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There are very few weaknesses or guilty pleasures that Pepper Potts has. The most obvious of the few is her shoe collection. One of the less obvious ones actually corresponded to her job. It was partly in order to keep track of all of the people that Tony comes in contact with that weren’t a part of the military. Also partly because reading TMZ, Perez Hilton, and all of the other gossip blogs are as fun as they are invasions of privacy.
So when the fiasco that was Sue Storm and Reed Richard’s 4th wedding attempt hit the web, Pepper couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed at the treatment of it. It was their fourth attempt at becoming man and wife and yes, while they are superheroes, it isn’t fair to attack them this way. And also, it’s definitely not their fault that a helicopter nearly destroyed their wedding and almost killed one of their friends.
Then it was chaos for the next 24 hours. Storm somehow managed to gain her brother’s powers over fire and then E! News and Guiliana Ransic began babbling about Storm’s previous fashion mishaps and all of the missteps that she made over the course of her public life.
“That is proof that they’re in a very doomed relationship,” Tony said as he passed through the living room towards the kitchen. “If they can’t get it together four times, then there’s no point in it.” On his way back out of the kitchen he paused behind her and asked, “Why are you watching this anyways?”
“Research,” is the simplest response. “And it’s not a doomed relationship. They’ve been attacked at each wedding. It’s not their fault that extraneous circumstances have caused each wedding to be ruined.”
Even as she said the words aloud, it did seem a little...strange…that they’d been attacked four times now conveniently when they’re about to say their vows. Of courses, they did publically out themselves as superheroes, but it really did seem a little too coincidental.
She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and told Tony that he had a video conference meeting in 40 minutes so he needs to get cleaned up. As usual, he protested the fact.
She didn’t keep track of the Fantastic 4 much in the next few days. She barely registered the fact that they were in London trying to prevent some catastrophe until she suddenly realized that there were quite a bit of catastrophes occurring around the world.
The news had only just begun to cover the fact that there were now huge gaping holes in the Earth’s crust that potentially went down for miles and miles.
Then suddenly the Fantastic 4 was in Beijing or Singapore or Hong Kong or someplace like that.
Pepper was glued to the TV in her bedroom at her home as the drama unfolded.
The image showing on the screen was shaky and staticky, partially coupled by the fact that a storm outside was brewing and the fact that the image was coming from hundreds of miles away.
Someone who was very obviously either an alien or some sort of mutant was there and so was what seemed to be Victor Von Doom (or was he Dr. Doom again due to the fact that he had apparently reverted to being a supervillain again?)
In shocking, stunning, and absolutely terrifying live television Sue Storm was stabbed through the chest. Pepper let out a scream of shock, absolutely horrified. When Reed Richards appeared on the screen, the look in his eyes is a heartbreaking mix of sorrow, trauma, and love. Her heart broke for him even as she hoped a man would look at her like that one day. (She absolutely refuses to acknowledge which man she wanted to look at her that way.)
Johnny Storm somehow managed to gain the powers of the other three members of the Fantastic 4 simply by touching them. It clearly explained Sue Storm’s stint earlier in the week. Johnny rocketed off leaving the other three members behind.
Then the alien or mutant gained control of the surfboard thing that Doom had – apparently Johnny Storm got that back after somehow after he had left. The alien slowly turned silver and reached out to Sue Storm. Even with the quality of the video on the screen Pepper could see the amount of strain that the man was under. He said something to Richards and flew away on his surfboard.
Pepper was startled when Sue Storm moved slightly. She had been stabbed through the chest. There was no way she could have survived that. But the camera zoomed in a bit and revealed that the spot where the silver lance had pierced her chest was smooth and unblemished, though the fabric of her suit remained torn and ripped.
Her Blackberry rang and she absently picked it up as she kept her eyes glued to the screen and the images being sent from Asia.
“There is some fucking giant extra terrestrial thing out there trying to eat the planet or something!” Tony shouted.
“What?” she asked, confused and the thoughts she’d been suppressing and refusing to think about try to burst to the surface at the sound of his voice and the pain in Richards’ eyes.
“Are you watching the news? Because there’s some giant thing out there in space. It’s bigger than the planet and it came out of nowhere.”
“What?” she asked again, though this time it wasn’t out of confusion.
She split her attention between Tony babbling out technical details and specs on whatever the hell the thing is out there and the drama unfolding on the screen. Johnny Storm had flown off again, only this time with only his powers, Richards was staring up at the sky with such a despondent look on his face that it made her look out her own window.
“Jesus Christ!” she yelped when she saw the swirling, menacing, lightening filled clouds that took up the entire sky. That was not what the storm had looked like an hour ago.
“So now you see it? And did you just curse?”
A bright flash of light flashed through her windows and the view on her television set. The clouds began to disperse and Tony said, “The damn thing just exploded!” but she ignored him.
She directed her attention back to the TV just in time to see Sue Storm smile up at Richards. Pepper wanted to cry at the expression in Richards’ eyes. It was a mix of tenderness, hope, love, and awe. (Her heart twisted painfully and she didn’t even think about the fact that he would never look at her that way.)
Two days later and things had returned to normal in the world. A video was circulating the internet, news channels, and gossip blogs of Sue Storm becoming Sue Richards in a small wedding in Japan. Pepper smiled at it, glad for the people that she didn’t know and probably would never even meet. (Tony might want to meet Reed, but he had absolutely no desire to meet Tony. Clearly Reed and Hank Pym had been talking.)
Tony leaned his arms along the back of the couch, close enough that she could feel the heat of them. “Guess they aren’t doomed,” he said, sounding slightly puzzled. “Huh. Why he’d ever want to tie himself down, I don’t know. He’s a superhero. He can have whatever girl he wants. Well, maybe only the nerdy girls with his personality. Clearly her brother’s the smart one in the group.”
And just like that every single thought of there ever being a possibility of a certain man looking at her like Reed Richards looks at his wife came crashing back to reality as Tony wandered back downstairs.
“Send them something sparkly as a present!” Tony called up, surprising her.
“Maybe there is hope for him yet,” she murmured before starting a search for suitable wedding presents.
“Maybe it’ll get him to work with me,” Tony continued.
Pepper sighed and decided to raise Tony’s gift giving budget.