I know, I know, I know. I promised that chapter back at the end of August but my beta and I had a really busy few weeks since then and it took us a while to coordinate things properly. Anyway, I am now back in London full time and I moved flats! I now live in East London, not far from Tower Bridge. I freaking love it!

Anyway, thanks to you all for being so patient! You guys are the best! And thanks to Laurel, my lovely, super busy beta reader who always finds the time to be an amazing friend 3

ALSO TO MY AMERICAN READERS (but not only): REMEMBER TO VOTE!

CHAPTER 18:

Getting away from Tony the next morning proves difficult - mostly because he keeps enticing her in the most delicious manner to get back under the sheets.

"Come on Pep, don't go. Let's stay in bed all day. I'll get Dummy to make breakfast. Okay, maybe not Dummy. But we could get brunch home delivered? Whaddya say?"

He kisses her spine, her neck, that spot right behind her ear.

"Tony…"

"They can spare you for one day, no?"

"I've got meetings and phone calls back to back today. I really need to go."

His hand sneaks from her back to her front and slowly-

"Tony!" She bats his hand away. "Need I remind you this is your mother's foundation I'm trying to run? What would she say if she saw you trying to seduce me away from my job?"

Tony squints his eyes.

"Uh, low blow Potts, bringing my mom into this. Really low blow, actually this probably deserves a bl-"

She puts her hand in front of his mouth. "Tony!"

He laughs and puts her hand down. "That's what you get for bringing my mom into bed with us."

She gets away from him and walks towards the shower.

"Well, since I seem to have tainted the bedroom, I'm going to take a shower. Whether you join me in the next 30 seconds is up to you."

He looks dumbfounded for a moment but scrambles to get out of bed. He only stubs his toe once on his way to the bathroom.

XXX

Pepper leaves the Mansion thirty minutes later than she'd originally planned, a smile on her face.

XXX

She slips right back into her role as head of the Foundation, almost as if nothing had happened. It's been almost a month now, but things are back on track. Her inbox is still full, of course. She still needs to call back a large number of people and her agenda for the next few weeks is booked with meetings her assistant has pushed as long as she could.

Frankly, there's a sense of relief to be back at work and to feel useful again. Not that she didn't feel useful helping Tony getting back on his feet, but her help only went so far and Tony needs his space as well to heal and to get back to his usual routine. The fact that their relationship is getting better, and not just on the physical side of things, also assuages her fears that maybe they're not moving in the right direction.

Pepper's always been someone who liked things to be done in an orderly manner. And within a timeframe she controlled. Seeing Tony helpless in that cave and getting him back after they'd both been so traumatized had put her vision of life in perspective. She could not control everything when it came to human nature, her own and those around her. But she can make sure the actions she takes will be to help others and herself as well. And help Tony, always.

Her last conversation with Aurelia comes back to the front of her mind and she smiles fondly. There's definitely a control freak lurking somewhere in there. But there's also a wave of anger she needs to let out. Fortunately, she's got the perfect victims in mind.

Three hours later and four angry calls to various UN representatives doing a very poor job at protecting the people they swore to serve, Pepper feels infinitely better and definitely like she's doing something right. Working is her idea of meditation, she thinks. She tries not to think about what her therapist would say about that.

The intercom on her desk beeps. Pepper presses the button and her assistant's voice comes through.

"Ms. Potts. It's those agents from the SHIELD again."

"Tell them to call later, I'm a bit busy at the moment," she replies.

"They're here, Ms. Potts".

Well, so much for getting her daily to-do list crossed out.

"Oh. Um, let them through."

The door opens and Agent Coulson enters, followed by her friend Ae-Shin Cho, whom Pepper still can't quite believe is also an agent of SHIELD. Since her friend's revelation, they've had very little contact with each other. Mostly because Pepper was either searching for Tony or helping him get back on his feet. Pepper wonders if that makes her a bad friend. But Ae-Shin's smile comforts her that any fault of hers is already forgiven.

"Ms. Potts. You're a very difficult woman to contact." Coulson declares.

Pepper gets up and shakes his hand. "One of the downsides of my job, I'm afraid."

"One of its perks too, I'm sure."

Pepper had forgotten Agent Coulson's subtle intelligence. She nods.

"Yes, that too." She turns to Ae-Shin, whom she takes in her arms. "Ae-Shin, I'm sorry I haven't been in touch."

Her friend shakes her head. "Not at all, Pepper. You had a lot on your plate. I'm sorry we're barging in like this, but Agent Coulson really needs to speak to you."

Pepper gestures them toward the chairs in front of her desk and they all sit.

"Which is why he's brought you with him. No doubt Agent Coulson knows I wouldn't refuse you anything after what you've done for me."

Coulson has a sheepish smile Pepper doesn't buy. "Guilty as charged. But then, I'm a spy, I just tend to know things."

