Yes, Virginia, There Really Is An Iron Man: Chapter Twenty-Nine
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.
Author’s Note: Well, I’m all caught up. Updates will come slower because I no longer have a few chapters written ahead of time. With over 450 reviews on Fanfiction.net, I can say this is the most responded to fic I’ve ever written-and don’t worry about the idea of me abandoning it. With this pairing, it’s very hard to even think about not writing them.
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
Tony was still trying to get Rhodes to shut up by the time he pulled into his garage. Jarvis indicated that the War Machine armor was finally assembled and Tony eagerly gained the opportunity to change the damn subject from his personal life (and, God help him, he had never in his life hit a woman but was seriously considering the action with Cathy Evenstar or whatever her name was) to something far less invasive.
Like shoving your annoying best friend into a suit of armor that he has no clue how to operate.
“Where’s the power source?” Rhodey finally asked, circling the finished product like a man inspecting a new car.
Gonna kick the tires, Rhodey?
“Chestplate-same as mine,” Tony tapped the arc reactor on his chest with that strangely satisfying (if muffled) tinging noise and grinned. “Well, without the painful surgery part. I made it a while back-before you totally blew me off that one day I showed up during one of your classes.”
“Damn, Tony, that was…”
Quite some time ago. Right after he returned to the States, in fact.
The chest piece on the War Machine armor was shaped a bit like the “Superman” pentagon and was already glowing that soft blue that Rhodey could see through Tony’s grey T-shirt.
“What’s up with the shape?”
Tony shrugged and tossed a neoprene bodysuit at him. “Didn’t want it to look exactly like Mark II. Jarvis, let’s suit up.”
“As you wish, sir.”
Rhodey watched as the impressive silver and black armor slid beneath the opening panels of the test pad-totally immersed in just observing the machinery work to the point that Tony could zip himself into the awkward neoprene suit without even bothering to move to another part of the room.
He jumped when Tony tapped him roughly on the shoulder with a black-gloved hand. “Trust me, you need to wear the neoprene under the armor. Otherwise you end up with all kinds of cuts and bruises.”
Rhodes nodded and stripped down to his boxer briefs-somehow pulling the neoprene on at the same time. It had to be a test pilot thing… Stripping and dressing at the same time, that is. Tony mentally catalogued the technique to use later-just in case he was in a particular hurry to get out of “Tony Stark” and into “Iron Man.”
With a suppressed grin, Tony stood on the test pad and the robots assembled the Iron Man armor around him much faster (and simpler) than the last time Rhodes had seen it done. The pieces clicked together and fell in place in under a minute.
With the face shield still up, Tony moved off the test pad with surprising grace (for someone wearing a massive amount of titanium gold alloy) and gestured for Rhodes to stand in the same place. “Your turn, platypus.”
Rhodes walked to the center of the test pad and jabbed a finger in Tony’s direction. “What did I say, man?”
“Hey,” Tony raised his armored hands in forfeit, “It slipped out, okay? Just because you wrote that one term paper on-”
“Shut up, Tony.”
“I mean, you asked me to proofread-”
“You better stop it.”
“And the pictures you found were just adorable…”
“Tony!”
Stark grinned stopped talking. He flipped from jovial to serious in less than a second and returned to the moment at hand. “Just step into the boots and do a swan dive pose. When the gloves come down, put your hands inside and hold on while the rest is put in place.”
“Got it.”
Rhodes had to admit, after being a test pilot for as long as he had, no stomach fluttering moment could compare to the one he was having right then. He was on the verge of bouncing on his toes. At least, he would have if his toes weren’t currently trapped by some surprisingly comfortable titanium alloy boots.
“Hands, Rhodey.”
Jim reached out and fit his hands into the metal gloves. He held on to the handles and watched out of the corner of his eye as his biceps and forearms were covered. It all felt heavy until the chest piece came down and connected power to the rest of the suit.
It felt like it was floating around him.
“Jesus, Tony… This is-” he was cut off as the helmet clicked into place around his head. The faceplate remained open, but the shock made Rhodes pause.
“Jarvis, are you uploaded into the War Machine armor?” Tony asked.
“Indeed I am, sir.”
