dislcaimer: I do not own anything sadly.

A/N: sorry it took me so long to get this out, I've been writing this for the last few days and finally got things flowing right in the story so here it is

A/N2: as always, I love reviews.

Chapter seventeen

It was a long flight back to Stark Tower from Sokovia and that wasn't including the detour they took to DC so that they could ground the Helicarrier and get a quinjet for Tony, the other Avengers, Norah, the three doctors that had worked on Norah and were now keeping track of her vitals, and Pietro, Wanda and Vision to use to get back to New York with. Everyone was beyond exhausted at the moment and only a few of them had even managed to try and get a bit of sleep after they had gotten the good news that Norah had made it through surgery and was now on the way to recovery, albeit with the aid of being put into a medical induced a coma, but she was on the way to healing up and that was really the only thing that mattered to them. But even after receiving that relieving news it was hard to fall asleep after everything that had happened, they were tired there was no denying that but once everything had cumulated – the fighting, the planning, the energy from fighting and the thrill of finally, finally defeating Ultron once and for all. All of that rolled into them having way too many things going on in their minds, thinking about too many things and making it almost impossible to try and sleep even if it was only for a few short hours.

Tony looked out of the front window of the jet and gave a grimace; Stark Tower was the place where everything went to hell and where he decided to let his eccentric tendencies get away from him and had tried to make Ultron happen. And this was where Pepper was, Pepper his beautiful and incredibly smart girlfriend who was more than likely going to skin him alive once she was mollified about the state of Norah and her injuries. The moment Pepper was certain that Norah was in good hands and that there wasn't going to be any lasting damages to her other than a handful of scars, well, Tony was going to be fair game then and there and Pepper wouldn't hesitate to hunt him down throughout the tower until she found out where he was holed up at. Personally, Tony would let her do whatever damage she wanted to do to him – he deserved it.

"Almost there." Clint said quietly from the pilot seat of the jet as they were flying in the air a bit above the city of New York where thousands upon thousands of people lived and not many of them even had a clue to what had almost happened to them, how close they all had come to being destroyed by Ultron simply because they were humans. "You okay?" Clint asked as he glanced sideways at Tony who was in the co-pilot seat with a discontent look on his face, his shoulder sagged forwards and his arms crossed over his chest.

When Clint had asked that all Tony gave in response was a loud scoff, "Yeah, I'm just fucking peachy." He said snidely to him even though he knew that Clint didn't deserve his frustration and anger that he felt towards himself. "I'm doing damn great Robin Hood. I only created a murder bot, almost got all of us killed along with the rest of the human race, nearly got Norah killed, ended up getting Norah shot by the thing that was supposed to protect us and on top of that, the cherry on top of all of that is that the girl who I consider a daughter somehow managed to find a guy during all of this, a guy that was with Ultron originally, and now the two of them have a…a," he paused for a moment while gesturing with his hands in the airy trying to think of the right word to use in this sort of situation. "A thing," he said lamely. "Going on between the two of them. I don't get how that happened and I don't really like it. So yeah." Tony said angrily as he glared out at the sky. "I'm doing great right now." He vented to Clint who just sat there and listened to his friend complain about everything that has happened in the last week.

Clint felt sympathy for Tony when he heard that; Tony had intended to do something good for the world, he wanted to create something that would protect the people of Earth from the outside forces that they couldn't handle – Aliens being an example – and Ultron had stemmed from that but had ended up being ten times worse than the aliens that had invaded a few years back and now Tony was seeing firsthand what his mistake has done to someone he loved more than his own life. Clint was angry at Tony, there was really no getting around that and the eccentric genius shouldn't have been screwing round with Loki's scepter but he did and he nearly got everyone killed. But even if he was angry at the man it didn't mean that he didn't feel bad for what he was going through right now. There's really no point in him holding onto his anger and frustration with Tony the man was already beating himself up enough over the fact that Norah had been shot and nearly died from those wounds.

"Tony I-" Clint started to say as they came into view of the tower but stopped himself, he knew that there wasn't anything he could say that would help Tony at the moment, if the man wanted to feel angry and hate himself then he would.

