Chapter Thirteen

Pepper hadn't been able to sleep or eat. She took a shower and did her hair. Her eyes were red and there were dark circles under them. "I look like a nightmare." She stated as she looked into the mirror.

She had been waiting for eight and a half hours since Tony had called. She was about to leave with Happy to go to the Airforce base. She dressed in a casual business suit and walked out the front door, telling Jarvis to lock it after she left.

Pepper and Happy arrived at the base a half an hour later, she had about an hour to wait. This was going to be the longest hour of her life.

Half an hour later Happy was able to get clearance to drive him and Pepper down to the tarmac to wait for the plane.

Now she had a half an hour to wait. "This is going to kill me." Pepper said, standing on the tarmac.

"That would be a shame, since Tony will be here in...27 minutes." Happy said, smirking.

"Okay, so I was being a little dramatic. I'm just having a hard time waiting." Pepper shifted on her feet.

Finally, ten minutes later, she could make out the speck on the horizon, a plane coming in. Pepper's stomach was doing flip-flops. It was a good thing she hadn't eaten anything, otherwise, it might be making an appearance on the tarmac.

The plane finally landed and taxied its way over to where Pepper and Happy were located. The back ramp of the plane lowered, she could see Tony stand up from a wheel chair and slowly made his way down the ramp with Rhodey's help.

Pepper's eyes started to tear up. 'Not again.' She moaned, she had cried way too much these past months. She knew there would be cameras watching them, and that there would be the slight chance that whatever happened could make its way on to the internet, but she didn't care. Tony was home.

Tony was half way to her, waving away a gurney. Pepper couldn't help but laugh. And she could hardly wait for him to get to her.

She started walking toward him. They met somewhere in the middle. They stopped and stared at each other for just a moment, Pepper inspecting him. Other than a couple of cuts on his face and neck, he looked fine. He had taken off the sling that held one of his arms, apparently, he wasn't hurt too badly.

Tony watched her watching him. This was quite entertaining. He noticed that her eyes were red, and there were dark circles under them, and her clothes didn't fit her as well. He brought his hand up to the side of her face and wiped a stray tear away with his thumb. "Pepper." Tony said quietly.

Pepper could hardly breathe, her chest felt tight. "Don't ever go to Afghanistan again." She said, her voice low.

Tony couldn't help but smile, "I won't go back if you stop starving yourself and losing sleep over me."

Pepper's mouth opened, she couldn't think of what to say for a moment. "Do I really look that bad?"

Tony snorted, "No. I can just tell that you're completely stressed and you probably suffered some kind of anxiety while I was gone."

"I couldn't help it. It's not like I tried to starve myself! I just..." For once, she couldn't think of what to say.

"You know, you can die from lack of sleep, and lack of eating." Tony said, "You were probably in danger of dying just as much as I was." He winked and stepped closer to her.

Pepper choked out a laugh, she was trying hard not to cry. This was the most ridiculous conversation ever. And she was having it with him the minute he had stepped off the plane from being a hostage in Afghanistan.

Tony closed the gap between them and wrapped his arms around her. Encasing her completely in his arms. Pepper let out a sigh, her knees shaking. Her eyes closed, and she let herself melt against him.

"Tony, I missed you so much. Don't ever leave." She whispered.

Tony bent his head down, kissing the top of her head. "I won't leave you."


Tony and Pepper got in the car, "Where to sir?" Happy asked.

"Take us to the hospital please, Happy." Pepper said.

"No." Tony said defiantly.

"No?" Pepper asked, completely confused. "Tony, you have to go to the hospital."

"No, I don't really have to do anything, I've been in captivity for three months. I want an American Cheeseburger, and I want you to call for a press conference."

"Uh-what? A press conference? Are you being serious right now?" Pepper asked.

"Yes, I am."

"You're delirious." Pepper said.

"Hogan, drive. Cheeseburger first." Tony commanded.


They arrived at Stark Industries, Obadiah opened Tony's door to let him out. "Look at this!" He smiled nicely, "We were going to meet at the hospital." Obadiah said, confused.

"No, I'm fine." Tony said, brushing past him.

