AN: Thank you so much for the nice reviews, I really, really appreciate it. Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, I've been fixing it up like crazy. And it's much longer than the others. I should warn you now, this chapter is written how I think Pepper's past had been. It may not be right, but this is how I think some of her life went. Let's say it's a different interpretation. Enjoy!

Chapter Six

"What do you want Steve?" Tony looked at him. He wasn't in the mood to talk with anyone. He just wanted to be alone.

"You need to talk about this, it's not helping your case by holding everything in." Steve tried to reason with his friend. "Come on Tony, tell me what's on your mind."

Tony looked at Steve. He felt bad that he was being such a jerk.

"Isn't it obvious Steve," Tony looked at him in all seriousness. "That my friend, was a stupid question."

"You know what, you're right. I'm sorry." Steve looked at him. "Can we please talk about this?" He looked directly at Tony.

"Fine, what do you want to talk about?" Tony asked, his sarcasm was starting to get on Steve's last nerve. "Oh wait, my girlfriend was abducted and was threatened to be killed if I don't give them what they want." He said bluntly. "Is that enough talk for you?"

The two were silent for a moment before they heard another voice calling from down the hall.

"Stark, Rogers, there's a lead. You should come look." Natasha had called to them. Both looked at each other and followed her back into the conference room.

"There's a possibility that Hammer could be by the Mexican Border, or may have even crossed the border." Agent Sitwell had pointed out to all of them. "Look, with the bit of the video transmission that we recorded, there's a symbol on the wall behind Miss Potts." He zoomed in on the computer screen.

Tony looked where Sitwell had mentioned. There was indeed a symbol on the wall.

"It looks like some type of gang symbol," Clint pointed out.

"You're right Agent Barton," Sitwell looked at him. "This specific symbol is common near and in Mexico. It has to do with what we believe is a resistance group near there."

Everyone was silent. They looked at the agent, who was printing a picture of the symbol to add to a file. It wasn't until Natasha spoke that everyone started putting their ideas in.

"I think it's a valid start. It could be anywhere, but it's very possible that's where Hammer brought her." Natasha looked at the group.

"Well, what is the resistance group you're thinking of have normally do?" Steve looked at them. But he never got an answer, the computer had an alert on the screen.

"Sir, I think this may be Hill with the prisoner." Coulson looked at Fury, who nodded in agreement. Coulson hit a button and Agent Hill popped up on the screen.

"Coulson, you have ten minutes with him. He hasn't talked for us, so I doubt he'll talk for you either." She told him. In the background, Tony rolled his eyes, he thought she was too uptight.

"Thank you Agent Hill," Coulson said and everyone waited as Hill and another agent transferred the prisoner in front of the computer screen. "Agent Levin, I had a feeling I'd be seeing you here." Coulson started.

The man on the other side of the screen was nothing like a normal prisoner. Tony noticed from first glance that he looked like a normal, clean-shaven guy. But it wasn't until he spoke that everyone realized why he was there in the first place.

"Agent Coulson, back from the dead, I see. You were never really good at keeping things a secret." Levin spoke. His voice sounded so evil and conceited, no one doubted for a second that he was the man that helped Hammer escape.

"Well, you were never a good agent anyway. Tell me Levin, why did you help Hammer out?" Coulson asked. He was very calm and collected with his question. No one had ever seen Coulson lose his cool.

"Hammer was a lost cause anyway. He wouldn't have made it in here much longer." Levin said, but avoiding the real answer.

"Come on, how much did he pay you?" Coulson said to the computer screen.

"Nothing, I'm like those lawyers, the ones who do pro bono work." Levin said. "Not to mention, Hammer has nothing to offer me. SHIELD already confiscated everything he owned."

The conversation wasn't going anywhere and everyone was getting impatient.

"If I was there right now, I would've punched him where it counts and watched him cry as he told me where Hammer went," Natasha whispered into Tony's ear. She was trying to get a smile out of him, but Tony stayed completely un-phased.

"Levin, why would you even consider infiltrating and betraying SHIELD like that?" Coulson asked the obvious question.

"Because I can," He snarked. That's when Tony had enough.

