Author's notes: Sorry it took so long to update, I simply could not figure out what to do for this chapter. But, I finally got inspired, so here you go! Also, I still haven't seen any of the Iron Man movies, so I'm not entirely sure how accurate this chapter will be. If there are any blatant mistakes, please point them out, and I will do my best to fix them. As for Happy's character, having never seen the movies or read the comics, I had not a single clue as towards his character, but I have him written as anxious not because I think he always is, but because of the situation in this chapter. Pleaseexcuse any obvious character inconsistencies, I practically had to treat him as an OC simply because I have no idea who he really is.

Pepper Potts had known Tony Stark for years. She had worked as a secretary for a secretary for a secretary when he took over the company at 25, and then, two years later, she had been noticed by Obadiah Stane, who promoted her to head secretary to reward her for her efficiency and hard work. After working in that position for two and a half years, Tony had fired yet another PA (or his PA had quit, no one was ever entirely sure which side of the story was more accurate), and Obadiah had recommended Pepper for the job. She gladly accepted, despite the horror stories she had heard about the young Billionaire's personal life, and she never regretted it.

Well, she almost never regretted it. There were a few times when she wished she had made a different choice, when she wondered where she would be if she had declined the offer. But she hadn't, and there was no going back now, and she really did enjoy her job.

Then she had worked as his PA for five years, setting a new record for his personal assistants, the last record being seven months. During those five years, she and Tony developed a mutual friendly acquaintance, having an unspoken truce of sorts. She would do her job as well as she could while simultaneously staying out of his personal affairs (a very fine line to walk as it is, as her job was to be involved in his personal affairs) and he would make things easy on her by showing up for meetings on time, handling all the business he needed to, and maintaining an employer/employee relationship with her.

Then the whole Afghanistan thing happened, and she had gone for three months as a personal assistant without someone to assist. That had been hard. Even though the two of them weren't good friends, they had worked together for five years, and she rather liked him as a person once you looked past the annoying habits and disrespectful attitude.

When he returned from his imprisonment, outlandish rumors and tabloid stories surrounding the whole business like flies, he was changed. She noticed it immediately, of course. It was her job to notice it. Then he made the announcement to stop selling weapons, at that historical news conference. The whole thing with Obadiah happened, and Tony changed again.

He was still the same old Tony Stark, he still snarked at reporters and business associates alike, he still did what he wanted when he wanted unless she told him not to, and he still spent most of his time in his lab, blaring music as loud as humanly possible.

But he was... sweeter, almost (boy, would she be fired if he knew she thought of him as sweet). There was a tenderness about him now that hadn't been there before. It was almost imperceptible. If she hadn't been trained to see it, she might have missed it completely.

He had been hurt, and it had left scars much worse and much less noticeable than the Arc Reactor in his chest.

Six months later, and Tony changed again. But this time, the change wasn't better. This time, he changed for the worst. He reverted, if you will, to before he had ever built the suit. And she didn't even know why.

That was very hard on Pepper. When she found out the reason behind it, it did not make her feel better. In fact, for awhile, she felt hurt. She felt hurt that Tony wouldn't even tell her he was dying. Did she really mean that little to him?

In time (not very much time at all, really) she forgave him, but after that, there was always that lingering bit of doubt, that one small whispering question in her head, did he trust her? If he ever found himself in such a situation again, would he trust her enough to tell her? Or would she always find out after the fact, with the promise of an omelet and a nonchalant dismissal as to the importance of the now-unthreatening horror he had lived through, almost died of?

And then, of course, he had gone on to fight the Chitauri, and as she watched the news report of Tony, her Tony, flying the missile into the black hole, her world had ended. And when she saw him fly back out at the last second, she had breathed again. And when he was falling, falling, not flying, she felt the world end a second time. And then he was caught, he was safe, he was alive, and once again, she breathed again.

She saw the missed call and although her heart broke that she hadn't answered, for once in her life, she hadn't answered her phone, she inwardly smiled as well.

He had called her. He had believed he was going to die, and he had called her. No omelet, no excuse, he had tried. She breathed easy for the first time since she had found out about the palladium, because she knew. She knew now that he trusted her. She knew now that he cared.

