Guest Review Responses
Guest: Finally. It feels like the edge. It's getting far too interesting now. Please keep it up. We are waiting to see just how complicated this one is. Thanks. oh and sorry i BIRTHDAY! – Complicated doesn't begin to describe it… until the end… lol… And thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a blast! :)
Someone: OH COOL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D OH MY GOD! WHO WAS IT THAT BROKE INTO THE PENTHOUSE?! UGH...I need to know.. Ok...so practically everyone who guessed what happens in May was wrong... LOL! You know, I was just thinking, imagine if the person who wants them dead is Gene...he could be acting his niceness...I really doubt it, but you never know...you always surprise me! If it is Gene, then that just brings a whole lot of new questions into my mind! Pretty sure it's Fury though... This chapter was Awesome - as always! (The Pepperony was awesome too!) I loved the bit where they were all hanging out, that was hilarious! Anyway...HAVE A GREAT BIRTHDAY! :D – LOL! Yeah! I kinda sorta gave Pepper a break and let her and Tony have their little moment together. Was that hot or what? Gene, huh? Interesting idea… I guess he could be involved… or maybe he isn't… or maybe he's Snape… or maybe I need to stop drinking so much coffee when I write these things :P
apps: A very happy birthday to you...God bless you dear with wonderful ideas to write more about pepperony!...Speaking about chappie superrrr hottieeee...loved it...no matter what please keep them together and alive... njoyyyy – Thank you very much! It was a very happy birthday filled with food, relaxation, laziness and Big Bang Theory. SHAMY and Pepperony, FTW!
Muah: I had exams so I didnt catch this one in time. I am also too late for your birthday! But I wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY anyway! This was so sweet and fluffy and also hilarious...but just for the first half. And then you just had to make things angsty again. *sigh* you will never learn. ;P – Thank you! Here's the update! I had it ready last night, but I passed out before my beta finished reviewing it. But here it is, and I'm already working on the next chappie! Warning: angst is all there will be from now on, although thankfully, not Pepperony angst.
Chapter 6: June
The last thing she had seen had been the eyes of Whitney Stane as she told her something she could not remember. Her body had been shutting down for some reason and, for the life of her – quite literally – she had not been able to understand what Whitney had said. Her hearing had been impaired, and her vision had been blurry as well, so even if she had wanted to suddenly develop the ability to read lips, her eyes would have not let her do so. And that was not even counting her failing body and brain!
Yet, now she felt a little bit better, although she was not entirely recovered. In fact, she was probably only 25% recovered, if she wanted to assign a value to it, but it was enough to realize the opportunity she now had. Whitney was yet to show her face again, and after a few days of waiting and examining where she was, Pepper realized that Whitney would never return once more unless she went through the trouble of swimming down several hundred feet in the frigid cold waters of the South Pole. Pepper also now knew for a fact that the blonde had given her up for dead – an incorrect rationale that would hopefully work to the redhead's advantage. Or so she prayed it did.
Pepper weakly smiled at her luck. The blonde had probably left the redhead, thinking that the large, old, rusted submarine was going to become her underwater coffin, but Pepper saw it for what it truly was: a final chance to call for help, to save herself if all else failed – a way to survive what no human being should ever have to go through in their lives.
For the first time in her life, Pepper felt grateful for all those boring, science-related talks she had with Tony Stark.
xxxXXXxxx
He wiped his brow of sweat with his left hand, and then said hand from oil and grease on his jeans. It had been a long time since Tony had been able, willing, and inspired enough to build something new: this appeared to be the perfect time to let himself go. There was no special occasion for it either, and he really did not have the financial need to be designing anything new at this point – his company was more than well-equipped with inventions for years to come – but he could not stop the ideas that came to his mind. They demanded to be turned into reality and, the more he thought about it, putting his gifts to good use would not only benefit the masses, but his favorite redhead as well.
I promised her a faster suit. I will give her a faster suit.
Once the shock of finding her still body lying on the floor of their destroyed former home had dissipated, he had turned on the hero mode he was yet to turn off since that night, three weeks ago. That night, he had learned that he did not need a suit of armor to be Iron Man. Even if Happy was the one who got to keep the streets safe within the suit, in the end, Tony Stark would always be the true hero behind the gold and red armor. It was not as if he did not believe that Happy was a good fit for the armor, but Tony had come to realize that he was much more than just a high-tech suit. His ability to keep his loved ones safe while saving the world did not originate from having his armor – it came from his heart.
He had finally come to the realization that he did more harm to Pepper if he only treated her like a wife in these situations, rather than treating her as his equal in the field of action. Pepper had had her own brushes with death for many years, and she had also experienced the side-effects of having a hero persona. He owed it to her to treat her as such; even if it hurt him to see her struggle to recover from the attack she received at the penthouse. Even if she still had to rely on the Pep Ride sometimes to move around when her legs and back were too tired to hold her, he would not cushion the blow. He would no longer treat her as if she were a porcelain doll – a damsel in distress, because if there was something she had proven to him all these years, it was that she had been everything but the idle participant in the fight against whatever had threatened them at some point or other in their lives.
She could not do it all alone and neither could he. And he now knew, more than ever, that they were a team, the four of them – including Happy and Rhodey – and that if they were going to track and bring to justice whoever had killed their son and had been trying to kill them off for years, they would have to do so together: as the family they had become. He could still flinch in emotional pain when Pepper held back a moan of agony when she slowly dressed herself in the mornings, but he would not think of her as more delicate than he. He could still get mad at Happy for unnecessarily scratching the armor, but he would not lecture him on the importance of taking care of the suit. And he could still roll his eyes at Rhodey's goody-two-shoes antics, but he would seriously consider Rhodey's experience and point of view.
