Unsurprisingly, lunch did not happen.
Pepper was in the middle of the SI Social Committee meeting, listening to its members debate whether they should add Diwali or Hanukkah to the list of events celebrated at headquarters this year, when her phone buzzed. It was Tony. Apologizing quickly to the attendees, she stepped outside to answer.
"Pep, I'm sorry, I need to take a rain check," Tony said.
"Sure. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, Rhodey needs help finding the wreckage of an F-35 that went down this morning. The pilot's fine, but the jet is missing. It shouldn't take long; I'll be back this evening."
"Okay, that's good to know. Do you need anything from me?"
"Can we do dinner when I get back? At the office? I'll bring takeout."
"As long as you pick something with more than two types of vegetables. I've got paperwork for you to review, and a few questions from the board. I'll have it all ready for tonight. Be careful out there, Tony."
"Alright, I'll see you soon."
As soon as Tony was inside the Iron Man suit, he asked JARVIS to create an algorithm to narrow down the search perimeter for the missing jet, using the information Rhodey had given him.
The pilot had ejected shortly after takeoff when he realized the onboard computer was compromised, and the jet had stopped responding. Taking into account the last known speed, trajectory, weather, aircraft weight, and fuel reserves, JARVIS pinpointed a four-square-mile area in Sequoia National Park as the most likely location for the wreckage. Once the calculation was complete, Tony called Rhodey.
"Tony, tell me you've got good news," Rhodey said.
"Almost. I'm sending coordinates to your phone. My ETA is five minutes; I'll start the search when I get there."
"Thanks for dropping everything to help out. It's bad enough we crashed a multimillion-dollar jet; I really don't want to have to announce to the press that we lost it entirely."
"No worries. I wasn't doing much anyway, just trying to get back in Pepper's good graces," Tony muttured.
"And how's that going for you?" Rhodey asked, laced with irony.
"Honestly? Terribly. I may have underestimated the task."
"Of course you have, because you're an idiot. I just wish you'd told me your theory about Pepper being engaged. I'd have told you it was nuts. She's not there yet. Just last week, I had a conversation with her—you'd be surprised what you learn about people when you ask them questions, Tony."
"But it's bound to happen. She's smart enough to be CEO of her own company. Hell, she'd be a better CEO at Stark Industries than me. Sooner or later, some guy is going to see that, and Iron Man won't be enough to scare him off. She'll be having kids and moving to Orange County in no time."
"Wow wow wow, slow down, Tiger. Where's this coming from? The Tony I knew didn't sweat over girls. He had a plan and executed it. You're out of it, Pal."
"You've been too focused on Iron Man these past few months. You need to get out of the basement and socialize. Actually, you should come by the base this week; the guys will be happy to see you," Rhodey continued.
Tony didn't feel like admitting to his friend that the real reason he hadn't been to the barracks since Afghanistan was that seeing the young men and women in uniform brought back the attack. In every details.
He was the only survivor of that SUV; Rhodey had confirmed it. So he had asked Pepper to set up funds for the families that lost their kids that day because of him, but it didn't stop the guilt or the shame when he pictured their faces. So, he deflected his friend's proposition the only way he knew how: with sarcasm.
"Thanks for the pep talk, Platypus. Should I get back out there like you did when you thought your Spanish tutor kissed that alumni at the tailgate?"
"Low blow, Tones…"
"Because I don't think drunk-calling Pepper every time I go out for two months is going to help. What was her name again? Sofia? Sandra? It started with an S."
"Always so funny. Her name was Daniela." Tony could practically hear Rhodey rolling his eyes over the line.
"Right, Daniela. If I remember correctly, it took you six months to ask another girl out."
"Listen, man, I'm serious. I worry about you."
"I know, and I hear you. But I'm good, mostly. Are you coming to that charity thing downtown tomorrow night?"
"Yeah, I've got some politics to do with the Governor."
"Great. I'll play nice with Pepper and hope she lets me attend."
"You do that. And drop the jealousy act; she's too mature for it."
"Well, no promise."
"I've gotta go. I sent two choppers to help you search. No pressure, but I need to report back to my superiors in four hours."
"You owe me, big time," Tony said with a smile.
"Yeah, right. Look who's talking! Bye, Tony."
The search wrapped up well ahead of the four-hour mark, thanks mostly to JARVIS and its AI precision. Even from high above miles of tree-covered landscape, nothing escaped its code.
