justprompts
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By the time Tony makes his landing and hits his mark center stage at the Stark Expo, Pepper is already moving on to the list of other issues on the SI agenda that have taken a back burner to getting things up and running for Tony's pet project. From the time it was announced to the moment Tony jumped out of the heli-carrier planning and arranging the Expo felt like running a series of wind sprints and now Pepper was sore, tired and ready to get back to the real business of Stark Industries.
Back at the Long Island house, Pepper changes into ridiculously soft and squishy slippers and settles herself on the settee with her laptop with every intention of putting together and agenda for the next time she can get Tony to talk business. There are approximately ninety-seven issues that need to be addressed but Pepper's no wide eyed optimist. She knows better than to give Tony more than twenty minutes worth of information at a time. Genius? Yes. Long attention span for things that aren't of interest to him? No. She gets halfway through the third agenda before she falls asleep.
The first time she wakes up it's a few hours later and Tony is walking through the door as she's coming down the stairs.
"What time is it?" The expression on his face would be difficult to read even if she weren't bleary eyed. "Tony?"
"Late."
Pepper rubs a hand across her eyes and takes the last step off the stairs. "What's going on? Did something happen at the Expo?" Damn it. She should have attended but she'd been so relieved to have the planning stage over with that she'd skipped it and -
"I just drove Dylan home. He came by earlier." Tony's words don't hold any of the warmth or animation that she's come to expect whenever he talks about his son.
Pepper wouldn't have believed it if she weren't witness to it everytime Dylan was near, or even every time Tony mentioned him but he was every inch the proud and doting father, in his own Tony way. "He did? Did he enjoy the Expo?"
Her heart drops into her stomach when he tells her about Dylan's mugging. It's a terrible feeling for her and she can only imagine how Tony had taken it. With as tightly as he's been wound she's half expecting to turn on the T.V and find that half of greater New York had been razed to the ground while Iron Man went on a rampage. Dylan is going to be alright which is the only explanation for why Tony appears as calm as he does. But Pepper's not fooled for a minute into believing that he's calm beneath the surface.
There doesn't seem to be much to say and Pepper knows better than to try and convince Tony to rest, not after someone hurt his son. Some battles can't be won and still others shouldn't even be fought. It's a matter of timing.
It's almost like a compulsion - when she drags herself up to bed, before she can close her eyes for a second time that evening she flips on CNN. The news about Bruce's escape is everywhere from the story at the top of the hour, in the Situation Room, scrolling across the screen on the ticker. Pepper doesn't know what to do with it. Her brain won't process the information. Bruce couldn't have escaped.
Really? Who escapes from custody? This was real life not The Fugitive. Innocent people don't escape from prison. How? When Pepper had seen him Bruce barely looked like he was able to hold his own straw, much less -
Escape.
The tight ball of worry and fear in the pit of her stomach feels uncomfortably familiar but there is nothing that Pepper can do about it. She can't find Vesper's murder, she can't track down Bruce and get him to turn himself in. All Pepper can really do is keep her promise to do what she can for the Wayne Foundation, and keep working.
When Pepper wakes up again she's reminded - again - of the expression "Man plans, and God laughs". She'd been so certain that things would go back to their usual state of semi-chaos after the Expo was underway. That's when Tony brings up the Senate hearing.
It occurs to Pepper that her initial reaction shouldn't be annoyance at the United States government - and yet, it is. She's annoyed. She's annoyed that this is still an issue a year later. She's annoyed that elected officials are stupid enough to think that putting Tony Stark in the middle of a room filled to the rafters with men in uniforms feeding him straight lines in front of the cameras was going to end any other way but badly. It's a waste of taxpayer money and time not to mention it's an enormous waste of HER time. She can't believe that anyone going into the hearing had any reason to believe that it was going to end with Tony meekly offering up the suit and the technology to go with it.
The presence of Justin Hammer does nothing but add to the circus like atmosphere in the chamber. Pepper gets the feeling that Sen. Stern is sandbagging. For all of his pithy little speeches there's no substance to Hammer's statements.
"The committee would like to invite Col. James Rhodes to the chamber..."
She doesn't typically feel sorry for Rhodey. He's not the sort of person who invokes pity, but when he's asked to read specific passages of his report, Pepper knows that he's just being used to throw fuel on the fire.
At the end of the hearing Tony winds up with a standing ovation, Rhodey looks like he's got a migraine, and the YouTube clip of Tony calling the senators "ass clowns" and Sen. Stern telling Tony "fuck you" gets roughly 2 million hits the first day.
It's all a lot of sound and fury that doesn't signify anything. Pepper knows the day the government will be a real problem will be the day they don't bother with subpoenas and C-Span. Until that day they've got work to do.
