Disclaimer: Sad face. Nope.
Notes: Sorry for any mistakes! So much going on, so excited, I can't contain myself! I will be on fire this week. Look for updates! Thank you guys for all of the continuing reviews and follows. You guys are fun to chat with. Those of you who I owe a reply to...I will soon. Toodles!
Pepper lay awake in bed. Her eyes were heavy with sleep, but her mind raced at a million miles per second. She knew she needed sleep if she was to be a functioning human being in the morning, but having Tony half-way around the world, dealing with a potential nuclear crisis, had her worrying more than usual.
She sighed as she tugged at the blanket just below her chest.
For minutes she forced herself to think about everything else but Iron Man. Without much luck. It was when she finally let herself see the image of Tony sitting next to her on the sand that she managed to close her eyes and sleep.
"Ms. Potts…" She heard the programmed voice in her sleep. "Ms. Potts…"
Pepper stirred in her sleep. Nightmares plagued her as she wrapped herself tighter in the sheets.
"Ms. Potts." This time Jarvis sounded a bit more human when he raised the level of his computerized voice.
Her eyes shot open as she heard the AI bring her back from her nightmares. "Jarvis, what's the matter? Is Tony alright?" She sat up in the dark.
"Soaring high, Ms. Potts." She exhaled in relief. "I detect Colonel Rhodes is nearing the mansion in the War Machine."
Quickly Pepper stood to dress herself. A small sense of panic crept into her mind. If Tony was alright, but Rhodey was on his way at such late hour, in his suit, what was the cause?
"Did he say why he was headed over, Jarvis?" She laced up her dusty Converse before pulling one of Tony's MIT hoodies over her head.
"I'm afraid not, Ms. Potts. He has not communicated with me."
Many thoughts forced themselves into her mind as she walked down the steps and into Tony's work shop. Surely something was bothering him, or perhaps Tony. Had Tony sent Rhodey to check up on her? She was sure if that was the case she would be a little upset at Tony for bothering their friend with such a task. It would be sweet, but annoying.
Perhaps Rhodey had been sent over by SHIELD. That worried her more, because it would mean a real threat to her safety existed.
She went over every possible scenario as she entered her code and stepped into the large work space. The lights instantly came on with her presence.
"How far is he, Jarvis?" Pepper walked over to the platform where Rhodey would be rid of his suit.
"Thirty seconds."
On cue, a low roar could be heard coming from outside the exit tunnel. Soon after, a soft yellow light could be seen as the thrusters illuminated the corridor.
A surge of adrenaline surged through her body. If her friend gave her word that she was in danger, she would immediately prepare herself for battle. She smiled proudly at her brave thought. Maybe Tony really was rubbing off on her.
Rhodey walked quickly towards her as his face plate came up. "Pepper!" He breathed out loud.
"What's wrong, Rhodey?" Her eyes widened at his tone.
"Are you alright? Where's Happy? Are you alone? How are you?" He breathed all at once.
Pepper shook her head and lifted her palm up to slow him down. "I'm ok. Slow down." She pulled his arm to lead him to the platform. He stepped onto it and looked at her as the bots discarded his suit piece by piece. His eyes roamed her to make sure she was telling the truth. She felt his skeptic study of her body language. "Rhodey!" She got his attention. "I'm alright. What the hell is going on? Why are you here so late? Out of breath? In a panic?"
"Tony sent me." He looked at her and turned to see the work the bots were carrying out on him. Still amazed by their precision. When he didn't hear Pepper respond, he looked back to her. "Before you get upset, he has good reason to be worried."
She stood rooted and urged him to continue. "Why? When did you talk to him? Is he ok?"
It was Rhodey's turn to signal her need to take a breath. "He's alright. The nuclear plant was a false alarm. Someone intentionally created a panic at the plant to have him check it out. To get him out of here."
Her red hair moved on her shoulders as she shook her head in confusion. "Who did that? Why would they?"
"He thinks it was The Mandarin. To get to you. So he wouldn't be here to stop him when he showed up for you."
"That doesn't make any sense. The Mandarin has given him no reason to think he's after me. Tony's reaching."
"That man is capable of everything and anything. Tony has good reason to be alarmed. Whether they did it because of you or not, someone wanted him out of reach for a reason. And until we know for sure, he wants someone around to make sure you're safe." He stepped off the platform free to move naturally. He stopped a few feet from her. "Where's Happy? Why is your bodyguard not with you?" He rolled his eyes playfully.
She smiled through the haze of information and thoughts that hung in the air. "I sent him home, Rhodey. He has a life you know."
"Happy? Nope. I doubt it." They laughed.
"Anyway, I'm ok. The mansion is secured. I was trying to sleep before you showed up."
Rhodey nodded apologetically. "I'm sorry. I was going to stop by earlier, but I got hung up."
