"I'm worried about the refugees." Tony admitted, furrowing his eyebrows. Pepper had said it was almost like they had a giant tower of children, in a way. People who depended on them and needed their help. There were plenty within the tower who contributed and worked hard to make it what it was -- he didn't want to risk them or their efforts by launching himself at SHIELD or their puppetmasters head-on. Otherwise maybe things would be different. "What'll happen to them if things between SI and SHIELD are severed by all of this, or with the WSC takes control too tightly."
He was also aware, of course, that any great Gods of War could be interested in SHIELD because of the people it held, like the Avengers and X-men from other worlds; the gifted and the powerful. Maybe SHIELD had built itself up with too much unique talent for anyone not to want to sink their teeth in and rip off what they could.
"The Avengers aren't going anywhere. We've agreed to stick together, and I'll do what I can to step up monitoring myself. I won't put Stark's name on it and I'll have to keep it away from tower operations, but, I've never let someone waving a finger in my face stop me, so."
It was strange, and somewhat fitting that it was something like this that had brought them together, really together, for the first time. They'd met, they'd drank, and she'd helped him find a way to communicate with his father. But she hadn't really seen him or what he could do until now. Standing in his armour, thinking about people and talking about what needed to be done. This was who he was, beneath the sarcasm and the scotch, beneath everything that was Tony Stark. He was Iron Man.