MALIBU, CALIFORNIA

Stark Industries was in shambles.

With Tony still missing, the board was panicking and frantically trying to figure out their next move which meant Pepper was constantly stressed. The only thing the board could agree on right now was they wanted Buffy Anne Stark to finally come out of the shadows. With the head of the Stark legacy possibly dead, the second his death was ruled, Buffy would automatically get a place on the board and become a majority shareholder.

They wanted to start planning. And they wanted the 17-year-old future head of the company there so they could start branding her as the light in the darkness.

Honestly, it made Pepper feel sick. Most of the board had known Buffy for her entire life and instead of thinking about her as a young girl who had lost her father, she was simply a face that would keep investors from running.

Strolling into her temporary office, the redhead sighs as she moves over to what was technically Tony's desk. She couldn't fight off the board for much longer, sooner or later if Tony wasn't found Buffy would have to come forward in order to keep the company from falling into ruins.
Dropping her head into her hands Pepper sighs deeply in exhaustion having not slept since the day Tony had gone missing. Before she could doze off at her desk, hope began to fill Pepper as she spots an incoming call on her though.

Hope that it might be about Tony, that they might have found him.

"Hello?" Pepper says as she answers the phone. a thousand thoughts and ideas running through her head.
"Pepper it's me."

At the sound of Happy's voice, a small smile grazes Pepper's lips, while saddened that this wasn't news about Tony, at least, hopefully, this road trip to Sunnydale had helped distract Buffy for a few days.
"Happy, how's Sunnydale? Let me guess, you gave in to the puppy dog eyes and let Buffy drive? How much damage is there to the car?"
As she laughs softly at her own joke, Happy merely remained silent for a long moment before inhaling tightly causing a painful tension to fill the air between the two colleagues.
"Pepper...It's...Joyce...something happened...I..."

At the sound of Happy stuttering, clearly struggling to get his words out, Pepper instantly found herself sitting up in her seat. It was all over Happy's voice, something was wrong, very-very wrong "Buffy's mother? Happy what happened, what's going on?"
Clearly trying to reign in his own emotions about losing his friend of almost two decades, Happy takes a shaky breath before finally speaking up once more.

"Pepper, Joy"s dead. Buffy and I...found her on the couch aneurysm they said. The EMTs just took her to the morgue."

Happy's words sent a wave of shock and horror through the red-heads body leaving her completely frozen, unable to believe what she was hearing. It was like all the oxygen was stripped from her body as she processed the heartbreaking situation. Her heart ached for Buffy, while she hadn't known the blonde long, Pepper had grown attached to her, wanting nothing more than to make sure Buffy was protected and happy, yet this was something she couldn't protect Buffy from.

Not only was her father missing but now, Buffy had gone through what no teenage girl should have to through. She had lost her mother.

As of right now, Buffy was alone in the world.

"I'm coming." Pepper finally stutters out as she quickly begins gathering her belongings, she needed to get to Sunnydale now "I'll be on the first jet to Sunnydale."


SUNNYDALE, CALIFORNA

Grief.

It was a torturous, excruciating sensation that ran through one's body, crippling them. Grief was a feeling that never truly passed, it was always there from the second you lost your loved one, to the day of your own death.

It is often said that there are five stages to grief.

Denial...Anger...Bargaining...Depression...and Acceptance.

For Buffy, she was still in that first stage of grief. Denial. Her mind had been refusing to process what had happened. Since the second she and Happy had found her mother on the couch Buffy had found herself frozen. When when the MTs had arrived she had been unable to speak, she had merely crouched in the corner of the room in silence. Curled up in a tight ball as she watched Happy handle everything, he had spoken to the EMTs, had spoken to the morgue people when they had taken Joyce away while she remained curled up on the floor, hiding away in the corner of the room, her eyes still glued to the couch where her mother was laid.

She had spent hours in her own mind, imagining a different reality, one where her mother had been resuscitated and alive, her mind trying to protect her. But the longer she sat there, she knew it wasn't real, her mother hadn't been saved. When they had arrived she had already been cold.

Joyce had died alone hours before.

So with the denial stage passing, Buffy promptly skipped to depression. She found herself merely silent, unwilling to move from her seat on the floor. She wasn't angry or denying the truth any longer...she was just broken.
Tears continued to spill silently down her cheeks long after the sun went down, yet on the floor she remained, refusing to even move, sleep or eat. It was like her entire body had shut down, and Buffy couldn't find it in herself to care.

"Buffy..." Happy whispers as he couches down in front of the still silent girl hoping that maybe this time he would get a response, for hours he had tried to get her to even acknowledge his presence but there had been nothing.
"Kiddo, please if you're not gonna eat, then why don't you gave have a shower before we go to the hospital. Can you do that for me kid?"
When he is met with nothing but silence Happy sighs deeply before tapping her head softly just as the doorbell rings drawing his attention.

Standing he quickly grabs a blanket off the couch wrapping it around the young girl before making his way over to the front door. Glancing back at her hesitantly, he lets out a small worried breath, she hadn't even flinched at the sound of the doorbell.

Pulling open the front door, Happy frowns in confusion as he spots an unfamiliar man standing on the doorstep, in a tweed suit with glasses resting on the bridge of his nose.
"Can I help you?"
Giles clears his throat softly before worry fills his eyes as he spots Buffy sitting in the corner of the living room like a frozen statue "I'm Mr. Giles, the hospital called to inform me of Joyce's passing, I wanted to check on Buffy. Is she okay?"
Happy couldn't help but shrug softly at the question, to be honest, there was no way of answering that question. Opening the door allowing Giles to join him in the foyer, he quickly gestures to the blanket-wrapped teenage girl "She hasn't spoken in hours. After we found her, she went into a catatonic state."

