Ok, so I've had no internet for the past three weeks so everything internet-ish has had to be done by my phone (God bless it). So I'm mooching through YouTube looking for a cover of a song that RDJ apparently did (Lady Blue? The lyrics were in Spanish so I think the site I was on was lying to me...) and what do I find? Yes, the second Iron Man trailer. And what does my phone decide to do at the exact moment I need it most? It decides that it no longer likes YouTube and refuses to play its videos smoothly enough to be of any use. Bastard. Thanks be to the inventor of the library computer is all I can say.
Anywho, here's the next/rest of the last chapter. Enjoy.
Song of the Day: Daughtry – Crashed (third favourite song ever).
A cave in Baghdad, 26th December, 4:57pm
The limp body of Anthony Edward Stark lay in the dusty ground of a dark cave, his armour stripped from him, uselessly piled against a wall next to him. His left shoulder was stretched at an odd angle from where it had been shoved back into the socket by his current companion who was sitting not far from him, propped up against a wall and trying to get some sleep.
The sun was at a low enough angle to shed light right into the bowels of the cave, but not even that showed the end. Banner doubted there was anything of interest back there anyway as once again he tried to slip into unconsciousness. Getting Stark out of the suit had been a bitch, resulting in several cuts and the need for an explanation as to how Stark had dislocated his shoulder. He wasn't one hundred percent sure he had taken all the bits off correctly, but he figured it was better off than on, if what he'd heard had been correct. He would have to try and wake Stark before he drifted off completely. As this thought hit him, the lifeless body in front of him coughed.
"Ow. Ow...ow!" tried to sit up, which involved using his shoulder, which in turn involved a lot of pain. "Damn, must've hit the ground harder than I thought." He managed to pull himself up and looked around, finding Banner's sleepy figure. "Don't tell me you're tired?"
Banner's eyes opened groggily. "I hauled your metal ass for thirty minutes before I found this cave, and you've been asleep for nearly two days. 'I should come round pretty quickly after that'". He mimicked Tony's words, which made Stark chuckle.
"Do you know what day it is?" Tony asked as he butt shuffled over to his armour and checked it over.
"If my math is right, the 26th. Not sure on the time though. Early evening I think, the temperature's dropped." Banner let his head drop back onto the rock wall and closed his eyes again. "Think you can take over keeping a look out for a while?"
"Sure. You need the beauty sleep." Tony flipped a small panel on the inner wrist of one glove and attempted to call home.
"I think your suit's fucked. I swear a voice kept coming out of the helmet."
"That'd be Jarvis." Tony said, picking up his helmet and flipping the faceplate open. In doing so, he stretched his arm out, hissing slightly when it protested at the movement. "Ah, remind me to teach you how to take this off me, can't have you ripping my arm out of the socket every time."
Banner smiled slightly as the darkness consumed him.
Tony's Workshop, 29th December, 9:23am
Pepper was now reaching the end of her tether. She had ordered Jarvis to try and contact Tony every half hour, but all he was reporting back was static. This was, however, and improvement on the nothing she'd been getting before. Jarvis had tried comforting her by telling her that there was a 27% chance that Tony was the one fixing the suit. This, shockingly, had done little to give Pepper any hope and she was fighting a losing battle with hysteria. Rhodey had left her in the early hours of that morning after begging with her for nearly an hour to get some sleep. She had compromised by sitting cross legged in the middle of Tony's bed and hugging one of the pillows.
When sleep finally did take her, it was through sheer exhaustion. She all but collapsed on the couch in Tony's workshop and left Jarvis to his own devices with explicit instructions for him to wake her with even the most tenuous piece of information.
Even bad information.
A mile South of the SHIELD Scientific Research Lab, 29th December, 6:37pm
"Damn, this stuff is heavy." Banner huffed as he dragged the bottom half of the Iron Man suit across the sand and rocks. "How the hell do you manage to move in this?"
