Chapter 5
It smelt like Pepper's favorite homemade chicken salad.
“Good morning”, she said as Tony walked into the kitchen.
Note from the author: it is exactly what it looks like.
They had a bed reunion too.
She was wearing old clothes that she had left here. He strolled on over her until he was behind her and he brushed her hair away on the side to give her a kiss on the neck. “Morning”, he said, his voice hoarse. He cleared his throat. “Need help with that?”
Her eyes opened wide, alarmed. “Absolutely not.”
“I'm gonna make coffe.”
“Better.”
“We're good here, right?”, Tony said as he poured the coffee in his cup. He leaned against the counter, looking at her cook her food expertly.
She wiped her hands on the napkin. “Yeah. We're good.”
“Like the old days.”
She looked back at him and smiled. “I think I even prefer the new days.”
She held her smoothie glass in the air, “To the new days, Mr. Stark”, she said, to which Tony replied, clinking his own cup of coffee against her glass, “To the new days, Mrs. Stark.”
That made Pepper raise her eyebrows. Not in a shocked way, but definitely in a surprised way. “Oops”, Tony said in a wince. Surprise quickly put aside, Pepper's features turned into a smile. “Is that what the new days will hold?”
“I mean it... could be part of... not right now, but I'm not saying... Not that I've planned anything...” Not that he had bought a ring in 2008, “but, hum, it may have crossed my mind and hum...”
Pepper chuckled open heartedly. “Honey, you're struggling.”
The honey had been so casual, like it just slipped out of habit.
“It's a beautiful day outside, isn't it?”
“Now you're blushing.”
“That coffee is really hot.”
Pepper rolled her eyes, laughed, and shook her head all at the same time. “What, did it burn your lips?”
“Yeah, I'm on fire.”
So she put her lips on his. And they weren't cold, but they did soothe him. “Better?”, she whispered.
Tony spred the tip of his tongue in between his lips. “I think they still need some refreshing.”
It caused an amused eye roll from Pepper again. “Then have a shower.”
Tony giggled.
*
Fixing one wound didn't mean healing altogether.
Flashes of the weekend hit Tony in the shower. His chest hurt, his arm hurt, and all of a sudden he found himself hyperventilating.
It hadn't happened in three years.
“Tony?”, Pepper called from the other room.
She found him on the floor against the shower wall and she rushed to him. His breathing was just quieting. He felt her cold hand on his thigh. “You okay?”, she whispered.
He dropped his head backwards against the cold marble tile and closed his eyes.
You okay? Natasha had asked three days ago.
Always, Tony had lied.
“No”, he said this time.
He felt water fall on his shoulder but it wasn't coming from the shower head.
It was Pepper's tears.
*
She stayed with him through it all. She sat next to him on the wet shower floor all dressed, not caring, and her fingers came to carress the back of his head tenderly. Her hair fell on his shoulder.
Only her, he thought. Only her had seen him that vulnerable. There was Rhodey, there was Harley, but he could allow himself to be completely weak only with Pepper. Well yeah, Rhodey did find him naked in the shower once before but that was completely different – he was completely wasted.
“I don't have anyone but you”, Tony had told Pepper once, back to the time she was only his assistant. Back then she was, he thought she was, his only thing. A few years later and his only thing became his everything. He hadn't realized that these two were the same thing.
She helped him get up. Literally and figuratively. Getting up from a fight is one thing but getting up from a fight of your own... He was lucky he had an ally. Pepper was not a superhero, she was not a soldier, as Rogers would call it, but she fought all his inner battles with him. They almost lost the last one but peace was right around the corner.
If he got up.
He got up. Pepper put her forehead against his. They both closed their eyes. “You're gonna be okay”, she said. “We're gonna be okay.”
*
“Who's that?”, Pepper asked when Tony's phone dinged for the third time.
She looked ready to throw it against the wall. Her man was going to get a rest and she swore on her life that if Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross was calling him one more time, she'd pick it up herself and send him to hell.
He was feeling better. Tired and emotionally drained but he could finally go on with his morning normally.
“It's the kid”, Tony said.
Pepper relaxed. “Is he okay?”
“Yeah, he's just thanking me for trusting him with the mission and the hotel and the ride back, and his homework and -” it dinged one more time, “and the suit.”
Pepper chuckled. “He's a good kid.”
“Yeah.”
It ringed at the door. Tony groaned. “I can't ever get a rest?”
“It's Happy. I asked him to bring me my stuff from the hotel.”
“So early in the morning?”
“It's one. Honey, you're still jet lagged.”
“I'm not jet lagged, someone just kept me up all night.”
Well, she had kept him up a good part of the night. The other part he spent downstairs in the lab working on Rhodey's prototype. “Hey Hap.”
Happy moved Tony to the side to enter with the suitcases.
“Come in please”, Tony said sarcastically, making a gesture towards the entrance at the now already empty doorstep.
“Hey.” Happy stopped, closing the door behind him. He was out of breath. “I brought Pepper's stuff. Can I have a word?”
“Sure.”
Happy looked at Tony straight in the eyes. He looked dead serious. “Did you really tell Guy he's your favorite Hogan?”
Tony burst into laughs. Happy looked offended. “No, I'm serious, I've known you longer, I work for you, I saved your life -”
“I still can't tell.”
“I wasn't aiming at you!”
“Why so serious?”
“We don't take these things lightly in the Hogan family”, Happy snapped. “My grandparents? They used to have a ranking of their best grandchildren! The competition's hard.”
“Hap, you're the best.” Tony put a hand on his shoulder. “You're one of the only people I trust. You're more than a friend, you're family. I love you, buddy.”
“You mean it, right?”
“I mean it.”
“Happy, you wanna stay for lunch?”, Pepper called from the kitchen.
“Happily!”
“Yeah, go ahead. Go,go, I'll take care of that”, Tony said, taking Pepper's suitcases with him in the bedroom.
He came back when his phone dinged for the fifth time.
“Hap, you want a new phone?” Tony grinned as he joined them at the table.
*
“Honey, you forgot the baby”, Rhodey said.
Tony pushed the wheelchair out of the bedroom and rolled his eyes. “Very funny.”
“That's what they all say about me here. Very funny, colonel Rhodes. If I can't ever walk again then I know I'd kill it as a stand up comedian.”
“Luckily you're gonna walk again. Hey, that nurse got a thing for you, doesn't she?”
“I may or may not have a date”, Rhodey said.
“What?”, Tony said.
“How was your date?”, Rhodey said.
“Is it Tara?”, Tony said.
“Did it end up in the pillows?”, Rhodey said.
“I knew it”, Tony said.
“So where are we going now?”
“How about a date but you and me?”
“You're paying, right?”
“I gotta check my bank account.”
Rhodey snorted as Tony pushed him inside the elevator, and pressed the ground floor button. “Yeah, I bet you're short on money after you just bought the hospital a whole new set of equipments.”
“Who said that?”
“Tara.”
“So it's Tara?”
“Shut up and push me out of here.”