The next couple years passed quickly for Pepper, although she certainly struggled. As a single mother trying to raise three young children, she knew she needed help. Even with Tony's generous child support payments for Tony Jr., it wasn't enough to make ends meet. So, after swallowing her pride, she'd moved back in with her parents. The free rent and babysitting outweighed her need for privacy and independence, after all.

Now, two years later, she found herself scouring newspapers and the internet for jobs.

"An opening for a secretary, great," she muttered to herself. "I went to how many years of college only to find that every position I want requires at least three years of experience. How am I supposed to get experience if there are no entry level jobs? And even then, no one wants to hire a single mother who hasn't done anything but take care of her kids since graduating. Even if she graduated from Harvard."

"Did you say something, Ginny?" her dad asked from the next room.

"Nothing," she called back. "Just frustrated with my job search."

"You'll find something eventually, I know you will," he said.

It was just her luck that at that moment one of the twins started to cry. Pepper want to hit her head against the wall and start crying herself. As much as she loved her kids, she was more than ready to go back to work and have another purpose in life besides taking care of them.

"I've got her," Mr. Potts said.

She wanted to cry in relief, but ringing phone interrupted her.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Gin. It's Matt." Matt was one of the few people from her master's cohort she still kept in touch with, exchanging phone calls every few months.

"Hey, Matt, how are you?"

"I've been doing really well lately, and I'm hoping to spread my luck over to you. You're looking for a job, right?"

Pepper didn't believe in luck, fate, or any of those things. But in that second, she was ready to fall to her knees and start thanking the universe.

"That's right," she said. "You know of a job with an opening?"

"That's right," he said. "But there's a catch."

Her heart sank. "Of course there is."

"Don't worry, it's nothing bad. The job has great pay and benefits, including fantastic health insurance. But it's here in California."

"California?!" her voice rose in pitch and volume with each syllable.

"Calm down, I told you there was a catch. Yes, it's here in California. LA, to be exact. But it's a nice gig and there's even a free daycare for employees' kids. You'll have to pay the moving costs yourself, but once you get here you'll be making a lot more than would at other places."

Even with being located on the other side of the country, the job sounded too good to be true. Especially for someone like her.

"What is the job, exactly?"

"An administrative assistant."

Pepper closed her eyes as she once again felt the overwhelming urge to bang her head against something hard. "An administrative assistant," she repeated flatly.

"I know, I know, the job title isn't idea, but like I said, the benefits are great. So's the pay."

"How great?" she asked, barely keeping her temper in check.

He told her a number.

"Wait, repeat that?"

He repeated it and she sat there, stunned.

"Where's this job, again?" she asked, her tone completely different now.

"LA. It's in a large company, but the big boss is a womanizer. That's why the pay's so great; they can't hold on to employees long enough because he keeps trying to sleep with all of them. The job's in the accounting department, I should add."

"How long will it take to arrange an interview?"

"I know a guy in HR," he said. "I can get you a phone interview in a couple hours."

"Thanks, Matt," Pepper said.

-CTS-

Sure enough, Matt came through on his end, and a mere two hours later, after a brief interview, the woman from HR told her she had the job. "Your first day of work will be Monday, a week from today. Please report to…"

Pepper continued to listen with half an ear. A job. She had a job. An actual, real life job. Her first one in years. Granted, it was 3,000 miles away from her current location, but it was the best job offer she'd heard about in weeks.

Now, she only had to pack up her things, somehow get herself and her three kids across the country, and find a place to live in LA. Easy, right? At the very least, she could stay with Matt while she searched for a place. And if she saved everything (well, most everything, she still had to pay for groceries, even if Matt let them sleep on his couch) from her first few checks, she could easy afford the first and last months' rent on an apartment down there.

"…Stark Industries is happy to have you as an employee."

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

What?!

-CTS-

Thankfully, Pepper had been able to keep the majority of her complete and utter shock to herself. Only an idiot doesn't bother to learn the name of the place they're interviewing at, after all. Or rather, the place they've managed to get a job at.

And she was an absolute idiot, apparently. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say a desperate, jobless idiot with three kids to support and who needed to stop mooching off her parents. So, despite her better judgement, she found herself accepting the job.

"Ginny, why are you torturing yourself like this?" her mom asked.

"I need the job," she said.

"Hon, you can get a job elsewhere. This is just… insane. You haven't given up on him, have you?"

"Believe it or not, I'm not doing it because of him, but because I need the money. It's as simple as that. To be honest, I don't actually want this particular job. It's 3,000 miles away, I'm overqualified for it, and it's at my ex's company. But I'd be insane to pass it up. There's no other job I've heard of that will offer me this salary, free daycare, and all its other benefits."

"Don't you think the offer is a little…suspicious?" Mr. Potts asked.

"You're accusing Tony of knowing about my job search and handing me this job on a golden platter," Pepper said. "Trust me, I thought the same thing when I heard the position was at SI. But I talked to other employees there. It turns out this job wasn't specifically tailored for me; everyone truly gets the same kind of offer. Tony just happens to pay very well and keep his employees happy." She laughed somewhat bitterly. "It turns out all my lectures about business ethics and the cost of living actually paid off."

Her parents exchanged looks.

"That's good to hear," her mom said. "But even so, are you sure you're okay working there? You're bound to run into him at some point."

"I'll manage," Pepper said, waving aside the worries. "It's also a big company, so I'm sure I'll be fine."

"But what if you do see him," Mrs. Potts pressed. "You still haven't told him about Ginny and Pepper, have you?"

"How-" Pepper began to ask.

"I thought I saw him at your graduation," her mom replied. "Besides, some of the things you said pointed to him being the father."

"It was pretty obvious," her dad added. "They even look like him."

"Yeah, he's the father," Pepper admitted. "He doesn't know. With the way we left things, there was no way I could talk to him again. But this is different," she insisted. "He was the one who broke up with me in some misguided attempt to protect me. Even if he sees me at work, there's no way he's going to admit to everyone he knows me. That would defeat the whole purpose of the breakup."

Resolute, she added, "I'll be fine. Everything will work out just fine."