Guest Review Responses

Thank you for the follows/favorites: bookish-rebel, MisterOriginality, and GCMA0215.

Jessica: Omg lol that was amazing ! Woo loved the chap update again soon xxxxx – Thank you! :D

Miss geek: I first I hope ur dad feel better soon second I hope u had a great anniversary may allah (god) continue to fill ur marriage with happiness and health. OMG love that copyright idea and now about this chapter ...LMAO OMG I thought for sure that jock will beat tony up hahahahaha oooh too funny and now there's only wicked bitch of the west to "deal" with now when I say deal I mean accidentally throw of a cliff into the ocean pls continue this story – Thank you very much ^_^ My dad is doing a lot better. He becomes Grumpy Grumperson when he can't do things around the house, but he did a much better job of sticking to doctor's orders this time around. He went back to the doctor for his follow up and he's been cleared to be his workaholic self again :P Our anniversary was awesome! We're both very introverted but we can always find stuff to do together ;) And, OMG! The Wicked Bitch of the West (TM Miss Geek) just crossed a very dangerous line there. Our poor Pepper's gonna have some trouble for a few chapters :(

apps: Ohhh...poor Tony...hahaha...caught in very embarrassing situation and I will kill that Samantha if she screwed anything. Glad that Tony being Tony is not regretting on anything done!...as i don't want it to end but still waiting for happy ending love! – Embarrassing Tony is sooooooo much fun. Always. He gets all flustered and says the wrong things at the wrong time. I think that's why we love that dork so much :P

Sara h: Wishing All the best for you X and waiting patiently for an update X – Thank you :D Sorry about the delay. Life and stuff :(

Guest: Been waiting and waiting for you to make a move ...don't know why this would apply here ..Lol (Into you by Ariana ) soooo please updat it's killing me Hun – LOLZ! Sorry about the wait! And sorry about this chapter, too :P

Update update: Please update – Here it be!

Jasmine: Update pleaseeee – Will do ^_^

Chapter 20

"We're outside," Tony's text of five minutes ago had informed her, and she could not wrap-up her current task of putting away her things in her locker quickly enough. She knew that Tony would patiently wait for her to walk her home; perhaps even invite himself into her place until late at night for an impromptu stay-in date night; yet, she was still desperate to leave school as fast as her legs could carry her. She did not really want to make him wait.

She was not worried about him growing fretful or impatient because she was taking too long to meet him by the exit of the building. She did not at all fear that he would leave her behind, either. She just wished she would have had more time during school hours today to see him, talk to him, and interact with him before the end of the school day. She knew that he probably felt every bit as awkward as she felt after last night – it was only natural to feel shy and a little bit embarrassed after something like that; she was most certain of this. She did not regret it at all, however; it just made her feel anxiety to the nth degree – the same anxiety that was hindering the easy job of shoving books into her locker just now.

If only she had not gotten detention today. If only she had gotten to school on time. If only she had waited until a non-school day to do what she had done last night…

Then again, what was she to do? These experiences were usually not planned. Tony had completely caught her off-guard with his advances – in the sweetest of ways, of course. He had not been pushy or forceful about it either. He had even given her a way and an opportunity to back out. Nevertheless, it had been clear in his words and in his deliberate actions that he had been ready for and had given some serious thought about taking their relationship to the next level; at least as much as she had truly been considering it herself.

Despite all of the evidence pointing to reality, she was still in disbelief of what they had done. It seemed so surreal – so magical; so perfect in every way. Better than she had ever imagined it could have ever been. If it had not been for the fact that she had woken up next to him, being as naked as he was, and if it had not been for the clear recollection she had of the day and night before, she would not believe that she and Tony had done that.

That, Pepper smiled and bit her lower lip, an exhilarating and tingly sensation crawling down her skin.

She had overslept once she had gotten to her home from Tony's place, and that single oversight had turned her entire day upside down. She had meant to just sleep a little bit and then get ready for school as usual, but she had been exhausted by the time she had climbed into her bed. She had had every right to have been tired as heck, too. She had just woken up from spending the night with her boyfriend. She had just been with a man for the first time in her entire life.

Been with a man.

With her man.

With Tony Freaking Stark!

The thought of it alone made her blush yet again; something she had been doing a lot throughout the day; especially when she had almost heard his ragged voice whispering her name in her ear. Or when she had practically felt his hands holding on to her tightly but also very gently, both opposing traits taking place at the same darn time. She was not even sure how he had managed to do just that: make her feel roughly taken, heavily wanted, and yet handled with extreme care, all bundled into one.

The way he had stared at her eyes when he had not been too busy learning the specs of her body and skin. The way he had ensured the protocols he was following did not interfere with fulfilling the mission. The way he had made her feel through it all: proved to her what he had said to her in the past – that she was the single most important thing in his entire life.

"Don't go home yet," he said between gasps once it was all over.

