

"You haven't either, huh?"

"No," Maya responded with a sigh. "Not for lack of trying, I'll tell you that."

"Haven't been able to stay alone long enough?"

"No, we've spent plenty of time at my house when my stepdad and mom are not around but Tony, he… well… he…"

Pepper furrowed her brows. "Hasn't initiated it?"

"Or followed," Maya groaned.

"Have you asked him why?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"It depends on the time. He's said that he's busy or too tired, or that it's not cool to do that at my house when my parents trust him there."

"Really?" Pepper's eyebrows knitted. "Well, if you'd told me sooner I'd have helped you a long time ago, but I can still help you now."

"Really? How?"

"I'll talk to him."

"What, no! Don't tell him I told you! He'll kill me!"

"He won't know you told me. I can get it out of him. And, once he tells me how bad of a boyfriend he's been, I'll have him ask you to our apartment for a date while me and Scott are gone for the weekend."

Maya's face was so hopeful it could have been one of a kid who had just been promised an endless supply of candy at command. "You-you'd really do that for me?"

"Of course! You're the only normal person Tony has ever dated and as long as you guys are happy together, I'll do anything I can to help you out."

"Normal person? How many people has Tony dated, other than Whitney Stane?"

"Only that one and she's a crazy one. She's the one who tried to kill me."

"K-kill you? I thought… I thought you were just kidnapped and held for ransom?"

"Oh, I wish. But no, Whitney had no intention of sending me back. She took me and tried to kill me. Didn't even bother telling anyone she had me."

"Oh, Pepper!" Maya frowned. "I didn't know. I… I'm sorry. Tony never told me. He just said you were taken and a little bit worse for wear when he found you. He didn't… he didn't say…"

"We try not to talk about it," the redhead said to reassure the brunette. "It's… painful… to remember, to say the least."

"Oh, I'd bet. I… well, that… that actually kinda explains a lot about why you and Tony are so close."

Pepper shrugged. "It's got nothing to do with Whitney. We were close before she took me, before I even knew about her. In fact, that's why she took me. To get back at Tony."

"Really? You mean you and Tony… you two… dated?"

Pepper laughed. "Oh, hell no! Never! But Whitney thought we did – as anyone else does, even today. She used to tease me a lot in high school. She used to call me names, like saying I was Tony's_ groupie_ or his_ pet_."

"Are you serious? What a bitch!"

"Well, she had her own problems at home. I guess, in the end, she just vented her frustrations on me. It didn't help that she didn't know that Tony was Iron Man for the longest time, so she thought that Tony and I spent a lot of time together because we were dating instead of because we were working together with Rhodey to complete missions."

"What happened to her?"

"Tony says she's locked up."

"Where?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier. I haven't gone to see her, and to be honest with you, I'm not ready to face her yet."

"I bet. I'd probably punch her in the face if she did that to me and then I had to see her again."

"Or use my unibeam on her," Pepper said in between her gritted teeth. "The only reason why I haven't gone to slap her is because of Tony. She's still his friend, or at least she used to be. I don't know at this point. But I know even today it would hurt him if I did something to her. He never liked the two of us fighting and that's all we did when we saw each other at school."

"Wow, Pepper. There's… there's so much I don't know about Tony. He… he doesn't talk much."

"Just talk to him about science. He'll never shut up," Pepper shrugged. "I usually tune him out when he does unless he's talking about it for work."

"I could, I can. I mean, my stepdad works at Stark International and I'm a science major, too, but…"

"But you want to talk about normal things with him."

"Yes," Maya lowered her head. "I just wish… I wish he'd talk to me the way he talks to you. He… he trusts you so much. In the very few times I've gotten him to open up, he… he's always talked so highly of you. He… the way he treats you and talks about you… he just protects you so much."

_Maya frowned. "I'm not Whitney Stane, Tony. I'm not hurting Pepper, if that's what you're implying."_

_ Tony's face turned somber and he pulled back from the embrace as if it had scalded him. "Just making sure. Because if you do try to hurt Pepper, I __**will**__ hurt you back."_

"Don't sweat it, Maya. You probably just make him nervous and he's not very good with words. It has to be different, talking to me and you. He's dating you and I'm just his friend. If he pisses me off, we'll argue, remember we pay rent together and then move on. If he pisses you off, you could end up breaking up with him. There's more at stake with you than with me. I bet you anything he's just watching what he says around you so that he doesn't end up upsetting you."

Maya listened to every single word Pepper said, and while some of it made sense to her, something deep within her told the brunette that Tony's actions were not what they seemed. She had tried her best not to feel jealous about Tony and Pepper's friendship, but the more time she spent with him and the less progress their relationship had, the more she could not help but place blame on the ginger near her. She practically ran his life – work and personal – and Tony just sat back and did everything she said, with little to no fight back.

"I guess you're right. I'll try harder."

"Or, don't try anything."

"What? You just told me to –"

"I said he talks science and that I'll get you guys our apartment to yourselves next weekend, but in return you should treat him like any other guy. He'll notice something's different and he'll try to find out what it is. He hates mysteries and not knowing what's wrong with you will get him interested in finding out."

"Do you really think so?"

"Trust me. If there's anything a genius of Tony's caliber hates, it's _not_ knowing. That and weapons technology, but we don't have to worry about that last part."

Both girls laughed, their conversation stopping just in time before they were due for a facial. Their girls-day out was just halfway done.

xxxXXXxxx

"Are you leaving me already?" Tony jested as he waltzed inside Pepper's room and noticed she was packing her bags. "Honey, whatever it is I did, I'll do better. Just, please, don't leave me."

He plopped himself on the bed with a wide smile and Pepper rolled her eyes as she continued walking back and forth from her closet to her luggage on the bed.

"I'm not leaving you yet, Tony. Though, I should. I've spent more time with you than with my boyfriend. I'm surprised he hasn't dumped me."

"He'd be an idiot if he did."

"Well," Pepper shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if he did and Maya dumped you too. We're terrible significant others, you know that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I was running an analysis of the time we've spent working or at school, and I realized that we haven't given them enough of our time. Scott is very patient but I'm sure he's wondering what the hell kind of relationship I want. Don't you wonder about Maya, too? Hasn't she said anything to you?"

Tony frowned as he thought about Pepper's question. He had noticed that the brunette was acting kind of weird for the last few days, but when he asked her about it, she had said nothing was wrong. If she said nothing was wrong, that meant nothing was wrong, right?

"No, I don't think she has. I guess it doesn't bother her that much, then."

Pepper's first response was to hit him in the face with the dress she had in her hand. Tony was taken aback by her move and glared at her while she folded her dress again and put it inside her bag.

"What was that for?"

"You're the worst boyfriend ever, Tony! Just because she hasn't said anything, it doesn't mean she doesn't care."

"Well, that makes no sense," he folded his arms over his chest. "If something's bothering her, she should just tell me."

Pepper groaned.

"That's not how it works with women. If you want to keep her around, I'd start acting nice with her if I were you. And that includes asking her out this weekend. We both owe Scott and her some quality time."

"Well," Tony shrugged and unfolded his arms, "Why don't we all go out together this weekend, the four of us?"

Pepper momentarily stopped what she was doing and looked at him with a surprised face. "Did you actually just make a_ good_ relationship-building recommendation?"

Tony scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You don't have to sound so surprised about it. I have a heart."

"Of course you have a heart," she blew him a kiss. "And, why shouldn't I be surprised? It's such a breakthrough for you! I wish Rhodey were here to hear it. I'll probably tell him about it in the next e-mail I send him."

"Ha-ha, so funny," he said. "So, what do you say? Double-date this weekend?"

"I can't. I already have plans," she zipped close one of her bags. "That's why I'm packing."

"Where are you going? Did I miss a memo again?" Tony whined. "Are we due at a conference or something?"

"No," she chuckled. "Scott and I got a cabin up in the mountains for the weekend."

Tony's heart stopped. "What?"

"Sorry I didn't tell you sooner; it was a last minute thing. We leave tomorrow after work and come back Sunday night."

"Who, uhm," Tony cleared his throat and adjusted his position on the bed. "Who else is going on this trip with you?"

"Just me and him."

"So, you guys getting a cabin with separate rooms and beds?"

Pepper threw her head back in laughter and zipped close her second bag before moving them both to the floor and then sat to Tony's left.

"I'm not twelve, Tony, and neither is he."

"Well, yeah, I know but, you hardly know this dude. What if he tries to take advantage of you while out there in No-Man's Land?"

"You mean take advantage of me before I take advantage of him?"

"Pepper!" Tony made a point of covering his ears with his hands. The redhead giggled at his actions, grabbed him by the wrists and pulled his hands away from his ears. The inventor sighed in defeat and shrugged, wanting nothing more than to find a way to make her stay even though he knew he had no right.

"So, you guys getting serious, then?"

Pepper one-side shrugged. "Maybe. He's really nice to me and he's been so patient with how busy we've been with the acquisition. I owe him a lot, that's why I suggested we took this weekend just for ourselves."

"Does it have to be the whole weekend?" Tony asked. "What am I supposed to do here by myself? I know I said I'd rather count the ceiling tiles than go to work, but I was just kidding."

"What the hell do you mean: by yourself? Tony, you've got Maya! You should ask her out, make it up to her. You owe her as much as I owe Scott. Why don't you ask her to stay here over the weekend?"

"Huh?"

"Uh, yeah! It'd be great! You get to have the entire apartment to yourselves and I already cleared our schedules this weekend. You should totally do it!"

"You think it's a good idea?" Tony asked with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"I think it's a GREAT idea! You should probably buy condoms, too!"

"WHAT?"

"Oh, come on, Tony! Like you and Maya haven't totally done it already."

Tony's silence was the only answer she needed to confirm Maya's words had been the truth. They remained silent for a moment and, a few seconds later, Pepper stared at Tony's downcast form.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

The inventor scoffed. "You don't have to act like a guy for my sake, Pep. I can call Rhodey."

"I'm not," she shrugged. "And if you call Rhodey and tell him you haven't slept with Maya, he's probably gonna make fun of you. Question your manhood and all that."

Tony bit his tongue to keep from responding that, from everyone he knew, Rhodey would know exactly why he had not slept with his supermodel of a girlfriend yet, and would probably tell him to suck it up and move on. Rhodey had warned him of this: Pepper falling for someone else and the pain it would bring the blue-eyed boy, but it was not until it was actually happening that Tony knew how wrong he had been that he could handle it all with no problem and just watch, and long for her, from afar.

"We'll work it out," Tony finally said and stared at Pepper. "I'll ask her out this weekend. Make it up to her, just like you said."

Pepper smiled at him for an instant but then her smile turned into a frown when she saw that look of uncertainty clouding Tony's eyes. She placed her hand on his left knee and stroked it up and down a few times before she spoke again. "What aren't you telling me, Tony?"

_That I love you_, Tony thought as he stared deeply into her eyes. _That I don't want to see you with Scott and that I don't love Maya and never will. That when I kiss her, I'm picturing you. And that there have been so many times when I've almost called her by your name. That I wish I'd never asked Gene to modify your memories and I wish we'd together right now. That I think about you all the time and that every time I'm with you, I have to stop myself from kissing you – just like right now. That I secretly pray that you have a nightmare about Ghost or Whitney, just so that you come to my bed at night and I can pretend you'll stay with me like that every day. That I love the way you dance and I've already picked the song that could've been our first dance. That I already have all planned out our first real date that will never happen, and I that I love the way your long hair looks on you. __**That I don't know how to be just your friend.**__ That I don't know how I'm supposed to watch you walk away from me when you're everything I want and everything I can't have. And that even if I'd known what being with you would cost, I'd still be selfish enough to go through it anyway if just to say that you were mine once._

_ "_Nothing," he finally said and gave her the most honest smile he could muster before he grabbed the hand that had been resting on his leg and kissed the back of it. "It's nothing, Pep."


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Did the last chapter have enough **Pepperony** for you? ;) No? Well, here's some more ^_^

**Shout outs:** Hey, _Ana_ and _Maleni_! Gene will be appearing at some point during these sequels, just can't tell you guys when :) I'm a Gepper shipper, too, by the way. Also, for my Faithful Reader from Colombia (I don't know who you are; wish I knew, though), you're always the first one to pop up on my story viewer/visitor stats regardless of when I post: YOU ROCK!

Also_, | OmegaInfinity |_, I totally LOVE the nickname you gave to these stories: _The Last Chronicles_.

Totally using it!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: November<strong>

Today was officially marked as the coldest day in the last one hundred years in New York. Schools and businesses had closed down, flights had been cancelled, and even the subway had cut down on its use. The streets were nearly empty as anyone who did not have to be out in the streets had stayed home, and that included Pepper Potts.

Tony had also stayed indoors with her for a while, but shortly after they had been woken up by Nick Fury, he had had his hand forced and had been dragged to the Helicarrier to further discuss the weapons recall that had already started. Unbeknownst to Pepper, Nick Fury had played a very dirty hand to get the inventor to fly to the Helicarrier in the middle of the worst winter storm of the century: he had threatened to tell Pepper the truth about her former relationship with the young billionaire if he did not immediately show up. Tony could not allow this to happen at this point.

This, in fact, had been the same threat he had postured to the inventor against taking away the rest of his weapons. He knew Stark Solutions making more weapons was out of the question and that, even if he revealed to the ginger that she had once been Tony Stark's squeeze, in the end it would not get him more weapons. All that Nick Fury wanted right now was to just keep the weapons he already had. Tony had been left with no other choice but to comply; although, the argument with the General had been anything but a walk in the park.

Four hours after Tony had left, a worried redhead was still bundled under a mountain of blankets as she watched the weather reports on television in the living room. Her eyes had been constantly staring back and forth from the television to the balcony, hoping to see Iron Man land. So far, there had been no sign of him and she was seriously considering suiting up and flying to the Helicarrier, even if she knew she would probably be yelled at by Tony for daring the storm when there was no need to do so.

_"I'll be fine, Pepper. I'll be back as soon as I can,"_ he had told her with a sad smile before he had departed, and since then Pepper had been repeating his words to herself. He would be fine; he could take care of himself. He could take on Fury if he had to. He could outsmart the weather in his reinforced suit of armor and come home in one piece.

Come home to her.

Even though her weekend with Scott had been delightful and relaxing, the moment she had returned home, the redhead had resumed her Tony-watching routine. She was taking more time off work to share it with Scott, but at the same time, she was not enjoying it as much, as she spent half of it worrying about her genius boy. He and Maya seemed to have reconnected a lot after their weekend together, but she still had the feeling that something was off between them and she wanted to know what it was.

He had sworn to her that everything was great between him and Maya and that he was just not really good with relationships but that he was getting better, and to the latter she could not argue back. However, she had always been confident that, as soon as the inventor got a chance to develop an interest in someone, the rest would just naturally come out on its own. Clearly, she had been mistaken – or so she thought. The boy appeared, to her, to still be as clueless about feelings as he had been the day he had met her, but only because she was not aware that the woman he was with was not the one he actually loved.

_O9-17-2011_, she thought. _That first day of his at the Academy. The first day we met. He hasn't changed a bit since then._

Then again, saying that he had remained exactly the same despite the passing of time was a little unfair to him. He had matured – physically and mentally – and had developed some sense of understanding that there was more to the world than Iron Man and his father's company. This understanding was soundly reflected in his latest inventions, and the work and energy he was putting into Stark Solutions was further proof that his goal now was to save the world in any way he could. He had recently been devotedly working on some sort of _Intelli-Crops_, or at least that was what he called them for now, that he hoped would help less developed countries grow crops even in the harshest of weather conditions imaginable with the least resources available. The United Nations could not wait to get their hands on their prototype, which was due to come out soon.

He was also working with the medical team they had acquired with Hammer Multinational to develop a top-notch, self-sustained mobile medical unit. The goal was for it to be able to provide free health care services in low-income areas of the country, and he planned on expanding its reach once he perfected its design.

Neither one of them had imagined what acquiring Hammer Multinational would truly entail. Stark Solutions had initially been a three-people company, born out of the necessity to find funds to keep the Iron Man operation running. Today, months later, Stark Solutions had grown exponentially, and with every meeting he and Pepper held with each individual working for the former Hammer Multinational Corporation, their ideas about how to use their new resources for the betterment of the world were overflowing their brains.

_"I always knew my daughter was a superhero,"_ Pepper remembered her father's words after the Makluan invasion ended and it had been revealed to the world who Team Iron Man was. His words had turned out to be prophetic and not just because of the presence of Rescue in her life.

The lights flickered again when another strong gust of wind hit the building, pulling Pepper out of her thoughts. The storm was progressively worsening, and it was only a matter of time until Team Iron Man would be called for backup. She could not imagine what the rescue and city maintenance crews were going through right now as they tried to keep some of the main streets and basic services working for the millions of people that were being affected by the blizzard. These poor workers had to face the horrible weather conditions if only to make sure that she could bury herself under the covers on her couch in the comfort of her electrically-warmed home while she prayed that Tony made it back soon.

Her eyes landed on her pod resting on the coffee table before her and she reached for it. She held it in her hands for a brief instant, debating on whether to call Tony to ask how he was fairing. She had been good so far and had only asked his status twice since he had left, but it was now reaching the two-hour mark since she had last heard from him.

_He should've taken the Artic Armor_, she bit her lower lip. _The Mark II can handle the winter only for so long._

She knew that, if his suit was in trouble, she would have a long time ago gotten a notification sent to her pod and armor, but that did not placate her nerves. She had no idea why Tony had not taken her with him to deal with Nick Fury, but she figured it had to do with the General's harsh words about her during the board meeting he had attended.

_Nick eyed Rescue up and down. "It's a shame that you trust her this much, Tony," Fury said bitterly. "You'd do so much better without her. She's clearly holding you back. Maybe you should've never found her. Or at least not alive."_

She shook the horrible thought from her head. In the end, as terrible as Fury's words had been, the reality was that it should not matter what anyone else said about her and Tony. If Tony was happy with her presence and performance on the job, anyone else who did not approve of her actions could go perform a crude act of a sexual nature on themselves. As long as she did not interfere with the inventor's development and expansion of his corporation, and as long as he did not directly tell her to go away, she knew she was doing what she was supposed to do; what she promised Howard she would do for his son.

_I'm taking care of him. That's all._

Her pod began beeping and she sighed deeply in relief. The pod had picked up on the approaching suit of armor and she happily got up from the couch, one blanket in hand. She rounded the piece of furniture, practically rushed to the balcony door and made sure to remove the locks. Seconds later, the familiar sound of repulsors hit her ears and she immediately opened the door to allow for Tony to walk inside. As soon as he stepped into the protection of his home, he removed the suit – this time he wore the actual suit and not just the backpack – and thanks to Extremis, he was down to his regular clothes in no time.

"Fucking shit!" Tony spat as he clattered his teeth. "It's COLD, Pepper! COLD, I tell you!"

Pepper finished locking the balcony doors once more and then turned around to face the inventor with a worried look. She then remembered that she had a blanket in her hands for a very specific purpose and she quickly used it to wrap him in it by walking around him in a circle and resting it on his shoulders before returning to her original position in front of him. Tony made sure to grab the edges of it and immediately felt that much warmer, smiling his thanks to her. His eyes then landed on the ginger, who had been pelleted by snow even though the balcony door had been open for just mere seconds, and he walked over to her.

"Everything OK around here?" he asked and then wrapped them both in the same blanket she had just handed him. "Sorry I got snow on your clothes just now."

"It's OK," she replied and surrounded his waist with her arms, allowing him to completely close the blanket around both their forms. She would not admit it to him, just so that he would not feel guilty, but the few seconds she had been exposed to the cold had completely undid hours of being inside the warmth and under the covers. "How did it go with Fury?"

Tony shrugged. "He's keeping the rest of his weapons, but we're not giving them any maintenance and he's not getting any more from us."

"Good," Pepper said and then began leading them both to the couch where the rest of the blankets waited for them. "That'll teach the prick. I bet he had to blackmail you or something like that to keep the 25% of weapons we still had left to take from him."

"He played a hard game, but in the end he still lost. Those weapons will be used in no time and he'll be back to square one."

"Serves him right," Pepper said. Tony took off his shoes and climbed onto the couch with her. After some readjusting, they both sat next to each other, mountains of blankets keeping them warm. "Do you want to watch something other than the weather?"

"Let's watch the news, just in case we're needed."

"OK," Pepper responded and then changed the channel to the 24-hour local news channel. The teens watched the development of the storm and how many more services were being affected by the blizzard, which apparently was just getting started and was expected to worsen even more in the next few hours.

"We should probably send a memo to everyone that work is cancelled until further notice," the blue-eyed boy said as an afterthought.

"Already did," Pepper said and yawned. Last night the two of them had been sorting through Hammer Multinational's former procedures and policies to make sure their weather emergency contingency plan allowed them to run the company from home. They had not gone to bed until the sun had risen – or was supposed to since the storm kept it from shining in all its glory – and it had not even been two hours later that Fury had called.

"Go take a nap, Pep," he nudged her under the blankets.

"Only if you take one, too. We both need to sleep."

"I can't," he said. "What if Iron Man is needed?"

"Then you wake up and wake me up too and we go. We aren't going to help anyone if we are passing out in the middle of a mission."

"I can handle being awake for long without rest better than you can."

"Doesn't mean you should. If you want me to nap, you're coming with me," she mumbled.

"You're seriously not going to sleep unless I do?"

"You better believe it," she answered and the inventor sighed.

"Fine, Pepper, but we're gonna have to choose a bed. The temperature has gone down ten degrees in an hour and I don't think the building is going to be able to keep everybody warm for long."

"Yours is comfier."

"Yours is cleaner," he said and she chuckled. She then rested her head on his shoulder and yawned.

"Or maybe we should just pass out here. I don't feel like moving and we've already warmed up the couch."

His response was to readjust them once more so that they both lay across the couch. He ended up resting his back on the cushions and brought Pepper to rest on top of him. He could tell Pepper was beyond caring how or where they fell asleep when she did not even yelp when he pulled her to him. Instead, she wiggled until she found a comfortable position that placed her half on him, half on the couch and against the back of it, and immediately closed her eyes.

"Wake me up before you go-go," she mumbled to him.

"Kinda have to now," he began with a joking tone. "Need to go through you to get up."

"That was the point," she slurred to him and, seconds later, Tony felt her body becoming a dead weight.

Even though he disliked winters and the bitter cold New York seemed to fall victim to every so often, he was glad that something good had come out of the current blizzard hitting them with full force. Loving the way she was now starting to curl around him, he too closed his eyes, lazily hugged her and almost instantly passed out.

xxxXXXxxx

He opened one eye when he realized that the blankets were no longer sufficient in keeping him warm and he wondered how long he had been asleep. It took him a moment to remember he was not lying in his bed but on the couch, and that he was definitely not sleeping alone. He opened both eyes and stared down at the girl now lying completely on top of him and who was now also clinging on to him as if her life depended on it, shivering and practically burying her face in his neck. He took in a deep breath to yawn, and when he saw his breath form in front of him, he knew something was not right.

He blinked several times to adjust his eyes and focused on the red mane by his face. He moved his head left and right as much as he could to take in her position before he even attempted to move. Her arms surrounded his chest and went under him, pressed between his back and the cushions. He could also feel their legs tangled together and the slight nuzzling of her lips and nose against his neck and face. Had he not felt that she was also as cold as he, he would have stayed in that position all his life if that made her happy and comfortable.

"Pepper?" he croaked and then cleared his throat. "Pepper, wake up."

The ginger's only response was to moan, which, being fair to the young man, only served to make his heart – and other body parts – react in ways he knew she would not appreciate right now.

"Pep," his hands rose from resting on her lower back to her shoulders and he shook her. "It's cold again, Pepper. I think the heater crapped out."

The next moan that escaped her was more of a defeated one rather than a complaining one, but the effect on the inventor was pretty much the same. He closed his eyes and pictured the most horrendous images he could think of to calm his hormones and when he felt he again had control over his body, he spoke up again.

"Seriously, Potts. It's cold enough to see my breath."

He felt her slowly shift and push herself up from him ever so slightly. She opened her eyes but they were only squinted at best, as she moved her head left to right a few times before looking down at him.

"What time is it? Why is it so dark in here?"

It was then that Tony's field of vision expanded from her body being on his and realized that the ginger was correct. It was too dark and too quiet around them to just say it was the dead of the night. The only noise they could hear came from outside and it was the unmistakable sound of raging wind.

"Let's find out."

They slowly untangled from each other and as soon as the blankets fell to the floor with their moves, they both whined and hugged themselves.

"What the hell?" Pepper began, the harsh cold in their own home smacked her back to fully alert mode. "Did we wake up in the South Pole?"

Her statement was meant to be just a silly comparison for the sake of humor, but he knew she could very well equate the climate of both locations seeing as she had been at the South Pole when Whitney had taken her. He did not need the reminder, still.

"You'd think," Tony finally said and began walking around. "I think the power's out. Didn't we leave the TV on?"

Pepper's eyes landed on the device before lifting the remote to it and pressing the ON button only to see it not respond. She then stared at the kitchen to search for the clock lights of the microwave and the stove and found that neither of them was on either.

"I think you're right," she said and went the opposite way he was going and walked over to the balcony to look at the mountains of white outside. "The wind must have knocked down a transformer. Do you think it's just us?"

"I don't think so," Tony picked up his pod from the coffee table and began analyzing the area. "I think it's citywide."

"Great," Pepper groaned. "Have they called us yet?"

Tony shook his head. "We don't have any messages."

"Maybe they can't," Pepper said, returned to the couch and hugged herself again, her hands rubbing her arms up and down. "Maybe they can't get a hold of us."

"They know how to use the radio to find us. If they need us, they'll call."

"Guess you're right," she replied with a worried tone, sincerely hoping that someone, somewhere was not in dire need of help while the two of them just sat around doing nothing in their apartment. It was not as if she was dying to go out in the cold, but her duty to protect was always overwhelming. She then took her folded hands to her mouth and exhaled warm air into them. "So, now what?"

"Let's start the fireplace."

As the inventor began his task of getting at least one source of heat and light going, Pepper began moving their current sleeping arrangements to the floor in front of the fireplace. The fireplace was supposed to be mostly decorative, so when it was on, it only heated anything near it and not the entire home. By the time the fire was going, Pepper had already finished setting blankets and pillows on the floor and was now hiding under them.

"You wouldn't think it's just five in the afternoon," Tony stated as he joined the ginger under the covers, behind her. "It's so dark."

"Stupid winter time," the redhead said between clenched teeth as she waited for the small fire to help her warm up. "I hate, hate, HATE the cold!"

Tony chuckled and slid closer to her, holding her waist from behind and pressing her back against his chest. She was directly facing the fireplace, lying on her right side, but right now Tony's hold on her seemed to be warming her up faster than the fireplace could.

"Pep, we live in New York. That's just how it is around here."

"Maybe we should move to California, where it's nice and warm."

"We? What about Maya and Scott?"

"They can come, too," she said as she closed her eyes for an instant when she felt herself melt under his surprisingly warm touch. "Who'd say 'no' to beachfront properties and celebrities in every corner? Ooh! We could even try out for _Breakdancing with Celebrities_!"

"I thought Scott couldn't dance?" he piped, rested the right side of his face on her left side and closed his eyes.

"I didn't mean him and me. I meant you and me. We could totally win it, too! We're very good dancing together!"

Tony's eyes snapped open. "Pepper, I love you and all, but there's no way you're getting me signed up for dancing on national television."

"Why not?" she asked with a mocking tone and unconsciously stretched her neck to give Tony more space to get comfortable in it, which he also unconsciously accepted immediately by burying his face deeper into it, despite her hair tickling his nose. "Is Tony Stark suddenly shy? Don't think you have what it takes to win? If I didn't know you any better, I'd say you just backed out of a challenge. Where did your nerve go, huh?"

"It froze," Tony said without missing a beat and the ginger laughed aloud. "What would you expect when it's freaking minus 8 degrees outside?"

"WHAT?" just hearing how cold it was outside made her feel that much colder. "Oh, my God! This sucks! How long do you think the power will be out?"

Tony shrugged. "Hard to tell. We don't even know when it died. We'll just have to hope that it comes back soon. We don't have that much wood and kindle in here. It'll only last us for just a couple of more hours and then we're out."

"Ugh," Pepper grumbled and opened her eyes to stare back at his face that was inches from hers. "Then, what are we going to do?"

"Suit up?" Tony offered. "The armors can keep us warm for a few hours until the batteries run out, but I'd rather save that in case we do get called."

"Maybe we should just go to the Temple and use the backup generator," she returned her gaze to the front.

"We could, but then we'd be farther away from the city and if there was an emergency, we would have to come right back anyway."

"Or, maybe you could just _stop_ bursting my bubble and finding loopholes to all my ideas? How about that?"

Tony laughed. "Sorry, Pep. Just thinking of all possibilities."

"Yeah, I know," she said with defeat. "I'm just tired and cold and hungry and you're the only one around to vent my frustrations on."

"Ain't that always the case for the two of us?"

"It seems so," she agreed, closed her eyes again and allowed herself to relax. Tony moved his left hand from her waist to her face to rearrange her hair so that it did not bother him or her and, as he did so, his eyes landed on the familiar mark on her neck; the mark that reminded him of how close he had been to losing her.

Before he could stop himself, his fingers stroked the insult to her otherwise perfect skin. Pepper did not seem to mind his touch so he kept tracing every pore of it with his fingertips as the memory of how the blemish had ended up there hit him like a brick wall. He was yet to admit it to Pepper, but he also had nightmares about that day, in addition to the ones he already had about what she had gone through under Whitney's hand. He had Gene to thank for those, actually, and as soon as he could escape to China to pay him a visit, he would most certainly do so. He owed him a black eye.

He clenched his eyes when the sight of his nightmares came to the front of his mind. It was always the same dream, and despite how much he had tried to change it, he had not been able to do so, so far. The entire fight with Ghost in his dream always followed the actual pattern of the real fight, with the only exception being that at the end, Pepper did not survive. It always happened the same way. He was too slow to snap Ghost's neck and by the time he did so, Pepper was lying in a pool of her own blood. Her eyes were blank, rolled to the back of her head, her mouth partially opened and dripping blood from the corners of her lips. Seconds later, Ghost would come back to life and laugh at him, even as his neck was twisted completely and still in Tony's hands. Ghost's laughter was eerie, mocking and chilling to the bone and it went on and on until he was able to wake up.

Pepper felt his body tense up and it worried her. "Tony, are you alright?"

Her whisper snapped him right out of his daydreaming and he exhaled near her ear in a way that made her pores prickle and her toes curl, to her surprise. "Yeah, sorry. It's just… I _hate_ this scar. I hate it _so_ much."

Pepper swallowed hard, grabbed his left hand in hers and laced them together. She then led both of them to her lips and she kissed the back of his a couple of times in what she hoped was comforting for him. She could not care any less about her scar, but she did care about what it implied for Tony being there.

"It's a battle scar, Tony," she rested her cheek on their joined hands. "It's a sign that we won. That's all it is."

"Not for me it isn't," he said, bitterly. "It's a reminder that I almost failed you."

"But you didn't. You didn't fail me."

"But I almost did."

"_Almost_ doesn't count. If the world ran on 'almost,' we wouldn't get anything done but we'd still be happy about it," she returned his hand to her waist, but he immediately removed it and placed it on her hip instead. The blankets were only partially covering them now. Both of their bodies were exposed from the shoulders up. Pepper was not sure if it was the fact that they were keeping each other warm or if it was just the comfort she felt whenever she was around him, but when he leaned down to press a lingering kiss on the scar on her neck, she did not pull away from him or asked him to stop, even though she knew she should.

Moments like these were not uncommon between them, but none of them had been as intimate as this one felt. She had run to his bed in the middle of the night countless times after a nightmare, and he had also spent nights in hers after a long day of work when neither of them felt like moving out of where they had crashed – or when Tony had buried his bed under the parts of a new prototype he had brought home and did not feel like moving it off his bed. Finding herself in his protective arms was not unheard of, as she recalled that, even during their high school years, there had been a lot of hugs and similar physical contact between them but, so far, it had been nothing like this – not that she could instantly recall, anyway.

And, based on what he was doing and how it was making her feel, she just _knew_ she would never forget an experience like this.

Even that kiss she had given him as a thank you for saving her had not been overly analyzed by either of them. In fact, it had not even been brought up since it had occurred. It was as if there was an unspoken agreement between them: one that stated that they could go farther than a simple friend could go when they were alone together and the other required the physical comfort or had an emotional need, and the next day they acted as if nothing had ever happened between them; as if they had not spent the night in the other's arms, or danced closer than needed, or held hands on a lazy afternoon on their couch just for the heck of it.

Later, a month down the road, the redhead would wonder if this was the reason why both of their romantic relationships were somewhat stagnant: because the dynamics of their friendship functioned so uniquely that they managed to fulfill the deep, personal connections and physical interaction cravings one was supposed to build only with the one they loved.

This moment, however, was just a tad too close to the other side of the blurred line of friendship and romance they had unconsciously drawn in the sand between themselves a long time ago. She knew it was wrong, for him to be experiencing her like this, and that it needed to be stopped, but when he briefly removed his lips from her neck only to press down even harder on it, accompanied by a small, playful bite with his teeth, she shamelessly moaned.

That only riled him up even more.

His lips were pressed so hard against her flesh that he could sense her heartbeat through them. It had been normal at first, but in the nanosecond it took him to return to the scar for a second time, he could have sworn it had doubled in rate. Or maybe he was just feeling his own skyrocketing pulse and not hers.

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, to get him to stop before she really could not control her reactions to him. Yet, the never-before-experienced tingly and warm sensation that enveloped her entire body when he began alternating kisses with bites and suction on her damned scar, and his right hand on her hip began assertively stroking her skin under her blouse, made her voice leave her for ten whole seconds. And at no point during that time did he stop.

"Tony?" she breathed, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible despite her rising temperature and heart rate. "I… I know you hate the scar…" she gulped and breathed through her nose. "But, I-I don't think you can kiss it away."

That got him to stop.

"Sorry," he whispered before he opted to just bury his face in her neck again as he tried to come back down from where his desire for her had been taking him. "I… it couldn't hurt to try."

It was lame and cheesy, and it completely did not explain why he had lost himself just now, but she was glad and relieved for the attempt at shrugging off what he had just done to her and what she had allowed him to do – and had enjoyed. She knew neither Maya nor Scott would approve of this no matter how much they tried sugarcoating it. She doubted that the reasons that: it had been freaking cold and that the power had been out, and that they had been lying next to the other in front of a fireplace in what could be the most romantic setting she had ever been part of in her entire life, would fly as acceptable motives for practically making out with her friend and roommate.

"If you really hate it that much I can have it surgically removed."

"No," he replied. "It's alright. I just… I need to get over it. That's all," he said, thinking more about his feelings for her than the scar.

She had no response to that, fortunately or unfortunately; she could not tell which one, as her mind was worrying more about what it meant that the moment Tony had pressed his mouth to her neck and she had wanted more of it, she had completely forgotten about Scott.

xxxXXXxxx

Three hours later, the fireplace was out, but the electricity was not back. At this point, the apartment was so cold it hurt to breathe and their bodies were so close to each other it was difficult to tell where Pepper Potts ended and where Tony Stark began. Little by little, the other residents of the complex had abandoned their homes and were now gathered at the main lobby where the large, log fireplace was still up and running, and while at first neither of them had felt like hanging around with the neighbors they had never taken the chance to meet before, the idea was turning more and more attractive by the second. Or, at least to the redhead it was.

Immediately after the fireplace in their apartment had died, Tony had used his armor to power a small space heater they owned, but when the suit's battery hit 60% charge in just half an hour, the idea had to be ditched instantly and indefinitely. Their only choices now were either joining the rest of the tenants downstairs or flying to the Temple in the middle of the unforgiving winter storm.

"We don't have to talk to anyone, Tony," Pepper said as she untangled herself from him, stood up from the floor and began straightening out her wrinkled clothes and hair while Tony watched attentively from his lying position under the blankets on the floor. "We can take a corner and just sit there and wait."

"I know. It's just that, well, I just know someone's going to come to us and try to talk and ask us stupid questions. I bet you five bucks we won't make it more than a minute there without something or someone giving us away."

"Well, would you rather die silently in the cold or live chatting in the warmth? 'Cuz, I don't know about you, but I'll risk being asked how good you are in bed for the millionth time if I can _just_ be somewhere I can feel my toes again."

"People still ask you that?"

"Every day," Pepper answered with a roll of her eyes. "And if they keep asking, I'm gonna have to ask Maya to let me know so I can have a frame of reference and at least be able to respond with: _I wouldn't know, but his girlfriend says x or y_."

Tony laughed nervously, stood up and also began straightening out his clothes.

"Let's make a deal. If the next time someone asks you how good I am in bed you say I'm the best you've ever had, then, the next time_ I'm_ asked how good you are, I'll say the same."

"WHAT?! Who the _hell_ asked you something ridiculous like that?" she asked as she put on the thickest jacket she owned.

"Every man I've ever met that recognizes me and knows we live together," he responded and handed her winter boots to her.

"Who _wouldn't_ recognize you?" she asked in an annoyed tone and put on her shoes.

"Exactly," Tony said with a tilt of the head and then put on his shoes.

"And… the media… they told everyone we live together…"

"Right," he nodded once, waiting for her to get to where he was going to with his response.

"UGH!" Pepper threw her hands in the air when she pieced it together that, every man Tony had ever spoken with, had asked about her sex life. "Whatever! Let's go."

"Wait, what am I supposed to say then?" he closed the distance between them as they neared the door.

"Tell them to ask Scott," she angrily responded as she picked up her backpack armor from the floor and placed it on her back. "He can give them details if they really want them."

"Oh," Tony said and swallowed hard. "I'll keep that in mind."

"I'll say the same about Maya for you."

With nothing more to say, the two of them exited the apartment and their floor, and in no time walked down the emergency stairs and reached the already full lobby downstairs. As opposed as to what they had been expecting, everyone seemed to be minding their own business and had not even noticed their entrance. Kids were on the floor with coloring books in hand or doodling. Teenagers were playing card games, on their phones, or gossiping with one another, and the adults were either talking to other guests or reading books.

The staff of the complex was also present and very busy keeping the fireplace going. They were also passing around blankets, warm drinks and some sweets to the stranded residents. It was difficult to see everybody's faces since the only light came from the large fireplace in the middle of the room, but since the heat could be felt everywhere in the vicinity, Tony and Pepper knew they could probably get away with sitting in the back and their presence in the room would never be noted.

"See? We should've just come down here a long time ago," Pepper nudged Tony with her left elbow. "They have donuts!"

"Fine! Next time a blizzard hits us, we'll come straight down here."

"Thank you," she winked at him. "All we have to do now is get some hot chocolate and some donuts, find a place to hide, and no one will ever even know that –"

The ginger's words were interrupted when both their pods and her armor began beeping loudly, catching the attention of everyone around them. Their eyes met for the briefest second and when they looked at the bystanders, anyone who still had a working phone was already taking pictures of them.

Tony sighed when their pods and her armor rung again and they redirected their attention to said devices to realize their worst fear had ensued: the city needed Team Iron Man, urgently. Pepper took off her backpack and shed as many jackets as she could before she replaced the backpack on her and activated the suit. The inventor mimicked her actions and by the time his called armor made it out from the now probably broken balcony window in their apartment to outside the lobby door, he was ready to suit up.

It only took him five seconds to put on his armor when he stepped out of the building with Pepper in tow, and it was only a second after that the two of them flew in the direction of one of the many emergencies the city needed them for.

xxxXXXxxx

It was nearly midnight when they got the call that the rescue of the survivors of a train that had derailed hours ago was going downhill, and it had been almost an hour since Rescue and Iron Man had begun working together to find any survivors and had been pulling them out of the frigid waters of the river the train had flipped over into. The passenger train had been coming from the south, unaware of the weather conditions due to a miscommunication with headquarters, and the price they had paid for that miscommunication had been too high.

So far, and despite Tony and Pepper's best efforts, half of the passengers were dead. Most of them had died on impact, but some of them had died when their bodies had been propelled out of the train when the compartments split open, some still tied to their seats, and sent them to the bottom of the frozen river to meet a terrible death. The ice, snow, and wind had made a quick rescue mission practically impossible for the proper authorities, and it had not been until the rescuers themselves had begun struggling to remain alive that Team Iron Man had been called. The two of them had already called it for the night after completing several other successful rescue missions and had been heading home, both exhausted and in dire need of recharging their armors. But when the head of the police department had pleaded to them to help out, neither of them had had the heart to decline.

Rescue held in her arms the body of a barely breathing little boy she had just located in the river and she hastily took him to the nearest paramedics, hoping his life could be saved. As soon as she handed the child to the medical unit, she felt her legs give under her and she collapsed on her knees on the new layer of snow. She was taking in deep breaths, trying her best to remain awake and ignore the bitterness of the weather seeping inside her suit every time it had to open and close when she dove into the water.

There was a reason why Tony had created the Arctic Armor: the regular suit parts tended to freeze up in the even now colder temperatures of the night, but the Arctic Armor was not the best to carry out a rescue mission in the conditions they were currently in; it was too bulky to freely maneuver and "flexibility" was the word of the day. She had been chattering her teeth for a while now, feeling the chill down to the bone as they had gone from mission to mission, but she knew that as soon as she made the slightest remark of discomfort, Tony would send her flying back home by hacking her suit with Extremis, if he had to.

_Just a little longer_, she reminded herself. _We're only missing ten more people and we're done. We're done finding bodies… the ones we couldn't help in time, _she thought bitterly.

"Rescue, need a break?" she heard him ask her as he took steps toward her, towing with him another piece of the train that had been floating in the water and thus making search and rescue that much more difficult. "Don't lie to me."

"I'm fine," she responded to him and pulled herself up before he finally reached her. "Just needed to catch my breath."

"You know I can scan your vitals from here, right?"

"You know I can do the same, too?" she challenged.

Tony narrowed his eyes and switched to internal communications only, images of their faces appearing inside their helmets for the other to see. "Go home, Pep."

"No," she immediately responded. "I can finish this. We're both going home together."

"I don't want you to catch pneumonia. You've been in and out of the water more than I have."

"Because I'm the better swimmer."

"It doesn't matter with the suit on," he crossed his armored hands over his chest in a smug, know-it-all way Pepper had seen on him a lot when the suit was on.

"Well, I'm not leaving, Tony. You can forget it," she added as she walked by him and began her trek back to the water. "So, if you want me to go home soon, you better hurry up and help me find the ten people that are still unaccounted for."

Iron Man sighed loudly and ignored the looks they were getting from the authorities when he ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm to stop her. She looked down at his arm and then up at his helmet when it retracted to show his tired face. She opened up hers as well.

"Pepper, please. I know you've been freezing for the past two hours, and that your lips are chapped and that you haven't had anything to eat for twelve hours. Go. Home."

"Why would _I_ go home when you're in the same boat as me?"

That answer took him aback but he should have seen it coming. "Because… because I…" he bit his lower lip to stop his initial retort that he wanted her home because he did not want her hurt again. "Because I'm the leader of Team Iron Man and I'm _ordering_ you to retreat."

Pepper narrowed her eyes at him and pulled her arm away from his grip. She then closed her helmet, gave him a dismissive wave of her hand and flew away from him faster than he could think to stop her. He sighed once more and closed his faceplate again before he decided to just do what she had suggested and speed up their return home by finding whoever was left.

He watched her dive down into the water again to search for survivors. If it had been a normal day, they would have been done a long time ago, but with the weather they were experiencing, most of their radars were off, leaving them with no option but to rely on a combination of the armor, their instincts and a whole lot of luck.

He took a step closer to the edge of the river to follow the ginger inside the water, but it was then that he heard the sound that made time come to a near stop.

Everyone's heads snapped up in the same direction where the loud whistling sound was coming from. At first, it was not easy finding out what the noise was, but when Iron Man heard the police officers begin to scream for everyone to leave or take cover, Tony knew whatever was about to happen was not good at all.

He activated all of his radars and stared up at the dark sky, and when the speck of light became _specks_ of light, he felt his blood rush to the ground.

"NO!"

There was not much he could do, he could tell that immediately, and based on the speed the battered, burning aircraft was coming at them, he already knew there was likely no one left alive inside – his radar confirming this fact for him only a second after the morbid thought crossed his mind.

Tony looked around as the people began scattering near him, trying to find some sort of shelter from the incoming airliner that was about to crash near them. He knew no one would make it out alive from the place if that plane crashed on them, and it was then that his brain reminded him that Pepper was still searching for survivors by the predicted crash path of the plane.

"PEPPER! Pepper, come in!" he tapped into the internal comm systems, but she had turned it off in anger, just seconds before.

Tony pushed himself off the ground at a speed he did not know he could achieve so quickly, and flew above the river. The Rescue armor was nowhere to be seen from his vantage point, and with the very little light illuminating the area, finding her now before the plane hit was like finding a needle in a _planet_ of haystack. Had she already come out? Was she watching the scene in horror as well? Was she thinking of some way to intervene and save all of these lives at the cost of hers?

_Not on my watch_, Iron Man thought and looked up again. His mind was racing as fast as his heart. He knew he could not stop the plane, and his shield was not big enough to protect everyone on the ground or contain the aircraft, so that left him with no other option but to destroy the airliner before it landed… before it crashed…

Stop it with anything he had.

"Computer, lock and load all weapons and aim them toward that plane."

"_Target acquired,"_ his computer responded and he began flying toward the plane. _"Target locked."_

"Fire!" Iron Man ordered and he was soon depleted of anything and everything he had on hand, and even his unibeam, hand repulsors and his entire body helped out in decimating the aircraft in midair. The explosion was loud and bright, and even though some debris landed on the site, it was nowhere near as life-threatening as the entire airliner collapsing in one piece would have been.

"Take cover!" Rescue heard someone yell when the explosion above her made her swim up with a dead body in her arms. Her brain did not immediately register what had just happened or why everyone was screaming bloody murder, and it was not until she saw Iron Man's vitals go haywire and then flatline on her screen that she realized what had occurred.

"TONY!"

She sped to the nearest paramedic in sight and deposited the body in his arms before she made her way back to the pieces of the plane that were now submerging at a rapid rate. Several fires had erupted on the river and they were somehow surviving the cold and wet conditions, and she attributed them to the spilling of the fuel from the plane igniting on contact. There were people screaming and crying while the authorities tried their best to keep everyone at bay should the remnant of the plane decided to explode.

"Tony? Tony, where are you?" she tried calling through the internal communication system, but all she got was silence from the other end of the line. His suit was now completely offline, which included the handy, dandy GPS feature she was trying to access to find him.

_No, please no_, she begged as she again scanned the wreckage for a second before she turned around and screamed at the closest police officer to her.

"Where is Iron Man?"

"He blew up the plane," he responded, eyes wide in disbelief. "He shot at it and made it explode and... I… I don't know where he landed."

_Damn you, Stark!_

Rescue's face returned to the molten mess that had once been an airliner that had likely malfunctioned in the air due to the weather the pilots had thought they could outsmart. They should have known better; they should have known they would never be able to safely land the jet.

_I'm coming, Tony. _

Without having any more time to waste, Rescue sped down and entered the river again, feet first. The fire above her helped illuminate the first part of the bottom of the river but not by much, and in the mess that was now the soup of debris, it was difficult to find his red and gold armor… if he even still had it on.

She moved from side to side, blasting away the larger pieces and throwing the smaller ones out of the river and to the other side where no one was around. All of the survivors and rescue crews had gathered on the west side of the river, leaving the east side free for her to convert into a cemetery of plane wreckage, if she so needed to.

In and out she went, trying to scour the area as evenly as possible to not miss any spot, but there was no sign of him at all. Her body was shaking violently, she was coughing sobs and tears were running down her cheeks, and she knew that if it was not for the adrenaline rushing through her veins right now, she would have long ago collapsed in a heap of pain and sorrow like never before.

_Tony, please don't do this to me. Don't die on me, please! God, please let me find him! Please, please don't take him from me!_

She let out a loud sob that wracked her chest at the thought of losing him, at knowing that the last words they had exchanged had been ones of anger and strife, forcing herself to take in a deep breath to keep her from heaving inside the helmet. And just when she was about to give up under the weight of her own guilt and desperation, her prayers were finally answered.

She saw him just a few feet away from her, slowly sinking down to the bottom of the river. She pushed aside anything that stood in her way and, when she finally reached him, she held onto the armor with as much strength as possible so that, in the blink of an eye, she shot them up and out of the river.

"There they are!" one of the water rescue officers said as he pointed to the flying armors. After realizing that Iron Man had just practically sacrificed himself for them, the few remaining crews split up into two groups. One group stayed with the injured survivors and moved everyone as far away from the scene as possible, and the other half jumped into the water to help Rescue in any way they could.

"She found him!" another rescuer stated.

Pepper ignored the cheers and screams from the bystanders and rushed them both to the edge of the river. She laid him on the snow-covered ground and sat on his lap as she tried to quickly determine the extent of the damage caused by his heroic, albeit stupid stunt. The suit had sustained severe damage and the battery had completely run out, leaving him trapped inside the same armor he had created to protect his life.

"Tony, talk to me!" she yelled and shook him. "Say something to me, Tony!"

She pressed one of her repulsors onto his battery to give it a jump start. She did not have a lot of battery left either, but all she cared about right now was getting him out of his armored prison to make sure he was still alive. The little energy she had transferred to him did not help to remove the suit, and it was then she realized that the battery had been damaged to the point that it did not sustain the charge any longer.

"Tony! _TONY_!"

Seeing no other way to get to him, she began doing the only thing she could think to do: she began tearing apart the suit with her armored hands. It would have been even more difficult to do had the armor not been already beat up by the blast, and in seconds – that to her felt like hours later – she was able to remove the upper half of his suit and his helmet from him.

"Tony, open your eyes. Tony?"

She shook him again when he did not respond, scanned him with her helmet and her heart stopped.

Because his had stopped as well.

"NO!" she screamed and doubled tapped the center of her armor, throwing away her backpack in any direction when the suit had retracted, and ignored the cold that hit her wet body. She leaned down to press her left ear to his nose and mouth and then used her right hand to check his pulse, only to confirm there was none.

The paramedics that were still on the scene were inside the boats and were rowing their way to the edge of the river as fast as they could. Pepper knew she could not wait for them because Tony could no longer wait, so she began to revive him herself.

She pinched his nose shut, pressed her lips against his and blew air inside his mouth, which she then followed by pressing tightly against his chest, hoping her compressions on his heart were not too late. She could hear the paramedics coming near her but, for her taste, they were not getting here fast enough.

"Come on, Tony!" she told him as she continued giving him CPR. "Don't you fucking do this to me! Don't you _dare_ do this to me, Stark!"

From afar, the curious witnesses stared at her efforts to revive the billionaire with heart-wrenching looks, and every time a sob managed to escape her mouth, one echoed back to her from them. She was trying to sound tough and in control, but the more her attempts to bring him back to life failed, the more her words became the ones she actually wanted to say to him.

"Tony, please breathe! Please, baby, _please_ breathe! Breathe!" she stopped speaking only long enough to breathe air into him, and even though her head was spinning in stress, desperation and ache, she continued pressing on his heart as if her own life was hanging by the same thread as his.

And maybe it was.

"I promise I'll tell everyone you're great in bed!" she sobbed. "I promise I'll let you sleep until nine! Just, please, Tony, please come back. You can't leave me! You can't just leave me like this!"

He was not making a sound or moving at all, save for the involuntary upper body contractions caused by her chest compressions. Before she could stop herself and filter what she was saying, however, she began tearing up harder than before, her words barely making it out of her mouth.

"I-I owe you… five bucks, Tony. You can't… you can't let me off the hook. Please, Tony. Please, don't die on me, Tony! Please, I can't-I can't do this alone. I need you! Please, I need you! I need you so much…"

She leaned forward to give what she knew had to be her last breath of air to him, but she never got to press her lips against his. Water spouted out of his mouth instead.

"Tony!" she immediately pushed herself off him and turned him to his side to let him spit out all the water he had inhaled while under the surface. He coughed and gasped for air at the same time, and the redhead readjusted her position so that the side of his head rested on her lap. "It's alright, Tony. It's going to be alright."

She brushed her hair away from his face and kissed his forehead repeatedly, crying even harder than before.

"Pep…Pepp-er…" he managed to say and she almost died of relief.

"Yes, it's me," she told him and held onto his hand that was trying to reach her face. "It's me, Tony. You're going to make it, OK? You're going to make it back home with me."

For a brief instant, she wondered if this is what he had felt when he had found her half dead in the submarine at the South Pole. She could never again blame him for caring so much, for protecting her so much. This pain she was currently feeling was overwhelming; she felt as if she herself had been drowning along with him, and even now that his eyes had opened and he was breathing again, she still felt water burning her lungs.

"Hold on, OK? The ambulance is almost here. I'm going to make sure you're alright. I'm going with you. I'm not letting you out of my sight."

Even in his confused and injured form, he forced himself to look up at her and gave her the best smile he could make his lips form before his eyes began to close. She then leaned down, pressed their foreheads together and let out a sob.

"Stay with me, Tony. Don't fall asleep. Not yet."

"I'm trying," he croaked. "But… I'm so tired…"

"I know you're tired, baby, but please, stay awake. Just a little bit longer until they're here and then you can rest."

"Pepper?" he groaned. "Where are you, Pepper?"

The ginger frowned and pulled away from his face. "I… I'm right here, Tony."

"Pepper?" he asked again, but this time with less energy than before. "I can hardly see you now… or hear you… I can't… I can't feel you… don't go."

"I'm not going anywhere. Tony. Tony, look at me. Look at me please!"

"Pepper… don't… leave… don't…"

The next sound that made everyone stop in their tracks was of the redhead screaming her lungs out that the scientist's heart had again stopped.

xxxXXXxxx

A week after the incident, Pepper Potts was still sitting next to him, watching him day and night, holding his hand every now and then, and whispering words of encouragement into his ears, trying to help him find his way back home; his way back to her. The doctors had not been able to tell why Tony had not woken up yet; it was not as if he was in a coma or anything of that sort – his body had just simply shut down communications to the outside world.

He had been clinically dead for a few minutes at least twice and, unfortunately, the damage caused by the cut of oxygen supply to his brain could not be determined until he woke up; something he had not done yet. Even as _simple_ as the accident had been, the altered DNA structure of the inventor caused by Extremis had the doctors baffled beyond belief. The days following the crash had resembled riding a rollercoaster for the redhead; it had just been filled with good news followed by bad news followed by worse news.

"_He's just not responding to the medical procedures in a way we would expect,"_ the doctors had told Pepper, Roberta, Maya and Howard. _"We could be making it worse rather than making it better. We're going to stop all treatment and give him some time to fix himself. If he doesn't regain consciousness in a week… well, a decision will have to be made."_

Howard had just left the hospital room to get himself and Pepper a cup of coffee, which he planned to mix with a sleeping pill just so that she could have a good rest. She had slept probably no more than twelve hours since the paramedics had brought him in, and after witnessing his heart stopping twice in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, she had refused to leave his side.

Just this morning, Howard had been able to convince Maya and Roberta to go home and sleep on something other than the waiting room chairs of the hospital, but he had had no such luck convincing the ginger. He could not blame her, though. For her, going back home was going to where she and Tony lived; there was no resting when the apartment reminded her that he was not there.

The girl currently sat in a chair that was to the left of the inventor's bed, half of her body laid across it. Her head rested on his stomach and faced him, and in her left hand she held his right. Her right arm rested on his chest, carefully avoiding the bandages that covered the bruises she had given him when she tried to revive him. At least he was breathing on his own now. At least he was not hooked up to dozens of machines to keep him alive.

"Today's Thanksgiving, Tony," she said to him with closed eyes. "Why don't you give me something to be thankful for?"

The steady beeping of his heart monitor was the only sound in the room for a while until she spoke up again.

"I want to put up our Christmas tree that we bought months ago, remember? The one I didn't like but you did and still bought after I said I didn't like it? But I need you around to help me put it up. I need you to mock me when I toss out the assembling instructions and then have to dig them out of the trash because I don't know how to put up the damned tree! I also have five bucks burning a hole in my pocket. The pictures of us in the lobby were everywhere online. I guess you were right: something always gives us away."

She squeezed his hand, hoping some discomfort would force him to wake up if only to tell her to stop, but when his hand remained as limp as ever, she began to cry again.

"What are you waiting for? Do you prefer Maya to be here with you? I can bring her in, have her stay with you all night, if you just… tell me… _show_ me somehow that it will help you wake up… Tell me what to do, Tony. What can I do to help you wake up?"

A longer silence followed and she bit her lip to hold back sobs. It was so painful to see him like this – to know she had inadvertently put him through the same ache she was currently feeling. No wonder they were so close! Tragedy seemed to follow them around, testing their friendship over and over again. She would never again feel guilty for shivering in longing under his touch, like when he had kissed her scar. They had earned the closeness, the connection between them. Even if she loved Scott and he was with Maya, the two of them had something special; something so special she swore to herself she would never do anything to mess it up.

"I'm waiting for you to come home, Tony," she whispered as she lifted her head from his stomach and pulled away from him. "Don't keep me waiting any longer or I'll fucking move out."

She walked over to her bag and took out a handkerchief to clear her nose, and then stood by the sink that was attached to the back wall of the room. She opened both knobs and then splashed waster on her face, hoping to collect herself enough before Howard returned with their coffee. He was due back any second now, and the last thing she wanted was to give him more reasons to kick her out.

She shut off the water and then patted her face dry with a paper towel. She rested her weight on the sink by grabbing hold of its edges with her hands and closed her eyes.

_This can't be happening. He can't just not wake up. He has to. He just has to!_

She took in deep breaths to fight back the tears that were trying to become present again and, when she turned around to stare at Tony, she was shocked to see that his blue eyes were staring back at her. She blinked a few times and shook her face, knowing for sure she must have been seeing things, but when he gave her a weak, one-sided smirk, she gasped.

She took small, slow steps toward him, feeling that if she rushed to him like she wanted, his eyes would close again and she would somehow make the miracle go away. By the time she made it to his bed again, he was already forcing himself to sit up. Her hands flew to him to help him, and when he sighed in exhaustion at the small feat, Pepper finally found her voice again.

"T-Tony…," she stroked his cheek with her left hand and sat on the edge of the bed. "Are you…? Did you really…? When did you…?"

He closed his eyes again and leaned in to her touch, breathing in the scent of her perfume she always sprinkled on her wrists. He partially opened his eyes again and held her hand against his face by placing his own on it.

"Pepper," he cleared his dried throat and licked his lips. "Too many questions… head… hurts…"

"I'm sorry," she said, tears coming back. "I… I…" she gulped. "The doctors, they said you wouldn't… that they didn't know. And I-I knew they weren't right. I knew they didn't know you like I do. I knew you'd wake up. I knew you just… you just needed some time. But, you… you scared me… you… you idiot!"

"What?" he frowned when her scared voice suddenly turned angry.

"You're such an _idiot_! Why did you do that? Why did you almost get yourself blown up?! You almost died on me, Tony! I had to revive you and then you died again and again and… and… you almost left me!"

"Pepper…"

"NO! You-you… you could've died, Tony! You could've… oh, my God! I… I… Don't ever, EVER do that again, you understand? NEVER! I don't care if the fate of the world depends on it! NEVER! You almost… and I-I almost… you… you almost _didn't_ make it!"

Tony gave her an apologetic smile and then, with the little strength he had in him, he pulled her to him and they hugged. They both closed their eyes and rested their head on the other's shoulder, silently letting the other know how much they needed this; how much they needed to make sure the other was still alive. Tony had not known if Pepper had made it until the moment he had seen her for a few seconds, after he had woken up after the explosion. She had not known if he would make it until now, and after a minute or so of holding each other, Tony broke the silence by whispering into her ear.

"_Almost _doesn't count," he reminded her and then pressed a chaste kiss to the junction of her neck and shoulder for good measure. It again made her skin prickle.

This time, she did not mind.

She slowly pulled away from his neck but did not break the embrace, and just when Tony was about to apologize for crossing the line again, she surprised him by pressing her lips on his. This time, however, it was not a quick thankful peck like it had been that one night; this time it was more than just that.

Not knowing how long it would last and not wanting to lose out on it, the inventor kissed back with as much emotion as he felt coming from her. She grabbed onto the front of his hospital gown with her fists and pulled him even closer to her, and he pulled her in by pressing his palms on her back. She had never kissed anyone like this before – not even her current boyfriend, Scott, who was still very much present in the back of her mind as she kissed the blue-eyed boy.

She sucked on his lip and bit the bottom of it, and it was as if he knew what she was about to do before she even knew it herself because he responded and reciprocated her movements with the exact precision that was needed to make it work. Maybe it was the fact that they had known each for so long, or the situations they had lived through together, but showing him with this kiss how much she cared for him and how glad she was that he was back was so much easier than putting it into words she did not know she could utter before she broke down crying again.

After a moment, she pulled away from him but only to rest her forehead on his and catch her breath.

"Don't ever do that again, please. Please, promise me. Promise me you won't."

"You know I can't promise that, Pepper," he whispered to her. "As much as I'd want to make it better for you, I'm Iron Man and danger is all that comes with the territory. You know that very well by now. Asking me not to risk my life to save others would be like asking you not to talk and talk and talk."

She tried to be mad at his comment but found that she could not when a giggle escaped her instead. "Jerk."

"Your jerk."

"Yes," she breathed and finally pulled away from him but let him grab her hands in his. "Although Maya has dibs on you, you're still _my_ jerk of a friend. She's as worried sick as everyone else is. Even Rhodey wanted to be here but the Air Force didn't release him."

_Friend_, Tony swallowed hard, reminding himself that their kiss had been a product of happiness and relief and not love – at least not for her, he knew. It had been a result of the time they spent together, of being friends, coworkers and roommates. It was just a means to show affection between them, just as any other gesture that could have been easily mistaken as more than that. Her lips on his had been a sign of relief and not a sign of romantic interest, despite how intense it had felt for him; despite how passionate it had been for both.

"Yeah, I guess so, unless she's around and saw us just now."

Pepper shook her head and smiled. "Don't worry about it. She left this morning after your dad made her go. In fact, let me call her right now. She didn't want to leave but she couldn't argue with your dad about it," she responded and stood up from the bed.

"How did you manage to stay?" he asked and let go of only one hand of hers and lazily held onto the other as long as he could.

"I have my ways," she winked at him before she leaned down and kissed his forehead, officially ending the moment of intimacy that needed to be locked away if they wanted to continue with their friendship intact. "Your dad will be back soon. I'll have a doctor come check up on you. You just rest, OK?"

"Yes, ma'am," he smiled and brushed his lips on her knuckles; their version of a pinky-promise between them before he finally let go of her hand. She smiled back at him and gave him a nod before she made her way to the door.

She stood by it for a few seconds, her left hand around the handle and her right fingertips brushed her lips, thinking about what she had just done. Her lips were tingling, demanding that she returned for more, but when the image of Scott came to her mind, she sighed. She then turned around and threw something toward the inventor's lap, catching him by surprise. He grabbed it in his hands and unwrinkled the five dollar bill, and by the time he looked up to mock his win, she was already gone.

He readjusted himself on the bed and closed his eyes, replaying their kiss in his mind over and over again with the excuse that it made his headache go away. Later, when Maya Hansen arrived, everything was back to normal, and the life in which he and Maya were together and not Pepper and he was again the only reality he could afford to live by… especially when Pepper and Scott walked inside his room to see him, hand-in-hand.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Holy smokes! Things got steamy, huh? Well…that was NOTHING compared to what's to come!

**Guest Review Responses**

"**Isn't that a bit too intimate for friends? Don't get me wrong though, I really enjoyed it!" **Yup, yup! That's the point. Tony's gonna welcome practically anything Pepper gives him because, well PEPPERONY4EVA!11oneone111 *cough*. The issue here, though, is that Pepper is realizing that maybe what she feels is not just friendship for our genius, but something more and she's confused because she does like Scott but Tony is just too cute to ignore, right?

