Hmm...well, chapter one wasn't very well received I see. It even deleted itself. See, you made it commit suicide because you didn't review. For shame.

I apologise for taking so long with this chapter, but ironically Iron Man distracted me. I downloaded every single comic from Tales of Suspense to Volume 5 so they've been keeping me busy.

This chapter was spurred on by 'Why' by Rascal Flatts.

After spending a whole extra forty-five minutes driving in the wrong direction, Virginia finally made it to the address Carrie had given her. She'd guessed the sort of house she was aiming for when she saw the street name; Washington Road, but when she saw the actual house, she gaped in astonishment. The driveway alone was huge, filled with gravel and complete with a fountain – a friggin' fountain! – in the middle of it, which lead up to a small set of marble steps to the double front doors. Various types of flora and fauna was scattered on each side of the drive and the front door, as were ten or so cars, and a separate gravel pathway led off to the right around to the back of the house, and from the look of things, the beach. There were two rather large garages off to the left, presumably holding the owners cars.

Virginia managed to find a spot to park her car where it would be easy for the other cars to manoeuvre around her, double and triple checked that the car was locked, and made her way up the marble steps and towards the dull thudding of 'Closer' coming from behind the doors. She knocked, waited, and when no one answered, she tried to open it. No joy.

"Great." She sighed. "And this is probably one of those situations a cell phone would be useful for."

She gave the door one last bang before turning back to the car. Just as she reached it, she saw another car coming up the driveway. She pressed herself to the door of her car to let the other get past, but it slowed as it reached her and the window rolled down. A black man of around twenty with a crew cut smiled at her.

"'scuse me, is this Mark's house?" he asked her. Pepper caught a glimpse of another man in the passenger seat as the window rolled completely down.

"I assume so." she said, leaning forward slightly. "I just tried to get it but the door must be locked. You here for the party?"

"Yeah." He put the car into park and nudged the man next to him. "Tony, call Mark's cell, tell him to let us in. He probably can't hear us over the music." He added to Pepper, seeming to ignore Tony's look of pure disgust at his request.

"He's your friend." Tony spat and briskly climbed out of the car, striding up to the house. The black man sighed and got out of the car as well.

"What's with him?" Virginia asked.

The man locked the car and turned to her slowly. "His parents died last week."

Virginia gasped. "Oh, crap, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, seriously," the man said, "if one thing's bound to set him off, it's people feeling sorry for him." he held out a hand to her. "I'm Jim, by the way, Jim Rhodes."

Virginia smiled and took his hand. "Hi, I'm Virginia Potts, but most people who aren't my mother call me Ginny.

"Yo, Rhodey, you coming or what?" Tony called from the front door, which was now open. He didn't wait for an answer, instead heading through the door. Jim sighed and he and Virginia started walking to the house.

"That's Tony." Rhodes mumbled.

Something clicked in Virginia's brain and she spun around. "Tony? As in-"

"Stark? Yeah." Rhodes smiled slightly at the stunned look on her face.

"I just read about him in the paper this morning." She said, wide eyed.

"He's been in the news pretty much constantly for the past week." He sighed slightly and they began walking again. "I've tried to hide the papers and stuff from him, but there's reporters camped outside his parents house, and Obie's not really helping matters."

"Obie?"

"Obadiah Stane." Jim clarified. "He's…well, let's just say he's a little bitter that Tony's taking over the company. He's was pretty convinced Howard would have let Stane have it." He snorted un-amused. "Like he wouldn't leave his own son his company." They reached the front door and Jim held it open for Virginia. They stepped inside the foyer and Rhodes glanced around for Tony.

"I bet it's a lot to shoulder for him." Virginia said quietly as they saw him busying himself at the other end of the room where a table was stacked full of beer and other liquor.

"Well, he's gonna have to step up." Jim said. "Last I heard, the Board keeps leaning on him for decisions and it seems as if Obie is running the show." They watched as Tony grabbed two beers and a bottle of what looked like high end scotch and lumbered off, shrugging past the other guests as they stared at him. "I'm worried they're gonna take his side and stop Tony becoming CEO."

"Well it's been a tough month for him." Virginia sympathised.

"That doesn't really matter to the Board though." Rhodes sighed again. "Look, I'm gonna go after him and make sure he behaves himself. It was nice meeting you." He flashed her a quick smile and jogged in the direction Tony had gone.

"Ginny!" Carrie came flying out of an archway to the left and stopped right in front of Virginia. "Hey girl! Glad you made it finally!"

"Hey Carrie." The two friends embraced and Virginia smelled a faint odour of tequila emanating from her. "Wow, did you get dunked in a margarita or something?"

