Shorter chapter today because I wanted a chapter dedicated to Tony and Pepper's talk. The next chapter will be longer. I'm still estimating another few more chapters to go before we are done with the Civil War storyline. Thank you, everyone, for the feedback so far! Please enjoy the chapter!

CHAPTER SIX

Reconciliation

Friday 13th May 2016

Tony scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure how to go about and say this, Pep, so I'm just going to come out and say it. Nat and I… we're from the future."

"Have you been drinking?" Pepper leaned forward and then back, her eyes opening suspiciously, watching the both of them with her sharp gaze. "Because you generally only say stupid things when you are drunk."

"To be fair he says stupid things when he isn't drunk too," interjected Natasha.

Tony threw her a look. "Not helping," he whispered. Returning his attention to Pepper, he continued: "I'm not drunk. I'm completely sane."

Pepper raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, maybe not completely sane… We both know I'm a bit crazy…" he admitted. "The point is… I'm not lying to you. I am from the future. As is Nat."

"You asked me here for this?" Pepper shook her head in despair. "Tony… if you think pretending you are from the future is going to repair what's happened between us, you've got –"

"I can prove it." This wasn't going the way he expected. He couldn't lose Pepper in his second chance. Maybe it was too soon to try to get her back. Maybe he should have waited to talk to her. But knowing what their endgame was made him want to spend as much time with her as possible.

It won't be your endgame if you do things right…

The voice reverberated inside his head, attempting to comfort him, to waylay his fears of what the future could still hold for him and Pepper.

"You're scared," she whispered. "You're trembling. Why?" Her voice was soft and soothing, comforting him, despite the worry he felt at potentially losing her.

"I am," admitted Tony, something he rarely did. "I'm scared you won't believe me."

"Time travel… really?" she asked dubiously, tipping her head forward and raising an eyebrow in question.

Tony shrugged. "I was going to invent it one day."

Pepper stepped back, her eyes moving from Tony to Natasha and then back to Tony. "I'm not sure…"

"It's the truth, Pepper," reassured Natasha. "Tony isn't lying. We are both from the future. Maybe he should have built up to the reveal instead of dropping a bit of a bombshell on yourself? This isn't something we would lie to you about."

Pepper patted the seat beside her. She still looked unsure. "Tony, sit with me, please."

Tony moved across the room to sit beside her, his body trembling. "Pep…"

She raised a finger and pressed it on his lips. "I need to ask you something." She shuffled slightly in her seat but kept her eyes upon Tony's. "Are we married in the future?"

Tony nodded, staying quiet. He wondered what Pepper was up to.

"Then if we are married then you will know something about me that I vowed to tell only to one person and that was to the man I would marry. I would tell them the night before our wedding. If you truly are from the future you will know what I am talking about as I would have told you."

"Do you want me to leave?" Natasha piped up.

Pepper peered over Tony's shoulder and shook her head. "No. You should stay."

Tony knew what she was talking about. What she had trusted him with a day before their wedding. He hadn't blamed her from keeping it from him all these years, he'd understood. It was something that even he with his large amount of resources would never have known about. The connection wasn't obvious. It had been a tragedy for Pepper to have suffered so young. One which had turned her cold and had made herself determined to find a place in the world where she didn't have to get close to anyone…

Yet Tony had managed to crawl his way into her heart… They'd been dancing around one another for years until they had finally gotten together. They'd been denying the inevitable.

"Tony?" probed Pepper carefully.

Sighing, Tony took her hands in his, squeezing them gently. "You told me a secret you've kept for years and that you would only reveal a day before our wedding day. It is a secret that you wanted to keep and by telling me then you were searching for trust. To know that I still wanted to marry you even though you'd kept this secret from me for years." He remembered it well: Pepper informing him she had something to tell him, a secret she had kept from him and one where, she said, if he decided not to marry her after knowing then she would understand. Tony had still married her, understanding her desire to keep it secret, keep it quiet.

