“You didn’t move on,” he says accusingly from the end of her bed.
Pepper can’t feel Morgan’s fingers clutching her own anymore, or hear her grandchildren playing with the bots in the next room. There’s just the man at the end of the bed and the way the skin around his eyes crinkles as he smiles.
“Did I just die?” she asks.
“Yeah,” he says.
She stares at him. He looks as if he’d just stepped off a plane from Afghanistan. He even has the sling and those cuts on his face. She’d never forgotten, but it’s so different seeing how beautiful he is in person again.
“Fuck,” says Pepper, and gets out of bed. The movement doesn’t make her back or her hips hurt and when she looks down her hands are young and smooth and she’s wearing a very familiar blue dress.
“Hey,” says Tony, so softly. “Hi. Hello. Hey.”
Pepper flings herself at him. She’s been alone longer than she knew him and the weight of all those years has been horrific. Her life hasn’t been empty without him, far from it, but when his arms wrap around her something settles calmly inside her chest. It’s like remembering how to breathe, like she’s been moving air in and out of her lungs wrong for all that time and Tony has suddenly reminded her how to do it properly again. Of course, Pepper isn’t entirely sure she still has lungs, but the feeling remains.
“I missed you. I love you,” she says, because those are the two most important things.
“Me too,” he says. “God, me too.”
He pulls away from her just enough so they can see each other’s faces. He looks different now, like he did on their wedding day. When he kisses her, he tastes like he did on their wedding day too.
That’s when Morgan wakes up. She’d fallen asleep at Pepper’s bedside, still holding her hand.
“Mom? Mom, no,” she says, and tears spill down her cheeks.
“She’s beautiful,” breathes Tony. “I’ve been watching but...”
“She is,” says Pepper as Morgan calls for help. “And she’s going to be just fine.”
“Do you want to stay for a while?” asks Tony, linking his hand with hers.
Pepper watches Morgan bend over to whisper in her ear. Her voice is thick with sobs but she manages to get the words out clearly, “I love you Mom, give my love to Daddy when you see him.”
“No, we should go.” Pepper pauses. “Where are we going?”
Tony grins. “There are some people I really want you to meet,” he says.