Guest Review Responses
apps: I am not stalking you, but this proves that how connected this reader is with your stories...you won't believe every day and every now and then I keep a regular check on your updates...seriously dying to see pepperony...plz don't take this much time. – Boo! And here I was hoping I had a stalker :P We will have some major Pepperony after this chapter, and there is some here, too.
Someone: NOOOOOOOO! Just as I thought they were gonna cancel the divorce...:'( WHY?! I'm literally on the edge of my seat, you can't just leave me like this! (oh and you updated fast! Yay! :D) I can't wait for the next chapter AND THE PEPPERONY! – Here it is! This chapter is the boo-boo fixer of all time!
Guest: The death of james... it came from 24 Hours didn't it? first chapter? anyway please keep it stories are ... well they make your day by trying to make you cry. – You know, I'd actually forgotten that I'd killed another James in 24 Hours. I think I was high when I wrote that story XD. I don't remember half of it. In fact, I'm probably high half of the time I'm writing these crazy stories. I need to lay off the allergy medicine and candy.
Muah: Wow... The last part was really unexpected! But it makes it so much more exciting! I don't know how you're going to fix this thought... – I don't want to spoil it much, but we will be fixing this – partially – in the last part of this story. Welcome back!
apps: Hiii...I am expecting you to update today! – And I wanted to! But I had to grade papers… and I have another stack here right now, staring at me. I'm giving my back to it for now XD
Toni: That prologue...yeah, I don't know what to say to that :(
Very tough reading these chapters. I can't imagine how hard they must have been for you to write but I'm thankful that you are continuing to finish these chronicles. I still believe the baby's alive. And when there is hope... :) – Welcome back, Toni! Theyarehard to write. I even get mad at myself. But I know it will be all good in the end, so I just hold on. I will fix it. I promise. I promise. I promise!
Guest: ME TOO! Well...I HOPE SO! :D – Here's the next chappie! Don't forget to tell me what you think, please!
Chapter 3: March
It broke her heart to leave him, leave her father – everyone she knew – like this. But she knew she had to do something about her suspicions, even if they were mostly unfounded at this point. She knew taking on this responsibility alone could be dangerous for her, but she also knew that there was a small chance that she was overreacting. No one ever accused her of having nothing more than rational thoughts, anyway, so if she ended up being wrong, there would not be any harm done to anyone but herself. All the harm that could have been caused by her actions was already done.
Or so she had thought.
Wishing she could have seen Tony in person one more time, the redhead marched down the hall of the Makluan Temple one last time to leave behind her Plan B, cautiously hidden behind one of the loose bricks of the old building. She knew that Tony would eventually find it, and with it he would find the truth about her plans. She was certain that Tony would immediately figure out what had happened to her and would instantly back her up. She expected that he would not leave her to fend for herself against the imposter that her adoptive mother was – he was a genius, after all. And as a genius, he would definitely decipher the code she had left behind.
Only much later, weeks after she had left that temple, would she realize that she had been wrong.
xxxXXXxxx
The second-in-command of S.H.I.E.L.D. practically dragged her feet to her General's quarters. The news she brought with her was weighing her down; her already petite form seemed to shrink even further. She hated being the bearer of bad news, but at this point, bad news was all that was delivered on the blasted ship: Tony's treatment had not worked the way she had expected it to be; General Fury still trusted Maya Hansen's advice on anything related to the Stark family; S.H.I.E.L.D. was out of weapons and had not been able to find anyone to replace their former manufacturers; the World Security Council was breathing down their necks about the questionable decisions that Fury was taking, and she had not had a good night's sleep since she had been assigned to infiltrate the hospital where James Howard Stark had been taken, and only to sneak in a very unfortunate and dubious form that Tony Stark had signed without knowing.
Maria Hill never thought she would ever hate her job.
But here she was, carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she wanted nothing more than to come clean with Tony Stark, with Pepper Potts – with everyone. Yet, her caring heart, which she hardly ever relied upon for doing her job, prevented her from doing it, from telling everyone what she knew. Her heart told her to just let Tony and Pepper enjoy the last days of their lives.
At first, her loyalty and admiration for her General had been sufficient for carrying out the less-than-honorable deeds she had been tasked with. When her blind belief in General Fury's sanity ended, she had begun relying on her loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mission to continue carrying out whatever complex set of instructions Maya Hansen had left behind for them to complete. And when this loyalty had run out and James H. Stark had been reported dead, she had lost all hope that the redhead and the inventor would ever make it out of this bounty alive. Phase three had ended last year. Phase four was already in place. And at this rate, it was more merciful to just let the two heroes be unaware of what was to come.
Everyone, herself included, was responsible for James's death – and so would they all be for Pepper Potts's and Tony Stark's demise.
I should've gone to beauty school.
She knocked on the door twice. When the door unlocked, just a half a second later, Maria let herself in. Fury was resting his back against the absurdly large chair, and even though his shoulders were squared and his pose was rigid, Maria could see in his eye that he was as beaten up as she was. He inhaled deeply when she took a moment too long to state her business. Before he gave her another annoyed look, the woman finally spoke up.
"There has been a leak, General. Our database has been compromised."
Fury closed his eye, wishing he could just make his problems go away. "When and who?"
"We're not sure when, yet. We just found that it happened. And I think you know who it was."
Nick sighed, eye still closed, and his fingers flew to his forehead to rub the vein that threatened to pop open at any second now.
"How did she manage that? Our system was designed by the brightest minds in software encryption."
Maria pursed her lips so that the bulk of the arrogant tone that would come out with her answer remained mostly inside.
