Pepper Gets A Clue

By kerravon

(An AU 'Missing Scene' from the end of "Paved With Good Intentions" at AO3/works/592942)

"JARVIS showed her all the footage he had acquired with a glee she thought a bit unbecoming of an AI, and she is not inclined to be sympathetic to someone who has hurt her Tony." - from Cuts and Bruises, Chapter 3

"Welcome to the Avengers," muttered Clint, crossing his arms over his chest defensively as he slumped impossibly further into his chair, "drama, angst and now apparently, penguins."

The Captain stood with self assurance, despite his continued apparent embarrassment at the results of his recent actions. He stuck out his hand towards Tony, whose eyes flashed up in surprise from where they had settled once more on his own which were folded on the table. "Welcome to the Avengers," the blonde echoed, gaze steady on the billionaire. After a moment, Tony tentatively grasped it, almost as if he were expecting the fingers to change into venomous snakes and strike out at him. When nothing other than a firm handshake resulted, he smiled shyly at the super soldier, pleased at the acceptance.

Pepper narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she watched the interplay between Tony and Captain Rogers, a frown pulling at her lip. 'Welcome to the Avengers'? She clenched her jaw so tight she almost broke a molar. 'How DARE he? Tony has sacrificed more for this team than Steve Rogers can hope to comprehend, yet he has the audacity to WELCOME Tony to the Avengers now? REALLY?'

Looking at the pair of them infuriated her on a visceral level. For all his professed shame, the still unbowed Captain was standing, leaning over Tony so that the cringing engineer was forced to look upwards to meet his eyes. It was as blatant a power play as Potts had ever witnessed, and was all the worse for being unrecognized by either man. She felt hot rage at her Tony being reduced to automatically subjugating himself to another human being, no matter how much he wanted to be accepted.

She flashed a quick glance at Rhodes, who appeared just as unhappy as Pepper as he glared at the current interchange. Mouth set to a grim line as he made a decision, the Air Force Colonel stood forcefully, shoving his chair back. Roger's eyes widened slightly as he glimpsed the fury still painting the other man's face, but by the time Tony had swung around to look, Rhodes was all soft, reassuring smiles. Placing his hands on the exhausted genius' shoulders, he gently levered him to his feet as he remarked, "Well, now that that's straightened out, how about you and I go grab some lunch?" It was obvious to Pepper that Rhodes had decided that taking care of his old friend was more important than revenge, at least for the time being. That was fine by Ms. Potts; it gave her the freedom to start taking care of 'Captain America' and his little band of bullies.

Tony's eyes were dark pools as he stared at his friend, then nodded submissively and turned towards the door. Jim wrapped a reassuring arm around his shoulders, talking in low tones and steering him out of the room while simultaneously shooting Pepper a meaningful look. Potts nodded her head once in a determined silent promise of retribution, which made Rhodes quirk a smile in reply. They were agreed; for now, he would take care of Tony, while she took care of…everything else. A vicious satisfaction curled low in her gut. Oh yes, this was going to be a pleasure.

"If you'll excuse me? I have a company to run." She was fiercely gratified by the way all three of the SHIELD lackeys suddenly focused on her, and imperceptibly straightened. Good. Perhaps they were coming to an understanding. She made no attempt to hide her disdain as she swept out, mind already on the task ahead. She had some research to do.

-A-A-A-A-

Pepper waited until she was sequestered behind the locked doors of her office before acting. She had her secretary clear her schedule and gave strict instructions not to be disturbed unless it was an emergency, or Mr. Stark. The CEO instinctively recognized that, in his current state of mind, the insecure genius would perceive having to leave a message as a rejection from one more person important to him, and Pepper refused to risk it. She had worked for the billionaire for far too many years not to know instantly when he was hiding something, and had a sinking feeling that right now he was concealing the depth to which his feelings had been shattered. The way he'd sat in the conference room, curled in on himself and leaning the tiniest bit towards Rhodes' stalwart support in the chair next to him, belied his verbal bravado and snark and instead suggested insecurity, if not outright fear. Of course, Tony would have his tongue ripped out before admitting to the emotions pouring from his all-too-expressive eyes. The overwhelming impression of not being good enough, of expecting rejection, was the most disturbing to Pepper. This was a man who had changed the world a dozen times over, had said "no" to the United States government and walked away with his head held high, had rescued himself from a cave in Afghanistan by making a flying battle suit out of miscellaneous scraps of armaments. This man had frank, often brutally honest discussions with Presidents and Generals, irregardless of the personal fallout. To see him so…hesitant, so desperate for approval, was just wrong on so many levels. The unconscious flit of his hand to his chest to cover the arc reactor every time Rogers' mouth opened spoke volumes about where those feelings originated.