"I won't," she looked up at him, her body trembling, also catching her breath, and wiped some of the sweat from his forehead. "I love you, Tony."

He smiled wide and then kissed her lips one more time.

"I love you, Pepper Potts."

It had been like music to her ears. Like adrenaline to her heart. Like…

DING-DING!

"You OK?"

Oh, man, the redhead slammed closed the locker door and then turned around in place. Tony was now wondering if she was OK, and she was too busy daydreaming about last night.

Then again, what was she supposed to do about it, anyway? In her mind, it was a big deal. She and Tony had crossed a very sacred threshold that could never be taken back. It would be unreasonable for her life and routine not to be affected to the degree it had. It would be ridiculous to assume they did not have to talk about it before being able to return to their semi-normal lives. It would be nothing less than absurd to pretend they had not made an even greater commitment to each other with the events of the previous night.

But, as with anything that was grand, all one could do was take one step at a time.

"On my way," she replied to his text, almost giddy at the thought of seeing him again.

xxxXXXxxx

"So, he asked you out?" Sam could barely finish her question before she began laughing aloud, earning herself some disturbing looks from students nearby.

"Of course not! I mean, not really," Tony tried defending himself, but Rhodey interrupted the rest of his reply.

"But yes really, technically," his belly still hurt from how hard he had been laughing for the rest of the school day. "I mean, he did ask you to call him. And he did say he wouldn't tell Pepper about it."

"He did? Oh, well! At least he's discrete!" Samantha slammed her palms against her thighs.

"Ugh, you two stink," Tony groaned. "You just wait until Pepper gets here. She'll defend my honor."

"Not when I tell her that Jake Vaughn offered you sex," Rhodey smirked.

"HE, WHAT?" Samantha spat out.

"He didn't offer me sex!" Tony argued.

"So, what did he offer you?" Samantha asked.

"Nothing."

"Yeah, he offered you nothing, alright," Rhodey smirked. "He offered to have nothing on while with you."

"Oh, this is priceless," Sam wiped tears from her eyes.

"Keep at it, Sam, and I'll tell Dr. Pym only I worked on the EM-Bugs project."

"Oh, boo! Why would you do something like that?" she pouted. "That's just mean!"

"And petty," Rhodey added. "So, yeah: it sounds just like something Tony would do."

"Hey! I'm not petty," the inventor narrowed his eyes, "Or mean!"

"You're right," Samantha nodded. "He is petty."

"You are new," Tony pointed at the brunette. "You don't know me, yet."

"I know enough," the brunette replied, her mind listing what she had learned of the inventor via reading Pepper's diary.

"Whatever," Tony frowned.

"Anyway," Rhodey stared at his watch. "I'm starving. Pepper better hurry up so we can get to your place, T. Are we ordering in or picking up?"

"Oh-oh!" Samantha clapped her hands twice. "Tony, you promised you'd take me to Belly Busters!"

"I did?" Tony squinted his eyes for an instant as he searched his mind, "Oh, yeah! I sure did! Well, we can go now?"

"YES!" Samantha threw her arms above her head. "I haven't had a real cheeseburger in FOREVER!"

"You what?" Rhodey gave her an incredulous look.

"My mom, she's… she has a strange diet. Growing up, I wasn't allowed to eat candy, or bread… or anything delicious, actually."

"For real?" Rhodey could not believe his ears. He knew that mothers could be overbearing to their children, but he had never considered some mothers being extreme about how they raised their offspring. Evidently, unnecessarily radical parents did exist.

"For real," Sam replied, crestfallen.

"Aw, man," Tony and Rhodey said in unison, truly feeling sorry for the younger Potts sister.

"That stinks!" Tony added with a frown.

"Yeah," Sam lazily shrugged, upping her visible regret to earn even more sympathy from the two boys. "It's just what it is."

"It's messed up, that's what it is," Rhodey said sternly. "What the heck is wrong with your mom? I mean, don't get me wrong. I know mothers are supposed to be overprotective and stuff, but man! No bread?! What kind of life is that?"

"A sad one," Sam lowered her gaze and slumped her shoulders. "She only got stricter after the divorce."

"What can be stricter than a no-bread policy?" Tony asked.

"You'd be surprised," the brunette replied, her eyes momentarily becoming unfocused.

"Well, you're here now. You can have all the burgers you want!" Rhodey smiled.

"That's true," Tony nodded. "But you know what? Let's make a weekend out of it! We'll start tonight with Belly Busters, and then tomorrow we'll take you to any place your mom never took you or let you go to. How's that sound?"

"Really?" Sam clasped her hands under her chin. "You… you'd really do that for me?"

"Of course," Tony replied with a smile. "What are friends for, huh?"

