Hey, I know it's been a while since I last updated. Well, not really THAT long, but I thought I'd just throw you this chapter to mind-chew for the day. Hope you like it :)
Chapter Six
Tony had flown all the way home with Pepper in his arms. Tony didn't think it would be very comfortable, but all Pepper would say was, "I'm fine..." very quietly, her eyes staring off at the horizon. Tony and Rhodey landed at the armory, safe and sound. Tony carried a sleepy Pepper to a makeshift bed (in other words: couch with a blanket) in the corner of the room in front of a TV. By now, it was 3:00 a.m.
Tony removed the Iron Man armor and helped Rhodey with his. Tony flipped on CNN News, "Back to you, Erica." An anchor said. "Thanks, Rick. Here in Afghanistan, by the Helmand River, an enormous boom shook the area. People close by thought it was an earthquake, or the end of the world. Scientists have found a gigantic crater in the ground, and they have no idea what caused it yet. So far, it's still a mystery. People that heard it say it was around 7:30 in the evening..."
Tony turned the TV off and sat down next to Pepper, who was stirring from her sleep. "Tony?" She mumbled.
"Ya?" He asked quietly.
"Was it all real?" She asked, her voice quivering.
"I'm sorry Pep...yes, it was." He laid his hand on top of hers, squeezing it gently.
She nodded slightly, tears glistening in her eyes. "What time is it?" She asked, out of the blue.
"Oh, it's uh...3:20 in the morning." He said.
"3:20?!" She sat up abruptly. "I need to get ready! I've got work in a couple of hours!" She exclaimed, throwing the blanket off of her and pacing around the armory.
"Pepper, it's Saturday...do you work on the weekends?" He asked.
"Oh. No. I don't....Where's my blackberry?" She asked, frantic.
"I don't know, you're the only thing I picked up when we left from Afghanistan. Maybe you left it there." Tony supplied.
"Oh no, that's not good. That had everything I needed in it!" She said, throwing her hands in the air.
"Um...I don't think you can pack clothes and a toothbrush into a blackberry phone." Rhodey piped up from the table in the middle of the room.
Pepper deadpanned at Rhodey, "Are you serious, Rhodey? I meant other things, like scheduled meetings, and when I'm supposed to be to something, or...I don't know! Just other things!" She yelled.
"Okay, calm down, Pepper." Tony said, grabbing her shoulders. "You'll be fine. Just show up to work on Monday at the regular time, and hopefully things will just work out on their own."
Pepper nodded, "Okay, but I'm not very happy about it." She pouted.
"Well, I'm not flying all the way back to Afghanistan just to look for your cell phone. It could have fallen when you were in the Temple, and I'm not going back in there." Tony said.
"I know, I know...maybe I wrote some things down that will remind me." She said, exasperated. "Sorry, I'm just trying to adjust to everything that's happened, and somehow, worrying about other things is the only way that will clear my mind."
Tony nodded, concern in his eyes, "I know, I can't really believe it either."
Rhodey stood from the table, "I have to head off. We're doing some flight exercises today that they asked me to come to. I'll probably grab a nap and then go." He muttered, walking toward the door of the armory. Everyone seemed a little flustered and the situation itself just felt a bit surreal.
Tony nodded, "All right, we'll see you later, Rhodey."
Pepper went around the corner into the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and was honestly shocked. Her hair was a complete mess, her eyes were bloodshot, there were bags under them and her clothes were torn and dirty. She lifted up her pant legs to find bruises and cuts, along with her arms. "I am a complete mess..." She sighed.
Pepper went back out to find Tony, "Hey Tony?"
"Ya?" He said.
"Do you have any sweats here? I need to shower, but I don't have anything to change into." She said, slightly uncomfortable.
"Ya, sure!" He got up from his chair and meandered over to an old dresser they had stashed with emergency clothes and other needs.
He pulled out a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, handing them to Pepper. "Here you are."
Pepper took them, giving a small smile.
Tony put his hands in his pockets, "You know, I could just fly you to your apartment, if you'd like." Tony said.
Pepper thought about it for a moment. "Well...that would be nice, but I don't really feel like being alone for the rest of the early morning..." She said, "I know I won't be able to go to sleep for awhile."
Tony nodded understandingly, "All right, we can hang out here." He smiled.