The attack that Pepper had suffered – handled, he had to correct himself – that one night, weeks ago, had opened Tony's eyes to many realities he had wanted to ignore. Pepper was not a victim of Whitney's crazy vengeance, Ghost's blackmailing antics, the Maggia's underground criminal empire techniques, or of whoever had tried to intimidate her in their home. Pepper was a survivor – a fighter, and despite the initial scare and fear that this time she had taken on too much on her own, he was proud of what she had done. She had single-handedly proven to the intruder in their home that if he was going to try to end her life, he would have to fight to the teeth to get it done. Pepper Potts was not going down without a fight. And neither would Tony Stark.
He sighed in accomplished relief when he tightened the last bolt on his newest invention. He had spent longer than he had expected on the fine tuning of the new version of the engine of the Earth Movers, but it was worth the while. This new mechanism would significantly reduce the amount of energy used by the digging machines, which were currently solar-powered, and it would allow for the excavations to be even greener than they already were. He had also replaced their core with a modified arc reactor power supply – the same one he had just recently created for the Stark Bike. With it, the Earth Movers were going to become 300% more efficient than before.
His back was demanding relief. It popped loudly when he stood straight to stretch his limbs. He moved his head left and right to crack the bones of his neck, and then finally stood up from the chair to hear the rest of his body adjust. He threw the tools he had in his hand on the work desk, and after turning off the prototype engine, he snapped his fingers twice to place the machines in the lab on standby. He then made his way to the exit, let the hissing sound of the closing reinforced door tell him the lab of the Stark Mansion was locked, and almost ran down the hall, towards his old room.
He had half-expected Pepper to still be lying on the couch of the sitting area of his childhood bedroom, but he was quick to see that only the television remained on. His wife was nowhere to be seen in the common area of the bedroom, so he figured that she was probably with Jarvis, in the kitchen, chitchatting while making food. He was not going to deny that he was starving. As soon as he took a quick shower to wash away the result of spending hours locked up in the lab, he would rush downstairs to join the duo in the dining room.
Jarvis had been a lifesaver when Tony had been growing up, and he was still a lifesaver today. He had been there even when Pepper had needed his help after returning from the hospital when she did not remember who she was. In every capacity possible, the butler had been there to aid them both, no questions asked. Sometimes, Tony felt guilty for making Jarvis relocate the place he called home so many times for the sake of the billionaire's comfort. Yet, many times, the man had reminded Tony that he lived to serve him and his family, wherever he or Pepper were. Even if that location was away from his executive assistant, Bambi Arbogast (who Tony still could not believe had captured the eye of Edwin Jarvis, on day one), Jarvis had been happy to join the couple for a few weeks at the mansion while the redhead recovered from her injuries, away from civilization and the worries of the world.
Then again, Tony was not one to talk. Pepper had captured his eye on day one as well, even before he had understood what he was getting himself into by letting the ginger hang around with him. He had just mistakenly thought that Jarvis was beyond building a romantic relationship at his age, but Tony also had to admit that his own father and father-in-law had proven him wrong. It was never too late to fall in love, and it was never too soon to start over again.
With this thought in mind, and desperately wanting to be near his wife, Tony ran inside the bedroom, walked straight to the bathroom, and then began taking off his clothes. He did not even bother to aim them as he threw them towards the hamper, knowing he would pick them up when he got out. He turned on the shower and waited for the water to not be cold anymore. He patted his right foot on the floor, scratched the back of his neck, and ran his fingers through his hair until a voice behind him made him shriek in surprise.
"You need a haircut, Tony," Pepper said, eyes on the back of his bare (yet incredibly familiar to her) body, a relaxed smile on her face as she soaked in the bubble-filled bathtub behind him. "Do you want me to get Matilda to come over? She can be here this afternoon."
"How long have you been here?" Tony asked, his left hand still on his fast beating heart. "I didn't see you there."
"About twenty minutes. I thought you'd be working until tonight," her eyes closing to let her body concentrate on receiving the pain-relieving properties of the bath salts she was using for her aching back and legs. "Calling it quits for now or for the rest of the day?"
"Rest of the day," he retorted, walked inside the standing shower stall, and got under the stream. He used the water to remove some of the grime he had accumulated during the morning before he began using the soap to actually wash it off more thoroughly.
"I just want to crash until tomorrow."
"I'm calling Matilda, then," Pepper said. "Have her come by after lunch."
"OK," Tony replied after spitting out soapy water from his mouth. "Have you had lunch already?"
"Nope."
"I'm starving. What's cooking?"
"Nothing."
"What?!" the inventor stopped lathering his hair, slid open the glass door of the shower enclosure, and then all but gawked at his wife. "There's no food?"
"Nope. At least not yet," Pepper repeated. "I forced Jarvis to leave so that he could have lunch with Bambi while she's at work. They haven't seen each other in days."
"Oh," Tony was taken aback by the response, yet he closed the door either way. "OK. I hadn't thought about it like that, but you're right."
"Besides," Pepper began saying as she slowly helped her body get ready to stand up to get out of the tub. "I want to get out of here, too. I need to get some sun."
"So, you wanna eat out?"
"Yeah. That OK? You don't have to come if you don't want to," she said as she finally stepped out of the tub and began rinsing it and draining it. "I know you said you wanted to crash. I can bring us something back."
"No, it's OK. I just… I didn't think you'd wanted to go anywhere yet. Aren't you in pain?"
"A little," she admitted while she walked towards the shower stall, slid the door open, and jumped inside to wash off the remnants of her bath. Tony had just finished showering himself, so he just rested the right side of his body against the wall, watching as the redhead cleansed herself and continued her response.
"But not enough to keep watching the Breakdancing with Celebrities marathon. I need a break of having a break."
Tony chuckled and nodded to her. "I get ya. Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know," Pepper shrugged. "I don't care, honestly. What I really care about, though, is being able to… well… I…" she swallowed hard. "Could we… uhm, I… I'd like to go see Jimmy today. I haven't seen him in months."
Tony gulped at hearing her words, but he silently nodded to agree with her. It had been a while since they had visited James's grave, mostly because it was painful to do so, and they had not even gone to see him on his birthday. It was overdue for them to get over their aching hearts enough to go see their son – something they had not done together since they had left him there.
