Guest Review Responses
Guest: Everything is awesome. Everything is cool when your updating. Every thing is awesome. Please keep up. – lol! I read that singing the 'Everything is Awesome' song from The Lego Movie.
Toni: '... 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.' Wait. What?! How? Oh, and I don't like Fury. He's up to something. I don't believe is all bad though. – coughcough… how about after this chapter? ;)
Someone: You've just bamboozled me even more with the whole Gene thing...trying to be mysterious, eh? I'LL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH! MWU HA HA HA HA! ...yeah...maybe I've been having too much coffee too! Oooooosh...If Pepper was real, I'd be hiding under my covers! -WAIT NO! SCRATCH THAT! I don't care if she's real or not! I'M STILL HIDING! Don't mess with the Pepper! Lol, I loved reading that :D It was really well written too! I thought they were gonna loose, but they didn't! But...you just HAD to ruin it by adding in the last two scenes -_- SOMETHING ELSE HAS HAPPENED TO PEPPER?! You just can't leave them alone can you?! Ugh...even though it was an AWESOME chappie... You better update soon! I'm warning you...(I could possibly turn into Pepper Potts-Stark...you wouldn't want that, would you?) O_o – What if I say that I will kinda leave them alone next chapter? Does it make it better? Or at least until the last story starts :D
apps: Very well said"everyone will be screwed if pepper goes evil"...even I wonder what is wrong with peppers back healing faster than expected! – And we will know at the beginning of the new story… once I get to it… at some point… before I die… or start school… whichever happens last. ^_^
Guest: You know, Sometimes waiting for your updates brings me pain. Always on the edge of finally knowing everything and yet we are still discovering new tiny details that screw up our theories. Please update or i might end up in a nuthouse. Thanks. – Aw, man! If you give me the address of the nuthouse, I promise I will go to it and bust you out after you read this chapter. Yup, it's gonna be THAT intense.
Chapter 7: July
"If I didn't know any better, Tony," Pepper said in a bored tone, her chin resting on her folded arms, and her folded arms on one of the work tables at the Stark Solutions private, clinical analysis lab, eyes half closed in tiredness, "I'd say you WANT to find something wrong with me."
"Good thing you know better," the inventor retorted without even looking at her, rubbed her right hand quickly and lightly to make sure his words were not interpreted incorrectly, and he then returned his full attention to what Dr. Bruce Banner was explaining to him.
"So, in conclusion," Bruce said as he pointed at the computer screen to several numbers on it to support his findings. "Pepper is in excellent health. Her organs are working at optimum level. Her blood work shows nothing abnormal. CAT and MRI scans are clean, and other than minor scrapes here and there on her body, she is as healthy as someone of her age should be. Even her back has healed almost completely, and she will no longer experience any discomfort at all from it, very soon."
Tony's furrowed brow did not disappear; he instead frowned even more as he stared at the results of the many laboratory tests he had put Pepper through. The billionaire had double-checked the results several times in the past couple of weeks, and so had Pepper for that matter, relying mostly on her limited knowledge of the science behind the tests thanks to her graduate degree. Even she could see that there was nothing medically wrong with her body or mind.
This can't be right, Tony tried to keep his thoughts to himself, but it was obvious both to the redhead and the doctor in the room that he was not at all convinced that everything was alright with his wife. He had relied on medical tests before to determine if his son and he had been normal and healthy, but those tests had eventually failed him. As a result, the inventor now knew better than to unquestionably rely on science to give him all the answers he sought and wanted. Even if he was a man of science, even if he had believed all his life that science could explain everything that took place on Earth – and even outside of it, he was starting to question everything he had once thought to be absolute.
Pepper stared at her husband, almost hearing the internal battle taking place in him. She was yet to determine the cause of his recent reservations and distress regarding her health. After the experiences she had survived, however, she surely could not blame him for it. His worry was beginning to border on paranoia, nevertheless, and she just could not let him fall prey of his antics when there was clearly no need for it. Doctor Ross had given her a clean bill of health. Her OB/GYN, Doctor Adler, had as well. And now, even Doctor Banner agreed with everyone else: she was alright – better than alright. Why was Tony so unwilling to believe their word?
"Bruce?" Pepper stood up straight in the chair and gave the Hulk's alter ego a warm smile. "Do you mind giving us a moment?"
"Not at all," Bruce answered and returned the smile. Even in his human form, Hulk still remembered how amusing and kind Pepper had been to him, and the scientist could almost hear Hulk say he would do whatever Funny Pepper asked him to do for her. "I'll be right outside, if you need me."
"Thanks," Pepper replied, stood up from the chair, and slowly walked towards an inventor who was yet realize they were now alone in the lab. His eyes were glued to the numbers on the computer screen, doing and redoing the calculations in his head. It was not until she surrounded his waist from behind with her arms, and until she pressed the left side of her face to his back, that his mind snapped back to reality.
"Pepper?"
He did not turn back to face her, but he did grab one of her hands in his, took it to rest against his chest, and allowed himself to cherish the memory their current positions triggered in him. It was just like years ago, back in the Makluan Temple, when he had been brave enough to tell her and show her what her presence did to his heart. That moment had been the start of who they were now, and not in a million years had he ever imagined that a life with the person you loved could grow within you the conflicting feelings of perpetual yearning and wholeness, both at the same time.
Many years had passed since that milestone, and many ups and downs had also come around. But it was in moments like these that he let his mind believe they were still teens attending high school, worrying about their next major class project or exam, and not about finding out who wanted them dead. It was when it was just the two of them like this, alone together, that he could pretend that all the horrible things that had occurred had been nothing but an extremely long and wicked dream.
"Are you gonna tell me what's going on inside that head of yours, or do I have get you drunk to make you talk?"