“Excellent. You ready, Rhodey?”
Rhodes stepped off the test pad and looked down at his hands. “This is amazing,” he whispered.
He looked up and saw that Tony’s forced smile (ever since Val the waitress had shown him the paper) wasn’t forced any longer. There was a glee behind those brilliant white teeth that emerged in what sounded like a giggle that Jim remembered from days long ago when Tony still had that innocence of childhood within him. Somehow, this tragedy that happened to him reignited that dwindling spark of adolescence.
“You ready?” Tony asked.
Rhodey grinned right back. “Hell yeah.”
They both dropped their faceplates and had to control a pair of rather geeky laughs.
After some minor explanations on how the systems worked, Tony had his friend hovering just above the floor. He joined him and they took a few slow trips around the shop (avoiding the cars at all costs) until Rhodey started getting the hang of it.
“Follow me,” Tony instructed-he started to tilt himself in order to come screaming out of the driveway.
“Sirs?”
Tony paused. “What is it, Jarvis?”
“You have visitors.”
“Can’t it wait?” Rhodey asked impatiently.
“I’m afraid not, Colonel Rhodes.”
Tony sighed and dropped back to the floor-popping the faceplate back up. “Give me visual, Jarvis.”
One of the windows in the shop darkened and a CCTV feed replaced the pane. Pepper was looking into the security camera with a look of complete exhaustion.
“Why haven’t you let her in, Jarvis?” Tony asked.
“Miss Potts requested to speak to you first, sir.”
Tony pulled the helmet off completely and Rhodey reluctantly did the same. “I’ll come back on Monday,” he said.
Tony quickly shot him a weird, pouty, I’ve-just-had-my-play-time-cut-short look, but Rhodes continued to dismantle himself. Apparently, Tony had made the armor easier to take off after it had taken both Rhodey and Pepper to get him out of the Iron Man gear when Stane basically crushed it around him.
It was amazing Tony had only gotten away with a couple of cracked metacarpals and some wicked bruises.
“Jarvis, speaker,” Tony ordered. The CCTV crackled to life with sound as well.
“Good day, Miss Potts,” Jarvis greeted.
“Hi, Jarvis. Is Tony watching?”
“Yes.”
“What’s wrong, Pepper?”
“I’m trying to stall.”
Tony grinned and he knew Pepper saw it on her own monitor, because she frowned slightly. “Get in here, Potts.”
“Traitor.”
“Just being a welcoming host, Pepper,” he smiled wider and released the catches on his shoulders to get out of his own armor. “See you soon,” he winked and cut the connection.
Rhodey was holding his clothes in one hand and staring at his helmet in the other. After a quick moment of indecision, he simply pulled his T-shirt and jeans on over the neoprene suit. He stuffed his socks in his pockets and shoved his feet into his boots with the speedy lacing that comes from years of practice. Tony wished he could follow his friend’s idea, but he wasn’t going to be leaving in under five minutes.
“Monday night-we’re going for a longer test flight,” Tony said, muffled through the shirt he was pulling on.
“Count on it,” Rhodey nodded and clapped an open hand on Tony’s shoulder a moment later. “I parked next to the garage-you mind if I take the long way out?” he pointed at the covered driveway.
Tony shrugged and muttered something to Butterfingers and Dummy about storing their dismantled armor. “Later.”
Rhodes waved as he walked. “Good luck.”
Tony winced.
“Tony?” Pepper’s voice floated down the stairwell.
“Sir, Miss Potts and her guests are waiting in the living room.”
“Be right up.”
He took a moment of silent reflection (interrupted only by the sound of his robots gathering the discarded armor) to consider the conversation that was definitely about to happen. He wondered if Pepper had called legal yet…
With a deep breath, Tony climbed the steps and smiled warmly at the people scattered in his living room.
Pepper had her thumbnail clenched between her teeth.
Tony kissed her on the cheek in reassurance and pulled her hand down from her lips. “Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” she nodded shakily. “Um, this is my mom, Georgia, my sister Caroline, and my brother-in-law-.”
“Stephen Crane! Good to see you outside of an R&D meeting,” Tony grinned widely and shook Stephen’s hand. “By the way, I’ve got a few things I wanted to talk to you about on Monday’s meeting-but I’d like your input before I pitch it to the guys.”