"Sir, do I really have to answer the question of how the top graduate of Empire State University's Master's program in Cybersecurity and Digital Forensic Science, who also happens to be Tony Stark's wife, was able to hack into our secure servers without our knowledge?"
Fury exhaled again and finally opened his eye.
"No," he shook his head. "I guess not. What's the damage?"
"You will know when we know, sir."
Fury scoffed. "Or we will know when the world knows."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
xxxXXXxxx
Seeing her father drive away from the drop-off section of the airport made her situation that much realer. She thought she had a solid action course, a way out if she needed to flee. But the moment her father's eyes became nothing more than a moving target until only their memory remained, she almost did not walk inside the airport. This was not like the other times she had gone undercover or had pretended to do, say or be someone she was not for the sake of distraction. This time, there was no Tony, Gene, Rhodey, or Happy to back her up. This time, it was just her against the world.
She would have time to reflect later, she knew, but for now all she had time for was to hope that Tony had read her message already. Rhodey had not wanted to deliver the letter in the first place, but she knew that he would anyway. It was imperative that Tony saw that message before too long, and even if he saw it by the time she was already in California, she knew that the inventor would be with her in a heartbeat. All he had to do was to see Private Eye, and then find the USB drive she had hidden in his second home in order to know what to do.
There would be time to thoroughly discuss her real feelings with him, to tell him in person how she really felt about him, but for now all she could do was wait in line to complete the mandatory airport security inspection that appeared would take a big chunk of her available time.
xxxXXXxxx
"Ms. Jones will see you now, Mr. Stark."
It still made Tony uncomfortable to be greeted by his therapist's assistant and daughter, Janet Lowe, although not as much as it still perturbed him that he was attending counseling with a woman who had once helped make his life miserable. He still had his doubts that the girl who had once trashed Pepper's locker and had stolen a kiss from him really cared if her mother was helping him cope with the loss of his son and his impending divorce, and yet here he was.
Then again, he was here only because he had nowhere better to be, and only because Rhodey had nagged at him to at least finish the sessions for the sake of his state of mind. The almost-agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was in town for Spring Break vacation, and even though he would be returning home for good in just a couple of months, the time between today and Rhodey's permanent homecoming felt like an eternity for the inventor. With his son dead, Pepper gone, and his inability to keep a conversation with anyone, Rhodey was the only person that was keeping the genius from being declared clinically insane. And knowing how insane Tony could be, this was quite the feat.
"Good morning, Tony. Come on in."
Tony nodded to Loraine. The woman returned the gesture with a small smile. The blue-eyed boy knew what was expected of him during these sessions, so he made a beeline for the large couch and laid on it. He closed his eyes, exhaled deeply, placed his laced hands on his chest, and spoke the first line he always started his conversations with when in therapy.
"I miss her."
"She doesn't miss you."
The deadpanned response he received from Loraine made his eyes snap open, his head turn to face her, and his mouth hang. From all the responses he had expected from her and from all the questions she always asked, a hurtful statement such as the one she had just uttered was the last one he would have thought he would ever hear from her.
"What?"
"She doesn't," Loraine continued despite the hurt look on the genius. "She's done with you and she's tired of having you in her life. She's carried the burden of knowing you for nearly six years, and she's had nothing but pain to show for it. She wants the pain to stop and she will do anything she needs to make herself happy. Including, but not limited, to moving on without you in her life."
"But–"
"No, Tony," Loraine shook her head. She had promised herself that she would quicken the pace of these sessions, and by damn she would do so today! She needed to make Tony and Pepper see the time that was being wasted; the energy that was expelled over nothing. It was ironic to the therapist how alike the two of them were when in here, and even if she had not been able to convince Pepper to meet with Tony at all to vent her fears and feelings to him regarding his apparent involvement in baby James's death, this was not going to stop the therapist from making them both realize the mistake divorcing each other truly was. The ends justifies the means was a phrase that never before held so much truth for Loraine Jones in her entire life.
"There are no buts."
Tony stared at the woman for another second before he slowly pressed his back against the couch once more and closed his mouth. He fixated on the ceiling tiles and briefly remembered the time he had dared the ginger to stay home with him to relax and count the tiles on their own ceiling. It had been one of the many mornings she had woken him up, threatening to use a pitcher of cold water on him while still in bed. Back then, she had not known what they had been in the past, and all she knew was that they had already been friends. Back then, she had been happy, for the first time in months, and it was due to the fact that she was not his girl, but just his best friend and partner in the fight against crime.
That day they had danced and laughed in the kitchen, living the moment as if the two of them were the only people in the world. She had pressed herself against him, and he had smiled like a fool in love. They had then eaten the breakfast she had made for them, and their conversation at the table had revealed a truth he had lived by for years to come.
"Hn," he mused as he evenly split the pancakes between them. "True, but all I gotta do is take you out dancing and you'll forgive me for being late."
"Hey!" Pepper narrowed her eyes at him. "No fair! You know I can't refuse a good dance!"
"Ha-HA!" he pointed his fork at her. "I know your weakness, Potts! And that, my beloved, is why you will never be able to stay mad at me forever. I'm your dancing partner for life."
"Dancing partner," Tony said aloud after a moment of quietness. Loraine furrowed her brow, not quite following where the sudden response was coming from.
"What?"
"Dancing partner," Tony repeated, this time surer of himself. "I'm her dancing partner. For life."
It took Loraine half a second more before she finally placed where she had heard those exact same words before. When she remembered that Pepper had made a similar statement about Tony at some point during the better part of the therapies, Loraine smiled.