Rogers had been an unexpected a chink in the Tony Stark's personal armor, inadvertently created long before the genius could even read or write. A distant father's praise for this 'paragon of virtue' had established the man's infallibility and goodness back when Tony was young enough to still believe that Daddy knew everything. This impression had been cemented in the years following his disillusionment with Howard by Peggy Carter, a woman to this day who still had a place near and dear to his heart as 'Auntie Peggy'. Her fond rose-colored reminiscences of the Captain undoubtedly portrayed him in an unrealistically flattering light, but Pepper couldn't find it in her heart to begrudge the stories; after all, Tony's godmother had been one of the few people to ever unconditionally love him as a child. To this day, visits from Peggy were still sacrosanct; the engineer would drop everything to spend time with her whenever she showed up, and listen to her tales with the wide-eyed wonder of a child. For the 'Captain' to abuse this hero worship to the point where Tony looked so defeated…

Ms. Potts' lips thinned grimly. Activating her private server, she schooled her voice to hide her anger; she didn't want her own feelings to influence the AI's response. "JARVIS?" she asked politely.

"Yes, Miss Potts," came the instantaneous reply.

"JARVIS, I just had an interesting meeting with Mr. Stark, Colonel Rhodes, Miss Romanov, Mr. Barton, and Captain Rogers. It appears that some unpleasantness has occurred within the group. Is that correct?"

A pause, then, "Yes, Miss Potts."

"As CEO of Stark Industries, I am of the habit of identifying corporate threats and formulating both appropriate responses and deterrents. To do so requires as much hard data as I can obtain. I am very effective at this method of problem-solving, as you well know." Her polite tones became laced with steel. "Therefore, I need all the factual information I can retrieve concerning Mr. Stark's interactions with the Avengers. Has he classified any of the security footage recorded in the tower since his so-called teammates moved in?"

JARVIS sounded uncommonly pleased as he replied, "No ma'am, he has not."

Pepper allowed herself a small smile at that, then continued, "What about the high-level security feeds? The ones to his quarters, his garage, and his labs? Am I still authorized access?" She held her breath unconsciously; it was entirely possible Tony had revoked her clearances after her tearful confession prior to fleeing the Tower the night of their breakup.

"Your access has not changed in any aspect for the past eleven months," came the truly smug answer. So, not since Tony had bequeathed her the position of CEO at SI. She sighed in relief, then got down to business.

"Based on your lengthy experience of various human interactions with Mr. Stark, can you show me footage of the first time the others' responses appeared to deviate from norm?"

"Certainly." Pepper's monitor sprung to life with a video of Tony standing outside the elevator on the common floor, the man fairly vibrating with excitement and bouncing on his toes. She paused the screen, then centered on him and magnified it, noting with concern the dark circles beneath his eyes, the deeper-than-usual hollows in his cheeks, the unkempt spikes of hair, the rumpled shirt and trousers. He hadn't been taking care of himself.

"JARVIS, what is the time-stamp on this?"

"Just over six weeks ago, when Agents Barton, Romanov, and Captain Rogers were ordered to move into the tower. This is the day they arrived."

Pepper's brows creased. "Did you say, 'ordered'? It wasn't their choice?" She knew that Tony had been planning on creating whole personalized floors for each of his supposed 'teammates', then inviting them to move into the Tower, but didn't expect him to try and force the issue if they declined.

"Sir informed me that Director Fury had ordered them to move into his home, and had ordered Sir to house them. Since it had been his plan all along to offer, he simply accelerated the construction without lodging any objections."

Ms. Potts tapped a manicured nail on the image of the weary man on the screen. "How long had it been since he slept?"

