Whew, almost twice the size of my normal chaps! This just proves that I'm horrible with writing dialogue and writing from previous content...

This chap is about new characters, Tony's reintegration, and ARC reactors. There's a lot of original content in this, so I'm proud of it!

To my lovely guest reviewer: Thank you! Hopefully this is just as enjoyable :)

The song for this chapter is "Still Sane" by Lorde.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I changed where Tony lives. In the movies, he lives in L.A, but for this story to work, he has to live in New York. So, he lives in New York in this.

IRON MAN: PART FOUR: ALL WORK AND NO PLAY

As the ramp of the plane touched down in New York, Tony looked out, blinking at the harsh sunlight. He glanced around, taking in the empty runway. Thank God. No big welcomes. Way too many people had come out to the airfields in Afghanistan and Germany when he had landed there, and those had been military bases. Someone had definitely covered up his arrival.

There was only one vehicle present, a familiar black car, and Tony grinned when he recognized Happy next to it. His expression changed from joyous to longing, however, when he caught a glimpse of the person who Happy had brought.

His mother.

Maria Stark cut a striking figure, with her jet-black hair pinned into a sensible bun, her blouse and pencil skirt a somber black, stilettos glistening. Her emotion was carefully masked, but her son could see that she could barely hold herself back as Tony walked down the ramp, towards her.

When Tony was within several feet of his mother, Maria closed the rest of the distance, pulling her son into a tight embrace. "Oh, Tony," she sighed. "You're safe… it's more than one could ever hope for." She gently let go, and got a good look at him. "Sweetie, are you OK?"

Tony shrugged, glancing down at his arm with distaste. Despite his best efforts, a medic had noticed that he handled it stiffly, and insisted it be put in a sling. At least they didn't try any harder than that to check him over; no one had seen the ARC reactor.

"I'm fine, Mom, now that I'm home," Tony answered softly. "Or at least, as fine as could be expected." OK, where had that come from? Leave it to his mother to pry everything out of him. Her warmth was melting the ice around his feelings.

It couldn't melt the rock around his deepest, darkest secrets.

Maria only pulled Tony into a tighter hug, reading between the lines of his statement. "I know that… it's a lot to take in," she whispered into his ear. Dad. "I won't be able to tell you it'll be alright, or that it'll go back to the way things were. But all we can do is look forward, and the future may very well be brighter."

Tony shrugged, not really listening. "OK, Mom."

Maria looked at his face searchingly, then turned with a sigh. "Take us to the hospital, please, Happy."

"No," responded Tony, almost without thinking.

"What?" asked Maria, confused. "Tony, you have to go to the hospital."

"'No' is a complete answer," denied Tony. "I've been in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger. And I want to go home. Talk about the company."

Maria tried to object, but Tony was already climbing into the car. "Come on, Mom. Cheeseburger first." She finally relented, following her son into the car.

After a few minutes of tense silence, Mariah commented, "You know, we can talk about the company here in the car. What is it that you want to talk about?"

Tony sighed, looking straight ahead at the road. "Mom, if I knew that Dad… if I knew what was going to happen, I would have asked him questions. How he felt about what the company did. If he was conflicted, if he had doubts. From what I saw, he wasn't the man that he presented to the world. Our weapons… they were being used to kill Americans, weapons that we made to defend and protect them. We're part of a system that has zero accountability." He glanced at his mother, whose face had gone white.

"They had the weapons? How many? Tony, what happened over there?" she asked tentatively, not wanting to say the wrong thing.

"I had my eyes opened," replied Tony, dancing around her questions as gracefully as he could manage. "Dad realized… I realized… that I have more to offer the world than just things that blow up. So I… I want to shut down all the Stark weapons facilities."

Maria gasped, shock apparent. "Tony, where would you go with this? I would support you in any rational decision you make, but this… the over-under on the stock market drop would be at least -"

"40 points, and we have to do it," Tony interrupted. "Even if we paint a target on the back of our heads. We can make an impact on the world that doesn't hurt anyone. We can go into clean energy, food production, something that'll really help the world."

Maria's mouth opened and closed several times, before she sighed and rested her head on a hand. "Tony, if we're gonna do this… you have to be the one to tell Obadiah."

