See Chapter 1 for disclaimer.

Chapter 3

Natasha walked purposefully through the Stark Industries headquarters building. A few people looked like they wanted to stop her but they all decided against it upon getting a good look at her face. She was early compared to when she knew the bulk of the employees arrived, but she also knew Pepper was probably already in her office.

Striding past the currently empty desks outside Pepper's office, Natasha paused outside the office door. Mentally she slid back into the cover of Natalie Rushman before pushing the door open and slipping inside. As Natasha had guessed, Pepper was already behind her desk typing at her computer. She glanced up at Natasha entered then looked back at her screen wordlessly.

Natasha sighed soundlessly; maybe she was crazy for volunteering for this. Pepper had clearly not forgiven her for infiltrating Stark Industries the first time around. Her voice was perfectly calm when she spoke, however. "Ms. Potts."

"Ms. Rushman." Pepper didn't look back up as she acknowledged the greeting.

"Should I set up at my old desk?"

"Someone already works there."

Natasha's lips tightened for a moment. None of her annoyance came out in her expression or tone though. "Ms. Potts… Pepper." She waited for Pepper to finally look at her again. "You have to at least try to work with me." Natasha paused for a moment then continued, "It's my job. I can do it if you don't cooperate but it will be a lot more comfortable for both of us if you do."

Pepper met her gaze steadily for several seconds. Finally the other woman nodded slightly. "Fine. Take your old desk. I'll send the other woman over to work for Tony; he needs another new assistant."

Natasha arched an eyebrow, commenting wryly, "You hate your current PA that much?"

Pepper cracked the faintest of smiles before turning back to her computer. "That'll be all, Ms. Rushman."

Natasha inclined her head slightly, murmuring, "Of course, Ms. Potts." She pivoted neatly on her heel and strode back into the outer office. Setting her bag down at what was once again her desk, Natasha got to work, falling back into the flow as if she'd never left. When the secretary arrived she ignored the wary look the other woman gave her and continued the process of figuring out exactly what the now ex-PA had been doing.

The rest of the day passed quietly. Natasha found it almost absurdly easy to fall back into the routine at Stark Industries, particularly without Stark acting crazier than usual. There was a brief moment of amusement when Happy arrived to pick up Pepper at the end of the day and caught sight of Natasha following her out of the building. Natasha met his wide eyes and smirked slightly, arching an eyebrow at him in challenge.

He blocked her from following Pepper into the car and hissed, "What are you doing here?"

Natasha left the smirk in place and merely said, "I work for Ms. Potts, Mr. Hogan."

He snorted in clear disbelief but didn't have a chance to say anything further as Pepper spoke from behind him.

"Happy, let her get in the car, please."

Natasha hid her smile as she leaned around Happy to direct her words at Pepper. "It's fine. I'd rather walk anyway. See you tomorrow, Ms. Potts."

Pepper didn't protest but nodded slightly in acknowledgement of the words. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ms. Rushman."

It was several weeks before Pepper called Natasha anything other than "Ms. Rushman." The time had gone quickly and quietly with the exception of a small altercation with an attempted mugger. The man had found himself rather rapidly disarmed and unconscious before he could actually finish threatening Natasha and Pepper. The rest of the time Natasha distracted herself from the annoyances of her assignment with extensive workouts, visits to a slowly convalescing Coulson, and convincing herself it didn't matter what Pepper called her because this was just an assignment.

Two weeks after the attempted mugging, and while Pepper and Natasha were conveniently in New York on Stark Industries business, Natasha and the other Avengers were called out to fight off a wannabe super-villain. The fight didn't take very long, mostly involving explosions and a rather hilariously clumsy guy in a metal suit. Unfortunately for the "villain," his suit was no match for Iron Man and his robot minions were rather overmatched by the rest of the Avengers. Which was why, barely two hours after she'd slipped out to meet the others, Natasha found herself slipping back into Stark Industries.

Stopping briefly at her desk, Natasha grabbed the folders that had been delivered for Pepper's approval while she was out. Ignoring the secretary's attempts to demand where she had vanished to, Natasha strode inside Pepper's office.

"Ms. Potts, the budget reports from the R&D department are here for your approval."

Natasha was already halfway across the room to Pepper's desk when the other woman looked up and suddenly leapt out of her chair. Dropping the folders to the floor, Natasha spun to confront what she assumed was a sudden threat behind her. She stopped and stared at the still closed door and empty office in bafflement. Frowning in confusion, Natasha began to turn back toward Pepper only to find her chin suddenly gripped firmly in the taller woman's hand.

Natasha barely restrained herself from violently forcing the other woman away and froze instead, eyes wide.

Pepper glared at her. "What happened?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're injured. What happened?"

"Oh, that." Natasha gently pulled her head away and stepped back. "Nothing major. Just some idiot with a bunch of exploding robots."

"Explosions? This was from an explosion?"

Natasha cocked her head slightly. "Pepper, you know what my job is."

"That doesn't mean you're supposed to get blown up, Natasha!"

Natasha blinked at the sudden use of her name. She was about to speak but Pepper steamrolled right over her.

"Did you even bother to see a doctor afterward? Of course you didn't. Because apparently superheroes don't need doctors. You're all going to be the death of me."

"I've had worse, Pepper." Natasha tried for a placating tone and realized an instant too late it was the wrong move.

Pepper's glare intensified and she pointed at one of the chairs in front of her desk. "Sit!" She continued to glare until Natasha had done as ordered before heading to one of the cabinets in a corner. Natasha watched, bemused, as Pepper pulled out what was clearly an industrial sized first aid kit. Pepper hauled the kit back to her desk and opened it up, rummaging for a moment while Natasha waited patiently.

