A/N: I said I'd do Pepper, but did anyone expect me to give have a whole chapter for her? I think she deserves one, because she's so awesome.
I would like to say that although I keep mentioning in this story that Hawkeye might do something reckless and harmful to Loki, I do really like Hawkeye and I don't think there would be evil intentions behind anything he might do.
Unrelated to this, but I saw The Hobbit. Aside from the fact that I think it could have been about an hour shorter, it was fantastic. Absolutely loved it! The "Riddles in the Dark" scene was just perfect.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers.
The Third to Forgive: Pepper
Pepper had seen Loki on her rare visits to the tower, between being out on business trips or other things that Tony should have been doing, but, as always, ended up only getting done if she took them on herself. She'd never spoken to Loki, only seeing him in passing, noticing that he was usually with Thor, Bruce, or recently, Steve.
However, the thing that surprised her most was the last time she had been to the tower and seen him walking around with Bruce, was that he had been smiling. A small, but genuine smile. Pepper was certain that it must have been rare for him to smile considering everything he'd been through (Tony had told her about his capture by the Chitauri and imprisonment by his own father).
Now there was a lull in the amount of traveling she had to do, and she found any work she had to do could easily be done all in one location, so she decided to move into Stark Tower.
Tony protested to the idea.
"Pepper, we've got a damaged demi god living in our tower. I don't think this is a good idea right now."
"I thought you told me that he isn't dangerous." Pepper replied, taking some of her clothes out of her suitcase and putting them neatly into ones the dressers of the room she had chosen to occupy.
"He isn't, but-"
"Then what's the problem? I've got some time off, and I'll spend it where I like." Pepper stated in a matter of fact tone.
"Things are crazy here right now Pep."
"I'm pretty used to crazy by now Tony."
"On the off chance something did happen-"
Pepper stopped and looked directly at Tony. "Look, Tony, I understand you being nervous about this, but I want to stay here. I trust that you can all keep things under control. From what Bruce told me, Loki's rather confused and a bit frightened right now, and that he's certain he won't hurt anyone."
Tony's eyes narrowed. "Bruce. He had something to do with you coming here."
Pepper frowned, thinking she probably shouldn't have mentioned Bruce. "He mentioned S.H.I.E.L.D. has been giving you a hard time about Loki, and that my being here might prove that he isn't dangerous."
"I'm cutting off his access to all the labs for a month." Tony growled.
Pepper sighed and crossed the room to stand in front of Tony, taking his hands. "I'm touched that you're worried about me, but there's no cause for concern. I'll keep my distance, in fact, I'll probably be in my office most of the time, doing your work."
"Fury isn't going to like this. He's already pissed that I'm keeping a wanted alien ex-prince in my tower, and that there's nothing he can do but accept it." Tony grumbled, ignoring Pepper's work comment.
"I thought you loved making Fury's life… interesting." Pepper replied, one side of her mouth twitching upward.
Tony's eyes lit up and he grinned evilly. "I have had a very bad influence on you."
Pepper smiled. "So I'll take that as a 'yes Pepper, you can stay'."
"Yes please Pepper, you can stay." Tony leaned forward and kissed her, bringing one of his hands to cup her face. "I do have one condition." He said when he pulled away slightly for air.
"Oh? What's that?" Pepper asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"You stay in my room."
"I can live with that."
"Great, get all packed up and move in. I left Bruce in the tech lab, and I still don't entirely trust him around my gear." Tony said, giving Pepper another kiss, and then heading out of the room.
Pepper went back to the dresser, and began to put her things back into her suitcase when her cell phone started ringing from its place on the bed. She went immediately to get it, but paused when she saw it was an unknown number. After a moment, she decided to answer it. "Hello? Pepper Potts speaking."
"…Hey… Pepper…"
Pepper's heart felt like it stopped and then sped up as her breath caught in her throat.
The voice was weak, sounding tired, breathless, and slightly pained, but there was no mistaking whose voice it was.
"…Phil?"
Pepper raced towards the main lab, glad she'd decided to wear sneakers today instead of heels, hoping Tony would still be there. Upon reaching the lab, punching in the security code, and basically leaping through the door, she was relieved to find that Tony was indeed still there, with Bruce as well.
Upon her bursting into the room, Tony actually jumped, while Bruce remained completely absorbed in his work (his self control continually impressed Pepper). "Jesus Pepper, where's the fire?"
