The First Year

by Miss Starfire

SEQUEL TO THE LAST SUMMER. Tony and Pepper move on with their busy lives as superheroes, business partners, roommates, friends and confidants – everything but lovers. But when you're destined to be together, you're destined to be together, and nothing you can do – including altering someone's memory of you – will change that. Story 3 of 8 of The Last Chronicles.

10. Chapter 9

Story tidbit: The first mention of the Maggia kidnappings happened in Chapter 7 of The Last Summer when Tony and Pepper were watching the news about Hammer Multinational losing profits. The second instance happened in Chapter 1 of The First Year when Maya and Pepper are getting their nails done. Anyone catch that? That's how I roll!

Guest Review Responses

pepperony4evah: Right on time. I knew peppr would get her 'wiped out' memories back. Oh god. I can't imagine what she'd feel when she remembers that she and him were lovers once upon a time. I know tony's tryin to keep her safe and all by dating maya but i guess anyone with two eyes should be able to see that tony pretty much has his head stuck up pepper's ass, like permanently. So I guess in the end peppers gonna be the target of villains anyway! Wiser words have never been spoken before :D

Edit 10/11/2015: Previously, this story has the Maggia building be five stories tall. This has been changed to ten stories tall, in order to make what happens at the end of this chapter seem more believable in the amount of time it takes place. All following stories will also be updated to reflect this change.

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Chapter 9: June

"Hey, James! Get ya sorry ass o'er here!"

Tony heard his false name being called by one of the Maggia thugs he now reported to. The man went by the nickname of Two-Tone, but Tony knew his real name was Frank Hess, a man born and raised in Philadelphia who had moved to New York searching for riches and fame, but had found neither. After months of living in the streets, the Maggia had recruited him. He was not even a good actor or singer, and Tony had no clue what talent he was trying to sell around here, but apparently, no one dared to tell him he had none. He had a bad temper that Tony had avoided so far, and only because he did not want to do anything that could be taken as him rebelling against the Maggia to be used against Pepper.

Other than the minor setback when the Maggia had pretended to inject Pepper with potassium ions to stop her heart but had actually used a rather powerful muscle relaxant on her – scaring Tony half to death with it – their mission was actually going according to plan. The inventor had been using Extremis to send information back and forth to the FBI about the Maggia members, their multiple locations and inner workings since he had been recruited by the thugs, three weeks ago. He had even been able to see Pepper through a glass wall at least twice since then, and had spoken to her briefly via their molar implants a couple of times at night as well. Yet, other than just a few words to assure the other they were alright, no actual long conversations had taken place between them.

In fact, the only communication that had actually had an impact on him, so far, was the one that had pulled him out of his misery when he had been ready to blow up the Maggia with a nuclear bomb. He had been in the bathroom of the motel, plotting his revenge on the group and calling her name, when she had suddenly called his.

"Pepper?"

"Tony, breathe, relax. Breathe, Tony."

Tony's eyes went wide and he rested his back against the wall. "Pepper, is that… is that really you?"

He knew the question was stupid, since he was hearing her in his ear implant, and unless the Maggia had taken out the tooth from her mouth, there was no way anyone other than Pepper would be using the device to communicate with him right now. He still had to ask the question, though. He still had to make sure it was not Pepper's ghost speaking to him from the afterlife, instead of the actual living and breathing one.

"Yes, it's me. Calm down, alright? I'm OK. I'm alright."

Tony felt his legs give under him and he slid down the wall until he reached the floor. He took in deep breaths while the redhead continued to utter comforting words to him and when he finally found his voice again, he spoke.

"Pepper, oh, God! I thought… I saw the video and you-you weren't moving and…"

"It was a fake, Tony. They just knocked me out. They were just trying to scare you. That's all."

"Well, it fucking worked! It scared the shit out of me! I thought… I thought I'd lost you again, Pep," he closed his eyes.

"I…" he heard her sigh. "I heard you, Tony. Calm down, alright? You can't just bust in here right now. Don't make my pain be worthless."

Tony frowned. "I-I'm sorry, Pepper. I just… it was too real. I couldn't take it. I'm sorry, I just couldn't."

"I know, Tony. Don't be sorry, just be smart about it. Potassium ions need to be injected directly into your heart for them to work."

"Oh," he said. "I didn't know that."

"Me neither, until I heard them talk about it. It's over now, though. They've left me alone. Are you OK? Did they hurt you?"

Tony scoffed. "Are you seriously asking me how I am when you're the one that was taken?"

"Yes. I'm worried about you, too, you know? Are you injured?"

Tony's hand instinctively went to his head bump and swallowed hard. He knew the little bruise on his head was nothing compared to whatever she had had to endure so far, so he chose to lie to her.

"No, babe. I'm fine. I'm just happy to hear your voice."

"I'm happy to hear you, too," the smile on her face was evident in her tone of voice. It made him smile as well.

They remained silent again for a moment, allowing time for them both to relax and gather their wits. He heard Pepper taking in deep, calming breaths, and he could not help to synchronize his breathing pattern with hers. After a while, he finally opened his eyes and pretended she was sitting in front of him on the floor.

"I know where you are."

"I know."

"I've sent the notification via the Stark 1 to my dad that the mission is a go. He and Diane Tincher are going to cover for us at Stark Solutions."

"Alright. Did you tell the FBI about it?"

"Not yet. I wanted to know if you were still alive."

"Well, I am. And so are the other girls. They're all here, Tony, and one of them is pregnant."

"What?"

"Yes. She's going to be due soon. We can't take long."

"How soon?"

"I don't know. A few weeks, maybe a month?"

"Hopefully, I won't have you there that long."

"I hope for her sake that you don't. I can deal with it, but she's extremely malnourished and hasn't been let out in months. I don't even think a doctor has been brought in to check up on her."

"The hell? I didn't know the Maggia were this cruel! I knew they were greedy and stupid, but not this… sadistic."

"That's because someone else is leading them now. I don't know who it is yet, but we both know it's not Nefaria. He's dead."

"Well, we'll find out, wont we?"

"Yup. And then we can bust their asses for doing this. I can't believe it, Tony. How can they do this to people? How can they live with themselves like this?"

The inventor thought back to the little prop finger prank he had been a victim of and internally groaned.

"That's what people like them do, Pep. That's all they can do to feel better about themselves."

"Well, they've got another thing coming, that's for sure."

"Yes, soon."

"Tony… I-I have to go. They're coming to get me again."

"What? Again?" Tony panicked. "Where? Where are they taking you?"

"I don't know but don't worry. I'll be fine. I can handle myself."

"I know you can," he began. "But only for so long. Just, do whatever they tell you, OK? Don't put up an act. Don't try to act brave. I need you in one piece, Potts. Don't piss them off."

"I'll try. Though, you should listen to your own advice, Stark. I don't want to be woken up by another anger attack from you."

"I will. For you."

"I," he heard her hesitate.

"Pepper?"

He did not hear anything else for a minute or so, and he thought her opportunity to talk to him had ended. But as he was getting up from the floor to get started on his part of the plan, he heard her whispering voice in his ear.

"I love you, Tony."

Tony smiled. "I love you, Pep."