"So?" asked Tony. "It's not like he's gonna object. He'll stand by me, just like you are now. I'll just coax him into it… or better yet, we make the decision and tell him afterwards. It's sometimes better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission."

Maria frowned pensively. "I see your point, but Obadiah is the CEO of Stark Industries now. He truly holds all the power. Only if you're sure."

Tony laughed. "Not really, Mom. But honestly, the public is going to be on your side, due to the… circumstances. It could be enough to sway the board members. Even without that, this is important to me. We at least have to try."

Tony's mother nodded, still looking thoughtful. "Yes. I can see why you want this so badly, especially after everything. I'll see what I can do."

The young genius shrugged. "You'll do it."

Maria nodded and chuckled. "Pretty much. Let's stop by and see Obadiah now."

Tony almost cried when he walked into the Stark Headquarters building, about an hour north of New York. He hadn't realized how much he had missed it… or how much a part of it that his father was. Maybe it was just Tony, but even with all the scientists bustling about, the place seemed to lack a certain vibrancy, a certain drive.

"Good morning, Mr. Hogan, Mrs. Stark, Sir," called a voice from overhead. Tony didn't bother looking for the source, 'cause who could forget that voice? "I trust, Sir, that your vacation was enjoyable?"

"JARVIS," Tony responded. "It's good to be back." Thank God for JARVIS. The AI knew just how far to take the jokes before they became painful. Hearing someone talk so nonchalantly about the Afghanistan incident was relieving.

The AI then turned his attention to Maria. "Mrs. Stark, how long will you be staying today?"

"Just for a minute," replied Maria. "Tony here just needs to talk to Mr. Stane for a moment, then we'll be on our way."

"Shall I notify Mr. Stane?"

Mariah nodded, knowing that JARVIS was smart enough to interpret the gesture through his cameras.

With a little bit of grumbling, Tony made his way through the familiar halls, turning every which way, until he came to Obadiah's office. He knocked on the door, but let himself in without waiting for the affirmative.

"Tony!" called out Obadiah, hastily closing his laptop. "How's my boy?"

"I'm fine," responded Tony, glancing around nervously. Why did Obadiah's cheer sound so forced?

The older man noticed the apprehension, and sighed. "Sorry, kiddo. They've been breaking my back as the CEO, and I'm starting to really feel it."

Tony nodded and smiled, commenting, "Well, it's just for a couple years, isn't it? Then I'll take that weight off for you."

"Yeah, yeah," agreed Obadiah, although his smile seemed even more forced now. His temper was growing short if it was anything to go by. Tony decided that the shutdown-of-all-the-Stark-weapons talk could wait until tomorrow, when Obie was in a better mood.

"OK, Obie," sighed Tony, "I just wanted to check in and see how you're doing, so I'll be going now."

Obadiah smiled - why was it that this smile seemed the most genuine? - and gave Tony a pat on the shoulder. "OK, Tony. See you later, kiddo."

Tony spent the walk back to his mother and Happy nervously turning these new observations around in his brain. Why was Obadiah so worn out, when his dad was always so bright and cheerful without even trying? What would Obadiah be so dismissive of Tony? And what was he working on?

The young genius worried over it so much, he almost forgot the imminent problem at hand, but when his mother asked what Obadiah had said, Tony was ready with a "I'll think about it" answer. He knew what would follow; a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo, discussions, before making a decision months in the future. He could tell Obadiah tomorrow without any hiccups. It was fine.

Sure, he was procrastinating. Sure, nothing good ever came out of that. But it would be fine.

He had gotten enough of 'not fine' to last the rest of his life.

Home.

Finally.

Tony sighed in contentment as they finally reached the Stark's New York home. The family owned a big townhouse in uptown New York, which they stayed in for most of Tony's school year. The young Stark honestly preferred the Malibu house, but he would take New York any day, especially now, with Stark Tower almost prepared for building. The tower was almost set to commence construction; all they needed was a suitable power source. After the events in Afghanistan, Tony had some ideas on that, but it had to wait.