"Body shots." Carrie giggled and pointed over her shoulder to the large kitchen where a group of people were crowded round the granite isle. "You are so doing one."

"Why, has Hell frozen over?" Virginia deadpanned.

"Come onnnnn." Carrie begged. "You've got a killer body and there's dozens of horny college boys here that would gladly lick-"

"I'll pass, but thanks." She giggled. "Where's Jake?"

"He's around somewhere." Carrie looked around for her boyfriend and shrugged when she couldn't see him. "Probably off with his Air Force buddies. Oh my God, I totally forgot, Tony Stark is coming! Tony freaking Stark! Ooh, what a b-a-b-e." she spelled out the word letter by letter and stared off dreamily.

"So I've heard." Virginia said. "Hey, listen, where are we sleeping? I don't think I'll last long."

Carrie looked downright offended at this. "Gin, the night is young."

"I've been awake for nearly twenty four hours, and travelling for most of that."

"Fine." Carrie sighed. "Well, there's like a million bedrooms in this place but you'll be lucky to find one that's not being used for one reason or another." She smirked when Virginia blushed slightly. "But Jake mentioned something about some cabins on the beach. I don't think many people will be using those, lightweight." She lightly shoved Virginia's shoulder and tugged her towards the kitchen. They skirted around the body shot brigade and headed for what appeared to be the lounge.

"I could drink you under the table any day and you know it." Virginia laughed.

"Well Gin, you're about five rounds behind me." Carrie handed her a cup of…something and clinked her own against it. "So start catching up.

Tired though she had begun the evening, by one o'clock, Virginia was only just admitting defeat. She'd drunk what felt like half her weight in alcohol, though refused the seven times Carrie tried to convince her to do a body shot in favour of laughing when Jake appeared to drag her off for her own.

The party was still going in full swing and she was just polishing off her third 'Redheaded Slut' when Jim burst in to the room and made a beeline for her when he spotted her.

"Hey Ginny, have you seen Tony around?" he looked around the room as he spoke.

"Umm," Virginia looked around as well. "No, sorry, I haven't seen him all night. Is something wrong?" she asked when Rhodes cursed and ran a hand over his head.

"Kinda." He said loudly over the thudding music. "My sergeant just called, I have to be at base tomorrow, which means I have to leave now."

"Base? Are you in the army?"

"Air Force." Rhodes replied. "Final stage of training starts next week but they want us there early to settle in. Dammit." He pulled out his cell phone and cursed. "My battery's dead. Listen, if you see him, tell him I had to go and I'll pay him back for his cab fare. I'll let Mark know as well."

"Yeah sure." Virginia said. "I'm going to head out to the cabins in a sec so I'll see if he's there."

"Thanks." Rhodes sighed again and dashed back out of the room.

Virginia stood up from the chair she was sitting in, waited for the world to stop tilting, and then made her way to where she had last seen Carrie and Jake out by the pool. There were several people fooling around in the pool (one or two taking it a little further) but she spotted Carrie and hurried over to her. After informing her that she was turning in for the night, Virginia made her way to the quarter mile stretch of beach that was attached to the house and spotted six cabins dotted along the sand.

She tried the first door only to find that it was locked, the second held the same result, the third was open, though heavily occupied. The fourth and fifth she bypassed completely due to the extent of the noise coming from them, which left her the last cabin. She cracked open the door and the first thing she saw was the bed, which was thankfully empty. Sighing with relief, she pushed the door open fully and stepped into the dark room, but stopped short when she noticed a man standing by the window overlooking the ocean, a large bottle, half empty of brown liquid in his hand.

"Ooh, crap, I'm…" the words died in her throat when something on the bed glinted with the light of the moon streaming through the window.

A gun.

"Get out." The man mumbled and lifted the bottle to his lips. When Virginia didn't move, he turned around. She blanched.

"Tony?"

"I said. Get. Out." He said more firmly this time. His eyes were shining slightly and the hand holding the bottle was shaking.

"Tony, just calm down-"

"I just wanna be left alone." He slurred, the anger vanishing from his eyes and replaced with a harrowing sadness. He lifted the bottle to his lips again, took a long gulp and sat on the bed facing away from her. "What's your name?"

"Virginia Potts." She replied timidly, eying the distance between his left hand and the gun on the bed. He chuckled slightly and turned around.

"Potts? Like salt 'n' pepper?"

"If you like." She edged closer to the bed and his smile vanished.

"Well Pepperpot, I've got some business to take care of, so if you don't mind." He waved his bottle towards the door before taking another huge gulp.

"Business involving that gun?" she asked, stepping closer to the bed, but she froze as Tony reached behind him and picked up the offending item.

"What is it to you?" he said with a sharp edge to his voice. Virginia held her hands up.