So instead of doing a half-assed attempt at reassuring Tony about what happened and telling him that he doesn't have a reason to worry and that everything will turn out fine he stayed quiet and eased the jet into the docking station at the top of the tower, and there waiting for them was Pepper with narrowed eyes along with Doctor Cho and two of her team members from her lab in Seoul. Yep, no doubt that Pepper was pissed.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~_~_~_._~_~_~_~_~_~_

When Pepper had finally gotten a good look at Norah and the damage that was done to her – the doctors were changing her bandages – she couldn't help but let out an audible gasp at the sight that greeted her and cover her mouth in shock. Norah, sweet, playful and stubborn Norah had a plethora of bruises covering her body and had more bandages covering her body than Pepper liked. Zero would be preferable but unrealistic at the present moment. There were bruises covering Norah's chest, some of which were from the impact of the bullets and some of the others on her chest looked as if she had been grabbed by someone or something and thrown hard. There were also a few on her arms and sides from fighting and battling in Sokovia, and there were even a few on her face but nothing nearly as horrific as seeing the bullet wounds in Norah's body. Seeing the gunshot wounds in person made Pepper inhale sharply and have to close her eyes for a few moments so that she could try and calm herself and calm her irrational mind that was immediately thinking that Norah was going to die from those wounds, the fact that some of her wounds were seeping blood was not helping either. Seeing Norah like this was, god, it was horrible and it made it hard for Pepper to try and keep the tears at bay and to keep them from threatening to fall down her face.

The places where the bullets had entered Norah's body made Pepper wonder, really wonder how in the world she was able to survive until they were able to get her onto the Helicarrier and into surgery before she bled out. She was obviously happy over the fact that Norah had survived but it was shocking that she was able to hang on to life long enough to get to the medbay and to the doctors who then proceeded to try and save her life from the wounds she had received.

Pepper thanked whatever gods existed be they the gods that Thor came from, the Hindu gods or even the Christian god, Pepper thanked every single one of them for the fact that Norah was still alive and was only in a medical induced a coma so that she had time to heal from some of her worse wounds and hadn't died on the operating table on the Helicarrier and now was in the Medical Wing of Stark Towers being looked over by Cho, her two team mates from Seoul and the three doctors who had operated on her and saved her life.

"Heart rate is steady." Cho said as she looked at the heart rate monitor that was hooked up to Norah and then looked over at the curly blonde haired girl who was lying unconscious in a rather large sized hospital bed – Stark's are extravagant in all aspects apparently. "Blood pressure is good too."

One of the other doctors in the room, one of the one's who had operated on Norah, peeled away one of the bandages that covered the two bullet wounds in her side and threw the soiled bandage on a cart that was near the bedside. "Her wounds are bleeding a bit more than expected after her surgery, but nothing to worry too much about. It's probably from jostling her around and transferring her from her hospital bed from the Helicarrier to this one." She said clinically as she went to work cleaning the bleeding wound and doing what she could to slow the bleeding down a bit before she rebandaged the wound. "The skin is bruised around the entry wound and tender but not unusual for the injuries she received."

One of Cho's doctor's put a stethoscope to Norah's chest and listened to her breathing for a few moments before she took the ear pieces out and slung it around her neck, "Her breathing isn't too labored right now and once her lung heals up in a week or so it should sound near normal, we just have to be sur that she is getting those antibiotic's to make sure no infection sets in. The moment that happens things will go downhill very fast and possibly without any warning." He said with a heavy Korean accent as he said this to the crowded medical room they were in at the moment.

For a while after that the doctors talked medical jargon about the wounds Norah suffered from and the medical induced a coma she was in at the moment and when they thought she might be able to wake up, for the most part though neither Tony nor Pepper really understood much of what they were talking about but they did understand the general gist of things.

"So," Tony said a bit rudely earning a jab in the ribs from Pepper but he really didn't care if he was being rude or not, he wanted to know what Cho and her team thought and hated waiting. He wasn't exactly known for being the most patient person in the world. "What's the verdict Cho?" he asked with his arms crossed over his chest impatiently.

It wasn't that Tony didn't trust Fury's doctors but, well quite honestly, he didn't trust Fury's doctors that he probably picked up off of the street. Bruce trusted Cho and her prowess as a doctor and so, Tony trusted Cho.