"**Nooooooo! Ugh when will this end! Tony and Pepper need to be together! Thanks for the chapter, I'm totally loving it. I need to next chapter ASAP! Preview? (If your still in proposals to them.) :D" **This story will end in Chapter 10 and Epilogue. The drama…err…I'm guessing around Chapter 2 of _The Third Year_? *shifty eyes* :P As for the preview, please provide an e-mail account so I can send it to if you don't have a FFNET account ^_^

"**Ahora viene diciembre y el necesario beso de año nuevo! espero!" **HELL YEAH! I mean, ahem, read on and find out :)

And if you're wondering why Tony and Pepper don't just get together already, just remember Ross and Rachel from FRIENDS. They loved each other and yet dated other people for years. Don't worry, though. Tony and Pepper won't take seven years to get together.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: December<strong>

The inventor opened his eyes before his alarm was to go off and made sure to turn it off so that it did not make a sound now that he was wide awake. He did not want to make more noise than required before he left the apartment, even if his roommate knew of his early departure today. Pepper had helped him pack up his bags last night, and she had even made sure that Jarvis showed up in the limo to drive Tony to the airport. Tony had said that he could drive himself to the private airport where his jet would be waiting for him, but the ginger was still somewhat shaken by the events of the blizzard/train derailment/plane crash of two weeks ago, and she had immediately shot down the option for him.

He had been released just a couple of days after he had woken up, with a clean bill of health. However, since the medical staff had not been able to give the redhead any satisfactory answers on his health while he had been under their care, she did not believe anything they had said about Tony being ready to go back to his normal superhero life. Thankfully for him, there had only been a couple of missions since the train derailment, and Pepper had handled them both by herself with no problem. In fact, said two missions were one of the reasons why he was putting himself on a plane to China today: it appeared that the Maggia were back.

Tony stood up from his bed with a sigh. He walked inside his bathroom and spent a few minutes washing up and getting ready to leave. He then put on a pair of faded blue jeans, a black turtleneck and blue tennis shoes. He spiked his hair and put away his toiletries in his small travel bag he still had in his room, and after a quick scan of his surroundings, he stepped out into the hall.

He closed the door to his bedroom and then took the two steps that divided his door from Pepper's. He slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door in. He did not plan on waking her up this early – it was not even four in the morning – but he had planned on at least seeing her sleeping form before he left. The kiss they had shared in the hospital was still very much so present in his mind, soul and skin, and even though they had gone back to the friend-only routine again, he could not help himself but to still love her as much as he did.

_Rhodey's right_, he thought as he walked inside the dark room. _I'll never get over her if our lives are as dependent on each other as they are now. We'll have to drift apart. One way or the other, we'll just have to go our separate ways._

He knew Maya and Scott were the answer to his predicament, but so far that particular solution was yet to show any promising results.

_Easier said than done._

He squinted to focus on the lump in the bed and, as his hand was about to touch her hair, he realized something was off. The _lump_ on the bed was much larger than he would expect it to be and it was sleeping on the wrong side of the bed as he knew.

The inventor's left side of the bed was parallel to the bedroom's door so that, by just climbing off his bed, he was mere feet away from the exit of the room. The foot of his bed faced the bathroom door, and on its right side he kept a small desk against the corner where his laptop was always on.

Tony always liked sleeping on the left side of the bed despite how if Pepper ended up crawling into it with him, she had to either go around the bed or climb over him to get to the right side. Pepper's bed location did not pose that same problem since the foot of her bed was parallel to the bedroom door, which meant the foot of the bed faced the entrance and not the bathroom. In addition, Pepper liked sleeping on the right side of the bed anyway, so whenever Tony snuck inside her room in the middle of the night, he just ended up taking a few steps and crashed on the left side of it without disturbing her: the same left side that was currently being used by Scott Summers.

The billionaire pursed his lips and glared down at the man. He had not had many chances of speaking with him despite the nearly three months he and Pepper had been dating, but the simple fact that he was Pepper's other half was enough for Tony to dislike him. It was just the principle of the matter and not just the fact that Tony loved Pepper; he was just reacting like any other man in a woman's life, who would despise the boyfriend or the husband until the day they died.

It was pure genetics, actually, ingrained in the male DNA code, and no matter how much said man knew or liked the guy _before_ he became the lover of his daughter, sister or female friend, the poor man would have to deal with the constant threats of the man he had replaced. In this case, and just as it had happened between Rhodey and the inventor when Tony decided to take the next step with their mutual friend, the moment Scott Summers became the love interest of Pepper Potts, he became the subject of unending scrutinizing by any man in the ginger's life.

The only thing Scott had going for him was that Pepper's dad was in the middle of nowhere Afghanistan, and thus only had to deal with Tony Stark's watchful eye. Then again, dealing with an angry, superhero genius who was madly in love with the woman you were dating was probably more than enough. In fact, now that he thought about it, Tony was yet to have "the talk" with Scott, and he could not let the year end without sitting down and having a chat with the jock.

Yes, another jock. Why was Pepper so interested in jocks?

It was probably the implication of physical endurance and the possibility of using the enhanced physique to get into trouble saving lives, but she could have all that and more with Tony, too. Actually, now that he thought about it, she already did.

_Stop thinking about her like that, Stark!_

Remembering that Jarvis would be waiting for him outside, Tony turned away from the bed and exited Pepper's room. He walked down the hall, crestfallen, and headed straight to the exit to pick up his luggage that waited for him on the floor. However, he quickly became aware that his bag was no longer where Pepper had left it last night. It took him a second to realize that he was not alone in the room either, and when a pair of bare feet reached his bent down form, a sad smile formed on his lips.

His eyes traced her figure as he took his time shifting his gaze from the floor to her face. Her legs were also bare and no trace of clothes was present until mid-thigh, where Scott's red button-up shirt began. All but the top two buttons were done, and when she shifted slightly to the right to adjust his bag that she was hanging by her shoulder, he noticed she was also wearing a pair of black, tight workout shorts underneath.

_That damned, lucky son of a bitch!_

Even though it was the early hours of the morning, her face showed she was wide awake. Her hair was tied in a braid that started at the bottom of her head and cascaded down her right shoulder and chest. Her hair had been growing like crazy. When she let it down, it reached the middle of her back. It had also been growing wavy as well – the main reason why she rarely let it down – and Tony had to wonder why the hell she never let it grow this long before. She looked beautiful to him when she just let it be its own. Of course, that was not saying much; at this point, she would look beautiful to him if she were wearing that panda costume again.

"Hey, Pep," he walked to her and tried to grab his bag from her shoulder but she took a step back, causing Tony to roll his eyes. "Are we really doing this?"

Pepper shook her head and sighed but she did not let go of the bag just yet. "Are you sure you're up to this? You still haven't recovered your full lung capacity and –"

"I'll be fine, Pepper," he rested his hands on either side of her neck. "It's just a quick visit to Gene and I'll be back."

"If it's just a quick visit, then why don't you just do it via the web?"

"The information is sensitive, you know that. It's best if I talk to him in person about this Maggia and Tong issue."

The redhead exhaled in defeat. "I know, it's just, why can't I come with you? This is a mission, right? Recon? I'm your recon person. _I_ should be there with you."

"But we also have the company to run and I don't trust anyone else to watch over it while I'm gone."

"And I don't trust you out there by yourself when you still haven't fully recovered. And especially being like that around Gene. I love him, but he's a dick to you."

"I'll be fine," he smiled. "If anything happens, which I doubt it would because Gene runs a tight ship over there, I have the suit and the Mandarin backing me up – not that I can believe I actually said that, but you know what I mean. Nothing's gonna touch me while I'm there."

"Just, please don't come back with a black eye," she jested and he snickered. "People are going to start making stuff up again."

Last time Gene had given Tony a black eye – the day he had asked Gene to alter Pepper's memories, the media had had a frenzy when he had showed up to the press conference about acquiring Hammer Multinational with an eye patch. Gossip that Rescue had beaten the crap out of the inventor for finding out about Maya Hansen had spread like wildfire, along with other theories that there was abuse in the Stark-Potts residence.

"How about I come back with two black eyes and say it's my new look?"

"Oh, shush!" she playfully hit his chest with her palms before she leaned forward and hugged him. "Be careful."

"I will be," he whispered to her. "You stay out of trouble, too."

"I'll be fine. Scott's staying with me while you're gone."

"Is he?" Tony asked, trying to sound relieved and not pissed off.

"Yeah," she pulled away from him and dropped his bag on the floor. "He finished his self-paced courses early so he's going to stay here and go with me to work."

"Well, that's," he cleared his throat. "Very nice of him."

"Isn't it? I still think you should've taken Maya with you to China so I'd feel better about you not going alone."

"She still has class until next week. She's smart but not _Tony Stark smart_, and MIT is tough."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Always so modest, honey."

"Only way I roll, babe."

Pepper chuckled, walked over to where they kept their jackets and grabbed Tony's. She then helped him put it on and even zipped it up for him before handing him his bag. She gave him one last hug and then opened the door for him. He took one step out but then stopped.

"Pepper?"

"Yeah?" she asked as she leaned her head against the edge of the door.

"Tell Scott that if I come back and find anything happened to you, he'll be the one getting a black eye."

He expected Pepper to groan or roll her eyes at him but she smiled wide instead. "He already knows that. I think _everyone_ knows that."

"A reminder couldn't hurt," he deadpanned and kissed her cheek. "I'll see you next week, Pepper."

"See you next week, Tony."

He gave her one last glance up and down and a nod and then walked away from the door. From her. From the pain seeing her caused him, and from knowing that Scott Summers was taking more and more of his place as more time went by.

xxxXXXxxx

Five days into Tony's travel, Scott Summers found himself shocked, tired and overwhelmed. He had always known that the two owners of Stark Solutions kept themselves busy with inventions and hero business, but he never in a million years imagined how exhausting and time-consuming being Tony Stark or Pepper Potts could be until now.

When his girlfriend had invited him over for a week while the genius was out to China doing who-knows-what, Scott had thought he would have the perfect opportunity to be alone with the redhead to discuss an important matter he wanted to relay to her – something that was crucial for their relationship to keep working the way it was. Pepper did not strike him as a girl who dated for the sake of not being alone, and the more their relationship progressed, the more he knew he just _had_ to come clean with her before things between them got that much more serious.

Even only three months into dating, some boundaries between them had been crossed already, and before any consequences of continuing crossing those boundaries became unavoidable, he had to tell Pepper the secret he had been keeping from her all this time. Well, for all technical purposes, it was not a secret per se, just a part of his physical condition she was not privy to yet. It was extremely sensitive and rare and not something you told someone on the first, third, or even twentieth date. Though it was something you told someone you planned on being with long term, perhaps even marry someday.

However, any and all opportunities to tell her that something very personal of his had been sent down the drain. She was just so darn… _busy_! Her mornings were filled with walking up and down the building, checking up on the several projects that were being worked on, asking the employees what they needed, what the progress was and if she could test out the prototype on the spot. She would then have a working lunch with potential clients and investors, and then spent the afternoon compiling reports and logs for future reference of everything she had done all morning. When the time to leave work came around, she would hit the gym every other day, and her cooking lessons whenever she did not attend the gym. She would not arrive home until late at night, and only if there was no mission waiting for her. This week, these five days that had passed without Tony Stark around, she had had a mission every single night.

How was he to keep up with this kind of life?

Despite the shock of seeing how she ran her life and the fear that had been instilled in him that she was probably too much for him, the girl was everything he could have ever asked from a woman, even as contradicting as her personality was sometimes. She was smart but naïve, strong yet caring, independent but did not mind being protected every now and then, determined but sometimes easily confused, brave yet fearful of hurting others who did not deserve pain, chatty but at the same time somehow still reserved, honest to a fault, reliable to no end, and very much in control of her own life.

Scott did not know many women like Pepper, and most of the ones he did know that resembled her personality were not even around his age; they were difficult to find. He also knew that women like her were high-maintenance, extremely active, spunky, wild; in other words: not easily _tamed_.

Tamed.

What a horrible word for him to use when referring to her!

Then again, tamed was not the actual word he was looking for, but he could not think of another one that resembled what he wanted to explain to himself, or to her. At least not right now; at least not before she began asking him why he was so quiet all of a sudden in the middle of their Friday night romantic dinner she had to cancel meetings on four clients to have.

Maybe the word he was looking for was: _redirected_. That sounded more like what he wanted to help her see she needed to do in at least one aspect of her current lifestyle; simple redirection so that he could better fit in her life. It was not as if he was trying to dictate the course of her life – he would never even dream of doing that to anyone – but if there was something he wished she would change immediately and forever, it would be her devotion to who she considered her best friend: Anthony Edward Stark.

He knew very little about their relationship other than what he had seen in the media and what little Pepper had relayed to him about their lives outside the spotlight. He had not needed to spend more than five minutes with them in a room, however, to recognize that the bond between the two of them was stronger than the damned suit of armor they both used every day.

It had been scary at first, dating someone Tony Stark felt worthy of keeping around and who he trusted with his life, but after finding out that Tony dated Maya Hansen, and that the genius had never shown any real interest in the redhead – not that he could confirm any after the leaked video of Tony planting a smooch on Pepper's cheek after the Makluan invasion – Scott had begun to accept the ginger's and blue-eyed boy's friendship for what it was: unbreakable, inseparable; a two-for-one deal.

The fact that he accepted it did not mean he liked it, or that he wanted it to be present for the rest of their lives. He knew he sounded selfish, jealous, and maybe even a little bit like a brat, but he wanted that devotion she had for Tony to be redirected towards him. He was not asking for much, was he? She was his girlfriend and he expected her to be as dedicated to him as he was to her.

As she giggled at something the waiter standing before them had just said when checking up on them, Scott's thoughts became even grimmer. Her life was so extravagant yet so simple. She had the ability to live in a mansion if she wanted to, to drive a different, one-of-a-kind vehicle every day of the week, to wear the latest and most expensive clothes and jewelry available, to reel in any man she wanted to, including her roommate, Tony Stark.

Yet, with all these possibilities at her fingertips, she lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Yonkers, she did not even own a car but a Stark Bike she hardly ever used because she flew in her suit to most places or because her roommate drove her around in his sports car, she wore whatever she felt comfortable with – the plainer the better – and she was dating him, Scott Summers, an orphan who had the luck of finding a school counselor who helped him get a full-ride at Empire State University. Why?

Why, oh, why was she dating him?

"I take it the Alfredo is not good here?" she asked him before she took a bite of her own meal. "Do you want to go somewhere else?"

He stared down at his still full dish he had gotten half an hour ago. The contents of the entrée were everywhere on the plate except in his mouth or stomach, but it was not for lack of trying. He made a point of taking a bite and putting it in his mouth, and after a few chews he swallowed it down.

"No, it's good, Pepper. It's just that… I suddenly lost my appetite."

She gave him a questioning look before she placed her fork on the plate and took a sip of her drink to wash down the bite she had just taken. She then rested her laced hands under her chin and rested her face on them and titled her head to the left.

"You know you can tell me anything, right, babe?"

Scott nodded but did not say anything else.

"What's bothering you?" she insisted and then unlocked her hands to grab his. "Is it school?"

"No, school's fine. Although, I wouldn't mind seeing you there more often. Your Rescue parking spot is growing cobwebs."

Pepper laughed aloud and then shook her head. She had to somehow visit the school, even if for just one day to say that she used the damned parking spot they made for her. ESU was ridiculously proud to have her as a student.

"I wish I could take regular classes, but I don't think I'd have the time to fly back and forth, unfortunately."

"I know, it's just that if you lived on campus I could see more of you, I think. I really miss you, Pepper."

The redhead gave him an apologetic smile: his words melted her heart.

"I miss you, too, Scott. I'm trying to make more time for us, I really am."

"I know you are, babe," he said and pulled her hands to his lips and kissed them. "I wish I could do more for you, though. I wish there was something I could do to make things easier for you."

"It's just a phase," she shrugged. "As soon as we get things straightened out and to Tony's standards, the company will run itself and I'll have more time to spend with you."

"Tony's standards? Don't those change every now and then?"

"No, they don't. At least not for work. He's very simple with it: no weapons and no abuse of his tech. We just need to make sure our employees understand that those two things are non-negotiable and we should be fine. They've got a long way to go, being former Hammer Multinational employees. Tony and I have very different standards and expectations than Sasha and Justin had for them."

"How long do you think that'll take?"

Pepper frowned as she thought about his question and did a quick run-down of her latest reports in her mind. "Not until midyear next year, at least. Maybe even the end of the summer."

"So, eight more months?"

"Give or take, yeah."

"Isn't that when your lease is up, too?"

Pepper was taken aback by the seemingly random and unrelated question. "Yeah, yeah it is. Why?"

"Are you going to renew it?"

Pepper swallowed hard and stared at Scott in silence for a moment before she cleared her throat and pulled her hands away from his.

"Is this about Tony, again?"

"If I told you it was, could you not walk out on me right now?"

Pepper sighed and looked at the tempting exit of the restaurant for a few seconds, her fingers tapping the table, and then shook her head.

"Scott, we can't be having this conversation over and over again."

"How about we have it for the last time and you give me straight answers. That's all I want from you, Pepper. I just… it's difficult, my situation."

"And what situation would that be?"

"Dating the girl Tony Stark likes enough to be friends with but doesn't like enough to date himself."

The initial look she gave him was unreadable, but the scowl that followed was not.

"I don't know if you just insulted me or yourself."

"Me, Pepper. Just me. Look, I just wish you'd understand how hard it is to compete against him, to –"

"Whoa!" Pepper lifted her hands in front of herself to stop him. "Who said there was a competition between you two? Did he say something to you? Did he mock you or something?"

"No, but he doesn't need to. He knows he has the advantage of knowing you longer than I have."

"Advantage over what? Scott, you're not making any sense. Where is this coming from, anyway? How long have you felt this way?"

"Ever since I found out you were Pepper Potts."

"Since we met?"

"Pretty much."

Pepper sighed. "And you pick today, of all days – our three-month anniversary – to tell me this? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're looking for reasons to break up with me, Scott."

"Of course not!" he said and tried to grab her hands but she crossed her arms over her chest. "The complete opposite, Pepper. I'm looking for clues that tell me this is what you want. That you want to be with me and not with him. That we are not wasting our time."

"What makes you think I want to be with him and not you? I'm dating you and not him, right?"

"Yes but… well, where should I start? You guys live and work together. You practically finish each other's sentences and thoughts. You went to high school together and you fight crime together. Where do I fit in this life of yours? Why hasn't he asked you out? Why don't you have a crush on him?"

"I did," she deadpanned, catching Scott by surprise even though he knew he should have seen it coming. "Just like any other girl who met Tony Stark in person, I had a silly crush on him. I thought he was cute when we went to high school and then…"

She frowned when she realized she could not finish her thought. She looked down at her plate as she tried to put together the rest of her statement, but found that she could not. She shook her head lightly and concentrated on what she wanted to say – to remember, but everything was a blur.

_What… what happened then? I remember liking him. I remember then liking Gene… and then Tony again when Gene went cuckoo. And then… and then, what? We… Tony and I… we…_

A sudden spike of pain went through her temple and she clenched her teeth and eyes.

"Pepper, are you alright?" Scott asked and stood up from the chair. He walked around the table and kneeled down next to her, grabbing her right hand in his. "Pepper, talk to me."

"I," she began and shook her head again before rubbing her temple with her left hand. She forced her mind to help her finish what she was saying; to relay to Scott the resolution of her girly crush on the inventor, but for the life of her she could not.

_What the hell?_

"Pepper?"

She opened her eyes and focused on Scott's concerned face. Her gaze worried him as she looked so confused and out of place, forcing his confession to her to be moved to yet another day.

"Let's go home. OK?"

Pepper nodded and took in a deep breath when the pain partially subsided. She was not sure what had just happened to her, but she knew it was something to be concerned about. She wobbly stood up from the chair as Scott left money for the bill on the table and held her tightly on their way out. He helped her climb onto the passenger's seat of the vehicle and then rounded the front of it, and in a matter of seconds they were on the road.

Pepper's eyes stared into nothingness as she held her head in between her hands. She had to keep herself from shivering in dread when she tried recalling what had occurred immediately before Whitney had taken her and she could not. She remembered the Makluan invasion and most of the last days she was enrolled in the Tomorrow Academy. She remembered Whitney appearing as her mom, and Tony getting her in trouble with Miss Jones for some reason. She remembered finding out she was adopted while overhearing her father talking to someone on the phone.

"_No, she doesn't know. I was going to tell her after graduation, but that's out, now."_

_ The last phrase caught Pepper's attention, so she muted the microwave sounds so that it would not rat her out. She walked closer to the entrance of the kitchen (the only place not entirely visible from the living room where Virgil stood), and paid attention to the conversation taking place close by._

_"Everyone thinks so too because they both have red hair, which is why we chose her from all the options we had. We didn't want her to think she wasn't our daughter."_

_Pepper took a hand to cover her mouth in surprise. She did not want to jump to conclusions about what was being said, but it was painfully obvious to her that there was at least one more major secret that had been kept from her all these years._

_ "That's why the court order is like that. She can go back to her real parents whenever she wants, if we knew who they were and where they live, anyway. We never got to meet them. It was the agency's policy."_

Pepper groaned and covered her face with her hands. The order of the memories did not make any sense. She could remember some things but others she could not and she was not sure what came first and what came next. Everything after waking up in the hospital was clear to her, but there was a lapse of two or three weeks between her last day at the Tomorrow Academy and feeling Tony's arms when he had rescued her from the submarine. Even some of the memories of her time in captivity with Whitney were jumbled, at best.

_Why is that?_

Another spike of pain hit her, harder than before, and she decided she did not want to know that badly. _It's probably what the doctor said I lost. It's probably not worth my time._

She was aware that some of her memories had been lost due to the horrible experience she went through under Whitney's hand, but it had not been until now that she questioned the lapse. She remembered liking Tony when they first met, and she remembered how jealous she had been when he and Whitney had dated, but it was as if everything in between regarding her crush for him and her feelings after the kidnapping were just gone.

She knew that she, Rhodey and Tony were really close, and everyone who knew Team Iron Man attested that they might as well have been triplets for all the time they spent together. She was also aware that Tony had never shown any interest in her other than just wanting a close friendship, and that it had been nothing more than his arrogant side that had made him jealous of Happy because he had wanted all of Pepper's attention on him and not divided with the jock.

She remembered his efforts at making it up to her for being the reason for her kidnapping, and she remembered living in his home and then deciding to move in together. The memories of those times had rhyme and reason, something that was completely lacking for some of her high school memories of them together.

_Maybe Whitney did something to me?_ _Maybe she wanted me to forget about Tony altogether and screwed up my memories, somehow. Maybe the mask… maybe when she used the mask on me to get me out of the airport… maybe it affected me more than I thought._

The car came to a stop, and again Scott watched her with concern as she tried to find herself in the seat. He sighed, got out of the vehicle, rounded it and opened the door for her. She gave him a thankful nod and grabbed his arm, and they both slowly made it up the elevator and into the apartment. As soon as Pepper tried to remember again once they had crossed the front door, her legs gave under her and Scott caught her just in time before she hit the floor. He then picked her up in his arms and carried her to her room to lay her down on the bed.

"Pepper, are you feeling ill? Do you want me to take you to a hospital or call a doctor?"

"No," she mumbled and shook her head. "Maybe the food made me sick. I… my head hurts. I'll sleep it off."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Just... I need to rest. I… my head… ugh!"

Scott reluctantly accepted her request and took off her shoes before he readjusted her so that she was more comfortable in the bed. He then turned off all the lights he had used on his way to the bedroom and locked the front door. When he returned to Pepper's room, he took off his shoes and his jacket and climbed into the bed with her. She cringed in pain again, and with closed eyes patted around herself until she found him and held on to him for dear life.

"I'm sorry about our date."

"It's alright," he told her and kissed her forehead. "We'll have another chance later, right?"

"Right," she nodded lightly. "And I'm sorry about Tony. I… we… we're just friends. Close friends, yes, but just friends. I'm dating you because I like you, Scott. I like you a lot. You…"

"I, what?"

"You do make it easier on me," she sighed. "At the end of the day or the week, when all the craziness ends, I love that I get to be with you and just relax. I know I haven't shown it or told you enough, but I love being with you. It's peaceful and reenergizing, and I don't know if I'd be able to keep up with everything else I do if it wasn't for having you. And…"

"And?"

"And if not renewing my lease is what it takes to show you I want to be with you, then that's what I'll do."

Scott's eyes widened in shock under his sunglasses. "Are you serious?"

"Yes," she whispered and sighed in relief as her headache began going away. "I'll talk to Tony about it. I'll do whatever I need to do to leave the company running and cut my work time to half, and next year I'll move onto the campus. Take regular classes. Spend more time with you."

"You-you don't have to move, Pepper. Just, I think taking the classes on campus will help, a lot."

"But, you said –"

"Yes, I know what I said, but it was more out of anger. Jealousy. I know you love it here and that it's convenient because it's close to work and school and I'm not that much of an asshole to make you give it up. But, taking normal classes, at least for one semester, that'd help a lot."

"It is convenient, but you're not making me do anything. You've sacrificed so much for me, and have been so patient. It's my turn to do something for you."

"That… that means a lot, Pepper."

"Well, you mean a lot to me, Scott," she said and finally opened her eyes. "I love you," she whispered and then pulled him in for a kiss he was more than happy to respond to and use to show her he loved her back.

xxxXXXxxx

The lobby of Stark Solutions Tower was filled with Christmas decorations all around. Busy caterers and servers walked back and forth from the kitchen to the hall, making sure the employees of Stark Solutions were taken care of. Holiday music echoed between the walls, and the giant Christmas tree in the middle of the room was quite the sight. This was the first annual Christmas party for the newly expanded company, and Tony and Pepper had made sure everything was up to par.

As the advisors of the board for Stark International had predicted, the unveiling of the new Stark Pod and Stark Bike, as well as the Pep Ride and the Miniaturized GPS Tracker had boosted the profits like never before. The Museum of National History had raved so much about the quality of the Earth Movers that other paleontology and archeology corporations wanted their own Earth Movers and negotiations were already in place, and after the lessons learned from the trail derailment, Tony had begun working on a small version of the Earth Mover technology to help with search and rescue during catastrophic natural disasters such as blizzards, hurricanes and earthquakes.

To say that the duo was at the top of the world was an understatement; an understatement of an understatement.

Tony Stark had all of the riches he could ask for; investors and clients begging for a chance to meet with him, women practically throwing themselves at him, and fame like never before. Team Iron Man was active as usual and not just saving lives but also changing them. S.H.I.E.L.D. had finally left them alone, and most of the board members of Stark International had begun coming around and accepting Pepper's presence in their business as a fact of life; some even had begun to like her. Tony had everything anyone ever could ask for and more; everything but _her_.

He pulled Maya closer to him, closed his eyes and rested his chin on her head, just to avoid staring at Pepper and Scott dancing together a few feet away from where he and Maya were dancing themselves. Scott was a terrible dancer, just as Pepper had said and Tony had witnessed today, but you did not need to be a professional dancer to hold the woman you loved near you during a slow dance. As long as you wanted her near you and she wanted you around, everything else would just fall into place.

"Are you getting tired?" Maya whispered to him. "You'd been awake for two days."

"No, I'm fine," he responded to her and clenched his eyes so that he was not tempted to open them to spy on the redhead again.

Ever since he had returned from China from visiting Gene last week, things between the ginger and the inventor had changed. She was still Pepper, his Pepper, and they were still friends and coworkers and partners and roommates, but their time together had taken a considerate shift; a shift so significant that even in just three days of being back from China he could already tell it was going to lead to her permanent separation from him.

It had all started as a casual conversation on their ride home when she went to pick him up at the airport on Saturday – a day after her date with Scott. Jarvis had been scheduled to pick up Tony, but Pepper had insisted on doing the deed herself, and he had immediately found out why this had been the case. She had to talk to him, _really_ talk to him, about a decision she had made while he was gone.

She was going to leave him, very soon.

"_I want to move things along with Scott,"_ she had told him. _"I love him and I want to get to know him better, and I'm sure you want to do the same with Maya. We're not getting any younger, right? I mean, most people get married right after college, right? Some even before! I'd like to really get to know him or any guy I do end up marrying before I say: I do. Wouldn't you?"_

And she could not do that while he was around, scaring away any guy who was interested in her.

The genius had had to muster all the fake happiness he could get a hold of when he heard her say that to him just to give her a small smile. He had also had to stop himself from telling her that he loved her, that there was no need to move out; that she did not belong with Scott, and that the person she should be with was him and him alone… but he knew he could not say any of that to her.

He had already been chewed out by Gene the entire week he had been in China, and he had warned him of the consequences of showing her more affection than needed; the clue to undoing what they had done to her.

"_Just remember, Stark: she can still unlock her real memories,"_ Gene had told him. _"She can still remember all of it, if she really wants, and there's nothing you or I can do about it other than putting her though the misery of memory reconfiguration once more. And I'm not doing that to her again. Not because you don't have the gonads to let her go."_

At the end of their conversation, he had agreed to everything she had said, and she had been so happy that he had made the effort to understand. She was not renewing her lease to their apartment. She was moving out at the end of it. She was moving to Empire State University to be with _him_.

Him: Scott Summers; the man that was currently kissing her under the mistletoe that the Human Resources department had argued against having during the company's Christmas party, but had ended hanging up anyway after making everyone attending the event sign a liability release form.

_Fuck! When did I open my eyes again?_

Despite his best efforts, he could not close his eyes again. His gaze bore holes in Scott as he slid his hands from her hips to her arms and then her face, steadying her and keeping her close to him to not break the kiss. Pepper smiled and giggled and pulled on the lapels of his tuxedo jacket to keep him close as well, then casually ran her hands down his pants and placed them inside his back pockets, probably thinking no one would notice, but Tony definitely did.

_That should've been me_, Tony thought with resentment. _That should've been me all along!_

"Are you sure you don't want to sit down?" Maya asked when she felt him tense up. "We've been dancing all night, Tony. I think we should rest."

"No, it's fine," he told her again even though he had no clue what he was declining to do. "It's almost over," he added for good measure.

"Well, how about we sit down for me? I'm not a superhero, Tony. My feet are killing me."

"Oh," he said and forced his eyes to leave the couple still making out by the mistletoe. "Yeah, alright."

He escorted Maya to the table but did not sit down with her. She gave him a questioning look and he smiled.

"Bathroom," he said and she rolled her eyes.

"Don't take long," she warned. "I want to ditch this party and show you what I got you for Christmas, Mr. Stark," she said and then pointed to her body. "Needs to be unwrapped first, of course."

"Sure," he said and cleared his throat, making Maya think he was nervous about whatever she had planned for them for tonight, but in reality he was wondering what the hell he was going to do to get out of sleeping with her this time. He was running out of excuses _and_ time to come up with more.

"I'll be right back."

He took quick steps toward the facilities at the back of the lobby, walking by Pepper and Scott but not sparing them a glance. He slammed the door on his way in to the men's restroom and headed straight to one of the multiple sinks. He turned on the cold water handle and splashed his face with it, breathing hard as he did so. He was enraged like he never had been before in his entire life, and he was not sure how his anger had not been picked up by Maya just yet.

_Because she doesn't know me_, he reminded himself. _Because she's not Pepper and she'll never learn to read me like Pepper does._

He angrily pressed on the lever of the paper towel machine several times and then snatched the long piece of paper to dry his face and arms. He crunched the paper together and threw it inside the nearest trashcan before he rested his weight on the wall by pressing his palms onto it. He closed his eyes, took in deep breaths and almost missed the sound of someone walking in.

He expected the door of one of the stalls to be opened or hear the sound of any part of the facilities being used, but when the steps stopped a few feet away from him and he heard a throat clearing, Tony had an idea of what was about to come.

That did not mean, however, that he wanted to turn around just yet and face him.

"Pepper sent me to check up on you. Maya told us you went to the restroom and Pepper freaked out. Any idea why?"

Tony scoffed and shook his head. "That was the excuse I used to give when I left school to do Iron Man business. She probably thinks I'm on a mission and didn't tell her about it. There's no need to lie about it now. She should know that."

"Ah!" Scott grinned in understanding. "I get it. So, what do you want me to tell her, then?"

"About what?"

"About why you're hiding yourself in here. I'm not stupid, Stark. I'd hide too if Pepper wouldn't get mad at me and if I didn't want to make her happy by pretending I'm getting the hang of music. She loves parties and dancing, and I like neither and I'm about to explode right now. I thought you liked them, though. She's always comparing my two left feet to your two _perfect_ ones," he air-quoted the word _perfect_ to make sure Tony knew they were Pepper's words and not his even though the inventor was not even looking at him just yet.

"I'm not hiding," Tony said, turned around in place and rested his back against the wall. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared Scott up and down. Scott, in return, rested his right shoulder on the wall dividing the entrance and the sink area, crossed his arms as well and shrugged.

"Am I keeping you from using the bathroom?"

"No," Tony said. "I'm just waiting to hear whatever you came here to say to me. Pepper might've sent you to see if I'm alright, but now you're just getting comfy."

Scott smirked. "Guess they don't call you a genius for no reason."

Tony narrowed his eyes but said nothing and let Scott continue his chat.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about Pepper, since it's getting really serious between us now. She told me you're OK with her moving out next year, but I wonder if that's really the case."

"What makes you think it's not?"

Scott shrugged and looked outside for a moment to make sure no one was listening in to their awkward conversation before he returned his attention to the inventor.

"Just want to make sure you don't decide to change your mind later. I want to make things clear between you and me, since you're her bodyguard and all. As her best _friend_," he emphasized the word, "your opinion is very important to her and I'd hate for us to start our life together on the wrong foot because I made you mad."

_Life together?_ Tony scoffed and raised his chin. "As long as you know where you _rank_, where your _place_ is, I think we'll be alright."

Scott chuckled, unfolded his arms and rested his right forearm on the wall. "Yes, my place is pretty clear. I rank as Pepper's boyfriend. Where do you rank, Tony? The coworker? The roommate? The friend? Or is it just the subject of one-sided love?"

"I don't love Pepper the way you think I do. The way you do," Tony responded with as even of a tone as he could. "She's my friend, and I love her as such, but nothing more than that."

"I'm sure," Scott smiled. "Let's not bullshit each other, Tony, OK? You yourself don't even believe the lie you're making everyone else believe. The lie you're making that poor girl, Maya, believe. How long have you been telling that to yourself, that you don't love her? How long have you been telling that to Pepper?"

Scott knew he was grasping at straws with his assumptions, but he had nothing to lose.

Tony remained silent for a moment, sizing up Scott's intentions and then smiled when he realized he had been caught and had to change his approach. He then shook his head at him, walked up to him to exit the bathroom and stopped next to Scott for a brief instant.

"OK. Let's be honest with each other now. _I_'ve got nothing to lose. I'm letting you have her, Summers. Don't you _ever _forget that. And if you do anything that I disapprove of… anything that makes her sad, you can bet your sorry two left feet that I'll be coming after you, and I WILL take her back."

"You're more pathetic than I thought you were, Tony. You can't have the girl but you don't want anyone else to have her either. I can't imagine how much it must _suck_ that all your money and power can't buy you her love, her undivided attention… her body. All of that belongs to me: a complete nobody compared to you."

Tony smiled even though anger was seeping through his pores. "You're not off to a good start."

Scott narrowed his eyes and followed the inventor out of the men's bathroom only to find Pepper was walking up to them with a nervous look. The moment she saw that Tony was still on the premises she sighed in relief and then shook her head at him.

"Tony, seriously! I thought you'd taken off."

"Of course not, Pep," he gave her an honest smile and held her by the waist, pulling her closer than he should have with Maya and Scott watching them, but right now he just could not bring himself to care. "I just needed a minute to rest so that _we_ can have the last dance."

Pepper's eyes gleamed in delight and she nodded before she turned on her heels and dragged Tony with her to the dance floor. Dancing with Scott was sweet and romantic, but she did crave the serious dancing skills only Tony seemed to have; the ones that actually relaxed her and made her squeal in glee. Dancing with Scott was like going to a class of a subject you knew nothing about; you were more worried about passing the test than getting anything out of the class. Dancing with Tony, however, was like going to the Olympics only to show off. She had already given up on having a chance to dance with him since Scott and Maya were around, but she was not going to say no if Tony offered and the party was about be wrapped up.

Halfway to their destination, Tony turned around, faced Scott and gave him a daring wink and a smile as a simple and childish reminder that he was still in control, that he could still take Pepper away from him if he so wanted to; a gesture that did not escape Maya's questioning eyes. Scott narrowed his eyes at him, but he did nothing more than to join Maya at their table as the two of them watched the ginger and the inventor dance the last tune of the night.

Seconds before their dance ended, Scott turned to the crestfallen Maya and called her name. The brunette looked up at him with a knowing and saddened look and Scott knew what needed to be done.

"So," he began as he watched Tony twirl around a laughing Pepper and noticed how much happier the redhead looked dancing with the genius than with him. "Want to meet up for lunch to talk about the common problem we have?"

Maya eyed Scott for a moment before her eyes followed the path of his sunglasses to watch Tony hold Pepper in a tight and close embrace. Her arms surrounded his shoulders and his arms enveloped her waist. His smile was wider than she had seen on him all night, and he was even singing the lyrics to the song into Pepper's ears. He then gave her a long kiss on her cheek and then whispered to her the three little words that the inventor had not even told his own girlfriend himself, and that was as much as the brunette was going to put up with.

Maya took a pretty good guess that Pepper had said them back to him when Tony's smile widened a few seconds after he had uttered the words.

"How about after Christmas?" the brunette said with a frown.

"Sounds good to me."

xxxXXXxxx

Pepper closed the front door of her apartment after kissing and hugging Scott goodbye. It was around ten in the morning on Christmas day, and both Maya and Scott had spent the night at the apartment with their respective partners. Maya had left an hour ago, claiming her family was going to kill her if she did not make it to at least the opening of the presents they always did at noon. Scott, having no family, had given them the excuse that he wanted to meet up with some friends of his who were on campus for the holidays and could not visit their families because they were out of the state.

Unbeknownst to the inventor and the ginger, Scott and Maya were going to meet for a late lunch later on today.

Pepper stretched her arms above her head and yawned as she walked to the couch and turned on the television to watch the holiday-related movie marathon scheduled for today. She had not even bothered to change out of her pajamas for now as she did not see the point in doing so. Stark Solutions was closed until January 3rd, which gave the two owners a much needed vacation; sans their missions, of course.

After fifteen minutes of watching the marathon, her attention was diverted when the television was suddenly turned off by the inventor's Extremis intervention when he walked inside the living room and sat next to her on the couch, a wide grin on his face. His hair was still damp from the shower he had just taken and he too decided it was a good day to stay in pajamas.

Pepper slapped his leg twice to acknowledge his presence and then reached for the remote to turn on the television again. The second she turned it on, Tony turned it off again and after going through the same motion three more times, she faced him and groaned.

"I was watching that, you know?"

"Yeah, but now you're watching me."

Pepper raised a single brow. "Okay. What's going on?"

"I want to give you your presents."

"My… _what_?"

"Your Christmas presents."

The redhead's brows shot to the roof. "You mean the ones we already exchanged last night?"

"No, your _real_ presents."

Pepper frowned. "As opposed to the imaginary ones you gave me? I don't… I don't understand."

"The presents last night," he began as he stood up and walked over to the back of the Christmas tree and crouched before it, his hand reaching out for something underneath, "Those were just the normal presents. I… I have three more for you, but they aren't for Scott or Maya to see."

"What do you mean?" the ginger asked, her eyes following his every move as he took out a small box that had been hidden under the folds of the Christmas tree skirt and returned to sit to her right on the couch.

"I mean that there are some things that I rather just keep between you and me, Pep," he said and hugged her from the side. "There are some things that neither Scott nor Maya have earned the right to know about us, and I'd like to keep it that way."

Pepper furrowed her brows and thought about his words, knowing some of the things he was referring to, such as the fact that he had ended up in her bed more than usual lately due to the increasing nightmares of his near-death experience in the river. He had woken up several times since he had returned from the hospital, gasping for air, coughing and calling her name in the middle of the night.

The first time she had witnessed his breakdown, she had freaked out when she had ran into his room after hearing him scream only to see him on the floor on all fours, hyperventilating and eyes and fists tightly clenched. Since then, many times she had woken up with his presence in her bed, his arm thrown around her waist or stomach depending on how she had ended up going to sleep at night.

Surprisingly for her, the nights he did not come to her she had ended up going to him, and although she knew it was not appropriate to do so that often or at all, she was having a difficult time stopping herself. The more time that passed, the less she could sleep alone. Needless to say, it was the same for him.

He handed her the small box and she took it in her hands, eyeing it from different angles. She then looked up at him with a curious look as if she could decipher what he was up to by just staring at him, and he chuckled.

"Merry Christmas, Pepper," he said and pulled her in to kiss the top of her head.

The girl stared at the rectangular box in her hands for another moment and then looked up to glue her eyes to his, still unsure about this turn of events. He had a satisfied smile on his face, the one that she had seen on him every time when he was extremely pleased that an idea or plan of his worked out. Her eyes then returned to the box and she sighed.

"Fine, but I'm going to get you something else."

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'? It's only fair."

"Just open it, OK?"

"Alright," she shook her head and sighed but still unwrapped the gift. At first it seemed as if he had given her a simple picture frame, but when she turned it over to the front her eyes immediately stung with tears.

"Tony…"

The frame already had a picture in it and it was a perfectly blown up and cleaned up version of the picture she had thought she had lost when her locker was thrashed by Janet Lowe. The details of why Whitney had thought it was a good idea to mess with her locker via the other girl were sketchy, but all she needed to remember was that her picture had been affected by it.

"This… this…"

"Do you like it?"

She nodded to him and wiped some of her tears away before she shifted to face him, hugged him tightly and buried her face in his neck. His left hand ended up resting on her lower back and his right hand hugged her shoulder from underneath, their posture on the couch making it difficult to hug her otherwise.

"Thank you," she sniffled. "Thank you so much, Tony."

He kissed her left shoulder and forearm and nodded, enjoying every second of her embrace. He knew that he had to stop doing this with her, but his encounter with Scott had just renewed his feelings for her. She was going to leave him anyway, and at that point he would have no option but to move on, but he would be damned if he did not take advantage of every last second he was going to have with her.

"I see why you didn't want Scott or Maya around," she said and pulled away from him. "I'd have to give explanations I'm not ready to give."

"And that's just one out of three."

"Oh, jeez," she smiled at him. "Are you on a mission to make me cry?"

"Of course not, but if it does happen, I'm sorry in advance."

"OK. What's next?"

"Open up the frame."

"This frame?"

"Yup."

Pepper did as told and flipped over the frame. She removed the cover of it and saw a small envelope was behind the picture, caught between it and the cover at the back of the frame. Just as before, she eyed it with questioning eyes before she replaced the cover back on the frame and placed the frame on the coffee table. She then opened the unsealed envelope, and from it she took out a card with an address written on it. She did not recognize the address at all and frowned, waiting for an explanation from the genius boy.

"That's the last known address of your parents. Your birth parents. I know it's not much, but it's a start."

The redhead had been trying to get a hold of her birth parents ever since she remembered she was adopted, but being so busy with the company and her school work and Rescue, she had had very little time to really focus on her search. Most of what she had found had been dead ends, and this little piece of paper held more information than her research skills had come up with so far.

Her eyes filled with tears again, but this time she did not hold them back. Tony pulled her head to rest on his chest and held her until she stopped crying. Once she felt she had recovered enough, she placed the envelope and the card on the coffee table, next to the frame, and she sighed.

"Can the other gift wait? I don't think I can take another awesome one today."

"Sorry, Pep," he shook his head. "I saved the best for last. But for that I do need you to look your best."

"OK," she said with a nod even though she was not sure what he meant by 'looking her best.' It was just the two of them alone in the apartment, so she did not immediately see the need to pretend to be calm when clearly she was not. Nevertheless, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths while he held her in his arms and rubbed her back up and down. A few minutes later she was composed again and gave him a nod that told him she was ready for whatever surprise he had for her.

He cupped her face in his hands and eyed her carefully, making sure that she no longer looked upset. She rolled her eyes when she realized what he was doing and scoffed.

"Not pretty enough for your surprise yet?"

"Not pretty," he whispered. "Beautiful."

Pepper exhaled and her eyes shifted down to avoid his intense gaze. Even after nearly three years of knowing him, sometimes his charm was just too damn good and, if she had not been trying to keep her cool, she knew she would have blushed just about now.

She lifted her eyes again when she felt his hands move away from her face. She followed him with her eyes as he stood up, took out his pod and a cord from his pocket and walked over to stand next to the television. He connected one end of the cord to the pod and the other end to the HDMI input on the TV. He then pressed a few buttons on the pod, left it on the television table and aimed its camera to where Pepper sat. Finally, he gave her a smirk and a salute and slowly made his way back to his room.

She furrowed her brows and opened her mouth to ask where he was heading and why he was leaving, but then the television turned on to show her a familiar face she had not seen in a long, long, long time.

_"Pepper?"_ the man on the screen asked and Pepper gasped.

"Dad?"

_"Hey, Sweetheart!"_ Virgil said, waved a hand at her and repositioned himself so that his entire upper body was visible on screen. _"Merry Christmas, Baby!"_

"DAD!" Pepper cried and briefly covered her mouth with her hand. "How… How did you…?"

_"Tony,"_ he began. _"He surprised me when he stopped by last week and gave me this weird-looking phone. He told me to have it with me at all times and that it would make it easier to talk to you. He sent me a text message last night and told me he was going to connect us today. I was skeptical at first since not even our military phones work this well 'round here but… hey… I should've known better, right? This is Stark-made!"_

"Oh, Daddy," Pepper swallowed hard and walked over to the screen, making sure her face was still visible on the pod while she kneeled in front of the television. She touched Virgil's image with her palm and saw that, just as with her, Virgil Potts had tears in his eyes. "How… how are you? I've missed you much!"

_"I've missed you too, Pepper. And I'm OK, all things considered. How are you? You look amazing!"_

"I'm fine… I'm great, actually. Tony… he's been taking care of me."

_"So I've heard,"_ he said with a nod and did his best to keep inside how disappointed he was that Tony had decided not to pursue his little girl anymore. As a man, Virgil understood Tony's reasons for not telling her about them; he also respected the fact that Tony put his daughter's safety over anything else. However, he also knew and had seen first-hand that the two made each other happy, and it was a shame that he would never get to see that happiness in her that only the inventor knew how to bring out. He still had the hope, nonetheless, that maybe one day things would be better for them and they could be together once more. If anyone was to take in his daughter for the rest of her life, he knew there was no one better than the Stark boy himself.

"_I also heard you're a big executive now."_

Pepper chuckled. "I wouldn't say big executive, but I could probably retire today, and you could too for that matter. Can you come home now?"

Virgil laughed aloud. _"I wish, Pepper, but I have to complete this assignment. Once I finish it though, I'm retiring for sure. I… I think I've had my fill of this life."_

"When will you finish?" she asked with a hopeful tone.

_"A couple of more years, I'm afraid."_

"Oh," she sighed.

_"It's OK, honey. I'll be back before you know it."_

Pepper gulped and nodded. "I know. How often can you use the pod?"

_"It depends. I don't think I can do this teleconference thing often, but I can probably text you every now and then. It's a security issue, you know? Although, Tony said that everything I send or receive on this phone is encrypted via his personal satellite."_

"It is," she assured him. "Better security than S.H.I.E.L.D. itself. Tony knows what he's doing. Trust him."

_"I do. I trusted him with you, didn't I?"_

Pepper smiled brightly and gave her father a nod. "I hope he hasn't disappointed you."

_"Not one bit. Can't say the same about this Scott person he told me you're dating. Do I know this prick?"_

"Dad!" Pepper rolled her eyes. "Scott is fine. I think you'd like him, too. Besides, Tony wouldn't let me date someone he didn't approve of, right?"

_"I guess so,"_ Virgil shrugged_. "Can't be any worse than Happy Hogan, right?"_

"DAD! Happy was not a bad person!"

_"He was clueless!"_

"A little bit, yes, but not a bad person."

_"I guess so," _Virgil said again and then turned his head to his right and groaned. _"I have to go, Pepper. We're moving again."_

"What? So soon?"

_"Sorry, Baby Girl, but that's the way it is around here. We gotta keep moving. Stay ahead of the game."_

Pepper felt tears fill her eyes again, knowing what _ahead of the game_ truly meant. It was code for _ahead of the enemy_ and _as safe as we can be_; staying alive as long as they could depended mostly on their ability to stay on the road and not get stuck to one place for long.

She stroked Virgil's face on the screen and nodded in understanding. "I love you, Dad."

_"I love you too, Pepper."_

"Next time that you can…"

_"Yes," _he said._ "I will call you again, as soon as I possibly can. Take care, Sweetheart. I'll be home in no time."_

Pepper sniffled and nodded while she burned the image of her father in her mind. "Be careful. I'll be waiting."

Virgil gave her a final nod and, three seconds later, the screen went dark. The pod beeped twice, signaling the end of the call and she remained on the floor. She let her tears of combined sadness and happiness fall freely down her cheeks and she silently thanked Tony for not letting Maya and Scott see this, see _her_ like this. He had been absolutely right; this moment was just between her and her father, and she had Tony to thank for making it happen.

Five minutes later, she finally stood up from the floor. Her eyes then landed on the picture frame and the address as she grabbed a tissue to wipe her nose and face clean from the tears before she began her trek to his room. She knew she should have stopped herself – redirected herself to her room; _controlled_ herself, thought thoroughly about what she was about to do, but the emotions within her were high – practically overpowering, leaving her grasp.

It was moments like these that she questioned her feelings for her boyfriend, Scott. It was moments like these that she wondered if she could make herself walk out that door in eight months and never look back. Tony Stark had been her friend, her shoulder to cry on, her savior, and if she was not positive that his feelings of romantic love were not directed towards her, she would right now jump at the opportunity of letting herself fall in love with him.

She was surprised, to say the least, that nothing serious had ever happened between them in such a long time. Everyone teased them about being a couple even when they were obviously not and were clearly dating other people, but she had never actually paid that much attention to the bantering before. She had always thought it was unfounded, based on nothing more than media gossip and misread actions and words between them. Now, however, this very moment when he had given her the best gifts she could have ever ask for, she had to wonder why the hell they had never tried to do something about the amazing chemistry they evidently had together.

_Because we value our friendship more_, she told herself. _Because lovers come and go, but a friendship – a true friendship – is forever._

She did not even bother to knock on his door and walked right in. The inventor had been sitting in front of his small workstation he had in his room, and when he saw her come inside with a determined look on her face, he stood up and faced her.

"Hey, are you done already? How is your dad? Was the signal goo–"

Her lips on his interrupted the question he instantly forgot on contact.

He closed his eyes, returned the lip lock with equal devotion and his hands landed on her waist. She stood on her tiptoes to get a better grip on him. When he felt her struggle to keep her balance, he picked her up from the floor by his grip on her waist and deepened the kiss, going as far as carefully biting her lower lip.

He could not stop the throaty moan that escaped him seconds before she pulled back to catch her breath, and he refused to let her feet return to the floor. His eyes searched hers, silently asking what this was all about, but she just continued to pant and stare back at him. She licked her lips and swallowed hard, for a moment questioning herself and his reaction to her kiss. This was not the first time they had done this and, any time they had, it had been a result of some heightened emotion caused by a unique situation; a unique situation they could later blame for their moment of weakness. But this time, it felt different.

Every time something like this had happened between them, she had been satisfied with whatever she had gotten from him: a kiss on the cheek, her forehead, her head, her shoulders, her knuckles or her neck; his arms around her at night, a playful dance in the kitchen, singing in her ears, a lingering hand-holding, a flirty smile; a whispered declaration of friendly love, a hand ran down her tear-damp cheek, a promise to keep her safe, and a life-saving breath exhaled into him.

This time, however, she was not satisfied with just a quick peck or a long kiss like the one they had shared at the hospital after he had finally woken up from a long slumber. This time, she wanted _more_. She wanted more than just a friendly embrace or a sexual innuendo from him with tongue-in-cheek. This time, she wanted _him_.

"It's a thank you," she finally said when she recovered her voice. "For the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me."

He smiled at her, but it was not the full-of-himself smile he had given her when he had handed her the wrapped frame. This smile was also different; this smile told her he had just wanted to see her happy; to see her smile and that he felt glad to be the cause of it.

"Any time, Pepper. You're my girl, right?"

"Right," she whispered and stared back at him, wanting to see in him the same fire that she felt in the pit of her stomach at the moment. She swallowed hard again, and when his face continued to be unreadable, she bit her bottom lip before she spoke again.

"You… you're still keeping me off the floor."

"I know," he uttered and his nervous gulp was evident to her. "Does it… does it bother you?"

She shook her head when her voice betrayed her, the moment she saw _it_ in his eyes. What she was looking for: a hint; a spark that told her he felt the same way, even if just for today. It had been brief, almost imperceptible, but she knew this boy – this man, better than he knew himself, and based on his next action, it appeared he also knew her that well: he set her feet back on the floor and kissed her.

She did not hesitate to kiss back; longer than they ever had before – much, much longer, her intentions clear to him by the roaming of her hands on him and the pulling of his clothes.

"Pepper," he moaned her name in between kisses when she led him to the edge of his bed. "Is this… you… you OK with this?"

"Yes," she responded in a heartbeat and pushed him down so that he sat on the foot of the bed before she climbed onto his lap and continued her assault on his lips. It was just as the memory Gene had unlocked in him and blocked in her of when he had made out with her under the influence of the cold medicine, only this time, they were both aware of what was happening; _extremely_ aware.

"Are you?" she asked him when she realized he had yet to agree to what was happening between them; what was _about_ to happen. The line in the sand was currently nowhere to be seen, but she hesitated when she wondered if perhaps the line was not there just for her, but still painfully present for him. "Or… is Maya… and Scott…"

"They don't have to know," he told her, held her by her waist and then flipped them over so that she was now on her back in the middle of the bed and he towered over her. "Just another moment between us," he told her as he kissed her neck and her hands clutched the sheets underneath her. "It's just between you and me."

"And, nothing changes."

"No," he switched sides on her neck and she gasped in anticipation when he bit her scar. "All remains the same."

"You… you promise…?"

"Yes," he answered and stopped long enough to stare at her face. She was breathing as hard as him and was as visibly nervous as he. He ran the back of his right hand down her face, giving her a moment to back down if she wanted to. When a few seconds went by and she did not make a move, he smiled down at her, already sensing that this was as far as they were going to get.

"Do you want us to stop?"

She swallowed hard and thought long and hard about her response. This was not right and they both knew it; they both had a significant other that had just left their home not even two hours ago. A significant other that already worried about the amount of time the two of them spent together at work and at home. A kiss in the night or a slow dance at a party could be painted as somewhat innocent actions between them, but what they were about to do in plain daylight was typical behavior of having an affair.

This was not a guiltless act or something that could earn them a simple slap on the hand or face. This was more serious than that and even if tomorrow they went back to normal as she knew they both could, the memory would remain, the tainting of their involvements with Maya and Scott would remain, and so could long-term evidence of it, too.

But, what about them and their needs? What about the sexual repression she knew they both felt? The tension between them was noticeable yet natural, as it was human nature to develop it when in close quarters with a non-related member of the opposite sex. Was this the reason why she had not been able to sleep with Scott even after all this time? Was this the reason why Tony was yet to sleep with Maya, himself? Was this the final test they had to pass so that they could take the next step with the jock and the brunette, respectively? Was this what was keeping them from truly being happy with the person they had chosen to be with?

A person other than the one they were currently staring at?

She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly through her mouth, and just when Tony was about to break the silence, she gave him her final response.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Nope, that's not even as hot and provocative as this is going to get. Just sit tight ^_^

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: January<strong>

"So, where do you know this guy from?" Scott asked with a fake smile when said man waved at his girlfriend from the basketball court with a little bit too much enthusiasm for his taste.

"High school," she said and patted his knee with her left hand. "Met him in high school."

"AND, they used to date," Tony chirped in with a smug smile from his position to Pepper's right. "Yes, siree. He and Pepper, they went out for a while."

"Tony!" She gritted her teeth and elbowed him when all that came out of Scott's mouth was a shocked whimper. The blue-eyed young man was not at all helping in calming the jealousy of her boyfriend. "Thank you for that, jerk."

"You're welcome, darling," Tony chuckled and then leaned closer to her ear to whisper to her. "Not even sorry," he said and then pulled away when Maya Hansen returned to her seat to Tony's right.

"You dated that dude?" Scott asked Pepper, still taken aback the news. "Seriously?"

"Who? Happy?" Maya asked before she took a bite out of her corn dog and handed one to Tony. "Oh, yeah! Yup! Pepper and Happy totally went out."

Scott narrowed his eyes at the brunette. "How do _you_ know? You didn't go to school together."

"Didn't have to," she said as she licked the grease off her fingertips. "Pepper told me a long time ago."

"Well, thanks for the heads up," Scott said and scoffed, causing the ginger to surround his right arm with both of hers and placed a kiss on his cheek.

"It's alright, baby. It wasn't anything serious. Right, Tony?"

"What?" he asked as he practically vacuumed his corn dog, pretending he was not listening to a word that was being said. "What did you say?"

"Oh, forget it!" the redhead rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the court to see Happy score one more point for ESU. She had not had the time to reconnect with her former dating partner, but since the year was starting out slow at Stark Solutions, the four of them had decided to go on another double-date to a neutral location, so to speak, and hopefully have a chance to talk with the jock.

"How close were you with him?" Scott asked with a pout. "Did you, like, go to prom together or anything like that?"

Prom. A code word for: _did you sleep with him after it?_

"Oh, no! Of course not!" Pepper shook her head and waved a hand to dismiss his comment. "You're worrying about nothing, Scott. I promise you. I didn't even get to go to prom; it happened when I was kidnapped."

Even though she referenced her kidnapping so nonchalantly, everyone else flinched at the comment.

"Fine," Scott finally said but still did not sound convinced, prompting the ginger to pull him down to her face by placing her left hand behind his neck and kissed him on the lips. Maya took advantage of the apparent love that floated in the air and she too pulled the inventor down to her for a kiss. Their kiss did not last as long, however, as the crowd began cheering when Happy scored yet another triple pointer for the university.

"WOOT, WOOOOT!" the redhead said as she jumped in excitement from her seat along with the genius billionaire, both whistling and twirling their right fists in the air, surprising both Scott and Maya, who had no idea how into sports the two friends actually were – or how much Tony had learned from the ginger regarding school spirit and how important it was for her.

"GO, HAPPY!"

The jock on the court turned to face her as if he had heard her cheer and gave her a two-finger salute. Both Pepper and the blue-eyed boy returned the salute and then Happy responded by making the peace sign to the both of them until the whistle of the referee reminded all of them that there were still ten more minutes of game time.

The redhead and the inventor both sat down again, wide smiles on their faces. It was nice to be out like this: not worrying about missions, the board members and their profits or school, and if the awkwardness between the four of them was not still slightly present, their current outing would have been that much more memorable.

After throwing some popcorn into her mouth, Pepper bent down slightly to grab her cup of soda from the floor, stuck the straw in between her lips and then immediately groaned in disappointment.

"Dammit! I drank it all!"

"Do you want some of mine?" Scott offered but Pepper scrunched her nose.

"Thanks, but I don't really like root beer. Sorry."

"Here, Pep," Tony said without missing a beat and aimed his own cup toward her, his eyes still watching the game. She leaned down and forward to bite onto the straw and took a few sips of Tony's drink. She then sighed in the relief the soda had brought her salt-ridden mouth and she smiled her gratefulness at her friend.

"Thanks."

"No problem," he said with a shrug and a smile before he returned the straw to his lips, and neither of them caught the looks Maya and Scott shared behind their backs.

Despite their plans and best efforts, nothing had changed between Tony and Pepper. They still lived together, spent time together and were as close as they had been yesterday, the day before and last year. It had been a relief, nonetheless, finding out that they would now at least make the effort to spend more time with their significant other, even if most of their outings so far had been of the four together and not each couple by themselves.

Maya's left hand slid under Tony's right and she held it tightly to catch his attention that was currently on the redhead, whispering who-knew-what to her as she nodded along with a smile. When he felt the second tug, he gave it a light squeeze but then instantly let it go when he stood up from the bench.

"Bathroom," he told his girlfriend and Pepper's head snapped toward him, eyes narrowed. Tony chuckled and lifted his hands to either side of his head. "Just bathroom, I promise."

Pepper eyed him up and down for a second before she shook her head at him. "Fine, but if you're not back in three minutes, I'm suiting up Maya to find your ass."

"I'm down with that," the brunette said with a nod. "I can learn to use your armor on a moment's notice to drag him back here."

"Jeez, women! Chill! It won't be necessary," Tony assured them as he began walking away from their seats. "I'll be right back, you'll see."

The two girls eyed each other and smiled in conspiracy before they busted out laughing. Moments like these between them were bittersweet for Maya; she really liked Pepper and had nothing against her. She knew it was not the redhead's fault that her boyfriend was head over heels for her as she had come to accept after seeing them dance during the Stark Solutions Christmas party. Her only grudge against the ginger was knowing that she could have Tony kneeling at her feet by just batting an eye; something she herself was not able to do even with a neon sign above her head.

Maya cleared her throat and slid herself into Tony's seat with every intention of remaining there, even if just to put some physical space between her boyfriend and his crush. Pepper did not seem to notice the change, but her eyes did narrow when she felt her pod vibrating in her pocket.

Ignoring that the crowd was beginning to cheer even louder as the game was nearing its end, the redhead took out her purple pod and slid it open. Maya had to bite down her tongue not to ask if Tony was the one texting the ginger, but her concerns soon proved unfounded when Pepper groaned and cursed under her breath.

"What is it?" Maya asked as her eyes tried her best to read the letters on the pod's screen but was unable to do so. "Something the matter?"

"Yeah, no… uhm… mission stuff."

"Mission stuff, now?" the tone in which the question had been asked made Scott's ears perk up even though his face was still staring forward and down to the field.

"No, not an actual mission," Pepper clarified. "I've been doing some recon and my latest research just came back, and it's not good."

"Oh," Maya said but had nothing more to add. She pretended to return her attention to the game in its last seconds to go, but from the corner of her eye both she and Scott watched Pepper type on the phone. Neither of them could erase the possibility from the back of their minds that Pepper was lying to them and that the communication she was having right now was with none one other than Tony, who had coincidentally just left for a bathroom break.

After the brunette and the jock had exchanged information and Scott had told Maya about his conversation in the bathroom with Tony, both Maya and Scott suspected the two friends were having an affair. Needless to say, and while the evidence was damning, they had not been able to catch them in a lie just yet.

_This can't be right_, Pepper thought as she read the logs of her latest reconnaissance efforts. _If this is true, we're in so much trouble._

She continued reading the reports and made some annotations on them by using the stylus attached to the pod, not stopping until her phone began vibrating again when a call came in. She grabbed the wireless earpiece and put it inside her right ear and quickly answered the call.

"Tony?"

_"Pepper? Pepper can you hear me?"_

"Yeah!" she said and covered both her ears. "What happened? Where are you?"

_"Outside,"_ he responded, hoping his voice would carry over the screams in the stadium. _"I forgot my damned ticket. They won't let me back in!"_

"Are you serious?" Pepper spat before she looked up and stared between Maya and Scott, both of which were gazing back at her. "It's Tony," Pepper began. "He forgot his ticket and they won't let him back in."

"Oh!" Maya said and immediately jumped from her seat. "I have it! I'll go give it to him."

_"Pepper?"_

"Tony? Maya's on her way."

_"No, it's alright,"_ he said. _"Game's almost over, anyway. I can wait."_

Pepper looked up to relay the information to the brunette but she was already halfway down the bleachers, pushing and shoving everyone in her way. "Sorry, Tony. She's almost there."

_"It's OK, I guess. See you in a few minutes, then."_

"OK. Bye," the redhead responded and ended the call. She put away the earpiece, the stylus and the phone, and even though her eyes were glued to the game below, he mind was miles away. She should have known the peace of no critical missions would end one of these days, she had just hoped it would have waited until they were not in the middle of a date. The news she had just received was extremely important, which meant she and Tony would probably have to cancel their dinner plans with Scott and Maya tonight and yet again not get a chance to talk to Happy as she had wanted to.

