Chapter 12

He had always hated seeing her cry, and the thought that she was crying because of him again was nearly killing him now. She had just blamed him for destroying everything, and of course, he knew she was right. Pepper had worked so hard to build a semblance of life here, and in less than 48 hours he had managed to ruin it completely... He had just asked her for the second time in their lives to quit her job, leave her friends, her home and her family… He just couldn't bear the fact that he was putting her through this hell again!

Then he felt something that he hadn't thought possible... Pepper's hands left his chest and slowly moved to the back of his neck. His heart started to pound inside his chest so fast and strong that he was quite sure she could feel it too. Her hands were now clasped around his neck tightly, pulling him closer to her. She was hugging him so hard that it was almost painful, but he didn't care and helped by pulling her even closer to him.

"Oh Tony..." She said shakily behind her tears "Why did you do that? Why did you just throw me away?" She was talking with her mouth still pressed into his t-shirt; her voice was hardly audible, further smothered by her quiet sobbing "Why did you destroy everything we had between us and everything we could have had?" Her words were slowly penetrating his brain. "It's so unfair... It was not supposed to be like that... It should have been you and me and Dane!" She finally let out a long shaky sob, burying her head even deeper in his chest as if trying to feel his body all around her.

He realized then that she was not talking about him destroying her new life, but she was talking about him destroying her life with him! The one she had been sharing with him, the one where she had gotten pregnant with his child, and the one where they should have been a family together... the one he had taken away from her 5 years ago.

"Oh Pepper... I'm... I'm..." the words got stuck in his throat as his tears fell quickly down his cheeks. "I'm so damned sorry!" He finally said.

He knew that he screwed up a lot of things in his life but forcing her to leave him was by far the worst, and at this exact moment he was quite aware of just how badly he had screwed up. As his tears continued to fall, he leaned his head down and kissed tenderly her on the top of her head "I love you! I love you so much… I don't want to lose you again… Please… I'll do everything… anything…" He begged her.

She could hear as well as feel all the sincerity and emotion in his voice as he continued to cry; he was miserable… probably every bit as much as her. But her mind continued to be a whirlwind of emotions as she tried to understand how she truly felt at this moment. Of course she loved him, yes, that much she was sure of. But, she couldn't forgive him just yet, and she certainly didn't even know if she would be able to trust him again by letting him know her true feelings about him. And oh god what about Dane! Tony's sudden appearance back in her life didn't only involve herself now, but Dane also. Dane was more important than anyone else in her life, and she knew that she would be willing to do anything for him if it meant his safety and security, even if it meant that she would be without Tony for the rest of her life.

The only answer that she was able to give Tony was a small squeeze, showing him that she understood what he was saying but that she simply couldn't verbally respond to him right now. She knew that she couldn't tell him that everything would be OK, that he would never lose her again, because she didn't know really where she stood at that moment in her life. Her mind and her heart were simply lost in the fog that was her emotions right now: love, anger, fear, betrayal all mixing together.

Suddenly they were completely overwhelmed by each other closeness. Five years of withdrawal had been utterly too long but not long enough to completely wean them from each other. Pepper felt Tony's left hand slowly sliding to the small of her back pulling her closer and sending shivers through her body. She knew that she had to stop him right now and leave his embrace, but she somehow couldn't make herself let go of him, her body being too enveloped by him; his breath next to her ear, his fingers on her back, and his scent all around her. Unable to control her own body, she began running the fingers of her left hand through the hair on the nape of his neck. She felt him shiver in response to her touch.

His right hand slowly moved up her back, passing under her hair to slowly reach the nape of her neck, tenderly massaging the bare skin there with his skilled fingers. A quiet moan unconsciously escaped her body at his touch. She had always loved it when he touched her there, and he knew it. God how she had missed his touch! She couldn't help herself as she slid her other hand up into his hair pulling a deep moan from within him. He then gently pulled her head up as he lowered his head to her neck, her chin naturally coming to rest on the top of his head. His hold on her neck tightened as his lips softly brushed the bare skin of her long neck. At the feel of his lips on her neck, she roughly tugged on his hair, and buried her face in his dark curls while doing her best to repress another moan of pleasure at his touch.

She felt his head move lower as he traced her collarbone with his lips. She tensed reflexively when he laid down his first kiss on to her shoulder. As he trailed kisses across her shoulder and back up her neck, she arched her body into his, slowly tilting her head to give his lips full access to her neck. She could feel his goatee brushing her skin, sending more shivers through her entire body. She continued to move her hands in his hair softly tugging, pulling, and massaging his scalp with her fingers, unconsciously urging him on.

She felt his gasp and he suddenly leaned his head up to hers as he brought his left hand up to Pepper's face to cup her right cheek, his thumb tenderly stroking away the few tears that remained. His hot breath on her skin was making her completely crazy now. His mouth moved close to her left ear and he half moaned, half whispered her name….not her given name but 'Pepper' hotly into her ear. When she moaned in response, he took it as her consent to continue and he immediately started to trail kisses along her jaw aiming for her mouth. She could feel his breathing rate increase and become more erratic as he approached her mouth and she could now feel her own breath matching his.

Their movements, even their breathing were stopped suddenly by a small interrogative voice "Mommy?" as the door creaked opened slowly. Pepper pulled away from Tony so fast that she almost shoved him away from her. The door finally opened up all the way revealing Dane, standing in the doorway, clutching his teddy bear tightly, his eyes still full of sleep. It took only a second for Pepper to recover and she left Tony, walking to where Dane was standing. Tony, stood there, looking completely confused, not really aware where he was, what was happening, or even what had just happened to him.

