A/N: In this chapter, we introduce your favorite strawberry blonde, Miss Pepper Potts. Because every girl needs a grown up woman in her life.
Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel thingies.
November 10, 2003
"Oh, hello."
Joei looked up from her science fair project. She was currently sitting on the floor of the large living room, a couch cushion under her butt and notes, supplies, a science board, and numerous colors and markers surrounding her. Looking up at the woman made her feel self-conscious in her messy copper brown ponytail, sweats, glasses and brace-face glory.
The woman was around her late twenties, maybe early thirties, wearing a dark blue pencil skirt and grey blouse with some grey heels. She was very pretty, her hair a nice shade of strawberry blonde and a few freckles splattered across her face. She also had a pretty amazing body. Nice boobs. Yep. Dad sure knew how to pick 'em.
"Uh, hi," Joei said awkwardly, not really sure how she should react to this woman. Was she a PA? Was she an employee? Was she a date? A one night stand? Please not another nanny. She was eleven for crying out loud! And in middle school now! She did NOT need another nanny.
"I'm Virginia Potts. I'm Mr. Stark's new PA," she smiled. Wow. Even her voice was pretty, "You must be Josephine."
"Joei," she corrected, "Or Maggie. Some people call me Maggie."
"Oh. Okay," Virginia smiled again, "Joei it is, then. You can call me Pepper if you want. That's what my brothers used to call me."
"Used to?"
"I haven't talked to them in a while," Pepper shrugged.
Joei stared at Pepper for a while, trying to figure out what this woman wanted. Most PAs wanted something. Especially the pretty ones. But based on the length of her skirt, and the fact that she had acknowledged Joei's existence, it looked as though Miss Potts was actually here to work. She gave the woman four months. Maybe six. Maybe.
"You want to sit down? I was about to take a break from this."
Pepper smiled and nodded, taking a seat on the edge of the couch in such a dainty way that for a second Joei thought she might just be hovering over it.
"What are you working on?"
"Science fair project," said Joei, getting up and flipping on the TV, "I'm comparing different types of alternate energy."
"Beats my sixth grade science fair project," said Pepper, "I made a volcano."
Joei chuckled, "Hey. How did you know I was in sixth grade?"
"I did my research."
Joei stared at her for a few more minutes, "Not to be rude or anything, but why are you in our house? Most PAs just help my dad in the office and call him when something needs to be done any other time. You can answer honestly."
Miss Potts looked confused at that, "Oh, well, Mr. Stark said he wanted an assistant that could keep him organized in all aspects of his life."
"He sent you here to check on my project, didn't he?"
"He thought I might find it interesting," Pepper tried, and failed, to look nonchalant.
"You're a bad liar, Miss Potts," Joei smiled, "But I like you, so I promise to show you my science fair project if you promise to get my dad to crawl out of his lab and go to the science fair this year. I'm sure I'm going to get a blue ribbon and I want him there for it."
"I promise," said Pepper, "What are you working on?"
November 30, 2003
Her dad was late. Again. The science fair had started an hour and a half ago and he wasn't here. She should have known better than to get her hopes up. Over the years, Tony had been busy for many of her events. He'd been to maybe one ballet recital, and two of her ice skating competitions (in one of which she had fallen because she was so nervous), and he hadn't been to any of the Father's Day celebrations she'd had at school, either. Still, he'd managed to keep his promise to her about birthdays, even if he did end up arriving late or leaving tipsy on more than one occasion.
But she'd thought it might be different this time, because of Pepper. She was so organized, and her dad obviously liked her, and he actually listened to most of what she said. Not to mention that this wasn't some artsy thing. It was a science fair. Her dad loved science. She thought for sure he would be here, but as she scanned the crowd, her frown just got deeper.
"Looking for us?" a woman's voice said behind her.
She turned to come face to face with Happy, Pepper, and her dad.
"You came!" she said mostly to her father than the others.
"Of course I came. I wouldn't miss you getting your science on, kid."
"This is impressive," said Happy, "I can't understand half of it, but it's impressive."
Pepper laughed, "We're going to look around at the other projects."
"Gotta scout out that competition," Tony whispered, making Joei giggle.
"Just don't get into any arguments about advanced quantum physics, okay? We're all still in sixth grade."
"Not making any promises," he called back as he walked away.
Twenty minutes later, the judges were preparing to hand out ribbons. Joei looked around and found Pepper walking toward her, without her dad.
"Where's dad?"
"He, uh, he got a call from Obadiah, Joei," said Pepper, looking more sorry than her dad probably was, "He said he would only be gone a few minutes. He should be back in time for the ribbons."
"It must have been important, I guess," Joei shrugged, trying not to look too disappointed. Happy drove pretty fast, and he knew his way around city traffic, but Stark Industries was at least a fifteen minute drive from here.
"Of course, otherwise Obie wouldn't have called. With more and more troops getting deployed so fast, this whole thing is growing more than he and your dad imagined. They've had to find materials from almost every corner of the earth to keep making weapons."