"Phil's alive. He just called my cell phone. Tony, he's alive!" Pepper exclaimed, panting slightly as she sank onto one of the many stools placed in the room.
Tony's face shifted into an expression of complete shock, and Bruce's head snapped towards Pepper, surprise written all over his own face.
"Pep… That's impossible." Tony replied. "He got stabbed through the chest. He died."
Pepper shook her head frantically. "He's alive. Think about it Tony, we never heard about any funeral, and none of us ever saw the body. Would I lie about this?"
"I don't think you're lying Pepper, but he can't be alive, but how does someone survive being stabbed through the chest?"
"Fine, I've got proof, I had JARVIS record the call. JARVIS, playback the audio from the call to my cell phone from Agent Coulson." Pepper said.
"Of course, Miss Potts."
There was a moment of tense silence before the audio started playing out of the unseen speakers planted in the room.
"Phil? I- I can't believe it. How can you be…" Pepper's uncertain sounding recorded voice trailedoff.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. has some pretty advanced methods… But the doctors… Only just told me this morning that I'm going to live… I wanted to… Tell you." Coulson's recorded voice was shaking and faint, but unmistakably his voice.
"I'm going to patch Tony through on this."
"No… I wasn't even supposed to tell you know, but… I thought you should know… I have to go now…"
"Wait! No, Phil!"
There was the momentary sound of a ring tone, and then the recording stopped.
Anger started to mix with the surprise on Tony's face. "So, for almost nine months we've all thought he was dead, and now it turns out he's actually alive and nobody told us about it."
Bruce remained silent, looking at the floor, as if lost in thought.
"I think he wanted to make sure he was going to live before he told us Tony. I mean, can you imagine being told he was alive, and then he ended up not making it? It'd be like loosing him a second time, but possibly even worse." Pepper replied.
Tony paused, and then shifted to take up an authoritative stance. "JARVIS, get me Fury. Now."
"Right away sir."
After a few minutes, Fury appeared on the screen in front of Tony and Bruce, and Pepper moved to stand behind the two scientists.
"Stark, what is it now? Is Loki causing trouble?" Fury grumbled, glaring and folding his arms.
"We know Coulson's alive." Tony stated firmly.
Fury's glare turned into an expression of confused innocence. "Stark, Coulson's dead. I saw him die myself."
"Then how come I just got a call from him?" Pepper asked.
Fury's expression changed once again, this time to defeated annoyance. "Damn."
"Why did you keep this from us?" Tony demanded.
"I thought it would be better if you didn't know until we were sure he'd pull through. Hell, I wasn't going to tell you until he had completely recovered. Guess he had other ideas."
"Guess so." Tony snapped.
"How'd you do it?" Bruce asked, speaking for the first time.
Everyone's attention turned to him.
"I beg your pardon, Doctor Banner?" Fury said.
"How'd you bring him back? Why haven't you shared the method of how to do that with all medical facilities?"
"It's an experimental method, and highly risky. It almost didn't work, and wasn't exactly entirely pleasant for Coulson. We thought we would try it on S.H.I.E.L.D. agents first, instead of the general public, and attempt to make it as perfect as possible first." Fury explained. "I assure you he agreed to undergo the procedure long before hand, on the off chance that something happened to him."
Bruce's skin was starting to take a green tint, and Pepper put a hand on his shoulder.
"It sounds logical Bruce. If whatever they did to help Coulson is unpleasant, shouldn't they try to make it as painless as possible before using it on civilians? If the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents undergoing the treatment are almost beyond hope, and they go into it willingly, doesn't it make sense?"
The green tint disappeared from Bruce's skin, and he sighed and nodded. "I'd like to talk with one of your doctors about the subject."
"Of course." Fury replied, and then turned his attention back to Tony. "You can all be mad at me if you want, but I just want you to answer one thing. Is Loki behaving himself?"
"Yes. Extremely well." Bruce answered before Tony could.
"Yeah, he seems to have a truce going with Bruce and Steve." Tony added, still frowning.
"…Well, actually, I think I've finally made it to being his friend." Bruce admitted.
Fury and Tony's mouths fell open. "Friend?" They both said in unison.
"Well, he's not defensive around me anymore. He's okay with me being alone with him, and he has actual conversations with me." Bruce explained. "He spends most of his time in the tower library, in fact, he's there now."
