Yes, Virginia, There Really Is An Iron Man: Chapter Eighteen
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 (overall)/Angst for this one.
RATING: R (imagery)
PAIRING: Tony/Pepper
DISCLAIMER: Iron Man etc. belong to Marvel Comics et. al.
Chapter Eighteen:
It was incredibly late and Tony Stark was so exhausted that he didn’t even notice the new Steinway grand piano beside his fireplace (covering the hole in the floor). At least, not at first.
He paused on the stairwell with an ice pack pressed to one shoulder and twisted at the hip to stare at it. The eighty-eight keys of pure ivory and classic ebony beckoned from afar and Tony’s mind abandoned the idea of sleep in favor of sitting down on the piano bench.
He played Debussy’s Clair De Lune then, staring bitterly at the sofa, Beethoven’s Ninth. He played it angrily and glared down at his hands when he finished. His left hand was cramping.
Obadiah would often play the piano when he came for visits. He would monopolize it, in fact. There were times when Tony would be seated at it and relaxing his mind with a jazz tune he composed and Stane would kick him off the bench to play the same sheet music he always did.
Ah, Tony… This is your Ninth Symphony…
How?
How could he?
Tony rested his forehead against the closed top of the Steinway and succumbed to the exhaustion that had been screaming through his blood.
One of these days he’d fall asleep in his own bed.
Tony dreamed of his first day running Stark Industries-coincidentally the first day Pepper officially worked for him. At just a few months younger than him she was astonishing and smart but not often taken seriously. In fact, her interview for a job as his PA had been about two minutes long and ended with those big blue eyes of hers following him across the room with a sort of dubious shock lingering within them.
Obadiah was there-giving him that pep talk before the board meeting.
But as is the nature with dreams, something changed.
Obadiah reached at a twenty-one year old Tony’s chest and plunged his hand inside before pulling out his heart and holding it before Tony’s eyes with a malicious grin.
“It’s not quite your soul, but it’ll do for now, Tony. You can have it back when I’m done with it.”
Obadiah placed Tony’s beating heart inside his briefcase and looked back at the screaming form of Pepper. “Oh, hush,” he said. “Like he’d ever give it to you…”
“Bastard!”
“That’s no way to talk to the man who practically raised you.”
As dreams often did, Tony was in a different situation in a blink.
He saw burlap fibers and felt duct tape around his wrists and ankles-tied to that goddamn chair again.
“Shit.”
Blinded by the rough fabric, Tony didn’t see the face of the man who put a charge to the car battery attached to his chest. Not that it would matter…
The shock made him cry out even louder than he had in the real caves-this car battery wasn’t attached to an electromagnet that was keeping shrapnel out of his heart. It was hooked up to the left and right ventricles of his actual heart and he could hear Obadiah’s voice barking orders.
“Should have fired that bitch sooner! She stole it from me and gave it back to him. Are you done with her, yet?”
Tony heard crying, then the voice of the man who held him captive for three months. “Almost. I thought American women were supposed to be weak.”
“Not redheads.”
“Fucking bastards!”
Tony was electrocuted for shouting and bit down so hard on his lower lip that he tasted blood.
“Tony!”
Oh God… She was screaming…
Obadiah yanked the burlap bag off Tony’s face and showed him Pepper-tied similarly to a chair across from him. Her shirt was torn and there was a gaping wound in her chest. Stane held her heart. “If I can’t control you with that shriveled piece of shit she stole back for you, I can use hers,” he said.
Tony looked at Pepper’s defeated face and screamed himself hoarse.
He woke up with a shout and fell off the piano bench.
Immediately after vomiting what little he had to eat from the whole day, Tony went back down into the work shop and started writing up preliminary specifications for the War Machine armor.
There would be no more sleep for him tonight.
TBC
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For those of you having a crap week already (I'm looking at you, gypsyjr *HUG*).
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 (overall)/Angst for this one.
RATING: R (imagery)
PAIRING: Tony/Pepper
DISCLAIMER: Iron Man etc. belong to Marvel Comics et. al.
Chapter Eighteen:
It was incredibly late and Tony Stark was so exhausted that he didn’t even notice the new Steinway grand piano beside his fireplace (covering the hole in the floor). At least, not at first.
He paused on the stairwell with an ice pack pressed to one shoulder and twisted at the hip to stare at it. The eighty-eight keys of pure ivory and classic ebony beckoned from afar and Tony’s mind abandoned the idea of sleep in favor of sitting down on the piano bench.
He played Debussy’s Clair De Lune then, staring bitterly at the sofa, Beethoven’s Ninth. He played it angrily and glared down at his hands when he finished. His left hand was cramping.
Obadiah would often play the piano when he came for visits. He would monopolize it, in fact. There were times when Tony would be seated at it and relaxing his mind with a jazz tune he composed and Stane would kick him off the bench to play the same sheet music he always did.
Ah, Tony… This is your Ninth Symphony…
How?
How could he?
Tony rested his forehead against the closed top of the Steinway and succumbed to the exhaustion that had been screaming through his blood.
One of these days he’d fall asleep in his own bed.
Tony dreamed of his first day running Stark Industries-coincidentally the first day Pepper officially worked for him. At just a few months younger than him she was astonishing and smart but not often taken seriously. In fact, her interview for a job as his PA had been about two minutes long and ended with those big blue eyes of hers following him across the room with a sort of dubious shock lingering within them.
Obadiah was there-giving him that pep talk before the board meeting.
But as is the nature with dreams, something changed.
Obadiah reached at a twenty-one year old Tony’s chest and plunged his hand inside before pulling out his heart and holding it before Tony’s eyes with a malicious grin.
“It’s not quite your soul, but it’ll do for now, Tony. You can have it back when I’m done with it.”
Obadiah placed Tony’s beating heart inside his briefcase and looked back at the screaming form of Pepper. “Oh, hush,” he said. “Like he’d ever give it to you…”
“Bastard!”
“That’s no way to talk to the man who practically raised you.”
As dreams often did, Tony was in a different situation in a blink.
He saw burlap fibers and felt duct tape around his wrists and ankles-tied to that goddamn chair again.
“Shit.”
Blinded by the rough fabric, Tony didn’t see the face of the man who put a charge to the car battery attached to his chest. Not that it would matter…
The shock made him cry out even louder than he had in the real caves-this car battery wasn’t attached to an electromagnet that was keeping shrapnel out of his heart. It was hooked up to the left and right ventricles of his actual heart and he could hear Obadiah’s voice barking orders.
“Should have fired that bitch sooner! She stole it from me and gave it back to him. Are you done with her, yet?”
Tony heard crying, then the voice of the man who held him captive for three months. “Almost. I thought American women were supposed to be weak.”
“Not redheads.”
“Fucking bastards!”
Tony was electrocuted for shouting and bit down so hard on his lower lip that he tasted blood.
“Tony!”
Oh God… She was screaming…
Obadiah yanked the burlap bag off Tony’s face and showed him Pepper-tied similarly to a chair across from him. Her shirt was torn and there was a gaping wound in her chest. Stane held her heart. “If I can’t control you with that shriveled piece of shit she stole back for you, I can use hers,” he said.
Tony looked at Pepper’s defeated face and screamed himself hoarse.
He woke up with a shout and fell off the piano bench.
Immediately after vomiting what little he had to eat from the whole day, Tony went back down into the work shop and started writing up preliminary specifications for the War Machine armor.
There would be no more sleep for him tonight.
TBC
Back | Forward
For those of you having a crap week already (I'm looking at you, gypsyjr *HUG*).