The Unknown Variable

this chapter has been Beta'd as of 9/16

If you recognize it outside of this Fic, I don't own it.

"Tony…" I was not whining, I do not whine. "I can do it. Come one."

"Nope, Pepper can do it." Tony replied as he inspected his new glowing Arc.

"But Pepper doesn't know anything about the Reactor, I do. Why can't I just put it in?"

"Because." He replied simply, walking over to the desk to page Pepper.

"But I can do it!" I stated again, wondering why on earth Tony wouldn't let me help.

"I helped put the base plate it!" I yeleld, before realizing what I said and covering my mouth.

Tony and I had come to an unspoken agreement back in the cave, I don't mention working on him with Yinsen, and he tries to forget what happened.

Tony froze for a moment, and I wondered if I pushed a bit too far before he said, "I know."

He pressed a button on his screen and said, "Pepper. How big are your hands?"

'Great,' I thought to myself 'please let Pepper be in a good mood.'

I was still grumbling to myself as Pepper walked down the stairs and typed in the code for the door. I was sitting in my desk chair, though I wasn't by my desk. Instead I was sitting across from Tony, spinning in my chair; ready to help in a moment's notice if Pepper messed up.

"Hey," Tony said as Pepper walked in, confusion on her face.

Tony was all hooked up to the monitors, like I was a few hours ago. He was wearing pathetic stripped hospital pants that I wondered why he had. A towel was on his lap, I also wondered why he needed that, and his new Reactor was sitting in his hand.

"Let's see them. Show me your hands." Tony said as Pepper walked across the floor. "Let's see them." He restated as Pepper lifted up her hands and wiggled her fingers.

"Arg." I moaned softly to myself. I swear; Tony had better have a good reason for doing this. I might not save him if Pepper messed up.

"Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite, indeed." He stated as Pepper approached him.

"I have smaller hands than she does." I grumbled quietly.

I still wasn't in a good mood. Dealing with dirty minded apartment managers and flashbacks had not started the day off well.

"I just need your help for a sec." He told her as he stared down as the new Reactor.

"Oh my God, is that the thing that's keeping you alive?" Pepper said as she neared him and saw the old Arc in his chest.

"It was," Tony replied, "It is now an antique."

Pepper couldn't take her eyes off of the old Arc, and didn't realize she was staring until Tony looked up at her; causing her to jump.

"This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future." Tony replied lifting up the new Arc. "I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump."

'Speed bump?' I asked myself, 'Tony didn't mention a speed bump!' I hissed to myself.

Ok, so replacing a normal, functional Arc wasn't that hard… and I suppose Pepper could manage. But if something was wrong… I should be the one doing it. I was his daughter after all.

"Speed bump, what does that mean?" Pepper asked, sounding uncertain.

"It's nothing; it's just a little snag." Tony replied, sounding tired, and I had to remember that Tony only got less than an hour of sleep last night. "There's an exposed wire under this device. And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short."

Tony said as he unplugged the Arc, not looking at it in the process. I grimaced, I knew a lot about Tony's Arc, as well as my own, and I knew that the 'little short' was anything but. It was also probably very painful.

'How long has that 'short' been there?' I wondered. If it had been there an extended amount of time it would hurt a lot… and had been. Constant pain, been there done that not pleasant.

"It's fine." Tony said as he yanked out the Arc. I saw his jaw clenched in suppressed pain and wanted to run over and help. I didn't know if my spark pulses could take away pain, but I was one second away from finding out.

"W…What do you want me to do?" Pepper asked as Tony handed her the Reactor.

"Put that on the table over there." He said, passing the device off. "That is irrelevant."

"Oh my God!" Pepper said again, while putting the Arc down carefully.

"I want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out." He told the older redhead.

"Is it safe?" Pepper asked, and to me she sounded faint. But I might be biased… a bit.

"Yeah," Tony tried to reassure her, "it should be fine. It's like Operation, you just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes "beep"."

I wanted to snap at Pepper, we didn't know how long Tony could do without his Reactor, and I wasn't in the mood to find out. Not to mention without the Arc he would be in unimaginable pain from not only the short, but the shrapnel as well.

