Fall Out

Chapter Four: Not Enough

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

Author Notes: Finally I think I'm getting the bantering thing down as you'll see in this chapter. Also I'm going to soundtrack this shortly, so I'll let you know when to check the previous chapter for the songs.

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Tony Stark stood in his kitchen, his eyes trained on the scene before him, his lips turned upwards in one of those amused grins of his, head tilted to one side and arms folded, "Are you lost Miss Potts?" His tone matched the grin.

Instantly the top of Pepper's redhead connected with the shelf above, a startled hiss of pain falling from her lips, "No." She answered, as she stood from the floor rubbing the top of her head, rather glad she had decided on a pants suit this morning.

"Hm." The grin grew, "What were you doing down there?

"Sugar… I was looking for sugar."

"To bake me a cake?"

"No. Coffee, for my coffee." Miss Potts adjusted her suit jacket almost nervously.

"Ah." Tony's fingers had moved up to tap on the arc reactor, " I didn't know you put sugar in your coffee."

"I always have, you just haven't noticed." Pepper did her best to ignore the fact he was shirtless, "Must you do that?"

"Do what?" He noted her staring at his chest, and the grin became a smirk, "I can go put a shirt on if it bothers you."

"No, I mean that."

Then he realized what he was doing and stopped, slowly moving his hand away from the middle of his chest, " Ah, so my not having a shirt on doesn't bother you then?" This time his eyes grinned at her, more so then his lips.



"No… I mean…yes… I…" Pepper Potts' skin became a rather fetching shade of pink which Tony rather enjoyed, but quickly the woman caught her mistake and pulled herself together, "Will that be all Mr. Stark?"

Tony frowned slightly at her ruining his fun, "Yes that will be all Miss Potts."

And that was the fastest he had ever seen her turn on those silly shoes of hers and exit a room, causing his deep laughter to practically chase her from it, "Oh Miss Potts, you forgot your sugar." He grinned, still laughing and grabbed a couple of packets from the box from the cupboard just above the fridge and waited for the sounds of her shoes announcing her return. It didn't take long.

Pepper Potts was now the epitome of professionalism, she smoothly walked back into the kitchen, let her eyes meet his, took the sugar packets from his out stretched hand and nodded, "Thank you." She then turned on her heel and made for the direction of her office when his voice stopped her.

"It's been almost a week, you never mentioned if you got my flowers."

Pepper frowned slightly, swearing in her head before she turned back around a smile planted, "Yes, I did. Thank you."

This time it was Tony's turn to frown once again, his fingers coming up to stroke his well trimmed facial hair," I don't believe you."

The redhead blinked, "Excuse me?" Slender arms folded, "I did receive them, and if you like you can go look at my desk for yourself, they're sitting there on the front right hand corner."

"Oh I believe you, that you received them Miss Potts, what I don't believe is your thank you. That you didn't mean at all."

Eyebrows knotted, slender fingertips pinched the bridge of her nose, " I'm thanking you for the flowers, and I do mean it."

"No. You don't." His gaze was just short of hard.

She sighed, "They are lovely. Really Tony, what more do you want?"

"Never mind, I try to fix things, to say I'm sorry but apparently I don't know what that takes." Tony Stark was frustrated, a moment ago it felt like old times and then… he had apparently asked the wrong question.

"It was an admirable effort, but flowers aren't enough to fix this." Pepper was trying to let this go and move on, but she couldn't she felt like her own safety was at stake, she would quit but she couldn't leave him, she wouldn't. He did truly need her after all, didn't he?



Dejected, Tony let his shoulders slump forward, why did she have the ability to make him feel so small? Without another word he walked passed her and headed down into his work shop.

" Miss Potts I am to inform you that Mr. Stark has asked that he is not disturbed for the rest of the day."

"Thank you Jarvis." But they both knew she'd have to disturb him sooner or later, after all duty calls once and a while wither it requires a gold and red suit or not.

The rest of the morning and afternoon passed uneventfully, Pepper mulled about her usual duties and never noticed that the day wore on and on until she looked up, turned and beheld the signs of twilight in the windows behind her. All of the business emails had been taken care of, she had sent the more personal inquires to Tony's private email, including anything to do with Iron Man.

Feeling accomplished, Pepper Potts makes preparations to go home, she places a few files she needs to double check into her briefcase, she removes her car keys from her middle desk drawer and slips her shoes back on. She then grabs a few contracts and other documents for Tony to sign and heads down into his work shop only to find it empty…

"Jarvis?"

"Yes Miss Potts?"

"Where is T—Mr. Stark?" Pepper stepped into the shop and looked around, empty, void of his presence completely.

"Please direct your attention to the plasma television screen."

As she turned the large screen mounted on the wall to her right flicked on, the channel was a local news station and it was showing quite the piece of news. There had been a crash on the express way involving a semi and a car… that looked nothing like a car anymore. Pepper watched the scene unfold, fire fighters and police scrambling trying to rescue those trapped inside, the reporter on sight mentioned it was a family of three, a mother, Father and their young son. They were alive, but trapped and injured. But then the reporter's voice filled with hope, Iron Man was coming, he could save the family… and that's when it happened, the car just off the right of the screen exploded.

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Yeah I know, wow… cliffhanger. I'm not evil, I promise there will be another chapter soon. And thanks again to all of you who are reading this and commenting and so forth, it really helps :)