A/N: The FINAL COUNTDOWN!

Would it make it easier on you if I said something VERY good happens at the end of this story?


Chapter 6: February

She was seriously considering getting themselves drunk and high tonight, and every other night, until she got what she wanted – what she so urgently needed. That had worked for a lot of girls in high school, right? And in college, too, correct? Was not that what happened to partying, underage girls: alcohol equated to unplanned pregnancies? Why was that not happening to her? Did she really need to get Tony drunk for this?

He won't drink, she thought bitterly. He won't even try the Margaritas I bought!

The brunette sighed in desperation as she threw to the trashcan yet another negative pregnancy test. This was the third one she had taken since she and Tony had begun sleeping together, and it was the third one that did not give her the wanted results. She could not understand why she was not with child by now; given the extreme measures she was taking. She had been replacing her birth control pills with vitamins. She had poked holes in Tony's condoms. She had even convinced the inventor to have sex without any protection at least twice so far. How was this not happening already?

She had run some tests on herself to detect signs of infertility, but they had all come back as normal, which meant that perhaps the problem was not her but the inventor himself. She could not run any tests on him or even mention the fact that she was trying to get pregnant from him; that would only send him over the edge and he would finally kick her out – or at least throw her belongings from the balcony of the apartment and onto the ground.

It was already difficult enough carrying a normal dialog with him without running the risk of him getting angry and going off at her for the stupidest of things. Talking about kids, particularly having his kids, would just piss him off even more.

There was no topic of conversation that did not incite a negative response from him, no opportunity for her to make an attempt at a civil discussion without him storming out on her; just as he had done so hours ago when she had asked him if they could switch their brand of toothpaste and he had responded by slamming the front door on his way out to the grocery store to buy another brand.

Oh, the things she had to put up with!

She washed her hands and exited the bathroom when her cell phone went off. She knew who was calling and why, and she was annoyed by the simple thought of having to relay bad news. That was all she had been able to give him so far: bad news, terrible news and horrible news, all back-to-back.

Oh, well, she thought with contempt as she flipped open her phone and answered the call. Better get this done.

"This is Hansen," she said to the speaker and sat on the edge of the bed. She patiently waited for the other person to ask the dreaded question she knew was coming, and once it was out in the open, she clenched her eyes closed and sighed before she responded.

"No, not yet."

She flinched and pulled the phone away from her ear when the caller began yelling like there was no tomorrow. She exhaled and rolled her eyes as she randomly replaced the phone back on her ear a few times to make sure that her turn to speak had not been missed. After about three minutes of incessant yelling, her turn to speak again finally arrived and she cleared her throat.

"I'm trying! He's getting more and more difficult to deal with. I'm lucky he hasn't changed the locks when I'm not home."

Her comment was not well received by the caller, and she again had to pull away the phone from her ear. No one really felt her pain or understood how difficult her task truly was. How could they even assume that her end of the deal was easy to accomplish? How could they possibly believe that it was something that could be done overnight? Tony Stark was not any regular man, and he was not a stupid man at all.

"No. No, he doesn't. Yes. Yes, I'm sure."

She stood up from the bed and began pacing the room.

"No, I can't," she sighed. "Because he's not even sleeping in the same bed as I am! That's why!"

She again waited for her turn to speak and exited the bedroom. She walked over to the kitchen, towards the fridge and took out from it Tony's water bottle he took with him when he went to the gym downstairs at night. She eyed the item for a moment, and after closing the fridge door, she took the bottle with her back into the bedroom.

"The floor," the brunette said as she arrived to the restroom again, placed the bottle on the vanity and, from under the sink, she took out the bag that held her makeup. "Her room. No, it's locked. I know. I know! Yes, I know I'm on a timeline! I just…"

She held the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she removed the cap from Tony's bottle. She then rummaged inside her makeup bag and took out from it a small bottle she quickly unscrewed, and then dumped half of its clear liquid contents inside the blue-eyed boy's bottle. She closed the small bottle and put it back in her cosmetics bag and then screwed the cap on the water bottle again.

"I just told you why!" she said and began shaking the water bottle. "I'm trying!" she shook it some more. "Yeah. No. I... I can't yet. Because I can't!"

She returned to the kitchen, water bottle in hand and placed it back where she had found it in the fridge. She then walked over to the living room and sat on the couch as she listened to the caller go on and on about how she was not keeping her word.

"Well, can't he wait? A few more months. What do you mean 'no'?"

