Sorry it's been a while, but again I've been backed up at work. Anyone who has ever been in the last year of their degree will understand the sheer ridiculousness of the workload. Fair warning there's a naughty word in here, just the one, used twice.
You Complete Me
Pepper reapplied her make-up as Tony's jet descended on to the Stark Industries runway. She'd spent most of the flight quietly sobbing, her Valentines plans hadn't really gone as she'd hoped.
Flashback
He was waiting for her at La Guardia when her plane touched down. Pepper smiled when she saw Mark as soon as the door opened, she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck placing a light kiss on his lips.
"Sorry about the confusion." She said after she broke the contact.
"It's fine. We're just lucky you called before I cancelled our plans." His tone had undertones of anger in, Pepper frowned but quickly hid her concern.
"I know, I just didn't think I should leave on weekday with the Expo…" She began, as they walked towards the car.
"I get that Ginny, I really do, but isn't the point of him being CEO that he manages the business and he allows his ex-wife to spend Valentine's with her boyfriend?" He cuts across.
"He's only been CEO again for a few weeks..." She tries to explain
"…He's done it for 20 years, surely he can manage to get back in the swing of things and you can come back to New York and things can go back to normal." Mark whines.
"Things aren't normal." Pepper sighs. "Not, now he's Iron Man and they won't be normal for a long time if ever."
"So I'm going to be sharing you with him." Mark huffs.
"No of course not. Look we're civil…" Pepper began before again being cut off.
"Are you still living with him?" Mark asks.
Pepper doesn't miss the accusation in his voice. "I am and that is not what you're asking." She throws back at him.
"No, it's not what I am asking. I have a right to know if you're fucking your ex-husband." As soon as he said it he felt Pepper's hand collide with his face.
"I can't believe you'd ask me that." She turned away from him and walked away as fast as she could before stopping and turning to face him. "For the record…No. No I'm not sleeping with Tony and I can't believe you'd ask me that."
"Where are you going?" He calls after her.
"I'm getting a cab! I can't even look at you right now!" She calls before again storming off.
Later that evening Pepper sat in her apartment in her sweats waiting for her Chinese to arrive, she wasn't going to go back to LA straight away, no, she needed a few days to think. A process that was interrupted by a knock on the door.
She opened it, knowing who it would be and she was right. Mark was at the door complete with flowers. "Ginny I'm sorry." He said sincerely, she didn't reply just moved aside to allow him to enter her apartment.
"We…uh…we still have reservations if you want to use them." He asks cautiously.
"I ordered in." Pepper says coldly.
"Ginny…" Mark moves to touch her.
"No." She cuts him off, tears threatening to fall "No, what you said hurt, I can't believe you don't trust me enough to believe…I just…You know why I left him, you know how it made me feel, how could you accuse me of doing the same thing to somebody else."
"Well you have to look at the evidence." He says, his earlier sincerity replaced by anger. "You fly out for 3 months, I get that. Then he's back and you stay for a bit, I get that too. But staying in his house? I don't understand that, it's not like you're short on cash! Staying for six months? That I don't understand. Everybody knows what he's like with women and it's not as if you've never gave in and fell in to his bed…" Whatever was about to come out of Mark's mouth was cut off with a loud slap.
"Get out." Pepper hissed. "Get out of my apartment, I don't want to see you again."
"So you're leaving me for him…"
"No! I'm leaving you because you clearly don't care and you don't trust me. I don't like the side of you I've seen today."
"I don't like the fact you're whore who fucks her ex-husband whilst her boyfriend waits for her at home." The ornament she threw barely missed his head.
End Flashback
"Miss Potts, we're landing in a moment. Can you take a seat and belt up please?" The voice of the pilot came over the intercom, Pepper checked her make-up in the mirror one last time and complied with his request.
This time when she disembarked the aircraft she noticed somebody was waiting for her who was genuinely happy to see her.
"Rhodey? I was expecting Happy." She hugged her friend.
"I had the day off and I wanted to know what makes a woman fly home from her Valentines weekend early." He says as he opens the car door for her. Pepper climbs in to the car but doesn't answer Rhodey's question as to why she'd flown home early.
Rhodey frowns as they drive in silence. "We have a problem Pepper…"
"Jim…" She thinks he's going to ask about Tony and his not-so-hidden feelings for her.
"No, I'm not going to ask you about that." He knows what she thinks she's going to ask "Not yet anyway. Actually we have a bigger problem."
"Really?" She's worried now. "What's he done this time?"
"Built a suit of armour and flies around calling himself a superhero." Rhodey says before chuckling at the absurdity of the statement.
"Oh God! Tell me about it!" She laughs.
"That report on Iron Man that I was ordered to write…"
"That'd be the report that's probably exactly where I left it on his desk right?" She chuckles.