_It'll just have to wait_, the ginger thought and sighed. _This recon is very important._

Since his return from China, Tony and Pepper had been keeping a closer eye on the apparent resurfacing of the Maggia. Even though Gene had assured him no word had been received by the Tong that there was any evidence the criminal group was trying to come back, and that the small appearances of them were just random, he still promised he would increase his eyes and ears in the city, and both Rescue and Iron Man had thought it to be prudent to monitor the activities as well. Several, apparently disconnected incidents in the city, had caught the attention of the superheroes. The latest information Pepper had just received from Gene himself did not sit well with her, and once the inventor learned of what the redhead had just learned herself, she knew he would not be happy either. Especially not when she told him what she planned to do if her suspicions were correct.

The loud blare of the siren marked the end of the game and the entire place burst into cheers, whistles and screams. ESU had won again, and it was all thanks to its golden boy: Harold "Happy" Hogan, or H3, as he had become known. Scott, while a jock himself – a runner – was glad that the game was done and could not wait to leave the noisy place to be with Pepper alone. He knew he only had a few hours to spend time with her by themselves before he had to share her with Tony during dinner, and if she was concerned about the mission information she had just received, he feared he would not get a chance at all to be with her again until another day. He had again been trying to tell her his secret, but the more he tried to be alone with her, the less he had the chance to.

Pepper stood up from her seat and picked up all the trash they had left behind and Scott followed her lead. She then signaled to the exit with her chin and the man understood her cue. They dropped the trash in a bin on their way out, and seconds later they found Tony and Maya standing by the exit of the building itself. The pair approached the couple, and it only took one glance from Pepper to Tony to communicate what she had in mind.

"When?" Tony asked her, his brows furrowing like hers, both of them automatically switching to superhero mode.

"Just now. Did he send you the file?"

"No," I told him to just send it to you. "Is it bad?"

"About as bad as we thought it was going to be," Pepper responded and took out her pod when it vibrated again to let her knew a second report was being transmitted.

"Fuck," Tony mumbled and then turned to face his girlfriend. "Sorry, Maya, but Pepper and I, we gotta go. Scott? Could you give her a ride home for me, please?"

"What's going on?" Scott inquired.

"Babe," Pepper began and shook her head, trying to multitask between accepting the report and telling Scott only what he needed to know. "It's… it's the mission, what I just told you. We need to go do some analysis."

"Now?" Maya spat. "Can't it wait?"

"No," Tony responded as if it was obvious. "Lives are at risk. It can't wait."

Maya pursed her lips and glared at Scott while Tony leaned closer to Pepper to read the report on her pod with her.

"Should we jump in? We do have three locations," the inventor asked the ginger, both of them completely forgetting that Maya and Scott were standing just a few feet away from them, still in complete disbelief of what was happening.

"No. We could tip'em off," Pepper reasoned. "Let's go break this down further, and then we'll make a decision."

"Alright, let's go," Tony said and Pepper nodded in agreement. She then turned around and kissed Scott on the lips before whispering apologies to him and thanking him in advance for giving the brunette a ride. Tony gave Maya a quick peck on the cheek and also apologized for their sudden leave and, before his girlfriend could complain about his actions, the inventor grabbed Pepper's wrist and pulled her with him.

"I'll call you later, Scott!"

"OK," the man with the sunglasses said with a shrug that Pepper missed when she turned around to face Tony as he called her name and shifted his grip on her so that their hands were now laced together. The two dejected significant others stood there in silence, watching as the redhead and the genius climbed onto his _Stark Bike_, and they then narrowed their eyes when Tony turned around and helped Pepper put on her helmet.

"I thought the second helmet he had for that was pink?" Scott asked as he pointed a lazy finger toward the heroes. "Weren't you wearing a pink helmet on your way here?"

"Yeah," Maya exhaled with anger.

"Then, why is Pepper's helmet purple?"

"Because that's _her_ helmet. I'm not allowed to use it. So he made one just for me," she stated the last part with obvious sarcasm.

Scott bit back a groan, his eyes never leaving them as Tony reeved up his bike and Pepper's arms surrounded him and, a second later, they disappeared from the parking lot.

xxxXXXxxx

"Absolutely NOT!" Tony spat angrily, threw his arms into the air and kicked the side of his work table for added emphasis. "You're NOT doing that, Pepper!"

"It wasn't a question, Stark!" she retorted and sat down on her stool again, her eyes glued to the computer screen as her fingers typed on the virtual keyboard, her back facing a fuming Tony standing in the middle of the Makluan Temple. "This is the best chance we've got to get some more intel on the Maggia. Gene's already told us all he can find out for now without giving away our investigation."

"I don't give a _damn_ if you doing that would find the fucking cure for cancer, Pepper. I'm _not_ letting you do that! You hear me? You're NOT doing it that at all!"

Pepper sighed, rolled her eyes and enlarged the reports on the screen. She then stood up from her seat and turned around, finally facing the inventor who had his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl marring his otherwise handsome face.

"Tony, just think about the benefits of it," she pointed to the screen. "The Maggia are up to something big. Gene confirmed it. They're trying to build back their forces and not just for the hell of it. If we don't strike now, who knows what else they can do once they recover! They're still weak. We can still take them down if we just find out exactly what they're up to and cut them at the source."

"We _know_ what they're up to, Potts, and we have leads as to where they might possibly be hiding in. I say we just suit up and tackle all three places at once."

"At once? Are you gonna clone yourself or something? Rhodey's not here. We can't split up."

"We can ask Gene to join us."

"And do what, exactly?" it was her turn to cross her arms. "Show them that we don't know what the heck they're up to by just busting into their supposed locations and give them a chance to adjust their plans?"

Tony groaned, unfolded his arms and let them fall to his sides in defeat. He then walked to his favorite chair, near his work table, and deposited himself in it, giving his back to the ginger. He hunched his back as his right hand sorted through small bolts and nuts that were scattered over the surface and his left fingers tapped on the table. The sound of metal pieces hitting each other and the humming of the computers were the only sounds around them for a while until Pepper's steps resounded in the lab as she walked up to him and surrounded his shoulders from behind.

Tony sighed on contact, clenched his eyes shut and rested his hands over her arms.

"Pepper," he began in a soft voice. "I'm not saying your idea is not good. It's great, in fact. But we should just let the cops do it, not us. It's just not our style. We don't have the training for it."

Pepper shook her head at him, sighed and then rested the right side of her face on the left side of his. She understood why Tony was hesitant, reluctant – completely against, actually – to agree with her idea, but this was not the time to bring up the risks they had agreed to take upon when they put on the suits. This was not the time to let their common fear of losing the other blind their actions and responsibilities as heroes.

"We can't trust the cops, Tony," she reminded him. "Gene told us the Maggia has infiltrated even them. That's why they've been able to get away with it as long as they have. No one is investigating their crimes as they should. The cops have been bought and paid for by now and there's no way of telling who's part of it and who's not."

Tony opened his eyes, grabbed Pepper's right hand in his and slowly kissed the back of it several times until he had not left any part untouched as he thought about his response. He then turned his swiveling chair around and in a swift move pulled the girl to sit sideways on his lap. Her right arm rested across his shoulders for support while his left hand rested on her lower back and waist to help her keep her balance on him since her legs were now off the ground.

He then used his right hand to grab Pepper's left and placed light kisses on each one of her fingertips, reminding her of how much more affectionate with her he was becoming lately – even more so than Scott. When he was done, he rested her palm on his chest, right where his fast-beating heart was, and kept her hand there by keeping his on top of hers.

"Why does it have to be you? Why can't it be someone else?"

"Because they're targeting young girls, so unless you want your girlfriend to take the risk, I'm the only choice."

He frowned when he thought, even if for just a moment, that he would rather feed Maya to the Maggia wolves than Pepper. He knew it was selfish and despicable of him, but knowing the risk Pepper's self-appointed mission entailed, he did not care for longer than three seconds that he felt somewhat guilty about it.

"What if it's not the Maggia kidnapping these girls? What if it's someone else?"

"Then we've got nothing to worry about, right? Tony, this is the best lead we've had since we started investigating this last month. We can't just give up now. This is what we do, right? We risk our lives to save others?"

Tony closed his eyes when he knew he had already lost this fight. If he tried to deny her claim just now, he knew she had plenty of his own examples to prove him otherwise; trail derailment/frozen river/aircraft crash, included.

Having her sitting on him made them be practically at eye level, so he pulled her head down to his and rested their foreheads against the other. He used his free hand to grab onto her neck and hair to keep her close to him before he whispered to her, both of their eyes closed.

"I'm going with you and that's not a question either."

"You'll scare them off."

"No, I won't. I'll stay in the background, watch you from afar. I'll only intervene if you send me a signal."

"We can't arrive together."

"We won't."

"And we can't go as ourselves."

"We'll dress up. I'll put on a freakin' wig if I have to."

Pepper giggled at this and finally pulled away from his face and stood up from his lap. She exhaled slowly as her eyes scanned the room for a moment and then landed on his blue ones again.

"There can be no Rescue or Iron Man, either."

"I know."

"And, it may not be a one-time deal. It may take time."

This was what Tony feared the most. That the Maggia would do them the same Whitney had done: that they would take their time picking up Pepper for whatever it was they were kidnapping young women for and would do so when neither of them expected it. He was afraid that they would catch them by surprise; take her so fast and so far that he would never be able to find her.

"You're taking your tracker with you."

"No."

"It's not a suggestion, Pepper."

"Tony, if I take my necklace every time I'm there, they'll start suspecting something."

"I'll build you a new a tracker, a subcutaneous one. One that they won't be able to find or see."

"Metal?" she questioned him, predicting the possibility that she would be scanned for metal or guns if they did fall for their trap and ended up kidnapping her.

"No," he shook his head, stood up and grabbed her hands in his. "Silicon. Untraceable, I promise."

"We're going to need the floor plans of The Rotary," she mentioned and he nodded.

"We'll get them. And the names of the employees."

"I'll hack their database," Pepper responded with a grin he could not help but mirror. "And their menu."

"We're also going to need disguises," Tony pointed out and walked over to the computer to begin typing the list of supplies they were already reciting.

"Wigs, makeup, hair dye, contact lenses…" Pepper said in no particular order and Tony nodded along as he typed them in the computer.

"I'll put in an order and have Jarvis pick it up for us," the inventor said, feeling just a tad better that a jointly planned and executed undercover mission was better than one where Pepper snuck behind him and tried to do it alone if he refused to let her go.

"And we'll need a cover story in case I do get taken."

And at that, Tony felt a shiver run down his spine and stopped typing, his hands hovered over the virtual keyboard.

"I was thinking," she continued, "that maybe I can say that I'm in China on business, talking to Gene. It wouldn't be uncommon, right?"

Taking his silence for disapproval of her suggestion, she carried on. "Or maybe I can even say I'm out visiting my mom in Pittsburgh."

Tony was not yet able to find his voice since his mind could only continuously repeat the words _cover story_ and _taken_. Even if it was not true, and even if her potential kidnapping was planned, he could not make himself get past that part of the conversation. Whitney had taken her, Ghost had taken her, and now the Maggia was going to take her, too.

"Tony?" she walked closer to him when she realized he had not moved or said anything for a couple of minutes now. "Tony, are you even listening to me? Do you not like either story?"

"Hopefully…" he began after a shake of his head and continued typing up notes, "Hopefully, we won't need a cover story if we make this quick. Are these girls still missing?"

"Yeah. No ransom note, no phone call and no bodies… yet."

"What do they have in common?"

"That they are all girls. 21-25 years of age, unmarried. All shapes, sizes and colors, and all frequented _The Rotary_ on weekends."

"There must be a pattern to them."

"Not that I could find right away, but you're welcome to run by the 25 files if you'd like."

Tony was taken aback and turned around to face her. "25 files? How come there's only been_ two_ cases mentioned on television?"

"The owners of _The Rotary_ didn't want the bad publicity. So, after the third incident, they began paying the media to stay quiet."

"Of course. But, how do you know that? I didn't know you had a media contact? When did this happen?"

Pepper grinned and shrugged. "Technically, I don't. But my alter ego, Jenny, does."

"Jenny? You have an alter ego? How come this is the first time I hear of this?"

"Because I had only been using that name over the phone. It wasn't until yesterday, when we split up to look for more clues, that I had to use her."

"And your informant just _gave _you the information, no questions asked?"

Pepper bit her lower lip and looked away from his piercing eyes.

"Well, you know. Any straight guy would tell a tall brunette with a big rack and a short skirt whatever she wants, right? Push-up bra, thank you very much!"

She gave him a thumbs-up and an accomplished smile she hoped would ease the tension she could already see building in him. She was aware Tony was extremely protective of her, and it would definitely not sit well with him that she was putting herself in the path of a potential assault just to get some information. Her efforts to tone down her actions did not work, however, and Tony's mouth hung in disbelief.

"You, you _flirted_ with this guy to get the intel?"

"Nooo… More like, made out with him behind the vending machine of the break room," she scratched the back of her head and she shrugged. "Hey! It got us the information, right?"

"Are you crazy?" he walked up to her and flailed his arms in every direction as he continued with his anger-filled words. "What if he just told you whatever you wanted to hear just to get you to make out with him? Did you even think about that?"

"I did," Pepper nodded, rested her left hand on her hip and looked up as she recalled the moment. "But there's no freaking way he lied to me. BELIEVE me. Hell, at that moment, he would've told me what his credit card and social security numbers are, if I'd asked."

Tony shook his head in disapproval but he knew that whatever had happened could not be undone. Besides, he had no right to get mad at the ginger for what she had done. He and her were nothing more than friends even though sometimes they acted as more than that – even if _he_ wanted more than that, but that fact did not stop the feelings of jealousy from surfacing at this very moment. He understood why she had done what she had – he himself had used his charm several times in the past to get information himself, but that did not mean he had to be happy about her taking a page out of his book.

"I can't believe this. I can't believe he just told you everything."

"What? Why not?" she raised her hands in a questioning gesture. "Although, next time, I'll just ask for more detailed information, names maybe."

_Next time?_ He felt his stomach clench and his heart ooze acid rather than blood. "Just, don't give him anything _more_, please."

"I won't," she waved a dismissive hand toward him and rolled her eyes. "I won't even have to. I'm very good at this, you know? There's a reason why Scott hasn't dumped me yet. I'm an _extremely_ talented kisser."

"I know," he said to her before he could stop himself. A pained look covered his usual relaxed face and it made the redhead feel regretful for telling him what she had done to get the information they needed. She had not planned on telling him or letting him find out, but it had just escaped her chatting mouth before she could have prevented it from doing so. The two of them then stared at each other with an uncommon awkwardness between them before their eyes hit the ground.

"So," Tony cleared his throat. "When do you want to do this?"

"This weekend," she said and walked away from him and toward the computer again, giving her back to the inventor while she composed herself, memories of that day in December, flashing before her eyes. "I have some 24-hour hair dye left over from the Halloween party at the company. I'll get the sluttiest outfit I can find, and you just worry about making sure you DON'T look like yourself at all."

"Yeah, I know," he said in a wounded tone and walked over to his work table, images of her making out with some random chump playing in his mind. His mind was very imaginative, very creative – too creative at times, and right now his high IQ and ability to picture several possibilities to every situation was not helping with his need of finding this guy and beat him up. "I'm going to get started on the tracker."

"Right now?" she was taken aback and turned to face him, knowing that his back was all she would see of him for now. "It's almost midnight! We should go home to rest, Tony. We've been working on this nonstop for a week now."

"I'm not tired," he deadpanned and made a point of putting his goggles on his forehead and turning on the soldering gun.

"People don't sleep because they're tired," she insisted and walked over to him, stopping only when she was a couple of feet away from where he sat. "They sleep because the body needs the break even if you feel like you don't."

"My body's different," he argued and began grabbing random parts to build the prototype of the tracker. "Extremis lets me go on longer than normal people. It shouldn't surprise you that I can work as long as I do."

"Doesn't mean that you should. Come on, let's go home."

"No," he said in a louder tone which stopped her hand from reaching over to touch his shoulder. "Just go, Pepper. I need to be alone, alright?"

"Why?" she frowned.

"I don't need a reason why. I just feel like being by myself for a while. That's all."

The tone in which he had uttered those words to her made her frown and she began to question whether he had meant something else by it.

"You haven't been alone for a long time, Tony."

"Then maybe it's _overdue_," he raised his tone and briefly stared at her over his shoulder. He truly did not want to go off on Pepper about how he felt even though he already kind of was. His anger was running his mouth now, not his usual analytic brain, and even though he knew Pepper was not at fault here, he simply could not control his rage at this moment. What if he had not chosen to make her forget about them together? Would she have still made out with that man or any other man in exchange for information despite them being in a relationship? Was it really that easy for her to pretend to care for someone? Was she just pretending with him? Had her words that day in his room been just an act?

The answers to these questions were too painful to bear.

"Now," he continued, his tone even bitterer than before, "Could you _please _just let me be? I don't have to justify my actions to you."

She held back a gasp, but her wide eyes and hung mouth said how shaken she felt at hearing him say that to her.

She remained standing behind him for a minute, hoping he would just tell her what was wrong – and hoped it was not the making out option she had used to gather intel – and when he just continued working in silence without even acknowledging her presence, she sighed and turned around. She grabbed her armor backpack from the floor and put it on, quickly making use of it to suit up. She then began walking to the front exit of the Makluan temple, only to be stopped by his voice calling her by her hero name; a name he only used on her in the field or when he wanted to put distance between them.

"Yeah?" she retorted, not even bothering to look back.

"Can you charge my armor backpack when you get home? I'm testing a new faster charging station and I need the data sent over here tonight. I've been draining its battery all week, so it should be empty by now."

"Sorry, I can't," she responded and continued walking.

"What do you mean you can't?" he angrily threw a screwdriver back onto the pile of tools on his table and stared at her back. "All you gotta do is plug it in. I was going to do it myself but I forgot."

"I mean, I _can't_. I'm not going home tonight."

"Where are you going, then?" he asked and stood up from his chair to face her back, ready to continue the argument if he had to. "Why aren't you going home? Weren't you just bitching at me that I should go home, too?"

Pepper pursed her lips and took in a deep breath of anger. She was not certain why, but this discussion was making her very upset, very quickly. It was not new for either of them to resort to insulting the other when they wanted to get their point across, especially when it came down to missions. As close and compatible as they were, they were still just people – human beings – and, as such, still susceptible to lashing out and reacting rather than acting. They always tried to resolve their issues as soon as possible to avoid wasted time and words, but there had been something in the way he had just spat those words at her that made her blood boil.

Now she knew for certain that he was mad at her for kissing that other man even though it was just an act and even though she kissed Scott all the time. He had never said anything derogatory or demeaning about her boyfriend and, as far as she was aware, Tony did not dislike the jock. However, he had also _not _made any effort to know him better or talk to him more in the same way she had made an effort to bond with Maya. It should have been easier for two guys to do what she and Maya had done: found a common ground between them; a way to share the man they both loved in one way or the other.

The possible reasons why Tony was so angry at her right now, why he had not tried to be friends with Scott, why he had so easily taken her in his arms when she had thanked him for connecting her with her dad, were all becoming clear to her. And they made her nervous and excited at the same time.

She was not ready to face those reasons, though.

Back to the problem at hand.

It was not unusual for him to display anger when another man tried to take advantage of her, and it was the same for her – it was not even jealousy, it was the principle of the matter: letting someone abuse them in any way went against their duty of watching each other's backs. However, she could feel there were some unspoken words floating in the air that neither of them were brave enough to pin down from hovering over them and say aloud. It was unnecessary, really, to even discuss the matter further. It was already over and done and more important things were at stake now; more important things like making sure the Maggia no longer kidnapped innocent girls and hurt them in ways she did not want to imagine. Perhaps in the same way Whitney had tortured her – and no one deserved that. That was why she was risking her life like this for these women, for anyone who was taken against their will for any reason, for any cause.

"I don't need to justify my actions to you," she deadpanned after what felt like a long silence but had had only been a couple of seconds of quietness between them. She then took a few more steps towards the exit until she heard him call her again.

"Pepper?" his tone of voice was contradictory to his actions. His jaw and fists were clenched, his eyes narrowed and glaring at her, his respiration hard and his body shook in fury, but her name on his lips had been nothing but a whisper; a plea for her to stop and face him and face the facts he knew she was slowly becoming aware of due to his constant push and pull of emotions around her.

She could not do it. Not now. Perhaps, not ever.

Instead, she retracted the faceplate to make sure her voice carried over clearly to him in the silence of the lab. "I'm going to Scott's. I'm going to spend the night there."

"This late?"

"Scott's always happy to see me, no matter the time," she said and then turned back to glare at him. "_I_ don't want to be alone tonight… or any other night. I don't _have_ to be alone anymore. Especially when someone's willing to be there for me – someone who loves me enough to set aside my faults and holds me when I need the comfort. Someone who is emotionally available to support me and understands my crazy way of life, even if it costs him his time with me. Someone who _doesn't_ push me away when they need me the most."

Her helmet returned to its original position and covered her features before her eyes could dig holes in his face, and before Tony could think to say anything else, she was gone.

xxxXXXxxx

The line to enter _The Rotary_ was long as usual, and the ginger-turned-blonde-for-the-night was waiting for her turn to go inside. The attendants were being extremely picky of who got to enter the club and who did not, but Pepper was certain she could charm her way inside. For her first try at this undercover mission, she had decided to dye her hair a dirty-blonde and held her hair up in a messy bun with her bangs framing her face. She put on blue contact lenses and enough make up to cover her freckles without looking too tacky or fake. Despite the cold weather, she was currently wearing a simple black, strapless, form-fitting dress that stopped mid-thigh that she was barely covering with a short coat. To complement the look, she wore black, strappy high heels and silver-colored accessories in her hands, ears and neck.

She was yet to find Tony in the crowd, but based on the info he had sent her via the auricular wireless receiver she had in her right ear, he was already on the premises and watching her. He had suggested that she did not know what he looked like as to not raise suspicions that they knew each other and she had been fine with that. She was still upset about his attitude towards her in the temple a few days ago, and the less she saw of him right now, the better it was for her.

The last three days had been dreadful for both, to say the least. Working on this mission was already difficult in and of itself, and to add to it the pressure of their unfinished argument lingering over them was just something that was overkill at this point. She was angry at him and at the situation, but she was utterly pissed off at herself for not seeing and accepting the root of the problem much sooner than today.

She had come home from Scott's early this morning with every intention of talking things out with the inventor, if just for the sake of the mission, but she found his bedroom door to be locked. She had been surprised by it for an instant, seeing as he knew she had not spent the night there, but she had then shrugged it off. It had not been until she had turned around to open her own door and his had opened behind her that his reasoning for securing himself in his room became evident to her.

_"Oh, hey, Pepper," Maya Hansen whispered to her as she tiptoed out of his room and closed the door behind her. Pepper forced herself not to look as shocked as she felt even though she knew it should not surprise her that his __**girlfriend**__ had stayed the night. "Did you need something? I'm on my way out."_

_ "No," she told her and smiled. "Just wanted to let him know I was back."_

_ "Oh," the brunette giggled. "He's totally passed out. Can you let him know I had to go back home? I haven't finished my first major assignment at school and it's due Monday."_

_ "I'll let him know," Pepper responded with a nod. "Do you need help with it, the assignment?"_

_ "Nah, not this time," Maya replied as she remembered it was not unusual for the ginger to help her out with her classes. "This should be a breeze compared to those other crazy ones. If only they just let me do my genetics stuff all the time, I wouldn't have to cry over useless literature research papers."_

_ "Ain't that always the case?" Pepper asked to look as normal as possible even though inside something was demanding to get out; feelings she had not felt for the scientist and against the brunette until now. "I feel the same way about chemistry. What do I care about compounds and stuff? I'm a digital forensics science and cyber security major! What good does knowing the composition of an atom help me hack the FBI database?"_

_ "Pepper," the brunette chuckled and shook her head. "You're the freaking co-CEO of Stark Solutions. What good does school do for you at all? Seriously, you and Tony are wasting time and money with school."_

_ Pepper chuckled and rolled her eyes. "I'm not planning on being that for the rest of my life."_

_ "Well, good luck making Tony let you quit on him. He's so dependent on you he'd probably forget how to tie his shoes without you."_

_ "He's a big boy," Pepper shrugged. "Besides, that's where you come in, right?"_

_ "I guess so," Maya said in an odd tone whose meaning Pepper could not immediately decipher. "Anyway, I really have to go now."_

_ "Alright. Be careful, girl."_

_ "I will be, and you too, tonight. Tony, he told me about your mission. Nothing specific other than he's worried as hell for you."_

_ "He should be more worried about himself not knowing how to tie his shoes."_

_ "He'll just wear Velcro," Maya said and the ginger could not help but laugh. "See you later, Pepper."_

_ "Later, Maya."_

_ Pepper watched the brunette walk away and leave the home and, once she was all by herself again, she gulped. Her eyes then stared at his closed door and then back at the hall where Maya had just left and she sighed. _I'm in trouble_, she thought. _I'm in big trouble.

"Excuse me, ma'am," she heard someone call behind her and she turned. "Do you mind?" he pointed to the empty space in front of her and she followed the path of his finger.

"Of course not," she said with a coy smile before she swallowed hard and closed the distance between her and the person who had been in front of her in the line. She then took in a deep breath to control her anxiety and hoped Tony had not noticed her absentmindedness just now or he would surely call off the mission.

_"Not off to a good start, Potts,"_ she heard Tony angrily say in her ear. _"Do you think you can fucking focus before you walk in or are you deliberately trying to blow the mission on our first try?"_

She pursed her lips, groaned, exhaled deeply and again regretted not letting him put that stupid communicator in her last molar that he had wanted to shove down her throat. It was enough knowing she would have to hear him complaining all night; she could not give away their plan by appearing to be talking to herself like a lunatic every time his words pissed her off.

_ Just like now._

She finally reached the front door and she smiled at the tall man and at the short man before her. She had been observing their moves and pattern of choosing who was worthy of being one of _The Rotary_'s patrons tonight, and she knew exactly what to do to let herself in.

"You look too young to be here, girl," the tall man told her and stared at her up and down. "Are you sure it's not past your curfew?"

Pepper smirked and looked back and forth between the tall man and the short man. "Never get tired of the compliment," she responded.

"Well, compliment or not, I'm going to need to see some ID. This is a serious club, not a _Peter Piper Pizza_."

Both men had seen their share of underage people trying to sneak into the club, particularly girls who could easily amp up their age by dressing up and putting makeup on their faces. The owners of the club had already given every employee an earful regarding their lack of security they blamed for the kidnappings, and they were now trying to reduce the incidence of such in any way they could without losing profits or clientele.

Pepper scoffed and shook her head before she called on the short man with her index finger to walk closer to her. The man did as told and stopped a couple of feet from her and she asked him to slightly bend his knees. As soon as he did, she lifted her right leg and pressed her heel on his upper thigh and pulled up her skirt to reveal the double garter she was wearing underneath. She did not have to look up to see the expression of shock and lust on the men's faces when they realized she was wearing a thong.

She then took out from between the double garter the falsified ID she had purposefully fastened to her leg, and without removing her foot from the short man that was now practically drooling over her, she faced the tall man and handed him her ID.

"It's such a drag to carry a handbag. Luckily for me, there are many hidden places on my body where I can put _anything_."

The tall man did not even make an effort to grab the ID from her and only pointed to the entrance. Pepper winked at him, mouthed a _thank you_, slid the ID back in her garter, lowered her skirt and leg from the short man's thigh and shook her hips on her way inside the club, leaving the two men, and every other man who had seen the spectacle, wondering who would be lucky enough to take her home tonight, and leaving Tony Stark that much more angrier than before.

xxxXXXxxx

Ten men. Ten _different_ men; that was how many guys she had danced with tonight as of now. And not one of them had appeared to want to kidnap her for the Maggia but had instead only wanted to ground their dancing and willing bodies against hers. Her feet were burning. She was tired and a little bit smashed from the drinks she had been bought by guys who had asked her to dance, but the mission was far from over. Despite this knowledge, she wanted to go home, _now._ She wanted to take off the clothes that now reeked of alcohol and smoke, wash her hair and face from the stupid dye and makeup, and pass out in her comfy bed. Yet, no matter how much she wanted to just turn around and leave the stinking club, she knew she could not. It was not an option. At least not thus far – at least not until she learned something about the workings of the Maggia and the kidnapped girls.

She stumbled her way to the ladies room, randomly holding her weight against the wall to keep her from falling. She knew she was not _that _tired, but she was starting to feel dizzy and shaky and she wondered if the drinks were finally taking a toll on her. She was not a drinker – social or otherwise, but the beverages had not immediately affected her, and it had been nearly half an hour from the last one she had taken. She had sworn the last one had been a virgin Margarita, but now she was not as sure.

_Oh, crap!_

She finally reached the door and pushed it open. Thankfully for her, there was not a line inside this time around, so she made a beeline for the nearest stall and locked herself inside. The toilets had no cover, so she could not sit on them like she wanted to, but she did rest her back against the door. She took in deep breaths and exhaled rapidly through her mouth to get a grip on herself. She then closed her eyes and pictured the floor plan of the club in her mind, thinking of the fastest way to go out and breathe some clean air.

_Maybe I should go home. I'm no help if I'm about to pass out._

She finally opened her eyes and felt a little bit better. She bent down to flush the toilet to make it seem as if she had been using it to throw up and, when she was about to turn around to open the door, she heard the front door open and two girls walked inside.

"See?" one of them, a blonde, told her friend, a redhead. "Nothing bad's gonna happen to us here. The kidnappings are just rumors."

Pepper's ears perked up and she slowly walked to the back of the stall she was in to hide her presence in the room.

"I'm not sure yet," the redhead responded. "My mom says that they're not rumors because she knows one of the girls that disappeared. The last one. She used to be her student at NYU."

"Really? That's odd. I haven't heard anything more about them in weeks. I think it's just a way for boring parents to try to keep us girls from having fun. We've been here for three hours and we've been fine, right?"

"Yeah, but, did you see those men just now? The chunky black guy and the skeletal white dude? Did you see the way they were staring at us? They've been doing that all night!"

"Will you relax?" the blonde girl scoffed. "If they wanted to kidnap us, they would've done so already. Besides, as soon as they see Richard's here with you, they'll back off. I don't know about them, but I wouldn't want to have to deal with your fiancée if they try anything on you."

"Richard hates fighting, you know that."

"Don't mean he don't know how," the girl pointed out. "You've got nothing to worry about. Me, on the other hand, I don't even have a boyfriend. I'm screwed if they try to take me. Now, stop being such a party pooper and let's go back."

"Okay, alright, let's go back," the redheaded girl reluctantly agreed with her friend and, within seconds, Pepper was left alone again. She stayed inside the stall for a few more minutes to piece together what she had heard, and then walked out the bathroom and returned to the dance floor.

Her eyes began scanning her surroundings, searching for the two men the girls had just described, but they were not immediately visible to her. She then casually walked around the perimeter of the dance floor, trying to locate the two girls she had heard, but then remembered she had not bothered to find out what they looked like.

_Rookie mistake!_

She stomped her right foot on the floor and then turned around to give the club another walk, but she ended up hitting someone in the process. She nearly fell down on her butt, but the man she had hit held her tightly from her waist and straightened her out. The sudden move had made her feel dizzy again, and again she felt her legs starting to shake.

"Watch it, Blondie," the brown-eyed man said to her before he released her.

Pepper's eye snapped open and she went agape. She was not expecting any man to talk to her like this without first wanting to get into her pants and failing – as every man had tried so far. Yet, before she could say anything else, the man grabbed her right wrist in his hand and dragged her to the dance floor.

She tried pulling herself free from him, but he just tightened his grip on her. When they finally arrived to the middle of the dance floor, he forced her arms to surround his shoulders and then pressed her body against his by practically clawing his fingers against her ass. Pepper narrowed her eyes at him and was about to perform evasive maneuvers by making sure the man never reproduced, but the chestnut-haired man leaned his face closer to her left ear and whispered into it.

"Where the _hell_ were you? I've been looking for you for almost an hour!"

When he pulled back to face her again, her eyes were wide in shock and her mouth hung in disbelief. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, taking in the now obviously familiar features of the man and processing his words, and when she just continued to stare at him, he pressed his lips on hers.

By instinct, she responded to him. Yet, the kiss was neither pleasant nor long. It was an angry kiss: a show of power rather than a tender gesture, and when he pulled away from her again, he scowled.

"You've been _drinking_? What the _fuck_, Potts?"

She responded by pinching the back of his neck hard enough to make him flinch, and she then pressed her lips to his hear.

"If you don't move your hands off my ass, I'm going to cut your balls while you sleep tonight."

"I'll just lock my door," he breathed to her, but he still slid his hands to her waist and began dancing to pretend nothing was odd about their behavior. She reluctantly followed his lead and kept their faces touching each other so that their words were covered by the loud music playing in the building.

"We should wrap this up," he whispered to her and she shook her face.

"No, not yet. I have a target," she responded and then blinked twice when she felt her vision double. "I… heard… I heard s-some girls… in the bathroom…"

She exhaled and held onto him that much tighter when the dizziness worsened. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the top of her head, wondering why she was struggling with her words.

"Who's the target?"

"Two men," she said slowly as she tried to steady herself by letting him guide their dance. "Big black guy and skinny white one."

"Maggia members?"

"Maybe. Haven't been able to… to find them," she swallowed hard. "Maybe they've already left."

"No, they haven't," he whispered back to her.

"How do you know?" she asked and then felt him turn her around as part of their dance. He pressed her back against his chest and slid his hands up and down her hips, swaying them to the rhythm of the music. She rested her hands on his hips and he then slid his nose up her neck and stopped right below her earlobe.

"Ten o'clock."

Pepper's eyes casually stared in the direction he had just given her and saw the two men talking to two girls she assumed were the same ones she had heard talking in the restroom. She could not immediately determine if their conversation was a good one or not based on their looks, but she could see the pair of men looked suspicious enough to be investigated further.

She eyed them for a few more seconds to take in their features before Tony turned her around to face him again. At this point, however, she was having a very difficult time staying up or even focusing on him. She clenched the front of his shirt in her fists and closed her eyes. In turn, he pulled her closer to him and took turns staring down at her and at their targets until he felt her grow limp on him.

"Pepper?"

She fluttered her eyes for a few seconds before they rolled to the back of her head until she ended up closing them altogether. Had it not been for his quick thinking, she would have slammed herself onto the concrete floor.

_Dammit!_

He picked her up in his arms, headed to the closest empty booth and laid her there. He towered over her so that his back was against the club goers and her form was partially covered by him from the curious eyes he could feel were trying to get a better look at the commotion unfolding before them. He then grabbed her face by her chin and shook it lightly as he called her fake name, remembering that now that they were away from the noise of the dance floor, their words would be easier to understand. When he noticed a few bystanders had begun walking over to them with concern, he grabbed her left hand and quickly slid onto her ring finger the piece of jewelry he had been keeping in his shirt's front pocket, taking advantage of the poor lighting of the place to keep his sudden move a secret.

"Hey, man, is she alright?" a couple of the so-called security guards of the club who had approached him, asked.

"Yeah, she's fine. Had too much to drink."

"Really?" one of the guards stared at him with a skeptical look. Seeing pretty girls pass out in the club was not uncommon, especially ones that had been showing off their dancing skills like Pepper had. "Are you sure you didn't slip anything in her drink? I saw the way you were dancing with her. She's hot enough to take home, ain't she? Is that what your plan is?"

Tony narrowed his eyes and took in a deep breath to calm himself down before he turned around and faced the man with a smirk, making sure to stand between Pepper and the security guard.

"Of course I'm taking her home with me. She's my wife," he answered and showed the man the ring on his left hand and then lifted Pepper's hand to show him the matching set. "She gets a little bit cranky when I don't dance with her, but I think it's time we went home."

The security guard watched him with curious eyes and then spoke again. "You must be a very patient man. She's danced with more than a handful of men tonight."

Tony shrugged. "I'm used to it. She always comes back home, though," he responded and then turned around to pick up Pepper in his arms. "Well, we better get going."

"Wait up," the security guard said and stood between Tony and the pathway to the door. "Your IDs. Let me see your IDs."

"What for?" the inventor asked with a frown.

"Just need to make sure your story clears. I can't let you leave with a passed out chick. Not after the issues we've had in the past."

"What issues?" Tony asked with a confused tone even though he knew exactly what they were talking about. A second security guard elbowed the first one and gave him a warning look that caused the first guard cleared his throat.

"N'thing. Just show me yall's IDs so you can go."

"OK," Tony said with a shrug and then deposited Pepper back onto the booth. He took out his ID from his wallet and handed it to the man before he dug his hands in between Pepper's legs and took out her ID. The guards were taken aback by his actions, but when they saw their addresses and last names matched on their fake driver's licenses, they shrugged.

"Here," the guard returned the cards to Tony and he put them both in his wallet. "You better keep a better eye on your wifey, there. She's good enough to eat."

"Oh, I know she is. Why do you think I married her?" he scoffed and his charade earned him throaty chuckles from the guards. He pretended not to care about the images he knew their imaginations were concocting of the redhead and him as he picked up Pepper again. The guards followed them to the back exit, making sure a path was cleared for them, and then waved them off when they were finally outside.

The genius stared down at his friend in his arms and noted how pale she looked and how passed out she was, and for a moment he regretted pissing her off. He then remembered the conversation between her and Maya that he had overheard this morning, and as quickly as the guilt had taken over him it was gone, and it was immediately replaced by the anger that had been seething in him for three days.

He readjusted her position in his arms and silently carried her down the alley adjacent to the club until they reached his rented car. He opened the passenger's seat, strapped her into it, and then walked over to the driver's seat. He started the car and looked down at her as he took a moment to recover his senses. He then grabbed her left wrist in his hand to make sure she still had a pulse and when he found one he exhaled and shook his head. Knowing that there was nothing more to do at the club tonight, he quickly shifted gears and made their way back to the temple to check her vital stats.

xxxXXXxxx

She groaned when she opened her eyes to see a bright light above her and then used her right hand to shield herself from it. She smacked her lips together at the bitter taste that was in her mouth and, for a moment, felt as if she was going to throw up. She slowly inhaled and exhaled to settle her stomach, and when she felt calmed enough, she stood up.

"Oh, FUCK!" her hands flew to the sides of her head when she felt the room spinning and again exhaled deeply and closed her eyes. She moaned in pain and discomfort a few times and eventually opened her eyes only to see a glass of water and a couple of pills were being all but shoved in her face.

She lifted her head and gaze to follow the hands and, as she had expected, a pissed-off looking Tony Stark was standing to her left. She grabbed the water and the pain killers he was offering her and she had the decency of whispering a _thank you_ to him before she threw them in her mouth. She swallowed the pills and emptied the glass, and it was then that she realized she was back in her room.

The dress she had worn to the club was hanging from the bathroom door, covered in a clear plastic wrapping as if it had just been delivered from the dry cleaners. She looked down at herself and saw was wearing one of Tony's t-shirts and, for a second, she panicked when she realized she was not wearing a bra. She then felt her bed move when he sat on the edge of it, by her blanket-covered feet after turning off the lights in the room, and she placed the empty glass on her nightstand before she exhaled deeply and looked up to face him.

"What happened?"

"You were drugged, heavily at that," he said as if it was obvious. "I've flushed from your body as much as I could, but I can't do much about the headache and nausea. Those will just go away on their own."

"Thanks," she said with a nod and then looked away from him and at the door and wondered if they were alone. "Did it work?"

"We've got more leads and some names, yeah, but not enough to merit sending you back out there again."

Pepper closed her eyes and wished the argument she knew was about to start could take place another day, when she did not suffer from a hangover. She felt hot and cold and sticky, and she wanted to shower out of her hair the dye and grime from the club. She had on no pants and she was certain his t-shirt would not cover much of the thong she was still wearing, if she stood up. Sadly, luck was not on her side today, and she decided to just tackle the problem once and for all.

"Are you thinking of putting implants in your chest or something? Because unless you tell me the Maggia has changed their targets, a girl still needs to be there."

"I'll find someone else."

"No," she shook her head and faced him. "It won't work because we will have to tell her what we know and have her sign a release of liability form and get the legal group involved and it's just too much."

"Not if I ask Natasha. She's good at this. She can pull it off. She's smart enough not to let herself be drugged, for one," he said the last part with every ounce of antagonism he could muster and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You know," she began, closed her eyes and rubbed her temples as she spoke. "This issue of yours, whatever it is, has been going on for too long and I'm tired of seeing you act like a spoiled brat. Why don't you just strap on a pair and tell me what the fuck your problem is."

"You mean other than you making out with a random stranger for information we could've gotten in other ways, practically having dance-sex with those assholes at the club and then getting yourself date-rape drugged? Other than that, right? Or do you mean about your plans to quit Stark Solutions and not telling me about it? Are you done taking my money from me? Ready to elope with Scott and live it up with my funds?"

Pepper eyes snapped opened and she shook her head in disbelief. "What?"

"Don't you _'what'_ me, Pepper! I heard you tell Maya you don't want to be my co-CEO anymore. I heard it from your lips!"

"This is just _absurd_, and I don't have to hear it," she groaned and then pointed to her bedroom door. "Get out. Get out NOW!"

"What, _get out_? Uhm, no, honey. You told me to tell you what my problem is, so now I'm telling you what my PROBLEM is: it's _you_. It's you, you double-crossing, lying slut!"

The moment his words left him and her eyes filled with angry tears, he snapped back to reality and his eyes widened in utter shock. He could not believe what he had just said that to her. He could not believe that he had just talked to her like he had. He had never thought it possible for him to treat her like this, but the words had just slipped out of his mouth even though he had not meant them at all. He had been up for forty-eight hours, monitoring her health and hoping the drugs did not leave a lasting damage in her. He had been avoiding Maya and Scott like the plague; had practically kicked out the former when she had stopped by earlier today to ask about the mission and dropped off some food for him, and after having no one to talk to and vent his fears and frustrations to, he had finally gone over the edge.

And now he was hurting the one person he loved the most in the world, and he had no idea why.

"Pepper," he said in a broken tone and stood up, feeling his body shiver in panic. "I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean… to… I…"

Pepper's quivering bottom lip as she stood up from the bed to get away from him pushed him down to his knees before her and momentarily blocked her path. She placed her hands on his shoulders when he surrounded her waist with his arms and she tried pushing him off, but he just held on tighter, with the right side of his face resting against her stomach.

"Pepper, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I don't know what came over me. I just… I just…"

"Is that really what you think of me?" she whispered in a broken voice. "You think I'm using you for your money? You think I'm easy, too?"

"NO!" he replied and looked up at her face even though her eyes were glued to the door, wishing she could just run to it and leave. "You… you're the last person that would take advantage of me. You're with me because you care. You… you're the only one that I… that I…"

The ginger closed her eyes and tried to push him off again but this time he grabbed her hands in his and stood up. She tried going around him but he did not allow her by embracing her and making sure her arms were pinned down under his.

"Listen, Pepper…" he stared at her eyes. "I know you're mad at me. You should be. You should beat my ass right now. But before you do, please, just listen to me, OK?"

Pepper did not respond and almost kicked him off her. Nevertheless, when she closed her eyes briefly and exhaled, he knew she was going to give him a chance – _one_ chance – to make this right. One chance was all he needed if he came clean with her about how he felt.

"I'm scared, Pepper," he said, eyes glistening but refused to let go of her gaze once she opened hers up. "I'm terrified, alright? This mission, you being out there up for grabs. I can't do it. I can't. I thought I could do it but, I just _can't_. I thought that if I was close by to watch out for you, that it would be OK. That if I was with you, I could back you up and swoop in when you needed me. But it wasn't OK. _I_ wasn't OK. You still got taken advantage of, drugged and who knows what else, and I just sat there watching you do all the work while all I could do was thinking about ripping off the faces of those motherfucking jerks that touched you. You're mine, Pepper. You're mine to protect and I didn't do it. I didn't do my job… _again_…"

Pepper swallowed hard and her lips trembled as much as her entire body did just now. She could hear, see and _feel_ how distraught and desperate he was; all the anger that had formed inside her melted then and there. She closed her eyes and inhaled and exhaled slowly to gather up her words and she then felt his lips tenderly kiss her cheek.

"Forgive me," he pulled back from her face. "Please, Pepper. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

"I know," she told him and opened her eyes again but did not stare at his eyes but at his tempting lips. "I'm sorry, too."

He lifted his arms to surround her shoulders and pulled her to rest her face on his shoulder, and she did the same by surrounding his waist with her arms. He continued to whisper apologies to her in her ear, and once their heartbeats returned to normal she pulled back. She gave him a weak smile and pointed towards the bathroom door with a tip of her head and he quickly understood she needed some privacy to clean up. He nodded twice and took a few steps away from her and looked down at the floor.

"You… you can keep the shirt," he mumbled. "If you'd like."

"Don't want my scent on your clothes?" she joked and she pulled said t-shirt down as much as she could as she began walking toward the bathroom door, suddenly very aware that Tony had held her in his arms with the very little covering the small item gave her.

"It's not that," he said with a shake of the head and finally looked up at her retreating form. "It's just… It looks good on you."

She was glad that she was halfway inside the bathroom by now or he would have noticed the reddening of her cheeks.

"You're just saying that because it's yours."

"Of course I am," he said as he walked away to exit her room, feeling more courageous now that she was out of sight. "It's nice to know my stuff looks good on you."

And with that he left the room, leaving her with a guilty, wide smile on her face.

xxxXXXxxx

"No, he didn't let me see her. He basically pushed me out the door," Maya Hansen said over the phone, her voice denoting how angry she was. "But I'm sure she's fine. Don't worry about it. You know he won't let anything happen to her."

"_Either way, I think I'm going to go see her. She's not answering her phone,"_ Scott Summers pointed out. _"She could've gotten hurt on this stupid mission of theirs."_

"I doubt it," Maya spat. "He'd first cut off his leg than let her get hurt. He loves her, remember? _My_ boyfriend loves _your_ girlfriend."

"_I know. Don't remind me."_

"What do _you _have to complain about? At least she treats you nicely. At least she'll move in to campus to be closer to you. At least she loves you enough to care for you."

"_I can still lose her to him. She can still dump me for that rich boy."_

"She won't. She's clueless. She doesn't know he's drooling all over her."

"_Still? She must suspect something by now."_

"Nope," she shook her head. "She just thinks he's being kind and sweet and paying back his debt to her."

"_Well, he IS doing all of those things. I just wish she knew I can do the same for her and not just because I almost got her killed, twice, like he did."_

"Ugh, your pity party is annoying. I'm gonna hang up now. Let me know if you hear about her. She may be my love rival but she's still really nice to me. I can't decide if I hate her or like her."

Scott scoffed. _"Same goes for me and the jerk. Anyway, let me know how it goes if you find out first. Goodnight, Maya."_

"'Night, Summers," she said and immediately hung up. Her eyes then landed on the small bottle of serum she had stolen from her stepfather's lab. The dose said three drops would suffice to heighten the anger of a person by increasing the levels of cortisol in the body. Clearly, her plan had not worked the way she had expected because Tony had not been pissed off enough by now to tell off the redhead. Needless to say, Scott was not an accomplice in the use of the serum as the brunette had discovered that, deep inside, the jock was also somewhat of a boy scout.

_I'll have to amp up the dose next time_, she thought. _Or, we will have to try plan B._

Plan B, however, entailed harming and trapping the inventor more than she wanted to do so, if only to make him stay with her. There were ways to force a man to be with you, even a man who did not want to be with you, especially if they thought you were someone else.

Someone else they actually loved.

"Sorry, Pepper," Maya whispered. "But Tony's going to be mine."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So, some of you must be wondering if they actually did it or not. *shrugs* We'll just have to wait to find out :) Stick around, my Faithful Readers! You're going to have some fun!

Also, if you want to see Pepper's undercover dress, check out my profile for the link.


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Thanks to _ShepardisaBoss_, I can no longer type Maya's name without thinking "that conniving bitch!" Hehehe!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5: February<strong>

Tony Stark stared at the small, red, flat box he had in his hands. It contained one of his gifts for Maya Hansen that he was going to give her for Valentine's Day. This was their very first Valentine's Day together and, even though he could think of a million better things to do with his time today, he had been left with no choice but to play boyfriend for her and had taken her out on a weekend trip together to the mountains.

They had left yesterday afternoon and planned to return on Sunday afternoon, mimicking what Pepper and Scott had done in the past and were doing again. This time, however, the ginger and her boyfriend had chosen to go skiing rather than to cabin seclusion, and when Maya had heard the wonderful idea, she had practically demanded they did the same. It was only fair, she had argued, that if Pepper and Scott could go out for an entire weekend together, so could she and Tony Stark.

The gift he currently held in his hand had not been his idea either at all, but a concoction of Pepper's mind. For the first time since he had allowed the future geneticist in his life, he truly regretted that Pepper could make friends with rocks. Being friends with his girlfriend meant that the two women talked and shared secrets, and since Pepper was about to give Scott the same gift that the inventor himself had in his hand for Maya, he had been left with no choice but to go through with it as well.

_"It only makes sense, Tony,"_ she had told him. _"You guys have been dating longer than Scott and I have, so it'll look terrible if I give this to Scott and you don't give it to Maya."_

His arm had been twisted, attached to his back, broken into tiny pieces and then put back together only so he could use it to hand in the last item that protected the privacy he so much relished sharing with the redhead. He was being forced to make a pledge he did not feel for the brunette and that he knew would eventually backfire for him and Pepper. Today, this very instant, both Scott and Maya were about to receive a copy of the cardkey to the ginger's and inventor's apartment home. There was no turning back.

Tony inwardly sighed.

This was not just a simple invitation for the jock or the botanist-in-training to walk in and out of his home whenever they pleased. It also symbolized the end of the moments he and Pepper shared behind closed doors. It was essentially and, for all technical purposes, the end of their own version of a never-ending honeymoon, their friendship mini-affair, their opportunity to spend quality time together _alone_.

Surely, Pepper must have known that, right?

There would be no more chances to sneak into the other's bedroom at night, no more random hand holding, hugging or dancing in the kitchen or halls, no more moments of heightened emotions that sometimes lead to inappropriate gestures such as lip locking, cuddling under the covers or even whispering kind words and exchanging gentle caresses after a long mission or a nightmare; both of which – missions and nightmares – were becoming equally disturbing for the pair as of late.

No more of that. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Gone.

Just like that.

When had the thrill of their time together lost its charm for her? When had their mutual escape from reality become a burden and not an oasis of bliss?

He asked _for her_ because it had not been lost to him. In fact, after almost taking their already close-knitted friendship a step further on Christmas day, he had only wanted her more. She had dangled the possibility in front of him like a carrot to a starving horse, and had he not respected her wishes as he did, he would have taken her despite her suddenly coming to her senses to stop what could have been the best day of his life. The best day of _their_ lives, he would have made sure of it for her.

Why, oh, why did Pepper have to have a conscience?

A conscience for the both of them, it seemed sometimes.

He sighed, outwardly this time, and as he did so, Maya Hansen appeared in the room and embraced him from behind.

"Hey, baby, I hope I didn't take long."

"No, it's fine," Tony replied and cleared his throat. "We're in no hurry, right?"

"Well, that depends," she breathed in his ear before she walked around the table and stood before him wearing only a red nighty and her hair up. "Do you like it?"

Tony blinked twice and wondered for a brief instant if he was turning gay. The little number she was currently sporting left little to the imagination, and with her red, glossy lips and brown hair it made her curves stand out even more. She was ready for a photo shoot for the cover of a lewd magazine of some sort, or just ready to make him feel uncomfortable and nervous about what her standing there partially naked meant of what plans she had for them both.

"Nice color," he said, nonchalantly. "Is that regular red or candy apple red?"

_ And what would Pepper look like in it? _He also wanted to ask.

"I'm not sure," Maya replied with a raised eyebrow, confused by the odd question and walked back to him. She extended her arm towards him to invite him closer to her and maybe even let him get a feel, but he responded by giving her the box he had in his hand. The brunette frowned for a moment as she had expected him to just jump into her arms, but she decided to play it cool for now. The last thing she wanted was starting an argument between them before she could get what she wanted of him. "What is this?"

"A gift. Open it," he suggested with a shrug before an afterthought crossed his mind. _Or burn it in the fire. Never find out what it is. Never come by my home again._

"Another gift?" she beamed. "Wow! You've given me more gifts and surprises today than in all the months we've been dating combined!"

Tony had nothing to say to that and just nodded along as he watched her return to her seat in front of him and opened the box. Her jaw immediately dropped when she saw the small card inside and her face practically glowed in joy.

"Is this… is this what I think it is?"

"What do you think it is?" he asked her, secretly hoping she figured it was a membership card to a fitness center rather than a key to his house.

"A key… to your apartment?"

_Damn her for being smart._

"Then, yes. It is what you think it is."

"Oh, Tony!" the brunette jumped from her seat and ran to him, completely unaware of the small twitch on the inventor's right eyelid. "This is so unexpected!"

"Yeah, well, I thought you might appreciate the gesture," he awkwardly patted her back with his right hand when he felt her breasts slide across his neck with the weird angle she was standing in to hug him.

"I do!" she kissed his cheek and pulled away from him, staring down at the cardkey as if it would open any door in the world. "This is so important to me. This… this just shows me your commitment to us! I'm so happy!"

_Well, somebody should be and since it's not me…_

"I'm glad you liked it," he said with a small smile before he looked down at his food, lifted his fork and pointed to his plate. "So, wanna finish dinner before it gets cold?"

"Yes," she immediately said, left the cardkey on the table but did not sit down and took the fork from his hand. "But, how about we finish it _after_?"

"After? After, what?" he frowned and tried to grab the fork from her hand but she threw it to her side of the table. Maya then gave him a coy smile, grabbed his hands, pulled him up and towards her and took steps back to the bed with him in tow.

"This is cause for celebration, Mr. Stark, and there is one more gift you are yet to unwrap."

"Uhm, now? I mean, uh, dinner… dinner's gonna get cold."

"We have a microwave," she whispered to him and began unbuckling his belt when the back of her legs hit the edge of the bed. "We can reheat it later."

"Are-are you sure?" he gulped and tried pulling away from her, but she just grabbed a better grip of his belt. "I don't know about you, but I think that type of food is not eligible for reheating. It could… it could make us sick."

"Well, then we'll just have to order more," she responded and, in a swift move, pulled the belt from all the hoops of his jeans with a swishing sound.

"But-but that's waste, don't you think?" he began and tried holding down her hands when they began unzipping him and undoing the single button of his pants. "It's perfectly good food!"

"Will you be quiet, Mr. Stark. I'm trying to work here," she pulled his shirt from his pants, undid all the buttons on it with incredible speed, and then pushed it down by the shoulders.

"Yeah, well, I'm trying to save food, you know? Don't you know how many kids in Africa would kill for a bite of perfectly edible Italian food?"

"Not as many as before thanks to your _Intelli-Crops_," she purred, dragged him down to lay on top of her on the bed and began kissing him.

"Maya… hey, wait…"

"What?" she asked in between kisses and began rubbing herself against him.

"We, uhm… well… I didn't bring…"

"I did," she said and then flipped him over so that he was now on his back and she sat on his lap. "They're on the nightstand. An entire box, in fact."

"Really?" his voice sounded ridiculously high-pitched, but he did not care. "How do you even know my size? What if… what if they don't fit?"

"They're one size-fits-all."

_Lovely_, he thought and had to force himself not to roll his eyes. "Well, are they latex? I'm allergic to latex."

"Nope. No latex. I'm allergic to it, too."

"Ah," he said and closed his eyes when she began licking his neck. "No allergic reactions, then."

"Nope," she said, dug her tongue inside his mouth and he groaned in desperation. Taking his reaction for acceptance and pleasure instead, Maya pulled away from him long enough to dispose of the nighty, leaving her in just a red thong. "We need to even the playfield, Tony. You've got on too many clothes."

"Maybe you don't have on enough," he blurted without thinking and then tried pulling himself off her by sliding back toward the head of the bed. The move backfired, however, when she wrapped her legs around his hips to stop him.

"I get it," she said and then followed him up on the bed. "A pillow under your head would help, right?"

"Actually," his response was cut off by her lips on his again, and when he felt her pulling down on his pants, he flipped them over so that she was now underneath him. "Hey, there's no rush, right? Why don't we… uhm… slow down?"

The brunette gave him a sexy smirk in response, and when she felt him loosen his grip on her, she flipped them again. This time, however, she rested his hands on her bare breasts. Tony shut his eyes and began hyperventilating, wondering how the hell he was going to get out of this one, especially with nowhere to run.

_ Take her to a cabin in the woods, they said. It'll be fun, they said. Dammit!_

"Open your eyes, Tony," she ordered him as she made his hands massage her. "Don't you like what you see?"

He opened one eye but immediately closed it again, and it was then that Maya leaned down onto him and pinned his arms above his head. The move appeared to calm him somewhat and he stopped fighting her for a moment; something that gave hope to the brunette. His body then relaxed under hers and she brushed her lips against his a few times, biting onto his lower lip with little force. The inventor breathed a throaty moan that made the girl smile widely in apparent triumph, and as she was about to pull down his pants with her feet and sit on him again, the inventor whispered one single word in bliss.

"Pepper."

The room suddenly turned cold.

xxxXXXxxx

"_So, Maya's purpose is to sleep with you, and mine is to drag your ass out of bed every day? When the hell did I sign up for that, and how do I swap positions?" she chuckled._

_Tony's head recoiled, his eyes widened and his mouth went agape. _

"_Seriously? How did I end up with the short end of the stick? Maybe we should've done some tryouts," she said and then, in the blink of an eye, ended up sitting on top of him and pinned his arms above his head on the bed. "I bet you that I didn't even get a chance to show my skills."_

"_Uh," he swallowed hard and cleared his throat. "Pepper, I… uhm… what are you… __**what**__?"_

"_Scared, Mr. Stark?" she teased him with a smile and then leaned down until their faces were inches from each other. "Is this your first time?" she asked him in a slow and provocative tone._

"_I-I-I… uhm, ahem… well…"_

_The redhead then brushed her lips on his, and when he closed his eyes and tried to reach her lips again, she pulled back, let go of his arms and started laughing. _

"_Oh, my God! You are seriously deprived! Do you want me to talk to Maya? Tell her you need some?"_

So similar. It had been so _damn_ similar, if only for a nanosecond, but it had been all it had taken for Tony to utter Pepper's name. It was not as if Maya knew about that situation happening between him and the ginger, and the silly moment between him and Pepper that night had not been as charged as the moment between Maya and him. Either way, her position on him had reminded him of it, and he sincerely had not been able to stop himself from saying the redhead's name, loud and clear.

Or at least loud and clear enough to be heard by Maya herself.

Next thing he knew, he was seeing stars and the door to the bathroom in the cabin had slammed shut. Fast forwarding ten hours later, Tony Stark was now less than a minute away from the Makluan Temple; the place he felt that would be his only safe haven from now on since Maya had not been mad enough at him to return the cardkey he had just given her. He just hoped she had not already called Pepper to demand an explanation of why her boyfriend had said the ginger's name in bed.

_Well, at least she won't try that again in a long time._

Silver lining galore.

He slowed down his speed when he neared the entrance of the temple, and he gracefully landed before it on the ground. He walked toward the main door, used Extremis to unlock it without having to put in the access code, and as soon as the door closed behind him, he began shredding his armor by sending it to retract to its backpack form. By the time he entered the main portion of the lab, he was back to his unarmored self and he threw the backpack on the floor, not really caring where it fell.

The loud thud of the backpack hitting the ground was followed by an almost muffled _Oh, shit!_ from the direction of his favorite working table and, to his surprise, the voice belonged to Pepper herself. When she saw through half-opened eyes that it was just Tony who had made the noise, she visibly relaxed, yawned, rubbed her eyes vigorously and then groaned.

"You're back early," she said before she blinked away the tears of tiredness from her eyes, scratched her head and messed up even more her already disarrayed hair.

"You too," he walked over to the main computer and turned on its virtual screen and keyboard.

"They kicked us out," Pepper said after another yawn, stood up from the chair, stretched her arms above her head and then walked towards the inventor. "A snow storm was coming and they didn't want anyone to get trapped inside the cabins. What about you?"

He sighed deeply, slowly turned to his left to face her, and when her still sleepy eyes focused on his face, they instantly went wide.

"Are you kidding me?" she exhaled and shook her head. "Did you spend Valentine's with Maya or with Gene?"

"I don't think it would've made a difference," he replied with a shrug and patted his shiny black eye. "It just looks bad, doesn't even hurt."

"That's probably because you're either growing immune to it or you're losing sensation in that area by now."

She pulled his face towards her to briefly examine the area herself and then shook her head in disapproval before she pulled back and away from him.

"What happened, anyway?" she asked as she wiped some of her drowsy tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Something so atrocious it doesn't merit repeating," his response made Pepper whistle loudly.

"That bad, huh?" she shook her head again. "Man, you were right: you're the worst boyfriend ever. I don't know what you did, but you couldn't have picked a worse time to screw up. Did you at least give her the gifts? Or was the fight _because_ she hated the gifts?"

"No, she liked the gifts. Especially the keycard."

"Told you she would," Pepper smiled. "Well, not that it matters now, I guess. She's probably too pissed off at you to even use it."

"Yeah, I might not be hearing from her in a while."

"You should call her immediately. _Especially_ if what you did was so fucked up it doesn't 'merit repeating'," she air-quoted the last part in her best Tony-impersonation voice. "You really suck at relationships, Tony."

"She didn't break up with me," he pointed out with a weak shrug, and Pepper could not immediately tell if he was happy or disappointed by it. Moreover, she could not tell how she herself felt about it either. "But she _did_ storm out."

"No kidding? Seriously, should I call her and try to cheer her up for you?" she pointed back to the table where her pod lay. "The longer you wait, the worse it's going to be."

"No. Just… wait," he said without missing a beat and emphasized his point by rapidly shaking his head left and right. "Give her some space. She'll come around."

"If you say so," she shrugged. "Anyway, have you been home?"

"No."

Her head recoiled in surprise at his response, and she frowned for a second before she leaned slightly to her right to look behind Tony and at the door. Her eyes scanned the area around the entrance, and after she stared at his tossed armor backpack on the floor, she stood straight again and her eyes landed on his once more.

"Where's your luggage?"

"She threw half of it out in the woods and burned the other half."

Pepper's mouth gaped. "Were you _trying_ to piss her off? Jeez!"

"No, I wasn't," he defended himself and lifted his arms to a defensive pose. "I truly wasn't. The complete opposite, actually."

"So, you just have a natural talent for it?" she asked in a tone that told the genius boy she herself was starting to get mad for Maya Hansen.

"It would appear so," he said, eyed the screen for a moment and then returned his attention to Pepper. "What about you? You look like you haven't rested properly. Have you been home?"

"Yeah," she nodded, pulled a hairband from her left wrist and began combing her hair with her fingers to hold it up in a ponytail as she spoke. "I did my laundry and put away my stuff. But I got another lead about the Maggia and decided to come here to check it out."

"Another lead? It's been a while. What did you find?"

"Something that would have been _very_ useful to us last time we were at the club," she sighed and finished styling her hair.

Tony stared at her and noted the physical repercussions of her time at the temple; she was clearly in _research mode_ – or at least that was what he called it. She was wearing black sweats and a red tank top covered by a black hoodie with red stripes on the sleeves. Her hair was curling out of the sides of her head due to the lack of product in it, and she hardly had any make up on. Her eyes, however, looked very aware despite having just woken up, and he wondered if she could tell how much he loved it when she dove into doing what she did best. There was always a fire in her eyes when she poured herself into finding that elusive clue, that small piece of information that everyone else had overlooked but that for her had stood out like a sore thumb. Just like when she had found it curious that she had turned back during the Private Eye file; a clue that had evaded him for months.

"Wanna tell me over a cup of coffee?" he offered, already making his way to the kitchenette he had installed in the back.

"Coffee sounds wonderful," she said and began pulling up the files on the screen that she had finished reviewing earlier today before she had decided to take a little nap. "Make it strong, too. This is going to leave your mind blown."

It did not take long for Tony to return with two cups of coffee in his hands. He began handing her hers, and when he eyed her fingers as she grabbed the cup from him, his heart nearly stopped. When Pepper felt he was not letting go of the cup, she looked up to stare at him, and when she saw his eyes glued to her hand, she cleared her throat.

_Oh, yeah. That._

"It's Scott's V-Day's gift," she said before he even asked.

He really did not have to ask actually, at least not verbally; his shocked face said it all. The piece was so big and shiny, that he could not believe he had not seen it from the sky when he was on his way to the temple. He finally let go of the cup, glared at the sparkly object surrounding her ring finger on her right hand and then cleared his throat.