"I missed everything so much," sighed Tony, turning and hugging his mother again. "And I really missed you." OK, so 'really missed' weren't the right words. Truth be told, his mother had been what had kept him going some of those days. How worried she must be, how strong she still was in the face of the crisis, how one day, soon, he and Dad could -

Nope. No. Not thinking about that. 'Really missed' was completely accurate. No problems there.

"I'm glad you're happy, sweetie," replied Maria with a soft smile. "I'll order pizza and you can do what you want until 10. Then you need to try and get some sleep, you have school in two days."

"What?" exclaimed Tony. "Already? Can't I take the week off?"

"You've missed too much school as it is," admonished his mother, "and nothing will be gained by procrastinating."

"Yes, Mother," Tony replied, guiltily. If his mother found out about Obadiah, she was going to lose it. Best to do it tomorrow.

The young genius took the stairs down to the basement of the house, smiling at the familiar workbenches and computer monitors. This workshop was almost an exact replica of the one in Malibu, and he loved it. Now, however, he had to get to work. "JARVIS, you here?"

"Of course, Sir," responded the AI. "What can I do for you?"

Walking over to a crowded table, Tony pushed aside a few papers and carefully unhooked the ARC reactor from the electromagnet, mindful of the wires that still ran between the two devices. Setting it on the table, he called up to JARVIS, "Get me a scan on this, willya?"

After several moments, JARVIS responded, and he sounded… hesitant. "Sir, I have readings on the device, but it has no prior records of ever being developed. From the statistics, am I correct in assuming that this is some form of ARC reactor?"

Tony grinned. "Right on the nose, buddy. Now, efficiency levels?"

"Currently, the device is at a steady 35 percent, depleted by 20 percent from original levels. Regardless of what is being powered, I would recommend an alternative power source."

"And that, my friend, is what we're going to do now," muttered Tony. "I'll give myself two weeks, but this thing better be state-of-the-art. JARVIS, can you get readings on how an electromagnet can be combined with a power source?"

Tony soon realized how much time the ARC reactor was going to require. Well then, he could stop by Obadiah's penthouse after school. It wasn't that out of the way from his drive home.

School. Tony let out an annoyed huff. This was going to be fun. Usually, he was either ignored or sucked up to here, courtesy of his genius-billionaire status. That, of course, was before his little adventure, and he was unsure of how they would react. Would he be a homecoming king? Would the kids pity him? Would the kids give him fake pity and snicker at him behind his back? Probably the last one. Kids had no compassion these days.

The only sure thing was that things weren't going to be the same.

"You ready, kid?" asked Happy, giving Tony a reassuring smile. "You're gonna kill it."

"Can you take me back home?" muttered Tony, prompting Happy to laugh and push him out of the car. The young genius thanked Happy anyway; it was the man's job, after all.

When Tony entered the halls of Midtown High, he could immediately feel the difference in, well, everyone. In the bustle before first period, kids gave him a wide berth, whispering behind their hands. A few followed him around, watching what he did and talking on their phones to accomplices, reporting for the 'Tony Watch'. Others pretended to ignore him, while still sneaking glances every now and then. Well, they had 100% participation in the 'Stare at Tony' event. Hooray.

Even teachers took part in the impromptu contest. His Chemistry teacher paused for almost a whole minute when his name came up on the roster, while his English teacher had him come up and introduce himself in front of the class. Did those teachers just want to make him squirm? The AP Engineering teacher told him flatly to complete all the worksheets and analyses that had been done in class. Sure, that would only take Tony about two hours, and the teacher probably knew that, but a whole month's workload! Couldn't he just do part of that? In AP Physics, the other extreme was expressed; Tony didn't have to do not only the work he had missed, but any of the current work for a current week. What was he supposed to do for an hour, sleep? Well, he could always use that time for the new ARC reactor. Speaking of ARC reactors, he had a close call in PE. He had managed to change in a bathroom stall, but the coach had tried to put him on the 'skins' team for basketball. Who still does that? Tony had resisted violently, and the coach had eventually relented, but now everyone thought that he had some 'wicked' scars. Which he did. Right around a glowing blue circle embedded in his chest. Lunch had been easy; he just lost everyone and ate in the bathrooms. Melodramatic teenager, anyone?

