December 27, 2012

Stark Tower

Stevie had been pacing for what might have been minutes or hours. The lounge of the Stark Tower medical center was designed to soothe and comfort waiting family and friends - all soft pastels, muted classical music and tasteful flower arrangements. The knowledge that, somewhere behind that door, Pepper was fighting for her life lent the intentionally bland room an air of suppressed menace.

At least Dr. Rao and Tony could do something to help. They'd been in the medical lab with Pepper practically non-stop, trying to purge her of the poison Aldrich Killian had injected her with. Extremis. Another attempt to create supersoldiers. Another failure. The results were as unstable as they were dramatic. Subjects could regrow limbs, survive thirty-story falls - but if they lost control, they would explode. Literally.

Something in Stevie's chest wound tighter and tighter. She hated being helpless. Hated it more than anything. If I don't hear any news soon, I snap and start throwing vases. At least the pacing was good for something - in a sling, strapped to Stevie's chest, Maggie slept, tiny hands curled next to her face.

Stevie paused for a moment, looking at that little face. Maggie had been born two months ago. The first time Stevie had seen that face, red and howling, she'd felt an emotion without a name. She felt it now. It was love and fear. Grief and joy. All equally strong, almost indistinguishable. Maggie had been born with thick, dark hair, like her father, even her eyebrows surprisingly defined. Stevie gently traced one eyebrow. Maggie grunted and squirmed.

"Okay," Stevie murmured. "Okay. I'll stop bugging you." She bounced gently until the baby relaxed and settled back into soft snores.

Dr. Rao came through the double doors and collapsed into a chair. The woman looked as tired as Stevie had ever seen her. She took off her glasses and ground the heels of her hands into her eyes.

"How is she?" Stevie asked.

Rao groaned and flopped her head back, eyes closed.

"Metabolic activity is normal. No sign of nanites."

The tight knot of wire in Stevie's chest released. Normal.

"Her body is reverting to its base genome," the doctor continued, words slurred with weariness. "The challenge now is to keep her immune system from killing her while it does. She'll be on immunosuppressants for a little while. You won't be able to see her until they're done."

"But she'll be okay?"

"She'll be okay."

"Oh, thank God." Stevie sat down next to the doctor. Maggie squirmed again, so she stood back up and paced around the waiting room.

"How is that little one?" Dr. Rao asked, without opening her eyes. "We'll need to run a two-month checkup once I've had a chance to shower."

"She's still living in reverse," Stevie said with a wry smile. "Sleeps all day, parties all night."

"Normal, I understand," Rao said.

Is she? Stevie thought. Maggie was the daughter of the only successful supersoldier, and had been frozen in utero for seventy years. There was some question of whether Stevie's enhancements would even pass on to her daughter, and, if so, how strongly. Dr. Rao and the pediatricians said they'd just have to "see what develops".

The door opened to emit Tony Stark, looking rougher even than Dr. Rao. He had a black eye and a split lip from his final confrontation with Killian and his goons. While Dr. Rao had reversed Pepper's genetic changes, he'd been working to neutralize the nanites in her bloodstream. He probably hadn't slept in 72 hours. Instead of sitting on a chair, Tony collapsed onto the floor and leaned back against the wall.

"Tony," Stevie said. He grunted in reply. She kicked his foot.

"Ow! Stop it." He opened his eyes to glare up at her. "What? Pepper's fine. She's in a clean room. She told me in no uncertain terms to let her sleep."

"We haven't had much time to talk since you got back."

"Oh."

"Oh?" Stevie felt her relief shift into fury. "The day I was supposed to fly to Malibu for Christmas, I learned – from a television news broadcast – that someone blew up your house. I -" Maggie stirred against her, and Stevie realized she'd almost been shouting. She lowered her voice to a hiss. "I thought you were dead!"

Tony rubbed a hand across his face. "Look, I know I did some stupid things."

"Stupid!" Stevie whisper-shouted at him. "You threatened a criminal on television. You dared him to hit you. What did you think would happen?"

"I'm sorry," Tony said. He looked so tired that Stevie felt guilty for pushing him. But she'd been out of her mind with worry for days, and he'd been too busy with Pepper for her at shout at him before. "What else do you want me to say, Rogers? People got hurt because of me. People I care about. I didn't want it to happen. I'm sorry."

