Of course, what Phil and Happy have both forgotten, is that Tony might be late more often that not, but he never misses the party.
()
Tony's head is fuzzy and he doesn't have the energy to move; he can barely force his eyes to open. There are doctors fussing around him, with tubes and oxygen masks and Tony tries to ask what's going on but his voice is basically not there, his throat too dry and rusty from disuse. He's so tired. It's too much effort to keep his eyes open and eventually he gives up.
He swears he sees Pepper standing on the far side of the room, but before he can react he's asleep again.
()
Tony first notices the steady beep of a machine to his left, then a mask over his face and bits of wire attached to his body. The next thing is the small, warm hand holding his, and that confuses him. So he opens his eyes.
Pepper is perched on the edge of the bed, holding his hand tightly and watching him anxiously.
Tony can't stop the smile that spreads across his face at seeing her again. "Pepper..." he murmurs, eyes bright.
The smile she gives him in return is soft and incredibly relieved. "Hey Tony," she replies, her fingers combing through his too long fringe, and there's a whirl of fiercely suppressed emotion in her voice. For the first time, he wonders exactly why he's in the hospital, how bad the injuries were this time.
Then his brain actually registers that Pepper's here. She's come back, and he's in the hospital, and that can only mean one thing, right?
He glances at the machine's he's hooked to and then at Pepper, worry and fear and resignation shadowing his eyes. "Am I dying again?"
Pepper frowns at him, looking almost confused for a moment. There's a startled noise from the other side of him and Tony looks across to see Happy in the chair next to the bed. He blinks. He hadn't even noticed the guy, he's really out of it, isn't he? Tony quickly looks around the room to see Coulson leaning against the wall opposite the bed. There's an Iron Man figurine on his bedside table that can only be from Rhodey. Especially as it's dwarfed by a larger sized model of War Machine.
The only thing this amalgamation of people tells him, is that it must have been, probably still is, serious. God, what happened to him this time?
"You're not dying, Tony," Pepper says gently, shaking her head.
Tony just looks at her. "But you're here," he answers quietly, not quite meeting her eyes as he says that. He feels a bit guilty pointing out that Pepper only appears when he's dying or in danger or something, after all he knows that's not her choice and it upsets her too. But it is true.
Pepper's reaction, however, is unexpected. She smiles at him, and there's something incredibly bright and simply happy in that smile. Tony loses his words for a moment.
"Exactly, boss," Happy cuts in from the side, after a long moment of silence. "She's here."
The amount of time it takes Tony to work out exactly what Happy means by that is ridiculous. Later, he'll blame it on the fog that is still residing in his brain after being in a coma for months. (Which is actually perfectly reasonable, head injuries are a bitch for thinking power, but still nobody's ever going to stop laughing at him. Damn them.)
Tony blinks. He looks between Happy and Pepper a few times. Then at Coulson. Then it dawns on him. He turns his head back to stare at Pepper. "You...? You're... You're here." His voice comes out at just above a whisper in his disbelief, and he clasps Pepper's hand impossibly tightly. He's searching for the confirmation in her eyes because he's having trouble processing this. He's wanted this so badly for so long but the world never gives him what he wants, dammit, so this can't be real, can it? He has to be dreaming, right?
Pepper nods and squeezes his hand. "Yeah. I'm here. Phil found me."
And of course, the first thing that comes out of his mouth then, after the relief and amazement washes over him, is "Since when is he Phil?"
Happy splutters, Pepper rolls her eyes and any tension in the room seems to dissolve. Phil just shakes his head in amusement.
Except there is still something serious in Tony's question, and Pepper knows it, even if the others don't. Because Tony's never quite trusted Phil since the Natasha Fiasco and they've both known it. Tony had actually tried to forgive him, but he obviously never tried hard enough, because it hadn't happened. Phil had remained Agent Coulson. Clearly he needs to reconsider now. (He's also partly subconsciously distracting himself from the big issue, that Pepper's here, because it's brilliant but he has no idea how to cope with it.)
"Since he found me last week and brought me here," Pepper says simply.
