So, this set out to be the second or third to last chapter, and I did intend to make it re-he-heally long, but a few things got in my way, namely the fact that I've been on painkillers for four days and I'm pretty out of it, plus the fact that I wrote a big chunk on my Nan's laptop before she went on holiday...and didn't bother to e-mail it to myself. I think it panned out ok though. This is actually probably the third to last chapter tbh. It's going to take a darker turn from here on out, so beware, no more fluff I'm afraid.
P.S. Shout out to thatpersonwhoisthatperson for bringing the total of reviews to 69 and thus making me chuckle like the childish person I am when I realised.
P.P.S. After nearly an hour trying to find the information, I gave up and guestimated how long it'd take to fly from LA to Moscow. Seriously, five airline sites couldn't even tell me. And I have no concept of time-zones. Enjoy!
Song of the Day: Placebo – Running Up That Hill (far better than Kate Bush's)
The months practically flew by. Pepper had moved in with Tony officially a month after his proposal, and although he had contested her decision to decline it, she stood firm.
The only thing that had caused them any sort of argument had been, shock horror, the media.
Pepper had begun to show a bump mid-way through her fourth month, which in turn had caused a minor media stir. There had been roughly three headlines a week for a further month proclaiming it to be Tony's love child, and while that was true, he was beginning to get a wee bit pissed off about it.
"I mean what right do they have to print this stuff?" he huffed, throwing down that morning's paper which was insisting Pepper was some sort of man-trap, and flopping down on the couch next to her.
"Free speech?" Pepper suggested, picking up the paper and turning to the more interesting articles. She'd been very blasé about the whole thing, something else that was irritating Tony as many of the articles were slanderous against her.
"How can you be this nonchalant about all this?" he leant back into the couch and closed his eyes
"I've been dealing with this kind of stuff for years for the both of us. Water off a duck's back." She said, peering over the top of the paper and smiling. When his face still showed tension, she sighed and put the paper down, moving over to him and straddling his legs. His eyes snapped open and he couldn't help the smirk roll over his lips.
"This is really bothering you, isn't it?" she asked.
"Well I'll tell you what is bothering me." He raised an eyebrow.
"Tony-"
"Alright, yes, it is." He sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm more than used to hearing stuff about me, hell, half the time it's true anyway, but this crap about you, it's…"
"Yeah, I know." She kissed the top of his head. "Maybe it's time we came out properly." She mumbled against his cranium. He chuckled and scratched his head.
"It could keep the wolves at bay, but then again it might make it worse."
"Tony, I read an article the other day that was insisting I was having a lesbian love affair with Sue from accounting and I'm wearing a pregnancy suit to cover it up, I think it's gotten as bad as it's going to get." She laughed at his stunned expression. "Don't worry, it's not true."
"Very funny." Tony said bluntly. "Are you sure though? About us telling the press?"
"I've got enough to worry about without fearing you'll have a coronary every time you open the paper." He started to protest but she cut him off. "Look, I'm only going to get bigger as the pregnancy progresses, we've got nothing bad to hide, in fact we'll probably look like we do the longer we put it off. So come on Stark, suck it up." She patted his cheek and got off him. "I'll set up a press conference for tomorrow."
"No," he grabbed her around the waist and span her to sit back down on the couch. "I'll sort it. Gotta learn how to do things myself for when you're on maternity leave, and yes, you are taking it." He added before she could object.
"Spoilsport." She mumbled as he walked away.
"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Pepper said as they got into the limo the following morning. The press conference had gone on an extra hour longer than expected but had cleared up a lot of misinformation, including Pepper's lesbian love affair. Tony had made a short speech saying that they were a couple and expecting a child and then left the floor open for questions, and boy where there questions. Was it his child? Were they getting married? When was she due? When had the relationship started? Was it true they were naming the baby Megatron? Was he sure it was his child? That one had pissed Tony off the most, so much so he had the third reporter to ask the question thrown out.
"Could have gone worse I suppose." He mumbled, closing the door and indicating to Happy to drive on. "Just glad it's over and there won't be any more random articles. I mean Megatron? Really?"
"Now come on, that was funny." She laughed and huddled against him on the seat. "I think we should consider it as a middle name."
"Over my dead metal body." He wrapped his arm around her middle. "Although we should probably start thinking of names."
"No." she said sharply. Tony stared. "Sorry, just…not yet." She said. "It's too early, I don't want to jinx it."
"Fair enough." He kissed the top of her head. "We've got months yet anyway."
"Mmm." She mumbled, closing her eyes. "Your pocket is vibrating, should I be worried?"
Tony fumbled for his front pants pocket and groaned when he saw the caller ID 0000-000-000. He pressed a button on the arm rest beside him to raise the partition separating themselves from the driver and then answered the call.
"Mr. Fury, how would you like to disrupt my life today?" he heard Pepper sigh softly out of irritation.
