Chapter Text
October 2001
Pepper stares up at the modest, slightly shabby apartment building, trying to keep her trepidation from her face. She’s got a briefcase in hand, and a cheque that weighs a thousand pounds in her pocket.
This is not what she’d thought being Tony Stark’s personal assistant would entail. She’s only had the job for a little over a year, and despite the unusual circumstances of her hiring, she’d assumed it'd be fairly run of the mill- scheduling appointments, making coffee runs, picking up his dry cleaning, dodging wandering hands. And up until that night nearly two months ago, when she’d discovered him in his penthouse, drunk out of his mind and gripping his right arm in shock and horror, it had been all those things- minus the wandering hands, thankfully.
She walks up to the entrance to the building and presses the buzzer, not needing to check her notes in order to find the right one. She can hear the system ringing, and for a moment thinks nobody will answer. She’s not entirely sure what she’ll do if that happens- she’ll feel awfully foolish if she has to go sit in her rented car until someone shows up. To her relief, a voice answers the call after a moment, with a crackle of feedback.
“Hello?” It’s wary, probably for good reason- this isn’t the nicest area of the city, and it’s late. Pepper had come here straight from the airport, not wanting to linger. She’ll do the job she came here to do, and be back on a plane to Malibu first thing in the morning.
She clears her throat. “Hello, my name is Virginia Potts. Is this Mr. Richard Parker I’m speaking to?”
The line is silent for a moment. “This is his brother, Ben. I’m pretty sure whatever you’re selling, Miss, he ain’t interested.”
“I’m not selling anything, Mr. Parker. I need to speak with either Mary or Richard Parker. The matter is urgent.” She hesitates for a moment, then steels herself. She has a hunch. “I work for Tony Stark; I’m here on his behalf.”
The line is quiet for a long, tense moment. If it weren’t for the faint crackling coming through the speaker, she’d think he’d hung up on her. Then, so quiet she’s pretty sure she wasn’t meant to catch it, she hears the man- Ben- mutter, “ Fuck .” In a louder voice, he adds, “Alright Miss Potts, in you come, I guess,” and buzzes her through.
Mary and Richard Parker are not interested in Tony’s money, that fact becomes immediately apparent.
Pepper can’t say she’s entirely surprised- she’d warned Tony that they would very likely reject the offer. He’d scoffed at the thought- and to be fair, there were an impressive number of zeros on the cheque. He’d assumed that because Mary and Richard aren’t well off- both currently enrolled in doctoral programs at NYU, and accordingly impoverished because of it- they’d leap at the chance to make some money. Pepper hadn’t agreed, although she hadn’t said so at the time, still unsure how much backtalk Tony Stark would allow from his young, replaceable PA. If the Parkers were after money, Pepper was sure they’d have sold the story. At the very least, it would be them popping up on Tony’s doorstep, not the other way around.
Tony Stark is like most wealthy people- he assumes that money is the most valuable thing a person can have. But Pepper, having grown up with a healthy respect for a budget under her single mother’s masterful navigation of two full time jobs, knows better than that, and she suspects the Parkers do as well. According to Tony’s frighteningly in-depth background check on them, both Parkers grew up in insular, low-income neighbourhoods- Richard’s historically Jewish, Mary’s Italian. There’s a story there that Pepper would be otherwise fascinated to hear, but now… Now is not the time.
Mary and Richard are young and attractive, polite, but firm in their denial. They each sport permanent under-eye bags that speak to many, many sleepless nights, either researching their theses or tending a newborn, or the unholy combination of the two. They reject Pepper’s first offer out of hand- looking so insulted that Pepper has to bite back a reflexive apology. Ben, who is both older and taller than Richard, a mechanic of some kind, Pepper recalls, and appropriately muscled, props himself up against the living room wall and watches her, expression bland, saying nothing.
“Listen,” Mary says quietly, to avoid waking the baby sleeping in the next room, “we understand Mr. Stark’s position on this, and we’re not intending to say or do anything about it. We don’t want to bring any trouble on ourselves. But we won’t sign that contract- our child is not for sale.”
Pepper flinches. Her throat burns with acid at the phrasing. “Mrs. Parker, you don’t-”
“No, I’m sorry, but I think you don’t, Miss Potts. You’re here on behalf of one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful men, who couldn’t even be bothered to come here and have this conversation with us personally, asking us to promise you we’ll force our son to ignore a fundamental part of himself. And in exchange for more money than we’ll ever see in our natural lives. It’s tawdry, and obscene. Peter will do what he likes, when he is old enough to make the decision, and that’s that. We won’t take the choice away from him, and we certainly won’t let Tony Stark do it. He can keep his money.”