"Well when there's power in it, the thousands of motors and giros, and of course Jarvis, make it real easy. I would explain it fully, but I think my brain got fried in the hike here." He squinted ahead, raising an arm to shield his eyes from the sun. "I can see the facility. No smoke coming from it so that's a good sign." He heaved the chest plate back over his shoulder and trudged on. "Couldn't you turn into your larger, more attractive self and help us out with the heavy lifting?"
Banner chuckled. "I haven't quite learned how to control him yet, he pretty much only makes an appearance when I'm annoyed or upset."
"Well," Tony grunted. "I could slap you around a bit if that'd help?"
"Only if you wanted me to kill you." He replied, smiling broadly.
"You wouldn't say that if my armour was working."
"Nah, I'd still kick your ass."
They carried on a little further, the research facility getting ever closer and a comfortable silence descending over them. Eventually, Tony broke it.
"Got any resolutions, Banner? New Year in two days and all that."
Banner thought about it for a minute and then smiled. "Try and get my girlfriend's dad to like me."
"Ooh, glad I've never been in that position. Good luck with that."
"Thanks." Bruce said sarcastically. "What about you Stark?" he turned to face Tony as he stopped to give his shoulder a quick rub. They were mere minutes away from the lab now. Tony sighed.
"Well, I put my assistant under a hell of a lot of stress this year with my 'coming out', and we were supposed to do Christmas, but I guess that plan went south, so I've got a lot to grovel for. I guess my resolution is to try and see things from her perspective before I act." He picked up the top half of the suit again for the final stretch. Banner started walking too. Someone had come out of the building ahead of them and was waving frantically. Tony raised his hand in acknowledgement.
"Would that be Pepper?" Banner asked. Tony shot him a confused look and Bruce smiled. "You kept saying 'Pepper' in your sleep; I'm assuming you weren't dreaming about seasoning." Tony blushed slightly, a rare sight. "She hot?" Stark smiled to himself and shook his head.
"She's beautiful."
Tony's House, 31st December, 11:01pm
"Rhodey, you promised!" Pepper practically screeched down the phone at the Colonel. "Tony's still not back, you have to go and look for him!"
"Pepper, I said I'd go look for him if he wasn't back by New Year's. He's still got fifty-nine minutes and you know how he likes to make an entrance-"
"Don't feed me that bullshit, and don't argue with me with technicalities. He's been missing without contact for over a week, please Rhodey, I'm begging you." Her voice began betraying her as her emotions boiled over.
"Pepper..."
"Fine!" she screamed. "Fine, let your best friend lay in a cave dying, why should you care? It's not like you owe him anything is it?" she didn't even bother ending the call, simply throwing the phone across the room, watching it smash into pieces as it hit the wall opposite. Pepper took a deep breath and then sagged against the wall, letting gravity take her all the way down to the floor. She brought her knees up to her chest and crumpled into a fit of sobs.
"Sorry to interrupt Miss Potts, but there is a call coming through from Nick Fury." Jarvis' crisp voice brought her round to sanity. Her head snapped up and she sniffed heavily.
"Put him through." She hiccupped.
"Miss Potts? Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD." Fury's voice replaced Jarvis.
"I know who you are." Pepper replied with a hint of contempt. "Have you heard anything from Tony?"
"I was just about to ask you the same question." Fury said with disappointment. "We haven't been able to contact the research lab for a number of days, we believe some sort of electro-magnetic-"
"Yeah, we've got the same problem here." Pepper said impatiently. "So do you mean to tell me there is no way to contact this research lab?"
"Short of flying out there myself, no. It's too dangerous to enter that zone right now; until we get some form of report back we've blocked any and all entrance to the region."
"So you're just going to leave him out there? Dying?" Pepper's voice raised but Fury stayed calm.
"Miss Potts, I may not know Stark as well as you do, but I know him well enough to understand that it is not yet a time to be worrying. He's been away for longer than this without contact, am I right? He came back...maybe not in exactly the same condition-"
"Exactly!" Pepper shouted. "What if he comes back even worse? How much more can his body handle?"