Pepper swallowed.

"You told me when you were fourteen you were orphaned. You've never allowed yourself to get close to people since the fire," began Tony quietly.

She breathed out.

"It happened by accident but the consequences were severe for you. You survived but no one else did. You were the one to raise the alarm. You woke up in the middle of the night and smelt smoke. You told me how you ran to your parent's room and roused them from their sleep. The smoke was already thick, suffocating you all. Your dad smashed the window of their bedroom, told you to jump and they would follow once they got your younger sister. You jumped out, landed and broke your wrist and ankle in the process. You couldn't move. You were crying and in pain… Your whole house was in flames. Your parents were at the window with your younger sister." There were tears forming in Pepper's eyes. He wanted to stop, to not harm her anymore. But she hadn't asked him too. "But then there was an explosion. The whole upper floor of your home collapsed, taking your sister and your parents with it. They died then. You were the only survivor and you hated it, hated surviving because you could have got your sister before going to your parents. You could have all lived and you blamed yourself for their deaths. But there was nothing you could have done. Since then you've been on your own, determined to work hard, to prove to the world that you survived for a reason. But you always refused to allow anyone to get close to you. You had boyfriends but you were afraid of letting them get too close to you in case you lost them. And then you met me. You were so difficult to read, to get close to. You worked hard, determined to succeed. You never let me get close to you. I always used to have my way with my Personal Assistants but, Pep, you were not a push-over. I took you seriously, and I got to know you, respect you and learned to love you legitimately. And… I think it took you years to trust me, to get close to me, to have feelings for me because of what you had survived. You fell in love with me over many years but you were still afraid to lose me like you lost your parents and your sister."

And then I died anyway, he thought, realising all of Pepper's fears had come true. He had left her. But he couldn't tell her that.

"Tony…" A slight smile tugged at her lips. One tear slipped down her cheek. "There is only one way you could have known about the fire…"

"Do you believe me now?" he asked quietly.

Pepper nodded. "I swore to only tell you once… And I know I've never said anything about it to you. The only way for you to know is if we going to get married… And, I'm sure I'd remember marrying you."

"So…?" Tony urged, waiting for confirmation.

"I believe you." She glanced at Natasha. "But I have no way of testing Natasha to determine if she is really from the future. All I can do is trust you, Tony, and I do."

A weight lifted from his shoulders. Pepper believed him.

But she pulled back, her eyes searching his, looking for something he was sure wasn't there. "Why have you come back? And… wait… does this mean there are two of you?"

"No," Tony said instantly. "We didn't do the traditional time-travel of hopping into a machine and coming out in history. There are not two versions of us running around. I… went to sleep in my future… and woke up back here." It was a semblance of truth. Dying had felt like falling asleep… only losing awareness completely and being unable to breathe. He had known he was dying, had felt the life slowly leaving his body. "The best way to describe it is…."

Souls. Your souls moved backward in time.

Tony paused, eyes widening at the voice in his head.

A quick glance at Natasha told him she had heard the same thing.

"Tony?" Pepper prodded, noticing their simultaneous reactions.

Tell her about the voice you hear.

Natasha swallowed, moved slowly and sat down on the table in front of the sofa Tony and Pepper were sitting on.

"Souls. The best way to describe it is our souls moved back in time and inhabited our old bodies. We merged with our past selves, bringing all our knowledge of the future to the here and now," explained Natasha. "We do not know why we were chosen to come back, only that we have to stop things from playing out as they did before. Something… bad occurred which Tony and I wish to prevent. We need to keep the team together and working on the Accords is the best step forward."

"I think I understand," said Pepper. "You're still the same person only with memories from a life you've already lived. Sort of like Vision? He remembers being JARVIS but now he is sentient, alive. But… how did your souls get back? What about your bodies in the future? Did you die?"