Pepper walked in right behind Tony, who was chomping away at a cheeseburger. She could not believe him. Then she spotted someone she knew from a long time ago. "Tony!" She hissed, he turned in her direction as they walked. Her eyes grew wide, "There's an agent from S.H.I.E.L.D. here..."

Tony shrugged, "Okay..."

"And he had a huge crush on me when I worked there!" Pepper spat out.

Tony started laughing, "He's probably just here to listen to what I'm going to say." He said, almost walking backwards in order to talk to Pepper.

"And what are you going to say?" She asked suspiciously.

"And he wouldn't win in a competition between me and him." Tony said, choosing not to answer her question.

"What do you mean?" Pepper asked, genuinely confused.

"I mean, if he-they, wanted you to go back and work for S.H.I.E.L.D., there would be no competition, because, clearly, it's better to work for me than that crazy man FURY." Tony said, accentuating the name Fury and making a face. He did that every time.

"I'm right though, right?" Tony said with a knowing smile. She wouldn't quit. No way.

Pepper just rolled her eyes, but with a smile on her face.

Pepper stood toward the back, she hadn't spotted the agent again since they had entered.

"Miss Potts?" Pepper jumped slightly.

"Oh! Hi Agent Coulson..." Pepper gave a small smile.

Agent Coulson looked her over for a moment, "You seem a little flustered."

"Uh, yes. It's been one surprise right after another today." She said.

"We would like to debrief Mr. Stark about the circumstances of his escape." He stated.

"I'll put something in the book, shall I?" She asked, smiling nicely again.

Rhodey came up and stood next to Pepper. "Do you know why he's calling for a press conference?"

"I have no clue." Pepper said. "I don't know what he's up to."

Tony started the conference with a shocking opener, "I saw young Americans killed, by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw, that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability."

"Mr. Stark!" A reporter cried out. "What happened over there?" He asked. The room went dead silent.

"I had my eyes opened. I came to realize, that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International-" The entire room exploded with questions from reporters.

"Oh my..." Pepper's mouth had fallen open in complete surprise. Rhodey couldn't believe what his friend had just said.

"-until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be. What direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country as well." He ended, his voice raising over the commotion of the room.

Obadiah took over the podium from Tony, "What we should take away from this, is that...Tony's back!" He called, trying to draw the attention to himself. "And he's healthier than ever. We're going to have a little internal discussion, and we'll get back to you with the follow-up." Nobody was really paying attention. They were trying to get to Tony.

"Mr. Stark!" They all called at different times. It was a tidal wave of reporters. Tony made a bee-line right for Pepper.

"Come on, let's go." He said as he grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the oncoming reporters. Tony could feel Obadiah's eyes boring into the back of his head.


"Are you NUTS?" Pepper yelled as they both shut the doors to their car.

"Someone is shipping weapons from Stark Industries to the Middle East. They're FUNDING the war, Pepper! They're fueling it." Tony couldn't help but feel responsible.

"But Tony! We should have been more quiet about it, looked things up and tried to see who it was before letting them know we knew something was going on under the table!" Pepper exclaimed.

"Pepper, the longer we wait, more weapons will only make their way into the Middle East, and I don't want that to happen. I WILL find them. Fire them. Put them in jail. Anything." Tony took a deep breath and sank into the seat of his chair.

"All right...I'll trust you on this one, but I really hope you find who ever is doing this before the stocks drop horribly." Pepper said.

"I don't care anymore." Tony said bluntly.

"Okay...well, I guess that doesn't matter then." Pepper said, getting a bit annoyed. She couldn't help but be happy though. Tony was back.


A day later, Tony and Pepper sat in the kitchen of the mansion. "I'm sorry I didn't let you take the suit with you." Pepper said.

Tony seemed a little taken back, "Uh...what?" He thought for a moment, then realized what she meant, "Please don't blame yourself for what happened, Pepper. We went over why I shouldn't take the armor to Afghanistan, and you were right, and I still stand by that." He stood from the table and walked over to her. She was standing by the fridge, taking out the milk and filling up a cup and adding some Nestle chocolate powder.

"Chocolate milk?" Pepper asked, handing him the cup.

"I thought you were making that for yourself." Tony said, not taking the cup from her.

She still held it out to him, "I'm not hungry."

