Chapter 9 Vital Communication

Standard disclaimer applies. Phone texting shows up as italics, with only the name of the person the text to indicate who sends what.

They finally leave and head for the diner, eating and enjoying greasy food and terrible coffee. They talked about wild ideas for a Hulk room til dawn. As they head back to the Tower, Bruce glances at Tony and says, "While you are working with Pepper today, I'll sketch some ideas out. Some of those we talked about earlier weren't too bad." Because the Hulk had liked them, he doesn't say. Their connection had allowed Hulk to listen in during the flurry of exchanges, and some had indeed caught his attention. It still didn't feel right to bring up that connection, though he knew that would have to be soon.

Tony nods. "JARVIS sent messages out to the rest of the team. They'll help if they can get back," he says quietly as the car he's driving slopes down the garage's entrance under the building. Bruce nods at that idea. Having the others around would be of benefit.

"Also," Tony says, pulling the Maserati into it's space in the garage, "I'm going to move your room up a few levels. Put you closer to the top, near me." What he says doesn't catch him for a few seconds til Bruce coughs, surprised.

"Me and Pepper, of course," Tony laughs, if weakly, trying to cover the gaff. 'I do not need to screw this up!' he admonishes himself, 'Keep your libido in check, Stark!'

"You don't have to, Tony," Bruce tries to brush him off, "Being closer puts you two in more danger, remember?" Some day, Tony would appreciate the effort Bruce took in reminding him all the time of the danger of having him so close.

"Nothing doing. Besides, then you'll be closer to the better labs that are already on lock down," Tony is flippant now. Bruce just gives up. There are other matters more important.

They split up once they get upstairs. Tony tells Bruce to just grab a few things and go straight to the private elevator for the penthouse labs on levels 90 through 95. He also mentions that someone HE trusts will be around to pack up the apartment and move that to one of the open housing floors, on 96 through 99 and did Bruce have a numerical preference? Bruce assured him he did not, and went for his tablet and tea.

Tony headed up to find Pepper having breakfast and going over last minute updates from Security. Tony made for the shower to get ready for the day's worth of meetings this near fiasco had generated.

"JARVIS, Dr Banner will hopefully be making his way to my lab at some point. Be a pal, and let him in?", he asked his AI.

"The usual biometric controls in place, sir?", JARVIS replied with his query. Pepper and Rhodey only had a four digit code to let them into the lab unless Stark locked it down.

"Hm, good question," Tony mused, shedding clothes in the bedroom, "Banner ought to have full access no matter what. But he's not seen my creative jags either," Tony mumbled as he headed for the bathroom, arc reactor glowing in the morning light. He considered the issue throughout his shower and other ablutions, not really making a decision when JARVIS had to prompt him when Bruce really did appear at the lab.

He rejoined Pepper, dressed in a dark suit ensemble that hid the light of the reactor from casual glances. She eyed his appearance carefully, noting that except for the Chuck Taylors, he'd taken care care to look like a CEO that day. She gifted him with a smile and a light peck on his cheek before leading the way to the elevator.

"Bruce still onsite?", she asked finally.

"Yep. In my lab, working on some ideas we had for keeping Jolly Green occupied if he decides to visit," Tony replied, his usual smirk in place. The elevator descended into the bowels of Stark Tower, taking the reigning King and Queen to address their subjects and start shoring up the security walls.

"Heard from the rest of the team, yet?", Tony asked her.

"Mhm. Natasha and Clint are now roughly four hours away. JARVIS got a message to Capt. Rogers. And nothing from Thor," Pepper replied from memory.

"Are you going to run this show, with me as window dressing?", he asked.
"I thought I'd handle the departmental meeting, with you as back up. You need to talk to R&D at lunch, which is being catered in. Then we have the board all afternoon. I could not reschedule that on such short notice," Pepper rattled off their schedule.

"D'you think there'll be enough in the catering to send something up to Bruce?", Tony murmured, suddenly wary of showing how much he cared for the other man.

"I can get something sent special. It was Italian today," Pepper said softly. Here was another piece of the puzzle of Tony's mercurial feelings. Was she starting to lose him? She shoved the idea and ruffled feelings to the back of her mind. First, she had to deal with today before dealing with a relationship crisis. Again.

Tony escorted her into the departmental meeting, unaware of the spiralling thoughts she valiantly fought off in order to keep focus on the present issue. That meeting, went well overall. Pepper refreshing everyone's mind regarding policy, and emphasizing penalties for failing to adhere to said policy. Tony managed to be brief and on topic going over the new security that would be in place starting that day, and had they noticed? Good. His feral smile was back for that one. He knew that since the days of the palladium poisoning, he'd worked hard to get even this much back within his own company. Pepper had been something of a stabilizing influence after all that, and before the Avengers. He didn't ever want to lose her, but now had to deal with interesting feelings and thoughts about Bruce.

Tony just wasn't cut out to handle the day to day drudgery of corporate management. He felt freer with Pepper in that role, letting him get back to his passion, engineering. That decision had bee one of the best he'd made in the whole 'palladium fiasco'. And, since Obadiah, there was no one he trusted more than Pepper Potts. But he knew, in the back of his mind on a little used thought track, that he'd have to deal with the newly christened "Bruce Issue" before too long.

The departmental meeting adjourned, Tony and Pepper stayed to get a fresh briefing from Jason Thomas. Jason approached, tapping at a StarkPad. "Team C has managed to go through most of the security footage from lunch onwards. We have positive IDs on each of the visitors and have started forming dossiers on them," he informed his employers.
"When that's completed, make sure it reaches my desk," Tony didn't ask, but demanded. Jason nodded.

"Team A is doing a floor to floor check of the building itself, confirming all access points are on lock down, and working out the holes to patch. Team B is already on site to cover both while they work," was the man's conclusion.

Pepper nodded, accepting the effort for the good start it was. "You'll be presenting this afternoon at the board meeting, Mr Thomas," she told him. He acquiesced. He left them to go back to his teams once he confirmed the time for the meeting.

Tony and Pepper moved on to their offices. Once settled, they got to work on regular business.

Well, Pepper worked on regular business; Tony designed little robots that would monitor his R&D levels. JARVIS interrupted them with a reminder about lunch.

"Ms Potts, Mr Thomas is here to go over the new proposals, and sir, your luncheon with the R&D department awaits," he told them.

"Right. Save all this, J. I'm on my way. Pep, what time is the 'bored' meeting?" Tony got up from Pepper's small conference table where he'd been working. She looked up at him from her seat behind her desk. He'd shed the suit coat and rolled up his sleeves. The tie was probably stuffed in a pocket of the coat.

"The meeting is at 2:30, Tony. Either I or JARVIS will pull you out of the playground," she told him.

"Okay, Mom!", he teased her, eliciting a fond smile. Tony blew her a kiss, and walked out of her office, passing Jason Thomas.

Pepper called Thomas in, and they went over his proposals for bettering security in the publicly accessible areas of Stark Tower.

Tony went to the larger labs his research teams inhabited, using his Starkphone to send a quick text to Bruce. JARVIS would relay both sides since Bruce hadn't been issued a phone yet. Tony made a note to change that.

Let me know when the spider and bird show up, Banner?

Banner's reply: Yep, will do. Give Pepper my thanks for lunch.

Tony: Hurt you didn't think it was me.

Bruce: T, think I know you better. :)

Tony was laughing when he joined the R&D teams over Italian.