Okay! So this is the last chapter in this three year long saga. There will be an epilogue, but the story is now wrapped up and done, and all I can say is thank you so much for sticking with it, for bugging me constantly to update, and for still reviewing after I made you guys wait three damn years. I promise never to do it again!
Pepper was pacing, something she did very rarely when she was upset or frightened and could do absolutely nothing about it. After Rhodey had turned up and saved the day, he'd carried Tony's lifeless body outside with Pepper in tow and dumped him in the first vehicle that skidded to a halt, which sped off again as soon as the door had closed. Men and women in black suits and sunglasses jumped out of the surrounding ones and Rhodey was taken to one side by a tall black man wearing a trench coat and an eye patch. To Pepper's dismay, Tony's assistant Natalie stepped out of one of the cars and walked straight towards her. She'd managed to convince Pepper to get into one of the vehicles with her which also sped off, and after half an hour of driving in the dark – the windows were tinted – they arrived at what appeared to be a military base of some kind. Pepper had been led down a multitude of corridors and left in a room that held a desk and two chairs, and that's when the pacing began. She'd been in too much shock to even ask about Tony during the drive, but now the weight of what had happened was baring down on her. Tony could be dead for all she knew, and now she was apparently being held captive by the Men in Black.
She was on lap thirty-five when the door finally opened again and – joy of joys – Natalie walked in, holding a folder and smiling.
"Pepper, sorry to keep you waiting." She apologised, motioning for her to take a seat as she did herself, laying the folder on the desk in front of her. "I expect you're wondering what the hell happened today?"
"The thought had crossed my mind." Pepper mumbled as she sat down, wrapping her arms around herself. "Didn't realise Tony had a pay-by-the-day policy for his women."
Natalie raised an eyebrow but inclined her head. "Maybe we should start with introductions first so we don't continue on the wrong foot. You know me as Natalie, my real name is Natasha Romanoff, I'm a SHIELD agent, I was shadowing Tony last year and I'm now stationed to help him on certain missions which we'll get to in a moment, but we have never, ever slept together, okay?" without waiting for an answer, she slid the folder over to Pepper and clasped her hands in front of her on the desk. "This folder is Iron Man's entire history, and how it includes Tony. By showing you, I'm endangering all three of you, but I figure you've been through enough to warrant the knowledge."
Pepper stared at her for a moment before opening the folder. Inside were pictures of Tony, Iron Man, files on both, but nothing Pepper could make sense of. One picture in particular though of Tony, caught her eye, and she realised that the night they'd spent together, he'd kept his shirt on, even to sleep. The picture of Tony she was looking at showed him with a mysterious blue glow coming from underneath his shirt.
"I thought you might notice that." Natasha said. "That's where it all starts really; Tony's kidnap." She reached across and grabbed one of the pictures of a bearded, bald man with the words 'DECEASED' stamped across his face. "Obadiah Stane had been dealing Stark weapons to terrorist organisations for years, but it only really came to Tony's notice after his kidnap, the kidnap that Stane arranged. During the fight to capture Tony, he was injured and required surgery performed by this man, Ho Yinsen," she showed Pepper another picture of a man wearing glasses with the same stamp across his face. "Dr Yinsen implanted a rudimentary electro magnet in Tony's chest which kept the shrapnel near his heart from piercing it. Eventually Tony managed to perform an upgrade using Arc Reactor technology and the Mark I was born." She showed Pepper pictures of the Mark I suit and the Reactor that was apparently implanted in Tony's chest. "That was how he escaped, he and Dr Yinsen built the Mark I suit and Tony managed to fly out of there. Unfortunately Dr Yinsen didn't make it. Tony then went on to find out about Stane's treachery and that his designs for the Mark I suit had been stolen to create Stane's very own suit, Warmonger. There was a fight, Tony won, and Stane was eliminated. We told the press that Iron Man was Tony's bodyguard as a cover." Natasha finished simply. "Any questions so far?"
Pepper shook her head and Natasha nodded, taking away the pictures of Stane, Yinsen and Warmonger and replacing them with mug shots of Justin Hammer, Shaun and another man. Pepper's jaw clenched at the sight of the men that had held her captive but she looked up at Natasha for an explanation.