"Honestly? We don't know. We both woke up here," admitted Tony, knowing he couldn't tell Pepper the full truth. He didn't want to worry her. Maybe one day he would but right now wasn't the right time to tell her that he and Natasha had died in their future. "But we both hear a voice. Whatever is responsible for sending us back is with us. It guides us, hints to us as to what decisions to make. You saw me look at Nat. That was the voice talking to us."

"It just spoke into our minds about our souls moving back in time," confirmed Natasha.

Pepper swallowed. "I guess this means you won't be giving up being Iron Man?"

Tony lowered his chin against his chest and took a deep breath. "I can't. Not just yet. Not while I still have to make sure the future I come from doesn't happen." He looked up. "But once this is done, I will retire. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"What if you die before you can retire?" Pepper asked sadly.

It was always a possibility he would still die. Tony knew that. "I can't promise to come home." After last time, he couldn't. When he'd left to go on the Time Heist, Tony had had a feeling he wouldn't see his home again, just a niggle of doubt, as if he knew his time was up. He'd been proven right. He'd never promised Pepper he'd come home safe. She had known the risks, let him go, and knowing she could lose him forever. And Morgan… God, Morgan…

He hoped the voice would tell him otherwise but he was met with silence.

"Then if I am to die then I want to spend whatever time I have left with you. If you let me…" She deserved to have the choice to walk away. "I'll be alright if you choose not to be with me."

"Tony…" Pepper's shoulders slumped. She looked weary and tired. "This last month since we decided to take a break has been difficult for me. I've missed you. Thought about you every single day and I've been tempted to pick up the phone just to hear your voice. I demand a lot from you. I expect a lot from you and I know I can be very overbearing sometimes but I love you. I know giving up the Iron Man suit is a lot to ask…"

Tony twirled his fingers together with hers. "I will always be Iron Man, Pepper. Nothing can take that identity away from me. I've been given a second chance. Both Nat and I have, I can't sit back and let things happen again, not when it is in our power to do so."

"We have a mission to accomplish before either of us can rest," added Natasha. "We didn't come back together. I've been here a tiny bit longer than Tony has. He only arrived recently. We found one another quickly enough."

Pepper nodded thoughtfully. "Have you changed anything, apart from telling me, of course?" she added as an afterthought.

"Yes. Lagos. I wasn't supposed to be there."

Pepper gasped. "MIT speech. You cancelled on them. I received the notification you had done so."

"I had to be in Lagos to prevent something worse from happening. It worked. Lagos was the start of it, where everything started to go wrong originally. It started a chain reaction which resulted in a catastrophic event. The Avengers were not together. We broke apart…"

Natasha continued. "Being apart was one of the reasons we lost."

"The Accords were the driving force which split us," revealed Tony. "Now it will be the legislation which will keep us together. For us to function as a team we have to follow the Accords, especially if we want to be ready for what's coming. Facing it together with the world is better than trying to fight it apart where failure is more certain."

Leaning back in the sofa, Pepper sighed.

"What is it?" asked Tony, his eyes studying her beautiful face.

She squeezed his hand. "I'll help you," whispered Pepper.

Tony was taken back. "What?" He was surprised but the feeling of happiness burst through him at her words.

"I know you are not telling me everything. Guess there are rules you have to follow. "

"There are," Tony confirmed. Rules stymied him but he recognised the importance of them in this situation. He simply couldn't tell Pepper he'd died, though he suspected she might already have that inkling of doubt.

"You've been truthful, not kept me in the dark. Coming clean when you didn't have to? It shows me you care and you want to make this work. I'm willing to try again."

Tony's face split into a broad smile. "Pep…" He moved quickly, joy running through his body, as he pulled her close, hugging her and burying his head in her shoulder. He wanted to cry because he had one part of his life back.

Moving her face, Pepper kissed him on the lips, pulling him down.

Natasha stood hastily from her perch on the table. "I think I should leave."