Her words hang in the silence that follows. Richard clutches Mary’s hand, a show of unity. Pepper shifts in her seat, somehow more uncomfortable now than she had been when this started. She considers and discards a number of responses. Finally, she says, “Will you allow me to put the money in trust for him, to do with what he will, once he turns 21?”
That makes Mary’s resolve flicker, for a moment. “The NDA-”
“You don’t have to sign,” Pepper cuts in. “You’re right- it was an unfair and inappropriate thing to ask of you, and I- I apologize. Mr. Stark… I know what this looks like, and I understand how you feel. But for what it’s worth, I think he is trying to do right by Peter, in the only way he knows how. He’d want Peter to have this money, he’d- he wants him taken care of.”
Mary and Richard exchange looks. “You know that caring for a child requires more than providing for them financially, correct, Miss Potts?”
Pepper smiles. “I know. I’m afraid that Mr. Stark doesn’t.” She doesn’t mean it as an insult, and from the looks on Mary and Richard’s faces, she knows they understand that it isn’t.
The room falls into silence again. Pepper waits, but after several strained minutes, concedes defeat. She moves to rise.
“Miss Potts…” Pepper stops, looking back at Mary. “Put it in trust. Peter can decide what to do with it, when the time comes.”
Pepper smiles, then takes a business card out of her pocket. After a moment’s deliberation, she pulls a pen from her briefcase and scrawls her personal phone number across the back of it. She hands it to Mary, who hesitates briefly, then takes it.
“If you or Peter need anything at all, call me on that number. I’ll do whatever is in my power to help.”
Mary nods stiffly. “Thank you, Miss Potts.”
Pepper smiles again, then lets herself out of the apartment. Technically, she’d failed at her assigned task, something she normally finds abhorrent. But as she strides towards her rental car, nicer than anything sitting in the building’s overgrown parking lot, she feels something tightly clenched in her chest loosen. She feels lighter than she has in months.
Pepper tries her best to put the Parker family out of her mind. It’s not actually all that difficult- despite the fact that their son had rocked the foundations of her employer’s world, his existence doesn’t really affect her day-to-day.
She does get updates, periodically, on how the Parkers’ lives are proceeding- Tony had set an alert for any news about the family to be immediately directed to her, then made her swear to never talk to him about it. She’d balked at that, but he’d been insistent.
“Do whatever you need to, just take care of hi- take care of it. I trust your judgement.”
He’d been in his basement workshop, turned slightly away from her, shoulders tense and eyes staring blankly through the schematics projected before him. After a moment, she’d nodded, sharply, and moved on.
So JARVIS lets her know if any news related to Mary, Richard, or Peter crops up, and it does, occasionally. Mary and Richard each defend their theses successfully and earn their doctorates, first Mary in engineering and then Richard, a few months later, in biochemistry. Pepper arranges for flowers to be sent each time. When Mary gets hired for a non-profit that builds affordable housing for low-income families, Pepper quietly sends the organization’s information to SI’s corporate social responsibility team. She's pleased to hear, a few months later, that the organization is selected as the recipient of a fairly sizable grant from Stark Industries. The first time Richard’s name crops up on a patent application- somewhat disappointingly for a drug he developed for Oscorp- she sends him a gift card for an expensive restaurant in New York and a note of congratulations.
Overall, however, their interaction is limited, and Pepper goes about her business without thinking of them all that frequently. Weeks turn into months turn into years, and the Parkers become a semi-annual notification in her calendar, a reminder to add some money to the trust fund- from her account, not Tony’s- on Peter’s birthday and Christmas, and nothing more notable than that.
June 2006
It’s nearing the end of a particularly successful second quarter when the notification comes, pulling Pepper from where she’s studying the company’s topline financial report. It’s fairly early in the morning, and there’s a board meeting scheduled later that day to review how SI is coming along with the year’s strategic plan.
Pepper is in New York for the occasion. As CEO, Tony is technically the one who is supposed to lead both this and the year-end review, though as time has gone on he’s become less and less involved during the planning process. Eventually, during the most recent review prior to this one, he’d simply shrugged when the time had come to present, waved vaguely at Pepper, and said, “Pep can go through it with you, she knows all this better than I ever could anyway.”
