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Chapter Text

Sadly, this was barely in the top ten of Pepper’s worst days .

The President wasn’t dead; the Vice-President was under arrest. Happy had woken up once and the doctors were now making cautiously positive noises. Tony was safely back in his lab (newly requisitioned from senior researchers who’d need to be pacified) working feverishly; Jarvis had promised he would get decaf coffee only until he got some sleep.

Pepper walked into the master bedroom, closed the door behind her, and stepped out of her shoes. She flexed and stretched her feet automatically, then walked past the bed, into the master bath, and eased that door shut as well. Quiet. Careful. Controlled.

Rather than contemplate her reflection, she pressed the heels of her hands against her cheekbones. She didn’t bother looking into the darkness of her palms, just kept her eyes closed and waited to see if any tears fell or her hands started glowing again. When neither happened, Pepper sighed and focused on her breathing.

The first deep breath wasn’t particularly deep. Neither was the second. By the fifth, though, her ribs were starting to expand that little bit. Sometime after that, her shoulders began to relax. Her fingers stopped trembling. Tiny overstressed muscles first registered as actually hurting and then eased as Pepper breathed through the aches.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there when Jarvis cleared his throat almost apologetically.

“Miss Potts. I am keeping an eye on Sir. If I might suggest, there is a fruit and cheese plate in the fridge, or perhaps you would like some hot tea? At the least, a hot bath?”

Pepper sighed. “I… yes. Yes, Jarvis. Start the tub running, please.” She barely hesitated as she added, “And Jarvis? Please calculate how quickly we can fill the tub or the shower to at least four inches deep.”

“Of course, Miss Potts.”

“If it’s more than thirty seconds—”

Jarvis said gently, “—then we will improvise. I do not believe it will be necessary.” Rather dryly, he went on, “One advantage of your having been based in Malibu so much is that cold water will likely wake you very quickly.”

Pepper nodded, took one last deep breath and let it out. Her entire spine relaxed as she made her decision. “Jarvis, I have a draft message in my personal email, addressed to Natalie Rushman. Send it, please.”

That got an infinitesimal pause, not the longer one Jarvis usually used as a courtesy to people with slower minds. “Ms. Rushman? Agent Romanoff was called out two nights ago by Agent Barton—”

“Ms. Rushman,” Pepper said firmly as she turned and moved across to the (finally complete) renovated kitchen on their floor of the NYC Stark Tower. “Tony’s house has been blown up on live television, he’s back from the dead again, I’ve been gone three days and the stock is in shambles – I don’t even have to see a ticker on that one, Jarvis – and I am going to need help who understands greyscale as well as black and white and who can fill in for me on short notice if Dr. Hamasaki has an opening. Tony is not good with subtlety, Jarvis. We both know that.”

“No. No, Sir is not good with subtlety. I’m afraid he has, well, us for that, Miss Potts. Very well. Message sent and I have now taken the liberty of emailing Dr. Hamasaki’s office with a request for her first available times. May I suggest a belated post-script to Ms. Rushman, however?”

Pepper pulled out a plate of her favorite berries, grapes, and hard cheeses, covered with some kind of improved wax paper wrap the lab had them testing. It was less than a day old. An unopened bottle of her favorite Riesling was waiting on the door next to the mineral water she preferred, too. Jarvis’s version of keeping the faith made her smile, made her face feel less brittle and stiff. “Of course. What do you think?”

“I believe I know what called out Agent Barton on so little sleep and has kept either him or Agent Romanoff from assisting during our ongoing problems. Might I suggest a follow-up message that you are going to need a softer sciences person, biology or biochem particularly?”

Pepper froze, trying not to shudder and drop the bottle in one hand or the plate in the other. Her fingers briefly glowed gold but she took a deep breath, blew it out while thinking of cold water, of glaciers, of the air in Reykjavik on that trip with Tony four years ago-- When she was calm and her fingers were their normal shade again, Pepper said carefully, “I really don’t think Bruce and I should be in one place right now, Jarvis. And I think I’d better get some solid food down, too.”

“I agree completely on both. No, Dr. Banner’s specialty was more the physics than the biochemistry of the matter. I had someone else in mind.” Jarvis paused again and finally said gently, “Will you trust me to handle this for you for the moment, bearing in mind that you wish subtlety and finesse?”

