A/N: I'm going to assume that by the crickets I got for the last chapter, some of you are REALLY mad at me. It will get better, I promise. Please, be patient. This story will be wrapping up soon, and I'm thinking of a sequel, less angsty than this one. If you're still on board for this story, I thank you very much

Chapter 10

Tony sat in front of the television in the living room of Stark Tower, bottle of scotch in his hands –his third one in the past two hours. It had taken him less than 24 hours to place a cease and desist order to all mass media outlets for the use of the tape, but by then other minor social media sites had already downloaded, edited and distributed the tape for everyone else who had missed its first broadcast to see.

The insult on the couple had been even greater when the screens at Times Square had suddenly stopped showing the newscast to display his marriage proposal to Pepper; by then neither of them had the will to discuss a wedding. Pepper was in tears, covering her face and trying to control her sobbing. Tony was in shock, holding onto her but not knowing what to do or say.

The cab that had taken them home after the display could not have come any faster; suddenly their world had been shifted again on what he had expected to be the best day of his life. The moments after they had arrived back home were a blur to him. He felt as if they had been caught in a terrible nightmare from which you wake up terrified, but you cannot for the life of you describe which particular situation in the dream made you so scared.

Here he was now; a week after the sex tape scandal, on a day in which they should have been rejoicing the paternity tests confirming Tony's right to his kids, and he was drinking himself to sleep. Last night, Pepper had moved out to a nearby hotel, stating her shame was too great to be around him, and that she needed some time alone. He had insisted that he did not give a rat's ass if she had slept with Killian or not, but she had not listened. After seeing her nervous breakdown for a few days, he reluctantly accepted her wishes to take some time off.

She had left him; and, she had pretty much broken up with him, too, for all he knew. Who would have wanted to stay with a man that caused nothing but trouble to anyone around him? He sure as hell did not want to be that man, but after listing the horrible things that had happened to his friends, he felt he had no right to force them to stick around him if they felt they'd had enough.

At least he knew where she was, and after giving her a few days to calm down he would search for her again, explain to her that their life was not over. Tell her that he still loved her as much as he did yesterday, maybe even more. Tell her that they would move on from this, just as they had many times before. He was going to make it his goal to convince her that as long as they were together, nothing could bring them down, no matter how hard anyone tried; no matter how many people did not want to see them being happy together.

He knew, however, the true reason why she had left. It had not been just the embarrassment of the recording of such an intimate moment with someone other than Tony. She had left because his attitude toward her had changed once they returned home from Times Square. She had misread his actions and had confused them with feelings of anger, hate, distrust, and, above all, repulsion to herself.

By the time he had figured out what he had inadvertently communicated to her, it was too late to clear it up. She apologized to him, many, many times, even though he told her there was nothing to apologize for. She had cried for hours, locking herself in their room, leaving him out of her misery. He had sat outside their door, and with every single one of her sobs that reached his ears, he felt a stab to his chest.

After a while she had fallen asleep, and he had broken inside their room. He had picked her up from the floor and placed her on their bed, taking off her shoes and covering her with a blanket. He had stared at her for hours, berating himself for not being there for her. All he could think about was how he had wasted time in Tennessee when his first priority should have been getting to her. He had led her to this despair; his demons had become her demons.

Aldrich had known how to get to him, and it had all worked according to his plans. He had taken Tony's most precious person in his life, and had done with her as he pleased. He had poisoned her with some virus –a virus he had been happy to discover had disappeared from her DNA strands, and had taken her body, recording every moment of it as the sick bastard he had been. Pepper had said she did not remember any of it; at least not the sex part, but it did not matter if she had no recollection, her business was already out there for everyone to judge.

He knew Pepper thought he was mad at her, but he was mad at himself. She thought he hated her, but in reality he hated himself and Aldrich. She thought he could never trust her, but in fact he felt as if he could not trust himself to keep her safe. She thought he was repulsed by the fact that she had been with another man, but he was only disgusted with the notion of Pepper being taken advantage of when he was prancing around in Tennessee.

The doors of the penthouse opened to allow Happy to walk inside, making a beeline for the couch and standing next to Tony. It took only one second to snatch the bottle out of Tony's hand, grab the closest cushion and hit Tony over the head with it.

"What the HELL, Tony?"

Tony did not react to the hit other than moving his eyes to stare at his former chauffeur with a look of disdain Happy had not seen since Pepper had been presumed dead.

"Are you kidding me with this? Why aren't you with Pepper? Why did you let her leave? She needs you now more than ever!"

"I'm giving her space, Hap," he said as he stood up, wobbled when he tried to walk, and held onto the edge of the couch, feeling the lack of food was getting to him. "I failed her, again."

