She smiled, and he gave himself the points he was due. Of course he hadn't needed to clarify; by now, she knew. The days of partying with drugs had pretty much been over before he'd hired her, mostly because he loved his brain just the way it was too much to screw it up. But it had made her smile, and that was a lot better than Pepper worrying and with that look in her eyes that not only made him feel guilty for worrying her, but really wanting to make it up to her.
And if throwing money at the problem didn't really work, then at least making her laugh usually could. And so could obediently swallowing three of the pills at a time, washing them down with the rest of the bottle of Gatorade and, knowing the routine by now, holding his hand out for the next bottle.
The way she looked him over, in normal times he would have joked that if she liked what she saw, he'd be happy for her to join him. But right now, that wasn't the point. "Just bruises," he told her. "Really, really colorful bruises. Should take a picture and sell it as modern art. Hey, JARVIS?"
"I believe a similar photograph is already within your collection, sir."
"Huh." The things he learned when he talked to JARVIS. "Never mind that, start the bed heating." He had jets, he'd have a warmed bed, for the moment he had Pepper around, he'd be fine.