"Then be her partner," Loraine said, glad that he was starting to see what he needed to do for now. "Let her be your partner, too. Just don't force her to still be your wife."
xxxXXXxxx
She knew that this was neither the time nor place to be emotional, but the moment she had dug her hand inside her shoulder bag to retrieve the details of her flight and she had instead grabbed – with her burnt hand, at that – the backstage pass for the Annual Summer Science, Research and Development Symposium by Reed Richards that she carried in her bag, she had immediately broken down – in the middle of the seating area of the gate. She knew how much Tony admired the man, and even if she had spent months of her allowance to buy the darned ticket, it was very probable that he would not get to use the pass at all. Especially if she did not get to talk things out with him.
She was aware that her head should have been in the game – in the mission she had given herself – but she could not help but regret how things had ended between Tony and her. She had been rash and stupid and had said things she had not meant. She had practically shoved Tony's feelings for her back at him, and even a kick in the nuts would have been a more honorable thing to do to him than to belittle whatever emotion he felt for her. Whether it was – or had been – a crush, deep friendship, or even the beginning of love, she knew that she had done wrong by him. He deserved to at least be heard and be apologized to, even if just for the sake of respecting the friendship they had.
Or once had; she was not sure.
She felt the tears run down her cheeks. When it became difficult to breathe, she realized that she had run to the ladies room to freshen up. Her mother was yet to show her face at the airport, so she knew she had a few minutes to wash her face and clean away the evidence that she had begun to cry. Pepper grabbed all of her belongings, stood up from her seat, and then walked in the direction of the restrooms; all the while she tried her best to dry some of her tears with the back of her hand.
xxxXXXxxx
Rhodey was not proud of what he had just done to his friend, but one thing he had learned in the Air Force Academy was that the end truthfully justified the means. And right now, the end goal was for Pepper to relax and take a break from feeling all the emotions that kept overwhelming her as a result of not sleeping for nearly two days straight. The only way he had been able to help the redhead get some much needed rest was to drug her coffee with barbiturate drugs.
The things he did for his best friends.
"I'm sorry, Pepper," Rhodey whispered to the slumbering girl that now lay on the couch in the living room of his former home, while he covered her with a blanket. "It's for your own good."
For good measure, James Rhodes leaned down and kissed the ginger's forehead, which only made him feel guiltier when she mumbled Tony's name in her sleep. He had to repeat to himself that what he was doing – the extreme measures he was taking with the couple – was only to help his two friends find their way back together again. He was not trying to inflict more pain or go against their wishes and beliefs; he was honestly trying to patch things up between them – just as everyone else that knew and cared for them, was trying every single day to do since the baby had died.
He had questioned, many times in the past, his involvement in their love affairs. He had promised himself only to intervene to some extent so that their relationship developed naturally, strongly, in order for the couple to be able to dig themselves out of trouble. And by damn he tried his best! Rhodey still vividly remembered the first time he considered meddling in their issues more than what was expected of him. To this day, he was glad that he had taken a step back and had let the matter unfold on its own.
Pepper let go of his hands and rubbed her face with her own.
"It's Tony… it's so weird between us now. I… I know it's kinda my fault because I wanted to tell him even though he wouldn't let me, but then he kissed me, and we hugged, and then he was mad that I was still dating Happy. But he told me he wanted to say it first, so I was going to let him, but then the phone rang, and it was Happy, and I swear I wasn't going to answer, but he thought I was, so he–"
"PEPPER! You're doing it again! Slow down."
"OK, sorry," she said, sheepishly. "So, uhm, Rhodey. Does Tony not want to be my friend now?"
"What makes you think that?"
"He… I don't know. I just, I don't want to lose his friendship. It's already bad enough we're all going to go our separate ways in less than a month, but I was hoping we could all spend the summer together before I never heard from you guys until who-knows-when. Even if he and I didn't… even if he didn't feel the same way, in the end."
Rhodey listened to his friend, toying with the idea of telling her that Tony did feel the same way, but that he was just born without the socially-adaptable DNA strand. However, he knew that as much as he wanted to just lock up both of the teens in a closet and throw away the key, there was only so much meddling he could do for them. If they did not figure this out on their own, their relationship would never truly take off, and then they ran the risk of splitting up before anything good actually grew between them.
"Besides," she added after a short pause. "I could never be like Whitney."
"I know it's going to sound repetitive, but you just have to talk to him. And maybe turn off your cell phone when you do."
And he had let them figure things out in their own. All things considered, they had done a pretty good job so far. Even after the multiple kidnappings and misunderstandings, the memory issues, the lies, the secrets, the dangerous missions, and the overall difficult life they were destined to live just because of who and what they were, Tony and Pepper had beat the odds and had stayed together despite whatever life had thrown at them. Rhodey himself was not certain if he would have stayed with the one person that made his life difficult, even if that person was also the one soul he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
"Date night, huh?" Rhodey began, gaze lost to his front. "I take it that married life suits you?"
"As perfectly as the Iron Man armor once did," he replied, took a sip of his drink, and then added with a smile and a wiggle of his eyebrows: "It adjusts, too."
Rhodey chuckled and shook his head, thinking of a million dirty thoughts that fit the description Tony had just placed in his mind. Even if he had always somehow known that his friend and the redhead would end up dating at some point in their lives, he had not foreseen the level of commitment that the two had for one another.
"You guys happy, then?"
"Yes. I love her so much, Rhodey. She and my son are the best things that have ever happened to me. I'm so fucking lucky, that I sometimes think that I just have to be dreaming it all."
Rhodes spared his friend a glance and, for a second, he envied how at-peace and relaxed the billionaire seemed. From all the years that he had known Tony, he had seen him like this only a handful of times; mostly only after he had come up with another great invention for Stark International before the plane crash that had changed his life. However, this was the first time that not only did his appearance indicate how content he was; his words and his tone of voice denoted it as well.