"We can," he said. "We should. In fact…" his gaze became distant for a second before he continued his response. "If we're heading that way, I know where we can stop to grab a bite."
Pepper finished washing off her hair, looked up to stare at her husband, and then gave him a sad smile when she figured out the location he was referring to. It had been at least a couple of years since they had last gone there – to the place Tony had all but carried her to when she was still unable to walk due to the cast on her leg. But it was one of their special places to go; one of the very few where they could be themselves and be treated as nothing more than normal people with normal lives.
"Haircut after that?" she asked, walked closer to him, ran a hand down his mane, and smirked when Tony playfully rolled his eyes at her insistence and nodded to her. He knew how much she hated it when his hair grew too long for her taste, and he could not really blame her: he hated it, too. It made his scalp and neck itch.
"Yes, Pep. Haircut after that."
She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him, but she was only able to do so for a few seconds before her legs told her to stop. She rested her hands on his shoulders for support and he held her by the waist, giving her the time she needed for her muscles to recover from the both small and yet significant exertion, given her condition. Once she nodded to him to let him know she was ready to get out of the shower, he responded by lifting her in his arms, shutting down the stream of water, and taking her with him outside.
"I can walk, you know?" she asked with a small tone of annoyance, but she still surrounded his neck with her arms lest the rubbing of their wet, bare skins made him lose his grip on her.
"I know," he did not stop their trek to the bedroom, despite her bothered tone and look. He then added with a smug smile: "That doesn't mean you should."
Pepper opened her mouth to retort, but when it dawned on her that he was simply repeating a phrase she had used on him many times when he was unnecessarily pushing himself beyond his limits, she could only close it back up and roll her eyes.
"Fine," she told him. "Whatever you say, Mr. Stark."
"Keep that thought in mind next time we have sex, Mrs. Potts-Stark."
The snort that escaped her mouth was all but graceful, but neither of them cared. What actually mattered to them was that they still had something to laugh about. And that they still had each other, no matter what.
xxxXXXxxx
The stares they were both currently receiving briefly reminded them of the time they had first walked inside the Tomorrow Academy, the day after they had started their romantic relationship, and every student around had stopped what they had been doing to witness their entrance to the school. It was a long time since that had occurred, and yet Pepper could not deny that nothing had changed in that regard. People were still people – gossipy and nosey, no matter their age. This time, however, it took only a quick look from her, Tony, or even from Happy for their unwanted gawkers to return to their mundane tasks.
"Must be new here," Tony said under his breath while he walked next to his wife, hand-in-hand. "Happy, what do you know about these people? I don't recognize some of them."
"New employees, for sure," Happy replied, puffed out his chest to make himself look bigger than he actually was, and then stared left and right before he pressed the up button of the elevator at Stark International. "I had memorized everyone's faces, but I haven't kept up with the updates. I'll catch up."
"You know that's not your job anymore, Happy," Pepper reminded him with a small smile. "You have other things to do now. You don't have to worry about me anymore."
Happy gave her a look that showed his disapproval of her words, and as the elevator doors opened up to let the trio in, Happy voiced his thoughts.
"When has that line ever worked with any of us, Pepper?"
"Never," Pepper replied with a disappointed sigh and pressed the up button inside the elevator. "But I was hoping it did this time around. You're no longer my bodyguard, Happy. You don't have to keep up with everything and everyone about this company, or ours, to do your job."
"Yeah, I do," Happy replied.
"How do you figure?" Tony asked.
"Well, first: I'm covering for you, man. Iron Man needs to be aware of everything. And second: I need to know who works for Stark Solutions so that I can make sure that only authorized personnel use my athletic facilities."
"OK, there's that," Tony agreed. "But that doesn't apply to Stark International. Especially not after today."
"True," Happy conceded. "But even after you cut them lose, this company will still be tied to you because it will one day be yours. Like it or not, Tony, you'll inherit the company, and you'll have to learn all about it, too."
"I try not to think about that, Happy," Tony replied with a pained grimace.
"Your dad doesn't need to be dead for you to get the company, Tony," Pepper said and patted the inventor's arm, his discomfort with the topic plainly obvious to her. "That's not what Happy means. But he does have a point. One day your dad will want to retire, and it will become your responsibility to take the reign of your family's company."
"You mean our responsibility, Pepper," he said and waved his hand between the two of them. "You've got my name, too."
"True," Pepper said and then busied herself inputting the VIP code so that the elevator took them directly to the SI board meeting room without stopping. "But the current charter of SI makes me only the guardian of the inheritance by default, not by birth right. If… if Jimmy had lived… he… you know, he would've been the one to…"
Even if her statement had not been completely uttered, she knew she did not have to further explain what she had meant. This, in fact, was one of the reasons why Tony and Pepper had called this extraordinary board meeting to take place – one that was going to be uncomfortable and difficult enough already to want to bring up the memories of their dead son. The silence that followed her comment floated in the air until the elevator opened again to show Howard, Trish, Bambi, Jarvis, Virgil and Diane, all waiting outside the main board room.
"Oh, thank heavens, they're here!" Diane said, quickly approached the three youngsters that were now standing in front of their elders, and then hugged the redhead and the inventor at the same time. "Pepper, Tony, are you sure you two are ready for this? It's not going to be pretty. Just tell us what you want to tell them, and me and your father will deal with the vultures in there. You don't have to deal with their bullshit. Not today."
"Today? What's so special about today?" Pepper asked and immediately pulled out her pod to check the historical records of the agendas for all meetings.
"Son," Howard placed a hand on Tony's shoulder after Diane released them. "The board members came in person. They don't know why you called this meeting, but they want to use it as their mandatory meeting for renewing their positions and yours since they haven't seen any of you in a while."
"What does that mean?" Happy asked, not sure if he needed to be ready to punch people in the face or to carry Pepper and Tony the hell out of the place if the meeting got rough. He had only attended the meeting with them because they had seemed nervous about calling the assembly altogether, and even if he had not understood half of what Pepper and Tony had been discussing on the way there, Happy knew how to read a troubled tone when he heard one. Besides, he was well aware of how exhausting and unpredictable these meetings could become.
