Tony paced the Common Room frantically, waiting for Pepper. It was two in the morning, and neither Steve nor his girlfriend had shown their faces. The rest of the gang (ie: Bruce, Natasha, and Clint) had went to bed hours ago, claiming that Steve and Pepper had stayed behind to talk. He briefly wondered what those two were 'discussing'.

He shook off that thought angrily as he slammed his glass down. This was Pepper. Pepper. She would never do that to him. And Captain America. The man was too straightlaced to have a relationship with someone else's girlfriend. Didn't they kill people in the 1940's for doing something like that? Or, like, brand them with a Scarlet A?

Dum-E whirred quietly in the background, trying to fix Tony a glass of his favorite scotch. This was his 3rd attempt. The remains of his first two attempts littered the floor. The poor robot whirred sadly whenever he rolled across broken glass or slipped on the expensive liquid. Tony sighed.

"Just bring me the bottle, you imbecile."


Natasha walked in on Tony passed out on one of the Common Room couches, cuddling a pillow. An empty bottle of scotch lay next to him and a few glass shards littered the bar area. She clapped her hands loudly.

He jerked awake, groaning and rolling over. She walked closer and put her lips right to his ear.

"If you aren't up in 5 seconds, I'll make sure you never have kids. I know Pepper will be pretty disappointed." He stirred again at pepper's name, and then slowly sat up.

"head hurts," He grunted, running a hand through his dishevelled hair. she shook her head, totally unsympathetic to his plight.

"Where's Pepper?" He mumbled, sluggishly struggling to his feet. Natasha cocked her head in surprise.

"What do you mean?" She asked dumbly, thinking back to last night. Pepper and Steve had departed from the group, claiming they had to discuss something secret (and important, by the sound of it). She and Clint accompanied Bruce back to the tower, believing that Pepper would be safe with Steve. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Did I fucking stutter? I asked when Pepper came home last night with wonder-boy." Natasha's eyes widened, choosing to politely ignore his disrespectfulness. She placed a calming hand on Tony's shoulder. Unsurprisingly, he shook it off impatiently.

"Tony, it's 2 in the afternoon. I haven't seen Pepper since last night. And I don't remember seeing Steve either." Tony slouched, refusing to comprehend her implication. Natasha forced herself to stay calm, and kept her voice gentle.

"I don't think they came home last night."


Tony returned, freshly showered and armed with a cup of steaming coffee, to find the two assassins and Bruce waiting for him. Bruce was nervously tapping his fingers while Clint and Natasha sat together, communicating with looks and occasional whispers. He coughed slightly. Everyone looked up, waiting for him to speak.

"Right-so, I think we all can agree that Pep-" he took a deep breath, "Pepper and Rogers are probably not going to be coming home soon. I think you, Clint and Natasha, should scout the city, retrace your steps, whatever. Bruce and I will activate all the tracking devices we can find. You guys report back here whenever you find something. Capice?" Natasha and Clint immediately left to change and gather weapons.

Bruce turned to Tony and gave him a small smile. He reached into a small pocket in his shirt and withdrew his spectacles.

"Let's get to work," was all Tony said.


Bruce had to hand it to Tony. he really knew what he was doing when it came to tracking devices, especially when it came to Pepper.

He had put devices in her shoes, her phone, her purse, and her clothes. He was very thorough, and apparently very discrete.

"She wouldn't let me implant a tracking chip- said it was too invasive." Tony muttered before trying to scan the signals.

Scanning for Steve, on the other hand, was a bit harder. Tony only put three tracking chips on him: One in his phone, one in every pair of his shoes, and one in his shield.

Unfortunately, Steve's phone was off (as usual), and he didn't carry his shield around that much, so all they had was his shoe tracking devices.

"Damn it, Rogers! You just had to make this harder for us, didn't you?" Tony muttered. Bruce pretended not to hear him, and kept watching the computers with a frown.

Bruce was reading some of the tracking devices on Pepper, but the signals were very strange.

"Er- Tony? You might want to see this…" Bruce said, turning the screen to face him.

Tony let out an unholy amount of swear words, but Bruce didn't even have the heart to chastise him. In fact, he kind of wished he could say them too, but he had to remain calm.

Unless Tony wanted his building to be in pieces-again.


"These signals are all over America! Her shoes are in Wyoming, Her phone is in Florida- What the hell is this?" Tony raged, turning back to the computer screen and typing furiously.

"Okay, let's remain calm. Maybe we should focus on getting a read on Steve- He might be with her?" Bruce suggested, rubbing his temples. He was beginning to get a dull throb in his head.