Tony broke out into laughter as Pepper drew away from him. "We're not going to do anything…"

"Yet," Pepper's eyes sparkled.

"Oh." Tony's eyes widened.

"Later, Mr. Stark," teased Pepper. Leaning back, Pepper moved her gaze over to Natasha. "I'm assuming the others do not know of… this?"

"No." Natasha shook her head. "We do not plan on telling them. I don't think the voice would let us."

"It told us to trust you though," admitted Tony quietly. "I guess it knew doing so would reconcile us."

"Tony…" Pepper smiled sadly. "I didn't want to go on a break. But I needed time to revaluate and I realised I can't be living my life without you."

A lop-sided smile pulled at Tony's lips. "Guess we're stuck with one another, aye Potts?"

Pepper squeezed his hands. "Fortunately for us, we are." She leaned in and kissed him on the lips. "What happens now?"

"Tony and I will continue with what we're doing, ensuring the safe passage of the Accords and keeping the Avengers together," explained Natasha.

"We're also tracing a man named Helmut Zemo who is responsible for a terrorist attack which is due to happen soon," continued Tony. "Unfortunately, we cannot act until he's committed a crime and so far he hasn't but FRIDAY is keeping tabs on him. We'll be ready to act as soon as we receive notification." He hesitated then, unsure whether to take the risk.

Pepper noticed. "What is it?"

"There's this kid, where I came from, who became a big part of my life. It's around this time I met him… He changed me for the better. I'm debating whether to go ahead and put myself in his life when the situation which forced me to go to him in the first place shouldn't happen now…" Tony had been considering whether to leave Peter out of everything. Keep him safe by not getting to know him.

"How much did he mean to you?" Pepper queried quietly.

"He died in my arms and it broke me, Pep. He's got powers, and he has the potential to be one of the greatest superheroes of the world… I took him under my wing but one mistake I made was not telling his Aunt about his after-school activities. She did find out though and she accepted my role in his life. He's fifteen."

Pepper swallowed. "I think if he means so much to you, you need to be involved. Maybe mentoring him previously made him a better superhero. Don't cut him out of your life."

"Tony, we'll need him. We'll need as many people to fight as possible. At least with us he'll have the right training and will not come blundering in unprepared," suggested Natasha.

Tony sighed. "I want to keep him safe. Everyone I love safe. But I know it is not possible."

"We'll do the best we can." Natasha glanced at Pepper. "But what I believe is most important to the future we are trying to build is you two. The voice wouldn't have told us to trust Pepper if she didn't play a pivotal role in what was to come next."

It was perhaps an interesting statement and one development Tony hadn't considered. I should have seen it. Pepper has always been pivotal to everything I do. Why would it be different this time?

"Trust," Pepper murmured, "that's what is important. Trust one another and we can't fail."

The only issue now towards trust was the difference in the Accords and whether the rest of the team would support them. Tony worried their efforts would be for nothing. "Then let us believe the others will trust us and help us keep the Avengers together."

Natasha smiled gently. "I don't know why but I believe they will."

To be continued...

Please let me know what you think!

Pepper is going to be important throughout this story. It is never fully revealed where Pepper's family are. The only indication we have is in Iron Man 1 she tells Tony he is the only thing she has which suggests to me she has no family. I had two options to go with for how to convince Pepper of the truth. My original idea was using BARF and Tony shows her some memories but those memories can be manipulated as demonstrated in Civil War when Tony showed MIT students the last time he saw his parents alive and then altered the memory. I then decided to explore Pepper's background and decided to go with a tragic event which caused Pepper to lose her family at a young age and not want to talk about it because she blames herself. Hence her decision to only tell someone before they got married, as a test to see if they still wanted to marry her since she kept it from them for so long.

I hope the idea works and I felt it made more sense for Tony to know something about Pepper he wouldn't necessarily know in canon at this point.

The next chapter will move the story forward a bit more as we bring Peter Parker into the story...

Until next Sunday!

the-writer1988