"Well, as long as he's behaving. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a security organization to run." And with that, the screen went black.
"I am so going to get him back for this." Tony growled.
After moving her stuff into Tony's room, Pepper paced around it, thinking she should probably be doing something, anything, but she found there wasn't really anything she could keep her mind on.
She had thought about going to the library, but Bruce had mentioned Loki was there and-
Pepper froze.
Loki. He didn't know Phil was alive.
Bruce had mentioned to her while she was talking to him about moving into Stark Tower that Loki felt a lot of guilt and regret over everything that had happened.
"JARVIS, where is Loki?"
"Mr. Odinson is in the library."
"Is he alone?"
"Yes Miss Potts."
Pepper hesitated. She'd told Tony she would keep her distance from Loki, but, if Loki felt as guilty as Bruce had said, he should know that Phil wasn't dead. That would be one thing to take off his list of… well, crimes.
But… Tony had almost died because of him. Pepper wasn't sure she could let go of that anger. The whole missile- wait, no, S.H.I.E.L.D. had launched that missile, Loki hadn't been directly responsible for that, and even though he had been indirectly responsible, the torture he'd gone through, and that what he'd done was the only way to make it stop loomed all too much over that. She remembered Tony telling her about undergoing torture, and she was certain he'd left out many details for her sake.
Pepper took a deep breath, and marched out the door, heading straight for the library.
Loki was indeed alone, with a thick book open on his lap, and he looked up instantly upon Pepper entering the room.
"Hi, I'm Pepper." Pepper said, trying to sound confident.
Loki regarded her a moment. "Stark's… what's the word? Girlfriend?"
Pepper nodded. "I just moved in." She cursed herself for sounding nervous, but she couldn't help it.
"I would have thought Stark would have told you to stay away from me."
"He did."
Loki raised an eyebrow. "And yet you sought me out?"
Pepper nodded again.
"I completely understand your fear, but I have no intention of harming you." Loki said smoothly.
"I know that. I… well, I just-"
"As I said, I understand your fear." He got to his feet. "I beg your pardon, I should have stood when you entered the room."
"That's all right."
"So, may I inquire as to why you sought me out?"
"Phil Coulson is alive." Pepper blurted.
Loki's jaw dropped and his eyes widened. "What?"
"Phil Coulson is alive. Do you know who-"
"Yes, I know who you're talking about. It will be impossible for me to ever forget. But… he's alive? How could he…?" Loki looked like he was trying very hard to mask his shock, but he wasn't doing a very good job of it.
"All he told me was that S.H.I.E.L.D. has advanced methods." Pepper answered, taking a couple steps forward. "I just thought you should know."
Loki sighed. "That is… a relief."
There was a long silence, but Pepper could feel in tension in the air dissolving.
"Do you spend all your time here?" Pepper asked.
Loki shrugged. "Mostly. I'm not permitted access to any other parts of the tower except here, the hallways, and my brother's floor. There isn't much else to do."
Pepper smiled. "Follow me." She resisted taking his hand to lead him by it, and was glad when he did follow her.
He asked no questions as to where she was taking him, and there was silence, but not an uncomfortable one, until they reached their destination.
Stepping out of the elevator, Loki looked around the room she'd taken him too. "This is…" He trailed off.
It was the room near the top of the tower, where, Pepper remembered, Loki had been defeated by Hulk, but she hoped maybe he could get past that and appreciate the openness of it after being shut up in the tower without seeing the outside for weeks.
He circled the room slowly, as if he were cautious, while Pepper watched him a bit apprehensively. "Well." He finally said. "I see you fixed my addition to this room."
Pepper blinked in surprise before she realized he meant the holes in the floor from when the Hulk had swung him around. She laughed, glad that he was making light of that event. It seemed knowing Phil was alive had had a great effect on him.
"May I go outside?" Loki asked politely, pointing to the door.
"Of course. Would you like me to leave?" Pepper responded.
"No. I would appreciate the company." He admitted slowly.
She followed him out onto the patio area, and he closed his eyes for a moment, as if simply drinking in the feeling of the sun of his face.
"I haven't been outside in almost three months. I never realized how much I enjoy the warmth of the sun."
"You know, you're different than how Tony described you to me." Pepper stated.
He opened his eyes and turned to face her. "Oh?"
