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Pepper wasn’t sure when exasperation had changed to trust in regard to Tony. There’d been the whole ‘him missing’ thing, and ‘him returning and building a giant metal suit’ thing, and ‘nearly getting killed by Obidiah’ thing, and ‘the Hammer thing’, and ‘the Avengers thing’, and then the big thing, Extremis. Somewhere, in the midst of all that, she’d realized she did trust Tony. And yes, he did still exasperate her, but that was because he could be so flip and obnoxious and far too much like a teenage boy in his tastes sometimes.
But putting her life in his hands was still a scary thing, and Pepper hoped she didn’t catch something on fire, or make Tony – or his workshop – explode, or worse.
“Stop jittering.”
Pepper laced her fingers together, trying to still them. It made her knee bounce instead.
“Sit still.” Tony leaned down to glare directly in her eyes. “This is important. I have to get it right.” He pulled some sort of scanner down to her level. “Honey, I need you to lie back now, and breathe. In and out, nice and slow. You do yoga, don’t you?”
“No,” Pepper said. She lay down, lacing her hands together over her stomach, then unlacing them and dropping them to her side. Then tucking them up under her head.
“Huh. I would’ve thought you did yoga.” Tony caught one of her hands, smoothing his fingers over her knuckles and kissing them before laying it at her side. “Seems like a Pepper thing to do. Well. Pretend like you’ve taken yoga, and you know how to breathe properly.”
“I know how to breathe properly!” Pepper snapped, half-sitting up.
Tony tapped her on the end of her nose. “What did I say? Lie down. And breathe. I know this is scary, honey,” he went on in a different tone of voice, busying himself with his notepad while Pepper rearranged herself on the table. “I’m scared, too. What if I get something wrong?” He glanced at her. “Of course, I won’t. But that’s not saying it won’t take a couple of tries.”
Pepper lay back down, not happy when a couple of straps came up over her stomach and chest. “Tony!”
“Thoroughly for precaution’s sake, Pepper. I don’t want you moving around during the scan.” The look he gave her showed his worry. “Nothing’s going to go wrong,” he repeated, more to himself than to her.
“You mean, you’ll get something wrong and try again.”
“That is kind of what scientists do. But I nearly got this once, and I’m a lot smarter now than I was back then. Less booze and recreational stuff.” Tony flashed a smile. “So. We’re ready. Jarvis, will you start the scan?”
“Of course, Mr. Stark,” Jarvis said, and the A.I.’s smooth voice settled Pepper more than Tony had. She did try to take even breaths, and focus on something other than the scanner moving slowly over her body.
“You okay?”
“Fine, Tony,” she started to say, gagging instead.
“Pep?”
Pepper spat out, “Whatever it is, it tastes like burning!”
“I know, well, I didn’t know, but I suspected, and it won’t last long, if you can just stay still a little bit longer, honey,” Tony said, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see him patting the air at her.
Swallowing hard, Pepper tried to obey, to stay still. Finally, the taste in her mouth faded and the straps popped loose as Jarvis said, “Scan complete, Miss Potts.”
She sat up so fast, the straps hadn’t even retreated into the table. “Are we done here?”
Tony offered her his hand to help her stand up. She almost didn’t take it, but then she did. His fingers were cold under hers. “I’m sorry, Pepper,” he said.
Pepper smiled, knowing it didn’t reach her eyes. When Tony tugged, she let him pull her closer. He wrapped his arms around her, kissing her cheek. She hugged him back, almost clinging to him. She had to have faith Tony could help her. Even if he could be a brat, she trusted him to figure out a way for her to control Extremis.
And, if he didn’t? Maybe she would take that yoga class.