"Jimmy, my boy," Two-Tone continued when he reached Tony and patted his back. The man was not that much older than the inventor, but he acted as if he had years upon years upon years of being a mobster, or something akin to that. Everything about the man irritated Tony. The way he walked, the fake British accent he pretended to have and sometimes forgot to use, the way he dressed even though everyone wore the same stupid cheap tuxedo and mask. Even the way he breathed annoyed the blue-eyed boy. But Tony had learned to put up with all of it, and all for the sake of his beloved redhead.

"I hear' ya did good in the robbery, mate! Boss says you've ear'ed time with your lady friend!"

"What?" Tony asked in surprise.

"Ya hea'd me," the fat man continued. "The plan you suggested work'd last night, so you get to be with your lass tonight. No big brother at all!"

"R-Really? Tonight? Me and… Claire? Alone?"

"That's right, lad. Are ya gonna need some rubber, tho'? Boss don't want more pregnant gals around here, ya know?"

Tony had to force himself not to frown or punch the man in the face. "No, uhm, we… we'll be fine."

"Ah!" Two-Tone gave Tony a knowing, mischievous look and a cheeky grin. "You gonna get some in other ways, huh?"

"Yeah," Tony swallowed down the stomach acid he could feel coming up to his mouth and forced a smile on his face. "We-we'll manage."

"She's that good, aye?" the man winked at Tony. "No wonder Jules wants dibs on her."

"W-what?"

"Dibs, ya know? We all get to play with her after she's been here for two months. I'd take advantage of tonight, if I were you. You know, before the rest of us have a piece of that."

Tony's knuckles turned white. The man was talking about sexual assault as if it were nothing, as if he was not telling a man that the love of his life was going to be abused by a handful of men, very soon, and that there was nothing he could do about it but know about it and watch. Jules, whoever this guy was, had just been bumped up on Tony's hit list, even above the man standing before him – maybe even above Scott.

"Thanks for the heads up," Tony said between gritted teeth. "When can I see her?"

"At sunset, tonight. In a couple of hours or so. I'll come get ya when it's time."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, don't mention it, lad. Now, go back to unloading the truck. We need to go pick up new recruits tonight with it."

"Yes, sir," Tony said and turned around even though all he wanted to do was to knock the teeth out of the man and then go castrate Jules. "Right away, sir."

"Sir?" Two-Tone gave a belly laugh. "I love this prick! He's the best recruit we've had in months!"

Tony gave the man a thankful wave of his hand without turning back to look at him knowing that, if he stared at him, the man would be able to see the anger pouring out of his fake green-orbs.

At least, he considered, he would be able to see Pepper tonight.

xxxXXXxxx

The last two hours had been the longest in his life, but when he finally saw Two-Tone walk up to him and pulled him aside, Tony breathed a sigh of relief. He had been fearful that the Boss, whoever he was, had changed his mind at the last minute about allowing him time with the ginger. But once he saw the disgusting grin on Two-Tone's face when he led him down to the Prohibited Section of the warehouse, he knew he would be able to see Pepper tonight after all.

The prohibited section was the code word that was used for the area where all the girls were kept. No one was allowed there other than only certain privileged people, and sometimes the forced recruits when they were given the chance to see their fiancées. A visit to the prohibited zone was not always pleasant; however, as if any of the recruits failed to follow orders or did not react quickly enough during an assignment, they were punished by watching their loved ones being tortured behind a glass wall.

Pepper was right, Tony thought with some pride as he silently followed Two-Tone down the narrow hall. Pepper nailed their actions to the T!

Any criminal investigation agency would be lucky to have her one day, he knew, and only if he did not convince her to stay with him at Stark Solutions forever to pursue her career goals there rather than working for the government, or even for S.H.I.E.L.D. Heck, he would even build her the damn jetpack she had always wanted, if it helped persuade her to stay.

"S'rry we didn't give ya a chance for you to wash up, lad, but we've gots busy with the new recruits getting outta line."

"That's alright," Tony said. "It's more important to show those fools who's in charge 'round here," he added, knowing that the comment would score some brownie points with the man.

"Aye! You're a smart one, Jamesy! I wish every'ne 'round 'ere was like ya."

"Thanks, sir," Tony stopped when Two-Tone did as well in front of the last door of the corridor. The man then looked left and right and down the hall, and then from his pants' pocket took out a small, rectangular plastic bag.

"Here, mate," Two-Tone handed the bag to Tony. "I know ya says you don't need one, but I'm still givin' ya one, just in case."

Tony grabbed the small packet and nodded his thanks before he put it inside his back pocket.

"That's why you're the boss, Two-Tone. Always watchin' out for us."

"And don't you forget it, Jimmy. I'll come pick you up tomorrow at sunrise. Enjoy the time with the missus."

"Oh, I will," he said in a tone the inventor knew the man would enjoy, and then waited until he was alone again. He knocked on the door twice even though he knew there was no point to it, and when there was no response from the inside, he turned the doorknob and walked in.

The room was no bigger than the kitchen of their apartment back home, but it was not as clean as the ginger and Jarvis kept it. In fact, it was not even close. There was some outside light coming inside from the high-up, small window on the back wall. Thanks to it, he could see that the floors were made of bare concrete, just as the rest of the warehouse itself was. There was a small cot on the floor in the back left corner of the room, and while his eyes adjusted to the diminished light, he called on Extremis to scan the area for computers, cameras or hidden microphones.

Luckily, he detected none.

"Pepper? Are you in here?"

He heard scuffling coming from the corner opposite to where the cot lay. Two seconds later and after the clearing of her throat, the ginger responded to his call.

"Tony? Is-is that you?"

"Yes, Pep. I'm spending the night here with you."

Before he could say anything else, he heard the pattering of bare feet on the floor. The air was then expelled from his lungs when the ginger hugged him with all her might, and she almost made him fall on his butt. Tony immediately found his balance and returned the embrace. Now that his eyes could see her better, he leaned down and kissed her fully on the lips, only for her to whimper in pain and pull away.

"What's wrong?" he asked and she shook her head and took a step away from him.

"Nothing," she said and then covered her mouth with her hands. "I'm fine."

"Pepper?" he took a step toward her and she took another step back; not that it matter really, the room was very small. "Pepper, where are you going? Let me see your face, please."

"No. I… I don't have any makeup on."

Tony scoffed. "So? I don't care. I never have. Besides, I didn't get to shower before I came here, so we're kinda even. Sorry about the smell."

"I don't care either," she said but refused to move her hand away from her mouth. "Just, please, stay away."

"The hell I will!" he said and closed the distance between them, cornering her in the same place she had been sitting in when he had walked in. "I haven't seen or heard from you in days. I miss you, Pep. I've been worried sick about you."

"Me too, Tony, but… but…" she said and then reluctantly allowed the inventor to pull her hand away from her mouth. The growl she heard from him was all she needed to hear to know that, even in the dim light, he had managed to see her busted bottom lip.

"What the…? Who… who was it, Pepper? Who did this to you?"

"It's nothing, Tony."

"Nothing? Pepper, your lip is swollen! You're still bleeding from it! What the hell you mean: it's nothing?"

"Ssshhh! Lower your voice or you'll call them back!"

"I," he swallowed hard and then began whispering to her while his hands held her head by its sides. "What happened? Didn't I tell you to lay low and not to get in trouble? I told you, Pepper. I trusted you to stay out of trouble as much as I am trying to stay out of trouble myself."

