Well, again, sooner than i expected, but I've found myself with nothing else to do...And yes i've noticed i have other stories to update. But I thought, just to keep you guys occupied while i figure out the next thing I'm going to work on.

Disclaimer: IMAA will never be mine, just to be clear.

"He's dead."

Dead. Gone. Dead. Forever. He was dead.

"Can we see him?" A new voice said.

Pause. "No, his whole body was burned in the fire."

"We're so sorry."

"Don't be…I-it couldn't be stopped."

He was dead. A hand on her shoulder. She looked over. Happy was there, a bandage still over his torso. She wasn't much better. She hand bandages on her arm and leg. They said she'd have permanent scars.

"Pep, I'm sorry."

Pep. Pep. Pep… Tony. W-was he still alive? Was that him? She looked over, tears in her eyes. "Tony?"

No. It was still Happy. She burst into tears.

"Pepper, what's wrong?" Roberta asked.

"You idiot." Pepper said, throwing a tear filled glare at Happy. "Don't call me that."

"Pepper?" Happy asked, confused.

He was dead. How could she think it was him? He was DEAD.

Dead.

"Miss?" A voice called out.

Pepper snapped her eyes open. "Tony?"

She looked around, only to find Annie. "Oh, Annie! What are you doing in here?"

Annie stood holding the curtains half open, half closed. Slightly, surprised. "Who's Tony?"

Pepper looked down and wipe the tears she must have shed in her sleep. "A friend of mine…"

"Is he kind to you?" Annie asked, finishing the task at hand.

"He's dead."

"Oh dear!" Annie's voice cracked, and Pepper raised her eyebrow.

"You alright there Annie?"

Annie went completely red. "Oh yeah, sorry! I've got a slight cold."

Pepper didn't reply, but she instead got out of her bed. She now wore a white night gown. One of the other servants helped her change out of the corset dress the previous night and into the night gown, despite Pepper's protest.

"Do you wish for me to help you into a new dress?" Annie asked. "Or do you wish for Ellen to help you?"

Pepper blushed. She wished the dresses weren't so hard to put on. Then she would do it herself. "I guess you can do it. Since you're here."

"Really?" Annie asked.

"Sure."

Annie helped her into a corset dress that, thankfully was a little less fancy than the previous dress. It looked much like Annie's dress that she still wore. Except it was pink, and was a bit fancier still. Annie smiled when she finished helping and didn't say a word as she led them out to the breakfast table, where she said the food was served and hot.

After Sir Sim Stanley introduced himself he introduced everyone else. The cook, Harriet, the gardener, the assistant cook, the cleaner, and the mechanic. He said there was a few more roaming around, but they were busy. After that, he didn't let Howard talk to him at all. Though he didn't cut Howard off at the spot he just demanded that Annie did something, or that she fix something or go fetch something. It was Annie this, Annie that. It was almost as if he didn't realized he was interrupting his most prized guests.

He led them to the dinner room, where Annie finished setting the last of the finished food. They ate there meals as Sim, as Pepper decided to call him, told them about his little town. It was a apparently hit by a rather large tornado many years back, and when he found the town, all he wanted to do was build it back up, so they were slowly rising to a well-built city. Pepper couldn't see how this was a well-build city, but oh well. His daughter, Lucille, joined them mid-dinner, earning her a scold from her dad.

Annie and some other helper stood by and refilled the drinks, which were tea or coffee. Once dinner was done, one of the servants gave her and the other two a tour of the mansion. Avoiding some parts of the mansion. Then they showed them where each of their rooms were. Luckily they were close together.

"Tony? As in Tony Stark?"

Pepper snapped out of her thoughts and looked to the speaker. At the table everyone, except for her was seated. Howard sat between Rhodey and Sim, who was at the end of the table again. Howard was looking at him expectantly.

Pepper took a seat in a chair across from Howard, next to Sim. The cook, Harriet, served her a plate of eggs and bacon, with some toast. Annie left the room and quickly returned with a tray of orange juice and served it to everyone at the table.

"You mean to tell me, Tony is alive?" Sim asked, a hand on his chest, in surprise.

Pepper hated the tone he said it in. He sounded like he was forcing the innocence on himself. Like he was faking it. If he was Simon, he had to be.

"We've been devastated since he 'died', but we have reasons to believe he's still alive." Howard said.

There was the sound of shattering glass and Sim instantly pulled his attention away from Howard. Annie stood her hand clutching at her chest as she coughed. She looked terrified at the spilt orange juice and broken glass in front of her feet.

"Annie! What is your problem today!?" Sim shouted. He marched over to Annie and grabbed her by her upper arms. "You trying to make me look like a fool? Huh? Do you want to embarrass me? In front of the guests!?"

