Stark School: Pepper and Open
Pepper had meetings most of the day and thus wasn't able to head over to the Capitol Building to see Xavier speak. She hoped, but given the huge amount of responsiblity Howard had left her with after his death, she didn't have the opportunity to do many of the things she wanted to do. The school came first, with work with the Avengers a close second. Sometimes, saving those who were busy saving the world had to be done at the drop of a hat.
Needless to say, she'd scheduled some quiet office time to sit down and watch the live stream of the event. He was an amazing person, Xavier, and someone to idolize because of his ideals. In some ways, he reminded her of Howard, in others, the two of them were completely different people. But like Howard Stark, it was hard for Pepper not to see the merit in what he was fighting for. Any idiot could see that he was right, in theory anyways, the world was full of idiots.
Eyes glued to the screen, Pepper sat back in her chair, watching and listening, her heart stopping when she saw the spray of blood and it took her a few moments to comprehend what had just happened. The stream halted suddenly and she turned her chair towards the Television and flipped it on, switching the channel to CNN where the frenzied reporter was saying that Charles Xavier had been shot and killed.
Pepper sat there, stunned, memories of finding out that Howard had been killed came flooding back and she couldn't help but sympathize with those Xavier was close to, his students, past students, the faculty, the X-Men... God. She reached for her cell phone wondering if she should place a call to Avenger HQ, but decided it against it. If they needed her, they'd call... for now she had to be a representative of the school. Picking up her desk phone, she dialed the number of the school's PR Rep. "Emily, come to my office immediately."
In her head, she began formulating a press release.