"Failed her? Are you joking? How did you fail her?"

"I don't think I've got to show you the tape, right?" Tony snapped at Happy, angry that he was having this conversation at all. "He took advantage of her. He…he…" Tony's rant was cut short when he picked up an empty bottle of scotch from the coffee table and threw it against the television screen, shattering both on impact.

"Sir, please calm down. You vitals show you are at risk of suffering a major break down."

"I don't care," Tony responded, kicking the coffee table and flipping it over. "It doesn't matter!"

"Sir –"

"Tony, get a hold of yourself!" Happy demanded of his boss, holding onto Tony and shaking him.

"Let me go, Hogan!"

"Not until you calm down! What good are you to Pepper if you're drunk like this? You oughta be looking for her, knocking at her door and telling her what she needs to hear. Sitting here feeling sorry for yourself is not helping anyone, the least of all you."

"I already tried that. She wouldn't listen. That's why she left, because I couldn't convince her that she still my Pepper."

"Well, try again! Did you really try so hard to get her back so that you could abandon her the moment she needed you?"

"I didn't abandon her! I…just…God, I just can't look at her when I know I can't fix her. I helped her back to consciousness, started the paperwork to get our kids back, but I can't undo what Killian did to her. I can't remove him from her."

"Is that what this is about? About another man being all over her? I thought you'd be over that by now."

"I don't care about that! I just…Pepper's hurting, and there isn't a damned thing I can do to make her forget about it. She looks at me as if I can make it all go away, but I can't, Happy. This time I just can't."

"Boss," Happy began, forcing Tony to sit down on the couch once more. "I don't think she expects you to fix her –she just wants to know you're still there."

"I am."

"Then tell her –show her."

Tony remained silent, staring into nothingness as he thought about Happy's words. He knew his friend was correct, but he also knew it was easier to give advice than to receive it. He knew their friends wanted them to get over it and move on, but there were steps to be taken to get to where they wanted to be. Everyone around them expected them to bounce right back; expected them not to grieve.

Grieve.

Grief.

Grievance.

Grievance: it was just what they needed right now. Even they were not immune to the stages of grieving. Even they were not immune to taking so many hits, so fast, and come out unscathed. Yes; grieving was they had been doing, and what they needed to continue doing to renew their bond. Shock and denial had already passed. Pain, guilt, anger and bargaining had been mixed together. Depression, reflection and loneliness were coming, and not until this stage was properly completed would he and Pepper be able to reach the upward turn, which would then lead to reconstruction, and eventually to acceptance and hope.

Acceptance; of the consequences of their actions, and hope; that it would sort itself out in the end.

Picking up his cell phone, he typed Pepper's number on the text screen. He knew calling her was not going to help, and dropping by her hotel room was not going to sit well with her in her reflection and loneliness stage. However, a few well-placed words of comfort would not hurt. A reminder that they were in this together was all he could afford to give her for now.

After sending the message, Tony called housekeeping to clean up the mess he had made, and excused himself to bathe.

xxxXXXxxx

When you're ready, I'll be waiting.

Pepper read the text message she had just received from Tony, her fingers looming over the reply option, but not finding the strength to respond. She was alone in a hotel room just a few blocks away from Stark Tower, but she felt as if she was on another planet, far away from his reach and protection. When they had returned home from Times Square, she had tried to pick up her phone and set the record straight with the media and get SI's PR Department involved in cleanup duty, but the shock had been too great for her to put on her unbreakable façade. By the time she had let out the anger she had within her, Tony had already jumped into the metaphorical kitchen and taken the heat for some of the fires that the video had sparked.

This is not what we need right now; not SI, not Tony, not I.

At this moment, Pepper would give up her kidneys for the name of the person that had released that tape. Clearly, someone was out to get her, or Tony, or both, as there was no other reason why someone would just take it upon themselves to leak the video to the world. Someone who was out for the financial stability would have approached them first, attempted to blackmail them, and demanded a lifetime of luxury in exchange for keeping the contents of the material a secret. Whoever had given or sold the tape to the media was not in it for the money; they were in on it to see them burn.

While it was without question that she and Tony had made plenty of enemies on their way up the corporate ladder, she could not think of one person with the means and knowledge to pull such a show. The person who had published the tape was not a common folk. This was someone who either had incredible luck stumbling upon high-profile materials, or had been somehow involved with the fight against Killian and the Mandarin.

Pepper's mind raced as she thought of the possibilities. Maya Hansen had died by Killian's hand. The President would have not been involved in such a scandal, and she doubted he would be as stupid as to bring attention back to himself after his Vice President was arrested for working with Aldrich. Rhodey, Happy and Tony were out of the question, and she herself had not even known she had slept with the maniac in the first place.

