"Really? 'The Battle of Sudan'? That's what they're calling it?"

Tony Stark snorted and took another swig of the very expensive and very tasty brandy he picked up on the way home from another SHIELD "problem elimination". Needless to say, the maitre d' of the restaurant he got it from all but sputtered as the billionaire swaggered into the crowded restaurant in full armor. It was very good brandy.

"What did you want them to call it. Tony? The Struggle for the Golden Deserts of Sudan?"

Pepper called over her shoulder from the massive walk-in closet. She gently tugged out her hair from her sleek ponytail, rubbing at her aching scalp. Sometimes being a business woman was a burdensome thing. She grabbed her favorite pair of jeans and a tshirt and headed into the bathroom to change.

Tony grinned. "Hey, you know that's good! They should have you do the write-ups for their files!" He swiped away the holographic screens and turned to embrace Pepper, the businesswoman gone and the beautiful woman he loved in her place. "You seem to like... paperwork." He teased, saying the last word with distaste.

"You know, I actually have people who do that for me now. It's called delegation. Speaking of, you need to just hire an R&D staff for your personal projects. They could work on multiple projects at once."

Tony rolled his eyes. Okay, so Pepper wasn't entirely in business mode but she was in nagging mode.

"I can multitask!" He began pouring another glass of brandy behind his back as if to prove a point, "Besides, it takes away all the credit from me if I have a team." He handed her the glass and they swayed in time to the strains of music that came subtly on. "Thanks, JARVIS." Tony not so subtly called out. He took another drink and smiled at her.

Then Pepper stopped. There was something off in that smile. You could always see it in people. That place behind the smile and the eyes where people keep things that hurt or bother them but they don't want it to do that to the people they love. She set down her glass on the counter and took Tony's.

She leveled that look at him. The one that said she loved him but he better start spilling or she'd give him subtle hell for a week to a year.

"What's wrong?"

Usually Tony could lie and very well too, but not to Pepper and that look.

"You know, after everything. You know- alien invasion, Norse supposedly mythological gods," He paused, "You being infected by Extremis... I thought nothing could shake me."

Tony broke away and slumped down on one of the long couches in the vast penthouse. His hands ran up his face, as if trying to scrub away a memory he wanted to unsee. Pepper handed him back his drink and sat down next to him, starting to rub his shoulders, pull out all his tension. He looked as if he needed it. She hated seeing him like this, not weak, but upset. And he hated her seeing it, because even though he could be Iron Man without the armor, he was still Tony Stark, a human.

"What happened?" Pepper braced herself, it was something she was good at, besides running a multi-billion company. Being Tony's rock and bracing for explosions, both metaphorical and literal.

"It was a kid. I mean, he was a teenaged punk. But he was just a scared kid, deep down." Tony took a deep breath. "It was on my way back from the "Sudan" thing. I picked up the brandy and decided to take a stroll along the docks. Clear my head and lungs from the desert. There was a kid in an alleyway, not very big but he was whaling on this younger kid. So I stopped him. I turned him over to the police, because-" Suddenly Tony stopped and looked with anguish at Pepper. "Who can help a kid like that? He wasn't in awe of me, not as Iron Man. Just a scary guy in a big suit of armor that could easily take him down as easily as he could take down a younger kid."

Pepper took her own deep breath. They never really talked about children.

"You did the right thing, Tony."

"I know and I made them promise to get him all the best of help. Or I paid them."

Pepper smiled tightly and gripped Tony's hands in hers.

"Then everything will be alright."

"Will it? Because do you know what the social worker down at the police station said? That these problems most often occur because these kids don't have fathers or mothers." Tony looked seriously into Pepper's eyes, his veneer of confidence and charm he took pride in- slowly being washed away by past regrets resurfacing. "I should know, with my family history."

"And you know," He laughed, a bitterness roughing up his laugh. This is where Pepper really braced for it.

"I probably have kids out there. A lot of kids. And they're probably all messed up because I failed them- not as Iron Man, but as me, as a father."

He waited. The seconds drew themselves out into the silence. Like watching cold blue numbers on a bomb's timer and being caught in slow motion, helpless.

Tony didn't expect what happened next. Pepper's hands slid out of his and she excused herself saying that it was late and she would be busy in the morning. Then she went to sleep. In the guest bedroom.

Tony stayed up all night that night. He knew what he said might disturb her. He wasn't a saint when they met, very far from it, but he had changed. She had changed him.

Then it hit him three hours past midnight, his mind tangled up in old memories of his father, cold and distant. He hadn't given much thought to children in any way shape or form. He had joked with Maya Hansen that one time about if she had their child with her when she came to visit Stark Mansion before that whole ugly affair with Aldritch. But she didn't and she was dead.

What would he have done if Maya did have a child with her? What would he do? What would Pepper do?

He did intend to marry her, eventually. He half expected Pepper to propose to him, actually. Having a family was a natural extension of that idea.

Tony flung himself up and out of bed. He poured himself a shot from the flask next to the bed.

"JARVIS?"

"Yes, sir?"

"We have work to do."

"Yes, Mr. Stark."

He yanked on a pair of slippers. It was going to be a long night.