Tony closed his eyes and lightly chuckled, grateful that, even in tense situations such as these, Pepper could still steal a smile from him. She had been so patient with him and his incessant requests for running test after test on her, and for that he was nothing but indebted to her. He was certain that she was not sure what he was looking for since he was not sure himself, but after weeks of lying to himself and delaying the inevitable, he would just have to come out and tell her what had been keeping him up and night, watching her sleep and breathe. He just had to tell her what he feared would happen to her.
"I'm gonna get the vodka," she said when he took a long time to say anything to her, and she began pulling away from him. "Just wait right here."
"No, wait," he said, twirled on the stool to face her, and stood up from it to hold her by her waist. "Just, give me a sec, OK?"
"OK," she replied with skepticism, a single eyebrow arched in a questioning manner, and her hands rested on his upper arms. "You obviously want to talk, but do you want to do it here or do you want to go back home?"
"Here," he said immediately. Even if he had been working on improving the small lab Pepper had begun building in their new house – the former Rhodes' home – said lab was far from complete or ready to run the test he wanted to carry. The only other location that could have given him the resources he needed to do what he wanted to do at the moment would have been the Makluan Temple itself, and while the place deserved a visit, he figured it was best to just get it over with here and now. Time was a wasting, and he did not want to lose anymore.
"Pepper, I want to run one more test."
Pepper momentarily closed her eyes and exhaled. When she opened them again, Tony could see in her features and pose that she was not really upset by his request, but that she was simply tired and confused. With her gaze, she pleaded for him to just explain to her what was crossing his overactive mind. Tony nodded to her, quickly understanding her silent question. After taking a deep breath himself, he tightened his grip on her waist, rubbed his thumbs under her blouse and on her skin, and then readied himself for what was to come.
"I…" his eyes drifted away from hers and toward the computer screen, but only for an instant, before he returned his blue orbs to her hazel ones, a hint of hesitancy embedded in them. "Pep, I want to test you for… for Extremis."
Pepper's head instantaneously recoiled and her eyes shifted left and right. She closed her eyes momentarily, shook her head lightly, as if she needed her ears to clear-up, and then opened her eyes once more.
"What?"
"I," he began with a sigh. "I know what you're thinking…"
"I think it's pointless."
"Yes, and I know what it sounds like…"
"It sounds crazy."
"Right, but please… please just hear me out."
Pepper opened her mouth to retort with a negative remark, but the words he had just uttered reminded her that they had made a pact to talk things out, regardless of how farfetched their thoughts first sounded to either of them. He had kept his end of the bargain by listening to her crazy conspiracy theories regarding S.H.I.E.L.D. and its possible involvement in the death of their son, so it was only fair that she extended the same courtesy to him that he had already extended to her.
"OK," she said with a nod. "Tell me why."
"Thank you," he said with honesty, took a second to somewhat order his thoughts, and then began relaying to her as best he could what his mind had been torturing him with for the past couple of weeks.
"Look, Pepper, I… I've been thinking, wondering, really – suspecting, actually – that you may have Extremis in you… even if it's just a tiny bit. Tinier than what I have."
"OK. And why do you think that?"
"I'm not sure," he said with a shrug. "But… I think… I-I think that it has something to do with the attack at the penthouse… and Howie, he-he... those files you hacked from the S.H.I.E.L.D. database. And you should, too… you know? You should let me do it. And then there's the mood swings… and the way I felt and reacted after you helped me turn off Extremis. And then when Fury took me to the Helicarrier… and the baby food bottles…"
Pepper pulled her hands away from him, rubbed her temples with her fingertips, and then closed her eyes when she felt the onset of a headache. She was trying to order in her mind what her husband's scattered thoughts were trying to communicate to her, but after losing nearly two pints of blood to the multiple tests she had undergone today, it was difficult to read him as easily as she typically did when he rambled on and on, his mind working faster than his mouth could talk.
"I… I'm not saying no, Tony. You can test me for it if you really want, but you have to break it down for me so that I can understand. So that I can help. What's… what's going on? How would I even have it in me?"
"Well," he scratched the back of his neck with his right hand, took a step back from her, and began pacing the room and gesturing with his hands as he voiced his thoughts. "Extremis is a virus, right? And viruses are contagious."
"Right. But Extremis it's not airborne."
"Yes, but it is DNA-embedded. DNA transferable, you can say."
"Yeah… but our blood types don't match. We've never even transferred blood to each other. Ever."
"Yes," he said with hesitancy and then stared at her with a look she could only imagine was of minor embarrassment. "But… you know. We… we've exchanged DNA… in other ways… lots of times…"
"O-oh," she looked at the floor, not sure why thinking about what Tony had just implied made her self-conscious. It was no secret, to anyone, what they did behind closed doors. It was not as if they had not been together for years, or as if they had not once had a child together, but she figured that it was different to live in the moment and then go back to normal than to talk about their intimacy in such a clinical manner.
"I," she continued. "I hadn't thought about it like that."
"And neither had I… until recently."
"OK," she took a seat in the nearest chair she could find. "Talk me through it."
"OK, well… your back, for example."
"My back."
"Yes."
"What about it?"
"It healed. It just… something… someone beat you, Pepper. Someone hit your back with probably everything they had, hard enough to make you pass out, and it just… healed. It's almost back to normal! It didn't heal overnight like it would have done for me if I'd gone through the same thing and Extremis was activated in me. But it did heal pretty fucking fast."
"OK, I guess, yes. But how would that make you think that I have Extremis?"
"Your mood," he replied, walked closer to her, and kneeled before her on the floor. "The way you behaved during the final board meeting. You… you were vicious, babe. I mean, I know that those assholes gave you – gave us, hell for years, but you… you even scared me, a little bit. For a moment there, I wasn't sure if you would listen to me at all."
