Tony's Girls
By: InitialA
Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Marvel universe.
"One, two… three!" Pepper expertly snapped his shoulder back into place as Tony swore colorfully.
"Jesus," he gasped, before dissolving into laughter.
Pepper was thin-lipped and pale and tired, but she held her tongue and tried to dab away the blood as he convulsed from hysteria. He returned to swearing when she dabbed the antiseptic on a particularly large gash on his forehead. "Are you done now?" She asked.
He winced, chest heaving. "Done what?"
"With the hysterics."
"Maybe," he gasped, a few breathy laughs following. "Dunno. Is it done being funny?"
"Tony."
"What?"
"Involving yourself in an African civil war is not funny. A land mine is not funny. Needing S.H.I.E.L.D. to cart you home in pieces is not funny."
"It is kind of funny. In an 'oh wow, I'm alive but that hurts but gosh isn't it great to LIVE' kind of way."
She pursed her lips, and jabbed at him with the antiseptic again. He hissed, and tried to sit still for her. She'd spent enough time putting him back together at this point that she knew which cuts needed stitches (four), how long he'd need to wear a sling for the out-of-place shoulder (ten days, fourteen at most), if his ribs were broken (no, just severely bruised, but he was going to be fairly inactive for a few days lest they decide to just shatter under stress anyway), and if he was concussed (probably not, but until he recited the periodic table of elements in alphabetical order, backwards, and including the elements that had not been officially recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry over the last fifty years, she wouldn't be satisfied). "Daddy?"
She turned. The girls were poking their red, curly heads around the corner. Tony propped himself up, looking more than a little worse for wear, covered in bloody streaks and salve and half-applied bandages and dark bruises. "Hey. Hey, girls, you shouldn't be up. You need… You should be in bed."
The twins exchanged a clearly exasperated set of looks that Pepper was sure she hadn't taught them. "Mommy always lets us stay up when you're away," Tonia said as they came in.
Tony fixed Pepper with a look of his own. She took his arm and wound a bandage around a large gash. "They had fallen asleep…"
"Does it hurt?" Cleo asked, careful not to touch any of his injuries.
"Nah," he replied, showing only the mildest discomfort as he bent down and scooped her up to sit on his lap. "I'm Iron Man. I'm your dad. Who could hurt me?"
"Daddy's invincible!" Tonia declared.
"That's right!" He replied, ruffling her already messy hair as she giggled.
Pepper abruptly turned and went to the sink. She made a show of washing the salve from her hands slowly, to cover the fact that she was trying very hard not to make a sound as she wept—from terror, from joy, from a thousand emotions being released at once… but mostly from being able to see the three most important people in her life together, when just an hour ago she hadn't been sure if she'd ever see it again. She took pride in the fact that she'd never let Tony see her cry after he came home from another mission (more or less in one piece), or the girls see her cry ever. She was the rock they relied on. Still, Tony managed to interrupt the girls' chatter and pleas to tell them how he'd saved the day again, "Pep. I saw that."
Damn. She'd tried to wipe away evidence of her moment discreetly. She turned, guiltily. Tony beckoned to her with his free arm. She picked up Tonia and sat next to him. He put his arm around her and kissed her temple. "I'm fine. I will be fine, thanks to you."
"This time, Tony."
"And next time."
"And what about the time after that?"
They locked eyes. The girls, picking up on the tension between their parents, were silent for once. "I will always come home to you. All of you. As long as I know you're here, waiting for me, absolutely nothing can stop me from getting home to my girls."
Her head knew he was saying that mostly for the benefit of the twins. Privately, this would have escalated very quickly into an argument about his recklessness and single-minded drive, his insane quest to single-handedly save the world he'd almost single-handedly delivered into chaotic warfare. What it would be like for their daughters to grow up without a father. But her heart hoped against hope that he was telling the truth. "Okay."