Iron Man fic - "I Survived" from Tony's POV
A/N: This fic is the partner to I Survived. “I Survived” is Pepper Potts’ POV, and this one is Tony Stark’s POV of the same events. This one isn't as violent though, oddly. It still has some bad language in it though. Thanks to my Aunty Shirley, who encouraged me to write this.
Pepper was always punctual. It was something Tony appreciated back when he first hired her. He was never on time, himself, so it was good that someone who he trusted to represent him was.
So when Pepper wasn’t home before sunset, and JARVIS confirmed that she hadn’t called, Tony immediately began to worry. He called her phone, but got no answer, so he called Rhodey.
“Hello?” his friend’s voice said over the speaker phone.
“Hey Rhodey, have you heard from Pepper?”
“No, not today. Why?”
“She’s not here when she said she would be and she won’t answer her phone.”
“I’m sure she’s probably fine, Tony,” Rhodey said, but he didn’t sound like he himself was convinced of that.
“Yeah… well, if you see or hear from her, let me know. I’m going to call Happy and then go looking.”
“I’ll be sure to do that. Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
The call ended.
“JARVIS, get the suit ready and call Happy,” Tony ordered, moving fast to where his robots would dress him in the Iron Man armour. Something about all this made him feel really uneasy, like his gut was twisted up in knots. Pepper wasn’t the type to just disappear like that without telling anyone, especially since lately she and Tony had been taking their relationship to the next level. Being with Pepper made Tony the happiest he’d ever been in his whole life. Now Pepper was in trouble, that he was sure of, and he had to find her. He couldn’t bare thinking about life without her.
His conversation with his driver went about the same as his conversation with the lieutenant colonel, with Happy promising to keep an eye out for Pepper as well. It wasn’t much longer before Iron Man blasted off into the night sky.
“JARVIS, find Pepper’s cell phone,” Tony said as he flew over the city. He could read the map on his HUD as the AI scanned New York. He felt more and more anxious when she didn’t appear to be in the city, or if she was, her phone was off. JARVIS took the initiative and expanded the search to include the whole state.
After a minute, a flashing red dot on the HUD map showed that Pepper’s phone was somewhere in the woods well out of town. “What the hell is she doing way out there?” Tony thought. He assumed that she had been taken out there, probably against her will. His heart felt tight now with anger. If she’d been hurt in any way, there was no telling what his temper was going to make him do.
*
That flashing red dot took Tony to a cabin out in the woods. From the outside scan it was old and dirty - probably a dis-used hunting lodge of some kind. Sensors told him there was a man inside. Tony landed and knocked on the front door.
A young man in a black jacket opened the door, took one look at Iron Man and promptly slammed the door with a yelp. Tony heard the sound of breaking glass, like the guy was trying to escape out of a window on the other side of the cabin.
Calmly, Tony opened the door and walked in. The inside was dirty and dusty. There was a chair knocked over blacking Iron Man’s path, which Tony kicked aside. JARVIS informed Tony that Pepper’s phone was on the floor of the cabin, along with the rest of her purse. Black Jacket had indeed broken a window to try to escape, but he had gotten his clothes caught on the window frame and was trying desperately to get himself loose. Iron Man grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him up to his eye level. Black Jacket looked like he was going to shit himself. He had sinned, and Iron Man was the metal devil come to collect.
“Oh, God no! Please let me go! Let me go!”
“Where is she?” Iron Man demanded. He was beyond intimidating.
Black Jacket didn’t need to be told who Iron Man was asking about. “She-she’s not here! She kicked me in the balls and ran away! Fuck! She’s in the woods somewhere, I don’t fuckin’ know!”
“You are going to stay here.” Tony set him down, but kept a grip on his clothes. He ripped an old curtain down from the broken window and used it to literally hog-tie the man. Black Jacket seemed too scared now to struggle. “What happened to her car?”
“The other guy took it,” Black Jacket whimpered. “He was going for beers…”
“JARVIS, run a search for Pepper’s car. There’s only so many places around here you can buy alcohol. Also, call the cops so they can come and arrest this son of a bitch.” For a second, Tony was tempted to kick the man, though doing so in the armour might break his back, or rupture his spleen. Still, the temptation was there…
Iron Man kneeled down in front of Black Jacket’s face. “If she’s hurt or dead when I find her, not even the cops will protect you from me,” he growled. Then he stomped out of the cabin, leaving a whimpering Black Jacket on the floor.
