And now it's two chapters. Hmh. If you enjoy this story, I hope you check out my other IM stories… reviews are making me write more!
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JUST A JOB: The Early Years
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"Miss Potts? Is that you?"
The figure that had been ambling past Elise Truman's office was a familiar sight. She walked confidently while not looking where she was going; a pen writing with one hand on a sheaf of files cradled in the other arm; a cup of coffee in that hand acting as more of a bookend for the files than a beverage. She stopped and looked up from her notes. "Oh, hi, Mrs. Truman. And you can call me Pepper, of course." Dang. When did I start calling myself that? I don't even let him -
"Elise is fine, dear. How you can walk that fast while reading and making notes, I'll never know."
"I'm afraid I've gotten used to it, following Mr. Stark. He doesn't slow down much."
"I'm sure. How are you holding up?"
Pepper sighed and looked off in the distance before looking back with a smile. "So far, so good." They shared a laugh, and Pepper stepped over the threshold of her office. "Do you have a moment?"
"Of course. Sit." The older woman indicated the sitting area in her large office, with a small couch and a couple chairs clustered comfortably around a glass coffee table. "I could use a moment myself. What's new?" She walked over to a cabinet and filled two cups, offering one to Pepper. "Here. I'm sure that one's cold."
Pepper laughed, but took it gratefully after she set down her papers and tossed the dead cardboard container of what was once coffee. "Thank you," she said, sipping. "Oh, that's good. It's so rare that I get to drink more than a couple sips while it's still hot."
Elise closed her office door, and they settled into the comfortable chairs. "So?"
Pepper looked a little doubtful. "Well…"
"Don't worry, dear." The older woman kicked off her elegant pumps and put her feet up on the coffee table as she cradled her mug. "Lunchtime. I'm off duty."
Pepper chuckled and smiled gratefully. "I know you've known him since he was younger…" she sipped again, thoughtfully, and tipped her head to one side. "He doesn't relax very well, does he."
"No, not really. Never has. I'm afraid part of it was inherited from Howard. I could never tell if it was a competition between them or if Tony was just trying to prove something to himself… whether it was that he could be better than his father or different from him, I couldn't quite tell. Maria was always a little concerned about him." She shrugged. "But I'm no psychiatrist. Do you think he's worse than he was before?"
"No, not worse… maybe I'm just getting used to him. " She grinned as she heard Elise laugh. "Okay, I don't know if I'll ever get used to him, but… I'm trying to understand him better."
"Well, my dear, good luck with that!"
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Miss Potts walked up to the door of Stark house, and keyed in her code. Immediately a cultured voice greeted her. "Good afternoon, Miss Potts."
"Good afternoon, Jarvis." She put her things down on the counter and looked around. It had been ten months since she first set foot in the house, and she wouldn't have believed it would be finished by now. Of course, she also wouldn't have believed the voice she conversed with most, in the most friendly manner, would belong to… a house. "So where is the great and wonderful Oz?"
There was a pause as Jarvis added this new entry to his database. "In the garage, Miss. I believe he has an engine out at the moment."
"Oh, good grief," she said, paging through a stack of unopened mail to find what he missed this time. "Not the Shelby again."
"I'm afraid so, Miss."
"I wish he'd leave that poor car alone. It only frustrates him."
"Yes, Miss. But he seems to find it relaxing."
"I don't know about that. Especially with the Shelby. I'm afraid one of these days he's going to take a sledgehammer to it and crush it flat." She tossed the rest of the mail on the counter. "You know what they say. 'You can't teach a pig to sing'."
There was a longish pause. "And is there a reason they say that? Other than the obvious biological impossibilities?"
She smiled. "They say 'it only wastes your time, and irritates the pig.'" A longer pause had her imagining Jarvis filing this one away into a large file marked 'humans', with a huge question mark as its icon. "So, how dirty is it down there today?"
"Far from sterile, but not overly contaminated with petroleum byproducts. Yet."