When she'd seen the footage on the news, Tony's cliffside mansion burning, Stevie's first thought had been to hop in the jet and go. She'd been halfway out the door when she remembered Maggie. She couldn't go haring off on missions anymore. It wouldn't be responsible. She'd waited and worried - and when they'd come back, Pepper infected with Extremis, she'd waited and worried some more. It had been like that fight with the Melter, only worse.

I'm not letting my friends go to war without me. Never again. Stevie looked down at her sleeping daughter and felt a stab of guilt. Sorry, Mags. I couldn't live with myself if I did.

"You're damn right you're sorry," she said. "I'm not leaving you alone again. The next time you want to poke a bear, I'm going with you. You can't be trusted by yourself."

"Yes sir," Tony snapped a sarcastic salute, before leaning back against the wall and falling asleep.

Pepper's immune system recovered more quickly than Dr. Rao had hoped - she was well enough for Stevie to see her the next day. This time, Maggie was awake, staring around her with wide, curious eyes.

Pepper sat up in bed, looking remarkably healthy.

"How do you feel?" Stevie asked.

"A bit drained," Pepper said. She didn't look it - her skin was radiant. Against the white of the pillows, her red hair glowed like sunrise over snowy hills.

"You look great, for someone in a hospital bed."

Pepper smiled weakly.

"When Extremis started working," she said. "I felt...powerful. But unstable. Like there was a bomb inside me that could go off at any time. It was like...being at the top of a roller coaster, waiting for the drop."

"Sounds terrifying," Stevie said.

"It's not like that for you, is it?"

"No." Stevie thought back to what it was like, that first day, when she'd come out of the pod Howard Stark had made. "At first - Imagine your whole life you've been wearing a lead overcoat. You've had cotton up your nose and blinkers on your eyes. One day someone takes them all off, and you can see and breathe and move for the first time. That's what it felt like."

She looked at her hands, holding her daughter's small, delicate head. The same hands that could rip the door off a car.

"Now, it's part of me," she continued. "I don't have to control it. Like you don't have to worry you'll accidentally punch someone in the face when you try to shake hands."

Pepper chuckled. "There are some people I'd like to punch 'accidentally' while shaking hands." Stevie saw Pepper look at her own hands, resting on the coverlet. Her normally perfect nails were ragged and broken.

"I killed someone," she said softly. "Someone I knew. I should feel...different. Worse. Something."

Stevie suddenly remembered the first men she'd killed. There had been three. She'd smashed one's face into a wall, crushed another's throat with her shield and threw the third of a catwalk. Three men in as many seconds. She shook her head.

"It's different for everyone," she said.

"God," Pepper said. "I was so afraid. Just - when the house blew up, and the suit...and getting kidnapped!" She gestured vaguely, as if trying to pull words out of the air. "It was like Obadiah all over again. Looking down the barrel of a gun and knowing there was nothing I could do. Like...being a rabbit. How do you stand it?"

Maggie started to squawk, and Stevie turned away to pull her shirt up.

"Sorry," she said. Motherhood had made her, suddenly, a great deal less embarrassed about some things. Pepper waved her hand in a "no problem" sort of gesture. Maggie situated, Stevie continued.

"There's something simple about a fight," she said. "There's a right side and a wrong side. Protect the innocent. Punch whoever gets in the way."

"Refreshingly direct," Pepper said.

"The kind of decisions you have to make for the company - where there's no right or wrong answer and you won't even know how it works out for months - those would scare me silly."

Pepper laughed. "Well, management is pretty terrifying."

Maggie pulled off and Stevie deftly pulled her shirt back down.

"That was fast," she said. Maggie grunted in reply. "Whoops, that's my cue. Diaper duty. Sorry."

"Don't be," Pepper said. She gave a jaw-cracking yawn. "I need to get some sleep anyway."

Stevie stopped at the door.

"Pepper," she said. "You can talk to me. Anytime."

The other woman smiled weakly, looking small in her mountain of sheets and pillows. "I know," she said. "Thank you."

Thanks to everyone who's been reading - both returning and new. Thanks for giving me a chance - or for coming back - and spending your valuable free time on my story. Hope you like it!

In this chapter, Stevie reacts to the events of Iron Man 2, and decides that she can't stand by and let others go into danger, despite her new responsibilities. As usual, I welcome your feedback.