Pepper had eventually dozed off as well, listening to the relaxed rhythm of Tony's breathing against her chest. And it was about then that Marilynn had quietly opened the door to check on her daughter and son-in-law. What she saw- the two of them in Pepper's bed, wrapped in each others arms- instantly brought bitter-sweet tears to her eyes, and she immediately brought a closed fist to her lips as she quietly closed the door once more.
Bruce looked at the woman as she once again rejoined him in the hall. He frowned in concern. "You okay? What's wrong?" he asked.
Marilynn tried to smile through her tears. "I'm fine, darlin'," she replied, laying a hand on his shoulder in thanks. Bruce smiled back at the gesture. "I'm just so sad for them. Happy, but also sad." She went to sit down in the row of chairs outside of Pepper's room, and Bruce sat next to her, his eyes still filled with concern.
She turned to face him. "I don't know if you were aware, but they were..." she paused, swallowing hard to shore up her composure. "Expecting...before all of this happened," she finished.
Bruce nodded. "Tony had told me," he confirmed. "And I'm very sorry for their loss, Mrs. Potts."
Marilynn smiled, and patted his cheek in a mother fashion. "Honey! Call me Marilynn. I insist," she told him.
Bruce smiled at the kindly woman, her warm demeanor putting him very much at ease. A feeling he welcomed, as it wasn't often that he had the luxury of letting his guard down, even by the tiniest smidgen.
"Thank you," he said. "And I'm Bruce. The 'doctor' part is...just when I'm in the lab," he joked.
They both chuckled. Marilynn smiled. "You're a dear man, Bruce. I can tell," she told him. "Tony and Ginny are lucky to have such good friends around them. I'm grateful beyond words. Just know that."
Bruce gave her an understanding smile. "Well, I know Tony thinks a lot of you. He's always looked forward to your visits. Even amid all of this," he said, gesturing around them. "Besides the fact that you're a very kind person," he said. Marilynn gave him a bashful smile, her cheeks blushing at his compliment. Bruce continued. "I think Tony likes having someone like you in his life."
"Someone like me?" she asked.
Bruce shrugged. "A...mother figure," he explained. "He tries to play like he doesn't need anyone, but...he's let it slip a couple of times how much he misses his own mother. And how close they were. Pepper fills the need for companionship, obviously, but you? You sort of...complete the puzzle for him, in terms of having a family, I think," he revealed. Bruce blushed and averted his eyes from her gaze. "That's just my two cents, anyway," he said humbly.
Marilynn smiled at him, and patted his arm, leaning in to him. "I appreciate that, honey," she said. "And I too feel lucky to have him in my life. After raising two girls, I often wondered what it would be like to have a son. But, now, I get the pleasure of knowing," she said, with a smile. "And he's everything I could have wanted," she went on, shifting her gaze from Bruce to the door of Pepper's room. Her eyes held a reverent admiration. "First and foremost, though, he loves my Ginny," she said, her voice giving out with emotion at the sound of her daughter's name. Tears began to fall, and she sheepishly wiped them away. "That means the world to me," she murmured.
Bruce gave her a sympathetic smile, and put a hand on her shoulder. Marilynn smiled at him, through her tears, and patted his hand.
"I know it's been hard," he said. "I can only imagine what you've been through."
Marilynn nodded. "Thank you, dear," she said. She reached for a tissue from a box sitting on an end table at the end of the row of chairs, and began to dab her eyes, and wipe her nose. "And now that we know they won't be able to...try again? For another baby? I just..." She stopped talking, and closed her eyes. She shook her head in regret, as her emotion overcame her. She slumped, putting her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking as she quietly wept for their loss.
Bruce watched in empathy for her hurt, understanding how heartbroken she must be with the news. He imagined she was delighted with the prospect of becoming a grandmother, as he was certain she would have been a terrific one- the perfect prototype, in fact, for the grandmother he knew every child would dream of having. So he was sure her heartache wasn't just for Tony and Pepper's loss, but her own as well.
He moved to lay a hand on her back, rubbing it up and down to try to soothe her. "It'll be alright, Marilynn," he softly murmured. "You'll see."
Marilynn brought her head up, and nodded, swallowing hard once more. "I know, dear. And I'm sorry for carrying on like this," she said, with an embarrassed smile.
Bruce shook his head. "Not at all," he assured. "I completely understand why you'd be upset."
She smiled, grateful for his understanding, and nodded. She gently blew her nose, and then looked at her new friend. "So, enough about our troubles," she said, attempting to brighten the mood. "Tell me more about you."
Bruce spluttered in embarrassment. "Like..what, exactly? I'm afraid my life isn't that exciting," he said with modesty. "Other than the...occasional emotion outburst, you could say. Which I do try to keep to a minimum," he joked.
Marilynn nodded in understanding. "Ahh, yes. Mr. Tony informed me of your...outbursts," she joked back.
Bruce looked at her curiously. "He did?" he asked with apprehension. "And it didn't make you want to avoid me at all costs?"