There was a few seconds silence before Fury sighed. "He'll be fine, Miss Potts. He's a fighter."
SHIELD Scientific Research Lab, Baghdad, 31st December, 7:58pm
Two days of a team of eight men, not including Banner and Stark, and finally the Iron Man suit was up and running.
"Yes!" Tony punched his fist into the air and high fived a rather excited looking man stood next to him. "Finally!" he picked up his helmet and jammed it onto his head, the HUD flicking slightly before loading up his preferences. "Jarvis?"
"Welcome back Mr. Stark." Jarvis sounded slightly relieved, or as relieved as an emotionless computer could. "I trust everything is well once more?"
"Couldn't be better." Tony chuckled. "We all up and running?"
"Once the suit is complete I will be able to make a full assessment, but preliminary scans show no signs of major damage. A flight home should be met with no problems."
"Excellent." Tony pulled the helmet off and was met with the confused faces of the scientists and Banner who had heard nothing of Jarvis' side of the conversation. Tony decided it was best not to try and explain. "Time to get suited up boys."
Twenty minutes later, Tony was completely encased in the titanium alloy and ready to fly home. Jarvis' calculations had been accurate and no problems had been detected. He had even managed to contact SHIELD and inform them of what had happened and a team of agents was on its way to ensure everything was safe. Banner was staying behind to help out.
"Well, it was nice working with you, Doctor." Tony stuck his hand out to Banner, who took it and shook it tightly.
"Same to you, Stark." Banner smiled at him. He followed him as Tony walked out of the facility (he thought it best not to leave a gigantic hole in the ceiling).
"What's our ETA Jarvis?" Tony asked.
"Approximate time of arrival is set at 11:49pm tonight." The computer replied.
"Ooh, cutting it short but I'll get home this year." He smiled at Banner and flicked his faceplate down, firing his flight stabilisers and hovering a few feet above the ground. Banner whistled, this being the first time he had seen the suit in action without a green mist in front of his eyes. "Give my regards to the missus." Tony saluted Banner who laughed.
"Same to you, Iron Man."
Tony's House, 31st December, 11:40pm
Tony had gone Supersonic pretty much all the way home, against Jarvis' better judgement, but making it home before his ETA. Giving himself a little pat on the back for beating Jarvis, something that he rarely did, he performed a textbook landing and slid down the hatches into his workshop, his metal boots making a soft clunk on the concrete floor below. He stepped forward slightly and ordered his bots to start dismantling the suit, performing a much better job than Banner had done. Once out of the suit, he unzipped the top half of his neoprene under suit and shoved it down to his waist, rotating his still sore shoulder and walking to the elevator (he was way too tired to manage the stairs).
The elevator made a soft 'ding' as it reached the ground level of the house and he stepped out, the cooler air hitting his bare chest and wafting the stank that had gathered on his body over the past week. 'Should have had a shower at the lab.' Tony thought to himself. That could wait til morning though; all he wanted to do now was go to bed. He passed the kitchen and briefly registered the sight of a half demolished turkey carcass lying on the counter. That, too, could wait til morning. His bed was calling to him.
He turned the last corner of the hallway to his bedroom and walked through the doorway, ready to dive-bomb onto the cushiony awesomeness ahead, only to find that it was already occupied by a red-headed woman, wearing one of his shirts, sitting with her back against the headboard, knees up to her chest and his pillow under her chin.
"...Pepper?"
'Fine, he wants technicalities, I'll call him on the dot of midnight and tell him to get his ass out there and find him'. Pepper had once again taken refuge in Tony's bedroom, resorting to stealing one of his shirts as she had nothing else to sleep in, and as much as she hated to admit it, she was on the verge of becoming comatose if she didn't get some sleep soon. She had turned the television on to watch the ball drop so she would know the exact second to call Rhodes.
'I should call him now, just to be a pain in the ass. He's probably out celebrating, stupid son of a-'
"Pepper?"
