Always Been You | Tony Stark

Captiolo (20) Venti ~ The Office

"Miss. Potts?" Pepper's secretary said as she walked into the room, Tony and I following. "Mr. Stark and Miss. Lynn..."

"Are here." Tony finished for her.

"Mr. Stark refuses..."

"I don't. It's fine." Tony brushed her off. "Look, you're excused. You can go now, thanks."

"I am so sorry about him. Thank you so much." I smiled at the secretary as she shut the door behind us.

"Listen, it's our position that Stark has and continues to maintain proprietary ownership of the Mark ll platform." Pepper glared at Tony as she continued her conversation on the phone.

"When Mr. Stark announced he was indeed Iron Man, he was making a promise to America." I stayed where I was by the door and watched the tv that was on in the corner of the office.

"No, the suit belongs to us."

"We trusted that he would look out for us."

"Yeah, but you're not... Burt..."

"And now we learn that not only his secretary, but his ex-wife..."

"Yes, it does."

"A woman named Virginia "Pepper" Potts has been appointed as CEO of Stark Industries. What are her qualifications?"

"No," Pepper said, getting annoyed with both who she was talking to and what the guy on tv was saying.

"Ms. Potts is doing nothing to manage this terrible..."

"Mute," I rolled my eyes, cutting off the reporter as Tony scratched the back of his head and started walking around.

"No...Bert...Bert...Bert, listen to me. Don't tell me that we have the best patent lawyers in the country and then not let me pursue this."

"I'll get this stuff out of your hair." Tony pointed to the big cluster of his things that were moved to the corner of the office.

"Well then tell the President to sign an order."

I walked over to Pepper's desk and held my hand out, motioning for her to hand me the phone. Pepper hesitantly looked at my hand, before slowly placing the phone in it.

"Hi, Bertie. It's Avery Lynn." I smiled as I heard the man start to stutter. "The CEO of Stark Industries has just asked you to help her pursue this. So what are you going to do?"

"H-help Miss. Potts pursue her case."

"That's right. Now, Miss Potts has an unexpected visitor at the moment, so she will have to call you right back when she is done with them. Got it?"

"Yes, yes ma'am." Bert stuttered some more.

"Perfect. Always a pleasure talking to you, Bertie." My fake smile instantly dropped as I hung up the phone. "He'll do it."

"You don't even know what I needed him to do." Pepper looked at me puzzled.

"Didn't need to. Whatever it was, he'll do it." I shrugged, sitting in the chair across from Pepper's desk.

Pepper looked at me shocked, before looking at Tony. "I might have to steal Avery from you."

"Nope. No way she's mine I called dibs." Tony shook his head repeatedly, coming over to sit in the chair beside me. "You got a minute?"

"No."

"Come on, Avery just got you off the phone. You're fine, 30 seconds."

Pepper looked down at her watch. "Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight."

"Okay, I-um...Part of why we were just driving over here..."

"I had no part of whatever he's going to say, he made me come." I quickly mentioned.

"...and I thought I was coming to basically apologize but I'm not."

"Oh, you didn't come here to apologize?" Pepper asked as I internally cringed.