Sorry about that everyone, I just ended up getting into a rather hectic point in my life, so you'll have to forgive the sudden "nothingness" and I realize this chapter is not that great, but... At least you have a chapter! Right? Enjoy!

There was absolutely no describing the adrenaline that Tony felt coursing through every pore in his body, and finally after a sigh and some mental breathing exercises he spoke once more.

"Pepper, I know that I may not be perfect.." He paused, "I mean check my laundry list of character flaws," He couldn't help but crack a joke, it was the only way he felt more at ease, "I know I never say that I love you, and it's not that I seem to care very much for you either, but I do care for you, and…" Another nervous pause as he slipped down to the ground, on knee did he kneel before the woman he was proclaiming his love to and from his pocket he extracted a midnight blue navy case, one to match his outfit and her dress, and he slowly opened it to reveal a beautiful ring. It was decorate with diamonds, and a sapphire as the center piece.

"Virginia Potts," Something that rolled rather funny off of his tongue, he never called her Virginia, "Will you marry me?" Sudden relief washed over the man, he finally pushed those words out, and it had been quite a bit of a struggle. He could feel his heart and pulse beating in his chest and ears.

Needless to say, "Virginia" Potts was in a complete state of shock, she stared at him for quite a while, her mouth hanging open, she didn't know what to say or rather she was so shocked she couldn't say a word. These were the most painful seconds of Tony's life.

Finally, she flung herself at him, sobbing. She had not expected this – well, for years. She half-expected to not get married until years after the child was born and he was finally comfortable enough to settle down. This was why he had been so weird! She was ruining his new suit with her tears, but she was barely interested in letting go of him.

She continued sobbing, only to realize that she had yet to say anything, and finally sobbed words, somewhere in between a freak-out and absolute hysteria she spoke.

"I'm sorry, yes, yes, please dear god yes!" Words streamed out of her mouth in a humble, she still wanted dessert but now she was more thinking about wedding dresses and being called Mrs. Stark. Though, Pepper Stark did sound a tad funny in her head.

It was now Tony's turn to be speechless, he had not only been flung onto randomly, but he also did not receive an answer for quite some time and he had gone read to the very ears in fear that the woman might deny him and was in tears because of the stupid question.. Maybe she was laughing! He wasn't quite sure. Though, he did he the words that confirmed everything, the words that he wanted to hear. His arms wrapped around the smaller frame of the woman and he held her close to him, he slowly rose to his feet and helped her up as well, a kiss on the cheek to make things better, he finally slipped the ring onto her finger.

"Don't make such a big fuss," He whispered quietly to her, his gaze shifting about he didn't want the media to be called upon. He slowly sat down, hoping that Pepper would also take a seat, and once she did and she had calmed down he called upon the waiter so that she may order her dessert.

Pepper, certainly had a hard time calming down though once she did, she immediately ordered tiramisu and a cheesecake, something that she noticed Tony's eyes widened upon. The woman was crazed at this point, not only was she pregnant but also she had been proposed to! And the more she thought about it the more thoughts entered in and out of her head.

"Now I have a nursery to plan AND a wedding!" She exclaimed as loudly as the restaurant they were in would permit her.

Tony's opinion was, well, very personal.

"Women get too excited for their own good." He commented, "You're going to end up beating me about this wedding aren't you?" Another joke to crack, and he smirked a bit, sipping at his drink, and immediately afterwards did he tug on his tie to loosen it up a little with a sigh.

"I'm not going to beat you, Tony. But I fully expect to be a nervous wreck about this wedding.. There is more than one reason why we will have it after the baby. I am sure I'll go days without sleep right before hand. Now I have too many things to choose. I need to set up a planner, and where do you think we should have the ceremony?" Pepper was back into the role she often played, the severe and anal woman who needed everything organized months prior, there was no such thing as "winging" it.

"And.. And.. You can't stress me out Tony, you know what can happen if.. If.." She couldn't imagine having a miscarriage! All.. because of him…

The male here had nothing to say, he was just kind of wide-eyed and speechless at the vomit of words that Pepper had presented before him all at the same time. She was mentioning miscarriages, and weddings and he scratched his head.

"I think if anyone causes a miscarriage, it's going to be you being overly stressed out." Tony mentioned through the corner of his mouth, trying to avoid being literally hit. Which wasn't so successful as the woman reached across the table and smacked Tony upside the head.

"Ow.." He grumbled, taking another sip of his drink before commenting.

"Looks like someone's hormones are bouncing around again." Tony mentioned with a playful grin.

"Hopefully you won't commit homicide of some sort because of all that.. Going on inside of you.." He waved his hand dismissively… Another sip and the idea of the Iron Man cradle came back to mind, he was quite fond of the idea, it would be rather brilliant in his opinion.

"You don't know if I'll kill anyone..! Yet! Maybe break your arm, but that'll happen at birth." She retorted smiling rather happily as her dessert arrived and she dived right in as "politely" as she could with her fork. Though her eye caught sight of the ring he had put on her finger, and he chuckled.

"Sapphires? Is there a reason I'm wearing so much blue?"

"Because they fit the theme for tonight, and well.." He tapped lightly onto the arc reactor in his chest, "It fits, the whole blue thing." He commented idly, a sigh left him. He was dieing, and it was one of the reasons he was jumping to this so quickly, and the blue ring, it was for her to remember him when he was gone.

"Something wrong?" She noticed the sigh, and Tony did not sigh very much though the shake of the head quickly deterred Pepper from asking any further questions of him. So she simply went back to shoveling the cakes into her mouth, if God had a physical form he would be in fact orgasming in her mouth in her mind anyway, that was how things worked. When she had gone silent the cakes were gone in minutes, after that great show of sorts, she finally looked up to Tony.

"A full stomach has been making me sleepier and sleepier nowadays." She managed.

"Though fortunately we'll know the sex soon enough, and in a few weeks we can start looking at names…" Her eyes narrowed then, "And no, there will be no Anthony Jr. if I can keep from it. You were not a Howard, and this will not be an Anthony."

Tony pouted at this comment, and then shook his head.

"No no. If it's a boy, I get to choose, if it's a girl you can choose." Naturally, if it was a boy he would get to name him however he wanted and that was all that mattered in Tony's mind.

"Plus, I'm way too good looking for my father, that's why I'm not a Howard."

"You were too dark for your father. All that Italian… maybe we'll get lucky and we will have a little girl with dark curly hair and bright blue eyes." Pepper stated dreamily with a cute smile, thinking of a the possibility of a little girl wandering around in diapers getting into all of the electronics and ripping things apart all while in a dress and pigtails. That would be so much fun, and Tony would certainly not know what to do with himself, it would be hilarious.

"Maybe Emily.." She thought out loud.

After a moment she looked down to her little bump, "We should probably go. As pretty as this dress is, I'd rather be nude on the couch." She whispered over the table at him.

Being told that they should go; Tony gave a soft nod, and paid their check as quickly as possible. He then stood up and offered his arm onto which Pepper latched onto quickly and they walked out of the restaurant. He made kissy faces at the woman as they got into the car and upon seating himself into the car he stared into the abyss as he started to drive.

It would be an absolute horror story if they had a little girl, he would go gray AND bald raising her! A boy would be the way to go, he would raise him the way Tony wanted him to be. Tony would want… Well who would he want.. Certainly not himself, Tony was a man wretched and alone in the world, filling up that loneliness with sex and drink.

He didn't get any sex that night, or anything of that sort, and he fell asleep thinking about what he would want his child to be like, and how he would raise them… And would he be able to raise them at all?