So this kind of got away from me. In case it doesn't become clear, I'm working on a story in which Peggy Carter is injected with the serum too (mainly because the end of Captain America just about kills me and I want Steve to be happy dammit!). It's not the focus of this story, but it is briefly mentioned so -

Peggy is Tony's godmother.

She was injected with the serum after the war (stay tuned for more details)

Because she didn't want to become a lab rat so they could learn the formula/harness anti-aging properties/insert stupid-governmental-idea here, she faked her death when she couldn't hide the fact that she was aging anymore. Her 'niece', Belinda, joined SHIELD in her stead, before she was 'killed' not long after Tony's parents, whereupon her 'great-niece' Sharon joined SHIELD as well.

Only a few people know this, Tony and Pepper included. Obadiah doesn't, because it's need to know and he doesn't need to know.

Neither does Pepper, but she's a BAMF and Peggy knows this.

Virginia "Pepper" Potts hadn't had a place of her own for several years now. She had given up renting when she realised that being Tony Stark's personal assistant was a 24/7 job, simply because the man didn't keep normal hours.

Inspiration tended to strike at the oddest hours, and he had offered her a room at his Malibu home not long after she had taken the position – that is, once she had stuck it out for more than two weeks, and endeared herself to Jarvis, the bots, and his godmother.

It had still taken her several months to accept his offer (partly because she liked to at least pretend that she had a life outside of work), and when she finally gave in, she quickly found that when Mr Stark said 'room', he meant 'suite'.

The job never stopped, she had almost no social life, and her boss was an egotistical man-child who relied on her for just about everything (including the distasteful job of escorting one-night-stands off of the premises).

But Tony Stark was, at heart, a good man, and she felt blessed to be one of the few people to see that first-hand.

And then he disappeared.

She stayed at the house, setting Jarvis on the lurking reporters, and spending her days down in the lab, talking to Dum-E and Yoo and Butterfingers, as though they were children whose father had left them at day-care for the first time.

That wasn't an entirely inaccurate analogy – the bots crowded around her whenever she entered, humming and beeping in a way that sounded distressed, and when she ran her hands along their metal arms, they pressed into her touch like cats starved of attention.

The only other people who came to the house were Happy Hogan, Tony's chauffeur/bodyguard, Obadiah Stane, Tony's godfather and right hand man at Stark Industries, and Peggy Carter, Tony's godmother.

Not that Pepper was supposed to know that – she was supposed to think that Peggy Carter was long dead, and that the pretty blonde who came to visit was Sharon Carter, on behalf of her great-aunt.

Luckily, Pepper was good at keeping secrets, and Peggy knew that.

Peggy left for 'business' (Pepper didn't ask anymore) about a week before she got the call from Rhodey saying that they'd found Tony in the Afghanistan desert, and would be landing at LaGuardia within the hour.

Somehow, Pepper had managed to remain composed through the call, and the subsequent call to Happy asking him for a ride, before breaking down.

By the time Happy turned up at the door, she had managed to pull herself together and fix her make-up, her red eyes the only clue to her emotional state.

On the way to the airport, she tried to call Peggy, but there was no answer. She sent a text instead (making sure to use the name 'Sharon'), feeling bad about the impersonal touch, but unwilling to let her find out via the media circus.

Tony walking away from the plane under his own steam was not expected.

Neither was the press conference.

While Obadiah tried to control the damage, Happy and Pepper rushed Tony out to the waiting car and back to the house.

"Mr Stane's not going to be pleased." Pepper observed, when the front door swung shut.

"Screw 'im." Tony muttered. "It's my company. Jarvis, I'm back."

"Welcome home, sir." The AI intoned. He didn't have the capacity to sound relieved, but it was a close thing. "Sir, I believe you may be in need of rest."

"I'll second that." Pepper agreed, eyeing her boss worriedly.

"Later." Tony said dismissively. "The lab's been empty for …"

"No, it hasn't." Pepper interrupted. "I've been down there. I made sure nothing blew up. I made sure the bots kept running. You … You showed me how to do that."

Tony chuckled weakly, and the sound was like music to her ears. "I'd forgotten about that. I still want to check on it though."

Pepper sighed. "Ten minutes. You check on the bots – they missed you – and then you get some rest. I'm not about dragging you to the hospital, Mr Stark."

Tony pulled a face. "I thought you worked for me, not the other way round."

Pepper's expression didn't change, and he sighed.

"Fine. Ten minutes."

She smiled. "Will that be all, Mr Stark?"

"That will be all, Miss Potts." He called over his shoulder on his way to the elevator.

A smile broke onto Pepper's face, and she turned towards the door as Happy let himself in after parking the car. "Staying here tonight?"

Happy nodded. "I'd feel better if I was close by, just in case."

"I don't blame you." Pepper said, her eyes turning towards the ceiling out of habit. "Jarvis, no one else is permitted to enter tonight, and I am including Mr Stane in that. Whatever the reason for Mr Stark's change of heart, they can discuss it tomorrow when Mr Stark has rested sufficiently."

"Very good, Miss Potts. I have informed the bots of Sir's condition, and they will make sure he enters the elevator in under ten minutes. I will then deliver him directly to his bedroom."

