A Supremely Bright Idea
By Sinead

Chapter Nine

Author's Note: I got three reviews, but just as many, if not more, story watches. I'm going to be basing the updates mainly upon hits, possibly on story watches from this point on. Thank you for reading, and please do let me know what you think of my story, regardless of your stance! I appreciate anything that can help me understand and write the Ironman universe more accurately!

.o.

Tony carried the sleeping young woman into his house, bringing her into the guest bedroom that he had never used before. Resting her on the bed, he managed to pull the covers up around her, tucking her in and having Jarvis raise the temperature of the room and dim the shades. Over the last week of knowing that there was a high chance of Rebeckah having difficulty conceiving again, he had told Jarvis to download as many medical texts on women's health as possible, and implement them into a sub-programming category. Doctors could tell what may or may not be wrong, but Jarvis could scan and pinpoint to a tenth of a degree what was injured or not functioning properly.

He was great at telling Pepper where Tony was injured, too.

As what had become customary during the last two weeks, Tony kissed Becka's forehead before leaving the room, closing the door. She had wanted to go to her apartment, but fell asleep on Tony's shoulder on the way home. Pepper had gone ahead to see the condition of the rooms, but came back in a hurry. "Have Gustav go through there, clean it up, spread air freshener, and I would suggest getting her a fridge-ful of new groceries. I had just enough breath to find the Febreeze and nuke the place with it."

So she was going to stay with him until such a time where her apartment didn't attract haz-mat teams.

Tony went downstairs. "All right, Jarvis. Hit me with your plan."

The AI booted up the holographic display on the table, showing the female anatomy, highlighting different areas. "As you assuredly know about part of the female reproductive system, the egg—"

"I know what it does, Jarvis. Is this necessary? I passed sex ed in the seventh grade, when I was too young to even process half of the stuff that they were telling us . . . seriously. I was traumatized."

"Or rather, it shaped your view of the female gender."

"That. Was harsh. Good job. Just use that wit on other people, and not me from now on."

"Thank you, sir."

"Continue with your proposal."

"To be blunt, sir, if she remains within my scanner range for two to three months, I can track her bodily functions and assess if there will be a problem. I would prefer a five-month assessment to minimize error and inaccuracy."

Tony sat down at his computer, puckering his lips lightly as he thought. "I can't keep her cooped up here like a prisoner."

"I believe that she would disagree with that concept quite vehemently. I've noticed that she is quite independent, enjoys freedom, and prefers to not be inhibited by 'unneeded and ridiculous rules.' May I suggest something, sir?"

"You've been talking with her, too. Right. Portable scanner, with a double-use as a cell phone?"

"I would not deceive her about its functions," Jarvis warned, his tone actually something close to wary.

"I wasn't going to," Tony snarled back, cursing the AI. "You're on her side."

"At the moment, she is being more logical than you are, which is odd considering that most clinical psychological studies praise men as being logical, and women as being emotional."

"Jarvis, shove a cork in it. Give me what your ideas are for the portable scanner."

The screen came to life, giving Tony what he asked for. He grinned, and began to do what he enjoyed best: Toying with mechanics and electronics.

.o.

Rebeckah awoke in a room that was decidedly not hers. It smelled different. Opening her eyes only to yawn and squeeze them shut again, she relaxed on the soft bedding. The familiar whirring of the air vents, the smell of the sheets and blankets, and once she opened her eyes, she saw the vista of a beautiful ocean through dimmed windows. The sight of the ocean filled her eyes with saltwater, and she let them drip down onto the pillow silently.

She heard the door open, something set down, then a weight joined her on the mattress, a familiar smell of man, car engine, and subtle cologne washing over her, and the strong arms of the man that smell belonged to wrapping around her.

He held her together as she cried, not showing any other affection other than keeping his arms around her, resting his face against the back of her head. He held her heart together, it felt, as they tried to return to what would become normal. But California was anything but normal to her. "Tony, I want to go home."

Tony winced very lightly, and subconsciously held her closer. He sighed through his nose. "I have someone cleaning out your fridge and restocking it. They should be finished cleaning it by now."

"No, home. Not the apartment."

God. She meant she wanted to go back across the country. No. He couldn't deal with her gone . . . she was one of the only things keeping him sane, together. She knew his mind better than Pepper did, and knew his heart. Nobody else understood his heart.

"You really hate it here?"

She trembled, and Tony's question was answered. He closed his eyes quickly, doing the best that he could to not cry. He needed to understand. "Is it because of what just happened?"

Nodding, Rebeckah drew in a shaking breath. "I need my Mom . . . I need my family. I need to be home for a while."

Stark was close to breaking. He was the cause of his father-figure's death, he was the cause of so many problems, and now it was driving everyone away from him. Pepper was happily and quietly having a relationship with Hogan, and didn't spend her free time fussing over him like a much-older and wiser sister. Her free time was spent with the man she might marry. And now he was pushing Rebeckah away as well. But it was her choice to leave. It was her choice, and there wasn't anything he could do about it.

"When do you need to go?" he whispered, trying not to show how much it was breaking his heart.

"I-I think as soon as I can."

"Can I bring you home?"

She shook her head, driving the stake of pain deeper into Tony's heart. "I need to do this by myself."

"Will you let me pay for your tickets?"

"Tickets?"

"Open-ended. So that if you ever want to come back, you just need to call it in."

