A/N: Hwy guys! Hope you're excited about another epilogue because I have another one that will be published after this, so, ya… *nervous laughter*

PLEASE R&R

"At one in the morning Tony could not sleep so Pepper joined him in the living room of the penthouse.

"Tony, you need to call Nat."

"I know, I know, I just really don't want to have two of the world's greatest assassins pissed with me and blame me for all this shit that has been going down lately."

"I know but they cared about Steve and they deserve to know."

"You want to call now? Pepper, you're crazy! It's one in the morning!"

"Not at Clint's farm it isn't."

"Why would Clint be at his farm? Shield knows where that is."

"His family is there." Staring contest ensued.

"Why, Pepper, why?"

"Because they are your friends, Steve was your friend, it has already been three and half weeks since you got his note, and I'm your wife so you have to listen to me."

Tony couldn't look her in the eye after she said that. For three weeks he had tried his best to ignore the fact that his friend was dead and there was no amount of money that could fix that. He had spent most of his time around Steve shove insults and jokes into his face while also constantly commenting on how incapable he was with new technology. In truth he wasn't sure if he would have been able to transition into a new era as well as Steve had.

Tony couldn't help but feel that he had a part to play in Steve's demise. It pained him more than he would like to admit and he had spent three weeks trying to prove that and still was tonight. But it was a losing battle and it didn't help that even after he and Pepper had informed Lang, Maximoff, and Wilson he still had to tell "Tasha and Clint.

Those were the ones he dreaded the most. Steve and Natasha were very close, and she would take Barton with her anywhere (the whole "civil war," as it was being pinned, was one of the few exceptions) and they were a deadly pair.

But Pepper wasn't relenting:

"You should also tell peter too. I think he should know that you don't come through unscathed." Pepper lightly touched Tony on the shoulder, snapping him out of the daze he had been in. he had been going into more of these trance-like states since he received the note from Steve telling him that the strongest, most dependable, steadiest person in Tony's life had found an out and took it. Leaving Tony with another person that abandoned him.

He snapped his head to look at her.

"Pepper, do you really thing that kid needs to know someone he was just fighting a month ago is dead? Really? Would you want to hear that?" the sincerity in his eyes spoke volumes that he had been attempting to hide for almost a month.

So of course she used wit to reply.

"Well I was not expecting that. Normally you don't care about one time acquaintances." A light smirk played across her face.

He could tell she was playing him, so he answered back with a combo of wit and truth.

"He is just "a baby" as you like to say, and he doesn't need to be scared for life with something like this." His voice was laced with raw emotion as he ended his sentence.

"You should anyways." With that Pepper took a deep breath and stood to retrieve the phone off the counter.

She held it out to him and cocked her head to the side with a light pout.

"I'll be here for you the whole time, you know that right?"

"Ya, I know I just..."

"It doesn't matter now. Now you just have to make this call. That's it, Tony."

He took the phone from her and dialed Romanoff before putting the phone on speaker.

"Hello, Romanoff speaking."

"Hey 'Tasha, it's Stark. We need to talk about something, but first how could I get ahold of Clint?"

"Sure," she backed away from the phone and called out to someone. "He's coming….. I'm gonna put it on speaker phone, k? K, so what do you need to talk about?"

"Steve's dead….. Barnes went onto cyro freeze and died and when Steve found out he did himself in…. can someone really care that much?"

"You didn't know?"

"Know, what?" despite the peeking interest in Tony's voice, Natasha was hesitant to divulge any further

"Nat, what don't I know?"

"They were a ….thing…."

"A thing?"

"Together kinda thing," Clint had now chimed in to the conversation to give some clarity to Tony and Pepper. "Even saw them kiss once. The whole situation is pretty clear when you look at the picture."

Now it was Peppers turn to be intrigued. "What do you mean by that, Clint?"

"Well look at it this way: Steve woke up in a new century and had no one he knew. Then Barnes walked into the picture. Steve finally had something –sorry, someone- from his time and then he was gone as fast as he came. It pushed him over the edge. These things happen to even the best of people."

There was nothing to be said. So Tony looked at Pepper with a look of regret and sorrow in his eyes. Pepper took the hand of his closest to her ad held it tightly as Tony stared at the phone.

"Did he ever tell you anything else? Anything important?" and now it was Natasha's turn to speak words that were unexpected.

"I overheard them once say that when it was all over they would find a country to get married in. They were serious."

"Oh… I had no idea," There was a pregnant pause as Tony contemplated. "Do you think I should tell peter? Pepper thinks he should know, but I'm not sure."

"At the very least give him a call to see if he's heard anything and make your decision based off of what you hear from him. It's all circumstantial."

"Thanks nat."

And as the phone call ended, a silent glance was passed between Tony and Pepper as both their hearts skipped a beat at the thought of losing each other.

PLEASE R&R There are ekittens for anyone who does! (also ekitten to the Guest reviewer!)