- Sun -
"Tony, can you come up here for a minute?" she announced as she had JARVIS patch her into the basement from upstairs.
"Rmmph," was the muffled response she got.
"Are you working on the cars again?" she asked in disbelief. He stayed down in that basement so much that she was sure she could jack up the house and move it somewhere else and he wouldn't even notice.
"Just the hotrod, Ms. Potts. What can I do for you?" he said in a less muffled but more frustrated voice.
"Hold on since you aren't going to come up here," she answered as she got JARVIS to project the image onto the blank wall in the basement.
"What is this suppose to be a picture of?" she asked as he looked up to a framed photo of just a red square.
He chuckled quietly to himself before he answered, "must just be a bad photo, replace it with something else."
"Mr. Stark, you wouldn't have put up a bad picture AND I heard that laugh. What the heck is it?"
Then there was a loud sigh from Tony, "don't you remember your medical emergency in the limo a long time ago?"
"Oh God!" she exclaimed as her fingers reached up the touch the photo.
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Something was off about her today but he couldn't place a finger on it. She seemed to be moving slower, more graceful, if that were even possible.
And she was only making small movements. When she dropped some papers on the floor and bent down to pick them up he could even see a grimace on her face for less than a second before she suppressed it.
He bent down to help her, not only because he could see that something was wrong with her but also so that he could look her in the eyes, maybe get her to tell him what the problem was.
She didn't offer up any information though, just a look of relief that he was helping her and a quiet thank you once he had handed her papers back to her.
The final straw was when they were getting ready to leave for the press conference. He put his hand lightly on her back so that she could get in the limo first and she let out a gasp. It didn't seem to be one of pleasure either, much to Tony's dismay (even for him that would have been impressive.)
Once inside the limo things only got worse. Every time they went over a bump or she had to lean over to hand him something pain washed over her face.
"Ms. Potts are you alright?" he asked dead serious as his dark eyes bore into hers. He had waited until she had leaned over to give him something to ask her so that he could gauge her reaction.
Her eyes widen slightly but she was able to quickly regain her composure. "I'm fine Mr. Stark," she tried to answer convincingly. Unfortunately as she was pulling away from him they hit another bump in the road causing her to grimace once again.
"Ms. Potts, do you have a boyfriend?" he asked suddenly with an amount of suspicion and just a tiny hint of anger.
That question threw her off, "no..no, not at the moment."
"Are you sure?"
"I think I would have noticed, Mr. Stark."
He had enough, "something is wrong with your back Ms. Potts," he held up his hands to stop her from interrupting, "and I want you to tell me what it is."
"Nothing, Mr. Stark. Now can we get back to reviewing these files before we get to the board meeting?" she answered with her voice a tad bit higher than usual.
With that Tony got the most dangerous look in his eye. Without removing his piercing gaze from her he lowered the partition of the limo and with a perfectly calm voice addressed Happy.
"Pull over somewhere safe and lock the doors," he could already see in her panic that her hand was hovering near the door handle. At his remark to Happy she pulled it away quickly like a kid caught with their hand in a cookie jar.
Once the limo was stopped Tony addressed Happy again. "Now stop the car and get back here."
"Yes sir," Happy responded like this was an everyday occurrence.
"Oh, so now you're ganging up on me?" she asked getting frustrated and angry as Happy opened the door and climbed in.
"This is kidnapping you know!" she just wanted to run. Instead she was sitting in the back of a limo with two men, one looking angry and the other just looking confused.
"Call it what you want Ms. Potts but you are going to show us your back and then I'm going to find the guy who did it and beat the crap out of him, or at least have him do it," Tony spit out as he pointed at Happy. Happy was also now looking angry as he finally was caught up as to what was happening.
"Now are you going to show us what's wrong with your back or are we going to have to do it ourselves?"
She knew Tony and she knew he was serious. She had no doubt that he would forcibly come over to her and pull her shirt up in the back to take a look.
"There is no guy Mr. Stark, I promise," she was scared now and was starting to have a hard time breathing.
Happy didn't know what to do so he settled for glaring at Tony hoping to convey that Tony should calm down.
Fortunately Tony saw what his outburst had caused and rubbed his face with his hand in an effort to calm down.
"Ms. Potts, we are just worried about you. Tell us what is wrong so we don't have to sit in this parking lot for the rest of the day. If you need medical attention…"
"Medical attention?!" she exclaimed and then looking at the two still serious faces across from her she started laughing as she shook her head back and forth, "this is so stupid," she said to no one in particular.
"You want to know what's wrong? FINE!" she almost yelled it as she turned around on the seat so her back was mostly facing them, unbutton her two top buttons and push her collar down her neck in the back.
They were both stunned by the sight until Tony, leaning forward slowly until his face was mere inches from her neck gave out a quiet, "Good God, Ms. Potts," as he slowly lifted his hands to touch her skin but then thought better of it.
Happy was a little more vocal with his concerns with a loud, "Jesus Christ! What happened?"
"Ms…Pepper, this looks bad."
"I've had worse."
"Are you happy now? See it isn't an emergency and no one beat me up. It was me just being stupid and forgetting my sunscreen."
As she was speaking there had been some rustling behind her and a clicking noise.
Pulling her shirt back up, which was excruciating, she buttoned the top two buttons and turned around, "what was that?" she asked.
"Nothing, just Happy getting out of the car. I have just the thing for your back Ms. Potts. Cancel the board meeting, since we are already late now anyway," he noted as he glanced down at his watch, "we are headed back to the house where I will call the masseuse to come over and work her magic on your damaged skin and then you will take a nice cold bath."
Any other day she would have argued but at the moment she felt horrible and the thought of a cold bath was enough of a temptation for her to give in. "Fine Mr. Stark, back to the house," she said defeated.
"And next time Ms. Potts, remember the sunscreen. Your skin is too beautiful to have it looking like that. Plus I hate to see you in any pain."
Her mouth almost fell open but she was quickly able to stop it. What she could not stop was the blushing that was starting to make the front of her neck as red as the back.
Tony smirked at this and pulled out his phone, pretending to check his e-mail. He was really texting Happy telling him to forward the photo onto a dermatologist. Then he set about finding the number of the masseuse.
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I hadn't realized it had looked that bad," she said to Tony as she studied the photo again.
"I'm just glad it never happened again," he stated still under the car. She could hear him banging on something repeatedly.
"Well, how could I ever let it happen again when you asked so nicely," she smiled as she remembered him calling her skin beautiful.
He must have remembered what he had said to because he got really quiet before deciding to change the subject.
"Could you come down here for a moment Ms. Potts? I need your hands again."
She smiled a little crooked smile at that, many things running through her mind at that comment. He seemed to be rubbing off on her.
"Coming Tony," she said in the sexiest voice she could find just to tease him.
There was a thump and then a yell from the basement at her words. When she found him a moment later he had a small lump on his forehead from dropping his wrench.