"It means that the board wants to renegotiate the terms of our contract," Pepper explained as she read the agendas of the already missed and upcoming scheduled board meetings. "Our five-year partnership was supposed to be up for discussion last month. We only have one year left of it and we should've given them the year-long notice in May. Ending it now is a breach of contract that requires us to compensate them for early-termination, which we were gonna do, anyway."
"Early termination?" Trish asked, a worried look on her face. "You called this meeting to end the partnership?"
"Yes," Tony said and stared at his father. "I was going to tell you I was considering it, Dad. But I wasn't sure about it. But then Pepper and I talked and… well…"
Howard raised his right hand to his son and shook his head.
"Anthony, you don't have to explain anything to me. You're an adult and you have a family of your own now," Howard smiled fondly at Pepper. "Your decisions are just that: yours and Pepper's alone."
Tony smiled at his father, tightened his grip on Pepper's hand, and she squeezed it back in return.
"I still don't know why this is a bad thing," Happy stated, confused as he had once felt when math had gotten letters, back in high school.
"It means they're going to give us a hard time leaving," Pepper replied as she now thoroughly considered a situation she and Tony had not thought about before. "We just wanted to come here and tell them goodbye, but now we're gonna have to fight to get what we want. We can't vote for the renewal of their seats if we're ending the partnership early, but if they can't be voted for renewal of their seats, then they can't release us from the contract. And if we vote to renew their seats, we have to extend the partnership for five more years."
"Then… don't end it early?" Happy supplied.
"We have to," Tony said. "If we don't end it early, and something happens to us tomorrow, our company is up for grabs."
"Up for grabs?" Virgil asked, almost as confused as Happy was. He may have married Diane and he may have been the Head of Security at SI, but he was years away from fully understanding the policy side of the company he worked for. "Why would Stark Solutions be up for grabs if something happened to you two?"
"Because we lost our heir," Pepper said, trying to sound as composed as she could. "If something happened to Tony, the company would still be mine, but without the main inventor, I'm completely disposable for the board unless there's an heir. If something happens to the both of us, then there's no one left to take the company, and the SI board has power over its future while the partnership is in place."
"This is why I'd written an exclusion to get out of the contract whenever I wanted, and to be able to change the terms mid-contract in case of a qualifying life event," Tony explained. "So, after Howie was born, we altered the clause to make sure only Rhodey, his legal guardian in the event of our deaths, would be able to make this decision, and not the board, so that they couldn't just take the company away as long as there was an heir, even if Pepper and I weren't around. I was trying to protect my son's and my wife's future, and now I've just screwed it all up."
"So," Virgil asked as he tried to wrap his head around the situation at hand. "If something did happen to you two tomorrow, and you didn't end this partnership now, and seeing as there is no heir…"
"Then anyone can buy our inventions, our stock… our old weapon designs. Anyone with money can mass produce our suits, and all the other weapons I've created for the armors. Everything becomes buyable and sellable if the SI board says so, with the excuse that they will need to do so to recover damages after losing the main inventor behind the business."
"So S.H.I.E.L.D. could buy them, too," Bambi covered her right cheek with her hand. "And that's probably why Nick Fury is in there, right now."
At the mention of Nick Fury's presence in the building, Pepper and Tony's expressions instantly changed, and they stared at each other's eyes in silence. The bystanders did not know what was crossing the CEOs' minds, and although they knew there was some bad blood between the superhero duo and the head of the peacekeeping organization, the look on their faces said that there was something deeper between Nick, Pepper, and Tony than what met the eye.
The quiet eye exchange ended as abruptly as it had started, leaving everyone else wondering what exactly had just occurred. With the meeting already delayed enough, though, there was no time to ask the details of the silent chat.
"Can you get Roberta on the line, Bambi, please?" Tony asked as he took out his pod to review the old contracts Stark Solutions had once had with S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Yes, sir. Immediately."
The executive assistant was followed by Trish and Jarvis to Trish's old desk as she began the task of tracking the traveling attorney. Pepper turned to Happy and her father to ask them to stay outside the board room, but to be on the lookout for any other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that may arrive. Virgil immediately responded by removing the safety clip of his gun, and Happy turned on his Stark Solutions-issued bracelets – the ones Tony had designed for him and for Pepper to use when needed so that they did not have to be carrying their armor backpacks everywhere they went. These were the same bracelets that had already saved Pepper's life once, when the intruder had tried to attack her at the penthouse.
Shortly after Pepper's attention was returned to Tony, Howard, and Diane, the four of them gave each other a single nod, waved to their loved ones, and walked inside the board room to be greeted by the ten guests in the special gathering enclave: the remaining nine of Diane's fellow board members of Stark International, and Nicholas Joseph Fury, in the flesh.
As soon as they set foot inside the room, everyone went quiet, stood up from their chairs, and stared at the newcomers, particularly at the young Stark couple trailing behind Howard and Diane. It had been months since the duo had attended these meetings and, for an instant, it felt like high school for the second time on the same day. The stares, the narrowing, judging eyes, and even the murmurs were all present. This time, nonetheless, no amount of glaring on Tony or Pepper's part would make them dissipate.
"Fashionably late, as always, Tony. Potts," Minerva, the still annoying bitch, as Pepper referred to her, snidely commented. "It appears time has not made any of you more responsible. Shame on that."
"And it appears that time has made you show your age in forgetfulness," Tony replied, quicker than Pepper could even take in a deep breath to make any remark. "You forgot that it's no longer just Tony, but Mr. Stark, to you. And that she's not just Potts. She's Mrs. Stark."
"Still?" Minerva replied, not at all amused by Tony's retort. "That's not what I read in the news. Weren't you supposed to be divorced by now because your wife gave her bodyguard a blow job? Or was it to another rich guy she wanted to cheat out of his money?"