Finally, he glanced at his schedule and there were only two more classes in the day. History and Calculus. They weren't his favorite classes, but they were manageable. He took a deep breath and started off, the path conveniently cleared for him.

His history teacher was new to the school; he hadn't seen her around campus before. She was an older woman, and she greeted her class very warmly as she counted the heads in chairs. Her eyes paused on Tony's seat for an instant longer than the others, as if trying to place him, then she moved on as if nothing had happened. Well, then. Point for History.

The teacher started the class on their work for the day, before calling Tony up to her desk. The genius got up from his desk as quietly as he could, but every head snapped to him before the teacher admonished them, telling them to focus on their work. Well. A teacher who stopped the class from staring at him. Another point for History.

"Hey, Tony," the teacher greeted quietly. "My name is Ms. Dowe, and I'll be your History teacher this year. I'll be giving you the past week's packets, as we're still covering the specific topic. You'll have a week to complete them. I advise reading the rest of the chapter's that we've covered to get an understanding of them, but it can be done on your own time. You can start this packet now." With that, Tony walked back to his desk, the '3.1' packet in hand. Someone who looked at him objectively, looking at him as not Tony Stark, the kidnapped billionaire, but Tony, the kid who had no choice but to come into school a month late. History was doing way better than his other classes right now.

The period passed quietly, except the various interruptions when Ms. Dowe told off some kid for spending too little time on their work, too much time staring off into space (or at Tony).

The young Stark headed off to Calculus with a slightly more optimistic outlook. Yet another new teacher greeted them at the door, ushering them inside politely and methodically. Tony glanced around the classroom, which was nondescript except for a row of Captain America trading cards, lined up on the teacher's desk. Once again, the genius was called up in front of the teacher, who introduced himself as Mr. Coulson and gave Tony a sheet of review questions. He had 15 minutes to solve the problems, and after that he could get started on the normal problems.

Two minutes later, Tony had completed all the questions and double-checked them. He discreetly pulled out his phone and continued research on tech that could be used in the ARC reactor. Hey, Coulson gave him 15 minutes, and he still had 13 of them left. Might as well use it.

With three minutes left, Tony had saved all the useful studies to his private server, and he started putting his phone back, but the device buzzed, indicating a text message from… Rhodey. What? The Lieutenant Colonel knew his school hours, and never texted during them. Something big must be happening. What was wrong? Was his mom OK? What about their apartment? How was Obadiah?

He pulled up the text message, which simply read, Can you please explain this? Attached was a video file. OK, something wasn't right. Tony pulled out a single wireless earbud, nestling it into his ear and syncing it with his phone. Opening the link, he saw it led to a video clip from some news network.

The person on the podium was his mother, and the banner underneath read "Future of Stark Industries?"

No, she wouldn't, she would've checked with Obadiah, she would've discussed it with the company board… oh God I'm dead.

"Good morning to all. Now, to cut to the chase, in the recent aftermath of my son's return to the U.S, he has expressed several views on the purpose of our company. After review of these ideas, I have decided that these ideas will on the whole benefit Stark Industries and the world at large. I entreat that the public will help me in this cause. We will be shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International until we have confirmed what the future of this company will be."

Chaos.

Complete and utter chaos.

Tony was struck out of his daze by the clearing of a throat. He looked up to see Coulson at his desk, but the man didn't seem angry that Tony was using his phone. Instead, he seemed… sympathetic.

"Trouble, Mr. Stark?" the man asked quietly.

"I guess so," Tony responded shakily, resolutely ignoring all the people watching, or whispering, or also pulling out their phones. "Can I get the current work now?"

Math had a way of clearing Tony's mind, so he was almost optimistic when he walked out of Calculus.

That was when he saw it. Every person on campus was on their phone, watching videos - or, more accurately, a video. Every phone had Maria Stark's voice coming out of it.

Oh, shit.

Tony started walking as fast as he could, eventually coming to a side door that led out to a back alley. He texted Happy to meet him at a street corner by the exit of the alley and started running. The genius was about to make it out before he heard the footsteps behind him. Stopping, Tony turned around to see five kids, probably 16 or 17, all advancing angrily towards him.

