A/N: Hope you enjoyed my little quick fire chapters, that'll be all for a few days.
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Chapter 7 : Downfall.
Pepper POV.
"What would you like to talk about?"
"Something's up, you don't seem your normal self. I'm worried about you." Tony said tenderly winding his arm around my waist comfortingly as I stood and he sat.
I sighed as he really didn't realise or remember. It didn't make me hate him at all. Quite the opposite as my heat welled at his compassion, additionally the fact that he noticed something had tampered with my feelings.
"I'm sorry, Tony. I don't mean to worry you, I'm okay." I tried on a convincing smile. He didn't look at all persuaded. I lay my arm across his shoulders.
"I'm allowed to worry Pepper, you're my wife so I'm guessing that entitles me too. Plus you worry about me way too much. Please tell me," Tony tugged on my arm until I fell into his lap hopelessly. "Fess up, Stark. You're not dying are you?" Tony nudged my cheek with his nose. I gave into laughing a little at his affection and banter.
"Excuse me, you Mr. Stark are the one who has a track record for not telling me you were dying."
"Aw; C'mon Pepper! That was a while ago! I thought we partly forgot about that?" Tony groaned.
"Never 'gonna forget. It's just- You know before we were married?" I muttered. Tony nodded for me to go on.
"Oh god, well um." I sighed defeated struggling to say the words, "It's just that- it's 9 years ago today that I aborted the baby, our baby."
"Oh." Tony pursed his lips just as the tears began to sting at my nose I forced myself to bite them back.
"It's okay though." I said patting his chest then beginning to stand up.
"Hey, hey. If you need to talk, don't bottle it up. That's what you tell me. I'm sorry, Pepper." Tony reached me a moment before I had the chance to escape to cry in private feeling a choke tighten in my throat.
"Tony." I wept as he spun me around. My limp stance responding to his hands moving me around to face him. His expression was scared, either the fact I was crying or the reason I was upset.
Tony's attitude made me choke out more dry sobs, he was so caring and loving.
"I'm sorry. Sorry I didn't remember, that your feeling like this." His hands caressed my cheeks grinning when my own hands clutched at his wrists. His pained face disappeared from my sight when he pulled me in so my face buried in his chest and my fingers clawed themselves up to his shoulder blades clutching tightly.
We stayed like that for a while, with the little comforting addition of Tony's swaying and soothing words.
I had hardly expected him to bend down and scoop me up, my legs latched firmly around his hips and menovered us to the grey couch in the corner of the workshop.
"I'm sorry I broke down like that." I gasped after a few more minuets placing my hands either side of the arc reactor heaving myself away from the salty tear stain gracing his shirt.
"Pepper, never be sorry for anything. I love you and I'm here for you."
... ... ... ...
Tony POV.
"Go crazy, kids. Not too crazy though your mom's got a headache." I almost yelled over their constant chatter about gossip around school probably as I kicked the front door shut behind me.
Pepper didn't really have a headache, she just felt like crap because of this particular anniversary so to speak.
Pepper had curled herself up on the living rooms couch after a little protest about who should pick the kids up.
"Hey mom." I heard them both say as they walked on through.
As I entered through the doorway, Evelyn wandered off toward the grand piano on the circular platform beside the fireplace. Still ever so determined to continue practicing after she heard me playing out a melody one afternoon a few years ago. I had to admit, Evelyn was pretty good already. I vaguely remembered how long it took to play the piano with patience while my mom taught me without wanting to tear the keyboard's keys out by their hinges and throw them in every direction.
Rowan joined her for a second only to be a menace and bang on the keys when he though necessary.
"Rowan!" Evelyn pushed him away lightly," Go away!"
Rowan frowned at his sister.
"Daddy! Can we go down stairs and fix the cars?" Rowan came tugging at my sleeve.
"In bit, okay?" I heaved him up onto my lap.
"We'd have three kids by now." Pepper muttered solemnly running her hand through Rowan's hair to which her eyes were glued to.
"Don't think like that, Pepper." I muttered careful of Rowan's hearing.
"Don't you ever stop, think about what could have been?" Pepper asked me.
"Yes. And then no. If we had that baby we sure as hell wouldn't have Evelyn."
"True. But we could have had two girls and a boy. Two boys and a girl." She hummed.
"You can't beat yourself up about it. It wasn't meant to be, Pepper."
"He or she would have been nine." Pepper heaved out a sigh. Though no sign of moisture threatening to spill over touched her eyes.
"I know. But look at what we have now. This is defiantly more than I deserve."
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
(Evelyn 10 & Rowan 8.)
Pepper POV.
Oh, those kids. I should have expected this, children are curious by nature how could I have not seen this coming?
A part of me felt bad, that we hadn't told them the whole story sooner. But today was the day Rowan and Evelyn started to question me about Tony's arc reactor.
It was a day where Tony had gone reluctantly to the office on a Sunday and I had to take both the kids down town Malibu for some shopping. Well, more like I had forced Tony to go knowing there was a stack of documents that needed his signature.
Firstly, as I was driving, there was the usual scrabble of who got to sit in the front seat.
"I shot gun! Rowan! I said I shot gun the front seat, c'mon move!" Evelyn ran down the workshop stairs beating Rowan there.
