Chapter 13

"Pepper, why don't you and I go upstairs for a minute," JC said as she set down the screwdriver and took several slow steps toward the startled assistant. In all the excitement, JC hadn't thought of what might happen if Pepper were to walk in during the mission.

"It's not what you think," Tony piped in. JC rolled her eyes. That was probably the worst thing he could have said right now.

"Not what I think?" Pepper asked incredulously. "I think my boss is responsible for blowing up a terrorist camp half way across the world. Or is that just a coincidence?"

"You," JC said, pointing toward Stark, "worry about getting out of that thing. Pepper, let's go upstairs." She took Pepper by the arm and gently led her upstairs to the living room.

"Do not try to coddle me," Pepper snapped when they finally made it up the stairs. "I stood by while you guys utterly destroyed the house," she fumed, motioning toward the broken baby grand piano that had died when Tony went through the roof. "I was hoping that whatever this crazy thing was would be good for Tony, that maybe he was heading into a good direction; and I figured you, being a logical, sane human being, would keep him from doing something too radical. But what I just saw down there is insane!"

"It is not insane, Pepper," JC said calmly.

"Not insane?" she exclaimed. "My boss is flying around the world shooting missiles and God only knows what else, and people are shooting back at him! I know what I saw down there. Why would you let him do this? What were you thinking?"

"Pepper, he saved lives today. This is a good thing, maybe the best thing he's ever done. How can you say that it's a bad thing?"

"Oh, my god," she said, throwing her hands up. "I can't believe I am hearing this from you, of all people. You are just as crazy as he is."

"What was he supposed to do, Pepper? He can't trust Stane, the man who is trying to steal his company from him. Bad guys are ending up with his guns somehow, and I'm seriously doubting it's all from thieves and black markets. Someone had to do something, and no one else was willing to help him."

"This is not helping him! Feeding him this delusion that he's some kind of superhero is going to get him killed. I can't stay and watch this." With that she stormed toward the door.

"Pepper, wait." The last thing they needed was Pepper calling the cops–or worse, Phil Coulson. They'd take away the armor and either arrest or institutionalize Tony, maybe both.

"I'm not going to turn you in, if that's what you're worried about," she said as she neared the door. "I just need time to think away from all this."

JC let her go after that. It was a lot to take in, she knew that for sure. The ultimate question was whether or not Pepper would ever get on board with it all. Of that, JC wasn't so sure. With nothing else that could be done about Pepper, she went back down to check on Tony.

He was no longer on the assembly system, so he must have finally gotten the armor off. It wasn't until she heard sounds from the bathroom that she remembered his urgency for wanting to get out of the suit. He came out a few minutes later in a pair of sweat pants and tank top.

"Feel better?" she teased.

"Much. How's Pepper?"

"She's...going to need some time," she said as she surveyed his body. Small circular bruises dotted his arms and neck where the larger caliber bullets had made contact. And judging by the way he was walking, his body was going to be very sore for several days. "Here," she said as she grabbed the bottle of painkillers from the kitchen area and handed him several pills along with some water. "You'll want to take those every few hours for the next day or two. It won't cure everything, but it'll help. And hydrate. Your body wasn't trained to handle that kind of torture for that long."

He rolled his eyes as he downed the pills, wincing at the small movement of lifting his arms. It wasn't something that was going to get better without more care than a few pills.

"Come here, sit down," she ordered, pointing to the couch as she sat on the table in front of it. He eyed her cautiously as he moved to do what she said. "Give me your hand." Now he looked terrified.

"Why?" he asked, and he gripped his water bottle.

"What do you think I'm going to do? Break your fingers? Just give me your hand," she ordered, holding out her hand.

He still eyed her warily but slowly offered up his hand for her. She took it gently to try to put him at ease before she grabbed his hand with both of hers and started massaging the palm of his hand. He let out a loud groan before relaxing into it as she slowly work her way up his arm.

"Feeling better?" she asked with a smirk.

"Yes," he moaned. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"You pick up a few things about physical therapy in my line of work. Your muscles are already tightening up," she said as she moved to his other arm. "This will help loosen them, reduce the amount of pain you'll have. It'll also keep you from crying like a baby tomorrow."

"I do not cry like a baby," he said with an affronted look.

"After today, I'd be surprised if you didn't. Lay down, take your shirt off," she told him as she finished his arms.