The inventor sat with his right leg bent towards his chest; his left leg stretched out on the ground. His right arm rested on his bent leg, and his right hand lazily held the beer bottle. His left arm supported some of his weight by placing his palm on the floor, and his face practically radiated happiness with his bright smile and his almost glinting eyes.
Tony had stayed with Pepper and Pepper with Tony, no matter what. For that, Rhodey could not help but to admire the courage his two friends had had even with the adversities they had faced so far. But the loss of a child was not any of the things they had encountered before, and this was the reason why Rhodey was meddling more than he really should have. This was the reason why he now found himself reading letters that he should have never found in the first place.
Even though the dates on the letters were recent, the wrinkled and damp state of the papers indicated to Rhodey that the letters had seen better and dryer days. He had not meant to sneak around, and he had not meant to read them, but Pepper was passed out all over them, and when he had tried just now to make her feel more comfortable by removing the papers and books she had fallen asleep on, the familiar penmanship had caught his eye.
It was Tony Stark's writing alright, who despite his life being technologically-inclined, had very neat and legible handwriting for his age and otherwise cluttered lifestyle. Rhodey figured it was probably due to the fact that he sketched designs for a living, and in order for his creations to come to life, he needed to be very precise and exact in his drawings and annotations on the diagrams he used for his prototypes. Although, now that he thought about it further, Tony had no need for his sketches to be as perfect as they tended to be, as only he, his father, and maybe even Pepper were the only ones nearby who were able to understand what was written on them, anyway.
Rhodey tried looking away; he really tried. But his curiosity was greater than his current self-control, and without minding the fact that he was essentially violating Pepper's privacy and trust, and both of his friends' intimacy, he began reading the first letter he had in hand.
Pepper,
I can hear you crying, you know? I can hear you're in pain. I'm in pain, too. I miss him, too. But I also miss you, too. I want to help you, Pepper. I want you to use me for whatever you need. I want you to get better. I want us to miss him together. We need each other, more than we ever did. Please, let me in. Please, answer your phone. I'm waiting for you. Please, let me help you.
Love,
T.S.
Rhodey furrowed his brow as he slowly scanned the letter one more time before he folded it and placed it inside the album that Pepper had been staring at when he had walked inside the home. The album contained several pictures, mostly of the redhead and the inventor, and it was then that Rhodey realized how much he had missed his friends – how much he had missed out by being away from them.
Even if he had had the chance to visit them often throughout his years at the Air Force Academy, he had not seen them with the same frequency he had been used to when still in school. Before his eyes, and as steady and slowly as a dripping faucet, the clueless genius and the chatty ginger had made a life together; a life that Rhodey could only hope to one day have of his own. The life he wished his friends would someday enjoy.
Knowing that he should stop but being unable to do so, Rhodey picked up the next letter and read it to himself.
Pepper,
Remember that day when I took you to the beach last December? Remember how cold it was? I was freezing, Pep, but I still went with you because I knew that would make you happy. What would make you happy now? What can I do to make it better? Please tell me how to make it better. I know I can't bring him back, but I need and WANT you back. Please, talk to me. I'm here for you. I miss you.
Love you,
T.S.
Rhodey's eyes scanned the other letters, all mostly containing similar messages of encouragement and hope; and sometimes, of utter desperation on Tony's part. Sheet by sheet, Tony implored the ginger to open the door to their room, to let him inside to share the pain, and Rhodey figured by the fact that Pepper now lived by herself and that she had left the penthouse shortly after the baby had died, that it meant that Tony's efforts had been fruitless; as much as his own task of helping his friends was proving to be.
As different as Tony and Pepper were, they were also eerily similar in some ways: their stubbornness being one of them. Pepper insisted that she would never forgive Tony for lying to her – although Rhodey was not sure what this particular and recent lie had been about – and Tony was adamant that the best way to help Pepper was to let her live her life without him and move on with his life. Or as much as he could while he still clung to the memory of what they had once been.
Maybe he should have never read the letters in the first place. Maybe meddling this much was not the best option for helping them. Maybe he had just walked in to the ultimate argument that would finally break these two apart.
What if they truly could not stand being together in the same room ever again? What if the damage done was beyond repair? What lie had Tony told the ginger that had made her state that she wished she had never met the inventor in the first place? What type of fib had Tony concocted this time around that would warrant the inevitable demand and only solution of divorce?
What the fuck had happened between them that had severed the connection the two had once had? Was it really just James's death? Or was there something more than neither party dared to speak about? Was there something else that neither of them wanted to tell Rhodey about?
Knowing that the answers would not come easy or at all, Rhodey sighed deeply as he finished tidying up the living room. Pepper would be conked out for hours, perhaps throughout the entire day, and he certainly did not want to be there when she woke up and she realized what he had done to her. She had been beyond reason when he had slipped the drugs in her drink, and he doubted that the long rest would give her some perspective in the matter at all. So, for the sake of self-preservation, Rhodey knew that the best and only thing he could do for now was to leave the premises before Pepper woke up.
But before he had been able to leave the home, before he had been able to leave Pepper to rest for the day, his eyes caught a glimpse of one more document – one document that he somehow instantly knew held the answers to the questions he had. It was not the fact that the document was on top of Pepper's copies of the divorce papers that made it appealing. It was not the fact that the paper was different from the letters he had just placed next to it on the side table. It was the fact that his future employer's insignia was all over it that had made Rhodey pick it up.
