Yes, Virginia, There Really Is An Iron Man: Chapter Twenty-Seven
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: PG13
PAIRING: Tony/Pepper
DISCLAIMER: Iron Man etc. belong to Marvel Comics et. al.
Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Rhodey cast a curious glance at the front door as it slammed shut behind a rather casual looking Pepper Potts. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder and followed Tony down into the workshop.
“What’s with her?” he asked.
Tony stepped over the metal framing that used to cut the shop off from the rest of his home and glanced back at his friend quizzically. “Whaddya mean?”
“Pepper. She seemed a little,” Rhodes cut himself off, the proverbial light bulb going off in his head. “Wait a sec-you and her…” he did some strange hand gestures and made the most ridiculous face Tony had ever seen.
Tony bit the inside of both of his lips and smothered an inappropriate laugh. He recovered after a moment-waved his hand at Rhodey’s little finger puppet freak show. “We? What, exactly?”
Rhodes grinned. “Finally. You two finally resolved that weird sexual tension thingy you had goin’ on, didn’t you?”
Tony blinked at his friend. “Weird?”
Rhodes nodded and leaned against the desk. “Every time I walked into a room and interrupted whatever you were doing it was like you two were already knacking on each other with words or something.”
Tony pointed at him and grinned. “Did you just say ‘knacking?!’”
Jim slapped the hand away and shrugged out of his leather jacket. “Shut up. Where do I stand for this scan thing?”
Business as usual… Tony grabbed a pair of shades off the cluttered desk. “Put these on and stand in the center of that launch pad. Jarvis?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Initiate scan of our dear Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes, would you? Project file Mark III-WM store it on my personal server. Jimmy, close your eyes, stand at attention, and try not to move.”
Rhodes quickly did as Tony instructed.
“Go, Jarvis.”
“Scanning…”
Tony checked the computer display as lasers collected data and fed it into the system. After almost two minutes of fine-tuning, Tony had a virtual scale model of Rhodey to design the War Machine suit around. “Okay, we’re done with that…”
Rhodes peeled the sunglasses off and slid behind Tony to watch him work.
His fingers were moving furiously over the pressure keyboard. The shorthand keys were one of Tony’s first ideas when creating his own computer systems. Rhodes often wondered why he hadn’t started marketing some of these things.
“Steve Jobs would kill to have some of this stuff, you know,” he commented.
“I like where Steve is going with his stuff-hell, I use some of his systems… But I made a deal with him not to release any computer systems until 2010,” Tony smirked and saved the new file. With his stylus, he selected one repulsor arm and dragged it from the furthest screen over to the work table.
“Stick your arm in there and let’s see if the fit is right.”
Rhodey shrugged and did so. It was odd, not feeling anything around his arm or fingers-but Tony’s sharp eyes caught a few details when he experimentally wiggled his thumb.
“Joints are a bit snug around your hands…” he did some quick and probably obscenely impressive mental math and changed the measurements through Jarvis’ help. The image expanded just slightly, but Jim could see that his fingers definitely fit better inside the glove.
“Damn, man…”
Tony flipped the stylus over the backs of his fingers and grinned outrageously. “Cool, huh?”
“Bitchin’,” Rhodes “slid” his arm out of the hologram and sat on a work stool to stare at it. “So what’s next?”
Tony saved the file again. “You liked the silver, right?”
“Yeah. It’s slick, Tony.”
Tony eyeballed his Audi for one moment, taking in the black paneling with an artistic gleam in his eye. “You’re absolutely right. Okay, Jarvis! Throw just a smidge of matte black in there. Other than that, is everything ready?”
“Components are prepped and ready. Shall I begin machining the armor?”
“Make it so, number one.”
“Time to completion: three hours.”
Tony smiled and clapped Rhodey on the back with his right hand. He was still taking half a Demerol each morning but had given up on wearing his brace-instead, he tried to avoid using his left hand. “Wanna go get lunch?”
Rhodes pulled his jacket back on and tossed Tony’s leather jacket at him. “I want a hamburger, Tony.”