Marilynn smiled at him and put her hands out to her sides. "You see me sitting here with you, plain as day, don't you?" she said. "Unless you think I have cause for concern?" she teased.
Bruce smiled at her teasing him, and shook his head. "No. There's no cause for concern, Marilynn," he assured.
"There, now," she said, clasping her hands around one of his, and patting it kindly. "I knew we'd become fast friends."
Bruce smiled even broader. "Right," he said, nodding. "I like that idea."
"So. Do. I," Marilynn emphatically agreed, still keeping a hold of his hand. She looked around for a moment, in thought. "So tell me, my new friend, Doctor Bruce," she joked. "Are you seeing anyone?"
Bruce looked at her with half-humor, half-trepidation. "What is it about everybody being so interested in my love life?" he asked. "First, it was Tony. And then it was Colonel Rhodes. Now it's you!" he exclaimed good-naturedly. "And, while I'm at it- Are you asking or offering?" he joked. They both chuckled, and Marilynn's cheeks went to a deep shade of crimson.
"Oh, dear me, no. No, no, no. No offense, sweetie, but you are far too young of a thing for my liking. No, no. I'm only asking because it would be a shame if a man such as yourself, with so much to offer, didn't have someone to share their life with," she quickly explained.
Bruce gave her an embarrassed smile, and then went quiet in thought for a moment, fondly remembering Betty Ross, the woman he'd so long ago had been forced to leave behind, in order to keep the both of them safe. And he also recalled how much it hurt to do so. He steeled himself against the familiar heartache once again, and answered. "Well to answer your question- no," he said softly. "There's...no one like that, right now."
Marilynn could see the hurt and regret in his eyes, and she pursed her lips, nodding in understanding. "That's a shame, darlin'," she said quietly. "Truly. You'd be quite a catch. For any woman."
Bruce smiled bashfully, and nodded. "Thank you," he said simply. "I appreciate that. But really. It's hard to think of myself in those terms."
Marilynn's eyes widened. "Oh, honey! You can't be serious!" she exclaimed. "You're an attractive, brilliant doctor! Why on Earth wouldn't someone want to..." She was interrupted by the reappearance of Dr. Cho to the nurse's station to return Pepper's chart. She'd had to leave the group earlier for the research lab in order to document Pepper's latest results in her notes for her work in nerve and tissue regrowth.
Marilynn watched her chat with the nurses for a brief moment. And then a knowing smile spread across her lips. "Um, Bruce? Have you ever thought about..." she began, stopping her speech eventually to nod in Cho's direction.
Bruce spluttered. "Helen?!" he gasped. He shook his head in denial. "No. No, no. I couldn't. She's..."
"Perfect for you," Marilynn purred with a giddy smile. She turned her head back to Bruce. "And...Helen?" she teased, with a surprised smirk. "Why, darlin'! Where I come from, if you call a woman by her first name, you've already become something of a fond personal acquaintance," she informed him, her voice thick with southern-belle charm. She batted her eyes playfully, and Bruce couldn't help but chuckle though his cheeks were rapidly reddening at her putting him on the spot to ask Dr. Cho out.
Bruce just averted his eyes, and said nothing as the doctor approached the two of them. "Hello again," she said pleasantly, her eyes falling on Bruce's embarrassed, and reddened, expression, her own changing to a look of curiosity before shifting back to Marilynn's gaze with a smile. "Any word from our patient? And/Or her significant other?"
Marilynn smiled coyly, and gestured toward the door. "See for yourself, Doctor," she cooed.
The doctor looked at her curiously, but followed her prompt and quietly cracked the door to discover what Marilynn was talking about. She poked her head into the room, smiled widely, and then closed the door behind her just as softly as she'd opened it. "That's a very encouraging sign," she said proudly. "Looks like they've become somewhat reacquainted with each other. And faster than anticipated, I must admit."
Marilynn cooed excitedly and clapped her hands. "Ooo! Doesn't it just warm your heart?" she purred, grinning. "You can't stop true love. No sir-ree."
Bruce and Cho shared a humored glance and chuckled at Marilynn's giddiness, Bruce's eyes lingering on the doctor a beat longer before his eyes joined hers in gazing at Pepper's over-joyed mother.
XxXxXxXxXx
The afternoon sun had begun to shine through the window of Pepper's room, bathing everything in warm golden light. Sub-consciously noticing the change in atmosphere, both halves of the couple began to slowly awaken out of their slumber. They each inhaled deeply, collectively smiling at the circumstances in which they found themselves still in.
"Well, hello," Tony jokingly purred, slowly raising his head to look at his wife through still bleary eyes. He gave her a drowsy grin, and she grinned back. Then he moved to prop himself up on all fours, and lean in to kiss her lips. She kissed his back, delicately touching her finger tips to his cheeks.
He sat back when the kiss broke, gazing at her, still grinning. "I don't think I've sleep that well in months," he remarked.
She smiled coyly. "I, on the other hand, find it ironic that, after being asleep for so long, I'm still exhausted," she replied.
Tony shrugged. "You're healing, Pep," he reminded her. "That takes time. Believe me, I know first hand."
