Pepper was a frantic mess when she couldn't get into Tony's house and he hadn't been answering the phone. She called Rhodes hysterically crying asking him to come and see if his code still worked. He said to calm down and he was on his way. When he got there the door opened no problem.
"Tony?" she called as she looked around in every room.
She ran upstairs and he wasn't in his bed. It didn't even look slept in. She checked the extra bedrooms and then she hurried down the stairs and Rhodes was coming up from his workshop.
"The suit is gone," he said.
"Rhodey what if something happened to him. He had already drank quite a few scotch when I got here" she said.
"Jarvis do you have a location on Tony?" she asked.
But there was no reply. It looks like Jarvis was sleeping.
"It's going to be ok Pepper. I'm going to check to see if we caught any blips on the radar back at the base" he said.
"I don't know what to do. I have the notary coming. We need his fingerprint to transfer the company" she said.
"You'll have to cancel it for now until we can find him," Rhodes said.
Pepper felt a rage wash over her. She was never angrier in her life and then Jarvis switched on suddenly.
"Can you locate Mr. Stark?" she asked.
"It appears he is in Big Bear, California" the AI informed him.
"Oh well that's nice. He decided to take a little vacation when I don't even own the company yet" she muttered.
"Mr. Stark already took care of the fingerprinting on his end. All you need to do is sign" Jarvis said.
"Can you get him on the line?" she asked.
"I'll try"
Pepper waited and there was no answer. She was livid.
"Why is he doing this to me?" she said to no one.
"Is he ok?" she asked.
"He has several contusions, a broken rib and he's still intoxicated "Jarvis informed her.
"I'm going to kill him," Rhodes said.
Tony opened his eyes and his head was splitting. He was still inside the suit.
"Jarvis what the hell happened?"
"You had a crash landing. You've got a broken rib and several contusions" Jarvis informed him.
"What happened to my safety protocols?" he asked.
"You ordered me to shut them off" the A.I. responded.
"Where am I?" he asked as he clutched at his ribs.
"Big Bear,California"
"I wasn't supposed to survive. I'm done Jarvis. I need to know what to do. How much do I need to drink? How hard do I need to crash? I don't want to feel anything because I'm too much of a chicken shit. Pepper gets the company, all my properties she gets everything with a chunk for Happy and a chunk for Rhodes" he said.
"Sir it is my job to advise you that Miss Potts and Colonel Rhodes are at your residence and they are angry,"
"I need to get back and patch up this rib. I'll go in through the garage"
"Set me on autopilot" Tony said.
…..
Rhodes was at the base checking the radar when he heard a conversation going on off to his left that caught his attention.
"So get this my friend Chris bet Trevor Mooreland that he couldn't bang Tony Stark's assistant Pepper and I just got a text from Chris that he did it. Tony Stark is the man and he couldn't bang his assistant after all these years. Imagine that" one of the pilots said.
"What did he win in the bet?" another pilot asked.
"Ten grand" he said.
"Holy shit. I'll bang her for ten grand" the first guy said.
"Apparently her pussy is so hot that he's decided to stick around. He was going to ghost her afterwards but now he's going to stick around"
Rhodes felt his heart sink. Pepper was clearly in love with this asshole and Tony was being an asshole to her because he didn't know how to cope with the fact that she loved someone that wasn't him. Pepper never dated anyone, she never had the time. She avoided it because the guys were always assholes just trying to get laid and she finally gave dating a chance and another asshole fucked her over but this time she was in love with him. Rhodes knew that the first thing he had to do was tell Tony and then he'd have to tell Pepper the truth.
Tony came through the garage hoping to avoid Pepper or Rhodes. Lucky for him his workshop was empty. He got himself out of his suit and he stripped off his neoprene to look at his ribs which were in excruciating pain. He dragged himself over to his medical bench and had Dum-E and You patch him up.
"Miss Potts is approaching" Jarvis informed him.
The mention of her name caused deep pain in his heart again. Tony ignored Jarvis and continued to do what he was doing because Pepper wouldn't be able to get in. Her fingerprint access and her code was officially deactivated.
"Anthony Stark you let me in this room right now" she yelled.
"No can do," he said avoiding looking at her.
"Jarvis please override the protocols and let me in," she said.
"Jarvis don't you dare" he said.
"Overriding protocols now. Miss Potts is in distress"
"She's in distress. What about me? Traitor" Tony yelled.
Pepper burst through the door angrily and marched over to Tony.