Outside, Iron Man rocketed upwards again. This time, he hovered above the cabin, scanning the woods as far as he can see in all directions for a human sized and shaped heat signature in the pitch-black night.
For a second, he could find nothing but sleeping birds and nocturnal animals, but then rapid movement caught his eye. He turned and there was a human, a woman, jumping up and down, waving her arms. It had to be her, and he flew down towards the figure. As he got closer, JARVIS confirmed that it was indeed Miss Potts. It might have been Tony’s imagination, but JARVIS sounded as relieved as he felt.
He landed in front of her and immediately she wrapped her arms around his metal body. He hugged her back, mindful not to crush her. When he flipped his face mask back, he realised how cold the night was. He dreaded the thought of Pepper alone in these cold, dark woods. It made him sick. He just wanted to take her home and hold her close to him in bed and never, ever let go.
“Are you okay?” Tony asked.
“They hit my head. They wanted to kidnap someone rich for a ransom.”
“So why pick you? I’m the rich one,” he couldn’t help but quip. He could see now that she had some dried blood on her scalp. As much as he wanted to take her home, he knew they should go to a hospital first. He wasn’t about to call an ambulance to come all the way out there. “Hold on,” he said as his mask slid back into place. He felt Pepper clutch him tightly and he took off, holding her in his arms.
*
Now Pepper was safe. The hospital Tony took her to told him that they wanted to keep Pepper for a while to watch her, worried that she might have a slight concussion. Tony was fine with that, wanting her in the best of health. For all the money he poured into this hospital in the past, Pepper’s health care had better be the best.
The police were called in. They, the doctors and nurses were nervous of Tony; mainly because he hadn’t gotten out of the Iron Man armour, save for the helmet. Tony didn’t care. Part of him wanted to stay by Pepper’s side, but a stronger part of him wanted to catch the other idiot who kidnapped her in the first place. After that, he could be there for her.
He called Rhodey and Happy to tell them that he’d found her and what hospital she was at. They both hurried over as quickly as they could. By the time they got there, the police were finished getting a statement from Pepper and they told her and Tony that they had caught Black Jacket in the cabin. Or rather, they found Black Jacket, as Tony insisted, seeing as it was Iron Man who had actually caught him. He was proud of Pepper for escaping on her own, and after hearing her story, didn’t want to let himself think of what could have happened to her if she hadn’t managed to get out when she did.
Tony was about to head out to start looking for the other kidnapper, whom Pepper described as having worn a green shirt, but the police stopped him.
“Mr Stark, I think you should let the police handle this. We’ll find him.” In the suit, Tony was almost a foot taller than the cop who spoke to him. He could see that the cop was trying not to let this bother him.
Tony’s jaw clenched. “I can find him faster.”
“Mr Stark, I assure you…” The cop hesitated at the deadly light in Tony’s eyes. “I assure you the police will handle this,” he repeated. “You are a citizen. You caught one guy and you told us where to look for the other one. Please, let us do our jobs.”
Tony felt angry and frustrated enough to punch this cop, which, considering he was still wearing Iron Man’s gauntlets, would have been fatal for the officer.
The moment was broken when a voice came through the cop’s radio. The cop turned away and answered it while Tony focused on taking deep breaths and getting his temper in line. He could feel his heart pounding. It felt like every beat was slamming against the base of the implant in his deep in chest.
When the cop turned back to face Tony, he had a little smile. “They’ve found him, Mr Stark. The suspect was apprehended with Miss Potts’ car.”
“Good,” Tony said, feeling the anger he had directed at the police drain away. “I want to see both the suspects.”
The cop looked like he wanted to say no. “Sir, I…” He stopped as Tony’s glare returned and sighed. “Alright, Mr Stark, we’ll let you see them, but only if you change out of that weapon suit. They are being taken to the 100th street station. ”
Tony nodded and returned briefly to Pepper’s bedside. “They’re both in custody,” he told her, and she smiled. “I’m going to go down to speak with them, but I promise I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay,” she said, and he gave her a little kiss.
Tony asked Rhodey and Happy to stay with Pepper, which they said they would. Then he headed up to the roof of the hospital to take off from the helipad.