She’d yelled at him, afterwards, for putting her on the spot like that. He’d laughed and given her another raise. This time around, he hasn't even bothered to come to New York with her.
A dialogue box opens on her laptop and JARVIS’ voice breaks her concentration. “Ms Potts, I have an urgent update regarding protocol 365-388a, would you like to hear it?”
Pepper frowns, straightening up from where she’s slumped over her computer. That’s the Parkers’ notification protocol. JARVIS is set to send her a message or email whenever something pops up online or in the news that matches the filters placed on their names. That he’s asking verbally- using the protocol designation in case anyone is around to listen in- tells her that whatever it is, it’s bigger than a graduation or good career move.
A prickle of unease creeps up her spine. If they’ve gone to the press, after all this time… “I’m clear JARVIS, what is it?”
“Ms Potts, I’m afraid that Richard and Mary Parker’s obituaries have been printed in this morning’s paper. It seems they were on the British Airways Flight 670.”
Pepper puts a trembling hand over her mouth. The flight had gone down over the Atlantic ocean three days ago. There had been no names of the dead released to the press, likely to allow time to notify the families. She’d known Richard and Mary had been in London for a conference- there'd been a small note listing Mary as one of the presenters on the conference organizer’s website. She hadn’t thought anything of it, even when news of the plane crash had come out.
She doesn’t know if they’d brought Peter with them.
“JARVIS, Peter-”
“It appears he was not on the flight, as the obituary mentions him having survived them.”
God, poor kid. He’ll be turning 5 in a few months- that’s old enough to know his parents weren’t going to be around anymore, but too young to really understand.
This also poses some… problems, the more ruthless part of her mind whispers. She needs to know who Peter’s guardianship has transferred to- if he goes into foster care they will almost certainly take record of his soul mark, and she can’t assume that a social worker or foster parent will remain quiet about something like that.
She thinks about the one time she’d actually met the Parkers, and remembers that Richard’s brother had been there. Ben, she thinks his name was. If she’s got any luck at all, he’ll be the one to have taken custody of Peter.
“JARVIS, when’s the funeral?”
“This Saturday, Miss Potts.”
She’s supposed to fly back to Malibu Friday evening, but she doesn’t think Tony will mind if she stays a few extra days. She’ll say she’s visiting a friend in the city.
“JARVIS, can you pull some information for me?”
“I have been instructed to perform any tasks that you require, Miss Potts.”
Okay. Well, that’s helpful. “Compile everything you can on Ben Parker. And add the funeral to my calendar, please.”
It’s still uncomfortable, after over half a decade of working for Tony, for Pepper to acknowledge that she’s become somewhat of a household name. Nonetheless, it’s true that she has. She’s done a few interviews, at the behest of SI’s PR department, usually to try to smooth over another of Tony's spectacular drunken escapades. How much she enjoys working for him, how he’s really not like that in private, how proud she is of Stark Industries and the work they do- that sort of thing. It’s unusual for a personal assistant to have the level of notoriety, small though it is, that she does, but then. She works for an unusual man.
She doesn’t want to be recognized, so she doesn’t actually join the service until it’s already moved from the chapel to the cemetery. She hangs back, hair down and sunglasses on to guard against the bright summer sun, hand clasped tightly around the flowers she’d brought.
She can see Ben, just as tall and broadly muscular as she remembers, with a slight, dark-haired woman next to him that must be his wife, May. Between them is a small boy- brown curls and dark, red-rimmed eyes. He’s leaning heavily against one of May’s legs, arm curled around her calf, with the other hand held tightly in Ben’s. He isn’t crying. Maybe it’s the power of suggestion, with what she knows about him, but something in his small, serious face reminds her of Tony.
She keeps back as the service concludes and the caskets are lowered into adjacent lots. Once the final words are said, guests mill about, offering hugs and condolences to the remaining Parkers. She keeps her eyes trained on Peter, waiting for the crowd to disperse, and as such she doesn’t immediately notice that May has left his side.
“What are you doing here?”
Pepper turns, then has to stop herself from taking an involuntary step backwards. May Parker is shorter than her by a good several inches, but she seems to tower in her rage.
“I- Mrs. Parker-”
“No, really? Who the hell do you think you are, showing up here like this?” May has her fists balled up at her sides and her voice is shaking with anger. Pepper wonders if she’s about to get punched.
She holds up a hand, placating. “I just came to- to pay my respects.”
“Your respects? Your respects? That’s awfully fucking rich coming from you. Talking about respect .”