Stephen smiled back. “Sounds good, Tony.”
Tony sighed in relief at not hearing someone call him “Mr. Stark” for once. He immediately turned to his other guests and fought the urge to bolt back downstairs. “Mrs. Potts, Mrs. Crane.”
“’Carrie,’ please, Tony,” Caroline corrected.
“Is this relationship serious, or is my Ginny just another notch in your rather chipped bedpost?” Georgia interrupted-ruining the light mood.
Tony’s smile fell almost entirely and he sat down on the very corner of his sofa. Pepper eased beside him and took his shaking right hand in hers-giving him three light squeezes.
I love you.
He squeezed back rather hard. “Pepper means everything to me, Mrs. Potts. And when I say everything, I mean I wouldn’t be the man I am right now without her. I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for her.”
The confession smacked everyone in the chest with the force of a punch from a well-trained boxer. Pepper, in particular, clenched her fingers tighter around Tony’s.
Georgia swallowed the rock of emotion that had since formed in her throat and nodded shakily. “Okay.”
“Wow,” said Caroline.
Georgia slyly swiped a hand across her eyes and nodded a little more surely. “Okay. And the photo in the papers?”
“Mom, I already told you-”
“That was a private moment spit upon by a spiteful, stalker-like woman that’s getting a restraining order slapped on her,” Tony interjected. “Right?” he whispered to Pepper.
“Handled, Tony.”
Georgia glanced between them and diverted her eyes to the wall behind the piano. As she pondered the idea of the severe breach in employer/employee relations a pair of framed drawings caught her eye.
One was a comic strip that had been recreated using gouache and heavy ink. Her gaze drifted across the wall and locked onto the second framed drawing.
It was done by the same hand that did the comic strip and depicted her daughter in a beautiful green dress-the same dress that she wore in the scandalous photograph-dancing with Tony Stark.
She looked back at Virginia and Tony and watched them both speak animatedly with Caroline and Stephen.
Involuntarily, she smiled.
Tony saw it out of the corner of his eye and smiled as well.
TBC
Back | Forward
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.
Author’s Note: Well, I’m all caught up. Updates will come slower because I no longer have a few chapters written ahead of time. With over 450 reviews on Fanfiction.net, I can say this is the most responded to fic I’ve ever written-and don’t worry about the idea of me abandoning it. With this pairing, it’s very hard to even think about not writing them.
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
Tony was still trying to get Rhodes to shut up by the time he pulled into his garage. Jarvis indicated that the War Machine armor was finally assembled and Tony eagerly gained the opportunity to change the damn subject from his personal life (and, God help him, he had never in his life hit a woman but was seriously considering the action with Cathy Evenstar or whatever her name was) to something far less invasive.
Like shoving your annoying best friend into a suit of armor that he has no clue how to operate.
“Where’s the power source?” Rhodey finally asked, circling the finished product like a man inspecting a new car.
Gonna kick the tires, Rhodey?
“Chestplate-same as mine,” Tony tapped the arc reactor on his chest with that strangely satisfying (if muffled) tinging noise and grinned. “Well, without the painful surgery part. I made it a while back-before you totally blew me off that one day I showed up during one of your classes.”
“Damn, Tony, that was…”
Quite some time ago. Right after he returned to the States, in fact.
The chest piece on the War Machine armor was shaped a bit like the “Superman” pentagon and was already glowing that soft blue that Rhodey could see through Tony’s grey T-shirt.
“What’s up with the shape?”
Tony shrugged and tossed a neoprene bodysuit at him. “Didn’t want it to look exactly like Mark II. Jarvis, let’s suit up.”
“As you wish, sir.”
Rhodey watched as the impressive silver and black armor slid beneath the opening panels of the test pad-totally immersed in just observing the machinery work to the point that Tony could zip himself into the awkward neoprene suit without even bothering to move to another part of the room.
He jumped when Tony tapped him roughly on the shoulder with a black-gloved hand. “Trust me, you need to wear the neoprene under the armor. Otherwise you end up with all kinds of cuts and bruises.”