Why had the jock though it appropriate to give the ginger a ring after having been dating for only five months? The inventor had known Pepper for almost three years now, and the most he had dared to give her in terms of jewelry had been the necklace he had gotten her for her birthday.

A necklace with a GPS tracker embedded in it, at that.

But a ring… a ring he had not had the guts to give to her. It was something only adults gave to other adults, and not something that would be considered as innocent and childish as a peck on the cheek after surviving an attempt at world invasion by alien beings.

"_Are you trying to tell me that Pepper doesn't like me?" _

_ "No, the complete opposite, actually."_

_ "Then, what? I don't get it."_

_ "Look, Tony. A kiss and a hug are all fine and dandy… when you're 12."_

_ Tony eyed his friend with a questioning look as he tried to understand what he was being asked to comprehend. It was true that he did not have much experience with girls, even though he had dated Whitney for a few months, but he had not learned much out of it since he had spent half of the relationship ditching their dates to be Iron Man._

_ "So, you're saying that maybe Pepper didn't quite get what I meant to say with the gesture? That it was a little bit… vague."_

_ "OK, so maybe you're not THAT clueless."_

_ "I see," Tony said as he scratched the side of his head. "So, what do you think I should do to make it clear? Ask her to marry me? Because that's not gonna happen. We're too young for that."_

It had not even been a year since he and Rhodey had had that conversation and, right now, the idea of asking the redhead to marry him was not as mind-boggling as he had once thought it would be. At that moment, it might have appeared as if they were in fact too young for the woes of marriage. Yet, after everything that had happened to them since, he knew that getting serious with her, had they still been dating now, would have been in order. Especially since they lived together; at the very least, a promise ring from him would have been around her finger by now.

Then again, had not Pepper mentioned to him, just a couple of months ago, that some people got married right after college and some right after high school? Is this where she was going with that?

He surely hoped not.

Yet, it was not his place to complain.

It was not he and Pepper that were dating, but she and Scott, and it appeared as if the jock was not wasting any time or making the same mistakes the inventor had made himself.

_One-upped by a jock… again._

He realized he was still staring at the ring and had not said anything for a long time, so he cleared his throat once more.

"Aren't you supposed to be wearing it on the other hand?"

She looked away from him and to the screens and then took a quick sip from her coffee.

"We aren't there yet."

Tony frowned either way, his eyes also on the computer monitor before he spoke again.

"Not too far off, it would seem. Going away together, giving him a key to your home, him giving you a ring… All that's missing is you two sleeping together."

Pepper pursed her lips but did not respond. As much as she wanted to smack Tony upside the head for that out-of-line comment, she decided that her silence was the only answer Tony deserved for now.

_Great, _Tony thought._ Just great._

"Anyway, what did you find?" he asked, knowing there was nothing else he could say that would not start another argument between them. He was still recovering from the guilt of calling her a slut, and he was yet unaware of why he had been so mad at her that one time; so, unreasonably mad. There was no need to make mountains out of molehills, anyway.

"Well," she started, also glad for the change of conversation, and began pointing to and enlarging several parts of the reports before them. "My media contact told me there has been another unreported kidnapping. It happened the night we were there, actually."

"What?" Tony leaned closer to the document on the screen. "How could that be? We left pretty late and… _what_?"

"I know. It pissed me off, too."

"They're good at this," Tony mumbled as he read the details of the kidnapping. "Wait. This is not a police report. This is a… letter?"

"A summary, actually," she said and took another sip of her coffee, "From the mother of the girl that was taken."

"How did you get this?" he sipped his own coffee.

"Randall, my media contact. He told me over the phone what he had heard and faxed me this paper."

"In exchange for what?" Tony asked, a scowl already evident on his face.

"A gift card," she shrugged.

"Really?" he was taken aback. "No make out session this time?"

"No. I told him I was in a hurry but that I'd visit him at another time."

"Are you?" he stared at her form up and down, trying very hard not to go off on her again. "Are you seeing him again?"

"If we need to, yes," she stared at him with a face that told him not to go off on a tangent again.

"Hn," he uttered. "Let's make sure you don't have to."

"Right," she said and sighed in relief when he did not attempt to scold her. "Anyway, the story he told me sounded very familiar, but I wasn't sure why. He gave me the name of the girl and I looked it up. And when I saw her face, I knew why I had a feeling I knew her," the ginger pulled up the photo and personal information for the girl and exhaled in disappointment. "I saw her at the club that night."

"Did you?" Tony asked as he read the details of the redhead on the screen, and for a second he panicked when it dawned on him that it could have been _his _redhead instead. Was the Maggia after redheads only? Was that the reason why they had not taken Pepper that night, because she had dyed her hair blonde?

"She does look familiar," he finally said.

"That's because we both saw her. She's one of the two girls that were talking to the targets I heard about in the bathroom. The targets you pointed out to me when we were dancing. This," she pulled up another picture, a blonde young woman this time, "This is the girl's friend. They are the two girls I overheard talking about the Maggia. I'm sure that's them."

"Were they both taken?"

Pepper shook her head. "No, just the redhead, Wendy."

"Really? That's odd," Tony sipped his coffee before completely abandoning the cup on the nearest stool. "Why not both? They were together, right? Unless, you know, this other girl, uhm," he leaned closer to the screen to read the name, "Joanna. Maybe this girl, Joanna, is somehow involved in the kidnappings."

"She's not," the ginger said immediately and decisively. "Or, at least not in a way that would make her an accomplice. She was just there to see enough to tell Wendy's mom what she saw. This letter here is a plea to the media to call attention to the kidnappings. It was written by Wendy's mom herself. She's a psychology professor at NYU."

"Did she try the cops?"

"Yup, but they dismissed it as a runway case and not a kidnapping."

"Seriously?" Tony spat in disbelief. "Who the hell is the Maggia screwing? How are the authorities just dismissing it like this? It makes NO sense."

"I still don't know that part, but," she said with a shake of the head and then placed her cup of coffee on the same stool Tony had placed his. She exhaled loudly and rubbed the back of her neck with her left hand, a gesture Tony only saw on her when she was about to drop a bombshell on him. "But, I was able to find out the common pattern between the victims… ALL of them."

Their eyes instantly met and they both swallowed hard; Pepper for already knowing how he was going to take the information she was about to relay to him, and Tony because he could already see it in her eyes that another heated squabble was about to come down on them. He was tired of arguing with her, arguing about this mission and anything that related to it, especially now that she was growing closer to Scott and he felt she was slowly slipping away from his hands. He did not want to fight anymore. He did not want her storming out the way Maya had done so on him, or her having enough of his irrational overprotectiveness that she would walk out on him and never look back. And yet, he felt it in the air; it burned his pores. The mother of all quarrels between them was about to start.

"What is it?" he asked even though he honestly did not want to know right now.

"They were all engaged," she replied quickly, as if the words had been burning their way out of her mouth before the question was even asked. "And," she began, pulled up another document and suddenly the screen was filled with the pictures of 26 young men, each one matched with a missing girl, "Their fiancés are all gone, too."

Tony stared at the pictures of each couple, all looking happy and in love. All of these people, all 52 of them, were now gone. And it appeared that no one other than he, Pepper and the families, gave a damn about it.

"How is that a clue?"

"Well," she stared saying as she typed over the virtual keyword and brought up images of files that matched her words as she spoke them. "My theory is that the Maggia have been having trouble recruiting members since everyone knows about Team Iron Man being out there, so they had no choice but to go drastic on their enlistment process. The idea seemed farfetched to me at first, but after getting the information from Randall and doing some digging of my own, I just know it has to be true."

"What idea? What are you talking about?"

"I think the Maggia members have been targeting engaged couples to guarantee recruitment. You see, all of these girls were taken from _The Rotary_ _while_ their fiancés were with them at the club. All of these guys returned home and didn't report anything to the authorities, which is kind of odd, right? You'd think you'll want people to help you find your kidnapped fiancée, right? Well, a few days later, the grooms-to-be also disappeared, but it wasn't until the families of both realized they were gone that anything was reported to the police, but by that point it's easier to claim the couple just eloped rather than saying they were both kidnapped. It's kinda the perfect crime, don't you think?"

Tony exhaled in disbelief as his eyes jumped from one picture to the next and watched the cross-referencing Pepper had done for all the cases. She had created a timeline of the disappearances, mapped home addresses, listed people involved, and even had plotted the last times and dates any of the males had been sighted by friends or family before they had been reported gone. It was all there, staring back at him, a complex and detailed analysis of what would have been the greatest mass kidnapping idea of all time.

He observed the information for a few more seconds and then scoffed.

"Holy _shit_, Pepper!" his eyes landed on hers and he smiled. "You're fucking awesome, you know that? Private Eye doesn't even _begin_ to describe you!"

She smiled shyly and scratched the side of her face. "I do get paid the big bucks for it, right?"

"Apparently, not enough," he mumbled and remained in awe for half a second more until his smile disappeared and his eyes went wide. Pepper bit her thumbnail, looked away and closed her eyes, and if she could have covered her head with her arms in a way that did not make her look afraid of him, she would have done so.

"Oh, no! NO. _FUCKING_. WAY. POTTS!"

She stared back at him, exhaled and braced herself for what she had seen coming miles away.

"I have to."

"NO! You DON'T have to! You… you've done enough!"

"Apparently, not enough," she used his words and waved a hand toward the images of the kidnapped. "I can do more. I can put a stop to it. _We_ can put a stop to it."

"No, no way in hell! NO!" he spat and began pacing back and forth before her. "You were drugged last time this happened, and if we do this again they WILL take you now that you know exactly who they're looking for. I can't do this. I can't let you go through with this."

"But, Tony…"

"NO! We… we talked about this, Pepper. I can't put you in harm's way again, alright? I can't let these punks take you and do who-knows-what to you."

"It'll only be for a little while," she reasoned and walked closer to him, hoping her presence near him would somewhat calm him down. "Only until I've gained intel from the inside and you come rescue me, right?"

"NO! Are your ears not working today?" he spat back and threw his arms in the air. "I'm _not_ having you be taken! What if these girls are dead, huh? What if these poor bastards are being told their fiancées are still alive, but they've been killed already?"

"I doubt it," she said as calmly as she could and rested her hands on his shoulders to keep him from pacing and forcing him to stare at her. "I'm sure they keep them alive for bait, as an incentive. For having something to use against these guys, you know? Make them do their dirty deeds."

"No, Pepper!" he looked at the floor; his hands and jaw clenched in anger, but he did not pull away from her.

"Tony, please…"

"For fucks sake, Pep! Why can't you understand? I can't… _I won't_… I won't lose you again!"

"You won't," she assured him and searched for his eyes. "You won't, Tony. We'll be prepared, better prepared than last time. We have the advantage of my research and your inventions. We can do this. We can help these people get their loves ones back."

"And what about _my_ loved one?" he spat and stared directly at her eyes. She pulled her hands away from his shoulders and was about to take a step back from him, but he stopped her by holding her face in his hands and traced her cheeks with his thumbs. "What about my loved one?"

She gave him a nervous smile, wanting nothing more than to look away from his piercing blue eyes, but she could not. This is what she had been avoiding since she had realized she was walking the line with him; a dangerous line. This is what she had wanted to put a stop to by giving Scott and Maya a key to their home. These moments between them; these moments that were now even that much more meaningful to her after realizing how she was starting to feel about him.

"Don't be silly, Tony," she began with a shaken voice as she tried to say anything that would steer the conversation away from what she feared was happening between them. If he leaned toward her face any more, if he tried to kiss her, she would not stop him. If he wanted anything else from her… whatever it was, she would give it to him. She would not say no to him again; she would not ask him to stop. It was the truth and it scared her. It scared her how much power he had over her without even trying; how she would just throw away months of dating Scott for one night with the inventor; just as she had almost done in December. "I wasn't… I wasn't thinking of sending Maya out there with you."

"Maya never crossed my mind," he told her in a soft tone as his eyes landed on her lips briefly before staring back at her hazel orbs again. "Maya is of no concern to me."

"Tony," she swallowed hard and her heart pounded rapidly inside her chest. She could have sworn his hands on her face were the only things keeping her standing up since her legs were turning into jelly. Could he tell how nervous she felt? Could he hear her heart about to go into arrest? Could he see her breath hitching up in her throat? "How… how can you say that? She's… she's your girlfriend, right?"

"Yeah, but she's not my girl. Not the one that's going to throw herself to a group of criminal for the sake of others."

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, her mind shouting at her to move away from him and her heart telling her to move closer. How and when did it get so complicated between them? Why had she even allowed it to happen in the first place? They had seemed so innocent at first, these moments between them, and she had not once foreseen where they would take them; where they would take her. She was confused, afraid, and not in total control of the situation or her heart. She was with Scott and was honestly happy with him, but the moment she returned home to Tony, her feelings toward the jock were always put to the test. If someone had been keeping score of the times she had failed said tests, they would have drawn a big, fat _F_ on her forehead.

Or an _L_, for the _loser_ she was. For the loser she was for letting herself fall for the inventor without even trying or wanting to do so. For the loser she was for treating Scott as if he was Tony, and for the short moments she had thought that Tony could actually love her back.

He could not, right? He would not be with Maya if he did, right? His anger toward sending her off to the Maggia was just a sign of friendship, right? Or, at the very least, a sign of fear at having history repeat itself, right?

"I'll be OK, Tony," she finally told him with the steadiest voice she could muster and returned her gaze to his. "You made the tracker and I still have it on. You can find out where I'm being kept and monitor the surroundings with the satellite. You can put that molar receiver in me that you wanted me to use the first time around. I'll keep you informed of how I'm doing, that I'm alright, and you just have to wait until the Maggia recruits you and we have enough info on their operations to take them down once and for all. It'll be alright. It will be a one-time thing and it'll be over before we know it."

They stared at each other in silence for an eternity and slowly she was pulled to his chest. He held her tighter than she had ever felt him do so in the past. As he breathed in her ear, she closed her eyes. She could feel his fear almost overpowering her. It was coming out of his pores and it reflected in the way he stroked her face with his. She felt her muscles relax under his touch, and even if it went against her plan to stop the developing of feelings of love for him, she surrounded his shoulders with her arms which only invited him to surround her waist with his.

She felt him trace her jaw with his lips until he reached her neck. He then worked his way down to her shoulder. Once there, he lifted his mouth to her ear and whispered to her the commands she already expected of him.

"We're taking every precaution. We're doubling up on everything, and I don't want to hear a peep out of you. That's the only way we're doing this, OK? I'm not losing you. I…"

She bit her lip and swallowed hard. She knew what he was about to say: it was the same phrase he had told her during their Christmas dance and other countless times; a phrase that she had never overly analyzed and had had no trouble saying back until now.

"I love you, Pepper."

She held back a hopeless cry. Did he mean love-love? Or just friend-love? It was not easy to tell. She loved Rhodey and even Gene, and Rhodey had made a similar claim to her in the past, but it was difficult to tell what was what, especially after how life had treated her and the inventor. No normal person would go through so much with another person and not develop a strong bond between them. This was all there was between them, right? Just a very, very, _very_ strong bond.

She inhaled deeply and licked her lips before she responded to him with the only thing she could say to him right now.

"I know."

That response, he had not expected of her, and it did little to pacify his deepest fears that he had truly and absolutely begun losing her to Scott.

xxxXXXxxx

When she opened the door to the incessant knocking on it, she had expected to see a sales man, a girl scout selling cookies, or maybe even her stepdad on one of his days of forgetting the keys to the house again. The man was a freaking genius – not Tony Stark level genius, mind you – but a genius of his own nonetheless. But he was also such a scatterbrain sometimes, even to the point that one day he had gone off to work at Stark International with two different-colored socks. He was also a geneticist, like she aspired to be, and she had in fact been inspired by him to pursue the career.

She had even expected her mom to be outside, wanting her help to parallel-park the car, which she apparently would never be able to do on her own in her entire life. Perhaps, even the paperboy, wanting to apologize for breaking their garage window again or for riding over the gardenias her mom had in the yard. Or, perhaps it could have been the next door neighbor wanting to borrow their lawn mower again. She could have listed dozens of people who could have been at her doorstep right now; the mailman, the landscaper, a pizza delivery man looking for the home across the street, or kids wanting to borrow her for shooting hoops in her driveway despite how much older she was compared to them. So many people could have been knocking at her door just now; so many people were on her list, and none of those would have been the one person that she was currently staring at now.

Her shocked look remained on her face for the brief moment it took her to: furrow her brow in confusion, stare behind herself back at her home for signs that she was not seeing things, look outside to her porch to make sure she was still in her home and had not been suddenly transported to the Twilight Zone or that she was not part of a Candid Camera show, and to clear her throat. Her face then turned angry and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"What are you doing here?"

Tony gave her a one-sided shrug, as if his reason for being here should have been obvious to her.

"You weren't answering my calls or returning my messages. Kinda makes it difficult for me to apologize to you if you don't talk to me."

Maya scoffed. Did he really think that a week was enough for her to forget what he had done to her? Did he really think he could just show up after saying another girl's name in bed, especially a girl she knew and talked with all the time? A girl with whom she shared secrets and spa days, and that for a moment Maya had seen in her the potential of becoming a best friend?

"Did Pepper send you here or did you not embarrass me enough and want to do so again?" she asked in an angry tone, crossed her arms over her chest, and he shook his head at her before he took out from behind his back a large vase of red roses. Her eyes grew wide and she blinked a few times before she glared at him again, not making any effort at all to grab the floral arrangement or to show that her interest was already piqued by the gesture.

"You're gonna have to do better than that."

"I know," he said with a hung head and then carefully deposited the vase on the ground by her feet. "But if you don't let me, we aren't gonna get anywhere. Can I come in?"

She considered his request for half a minute as she watched his form. He could hardly look her in the eye. His left hand was inside his jeans' pocket and his right hand rubbed the back of his neck. He truly looked like a beat up dog waiting for its master to let him back inside after making on the carpet. Even without trying, he managed to melt some of the ice between them. She sighed loudly and rolled her eyes before she turned around and began walking inside the home, leaving the door open for him to follow. He wasted no time in doing so and picked up the vase from the ground before catching up with her in the living room.

He had been at her two-story home a few times before and he could navigate most of it, so he knew that leaving the vase by the entrance was best. Her house was the typical home in a nice, already established neighborhood, which never ceased to amaze him whenever he had visited here. He had lived in a mansion, a penthouse at Stark International, the Rhodes' home and now at his apartment with Pepper, but he had never actually lived in a normal home. The neighborhood in which Maya lived was the type that he had only seen on television, where neighbors actually greeted each other in the mornings, barbequed together during the weekends, and kids played in the streets.

It was the perfect place for a family to raise their little ones and then grow old together when the kids left, and for a nanosecond he felt guilty for being at her place with the intention of making it up to her all the while thinking about what it would be like living in a place like this with Pepper.

_I have to stop that_, he reminded himself. _I said I was going to move on and I haven't done jack shit to make it happen. I have to start now._

"Take a seat," she said, pointed to the couch opposite to where she sat and he silently complied. He looked at her for a few more moments while she stared back at him with a stoic look on her beautiful face. He then rested his elbows on his knees, looked up at her and finally cleared his throat and spoke.

"I would say that I'm sorry, but I know that's not going to cut it this time."

She slowly shook her head as her only response, but then nodded once to let him know she was at least willing to listen to him. His shoulders relaxed a little at that invitation.

"Before anything else," he began, "I just want to clarify that there is nothing happening between me and Pepper. We're just friends."

"I find that hard to believe."

He swallowed hard and nodded. "I know. Everyone does. But that's all we are: friends. Pepper and I are not in a relationship and have never, ever, had sex. I didn't… I didn't say her name because of that."

"But you still want her," she said and crossed her legs. "You love her, or at least want to sleep with her."

Tony opened his mouth to deny her claims, but he then closed it a second after. He looked away from her face for a moment as he gathered his thoughts and then finally returned her eyes to her face.

"Can I be honest with you? I mean, REALLY honest with you?"

"Would be the first time, if you are."

"Right," he flinched. "Fair enough, though," he said and exhaled. "And you're right," he nodded. "I love Pepper. So much. And I do wonder what it'd be like to sleep with her."

Maya could not believe his words, yet she swallowed down the pain in her heart and spoke up.

"I thought you came here to apologize."

"I did."

"Well, you _suck_ at it."

"I know," he said without missing a beat. "But you didn't know that about me until now. And that's my point."

"What?"

"You don't know me that well, and I don't know you that well either, at least not as much as we should know each other by now."

"And?"

"And, I think that if I told you more stuff about me, about my life, what's it's been like, I think that you'd understand what I mean when I say I love Pepper. And if we're going to move forward from here, I think it's important that you do understand."

The brunette frowned as she considered his words and pressed her back against the couch. Tony could tell in the way her eyes slowly shifted left and right that she was breaking apart his argument, perhaps even seeing the logic behind it. She had known that she was unaware of a lot of things that happened in the genius' world, but she had never attributed that fact as a reason for their sketchy relationship.

"_Wow, Pepper. There's… there's so much I don't know about Tony. He… he doesn't talk much."_

"_Just talk to him about science. He'll never shut up," Pepper shrugged. "I usually tune him out when he does unless he's talking about it for work."_

"_I could, I can. I mean, my stepdad works at Stark International and I'm a science major, too, but…"_

"_But you want to talk about normal things with him."_

"_Yes," Maya lowered her head. "I just wish… I wish he'd talk to me the way he talks to you. He… he trusts you so much. In the very few times I've gotten him to open up, he… he's always talked so highly of you. He… the way he treats you and talks about you… he just protects you so much."_

_Don't sweat it, Maya. You probably just make him nervous and he's not very good with words. It has to be different, talking to me and you. He's dating you and I'm just his friend. If he pisses me off, we'll argue, remember we pay rent together and then move on. If he pisses you off, you could end up breaking up with him. There's more at stake with you than with me. I bet you anything he's just watching what he says around you so that he doesn't end up upsetting you."_

Pepper had mentioned something similar in the past to her, but after the brunette's efforts to get his attention had failed over and over again, she had dismissed the ginger's words as nothing more than meaningless chat. Yet, here they were again, similar words being uttered and now by Tony Stark himself. Was there some real value to them, some truth to them? She had been trying to get closer to the inventor in any way she could, trying to sleep with him in the hopes that it would make him fall in love with her or at least want her with the same intensity he clearly wanted his roommate with, but she now realized she had gone about it all wrong. There was no way they could be intimate at this point in their relationship; there was no real _trust_ between them and Tony demanded trust before anything else.

It was so obvious to her now, why Tony and Pepper worked so well together: they trusted each other, more than she had ever seen two people trust one another. They had to trust the other; they had no choice. They lived together and worked together and fought crime together. There was no way anyone could have done all of these things with one person if there was no expectation of dependence, or mutual reliance. He trusted Pepper with his company, his tech and his money. He trusted her with his father and friends, even his own girlfriend. He would probably trust her enough to jump off a cliff with her if she told him it would be alright.

Trust. Of course Tony would trust the redhead with his heart! He had already trusted her with everything else!

He trusted the redhead to back him up in missions, with the board members of Stark International and with any other business partners, clients and competitors, and so far she was yet to disappoint him. She had even gone so far as almost letting herself be arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. if that was what it took for her to uphold Tony's beliefs to the world.

Trust; it all came down to that, and the brunette was yet to earn it from him. He was yet to trust her with his fears and dreams, his best and worst moments in life, his secrets and hopes; and, she was yet to trust him with telling him about her own life.

How stupid she had been!

It all made sense to her now, why all her attempts at wooing him had failed. She had been approaching him like all the other men she had dated in the past, but he was not like them at all; he did not operate in the same way they did. He was inexperienced to a fault, yes; clueless and somewhat of a relationship handicap, absolutely; but he was not stupid. He was not going to give her anything she expected of him until the bridge of trust was built between them, and he was now willing to lay the foundation for it. Finally, here he was, trying to make good on their relationship, trying to save whatever he could; trying to make an effort to like her back, and she would be an idiot if she did not take advantage of the chance.

"OK," she said with a slight nod, trying to keep the excitement from her voice. "We can do that."

Tony gave her an honest smile. "Great! When do you want to start?"

"Well, why don't you start right now?"

Tony sighed in relief. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet," she said in what she hoped was a severe tone but her half-smile gave it away that she was not as mad as she had been a week ago. "Go ahead."

"Alright," he cleared his throat and took in a deep breath. "It all began when my dad and I took our jet to some ruins…"

xxxXXXxxx

"Wow," she breathed and absentmindedly continued to brush Tony's head that rested on her lap. At some point during their conversation, the inventor had ended up sitting on the same couch as Maya, and he was now lying across it. They had taken off their shoes as well, forgotten somewhere in the living room, and even snacks and drinks had made their way to them courtesy of Maya's mom who had returned from shopping just an hour ago. "Your life sucks, Tony. You wouldn't think so by just looking at you, but it does. It does majorly suck."

"Somewhat," he agreed with a chuckle and closed his eyes, visibly relaxed by her fingers running across his hair. "But I'm trying to fix that."

"Well, you've got a long way to go," she said and then paused for a moment when she realized what had just happened, what the information she had just been given meant. She had wanted this, no doubt. She had been looking forward to being let inside the inventor's mind, heart, soul and world, but now that she knew almost everything about him, about the inner workings of his life, she felt overwhelmed.

Highly overwhelmed.

_How does Pepper do this?_ She mused. _How does she manage to live with this every day, all day? It sounds so exhausting, so draining… can I even do this for him, too? Can I really take Pepper's place, if it came down to it?_

Did she even want to? Could her body handle the stress of it? What would her father think about Tony's experience with Extremis? That last part had shocked her greatly. She had no clue Tony knew about the serum S.H.I.E.L.D. had commissioned her father to make; the serum he was still working on diligently at Stark International.

_Too late to do anything about it now_, she thought and then cleared her throat.

"Yeah," she continued, "Lots of stuff to fix, especially with Pepper. I just don't understand why don't you just tell her what you want to do? She'd understand. She's put up with a lot of your other crazy ideas and plans. This shouldn't be any different for her."

"Because it's not the same as anything we've done before. It's complicated and I'm with you now. I want things to work out between us. I know I haven't really shown it and that I'm the suckiest boyfriend ever, but now you know why. And I'm really sorry for not telling you this up front, but to be honest with you, I wasn't sure if we were going to be together this long."

Maya scoffed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I knew you liked me when you started visiting me during the summer and then you kissed me that one day… but I thought you just wanted a fling and I don't do flings."

"I can't blame you," she said with a saddened look as she remembered her own experiences with flings in high school. They usually did not end well. "I really thought I was pushing my luck by just talking to you. I really thought you and Pepper were together and that at any moment she was going to kick my ass for even looking at you. I mean, that hug and kiss between you two after the alien invasion was everywhere in the media for weeks! And then everything you did for her…"

"But now you know why I did it," he reminded her. "She's my friend and she kept me fighting when I wanted to give up myself, as did Rhodey. There was no way I was not going to do the same for her or for him, for that matter."

Maya nodded as she recalled the particular portions of their conversation that dealt with the woes the trio went through. She could not believe that they had not been discovered before the invasion, but she again had to attribute it to the trust they had in one another. Even this Rhodey person sounded as trustworthy as Pepper, and the more Maya thought about what it entailed to be with Tony Stark, the more her head hurt.

"You two are very close. You and Pepper, I mean. It's a miracle that Scott and her are still together, or even you and me."

Tony shrugged even though he agreed with her but decided not to put a lot of emphasis on the part where he was trying to like Maya to forget about the ginger.

"Not really. She doesn't remember we went out and Scott's a good guy, for the most part. And, well… you… you're pretty awesome, too."

Maya blushed, having never heard him say a compliment like that to her and she looked away from him, prompting him to stand up from her lap and sit next to her. He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand and took in a deep breath as he carefully watched her; _really_ watched her. The young woman was worthy of a magazine cover and he _was_ impressed with her intelligence. She was as passionate about genetics as he was about technology, and he knew that even if they had not been dating, she and he could have ended up being friends anyway, coworkers even, and he also knew that their amazing minds could come up with some pretty, world-altering inventions of their own.

She was also quick-witted, funny, and strong-willed – she had to be if she had stuck to him this long. But the best feature he could list of her right now was how understanding she was. She had patiently listened to everything he had said, and had only stopped him to ask about things that were confusing to her. She had understood most of the technological jargon he had thrown at her, and she had even understood Extremis to the smallest strand of its composition. It should not surprise him, actually, since she was better at biology than he was.

Although, if she had told him that her stepdad was part of the group that created Extremis, he might have reacted differently to her now.

"So, you've done lots of things," she said when she regained her composure and her pores stopped tingling with his touch. "But have also _not _done tons more. What's the one thing you wish you could've done, besides preventing what happened to Pepper, of course?"

"Mmhhh," he pondered for a moment. "Just one?"

"Just one," she replied and rested her bent arm on the back of the couch and her head on her upturned hand. He scratched the top of his head and mirrored her position before answering her question.

"I think being able to save the Living Laser. He saved my life and he ended up being the way he was because of one of my father's faulty inventions. I should've trusted him. I should've listened to Rhodey and Pepper sooner and trusted that he was telling me the truth about being split in two. All I had to do was look for satellite imagery, or even search the area for unstable energy and I could've confirmed his story. I really tried to help him, to save him, but I had to watch him die three times."

"Figures your regret would be about not being able to help or save someone."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, suddenly taken aback by her comment.

"Well, it's very noble of you, Tony, really. But if you keep thinking that way all your life, you're never going to be happy."

"Why not?"

"Because even with you being Iron Man or being the richest man on the planet, you're never, _ever _going to be able to please everyone. Even with all your tech and your money and your power, you'll never be able to save everything and everyone. And if you continue trying to pursue this utopian goal of yours, you're just going to be disappointed all the time and eventually drive away those of us who care about you when you become bitter about failing over and over again."

Tony's stunned face told the brunette that he had not considered the possibility before; the possibility that he had been fighting a losing battle all along. He did not take failure lightly, and the idea of continuously failing at something that no one – not even he – could ever accomplish in a lifetime was shocking to him. All this time, he had been fighting the good fight, trying to fix everything and everyone – just as she had said, but he had not succeeded all the time. Not even _most_ of the time. Some things had fixed themselves eventually, and some he had learned to live with, but there were still some situations he truly wished he could have done something about.

He had not been able to stop his father's jet from exploding even with the Iron Man prototype in the back of the plane. He had not been able to prevent Gene from getting all ten rings and had even helped him find most of them. He had not been able to keep Arthur Parks from dying and had actually pushed him to become the villain he had been at some point before he had turned good. He had not been able to keep Whitney from losing herself to the side effects of Madame Masque and had not even seen her slowly become poisoned in hate towards him until it was too late. He had not been able to stop Fix from zombifying half of his enemies even if his actions meant a diminishing of crime. And, above all, he had not been able to keep Pepper safe and she had almost died on him, because of him and his actions – twice.

"That…" he sighed, still not willing to accept her words as law. "That doesn't mean I shouldn't try."

"But it also doesn't mean that you should try too much or forever. It's like this thing with Pepper," she began. "You're so caught up in making it up to her, thinking she's not happy yet, thinking that your job is not done, but it is, Tony. It really, truly and absolutely is."

"I… I'm not done. Pepper, she… she still…"

"She, what?" Maya challenged, gave the inventor a moment to retort, and when he did not, she continued her argument.

"She's alive and happy. She's your friend again and she's your partner in crime and your roommate and your co-CEO. She's helped you grow your company and your fortune and has pushed you to go to school and make something out of yourself other than just being a rich boy with time to spare and money to waste. She pulls your ears when needed but also cheers you up when that's what you need, and she's always been there for you, and I'm sure she'll always be. But she's with Scott now and she's happy with him. She'll probably marry him and have lots of kids and live in a house with a white-picket fence, and I bet my college fund that even at that point you'd still think she still needs you or that you still owe her something else. Your debt to her is gone, Tony. You're done, the job is complete. You're even now. What else do you want?"

Tony thought about Maya words, each and every single one and could not come up with a good retort. He knew she was right and that the only reason he felt as if he still owed something to Pepper was because he still loved her and wanted her. He actually did not owe anything to the ginger and neither did she to him; their common debt had truly been settled by now. He just felt as if he still needed to do more because it gave him a reason to stay with her in the hopes that one day world peace would let them be together again; that one day they could go back to being Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, the two weird kids that once attended the Tomorrow Academy and sometimes argued about what movie they would watch at night or what lunch they would have on the roof during their school break.

His mind then reminded him of the ring she now wore all the time and how often she and Scott disappeared together. He had even been to their apartment a few times to spend the night, and one of those times Tony had even heard them do something in her room that he wanted to think was nothing more than training for running in the Olympics to be breathing that hard. He knew better, though, and Pepper had politely opened his eyes to the reality of their situation by giving away the key to their private world. They were a _had been_ and, in addition to that, they were now a _never again_.

A never again: just as he had wanted it to be since he had learned about the details of her kidnapping. Just as he had promised Gene he would make sure it became true.

The moment his shoulders sagged and he looked down at his lap, Maya knew she had finally gotten through to him. Despite her smile, she was also feeling regretful about what she had been doing to make Tony love her. She had not been aware of his past – at least not to the detail he had shared with her just now, and she immediately lost all will to see Pepper as her enemy. She was not. She was not even aware of the lengths Tony had gone for her. She was just another important girl in his life, and someone Maya would have to learn to have around if she wanted to date Tony Stark.

"So, what do you want to do about us?" she finally asked when his eyes focused on hers again, signaling that whatever internal battle he was having had finally concluded.

"Well, that depends," he said as he slowly returned to the reality of his world.

"On what?"

"On whether or not you still want us to go out," he said and for her sake he forced a smile.

She smiled back.

"It'd be nice."

"And I mean really go out," he said and meant it. "A real relationship and not the half-assed one I gave you before. Which, by the way, I'm still very sorry about."

"That'd be even better," she chuckled.

"Well," he swallowed hard as he readied himself for taking the plunge. "If you want to and you'd let me, I'd like to give it a try."

The smile on her face could have not been wider and the kiss they shared after that to seal the deal had been the longest ever since she had laid eyes on him, but only the longest to date. To her it was a kiss of hope, of apology and promise, but to Tony it was a kiss of acceptance and defeat.

The great Tony Stark felt ready to move on, once and for all.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Alright, everyone! Grab a hold of something. Make sure you're sitting down. And make sure to read this chapter when you can scream like crazy.

Just saying… ;)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6: March<strong>

It was their third weekend going undercover at _The Rotary_ but, so far, the Maggia had not graced them with their presence or with any hints that they were on their target list. Perhaps, it was due to the fact that these things took time. Perhaps, it was the fact that it was difficult hiding the activities of their undercover identities when they did not show up for work the next day after a long and tiring weekend and perhaps the Maggia had already picked up on their double-lives. Or perhaps, it was simply because they were not playing the part well enough to be believed by anyone.

Tony Stark was hesitant to play fiancé with Pepper Potts because it went against his promise of moving on, of forgetting about her and his feelings for her and of engraining it in his head that their relationship was destined to fail no matter what. So far, he and Maya had grown very close ever since their heartfelt conversation nearly a month ago and he spending the night at her place when her parents were not around rather than at his apartment was now commonplace. He even had a toothbrush and a set of pajamas stationed in her room, and to her that was a huge leap from where they had been just weeks before.

He had also made a point of treating Pepper like he had before, when they had been just friends back in high school, and as if they had just met. He hardly ever touched her now and, if he had to, it was only to pat her back as a thank you for a job well done at Stark Solutions or as Rescue, or to patch her up after a rough mission, and even then he did it only when absolutely necessary; like when she got that ugly gash on her back that she could not reach herself to clean up.

Even their act as a future groom and his bride-to-be was pathetic, at best. They only held hands and kissed on the cheek. The closest their bodies had come to each other while at the club had been when dancing, and even then the synchrony they had had in the past was practically gone.

In fact, the only time he had broken his promise not to initiate any physical contact with her had occurred last night when he had come home early from a date with Maya and had found the ginger crying her heart out in their living room. She had tried to pretend she was just yawning when he had walked in, surprising her that he was home before she had expected him, but he had known better and she should have also known better than to try to keep her tears from him.

_The first thing that caught his eyes when he closed the entrance door and turned around to face Pepper were the puffy eyes and red cheeks of the ginger-turned-brunette-for-now. He hardly ever noticed her dark brown hair anymore, which she had dyed permanently for the undercover missions and which she covered with a red wig when she went to work. They had realized that, if she ended up captured, she could not have her hair suddenly change colors as it would do so with the 24-hour dye; as it would give her out in an instant, so she had resigned herself to use permanent dye on her red mane. The change had shocked the inventor the first time he had seen it since the shade of brown she had used reminded him of Maya's hair, and he wondered for a moment if she had done it on purpose._

_ "Pepper, what's wrong?" he asked from his position by the door as he slowly walked closer to her but did not stand too close. "Why are you crying?"_

_ Pepper angrily dried the tears from her face and sniffled, utterly pissed off that Tony had caught her like this. She knew she should have locked herself up in her room before reviewing the reports she had received just now, but she had not thought they would affect her this much. _

"_It's nothing."_

_ "Sure, and I'm Gene Khan," he said with an imitation of the Mandarin's irritated face that made her chuckle for a second before her eyes filled with tears again._

_ "It's nothing important, Tony. I'll be alright."_

_ Tony sighed loudly and sat on the chair that he had bought for their living room just so that he had somewhere else to sit that was not on the same couch as hers, if they were both in the room. He stared at the papers that were on the coffee table and the magazine she had been holding just seconds ago, and when his eyes landed on the name of the magazine before them, his eyes went wide in shock._

_ "Oh, no," he began and then stared back and forth between Pepper and the magazine. "Pepper, are you… are you…? Don't… don't tell me that bastard is not going to respond? He better take responsibility!"_

_ Pepper was taken aback by his sudden outburst and shook her head. "What?"_

_ "That son of a bitch!" Tony stood up. "Where is he? Is he here? He's hiding, isn't he? I'm going to beat his ass!"_

_ "Tony, what are you talking about? __**Who**__ are you talking about?"_

_ "What do you mean who am I talking about? Scott! Who else?"_

_ "Uhm," Pepper frowned and shook her head again, not understanding one bit where Tony's anger was coming from. "What does Scott have anything to do with my crying?"_

_ "He has EVERYTHING to do with it! He got you pregnant, didn't he?"_

"_WHAT?" _

"_And he's not taking responsibility, is he?"_

"_Uhm, Tony, I… I don't think…" _

"_Ugh! Don't defend the jerk!"_

"_But, Tony…"_

"_Where's my suit? Where's my fucking suit?" he asked as he turned around in place and stared in every direction._

"_Tony…"_

"_No, forget my normal suit! I'm going to get the Hulk Buster!"_

"_Tony…"_

"_I'm going to kill him! Kill him, revive him and then kill him again!"_

"_Tony…"_

"_I'm going to…"_

_ "TONY!"_

_ "WHAT?"_

_ "I'm not pregnant!"_

_ "What?" it was Tony's turn to frown and he stopped his pacing. "You… you're not?"_

_ "No. I'm not pregnant."_

_ "Are you sure?"_

_ "Yes, I'm sure."_

_ "Positive?"_

_ "Yes."_

_ "Positive! You just said positive! You ARE pregnant!"_

_ "NO! I'm NOT! Will you stop yelling that I'm pregnant? People are going to hear you!"_

_ "Who cares if they hear us? If you're not pregnant then you shouldn't care! So, are you? Did he get you pregnant?"_

_ "No!"_

_ "Positive?"_

_ "Ugh! I'm going around in circles with you," she said, stood up, grabbed her papers and magazine and intended to leave the room but he stood in her way. Although he knew better than to do so, he rested his hands on her shoulders and forced her to stare at him._

_ "OK, OK," he said in a low tone. "I'm sorry, Pep. I just…" he sighed. "You OK, right? You're not pregnant, right?"_

_ Pepper sighed and shook her head. "No. I'm not pregnant but I'd like to know what made you think that I was."_

_**The noises coming from your room!**__ He wanted to say, but his eyes just drifted to the space between them where she held the papers and magazine to her chest. She frowned at him and then stared down at the papers and the moment her lips mouthed an "oh," he knew she had connected the dots like he had._

_ "Yeah, no. This parenting magazine doesn't mean I'm pregnant."_

_ Tony stared at her eyes to gauge her honesty, and when she smiled at him and then began giggling when she replayed his reaction in her mind, he had no choice but to laugh too. Their giggles turned into full out cackles and before they knew it, the both of them were bending over themselves while sitting on the couch, pointing at the other and then laughing some more. After a few minutes of laughter and mocking of Tony's reaction, silence engulfed them again and Pepper's face turned somber once more._

_ She eyed the papers for a second with a disappointed look and then left them on the coffee table again. Tony waited a moment for her to find her voice and gain the confidence to finally tell him why she was so upset, but when she remained silent for a longer period of time, he grabbed her hands in his and kissed her knuckles several times; something he had not done in a long time and something that still made their hearts somersault inside their chests._

_ "Come on, Pep. You can tell me. What has you so sad? How can I help?"_

_ "There's nothing you or anyone can do to help."_

_She pulled her hands away from his and the waterworks began again when she grabbed one of the documents on the coffee table and stared at it for an instant before handing it to him. He grabbed the paper in both of his hands and read it. At first he was not sure what he was looking at until he focused on the title of the form and then his eyes landed on hers._

_ "Thanks to the address you gave me," she began as she handed him the rest of the documents and the magazine. "I was able to find more information about my birth parents. Turns out they were never married and had me when my mother was still in high school," she sniffled. "That's why they gave me up for adoption: they were too young… or my mother was, at least. She was fifteen and my father was twenty-one."_

_ "Wow," he stared at the second document he had in his hand. "So, your birth name is Virginia Hayes? Is that why you're crying? I like the name: Pepper, but Virginia's pretty, too."_

_ Pepper chuckled lightly at his attempt at cheering her up, but a frown quickly appeared on her face again. _

"_See who signed the name change?"_

_ Tony scanned the form and saw three signatures at the bottom of the document. Two of the signatures belonged to Loretta and Virgil Potts, and the third signature belonged to a woman he did not know. _

"_Jill Hayes. Is that your mother?"_

_ "Yup."_

_ "Where's your father's signature?"_

_ Pepper sighed. "He wanted nothing to do with me, it seems. Notice how my last name is my mother's and not whatever my father's last name was? He didn't even sign my birth certificate. I haven't been able to find anything on him."_

_ "What about your mother? Did you find her?"_

_ Pepper nodded and then reordered the documents Tony was still holding in his hands. The inventor then read the paper she was pointing at, and when he saw the name of the form, he understood why the redhead was so sad: Jill Hayes had died at age 16 by her own hand. The cause of death was a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head brought on by post-partum depression._

_ "I killed my birth mom," she managed to say before she began crying again, this time harder than she had been when he had walked into the apartment. Tony immediately threw the papers and magazine onto the coffee table and hugged her as tightly as he could. Pepper's sobs became louder and filled with guilt he knew she should have not felt in the first place, but he also knew all that he could do for her now was let her vent her feelings in any way she could._

_ Like she had said, there was nothing anyone could do for her._

_ Just as many times before, Tony rocked her back and forth as he whispered words of encouragement to the ginger, which he alternated by placing kisses on her forehead, her head and the side of her face, and while he knew this was against "the rules," he could not help feeling complete and comfortable with it all. After a while, Pepper finally calmed down enough to speak coherently once more and she thanked the genius boy for his words and gestures of comfort._

_ "I'm sorry," she said as she used a tissue to dry her face and then dried her tears from his face with the same tissue. "I know I shouldn't feel this way or even bother you with it, but for some reason it got to me. My mom, my adoptive mom, she left me when I was a baby, and my birth mom shot herself after she had me. How could I not feel like shit about it?"_

_ Tony could not think of an appropriate response to her hopefully rhetorical question and opted to hold her hand in his. She gave it a light squeeze before she pulled away from him, and she then grabbed the magazine and pointed to the name of the addressee. _

"_I tracked the address of who would've been my grandma on my mom's side, but she died a couple of years ago. I stole this magazine from the address while trying to investigate who lived at the rented home and when I found out that it was not anyone that was related to me, I just… it was too much."_

_ "Pepper," he began and swallowed hard, wishing more than ever that he could just go back to being the same way he had been with her and do anything in his power to make her feel better. "I'm so sorry. I really am. I wish you would've told me that you were going there. I… I could've gone with you. Helped you somehow."_

_ Pepper shook her head. "Scott went with me. I didn't want to bother you with it."_

_ "You're never a bother, Pep. You…" he gulped. "You're my friend, my best friend. I'd do anything for you," even if that anything meant not being with her, he also wanted to say._

_ "And you did," she responded and patted his leg. "You found me the address and now I know what happened. I can let it go."_

_ "What about your father?"_

_ "What about him?"_

_ "Don't you want to know who he is? Where he is?"_

_ "Not really," she admitted with a frown. "He didn't care about me enough to give me his last name or be there for my mom. Why should I care about what happened to him?"_

_ "How about just to tell him off… or scare the crap out of him with the stealth armor?" he shrugged and smiled at the last part. "I'll even help you with it and we can both scare him shitless. What do you say?"_

_ If he could not fix her past for her, he would at least make her smile. Pepper chuckled at his recommendation, but shook her head. _

"_As tempting as that sounds, I think I'll just let it go. He was probably a deadbeat, anyway. Getting an underage girl pregnant and then running off. If he's still alive and found out who I am, he'd probably try to find a way to get some money out of me, as if he deserved it."_

_ "Huh, that's actually a good point," Tony said. "Screw him! You don't need him."_

_ "I don't," she said, a little bit relieved of her sadness by now. "I don't need him. My father, my real dad, the one in the Middle East, is the only dad I need," she stroked his left cheek with her hand and gave him a smile. "Thank you, Tony. For listening."_

_ As she pulled away her hand from his face, he stopped it in midair and held onto it. "Anytime, Pepper. Anytime."_

The inventor's hand was pulled on lightly by Pepper as she guided him to the front of the line where the same two guys that had always been at the entrance waited for them – the same ones Pepper had shocked the first time she had been here, under a different identity. By now, the couple had learned that the name of the short man was Wallace, and the name of the tall guy was Tyrone, but nothing suspicious about them had come up in their searches of them as of now. They had also already investigated the names of all of the employees of _The Rotary_, including the owners, and most especially anyone who had been on duty when the kidnappings had taken place. Sadly, other than some unpaid bills here and there and some minor traffic violations, there had been nothing useful for blackmailing them with… _yet_.

Tyrone stared at them up and down as they approach him and Wallace, and then his head recoiled in surprise when he recognized them. Tonight, Pepper was wearing a white, form-fitting short dress with no sleeves, white pumps and let her wavy hair down. To somewhat match with her, Tony was wearing black pants, a horizontally-stripped white and black shirt, and a short, grey blazer with three-quarter sleeves.

"Hey, James and Claire!" Tyrone began. "You guys are really taking a liking to this place, aren't you?"

James Horton and Claire Warren were the names they inventor and the ginger had chosen to go by for this operation. James Horton was 23 years of age and had light hair, almost blonde, and green eyes. Claire Warren was 22 years old and had dark brown hair and blue eyes. Both of them were live-in, graduate students at NYU, and had the ID's to prove it. In addition, they were engaged and to be married very soon.

"Well, we need to make sure we do this as much as we can before the big day, right?" Tony said with a smile and then hugged Pepper by surrounding her from the side with his right arm. "Once we're hitched, the future wife here is probably not going to let me go out anymore."

Pepper playfully hit his stomach with her right hand as her left one went around his waist, making Wallace aw in an exaggerated manner.

"I doubt she'll be able to resist herself with how often ya two are here, though. We oughta make you VIPs by now!"

The inventor pretended not to notice the strange tone in which Wallace had made a mention of the VIP status and the way a silent conversation had seemed to take place between the two men. The ginger also feigned innocence in the matter, but both undercover heroes realized something was odd about their chat and maintained the smiles on their faces to keep up the charade.

"Well, let's not keep ya'll waiting any longer. Go ahead, lovebirds! Have fun!"

Both Pepper and Tony thanked the two men and made their way inside, hand-in-hand. Once the door was locked again, and before the next group of people made it to the front of the line to be inspected for worthiness, Tyrone eyed Wallace suspiciously and then turned to his side, away from the crowd. He looked left and right to make sure no one was within hearing range before he spoke quietly into the radio that hung from his right shoulder.

"Eagle, this is Hawk. Target is here. I repeat: target is here. Verbally and visually confirmed status. Monitor their activity and reconfirm status. Over."

_"10-4, Hawk. This is Eagle and target is in sight. I repeat: target is in sight. Great job, Hawk. Keep'em coming. Over."_

Tyrone then eyed Wallace with an accomplished smile, and they could already feel the cash reward burning a hole in their pockets.

xxxXXXxxx

They walked down the dark entrance corridor and, before they reached the partially illuminated area of the dance floor, Tony redirected Pepper to rest her back against the side wall and practically covered her body with his. He kept her in place by resting his hands on her hips and leaned down to brush his nose and lips on her left ear, away from the incoming lights and attention they could have called to themselves from the main floor of the club.

"Did you catch their looks?" he whispered to her, too much into mission mode right now to notice the sudden gasp his breath in her ear provoked in her.

"Yes," she breathed back and also missed the chill that ran down his spine when her hands rubbed his chest up and down to keep up with the appearance he was leading them into. "Do you think they've finally marked us?"

"Maybe. It'd be about time, too," he replied and, when he heard people walk towards them, he shifted his head to her face and kissed her. She had not expected this blunt move from him, mostly due to the fact that she had been able to tell that he had also been having a difficult time playing his role for this mission. She was not sure if his hesitancy originated from feeling guilty about doing this with her and not with Maya, or if it came from him finally figuring out that she now saw him as more than just a friend – despite how much she had tried to deny it and hide it – and that he had not wanted to lead her on as a result.

She sincerely hoped it was the former and not the latter. Otherwise, their time together was about to get that much more awkward for her.

The bystanders snickered as they exited the corridor and even went as far as making kissy sounds themselves in an attempt to make the couple feel embarrassed. The two heroes kissed for a few more seconds, mostly just mechanically going through the motions rather than feeling anything from the act. When the door closed again, Tony finally ended the kiss but did not pull away from her body or her face.

"Sorry."

"It's OK," she took in deep breaths to recover the air her lungs demanded after being caught by surprise by his move. "Are they gone?"

Tony threw furtive glances over his shoulders towards his left and towards his right. When it was clear to him that it was just the two of them again in the dark hall, he finally returned his full attention to her.

"Look, Pe-Claire," he began in a whisper he knew only she could hear. "I know it must suck that I'm not Scott and all. And I, well, Maya would castrate me if she knew what this mission entailed. But, you know, we… we may get _chosen_ tonight. You, you may get _taken_ from me today and…" he shook his head in an effort to control his emotions and stay in the game.

"Either way," he continued. "I think we both need to do a better job at this or we'll never catch the attention of the G. I know it must be hard on you, but we have to try to look legit, alright?"

"Yeah, I know. It's…" she sighed. "It'll just be like ol' times, right? Before we got too busy to spend time together, right?"

_Or before you gave away a copy of our key and practically kicked me out of your room with it_, he wanted to say, but he resorted to just nodding along. He knew letting go of his inhibitions tonight was completely against his many attempts to stop loving her, but this was something that needed to be done and he could not let his enduring love for her get in the way of saving lives.

Or maybe he was just telling that to himself as to not feel guilty about being weak about his promises, even if just for tonight; about how much he was looking forward to experiencing the familiar moments they once so readily and constantly shared in the comfort and privacy of their home.

"OK," she continued after a deep exhale. "We can do this. We can totally do this."

"We totally can. Ready?" he asked as he pulled back from her and, instead of just holding hands, he hugged her with his left arm and she surrounded his waist with both of her arms.

"As ready as I am to say: I do," she looked up and winked at him with the same confidence she had thought she had lost, and he smiled brightly at her with equal confidence as he lead them both to the dance floor.

She was not sure if it was because last night he had held her again as they used to do all the time before, or maybe because the hope that they could end this mission today and save all of those men and women was there, or maybe because she was very much craving those moments she had given away by letting Maya and Scott into their home, but she was ready for whatever could happen between them tonight; whatever they had to do to make this work and get it over with.

But, most importantly, she was ready to NOT feel guilty about it. Guilt had been the determining factor in her giving away access to their home, thus shattering the opportunities for her and Tony to being close. Guilt was the reason why she was keeping to herself and away from the inventor so far, and living with this guilt was making her life nearly impossible. Guilt that she was dating Scott Summers – who she liked and loved – but that she was developing a strong, more-than-just-a-petty-crush on her roommate. Guilt that she was, for all practical purposes, quickly and deeply falling in love with the boyfriend of her friend, Maya Hansen, who she respected and liked and did not want to upset. Guilt that she was letting her convoluted feelings get in the way of effectively completing this mission. Guilt that she did not know who she loved most: her boyfriend or her best friend.

Guilt at not being able to make up her damn mind and at that, even if she did make a decision, someone would undoubtedly end up hurt.

She was ready and _wanting_ to forget about Scott and Maya for now, and to just embrace the night as it were any other normal night between the two of them, even if just for one last time. One last time was all she needed to close the chapter on this screwed up book of hers she had written herself, and she felt that, since she had not planned her exit from the moments of intimacy they had once shared, it was now more difficult for her to crush her growing feelings of romantic love for the inventor. This was her chance to do just that: to exit gracefully and with her head up, and to burn into her pores and lips what it felt like to be ignited by him once more before devoting herself to Scott and Scott alone.

"Want to warm up?" his teasing tone brought her back to reality when they reached the middle of the dance floor and he slowly led her arms to rest on his shoulders, never losing eye contact with her. He then gave her a smug smile before sliding her closer to him by grabbing onto her waist for dear life and Pepper could already feel her head spinning in anticipated bliss by his daring move. "We might pull a muscle doing this if we don't."

"I agree," she rested the side of her face against his, both immediately closing their eyes on contact as they slowly lost themselves to the tingles of their fraying skins and the rhythm of the music. "One may even say that we're rusty."

"We can't have that," he said to her, the smile on his face evident in his tone. "We definitely can't have that at all, Claire."

"No, we can't James," she responded and giggled, the sound of his fake name sounding so odd to her. "We better do something about it."

"We definitely should. What do you have in mind? What can we _do_ about it?" he whispered to her and she took her time to respond.

Meanwhile, Tony, his eyes still closed, worked his mind to create a mental map of her form. His hands guided her body to the tune that blared in the club, and she happily let him take the lead. She then pulled away from his face ever so slightly so that their noses were still practically touching, and after pressing her lips against his for a second, she finally replied in an inviting tone.

"Anything we want."

xxxXXXxxx

It was nearly three in the morning when Tony helped Pepper over to their car, now that _The Rotary_ had closed its doors for the night. Her shoes dangled from her right hand, she surrounded his neck with both of her arms, and he was carrying her in his arms as they both laughed at nothing and everything, their steps wobbly and hilariously uncoordinated. Their idea of seeming "legit" had gone too far tonight, and now, after many, many, _many_ alcoholic drinks, the teens were so intoxicated that it was a miracle they were still in character… or standing at all.

"James, baby, I'm getting tir'd of walkin'," Pepper said and readjusted her position in his arms. "How far are we from-from-from the car, 'nyway?"

Tony stopped his walking, eyed her for a moment and then looked up at the dark skies as if the answer would suddenly fall over them. His head then recoiled and he laughed.

"Wait a minute! Babe, you aren't even the one doin' da walkin'!"

"I-I-I'm… I'm… I'm _not_?"

"No, silly! And… and I don't… I don't even know where we goin'. I don't… I don't even 'member where I left the car. Did we, uhm, did we even _bring_ a car? Or was it the bike?"

"I-I don't r'member, either," the ginger said and shook her head to emphasize her answer, but she instantly regretted it when it made her brain hurt. "Oh, _shhhiiiittt_! No shaking! Noooo shakin'!"

The couple then stared at each other for a second and busted out laughing again before Tony set Pepper's feet on the ground as carefully as he could.

"Lemme… lemme find the fucking keys…"

"OK, alright. Yeah, the keys… Uh, what keys?" she mumbled to herself as she maintained her balance by resting her right hand on Tony's left shoulder, although as ungraceful as he was currently acting as well, she should have known better than to bank on him for stability.

Tony patted his body up and down, and when his search proved rather unsuccessful, he frowned.

"I don't-I don't got any keys on me. But I… I got a toothpick… need one?" he asked and Pepper lightly shook her head in response.

"So, no keys?"

"No keys," he answered.

"Booooo!" she said in a slur. "Let-let-let me try," she said and then began patting down herself while Tony's index fingers poked her upper arms to return her to a vertical standing position anytime she began leaning too much onto one side – or maybe it was just him leaning too much onto one side and not her?

Maybe it was both?

Eventually, her hand landed on her chest and she snorted as she pulled her tight dress away from her front.

"Duuude! How did they get in here?"

"Wah?" Tony asked and looked down at her cleavage to see the car keys stuck between Pepper's breasts. "How da fuck did that get in there before I do? Fuckin', luckeh kesssh!"

"You'll-you'll get your-your chance, baby," she assured him before she pulled out the set and handed them to him. "Although, I don't think we're sober 'nough to drive."

"Psh! I'm OK," Tony said and waved his hand at her to dismiss her comment, but it looked more as if he was swatting flies. "I… I'm fine."

"No, you aren't fine, Jimmy," she pointed an accusing finger toward him. "You'd fail the sorber… the sobre… the-the sorte… the _drunk_ test!"

"The _who_?"

"What?" she asked and they then began laughing again almost instantly even though, if enquired, they would not be able to state what they found so funny. Tony then pulled Pepper to him and whispered to her.

"I don't thin' you know what'd ya talking about, Honey."

"I do," she said and gave him a slow kiss he happily returned. "And I don't think you'd want your fiancée to die in a car crash, right? Let's… let's just take a cab… huh?"

"Nah. I have a better idea."

"What?"

"Let's take a cab."

"Oh, OK," she immediately agreed. "Your idea sounds better."

"Of course it does…" he said, helped her put on her shoes again, grabbed her hand and led her down the alley adjacent to the club, not stopping until they reached the sidewalk. Thankfully for them, there were several taxi cabs already parked right at the curb, experience telling the drivers that easy cash was available at the location at this time. The couple walked – or more like _tiptoed _– their way to the closest taxi cab they found and clumsily got inside of it, giggling like idiots throughout the difficult task of putting one foot inside the car and then the other without their heads slamming into the roof of it.

Once they were inside, Tony immediately threw a bunch of bills of different denominations at the driver through the small opening in the plastic wall separating the front seat from the back before he returned his attention to Pepper and began kissing her fervently. Pepper pulled him closer by the lapels of his blazer and even rested her left leg on top of his own two. Tony's right hand found her left thigh and slid his hand up and under her dress, earning him a moan from the enthusiastic redhead.

"I love kissing you," he told her between kisses. "I just _love_ the way you taste."

"Uhm, sorry to interrupt," the driver began. "Where to?"

The two teens remained oblivious to the steamy show they were giving to the driver and to anyone who walked by until the older man cleared his throat loudly and banged the plastic wall with his fist, immediately breaking apart their kiss.

"Hey, _lovebirds_! Where to? Or do you just want me to get out of the car and leave you two alone in here?"

"That s-s-sounds like a good idea," Pepper said and Tony laughed.

"It does, but let's go to a m're comfortable place."

"Hotel or something?" the driver asked, already mapping a few options in the area. It was not uncommon for him to drive drunk couples to nearby inns, and he had a feeling that this particular couple was overdue for some alone time. "I know a few."

Tony eyed Pepper for a second, silently asking for her input. When she nodded slightly, the inventor made a decision. Ideally, and during the other two times they had gone undercover, they had driven themselves to the dorms of NYU and pretended to stay there for the night, only to leave early the next morning. This time, however, showing up drunk at the college they did not even attend was out of the question, and it was obvious that neither of them was ready to call it a night, anyway.

"Take us to the best one around!"

"Alright," the driver responded, and even though he could tell the young man had money to spare – he had just thrown two grand at him – there were no fancy hotels in the area the boy could waste his money on.

Pepper giggled and leaned to the side to let Tony shamelessly indulge in her neck as the cab driver waited for the taxi in front of him to move so that he could start their trek to the closest motel. Pepper bit her tongue as Tony's lips on her skin were working wonders on her, and she had to wonder how much of what he was doing was due to their mission and how much was due to the booze.

Or maybe she was just lucky and he just _wanted_ to eat her alive.

"You_ sure_ you want to go to a hotel?" he asked her in a low tone when the car finally began moving.

"Yup," she told him and then bit on his earlobe, making him dig his fingernails in her back and moan. "Do-do you not want to?"

"No, I doooo. I do want to."

"Then stop worryin' about it and kiss me," she replied and then pulled him down to her for a long kiss.

By the time they broke apart, the cab driver was already idling in front of the main entrance of a motel. The secret ginger and blue-eyed boy stumbled their way out of the cab and laughed their way to the front desk after they repeatedly slammed their bodies against the glass doors they thought were automatic but were not. A few minutes later and with a key in hand, the couple marched their way to the location of their rented room. Once there, the two of them silently wobbled all around before their door for half a second until Pepper frowned and looked up at Tony with a questioning look on her face.

"What-what are we waiting for?"

"For, uhm, for the door to open?"

"What?"

"What?" Tony asked, looking and sounding as confused as she.

"You've-you've got the key, baby!"

"Oh!" he said and the two began laughing again before they shushed one another when they realized they would probably irritate the other guests with how loud they were being. It took Tony three tries to aim the cardkey into the door lock, but once he did, they walked inside.

"_Watta_ fucking shitty job the doorman did putting up _that _card reader, I swear. Moved all ov'r the place…" Tony mumbled and Pepper agreed with a nod.

The guest room was not spectacular, but it was at least clean. Inside it was a king-size bed, a chair by the right corner of the entrance, and two nightstands with lamps on the sides of the bed. There was also a dresser by the foot of the bed, and above the dresser was a large and old tube-style television. A mini-fridge rested on a small table in the opposite corner of where the chair lay. There were two doors on the wall opposite to the entrance, and Tony figured one of them was a closet and the other one a bathroom.

He then turned around in place and closed the curtains of the only window in the room and then placed all the locks available at the door. By the time he turned around to face Pepper, she had already abandoned her shoes and was walking over to the minibar.

"What do-do they have? I-I-I think I need a drink."

"Uhm," Pepper bent down in front of the small fridge, giving Tony a nice view of her assets from where he stood. "I see beer, vodka, tequila… and-and alcoholic drinks. Which one do ya want?"

"The-the alcoholic drinks," he said, took off his blazer and tried tossing it on the single chair in the room, but it ended up hitting one of the lamps on the nightstands, made it wiggle around precariously until it finally crashed and broke on the floor.

"Ooops!"

Pepper laughed and pointed at him in a mocking manner.

"Oooh! You're gonna hafta pay for that ugly-ass lamp!"

"So, what?" he said with what he felt was a shrug but actually looked like the last twitches of an electrocuted person. "I'm fuckin' rich! I'll buy'em nicer ones. Those suck!"

Pepper laughed, nodded and grabbed a bottle of tequila. She zigzagged her way to him as she opened the bottle and took several large gulps directly from it. She then handed the standing inventor the bottle and he repeated her steps before he used his right forearm to dry his mouth. The two of them then sat on the edge of the foot of the bed and stared at each other with a wide smile.

"Do you…" she hiccupped and covered her mouth with her right hand. "Do you-you think the G thinks that we're getting hitched?"

"I… I think so…" he said with a nod before he took another gulp from the bottle and handed it to Pepper. "But I-I think… I think they might need m're convincin' next time," he added and slid off his shoes without even bending down.

"Mmhhh," she agreed, made a sour face and stared at the bottle. "I… I don't l-l-like this shit. Can we have something else?"

"What about the beer?"

"Sure, why not!" she patted his leg.

"Wait here," Tony said and tried to stand up from the bed, but ended up tripping on his shoes and nearly banged his head against the dresser where the television rested. He blinked several times and then looked up at Pepper, his left palm facing her.

"Hey, whoa! Are you… are you alright?"

Pepper knitted her brows, patted herself for injuries and then nodded to him. "Fall didn't hurt."