"I know," she admitted and lowered her head. "I was doing fine, I swear. But then Jules showed up today and –"

"J-Jules? Jules went to see you? That… that… did he touch you? What did he do to you?"

"He wasn't coming for me. He was coming for Wendy. Remember Wendy? The redhead that was taken before us?"

"Yeah, I do."

"I-I couldn't just let him take her. She's been cleared for Level 3, so… I… I busted his ass and he backslapped me. He didn't take Wendy, which is what I wanted, but he did hit me pretty hard."

"Pepper…" he stared at her with a pained look. "Don't do this to me, Pep. It's already hard as it is. I… I'm starting to lose my patience here. I want you out of here now."

"Not yet, Tony. We still need to find out who the new Boss is. If he remains faceless and nameless, it won't matter if we bust all of their lairs. He'll just regroup again."

Tony sighed in defeat, knowing Pepper's words were the truth. They only had one shot at this. They had to do it right or all of their efforts would be in vain. He finally nodded to acknowledge that he understood, but the look in his eyes also told her that he expected her to behave herself a tad better from now on.

"Did you know I was coming?" he asked as he rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. "Did they tell you what you were coming here for?"

"No," she closed her eyes as well, placed her hands on his cheeks and felt his hands move from her face to rest on her hips. "They just got me washed up and changed into these raggedy clothes and thrown in here a few minutes before you came by. I thought Jules was coming to get me. I was surprised and relieved to hear your voice."

"Raggedy clothes?" Tony smiled and kissed her nose. The raggedy clothes she was referring to were a pair of shorts and a small t-shirt. "All I see is you, and you still look beautiful to me."

She beamed so widely and so brightly at his words that she could have lit up the entire warehouse with her smile and the light blush on her cheeks, if it were at all possible.

Now that the shock of seeing her injury and the mini-scare he had had at hearing that Jules had been near her had passed, he began to slowly lose himself in their own private world they always escaped to when they had the chance. He wanted her to forget about their current situation, too, even if just for tonight, and he was going to do anything he had to in order to make it happen.

He pressed his body closer to hers and pushed her back against the wall. He then heard her moan slightly when his lips brushed against the junction of her neck and shoulder and he was momentarily reminded of their unfinished conversation at the club.

"Pepper?"

"Ya-hum?"

Her eyes were closed, lost in the glory of his caresses. Her hands lazily ran through his hair while he placed random kisses on her neck and on the side of her face. His hands slid up and down from under her arms to her hips. It had been so long since she had felt like this: treasured, loved, desired; and the last time she had felt like it at all had been when they had spent that drunken night at the motel. It was nothing less than sad and disappointing, however, that Scott did not make her feel this way when they were alone.

"Don't marry him."

She froze on the spot and her hands stopped moving, but she did not face him as he continued to indulge in her neck. She was aware that accepting his silent proposition while dancing at the club had immediately nullified her compromise with Scott, so she saw no need for him to even bring up the topic, especially since he was NOT even supposed to know about it in the first place. How he had found out about it and when was not known to her, but her true worry did not lie in his detective skills for now. Her current issue went beyond finding out who had told the inventor about her engagement with Scott, and it related more to Tony's tone of voice.

There was something in the way he had uttered those words to her, that command he had just given to her that made her feel as if this was only the beginning of what he was going to tell her right now; perhaps even more than she was willing to hear as of yet. He had not used his Tony Stark voice to say those words; he had used his Iron Man tone, which meant that he was getting very serious about this conversation and about where he planned to take it at this time.

When she did not say anything else, lost in her own thoughts, Tony took it as an invitation to continue his argument, so he did.

"Don't marry him," he repeated, more sternly this time. "Marry me."

"W-w-wah?" she swallowed hard. She knew what she had accepted to do with her nod back at The Rotary, and she knew that he knew too. She had thought, however, that he had meant for them only to start dating and see where and if the relationship would lead anywhere else. It now appeared, conversely, that he had been a lot more serious than she had thought he could be: a whole, fucking lot more serious.

"You heard me," he said and pulled away from her neck to stare directly at her eyes. "Don't do it. Stay with me. Don't marry him."

She gulped and felt her entire body begin to shiver under his gaze. "But-but… T-Tony… I…"

"No," he said, and when she tried to look away from him, he held her face in his hands. "Listen to me, Pepper. I... I-I," he sighed, his voice suddenly trembling in fear that he had said too much, too soon.

Too late to turn back now.

"I don't know what he offered you – Scott – or what he thinks he can give you but I, I… you know I'll give you anything you want. Whatever it is that you need or want me to do, I'll do it, Pepper. I'll do it for you, no questions asked."

"Tony," she began. "I… your money… to me… it's…"

"I know, I know. I didn't mean it like that. And it's our money, by the way," he gave her a smile. "And our cars, and our bikes, and our pods, and our company and our home. All that it's missing is an us. Do you want an 'us,' Pepper? Do you want there to be an 'us'?"

"I-I… I did… I do but, Tony, you're jumping ahead. You—"

"I didn't say for you to marry me right now, silly," he said and she visibly relaxed. "Unless you want to, but you don't have to. I just want you to give me the chance."

"What about Maya? I mean, she's your girlfriend and my friend and she'll hate me, hate us, for this."

"I'll deal with that. She should've seen it coming, anyway."

"What? Why?"

"Remember that black eye I came back with on Valentine's?"

"Yeah?"

"And remember the last thing I told you when we argued in your room that day Maya was showing up for our date, the week before the Helicarrier issue?"

"Yeah?"

"You're smart, baby. Connect the dots, Potts."

She lowered her gaze for a moment, as she thought about his words, and when her eyes widened and her mouth went ajar, he knew she had seen the light.

"Are you kidding? You-you didn't!"

"I did."

"But-but… why? How? We… we haven't even… How?"

"You're always on my mind, Pep. That's how."

"Aww!" she smiled but then frowned. "But no! Tony, oh, my God! That's awful of you! Seriously? On Valentine's? During your getaway?"

"I couldn't help it!" he defended himself. "Like you haven't done the same to Scott!"

"Actually, I haven't!" she said, insulted by the insinuation. "I'd never do that to him! That's terrible!"

"Oh, yeah," he said with a scoff. "You'd never say my name in bed with him, but you will kiss me right after telling me you love me, and still marry him, right?"

"What?" she was taken aback and frowned.

"Ugh! Sorry, Pepper," he rested his forehead on her shoulder and counted his blessings that she was yet to push him away from her. "I… I'm screwed up, alright? You know that about me. No surprise there. And when I think about you two together, it… it kills me. He doesn't deserve you… and neither do I but… but he'll never love you like I do. He'll never make you feel the way I do. And Maya will never fill me like you do."

He heard her sigh loudly and felt her shake her head, perhaps weighing his words against his actions, or their current situation against their past. When she pulled him away from her shoulder and held his face in her hands, he visibly swallowed hard as he waited for her next words.

"I haven't been with him, either. You know?"

He knitted his brow. "What?"

"Well, don't look so surprised," she chuckled lightly. "You… you're not the only one that has trouble seeing someone who isn't there."

"Really?" he asked, trying not to sound so pleased with himself and not too hopeful, but he failed miserably.

"Really," she said with a small smile. "I haven't said your name, but… but I thought about it. And it made me stop."

