Slip and Slide Part 1

AN: For those of you who haven't seen the extras from Ironman, there's a deleted scene where Tony has a party in Morocco and Pepper, who pretty much plays hostess, ends up waking up in the middle of a huge after-party hangover kind of morning. I figure this kind of thing happens often enough, so that's the background to is between Ironman 1 and Ironman 2. Part 1 of a mini-series.

Pepper ran, ran as if for her life. She was almost there, almost there—just a few more yards to go. She could feel the adrenaline racing through her, making her feel jittery, excited and nervous all in one go, but also making her senses go crazy-she was super-aware of Agent Coulson close behind her.

But she couldn't focus on that, not now, not when she had to save him, not when she had to get to Tony—but there! There were the door to the stairs. She reached for the handle, wrenched the door open, began sprinting upwards. She turned each corner as sharply as she could, angling her entire body forward in the attempt to reach the top as fast as she could. After the 20th floor, she stopped, ripped off her Jimmy Choos, and began again, cursing the shoes as she went (and hoping, in the back of her mind, that she could at least retrieve them before the evening was over).

By the 30th floor she began praying for the first time in 10 years.

By the 40th, she began to cry, sobs racking her body.

By the 50th, she was panting so hard she almost couldn't open the door to the roof.

But finally, finally, she wrenched it open, drenched in more sweat that she could have imagined being in. She began running towards the center, running—was she too late? Could she save him? Had Obediah forced Tony to give up his life?

That scum, that disgusting piece of vermin...if Tony had died for him, Pepper was going to bring Obe back somehow, someway; torture him, make him glad he was died, Pepper thought n the back of his mind.

She could feel the panic beginning to build, but there! Pepper had lucked out again. There he was, there he was, Pepper thought. She ran toward him, began to yell.

"Tony! Tony! Wake up!" She searched for a way to pull off the armor, to take it off of him, maybe get some air in his lungs...

But she could see that she was too late—he began to slow his breathing, the reactor wasn't on...she didn't know if she could fix this. It wasn't like this was another meeting she could patch up, another suit she could fix up, another planner she could redo.

This was much more permanent.

She began to scream when Coulson pulled her away.

With a gasp, Pepper woke up. Disoriented, she wiped her eyes. Tried to make sense of her surroundings.

As her eyes began adjusting the semi-darkness, she groaned. Of course, she had fallen asleep at another one of Tony's parties and just had to have a nightmare. Urgh.

It didn't help that this was the dream she had been trying to outrun for over a year now. Ever since Tony's Ironman stint, this was one of the few dreams she had been tortured by. It was disgusting, really. Not to mention emotionally taxing.

But she shouldn't linger; not when there was so much to be done. Pepper straggled to her feet and straightened her suit (just because the attendees dressed like whores didn't mean Pepper should dress anything less than her usual attire while she worked for Tony). At least she had crashed on the couch, and there was no longer any "visitors" or sleepover guests as Tony had before Afghanistan. Lucky for her, she didn't have to play broomstick anymore.

As Pepper began gathering cups and plates, JARVIS sensed her motions and bid her good morning.

"JARVIS, who ever came up with that stupid idiom is...well, an idiot. There should never be a good attached to morning."

"Ms. Potts, good is neither grammatically nor physically not textually attached to the word morning. Rather, good morning is a-"

Pepper sighed. "I know, JARVIS. Nevermind."

"I try not to," the intelligence system responded. "The time is currently 9:30. This morning is fair, with 20% chance of rain. The median temperature will be 90 degrees, but a fair wind places the feel of the temperature to 80 degrees."

Pepper made a face at the ceiling. Wisely, JARVIS didn't respond, but rather put on a soft classical music track as Pepper made rounds throughout the usually immaculate home.