A/N: Before everyone here would kill me that it took me that long to post another chapter let me say I'M a MOM now and that was the main reason I went MIA for soooo long. But my daughter (she was born on November the 4th) is 6 months old and I decided that I was away FF long enough!

Now you can kill me (I hope she would not be an orphan so soon)

Also I found this chapter sitting on my computer and I have no idea if it was beat read I just don't remember so I'm very sorry if there are mistakes!

And good news, there are more chapters coming but I swear IT WOULD NOT be that long!

PS. I need Beat again so if anyone would be kind enough send me PM !

Ch#4 The Next Morning

Pepper woke up stiff, still holding the phone in her hand in case Tony would call her again. It was ridiculously early but she knew it would be a very difficult day so she decided to start it as early as she could. That meant she was up before dawn she gathered her things and went to the office. The SI building was death silence when she got there. She had more than three hours before any employees would start coming to work. She needed that time to finish everything she didn't do yesterday. She was tired, sleep deprived and half mad and half worried about Tony.

After two hours of intensive working she was finally seeing the bottom of the e mail responses to Tony's press conference form yesterday. Suddenly her phone rang, she looked at the screen confused half expecting to see Tony's face on the display but it was Obadiah.

"Hello." She answered politely. It was very rare that the head of SI was calling her especially so early in the morning. After listening intently to what Obi was saying Pepper's face was becoming more and more angry and puzzled.

"What do you mean house arrest?" She finally managed to interrupt Stane's monologue which consisted mostly of Tony's critic and angry words toward his younger co-worker. Pepper didn't like the tone of his voice.

"I understand that he messed up like you just called it but how will you expect me to keep him in the house?" She asked in disbelieve. After working for Tony for so long she knew very well that forcing him to do anything was almost impossible unless you had good bribes (no, not the money) or alcohol.

After another long monologue form Stane, Pepper finally understood that Tony had already known about this new status of 'lying low for some time' and had agreed to do it.

"I think I understand, thank you for informing me." She said finally and hung up.

She looked around her office more than confused. Tony had agreed to actually do something without throwing a tantrum. There was seriously something wrong with this situation. Everything that was happening ever since he came back was beyond weird and she didn't quite know if she liked it.

She decided that there was no reason for her to stay in the office when her boss was staying locked in the Stark mansion in Malibu so she collected her things and left.

Half an hour later she was crossing the doorstep of Tony's house. It was quiet except the usual AI greeting. She put down her bag in the living room and went for the kitchen. As she presumed the coffee was still in the cabinet where she had put it a week ago. She just smiled to herself.

"Jarvis where is Mr. Stark?" She asked and busied herself with making coffee for herself.

"Mr. Stark is currently in the workshop." Came the artificial Births voice she liked so much. Tony was probably working on something like the old times. She smiled sadly into her coffee mug thinking about the 'old times' and if they ever would be back. 'If he is working I can as well do some work' she thought to herself taking her laptop form her bag and sitting on the living room sofa and switching on the TV. There was no better way of starting a day as to watch some news, unless you was Tony Stark personal assistant because then the news could be a nightmare.

Tony was sitting hunched in his seat admiring his new arc reactor. At least he had done something good during the night and hadn't thought about sleeping. He was tired and beaten up but kind of proud of himself. Now he could replace his old reactor and left everything that happened in that cave behind. Or maybe he was just whishing he could. His mind was overloaded with ideas of new suit but mostly he was concerned about the weapons he had seen when he had been taken prison. He had spent all the time in the cave planning and rethinking what to do with that situation. Now, when he was back those thoughts were even more persistent and nudged him to take some action. He had been oblivious to his company doings way too long.

He yawned and stretched into his seat, he needed a shower and a new set of clothes. During a brief trip to the bathroom upstairs he spotted his assistant at her usual place in his living room. Last night conversation came to his mind and he smiled to himself. It was good to have her back. It was good to have her here in his house where he could find her always. He was surprised that those thoughts didn't scare him anymore. The cave time did something to him and he was still trying to understand half the things that were coming to his mind lately. But surprisingly the thoughts of his assistant and her constant present in his life were no longer scary. On the contrary they gave him a warm feeling of security and it was kind of nice. He needed to find a right moment to tell her that, he promised to himself when he emerged from the shower and was putting on some t-shirt already his mind skipping to thoughts about replacing the reactor.