"You think that your whining can lose our dads their jobs?" snarled one of them. "Well, think again."

Tony backed up nervously, before hitting a wall behind him. The older kids circled around him as he spluttered, "Look, they'll all be offered new jobs when the new division gets up and running, they'll get paid more, I probably have PTSD so you're gonna be in big trouble if you beat me up…" OK, that last one was a lie. He didn't have PTSD, he was sure of it.

When that first blow caught him in the stomach, however, his body curled in on itself, remembering that the last he had been punched in the stomach, he had been brought to that chamber and waterboarded and Howard had still been there and now Howard was - oh God I have PTSD.

He was reduced to a shivering ball, protecting his head and chest against all odds, trembling harder with each fist. The kids had stopped laughing, but they still whaled him with fists, until they suddenly paused in their onslaught.

Tony slowly uncurled, but the second his chest was exposed, he heard the whistle of a punch coming; they must have figured out how to get him to expose himself. Tony was too frozen to react. He was wildly thinking of excuses as to exactly what the dude's hand had slammed against, when a voice screamed, "Stop!"

Tony's eyes inched open to find a fist an inch away from his chest, right above the ARC reactor. The young Stark inched away as fast as he could, as his savior came into view. He faintly recognized her from around the school, but she wasn't in any of his classes. The girl had long, strawberry-blonde hair and freckles. Probably one of the ones who pretended not to stare at him.

"And why should we stop?" asked the biggest kid. Funny, they had already stopped. "This kid has to pay."

"No matter what he did, he doesn't need to pay in bruises," the girl answered hotly. "Now go. Don't bother him any more."

OK, the girl definitely hadn't seen his face. No one would ever say that about Tony Stark.

The group seemed to consider, then the leader advanced on the girl. "You don't tell us what to do, sister. Now run back home and don't mess with us."

The girl walked up to him and gazed into his face, before pulling out a can and spraying a mixture straight up his nose. She brandished the can in front of the others, as the guy wheezed in panic behind her. "Pepper spray. Undiluted. Get the hell away or you'll get the same treatment."

Needless to say, Tony and the girl were alone in the alley in a matter of seconds. Hmm, she needed a better name than 'girl'. Well…

"Oh my God, are you OK?" asked the girl, running up to him. Slowly, Tony managed to get his breathing back to a normal rate, though he still covered his face with his arm.

"Sure. You know, Pepper, I probably deserved that beating anyway," half-quipped Tony, as he wearily rubbed his face.

"My name's Virginia, and no one deserves to be bullied," an indignant Pepper corrected.

Sitting up, Tony glanced at Pepper, feeling a little satisfaction at how quickly her face turned pink from embarrassment. "Look me in the eye, Pepper, and tell me that I don't deserve it," he said quietly.

Embarrassed, but still defiant, she made eye contact and whispered, "No one - especially you - deserves to be bullied."

"Wow, that's a first," remarked Tony, after a pause. "Someone's being honest about me being basically the same as everyone else. Well, besides my History teacher, but that's her job. You're not getting paid for this, are you?"

Pepper chuckled, and a somewhat comfortable silence settled in between the two, before Tony broke it.

"I need to go, so I can - um - take care of stuff," he said haltingly. "I'll be fine. Thank you for, um, pepper-spraying those kids, Pepper."

"No problem," replied the redhead, resigned to her new nickname. "I guess that, I'll see you around?"

"Definitely," replied Tony, slowly rising to his feet.

While he ran to Happy's car, and all through the tense car ride to Obadiah's, he tried to only think of Pepper. She was nice, he could tell. Actually had a set of morals, actually believed that everyone deserved the best; pretty rare in today's world. Not to mention the fact that she was rather pretty. He liked her for who she was, definitely.

When they pulled up in front of Obadiah's apartment building, however, Tony couldn't help but worry about what would happen inside. He had seen Obadiah angry, sure, but Obadiah's anger was never directed at him. He didn't know what to expect.

Time to turn on the Stark snark.

"Well, that… that stunt went well," commented Obadiah as Tony walked through his door. Funny, the man didn't seem too angry. Tony almost glanced down, but he internally sighed and smoothed his indifferent mask.