Tony walked toward the back of the shop and grabbed the keys to the R8 off his desk. “Damn, that sounds good.”
“Diner or what?”
“Diner,” Tony grinned and hopped into the car. Teasingly, before his friend was settled in the passenger seat, he sped out of the garage and hit the road at a jarring pace.
He laughed at Rhodey’s muttered: “Jackass.”
It was a while before Tony settled on an out of the way diner that he’d eaten at repeatedly. They sat on red vinyl stools and ordered from a woman who impulsively ruffled Tony’s hair like an old aunt who hadn’t seen him in ages. Without asking, she grabbed two Miller Lites from the fridge behind the counter and popped the caps off-setting the bottles in front of both men.
“You made the paper’s again, son,” she said as she opened her own bottle of beer.
“Well, I did get out of my house last night, Val.”
She produced a copy of The Chronicle from that magical place beneath the counter and, much as she had done with the beers, plopped it in front of Tony.
The beer paused halfway to his open lips. Rhodes mirrored him almost perfectly.
“’Bout time, if you ask me,” said Val, tapping a work-worn finger on the image of Tony Stark kissing Pepper Potts beneath the obscenely huge headline of: Scandal or Resolved Tension? The relationship that Stark and Potts have had over the years.
Silence… And then:
“Order up!”
Val disappeared into the kitchen to get their burgers. Rhodes set his beer down. “Do you think Pepper has seen this yet?” he asked.
Tony had to swallow three times to clear the knot that had clogged his throat. “Most likely.”
Val magically took the paper away and slid two hot plates with hearty burgers and steak fries on the countertop.
Rhodey shoved a fry in his mouth. “Think she’s mad?”
Tony drained his beer. “Probably.”
“Where is she today?”
Tony groaned and dropped his face into his hands. Through his twined fingers, he blurted out the four words that had been nagging at the back of his brain all morning.
“She’s with her mother…”
Rhodey thumped him between the shoulders. “Enjoy your last meal, my friend.”
Tony groaned.
TBC
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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: PG13
PAIRING: Tony/Pepper
DISCLAIMER: Iron Man etc. belong to Marvel Comics et. al.
Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Rhodey cast a curious glance at the front door as it slammed shut behind a rather casual looking Pepper Potts. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder and followed Tony down into the workshop.
“What’s with her?” he asked.
Tony stepped over the metal framing that used to cut the shop off from the rest of his home and glanced back at his friend quizzically. “Whaddya mean?”
“Pepper. She seemed a little,” Rhodes cut himself off, the proverbial light bulb going off in his head. “Wait a sec-you and her…” he did some strange hand gestures and made the most ridiculous face Tony had ever seen.
Tony bit the inside of both of his lips and smothered an inappropriate laugh. He recovered after a moment-waved his hand at Rhodey’s little finger puppet freak show. “We? What, exactly?”
Rhodes grinned. “Finally. You two finally resolved that weird sexual tension thingy you had goin’ on, didn’t you?”
Tony blinked at his friend. “Weird?”
Rhodes nodded and leaned against the desk. “Every time I walked into a room and interrupted whatever you were doing it was like you two were already knacking on each other with words or something.”
Tony pointed at him and grinned. “Did you just say ‘knacking?!’”
Jim slapped the hand away and shrugged out of his leather jacket. “Shut up. Where do I stand for this scan thing?”
Business as usual… Tony grabbed a pair of shades off the cluttered desk. “Put these on and stand in the center of that launch pad. Jarvis?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Initiate scan of our dear Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes, would you? Project file Mark III-WM store it on my personal server. Jimmy, close your eyes, stand at attention, and try not to move.”
Rhodes quickly did as Tony instructed.
“Go, Jarvis.”
“Scanning…”
Tony checked the computer display as lasers collected data and fed it into the system. After almost two minutes of fine-tuning, Tony had a virtual scale model of Rhodey to design the War Machine suit around. “Okay, we’re done with that…”
Rhodes peeled the sunglasses off and slid behind Tony to watch him work.
