Iron Man: It's A Wonderful Life

Chapter 16

December 24 - 9:00pm

He was shaken, but with a purpose Tony turned and made for the elevator, his pace increasing with each limping step. By the time the lift arrived to deliver him to the penthouse, he was panting like a steam engine and his ribcage vigorously protested the effort, along with an assortment of aches he was only just now beginning to feel.

"Hold the elevator!"

Tony growled his impatience, but slammed his palm between the sliding doors for the blonde woman in two-inch heels running his way. As soon as he recognized her he wished he hadn't been so chivalrous. She entered, the elevator began its ascent, and a few seconds of silence passed before he acknowledged, grudgingly, "Ms. Everhart."

Christine looked, every inch, like the proverbial cat who'd eaten the canary. "Well, if it isn't the elusive Tony Stark." Tony stepped sideways to increase the distance between them as she eyed him with the interest of a shark intent on its prey. "You look like you met the bad end of a truck. What have you been up to?"

"Communing with nature," he told her, and she was lucky she got that much out of him. Tony's run-ins with Christine Everhart in the past had not been pleasant. Mostly, that was his fault. She'd been one of his disposable one-night stands, but even before then, the interview hadn't been going well.

"You do realize you're bleeding?" She reached for, but didn't touch, the place above his temple that was matted with still wet blood, and her eyes traveled over his arms, chest, and legs to torn areas in his suit where more blood was visible. He looked like he'd been in a fight.

"It wasn't a peaceful commune."

Rightfully skeptical, Christine faced front again. "Trouble in paradise?" she asked, wearing a deceptively innocent smirk.

Tony's eyebrows rose incredulously, and he looked at her. "Really. That's where you're going."

"You smell like a distillery, you've obviously been in some kind sort of trouble. Looks like-"

He was spared any more of her armchair deductive reasoning by their arrival at his floor, where he realized to his dissatisfaction that she was still with him. Tony cursed under his breath. "Sorry, no visitors. This is private-"

The doors opened behind him without being given a security code, and Tony whirled around to find himself confronted with an apartment full of people. He recognized many of them: politicians, reporters, generals, many of his employees, board members - he even spotted the Avengers.

"It's visiting hours." Christine sauntered past, but didn't go far, sticking close enough to Tony for money shot.

Christine Everhart was not Tony's concern; he pushed his way deeper through the sea of people, wincing with every jostle. A line appeared to have formed, heading toward the bar, so he went that direction as well, ignoring the ripple of his name that surfed the room like a heartbeat once people began to recognize him.

Tony suspected he was about to be arrested. This only intensified his now all-consuming need to find Pepper. Nothing mattered until he did that.

"Tony?"

Her voice was the north star, and Tony immediately turned to follow it to its source. "Pepper?"

"Tony!" Pepper nudged her way toward him, and the unaccountable relief on her face filled him with such comfort and shame that he was struck dumb. She threw her arms around him, and Tony, though he tried to pull her in tight, whistled a hiss of pain through his teeth. Stepping back, Pepper noticed what she'd overlooked in her eagerness.

"My God, you're bleeding! Is your arm broken? What happened?"

Tony could hear hysteria beginning to creep into her usually unflappable demeanor, and stopped her with a hand to her cheek. "It's not the worst thing I've done." The words had an oddly pacifying effect on her, and she met his eyes, at last allowing some vulnerability from earlier in the night seep in. "I will never be able to say I'm sorry enough," he whispered.

Pepper didn't answer. Not verbally. She touched his hand against her cheek, then wrapped it in her own. "You need to see something. We can talk later, but right now - you won't believe what's happened."

Tony let her pull him toward the bar, looking aside only when she called an order for Happy to call a doctor for him. When the ex-boxer appeared, giving Pepper a two-fingered touch to the side of his forehead in salute, Tony wanted to cry.

"Hold on," he told her, and pulled his hand free. Happy eyed him cautiously, but didn't prevent Tony from putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said, for the second time that night. Tony never said he was sorry.

Happy looked him over critically, and Tony realized he was judging his condition, not his person. "The car?" his driver asked, none too optimistically.

Tony shook his head remorsefully.

Face drooping, Happy sighed. "So long as you're all right." He didn't sound as convincing as he'd meant to. "I'm gonna call that doctor for you. Don't keep Ms. Potts waiting no more, she's been working on this all night."

"I never felt better," Tony told him. And looking at Pepper as she reached for him again, he meant it.

She, however, looked as worried about him as she looked excited. "Come on."

Everyone in the room, Tony suddenly noticed, was focused on them; either openly staring, or trying to pretend they weren't. Pepper brushed past all his queries about why they were here, only saying, "You'll see."

The bar, he saw, now that they'd reached it, was covered entirely with papers. File folders, and printouts. What had once been a stack had spread out into several, and then an indiscriminate mass. Pepper grabbed for one proudly.