"How could you do this to me? You lock me out of your house and then you go out and try and kill yourself" she screamed at him.
"You don't work for me anymore so you have no reason to be here. Why are you here Pepper?" Tony asked wanting her to leave him alone so he could just either move on or die in peace.
"How could you say that to me? After all these years I'm just your former PA. Do you think that I wouldn't be devastated if something happened to you? Do you even know what I went through for those three months?" Pepper said trying to steady her composure.
She was shaking and trying to stop her tears from falling.
"You know Tony you're not even worth my tears. You have so little respect for me that you would do something like this to me. You're right, you haven't changed at all. Have a nice life" she said storming out of his workshop.
Tony had put so many walls up around his heart for the last twenty-four hours that he didn't care at all. He waited until he heard the door slam and then he went upstairs to get some scotch.
Pepper got home and collapsed on her bed. She couldn't pull herself together even for Trevor. He was coming over. She wiped her eyes and tried her best to conceal the puffiness. She even put some visine in to stop the redness but nothing seemed to work. She stripped out of her work clothes and put on her comfy sweats and a t-shirt. The bell rang and she opened the door for Trevor.
"Sorry I'm such a mess today. Come in"
"You're far from a mess. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the other night" he said as he leaned down to kiss her.
"What's wrong? Have you been crying?" he asked as he suddenly noticed her eyes.
"Me and Tony are through" she said trying not to burst into tears again.
"Wait what do you mean? You don't work for him anymore?" Trevor asked.
"No. He gave me the company. I'm CEO of Stark Industries. But that's not what this is about. He locked me out of his house. He deactivated all my codes and fingerprint access overnight. He went out flying around drunk in the suit and thinks that if he died I wouldn't care that he died. He has no respect for me whatsoever" Pepper said as she collapsed into his arms.
"It's ok. I'm sorry Pepper. I know you guys were close"
Tony poured a big scotch and he looked at the bottle of Xanax he had in front of him. He contemplated taking it and ending it all. He was all cozy in his bed. He sipped more scotch and twirled the bottle around in his fingers.
"Jarvis can you bring up the pictures of Pepper from my private server?"
Tony swiped through his pictures of Pepper from through the years and he felt tears in his eyes.
"Why did I have to love you Potts? It's like a sick joke. I finally stop using women for my pleasure and I see what's right in front of me and she falls for someone else" he said aloud.
"We need to talk" Rhodes said as he walked into Tony's bedroom.
"Rhodey please just go. I'm trying to get the courage to do this and I can't do it with you here"
"What kill yourself?" Rhodey asked as he snatched the xanax out of Tony's hands.
Tony made a move to protest but decided against it.
"How coherent are you right now? We need to talk about something important"
"Like maybe forty percent" he said.
"Well that's going to have to be enough because this can't wait"
"What is it?" Tony asked exasperatedly as he continued to stare at the pictures of Pepper on his server.
"I went to the base today and I heard some guys talking. Trevor only went after Pepper because his friend bet him that he couldn't nail her if you couldn't. He got paid ten grand after he slept with Pepper" Rhodes said.
Tony sat up suddenly.
"She's in love with him," Tony said quietly.
He was still trying to process what Rhodey had just told him.
"I know what a piece of shit this guy is"
"Maybe it's better she never knows. She's going to be heartbroken" Tony said trying to think logically.
He couldn't bear Pepper being in anymore pain.
"Are you serious? Tony don't you love this woman?"
"I've dug my own grave with Pepper. She told me to have a nice life and she marched out of here. Telling her about him isn't going to make her love me so why break her heart for no reason? She loves him and she's happy so let it be. I'm just going to disappear quietly. I can't do this anymore. I can't have her in my life while she's with someone else. It's too painful"
"You're an idiot Tony. Don't you want to beat the shit out of these guys? I do" Rhodes said.
"I don't want to do anything that's going to cause Pepper anymore pain or heartbreak. She deserves to be happy"
"Tony she's in agony right now. She text me a half hour ago and asked me to make sure you don't kill yourself. She said she's angry with you but she misses you"
"She did? She said she missed me?" Tony asked with a renewed hope.
Rhodes showed him the text.
"Don't say anything about the bet just yet. I need to get Pepper in my good graces first" he said.
"Can I trust if I leave you won't try and kill yourself in the next twenty four hours?"
"Let me sleep this off and I'll be good as new" Tony said as he turned over to go to sleep.
He needed Pepper to listen to him. There was no other way.