"So," he whispered. "So, you and Scott… you… you haven't…"

"No," she whispered back and shook her head. "No, we haven't."

"But, all those times that I… when I walked in… your room…"

"Attempts," she said with a shy smile. "Just failed attempts."

He gulped in anticipation when her fingers slowly traced his lips from side to side, and he then felt his heart double its rate when she looked up at him with the same eyes they had stared at each other with back at the hotel. He knew what she was thinking right about now because he was thinking about it too, but he could not ignore the reality of their situation.

"I wish…" he began before he kissed her fingertips that were still on his lips. "I wish we were somewhere else right now."

"Why?" she asked and pulled back her hand.

"Because, because this is not what you deserve," he responded and took a second to look around himself to emphasize the point. "I mean, the hotel wasn't the best place either but this… you deserve so much better than this."

Pepper's eyes stared left and right as well, and she then looked at him again and gave him a bright smile. "If that's all that's stopping you, just close your eyes and pretend we're somewhere else."

"But…"

"Unless, you're just being polite with me and you don't want to tell me that you don't want me that way."

"Don't be ridiculous," he said, leaned down to kiss her but stopped inches away from her lips. "Do you know how hard it has been for me not to kiss you since I walked in that door because of that busted lip?"

"Always the gentleman," Pepper said with a chuckle, slid her hands under his t-shirt and raked his lower back with her nails, which only made him groan and clench his eyes shut. "But I'm sure it'd be worth the pain."

"Pepper," he breathed with barely controlled desire as she slowly pulled up his t-shirt and threw it somewhere on the ground. She then traced the muscles of his front, starting from his stomach to his chest and back down again. He rested his fists against the wall behind her, towering over her and breathed hard without shame. She smiled in satisfaction at the reaction she was getting from him, and then her hands grabbed a hold of the button of his pants.

"No, not here, Pepper," his right hand stopped both of hers from undoing his pants. "Not like this. I want… it should be… special… the first…"

She eyed him silently for a moment to see if his mind would change. but when he did not say or do anything else, she pulled her hands away from him and stared at the door. When she did not continue her movements or even said anything else, he opened his eyes and stared at her wounded-looking face. He wanted to say something, anything, to make her understand that it was not that he was unwilling, but that he just wanted it to be great for her. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind.

She swallowed hard and licked her lips before she slid to the side and went around him. His eyes followed her as she walked over to the cot on the floor, and climbed inside and under the covers. She laid on her right side, giving her back to him, faced the wall and sighed in defeat.

"Good night, Tony."

He stared at her and then at his t-shirt on the floor. His eyes then scanned their surroundings, and he hated that he could not give her anything better at the moment. He wanted for this to happen between them, now if at all possible, but he did not want Pepper to look back one day and regret the fact that it had not been at home or at a 5-star hotel by the beach, but in a crappy room inside an abandoned warehouse while being held hostage by the Maggia.

Then again, this was not what he preferred, sure, but had he not just told her, moments ago, he would do anything for her?

"I don't know what he offered you – Scott – or what he thinks he can give you but I, I… you know I'll give you anything you want. Whatever it is that you need or want me to do, I'll do it, Pepper. I'll do it for you, no questions asked."

No questions asked, he reminded himself. He had just told her that: no questions asked, and yet…

"I thought about you all day, like I always do," he began and took one step closer to her. "Especially when we robbed this jewelry store and I saw a ring I'd like to see on you one day."

She did not make a sound or move an inch, so he continued speaking his mind and took another step toward her location.

"And also when we were driving back and I saw this neighborhood I know you'd like to live in with me. It had a park and a private entrance, and there were kids riding their bikes and playing hoops in their backyards. You'd always said to me that you hated growing up in an apartment, and that you wanted your kids to know what it's like to have an actual home."

He took another step toward her and cleared his throat. "I imagined you and me there, or in a place like that someday, being happy, the two of us."

He took another step that took him to the edge of the cot, and he kneeled on it behind her.

"Or maybe you'd like another place. Maybe you had another place in mind and… and that's OK," he gulped. "Whatever it is… wherever it is that makes you happy, as long as it helps you see how much you mean to me. How I can't… how I don't want to live without you. I can live with it. I can live with it as long as it is just with you and no one else."

He had expected her to remain silent, or to tell him to fuck off, but her response was everything but a dismissal of his feelings.

"I don't want you to just live with it," Pepper finally said, her voice only a whisper. "What good does it do for you, if you just do it for the sake of someone else and not your own?"

He furrowed his brow as he retorted.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Pepper, but isn't that why you agreed to marry Scott? For his sake and not yours?"

Pepper pursed her lips; she was not able to come up with a good response to his question, so she let it go. Tony sighed again, and he was about to get up from the cot, seeing his attempts at making it up to her were failing, but the ginger's hand on his arm made him stop in his tracks.

"Pepper?"

She turned around completely and faced him, propping herself up with her left arm under her, and when he noticed tears running down her cheeks, his heart broke. He thought they were tears of sadness or disappointment, anger even, but they were only there because she had been moved by his words. She had no idea he felt this strongly about her and their connection, and she had to wonder how long it had been since he had seen her – seen them together – in a new light. However long it was – it could have not just been today or yesterday, or not even the month before – it had to have been there much longer than that.

How she had not seen it before, she could not understand.

He leaned down to her, held the back of her neck with his right hand, and then ran his lips over her damp face to dry her tears. When he felt his job was done as good as it was going to be, he pulled back slightly, stared at her again for a second, before he pressed his lips on hers. She flinched slightly when the pressure caused a spike of pain on her bruised lips, but she quickly forgot about it when he kissed her again, gentler this time.

He followed the second kiss with many more, and not just on her lips, and when they woke up the next day in each other's arms, like they had done so too many times before, the only difference between those attempts and this night would be that, this time, they had not held back at all.

xxxXXXxxx

"You're next, Horton. Stay put."

Tony Stark currently sat in a chair outside the Boss' office, at a different lair from the one he and Pepper had been kept in since their involuntary recruitment by the Inquisitionists had begun. He had been waiting for hours for his turn to meet up with the head honcho of the criminal group. The new leader of the Maggia had specifically requested to meet with the so-called James Horton, now also known as Magic James, after the last robbery he had organized had turned out to be of great success. It appeared that the Boss was impressed with James' strategizing skills and wanted to get to know the recruit on a more personal level, and thus had arranged for this meeting to take place.

Sitting out here for so long reminded the inventor of the time he, Rhodey and Pepper had been called to Principal Nara's office when he and Pepper had left the school during lunch. This time, however, Rhodey's presence was replaced by Two-Tone, who was sitting next to him; Pepper was in another building, miles away from him; and if he were to be asked the same question right now regarding whether or not he had engaged in sexual intercourse with Pepper Potts, he knew his answer this time would have to be a big, fat 'yes.'

A wide smile formed on his face at the thought, and he had to hold back a sigh of contentment lest he would look like a silly, little schoolgirl in love. He was silly and he was in love, but he was most definitely NOT a schoolgirl.

Pepper.

Thinking about her or uttering her name, made his stomach flutter with happiness and excitement. It had been a week since he and Pepper had spent the night together and, so far, he had not heard or seen from her again. He had called her name a few times at night, and even if she had not once responded to him, he had still told her that he was OK, that he loved her very much, that he missed her like crazy, and that he waited for her word to start the stakeout against the thugs.

