After 1: Pepper has scars on her back from the broken glass. Luckily, she shielded her head well enough but the rest of her...jagged red slashes even through the thick skin of her skirt suit. Tony kisses his way down them every time they make love. They ache anyways. She killed Obediah. She killed him. (She took out the trash.) (Anything and everything Tony asks.) And he's the hero.
After 2: Well, so, Natalie Rushman is actually Natasha Romanov, spy for a Secret Spy Agency, (Capital Letters On Purpose.) (She definitely got both kids in the divorce, and they're both her favorite) And Tony is still Tony, but not dying anymore, which he never told her about in the first place. Awesome. Hope the boy scouts like the art; rooftop melodramatics aside she's got a Fortune 500 company to run.
After 3: Pepper is a superhero now. She wore the suit and everything, and besides, she now has, like, fire breathing powers of her own, thanks to Tony getting the whole extremis thing under control. (Maybe he'll even build her her own armor) Nick Fury comes after her the same way he came after Tony all those years ago, but Pepper, unlike Tony, is used to people wanting things opposed to her desires and when he asks her to join his "larger universe," she says no and holds his gaze until his one visible eye looks away and she swears the one behind the patch does too. Nice to still have Phil as a friend though.