"So… your theory consists of a healing back and mood swings, and your conclusion is that I have Extremis? So, you're pretty much saying that I can't defend myself, you, or my deceased son, unless I have something wrong with me?"
"What? No! Not at all! You can totally hold your own, Pep. It's just… the way you did it… it reminded me of when I killed Rhona. I-I was so afraid that Fury was going to take you away from me that day. I… I'm still afraid that he may one day knock down our door and take you."
"I," Pepper bit back another insulting retort, shook her head once, and then sighed. Tony did have a good point. Up until now, she had not even thought about what her little scene in front of the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. could mean for her freedom or for her blue-eyed boy. Fury could very well be preparing for her arrest right now, and she would have had it coming even more if she had done everything she had wanted to do to Mitch Richards, up to and including making sure he never ever conceived in his life.
"I'm sorry, Tony," she finally said. "I'm trying to be supportive here, I really am. But you're not giving me enough to buy into it."
"I actually think I am. The way you behaved that day… it reminded me of me when you first turned off Extremis in me. Remember how I was that night that… well, when we got that call from Rhodey? I was practically shaking. And the way you acted during the meeting, it looked like withdrawals to me. As if whatever leftover Extremis in you is running out and it's making your body want more."
The redhead took another silent moment to consider the billionaire's words, made some mental math of dates, and then stared at his crouching figure once more.
"So, what you're saying is that I need to have sex with you again tonight to get my required dose for this week?"
"No, I–" he shook his head. "I don't think you get it from that. I think… I think you got some when you were pregnant with Howie. And then you had some left over after he was born. And he had it all along. He… he just had to have had it. So… when you breastfed him… he might have shared some with you. I… I don't know."
"But, Tony, Jimmy has been gone for months! And every test that we ran on him came back negative. Hell, even the tests that S.H.I.E.L.D. ran… came… back… oh… no…"
"Then, there's that," Tony said, his voice lowered. "Our tests of Extremis on him came back negative, but we both know there was something special in him. He… he was strong at times, Pepper, more than a little guy his age should've been. And-and he could see things. Things that we couldn't see. I don't know how or why. I can't really explain it, but I know he did. I think…. I think he saw whatever attacked me and him that night… the same whatever that attacked you, too. I think he could see right through it, all the time… and that's why our son is gone."
"S.H.I.E.L.D.," Pepper stood up from the chair to walk over to one of the many computers in the lab. Tony followed her and stood behind her as he watched her work the system to pull up the files she needed from the S.H.I.E.L.D. database. She placed the opened documents side by side; one showing the results of the tests S.H.I.E.L.D. had ran on James, and the other showing the document that Tony had signed without his knowledge, accepting responsibility for the death of his son.
"Son of a bitch," she mumbled, her mind piecing together what Tony had figured out, days ago. "The visit to S.H.I.E.L.D… the day we took Jimmy to the Helicarrier…"
"Three days before he died," Tony supplied as he pointed to the date on the laboratory tests results that were on the screen. "S.H.I.E.L.D. said that the results were negative, but then they wrote this paper saying that he died of complication of Extremis, when just a few days before, they had sworn nothing was wrong with him."
"Then one of these papers is a complete lie," Pepper said. "And I bet it's the one blaming you for it."
"I think so, too," he agreed. "I think that when S.H.I.E.L.D. took me to the Helicarrier for killing Rhona, they ran those tests on me to learn more about how the virus worked. You were right on that, Pep. They did this to me. They were the ones who had the virus in the first place, right? They were the ones experimenting on it. They wanted to see what they could do with it in me."
"But, Tony," Pepper shook her head and turned around to face the inventor. "You and I were both there when the tests were run. We monitored everything. How did they… I don't know… poison Jimmy? How did we miss that?"
"I thought about that, too. And I think you know how and when. You just forgot, like I did… with… with everything that's happened. Think about it, Pepper. When was the only time we didn't have Howie with us or with family? When did he leave our sight?"
The redhead's eyes denoted she was deep in thought, forcing her mind to return to the days before their son had died – to recall the many tribulations they had gone through last December; all seemingly disconnected in the past, but suddenly not so much anymore once she really thought about them as a whole.
It had all started with her arriving to the penthouse late at night to find their home destroyed, and Tony and James protected inside one of the gauntlet's shields, both scared out of their skin. The next day, Tony had told her that he was dying of Extremis, and the search for a cure had begun. A week after Tony had come clean with her regarding his Extremis-related dilemma, the intruder had made its presence known to her in an unexpected way. It had stalked her while she had been in the shower, leaving her to mistakenly think it was no one other than her boy genius who was standing outside the clear-looking door, but she had almost immediately been proven wrong.
After that, they had both agreed to send their son away from the penthouse in the hopes that the intruder's presence was limited to their home, to the two of them. She and Tony had painfully sent James Howard Stark to live with the Rhodes, albeit just briefly, while the two of them figured out who was really behind the mysterious, uninvited guest in their turf. And the only day before the night she and Tony had gone out to dinner to celebrate her graduation from college, the only time they had been with their son before he had left this world, had been the day the three of them had gone to the Helicarrier to seek assistance with their bounty hunter investigation and with the rare happenings with their child.
Suddenly, it all made sense to her, just as it already made sense to him.
"Are you sure your kid is strong?" Hawkeye asked, his tone one of utter disbelief, as he stared at the offspring of Pepper Potts and Tony Stark sitting on the work table in the middle of the large evidence room. The little guy had been brought over to the flying fortress by his parents for medical testing, and even the former criminal felt a twinge of pain for the baby boy. "He seems pretty normal to me."
"He does," Pepper played with baby James' little fisted hands. "But he's done some pretty amazing things. We think he's got his daddy's strength, at least at times."
