So Pepper's back! (FINALLY, right?) But in what capacity? There's only one way to find out! :D Thanks for your continued support, your awesome feedback, and for following along!
Happy Reading! :D
Tony slowly drew back, and studied Pepper's face. "You...you don't remember?" he murmured.
Pepper just remained silent, desperately searching his face for some indication as to what, exactly, she was supposed to remember as her mind reeled. "Remember what?" she finally asked helplessly.
Tony was edged out by the bustling medical staff stepping in to examine Pepper in her post-coma condition. But the two kept their eyes trained on each other, studying each others faces, trying to grasp an understanding of the situation.
"Mrs. Stark? Do you know why you're here? Do you know what happened to you?" a nurse asked, wrapping Pepper's arm in a blood pressure cuff. Pepper shifted her eyes from Tony to the nurse.
"I'm sorry, what did you call me?" she said, shaking her head in confusion. "You must be mistaken. We're not married. He's my boss, and I'm his assistant," she explained, gesturing to Tony. He and the nurse exchanged tentative glances. Pepper saw the exchange, and frowned. "What?" she said defensively, glancing between them, and then resting her eyes back on Tony. "Mr. Stark, tell her! We're boss and employee! Not husband and wife. She's mistaken!" she insisted.
But Tony didn't say anything. He just gave his wife a saddened look. This confused Pepper further, and she huffed in frustration. "Why aren't you telling them that we're not..." But then she stopped talking, suddenly noticing the rings on her left hand. Her eyes widened and her chest heaved as her chin began to quiver. She turned it over again and again, examining the rings in disbelief. Then her eyes darted to Tony's, and she gave him a questioning look.
He winced at the clear mental struggle she was having. "Baby," he said sympathetically, stepping closer to her.
Then Dr. Cho began to examine Pepper's ears, and the pupils of her eyes. "Can you tell me what year it is?" she asked her patient calmly.
Pepper blinked at the brightness of the pen light being shown in her eyes, and looked at the woman, bemused. "It's...2008," she said meekly. She looked at Tony for confirmation. Tony just closed his eyes, and lowered his head in defeat.
Pepper began to panic. "It isn't?!" she cried. She looked around the room desperately. "Then what year is it? And why am I here? Will someone please tell me what happened?!"
"It's going to be fine. It's okay," the nurse tried to assure. But Pepper huffed, rejecting her answer.
"No, it's not okay! Everything is certainly not okay!" she exclaimed.
Tony couldn't take seeing her like this any more. "Okay, guys, can we end the game of twenty questions, and the poking and prodding, for right now? Maybe give her a minute to adjust, huh?" he urged.
Dr. Cho immediately nodded in understanding. "Of course," she said, motioning for her staff members to cease what they were doing. "I agree. Let's let her ease back into everything, hmmm?" she told her staff.
Tony gave her a grateful nod, and Dr. Cho nodded in acknowledgement back. Then she turned back to Pepper. "We're all very glad to have you back with us," she told her, and smiled kindly.
Pepper gave her a weak smile, and nodded in return. "Th-thank you," she stammered politely, though it was clear she was still feeling very on edge and defensive.
Bruce nodded politely at Tony. "Congratulations, " he said simply. "To the both of you." He gave Pepper a polite nod.
"Thanks, man," Tony replied, smiling gratefully. He watched his friend leave the room with Dr. Cho, closing the door behind them, before he shifted his gaze back to his wife. He exhaled, and slowly ambled back over to Pepper's side. She watched him silently as he gingerly sat on the edge of the bed beside her.
They stared at each other for a moment, studying each others faces. Then Tony broke the gaze as he softly laid a hand on top of one of hers and lovingly squeezed it. Pepper watched as he did it, and then raised her eyes back up to his. "What year is it? And what happened to me?" she murmured. "Please. I need to know. I feel like I'm losing my mind."
Tony nodded, and worked his jaw for a moment. "Understandable," he murmured. He took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Well, to answer your first question- It's 2015," he said cautiously.
Pepper gasped. "Oh my God!" she whispered, panicking. "I've been asleep for seven years?!"
Tony's eyebrows raised, and he vigorously shook his head. "What? No. No,no no. Only a few months," he assured. "You just don't remember, honey." A slight look of relief ghosted over Pepper's face, but she stayed silent, watching him intently.
Tony continued. "As for the second question- There was an accident," he began. "Involving a landslide in San Francisco. They'd had torrential rain for a straight week. And the building you were in sat on a cliff, over the ocean. The land underneath it gave way. The building collapsed, and..." he said, a hard lump forming in his throat from having to recite the day's events to her. "You...got buried under the rubble."
Pepper gasped, and then frowned in confusion. "Were you there, too?" she asked.
Tony winced, as the old familiar, painful stab of regret about that night lodging itself in his gut once again. "No," he said simply. "No, I wasn't, but I did see the whole thing. I was..." he said, stopping as the emotion threatened to overtake him. He'd steadied himself, and spoke again. "I was across the bay, on the bridge, when it happened," he explained. "I was coming up to see you, actually. You'd gone to a conference there, with Bill Riva, and..."
"Bill Riva?" Pepper asked.
Tony stopped, looking at her cautiously. "Yeah. You...do remember Bill, right?" he asked cautiously. Bill had been with Stark Industries for at least a couple of decades, so he hoped Pepper could recall him. Otherwise, there was no telling where her memory ceased.
"Of course!" Pepper replied nodding, much to Tony's relief. "I meant, why was I there with Bill? Where were you?" she asked.