"Ok it is just impossible to do it myself and to be honest not so pleasing as well." Tony barked to no one particular. He was sitting on a medical chair stripped to EKG wires listening to his heartbeat on the monitor. He was trying aimlessly to remove his old reactor from its socket in his chest and after a tenth attempt he decided it was impossible. There was a reason it was Yensen who put that demand thing into him in the cave. He needed another set of hand and he could only think of one currently at the house.

He pushed the intercom button and called his assistant.

"Pepper. How big are your hands?" He asked without even a good morning greeting.

" What? " Came her answered, totally confused.

"How big are your hands?" He repeated again impatiently, focusing on the EKG monitor because one of the electrode slipped from his body and the machine was making weird noises.

" I don't understand why..." Pepper started saying but Tony cut her in "Get down here. I need you. " He finished quickly switching off the intercom. After a couple of minutes he heard her heels on the steppes downstairs and in no time Pepper was walking through the door.

"Hey." He finally remembered to say a proper greeting this morning. And continued in light tone

"Let's see them. Show me your hands." Pepper raised her hands without thinking all the time looking at Tony's chest.

She didn't even think it was rude to stare like that on his bare chest. But then Tony understood. It was the first time she was seeing his arc reactor and the way it was pushed to his body. It could be overwhelming. He didn't want to think about the first time he had felt and seen that damned thing in his chest. He focused on her hands when she came near him and he smiled looking at how petite her hands were. "Let's see them. Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite, indeed." He said trying to gain her focus, she was still staring down at his chest and he could swear she was becoming pale and flushed at the same time. If he wasn't striped to an EKG with metallic equipment inside his body he would feel smug at that moment.

"I just need your help for a sec. "He said, when she finally stopped in front of his seat and found his eyes for just a second and then she was looking back to the reactor.

"Oh, my God is that the thing that's keeping you alive?" She finally spoke half amazed half horrified.

"It was. It is now an antique." Tony answered truthfully still trying to make this situation as normal as possible. But having your girl literally put her hands inside you wasn't so normal after all. 'Wow, since when I refer to Pepper as my girl even in my mind?' he wondered when trying to answer Pepper. "This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future." He was holding the new device he proudly had constructed last night. "I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump." He finally came to the part where he would explain why he was lying in front of her on a medical chair strapped to and EKG wires.

"Speed bump, what does that mean? "She repeated after him not understanding anything from this conversation they were having. She could only look at Tony's chest and wondered how on earth someone could have done something like that to him. It was simply brutal, she knew it was keeping him alive, but thrusting a piece of metal into someone sternum and calling it a save it was beyond her understanding. 'God I just hope it didn't hurt, tell me it didn't hurt' she was praying silently listening to Tony's further explanations...

"It's nothing. It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device. And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short." Tony was explaining slowly at the same time removing the old device from his chest and watching as Pepper's eyes were growing wider with his every move. He was just hoping she would not faint on him right now because she was drastically turning white every second he was talking. "It's fine." He was trying to reassure her one more time. It was really fine. There was no real life threat unless they pulled out the magnet and he was just hoping it would not happened.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked still shocked slightly when he handed her the old reactor which he unplugged right before her eyes.

"Put that on the table over there. " He gestured toward a working table "That is irrelevant."

"Oh, my God!" Pepper finally voiced half her thoughts which were running in her head ever since she saw that device in his body. But Tony just smiled at her and kept explaining.

"I want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out." He was instructing her trying to stay as calm as he could sensing her distress and general confusion.

"Is it safe?" She asked. She was shocked, surprised and mostly of it terrified that she could do something wrong. He could see how her hand tremble at the very thoughts of what she would be doing to him.

"Yeah, it should be fine. It's like Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes "beep."" He was trying to be as graphic as he could. At the same time he was trying not to sacred her more that she was right now. But he really whished the wire would not touch the socket wall because the electric shock would be very unpleasant to say the least.

"What do you mean, "Operation"?" Pepper breathed nervously. 'God I hope he is joking' she was thinking fast.

"It's just a game, never mind." He answered fast. It wasn't the time to explain the game but he promised to himself that he would play with her in it. Just in case he needed more help in the future. Then he somehow remembered other game he had played with her not so long ago at it had been much more entertaining that this "Operation". He mentally kicked himself for thinking about things like that in that moment but he just couldn't help but smiled under his nose when a flash of memories came to his mind.

"Just gently lift the wire. Okay?" He asked her again. She nodded her head but Tony had a feeling that it was only a reflex. "Great."

