In Absence Part 9

[4persephone]

Title: In Absence Part 9
Authors: Neon Daisies and 4persephone
Rating: R
Pairing:Tony/Pepper
Disclaimer: Ironman belongs to marvel comics, Mick and Amelia belong to our demented little brains...
Summary:  "You're both whipped," Rhodes says, shaking his head. "I'm not saying that you in particular didn't need it," he says, pointing at Tony, "but this is seriously painful to watch."

"I'm telling you man, you are getting obsessive. Pick something already, because we're running out of time." Michael Andrew's voice was a little amused, but it was also slowly hedging into the outright annoyed. "Hurry it up, Stark. It's 1 pm and I'm starving."

"The stuff they have here is absolute crap," Tony tells him with a pout that was worthy of a bad tempered five year old. He looks at the woman at the counter. "You're seriously telling me this is the best that you have?"

The woman at the very least is unimpressed. She looks like a person nearing the end of a difficult shift. "Sir, we're a military base, not Tiffany's. If you don't like our selection, you're welcome to do your shopping elsewhere."

Mick looks at Tony, who frowns in response then turns a disturbingly charming smile on the woman behind the counter. "Please give him the benefit of the doubt, Ma’am. He's getting married in another two hours and fifteen minutes..."

The woman's eyebrows raise and Mick actually winks in her direction. "Yes...pre-wedding jitters. Apparently everybody gets them."

"Yeah, well, we just decided to get married this morning. I haven't had time to actually shop yet." Tony glances over the selection again. If he can't have something huge, something that warns men off from at least five hundred feet away, then he wants something unique. And nothing here is really fitting the bill.

The woman at the counter looks vaguely more sympathetic. "Yes well Sir, I'm afraid that this is really all that we have. Most of the people who shop here are not at your socioeconomic level, though frankly that doesn’t make their love any less." She holds up her own hand to reveal a simple gold band. "My husband put this on my finger before he left for Operation Desert Storm. And he's been trying for more than 15 years to make me swap it out."

Tony takes a hard look at the women, then at the ring. Well, that just pretty much confirms that whatever he chooses he'll be stuck with. Because while he isn't particularly nostalgic, he knows Pepper is.

He doubts Ironman would be able to get the damn thing off her finger.

"Mick, remind me that buying from a civilian would be a very bad idea right now since we're trying to duck media coverage."

The woman actually scoffs. "Sir, any woman who would sell you her ring is probably not a ring you want to have. I mean seriously, talk about negative Karma."

Actually, he hadn't considered that idea quite yet, but he supposed he was acting a little desperate. And he doubted he'd find what he was looking for at any standard jeweler anyway. Not only would they blab, but there probably much call for multi-million dollar engagement rings in Savannah.

"She's your sister," Tony tells Mick. "You pick something."

Mick frowns at him a little, then leans over the counter. "That is cheating, man....you're supposed to pick something either utterly perfect or completely inappropriate. What, I'm supposed to give you help in the first truly important decision you make alone in your whole married life?" He squints at the rings under the glass. "They're all a little classicalist for Ginny. I mean yes she is a classicalist herself, but she looks better with something deceptively modern...and none of these fit."

The woman in the shop sighs, "There are some kiosks out by the food court with local artists...you might get lucky." She looks very put upon, like she's had to sacrifice commission to some loftier pursuit of good intention…or as if she can’t wait to get rid of them. Tony’s not sure which.

"We might be back," Tony warns. "When's your shift over?"

"I'm here until 2100 when the entire building closes." The woman shrugs a little and locks the glass case tightly shut. "Good luck in your search...and give your wife my congratulations."

"Thanks." Tony wanders out of the little store and into the rest of the complex. It really isn't much - a collection of shops ringing a central food court. However, he's antsy with the thwarted need to be at Pepper's side, and Rhodes still hasn't gotten back to him, and if he doesn't do something, he's going to go absolutely insane.

Mick sighs. "Come on, Stark. You need some food too, you know...they've got a Popeyes. We'll get chicken."

Tony's picking at his food when Rhodey finally responds to Tony's phone call. It's a measure of his concern that he shows up in person and out of uniform. "Tony," he calls when he's still at least fifty feet away. And Tony immediately abandons his food to go meet him.

Mick sighs in exasperation and picks up both trays. "All I can say is that it's a good thing I bought the eleven piece bucket." And then he's crossing the floor of the food court to where the two men are in an escalating conversation that seems to be centered on murder.

" - SOBs are going to find themselves under investigation for using unnecessary force," Rhodes is saying. "There was never any mention that Pepper might actually be dangerous."

