Pepper woke up a nervous mess. She just really wanted to shower and feed her son. And she needed to know if F.R.I.D.A.Y was anywhere closer to getting in touch with Tony.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y have you been able to get in touch with Tony?" Pepper asked.
"I have located him from the chip but I am
unable to get a signal. He is in Trinidad and there is something blocking the signal,"
"A hurricane,"Pepper said as she squeezed her eyes shut.
"Mute,"
Billy walked through the door and stared Pepper in the face.
"Here's what's going to happen today. I'm going to let you clean yourself up and take care of your baby and your animal outside and you're going to get into the garage. If you don't know the code and your husband isn't calling then you're going to change the code," he said.
Pepper could do it with F.R.I.D.A.Y easily but she didn't want them to know about her just yet and she would have to do it manually which she never saw Tony do and she would have to try and figure it out. Billy untied her and she peaked in on James who was still sleeping.
"Will you knock on the bathroom door if the baby wakes up while I'm showering?"
Billy nodded and Pepper dashed into the bathroom.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y can you tell me the simplest way I can change the security password in the garage manually?" she asked.
Pepper watched as F.R.I.D.A.Y brought up a screen and showed her the buttons to walk through changing the password. She memorized it and then another thought popped into her head.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y I need you to get Dum-e and Butterfingers to clean the garage. I need anything that eludes to Iron Man hidden from view,"
She muted the a.i. and hopped out of the shower. She dressed quickly and peaked in on James who was still sleeping.
"The baby is still asleep. I need to go outside and take care of my alpaca," she said.
Billy motioned for Joe to take her outside. Joe grabbed her and pulled her close to him and pressed the gun into her back as he pulled her along roughly. They got to the gate of the enclosure and she opened the hatch and went inside and he followed. She dumped his trough and grabbed the hose and refilled his water while he came to greet her. She patted his head and began to clean up the area where he went to the bathroom when all of a sudden Joe put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her against the wall of the outdoor shelter and he pressed her against the wall and pressed himself against her. He wanted her to feel that he was aroused. She totally cringed but it was better than the alternative and leaving Joe with the baby.
"Do you like that?" he asked.
"Not particularly," she said.
"I'm gonna have you before we leave here and you're not gonna know when it's gonna happen," he threatened.
Pepper ignored his threat. She was going to have to get a hold of the pepper spray or some sort of weapon once they got inside the garage. When she got back inside James was awake and crying. She went to breastfeed him and supply was still low. She warmed up some of the milk she pumped and hoped she would produce more milk soon to store.
She put him in his boppy chair and Billy pointed to the garage. Pepper took a deep breath and walked over to the garage and began to reset the password manually. Then she signed in and could hear the door click open. She prepared herself for the worst but the garage looked like a normal garage with a few small projects. There was no inkling that iron man ever lived here.
"Robots huh?" Joe said as he walked over to Dum-E and Butterfingers.
"Yeah my husband found them missing some parts on eBay and brought them back to life," she said.
"Nice hot rod. Does it run?" Billy asked.
"No it's not finished," she said, trying to see what they really wanted.
Suddenly Pepper's cell phone rang and they all went back into the living room to check it. Her heart skipped a beat. She hoped it was Tony.
"Who's Laura Barton?" Joe asked.
"Just a friend," Pepper said. She wondered if maybe Laura got ahold of Clint.
Tony was still working on his bracelet and he got it to turn on but he still needed to get back online and call Pepper. He was also trying to get F.R.I.D.A.Y back. The storm had calmed down significantly and Clint still hadn't returned. He had to keep up appearances and play the worried husband.
"Any word on Clyde?" Tony asked Bob and Stacey
"Not yet but the storm should be out of here in half an hour and then they can go out and look for survivors," Stacy said.
"Why would he leave during a storm? Where would he even go?" Bob asked.
This was a very good question and he didn't know how to answer it and he certainly couldn't give their cover away even though Ivan was also missing.
"We had a fight. He wanted to get away from me I guess. I don't know what he was thinking. The guilt is killing me though. If anything were to happen to him because of me," Tony said as he squeezed his eyes shut to appear to be holding back a tear.
