Never in her life had Pepper dreaded going to work as much as she did that next morning.

She'd been awake most of the night dreading the following day. But, despite having thought about it all night, Pepper still had absolutely no idea what she would say or do when she next saw Tony. She'd considered about a million options, but nothing seemed right. No words seemed adequate, no actions appropriate. Pepper, usually a girl who knew her own mind, had never been this conflicted about anything.

At one point, late into the night, she had even considered quitting. Maybe she could leave a note. Quit without having to face him. Or have someone else tell him she was out. That could work. After all, Pepper had to admit that since Tony had unceremoniously left her on the roof by herself and made his feelings on their kiss quite clear, the idea of never having to look him in the eye again was appealing.

But, as much as Pepper dreaded seeing him today, the thought of not seeing Tony ever was more than she could bear. She didn't think she could live without his antics. She didn't think she wanted to live without seeing him every day. Would she be able to stand taking another job with a boring boss who didn't challenge the way Tony did? How could she work with someone who didn't know everything about her the way he did? How could she give up on Stark Industries… how could she give up on him? Besides, she figured, Tony needed her as his assistant. What she had said during their dance was true: he couldn't tie his shoes without her.

No, quitting wasn't an option. Which meant she didn't have a choice, not really.

She couldn't hide forever. She had to face him.

And if he fired her… Well. She couldn't bear to think about that just yet.

As Pepper drove to the Stark mansion, her mind stewed over the events of the previous night. She thought of nothing else as she went about her morning tasks. Her mind dwelled on the night before while she prepped her work for the day and organized everything she needed to go over with her boss. She agonized over it all as she desperately sought a few more tasks to do to avoid having to face him.

It was all in vain. There was no easy way to deal with this. She would just have to face it.

Too soon, Pepper ran out of menial tasks to preoccupy herself with. It was time. She had to face him, though she still hadn't made a decision on what to say.

The knot in the pit of her stomach hardened as she stepped down the stairs to Tony's workshop.

Pushing open the glass door, Pepper found Tony leaning back in his desk chair, one hand over his face, rubbing his eyes.

The sound of her heels on the stone floor made Tony glance over. Pepper missed the momentary look of absolute panic that crossed his face before he squinched it in pain.

Pepper said nothing as she approached and set his coffee cup down next to him. They avoided each other's eyes. After a moment of heavy silence, Tony asked, "Do you have any pain killers?"

Pepper blinked. She had expected him to say any one of a million different things. Over the last few hours, her mind had run the gamut of possible responses she might expect from him this morning. This was certainly not one of them.

"What?"

Tony groaned and closed his eyes again. "Painkillers," he repeated. "You know, Advil or something. My head is killing me."

Pepper peered at him. She recognized the look on his face, and she didn't like it at all. She grimaced.

"Do you…" she asked, hesitant, "…are you hung over?"

"Probably," Tony moaned. He sighed, embarrassed. "People kept offering me drinks last night, and I couldn't say no. They all expected me to be, well… to be me, so I couldn't refuse. But I really haven't drank much since… well, you know." He shrugged. "So."

Pepper did know. She hated it, but she knew.

Tony always had a hard time talking about what had happened to him in Afghanistan. Every time he tried to bring it up, he would cut himself short before he allowed whatever emotions he was hiding to break through. But, somehow, Pepper always knew what he meant.

And since he returned, no one had been watching him as closely as Pepper. She had noticed that he hadn't been drinking much, if at all, but she'd never thought much of it. Tony had changed in so many ways since Afghanistan, both for better and for worse, that his abstinence from drink was the least of Pepper's focuses. She certainly hadn't stopped to consider how it would affect his tolerance, but it made sense.

Pepper sighed. This was not how she had expected this morning to go.

This was not at all how she wanted this morning to go.

After a pause, Tony looked back at Pepper. "So… Do you have anything or not?" He asked, a bit more sharply than he'd meant to.

The concern on Pepper's face turned to a frown. How much had he had to drink last night? If he was this hung over, did he… Would he even remember last night?

"Do you…" she tried to ask, but her voice failed her. Pepper took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself, and tried again. "Tony... how much of last night do you remember?"