By the time Tony makes his landing and hits his mark center stage at the Stark Expo, Pepper is already moving on to the list of other issues on the SI agenda that have taken a back burner to getting things up and running for Tony's pet project. From the time it was announced to the moment Tony jumped out of the heli-carrier planning and arranging the Expo felt like running a series of wind sprints and now Pepper was sore, tired and ready to get back to the real business of Stark Industries.
Back at the Long Island house, Pepper changes into ridiculously soft and squishy slippers and settles herself on the settee with her laptop with every intention of putting together and agenda for the next time she can get Tony to talk business. There are approximately ninety-seven issues that need to be addressed but Pepper's no wide eyed optimist. She knows better than to give Tony more than twenty minutes worth of information at a time. Genius? Yes. Long attention span for things that aren't of interest to him? No. She gets halfway through the third agenda before she falls asleep.
The first time she wakes up it's a few hours later and Tony is walking through the door as she's coming down the stairs.
"What time is it?" The expression on his face would be difficult to read even if she weren't bleary eyed. "Tony?"
"Late."
Pepper rubs a hand across her eyes and takes the last step off the stairs. "What's going on? Did something happen at the Expo?" Damn it. She should have attended but she'd been so relieved to have the planning stage over with that she'd skipped it and -
"I just drove Dylan home. He came by earlier." Tony's words don't hold any of the warmth or animation that she's come to expect whenever he talks about his son.
Pepper wouldn't have believed it if she weren't witness to it everytime Dylan was near, or even every time Tony mentioned him but he was every inch the proud and doting father, in his own Tony way. "He did? Did he enjoy the Expo?"
Her heart drops into her stomach when he tells her about Dylan's mugging. It's a terrible feeling for her and she can only imagine how Tony had taken it. With as tightly as he's been wound she's half expecting to turn on the T.V and find that half of greater New York had been razed to the ground while Iron Man went on a rampage. Dylan is going to be alright which is the only explanation for why Tony appears as calm as he does. But Pepper's not fooled for a minute into believing that he's calm beneath the surface.
There doesn't seem to be much to say and Pepper knows better than to try and convince Tony to rest, not after someone hurt his son. Some battles can't be won and still others shouldn't even be fought. It's a matter of timing.
It's almost like a compulsion - when she drags herself up to bed, before she can close her eyes for a second time that evening she flips on CNN. The news about Bruce's escape is everywhere from the story at the top of the hour, in the Situation Room, scrolling across the screen on the ticker. Pepper doesn't know what to do with it. Her brain won't process the information. Bruce couldn't have escaped.
Really? Who escapes from custody? This was real life not The Fugitive. Innocent people don't escape from prison. How? When Pepper had seen him Bruce barely looked like he was able to hold his own straw, much less -
Escape.
The tight ball of worry and fear in the pit of her stomach feels uncomfortably familiar but there is nothing that Pepper can do about it. She can't find Vesper's murder, she can't track down Bruce and get him to turn himself in. All Pepper can really do is keep her promise to do what she can for the Wayne Foundation, and keep working.
When Pepper wakes up again she's reminded - again - of the expression "Man plans, and God laughs". She'd been so certain that things would go back to their usual state of semi-chaos after the Expo was underway. That's when Tony brings up the Senate hearing.
It occurs to Pepper that her initial reaction shouldn't be annoyance at the United States government - and yet, it is. She's annoyed. She's annoyed that this is still an issue a year later. She's annoyed that elected officials are stupid enough to think that putting Tony Stark in the middle of a room filled to the rafters with men in uniforms feeding him straight lines in front of the cameras was going to end any other way but badly. It's a waste of taxpayer money and time not to mention it's an enormous waste of HER time. She can't believe that anyone going into the hearing had any reason to believe that it was going to end with Tony meekly offering up the suit and the technology to go with it.
The presence of Justin Hammer does nothing but add to the circus like atmosphere in the chamber. Pepper gets the feeling that Sen. Stern is sandbagging. For all of his pithy little speeches there's no substance to Hammer's statements.
"The committee would like to invite Col. James Rhodes to the chamber..."
She doesn't typically feel sorry for Rhodey. He's not the sort of person who invokes pity, but when he's asked to read specific passages of his report, Pepper knows that he's just being used to throw fuel on the fire.
At the end of the hearing Tony winds up with a standing ovation, Rhodey looks like he's got a migraine, and the YouTube clip of Tony calling the senators "ass clowns" and Sen. Stern telling Tony "fuck you" gets roughly 2 million hits the first day.
It's all a lot of sound and fury that doesn't signify anything. Pepper knows the day the government will be a real problem will be the day they don't bother with subpoenas and C-Span. Until that day they've got work to do.