"What for?"

"You hit a jet, remember? I need to see how bad you look."

He complied, wincing as he lifted his shirt up and off. More of the circular bullet bruises darted his torso, but the one she was most concerned about was the large one across his shoulders from where the wing and hit him. Despite the abuse to his body, she had to admit he was well built. It wasn't like she had never noticed his trim physique before. She had seen him shirtless plenty of times before in the cave, but this felt different. Maybe it was because he was different. This wasn't the same man from three months ago or even a year ago. Tony had become something more, not just as a person but as a friend to her, and it was starting to get to the point that she couldn't ignore it anymore. The old Tony was someone she never would have opened up to, not in a million years. But this new version of Tony was someone that she found she could respect…maybe even something more.

No, that was ridiculous. They could never be anything more than friends. Changed or not, Tony wasn't the type of guy you got serious with, and that was someone she needed. Besides that, Tony wasn't someone she could see as a parental figure for Darren. As much as she might have liked the idea of having some fun dating someone like Tony, she didn't get to have the luxury of fun. No, she would have to be content with just friendship. And right now her friend needed her.

When he was finally lying face down on the ground she continued massaging, starting at his neck and carefully working down his back, being careful not to agitate his bruises. His groans of pleasure occasionally turned into laughing fits as she rubbed a particularly large knot in his muscles. As she made her way down to his legs, he was finally able to get ahold of himself and said, "So are you ever going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?" she asked absently as she tried to focus on her job.

"Our deal, remember? I survived, so now you have to tell me. Why did you agree to help me?"

She had hoped he would have given up on that. Who was she kidding? This was Tony Stark. He was like a dog with a bone. He did not give up something when he really wanted it.

"You didn't really give me a choice. It was help you or get out of your way, and we both know you doing that by yourself would have been a bad idea."

"Okay, that's the cop out answer. Now, what's the truth?"

"Why does there have to be another reason? You were going to do it with or without my help, and while I probably could have stopped you temporarily, you would have just tried again the first time I left you alone for more than five minutes. Sure, you might have done okay with JARVIS as a copilot, but you needed someone with a tactical background, someone with instincts in a fight."

It wasn't the whole truth, but it was all she was comfortable admitting to him. The truth was, she had wished she could have been there by his side getting justice for what happened to Yinsen. He had offered to make her a suit, but she knew her body would not have been able to handle that kind of abuse. There was also the fact that it was her job to keep him safe, and since she couldn't stop him, she did what she could to make sure he was monitored and walked through any potential hazards. More than that, she believed in him. She believed in what they were doing and knew that this was always where the project was leading to.

And there it was. She believed in Tony Stark. There was something she had never thought was possible. When she had said something similar to the doctor at the military base in Afghanistan, she hadn't completely believed those words. A part of her wanted to, but her own bias against him held her back from fully committing to that idea. Now that she had finally admitted it to herself, did she dare ever tell him?

"Fine," he said with a sigh as he rolled over to his back and sat up. "You're still a terrible liar, though."

"I happen to be an excellent liar when the situation demands it. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to call my son and take a shower, and not necessarily in that order. Try not to blow anything up until I get back," she said and stood to go back upstairs.

He rolled his eyes as he took another gulp of water.

"Oh, and put some ice on that shoulder," she called back and took the stairs two at a time.

Deciding that it would be better to call Darren first, she pulled out her cellphone after getting to the guestroom. After the third ring, he finally picked up.

"Hey, Mom," he said disinterestedly.

"Hey, Darren. Just wanted to let you know we just landed. I still have to get Stark back home and settled in before I can get back though, which means it'll probably be a couple hours, knowing Stark." That would give her plenty of time to shower then help Tony start on the repairs before needing to be home.

"Fine, I'm just gonna order a pizza. See you later, Mom," he said then hung up before she could get a proper goodbye in.

She hated lying to him like that. Winning her bet with Tony was supposed to make her life easier. She was supposed to be using her leverage to spend more time with Darren, maybe even slowing down progress on the suit. But with the successful test of the suit in combat, there was no slowing down its progress now. There were some refinements to be made, though that would hardly be enough to slow down Stark for long. Even though he suggested they take time off to figure out how to locate the weapons, she already knew that it wouldn't take much ingenuity on either of their parts to come up with a solution. What then? How long could she keep lying to her son about what she was really doing?

