Out Of Time

twenty-four

There was no way Y/N was going to be able to stop Tony from going. So she quietly, yet obviously angry, watched him suit up and fly off. JARVIS keep a screen on of his location so that Y/N could watch him, but that didn't help the uneasiness she was feeling. She paced, biting her thumb nail nervously. She hadn't been this nervous since Bucky and Steve had left for war. And that only made her worry more.

She paced until she heard the garage open and the red and gold suit fly in. JARVIS had readied a place for him to unsuit. Y/N silently watched as Tony and JARVIS struggled to get him out of the suit.

"Hey!" Tony exclaimed.

"It is a tight fit, sir," JARVIS calmly answered. "Sir, the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt."

"Be gentle. This is my first time. I designed this to come off, so... Hey. I really should be able to-"

"Please, try not to move, sir."

"What's going on here?" Pepper's voice called out. Y/N twisted around to see Pepper carefully stepping through the field of glass.

"Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing," Tony replied. Y/N rolled her eyes and hid her face in her hands.

"Are those bullet holes?" Pepper asked. She snapped her head to look at Y/N. "You're suppose to be protecting him! Watching him! Why is he in that- that suit? And why are there bullet holes?"

"It's hard to stop a grown adult who's insisting on doing all of the dirty work himself," Y/N calmly replied. "JARVIS was tracking his location for me the whole time."

"I can't- I can't do this right now." Pepper turned around and headed back upstairs.

"Can you help me out of this thing?" Tony asked Y/N.

"No, Tony, I can't," Y/N responded. "I have to go upstairs and try to convince Pepper not to fire me."

"She can't fire you. I-"

"She's the one that hired me, Tony. She can fire me as well." Y/N turned around and began heading towards the stairs. She sighed, coming to a stop. "Did you at least stop them?"

"At that location, yes. But I have a feeling there's more."

Y/N gave a nod, then silently headed up the stairs. She found Pepper in the kitchen.

"How could you let him to something like that?" Pepper quietly asked.

"I didn't let him do anything, Pepper," Y/N replied. "Stane has been dealing under the table. Tony felt the need to stop them. People have been getting hurt because of it. He got hurt because of it, Pep."

"You think Obadiah has something to do with Tony's kidnapping?"

"I do."

Y/N could tell that Pepper needed sometime, so she left to call Coulson. She told him about the photos, Obadiah Stane, and what Tony had told her about his kidnapping.

"We don't have enough evidence yet, though," Y/N sighed.

"I suppose to have a meeting with Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts today, so maybe I can get something out of them."

"A meeting? I haven't been told of a meeting."

"Hopefully they haven't forgotten. But I'll be at Stark Industries waiting for them this afternoon."

"Of course. I'll probably see you then."

"Probably. I've got to go. Keep in touch."

Y/N went to find Tony. She walked down to the workshop to hear Tony talking to Pepper.

"-hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. This is a lock chip." Y/N walked in just in time to see Tony hand Pepper the flash drive. "This'll get you in. It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading." Tony walked away, working on something else for his suit.

"And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?" Pepper asked.

"Same drill. They've been dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them."

"Tony," Pepper scoffed, "you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all of this again."

"There is nothing except this. There's no art opening. There is no benefit. There is nothing to sign. There is the next mission and nothing else." Tony moved so that he was looking Pepper dead in the eye.

"Is that so? Well, then, I quit." Pepper threw the drive onto the table and turned around, heading for the door.

"You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. And now that I'm trying to protect the people that I put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?"

"You're going to kill yourself, Tony," Pepper turned around to face him. "I'm not going to be a part of it."

"I shouldn't be alive," Tony stated, sitting down in a chair, "unless it was for a reason. I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right."

Pepper let out a large breath before walking to the desk and picking the drive back up. "You're all I have, too, you know."

Tony gave her a small smile before looking passed her to meet Y/N's eyes. He couldn't tell what it was about her, but he was being continually drawn to Y/N.

"Take Y/N with you," Tony stated.

"What?" Both the women questioned.

"Just in case. We can't trust Obadiah."

"Who's going to watch you?" Pepper asked.

"JARVIS," Y/N answered, knowing that Tony was right. "JARVIS will reach out to us if anything happens here. I'll go get changed and then we'll head."