Pepper frowned, biting her lips together, recalling her worry she'd felt before they'd gone to sleep. "Yeah. About that," she began. "Why do I get the feeling that what you have to tell me about being Iron Man could fill the pages of an entire encyclopedia."
And more!, Tony thought, rolling his eyes. "Uh...because if there's anything you are, Pep, it's intuitive," he replied reluctantly.
Pepper took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, bracing herself for the weight of the hard truth about her husband. "Okay?" she said. "So...back to where we left off, then?"
"Yeah," Tony agreed. "But the last thing we need, in telling you all of this, is for you to get overwhelmed," he told her. "So let's stay on the straight and narrow, here, huh? Let's go slow, and keep it simple. Agreed?"
Pepper nodded. "Agreed," she replied.
Tony then began to tell her about Justin Hammer and Ivan Vanko, about what happened in Monte Carlo, how Rhodey took off with Mark II after they'd fought it out at his birthday party, how they both had to fight off the swarm of defective Android soldiers at the Expo that Hammer made Vanko create, and...
"There's one thing I hadn't mentioned in all of this, Pep," Tony warned. Her eyes were already wide, as she'd been completely riveted while he'd told her the story.
"What? What is it?" she urged, her words breathless.
"While all of this was going on, I was being poisoned. So much so, that it nearly killed me," he explained.
She gasped. "Poisoned?!" she exclaimed. "By whom? Was it Ivan? Or Justin?" She gasped again. "Don't tell me Obi somehow came back!" she said.
Tony smiled at her guessing. "No, it was nothing like that," he replied. "Actually, it was the arc."
She frowned. "Wait," she said. "What do you mean it was the arc? I thought you needed it. I thought it was saving your life. Not...not ending it."
"It was doing both," Tony explained. "Short term, it was keeping the shrapnel outta my heart. But long term? The palladium was leaching into my system. My heavy metal blood toxicity levels were through the roof. The only thing I could do was drink chlorophyll by the gallon every day to slow down the effects, and..."
"So that's when you had it removed? The..." she asked, pointing to the scar on his chest. "Because you were dying?!"
Tony pursed his lips, and shook his head. "Not...exactly," he replied.
Pepper squinted in confusion. "What do you mean 'not exactly'?" she repeated. "Either you did or you didn't."
"I didn't," Tony replied, relenting. "I couldn't. I was in the thick of things with Hammer. What was I to do? Ask him to kindly hold off on filling the world with exploding robots for at least six weeks while I go have open heart surgery?"
Pepper sat back, crestfallen. "No, I...guess you're right," she agreed.
"Besides that, you and I were..." he stopped, reconsidering his words. "Well, we weren't on the best of terms, Pep," he admitted.
Pepper studied his face in thought for a moment, the two of them gazing pensively at one another. "Did I know?" she asked softly.
"Know what?" he asked.
"That you were dying, Tony," she stated firmly. "Did I know."
He worked his jaw for a moment, and then looked away. "I tried to tell you," he said.
"But did you?" she asked.
He brought his eyes back up to hers, his expression laden with regret.
"No," Pepper said sadly, guessing his response. "You didn't."
"And I regret it every day of my life," he said. "Because you needed to know. I'd just made you CEO, for one thing. And,I also had realized that I was..." He halted his words, wondering if he should proceed with caution.
"What? You were what, Tony?" Pepper expectantly urged, unable to escape the feeling of another bomb about to be dropped on her.
"In love with you," he said simply. He chuckled reluctantly. "I tried telling you that, too."
Pepper softened. "You...did?" she asked, regretting once again the fact that she couldn't remember what he was talking about. Then she gave him a wry smirk. "What was the phrasing of that conversation in your head? 'I'm in with love you and by the way I'm dying?' " she quipped. "It would've sounded like a bad pick up line."
Tony's eyebrows shot up and he started chuckling. "Uh...well, I would've at least attempted to word it...a little more eloquently than..that," he stammered, trying to hid the fact that she'd closely guessed what he'd actually planned to say to her.
Pepper chuckled back, and then bit her lips. She shook her head in disbelief, and took her gaze from his to look around the room in thought. He watched her silently, waiting for the cue to continue.
She took another deep breath, and brought her gaze back to his. "So you...were dying. You were trying to stop Vanko. And Hammer. And Rhodey," she recounted. "And, mean while, you and I were barely speaking."
"Correct," Tony affirmed.
She chuckled in disbelief again, and clucked her tongue. "Wow, you uh...you really had a mess on your hands," she remarked.
Tony nodded in the affirmative. "Yeah, and right about the time I thought I should just give it all up? In rode the Cavalry," he recalled.
Pepper's eyes widened. "Who!" she demanded.
"The Strategic Homeland Intelligence..." Tony stopped talking and huffed in exasperation. "SHIELD," he said flatly. "Let's just save time and call them SHIELD?"
"SHIELD?" Pepper repeated. "What's... SHIELD?"
Tony took a deep breath. "Well, honey?" he said, giving her a reluctant smile. "This is where it starts to get interesting."