Thaw

Eleven

"JARVIS, can you tell me where Tony is?"

"She says she is 'in her element', Miss Potts. Shall I patch you through to her?"

"No, thank you, JARVIS. I'll head to her."

As she headed towards Tony's main lair, Pepper dwelt heavily on the past few years. It had been an absolute nightmare eighty-five to ninety percent of the time.

She had asked Tony once, after a particularly bad night, which had begun with a martini and ended in handcuffs, what made her this way. The poor woman was at her wits' end trying to put out fires, most of all the blaze of glory Tony had been trying to go out in. When attempting to laugh it off didn't work, the drunken genius just shrugged and tried to escape the conversation. But Pepper was determined, and Tony finally broke.

"What are you trying to ask, Pep? 'Why are you such an asshole, Tony?' You don't want to go down that rabbit hole, alright? Trust me. No one does. I don't. I-I can't. I can't..."

Tony had run to the bathroom, stumbling to her knees in front of the toilet and wretching 'til her vision blackened and her shoulders slumped. Whether it was from the alcohol or the stress, she didn't care to guess.

The next morning Pepper repeated the question. Maybe it was the hangover that made Tony relent; maybe she couldn't bear any more arguing, maybe her brain was too soggy to be evasive anymore.

She told Pepper about Obadiah. How it had started with a kiss on the cheek, every time he came to dinner. She was a child, he was 'Uncle Obie'. Nobody thought anything of it.
How he'd sit her on his lap whenever he and Howard talked shop. How at nine years old she'd summoned up the courage to tell her mother that she felt too old to give 'Uncle' a kiss goodnight, or to sit on his knee. How her mother had ignored the comment and told her to bother Howard instead. She told Pepper how she'd gone to her father with tears in her eyes. Howard got angry and accused her of making things up to get attention.

She told her how, at eleven, Obadiah started tilting his face every time she gave him the obligatory sacrifice. Her kisses always landed on his mouth. Howard and Maria were too busy ignoring each other to notice.

And that once she was twelve, Stane started taking action himself. Tony's absentee parents barely spoke to her now, they saved their words up for evening screaming matches. They saw her through tumblers of scotch; in hues of amber, golden and glossy. Tony's life was idyllic and hazy and warm, on the other side of the glass. There were no monsters and demons.

She told Pepper about the party when she was thirteen, and how she'd approached her parents afterward, but this time she didn't mention names. She only told them that someone had forced her into a corner and sexually assaulted her. Maria told Tony to stop inviting the attention if she was going to complain about it. Howard said they probably mistook her for someone else. But Tony had heard the pervert saying her name.

Later, when the younger man at the company attacked her, Howard had unleashed hell, and she'd been so relieved. She had cried into her father's shirt, and he'd held her tightly. Finally, he believed her. Finally, he cared. For the briefest moment, he'd been gentle, he'd protected her. He'd been a father.

But once it became a "family discussion," any tiny sprout of hope Tony had was poisoned and trampled. Now it was a matter of assigning blame, and who in the family deserved the most.

Obadiah had left her alone for awhile after that. He was clever. He knew to let things cool down. But that didn't stop his eyes from following her every move. And as he bided his time, she had plenty of other advances made on her - some mild, some aggressive, but all unwanted. She started boxing after her classes at a gym down in Brooklyn. Her Aunty Peggy taught her how to fight and how to be very, very clever. "Never let them get one up on you, darling," Peggy had commanded.

Once Stane had regained his mojo, she was prepared to fight back.

Pepper, who had been silently crying through this admission, angrily demanded to know why Tony had let Obadiah stay on at Stark Enterprises, after everything he'd done.

"I couldn't cut him out of the company, Pep," Tony had sighed. "He ran it after dad died, until I was able to become the successor. He was the pillar of the company for so long, I had no viable option business-wise." Pepper's anger flared higher and hotter.

"Why was a he part of your life, Tony? Why did he become a trusted advisor? How could you possibly let him close to you after-"

"Pepper... when I came back to run the company, he treated me like he used to treat my father." She paused there, picking her words slowly. "He defended me to the board, he vouched for me with the press, he encouraged my ideas."

"I thought he'd changed... or I changed. That I was... worth respecting, finally. I thought that now, I was more than an object of lust, I was more than a pawn or a tool. That at long last, I had value, I was a person. I- I thought he saw me as a person."

Tony's voice had broken, and she turned away to look out the window. "Joke's on me, right?"

—-

Pepper approached the shop slowly, taking in the sight of chaotic genius in progress with a pang of sadness. Tony was clearly deep in her thoughts, orchestrating and muttering with her music sending reverberations through the walls. Good thoughts, it seems, the fairer woman noted. With a deep breath, she pushed open the door.

"Tony?"