Title: Redesign This! (chapter 3)
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Tony Stark/Pepper Potts
Disclaimer: I don't own Pepper Potts or Tony Stark (although I wish I did), or any of the rights to Iron Man…just Jo. She's mine.
Jo arrived early the next morning, coffee in hand, having drawn up a schematic in the early hours of the day. Jarvis let her in with a beep and she jumped down the foyer stairs to run into Pepper already working on a laptop. The television displayed stock tickers obscuring the screen in running reds and greens. Pepper turned, "Oh, hello. Tony's not up yet. Jarvis should wake him soon." She pursed her lips and turned back to her screen.
"Thanks," Jo put her bag down on the table and sat on the sofa next to Pepper's chair. "I know you don't like me being here."
"Hm," Pepper didn't turn.
Jo took a deep breath, "And that's fine." She paused, "I didn't sleep with him last night."
"I don't need to know about my bosses love life."
Jo leaned back and took a sip of her coffee. "Do you love him?"
Pepper stiffened and in a instant snapped the laptop shut, "This is none of your business." She rose in a quick instant.
"Wait," but Pepper was already gone.
Pepper had been working for Tony for about four months when Jo started coming by, just for an evening or two at first, then for a week at a time. She lived in the workshop and slept in Tony's bed. No one ever said anything about a relationship; it seemed just to be an arrangement of working and sex. Pepper got used to her, and after the first few weeks they began to get along well, both of them being new to Tony and the way he worked.
Despite herself, Pepper liked Jo, she was down-to-earth and unlike most girls she seemed to understand that Tony was never in a position of undivided attention. He was a man eternally in love with his work, and occasionally he would love a woman. It just happened that he paid attention to Jo longer, most likely because of Jo's involvement in his work.
For Jo's part, she liked Pepper too. She was organized and professional, and somehow she always knew just what everyone needed. Her honesty and her loyalty were something that came out in time. Jo was almost envious of her perceptiveness and her strength. She was almost always envious of Pepper.
She sat alone in the living room for awhile, sipping her coffee and feeling the knot in her stomach grow. All the excitement of a working schematic drained away. She finished her coffee, half-hoping Tony would wake up and she could finish the project and leave. Eventually she got up to throw the empty cup away and find Pepper, out on the balcony, back to the door, typing on the laptop again.
"Hey," Jo paused in the doorway, "I'm sorry."
"Hm," Pepper turned an ear, but didn't look up.
Jo furrowed her eyebrows, "I didn't mean to upset you, I just thought maybe I could help-"
"Thought maybe you could get Tony back?" Jo looked startled as Pepper swirled around to face her. "You can have him. Please, take him. It's obvious. It always was."
Pepper turned back to the computer and clicked it shut. "I'll wake him up so you can finish your project. He has a meeting a noon, you might have to hurry." She rose and skirted by Jo, bumping her arm roughly, and disappeared into the house where the faint hum of Jarvis' morning routine could be heard.
Jo stood on the balcony, shocked to silence at the chill in Pepper's tone. She didn't want Tony back. She didn't. If anything, she wanted Pepper to have Tony. Maybe she could settle him down, or something. Jo shook her head. The knot in her stomach tightened, this was going to be a bad day.
Tony was in the kitchen wearing pajama pants and nothing else, pouring what looked like a mixture of avocado mush and chocolate shake into a tall glass. Pepper was debriefing him on the day.
"Jo is here, but you have a meeting at the offices in roughly three hours." Tony looked up to spot Jo standing awkwardly in the corner.
"Morning sunshine." Jo frowned and Pepper scowled, looking down at the counter. "Got anything for me?"
Jo fished the flash drive out of her pocket and waved it around. "It should work. You can sue me if it doesn't."
The joke fell flat and the room remained silent. Pepper coughed and picked up the conversation, "I'll be in office. Please be ready today."
Tony looked down at her, flicked a smile, "Sure will," and patting her on the arm, came over to Jo. Pepper watched with a horrible mix of longing and sadness as Jo grabbed her bag and they descended into the workshop together.
Jo plugged the drive in and pulled up the schematics. "You realize the plasma only results when the reactor energy is exposed to air. Just encase it," she hit a few keys, bringing up the diagram. "It's a vacuum case. If you keep reactor within the vacuum it should confine the main current to the palladium and eliminate most, if not all, of the plasma."
Tony was leaned over the screen, face level with hers. She looked over to him in the light of the screen. He smirked and turned to her, "Let's do it. Jarvis, can you design a case fitted for the reactor?"
"Commencing measurements, sir." Jarvis began to spill out numbers until Tony raised a hand.
"Alright, alright, you don't have to tell me." He crossed the room and pulled the safe up from the floor of one of the workstations. Jo watched as he extracted one of the two glowing reactors and handed it to one of the robotic arm apparatuses. The safe disappeared back into the floor.
"Use a flexible non-conductive plastic. Can you built it?"
"Yes sir. Expected completion time is two hours."
"Vacuum the contents, please."
"Yes sir."
Tony turned to Jo, his face twitched with a smile. "Looks like success."
"Indeed," Jo responded with a smile. He got closer to her, and she turned to grab her coat off the back of the chair. "I'd better go. You have appointments to get to-"
Tony grabbed her arm, "Where are you running to? We have time."
She moved his arm away, "No, Tony, we don't." They were hard words and he looked angry.
"What's wrong with you? I haven't seen you in five years and here you are skirting off all the time."
"I didn't come here for a booty call, I just wanted to help-"
"No. That's never the way it worked." He folded his arms and stared, "Why are you here?"
She turned to him stunned, and then angry, "Ok, I wanted the sex. And I wanted to know you again. And-"
"And?" His voice was loud.
"And that's not going to happen because Pepper is in love with you, you idiot!" She stood up, shouting at him, "Can't you see it? She never left you, and it's not just because you're her boss. She cares. She cares about you, and you're obviously interested in her. Stop playing games! It's not fair!"
Tony stepped back, blinking. She gathered her coat and bag, and pulled the flash drive out of place. Shaking, she tripped over the chair and stumbled angrily towards the door. Only then did she stop, breathing heavily, her whole being vibrating in anger.
She took a deep breath, "Tony." Looking back at him, standing shirtless and stunned among the consoles, she sighed "Try to love her. She's worth it, ok?"
Their eyes met for a moment, like battling wills, until Tony responded, "Ok," and she opened the door and left.