The rest of the servants scampered around as they tried to clean up the mess. Harriet grabbed Annie's hand and led her out of the room and away from the fuming Sim. Sim was clenching and unclenching his hands as he tried to calm himself down.

"Please, excuse me." Sim said, with a taught smile.

He walked out of the room, telling the remaining servants to clean up the mess and make sure the guests were tended to.

Later that afternoon

"Poor Annie…" Pepper said to Rhodey as they walked to the library.

They hadn't seen Annie at all since the incident that morning. Pepper actually missed her. She wasn't like the other servants. Maybe it was because she didn't seem like she wanted to pry into their lives, like the others did. The others, when Sim wasn't in the room, asked them all sorts of questions. Or the one that helped Pepper change the previous night, who tried to get Pepper to share how she received the scars on her arm and leg.

Howard was off trying to find a time to talk to Sim alone, so they weren't interrupted and there was no audience, so Pepper and Rhodey thought they'd go hang out in the library.

"It's not our problem, Pepper." Rhodey replied, knowing Pepper wanted to help Annie.

"I know, but the way he treats her…" Pepper said.

"Is how people always treated their servants, so stop worrying."

There was laughing and giggling coming from the door to what was the library. Pepper raised her eyebrows and opened the door.

"Annie, Annie, Annie!" The young voices sang.

"Come play with us!" A squeaky voice shouted.

"SHH!"

Pepper and Rhodey walked further into the vast library. They stopped when they came to a corner that had children's books and small wooden toys. Around 6 little kids ran in circles around a woman with black hair, she was facing away, but it was easy to tell that it was Annie.

"Annie?" Pepper questioned.

The woman turned around, revealing her blue eyes. Only, she had a black eye and a blooming bruise on her cheek bone. Her eyes were red, as if she was crying, but her face showed no other sign of tears.

"Yes?" She whispered just loud enough for them to hear above the kids.

Before Pepper or Rhodey could say anything, a little girl was pulling on Annie's dress. "ANNIE! Play wif us!"

"YEAH!" The other kids cheered.

"Not right now, I'm not well." Annie repeated.

To prove her point, she started to cough as she had that morning. Though this time she ended up bent over as she coughed. Just as it turned to more of a gagging sound than a cough.

Pepper couldn't lay her finger on it, but Annie sounded off. Wrong. But no matter how hard Pepper tried to fit it together, she couldn't. Pepper didn't waste any more time trying, instead, she rushed over to hold Annie up into a standing position and patted her back.

Only Annie didn't seem to like that. She pushed Pepper away from her and looked away. Pepper stared at her shocked.

"I-I'm sorry." Annie said, her voice raspy and rough. "I just can't…"

She ran out of the room, the kids looking majorly disappointed that she left. Some even started to cry, but the instant they saw that one kid had found a 'new' toy, they seemed very interested in the toy. They circled around it and demanded that they be given a turn with it.

"What was that about?" Rhodey asked coming up next to Pepper.

She shrugged as a new servant walked in an infant in her arms. She hollered at the kids and they were quick to shut up. The kid playing with the toy, dropped the toy making some complain, but soon they all forgot about it when the new servant shouted story time.

Pepper found herself bored and decided she'd go take a nap or something. If she could find her room…

She wondered out of the library, telling Rhodey that she was going back to her room, he nodded and ventured off into the library, away from the kids. Pepper looked at the walls and doors as she passed them, trying to find something familiar. She saw family portraits of random people and animals. She found vases filled with what appeared to be rare flowers. She found statues of famous people like presidents and public figures.

Soon enough she found it to her room. Even though it was probably going to be dinner soon, she still laid down on the bed she was given to sleep in. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Lousy ending, I know...but hopefully the next chapter will have a better ending... ^/^ Even though I'm thinking about rewriting the next chapter... Make it a little longer.

I found out yesterday that i was going to be out of Town the whole weekend at my cousins, and we were going to go to a waterpark, but it was going to be only my brother and my cousin and some of his friends, so i would have been the only girl and they would have ran off without me... Luckily, my mom said i didn't have to go, so FREE WEEKEND!

I'm not lying when i say this, there is a rat/bat/bird or whatever inside my closet, maybe more. And whatever it is, it keeps scratching the wall at night and running into the wall. As well as squealing its head off. I think theres multiple and they're fighting... -.- I'm not scared, but it keeps me up a lot, it's frustrating. And the sucky thing is that that part of the closet, doesn't have a door to get in it, since it's more of open space than a closet, so we can't get in their to kill or capture whatever it is... it's been making the LOUDEST noises ever the past week...

Fun Fact: I cannot for the life of me, understand how people can chew their ice cream or popsicles... :S It just gives me shivers just thinking about it...my teeth are really sensitive and i cannot bite down on ice or anything cold and solid...

Well, I hope this chapter was satisfying enough for you. I want to hear your thoughts! So, review! Thanks!