Chapter 36

It was almost 2 am in New York and Tony was cradling a glass of his favorite scotch in the penthouse on the last floor of the Avengers tower. Gazing through the window, staring at the light of the city and half lost in his thoughts, he barely heard the noise the elevator made, informing him that someone was accessing the floor. He didn't have time to turn to see who it was, her voice reached his ears first.

"You couldn't even take the time to bring your son back by yourself?!"

He closed his eyes at the tone of her voice. He sighed deeply, stood up, and turned to face the angry red head walking out of the elevator, "Good evening to you too Pepper," he said.

"Dane is not a toy, you can't play with him and give him back like you did!" She yelled.

"And you came all the way to New York in the middle of the night to tell me that? You know this little thing people invented a while ago, called a phone, you could have just use it and called me, and it would have spared you a trip. Or is it that it makes you feel better to shout at me in person?"

"I knew it was a mistake to come!" She exclaimed frustrated before turning back to the elevator.

"Pepper! Wait!" Tony called while walking towards her, "I'm sorry!" He said sincerely. "Look, I'm a bit tense and overwhelmed by the whole situation," he admitted, "I'm trying my best to do what you want me to but it seems to never be enough."

"Throwing Dane in a plane to send him back to me is what you call your best?" She asked disbelievingly.

"First I didn't throw him in a plane, he was with Happy, who, if I recall correctly, is your friend too. Second, I was on screen with him the entire flight and even in the car. We talked until Happy parked the car. Did he not tell you that?"

"No, I didn't ask actually…" Her face softened a bit. "I didn't want to show him how pissed I was at you for not taking care of him until the last minute."

"It's not like that," he said defensively

"So what is it then? You had time to talk with him the full trip, but not to come with him to the house?" She asked.

He stared at her, not saying a word. He stayed silent for a whole minute before he saw her eyes growing wide as she finally figured out the answer by herself. "You didn't want to see me? Is that what it was?" She asked incredulity.

"Why do you look so surprised?" He asked, chuckling bitterly. "Pepper, I do love you, I do want you back in my life. But you made it clear that you didn't want me. After this weekend with Dane, I just figured out that it would be too much for me to see you again and be rejected once again," he paused and looked at her, then added, "I thought that it was the best thing to do, you didn't want me to see me either and I was just trying to make things easier for you," he concluded.

"I can't believe you." Her voice raising again, "You are just unbelievable!" She shouted.

"Pepper, why are you so mad?" He asked genuinely lost.

"You are right Tony, it is a good thing. Let's do things like that from now on. When you want to have Dane, let Happy call and let Happy come to pick him up," she spat.

"Pepper, that's not at all what I meant by doing that and it's not what I want. It's just that…"

She cut him short, "I don't care of what you meant or even what you want Tony! I know what I mean and what I want." She paused and stared at him for a second, He was standing there, transfixed in his spot, speechless. She shook her head from side to side before adding, "Oh, I can't bear to look at you anymore! I'm leaving! Don't come after me, don't call me! Just forget about me!" She said, while calling the elevator. A few beats later, she turned once more to him, "And you are lucky that for the sake of Dane, I'll still let you see him." The door opened and she ran inside it.

"Pepper!" Tony cried, "Wait! Don't go!" He begged, but it was too late, the elevator was already going down. Tony took his head in his hand and shouted to himself, "You are such an idiot Stark! Such a freaking idiot!"

He stayed still for few minutes, weighing the pros and the cons of following her. What should he do? Put on the suit and meet her at the airport before she leaves? He sighed deeply; it seemed that anyway whatever he would do would never be the right thing to do in her point of view. Maybe, she was right; maybe it was better if they stopped to see each other completely. At the thought, he felt sick, his stomach tied in knots and a lump formed in his throat. No! She can't be right, he needed to catch her before she left New York. He ran toward the elevator and pushed the button. It took a few second for it to arrive from the ground floor to the penthouse. When the door opened, he gasped. Pepper was still in it, tears spilling over her face and eyes red.

"Pepper?" he asked softly.

She looked at him, walked to him and kissed him outright. Tony was taken aback at first but then pushed her away slowly, "Pepper, Pepper, wait," She looked at him with a mix of incomprehension and hurt, "I'm making probably a huge mistake by stopping you now, but we can't do that again." She looked at him baffled. He brushed some hair out of her face and smiled gently, "You'll sleep with me to take the edge off and disappear again in the morning without a word. That's s not a solution, you can't do that again and again, we need to talk."

She stayed silent and looked at her feet.

He slid one finger under her chin to make her look at him. Her eyes were red and wet. It killed him to see her like that. "I know I hurt you in the worst way. And there is nothing I can do to change it. The only thing I can do is to try to make things right from now on and be there for you and Dane the way you want me to! Just tell me what you want Pepper and I'll do it." Tears started to flood on Pepper's face again. He brushed the tears away with his finger, "Oh honey, please talk to me, don't stay quiet!" He looked at her with pleading eyes, "There is nothing I won't do to make you happy again."