*
Tony flew home, got out of the Iron Man suit as fast as he could and jumped into the first sports car of his he saw. During his drive to the police station, he thought about what he was going to say to the kidnappers.
He parked in the street and walked into the station like he owned it. The cops at the hospital had called ahead to let their colleagues there know that Mr Stark was on his way. Tony found out later that Rhodey had also called the station. This helped lubricate things a little better than Stark’s name and reputation alone could have. He was met by the police commissioner, who shook his hand.
The commissioner walked with Tony down the hall towards where the two suspects were being interrogated by police in two separate yet neighbouring rooms. Tony glared at them through the glass, knowing the suspects couldn’t see him.
The commissioner was talking to Tony, telling him that they were running the records on the suspects. They were wanted for robberies - mostly a string of gas station attacks. It appeared to the police that they had been unsatisfied with the small amount of cash they’d gotten from that and decided to up their game to kidnappings and ransom. Chances were very good that they were going to be locked away for a long, long time.
However, there was a problem - the men were refusing to talk about the kidnapping. This was their legal right, of course, as was their right to speak to a lawyer. The police officer talking to Black Jacket opened the door to step out and speak with the commissioner. While the door was briefly open, Black Jacket caught a brief glimpse of Tony Stark in the hall. Almost instantly, he went pale. Tony watched him through the glass, pretending the suspect could feel his burning gaze. It looked for all the world like Black Jacket could. He could almost see the guy thinking. No lawyer in the world would be willing to take them on as clients… not if they were going up against the kind of lawyers Tony Stark could hire for Pepper. Even if they did somehow get out, there would be Iron Man in their nightmares…
“Wait!” Black Jacket cried. “I confess! I did it! We hit her on the head and took her car and tied her up!”
Instantly the police were back in Black Jacket’s interrogation room, talking to him. Tony smirked.
“Commissioner, I’ve decided I’m not going to speak to them after all.” He turned to shake the man’s hand again, which the commissioner accepted. “Thank you for your time and all the fine work the NYPD do. If you’ll excuse me, I have a girlfriend in hospital to get back to.”
“Thank you, Mr Stark. Good night.”
Tony swept out of the police station and back to his car.
*
When Pepper woke up in hospital, Tony was there, snoring gently on a chair next to her bed. Someone had pulled a blanket over him in the night. She smiled to herself and closed her eyes to go back to sleep.
avengers_land
Pepper was always punctual. It was something Tony appreciated back when he first hired her. He was never on time, himself, so it was good that someone who he trusted to represent him was.
So when Pepper wasn’t home before sunset, and JARVIS confirmed that she hadn’t called, Tony immediately began to worry. He called her phone, but got no answer, so he called Rhodey.
“Hello?” his friend’s voice said over the speaker phone.
“Hey Rhodey, have you heard from Pepper?”
“No, not today. Why?”
“She’s not here when she said she would be and she won’t answer her phone.”
“I’m sure she’s probably fine, Tony,” Rhodey said, but he didn’t sound like he himself was convinced of that.
“Yeah… well, if you see or hear from her, let me know. I’m going to call Happy and then go looking.”
“I’ll be sure to do that. Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
The call ended.
“JARVIS, get the suit ready and call Happy,” Tony ordered, moving fast to where his robots would dress him in the Iron Man armour. Something about all this made him feel really uneasy, like his gut was twisted up in knots. Pepper wasn’t the type to just disappear like that without telling anyone, especially since lately she and Tony had been taking their relationship to the next level. Being with Pepper made Tony the happiest he’d ever been in his whole life. Now Pepper was in trouble, that he was sure of, and he had to find her. He couldn’t bare thinking about life without her.
His conversation with his driver went about the same as his conversation with the lieutenant colonel, with Happy promising to keep an eye out for Pepper as well. It wasn’t much longer before Iron Man blasted off into the night sky.
“JARVIS, find Pepper’s cell phone,” Tony said as he flew over the city. He could read the map on his HUD as the AI scanned New York. He felt more and more anxious when she didn’t appear to be in the city, or if she was, her phone was off. JARVIS took the initiative and expanded the search to include the whole state.
After a minute, a flashing red dot on the HUD map showed that Pepper’s phone was somewhere in the woods well out of town. “What the hell is she doing way out there?” Tony thought. He assumed that she had been taken out there, probably against her will. His heart felt tight now with anger. If she’d been hurt in any way, there was no telling what his temper was going to make him do.
