Yes, Virginia, There Really Is An Iron Man: Chapter Two
TITLE: Yes, Virginia, There Really Is An Iron Man
AUTHOR: Quicksilvermad
SUMMARY: (Movie-verse) Pepper deals with Tony’s newfound lease on life and ends up making a mountain out of her molehill of emotion where her boss is concerned.
GENRE: Humor/Romance
RATING: T
PAIRING: Tony/Pepper
DISCLAIMER: Iron Man etc. belong to Marvel Comics et. al.
Chapter Two:
God, it felt great to be back home. And out of a suit. Tony had changed into a pair of worn in jeans and a T-shirt and was lounging sideways on the sofa with his remote in hand-ready to channel surf, He made a point to skip past the news channels as fast as possible as soon as he saw his own face. He ended up on the Discovery Channel and left it there. Then he told Jarvis to forward all phone calls to voice mail. He didn’t want the phone ringing off the hook-Rhodey was no doubt feeling the need to harangue him within an inch of his life.
After lunch (an interesting affair, considering all of the shocked looks he got from the wait staff, the other customers, and the managers) Tony had driven Pepper to her house, told her to get some rest, and took the long way home to think.
Mainly about that practically backless blue dress he’d “bought her” for her birthday.
He still felt like an ass for forgetting it.
Absently, he tapped his free hand against the arc reactor that glowed through even his darkest T-shirt. He shifted on the sofa to lie facing the cushions and put less pressure on the ice packs that he had strapped to one of his shoulders and his sore shins. The pain relievers he’d taken with his French toast finally kicked in and drew the world into a cotton-coated place where nothing can bother you.
Tony closed his eyes and drifted.
He fell asleep and fell prey to the same nightmares he’d been having since he passed out with shrapnel lodged in his chest after the “fun-vee” was ambushed.
A flash-too bright to stand looking at but his eyes were forced open by wind.
A pop-his ears overloading as a cacophony of sound rattled his bones.
Sulfur-gunpowder and caustic explosives.
Death.
Sand.
Heat.
Falling from the sky like a stone.
Legs that resembled rubber more than muscle.
The heavy “thup thup thup” of helicopter blades.
They don’t stop in this nightmare. They keep going. They fly overhead without seeing him. He drops back to his knees in the sand and cries out. The pain in his chest grows sharper as the arc reactor slowly fails and shrapnel digs into his flesh with finality.
He screams.
In the waking world, Tony Stark yelled and tugged at his shirt-ripping the fabric over his heart to look down at a fully functioning arc reactor.
“Sweet Jesus,” he groaned.
There was noise in the kitchen and he knew it could only be one person.
“Tony?” she walked silently into the living room with a glass of water in one hand and a bottle of Excedrin in the other.
Tony dragged one hand through sweat-drenched hair and regarded Pepper with a worn smile. The make-up she had so meticulously used earlier to cover up the bruised side of his face had smudged in his sleep and he ended up looking like a disheveled little boy. She sat beside him on the sofa and handed him the water. With her hands free, she fished two pills from the bottle and shoved them at him.
“Take these.”
He did.
“How many is that this week?”
“What, pills?”
Pepper gave him a look and Tony tried his best to evade it-hiding his eyes behind the rim of the glass.
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. He wasn’t one to keep track of how many times he fell asleep and had vivid nightmares. He stood suddenly and walked toward the stairwell that led to the basement. “I need to work on something.”
Pepper stared at the bottle of Excedrin still in her hands and sighed.
“And I need your help again!” Tony shouted from the last step.
TBC
Back | Forward
In other news, I've been up all night-I can't sleep... And I have film studies class tomorrow. We're screening a movie and I've got no clue what it's going to be. I seriously need to get some sleep-I've re-typed this thing about eight times and it still doesn't quite make sense to me. Don't worry about the chapter, though-I wrote that a while ago.
Sleep would be nice. If it would stop running away from me.
AUTHOR: Quicksilvermad
SUMMARY: (Movie-verse) Pepper deals with Tony’s newfound lease on life and ends up making a mountain out of her molehill of emotion where her boss is concerned.
GENRE: Humor/Romance
RATING: T
PAIRING: Tony/Pepper
DISCLAIMER: Iron Man etc. belong to Marvel Comics et. al.
Chapter Two:
God, it felt great to be back home. And out of a suit. Tony had changed into a pair of worn in jeans and a T-shirt and was lounging sideways on the sofa with his remote in hand-ready to channel surf, He made a point to skip past the news channels as fast as possible as soon as he saw his own face. He ended up on the Discovery Channel and left it there. Then he told Jarvis to forward all phone calls to voice mail. He didn’t want the phone ringing off the hook-Rhodey was no doubt feeling the need to harangue him within an inch of his life.
After lunch (an interesting affair, considering all of the shocked looks he got from the wait staff, the other customers, and the managers) Tony had driven Pepper to her house, told her to get some rest, and took the long way home to think.
Mainly about that practically backless blue dress he’d “bought her” for her birthday.
He still felt like an ass for forgetting it.
Absently, he tapped his free hand against the arc reactor that glowed through even his darkest T-shirt. He shifted on the sofa to lie facing the cushions and put less pressure on the ice packs that he had strapped to one of his shoulders and his sore shins. The pain relievers he’d taken with his French toast finally kicked in and drew the world into a cotton-coated place where nothing can bother you.
Tony closed his eyes and drifted.
He fell asleep and fell prey to the same nightmares he’d been having since he passed out with shrapnel lodged in his chest after the “fun-vee” was ambushed.
A flash-too bright to stand looking at but his eyes were forced open by wind.
A pop-his ears overloading as a cacophony of sound rattled his bones.
Sulfur-gunpowder and caustic explosives.
Death.
Sand.
Heat.
Falling from the sky like a stone.
Legs that resembled rubber more than muscle.
The heavy “thup thup thup” of helicopter blades.
They don’t stop in this nightmare. They keep going. They fly overhead without seeing him. He drops back to his knees in the sand and cries out. The pain in his chest grows sharper as the arc reactor slowly fails and shrapnel digs into his flesh with finality.
He screams.
In the waking world, Tony Stark yelled and tugged at his shirt-ripping the fabric over his heart to look down at a fully functioning arc reactor.
“Sweet Jesus,” he groaned.
There was noise in the kitchen and he knew it could only be one person.
“Tony?” she walked silently into the living room with a glass of water in one hand and a bottle of Excedrin in the other.
Tony dragged one hand through sweat-drenched hair and regarded Pepper with a worn smile. The make-up she had so meticulously used earlier to cover up the bruised side of his face had smudged in his sleep and he ended up looking like a disheveled little boy. She sat beside him on the sofa and handed him the water. With her hands free, she fished two pills from the bottle and shoved them at him.
“Take these.”
He did.
“How many is that this week?”
“What, pills?”
Pepper gave him a look and Tony tried his best to evade it-hiding his eyes behind the rim of the glass.
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. He wasn’t one to keep track of how many times he fell asleep and had vivid nightmares. He stood suddenly and walked toward the stairwell that led to the basement. “I need to work on something.”
Pepper stared at the bottle of Excedrin still in her hands and sighed.
“And I need your help again!” Tony shouted from the last step.
TBC
Back | Forward
In other news, I've been up all night-I can't sleep... And I have film studies class tomorrow. We're screening a movie and I've got no clue what it's going to be. I seriously need to get some sleep-I've re-typed this thing about eight times and it still doesn't quite make sense to me. Don't worry about the chapter, though-I wrote that a while ago.
Sleep would be nice. If it would stop running away from me.