"And how to use them to your own advantage," she says. There's a small silence of acknowledgment between the two before Coulson goes straight to business.

"Ms. Potts, please forgive me for being so blunt but we need to talk about your Foundation being used as a front to launder money for terrorist organizations."

And here she thought the day was going well.

XXX

They are not accusing her of anything.

First, because the money laundering abruptly stopped as soon as she became head of the Foundation. Second, and she thinks, mostly, because her being abducted probably cleared her of any suspicions they might have had.

"It doesn't make any sense. The Foundation was all but defunct before I got the position. Surely someone would have noticed that money was passing through the Foundation during all these years, no?"

"Miss Potts, did you have a look at the Foundation's finances when you first started?"

"Only the main accounts. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Most of the money had been sitting there since the 1980s when Howard and Maria Stark died in that car accident. The rest has been injected by Tony when I agreed to take over his mother's mantle."

"I see. And when you say main accounts, do you mean there are secondary accounts that you didn't check?"

"Only because I was told they were no longer in use. And I didn't need to open new accounts at the time."

"And who told you those accounts were no longer in use? Was it Mr. Stark?"

Pepper frowns. "No, that information was in the files I received on my first day. There were dozens of boxes filled with everything the Maria Stark Foundation had done since its inception. It took my staff several weeks to get it all organized and scanned onto our servers. The files had come directly from Stark Industries but I doubt Tony was the one who sent them. He's not the one in charge of Finances. His vice president is, Obadiah Stane."

"And do you think Mr. Stane knew about those accounts?" Ae-Shin asks.

"I- I have no idea. Frankly, I've only met the man a handful of times. But Stark Industries is a very large corporate entity. And the Maria Stark Foundation had not been active for decades. So I can't really talk as to what Mr. Stane knows or doesn't know."

Coulson shares a look with Ae-Shin and nods at her. She reaches into her bag and takes out a file that she slides over the desk toward Pepper.

"Miss Potts, I'd like you to take a look at those pictures. They were taken after Mr. Stark successfully escaped from captivity. As you know, he got out by fighting his way out of those caves and there were large explosions. The Air Force and SHIELD got their hands on everything they could find in the wreckage and we found weapons that had been manufactured by Stark Industries."

Pepper nods. "Yes, that's right. But I'd already told you that when I got debriefed in Germany, at the hospital. And Tony told you as well after he got rescued."

"Yes, I've read the reports. We're not putting in doubt what you or Mr. Stark told us. What's strange is that we found some of the weapons crates that hadn't been completely burned off and when we compared the serial numbers we found written on the side. We thought we'd get either fake ones or numbers of weapons that had been sold to different parties. That's usually how it goes with trafficking. But the numbers on the crates were not fake and neither had they exchanged hands before. They were new weapons that had supposedly sunk to the bottom of the ocean a month before you got captured with Mr. Stark. And that got us thinking."

"You checked if something like that had happened before."

"Exactly. And it had. On three separate occasions. Always new weapons, always on a boat, and always a very large shipment. The fact that no one batted an eye means that there's probably someone somewhere getting paid to look the other way or it would have been flagged by our services. Now, we don't know who's behind this yet, but we found that a transmission was sent from Afghanistan to SI Headquarters just after your capture."

"Meaning someone from SI is not only behind the illegal arms dealing, but it was also involved in what happened to Tony and me."

Ae-Shin takes Pepper's hand.

"Which is why we need your help."

XXX

Pepper gets home from work still trying to wrap her head around what she had learned. The files Ae-Shin and Coulson gave her feel strangely heavy in her bag. Coulson asked her to be the one to tell Tony about it as the higher-ups at SHIELD are worried about his mental health. That's why they'd come to her first: so she could tell them whether or not Tony was ready to hear the horrible truth. So much for bravery, she thinks, hiding behind the girlfriend to deliver bad news.

But Pepper is also grateful that he'll hear it from her and not from a spy agency. At least she can help Tony get through it.

When she gets in, Tony is in the workshop. She decides to go to him directly but is surprised to see broken glass littering the bottom stairs as she goes down. The glass walls of the workshop have been shattered and she can hear Tony struggling with something downstairs. Her heart races and she calls to him:

"Tony?! Tony, what's happened? Are you okay?"

A beat.

"Uh? Pep? You already here? I thought you said you'd be back for dinner?"

Reassured by Tony's voice, she starts to go down again, carefully avoiding the glass on each step. She's not at all prepared by what she sees when he finally is in her line of sight.

The lab is a complete mess, there are burn marks on the walls, some of the cars are damaged and Tony is… Tony is wearing some kind of armor? Or at the very least, he's struggling with it.

"Tony?", she asks, her voice laced with concern.

"Look, I can explain everything. Just… gimme a minute to get out of this. Dummy, I said screw me out of the suit not tighten it!"