Trying to put that thought to the side, she quickly showered and changed into a pair of sweats from one of the drawers in the guest room. She made a mental note that if she was going to keep staying over, she should probably bring over her own clothes.

When she got back down to the basement, Stark was working on hoisting the torso half of the armor up, with legs hanging beside it. He had even managed to tape a gel ice pack to shoulder. At least he had taken her advice on that.

"Okay, where are we starting?" she asked as she surveyed the damaged armor. It was actually in fairly good condition considering what it had been through, but there were still marks from the higher caliber bullets and part of the back of the armor had been severely damaged from the impact with the jet.

"We're not starting anywhere until I can get some replacement parts, and they won't be ready for at least a day or two," Tony said as he secured the torso piece in place. "You might as well go home. The only thing I can get done for now is run some diagnostics."

"I'll stay and help with that. I've got a couple hours before I have to get back. What do you need?" She went over to the computer to start pulling up the diagnostic menus.

"JC," Tony chided as he pulled her away from the console. "I've stolen you for long enough. Go home, see your son. I know that's where you'd rather be right now."

Was it? After the past two conversations she'd had with her son on the phone, she wasn't so sure she wanted to face that. She had thought it would have been easier to pick up where they had left off, but they had both changed. And while they had one good day together, there was still something not quite right, like they were both trying so desperately to be something that they weren't anymore. That was ridiculous. Darren was still her son, and no matter what she was still his mother. That was never going to change. So why did it feel like it had?

"I'm not going to say that you're right, but there is some place I do need to be. Get some rest and call me when the parts come in?"

"JC–"

"This is not up for debate. Rest and call me. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said with a mock salute.

She was fairly certain that she could get around him not calling about the parts. It wasn't as if he could just jet off in the suit without her finding out one way or another. However, he really did need to rest or he wasn't going to be moving for at least a week. It was a bit underhanded what she had planned, but this was Tony Stark she was dealing with. She went back to the kitchen area and grabbed the bottle of painkillers for show, but reached into her pocket to grab a few pills of her own.

"Here, take a few more," she said, handing him the pills.

"Isn't there such a thing as overdosing?" he questioned as he eyed the pills.

"I didn't give you a full dose last time. You'll be fine, and believe me, you'll need it."

He gave a pained shrug and downed the pills. It wouldn't be too long before he started to feel the effects, so she was going to have to move fast.

"Now, you get to bed and rest," she and gently grabbed him by the arm and started herding toward the elevator. She had thought of it as being unnecessary in a home like this, but she was grateful for it at the moment.

"You're being really pushy, you know," he said as he tried to pull away from her. "I'm fine. I'll get some rest when…" He stopped as he put his hand to his head and blinked a few times. It had worked a little faster than she had anticipated. "Maybe I shouldn't be going to bed. I think that jet hit my head more than I thought."

JC took advantage of his momentary distraction to get him into the elevator and hit the button for the bedroom level.

"The jet didn't hit your head, Tony. You're not concussed."

"Then why does my head…feel…fuzzy?" His words were coming a bit slower. "And my arm…it's…getting tingly." He stared at her intensely as he tried to focus on her. "What…the hell…did you give me?"

"Just some Tylenol 3," she said innocently as she willed the damn elevator to move faster.

"Tylenol doesn't…make my…brain…fuzzy." He was starting to get unsteady as he tried to hold onto the railing.

"Tylenol doesn't," she agreed as the doors finally opened and she ushered him out of the elevator. "But Tylenol 3 has a little more of a kick with some codeine."

He leaned on her for support as they made their way down the hall toward his room. He looked very confused before finally coming up with a response. "You drugged me. Never took you…for the…illicit drug…type."

"It's only illicit if you don't have a prescription, which I do."

When she finally got him the room she let him gently fall down onto the bed. He was still trying to fight it as he held up an accusatory finger. "That's…low."

"You need rest and better pain relief. And don't worry, you're not overdosed on anything. I was careful," she said as she pulled his legs up and brought the sheets up over his torso.

"Yell…later. Can't…think," he groaned as he rolled over.

She smirked as she finished tucking him in and ordered the lights off. It would take about four to six hours for the codeine to wear off, though she anticipated he would be out for closer to eight or ten hours. His body was going to be tired and want to sleep for longer than the codeine's influence.