Joei scrunched her nose. She didn't like fighting. She didn't like violence. And yet here she was, Heiress of Death; The Merchant's Daughter. Those nicknames had only recently come up in the media. Joei guessed calling her Princess Stark made her dad look too good for the media's liking.
When Tony and Happy finally arrived, it was twenty minutes after Joei had received first place. She smiled for the pictures, her stomach churning at the smell of expensive alcohol and cigar smoke on her dad's jacket.
September 13th, 2004
Joei rushed out of the car, leaving her backpack behind. She'd needed to pee since an hour before school let out, but a busted pipe in the only girls' bathroom that wasn't absolutely disgusting had burst, leaving her to either use the gross old thing by the gym or hold it in until she got home. She deeply regretted her decision now.
"JARVIs, please tell me the downstairs bathroom is free," she practically screamed at the AI as she burst through the front door, tossing her backpack on the ground.
"It is free, Miss Stark."
"Thank you thank you thank you!" she ran as best as she could to the bathroom, slammed the door closed, and rushed to relieve her aching lower belly.
As she was about to reach for toilet paper, something caught her eye.
There was a red stain on her beige undergarments.
"Oh no. What do I do?"
"I believe there are feminine products used in this sort of situation, Miss Stark."
"Yes, JARVIS, I took Health Ed," she rolled her eyes, and then realized the AI was only trying to be helpful. But she knew there wouldn't be any in the house, seeing as she was the only female living in it. And just the thought of having to go downstairs to the labs and asking her dad to buy pads for her made her red in the face. Also, she knew that Dad's answer would be "Tell Happy to go buy them," and while Happy had been around since she'd moved in, she wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of driving to the store with Happy to buy pads.
"Hey, JARVIS?" she asked, suddenly getting an idea.
"Yes, Miss Stark?"
"Is Pepper around?"
"I believe she and your father are in the labs at the moment."
"Pepper? He let Pepper in the lab?"
"Yes, Miss Stark."
"Wow," she raised her eyebrows, standing and putting her pants back on, "That's something you don't see every day. Dad barely even lets Rhodey go in there. JARVIS, could you ask Pepper to come up here? Just Pepper, please. Make sure dad doesn't come with her."
"Of course, Miss Stark."
In the lab, Pepper was berating Tony over his lack of responsibilities.
"Mr. Stark, this decision should have been made months ago. It's not something that can be left to the last minute."
Tony continued to tinker with the hot rod engine in front of him, not looking at his assistant as he answered, "Then you make it, Miss Potts."
Pepper's anger turned to outright shock, "I—excuse me?"
"Excuse me, Miss Potts," JARVIS' voice cut through, startling her slightly as it always did. Even after three months with the AI around, it was still a little creepy to her.
"Yes, JARVIS?"
"Miss Stark is requesting your immediate presence."
"Me?" asked Pepper, looking up toward the roof even though Mr. Stark insisted that his AI did not live there.
"Yes, Miss Potts. She says it is urgent."
"Is she okay?" asked Tony, immediately dropping his wrench and giving JARVIS his undivided attention. Pepper called it "going into Dad mode" in her head, "Is she hurt? Where is she?"
"In the downstairs bathroom, sir."
"Well what are we doing here? Let's go!" Tony practically pushed Pepper toward the door.
"I'm sorry, sir, but she specifically requested for you NOT to come along. Only Miss Potts."
Tony looked at Pepper as if she had deeply betrayed him.
"Fine. Go on, Miss Potts."
"I'm sure it's nothing," she said, looking at the floor.
"Of course it isn't," he said, turning back to the engine to hide the obvious pout on his face and grumbling, "If it were something, she'd want her dad around."
Pepper took that as her queue to leave. Just as she was reaching the door, she heard her name being called.
"Yes, Mr. Stark?"
"Let me know if she needs anything."
Ten minutes later, he had failed completely at focusing on the hot rod engine.
"JARVIS, is everything okay up there?"
"Yes, sir. I can hear laughing."
"Oh," he felt something strange. Surely not jealousy.
Tony Stark did not get jealous. But there was something that told him that his daughter and his PA were sharing a moment. Perhaps a very special moment. And he realized that Joei was getting older every day. She wasn't a little girl anymore, and that moment Happy had talked about a few years back had finally arrived. Daddy and toys were not enough. She was at a point where sometimes she would need a woman around to help her through, because there were things in her life that he would never be able to completely understand even if he tried his best. There were things only another girl would be able to tell her first hand about.
Pepper sent word with JARVIS that she was going to drive down to the pharmacy, and he realized this was the first of those times. Joei had trusted Pepper with her first "girl only" experience, which meant that she trusted Pepper. And if his daughter trusted this woman, it was enough for him. He had a feeling Pepper was going to beat the record six months of being his PA by a long shot.
A/N: So this was mostly just to establish Joei's relationship with Pepper, since she's one of the few people Tony let in, I imagine she would be a big part of Joei's life, too.