"At the time of that footage, he had been awake almost continuously for four days. The Director gave him a three day deadline for readiness after a full day of clearing rubble for publicity. It took not inconsiderable effort on his part to achieve the appointed goals."

Pepper's eyebrows crawled into her scalp in surprise. Why in the world had Tony permitted that? And what was Fury thinking? The group was going to show up with a collective chip on their shoulder the size of a two-by-four! She restarted the video and watched, as expected, a cluster of three very wary superheroes exit the elevator.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," Tony greeted them, gesturing around the room. They all glared stonily back, but Tony didn't notice, still quivering with barely-suppressed excitement and four days of caffeine-fueled sleep deprivation. She smiled fondly, even as she shook her head in despair. The inventor could be a little overwhelming once he reached this point, and it was even worse when he'd spent the time making gifts for people he liked. Unfortunately, it was painfully obvious that he liked these people, and desperately wanted them to like him back. He had already spent countless hours on the blueprints of each individualized floor prior to her departure; he no doubt spared no expense to realize these plans in the extremely limited time Fury had given them. They didn't know it yet, but they were each moving into a custom-made piece of heaven with a view of Manhattan to die for.

She frowned as she watched the tour continue. Rather than being appreciative, the three 'heroes' became progressively more withdrawn and sullen, bunching together as if Tony were about to attack them. The billionaire subconsciously picked up on the hostile vibes and tried to make small talk to break the ice. The others seemed to deliberately misconstrue every friendly overture and comment he made as an aspersion, and practically threw his offer of lunch in his face as they headed for the exit, pointedly leaving him behind. The lost, inadequate expression that flitted across his face at their rejection tore her heart in two, and she silently watched his shoulders slump in defeat as he retreated to his lab.

Blinking back tears, she swallowed twice before she trusted her voice to address the AI without cracking. "JARVIS, do you have any other examples of this behavior to show me?"

The computer's voice was dry. "It's been over six weeks. There are innumerable examples. Please be more specific."

The CEO's eyes narrowed dangerously. Of course there were. "Why don't we start with the dress he made for Natasha? He called me for my input on that." She remembered the conversation. By her estimation, the Avengers had already been ungratefully sponging off Tony for a number of weeks by that time. Her brow creased in concern; she had asked him at the time why he didn't simply ask Natasha herself, and he'd blown her off with some tripe about geniuses presenting completed masterpieces. But now she had to wonder… "Actually, JARVIS, could you show me the feed from when he made that call to me?"

JARVIS…paused, which sent alarms ringing in her gut. She almost asked again if it was classified when her screen flared to life, showing the lab. Pepper gasped audibly. The lab was a mess, more so than she'd ever seen it. Rather than the haphazard collection twenty or thirty different ongoing problems in various states of development, the place looked like it had been torn apart by a hurricane, and was in the process of slowly being put to rights. "What happened?", she hissed in surprise.

The computer took it as an honest query. "Sir had returned four days previously from attending an Avengers meeting to which he had not been invited. Apparently Director Fury and Captain Rogers both informed Sir that his presence wasn't requested as he was not an Avenger, merely a consultant, which was not information Sir had been privy to prior to that point. Agent Barton reportedly expanded on that statement to indicate that Sir was in actuality only their butler, useful for providing accommodations and nothing else."

Pepper saw red; closing her eyes, she took several deep, calming breaths before continuing. "You said 'reportedly', JARVIS. How do you know Barton said this? Tony doesn't have you monitoring the SHIELD security cameras, does he?" She certainly hoped not, otherwise this was going to get complicated.

"No, Miss Potts. I accrued the information both from subsequent comments made by the others upon their return, as well as Sirs…rants…over the next several hours."

Pepper nodded, relieved. Gesturing to the frozen scene, she continued, "So, how did this happen?"

JARVIS reluctantly admitted, "Sir was…distraught. Apparently the Director perceived Sir as 'out of control', therefore unsuitable to be an Avenger, and indicated that it had to do with… your departure. Sir extrapolated that to mean that you also thought he was out of control, and that was the real reason that you left. He proceeded to drink to excess, then violently dismantle the entire workshop. In the process he tried to take DUM-E apart and make him 'work right', since 'nothing he ever did worked right'."