The caller again yelled at her, listing the reasons why her request was absurd. This was how all their calls went, anyway, and she knew that the only thing she had to do now was wait until the screaming was done. At that point, she would repeat her last words, say that she needed more time, and the caller would have no choice but to agree. It was all they could do for now.

Five minutes later, when the call finally ended, her expectations had become true. She had more time. Not much, but still more time. And when Tony returned to the apartment, threw the plastic bag containing a different kind of toothpaste on the counter in the kitchen, opened the fridge and took out his water bottle, and then left the apartment again, bottle in hand, and with the destination of the building's gym room, Maya knew tonight could be her lucky night.

xxxXXXxxx

Two weeks. That was how long she had been awake after being asleep for over a year, not even knowing that she had been gone at all. She could not remember where she had been during that time, what she had felt— if she had felt anything at all, or even if she had been aware of her surroundings in any capacity, but now she knew that something had been done to her, and when she had been told why she had been the subject of Makluan-induced punishment, she had been shocked to her core.

"I did what to Pepper?"

She had not believed her ears, but the pictures and the video of herself talking, smiling like a maniac as she verbally and slowly recapped her torturing techniques to a broken-looking Tony Stark, had been enough for her to believe General Fury's words.

I almost took her life. I almost killed another human being!

How had she allowed herself to do that in the first place? This was not her! She was not a murderer! She was spoiled and misunderstood, sure, but killing was not in her blood!

The mask. It had to have all been due to the mask.

Her memories had been slowly returning to her, and with them her life had been slowly pieced back together. She knew that her father had gone apeshit after being fired from Stark International and was now in a coma. She also knew that Howard Stark was back and that she had almost succeeded in killing him. She knew that she had taken the identity of Madame Masque and that Tony Stark was Iron Man, and that she had kidnapped and had attempted to kill Patricia 'Pepper' Potts; the same Patricia that was now sitting in the same room as her, staring her directly in the eye from her position across the thin table between them.

The room they were in was small; it looked like an interrogation room of some sort, and the walls were made out of glass. She could not see anything other than their own reflections on them, but she was certain that an entire group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had to have been right outside at the moment, perhaps even aiming several guns at her. Perhaps even ready to blow her brains out at the smallest hint of hostility on her part.

She really could not blame them for it, though, and she had to give props to the ginger for being here with her, all by herself for all practical purposes, with no immediate defense other than her own two hands. The blonde's wrists and ankles were bound by thick, metal shackles, which appeared to have no keyhole on them. They were probably electronic and remotely controlled, just as everything else was in this place; something she had come to learn in the past fourteen days since waking up.

"I don't know where to start," Whitney admitted with a sad sigh and then looked at the floor, unable to meet Pepper's eyes. Pepper tapped her fingers on the table; her eyes glued to the girl before her, as if trying to read her thoughts, and she then sighed in exasperation.

"Then, I guess I'll start," Pepper leaned back in the chair, hands on her lap. "I'm sorry you were kept in a coma for so long. If I'd known about it before now, I would've gotten you out of it much sooner."

The look on the blonde's face was so shocking, it was almost comical.

"Pepper," she began. "You-you… why are you apologizing to me? I… I'm the one who did terrible things to you!"

"Yes, you did," the redhead leaned forward and rested her weight on her bent arms on the table. "But that doesn't mean you deserved to be a vegetable for the rest of your life. I'm not saying that you're excused, or that S.H.I.E.L.D. won't have you tried and punished for your actions, but being stuck in limbo is not what I'd want to happen to anyone, not even you."

Whitney stared at her lap and then to her side, thinking deeply about Pepper's words.

"I'm sorry, Pepper, for what I did to you. I know you probably won't believe me, but I'm really sorry."

"I believe you," the redhead said almost immediately, and her honest tone and relaxed face made the blonde's head snap up and her mouth slack in utter incredulity.

"You do?"

"Yeah," Pepper shrugged. "A lot of things have happened since then, Whitney. This, whatever you did… it's… in the past."

The redhead waved her hand dismissively to emphasize her point, and when the light shone on her left hand and caught the attention of the blonde, Whitney chuckled and gave the ginger a gloomy smile.

"Tony asked you to marry him, didn't he?"

Pepper's first reaction was to frown; momentarily confused by the seemingly random comment, until she remembered she was wearing her engagement ring. She stretched her hand before her, stared at the ring for a second, and then she chuckled and shook her head.

"Not at all. I'm engaged, but not to Tony."

The look of double surprise on the girl's face brought a roll of the eyes to the redhead and a shake of the head.

"What? You don't believe me?"