Cho took her latex gloves off and washed her hands at the sink that was in the corner of the room and looked over towards Pepper and Tony, both of whom had anxious expressions on their faces, as if they were expecting to hear some sort of dire news. "Norah is fine considering she got shot with multiple bullets," she told them and then turned and nodded towards the SHIELD doctors that Fury had found. "They did a great job patching her up and managed to get all of the bullets out with little to no problems. The only wound I'm concerned with, as the other doctors have said is the one in her lung. But we're going to be keeping a close eye on that for the next three days to a week to see how it's coming along." She said to them reassuringly.

Tony looked over at Norah for a moment; her body was limp and looking paler than her usual pale skin tone, her hair flung all over the place and looking very weak something he would have never attributed to Norah before in his life. The moment Tony met Norah she's been the sort of woman that was a force to be reckoned with, she didn't give a 'fuck' as she would say of what other people thought of her, she was sarcastic, she liked to joke around and was a very easy going person who wouldn't hesitate to rip a person to pieces if they dared hurt those she cared about. Seeing her like this…..it was painful to say the least.

Shaking his head from those thoughts Tony looked at Cho, "What about the cradle? Can't we use that on her like we did with Clint?" he asked excitedly, hope gleaming in his eyes at the possibility of being able to use it to heal Norah and gave her be good as new in nothing but a few hours rather than having her to endure being in a coma and a long recovery from the bullet wounds she suffered by Ultron's hand.

Cho looked at Tony sympathetically and shook her head at him, "I thought of that as well and as much as I would love to use it on her so that she wouldn't have to suffer or be in too much pain it's simply not possible." She told him with a sad smile on her face as she looked between him and Pepper who had a downcast expression on her face. "I know this is a horrible situation and you only want the best for Norah and want her to heal as soon as possible but you need to understand that she only just got out of surgery a handful of hours ago, she was shot multiple times and all that rolled together puts a bit of stress on the body. What she needs right now it time to adjust and heal." She explained to him calmly.

At that Tony looked at her in anger and frustration, not understanding why they couldn't use it. "Why? What exactly will happen if we put her in the cradle while like this? If it heals her up faster why-" he began to say loudly, more than willing to argue his point until Cho saw things his way.

But before Tony had a chance to finish his sentence he was interrupted by the stony voice of Pepper. "Tony." She commanded quietly, silently telling him to stop arguing with Cho about using the cradle on Norah. "Come with me, now." She said as she grasped him around the arm and pulled him forcefully towards the door that led to hallway of the Medical Wing.

Reluctantly Tony looked away from Cho and Norah who had a handful of doctors hovering over her and cleaning her wounds and instead followed after Pepper like a puppy dog who just got kicked none too nicely; he didn't want to leave Norah and he definitely didn't want to leave until he convinced Cho to do what he wanted but he knew when Pepper said his name that it was time to have that talk of theirs or rather the impending argument here Pepper was going to rip him from limb to limb until he understood how big of a mistake he made. All Tony could really hope for was that Pepper would eventually forgive him for what he did, hell he didn't care if it took a week or even a month for her to forgive him he would wait as long as he had to and get on his knees and beg for forgiveness if that's what it took.

"Pepper," Tony started to say once they had found a hallway that they could talk in that was far enough away that no one in the Medical Wing would be able to hear the two of them arguing. "Look I-"

Before Tony had the chance to utter more than three words Pepper suddenly looked up at him with a harsh look on her face and leveled him with a look that made him snap his mouth shut with an audible click, in that one look Tony could see how absolutely furious, hurt, disappointed and sad at everything Tony did and for what Norah was going through at the moment. "You don't get to speak right now Anthony. After everything that you did and after having the gall to ask Norah to help you and the others on your mission, you definitely do not get to speak at the moment. You will stand there, be quiet and listen to what I have to say. You will listen to me talk, yell and scream at you to my heart's content. "Do you understand me?" she questioned and looked expectantly at Tony who gave a nod of affirmation to what she said.

Taking a deep breath Pepper closed her eyes for a moment and tried to get all of her thoughts in order before she tried to talk to Tony; there were many things she wanted to say to Tony when she had first heard about what happened and none of them were very nice things. She wanted to call Tony an asshole, a damn selfish asshole who only cared for himself and didn't care what the repercussions of his decisions were to the world or the people around him but no matter how much Pepper wanted to say those things and believe those things she knew that they weren't completely true. Tony did all that he did because he cared about the world – because he cared about Pepper and Norah with all that he was.