He would have otherwise been worried about her lack of response had it not been for the fact that he had heard from Two-Tone that his lady was doing fine. Apparently, the space needed to store the stolen items was running out, thanks to James' clever plans, so the girls had been forced to now have more roommates than before, and to work around the clock to sort through the raided hauls, thus cutting down the opportunities the ginger had for communicating with him. His spare time was also being cut down significantly, and he barely had the chance to tell his redhead kind words at the end of the day. But he still did so whenever he could.

We need to end this, though. Tony thought. If I get to meet the Boss today, we can call it a day and have the FBI come nail them faster than they can react.

Not only were they almost done with their investigation, but the roots of his real hair were starting to show, and he was certain Pepper's were too. The always-on contact lenses he and Pepper were wearing were good for only a month until they ran the risk of infection, and this weekend marked the fourth week for him since being here. There was no choice but to blow their cover this weekend for the sake of their health, safety and sanity, regardless of whether Pepper gave the word or not.

"Hey, Horton, you're up," one of the bodyguards of the Maggia leader said to the inventor, and Tony immediately stood up from his chair and followed him.

"Make sure you impress the Boss, mate," Two-Tone added with a smile and watched as Tony walked inside the Boss's office by himself.

The state of the small room was different from the conditions of the rest of the building and all of the other lairs. It was no surprise to him, though, that the place the Boss used on a daily basis to run the illicit business would sport wooden floors, exotically painted walls and held expensive items and furniture. What did surprise him, however, was the fact that the Boss was not a he, but a she, and that it was a she he knew.

"Sit down," she ordered, and he did as so immediately in the chair that lay in front of her desk, trying very hard to avoid his shock and anger from showing on his face. The white-haired woman stared at the inventor up and down, as if scrutinizing an animal or anyone who she considered to be ranked below her.

"You don't look like much," she said as she tapped her fingers on the desk in a bored manner. "But I heard that you have a little bit more brains than some of the idiots that work for me."

"There isn't a lot of competition," Tony said with a shrug and his response caused Sasha Hammer to throw her head back and laugh aloud.

"Well, at least you have a sense of humor," she said. "But, I have to wonder, why you haven't made your escape, seeing that everyone thinks you're so smart."

"That's actually why I haven't tried to leave," he began. "My fiancée is still here, and I don't want anything to happen to her."

"Ah!" Sasha said with a raised brow. "She must be very important to you. Some of the other recruits have tried leaving without their women. Needless to say, they didn't get very far and they were forced to watch how long their girls could survive under water."

Tony swallowed hard to pretend he was being intimidated, but in fact he was trying not to choke the woman with his bare hands.

"That's very stupid of them."

"Extremely," she agreed with a nod. "You and your fiancée: how long have you two known each other?"

"Five years," he lied. "Going on six."

"Well, that's a long time to know someone nowadays."

"Yes, ma'am, it is."

"But even then, a lifetime can go by and you'll never really finish getting to know someone, don't you think?"

"I suppose so," he began, opened his mouth again to continue his retort, but then heard something that made his blood turn cold.

"TONNNYYY! We have to get out! Call the FBI, NOW! They know, Tony! They know! They… AAAHHH! NOOOO!"

"And?" Sasha asked with a smirk. "What else?"

Tony swallowed hard and licked his lips, all the while he used Extremis to contact the FBI, and to call on their armors. He set the destination for Iron Man to his location, and sent the Rescue armor directly to the warehouse where Pepper was being kept. All of the lairs for the Maggia were already being closely monitored by the FBI and the Special Forces, but he was not sure if anyone would get to Pepper in time to help her.

Hang on, Pep, the inventor pleaded silently and had to hold himself in place when he again heard her scream in his ear.

"NO! GO AWAY! LEAVE THEM ALONE!"

"James? Are you even listening to me?"

Tony eyed the woman again and took in a deep breath. His knuckles were turning white with the force he was grabbing onto the handles of the chair; the only thing that was keeping him from running out of the room to find Pepper.

"Yes," he cleared his throat. "It's just that, your question got me thinking about me and Claire."

"And? What exactly were you thinking about?"

"Well, a lot of things," he said and gulped.

"Such as?"

"TONY! TONY, RUN! They're going to kill you! Please, RUN! The Boss knows! The Boss told them about us! Meet me outside! I just… I just need to save these girls, first! They're coming after me! Meet me outside!"

Tony began breathing hard, no longer caring if he seemed suspicious to the woman. Pepper did not know where he was. She did not know he was no longer in the same building as her. She did not know the Boss was someone they both knew about. He had to tell her, somehow, that he was far away from her, not able to protect her at the moment. She needed to be told that she needed to stay safe until either he or Rescue showed up; that she needed to do anything to stay alive.

"Such as…" Tony continued, tired of the charade, and connected his molar implant frequency with Pepper and with the FBI so that they could hear his conversation with the woman. "Such as the fact that, I now realize, I paid too much money for your piece of shit of a company, Sasha."

"WHAT?" he heard Pepper ask in between the sounds of scuffle. "Sasha Hammer is the Boss?!"

Sasha's smile turned Cheshire-like. "It was enough to get me here, Stark. And it's going to be enough to take it back."

"Hammer Multinational is gone, Sasha. It's history."

"That bitch!" the redhead added with a groan.

"Hammer is not gone! My family's company is NOT gone! The only difference is that now it's called Stark Solutions, but not for much longer. I will take it back from you. I will take it back and make everyone forget who Tony Stark is!"

"What makes you think you're getting away with this, huh? How do you plan to even take it back? Stark Solutions is my company, Sasha, not yours!"

"Tony? Where the hell are you? I can't… UGH! Get OFF me! Gah! Where is the FBI?"

Tony began to sweat. The Iron Man suit was almost at its destination, but the Rescue armor was still halfway from the warehouse. Even if he suited up right now and flew back to the abandoned building, it would be fifteen minutes until he made it to Pepper. Anything could happen in that time, including someone putting a bullet through her head.

Just a little bit longer, Pepper. Stay alive, please. Just… stay alive!

How he wished the implants could transfer thoughts!

"How about the fact that I have your girl with me?" she responded in a mocking tone and Tony flinched. "Oh, yeah, you forgot about that? I'm holding her hostage, remember? So, what you're going to do now is sign the transfer papers I have right here and Stark Solutions will be mine."

Tony eyed the documents for a second and then stared back at Sasha. "This won't get you the company. You need Pepper's signature, too. She's an owner of it, or did you forget that?"

"Of course I didn't, but I can always get that signature before I have her killed... or worse."

"Don't touch her, Sasha. Don't you dare lay a hand on her or I swear I'll…"

"You'll, what? Kill her yourself? You know this is what you did, right? You know that if she dies today, it's all on you. I didn't even know you two were here. If it wasn't for you showing off your skills, I'd have never run that DNA test on you before I promoted you to the next level. We don't run those tests unless we plan on ranking-up someone, and it was your actions that led me to finding out who you are and then who she is. If my men kill her today, it's all your fault for bringing her here."

"What?" Tony stood up and so did Sasha.

"You heard me!" she pointed an accusing finger towards him. "I had no clue you were here until two days ago! But, as it turns out, your presence here, as unexpected as it was, worked well for me."

Tony flared his nostrils, narrowed his eyes at her, and clenched his fists.