"What the hell, Evelyn! Mom! I want my own code!" Rowan yelled stomping back up the stairs to meet me.
"You have hand recognition, you don't need a code yet what's the point?" I sighed, leading him back down again to see Evelyn had already scanned her hand and was now sat in the front seat of the Audi.
"'Cause!" Rowan scoffed yanking one of the back doors open and getting comfortable in the back seat.
When I opened my door the conversation Evelyn had been immersed in with Rowan ended just as quickly at the sound of my door opening. They both snapped back into their previous positions.
"No need to stop on my account." I laughed at their suspicious expressions.
"No, no. It's fine, mom." Evelyn smiled.
"We were just... Yeah." Rowan added.
Traffic was starting to block up the freeway, against my complaints.
Both Rowan and Evelyn were too quiet, usually our car conversations were just filled with random laughs and topics of chatter.
"You two are too quiet, one of you spill." I said narrow eyed as the car remained stationary on the free way. I looked around at the both of them.
Rowan sighed heavily.
"I told you she'd find out."
"Well, you ask!" Evelyn cried at her brother whipping around so she gained eye contact with him.
"I'm not. You said you would!"
"I did not!" Rowan whisper-spat back.
"Fine, whatever. I'll say it," Evelyn huffed crossing her arms and facing me again, "Mom?"
"Yes?"
"We were just wondering how dad-um-."
"-Got his arc reactor?" Rowan finished exasperatedly.
"Way to play it smooth, Rowan." The sound of Evelyn's eyes roll almost filled the car.
They stunned me to silence. My mouth gaped.
"W-what?" I stuttered.
"It's just that dad never talks about it." Evelyn said confidently. Brows knitting together.
"He never talks about it, we feel like everybody knows except us." Rowan said.
"I thought he told you?" I looked to both of them.
Rowan snorted.
"What, that it happed years ago, before you were married, before us, blah blah blah."
"If I'm being honest, it was all very sketchy. He told us minor details." Evelyn added.
I knew Tony hadn't really told them. It wasn't the fact that they had wanted to know, more the fact Evelyn and Rowan had sprang it on me totally unprepared.
It also slightly saddened me how they were wary of asking Tony rather than going through me.
"Why don't you ask you're dad? Are you scared as to what he will say?"
"We might like- shock him? He knows we know what the arc reactor does." Evelyn said.
"Keeps him alive and serves as a handy flash light." Rowan laughed from the back breaking the tension slightly.
"I'll speak to him, shall I?" I smiled still attempting to lighten the mood.
"Yeah, thanks, We can discuss it over dinner. Nice family subject isn't it?" Rowan rolled his eyes.
... ... ... ...
Pepper POV.
Darkness had fallen along Malibu's coast line, the beautiful moonlight projecting across the cliff side and through the house mixing gently with the yellow artificial light of the mansion still managing somehow to get through the slightly tinted windows.
Slivery glimmers swept across the sea adding to my quiet evening. Light tinkers across the pianos keys framing the slight murmur of noises from the TV.
All I could do was repetitively sigh into my coffee and Vogue magazine.
That conversation I had with them earlier constantly replaying in my head. The looks of bewilderment plastering their faces.
As much as he probably fears the prospect of telling them the truth it had to be done, no matter what.
Twenty five minuets later, Tony came traipsing into the kitchen using the back glass door entering the house he stifled a yawn after taking a sip of his apparent evidence of stopping by a Burger King on his way home; a take away cup half full of a dark liquid, a coke probably. The ice cubes making that dull clashing mixed with a rustling kind of sound as they whirled around the cup.
"Hey." He greeted ducking down to kiss my head as I squeezed his side affectionately. Bourbon eyes meeting mine.
"Hi, long day?"
"Ugh, yes. Too long I don't know how you do it ,Pepper." I chuckled at his remark.
"I'm 'gonna go shower and change, be back in a second." Tony said shrugging his suit coat off and disappearing from sight.
I grinned when I heard him pause in the living room to have a quick chat with Evelyn and Rowan.
He came back into the kitchen not too long after.
"So yeah, long day, In the office for half of it and then I get an 'emergency call' downstairs on the technicians floor," He was sure to put exaggerated quotation marks around 'emergency call', "Complaining about how they couldn't quite compact a certain missile for the army's top secret and only order, It was ridiculous. All I hear is 'I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark but that isn't quite possible' and that's an obscene remark to make to the guy who designed and made about 95.5% of this order AND miniaturised arc reactor technology!"
He ranted about this while bustling around me prepping a coffee. Yawning again.
I replied.
"As long as you didn't go too crazy. Did you sign those documents?"
"Yep, each one. All waiting on your desk for approval... Anyway, how was your day?" Tony joined me across the table.
"I need to talk to you about that actually." I said biting my lip.
"Sure, go ahead."
"They're on to us-"
"On to us how?"
"Well, on to you more like. In the car today, they started bombarding me with questions. They want to know ,Tony. Curiosity is too over powering here."
"Nothing's happened has it? What's happened, Pepper?" Tony was beginning to look increasingly worried.
"Nothing like that. They want to know. About that." I kept contact with his eyes letting my arm lean forwards until my fingertips produced a muted thud on the arc reactor. It's blue glow climbing up my finger tips and climbing up the skin of my bare arm.
"Oh."