She grinned as she headed for the stairs. Good thing her boss could afford to replace the dress that she'd ruined last week, 'just holding' a carburetor for a minute. Halfway down the stairs the music hit her like a wall. She keyed in her password at the door, and turned the volume down at the same time. Looking across the room, she nearly sighed.
There he was. His hair completely disheveled, wearing a tank top and sweatpants. As he turned, she could see a streak of oil across his cheek, matching one on his arm.
"Please don't ever turn down my music."
She stared at him for a moment before giving a mental shrug, ignoring his comment. "There's a benefit tonight. A fundraiser for something, I can't remember at the moment…"
"Can't. Just send them more money." He turned a bolt and touched the computer screen nearby. "Jarvis, what's the torque rating on this?"
"Point six five, sir."
"Right." He looked at the bolt and tightened it a bit more. "That should do it."
"You said you'd be there. You can't just -"
"I need to finish this. Did the delivery come yet?"
"Finish this? You'll never finish this. You've been working on this for – well, at least as long as I've known you."
He stopped for a moment and stared at her, his dark eyes shadowed by unkempt hair falling across his forehead. "That's probably true. But isn't that all the more reason I should get it done?"
Pepper stared at him. How could a man who looked so amazing in a custom tailored Armani suit look even better in grimy work clothes? Is it the less he wears? And if that's the case, I wonder how he looks- "No!" she said aloud, unintentionally, as she attempted to quiet her imagination.
"No?"
She put a hand to her head, trying to stay level. "No. No, it's not a good reason and no, ah, delivery. Not yet."
He frowned slightly at her, and then dropped down to slide under the car again. "Give me a hand with this."
"Under the car?"
"Well, over it won't help much."
"In this dress?"
He slid out on the creeper board and gave her an exaggerated once over. The blue suit fit her like a glove, and matched her eyes in a way that was far from accidental. "You could take it off." He paused long enough for her to give him an exasperated look, and then he smirked and slid back under the car.
"You're impossible."
"That's not what I've heard. I understand I'm pretty easy." A clang of metal on metal was accompanied by a soft curse. "Are you going to stand there, or are you going to help?"
Pepper rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air. "Fine. Give me a minute to change." She walked over to a locker and yanked it open with some annoyance, pulled out the coveralls he'd ordered for her and swept her hair back into a ponytail. "I'll be right back."
Twenty minutes later they were head to head, or, rather, ear to ear under the Shelby, having slid under the car from opposite sides. "Hold this."
"Yuck."
"Yuck? Miss Potts, I'm assuming that you have seen the internal workings of a car before…do they fit all right?"
"They're fine. Thank you. Although the 'Pepper' embroidered here is kind of -"
He pushed a tube out of the way. "Ha! There it is."
"There what is?" She leaned a bit closer, trying to see.
"The leak. That gasket must be shot. You see?" He turned his head at the same time she did, and their noses nearly touched. Startled, they both froze, until Tony pulled back an inch to focus on her, upside down. He put on his best leer. "Miss Potts, we must stop meeting like this."
Pepper felt the blush coming on and started to slide out from under the car. He tried to grab her arm but she pulled away, and he was so distracted that he made the mistake of trying to sit up quickly under a couple tons of car. "Pepper, wait - Ow!"
She stopped and looked back at him, then slipped out from under her side of the car and ran around to his. "Mr. Stark? Are you alright?"
"Ow. I'm fine…" his voice dropped to mumbled curses. "Oh, great. Except for the blood."
"Blood?" Without thinking twice she grabbed his legs and pulled him out from under the car. She pulled so hard that the creeper board actually slid two feet beyond the Shelby. She took one look at his forehead and reached for the first aid kit. "Let me see."
"I'm fine. Really. Stop it, – Miss Potts." He grabbed her wrist as she reached to push his hair out of the way, and their eyes met. The blue against the brown, like the ocean against the shore. Her eyebrow lifted as her gaze dropped for a moment to where he was clutching her wrist and he let go, embarrassedly. "I'm fine."
"Then you won't mind me taking a look."
"Yes, I will mind." He started to sit up, and grabbed his head. "Ow."