"Well, he looks pretty babyish, if you ask me," Hawkeye replied as he too played with the toddler by tapping his nose. "Cute little guy, but I doubt he's the next Hulk."
"Can't hurt to check, right?" Tony asked, his back to the talking trio, while he stared at the many pictures of those who were on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s watch list. He was not surprised to see War Machine, Rescue, and Iron Man on said list but, at this point, both he and Pepper were desperate enough to eat up their pride and ask Nick Fury for help. "When's your doctor gonna be ready to see us?"
"A few minutes," Clint said, picked up baby James in his hands, and began playing with him by lifting and lowering his arms in a uniform motion. "They're finishing up with one of our own who got injured during training. They'll be right up."
"Can we go in with him?" Pepper asked with a smile as she saw baby James's amused face and heard his giggles whenever Clint Barton lifted him in the air. "He can get a little fussy when people he knows aren't around."
"I'll ask the Docs," Barton responded and then chuckled when baby James began clapping in delight as the archer twirled around in place with him in the air. "Man! He must be a handful! I've never seen a kid put up with so much movement without starting to cry!"
"He has his moments," Pepper welcomed the baby into her arms once more when Barton finally handed him back. "But nothing that we can't handle by now."
"Good for you. I don't know if I could handle a super baby. Has he started to talk?"
"A few words," Pepper admitted. "Nothing special yet. I just wish he would call us Mom or Dad."
"What does he call you?"
"Ask him," Tony said and finally turned back to face Hawkeye, his son, and his wife.
"What?"
"Just ask him who we are."
"OK," Barton shrugged. He then walked closer to the baby, grabbed his attention by holding his hand, and then pointed to Pepper with his free one. "Hey, James, who is that? Who is holding you?"
The baby's eyes went from staring at the archer, to looking at his finger, and then followed where the pointing led. When his blue eyes landed on his mother's, his smile widened and he opened his mouth.
"Bep!"
"Bep?" Hawkeye chuckled. "He calls you 'Bep'?"
"Yup," Pepper said.
"That's weird."
"It's better than what he calls Happy or Rhodey."
"Which is…?"
"Look," Pepper walked over to where Tony stood. She moved James closer to the large wall of pictures, found an image of James Rhodes, and then pointed to it. "Jimmy, who is that? Who is that in the picture?"
Just as before, the baby stared at his mother, then her finger, and then finally at the image on the wall. He playfully patted his mother's arm as he tried to reach over to grab the image of his adoptive uncle before he answered the question he had been asked.
"Bro! Bro!"
"Bro?" Hawkeye asked, brows raised. "He calls him 'Bro.'"
"Yup," Tony said with a snort. "Rhodey said my kid was racially profiling him."
"HAHAHA! He might as well be! What does he call Happy?"
"Pi!" the child yelled, his finger unskillfully pointed at the image of the jock on the wall, who had earned his spot on the watch list due to taking over the mantle of Iron Man.
"Pi! Pi!"
"What about you, Stark? What does your son call you?"
"Not Dad, that's for sure," Tony said.
"Jimmy," Pepper said and pointed to Tony. "Do you want to go with Daddy now? Do you want Daddy to carry you?"
The baby's smile was now complete, showing gums and all, and he stretched his hands toward his father. Pepper could not understand why, but whenever Tony was around and asked something of their son, the baby was more than willing to comply. It was as if their son had an innate need to please his father. If the toddler knew that saying "Dadda" rather than "Ony" would make Tony smile even more, she had no doubt that baby James would utter that word, all day long.
"You want to go with Daddy?"
"O-ny," James said and wiggled his fingers towards his father. "Ony!"
"Fine, come're," Tony said, grabbed the baby, placed him on his forearms so that his head rested on his chest and shoulder, and the infant immediately held onto his father's shirt in his fisted hands. "But next time, you better call me: Dad, dude."
"Boom!"
"No, not boom!" Tony said with a shake of the head. "I said: dude!"
"Boom!"
"Ugh!" Tony rolled his eyes.
"You guys make a lot of noise when you have sex or what?" Clint joked, although not completely, as it appeared that he had some experience in the matter at hand.
"What?" Pepper shrieked. "What the hell kinda question is that?"
"Well, I used to say that word, too, because I used to hear lots of booms when growing up. But in my case, it was the sound of my drunken dad beating up my mom."
"Uhm," Pepper cleared her throat. "I… I'm not sure what to say to that."
Hawkeye shrugged. "Just trying to explain your kiddos' weird words."
"It's Happy's fault for watching those darn videos of Iron Man missions when Howie's around," Tony readjusted baby James's position on his shoulder when it became obvious to him that the child was not comfortable and kept trying to move to the other shoulder. "I'm just grateful he's not saying porn-related words."
"Happy watches porn with your kid around?"
"I surely hope not."
"Well, he might be," Clint offered. "That'd actually explain all the words. Maybe he means to say horny when he says Ony, penis when he says Pi, and blow when he says Bro."
The looks on the heroes' faces denoted they were not amused by the conversation, but before they could verbalize their thoughts to the archer, the door to the evidence room slid open, revealing a tired-looking Maria Hill standing by the threshold.
"Sorry about the wait," the woman quickly apologized. "We're ready for him."
"Can we go in?" Pepper asked as she watched her son make a strange, wave-like gesture at the wall over Tony's shoulder, almost like he was pointing at it and its many pictures. "We'd like to be there for all of it."
"Not a problem," Maria said, walked over to baby James, and massaged his head. "We have to decontaminate you too, though."
"It doesn't matter," Tony handed the child to the agent. "Where do we go clean up?"
