Pepper knocked softly on the door and heard a distinct "Come in," from a familiar voice. She opened the door quietly to reveal her old friend in a wheelchair, reading the newspaper.
"Pepper?!" He said in disbelief, blinking his eyes to verify he was not dreaming
"Hello James," she said, forcing a smile.
"Oh my god Pepper!" He cried. "I'm so happy to see you," he said sincerely. "I would run to you but…" he trailed off and gestured to his legs. She came closer and he added, "Come here," opening his arms to welcome her in his embrace. They hugged each other for what seemed an eternity. Completely and purely happy. At some point, she left his embrace and sat on the edge of the bed next to him. "Pepper, what you are doing here?" He asked her.
"Visiting you?" she tried.
He gave a faint smile that left his face soon after, and in a more serious tone, he added, "Tony knows you're here?"
"Yes he knows, he was the one to tell me where you were," she explained.
Rhodey sighed in relief, and then he looked at her in the eyes, "I'm so sorry Pepper"
She gazed at him puzzled, "What for? Trying to play the super-hero and almost killing yourself?"
"For not calling you or coming to visit," he explained, conveniently ignoring her previous remark.
"Oh. That…" she whispered.
"Yeah, that," he said, ashamed. "You know I really wanted to! But Tony being Tony... It would have made things worse. You won't believe how many times I tried to get him to listen to reason!" he stated. "We even physically fought more than one time about it."
"I know James, I understand. Don't worry," She reassured him.
"No I should worry! You shouldn't being so understanding, Pepper. What he made you live through was hell and I've been a jerk for trying to stick by his side! But I really thought at some point he would change his mind. I thought I would be able to push him to go back to you… Then the years passed by and I became more and more ashamed of myself!" He sighed. "He was making sure none of us had contact with you and I wanted to play his game to not anger him off and to be able to be on his side and talk to him…"
"But it didn't work obviously…" she said sarcastically. He gazed at his feet, feeling absolutely miserable. Pepper sighed. "Don't torture yourself James, it's really not your fault, it's Tony's. You did what you had to do. I'm really not mad at you," she said while placing her hand on his.
He lifted his head up and look at her in the eyes "You are such an amazing person and I had missed your perpetual kindness, determination and logic like hell these past years."
She smiled at him in response. "How are you feeling?" She asked, concerned about his health.
"Getting better slowly," he said hesitantly, "I lost the usage of my legs for good," he explained. "But thanks to Tony, I'll be probably able to walk soon via the high tech prosthesis he is designing for me."
"I'm so sorry, Rhodey," she said while squeezing his hand gently.
"It's ok Pepper, don't be. I'm an army guy and I knew what I signed up for when I joined."
"But…"
He cut her off by holding her hand. "Don't, Pepper," he pleaded her. "I swear I'll be ok. It will take a little bit of time for me to adjust but I'll eventually be ok, that I can assure you." She smiled softly, not wanting to hurt him more talking about it. "So tell me, what happened? What brought you to Malibu?" He questioned.
"Tony," she sighed.
"He came to you right?" Rhodey asked.
"Yes, he did."
"I knew he would…" He started. "I knew he won't be able to cope with all that happened alone. I'm just sad it took him five years and a big thrashing by a friend for him to do it." He concluded. Pepper nodded sadly. "Did he convince you to come back?" Rhodey asked hesitantly.
"Not really," Pepper said laughing bitterly at her friend's remark.
Rhodey smiled back at her. "So, are you in Malibu only to visit me?" He teased her.
She smiled, "I wish that was the case James." He looked at her, puzzled. "It is a very long story, but to make it short, my son got injured while…" she kept talking but Rhodey wasn't listening anymore, he froze at 'my son' and paled. She saw his change of expression and asked in concern, "James, are you ok? Should I call someone?" She was scared that he was in pain or something.
He looked at her and said blankly, "Your son?" She understood right away what made him react that way. "You have a son Pepper?" He repeated in disbelief.
"Yes I do," she answered.
"Does Tony know?" He asked quickly.
"Yes he does," she replied, looking away.