Stacy embraced his arm gently and he squeezed her hand.
"It'll be ok. They will bring him back safe and sound,"
S.H.I.E.L.D touched their hovercraft down onto the island and began their hurricane recovery. They had jeeps that began to sweep the island for survivors and other people setting up a place for food and water and a team of their best electrical engineers ready to restore power when the rain stopped.
Clint and the woman who let him ride out the storm at her home and her mother were huddled in the living room with blankets when the front door opened.
Clint jumped up and it was Nat. He was never more happy to see her. He hugged her and she unpacked water from her pack.
"These people need food and water. I need to get back to Tony. And I need to find Popov," he said.
"Agent Hill apprehended him. It's ok. You can go home soon," she said.
Natasha helped them get into the car and drove them to the survivors center.
Tony was gathering whatever tools he could and accessing how bad the electricity damage was. He needed to get the power on in order to call Pepper. He looked at the circuit breaker and it still wasn't safe. There was too much moisture. He closed it and he could hear a deep voice behind him.
"Stark I thought you might be wanting this," Fury said, handing Tony one of his old iron man suits that folded into a briefcase. It was a fossil now but it would do in a pinch.
"Fury what are you guys doing here? I got separated from Clint and I can't put that on because I'm under cover," Tony said quietly.
"We detained Ivan Popov and Agent Romanoff has located Barton and she is bringing him back here. You are free to go if you wish or these people could really use our help getting the power back up,"
"I am willing to stay and help but I really need to get in touch with Pepper," Tony said.
"I'll leave you to it then," Fury said as he walked away.
Tony put the helmet on and tried to get F.R.I.D.A.Y online. It was going to take a few minutes since the suit was over ten years old. Since the jig was up he walked over to Stacy and Bob.
"Well now the cat is out of the bag. I'm Tony Stark and I am not gay nor is Clyde who's real name is Clint and we are both actually married with children of our own. But you guys have been great friends. I'm gonna try again to call my wife and get that electricity on. Because I just want to go home and see my kids," he explained.
"I told you he looked like iron man," Stacy told her husband as she smiled at him.
Tony put his helmet on and the old model was not accepting F.R.I.D.A.Y. He was going to have to tinker with it later. A copy of J.A.R.V.I.S was still there but couldn't connect to the house because F.R.I.D.A.Y was connected. The helmet was going to need to be reprogrammed from a piece of tech that had F.R.I.D.A.Y uploaded and nothing that he brought with him had A.I. except his bracelet which wasn't working.
They went to the garage to continue to poke around and Pepper opened the drawer quietly to grab a can of pepper spray and she put it in the deep pocket of her sweater before they turned around. She was afraid of what Joe might try.
"Our ride will be here tomorrow but we're going to need some money and supplies and food," Billy said.
Pepper just nodded. She was terrified Joe would try something since they were leaving tomorrow.
Morgan decided to try and get into the garage through the vents. She started to unscrew one of the vents with a screwdriver and found a flashlight to see inside. She needed to get to the garage to find a way out or a way to call her dad.
They went back into the living room and closed the garage.
"If you have a list of things you need I can start getting them ready for you," Pepper said just trying to ride this thing through.
The doorbell rang and everyone froze except Morgan. She continued to shuffle through the vents quietly. She had to get to the garage.
"Who is that?" Joe asked angrily.
"My friend Laura who called before,"she whispered.
"Answer it and get rid of her," Joe said, sticking a gun into her back.
"Hey Laura umm Anthony is away with Morgan and I've got my hands full with James right now. It's not a good time," she said.
Laura knew immediately something was off. Pepper never called Tony Anthony and Morgan was not with him.
"Pepper I can help," she said as she tried to push her way past Pepper who blocked her way.
"It's not a good time," Pepper said firmly, holding her back.
"Why didn't you answer my call?" Laura eyes her suspiciously.
"I was in the shower,"
"Why didn't you text me back? I text you six times," she said.
"I didn't see the texts,"
" I'm coming in," Laura said and she pushed Pepper forcefully and made her way inside and she was greeted with a gun pointed at her.