Pepper could feel her shoulders sag at just the idea. Right now, her mind, usually so full of plans and decisions, felt like fog laced with fire: dull where it shouldn’t be and dangerously red and glowing when she least wanted it to be. She finally nodded. “Don’t… no. No, I’m sorry, Jarvis. We’ve worked together on enough things. Yes. Please. Update me on it when I wake up? And don’t let me sleep past six, please. I have got to appear in the office tomorrow, and at a dozen conference calls, and I need at least half an hour of yoga first to keep me calm enough for all of this.”

Jarvis replied firmly, “I will liaise with Ms. Rushman when she arrives and with Mr. Kasabian until then. Your Tokyo call was already rescheduled until the first Friday in January – we are about to slide over midnight into Thursday, December 27th if you have been too busy to register the date – and I will make sure that your schedule for the next while includes time for both regular food and exercise. Would a massage help, by any chance? Nitika is usually available on Friday mornings for you.”

Pepper found herself smiling and realized Jarvis had kept her distracted enough to actually finish the fruit and cheese plate. “Please see if she has an opening, yes.” She put the plate in the dishwasher, the wax wrap into the sink – she was pretty sure it was supposed to be washed and reused – and took the bottle of sparkling water to the bedroom with her.

She wanted to crawl into bed and pull the covers up; instead she headed through into the bathroom where the tub was still warm and full of foamy bubbles. She sighed, shed the oversized t-shirt that Rhodey had found for her somewhere (she suspected he’d gotten someone in security to donate it), and threw away the yoga pants and sports bra under it. They were past dead and headed towards disintegration.

“Jarvis, I’ll need that shirt laundered so we can return it.”

“I have added that to tomorrow’s task list.” The Brandenburg Concertos started playing softly from the speakers, and Jarvis dimmed the lights as she stepped into the tub.

Pepper turned up the heaters, adjusted the pillow behind her head, and settled her hands just under her navel. Not how she wanted to sleep, but it would work for a night. Tomorrow she’d arrange something better.

“All right, Jarvis, take the lights down to ten percent and wake me up if you’re worried about my dreams, please? If Tony asks… tell him I’m sleeping.”

“Certainly.” The lights in the bathroom slid down to minimal setting and shifted from natural light to the dimmed amber Pepper used to shut down from too many screens at the end of the day. “I’ll wake you at six. Try to sleep well. I will watch over you both tonight.”

Pepper smiled. “Thank you. And I won’t ask you for miracles, like getting Tony to sleep. Ocean sounds after the music, please? Good night, Jarvis.”

“Of course, Miss Potts. Good night.”

Pepper sighed, sniffed at the lavender oil in the bathwater, and shifted to try and get more comfortable. Somehow, she doubted there was a market for tubs made for sleeping in. Despite the last few days, or maybe because of them, she fell asleep almost immediately.

Chapter Text

Pepper finished her call with Rhodey at 12:20 by promising that she’d eat if he would and to call if he needed anything she could help with. Rhodey was still laughing when he hung up, tired and resigned but amused under those, which made Pepper smile even as she worried.

“Voski, please check that the coffee subscription for Col. Rhodes is still active. If it’s expired, renew it immediately and meanwhile order him that Kona he loves and get it expressed.”

Natalie answered instead and Pepper started, then smiled. “Of course, Ms. Potts. Mr. Kasabian is downstairs handling the HR details for your new contract biochemist; she’s in your conference room when you’re ready for lunch.”

Pepper came out from behind her desk in her stocking feet – heels abandoned until she had to impress yet another male idiot – and hugged Natasha.

It took her a second to realize that while Natasha had hesitated to return the embrace, she hadn’t hesitated to be in arm’s reach. Pepper sighed a soft apology and tried to step back.

Natasha’s arms tightened around her instead and she said softly, “No. It’s okay. I just had to come out of character. Natalie wouldn’t be this forward so quickly.” She held on for another half-minute and let go at last when Pepper pulled away a second time. “Wine after work?”

Pepper smiled back ruefully. “Nothing stronger just now, but a glass of wine tonight sounds lovely. My new biochemist?”