Not that it stopped him from messing things up or from trying his hand at pranking her, oh no. It just made her a little more lenient when he tried.

Usually.

"JARVIS, where is he!?" She demanded angrily into her earpiece, walking quickly to where Happy was waiting anxiously in front of the building, car all ready to take her where she said.

He took one look at her face and turned to face front, and Pepper noted with some satisfaction that she must look pretty fierce to accomplish that.

"Sir is currently in his workshop," JARVIS informed her coolly.

Pepper sighed. "Awake or asleep?" She asked as she stepped into the back of the car. "Home," she said to Happy, who nodded without even turning around and began to drive. If Tony had been up all night and had crashed, she would still have to scold him, of course, but she understood that he did that sometimes.

"Awake," Came the reply, and Pepper huffed in annoyance. So he was awake, and still had not followed through with their plans. True, it had not been something particularly important, just an event, a small exhibit opening in the art museum, and he was supposed to be there to show support for the arts, and he'd flaked.

And he'd been so responsible lately. She could hardly imagine what could have happened to cause him to be so careless...

Wait.

"Thank you, JARVIS," she said. "I understand."

"Very well, ms. Potts," the AI said. "You are perceptive, as usual."

Not for nothing had Pepper put up with Tony's impulsiveness for the past nine years to not notice and deduct the pattern happening here.

1. He had failed to show up for a scheduled meeting and he hadn't answered her calls, and Happy was very pointedly not looking at her.

2. The rest of her evening had been relatively clear, Tony had begged that they have a "night off" after the event, and she had grudgingly obliged, rescheduling the rest of her plans to accommodate.

3. The event had been such where she had dressed not casually, but not black-tie either, so she was wearing a rather lovely cocktail dress, perfect for a party of some kind.

Inwardly, Pepper smiled mischievously. Tony was planning a party. Her birthday wasn't for another few months, but she knew that Tony was the kind of person to plan a surprise party long before the actual date, because it would be way too easy to guess suspicious behavior if you knew the reason for celebration. It was hardly a challenge then.

When Happy pulled up in front of the building and handed the limo keys to a valet instead of parking it himself, she knew she had guessed correctly.

"Happy, what are you doing?" Pepper asked, narrowing her eyes at the already-uncomfortably anxious chauffeur. "I'm going up to see Tony, why do you think you should come with me?"

"Um, er," Happy said. "Because... because Tony said he wanted to talk to me when I got back, so I might as well come up now."

"Ah," Pepper said. "Very well."

Entering the lobby, she went past and stepped into the elevator. "Floor 87, please," she said.

"Um..." Happy said nervously as the elevator started moving. "JARVIS said in the limo that Tony would be in his workshop..."

Pepper almost cracked a smile at Happy's slip. If JARVIS had truly alerted the chauffeur as to Tony's whereabouts, he would have phrased his statement in the present tense, "JARVIS said in the limo that Tony is in the workshop." The way it was phrased as it was, implied that Happy had been given prior instructions as to where to find Tony once he arrived, not merely received instruction as to Tony's current location on the way over.

"He'll have to come to me, then," Pepper said. The fact that Happy had been given prior instructions to bring Pepper to the workshop also gave clues as to Tony's real plans. He knew Pepper very well, and he knew that she knew him more than anyone else knew him, so he therefore knew that she would figure out that he was planning a party for her.

He would know that she would become suspicious of JARVIS and Happy, and would be likely to do the exact opposite of what she figured he would do. That was why she was going to floor 87 instead of the Penthouse. The real party would be in the Penthouse, not the workshop, and Happy's instructions to bring Pepper to the workshop were in place not because Happy would be able to deliver, but because he couldn't. If Pepper had gone along with Happy, they would have both found the workshop empty, and Happy would have been the one truly surprised.

Pepper stepped off on floor 87, the R&D department, and walked briskly through the floor towards the service elevators, Happy trailing along behind her in a panic.

Despite her convictions that the real party would be in the Penthouse, there was a reason Pepper hadn't gone down to the workshop just to spite Tony. There was always the chance that Tony would have figured out that she would figure out that the real party was in the Penthouse, and he might bank on the fact that she would go down to the workshop anyway, and so have the party set up in the workshop instead, so that she would still walk into a party.

