Title: let's go break the law just one more time

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: references to violence, death of a child, depression/grief

Pairings: Jim Rhodes/Pepper Potts/Tony Stark

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 1435

Point of view: third

Prompt: MCU /or DCU. Any female character. It's a bad man's world/I'm a bad, bad girl

Note: This story goes in chronological order, though this is not the order it was written in. Because of that, some of the chapters seem to retread the same info, though I do think each one adds something new. This is a Leverage AU that spans over 40 years because I go into various backstories. It is complete (which is rare for me and multi-chapter fics, I know) and will be posted a chapter a day.

Each chapter will have specific warnings, but the entire story will have: references to violence, death of a child, depression/grief, implied torture/violence, mindgames; dub-con; canon character death; attempted murder and actual killing in self-defense; references to lots of assassinations, including murder of children

Each chapter will have specific pairings, but the entire story will have: Jim Rhodes/Pepper Potts/Tony Stark; Natasha/Clint, Steve/Bucky; Peggy Carter/Gabe Jones; Alexander Pierce/Bucky Barnes

When she is twelve, Virginia Potts' home is burgled. One of the things taken is a very expensive painting that her father had purchased for her mother for their tenth anniversary. Dad had insured it, so an insurance investigator came to the house to speak with both of Virginia's parents.

Six months later, the painting was back on the wall and Virginia's plans for her life changed.

.

When she is nineteen, Virginia Potts meets Tony Stark at a friend of a friend's party. He's recently been disinherited and forcibly removed from his father's property and is completely determined to make his own way in the world.

Unfortunately, he's also an addict and addicted to numerous things. He's a genius, even high out of his mind, but he forgets to take care of himself. Virginia has a very busy life, with a full course-load at school, a part-time job at the campus library, her exercise regimen, her friends – she doesn't have time for someone doing their best to self-destruct.

But Tony is so brilliant. It'd be a loss if he did manage to kill himself.

So she drags him from the party, shoves him into her shower, and proceeds to take over his life.

.

When she is twenty-three, Virginia Potts meets Jim Rhodes in a bookstore. She has her foot in the door at the company of her dreams, Tony is actually sleeping three nights a week while working on a major project as an engineering consultant, and she is sure that life could not be better.

She's wrong.

She's reaching for a book on masterpieces, and so is a tall black man in a suit; it's the last copy of the book and they argue about it for ten minutes before she sighs.

"Fine," she says. "I'll order it online."

"Oh, no, I couldn't possibly," he says. "I'll order it online."

They end up at the small café attached to the bookstore, flipping through the book together. "Jim Rhodes," he says, holding out a hand. "If I told you what I do, I'd have to kill you."

She laughs, shaking his hand firmly. "Virginia Potts," she says. "Insurance."

.

Tony calls her 'Pepper,' calls Jim 'Rhodey.' When she is twenty-six, Virginia Potts realizes she loves them both. She tells Tony first, of course, and he admits that's he's been in love with her since he sobered up that first morning and in love with Jim since a week after she introduced them.

Jim eventually admitted, the second time they met for coffee, that he was working his way up the FBI chain, in art theft. He hoped to one day be on the Art Crime Team. They had so much to talk about she and Jim, and after their fourth coffee, she brought Tony along.

They were both her best friends. So when she is twenty-six, she talks everything over with Tony and when Jim comes to stay with them for New Year's, they tell him.

.

When she's thirty-three, finally secure in her position at AIM Insurance, Virginia decides to have a child. Tony and Jim agree. Tony has a small consulting business that takes him around the world and Jim is about to be invited into the Art Crime Team. They have an apartment halfway between DC and New York. She works steadily until the last few weeks before she's due, and Jim and Tony both stay close to home those weeks, and then they have a daughter, Virginia and her lovers.

"She looks just like you, Pep," Tony whispers, eyes glued to the tiniest, most perfect little girl Virginia's ever seen.

"Samantha," Virginia says. "Samantha Abigail."

"Sounds perfect," Jim murmurs, reaching out to touch Sammy's tiny little back.

.