"Okay." She agreed but then as having second thoughts she removed her hand from his chest. "You know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this." She said holding her hand close to her chest trying to decide if she wanted to run away. 'Oh God I don't want to hurt you' she was screaming inside. 'From all your stupid tasks throughout those ten years it is the weirdest and the most terrifying' she was trying to say that to him but she was too scared to speak.

"No, you're fine." He started and he was trying to come up with something reassuring but what left his mouth next wasn't exactly what he was planning to say to her. But he didn't regretted it a bit looking at her face when he spoke " You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great." Pepper was staring down at him finally looking into his eyes not at his chest with an astonished look on her face and she was blushing slightly. Which made Tony decide to tell her more nice things in the future just to see that blush again. "Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I'm... "He said again still looking into her eyes. And his brown eyes finally convinced her to take action. 'How on earth could he do that to me just looking at me, I'm a lost cause if it comes to his eyes' she was thinking preparing herself on what she needed to do.

"Okay, okay." She agreed.

"I really need your help here." He said it again as if she needed to hear it one more time.

"Okay." She said finally and she reached and put her hand inside the metallic socket. It was absolutely bizarre feeling and most definitely absolutely disgusting. She felt something wet and sticky around her fingers and she fought the urge to yank her hand back. "Oh, there's pus!" She groaned in disgust. Tony was fighting with his own wired feelings looking down at her hand inside the metallic socket. "It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge it is from the device, not from my body." He was trying to explain and fight with the peculiar feeling of having her hand inside his body. Not that he was feeling anything, the socket was a closed space. There was no way she could feel any of his inside but it still wasn't very pleasant. He promised himself that he needed a different kind of socket for the next time. Something that he could change himself.

"It smells!" Pepper complained again and Tony focused on her.

"Yeah, it does." He agreed and tried to guide her "The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?"

"Okay, I got it! I got it!" She huffed at him taking hold of that wire putting her hand deeper in that offending and smelling gel that was inside.

"Now, don't let it touch the sides when you're coming out!" He warned her just in time when the wire she was holding made contact with the socket wall and Tony's body was pierced with an electric shock causing him to scream in pain. Pepper was instantly white on the face again and she almost let go of that wire in an attempt to help Tony. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She started to apologize.

"That's what I was trying to tell you before." Tony breathed when he was able to talk again. The pain from the electric shock still coming in waves in his body but he was trying to mask that in order not to scared her more. So he proceeded to explain the next step. "Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't..." He just looked at the magnet she had just pulled out from him and he mentally curse himself that he could have speak a little faster ."There's a magnet at the end of it! That was it. You just pulled it out." He stated the obvious still looking at the dangling magnet in her hand which was dripping 'pus' on his bare stomach. Pepper was frozen still looking at him with horror in her eyes.

"Oh, God!" She was trying to apologize and at the same time she was trying to put that magnet back into to its socket.

"Okay, I was not expecting..." Tony started saying but upon seeing her trying to push the magnet back inside him he kind of panic. "Don't put it back in! Don't put it back in!" he yelled and fought the urge to push her hand away. He really didn't need that offending thing again in his body. There was a new magnet build inside his new reactor so this old one had no reason to be going back in when it was yanked out. He just didn't predict it would be so easy to pull it out. Now there was a little problem because without the magnet around his heart the shrapnel could easily damage it. They must act fast. Tony was starting to feel little out of breath and on the heart monitor his pulse was starting to get faster and more erratic.

"Okay, what do I do?" asked Pepper looking at Tony's face and at the EKG monitor which was making strange noises." What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Answered Tony in very soft tone still trying not to scare her "I'm just going into cardiac arrest' cause you yanked it out like a trout... " He decided that he would not sugarcoated it to her because it was actually the truth. If she didn't focus and act quickly his heart would be pierced with some metal in a couple of moments.

" What? You said it was safe!" She screamed at him her eyes becoming even wider if that was possible.

"We gotta hurry. Take this." Tony explained gesturing toward his new arc reactor at the working table " You gotta switch it out really quick." He was talking and trying to take deep breaths but it was getting quite difficult to stay calm when your heart was racing like a speeding car.

"Okay. Okay." Pepper took the reactor and looked into Tony's eyes. He was breathing fast, his pupils were dilated and he was starting to sweat. She felt the need to assure him that she would do anything to make him better "Tony? It's going to be okay."

"What?" He asked unfocused fighting with his body to calm down '' Is it?"