Natasha nodded once and then she was Natalie again in her tailored business suit and updo, handing over a set of file folders. “Your new biochemist, Dr. Elizabeth Ross. Someone tried to kidnap her at Culver University three days ago; an investigation is ongoing, but she’s very unimpressed with the kidnappers’ competence and her own haircutting skills. She has an appointment with your hairdresser this afternoon, and I’ve set her up in the guest suite on the north side of level sixty-five after that.”

Not Bruce’s suite or on his floor, even; the guest room on Natasha’s level, to be precise. Hmm. That could go either way… Pepper took that in even as she asked, “We are talking about Dr. Ross who worked with Dr. Banner?”

“Dr. Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Ross, who’s also Thunderbolt Ross’s daughter,” Natalie confirmed. “She does not get along well with her father, by the way. No worries there.”

Pepper pulled her most comfortable flats out of her bottom desk drawer. “Lunch it is. You’re eating with us, I hope? And should I ask about…” Pepper tapped her sternal notch meaningfully, even if Natasha was in a fitted shirt whose neckline hid her throat and arms and probably meant retrieving Dr. Ross had involved at least one fight.

Natalie smiled briefly. “Not just yet.” She waved Pepper into the ‘executive’ conference room. (The title only meant that no one used it but Tony, who spread plans everywhere on the rare occasions he preferred to work on paper, or Pepper, when she wasn’t happy about something she could almost smell hiding between lines or columns of figures.)

Natalie gestured to the plates of sushi and shawarma and a shrimp salad that Pepper might have coveted if she hadn’t seen that the first plate was nothing but her favorite sushi and sashimi. Natalie said firmly, “Lunch, Ms. Potts. Jarvis is very insistent that we help you keep your schedule.” Her tone of voice, plus the phrasing, suggested several people were in for a surprise when they wanted ‘just a moment’ of Pepper’s time. Pepper was simply grateful for the assistance when she was this far beyond her best and not in control yet.

Dr. Ross had been a dark head bent over notes she was scribbling on a yellow legal pad, politely ignoring the food in favor of a tall mug of some kind of fragrant coffee until her lunch companions arrived. When she looked up and smiled, Pepper made a mental note to tell Tony exactly who the lady was, both as herself and with regard to Bruce, so that he didn’t set off a lawsuit or just annoy one of the few minds who kept up with him in science.

Dr. Ross was exquisitely beautiful. She also had a level voice and gaze, however, and for a woman who’d needed the combined attention of Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff two days earlier, she looked to be coping well, neither jittery nor withdrawn. “Ms. Potts. Thank you for… everything, actually, from this lunch to my new job and location. I’m sorry we both need this, but I’m very pleased to get to meet you at last.”

Pepper’s attention came up from the strong, long-fingered, bruised and scraped hands to the ragged edges of Dr Ross’s short, dark hair and the steady calm of those remarkably blue eyes. Her hands and wrists were something of a mess, but they were enough of a distraction that most people wouldn’t notice the makeup almost concealing a few bruises along Dr. Ross’s jawline. The blue-purple just visible under the pale foundation matched her eyeshadow and the undertone of her lip gloss.

Dr. Ross’s smile tilted a little at the edge, sad and knowing and still not worried. “The wider implications are being handled, I’m assured. The idiot who managed to do this has already been handled. It turns out that it’s rather difficult to control a hostage with an arrow under your collarbone.” She added almost lightly, “He really should have stayed down the first time I hit him.”

Pepper nodded briskly. “Well, if it’s under control, my massage therapist managed to free up two hours for me tomorrow morning. Do I need to let you have one of them, Dr. Ross? Nitika is amazing with stress. She’s been coping with me for the last few years of Tony’s alternate job.”

That drew an understanding nod. “I can just imagine, but I’ve seen the newscasts. If she stole two hours for you, I suspect you need them more than I do. And make it Betty, please. I have a less-structured afternoon than you do, so if your salon can’t work me in for a massage after we repair my hack job, then I’ll just enjoy my new bathtub for an hour or so.” Betty touched her hair lightly with swollen fingers. “I enjoyed long hair, but I think I’m going to like this, too.”

