Soooooooo. I still totally owe you guys another chapter in Night Terrors. I'm a bit blocked on that one at the moment, and I'm going to have to find time to just sit down and write that after I get all of this testing out of the way. But! Here is another one shot/headcanon for our dear Peps! I apologise for any typos in advance.

Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man or any of the characters. Sadly, and fortunately, Marvel already does that.

|| This is the story of Pepper's watch. We see her wearing it numerous times throughout the films, and I thought it be a nice, non-obvious little object to direct my attentions toward. You never see her with another watch on. Only this one. At least, that's what I noticed. ||

She's had it since she was a teen. Seventeen, to be exact. It was originally a present for her father.

But she never got the chance to give it to him.

So she'd kept it all these years. It hardly ticked any longer, and when it would be on the brink of extinction, she'd sneak down to the garage and repair it in the dead of night, listening to the soothing sound of the hands ticking as they rounded the same corners they'd been turning for over fifty years. She wore it as a reminder. A reminder of the sandy hair, the deep-set, heavy hazel eyes that were so opposite from her own. A reminder of the deep rumbling of his voice in his chest as his facial hair tickled her skin when he'd kiss her forehead goodnight. A reminder of the man she knew so well, yet had known so little about.

She never went anywhere without it, it was, and still is, in some ways, her lifeline. In fact, you might even say Virginia Potts was permanently bonded to this one, minuscule possession. She relied on it even when she didn't need it. It gave her a sense of comfort. Of home. It helped her remember.

It made her feel safe.

The band was made of a medium brown leather, that to this day smells like the shop it came from all those years ago. It was topped by a small, square face, the only numbers on it were 12, 3, 6, and 9. Every time she swiped at her nose, stifled a sniffle, or brushed some hair from her face, she could still smell the thick scent of the little shop in New York, its doors and peering watchmaker nestled securely in the only wood storefront she ever remembered seeing in Queens.

-
"How much is that one?" A curious seventeen year old Virginia (this was before she'd earned the name 'Pepper') had queried of the watchmaker, pointing to the small brown band with its square face. She was pointing to a watch in the case, admiring the brown tone of the leather of a certain on in the left hand corner.

"Two-fifty." She'd stopped, dead in her tracks. /Two hundred and fifty/?! That was an impossibility. Absolute impossibility. There would be no way she could ever come up with the money to buy that watch.

"Aw c'mon Gabe. Not even a little tiny discount? Just for me?" Strands of strawberry-blonde hair were brushed from her eyes. A pair of crystalline blue eyes sparkled curiously in the watch faces, her attention clearly focussed on the runt of the litter. The one in the back corner all by its lonesome. She wanted it more than even she knew.

"Alright. What do I gotta do to /earn/ that watch?"
-

If her parents had known about her summer job they would have flipped. Completely. It wasn't like her home life was bad or anything. Her Dad was great, when he was around. It was Ginny's Mom that drove her insane. They just didn't get along, her mother always harping about how she needed to be like this girl, or how she needed to apply herself into social groups Virginia would have sooner spit on then shook hands with.

But another story for another day.

Virginia had worked harder than she had ever worked that summer. Every day she'd be there before Gabriel, the watchmaker. He'd walk up, coffee and paper in one hand, smiling knowingly at the teen over his rimmed glasses as he unlocked the shop. Honestly, the place had never been cleaner. It sparkled from top to bottom, even the cases had been cleared of years of dust that had begun clouding the glass. He'd just never found time to do it. Virginia did it willingly. He would watch her when he knew she didn't know he was there. The way she worked was fascinating, how she would become so engrossed, and so driven in whatever it was her task happened to be, putting heart and soul into every square in of it. In reality, her parents knew. He'd contacted them. Let them know where their daughter was day after day. And they didn't mind in the slightest. They were just glad to see their daughter doing something. Making something of herself. She was happy. Something Virginia Potts hadn't been in a very long time.

In the days that passed, she became good friends with the watchmaker, and slowly he began to teach her his craft. One day passed into two weeks, and soon their days consisted of him standing behind her where she sat on a wooden stool, repairing watches that would never tick again. In the musty back room of the watchmaker's shop, tucked away at a desk in the corner, sitting on that wooden stool that made her butt numb in complete silence, dissecting those grand old watches in all of their retired and broken glory, she found herself. Her delicate hands were the perfect size to hold the tools, and she soon became almost as good as the watchmaker himself. But there was always more to learn. And she learned it by heart, memorising every gear, every little tooth that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. A month passed, and she'd worked hard enough to buy five of those watches. She remembered holding it in her hands, as if it were the most precious jewel in the world. To her it was. It was a sign that she had worked, and paid for this by her own sweat and tears. But there was a strange satisfaction and content that didn't come from finally holding the end of her means in her palm. All of the hours of work seemed to mean nothing, it was simply the transport which had carried her here. They were entirely separate, the work and the watch. They had never really been connected. Pepper had the money, and that night Gabriel would find a small wooden box with exactly two hundred and fifty dollars in it. She'd had the money all along. Her personal savings. The intention to pay for the watch had always been there. She just wanted to see if he'd let her work for it.

Pepper had skipped home that night, the watch placed securely into a perfectly polished wooden box. It wasn't for his birthday. Or Christmas. Or Father's Day. Or anything, really. It was proof that she had done good. That she had done well, and she just knew that it was finally the night where he would hear the words, "I'm proud of you Ginny." But instead of that all she'd found was her mother, distraught, barely able to speak.

Car accident, they said.

He hadn't even seen it coming.

Death had been, miraculously, instantaneous.

"Pepper?" A familiar voice broke through her thoughts, and the crystalline blue orbs tilted upwards to meet chocolate brown ones, a mixture of so much joy and so much pain splayed across her entire expression. With a gentle sigh he placed a loving kiss to the top of her head.

"He was so proud of you Pep. I know he was."

He didn't know that. But at the least, the words were strangely comforting, and she was content to lay her head back onto the now unusually arc reactor free chest, the smallest of smiles curling up onto her lips, her fingers running across the smooth leather of the band, the whispers from that summer floating through her consciousness.

"Yeah. I bet he was."

Whew. I hope you guys like this one, its kinda sorta my baby at the moment. ;) So! Please read and review! This is Potts, signing out!