"Hawkeye can lead you," Maria held the baby in her arms. "I'll take James to the medical unit to be sterilized for his presence in the lab. I'll meet you both there."
"OK," Pepper replied and then kissed her son's forehead. "You behave, Jimmy. Alright? Make Mommy and Daddy proud."
"Bep, Ony, boom!"
"See?" Clint said almost immediately, his finger taping the images of Pepper and Tony on the wall. "He can tell. Loud sex, you two."
"Barton, shut up," Hill said with a disapproving look that Pepper and Tony shared. Before anything else was said or done, the archer threw his hands in the air.
"Just saying! I heard about the thing with the handcuffs! These two can be kinky as hell!"
"Let's just get this over with," Maria said as she exited the room, Pepper and Tony in tow. "And ditch Barton before you reach the lab."
"Off the Helicarrier or…" Tony asked and Pepper could not find it in her heart to chastise her husband for wanting to permanently quiet the archer.
"From wherever you can find," Maria said and the redhead and the inventor snickered when the archer groaned aloud.
Pepper sighed loudly, covered her face with her hands, and then sunk in a chair. It was so obvious, so blatantly obvious now, when S.H.I.E.L.D. had been given the time to strike. They had handed them their kid, on a silver platter, for that matter, and it was not until now that they realized what they had done. Their son was dead not only because of S.H.I.E.L.D., but because they had unwillingly and unknowingly helped their cause.
"We didn't know, Pepper," Tony whispered to her when he saw tears forming in her eyes as she pulled her hands away from her face. He sat on the floor to hug her from the side. "We didn't know then."
"We should've known," she said after a sniffle. "We should've known better, Tony. We… we just…"
"I know. I know, Pepper. And now they want you. They already have you, Pepper. I just know… I know that the intruder who attacked you had to be from S.H.I.E.L.D. You're the next target and I… I can't just sit here and do nothing. I already lost Howie… I can't lose you, too."
The ginger closed her eyes, rested her forehead against the genius's head, and silence engulfed them for a long period of time. The only noises in the lab belonged to the beeping of machines, the humming of the computers, and the random sound of a chaste kiss or a tender word between them. After Pepper felt more in control of her anger towards what she had just learned, she finally pulled back from Tony, stood up from the chair, and walked over to the lab table to stare at the last unused vial of her blood – the one she now knew Tony had reserved to run the last test on her.
"Are you sure you want to run this test, Tony?" Pepper asked, vial in hand, eyes staring at the computer screen. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Yes," Tony said without hesitation, uncertain of where the reluctance on her part was coming from, and stood to her left to stare at her almost vacant eyes. "I need to know, Pepper. I need to be ready."
"For what?" she stared back at him.
"What do you mean for what? To protect you!"
"From, what, Tony?" she insisted. "We… we knew Jimmy had Extremis in him, but we couldn't prove it. The test… it doesn't work. And if you run this test, and it comes back negative, does that mean I'm in the clear? Or does it mean that we don't really know how to detect Extremis on anyone other than in you?"
"What…" Tony swallowed hard. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying," she began, turned to her left completely to stand before him, and held his face in her hands. "That if this test succeeds or fails, we won't know the difference. And that despite the results of it, and if S.H.I.E.L.D. really has already gotten me, then… then one day, Tony, one morning, you will wake up… but I won't wake up with you. Because… because there's nothing we can do to help me… just like there was nothing we could do for James. If S.H.I.E.L.D. wants me dead…"
"No," he closed his eyes and rested his hands on hers. "Don't say it, please…"
"Then…"
"Pepper, no…"
"I'm already on borrowed time."
When Dr. Bruce Banner walked inside, half an hour after being asked to leave for a few minutes, and he saw the couple embracing each other for dear life, the man lowered his head and sighed. He did not even bother to announce his presence; he just walked out of the lab one last time, but not before he saw that the last vial had been used to run the final test on the redhead that he knew the inventor had wanted to run. As he had expected, the results had come back negative. As he had been instructed, he sent a text message to S.H.I.E.L.D. to let them know everything was going according to plan. He wished there was another way, one that did not involve the demise of the hero couple, but even he knew that the stakes were too high to leave anything to chance.
The window of opportunity for creative thinking had come and gone. The only option now was to end their lives. At least, it would be more merciful this way.
xxxXXXxxx
"What the FUCK were you thinking, Whitney?" Tony asked after his fists slammed on the only piece of furniture that kept some distance between his fuming, standing form and her frightened, sitting one. "What in the ACTUAL fuck were you thinking would happen if you killed her? You thought I'd automatically fall in love with you or forget her? You think it would make what happened to your father better, somehow? Are you that fucking stupid?"
"I-I… Tony… I don't know…"
"Bullshit!" he hit the table again and then pointed at her with his left index finger. "You may have sold that sob story to Pepper, but not to me!"
"It's not a story, alright?" Whitney partly screamed, partly sobbed. "I don't know what came over me! I'd never–"
"Never, what?" he interrupted. "Never take someone against their will? Never torture them with anything and everything you could find? Never put them in a submarine in the middle of the fucking ocean and leave them for dead?"
"Tony, that's not really fair…"
"WHAT?" the inventor spat. "FAIR? Do you even know what that word MEANS?"
"It wasn't me, Tony!" Whitney insisted. "It was the mask! I'd never do that to Pepper… to anyone! I know it was me, but it really wasn't! It was the mask!"
"The mask only amplifies what you already feel, Whitney. You WANTED to hurt her. You wanted to take her away from me!"
"Not like that!" Whitney said and stood up. "Yes, I was jealous! Yes, I didn't understand what you saw in her or why you kept her around but… but I never wanted to kill her."
"And yet you almost succeeded. And you almost killed my dad, too. And me. But I'm supposed to believe that you're not a killer, right?"
