A/N: Okay, so I may have worried a few Pepperony fans with the last chapter, but I hope with this chapter you'll see where I'm going with this. ;)

Thanks everyone for your great reviews and to everyone who has favourited and put an alert on this story. It's all very, very appreciated. :D

I've got a lot of subplots going in this story, so bear with me as I work to establish them all and then ultimately draw them all together, won't you?

Thanks, guys, and hope you enjoy...

Chapter Eleven

Steve leaned against the balcony railing and looked out over New York's nightscape. A great deal of it still wasn't lit up and he grimaced internally, knowing the Avengers role in that. They really hadn't figured out how to work as a proper team and Steve wasn't sure they ever would.

"So, this is where you escaped to?"

The teasing question had Steve turning around and giving Pepper a guilty look. "Sorry, I didn't think you'd mind. You were really engrossed in your conversation."

Pepper came to stand beside him and looked out over the city as well. "Stark Industries is looking to do business with the man I was talking with." She turned her head and smiled at him. "I'm the one who should be sorry, Steve, getting caught up in business talk and abandoning you." She tilted her head and regarded him steadily. "I can't imagine you feel very comfortable in a place like this."

He gave a bit of a shrug. "I don't feel comfortable anywhere in this world, so it doesn't really matter."

"I'm sorry to hear that," she said softly.

Steve frowned. "I don't need anyone to feel sorry for me, Pepper."

She arched an eyebrow. "How about compassion, what are your feelings on that?"

He moved uncomfortably. "You should save your compassion for the people who deserve it," he said grimly.

Pepper regarded him steadily. "You feel guilty about being alive, don't you?"

Steve looked at her in surprise. "No," he said quickly. Pepper kept looking at him. "There's no point, things are how they are."

"Very sensible," Pepper noted, "but human emotions aren't always sensible, Steve. Sometimes you just have to acknowledge how you feel and let yourself go there."

"Feeling things isn't going to change my situation," he said grimly.

"No," she said huskily, "but maybe they'll change you."

Steve frowned. "Meaning?"

"Meaning ever since you were woken up in this time you've felt guilty about surviving when everyone you knew didn't." Pepper shook her head at him. "That's no way to live, Steve. You have to find a way to get past that otherwise you're going to drive yourself crazy with taking the blame for every little thing that happens, like what happened to me and that woman yesterday."

"But those were my fault," said Steve in frustration.

"How is Justin Hammer being insane your fault?" Pepper argued with him. "And how is that teacher wanting to help you something to feel badly about?"

"I have to protect people," said Steve urgently, "it's my job."

"Is it your job or your penance?" Pepper challenged him. "You have to save everyone in this world because you couldn't save anyone from your world, is that how it goes?"

"No," Steve scowled, "that's crazy."

"But it's how you feel," she pushed him gently. "Isn't it?"

Steve abruptly walked away from her and looked up into the evening sky, trying to rein in his feelings. He'd worked so hard not to think about any of these kinds of things since waking up and now Pepper wasn't letting him pretend those feelings weren't there. He heard Pepper come up behind him.

"No one will ever really know what you're going through, Steve," she said quietly, "but that doesn't mean that we don't care. It's totally understandable that you feel the way you do, but answer me this." Pepper walked around so she was facing him. "Do you think that any of those people you left behind would begrudge the fact that you're alive and well in 2012? Do you think any of them wish you were dead like them?"

Steve's shoulders sagged as he thought of all the important people in his life. "No," he admitted at last.

"And if things were different and it was Bucky or Peggy or anyone else you cared about standing here, would you want anything less for them to have a full and happy life?"

"Of course not."

Pepper smiled and put her hand on his arm. "Then why not consider being as kind to yourself as you would be to them. You're alive, Steve, and it's a miracle but you don't have to keep on trying to make up for the fact that fate saved you and not someone else."

Steve looked at Pepper in confusion. "Why are you saying all these things to me?"

Pepper gave him a soft smile. "Because you're my friend and because I think a part of you is still trapped in that ice. You have so much to give the world, not just as Captain America but as Steve Rogers, and I don't want to see you bury that so no one can ever reach you out of a misplaced sense of guilt."

"That's not what I'm doing."

"That's exactly what you're doing, Steven Rogers."

Steve couldn't help but smile. "You sound like my mom." He wrinkled his nose. "You don't look like my mom, but you sound like her."

"If I do then she sounds like an infinitely sensible woman to me."

Steve sighed. "Okay, suppose you're right and I'm not saying you are, but suppose you are. How do I stop feeling this way?"

"By opening yourself up to new things and letting new people in," said Pepper firmly.

Steve made a wry face. "That's easy to say but harder to do."

"You don't strike me as someone who would give up on something just because it was hard," Pepper commented.

"Damn," said Steve with feigned annoyance, "you're good at this."

"I've got my superhero pep talks down pat," she told him teasingly.

"I guess you get a lot of practice with Tony."

"We have our moments." Pepper looked around and smiled. "Our almost first kiss was on a balcony like this at a charity event."

"Almost kiss?"

"We both kind of chickened out," said Pepper with a little laugh. "And then Tony went to get me a drink and never came back."

Steve rolled his eyes. "The guy is such a flake."

"Sometimes."

He shook his head. "I still don't know what you see in him."

"That's because you're too alike."

Steve gave her an outraged look. "We're nothing alike!"

"Oh please," Pepper snorted, "you two are peas in a pod. You're both driven, passionate men but go about showing it in two different ways. Tony pretends to not take anything seriously while you take everything seriously."

"Which makes us opposites," Steve pointed out.