Tony turned back to the desk in front of him and dropped his head into his hands. Rubbing his temples, he shrugged. "I don't know. Not much. It's all kind of a blur. I'm pretty sure I talked to some government agent guy, but after that…" He trailed off with a shrug.

Pepper's face fell as she dropped her eyes to the floor.

He didn't remember.

Logically, Pepper knew she should be relieved. If he didn't remember, then things could just go back to normal. And that was what she wanted, right? Things to go back to normal? Everything to be as it had been before? To not have to face the consequences of her actions last night? That's what she had thought she wanted, anyway.

But as much as she had dreaded confronting him about what had happened last night, now that she was here, now that she had decided to face it all, Pepper found that she desperately wanted him to remember. She wanted him to either be happy it had happened or to regret it. She wanted him to either want it to happen again or to fire her for it. Be happy or angry. Excited or pissed. Something. Whatever his thoughts or reactions were, she needed to know how he felt.

But now she would never find out.

Tony winced when he saw the crestfallen look on Pepper's face. He wished he could make it disappear, but he didn't know how, so he did the only thing he could thing to do: he pretended he hadn't seen it.

"Pepper?" He asked quietly, bringing her eyes back up to his. He hated that he saw a flicker of hope in her eyes as she looked back up. He hated himself because he knew he was going to take that hope and absolutely quash it. Trying to hide his self-loathing, Tony put as much bravado in his voice as he could when he asked, "Advil?"

Pepper's face turned hard as she dug in her purse and pulled out a bottle of painkillers. She slammed it on the desk in front of him with a deliberate thud before she turned on her heel and walked out without another word.

Tony flinched when the door slammed shut behind her. He hated how upset she was. He always hated it when Pepper was upset, because it threw his world off-kilter. He hated it even more when he was the reason she was upset, and the absolute worst-case scenario was when he was the reason she was upset, but he had absolutely no idea what to do about it. This was just such a scenario. Tony loathed it.

Tony couldn't remove his gaze from Pepper's back as he watched as her disappear up the stairs. He wanted so desperately to follow her. He wanted to tell her he was sorry he hurt her. He wanted crack some dumb jokes until she smiled. He wanted to make everything okay. He wanted to make everything right again.

But what could he possibly say? He would just make things worse. He always did. It was better if he just said nothing.

With a sigh, Tony turned back to his work.

Upstairs, Pepper sat down on the first available sofa. She wanted to cry. She wanted to go back downstairs and yell at Tony for not remembering. She wanted to grab him and kiss him and make sure that, this time, it was a kiss he could never possibly forget.

How could he not remember?

How could they have finally come this far, only for him to ruin it like this?

Pepper knew it was unfair, but she couldn't help but blame him. It wasn't necessarily Tony's fault that he didn't remember, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

With a sigh, she tried her best to put all her roiling emotions aside. She had work to do. She picked up her laptop and turned it on, determined to lose herself and bury her emotions in her work.

Pepper had been working for less than an hour before Tony's face popped up on her screen.

"Hey," Tony said, without introduction, "I need your help. In the workshop."

Pepper tried to smile, but she didn't quite manage it. "Be right there," she said, closing her laptop with a resigned sigh.

She groaned. Couldn't she just have the rest of the day to get some work done and think things through? Couldn't she have some space to work things out with herself and to regain some sense of normalcy? Couldn't he at least give her that?

Apparently not.

No, life with Tony Stark was never that easy.

Before heading downstairs, Pepper grabbed a stack of paperwork and a pen. If he was going to interrupt her day with whatever weird demand he had this time, she would at least manage to get him to sign some papers so she could get them off her to-do list.

From the stairs, Pepper saw through the glass wall of the workshop that Tony was bent over a worktable, tools in hand. As if it were any other day. Which, Pepper supposed, for him, it was.

Approaching the workshop, Pepper typed in the passcode and made her way to the table where Tony was working. She unceremoniously dropped the stack of papers on the table next to him.

Tony never looked up from his work, pretending not to notice.

"Tony," Pepper nudged, finally getting him to look up at her. She held the pen out to him. "I need you to sign these papers so I can get them sent out."

Tony shook his head. "Not right now," he said. "I need your help."

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Pepper plunked the pen on top of the stack. "Fine," she said, a bit too sharply, "but if I help you, you have to promise to sign these papers before the end of the day."