"What in the hell were you thinking Tony?" Pepper demanded of him as she strode over to stand directly in front of Tony with her hands on her hips in an unimpressed manner and narrowed her eyes. "Ultron? Really?" she questioned but didn't give him time to respond. "You told me that was something that was even out of your reach, you said that it wasn't possible to create because the technology needed didn't exist. That the technology needed to create that…that thing was decades away from even considering being created. You promised me that you would put that on the backburner, you promised that you would get rid of it since it wasn't possible." She said to him furiously, her pace pinched n anger at what Tony did while she was gone on a business trip, something which would have never happened if she had been home at the time. "Not to mention that the idea of Ultron was completely unrealistic and idiotic, you can't protect the world from everything Tony. You can't protect people from aliens or whatever may want to attack us." She yelled at him, her hair flying around her face as she paced back and forth in front of Tony. "You can't protect everyone Tony." she said to him softly; she loved Tony but right at that exact moment she was not all that fond of him.

Cringing at that, Tony opened his mouth to say something to his irate girlfriend. "Pep-"

Pepper made a motion with her hand for Tony to close his mouth which he quickly adhered to, "This project of yours was supposed to protect the people of the world Tony, that's what you told me when you started to develop it. You told me not to worry, that you knew what you were doing and that this would be for the good of the world, it would be something that would protect everyone from Aliens and any other creatures that managed to find their way onto our planet….things that would try and do us harm." She said and did her best to stay calm and collected but it was a fight to do so, she was pissed and was even more so after she saw the damage to Norah. "Look what it did instead Tony, look at the destruction it cause – what you caused!" she yelled at him and clenched her fists at her side, telling herself that it was not worth it to punch Tony and injure herself in the process. "You caused the thing to go crazy, to decide WE aren't worth it, that we need to die in order to make the world a better place. You made him the thing he became, you said he was supposed to help us but all he did was try and kill us and would have destroyed the world if Steve and the others hadn't decided to take action. You caused them to get into a fight that shouldn't have been necessary because you can't seem to control yourself, because you can't seem to stop yourself from messing with things that shouldn't be messed with. You caused your daughter to nearly die Tony."

With a subdued look on his face Tony listened to Pepper talk and listened to every single thing that she had to say to him about what he did; he listened to her retell him what he did, the destruction his creation caused not to just Norah but to the people in Sokovia and Seoul as well. If it weren't for him then the people in Sokovia wouldn't have had to evacuate their homes and everything they knew simply to flee to safety. If it hadn't been for him those people wouldn't have bene in danger from Ultron, but they had been and it was on his shoulders. It was his fault that this had happened and he knew without a doubt that nothing would be able to make up from what he did; he couldn't make it up to his friends, he couldn't make it up to Steve, Thor, Clint, Natasha, Bruce and he wouldn't be able to make it up enough anytime soon to get them all to trust him again because of this. He couldn't make it up to the people of Sokovia, he couldn't make it up to Pepper and he definitely wouldn't be able to make it up to Norah.

"Do you realize how lucky we are that Norah didn't die?" Pepper questioned as she talked with her hands as she stood a bit away from Tony. "Do you realize that if one of those bullets had gone in at a different angle that she could have bleed out in seconds and there would have been nothing anyone could do? If that bullet that had gone through her lung had been on the opposite side of her chest and aimed higher she could have been shot through the heart. She would have died instantly Anthony!" she yelled at him and pushed at him in anger, frustration and heartbreak over what he did and over what happened to Norah.

Trying to control her breathing but failing miserably, Pepper looked up at Tony with watery eyes, tears threatening to spill over and down her cheeks. "She….she could have died Tony. We could have lost Norah." She whispered hoarsely before the tears started to stream down her face, lifting her hand she tried to cover her mouth to hide the sobs that wanted to escape but she was unable to muffle them.