That trick probably would never work again. She'd only had a small amount of the pills left over from nearly year old prescription, and while she never found much use for the pills, especially with the drowsiness side effects, she had kept them just in case. It was low, and he was probably going to be upset when he finally sobered up, but he would eventually thank her. She hoped, anyway.

She wanted to get home to Darren now, but there was something else that she needed to do. It was something she had been debating for quite some time but wasn't sure if it was entirely appropriate. While Tony had been flying to and from Gulmira, JC had been looking up Joyce and Martin Beck, the couple who had fostered Darren while she was a prisoner. The most she had been able to find on them as far as being foster parents was that they were highly respected for their work with the many youths that passed through their home. She wanted to see for herself if that was really true, or if Darren had been keeping his own secrets.

When she pulled up to the house in their suburban neighborhood she saw several of the kids outside doing work that Darren had described. One teen was mowing the lawn while another was cleaning out the gutters with yet another teen holding the ladder. There was a small flower plot at one end of the driveway where a younger girl, maybe seven or eight years old, was watering them with a small watering can. With her was Joyce, who was helping with a watering can of her own. She smiled as she showing the little girl how to properly water the flowers so as not to ruin them by just dumping the water on top. She didn't see Martin anywhere, but she assumed he was inside with the other kids probably doing other house chores.

Steeling herself, JC stepped out of the car and walked towards Joyce. She was an older woman, probably in her late forties, with brown hair that was starting to show signs of grey. When she saw JC, she turned to the little girl and sent her into the house.

"Can I help you?" she asked cheerfully.

JC stood frozen for a moment too long. She wasn't sure what she had planned to say, if she ever even did have something planned.

"I'm sorry. This is a little…awkward," she nervously, as she rubbed the back of her neck. "You don't know me, but you took care of my son for a few months recently."

"Oh!" she said excitedly as she came forward and took JC's hand. "You must be Darren's mother. Come inside and meet my husband."

Before JC could think to refuse the woman was pulling her along. The other teens looked on curiously before having to return to their chores. Once inside the quaint home she saw at least three more kids between the ages of ten and fifteen dusting and vacuuming the house with Martin helping one of the younger ones reach one of the higher shelves of a bookcase.

"Martin, come quickly! There's someone you have to meet."

He set the child down and sent them off to finish dusting elsewhere. "Who is this?" he asked as he came closer.

"You remember Darren. This is his mother, JC."

He smiled warmly and shook JC's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I never saw a kid happier than Darren was when we got the news you were coming home. Although, I am a little surprised to see you come by."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"He didn't mean any offense by it," Joyce said quickly. "It's just that…well, most of the kids that come through here don't have any family, usually due to tragedy, like a car wreck or like Darren, kids with parents in the military. We never get to meet these kids' parents, let alone get to send them back home. So you can imagine it's a little strange for us actually having you come by like this, but very much welcome."

"Thanks…I think." She was still at a loss for words. She had hoped to find something dubious when she came by, something that didn't put the blame for Darren's more solemn demeanor solely on her shoulders. But there was nothing like that here. He had been telling the truth when he said these were good people.

"Why did you come by, if I may ask?" Martin asked.

A lump began to form in her throat. "Honestly, I…I don't even know. I…How do you even being to thank total strangers for being there for your kid when you couldn't…when you weren't able to be there when he need you? I don't…I don't even know where–"

"Oh, my dear," Joyce said as she rushed over and placed her hands on JC's shoulders as tears began to well up.

"I couldn't even get him to boil water without burning the pot, but I came home the other day and he had a perfect breakfast made up. I know it's small, but I feel like if I failed him there, then I've failed in other ways, too." Tears were rolling down her cheeks now. There it was, the plain, simple truth.

"Well," Joyce said as she wiped away her tears, "if it makes you feel any better, Darren scorched quite a few pans while he was here. I even have the poor rice pot that looks like the aftermath of an atomic bomb." That got them both laughing as JC imagined the little ghost images of rice grains. "Darren was certainly stubborn headed about a lot of things, but everything good about him, he owes to you. You raised an amazing young man, and while I don't wish the circumstances of him being here on anyone, I am proud to have had the privilege of caring for your son."

JC wiped away the last of her tears as she collected herself. If there was anything she needed to hear that day, this was it.

"Thank you, to both of you," she said, sparing a look to Martin. "What you did with him, it means the world to me. I can never thank you enough."

