"Listen, I don't like that." Happy sits on the sofa while he watches Morgan drawing at the coffee table. "We know nothing about the guy. I don't want you to go with him alone."

"I have talked to Peter. What he told me indicates that Strange's story is legit. He's not some crazy mass murderer who's going to dismember me in his basement." She whispers the last sentence to avoid Morgan from hearing it.

Happy strokes her arm. "I don't want him to give you false hope just to disappoint you in the end."

"I'm a big girl, Happy. I can take care of myself."

"Yeah. I know that. I'm just worried."

"Happy, you've heard the doctors. From a medical perspective, Tony should be dead. They don't know how to deal with that. Even Carol Danvers' space medicine is useless this time. We're running out of options – and if this thing has a chance to succeed – I couldn't live with myself if I didn't even try it."

Happy smiles at her and nods. "Just don't be too disappointed if it doesn't work out, yeah?"

She lays her hand on his. "Thank you, Happy. What would I do without you?"

Tenderly, he pulls her into a hug.

The golden shine of a portal announces the arrival of a sorcerer. After a moment, they realize surprised that it is not Strange who's stepping through it.

"Good evening. We're sorry, but Stephen couldn't make it. His obligations as the Sorcerer Supreme require more of his attention these days than expected." Wong waves and grins awkwardly. "I'm here to fill in for him."

"That's a good start..." Happy grumbles.

"Don't listen to him, Wong." Pepper walks over to shake his hand. "Good to see you again. It's been a while."

In fact, the last time she saw the sorcerer was at the wedding.

"Yes, I guess we've been all busy in the last five years."

She nods.

"Shall we?" he asks, pointing towards the portal.

"Of course. Just a little moment." Quickly, she walks over to Morgan, to kneel beside her daughter.

"Who is that, mummy?"

"That's Wong. He is a friend of daddy."

The little girl looks shyly up at the sorcerer.

"I'm going with him now, but I'll be back later. You stay here with Happy, okay?"

Morgan nods hesitantly, and Pepper kisses her forehead after she hugged her. She returns to Wong.

"Good night," she whispers, before crossing the portal with Wong. On the other side lies a big room full of bookshelves where someone had dragged some tables and chairs out of the way to create a patch of free space.

Wong pulls two cushions from a sideboard and throws them there.

"Please, make yourself comfortable."

With a look around, she follows his request, and he takes a seat on the other cushion.

"First of all, welcome to the Sanctum Sanctorum. We're currently in our library, which I selected as the location of this first lesson."

"What's the real reason Strange isn't here?" she interrupts him.

"I'm not allowed to go into details, but he hasn't been well since his return."

Now that Wong had mentioned that, Pepper remembers how pale and gaunt the sorcerer had looked during their conversation in the morning.

"What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know. If I didn't know him any better, I'd say he's heartbroken."

"Did the loss of the time stone hit him so hard?" she asks coldly.

Wong smiles a sad little smile. "No, this is not about the time stone. In a way, he seems to be relieved it's gone..." He claps his hands together. "But enough of that, you're here to get an introduction into the mystic arts."

"I thought I'd have to learn one particular spell?" she wonders.

"Well, yes, but before that, you have to learn some basics."

"What? We don't have time for this! Tony is dying!"

Wong stares at her, estimating how much he can tell her without frightening her too much. "Strange didn't tell you about possible side-effects if anything goes wrong, right?"

"No, he didn't."

"It is crucial we get this right because if not, it could kill you and Tony."

Pepper draws a sharp breath. Strange, that bastard, he would have sacrificed her without a second thought – just as he did with Tony.

"...it could also kill Stephen," Wong continues.

This statement gets her attention.

"Why?" she asks. "What does this have to do with him?"

"It is his magic that is keeping Tony alive currently. They are connected, and if something goes wrong, it will affect him as well. That's another reason he is in such bad shape currently."

That gives her a lot to think about. Could it be she jumped to conclusions and judged the sorcerer to harshly?

"He didn't mention that either," is all she says.

"Yeah. Self-sacrificing idiot. I think you have experience with the type." He grins.

"Just too much."

"I think..." he muses, "in another life, they would have been the best of friends."

At this moment Pepper feels a tremendous loss for all the things that never had been, and she doesn't fully understand why, but she vows to herself that she'd do everything in her power to make up for all this missed opportunities.

-–-

The rest of the evening Wong introduces her into the basics of the mystic arts: How sorcerers use spells to harness power from other dimensions and all of that.

It is early morning when she finally retunes home, her head buzzing with all the new information she just learned.

...and not everything is about magic.