"Of course Ginny is dangerous," Mick breaks in as he sets down their food. "Maybe she sat behind a desk when she worked for the CIA, but she knows how to take care of herself. Even without the hand to hand classes, she knows how to shoot, and she's confident enough to actually try to kill someone with her bare hands if she thought it was necessary. And if you don't lower your voices, you're going to get us thrown out of here." He gestures at the surrounding off-duty solders and airmen, at least half of them in uniform.

"Michael Potts," he says, holding out his hand. "Ginny's brother." Then the blonde scowls a little. "Please don’t wind him up, he's getting married in less than two hours. And right now we need to make sure he eats and that we find a decent ring."

"No, right now Rhodey's going to go check on Pepper because he's the only one of us who can get in," Tony insists as Mick and Rhodes shake hands. "And he's the only one of us that I trust to keep her safe."

Rhodey blinks. "Wait....you're getting married?"

Tony sighs. "Great...now you’re never going to get him to leave." He scowls at Rhodey. "Yes, and no you're not talking me out of it."

"Talking you out of it?" Rhodes actually laughs in relief. "Tony, all you're doing is making me cancel all the plans I was forming that involved you, Pepper and a double barreled shot gun."

Tony blinks. "Then you approve?"

"Hell, yes. And I'll go find Pepper in just a few minutes...they're going to call my cell when my boss is done chewing out whoever needs to get chewed out to get me in."

"What about our deal?" Tony asks in a moment.

"Deal?" Mick is watching the two of them like it's some kind of tennis match.

"The deal was you wouldn't sleep with her unless it was serious, Tony. I think you've met that standard. Granted you're still a punk, and Pepper's obviously whacked..."

"Hey!" Mick protests. "Stop badmouthing my sister!"

"She's marrying him," Rhodes says, pointing at Tony. "If it were someone else's sister, what would you call her?"

Mick had to admit that Rhodes has a point.

"Great, so now we're badmouthing me," Tony mutters under his breath.

Mick shrugs. "Well yeah, Tony, you kind of make it easy."

Then the younger man stops, literally right before he bites into a breast of chicken.

"Oh Lord, I'm an idiot." He mumbles, and then he starts searching through his pockets.

"Now that I can appreciate...let's get back to making fun of you." Tony takes a drumstick up from off of his plate to start nibbling at the end.

But then Mick beans him in the head with something small, dark and soft.

Tony picks up the small velvet bag that falls into his lap. He pulls it open and looks inside. "I thought we agreed your sister had first rights," he says as he shakes the contents of the bag into his hand. The ring falls into his palm and he examines it.

"I bought it when I was eighteen, Stark, and thought I'd give it to the women I loved. Turns out I was right, though not in the way I expected."

Tony looks up briefly. "Let me guess, it turns out the woman you fell in love with is nothing like what you'd wanted when you were eighteen." Tony knows a little bit about that himself, but he tries not to think about it much.

Mick shakes his head. "I couldn't have imagined the woman I'd fall for at that point in my life. Hell, I still can’t most days...which is probably part of my problem."

The ring in Tony's hand is gold and silver, braided together in a perfect mesh of interlacing cords, with a simple diamond at the center. He looks down at it a moment and shakes his head.

"Are you sure...?"

"It's not like I'm going to need it." Tony narrows his eyes at the man across the table, but Mick only shrugs. "I'm sure about this, Tony. Just take it. If you’re feeling guilty later you can take me out and help me find something new to put in the bag, just so I maintain my level of pathetic."

"You're both whipped," Rhodes says, shaking his head. "I'm not saying that you in particular didn't need it," he says, pointing at Tony, "but this is seriously painful to watch."

Mick shrugs a little. "Shut up and eat your chicken. I happen to be the only enlightened male at the table, well I'll turn you both to the dark side eventually." He shoves a spoon full of mashed potatoes into his mouth, eyes nearly rolling back in ecstasy. "God this is so good. I feel like I haven’t eaten in weeks."

About three minutes later Rhodey's phone rings and the man gets up from the table to answer it. He comes back seconds later and holds out his hand for Tony. "I'm cleared. Anything you want me to tell Pepper?"

"Amelia is on route here. So she may see her first. If not, well she needs to try and stay calm....oh and make sure that she's been checked by a doctor."

Rhodey frowns, "I thought she was okay...didn’t they basically just scare the shit out of her?"

