Next chapter! I hope you like this, it's a little mysterious, I think. Maybe you already have ideas about the hacker which is mentioned in this chapter? I would really like to know! Please let me know what you think! And thank you so much for the reviews and thanks to everyone who follows this story, it makes me happy!
I don't own the characters or places!
"Come on." Tony muttered and frowned at the screen in front of him. The numbers appeared slowly and he followed them with his eyes. "JARVIS, are you on it?" He asked slowly, still concentrating on the screen.
"Of course, Sir. It seems like you successfully decoded the files." JARVIS announced.
Tony rolled his eyes. "I know." When the program finished the decoding, he began to type on the keyboard. "Now let's see who wanted to hack the government." He tried to stay calm, though the excitement was slowly creeping up on him.
Two days had passed since their mission in Texas and he was sitting in his lab, as usual. First, Pepper had protested when he wanted to stay there, but in the end he'd been able to convince her that it would be easier to work from here. She couldn't deny that it would make him crazy to stay in bed all the time. In the past two days, they all didn't see Maria Hill. Apparently, she was busy with SHIELD business.
Steve was sitting on the new couch and Tony could feel his eyes on him. When Steve wasn't in the training room with the others, he kept him company. Somehow, Tony was glad about that. He enjoyed having Steve around, even if he didn't say much, not wanting to distract Tony.
After a few more minutes, he could see a few names and coordinates in front of him. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What the fuck?!"
"Language." Steve's voice echoed through the room, but Tony ignored him instead of rolling his eyes as usual. He kept his eyes on the screen. "Tony, what's wrong?" Steve's voice was closer now and Tony knew that he'd stood up. Slowly, he looped up just to see Steve standing right next to him.
"I know who wanted to hack the government." He announced without his usual smugness.
Steve frowned, confused by the tone of his voice and the serious expression on Tony's face. "And who tried to do it?"
"Not just one person." Tony muttered. "Two people tried to hack into government files, independently of each other."
"How do you know that?" Steve glanced at the screen, but Tony knew that the groups of names, places and numbers wouldn't tell him anything.
"Firstly, they tried to hack into different files. Secondly, I think those people would like to kill each other. Thirdly, one person was more skilled than the other one." He sighed when he saw the confusion in Steve's eyes. He turned to him, trying to let his wounded leg (which was resting on another chair) remain still. He gestured Steve to sit down on another chair, which he did. "The government noticed one attack of those hackers." Tony began to explain it. "That's the one I followed first, it wasn't that difficult. Took me about two hours." He held up his hand when Steve opened his mouth to say something. "The second one was more difficult, especially finding hints of the hacking. If I wouldn't have looked for something like that, I would have never noticed it."
"Why did you look for another attack?" Steve asked curiously.
"Natural distrust in people." Tony replied immediately. "It seemed too easy."
Steve nodded, though Tony could see that he didn't completely understand it. "And who were the hackers? And why did they stop?"
Tony cleared his throat. "The first attack was from a Hydra base in South America."
Steve raised an eyebrow. "I thought they were experts in those things."
Tony shrugged, but it hurt his back and he flinched. "I'm fine." He muttered when he saw the worried look on Steve's face. "And no, they were bad, really bad. But after those computers we found in California, I knew that their technology specialists seemed to be working on something else, otherwise those files would have been encoded better."
"So Hydra tries to hack into top secret government files, but they leave traces that were easy to find?" Steve asked slowly.
"Easy for me. They asked me for help, remember?" Tony asked with a slight smile.
"So maybe not that easy." Steve corrected himself and Tony nodded. "Who is the other hacker?"
He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "That's a little more complicated." He said hesitantly. "I have to think about it."
Steve raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything. He knew Tony well enough to trust him with things like that.
Tony glanced at the screen again. How on earth did those things fit together? "I'll tell you as soon as I'm sure about this." He promised and Steve's lips twitched.
"Alright." He agreed and stood up. "Will you join us on the movie evening?"
Tony glanced at the clock. Soon, it would be time for dinner. After that, the Avengers met in the media room for their usual movie Friday. He hesitated. He'd planned to join them, but now things were a little more complicated. And he wanted to spend time with Pepper again, in the past days, she'd been busy with the company, even if she'd visited him in the lab as often as possible. She wasn't acting strange anymore and they didn't talk about Maria Hill again. Tony was happy about that, their argument seemed to be finished.
"You don't have to say yes yet." Steve said softly. "Either you join us or not, it's your decision." He also glanced at the screen. "We'd understand if you have other things in mind."
Tony smiled. "Thank you, Steve."
Steve grinned. "Not for that. Will you be alright?"
Tony nodded. "I'll see you in the kitchen."
When Steve left, Tony leaned back in his chair carefully and sighed. He would have loved to tell Steve about the second hacker, but it didn't seem like a good idea yet. Things were really complicated now. With a sigh, he turned to the other things he'd been working on those past days. The base in Alaska was also a problem, but he didn't want to deal with it now. So he turned to the stabilizers of his new suit.
About an hour later, the door of the lab opened again.
"Steve told me that you were still in here." Pepper greeted him and when Tony looked up, he saw that she was smiling.
He grinned. "Someone has to do all the work, right?"
She rolled her eyes. "You could at least try to get some rest. After all, you're injured."
"I've been sitting here all day without moving. So I am resting, Pep." He argued.
"Just because you're not moving, it doesn't mean that you're relaxing. And the doctor said that it's important for you." She sat down on the couch. "I'm just worried for you, Tony."
Slowly, he turned around and smiled. "I know, Pepper. And I appreciate it. But you know that doing nothing would kill me."
She nodded. "I do. That's why I let you stay in here at the first place."
"What are you? My babysitter?" He asked in a mocking tone.
