"Well then they just haven't been looking in the right places," Pepper snapped back quickly, though not in an angry manner...but almost in a desperate one. Pepper was not the kind of woman that liked to be told her work and efforts would ultimately be for naught. That everything she was working on would prove fruitless. She had a goal set firmly in her mind - and that goal was to get them back home, where they belonged.
At least...where she hoped they still belonged.
She took a deep breath, pulling her rising emotions back under control again and now when she looked up at him, he could see a certain level of helplessness in her eyes. The kind of helplessness that she only ever showed when she needed him. Or rather, needed his support. It was a very rare and uncommon sight in the proud woman - but the past fourty-eight hours had torn something from her and she felt as though the mask she carefully constructed for herself around him had been stripped away, leaving nothing but her last traces of poise and dignity.
"Please, Tony...let me continue to work on this. I know I can figure it all out. I already have several leads that I've been working on and I think that if I just keep on this..." She ran her tongue along her lips, moving a hand up to rub the back of her neck selfconsciously. "Like I said, I just need more time. I can figure all of this out - and then everything will be alright again...somehow."
She frowned at herself. Was she talking about finding a way out of the City...or something else?
A cool, arched brow met his threats to continue to be a nuisance to her if she didn't return to his home.
"I'm sure if Jarvis did have 'that personal touch', you'd probably be back at home right now in some other sort of a compromising position that I'd rather not know anything about. Truthfully, I'm a little surprised you haven't rigged something like that already. You might want to consider that. It'd save you the time of having to go out and find someone."
Cold. Harsh. Pepper.
Turning away, she became fully aware of the state she was in once again. Moving over to her coffee table, she closed one of the books that still sat open with a sigh, refusing to look up at him.
"I will come back. But I am coming back to work...and because I need Jarvis' assistance. That is all."