"I just thought you might wanna talk about it." She perched herself on the opposite side of the bed and turned towards him.

"And why would I wanna talk to you?"

"Because I can be a friend if you need one."

He let out a bark of laughter around the lip of the bottle. "Why the hell would I need another friend? I'm Tony Stark, everyone wants to be my friend, you know?" he turned to her, his eyes reddening again. "I have people in the company going 'Hey Tony, buddy, how's about you make some shiny ass kicking weapons and we'll do brunch', I have Obie doing what is apparently best for me, cos he's my 'friend', I can't even walk down the God-damn street without my 'friends' coming up to me. I have enough 'friends', I just want to be left alone." He drained the bottle and threw it against the wall, making Virginia jump. "I want my mom and dad back." He put his head in his hands as the first sob escaped his lips, the gun pointing up at the ceiling in his left hand.

Virginia took a shaky breath and stood up, circling the bed and sat next to him. He didn't seem to notice until her cool fingers wrapped around the ones holding the gun. He let her take it from him and watched as she placed it on the floor, not looking away from him.

"They weren't supposed to go." He mumbled. "We were gonna stay in and eat, but I was still drunk, so they went out and left me. If I hadn't been drunk, they'd still be here."

"You can't blame yourself Tony, it'll drive you insane."

"But it is my fault." He said pathetically. "They were supposed to still be here, they were supposed to grow old together."

"Tony..." she tentatively placed her hand on his shoulder. "Look, I know you miss them, and it sucks that they can't be here with you, but at least they're together. They'll always be together now." She gave him a small smile. "And anyway, life isn't about growing old, it's about rolling into your grave, leaving behind a ravaged youthful body with a smile and whispering with your last breath 'What a rush...'"

Tony spluttered with laughter and Virginia breathed a sigh of relief. He straightened up slightly and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands. "Pretty and smart, nice combo Pepper." His eyes were a bit off focus and she could tell he was severely drunk now.

"Well...

"Seriously, you're stunning." He flashed her a slightly lopsided grin and inched closer.

"Tony, maybe you should-" before she could finish her sentence, Tony lunged forwards and their lips connected. Virginia took his weight with a shock and put her hands on the bed behind her to brace herself. After her brain cleared enough to realise what was going on, she scrambled and dodged out of his way, only to see him slump forward onto the bed, face down.

He was out cold.

She let out a breathy laugh, slightly relieved, and bent down to pick up the gun. It took her a few seconds, but she managed to pull out the magazine, click out the bullets and eject the one in the chamber. She collected everything together, went outside and flung them out as far as she could into the ocean. When she got back to the cabin, Tony was still in the same position she had left him, spread-eagled on the bed. Virginia sighed, grabbed a pillow off the other end of the bed and curled up on the floor, the sounds of Tony's snoring and the lapping waves lulling her to sleep.

The next morning, Tony woke with the sun in his face, searing his corneas. He groaned and rolled over – and right off the bed. Luckily, there was a pillow on the floor. A rather crinkly pillow. Bleary eyed, Tony lifted his head and gazed down. There was a note on the pillow he'd just dived on. He sat up immediately and looked at it.

Tony,

I know things are hard for you right now, and you might think you've disappointed your parents, but there's a lot more to you than that. Don't think about the person you used to be, think about the man you can be. Make them proud.

Pepper.

Tony scrunched up his face in concentration. Who the hell was Pepper? Had he slept with this woman? Were they even a woman? And what kind of name was Pepper? Was it like Salt 'n' Pepper? Pepper Pot...oh.

"Virginia Potts." He said, surprised at his own memory functioning that quickly. He glanced around the room but so no other sign of her. He folded up the note and shoved it in his pants pocket before carefully heading towards the door and out into the morning sea air. He stumbled back up to the house, rubbing his eyes and saw a few people passed out on various bits of furniture.

"Tony! There you are bro." Mark, a tall bespectacled man with shocking, nearly white, blonde hair, came bounding up to him. "Man, I thought you'd bailed."

"Fell asleep in one of the cabins. Rhodey sill here?"

"Nah dude, his squad had to go back to base this morning so he left last night. He tried to find you but you must've already been out huh?" he smiled.

"Uh, yeah. I didn't really last long. Hey, do you know Pep-uh, Virginia Potts?"

Mark pursed his lips in thought but then shook his head. "Doesn't ring a bell dude, sorry. Hey, you need a lift back to the airport or you good?"

Tony shook his head and flashed a smile back at him. "Nah, I think I'm gonna be alright."

TBC

Redheaded Slut: Equal parts Jagermeister, Southern Comfort, Crown Royal & Cranberry vodka. Pour over ice. Another variation is a Lindsay Lohan, just add coke.