"OK!" Sam nodded. "Oh, my Gosh! This is gonna be great! We're gonna spend the whole weekend together! I'm gonna eat a burger! I can't wait to–"

The young woman's response was cut short when commotion began mounting near school grounds. The traffic, which was already slow and heavy – as it was typical of New York City – was currently being affected greatly by the afternoon dismissal of the Tomorrow Academy. The streets surrounding the campus were already congested enough on a normal day. The unfolding emergency only made matters worse.

"Whoa!" Rhodey's head shifted left and right, watching as an ambulance tried and failed to make its way through traffic.

"What's going on?" Samantha asked, a feeling of uneasiness creeping up in her while watching the chaos develop before them. Pittsburgh was a major city, that much was for sure, but it did not compare to the very little she had seen of The Big Apple. It truly was the city that never slept. She was glad that she did not live here on her own.

"Something big, maybe?" Tony pulled out his phone, wondering if he had accidentally missed an alert for Team Iron Man.

"Are we needed?" Rhodey asked. He did not have his War Machine suit with him at the moment, but he knew that Tony could get it here with a literal blink of an eye.

"I don't think so," Tony shook his head.

"Needed for what?" Sam's eyes jumped back and forth between Tony and Rhodey.

"Support. Iron Man," Tony replied and returned his phone to his back pocket.

"The city calls you for help?" Samantha was wide-eyed.

"Sometimes," Tony shrugged, his eyes fixed on the paramedics jumping from the back of the unwillingly stationery ambulance.

"Sometimes, we just show up," Rhodey added, his gaze on the same target as Tony's, following the paramedics' every move as they ran down the street, gurney and equipment in hand, and disappeared behind the east side of the academy's building.

"Are you saying you get notifications of anything bad going around?"

"Unfortunately, not everything," Tony admitted with disappointment and then returned his full attention to the brunette.

"But a lot of things," Rhodey added.

"How do you keep track of it all?"

"We have our ways," Tony responded before Rhodey got a chance to say anything else. Even though they were talking to Pepper's sister, Tony still did not feel comfortable enough sharing with others how his team kept tabs on everyone and everything else. The less people knew about his techniques, the better. And the fewer the people who were in the know of said methods, the better it was for his team and anyone else.

Their discretion regarding the location of the Makluan Temple and of the nature of their many gadgets had been the one saving grace they had had when Andros Stark had showed up. The Mandarin, Whitney Stane, The Ghost, and the Living Laser all already knew about their hiding place. S.H.I.E.L.D. probably also knew all about it and more. That was more than enough people in the know. He was going to make sure as heck that no one else found out about all of that; no matter how trustworthy they could have been or who they were friends with.

"You must have an awesome computer and satellites to have eyes everywhere," Samantha began. "Is it a supercomputer, or is it just several computers networked together? Do you have your own secured internet provider? Do you self-host? How do you keep communication between the armors encrypted?"

Rhodey and Tony exchanged surprised looks. Neither of them was sure if Samantha was making some very accurate wild guesses or if she instead had overheard something from any of them. Either way, the thought of Samantha having an idea of what tools Team Iron Man had at its disposal made Tony uncomfortable, to say the least. He was not absolutely sure that he was OK with Samantha being as close to knowing his reality as she clearly was.

Then again, the girl was very smart. If anyone could extrapolate from what she knew about him and his tech, it would definitely be someone like her.

"Out of the way! Move!"

The front doors to the Academy slamming open, frantic motions, and indiscernible murmurs coming from the main entrance of the school halted theirs and everyone else's discussion, much to Tony's relief. Yet, when he turned around in place to find out what was making the crowd part like animals escaping the trail of a wildfire, his heart nearly burst inside his chest.

"Please, people: step aside!"

The paramedics that they had just seen rushing out of the ambulance, minutes ago, were now struggling to rush back towards it; their unmoving patient lying on the gurney – their redheaded motionless patient.

No.

He was running towards the paramedics in a second; all eyes instantly falling on his form. He tried to reach for her hand, uttered her name as loud as he could, but both efforts were in vain.

"Call it, Mike!" one of the paramedics screamed at the driver from his halfway point to the ambulance. "We need someone on standby when we arrive!"

"No, wait!" Tony tried yet again to get near Pepper, but the second paramedic shoved him back.

"Sir, please stay back."

"But, I know her!"

"Are you family?"

"She's my girlfriend."

"I'm sorry," the same paramedic said before he briefly eyed his partner, and both nodded at the same time. A blink of an eye later, the two men lifted the gurney as high as they could to bring the redhead to the ambulance as quickly as possible.

"What's wrong with her?" Tony demanded, but he was ignored.

"Somerset is the closest hospital," the driver said, completely disregarding Tony's previous question, and then started the vehicle.

"Then step on it," Tony heard one paramedic say as Pepper was wheeled inside the back of the ambulance. "She's not breathing. We don't have much time."

By the time Rhodey and Samantha reached Tony's current standing location, the ambulance was already speeding away from sight.