"Well I'm ok." She walked away and sat on the leather couch. "So is Tony keeping you here until he arrives or can you go home and sleep?"
He smiled. "Sorry. I'm on patrol until he gets here. You can go to bed, though. No need for you to stay up." He sat in Tony's chair. "Jarvis, can you let Tony know that the package is safe. I'll stay here until he's back."
"Yes, Colonel."
Her arm went numb as she slept awkwardly on the leather couch. Rhodey had insisted she go up to her bedroom, but she had argued that Tony might need her if he got back injured in some way. She wasn't aware of said arm until someone moved her. The feeling of ants crawling up and down her arm forced her eyes open.
For a moment she forgot where she was. The realization that she was being pulled towards his body made her more alert. "My arm is tingling." Why she allowed those words to be the first ones for him to hear was beyond her. Pepper chastised herself in her head.
"Hi to you, too. I like your sweater." Tony smiled broadly down at her. "I didn't mean to wake you. I'm sorry. You looked uncomfortable." He knelt down next to her.
"I think I was. My arm went numb." She smiled sleepily.
Tony nodded. "Let's get you to bed, then." He moved to take her body into his arms, but was stopped momentarily when Pepper pulled him in for a deep kiss.
"Are you ok?" Pepper breathed against his lips. He only nodded. "Am I ok?" He nodded again, this time more determined. As long as there was air in his lungs, he would protect her above everything and everyone else.
"Where's Rhodey?" He asked.
Pepper sat up slowly. "I sent him to the guest room. He was falling asleep on your chair." Tony smiled. "Why do you guys always choose to subject yourselves to such torture?"
"We're men." He shrugged. "We're masochists by nature." They chuckled softly. A moment of silence surrounded them as they sat together on the couch. "Alright, let's go." Tony spoke as he took her hand in his.
They walked together towards the elevator, their bodies in desperate need of rest. Pepper sighed and leaned her head on Tony's shoulder while they made their way up. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" She asked quietly with her eyes closed.
"In the morning." He unlaced their hands in order to wrap his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to his side.
It was hours later when Tony woke up wrapped in Pepper's arms. The tinted windows kept the sun out, but he knew they had slept well into the late morning. He felt it in the headache he was currently cursing.
He could spend forever in bed with his redhead, but there was so much going on in his head, so much he needed to voice out loud to get input from those most important in his life, that he knew he couldn't.
That and he needed caffeine.
Carefully he turned in place to face the woman beside him. He lifted her arm from around his waist and took her knuckles to his lips. Immediately feeling the sensation, Pepper smiled in her sleep. He was disappointed when she didn't wake up, but he accepted the fact that she was allowing herself some much needed rest.
Tony stared at her for a couple of minutes until his phone vibrated on the nightstand. He turned slowly and grunted inwardly when he saw who the caller was. An irritated finger of his poked at the decline button, and with one last glance back at Pepper, he got up and went to freshen up.
"Morning sleepy head." Tony yawned as he headed straight to the kitchen. Rhodey grinned over the newspaper in his hands.
"Ah, this is why I keep you around." Tony sighed as he served himself the biggest mug of coffee he could find.
"Freshly brewed. I've had about three. Thought I'd make a new one for you two." He looked towards the stairs in search of Pepper. "Where is she, by the way?"
"Sleeping." He gulped the warm liquid. "I didn't want to wake her. She needs some rest." Tony pulled out a stool and sat at the island across from Rhodey.
"Good call." Rhodey commented as he went back to reading the sports section.
They enjoyed the quiet that surrounded them. It wasn't too long after that they both turned when Pepper yawned her way into the kitchen.
"Morning, Potts." Tony sipped on his coffee and eyed her over the brim of his mug.
Her only reply was a low mumble as she too served herself a steaming cup of coffee.
"It's clear you two are meant for each other." Rhodey folded the newspaper and looked at his friends. "Grumpy risers." He chuckled. "So can we go over what happened last night."
"Let me get through at least one cup, Rhodey. Please." Pepper smiled sleepily. She moved to sit right next to Tony. Rhodey smiled and nodded. "Morning, Stark." She kissed his cheek.
The three of them sat quietly in the kitchen. Rhodey browsed his iPhone. Tony stared at the coffee left in his Iron Man mug. Pepper sipped on her own coffee while she looked intently at Tony, gauging his current level of stress.
"So what exactly did happen yesterday?" Pepper broke the silence.
As much as Tony didn't want to hear Pepper's rants about him being over-protective, he knew he had to tell her what he was thinking. Even if it meant she would scream and yell for him to worry about everything else but her.