"No, it makes you both driven." Pepper gave him a pointed look. "Both of you have been fighting against the limited expectations of the world around you all your lives. You were the skinny kid who no one thought had much to offer and Tony was the reckless, overindulged errant genius who couldn't be relied on for anything and only looked after himself first. You've both been fighting against the moulds those around you want to put you in and you're both as stubborn as hell." Her lips twitched at seeing Steve's expression. "You want to argue with me but don't want to come across as stubborn, don't you?"

"Are you sure you don't have a super power of being able to read minds?" Steve grumbled.

Pepper laughed. "I just know how to read complicated men, years of practice after all."

He shook his head in amazement. "Tony doesn't deserve you. You're too good for him, Pepper. I mean, the guy abandoned you to go and play with bits of metal in the lab. He's an idiot."

"I could have made Tony come with me," said Pepper philosophically, "but his mind would have been somewhere else. He's always been like that when he has a problem to solve, all of his focus goes into that. I may as well have slapped a tuxedo on a bag of potatoes for all I would have gotten out of him tonight if I had dragged him along."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"I'm not going to lie, it gets frustrating sometimes," said Pepper readily, "but then I knew what I was getting myself into. I can hardly agree to a relationship and then expect him to change who he is. Before I said yes to us being together I weighed up all the aspects of Tony I knew and asked myself if I could live with them. My answer was ultimately yes. Even if there are parts of him that drive me insane, I still wouldn't change anything about him, because that's who I fell in love with." Pepper smiled. "Besides, I'm no day at the beach all the time. Tony has to put up with things about me."

"Yeah," said Steve dryly, "it must a be a real cross to bear for Tony to put up with you being beautiful, funny, smart, patient and understanding. I really feel for the guy."

Pepper laughed. "I think you're being overly kind, Steve. I can get my crazy on too. I'm not always reasonable and understanding."

That wasn't what Steve had seen so far. "You're those things more than he deserves."

Pepper leaned across and kissed his cheek. "You're good for a girl's ego, Mr. Rogers."

Steve smiled at her easy affection. "Weirdly enough, even though you compared me to Tony, you're not bad for mine either, Ms. Potts." Even though Pepper had stirred up a lot of feelings in him with their little conversation, Steve actually felt better for having talked about them and getting things out in the open. "You always seem to know the right thing to say, Pepper."

"That's what friends are for."

Steve looked at the beautiful woman standing in front of him and smiling at him sweetly. It would be so easy to fall in love with this accomplished, kind and compassionate woman but Steve knew he'd never let himself go there and either would Pepper. They just weren't those kinds of people. He'd been floundering ever since being woken up in this new millennium and for awhile now Pepper had felt like the only solid thing in this world and it would have been easy to lean too heavily on that and for things to get confusing. But in that very special way Pepper had about her, she'd just opened his eyes to the possibilities of this new world and made a lot more things seem attainable. "I'm glad we're friends, Pepper, and thank you for tonight. I think I really needed it."

"You're welcome, Steve," she said sincerely. Pepper took his arm. "Come on, let's go inside and I'll show you how to dance."

"I thought you liked the ability to walk," Steve deadpanned as they headed back in.

"You can't be that bad," she tutted.

"Yes I can," Steve countered as he tried to warn her, "I really, really can."

oooOOOOooo

Bruce looked up from where he was working through the data Tony had collected from the salvaged metal pieces so far to see Steve and Pepper laughing as they stepped out of the elevator together. "Good night?" he quizzed them.

Pepper smiled. "It was, very much so."

"Until I pounded your feet into the ground," Steve reminded her. He made a regretful expression. "I told you I couldn't dance."

"My feet will live to dance another day," she reassured him. "You just need some more practice, that's all. Trust me, Steve, I'll have you turned into a regular Fred Astaire with a few more lessons."

Steve rolled his eyes. "I think you might be dreaming there, Pepper."

Pepper gave a little laugh. "You just need practice, is all." She looked at Bruce. "Is Tony still in the lab?"

He arched an eyebrow at her. "What do you think?"

"Right," said Pepper, "I'd better go and see him." She smiled at Steve. "Thank you for being a charming escort tonight, Steve, I really appreciate it."

"It was my pleasure, Pepper," said Steve readily.

"Well, goodnight," she said to both of them, "I'll see you in the morning."

Both of them murmured their goodnights back and then Bruce was watching as Steve pulled at his bow tie and flopped down on the sofa. "So, you two seemed to have a nice date," he noted.

"It wasn't a date," said Steve quickly.

"Are you sure?"

Steve scowled at him. "Of course I'm sure. Pepper is with Tony. Pepper and I are just friends."

"And that's how you want to keep it?"

"What's with the third degree?" asked Steve in annoyance. "I told you, Pepper and I are friends and that's it."

Bruce gave him a considered look. "I just wanted to make sure things weren't going to get more complicated than they already are around here."

"I don't have any designs on Pepper."

"I doubt Tony is going to buy that after tonight," Bruce pointed out.

"That's his problem, not mine," Steve countered.

Bruce grimaced. "Why do I feel like that could turn out to be everyone's problem?" he asked dryly and had to wonder how Tony was taking the news of what happened tonight. Bruce wasn't a betting man, but if he was, he was going to bet that it wasn't going to be well.

A/N: So there you go, guys. :D I do see Pepperony's relationship as special and not open to them straying... although that doesn't mean they can't get jealous, reasonably or not. ;) To me Steve and Pepper work as good friends with a kind of 'road not travelled' kind of thing which I suppose potentially all the Avengers have between each other if you have a fondness for slash fics as well. LOL Of course, even thought Steve and Pepper are cool with one another, you just know Tony's going to make a big deal out of it. But, as many of you have observed, maybe that will make him a little more attentive down the line. ;)