Anger, aw Peter, and more anger
Pepper busted into Director Hill’s office in the S.H.I.E.L.D building just outside of Washington D.C. She had completely abandoned her normal quiet reserve and respect for authority. Someone had screwed with her for the last time. She had been calling Shield for the past two days, and every call ended with someone hanging up on her. She had, had enough. Her husband had been gone for over three days; before he had left home Tony had told her that he would be back the next morning and that he was doing a favor for S.H.I.E.L.D. Now, four days later, she still hadn’t heard from him, and everyone kept giving her the run around. She needed him home, their baby was due any time with in the next few months.
“You! I need answers! Now!” Pepper said storming into Hill’s office.
“Excuse me, how did you get in here? How did get past security?” Hills said standing up as Pepper marched toward her desk.
“You could have the best security team in the world, which you don’t, and they still probably would not taze or tackle Tony Stark’s pregnant wife. They are smart. They know there would be hell to pay for that. Now sit your ass back down and tell me where the hell my husband is,” Pepper felt a little odd being this aggressive. She was usually straightforward and demanding but in a polite manner. Not like this. She usually maintained her composure, but right now she was feeling rather unhinged. It was probably the pregnancy hormones getting to her. To her surprise Hill sat back down in her chair.
“That is a complicated issue,” Hill said calmly, yet with a slight twinge of nervousness that Pepper had never heard from her before. It was almost as if she was afraid of her.
“Uncomplicate it.”
“We don’t know where Stark is.”
“You are an INTELLIGENCE agency! How do you just LOSE someone in a metal suit?!” Pepper wasn’t going to take this shit.
“We had tracking on him and radio contact with him, and then there was a spike of some sort of unidentified energy, and we lost him.”
This both startled and scared Pepper. She was not going to raise this child without a father. He had promised her he wasn’t going to get himself killed; he assured her he was going to be right there when their daughter was born… their daughter, Tony had decided he wanted it to be a surprise what gender their child was. What if he was dead? He would never know it was a baby girl. Pepper could feel her heart pounding faster in her chest at the thought of him being dead.
“Are you telling me my husband is dead?! Did you get him killed RIGHT before his daughter is going to be born!?” Pepper yelled. She slammed her hands down on Hill’s desk, “Tell me that isn’t true!”
“We do not have an answer to that. We have our best scientists looking into it. There was no body so we are all hoping for the best. Our scientist suspect some form of teleportation,” Hill answered her calmly, “Trust me. We are doing everything we can to find him, and get to the bottom of this.”
Pepper sat down in the chair opposite the desk. She buried her face in her hands; all of the anger and adrenaline that had been fuiling her had left, and she suddenly felt very tired.
“I’m sorry…”
“No you have nothing to be sorry about. You are completely justified. I should have never dragged him into this,” Hill sounded guilty and upset. “You will be the first person we call, if we… When we find something out.”
Pepper looked up slowly.
“Thank you,” Pepper said quietly, “I should go now.”
“Would you like me to send some agents home with you?” Hill asked with obvious concern in her voice.
“No its fine. I’m going to the airport, to fly back to California,” This was a lie. Pepper had another stop to make before going home.
Pepper walked outside, and got into Tony’s Audi R8. She generally prefered sticking something with less power and flare, but she needed to make good time, and she need not to have to stop. She was driving up to the Avengers’ compound which was 4 hours away Tony’s car could easily shave that driving time down. Pepper was going to talk to the Avengers they would probably be much better at finding Tony, then S.H.I.E.L.D. would.
4 hours later…
Pepper pulled into the driveway of the avengers compound. She hadn’t been down this way in a very long time, since Tony had become more of a Avengers consultant, and occasional back up when they really needed it. Steve and Natasha had mostly taken things over. From what Pepper had seen on the news they seemed to have things figured out, and the Avengers seemed to be thriving under the amended Sokovia Accords. Pepper wished that they had been that smart 7 years ago when they wrote the first draft of the accords. The new accords simply stated that the Avengers had to request to operate in other countries and those countries could tell them no, not much unlike the way the military operates, except they weren’t government controlled. It certainly would have saved her a lot of trouble if someone had thought of that much sooner. Although who knows what would have happened between her and Tony if he hadn’t had that horrible experience in Siberia; they might not have gotten back together, and she might not be carrying his child. Pepper felt a kick from the baby, she pulled the careover, and flinched in pain. She took a deep breath waited for the baby to stop kicking and then started driving again.