Tony sighed and finished off the last of his coffee. "I got to the nuclear plant and found it was all bells and whistles. I looked for fires, for explosions, for injured workers, but I only found alarms blaring. One of the workers led me to their housings for the nuclear rods, and he showed me the gauges. Everything was signaling for an impending disaster. But he quickly told me nothing was actually happening. The rods weren't exposed to high temperatures. The cooling water was not boiling. Nothing was leaking. He was more worried that the system could be malfunctioning. No system, no warning in the even that something actually did go wrong. I could build them a better system. I need to work on that." He paused to think to himself. Rhodey cleared his throat, letting Tony know he should continue. "Right. So I was going to evacuate their hazard zones, but not much after we saw a taunting skull. When I asked the employee whether that was part of their warning system or not, and he let me know it wasn't, I pretty much knew then. The damn skull laughed at us. At me, really. I knew someone had pulled me out there intentionally."
Pepper held her head with her elbow on the island and her palm on her cheek. A consoling hand rubbed his back. "You panicked."
Tony rolled his eyes. "You bet your pretty CEO butt I did." He nodded. "One thought entered my mind. Someone got me out here to get to Pepper. They have to know by now that you're the only thing keeping me sane." Pepper smiled tenderly and covered one of Tony's hands with hers. "I immediately wanted someone to be with you in case my suspicions were correct."
"They weren't." Pepper shrugged.
"You don't know that." He argued.
"So what are you thinking?" Rhodey chimed in.
"It has to be directly connected to The Mandarin. He's messing with my head."
"People are good at pushing your buttons." Pepper teased.
Tony rolled his eyes again. "Wrong. I'm good at pushing people's buttons."
Pepper nodded. "No rebuttal here."
"So what's your plan?" Rhodey crossed his arms across his chest.
"I have an idea, but it will require me asking for a costly favor." Tony shook his head.
"From?" Pepper asked with a hint of worry.
"Sir, you have an incoming call from Director Fury." The group jumped at the sudden intrusion before Tony huffed in annoyance.
"Tell him I'm busy." Tony dismissed the call right away as he stood to pour himself more coffee.
"He says he needs to speak with you about a scientist he's recruited, sir."
Rhodey looked at Tony before he turned to look at Pepper; her brows were knitted in curiosity.
"Tell him I've beat him to whatever his plan is. Doesn't he know who I am by now?"
"Is that second part a rhetorical question sir or would you like for me to ask him?" Jarvis replied.
"No. Don't ask him. Let him know who I am." Tony grinned at Pepper.
"Maybe you should talk to him, man." Rhodey shrugged. "It sounds important."
"It can wait." Tony stood to get more coffee.
"Sir, he's hung up."
Tony's brows met his hairline in surprise. "Wow. He gave up? He's slipping." He shook his head playfully.
Just as Tony sat down and took a sip of his coffee, Rhodey's iPhone sounded. He looked up with a grin at Tony. "Dad's calling me, now. See what you've done?"
Face palm. Tony shook his head and groaned. "Tell him I'm not here."
"Right." Rhodey rolled his eyes. He hit the accept button on his screen and proceeded to talk to Fury. "Rhodes. Tony's not answering his phone? Why am I not surprised. Maybe he's busy. Yeah, I don't know. We had coffee together earlier. Got it. I'll let him know." He disconnected the call and looked up at the pair before him. He blew out a breath and shook his head.
Tony sighed. "What did he want?"
Rhodey looked at him and back and Pepper. "That scientist he hired. She's headed over here now."
"What?" Pepper looked up from the island countertop. "Why is she coming here?"
"He wants us to work together." Rhodey stated flatly. "He said she is a valuable asset to this mission."
"I know she is. She's my way to finding out everything I want to know about The Mandarin."
Pepper turned her head slightly to capture Tony's eyes. "Wait, you know her? Is she with SHIELD?"
Tony nodded. "I know her. She doesn't work for SHIELD directly. They're kind of…borrowing her."
"How do you know her?" Pepper asked curiously.
His mouth opened slightly as he was about to tell her, but Jarvis interrupted them, yet again. "Sir, there is a Maya Hansen at the main gate. Says she was sent by Directory Fury."
'Oh boy.' Tony thought to himself. He stared at Rhodey's shocked expression. "Maya?" Rhodey asked with wide eyes. Tony nodded.
"Am I missing something?" Pepper smiled. "Who's Maya?"
"Let her in, Jarvis." Tony turned to look at Pepper innocently.
To be continued…
Just under 10 days! Lucky the ones that are watching it this week. Enjoy it for me! OBVIOUSLY stay past the credits. I'm going to be on a roll, I hope. I would have posted this earlier but I lost my flash. You guys wouldn't guess where it was. That's right, under my nose. Hooked to my tower at work. I never look at my tower since it's in the bottom in a small compartment with a door. LOL. Oops. Anyway…LONG LIVE IRON MAN! And Pepperony of course!