"Oh Stark, how I've missed your natural charm and wit." Fury replied in a monotone voice. "Unfortunately, as is the case more often than not, it is not I who is 'disrupting' your life, more so the SI weapons convoy that will be under attack in a matter of hours unless you get your butt down there." Fury's voice took a mean turn and Tony winced.
"Yeah, yeah, alright, what's the story? Happy, home as quick as possible please." He pressed another button to speak over the intercom and then another to get Jarvis to prepare the suit for his immediate departure.
"We've had intel from our agent in Moscow that a temporary weapons cache is going to be seized in transit. Fabulous location idea by the way." He added sarcastically.
"Moscow? You gotta be kidding me." he glanced at Pepper. "Do you remember me signing a weapons transfer through Moscow?"
"According to our records this particular cache is at least twenty years old and is old stock to be destroyed upon returning to the US." Fury said. Pepper confirmed this.
"Do we know who's after it? Or even what the stock is?"
"It's a small Russian mob group who've been terrorising Moscow for some time now. Luckily they're not amazingly organised which was how we managed to get the information so quickly. They're planning to attack as the cache moves towards the border with Belarus tomorrow night, but we don't know what they plan to do from there, so try and keep one of them with the ability to talk. All the other information has been relayed to your computer." He heard the click of Fury putting the phone down and Tony did the same as they pulled up the drive to the mansion. He sighed and looked at Pepper.
"So…Moscow?" she said brightly.
"Yeah," he smiled apologetically. The limo stopped and he heard Happy open and close his door and then step around to Tony's, opening it for him. Tony stepped out, thanking him, and then took Pepper's hand as she got out.
"Big job?" she asked as they walked straight down to his workshop via the garage ramp.
"Shouldn't be. Fury said the group I'm going after is pretty much a bunch of amateurs." He pressed his palm to the sensor and the doors opened. They continued down to the workshop and Tony immediately walked over to his computer, absorbing the information Fury had sent and then transmitting it to the suit. Pepper watched him as he did so from her position leaning against his Audi. "Suit ready to go Jarvis?"
"Ready when you are, sir." The bodiless voice informed him.
"Excellent." He finished transmitting the information and walked over to the small chest of drawers where he kept the neoprene under suits and pulled one out, turning back to Pepper as he did so. He noted the expression on her face and faltered slightly. "Pep?"
"How long will you be gone?" she asked quietly. She was chewing her bottom lip and looking, if anything, guilty. Puzzled, he stripped off his jacket and walked over to her, throwing it onto a table as he did so.
"Hopefully the day after tomorrow." He stood in front of her. She nodded slowly, still chewing her lip. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing, it's just...the baby's scan is on Wednesday." She shrugged, still looking guilty.
Realisation hit him in the face like a mallet. "Shit." He mumbled and closed his eyes in frustration. It was two days away.
"Hey, don't worry." She raised a hand to his cheek and smiled. "I'll rearrange it."
"No." He said sharply. "No, I'll make it back, I promise."
"Tony, it's fine, I can just-"
"Pepper, look, I made you a promise that I wouldn't let this get in the way of us, and God as my witness I intend to keep that promise." He turned the corner of his mouth up and kissed her softly. "I'll punch it all the way there and all the way back; I'll be back before you know it." He let his hand wonder to her stomach and he rubbed his thumb across the prominent bump. She smiled.
"That tickles." She shoved his chest gently. "Ok fine, go. The quicker you leave the quicker you'll get back."
Tony kissed her one last time and was changed and blasting off within ten minutes.
He was running on fumes.
Even flying supersonic for the entire journey to Moscow, it had still taken him five hours. He had rendezvoused with the SHIELD agent on the Russian side of Belarus, only to find the convoy had been pushed forward a few hours, meaning he'd had literally half an hour to prepare before the fighting began.
Turns out the "amateurs" were extremely heavily armed, though nothing that Tony couldn't deal with, and he'd even managed to keep them all conscious and able to talk. There was a minor panic when one of the trucks momentarily caught fire, but other than that everything had run smoothly.
He'd gone back to the Russian SHIELD base for a quick de-brief and a well deserved nap after dropping off the 'guests' and he was now coasting his way back to Malibu on autopilot, Jarvis promising him he'd be back home for Tuesday night, the night before Pepper's scan, giving him a chance to conserve some energy and to mentally prepare for seeing his baby for the first time. He had a mix of giddy excitement and un-holy shit scariness buzzing around his stomach, and he found it was damn near one of the best feelings he'd ever experienced.
He was just considering having another quick doze when the HUD indicated he had an incoming call. Smiling at the picture that followed, he answered.
"Hey, hon-"
"Tony, where are you?" Pepper asked breathlessly.
Fear ripped through Tony at the tone of her voice. "Almost out of Portugal, should be in the Atlantic within half an hour, what's wrong?"
Through the phone, he heard a deep groan of pain and another woman's hushed curses.
"Pepper, who's there? Are you ok? Pepper!" he shouted when she didn't answer.
"No, I'm fine, it's just – oh my God." He heard a man scream in pain and then the clatter of plastic on tile.
And then a woman's scream.
And then the line went dead.
TBC