"After you left, J.A.R.V.I.S. told me about the news report, what Sunset had done, and once I'd seen it for myself, I called our attorneys.

Shame consumed him, and Tony's eyes closed in regret. He turned his face away, seeking an explanation that might possibly be sufficient, but Pepper forced the file she'd been holding into his hands. Hesitantly, he opened it.

What he held was a stock portfolio, specifically, that of one of his researchers. A signed letter affixed to the left inside front cover stated that all of the woman's shares in Stark Industries had been transferred to one Tony Stark.

Tony stared at it without realizing immediately what he was seeing, then reached for another document among the masses, finding a similar statement from one of his board members. His eyes widened. Unwilling to believe, he dug through the papers, finding that one after another, shares of S.I. stock had been transferred from his employees, members of the board, and even total strangers, into his name.

"I called everyone," Pepper explained as Tony searched faster, making order out of chaos, forming piles, and making calculations in his head. "Almost all of them responded, a few board members are on her side, but all of your employees, and even most of those who've left during the scandal - they were all eager to help. Then word started to spread and - Tony…"

As he watched, still more people came and added their freshly notarized documents to the pile, wishing Tony a Merry Christmas and, to his surprise, one of them was Christine Everhart.

"What?" she shrugged. "You know how I feel about drones."

"How?" Tony asked Pepper. "This is incredibly, but I can't understand why they all would-"

"Support the man who's supported them? Helped them, befriended them, given them jobs, saved their lives? This is the community you've built, Tony. This is not your father's legacy, it's yours."

Community. The word reverberated in his head with the sonorance of an old, portentous, memory. Two years ago, the spirit of his mother had emphasized to him the importance of love in all forms, even for his fellow man. Then, it had not mattered to him who his employees were. He did not treat them poorly, but neither did their names or lives concern him. It had been enough to know that he was doing good in the world, making a difference. Tony saw the bigger picture, and the small didn't matter.

Since then, since the night his life had changed again, Tony had opened his heart to more than just Pepper. He had striven to be a better friend to those closest to him, as well as those around him. His efforts toward making Stark Industries a leader in clean energy, and an innovator in technology that would save lives, had also escalated, and it had not been an effort to do any of it. On the contrary, it had been a pleasure. More fulfilling than he could have imagined.

And this was the unimagined fruits of his labor. Awe-inspiring. Moving. A lump formed in Tony's throat, but even so, he stared at the mound of papers in front of him and shook his head. "Pepper, it… it still won't be enough to take back the majority."

Without a word, Pepper dropped one last stock portfolio in front of him, and without opening it, Tony knew whose it was. The scrupulously well maintained folder contained more than a decade's worth of balance sheets, lists of dividends, annual letters from S.I. awarding her additional shares, and documents showing personal shares she'd either purchased on her own behalf, or that Tony had gifted her with over the years.

It was a modest, but not insignificant, investment.

Which she had signed over to Tony. Which instantly made him majority shareholder again. Neither spoke, for a long, meaningful moment, as Tony tried to come to terms with what he had almost lost that night; what he had almost given up. How many more times would she keep forgiving him, and how many more second chances would he get to not destroy the best part of his life?

"Pep," he started, but she was speaking, too.

"I spoke to our attorney's, Tony. Our accountants, advisors, even the board. They all say it's enough. She lost. The contracts you signed were obtained under duress, which is illegal. She'll be served with a lawsuit. We're going to sue her ass all over New York."

Relief. Why the hell hadn't he thought of that? Probably the alcohol, or maybe the depression. Tony had been living in a haze of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for months, but now he saw everything clearly again, and one thing made more sense than anything else.

"You're a genius." He grabbed Pepper and kissed her, melting against her so that he could pull her lean body against his.

There was the briefest of hesitations before she acquiesced. "We make a good team." Her voice sounded shy, almost uncertain. These were the same words Sunset had used, but this time, they were true, and Tony couldn't help thinking back to what he'd said to Pepper in the lab.

"We do," he agreed. "In fact-" Raising his good arm, Tony lifted his voice. "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen - quiet down for a sec? Thanks." Pepper looked alarmed, but Tony just place his arm around her waist to keep her close.

"First off, I want to thank everyone here for their generosity. I don't know how I can ever repay you for what you've done for me, but I promise that as soon as things are settled, I'll return all your shares. I don't want anyone to suffer financially on my behalf. Second,"

The volume in the room rose, but Tony plowed on through, aware that recording devices had bloomed over the heads of other people. "Second, I want to finally say a word about the allegations made against me." Here, he waited for silence, which wasn't long in the making. "You all know that three years ago, I made the decision to stop weapons production after seeing my creations in the hands of terrorists. It's a decision I stand behind. I don't deny that weapons are a necessary component to war, but it will not be Stark Industries who provides them. And frankly, as we're not currently at war, I have no intention of escalating matters by getting involved.

