In some small way, Pepper almost hoped that Tony's Iron Man suit wouldn't be there.
Not that he couldn't build another one in likely less than 24 hours (after all, hadn't he been the one boasting that he'd made the first one in a cave out of scraps) - but that ridiculous creation of his had been the bane of her existance ever since it had gone into its first stages of recreation.
She could bring herself to find it in her heart to agree that the first one was good. After all, it had been because of that suit that Tony had made it out of Afghanistan and back home to her them. But that suit had been made specifically with the intentions of escaping from the men that held him captive...and even in that, he'd nearly managed to get himself killed!
Now, however? That cold, metal contraption was doing just the opposite of keeping him away from the "baddies". Now it was sending him straight into the fray! She could remember watching through her fingers as the national news station rolled footage taken of one of Tony's latest missions. While everyone else could only see a robot as it was flung back several yards by a powerful explosion, the only thing she could see was Tony. Tony's beaten and battered body. She heard a sound as his head crashed against the side of a building and she had been forced to change the channel before she became any more nauseous at the events.
There had been evenings when she'd gone down to Tony's workshop to clean up up a bit, when she'd simply stand there and stare up at his creation. Those unseeing eyes seemed to look back at her...mocking her. At those times she'd cross her arms over her chest and just glare back.
She'd promised Tony she would stay...that she would stand alongside of him. He'd made his case to her and she knew that, despite the fact that it broke her heart, he was doing what he felt was right. She desperately hated standing aside as week after week he disappeared and came back with his armor all mangled and worn, only to then spend every waking moment fixing it before going out again.
But she'd made him a promise. And despite everything, she doubted if she could even leave him if she tried.
"Alright, let's go," she said, reaching down to pick up a set of keys from off of the counter and tossing them across to him.
Well, that was a good sign. If the keys were there...surely the car was too.