WHO: Tony Stark And Pepper Potts WHEN: After the meeting mentioned here! WHAT: Pepper knows Tony's keeping something from her, and she's had quite enough. WHERE: Stark Industries.
Tony sat at his desk for several minutes after Fury had left, tapping a stacatto rhythym on his desk out of sheer frustration. For one, The news wasn't good. The news was never good! And two...Fury's arrival had completely ruined his concentration on the problem at hand. Pepper had swept the remains of his computer under the metaphorical rug, and now there was no putting it back together.
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and hitting a button on his desk-mounted intercom, all chrome and onyx. "Miss Potts..." he rubbed at the side of his beard, fingers still tapping. "Would you come in here please?"
While General Fury had been in Tony's office, Pepper had occupied herself with returning emails and voicemails that Tony kept putting off. Even though she'd been expecting his page, however, it still caught her off guard.
"Right aways, Mr. Stark," she replied. Closing her laptop, she quickly walked over to his office. She hadn't seen General Fury leave, which surprised her. She'd been trying to keep an eye out, but she supposed he'd managed to leave while she was out of her office.
Entering Tony's office, she hesitated. His tone of voice hadn't been very positive. "Can I help you, Mr. Stark?"
"Pepper..." He looked up from his desk, the creases at the sides of his eyes considerably deeper than usual. "I don't know how, but you somehow managed to tidy away at least fifty small computer parts in less than five minutes. If I wasn't so sure that I was already over-paying you by a ridiculous amount, I might suggest you were wasting your talents here and would be better off as a magician..."
He arched an eyebrow, the barest hint of a teasing smile pulling at his lips. The worry was still heavy behind his eyes, but his dry sense of humor was at least still in tact.
Groaning inside, she tried to smile. "I'm very efficient at what I do, Mr. Stark. Did you really want to have a meeting with the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in such an unkempt room? As your assistant, I couldn't possibly allow that to happen. Not for your sake, but more for mine: I do have an image to uphold." Now she smiled for real.
"Besides, if you had let me know that General Fury was arriving, I would've reminded you before you'd attempted to fix your computer, which would've avoided this whole mess."
Tony laughed shortly, offering a sharp nod and standing from behind his desk. He stretched, the fabric of his striped dark blue shirt pressing against the round reactor embedded in his chest, and arched an eyebrow at his long-suffering assistant.
"Pepper, darling...if I were to tell you every detail of my daily life, you would get bored and leave me. And I can't have that now, can I? A little thing like Fury stopping by keeps you alert, and spry. Just the way I like you." He grinned, loosening his tie before removing it completely. "May I have my computer back? Please?"
"Of course you can," she stated, moving towards his desk. "But I'm not your darling, Mr. Stark. Please remember that in the future." She tried to keep her face passive, but a smile managed to leak through. She enjoyed the easy conversation between the two, which made working for him a whole lot easier than others imagined.
Walking over to his desk, she pulled out a box she'd put in there earlier. She opened it, and showed him. "I believe these are all the pieces I could find. I did try to keep them as intact as possible." And she did. She respected the fact that he knew more than she did in this regard, and tried to honour his knowledge.
Handing the box over, she leaned on the edge of the desk to take some pressure off of her feet. Her heels were killing her, but she refused to take them off. She liked being taller than him.
"And," she continued,"as much as I love surprises, I did have to re-organize your afternoon because of this impromptu meeting. So really, Mr. Stark, if not for my sanity, but that of others, I really do need to be informed of your top secret meetings."
"Oh Pepper, you minx, if I told you about them then they wouldn't be top-secret..." He winked, taking the box and setting it on the desk before him. Pushing the chair out of the way, he leaned forward and unbuttoned his shirt, removing it completely and resuming his work dressed in slacks and a faintly glowing white undershirt.
"So?" he continued, glancing up at her every few moments as he sorted through chips and wires. "if you're going to sit on my desk, Pep, sit on it. I feel like you're teasing me. And pencil in a trip to S.H.I.E.L.D...next week some time, whenever I have a free hour. There's someone I need to meet.'
Rolling her eyes, she continued leaning. "I'm fine how I am, thank you very much. Unlike you, I have a sense of propriety. Honestly Mr. Stark. It's your office, not your workshop. You can't keep your shirt on?" She reached over and began to fold it automatically.
"Next week, I'm afraid, is completely booked solid. What with the meetings with the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy, I can't possibly get around them. Unless, of course, it was an emergency," she trailed off.
Tony remained silent for a moment, taking a small electronic soldering iron from a drawer in his desk and sparking at a small circuit board, frowning at the resulting smoke. He continued in silence for several minutes, oblivious to the world around him until his goal had been achieved.
