An Assassin Never Tells

T W E L V E

April 24th, 2010

I sat in the living room with Pepper. We were watching some program with a man dissing Mr. Stark. He was quite annoying, to say the least. Mr, Stark buzzed Pepper on the tablet thingy and asked, "Pepper. How big are your hands?"

"What," questioned Pepper as she looked at me. I shrugged back, just as confused as she was.

"How big are your hands," Mr. Stark repeated.

"I don't understand why..."

"Get down here. I need you. And bring Williams with you."

We walked down to Mr. Stark's lab, and Pepper punched in the code to let us in.

"Hey," Mr. Stark said. He sat in a chair, reclined slightly back. He had heart monitors on his chest. "Let's see them. Show me your hands. Let me see 'em. Oh, wow. They're small. Very petite indeed. I just, I need your help for a sec. Coulson, you're here to make sure nothing goes wrong."

Pepper was standing next to Mr. Stark and I was behind her by about a foot and a half. She said, worried, "Oh, god, is that the thing keeping you alive?"

"It was. Now, it's an antique. This," Mr. Stark held up a newer looking version of what was already in his chest, "Is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I'm swapping it out for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump."

"Speed bump, what does that mean?"

"It's nothing. It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device," Mr. Stark began pulling out the old mechanism, "And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short."

"Like Operation," I questioned.

"Yes," answered Mr. Stark, "But it's fine."

"What do you want me to do," asked a semi-freaked out Pepper.

"Put that on the table over there. That is irrelevant."

"Oh, my god!"

"I just want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."

"Is it safe?"

"Yeah, it should be fine. Just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes 'beep' like in Operation, as Williams said."

"Oh, no, I was always terrible at Operation."

"You'll be fine, just gently lift the wire. Okay, great."

"You know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this."

"No, you're fine. You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great. Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I'm..."

"Okay, okay."

"I really need your help here."

Both Mr. Stark and Pepper to deep breaths as Pepper began to reach her hand into the gaping hole in Mr. Stark's chest. Personally, I found the whole situation hilarious because I'd never seen Pepper so grossed out.

"Oh, there's pus!"

"It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body."

"It's mechanical pus," I whisper-giggled.

"It smells," Pepper nearly squealed.

"Yeah it does," said Mr. Stark, uncomfortably I might add, "The copper wire, you got it?"

"Okay, I got it!"

"You got it?"

"I got it!"

"Now, don't let it," there was a loud buzz and Mr. Stark withered in the chair, "touch the sides when you're coming out!"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"That's what I was trying to tell you before."

Pepper had the wire pulled up to about Mr. Stark's nose.

"Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out," Mr. Stark began again, "you don't...There's a magnet at the end of it!"

Pepper pulled the wire out completely with a ring at the end of it.

"That was it. You just pulled it out."

"Oh, God!"

"Okay, I was not expecting..."

"Mr. Stark, would you like for me to call someone," I asked, phone in hand.

"No," he said.

"What do I do," inquired Pepper as she began to lower the magnet back into Mr. Stark's chest.

"Don't put it back in," He exclaimed, "Don't put it back in."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest 'cause you yanked it out like a trout."

"What," interrupted Pepper, "You said this was safe!"

"We gotta hurry. Take this. Take this."

"Okay."

"You gotta switch it out really quick."

"Okay. Tony?"

"What?"

"It's gonna be okay."

"Is it?"

"It's gonna be okay. I-I'm gonna make this okay."

"Let's hope. Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you..." Mr. Stark let out a scream as Pepper clicked the mechanism into place, "Was that so hard? That was fun, right?"

"No, not fun at all," I chimed in.

"Oh c'mon," scoffed Mr. Stark, "You didn't even do anything. Here, I got it. I got it. Here. Nice."

"Are you okay," breathed Pepper?

"Yeah, I feel great. You okay," Mr. Stark began laughing.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again."

"I don't have anyone but you. Williams' nice and all, but you and I have a special bond," they shared a touching moment before Mr. Stark began ripping off the heart monitors, "Anyway..."

I tuned the pair out and followed Pepper up the stairs to the residential level.

A/N: Hello, hello, hello! How are you all doing? I hope you're well! I just want to that you all for the votes and reads. I love y'all so much! :) <3