When Sammy is a month old, Virginia returns back to work. There has apparently been a string of thefts along the Mediterranean coast, all very valuable artwork. Virginia's boss thinks it's an inside job, and so they send Virginia to investigate it.

She kisses Sammy, Jim, and Tony goodbye, and then boards a plane.

.

While examining the security footage with the local police, Virginia notices a lovely young maid on one of the taps. At the next location, the same maid is present. And the next. And the next. Oh, her hair color changes, and her skin tone from exceedingly fair to dusky, and her eyes, too – but her facial structure doesn't.

She contacts Jim to see if the woman's picture turns anything up, and that's how Virginia learns about the art thief and con-artist known as the Black Widow.

.

Natasha, Natalia, Natalie, Natia – the woman has been working for at least decade, though she can't possibly be more than 30. Virginia follows her trail around the Mediterranean, where she has posed as maids, dog-walkers, waitresses, a university friend of the target's child, a chef. The Black Widow is amazing, and also quite annoying. Only three of the seven stolen paintings are recovered; AIM ends up paying millions.

Virginia goes home to a daughter already crawling around, but Tony recorded everything, so at night, in-between Sammy's demands for attention, Virginia curls up with Tony or Jim, whichever is home, and watches her daughter grow.

.

When she is two years old, Sammy gets sick. It's inexplicable, and Virginia, Jim, and Tony run out of doctors to bring her to. She steadily worsens and there is a final, last-ditch treatment that one of Tony's friends, Dr. Banner, recommends – it costs thousands of dollars and is experimental, and while Tony can find the money (and neither Virginia or Jim will question where or how), it'll take time Sammy doesn't have.

So Virginia talks to the medical side of AIM, begs and pleads, and the claim is turned down, turned down, turned down.

Sammy dies just after her third birthday. Virginia returns to work after the funeral, but she sees the CEO in the hall as she walks to her office. She never does quite remember what happens next, but she comes back to herself while being pushed into a police car.

Tony meets her at the station. That fucker Stane doesn't press charges, so Virginia is allowed to leave with a warning.

Her job, of course, is gone. But it doesn't matter – Sammy is dead.

Jim takes off as much time as he can, but finally, he has to return to the FBI. Tony stops consulting so that he can stay with Virginia, and they scream at each other, throw things, sob in each other's arms, and finally, six months after Sammy dies, Virginia looks at herself in the mirror and says, "That's enough wallowing, Potts."

She'll be mourning for the rest of her life, but what she needs now is revenge.

.

She tells Tony, of course. She goes to Sammy's grave and leaves a single sunflower. "Goodbye, sweetie," she says, leaning down to kiss Sammy's name on the stone. Virginia Potts, AIM Insurance Investigator, dies that bright morning in Rest Haven Cemetery and it is Pepper Potts, budding criminal, who walks out.

"What do you wanna do?" Jim asks.

"Well, we can't target AIM directly, not yet," Pepper says. She settles between them, leaning against the car, clinging to Tony with one hand and resting her head on Jim's shoulder. "We need to establish ourselves first."

"Okay." Jim kisses her, then Tony and slowly disentangles himself. "I'll contact you in a month," he says, and she can tell it hurts him as much as it hurts her, hurts Tony. At work, she knows that he and Tony are just his good friends, that Sammy was the daughter of his friends. He had to hide the extent of his grief, his rage. He'd almost quit, but Pepper – Pepper knows how much use a member of the Art Crime Team can be, and she had calmly, coldly laid it all out.

Pepper and Tony curl together as Jim drives away.

"We'll start small," Pepper says when she finally stands up tall again. She glances towards Sammy's grave one more time, and then she settles into the driver's seat.

.

When she is twelve years old, Virginia Potts carefully charts out the course of her life.

When she is thirty-seven years old, Pepper Potts starts over. At first, all she has Tony beside her and Jim over the phone or Skype, but she slowly builds connections, allies, favors owed to her.

When she is forty-three, Pepper looks around at her team – the Black Widow, the Winter Soldier, Captain, and then Tony. Jim's in the wings, just waiting for the call to swoop in and turn on AIM.

Sammy would be ten today.

Pepper smiles at Tony. "It's time."