Pepper stared emptily out of the window in Tony's bedroom. It had been four days in total, since Tony's wound was cauterized and he still hadn't woken up. He also had a high fever. While his wound was healing successfully, his body temperature had risen dramatically. He would sweat profusely, toss and turn wildly, and murmur gibberish in his sleep.

She had spent four days in this very room, watching him, caring for him and waiting, endless horrible waiting for him to wake up.

Poultices, medicines, cold compresses and syrups were fed, applied and given to Tony, all in the vain hope of reducing his temperature. But to no avail.

The Village had given up hope that the Iron Knight would rise again and much to Pepper's anger, were busy preparing for a lord's funeral. Happy wouldn't come to the Keep anymore because he kept tearing up around Tony. Jarvis and Magdalene had quietly taken to the bottle. They thought Pepper hadn't noticed.

Pepper was the only one who had not given up hope. She knew, in her heart, that he would pull through. He was just too stubborn to die. That was why she had not yet informed Duke Rorshach, that his nephew was at Death's door.

Once there is no hope... then only I will call the Duke but Tony... Tony will wake up... he has to...

She and Tigliath had taken up a silent vigil by Tony's side, sleeping there as well. At least Tigliath would sleep. Pepper had only slept properly once, the day she had warmed Tony with her body. After that, as his temperature had steadily increased, she had been too scared to fall asleep, out of fear.

What if I sleep and he... he just fades away... and I would never even know...until it was too late...

She turned as Tony once again muttered in his sleep, his eyes fluttering. Pepper stepped towards him and knelt to his side. She touched her hand to his brow and bit her lip in worry.

"Tony, you are so warm, my love, when will your fever go away?" She whispered to him.

"Never you mind, I am here. Remember my lord, remember your promise. Come back to me... Come back to me, my lord."


Tony was watching the horizon from the shore. For the first time, since he had clambered up to the island, the day was dull and grey.

"Storm's coming." he muttered to the harsh breeze blowing in his face.

Pepper was perched on her favorite high rock, staring into the distance herself.

She cried out softly and then said urgently, "Tony, Tony! You must flee! Now!"

He looked at her with concern. "What, what do you mean, Pepper?!"

"Tony," she swallowed, "our time together is over. It is over, Tony... you must run before they kill you."

"Who?"

"My people, the Mers..."

"What?!"

Pepper nodded her head sadly. "I feared this. I gave my heart to you and they are angry. I am a Princess of the Sea, I am not supposed to fall in love with a non-Mer man, let alone a human. My love," she patted his head, "Please go... they will kill you."

He swallowed hard and looked at the rapidly darkening, churning water. The waves had grown more violent and Pepper cried out again, "Tony, run! They will surface soon!"

"But where should I go?"

"Run into the jungle, follow the white stones! There is a waterfall, you must go there!" She pushed him with her tail and he took two steps away from her.

Wait, I can't leave Pepper!

He turned back and asked loudly, "What about you, Pepper? Will you be okay? What will they do to you?"

She just stared at him sadly, her eyes welling with tears and her silence answered him.

He stood there, arms outstretched and cried out, "Pepper, come with me, let us run away together!"

She gasped but stayed still.

He said urgently, "I am not leaving you here to die, sweetheart, so either we both stay here and die together or you come with me and we run... Pepper!"

She bit her lip and stared out at the churning water. Then she pushed herself into his arms.

He swung her onto his back, using his sling and Tony began to run through the forest, Pepper giving him directions.

As he clambered over the grassy forest land, he felt the ground quake under his feet and the trees shake with force. The sky was darkening rapidly.

Pepper whispered to him urgently, "Run, my lord, run, we must reach the waterfall."

Finally they did so and Tony teetered at the edge. He looked down and whistled low. They were standing on a flat stone ledge, that literally dropped into darkness. Thick water, from the sea, poured down into the abyss, with force. There was nothing visible below.

He lowered Pepper to stand on her tail, next to him.

"That is quite a drop, where does it go?"

Pepper said quietly, "It is the edge of this world, it drops into another."

He raised his eye brow at her and she shrugged. "Tony, it is a legend, no one has ever jumped the waterfall and come back."

They both looked back at the forest. Tony could hear shouts and cat calls as the Mer people seemed to be searching for him and Pepper.