And, okay. Obviously there's something going on here that Pepper doesn’t understand, but she’s not sure she deserves this.
“Mrs. Parker-”
“May? What’s going on?”
Both women turn. Ben is standing a few feet away. He’s hoisted Peter into his arms, and the little boy’s face is tucked into the crook of his neck. All Pepper can see of him is a mop of curls.
She sees it, the moment Ben recognizes her. Unlike his wife, he doesn’t look angry. In fact, as his gaze sweeps over her and lands on the bouquet of lilies in her hand, it softens.
“I’m very sorry for your loss, Mr. Parker.” She glances briefly over at May, who has deflated slightly in her husband’s presence. “And yours as well, Mrs. Parker.”
Ben smiles tightly. “Thank you for coming, Ms Potts.”
May makes a noise a bit like an angry cat hissing.
Pepper squares her shoulders and draws in a fortifying breath. “Let me lay these down and then- is there a place we can meet? I think we need to have a talk.”
Ben gives her their address, and Pepper gives them a bit of a head start so they can settle in before she arrives. She spends the time looking down at Mary and Richard’s graves, the white of the lilies vibrant in the sun, stark against the freshly-turned dark earth.
She feels as though she should say something, but she isn’t really sure what. In the end, she turns away without saying anything at all- there’s no-one in there to hear her, anyway.
May and Ben Parker’s apartment is even shabbier than Mary and Richard’s had been. Pepper thinks uncomfortably about the trust, already full with enough money to keep someone living well for decades, if they spent it wisely, and accumulating interest the longer it goes untouched. She thinks uncomfortably too, of the airy apartment in downtown Malibu where she lives when she isn’t just staying in a guest room in Tony’s mansion.
She’s sitting at their rickety kitchen table, trying not to be to obvious about avoiding eye contact with a glowering May. Peter had already been put down for a nap by the time she’d arrived, and Ben had directed her to take a seat and wait for him to make some refreshments.
He sets a steaming mug of tea before her and another before May. It’s not really the weather for tea, especially not in the Parkers’ cramped, air conditioning-less apartment, but she wraps her palms around the warm mug regardless. Ben pulls up a chair and folds his body onto it with a sigh.
Pepper clears her throat. “Mr. and Mrs. Parker, I truly am sorry for your loss. Thank you for seeing me on what I know must be a difficult day.”
Ben nods, solemnly. May scoffs.
“You’re here to make sure we don’t tell anyone about Peter and Tony Stark, yes?”
She winces internally, keeping her expression neutral, but polite. There’s nothing about managing this situation that's particularly comfortable for her, but she's done a lot of uncomfortable things for Tony Stark over the years. She can handle this. “I really did want to pay my respects. I was in town when I heard the news. I didn’t know them well, but-”
May sets her tea down on the wooden table with a sharp thud, and liquid sloshes over the rim.
“That might be the case, fine, but you don’t need to bother yourself with us. We’ll honor the agreement Mary and Richard made- this is ultimately Peter’s choice, when the time comes. And you can stop with the little- gifts and notes and reminders that Tony Stark has his eye on us. You can go back and tell your boss that he needn’t worry himself with his poor little liability of a soulmate anymore.”
That startles Pepper. “Wait, that’s not-”
“What was it then, if not that? Stark is obviously not interested in being in Peter’s life, fine, it is what it is, but why the hell would he have you send any of those things, or come here today, if it wasn’t to- to intimidate Mary and Richard into-”
“Tony didn’t ask me to send those. And he- he doesn’t know I’m here.”
“ What?”
Pepper takes a deep breath, then closes her eyes briefly, collecting herself. When she opens them, May is watching her warily, still evidently angry, but she’s holding back her tirade, for the moment. Ben is frowning, but he looks thoughtful, not angry. He’s got a hand clasped with May’s, and Pepper is struck suddenly with how similar this scene is to one that had occurred, all those years ago, when she’d first barged her way into this family’s life on Tony Stark's behalf.
“Tony has asked me- well, me by way of his AI, JARVIS- to keep an eye on Peter. He’s cut himself off from any knowledge of Peter or his life. He doesn’t know I kept in semi-contact with Mary and Richard, and he doesn’t know about their- their deaths. He doesn’t even know about the trust fund- he thinks they took the money.”
She feels a bit bad about that, to be truthful- he’s operating on the assumption that this is all buried under an NDA. But Pepper knew she’d made the right decision then, and she knows it now.