And when the man's eyes finished reading the entire document, when his brain made sense of the information in it, James Rhodes was as mad and as displeased with the inventor as the ginger had shown to be. But above all, he became determined to use his impending status as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to find out what really had transpired the night that James Howard Stark had died.
xxxXXXxxx
Pepper rubbed her face with her cold hands. Even though she was inhaling so deeply that her lungs and chest burned with the exertion, the tears would not stop. This was the third time she washed her face with freezing water, but it was as if the more of the liquid she rubbed on her face, the more the tears were encouraged to come back. Why was she so emotional about this?
She had a million and a half theories about it, but she pushed them all away when she remembered that she had to return to the gate. The plane would start boarding soon, and as shitty as her luck had been, she was certain she was going to return to the seating area only to find her mother was already there, pissed off beyond belief at the fact that she had not been there when she arrived, even if the older woman was the one who was yet to report to their meeting location.
Pepper rubbed her face one last time before she grabbed a handful of paper towels and patted her face dry. Her eyes then caught a glimpse of a woman standing behind her, and thinking that said lady was waiting on Pepper to move out of the two-person sink before her, the ginger stepped aside to allow the brunette to wash her hands. The woman never reached for the sink, however, and instead inserted a needle in Pepper's neck, too suddenly for the redhead to have any chance to react.
xxxXXXxxx
He honestly had tried to make this as swift, painless and unceremonious as possible. But in the end, he had been destined to fail at this task – and failed miserably, he had. It had not been the baby blue walls, the unused plastic sippy cups or bibs, or the pulling apart of the furniture. It had not even been the scent of toddler that still lingered there, nor had it been the tiny clothes that were now inside taped boxes that would end up in a storage room until he had the heart to get rid of them, if ever.
No. It had not been any of the things he had expected it to be. It had not even been the absence of his ex-wife – or soon-to-be ex-wife, once he sent the forms over to Roberta that he had just signed, moments ago. It was not the overload of guilt at knowing that his son had essentially died by his hand. It had not been the realization that, once he packed up James' room and mailed the forms to his attorney, that he would lose everything and everyone he had always fought to protect; everything that had once been his reason for living.
Not even the fact that today would have been James' first birthday had made Tony Stark crumble to his knees.
What had gotten to him; what had been the last straw that had sent him to the floor of James's room in a fit of loud and agonizing sobs, had been the scrapbook: the pregnancy and baby's memory book he had helped Pepper create throughout many months – for more than a year, in fact!
He had not even known it was around until he had lifted some boxes and the damned thing had fallen to the floor, only to open on a page that showed a picture of him and Pepper kissing, while sitting on the floor of the balcony of their old apartment, the sunset behind them, her hand resting on his and his on her large belly; his free hand clearly held his pod at a distance to be able to take the perfect picture of what their lives had been for a while: carefree, happy, full of togetherness and love.
He remembered the day the picture had been taken. It had been before the crows had driven them out of their little home. It had been just a couple of weeks before Tony had opened his mouth to put his foot inside of it when he had practically accused Pepper of cheating on him with Happy Hogan, of all people. It had been shortly after he had proposed to her while dancing to a romantic tune during the company's annual holiday affair.
Pepper had been having trouble leaving the apartment due to the unpredictable effects of her pregnancy; she had been pouting all day long because of it. Tony had tried his best to comfort her, but in her state, nothing short of having the baby much earlier than anticipated would had made her glad. It had not been until Pepper had decided to take a nap that Tony had come up with the idea of having a winter picnic on their balcony at sunset, since the redhead enjoyed watching them whenever she had the chance. When Pepper had woken up, she had done so to an already set mini-picnic, just for the two of them.
Seeing this picture and remembering how happy they had once been, had only been the first stab to his already dying heart. He had not been able to stop himself from flipping from page to page in the scrapbook, and reminisced about how good they had had it in the past. He had seen pictures of him measuring Pepper's belly on the wall as it grew throughout the months. He held back a sob when he had seen the progression of his son's development via ultrasounds. He had even chuckled lightly when he saw the silly annotations of Pepper's on the sides of some of the pictures and some of the mementos she had chosen to keep inside the book.
It all came back to him at the same time: the smells, the dreams, the memories, the emotions he had felt throughout the past year and a half, starting when he had rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night to find out that Pepper was with child. Ever since that day, a couple of days after Maya had broken up with him and had left him for good, his life had changed every single day. And while it was true that horrible things had also happened during this time, for the most part it had been great!
And then there had been that phone call to tell him that his son was dead. And he was yet to really cry for him – to really let his anger and sadness all come out. He had remained as strong as he had been able to be since, at least one of them, needed to be aware of what was happening to their child. One of the two had to perform the exhausting yet necessary tasks that came from losing a loved one and sign the forms needed for a deceased person to be released from a hospital, transferred to a funeral home, and then be buried on Christmas Eve.
He had been strong for a long time now, strong enough for Pepper when she needed him to be. But now that she was gone, that his home was empty save for him, and now that he was certain that his beloved was never coming back, he had the chance and the obligation to bring down the walls and weep – he had the right to apologize to his only son for inadvertently poisoning his tiny body with the virus that had slowly killed him.
And today, the would-be first anniversary of his son's birth, seemed to be the perfect time to do all of this. Being at the nursery that he and Pepper had built for their little one seemed to be the perfect location for the impeccable timing that his mourning demanded he take to let it free. This was how Tony Stark had found himself on the floor of his son's room, surrounded by pictures, boxes, clothes, toys and a broken heart. This was how Tony had not become aware that he was no longer alone in the home. This was how Tony had missed the moment when the figure that had been standing behind him had slowly begun approaching him, and this was how the inventor had not become aware that he had been stared at for a long time, until an arm surrounded his neck from behind in the dimness of the baby's room.
xxxXXXxxx
She could not believe her luck, but the evidence before her was enough for her to start believing there was justice in the world. Her plan had worked, perfectly so, and even though it had been three days since she had dragged Pepper out of the airport in front of everyone's unsuspecting eyes, Whitney Stane was still in disbelief that her farfetched idea had worked. She had finally done it! She had outsmarted Tony Stark! And now that she knew she had all the time in the world to do as she pleased with the redhead, she allowed herself a few days to rest.