Even though pepper was angry at him Tony stepped forwards and didn't even hesitate to pull Pepper into his arms and comfort her the best he could, immediately Pepper grasped at the front of whatever band shirt he was wearing at the moment and cried into the crook of his neck wetting the shirt he was wearing but Tony didn't care about that, the only thing that mattered was Pepper. Wrapping an arm around Pepper's waist and cradling the back of her head with his other hand Tony pulled Pepper closer to him and whispered soothing words into her ear and kissed her temple lovingly, telling her that he was there with her and that Norah was going to be okay and that everything was over now. He whispered how sorry he was, how much he hated himself and how much he loved her and how much he loved Norah.

"Don't think that just because I'm hugging you right now and crying into your shoulder that you're off the hook," Pepper murmured into the cloth of Tony's shirt, her head still pressed into his shoulder but the crying all but ceased. "Because you're not. You are so far from being off the hook Anthony Stark. I love you but I am beyond furious with you at the moment." She said as she leaned heavily into his chest letting him support of lithe form.

At that statement Tony couldn't help but let loose a small chuckle, "Me?" he asked feigning innocence. "Would I ever do such a thing?"

Pepper poked him in the side, "Yes. Yes you would Tony." She said softly and then gave a sigh as she enjoyed the warmth that Tony was giving off, it's been two long weeks without seeing him or Norah.

For a few moments after that both Pepper and Tony just stayed their embrace, enjoying the feeling of being near one and another once again and being able to gain whatever comfort they could from the other. Both of them were doing their best to not think about the whole Ultron situation, about the fact that Norah was shot multiple times or the fact that Tony had made one of the biggest mistakes of his life when he decided to mess with Loki's scepter.

"I do not mean to interrupt." The familiar voice of Vision said from a few feet away from where Tony and Pepper were embracing. "But I was hoping to be properly introduced."

Looking over Pepper's light ginger colored hair and saw that Vision, Pietro and Wanda were standing in the hallway with them and were looking at him and Pepper with curiosity; giving an annoyed sigh at having been interrupted Tony reluctantly pulled away from Pepper and turned towards where the tri were standing at the moment.

"You're a damn good mood killer Red, did you know that." Tony said sarcastically to the man who cocked his head to the side in confusion when Tony said that. "Pepper," he said as he turned her towards the three. "This is Vision, he's basically what Ultron was supposed to be without the whole wanting to kill off the human race thing," he said quickly before Pepper could get angry and go off on him again. "And these are the Maximoff twins, Pietro and Wanda." He said as he gave Pietro the stink eye, he wasn't fond of whatever sort of thing Norah and the kid had going on.

Pepper stared at the man who was introduced as Vision with wide eyes; he had skin the color of bright red with gold bits and a cape that looked like it was made from liquid gold and sounded exactly like Jarvis but was obviously not Jarvis and the only reason she could think of for that was that Tony did something. The moment both she and Tony got a bit of sleep Pepper was definitely going to be having a very long talk with Tony about what was acceptable to do and mess with and what things, under no circumstances, should be altered simply because Tony felt the urge. Men.

Pepper then turned towards the twins and gave a curious look, "Weren't you two with-" she began to say but Wanda interrupted her.

"Ultron." Wanda finished for Pepper and nodded solemnly, a tight smile on her face at revealing that information. "Yes. My brother and I were with Ultron. We joined for wrong reasons, we did not think, did not know the…." She stopped herself and tried to think of the right word in English that she wanted to use; both herself and Pietro didn't learn how to speak English until they were around fourteen or so years old. "Did not know destruction he would cause. It is our fault; we helped create him and helped hurt people because of him. Our people. Sokovia." She said and closed her eyes in regret and tried to not think about all of the screaming she heard and seeing her people fleeing their homes.

Hearing that Pepper gave the long brown haired girl a sympathetic look, "It wasn't yours or your brother's fault. Ultron manipulated you, simple as that." She told Wanda who couldn't be all that much older than Norah. "You fought against him in the end and that's really all that matters."

Hearing that Wanda looked at Pepper and gave a small smile in appreciation, "Thank you." She told her.

"I tell you same thing but no, you do not listen to what I say but when she say same thing you listen." Pietro said as he looked down at his twin and then rolled his eyes and sighed. "Unbelievable." He said to her and nudged her in the shoulder.