Stepping into the service elevators, Pepper pressed the button for floor 26 and waited for Happy to step in beside her. His worry was replaced with confusion and curiosity, but he remained silent.

The service lift went down to floor 26 and the doors opened, Pepper being admitted to the main security floor.

"Hello, Ron," she said to the Chief of Security. "How's Kippie?" Kippie was Ron's two year-old daughter, who had recently come down with a slight head cold. Although the situation wasn't serious, it was Ron and his wife's first child, and so they had been particularly attentive to young Kippie's health.

"She's just fine now, Ms. Potts," Ron said with a smile. "Doc said there's no problems, just normal baby stuff."

"Good, I'm glad to hear it," She said with a bright smile of her own. "Anyway, Ron, I'm down here in security to handle a few things, you can come watch to make sure it doesn't open any major security breaches."

"Yes, Ms. Potts," Ron said, following Pepper and Happy towards a computer terminal in the back of the room.

Reaching it, Pepper began typing out security codes, accessing the cameras to ascertain where the party was (it was in the Penthouse, like she'd thought, but the workshop was completely sealed off; she wouldn't have been able to get inside and wait even if she had tried) and then cutting out the heat sensors and heart-rate monitors in the corridors and main floors, thus cutting off Tony's ability to discover where she was in the building if he asked.

Those functions already didn't work in the service lifts and in the security rooms, so she was reasonably certain that if Tony had asked, he wouldn't be able to pinpoint her exact location.

She knew that he knew that she was in the building, so if he asked JARVIS her location and JARVIS answered with he didn't know, Tony would automatically know that she was in either the service lifts or the security rooms, and that was where he would look first.

Because it was never just a maze with Tony, it was hide and seek. Pepper only had a few more seconds before Tony gave up the head start and began using JARVIS to seek her out, and if he got her on camera before she made it to her goal, than he would win the game.

That was why she had used the lift from floor 87, and that was why she had chosen the security lift on floor 26. The R&D department was big enough that Tony would figure she would try to sneak through one of the unimportant floors, like the sublet office floors, rather that the floor that needed the most security cameras anyway. Same with the main security office. He would think that she would go to one of the little ones on the other floors, one of the offices that only had charge of one or two departments, rather than the main office that monitored the entire building, including the other security offices.

Now that she was unable to be tracked, she could move freely through the main floors without him knowing which floor she was on.

"Thank you, Ron," she said, turning and smiling at him. "Tell Maryanne hello for me!"

"I will," Ron said. "And thanks for the get-well-soon flowers, Maryanne loved them."

"You're welcome," Pepper said before leaving the office, still followed by Happy.

"Happy, I've got a job for you," she said.

"Yes, Ms. Potts?" Happy asked warily, still somewhat bemused by all this.

"I want you to run down to the workshop and tell Tony to meet me up in the Penthouse," She said.

"Yes, Ms. Potts," Happy said, before going and leaving in one of the elevators. Pepper smiled. Happy would attempt to gain access to the workshop, thus alerting Tony of a "security risk," the setup he had made to catch Pepper in the act had she attempted to enter it herself. With any luck, he would believe that she was still under the impression that she thought the party to be in the workshop and was trying to get in now that she had cut off tracking, but that was unlikely. As soon as he had reviewed the security footage revealing which elevator she had used and then found which floor it had stopped at, he would see that she had discovered the location of the party.

Still, it would buy some time, which was what Pepper had hoped to accomplish.

Setting off at a brisk walk, she stepped into the secondary lifts for the floor, going up to floor 49, the human resources department.

She cut through the department and walked to another set of lifts, this time going down to floor 34, and from there, the primary lifts to floor 52.

She was doing this because Tony would know to monitor the elevators on each floor, and although he was certain to be watching the primary elevator heading all the way from floor 26 down to the workshop, both stops being relatively high profile floors, there were elevators all over the tower, with people using them literally every few minutes. He would have no way of knowing which elevator she was on, and no elevator would be traveling straight up to the Penthouse.

Finally, she stepped off a lift three floors down from the Penthouse, removed her high-heels, tucked them safely into her shoulder bag and pressed the button for it to continue up to the floor directly beneath the Penthouse. Tony would very likely check that elevator out, just to be safe, as it came so very close.