Pepper had woken up a few times since their arrival from the airport, but other than screaming and banging at the metal walls that encased her, the redhead had done nothing more than to sob and beg in the darkness of the coffin-like contraption she had her in. She had also fallen asleep crying sometimes, and she had pleaded for food and a drink on a few other occasions, but Whitney was yet to show her any mercy; it was doubtful that it would change at all. In the blonde's eyes, the redhead deserved this and more. In Madame Masque's eyes, Pepper Potts deserved to be punished and die.
It was almost the end of the third day of this successful abduction, and it was now time to have the fun the mask had told her she could have with the ginger. It would be a long time before anyone realized that Pepper was gone, which meant there would be days upon days of carrying out the long list of sentences and torture that Whitney Stane had carefully planned for Tony Stark's loved one. By the end of this, and before her last breath, Pepper Potts would know what it was like to lose everything and everyone she always cared about.
Pepper Potts would learn, before she died, what a mistake she had made when she had allowed herself to fall in love with Tony Stark.
xxxXXXxxx
Even though he slightly jumped out of his skin when he felt the grip tighten around his chest and shoulders, he did not care enough to turn around to see who it was, to open his eyes, or to even verbally challenge the trespasser in his home. He did not even care enough to try to fight back. If there was any God at all, Tony mused, and if this God cared about him one bit, it had been He who had sent this intruder to his home to end his life. Maybe it was just Gene, maybe it was Rhodey – even though he was back at the Air Force for now – or maybe it was an enemy of his – whoever was left of them – and perhaps he had come here to end his suffering by slitting his throat
Oh, how he hoped this was about to be the case!
But when he felt the newcomer kneel behind him, and the other arm encased him in a tight yet affectionate hug, the inventor partially froze in confusion. When this same person rubbed the genius' left cheek with their nose, and the smell of their scent – of the familiar perfume – made it to his nostrils, Tony Stark sharply gasped. His eyes finally opened, and he dared to look down at his chest, where the small hands pressed against his heart. When he saw the easily recognizable rings on the dainty left hand, Tony finally knew who it was that had snuck behind him.
And he could not believe his luck.
His breathing and heartbeat quickened, but he refused to get his hopes up. He placed his hand on the guest's left one to rub his fingers against the rings, just to make sure they were actually there and that he was not seeing things again. His fingertips then rubbed the smooth skin of her hands and trailed up her forearm all the way to her left shoulder. His hand then slid up her neck, to her face, and he held her there so that, when he turned his head to stare into her hazel eyes, she did not have a chance to run away from him – or at least not yet.
Her eyes were as irritated as his and they too denoted how shattered she felt inside. He had seen that look on her features before, ever since James had died, but this was the first time that, mixed in with the sorrow of losing their child, was also the look of needing the comfort and love that only they could find in each other. The comfort he had wanted to give her all this time. The comfort he could see and sense she was willing to not only accept from him, but to give in return as well.
This HAD to be a dream!
His eyes stared at the rings once more as he recalled where he had last seen them, trying to make sense of this surreal sensation he currently felt. After Pepper had dropped off the divorce papers, and the rings on the pinwheel necklace he had given her for her birthday a long time ago, Tony had been wearing the necklace with the rings until earlier today. When he had finally had the guts to sign all of the separation forms, he had taken off the necklace and the rings and had placed them on the kitchen island, next to the stack of divorce papers, before he had found himself walking inside the nursery room to say his final goodbye to his son. He knew for a fact that Pepper no longer had the rings with her, and the only way she could be wearing them right now was if she had come inside their home, picked them up from where he had left them, and deliberately placed them upon her hand.
It was clear to the ginger that Tony was having a difficult time believing what he was seeing – that she was truly there with him, so she gave him a tiny smile as she removed one of her arms from him to show him the necklace she had put back on herself when she had found it on the counter. She had also grabbed the divorce papers and had thrown them in the fire that had already been lit inside the living room fireplace while she had been walking around the penthouse, searching for her husband's whereabouts. It had not been until she had heard the heart-wrenching sob she had never, ever heard him make that she realized where Tony currently was.
She had hesitated for a second after she had heard him crying, and she had briefly doubted that what she was about to do was best for him. At this point, and after much thought, she did not care if being with him was the best for her. What she had come to want even more, ever since she had received that anonymous message, two days ago, was to do whatever would make him happy; whatever would make things better for him and not for her. It had not been until she had received that unsigned note inside an unmarked envelope that she had finally seen the true error of her ways.
She walked over to her mailbox, the one she had just gotten replaced and reinforced for security purposes, and she lazily unlocked it to check her mail. She did not receive much correspondence at this location, and since most of her financial responsibilities' statuses were delivered to her via electronic means, she rarely had much need to check the box. Today was different, however, and between a couple of envelopes, the usual advertisements and the local stores' printed marketing efforts, she found a white envelope that immediately caught her eye in the midst of the brightly colored papers.
She frowned for a moment when she realized that even though the letter was sealed; it was not postmarked, meaning that someone other than her usual mailman had been able to access her secured box. She would later have to review the footage of the security cameras around her home to try to catch a glimpse of the would-be violator, but she could already narrow down the list of possible culprits who had dared to break into her mailbox to leave this mysterious letter for her. She stole a glance around herself to check if she was being watched, but when she saw nothing out of the ordinary near her land, she shook her head, locked her box, and returned home.