"Apparently the last six months haven't done much more for her health than they've done for mine," Tony says quietly. "She's a high risk pregnancy, Jim." It's been years since Tony had used Rhodes's first name, but his constant worry for Pepper seems to warrant it now, just to ensure that the colonel is paying attention. "And if anything happens to her or the baby..." He tries to brush off his unease; it doesn't really work. "Besides myself, Mick, and Happy, you're the only one I trust with her."

Rhodes’s face is sober. "I'll head over now. And if she hasn’t seen a doctor, I'm taking her over to the hospital ER, and I'll call you from there."

There's a stubbornness in James Rhodes’s expression, that is more of a relief than Anthony Stark can express. "I'm glad you're here," he admits a little quietly. "I...this makes us good. If you take my drift."

"Does that mean I'm finally going to get you in to your cardiologist?" Rhodes asks, but he sounds more exasperated than anything else. "You're getting married. Time to be responsible, Tony."

"Not the one you picked, no. But another, yes. One who will actually listen when I tell him my meds are making me crazy."

Beside him at the table, Mick snorts as he takes another bite of chicken. "Okay are you two both done with your little guest spot on Oprah Winfrey?"

"You're one to talk, Dr. Phil." Tony rolls his eyes and let's go of Rhodey's hand. "And you can tell Pepper just how much I'm looking forward to watching her brother demonstrate how to properly manage a relationship."

"I don't want to know," Rhodes says as he turns around. "I'll call as soon as I talk to her."

Mick just glares across the table at Tony. "Okay, what have I told you about baiting me? Counterproductive."

Then he gets up from the table and strides across the courtyard and back into the women's clothing section. "Come on, Pepper's going to need at least one change of clothing.

Tony finishes his meal before following after. There's no point in arguing that he was just fighting fire with fire.

***************************************************

Pepper's not sure what's taking so long. It's an hour later than it was estimated that she'd be free to go, but she's still here. Even though she's had the chance to eat, shower, and change into the clean clothes that Mick found for her somehow - which she was unbelievably grateful for since she didn't want to get married in her pajamas - she's still fighting the sensation of being trapped.

Rhodes has been good company, probably the only reason she hadn't worked herself into a lather yet. The moment he'd come in, she'd had years of training used on her. Not military training, but the kind of training that came from reasoning with an unreasonable Tony Stark. It had bullied her into a short nap and more food than she'd really wanted to eat since she still felt like crap. He was also a pretty good at gin and he'd found a deck of cards somewhere about forty minutes ago when she'd threatened to start pacing.

Pepper was considering the cards in her hand when a loud commotion somewhere nearby distracted her. Someone, somewhere, was pissed, and clearly not afraid to show it.

Of course, her first reaction was to think it somehow concerned her, and not in any good way. That she was still here spoke for itself; clearly someone further up in the chain of command was not about to be swayed by Tony Stark's influence

Ten seconds later somebody flew backwards through the door of the bedroom and landed on his back on the carpet.

"I said we could do this the hard way, or the easy. But for the record, calling me 'little lady' when I'm already this angry, was a really bad idea..."

The woman who's just come through the doorway is actually rather small. Absolutely petite as a matter of fact. Not that Pepper's going to mention the fact, considering the scowl on the woman's face. She's practically seething at the man at her feet. "Oh, and for the last time I have executive level clearance, which means your CO can kiss my shiny white ass." Then she looks over at Pepper, smiles a little wryly and sort of waves her hand. "Hey there. Amelia Wright. Your brother for the record, is a spineless little dick."

Pepper very carefully lays her cards down on the table that Rhodey pulled up to the bed for her. "He's also my brother," she says carefully. "And only I get to call him that. Though usually it's the other way around."

Amelia rolls her eyes. "Don’t worry about it. I'm still going to drag him to Vegas. Well, assuming he hasn’t run again..."

She smiles then, relaxing, and striding forward, assessing Pepper carefully with shrewd brown eyes. "So...you okay? Because I need to know how long Crandall gets to be stuck in purgatory. Because I have to say I'm usually reasonable, but dragging my sister-in-law to be out of a house at gunpoint....kind of not okay with me."

And then her smile spreads into an out right grin and she extends a hand. "You can call me anything you like with the exception of Melly."

Pepper reaches out and is pleased to meet a grip that's sure but not trying to prove anything. "Does Mick know he's marrying you?" she asks as she pulls her hand back

"At the moment, no. I consider it an executive decision, because frankly the man lost his right to vote when he laid one on me and took off." She shakes her head then looks over at Rhodey. "Ah...sorry, I imagine this is a little bizarre for you to have to watch..."

"A little," he agrees, holding out his hand. "Jim Rhodes."