"Good," he said, pushed himself up, walked over to the beer cans and grabbed two of them. He then returned to the ginger, handed her a can, and they both immediately opened and chugged them down in less than a minute.

"Ugh!" he began and tossed the beer can behind himself, "This tastes worse than the wine!"

"What wine?" Pepper asked as she wiped her chin from the beer that had escaped her mouth. "We ain't had no wine!"

"Yeah, we did," Tony argued. "Stuff in the bottle!"

"That's tequila, Stark," she said and hiccupped again. "You-you don't even know what da _hell _you're drinking. You're so _totally_ drunk!"

"What? No, of course not!" he shook his head. "You're not drunk, Pepper!"

"I'm not? Really?" she said, completely oblivious to the confusion they were both experiencing during their intoxicated conversation. "We'll that's a relief," she added with an honest tone. "Thank you for telling me. You're always sooooo honest with me."

Tony frowned at that and then shook his head lightly in regret. "That's not true, Pep. I don't always tell ya da truth."

"You don't?" she asked, partially taken aback. He shook his head again and expected her to get mad at him and demand an explanation, but when she just sighed loudly and grabbed his hand, he looked up at her, confused. "That's OK," she patted his hand. "I haven't b-b-been terribly honest with you either."

"Really?" he asked. "What 'bout?"

"Well," she began before she leaned down and grabbed the bottle of tequila again, already forgetting she did not like its taste, and gulped another mouthful of it. "'member that time you-you had just finished up-upgrading the armor and you lost-you lost a gauntlet?"

Tony narrowed his eyes, trying his best to search for the memory until he vaguely remembered what Pepper was referring to.

"Yeah, I think so. Why?"

"Well," she began and handed him the bottle so that he could drink some more tequila, too. "I told shu that you'd prolly forgot to render it, but I actually broke it and-and-and-and hid it from you."

"What?"

"I… I tried using its repulsor to-to heat up popcorn. I was curious about it, you know? Plus, _you_ hadn't-you hadn't installed the microwave yet and I was STARVIN'. But-but I end'd up makin' it short circuit, so-so I put it 'way in the back room, under the blankets you keep th're and neeeever use."

"Really?"

"Really," her head hung.

To her surprise, Tony laughed aloud and she soon joined.

"That's OK," Tony said in between laughs. "I have somethin' to confess, too."

"Was is it?"

"Well, uhm, ahem, remember… remember that missing pair of underwear of yours? Those fuckin' cute, lacy, see-thru red ones? The ones ya thought got lost when you did laundry, months-s-s ago?"

"Yeah?" she eyed him with a confused look.

"You didn't lose them," he said in a low tone, shook his head and his left index finger left and right, and then waved her over to him with his hand before he covered the side of his mouth with his left hand, as if he was trying to tell her a deep secret that no one else should hear about. "I actually took'em from you… they-they're in my boxers drawer."

The two of them laughed again and drank in between chuckles until the bottle of tequila was emptied. The ginger then threw the bottle behind her and it broke on impact with the wall, making them both turn around towards the noise and shush the _noisy_ bottle at the same time by pressing their index fingers to their lips. Their laughter then continued, and in between bouts Pepper shook her head and pointed a finger towards him.

"I… oh, God! I already knew that!"

"Wah?" Tony was taken aback but still laughed with her and waited until she calmed down some to continued speaking. "How… How'd ya know 'bout that?"

"Because I saw them there!" she said and hit his arm. "I… I was looking for the correct drawer to put back the t-shirt you lent me and… and… and I saw'em. I… kept the t-shirt but I-I-I left you the matching bra!" she snickered.

"That was YOUR bra?" the inventor asked and stomped his left foot on the ground. "DAMMIT! I… I thought it was Maya's! I threw it out!"

"Uuuhh, huhuhu…." Pepper covered her mouth with her hand. "You didddn't!"

"I didddddd," he said and hit his forehead with his left hand. "I should've knoooown… Maya's boobs are bigger than yours!"

"What?" she asked in an offended tone and tried to slap his face but she somehow ended up slapping her own. She blinked several times, stared at her own hand as if it were foreign, and then looked around herself, wondering what had just hit her. "You… you don't even k-k-know my size!"

"Well, I've got eyes…" he said and then grabbed Pepper's breasts over her dress to measure them. "Yup…my theory is correct. They're smaller… still good size… but smaller…"

"Stop that!" she said and slapped his hands away. "Well, you-you know what? Rem'mber that time, a week after you-you took me to your mansion and you asked me why…. why…. why I'd blushed when you asked if I had a good time with your dad and I told ya I… I told ya I didn't feel well? 'member that?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I-I blushed cuz your dad's hot."

"What?"

"Yesss!" she nodded. "He… he's hoooot!"

"Pepper!" he frowned. "He's like… 80… and… and… no! NO! Not hot! NOT hot!"

"But he _is_…" she said and clutched her hands together over her chest. "And his moustache…"

"Moustache? I thought… I thought you didn't LIKE facial hair!"

"Not on you, baby!" she said and pinched his cheek. "But on your dad…"

"Ugh, Pepper! Stop! Why? Why? Why do you like that?"

"Cuz… it reminds me… of a…of a…" she giggled. "Of a 70's-style porn video I watched."

"A-WHAT?" Tony shook his head. "You… you've watched porn? Without me?"

"I didn't KNOW it was until I saw it!"

"What, where? Where did you… _when_ did you… How'ya even know what 70's-style porn looks like?"

"Ssshhh," Pepper said and covered her lips with her finger. She then licked her lips, leaned closer to Tony, and pulled him by the front of his shirt. "Because I saw it. At Rhodey's house."

Tony's mouth went agape. "Rhodey has _porn_? He… he never fricken told me about it! That, that-that asshole!"

"Nooo!" she tried to laugh but ended up coughing and Tony lightly patted her back until she recovered herself. "Thanks," she began. "But no, not Rhodey's. It wasn't Rhodey's porn."

"Then, whose?"

Pepper snickered. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Yeah?" he began and he then flinched. "Wait, was it yours? You-you did porn? _Without_ me?"

Pepper snickered again and bit her bottom lip before she spoke again. "Nope. It was… weeeell…"

"Well, what? Tell me, Pepper!"

"Roberta, she… she-she-she wasn't always a _lawyer_…"

"So?"

"Think about it," Pepper said and waited as Tony's narrowed eyes shifted left and right. His eyes then widened like saucers and he covered his mouth with his hands.

"NOOOOO!"

"YESSSS!"

"Oh, shit!"

"I KNOW!"

"Wow! You go, David!"

"Lucky bastard!" Pepper agreed. "It's pure luck that Rhodey doesn't have, like, like, like_ ten_ siblings by now!"

"No kidding, Pep!" he said and they laughed aloud for another long moment. Once their laughter stopped, however, and after they cleared their throat of the scratchy feeling in them, Tony held Pepper's right cheek with his hand.

"I've missed this, Pepper. I've missed being with you like this."

Pepper covered his hand with one of hers, closed her eyes, and leaned closer to his touch. "Me too. So much."

She then opened her eyes long enough to see him slowly leaning forward and she smiled briefly in approval before she felt his lips on hers. She giggled behind his lips when he moaned as she scratched his back under his shirt, and he got back at her for it by slowly massaging one of her breasts.

"Smaller boobs, my ass," she teased him in between kisses and he laughed.

"No, your ass is good, too," he told her and kissed her again. "_All _of you is good to me."

"Suuuure," she mumbled.

"I'm serious," he said. "Wanna see how serious I am?"

"Why not?"

He slowly pushed her down to rest her back against the bed and, in a swift move he had not known he would be capable of doing while being so intoxicated, he shifted their location on the bed so that she now rested in the middle, his body pressed down on top of hers. Their current kiss was hungry, almost sloppy in fact, but this time it did not feel like the empty one they had forced themselves to go through when standing by the entrance of the club.

His left elbow rested on the bed to keep himself atop her, and his right hand slid up and down from her shoulder to her knee, skillfully maneuvering his way over her curves atop her dress. Pepper's right hand held onto the back of his neck, keeping his face on hers, and her left hand rested on his butt. Tony then broke lip contact for a second to turn off the only light that was still on in the room and, as he did so, they both heard a noise coming from right outside their door.

The two of them froze on the spot and swallowed hard, their heads turned toward the locked door and the covered window, as if expecting either of them to break open any second now, and prompting a myriad of questions to swim in their heads: Had the Maggia followed them here? Had they been watching them this whole time? Waiting for their most vulnerable moment so that they could effectively strike? Were they getting ready to make their move and take Pepper away?

"No," Tony mumbled when he imagined their moment together ruined by their mission, by the intruders that could be lurking in the shadows outside the rented room. This was his chance to fulfill his escalating need of the ginger, and he would first kill the potential kidnappers before giving her up now. He could do it, too, with his bare hands even; kill them without mercy, just as he had done with Ghost: just as he knew he would always do against anyone who tried taking her away from him and not on his terms.

"You're mine," he said to her even though his random words would probably not make any sense to the redhead since she was not privy to his current thoughts. "You're mine, Pepper. _Mine_."

His already tight grip on her body tensed up even more when he heard her gasp in fear at the doorknob rattling. This was more difficult for her, he knew, the purpose of their mission, since_ she_ was going to be the one being taken away and put at the Maggia's mercy. She had been trying to act brave about it all this time, just for him, just so that he would not writhe more than what she knew he was already suffering inside. She had imagined the options, hypothesized the possibilities, tried to mentally prepare for what it meant to be kidnapped _again_, abused _again_, beat up _again_, mocked and possibly tortured _again_. It had been hell with Whitney, but she knew that the blonde, compared to the underlings of the still zombified and put away, Count Nefaria, was a fucking amateur, at best. Besides, Whitney had been a girl and, this time, a group of angry, _male _thugs would be the ones taking her.

"Do you think…?" she began and gulped again. "Do you think they're out there?" she was suddenly more sober than she had been moments ago, and by the frown on his face and the look of murder she could see in the corner of his eyes as he stared towards the door, she knew he had shaken off some of the alcohol, too.

"I don't know," he confessed and suddenly felt like a rookie for not keeping his eyes open for followers on their ride to the motel. He had just not been able to help worrying more about kissing Pepper than to sparing a glance at their surroundings. "I don't know if they followed us."

"Should we go look outside?"

"No," he shook his head and returned his eyes to her face. "Just, relax. They won't do it here. There's security cameras everywhere and too many possible witnesses. They're not stupid like that. That's why they've been doing it at _The Rotary_. Somebody gets grabbed and taken outside by a couple of big guys at a nightclub, everyone thinks they're just being kicked out for breaking the rules. People expect chaos there."

She nodded in agreement and sighed, seeing the truth in his words. They had, for that very reason, snuck a camera in the alley where they suspected the kidnappings took place – the one they always made sure to walk through when they left the club. Up to now, and since no other abductions had taken place, they were yet to find any more compelling evidence about the crimes.

Her eyes fixed his protective-looking ones and she gave him a small smile to ease the anxiety she could see in him. Even if the color was off, the emotion she loved seeing in his eyes was still there. She definitely did not get off making Tony worry about her, but whenever a situation presented itself in which Tony had to protect her, it was always the same mixture of feelings that shone brightly in his orbs: fear, anger, worry, strength, concern, apprehension… _love_. This was one major advantage the inventor had over Scott Summers; the fact that she could not see the jock's eyes at all. She had always believed – and had even told Maya Hansen once – that a person's eyes reflected the soul. There was so much she could tell by just looking at Tony's, and she knew that what he needed to do right now was to relax. His attention needed to be redirected, and she had just the thing for that.

"I wish… I wish we could do this every day."

Her random statement caught him by surprise, and when he remembered _where_ they were and _what_ they were doing, he smiled.

"What, exactly? Get drunk?" he chuckled lightly and she scoffed. "Because I don't think I should be tempting the heightened effects that alcohol has on me due to Extremis, that often."

"No," she breathed, ran her fingers down his hair until she reached the back of his neck and then voiced words that she hoped would not lead to the sudden ending of their night. "Pretend. Pretend that it's just us alone in the worldand that nothing else matters. Pretend that's it's just you and me and there's no one else besides us."

The look on Tony's face was indecipherable for a moment while his mind took him back to a similar moment between them and he gauged the hidden intent of her words.

_"Pepper," he moaned her name in between kisses when she led him to the edge of his bed. "Is this… you… you OK with this?"_

_ "Yes," she responded in a heartbeat and pushed him down so that he sat on the foot of the bed before she climbed onto his lap and continued her assault on his lips._

"_Are you? Or… is Maya… and Scott…"_

_ "They don't have to know," he told her, held her by her waist and then flipped them over so that she was now on her back in the middle of the bed and he towered over her. "Just another moment between us," he told her as he kissed her neck. "It's just between you and me."_

_ "And, nothing changes."_

_ "No," he switched sides on her neck and she gasped when he bit her scar. "All remains the same."_

"It is, Pepper," he finally whispered to her and ran his hand down her face. "It _is_ just you and me. It's just us."

She closed her eyes as an invitation for him to continue down the path they had started themselves moments ago, and he did so without hesitation.

xxxXXXxxx

"Status is finally confirmed," Wallace said into his cellphone from his position by the side of the building where Tony and Pepper's room was in. "Target's status is confirmed."

_"What's your method of final confirmation?"_

"Verbal and visual. And I got a picture."

_"What's your current location?"_

"The motel where the targets are currently staying in."

The man on the other end of the line chuckled. _"That's about as much confirmation as we need."_

"No shit. They're going at it!" Wallace said. "So, where are we on the payment?"

_"Patience, Wally,"_ the voice said. _"You'll get your money when we have our new recruits."_

"Well, you better hurry up before you end up kidnapping three people instead of just two."

_ "What do you mean?"_

"_I mean_, if you take any longer, this chick's gonna be pregnant by the time you decide to take her."

The voice on the other end of the line went silent for a moment. _"Huh, hadn't thought of that. That's true. We may need to bump them up on the list. We'll just have to wait and see."_

"Or that might make it that much easier to convince the guy to join us."

_"Or that,"_ the man chuckled. _"Anyway, get lost, Wally, and don't let anyone see you. We'll talk later."_

"Alright. Wallace, out," he responded and should have gone home, but the peep show he was indulging in was too good to ignore.

xxxXXXxxx

She fluttered open her eyes and yawned lightly as the memories of the night before slowly came back to her – some of them, at least. She could not remember a lot of what had occurred, but what she did remember had no initial reason or rhyme to it. She remembered arriving at the club, dancing a lot, heavily making out with Tony in any dark corner of the place, and drinking like there was no tomorrow. She also remembered brief moments after that: the taxi, the broken lamp, the noise coming from outside, and then…

_Oh, crap!_

She stared down at her blanket-covered body and felt that all she had on were her undergarments and, as she was about to stand up from the bed, she became conscious of the fact that she could not do so because _someone_ was _spooning _with her.

"It's alright," he said to her ear when he felt her body tense up, his voice cool and collected, as if there was nothing scandalous about their current situation. "It's just me, Pep."

_Just you!_ She repeated in her head. _That's the problem!_

"What, uhm, what time is it?" she asked in a pretend-groggy tone, not daring to ask the only question that floated in her mind.

"Almost noon," he said, his tone low, calm and almost as soft as his body felt pressed against hers.

"Oh."

She gave herself a moment to examine her surroundings and her current position in the bed. She was facing the back wall, one that looked as if it had been splashed with something that now marred the tacky wallpaper on it and was making it come undone. They were both under the covers, and she could tell that he was also down to his boxer briefs only. His arms surrounded her waist and his chin rested between her neck and left shoulder, and their legs were tangled up together and with the bed sheets. Her arms rested on top of his, and it was not until now that she realized she had not made any effort to switch their positions since becoming aware of what they were.

"How long have you been up?" she asked as she tried gauging his mood by his responses and perhaps maybe even find an answer to the important question that was burning a hole in the front of her mind.

"An hour or so."

"Why didn't you wake me? We should've left by now."

"I didn't have the heart to do so. It was a long night, or at least I think it was. Don't remember much of it."

"That makes two of us."

"Although," he said, this time in a teasing tone. "There is something I _do_ remember quite well."

She panicked at his words, but she left the tone of shock out of her voice. "What's that?"

"You're a party animal, Pepper Potts," he said after another long silence and with a chuckle that resounded in her back. "Who would've thought?"

"Not me, I'll tell you that," she said with honesty and relaxed. She had never ever done anything like this before, not even with Scott. When the thoughts of her boyfriend crossed her mind, her fairytale moment came crashing down. "So, what's next now?"

"I think we should take a break from this for now. Maybe a few weeks. We're definitely on their target list now."

"Are we? How do you know?"

"I saw Wallace a while ago. I got up to get some ice while you were still asleep and I saw him pretending to be sneaky, the idiot."

"Well, wouldn't it make more sense for us to do this again next weekend? I mean, not the drinking part, mind you, but everything else? The sooner we're done with this, the better."

He knew her idea was logical; right on the mark, actually. But after what had happened last night, he could not bring himself to do this all over again so soon. Now that the alcohol was out of his system, he realized how close they had again come to making a mistake – a wonderful mistake, at that – but a mistake nonetheless, and had it not been because she had fallen asleep right before it was about to happen, they would have woken up with fewer clothes on them.

"It'll make them desperate," he reasoned. "They've been obviously investing time and energy in locating us. So, if we suddenly disappear for a few weeks and then return when they least expect it, they won't hesitate to go ahead and do their job if they know all their efforts could go down the drain if we never come back to the club again after that."

"That makes sense," she said and then closed her eyes again. "Does that mean I can go back to my red hair again?"

"Yeah," he chuckled. "For now, at least."

"Thank God! I hate dying my hair. It's so much work! Besides, I like it better, being a redhead."

"I like it better, too," he said and she felt her heart swell inside her chest with hope; hope that his words and actions of last night – the ones she could remember – were a sign that he did in fact love her like she did, even if at this point in time, she had no idea what she could do with that knowledge. She now knew she had been lying to herself thinking that, after one crazy night with him, she could let go of him; abandon her growing and complex feelings for him and devote herself to Scott. Now more than ever she wanted him, wanted to be with him, and not just so that she could recover the times they spent alone. It was more than that, she knew, but she did not dare to make the next move unless she was certain that he was there with her, too. Taking this leap was a giant step, and not only for her, but for the four people her indecision was hurting.

His next statement, however, burst the thin bubble of faith that had grown exponentially within her just now.

"It's kinda weird to see _you _as a brunette. It reminds me of Mae."

_Mae?_ _Maya_, she thought and clenched her eyes. _Of course! It had to have been that! It couldn't have been anything else! That's why he was able to go through the motions when before he hadn't! He was seeing Maya and not me. He was thinking of Maya all the time!_

Pepper had to fight the urge to cry… aloud.

_Once they were inside, Tony immediately threw a bunch of bills of different denominations at the driver through the small opening in the plastic wall separating the front seat from the back before he returned his attention to Pepper and began kissing her fervently. Pepper pulled him closer by the lapels of his blazer and even rested her left leg on top of his own two. Tony's right hand found her left thigh and slid his hand up and under her dress, earning him a moan from the enthusiastic redhead. _

"_I love kissing you," he told her between kisses. "I just love the way you taste."_

He had never said her name. Granted, he also not said Maya's, but he had not said _her_ name.

"_I know it must suck that I'm not Scott and all. And I, well, Maya would castrate me if she knew what this mission entailed. But, you know, we… we may get chosen tonight. You, you may get taken from me today and…" he shook his head._

"_Either way," he continued. "I think we both need to do a better job at this or we'll never catch the attention of the G. I know it must be hard on you, but we have to try to look legit, alright?"_

An act: it had all been just an act. That had not been Tony Stark drinking with her, dancing with her, speaking to her, kissing her and touching her in ways she had never imagined he would; that had been _Iron Man_. The part of the billionaire's alter ego that would do absolutely _anything_ to get the job done.

_Well_, she thought bitterly. _That's that._

"Pepper? Pep? Did you go back to sleep?" he asked when she remained silent and still for a long time and he looked at her face from the side to see her eyes were closed.

"No," she said and gulped but did not open her stinging eyes. "Just, resting my eyes. Hungover, you know?"

"Yeah," he said. "I know. Me too. Kinda."

Unbeknownst to the redhead, Tony was fighting an internal battle of his own. He had been truthful that he did not remember much of what had occurred last night, but he did remember a particular moment; a brief instant where he thought he would throw it all to hell and just stop this ridiculous and pointless effort of his to fall out of love with her.

_"I wish… I wish we could do this every day." _

_Her random statement caught him by surprise, and when he remembered __**where**__ they were and __**what**__ they were doing, he smiled._

_ "What, exactly? Get drunk?" he chuckled lightly and she scoffed. "Because I don't think I should be tempting the heightened effects that alcohol has on me due to Extremis, that often."_

_ "No," she breathed, ran her fingers down his hair until she reached the back of his neck and then voiced words that she hoped would not lead to sudden end of their night. "Pretend. Pretend that it's just us alone in the world and that nothing else matters. Pretend that's it's just you and me and there's no one else besides us."_

_"It is, Pepper," he finally whispered to her and ran his hand down her face. "It __**is**__ just you and me. It's just us."_

Except, it was not.

And at this rate, it would never be.

And if he knew it would never be, then why could he not make himself get up from this bed? Now that he looked at the place in plain daylight, he could tell it was not in the best of conditions, and he partially regretted not taking the time to examine the bed before they had tossed and turned all over it – before he had slid down the back zipper of her dress with his teeth and had allowed her half-naked body to lay underneath the covers with him. It was too late to do anything about it now, and even worrying about the repercussions of their thoughtless acts was nothing more than wasted energy. Nonetheless, even if terrible ideas of what illnesses could be hiding in the mattress made him shiver, he could not, for the life of him, pull his arms away from her.

How could he, really? How could he force his muscles to move and lose the familiar and much needed warmth her body against his gave him? How could he just abandon the position he had not known could be so comfortable with her? He had never gone as far with her as they had last night and, even in the fuzzy memories that remained in his brain, he could tell it had been amazing. They were perfect together, synchronized in their movements and in agonizing harmony with the needs and wants of the other. They had not been afraid or shy about asking the other what they craved; what they wanted of the other to make the experience better and they had then immediately made it happen for each other. It was as if they had been doing this all along, every day, nonstop.

He tightened his grip on her as his mind replayed the way she had urgently gasped his name last night – it had driven him wild – and he could not believe that he had not just removed the last barriers of clothes from her and finished what they had started. He had just wanted to take his time, make it last, make it memorable, but waiting too long had backfired in the end. How could it all have been just an act, he had to wonder. It had felt, sounded and looked so real, so authentic. Either she was a very talented actress or she had felt it, too; wanted it, too. Wanted _him_.

"Pepper?"

"Mmhhh?" she said, unable to actually speak since she was trying so hard to keep her whimpers from coming out.

"Scott is a _very_ lucky man."

Her eyes snapped open and she gulped, swallowing her quiet sobs for now.

"What? Do you-do you mean to say that we… we…?"

"No," he told her, his eyes staring at something only he could see. "We didn't. Don't worry."

"Are-are you sure?"

"Positive," he answered.

She felt her body relax and closed her eyes again, although she was not sure if she was happy or saddened by the fact that they had not done what she thought they had. Would it have made a difference to him, to her, _for_ them? Would it have changed the way they were behaving now?

Would they be talking about getting together now?

"OK," she finally said. "Are you ready to leave?"

He shook his head lightly, hugged her even tighter than before, and felt his heart being painfully clutched when she also tightened whatever grip she had on him and she softly uttered his name in a questioning tone, wondering what had suddenly taken over him that made him react this way.

"Can we stay?" he whispered to her. "Just a little while longer, please?"

She swallowed hard and understood his hidden words. He felt it too, the reconnection happening between them right now and the imminent and unstoppable withdrawal that would follow when they walked out that door. Once they returned home, it would be business as usual, and without James and Claire in the picture for a few weeks, there would be no chance to be like this again for a long time. The withdrawal was not even sexual in nature; it was deeper than that, more meaningful and so unique it could not be put into words.

"OK," she replied. "We can stay."

So many things he wanted to say to her. So many words left unspoken between them. So many more caresses and gestures that were yet to be shared. So many feelings repressed. So much that was being ignored, hidden and locked inside.

…and all he could do was nod.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Buckle up, peeps! The story is going to start wrapping up! Check my profile for the links to the outfits Tony and Pepper were wearing, and keep them reviews coming. This is about to get HEAVY!


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Any chance that if I ask you not to hate me by the end of this chapter, you won't?

**Guest Review Responses**

**This story is amazing and all, but there's just one thing that's bothering me. If people were targeting Pepper when she and Tony were together, wouldn't Maya be targeted as well when they get more serious and people assume that she is very important to Tony? **AAHH! I soooo want to answer your question but, but… I don't want to spoil anything! All I can say is that there is a reason… and… it's a good one :)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7: April<strong>

"Seriously, Pepper," Maya Hansen whined inside the redhead's office in Stark Solutions, twirling around in one of the chairs. "I want to help! I want to do something else! Tell me what you still need help with."

Pepper shook her head and rolled her eyes at the brunette even though she was not even staring at her, but she knew by the groan that Maya had just uttered that her gesture had been seen by the future scientist. The ginger's eyes were glued to her computer screen as she triple-checked that her plan was still moving along as perfectly as it had been for the past two weeks and just as she had expected, everything was still on schedule.

"Pepppperrrr!" Maya said with a pout.

"What?"

"TELL ME! PLEASE!"

"Ugh," Pepper began. "Fine! You want to know what you need to do? Is that what you want?"

"Yes!"

"OK," Pepper said and finally stared directly at Maya as she counted her orders with her fingers. "First: I need you to stop asking what you can do. Second: I need you to make sure you get all pretty and sexy for Tony in five days from now. Third: I need you to make sure that he is _not_ home between the hours of eleven in the morning and five o'clock in the afternoon. And, fourth: I need you to make sure his ass comes back home at 5:30 for his secret birthday party. That enough?"

"That's no different from what I already have to do!"

"Exactly," Pepper smiled and then returned her attention to her computer.

"Ugh, you're so mean! I just want to help."

"I know. And you will help me a lot with everything I just said. Trust me. Leave the rest to me."

"Alright, fine," Maya finally gave up, knowing that in some things, Pepper Potts would just always come out on top. "Hey, I do have a question, though."

"Yeah," the redhead asked, her typing continuing as she exchanged emails with HR about the new no-smoking-on-premises policy.

"How come we're celebrating Tony's birthday a week before the actual date?"

"Because your boyfriend is a freaking genius and he's going to expect a party on that day. We didn't get to celebrate his birthday last year, anyway, so I owe him a party… which reminds me…"

Maya stared at the girl with curiosity as she slid open one of the drawers in her executive desk and took out a small gift box from it. She then placed the box on the desk and slid it to Maya with a smile that would have been a sad one had Pepper not mastered by now the art of pretending she did not love Tony Stark.

Yes: love. Now she knew for certain that was what she felt both for Tony and for Scott. Perhaps not equally so, but the feelings were there with the resulting confusion pulling her in multiple directions and causing her to sincerely consider a serious proposition made by the jock, two weeks ago, even if just to put an end to the tug-of-war in her heart.

"What's this?" Maya asked and then grabbed the sealed box.

"It's Tony's gift from you to him," Pepper responded and again returned her eyes to the computer screen, this time to double-check the new contracts with the UN for the _Intelli-Crops_. "Or, at least, one of them, if you already have others in mind."

"Really? What's in it?"

"Tickets to the Annual Summer Science, Research and Development Symposium by Reed Richards, backstage passes included. Two of them, actually, if you want to go with him."

"Oh, my God!" Maya's mouth went agape as she stared at the box as if it was made out of pure gold. "How the hell did you get a hold of these? They've been sold out for months! Do you know… do you have _any_ idea how much Tony is going to freak out about these?"

Pepper smirked, knowing exactly the value of the tickets she had just relinquished to the brunette. She had gotten him some last year too – had even spent all of her savings on them – but when she had been abducted by Whitney, the blonde had made her swallow them whole as part of her torturing techniques. Whitney had always been jealous of her friendship with Tony, but she had never thought the rich girl would go as far as she had gone for friendship issues.

"I think I have a clue," Pepper said with what sounded like sarcasm but was actually pain at remembering what had happened to the previous tickets she had bought in the past. "I think he's going to love you forever."

"No kidding! He… he…." Maya began, sighed and her shoulders sagged. "He should know _you_ got them for him. Why… why don't you give them to him?"

Pepper shrugged. "I'm already getting him something else. Besides, I've already given that to him before," she lied. "It'll seem repetitive."

"Oh," Maya said and the feelings of guilt that had originated from not wanting to take credit for the redhead's efforts suddenly left her. "As long as you're OK with it."

"Totally cool," Pepper said and was even able to muster a bright smile. "Just go with it, Maya. It'll be fine."

Maya opened her mouth, but whatever she was about to say was interrupted when the door to Pepper's office opened unexpectedly.

"Hey, Pep, come with me. I need you, like, _now_. I've got a crisis in… Oh, hey, babe!"

"Hey, Tony!" the brunette said, and when she remembered she had the gift box in her hand she instantly panicked. Maya eyed Pepper with a look of nervousness, but the ginger just shook her head slightly enough for Maya to see but for Tony not to think anything of it right before she then mouthed the word: _relax_.

"I didn't know you were here, Mae," Tony said and leaned down to kiss his girlfriends' lips before he stood up again. "What are my two favorite girls doing together? Are you plotting against me again?"

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Tony, you _needed _that root canal, alright? Stop bitching about it."

"I may have needed it, but that doesn't make it right for you two to drug my ass unconscious and then drag me to the dentist. Which, by the way, Maya, what the _hell_ was that you gave me? I don't remember crap of what happened during that time."

"It's a family secret, Stark. Can't tell you about it."

"Are you serious? Because if it's a family secret that means your stepdad made it, and if he made it then he probably did it for Stark International, and that little thing can be used as a weapon."

"Tony," Pepper began with a shake of her head. "Will you just relax? What do you need me for, anyway? What's the crisis?"

"Oh, yeah, well, I was heading down to R&D and… wait… is that a gift?"

"What?" Maya asked, not able to think of anything more intelligent to say and stared at Pepper with wide eyes, pleading for help.

"Yeah, it's mine," Pepper said nonchalantly, her eyes not even moving away from the computer screen.

"Really?" Tony asked, his tone and face denoting he did not believe Pepper's words. "Are you sure it's not mine? Are you sure it's not for _my_ birthday? I do have a birthday coming up, Pep. You know that, right?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark. I have it on my calendar. And no, that's not your gift, unless, you know, you want condoms for your birthday."

"What?" he deadpanned, all humor gone from his feature and voice. "Condoms?"

Maya had to fight to hold back a laugh.

"Yeah, my 7-month anniversary with Scott is coming up, so I'm giving him condoms for our gift exchange. I was just telling Maya about it. Do you want to know what Scott is going to give me?"

"No," he said and narrowed his eyes. "I really, really, REALLY don't."

"Alright, then. Emergency?"

"Just… just come with me and, please, _please_ leave the condoms behind."

"Of course," she said as she stood up with her electronic tablet in hand and smirked and winked at Maya when Tony was not looking. "Girl, can you put them back where they belong before you leave?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Maya said, barely controlling her laugh. "Good idea, by the way. I'm sure Scott is going to want to use his gift right away."

"I don't want to hear it!" Tony spat and then grabbed Pepper's wrist. "Seriously, Potts, it's already bad enough I've caught you guys twice. Can you _please_ lock the door to your room?"

"How about you just knock?" Pepper suggested with a shrug as he led her out of the office.

"Whatever," Tony mumbled and then looked back over his shoulder. "I'll see you tonight, Mae!"

"See you tonight, Tony! Bye, Pepper!"

"Bye, Maya," Pepper responded and, as soon the door was closed, Maya could not contain her bright smile, excited about the chance to make an impression on the inventor with the first-rate gift Pepper had just handed her.

xxxXXXxxx

The crisis Tony had needed help with had been immediately resolved by the ginger, just as he had expected it would be, and had left her wondering why it had even been considered an emergency in the first place. It had been so simple, so easily resolved, that she had felt as if it had been nothing more than wasted time for her; time she did not currently have. She already had plenty to do as co-CEO of Stark Solutions, as a full-time student of Empire State University, an on-call superhero and not to mention the additional tasks of organizing a birthday party for Tony that needed to remain a secret until the very minute it took place, so she had been quite upset that Tony _hadn't remembered_, how to put out the fire himself. Their emergency earlier today had ended up turning into an explosive argument between the two of them behind the closed doors of his office, regarding Tony's inability to think for himself when it came to the workings of his own company.

Unbeknownst to her, or so he thought, Tony had used said diversion to lure her out of her office and to a quiet and private place for them to talk. Their home was no longer their private sanctuary, and flying to the Makluan Temple when no apparent mission was taking place, would had seen over-the-top and would have also probably raised red flags for Pepper. He had wanted to have the conversation they needed to have in a neutral place, some place where emotions would not become heated and words would not be taken out of proportion or context by the simple location where the discussion took place. They had already argued enough at the Makluan Temple about this Maggia mission; there was no need to add another fight to the list. At this point, though, he was becoming desperate enough to have the conversation in the bathroom if that was all he could get out of her for now.

He had figured Stark Solutions Headquarters was the best place to do so even though he did not trust having this conversation in his or her office because that could place the visitor at a disadvantage. If they talked about it in his office, Pepper could feel as if he was giving orders and not pointing out common flaws and errors they had both made (such as, getting drunk), and if it was done in Pepper's office, she would feel as if he was coming down on her with a sentence, maybe even invading her space. He had been trying, ever since their return from the undercover task at _The Rotary_, to talk about what had happened between them; and what had almost happened but had not.

It was standard procedure to debrief immediately after a mission so that the details were fresh in their minds, but it went without saying that the circumstances of that particular assignment had been too much to handle for either of them and protocol had not been followed. Heck, they had even fallen back to sleep for two more hours in the same bed and in the same position they had woken up in at the hotel room before they had finally gotten dressed and had left!

They were aware that it was rather unprofessional and childish to avoid talking about what they had done that night and the next morning, and not to say also extremely counterproductive to the point of the entire mission, but they had not been able to help themselves. Tony knew they needed to talk about it, break it apart, analyze every step taken, and improve their technique to get ready for their next attempt next month. Her safety depended on it and with it his sanity depended on it as well. But like with everything in their lives, fixing something without breaking something else was always easier said than done.

Tony continued to stare at the ceiling of his bedroom as he thought about all of this and counted down the minutes until Maya Hansen arrived. Tonight was date-night for them, which meant that Pepper would be leaving the apartment any time now, probably to spend the night at Scott's to give him and the brunette some privacy. He still wanted to talk to her, nonetheless, and he did not want to waste any more time to do so, but with Maya's imminent onset and the fact that the redhead was probably still mad at him about his stunt earlier, his chances of overcoming this particular obstacle today were becoming rather slim. Then again, even if perhaps they would not be able to have the discussion again tonight, the last thing he wanted was to leave things between them the way they currently were: undone, incomplete and damaged – if he could help it.

He finally stood up from his bed and walked out his bedroom to see Pepper's bedroom door wide open, which now was, given how often their significant others visited them, their unofficial and unspoken code for _the coast is clear: you may come in._ He had not expected her to come out of her room until she had to leave but, with Pepper, things were never certain. With her, things were not even entirely predictable at times, and as much as he hated to admit it, he sometimes loved it that it was like this with her. It always kept him guessing, wondering and on his toes, and he doubted he would ever become bored of it, or tired of who she was; tired of who he became when he was with her… except that he was _not_ with her.

He took in a deep breath and walked closer to her room to find her packing some of her clothes as she readied to leave for the night. She did not acknowledge his presence, but it was already a good sign that she had not kicked him out yet. On the other hand, the door had been left open, which meant she was calm enough to let him talk… or at least listen to what he had to say before she slammed the door in his face. Either way, he was just going to stand by the threshold for now.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" she immediately asked as she continued to choose what she wanted to take with her and walked back and forth from her closet to her bag on the bed. "It has to be important. You've been coming up with lamer and lamer excuses for us to be alone together."

Tony did not even attempt to sound surprised by her deductions and scoffed.

"Are you sure you're not a mind reader, Pepper? Because if you were and you could read my mind right now, that'd save us both _a lot_ of time."

She shook her head and, against her will, she smiled. Yet, since her back was to him, he missed the clear indication that showed she had already forgiven him.

"Tell me about it. I've got finals to prepare for and I don't need your 'beating around the bush' attitude right now. Not all of us can memorize a book by just staring at it, Tony."

"Yeah, sorry," he said sheepishly and looked down at the floor. He remained silent for another moment while she finished zipping up her bag and then put it over her shoulders before she turned around to face him. She did not make an effort to walk over to the door and just stood by the bed, crossed her arms over her chest and stared quietly at him, pushing him to speak with the tap of her right foot on the floor. He was yet to face her, but he did not have the guts to stare at her when he spoke the next words.

"All I wanted was for us to set a time to discuss the last undercover mission. We need to go over it – _all_ of it."

She swallowed hard and cleared her throat. "That's what I thought it was about. I, uhm… I put in the books. For next month."

Tony frowned and looked up at her, suddenly gaining enough courage to face her.

"_Next_ month? Pepper, we're going undercover again _next_ month, too. I'd-I'd like for us to discuss this way before that. It's imperative to the success of the assignment that we do."

"I know, but I have a quarterly report to present to the board, and your birthday's coming up and we both have finals, too. I can't spare a second until next month."

_Can't spare a second? _He thought._ She __**can't**__ spare a second to save her life?_

"You can spare a second to be with Scott. Which means you _can_ spare a second to be with me, too," he spat almost without thinking and in an accusing tone, angry that she did not understand how important it was for him and for them to be better prepared for their mission; it could be the difference between life and death for her, and that was all he cared about.

"Well," she said between gritted teeth. "Whenever I have a second to spare with you, you're sparing it with Maya, so…" she trailed, but the look of insolence on her face told him she had said the words just to spite him. And by the shock on his face and his clenched hands, she could tell she had hit the spot.

"Well, then it's a good thing you put it in the books so that we _both_ remember to show up for it. I wouldn't want a mission _you _got us into to ruin _your _busy life or _mine_. Besides, my _girlfriend_ appreciates my company _more_ than some other people claim they do, and I wouldn't want to ruin that for _her_ because _you_ get off screwing around with _my_ schedule."

Oh, he knew how to push her buttons, too. So much for maturely discussing the details of their mission.

"Stark, if you feel _inadequate_ to complete this mission, please feel free to let me know now. I don't need your help to carry it out. They want _me_, not _you_, and I'm sure I can find _another_ vigilante to swap saliva with in order to get captured."

"Sorry to break it to you, Potts, but I think the Hulk is on vacation."

"Which means T'Challa, or any other man for that matter, would be _happy_ to spend the night with me for the greater good. Would probably last longer than you, too."

Tony scoffed and took a step toward her. "Lack of stamina, really? Says the girl that fell asleep in the middle of sex."

Pepper narrowed her eyes and also took a step closer to him. "It wasn't in the _middle_, it was _before_. And it musta been that bad, if I fell asleep."

"That's not how I remember it," he said in a smug tone and took another step towards her.

"Then you're probably thinking about Maya and not me," she said with another step and closed the distance between them.

"Oh, I doubt it. I haven't even slept with Maya."

"_Sure_, you haven't," she rolled her eyes.

"I haven't!"

"Oh, well, and whose fault is that?"

"Yours!"

"Mine?" she pointed a finger to her chest. "Why the hell is it _my_ fault?"

"Because whenever we're about to, I start thinking about YOU!"

The moment the words left his mouth, they both froze in place. Pepper's mouth hung in shock and Tony's eyes widened in surprise, but neither of them said anything else. All they could do was stare at each another and forget how to breathe until the front door opened and it cut through the tension building in her room.

_"Honey, I'm home!"_ Maya Hansen called from the living room as she walked in, making the two heroes choke on their words. Tony opened and closed his mouth but his voice failed him, so it fell on the redhead to prevent any misunderstanding that could come from where they stood. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she walked around Tony and hurried down the hall to intercept the auburn-haired woman who was already on her way to Tony's room.

"Oh, hey, Pepper. I didn't know you were still here. Where's Tony?"

"Hurrying me out of here," she said with a smile she was not sure how she was maintaining, especially when the inventor walked out of her room, closed the door behind him and then lightly traced her lower back with his fingers, away from view of the brunette, as if begging her to stay and finish their conversation. "I'm running a little late today, but don't you worry. I'm not even here anymore."

"Oh," Maya said, slightly taken aback by the distracted look on Tony's face and Pepper's shaking fingers on her sides. "Well, don't let me keep you from scoring with Scott."

Pepper nodded to the girl before Maya moved aside in the narrow hall for the redhead to walk out. In the blink of an eye, the ginger grabbed the keys to her _Stark Bike_ and all but slammed the door behind her. Maya jumped with the loud noise before her eyes returned to Tony, whose eyes were still glued to the spot Pepper had just vacated.

"Did I just miss something?" Maya asked and pointed to the entrance.

"No," he gulped. "She's still mad at me for forgetting protocol this morning."

"You mean the emergency?"

"Yeah. I…" he inhaled and continued his lie. "I forgot to read a memo she sent me and… and it caused the issue today. She was pissed."

"Oh, Tony," Maya said with a sad smile, walked over to her boyfriend and immediately embraced him. "It's gonna be alright. She'll forgive you, I'm sure."

"Yeah, I know. I just… I hate disappointing her. She works so hard and then I…" his voice trailed as he reluctantly returned the embrace.

"A slip-up here and there can't be helped, even with _your_ brains, and when she realizes that, she'll be fine. Besides, as far as I know, there's nothing that girl can't handle on her own. I mean, you shouldn't purposefully mess up things for her, but if you do, she can fix them faster than you can think how to apologize. I wish I had that virtue."

"Yeah, she does," he began. "And yeah, you're right. We'll be fine."

Maya nodded, smiled brightly at him and then pressed him closer to her. "So, wanna start our date?"

xxxXXXxxx

From all the things Pepper Potts had expected to go wrong today, an urgent call from Nick Fury just two hours into preparations for Tony's surprise birthday party had not been one of them. Yet, here she was, screaming back and forth at the General's holographic image coming from her _Stark Pod_ while Scott Summers watched the exchange with wide eyes. He had never seen Pepper act this way, and he was grateful that he had never been on the receiving end of this kind of hissy fit.

"Fury, you've _got_ to be _freaking_ kidding me! I have guests coming to my home in t-minus three hours for a party I've been planning for weeks, and you're telling me that I have to cancel it because _you_ have an emergency?"

_"Look, Potts, I don't care if you have the Queen of England coming to visit, I need to talk to Stark, now! I wouldn't be bothering you with it if you weren't his fucking watch dog and weren't rerouting all my attempts at contacting him!"_

"And we wouldn't be having this conversation if your agents had half a brain! Seriously! Why the hell did you think it was OK to mess with Z0M31-E? That formula is _completely_ unstable and dangerous! What made you think trying to replicate it was a good idea, for fucks sake?! There's a reason why Tony and I had it decommissioned!"

_ "Now don't you forget who you're talking with here, girl! I'm the head of an international and prestigious organization, and you're nothing more than a brat with a high-tech suit of armor! Now, where's Stark? I've got no time to waste with you."_

"Well, this _brat in a high-tech suit of armor_ is going to save your ass. Tony's _not _coming. I'm not bothering him with _your_ stupidity, and you're just gonna have to deal with it. I'm on my way."

_"NO! I need Stark. You can't do anything to help me at this point! I need his brains, not your attitude!"_

"Shut it, Fury. I'm suiting up."

_"I need Iron Man!"_

"Whatever! Potts, out," Pepper turned off her _Stark Pod_ before Fury could say anything else. She then turned around and walked over to her closet to grab her backpack armor and put it on.

"Pepper, you're not seriously thinking about going on this mission by yourself, are you?"

"I've got no choice, Scott," the redhead said, pressed the center of her backpack with her fingers and became her alter ego in a moment's time. "It's probably just some stupid quick mission. I'm sure I can handle it, and Tony shouldn't be bothered by it. He's out with Maya at the movies, anyway. He's not thinking about suiting up right now."

"I thought you were still mad at him," Scott furrowed his brows. "Why are you defending him, still?"

"I'm not defending him. I'm just doing the job that's expected of me. The job _he_ hired me to do."

"To clean up after him? To risk your life for him? What kind of man sends someone he cares about to _die_ for him?"

"Scott," Pepper said with a sigh. "You make it sound as if I'm going to stop an alien invasion for him."

"No, but you actually already did that once. What else are you going to do for him? Pepper," he exhaled, walked over to her and grabbed her armored hands. "He may not care enough about you to realize what's he's doing to you. Maybe he doesn't even know how lucky he is to have a friend like you. But I _do_ know and I _do_ care about you enough to stop you from doing whatever it is you're about to do right now. Stay, Pepper. Let S.H.I.E.L.D. clean up its own mess."

Rescue retracted her faceplate and stared up at her boyfriend with a sad look on her face.

"If they're looking for Tony, that means they've already tried to contain whatever it is that they messed up and didn't succeed. Believe me, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Solutions are not on good terms anymore – not since Nick Fury threatened to arrest me to get to Tony. Fury wouldn't be calling if it wasn't a real emergency."

"Pepper, please," Scott whispered and then kissed her. "Tony may not care if he loses you, but I do. Don't go, please. Please, please stay."

Pepper closed her eyes for a moment and sighed in defeat, almost regretting what she was about to do. She then opened her eyes again, pushed Scott aside and walked out of her room. The jock quickly caught up with her as she went inside Tony's room and walked over to the corner of it, only to pick up a black backpack from the floor and tossed it over at Scott Summers.

"Put it on," she ordered and walked over to him until she stopped in front of his chest. She then pressed her right thumb onto the center of the backpack and waited for the computer to recognize her print, all the while Scott watched her with confused eyes.

_"User: Rescue, identified. Please state command."_

"Override security protocol 7871."

_"Overriding security protocol 7871 requires password authentication. Please state override passcode."_

The ginger looked up at the jock with an apologetic smile whose origin he did not immediately understand before she cleared her throat and spoke again.

"Passcode: Mrs. Pepper Stark 814."

_"Passcode accepted. Security protocol 7871 deactivated."_

"Sweet," the redhead said and, before Scott understood what was occurring, Pepper had pressed the center of the backpack and it was now covering him. The jock froze in surprise as the suit of armor enveloped him completely, leaving him feeling slightly claustrophobic when the helmet closed around him. It took him a few seconds to come to his senses, but once he did, he stood up straight and stared at his body up and down.

"Am I… Iron Man?"

"For the day, yes. You're coming with me to the Helicarrier."

"Really?" he asked as he tried to pull open his faceplate but could not, and when the ginger saw what he was trying to do, she commanded the faceplate to open from her own suit.

"Really," she said. "Though, let me activate voice commands for you so that you don't have to suddenly learn the shortcut moves for activating the features of the suit."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there are certain gestures we do that the suit understands are nonverbal commands. For example, if you wanted to open the faceplate, all you have to do is to open and close your right eye for two seconds. If you wanted to close your faceplate, you'd open and close your left fist quickly, like this."

The jock stared down at his left hand and did as told and immediately the faceplate retracted close. He then performed the eye movement that Pepper had just described and the faceplate opened again.

"Wow. This is… wow…"

Pepper giggled. "Yup, but, like I said, there's loads of those, so I'm just going to activate the voice commands. Give me a second."

Pepper closed her faceplate and from her HUD made some adjustments to the Iron Man suit before she then opened the internal communication system.

"See? Now all you have to do is tell the computer what you want."

"Do you think… uhm… won't Tony be mad that I'm doing this?"

Pepper shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not, but I'll deal with him later. Let's go to the Helicarrier," the ginger said and then began walking out of Tony's room and down the hall only to be stopped by Scott's voice on the intercom.

"Pepper, wait."

"Yeah?"

"The passcode," he began. "What was that passcode for?"

"Tony's suit is coded just for him, and mine is coded just for me to prevent unauthorized usage by anyone else. But in case of an emergency, if either one of us or anyone else needs to use the armors, we wrote in an override code for that purpose. It's kind of a secret code, actually. So, please don't tell anyone."

"Why would it be a secret code?"

"Because we don't want anyone to know we can use the other's suit. It's best if people think that I can't handle or don't have access to using the Iron Man suit or they might try to get it from Tony through me since his is more combat-ready than mine. But he wanted me to be able to protect myself with it if I needed to, so he worked in a loophole for the suit to be worn by anyone that knew the code. Besides, the suit won't blow itself up without the code in case I needed to resort to that."

"Blow… _blow_ yourself up? Are you… are you serious, Pepper? You-you'd blow yourself up for him?"

"For the suit, and just the suit, Scott. I know they don't look like much, but these suits are the best weapons anyone can ever have and need. We need to keep them out of the hands of anyone that can abuse them… which means from practically everyone."

"I… I wasn't aware of the risks you were taking. I mean, I had an idea but… Pepper, this is…" he sighed. "Well, this is as shocking as hearing your first name with his last name just now."

Pepper flinched inside her suit. "It's just a play on words, Scott, nothing else."

"What's his password? Mr. Tony Potts 503?"

Pepper laughed. "Yup. Screwed up, huh? It's just an inside joke based on what the suits do: swap personalities."

"I'm sure," he said dejectedly. "So, what are we doing about the party?"

"I'll tell Jarvis what happened and he'll help me out. Let's worry about completing this mission and coming back before five."

"OK. Lead the way, babe."

xxxXXXxxx

"Oh, _fuck_," was all Pepper could say when she realized the scale of the emergency before her. _You… unbelievable… idiot!_

Upon their arrival at the Helicarrier, the first thing Pepper had seen was that the flying fortress was being lousily evacuated. Agents scrambled to the nearest available jet to abandon ship while trying to avoid being attacked by their former comrades that were now the unfortunate carriers of a combination of Extremis and Justin Hammer's Z-Gas gone wrong.

In trying to use the adaptability of Extremis to influence the Z-Gas, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s scientists had created a new form of the super soldier: one that craved the brains, flesh and bones of non-infected humans and who had the muscle, speed and agility to rip anyone's head off with their bare hands. And there were dozens of these soldiers currently destroying anything in their path.

"Now you see why we need Stark, Rescue?" Nick Fury sarcastically asked from his barricaded position on the top level of the bridge. "This is beyond you."

"This is beyond _you_, and you ordered it," Rescue responded with anger and then stared at Iron Man next to her. "Scott, you may have to sit this one out. I can't risk you getting injured for not knowing how to use the suit."

"Hell, no, Pepper! If you're going to jump into it, then I'm going in with you."

Rescue shook her head. "You don't understand. Even Tony had a hard time fighting these types of enemies. This is just so screwed up."

"Hey, Potts!" Fury called. "Any chance you and your boyfriend are going to _actually _help us out, or should I just come to terms with the fact that this is all going to hell?"

"Going?" Pepper retorted with as much as sarcasm as she could muster. The bottom levels of the Helicarrier were being quickly destroyed by the E-Zombies, and every agent they took a bite out of, or who came into direct contact with the gas leak that started all of this in the first place, became yet another person that was going to be subdued or destroyed. "I think you're already coming back from hell."

"So? What's your great plan, then? Calling Stark?"

"No," she said and heard Nick Fury groan. "We don't need him. I'm here."

"To do what? Stare at the problem and hope it goes away?"

Rescue's faceplate opened and she narrowed her eyes at the General. "No, I'm not you. _I'm _going to clean after _you_, Fury. Expect the bill in the mail in 30 to 60 days."

With that, Pepper's faceplate closed again and she walked over to the main computer. She raised her armored right index finger and from it came out a key-like metal stick that she then dug inside the override keyhole for the mainframe.

"What did you just do?" Fury asked and tried to stop Pepper from typing on the keyboard, but Scott stood between her and the General.

"You may want to step back, General Fury. I have a suit of armor that I don't know how to use, but I don't mind using you for target practice if you touch her."

Fury narrowed his eye at the man, but he took a step back nonetheless, wondering where in the hell the ginger found these men that would jump to protect her at all costs.

"What are you doing, Potts?"

"I'm hacking into your mainframe. I need some data of the leak and the current status of the targets before we make any move. We don't want to make this worse than it already is. In fact," she paused for a moment as she pressed a few buttons on the top end of the switchboard and then continued. "We need to call back your agents that left. We can't tell if they're already infected and it's best if they don't get near other populated areas."

"What? Do you know how hard it was for them to be able to leave?"

"And do you know how hard it will be to contain the infection if it hits the cities? I'm calling them back."

"Fine," Fury replied.

Seeing that Fury had calmed down some, but wanting to keep his eyes on him, Scott ordered the computer to activate internal communication with Rescue while he remained standing between his girlfriend and the angry-looking man.

"_What's the plan, Pepper?"_

She sighed as she read the results on the screen. "This new strain of virus is so messed up. It's not as strong as the pure Extremis soldier Tony faced before, based on the quick analysis the computer just ran for me, but it's still very dangerous. Containment is our only option here for now. That and a special tool the suits have built in."

_"What tool?"_

"After facing Agent Mallen – the last person who had this Extremis issue – Tony added a temporary deterrent for it to the suits. Last time, he was able to stop the guy with craploads of volts of electricity. I don't know how much these E-Zombies can withstand, but it's either that or we're all toast."

_ "So, what do we do?"_

The redhead finally pulled away from the computer, retracted the faceplate and looked at Scott and at the General.

"Fury, I need you to make sure anyone who's not displaying signs of infection is amassed up here. If anyone starts showing signs or other issues, kick them out on the spot."

"What about the rest?"

Rescue lifted her armored arms and her palms faced up. The repulsors in her hands changed colors to blue and she showed them to Scott and Nick.

"These special repulsors release a fourth of the electrical power Tony used to stop Agent Mallen before. I can use them as many times as I have battery for them. Your computer says the leak is still going on, but there's no other way to stop it other than physically walking over to the lab and sealing off all the exits. I'm going to make my way down there and stop it from spreading. It's only a matter of time until everyone on the entire Helicarrier is breathing that crap."

"What?" Scott shook his head. "No. I'm going with you."

"No. I need you to stay here and help Fury keep any other E-Zombies from making it over here. S.H.I.E.L.D. has no defense against it right now other than you and me."

"But, you said both suits have this feature. I can help you. We can probably do this faster if we both go."

"No, Scott. Listen, it's not just about hitting them with the repulsors. It has to be precise and it requires a maneuverability of the suit you don't have. You'd be a sitting duck out there with them. Those things can rip the suit off you if you don't react quickly enough, and voice commands aren't gonna cut it. This is what the shortcuts are for."

"What about you? What if the battery runs out?"

"I'll be fine," she assured him. "If the battery runs out, I have a backup battery and you can come get me by that point. Besides, I've already plotted the path I'm going to take. It has the least amount of zombies. I'll be back in no time."

"But, Pepper –"

The redhead retracted his faceplate, pressed a kiss to his lips and ran her hand down his cheek before closing them both and opened internal communications again.

"This is what I do, Scott. Trust me. I'll be back before you know it."

"But you do this with Tony. You have him to back you up."

"And I have you today. Just do what I told you and it'll be over soon."

Scott sighed loudly but nodded.

"Be careful, Pepper. I love you."

"I love you too, Scott," she said with a smile and then took a step back.

"Keep the lines open," Rescue ordered and then walked over to the door.

"Wait!" Fury called. "Not that I'm doubting your plan, but what am I supposed to do if it fails? Should Iron Man… Scott, whatever, go after you?"

"No," Pepper said. "If I fail… if…" she swallowed hard and avoided Scott's face at all costs. "The suit will send an alert to Tony via Extremis. If all else fails, Tony _will_ be called."

"What needs to happen for Tony to be called?" the General asked even though he could already tell what the answer was going to be.

"Tony will be called," she began as she pressed the button on the wall to open the door, "when my suit goes offline."

"What does that mean?" Scott asked and tried taking a step toward Rescue but she shook her head at him and ordered him to stop by holding her palm up to him.

"I gotta go now," she said and in an instant the door closed with her outside. Scott watched the door for a few more heart-wrenching seconds before he turned back and stared at the General.

"What does that mean? Do you know? Her suit going offline?"

"It means Tony Stark's going to rip me a new one for letting his redhead blow up."

xxxXXXxxx

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

How many times had she called herself that, in the last half hour alone? She could have called herself many other things, but stupid rolled off the tongue much easier than idiot, crazy, dumbass, foolish, demented, and rash.

_Wait, no. Rash is easier to say._

Regardless of what she had called herself, the result was the same: she had placed herself in a terrible situation she had to solve on her own. She should have known better than to take on these zombies all by herself. Tony had had enough trouble with ONE of them for her to think she could take on dozens, but she refused to bother the inventor with this. She had a plan, a workable plan at that, but that did not make her any less of an insane person for doing it on her own. She should have remembered the time Rhodey had tried taking on a mission on his own and had almost ended up eaten by Technovore. Then again, after everything she had learned from Tony and her cyber security courses in college so far, she would have rather taken on Technovore than these zombifyied duds.

_Just a few more._

She had been cut a break when she tested the Extremis deterrent tool on the zombies and it had worked like a charm. It did, however, require twice as much energy as what Tony had allocated for it to work. She had to either zap them twice or use both repulsors at the same time, and both options left her wide open for attacks for longer than she would have liked. So far, she had been able to avoid any major damage, and she was almost at the origin of the chaos that ensued in the Helicarrier. She could already feel the mission was going to end soon.

The pathway she had plotted had also failed in its usefulness when the zombies realized they could bust through walls. The handful of zombies she had identified as lurkers in the halls that led to the lab had quickly multiplied, but she had somehow managed to make it this far. Scott had been talking to her through the comms and giving her life-saving advice since, from his vantage point on the bridge, he could see almost every corner of the Helicarrier with a working camera still present on their ceilings or walls.

_ "There are three more coming your way, Pepper. Twelve o'clock."_

The ginger stopped in her tracks and aimed her repulsors to her front and waited, and waited… and then waited some more.

"Where are they, Scott?"

_"Almost there,"_ he responded. _"They… wait… they're slowing down… and… Oh, no! Pepper!"_

"What?"

_"Get out of there, now!"_

The well-intended advice came one second too late for Rescue.

"AAAHH!" her screams resounded in his helmet and he helplessly watched as a group of odd-looking zombies busted the walls. They had been approaching the ginger from a blindside of the Helicarrier where the cameras had been already destroyed, so by the time the heat signals were detected by anyone on the bridge, they were already ambushing the redhead who was standing just mere feet from the science lab she had been trying to reach.

_ "Pepper! Run!"_

"Ugh!" the ginger struggled when her arms and legs were held down by the four zombies on her. "I can't!"

_"Yes, you can!" _Scott called._ "Blast them off!"_

"I can't… move… ugh!"

Rescue felt her arms pulled back so far they were almost pulled out of their sockets. Her legs were then pulled from under her and, before she knew it, she was being stretched beyond her normal range of mobility. It was then and through the pain that she forced herself to focus on her enemies and gasped at what she saw.

Before her stood four familiar faces; the faces of enemies she had forgotten were even on the ship. Her right leg was being held by Justin Hammer. Her left leg was being held by Count Nefaria, and her right and left arms were being subdued by Killer Shrike and Blizzard, respectively.

_I'm screwed._

She closed her eyes and took deep breaths to calm down, knowing that her current panicked state was not going to help matters any. _Think, Pepper, think! What would Tony do? What would he do_?

"He'd tell me that I'm an idiot for coming here by myself," she whispered bitterly. "He'd fire me as Rescue for this."

_"Pepper! I'm on my way!"_

"No, Scott!" her eyes snapped open. "Don't… AAAHHH!"

_"I'm __**on**__ my way!"_

The pain was unbearable now and it made her close her eyes again, and even though she wanted to keep Scott from coming to her rescue, there was nothing she could do other than to turn off his suit. Yet, turning off his suit would leave him defenseless, trapped in an iron tomb at the mercy of the zombies that she had been unable to stop, and she just could not do that to him. Not when she had been the one who had stupidly put him in a suit of armor he did not understand how to use and had brought him here. Not when it was her fault his life was in danger.

_I can't let him get here. I didn't bring him here to die!_

The new determination her words gave her made her concentrate on what was happening to her and somewhat overrode the nearly unbearable pain she currently felt. She took in deep, fast breaths to gather her wits, and when she opened her eyes again she spoke up.

"Computer: power grid _now_!"

It took the computer a couple of seconds to react, but once it did, the four former enemies of Team Iron Man were blasted away from Rescue by the electric shock the armor sent through them, leaving her to hit the ground with her back. She wasted no time standing up and activating the shields she had been avoiding using to save energy for shocking the hell out of the zombies but, at this point, she had no choice but using them.

"Dammit! Scott, stop. I've got this. I'm almost done!"

The jock did not respond, and when Pepper used the computer to find the suit, she groaned when she saw he was halfway to her location already. She had practically cleared the path for him to reach her faster, and all she could do now was try to stop the present zombies herself before Scott showed up.

"OK, time to end this."

The fearless four were just now recovering from the shock as they all slowly stood up from the ground, surrounding the ginger from all sides. She stared all around her to tally up her options, but she could only count one: fighting back with everything she had. The three other zombies, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at that, the ones Scott had initially warned her about, were already there with them, but they were not approaching her. Instead, they were simply staring at the other four she recognized, which seemed like an odd move to her.

"What's going on?"

Pepper activated her boot flight stabilizers and took to the air, slowly turning around in circles as she eyed her seven opponents. She had expected all seven of them to have started attacking her any moment now, just as all the other ones had done before, but it was not until Blizzard aimed his weapon at her and smiled that Pepper understood the cruel reality of what was taking place before her.

The four villains had been used for testing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s merger prototype of Extremis/Z0M31-E chemical weapons and they had evolved as a result – perhaps had even set off the leak themselves. The initial scans confirmed Pepper's fears: these four zombies were no longer mindless brutes as everyone else, but the ones who _were_ still mindless brutes somehow identified them as the leaders of the zombie crew. They were powered-up versions of their former selves, all four of them; and all four them were about to take on one of her.

"Hey, there, Iron Man," Blizzard's voice was a combination of his and a person who had smoked profusely their entire life, and Pepper wondered if the constant experimentation had somehow damaged his vocal chords. "I didn't know you liked purple."

"Long time no see, Iron Jerk," Justin's new deep voice said. "I've been waiting to get back at you. It's your fault I'm like this."

"Actually," Nefaria began, "It's _your_ fault we're all like this, Justin, but we can work out the details later once we deal with Iron Man."

"Are you sure that's Iron Man?" Killer Shrike asked as he pointed his laser weapons at Rescue. "I don't remember him having tits."

"Of course it's Iron Man!" Blizzard said. "He's just using a different suit to confuse us."

"He looks shorter," Shrike insisted. "And thinner, too."

"Maybe he's on a diet!" Justin yelled. "I don't care! Let's take him down!"

"Agreed," Nefaria said. "With pleasure."

"Any last words, Stark?" Blizzard said as he charged his suit.

For a moment, Pepper was surprised that Blizzard used Tony's name, wondering how he had found out about it, but then the obvious answer hit her. The whole world knew Tony was Iron Man, and S.H.I.E.L.D. had known even before everyone else. Of course they had used Tony's name in regards to Iron Man on the Helicarrier, so it had only been a matter of time before the villains imprisoned within it overheard their captors talking about it.

"Yeah," Pepper said and surprised them all with the obviously female voice. "Name's Rescue, you creepy fucks!"

The first person she charged at was Justin Hammer since he did not have any weapon that she could see. The former pretty boy was startled by her speed but ended up ducking at the last moment, and Rescue almost hit the wall behind him. She recovered quickly and turned around, grateful that she had at least broken their formation and she was no longer trapped by them. She then aimed her repulsors at the incoming four-man army and began to shoot.

She alternated between using the shields and the repulsors and had even managed to land some Extremis-deterrent attacks, but the four men just kept getting back up. She knew she had to remain flying and away from their grasp since she had already seen and felt the strength they carried. The four men had been despicable as somewhat normal human beings, and now that they were aware of their past lives and their newfound power, they were even more ruthless than she had thought they could ever be.

The other three new zombies were waiting on orders from the main four, and when they realized Pepper was not going down without a fight, they were called to fight back. Thankfully for her, they were not as skilled as their leaders, and after some well-placed shocks, she was down to the main four again.