She turned serious. “Why don’t you go ahead and eat while I tell you what I know so far, then I can eat with one hand and make notes with the other while you tell me what I’ve missed and how you want this issue approached. Mr. Jarvis was extremely helpful, but this problem is taking place in your body, Ms. Potts. That means that one, it’s exceptionally personal, and two, I’m going to want to consult regularly. Any treatment I can sort out is going to need your informed agreement so that the treatment is properly personalized both physically and emotionally.”

Betty tilted her head, dark hair swinging raggedly before she tucked it behind her ear while saying, “And I’ve already asked for an addendum to the contract to make it clear that you will not be mentioned in any of my papers, current or future, anonymously or in any fashion, without your explicit, written, prior consent. You’re under enough stress on a daily basis as it is, Ms. Potts. I refuse to make it worse if we can prevent it.”

“I’m surprised that wasn’t already in there,” Pepper said. “Jarvis, we need to reevaluate some of our boilerplate when Legal has two spare minutes. And please, make it Pepper.” She added ruefully, “I agree; we’re likely to be working very closely for a while. And God knows, I’ll almost certainly end up having to take you out for apology drinks one evening after Tony’s questions have blown past the line of tact about three states back.”

“Again,” Natalie agreed. “And your next meeting is in thirty-one minutes, Pepper. She’s right; you should eat while you can.” She handed over a cold bottle of coconut water, opening it where Pepper could see it had still been sealed, and then pushed the sushi and sashimi to her.

Pepper nodded and took a sip that ended up being half the bottle. She stared at that, then sighed. “Did we clear me fifteen minutes to stretch and breathe this afternoon?”

“I’ve already warned the SI Board that you have to leave the 2:00 meeting at 2:55 to make the conference call with General Guerra. That gives you twenty minutes to get back to your office and be at the speaker phone.” Natalie smiled slightly. “I will of course be running interference with you to and from that board meeting.”

Betty swallowed another sip of her coffee and pulled the shrimp salad in, sniffing appreciatively. “Oh, I haven’t had good shrimp in ages… If you need anyone tased , I’m also available, Pepper, but she’s much more subtle.”

Natalie smiled at Betty, which made Pepper reappraise them both once again; that look meant Natasha actually approved of the scientist outside the lab. They must have had an interesting few days while Pepper was under Killian’s control. Natalie said, “You have a new taser up in your apartment, by the way, Betty. Mr. Kasabian will take you up to get it before your hair appointment if Clint hasn’t shown up by then.”

“Perfect.” Betty smiled at Pepper. “So. I have some preliminary notes from Mr. Jarvis, who assures me everything I think I need is already in Bruce’s lab from last summer and that he can find me rush shipments on anything we decide I need this afternoon.” She added, firmly, “Not only is using Bruce’s lab not a problem for me, it’s actually going to help a great deal. It greatly improves my odds of being able to find everything quickly. We worked together for years, so I know how he arranges a lab.” She smiled quickly, “And vice versa.”

Jarvis slid into the pause to mention, “All looks to be in readiness, Dr. Ross. We’ve replaced a few solvents which had gone dry, but you are restocked otherwise. Also, the jasmine green tea you prefer was just delivered, as well as a masala chai blend and some Irish breakfast tea that I thought you might enjoy. And it’s simply Jarvis, by the bye.”

Betty smiled up at the ceiling. “Thank you so much, Jarvis. I look forward to trying them.” She brought her gaze back to Pepper and said, “Now, I’m sorry to have to ask this given the time you’ve had, Pepper, but I’m going to need a blood sample that’s been taken since you’ve been infected with this—”

Pepper held up a finger, swallowed her bite of sashimi, and said, “I’m told it’s nano tech, not a virus.”

Betty nodded, blue eyes serious and violet mouth steady against a frown that still showed around her eyes and in her voice. “Yes. That’s simply the best word I have for exposing you to something against your will.”

Pepper didn’t flinch. “A rare failure of the English language… It was applied by injection. No further stimulus was necessary, if that helps. Not like Bruce or Captain Rogers.”

Betty nodded. “I’m told that all recovered files from your OpFor are waiting for me—”

Natalie pulled a Stark tablet out of her handbag and said, “We’ll set up your biometrics when your hands aren’t covered in butter and mayo.”