"Miss Joyce?" JC turned to see the little girl who had been watering the flowers. "I heard you say something about Darren. Is he coming back?"

"No, sweetie," Joyce said as she knelt down to the child's level. "Darren lives with his mommy now."

"Oh," she said sadly.

"You know," JC said, kneeling down to girl. She hated to disappoint her if there was something she could possibly do about it. "Even though Darren is living with me now, if you tell me your name, I could tell him you were asking for him, and he might come visit you. Would you like that?"

Her eyes lit up as she smiled a toothy grin showing one of her missing incisors. "Really?" she squealed.

"Really," she said with a grin. "So who should I say is asking for him?"

"Shrimp bait!"

JC tried to keep a straight face, but it wasn't easy. She looked to Joyce to see if she was serious. Joyce smiled and laughed a little. "It's a nickname he gave her. Trust me, don't ask."

JC smiled at the little girl. "Okay, I will tell him Shrimp bait wants him to come visit."

"Thank you!" she squealed and gave JC a quick hug before running off to tell one of the other kids her good news.

"Well, I should be getting home. Thank you for letting me into your home," JC said and started for the door.

"You're welcome. And please, you and Darren are welcome to come visit any time. The kids would love it."

She thanked Joyce again and started on her way home. It was almost eight o'clock by the time she got home. The lights in the house were turned off save for a few nightlights. That was a bit odd. As she moved from the garage to the kitchen she found a note on the fridge that said there was leftover pizza inside.

Tossing it aside, she went upstairs to check on Darren. At his door, she could see the faint light from his bedside table barely shining through the bottom crack. Slowly opening the door, she peeked inside to find him lying in bed with a comic book.

"You're in bed early," she said.

He looked up lazily at her before returning his attention to the comic. "Got my homework finished, was feeling tired."

She made her way inside and sat on the edge of the bed. "I'm sorry for running out on our movie night; and for being gone so long. I hadn't planned on it."

"Whatever," he sighed. "It's your job, right?"

She deserved that, she knew. "I wouldn't have gone, if it wasn't important. And I have a couple days off, so I could make it up to you."

"Yeah, until he calls you up for another surprise trip out of the country, right? I don't think he can go more than eight hours without calling you."

"Well, since I knocked him out, I've got roughly twelve hours before he'll be able to go anywhere."

That got his attention. He lowered one corner of the comic book and cocked a brow. "You knocked out Tony Stark?"

"Yes, I did," she said proudly. "And it felt really good."

"I'm impressed," he said with a smile.

"Since I had some spare time, I actually took a little trip to go see Joyce and Martin. They were…great. And I was told to give you a message."

"Oh?"

"Shrimp bait says you have to come visit her."

He smiled as he folded the comic book and set it aside. "I never thought I'd say it, but I miss her. She was funny."

"You know, all you had to say was you wanted to go visit them. I would have happily taken you, if you missed them that much."

"Is it terrible that I wanted to spend time with my mother?" he said, crossing his arms. "Even though you're clearly not interested."

"Honey, that's not–"

"Don't try to say it's not true," he snapped. "You've spent more time with Tony Stark than in your own house."

"Darren…it's not like that."

"I'm tired, and I have school." He rolled over and turned out his light.

JC sat there in silence for a moment as she debated whether or not she wanted to continue arguing with. What could she say? He was right, though it wasn't for whatever reason he was thinking. She wanted to tell him as much, but she couldn't. She had already decided she didn't want him involved with anything to do with the suit. It was safer for him that way. But at what cost?

She got up and carefully left the room, shutting the door behind her. Of all the moments she had ever been confused about in her time as a parent, this one definitely made the top three list. She didn't know what to do about it anymore, what to think of. She just wanted it all to stop. She made her way to her bedroom and picked up her bottle of sleep aids. After downing a few pills, she crashed down on the bed and drifted off to the first good sleep she'd had in days.

AN: Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. Originally I thought I could get away with leaving the story at fifteen chapters and get away with just adding more content like I've been doing. However, with the upcoming additions, the finally chapters will be longer than what I would like and push some them into the 10k word count area. While some people might not care, my hope is everything will have a smoother flow by splitting up the content differently. In light of that, chapter 14 and 15 have been deleted so as not to confuse anyone and will be put back in after alterations have been made. This also means that there will be at least another chapter if not two added to the story, which is not a bad thing at all. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for further updates!