His fingers were moving furiously over the pressure keyboard. The shorthand keys were one of Tony’s first ideas when creating his own computer systems. Rhodes often wondered why he hadn’t started marketing some of these things.
“Steve Jobs would kill to have some of this stuff, you know,” he commented.
“I like where Steve is going with his stuff-hell, I use some of his systems… But I made a deal with him not to release any computer systems until 2010,” Tony smirked and saved the new file. With his stylus, he selected one repulsor arm and dragged it from the furthest screen over to the work table.
“Stick your arm in there and let’s see if the fit is right.”
Rhodey shrugged and did so. It was odd, not feeling anything around his arm or fingers-but Tony’s sharp eyes caught a few details when he experimentally wiggled his thumb.
“Joints are a bit snug around your hands…” he did some quick and probably obscenely impressive mental math and changed the measurements through Jarvis’ help. The image expanded just slightly, but Jim could see that his fingers definitely fit better inside the glove.
“Damn, man…”
Tony flipped the stylus over the backs of his fingers and grinned outrageously. “Cool, huh?”
“Bitchin’,” Rhodes “slid” his arm out of the hologram and sat on a work stool to stare at it. “So what’s next?”
Tony saved the file again. “You liked the silver, right?”
“Yeah. It’s slick, Tony.”
Tony eyeballed his Audi for one moment, taking in the black paneling with an artistic gleam in his eye. “You’re absolutely right. Okay, Jarvis! Throw just a smidge of matte black in there. Other than that, is everything ready?”
“Components are prepped and ready. Shall I begin machining the armor?”
“Make it so, number one.”
“Time to completion: three hours.”
Tony smiled and clapped Rhodey on the back with his right hand. He was still taking half a Demerol each morning but had given up on wearing his brace-instead, he tried to avoid using his left hand. “Wanna go get lunch?”
Rhodes pulled his jacket back on and tossed Tony’s leather jacket at him. “I want a hamburger, Tony.”
Tony walked toward the back of the shop and grabbed the keys to the R8 off his desk. “Damn, that sounds good.”
“Diner or what?”
“Diner,” Tony grinned and hopped into the car. Teasingly, before his friend was settled in the passenger seat, he sped out of the garage and hit the road at a jarring pace.
He laughed at Rhodey’s muttered: “Jackass.”
It was a while before Tony settled on an out of the way diner that he’d eaten at repeatedly. They sat on red vinyl stools and ordered from a woman who impulsively ruffled Tony’s hair like an old aunt who hadn’t seen him in ages. Without asking, she grabbed two Miller Lites from the fridge behind the counter and popped the caps off-setting the bottles in front of both men.
“You made the paper’s again, son,” she said as she opened her own bottle of beer.
“Well, I did get out of my house last night, Val.”
She produced a copy of The Chronicle from that magical place beneath the counter and, much as she had done with the beers, plopped it in front of Tony.
The beer paused halfway to his open lips. Rhodes mirrored him almost perfectly.
“’Bout time, if you ask me,” said Val, tapping a work-worn finger on the image of Tony Stark kissing Pepper Potts beneath the obscenely huge headline of: Scandal or Resolved Tension? The relationship that Stark and Potts have had over the years.
Silence… And then:
“Order up!”
Val disappeared into the kitchen to get their burgers. Rhodes set his beer down. “Do you think Pepper has seen this yet?” he asked.
Tony had to swallow three times to clear the knot that had clogged his throat. “Most likely.”
Val magically took the paper away and slid two hot plates with hearty burgers and steak fries on the countertop.
Rhodey shoved a fry in his mouth. “Think she’s mad?”
Tony drained his beer. “Probably.”
“Where is she today?”
Tony groaned and dropped his face into his hands. Through his twined fingers, he blurted out the four words that had been nagging at the back of his brain all morning.
“She’s with her mother…”
Rhodey thumped him between the shoulders. “Enjoy your last meal, my friend.”
Tony groaned.
TBC
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