The elevator doors swished closed, and Tony felt as if all the energy he had was sucked out with the sound. He slumped against the back wall as the lift climbed to the penthouse. The confrontation with Vanko in the cell had taken the last of his reserves.

And he was overdue for chlorophyll.

He should have died out there, on that track. It would have been easier. Fast.

But Pepper had been there, and Happy... and so many other innocents.

The elevator stopped, doors opening. He shuffled through, absently fumbling for the card key. Entering the suite, he saw Pepper had not moved from the couch. Her brows were furrowed, even in sleep. He wished he could take back the stress that went with the company... but he knew he could trust her. She would continue what he started, she would make sure no more Stark weapons got where they didn't belong.

He stood, for a moment, just looking at her. His jacket had slid partly off her. She moved in her sleep, small agitated twitches. WIthout conscious thought, he moved to her and pulled the jacket up, snugging it around her shoulders.

She quieted.

He looked for a moment over toward his room. They still had about three hours until their flight home. He needed to crash so badly...

The room was so far away. And the couch was right here. And she was here.

He wanted nothing so badly as to hold her while she slept. But there were consequences to that he was not ready for, may never be ready for.

So instead, he moved to the end of the couch where her feet rested. More restless movements told her she was dreaming. Gently he lifted her feet as he sat, lowering them back down on his lap. There. He was touching her. She was safe. She was real. She was here. He could rest for now.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Pepper rose to consciousness slowly. Her head hurt, sinuses stuffy from crying. She ached all over, like she had the flu. She wasn't in her bed. She tried to reconcile where she was with what day it was...

Monaco. She felt the heavy, raw silk collar of Tony's suit jacket beneath her chin. She didn't remember falling asleep. Her upper body was warm under the jacket, but her knees felt the chill of the artificially cooled air. But her calves and ankles and feet were... warm on the bottom?

Stifling a groan at her aching head and neck, she cracked an eye open. Tony sat on the other end of the couch. He had her feet up on his lap. His head was thrown back, mouth open, snoring lightly. His hands rested, warm on her calf and ankle.

Something in the position was so vulnerable, and yet possessive at the same time. Her stomach clenched, not unpleasantly. She closed her eyes again, willing reality to wait for just a few more minutes. His unconscious touch on her burned.

Something was wrong. She'd felt it hovering, at the edges of her awareness for a while now. Since before his Quixotic announcement that he was giving her the company... She could not identify it though. Stocks were high and holding steady. The windfarm initiatives were promising. The Expo was a huge nightmare and money pit, but was progressing as scheduled and gaining attendance...

No, she could not put her finger on the lingering sense of dread. It wasn't even that he had maneuvered around her to put Natalie in position as his PA. His proprietary hand on her back, fingers wrapping her ribcage and just brushing into forbidden territory just moments after he whispered, "Whatever happens in the next fifteen minutes, just go with it... " preceded the disclosure. His teasing her that green was not her best colour... no, it was not jealousy. It was something darker, colder, more... slithery.

She was debating how she could get off the couch without waking him when the strident bell of the phone cut through the silence in the hotel room. Both of them startled awake, and in one movement she swung her legs off his lap and stood, reaching for the phone. "Your wake up call, Miss Potts, your flight is cleared for takeoff in two hours."

She drew in a breath after hanging up the phone, the waiting filled with awkward nerves on her part. She didn't usually fall apart like she had earlier. In fact, she never fell apart.; Virginia might, but Pepper, never. She needn't have worried. Tony was on his feet, stretching like a lazy Tomcat, blinking sleep from his eyes. She saw odd dark marks on the side of his neck, couldn't tell if it was bruising or cuts, but then he dropped his arms and his collar covered it again.

He caught her staring. For a moment she thought she saw longing in his eyes. Then his fake, self-satisfied smirk lifted the corners of his lips. "Miss Potts?" One eyebrow rose in question.

"Two hours." She said, then had to clear the sleep from her voice, "Two hours until take off, Mr. Stark."

She was about to say something more, to confront him, to ask him... to ask him what? With a nod of her head she shook off the notion. "I'll uh... get us a car and driver." She muttered, falling into old patterns of automatically thinking ahead, filling in the gaps, picking up the pieces...

Pepper spent almost all of the two hours pre-flight returning phone calls, texts and emails. It was a relief to turn her blackberry to wi-fi only when they boarded. Soon after takeoff, Tony disappeared.

She turned on the TV to see just how bad things were...

They were worse than she expected. That ass of a Senator Stern was basking in glory, on every station from the BBC to CNN. Her stomach sank and her eyes burned with the need to weep.

What the hell was going on? She took a deep breath that hitched with unshed tears.