'Hurry up' I thought to myself, my knuckles turning white as I gripped the armrests. I had stopped spinning the chair when Pepper walked in, though it seemed like she didn't see me. I wasn't invisible…was I?

"What do you mean, "Operation"?" Pepper asked. I groaned and wanted to bury my head in my hands. She didn't even know that classic game? Even I did and I had the most antisocial life in existence. She must have always been a stick in the mud.

"It's just a game, never mind." Tony said, sighing and almost giving up on trying and explain it to her.

"Just gently life the wire okay? Great." Tony said. It was not great, his gaze had become steely and I could tell he was in pain. I had to bite my tongue from snapping at the woman. If I had been doing it, it would have been done already.

"Okay," Pepper replied hesitantly her hand hovering over Tony's chest.

She slowly started to put her hand in the socket before hissing and pulling it out.

I really did groan that time, though the adults ignored me; causing me to wonder if I was really invisible.

"You know, I…I don't think that I'm qualified to do this." Pepper stated nervously,

"No shit Sherlock." I said sarcastically before I could stop myself. But they both ignored me, again. I hated being ignored.

"No, you're fine." Tony said, trying to sooth her nerve, "You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great."

My heart ached at his words… but I held my tongue. He had known Pepper for years, he had barely met me four months ago.

'He might be trying to get back on Pepper's good side.' The rational side of my brain said part of me agreed, but it didn't help the emotional pain go away.

"But Penny…" Pepper started, and I could hear some underlying emotion that was coming into play.

"I'm asking you." Tony said, not even looking in my direction. I wondered if Pepper even knew I was down here. "Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I'm…"

Tony fumbled for words but Peppers resolve had already crumbled. "Okay, okay."

"I really need your help here." He continued while Pepper agreed.

'Totally kissin' up to her.' I grumbled to myself. It was obvious the feelings between the two. That might be part of the reason why we clashed so much. Pepper had been the only one in his life for so long, and now I'm here to fight for his affection. Though a different kind than she was.

"Okay," Tony said, and slowly sucked in a breath against the pain as Pepper slowly reached her hand down into the socket.

Even from across the room I could hear the squishing sound and shuttered. Ok, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to let Pepper do it. That was gross.

"Oh, there's pus!" Pepper said, her face scrunching up in disgust.

"It's not pus." Tony corrected, "It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device not my body."

Pepper cried out as she moved her hand around before saying, "It smells!"

'And you just noticed that now? It's been exposed to the air for quite some time.' I commented silently.

"Yeah it does." Tony agreed, and I wondered how long he had to put up with the odor.

"The copper wire. The copper wire, you go it?" Tony asked as Pepper looked up at the ceiling.

"Okay," She said closing her eyes for a moment before slowly lifting her hand out. "I got it! I got it!"

"Okay you got it?" Tony asked at the same time.

"Now," he continued, "Don't let it touch the AHHHH …sides when you're coming out!"

The heart monitor went red for a moment with a loud buzz that corresponded with Tony's shout. I was grinding my teeth together.

"I swear… if you kill my dad I'll fry you like a bug…" I mumbled under my breath in warning.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Pepper said as she continued to pull the wire out.

"That's what I was trying to tell you before." Tony said, trying to catch his breath.

"Okay now," Tony said, as we both watched the long wire extruding from his chest. "now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't…" just as Tony said that Pepper wrapped her hand around the wire and pulled on it…hard.

"Idiot." I mumbled, genuinely fearing for my father's life.

"There's a magnet at the end of it!" Tony cried out in alarm as the heart monitor started beeping like crazy. I was already out of my chair before Tony stilled me with a look.

"That was it, you just pulled it out!" Tony stated, as he went rigid and leaned back against the chair…whatever he was sitting on.

"Oh, God!" Pepper exclaimed again. How many times was she going to say that?

"Okay, I was not expecting…" Tony stated, and I saw him trying to fix the situation without getting me involved.

"Okay what do I do?" Pepper asked as she moved the magnet back towards his chest.

"Don't put it back in!" Tony snapped, raising his hand to top Pepper.

He hissed and his body continued to freeze up and his eyes closed for a moment while he tried to control his breathing.