"Hey sweetheart, you're up," Pepper knelt down, taking Dane into her arms and picking him up. She instinctively hugged him close to her, as if already missing Tony embrace.

"Yes," he answered rubbing his eyes sleepily as he leaned out of her embrace "and you're home." He teased smiling at her. She smiled back at him, one hand tenderly stroking his hair. He looked at her closely and asked in a worried voice "Mommy, have you been crying?"

She quickly wiped away the remaining tears from her cheeks "No… It's OK, sweetheart, don't worry these are happy tears."

Dane tilted his head to make sure that she was not lying, his piercing blue eyes locked on hers. Then his attention was caught by the person on his left. "Tony?" he asked as he recognized him.

"Hey buddy, how are you doing?" Tony answered in the most natural way he could give the circumstances.

Dane looked at Tony suspiciously, then turned his gaze once more to his mother, and quickly back to Tony again, but this time Tony could see anger flash in Dane eyes. "Why are you making her cry?" Dane asked in a very protective way which momentarily stunned Tony.

Tony opened his mouth but no words came out.

Pepper quickly brought her hand to Dane's face to cup his cheek gently, forcing him to look at her. "Hey, my sweet baby, it's OK, I'm OK. Tony didn't do anything, don't worry." She tried to convince him.

"I don't like it, Mommy…" he said sadly reaching up to take her hand in his "I don't like it when you cry."

"I know that. And you know that I don't like it when you worry like that either." She told him. And it was true; she didn't like it at all when he would worry about her. He was just too young to worry like that. But, she couldn't blame him because it was entirely her fault. Dane was so smart and mature for his age that Pepper had begun to rely a lot on him during the last past years. And by the time she realized it, it was already too late to stop. Dane had already become empathic and overprotective when it came to her.

"I know…" he answered in defeat, then he turned his gaze to Tony again "What are you doing, here?" he asked him coldly. "The note you left me said that you wouldn't see me again for a long time."

"I…" Tony was now quickly searching what to say exactly, "I came for…"

Then Pepper cut him off "He came to invite us for vacation to his house in Malibu." She finished.

Dane turned his head to look at his mother in disbelief "A vacation?"

Pepper tried to compose herself in order to look more persuasive as she spoke again "Yeah, Tony thought that you would probably love to see his Iron Man suit and his robots…"

Tony jumped into the conversation at this point "Yeah, I thought that you'll love to meet Jarvis, my personal AI. Do you know that he could actually build you a really nice 3D holograph of an Indian 440 flat head engine? And I'm sure that could be really helpful for someone who is restoring that kind of engine." He said cracking a small smile at the last part.

Dane smiled timidly at him when he mentioned the Indian engine "Yeah the holograph would be great, and sure …but… I mean… Mom, you said that…" He started to explain as he turned to his mother again.

Pepper cut him off "What did I just tell you about you worrying?" she asked him, "I talked with Tony and I realized that it was actually a really good idea. You and I haven't been on vacation for over a year and I think we need one." She gave him a small smile to reassure him.

"But Mommy…" he whispered not at all convinced by his mother's speech.

"Come on buddy, I thought that you would like coming to visit me. I mean you were more excited when I talked to you about my workshop, Dummy, U and Jarvis yesterday when we were in your workshop than today. I'm starting to think that maybe this was a bad idea. That you finally don't want to see my workshop, or have me show you how the arc reactor and my Iron Man suit works." Tony said obviously pretending to be offended.

"No, no, it's not that…" Dane answered quickly "I'm really interested in all those things and it would be terrific to see your house but I just don't understand…" he said looking at his mom again, his eyes pleading with hers "I mean… Mommy… Yesterday you didn't know if I'll be able to see Tony again and today you want to go on a vacation to his house in Malibu… Why did you change your mind so quickly? I just don't understand!" he concluded.

Pepper tapped gently his nose as she teased him "What does that mean? That I can't change my mind?" she asked him with a smile.

"No…" he said smiling back at her as she removed her finger from his nose. "Just that I'm confused…"

"Don't be" she said stroking his hair "I told you already, you worry too much, honey."

"And did I mention that I also have a big swimming pool at my house?" Tony asked as he moved slowly towards them. Dane's eyes opened wide as a bright smile started to appear on his face "I see here. Ah yes, Am I being stupid? I should have started with the big swimming pool…" he teased as he reached them "And here I was someone who thought that you are only interested in science."

"But I aminterested in science." Dane answered quickly, almost offended.

"Yeah sure, but now you look like you're really interested in my swimming pool instead…" Tony said smiling as he reached out one hand to tickle him on his side.

Pepper was amazed that Tony knew exactly how to win Dane over. Apparently he had learned a lot about Dane yesterday in Dane's workshop. Pepper smiled at Tony as he quickly looked at her for her approval.

Dane started giggling immediately "No… it's… not true" he tried to say between giggles.

Pepper joined Tony and started tickling Dane on his belly "Mmmhh if I can give my point of view here, I think that I agree with Tony… I think you are almost as interested in the swimming pool as in the robots."

Dane was convulsing, roaring with laughter caught between the hands of his parents, and not able to defend himself. Pepper's gaze drifted between her son and Tony. Tony had a huge smile plastered on his face at the sight of Dane laughing. She knew that the future for them was completely uncertain, but having this moment of true collusion with the three of them gave her a warm feeling through and though. Her feelings were confirmed when Tony suddenly locked his eyes with hers. His chocolate brown eyes were overflowing with love, his smile shifting from an amused one to a sincere one. She slowly smiled back at him. She noticed one of his hands was now moving slowly towards hers. In the second his hand finally reached hers, and their fingers entwined, she realized she now had put a name on this warm feeling of hers… It was… hope…