As soon as she walked inside the living room, she filtered through the junk and grabbed the three envelopes she had received. She dumped the ads inside a recycle bin she kept near the front door for this exact purpose and she then sat on the couch to examine her mail. The first envelope contained the official welcome letter to the hall of fame of Empire State University. She just rolled her eyes at it before she tossed it to the side. The second envelope contained a written notification of the now-approved vehicle registration and state safety inspection of her non-Stark issued automobile. The latter she had obtained to make sure she was able to drive a normal vehicle when she did not feel like calling attention to herself, so she placed that particular letter and envelope on the side table of the couch she currently sat on.
The third letter finally made it to her attention, and she stared at it for a few seconds, internally debating if she should even open the damned thing at all. Her first thought was that perhaps Tony had sneaked in a message for her, just as he had tried many times before when she had locked herself in their room after the baby had died. She almost tore apart the envelope without reading its contents, but she stopped herself from doing so. She had not wanted to tear the paper because it could be Tony's, but because she could not stand to be reminded how much she had failed him by casting him aside without considering his feelings in the entire matter. She already had loads of pictures, gifts, letters and memories to remind her of how horrible of a partner she had been to him; she did not need one more aide memoire of her weakness.
It had taken her over two months by herself, extensive training, meditation sessions, talks with Rhodey, Jarvis, Howard, Trish, Virgil, Happy and Gene, and a lot of crying and self-pity parties she only attended herself, but she had finally realized that she had been selfish and arrogant, and had treated Tony in ways no one – especially not her blue-eyed boy – should have been treated after everything he had done for her.
She no longer felt worthy of his words of encouragement and of his tokens of love. She no longer felt as if being with him was fair to them, as she had proven to be the worst thing that had ever happened to Tony Stark. All this time she had focused on how much her life had been affected by knowing him, being with him and loving him, but it had not been until recently that she had stopped to think how much her being around him had affected him as well.
He had moved mountains to make her happy, to be with her at all costs. He had lived with her and had supported her for months despite the knowledge that she was better off without knowing how he felt about her, and he had done whatever had been necessary to assure her comfort above his. He had taken her in and had cared for her when she had found out she was pregnant, even before he had known the baby was actually his. He had asked her to be his wife even after she had stomped over his heart a few times. There had not been one day, one action, one fucking thought that had come from Tony that was not aimed at making things better for her – even if at first the good intent had not been clear to her.
And what had she done in return? She did not dare to go there again, but what she did remind herself of was that Tony did not deserve to suffer the way he had, especially not by her hand. She was convinced that she did not deserve to be loved by him – by someone who had devoted his life to her to the point of ignoring all self-preservation instincts and personal dignity. It was not her who was better off without him. It was Tony Stark who was better off without her.
She stared at the letter again and tapped it on the back of her left hand. Once her guilt-ridden side had stated its peace, her hero side kicked in. What if it was a trap? What if the envelope contained a virus or a bioweapon? What if someone who was aware of the bounty had found her location and was trying to collect the fee? They had already taken out her son, this much she was aware of, and as far as she knew, Tony was still alive. It made sense to her that they would try to get her first now that she was no longer under the inventor's protection, as it was no secret that even with all her knowledge and war tactics abilities, Tony was still ahead of her when it came to fighting crime.
She pursed her lips and then lifted the envelope above her head so that the light of the room would filter through it to look inside. She stared at it from different angles, tapped it against her legs, and then finally took it with her to her home lab. She was yet to decide what to do with the old armory building outside the home, and now that she was aware of what she had done when she had bought this property from Roberta, she did not have the heart to further alter the place that Tony had once called home. The abandoned warehouse and the burned armory inside of it was his, and it would be up to him to decide what to do with it.
This had not stopped her, however, from turning the basement into a smaller-scale replica of the Makluan Temple's lab. She had used the diagrams of the temple to recreate some of the most useful tools Tony held there, but since the equipment was mostly unique and one-of-a-kind, so far she had only been able to have the x-ray machine and some of the supercomputers delivered to the home. The rest would have to wait until Tony himself actually completed the work orders she had placed in, and she could only hope that he would build the equipment for her, no questions asked. If he chose not to fulfill the work orders, then she would be shit out of luck, and she did not plan to complain about that; even if she had come to rely on his tech to get her out of trouble or to battle the enemies they had made over time.
She walked down the basement stairs and made a beeline for the x-ray machine. She placed the envelope inside and ran all kinds of tests on the enigmatic piece of mail. She gave it almost half an hour to show results, and when she read the final result that the only thing the white envelope contained was a single piece of paper, she immediately grabbed it from the machine and opened it up. She then ran to her side of the basement lab, envelope and letter in hand, and put her education to use.
Just as the envelope, the paper was not signed, and the only noticeable identifier she found on the paper was a serial number she did not immediately recognize, printed on the top middle of the letter. There was also one single line of text printed in the middle of it, so she could not even run a handwriting recognition algorithm on the words. There were no fingerprints either, the ink and paper were of normal use, and there was no DNA trace anywhere on it, so whoever had done this was a pro. Other than actually reviewing the security camera feeds for the past three days, she would have to just deal with the fact that all the information she was going to get for now out of the letter was to read its contents once and for all.
She eyed the serial number one more time, and something in the back of her mind told her that she had seen it before. She shook her head a few times when something tried to come to the surface, but when she was not able to instantly recall where she had previously seen this number, she decided to let it go for now and just read the damned message. Her gaze trailed down to the middle of the sheet, read the line of text, and she frowned. She read it three more times and alternated between the number and the words, and when it finally dawned on her where she had read the serial code before, she held back a gasp.