'-great, now I'm hearing his voice. Nice one Potts, you're going insane.' She actually laughed to herself at this and buried her face deeper into the pillow, closing her eyes. 'Only a few more minutes.'
"Pepper?" Tony walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, beginning to get worried now. "Pepper, are you ok?"
'Ok, that feels real...' Pepper raised her head slowly and looked up, finding a bare chested, extremely dirty and sweaty Tony Stark. Her mouth opened in shock.
"Tony?" she whispered.
"...yeah?" Tony said, very confused now. "Are you ok?" he crouched down and brought his hand from her shoulder to her cheek and stared at her. Pepper gasped.
"Oh my God, Tony!" she flew at him, crashing into his body and wrapping her arms around his neck. Tony straightened up and stumbled backwards, reflexively hugging her back. "You're really back! I can't believe it!" she nuzzled into the join between his neck and shoulder and scrunched her eyes up, forcing herself not to cry.
"Uh, I wouldn't get too comfortable there, I haven't showered in eight days." Tony said, laughing shakily. Pepper pulled her head back and beamed at him.
"You've never smelt so good in your entire life." She said as a rogue tear rolled down her cheek. "I can't believe you're back, I was thinking the worst."
Something in Tony's head clicked and he raised his eyebrows at her. "Have you been here all week?" Pepper nodded.
"I came round on Christmas Day, I couldn't leave you on your own, and then you weren't here, and Jarvis told me what had happened and that he'd lost contact with you and..." she broke off and took a deep breath. "I've been worried sick." She pushed his bangs out of his eyes and let her fingers linger at his law line.
"Well, apart from a freshly re-located shoulder, I'm perfectly ok." He smiled at her, his eyes flicking between hers. "What about you? You look exhausted."
"So do you." She retorted.
"Yeah well, crash landing and sleeping in a cave does that to you." He attempted humour but Pepper's eyes went wide. "Never mind, I'll tell you about it in the morning. We should sleep now." He used his grip around her waist to lift her slightly and shuffle forwards towards his bed and sat Pepper down on it, but she stood up again.
"And the ball is dropping! Ten...nine..." the TV began counting down to the New Year.
"Wait, I need to apologise, I shouldn't have said what I did when I left, and the truth is I was scared-"
"-seven...six...five..."
"-and my brain was reading too much into things, and then what you were saying about changing-"
"-four...three..."
"-it was just a lot to take in all at once and I handled it wrong, and then I thought I'd lost you again and-"
"-two...one...Happy New Year!" music began playing and signalled the start of the New Year.
"-I guess what I'm trying to say is-" Pepper stopped talking as Tony's lips gently pressed against hers. He wrapped his arms around her once more and brought her as close to him as he could. Pepper's hands landed on his shoulders, and then slid up to his neck as the shock wore off. Tony pulled back before the kiss got too heated and placed another small one on her lips, resting his forehead against hers.
"Happy New Year, Pepper." He whispered to her. Pepper stared at him for a few seconds and Tony felt a brief fit of panic thinking he'd gone too far yet again, before she beamed at him and pulled his head towards hers, kissing him roughly and winding her fingers in his hair. Tony's breath caught in his chest as he kissed her back with enthusiasm, pushing her down onto the bed. Pepper let out a quiet moan as he landed on her, their mouths never parting, tongues battling wildly. Tony pushed Pepper further up the bed and lay fully on top of her, shifting his hands, one holding him up and the other caressing the top of her left leg. His mouth left hers and began a searing trail down her jaw to her neck. One hand still buried in his hair, the other began a slow decent down his body to the waist line of his neoprene suit and she started to push in down, but then she stopped sharply.
"T-Tony?" she said croakily.
"Mmm?" Tony continued his apparent mission to turn her into a lump of melted butter as he began nibbling on her ear, something he had learned would make her putty in his hands.
"Oh, mmm, not that I don't love what you're doing-" her hands gripped him tightly as his began tickling its way back up to her torso. "-but you really do stink."