"No," he said, took a step back, and his arm reached behind him to the lock the door. "It didn't."

The instant the last two words left him, the wall behind Sasha exploded in a million pieces when the suit busted inside. The bang caught the attention of the guards outside the office and Tony immediately ducked. Seconds after he practically kissed the ground, the bullets began making holes in the front wall. He covered his head with his arms and hoped the bullets ricocheting off his suit did not end up hitting him in the exchange.

As the amount of bullets fired began slowing down, he began crawling away from the door, aiming to reach the hole that would be his escape. It was not lost to him on his way out, however, that when the firing finally stopped and he heard a loud thud near him, it had belonged to the bullet-ridden, dead body of Sasha Hammer, killed by her own thugs.

"You had it coming, bitch," Tony said as he made his way inside the armor. "You're just lucky it wasn't me who killed you."

"He's in the suit!" he heard Two-Tone say from his position behind the knocked down door. "Get him!"

"I don't have time for you," Tony said and aimed his hand towards them, ready to knock every single of them unconscious. His actions were halted, however, when he heard the skin-crawling scream from his redhead in his ear, followed by the loud shrieks of the other girls near her.

"It's JULES! He's got a gun! GO, RUN! ALL OF YOU! I'll hold him off! AAAAHHHH!"

That was the last thing he heard of the ginger before he sped his way out of the lair and headed straight to her.

xxxXXXxxx

"Pepper? Pepper can you hear me? Pepper, what happened? Pepper, please talk to me!"

She would if she could.

"So you're Iron Man's sidekick, huh?" Jules said with a satisfied smile as he walked towards the group of girls behind Pepper's standing form. The redhead spat on the ground and then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand from the remnants of the blood Jules had caused her when he had hit the side of her face with his gun, inevitably loosening the tooth that held the molar implant and making it fly out of her mouth to who-knows-where.

Her vocal contact with Tony was lost.

"No wonder you were so tough to crack," he continued as he flailed his pistol, a large and deadly Desert Eagle, in his hand. "Although, you don't have your suit or his protection here right now. It's just you and me, girly girl. Just the way I've wanted it for a long time."

"You sound too self-assured for being a guy who's holding a gun against a bunch of unarmed girls."

Jules scoffed. "I'm sure that if you were Rescue right now, you'd be saying the same to me."

"No," Pepper said "If I were Rescue right now, I'd have already blasted your balls off."

"I like it when you talk dirty to me, baby," the man was not at all deterred by Pepper's threats. "Is that why Tony Stark keeps you around? You talk dirty to him, too?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Jules scoffed again, closed the distance between he and Pepper and then lifted her chin with the barrel of the gun. One look down at the weapon and she knew it was loaded, the safety off, and ready to make the top half of her head disappear if he wanted to.

"I still have dibs on you, Honey. And I better get it now before the Boss has you killed."

"You wish. I'd much rather you blow my brains out right now than to have you lay a finger on me."

"What? You don't think I can force myself on you? Tony is not even in the building to protect you. He's far away, being killed by the Boss."

"Pepper, if you can hear me, Rescue it's on its way. I'm on my way, too, but Rescue will be there first!"

The ginger smiled when she heard Tony's voice in her ear.

"You smiling, now?" Jules asked and pressed the gun deeper under her chin. "Is that a smile of confidence or fear?"

"Tony's gonna have your head."

"Oh, so I heard. Apparently he keeps you very close to him. But he must not care a lot about you, if he brought you here with him. That's was very, very stupid of him."

"Not as stupid as what you're doing right now."

"And what is that?" he purred.

"You've left yourself wide open," she whispered to him, and before he could figure out what she had meant, the ginger simultaneously kneed him in the groin and moved her head to the side. She then kicked the gun out of his hand and hit his back with her laced fists. Jules went down, crying in pain, and as Pepper was about to grab the gun, the intruder alarm went off.

"What the hell?" her hands flew to her ears.

The lights of the entire building turned off, and the only source of light now belonged to red, blaring emergency lights. The windows and doors of the warehouse were suddenly broken and taken down, respectively, by dozens of FBI, Special Forces and SWAT members, all ready to take down the last of the Maggia warehouses. Thanks to Tony's Stark signal, the other locations – including the one where the Boss had been kept – were already being taken down. Yet, this particular one, having been the farthest of them all, was the last one they had gotten to.

"FBI! Hands in the air! You're under arrest!"

Unfortunately for the authorities and Pepper, the Maggia members in this warehouse were rowdier and stupider than the rest.

"The hell we will!"

With that defiant cry, the crossfire began, and the group of girls was caught in between. All of them ducked onto the ground when the bullets began flying in every direction, and it was only a miracle that all of them were still intact with the amount and caliber of the weapons being used by both sides right now. Hitting the ground, however, was only a temporary solution, and Pepper knew that she needed to act fast to assure no innocent lives were lost.

"Come on!" Pepper called out to them over the noise of death in the making. "We need to get out! Follow me!"

Having been here for weeks now, Tony and the redhead had already pinpointed a few of the security flaws of the place, and they had exchanged that information when they had been together a week ago; information that would prove handy today. Her mind raced as she tried to find herself in the middle of the chaos and recall some of the locations she could use to start ushering the girls out the door. She knew none of them could afford to exit all through the same location and risk being shot at while waiting, so her only option was to send a few girls through one exit and then find the next one and send out some more.

"Lily, May, Lorna, you go out that window there! The rest, stay close!"

"Thanks, Pepper!" the three girls yelled back at her and quickly did as told. Pepper stole quick glances at the women, and when the last one made it out the window, Pepper sighed in relief.

Three down, twenty-five to go.

Pepper looked back at the group of girls crawling on the floor behind her and made a note of each of them. As she had told Tony before, the Maggia had not discriminated against any race, shape or form, and the ginger knew she had to account for the girl's sizes and athletic ability when assigning exits to them. The last thing she needed was to hold up someone's escape because they did not fit through whatever exit she pointed out to them, or because they were not able to climb up a staircase fast enough.

"Natalie, Krista! Use that grate!"

Just like that, two more were gone, and Tony's words in her ear helped the redhead move along.

"Babe, I'm coming for you! Stay safe, alright? I'm on my way, Pep!"

Group by group, the redhead began thinning out the herd. Sometimes she could only send two girls out, sometimes she sent up to four, but so far she had not found something safe for the very pregnant Glenda Barnes to make it outside without risking her condition. After a while, and after reaching the emergency stairs, it was only Pepper and Glenda left, and the only thing that they could do now was go up.

"Pepper, we're not going to make it, are we?" the teary-eyed girl said when she heard some Maggia members climbing the stairs under them. "We're gonna die, aren't we?"

"No, we're not, Glenda. We're gonna make it. Just stay close to me. We're heading to the roof."

"And then what?" the blonde asked but still followed Pepper, faster now that the Maggia had spotted them and had picked up their pace to catch up with them. "We're going to jump? The building is ten stories high!"

"No, we're not going to jump," Pepper said and took a few glances down to see the armed men getting ready to shoot at them. "My suit is on its way. I'll get you out."

"Your suit?"

"Yes, my suit. It should be here any second now. Now hurry u– DOWN!"

"AAAH!"

