AN: Okay, so here's the chapter I think many of you have been waiting for. Don't your hopes up to high though. If you have questions after reading this, go ahead and review or PM me your questions. Hope you'll like it!

Pepper:

I walked into the living room of the Stark Tower alone. Rhodey had gone out to find the nearest open Chipotle and get us some food. I told him we could go together later, but he said it was okay since he had already talked to Tony on the phone. There was a huge hole in living room floor. Human shaped. I hoped nobody besides the bad guys was seriously injured.

I rubbed my face. After breaking down in the car, I had tried fruitlessly to fix my makeup, but in the end, it still looked a mess. I ended up just wiping it all off. Then, I heard unfamiliar voices in the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen, only to find three unusual men talking there. But Tony wasn't there. He wasn't on this floor. Where could he be?

"Um, can we help you Miss?" I jumped out of my thoughts to see that the three men were staring at me.

"Oh, yeah. Have you guys seen Tony? He's not on this floor at all?" I tried to hide the worry in my voice.

"Did you check the bathroom?" The first guy asked smirking, and earning him a slap from the shirtless guy next to him. Great, I thought. We've got another joker in the house.

"There's no one in the bathroom," I said, impatiently. "Please, this is urgent. I need to see Tony now!" I raised my voice a little.
The shirtless guy had brown eyes, but his eyes flashed green after hearing my urgent plea. I think he's Tony's favorite, Bruce Banner. He looked up at me with his kind brown eyes and said, "You must be Pepper, right? Pepper Potts?"

I blushed a little. "Yeah, that's me."

"I think Tony's upstairs. But please, tell him to stay off his ankle or it'll never heal," he said unwaveringly.

Yup, that's got to be Dr. Banner, I thought. "Thank you so much," I said thankfully. "And you're...Dr. Banner?"

He smiled. "Yeah, I guess Tony told you about me." He paused, the smile disappearing from his face. "And the other guy."

"He talks about you all the time," I said. "Almost much as his father talked about Steve Rogers."

"Really?" The light-skinned man looked surprised. "Tony talks about you a lot too! I once fell asleep while he was trying to explain to me the psychology of you relationship with him." We both started to laugh when I realized I still didn't know who the other two were. I decided I'd find out later.

Bruce stood up. "Well, I think I'll come with you to check on Tony." I walked back to the elevator, with Bruce following close behind. The doors opened, we walked in, and the doors closed behind us. The silence was painful. I stole glances at Bruce until our eyes locked. I felt like he could see right through me. Bruce was the first to speak up.

"I know that you don't want to see Tony hurt, but right now, he is hurt. Please, do not mention his injuries until the two of you are alone. He doesn't want to talk about them at all." Bruce paused. "And be careful what you say."

I didn't have time to figure out what Banner was talking about because as soon as he finished, the elevator doors opened and the bedroom was in plain sight. Tony was sitting on the bed, his back turned to me, talking to Natasha. I cautiously stepped forward as if I was close to the edge of a cliff. Natasha looked up and stopped talking. What the hell was she doing up here with Tony? I wanted to slap her. Then Tony turned around. My heart raced as his brown eyes locked with mine. He stared at me for a second, as if trying to decide whether to speak or not. I flashed him a small smile. He finally found his tongue.

"Hey honey!" He pointed to Bruce. "I guess you met Banner, huh?" Tony didn't move from his sitting position. I guess he was being good before Bruce yelled at him for standing on his ankle.

"Yeah, you never told me he had nice abs! I would have come sooner." I walked over to him. Something in his eyes was off, but he tried to cover it up with a smile.

"Pipe down, baby, he's already got a girlfriend." He took my hands in his. "And now I have mine."

I blushed. My small hands trembled in his large ones. It was like New York had made him a stranger to me. I hesitated before sitting on the bed beside Tony, leaving a few inches between us.

Tony seemed to notice and sent me a funny look before saying: "You remember Natasha, right?" I turned to see Natasha flash me a quick smile.

"How could I forget? My best employee turned out to not really be my employee." I turned to her and said, "It's nice to see you again, Natasha."

"Same here," she said, showing no emotion. She was standing on a slant, her arms crossed. She seemed more quiet than usual. Girl of a few words, I guess.

The silence was broken when Bruce cleared his throat. I had almost forgotten about him. He walked up in front of Tony before saying: "I think I should check your ankle now, Tony. According to Jarvis, your..." Banner stopped abruptly. I follow his gaze to see Tony glaring at him. Then Tony motioned over in my direction with his eyes. I looked back to Bruce. His brown eyes showed flecks of green. Walking past me, he sternly, but quietly whispered in my ear: "Learn from my mistake. Now you know." I heard the elevator's door softly close somewhere behind me.

He was right. I couldn't ask Tony any specific questions about what happened to him in the battle. I didn't want to trigger Tony's anger in his condition. He could have been dead hours ago. Just the thought of Tony being dead made me treasure life so much more. I wanted to live our relationship, not quarrel or argue it away.

I turned to see Tony staring at me, his brown eyes trying to decipher my expression. But as our eyes met, he glanced away, down at a small cut on his hand, avoiding my gaze. Silence. Horrible, sad, depressing, boring, sickening, dark, secret-filled, repressing, melancholy silence. I hated it. All it told me was that there things that needed to be said, but no one was willing to say them.

Finally, Natasha spoke. "I hate to be in the way of your much-needed conversation," she said, looking at Tony the entire time, "so I'm gona go. I've got my own relationships to mend right now." Natasha walked into the elevator and doors closed. I wished she had stayed, despite I don't really like her. But I had to face Tony. I took in a deep breath.

"So..."

AFN: Don't worry. This is just part one of the chapter. I had to feed you guys something to keep you from leaving my story on the shelf. I wanted to try a cliff hanger. My teacher reads us this book every morning and he loves to give us cliff hangers. So sorry if I made you all anxious. It's just a taste of that Despicable Me.