Rhodes nodded and stripped down to his boxer briefs-somehow pulling the neoprene on at the same time. It had to be a test pilot thing… Stripping and dressing at the same time, that is. Tony mentally catalogued the technique to use later-just in case he was in a particular hurry to get out of “Tony Stark” and into “Iron Man.”
With a suppressed grin, Tony stood on the test pad and the robots assembled the Iron Man armor around him much faster (and simpler) than the last time Rhodes had seen it done. The pieces clicked together and fell in place in under a minute.
With the face shield still up, Tony moved off the test pad with surprising grace (for someone wearing a massive amount of titanium gold alloy) and gestured for Rhodes to stand in the same place. “Your turn, platypus.”
Rhodes walked to the center of the test pad and jabbed a finger in Tony’s direction. “What did I say, man?”
“Hey,” Tony raised his armored hands in forfeit, “It slipped out, okay? Just because you wrote that one term paper on-”
“Shut up, Tony.”
“I mean, you asked me to proofread-”
“You better stop it.”
“And the pictures you found were just adorable…”
“Tony!”
Stark grinned stopped talking. He flipped from jovial to serious in less than a second and returned to the moment at hand. “Just step into the boots and do a swan dive pose. When the gloves come down, put your hands inside and hold on while the rest is put in place.”
“Got it.”
Rhodes had to admit, after being a test pilot for as long as he had, no stomach fluttering moment could compare to the one he was having right then. He was on the verge of bouncing on his toes. At least, he would have if his toes weren’t currently trapped by some surprisingly comfortable titanium alloy boots.
“Hands, Rhodey.”
Jim reached out and fit his hands into the metal gloves. He held on to the handles and watched out of the corner of his eye as his biceps and forearms were covered. It all felt heavy until the chest piece came down and connected power to the rest of the suit.
It felt like it was floating around him.
“Jesus, Tony… This is-” he was cut off as the helmet clicked into place around his head. The faceplate remained open, but the shock made Rhodes pause.
“Jarvis, are you uploaded into the War Machine armor?” Tony asked.
“Indeed I am, sir.”
“Excellent. You ready, Rhodey?”
Rhodes stepped off the test pad and looked down at his hands. “This is amazing,” he whispered.
He looked up and saw that Tony’s forced smile (ever since Val the waitress had shown him the paper) wasn’t forced any longer. There was a glee behind those brilliant white teeth that emerged in what sounded like a giggle that Jim remembered from days long ago when Tony still had that innocence of childhood within him. Somehow, this tragedy that happened to him reignited that dwindling spark of adolescence.
“You ready?” Tony asked.
Rhodey grinned right back. “Hell yeah.”
They both dropped their faceplates and had to control a pair of rather geeky laughs.
After some minor explanations on how the systems worked, Tony had his friend hovering just above the floor. He joined him and they took a few slow trips around the shop (avoiding the cars at all costs) until Rhodey started getting the hang of it.
“Follow me,” Tony instructed-he started to tilt himself in order to come screaming out of the driveway.
“Sirs?”
Tony paused. “What is it, Jarvis?”
“You have visitors.”
“Can’t it wait?” Rhodey asked impatiently.
“I’m afraid not, Colonel Rhodes.”
Tony sighed and dropped back to the floor-popping the faceplate back up. “Give me visual, Jarvis.”
One of the windows in the shop darkened and a CCTV feed replaced the pane. Pepper was looking into the security camera with a look of complete exhaustion.
“Why haven’t you let her in, Jarvis?” Tony asked.
“Miss Potts requested to speak to you first, sir.”
Tony pulled the helmet off completely and Rhodey reluctantly did the same. “I’ll come back on Monday,” he said.
Tony quickly shot him a weird, pouty, I’ve-just-had-my-play-time-cut-short look, but Rhodes continued to dismantle himself. Apparently, Tony had made the armor easier to take off after it had taken both Rhodey and Pepper to get him out of the Iron Man gear when Stane basically crushed it around him.
It was amazing Tony had only gotten away with a couple of cracked metacarpals and some wicked bruises.
“Jarvis, speaker,” Tony ordered. The CCTV crackled to life with sound as well.
“Good day, Miss Potts,” Jarvis greeted.
