Loving The Hawk

Chapter 7

It seemed to take dad a lot longer than we originally thought. What we originally thought would take three or four hours had taken well over six hours. Pepper and I kept ourselves busy by keeping an eye on the control panel and watching chick flicks. I was distracted; I was still texting with Clint every now and then but his text were becoming fewer and farther between. . The last text I had gotten from him was from two hours before and I was beginning to get worried. I texted Coulson but hadn't heard anything yet. Pepper had been trying to get me to eat something all day, but my stomach was in knots. I could barely pay attention to the stuff we were watching and I could tell it was beginning to worry her. We were right in the middle of watching the fifth movie of the day and the sun was beginning to set when Pepper's phone rang.

"Tony, how are things looking?" She asked. We both stood up from the couch and made our way over to the panel to look at the levels. She put her phone on speaker and put it on the panel.

"Good to go on this end. The rest is up to you," he replied proudly.

"You disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?" I asked excitedly. Finally something to take my mind off of Clint and the tesseract.

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self sustaining, clean energy," dad replied sounding smug.

"Well assuming that the arc reactor takes over and actually works," Pepper stated.

"I assume. Light her up!" dad ordered excitedly. Pepper looked at me and we both pressed the button together. There was a click and then we both looked up.

"How does it look?" I breathed out.

"Like Christmas, but with a little more, me," dad said sounding smug again.

"Um excuse me, whose idea was this again?" I asked, playfully pretending to be offended.

"Ok a little more us," he amended sounding a little disgruntled. I laughed and looked at the panel again. It looked like everything was holding steady. 

"You're so full of yourself dad," I said.

"You two need to go wider on the public awareness campaign, you need-" Pepper started but she was cut off.

"Pep, you're killing me. Aren't we supposed to be enjoying this moment together?" he said, sighing. 

"Get in here and I will," she said flirtatiously.

"Ok gross," I laughed as I threw Pepper a look.

"Sir Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line," Jarvis relayed suddenly. My heart dropped and my blood ran cold. I looked over at Pepper fearfully and she looked back at me trying to be supportive and not look worried herself. She was much better at dealing with stress than I was for sure.

"I'm not in. I'm actually out," dad replied, landing on the platform outside that removes his suit. I started to panic slightly. If Phil was calling my dad, then it wasn't good news. I began to pace slightly. 

"Rory, calm down, I'm sure everything is fine," Pepper started to say but then dad walked in.

"Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting," Jarvis pushed.

"Grow a spine Jarvis, I got a date," dad replied sounding annoyed. I was still pacing, just barely registering what was happening behind me. Pepper was still trying to calm me as dad walked in. 

"Levels are holding steady, I think," Pepper told dad, trying to keep his focus on the tower and not on me. 

"Of course they are, which leads me to my next question, how does it feel to be a genius?" he asked her, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. I was really not paying attention at this point, struggling to understand why Coulson had not called me. I pulled out my phone to see that I had no missed calls or texts. That made me worry even more.