A Different Path

Emergency Board Meeting

Safe to say, the board was suprised when Tony walked into the meeting room, Pepper at his side with no Obadiah in sight.

The genius turned to them, halfway through his second cheese burger. Pepper's hand was on his arm, a firm presence grounding him.

"Dr. Stark," Mr. Tobey Maliki begins. By the time Tony left for Afghanistan, he had gained a lot of respect and most people were calling him by his actual title. "Please do not take this the wrong way, but why are you here and not at home and resting?"

"I tried to get him to go," Pepper sighed exasperatedly, getting a small bit of chuckles from the other men and women in the room. "But, as we all know, he's stubborn as they come."

"I wouldn't be Tony Stark if I wasn't stubborn," he smirked at her, then turned back to the meeting room.

He finished his cheeseburger in two bites, crumbling up the wrapper and tossing it in a trashcan.

"I have called you all here today because a vote is needed to decide the future of this company."

Hushed whispers broke out, some board members looking a little alarmed, but all of them seemed suprised.

"Dr. Stark," one raised her hand, "where is Mr. Obadiah during such a disicion?"

Tony's teeth clenched, but he forced himself to remain straight faced. "He could not be here today. There was a communication problem and he is two states away."

That's a lie. Obadiah was at the hospital forty minutes away, where he was supposed to go after getting off the jet, waiting for him.

The inventor waved his hand over the table in front of him and holoscreens appeared, flat down on the table in front of each board member.

"The options are to continue making weapons or go into clean energy and mass produce cellphones, tablets, TVs, washing machines, cars, and more things that you have all seen me create."

"How long do we have to think?" One asked.

"An hour. I need this done as soon as possible, the future of SI rides on it."

There were unsure glances sent his way and Tony knew he had to continue on or he would lose them.

"Thank about it," he said, voice firm, "we continue to make weapons or we delve into something new."

"What's the risk?" One asked, eyes calculating.

"If we go into something new, stocks can fly high." He raised his good arm in the air to emphasize his point. "Clean energy will do good for the entire world. We'll be helping people immensely and making lives easier with advanced technology."

"Would if it fails?" Another asked.

"There's very minimum chance of that. Look at the statistics, technology, like say phones, are in high demand and it doesn't look like that's going to drop anytime soon, only increase."

He could see the consideration as fingers itched toward the holograms. Slowly, they started pressing buttons.

Tony looked at his own hologram, guesturing Pepper to come over, too. The vote count was going up and so far all but one had voted for the change.

By the end of the hour, only two of twenty-five members of the board hadn't voted for the change.

"Thank you," Tony said, trying to hide the relief that flooded him. "We'll begin work on negotiations soon. Change weapons contracts into security tech if you can. R&D will destroy the weapons and stop production."

"When will an announcement to the people be made?" Pepper asked, probably more for the board then herself.

"Within the week. Meeting dismissed, have good day everyone."

With that, Pepper and Tony hurried out of the room and back to the limo.

"How'd it go?" Yinsen asked as soon as they were in.

"Great, but we just set the countdown. Time is ticking, Hap, step on it."

"How long we got?" Rhodey asked as he put in an earpiece Pepper gave him. She was already on her Starktab.

"Hours. A day, maybe. We need to distract Stane, but he will know what I did soon enough."

"What we did." Pepper tuts. "We're in this together, Mr. Stark."

Tony was never really bothered with how Pepper said 'Mr. Stark' instead of 'Dr. Stark'. She was working with him about four months before he got his doctorate and 'Mr. Stark' had already been incorporated into their playful banter.

"Pep, please, ever since you started working with me I've tried to get you to call me Tony."

"What makes you think you'll succeed this time?" She asked, sounding a little playful. Tony ignored Happy and Yensin's grins and Rhodey's smirk.

"Because I'll use puppy dog eyes?"

Pepper full out giggled. "Alright, Tony."

The way she said his name right then sounded like an official change, not like her other slip ups. Tony barely contained the urge to whoop into the air at his success.

Then his phone rang. Annoyed, he pulled it out and looked at who was calling.

Obadiah Stane.