"We will continue to help the government, and the armed forces, in other ways," Tony's voice rose above the din as the audience reacted to his statement. "But while the army may believe that 'collateral damage' is acceptable, I don't."

He had no idea if his speech was having the desired effect, or not. Tony gave little thought to it, except for the reactions of the woman at his side, who appeared pleased, if mildly worried. He couldn't blame her. There was a lot riding on the influence of his statement, no matter the truth of it.

"Lastly," Tony nudged Pepper into a slightly more prominent position. "I want to announce that beginning January first, the position of C.E.O. will be shared between myself, and Ms. Pepper Potts, who has already been instrumental in the care and management of Stark Industries for more years than I can remember." He felt her twitch in surprise, and tightened his arm around her waist. "This appointment is due entirely to her years of hard work, her intelligence, her fearlessness, her determination - and not at all because she's my future wife, and the mother of my child.

"Assuming she accepts, of course. The proposal, I mean. The baby is a given at this point."

He was drown out as the room went wild, but Tony desperately turned to Pepper for her reaction and found her staring at him in mute shock. "Please say yes," he murmured.

Her mouth worked wordlessly, and then, "We're not supposed to tell anyone yet in case something goes wrong. It's too soon…"

Kissing the corner of her mouth, Tony closed his eyes. People were watching. He didn't care. "Nothing will go wrong. Answer the question."

He was so serious, his eyes so wide and pleading, that Pepper was drawn into focus by them. "You're sure?" she asked, seeking her answers in those same brown eyes. "About… everything?"

Unable to lie, Tony tightened his hands on her waist and pressed his lips to her throat. "I'm terrified," he confessed. "But like you said - we make a good team. I trust that you won't let me fail."

It was enough. It was more than enough, and he saw Pepper's smile spread like the dawn. Her arms wound around his neck, and she kissed him, deeply. A kiss Tony heartily returned, not caring if it hurt his ribs for a second.

"Yes," she murmured, barely pulling away to speak. "I'll marry you, Tony."

Cheers rang out; they had an audience, and Tony grinned against her lips.

"I'm not so sure about the C.E.O. thing, though."

"Just go with it."

"Mr. Stark!"

"-just one question!"

"How long have you and Ms. Potts known about the baby?"

"What happened with Ms. Bain?"

"-wedding date?"

"No questions," Tony said, hands raised defensively. "Not till I've had a chance to talk things over with her, anyway." He canted his head toward Pepper, and there was a wave of laughter amid the disappointment.

"What about Senator Stern's allegations that you're a traitor?" Christine Everhart, of course. Her voice filled the room without the need of amplification as though conviction made of her the spirit of Truth and Justice. "How do you plan to deal with that?"

In the pregnant silence that fell as everyone looked to Tony and waited for his reaction, he suddenly hopped the bar and strode over to Christine. "No questions," he repeated. "Except that one. Who's got a camera? Anyone?" Tony looked around and reporters scrambled for digital recorders; phones; notepads; and the few news crew that had been allowed, pushed forward. "Great.

"What am I going to do about Senator Stern's allegations that I'm a traitor," he repeated, once the cameras were rolling. Tony could see Pepper edging nervously closer in his periphery. "Guy's been talking a good game till now, but we all know that if he had an actual shred of evidence, he'd have had my ass thrown onto the Raft faster than I can finish a Rubik's cube."

Facing the camera, Tony opened his arms at his side. "Senator Stern - if you're so sure I'm as big a threat to this country as you say - come at me, bro. Either man up, or shut up. 'Cause I've got at least five people in the back of this room who I'm betting would guarantee I'm the exact opposite of a traitor."

He pointed, and cameras and eyes alike swung around to home in on the cluster of four men and one woman lurking near the stairs, all of them now trying to appear smaller to escape the attention. Steve was the first to give a short wave and, after a look to Tony, a confident nod to the camera. Recovering from the shock of sudden media bombardment, the others drew themselves up and did their best to look supportive, if awkward.

"Make that six."

Tony knew that voice, and barely noticed the shuffling of the crowd around him as cameras and reporters shifted to make room for Rhodey as he parted from the mob. He stopped eight feet away and looked over Tony from head to foot, his assessment evident in his warm, if critical, brown eyes.

"Before you say anything, I just want to say-"

"I hear congratulations are in order."

Tony couldn't swallow around the lump in his throat, and he was in danger of crying on television. "Well. When you've got superior DNA, it seems a shame to waste it."

Rhodey gave a sniff of laughter, and Tony knew that they were alright. "You're right. The world needs more Pepper."

"Our children will be geniuses, and smokin' hot."

Rhodey wasn't the only one that rolled his eyes.