"I don't…" she sighed, sat down again and looked away. "I don't know what you want me to say, Tony. I'm sorry. Really sorry. I don't know how to make it right. I-I don't know how to make it up to you."
"You can't," Tony replied, anger suddenly making his body feel exhausted enough to lower his voice. "There's nothing you can ever do to make it right. That day you took her, you took more than you know. You took years of her life away. You took years of my life away. You took the chance for us, for me and Pepper, to be together. You changed both of our lives, and a lot of people's lives, for the worst. You don't understand what you did. And you did it all because of what happened to your father. You just couldn't deal with the fact that your father cared about his money more than you, so you took the blame out on me, on Pepper, everyone else instead of facing up to your problems. I… I trusted you, Whitney. You were my friend. You were my friend, and you almost killed the woman I love."
Whitney closed her eyes, hung her head in shame, and then remembered the conversation she had just had with the redhead before speaking again.
"Tony… you-you say that you loved her. You say you still do. Why aren't you with her, then? Why is she marrying someone else?"
"Because of you," Tony deadpanned, his back now to the blonde while he stared at the very tempting exit of the interrogation room. "Because of what you did to her, I can never be with her. I can't let someone else harm her the way you did. She… she forgot about me for a while after we found her… she moved on… and now she's out of my reach. All thanks to you."
The blonde opened her eyes again, stared at his back and then whispered her next words.
"I… I don't think that's true. I… I-I don't think she's out of your reach."
Tony did not bother to look at her and simply scoffed, prompting Whitney to continue speaking her mind.
"I think," she cleared her throat, her voice not as weak as before. "I think miracles do happen. She survived the horrible things I did to her. She talked Gene out of leaving me where my mind was… and she forgave me. She came here to forgive me and make it better for me. To me, those are miracles. And if these things can happen… if all of THAT can happen, then she's not really out of your reach."
Silence was all that was heard in the room for a moment after Whitney's statement while Tony remembered a similar conversation he had had with Rhodey, just months before, when Pepper had left him and had moved out of their apartment home. He had asked his friend what he needed to do to get Pepper back after he had screwed up with her, and Rhodey had given him a similar response. Just as it had been then, it was now again a reply he did not care for: a response that did nothing for him and his predicament.
"Miracles don't happen to me, Whitney."
"They do," she replied, thinking of a couple of examples for him, herself. "You survived the plane crash. Your heart has been healed. Your father came back. Miracles do happen to you, Tony. You just have to be brave enough to call them what they are."
Suddenly, all the angry words he had wanted to lash out at her with left him, and he saw no point in staying any longer. Nick Fury had been correct: it was pointless to yell at someone who did not yell back; someone who admitted their fault and fear. Someone who was trying to give him hope that he could be with Pepper again. The Madam Masque had committed the crimes, not Whitney Stane; and forever the inventor would have to live with the fact that there would be no one to take his anger out on. No one to truly blame for his screwed up life. He would just have to move on and let it go.
xxxXXXxxx
Tony closed his eyes and clenched his hands. He inhaled deeply and with lost hope as he listened to the man on the other end of the line explaining to him, in detail, the situation at hand. The more Doctor Ross spoke to the inventor, the more heartbroken Tony became. By the time the call was over, and after the double-beep signified the disconnection of the signal, the genius had nothing else to do but accept the reality of it all: the reality that Pepper had been correct; there was nothing to be done for her.
He finally opened his eyes and he lazily took off the surgical face mask he had been wearing for days. He also took off the sterilized gloves and the disposable, paper gown he wore on top of his clothes, only to discard them all inside a trashcan. He did not even bother to put any of these items in the hazardous material box – he knew there was nothing hazardous about what he had touched with them on his body. After taking off his wireless earpiece and tossing it on the living room coffee table, Tony Stark marched inside his and his wife's master bedroom in their home.
He was grateful for Pepper's decision to buy this place; it had a sense of homeliness for him. It was not their first apartment, or the Stark Solutions penthouse, or even the Stark Mansion, but there was something about the place he had called home for two years when living with Rhodey and his mother that spoke to him. If only he would have been able to share this with his son… and his wife. If only…
He found her where he had left her: on their bed, under the covers, her eyes closed, and breathing slowly. Her condition had been deteriorating exponentially for a week now. Every treatment and medicine that Doctor Ross had suggested had only managed to aggravate her symptoms. One medicine took care of one issue but caused two; weaning her off it made a new symptom pop up. He was not even sure if he could name all of the bottles of drugs he had gone through to try to make her feel better – they were too many to count. All he was sure about, however, was that Doctor Ross had just essentially told him over the phone that waiting for the inevitable was all that was left to do.
Making her comfortable until she took her last breath was the only course of action now.
As much as he hated to accept this – as much he hated the feeling of having nothing else to do but giving up, he knew the doctor to be right. They could not fight whatever she had, if they did not know what it was in the first place. The only person who would perhaps tell them what it was and how to cure it, would certainly not cooperate with them, he knew. No. At this point, Tony knew that Nick Fury would rather snatch out his one good eye than to help the redhead and the inventor overcome whatever advantage S.H.I.E.L.D. had over them. This was what Pepper and Tony had feared would happen. All that was left for them to do was figuring out a way for S.H.I.E.L.D. not to have the last laugh.
He crawled into bed with her, but he did so as quietly and slowly as possible so as not to disturb her. She smiled almost immediately when she sensed him near her; this was the only way he knew she was still conscious enough to acknowledge his presence. She hardly ever opened her eyes now, since it made her feel even more exhausted than she already felt – and not to mention nauseated. Even with the lights off and the curtains closed, the little light in the room bothered her. She did not speak much either, unless she absolutely had to, but thanks to years of knowing each other, most words did not need to be uttered anyway.