“It’s an excellent croissant.” Betty was completely unapologetic, and Pepper found herself liking her more for that. “And you need to eat too, Nat . You’ve had less sleep than I have, after all.”

She waited until Natalie had taken a bite, eyes amused over a full mouth, and then went on, “Essentially, Pepper? I have the basics of the story already – and Jarvis redacted in places, I presume for your privacy -- I have a lab to work in, and I will have the files by the time I get there. Beyond that, I have an apartment within walking distance where I shouldn’t be at risk of being kidnapped if I need to take a break to think outside my lab. So, I can get back to you with the first set of questions tonight if needed or tomorrow morning if you’d rather. The blood sample can even wait until then if that’s easier for you.”

“The questions would do better tomorrow morning, I think,” Jarvis broke in with surprising firmness for him. “Ms. Potts, I would very much like to make a meeting with Dr. Ross part of your daily schedule, both for your mutual convenience and as a scheduled break for the both of you. There may be days you need no more than some comfortable silence, but I see no reason not to build that into your schedule, either.”

Natalie folded up the paper from the sandwiches she’d inhaled – three sandwiches, Pepper realized, all of them red meat, which suggested she was recuperating from blood loss of her own -- and said, “That would be useful in several directions, Jarvis. Let’s run with that.”

Pepper raised an eyebrow, got the faint tightening of eyes which told her Natalie really did already have plans for that, and sighed. “Not a word if I start working ‘til seven, then, to make up the time.”

“You’ll do better for the variety in your day,” Natalie said unsympathetically. “No coming in before seven-thirty, by the way, and I’ll just have a word with security about a few things I want them watching, too. I want to make sure no one here is compromised, Pepper.”

Pepper glanced at her and frowned. “All right. Magda Klein is heading up Security until Happy is back at work and I think you should talk to Voski, too. We had some trouble two weeks ago you’ll want the details on.”

Natalie frowned, or at least the corners of her eyes tightened minutely. “Right. Before he trades out for lunch, then.”

Betty smiled sympathetically, but she wiped her hands clean. “Lovely, lovely lunch and coffee, Jarvis – thank you. Look at it this way, Pepper: The morning with me is free time to come vent about any problems. Where no one will hear, if you like.” She shrugged. “Bruce always leaves headphones around and I’m not afraid to use them. If it wasn’t for the extra threats from my various relationships, I’d spend half my work time in noise-blocking headphones.”

“I will keep that firmly in mind,” Pepper agreed. “And thank you. Now, these are my immediate worries: I know that additional doses were given to the other Extremis subjects, but I don’t know if that’s necessary or if it was being used as a method of control. If I need more doses, we’ll either have to fabricate them or make a forced decision on ridding me of this.”

Pepper took in a deep breath to maintain her calm, exhaled it, and said, “After that, I also need to know first if this nano-tech can be reprogrammed. If it can, I need to know if we can do it. Possibly most importantly, we’ll also need to ascertain if anyone else can reprogram them. That would be a security hazard I can’t afford.”

Betty was nodding and writing, sometimes scooping up the last of her coffee foam with the fingers of the other hand.

Natasha, however, looked up from working on her tablet. “You’re considering keeping this Extremis, then?”

Pepper held her voice level. “Tony is working on ways to remove it completely; that takes care of one end of the bell curve. I want to know what the rest of my options are. I killed Aldrich Killian, not Tony, and that was after Killian made a damn good try at killing me, Natalie. Living with Tony is not easy. Living with Iron Man… would be safer, for both of us, if I had ways of dealing with kidnapping attempts on my own – or surviving assassination attempts without a suit of armor at my shoulder every minute.”

She exhaled sharply and added, “And I didn’t get any option on receiving this crap. I intend to be the one who makes the decisions on whether or not I keep it.”

Natalie nodded sharply and studied her, face shifting that little bit to become Natasha again. “You killed Killian. I hadn’t heard that yet. Good for you. How much better are your survival odds right now, do you think?”

“I fell at least two hundred feet through a gas fire,” Pepper said grimly. “I barely had to trim the ends of my hair, and everything knit back together inside seconds.”