Pepper chuckled. "If I have to." She replied simply.
"I don't need one."
A wide smile appeared on her lips. "What do you need then, Mr. Stark?" There was a gleam in her eyes that excited him.
"I thought you were so good at knowing what I need, Mrs. Potts." She stood up again and walked towards him slowly, that smile still on her lips. In front of him, she stopped and right now Tony hated being injured. He would have loved to stand up, wrap his arms around her and kiss her senseless.
Pepper kissed him softly but drew back quickly. She was very careful not to hurt him these days. However, he wasn't made of glass. He took her hands and squeezed them. "I love you."
"I love you too, Tony." This time, they kissed more slowly. When she leaned back, Pepper sighed. "Next time, you really need to come back uninjured."
"I'll do my best." He muttered and his voice sounded hoarse. He cleared his throat. "How was your day?" He changed the subject quickly.
In the next five minutes, Pepper told him everything about the SI facilities in New York she'd visited today. When she finished her report, he raised his eyebrows. "Now I know why I've made you CEO again."
She laughed. "Just because you don't care about the things that happen in your company, it doesn't mean that everyone else sees it like that too."
"I can be lucky that you do all this for me." He admitted and didn't just mean the company. She smiled softly.
"And I am very happy to be the woman by your side." She whispered and now he would have really liked to pull her close.
"How was your day? Did you find out about the hacker?" Pepper asked and sat down again, creating a distance between them.
He nodded slowly, trying to look calm. When her eyes narrowed, he knew that he wasn't sucessful. "I found the hackers."
Pepper frowned. "There is more than one?"
"Yes. The first one has been easy to identify. Our friends from Hydra didn't hide their traces very well." He explained.
"What were they looking for?"
"Secret military bases. Mostly the ones which stores weapons."
"And they didn't find them?"
Tony shook his head. "They were able to decode one file, not more."
"The base in Texas." Pepper guessed and now he nodded.
"The only one they know about."
Her face darkened. "If you would have known about those hackers before, you could have prevented this whole fight." She muttered and he didn't know how to reply. After a few moments, Pepper sighed. "What about the second one?"
Of course she noticed his hesitation and this time, she raised her eyebrows suspiciously. "What's wrong?"
He ran a hand through his hair. He didn't tell Steve about the second person who wanted to hack into those government files. Could he tell Pepper about this? He'd promised that he wouldn't keep secrets from her anymore… But this was really difficult and he didn't know how to deal with it himself… Maybe she can help you a small voice in his head offered. He wasn't so sure about that. "It's difficult. I told Steve that I needed to think about it first."
Just like Steve before, Pepper looked at him searchingly for a few moments. "Alright." She said finally and his jaw nearly dropped in surprise.
"What?" It was the only word he was able to get out right now. Did she really just say that it was alright if he kept those things to himself?
"I said it's alright. When you need time to think about it, you can have it. You wouldn't keep it to yourself when it wouldn't be difficult." She said those things calmly and he didn't find any trace of anger in her eyes. Then a small smile appeared on her lips which made his heart race. "I trust you with this, Tony."
That's when he couldn't stand it anymore. With all his strength, he stood up from his chair and grabbed the table with both hands to support himself. The wound was below the knee, so he was able to walk for himself. It was just damn painful. Three steps, then he was on the couch next to Pepper. She was pale when he breathed in deeply and grinned at her, but she didn't scold him. Instead, she placed a hand on his cheek and leaned in to kiss him. "Don't do that again." She whispered and when she leaned back, he saw that she was smiling.
"I wanted to be closer to you. Is that a bad thing?"
She shook her head. "Not at all. But you have to remain still until you're healed completely." She kissed him on the cheek and then her lips wandered to his throat. "When you're alright again, you can show me how close you want me to be."
Her words made him shiver and before he could reply something, Pepper leaned back. "I ran into Maria today." She said suddenly, still looking calm. The storm which had been in her eyes when she mentioned the other women a few days ago was gone.
He raised his eyebrows. "Oh, what did she want?" He asked, trying to sound lightly. However, he had a bad feeling about this.
"She said you need to have a look at SHIELD files." Pepper explained. "She wouldn't tell my why this is important."
He nodded slowly. "What did you tell her?"
Pepper smiled slightly. "That Mr. Stark is indispensable at the moment and she needs to make an appointment."
"You really told her this?" Tony asked and before he knew what was happening, he laughed loudly. To his surprise, Pepper joined him.
"You should have seen her face. She was not happy with this answer."
Tony wrapped his good arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. Then he kissed her deeply. "I would have loved to see that."
Pepper blushed. "After that, she just turned around and left. Maybe she'll come to you tomorrow."
He nodded thoughtfully. "I bet she will." He muttered and grinned again. "Maybe I can ask her why she didn't make an appointment?"
Pepper rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. "Do you want your assistant to be angry with you?" She asked curiously.
He shrugged. "Honestly, I don't care what she thinks. She's a lousy assistant. Doesn't even say hello and goodbye."
"You shouldn't let her hear those things. After all, she's the head of SHIELD now." Pepper said.
"But she's not the Director." He replied immediately.
Pepper frowned. "And who's that?"
"I'm still trying to find out about that." Tony admitted.
"You really don't like people having secrets." She muttered and he nodded.
"You know that I don't trust people that easily." Not after everything that happened in the past.
Pepper seemed to understand his thoughts since her expression became serious. "I know. But it's not a bad thing."
His lips twitched. "I should really talk to Agent Hill." He muttered then and sighed.
"Yes, I don't think you have a choice in this." Pepper agreed.
Yes, he needed to talk to Maria Hill. But not about those SHIELD files.
After that, he kissed Pepper again and they didn't stop until JARVIS announced that dinner was ready. After that, he and Pepper joined the Avengers movie night together.