Tony looks over at Phil. For a moment the two men just stare at each other, and there's a hint of tension, but then Tony takes a breath and nods, smiling slightly. "Thank you." It's a rare moment of completely sincere gratitude, and with Phil's answering nod, everything between them is healed. Somehow, it is that simple. After all, how can Tony not forgive the man who found Pepper?
There's a moment of silence that's almost awkward, but Tony's practically allergic to awkwardness so he ignores it completely. "So if you are to be believed and I'm not facing certain death once more, what exactly happened?"
Because even if he's not dying, they all look stressed and tired and Happy especially looks thinner. They've been worried about him; admittedly, that's not surprising any more, Tony's just about accepted that these people care about him, but Tony wants to know what happened to make them look like this.
Happy shrugs, like he doesn't want to think about it. "You hit your head boss."
Tony glares at him half-heartedly – he knows that, thank you, the ache in his head is already annoying him.
Thankfully Phil takes it upon himself to elaborate. "You hit the ground pretty hard in your suit. You've been in a coma for nearly two months now."
"Two months," he echoes, stunned. And that is worse than almost anything Tony could have thought of. Two months. That explains a lot. Part of him is distracted by the implications for the safety in his suit, he needs the specs for the accident find out what happened and make it better... but he focuses on the matter at hand. "Wait, so how long have you been here?" he asks, looking in Pepper's direction.
"A week," she answers softly, and Tony actually winces this time. He can't imagine what that must have been like, doesn't want to imagine it the other way around – although Pepper's already seen him go through hell, but Pepper was actually here and everything feels more real for Tony so surely it must do for his angel too?
He doesn't let himself dwell on that thought. "Where's Rhodey?" he says instead, because he's the only person missing right now. Last time he woke up in hospital, all those months ago in Afghanistan, Rhodey was there. It feels similar, but then not, and it's all a little too confusing for a man with a head injury. He can almost feel himself getting sleepy, already exhausted after being awake for barely ten minutes.
Happy answers as Tony stifles a yawn. "He's been in and out. He's been busy, War Machine's taken over some of your duties."
Tony nods vaguely. "Oh. Good." Part of him wants to rebel at being replaced but this was kinda part of the reason he'd given Rhodey a suit in the first place. Anyway, a rebellion isn't worth the effort.
He yawns again and Pepper smiles fondly at him, her fingers combing through his hair again. "You should get some rest."
Tony wants to protest that he's done nothing but rest for two months now, but he's too tired to really care. Instead he curls as close to Pepper as the tubes and wires still attached to him will allow, he fully ignores the presence of the other two men (they've both seen him in worse conditions) and lets himself fall asleep.
()
The next time he wakes up, it's only Pepper who's there, still holding his hand. Tony smiles slightly, partly from relief that she's still there, that it wasn't just the best dream ever, and partly, well, just because it's Pepper. And he loves her.
He wants to tell her, now that she's here to stay, properly here, but declarations of feelings have never been Tony's strong suit. "I missed you," he says instead, in a small voice, hesitant to say even that much.
But Pepper smiles brightly at him, and she seems to relax slightly at hearing those words. Tony wonders slightly if she's got the same insecurities as him – except that's stupid, she's Pepper, she can't have. Right?
"I'm glad you're awake," she replies. "You worried me, Stark."
It's Tony's turn to smile slightly. "Yeah, I thought you'd be used to that by now."
Pepper shakes her head and leans down to kiss his forehead. "I'd really prefer not to, thank you."
"Hey, it's not like I do this on purpose," Tony protests, but he's still grinning. Because he did miss Pepper so much, he missed this, feeling happy like this.
"I know." Pepper sighs. "But you could be a bit more careful."
Tony shrugs. It's not exactly a conversation they haven't had before. (In fact, he's probably had that conversation with everyone he's even remotely friends with over the past year or so.) As much as he'd love to stop worrying everyone, specifically Pepper, he has to do his job. He's more likely to sacrifice himself than be careful. It's a constant problem in his mind.
Pepper sees his internal conflict and squeezes his hand. "Don't worry about it, Tony. Just focus on getting better."
Tony smiles again and relaxes. "Not worrying about it," he murmurs agreeably. "I've got you to do that."
Pepper just rolls her eyes but he can see that she agrees, and Tony can't help but fall more in love with her.