She frowned when she felt his arms surrounding her. She chanced opening one eye to stare at him questioningly, up and down, as much as she could from her laying down position on her side of the bed. One look to his sad-looking eyes and face was enough for her to understand what was going on. The mere fact that he was no longer trying to protect her immune system from his germs by wearing all those crazy gloves and outfits proved that she had finally reached a point of no return.
She gave him a small smile for his sake, leaned closer to his chest and ear, and then whispered to him in a soft voice.
"When I…" she began, but stopped when she could not bring herself to say the word die to him. "When this is over, you're gonna kill Nick Fury for this, aren't you?"
"They wish," the inventor held her closer. He was not surprised that Pepper had picked up on the non-verbal cues of the bad news he bore, but he was surprised to see that she had accepted them much easier and faster than he knew he ever would. "The WSC will have to restart S.H.I.E.L.D. from scratch once I'm done with them, if they even find someone to rebuild their damned Helicarrier, anyway."
She closed her eyes again and gulped to find her voice once more. She then tried her best to hug him back to provide some type of comfort for him before she dropped a bombshell on him with her next words.
"Don't let them do this to me, Tony. Don't let them be the ones who end it all for me."
"I…" his grip on her tightened, "I can't stop it, Pepper. I can't even slow it down. I want to, but I just don't know how. No one knows how."
"That's not what I said," she replied in a steady voice despite the tears forming behind her closed eyes. "Slowing it down or stopping it… that's not what I'm asking you to do for it... for me."
His eyes snapped open the moment he realized what her implication had been with her words. He then stared down to her serene face and relaxed form. When he was unable to form a coherent sentence, his redhead came to the rescue.
"You've done it before, Tony. I know you can do it again."
He closed his eyes to somehow physically show his rejection of her words, readjusted his position so that he was now resting the right side of his head on her chest, and he then held onto her hips as if he were a mere child who was being told he had to let go of his lifeless mother... all over again.
"It's not the same, Pepper. I can't do this to you. It's… it's just not the same."
The redhead, however, knew better than to believe his words of denial.
"Because you shouldn't," he said and grabbed her hands. "You shouldn't give him up. We need to fight it, Pepper. We need to fight whatever it is that's screwing with us now. We can't give in. We can't give up. We can't live in fear all of our lives."
"But, Tony–"
"No," he began. "What if you give him up and then we have a kid of our own? Are you going to give him or her up, too? Are you also going to hide a baby – MY baby, from me to keep it safe? When is it going to stop? Are we really going to let them win?"
Pepper closed her eyes briefly and, when she opened them again, his face was inches from hers. He pressed a soft kiss to her lips, her knuckles and spoke again.
"Do you really want to give him up? Is that really what you want?"
"No," she choked and shook her head. "No, I don't."
"Then you don't have to," he told her firmly. "I'll see to that, Pepper. I promised you – I swore to you, that I wouldn't let anything happen to him, and I will do anything I can to protect you and him. This baby is staying with us whether whoever sent those birds to kill him wants it or not. They're just going to have to kiss my iron ass if they think they can convince me otherwise. The SI board couldn't stop me. Stane and Hammer couldn't stop me. S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't stop me and the fucking Makluan couldn't stop me either. Whoever these assholes are, I want to see them try – no, I dare them to try to hurt you or the baby. I will kill them, Pepper. I will kill them when the time comes. Them and anyone else who tries to take you away. I'm not taking any chances."
"It is the same," she responded after a brief silence, and before she slowly ran her fingers through his hair. "It'd probably be easier to do it on me than it was on those before. You… you told me once that you didn't know you had it in you… until you did it. You told me that you didn't regret it, remember? You told me you'd do it all over again, if your loved ones were in danger. You told me it got easier every time."
"On them," he replied. "On the ones who tried to hurt the people I love. It's… it's different to do it on the people you're trying to protect in the first place. Especially you."
"Are you saying you regret doing it all?"
"No," he said without pause. "I only regret the way I killed one of them… Rhona, actually. But when it comes to protecting you, Pepper, I regret nothing at all."
"Then protect me now," she opened her eyes to stare at the top of his head. "Be the one who ends it, not S.H.I.E.L.D. I… I can't do it myself… I don't have what it takes. I… I don't think I'll ever have what it takes to do this to anyone."
"I didn't think I did either," he slowly readjusted their positions one more time so that she was lying on her back and he was partly on top of her. "Until I heard Whitney tell me what she did to you…" he kissed her forehead. "Until I saw Ghost about to slit your throat…" he ran his lips down her neck. "Until Rhona told me about the bounty…"
"Until S.H.I.E.L.D. did this to our son and now to me," Pepper closed her eyes. "Until I asked you, just now, to not let S.H.I.E.L.D. be the one who has control over how and when I die."
"Pepper–"
"No," she breathed hard. "You have to do this for me, Tony. If you don't… if you let it happen on its own… S.H.I.E.L.D…. they win."
"They've already won," he deadpanned grimly before he crashed his lips on hers and kissed her as if there was no tomorrow since, quite literally, that could be the case for her despite how strong his current grip was around her form.
"For now, at least," he added when he paused the kiss only to stare at her eyes. "Until I deal with them myself, that is."
The redhead opened her eyes and lost herself in his blue ones, slowly taking in what he was saying without words. She relished the way he slid the back of his hand down her face and then back up to her hair. She enjoyed the soft contact of his fingertips on her slightly parted lips, and she could almost feel herself shiver in anticipation at the way his pupils suddenly dilated while staring at her. She knew the signs like the palm of her hand. She had seen him like this many times before. Even if she was disappointed by the fact that although she would try her best, her unnamed illness would not allow her to make it as memorable as she wanted this to be for him, she could not deny she looked forward to it, too.
