AN: Hello guys. Let's start with the usual, many thanks to my Beta MegaDiary123 and let me inform you that this chapter is a bit shorter than usual, and Stark may appear a bit out of character (ooc), but it is intended. It is an interlude chapter and from the next one we go more into Iron Man 2.

Now, I am sorry that I didn't manage to upload yesterday as usual and unfortunately this will not be the only time that something like that happens. I traveled to the UK because I'm gonna start my studies and I am moving in the uni these days. So my schedule is a bit full and I don't know when I'll have time to write or upload. I will try to stick to my normal uploading schedule as much as possible but the days will probably be messed up for a couple of weeks the least, trying to sort everything out. Thank you in advance for being patient with me and a welcome to all the new readers.

All rights go to Marvel


Skye's POV

"Skye are you okay? What the hell happened?" I heard Stark's voice as he entered the room.

"I told you already" followed Pepper's exacerbated tone. "She was in her apartment during the earthquake. I went to get her and as we were heading out the quake peaked up and I fell over, while a tall closet was about to fall on me. Skye went to catch it before it hit me and she hurt her hands in the try as she fell and they got trapped between the floor and the closet" she said the excuse that we made up and had memorised by heart. So much for my excuse of falling being lame. By the way that Pepper was talking I could guess that she had already said the story at least half a dozen times before coming into my apartment with Stark. She pointed to the fallen furniture, which had actually fallen. This was the only true part of the cover that we were trying to sell. "Honestly Tony, what is the point of having a simple closet in an apartment when there is already a room-closet installed?" Pepper now had her hands on her hips.

"We have already talked about this Pepper" Stark said and waved his hand dismissively. "The room-closet is in another room completely, too far. What if she wanted to put some stuff or clothes closer to the living room? Or what if we had an emergency meeting? She would lose precious time by having to go that far to change".

"Yeah, precious few seconds" Pepper murmured, not enough for Tony to hear, but I heard it nonetheless.

At this point I coughed because it seemed like their disagreement would never reach an end and my presence in the room was long forgotten. And though I didn't mind hearing them argue, it was one of the funniest parts of my day after all, my hands were throbbing and my patience was growing thin. The attention went back to my face and I smiled at them both.

"It's okay Stark. Honestly, the hands will heal quite quickly and I'll be good in a couple of days" I tried to reassure.

With my fair share of accidents while using my powers, I had learned the healing period it would take for me to be able to work on computers again. Of course each episode was different from the other and it was a matter of how bad it was and how many vibration I was directing within, but the time window usually varied between one to six day. I had never hit a point when I would need more or equal to a week to recover.

Stark moved closer and sat to another sofa in the living room of my apartment-floor. He rested his elbows on his knees and hid his face with his hands. He seemed… upset.

Then he lifted his head as if hit by a lightning. " How do you even know how many days it would take for them to heal? The doctor said that it would be at least a week" he said while something that sounded like concern leaked into his voice. What is it with Stark today? I thought.

I lifted my hands that were once again wrapped tightly with a new set of bandages. It was deemed that I didn't have to wear gypsum since it didn't look that bad at the exams and I was glad for that. The wraps, I was used to, but if I was forced to wear the hard material it would drive me crazy. "If you haven't noticed already, I am quite clumsy. This ain't the first time that I hurt my arms and it won't be the last. I am used to it really, it's okay" I lifted my shoulders in a doesn't-really-matter kind of way.

"But it's not" he cut my movement half way. "It's not okay" he said almost to himself. His eyes were trained on me, but he wasn't really looking. It was as if his mind was a million miles away.

I saw the change in his demeanour and shot Pepper a glance. She was looking at him with equal worried eyes and when she looked back at me I could tell that she had no idea what was going on. She carefully walked a bit closer, her steps echoing to the now quiet room. As soon as the palm of her hand was placed on his shoulder, he snapped and got up.

A smirk made a way to his face, as he was trying to get the playboy expression back on. I could see, however, that the smile never truly reached his eyes. He turned to me and pointed a finger at my face. "You have to be more careful, kid. I am not paying the doctor's bills if you get hurt on my watch over and over again" he said in a challenging tone.

"Oh, please" I replying, giving in his desire to get a response from me. "I could easily hack into your account and get the money if I wanted to. I am the head of your cyber security, remember?"

He scoffed and waved his hand dismissively. I was beginning to think that this was his new favourite move of the week. But since he couldn't come up with a teasing answer all he could do was walk away. "Feel better kiddo" he was almost off the apartment but he stopped at the door frame. "You said two days, right?", and with that I nodded. "The Expo starts at three days. I will have J.A.R.V.I.S. observe you and inform me immediately if you as much as go near a keyboard. Or a tablet with the desire to work. Because on the third day, you will be working since sunrise to make sure everything is ready to go for the Expo"

"Sir, yes sir" I said laughing at the same time. And since he mentioned J.A.R.V.I.S. I had to say something more. "I will make sure that Jar won't have to inform you about any of my activities" and I watched with pleasure as his expression turned to that of confusion at first and then into disgust.

He saw me and knew that this was something that I had planned. So he adopted his distinctive smirk once more and gave a mocking bow. "Well played Skye, well played indeed" and like that he was out of sight.

Pepper had stayed back, since we had agreed to talk a little bit more about what was going to happen from here on out, but she had more pressing matters to attend to. Matters with 'Tony' written on top. "Go" I simply said and she gave me a grateful smile, forming 'thank you' with her lips but never pronouncing the words.

I leaned back at the sofa, now that the apartment door was once again locked and I was left alone to my, once again, personal space. No computer access for a couple of days, hmm? How hard could it be?