Serious, realizing, as he asked, exactly how much the answer meant to him, he said, "You got my back?"

Rhodey shook his head. "I've known you since college, man. You may be a lot of things, but you are not a terrorist."

Tony hugged him. It startled Rhodey, caused some applause, but after that, Pepper shooed everyone out the door. This was Rhodey. The man who would risk his career defending a friend who probably didn't deserve it. The memory of that other Rhodey whose reluctance to take chances had led to an unfulfilled life of fear and paranoia made Tony queasy.

Making another attempt at apologizing, he asked, "Are we cool?"

Rhodey rubbed the back of his neck, not looking at him. "I figure this kid of yours is gonna need some kind of positive male role model with you as the father. Gotta keep you and your new playmate out of too much trouble."

"Children love me. I'm going to be the coolest dad any kid's ever had."

"That's what I mean - Pepper's gonna need a break just trying to keep up with you two."

This possibility was not without merit. Although, "Our kid will be half Pepper, too. There could be tiny suits and kitten heels in our future." Tony remembered the little red-headed girl sporting similar footwear, with her parent doppelganger parents, in a park he'd visited with the spirit of his mother two years earlier.

"And neither of those options would be influence by gender," Rhodey snorted.

"We are an open-minded family, and we encourage the exploration of self-expression."

Rhodey shook his head. "Yeah, I believe that."

Thoughtfully, Tony said, "I hope it's a boy. Otherwise there will be a lot of dead teenager suitors buried in our backyard."

"You don't have a backyard, Tone."

"You're right. I'll have to get one. I could adjust to suburbia, right?"

In spite of himself, Rhodey laughed, shaking his head. "Not a chance."

"Talking about the baby's future already?" Pepper's eyes were filled with amusement beneath an elegantly arched eyebrow.

"I promise," Tony put his good hand over his heart. "I'll love him or her whether they go to M.I.T., or not. Harvard is an acceptable back up."

Rhodey gave Pepper a look. "You're sure you want to go through with this?"

Pepper looked Tony over, and despite her acceptance of his proposal, he actually felt nervous. "I wouldn't choose anyone else."

He caught the fingers she gently ran through the hair at his temple, and pressed them to his lips.

"I'll leave you guys to it. Congratulations." The hug he gave Pepper was more gentle than usual, but longer. Clapping a hand on Tony's shoulder, Rhodey said, "Later. For the record, I think you'll be great."

There was nothing Tony needed to hear more. Tilting his head to hide the effect of those words, he nodded.

Once Rhodey was gone, Tony and Pepper were alone, and the silence was deafening. She circled the room, haphazardly picking up debris left by the tornado that had swept through their apartment, while he watched her keep busy.

"Pepper - what I said-"

"I know. You were upset about Sunset." She didn't turn to look at him.

"That doesn't make it alright." He got up. If someone had called a doctor, he was taking his own sweet time. Pepper straightened when she heard his approach, but still didn't turn to meet him. Tony stopped before he was close enough to touch her, not knowing how to find the words.

"Look, I know I fucked up. I've been fucking up for months, and a 'sorry' doesn't begin to cover it. I don't have to tell you what Afghanistan did to me, because you see it more than anyone. We've just never - I can't talk-"

Pepper's head ducked as he stumbled, and she turned around, clutching a pillow to her midsection like a shield. "You don't owe me an explanation. I understand about your PTSD and how it's affected you since all this started. I didn't want to push you, but I hoped you'd eventually talk to me."

"I'm trying now. Tonight was the turning point, when you told me - I was terrified, about turning out like dad… I don't want to put my own kid through that."

"Tony-"

"Just wait, okay? I had another… like two years ago. Only it was my dad, and it was this… epiphany, Pepper. I want to tell you all about it, but the important thing is that I know how incredibly lucky I am to have you, and I know that whatever happens, I don't have to worry about failing, because we're going to do it together."

She was quiet. Tony worried that he'd said the wrong thing, her face that unreadable mask as she put aside the pillow and came to him. "Is that why you made me C.E.O.?"

"Well, yeah. That, and you've practically been doing the job for years, so why not? You're brilliant."

She still didn't react, and just looked at him. But then, she took his good hand and placed it over her stomach. "You're going to be a father." Her tone was not to be argued with. "You're going to be a good one, and you won't fail, because I won't let you."

He needed to be holding her, and was relieved when she came into his arms readily, and even fell into his kiss. "You'll really marry me?" He asked, needing desperately to be certain that she'd meant it.

She smiled. "I wouldn't marry anyone else." J.A.R.V.I.S. announced the doctor's arrival, and cursing his tardiness, Pepper immediately extracted herself to go and greet him.

Tony hung onto her hand. "Can you forgive me for what I said?"

Tilting her head, Pepper regarded him with gravity and a touch of amusement. "I'm sure you'll make it up to me."