Natasha put down her pad and put her hand over Pepper’s and didn’t let her pull back. “Stop that. Human contact will be very good for you right now, Pepper. And I’ve worked with Steve, remember? How bad was the pain while you were knitting back together?”

Pepper inhaled, exhaled, inhaled, and thought about the calm that settled in with the first shift from plank to downward dog. When she was sure neither her hands nor her eyes were glowing, she simply said, “Bad. I was melting steel on the first few steps.” She added wryly, “I did manage not to scorch off what clothes I had, at least.”

Betty said thoughtfully, “That sounds like you’re already getting some subconscious control, then, Pepper. That bodes well for this. It also sounds like I’m going to be looking for a lot of changes in a lot of places to see what’s going on.” She nodded, scribbling quickly in bullet-pointed bursts of abbreviations. “Just as well I’m so close to my M.D., I think. I may have to ask for additional blood samples at different times.”

“Different times…” Pepper smiled a little. “Well, I wouldn’t trust this if it was simple, I’m afraid.”

Betty glanced up and smiled a little. “Work on your trust. It’s quite possible it is simple, once I figure out what they did in the first place. Sometimes the simple, unobvious things are the most difficult to discover and then the most useful once you have.”

“Pardon my interruption, Dr. Ross.” Jarvis lit up the tablet on the table by her elbow. “Sir’s equations so far, including his incomplete work from last night, are now available to you. As I understand it, Dr. Hansen consulted him on her work several years ago and Sir almost understood it then. He hoped to have a better estimate on completion within a day or so, but I’m afraid that was before I shifted him to decaffeinated coffee.”

“That will be extremely helpful whenever I get it, Jarvis, so thank you for that too.” She smiled a little. “And for remembering whatever Bruce told you about me. You were absolutely correct about my coffee order and to go with Irish breakfast tea, not English.”

“Dr. Banner spoke of you often, to me at least,” Jarvis said simply. “And you have had rather a stressful few days yourself, unless I’m mistaken. When you have time this afternoon, please feel free to tell me how you would like your apartment and kitchen stocked and I shall see to that.”

Betty laughed and looked at Natalie. “If I’d had any idea this job came with this kind of help, I’d have taken less money.”

Pepper waved that off quickly. “Never tell people that. Donate to a reputable charity if it worries you, but always charge what you’re worth. Otherwise, the powers that be start thinking they can pay other people less, as well.”

Betty gave her an interested look. “I’ll remember that, thank you. I’m a military brat; I’m not really used to having extra money.” She glanced up at the clock, down at her notes, and said firmly, “Right. Multiple samples of blood. Let me explain why so that you don’t worry – and I am completely fine with Jarvis overseeing all of my work, just don’t startle me when I’m handling droppers, please, Jarvis.”

“Of course, Dr. Ross.”

Betty intentionally met Pepper’s gaze, a careful, deliberate honesty and courtesy that Pepper appreciated just now. She also settled her hands in front of her, not splitting her attention to tablet or pen. “I need the initial sample to check several things. I want to compare your bloodwork against the results from your last physical and against any notes Jarvis acquired from your OpFor. In addition, I need a current baseline for the nanobot levels. Tomorrow, I’d like to get samples both when you’re calm and when you’re stressed, to see how the nanobots are responding and how your own blood chemistry is adapting. I’m also going to be tracking the levels of nanobots in your blood as an initial check on whether you’re likely to need more doses.” Her mouth tightened a little at something she was contemplating, gaze a little askew from current reality although she didn’t slip completely into Tony’s inward stare .

Betty glanced back up and said, “I will tell you to keep working on your stress management – I certainly would, in your job. As for those pre-and post-stress levels, I can’t imagine there won’t be a morning sometime this first week when you can’t come down for a quick blood draw after a bad meeting or call?”

Natalie nodded. “We can see to that.” She looked at Pepper. “You and Bruce kept yoga mats in his lab. Come in from the board meeting this afternoon, get the first blood draw, take your yoga break, and get the next round of blood again before that call with the Pentagon? We’ll find time for one more set of pre- and post-stress draws over the next few days, too.”

Pepper calculated rapidly. “If Betty’s still not back from her own appointments, I assume you can do the draws, Natalie?”