Amelia shakes his hand, and looks back at Pepper. "So for the record, has Mick actually told you how long he's had this thing for me?" She shakes her head. "Because I'm stuck with only partial information, and if I'm going into battle, I prefer to know the lay of the land before I fire the opening volley."

"I actually didn't know your name until yesterday, and I got that much from Hogan." Both women ignore Rhodey’s sound of astonishment. "All Mick has said on the subject is that he was 'retiring.' Something about not having another choice. Well, that and he admitted he was already taken when I told him he couldn't have Tony. Am I free to go?" Because as much as she'd love to sit down and have a heart to heart with the woman who'd had such a big role in her brother's life for an unknown number of years, all she really wants is to see Tony.

Amelia shakes her head. "Not yet. I've got Edward trying to get a call in to the president...but it's near the weekend, and you know he gets busy."

Then the tiny woman circles the room. "Not bad I suppose...have you gotten anything to eat? Stress can affect your sugar levels you know...I usually carry around a small bag of candy."

She fishes in her pocket and for a moment Pepper thinks she's about to be handed just that, but then precisely two seconds later Amelia fishes back out a cell phone.

"Andrews? Wright. Yes, that Wright. We're at the temporary lodging facility right next to the hospital, now get your butt over here." Then she hangs up the phone and sits down in a chair by the bed.

"Lord, I am so going to kill him," she mutters under her breath. "I mean look at this, he has actually made me shaky..."

"Are you alright?" Pepper looks around and takes the bottle of water that Rhodes hands her. Now that she isn't angry anymore, Amelia's skin is pale and Pepper doesn't know if it's natural or a sign of something. "Are you diabetic? Because Tony got me more food than I'll ever be able to eat..."

"Diabetic, no. A little hypoglycemic. And I kind of forgot breakfast....things have been a little stressful."

Pepper resists the urge to laugh. Her brother is in love with a women with hypoglycemia? There was twisted fate and there was just simple irony... Rhodey meanwhile, is climbing off of the bed. "I think there's food left over out in the main room, assuming you didn’t kick the table over." Then the colonel walks through the door, giving the two women some privacy to commiserate.

Amelia closes her eyes and rests her head back against the wall, and starts to mutter in a language Pepper doesn’t recognize under her breath. "He deliberately upset you, didn't he?" Pepper asks. She remembers Tony's comment that Mick had told the CIA he was kidnapping him. And if Mick had worked with Amelia for long, he'd have to know exactly what buttons to push to produce a reaction. And if getting Amelia pissed off was what would be most helpful at the time…

"I was upset already when the briefing landed on my desk, but yeah...the little voicemail wasn’t exactly helpful." Amelia shakes her head and opens her eyes, looking at Pepper with eyes that are agonized. "My God, for the last five months he's been completely off the map." She forces herself to stand, rubbing the back of her neck. "I suppose I should have seen it coming, he'd gone all quiet on me." Pepper raises an eyebrow and Amelia continued. "You brother used to be a regular Don Juan, and then suddenly boom...nada. Nothing. Not a woman for months."

The brunette shakes her head. "I should have forced him to talk to me...I mean the mission was bad...but how do you out shrink a shrink. I though he had PTSD, maybe... I was actually ready to order him on leave. I bought the man a damn hooker..."

This story is starting to sound all too familiar. Except Amelia's telling it from the other side. Pepper wonders again at Tony's willingness to set all of their crap, of HER crap, aside.

"I think Mick might be under the impression that you hate him now."

"I do. But without him...God, I don’t know how to be." The brunette shakes her head a little. "Sometimes as impossible as something seems...you just have to do it. Because frankly the alternative....It simply can’t be worth it."

Amelia sits, back down, blushing furiously. "My God, listen to me...I sound absolutely fucking crazy." She snorts. "When your brother comes in, I intend to kiss him and then strangle him. Because I mean just look...and just listen..." She runs her hands in a summary motion up and down her body. "I'm called the friggin Ice Queen at work half the time, and one kiss from your brother made a soap opera character out of me."

"Actually, you make a great deal of sense. Mick's not the only one in the family with the tendency to run. I just didn't kiss Tony first." Pepper leans back against the pillows on the bed and closes her eyes. "I feel like I ought to apologize to you since Tony won't let me apologize to him."

"Yes well, that's because it won't fix anything." A bemused male voice speaks up from the doorway. Both women turn to see Tony Stark leaning propped against the doorframe.

"Tony!" Pepper only manages to shift her weight onto her hips before Tony moves across the room to her. She grabs him and pulls him down for a kiss that quickly grows desperate.