"What a jerk!" He shouted. "I hope that he regrets what he did now! I can't believe it," He was cursing, then trying to regain his composure as he gazed at her and said warmly, "But I'm happy for you Pep, I'm really happy that you moved on and I hope that the fact that he jumped again in your life like that didn't bring you any trouble with your um…. Husband?" He asked not sure if she was married now.
Pepper smiled at him amused by his deduction, "There is no husband James," He gazed at her in confusion, and maybe a tiny bit of denial. "Tony is the father," she clarified.
Rhodey gasped, "Wait, what?!"
"I discover I was pregnant few weeks after I left Malibu" she explained.
"Oh my god Pepper, I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault James, things just worked out that way, it's nobody's fault. Even if you and Happy or anyone else actually did call or come and find out about him, it wouldn't have changed anything. Tony himself could have come back, but most of all I could have told him too. But it didn't happen, we can't change it so don't blame yourself, it's not on you at all."
"Oh Pepper…" Rhodey's voice was filled with anguish for his friend, for both of them actually. He didn't want to think what Tony had felt when he realized he had a son and moreover, with Pepper.
She tried to regain her composure and added, "Anyway, to make a long story short, SHIELD knew about it all along and never said anything to Tony."
"What, what, what…?! They knew?! You mean like Fury knew?" Pepper nodded, "But why would they hide it? I don't understand."
"Apparently, Dane has some stuff in his gene caused by Tony's arc reactor that makes him seemingly immune to some alien stuff," she tried to explain in her own words what Tony had told her, "and they wanted to use Dane in the case of an eventual alien invasion or something like that!"
"I can't believe it," Rhodey whispered shaking his head, "that's so insane!"
She sighed in agreement "Yeah."
"Is that the reason your son is in the SHIELD hospital right now?"
"No, yes, I mean not really. Tony wanted us to go to the mansion while he is trying to figure out the real intention of the SHIELD and Dane fell in the stairs last night. He broke his arms and hurt his head," Rhodey grimaced at Pepper's words. "But he is doing fine now."
At that moment, a knock on the door made them both turn toward at the entrance. Tony entered the room. It was completely silent for the next few seconds. "Bad timing?" Tony asked jokingly.
"No at all, Pepper was just telling me how your son fell in the stairs yesterday," Rhodey said with a reproachful tone, deliberately emphasizing son.
Tony winced at his best friend remark, "Yes, about that, I talked to the doctor, Pepper." Pepper stood up to show her interest for what he had to say "He said that he would prefer to keep Dane in observation for few days, but if we want to have him back home he doesn't see any problem. It only works if we keep a close eye on Dane and follow up with the Doctor regularly."
"What do you think?" She asked Tony.
"I think we could go back to the mansion and you can stay there for few days' time we are sure that Dane recovered." Pepper nodded. "I'll have Jarvis focus on him and we will follow up with the doc for his arms and everything," he finished.
"Yes I think that is a good idea. I'd rather have him home than in this place," she said not paying attention the word she used to describe the mansion.
"Fine, let's do that then," he concluded.
"I'm going back to see how Dane is and get him ready to leave." she said and then turned to Rhodey "It was really nice to see you James," she said while approaching to hug him.
"Yeah, I'm so glad you came to visit Pepper," he said hugging her. "I had missed you so much," he said when letting her go
"Yes! Let's not wait 5 more years before we meet again," she joked.
"Hell no! I need to meet the little… Dane, right?" He said hesitantly as he used the name he's picked up during the conversation.
"Definitely!" She said smiling before adding "He will super happy to meet his Iron Patriot uncle," she said laughing
"I bet" he replied, smiling.
"With Iron Man as a father, the competition will be unfair, Platypus," Tony said in his usual joking tone. Pepper looked at him scornfully at his remarks. "Mmmh too soon for that kind of joke, right?" he asked her rhetorically. Rhodey shook his head hopelessly as his friend thoughtless speech.
"Bye Rhodey," she said warmly, ignoring Tony.
"Bye Pepper, take care."
Pepper passed in front of Tony and said, "I'll be in Dane's room with mum."
"I'll call Happy to arrange the ride back home and I'll join you there."
"Fine," she said while exiting the room.
When the door closed, Tony turned back to his friend to see him staring at him with disapproval in his eyes. "What?" he asked defensively
"What?" Rhodey repeated, imitating Tony's voice, "Are you seriously asking me that?"
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