Tony shrugged. "Square deal," he said. "Now grab that wrench."

Pepper rounded the table so that she was across form Tony and inspected the tools on the table. There must have been about twenty wrenches laid out. She looked up at Tony with a tight and ironic smile.

She didn't even have to ask. "Second from the left," Tony clarified, looking amused, "the one closest to you."

Pepper identified the wrench in question and held it up for Tony's inspection. Tony nodded. "Okay, now I need you to tighten that bolt over there," he inclined his head. "The red one sticking out near the bottom. It needs to be tightened before I let go of either of these two levers, but I only have two hands."

For the first time, Pepper really looked at the object Tony was working on. It looked like a… mechanical boot of some sort? Pepper's brow furrowed. She looked back up at Tony. "What is this?" She asked quietly.

Tony shrugged. "It's nothing," he demurred quickly, "just something I've been working on."

Tony could see that Pepper didn't buy that. She inspected it closer, but to her it looked like a jumble of mechanical pieces and parts that didn't tell her much of anything. She usually left the engineering to Tony, as the business world was where her genius shined.

"Pepper?" Tony asked, cutting off her inspection, "The bolt?"

"Right," Pepper said, "on it." She had to round the table again to reach the bolt in question, as it was on the other side of the boot. She pointed to the smallest bolt she could find near the bottom of the object. "This one?"

Tony nodded again. "Yep," he said. "You may have to pull on it. I need it to be as tight as possible for this to work."

"Alright," Pepper said. She fastened the wrench around the bolt and turned it. It turned fairly easily at first, but it got stiffer the more she turned it. Eventually, it stopped. "Is that good enough?" Pepper asked.

Tony slowly started releasing one of the levers he was holding in place, but before he let go, it started to slip. He pulled it back into place quickly. "Nope," he said, shaking his head. "Gotta be tighter."

Pepper huffed. She put the wrench back around the bolt and leaned into it. She put her weight behind it this time, and she felt the bolt move a little more. Encouraged, Pepper leaned on the wrench with all of her weight, hoping to turn the bolt as much as possible.

That turned out to be a mistake.

Pepper, who wasn't much used to working with tools, hadn't realized that the wrench could so easily pop off the bolt. But, to her embarrassment, that's exactly what it did. And since she had been putting all of her weight behind it, the sudden release of the wrench sent Pepper tumbling forward, right into Tony.

Forgetting about the levers, Tony moved quickly and managed to catch Pepper before she tumbled to the floor. He pulled her upright, steadying her. The wrench hit the floor with a metallic thud.

Without realizing what she was doing, Pepper braced herself on Tony's shoulders. When she managed to straighten back up, this brought them face-to-face with each other.

Still dazed, it took Pepper a moment to focus her eyes on Tony's, but when she did, she noticed his eyes go all soft. It was vaguely reminiscent of the look he had given her after… Well. Color rose to Pepper's cheeks as she got a grip on herself and noticed that a small smile had started to pull at the corners of Tony's mouth.

This was all way too familiar.

Pepper was not going to make this mistake again.

Abruptly, she pushed off Tony's shoulders and backed up. She felt the fallen wrench hit her heel and bent to pick up, glad for the distraction. In so doing, however, she missed the way the smile faded from Tony's face as she slipped out of his grasp.

When she had gathered herself, Pepper noticed that Tony was still watching her intently. Wordlessly, she held the wrench out to him. He didn't take it. Didn't even glance at it, never taking his eyes off hers.

Desperately seeking for a way to divert his attention, Pepper nodded toward the table. "Did it work?"

Tony reluctantly withdrew his eyes from her and dragged them back to his work. He checked the two levers he had been holding. They had both remained in place. He pushed on each one in turn, just to make sure, before turning back to Pepper. "Yep, sure did." He smiled warmly. "Thanks for your help, Miss Potts."

The use of her last name Pepper's heart skip a beat. Tony only ever used her last name in public business settings in which he needed to be professional. In private, however, they had no need for professionalism. When they were alone, she was Pepper and he was Tony. Unless, of course, it was some important or otherwise very personal moment. Those intimate moments were the only time that she was Ms. Potts to him and he was Mr. Stark to her. It was odd, this backward tradition they had created, but secretly, Pepper loved it.