"Now you look at me, the man YOU helped escape is going to kill the woman he abducted today if you don't tell us where they went. Once Hammer gets what he wants, he's not going to get you out. He doesn't even care about you at the moment. That's how he is. Now tell us where they are," Tony yelled into the camera. He had had enough of Levin's mind games.

"Stark, stay out of this," Fury warned him, but that didn't stop him.

Levin stayed silent, which made Tony even more upset.

"You son of a bitch, tell me where Hammer took her and what he plans to do," Tony practically threatened him.

Levin laughed and made a move in his seat, agents had to restrain him.

"Get Stark out of here," Fury yelled. Steve and Clint grabbed Tony's shoulder, but he continued to yell.

"Director Fury, this interview is done," Agent Hill yelled from the other side.

"Tony Stark," Levin finally broke out of his laugh. Everyone in the room froze. "You'll never find them. Say goodbye now because you'll never see her again. That's a promise." Levin said before he was dragged out of the room.

Everyone in the room was silent. Steve and Clint let go of Tony. Fury looked at him.

"Go home Stark. Let us handle what needs to be done and someone will clue you in."

Tony remained silent and stared as everyone looked at him with pity written all across their faces.

"Come on Stark, I'll take you home." Natasha told him. However, Tony didn't look at her, he just left the room without saying anything to anyone. As Natasha followed him out, Steve and Clint were about to follow next until Fury told them to stay.

"Romanoff, I want you back here after he's home." Fury called out. "Keep him there and don't make me order him on house arrest, again."

Tony was already outside when Natasha finally made it out. Tony noticed that she had started growing her hair longer again since the attack on New York.

"You made quite an exit there Stark," Natasha told him as she unlocked the sedan door.

"Well, you know how overdramatic I can be," Tony said back, sarcastically.

"We're going to find her," She looked him the eye. Tony could see truth written in Natasha's eyes, but he still couldn't believe her.

"Yeah, well until she's physically within my reach, I won't believe you." He told her and turned his head. He watched the ocean passing by as Natasha drove down the California coast. They both knew this was going to be a long night.

When Tony finally walked through the front door of his Malibu home after Natasha dropped him off, he already took her warning to heart, 'Don't make Fury keep you on house arrest again, Stark. Get some rest'. He was not going to let this ruin him, even though he already felt like a failure.

Tony could feel that the house wasn't the same without Pepper. Normally, if she wasn't stuck at the office all night, he would come home to find her cooking something in the kitchen while dancing around to the radio. It was something that he longed to see that very moment. It was refreshing to see Pepper out of her element.

Not stopping in the kitchen, Tony continued down the hall. As he walked towards his bedroom, Tony longed to hold Pepper. Seeing her tied to a chair in a location no one knew, it broke his heart that he couldn't comfort her and tell her that things would be okay.

In the bedroom, Tony went into the walk-in closet and stopped on Pepper's side. Hell, there were no sides anymore, she had basically taken it over. Looking through all of her clothes, he grabbed one of her scarves and inhaled her scent, he already missed it. Chanel No. 5 mixed with some vanilla, that was her scent. Tony chuckled when he thought about Pepper's reaction to the perfume when he first bought it for her.

"There is no way I'm wearing that," She yelled at him. "It's so expensive, people will get suspicious."

"Pepper, a lot of women wear this perfume. You'll be fine. Not to mention, it smells divine on you," Tony smiled with his puppy dog eyes that she couldn't resist.

"Fine, I'll even put some on now if you want," Pepper said and took the cap off. Tony smiled at her until he realized she had pointed the bottle right at him.

"Don't you dare even think about that Miss Potts," Tony said right as she sprayed him the perfume.

"Already did," she said and laughed. Tony couldn't believe she even considered that.

"You are so lucky I love you," He laughed and pulled her in closer.

"Me too," She said back as she leaned in closer for a kiss.

Looking through the rest of Pepper's things, he noticed a fancy box hidden behind some of her shoes. Taking a closer look at the box, Tony realized he had never seen it before. He carried the box from the closet into the bedroom and sat on the floor. Wiping the layer of dust off the top, Tony looked at the label, 'College'.

Eager to see what Pepper had been hiding from him, Tony took the lid off the box and dumped the contents on the floor. Several newspapers came from the box first, followed by some pictures, and eventually small trinkets that had just been placed in there.