*
That flashing red dot took Tony to a cabin out in the woods. From the outside scan it was old and dirty - probably a dis-used hunting lodge of some kind. Sensors told him there was a man inside. Tony landed and knocked on the front door.
A young man in a black jacket opened the door, took one look at Iron Man and promptly slammed the door with a yelp. Tony heard the sound of breaking glass, like the guy was trying to escape out of a window on the other side of the cabin.
Calmly, Tony opened the door and walked in. The inside was dirty and dusty. There was a chair knocked over blacking Iron Man’s path, which Tony kicked aside. JARVIS informed Tony that Pepper’s phone was on the floor of the cabin, along with the rest of her purse. Black Jacket had indeed broken a window to try to escape, but he had gotten his clothes caught on the window frame and was trying desperately to get himself loose. Iron Man grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him up to his eye level. Black Jacket looked like he was going to shit himself. He had sinned, and Iron Man was the metal devil come to collect.
“Oh, God no! Please let me go! Let me go!”
“Where is she?” Iron Man demanded. He was beyond intimidating.
Black Jacket didn’t need to be told who Iron Man was asking about. “She-she’s not here! She kicked me in the balls and ran away! Fuck! She’s in the woods somewhere, I don’t fuckin’ know!”
“You are going to stay here.” Tony set him down, but kept a grip on his clothes. He ripped an old curtain down from the broken window and used it to literally hog-tie the man. Black Jacket seemed too scared now to struggle. “What happened to her car?”
“The other guy took it,” Black Jacket whimpered. “He was going for beers…”
“JARVIS, run a search for Pepper’s car. There’s only so many places around here you can buy alcohol. Also, call the cops so they can come and arrest this son of a bitch.” For a second, Tony was tempted to kick the man, though doing so in the armour might break his back, or rupture his spleen. Still, the temptation was there…
Iron Man kneeled down in front of Black Jacket’s face. “If she’s hurt or dead when I find her, not even the cops will protect you from me,” he growled. Then he stomped out of the cabin, leaving a whimpering Black Jacket on the floor.
Outside, Iron Man rocketed upwards again. This time, he hovered above the cabin, scanning the woods as far as he can see in all directions for a human sized and shaped heat signature in the pitch-black night.
For a second, he could find nothing but sleeping birds and nocturnal animals, but then rapid movement caught his eye. He turned and there was a human, a woman, jumping up and down, waving her arms. It had to be her, and he flew down towards the figure. As he got closer, JARVIS confirmed that it was indeed Miss Potts. It might have been Tony’s imagination, but JARVIS sounded as relieved as he felt.
He landed in front of her and immediately she wrapped her arms around his metal body. He hugged her back, mindful not to crush her. When he flipped his face mask back, he realised how cold the night was. He dreaded the thought of Pepper alone in these cold, dark woods. It made him sick. He just wanted to take her home and hold her close to him in bed and never, ever let go.
“Are you okay?” Tony asked.
“They hit my head. They wanted to kidnap someone rich for a ransom.”
“So why pick you? I’m the rich one,” he couldn’t help but quip. He could see now that she had some dried blood on her scalp. As much as he wanted to take her home, he knew they should go to a hospital first. He wasn’t about to call an ambulance to come all the way out there. “Hold on,” he said as his mask slid back into place. He felt Pepper clutch him tightly and he took off, holding her in his arms.
*
Now Pepper was safe. The hospital Tony took her to told him that they wanted to keep Pepper for a while to watch her, worried that she might have a slight concussion. Tony was fine with that, wanting her in the best of health. For all the money he poured into this hospital in the past, Pepper’s health care had better be the best.
The police were called in. They, the doctors and nurses were nervous of Tony; mainly because he hadn’t gotten out of the Iron Man armour, save for the helmet. Tony didn’t care. Part of him wanted to stay by Pepper’s side, but a stronger part of him wanted to catch the other idiot who kidnapped her in the first place. After that, he could be there for her.
He called Rhodey and Happy to tell them that he’d found her and what hospital she was at. They both hurried over as quickly as they could. By the time they got there, the police were finished getting a statement from Pepper and they told her and Tony that they had caught Black Jacket in the cabin. Or rather, they found Black Jacket, as Tony insisted, seeing as it was Iron Man who had actually caught him. He was proud of Pepper for escaping on her own, and after hearing her story, didn’t want to let himself think of what could have happened to her if she hadn’t managed to get out when she did.
