Avengers doesn't belong to me.

Thanks Miriam1.

They Needed It!

Nick Fury was surprised when the Sergeant told him that Miss Potts was waiting to see him.

"Miss Pepper Potts?" he asked the Sergeant.

"Yes sir," the younger man replied.

Nick wondered how she had known where to find him and shook his head. Stark. Stark probably had the whole place wired.

After the destruction of their old base, SHIELD was temporarily housed at an abandoned military base in rural Utah. No one should have known where they were. But then Stark was no ordinary person.

Still, Nick wondered why Pepper Potts had come all this way to see him.

"Miss Potts," he greeted her when she entered and gestured for her to sit. "What a pleasant surprise."

"Director Fury," Pepper replied. "I'm sure you're wondering how I even knew about this place and what I am doing here."

"Of course."

"How could you?" Pepper asked him.

"How could I what?" Nick replied. What did Pepper imagine he had done to Stark?

"Don't you dare pretend ignorance," Pepper told him. Nick didn't answer he just waited for her to continue. "How could you let them believe that he was dead?"

Nick didn't pretend that he didn't know what she was talking about.

"An opportunity presented itself," he replied, wondering why he was even explaining himself to her. "A chance for them to be on the same page for once."

"I can understand their reluctance to work together," Pepper agreed. "Most of them prefer working alone, but telling them that Phil was dead was too much."

"It was the push they needed," Nick said unapologetically. "And it worked."

Pepper had been half afraid that Phil was really dead so her anger at Fury's lies was tempered by her relief that Phil was still alive. "Thank God," she breathed and stood up to leave. "I have to leave before Tony realizes that I am not in California."

Nick Fury nodded and asked, "How did you know?"

"Know what?" Pepper asked him.

"That Phil Coulson wasn't dead."

"I have my ways," Pepper replied, "but the next time you want anyone to believe that someone is dead you might want to advise the agent who is supposed to be dead not to call his girlfriend every night."

Nick Fury burst out laughing. He'd always figured that Virginia 'Pepper' Potts was smart. She had to be, she was Tony Stark's PA after all, and had been with him for years, but she wasn't what he'd expected. Not at all. There was certainly more to Pepper Potts than met the eye.

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