Even a Genius can Get it Wrong

Pepper had been back at work for 3 months, she remembered walking in to her office to see that whilst they'd been away the plaque on the door now read Virginia Stark CEO and that her office had been redecorated, new carpets, new paint, a large canvas print of Bora Bora on her desk was a photo of Tony slipping a ring on her finger at their wedding, there was a new couch a new desk chair and new comfy seats for guests. The bookcase was now void of Tony's books and replaced with a few of her own. Yes her husband had been a busy boy, when she asked him about it he shrugged his shoulders and pretended not to be the culprit.

The previously aforementioned husband wandered in to her office just before lunch, he placed a salad and a coffee on the small table in front of her new couch before dragging her over to the sofa sitting her down, slipping off her heels and massaged her feet whilst she worked.

"What have you done?" Pepper asked suspiciously, the last time he was this nice to her, she came home to find a gaping hole in the middle of her bedroom.

"Nothing. We're newlyweds isn't me being ridiculously romantic part of the whole honeymoon period thing?" He grinned "I can go if you want. Back to playing with the toys in R&D…"

"So you're actually working from your office today?" Pepper laughed

"Yes, Jarvis said I'd have better luck getting a date out of you tonight if I asked you in person. Video calling doesn't count, so I came to work today."

"A date? See I knew you had ulterior motives for being nice to me."

"I'm always nice to you Mrs Stark." He used his free hand to pull out a pair of theatre tickets out of his pocket.

Pepper looked at them "The Sound of Music? I thought you didn't like it?"

"I don't but it's your favourite film and I thought we should you know, leave the house. Not that I'm complaining about all the activities we've been doing in the house. They've definitely been uh…fun."

"Date night." Pepper stated.

"Yes date night. Tony and Pepper time, no cell phones, no incompetent robots."

"Sounds wonderful Tony." He finished her foot rub and then he stood. "Back to work Mrs Stark, this place isn't going to run its self!" He left the office and Pepper returned to her computer going over financial reports, invoices, and R&D memos but unlike before Tony visited she was smiling.

Later that evening Tony was stood next to the Audi R8 waiting for Pepper to finally join him downstairs, when she did he thought she looked stunning in navy blue, strapless dress. "Totally worth the wait." He murmured as he opened her car door for her. "You carriage awaits." Pepper climbed in to the car as he sped out of the garage towards downtown LA.

The evening started with an early dinner at a new Italian restaurant before Tony took her to the theatre to watch the Sound of Music, which Pepper loved and Tony slept through, luckily they were in a private booth and nobody noticed. He took her for a walk on the Santa Monica Pier, playing arcade games and riding the Ferris wheel. However as fun as date night was SHIELD could always be counted on to ruin the evening.

"You've got to go." Pepper said sadly after he hung up his phone.

"Yeah, they've traced members of the ten rings and they've got SI tech."

"It's fine Tony go do the whole superhero thing." They drove home and she kissed him goodbye as he put on his helmet one and blasted out of his workshop.

"Jarvis?" Pepper summoned the AI

"Yes Mrs Stark?" Jarvis asked

"Can you tell me where Tony is?"

"He's currently en-route to Afghanistan according to my GPS."

"Keep me informed of his progress." Pepper asked the AI, who assured her he would and she then settled on Tony's couch to watch a movie.

"Mrs Stark?" Jarvis woke Pepper up; it was 4:30am

"Yes Jarvis?"

"Not to worry you, but it would appear that Mr Stark has gone offline."

"What do you mean gone offline?" Pepper's voice went up about 4 octaves.

"I don't know ma'am, he appeared to be struggling with something emotionally and removed his helmet, so effectively the suit is offline."

Pepper tried to go to work, but once she was there she was irritable, snappy and signed off as working from home indefinitely. She was aware that her mood wouldn't improve until she'd heard from Tony.

It had been days, and Pepper wasn't the only worried one it appeared SHIELD had lost contact with him as well, so when Nick Fury called her to ask if she'd heard from him the conversation was brief.

"You're his handlers you find him!" She shouted before she slammed the phone down.

It was a week since he'd gone off the grid when Jarvis woke Pepper to tell her that Tony had put the helmet back on and was due home in 10 hours.