Looking through the trinkets, Tony picked up a small, gold pocket watch on a chain. Opening it up, he saw its beautiful ivory faceplate and the ornate black numbering. Flipping the watch around, he saw that it had been engraved, 'To my sweet, sweet Virginia. Happy eighteenth birthday. Love Dad.'

Now that was news to Tony. Pepper never talked about her family, let alone even mentioned them to him. He sometimes just thought she never had a family. He felt as if he was missing out on a time in Pepper's life. He wanted to know why.

Continuing to look through more of her past, Tony stumbled upon an obituary from Pepper's hometown paper, 'Thomas William Potts, gifted man, husband and father. Potts passed away Sunday morning after complications after a heart attack. He is survived by his wife Sarah and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Virginia.'

Tony didn't need to read through the rest of the article to figure out the rest. Pepper was only eighteen when her dad passed away. He had never known what relationship she had had with her family. Hell, Tony didn't even know she had a sister. Tony put the obituary down and continued to look through Pepper's past.

He picked up an envelope from the University of California, Berkeley. He knew that was her acceptance letter, but he didn't remember her telling him that was where she went to school originally. According to her resume, she graduated from New York University. Looking through some more, he noticed a script from a play. There had been handwritten notes in the margins on pages she had lines in. Looking through more different scripts he found, Tony realized Pepper had been a completely different person.

She had been in plays and musicals, she wrote poetry, and even wrote her own original play. As he continued to dig deeper into her past, he found a polaroid picture of a very young Pepper and a man who looked a bit older than her. The man had his arms wrapped around her waist and had pulled her in for an almost kiss.

'Ginny and James, sweethearts.' The picture had been labeled. Tony laughed at Pepper's nickname, it didn't suit her at all. Continuing through more polaroids, Tony found pictures of Pepper with various other friends, even one at Halloween where Pepper dressed up as Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp". These were all things that made Tony wonder, "What made her change?" He noticed she had seemed happy. Really, really happy.

It wasn't until he had found an old videotape that made him even more curious. Digging up an old VCR player, not even knowing he still had one, Tony was eager to see what was on the tape. Once he hit play, a screenshot of a college-age Pepper popped up. She was sitting behind a piano, ready to play.

"For this next set, Virginia Potts will perform a classic Chaplin song," Someone introduced her from the side of the stage. People clapped as the lights dimmed and a spotlight appeared on Pepper.

She nodded and started playing.

At first, Tony didn't know what she was playing, but it wasn't until what had happened next that made him watch even more.

"Smile, though your heart is aching. Smile, even though it's breaking. When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by…"

Tony couldn't believe what he heard coming from Pepper. He had no idea that she could even sing like that. Her voice was beautiful, he could feel his eyes sting with tears starting to form. He continued to watch the entire performance.

"If you smile through your fear and sorrow, smile and maybe tomorrow, you'll see the sun come shining through, for you…"

Tony stopped the video there, freezing the picture at a happy Pepper Potts. She was different from the person he knew now. He wondered why she had stopped singing. It looked like it was something she loved.

Taking his time to finish going through the stuff in the box, Tony found a newspaper article that instantly caught his attention, the headline reading, 'Students mourn after two students injured, one killed in tragic accident'. Tony then quickly discovered why Pepper quit everything she loved.

'Senior James Stanley was killed in an automobile accident after a drunk driver collided with his car early Sunday morning. Two other students, juniors Virginia Potts and Samantha Hughes were injured in the crash. The two were quickly transported to the hospital after authorities were reported to the scene. Sources say none of the students were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash.'

Tony realized that was how she became who she was to this day. Her boyfriend died in a car crash. He wondered why she never talked about anything related to college, and this was most likely the reason why. It broke his heart knowing her heart was broken like that.

After looking through most of the memories Pepper had hidden away for so long, Tony still couldn't understand why she hadn't told him about this.

Tony sat on the floor in silence, he didn't know how to register what he had just seen. It wasn't until JARVIS came on in the room that broke him from his trance.

Sir, Agent Coulson is on the line.

Tony broke out of his trance and grabbed the phone.

"Coulson, what's going on?" Tony answered the phone.

"Hammer just sent another video message," Coulson said from the other line. "I'm sending Romanoff back to get you. You need to see this."