Who: Tony Stark, Pepper Potts When: Sunday, June 19, 2011 - Father's Day Where: NYC, Avenger's Mansion What: Tony bring Pepper to New York for safekeeping while he figures out his next step
Pepper had been very stubborn about being allowed to walk onto the jet instead of letting Tony wheel her aboard like an invalid.
The stairs nearly killed her, pulling at her chest with a pain that reminded her of dance injuries long forgotten, but she made it, holding her head proudly, though her face had gone white. She slept the entire flight, and when the time came to leave the plane, and then move from the limo into the mansion, Pepper made no complaint when Tony held out the wheelchair for her this time.
The suitcase, she carried on her lap. It wasn't horribly heavy - in her weakened state (and God, how she hated the idea of being weak she could feel the weight of it on her arms after two or three minutes, and had to set it down every eight to ten minutes to rest her arms.
As Tony wheeled her into what was to be her room for however long he intended to leave her there, Pepper examined the brown leather suitcase in growing confusion. A lot of things were becoming clearer to her as the post-surgery haze slowly wore off, one of those things being that this crude, make-shift RT unit Tony had put in her chest was not quite as temporary as she'd first assumed, and that only raised a lot of uncomfortable questions she didn't want to think, let alone ask.
Why bother saving her life in the ocean, if he was going to give her a generator for her heart that was complicated, sub-par (comparatively), and would eventually lead to her death anyway? Pepper knew that Tony was protective of his technology; especially since he'd seen what ills had been done with it in his name. She hated to begrudge him the right to choose when and where to bestow the fruits of his genius, but it was beginning to frustrate - no, not frustrate. That wasn't true. It hurt that after all they had been through that her life meant so little to him, that although he'd save her from drowning and bleeding to death, he'd rather consign her to a few more... she didn't know how much time he'd bought her, just that it wasn't enough - rather than compromise the technology that could save her life.
Even as she thought it, deep lances of guilt stabbed into her gut. Pepper trusted Tony, she'd often said it, with her life. There had to be a reason for his actions, even if he was being furtive to her about them. He would never do anything to risk her life; he'd proven it more times than she could count. So the question was: why had he given her the Honda, when he could have given her the Audi? And if he had a reason, which she was sure he did, why wouldn't he tell her?
Pepper had thought that they were starting to get back to normal again, talking and bantering as usual. Now she realized that things were not better, and she still had no idea why Tony no longer trusted her. She refused to feel sorry for herself... but her heart ached with emotions she refused to put names to, despite the nagging sensation that she'd just let something pass her by that she'd always regret losing.
"Do you know when you'll be back?" Pepper asked Tony hesitantly, not looking up from her contemplation of the suitcase holding the source of her life.