Once the jet was located, Tony cleared a spot for a chopper to land by cutting down trees and branches, then waited for Rhodey's men to arrive. After they confirmed no heavy lifting was needed from him anymore, he took off and flew straight back to Malibu.
On outings like this, he would normally let JARVIS run performance tests on the Mark IV. But since he tended to get carried away—and could easily end up over Alaska or Florida without noticing—he decided to pass this time. Pepper's patience only stretched so far.
It was 2:47 PM; with a five-minute flight home, that left him about three hours to shower, get ready, and head back to the office. Plenty of time for anyone else, but barely enough for a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.
Most people were on their way out when Tony entered the building and headed straight to Pepper's office, two brown paper bags from Erewhon in hand. She wasn't there, and his own office was empty, so he made himself comfortable, settling into one of her armchairs and pulling out his phone.
Twenty minutes later, he received a text from her: "Sorry, currently held up at Sector 12. I'll be there soon.»
In his newfound saintly mood from earlier today, Tony decided to move to her desk and get started on the documents she'd left for him, sitting in her chair. He didn't realize night had fallen until he began squinting at the fine print on one of the contracts she'd annotated for him. He checked his Jaeger watch and flicked on her desk lamp, casting an orange glow around him. He'd been here for close to an hour, and still no sign of her. This wasn't like Pepper. He was ready to call her phone when the door finally opened and she walked in, looking exhausted.
"Jeez, Potts. Really, how far is Sector 12?"
"I'm... so sorry. I didn't expect this visit to take so long. Wait, did you start on the paperwork all by yourself?"
"It was either that or taking your laptop apart, which, honestly, would've been way more interesting than these contracts. That offer for a custom upgrade still stands, you know," he said, pointing at the Dell laptop sitting at the far end of the desk.
Pepper sighed, pulling out the chair across from him. "Not everything in life needs an upgrade."
"You're my assistant; it looks bad on me. You should be using the be—what was that?"
As she sat down, Tony noticed the slight wince she tried to hide, even in the dim office light. He was an expert at concealing pain himself, especially in public. No one besides Rhodey and Pepper needed to know the flaws of the Iron Man suit—or that, after all, he was just a man in a tin can. So Pepper's bad attempt at hiding her discomfort didn't escape his notice.
"What was what?" she asked, flatly.
She was a terrible liar on top of that.
"Come on, Potts. Don't bullshit me. What happened at Sector 12?"
"That place is a safety hazard. A pipe collapsed on me after a client audit. It would've been worse if the client had still been there when it happened, but luckily, they'd just left. I have… barely a scratch."
"Excuse me? A pipe collapsed? On you? Who's their QA Manager? And Facility Director? We need to fire those idiots in the morning!"
Tony was ready to jump from his chair, well Pepper's chair, and visit Sector 12 immediately. Plans of calling the teams back in, and making them tighten every damn screw of the 100,000-square-foot plant were forming in his head.
"Tony, they were terrified enough about you finding out. They wanted to call paramedics, for God's sake. I had to promise them to see my doctor in the morning."
Pepper was way too calm for someone who had just been in a freak accident. Then again, that was her superpower—balancing out everyone else's emotions.
"Were you planning on not telling me?" Tony asked, his tone accusatory.
"I wasn't going to lie about it. But I'm fine, and it's not worth you getting rid of good employees. Believe me, that accident scared them enough. They'll be extra cautious from now on."
"I'm sorry, let me get this straight. You're allowed to give me shit about hurting myself on missions, avoiding the hospital, and not telling you important things. But you can just skip over the fact that a pipe fell on you and you refused to go to the hospital?"
Tony's Italian heritage kicked in as he gestured wildly, pointing at himself, then at her, while Pepper watched him with the calm of someone who had expected this conversation and found him very predictable.
"You're seriously comparing fighting in Pakistan to going to Sector 12? I barely have a scratch. I might be sore tomorrow, I'll maybe have a few bruises on my ribs, but I'm going to see a doctor and will fill out an accident report, just like I'm supposed to. But really, it's nothing. My suit's intact, unlike yours," she added with a wry smile.
Tony knew that she was not referring to his Tom Ford suit, and the pun did amuse him, but she wasn't getting off that easy. He stood up, looking down at her.
"Well, I'm still gonna need to patch you up."