"I'm gonna make this okay." She said it again this time looking into his eyes with a strong determination flashing in her eyes.

"Let's hope." He stated and began to explain again what she was supposed to do "Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you..." And the electric shock went through his body once again and he decided that he really need another project of that reactor. Something that didn't have exposed wires and didn't involve a terrified assistant to plug it in. And also he felt a strong need to teach Pepper to play 'Operation' just in case.

And it was finally over, Tony heard a click noise when Pepper manage to plug in the reactor at the base plate and it was done. Tony smiled to his PA "Was that so hard? That was fun, right?" He asked when he finally was able to breathe again and arrhythmic beeping of the EKG monitor came to a normal rhythm. Pepper was trying to lock the reactor in place but her hand was shaking so hard Tony decided to do it himself.

"Here, I got it." He took the reactor and easily turned it into its place. A loud click noise telling him it was locked and ready. "Nice." He commented.

"Are you okay?" Pepper was staring dawn at him with wide eyes and shaking hands trying to decide if she needed to sit down for a moment or if she was going to strangle him for doing that to her. From all Tony's stupid ideas this one was far the worst. She had seen him sometime half alive from too much work or too much alcohol but she was never so close from seeing his heart stop. And she was sure she would not survive it if anything had happened to him.

"Yeah, I feel great." Tony answered "You okay?"

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again." She said looking down at him. She was trying to be stern but failed miserably and ended her request in a very pleading tone which resemble more to 'please don't die on me I would not survived it'. Tony looked at her. She was quite shaken with this whole situation, her eyes were wide, her cheeks where flushed and she was breathing heavily looking down at him trying to look offended. She was beautiful he thought once again that day and that thought made him feel quiet warm inside.

"I don't have anyone but you." He blurred out without thinking. For a spit second her eyes became even wider and Tony panicked that he said too much "Anyway..." He was trying to cover it up by taking off the EKG plugs and busily removing himself from the chair he was seating on. He didn't have the courage to look into her eyes. Pepper was cleaning her hands with a towel she founded on the nearest table trying very hard to look everywhere but Tony.

"What do you want me to do with this?" She finally asked taking the old reactor and showing it to him.

"That?" Tony looked at the old thing with distaste. It was something that would always remind him of the cave and all the things that had happened there. "Destroy it." He said "Incinerate it."

"You don't want to keep it?" She asked surprised and little sad. For her it was something that save his life and for only that she would be forever grateful to that small piece of metal.

"Pepper, I've been called many things. "Nostalgic" is not one of them." He answered her. He couldn't explain all those painful feelings he had in his mind to her. At least not now.

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked fast trying to escape his presence as fast as she could so she could compose herself again.

"That will be all, Miss Potts. " He answered automatically but she could sense that he was trying to say something else. But Pepper didn't give him a chance. She turned around and practically run from the workshop half listening to the conversation Tony had with Butterfingers. She didn't see his dark eyes boring holes in her back when she was leaving.

That evening Pepper was sitting in her small kitchen staring down at the arc reactor she had taken from Tony's. It was a really long and strange day. After playing surgeon on Tony she was left alone to do her work in peace. Tony was too busy doing something in the workshop to even emerge from there for dinner. She was happy that he was back in his inventing mode it was like he was going back to his old self. She didn't know if she would like Tony to be his old self again but it wasn't for her to decide. It was only two days since his return and she was convinced that he either would be back to his old behavior or he would surprise them all with the change she could see in his eyes ever since he got back.

She could feel inside that he had change. And definitely during those two days he looked at her as he was seeing her for the first time in his life. Or like that night five months ago in New York when he had kissed her. It was as much exhilarating as unnerving and she didn't know what to with that. She had known him for years. She had seen him in his worst and his best but something inside her was telling her that she didn't see it all. She could feel that there was a big change coming and they all were at the edge of life changing decisions.

She was gazing down at the faint blue light coming from the device she was holding in her hand, it was like holding his heart in her hand. This small piece of metal not only saved his life but also brought him back to her according to Rhodey's account of event. She couldn't be more grateful to this small invention. Then she came up with an idea. Why not telling Tony that he indeed had a heart. Why not making a visible proof that she believed in his heart and she always would be. She smiled to herself when she decided what she needed to do with the arc reactor. She could finally go to sleep. Tomorrow would be another stressful and eventful day.

A/N: tell me what you think I just miss all the reviews soooo much

-Ann