"No," she shook her head. "It can't be!"
She ran up the stairs and out of the basement, and did not stop until she reached her home office room. She headed straight to the filing cabinet, unlocked it, pulled out the third drawer, found the file she was looking for and all but slammed it against her desk. She sorted through the papers inside of it until she found what she was desperate to find, and when she finally did so, she held side by side both the unsigned paper she had just received and the S.H.I.E.L.D. record of Tony's signed affidavit acknowledging his involvement in James's death.
The serial numbers matched.
And when she realized that the numbers matched, the printed words on the paper made sense to her. And she felt like throwing up.
She closed her eyes, hyperventilated a few times, and then ran to her computer. She sat in the chair, pulled up the program she had been using to monitor S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database system and confirmed that other than herself, no one else had hacked into their servers. She then double-checked that her filing cabinet had been secured and intact when visitors had been in her home, and other than the Mandarin trying to do so, no one else would have been able to find the information regarding the serial number of their case with S.H.I.E.L.D., hidden in her cabinet. Besides, she knew that Gene was still too embarrassed and hurt to physically visit her for a while.
She knew that she had given Tony a copy of the records of James's death, but she had removed the serial number from it so that he was not tempted to look up the information on his own. She knew that this would have not stopped him from hacking the S.H.I.E.L.D. database anyway, just as she had done herself, so she had designed the system that had been monitoring S.H.I.E.L.D. activity for weeks now. S.H.I.E.L.D. was yet to find they were being constantly monitored, and she was aware that they were now cognizant that a leak had taken place. But unless they just tried to pin it on her out of pure suspicion, she had made sure that they never found traces of her ever being there.
She had learned from the best, after all, and her experience and knowledge had allowed her to hack even her own servers at Stark Solutions tower and the Makluan Temple without setting off any alarms and without having to leave her new home. The records showed that Tony had not used their recon capable systems in forever, had not reactivated Extremis in him, and neither had he tried to make contact with S.H.I.E.L.D. or the World Security Council. Tony had really cut S.H.I.E.L.D. some major slack for a while now, but she refused to do the same for the organization that had only gotten in Tony's way. She was yet to really scrutinize the records of everything that S.H.I.E.L.D. knew about her and Tony, but right now she did not feel like bringing down the Helicarrier to teach Nick Fury a hard lesson of life: you did not hurt Tony Stark without feeling the wrath of Pepper Potts.
Back to the matter at hand.
Pepper triple-checked all her records and slowly ordered her thoughts and memories. There was absolutely no way that anyone other than her knew about this serial number, unless of course that person was already inside the Helicarrier – unless the sender of this note currently made of the flying fortress their home. Rhodey was out of the question – he was not to join S.H.I.E.L.D. until May, and even if he had access to the database, the copy of the S.H.I.E.L.D. record he had confronted her about when he had visited her during Spring Break was a copy that lacked the serial number. She had kept the master copy for herself, as she had known that this information could land either Rhodey, Tony or anyone else that cared about her, in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s jail, and this was the last thing she wanted for any of them.
She took a deep breath, pressed her back against the chair, and stared at the paper once more. Whoever had sent her this message knew what they were speaking of, and this fact made the words on the paper that much more powerful to her. The message should have not been news to her – she should have known this to be the case, but she had not wanted to believe that, on this issue, she had been in the wrong, too. She knew it was a possibility, she knew it was absolutely possible that she had believed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s words over Tony's, but now she knew why she had not wanted to believe his innocence to be true: she had not wanted to feel the temptation to go back to him, to ask him to forgive her, and beg him to let her be with him again.
The belief that he had lied to her, that he had not been an innocent party in this S.H.I.E.L.D. maze, was the only thing keeping her from interfering in his life once more. She wanted to be stronger, she wanted to let him be happy for once, but the moment these words she had just read repeated in her head, she closed her eyes and cried. She cried because she had known, all this time, that the phrase written on the paper: "He didn't know," was everything but a lie.
xxxXXXxxx
There was much to say, but neither dared to speak. For now all they could do was to hold one another, and cry together for their loss. She held her husband with everything she had, and she hoped that her presence and her soft caresses made it easier on him. He held her waist and cried like a child, on her chest and lap. With every sound of pain that came from him, she felt guiltier than before. Without asking, without even saying a word or accusing her for her flaws, Tony had welcomed her back into his life, and even if she knew that she was not deserving of it, she stayed with him all night until he found peace and sleep. She would always stay with him now, even if she had to live with the knowledge that he was too good for her. And he would stay with her, as long as he lived, even if he would always remember that their son had died because of him.
For the first time in months, Tony and Pepper fell asleep in each other's arms – after silently accepting and forgiving their common guilt – and on the same bed. Their bed.
A/N: Rejoice, my Faithful Readers! This is the last chapter of the entire series where Tony and Pepper are mad at each other! Congratulations for making it this far! And now, a message from my Beta Reader and hubby, Teen Tyrant:
When you read Miss Starfire's fics without reviewing, you bring down her confidence as a writer. When you bring down her confidence as a writer, you deprive yourself of story updates. When you deprive yourself of story updates, you become bored. When you become bored, you take up juggling. When you take up juggling, you attempt juggling on top of a fence. When you attempt juggling on top of a fence, you fall into a junkyard filled with guard dogs. And when you fall into a junkyard filled with guard dogs, you end up in a hospital for six weeks. Don't end up in a hospital for six weeks! Leave a review!
He really likes those commercials. ^_^