“Hi, Jarvis. Is Tony watching?”
“Yes.”
“What’s wrong, Pepper?”
“I’m trying to stall.”
Tony grinned and he knew Pepper saw it on her own monitor, because she frowned slightly. “Get in here, Potts.”
“Traitor.”
“Just being a welcoming host, Pepper,” he smiled wider and released the catches on his shoulders to get out of his own armor. “See you soon,” he winked and cut the connection.
Rhodey was holding his clothes in one hand and staring at his helmet in the other. After a quick moment of indecision, he simply pulled his T-shirt and jeans on over the neoprene suit. He stuffed his socks in his pockets and shoved his feet into his boots with the speedy lacing that comes from years of practice. Tony wished he could follow his friend’s idea, but he wasn’t going to be leaving in under five minutes.
“Monday night-we’re going for a longer test flight,” Tony said, muffled through the shirt he was pulling on.
“Count on it,” Rhodey nodded and clapped an open hand on Tony’s shoulder a moment later. “I parked next to the garage-you mind if I take the long way out?” he pointed at the covered driveway.
Tony shrugged and muttered something to Butterfingers and Dummy about storing their dismantled armor. “Later.”
Rhodes waved as he walked. “Good luck.”
Tony winced.
“Tony?” Pepper’s voice floated down the stairwell.
“Sir, Miss Potts and her guests are waiting in the living room.”
“Be right up.”
He took a moment of silent reflection (interrupted only by the sound of his robots gathering the discarded armor) to consider the conversation that was definitely about to happen. He wondered if Pepper had called legal yet…
With a deep breath, Tony climbed the steps and smiled warmly at the people scattered in his living room.
Pepper had her thumbnail clenched between her teeth.
Tony kissed her on the cheek in reassurance and pulled her hand down from her lips. “Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” she nodded shakily. “Um, this is my mom, Georgia, my sister Caroline, and my brother-in-law-.”
“Stephen Crane! Good to see you outside of an R&D meeting,” Tony grinned widely and shook Stephen’s hand. “By the way, I’ve got a few things I wanted to talk to you about on Monday’s meeting-but I’d like your input before I pitch it to the guys.”
Stephen smiled back. “Sounds good, Tony.”
Tony sighed in relief at not hearing someone call him “Mr. Stark” for once. He immediately turned to his other guests and fought the urge to bolt back downstairs. “Mrs. Potts, Mrs. Crane.”
“’Carrie,’ please, Tony,” Caroline corrected.
“Is this relationship serious, or is my Ginny just another notch in your rather chipped bedpost?” Georgia interrupted-ruining the light mood.
Tony’s smile fell almost entirely and he sat down on the very corner of his sofa. Pepper eased beside him and took his shaking right hand in hers-giving him three light squeezes.
I love you.
He squeezed back rather hard. “Pepper means everything to me, Mrs. Potts. And when I say everything, I mean I wouldn’t be the man I am right now without her. I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for her.”
The confession smacked everyone in the chest with the force of a punch from a well-trained boxer. Pepper, in particular, clenched her fingers tighter around Tony’s.
Georgia swallowed the rock of emotion that had since formed in her throat and nodded shakily. “Okay.”
“Wow,” said Caroline.
Georgia slyly swiped a hand across her eyes and nodded a little more surely. “Okay. And the photo in the papers?”
“Mom, I already told you-”
“That was a private moment spit upon by a spiteful, stalker-like woman that’s getting a restraining order slapped on her,” Tony interjected. “Right?” he whispered to Pepper.
“Handled, Tony.”
Georgia glanced between them and diverted her eyes to the wall behind the piano. As she pondered the idea of the severe breach in employer/employee relations a pair of framed drawings caught her eye.
One was a comic strip that had been recreated using gouache and heavy ink. Her gaze drifted across the wall and locked onto the second framed drawing.
It was done by the same hand that did the comic strip and depicted her daughter in a beautiful green dress-the same dress that she wore in the scandalous photograph-dancing with Tony Stark.
She looked back at Virginia and Tony and watched them both speak animatedly with Caroline and Stephen.
Involuntarily, she smiled.
Tony saw it out of the corner of his eye and smiled as well.
TBC
Back | Forward