"Tony." He blinked, startled, and looked back into her eyes. A smile softened her expression. "I'm just going to clean it off. I promise. I won't hurt you. It'll be okay." Their gaze locked for more time than was absolutely necessary, and he finally shrugged.
"Okay. I mean, if you're going to promise and all."
"Good." She took out a towel and an antiseptic wipe, cleaning the sweat and motor oil off his forehead before approaching the injury with a clean wipe. "Okay. This might sting a little." He frowned but said nothing as she cleaned him off. "Looks like it's not too bad. Right on your scalp line, though, that's why it bled so well."
He was staring at her eyes as she worked, and his expression was unreadable. "So."
She put a small gauze pad on it and held it down with a couple butterflies. "Yes?"
"Does this mean I can call you 'Pepper' now?"
"No."
"No?" He did a good job of appearing to be confused. "But you called me 'Tony'."
"That was different. That was an emergency."
"Oh, it was."
"Yes. It was."
"So I can call you Pepper in emergencies?" He looked up at her with such a puppy dog expression that she almost laughed. "I mean, shouldn't I get something? It was your fault that I –"
"My fault?"
"Yes, your fault. I made a joke and you were clearly offended, and I was trying to apologize, and –"
"You were trying to apologize?"
"Well… yes. I was trying to stop you long enough to make sure you knew it was a joke, anyway…" he mumbled. "I should at least get a sucker or something. I mean, a real nurse –"
She finished up, wiped her hands, and gave him a long-suffering sigh. "All right, Mr. Stark. You may, occasionally, call me 'Pepper'. But only in private. I mean, when we're alone." She shook her head. "You know what I mean."
His face brightened with the most genuine smile she had seen. "I do. Pepper." She rolled her eyes and he stuck out his hand. "Thank you for patching me up."
Pepper stared at him, and finally smiled, shaking his hand. "You're welcome. Tony."
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Two hours later, they finished replacing the gasket. They sat on the floor nearby, staring at the car. "I can't believe it's done."
"I don't believe it's done."
"You don't?" He stood and walked over to a small fridge, and took out two beers. Opening them, he offered one to her. She frowned, started to protest, and then shrugged.
"Thanks. No… that car hates people. There'll be something else."
"I thought you were the optimist?"
"I am, it's just – uh oh."
"What?"
"Do you see that? Under the car?"
He squinted. "That's just some leftover steering fluid from the gasket change."
"Not with that color, it isn't."
Tony walked over, squatted down next to the car and wiped his finger across the liquid. "Crap."
"Told you. You should get rid of this car now, before it kills you."
He was staring thoughtfully at the floor, and she tilted her head, recognizing the 'thinking' look. "What is it?"
"I'm thinking of coming up with some powerful small floor robots – you know, ones that could scrub the muck out of this floor. I don't want it to get messed up, and all the oil-based fluids leave a mess –"
"Why don't you just make a better floor? You know, maybe some kind of concrete polymer that rejects the stuff." He turned slowly to look at her as she sipped her beer, and she waggled her eyebrows at him. "Pretty smart for a PA, eh?"
"Yeah. Pretty smart."
"I'm going to change. Not that this hasn't been delightful, but I have plans tonight."
"Plans? You can have plans?"
"I can tonight. It's in my contract. Religious holidays, and my birthday." He frowned, and she laughed. "It's my birthday."
"Oh. Well. Happy birthday."
She bowed dramatically. "I thank you. See you in the morning, boss."
"Pepper?" She stopped, and turned slowly.
"Yes?"
"Ah… thank you. It would have been a lot harder without you."
Her head tilted once more, and she gave him a little grin. "You're welcome, Tony."
As she walked away, Tony stood and stared after her. She was smart, she was funny, she could handle him like no other woman had… Get your head straight, Stark. She's not interested, and you don't want her to be. You need her to just… be here. Turning back to the Shelby, he noticed that the tiny puddle was slowly growing. Finishing his beer in one go, he shook his head.
"I swear, car. One of these days I will smash you."
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…please feed the author…