Pepper set a few things out on the desk then straightened back up, turning to Natasha. Natasha arched an eyebrow at her but remained silent, not entirely sure what was going on. Pepper frowned, grabbing Natasha's chin more gently and turning her head slightly to the side. "Don't move."

Natasha began to nod then stopped and simply said, "Ok."

Pepper sighed and began to gently clean the gash on Natasha's cheek. "What is it with superheroes and not knowing when to duck? Tony is no better."

Natasha ignored the slight pang at being reminded Pepper was with Stark and opted for a slight shrug, careful to keep her head still. "I did duck."

"Obviously not fast enough."

Natasha smiled faintly.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Pepper was carefully applying a pair of butterfly bandages to the cut.

"No." At Pepper's arched eyebrow, Natasha smiled more fully. "I promise."

Pepper seemed slightly skeptical but nodded. As she replaced the supplies in the kit, Pepper asked, "So what happened? And why didn't you have someone look at that?"

Natasha shrugged slightly. "Idiot with a suit and some robots. Robots were rigged to explode when they took a certain amount of damage. Piece of flying shrapnel caught me. And I didn't see a doctor because, as I said, I've had worse."

Pepper eyed her then shook her head, muttering as she turned her attention to closing the kit, "Superheroes."

Natasha reached out and caught Pepper's wrist, causing the other woman to look at her in confusion. Natasha met her gaze seriously. "I'm not a superhero."

Pepper met her gaze steadily for a long moment then finally spoke softly, "Fine, but next time, promise you'll actually get medical attention, Tasha."

Natasha gave her a half-smile. "Promise." She released Pepper's wrist, watching for a second as the other woman continued on to the cabinet to put the first aid kit away. What the hell was that? Sighing to herself, Natasha began to gather up the dropped folders.

Pepper waited for the door to close behind Natasha before she slumped back into her chair briefly. You're overreacting, Pepper. And why? She's a spy, remember? Surely she can take care of herself.

Exactly, Natasha was a spy. A spy who had infiltrated Stark Industries once before and now was using it as her cover again. So why did Pepper care so much about what had happened to her?

It's just because she's on Tony's team and obviously a friend of Phil. That's it.

To be fair, Natasha had done a great job as her PA. And there was the time with Hammer. And that mugger. And of course the whole incident with Loki. Pepper had gleaned at least a basic understanding of all that Natasha had done during that incident from listening to Tony ramble about things he really shouldn't be rambling about.

Pepper turned to her computer and opened the browser, pulling up all the news sites she could think of. She spent the next several minutes reading through the currently updating articles on the recent attack on New York. After several minutes she sighed and closed the browser.

"'Nothing major' she says. Because armies of robots are just a minor annoyance," Pepper muttered. She supposed they were, at least for people like the Avengers, but still, did they have to act so blasé about it? Of course, Natasha was pretty blasé about a lot of things so maybe it wasn't so surprising.

Pepper suddenly had another thought. "Oh hell." Slapping the intercom button she called out, "Natalie? Can you come in here for a moment?" She didn't even register that she had switched from calling Natasha only "Ms. Rushman."

Natasha appeared at the door almost immediately, face mostly expressionless as usual except for a cocked eyebrow. The small bandages on her cheek somehow just made her look more dangerous. "Yes, Ms. Potts?"

Pepper waved her inside. Natasha frowned slightly but fully entered the office and closed the door firmly behind her. "What's going on, Pepper?"

"Please tell me Tony didn't take exploding robots home with him."

Natasha's expression didn't change but Pepper was suddenly positive the other woman was trying not to laugh. "Ah, not that I noticed."

Pepper sighed, dropping her head for a moment. "While I trust that you're very observant… can you please verify that for me? Tony excels at doing things he shouldn't and I really don't want to deal with the paperwork if he blows up Stark Tower."

"Of course." Natasha gave her a small nod and left. Pepper spent a brief moment marveling at how silent the SHIELD agent was when she wanted to be before returning to her paperwork.

A few minutes later her email dinged with a new message from Natasha. The note was short.

Stark claims he only took non-explosive parts. You may want to increase the insurance.

-N

Pepper could practically hear the dry tone of the last comment and couldn't help but chuckle. She did, however, immediately pick up the phone and do just that before calling Tony.

"Pepper! I was just thinking about you! Well, actually I was wondering why I just got a notification that the insurance amount for Stark Tower had gone up. And also why my new PA just ran out of here looking rather terrified. You would think she'd never seen scorched armor before or something. Or maybe it was Steve she was afraid of."

Pepper sighed. "Tony, why do you have exploding robots?"

"Exploding robots? Who said I have exploding robots? I expressly selected the non-exploding parts of the robots. And how did you know I have robots anyway?"

"Tony."

"Natasha told you, didn't she? You know, it's supremely unfair that you have a spy. I should have a spy. Can I fire her? Or maybe you could order her to come work for me instead? I could use a sexy Russian bodyguard spy."

"Tony, you're not going to fire her. And no, you can't have her. She would kill you inside five seconds."

"See, I don't get that. I have it on very good authority that I'm a very charming man." His voice became distant. "Dummy, stop trying to give that to Steve. He doesn't want it. No, Dummy, Steve isn't on fire either. Pepper? Gotta go." The connection cut off immediately.

Pepper sighed in resignation and hung up. There was no point in calling him back right away; he would either not answer or answer just long enough to say he couldn't talk. At least Steve was apparently with Tony. If Captain America couldn't prevent Tony from blowing himself and his building up, no one could.