She took her hand in his and squeezed his fingers tightly. Then Pepper looked deep into his eyes.

"Understand this, Tony, if we jump, there is no telling where we will go. It is another land. Another world. You won't be you and I won't be me... and we may not ever see each other again. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Pepper shed a tear silently and he cupped her cheek.

"Pepper my love, we are meant to be together, in this life and the next. Let us jump and meet each other in the next life. Promise me, my love."

She kissed him and whispered to him, "Come back to me, Tony, promise me, you will come back to me."

He felt his vision blur at her words and his right side began to burn. Tony suddenly broke out into a cold sweat.

Then the shouts grew nearer and he looked back towards the shadowy forest. In the depths, he could see angry, red eyes glaring at them from the darkness.

Pepper caught his hand. "Come my love, it is time."

He smiled at her, his Pepper, his Princess and touched her forehead with his. "I will follow you to the ends of this earth, Pepper."

They stepped off the ledge together, falling into the endless darkness, hands clasped tightly.


He felt as if he was awakening from deep, drugging sleep. He was lying back on something soft. His right side was throbbing gently with pain. He moved his jaw slowly as his mouth felt full of fuzz. It was as if he had licked Tigliath's raw furry back. Tony slowly opened one eye and then the other.

He gently moved his head and smiled slowly. He was in his room, the fire was lit, Tigliath was sleeping at his feet and he was tucked in cozily. Tony could see that it was dark outside as the window was open.

Okay, why am I in bed?

He chuckled as he heard his old friend, the Dragon huff and roar with joy within his head. Anthony! Welcome back! I missed you, I worried for you!

The Flame surged within him and he tapped his Arc.

Good to see you too, Dragon. What happened? The last I remember... wait! The Tournament, Rascar! The lance!

He gingerly lifted the sheet on the right side of his body and stared down at the nasty gash on his ribs. Shit, that looks bad!

You weren't conscious for most of it, Anthony, where did you go?

I was in a wonderful dream realm. With.. he remembered Mer Pepper and looked at the left side of the bed.

Sure enough, there was his Pepper, fast asleep in a chair, fallen face first on the bed, hair tumbling riotously around her like a halo of red-tinged sunshine, hand outstretched towards him.

She was holding my hand. Just like in the dream realm... we jumped...

Virginia has not left your side for the last seven days, Anthony. This is the second time she is sleeping in those seven days.

Seven days?! I was unconscious for seven days?!

The Dragon huffed slowly. We feared the worst, I was stuck in the Abyss so I could not reach her or you but she never gave up hope.

He stared at Pepper, who was whispering nonsense in her sleep slowly. He couldn't see her face because of her hair.

He strained to listen to what she was saying. "Come back... come back Tony."

Tony smiled and bent slowly to kiss her outstretched hand. Her fingers flexed at his beard grazing them and she murmured his name loudly.

Tony gently leaned towards her, pushed away her hair softly and stroked her satiny soft cheek. Her lashes were so dark and delicate on her face. He passed his fingers over her lips and she began to stir.

"Pepper, Pepper, sweetheart, wake up..."

Finally he couldn't resist it anymore. Taking care of his injury, Tony lay down next to her in the opposite direction, so her head and his head were close. Then he kissed her softly, whispering, "Wake up, my queen, wake up..." against her lips.

He watched with wonder at the beautiful sight of Pepper slowly waking up, opening one sleepy sapphire blue eye and then the other. The eyes stared at him, unfocused and dreamy. He grinned and kissed her nose gently.

"Sleeping on the job, I see..."

Pepper was still staring at him, dazedly and he counted to 10 slowly. At number eight, she sat up, horribly straight and he chuckled.

"Tony! You! Tony...Tony!"

She held her hands to her cheeks and he slowly straightened himself.

He shrugged casually, trying to be very nonchalant about his awakening. "I am back as you can see..."

Then Tony saw Pepper move in a blur as she flung herself at him, arms tight around his neck, face pressed to his shoulder, holding him fiercely. He winced slightly at the impact and rubbed her back as he felt her silently cry into his shoulder, her slender chest heaving.

"Pepper, sweetheart, do not cry anymore," he whispered to her, "I am here, I am back, I came back."