"No… I…" Whitney gulped. "I do… I do but… I just… I can't believe Tony let someone else take you away from him."

Pepper shrugged.

"It wasn't meant to be."

"I don't believe that," Whitney shook her head vehemently. "I don't believe that for a second. What did he do?"

The redhead arched a single brow. "What makes you think he did anything at all?"

"Well, Pepper, if we're going to be honest with ourselves, we both know that you've had a crush on him since he set foot at the Academy. And well, he took a little while to return the sentiment, but I know for a fact that he loves you very much. Or at least I know he did, before I went… MIA."

Pepper shrugged again, leaned back in the chair and looked away.

"Things change, Whitney. The impossible happens. I mean, look at us right now. I don't think that we've ever had a normal conversation, let alone a long one like this, and yet here we are," by the time she finished her sentence, the redhead's eyes had returned to the blonde.

"I know. I, uhm, I know what you mean. But the only reason why I hated you was because Tony likes you so much. He trusts you so much, Pepper. I don't think that he ever bonded with me like that at all, even though I'd known him longer than you have."

Pepper swallowed hard but kept a small smile on her face. "Well, maybe if he saw the real you, the one without Madame Masque, you guys could be friends again."

Whitney chuckled bitterly and looked away, tears forming in her eyes.

"That's really nice of you to say, but I know where I stand. Tony will never forgive me. He will never forget that I almost took your life. I could've taken his suit or his money, maybe even harm him directly, but your safety is not negotiable with him. Even I know that."

"You'd be surprised," Pepper shrugged, trying hard to keep the tears of sadness at bay. "There've been a lot of things I never thought that Tony would ever do or say, but I've been proven wrong several times in the last year or so. I'm not saying he's gonna trust you right away or even ask you to be best pals, but he'll forget it. Eventually. And he won't hate you anymore… one day."

Whitney nodded even though she knew better than to believe that Tony would ever see her as anything other than the most despicable person in the world. She was amazed that, even today, the ginger was not aware of the power she had over the inventor. Whitney did not know where the redhead and the genius stood right now, and she could not image why she and the blue-eyed boy had not worked out, but something she did know was that she would be lucky if Tony even thought about her ever again for the rest of his life.

"What's gonna happen to me now?" Whitney asked as she stared left and right, half expecting S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to show up any moment now since the conversation seemed to be wrapping up. "Am I going to prison? Are they going to kill me?"

"I wish I could tell you," Pepper said. "It really depends on whatever General Fury and his committee decides, but death is not something I'll let them do to you, if I have a say. I don't believe that kind of punishment is fair for what you did to me, and I'm sure Tony wouldn't have wanted that for you either, no matter how mad he got about what happened."

"What about Gene Khan? Would he advocate for my death?"

Pepper shook her head. "He won't even get involved."

"Are you sure? He's the one who put me away, right? He's your friend, too, and I'm sure he wasn't happy when he found out what I did. He was probably as mad as Tony was… is!"

"He wasn't happy. I'm not going to deny that. He's still pretty pissed off, in fact, but he won't come for you."

"How do you know that? Doesn't he have powers? Can't he appear out of nowhere?"

"He won't, Whitney. He made me a promise."

"A promise?" Whitney asked and then her eyes widened in shock. "Oh, my God! Are you engaged to Gene Khan?"

Pepper laughed aloud and shook her head. "No! It's not Gene, either."

"Happy?"

"No."

"Rhodey?"

"NO!"

"Then, who?"

"You don't know the guy I'm engaged to. I met him in college."

"Oh," Whitney said and then the room became silent again. Pepper took a deep breath and finally stood up; prompting the blonde to look at the redhead's every move.

"Look, Whitney," Pepper began. "I came here as soon as I found out what Gene had done to you. And like I said before, I wish I'd known about it sooner. I spent a few weeks trying to convince him to undo it, and it was not easy, but I got it done. I did it because it's the right thing to do, but also because I wanted to close this chapter of my life and forget it ever occurred."

Pepper paused for a moment and looked away before she swallowed hard and continued.

"What I'm trying to say is that my job here is done and we probably won't speak ever again. But I wanted to tell you in person that there are no hard feelings between us, at least not from my end. Whatever is done is done, and I'm tired of dwelling on it. I'm not asking for us to be friends, but I do hope that whatever grudge that you had against me is gone now. I know I wasn't the nicest person to you either when we went to school, but I was only jealous that Tony considered you his friend. Whatever fears you had about him and me were the same ones I had of you two. I guess," she chuckled. "I guess we were both stupid enough to let a misunderstanding get the best of us."

