No More Lonely

Ch. 9

JARVIS's plan apparently didn't involve killing people much to Tony's annoyance. Instead, he followed JARVIS's plan and shot Ritchie's knife out of his hand. If he hit Ritchie's hand in the process, well, oops.

The second Iron Man shot Ritchie, the other three men tried to run. Turning sharply, Tony shot a tranquillising dart at each of them then shot one at Ritchie as well. The three men stumbled towards the lift and collapsed right in front of it, but Ritchie pulled his knife out and threw it towards Peter and Pepper. Tony lunged after it but failed to catch the knife before it embedded itself in Pepper's shoulder. Peter cried and Ritchie collapsed, but Tony shot another tranquiliser at him before stepping out of his suit and hurrying to Pepper's side.

"I'm okay," she gasped, as Tony pulled Peter off her lap.

Tony rolled his eyes, hesitating at the sight of blood on her shoulder. Setting Peter on the couch, Tony helped Pepper to her feet and told JARVIS to let the cops up. Unsure who to turn to first, Tony settled on both of them at once.

Peter was crying and the moment Tony lifted him into his arms, he buried his face in Tony's shoulder.

"Hey, buddy," Tony hummed, wrapping his free arm around Pepper. "You're okay."

"He killed mommy," Peter cried, pointing to Ritchie over Tony's shoulder.

"He's going away now," Tony promised as the lift dinged.

Cops swarmed into the penthouse and Peter's arms tightened around Tony. One of the cops approached them while the others cuffed unconscious men and pulled them back into the lift.

"We're fine, thanks," Pepper assured the cop. At the cop's suggestion to go to a hospital, Tony told JARVIS to get a car ready.

"I'll take her," he told the cop. Stepping into the lift with the rest of the cops, Tony kept Peter in one arm and Pepper's hand in his other.

The cops stepped out at the ground floor, carrying the four unconscious men with them and Tony fidgeted impatiently. Once the last one had stepped out, the lift doors closed and they continued down to the garage level.

They arrived at the hospital in record time. As Pepper was admitted immediately, Tony carried Peter to a corner of the waiting room. Despite the colourful toys nearby, Peter stayed curled up in Tony's lap and didn't seem to want to move. Just over an hour later, a doctor called them back to see Pepper.

"The wound was shallow enough that there was no major damage," the doctor said, leading them back to where Pepper was. "We stitched up her shoulder and wrapped it. It will be tender for a while so we gave her some pain meds."

"Sounds like a party," Tony said as they stepped into Pepper's room. She rolled her eyes and rubbed her shoulder.

"Not exactly what I would say," she murmured.

Tony smiled and kissed her quickly. Setting Peter on the edge of her bed, he told him to be careful with her shoulder but wasn't surprised when the kid crawled over to Pepper. He hesitated at Tony's words though and Pepper gave Tony a look.

"I'm injured, not porcelain," she retorted.

"You're also not invincible," Tony reminded her.

She shook her head and opened her arms for Peter to hug her. At the open invitation, Peter bounced forward and hugged her tightly. Aside from a sharp intake of breath, she didn't tell Peter that the action hurt her shoulder.

Leaving them for just a moment, Tony signed her discharge papers and the prescription for her pain killers. When he returned, he picked Peter up off the bed and grabbed Pepper's hand. Unfortunately, just outside the front doors of the hospital, a group of paparazzi were waiting for them and Tony knew it would be difficult to pass through. With Pepper's hand tightly in one of his and Peter in his other arm, it took several minutes for them to cross the parking lot and endure the crowd of cameras.

"We're gonna need to do a press conference," Pepper muttered as they sat in the car.

Tony groaned as he backed out of the parking lot and headed back to the Tower. Even if he knew it was inevitable, he didn't want to hold one.

"I don't like those," he said.

"I know," Pepper replied softly.

The drive to the Tower was silent. Peter was fast asleep in the backseat and remained asleep even when they arrived in the garage. While Tony took him to his room, Pepper called their publicist to arrange a press conference. Tony joined her on the couch shortly after and waited until she hung up to suggest they lay down. Although Pepper protested, she fell asleep only a few minutes after Tony convinced her to move to their bedroom.

After ensuring both Pepper and Peter were safe and asleep, Tony went down to his lab to update JARVIS's protocols and restrict who was allowed access to the penthouse. The list was already very narrow, but he removed all high ranking badges so that only those JARVIS personally recognised were allowed through. Once he was satisfied with the updates, he called the sheriff to ask after Ritchie.

"He's being transported to another facility in upstate New York," the sheriff promised but that wasn't good enough.

"I want him out of the state," Tony argued, frowning at the thought of Ritchie still nearby.

"I'm afraid that's not possible," the sheriff replied. He said something about the legal system, but Tony wasn't interested.

"That man tried to kill my kid twice and does it for fun," Tony said, "He told me himself that he's responsible for several unsolved murders. I want him gone."

"Unless you can provide evidence for that, we can't charge him for other murders."

"I'll send you the footage," Tony said, telling JARVIS to send over the footage from his talk with James. "Get him out of here, sheriff."

He hung up before the sheriff could reply. With a groan, Tony dropped his head against the back of his chair and closed his eyes. As soon as he'd started to relax, JARVIS alerted him to an incoming call from one Nick Fury.

"This better be short," Tony grumbled, despite already knowing it wouldn't be. "If it takes more than five minutes, fake an emergency, J."

* * * * * 

Three days later, Tony stood in front of a crowd of reporters. Behind the stage, Pepper stood beside Romanoff with her arm in a sling. Although Fury had claimed it was a personal favour, Tony knew he'd sent the spy to get the story directly from them and not the news. After learning it would be Romanoff and not an agent he didn't know, Tony had agreed. Apparently, she also liked kids, but Tony got the feeling he wasn't supposed to remember that.

"Where's the kid?" Natasha had asked Pepper as soon as she arrived.

"He's with Rhodey," Pepper had answered, explaining how they didn't want Peter to be photographed much as possible.

An hour later, the conference had started.

Now, standing in front of the reporters and asking question after question, Tony was finding it difficult to steer the attention away from Peter. Even when the kid wasn't there and Pepper was nowhere in sight, the questions kept turning from the attack to who Peter was. After a short nod from Pepper, Tony finally confirmed the rumours.

"Yes," he said, "Peter is my four-year-old son." The reporters threw even more questions at him, but he ignored them in favour of saying, "However, you will leave him alone and if I see or hear about an article written about him that invades his life, I will send an entire team of superheroes out to grind your ass into the ground."

One reporter raised their hand. "You expect us to not report on your son ever?"

"Yeah," Tony replied sharply, "And if that's a problem, I will end your career. If you want to keep it, don't write about my kid."