runs_the_show (runs_the_show) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-07-26 23:38:00 |
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If this whole ordeal had been a difficult transition for Justine, it was ten times worse for Pepper. Felicia had been vastly different, far more open, and it was frustrating to only be able to communicate with Justine while the brunette was sleeping. She hated it and it only made her miss the other redhead all the more. That, of course, only added to the guilt she felt in her role in the accident. Sure, she’d only been trying to help but given the result...Pepper had to just push it into the far recesses of her mind, somewhere along with the time Tony had been held captive for three months. It was just better to focus on the work that needed doing. After her phone call with him, she managed to start going through a few things when alarms blared throughout the building. “What on earth...” but she didn’t get a chance to finish her question because a security guard came through the door a second later. “Ma’am, I need you to come with me. We’re evacuating the building.” He obviously had a military background just from the way he held himself, never mind the kevlar vest he wore or the automatic weapon currently in his hands. “What’s going on?” she asked, but she was already gathering the files she needed. It was clear that she was making the man anxious but if she was going to do her job right, she needed certain things. Her laptop was still syncing with the computer and a quick check on that said it had another two minutes. “Ma’am, you need to come with me now. Mr Stark made it very clear-” “Mr Stark will be here in a few minutes, so I’ll take it up with him,” Pepper replied calmly. “Has everyone else been evacuated?” she asked. After a moment’s hesitation and then another few moments to relay the question, he nodded. “Good. I’ll just be another minute,” she promised after checking the sync on her laptop. She knew Tony wasn’t going to be happy with her but if he wanted her to work, which she was fairly certain he did, then he was going to have to deal with it. If Loki escaped, which really was the only thing that would warrant this kind of evacuation, she wasn’t certain that he’d stick around Stark Tower to get captured again. As long as the building wasn’t falling down, she could take a few minutes. When Tony's customized Loki alarm went off on his phone, Silver got in the car and got over to Passages so fast that even Tony couldn't complain. It was a five minute turn over before Silver came through the door at a dead run, not bad considering he'd just walked out of it not twenty minutes earlier. Tony ended up in his Tower lab, fortunate since there were three other places he could have been. The Bay lab would have been frustrating, Malibu impossible. Tony had been working on the bracelets that would bring a suit to him rather than he going to it, but there were enough bugs that calling a suit to him in the middle of an occupied building might be seen as a terrorist act, since a missile was the delivery vehicle. He picked up a copy of the Mark V, a suitcased, travel version of the suit, but he had customized it for Silver's measurements instead, something the both of them felt was necessary even if Silver wasn't thrilled. All that meant that Tony was in your plain old silk suit when he walked into Pepper's office, and he pinned his security guy with a look that didn't bode well for his future career. "Pepper, I've got a big green guy with the destructive power that rivals small countries locked in a box under this building. Why are you still here?" Striding across the room and ignoring the laptop, he took her hand in his own and started walking away with it--and her. Pepper looked up as soon as she heard footsteps, unsurprised but pleased all the same to see Tony striding through the office doors. She knew he wasn’t in the mood for a conversation, not with the look he gave the security guard, so she started to gather up her files and her purse just as he reached her. “The building isn’t coming down,” she protested. Still, she only resisted his hand for a second as she grabbed her laptop with a yank hard enough to detach the cables. Her hand never left his despite that and as soon as it was tucked under her arm, Pep adjusted her hand so that the grip was more comfortable. “Honestly, it isn’t like Loki would stick around after escaping. He’d only get captured again.” They were moving fairly quickly down the hallway and she assumed he would insist on the stairs. “Why is Doctor Banner downstairs?” she asked, and even if it was the Hulk, she didn’t quite grasp the concept that they were two separate identities. “Are you sure he’s not hurt? The guard informed me that everyone was evacuated safely. And really, don’t blame him. I needed my laptop to finish syncing so I could do work in Malibu like you said.” They were really going to have to have a serious discussion about the damage done to Stark Tower every time she turned her back. While he could afford to rebuild, it just wasn’t practical. Tony was unyielding, and his grip on her hand was a little tighter than it needed to be, making readjustment difficult. He pulled her not toward the elevator, but toward the stairs. It would be slower, but safer. "I think the word you're missing there is yet," Tony said, as the guard took his cue and hurried off to do a sweep of the rest of the floor. "The building isn't coming down yet. And that would be because that containment cell is holding, at least so far. It wasn't built for Hulk, though. Loki has flair, not pointless damage. I mean I tried to seal it, I used that plastic polymer we've been working on for lightweight adhesive material. It's not exactly stable but it will hold unless Hulk gets a lucky one in on the joints... I think. Hard to be sure." He was talking out loud now, not with his usual striding confidence but just as if he needed to fill the space as they got to the stairs. He opened the fire door and pulled his hand across his body to hurry Pepper through. "I could figure out the laptop thing, give me some credit. If this thing came down I could dig through the wreckage and find your damn laptop, but if your body is in here with it there wouldn't be much point, would there?" When the door slammed shut and they both were lit by the dim green-red of the emergency lights, Tony's expression was uncharacteristically grave. He looked like he had when Rhodey had helped him out of that plane to meet her on the tarmac. "Bruce is fine so far, I think he was in there playing doctor and Loki got to him." Pepper understood his concern. She did. If the situation had been reversed, if she'd had to pull him away from his workshop or lab, she would've been pissed off too. She didn't say anything as he filled in the silence, following