"Pepper," Whitney began. "I know exactly what you mean, and I'm grateful for you getting me out of the coma I was in. I know I don't deserve it, and that I'll probably spend my life in prison, and I'm not trying to justify myself, but I just want you to know that I'd have never done that to you if I hadn't been so easily consumed by the mask. I did hate you a lot for a while there, but what I did… it wasn't justified."

Pepper shrugged and gave a lopsided smile to the blonde.

"How about we agree never to talk about it ever again, huh?"

Whitney's voice caught in her throat. All she could do was nod.

Pepper then returned the gesture and waved goodbye toward her and headed to the door. As soon as the redhead's hand touched the pad on the wall to open the door, however, Whitney's cracking voice asking her to stop made her do just that, and even though the door had already opened, Pepper waited for the girl to say whatever she wanted to say to her.

"Pepper," Whitney sniffled. "Could you ever forgive me?"

Pepper slowly turned around to face the girl and gave her a final nod before she spoke. "I already did."

Not wanting to wait for anything else and feeling her heart beating in her throat, Pepper gave her back to the blonde and exited the room. The door closed behind her as she waved a thank you to the agents on duty. She then sped down the hall and into the awaiting Quinjet that would take her back home.

By the time she reached the flying aircraft, her tears had already streamed down her face at Whitney's words. She knew it had not been the girl's intention to upset her; she was not even aware of everything that had happened between her and Tony, but the fact that the topic had been brought up had been enough to pour salt on a wound that had never completely healed and that she knew never would.

As the noise of the jet doors closing right before takeoff invaded her ears, the only sound that the ginger could hear were of the blonde's words. The ones that had made her feel heartbroken all over again; the same words that she had heard from so many people already – including Tony's own father rather recently – and that always made her want to curl up into a ball and cry.

"Well, Pepper, if we're going to be honest with ourselves, we both know that you've had a crush on him since he set foot at the Academy. And well, he took a little while to return the sentiment, but I know for a fact that he loves you very much. Or at least I know he did, before I went… MIA."

Pepper clenched her hands, closed her eyes and sobbed.

xxxXXXxxx

His eyes were narrowed, his knuckles were white and his face flushed in pure anger. It had taken all of his self-control not to follow Pepper out the door just seconds ago; even more self-control than it had taken him to stand here to watch the meeting of the two women. He knew his ginger had tried to pretend she was alright, that her meeting with Whitney had not upset her at all, that her words and references to their past had meant nothing to her, but he knew better than that.

He knew her so much better than that.

He could not follow her, however, despite how much he wanted to. She was not even supposed to know he was here in the first place. Maria Hill had not been happy when she had been told by General Fury that Tony Stark would be called to witness the meeting, and that this information would not be relayed to the redhead. Nonetheless, it had been an order and she had had no choice but to follow it. She was not sure why the General had wanted this to happen, but it was not her place to question the command.

Tony had been outright upset when he had been told that Pepper had been advocating for the blonde with Gene, and had been even madder when he had been informed that she had succeeded in her quest. He knew that Pepper would eventually do this one day when she found out the truth about what had happened to Whitney, but that did not mean he was happy about it. Whitney was supposed to rot in the Makluan hell Gene had sent her to. In Tony's eyes, she deserved every little bit of it, especially now that he could not have Pepper with him.

"Are you sure this is what you want, Stark?" General Fury asked the blue-eyed boy. "I can't have you kill my prisoner before I get a chance to put her on trial. I just got her back."

"I won't kill her," he said even though his already murder-stained hands were getting hot. "But I won't be as nice as Pepper was to her. I don't give a fuck that she's remorseful about what she did to her. She's going to get a piece of my mind."

Fury shrugged. "I see no point to it, honestly. But if you want to waste time and energy with her, be my guest. I don't think this person that came back from wherever she was is the same one that hurt Pepper. That person got away with what she did, and there's nothing you or I, or anyone else can do to get back at her. You're about to go off at an empty shell."

"I don't care," Tony said despite the wisdom in Fury's words. "I won't ever let this go."

"Maybe that's your problem, son," Fury said. "You never know when to let go."

Tony glared at the General but did not reply, and when the door to the room where Whitney was being held in was opened, the inventor made a beeline to it. There was plenty of anger inside of him right now, and he had no problem letting some of it out on the person he held solely responsible for ruining his life. Empty shell or not, Whitney Stane was going to hear from the horse's mouth just exactly what he thought about her.

It was all he could do to literally not blow up.