Despite his trying to calm himself, he could feel the Hu- Other guy, dammit- stirring inside him. He genuinely worried for Pepper, and truly wanted her home safely.

The other guy seemed to take a shine to her too. Most likely because Pepper hadn't judged Bruce or the Hulk. She had opened her home to both of them and had been more than friendly to both of them.

And Bruce owed her for that. Just like he owed Tony for being the same way.

And Bruce was going to bring Pepper home to Tony if it was the last thing he did.

And As the Other guy stirred in agreement, Bruce smiled. Whoever was responsible for what had happened to Pepper was going to get payback from two people nobody wanted to mess with: him and the Hulk.


Natasha smiled disarmingly at the manager of the coffee shop and slightly leaned forward.

"I just want to know if any of your employees saw these two people here last night. I don't mean to be troubling you, but it's really important to me. Could you possibly look into it for me? Please?" Natasha reached across the counter and rested her hand on the manager.

He was a middle-aged man, and seemed very pleased by the attention Natasha was giving to him.

"Erm- of course. You see, I myself was working the night shift, er- last night, so I think I may be of, uh, service to you." The poor man stuttered out before Natasha widened her smile.

"That's perfect! Now, could you please tell me if you saw these two last night?" She slid two pictures over the counter: one of Steve and one of Pepper. The manager of the shop scrutinized the picture, then nodded excitedly.

"Oh yeah, I recognize them! They came in here late at night and ordered some stuff. They sat in that booth, and then left a few minutes before closing time. I think they went through the back alley, though. I didn't see them through the window after they left. I remember them because, well, he looked rather familiar and-well, the woman was rather beautiful, as you can see." She smiled slightly.

"Yes, she is. Thank you so much for your help. I'll be going now." The manager waved her off, claiming her cafe mocha was on the house. She smiled at that. It was always nice to know that she still had that effect on men.

She felt a stab of worry for Pepper. She knew that Pepper was strong, but Natasha knew that even she had her breaking point Her resolve to find Pepper strengthened even more.

She had always liked Pepper, even when she had been masquerading as Natalie Rushman. Pepper had a dry wit and air of care about her, despite her reservedness.

Pepper was one of the very few things that Tony truly cared for, and Natasha was loathe to see him lose one more thing so important to him.

She looked around, discreetly checking her surroundings to make sure that she wasn't being watched.

Then, Natasha Romanoff did what she was the best at: she silently slipped into the shadows.


Clint sighed. He had been scuttling through some of the vents, trying to calm the disquiet bubbling inside.

It was either disquiet or the mexican food he had eaten just an hour ago. He couldn't really tell.

However, he was concerned for Pepper. She usually let Tony know where she was. Plus, Steve hadn't come home either, which seemed a little strange…

He shook that thought off before it progressed any further. While Steve and Tony didn't get along, Steve was too chivalrous and old-fashioned to steal Tony's girlfriend (and pretty much the only girl Tony truly loved and cared about).

And Pepper wasn't exactly disloyal either. That lady would not have put up with Tony's shit only to abandon him after coming so far, Clint was sure.

The only other conclusion was that they were forcibly delayed from returning by an external factor.

In short, they were kidnapped, injured, or killed. Clint shook his head and jumped down from the vent.

Even though he was used to flying solo, he was part of a team now. And being a team meant looking after your teammates.

So Clint set a quick stride towards the lab, determined to help in some way.

Because Clint Barton was not used to feeling so helpless.


Natasha slipped through the alley, looking around. She hadn't seen anything so far, just a few bottles. She took a few more steps forward, hoping against hope that there was some sort of clue here.

crunch. Her heel had landed on some sort of glass object. Natasha leaned down and picked it up.

It was a syringe. Her eyes widened, and she cautiously took a whiff.

Years of work had trained her on how to control her emotions. Without that training, Natasha probably would have gasped.

The vail contained traces of cyanide, an extremely strong cyanide. And it was mostly empty. Even half of this dose could instantly kill a person. She closed her eyes, preparing to find a body.

Instead, she found Steve Rogers.

A Steve Rogers with a faint pulse.

She made two calls that day.

One to SHIELD, and one to Tony.

Both had filled her with a longing for Tony's Scotch.


Yes, I know it's a rather abrupt ending, but that's the end of chapter 7. Don't worry, I have the outline of the next chapter or two as well.

I hope you liked it and please leave a review! :)

Thanks to everyone of my followers, favoriters, and reviewers! I love love love you all. :)