Ben speaks, voice slow and pensive. “I suppose I don’t understand, Ms Potts. Even if he doesn’t know about any of this, the fact remains that he clearly doesn’t want to be involved in Peter’s life. So why would you bother keeping in touch?”
Pepper worries her lip briefly. She doesn’t love to talk about Tony to people who are effectively strangers- she’ll bitch about him to Rhodey or Happy, no problem, and gladly listen to their good-natured complaints in return, but she is cognizant of how juicy a story it could be for Tony Stark’s Right Hand Woman to be caught criticizing him publicly. She doesn’t even complain about her job to her own friends, she’s so paranoid about it.
But. If anyone deserves to understand Tony Stark, it’s the Parkers.
“Tony is… you have to understand. He spent the majority of his life believing he’d never have a soulmate. You know what people say about the Markless- there’s a reason why he always publicly wore the usual arm covering, even when he had nothing to cover. To wake up one day and suddenly realize that he wasn’t markless? It… took a toll.”
“So he- what- outsourced his soulmating to the staff?”
Pepper controls her reaction to that. It’s harsh, but not entirely wrong.
“That’s… fair." She has to hold in a sigh. "He thinks that by keeping Peter at arms length, he’s protecting him.”
Both May and Ben straighten up at that. “ Protecting -”
“No, not- not like that. Tony doesn’t have anyone in his life who isn’t in some way paid to be there. Me, his driver, his mentor- even his best friend works for his company’s top customer. And that sounds- well, I know how it sounds, but it’s by design. Tony doesn’t realize...”
She looks down at her hands. She feels a little raw, and tired, like she’s been sitting at this table for hours. Days. She does her best to keep her voice steady. “He doesn’t realize the money isn’t why we stay.”
“So he thinks that all he could possibly offer Peter is, what, money?”
Pepper nods.
“Well that’s bullshit. They’re soulmates - what kind of idiot is he?” Despite the language, May doesn’t sound angry anymore.
Pepper laughs, despite herself. “Yes, well, that’s why I wanted Mary and Richard- and now you and Ben- to know that I was there if you needed anything. I think a day will come when Tony will look back and regret the decision he made, or Peter will get tired of waiting for him to come around. I want there to be an… open door, of sorts, when that time comes.”
There is a long moment where the silence stretches between them, thin and weighted. Then, May raps her knuckles against the wood of the table, once, and stands.
“Alright then, if we’re keeping a door open, we need to do a few things. First on the list- you need to meet him.”
Pepper jerks her head up, alarmed. “Oh no! I- I can’t. I’m not- well, kids aren’t- it’s just-”
“Nonsense. Peter’s the greatest kid in the universe- you’ll love him. And if we’re doing this, Ms Virginia Potts, we do it by my rules. This is my nephew we’re talking about.”
Ben coughs lightly into a fist.
“And Ben’s too, I suppose,” May concedes, magnanimously. “Our kid is going to have all the love and support he deserves, with or without his soulmate in his life. If you’re stepping up in Tony Stark’s place, then step the fuck up.”
Pepper stares at her. Then she stands, smooths the wrinkles from her skirt, and nods.
“Lead the way, Mrs. Parker.”
Peter Parker is small for his age, is Pepper’s first thought.
She’d seen him at the funeral, but it had been difficult to get a sense for his size when compared to May and, especially, Ben. He’d been napping when she’d arrived, but he’s awake now, sitting on the floor of his room and playing listlessly with a LEGO robot. There’s a distinct sense that his room is not yet lived-in; no boxes or anything lying around, but the room is entirely too tidy to belong to a small child. They would have just recently moved him in, of course.
She hovers awkwardly at the door for a moment, until May nudges her gently with an elbow, and she takes a tentative step into the room. He looks up at her when he hears her footfall, eyes wide and slightly magnified behind thick-rimmed glasses.
May clears her throat, meaningfully, and Pepper crouches down so she’s not towering over him.
“Hi Peter. My name’s Pepper. It’s nice to meet you.”
He stares at her, clutching his LEGO robot to his chest. “...hi.”
She smiles, then pauses, unsure what to say next. She wracks her brain for something, anything, but all she can think to say is, “I’m really sorry about your parents.”
“Thank you,” he mumbles, casting his eyes downward. It sounds rote, automatic. She’s sure he’s said this a million times today, and kicks herself. She opens her mouth to say something else- what, she’s not sure- but then he speaks again. “Did- did you know them?”
She shakes her head. “Not as well as I should have. I met them a few years ago, not long after you were born, actually. They were nice though, and I’m sad they’re gone.”