"Justin Hammer, Shaun Casey aka Daniel Dowling, Ivan Vanko." She began, pushing Justin and Ivan's pictures forwards. "About two years ago, Justin Hammer recruited Vanko to build a replica of the Iron Man suit for the Expo Tony had set up. What he didn't know was that Vanko had a history with the Stark family. Both their father's had worked together years ago on the original Arc Reactor, but Anton was a bad boy, and Howard removed him from the project and he defected to Russia. He lived out the rest of his life in a bitter, vodka induced rage, something he passed down to his son. He told Ivan that he should be in Tony's place, and Ivan took that on board. Unfortunately, Justin was too much of a dumbass to really see what Ivan was doing and when Ivan stole all of the suits, turned them into drones and basically wrecked the entire Expo, he was surprised to say the least." She shook her head and picked up Ivan's picture, swapping it for Shaun's. "Ivan didn't survive the ensuing fight, and Justin was thrown in jail. And that's where Shaun Casey comes in." she tapped his picture. "Justin met Shaun in jail. He grew up in Ireland surrounded by members of the IRA, joined them when he was too young to realise what he was getting in to, and eventually wound up over here, rotting in jail. When Justin got out, Shaun offered to help him get back at Tony in exchange for Justin getting him out of jail, and that's where you came in."
Pepper raised her eyebrows, trying to take it all in. "Why me though?" she asked. "What's so special about me? And where do you come in to all this anyway?"
Natasha sighed and gathered up all the documents, filing them back in the folder. "As I said, I was ordered to shadow Tony during the Expo. We'd got wind that he was…he was sick. The Reactor he'd built was slowly poisoning him, and we tried to help him. We gave him treatments, and the tools he needed to build a new one, and he did. He's fine now. Better than fine. I'll let him fill in the details, he's kept this one pretty close to his chest, but you…Pepper, you're probably the most important thing in his world. He used to talk about you, mostly when he was drunk." She smiled apologetically. "But he'd have these moments of clarity, I should probably be letting him tell you this, but he'd talk about you like he'd had this revelation, like you were the answer to all his problems." She shrugged. "He's head over heels in love with you, even I can see that."
Pepper chewed her lip, still very confused about everything, but beginning to thaw out a little about Tony. He'd said it himself, before he'd collapsed, he'd told her he loved her, but she still wasn't sure.
"What happened in the warehouse?" she asked eventually. "He just collapsed, is he okay?"
Natasha nodded with a smile. "I was getting worried that you wouldn't ask about him at all. He's fine. I don't know the exact mechanics behind what he did, but he's fine. I can take you to his room if you want? He's awake now." At Pepper's nod, Natasha led her back through the maze of corridors, up a few floors in an elevator and down yet another corridor until they reached Tony's 'suite'. "I'll leave you two alone, you probably have a bit of talking to do." She smiled and swiped her access card before turning back the way she'd come. Pepper watched her go before taking a deep breath and pushing the door to Tony's suite open.
The inside of the suite was much like Tony's home back in Malibu, stylish but not flashy, and Pepper felt at home immediately. She wondered briefly if Tony himself had designed it or merely used the same architect, but knowing Tony's skills at pretty much anything he attempted, she suspected the former. Pepper heard voices and the sound of two men's laughter coming from behind a closed door at the other end of the lounge area, and seeing as the kitchen was to one side of her, she guessed that to be Tony's bedroom. She cautiously stepped closer and knocked on the door, opening it when Tony's gruff voice told her to come in. The first thing she spotted was Rhodey, leaning casually against Tony's dresser, now out of his armour and wearing a military jumpsuit, but Pepper's eyes were drawn swiftly to Tony, who was lying on his bed, shirtless and wearing sweatpants, and what was apparently his Arc Reactor glowing brightly in the centre of his chest. She swallowed and smiled nervously at the both of them, and Rhodey cleared his throat.
"Well, I'd love to stay and help cut the atmosphere, but I figure it's nothing to do with me so…enjoy!" he said jovially, leaning over to shake Tony's hand for a moment before walking towards Pepper. "Pep, it was great seeing you again. Hopefully next time you're not being held captive."
"Finger's crossed." She replied, silently thanking him for breaking the ice. "Thank you, Rhodey, I didn't get to say it before." She hesitated for a moment before standing on her toes and hugging him tightly. Rhodey blinked but hugged her back briefly until Tony chirped up.
"Hey, you gonna steal something else of mine?" he jibed, to which Rhodey rolled his eyes and pulled back.
"Good luck." He mumbled to Pepper before winking and departing, closing the door behind him. Pepper watched him go, trying to delay the inevitable. She didn't know what to say to him, what to ask first, if she was even allowed to ask, so she decided to break the ice with a mutual topic as she turned back to him.