Pepper knew that Tony expected her to answer with her customary You're welcome, Mr. Stark. That was their tradition, but Pepper wasn't quite ready for that yet. She was still too upset, too flustered for that. That would be far too personal, far too intimate, and she couldn't quite bring herself to say it.

Instead, Pepper nodded at the stack of paperwork. "Don't forget your end of the bargain," she reminded him, her voice a little colder than she had meant it to be. Without looking back at him, Pepper turned to leave.

Tony frowned. Her deliberate avoidance of her customary response did not slip his notice and he hated it. He knew she was upset, and he didn't want her to leave with so much left unsaid between them. He couldn't stand the thought of her walking away while she was still so clearly mad at him, but he couldn't think of anything useful to say. Before Pepper reached the door, Tony said, "I have a lot more bolts that need tightening, if you want to help with those."

He immediately cringed, knowing how lame he sounded. He hoped Pepper hadn't heard the desperation in his voice, though he figured she must have.

Pepper didn't even turn around. "I have work to do," she stated.

In a last ditch effort to stop her from pushing open the door she was just about to reach, Tony blurted, "you're upset with me."

With one hand on the door, Pepper paused. She should have known he would wander why she was acting this way. He clearly didn't know why she was angry, and of course he had a right to wonder.

Pepper closed her eyes for a minute, controlling her features before turning around with a sigh. She leaned her back against the glass door and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not upset with you, Tony" she dissembled, trying to come up with some explanation for her behavior. "It's just…" she exhaled and shrugged, throwing up her hands. "It's just been a rough day, I guess."

Tony crossed the room and stood in front of Pepper. He peered at her. She avoided his gaze. "No," he said slowly, "you're definitely mad at me."

Pepper looked back up at him. Her mouth dropped open, but no words came out, so she snapped it shut. She couldn't think of anything more to say.

Thankfully, she was relieved of the need to say anything, as JARVIS' voice came through the speakers, halting their conversation for the moment. "Sorry to interrupt, sir," the disembodied voice said, "but Colonel Rhodes is on the line."

"I'm busy," Tony said shortly, never taking his eyes off Pepper's. "Tell him to leave a message."

"Yes, sir," JARVIS responded.

With that distraction efficiently taken care of, Tony turned back to Pepper. She said nothing.

There was a pause before Tony said quietly, "I don't like it when you're mad at me."

Despite her annoyance, that brought a small and resigned smile to Pepper's face. Matching his quiet tone, she said, "I'm not mad at you, Tony. Really. It's just been a bad day."

One side of Tony's mouth curled up. "You sure?" he asked, his voice a bit lighter. "Cause I could swear you're mad at me."

Pepper nodded. "I'm sure."

Tony smiled. "Good." He sighed. "Well, if you wait, I'll sign those papers now," he offered.

As far as offers of reconciliation go, it wasn't much, but it was enough for now. "That would be wonderful," Pepper said before quietly adding, "Thank you, Mr. Stark."

Relief washed over Tony at the use of his last name. Maybe she really wasn't mad at him. Maybe this could be fixed after all. Smiling, he turned toward the stack of papers.

"Hey, JARVIS," Tony called as he started methodically signing each paper, "why don't you play that message from Rhodey now."

Ever the efficient one, Pepper thought with a smile.

"Yes, sir," JARVIS said dutifully.

There was a momentary pause and then a click before Rhodey's voice came through the speakers. "Hey Tony," the voice said, "just returning your call from earlier. Sorry I missed it, I was in a meeting. You said it was urgent though… Is everything alright? Honestly, the message was a bit garbled. Cell service isn't that great in top secret government buildings." Tony chuckled. "Anyway, you said something about some conversation you had with that reporter girl last night? Something about illegal weapons deals with terrorists, and maybe Obi is involved? That's a heavy claim, man. We need to talk. Call me back."

The message clicked off. Everything was silent for a second before Pepper's voice came from behind Tony: "Did he just say… last night?"

Tony froze. He'd been so close. So close to making everything normal again. So close to making things okay. So close to not screwing it all up.

So damned close.

Damn it, Rhodey.