Peter ducks his head. “Me too.”
There’s another awkward silence. Like last time, Peter breaks it before Pepper can think of anything to say. “Are you from social services? May and Ben are really nice to me, I promise.”
“Oh no- Peter I’m-” She should have talked to May and Ben about what she was going to say here. This was an awful idea.
“Pepper works for Tony Stark, honey.”
Pepper jerks her head up to gape at Ben. May looks a little surprised as well, but Ben’s voice is firm and his expression is calm.
Surprisingly, that seems to put Peter at his ease. “Oh. That makes sense.”
She looks at Ben for a moment, and he nods, encouraging. She turns to Peter. “You… you know about Tony Stark?”
As soon as the question is out of her mouth, she regrets it. Tony's name is on Peter's arm , and Tony is one of the most famous people in the world- more so than the average tech mogul. She can see Peter’s cuff, clasped gently around his tiny wrist, hiding the name behind white cloth. White, to indicate the wearer had yet to meet their soulmate.
The cuff Tony had always worn was black, for “dead soulmate”. It’d been effective at stopping questions about his soulmate before they had started. He hasn’t changed it since Peter was born.
Peter nods. “Mom and Dad told me that he was really famous and really old, so I had to keep my name hidden. They said that I’m not gonna meet him for a few years, because I’m weird for having a soulmate so old when I’m not.”
“You’re not weird, Peter. It’s uncommon, but that doesn’t make you weird.” The words are out of her mouth before she can stop them. A voice in the back of her head is screaming that she is the least qualified person to be comforting a child over… anything, really. Least of all this. Pepper has next to no experience with children and even less with soulmates. She’d gone to high school with hers, dated briefly, and parted ways upon graduation in mutual unspoken agreement that they were not the ones for each other. She hasn’t spoken with him in over a decade and wears a red cuff, indicating to anyone who cares to look that she and her soulmate are incompatible.
She hears what might be a muffled laugh from the doorway, but doesn’t look over to check. She steels herself, but forges on.
“It makes things… a little complicated. Tony is a very famous man, yes. Which means that if people knew about you, you’d probably be really famous too. That sort of thing can be dangerous for you.”
“Because people might be mean about it?”
“Exactly. People can be really mean about people who are different. And Tony is… pretty powerful, because he’s so famous. Some people might want to use you to make him do things for them.”
Peter nods. He looks down at his toy, then back up at her. “Miss Pepper?” His eyes shine a little in the low light of the room, and his voice is tiny. Hesitant.
Oh. Something warm bubbles up in her chest. She can’t do this. “Mmmhmm?”
“Does he… does he really build robots?”
Oh no . She really, truly, can not do this. “He- yeah he does. I....” She looks over at May and Ben. Ben has a hand over his mouth, and from the way his eyes are crinkled at the corners she can tell he’s hiding a grin. May is not bothering to hide at all, smiling widely, eyes glinting with what Pepper can only identify as wicked glee. Pepper fights the urge to do something wildly immature, like flip them off or stick her tongue out at them, and turns back to Peter.
“I have some photos and videos of the bots in the lab- want to see?”
His eyes light up, and for the first time a grin stretches across his face, like the sun crests the horizon at dawn.
“Can I?”
Oh no oh no oh no oh no . “Of course.” She pulls out her phone.
“Awesome! Thank you!” And, before she realizes what’s happening, small arms are winding their way around her neck. She rocks back on her heels a little with the force of the hug, one arm coming around Peter’s back to steady him.
She wavers for a minute, tossing a final panicked look at May and Ben, then delicately brings up her other arm, gently clasping him against her. He feels tiny, fragile.
The hug is over as suddenly as it had begun, and Peter is pulling back, looking eagerly between her face and the phone, expectant. She squashes down the urge to tug him back into her arms, then cues up the first video: DUM-E and U, facing one another, mirroring each other’s movements with an air that, if they weren’t robots, Pepper would describe as confused . She, Tony, and Rhodey can be heard snickering in the background.
Peter giggles as well, and the warm, bubbling feeling lodges itself under her ribs, where, she's suddenly sure, it will stay.
Later that evening, she stops by the cemetery on the way to the airport. Her bouquet is still there, along with an assortment of flowers and tokens left by other mourners.
She doesn’t stay long- she’s got a flight to catch. But she knows what she wants to say now.
“I get it- I’m sorry I didn’t, before."
A pause. And then:
“I’ve got him now. I promise.”