(Authors Note: Lots of talking in this chapter and if it's shitty, I apologize! _ Also, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update. But hopefully I can make up for it.)

It was Wednesday afternoon and I caught my mind wondering about Iron Man again. Who was he exactly? Why did he save me? Was he just deceiving me by saving me? "Pepper…"

"Yeah?"

"Why doesn't Iron Man have a sign like Batman does?" I asked. We were taking a nice relaxing walk down my street. I liked living almost in the middle of nowhere, where the closest neighbors weren't even that close. Pepper stopped walking and looked at me.

"Well, I suppose it's because Batman isn't real, or maybe it's because Iron Man doesn't want to be at the city's beck and call?" she said and started walking again. I quickly caught up to her.

"I guess. I wish I could get him off my mind. It's kind of hard though, 'cause he saved me and all."

The rest of the walk was silent and awkward. The only sounds were that of birds and other various nature creatures. I couldn't really hear any of that because my thoughts were so loud. I had noticed while in my thoughts, Pepper always got really weird and uncomfortable whenever I mentioned Iron Man. I was also thinking about what I was going to make for dinner. I have no idea why I was so concerned about that.

"Hey, do you think Tony would come if I invited him to dinner?" I asked. Pepper chuckled before she answered.

"Of course he would. What makes you think he wouldn't?"

"Well, I don't know. It's just… I slept in his bed. I feel kind of bad that he had to sleep in the guest room. So, I figured if I invited him to dinner, we'd be even!"

"Ah, well I'm sure he would be glad to go to dinner at your place. He likes a woman who can cook. Sadly, whenever he came to my house, I always had to order something. I'm not a very good cook." Pepper laughed and nudged me.

"He went to your place? Was he all arrogant like he usually is?" I asked.

"No. He was a total gentleman. But we were dating at the time so…" I raised my eyebrows before I spoke.

"Oooh! Why'd you guys break up? Tell me what happened."

"We broke up because it was just awkward after a while. So many rumors were going around about us and there wasn't much privacy. I also got a really bad reputation for dating my boss. It's why I'm still working for him. No one else will hire me because of that. Plus I don't mind working for him still. I like my job. He was a great boyfriend though, he changed me." We had stopped walking now and were just standing on the sidewalk.

"How'd he change you? I mean you're perfect, there's nothing that needed to be changed." I was now quite interested in hearing what went on. It's not often that you hear of someone who still works for a boss they used to date. Pepper smiled at me.

"I used to be very uptight. Didn't know what the word fun meant. He taught me how to have fun and how to be fun. I'm more relaxed and enjoy life a bit more. It was for the better. I now realize how miserable my life was before I had dated him. It's even better now that you're in it. It's been a while since I had a true best friend."

"Aw, thanks Pepper!" I grinned and hugged her, then looked at my watch. "We should head back. It's getting late and it's not fun to be out here when it's dark."

Pepper and I headed back to my house and hung out for about an hour before Pepper left. It was 7:00 and I had finished eating dinner. I washed all the dishes, and then watched TV for a while with Jillian. We had a couple drinks, chatted about her new love interest that, in my opinion, seemed like a complete douche, but to each their own. Though after those couple of drinks, I suddenly got dizzy and tired, so I decided to head to bed.

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"Jarvis, how's the suit coming along?" Tony said, sipping his scotch.

"It's finished, sir."

"Good job bud. Hey, hey, hey!" he looked at the robot carrying a piece of the suit. "Be careful with that and you…" Tony pointed at the other robot that was to stand by in case of fire. "Don't extinguish me if I'm not on fire again. I mean it this time."

"Sir…" Jarvis said while the robots arranged the suit on Tony's body.

"In a minute…" Tony tried to stand still. One fatal move and well…

"Sir, there's a problem."

"I said in a minute!" There was a pause. "What do you mean problem?"

"There is a signal coming from 's house."

"I knew it'd be a good idea to have her alarm system connected to my computers. What kind of signal?" The robots finished putting the suit on.

"It's a fire signal, sir."

"Fire?" Tony's expression changed from content to extremely concerned.

"Yes sir. Her house has been engulfed in flames."

"Damn it! How long will it take for the fire department to get there?" Tony said as he turned the suit on.

"About an hour sir, in that time, the house will not be repairable, nor will there be any survivors, if there is anyone in the house."

"How long will it take for me to get there?" Tony programmed the suit quickly.

"5 to 10 minutes by suit, an hour by car." With speed, Tony flew out of the house and into the night sky. "Sir, you cannot use the suit without testing it first!" Jarvis said.

"Consider this a test drive."

Tony arrived at the blazing house and hovered over it. He could tell the fire started from the first floor and was quickly rising to the second floor. He looked over to the street and saw that a couple neighbors were standing by and watching with fear. One of them was on the phone. He assumed they were either talking with the police or fire department.

He flew down in front of the people and began questioning them as fast as he could. He learned that they had called the fire department about 10 minutes ago and they would be arriving in half an hour. Tony turned to the house and glared as someone yelled out to him. "We haven't seen anyone leave the house!"

Everyone gasped while Tony pulled the front door off and walked in through the flames. The flames engulfed the whole first floor and were extremely deadly. He searched the living-room, then the kitchen and dining-room. All the while calling out: "Tianna!"

"Sir, the flames have reached 75% of the upstairs. The suit will not be able to handle the temperature much longer." Jarvis said.

Tony ignored what Jarvis had said and continued to search through the house. He could barely see through all the smoke but noticed the stairs were slightly incapable of carrying weight due to the flames and quickly ran up the stairs. He checked Jillian's bedroom, the bathroom, the computer room. No one.

He walked down the hallway and turned around as soon he heard a crackle. He looked down at the floor, it was slowly falling apart. Tony was about to continue walking when a wooden beam fell to the floor, almost hitting him and caused a big hole. He growled under his breath and headed into another bedroom. The ceiling was on fire, and was beginning to slowly lead down the walls and would catch flame to anything that was against them.

Tony glanced over to the bed and saw a limp body under the blanket. He scurried over to the side of the bed, watching the body to see if it was moving. He noticed slight breathing and tried to shake the body in hopes the person would wake up.

"Sir, 45% capacity left of the fire shield." Jarvis stated.

Tony quickly broke the window with a chair that was right beside the bed. The people outside watched as a random chair came flying out of the window. He wrapped the blanket around the body and picked it up, then flew out of the window. He looked down the street and saw fire trucks/police cars coming up the hill.

Everyone clapped as Tony landed on the ground and walked over to the sidewalk. He placed the body gently on the cement and uncurled the blanket from the persons face. His eyes widened when he realized who it was…