"I know…" she finally said so softly he barely heard her.

"You know?" He asked.

"Yes I know," she said, louder now. She swallowed hard and continued in a more confident tone, "I keep blaming you for the same thing again and again when you are obviously trying." She paused, looking at him in the eyes. "The truth is I do love you Tony and I always did. During this week end all by myself, I realized how much I missed you and how badly I wanted to be with you," she finally admitted.

He took a deep breath and held it, "But?"

"But I'm scared," she cried, "I'm scared to let down this wall I built up in last five years and I'm scared to be hurt again. I want to trust you! I want to trust you so badly, you won't believe!" She looked into his eyes deeply. He looked at her painfully trying to show her how much he would love for her to trust him again. "You know what?" She said, looking away, "I actually expected you to come this afternoon!" She confessed. "I wanted to talk to you… I wanted to tell you that I missed you, that I needed you… But you didn't show up! And it killed me and made me so angry! And I was so frustrated that I finally called Happy around 8PM to have the SI jet to come to come to pick me."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know," he apologized.

She continued, "The night Dane was with you was worst night since he was born. It was like it was suddenly 5 years ago, when you threw me out of your life!" Tony winced. "I was alone in my mum's house, just crying again and again over the past! And I just realized that what I wanted truly was to be with you both!" Tony smiled slightly. "I'm forcing myself to hate you for what you did to us…" she sighed deeply, "but truth is I don't really know how to hate you," she confessed, "I actually probably never knew how to hate you, that's why I stuck to you for so long…"

He placed a hand on her face, cupping her cheek, and she tilted her head to lean in his touch, "Oh, Pepper, I so don't deserve you!" He said, looking at her in the eyes.

"No you don't…" she said and crushed her lips on his.

This time he didn't stop her, just pressed her against him and kissed her like he had never kissed her before. He drunk in her scent, bending her backwards. She responded with even more fervor, returning the kiss with a bruising intensity. Her hands tightened around bunches of his hair and pulled hard, the sharp sting of it serving as a small release for all the tension that had been hovering between them the last couple of weeks. It was nothing like the encounter they had at his mansion the other night. At that time, he was in hurry, he was scared to let her even have one minute to think about what they were doing. It'd been needy. It was different, now, more passionate. He backed her into the elevator doors, and they broke apart, both breathing heavily.

"… but I cannot live without you," she concluded, in a tender voice.

Tony smiled at her widely, "That's good news because I don't think I can either," he admitted as he brushed his lips against hers again. He suddenly stopped and looked at her in the eyes, his eyes flooding with sincerity and honesty, "Stay tonight!" It was a statement, not a question.

"Tonight?" She smiled playfully.

He loved the smile on her lips and the tone in her voice, he loved it so much, "and tomorrow night, and the night after that and after that. What about the day? Stay during the day too, not just the night. Just stay forever and ever, please?" He pleaded desperately, afraid to let her go.

She chuckled at his mumbling speech, and stroked his cheek with her hand, slowly letting her hand trail over his jaw with light kisses until she reached his ear. And in the best lusty and husky voice she whispered, "Ask me tomorrow morning…"

The brush of her breath exhaling against the skin of his neck drove him crazy as much as the words she whispered to him, the promise that she would be here with him in the morning. He took her face in between his two hands and stared deeply at her in the eyes, "I love you Pepper Potts," and without giving her time to answer, he kissed her like a parched man drinking water for the first time.

Here and there, in the early hours before dawn, when New York is dark and the Big Apple becomes the City of Light, they finally made love again, after so many long years, slowly, sweetly, wrapped in the sofa blankets and cocooned in an intimacy of their own.

Later, when the sun started to light up the new day, the *ding* coming from the elevator stirred them out of their sleep in time to see a flustered Happy Hogan gasping at the position they were in. He averted his eyes and blushed a deep red. The bodyguard frantically pressed the elevator button when he realized he was standing in front of Pepper and Tony tangled and naked in the middle of the penthouse, a blanket barely covering them.

Happy left without saying a word.

"He'll be mad at us for a while," Pepper said and turned in Tony's embrace to face him.

"Oh yes!" Tony said with a smirk. "But I'm pretty sure he's even madder at us because he knows he has to prepare the SI private jet again for Virginia for the third time in less than 24 hours!" Pepper laughed. It was good to hear her laughing. Tony smiled brightly and added, "We need to go to pick up our little genius."

Pepper calmed down slowly and schooled her features into a serious expression. Tony felt a shiver running along his spine, scared that he went too fast, assuming they would move in. Pepper felt him tense and brought her hands to his face, her deep ocean blue eyes, pellucid and honest meeting his; Tony forgot how to breathe, Pepper gazing right into his soul. In a simple gaze followed by a simple word, she answered the question he asked her last night.

"Yeah," she breathed, finally content, before she kissed him tenderly to mark the beginning of a new era of their lives.

THE END