He heard the door open and someone come in, closing the door to the observation room behind them. Tony felt his irritation grow when he looked into the glass, and saw who it was, "You know, Red, I said that I prefer to be left alone right now."

"You don't even want to see me?" a voice that was not the Russian's quietly asked.

As whose voice it was sunk it, Tony spun around so quickly that he almost gave himself whiplash. His eyes widened as he stared at the vision of loveliness before him, almost not believing that she was actually standing there after she had been living on the other side of the world for so many weeks now.

"Pepper?"

When he uttered her name his voice was thick from the worry he felt for his friend lying unconscious in the other room and from the fear that she was actually an illusion brought on by his need, his desire to see her right now. He suddenly turned away from her, convinced that he had somehow induced her appearance here.

"No, you're not here. You are not here! It's just wishful thinking on my part! You're not here!" he muttered.

When he turned away from Pepper's eyes widened with a hurt surprise. Then fear quickly replaced those feelings when he began muttering about her not actually there. Fear remained and the hurt returned because maybe he really believed that she no longer wanted to see him, and therefore couldn't possibly be here now?

She walked softly up behind him, and carefully touched his shoulder. "Tony, it's me. I'm really here."

Tony tightly closed his eyes, continuing to mutter that she wasn't there. His resistance lasted for all of three seconds before he turned around and wrapped his good arm around as tightly as he possibly could. Burying his face into her neck, he murmured in her ear, "I've missed you, Pepper. Oh, how I've missed you!"

Pepper suppressed a sigh, and raised her arms to hug him in return.

It took a few moments for the stiffness of her body language to register, and when it did, Tony pulled away from her as a sudden realization hit him. His voice held a quiet, sad hurt as he murmured an apology, "Sorry, that was…. Malapropos since we're not really together like that anymore." He turned back to the observation window.

"Tony, I-"

"No, you don't have to apologize, Pepper. You're here for Rhodey… because he got hurt, and not for me. I get that. I mean why shouldn't you come since you're friends with him too?"

"Tony-"

"It's okay, Pepper," He gave a quick look in her direction, then looked away, "I get why you're here. You don't have to explain it."

Her heart clenched at the quiet, sad acceptance in his voice. Raising her hand, she hesitated then she gently stroked the side of his face.

At first Tony leaned into her caress, but then he jerk back and as if he had suddenly realized what he was doing. "Don't, please just don't."

There was no small amount of hurt for her when he had immediately pulled away from her as though she had burned him, and Pepper blinked away tears, "Don't what?"

"Don't try to give me comfort… or… make me feel better," he replied, "We're… we're not together anymore."

"But I came for you too."

Tony looked at her, "You what...what did you say?"

"I said I came for you too."

"But why?"

"Because I still care about you, Tony."

"Hmm, yeah. Right."

Pepper was only one of the few people in the world who knew better than to dismiss his casual sounding tone and words as being just that, casual. She was also one of the few people who could see the underlying hurt in his body language. It was the advantage of having had known, worked, and loved him for so long.

She sighed, and said, "Just because things didn't work out between us, doesn't mean that I stopped lov... caring about you altogether." She held her breath as soon as she finished speaking, hoping that he hadn't heard her near slip-up.

"I think the fact that you've been avoiding me since we broke up says otherwise!"

Good, he didn't hear my almost slipup, she thought before she said aloud, "I'm not…avoiding you. I just think some time apart would do us both some good. I thought maybe it'd help us both to get some perspective."

Tony turned his back to her again, "Oh, I got some perspective alright. After we ended I realized that a big mistake had been made."

Pepper stared at his back, blinking away tears as the words and hurt absorbed their way into her head. She hoped that she had misheard him, and so she asked, "W-what did you say?"

"I said I realized that a big mistake has been made," he repeated.

"Yeah, that's what I thought you said."

The hurt in her voice cut through the cloud of his own, and when he turned around sharply to look at her, he saw her surreptitiously wipe away a tear. "Oh Pepper, please don't cry."

Her face screwed in anger, and she crossed her arms, "My ex-boyfriend just told me that we… he made a mistake with our relationship. Tell me why I shouldn't be angry, Tony?" Or hurt?

"Because what I said...it doesn't mean what you think it means."

"Then what did you mean?"

"I...what I meant was… You know what? It's not really that important. All you need to know, Pepper, is that I didn't mean what I said the way you took it." He turned away from her again.

"No Tony, I want to know what you meant with what you said and if you don't tell me I'm going to go away from this believing that you thought that we were a mistake. Is that what you want me to believe?" He didn't reply to her and stood so stock still that Pepper was sure she had her answer, and she turned to leave the room.

"No," Tony said quietly, almost at the moment her hand touched the doorknob, "It's not what I want you to believe, Pepper, because it's not the truth."

She turned back around to see him still standing with his back to her. Taking a deep breath she hesitated then walked over to stand beside him at the observation window, asking quietly, "Then what is the truth, Tony? Will you tell me, please? Because I'd really like to know what you meant when you said you realized that a big mistake had been made."

He sighed loudly when he realized that she wasn't going to let this go. He was aware that she was standing right beside him, but he kept his eyes forward on his friend in the next room. He couldn't say what he needed to say while looking at her at the same time, and taking one last breath he began,

"What I meant when I said that a big mistake made I was referring to me, not you. I'm the one who made the big mistake by thinking that I could be with you. I mean I really don't deserve you, Pepper, and I never will. Killian might have been a raging madman by he got it one hundred percent right when he told me that I don't deserve you because I really don't."

Pepper stared at him, stunned at what she had just heard. She wasn't sure what she had expected him to say, but what he had actually said wasn't it and while she tried to think of how to respond, she heard him say something else.

"You know you wising up and ending it when you did is probably a good thing… for you I mean since everything I touch turns to ashes." He laughed mirthlessly, "You would have gotten burned sooner or later.. and with my track record. And it would have been sooner too, especially after we got lucky with dodging it with the whole Killian thing."

"Oh Tony, you know that's not true!" She rested a hand on his shoulder, quickly drawing it back when she heard him take in a sharp, hissing breath. "Tony?"

"I'm okay," he replied while he favored the shoulder.

Although she could see a sheen of sweat on his face, Pepper decided to let go of the fact that he was hurt and hadn't sought medical attention for it just for the moment, "What you said about everything you touch turning to ashes simply is not true because if it was, Stark Industries would have tanked a long time ago."

"The fact that it's still around doesn't prove a thing, Pep, since I hardly been actually involved with running the company after I inherited it."

"But you were still involved in some major decisions that have been good for Stark Industries."

"Yeah, like appointing you as CEO, which is probably the smartest thing I've ever done business wise," Tony pauses for a few seconds when Pepper smiles at him, "But that still doesn't take away from the fact I'm a toxic, walking disaster! No, as much as I… miss you, and will always love you, but you know it's a good thing that you got out before you ended up like he did." He turned his eyes back to the other room.

Pepper watches him for a second before she looks away. She doesn't look into Rhodey's room though, but instead stares at the nearby wall. She doesn't speak for some time, thinking about what he's said, and the pain - not just the physical pain - that she's seen in his eyes. Tears well up in her eyes and finally overflow as she feels a hurting sadness. She sighs as she says, "I'm sorry because I made a mistake too...not when I left because it was something I had to do, and I hate that too."

"So, what was the mistake you made then?"