No one said it would be easy, they had actually warned her it would be very, very difficult. But being who she was, she brushed off their warnings with a small laugh and wave of her thin wrist. Her whole family was (understandably) reluctant to let their beautiful little girl go far away to the big city to work for that well-known womanizer Tony Stark. They were more right than they could know however, but for different reasons, and Pepper now wished she had followed their advice as she found herself in the midst of chaos.
After many years as his assistant her eclectic boss had been kidnapped, and, despite the numerous rescue efforts led by Rhodey, he scoundrel ended up breaking free on his own. He had come back a changed man and it seemed, to Pepper at least, that the hidden qualities she had grown to love about him before had been amplified. He was always a philanthropist, donating and helping, but it always had a sort of PR pleasing air about it. Not to say he didn't care, he genuinely did, he just always stood to have something to gain from it all. When he had come back it was suddenly…well… PR be dammed. He shut down the weapons division of Stark Industries (a.k.a. the main division) and focused on clean energy for the world. Unbeknownst to Pepper, at the time, he was also focused on another little project, later known as Iron Man. It seemed Iron Man was created just in time as enemy after enemy showed up. Some targeting Tony, some targeting Iron Man, and even a few targeting Pepper herself. It was a stress filled life that only got more stressful as boss became boyfriend and boyfriend became Avenger. Not to mention her promotion from personal assistant to CEO. With all of this in mind it was a mystery that Pepper's hair had not turned white.
After Stark Tower became Avengers Tower Pepper's life got even more hectic as six superheroes began living in her home, as if living with Tony wasn't already difficult enough! She didn't know how it happened, one day she was only caring for one child, Tony, and then one morning she woke up and had five more to look after. It all turned out ok as Pepper became a mother figure of sorts, she was the one of the few people Steve had found that would not laugh at his seemingly silly questions, she treated Bruce like a person and not like a time bomb, she was kind when Thor made a dire etiquette mistake, and had forgiven Natasha for what had happened and soon became friends with her and Clint. She was happy, maybe a little frazzled, but happy to be accepted into their small circle, to be trusted as a friend by such extraordinary people.