While she remembered Killian showing up at her hotel room and taking her and Maya to Florida, the details of her kidnapping remained obscured, for the most part. She remembered bits and pieces where she was injected with the Extremis, but the pain she experienced during it had made her pass out several times. Sometimes she would open her eyes and see Killian, other times she would see Maya, and sometimes she would only see darkness. If anyone asked her right now what had been real and what had been make-believe, she would have a difficult time listing such details to herself, let alone to anyone else.

She stared at her phone once more, tempted to put Tony's mind at ease by responding to his text message. She felt awful for leaving him as she had, but she could not stand the look on his face. Just seconds before the tape was leaked, he had been down on one knee for her. He had proposed –or the screens had, whatever. Either way it was seen, he had demonstrated the highest form of commitment any man could provide, and she had shut him down, albeit not consciously. She had not even had the chance to admire the ring, let alone give a response to him even though they both knew that the answer was going to be a big, fat 'yes.'

Hell, it still was a big, fat 'yes;' unless Tony had changed his mind since watching the tape.

I wouldn't blame him, if he did.

"Pepper, open up! It's Rhodey!" The General yelled from the other side of the door, startling the phone off Pepper's hands. She bent down to retrieve it before walking to the entrance, hesitating to open the only protection she had from the outside world. She peeked through the peephole and saw Rhodey staring right at it, his hands in the air.

"He's not with me, Pepper. Happy is taking care of him."

Realizing she had nothing to lose, she opened the door and let Rhodes in.

xxxXXXxxx

"So, that blew," Bruce said, not able to think of a better description for Tony's situation. After Tony had freshened up, Happy had surprised him with Bruce's visit. The science enthusiasts were now talking to each other, in one of the R&D laboratories, waiting for Jarvis to finish rendering the Mark VII.

"So, how does this tape justify you building a suit?" Banner asked, pointing at the almost completed Iron Man suit.

"I just want to have one in case I need it to beat up a new face on the guy who leaked the tape," Tony offered, believing every single word he had just said.

"Right, because violence solves everything."

"It'd help me sleep better at night," he shrugged, wrinkling his nose as he did so.

"And Pepper's opinion on this?"

Tony's eyes darted to either side of him, feeling as if she was going to jump him any moment to smack him upside the head. When he was certain it was just the two of them in the lab, he cleared his throat and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "She doesn't know."

"Well, that sounds foolproof," Banner responded sarcastically.

"Really?"

"No. Stupid; that's how it sounds: stupid."

"Ye have no faith," Tony said, staring at his watch and determining the rendition had only one hour to go. "Anyway, I'm gonna give her a couple more days and then I'm gonna knock on her door until she opens it. I'm bringing her back and I'm going to propose to her, again. This time, though, it will be from the sacred privacy of the penthouse."

"I'm sure you learned that lesson, so how about this lesson? Since you're gonna do something stupid, why don't you buy Pepper something nice in advance," Bruce offered as he noticed a magazine on the table. He leaned forward and grabbed it, opening it to whatever page showed a pair of shoes and showed it to Tony, who immediately scoffed at the suggestion.

"These heels are nice, right?" Bruce asked as he pointed to a particular pair on the page.

"Come on, Banner! First of all, those are pumps, not heels. Second of all, they are so last year, Bruce! Today's trend is-s-s…what?" Tony asked, cutting his explanation short when Bruce's eyebrows hit the roof.

"Are you seriously giving me shoe advice, Stark?"

"I…uhm…mighta read…you know, Cosmo to Pepper when she…when she…was asleep…"

"Riiiight…" Banner said, dropping the magazine back where he had found it. "So, do you have any idea who made this tape?"

"Killian, for sure. We weren't able to get a hold of the original video until a couple of hours ago when my lawyers were able to win it from the channel that started showing it."

"What are you going to do with it?"

"Destroy it, and then look for any copy I can find and do the same."

"Actually, sir, regarding the status of the tape…" the AI began, almost hesitant to relay the information to its creator. "I took the liberty of analyzing it. I just finished the task and I would like to show you the final results."

"What final results, Jarvis? I told you to get rid of it!"

"I understand, sir. However, my system picked up some unusual reads from its contents. I think you will be happy with the results."