Then Pepper did something unconventional.

She walked over to the back of the floor and stepped into the Stark Tower staircase.

She considered herself to be very physically fit, with all the daily running around that she did, it came naturally. It didn't take her very long to run up the last four flights of stairs, counting seconds in her head as she did so.

Tony would have checked the elevator that came close, and, finding it empty, would have retraced it back to the last floor it had stopped at. That would have taken around 7 seconds, 5 for the lift to travel, and 2 for him to find it's last docking point.

Then, he would have monitored all the other lifts, including the service lifts, while doing a security footage sweep of the entire floor, to make sure she did not use the lifts and was not simply lurking around the floor. That would have taken around 15 seconds, 25 counting all the closets and large cupboards that particular floor contained, one of the reasons she'd chosen it.

He then would have begun hacking into the cameras in the staircase, it being the last place she could be, and he would flicker the cameras upwards until they either caught up with her or hit the ceiling. 2.5 seconds for each floor.

She had already been running for 30 seconds, the back door to the Penthouse in view. It would take her another 6 seconds to reach it, and another 6 to activate the security access allowing her to enter the Penthouse. By her calculations, the door would shut mere milliseconds before the camera showed it, and she would be in the clear.

Reaching the door, she panted breathlessly as she typed the passcode with her right hand and held her left thumb out to be scanned. "Virginia Pepper Potts," she said out loud, unlocking the name key and voice recognition sequence. The scan came up clear as did her passcode, and she stepped into the floor, shutting the door behind her quickly.

Slipping her shoes back on, she set her bag down and walked through the second door, leading into the Penthouse.

The room was like she had seen it on the security footage, the decorations were elegant and yet fun, there was a table spread with only her favorite things to eat, there was a small pile of brightly wrapped gifts on another table, and aside from Tony and the other Avengers, there were only a few people there, only people she considered "real" friends. Her publicized party in a few months, she knew would include a guest list of very important figures she would have to impress all night. This was a party for family and friends.

No one noticed her entrance, however, as they were all staring up at a single holographic screen. Tony stood directly in front of it, hands hovering over a StarkPad, staring up at the image in concentration. Everyone else huddled around, those close enough to see over Tony's shoulder frowning in concentration at the data on the small screen, those without the privilege searching the larger screen with determination.

"I don't understand," Tony said. "I thought I had her! I thought for sure she would've taken the stairs!"

"Maybe she went down a flight first to psych you out," Bruce suggested, being one of the few looking at the tablet in Tony's hands. "Then she would have been following the camera, not running from it."

Huh. Smart idea. She would have to remember that next time something like this happened.

"Or maybe," She said, causing everyone to jump and turn around, startled. "Maybe I'm faster than you thought."

"Pepper!" Tony said with a grin. "You never cease to surprise me."

He walked over to her and held his arms out, and she met him halfway, smiling innocently before-

SLAP

Tony blinked. "Um, ow." he said, putting his hand up to where she had slapped him on the cheek. "Why would you do that?"

"Because, Mr. Stark," she said. "You had an appointment an hour and a half ago, and you skipped out on it! Explain."

Tony looked at her. "Uh," he said, holding his arms out to indicate the decorations, snacks, presents and friends surrounding them. "Party. You. Birthday. Surprise! Get it?"

"Your attempted gesture at a party aside, you do NOT fail to show up for another scheduled meeting, or event, or gala, or banquet, again. Is that clear?"

Everyone in the room looked suddenly uncomfortable, as if they weren't so sure this was a good idea anymore, but Tony grinned cheekily. "Got it," he said. "No more surprise parties."

"Now, I didn't exactly say that," Pepper said, grinning herself before turning to the other guests. "Thank you for putting up with this clown," she said, nodding her head towards Tony. "And thank you for attending this party, although I personally did not receive an invitation..." Here again, she looked at Tony pointedly. "Now that that's over, let's all just try and enjoy ourselves."

As everyone began to talk and Tony and Pepper walked over to join them, Pepper leaned in and whispered in his ear "Try as you might, You will never win against me, you know."

Tony smiled back. "A guy can try, can't he?"