_I should've called Tony_. _I should've asked him to come with me!_

Now, given the grim situation and the low odds for survival the suit was displaying on her screen, she was almost certain she would not even have the chance to be chewed out by him.

_I'm sorry, Tony._

Even as she fought the men, even as she felt her suit's battery giving out and her moves became sloppy in tiredness, even when she _knew_ she should have been thinking about fighting for her life, all her mind could concentrate on was that last conversation between them, that last argument they had had in her room last week. It seemed as if it had been forever ago since it had happened, and she also knew she should have not read too much into it, but how could she have not?

"_Sorry to break it to you, Potts, but I think the Hulk is on vacation."_

_ "Which means T'Challa or any other man, for that matter, would be happy to spend the night with me for the greater good. Would probably last longer than you, too."_

_ Tony scoffed and took a step toward her. "Lack of stamina, really? Says the girl that fell asleep in the middle of sex."_

_Pepper narrowed her eyes and also took a step closer to him. "It wasn't in the middle, it was before. And it musta been that bad, if I fell asleep."_

_ "That's not how I remember it," he said in a smug tone and took another step towards her._

_"Then you're probably thinking about Maya and not me," she said with another step and closed the distance between them._

_ "Oh, I doubt it. I haven't even slept with Maya."_

_ "Sure, you haven't," she rolled her eyes._

_ "I haven't!"_

_ "Oh, well, and whose fault is that?"_

_ "Yours!"_

_ "Mine?" she pointed a finger to her chest. "Why the hell is it my fault?"_

_ "Because whenever we're about to, I start thinking about YOU!"_

He thought about her when he was with Maya, just as she thought about him when she was with Scott. What could that really mean for them?

_I'll never know now_, she thought sadly before she was finally pinned down by her attackers. She did not even try to fight it; she just closed her eyes and waited for them to dispose of her. There was not much she could do now. She had been fighting them with everything she had and it had not been enough. She would meet her maker now. She would die not knowing what it could have been with her and the inventor. She would die not telling Tony how she felt, not telling Scott that even though she loved him, she also loved someone else, and she would never know if this would change his mind about being with her; about the important question he had asked her, weeks ago. A question she now felt the only appropriate answer for would have been _yes_, even if just to make it up to him for being, in theory, unfaithful to the jock.

_I'm sorry, Scott._

Pepper's body relaxed and she exhaled slowly, trying to think of anything but the pain she already felt and the more that was about to come. She took in a deep breath, opened her internal communication system once more, and spoke softly into it.

"Scott? I know you can hear me. I know you're almost here, but you _need_ to turn around and go back. I'm activating the self-destruct feature of the suit. I'm taking these bastards down with me."

"_No, Pepper! Wait! I'm almost there! I can save you! I can still get you out!"_

"No, Scott. The chemical… it's stronger over here. My suit's filtering system is barely keeping it out."

"But –"

"Stay away, Scott," she gulped back tears. "Please, stay away. I'm sorry. For everything. I… I would've said… I would've… AAAAAAAH!"

"_Pepper!"_

Killer Shrike used his rays to try to cut through her suit. She knew that it would take much more than that to penetrate the tough armor – and they had a better chance of using whatever amount of Extremis they had in them and opening the armor with their bare hands, but that did not mean she could not feel the effects of the attempt. She clenched her teeth to keep herself from screaming again; the last thing she wanted Scott to hear from her was her pained voice.

"_Pepper? Are you still there? Pepper talk to me! Pepper!"_

She wanted to, she really did, but she could not, and had Killer Shrike and the other three not just now suddenly stopped their attempts at breaking the suit to see who Rescue was, she would have never seen what happened next.

"Let her go."

The four men stared back and forth between Iron Man standing by the entrance of the hall they were in and Rescue on the floor between their feet, their faces denoting how confused they were by the sudden turn of events. Pepper forced her head to shift to her left and nearly sobbed.

_No. Please, no._

Before them stood Scott, inside the Iron Man suit, armored hands glowing blue and aimed at the men.

"I said: let her go!"

"I told you this wasn't Iron Man!" Killer Shrike cried. "We've been toasting the wrong robot!"

"Well, that was practice, right?" Blizzard said and aimed the weapon at Scott. "Let's take him on now!"

"NO!" Pepper screamed as hard as she could and tried to stand up, but Justin Hammer pressed her back down with his foot on her chest.

"Stay right there, girl. We'll deal with you after we get rid of this other fool!"

"You're not touching her anymore," Scott said and took a step toward them. "You'll have to kill me first."

"Well, since that's what we plan on doin' anyway," Blizzard began and then shot ice at Scott without further ado, giving him just a second before the three others jumped him too.

Pepper turned on her left side, coughing and gasping at the lowering of oxygen supply in her suit as her systems were failing while she got on all fours, trying to recover her senses as fast as she could. She knew the armor would only help Scott for so long, and the shocks she had given the four of them had only slowed them down. She figured they probably needed more than just two doses of voltage to stop them, but with the amount of battery charge she had left, she could only zap two of them and no more.

"AAH!"

Scott's scream of pain caught her attention and forced her to get up from the floor, even if she was mostly bent over. She began charging the repulsors to maximum capacity, making sure she had enough charge on each to attack the men before her. She could only take on two; just _two_, but who would be best to take down was not as black and white to her.

Her eyes stared at the men as they charged at Scott, and although he was having a difficult time using the armor, he had so far managed to remain alive. Her HUD showed her scans of potential vulnerability on their enemies and she used this information to narrow down her decision to Justin Hammer and Count Nefaria. Blizzard and Killer Shrike were wearing their armors, which could potentially interfere with the effectiveness of her two remaining shots, but Nefaria and Hammer were wearing nothing but regular clothes.

"The rich boy and the old guy it is," she said to herself and counted down the seconds for the repulsors to charge. She only needed ten more seconds and she could use the distraction Scott was causing to attack them by surprise. She could at least still save Scott. She could at least try to make sure that Scott made it out alive. Her suit would lose all power after this attack, and with two zombies still left after completing it, she hoped that Scott had enough sense to run away for his life.

"_Eight seconds for reaching total charge,"_ the computer told her and she swallowed hard. She took a few steps toward their location and then stopped. She could not use her repulsors or her boot jets, so she had to make sure she could hit both men on the ground. She would only have one chance at doing this and if she failed, she would kill Scott, too.

"_Five seconds for reaching total charge."_

It was five seconds too much for her taste; five seconds she felt Scott did not have, and when he managed to somehow open his faceplate – probably by inadvertently using the eye movement, she gasped.

"NO! SCOTT!"

The jock took a deep breath of the poisonous gas, followed by many more in his effort to regain some control over the situation. The suit was actually slowing him down, just as she had said that it would, and now that he was desperate to get the men off him, he was shedding the suit piece by piece. Before her, the jock ended up in nothing but his regular self, clumped together by the four men and groaning in pain. She could not believe it. She just could not believe it! Scott was going to die and it was all her fault!

He would die for her!

"DAMN YOU!"

The four men, distracted by the cries of agony from Scott, were oblivious to Pepper's sudden attack. In the crumpled heap that they all were, however, her attack was not as accurate as she would have liked it to be. She managed to shock Justin Hammer with half of the charge before Blizzard redirected her arm, and the other charge ended up hitting Killer Shrike who managed to redirect the hit and it bounced back to land on her.

The impact made her fly away from them, hit the back wall and then fall on her face. The volts of electricity were somewhat diminished by her suit, but the hit had been great enough to knock her unconscious on the spot. Her system was going haywire, showing her a myriad of alarms and warnings, but she was not even awake to do anything about what was happening to her. It would have not mattered anyway; her suit was depleted of energy and was now nothing more than what she had not wanted the Iron Man suit to be for Scott: a gold-titanium alloy tomb.

"I think that did it," Justin Hammer said as they all forgot about the fallen jock and walked over to Rescue. "Who do you think she was, though? I don't remember Iron Pants having a female partner."

"It was probably that girl me and the Maggia once kidnapped with him. It was a redhead, an annoying little chatterbox, let me tell you that," Killer Shrike suggested.

"Well, she's not talking now! Hehe!" Blizzard said with a throaty laugh that was then suddenly interrupted by a blast to his back. The blast was so strong that it bent his armor and sent him flying off to the same wall Pepper had just hit moments before, and just as the ginger had, Blizzard fell down on his face, although still conscious enough to groan, before he slowly began standing up.

"What the hell was that?"

The three fully standing men slowly turned back to stare at their new opponent, the one they had thought was already down for the count, as he pulled the one remaining gauntlet from his hand. The armor was definitely off and the air he was breathing was as contaminated as they were, but for some reason the man was not affected by it. In fact, he appeared to be _enhanced_ by it.

"You better hope she's still alive," he said as his right hand reached for his sunglasses and removed the lock that kept them in place at all times. "Although, I'm still going to kill you, even if she is."

"How are you still alive? You… he should've been green and ugly by now!" Justin Hammer said as he took a step back, his cowardice already showing in his acts. "No one can resist the effects of the Z-Gas! It was made to create zombies out of any human alive!"

"That's actually why it's not affecting me, I believe," Scott said and slightly pulled his sunglasses off his nose. "And that's why I'm about to pay you back for hurting Pepper."

"As if!" Killer Shrike said and aimed his rays at him. "There's four of us and one of you. You can't take us! Who do you think you are?"

"Right now?" Scott asked, took a step towards them and the four of them took a step back. He then closed his eyes as he took off his sunglasses and, a second before he opened them again, he gave his response. "You can call me: Cyclops."

xxxXXXxxx

The beeping she had been hearing in increasing volume for the past hour finally annoyed her enough to wake up. As soon as her eyes took in the light of the room, she hissed and closed them again. The instant her body started waking up with her, all kinds of pains invaded her, and she had to hyperventilate just to keep herself from throwing up in agony. She was not sure what hurt most right now, but it appeared as if her head was trying to win the prize on that.

She forced her eyes to slowly open again, and as her pupils adjusted to the environment, she began scanning herself. She was wearing a white robe and was covered by a thin blanket. She had some cuts and bruises on her arms, but nothing that was bad enough to even require a bandage. On her right arm, an IV line slightly tugged into her when she lifted her hand to touch her face, and when she began searching her mind for what had happened that had landed her in a hospital, it suddenly hit her like a brick wall.

She saw it all, albeit in slow motion, but that did not make it any less painful for her. She saw herself talking to Fury and then putting the suit on Scott. She saw them flying off to the Helicarrier and saw herself hacking into the mainframe for S.H.I.E.L.D. She felt her lips tingle when she kissed Scott goodbye, and then saw Rescue battling zombie after zombie down a large corridor. She then saw herself being mercilessly attacked by Hammer, Nefaria, Shrike and Blizzard, and seconds later she saw the worst part of all.

She watched Scott standing by the door, demanding they released her at once, and getting in response nothing but being attacked by the Z-Gas and the mutated villains of old.

"No," she whimpered.

Suddenly, all the physical pain she felt was nothing compared to the growing ache in her chest, in her heart – in her _soul_. Her mind replayed for her the moment Scott tried saving her, tried doing his part to keep her alive, and he had ended up being taken down by the zombie jerks, right before her eyes, while all she could do was watch the man that had done nothing but care for her, fall to his doom.

Her entire body began shaking and her lungs burned from lack of air she could not breathe in when the sobs that ransacked her body prevented her from taking in anything other than shallow breaths. She heard her heart monitor speed up and felt her head spin, but all she could care about now was realizing Scott was gone. Gone. Because of her.

"No!" she said, a little louder this time. "NO! He can't be… he… he…"

She could not even utter the words when the cascade of guilt filled her body. There she had been, thinking about Tony Stark when she had been with Scott and, in the end, Scott had made the ultimate sacrifice for her without hesitation. He had gone against her wishes and had stopped whatever the foursome had planned for her, and now she was alive and her body would get well soon, but he was not. Scott Summers, the young man with a bright future she had met by chance during her college orientation, the man whose heart she had shamelessly played with for the past few months, had died for her.

Died. For her.

_This can't be happening!_ _This can't be real!_

If only she had known better. If only she had left him behind at the apartment. If only she had not decided to take matters in her own hands. If only she had called Tony.

_Tony._

Tony fucking Stark: the reason why Scott was dead; because she had not wanted to bother Tony. Because she had not wanted to ruin his day!

Now she really wanted to die!

"_Scott," Pepper said with a sigh. "You make it sound as if I'm going to an alien invasion for him."_

_"No, but you actually already did that once. What else are you going to do for him? Pepper," he exhaled, walked over to her and grabbed her armored hands. "He may not care enough about you to realize what's he's doing to you. Maybe he doesn't even know how lucky he is to have a friend like you. But I do know and I do care about you enough to stop you from doing whatever it is you're about to do right now. Stay, Pepper. Let S.H.I.E.L.D. clean up its own mess."_

_ Rescue retracted her faceplate and stared up at her boyfriend with a sad look on her face. _

"_If they're looking for Tony, that means they've already tried to contain whatever it is that they messed up and didn't succeed. Believe me, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Solutions are not on good terms anymore – not since Nick Fury threatened to arrest me to get to Tony. Fury wouldn't be calling if it wasn't a real emergency."_

_ "Pepper, please," Scott whispered and then kissed her. "Tony may not care if he loses you, but I do. Don't go, please. Please, please stay."_

She should have listened to him! She should have stayed!

It did not matter now, anyway. It was too late. All she could do now was mourn him. All she could do now was yell.

So she did.

"NO! NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

She clutched the edge of the covers and screamed again and again. At first, her screams were of anger, then of pain, but towards the end, all she screamed was his name.

"SCCOTTTT! NOOOOO!"

And, as if she had not already been shaken enough, she had then heard her own name coming from _him_.

"Pepper? Pepper, you're awake!"

Her eyes drifted to the door, and even though they were red and puffy and almost shut, she saw him. Between the small slits that were now her eyes she saw him. It was _him_. And he was _alive_.

"Pepper, baby, what's wrong?"

She was speechless, her mouth wide to match her shock. He sat next to her on the bed, hugged her dearly and rocked her back and forth.

"Pepper, please tell me what's wrong. Why are you screaming? Are you in pain?"

She opened her mouth but nothing came out. She grabbed the front of his shirt in her fists and she pulled him down to her, as if shortening the distance between them would be the ultimate test that she was not seeing things. All was in place, just as she remembered it but did not expect it: from his always-pressed clothes to his immaculate hair and on his face his sunglasses; his damn sunglasses she had learned to loath but now could not help but feel relieved by.

He was there. It was him. And he was staring down at her with a pained look on his face.

"Pepper? Pepper, please…"

"Scott," she finally said. "Scott, is-is that-t you?"

"Yes, it's me. But, what about you? What's wrong? Are you still hurt? Let me call the doctor," he tried to stand up but the redhead kept him in place.

"No," she said as she slowly recovered her senses and fresh tears began filling her eyes again. "Don't go, please. Just, don't go anywhere."

"OK," Scott furrowed his brows but nodded. "I'll stay."

She then threw herself at him and hugged him with as much strength as she could. Her IV line was pressing down on her arm more than it should, but she did not care. All she wanted was to feel, hear and smell him again. She clenched the back of his shirt as a drowning man would hold on to a lifesaver in the middle of an ocean storm. She whimpered in happiness and fear, waiting for the cruel moment it would all go _poof!_ It was too good to be true, she knew, and she was afraid she would suddenly wake up only to find Scott was truly gone.

"Oh, God, Scott! I thought… I thought they'd killed you!"

Scott smirked, his arms also embracing her tightly and his chin rested on her right shoulder.

"They tried."

"How," she gulped. "How did you manage to… to escape?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. helped," he lied, "and Tony showed up, too." That part was true, but the inventor had shown up only after Cyclops had already _eliminated _the foursome, all on his own, and had carried Pepper out of there and to a safe zone. "Do you… do you want to see him?"

"Is he OK?"

"Yes."

"Then no," she said firmly. "I don't need to see him," uttering those words surprised even her. "I… Scott… I thought I'd lost you. I thought… I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Well, sorry to disappoint you," he said with a smile. "But there's no getting rid of me."

"I-I wouldn't want to," she said and could not believe her own words. "I wouldn't want that. I love you, Scott. I… I don't know what I'd do if you… if you…"

"Well, you don't have to know," he told her calmly despite how distraught he was becoming himself just by seeing how hysterical she was. "I'm right here, Pepper. I'm right here."

"I'm so sorry, Scott. I should've never taken you with me. I should've never put you in danger like that. It was stupid of me! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"Forget about it, OK? I'm glad I was there for you. I'm glad you took me along. You wouldn't have made it if I hadn't. You would've died out there on your own."

"Still, you… you weren't supposed to be there in the first place. You weren't supposed to go looking for me!"

"Maybe," he admitted and kissed the side of her face. "And maybe I'm not built to be a hero like Stark, but I did what I had to do, Pepper, and I don't regret it. I did it for you."

Pepper sniffled loudly and pulled away from him ever so slightly so that she was staring directly at him. Here he was, in the flesh, the man that had been nothing but patient, supportive and faithful to her while she had been flip-flopping her feelings for him the whole time. The man that had, many times, been outshone and intimidated by the billionaire she had once thought would take his place. The man that had walked up to imminent and uncommon-for-him danger, had given it his all, and had somehow managed to make it out not only with his life, but with hers, against all odds. The man that she had had no idea how much it would affect her losing him until now.

And to think she had thought of leaving him.

She gave him a small smile and shook her head at him before she cupped his face in her hands.

"You… you may not be Tony Stark, but you don't need to be him to be my hero. You don't need to be him to risk your life for me and… and you don't need to be him for me to do the same for you."

"Pepper," he began, but her lips silenced him for a long time, and when he felt he could not be happier, she pulled away and looked up at him once more.

"And yes," she said, her thumbs sliding down his cheeks. "I _will _marry you, Scott."

Tony Stark, who had been listening to everything from his position right outside the door, could not take any more of it and ran out.


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: **How many of you do think Pepper and Scott will get married? I think _**ebbs-imagination**_ has it right: Pepper loves Tony too much :D

**Guest Reviews Responses**

**pepperony4evah:** **Just put the two of them together on a bed, half drunk, no disturbances in the middle and they'll do the rest! No Scott no Maya after that. It's as simple as that. Don't make the story drag along too far. It only gives heartattacks, suffocations and near deaths for us readers . Even after them having sec, you'll have plenty to go on. **Heart attacks? You're not sending me the bill for it, right? Right? Errr…XD No Scott and no Maya? That's coming very soon; in fact some of it is going to happen in the next story ^_^ If it helps, The Second Year (the sequel to this) is the LOWEST point for Pepperony. After that, you're gonna want me to pay for your diabetes treatment you're going to get because of how unbelievably sweet the story is going to get (PLENTY to go on XD).

**Tratando de proteger la salud de mi corazón, he decidido no leer el resto de los capítulos de tu fict hasta que finalices. REALMENTE sufro con tu historia. Has logrado engancharme en cada situación, y aunq sé que no todo tiene que ser color de rosa, tampoco todo puede ser sufrimiento. Amo tu historia y sé que el sufrimiento no será gratuito, pero el suspenso es demasiado para mi corazón y no se puede mantener tanto tiempo en tensión sin que algo se quiebre. Soy cobarde lo admito. Mientras tanto me entretendré leyendo tus revisiones. ****Nunca pares de escribir! Bsos** Awww! I'm so sorry! I really am :( I know I'm very mean sometimes, but just like you said, it won't be in vain. In fact, I suggest that you wait until _The Second Year_ is completely posted, read it all together, nonstop, and then go be happy with _The Third Year_. I'm halfway done with TTY, and TFY will also be a lot of fluff. I hope to see you there!

**please don't say that scott and pepper will end up marrying...:(** I don't want to spoil it! BUT, you will find out the real deal in the Epilogue of _The Second Year_.

Just as a reminder to everyone. My standard disclaimer is: My stories are graphic, angsty, frustrating, filled with cliffhangers, drama and foul language. Read at your own risk – medical issues and subsequent bills are not covered by yours truly ;)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8: May<strong>

He had thrown up.

Tony Stark had been sick to his stomach at hearing Pepper make a decision that was going to change their lives and he had just lost it.

He had ran to the closest facilities in the hospital in which Pepper was being treated – thus missing the important and clarifying details of her response, and he had just thrown up the very little food he had managed to chow down that morning when Maya had insisted he ate something. He had been mostly awake for days, waiting for Pepper to wake up, nodding off here and there, and had been doing nothing more than pacing back and forth in her room – even if it had driven Scott Summers mad by it.

He had even forgotten about his birthday – again!

And the tickets that Maya had given him, that he just _knew_ had actually been Pepper's idea, had made him feel that much more of an asshole for arguing with her about time. Arguing. About _time_. And about the fact that he had wanted to prepare for their mission, and how jealous he was of Scott, and he had not even covered the fact that he wanted to end it with Maya, once and for all, so that he could be with Pepper and send the jock running back to whatever hole he had come from.

He had been berating himself for not being there with her, for not protecting her, for her leaving her safety to the damned sunglasses-obsessed man. Even if he had not known she was in danger, even if she had kept him in the dark about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s emergency, he should have been the one battling the zombie invasion with her; it should have been _him_ and not…

_**Not**__ Pepper's fiancé._

Suddenly, he felt like throwing up again.

Even now, two weeks after hearing them talk about it – and her not telling him anything of it – and after hearing her pour her heart out to Scott at finding out he was alive, Tony still could not digest the words; the implication – the reality of it all. He could still hear her, clear as day, when she had said the words that had sent him over the edge and had nearly given him a heart attack in the fucking corridor right outside her hospital room.

"_And yes," she said. "I will marry you, Scott."_

The thought alone made his throat close and his heart ache; the same feelings he had felt every morning since then. The same feelings that made it difficult for him to get up from bed, go to work, or talk to and even see his own girlfriend; the same feelings that made him want to call this whole thing off and just walk up to the ginger and tell her the truth.

_Married_, he clenched his eyes. _She's going to marry him._

The idea was just ludicrous to him. Was it not too soon or too quick to be thinking about that? Were they really moving forward that fast? Yes, Scott had given her a ring, and they had dated for eight months now, and if it were them dating, Tony would have brought up the possibility of a future marriage by now, but her and Scott…

_It just doesn't make sense with him. Pepper and I, we've known each other for years… and they… they…_

They had survived a near-death experience.

_As did we! Several times!_

Was that the _only_ reason Pepper had agreed to marry Scott, out of guilt? Was that also why the inventor was practically obsessed with the ginger, because he felt guilty about what had happened to her because of her ties with him? Was he just experiencing a taste of his own disease? Or were the powers that be just that hilariously ironic about his life?

_No_, the told himself firmly. _I loved her before that, and I still do._

He exhaled slowly, feeling his eyes sting again. He had to keep it together. He _had_ to keep his cool, especially today. She needed him levelheaded. She needed him alert to the max. Today was the big day. This was the day they had been dutifully preparing for, for months, and yet all he could think about was the mockery that was his life. He had told Rhodey he could do it, multiple times he had assured anyone who doubted him that he could be there for the ginger in any capacity she needed. Now that his worst fear had become true, however, he had been reduced to a pathetic, suffering, love-struck boy who wanted nothing more than to eat his own words.

"_I'll help her recover what she lost. I'll help her get her life back."_

_ "Do you think that's for the best? Don't you think she's better off not knowing how she ended up like this?"_

_"I don't know," Tony admitted as he watched the thinning crowd of the burial happening across the street. "But she deserves to remember that I care about her, and that I'm sorry for what I did to her. She deserves to know she's not alone."_

_ "Even if she decides not to be alone by being with someone else other than you?"_

_Tony's lips thinned with Rhodey's question. The inventor was not unaware that Pepper's life could take a different turn now, including falling in love with someone else – and he had to let that happen. After what she had been put through, Tony had accepted that if she decided to see him as nothing more than just a friend for the rest of her new life, he was going to suck it up and help her go through with whatever she wanted to do about the two of them._

And what she wanted to do about them was remain friends, stop being roommates in two months, and possibly then even have him play best man to the guy he hated more than anyone else on the planet; the guy that was taking her away from him. The guy that had proven, time and time again – even though he had not known there had been an unofficial test on the part of the young genius – that he could take care of the ginger as much, or _more_, than the inventor ever could.

That had to be a plus, right?

"_Tony?"_ he heard her call from the other side of the door, along with a light knock. _"Time's up. Can I come in?"_

He wiped his eyes and grabbed a tissue to blow his nose. "Yeah, come in."

The door to his bathroom opened and the redhead walked in, just that she was no longer a redhead – she was a brunette again. She was wearing a bathrobe while her recently dyed hair dried, and as she approached him to help him with his own hair dye, she noticed the redness in his eyes.

"Fumes getting to you again?"

He just nodded. He had told her the hair dye made his eyes itch. And while it was partly true, that had been his lame excuse for the pathetic tears that had escaped him when she had been dying her hair in the bathroom. He had sat in a chair in there with her, and he had just watched her work while he thought about losing her to Scott. It was also his excuse now for his second set of pitiful tears while she came around to help him with their makeover for their mission tonight.

"Hopefully, it's the last time we do this, right?" she smiled at him. He stood up from the chair he had been sitting in and dragged it to the sink. He allowed her to adjust the chair so that it aligned with the basin of the vanity and he then sat in it again, his face staring up at the ceiling.

"Lift your head," she said and he complied, and under his neck she laid a rolled hand towel so that whatever water dripped down from the rinsing she was about to give his hair, did not run down to his neck and back or wet his clothes. She took her time adjusting his head position until she was happy with the results, and it was only then that she opened the faucet and began adjusting the water temperature for the rinse. She had brought a small container from the kitchen to help her wash away the surplus of dye from his hair, but she needed the water temperature to be just right before she could start.

"You know, this would've been much easier and comfortable for you if we'd just hired a stylist to do this for us."

"I know," he said, his eyes staring into nothingness. "But that may have raised some flags and make us look suspicious."

_That_ and he had wanted for her run to her fingers through his hair.

Pathetic? Shameful? Desperate? Yes, yes and yes.

"True," she said and began washing his hair.

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the light scalp massage she gave him that he was certain was not necessary for removing the excess dye, but he did not care. If she told him that, as part of the procedure to get ready, he had to watch her put on makeup or break in her high-heeled shoes for her, he would do so rather happily. At this point, he would take anything he could, counting down the seconds to lose her to the Maggia, recover her, and then lose her to Scott Summers; and forever, to the man.

"Don't move," she told him when he fidgeted with the dreadful thoughts and he felt her position shift. Instead of standing on the floor by his side she was now adjusting her position so that her bent left leg rested on the edge of the chair, next to his own leg, and her right foot was planted on the floor. Half of her lower body towered over his lap and, in her bent position, her front was practically on his face. The bathrobe was thick enough to cover everything and make it seem as if there was more distance between them than there really was, and even though he should have just closed his eyes again, he just stared up at her as she worked.

Her eyes denoted her deep concentration as she carefully worked each group of hairs. She repeatedly rinsed a spot until the water came out clear and she then moved on to the next spot. She continued to adjust her position above him as she worked her way around his head, and before she gave him one final rinse, she chuckled and held his hair between her fingers.

"You need a haircut, Mr. Stark."

"And a shave," he said and wrinkled his nose when his overgrown beard tickled his upper lip. "Why is James so hairy?"

"Why is Claire getting kidnapped?" she retorted without missing a beat and he flinched.

"Point taken," he responded and she giggled at her win.

"In fact, it'd be nice if we _don't_ make the month of May into _Kidnap Pepper Month_."

"What?"

"Well, think about it: around this time last year, Whitney took me on that… _excursion_ to the South Pole. And now the Maggia's going to take me somewhere else. How about next year someone just kidnaps me to the Bahamas, with my permission?"

"I can do that for you," he said with a small smile, his tone somewhere between amused and sad. He then frowned, closed his eyes and changed his tone. "Pepper, you know that, if I could've done anything different—"

She briefly covered his mouth with her left hand, prompting him to open one eye to stare at her and she gave him an apologetic smile.

"I know, Tony. I'm just teasing."

"I'm not. In fact," he began, closed his eyes and inhaled. "I wonder if next year the one doing the kidnapping will be Scott."

"Scott?" her head recoiled in confusion as she began lathering Tony's hair with the special shampoo she had ordered to make the color set in quicker. This time, Tony's dye was not the 24-hour type, as they were almost 100% certain that the Maggia would strike tonight, so they had wanted to make sure his undercover identity was present throughout the mission. They had even made arrangements for the two CEO's of Stark Solutions to be out for the next couple of weeks, citing they needed a vacation.

"Why would he kidnap me?"

"To take you on your honeymoon, I would think."

Pepper's hands stopped moving for a moment and her eyes widened in surprise. She then cleared her throat and continued with her task, pretending his words had not shaken her.

"I don't know what you mean."

Tony frowned again. "Are we not going to talk about it?"

"About what?"

"Come on, Pepper. I heard you two talking at the hospital. I know you're marrying him."

Pepper took in a deep breath, slowed down her movements in his hair but did not stop. She then gulped, licked her lips, sighed and cleared her throat again, but did not say another word. Tony gave her a few more minutes to compose herself, hoping she would make this conversation less difficult than it already was, but when she continued to work in silence, he sighed and spoke again.

"Did you not want me to know? Or is it supposed to be a secret or surprise?"

"I... I don't want to talk about it."

"Why?"

"Because it's between Scott and me."

"Actually, I think it involves me a little bit, too."

She scoffed and began rinsing the shampoo from his hair in preparation to use the conditioner, the only thing that was keeping her from fidgeting or running out of the room.

"Really? How do you figure?"

"Well, I'd like to know if my _best friend_ is getting married, for starters. And, of course, I'd also like to know if my _co-CEO_ is taking an extended leave to get married. And, not to mention, I'd also need to make plans for _Rescue_ to be out for a while, you know? I need to know when and for how long I'll need to hold the fort on my own until you come back."

"Tony," she sighed and began putting the conditioner in his hair. "We, uhm, I-I'm too young to get married just yet. This conversation is moot."

"Are you telling me that to shut me up or is that what you told him to retract your answer to him?"

"I-I didn't retract my answer."

"So, you're just trying to shut me up."

"No, I'm not. I just, well… I just don't want to talk about it."

"In other words: you just don't care about my opinion."

"I do care about your opinion, Tony," she said and began rinsing the conditioner off his hair. She knew she should have let it soak a little bit longer for its full effectiveness to be present, but she was getting ready to disappear from the inventor's bathroom, any second now.

"But not enough to care about how your decision affects us?"

"No, I do care… I just…"

"Just, what, Pepper?"

"I just… I don't have it _all _figured out, alright? Is that a crime?"

"And that's the problem, right there: You _don't_ have ANYTHING figured out, Potts!"

That phrase made her stop in her tracks, drop the container she had been holding in her hands and almost fall down. Tony quickly reacted to her leaning form and caught her by her waist. Pepper held her head with both hands and clenched her eyes, random voices and images coming to her mind.

_"So I don't… all figured out…"_

_ "… don't have… figured out, Potts! I thought… you … that you would… you're wrong! Clearly… mistaken… acting… child!"_

Pepper opened her eyes suddenly and took in deep breaths when she felt the room spinning. Tony's calls for her name were mingled with the voices she was hearing of them, arguing about something she could not figure out.

_"…child… you seriously…over here… yell at me, again?"_

_ "No! ...take you back …even… touch you!"_

_ "Why… always… you want?"_

Pepper's legs gave under her and Tony adjusted his position to carry her in his arms. He made his way to his bed with her in tow and laid her on it. He waved his left hand in front of her face and snapped his fingers to try to help her to focus, but her eyes were still reflecting how far from his reach she was.

_"…wanted… same thing… wrap your head… we're… together now… more …before… don't want… without you, but I want… you to want… me, despite… happening around us."_

Tony was frantic! He searched her head for any signs of injury that the doctors may have missed but he found none. Dr. Ross had told the genius and Scott that she had hit her head pretty hard when she had hit the wall on the Helicarrier, but he had also assured him that the armor had prevented any concussions or traumatic brain injury from happening. Now he was not so sure that the prognosis was accurate and, for the life of him, he could not figure out what was wrong with her.

"Pep, come on, talk to me," he said and held her head in his hands by resting them under her neck. "Pepper, look at me. Focus, you have to focus."

Her eyes closed again and she began hyperventilating, and it was then that Tony finally realized what was happening to her: she was having a flashback.

_No_, he thought. _It can't be! Gene… he… he said…_

_ "How's it going with Pepper," Gene asked from his position at the table. "I surely hope you're keeping your promise to keep her safe, Stark."_

_ "I am, for the most part. I can only do so much if she's still Rescue."_

_ "True, but I'd expect her to have a mission issue here and there. What about her memories? Any sign that they're coming back?"_

_ Tony shook his head. "I don't think so. She… she's got a boyfriend now."_

_ "Really?" Gene arched his left brow. "Well, that's a step in the right direction, unless the boyfriend is you."_

_ "It's not me. New guy. Met him at college."_

_ "Ah!" Gene said with satisfaction. "Good. I hope she never remembers the crap you put her through."_

_ "Me too," Tony said and then his head snapped up from his dinner plate to face Gene. "Wait… did you just say 'you hope'?"_

_ "Yup."_

_ "What's that supposed to mean? I thought it was permanent?"_

_ "Of course not, Stark! That's not how the brain or the Makluan rings work. Everything is connected in there. One day she may remember, if she really wants to."_

_ "How? How would she want to remember if she doesn't know she forgot?"_

_ Gene shrugged. "A familiar place or phrase. A scent that is strongly associated in her brain with an important memory of hers. A dream… it could be anything, really."_

_ "Well, that's comforting," Tony said with sarcasm. "What am I supposed to do if she finds out what we did to her?"_

_ Gene smirked. "I don't know, but I do know I'll never be so happy to live in China."_

_ "Ugh! After she's done beating me up, I'm giving her your address."_

_ "If you survive," Gene said with a condescending smile._

"Tony?" her voice was merely a whisper, but he was close enough to her to hear it.

"I'm here, Pep," he grabbed her arm. "I'm here."

She exhaled and blinked several times while the spots in her vision cleared out.

"What, uhm, what's going on? Where... why am I in your bed?" she lifted her head slightly and stared left and right before she looked up at him and ran a hand down his hair. "Why is your head wet?"

"Oh," he said with a smirk and ran his fingers through his mane. "Forgot about that. You, uhm, you were washing my hair and you passed out on me."

"Oh," she replied, confusion evident in her tone and her face. "I'm sorry. I don't know what happened," she pressed her right fingertips to her forehead as Tony held her left arm and helped her sit up on the bed. "Did I hit my head on the way down? It hurts like hell."

"No," he said but still checked her scalp. "I'm sure you didn't."

"This is so weird," she mumbled. "I don't remember washing your hair. I… I can finish it for you, though, if you just give me a moment."

"It's OK. I'm gonna shower, anyway. Do you want to stay here?"

"Yeah, yeah, if it's OK with you," she said, closed her eyes and returned her head to the pillow. "I need to shake this off before we leave."

"If we even go through this," he pressed a hand to her forehead. "We can wait, Pep. If you're not up to it–"

"No, I'm fine. We still have time, right? I'll just nap for a little."

"Pepper…"

"It's OK, Tony. I'll be fine. Maybe it was the dye. It was too strong."

"Maybe," he said, but knew better. "Do you want something for it?"

"Yes, please."

"OK."

The inventor reluctantly stepped away from her and went to his medicine cabinet in the bathroom. He grabbed two pain relievers, filled a cup with water and returned to her. She took the pills and washed them down with the water, all the while Tony stared at her with concern.

"Go shower, Tony," she managed a smile. "I've been worse than this, right? I'm sure it's nothing. It just caught me off-guard."

Tony sighed, shook his head in reluctance, but then leaned down to kiss her forehead before he walked back to his bathroom and closed the door. In the interim, the redhead was left to wonder what those voices she had heard meant. The images were completely gone, but some of the words were still present in the front of her mind.

_I'm just nervous, _she reasoned._ Or I'm losing it_, she thought with disdain before she turned on her side and fell asleep.

xxxXXXxxx

The ginger's arms went around Tony's waist and her forehead was pressed against his chest, his right arm surrounded her shoulders. Her eyes were closed and she only moved when he guided her to do so as the line to _The Rotary_ moved along. They were still halfway to the entrance of the club on their late arrival to the place, but so far a couple of things out of the ordinary had already occurred.

The first had been that, upon their arrival, a _special_ valet parking attendant they had never seen before had stood in their way. This person had taken their car with the excuse that they were going to be given the VIP treatment tonight, and that their car would be parked in the alley adjacent to the club as a way for them to be able to be parked next to the club – the same alley where the abductions took place. The second odd happening had been that the parking attendant had handed them two tickets for unlimited free drinks from the club's bar, claiming that the drinks tonight were "on the house."

Given the circumstances and what they intended to say and do tonight, the duo now knew for certain that it was not going to be difficult to become the Maggia's target tonight.

"We can still back out," Tony whispered as he stared directly at the front of the line where Wallace and Tyrone waited for them. He knew the noise on the streets was rather loud and that his face was nowhere near hers, but thanks to the molar implant they both had on at the moment, and the miniature earpiece they also had on, his words would be crystal clear for the redhead.

"No," she whispered back, her head never leaving his chest. "I want to get this done. Even as crappy as I feel and look tonight, I'm still ready to bring these guys down."

"You don't look crappy," they both took another step toward the entrance. "You look gorgeous, Pep. If the G didn't kidnap you, I would."

He felt her chuckle against his torso and he smiled.

"You're just saying that because you're marrying me, _James_."

"Of course not!" he gave her shoulder a light squeeze. "I'm just saying that because I want to get lucky with you tonight, _Claire_."

She pinched the side of his stomach but not hard enough to hurt him and, when he heard her giggle, he smiled again. He was glad that she did not remember the argument they had had in the bathroom right before she had passed out, but that also meant that she probably did not remember that he knew about her marriage promise to Scott. He would just have to bring it up again at a later time, and perhaps in a better way than he had done so before, now that he knew what her reaction would be.

Tonight, Pepper was wearing a more conservative dress than the ones she had worn before. She was not sure where she would be taken or what the temperature in the place would be, but she knew she could always roll up her sleeves if it got too hot in whatever place she was going to be kept. Her dress was black, three-quarter sleeved, but the sleeves, along with the fabric that covered the entire dress, were made of lace. Underneath the lace, and just from her chest to her mid-thighs, was a satin, black piece of fabric so that her undergarments were not visible. She finished the look with black pumps, let her long hair down, and had chosen not to wear any jewelry this time around.

Tony, on the other hand, was wearing dark blue jeans, an untucked, dark grey, short-length shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and matching casual shoes and belt. It was too hot to wear a jacket, but he attempted to one-up the outfit with a black and white, stripped tie held loosely around his neck. He knew, however, that they both could have been wearing a sack of potatoes just now and they would still let them in tonight. The Maggia were ready for them.

But so were they.

The couple finally made it to the two entrance bullies; the smiles on the two men's faces could have not been brighter. It was the kind of smile a person who had just been notified that he had won the lottery would have on his face.

"Well, look who decided to grace us with their presence?" Wallace said and stared at them up and down. "We thought ya'll had forgotten about us. We were about to send out a search party to NYU!"

"Of course not," Tony said. "We just tried other places for a few weeks, but Claire here wanted to come back, give the place a last chance before I convince her to go to a club closer to campus. The ride over to here is a killer!"

The worried looks the two men exchanged were not lost to either of the heroes, yet the silent communication between Pepper and Tony was not seen by the doormen.

"Well, we can't have that!" Tyrone said. "I'mma let my boys inside the club know you need convincing to stay here. They're gonna treat you real nice."

"There's no need for that," Pepper said with a head tilt and an innocent smile. "I'm sure I can convince James in other ways to keep coming here," she looked up at Tony and winked at him.

"Oh, I'm sure," Wallace mumbled and nodded, remembering the little action he had seen between the two of them at the hotel before he had been called away by the field boss again.

"What's that?" Pepper asked.

"Nothing," he swallowed hard. "Just go right in, dudes! We've got you covered."

"Thanks, man. I'll remember that," Tony nodded and then he and Pepper walked inside the familiar corridor.

They took their time walking along the dance floor but did not stop at it, to Pepper's surprise. Tony's real destination, in fact, was an available booth by the furthest corner of the club, the same booth they always sat in, and which had been marked as _reserved_ for them. Tony let Pepper go inside the booth first and followed after her. Once inside, he surrounded her waist with his left arm and held her left hand in his right. He kissed her knuckles a few times, and while still holding her by the waist and her hand, he leaned down and kissed her, just because he could and wanted to.

Pepper threw her arms around his neck to pull him closer to her. His grip on her became stronger with the encouragement, and so did his kiss. It had been so long since she had been kissed by him, and she could only curse at herself for delighting in it this much. Nevertheless, the redhead was happy to comply with whatever Tony asked of her tonight even though her conscience was pointing an accusing finger at her, berating her for enjoying the contact with the inventor when she had just, shortly ago, reassured Scott that their relationship was more than just serious and that she was committed to the jock.

_You have a fiancé, you know?_ Her conscience reminded her. _What the hell do you think you're doing kissing Tony?_

_I'm performing a part. __**He's**__ my fiancé right now_, she responded.

_What about the real one? What about him? _The voice insisted.

_ He's not here right now, _Pepper argued.

_ You're going to lose them both, you know? If you keep this up, you're going to lose them both._

At that thought, Pepper froze and stopped the kiss. She slowly pulled away from him and looked down at her lap, unable to meet his eyes, which she knew were probably silently asking her why she had suddenly stopped. Tony's face denoted his surprise, but he said nothing and figured the ginger had needed a break to breath. When she continued to stare down after her breathing had evened out, he kissed her forehead, lifted her head by her chin and stared at her inquisitively. In turn, she just shook her head at him to assure him nothing serious was going on with her even though she knew everything was off with her today.

"I want to dance," she finally said.

"OK."

He led her to the dance floor and, as they had done many times before, he surrounded her waist with his arms and she did the same for his neck. This time, however, and thanks to her high shoes, she was able to comfortably rest her chin on his shoulder and he did the same. The song that was playing had a much higher tempo than the rhythm they had chosen to follow, as all they wanted right now was time to think and mentally prepare for what the night had in store for them.

And time to be together like this while they could.

_I have to tell him_, the ginger thought, eyes closed, her nostrils filled and intoxicated by his expensive cologne. _I have to tell him about Scott and me. About us getting married, even if it's not happening for a while. Even if I… even if I'm not sure about it anymore, Tony needs to know. I owe him that much. He'd be happy, right? He'd be happy for me, right?_

Her confusion about her feelings for the jock and the inventor had just quadrupled since the Helicarrier mission and even today, she wondered how much of her acceptance for marriage had been due to her love for Scott and how much it had been due to the moment of relief when she had seen him alive after believing him gone. Her feelings for Tony were not gone, but they _had_ been placed on the backburner since then, where they had demanded attention and had just gotten stronger than before. Even if he had implied he felt something for her with his confession that he thought about her when he was with Maya, it was not enough for Pepper to make a decision to change her relationship status with Scott. He could have said it to get a rise out of her, in anger, or just to get more of her attention focused on him; it was something he would definitely do.

Ever since they had met, Pepper had known that Tony liked for all the girls to pay attention to him, even if he did not find them interesting or attractive enough for him to date. It was just the way he was, one of his flaws that came with having girls bow down to him ever since he knew that girls existed and were up for grabs. At first, she had fallen for his tricks, his attempts at keeping her attention focused solely on him and no other guy, but by now she knew his antics better than that. She needed a better sign, a clearer sign, that he had meant every word.

_He just said that because we almost slept together when we were drunk. He just said it to have the last word. If he really loved me, he wouldn't be with Maya. If he really loved me, he would be with me._

_ And, if you really loved Scott,_ her conscience chirped in, _you wouldn't be doubting yourself right now._

_Ugh_, she slapped herself mentally. _This is not the time or the place, Pepper. Keep it together! You're getting taken today! You need to pull yourself together!_

But as always, it was easier said than done… for the both of them.

_I have to tell her the truth_. Tony was having his own internal argument. _If we'd been together, I would've been there with her when the zombies took over the Helicarrier. I wouldn't have let anything happen to her. If she was with me, it'd be easier to keep her safe because I'd always be around and… that… that… Oh, __**shit**__! _

Tony mentally slapped himself. The answer to his predicament had been there, right before him, all along.

_That's it! That's just… UGH! What am I doing? What the fuck am I doing? I'm an idiot! I'm the stupidest person in the world! Why am I letting a promise to Gene keep me from being with her? WHY? __**WHY?!**_

He suddenly hugged her tighter, as if his touch could suddenly tell her what he was currently feeling and thinking, and even though he knew the molar and ear implants did not include the ability to read minds, her increased grip on him made him hope she was probably having similar thoughts to his. Something told him that she just _had_ to. There was no way she had not felt something special for him that night they had almost been together: he had seen it in her eyes, and he just _knew_ it had been more than just the effects of the booze. She just _had_ to feel something other than a close friendship for him; she just _had_ to. She just had to because that was the way it had been before and history had repeated itself, and as long as they knew the other existed and they hung around together, it would always end up being like this: the two of them together, no matter what.

"_No matter what_," just like she had told him right before she and Rhodey had suited up to willfully follow him in his fight against the Mandarin, who had just claimed ownership of the world. They were in this together, the both of them: no matter what.

_Who cares if Gene carves me a new face for breaking my promise? Who cares if Scott tries to kick my ass for hitting on his fiancée? Who cares if Maya slaps the hell out of me for breaking up with her? Who cares what anyone else thinks? All that matters to me is what Pepper thinks, what __**she**__ wants. What __**we **__want. And if we want to be together, then screw them all! Screw Maya! Screw Scott! And FUCK Gene!_

This was it for Tony. The small revelation made him feel free. The full year of ups and downs, of pushes and pulls, of uncertainty and helplessness, had finally broken his resolve. He was tired of the games and the failed attempts at forgetting about her, all of which had been doomed from the start. It would never happen, everyone had known and told him so, and now _he _knew it too: it would never happen because he did not want it to happen, and all he regretted right now was wasting time and energy trying to accomplish a goal he had been forced to set by someone who was not even in the loop. Gene, or anyone else, for that matter, had no say in his heart. It was only Pepper's opinion that mattered to him. It was only Pepper's heart he cared about. It was just the two of them who could make this decision for themselves, and he would rather die before further denying her the life he knew she deserved – a life he strongly believed that only he could give her.

His mind was made up now. He _would_ do it. He would do it _tonight_. He would tell her everything he had made her forget and everything he had withheld from her. And he would beg on his knees if he had to, if just for her to give them a chance, a _real_ chance, to be together once and for all. All he had to do was say the word. All he needed was five minutes alone with her. He did not need much.

"James?" her call for his fake name interrupted his mental rant.

"Yeah?" he replied, almost absentmindedly.

"They're here."

"Who?" he frowned.

"_The Inquisitionists_. They're staring at us. I can see them from here."

_The Inquisitionists_ had been the name Tony and Pepper had given the two men that had spoken to the redhead and the blonde that had been talking about the Maggia in the bathroom for Pepper's hidden form to hear; the same men Pepper and Tony suspected had kidnapped Wendy that first night Pepper had gone undercover. The men still had no names, but after tonight, when their hidden cameras in the alley picked up their faces, Tony would have a trace on their asses faster than they could blink. He knew the two men held the key to learning more about the operations of the Maggia, and the faster he could pinpoint their strategy and flaws, the faster he could go break Pepper out of their grips.

"Let's go outside, to the car," Pepper said and pulled away from him, but Tony pulled her right back.

"No, wait. Not yet. We just got here."

"Yeah, and we got here late. It's past ten, already. I'm sure they're ready for us."

"But _I'm_ not ready to let you go!"

His confession made her hesitate for a second, but for the sake of the mission, she forced herself to calm her rapidly beating heart.

"To-James, please…"

"No, Pep," the use of her real name made her swallow hard. "Please, just, wait, OK? They probably won't strike until it's much later. There're still people outside waiting in line to come in. You know they let people come in until eleven. They'll probably do it when the club closes at three."

"I guess," she thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. "Yeah, you're right. But, when the time comes…"

"I'll be ready. I promise," he told her, crushed her against his body once more, and kissed her neck. "They won't have you for long. Your dad's contact in the FBI is going to be ready for my call. As soon as I give the word, as soon as you tell me we're all clear… I'm coming for you."

"I know you will," she hugged him back, clenched part of his clothes with her fists and closed her eyes. "I trust you."

A comfortable silence befell them, and they danced slowly for another long moment, one in which both of their minds wandered off again – his thinking about how to tell her about his feelings for her before she was taken; and her thinking about how to find out how he truly felt about her, even if the timing was jackshit wrong. The possibilities were endless, the hidden clues coming to the surface at the worst possible time, but being on the onset of a major event she was willing to put herself through for the sake of justice, only fueled her need to just come out and say the words.

So she did.

She pressed her body closer to his, allowed her lips to reach his ear, and after taking a deep breath, she whispered to him.

"I _love you_, Tony."

This particular instance of the simple three-worded phrase – many times before traded so casually between them – felt and sounded different for him. He could have attributed the distinct tone she had used to say it right now to many things: the charged atmosphere that resulted from mission jitters, the fact that the last time he had said this to her, she had not said it back – or perhaps, even to the cruel reality that neither of them had said it in a long time and they were both about to embark on a highly dangerous mission.

He was not sure how to take her words, or how to respond to them, but when she again spoke, all traces of doubt evaporated from his heart.

"I'm sorry, Tony. But I do."

When Tony finally pulled back to face her, it was clear that something great had shifted within him, and she could not ignore it even if she wanted to. He stared at her with a look so deep that it made her breath hitch. She had seen this look on him twice before; it had first occurred when she had _thanked him_ for his gifts to her at Christmas, and then again that night at the hotel, and just as it had made her lose herself in his eyes those times, it did so again. His hands slid up from her waist and stopped at the base of her head, lacing his fingers and her hair together. His thumbs rested on her cheekbones, and he pushed her head slightly backwards.

Her hands moved down from his neck to grab the sides of his shirt, not really caring that she was wrinkling it with the effort she was placing on the fabric to keep herself standing up. She swallowed hard when his head tilted to the side, his eyes fixed on her lips and he licked his own. When he began leaning closer to her, there was no doubt what he wanted to do. They had kissed too many times before – more times than any friends should, but she knew this kiss was different than the rest; just as her confession of love of just now had been.

This kiss was not going to be a tease between two friends trying to beat each other at a silly game. This kiss was not going to be a mandatory step of an undercover mission. This kiss was not going to be a way to exert dominance over the other in a moment of anger. This kiss was not going to be a product of lowered inhibitions on a drunken night. This kiss was not even going to be between Claire and James; it was going to be between Pepper Potts and Tony Stark. This was _the_ sign she had been asking for. And she could not believe it was here.

The way he was slowly approaching her, almost timidly and using his eyes and calculated moves to ask for consent to move yet another inch towards her, was what gave it away for her. He was telling her, without words, that he cared for her as more than just a friend; that he _did_ feel the same way she did. He was giving her a moment to think about what it meant for them for this to be true, and to either accept or decline his invitation to take the plunge. He was putting the ball in her court; letting her be the one who decided what they should do about it, just as he had done so at Christmas and on that drunken night.

Yet, this time, they were both sober and wide awake and would not be able to place guilt on anything extraneous for their decision tonight. This was them, the _real_ them, silently measuring the pros and cons of moving forward with what they had, and him asking her to give him final confirmation and her permission to act on it. She had not anticipated his reaction to her confession to be this intense, raw and readily, but in the end it did not matter. The only thing that mattered right now was her response.

Take it or leave it: those were the only two selections she had to choose from, and she had to make her decision now. Now, before the song ended. Now, before his lips could reach hers. Now, before the Maggia took her. Now, before she cowered and lost her chance. Now, before he began thinking she was taking too long to respond because she did not _really_ want him the way she now knew he wanted her.

She swallowed hard again and licked her lips. A small smile graced her features and it pulled a smile from him, too. His heart was racing and so was hers, and if she concentrated hard enough, she would have probably felt him shaking in anticipation as well. He gave her one final glance and she gave him a small nod, and as their lips brushed against the other and their kiss was about to begin, reality hit them like an unexpected dunk inside a frigid lake.

"Hey! Sorry to interrupt. There's a problem with your car."

Pepper clenched her eyes and dug her face in his neck. Tony opened his eyes and stared to his left at one of the _Inquisitionists_ standing next to them.

"I'm going to need you two to come with us," the man added, and with these words, the redhead's and inventor's world came crashing down.

xxxXXXxx

He tightly held her hand in his as they followed the two men out of the club and into the alley where their car had been parked. His grip on her was painful but she refused to complain about it right now. She knew he was just having a difficult time going through the motions, but it was something that needed to happen for the sake of the many men and women that had already been taken by the criminals before them. Her pain was just going to be momentary and necessary for taking down the remnants of the Maggia underworld.

"What's the problem?" Tony asked, trying to sound as neutral as possible, but Pepper could tell that he was on edge.

"Well, this area right here is a no-parking zone," one of the _Inquisitionists_ said and moved closer to Pepper. "I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you to move your vehicle, sir."

"Oh, really?" he asked and subconsciously pushed Pepper behind him. "Because it was one of _your _guys that parked it here, something about it being VIP. I don't even have the keys to it. He still has them."

"We're sorry he didn't know, sir. Either way, the car needs to be moved."

"Well, we were on our way out, anyway," Tony said. "If you get me my keys, we'll be out of your hair."

"Of course," the man said in feigned politeness. "It might take us a few minutes to locate the attendant to get your keys back, but we can get this all squared out for you, no problem. Although, it's not necessary for the lady to wait out here with us boring fellows. Why don't you and I wait here, sir, and my partner can escort your lady back inside to wait?"

Tony gulped and looked back over his shoulder to stare at Pepper. She looked back at him and gave him a confident nod she knew he needed before she began pulling her hand away from his. He grabbed her slipping hand before it was completely out of his reach, and he lifted it to his lips. He gave her trembling hand a lingering kiss on the back of it and then mouthed words he had not spoken to her in months, and which he knew would have a new meaning for her now. She gave him a one-sided smile and a final nod of understanding before she mouthed a: "_Me too_."

She took a step back from him, their eyes never leaving each other. Their orbs promising to continue the silent conversation that had been interrupted just moments ago, was the last thing either of them saw before everything went dark.

xxxXXXxxx

_"Is he dead?"_

_ "Nah, he's still breathing."_

_ "Hey, his wallet's loaded!"_

_ "Dude! Take it! Take it!"_

_ "Oh, shit! He's waking up!" _

"_Let's go! Let's go!"_

Tony groaned and gradually opened his eyes, only to see nothing but gray before him. It took him a few seconds to recognize he was face down on the ground, and a few more to partially come to his senses. He then slowly pushed himself up on all fours and then, even more slowly, he straightened his back and sat on his legs to look around him.

In front of him, he could see the trunk of his rented car, still unmoved from its position from the night before. The sun had just come out on the horizon, and the sounds of the city waking up were filling his ears. His right fingertips went to touch his temple and, when he pulled them back, his fingers had flecks of dried blood on them.

"What the fuck?"

He looked down at himself to check for other injuries but there were none. He was dirty and disoriented, but he seemed alright otherwise. It took him a moment to remember where he was, and when his eyes landed on the back door of the club, the memories of last night returned to him.

_Oh, no! They… they took Pepper!_

Despite the spike of pain that came with it, Tony stood up abruptly with another groan and held his left hand against his head when dark spots covered his now clenching eyes. He stumbled his way to the car and used his right hand to rest his weight on the trunk's closed door for balance, and when the dark spots finally went away, he looked left, right, front and back.

He was alone.

He knew the hidden cameras he and Pepper had installed in the alley had been recording everything for him, and he could access their feed right now if he used Extremis to connect to them, but he did not know if he was being watched, so he decided to wait on examining the evidence. He used the car as support to help him walk over to the driver's seat, and when he found the vehicle to be unlocked, he jumped right in and slammed the door shut. He lowered the visor, stared at his face in the mirror and saw a large, bleeding bump on the right side of his forehead. When he touched it, fresh blood began gushing out.

_Assholes!_

He could only hope Pepper was intact.

He returned the visor to rest against the ceiling of the car, and when he moved his legs to adjust his position in the seat he felt his right knee hit something that made a clinking noise. He looked behind the steering wheel and was surprised to see the car keys dangling from the ignition. He flipped the key, expecting the car not to work at all, but when it started at his command, he knew the fact that the keys were already there was no coincidence.

They had probably been there the entire time.

He looked to the passenger seat, where his redhead had just sat a few hours ago, and it made his heart clench at thinking what conditions she was waking up to this very moment. They had been so close; so close to him telling her the truth, so close to them officially being together again and now she was gone. Then again, it was his fault she was taken without hearing the entire story from him; he had waited until the worst possible moment to come clean with her.

He took in deep breaths as he thought about what to do now, but he could not make his mind focus. His head was throbbing. He felt dehydrated and too nervous about what they could have already done to Pepper in his absence. He stared at the clock and noticed it was just the next day. Barely eight o'clock in the morning, so at least he had not been unconscious for days while she was waiting for his call.

_Wait_, he thought and his hand flew to his right ear. _Why isn't she talking to me? Why hasn't she said anything to me now? Surely, she heard me cuss just now!_

The questions filling his mind did not help with the anxiety he already felt. Maybe she was waiting for him to say something first? Maybe she was currently being watched by the Maggia or maybe she was gagged? Should he try to contact her first? Should he maybe just wait until she said something to him so that he knew he would not be compromising her?

He groaned and hit the steering wheel with his left fist a few times, trying to let his anger come out so he could find his center. He knew he needed to relax, to calm down, for her sake if for nothing else. This is what they had been preparing for, anyway; he could not lose it now.

_What do I do now? What am I supposed to do now? Maybe… maybe they left a clue?_

He thought about getting out of the car to search for clues, but it did not make sense for them to just leave the evidence out in the open for anyone to find other than he. Either way, he was already planning on coming back later on today in the armor in stealth mode to run a quick analysis of the scene, so he knew that task could wait. He closed his eyes and thought about the possibilities for a second. If he were the Maggia kidnapping people, what hints would he have left behind? Would they be inside the club? Out in the streets? On his person? They obviously had left something around to guide him to their hideout or to a meeting place to negotiate Pepper's life; otherwise, they would have not left him in the alley, alive.

There had not been any more kidnappings based on the intel Pepper had gathered on her daily monitoring of the news and police reports, so he knew they were the first ones to be attacked in a long time. With a bit of luck, the Maggia's MO had not changed just for them, and he and Pepper were hopefully ahead of their game.

He opened his eyes and searched the keys for markings, but there were none. He patted himself for anything suspicious on him, but there was nothing. He opened the glove compartment and the middle compartment between the two front seats, but still he had no luck. He looked under the seats and all over the panel, but he came up empty-handed. He impatiently rapped the steering wheel with his fingertips and suddenly stopped when an idea came to his mind. He swallowed hard and slowly twisted his body to the right and stared back to find what he was looking for, ogling at him right in the face: a clue.

It was not anything major and anyone walking by the car would not think much of it, but Tony knew better than that. He had driven this car to the club last night, and he knew neither he nor Pepper had left a small gift box on the back seat. He eyed the box with distrust for a moment, and then carefully grabbed it and placed it on his lap.

Could the seemingly innocent box be holding an explosive device or maybe poison gas? Would he be knocked out again if he opened the box? Was the challenge not to open the box at all?

Did Pepper's wellbeing depend on it?

He shook the thoughts aside and swallowed hard as he examined the contraption. It was not even paper wrapped; the festive decorations were _part_ of the box, and it seemed as if it had seen better days. Knowing the Maggia, they probably reused things like these, which was great for him because it meant he could probably get tons of fingerprints off it. The box was not even sealed and, now that he had it in his hands, he could tell that all he needed to do was remove the cover to find whatever was inside.

So he did.

To his surprise, the box was mostly empty, save for two items inside: a little piece of paper and something wrapped in a small rag. He grabbed the paper first and, from the printed letters, Tony read the message aloud.

"Book a stay at the hotel where you nailed her. Wait for instructions. Do not call the police or…"

_Or what?_

He gulped and looked at the back of the paper but there were no more messages, so he decided to unfold the rag. As he did so, he gasped.

He stared at the item with wide eyes, and not because of what it was, but because of what it represented: mutilation, torture, _assault_. It was a lock of brown hair wrapped tightly around the center with a rubber band. He took the lock to his nose and gave it a whiff, and he immediately knew he did not have to run an analysis on it. It was Pepper's hair; he would recognize the scent of her shampoo anywhere. He had been inhaling it for years. And it was now combined with the recent use of hair dye.

His hands began shaking in anger. They had already laid a finger on her. They had already touched her, and he hoped that it had been in no more ways than just one to cut her hair. He returned the paper and the lock of hair inside the box, and when he was about to put it away, his trembling hand dropped the box on the passenger's seat, made it flip, and the bottom of box showed; the bottom of it that had yet another cryptic message for him.

CHECK THE TRUNK.

His eyes went wide.

He pulled the lever to pop the trunk and opened the door, not even bothering to turn off the car. He slowly stepped out of the vehicle and walked over to the partially opened trunk. Once he stood in front of it, he opened it all the way, and inside it was a similar-looking box to the one he had found on the back seat. He wasted no time in grabbing it and opening it, and just as before there was a piece of paper and a rag. This time, he unfolded the rag first; fearful of what he may find, and when he saw the bloody, severed finger he almost threw up.

Almost.

Until he realized it was made of rubber.

It was not real.

It was a fake; nothing but a prop.

But that did not mean his heart had not shot up to his throat just now.

"Motherfuckers!"

Tony threw the box and the fake finger back into the trunk, crunched the paper in his right hand, slammed the trunk door closed and returned to the driver's seat. He shut the door behind him, breathed hard and shook his head vehemently.

A joke.

It was nothing but a big game for them.

How could _anyone _have the heart to pull that stunt about someone you loved? How could_ anyone_ take pleasure in making others suffer like this? Did they get off playing with the feelings of others? Is that how they got some?

Evidently, they did.

_They're dead. ALL of them. They're fucking DEAD!_

Once he felt his blood pressure return to normal, he unclenched his right hand and unwrinkled the piece of paper. The words written on it were meant to scare him, just as they had scared the other twenty-six men that had come before him and had had to experience this torture. The words were meant to send him to his knees and beg for his fiancée to be kept alive while he complied with whatever dirty deeds the Maggia demanded of him. The words were meant to intimidate him, break him, bully him into submission. Yet, for Tony Stark, the words on the piece of paper were nothing more than a challenge; an invitation to break someone's neck for her… again.

And he would do so as many times as needed, no questions asked, and with no regrets this time. Not that he regretted killing Ghost… _that_ much.

Tony threw the piece of paper onto the back seat and switched gears. He revved up the car a few times as he mapped in his head the location of the hotel he and Pepper had stayed in the last time they had been at the club and, without further ado, he sped his way out of the alley and onto the almost empty streets, not breaking for any traffic signs or stops until he arrived.

The piece of paper, now long forgotten somewhere inside the vehicle, which he parked in front of the same room they had booked last time – and only thanks to the money Pepper had made him hide inside his shoe, had incited only one response from the inventor. A response that required the Maggia to do the impossible to counteract it: kill the armored vigilante in cold blood. The message was composed of only twelve words; nothing more, nothing less, but the words were powerful enough to make any of the other men cower in fear.

Tony Stark was not any other man.

The Maggia would never see it coming; they would never see it coming that Iron Man was now on their ass more than before, just because they had dared to do what only an _idiot_ would do to him: threaten Pepper Potts.

NEXT TIME, IT WILL BE HER HEAD AND IT WON'T BE FAKE.

"We'll see about that."

xxxXXXxxx

The last time she had woken up tied to a chair like she had hours ago, she had been taken by Ghost, and if right now she could tell her past self that Ghost was going to be the preferred villain compared to what she had gone through up to now, she knew her past self would have laughed at her… herself… themselves…

_Whatever._

The lingering effects of whatever they had drugged her with to knock her out were worse than the hangover she had had the first time she had gone undercover at _The Rotary_. Then again, that hangover had been heightened by the date rape drug she had been given, and that was _after_ Tony had been kind enough to purge her body of whatever alcohol and drugs he could. This time, however, she had no such luck.