Pepper had only enough time to push the two of them down onto the floor before the Maggia began taking shots at them. The attempts were only being successful in slowing them down and not actually in hitting them, but being hit and being slowed down at this point amounted to the same result: their certain death – one faster than the other, but death nonetheless.

"Get that brunette bitch, first!" one of the thugs yelled. "She's Pepper Potts! She's gonna get Iron Man to come here and kill us all!"

"Then stop shooting at her! We need her alive!" another thug said and suddenly the firing stopped, allowing Pepper and Glenda to regain the ground they had lost just now.

"No, we don't!" a third thug reasoned. "Iron Man's still gonna kill us, anyway! Just kill her now!"

"That makes sense."

"Does it?"

"Yeah, it does."

"Ah, alright! Kill her then!"

As the four men began running up and looked for the girls, they noticed that they were no longer within reach. They picked up the pace to catch up with the women, but then stopped when they realized they could not hear them moving around anymore. The only sound of steps were coming from them, and when they stopped stomping, the only other sound in the narrow upward hall were of the guns, grenades and yelling happening outside.

"Did we kill them already?"

"I don't think so. Didn't we just see them make a turn?"

"Maybe it was our shadows?"

"What shadows? It's pouring outside! There's no shadows!"

"Oh, you're right."

The thugs took a few more steps, stretching their necks as much as they could to try to see a small glimpse of the two girls, but had no luck. Suddenly, one of the windows, one that was three sets of stairs above them, busted into pieces, and the men covered their heads with their arms. It only took them a second to recover and return to firing in the general direction the sound had come from, but when they heard the sound of buzzing and mechanical whirs, they all froze.

"Oh, I'm so gonna get you for that," Rescue said as she precipitously appeared flying in the middle of the stairs and looked down at the thugs before she turned to her side to address her pregnant companion. "Glenda, keep going up. I'll meet you there in a minute. I just need to settle a score with those dumbasses down here."

"OK," the woman said with a nod and began running up the remaining flights of stairs as fast as she could. Rescue then looked back at the men who were staring at her with wide eyes and, if the helmet had had a see-through feature, the thugs would have been able to see the smirk on her face.

"So, who did you losers call a bitch, huh?"

"Oh, shiiit!"

The crossfire began.

In the confined space of the emergency staircase, both her repulsors and the bullets ricochet in every direction, making the rest of the windows break and holes to appear in the walls. She tried several times to use her sonic blasters on them to make them pass out, but she soon realized that the four men that had started chasing them seconds ago had all of a sudden turned into ten, and those ten into twenty.

Word had spread out about her.

Crap.

The back and forth between them extended for longer than she would have liked, and knowing that she could not allow them to reach Glenda, the ginger decided to abandon ship, sped upwards and blew up the last sets of stairs on her way out to prevent the men from following them. The bolts of thunder and lightning outside were making her nervous when it dawned on her that the roof of a ten-story building was probably not the safest place for a defenseless, tired, malnourished pregnant woman, and the thought only made her fly faster.

"Glenda?" Rescue screamed over the sound of hard rain, wind and thunder when she exited the stairs and reached the roof. She looked left and right and, as she did so, a chill ran down her spine and a sudden spike of pain hit her left temple, making her shake her head rapidly.

What the hell? She thought. I… I've been here before. This place looks familiar but… but I've never been up here until now.

The redhead shook her entire body to try and get rid of the horrible sense of déjà vu that had just invaded her, and returned to the original reason why she had come up here in the first place.

"Glenda? Where are you?" Rescue called again when her first try was unsuccessful. There was no way the woman had just disappeared into thin air; there was no way out of here other than down, and for a moment the ginger feared that she had sent the desperate blonde to her death.

Oh, nuts!

She flew left and right and looked down at the ground, but there was no sign of the girl. Had she passed out on her way up and Pepper had just missed her in her haste? Had she gone inside one of the other floors instead? She knew she had told her to go to the roof, but she had already been reluctant to do so. Did she disobey her orders in the end?

When a bolt of lightning hit strikingly close to her, Pepper closed her eyes and flinched when the spike of pain returned.

He sat on the ground with his back against one of the outer walls of the small room that hid the stairs. He positioned himself in such a way that they were protected from the sun by the shadow the small room projected. He placed his backpack next to him on his right, and bent his legs to his chest. Pepper took off her backpack as well and laid it next to his before she also sat on the ground to Tony's left so that they were shoulder-to-shoulder. Tony's left hand held onto her right one, lacing their fingers together and briefly bringing them up to his lips to kiss hers for an instant before he rested his right cheek on their intertwined hands, and their hands rested on his knees.

Pepper opened her eyes again and blinked desperately, trying to both place and remove the unknown memory from her mind. She took a step closer to the center of the roof, and when she regained some of her senses, she spoke up again.

"GLENDA?"

"Pepper!" she suddenly heard Tony's panicked voice resounding in the helmet. "Pepper, are you alright?"

"Yes, Tony. I'm fine," she retorted even though she was not so sure. The image she had just seen in her head had shaken her, and the feeling of déjà vu was just getting stronger with every passing second. "I just… I lost Glenda."

"What do you mean you lost Glenda?"

"I was getting her out of here," she began as she decided to search behind the small room that held the entrance to the staircase and started walking over to it. "But the Maggia caught up with us and the suit just got here and… and…"

Her gasp was the only continuation she could give to her interrupted thought.

"And what? And, what, Pepper? Pepper? Pepper!"

Tony's voice took a back seat for her as her eyes widened in surprise. Before her stood Glenda Barnes, shaking in fear, with a gun being held to her head by none other than Jules Dyne.

"I see you got your armor," Jules said. "Why don't you make good on your promise and bust my balls now?"

Pepper narrowed her eyes at him even though he could not see her. Hitting the man now would entail hurting Glenda, too, and that was the last thing she wanted to do.

"You're even more pathetic now that you were before. Now you're using a gun AND a pregnant woman to protect you? You're nothing but trash."

"Trash that's going to take down Rescue. That's the best kind of trash."

Pepper's eyes began stinging and losing their focus. She tried to look at whatever was around her to concentrate on her task, and when her eyes landed on the back wall of the access to the staircase, she realized it was the same one she had just seen in her vision just now.

How is that possible?

A second later, she wished she had never asked.

Pepper's heart ached at seeing his concerned face, brow knitted in deep concentration, a dejected aura beaming all around him. She was aware of how much – in general – the feelings of guilt and personal accountability affected Tony. Even though he was usually laid-back, his sense of responsibility was greater than what she had seen on anyone else before, especially someone so young. She figured it came with the burden of being a superhero, and the brief period of time in his life where his father was considered long gone. Everyone who saw Tony from the glamorous point of view of a rising celebrity did not immediately become aware that for a period of almost two years of his life, the poor boy had been an orphan – rich, but still an orphan.

The redhead took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, catching the attention of the genius. She finally gave him one of her honest bright smiles as she leaned down to his face and kissed his exposed cheek.

"I'm not mad at you, Tony. I'm sorry I snapped so easily. I should've known you'd never purposefully do anything to bring me any harm. I'm sorry, too."

Pepper's hands flew to her head when the pain became unbearable. What is this? What's happening to me?

"What's going on, Rescue?" Jules mocked when he saw her begin to wobble. "Getting cold feet all of a sudden? Didn't you promise me some pain?"