“Of course.” Natalie waved that off with one hand, then looked at Betty. “Pre and post do for labels, with dates as well?”

“Pre-yoga is fine, yes.” Betty clarified. “I’ll set out the equipment in case we do miss each other.” She considered then said, “By the way, Pepper? If it would help, feel free to say your daily appointments with me are at doctor’s orders.” Her mouth pursed as she added, “Although if corporate gossip about women is anything like academic, I’m thinking it’d do more harm.”

Pepper laughed. “It probably would, except that we have corporate procedures for mental health. I also instituted ‘post-Iron Man protocols’ that I based on law enforcement requirements for mental health assessments after traumatic events. I’ll just say I’m seeing Dr. Ross after my kidnapping and everyone will assume you’re my therapist. If you don’t mind?”

Betty smiled at her. “Just be advised that the only psychoactive medicines I ever prescribe are wine, hard cider, or herbal teas.”

“Not a beer person?” Pepper had to ask. She’d heard chapter and verse from Tony about Thaddeus Ross’s ‘Crap taste in beer, Pep, fucking near water, and that’s insulting both beer and water.’

Betty smiled. “Not when I can drive my father crazier by drinking anything but.”

The conference room door opened but Natalie hadn’t tensed. Pepper turned to tell Voski she’d be right there when she realized that it was Clint. Not just Clint, but Clint in a suit which had been deliberately and subtly tailored to hide some of his weapons and simultaneously make him look just another corporate drone.

It was a little too good a job. The fine wool blend was just barely too expensive for a drone; the slate blue pinstripe was excellent with his eyes. For that matter, Pepper admired the precision of the shade of his grey shirt; the color helped dim the gleam of his cuff links. ‘Drone’ or no, Clint was wearing actual cuff links, dull, matte metal that resembled some of Phil’s best ‘hidden in plain sight’ tools. Pepper didn’t know if they functioned as bugs, metal detectors, or lock-scramblers, but she was quite sure they were tools above and beyond their aspect as fashion.

Phil Coulson had been involved in this choice, one way or another, definitely.

For a brief, orange-washed moment, Pepper missed him, again, and wished desperately that he was available to call and complain to. He’d been another bastion of calm competence and there were never enough of them….

“Your meeting is in ten minutes, Ms. Potts, and I’ve started the kettle for your herbal tea.” Clint nodded to Natalie and winked to Betty.

Pepper took another deep breath – her ribs might yet start hurting today – and exhaled until the heat-tinge was gone. “Thank you.” She skipped Clint’s name rather than blow whatever cover he was using today. “Natalie, will you please finish up with Dr. Ross, including escorting her to her hair appointment? I should be out of this meeting in fifteen and that includes the small talk.”

She muttered, “If I’m not, there’s going to be a substantial penalty for wasting my time.”

Clint grinned at that, there and gone again, but he nodded to Natalie and held the door for Pepper. “I’ll tap on the door with your tea at twelve minutes, Ms. Potts, and remind you of your next meeting.”

Natalie nodded back and told Betty, “Don’t leave the salon without one of us, please.”

Betty asked, interested, “Is this just until I get my new taser? And is Mr. Kasabian ‘one of us’ or should I stall him too?”

“For the moment, don’t be alone anywhere but your apartment, Betty. Voski can be trusted to know you and Bruce are friends, but no more. Don’t mention Clint to him – although he’ll probably guess—” Natasha sounded resigned. “Mostly, however, Voski is vicious with paperwork, but he’s not great with self-defense, much less defending someone else. If anything, you’d likely tase someone before he would.”

Betty shrugged, as much with eyebrows as shoulders, clearly making mental notes. “Maybe we should talk about getting me some bracelets like yours, then. Everyone thinks I’m Dad’s ivory tower child.” Her tone didn’t quite say ‘Idiots.’

Clint’s quick grin did.

Natasha smiled wickedly and didn’t say no either.

Well. At least those three were going to get along. Good. That always made things move smoothly, and Pepper really needed a few things to do that, right now. She headed to her next meeting, blessing Clint for giving her the murmured reminders of her afternoon and the promise that yes, she would absolutely be getting out of meetings on time today.

A few things were already falling into place, thanks goodness. And probably Jarvis.