Appealing to her empathy and/or personal responsibility was not working, and Tony didn't know of a better way to control anyone's behaviour outside of knocking them out and enforcing bedrest S.H.I.E.L.D. style. Maybe he could call in Coulson. "They don't have to, there's no cure for either of those," Tony still pointed out while Pepper reassured herself that she wasn't trying to enable his bad habits. Maybe that one was a little too effective. Tony finally reached for his plate, only to gather a generous nest of frites to transfer over to Pepper's dish before trying one himself, not about to use his mouth then to openly admit he was in any way mollified by her consideration of his reasonable proposal. He wouldn't settle for so little from anyone else in this room.
"Yeah, call him up," he said as he slouched back again with his napkin balled in his hands, taking his chance because of course Hogan would be on Tony's side here, Pepper was outnumbered and she hadn't even meant to bring up the enemy by name. "Ask him if you should be traveling right now." Tony dropped his head back in his hand, studying Pepper across the desk as he developed his proposal. "If you just conference call this one in, you save yourself the travel time, prep for that thing tomorrow and catch up on those consumer research journals piling up in your den."