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Since the alien ship he was on landed in Wakanda, Pepper had been glued to Tony’s side. There was absolutely nothing anyone could say or do to make her leave his side. She wouldn't even leave when the Wakandan doctors, lead by the King's really young looking sister, wanted to treat Tony's wounds. She stayed so long by his side without getting any real proper rest that it took Tony himself, in a somewhat still heavily drugged state, to convince her to go get some proper sleep in the room their hosts assured her was just a few feet away from him. But she only finally went when the others promised her that Tony wouldn’t be alone.
Tony didn’t see her again for the next twelve hours, which was okay since he was asleep himself for most of that time. However in the hours just before she returned, he woke up to find Rhodey dozing in the chair beside his bed. Although his voice was still weak from having a breathing tube down his throat during surgery, Tony called out to his friend to wake him up. He had to in order to spare Rhodey from having an even worse crick in the neck than he was already going to have.
Tony was still awake and somewhat talking when Pepper returned to his room three hours later.
“Okay, since you’re back in the best hands possible, I’m outta here,” Rhodey said the second she walked back in the door.
“Go get some real sleep of your own, platypus.”
Shaking his head at the weak attempt at snark by his friend, Rhodey waved him off, “See you later.”
“Thank you!” Pepper called after as he disappeared before she looked at her fiancé, “How are you feeling?”
He didn’t speak for a few seconds and when he did, it wasn’t to answer her question. Instead Tony asked her a question of his own, “Did you really do it, Pep?”
“Did I really do what?” she replied in confusion.
“Slap Rogers?”
"Yes."
"Pepper!"
She shrugged, "What? I know I said to you more than once the next time I saw him, I was going to slap him."
"But I thought that was just something you said because you were angry. I didn't think--"
Pepper quietened him by putting a hand over his mouth, "I was angry when I said those words but I meant every single one of them.”
“I really wish you hadn’t.”
“Why? He more than had it coming!”
It was decided that for their own safety, the survivors of the battle with Thanos would remain in Wakanda indefinitely. It was further decided that maybe those who hadn’t been there when Thanos attacked, should be brought to the African nation after it became clear Secretary Ross was going to start arresting anyone he could find. Even though the entire country was reeling from the loss of not just their King but the Black Panther who had protected them for millennia, the royal family had still offered shelter to those they knew would be his primary targets. So within a very time following the battle there many guests staying with them until further notice, guests who included Scott Lang with his daughter Cassie (her mother and stepdad turned to ash), Hank Pym with his daughter Hope Van Dyne, Clint Barton (his family were ash too), and finally Pepper along with Happy Hogan who refused to let her travel to Wakanda by herself.
Pepper and Happy were the last ones to arrive in Wakanda, so as a result when their quinjet landed, everyone else was gathered around to greet them when they disembarked. Rhodey was standing out in front of everyone else with Bruce right beside him, and he was the first one she went to after setting foot on Wakandan soil.
"I'm glad you came, Pepper," Rhodey told her as they pulled back from a hug.
After hugging Bruce, she looked at him, "Well I admit I came because I hoped we'd find Tony here somehow."
Rhodey sighed, “I wish I could say that he’s here, Pepper, but--”
“He’s not.”
"No, he's not."
Pepper looked at the only other person she knew could confirm her worst fears, “He was on the first alien ship when it left, wasn’t he, Bruce?”
“Uh, yeah. Sorry but everything happened so fast, and when they took Strange…” Bruce’s voice trailed off.
She closed her eyes, shoulders slumping, feeling the hopelessness of the possibility that she might not ever see Tony again. Then a familiar and not entirely welcomed voice saying her name broke through the fog of her worried fear.
“Pepper, Happy, I'm relieved that you--”
But Steve Rogers never got the chance to finish that sentence as Pepper turned around, walked up to him in, and in before her angry expression could sink in, she had left a red, stinging hand print on the right side of his face.
"That was for the two years you didn't tell Tony the truth about his parents."
Then before anyone could come out of their surprised stupor long enough to act, Pepper struck again. This time she used the palm of her hand, and there was a audible crunch when her hand impacted with his nose.
"And that was for the fact you might have killed him!"
For several seconds, Steve could only stare at her, frozen in shock by the fact she had not only slapped him but broken his nose. He only started to move himself when she turned around to leave. Holding a piece of cloth someone had handed him (Bruce maybe? Or was it Happy? It didn't matter!) up to his now bloody nose, he started to follow her, and would have caught with her if the King's sister hadn't stepped in his path.
