Tony erased all of the messages that Jarvis told him about. He dropped his arms at his sides and looked around at his dark and empty house. The entire time in the cave, the only thing he wanted was to come back home, but now it seemed lonelier than ever. Spending time in captivity made Tony realize how lonely he actually was. He looked down at his watch that Obi gave him… 9:14. What does someone do on the night they come back from being kidnapped? His mind drifted to thoughts coming from his "Playboy" side, but he wiped them away. He just fell down on the couch and turned on the T.V.

"… a weapons industry that isn't producing weapons any longer? In what way can Stark Industries go but down?" Tony heard as soon as the TV came on. He rolled his eyes and flipped through the channels.

"… I am shutting down the weapons industry…" came his own voice from footage from the conference. Tony flipped again and again, trying to escape the news. It seemed like every single channel he flipped to was just about him and Stark Industries. It annoyed him even more that everyone was more worked up about his company not producing weapons instead of him being alive when everyone thought he was dead.

Finally, FINALLY, Tony settled on FX where Lord of the Rings was on. He turned down the volume so it was only background noise. Tony was about to get up to go get something to eat when the doorbell rang, making him jump. He tried to recover himself from being startled as he got up to go get the door. Who was it at 9 anyways?

Tony pulled the door open, and had to admit, was utterly surprised about who was there. Pepper was standing a few feet away from the doorway, the light that flooded out from the house illuminated her light hair. She looked at Tony with a tilted head.

"Potts, I might have been gone for a couple months, but I am pretty sure that you come to work at 9 AM, not PM." Tony said. He was only kidding though, because Pepper was definitely coming on her own terms. She was wearing jeans with a black tank top with a jacket over it. She rolled her eyes.

"Wait… Is Pepper Potts… THE Pepper Potts wearing jeans?" Tony said jokingly, pretending he was astounded. She sighed and looked at Tony with a tired look.

"Are you done making remarks now?" she asked him. Tony smirked and gave a small nod. He nodded his head towards the door and they both walked inside.

"So why are you here?" Tony asked, going to the couch to sit down and lean against the arm. Pepper looked at him for a while, stopping to stand by the opposite side of the couch. Tony caught her eye and tilted his head to look up at her.

"What?" he asked, slightly smiling. Pepper sighed.

"Are you okay being here alone?" she asked him. Tony took a deep breath. So that's why she was here, she was worried about him. Stark gave her a half-smile.

"I'm not alone." Tony countered. Pepper smiled and sat down next to him. He was watching the screen of the TV, but not exactly paying attention. Pep on the other hand, was watching Tony. Although he was aware of her worry, he elected to pretend not to notice until she spoke up.

"Why are you so casual about this?" she asked him.

"Why are you not?"

"Everyone thought you were dead, Tony." Pepper said. He knew that it bothered her how Tony didn't take the whole captivity matter too seriously, but he didn't need to.

"But I'm not…"

"You almost were."

"Almost." Tony pointed out. Pepper gritted her teeth and shook her head, but Tony only smiled at that. He ticked her off so much sometimes.

"So if you aren't bothered by it… what happened?" Pepper hesitantly asked. Tony looked over to her. She looked uneasy asking as if she was unsure if she really wanted to know what Tony would tell her about. He himself was worried over what may freak her out.

"Well, I was an idiot and refused to go in Rodey's car first off." Stark started. Pepper shook her head but smiled just a little.

"So when the car blew up in front of us, the soldiers in my car went out to try to shoot down whoever was targeting us. They all got killed." Tony said plainly. Pepper looked over at him with a sad expression, but he couldn't look back. If he had to say what the worst part about his couple months in the Middle East, he would say it was watching other people die in front of him.

"Anyways, I got out of the car… idiot again." He added. "And there was an explosion nearby which was how I got the shrapnel in my chest."

Tony went on to tell Pepper everything, sharing his whole story with someone for the first time. He told her about waking up to find the object in his chest to when he escaped with suit of armor that he had made. She had a startled look on her face most of the time, which worried him when she wouldn't say anything after he had finished.

"You okay?" he asked her. She nodded, but her gaze was far off somewhere else. "I'm going to make popcorn." Tony told her before getting up. He walked into the kitchen to get a package of popcorn out of the pantry. While he was doing that, he watched Pepper process the information from afar. She looked slightly disturbed knowing what he had gone through. Her reaction honestly just made him want to hold her, but no way… He had just gotten back from surviving being kidnapped and he didn't even have the balls to tell her how much he had just wanted to see her again, and only her?

Tony sighed as he unwrapped the plastic from the popcorn, afterwards putting the paper package in the microwave. He glanced over at Pepper one more time thinking, Man, I'm lucky…