"I'll do it," he whispered with ache, his loyalty to her stronger than the burning sting of finality in his words. "But not now or here. It'll be just the two of us, away from everything, secluded. It'll be just between you and me, like it should be."
Pepper nodded to him to show her thanks and then swallowed hard. "Where? When?"
"Not tonight," he began kissing her neck. "Tomorrow. I'll tell you… show you, tomorrow."
"Why tomorrow?" she closed her eyes.
"Why not?" he replied and she scoffed.
"Good point," she added after a pause, and then focused only in enjoying the rest of the night.
xxxXXXxxx
The myriad of papers with his signature on them on his desk were the only physical proof that he had broken his oath as a healer. He knew that said documents would never see the light of day as long as he kept his end of the bargain, and as long as his patient showed the promised results in not too long. He was not proud of what he had done, and he would not deny that he had done so under duress, but it was difficult not to commit crimes when you were between a rock and a hard place.
"This is the last of the tasks you wanted me to perform on her," Doctor Ross said as he signed the end of his forced contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. "I told Tony Stark that there was nothing else to do for her. They're just going to wait until the venom he unknowingly injected her with kicks in and she stops breathing."
"How long would that take?" Nick Fury asked from his position by the entrance of the doctor's private office. "We're running out of time."
"It's difficult to tell," Doctor Ross honestly replied, stacked all of the papers on top of each other, and then slid them across the desk and towards the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Her body has always been a mystery to us here. Her healing is as unpredictable as her mood swings are. She's surprised us one too many times for me to give you an actual deadline I can stick to."
"That's not what we agreed upon, Doctor."
"I didn't agree to any of this, General Fury. You took my wife to force me to do this! Short of putting a bullet in her brain, Pepper Potts's time of death will remain a question mark until it happens! I can't help you with that."
Nick pondered the doctor's answer for a moment as he considered his options which, at the moment, were close to none. Aldrich Killian had given him a very specific timeline to follow, and said timeline would begin its final course of action in two weeks' time. Maya Hansen and Kevin Kowalowski were in position as well, and if it had not been for Mitch Richards spilling the beans before it was time, his plan to disappear the Starks from the face of the planet would have worked, weeks ago.
Nick finally picked up the papers from the desk, put them back inside the folder he had brought them in, and then sighed derisively and without a hint of humanity at all.
"I guess that'll have to do for now. We'll release your wife the moment we get word that Pepper Potts has died, but not before then."
"That's not what you said you would do!" Doctor Ross screamed, stood up from his chair, and slammed the edge of his desk with his fists. "I've done everything you've asked me to do! It's been three weeks! Let my wife go!"
"If you keep pushing the issue, little man, you won't see her even if Pepper Potts dies. I needed her – them – dead months ago. You've proven to be as useless as everyone else that has tried to kill them before."
"If we're so useless," Doctor Ross began, his words filled with barely suppressed anger and frustration, "Then why don't you kill them yourself? If you're so good at this, then why don't you just pull the trigger on them?"
"It's not my job to do," Nick replied. "My involvement in this matter of international security is beyond me calling a bounty off of them or failing to answer a call for help from them."
"What?"
"Forget it," Fury said and waved his hand dismissively at the scared doctor. "It's a matter beyond your understanding and your pay grade. I'll give you a call when it's time to pick up your wife. Stay near your phone."
"No, wait!"
"This conversation is over. Enjoy the rest of your day, Doctor Ross," Fury gave his back to the doctor on his way out of the office.
"But, you promised I'd see her!" Doctor Ross demanded. "You promised I would see my wife! When will I get to see her to make sure she's still alright?"
Fury shrugged, stared at the man over his left shoulder for a second to force him to stop his trek towards him, and then smiled with condescension before he finally replied.
"It's difficult to tell. The ways of torture and assassinations have always been a mystery to us in S.H.I.E.L.D. Your wife's threshold to pain is as unpredictable as her husband's inability to kill one single woman and man. You've failed me one too many times for me to give you an actual deadline I can stick to."
"You sorry son of a bitch," Doctor Ross snarled. "Tony Stark was right: you can't be trusted. You have to be stopped."
"Nobody can stop me, Doctor. I'm the head of the largest, most powerful crime-fighting organization. Nobody in this world can put a stop to my plans."
"Cancer will," the doctor deadpanned. "Your declining health will stop you if you're lucky… if Tony Stark doesn't get to you first. You think you know a man in rage, but you don't. You think you know what he will do once he finds out what you've done to her? You really have no clue. He will tear you apart. You and your flying ship, too."
"I'm counting on it," Fury said with a small smile as he opened the door. "That's been the plan all along."
"Has it?" Doctor Ross asked and took a step closer to the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Or has it been your hope? Tony Stark is not just one man. He's an institution. And he's not alone."
Nick Fury closed the door again, locked it, and then turned in place to stare at the clearly aggravated doctor standing before him. He eyed the medic up and down with a glint of respect in his eye, gave the man a polite nod, and then took out one of his many weapons from his trench coat.
"You're right," Fury said and pointed the gun at the man's chest. "He truly is not alone."
The pain in his chest was the last sensation Doctor Ross felt. The last thing he saw were the feet of the man that had weeks ago come to demand his help; the man who had come to his office, in the dead of night, to blackmail him to slowly kill Pepper Potts-Stark.
A/N: Sooo, uhm… I… errr… I got nothing… But, does it help if I say that the next chapter is worse? Does it? Does it? It only gets worse before it gets better! Who's with me? Who is with me? Who *gets attacked by evil Pepper*… Ugh, nevermind!
Leave a review! Thank you all for reading and reviewing, my Faithful Readers! You will make getting over this cold of mine that much easier for me!