I'm Iron Man, And I'm Agent Coulson

Chapter 61 Missing Artifacts and Pepper

Tony slowly walked off the plane, closely followed by Steve, and Maria. He was beyond exhausted and they had spent more time on that goddamn jet than they planned. A two day recon trip turned into almost a week and a half of close calls and tracking down missing artifacts and the files stolen from SHIELD bases all over the U.S..
They were able to recover quite a few artifacts, caches of weaponry, and put quite a few people in jail cells, but when word reached him and Steve, Loki's sceptor had been one of the major artifacts stolen, along with info on human experimentation, they followed the bread crumbs left behind, only to lose the trail somewhere in Russia.
They were getting close to the sceptor's location, but almost two weeks was long enough without some real food, a decent shower and checking on (y/n).
He also wanted to check on Pepper. Regardless what had happened between them these past few months, he needed to know how she was doing, and make sure she was alright. She was still running his company and sent him emails and short concise texts about projects, but their conversations stopped there. It was awkward, and taxing on his mind, but he worried about her nonetheless.
Happy was with her, still acting as head of her security, and his texts alluded that she was fine, busy, but fine.
He'd call her later, just to make sure, after settling down. He still didn't know what he could say, but he held out hope Pep would be okay.
That everything would be okay.
Tony wiped his face, and took a deep breath. He'd gone days without sleep before, but the exhaustion in his bones went deeper than physical exhaustion, and he'd never been more grateful to be home, knowing (y/n) was safe and he had access to a hot shower.
He had to admit to himself he was okay, content, knowing where his place was. Sure there was guilt, especially when he thought about Pep, but he was used to carrying guilt.
As he watched Pep pack her bags and head out his door, he wondered just what in the hell he was doing, but after putting some miles between his decisions and getting back to work, he knew he did the right thing.
This is where he belonged, and even though hated what he did to Pepper, she was right. If she couldn't accept who he was there was no hope of a future together, but more importantly, she wasn't (y/n). He was barely able to admit to himself that he loved her, but his conversations with Pep just reiterated what he felt all along.
What he felt for (y/n) went deeper than anything he'd ever experienced in his entire life, and while it scared him at just how immense that feeling was, it also filled him with regret.
How different their lives could of been if he just admitted, years ago, what he felt?
No, he didn't want to go down that road, because he wouldn't regret the time he spent with Pep, but his stomach fluttered when he thought about seeing (y/n), holding her hand.
He never really thought about his future, not really, when he was busy trying to live day to day, but he knew it was here with her and the Avengers.

Bruce gave them a large smile, once they descended the ramp, but it didn't meet his eyes. The first thing he thought of was (y/n), but Bruce promised she was fine, still sleeping and healing, when he called a few hours ago.
"What's wrong?" Steve asked before he could.
"Nothing, just tired," Bruce yawned, handing both Steve and Tony a few files on the sceptor, "I gathered all the info we have on the sceptor and JARVIS is gathering the equipment we already had made during New York, and is setting it up, as we speak. We should be up and running in the next seventeen hours."
"Good, that gives me seventeen hours to check on (y/n), shower, and sleep," Tony sighed, rubbing his face.
"Same here, where's Natasha?" Steve asked, while they walked towards med bay.
"Uh, well, you see.. about that, um yah, well..." Bruce cleared his throat, and his hands twitched, causing both Steve and Tony to stop and tilt their heads towards him.
"Bruce, did you finally tell Romanoff you think she's hot, and plays a rather large role in your spank bank?" Tony snickered, laughing when Steve rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms over his chest, "jealous Rogers?"
"Tony, you're such an asshole," Maria huffed, shaking her head and brushing passed them, "and Natasha's out with (y/n), she woke up almost two weeks ago, and has been quite the handful according to Natasha and Rhodes. Bruce was to chickenshit to tell you. They're out having dinner with Pepper, well (y/n) is, I think Nat's just there for..."
"Wait what?!" Steve snapped, raising his hand.
Tony swallowed and quickly walked towards the room he left her in, only to see an empty bed, and a wheelchair propped up against the wall. His first reaction was rage, then worry, and panic.
"Tony, you need to breath, she's fine, better than I thought she'd be. She's been, well, she's been given a crash course into what's happened since she fell. Fury and Barnes disappearance, Nat's release of all SHIELD files to the public, and the redesign of your tower too make room for all of us, she's even started some small workout routines," Bruce paused when he saw Tony clench his hands, and Steve's eyes close, "of course she had questions about the both of you, mainly of you Tony, and Pepper, but Tasha and I have tried to give her just enough answers to hold her over till you arrived back home."
"With everything she's been through..." Steve started, worried, and looked over at Tony, hoping their conversations from the last two weeks and better relationship, gave him some wiggle room when it came to speaking for (y/n), "she's been down this road before..."
Steve had seen her do this, first hand before, take on too much, refusing to slow down, because she didn't want to think about what was going on around her, only to end up breaking when it became too much for her to handle.
"I know, I have the same fears as you all do, but so far she's okay, and seems to be adjusting well, plus I wasn't going to stop neither her or Natasha from doing what they wanted," Bruce admonished, "Nat and Rhodes, both, asked to keep what they were doing quite, and I refused to argue with either of them, especially (y/n), she scares the hell out of me sometimes."
"Wuss," Maria snorted, leaving them in the lab.
Tony leaned against the cool glass, "why is she with Pepper?" The small tinge of sadness spread across his chest when he thought about Pep. She'd only been gone for a few months, but it felt like a lifetime already. He pulled out his phone and dialed Pepper's number.