Pepper was waiting when he touched down and the robots began pulling the suit off him. He looked bad and as angry as she was at him, she was more concerned at this point.

"Tony I've been…"

"Save it Pepper." He snapped

"…worried." She finished quietly

"I'm fine just back off." The harshness of his voice made her step back.

"I just want to help."

"Yeah well it's not about what you want is it? What I want is for you to get the hell out and leave me alone." He shouted, regretting in soon as he saw the tears in her eyes. She ran from the workshop, Tony knew he should've gone after her but he was still angry, he wanted a bit of space didn't she get that?

Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was not expecting a frantic knock on the door at 11:30pm, but the one that came just past 2am he was expecting, the person on the receiving end of his fist, however was not.

"What the hell Rhodes?" Tony asked clutching his face.

"What the hell did you do?" He grabbed Tony and pulled him inside. Tony looked around and saw the couch was made up with a blanket and all the pillows piled at one end.

"Something wrong with your bed?" Tony asked

"Yeah man your wife is asleep in it." Rhodey said not trying to hide his anger.

"Pepper's here. Good. I was worried." Tony moved to go towards the bedroom.

"Tony man leave her alone, she's not been asleep that long. Crying for the last 2 hours."

"I messed up…."

"No shit Sherlock."

"…I followed the weapons to a cave and I was blowing stuff up, and I realised I've been here before. The next thing I know I'm ripping the helmet off and just counting the steps from the cave they kept me to the outside world. All I could think was how much I wanted to escape to come home and see Pepper. I saw the helmet lying on the floor and realised I could go home." Rhodey was surprised at his friend's admission that he'd suffered some kind of breakdown.

"What happened with Pepper?" Tony pleaded with his friend.

"She knocked on my door, she was a mess man, so I let her in and she just cried in my arms and all I could do was put her to bed. I could only pick out words like 'why would he say that? He's all I have and I love so much, why does do he hate me?'" listening to his friends words broke his heart.

Tony stood and moved towards the bedroom, this time Rhodey didn't try and stop him. He climbed in to bed with her, wrapping his arms around her waist he whispered "Pepper I'll always need you."

The next morning he awoke to find his arms empty, but what he could hear was vomiting in Rhodey's bathroom. "Pepper sweetheart open the door." Tony asked, he heard the lock click, he went in and held her hair back.

Once she finished dry heaving she looked at her Tony. "Tony I'm pregnant." Tony's face lit up

"Pepper that's…"

Pepper cut him off "I can't deal with you right now. I need space, I'm so mad at you."

"Pepper…"

"No Tony, you broke every promise you made me in this last week. I need some time to process."

Tony reached out for her and she pulled away, he recoiled like he'd been burnt. He stood nodded and then looked at Pepper. "Ok space, I can do space." He walked out of the room.

Rhodey found Pepper crying on his bathroom floor. "Tony left." He stated softly

"I know I told him to go."

"Pepper, I'm on your side. What he did…Pep you need to talk to him" He went in to his room grabbed a pair of sweats and an old air force t-shirt. "Jump in the shower Mrs Stark, I'll drive you home." He said as he pulled her up and handed her the clothes.

Rhodey pulled up to the front door of the Malibu mansion and he led Pepper inside. She went to the kitchen and Rhodey went downstairs.

Rhodey entered the lab, where he found Tony smashing his broken Cobra with a metal pole.

"Smashing your ride isn't going to help." Rhodey called as he switched off his music. "Perhaps you should talk to Pepper."

He looked over when he heard his wife's name.

"She doesn't want to talk to me." He took another swing at the car.

"Really because she's upstairs waiting for you." Tony moved towards the stairs but was once again blocked by Rhodey.

"I'm getting really sick of you standing in between me and my wife." Tony tried to push past him.

"You smell like a brewery Tony, have a shower before you try and fix this."

Tony nodded and moved towards the elevator instead. "Hey Stark!" Rhodey called, Tony looked back at Rhodey. "Hurt her again and I will hurt you." The look he gave Tony said he was serious.

TBC…

Angsty, I know thought I'd draw you in to a false sense of security with fluff and then bam! Slap you with some real misery. Tony and what happened in Afghanistan is going to be a recurring theme and things will get happier. I promise.