"I think you were reading your own article, Minerva," Pepper responded as she held back Tony's forwarding body with a squeeze of their intertwined hands. "How's the, uhm, what is it again? Oh, yeah! Fifth ex-husband, by the way? Still hanging around your former maid behind your back? Or was this the one that left for cigarettes and never returned?"
"Talk all you want, Potts," Minerva said and took a seat. "At least they had the decency to end the marriage after infidelity. You, on the other hand, decided that Tony's money was worth keeping around despite you having the nerve to be unfaithful to him on multiple occasions. Honestly, what do you give him that he is unable to let go of a filthy woman like you?"
"Watch your tongue, Minerva," Diane said in a warning tone.
"Why should I?" the irritating woman continued. "Just because she got knocked up by him, it doesn't make her any less unworthy of our class! She didn't earn her riches! She humped her way up to be with us! Her family is as lowly as the man who takes out the trash at my house!"
"He must not do a good job," Pepper said, eyes narrowed, and the rest of the board members sat in their chairs, one by one. "Seeing as he still hasn't taken you out."
"And you know all about trash, huh, Minerva?" Tony interjected while he helped Pepper take a seat by holding back the chair for her. "Pepper didn't cheat on me. I didn't cheat on her. The only one here who tried to cheat on someone was you when you tried to have sex with me in my office, years ago. Or did you forget about that?"
"I… I…" Minerva swallowed hard, breathed loudly through her nostrils, and hoped her eyes were not about to pop out of their sockets. "I never…"
Before the woman could further deny any of Tony's words, Pepper took out her pod, loaded the footage of Minerva's attempt at seducing Tony in the old Stark Solutions office, back when it had been hosted in the Stark International building just a few floors below them, and played it on the projector in the middle of the room. None of Minerva's attempts at turning off the video feed made any difference as Pepper had long ago found a way to control every part of the board room, and Minerva could barely check her e-mail on a desktop.
"This jog your memory, Ma'am?"
Minerva glared at Pepper. Without having anything else to do or say, the older woman simply looked away and ignored the inquisitorial faces of everyone in the room. Everyone watched as the silent clip showed Minerva approaching an unsuspecting Tony in his office, placing her hands on his shoulders, turning him in place, pushing him back against his desk, then grabbing the bottom of his shirt and attempting to pull it up while the blue-eyed boy recoiled in surprised horror. The clip then started again from the beginning.
"You were lucky that Tony had already turned eighteen a few months before this," Pepper mocked the older woman. "You just barely avoided a legal hassle there. Still, do the words sexual harassment mean anything to you, Minerva? How about pedophile?" Pepper's statement earned no responses other than blank stares that indicated the speechlessness of the viewers. The redhead had lived years knowing that secret, and she was glad to finally be able to tell the world exactly just how abhorrent Minerva Gonzales truly was.
Tony eyed every single member of the board in the room, particularly Minerva and Mitch, and when neither of them made eye contact, Tony cleared his throat and turned off the continuously looping video feed Pepper had used to end the current argument.
"Well, now that that's settled," Tony took a seat next to Pepper, on the opposite end to Howard Stark of the large rectangular table, and spoke again. "I'll call the meeting to order, but not until our uninvited guest is removed from the premises."
"He's my guest," Mitch stated. "He's not uninvited."
Tony and Pepper stared at each other briefly, then at Nick Fury, and then the redhead spoke again.
"Fine, but Mr. Fury must state the motive for his presence. Our reason for calling this meeting is an internal matter and none of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s business."
"He's here because we expect to vote on the renewal of our contract with Stark Solutions and of our seats on the board," Mitch replied. "And S.H.I.E.L.D. has some ideas that can greatly increase our profits if we involve them in the negotiations of the continuation of our partnership with Stark Solutions. Mr. Fury is here to… well… he's our weapons adviser, you can say."
"Then he is not needed for the first part of this meeting," Tony remarked and glared at Fury. "He can either come in after, or he can make his case right now before we relay our news to the board."
"I say we call a vote," Mitch said. "All those in favor of General Fury staying throughout the meeting as our weapons expert, please say aye."
"Aye!" the voice of eight of the ten board members resounded in the room.
"Any opposed?" Mitch asked and Pepper, Tony, Diane, Howard and Claire raised their hands. "Majority in favor. We proceed."
Tony and Pepper stared at one another one more time, silently nodded at each other, sighed loudly while they shook their heads, and then returned their attention to the board.
"We may proceed," Pepper gulped as discretely as possible so as not to let the board members know that she was not as sure of herself as she always appeared to be to the people that had made their lives hell for nearly five years. She straightened her back as much as she could despite the remnants of pain in her, stood up in place, rested her fingertips on the edge of the table, cleared her throat and stared everyone in the eye before she spoke again.
"And we would like to begin with the announcement of the early termination of our partnership with Stark International, effective immediately."
Everyone present, with the exception of Diane and Howard, visibly flinched for an instant. Loud and overlapping arguments ensued after the unexpected declaration, and angry finger pointing and cries of mutiny followed. Pepper and Tony remained calm and collected through it all, both already used to the board's pouting antics by now. The couple had expected this and more. In fact, the short interruption gave Pepper and Tony time to think about their next words. They had expected to hear all kinds of arguments, even listen to all types of verbal threats. But with Nick Fury speaking the language of money to the board, it was going to be even that much more challenging to come out of this situation untouched.
The board members eventually calmed down after the intervention of Howard's authoritative voice with words that spoke of his demand for absolute composure. The silence that then befell the entire room was elongated and uncomfortable. And just when Tony and Pepper were ready to claim a small victory, Mitch scoffed derisively and spoke again.
"You can't do that. We need to approve that decision and it's obvious we aren't going to."
"That's actually correct," Minerva began. "You had a deadline of 365 calendar days to give a non-renewal notice, and that deadline has passed. You have no choice but to renew for five more years."