"I think a visit to the infirmary would be the wiser and safer course of action for you to take right now, Captain Rogers."
"But Pepper--"
"Is obviously angry and is not wanting to speak with you right at this moment. Let her go."
"But she's going to get lost if she keeps going in that direction."
"General Okoye is already following her, and her bodyguard. They will be guided back when Miss Potts is ready to return."
“But--”
“She’s right.”
Steve looked over his shoulder at Rhodey.
“You’d be wise to let Pepper cool off before you try talking to her again and that means you leaving her completely alone. But as angry as she is with you and given what it is that she’s angry about, I don’t know if it’s possible for her to ever cool off.”
Steve’s confused looked deepened into a frown and he said, “Siberia, you mean.”
“Are you sure you want to have this conversation out here?”
Rogers hesitated look enough to look around, and after seeing most of everyone who had gathered to greet Pepper and were gone, he gave his answer to Rhodey by taking several steps closer to him.
Rhodey recognized his affirmative answer, “Yes, I meant Siberia and before you say something like we only heard one side of what happened, save your breath. We’re aware that you had a side, and even though I can’t fully speak for Pepper on the subject, I don’t care what your side of the story is. All I care about is the fact you could have easily killed Tony.”
“I only wanted to stop him from attacking… Bucky. That’s all! Things never would have went as far as they did if Tony just would have listened to reason!”
“Do you know how unbelievable you sound right now? Any clue? Zemo showed you both a video of Tony’s parents being murdered by the very many standing in the same room with you both, and you really expected him to not react to something like that?”
“HYDRA tortured and brainwashed Bucky into doing things he didn’t want to do. Killing Howard and his wife--”
“You don’t even know the name of the woman who was the wife of the man you’ve claimed to be your friends back in the day. So I’ll tell you now. Maria. Her name was Maria.”
Nodding, Steve resumed, “Like I said, he was brainwashed and tortured into doing horrible things. Killing Howard and Maria was something Bucky never would have done if he had had the free will to make his own choices. I wish Tony would have let me… let him explain before he started attacking.”
“Tony was furious, and in my book he had every right to be. Now am I saying attacking Barnes over something he did when he couldn’t control his own actions was the right thing to do? No, that’s not what I’m not saying at all because clearly it wasn’t. But before you go thinking that I’m condoning your part in what happened just because I made what sounds like a statement of condemnation of what Tony did, I'm not doing that either. I’m just saying that neither one of you were in the right in what happened there in Siberia.”
He started to walk off, leave the other man alone when Steve spoke again.
“You said I could have killed Tony. How?”
Rhodey turned around.
“I only went after the suit’s reactor because I knew it was the power source. I wasn’t going to hit him anywhere else he wasn’t protected by the suit because unlike what he was trying to do to Bucky, I wasn’t trying or going to kill him.”
“Yeah, I get it. You weren’t trying to kill him but it doesn’t mean you still couldn’t have killed Tony. Now the arc reactor is only there to power the suit but in the past it had another purpose.”
“I know it was in Tony’s chest--”
“Yeah, it was an hasn’t been in his chest for a couple of years. But that is not my point. My point is this: because the arc reactor was one in his chest, it meant that at ne time he had a hole there. He had a hole as big as the reactor and just as deep, which means he had a compromised sternum because of it. When it was finally taken out they had to do reconstructive surgery in his chest. I’m sure what they use is able to take normal strength blow to it.” He didn’t have to point out how strong Steve was when he wasn’t in the middle of fighting an enemy… or someone he had seen as an enemy, and in that moment he believe Steve was seeing Tony as his enemy as much as Red Skull or HYDRA.
Starting to walk off again, Rhodey halted then said, “If you're looking for support or sympathy, you're going to have to look for it someplace else. Because you know what? I've had the thoughts of doing the exact same thing to you myself that Pepper just did. If we'd hadn't had the world ending crisis to come up right before you walked back into the compound, I would have socked you in the face myself.”
“You punched him?”
Pepper nodded, blushing, “Yeah, I did.”
“You really punched him?”
“Yes.”
“And broke his nose?”
“Yes! What part of that word aren’t you understanding?”
Tony smiled at her, then broke out laughing, “Well, that explains why I haven’t even seen Rogers’s shadow thrown across the floor outside my room.” He shook his head and continued laughing, “Cap’s scared of my future wife! I love it!”