"Did I just paint a target on the back of my head?" he asked. A little joking, not too much or Obadiah would get angry again. A valid question.

He already knew the answer - had known it since the moment he walked out of Calculus - but oh well.

"Your head? What about my head?" asked Obadiah forcefully. "What do you think the over-under on the stock drop is gonna be tomorrow?"

"Optimistically, 40 points," answered Tony truthfully.

"At minimum," stated Obadiah unnecessarily.

"That's what optimism is for, Obie," Tony replied, a little sarcastically.

Obadiah overlooked Tony's growing impatience, going on as he always did. "Tony, we're a weapons manufacturer. That's what we do. We're iron mongers. We make weapons."

"Obie, I just don't want a body count to be our only legacy," countered Tony. "It's not your name on the side of the building."

"What we do keeps the world from falling into chaos," continued Obadiah indifferently.

"Not based on what I saw," Tony replied, a bit louder, stepping in front of the older man and forcing Obadiah to concentrate on him. "We're not doing a good enough job. We can do better. We're gonna do something else."

"Like what?" Obadiah asked scornfully. "You want us to make baby bottles?"

"I think we should take another look into ARC reactor technology," responded Tony, a little hesitantly despite his mask.

Obadiah, picking up on this apprehension, used it, trying to get Tony to back down. "Come on. The ARC reactor, that's a publicity stunt! Tony, come on. We built that thing to shut the hippies up!"

"It works," Tony pointed out, confidently this time. Hey, there was one in his chest right now, happily generating electricity. Well, semi-happily. He still needed to work on that.

"It works as a science project," contradicted Obadiah. Funny, the man's gaze was no longer on Tony's face, but on his… chest? "The ARC was never cost effective. We knew that before we built it. ARC reactor technology, that's a dead end, am I right?"

"Maybe," answered Tony, unwilling to give Obadiah a definite answer, right or wrong.

"Am I right?" repeated Obadiah, sounding less sure of himself. "We haven't had a breakthrough in that in what?"

"Thirty years," Tony rattled off.

"That's what they say…" trailed off Obadiah. Tony finally recognized the edges of Obadiah's mask and ripped it off in his mind, seeing his intentions for what they were.

"Could you have a lousier poker face?" Tony sighed. "But really, how do you know?"

"Never mind who told me," Obadiah responded evasively. "Show me."

"Was it JARVIS?" asked Tony. "He's really the only one who knows, so…"

"I want to see it," insisted Obadiah hungrily.

"Okay, I'm giving JARVIS stricter protocol on this sort of thing," decided Tony. "You aren't going to tell my mom, are you?"

"No. Okay?" responded Obadiah tiredly.

Reluctantly, Tony tugged up the hem of his T-shirt, until it rested on the top of the ARC reactor. The older man stared hungrily at the glowing device, almost cupping his hands around it. He gave a little laugh, glancing towards the door to ensure that it was still closed.

"It works," confirmed Tony quietly.

Obadiah nodded, gently pulling the hem of the T-shirt back down. He pulled Tony close, almost into a hug, and whispered, "Listen to me, Tony. We're a team. Do you understand? There's nothing we can't do if we stick together, like your father and I."

"I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads-up, okay?" Tony interrupted, slightly impatient. "But if I had…"

"Tony, Tony," chided the older man. "No more of this 'ready, fire, aim' business. You understand me?"

"That was Dad's line," Tony whispered.

"You gotta let me handle this," continued Obadiah. "We're gonna have to play a whole different kind of ball now. We're going to have to take a lot of heat. I want you to promise me that you're gonna lay low."

Tony shrugged. "It's like I'm not doing that already. Chill out, Obie, I've got everything handled." As the young genius headed for the door, he waved, and the older man waved back.

Why was it that every time Tony left was the time that Obadiah was happiest?

Well, no time for that now. Better get home, finish all that work (damn you, Engineering), and continue on the ARC reactor. Work, work, work, all the time.

He wasn't in the swing of things.

Well, what he really meant was not in the swing of things, yet.

He wasn't sure just what had happened over the past two weeks.

How was it that Pepper's fire was burning even hotter than Maria's, burning straight through the rock around his secret?

