"Born in the USA. I was born in the USA."
Steve jumped as his cell phone rang in his pocket. Rolling his eyes as he fished it out, he cursed Tony who, no matter how hard Steve tried to keep it away from him, always managed to get his phone and change the ringtone to something patriotic. Someday that joke would get old, he hoped.
"Hello?" he answered, not recognizing the number.
"Hey Steve, its Pepper. I need to ask you a huge favor."
"Sure Pepper, anything you need."
"This is really embarrassing…" Pepper trailed off. Steve could hear the strain in her voice and grew worried.
"Is everything ok? Did something happen?"
"I'm fine. Something did happen, but it's nothing really serious, so you don't have to worry. It's just –"
"You can tell me Pepper, you know you can trust me" Steve prodded gently when she again lapsed into silence.
"I know, it's just…oh god, I feel like such an idiot" she sighed. Taking a deep breath, she knew she just had to get it out. "I'm in jail and I need someone to come down and bail me out."
Steve's jaw dropped and he went silent for a beat. He couldn't imagine what Pepper could have done to get arrested and why wouldn't she call Tony?
"Oh my god Pepper, are you sure you're ok? Did you want me to find Tony?"
"No!" she shouted into the phone, "He cannot know. I'd never hear the end of it. Like I said, I'm fine and I'm getting it straightened out, I just don't really want him to find out."
"Ok, ok, I understand. So where are you? I'll be right there."
After giving Steve the address and instructions on what he'd have to do, she hung up the phone and was taken back to her holding cell to wait for Steve to arrive.
Steve hopped out of the cab in front of the precinct and hurried inside, taking the front stairs two at a time. Even though Pepper did sound fine, he wanted to get her out of there as soon as possible.
"Can I help you, sir?" the woman at the front desk asked.
"Yes, I'm here for Pepper Potts."
"Alright" she said, typing the name into her computer and reading the information that came up on her screen. "If you'll just have a seat, she'll be brought out to you in a few minutes. While you wait, if you could just sign these forms, here and here" she continued, marking X's next to the lines requiring his signature.
"Great, thank you." Taking the papers and sitting into one of the hard plastic chairs lining the walls, Steve waited.
After what seemed like way more than just a few minutes, an officer rounded the corner leading a sheepish looked Pepper behind him.
"Thank you, officer" she said politely before turning and hugging Steve tightly. "I really appreciate this; I just want you to know."
"Don't mention it" he said, hugging her back. "Everything is taken care of?"
"Yeah, we got everything straightened out. C'mon, let's get out of here."
Taking her by the arm, Steve led Pepper out and hailed a taxi to take them back to Stark Tower.
"Do you know if Tony is at home?" Pepper asked, staring out the window at the city rushing by.
"I'm not sure; I haven't talked to him today. You're really not going to tell him? I know he likes to joke sometimes, but he'd be worried about you and I don't think he'd give you a hard time over something like this."
"Oh, I wouldn't bet on that."
"I don't want to overstep –" Steve said, staring at Pepper who was still avoiding his gaze. He was curious but didn't want to be rude or pressure her into talking more about the situation.
"Assault" she said simply, leaning back into the seat and closing her eyes. She didn't want to see the look of surprise cross his face.
"Assault?" he asked, as disbelieving as she knew he'd be. "Did someone attack you?"
"Not exactly…" She was still debating whether to say anymore, but she figured that after coming to save her, he probably deserved to know. "It wasn't on purpose. There was a woman and we got into a little argument and the next thing you know, we were fighting. I swear she threw the first punch…"
Steve just sat and stared, unsure of how to react. He knew Pepper was a strong woman who could take care of herself if she had to, but she wasn't the type of person to get into a brawl on the street.
"Uh, what was the argument about?"
Biting her lip, Pepper turned away again for a moment. She had never felt quite so stupid in her life.
"You'd understand if you had seen the shoes!" she blurted out. "It was the last pair."
She crossed her arms defiantly and choosing to ignore the laughing that Steve tried in vain to hold back.
"Ok" he said, wiping a tear from his eye once he had regained composure, "I'm sorry, it's really not funny. Was the other woman ok too?"
"Yes, we're both fine and the charges were dropped."
"I see why you didn't want Tony to know" Steve said, getting out of the car as they reached the tower.
"God knows he will somehow. I don't know how he does it, but he does."