The Watcher sighs deeply before rubbing a stressful hand over his jaw, this shouldn't have happened, she had been in recovery "She was doing better after surgery, I just can't believe this..."

"Did you know she was sick?" A small voice pipes up from the leaving room causing both men to turn only to spot Buffy now standing in the center of the room, her eyes glued to Giles, horror etched all over her face.
Quickly turning to face her, Giles sighs deeply not wanting to upset her further "Buffy, you have to understand your mother asked me not to tell you-"
Before the Watcher could finish his sentence, Buffy had grabbed the flower vase off the coffee table launching it right at the wall by his head as tears finally began streaming down her face "You knew..." She whispers her voice cracking, too hoarse from the hours of silence, not that she cared, she was too overwhelmed by the hurt. She had trusted Giles, he had been like a second father to her, yet he had continued to lie to her fact, about Angel, about her mother.
"You knew she was sick...that she might die and you didn't tell me. First Angel and now my mother."
Stepping forwards the blonde unable the bear the mere thought of her hating him, Giles exhales deeply trying to figure out how to explain this in a way she would understand. He had just been trying to protect her.
"Buffy, I am so sorry, if I had thought this would happen, I would have told you, you have to believe me..."

Yet despite his begging words, the truth was Buffy didn't believe him. She didn't believe anything he had to say, not anymore.
"My mom...is dead!" She hisses tears pooling down her cheeks rapidly as she glares at the Watcher she had once trusted more than anyone "I didn't get to say goodbye, I didn't get to see goodbye to my dad or her. I bet the Council is happy now right? I have nothing left?" She asks harshly not caring about the flinch that came off Giles at her words.

Shaking her head Buffy on shaky legs makes her way towards the staircase but not before throwing one more look at her dejected Watcher "I don't know you." She whispers softly effectively breaking the Watcher's heart with her words before she ran upstairs, the sound of her bedroom door slamming behind her echoing through the house.
"You should leave." Happy tells Giles without asking as he opens the door for the dejected Watcher "Mr. Giles..."
"I was trying to protect her."
"That's not your job." Happy snaps "That's mine and her God-fathers. It would be better if you go."


It was almost 9 pm when Pepper finally arrived at the Summers household.

Climbing out of her car, the redhead practically runs out of her car still in six-inch heels towards the small two-story home, which was such a drastic difference from the other home Buffy resided in. This one was more homey and normal, honestly, just the sight of the sweet home helped Pepper understand all the more why Joyce and Tony had decided to keep Buffy's existence out of the public knowledge. Here the young girl could actually have a normal life without constantly being surrounded by reporters, having every second of her life documented...or at least she could. With Joyce gone, things were about to drastically change.
If Tony was alive, he would become Buffy's prime caregiver meaning that all hopes of a normal life experience would quickly vanish, but even if the teenage girl ended up having to live with Rhodey, she would still be an orphan.

Nothing would ever be the same for Buffy.

Knocking on the front door, Pepper doesn't even hesitate to stroll straight into the home as an exhausted distraught Happy answers the door, clearly having not slept for even a minute since the whole ordeal. Though Pepper couldn't blame him, he had known Joyce almost as long as Tony, her loss was clearly weighing hard on him as well, despite him trying to be strong for the teenage daughter of his lost friend and missing boss.

"Where is she?" She asks instantly as she peels off her jacket hanging it up before her eyes quickly begin examining the small home in search of the young girl that was her main focus right now.
"Her room." Happy answers with a deep sigh as he throws a small concerned glance upstairs in the direction of Buffy's oddly silent room "She went straight upstairs after we got back from the hospital. Nothing since."
Placing a small hand on Happy's shoulder, Pepper offers him a small smile knowing that while like her his focus was Buffy, he was still, grieving himself. He needed to get some sleep that was clear enough "You sleep, I'll take Buffy Patrol."

With that, Pepper slowly makes her way up the stairs of the two-story home, her eyes quickly landing on the range of photos filling the walls of the home. It was a mixture, most of the photos were of Buffy with Joyce, some with Buffy and what she could only assume were the girl's friends but a few were of Buffy with Tony.
One photo at the top of the staircase, in particular, caught her eyes, it was of a 22-year-old Tony holding a one-year-old Buffy by the hand as she attempted to stand up, using what she could only assume was one of his many cars in the garage to haul herself up.
Just the sight of the photo brought a smile to Pepper's lips, it was still crazy for her to believe that Tony was a father. But that photo just proved a point, while he and Joyce had been barely 21 when Buffy was born, from the way Tony was smiling in pride at the sight of his daughter standing up for the first time, he loved being her father more than anything.

Tearing her eyes away from the photo as the sudden sounds of small smothered sobs fill her ears, Pepper's eyes widen and she quickly begins moving towards the room where the sobs were echoing from.
Pushing open the door, the red-heads eyes widen as she spots Buffy curled up in a ball on her bed, sobbing silently into a pillow, clearly trying to hide away her feelings from the outside world.
As a Stark, it was expected.
Pepper could imagine that as a child Buffy would have been told probably by her grandfather's lawyers to bury emotions as they had no place in business and would make her seem weak. Pulling off her heels, Pepper pushes her way into the room not that Buffy even acknowledged her, she was too consumed in her grief to notice another human being near her right.
So knowing that Buffy really didn't need a speech right now, Pepper climbed onto the bed lying beside her and wrapped her arms around the young girl who instantly reached out to squeeze the redhead's hand through her sobs, in silent thanks for the support.

All Buffy needed right now was comfort, and if Tony couldn't be here, then Pepper intended to make sure that Buffy got what she needed, no matter what.