Thank you for all of your continued support! I love the feedback! Keep it coming! :D
"Hey! Wait!" Tony yelled upwards toward the child's voice he heard above him. He could hear her giggling as he traveled further up the spiral, passing door after door, until suddenly, he saw a glimpse of a little girl in front of him. She was in a sky blue babydoll dress, and had two long red ponytails. By his estimation, she couldn't have been older than 6 or 7. She giggled at him, and he frowned, realizing the child's face was very familiar to him. And then it dawned on him, his eyes growing wide.
"Pepper?! I mean, Virginia? Ginny!" he called, but the little girl ran away from him, laughing. He ran after her, following her further up the spiral still, when finally he caught another glimpse of her when she stopped just before she ducked into one of the doors, slamming it hard behind her. He ran to the door to go after her, and tried the knob. Much to his amazement, it turned and the door creaked open. He walked through it, finding he was stepping into the front yard of the house that Pepper had grown up in, a big two-story farm house in rural Kansas. He could smell the sweetness of the wheat fields around their property, and the bright summer sunshine hit his shoulders with welcome warmth as he surveyed the scene.
"I'll be damned. Memories. The doors hold memories," he muttered to himself at the realization. The little girl ran to the swing in the big cottonwood tree that stood in the front yard, and began to play on it, kicking her saddle-shoed feet to and fro. She giggled as she began to swing, and Tony followed her, smiling in amazement at seeing Pepper as a child before him. The familiar smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks, and the sparkly glint in her eyes warmed his heart, and he grinned as he watched her, unable to help himself.
He leaned against the tree, watching her swing back and forth, so happy and playful, chuckling at the sound of her giggling.
"Ginny!" he heard a man's voice call in the distance, and he turned his head to where he heard it coming from. At the entrance of the big red barn behind the house, stood a husky, towering man of at least six and a half feet, with auburn hair, and a ruddy, weathered face aging him far beyond his years, Tony was sure. But his eyes were kind, and he was smiling as he called her name. He was wiping a large wrench on a greasy rag, and wore blue coveralls with old grease stains covering them. "Go on inside and tell your mama to call Mr. Johnson. His tractor's ready," he yelled.
"Okay, daddy!" the little girl yelled back, and Tony watched as she jumped off the swing and ran toward the front porch of the house, swinging the screen door wide open before tromping inside.
"Daddy?" Tony muttered, looking back at the man in admiration. So this was the father Pepper had so adored, and dearly missed since he'd passed away when she was just sixteen. And by the looks of it, he was every bit the man she had described. Tony had wished many times in the past that he could have had the chance to meet him. He was a farmer by trade, but also a mechanic, and Pepper had revealed to him on more than one occasion in the past that it was a talent she had admired both in her father and in him.
Tony stood in awe of his father-in-law, studying him as he stood in this place, waiting for Pepper to come back outside. Soon, she reappeared, and she ran over to her father, jumping into his arms. Her father picked her up and swung her around, laughing jovially.
"Mama called Mr. Johnson. He says he'll be over after supper to pick it up," she said. Tony smiled at how young and sweet Pepper's voice sounded as she spoke.
"Fine. That's fine," her father said. "Wanna help me put my tools away?" he asked her, setting her down.
"Okay!" she said excitedly, as she grabbed her father's hand and they disappeared into the barn.
Suddenly, Tony felt the ground start to rumble underneath him. He looked around in alarm, as his surroundings began to crumble. He bolted for the door he came through, sprinting across the yard as quickly as he could. Once he reached it, he cranked the handle open, and made it through just in time before the whole scene had fallen apart, cracking and twisting, distorting itself completely before slough away into a million pieces. Tony hurriedly closed the door behind him, and leaned on it, trying to catch his breath.
He ran his hands through his hair, and scrubbed them down his face, trying to make sense of what was happening. "I have to hurry. She doesn't have much time," he said. He figured the locked doors were memories that had already been destroyed. And, by the looks of it, there were a lot of them. Which made him wonder- what memories did she still have left? And were there any left of them, together? His heart sank at the thought that if he did succeed in bringing Pepper back to consciousness, there would be the grim possibility that the memories of the life she had before wouldn't remain.
Tony frowned as he pondered this, but quickly his attention was diverted away from the worry by the soft sound of a woman crying. He instantly recognized it as Pepper, and his heart leaped. He didn't think he'd be able to find her again in all of this, but it seemed like she was closer than before, as her voice sounded nearer.
"Pepper?" he called out. "I'm coming, baby! Just hold on!" He began to run farther up the spiral, and Pepper's sobs became louder and louder, wrenching Tony's heart at the increasing anguish in her voice.
Soon, he came upon a door that was cracked, and he anxiously swung it wide open to find he was standing in Pepper's childhood bedroom, and a teen aged Pepper was on the bed, sobbing, her mother beside her trying to console her. She was in what appeared to be a blue sequined strapless dress with ruffles from her waist to the floor, complete with matching dyed stiletto heels, and black lacy fingerless gloves on her hands. Despite looking like a model straight out of a 1989 edition of Seventeen magazine, Tony smiled at how beautiful she looked, even with frizzy permed hair all piled on her head, and a mouth full of metal braces. He could tell she'd been crying for a long time, as her thick black mascara was now running and her eyes were red rimmed.
