Peter Parker & The Avengers ( Irondad & Spiderson )

Justice of Virginia Potts (pt.4)

     It had been 23 days since the snap. The world governments were in pieces and most of the organizations were temporarily closed, SI being one of them. More than half of the staff were dusted and Pepper wasn't in any state to lead a company while her fiance was still missing.

    Rhodey had come to the tower a day after the snap to check if Pepper was . . .  still alive. He asked her and Happy to come to the Avengers Compound because it was much safer there but Happy refused, saying he needed to check on his other family.

    Peppet was eerily quiet all the way to the compound. She was still shaking and silent tears kept on flowing down her cheeks as she thought about Tony and Peter. There was still no news about those who went to space.

     She couldn't stop thinking whether they survived the snap . . . or were they also dusted. Or they might even be dead before the snap happened. The thought did nothing but fastened the flow of the tears as she choked, her whole body shivered from the cold that seemed to creep into her bones. She could feel her chest weighed heavily but yet so empty.

     The first person she stumbled onto when she entered the compound was none other than Steve Roger. He was almost unrecognizable with his messy thick beard and medium long hair. His eyes empty and cold, she wondered if her eyes looked like that too.

    The moment their eyes met, Pepper looked away and clenched her jaw. She was still not over with what he had done to Tony. She wanted to be mad, to scream and to blame, but deep down she was still relieved that he survives. As much as she hated to admit it, they needed who ever that survived back on the team if they wanted to fix this. If it can be fixed. She thought but quickly shook it off.

     Natasha led her to her room and Pepper was glad that it was her and not anybody else. Among all the ex-Avengers, Pepper was least angry at  the Widow. She even dared to say that she considered her as a friend, once.

    As she twisted the doorknob, Natasha quickly held onto her wrist, making her flinched in surprise. She whipped her head to face Natasha and for the first time since she arrived at the compound, she now realized how worn out the Widow was. Her now blond hair was a bit of a mess, there were bags under her eyes and scratches all over her face, probably the aftermath of the last battle in Wakanda. Her thought was cut off when Natasha spoke.

    "Pepper, look. I – I'm really glad to see you here. And I'm sorry", her voice was quiet and exhausted. She didn't know if she was sorry for leaving Tony and ran with the others or she was sorry about what had happened now. Probably both.

    "Me too", she said back before entering her room and closed the door behind her. She walked pass a large mirror on the wall and halted. She slowly ran her eyes over her own unrecognizable reflection.

    Her hair was set on a much too tangled ponytail. Her eyes were red and puffy while the dried up tears covering most of her cheeks and chin. Her whole body posture was so tensed that it looked so unnatural. She had never seen herself in such a condition.

    She stood there for another 84 more seconds before walking towards her bed and collapse.

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    For 23 days, Pepper locked herself inside her room, only leaving for 30 minutes every evening to get some air. For 23 days, she woke up in the middle of night, cold, sweaty and gasping for air, because of nightmares that seemed to haunt her every day.

    Natasha had visited her every 10 in the morning sharp, to update her on Tony's unknown whereabouts. They didn't even know if he was still alive. Not until Friday informed her that she got a message from Tony yesterday, and now Captain Danver was trying to search for him.

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"Miss Potts, it seems like you have gotten a message from Boss".

    It took her a whole minute to process the words in her sleepy mind and another whole minute to reassure herself that she was in fact, not dreaming. She scrambled hastily onto her feet, eyes wide opened as she listened to her own heartbeats drummed inside her ribcage.

    "Play it, Fri", she ordered, her voice was rasp from the sleep, and slightly shaken. She waited, but nothing happened. For a moment, she thought she was just dreaming. That or she had finally gone crazy. But then a hologram suddenly appeared at the middle of room, illuminating the darkness. 

    Her hand flew to cover her mouth as she stared at the image of Tony Stark, completely beaten, sitting against the wall of what she assumed a spaceship. The weight of the recent event of Infinity War could be clearly seen in his posture. His shoulders rounded forward, his eyes drooping, hard and cold.

     Her eyes moved frantically to search for Peter but her panic and anxiety came back when she couldn't find him. Her attention came back to Tony as he spoke, god, she never knew how desperate she was to hear that voice.

    "This thing on?", the hologram shook as he tapped the recorder from his helmet. Satisfied, he leaned back against the walls and took deep, uneven, breaths. He looked skinnier and weak from the lack of food in space. There was a big wound on his side that he had covered with some bandage and she could see a little bit of blood stain on it.

    "Hey, Miss Potts... Pep. If you find this recording, don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tear-jerker. I don't know if you're ever going to see these. I don't even know if you're... if you're still... Oh god, I hope so. Today is day 21, uh 22."  he looked away and stared at the window next to him. Pepper wondered what he was thinking and if he had been staring at the same view for 22 days.

    "You know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into a void of space, I'd say I'm feeling better today. The infection's run its course, Thanks to the blue meanie back there.", she didn't know nor she could see who the blue meanie was, but god, she was enternaly grateful for whatever they had done to treat his wound.

    "You'd love her. Very practical. Only a tiny bit sadistic. Some fuel cells were cracked during battle, but we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge to buy ourselves about 48 hours of time. But it's now dead in the water. We're 1000 light years from the nearest 7-11.", She quickly ran to grab a pen from her bedside table and scribbled down the coordinate on her palm. She would run straight to the others to inform them after this, even though she knew they could have just asked Friday to replay the message. But she just wanted to at least do something, anything, to help.

   "Oxygen will run out tomorrow. And that'll be it.", she whipped her head back to Tony, eyes wide. The pen in her hand slipped as her blood ran cold inside her body at that newfound information.

    NONONONONONO

    " And Pep, I ... I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like... well you know what it looks like. Don't feel bad about this. I mean, if you grovel for a couple of weeks, and then move on with enormous guilt. I should probably lie down. Please know that... when I drift off, I will think about you.", he looked straight into her eyes, as if she was really there in front of him. She could feel how he poured every single emotion into that eyes as she stared back.

     "Because it's always you."

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Author's Note.

First of all, I'm sorry for not updating for a very long time. I just got really stressed up with college stuff and became really unmotivated. And then my Iphone fell from the fifth floor so I became more unmotivated. But everything is on me.

I havent been writing in a long time too, so Im sorry if this chapter sucks. . . or worse that sucks.

Thank you for coming back to read this book. Thank you, really.

Your Author,
FaneLothaire.