He had gone a few days before really seeing her again, and they had gotten up to talking. Turns out she needed a tutor in Science, and he offered to do it, because why the hell not? He invited her to his house to study, and it evolved into study-for-thirty-minutes, hang-out-for-two-hours time. Not to mention how they hung out wherever the rest of the days; at an old coffee shop she had found, in the library, even once at SI.

Laughing with Pepper, he could forget all of his worries.

But even more than that, she trusted him. She would open up about school troubles, bullies, and (though she never said it out loud) problems at home. Pepper would talk about her secrets with Tony, the rich kid, the one who bossed around people like her.

He needed to show trust back.

Plus, he couldn't install the new ARC reactor alone.

So, when Pepper came for their study/hangout session, Tony asked JARVIS to bring her down to the lab. The AI was iffy about it, seeing that Tony's shirt was off and a certain reactor was exposed for all to see, but Tony insisted.

So, when Pepper came down into the lab, she got a clear view of the ARC reactor.

"Tony… what is that?" she asked tentatively, coming closer and dropping her backpack on the floor behind her.

"This," replied Tony, tapping the device, "is an ARC reactor. It's powering an electromagnet, that keeps shrapnel from Afghanistan from entering my heart."

"Now I can see why you won't take off your shirt in PE," Pepper reasoned. When Tony glared at her, she defended, "Hey, that sort of talk travels fast! So that thing, embedded in your chest, is keeping you alive?"

"Well, it was," Tony corrected. "Now, it's a bit of an antique. This," he said, holding up the new ARC reactor, "will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I would put it in myself, but there's a bit of a speed bump."

"Speed bump? Wh-what do you mean?" Pepper questioned warily.

"Nothing big, just a little snag," reassured Tony. "There's an exposed wire under this device, and it's in contact with the socket wall, so it's causing a bit of a short." He sat down, sticking little heart monitor leads to his chest. "I need you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."

"Oh, my God, Tony, you can't think I'm qualified for this!" Pepper exclaimed, almost hyperventilating, as Tony carefully pulled out the ARC reactor from the socket. "I'm just your age, I'm gonna mess up, I'm too young -"

"They didn't think I was too young when they put this in me," commented Tony. Pepper looked up at him in horror. "You'll do just fine. You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met." When Pepper didn't move, he sighed. "Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I really need help here. If my mom knew I had a hole in my chest…"

"OK, OK!" exclaimed Pepper, carefully reaching into the ARC socket. She almost immediately pulled her hand back out. "Oh, there's pus!"

"It's not pus," reassured Tony. "It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not my body."

"It smells…" Pepper moaned, nevertheless reaching in further.

"Yeah, it does," sighed Tony. "Keep going. You can do this. OK. Do you have the copper wire?"

"Yeah, I have it," answered Pepper faintly.

"Now gently pull it out," instructed Tony, "and don't let it touch the sides when you're coming OUT!"

Pepper had accidentally brushed the wire against the ARC socket, and the resulting shock had jolted through Tony quite painfully. He almost didn't want to remember the first time - and last time - water had touched the inside of the casing.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Pepper muttered nervously, as she continued to pull out the wire.

"Well, that's what I was trying to tell you before," Tony commented. "Don't do it again. Now, when you pull it out, don't pull out the magnet!" The warning came a little too late, as Tony looked in dismay at the round magnet, coiled with copper wire, swinging at the end of the wire Pepper was holding. "That was it. You just pulled it out." The heart monitor started to go crazy, and Tony groaned.

"Oh, God," Pepper exclaimed. "What do I do? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest 'cause you yanked it out like a trout…" As Pepper swung the magnet back over the ARC socket, Tony shook his head violently. "No, no, no! Don't put it back in! Don't put it back in!"

"I thought you said this was safe! I'm going to get Mrs. Stark!" Pepper cried.

"That's the worst possible thing you could do," Tony groaned. He handed Pepper the new ARC reactor. "Take this, take this. Switch it out, real quick."

"OK," Pepper answered in a wavering voice. "It's gonna be OK, Tony. I'll make it OK."