"Are you ready to scream for us, girly girl?"

Pepper swallowed hard.

Ever since she had woken up, the Maggia had been trying to make her shriek. At first, she had not understood why they were so adamant to accomplish the feat, but after one of the members of the clan had said that they needed the "footage for the guy," she knew what they were trying to do: they were trying to record her screaming to show the video to Tony.

_Good luck with that, creeps_, the ginger had thought but had kept her mouth shut. Not that she could actually say anything beyond a grunt or a mumble; a cloth had been tied around her mouth in a tight cleave gag, with another cloth covering her eyes.

They had kicked her shins, pulled and ripped out some of her hair, pinched her fingers extremely hard with a pair of pliers, and had even pressed the tip of something really hot against her back. All of the attempts had hurt like nobody's business, but after surviving Whitney's torture for weeks, it was child's play to the redhead.

Who would have thought they had the mean bitch to thank for her pain tolerance? Irony overload.

"She must be a masochist or some shit like that," one of the Maggia said. "The other girls would have screamed their lungs out by now."

"I say we just skip to Level 3 and get it over with," a second thug said. "I call dibs on her, if we do. She's hot."

"Level 3? Are you serious? She JUST got here! Level 3 is not allowed until she's been here at least two months. Besides, keeping up with one preggo chick is enough. We don't need two," the first Maggia member replied.

_What?_ The ginger held back a groan of anger. _Damn them!_

"Yeah, I guess you're right," the second henchman began. "But I still called her, first. What are we gonna do about the video, though? The chump already checked in at the place we told him to, and we need the video to set him off."

"I know, but," the first Maggia thug sighed. "I guess we're gonna have to think outside the box here."

"What do you suggest?"

"Well," the man began and Pepper did not like the way his tone suddenly changed. "I heard you used to be a paramedic. Is that true?"

The complicit laughs between them made a shiver run down her spine.

xxxXXXxxx

The knock on his door was swift and loud, and by the time Tony reached the door, the perpetrator was long gone and had left only a small envelope in his wake. The inventor grabbed the envelope and walked back inside the room, slamming shut the door behind him. He quickly shred the envelope open, and inside he found a CD and another piece of paper. The piece of paper read: THE MOVIE IS ON US.

He eyed the CD for a second and then made his way to the television in the room. Luckily for him, the hotel had an old DVD player attached to the even older television, and Tony prayed they still worked well enough to play whatever he had been sent over, even if he feared what he was about to see.

He popped open the CD tray and placed the disc inside and, after finding the correct channel to watch the contents of the disc, he sat in front of the TV, by the foot of the bed. He held his breath and waited for the video to start, and when the first thing he saw was Pepper tied to a chair, he growled. The situation was too familiar for him, too close to home, and even if he had already located the hideout of the Maggia by reading off coordinates from the subcutaneous tracker he had embedded in Pepper's arm, his mind still mocked him with the non-existent glimmer of the necklace he had given her for her birthday, as if it were on the screen right now. It was just as with Ghost sending him proof that she was still alive, only that this time, it did not matter if he knew where she was; he still had to wait for the Maggia to call the shots.

It was ironic, all of it, including the fact that the secret hideout where Pepper was being kept was the same abandoned building he and the ginger had once escaped to during lunch time while still attending the academy. What were the odds, he had questioned himself, that the place where Pepper had run off to hide when she had found out she was adopted was the same place she was being held captive now? Extremely low, he knew; and it only proved to him that a higher order really did enjoy making him suffer like this.

_"Hello, James,"_ the voice of a person not on screen resounded in the recording and Tony narrowed his eyes. _"I think you know what this is."_

The masked man then walked onto the screen and over to Pepper. The ginger was staring down at the floor. She was no longer gagged or blindfolded, and even though she looked alert, she did not make a sound. Her hands were tied behind her back and, at first glance, she looked as if she was alright, all things considered. Tony breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that whatever they were about to do to her on screen was not going to be too terrible for her sake. She had already suffered enough.

The man ran a hand down Pepper's hair a few times, as if she were a child that needed calming down even though her face revealed nothing of what she was actually feeling. He then grabbed a handful of her hair and pressed it against his nose. He inhaled it an exaggerated manner and then, while still holding the chunk of hair in his hand, he stared back and smiled at the camera.

"_She smells good… but, you already know that, right?"_

Tony's hands turned to fists.

The man then let go of Pepper's hair, stood behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders, as if about to give her a massage. Pepper tried shrugging him off, but the man just dug his fingers into her shoulder blades and she pursed her lips after a light flinch that made Tony frown.

"_You know, James," _the man behind Pepper began._ "Your girl here is a tough one to crack. Her pain threshold is rather high. What the hell have you two been doing in bed together? No matter what we've done to her, we haven't been able to make her scream."_

Tony snarled and leaned forward, a bit closer to the screen.

_"So, we figure that, since she doesn't want to scream for the nice cameraman, we'll just help her out with staying quiet, and we're going to give you a chance to witness how we do that."_

A second masked man appeared on screen with a syringe in hand – similar to the one that had been used to knock Pepper unconscious when they had taken her, as per the security feed – and as the first man held Pepper's neck to be exposed to the incoming syringe, Tony screamed even though there was no one there to hear his pleas.

"NO! Let her go!"

_"Do you know what potassium ions are, James?"_ the man with the syringe asked. _"No? Didn't think so. It's what doctors use to stop a person's heart during bypass surgery. The chance of restarting someone's heart after it is about 50%."_

Tony's eyes widened and his own heart stopped when he realized what they were about to do to the redhead. This, they had_ not_ expected. For this, they had not planned. Pepper was supposed to be kept alive at least until the Maggia recruited him, and not a moment before was she to be killed. Was this why Pepper had not been talking to him? When had this video been taken? He had already waited two days to hear from the Maggia. Was it too late for her?

_"My man, here, knows his shit,"_ the first man said and pointed at the man with the syringe. _"But let's hope chance is on your lady's side today. She doesn't want to scream for us; then she'll scream for no one."_

"NO!"

As the blue-eyed boy watched helplessly from the hotel room, the man with the syringe stuck it in Pepper's neck while she thrashed and tried to stop him to no avail. It took a few seconds for her to finally stop moving after the syringe was emptied, but when she did, the first man untied her from the chair and forcefully kicked her out of it. Pepper landed on her left side on the ground with a thud, not even attempting to soften the blow at all on her way down.

"PEPPER!" Tony screamed so hard it hurt his throat.

The unseen camera man then walked closer to the heap that was the ginger and kicked her so that she was now facing up and stared directly at the camera when he zoomed into her. Her eyes were wide open and unblinking, her mouth was slightly ajar and her hair was in complete disarray, partially covering her frightened-looking face.

"NOOOOOO! PEPPER!"

Tony fell to his knees in front of the recording. His palms landed on the screen, as if he could touch her pale face from afar, but he was met with only the cold glass of the television monitor. He stared down at the floor, rested on all fours and moaned in desperation. He slammed his fists against the ground multiple times, breathed raggedly and then mustered up the courage to look up again.

"Pepper… no…"

She had not moved. Nothing had changed. The Maggia was doing nothing to help her.

_"So, James,"_ he heard someone say as the camera continued to focus on Pepper. _"We'll send you the location for us to meet tomorrow. Be prepared for it. Don't contact the police. They won't believe you if you do, anyway. We bought them a long time ago. You'll get a chance to see your fiancée alive again… if we can restart her heart."_

The camera zoomed in closer to Pepper's face and Tony had to clench his eyes shut and looked away when he saw tears were sliding down from her eyes.

"_We hope we can. We still haven't had our fun with her."_

The last words of the Maggia thug were followed by loud laughter and then the recording ended. The moments following the ending of the video were painfully silent until Tony could no longer hold back anymore and just screamed his lungs out.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The inventor did not even bother to take out the DVD from the tray and just stared down at the floor in complete shock, his mind's eye replayed the look on Pepper's face. He called on Extremis and searched for her current location via the GPS tracker and realized it was still the same abandoned warehouse he had pinpointed before. He swallowed hard and cursed at himself when it dawned on him that he should have included a vital signs monitor with the tracker just to be on the safe side, but it was now a moot point.

_I should go to her. I should go to her now. Screw the mission and take her… take back whatever is left of her._

Whatever is left of her; the phrase made him shiver and a new wave of tears made themselves known.

"NO!"

He shakily stood up and took out the DVD from the player, wanting nothing more than to crush it with his bare hands, but he knew better and stopped himself from going through with it. If anyone was left alive after he busted into the Maggia's warehouse in his Hulk Buster armor and blew them to Kingdom Come, he would need this video for evidence. Evidence that the Maggia were responsible for the kidnappings and that the police knew and did nothing. Evidence that torture of the victims was involved and perhaps even death was brought to them afterwards. Evidence that he had sent Pepper to her death and had done nothing to stop it.

"Pepper, God, no!"

He angrily threw the DVD onto the bed and held his head between his hands, willing himself to calm down. He took in deep breaths and paced around the room, loudly spitting out every curse word he knew. His mind was racing, thinking of the possibilities of how to end the Maggia, how to extend their suffering, how to make sure they felt he same pain he now felt.

He then ran to the bathroom, opened the faucet and splashed cold water on his face. Even though he was now breathing through his mouth and took in mouthfuls of air, he felt his lungs burn as they had done so when he had drowned at the icy river after blowing up the plummeting airliner. His eyes stung and his chest felt constricted, but this time, there was no redhead in a suit of armor nearby, ready to breathe life back into him.

"Pepper! God, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I should've never let you go! I should've never lied to you! I should've… Pepper! PEPPER!"

He shut off the faucet and clenched his eyes again. He began sobbing like a child that had been told he would go to Disneyland but was then told the flight had been cancelled at the last minute. He coughed in between sobs, and once he regained some of his composure, he groaned in anger.

"I'm going to kill them," he snarled and threw a decorative glass bottle of hand soap against the mirror, crashing both on impact. "I'm going to suit up and beat the shit out of them! I'm going to –"

His next words were cut off by the call of his name. It was faint, almost nonexistent, but he knew that he had heard it. He stood up straight, looked left and right and did not even dare to breathe lest it would keep him from hearing it again. He waited, and waited, and waited, and when he was about to give up, he heard it again.

"Pepper?"

His heart stopped for a second time today.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** The end is coming. And the real ANGST will begin in _The Second Year_. DUN DUN DUN As always, links to the outfits can be found on my profile.


	10. Chapter 9

**Story tidbit: **The first mention of the Maggia kidnappings happened in Chapter 7 of _The Last Summer_ when Tony and Pepper were watching the news about Hammer Multinational losing profits. The second instance happened in Chapter 1 of _The First Year_ when Maya and Pepper are getting their nails done. Anyone catch that? That's how I roll!

**Guest Review Responses**

**pepperony4evah: Right on time. I knew peppr would get her 'wiped out' memories back. Oh god. I can't imagine what she'd feel when she remembers that she and him were lovers once upon a time. I know tony's tryin to keep her safe and all by dating maya but i guess anyone with two eyes should be able to see that tony pretty much has his head stuck up pepper's ass, like permanently. So I guess in the end peppers gonna be the target of villains anyway! **Wiser words have never been spoken before :D

**Edit 10/11/2015**: Previously, this story has the Maggia building be five stories tall. This has been changed to ten stories tall, in order to make what happens at the end of this chapter seem more believable in the amount of time it takes place. All following stories will also be updated to reflect this change.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9: June<strong>

"Hey, James! Get ya sorry ass o'er here!"

Tony heard his false name being called by one of the Maggia thugs he now reported to. The man went by the nickname of Two-Tone, but Tony knew his real name was Frank Hess, a man born and raised in Philadelphia who had moved to New York searching for riches and fame, but had found neither. After months of living in the streets, the Maggia had recruited him. He was not even a good actor or singer, and Tony had no clue what talent he was trying to sell around here, but apparently, no one _dared_ to tell him he had none. He had a bad temper that Tony had avoided so far, and only because he did not want to do anything that could be taken as him rebelling against the Maggia to be used against Pepper.

Other than the minor setback when the Maggia had pretended to inject Pepper with potassium ions to stop her heart but had actually used a rather powerful muscle relaxant on her – scaring Tony half to death with it – their mission was actually going according to plan. The inventor had been using Extremis to send information back and forth to the FBI about the Maggia members, their multiple locations and inner workings since he had been recruited by the thugs, three weeks ago. He had even been able to see Pepper through a glass wall at least twice since then, and had spoken to her briefly via their molar implants a couple of times at night as well. Yet, other than just a few words to assure the other they were alright, no actual long conversations had taken place between them.

In fact, the only communication that had actually had an impact on him, so far, was the one that had pulled him out of his misery when he had been ready to blow up the Maggia with a nuclear bomb. He had been in the bathroom of the motel, plotting his revenge on the group and calling her name, when she had suddenly called his.

_"Pepper?"_

_ "Tony, breathe, relax. Breathe, Tony."_

_ Tony's eyes went wide and he rested his back against the wall. "Pepper, is that… is that really you?"_

_ He knew the question was stupid, since he was hearing her in his ear implant, and unless the Maggia had taken out the tooth from her mouth, there was no way anyone other than Pepper would be using the device to communicate with him right now. He still had to ask the question, though. He still had to make sure it was not Pepper's ghost speaking to him from the afterlife, instead of the actual living and breathing one._

_ "Yes, it's me. Calm down, alright? I'm OK. I'm alright."_

_ Tony felt his legs give under him and he slid down the wall until he reached the floor. He took in deep breaths while the redhead continued to utter comforting words to him and when he finally found his voice again, he spoke._

_ "Pepper, oh, God! I thought… I saw the video and you-you weren't moving and…"_

_ "It was a fake, Tony. They just knocked me out. They were just trying to scare you. That's all."_

_ "Well, it fucking worked! It scared the shit out of me! I thought… I thought I'd lost you again, Pep," he closed his eyes._

_ "I…" he heard her sigh. "I heard you, Tony. Calm down, alright? You can't just bust in here right now. Don't make my pain be worthless."_

_ Tony frowned. "I-I'm sorry, Pepper. I just… it was too real. I couldn't take it. I'm sorry, I just couldn't."_

_ "I know, Tony. Don't be sorry, just be smart about it. Potassium ions need to be injected directly into your heart for them to work."_

_ "Oh," he said. "I didn't know that."_

_ "Me neither, until I heard them talk about it. It's over now, though. They've left me alone. Are you OK? Did they hurt you?"_

_ Tony scoffed. "Are you seriously asking me how I am when you're the one that was taken?"_

_ "Yes. I'm worried about you, too, you know? Are you injured?"_

_ Tony's hand instinctively went to his head bump and swallowed hard. He knew the little bruise on his head was nothing compared to whatever she had had to endure so far, so he chose to lie to her. _

"_No, babe. I'm fine. I'm just happy to hear your voice."_

_ "I'm happy to hear you, too," the smile on her face was evident in her tone of voice. It made him smile as well._

_ They remained silent again for a moment, allowing time for them both to relax and gather their wits. He heard Pepper taking in deep, calming breaths, and he could not help to synchronize his breathing pattern with hers. After a while, he finally opened his eyes and pretended she was sitting in front of him on the floor._

_ "I know where you are."_

_ "I know."_

_ "I've sent the notification via the Stark 1 to my dad that the mission is a go. He and Diane Tincher are going to cover for us at Stark Solutions."_

_ "Alright. Did you tell the FBI about it?"_

_ "Not yet. I wanted to know if you were still alive."_

_ "Well, I am. And so are the other girls. They're all here, Tony, and one of them is pregnant."_

_ "What?"_

_ "Yes. She's going to be due soon. We can't take long."_

_ "How soon?"_

_ "I don't know. A few weeks, maybe a month?"_

_ "Hopefully, I won't have you there that long."_

_ "I hope for her sake that you don't. I can deal with it, but she's extremely malnourished and hasn't been let out in months. I don't even think a doctor has been brought in to check up on her."_

_ "The hell? I didn't know the Maggia were this cruel! I knew they were greedy and stupid, but not this… sadistic."_

_ "That's because someone else is leading them now. I don't know who it is yet, but we both know it's not Nefaria. He's dead."_

_ "Well, we'll find out, wont we?"_

_ "Yup. And then we can bust their asses for doing this. I can't believe it, Tony. How can they do this to people? How can they live with themselves like this?"_

_ The inventor thought back to the little prop finger prank he had been a victim of and internally groaned. _

"_That's what people like them do, Pep. That's all they can do to feel better about themselves."_

_ "Well, they've got another thing coming, that's for sure."_

_ "Yes, soon."_

_ "Tony… I-I have to go. They're coming to get me again."_

_ "What? Again?" Tony panicked. "Where? Where are they taking you?"_

_ "I don't know but don't worry. I'll be fine. I can handle myself."_

_ "I know you can," he began. "But only for so long. Just, do whatever they tell you, OK? Don't put up an act. Don't try to act brave. I need you in one piece, Potts. Don't piss them off."_

_ "I'll try. Though, you should listen to your own advice, Stark. I don't want to be woken up by another anger attack from you."_

_ "I will. For you."_

_ "I," he heard her hesitate._

_ "Pepper?"_

_ He did not hear anything else for a minute or so, and he thought her opportunity to talk to him had ended. But as he was getting up from the floor to get started on his part of the plan, he heard her whispering voice in his ear._

_ "I love you, Tony."_

_ Tony smiled. "I love you, Pep."_

"Jimmy, my boy," Two-Tone continued when he reached Tony and patted his back. The man was not that much older than the inventor, but he acted as if he had years upon years upon years of being a mobster, or something akin to that. Everything about the man irritated Tony. The way he walked, the fake British accent he pretended to have and sometimes forgot to use, the way he dressed even though everyone wore the same stupid cheap tuxedo and mask. Even the way he breathed annoyed the blue-eyed boy. But Tony had learned to put up with all of it, and all for the sake of his beloved redhead.

"I hear' ya did good in the robbery, mate! Boss says you've ear'ed time with your lady friend!"

"What?" Tony asked in surprise.

"Ya hea'd me," the fat man continued. "The plan you suggested work'd last night, so you get to be with your lass tonight. No big brother at all!"

"R-Really? Tonight? Me and… Claire? Alone?"

"That's right, lad. Are ya gonna need some rubber, tho'? Boss don't want more pregnant gals around here, ya know?"

Tony had to force himself not to frown or punch the man in the face. "No, uhm, we… we'll be fine."

"Ah!" Two-Tone gave Tony a knowing, mischievous look and a cheeky grin. "You gonna get some in other ways, huh?"

"Yeah," Tony swallowed down the stomach acid he could feel coming up to his mouth and forced a smile on his face. "We-we'll manage."

"She's that good, aye?" the man winked at Tony. "No wonder Jules wants dibs on her."

"W-what?"

"Dibs, ya know? We all get to play with her after she's been here for two months. I'd take advantage of tonight, if I were you. You know, before the rest of us have a piece of that."

Tony's knuckles turned white. The man was talking about sexual assault as if it were nothing, as if he was not telling a man that the love of his life was going to be abused by a handful of men, very soon, and that there was nothing he could do about it but know about it and watch. Jules, whoever this guy was, had just been bumped up on Tony's hit list, even above the man standing before him – maybe even above Scott.

"Thanks for the heads up," Tony said between gritted teeth. "When can I see her?"

"At sunset, tonight. In a couple of hours or so. I'll come get ya when it's time."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, don't mention it, lad. Now, go back to unloading the truck. We need to go pick up new recruits tonight with it."

"Yes, sir," Tony said and turned around even though all he wanted to do was to knock the teeth out of the man and then go castrate Jules. "Right away, sir."

"Sir?" Two-Tone gave a belly laugh. "I love this prick! He's the best recruit we've had in months!"

Tony gave the man a thankful wave of his hand without turning back to look at him knowing that, if he stared at him, the man would be able to see the anger pouring out of his fake green-orbs.

At least, he considered, he would be able to see Pepper tonight.

xxxXXXxxx

The last two hours had been the longest in his life, but when he finally saw Two-Tone walk up to him and pulled him aside, Tony breathed a sigh of relief. He had been fearful that the Boss, whoever he was, had changed his mind at the last minute about allowing him time with the ginger. But once he saw the disgusting grin on Two-Tone's face when he led him down to the _Prohibited_ _Section _of the warehouse, he knew he would be able to see Pepper tonight after all.

The _prohibited_ section was the code word that was used for the area where all the girls were kept. No one was allowed there other than only certain privileged people, and sometimes the forced recruits when they were given the chance to see their fiancées. A visit to the prohibited zone was not always pleasant; however, as if any of the recruits failed to follow orders or did not react quickly enough during an assignment, they were punished by watching their loved ones being tortured behind a glass wall.

_Pepper was right_, Tony thought with some pride as he silently followed Two-Tone down the narrow hall. _Pepper nailed their actions to the T!_

Any criminal investigation agency would be lucky to have her one day, he knew, and only if he did not convince her to stay with him at Stark Solutions forever to pursue her career goals there rather than working for the government, or even for S.H.I.E.L.D. Heck, he would even build her the damn jetpack she had always wanted, if it helped persuade her to stay.

"S'rry we didn't give ya a chance for you to wash up, lad, but we've gots busy with the new recruits getting outta line."

"That's alright," Tony said. "It's more important to show those fools who's in charge 'round here," he added, knowing that the comment would score some brownie points with the man.

"Aye! You're a smart one, Jamesy! I wish every'ne 'round 'ere was like ya."

"Thanks, sir," Tony stopped when Two-Tone did as well in front of the last door of the corridor. The man then looked left and right and down the hall, and then from his pants' pocket took out a small, rectangular plastic bag.

"Here, mate," Two-Tone handed the bag to Tony. "I know ya says you don't need one, but I'm still givin' ya one, just in case."

Tony grabbed the small packet and nodded his thanks before he put it inside his back pocket.

"That's why you're the boss, Two-Tone. Always watchin' out for us."

"And don't you forget it, Jimmy. I'll come pick you up tomorrow at sunrise. Enjoy the time with the missus."

"Oh, I will," he said in a tone the inventor knew the man would enjoy, and then waited until he was alone again. He knocked on the door twice even though he knew there was no point to it, and when there was no response from the inside, he turned the doorknob and walked in.

The room was no bigger than the kitchen of their apartment back home, but it was not as clean as the ginger and Jarvis kept it. In fact, it was not even close. There was some outside light coming inside from the high-up, small window on the back wall. Thanks to it, he could see that the floors were made of bare concrete, just as the rest of the warehouse itself was. There was a small cot on the floor in the back left corner of the room, and while his eyes adjusted to the diminished light, he called on Extremis to scan the area for computers, cameras or hidden microphones.

Luckily, he detected none.

"Pepper? Are you in here?"

He heard scuffling coming from the corner opposite to where the cot lay. Two seconds later and after the clearing of her throat, the ginger responded to his call.

"Tony? Is-is that you?"

"Yes, Pep. I'm spending the night here with you."

Before he could say anything else, he heard the pattering of bare feet on the floor. The air was then expelled from his lungs when the ginger hugged him with all her might, and she almost made him fall on his butt. Tony immediately found his balance and returned the embrace. Now that his eyes could see her better, he leaned down and kissed her fully on the lips, only for her to whimper in pain and pull away.

"What's wrong?" he asked and she shook her head and took a step away from him.

"Nothing," she said and then covered her mouth with her hands. "I'm fine."

"Pepper?" he took a step toward her and she took another step back; not that it matter really, the room was very small. "Pepper, where are you going? Let me see your face, please."

"No. I… I don't have any makeup on."

Tony scoffed. "So? I don't care. I never have. Besides, I didn't get to shower before I came here, so we're kinda even. Sorry about the smell."

"I don't care either," she said but refused to move her hand away from her mouth. "Just, please, stay away."

"The hell I will!" he said and closed the distance between them, cornering her in the same place she had been sitting in when he had walked in. "I haven't seen or heard from you in days. I miss you, Pep. I've been worried sick about you."

"Me too, Tony, but… but…" she said and then reluctantly allowed the inventor to pull her hand away from her mouth. The growl she heard from him was all she needed to hear to know that, even in the dim light, he had managed to see her busted bottom lip.

"What the…? Who… who was it, Pepper? Who did this to you?"

"It's nothing, Tony."

"Nothing? Pepper, your lip is swollen! You're still bleeding from it! What the hell you mean: it's nothing?"

"Ssshhh! Lower your voice or you'll call them back!"

"I," he swallowed hard and then began whispering to her while his hands held her head by its sides. "What happened? Didn't I tell you to lay low and not to get in trouble? I told you, Pepper. I trusted you to stay out of trouble as much as I am trying to stay out of trouble myself."

"I know," she admitted and lowered her head. "I was doing fine, I swear. But then Jules showed up today and –"

"J-Jules? _Jules _went to see you? That… that… did he touch you? What did he do to you?"

"He wasn't coming for me. He was coming for Wendy. Remember Wendy? The redhead that was taken before us?"

"Yeah, I do."

"I-I couldn't just let him take her. She's been cleared for Level 3, so… I… I busted his ass and he backslapped me. He didn't take Wendy, which is what I wanted, but he did hit me pretty hard."

"Pepper…" he stared at her with a pained look. "Don't do this to me, Pep. It's already hard as it is. I… I'm starting to lose my patience here. I want you out of here _now_."

"Not yet, Tony. We still need to find out who the new Boss is. If he remains faceless and nameless, it won't matter if we bust all of their lairs. He'll just regroup again."

Tony sighed in defeat, knowing Pepper's words were the truth. They only had one shot at this. They had to do it right or all of their efforts would be in vain. He finally nodded to acknowledge that he understood, but the look in his eyes also told her that he expected her to behave herself a tad better from now on.

"Did you know I was coming?" he asked as he rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. "Did they tell you what you were coming here for?"

"No," she closed her eyes as well, placed her hands on his cheeks and felt his hands move from her face to rest on her hips. "They just got me washed up and changed into these raggedy clothes and thrown in here a few minutes before you came by. I thought Jules was coming to get me. I was surprised and relieved to hear your voice."

"Raggedy clothes?" Tony smiled and kissed her nose. The raggedy clothes she was referring to were a pair of shorts and a small t-shirt. "All I see is you, and you still look beautiful to me."

She beamed so widely and so brightly at his words that she could have lit up the entire warehouse with her smile and the light blush on her cheeks, if it were at all possible.

Now that the shock of seeing her injury and the mini-scare he had had at hearing that Jules had been near her had passed, he began to slowly lose himself in their own private world they always escaped to when they had the chance. He wanted her to forget about their current situation, too, even if just for tonight, and he was going to do anything he had to in order to make it happen.

He pressed his body closer to hers and pushed her back against the wall. He then heard her moan slightly when his lips brushed against the junction of her neck and shoulder and he was momentarily reminded of their unfinished conversation at the club.

"Pepper?"

"Ya-hum?"

Her eyes were closed, lost in the glory of his caresses. Her hands lazily ran through his hair while he placed random kisses on her neck and on the side of her face. His hands slid up and down from under her arms to her hips. It had been so long since she had felt like this: treasured, loved, _desired_; and the last time she had felt like it at all had been when they had spent that drunken night at the motel. It was nothing less than sad and disappointing, however, that Scott did not make her feel this way when they were alone.

"Don't marry him."

She froze on the spot and her hands stopped moving, but she did not face him as he continued to indulge in her neck. She was aware that accepting his silent proposition while dancing at the club had immediately nullified her compromise with Scott, so she saw no need for him to even bring up the topic, especially since he was NOT even supposed to know about it in the first place. How he had found out about it and when was not known to her, but her true worry did not lie in his detective skills for now. Her current issue went beyond finding out who had told the inventor about her engagement with Scott, and it related more to Tony's tone of voice.

There was something in the way he had uttered those words to her, that _command_ he had just given to her that made her feel as if this was only the beginning of what he was going to tell her right now; perhaps even more than she was willing to hear as of yet. He had not used his Tony Stark voice to say those words; he had used his Iron Man tone, which meant that he was getting very serious about this conversation and about where he planned to take it at this time.

When she did not say anything else, lost in her own thoughts, Tony took it as an invitation to continue his argument, so he did.

"Don't marry him," he repeated, more sternly this time. "Marry me."

"W-w-wah?" she swallowed hard. She knew what she had accepted to do with her nod back at _The Rotary_, and she knew that he knew too. She had thought, however, that he had meant for them only to start dating and see where and if the relationship would lead anywhere else. It now appeared, conversely, that he had been a lot more serious than she had thought he could be: a whole, fucking lot _more_ serious.

"You heard me," he said and pulled away from her neck to stare directly at her eyes. "Don't do it. Stay with me. Don't marry him."

She gulped and felt her entire body begin to shiver under his gaze. "But-but… T-Tony… I…"

"No," he said, and when she tried to look away from him, he held her face in his hands. "Listen to me, Pepper. I... I-I," he sighed, his voice suddenly trembling in fear that he had said too much, too soon.

_Too late to turn back now._

"I don't know what he offered you – Scott – or what he thinks he can give you but I, I… you know I'll give you _anything_ you want. Whatever it is that you need or want me to do, I'll do it, Pepper. I'll do it for you, no questions asked."

"Tony," she began. "I… your money… to me… it's…"

"I know, I know. I didn't mean it like that. And it's _our_ money, by the way," he gave her a smile. "And our cars, and our bikes, and our pods, and our company and our home. All that it's missing is an _us_. Do you want an 'us,' Pepper? Do you want there to be an 'us'?"

"I-I… I did… I do but, Tony, you're jumping ahead. You—"

"I didn't say for you to marry me right now, silly," he said and she visibly relaxed. "Unless you want to, but you don't have to. I just want you to give me the chance."

"What about Maya? I mean, she's your girlfriend and my friend and she'll hate me, hate _us_, for this."

"I'll deal with that. She should've seen it coming, anyway."

"What? Why?"

"Remember that black eye I came back with on Valentine's?"

"Yeah?"

"And remember the last thing I told you when we argued in your room that day Maya was showing up for our date, the week before the Helicarrier issue?"

"Yeah?"

"You're smart, baby. Connect the dots, Potts."

She lowered her gaze for a moment, as she thought about his words, and when her eyes widened and her mouth went ajar, he knew she had seen the light.

"Are you kidding? You-you didn't!"

"I did."

"But-but… why? How? We… we haven't even… _How_?"

"You're always on my mind, Pep. That's how."

"Aww!" she smiled but then frowned. "But no! Tony, oh, my God! That's awful of you! Seriously? On Valentine's? During your getaway?"

"I couldn't help it!" he defended himself. "Like you haven't done the same to Scott!"

"Actually, I haven't!" she said, insulted by the insinuation. "I'd never do that to him! That's terrible!"

"Oh, yeah," he said with a scoff. "You'd never say my name in bed with him, but you will kiss me right after telling me you love me, and still marry him, right?"

"What?" she was taken aback and frowned.

"Ugh! Sorry, Pepper," he rested his forehead on her shoulder and counted his blessings that she was yet to push him away from her. "I… I'm screwed up, alright? You know that about me. No surprise there. And when I think about you two together, it… it kills me. He doesn't deserve you… and neither do I but… but he'll never love you like I do. He'll never make you feel the way I do. And Maya will never fill me like you do."

He heard her sigh loudly and felt her shake her head, perhaps weighing his words against his actions, or their current situation against their past. When she pulled him away from her shoulder and held his face in her hands, he visibly swallowed hard as he waited for her next words.

"I haven't been with him, either. You know?"

He knitted his brow. "What?"

"Well, don't look so surprised," she chuckled lightly. "You… you're not the only one that has trouble seeing someone who isn't there."

"Really?" he asked, trying not to sound so pleased with himself and not too hopeful, but he failed miserably.

"Really," she said with a small smile. "I haven't said your name, but… but I thought about it. And it made me stop."

"So," he whispered. "So, you and Scott… you… you haven't…"

"No," she whispered back and shook her head. "No, we haven't."

"But, all those times that I… when I walked in… your room…"

"Attempts," she said with a shy smile. "Just failed attempts."

He gulped in anticipation when her fingers slowly traced his lips from side to side, and he then felt his heart double its rate when she looked up at him with the same eyes they had stared at each other with back at the hotel. He knew what she was thinking right about now because he was thinking about it too, but he could not ignore the reality of their situation.

"I wish…" he began before he kissed her fingertips that were still on his lips. "I wish we were somewhere else right now."

"Why?" she asked and pulled back her hand.

"Because, because this is not what you deserve," he responded and took a second to look around himself to emphasize the point. "I mean, the hotel wasn't the best place either but this… you deserve so much better than this."

Pepper's eyes stared left and right as well, and she then looked at him again and gave him a bright smile. "If that's all that's stopping you, just close your eyes and _pretend_ we're somewhere else."

"But…"

"Unless, you're just being polite with me and you don't want to tell me that you don't want me that way."

"Don't be ridiculous," he said, leaned down to kiss her but stopped inches away from her lips. "Do you know how hard it has been for me not to kiss you since I walked in that door because of that busted lip?"

"Always the gentleman," Pepper said with a chuckle, slid her hands under his t-shirt and raked his lower back with her nails, which only made him groan and clench his eyes shut. "But I'm sure it'd be worth the pain."

"Pepper," he breathed with barely controlled desire as she slowly pulled up his t-shirt and threw it somewhere on the ground. She then traced the muscles of his front, starting from his stomach to his chest and back down again. He rested his fists against the wall behind her, towering over her and breathed hard without shame. She smiled in satisfaction at the reaction she was getting from him, and then her hands grabbed a hold of the button of his pants.

"No, not here, Pepper," his right hand stopped both of hers from undoing his pants. "Not like this. I want… it should be… special… the first…"

She eyed him silently for a moment to see if his mind would change. but when he did not say or do anything else, she pulled her hands away from him and stared at the door. When she did not continue her movements or even said anything else, he opened his eyes and stared at her wounded-looking face. He wanted to say something, _anything_, to make her understand that it was not that he was unwilling, but that he just wanted it to be great for her. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind.

She swallowed hard and licked her lips before she slid to the side and went around him. His eyes followed her as she walked over to the cot on the floor, and climbed inside and under the covers. She laid on her right side, giving her back to him, faced the wall and sighed in defeat.

"Good night, Tony."

He stared at her and then at his t-shirt on the floor. His eyes then scanned their surroundings, and he hated that he could not give her anything better at the moment. He wanted for this to happen between them, now if at all possible, but he did not want Pepper to look back one day and regret the fact that it had not been at home or at a 5-star hotel by the beach, but in a crappy room inside an abandoned warehouse while being held hostage by the Maggia.

Then again, this was not what _he_ preferred, sure, but had he not just told her, moments ago, he would do anything for her?

"_I don't know what he offered you – Scott – or what he thinks he can give you but I, I… you know I'll give you __**anything**__ you want. Whatever it is that you need or want me to do, I'll do it, Pepper. I'll do it for you, no questions asked."_

_No questions asked_, he reminded himself. He had just told her that: _no questions asked_, and yet…

"I thought about you all day, like I always do," he began and took one step closer to her. "Especially when we robbed this jewelry store and I saw a ring I'd like to see on you one day."

She did not make a sound or move an inch, so he continued speaking his mind and took another step toward her location.

"And also when we were driving back and I saw this neighborhood I know you'd like to live in with me. It had a park and a private entrance, and there were kids riding their bikes and playing hoops in their backyards. You'd always said to me that you hated growing up in an apartment, and that you wanted your kids to know what it's like to have an actual home."

He took another step toward her and cleared his throat. "I imagined you and me there, or in a place like that someday, being happy, the two of us."

He took another step that took him to the edge of the cot, and he kneeled on it behind her.

"Or maybe you'd like another place. Maybe you had another place in mind and… and that's OK," he gulped. "Whatever it is… _wherever_ it is that makes you happy, as long as it helps you see how much you mean to me. How I can't… how I don't _want_ to live without you. I can live with it. I can live with it as long as it is just with you and no one else."

He had expected her to remain silent, or to tell him to _fuck off_, but her response was everything but a dismissal of his feelings.

"I don't want you to just live with it," Pepper finally said, her voice only a whisper. "What good does it do for you, if you just do it for the sake of someone else and not your own?"

He furrowed his brow as he retorted.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Pepper, but isn't that why you agreed to marry Scott? For his sake and not yours?"

Pepper pursed her lips; she was not able to come up with a good response to his question, so she let it go. Tony sighed again, and he was about to get up from the cot, seeing his attempts at making it up to her were failing, but the ginger's hand on his arm made him stop in his tracks.

"Pepper?"

She turned around completely and faced him, propping herself up with her left arm under her, and when he noticed tears running down her cheeks, his heart broke. He thought they were tears of sadness or disappointment, anger even, but they were only there because she had been moved by his words. She had no idea he felt this strongly about her and their connection, and she had to wonder how long it had been since he had seen her – seen _them _together – in a new light. However long it was – it could have not just been today or yesterday, or not even the month before – it had to have been there much longer than that.

How she had not seen it before, she could not understand.

He leaned down to her, held the back of her neck with his right hand, and then ran his lips over her damp face to dry her tears. When he felt his job was done as good as it was going to be, he pulled back slightly, stared at her again for a second, before he pressed his lips on hers. She flinched slightly when the pressure caused a spike of pain on her bruised lips, but she quickly forgot about it when he kissed her again, gentler this time.

He followed the second kiss with many more, and not just on her lips, and when they woke up the next day in each other's arms, like they had done so too many times before, the only difference between those attempts and this night would be that, this time, they had not held back at all.

xxxXXXxxx

"You're next, Horton. Stay put."

Tony Stark currently sat in a chair outside the Boss' office, at a different lair from the one he and Pepper had been kept in since their involuntary recruitment by the _Inquisitionists_ had begun. He had been waiting for hours for his turn to meet up with the head honcho of the criminal group. The new leader of the Maggia had specifically requested to meet with the so-called James Horton, now also known as _Magic James_, after the last robbery he had organized had turned out to be of great success. It appeared that the Boss was impressed with James' strategizing skills and wanted to get to know the recruit on a more personal level, and thus had arranged for this meeting to take place.

Sitting out here for so long reminded the inventor of the time he, Rhodey and Pepper had been called to Principal Nara's office when he and Pepper had left the school during lunch. This time, however, Rhodey's presence was replaced by Two-Tone, who was sitting next to him; Pepper was in another building, miles away from him; and if he were to be asked the same question right now regarding whether or not he had engaged in sexual intercourse with Pepper Potts, he knew his answer this time would have to be a big, fat 'yes.'

A wide smile formed on his face at the thought, and he had to hold back a sigh of contentment lest he would look like a silly, little schoolgirl in love. He was silly and he was in love, but he was most definitely NOT a schoolgirl.

_Pepper._

Thinking about her or uttering her name, made his stomach flutter with happiness and excitement. It had been a week since he and Pepper had spent the night together and, so far, he had not heard or seen from her again. He had called her name a few times at night, and even if she had not once responded to him, he had still told her that he was OK, that he loved her very much, that he missed her like crazy, and that he waited for her word to start the stakeout against the thugs.

He would have otherwise been worried about her lack of response had it not been for the fact that he had heard from Two-Tone that his lady was doing fine. Apparently, the space needed to store the stolen items was running out, thanks to James' clever plans, so the girls had been forced to now have more roommates than before, and to work around the clock to sort through the raided hauls, thus cutting down the opportunities the ginger had for communicating with him. His spare time was also being cut down significantly, and he barely had the chance to tell his redhead kind words at the end of the day. But he still did so whenever he could.

_We need to end this, though._ Tony thought. _If I get to meet the Boss today, we can call it a day and have the FBI come nail them faster than they can react._

Not only were they almost done with their investigation, but the roots of his real hair were starting to show, and he was certain Pepper's were too. The always-on contact lenses he and Pepper were wearing were good for only a month until they ran the risk of infection, and this weekend marked the fourth week for him since being here. There was no choice but to blow their cover this weekend for the sake of their health, safety and sanity, regardless of whether Pepper gave the word or not.

"Hey, Horton, you're up," one of the bodyguards of the Maggia leader said to the inventor, and Tony immediately stood up from his chair and followed him.

"Make sure you impress the Boss, mate," Two-Tone added with a smile and watched as Tony walked inside the Boss's office by himself.

The state of the small room was different from the conditions of the rest of the building and all of the other lairs. It was no surprise to him, though, that the place the Boss used on a daily basis to run the illicit business would sport wooden floors, exotically painted walls and held expensive items and furniture. What did surprise him, however, was the fact that the Boss was not a he, but a _she_, and that it was a _she_ he _knew_.

"Sit down," she ordered, and he did as so immediately in the chair that lay in front of her desk, trying very hard to avoid his shock and anger from showing on his face. The white-haired woman stared at the inventor up and down, as if scrutinizing an animal or anyone who she considered to be ranked below her.

"You don't look like much," she said as she tapped her fingers on the desk in a bored manner. "But I heard that you have a little bit more brains than some of the idiots that work for me."

"There isn't a lot of competition," Tony said with a shrug and his response caused Sasha Hammer to throw her head back and laugh aloud.

"Well, at least you have a sense of humor," she said. "But, I have to wonder, why you haven't made your escape, seeing that everyone thinks you're so smart."

"That's actually why I haven't tried to leave," he began. "My fiancée is still here, and I don't want anything to happen to her."

"Ah!" Sasha said with a raised brow. "She must be very important to you. Some of the other recruits have tried leaving without their women. Needless to say, they didn't get very far and they were forced to watch how long their girls could survive under water."

Tony swallowed hard to pretend he was being intimidated, but in fact he was trying not to choke the woman with his bare hands.

"That's very stupid of them."

"Extremely," she agreed with a nod. "You and your fiancée: how long have you two known each other?"

"Five years," he lied. "Going on six."

"Well, that's a long time to know someone nowadays."

"Yes, ma'am, it is."

"But even then, a lifetime can go by and you'll never really finish getting to know someone, don't you think?"

"I suppose so," he began, opened his mouth again to continue his retort, but then heard something that made his blood turn cold.

_"TONNNYYY! We have to get out! Call the FBI, NOW! They know, Tony! They know! They… AAAHHH! NOOOO!"_

"And?" Sasha asked with a smirk. "What else?"

Tony swallowed hard and licked his lips, all the while he used Extremis to contact the FBI, and to call on their armors. He set the destination for Iron Man to his location, and sent the Rescue armor directly to the warehouse where Pepper was being kept. All of the lairs for the Maggia were already being closely monitored by the FBI and the Special Forces, but he was not sure if anyone would get to Pepper in time to help her.

_Hang on, Pep, _the inventor pleaded silently and had to hold himself in place when he again heard her scream in his ear.

_"NO! GO AWAY! LEAVE THEM ALONE!"_

"James? Are you even listening to me?"

Tony eyed the woman again and took in a deep breath. His knuckles were turning white with the force he was grabbing onto the handles of the chair; the only thing that was keeping him from running out of the room to find Pepper.

"Yes," he cleared his throat. "It's just that, your question got me thinking about me and Claire."

"And? What exactly were you thinking about?"

"Well, a lot of things," he said and gulped.

"Such as?"

_"TONY! TONY, RUN! They're going to kill you! Please, RUN! The Boss knows! The Boss told them about us! Meet me outside! I just… I just need to save these girls, first! They're coming after me! Meet me outside!"_

Tony began breathing hard, no longer caring if he seemed suspicious to the woman. Pepper did not know where he was. She did not know he was no longer in the same building as her. She did not know the Boss was someone they both knew about. He had to tell her, somehow, that he was far away from her, not able to protect her at the moment. She needed to be told that she needed to stay safe until either he or Rescue showed up; that she needed to do anything to stay alive.

"Such as…" Tony continued, tired of the charade, and connected his molar implant frequency with Pepper and with the FBI so that they could hear his conversation with the woman. "Such as the fact that, I now realize, I paid too much money for your piece of shit of a company, Sasha."

"_WHAT?"_ he heard Pepper ask in between the sounds of scuffle. _"Sasha Hammer is the Boss?!"_

Sasha's smile turned Cheshire-like. "It was enough to get me here, Stark. And it's going to be enough to take it back."

"Hammer Multinational is gone, Sasha. It's history."

"_That bitch!" _the redhead added with a groan.

"Hammer is _not_ gone! My family's company is NOT gone! The only difference is that now it's called Stark Solutions, but not for much longer. I will take it back from you. I will take it back and make everyone forget who Tony Stark is!"

"What makes you think you're getting away with this, huh? How do you plan to even take it back? Stark Solutions is _my_ company, Sasha, not yours!"

"_Tony? Where the hell are you? I can't… UGH! Get OFF me! Gah! Where is the FBI?"_

Tony began to sweat. The Iron Man suit was almost at its destination, but the Rescue armor was still halfway from the warehouse. Even if he suited up right now and flew back to the abandoned building, it would be fifteen minutes until he made it to Pepper. Anything could happen in that time, including someone putting a bullet through her head.

_Just a little bit longer, Pepper. Stay alive, please. Just… stay alive!_

How he wished the implants could transfer thoughts!

"How about the fact that I have your girl with me?" she responded in a mocking tone and Tony flinched. "Oh, yeah, you forgot about that? I'm holding her hostage, remember? So, what you're going to do now is sign the transfer papers I have right here and Stark Solutions will be mine."

Tony eyed the documents for a second and then stared back at Sasha. "This won't get you the company. You need Pepper's signature, too. She's an owner of it, or did you forget that?"

"Of course I didn't, but I can always get that signature before I have her killed... or worse."

"_Don't_ touch her, Sasha. Don't you dare lay a hand on her or I swear I'll…"

"You'll, what? Kill her yourself? You know this is what you did, right? You know that if she dies today, it's all on you. I didn't even know you two were here. If it wasn't for you showing off your skills, I'd have never run that DNA test on you before I promoted you to the next level. We don't run those tests unless we plan on ranking-up someone, and it was your actions that led me to finding out who you are and then who she is. If my men kill her today, it's all your fault for bringing her here."

"What?" Tony stood up and so did Sasha.

"You heard me!" she pointed an accusing finger towards him. "I had no clue you were here until two days ago! But, as it turns out, your presence here, as unexpected as it was, worked well for me."

Tony flared his nostrils, narrowed his eyes at her, and clenched his fists.

"No," he said, took a step back, and his arm reached behind him to the lock the door. "It didn't."

The instant the last two words left him, the wall behind Sasha exploded in a million pieces when the suit busted inside. The bang caught the attention of the guards outside the office and Tony immediately ducked. Seconds after he practically kissed the ground, the bullets began making holes in the front wall. He covered his head with his arms and hoped the bullets ricocheting off his suit did not end up hitting him in the exchange.

As the amount of bullets fired began slowing down, he began crawling away from the door, aiming to reach the hole that would be his escape. It was not lost to him on his way out, however, that when the firing finally stopped and he heard a loud thud near him, it had belonged to the bullet-ridden, dead body of Sasha Hammer, killed by her own thugs.

"You had it coming, bitch," Tony said as he made his way inside the armor. "You're just lucky it wasn't me who killed you."

"He's in the suit!" he heard Two-Tone say from his position behind the knocked down door. "Get him!"

"I don't have time for you," Tony said and aimed his hand towards them, ready to knock every single of them unconscious. His actions were halted, however, when he heard the skin-crawling scream from his redhead in his ear, followed by the loud shrieks of the other girls near her.

"_It's JULES! He's got a gun! GO, RUN! ALL OF YOU! I'll hold him off! AAAAHHHH!"_

That was the last thing he heard of the ginger before he sped his way out of the lair and headed straight to her.

xxxXXXxxx

_"Pepper? Pepper can you hear me? Pepper, what happened? Pepper, please talk to me!"_

She _would_ if she _could_.

"So you're Iron Man's sidekick, huh?" Jules said with a satisfied smile as he walked towards the group of girls behind Pepper's standing form. The redhead spat on the ground and then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand from the remnants of the blood Jules had caused her when he had hit the side of her face with his gun, inevitably loosening the tooth that held the molar implant and making it fly out of her mouth to who-knows-where.

Her vocal contact with Tony was lost.

"No wonder you were so tough to crack," he continued as he flailed his pistol, a large and deadly Desert Eagle, in his hand. "Although, you don't have your suit or his protection here right now. It's just you and me, girly girl. Just the way I've wanted it for a long time."

"You sound too self-assured for being a guy who's holding a gun against a bunch of unarmed _girls_."

Jules scoffed. "I'm sure that if you were Rescue right now, you'd be saying the same to me."

"No," Pepper said "If I were Rescue right now, I'd have already blasted your balls off."

"I like it when you talk dirty to me, baby," the man was not at all deterred by Pepper's threats. "Is that why Tony Stark keeps you around? You talk dirty to him, too?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Jules scoffed again, closed the distance between he and Pepper and then lifted her chin with the barrel of the gun. One look down at the weapon and she knew it was loaded, the safety off, and ready to make the top half of her head disappear if he wanted to.

"I still have dibs on you, Honey. And I better get it now before the Boss has you killed."

"You wish. I'd much rather you blow my brains out right now than to have you lay a finger on me."

"What? You don't think I can force myself on you? Tony is not even in the building to protect you. He's far away, being killed by the Boss."

_ "Pepper, if you can hear me, Rescue it's on its way. I'm on my way, too, but Rescue will be there first!"_

The ginger smiled when she heard Tony's voice in her ear.

"You smiling, now?" Jules asked and pressed the gun deeper under her chin. "Is that a smile of confidence or fear?"

"Tony's gonna have your head."

"Oh, so I heard. Apparently he keeps you very close to him. But he must not care a lot about you, if he brought you here with him. That's was very, very stupid of him."

"Not as stupid as what you're doing right now."

"And what is that?" he purred.

"You've left yourself wide open," she whispered to him, and before he could figure out what she had meant, the ginger simultaneously kneed him in the groin and moved her head to the side. She then kicked the gun out of his hand and hit his back with her laced fists. Jules went down, crying in pain, and as Pepper was about to grab the gun, the intruder alarm went off.

"What the hell?" her hands flew to her ears.

The lights of the entire building turned off, and the only source of light now belonged to red, blaring emergency lights. The windows and doors of the warehouse were suddenly broken and taken down, respectively, by dozens of FBI, Special Forces and SWAT members, all ready to take down the last of the Maggia warehouses. Thanks to Tony's Stark signal, the other locations – including the one where the Boss had been kept – were already being taken down. Yet, this particular one, having been the farthest of them all, was the last one they had gotten to.

"FBI! Hands in the air! You're under arrest!"

Unfortunately for the authorities and Pepper, the Maggia members in this warehouse were rowdier and stupider than the rest.

"The hell we will!"

With that defiant cry, the crossfire began, and the group of girls was caught in between. All of them ducked onto the ground when the bullets began flying in every direction, and it was only a miracle that all of them were still intact with the amount and caliber of the weapons being used by both sides right now. Hitting the ground, however, was only a temporary solution, and Pepper knew that she needed to act fast to assure no innocent lives were lost.

"Come on!" Pepper called out to them over the noise of death in the making. "We need to get out! Follow me!"

Having been here for weeks now, Tony and the redhead had already pinpointed a few of the security flaws of the place, and they had exchanged that information when they had been together a week ago; information that would prove handy today. Her mind raced as she tried to find herself in the middle of the chaos and recall some of the locations she could use to start ushering the girls out the door. She knew none of them could afford to exit all through the same location and risk being shot at while waiting, so her only option was to send a few girls through one exit and then find the next one and send out some more.

"Lily, May, Lorna, you go out that window there! The rest, stay close!"

"Thanks, Pepper!" the three girls yelled back at her and quickly did as told. Pepper stole quick glances at the women, and when the last one made it out the window, Pepper sighed in relief.

_Three down, twenty-five to go._

Pepper looked back at the group of girls crawling on the floor behind her and made a note of each of them. As she had told Tony before, the Maggia had not discriminated against any race, shape or form, and the ginger knew she had to account for the girl's sizes and athletic ability when assigning exits to them. The last thing she needed was to hold up someone's escape because they did not fit through whatever exit she pointed out to them, or because they were not able to climb up a staircase fast enough.

"Natalie, Krista! Use that grate!"

Just like that, two more were gone, and Tony's words in her ear helped the redhead move along.

_ "Babe, I'm coming for you! Stay safe, alright? I'm on my way, Pep!"_

Group by group, the redhead began thinning out the herd. Sometimes she could only send two girls out, sometimes she sent up to four, but so far she had not found something safe for the very pregnant Glenda Barnes to make it outside without risking her condition. After a while, and after reaching the emergency stairs, it was only Pepper and Glenda left, and the only thing that they could do now was go up.

"Pepper, we're not going to make it, are we?" the teary-eyed girl said when she heard some Maggia members climbing the stairs under them. "We're gonna die, aren't we?"

"No, we're not, Glenda. We're gonna make it. Just stay close to me. We're heading to the roof."

"And then what?" the blonde asked but still followed Pepper, faster now that the Maggia had spotted them and had picked up their pace to catch up with them. "We're going to jump? The building is ten stories high!"

"No, we're not going to jump," Pepper said and took a few glances down to see the armed men getting ready to shoot at them. "My suit is on its way. I'll get you out."

"Your suit?"

"Yes, my suit. It should be here any second now. Now hurry u– DOWN!"

"AAAH!"

Pepper had only enough time to push the two of them down onto the floor before the Maggia began taking shots at them. The attempts were only being successful in slowing them down and not actually in hitting them, but being hit and being slowed down at this point amounted to the same result: their certain death – one faster than the other, but death nonetheless.

"Get that brunette bitch, first!" one of the thugs yelled. "She's Pepper Potts! She's gonna get Iron Man to come here and kill us all!"

"Then stop shooting at her! We need her alive!" another thug said and suddenly the firing stopped, allowing Pepper and Glenda to regain the ground they had lost just now.

"No, we don't!" a third thug reasoned. "Iron Man's still gonna kill us, anyway! Just kill _her_ now!"

"That makes sense."

"Does it?"

"Yeah, it does."

"Ah, alright! Kill her then!"

As the four men began running up and looked for the girls, they noticed that they were no longer within reach. They picked up the pace to catch up with the women, but then stopped when they realized they could not hear them moving around anymore. The only sound of steps were coming from them, and when they stopped stomping, the only other sound in the narrow upward hall were of the guns, grenades and yelling happening outside.

"Did we kill them already?"

"I don't think so. Didn't we just see them make a turn?"

"Maybe it was our shadows?"

"What shadows? It's pouring outside! There's no shadows!"

"Oh, you're right."

The thugs took a few more steps, stretching their necks as much as they could to try to see a small glimpse of the two girls, but had no luck. Suddenly, one of the windows, one that was three sets of stairs above them, busted into pieces, and the men covered their heads with their arms. It only took them a second to recover and return to firing in the general direction the sound had come from, but when they heard the sound of buzzing and mechanical whirs, they all froze.

"Oh, I'm _so_ gonna get you for that," Rescue said as she precipitously appeared flying in the middle of the stairs and looked down at the thugs before she turned to her side to address her pregnant companion. "Glenda, keep going up. I'll meet you there in a minute. I just need to settle a score with those dumbasses down here."

"OK," the woman said with a nod and began running up the remaining flights of stairs as fast as she could. Rescue then looked back at the men who were staring at her with wide eyes and, if the helmet had had a see-through feature, the thugs would have been able to see the smirk on her face.

"So, who did you losers call a bitch, huh?"

"Oh, _shiiit_!"

The crossfire began.

In the confined space of the emergency staircase, both her repulsors and the bullets ricochet in every direction, making the rest of the windows break and holes to appear in the walls. She tried several times to use her sonic blasters on them to make them pass out, but she soon realized that the four men that had started chasing them seconds ago had all of a sudden turned into ten, and those ten into twenty.

Word had spread out about her.

_Crap._

The back and forth between them extended for longer than she would have liked, and knowing that she could not allow them to reach Glenda, the ginger decided to abandon ship, sped upwards and blew up the last sets of stairs on her way out to prevent the men from following them. The bolts of thunder and lightning outside were making her nervous when it dawned on her that the roof of a ten-story building was probably not the safest place for a defenseless, tired, malnourished pregnant woman, and the thought only made her fly faster.

"Glenda?" Rescue screamed over the sound of hard rain, wind and thunder when she exited the stairs and reached the roof. She looked left and right and, as she did so, a chill ran down her spine and a sudden spike of pain hit her left temple, making her shake her head rapidly.

_What the hell?_ She thought. _I… I've been here before._ _This place looks familiar but… but I've never been up here until now._

The redhead shook her entire body to try and get rid of the horrible sense of déjà vu that had just invaded her, and returned to the original reason why she had come up here in the first place.

"Glenda? Where are you?" Rescue called again when her first try was unsuccessful. There was no way the woman had just disappeared into thin air; there was no way out of here other than down, and for a moment the ginger feared that she had sent the desperate blonde to her death.

_Oh, nuts!_

She flew left and right and looked down at the ground, but there was no sign of the girl. Had she passed out on her way up and Pepper had just missed her in her haste? Had she gone inside one of the other floors instead? She knew she had told her to go to the roof, but she had already been reluctant to do so. Did she disobey her orders in the end?

When a bolt of lightning hit strikingly close to her, Pepper closed her eyes and flinched when the spike of pain returned.

_He sat on the ground with his back against one of the outer walls of the small room that hid the stairs. He positioned himself in such a way that they were protected from the sun by the shadow the small room projected. He placed his backpack next to him on his right, and bent his legs to his chest. Pepper took off her backpack as well and laid it next to his before she also sat on the ground to Tony's left so that they were shoulder-to-shoulder. Tony's left hand held onto her right one, lacing their fingers together and briefly bringing them up to his lips to kiss hers for an instant before he rested his right cheek on their intertwined hands, and their hands rested on his knees._

Pepper opened her eyes again and blinked desperately, trying to both place and remove the unknown memory from her mind. She took a step closer to the center of the roof, and when she regained some of her senses, she spoke up again.

"GLENDA?"

_"Pepper!"_ she suddenly heard Tony's panicked voice resounding in the helmet. _"Pepper, are you alright?"_

"Yes, Tony. I'm fine," she retorted even though she was not so sure. The image she had just seen in her head had shaken her, and the feeling of déjà vu was just getting stronger with every passing second. "I just… I lost Glenda."

_ "What do you mean you lost Glenda?"_

"I was getting her out of here," she began as she decided to search behind the small room that held the entrance to the staircase and started walking over to it. "But the Maggia caught up with us and the suit just got here and… and…"

Her gasp was the only continuation she could give to her interrupted thought.

_ "And what? And, what, Pepper? Pepper? Pepper!"_

Tony's voice took a back seat for her as her eyes widened in surprise. Before her stood Glenda Barnes, shaking in fear, with a gun being held to her head by none other than Jules Dyne.

"I see you got your armor," Jules said. "Why don't you make good on your promise and bust my balls now?"

Pepper narrowed her eyes at him even though he could not see her. Hitting the man now would entail hurting Glenda, too, and that was the last thing she wanted to do.

"You're even more pathetic now that you were before. Now you're using a gun AND a pregnant woman to protect you? You're nothing but trash."

"Trash that's going to take down Rescue. That's the best kind of trash."

Pepper's eyes began stinging and losing their focus. She tried to look at whatever was around her to concentrate on her task, and when her eyes landed on the back wall of the access to the staircase, she realized it was the same one she had just seen in her vision just now.

_How is that possible?_

A second later, she wished she had never asked.

_ Pepper's heart ached at seeing his concerned face, brow knitted in deep concentration, a dejected aura beaming all around him. She was aware of how much – in general – the feelings of guilt and personal accountability affected Tony. Even though he was usually laid-back, his sense of responsibility was greater than what she had seen on anyone else before, especially someone so young. She figured it came with the burden of being a superhero, and the brief period of time in his life where his father was considered long gone. Everyone who saw Tony from the glamorous point of view of a rising celebrity did not immediately become aware that for a period of almost two years of his life, the poor boy had been an orphan – rich, but still an orphan._

_The redhead took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, catching the attention of the genius. She finally gave him one of her honest bright smiles as she leaned down to his face and kissed his exposed cheek. _

"_I'm not mad at you, Tony. I'm sorry I snapped so easily. I should've known you'd never purposefully do anything to bring me any harm. I'm sorry, too."_

Pepper's hands flew to her head when the pain became unbearable. _What is this? What's happening to me?_

"What's going on, Rescue?" Jules mocked when he saw her begin to wobble. "Getting cold feet all of a sudden? Didn't you promise me some pain?"

Pepper felt her legs grow weak, and not even the cries for help from Glenda helped her stay aware. In seconds, hundreds of images hit her like a ton of bricks; images of her and Tony together, talking, hugging, _kissing_. Images of her last weeks of high school she did not recognize. Images of Whitney blaming her for Tony leaving her while torturing her. Images of Tony coming to get her here, at this same location, under the same weather conditions, right before an argument between them began.

Images, memories; memories she now knew she had forgotten.

_"Everyone's worried about you," Iron Man told her. "Especially your dad."_

_ "You mean my __**adopted**__ dad?" she spat with more venom that she thought she could muster when speaking about the man that had raised her, practically by himself, since she was just a baby. "Did my fake mom ask about me, too?"_

_ "She doesn't know you ran off, and she doesn't need to find out about it, either."_

_ "I'm not going back home, Tony. You can forget about that."_

"I… I ran off?"

_"Pepper?"_ Tony called on the helmet when he realized her vitals were going haywire. _"Pepper!"_

"Who is she talking to?" Jules asked no one in particular, but his confusion did not make him lose his grip on the sobbing, pregnant girl.

_"Go away, Tony. Let me be."_

_ "Is that really what you want?"_

_ "Y-yes," she said as steadily as she could, angrily wiping tears from her face._

_ "And if I leave, then what? Are you going to call me?"_

_ "No," she answered immediately. "I'm not going to call you."_

_ "Ever?" he asked, and when she shook her head at him, he spoke again. "Then, I'm staying."_

_ "NO!" She walked closer to him. "I didn't ask you to come find me, you know?"_

_ "But you __**wanted**__ me to find you. Otherwise you wouldn't have come here, where you knew I could find you: to __**our**__ hideout."_

"Our hideout… this… is our hideout…"

_"Pepper, what are you doing?"_ Tony insisted as he sped up to reach her location. _"Pepper, calm down! You're going to give yourself a heart attack!"_

_"Dammit, Pepper!" he threw his hands in the air. "What do you want me to do? Break up with you? Will that make you happy? Is that what you want? This doesn't have to be this hard, you know? Your dad is worried sick about you. We all are. We want you back, Pepper. We spent the entire day looking for you: me, my dad, Rhodey, Roberta and your dad. They're ready to start again in a few hours. Do you want me to just leave you alone and tell them you don't care enough about them to come back? Is that what you want me to do for you?"_

_ "No."_

_ "Do you want me to get on my knees and beg?"_

_ "Of course not!"_

_ "Then what, Pepper? What do you want?"_

_ "I DON'T KNOW! I… I just want everything to go back to the way it was a few days ago. Before my mom showed up. Before I found out I'm adopted. Before the trouble at school. Before you told me that… that you… before we…"_

"AAAAHHH!"

_"PEPPPERRR!"_

The ginger fell to her knees, weakened in her confusion and, at that exact moment, Jules took a shot at her head. The bullet bounced off thanks to the helmet, but he tried again and again until he ran out of shots, leaving Rescue even more disoriented and dizzy than she already was. Now out of options and weapons, Jules did the only thing he could think to do: he charged at the distraught hero, pregnant woman in tow. He knew that Iron Man was coming here to kill him for laying a finger on his woman, and this was his only chance to do something about taking down the woman he could not submit to him. This was his only chance to cause pain to the male armored vigilante.

"Ugh!"

The trio suddenly became a tangled mess of limbs: Jules trying to get to Pepper; Glenda trying her best to stop him; and Pepper trying to figure out where she was, why these images kept hitting her so hard and wobbling all over the place.

How had she forgotten all of this? No one had told her she had forgotten her own past! Why had no one cared to mention a great chunk of her memories had been practically locked away in her mind?

One by one, the memories that had been so carefully edited and reconstructed began undoing themselves, finally culminating in the memory that had all the answers for her, a memory that she had never actually forgotten, but which now had a greater significance than she had thought: the memory that told her _why_ she had forgot.