him easily into the stairwell. Still, his concern actually made her smile, though she did her best to hide it. Even as she started to descend the stairs, she kept her hand in his and held tightly. It wasn't romantic in the slightest. Her only intention was that it would be reassuring to him that she was here, she was while, and she was safe. Or, as safe as she could be with him and that was pretty damn safe as far as she was concerned. "Well, now you'll know and you can learn from it for next time," she replied calmly, knowing that it was all she could really say on the matter of containment for a god. She glanced at him every so often as they descended the stairs and that look he had really hit home just how much she'd taken the situation for granted. "I'm sorry," she said, giving his hand what she hoped was a reassuring squeeze just moments before her phone went off. Something important, given the ringtone. It took very little time for her to accept the transfer from Dr. Banner's assistant and she relayed, "Dr. Banner says its all clear downstairs according to his assistant," to Tony. She rattled off the address to Stark Tower and then her cell number and tucked the phone back in her pocket. "Since when does Dr. Banner have an assistant?" she asked, mostly to herself, but then she realized he was obviously him then, which meant they were fine. A glance at the placard said they had a dozen more flights to go at least so she stopped and did her best to stop him too, though she's continue if he insisted. "Tony, he's fine. He's back to himself. We can take two minutes," she said, hoping he'd listen. Tony was intently pulling Pepper down a seemingly endless set of stairs that echoed with their steps, ignoring her phone as it went off and the ensuing conversation until somebody mentioned Bruce’s name. He stopped then, finally, a little out of breath. He really needed to get past this scar tissue and get his body back up to par. Iron Man wasn’t just the suit, as he kept trying to tell people. “Assistant?” That’s exactly the kind of thing Loki would pull. Dropping the suitcase heavily on the floor, Tony dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone, tapping on the square of glass until a live video came up. There was Bruce, not Hulk. And he was on his phone. The sight was so ridiculous that Tony didn’t think Loki would think it up, and his grip on Pepper’s hand eased slightly. “...Maybe.” He tapped it again, a few more cameras, and then some biometrics the room took of its contents. Everything seemed to check out. She knew her phone call wouldn’t stop him but mentioning Bruce clearly did the trick and she tried to get her breath back as he dropped the suitcase and pulled out his own phone. Curious, she stepped closer to peek and saw the security feed on the screen. Even though his grip eased up, she didn’t let go of his hand. Patiently, she waited for him to tap through a few different angles, moving only to put her purse and laptop down. “Tony,” she said, voice soft and gentle as she straightened up to face him. She didn’t think he was going to want to talk about the fact that she could’ve been gone for good, but it was all very real to her in that moment. “It won’t happen again,” was all she promised, though whether she was promising not to leave again or to actually get out when the alarms said to go, she wasn’t sure. Both probably. After a final squeeze of her hand, Tony gently disentangled his fingers from hers. He was intent for a while after that, tapping out orders to his evacuated security, ordering them to spread out and see if they could find the escaped prisoner. He told the skeleton staff at work in the building to go home for the week, and then he sat somewhat heavily at the bottom of the stair. “I have no idea where he’s going to go.” He looked up at her, somewhat belatedly, one shining shoe on top of the metal case. “...What won’t happen again?” It was clear that they were focused on other things, but she would’ve been more worried about him if he wasn’t concerned about where Loki had disappeared off to. She smiled and took a seat next to him, angling her body toward him. Of course he’d ask her to clarify. He wasn’t even thinking about the fact that he was wasting time with her when he probably wanted to be out looking for the recently escaped god. “You won’t need to come find me. We both know Loki will get captured again and there’s always a chance he’ll break out again.” He would be needed out there, looking for Loki or fighting him, not looking for her. “If the manacles are still on, he’ll want to get them off. Thor might know where to find him.” “Thor is going to have to.” He pocketed the phone for a final time, but did not get up. He glanced at the case, tapped his toe against it, and still didn’t move. “You never know when I’ll need to come find you,” he admitted, turning as head as if to glance at her but in the end just looking and holding the gaze. He smiled, somewhat nervously. “We should go get to work. I have finding to do, and you... have to organize something. I’m sure.” Pepper knew he would always do what he wanted, regardless of what she said. She could only hope that things wouldn't get screwed up because he was looking for her. Despite her past conversation with Loki, she still didn't think that he'd go after her. There was Thor to keep him busy, which reminded her that she needed to talk to the god about not rushing after her because of Justine. She didn't need the team down to two because they were worried about her. "Just be careful," she said, but that was all she would say about it for now. He was right, they had things to do. "Alright. I'm assuming we can use the elevator now?" she stood up and reached for her things before stopping halfway down the staircase they were on. There was a part of her that wanted to reach for his hand but the moment had passed. "I have some things to catch up on and now that I have my laptop, I can do it all in Malibu." Belatedly, Tony looked up into the ceiling, as if it might show him the hidden innards of the building. “The elevator,” he muttered. “Yes. Of course.” He felt foolish for interrupting her now that the danger was apparently passed, and Tony wasn’t accustomed to feeling foolish. He did a lot of stupid things, but that wasn’t the same thing. He looked away from her a rose awkwardly, bending to retrieve the case instead of taking her hand once more. He opened a catch with a shove of his foot, and it opened as he picked up half the armor in two fists. It covered the fabric he was already wearing, but it pinched in some places even if it didn’t seem like it. This was why he’d upgraded--well, that, and it turned out not to be powerful enough in some ways. He gave her a final look straight in the eyes before the mask clanked into cover. “You be careful yourself.” And he meant it. |