Tony stopped and his head shot up, a confused but humorous look on his face. "I thought I'd never smelt better in my life?"
Pepper shrugged. "There's only so much ode de man a girl can take before it goes from sexy to skanky." Tony laughed at this and leant down to kiss her again.
"Ok, well, I'll go shower," he kissed her neck as he spoke, making her writhe under him. "and you stay here." He shoved himself up and backed away, still gazing at her. "You know, you should wear my shirts more often." He winked and then disappeared into the en suite. Pepper beamed to herself and lay back, knowing things had drastically changed, and this time, she wasn't in the least bit worried.
Twenty minutes later, Tony exited the shower. He had strongly considered a cold one to calm himself down, but decided his shoulder desperately needed the warmth. He wrapped a towel round his middle after rubbing his head with it and walked back into the bedroom, ready to pounce on Pepper as soon as he saw her, but when he rounded the doorway, he found her in a deep sleep stretched out across the bed on top of the duvet. He sighed softly, slightly grateful as he didn't think with his current level or tiredness he could have performed at full capacity.
He walked over to the bed, pulled back the covers on one side and then walked around to the side she was stretched out on, picking her up gently and placing her under the duvet. He then walked round to the other side and slid in next to her, towel still wrapped around him, and laid back, placing one arm under her head and the other around her waist so she was lying on his chest. Pepper snuggled into him and sighed contently.
"Missed you." She mumbled. Tony kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes.
"Missed you too."
Tony slept peacefully that night. No dreams of Obadiah taunted him, only visions of the previous night replayed in his head. He woke as his imagination took over the reality of the night and he stretched out his arms, expecting to feel Pepper's weight on his chest still. When he didn't, his eyes snapped open and he looked around.
She wasn't there.
His hand felt the mattress next to him. Still warm, she hadn't been gone that long. The shirt she had been wearing was folded neatly on the pillow. Tony threw the duvet off himself and sprang out of the bed, all but running down the hallway to the lounge.
He found her heading for the front door and he stopped in the middle of the large room.
"Pepper!" she turned around quickly at the sound of his voice. "Pepper, what are you doing?"
"I need to go home." She said, smiling gently at him. "I have to-"
"No! No you don't have to go anywhere." She gave him a shocked look and tried to speak again but he rushed forward and grabbed her hand. "Let me speak. You don't have to go, please don't leave me again. I thought we were getting somewhere." Once again, Pepper opened her mouth but Tony stopped her. "Wait, look, I've told you I'm willing to change and I can't – no, I refuse to walk away from this now. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it, anything, you name it."
"Tony, I can't tell you what to do, it's your life."
"I'm giving it to you." He said and kissed her softly. "I'll give you anything and everything you want, you've already given me everything I'll ever need."
Pepper brought a hand up to his cheek and stroked it. "I still need to go home." She said.
"But why!?" he demanded, a desperate look in his eyes.
"Because I haven't got any clothes here." She said, trying to keep a straight face as his face went from anger to confusion.
"But...wait, what?"
"I've been wearing the same outfit since Christmas Day, I figured if I was going to stay here for a few days...unless you don't want me to..." she trailed off, she hadn't even thought about that when she was inviting herself to stay.
"You...you're staying here?"
"Only if you want me to, and only for a couple days, I'm not like moving in or anything." She looked unsure. "Do you want me to?"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" he said excitedly and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her up and spinning her around. "Stay as long as you want, and then stay a bit longer." She laughed and kissed him.
Yeah, she wouldn't be leaving him on his own for a while.
TBC.
Wow, would you look at that? Nearly four thousand words. In two days. I figured since this was technically supposed to still be chapter five and the fact that I left you all hanging for over a week, I'd post this when I finished it. And yeah, this was once again supposed to be smut, but I'm quite chuffed with the way it panned out. My brain had a very sneaky way of negotiating around smut. I will try it at some point...maybe...