Tony and Bruce looked at each other, asking the other with their confused looks what Jarvis could be talking about. A moment later, one of the screens on the lab turned on to show the results of the original video. Both men walked closer to the screen, their mouths hanging as they read Jarvis's final analysis of the tape: the video was a fake.

xxxXXXxxx

Tony left Banner and Happy behind with a list of tasks to complete before taking the regular elevator to the first floor of the Tower. Now that they knew and had evidence that the tape had been altered, Tony's lawyers had grounds to demand a massive apology and retraction from the media, as well as prosecute anyone who distributed the tape. He felt like an idiot for not considering that Killian would doctor a video when he knew he had doctored all of the Mandarin's tapes.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

The elevator was as slow as hell for him, stopping at almost all floors. He had let his attorneys take his executive elevator to get to his penthouse faster and start making phone calls after discussing the findings with Happy, Bruce and Jarvis. He trusted them all to pull some strings and scare the appropriate parties into submission. Tony would make sure that whoever had ruined his proposal, and Pepper's life for a week, was going to pay for the rest of their insignificant existence.

Tony put on his sunglasses even though it was becoming dark outside. He did not want to be bothered as he rode the public elevator, opting to face the corner of it and pretending to play with his phone. Employees walked in and out without so much as stealing a glance at their CEO, more concerned with the notion of finally heading home for the day. Tony tuned out their conversations until a particularly loud one caught his interest.

"I'm telling you, man, Potts knows how to fuck," a young man told his friend as they boarded the elevator.

"Dude," the other young man who was being addressed said. "Lower your voice; there's people in here."

"So, what? I'm sure by now everyone saw her do that guy Killian. She's got some moves, I tell you."

The man who was trying to redirect the conversation became visibly uncomfortable with his friend's behavior, giving apologetic smiles to the other ten business people inside the elevator. "Yes, she does, but can we talk about this some other time…for example, never?"

"Don't be such a pussy! Like, you don't jerk yourself to the video at night? I mean, who wouldn't? No wonder she has Stark wrapped around her dirty finger. She's probably been blowing him all the time she's worked for him."

"Derek, just, please…"

"What? I already thought she was hot, but seeing what she can do, well…I'm tempted to go up to her floor and put a little something in her drink, you know what I mean?" Derek said as he made an obscene gesture with his hips. His display was interrupted by a collective gasp. The moment the doors opened, everyone in the elevator with the exception of Derek exited it in a hurry. Derek noticed there were other floors selected on the panel and frowned.

"Yo, Rick, this is the wrong floor!"

Rick shook his head to Derek before turning around and disappearing with the crowd. The elevator doors closed as Derek scoffed.

"What's the big deal? I'd fuck her, too," he mumbled as the corner of his eye caught the presence of someone standing behind him. He turned around and was about to continue his rant with the guest when the man took off his sunglasses that had been resting halfway down the bridge of his nose, making Derek's blood drain to the floor.

"Mr. Stark?"

Tony's only response was to look at the security camera for an instant before returning his gaze at the blanched out man.

"Jarvis, hold the elevator."

xxxXXXxxx

Half an hour later, Tony was inside another elevator as he headed upstairs to Pepper's hotel room. He had tried calling her but she was not answering, and neither was Rhodey. After checking with the reception to confirm she had not checked out yet –and convincing the clerk to give him a spare copy of the keycard to Pepper's room, he had tried calling them once more to warn them he was on his way. After he received no response once more, his excitement was too great and had made him feel that running the risk of seeing her before she was ready for him was worth the shot.

He tapped the walls of the elevator all the way up to the 15th floor. As soon as the doors opened, Tony ran out of the machine, almost impacting himself with a service cart that had been waiting outside. Tony apologized to the startled maintenance person before he stood in the middle of the hall, looking left and right until he determined that Pepper's room would be on the left. He picked up the pace and did not stop until he reached the last room on the right; almost not able to contain his joy to tell Pepper everything was going to be alright.

He straightened out his jacket and cleared his throat before knocking loudly on the door.

"Pepper! Rhodey! It's me! Open up!"

He waited a few seconds and when no response was heard, he knocked again, this time with both hands. "Pepper! I've got great news! The tape is a fake! Open up, please!"

He waited a couple more seconds and pounded on the door for a third time. "Open up, Platypus! I'm not joking! The tape was doctored!"

Tony sighed as he took out the keycard and unlocked the door when no noise was heard after his third attempt. He turned on the light as he walked inside only to gasp at the scene. The disarray of the room combined with the blood stains on the carpet and bed sheets did not add up to what he had expected to see. Yet, the bigger shock that sprung him into action came from the body that was lying on the floor.

A/N: Thank you for not hating me that much! Here is another exciting chapter as this story comes close to its end. So, Pepper's video was a fake and the kids are Tony's…Oh, happy day! Right? Right? Oh, the body, yeah…about that…what do you think is gonna happen next?