"He said you were damaged, closed, and frightened. You're being fairly open with me, and you don't seem frightened."
Loki chewed his bottom lip. "I have been mending, faster than I thought possible, with my brother's care and Doctor Banner and Captain Roger's offers of friendship. As for being frightened, I now see I have nothing to fear here."
"And me?"
"I suppose it's because you don't seem to hold any ill will against me."
Pepper paused. "Well, I did, but well, that went away fairly fast. You see, it seems to me like all you want is someone to remember the good things you've done and not just the bad. I used to feel like that."
Loki looked at her curiously. "What makes you think that?"
"I've talked to Bruce about you. That was his impression."
Loki was expressionless and Pepper was afraid he was going to furious, but then he sighed. "I suppose Doctor Banner is just trying to help."
"I might try to acknowledge things, but I don't know anything about you really, except some Norse myths."
Loki actually smiled. "I could tell you some things, if you like. I'm afraid some of the myths are entirely false or exaggerated."
"I'd like that very much."
"…We really shouldn't have ventured into the mountains by ourselves, but the idea of facing the dangerous creatures that live there was just too much of an invitation for Thor, and I was idiotic to go with him."
"Maybe, but you saved his life. I'm sure he was thankful."
"…I don't know. He never said anything on the matter afterwards." Loki replied.
Pepper was accompanying Loki back to the library, while listening to his tales of his adventures in Asgard, and other realms. She was honestly highly enjoying them, as well as learning what myths were true, and which ones weren't. This last bit in information surprised her though. "What?"
"He was beginning to get arrogant and reckless at that time. He knew the throne was his, and that made him overconfident. I was beginning to feel jealousy at that time."
"But you still loved him."
"…Yes."
"Brother!"
And, funnily enough, Thor was coming down the hallway towards them. "Loki, I was worried when you were not in the library."
"Lady Potts was just allowing me outside as well as telling me other areas of the tower I could visit." Loki replied pleasantly.
"Please, Loki, call me Pepper."
"If that's what you would like."
"Thor, could I speak to you for a minute?" Pepper asked.
"Certainly."
"I'll be on my way back to the library. Lady Pepper-"
"Just Pepper."
"Pepper has recommended a series of books to me. You said the title was The Lord of the Rings, correct? I haven't read them and I think I would like to." Loki headed off down the hallway, disappearing around a corner.
"You're okay with him being alone?" Pepper asked.
"As long as Barton is not here. I do believe Barton is a good man, but I do not trust him where my brother is concerned." Thor answered. "What was it you wished to speak with me about?"
"I think Loki feels a bit… underappreciated."
Thor looked surprised. "Not a day goes by that I do not tell him that I love him."
Pepper shook her head. "Obviously that helps a lot, but that's not quite what I meant. I mean I think he feels like you don't respect him."
Thor looked confused. "Of course I respect my brother."
"If you could let him know you appreciate his abilities somehow-"
"I cannot do so out of the blue. He would know you spoke to me on the matter and he would get very irritated with both of us."
"Well, the chance comes up to say something, take it. Just subtly." Pepper said. "And he knows you love him, and he loves you too, you know. Very much. I can tell."
Thor gave a broad smile. "I know. Thank you for the advice, I think I will go join him now." He gave a respectful nod of his head and followed the hall leading to the library.
Pepper smiled happily and decided to go to one of the offices to get some work done, when Tony's voice came over the hidden speakers.
"Pepper, JARVIS told me you just spent the last hour and a half with Loki."
Pepper groaned and rolled her eyes. "Yes, I did."
"Would you mind coming to the lab so I can talk to you a minute?" Tony's voice sounded stern, but not angry.
"Right away Tony." Pepper replied, beginning to make her way to the lab.
It was time to face the music, she supposed, but it was worth it, because she had helped Loki. And it seemed like she may have sparked a friendship between herself and the god of lies.
Now that was an amusing thought.
End Chapter
A/N: I've been fighting with myself ever since the beginning of this story about bringing Coulson in or not. Well, ultimately, I decided I had to, because it's Coulson, and it would make for some very interesting character interactions coming up here (won't say more than that).
I just hope Pepper and Loki were in character. Loki, I love you, but you're so hard to write.
Oh yes, and I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, or a wonderful time of whatever holiday you celebrate. And a Happy New Year!