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Ch. 4

Pepper wouldn't consider her meeting with the PR agency a success.  Not only were they unable to get Pepper private interviews to clear up the articles on Peter and Tony, they insisted on moving the announcement of Peter as Tony's heir a week earlier.  That meant they would have less than seven days to prepare.  She'd argued with them about it, insisting they wait until Peter graduated.  She didn't want him to be overwhelmed with finals and the attention being the heir to Stark Industries would bring.  However, the argument led to nothing as the agents had informed her halfway through that they'd already moved it and cancelled the other date.  She hadn't refrained from letting them know just how upset she was after that.  Ultimately, she fired them and walked out of the agency without any PR reps or a planned date for Peter's appearance (aside from the one in a week).

"FRIDAY, where's the nearest spa?"  Pepper asked after she'd found her car.  She dropped her head into her hands and rubbed her forehead.  Were headaches supposed to be this common?

"The nearest spa is 4 minutes away,"  FRIDAY answered.  Pepper turned the car on and fastened her seat belt.  After navigating out of the parking lot, she had FRIDAY autopilot to the spa and park for her.  "We're here,"  FRIDAY announced.  Pepper looked up from where she'd been resting her head on the steering wheel and sighed.  Hopefully they wouldn't have a line.

She walked inside and was pleased to find the waiting room completely empty.  An employee was working on a computer at the front desk, but when Pepper walked in, she looked up and smiled.  It didn't take long for Pepper to get an appointment.  She'd have to wait fifteen minutes, but she didn't care.  She needed to wind down after her meeting with the—now old—PR agents.  She could easily wait fifteen minutes for a massage so long as she got one.

* * * * *

Tony woke up to Dum-E and Butterfingers poking him worriedly.  He groaned and swatted them away.  Reluctantly, he sat up and rubbed his eyes.  The hologram clock in the centre of the lab read 1:48PM, meaning he'd been asleep for a solid nine and a half hours after 37 hours of being awake.  Not so bad,  he thought to himself.  He'd definitely gone longer hours with less sleep and he would have, but Peter had forced him to go to bed after their day in the lab on Saturday.  He'd only slept for a couple hours, lying when Peter asked and making sure FRIDAY knew to lie as well.  He wasn't going to lie, though.  He did appreciate the long sleep after his weekend with Peter.  He loved the kid, but he was always moving and wanting to do something.

"Alright,"  Tony sighed, standing up to stretch.  He moaned then blinked rapidly to get rid of his fuzzy vision.  "What's on the agenda for today?"  he asked himself, walking out of the lab and into the Avenger's Compound common room.  He was slightly surprised to find Pepper sitting on the couch, searching for something on her laptop.  He hadn't expected her at the Compound until much later, but he wasn't disappointed.

"Pep?"  he asked, walking up behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders.  She jumped only slightly before turning around to face him.  "Not that I'm upset you're here, but why are you here?"  She sighed and glanced back down at her laptop, drawing his attention to it as well.  "Publicists?  Don't we have one of those already?"

"We did, yes,"  Pepper replied, closing her laptop harsher than necessary then turning to face her husband.  "Turns out, they're complete trash and moved our press conference a week earlier without asking and—"

"Wait, they what?"  Tony interrupted.  Pepper sighed again and nodded.

"Yeah,"  she replied, running her hand through her hair in hopes of calming down.  The spa had definitely helped, but as she told Tony what had happened, she was beginning to get frustrated all over again.  "Anyway, now we have no publicists and a meeting scheduled to announced Peter as the Stark Industries heir in a week."

"I'm sure it's not that hard to find a good publicist, right?"  Tony asked, sitting beside her.  He took her laptop and opened it up, typing in her password without even pausing to think about it.

"That's what I thought,"  Pepper mumbled, watching as he scrolled through the results her search had brought up.  "I've already called a few and they all have this insane acceptance process.  We have to apply, then they'll consider us, then they interview us, and then, if they think we're good candidates for their company, they'll accept us."

"We could just pay them twice as much,"  Tony suggested.  Pepper gave him a look and he nodded.  "That won't work.  Okay.  How long does the process take?"

"At least two weeks,"  Pepper answered.  Tony whistled as he clicked on another website.

"Too long,"  he said.  Pepper agreed.  "You were my PR agent for a while, weren't you?"  Pepper nodded, an eyebrow raised at his attempt to pretend he didn't know everything about her.  "Could you just act as the publicist for SI until we get another?  That could work, right?"  Pepper considered it for a moment then nodded slowly.

"Yeah, that could work if it's the only option,"  she told him,  "It's not my first choice, but I can do it if we need to."

"Good,"  Tony said, closing the laptop.  "We might need it."  He kissed her forehead and stood up, leaving Pepper on the couch alone.  "FRIDAY, find us the best publicists in Manhattan, New York City, and Malibu.  I want to know if any of them would be interested in representing Stark Industries from now on."

"Right away, Boss,"  FRIDAY replied, her voice following Tony as he returned to his lab.  He had just disappeared around the corner when he came shooting back up the stairs and peered around the corner at Pepper.

"Hey, Pep?"  he asked.  She hummed in response, watching him in amusement.  "I love you."

"I love you too, you big dork,"  she laughed.  His face lit up then he dashed back down the stairs, leaving Pepper with an amused smiled on her face.