Hi guys. I think Ive done something stupid. I up loaded chapter 6.5 and checked it (yes i do check the story just not very well ;) but never actually published it. Opps Well because of that heres both chapter. yes i know ive put this in the Second post of the day but i didnt realise until Id posted the first chapter of the day. Yes for all those wondering I am blonde.
Well anyway, this is the last chapter. Thank you for all the wonderful reveiws.
Chapter 7 - Midnight Stroll.
For two weeks the press followed Tony and Pepper around in hordes, looking for any sign that something more was going on. However when Pepper continued to work in her purely professional way and Tony continued to be Tony things quietened down back to the handful of diehard journalists.
What the paparazzi never saw was the change in the pairs interactions when they were alone either in the office at SI's headquarters, in the limo or at the mansion. Away from all the prying eyes the tension sky rocketed as they subtly and not so subtly flirted like mad. Tony still emerged from the basement now and then to help Pepper with her work just so that he could spend time with her. At the end of these sessions both were often in need of a cold shower.
Yet Tony wasn't going to advance his plans until the absolutely perfect moment. That moment came about in a rather unexpected way.
Peppers heels clicking against the marble floor was the only sound that could be heard in the mansion. With her first ever sign of hesitation since her employment with SI and Tony, Pepper stopped outside the glass basement doors and gazed in at the man busy working inside, as he had been working for two days.
Five days ago Jarvis had informed Tony of an avalanche that had near destroyed three mountain villages. Tony had jumped at the chance to be a hero without having to kill anyone and had quickly set off.
Only it hadn't been a natural disaster and Tony had had to destroy the small group of Ten Rings men who had planed the rock fall before he could help. That had been the easy part.
For hours on end Tony had hauled, blasted and dug rock, rubble and soil until he was beyond exhausted and still he worked. But as the hours passed Tony became more and more despondent and frantic as he uncovered dead body after crushed dead body.
Then a miracle happened. In a bubble of rock Tony found two young children, a boy of about five and a girl of about four, huddled together with the dead body of a woman who had probably been their mother. The children had been petrified of him at first but soon became more scared of the shifting rock above their heads. Tony had grabbed them and flew the pair to safety just as the rock collapsed again but the flight down, which should have taken just a few minutes, took over half an hour due to Tony being unable to use his flight stabilisers in his gloves without dropping the children.
Hence his two day isolation trying to fix the problem. He didn't want to get anyone else killed just because he couldn't fly without his hands. "Pepper just the woman I wanted to see." Tony's voice startled Pepper out of her hesitation and she noticed that the reinforced glass door had swung open without any input from herself. "I need you to play injured for me."
"Pardon?"
Tony grinned at the tone of Pepper's voice. "I need to test the stabilisers that I've put into the back of my boots. I can still use my gloves but these will stop me from crashing into a mountain in an emergency. But I need a test subject and your perfect in every way." Tony winked at Pepper suggestively then cut her off as she was about refuse "I'll go to the board of directors meeting on Friday and I'll be good and not insult anyone. Please."
Pepper knew a good deal when she saw it. The last board of directors meeting Tony had left half of the men trying to sue him and the other half near tears. "Fine but only for a short time. I have a lot of work to get through before I can go home."
Tony grinned like a school boy and quickly donned his red metal boots and the hand stabilisers without bothering with its red gloved casing or even the rest of the suit. With ease he scooped Pepper up into his arms and took off, hovering just a few feet off the basement floor.
"See you can fly." said Pepper "now can you put me down?"
Tony grinned wider at the woman's nervousness and shock his head. "Nope. I need to do some more tests. This just proves that I can hover, we need to go outside to see if I can really fly." with that Tony sped out of the garage and straight up into the warm night air whilst Pepper grabbed his around the neck as she buried her face into his shoulder. Faintly Tony could just hear Pepper's muttered words of "Oh God. Oh God no. Oh God I hate this."
"Pepper, trust me. Look at the view." Pepper hesitantly did as she was bid and was rendered speechless by the views of the full moon reflecting in the ocean waters and the distant lights that marked the rest of Malibu's residents.
"Wow."
"Um huh" Tony took them higher still until it started getting chilly and let Pepper just gaze out around her. After so long Tony started to feel Pepper shivering in his arms so, with care, he lowered them down to rest on the roof of his mansion where the pair just laid gazing at the stars.