"Have you eaten anything this morning?" He asked.

There was a pause. "No..."

Tony sighed, "Pepper, you've got to eat something."

"I know." She said, finally looking up at him. "I'm just trying to ease into things."

Tony narrowed his eyes at her, "I mean, right now. Can I see you eat something?" Tony asked. He pointed at the cup of chocolate milk, "Drink it."

Pepper rolled her eyes and brought the cup to her lips. She took a few sips, stared at it for a moment, and then downed the entire thing. "Okay. I'm hungry." She turned back to the fridge and opened it, taking out the eggs.

She held the eggs for a minute, just staring at them. "I don't think I can eat eggs." She was losing her appetite again.

"What? How come?" Tony asked.

"I ate eggs every morning when you were gone." She said quietly.

"Oh...well, you could eat toast! Or a banana. Or...cereal. French toast? Pancakes. Waffles? I'll make something for you! Just go sit down, and it'll be done in a minute." He smiled and pushed her toward the table.

"See? It'll be like I never left. Like when I made breakfast for you every morning after your car accident." He said, trying to convince Pepper he really was perfectly fine.

He bent over to grab a frying pan, pain shooting through his chest. He dropped the frying pan and fell to one knee.

"Tony?" Pepper ran around the counter and found him kneeling on the floor. "Are you okay? What's wrong? What happened?" She asked frantically.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Tony mumbled, standing up. He stood too quickly. His eyesight went fuzzy and he started to lean forward. Pepper grabbed him around the waist, trying to keep him steady. It was like hugging a rag-doll. He was going to fall on top of her.

Tony reached out and grabbed the side of the counter. "I'm good. I'm okay." He said, his eyes closed.

"Are you sure?" She asked hesitantly. She was still wrapped around him.

"Uh, ya. Ya, I'm okay now." Tony smiled at the thought of Pepper trying to hold him up.

Before Pepper let go, Tony wrapped his arms around her, trapping her against him. "You know what this reminds me of?" He asked, laughing as Pepper responded with a muffled, "What?" Her face was buried in his chest.

"When I was wheeling you out of the hospital, and you tried to get out of the wheelchair by yourself." He said, still laughing.

Pepper couldn't help but laugh either. "I'm so stubborn."

"Ya you are." He said, letting her go.

"Okay, but what's wrong?" She asked, motioning to all of him.

"Well...my shoulders are burning, my cuts are stinging, oh, and my arc reactor is failing." He threw in.

"What?" Pepper exclaimed, "Make a new one! Go downstairs!" She shoved him toward the basement while Tony laughed. "I'll be down there in a little bit to check on you." She said. "I'll make my own breakfast."

"You better!" Tony called from the stairs.

Tony stumbled down to the basement, "Wow, this thing barely took any of the power I hooked it up to yesterday." The minute he had gotten home from the press conference, he had headed straight for the basement to plug in his arc reactor. Apparently, it had barely lasted the night.

"This thing is depleting fast!" He sat down on the old couch and plugged the cord into the side of his reactor. He sat there for about twenty minutes, watching TV before he unplugged it and started on a new one.


Pepper had successfully made herself some breakfast and then turned on the TV. After watching the News for about an hour and working on e-mails she asked Jarvis how Tony was doing.

"Jarvis, how is Tony doing downstairs?" She asked.

"Miss Potts, Mr. Stark has collapsed to the floor." It took a moment for Pepper to realize what Jarvis had just said.

"WHAT? Jarvis! You're supposed to tell me these things!" She jumped off the couch and ran down the stairs, she opened the door using her code and stepped into the work space.

"Tony?" Pepper called, walking around and trying to find him. She finally found him by his desk. He was lying on his side and breathing shallowly.

She turned him onto his back and assessed the problem. His shirt was off, and in his hand he was holding the old arc reactor, she looked at his chest, expecting to find an empty cylinder. But instead, she found a new shiny arc reactor. She frowned, then what was the problem?

"Jarvis? What am I supposed to do?" Pepper asked, looking around for something, anything to use.

"Miss Potts, if you could plug him in, it would be greatly appreciated. But he will still need to sleep for a short time while the new reactor charges."

