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The rooftop pool sat under the stars, the sounds of city life surrounding them wasn’t what Mary had expected for this late July evening, but when Tony had invited her and Richard over to talk things out, she convinced herself that she owed it to the baby to try.
Still in her dress, her heels kicked off, her hand sloping over the curve of her round stomach, she laid out on the pool recliner, her thoughts among the stars with questions and envisioned hopeful futures for her little one.
She heard the sound of heels on the pavement before the voice so Mary knew she wasn’t alone.
“I’d apologize for Tony’s behavior but I’m pretty sure it won’t help.” Pepper sauntered over, taking the chair next to Mary, kicking off her own heels and laying back.
“I knew what I was getting myself into when I accepted his invitation,” Mary confirmed. She’d known Tony about the length of her pregnancy, but she already knew his tantrums well enough to anticipate them. Usually fueled by one too many drinks, that night was no different. She’d seen the open bottle on the table before they even entered his hotel suite and knew she was in for a rough discussion.
“If it makes you feel better,” Pepper began, “I think you’re right to have no contact with Tony while they’re little. His life has always been crazy, but I think he’s pushing it to a new high lately. The idea of being a dad really freaks him out.”
Mary drops her hands from her stomach to the ribboned plastic on the chair below her. She turns to Pepper in exasperation. “If he’s freaked out, he should be glad I’m giving him an easy out. I’ll send him pictures and updates and when they’re old enough to understand what it means to keep part of their life a secret, then they can have a relationship.” She turns back to the sky, looking at the stars, hoping repeating it aloud will quiet some of her own fears.
Playing the defense, Pepper relaxed and threw out, “Being freaked out doesn’t mean he wants out completely.”
“Well, if he wants to step up, he can start by getting sober—I need him to sober up.” She closed her eyes, tightening them, the worst case scenario coming to mind.
“You know,” she continued, “we said he could name the baby since they’ll have Richard’s last name. It seems only fair, especially because our reasoning was that it would be easier for custody to be transferred over to Richards brother if…” she trailed off.
“Mary, you can’t think like that. Everything is going to be fine.”
“Our research has gotten too dangerous, and I know that you and Tony offered to protect Richard and I and take it under Stark Industries, but that will only put a bigger target on the baby. It’s better if no one knows we’re connected—me and Tony. Better for her.”
They fell into silence as an ambulance wailed, becoming louder and louder, then quieter and quieter as it rushed past the hospital. The two women had met only a handful of times but their respect for one another was great and mutual.
After another passing moment of silence, Pepper finally asked, “So it’s a girl?”
“I found out a couple of days ago. I texted Tony asking if her name should be Pepper.”
Pepper caught herself off guard with the laugh that escaped her mouth and the subsequent snort. “Did he reject the idea entirely?”
“He said that he only has room for one Pepper in his life. So I asked him why he didn’t want to name his daughter after the most important woman in his life.”
It’s enough to get Pepper up to a sitting position, turning to look at Mary, perplexed and amused. “I’m not the most important woman in his life. He probably wants to name her after his mother.”
“He offered a compromise. She’s going to be Piper James—for you and his friend Colonel Rhodes.”
Pepper’s amusement didn’t fall completely but her face slacked, her jaw loosening from it’s hinge. “I don’t understand. I’m his assistant.”
“You don’t have to pretend with me,” Mary said. “I see it and Tony sees it. You see, I think it’s not being a father that freaks him out. It’s commitment in general. To you, to this baby, to his dad’s company.” Mary pushes herself up from the chair, using a little more force than she’s used to having to navigate her stomach. “I know that one day he’s going to get it together for our daughter—our Piper—and he knows it too. He’s just not ready for either of you yet.”
Pepper turned her face away and even in the dimly lit night, Mary can see the heat rising to the woman’s cheeks. She’d debated over the past months saying something alone these lines to Pepper Potts—clear the air, make it known that she had no hard feelings should Tony end up with someone as determined and accomplished as Pepper, but she hadn’t found the right time to do it. There, in the dark, eyes struggling to focus through lack of light, seemed like a perfectly good time.
“Do you worry that she’ll turn out just like him?”
Whether she was asking herself, Mary, or the all knowing night sky, it couldn’t be sure. She knew she loved him, a curse she had tried to talk herself out of many times, but unfortunately, she was bound to have her heart tied to his for as long as he let her in his orbit. If Mary had met Pepper on the night she encountered Tony first, the night Piper was conceived, it would have been so obvious, Piper might not have ever happened.
“She’ll probably need it if I’m going to be raising her around a bunch of Parkers,” Mary quipped. “I love Richard, I’m grateful that he came back to me when I needed him most, but I swear, him and his whole family would get frostbite giving someone the shirt off their backs. This one,” she ran her finger along the front of her belly, tracing the shape of a heart over her bump, “I fear, will need to have a little Stark selfishness in her if she’s going to counteract the humble Parker upbringing.”
Pepper sat, watching Mary, her chin tucked, staring at her stomach as if she could see past the fabric and the skin and talk directly to her unborn baby. Pepper wondered how someone could have so much expectation, so much hope, so much of an ear to the future for a person who didn’t even exist yet.
“I’ll work on him. We’ll get him there,” Pepper promised. “He can be a good dad to your daughter. He just needs to set aside his pride.”
“Whether or not he does, you’ll never know how much I appreciate you trying.”
“It is, quite literally, my job.”
They both knew it wasn’t true. There were a number of things that Pepper did that were not listed in her job description. She just loved working almost as much as she loved Tony and the culmination of those two things led to a dedication most people could not possibly understand.
Pepper stands and slips her shoes back on. “I should probably get back inside and make sure Tony hasn’t killed Richard.” She waits, looking for Mary to join her. “Are you coming?”
“No, me and Piper James are going to spend a little more time under the stars. We don’t have quite this beautiful a view from home.”
Pepper said goodbye and quietly slipped back in the way she came.
Mary felt satisfied then, still worried that everything would go wrong and she wouldn’t be able to see her daughter grow up, terrified that Piper would be left alone, but somehow content. She knew that no matter what happened to her, there was an abundance of love and strength around. She believed Pepper, that she would get Tony there, that one day and whether it was tomorrow or a decade from now. Until he was ready, there would always be someone she trusted looking out for her daughter.