"How could he do this to me, mama? How could he be so cruel?" Pepper begged her mother.
Tony bristled. I'll kill him, he instantly thought. Whatever the bastard's done, he'll regret hurting her like this. No punk kid is gonna make MY wife cry.
"I don't know, darlin'," her mother said sadly. "I can't believe any boy would want to leave you home on prom night."
Pepper began to sob again, and she turned to her mother's shoulder for comfort. "Oh, honey!" her mother said, wrapping her arms around her daughter. "There are worse things in this world than not going to prom," she tried to reason.
Pepper sniffed loudly, and swiped at her tears. "There isn't much that's worse right now, though!" she argued. "I saved up to buy my dress and everything! And I'll never get to wear it!"
Just then, Pepper raised her eyes, and Tony thought for a moment that she was looking at him. But Pepper's father appeared behind him in the doorway. "Oh, daddy!" Pepper cried, getting up off the bed, and running past Tony into her father's open arms. She sobbed on his shoulder and he squeezed her tightly in a hug.
"There, there, Sugar," he said. "For what it's worth, I think you'd be the prettiest girl at that dance, anyway. And that boy doesn't deserve to have you on his arm."
Damn right, Tony thought, nodding and glancing back and forth between Pepper and her father.
Pepper looked up into her father's big blue eyes, and he cupped her face in his hands, wiping away her tears. She smiled bashfully, and giggled. "Thank you, daddy," she said softly. "You always know how to make me feel better."
Her father turned, and held out his arm for her. "Well, if that's so," he said. "Then you won't mind accompanying me to the dance floor downstairs, will you?"
Pepper giggled, and Tony followed them and her mother down to the living room, where the lights had been turned low, and her father had put a record on the record player. Tony watched him as he excused himself from her presence long enough to drop the needle on the record, and come back. The crackling sound of the record needle started in the speakers, and soon Patsy Cline's voice filled the air.
"Crazy. I'm crazy for feelin' so lonely..." she sang.
Pepper's father held out his hand in a gentlemanly manner. "May I have this dance, my lady?" he said, bowing and trying to sound formal.
Pepper giggled and accepted it. "Of course you may, kind Sir," she said back, playing along. She curtsied and giggled at her father. They both laughed, and her father took her around the waist, and her hand in his, and they promenaded around the living room floor, smiling.
Tony smiled at how quickly Pepper's tears had been dried by her father, and his loving gesture. And he was grateful that he got to see for himself how much she really had admired and adored the man. He gazed lovingly at his future bride, his heart swelling at how happy she was, dancing with her father in that moment. "He was a good man, Pep," he murmured. "I can see why you miss him so much." He closed his eyes, for a moment, reveling in the music, and when he re-opened them, he was suddenly jolted by the change in his surroundings.
The sound of the music had barely left his ears before he realized he'd some how been whisked out of the memory, and was now standing outside the door he'd come through. He spun around to try the knob again, but it was now locked. "No," he gasped. He slammed his hand against it in frustration. "Damn it! Not another one!" he cried, teeth clenched.
He knew Pepper's mind was quickly deteriorating and it gutted him. His breathing became ragged with panic. "I have to get outta here," he told himself. "I can't waste any more time. She needs me! I can't waste anymore time!" Just then, Tony felt something around his feet and he looked down, his eyes going wide with horror as he suddenly realized he was melting, along with his surroundings, into the floor. "No. NO! I have to get out of here! Bruce! BRUCE!" he cried.
XxXxXxXxXx
"GUH! What?! What happened?!" Tony cried, as his eyes flew open, and he sat straight up on the gurney where he'd been sedated, next to Pepper's bed. He looked around, wild-eyed for a moment, his chest heaving, as he got his bearings. He could feel the effects of the adrenaline Bruce had plunged into his chest to wake him up coursing through his veins, and it made his body tremor and his mind race as it filtered into his blood stream.
Bruce was standing next to him, looking at him, startled, still holding the empty syringe in his hand. "You were calling for help in your sleep!" he said. "You kept saying you had to get out of there, so I brought you back. Your heart rate and respiration suddenly went off the charts. I couldn't have left you in there for much longer," he explained.
Tony swallowed hard, gasping. He nodded in understanding. "Yeah," he said. He patted his friend in reassurance with a shaky hand. "Yeah, that's good. That's...whew," he said, running a hand through his hair.
Bruce looked at him in curiosity. "What happened? What did you see?" he asked.
Tony glanced at Pepper, and frowned, the new knowledge about how little time she had left pressing down on him again like it had when he was under. He turned his eyes back to Bruce, and shook his head. "She's slipping away with every second that passes," he explained sadly. "Her memory. It's being destroyed as we speak. I saw it. And she's scared, Bruce," he said, his voice reduced to a hoarse murmur. "I found her, in there, hiding, so alone...and...," Tony swallowed hard again before he continued. "All I know is, she won't be able to hang on much longer," he said.
Bruce nodded in understanding, and Tony hurriedly climbed off the gurney, taking Pepper's hand in his. He brought it to his mouth and kissed it tenderly. "Hold on, baby," he whispered to her, a tear escaping his eye and rolling down his cheek. "Please. Just a little while longer. I know you're scared, but I'm coming to save you. Okay? Please. Just...just hold on."