Pepper ran and grabbed the charger for Tony's reactor and pulled it in his direction. It wouldn't reach. "Oh you've got to be kidding me!" She yelled to no one in particular.

She couldn't unplug it because it had to be hooked to a power source that emitted energy in small waves, rather than the ongoing ones. And there was only one of those in this basement. She turned around and looked at the sleeping Tony. She could already feel her muscles aching at the idea of lifting him and/or dragging him to the couch. She put her forearms under his arms and lifted his upper half off the ground, then turned him in the direction of the couch. She heard him mumble a bit, but she couldn't hear what he said. She dragged him across the cold floor, only feet from the couch.

"Almost there..." She groaned, trying to lift him further off the ground and on to the couch.

"Hmm?" She heard Tony mumble, his eyes fluttering open. "What the...?" He asked, she could tell he still wasn't entirely awake.

She set him down on the floor as she sat down on the couch and let out a huff. "Tony, you need to lay down on the couch, please." She said, patting the couch cushion next to her.

Tony moved slowly, getting up, not even opening his eyes and rolled onto the couch. And right on top of Pepper.

"Oof!" Pepper yelled, surprised. He had fallen right on top of her. She was now laying on the couch, with a dead-weight. She didn't want to wake him, but she needed to grab the plug-in. She reached out toward the floor, her fingers flailing.

"So...close..." She moaned. She shifted slightly, Tony mumbling something as she moved.

"Yes!" She whispered as she grabbed it. She pulled the cord and plugged it into Tony's reactor implant. She let out a sigh, "Finally."

She was about to shift herself from under Tony when he snaked his arms under and around her, pinning her arms against her and burying his head in the crook of her neck. "Ooookay..." She whispered. Unless she wanted to wake him up, there was nothing she could do, except, act as a giant pillow for Tony Stark.

She looked around the room, "Jarvis...how long does Tony need to sleep for?" She whispered.

"Approximately two hours." Jarvis stated.

Pepper's face pinched together in a grimace. "Oh man...two hours? I have so much to do." She thought for a moment, "I guess I could just take a nap for...two hours." She rolled her eyes.

Pepper wondered what it would be like to date Tony...

"Don't go there..." She said to herself. She laid there, trying to make her mind void of anything Tony. But that was proving to be extremely difficult, since he was lying on top of her. She became very aware of his breath on her throat, his bare chest and bandaged shoulders, and the fact that his arms were woven around her.

She closed her eyes and forced herself to take a nap.


Tony started to register a really loud and annoying beeping noise. "Jarvis...Turn it off." He moaned.

"Sir, Miss Potts told me to wake you when your two hours were up. It has been approximately two hours." Jarvis quipped.

"Thank you." Tony mumbled. He started to realize that the couch he was laying on was quite stiff and not completely flat...he opened his eyes and lifted his head off the "couch".

"Oh..." Tony's eyes widened. He was looking right at a sleeping Pepper. "What on earth happened?" He asked himself.

Pepper stirred slightly, moving her head to the other side. Tony slowly got off of her and sat on the edge of the couch and placed his arm on the other side of her. "Pepper..." Tony said, "I think our nap is over."

Pepper's eyes fluttered open, "Mmmkay." She mumbled and turned onto her side. Tony chuckled, "Pepper, I'm sure there's a lot of stuff you need to do. I know I've got a lot to work on."

Pepper forced her eyes open and sighed, "Next time, can you have someone else plug you in? I don't think I have the time to take a nap every time you have to charge."

Tony laughed and shook his head, "I don't have anyone...but you, to...you know, help me out." Pepper looked up to see him completely serious.

She took a deep breath and sat up on the couch and looked at Tony. "Maybe you should put a shirt on, you're making me crazy." She patted his chest where the arc reactor was and stood.

She passed by him and went up the stairs to work on her laptop. Tony was still staring at where she had disappeared at the top of the stairs. "I'm making her crazy? I hope that's a good kind of crazy..." He smiled at the thought of it.

Tony went to work on repairing his old arc reactor, but finally got fed up with it and threw it aside. He went over to his other desk, sitting down and turning on the TV while he worked on the Iron Man armor a bit more.


Hahahaha I hope you enjoyed that. I know it was more mushy...sorry. Just building it up! :D Reviews would be awesome!