Tony turned his hands into fists under the table, yet his face remained unchanged. He had naively hoped that the board was not aware of those exact details of the contract, but he should have known better than to think the board members of SI would let go of their largest source of income without a fight. He took a moment to stare at Nick Fury's gloating standing posture in the back, cursed at him with a quick glare, and just when he was about to take control of the meeting to save Pepper from the second round of insults, his redhead spoke up once more.
"No. You're wrong," she replied solemnly and full of confidence, as one of Tony's previous statements suddenly gave her an idea she could not believe they had not thought of before – perhaps due to the fact that the situation had not warranted thinking that far ahead of themselves until now. "We don't need your approval."
"Yes, you do," Mitch insisted and stood up from his chair to point at the ginger. "You can't end the partnership without a vote, and we can't vote until you vote to renew us. And even if you abstain from voting, we will vote for ourselves and then vote to continue the partnership… with or without you two in it."
"No. You can't," Pepper said, pushed back her chair, and slowly walked towards a now incoming Mitch.
"Why the hell not?" Mitch asked and did not stop his gait until he stood right in front of Pepper Potts-Stark, hoping that his taller figure psychologically imposed on her much smaller frame. Tony immediately stood up from his chair as well, but he kept himself from interfering just yet. He had promised to himself that he would let Pepper fight her fights, and jump in only if she requested to… or if her life was in imminent danger, whichever happened first.
"Why exactly can't we vote to renew your contract for as long as we want?" Mitch asked, conceit reeking from his tone of voice.
"Because," Pepper began in a steady voice and crossed her arms over her chest, "A qualifying life event has occurred. Our son died."
Tony's face briefly denoted that he had not thought about the loophole until now. If they had not been in the middle of a business meeting, and if the topic was not so grim, he would have pumped a fist in the air. He opted to simply give his wife a small, casual smile and a nod when she stared back at him for a second, but Pepper could see it in his eyes that he was more than just a little proud of her. Not having Roberta readily available for them was hurting their policy review, but even they knew that they could not rely on the woman for the rest of their lives. They were yet to find another worthy legal advisor, and if they were honest with themselves, they were not really looking forward to starting the search. They did not even want to try.
"What does that even mean?" Clark Morrison, the elder who had never wanted Pepper Potts on the board but in an insane asylum, asked. "I don't understand."
"It means," Tony interjected and stared at the board members. "That we can make amends to any part of the contract without notice as long as a qualifying life event occurs: marriage, divorce, birth… and death. And we're opting to end the partnership. Now."
"This is preposterous!" Mitch barked and stared Pepper up and down. "And outright unethical!"
"Just because you don't like it, it doesn't make it unethical… or illegal," Howard stated. "They have the right to end the partnership under those terms."
"I don't agree with those terms!" Minerva spat.
"Yes, you do. And you did," Pepper glared at the woman. "You agreed to the contract in its entirety, both at the beginning and when we made the amendments. You can't say you didn't know about that. Unless, of course, you pulled a page from some other board members' habits and didn't read what you signed."
"Howard, you can't be serious about this?" Mitch stared over his right shoulder, at the CEO of SI. "Are you really going to let this happen to all of us? We have invested a considerable amount of money and time into this partnership. Our profits will take a dive! Do you know the kind of contract we will lose out on? Do you have any idea the kind of revenue a contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. would bring to us? General, please…"
"Mr. Richards is correct." Fury said, his pose rigid and his hands behind his back. "I've come here to offer the establishment of a weapons manufacturing contract with SI and Stark Solutions, for no less than twenty years, and for triple the cost of the weapons we used to obtain from Hammer Multinational before it was bought. Triple, ladies and gentleman. And all you have to do is make sure we can get our hands on the weapons we need to do our job."
"Stark International doesn't. Make. Weapons, Nick," Howard said between clenched teeth. "We haven't done so for over twenty-two years. We're not restarting now."
"But Stark Solutions does," Nick stared directly at Tony in the eye. "And if anything were to happen to the world… anything at all, it would be a shame that we had no way to defend it. We can't just let vigilantes have all the power," he then stared at Pepper. "We can't let amateurs run the show, can we?"
"This amateur helped save your fucking ship and crew from zombies, Fury."
"Once. And barely. But there's more to being responsible for the safety of others than to save the world every other year, Ms. Potts," his voice trailed a little before he then corrected the last part. "Mrs. Potts-Stark."
"And we're being responsible, Nick." Tony stated. "By not letting you or anyone else get a hold of our weapons. They're not to be messed with. These weapons are of high caliber, way beyond what you can understand and control. They're not for your or anyone else's everyday use."
"Oh, we know that," Nick said. "That's why we need them. It's better to have them and not use them, than to need them and not have them at all."
"Well, you can forget it," Tony growled. "We're NEVER selling, giving, or letting you take our weapons ever again."
"Then I guess the only option we have is to vote out not only Tony Stark and his wife, but also Howard Stark, from the board," Mitch answer back.
"Mitch," Claire began. "That's not something we do around here. You know that Howard is the CEO of Stark International. He started this company! It's HIS!"
"Yes, but I also know that the last time Stark International was in a bad situation, Obadiah Stane was let go. It was done before, it can be done again."
Pepper's eyes widened and so did Tony's, and they both landed on Howard's form. Howard gave them a small smile he knew they needed, as he could see it on their faces that they felt responsible for the sudden turn of events. They had just wanted to protect their legacy and inventions, and now the board was about to turn against him.
One thing that the youngsters – or Mitch, for that matter – had not counted on, was that Howard Stark was a man of means, and he did not need threats or weapons to make sure his company remained the way he wanted it to be. Tony and Pepper had no option, given the life they led, but Howard Stark had other venues. He now knew, the moment that Mitch had uttered those words, that his son had been correct all along. The man did not belong in his company.
"Very well," Howard said and stood up. "We can leave it up to a vote. But before we can do that, we have to renew everyone's seats."
"Sounds good to me," Mitch replied from his standing position by Pepper, his eyes never stopping from glaring at her, his back still to Nick Fury and Howard Stark.