Amelia watches this for several seconds, clearly amused, then looks back to the main room, and finds herself scowling. "Okay, where in heck is Andrews?"

Tony breaks the kiss just long enough to say, "Last I checked, hyperventilating in the car."

Both women stare at him in disbelief, and then Amelia snorts and shakes her head. "Typical. Just typical. If you both will excuse me." And she walks from the room.

"Tony..." When he just kisses her softly on the lips before turning his head to watch out the window that overlooked the parking lot, Pepper sighs and wraps her arms around him. He feels so good…though that doesn’t mean he can’t still irritate her. "You're enjoying this far too much," she mutters.

"Hell, yes. I consider it karmic equalizing..." Below they can see as Amelia marches out the door and across the parking lot. It take her about a minute and a half to locate the car they arrived in.

She’s got Michael Andrews out of the car and pinned against the window before he can blink. And judging by the kiss she's laying on him, the younger Andrews sibling is going to be paying for a very, very long time.

"Just because they're better at coping with hell is no reason to be amused," Pepper says as she watches. After everything he's done for her, she wants Mick to be happy. And at the first sign of self-sabotage, she's going to return the favor and kick him in the ass.

Tony snorts. "I'm allowed to have a sense of humor. And whether you want to admit it or not, this is hysterical." His hands are mindlessly stroking the length of her body as he speaks, and one spot on her lower back first melts under the touch then starts to actually twinge...

She winces and his eyes narrow, but before he can say a word she cuts him off. "The doctor checked me over very thoroughly, and he said we're both all right. That being said, it's not unusual for pregnant women to get all cramped up, especially when they've been arrested." She rests her head against his chest. "You have no idea how happy I was to hear your voice, Tony."

"No happier than I was to hear yours," he tells her frankly. "So are we good to leave yet, or do I need to have the chaplain come here...?"

"This is just going to be a quick ceremony?" she confirms. When he nods she asks, "Then can we do it on the beach?"

He shrugs. "If the Chaplain is willing to leave the base...I don’t see why not." He frowns a little. "It's hot as hell out though, Pepper. Can I convince you to stick with one of the air conditioned chapels and we'll do our reception out there instead?"

Pepper thinks about it. She really doesn't want to be stuck in the heat for any amount of time. But still... "I used to go to the beach because it reminded me of home," she tells him.

He murmurs in understanding, pulling her close. "To be honest, Pepper, the beach is going to take so much to arrange...I don’t want to waste the time." He shudders a little. "But if you really insist, we can try and make it there. I just can’t promise we'd pull it off by the end of today."

He doesn’t want it. For some reason, he doesn’t want to get married on the beach, and she’s not going to probe. "I don't want to make this stressful." Then she laughs disbelievingly. "Alright, any more stressful." She looks up at him. "You're sure you want to do this today."

"I'd do it nine months ago if I had a time machine."

She looks up at him in confusion, unable to remember anything special about that time. It was in that brief lull between his blowing their world up with his Ironman announcement and her tearing it down with her cowardice.

He shrugs a little. "I figured it out. We were out on the patio and you were sniping me about a meeting and the reality of it all just slammed right into me..." He looks almost ashamed. "Pepper, I've known I was in love with you since the 28th of September."

Her chest contracts painfully tight around her heart, because if he'd said something, or if she hadn't purposefully blinded herself, or had less to drink that night...

Two months. They somehow missed each other by a margin of two months.

"We'll get married today," she agrees. Because there's really no point in wasting time. He hadn't been rushed this morning when he'd agreed to marry her, and if somehow this afternoon had driven him to make it sooner rather than later, who was she to argue? The rights provided by marriage went both ways.

"And if can just to the reception after the baby is born, that'd be fine with me."

Tony nods. Glances out through the window. "My God...is she ever going to let him up for air?"

"She's probably hoping oxygen deprivation is going to make him more reasonable. Com'on, Stark." Pepper pushes at him. "Let's go get this thing done. Besides, this place isn't a whole lot better than a prison."

"Wright!" Tony hollers, pulling open the window. "Get your asses up here before you two get arrested for public indecency."

"Tony, we're leaving," Pepper says in confusion. Then she remembers it's not as easy as that. Though Tony is here she's still technically under arrest. She groans and sinks back on the pillows. "God, I just want this day to end."

Tony shuts the window again and climbs back in bed, burying his face in her shoulder. "You're not the only one, Potts. For now I suggest call the Chaplain and try and get the others inside. We need to let Rhodey and Mick argue about who’s going to serve as my best man."