Pepper felt her legs grow weak, and not even the cries for help from Glenda helped her stay aware. In seconds, hundreds of images hit her like a ton of bricks; images of her and Tony together, talking, hugging, kissing. Images of her last weeks of high school she did not recognize. Images of Whitney blaming her for Tony leaving her while torturing her. Images of Tony coming to get her here, at this same location, under the same weather conditions, right before an argument between them began.

Images, memories; memories she now knew she had forgotten.

"Everyone's worried about you," Iron Man told her. "Especially your dad."

"You mean my adopted dad?" she spat with more venom that she thought she could muster when speaking about the man that had raised her, practically by himself, since she was just a baby. "Did my fake mom ask about me, too?"

"She doesn't know you ran off, and she doesn't need to find out about it, either."

"I'm not going back home, Tony. You can forget about that."

"I… I ran off?"

"Pepper?" Tony called on the helmet when he realized her vitals were going haywire. "Pepper!"

"Who is she talking to?" Jules asked no one in particular, but his confusion did not make him lose his grip on the sobbing, pregnant girl.

"Go away, Tony. Let me be."

"Is that really what you want?"

"Y-yes," she said as steadily as she could, angrily wiping tears from her face.

"And if I leave, then what? Are you going to call me?"

"No," she answered immediately. "I'm not going to call you."

"Ever?" he asked, and when she shook her head at him, he spoke again. "Then, I'm staying."

"NO!" She walked closer to him. "I didn't ask you to come find me, you know?"

"But you wanted me to find you. Otherwise you wouldn't have come here, where you knew I could find you: to our hideout."

"Our hideout… this… is our hideout…"

"Pepper, what are you doing?" Tony insisted as he sped up to reach her location. "Pepper, calm down! You're going to give yourself a heart attack!"

"Dammit, Pepper!" he threw his hands in the air. "What do you want me to do? Break up with you? Will that make you happy? Is that what you want? This doesn't have to be this hard, you know? Your dad is worried sick about you. We all are. We want you back, Pepper. We spent the entire day looking for you: me, my dad, Rhodey, Roberta and your dad. They're ready to start again in a few hours. Do you want me to just leave you alone and tell them you don't care enough about them to come back? Is that what you want me to do for you?"

"No."

"Do you want me to get on my knees and beg?"

"Of course not!"

"Then what, Pepper? What do you want?"

"I DON'T KNOW! I… I just want everything to go back to the way it was a few days ago. Before my mom showed up. Before I found out I'm adopted. Before the trouble at school. Before you told me that… that you… before we…"

"AAAAHHH!"

"PEPPPERRR!"

The ginger fell to her knees, weakened in her confusion and, at that exact moment, Jules took a shot at her head. The bullet bounced off thanks to the helmet, but he tried again and again until he ran out of shots, leaving Rescue even more disoriented and dizzy than she already was. Now out of options and weapons, Jules did the only thing he could think to do: he charged at the distraught hero, pregnant woman in tow. He knew that Iron Man was coming here to kill him for laying a finger on his woman, and this was his only chance to do something about taking down the woman he could not submit to him. This was his only chance to cause pain to the male armored vigilante.

"Ugh!"

The trio suddenly became a tangled mess of limbs: Jules trying to get to Pepper; Glenda trying her best to stop him; and Pepper trying to figure out where she was, why these images kept hitting her so hard and wobbling all over the place.

How had she forgotten all of this? No one had told her she had forgotten her own past! Why had no one cared to mention a great chunk of her memories had been practically locked away in her mind?

One by one, the memories that had been so carefully edited and reconstructed began undoing themselves, finally culminating in the memory that had all the answers for her, a memory that she had never actually forgotten, but which now had a greater significance than she had thought: the memory that told her why she had forgot.

"Anyway," Gene cleared his throat. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's going to be painful, Pepper."

"Yeah, well," she shrugged. "It's worse not knowing I've got Ghost as my physical therapist."

"True, but I'm not kidding about the pain. This is going to hurt, a lot."

Pepper sighed. "This is what I want, Gene. Just, try to make it quick, alright?"

"Alright," Gene sighed. "Let's do it. Stark, you know what to do."

"Yeah," Tony said and stood up. He then led Pepper to the middle of the room and had her sit on the stool he had just vacated. He left the compress on the table and returned to stand behind her, ready to catch her if she fell during the process.

"Close your eyes," Gene told the ginger and she did so, and then rested her hands on her lap. "Clear your mind. Take a deep breath… and…"

Gene placed his left hand on her head and she immediately screamed.

The pain she was feeling was like no other she had felt before. It felt as if her brain was being put apart and new patterns were being carved with a jagged rock before being nailed back together. Her fingernails were digging into her skin and her entire body tensed, and just when she thought she could not handle it anymore, she felt someone's arms keeping her from falling off the stool.

"It's alright, Pepper," Tony whispered to her as he kept her in place. "It'll be over soon. It'll all be over soon."

"No," she sobbed. "He… he couldn't… he wouldn't!"

"Pepper, watch out!" Glenda's scream snapped her back to reality, only to realize the three of them were now reaching the edge of the building.

"NO!"

The redhead screamed when she felt Jules slip in a puddle, causing the three of them to flip back and go over the ledge and plummet down the building. Pepper's mind was jumbled and her senses were shot, thwarting her ability to think clearly and quickly enough to immediately do anything about their fall. Nevertheless, she knew that she would survive the fall thanks to the suit, but Jules and Glenda would have no such luck.

No, Pepper thought with as much determination as she could muster. I can't let that happen!

She forced her eyes open and stared at the terrified face of Glenda Barnes, which gave her the last push she needed to focus enough to verbally override security protocol 7871. She knew she should have used the shields, she knew she could have done many other things, but after realizing what Gene and Tony had done to her behind her back, after realizing what she had given up to be with a lying Tony and all the lives she had ruined doing so, and as the memories continued to painfully ransack her senses, body and mind, she could not make herself care enough to save them all.

"Passcode?" the AI replied.

"Mister…" she struggled to speak as the intensity of the memory reconfiguration undoing itself caused her muscles to spam against her will. "Mister Tony Potts 503. Lock… on target… at 2 o'clock!"

"What are you doing, Pepper? PEPPER!"

Tony Stark screamed when he saw the three bodies about to hit the ground. He boosted his speed faster than he thought possible, but it was not fast enough to prevent what was about to come. In seconds that ticked by both quickly and slowly, his worst nightmare became true before his eyes.

"Transfer X-51 onto target, NOW!"

The suit immediately responded to Pepper's command and it freed its user from the protection it provided. The suit immediately enveloped the other woman, adjusted to her pregnant body, and kept her in the air just as two bodies hit the ground with a loud thump. The last thing that crossed Pepper's mind was a conversation between her and Gene.

"Was it really that terrible, what happened to me?"

"It was uncalled for, to say the least. And if you ever feel like it's not worth living with the truth, I want you to look at this box and hold it, and remember that you still have longevity in your hands."

Sadly, Pepper was not currently holding the box.

---

A/N: Yeah, so I typically don't write young characters sleeping together but for this story I figured 'What the hell?' They've suffered enough and they've known each other for three years and they're both consenting adults now. Sorry if the implication of it bothered you. Either way, they deserved a little bit of happiness before I kill Pepper, or Tony, or both, or neither, or write whatever other devious thought comes to mind ;) What do you think?