"And," Howard continued before anyone else could reply. "As such, I call upon an authority I've never used in all my time as CEO of Stark International. Didn't think I'd ever need it, really, but my legal advisor strongly suggested I included this clause."
"What clause?" Ernest asked, nervousness evident in his voice.
"The power to remove from the ballot anyone I don't deem in line with the mission and vision of SI. I could have an entire new board by tomorrow. I do have a controlling interest in my company, after all. A comparatively small margin, yes, but still higher than all of your own interests combined."
Pepper smirked when she realized what Howard had just all but implied, and when she saw it in Mitch's eyes that he too understood what was being said, she allowed her arms to drop to her sides. She tilted her head to her left; her smile growing wider as she could see the wheels beginning to turn inside Mitch's head. It did not matter what he said or did, Howard's word was final in cases such as these.
"I'd wipe that smile off your face if I didn't already know you would've tanked this company just as you will tank yours, bitch," Mitch snarled and took a step closer to her. The redhead straightened her head, narrowed her eyes at the man in front of her, and then spoke in a soft voice when she heard a chair behind her scraping the floor.
"Tony, don't," she pressed the panic button on her left bracelet to let Happy know that he was needed inside the room. Not a second later, she heard the front door slam open.
"It's OK, Tony," she continued. "He's just pissed that he's off the board. Calling me names is aalll he can do now."
"Mark my words, you little piece of shit," Mitch growled and reached over to grab Pepper by her upper arms, which caused Tony to crack his knuckles and walk towards the redhead.
"Happy: hold him," Pepper said without having to turn around to know that Tony was already in route to beat Mitch to a pulp. She knew the man had it coming, and seeing as the other board members were starting to stand up from their chairs to see what they could do stop their former peer, she had no doubt that they would advocate for the inventor if a fight were to start. Yet, with Nick Fury in the same room, and given the suspicions they had about the General's betrayal toward them, Pepper could not let her blue-eyed boy stick his foot in his mouth… or up Mitch's ass.
"Let me go!" Tony spat as he tried to release himself from Harold's grip, immediately missing the inhuman strength Extremis would have let him use on his friend to assure his freedom, and to put into place the idiot who dared to insult and manhandle his wife in front of him. "Happy, get off me!"
"See that?" Mitch pressed his fingers into the ginger's skin on her arms. "See how out of control that animal you call a husband is? That's why these things happen to you. Because neither of you are good enough, or mature enough, to be responsible for or to properly take care of anything… or anyone. How can you expect to keep your company in shape when you couldn't even keep your bastard child alive? He had it coming, you know? And I'm glad he died. He's better off as worm food than with an irresponsible woman like you, or with a pitiful asshole like him! You're nothing but a whoring, little cu–"
Pepper's response to the rest of Mitch's insult was using one of the many self-defense maneuvers her father had long ago taught her to help free herself from an attacker that had her held down with both hands. The swift move now had Mitch's left arm twisted in a way that almost pulled his shoulder out of its socket, his right arm pinned above his head, and his face practically merged with the wooden table in the room. The move had been quick and unexpected; the only evidence that it had even happened had come in the form of the redhead's current standing position behind Mitch, and the sound of his nose breaking on the spot.
Pepper leaned down over the back of Mitch's head, placed her lips close to his right ear, and then spoke eerily calmly to him, but loud enough for everyone else to hear.
"If you ever, EVER, show your face here again, or anywhere near my family – any of them – I will sue you for everything you're worth. And if you ever dare to touch me again, I will make sure you eat out of a straw for the rest of your life… and, if I ever hear you say ANYTHING about my son or my husband one more time… it WILL be the last thing you EVER say again."
"Is that a threat you just issued, Mrs. Stark?" Fury dared to ask, but it only took a quick penetrating stare from the redhead for the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. to take a step back and shut his mouth.
"It's a promise, Nick. I'm done playing nice with dicks like you or cunts like her…" Pepper spat, with a glance at Minerva. "Or him," she added after she pulled on Mitch's arm one last time before she finally took a step back to let him to fall onto the floor. Her deep gaze then returned to the General. Without batting an eye, and with a commanding voice, she told him exactly what she had wanted to tell him, for a long time.
"And if you don't leave us the fuck alone, Fury, leave me and Tony alone, I'm gonna let the entire world know that Rescue almost died because you failed to do your job. And I will also let everyone know that you threatened Iron Man, and that you locked him up in a padded cell without due process. And that you almost let a bioweapon loose in the world because you wanted to exploit a gas you weren't allowed to even have in the first place."
"You wouldn't dare, Potts."
"Try me, Nick. Just… try me, right now."
When Nick Fury only gulped in response, Pepper turned to Happy, who no longer had to hold on to Tony Stark to keep him in place. The inventor had the same look of surprise and shock on his face as everyone else in the room did, as he had never seen Pepper so viciously defend anything or anyone. He had seen her upset before, seen her in battle on countless occasions, and he had even been on the receiving end of an angry, grieving fit of hers. But this was the first time that the billionaire had ever witnessed his redhead in a full blown rage.
"Happy, get this shit out of here," she pointed at Mitch. The jock immediately complied.
"On it," Happy picked up the groaning and bleeding man, and all but threw him out the door. Pepper then gave the security guards a moment to make sure Mitch Richards was escorted out of the meeting room floor and was in route to the ground floor before she returned her eyes to the people around her.
"So, as we were saying: Stark Solutions is no longer in a contractual agreement with Stark International due to the execution of the qualifying life event clause, which you agreed upon had no expiration date per your signatures on said contract. Stark International and its members, affiliates, associates or board representatives will no longer receive any profits from Stark Solutions starting right now, and all previous agreements are therefore null and void."
The redhead then took a deep breath, stared everyone but Howard and Diane in the eye, particularly those who had for years actively sought to humiliate and mistreat her and Tony, and then added one last bit to her closing statement that she knew would hammer her point home.