Dummy finally gets it right and Tony falls on his ass, his legs finally free of the bottom of the armor.

"Tony, what the hell is happening?"

XXX

There's a bit of a screaming match.

Well, Pepper is screaming and Tony is... talking loudly, but just so he can explain himself.

He's shown her the news where Yinsen's village is being raided by terrorists and he's shown her what JARVIS found when he hacked into SHIELD. His weapons were being used to destroy his late friend's village and the rest of the region. There was no way he could let that happen, so…

"You're building a suit of armor to go play hero?" Her voice resonates in the workshop.

She is shaking. This is not happening. He did not just tell her he was going back to that place. She can't fathom risking it and losing him again.

"Pepper. Pep. I'm not going in my Tom Ford suit. They won't even know it's me. The armor is a titanium gold alloy, it can take heavy fire and only sustain minor damage. Do you really think I'd be insane enough to go back there without some kind of plan?"

She screams again: "I think you're insane just thinking you can go back there and take on a terrorist organization by yourself in a tin can!"

"Uh, first, ouch. Not a tin can, an exoskeleton made with one of the strongest alloys on earth. Second, what choice do I have, these are my weapons! Someone in my company sold it to them and I won't sleep until these assholes get what they deserve. And Yinsen's people, they don't deserve that."

Pepper calms down a little at the mention of Yinsen.

"Tony, no one expects you to do that. Not me, not Yinsen, no one. There are other ways to help. We could ask international organizations-"

He places his hands on her arms and looks at her in the eyes.

"Pepper, you and I both know international organizations don't give a shit about those people. You told me yourself you spend most of your time trying to convince these same organizations to send medical aid and food and water to third world countries in the same predicaments and you barely get a "maybe" out of them. Do you really think they'll send armed forces if we ask them?"

Pepper looks away and says nothing. Her eyes are red now.

He takes her in his arms.

"Pep, I promise you, I wouldn't go if I didn't think I could help. And come back to you in one piece."

She returns the embrace, quietly crying in the crook of his neck. After a while, she says:

"I want complete access to your camera and audio while you're there. I want to see what's happening to you or you're not going. And don't think I don't know most of your override codes now."

He chuckles and hugs her closer.

"Yes, ma'am."

XXX

It turns out the suit is not completely ready and needs a paint job as well. So he'll go tomorrow when the last of the finishing touches are over with.

"The silver color is nice but it gives a bit of a Terminator vibe and I don't do unoriginal. Also, not sure it would send the message.

She doesn't laugh but she squeezes his hand. She knows he's trying to ease the tension between them but Pepper knows she won't be fully relaxed until he's back from his "mission" as he calls it.

"Can't you at least tell Rhodey what you're about to do? He could help out with the tactical side of things."

Tony shakes his head.

"I don't want to put him in that position unless I absolutely have to. He'd probably have to lie to his superiors to cover my ass and that's a one-way trip to a court-martial if he's caught. I'd rather give him plausible deniability."

Pepper hates herself for doing so but she agrees. She doesn't want to put Rhodey in any kind of trouble, and one way or another, this is Tony's fight and hers. She told Tony that Agent Coulson had visited her and confirmed everything that JARVIS had found on SHIELD's servers. Tony had been surprised that SHIELD had been so forthcoming with their information, especially since the weapons had been coming directly from SI's manufactures.

"I think what happened to us convinced them we're on the right side of things."

She also thinks the fact that they need her help to get into SI's main drive is helping. But she's not telling Tony about that part yet. If he's really going back to Afghanistan, he needs to concentrate on that and not on her spying for SHIELD.

Tony shakes his head.

"I suppose getting yourself kidnapped is one way to prove you're not colluding with terrorists. Although that's a bit extreme."

"At least it means they're telling us something. And we can help root out the leaks."

"The traitors." Tony corrects.

"Yes, the traitors. I think we should look into the higher branch first. The board of directors and all the VPs and heads of SI."

"Agreed, I've already sent a trojan horse to most of them, see if I can get in their computers and find something. But this might take a while and they might not all click on the link. But it will rule out some of them and that should help narrow our search."

The rest of the evening is less tense but there's a sense of nervous expectation still hanging over their heads. They know they won't sleep much tonight so they head downstairs again and pretend to watch a movie on the couch in the workshop. But really, Pepper just wants him as near as possible and dreads the moment she'll have to let him go. Tony is not faring much better but his resolve and his confidence in his plan make it a little more bearable for him to wait for the suit to be ready. It's both the longest and shortest night they have spent together since they've been back to California.

Pepper dozes off five minutes before the end of the movie and Tony stays on the couch with her, holding her.

He didn't tell her because he didn't want her to feel burdened, but he's doing it for her as well. He's gonna get the bastards who dared lay a hand on her and he's gonna make them pay.


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