"So, you're talking again?" she asked, referring to Tony and Rhodey.
Tony nodded and pressed his palms into the mattress of his bed to aid him in sitting up. "Yeah, we reconciled." He said. "Couldn't really stay mad at him after he saved you using the thing I was mad at him for."
Pepper nodded and bit her lip, looking around his room. "So that's what he stole?" she asked. "That suit?" at his nod and pursed her lips. "But if that was yours, how come yours…you know…" she wafted her hand at him. Tony smiled and raised his hand, summoning the armour.
"You mean how come mine bleeds out?" he asked. "I was injected with a virus called Extremis a few years ago. I was dying, a friend of mine had created this techno-virus that would basically repair me, but at the same time alter my DNA to 'perfect' me. It basically zoned in on the repair centre of my brain and cranked everything up to 100%, so I can self-heal, I can recover stamina in seconds…you kind of experienced that the other night." He waggled his eyebrows but seeing that Pepper wasn't exactly in a playful mood, he went back to the topic at hand. "Okay, um…well apart from the healing stuff, I'm kind of hard wired into the Iron Man suit. This one I can bleed out, others I can summon to me or control from a distance. That's kind of what you saw at the factory." He paused for a moment. "If I show you something kind of gross, will you freak out?"
Pepper's eyes widened but she shook her head, stepping closer as Tony turned his head to reveal circular ports in the back of his neck, just under his hair line. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand but managed to keep calm. "I'm basically part machine. I control all of it, it's not an issue, but it's still who I am. There was an incident a few years back and essentially I had to delete some of my memories to stop them being stolen, and Hammer somehow downloaded those memories and managed to hack into me." He sighed and turned back to Pepper, making the ports disappear. "The only option I had left yesterday was to shut my entire system down to stop him trying to make me…" his words caught in his throat and he coughed gently. "I'd called Rhodey, I knew he was coming, and I wasn't about to try and fight myself. The choices were kill you, or potentially kill myself." He shrugged. "Wasn't much of a choice, you know?" he gave her a lopsided smile, which slipped after she didn't say or do anything. "You okay?" he asked.
Pepper nodded. And then shook her head. "I just don't…" she sighed and covered her face with her hands before smoothing her hair back and gazing at him. "It's a lot to take in. And we haven't even gotten to your fancy night light."
Tony looked down at his Arc Reactor and let out a short laugh, tapping it gently. "Yeah, good thing I kept my shirt on huh? I can only imagine what your reaction would have been." He looked back up at her and sighed heavily. "You have no idea how terrified I was today. I could have lost you."
Pepper swallowed and walked around to the side of the bed, sitting down at his side. "You didn't seem too bothered about me when Natasha was coming out of your room." Tony winced and cleared his throat.
"Yeah, yeah that looked bad, I admit that." He sighed. "Pepper, there is nothing going on with me and Natasha. There never has been and never will be. You're the only woman in a long, long time, and…" he screwed up all his remaining courage and leant forward, cupping her cheek. "I meant what I said to you before I shut down. I love you, Pepper. I've been in love with you for a long time, and I will continue to do so even if you never speak to me again, but don't do it for the wrong reasons. I'm trouble, you knew that about me when you first met me, you remember that don't you?" he sighed and smiled. "You saved my damn life years ago, and you did it again when you walked into that coffee shop all those months ago. I've waited for you for so long, and if you need to make me wait again, then that's fine, but it's you, Pepper, it's always been you, and it always will be you."
Pepper stared at him throughout his speech and sighed shakily once he'd finished, reaching up to entwine her fingers with the hand on her cheek, bringing it into her lap. "I'm scared. You think you were terrified today? You didn't have to watch me die, but I had to watch you." She shook her head. "I don't know if I can go through that again."
Tony nodded and squeezed her fingers. "I don't want you to go through that again either, and I'll try my best to make sure neither of us do." He shrugged. "That's all I can promise you. I have a lot of responsibilities, but you're top of the list." He kissed her knuckles and gazed up at her pleadingly. "Please, Pepper, just give me a chance."
Pepper sighed and shook her head for a moment before smiling at him. "I must be insane." She mumbled to herself, leaning in and kissing him soundly. Tony grunted in surprise but soon caught up, hand raising to her cheek as he kissed her back. He smiled against her lips, sighing heavily as a weight left his shoulders.
"So I take that as a yes then?" he mumbled, chuckling as Pepper nodded and wrapped her arms around him. "Hey, watch the ribs, I flew into a mountain."
"Of course you did."