Pepper jolted in shock. Tony treated his robots like his children. For him to be upset enough to attack one of them, and for Fury to imply that there was something wrong with Tony that had caused her to leave… Once she was done with Rogers and 'the Avengers', the Director was next on her hit list. She had been meticulously careful with her words at the time of the breakup, making absolutely certain that there was no way for Tony to misunderstand and internalize the blame into himself, as he tended to do. It was the risks he took with the Iron Man that were the problem, not Tony himself. But, as that was part of what made him the man she loved, she was between a rock and a hard place. She could be CEO, personal assistant, and friend, but she didn't have the strength of will to love a man who regularly saved the world at the probable ultimate cost of his own life. She closed her eyes and massaged her temples in frustration. For Fury to screw up all her careful work with some ill-timed comments…yep. It was time for a thorough review of every single contract SHIELD had with SI.

Taking a deep breath, she composed herself and resumed the tape. When Tony swung into view, her eyes widened, aghast. He looked so small and dejected! Hunched over as if warding off a blow, his muscles became more and more tense as the conversation continued, even though he let none of it show in his voice. At his joking, "Why did you work for such an ass?", her heart jumped to her throat. Despite the lighthearted tone, she could see the raw vulnerability in his face, the expected rejection in the curve of his back, the slump of his shoulders. He really wanted to know; at that moment he really thought of himself as an ass. She could only thank God her joking reply hadn't been one to reinforce that impression. "Not a hopeless case, then?", and the sheer anguish she could now see in his eyes... She swallowed convulsively to keep from crying. Clearly every hurtful word from the others had been internalized by this point, to where Tony believed that his every failed interpersonal relationship was all his fault. Damn Fury and his Initiative to hell!

Shaking her head, she forcibly wrenched herself back to a more impersonal mental state to try and maintain some objectivity. A deep sigh, then, "All right, JARVIS, halt the video, then correct me if I'm wrong. In the first clip, Rogers, Barton, and Romanov are forced to move into the home of a man that they believe wants to be part of their exclusive little clique but isn't, and is trying to buy and barter his way in without really 'earning' it. Meanwhile, the man in question believes that he is already a member of the group, is excited about it, and is doing his best to make them feel welcome and comfortable. How am I doing so far?"

"I believe that accurately sums up the situation."

"In the second clip, Tony has obviously resorted to his typical ultimate coping mechanism of cowering in his workshop when he's upset and is expecting blatant rejection from everyone, including people who have been his tried-and-true friends for years." She was having trouble keeping a handle on her temper again.

"That is correct."

"Can you summarize the events that occurred between these two clips? Honestly, I'm afraid that if I watch much more, I'll react unthinkingly, and whatever I do to Captain Rogers? I want to plan out every detail so that it sticks." She flashed a vicious, shark-like gin that she knew the AI would see.

"Certainly, ma'am," JARVIS answered with disconcerting approval. "In the intervening time period, Sir extended eight separate invitations to the Avengers for attempted social interactions, all but one of which were rejected. In the same time period, the others participated in three organized social engagements that Sir was intentionally not invited to, as well as six formal 'Avengers' meetings at SHIELD to which Sir likewise was not requested to attend. He created specialty arrows for Mr. Barton as a friendly gesture, which were accepted with poor grace. Sir responded in his typical fashion and accidentally hurt Barton's feelings, and was subsequently threatened with physical harm by Romanov should it occur again. When he accessed the SHIELD database to try and prevent further faux pas in the future, he discovered Agent Coulson to still be alive, and notified the rest of the team. He was subsequently condemned by the entire group, forbidden to see the Agent in question, and telephonically admonished by yourself when he contacted you to inform you of the Agent's survival.

Pepper flinched. She remembered that conversation. Her "What on Earth made you think that would be a good idea?" response had sounded appropriate at the time, but in retrospect…

"All right, JARVIS. I get it. No matter how hard he tried, he just kept being 'wrong'." She dropped her face into her hands and regained her composure. No wonder Tony looked so defeated. When she raised her head, though, there was a fire in her eyes once more. "Thank you, JARVIS. I think I can take it from here. Please let me know if any further…misunderstandings occur at the tower, all right?"

"As you wish," came the satisfied reply.

The End