Somehow, her presence was doing enough to soothe him for now, and her gentle touch quieted him as he settled his head against her lap, arm wrapped loosely over her lap, though he curled his hand underneath her. He looked like a child clinging to its mother right now, so sad and pitiful.
The second the cold washcloth touched him, he shivered all the way down his body and his arm clenched tighter around her legs. Hissing, his body clenched briefly before relaxing and reveling in the feel of the cool water relieving his fever some. Tony looked as though he might have fallen asleep as his body felt slack against her, but he'd just closed his eyes and let Pepper take care of him. He was prone to hallucinations and delusions when he had a fever this high, so he was bound to say some weird things in this course of this. Whether they were true or not was a different matter.
"I never tell you...thank you...for the things you do for me. I'm a bad boss...and friend...and..." now he was starting to ramble as he curled as close to her as possible. "I'm sorry for all the bad things I put you through," he moaned as he rolled to lie flat on his back now, sad eyes staring up at her.