"All of my secret meetings are done for the day, Miss Potts, so I think I can safely remove my shirt. Of course, if the sight of my bare arms somehow distracts you..." he trailed off, letting the usual cat and mouse game between the two of them hang as he touched he tip of the iron to another point.
"And yes. It is an emergency. Whatever can be canceled, cancel it. No matter what."
"If the sight of your bare arms excited me, I would've quit years ago." Pulling out her Blackberry, she pretended to look at his schedule. In actuality, he had nothing imperative booked; she was just curious as to what the grand emergency was.
Prior to Tony's involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D., Pepper had always had access to all his email accounts and his voicemail: now, he had one that only General Fury used and Pepper was beginning to feel left out. "Does this emergency have a name? I'd like to know exactly who I'm cancelling the Secretary of Defense for." Pausing in his construction...or destruction, as the case may have been, Tony resumed his seat and looked up at Pepper. She really was far too tall...
"You seem very curious, Pepper. Not that I can blame you...well, I know you can keep a secret. And you weren't exactly out of the loop concerning my arctic expedition..." he paused, tapping the handle of the iron against the rim of his reactor, a mid-thought habit he had formed. The expedition, and it's find, had been no secret at all. Tony had been on cloud nine since pulling Captain America out of the ice.
Biting his lower lip, he looked up at her once more. "Are you sure you want to know? You might squeal. And I can't abide squealing..."
She found it amusing that he would say that: after all, he seemed to take great pleasure in making his supermodels squeal.
"Mr. Stark, are you suggesting I would go against my confidentiality contract, and actually divulge important information? I'm actually offended," - she wasn't - "that would you even consider that." Standing up, she towered over him. "Now for goodness sake, let your personal secretary into that world you call your brain, and tell me what is going on."
Tony rolled his eyes as he looked up at her. She did it on purpose, he was sure - the ridiculously teetering heels, the fitted skirts and jackets that he swore added an inch...
"Alright. fine. But only because you referred to my brain as being planet sized." He paused once more, this time for purely dramatic effect, and folded his hands in his lap. The excitement was buzzing beneath his skin, and he was sure that the glow from his chest had increased. Just saying the words alone.... "They thawed out Cap. Captain America. He's awake...Fury came by to brief me on talking to him, getting to know him...Steve Rogers, Pepper! I get to talk to Steve Rogers!"
It was times like these she wanted to record for prosperity and show the world that Tony Stark was not as eloquent as he portrayed himself.
And then she registered what he was saying. "Oh my god. You mean, the thawing worked? He's alive? And conscious?" This time, she really did sit down on the desk. She couldn't believe it.
"You weren't kidding about it being an emergency. And I guess I should be honest: you have Monday free, I just wanted to know what was going on."
"Pepper!" Tony laughed, the open, honest laugh he kept away from the board meetings and the society functions. "You manipulative little...but yes. He's awake, and responsive, and apparently somewhat in shock over waking up several decades away from wax records and Model T Fords. Which, I'm sad to say, is why I wasn't invited to his homecoming. Fury seems to think I'm a little too...scarily modern for our dear Captain."
He shrugged, resuming his tinkering and altering, but with something of a boyish smile on his face. "Monday, then. I'll meet him on Monday. Send me everything we have on him, Pep. Every file, all personnel information...I want to make a good impression.
"Wouldn't it make a better impression, if you didn't go in there knowing everything there is to know about him? I mean, I doubt very much I'd appreciate waking up after decades, and having someone know everything about my life. Heck, just knowing that my life had been documented and studied would bother me. But I'm not a superhero," she quickly added, "and you are. So if you'd like all the information, then I will get right on it, sir."
Pursing his lips just a little, Tony arched an eyebrow and waited for her to finish. Classic Pepper, as per usual. "Yes, I am. And yes, I would like the information. I'm not going to charge in there and spout off every little fact about his past...I would just like the upper hand, I guess you could say. It's no different than knowing the names of a future investor's children. It's simply business."
He tapped the back of another circuit board, smiling his own private smile and glancing at the smooth, chrome calender sitting on the edge of his desk Monday. Not too far away. But no nearly close enough. "That will be all, Miss Potts...ask Jarvis to have the house set to medium warm. I won't be home till late."
Nodding her head, she pushed off the desk. "Of course, Mr. Stark. I'll send the information to you as soon as it's compiled and I'll give your request to Jarvis."
She smiled and walked towards the door. "And Mr. Stark?" She saw him raise his head from his work. "Will you please remember to eat today? I took the liberty of stocking your fridge, both upstairs and in the workshop and I would really like to know that you are taking care of yourself." When I'm not around, she mentally added.
Since he'd become Iron Man, she'd found herself inadvertently stepping away from him. It was as if, with his newfound responsibility, she wanted to give him the opportunity to take care of himself. Unfortunately, it seemed like he hadn't noticed, and she was the only one suffering.