She leaned back in his arms slowly and he felt his heart jerk painfully at the anguish in her tear-streaked face.

"Tony, I thought, I thought... I thought you were gone... I thought... you wouldn't wake up."

He cupped her face in his hands and rubbed his thumbs over her cheeks, wiping away the tears.

"I just couldn't stay away... I am sorry I couldn't wake up sooner, my love."

He kissed her eyes, her nose and finally her trembling mouth, tasting the salt of her tears as he took her lips tenderly.

"God, Pepper," he whispered to her, "I am sorry I put you through this... I am sorry."

She kissed him back slowly and then pulled back, narrowing her eyes at him. "Anthony Edduard Stark, why the hell did you remove your jousting shield?"

He gulped hard and the Dragon laughed loudly in his head. I did not tell her, Happy did!

Pepper was glaring at him angrily and Tony tried to think how to calm her down. He couldn't think of anything, so he tried the truth.

"Okay... hear me out, okay, before you go all orange on me... I knew I had to end the Tournament somehow and the only way to do that was to kill Rascar. So I needed to hit him hard, such that he would never get up. Now for that, I needed the full-range of motion of my-"

Pepper placed her fingers against his lips and gave him a stern look.

He kept quiet as her eyes changed color rapidly in five seconds, dark blue to light to shimmering molten blue and back to light. He knew she was experiencing multiple emotions and was struggling to speak.

"My lord, I do not want to hear any more excuses. If you ever do something so foolish again... I swear Tony, I will run a lance through you myself."

Her mood once again turned sad as she caught his face in both hands and whispered to him, "Tony, you were nearly dead, don't you dare scare me like that ever again!"

Her eyes filled with tears and he wiped away the tears. "No more jousts, Tony, no more..."

"Definitely not!"

She nodded tremulously and he asked slowly, "What happened after I..."

Pepper sighed deeply. "Well, Rascar was clearly dead. I had a huge fight with the Tournament Master, over who should receive the prize money. He was of the opinion that neither you nor Rascar were the winners. But I ..." she smirked evilly, "I managed to make him see reason. One thousand gold coins were received and given to the people of Dale, to pay Kakade's debts. So that's the end of that."

He touched his forehead to hers and whispered, "I am alive today because of your care, my lady and you are right. It was foolish of me to put myself in harm's way and I did not think of your feelings. I am sorry Pepper."

She sighed sweetly and said, :How can I stay angry with you, when you apologize so nicely, you damn charmer, you..."

He whispered to her, kissing her forehead. "Pepper you should sleep, please sleep, go to your room and try to sleep."

She shook her head stubbornly and said mutinously, "I am not leaving you, my lord, I am just not. Besides I am not sleepy..."

Then she yawned widely and Tony grinned at her.

"Little liar" he said softly as she rubbed her eyes.

Pepper stroked his jaw, feeling his beard with her fingers. "Alright I am tired but... can't sleep without you, my lord", she whispered tiredly, "I need you next to me."

He lifted up his sheet and made Pepper lie down next to him. He put one arm around her, tucking her into the crook of his arm and softly kissed her head. She sighed, curled into him and placed her hand possessively on his Arc.

"You are not going anywhere, Lord Stark, not without me." Pepper yawned cutely, showing all her neat little teeth and he nuzzled her head.

"Yes my lady, any other commands?"

She blinked heavily and said firmly but sleepily, "And no more jousting and..." she sighed and burrowed into him further, "no more taking stupid risks, Tony..."

"Sure, sure..."

"And... and..." she drifted off to sleep then, mouth slightly open.

He cuddled her to him and she sighed in her sleep.

Then Tony pressed his lips to her forehead and whispered to her, "I am not leaving you and going anywhere, come what may..."

He pulled the sheet around them both and cradled Pepper in his arms.

"My lady, in this life or another, we are meant to be together. One day, I will tell you the story of the Princess of the Merkovian Sea, Princess Virginia."

Then Tony closed his own eyes, content as his Queen was lying in his arms, in his real world.


The point of this trope (injured hero, medicine woman heroine who never leaves his side) was to show how Pepper realizes she loves Tony and why she should admit that to him.

Just like Tony realized this, when she was taken by the Celestial Beast and he despaired of her returning.