"Protecting?" Happy seemed amused by this word, almost scoffing. He'd grown so used to Tony as Iron Man being able to protect himself just fine without him, and he was about to say that to Pepper, but paused. And remembered the time before Tony was caught by the terrorists, before the arc reactor was a permanent fixture in his body. Working crowd control and keeping fans at a distance so Tony could do what Tony did best without obstruction. He would've taken a bullet for the man, and probably still would. The memory brought a fond smile to his face. "Yeah..."
He looked at Pepper and placed a firm, but reassuring hand upon her forearm. "Listen, Pepper. I'm not blaming you for what happened to me, so you shouldn't, either. You didn't look after me because you were too busy helping all those people get out of the mall, safely. That was the important goal. Look how many lives you saved. These sorts of things happen. You know that. There's always casualties in a fight. I'm just lucky that it wasn't worse."
He picked up a wing and asked, "Does anybody know how those monsters got inside the mall?"