"_Anyway," Gene cleared his throat. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's going to be painful, Pepper."_

_"Yeah, well," she shrugged. "It's worse not knowing I've got Ghost as my physical therapist."_

_"True, but I'm not kidding about the pain. This is going to hurt, a lot."_

_ Pepper sighed. "This is what I want, Gene. Just, try to make it quick, alright?"_

_"Alright," Gene sighed. "Let's do it. Stark, you know what to do."_

_"Yeah," Tony said and stood up. He then led Pepper to the middle of the room and had her sit on the stool he had just vacated. He left the compress on the table and returned to stand behind her, ready to catch her if she fell during the process._

_"Close your eyes," Gene told the ginger and she did so, and then rested her hands on her lap. "Clear your mind. Take a deep breath… and…"_

_Gene placed his left hand on her head and she immediately screamed._

_ The pain she was feeling was like no other she had felt before. It felt as if her brain was being put apart and new patterns were being carved with a jagged rock before being nailed back together. Her fingernails were digging into her skin and her entire body tensed, and just when she thought she could not handle it anymore, she felt someone's arms keeping her from falling off the stool._

_ "It's alright, Pepper," Tony whispered to her as he kept her in place. "It'll be over soon. It'll all be over soon."_

"No," she sobbed. "He… he couldn't… he _wouldn't_!"

"Pepper, watch out!" Glenda's scream snapped her back to reality, only to realize the three of them were now reaching the edge of the building.

"NO!"

The redhead screamed when she felt Jules slip in a puddle, causing the three of them to flip back and go over the ledge and plummet down the building. Pepper's mind was jumbled and her senses were shot, thwarting her ability to think clearly and quickly enough to immediately do anything about their fall. Nevertheless, she knew that_ she_ would survive the fall thanks to the suit, but Jules and Glenda would have no such luck.

_No_, Pepper thought with as much determination as she could muster. _I can't let that happen!_

She forced her eyes open and stared at the terrified face of Glenda Barnes, which gave her the last push she needed to focus enough to verbally override security protocol 7871. She knew she should have used the shields, she knew she could have done many other things, but after realizing what Gene and Tony had done to her behind her back, after realizing what she had given up to be with a lying Tony and all the lives she had ruined doing so, and as the memories continued to painfully ransack her senses, body and mind, she could not make herself care enough to save them all.

_"Passcode?"_ the AI replied.

"Mister…" she struggled to speak as the intensity of the memory reconfiguration undoing itself caused her muscles to spam against her will. "Mister Tony Potts 503. Lock… on target… at 2 o'clock!"

"_What are you doing, Pepper? PEPPER!"_

Tony Stark screamed when he saw the three bodies about to hit the ground. He boosted his speed faster than he thought possible, but it was not fast enough to prevent what was about to come. In seconds that ticked by both quickly and slowly, his worst nightmare became true before his eyes.

"Transfer X-51 onto target, NOW!"

The suit immediately responded to Pepper's command and it freed its user from the protection it provided. The suit immediately enveloped the other woman, adjusted to her pregnant body, and kept her in the air just as two bodies hit the ground with a loud thump. The last thing that crossed Pepper's mind was a conversation between her and Gene.

_"Was it really that terrible, what happened to me?"_

_ "It was uncalled for, to say the least. And if you ever feel like it's not worth living with the truth, I want you to look at this box and hold it, and remember that you still have longevity in your hands."_

Sadly, Pepper was not currently holding the box.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Yeah, so I typically don't write young characters sleeping together but for this story I figured 'What the hell?' They've suffered enough and they've known each other for three years and they're both consenting adults now. Sorry if the implication of it bothered you. Either way, they deserved a little bit of happiness before I kill Pepper, or Tony, or both, or neither, or write whatever other devious thought comes to mind ;) What do you think?


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: **Alright, my Faithful Readers: no more previews for now (You won't need them, anyway; you'll see why soon enough ;))

**Guest Reviews Responses**

**pepperony4evah: Nah. Your not gonnakill her, or him, well unless Tony has masterpiece tech 'Stark death reviver ' hidden somewhere. Much as tony loves pep he always gets her in trouble. I knew he was acting too smart. He shoulda acted scared, confused, dumb like other guys did. But no, he can NEVER act NOT smart, because he's got an ego bigger than nicky minaj's ass. So didn't pepper ask Gene to wipe her memories? Why does she think gene and tony did it behind her back? **HAHAHAHAHAHA! Nicky Minaj's ass? Holy crap! That sounds about right XD And Pepper asked Gene to help her recover all of her memories, but Tony asked Gene to change them and they picked and chose what they wanted her to remember and what not. I think Tony's gonna get in trouble for that.

**pepperony4evah:And thank god for making them confess without being disturbed. One more disturbance and i would have jumped straight out the window. Lol pepper wanted to be taken then and there. Tsk tsk Why do you have to keep her waiting tony? I guess he wants to make it really special. A deserted island, a luxurious cottage, a bed with rose petals scattered, a two dozen lit candles, celine dione in background... No wonder tony didnt wanna take her ***takes notes* You know, your romantic setting description doesn't sound bad at all. I like it. Might borrow it. If it's OK.

**before reading this chapter... i was like- what- the- hell- is- going- on... after reading this chapter...* asigh of relief* thanks including a bitter-sweet moment for pepperony fans..! **^_^ It was all for you, my Faithful Readers!

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><p><strong>Chapter 10: July<strong>

Tony Stark splashed cold water over his face and rubbed it vigorously, willing himself to remain awake. He then grabbed a large paper towel from the dispenser and patted his face partially dry before he stared at himself in the large mirror before him. Even though his eyes were focused on his frayed image, his mind was a thousand miles away, replaying the images of two weeks before.

_He kneeled down before Pepper, his hands hovering over her form, afraid to move her lest he further injured her. Scans from his helmet told him she was still breathing, but he was not sure how good that truly was considering she had just fallen over one-hundred feet to the cold, wet, hard ground. The suit had somewhat slowed down her speed before she had taken it off, and Jules had also somewhat broken her fall. The trail of red slipping from the man's cracked skull was all the proof the inventor needed to know the Maggia member was dead, and the groaning, pregnant woman behind him being tended by the FBI agents that had ran to the scene, showed Pepper's actions had not been in vain._

_At what cost, however, he did not dare consider just then._

The blue-eyed boy closed his eyes and casted aside the memories for now.

He had not shaved or cut his hair since the day the Maggia had taken Pepper, and it showed. His jeans were torn, his t-shirt was wrinkled and he had not even bothered to tie the laces of his tennis shoes. He looked two notches away from resembling a vagrant, and all he was missing was a sign hanging from his chest that read: _will sing for change_.

He threw the paper towel in the trashcan and sighed. He was due to call Virgil at some point today about Pepper's condition, and he felt like the biggest, most useless jerk in the whole wide world. What was he supposed to tell the man? What kind of update could he even provide? There had been no change in Pepper's prognosis, and other than apologizing to him again for allowing this to happen to his one and only daughter, he had nothing new to report.

He slowly turned around and exited the men's bathroom of the hospital his redhead was in, and took slow steps toward the exit of the building. Pepper had been kept in ICU for a few days, but she had then been moved to a private area of the hospital where only high-profile patients were treated. There were hardly any people allowed up there other than the patients' relatives and some hand-picked medical staff, which included good ol' Dr. Ross and Nurse Owen, both of which had been doing anything they could to help Pepper find her way back.

_We really need to transfer to another hospital_, the inventor thought when he found himself walking over to a familiar bench that oversaw the neighboring cemetery he had learned to despise. This time, however, the bench was not empty, but since he was in no mood to talk to anyone and he knew he looked like a potential serial killer anyway, he did not care that there was a woman sitting there already. He sat on the backrest of the bench, planted his feet on the sitting portion of it, and then stared at the caretakers of the cemetery as they cut the grass around the gravestones and markers.

He was surprised when, after ten minutes of silence, the woman did not seem at all rebuffed or intimidated by his presence near her. He was even more surprised, however, when she practically shoved an unlit cigarette in his face. The inventor stared down at the agent of cancer with disdain and frowned.

"Thanks, but I don't smoke."

"I don't either," she immediately replied and added to her offer the lighter she had just gotten out of her purse. "But you look like you can use a puff."

Tony eyed the two items being handed to him for another moment before his hands grabbed them both with a sigh. He stuck the cigarette in his mouth, cupped the air around his mouth with his right hand and, after a couple of sparks that finally resulted in a fire, he lit up the smoke and then returned the lighter to the woman.

"I thought you said you don't smoke," she said with an arched brow. "That was pretty flawless for an amateur."

"My dad used to smoke for a while," Tony replied as he held the cigarette in between his index and middle fingers and away from his mouth and then exhaled the smoke through his lips. "I got curious a few times and stole some from him."

"Ah, I see. Makes sense," the woman said, lit up one for herself, and then put the lighter away. "So, how's Miss Potts? Is she doing any better?"

Tony pursed his lips, cigarette between them and furrowed his brow at the woman. She lifted her hands in the air in a defensive gesture and shrugged.

"It's all over the news and I'm not a reporter, if that's what you're worried about. My grandpa has cancer and he's getting worse, so we brought him here. I'm taking a break from watching over him."

Tony's eyes narrowed even more as he used Extremis to connect to the DMV database to match the woman's face with her records. When he saw that her day job was as a school teacher in Jersey, he relaxed. He had not been aware he could do that until the Maggia stakeout, and he knew this new ability of his that he had just recently discovered would come in handy from now on.

"She's still unresponsive," he said and returned his eyes to the graveyard. "Stable, but unresponsive."

"I'm sorry to hear that," the woman said with honesty. "It was a very brave thing what you two did. I can't imagine what it would've been like for those families, never knowing what had happened to their loves ones."

Tony swallowed hard.

"_For fucks sake, Pep! Why can't you understand? I can't… I __**won't**__…. I won't lose you again!"_

"_You won't," she assured him and searched for his eyes. "You won't, Tony. We'll be prepared, better prepared than last time. We have the advantage of my research and your inventions. We can do this. We can help these people get their loves ones back."_

"_And what about __**my**__ loved one?" he spat and stared directly at her eyes. She pulled her hands away from his shoulders and was about to take a step back from him, but he stopped her by holding her face in his hands and traced her cheeks with his thumbs. "What about my loved one?"_

"It was nothing," he said, more out of routine than anything else. "That's what we do."

"It wasn't: nothing," the woman argued. "It was the largest crackdown on organized crime in decades! And you didn't_ have_ to do it, but you still did. The police officers that were involved with the Maggia got what they deserved, the Maggia is finally history, _The Rotary_ was closed down and their owners charged with conspiracy. And most importantly, all of those poor people caught in the middle get to go home and live a long life thanks to you and her."

"And I get to watch my partner sleep until she dies," he said bitterly in between clenched teeth before he spared the woman a glance. "Sounds like a fair exchange, right?"

His eyes returned to the cemetery and he took another inhale of the cigarette, a much larger one this time, and then lightly tapped the mouth of the cig for the ashes to loosen up and fall to the ground. The woman silently stared at him with a saddened look, and when he continued to smoke without saying another word and the frown appeared to be settling on his face, she spoke up again.

"You love her, don't you?"

Tony stared at the woman, his pain-ridden face unchanged, but he did not reply. Instead, he returned his attention to the cigarette and then exhaled the smoke through his nose.

"I knew you did," the woman continued. "I told my sister about it and she said I was crazy. She said that it wasn't possible since you're going out with that brunette girl and she's going out with that other guy, but I just knew that you liked her more than just a friend. It's so obvious, it's painful and I don't understand why two aren't together. You're so perfect for each other."

Tony arched his left eyebrow at the woman that had barely taken a break or a breath to say all those words without stopping, and he wondered, for a fraction of a second, if this woman was Pepper's long-lost sister, or something to that effect.

"It's not that simple," he finally said. "It's very complicated, actually."

"Of course it is complicated," the woman scoffed. "It's love. _Real _love. It _has_ to be complicated. And I'm sure she loves you, too. No woman would defend a man so much like she does, if she didn't feel something very strong for him."

"Well," Tony finished his smoke. "It doesn't matter now. She's probably not getting out of this one."

"Maybe, maybe not," she said with a shrug. "But if she does, you should just tell her how you feel. You're wasting time with this other girl and she's wasting time with the guy she's dating. If you don't tell her you love her when she wakes up, you may not get another chance."

Tony remained silent and the woman sighed, believing she had not been able to get through to the inventor. Tony had not told anyone about what had happened between him and Pepper when they were undercover, and neither Maya nor Scott knew about the change of plans between them. He had been tempted, many times, to just throw it in the jock's face that Pepper was no longer his, especially when he called her his fiancée, but he knew better than that. He had to wait for Pepper to wake up first, talk about it with her, and then decide when and how they would let everyone know that they were back together, and what that meant for everyone else.

"I have to go back inside, but please think about what I just said. I'm telling you from experience: don't let her go. If you love her, let her know now, before it's too late. You'll hate yourself, if you don't."

Tony stared at the woman's back as she stood up and stomped the cigarette on the ground. He then stared at the butt of the cigarette he still held in his hands and sighed.

"Thanks for the smoke," the blue-eyed boy said.

"No problem," she said, waved at him goodbye, but she was only able to take two steps away from him before Tony spoke again.

"What happened to him?" he blurted out, knowing that it was not his business finding out what experience the woman was referring to, but he was still curious enough to ask. "The guy you liked. What happened to him?"

"Car crash," she said after a pause. "He'd gone to a party and saw me kissing another guy. It wasn't even like that. It was a misunderstanding, but he wouldn't listen. He got pissed off and drunk and drove home. He never made it there."

"I-I'm sorry," he gulped, but the woman just shrugged.

"I hope she gets better soon, Mr. Stark."

"Thanks," he said. A moment later, he was alone again. Alone again to continue remembering the reason why he was here now.

_He retracted his helmet and looked back over his shoulder to the slowly arriving ambulances behind him. The weather had made this mission everything but easy, and even though the fight against the Maggia had finally ended, it was now a race against time to save those that had been injured in the crossfire. His radio communications were jammed with the back and forth messages between the leaders of the government agencies on the scene as they coordinated recovery efforts, but Iron Man was not paying much attention to the organized chaos developing around him. _

_The rain had just gotten worse and it stung his uncovered eyes, but he refused to let the momentary inconvenience stop him from bringing aid to his girl. Glenda was already on a stretcher, and by the sounds of it, she had gone into labor, potentially due to the scare she had just received when she had been plummeting to her __near-__death. Now that the word was out that Iron Man and Rescue had just led the authorities to bust the Maggia, the media was hot on the information trail; the notifications of the first news reports regarding the stakeout were already piling up in his activity log._

"_I need a stretcher over here! NOW!" Tony yelled from his position next to Pepper. "Rescue is down!"_

_A couple of paramedics immediately ran toward him, medical equipment in hand, and Tony watched as they began assessing her condition. He did not want to leave her side, he wanted to be there while they tended to her, but a hand on his shoulder and a voice calling his name let him know he was needed elsewhere right now._

"_Tony, we need your help. We… we can't get the suit off the woman and… and she says her water broke."_

_The inventor clenched his eyes shut for a second, silently cursing with every word in the book. He then opened his eyes again, grabbed Pepper's arm that had been cleared of injury, and pressed a kiss on her knuckles. _

"_I'll be right back, Pepper," he uttered to her even though she was still unconscious. He then carefully let go of her hand, looked up and took turns to silently and sternly stare directly at the eyes of the two paramedics. The simple gesture could have been interpreted as nothing more than a notice that he was about to leave, but the two men knew better. Iron Man had just given them a warning; he had just issued a promise to them – a promise of pain befalling them if they failed to do their job in assisting the ginger to assure her condition did not deteriorate._

xxxXXXxxx

An hour after the woman had left, Tony found himself walking back to the hospital. By this point, no one even asked him any questions about where he was heading and why he was there, as he practically lived at the damn place. The path to Pepper's room had him walking by the maternity ward every time, and as he made his way through it yet again, a memory of a moment in time that had occurred shortly after the Maggia had been taken down, returned to his mind.

_"Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark! Please, wait up!"_

_ Tony reluctantly slowed down his fast pace to Pepper's room and turned around to face the incoming blonde woman with a baby in her arms. He had just left the redhead's room for a moment to go pick up the food Jarvis had brought over for him even though he already knew he was not going to eat it, and the last thing he had wanted was to be stopped by anyone on his way back._

_ "I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, I won't take much of your time, I promise. I just want to know if she's doing any better, and to thank you both for what you did for us… for me."_

_ Tony's eyes landed on the baby girl in Glenda's arms for a second before he looked up at the woman again. _

"_It's too early to tell," he told her. "The fall was… well… you were there. I… I don't know what's going to happen to her."_

_ "I'm really sorry, Mr. Stark. Not that I'm not grateful for what she did for me: she saved my life, but I can't help to feel guilty for being here when she…. if she…"_

_ "Don't feel guilty," he said, eyes fixed on the floor. "It's… that's just what she does. She would've done it for anyone. She… she's done it for me."_

_ Glenda's brow furrowed and she rearranged the fussy baby's position in her arms. She knew the baby was a product of her suffering while under the Maggia's captivity, but she also knew it was not the baby's fault that she had been conceived in the worst of ways. Luckily for Glenda, her fiancé had understood her situation, and even though the baby was not his, they were going to go through with their wedding plans and he was going to adopt the little girl._

_ "I… we're naming her Patricia," Glenda said and pointed to the baby with her chin. "We found out that that's Pepper's real name. I want my baby to grow up to be like Pepper, and maybe having her name will set her on the right path. I don't know what would've happened to all of us if Pepper hadn't been there. She really stuck her neck out for us. I…" the woman's eyes began to shine. "I know you two are rich and all, and there's probably nothing I could have that you two can't get, but if there's anything you and her need, please let me know."_

_ "Thanks," Tony said with a slight nod. "I… I better get going. If she wakes up and I'm not there, she's going to kill me," he said, trying to bring some humor into the conversation but the smile never really reached his eyes._

_ "She's going to make it, Mr. Stark. She's a tough one."_

_ "She is," he agreed and then looked away. "Congratulations," he added, and before Glenda could say anything else, he turned around and left._

He finally made it to the correct floor and made a beeline for her room. He opened the door, let himself in, and then closed the door behind him. His eyes landed on her form, hoping to see some indication that she had woken up, but everything was still the same. He sat in the chair that he had essentially grounded next to her bed, grabbed her right hand in his, and rested his head on her stomach, his face fronting hers.

"I'm back, Pepper," he whispered to her. "And no, I still haven't shaved or gotten a haircut. I'm not going to until you wake up."

His comment was met with expected silence, and he closed his eyes. He was tired, in pain, and his head hurt, and he knew that he would probably fall asleep here again, just as he had done so rather often ever since she had been taken out of the ICU.

"I dreamt about us again, last night," he began. "It was the same dream as the other night. You know: _the one_? This time, though, Two-Tone didn't show up to pick me up and we weren't in that room but at home, in my bedroom."

He slid the chair closer to the bed so that his head was more centered on her stomach, and after placing a small kiss on her hand and closing his eyes again, he began losing himself in the memories of the best night he had ever had in his life.

He remembered the way her completely bare skin had felt against his, and the thought of hearing her moan his name made him shiver again. His lips could probably map out nearly every curve and crevice on her body, and he wanted to think her lips could do the same for him. The marks of her fingernails on his back had already disappeared, but the feeling of desperation that had placed them there had not.

The image of her flushed cheeks and tangled hair under him had woken him up smiling one too many times, and he honestly and shamelessly could not wait to have her again, in their real appearances this time. He knew a second time between them would be completely up to her, but his hormones refused to believe she would not want it as much as he did. Even if the next morning she had acted shy and slightly embarrassed about her actions of the night before, nothing in her demeanor or words had told him she had not enjoyed it as much as he had, which gave him hope that she would like to repeat the action many more times.

_He brushed her hair off her face and smiled. She was still sleeping, her mouth slightly ajar, and even though it was cool inside the humid room and their clothes were everywhere but on them, she still felt warm to the touch. He had been watching her sleep for a while now, knowing that, as soon as the sun showed itself, he would be forced back to his own room. He knew he should be sleeping too, resting before he was forced to slave work again with only a few hours of sleep in him, but he could not stop staring at her._

_ Her hands were under her head, lying on her left side, and her back was to the wall. His back was to the entrance of the room, lying on his right side, and he was facing her, practically enclosing her body with his from the rest of the world. The cot was very small, made for one person only, but somehow they had managed to make it work. It was the size of it that allowed him to be inches away from her, and to feel her breath on his face right now, and had he not been aware that beds were also made for sleeping, he would have already made arrangements for shrinking the sizes of their beds at home._

_ His eyes closed a few times, but every time he forced them to open up again. He did not want to miss any second of this even though the circumstances were not the best, and not knowing when he would be able to see her again was enough to make him want to stay awake as long as he could. It was not going to be long before they would have to call the mission to an end; it would not be long until they would be left with no choice but to call it quits and hopefully return home together and ready to continue where they had left off more than a year ago._

_ A loud knock on the door startled them both, and when her eyes opened wide and she gasped, he knew she had momentarily forgotten where they were. He threw a protective arm over her as he looked over his shoulder and toward the door, expecting it to slam open even though it was still dark, but when all he heard was Two-Tone telling him that he only had one more hour left, followed by his retreating footsteps, they both visibly relaxed._

_ The inventor then returned his eyes to her and his defensive face immediately softened when his eyes landed on her features. She was having trouble looking him in the eyes and she lowered her gaze between them, only to then remember they were both still pretty naked from last night. She pressed the covers closer to herself, trying to place a barrier in the middle, but there was only so much blanket available to them._

_ "Hey, babe, good morning," he whispered to her and kissed her lips. "Sleep well?" he added and she instantly blushed. She closed her eyes completely and covered her face with her hands, causing him to chuckle in amusement. "Hey, hey, what's that about?"_

_ "Nothing, uhm," she gulped. "Could you, like, not look at me right now?"_

_ "Why not?"_

_ "Because, I, uhm… I… just… I seem to have misplaced my clothes."_

_ Tony smirked, slowly pulled her hands away from her face, and threw her arms over his shoulders. _

"_That didn't seem to be a problem last night."_

_ Her blush doubled at that, and then tripled when he slid closer to her and she could again feel his nude skin on hers. His hands moved from her arms to her shoulders and then down to her waist, and even though she shivered at his touch and slightly pressed her body towards his, she was still not looking at his eyes._

_ "Tony, you… you-you're making me nervous."_

_ "How come? Don't you trust me? I… I'm not expecting us to… you know… again. I just want to be with you while I can. Am I-Am I making you uncomfortable? Do you want me to stop?"_

_ "No, no. I know… I just… it's… it's the morning, and now I'm a little bit more aware and…"_

_ Tony frowned and searched her eyes with his until she finally stared at him. "Are you… are you regretting it?"_

_ "No! Of course not!" she hurried herself to say and shook her head lightly. "That's not what I meant! I don't. I don't regret it at all."_

_ "Are you sure?"_

_ "Yes, Tony, I'm sure," she said and added a kiss to his lips he happily returned. "It's just weird, you know, that it finally happened?"_

_ "Bad weird or…"_

_ "Good weird," she giggled. "VERY good weird."_

_ "Very good weird as __in__ you wouldn't mind doing it again?"_

_ She blushed again, but not as brightly as before. _

"_Yeah, as in I wouldn't mind doing it again. Right now, actually, if we weren't on a timetable."_

_ Tony smiled widely and she returned the smile before he pressed his lips against hers again. They exchanged kisses for a few minutes, their hands exploring their bodies as they did so, and when they broke for air, the inventor pressed their foreheads together._

_ "Pepper, when we get out of here, when this is over, I want us to go on a vacation. An actual vacation, this time. I want us to go up to the mountains, just you and me, and spend an entire week there, alone, away from all of this. I want to wake up like this with you every day we're there. And then, when we come back, I want you to move in to my room, permanently, and just do this every day with you."_

_ "That sounds good, Tony, but I'm afraid it's gonna have to wait."_

_ "What? Why?"_

_ "Have you forgotten about Maya and Scott? We still need to talk to them and explain this to them, and it's probably not going to be good, easy or short."_

_ "Oh," Tony said. "I-I… you're right. I… I did forget about them. How… when do you want to tell them?"_

_ "I… I don't know. I have to think about it. For you it's just going to be a relationship breakup, but for me… well… I have a ring."_

_ Tony sighed. "Yeah, the ring – that fucking ring. Which, by the way, __is__ not good enough for you. When I get you yours, it's gonna be so much better than that, I promise."_

_ "When?" she chuckled. "__**When**__, Tony, really? Don't you mean: if?"_

_ "Hell no! Not __**if**__, when. WHEN I get you yours."_

_ Pepper pulled her face away from his forehead and held his head in her hands for a moment. She stared at him with a questioning look for a minute and frowned in confusion. The inventor shifted his eyes left and right, not sure what to expect from her, but figured that as long as she was still holding him, it could not be that bad._

_ "Tony, I… I have to ask…"_

_ "What is it?"_

_ "I, well, you… you sound like you're really… I don't know…,into this. Like you've been planning it and waiting for it for a long time but… but it doesn't make any sense to me that you would. You know? I mean, why would you just now say anything about it, if you've felt this strongly about us? Why not before? Or did it just hit you all of a sudden?"_

_ "I guess," Tony began, measuring his words and trying his best not to get into the ugly details of what his real answer should have been. "I guess I've always felt like this since I met you, I just… I just didn't know what it was. You know how much I suck at relationships and communicating and… well, I guess you can say it just grew little by little until one day it just slapped me in the face, and I couldn't hold it in anymore."_

_ "Well," she smiled. "I'm glad you didn't hold it in anymore. I've been thinking about you like crazy since Christmas."_

_ "What?" his eyes widened in shock. "Christmas? Are you kidding me? I could've been with you since Christmas? What gives, Potts? Why didn't you tell me?"_

_ Pepper sighed. "I thought it was just a crush and you were with Maya and… and then this mission came up…"_

_ "And then you agreed to marry Scott."_

_ "Yes," she agreed. "But then, we got drunk and, well… I… it just… it got stronger and…"_

_ "And now we're here," he said. "And we're together now, and the only thing keeping us from telling it straight to Maya and Scott is that we're here, locked up."_

_ "Yes," she said with a nod. "Plus, I've known you for so long and I care about your friendship. I didn't want to mess it up."_

_ "I know what you mean, Pep," he kissed her. "But it's going to be OK. I promise. We're going to be fine," he kissed her again. "It's going to be alright."_

_ Pepper giggled behind his lips, and ended up pulling him on top of her, and they both enjoyed the last few minutes they had to themselves._

Tony kissed Pepper's hand again, got ready to take a quick nap where he lay, but when he heard the door open and close behind him, he frowned. He knew his father was not going to come visit the ginger until the afternoon, and Maya was probably just now halfway to the hospital from school. The inventor had left the room for an hour for a reason, and this reason had just returned to the room when he least expected him.

"So," Scott began from his standing position by the door. "Do you have some kind of deal with this hospital?"

Tony straightened out his back and looked at the man over his shoulder, but refused to give up his chair or let go of Pepper's hand. He had been avoiding Scott the entire time the redhead had been here, but he now knew that it had probably just made the jock's anger simmer and increase rather than dissipate like he had hoped it would.

"What?"

"I'm asking if you have a discount deal going on with the hospital since this is the third time Pepper has ended up here because of a fuck up of yours. Is this stay free, you know, since it's the third one and all?"

Tony narrowed his eyes at the man and then returned his attention to Pepper.

"If you have a problem with me, that's fine. We can talk it out. But why don't you just wait until we're not in her room? The last thing I want her to hear when she wakes up is you and I fighting. That'd only upset her even more."

"Oh, I thought about that too, but I just got back from speaking with Dr. Ross and he told me that they are releasing Pepper in three days. And you know why they're releasing her? Because there's not a damn thing they can do for her anymore! Because they've done all they can, and he just told me that staying here is a waste of time that she could be spending with her loved ones! Do you know how that makes me feel, huh? Do you know how angry I am that there's nothing I can do for her and that the man who did this to her has the audacity to come see her, as if it was his right to do so? That the man, the one responsible for_ my_ fiancée to be in this state, gets to take her home with him?"

Tony's eyes fixated on Pepper's face as he absorbed the information he had just been given. He had no that idea the doctors had run out of options for her. The anger that was currently driving Scott to tell the inventor just how he felt about his existence in Pepper's life was now slowly taking over him as well. Why was his life like this? Why had it given him a moment together with her, if it just planned on taking her away from him again, maybe forever this time?

"Can we _not_ do this right now? I need time to think about this. I need time to decide what to do about it. Maybe I can convince them to run more tests on her and… and then…"

"_You_? Convince _them_? Who the hell do you think you are, Stark? _You _need time to think about what to do with MY fiancée? Are you insane? You have no right to make any decisions for her! I think you've done enough for her. What else do you want? When are you going to stop? Until she's dead?"

"Will you just shut the fuck up?" Tony stood up and shifted his body so that he faced Scott, but still kept her hand in his. "Get the hell out of here, Summers! I'm not having this argument with you right now! I have better things to do than to feed your low self-esteem. And, you know what? I _can_ make these decisions for her because I'm her goddamned medical proxy!"

"For now," Scott spat and took a step closer to Tony. "But I'm working on getting that revoked."

Tony scoffed. "Good luck with that! My attorneys are going to be up your ass so fast, that you won't even_ know_ what hit you."

"It's not all about money or power, Tony. It's about doing what's best for her, and you clearly don't know what that means, and I think everyone knows that, thanks to the news. Everyone knows all the screwed up things she has gone through for you, and all it's going to take is for a judge to see that you're the worst thing that has ever happened to her for you to lose your medical privileges on MY woman!"

Tony's free hand turned into a fist. "She's _not _YOUR woman."

"Yes, she is."

"No, she isn't," the inventor deadpanned, and if Scott had not taken on four super-powered zombies all by himself, he would have probably been afraid of the look the rich genius was currently giving him. "Pepper is mine."

"If she were yours, she wouldn't be engaged to me, unless… unless this is your plan. If you can't have her, then… are you trying to get her killed because she's engaged to me? Is that what this is? She's either with you or with no one?"

"I'd stop talking if I were you," Tony warned. "If you know what's good for you, you'll shut your trap right now."

"Or what?" Scott challenged, closed the distance between them and, as soon as he stood in front of Tony, he slapped the inventor's arm away from Pepper's hand. Tony narrowed his eyes further when her arm ended up hitting the bed, and when he felt Scott's arm land on his shoulder to begin pushing him away from the ginger, the inventor had had enough.

_I'm sorry, Pepper_.

The genius turned in place, grabbed Scott by the front of his shirt and pushed him all the way to the wall. The jock hit the concrete barrier with a loud thud, and before he realized what he had unleashed, Tony lifted him from the floor by grappling onto his upper arms and slammed him against the wall with every phrase he spoke.

"You want to fight me, huh? You think you can take me? You don't know who you're dealing with, asshole!"

"You… don't… either!" Scott kneed Tony in the chest with all his force and the billionaire ended up releasing the jock from his tight grip to land on his butt. Tony slowly sat up on the floor and held onto his chest as he stood up, only to be met by Scott's fist.

Tony's body twisted with the force of the impact and he ended up face down on the floor again. This time, he recovered faster and stood up right as Scott was preparing to grab him from the back to throw him out of the room, but Tony ended up throwing himself at him instead.

In a matter of seconds, the two men forgot they were in a hospital room with their common love interest resting near them, and all they focused on was inflicting pain on the other man. Scott was surprised that Tony was this strong without the suit, and Tony was surprised the jock had fighting abilities at all. The details of how he had ended up defeating four E-zombies were not known to him, but there was something odd in the way the man could hold himself against Tony and his Extremis advantage that made the inventor worry.

Scott's foot accidentally tangled up with Tony's and they both went down to the floor. They rolled on the recently cleaned tiles as each one tried to have the upper hand, neither of them wanting the other to call victory. This was more than just a fight caused by Scott's implication that Tony had wanted Pepper dead; this was an altercation that was way overdue between them ever since Scott's eyes had landed on the redhead.

"I hope Pepper wakes up and realizes how dangerous it is to be with you!" Scott spat as he managed to pin down Tony for a second to punch him in the face. "Even if she doesn't want to be with me after she finds out I beat the shit out of you, I hope that she at least sees you're no good for her!"

"Shut up!" Tony said and, in his heightened anger, swapped positions with the jock and ended up pinning him down instead. "I'm so tired of you and your bullshit! You think you're so righteous and honest, but you're no different than me! You don't even care if she doesn't end up with you! You just don't want her to be with me because I'm better than you!"

"Better than me?" Scott scoffed and then pushed Tony off him by kicking his stomach with both feet. Tony flipped over the jock's head and landed on his back, barely missing hitting Pepper's bed. "You really think you're better than me?"

"I _am_ better than you!" Tony began and stood up, wiping the blood from his nose. "You don't even know Pepper like I do! You think you know everything about her, but you don't!"

"I _do_ know everything about her," Scott said as he too stood up and used the inside of his shirt to wipe his mouth from the blood. "Unlike you, she doesn't keep secrets from me!"

Tony scoffed. "That's what _you_ think. Has she told you that dancing with you is like, how did she put it? Oh, yeah, and I quote: _It's like going to a class of a subject you know nothing about. You're more worried about passing the test than getting anything out of the class_."

It was Scott's turn to scoff. "You think that's news to me? That's actually a compliment because, even though she knows I'm not you when it comes to dancing, she STILL dances with me."

"Yeah, out of pity!"

"No. Out of love."

"Pepper _doesn't _love you!" Tony said and jumped at the jock again. This time, however, Scott was prepared for it, so he ended up using Tony's momentum against him and slammed him against the window, breaking it on contact. Tony felt some of the glass shards land inside his t-shirt, but he quickly recovered.

"Is that all you've got?" Scott said and cracked his knuckles. "I thought you'd last longer. I thought you were tougher, but seeing as you don't have the will to even clean yourself up, you're much weaker than I thought you were."

"Weaker? WEAKER? I'll show you weak. I'm just getting started," Tony said and the scuffle continued. Scott grabbed Tony by his t-shirt, twirled them both and sent him to crash against the wall again. The hit on his back stung, but the inventor knew he had no time to dwell on it and prepared for Scott's incoming form.

"Look at you, Stark!" Scott spat as Tony redirected his incoming fist and the jock ended up being held in a chokehold by the billionaire. "Just look at yourself! You look nothing like the person you usually are! You're so weak that without her around, you've forgotten how to take care of yourself! And that, that's what makes you weak! You're nothing without her! You're just a burden to her! Nothing but a burden she has to carry!"

Tony snarled as he increased his grip on Scott's neck and the man began coughing up in desperation. He could not believe how physically strong the rich boy truly was. It was difficult to tell by just looking at him. He was not buff or big, and Scott was taller than him, but now Summers realized that the compact physique of the inventor only made his strength that much more focused and potent.

"Keep talking, Summers! It'll make it so much better for me when I kill you."

Scott scoffed as much as he could while his hands tried desperately to break Tony's grip on him.

"You-you… wish… you don't have the guts! You don't… you wouldn't do it…"

"Really?" Tony smirked and shifted the position of his hands to resemble what they had been like on Ghost. "Is that what you think? Didn't Pepper tell you what I did to the last guy that threatened her?"

"What…? Gave him a prize? Con-congratulated him? Asked him for tips?"

"You're about to find out," Tony's muscles clenched around Scott's neck, and the jock took in a deep breath when felt the blue-eyed boy's fingers tighten their grasp on his skin.

"STOP! TONY, _STOP_!"

Their eyes immediately landed on the hospital bed and they expected to see the ginger sitting up, ready to throw something at them to stop their fight, but instead were met with the glare of a familiar brunette. She walked up to them, hands clenched and face in shock, but she was alert enough to put an end to their bout.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Maya yelled. "Are you two seriously fighting in Pepper's room? What is the matter with you two? Tony, let go of him!"

The genius swallowed hard, frowned, and then released the jock by pushing him away from him. Scott immediately bent down. One hand rested on his knee and the other rubbed his throat as he took in deep breaths. The two men eyed each other with hatred, but neither of them made a move to do anything else. The brunette sighed loudly, spared the ginger a glance to make sure she was alright, and then all but dragged the two men out of the room and into the hall.

She closed the door behind her and stood by it, blocking them both when they tried to return to the room.

"Just where the hell do you two think you're going? And what's the issue now? Room not big enough for the both of you? Do you two realize you could've hurt Pepper in there? She doesn't need this, alright? None of us do!"

The two men glared at each other, silently blaming the other for their actions even though they both shared the load, but did not relay the information to the girl before them.

"You know what?" she began as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "It doesn't fucking matter. You just have to get over it if either of you want to see her again."

"Fine," Scott said and stared at Tony up and down. "Pepper's dying, anyway. Stark killed her."

"Why you little son of a –"

"Stop! I mean it! I don't care if you're rich, Tony. If you don't calm the fuck down, I'm going to get security guards to escort your ass out of here. And yours too, Scott!"

"Like that'd keep me from her," Tony scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. He then opened his mouth to continue his rant, but his words were interrupted by the loud beep of his pod. He took it out from his pocket, his eyes not once leaving Scott or Maya, but when he spared a glance to the incoming message, all color drained from his face.

"No!" he said, eyes wide as saucers, and then began rushing down the hall and jumped into the elevator.

"Tony!" Maya called. "What is it? What's wrong?"

The brunette's questions went unanswered, but when the television screen in the nurse reception station suddenly changed to a news report, Maya and Scott saw what had made the inventor rush his way out of the hospital.

Stark International was on lockdown, currently under attack by AIM.

xxxXXXxxx

"_I want to remember," she whispered to him, eyes still closed._

_ "I know," he whispered back, not daring to open his eyes just yet._

_ "I… I need Gene."_

_ "Why?"_

_ "Because… because he can help me. He can get me my memories back."_

Her eyelids twitched. Her head jerked to the left and then to the right.

"_Are you sure that's what you want? Before this happened, you said you wanted to forget. You said you wanted to forget that…"_

_ "I didn't mean it," she interrupted him. "I was angry and scared."_

_ "And now?"_

_ "I'm still angry and scared, but I also want my life back. I didn't know I wanted it until…"_

_ "Until you couldn't have it anymore," Tony finished for her. "Do you think he'll agree to help?"_

_ "I don't know, but I have to try."_

_ "Let me talk to him," Tony suggested._

The index finger on her right hand jolted. She had just wanted her life back. That was all she had wanted, and that was the least she had gotten in return and she could not understand why.

"_Alright, I'll do it," Pepper heard Gene say from behind her as he and Tony walked back inside the Temple from wherever Gene had teleported the pair to talk. Pepper sighed in relief and ran toward her "always looking mean," friend and hugged him as tightly as she could._

_ "Thank you, Gene! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"_

He had said that he would do it. He had agreed to help, but he had done the complete opposite to her. He and Tony had plotted against her. They had betrayed her trust.

_"So he just lied to me so that I'd trust him before he told me truth? That's even worse than coming clean with me."_

_ "He's just watching out for you," Rhodey said. "You're… you're his best friend."_

_ "Rhodes is right, Pepper. Stark is clueless sometimes… most of the time… well, he-he's blind, really. But one thing he's not is a manipulator. At least not with his friends."_

And yet, he had done just that to her; he had manipulated her life.

_"Anyway," Gene cleared his throat. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's going to be painful, Pepper."_

_ "Yeah, well," she shrugged. "It's worse not knowing I've got Ghost as my physical therapist."_

_ "True, but I'm not kidding about the pain. This is going to hurt, a lot."_

_ Pepper sighed. "This is what I want, Gene. Just, try to make it quick, alright?"_

_ "Alright," Gene sighed. "Let's do it. Stark, you know what to do."_

_ "Yeah," Tony said and stood up. He then led Pepper to the middle of the room and had her sit on the stool he had just vacated. He left the compress on the table and returned to stand behind her, __ready to catch her if she fell during the process._

_ "Close your eyes," Gene told the ginger and she did so, and then rested her hands on her lap. "Clear your mind. Take a deep breath… and…"_

_ Gene placed his right hand on her head and she immediately screamed._

_ The pain she was feeling was like no other she had felt before. It felt as if her brain was being put apart and new patterns were being carved with a jagged rock before being nailed back together. Her fingernails were digging into her skin and her entire body tensed, and just when she thought she could not handle it anymore, she felt someone's arms keeping her from falling off the stool._

_ "It's alright, Pepper," Tony whispered to her as he kept her in place. "It'll be over soon. It'll all be over soon."_

_ "It HURTS!" she managed to yell between clenched teeth._

_ "I'm almost done, Pepper," Gene assured her, but his words did not bring her any comfort, only more pain. She saw images of Whitney torturing her, __**felt**__ Whitney torturing her. She was mocking her, belittling her, making her scream._

Pepper's hands turned into fists.

_"Pepper," he moaned her name in between kisses when she led him to the edge of his bed. "Is this… you… you OK with this?"_

_ "Yes," she responded in a heartbeat and pushed him down so that he sat on the foot of the bed before she climbed onto his lap and continued her assault on his lips._

_ "Are you?" she asked him when she realized he had yet to agree to what was happening between them; what was about to happen. The line in the sand was currently nowhere to be seen, but she hesitated when she wondered if perhaps the line was not there just for her, but still painfully present for him. "Or… is Maya… and Scott…"_

_ "They don't have to know," he told her, held her by her waist and then flipped them over so that she was now on her back in the middle of the bed and he towered over her. "Just another moment between us," he told her as he kissed her neck and her hands clutched the sheets underneath her. "It's just between you and me."_

Tears began trailing down her eyes and down the sides of her face.

_"How about now? Do you like anyone now?"_

_ Tony shifted the gear from parking to reverse and looked back as he slowly set the vehicle in motion. Once he was out of the parking spot, he shifted gears again and began slowly making their way out of the parking lot._

_ "I do," he finally said. _

"_What's her name? Is her last name also the same as that guy who took your dad's company?" she asked, feeling momentarily proud to have made the connection all by herself._

_ He stopped for a moment by the exit of the parking lot before joining the busy midday streets. They only traveled a few feet before they had to stop again at a traffic light. _

"_Not at all," he said with a shake of the head. "Her last name's Hansen. Maya Hansen."_

A low sob escaped her lips.

"_I wish… I wish we could do this every day."_

_ "What, exactly? Get drunk?" he chuckled lightly and she scoffed. "Because I don't think I should be tempting the heightened effects that alcohol has on me due to Extremis, that often."_

_ "No," she breathed, and then ran her fingers down his hair until she reached the back of his neck. "Pretend. Pretend that it's just us alone in the world and that nothing else matters. Pretend that's it's just you and me and there's no one else besides us."_

"_It is, Pepper," he finally whispered to her and ran his hand down her face. "It __**is**__ just you and me. It's just us."_

Her eyes snapped open, and even though she felt disoriented and lost, she bit her lip to prevent her wail from resounding in the darkness and silence around her. She took in deep breaths and swallowed hard as her senses began to focus, and it was then that she began putting together where she was.

The first hint came from the sterile smell that hit her nostrils, and the second hint came from the steady, albeit rapid, beeping of the heart monitor near her. Her eyes then adjusted to the lack of light and, once they did, she was able to partially see the clear signs of being in a hospital room; one that resembled the others she had woken up in too many times before.

_No_, she told herself. _I wasn't supposed to make it out alive! It's not supposed to be like this! I was supposed to die in that fall!_

She had _wanted_ to die!

_The trio suddenly became a tangled mess of limbs: Jules trying to get to Pepper; Glenda trying her best to stop him; and Pepper trying to figure out where she was, why these images kept hitting her so hard and wobbling all over the place. _

_How had she forgotten all of this? No one had told her she had forgotten her own past! Why had no one cared to mention a great chunk of her memories had been practically locked away in her mind?_

_ One by one, the memories that had been so carefully edited and reconstructed began undoing themselves, finally culminating in the memory that had all the answers for her, a memory that she had never actually forgotten, but which now had a greater significance than she had thought__: the memory that told her why she had forgot._

_"No," she sobbed. "He… he couldn't… he __**wouldn't**__!"_

But he had. He HAD.

"_Pepper, watch out!" Glenda's scream snapped her back to reality, only to realize the three of them were now reaching the edge of the building._

"_NO!"_

_The redhead screamed when she felt Jules slip in a puddle, causing the three of them to flip back and go over the ledge and plummet down the building. Pepper's mind was jumbled and her senses were shot, thwarting her ability to think clearly and quickly enough to immediately do anything about their fall. Nevertheless, she knew that she would survive the fall thanks to the suit, but Jules and Glenda would have no such luck._

She felt the warm bed under her with her hands before she slowly took her hands to pat the rest of her body, confirming that she was indeed still in the land of the living. This was not what she had expected; this was not what she had planned would happen after the fall.

_Why am I alive?_ She thought in anger. _WHY AM I NOT DEAD?_

Deep inside, she knew _why_ she was not dead even though that had been her intent; her final wish. She knew _he _had not let her die. _He_ had probably caught her or revived her or something to that effect. _He_ had not wanted her to die. _He_ had not wanted to let her go.

_"Let's go outside, to the car," Pepper said and pulled away from him, but Tony pulled her right back._

_"No, wait. Not yet. We just got here."_

_ "Yeah, and we got here late. It's past ten, already. I'm sure they're ready for us."_

_ "But __**I'm**__ not ready to let you go!"_

_His confession made her hesitate for a second, but for the sake of the mission, she forced herself to calm her rapidly beating heart._

_ "To-James, please…"_

_ "No, Pep," the use of her real name made her swallow hard. "Please, just, wait, OK? They probably won't strike until it's much later. There're still people outside waiting in line to come in. You know they let people come in until eleven. They'll probably do it when the club closes at three."_

_ "I guess," she thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. "Yeah, you're right. But, when the time comes…"_

_ "I'll be ready. I promise," he told her, crushed her against his body once more, and kissed her neck. "They won't have you for long. You dad's contact in the FBI is going to be ready for my call. As soon as I give the word, as soon as you tell me we're all clear… I'm coming for you."_

_ "I know you will," she hugged him back, clenched part of his clothes with her fists and closed her eyes. "I trust you."_

Pepper clenched her eyes, forced herself to sit up on her hospital bed, and by now she knew she was alone. Otherwise, someone would have turned on the lights by now or at least call her name. Her hands flew to her face to muffle her sobs, and her shoulders shook up and down at how hard she was crying. _I trusted you, Tony. I trusted you!_

_She forced her eyes open and stared at the terrified face of Glenda Barnes, which gave her the last push she needed to focus enough to verbally override security protocol 7871. She knew she should have used the shields, she knew she could have done many other things, but after realizing what Gene and Tony had done to her behind her back, after realizing what she had given up to be with a lying Tony and all the lives she had ruined doing so, and as the memories continued to painfully ransack her senses, body and mind, she could not make herself care enough to save them all._

_The suit immediately responded to Pepper's command and it freed its user from the protection it provided. The suit immediately enveloped the other woman, adjusted to her pregnant body, and kept her in the air just as two bodies hit the ground with a loud thump. The last thing that crossed Pepper's mind was a conversation between her and Gene._

_**"Was it really that terrible, what happened to me?"**_

_** "It was uncalled for, to say the least. And if you ever feel like it's not worth living with the truth, I want you to look at this box and hold it, and remember that you still have longevity in your hands."**_

She pulled her hands from her face and stared at them through swollen eyes. Her entire body was quivering; her anger toward him, toward his interference, was shaking her to the core. Gene had been right! Finding out the truth, even before it had become the truth, was just too much for her. She did not want to have longevity! She did not want it at all!

_Everyone! All of them! They all LIED!_

Her parents had lied to her about being her birth parents. They had lied to her about the reason for getting divorced. Tony had lied to her about being Iron Man. He had lied to her and Rhodey about Whitney being Madame Masque, and then had kept it to himself when he had started dating the blonde. He had outright lied to her about their past together, and he had even made Gene change her memories of her life, damn well _knowing_ that she had wanted them back.

The life she thought she had been living was all based on lies!

How could she trust him or her family? Who could she even trust? How could she tell what was real and what was not? Did he not understand or had he not foreseen the repercussions of this act?

And all for what? So that he could run off with Maya Hansen without regrets? So that she would not blame him for Whitney taking her because of him? So that he would not look guilty for Ghost kidnapping her to blackmail him? What for, exactly? There was no reason great enough in her book that would ever justify what he had done.

_I trusted you, Tony. I… I even… we even…_

The tears immediately multiplied and she pulled on her hair.

_He pressed his body closer to hers and pushed her back against the wall. She moaned slightly when his lips brushed against the junction of her neck and shoulder._

"_Pepper?"_

"_Ya-hum?"_

_Her eyes were closed, lost in the glory of his caresses. Her hands lazily ran through his hair while he placed random kisses on her neck and on the side of her face. His hands slid up and down from under her arms to her hips. It had been so long since she had felt like this: treasured, loved, desired; and the last time she had felt like it at all had been when they had spent that drunken night at the motel. It was nothing less than sad and disappointing, however, that Scott did not make her feel this way when they were alone. _

"_Don't marry him."_

_She froze on the spot and her hands stopped moving, but she did not face him as he continued to indulge in her neck. She was aware that accepting his silent proposition while dancing at the club had immediately nullified her compromise with Scott, so she saw no need for him to even bring up the topic, especially since he was NOT even supposed to know about it in the first place. How he had found out about it and when was not known to her, but her true worry did not lie in his detective skills for now. Her current issue went beyond finding out who had told the inventor about her engagement with Scott, and it related more to Tony's tone of voice._

_There was something in the way he had uttered those words to her, that command he had just given to her that made her feel as if this was only the beginning of what he was going to tell her right now; perhaps even more than she was willing to hear as of yet. He had not used his Tony Stark voice to say those words; he had used his Iron Man tone, which meant that he was getting very serious about this conversation and about where he planned to take it at this time. _

_When she did not say anything else, lost in her own thoughts, Tony continued._

"_Don't marry him," he repeated, more sternly this time. "Marry me."_

_I believed it_, she simultaneously sobbed and coughed at the same time. _I believed everything you said._

Had he lied about that, too?

"_I don't know what he offered you – Scott – or what he thinks he can give to you but I, I… you know I'll give you __**anything**__ you want. Whatever it is that you need or want me to do, I'll do it, Pepper. I'll do it for you, no questions asked."_

"_Tony," she began. "I… your money… to me… it's…"_

"_I know, I know. I didn't mean it like that. And it's __**our**__ money, by the way," he gave her a smile. "And our cars, and our bikes, and our pods, and our company and our home. All that it's missing is an us. Do you want an 'us,' Pepper? Do you want there to be an 'us'?"_

"_I-I… I did… I do but, Tony, you're jumping ahead. You—"_

"_I didn't say for you to marry me right now, silly," he said and she visibly relaxed. "Unless you want to, but you don't have to. I just want you to give me the chance."_

"I gave you a chance," the redhead said in between ragged breaths. "I gave you a chance and you, and you…"

_He leaned down to her, held the back of her neck with his right hand, and then ran his lips over her __damp__ face to dry her tears. When he was done, he pulled back slightly, stared at her again for a second, before he pressed his lips on hers. She flinched slightly when the pressure caused a spike of pain on her bruised lips, but she quickly forgot about it when he kissed her again, gentler this time._

_He adjusted their position so that she was now completely on her back and he lay on top of her, never once breaking the kiss. She could tell he was refusing to break apart their lips when he began taking in deep breaths through his nose in order to keep going, but since his body was pressing down on hers, she had to eventually force him to stop. _

"_Need… air…" she gasped and he nodded._

_ "Sorry," he told her with an apologetic smile. "I just love the way you taste."_

_ The ginger giggled. "Yeah, you've told me that before."_

_ "It's true," he said and then closed his eyes. "It's all true. I wouldn't lie to you about it, Pep."_

_ "I didn't think you would," she said and then pulled him down to kiss him again._

"But he did lie to me," Pepper said, a little bit calmer now that the initial shock and frustration of finding out that she was still breathing had worn off. Her disappointment was slowly being replaced with anger, hatred toward the inventor and everything he stood for. She could not understand why he had played with her life like this. Had he also played with her feelings, too? Had he only told her all those things because he had wanted to be her first and then planned on asking Gene to make her forget they were ever together like that, too?

_ Would he resort to something so low?_

She honestly could not tell now. Her image of Tony Stark was now shot to hell.

_ He pulled down the blanket from her, and his head then slowly slid down to her stomach. He slightly pulled up her t-shirt to place random kisses on her belly, and he then slowly made his way up to her face, kissing whatever he could on his way up, even if it was over the clothing. Once he returned to her face, his hands slid down to her sides and he finished lifting off the garment completely and pulled it off her. He did not give her enough time to react before he threw the t-shirt behind him and pressed his lips over hers again._

_ "I'm sorry for being a jerk to you," he told her in between kisses._

"_Just now or…"_

"_Any time I've been one to you. I can't help it sometimes. Sometimes, I just want to shut everything out and just lock you away with me and forget we even have to go out at all. Sometimes, I wish it was really just you and me."_

_ "Like now?"_

_ "Yes, not only to do this," he added and began kissing her bra strap down her shoulder. "But to be happy and in peace… but… but I know it can't happen. I made a choice when I put on that armor and now I have to deal with the consequences. I just wish I hadn't dragged you into it and I'm sorry for that."_

Ironically, she was sorry about it, too.

She forced her mind to stop replaying that moment between them; it was just too painful for her. Remembering the way he had told her over and over again that night that he loved her, that he wanted her and needed her, was now a cause for ache rather than for delight. Remembering how he had shivered under her straddling touch and how he had uttered her name in unbridled desire was a slap in the face to her now.

_Lies, they were all lies._

She wiped her face of the tears with the blanket, and then slowly returned her back to the bed. She stared at nothingness as she allowed herself to let go of the last of the old Pepper that had been taken away from her. Clearly, people wanted her to be different, to be someone else, otherwise they would have told her how her life had been; they would have let her have her memories back when she had asked for them. They, _he_, Tony, would have not asked to have their short time together stripped from her mind.

_I can't forgive you, Tony_, she closed her eyes. _I can't forgive you for this._

She had forgiven enough erring from him.

She had had enough.

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><p><strong>AN:** Yeah…I'll post the Epilogue in a few hours, and then the ENTIRE NEXT STORY. Sign up for notifications! Believe me: I'm just getting started and it's going to be worth your time. BTW, I do not condone or endorse smoking for anyone or for any reason. I only had Tony do it in this story to show that at the moment he simply did not care about his well-being, but he won't be picking it up as a habit.


	12. Epilogue

**A/N: PLEASE READ BEFORE READING THE CHAPTER!**

To summarize what's going to happen here and for a while, I'm going to quote a conversation I had with _**SilverPedals1402**_ not long ago:

"_The Epilogue of this story will be the height of misery...until The Second Year which is ALL misery, I'm afraid. But, like I said before: The Third Year and The Fourth Year is PEPPERONY GALORE - as in, OMG! Butterflies, rainbows, ponies, kittens, puppies, marshmallows, cotton candy, bubble gum, balloons, panda babies, etc. It gets SO much better! So. MUCH. Better."  
><em>

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><p><strong>Epilogue<strong>

She had lived in this wonderful place for nearly a year, and not once had she had a chance to do what she was doing now. She was sitting on a large boulder by the edge of the Hudson River, and admired the flora and fauna around. The summer was at its peak, and with it came the kids being out of school, taking advantage of the academic break to swim, fish and run on the docks. Parents played with their children, and couples watched the sunset together while she watched it alone. However, she knew she would not be watching it alone for long.

His slow steps behind her told her he was being watchful of every move she made, as if trying to assess the severity of the situation by just reading her body language – he was trying to come up with a contingency plan even before he knew what the real issue was; typical of him. It was useless to do so, she knew, for what she was about to tell him could not be foreseen even by his great mind. She had already made the decision and there was no turning back. All that was left to do now was making him aware of it; whether he accepted it or not, that was beyond her, and she honestly could not care less if he agreed with it or not.

He did not stop his trek until he stood to her left for a nanosecond, and then slowly sat on the same boulder, right next to her, feet dangling over the edge like hers. Her eyes, that had not left the bay since she had arrived, finally spared him a glance, and he stared right back at her and continued to do so even when she returned her gaze to the water before them.

"You look like shit," she said, not even bothering with the pleasantries and hating his long hair and beard.

"Jeez," he said in an unreadable tone. "I was hoping you'd say that." He paused. "But, what's really fucked up right now is me coming back from a mission in the UK to find you've been awake for an entire week and that your stuff is gone from our apartment."

"Not everything's gone," she said in an icy tone and then, from her wallet, she took out two identical key cards – hers and Scott's – and placed them in the space between them, not once looking him in the face. "Now it is."

Tony eyed the cards but did not make an attempt to reach them, and when she did not say anything else to him, he frowned.

"What the hell is this?"

"What do you think it is, Stark? I'm leaving."

Tony's eyes almost fell out of their sockets, and his jaw nearly hit the ground.

"WHAT? You-you can't leave! I… I thought we… and… Our lease is not up until next year!"

Pepper pursed her lips. She was aware that in their hurry to move in to their apartment last year, neither he nor she had realized the documents listed a two-year contract rather than the yearly one they had agreed to sign. Said information had already caused an argument between Scott and her, and she was not looking forward to arguing the issue with the inventor as well.

"I already deposited my half of the rent for the next year. You don't have to worry about that."

"That's not the issue, Pepper, and you know it."

"You're the one that brought it up."

"Yes, because I…" he sighed. "I don't understand, Pepper. This… _where_ is this coming from? I thought… I thought we'd decided to be together. I thought… I thought you loved me!"

Pepper scoffed. "Why would you think that?"

"Why would I not?" he spat back and began listing his reasons with the fingers of his right hand. "We slept together, for one, and you told me you loved me! And I… I thought you knew I love you too! Or at least that was the situation between us the last time we spoke. I just don't understand why you changed your mind all of a sudden. _Why_ are you're leaving me?"

"You shouldn't sound too shocked, really. You should've seen this coming."

"WHAT?" he shook his head left and right. "How in the_ hell_ would I'd have seen this coming, Pep? I left five days ago for a mission and I come back and you just drop this bombshell on me like it's nothing? I haven't been able to talk to you because you were unconscious, remember? What the fuck happened when I was gone?"

"I woke up, Tony," she finally stared at him but her gaze on him was everything but pleasant. "I opened my eyes and I know what you and Gene did to me."

He flinched. He had not expected that.

"H-how… huh… uhm, Pepper… look… let me explain…"

"Shut up!" she said and turned her body so that she completely faced him now. "I don't want to hear the excuses I've already heard from Gene."

"You-you've spoken to Gene?"

"Yes. And he told me everything, and even though he was part of it, YOU'RE the one who asked him to do it. You're the one who wanted me to forget about us!"

"To protect you, Pepper!" he faced her too. "To keep you safe! To not have you involved in more of the same danger I've already put you through! It's not so hard to understand! I did it for you, Pep! I did it because I love you, so damn much!"

"And that was your only way to show me that? Your only way to keep me safe? You just took it upon you to MANIPULATE my memories, my LIFE? Mold it to your fancy like one of your inventions? You decided to push me away and then go out with Maya to show me you love me? _That's_ your great plan?"

"I didn't know what else to do, Pepper! I was desperate and I didn't want you to suffer because of me. Do you know how many times I've watched you almost die? Do you have any idea how hard it's been for me, too?"

"Oh, save it, please!" she pointed a finger at him. "If you'd really cared about me and you'd wanted to keep me safe, you would've done one of two things: you could've kept me with you and we then worked together to keep each other safe… or…"

"Or what?" he asked, even though he was getting an idea of what she was about to tell him, and he did not like at all where this conversation was heading.

"Or you could've done what I'm doing right now."

"Which is?"

"I'm not just moving out, Tony. I quit."

Tony frowned. "What do you mean you quit? Quit, what?"

"I'm leaving Stark Solutions and… and I'm leaving Team Iron Man."

"WHAT?" he shook his head and stood up. "No, NO! You-you _can't_ do that! You can't make that kind of a decision without consulting me first!"

Pepper narrowed her eyes at him even more and stood up as well.

"You mean just like you consulted me before you decided to alter my mind? Just like you consulted me to end our relationship without even me knowing? That kind of consulting, right?"

Tony clenched his eyes for a moment and his shoulders sagged as he accepted his guilt. He then opened his again, stared at her eyes and rested his hands on her shoulders.

"Pepper, please. Don't… don't do this. We can talk this out. I… I'm sorry, alright? You know I am! I-I want you, Pepper. I _need_ you. I… I was going to tell you everything and take it back and… _please_… don't do this to me… to us…"

Against her will, the ginger's eyes filled with tears and she forced herself to look away from his pleading face.

"There _is_ no _us_, Tony. There _can't _be an us when I can't trust you… when I _don't_ trust you. When I'm engaged to someone else… to Scott."

"The hell you are!" his hands slid down to her upper arms and he pulled her closer to him, slightly shaking her as he spoke. "You don't belong with him, Pepper! You belong with me! You don't even love him! You can't be happy with him!"

"I am!" she spat. "I am happy with him, but not while _you're_ around. I'll _never_ be happy while _you're_ around. You… you've brought me nothing but trouble and I…" her voice began to crack. "And I'm tired of it… I can't… I can't do this anymore…"

Tony's mouth went agape and his arms dropped to his sides.

"What-what are you saying, Pepper?"

The redhead finally faced him again and gave him the coldest look he had ever seen on her despite her tears and cracking voice.

"I'm saying that Scott and I will get married, and I want _nothing_ to do with you. I'm quitting everything that will put him in danger because I don't want him to suffer like I did. Scott's safety is more important to me than being Rescue, and if me leaving behind being a hero and being your damned _pet_ will keep him safe, then that's what I'll do. That man has put his life on the line for me, and the least I can do is show him that I care about him too by giving up what I know is no good for him… or me."

"You," his voice began cracking as well. "You're not my pet, Pepper." He sniffled, took a step closer to her and then held her face in his hands. "And… this can't be it. You don't mean this. You… you're just mad at me, I know it. I know you still love me."

Pepper swallowed hard, blinked tears away and stared at him directly in the eye.

"Of course I do," she began. "But I don't want to anymore. I don't want that anymore… I want…"

"What, Pepper?" he whispered to her. "What do you want? Tell me. We-we can still fix this. We can make it work."

Pepper shook her head vehemently and pulled her head away from his grasp.

"All I want… all I _really_ want… is to have _**never**_ met you. You… you wanted me out of your life? Well," she gulped. "You can be sure you'll get that now."

Tony opened his mouth to call her bluff, to make her accept that she was just mad and that she did not mean what she had just said, but then he saw behind her that Scott was waiting for the ginger in his car with a wide, triumphant smile on his face. Had Scott not been there, it was likely that he would have been able to calm Pepper down enough to talk this whole mess out and still make it work. But upon seeing him there, Tony's jealousy took over his pain and brought out his arrogance to lash out at the girl in a way he never would have done otherwise.

"Fine," he began. "You want to leave? Go! See if I care, but I want you to promise to do one… no, _two_ things for me."

"Do, what?"

"First: you tell Scott that I had you first and that he's welcomed to my scraps," he growled. "And, two: don't you look for me _ever _again. You want out? Fine, I don't give a fuck. If you can't see and won't listen to me when I tell you that you're making a huge mistake, that's on you. But don't you come begging for me to take you back when you realize how good you had it with me, Potts."

The daggers hit the right spot in her heart, but Pepper refused to let it show. She instead smirked at the inventor and gave him a slight nod before she turned around on her heels and began walking toward Scott. Tony's feet immediately moved to catch up with her, but when she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him with a mocking smile, he froze on the spot.

"Word of advice, Stark: As hard as it may be, make sure you don't say _my_ name in bed again. Maya won't appreciate that."

They silently stared each other up and down for a moment, daring the other one to break down first, but when their equally stubborn attitudes prevented them from saying or doing anything else, Pepper turned around and walked away. His eyes never left her form until it disappeared completely, and before he returned to his now lonely apartment, he made sure to kick the keycards into the river.

_If that's how you want it, Pepper, then that's how it's going to be._

**THE END**

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><p><strong>AN: ***shows face behind rock* Uhm, just… just wait a few hours and the Prologue to the sequel will be up. Look for it in your inbox! Oh, and please don't kill me. Or at least wait until I finish these stories and THEN you can kill me ;) Thanks for R&R and I hope to see you in the next story: _The Second Year_.


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