Tony was about to head out to start looking for the other kidnapper, whom Pepper described as having worn a green shirt, but the police stopped him.
“Mr Stark, I think you should let the police handle this. We’ll find him.” In the suit, Tony was almost a foot taller than the cop who spoke to him. He could see that the cop was trying not to let this bother him.
Tony’s jaw clenched. “I can find him faster.”
“Mr Stark, I assure you…” The cop hesitated at the deadly light in Tony’s eyes. “I assure you the police will handle this,” he repeated. “You are a citizen. You caught one guy and you told us where to look for the other one. Please, let us do our jobs.”
Tony felt angry and frustrated enough to punch this cop, which, considering he was still wearing Iron Man’s gauntlets, would have been fatal for the officer.
The moment was broken when a voice came through the cop’s radio. The cop turned away and answered it while Tony focused on taking deep breaths and getting his temper in line. He could feel his heart pounding. It felt like every beat was slamming against the base of the implant in his deep in chest.
When the cop turned back to face Tony, he had a little smile. “They’ve found him, Mr Stark. The suspect was apprehended with Miss Potts’ car.”
“Good,” Tony said, feeling the anger he had directed at the police drain away. “I want to see both the suspects.”
The cop looked like he wanted to say no. “Sir, I…” He stopped as Tony’s glare returned and sighed. “Alright, Mr Stark, we’ll let you see them, but only if you change out of that weapon suit. They are being taken to the 100th street station. ”
Tony nodded and returned briefly to Pepper’s bedside. “They’re both in custody,” he told her, and she smiled. “I’m going to go down to speak with them, but I promise I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay,” she said, and he gave her a little kiss.
Tony asked Rhodey and Happy to stay with Pepper, which they said they would. Then he headed up to the roof of the hospital to take off from the helipad.
*
Tony flew home, got out of the Iron Man suit as fast as he could and jumped into the first sports car of his he saw. During his drive to the police station, he thought about what he was going to say to the kidnappers.
He parked in the street and walked into the station like he owned it. The cops at the hospital had called ahead to let their colleagues there know that Mr Stark was on his way. Tony found out later that Rhodey had also called the station. This helped lubricate things a little better than Stark’s name and reputation alone could have. He was met by the police commissioner, who shook his hand.
The commissioner walked with Tony down the hall towards where the two suspects were being interrogated by police in two separate yet neighbouring rooms. Tony glared at them through the glass, knowing the suspects couldn’t see him.
The commissioner was talking to Tony, telling him that they were running the records on the suspects. They were wanted for robberies - mostly a string of gas station attacks. It appeared to the police that they had been unsatisfied with the small amount of cash they’d gotten from that and decided to up their game to kidnappings and ransom. Chances were very good that they were going to be locked away for a long, long time.
However, there was a problem - the men were refusing to talk about the kidnapping. This was their legal right, of course, as was their right to speak to a lawyer. The police officer talking to Black Jacket opened the door to step out and speak with the commissioner. While the door was briefly open, Black Jacket caught a brief glimpse of Tony Stark in the hall. Almost instantly, he went pale. Tony watched him through the glass, pretending the suspect could feel his burning gaze. It looked for all the world like Black Jacket could. He could almost see the guy thinking. No lawyer in the world would be willing to take them on as clients… not if they were going up against the kind of lawyers Tony Stark could hire for Pepper. Even if they did somehow get out, there would be Iron Man in their nightmares…
“Wait!” Black Jacket cried. “I confess! I did it! We hit her on the head and took her car and tied her up!”
Instantly the police were back in Black Jacket’s interrogation room, talking to him. Tony smirked.
“Commissioner, I’ve decided I’m not going to speak to them after all.” He turned to shake the man’s hand again, which the commissioner accepted. “Thank you for your time and all the fine work the NYPD do. If you’ll excuse me, I have a girlfriend in hospital to get back to.”
“Thank you, Mr Stark. Good night.”
Tony swept out of the police station and back to his car.
*
When Pepper woke up in hospital, Tony was there, snoring gently on a chair next to her bed. Someone had pulled a blanket over him in the night. She smiled to herself and closed her eyes to go back to sleep.
avengers_land