Chapter 33

Tony furtively stared at his watch for the tenth time in five minutes while simultaneously continuing to pretend that he was enjoying the company he had brought to the event. This was not going well, by any means; not at all like he had planned that it would unfold. In his mind, this so-called prom date with Samantha Potts was supposed to only last an hour, tops, but the party was almost done. Having Pepper and Rhodey around was putting a hamper on his plans, if not for any other reason than what he knew he had to do to get the truth out of Samantha would only hurt Pepper more. He already had plenty of things to apologize for – he had not wanted to add the things of tonight to that list.

Nevertheless, time was running out and he needed to act fast.

I'm sorry, Pep.

If Pepper Potts never wanted to have anything else to do with him after this, he would only have himself to blame. What he had envisioned to be a simple and quick solution to the life-sabotaging steps that Samantha had been executing on Pepper had become everything but simple. It had, in fact, become a living nightmare for everyone involved.

Well, everyone except Samantha Potts, that was.

Or, at least, until now.

"Hey," the brunette's voice in his ear made him inwardly flinch. "Are you OK? You look like you're a thousand miles from here."

"Sorry," he cleared his throat, preparing himself for the end of his plan. "It's just so crowded in here. Do you… do you wanna go somewhere else?"

Samantha could barely contain the hope in her eyes. "Like where?"

Tony shrugged one shoulder, as if he already did not have a destination in mind and was just thinking about it in this moment. "The roof?"

Sam smirked, knowing what the implication of the genius' invitation was. "Sounds good to me."

Not a second after agreeing to his proposal, the duo stood up from their table and fought the crowd on their way out of the gym. It took a few times of zigzagging and bumping into people but, moments later, Tony and Samantha found themselves alone on the roof of the Tomorrow Academy. Silence befell them both, for different reasons. Samantha was nervous about what she was certain was going to happen up here, due to being inexperienced in dating. Tony, on the other hand, was nervous about ruining the only opportunity he had to help Pepper in any way he could.

This was it: the moment that he had been trying to set up for days to finally bring this charade to an end, and he was practically frozen in time – more ready to jump off the building to purposefully crack open his skull and bleed to death than move forward with what was happening next. Doubt started filling his mind. His hands started sweating and shaking. He was starting to feel nauseated and dizzy; on the verge of passing out. All while his mind and heart screamed at him that maybe, just maybe, he had made a giant mistake and was about to make an even bigger one.

I can't do this, he took a deep breath. I can't do this to Pepper.

Nevertheless, he did not get a chance to back out of his plans before he felt a small, warm body surrounding his form and unknown lips pressing against his mouth.

Samantha, misinterpreting his discomfort for shyness, had decided to take the first step while he had been distracted by his own indecision.

What he had wanted to back out from was happening anyway – the shock of it all hitting him like a brick wall that made him feel disgusted with himself.

He did not even close his eyes. He just let it happen while his entire body went stiff and was filled with revulsion. Pepper had been his first real kiss. His first real relationship. His first intimate experience. This, whatever this was, was not right. It was not wanted. It was not as easy as he had thought it was going to be.

He could no longer pretend to be all right with the farce. Yet, it was happening anyway, and he needed to take advantage of it before the opportunity passed him by… even if the bile in the back of his throat demanded to come out before anything else took place between the young girl and himself.

Tony swallowed hard as his face pulled away from Samantha's, leaving but a few inches between them. The brunette had a wide smile on her face, her eyes wide and sparkly, clearly satisfied with what she had done. She licked her lips, without a doubt getting ready to go for round two, before Tony finally found the will to speak again.

"That was nice."

Samantha's smile grew wider. "Yeah. It was."

"And to think I could've had that a long time ago, if I hadn't been wasting time with Pepper."

Samantha chuckled and surrounded his waist with her arms. "I agree. But at least now you see I'm the better choice."

"You are. You're prettier and smarter. I don't know why I didn't see that sooner."

"Because you were under her spell. She does that to people. Use you until she doesn't need you anymore and then she drops you like yesterday's trash."

"Yeah. That's what she did to me. She didn't even let me talk. She just broke up with me."

"I would never do that to you, Tony."

"I know. This is the better choice. I see that now."

"It is."

"I'm just so glad you gave Michael the information on Pepper's past so that she would get mad at me."

Samantha shrugged. "It wasn't easy, but it worked out, right?"

It took her a few seconds, but the moment she replayed her words in her mind and saw the knowing look on his face as he pulled away from her embrace, the young girl knew she had been had.

Suddenly, all the hope inside her turned into anger. All the work she had done turned into dust.

"I knew it," Tony began, making a point to wipe his lips and the spat on the ground. "I knew you were the one behind that. What the heck is wrong with you?"

Samantha's demeanor instantly changed. She stood up straighter, narrowed her eyes, and crossed her arms over her chest. "I should ask you the same thing. I can't believe you just took advantage of a minor and groped her without her consent. You're an adult, Tony. I'm not."