Pepper smiled at the two and thought that it would be a good thing to have them hanging around the tower, especially for Norah. Norah needed to interact with more people who were around her own age and who didn't work for Stark Industries or who didn't just want to get to know her simply because of Tony – not all of the men did that but a good majority did. It wasn't fair to Norah and even though the other Avengers were like family to her and were friends with her, it wasn't the same as making her own friends and having people around her own age who didn't simply know her because of Tony or want to know her because of him and the only friends she stayed in contact with from Xavier's was Piotr, Kitty and Rogue.

"Tony," Pepper said as she pulled Tony away from glaring at Pietro. "I'm going to head back to Norah's room for a while and then head up to bed. Why don't you go and show Pietro, Wanda and Vision where they can stay until we can figure out something more permanent." She told Tony and then gave him a pointed look when she noticed he was about to argue with her. "We still have a lot more talking to do Tony." She said as she pointed at him threateningly and then turned to Wanda and Pietro. "it was nice to meet you both." She told them.

Wanda smiled at the fiery woman, "You as well." She said and then elbowed Pietro in the side when he didn't say anything to the woman.

Pietro grimaced in pain, "Ow." He said as he glared down at his sister and then looked at Pepper. "Yes, very nice to meet you." He said to her with a half-hearted smile.

With that said Pepper turned and walked back towards the Medical Wing and for a minute or so Tony just watched her walk away, he enjoyed it when he got to watch her walk away from him especially when she wore those jean shorts of hers that he liked so much. Shaking his head Tony looked back at Pietro, Wanda and Vision and gave Pietro an unamused look when he saw the smirk that was tugging on the kid's lips. If he had his way Tony would refuse to let Pietro sleep in the tower but he knew Pepper would skin him alive if he did that sadly.

"Come on. Follow me." Tony said as he slowly walked past Vision, Wanda and Pietro and towards the elevators that were just around the corner.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Tony ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

A few hours had passed since Tony and Pepper had argued and talked about what happened and what he had did and now he was standing in the middle of his lab, leaning over a table with broken remains of projects he's tried to create and invent and had bloodied knuckles from hitting them repeatedly in anger. He was so angry and as much as he wished he could direct and blame his anger on someone else the only one that he could direct it towards was himself and the electronics and technology that surrounded him in his lab. His hand's ached from punching and hitting and throwing everything in sight but he didn't really care at that point, he deserved the pain he inflicted on himself, he deserved to bleed, he deserved to have wounds on his hands from when the metal ripped into his skin. He deserved all of it. He deserved it because of what he did, because of what he created and because of what happened to Norah.

Tony was kind of glad that Bruce was MIA, if he was here he would try to convince Tony that he didn't deserve to put himself through this, that it wasn't completely his fault and that inflicting pain onto himself was not the way to go about things. He would do all he could to convince Tony otherwise and eventually, after Tony's stubbornness and anger had dissipated he would give in but not this time….this time he was going to feel every single negative emotion that was going on in his mind at the moment.

He didn't deserve to have Pepper as his girlfriend, he didn't deserve to have her love and care and to have her living with him or standing beside him but she loved him anyways and accepted him. He didn't deserve to have Norah as a daughter or to even call her daughter, she deserved someone better but for some odd reason she chose him as her self-appointed father and loved him even with all of his faults – his many faults that you'd need a whole notebook for.

Life was full of complications, full of wrong decisions and full of hopefulness and hope that the people you cared for were willing to forgive you even if you aren't able to forgive yourself.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Medical Wing: Norah's Room ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It was around one A.M. and Pepper was in a simple sleep shirt and a pair of Tony's sweat pants and was currently sitting beside Norah's bed; she had gone to sleep and had even slept for a few hours but eventually she woke up around midnight or a little but later and no matter how hard she tried she simply wasn't able to fall back asleep so instead Pepper decided to take a trip to Norah's room and sit with her and watch her for a bit to reassure herself that she was alive.

While Pepper had been attempting to braid Norah's hair out of the way – how Norah managed to control her wild hair, Pepper had no idea – the door of the room opened quietly and in stepped Pietro who was wearing some borrowed clothes that were more than a little baggy on him, he tied the t-shirt best he could and tied the strings around his sweat pants as much as he could but they still sagged down a bit. When the silver/blonde haired Sokovian noticed Pepper was there, who gave a half-hearted welcoming smile in greeting, was sitting there in one of the chairs by Norah's bed he paused for a moment before he stepped further into the room and closed the door.

