Sorry this has taken so long! I was planning to do it while I was at my Dad's for the week, but I left my laptop at home, which was three hundred miles away, and then I said to myself I'd do it last week, but I was scared shitless by the riots. Forgive me?
It had taken Tony nearly two hours to get Pepper to calm down enough to get some sleep, and even then he'd only managed it by telling her he would be right outside the door if she needed him. He knocked softly on the door around dinner time, carrying a tray of food. When she didn't respond, he opened the door anyway and found her asleep, curled into a ball with the duvet tugged almost all the way over her head. Tony sighed and placed the tray on her bedside table, turning to leave.
"Thank you." Pepper mumbled softly to his retreating back. Tony span around and saw her eyes were open and she was smiling at him.
He nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, well, ya know, you gotta eat." he shrugged and flashed her a smile. "And I mean that, you need to eat, so get to it."
Pepper snorted softly and eased herself up, grabbing the tray. "Yes boss." She leant back against the headrest and began eating. Tony sighed with relief.
"Do you…I mean…how do you feel?" he asked softly. He was finding it extremely difficult to phrase things the right way, everything he was thinking of saying sounded somehow crass in his head.
Pepper swallowed the bite she'd taken and nodded, trying to add conviction to her words. "Better. A lot better. I should be back to work by Monday."
Tony winced. He hadn't meant it like that, and he told her so. "I didn't mean that because I need you back at work. I mean I do need you, but…fuck sake. Pepper, what you've been through is traumatic, you need to rest. Screw work, just…rest. And you need to go to the hospital."
Pepper raised her eyebrows. "Uh, hell no. I am not making this any more public than it already is." she focussed on her dinner again, ignoring him.
But Tony wasn't one to be ignored. He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, facing her. "Pepper, you were…you have no way of knowing if the guy is clean, and you need to at least get a morning after pill or something, and obviously then we go to the police-"
"No." she said, fixing him with her best 'do-not-argue-with-me' stare.
"What?" Tony furrowed his brow in confusion. "What do you mean 'no'?"
"I mean I am not going to the police about this." She snapped. "I'll get a morning after pill from my doctor, but that's it."
Tony shook his head in bewilderment. "Pepper…you can't do that. You need to get this prick arrested!"
"No!" Pepper threw down her knife and fork and stared at him again. "Don't you understand? I don't want people to know about this. How do you think this is going to affect my career?"
"You're worried about your career?" Tony was getting more confused by the second. "Pepper, you work for me! I'm not going to treat you any differently!"
"You already are!" Pepper's eyes were becoming red. "You already are, Tony. You're making me dinner and giving me fucking advice. Everything between me and you has already changed because of what happened and I don't want it to go any further, alright?" a tear slipped down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away. "I think you should leave."
"Hell no." he said instantly. "I'm not going anywhere until you're back on your feet."
"Back on my feet?" she let out a laugh. "And when exactly do you think that is going to be, huh? This is going to haunt me for the rest of my life, Tony, but the only way I can try and move on is if people don't keep treating me like I'm made of fucking glass!"
Tony stared at her. He'd never seen Pepper this angry. Pissed off, sure, that was a common emotion when you worked for him, but she was livid with him, and he was trying to help her. He swallowed hard and opened his mouth to argue again, but she held up her hand.
"Just leave." She whispered. "Thank you for everything, but I just need you to leave me alone."
After a moment that seemed to stretch on forever, Tony looked away, standing up slowly and making his way quietly out of her bedroom, pausing in the doorway.
"Call me if you need anything." He said before closing her door and heading out of the house.
Michael watched as Tony jogged down the steps from Pepper's apartment and into his car, pausing for a moment before speeding away. What the hell was that asshole doing in his girlfriend's apartment? Michael shook his head and exited his car. The only way he was going to get a straight answer was to talk to Pepper, so he climbed the stairs two at a time, headed towards her front door and knocked on it, tapping his foot impatiently. She wouldn't cheat on him, would she? No, of course not.
A few seconds passed and she still hadn't answered, so he knocked again. "Pepper? Honey, you there?" he knelt down and pocked open her mail box, peering into the lounge. Across the room, he saw her bedroom door slam shut. Anger ripped through him straight away and he stood up, slamming his fist against her door. "Pepper! Pepper, open this door right now!" When she still didn't answer, he looked around to check that no one was watching him, stepped back, and kicked the door. It flung open immediately, the wooden frame splintering and flying into the apartment.
Michael looked around, spotting the two coffee cups on the kitchen island before stalking towards Pepper's bedroom door and trying the handle. It didn't budge.
"Pepper, you open this door!" Michael yelled. "I know that bastard was here, you can't hide from me forever sweetheart!"
From inside the room, Pepper sobbed. She'd managed to lodge a chair underneath the door handle and was sitting on the floor on the other side of her bed, her knees curled up to her chest in fright. She heard Michael hammering against the door, and then the sickening movement of the chair scraping across the floor as it shifted against his incessant attempts to gain entry. She looked around, trying to find a weapon or something, but she spotted her phone lying on the bedside table. She'd just got to her feet to grab it when something on the chair snapped and Michael barged his way into the room.
They stared at one another for a few seconds, and then Pepper lunged across the bed for her phone.