Tony scoffed. "Yeah, no. You don't get to pull that on me. There are cameras out here that will show who made the move. Let's see how far that lie takes you. Any of your lies. Which, by the way, stop right now. All of it. Whatever it is that you have against Pepper, you need to get over it."

"Or what? You're gonna lock me up?"

Tony smirked. "I can remove you from the contract with Pym Tech. Those nice royalties you have been receiving from the EM-Bugs project, they're done. You don't deserve a penny from them."

"You can't do that."

"I can. There's a clause in there that says that I can dissolve the partnership for any reason and that it makes you forfeit being entitled to any profit made from the project. You should've read the contract more carefully."

"And you should've thought better than to try to play with me. You don't know what I know. What I can tell the world about you. About you and Pepper and what you do behind closed doors in your house. About the Makluan Temple and where it is. You don't want to threaten me, Tony Stark."

At her words, Tony felt his ire increase. This girl was more deranged than he had thought her to be. Her need for revenge was strong. Yet, his need to ensure Pepper's safety was stronger. To heck with what people could learn about the Makluan Temple! He could always shut it down and move operations to his penthouse.

"I don't care what you do to me. Just leave Pepper out of it."

"Sure. Right. You don't care about what I know about the temple. About Iron Man."

"I don't. I don't know what you think you learned from when you were at my lab, but I assure you, it was nothing of importance."

Sam smiled. "Who said I learned what I know at your lab. Let's just say, Pepper should've have hidden her diary a little bit better than she did. Or maybe she shouldn't have been so specific about what she wrote in it."

Tony held back a flinch, unwilling to show any doubt to the girl. "I still don't care what you think you know about me. Do whatever the heck you want with that."

"You want the world to know the secrets of Iron Man. Is that what you want?"

"All I want is for you to stop harassing Pepper. I don't know what made you think that you can treat her like trash, but it has to stop. Immediately."

"Or what?"

"Or you will be facing charges for defamation on your stupid Breakdancing with Celebrities stunt. And I'll make sure that you get charged for almost killing your sister. I haven't forgotten about that either."

"Hey! I didn't know her allergic reaction would be that bad. It has never been that bad before."

Tony narrowed his eyes even further, waiting for the brunette to realize that she had been tricked yet again.

"Oh, my God! You know what, you don't have any evidence of this. You have no proof that I did anything you're saying. You have nothing on me."

"You left a trail. Maybe not something that can be found right away, but there's always a trail. And after one thing comes out, the rest will too. You set up Rick Majors to kiss Pepper in the hall. You sent the info to Michael. You set up Stephen to give Pepper that cupcake that sent her to the hospital. And who knows what else you had in mind, but you've got to undo it all, right now."

"No! And who the heck do you think you are anyway? You can't force me to do anything. You're just gonna have to live with the fact that you can't do anything to me – that you can't prove anything, and that my sister will always hate you for what you did. Do you really think she's ever gonna forgive you for dating me?"

"This is not a date!"

"That is what she sees. That is what the entire academy is gonna tell her. That is what anyone with eyes will tell her, including your friend, Rhodey. Just admit it, Tony. You tried to play with fire, got burned, and you lost."

Tony swallowed hard, reminded once again that Samantha was most likely right. He had known that what he had been planning to do would upset Pepper and Rhodey, yet he had still done it anyway. Nevertheless, this was not a time to cry over spilt milk. This was the time to get Samantha to continue talking and confessing to what she had done while the voice recorder in his jacket kept carrying on.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe she'll never forgive me. But I'd rather live knowing that she is free from your bitterness, than being with her while you try to destroy her. That's all I want. Just leave her alone. Whatever it was that she did, it can't possibly warrant any of the things you've done to her."

"But, it does."

"I doubt it."

"You don't know what she did," Sam argued back. "If you did, you would agree with me."

"No. I wouldn't. Pepper doesn't just hurt people to get a kick out of it. She's not like you. If she did hurt you, she didn't mean it. And if you gave her a chance, she would make it up to you."

Samantha scoffed. "There is no making up what she did to me. There is nothing in the world that she can do to make it better."

"If there isn't, she would spend the rest of her life trying, if you gave her a chance. That's the kind of person my Pep is. Not whatever you think she is."

The girl shook her head, tears starting to form. "No. The only thing she could do was go back in time. And we both know no one can do that. What she did was awful. There is no taking it back. And she deserves everything she's gotten from me and more"

"You were kids, Samantha. There are very few things a kid can do to another kid that can be consider unforgivable. And I'm sure as heck that Pepper didn't do any of those few things to you."

"But, I did."

The broken voice made Samantha's and Tony's heads snap towards the door that led to the roof; both too stunned to utter another word at the sight of a red-eyed, tear-stained ginger standing before them.

"I did," Pepper repeated with a nod as she wiped tears from her cheeks with the back of her hands. "I did."

A/N: Soooo… 2 more chapters to go and then an epilogue… We are so close to wrapping this up! I wanted to address some of the concerns some of my Faithful Readers have shared via their reviews, but I think finishing the story will answer most of them :) All I can I say for now is that everyone in the story has messed up in one way or the other, but that everything is gonna be all right ^_^