"Okay, thanks Tony." Pepper smiled back and went to the bathroom to start her shower.
Pepper turned on the hot water and stepped in. She scrubbed at the dirt and cleaned her various cuts and washed her hair. She stood, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. With the pounding of the water, she knew she could cry and nobody would hear. So she did. She sat down at the bottom of the shower and cried, hugging her knees to her chest.
"Oh Gene, I'm so sorry...I wish I could have helped you." She whispered.
Tony stood outside of the armory, grabbing a quick breath of fresh air. He still couldn't quite believe what had happened only hours ago. He ran the whole scenario over in his head. He remembered shooting out of the Temple, grateful that Gene had been good enough to grab Pepper before she was crushed, but then feeling completely jealous and angry when Gene had kissed Pepper, just to get what he wanted.
Tony would never have done that. He went back to the movie reel in his head, seeing the kiss over and over again, how she had pushed him away, tears in her eyes, starting to run toward him...He put a hand over his face and let out a deep breath. "It's over. No more worrying about the Ten Rings." He reassured himself.
Oh how wrong he was.
Tony meandered back into the armory, walking past the bathroom on his way to the small fridge, packed with water bottles and other snacks. He heard silent cries, sniffling, and...talking? He stepped closer to the door, pressing his ear up against it. He knew it was a bit invasive, but if he knew Pepper, he knew that she was probably crying.
"I'm so sorry....so sorry." He heard her mumble, the water of the shower drowning it out a little.
Tony closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. He stepped to the side of the door and waited for just a couple minutes.
Pepper finally got up after a little while when the water started to turn cold and turned off the shower, grabbing a towel and drying herself off, putting on Tony's sweats and T-shirt, along with a hooded sweatshirt. She towel dried her hair, letting the natural waves of her hair take affect, and stepped out of the bathroom, finding Tony right next to the door, his eyebrows raised.
"You sure took awhile in there..." He trailed off.
Pepper shrugged her shoulders, "It felt nice to be clean again." She offered a small smile to cool his nerves, but he didn't believe it. This was Tony Stark she was talking to.
"Then how come your eyes are so red?" He asked, giving her a half smile of understanding. "And I think I heard some sniffling."
Pepper looked down to the floor, she knew all he wanted to do was help her, to comfort her. "I'm sorry, I'm just still not quite over the shock of it all yet, I guess. It'll take awhile." She said, almost whispered it.
Tony took her hand in his, "Come here." He said quietly, pulling her to him. He hugged her, letting her cry.
"Oh Tony, why couldn't we save him?" She cried, leaning against him, her face up against his chest. She could feel the hard Arc Reactor beneath his shirt.
"He just wouldn't listen to us, Pepper. It'll be all right." He said, rubbing her back for a minute. He pulled away from her, grabbing her hand and leading her to the couch. They sat down and Tony flipped on the TV.
After awhile of watching random early morning shows, Pepper was fast asleep, leaning against Tony. He looked her over, inspecting her. She seemed tired beyond belief. She probably saw or heard things in that Temple that he would never know about. He lifted up the baggy sleeves of his sweatshirt that she wore past her elbows, careful not to wake her. He found various cuts and bruises, her hands having some of the worst. He carefully maneuvered her in a comfortable position before he moved off of the couch.
He checked her feet and her knees, which also had some of the worst bruising he had ever seen. Discounting his own. Those kinds of things came with the job of being Iron Man. Tony grabbed disinfectant from a safety kit along with band-aids and gauze for the bigger cuts. He dressed her wounds carefully, trying not to wake her up.
When he was close to being finished, he realized that there was blood on the couch where she was laying. Blood? But he had checked her over, hadn't he gotten everything? And none of her cuts were big enough to be bleeding that much.
Pepper was sleeping soundly on her right side, her back pressed against the couch. She moved slightly and winced, her eyes fluttered open for a moment and her mouth opened in a grimace. She moved more onto her back, her (or Tony's shirt and sweatshirt) moved up a little, exposing her side.
Tony peered over her and looked at her right side. "Oh." He said, letting out a low whistle. "Ouch." He whispered, eyeing the painful looking gash on Pepper's right side. "That might need stitches..." He said to himself. He grabbed more gauze and disinfectant and started to clean it.
