Tony didn't know what he was thinking, not only threatening a terrorist, but also giving out his home address. It often blew up in his face, like it was doing now, quite literally, actually. However, as he blew away from the impact of the first missile, one word ran through his mind.
Pepper
He had an idea, but it was a bit risky, considering the suit was just a prototype, and he hadn't tested it out yet. He clearly didn't have time to worry about that at the moment, however.
He summoned the suit he had been working on without Pepper's knowledge, and watched as it encompassed her. He couldn't help but smile slightly at the fact that it fit perfectly, though that smile had quickly disappeared when he was brought back to the situation at hand by the cracking of the ceiling, a tell-tale sign that it was going to fall on him.
But then she was there, with her new suit he made her, the helmet flipping open, and her saying, "I got you."
"I got you first. And I told you we couldn't stay here."
And with that completely false statement, Tony told her to go and to also take Maya, who had the misfortune of being there at the time. And that was the last of the suit until Pepper brought it up after what felt like much later
Everything had finally mostly gone back to the way it was before, though with what happened, they couldn't completely go back. Tony cured Pepper's Extremis problem and has finally gotten around to removing the shrapnel from his chest.
Pepper and Tony were sitting in comfortable silence on a terrace at the tower in New York, savoring their moment of peace, staring out at the New York skyline.
"Tony?" Pepper said, breaking the silence.
"Hmm?" He hummed questioningly, turning his head to look at her.
She turned to look at him too, and their eyes met as she asked him, "When did you build the suit? I know it wasn't one of the others because it fit me perfectly," Pepper said, adding the second part so that Tony couldn't just say it was one of his other suits.
Deciding there was no point in lying to her, since she would see through it anyways, Tony looked away from her and quietly answered, "Around the same time as the Mark XLII. I built it to protect you, because I realized that people may use you to get to me. And they did."
He looked at her again as he said the last part, his eyes filled with emotion and vulnerability.
"Were you planning on telling me before I had to use it?" She asked equally quietly.
"I don't know," he replied, "I wanted to, but I also wanted to tell you when I was dying from palladium poisoning, and you know how that turned out."
"Did you blow that one up too?" She asked curiously.
"No. That one didn't have a self-destruct setting. But I also wanted to keep it in case you need it again."
"Let's hope I won't," Pepper said, shuddering at the memory of all that time when she thought Tony was dead.
"Let's hope," Tony agreed, as they changed to topic to a much lighter one.