Surprisingly it was Pepper who broke the silence as well as bringing the tension between them out into the open. "So is this moonlight 'stroll' part of your plan?" Tony tensed up as he turned his head to look into the knowing eyes of his PA. "I don't know what you mean." he tried in an innocent voice. Pepper raised one of her beautifully manicured eyebrows and Tony folded like a house of cards.
With a sigh Tony folded his hands underneath his head as a cushion and stared up at the stars. "When I was in the cave there was someone in there with me. A man called Yinsen. He was the one who stopped me from dying by taking most of the shrapnel from my chest and fitted me with a car battery to stop the rest from doing any more damage. When the terrorists ordered me to make their weapons for them, Yinsen became my assistant. He knew of my plan and helped me to build the first suit.
One night we got talking about what we would do when we got out. He asked me if I had any family, if I had anyone who was waiting for me back home. I said that I hadn't and he just got this sad look on his face. He said I was a man who had everything and nothing." Tony trailed off, his mind on Yinsen. Pepper resisted the urge to hug the dark man and settled for just resting her hand on his muscled forearm. Tony quickly looked down at the warm weight that he felt. Tony continued, reassured that he was not alone in this.
"He was right." Tony continued at last. "I got to thinking over what I really did have. Rhodey is like a brother. Obiā¦he was an uncle and father figure. Traitorous bastard that he was." Tony's face screwed up for a moment before clearing. "But my mind kept thinking of you. The only person to stick with me through everything for nine years. You were always there even when I was a complete bastard you were there. You could have gotten any job that you wanted but still you stayed.
All through the captivity and building the suit I kept thinking that I had to come back and tell you that I was sorry for everything that I put you through and thank you for sticking with me.
Then time was up. The leader got tired of waiting for his missile and gave us 24 hours to produce it. Yinsen suited me up then left to give me more time to prepare. He died. Shot to help me. He had told me he had a family waiting but he lied, they were dead.
He said that he was going to them now. He told me to go, not to waste my second chance.
But I screwed that second chance up. I was going to tell you how I felt when I first saw you again at the airport. But when I saw you again I finally figured out why I was so determined to see you again and I bottled it."
Tony sat up and turned to face Pepper who mirrored his movements.
"Pepper I love you and I will spend the rest of my life if necessary trying to convince you that I'm no longer the drunk man-whore bastard that I once was. I just hope that you could ever feel the same."
He finally lost steam and his speech ended as did his nerve. He looked down too scared of what he would see if he looked at Pepper's face. It would crush him to see rejection or worse revulsion on the face of his PA. The silence stretched between them whilst Pepper digested what Tony had told her. Yes she had guessed that he was chasing her but she had thought that it was just because she was the only one to say no to him coupled with the fact that she was the only woman who knew about the reactor in his chest.
Eventually Pepper lifted her right hand to stroke his cheek "I already know that you've changed even people who don't know you have figured out that you've changed. you didn't need to do all this over the last few weeks. But I'm used to it now so you cant revert back to 'Bastard Tony'." the pair grinned at each other. Slowly, almost hesitantly, Tony lent in and kissed the red head who responded passionately.
Eventually they split and Tony laid back down on the roof to continue to watch the stars. Pepper did the same only to be encased in Tony's arms pulling her closer so that her head was resting on his shoulder. Pepper had never been so content, watching the stars, hearing the beat of Tony's heart mixed with the now familiar hum of his ARC Reactor and feeling his body heat warm her.
Tony was just as content and sighed happily. "I still need to fully change SI from weapons." he thought to himself. "And I'll still face problems as Iron man. But I've got Pepper to play sexy nurse when I come home." Suddenly Tony's mind took another tangent as he imagined Pepper in dress up but he forced himself to stop it before she figured out what he was thinking, she always seemed to know and he didn't think it would help his 'I've changed' campaign.
"Maybe she can keep my verbal diarrhoea in check." with that thought Tony chuckled slightly causing Pepper to look at him in confusion
"I think I've used up my quota of miracles for this lifetime." with that last thought Tony bent his head to Pepper's happily forgetting about the rest of the world and any other thoughts that he might have had.
Fin
Well thats it the end. Finally!
Thanks to all for reading and reveiwing.
Weezle