She thought about that for a long moment, then nodded. Tony sat up, and whispered, "Brought you tea, Beckers."

"I'll . . . I'll have it in a moment."

"You need to be alone."

"Yeah."

"Okay. I understand."

Tony left the room, made it three steps before his vision went blurry and his legs felt weak. He kept one hand on the wall to support him, the other over his face to keep any sobs from drifting back over his shoulder to alert Rebeckah that he really wasn't "okay" with this situation. Once he was in the basement, his refuge, he locked the doors and fell to his knees behind his couch, sobbing brokenly into his hands until he was hoarse. He didn't know that Rebeckah had followed him five minutes after, and that she sat on the stairs, watching him cry, unable to get to him, the tears streaming down her face. Pepper found them there fifteen minutes later, no change in their postures.

She took care of Rebeckah first, getting her upstairs and curled up on the couch, a comforter around the trembling shoulders, a mug of strong cocoa with mint in her hands, her face dried, a comforting kiss placed on her forehead, and the promise given that things would get better again. Pepper smiled and then turned to face the staircase back to the workshop.

When she got into the workshop, having to actually convince Jarvis that their boss was injured on a more ethereal level, Tony was still bent, but this time in exhaustion, breathing shakily but deeply. Grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around his back, helping him sit against the couch, his back supported, Pepper tucked the blanket around him, her gaze unexpectedly soft, worried. "What happened, Tony?"

His face crumbled and he strove to find the strength within him that had held together the last few days, the strength that had him being strong for Becka. He didn't find it, but found the ability to speak. "She's leaving."

As someone who had been employed and worked very personally with Anthony Edward Stark, she knew what undid him the fastest and worst. The first was betrayal. The second was if someone he cared about left. He hadn't climbed back into a bottle since returning from Afghanistan, but the personal assistant had no doubt that this could well push him back into his bad habits.

Drawing in a deep breath, Pepper asked, "Why?"

He only shook his head.

"You don't know or you don't understand?"

"I don't understand . . . I thought that I was doing things right, Pep. I thought that I was finally on the right track to being the man she needs."

"Needs or wants, Tony?"

"I don't know," he replied brokenly, holding his head in his hands and weeping. "I don't know."

Drawing in a deep breath, the PA rested her hand on the top of Tony's head, stroking her fingers through his hair, trying to comfort him. He was still a hurting child sometimes, just like everyone is when they're hurting on a deep level. He curled his head down closer to his knees, his chest hurting from the length of time he had been crying. Pepper noticed this, and tipped his head up, angling his face to look at her evenly. "If you resort to drinking and womanizing over this, Tony, so help me, I will help her bury you. C'mon, up. Get on the couch and sleep. I cleared today and tomorrow as soon as I saw that something was up. You need to rest. I don't care how responsible you think that you are, if you can't keep yourself from recognizing that you're pushing yourself beyond your limits and need rest, you're no good to anyone and you'll only make them worry and hurt over you hurting."

"Don' wanna hurt 'er," he mumbled, agreeably standing and getting to the couch, where he sat down before lying across it, head on one of the pillows. A second blanket made its way around his legs, tucking his feet in.

"I know. And you won't be alone in missing her, and if you feel that you need to drink your sorrows away, call me or Rhodey, okay? He won't let you drink over this." She dimmed the lights, turned on some soft instrumental music for him to sleep to. "I'll stay tonight."

"Hogan won't like that."

"Then he'll come, too. And Rhodey."

"Okay."

Closing the door, she commanded Jarvis, "Activate the locks on all the liquor cabinets. I will use the code 'clear horizon' to indicate that the alcohol ban in this house is lifted. Acknowledge."

"Yes, ma'am," the computer replied. "Should there be a secondary override?"

"Yes. I'll set that up later." She walked back over to the couch, sitting down beside Rebeckah and taking up the work for the afternoon, most of which was watching stocks and replying to emails.

"He's devastated."

Pepper didn't smile. "Probably. His core fears are rejection and abandonment."

"I'm not abandoning him."

Smiling and setting her things aside, Pepper whispered, "But you don't know when you're coming back. To him, you're already gone without even saying goodbye."

Sad blue eyes dropped, her gaze going down to the cocoa again as she shook her head. Pepper sighed and smiled, resting her hand on Rebeckah's. "Tony can't always need rescuing from other people. He's relied upon that for so long that it's ingrained in him to fear being alone, without support. I think that he'll mature a little while you're gone. The fact that he didn't all but order you to stay is almost a miracle, you know that? He can't stand being alone, despite the fact that he has never had someone else truly close to him. Why else do you think he created Jarvis?"

Nodding, the young woman rubbed at her face. "So you're arguing my case with him?"

Virginia "Pepper" Potts paused, then looked at the other woman. "There was no argument. He's going to let you go, and knows that it's hurting him but he wants you to be happy more than he cares about himself right now."

Looking down at the now-lukewarm drink, Rebeckah murmured, "He loves me that much."

"Yeah. But you take the time you need. You're the one we're worried about right now. Tony can and will recuperate, or at least make an attempt to bounce back. It's going to be okay." She smiled gently.

Having been in a cave with the man for almost two months, seeing how he dealt with Yinsen's passing and the early termination of a pregnancy both of them wanted to see result in a healthy baby . . . Becka knew that it was going to be anything but "okay" for a long while.