Pepper pulled up to the compound, parked the car and got out. She stood for a few minutes taking in the familiar building, a few things had been changed but for the most part it was just how she remembered it. The door opened and she was greeted by a familiar face. Peter walked up to her, he was beaming.
“Hey Pepper!” He said giving her a big hug, “Did Mr. Stark come with you?”
Pepper thought it was kind of cute the way he was 22 years old and still referred to Tony as ‘Mr. Stark’.
“No, Tony didn’t come with me,” Pepper decided not to tell Peter that Tony was missing, she needed to talk to Steve first. He would not freak out and bombard her with questions, like Peter would, “Is Steve here?’
“Yeah he’s in his office. Here I’ll show you,” Peter said leading Pepper inside, “When is the baby due?”
“Soon.”
“Cool, I can’t wait. I’ll be like his uncle,” Peter said smiling from ear to ear.
“Her. The baby is a girl.”
“Really? That's great,” Peter said sounding even more thrilled, “I can definitely see Mr. Stark with a daughter.”
Pepper smiled at Peter’s inthusiasm. She hoped they found Tony soon.
“Oh, righty. Here is Steve’s office,” Peter said stopping at a door, “It was nice seeing you!”
Peter turned and sauntered off happily, no doubt thinking about being an “uncle”. Pepper sighed and knocked Steve’s door.
“Come in,” He called from inside. Pepper opened the door and stepped inside. Steve stood up in surprise, when Pepper walked in,
“Hello. You were not who i was expecting to see,” Steve sounded surprised
“Yeah, well i’m here. Deal,” Pepper said, and walked over to his desk.
“Here have a seat,” Steve gestured for her to sit. Pepper sat down. She still felt slightly agitated with Steve, even after seven years.Tony and Steve had forgiven each other a long time ago, but part of Pepper was still pissed. Somebody had to be, “What can i do for you? Where’s Tony? I miss seeing him around here.”
“That's why i am here. I’m surprised S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t contact you.”
“Contact me about what? What happened? Is Tony okay?” Steve sounded alarmed.
“Shield had him run a solo mission for them, and they lost contact him. They don’t know what happened.”
“Oh boy,” Steve leaned back in his chair, “What were they thinking? Tony is retired. Why didn’t get us to do it?”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“You think Shield is hiding something?”
“Yes I do. Not about Tony’s whereabouts, but what they had him doing. I have a feeling it was something they didn’t want your righteous ass to find out about,” Steve looked a little surprised and hurt by her last remark. Oops. Pepper hadn’t meant to let that last bit slip out, these pregnancy hormones were doing bad things to her self control and keeping her snark in check
“He didn’t happen to mention where it was he was going?” Steve asked obviously trying to hide his surprise from her remark.
“If he had I wouldn’t be here.”
“Why are you here?”
“ I figured Shield would be more open with you, than me,” Pepper said frankly, “I want you to look into it for me, and keep me posted.”
“Okay, I’ll see what we can do.”
“Hey, I am not having this child without him there. You and SHIELD had better get this figured out.”
“Okay. We will find him Pepper. I promise,” Steve said submissively. Pregnancy hormones were actually kind of fun. She could get away with more stuff.
“Thank you,” Pepper said standing up, “I want to know everything.”
“Of course,” Steve rose to his feet, “Here I’ll walk you out.”
“No need for that,” Pepper said with a smile, “I’ll see myself out.”
Pepper left the room, she felt a little guilty for not keeping it together better. It had been seven years, she should probably move on… even Tony had moved on. Maybe if Steve figured this whole mess out maybe she would forgive him.