Tony stopped, and slowly exhaled. "I ask myself that question every day, Pep," he said regretfully. "But the truth is..." he began again. He hesitated, not sure whether what he was going to reveal to her next would be too much too fast. But he'd already started, so he knew there wasn't any going back now. So, nervously, he proceeded. "You're the CEO. My CEO. Of the company, of Stark Industries, I..." he babbled.
Pepper just stared at him blankly. Then she looked away, and squeezed her eyes shut. "Wow," she gasped under her breath. He watched as two tears began to trickle down her cheeks. After a moment, she slowly opened her eyes, and looked down at her wedding rings. She frowned as she began to fiddle with them. Then she sniffed hard and brushed the tears from her cheeks. "And...we're also married?" she asked softly.
"Correct," Tony murmured. "As of New Year's Eve, anyway." He smiled weakly.
Pepper smiled weakly back, and nodded, looking back down at her rings. "Well," she said. "They are beautiful," she murmured, shrugging. She raised her eyes again to Tony's, and he gave her a sympathetic smile. She smiled weakly back. "I just wish I could remember you giving them to me," she said. She chuckled, despite herself. "I wish I could remember..." she started to say, but a sob got caught in her throat. "Any of this," she finished, looking around the room for a moment in thought, before she spoke again. "I'm sorry. How did I become CEO of your company? And how on Earth did we go from you being my boss to you being my husband? This all seems so..." Her voice gave out, and her chin began to quiver.
Tony smoothed his hands down her upper arms to calm her. "Whoa. Hold on. Let's...just slow down, here, for a second, okay?" he said. "What exactly do you remember? What's the last thing you can recall?" he asked, praying it would be something somewhat recent.
Pepper stared at him in thought for a moment. Then she turned her head away, and squeezed her eyes shut again. Flashing snippets of random scenes moved through her mind like a slide show, but with the slides all out of order. Finally, it settled on one seemingly complete scene. She could remember she'd heard music. Loud music. And she'd seen Tony working on the hot rod in the shop, as he had so many times before. She felt like there was something she had needed to tell him. He had to be somewhere, but not all of the details were clear to her.
"I...can remember that you...had somewhere to go..." she began, opening her eyes to look at him again. "I...had come down to the shop to tell you it was time to leave."
Tony nodded, looking at her intently. "Okay. That's a start. Where was I supposed to go?" he asked encouragingly.
Pepper frowned, and swallowed hard. She shook her head. "I...I don't remember. I..." she said, her voice going weak as she started to cry again.
"That's okay. Really! I know it's hard," Tony quickly assured her. "Just take your time, and do the best you can, okay?"
Pepper nodded, and took a moment to breathe, before she began again. "It seems like you were...going somewhere? Overseas? Maybe with...Rhodey? Does that make sense?" she asked, wincing with uncertainty.
Tony just nodded.
She continued. "You wanted to know why I was in such a hurry to get you gone. And I said it was..."
"Your birthday," Tony finished glumly, his heart sinking with the fact that her last memory was from so long ago. No wonder she thinks it's 2008, he thought to himself.
Pepper's eyes went wide. "Yes! But you didn't... I mean, I had to tell you it was."
"Do you remember anything else about that day?" Tony asked quietly.
Pepper took a moment to think, but slowly began to shake her head. "No," she said finally. "Should I?"
Tony just stared at her silently, his expression grim. He was at a loss for words. Did he honestly want Pepper to remember that awful time for the both of them? Wasn't it enough that he'd become a better man as a result? But that was just the problem. If she only remembered him up to the point of that fateful day, it would stand to reason she'd believe he was still the same person, before the kidnapping in Afghanistan, and before Iron Man. And, obviously, he didn't relish the thought of his wife believing that about him again. Not after everything they'd been through to prove otherwise. But if she couldn't remember, then what could he do, besides hope it would all come back to her at some point in time, preferably sooner rather than later?
So, he just picked up her hand, and kissed the back of it affectionately. And, much to his relief, she let him, her eyes following his movements without any objection, which he took as a good sign. He smiled softly at her, but Pepper just gazed at him in thought.
"No," he said finally. "That's...good enough for now." He smiled and gazed lovingly into her eyes. Pepper blushed and looked away bashfully, but then brought her gaze back to his. Then, they both smiled at each other. But then Pepper winced, and Tony frowned in concern.
"Pep? What's wrong? You okay?" he asked, as he watched her lay back against the raised bed. She closed her eyes, and took a few breaths before she spoke.
"It's my back, and my hips and legs," she replied weakly. She open her eyes to a squint. "They hurt really bad."
"That makes sense," Tony replied. "You had a lot of bad injuries to those places." He clicked the nurse's call button. "There," he said. "They'll be in shortly to give you something to take the edge off, okay? In the meantime, just rest, honey."
Pepper nodded. "Okay," she said meekly. She gave him a weak smile. "Thank you."
Tony nodded and smiled back. He gently brushed her bangs to the side, and they gazed at each other for a moment. "You know, I realize this might sound weird to you at the moment," he said softly. "But I'm the luckiest guy in the world right now."
Pepper smiled warmly. "And why is that?" she asked quietly.
Tony smiled back at her. "Because I got you back," he murmured.
Pepper studied his eyes, and a wide grin spread across her lips, despite the pain she was in. "You're right. It does sound weird," she teased. They both chuckled at her joke, and Tony kissed her hand again, and then brought it to his chest.
"That's okay, baby," he assured her.
"And that sounds especially weird," she replied, with an awkward smile.
Tony furrowed his brow. "Do you want me to stop? Does it make you uncomfortable?" he asked.
Pepper shook her head. "No," she admitted sheepishly. "I...don't mind it, actually, if I'm being honest."
Tony grinned, and nodded. "Good," he replied.
Pepper smiled back, and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It is," she said.