"Now, if any of you sons of bitches have anything else to say, NOW IS THE FUCKING TIME!"
When silence was all that followed her words, and when everyone returned to their seats in slow motion, Pepper knew that she had effectively released herself and Tony from the nightmare that had been having to deal with individuals that only cared about mooching off them for years to come, and not about the goodness they could bring to the world with their funds. Then again, she suddenly realized, one more problem still remained – one more obstacle currently stood between their freedom and the chains that kept them tied to SI.
Her head, followed by her body, slowly turned to face the commander of S.H.I.E.L.D. She lifted her right hand in the air, snapped her fingers at him, and then pointed to the exit with her thumb. This was all it took for Nick Fury to get the message, loud and clear: his plan had failed, and he was now left with no choice but to storm out.
Pepper did not even bother to look back to make sure Fury was gone, and she did not even bother to acknowledge the scene she had just caused. All she cared about now was that Stark Solutions was no longer in debt with anything and anyone, that Tony was no longer the recipient of Mitch's insults, and that all of her and Tony's efforts could now be focused on finding out who wanted to end their lives. There would be no more investors breathing down their neck for more money-making inventions. No more board meetings to be dragged into only to be belittled and treated as less than scum. No more partnerships that threatened the future of what she and Tony had worked for years to build. Nothing. It was all gone. All that she had left now was Tony and their quest to find the assassin of their son.
"Pepper?" Tony said in a loving tone, as if he was trying his best not to set her off again, but he was afraid that he would fail. Her face immediately softened at hearing his voice. The veil she had not known had covered her senses when Mitch had uttered those hurtful words was instantly lifted now that the menace was gone. She stared down at her hands for a moment, recalled the last time she had felt like this – a long time ago, inside a submarine – and then swallowed hard as she regained control of her body, heart, mind, and soul, one by one.
"Tony," she said and turned around in place to stare at the billionaire, all remnants of the anger she had felt moments ago gone from her face. "Let's go home, please."
"Alright," he said with a nod and extended his hand to her, which she immediately walked over to and gently grabbed.
"Come're, Pep. It's OK," he said once she was within reach. He then noticed that not only was she shaking, but bruises were already forming on her upper arms, courtesy of an angry little man who had badmouthed her and what she held dear in life. "Are you gonna be alright?"
"Yes," she let him brush her bangs out of her face and run the back of his right hand down her left cheek. She briefly closed her eyes, took in deep, calming breaths, and opened her eyes only when she felt sane enough to do so. "I'll be OK. I'll be alright."
Tony stared at her crestfallen form one more time before he kissed her forehead and pulled her trembling body towards his. His arms surrounded her body, his gaze landed on his father and, with one look, the older Stark told his son he would take care of the aftermath of what had just occurred before them. Tony gratefully nodded once to his father, gave an apologetic look to the still stunned board members, and then took his redhead with him on his way out of the room, all the while wondering what had just taken over his wife… and fearing that it would come back during the worst of times.
That night, Tony Stark hardly slept at all, and instead spent the dark hours watching his slumbering redhead in his arms, pondering if the intruder in the penthouse had given Pepper more than just an almost broken back: an almost broken back that appeared to be healing much faster than he had been told by the doctors that it would – an injury that should have not taken just weeks to heal, but several months. He wondered if it had also given her a covert one-way ticket to a place where uncontrolled emotions would take reign of her life.
Pepper, he thought with ache at the possibility that the bounty on her had already begun, right before his eyes. What have they done to you?
xxxXXXxxx
She watched as the redhead left the room without another word, and she instantly felt the world crush her body and mind. Even after seeing the footage, even after hearing herself recall every detail of the inhumane things she had done to Pepper, even after hearing forgiveness from the redhead's mouth, Whitney Stane would never completely believe she was capable of the feat she had been told she had done. The evidence was damning, however, and denial and self-pity would never replace or erase the feeling of guilt that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
She had done a horrible thing; she had almost taken a life, and forever she would have to live with the fact that the mask had taken her emotions to a new high: a level that not even she was aware she could achieve in the blink of an eye.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the doors opened up again. She had expected to see Fury or Hill walk back inside to take her back to her cell, but instead she was left speechless and in shock when the current newcomer turned out to be the last person she had anticipated to see ever again in her life.
"Tony?" Whitney uttered his name with dread, and it only took one look from the inventor for her to know that his reason for visiting her at S.H.I.E.L.D. was not the same that had led the redhead to have mercy on her life. Anger was emanating from every pore in his body, and if she had not already feared enough what Tony had to say to her, she could now say with utmost certainty that she was terrified of him and his presence in the room.
The inventor made a beeline for the same end of the table where Pepper had just been sitting at, minutes ago, unaware of his presence in the Helicarrier. He threw the chair out of the way and against the glass wall, rested his weight on the edge of said table, and then leaned down to stare at Whitney's reddening and blotching eyes.
"If S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't outside right now…" he said with barely controlled rage. "If they wouldn't shoot me where I stood without warning for touching you, and if I didn't love Pepper as much as I do, I would've killed you as soon as I walked inside this room."
"T-Tony… please… I…"
"Shut up!" Tony spat. "You and I have lots to talk about, Whitney. LOTS to talk about. But you're gonna hear me, first, whether you want to or not."
The blonde swallowed hard and licked her lips to prepare herself for the world of pain she knew Tony was going to put her through, and even if she once or twice had expertly handled an upset man, she would soon know that nothing had ever prepared her to deal with the man that loved the one woman she had almost succeeded in taking away from his life.
A/N: Does anyone know who I borrowed a line from for Pepper towards the end? Hint: It's a movie. Any questions answered with this chapter? It's coming to an end, my Faithful Readers! Two more chapters and the Epilogue and T5Y is OVER! Then the epic finale begins… It's getting tense… and the angst is gonna intensify! Thank you for reading and reviewing and I will see all of you again, soon!
BTW: Anyone seen Mockingjay: Part 1? I did yesterday and DAMN!