"What's wrong?" Pepper asked looked down at Tony in worry.

"Nothing," Tony said, trying to dismiss it, "I'm just going into cardiac arrest…"

"What!" Pepper exclaimed.

" 'Cause you yanked it out like trout…" Tony continued, if I hadn't been so worried I would have snorted. Tony… always trying to make light of the situation.

"What? You said it was safe!" Pepper hissed,

"We gotta hurry. Take this," Tony said, "Take this." He repeated with more urgency as he handed her the new Reactor. "You gotta switch it out really quick."

"Okay, okay." Pepper repeated again. "Tony?"

"What?" Tony almost growled, and I seriously wanted to hit her. Now was not the time for heart to hearts!

"It's going to be okay." Pepper said, what was he? Five?

"Is it?" Tony asked.

"It's going to be ok." Pepper restated, "I'm gonna make this okay." She said determined.

"Let's hope." Tony replied with a touch of sarcasm.

Finally Pepper reached back into the socket to connect the new Arc.

"Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you…" Tony said as there was a loud click and Tony yelled from both pain and relief.

The heart monitor went back to normal and Pepper tried not to touch anything with her plasma covered hands.

"Was that so hard?" Tony asked while Pepper looked like she was about to cry… or hit him. I couldn't tell. "That was fun, right? Here, I got it. I got it. Here."

I silently wondered what was with everyone repeating everything a bazillion times… it was annoying. I finally sat back down with a flop, and my breathing returned to normal. Tony and Pepper were going to give me a heart attack one of these days; and it was almost physically impossible for me to have one!

"Nice," Tony commented as he checked the Arc and looked at Peppers hands. I had a feeling he was talking about both.

Pepper on the other hand, still looked ready to pass out.

"Are you okay?" Pepper asked in whispered tones.

"Yeah, I feel great." Tony replied flippantly. "You okay?" He copied her, a large grin appearing on his face.

He started laughing and I could tell Pepper was only a second away from wiping the plasma all over my dad.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again." Pepper stated. It was the perfect moment… just a few inches and Tony would be covered in the plasma. I could tell she was contemplating it; and I wondered if Tony noticed… probably.

"I don't have anyone but you." Tony said and that comment almost brought tears to my eyes as I felt my heart rip in too.

"You and Penny. But seriously, was I supposed to ask her to do that?" Tony added on as he saw the look on my face out of the corner of his eye.

'Oh, he is definitely getting it for that.' I thought, as I shot him a look at promised retribution. He gave a half smirk in response, to both me and Pepper…not that Pepper knew that.

"Anyway." Tony said, pulling the monitoring wires off of his chest and stood up removing the towel from his lap. Pepper shook the plasma off of her hands now that Tony wasn't looking.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Pepper asked, holding the old Arc.

"That?" Tony said, barely glancing at it for a moment before saying "Destroy it. Incinerate it."

Pepper's question made me wonder what Tony did with my Arc. Oh well, he probably told U or Butterfingers to destroy it.

"You don't want to keep it?" Pepper asked, staring down at the glowing Arc.

"Pepper," My dad said as he tossed down the towel, "I've been called many things. "Nostalgic" is not one of them."

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked lightly.

"That will be all, Miss Potts." Tony replied. "Hey Butterfingers, come here." He said to the robot that had been standing guard the whole time. "What's all this stuff doing on top of my desk? That's my phone, that's a picture of me and my dad."

I wondered why he had that on his desk, maybe for appearances, before Tony continued, "Right there, in the garbage. All that stuff."

Tony instructed his robot before drumming his fingers on his Reactor and watching Pepper leave.

And with that, the life threatening act was done. Now, I just had to corner Tony and bug him until he told me whether or not we needed to do something to replace the magnet that Pepper pulled out. (And I was pretty sure we did.) Didn't want him to kneel over did we? Nope.

Oh, and I had to find a way to prank him in retribution.

Well there ya go. For some odd reason this chapter was harder to write than some of the others. Oh well, I hope you can't tell.

Thanks to all of you wonderful people,
and Expecto Prongs for Beta'ing.

Later,
Cp