"Wouldn't surprise me if it's not being sacrificed for the good of whatever Tony's working on." He joins in on her laughter. "Anyway, I heard through scuttlebutt…"
"James Rhodes, surely by now you should know not to listen to gossip!" Pepper lightly slaps his shoulder.
"I know, I know. But the thing is Pepper they want it." His tone turns serious
"Want what?" She asks, confused by the sudden switch to serious.
"The Iron Man suit." He sighs "They want the suit, apparently he's going to be called before the senate."
"When?" She's panicked now already preparing the list of who she has to prepare; lawyers ect…
"Soon, that's all I know." He said, before turning and grinning at her. "So what makes a pretty lady fly back early the day after Valentines? I thought you were planning on waiting in New York and flying back after the Expo?"
"I broke up with Mark." She said sadly.
"You argued about Tony?" Rhodey asked.
Pepper smiles sadly and nods. "Yeah, we argued about Tony, he thinks we're back together."
"Are you?" Rhodey asks with a little more tact than Mark.
"No." She replies.
"Well you may want to let Tony know that." He tells her softly. "Seriously Pepper, what is going on between the two of you?"
"Honestly Jim?" She looks at him as they pull in to Tony's Malibu mansion. She gets out of the car and looks at the door. "I don't know."
Tony looks up as JARVIS announces that she's on the way down to his work shop. "Not a word about the palladium ok?" He instructs the A.I
"Of course not sir." JARVIS responds just as the door slides open.
"You're meant to be in New York." He accuses, not even hiding the fact he's happy to see her (his tone gives in all away).
"I was married to you Tony, I know you're about as organised as a rock. Are you ready for the opening this weekend?" Pepper puts on a happy tone for him.
"I'd like to think I did ok for two years." He shoots back
"Not from what I've been told." Pepper counters.
… … … … … …. … … … …. … .
Its three days later that they're stood in the rear of a military aeroplane, Tony suited up and throwing up (he'll say hangover but he knows it's the metal in his body) as he prepares to make the jump to the Stark Expo bellow.
"I'm fine Pepper." He calls through the bathroom door before throwing up again. She sighs in a mixture of disgust and worry as she opens the door and the smell hits her. "I'm serious, just give me a little space." He tries to wave her off.
"Get up." She tells him feeling no sympathy for his current predicament.
"I can't go through with it." Tony tells her as he tries not to throw up again.
"We don't have time for this!" She snaps, they're approaching the drop zone. "We have to go."
He mumbles as he flushes away his vomit before looking at his ex-wife "Do I look weird?"
"You look like you look every day." She says "Like you have a hangover."
She pushes him towards the rear of the aeroplane as he asks for ginger ale and aspirin to help settle his stomach. "I have Motrin…" She tries to distract him.
"Motrin?" He asks incredulously, Pepper succeeding in distracting him. "I'm telling you there is seriously something wrong…"
"I know there's something seriously wrong with you." She agrees
"…seriously wrong with giving a grown man Motrin." He tells her and she responds but he drowns out her response by yelling "I AM NOT ON MY CYCLE PEPPER!"
He yells for the mission to be aborted but Pepper pulls him up and pushes him towards the door, informing him that they have worked too hard and pulled too many strings to get him to able to make his grand entrance.
"We are over the drop zone." She snaps.
"What?" He's immediately gets on-board with what's going on. He looks at Pepper "Let's do this baby." He walks towards the ramp, Pepper follows still holding on to his helmet.
The wind is rushing through the aircraft as he begins to talk about how selfish he is "…I know I don't say it enough but… how's my hair?"
"You've said that before." She doesn't add the 'lots of times' she wants to.
"I know but this time I mean it."
"You're looking good." She tells him hoping that he jumps before they miss the drop.
"Give me a smooch for good luck, I might not make it back." He asks jokingly, Pepper never told him she broke up with Mark.
What she does do is lift the helmet she'd been holding on to and press a tender kiss to the mouth opening. "Go get 'em honey." She smiles as she throws it out of the aircraft.
He grins, obviously not expecting her to do that. "You complete me." He says lightly as he leaps from the aeroplane.
She won't admit it to herself, let alone him but she's starting to realise that he completes her to and she lets herself think back to Rhodey's final question when he dropped her off.
"Do you still have feelings for Tony?"
TBC…
Nice long chapter for you guys. I'll try and update when I can but I've got a lot of work due in the next few months.
Hope you enjoyed it! I really like the aeroplane scene I'm disappointed they cut it from the final film, YouTube it if you've not seen it. Did you guys like the bonding between Rhodey and Pepper? Are you glad Mark's out of the picture? Let me know by hitting that little review button!