"Are you saying that just to convince yourself?" asked Tony. "OK, you're gonna attach that to the base plate and -" He let out a brief yell as the reactor finally connected.

After a deep breath, Tony asked Pepper, "Was that so hard? That was fun, right?"

He began to laugh, and so did Pepper, although her laugh was much more strained. "Are you OK?" she asked.

"Yeah, I feel great," answered Tony. "You OK?"

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again," Pepper returned breathlessly.

Tony grinned, but his smile faltered a little when he commented, "I don't have anyone but you to ask."

Pepper glanced down, then, picking up the mark 1 ARC reactor, held it out to him. "What do you want me to do with this?"

Tony, looking at the relic, shrugged. "That? Destroy it. Incinerate it."

"You don't want it?" asked Pepper, slightly crestfallen.

"Pepper, I've been called many things," Tony countered. "'Nostalgic' is not one of them."

When Pepper's expression didn't change, the young Stark sighed. "Look, if you wanna do something with it, send me the bill and don't give my mom a show-n-tell."

Pepper nodded, her face molding into an expressionless mask. Man, she had been practicing. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" she asked, teasingly despite her expression (or lack of it).

"That will be all, Ms. Potts," replied Tony, just as teasing. He tapped on the surface of the ARC reactor, almost nervously, as he watched Pepper clearing off the desks.

JARVIS's voice jarred them both back to reality. "Sir, your mother is approaching your laboratory. I suggest hiding all presence of reactors."

"Oh, God," muttered Tony. He pulled on a T-shirt as fast as he could, as Pepper raced over and stuffed the mark 1 ARC reactor into her backpack. Dashing over to the computer monitors, the young genius cleared all the displayed files, while Pepper pulled the heart monitor over to a corner of the room, turning it off. Just as they returned to their original positions, Maria came through the door.

"Tony, Virginia, why are you down here?" she asked anxiously. "Tony's holed up in here often enough as it is. Is something going on?"

"Nothing, Mrs. Stark," replied Pepper, perky as ever. "Tony was just showing me a model of a topic I didn't understand in Science today, since he said the computers down here were better."

"Oh, that's nice of you, Tony," Maria commented, buying the lie perfectly. Obadiah really needed to take lessons from Pepper on hiding emotion. "Well, try and come upstairs in the meantime. I don't want you wasting away down here."

Tony chuckled as Maria climbed back up the stairs. "You're getting good, Pepper. I'm promoting you to my personal assistant."

"I thought you had already promoted me," responded Pepper, "when you made me stick my hand in your chest."

"Touche," acknowledged Tony.

A new project was on the horizon.

Tony knew it.

It wasn't enough that he had destroyed those weapons in the terrorist camp. There were still Stark Industries weapons out there, he was sure of it.

They all had to go.

He knew Rhodey wouldn't support him on this. The man was staunchly devoted to the military, and hadn't spoken to Tony since that text message the first day of school. His mother was out of the question for obvious reasons. Pepper… Pepper could see parts of the product. He just wouldn't provide her with all the pieces; then she couldn't see the picture.

Obadiah? He couldn't trust the man, not with his current actions.

That left JARVIS.

"JARVIS, you up?" asked Tony, late at night. Maria had gone to bed an hour ago, telling Tony to get to bed at a reasonable time. Well, 3 could be reasonable.

"For you, sir, always," responded the AI.

"I'd like to open a new project file, index as Mark 2," Tony instructed.

"Shall I store this on the Stark Industries Central Database?"

Without missing a beat, Tony responded, "I don't know who I can trust to let me do this. 'Till further notice, why don't we just keep everything on my private server?"

"Working on a secret project, are we, sir?" JARVIS queried.

"I don't want this ending up in the wrong hands," Tony explained. "Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good."

He would have to work for hours on this, but that was OK.

All work and no play never made him lose it.

Dowe is an OC, she was my History teacher and I love her. She'll play a bigger part in the story eventually. The other one... COUUUULSOOOON!

Hope you like this chappie, and I'm sorry it took such a long time! It was a little boring to write.

The next one will be buildup to the CLIMATIC BATTLE SCENE!

Hope you have an amazing day/week/however long it takes to get the next chap out!

~Horseluv