"AH!" Pepper yelled. Her eyes flew open, staring wildly at Tony, swatting his hand away at the same time. "What did you do? That hurt!" She said.
Tony seemed a little surprised by the sudden outburst. "Sorry, you had cuts all over you, and I noticed that there was blood on the couch!" Tony said in defense.
Pepper frowned, finally noticing all of the pain that was setting in. "Oh man, I feel so sore...and I hurt. It stings." She pouted.
"Can I at least clean it?" Tony asked, "I don't want it to get infected. I'll take you to the hospital when you want to go." He said calmly.
Pepper nodded, "That's fine."
Tony proceeded to clean it, hearing a hiss of pain from Pepper every now and then, her fingers clutching the matching couch pillow.
"There, all done." Tony said, sitting down and putting his arm over her. She still didn't move. He leaned closer and whispered, "Pep, you're okay now." When she didn't move, he started to run his fingers through her hair softly.
"I know." She said finally, quietly. "I'm just thinking."
"Care to share?" Tony asked.
"Just about pain. And what I felt before...." She trailed off, not wanting to say it.
Tony just nodded, "I didn't understand fully what was happening, Pepper. I'm sorry."
Pepper turned her head to look at him, "I guess the one that took the ring inside the Temple had to bear the pain if it was reunited with the other rings. Then it slowly siphoned from me to...him. I was just a storehouse for pain." Tears glistened in her eyes, threatening to spill.
Tony traced her jaw with his thumb, letting it rest just below her lips. "I'm sorry, Pepper. I wish I could have done something for you back there. For awhile, I wasn't sure if you were going to make it. I didn't know how bad it really was." He said truthfully.
Pepper sighed, closing her eyes, "Well, I'm still here." She said, a ghost of a smile forming on her lips.
"Why don't you get some more rest? When you wake up, I'll take you to the hospital." Tony leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
"Mmmkay..." Was all Pepper mumbled before falling asleep.
Tony took a few minutes to run over to the Rhodes' house and make some breakfast, startling Roberta as she was making her own breakfast. It was about 6:30 a.m.
"Tony! Oh my, I didn't see you there." She said, surprised.
"Oh! Hi, sorry. Rhodey didn't tell you we were here? Me and Pepper are just at the warehouse, she's not feeling very well, so I'm just going to make me and her some breakfast." He supplied, hoping she would buy it. Knowing her, she wouldn't. But she wasn't one to ask many questions when it came to Tony Stark.
"Uh huh....Well, you two have fun. I'm going to work. Bye, Tony." She said as she walked down the hall to the front door.
"Oh, ya, bye!" Tony called while grabbing a frying pan.
Tony made it back to the armory and Pepper was still asleep.
Pepper stirred when she started registering the smell of food. "Mmmm..." She got up off the couch and took a seat beside Tony, wincing every now and then when the bandages pulled on her skin in the various different places of her cuts.
"Thanks Tony." She said, slowly sitting down, "I feel like a grandma."
Tony laughed, "Uh...well, you definitely don't look like one."
Pepper smiled genuinely for what seemed like the first time in 36 hours.
The day went by pretty uneventfully. Tony took Pepper to the hospital, then took her to her apartment and helped her get settled in for a nap before heading to his own. He pulled his car up and got out. Tony's apartment was nicer than most, that was for sure. He quickly took a shower and changed into clean clothes before heading over to Stark Industries.
Tony went through the glass doors of his building, noticing how quiet it was. It was a Saturday evening, obviously no one would be there, or really should be there. But he was anyway. He couldn't seem to stay away, really.
Tony headed up to his office on the fifth floor, waiting for the familiar Ding! of the elevator before the doors opened. He took a deep breath and stepped into the hall, then opened the nice oak double doors to his office. He strode inside, letting the door swing shut behind him. He looked up to see someone standing on the other side of the room, looking out the floor to ceiling windows.
"Hello?" Tony asked cautiously. "The building is closed for the day..." He trailed off.
The figure turned around, and Tony could not believe his eyes.
"Dad?"
"Hi, Tony. It's nice to see you again." Howard Stark smiled warmly at his son for the first time in almost seven years.
All righty then! I still have a ways to go, but I hope you've liked the story so far!