"What are you doing here so late?" Pepper asked him in a motherly tone of voice, something he hasn't heard directed at him in years. "You should be sleeping, you look exhausted." She said sternly as she took in the dark bags underneath his eyes and the overall tired look that he gave off.

Pietro responded to that by giving an amused smile, before she had a chance reprimand him anymore on his tired appearance he sped over to the other chair in the room on the opposite side of the bed to Pepper's chair. "I could not sleep; I…am not used to soft bed. We did not have best of beds when growing up in Sokovia and Hydra did not care about comfort, gave us hard beds and uncomfortable mattress that was hard as a rock." He explained to her.

Looking away from Pepper, Pietro turned his attention to Norah and smiled softly at her sleeping/unconscious face and gently reached forward and caressed the side of her pale colored face with his fingertips and wished that he could gaze into her beautiful dark brown colored eyes but knew it would be at least a week before he was able to do so. This was the first chance that he had gotten to come and see Norah since the doctors had taken her from the quinjet and straight to the Medical Wing; he wanted to rush after them and hear what Cho had to say but knew he shouldn't, knew that Stark and his girlfriend Pepper were basically like her parents and that they needed time alone with Norah and the doctors. That it was only fair. Once night fell and they were all heading to bed Pietro wanted to go straight to Norah's room but Wanda had convinced him otherwise and told him to get some sleep and that he could see her the next morning, technically it was morning now.

"Moj mali bik, ti ćeš biti smrt za mene." Pietro said quietly to Norah as he held her hand that had the heart monitor connected to it.

Pepper watched Pietro and had heard him murmur something in his language to Norah and smiled softly, Tony had told her that Pietro and Norah had something going on but seeing this, seeing Pietro act so tender and soft towards Norah when she was unconscious and wouldn't be able to see or hear it was heartwarming. "Clint and Tony told me about you." Pepper said softly as she looked across at Pietro who hasn't moved his gaze from Norah. "Tony….well Tony didn't have many nice things to say." She said which made Pietro give a small snort and look up at her in amusement while he still held Norah's hand and caressed it. "Tony said that you and Norah had some 'weird ass flirting shit' going on, as he said." She said as she used finger quotation marks.

Pietro grinned, "You know, first time we meet she chased after me even when she saw my speed and grabbed onto my shirt and tackled me to ground." He said at the memory which seemed like it was so long ago but was in fact only about a week ago.

"Norah's never been one to back down from a challenge," Pepper said with a loving look on her face as she finished braiding Norah's nearly unmanageable curly blonde hair. "When someone tells her she can't do something or shouldn't do something it makes her want to do it more. She's stubborn like that."

Even though Pietro doesn't know Norah all that well yet it was obvious to tell that Norah was a stubborn and determined little thing; she didn't back down when he had hit Clint and had run after him when he was heading back to the base, when Wanda had messed with her head Norah didn't hesitate to confront her and yell at her for making her remember that horrible time which made Pietro wish to hunt down the man and kill him with his two hands, and Norah didn't back down when they were faced with Ultron and had saved him, Clint and that small boy. Norah was a force to be reckoned with and from what Pietro could tell she was one hell of a woman.

"She kissed me first time we met." Pietro admitted and glanced towards Pepper to see her amused smile and curious look. "It was after she tackled me, she was trying to tell me that Hydra did not have best interest for me and my sister. I did not believe her and so I ran once again and then she tackled me again. I think she likes to do that." He joked to Pepper. "We were teasing, and she got message through the ear comms and told me she had to help a friend, and then she leaned down and kissed me and left before I could respond. I got her back in South Africa for that." He said. "She is a….how you say, spitfire."

Pepper let a laugh escape at that revelation, "Only Norah." She said as she shook her head at the girl lying in bed.

With that the two lapsed into silence both looking at the girl who meant quite a bit to the both of them and hoped that it would not be too long before she woke up.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Author's Note ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It was hard writing this, Pepper was interesting to write. I don't know if I really got her character right but I tried. So, yeah.

Also, reviews are food for writers. FYI.

Translations:

Moj mali bik , ti ćeš biti smrt za mene : my little bull, you are going to be the death of me