"Thank you, Jarvis." Pepper said, shedding her jacket and hurrying towards the kitchen.

She was a personal assistant, not a maid, but these were extenuating circumstances, so she quickly put together some hot cocoa and some of the chocolate chip cookies she'd made to give herself something to do in his absence.

Twelve minutes later, she set the mug and the plate down on Tony's nightstand, turning down the bed and opening the window to let some fresh air into the room, just in time for the elevator to open out in his private living room.

"You're late." She called.

"The bots are terrible at telling the time." He responded, kicking his shoes off. "I'm gonna take a shower."

Pepper nodded, having assumed that. She'd heated the cocoa accordingly, so it would have cooled to a drinkable temperature by the time he was out. "There are fresh towels under the sink. If you throw your clothes out, I'll get them into the laundry."

"When did you become my maid?" Tony asked, trudging into the bathroom.

Pepper didn't answer. She was still worried about him. Once he had come to trust her, there was none of the inappropriate behaviour the media seemed to imagine (unless she counted being woken up at three in the morning to hand him tools because Dum-E had become too enamoured with the fire extinguisher again as 'inappropriate'), but that didn't mean he wouldn't normally have some comment about the fact that she'd basically just told him to take his clothes off for her.

A few minutes later, the bathroom door opened slightly, and a pile of clothes were dropped out. She scooped them up and took them out to the living room, throwing them into the laundry chute.

What had happened to the clothes he was wearing in Afghanistan, she wondered. She hoped they had been incinerated.

She waited on the couch until she heard the shower turn off, and gave him five minutes to get dressed.

Then, she tapped on the bedroom door and pushed it open.

Tony had helped himself to the cocoa and cookies. "Did you make these?"

She smiled. "I had a lot of time on my hands. Just so you know, I cancelled the appointments that were non-negotiable and rearranged the others …"

"How did you know I was coming home?" Tony interrupted.

"I didn't." Pepper admitted softly. "But I didn't want to think about that, so I kept going as though you were. Will that be all, Mr Stark?"

Tony opened his mouth, then hesitated. "Actually … no, Miss Potts. It won't. I … Would you do something for me?"

Pepper's brow creased in confusion, and she took a step into the room. "What kind of something?"

"Would you stay in here tonight?" He asked, addressing his feet rather than her face. "It's quiet. It only got quiet out there when …"

Pepper was crossing the floor even as his voice broke, and stopped herself just before she threw her arms around him. She settled for perching on the edge of his mattress, resting a hand on his. "Would it help if Jarvis played some music or something?"

Tony shrugged, his hand turning to grip hers. "Maybe. But it'd be nice to have someone actually human here, y'know?"

Pepper nodded understandingly. "Of course. I'll stay. Jarvis is going to keep Mr Stane away until tomorrow."

Tony grimaced. "Thanks, J. I'm gonna hear about that later."

"You're in no state for an argument, Tony." Pepper said sternly.

"Do you think I'm crazy?" Tony asked. "Shutting Stark Industries down?"

"You haven't shut Stark Industries down." Pepper said. "You've just shut the weapon division down. You do make other things, as you're so fond of reminding people."

"Do you think I'm crazy?" Tony repeated.

Pepper hesitated. "I think this is a very sudden decision, and people who don't know you as well as I do are going to assume it's some kind of PTSD."

Tony narrowed his eyes. "You think it's PTSD as well, don't you?"

"I think that might have something to do with it." Pepper conceded. "Maybe if you explained you're reasoning to me …"

"They call me the Merchant of Death." Tony said flatly. "I've brushed it off … ignored it … told myself that our troops are getting the weapons, that it's keeping them alive, but it isn't, Pepper, it's killing them. That terrorist group had piles of Stark Industry weapons, and they … They're killing people, Pepper. I mean, I knew they were, but I told myself that soldiers know what they're getting themselves into, but they're not killing soldiers, they're killing innocent people, and …" His voice choked to a halt, and she squeezed his hand, a somewhat inadequate substitute for the hug she wanted to give him (and she suspected he desperately needed, but would never admit it).

"Then, no, I don't think you're crazy." Pepper said simply. "I think you need to get some sleep though."

Tony heaved a sigh, setting his mug on the nightstand. "How was your birthday?"

"It sucked." Pepper said frankly. "I got a call halfway through dinner saying that you'd been kidnapped."

"Then tell me about last year's birthday." Tony said, closing his eyes.

So Pepper did. She told him about the shopping trip with her friends and the meal at her favourite restaurant, where one of her friends had laughed so hard that wine came out of her nose. She told him about the shoes she got herself on his behalf and the book that Happy had given her. She told him about the phone call home to her parents and then, because her birthdays were never that exciting, she told him about her parents, and her sister, and her extended family, the nieces and nephews who still called her 'Aunt Ginny' who never saw her enough.

She talked about the latest celebrity gossip, the sports events that he'd missed, the latest plotlines of the various soap operas that she never watched, but managed to keep up with anyway.

She kept talking long after he had fallen asleep, and when she ran out of words, she sang, running through the lullabies her mother and grandmother had sung her, cycling through them automatically, running a soothing hand across his brow when it looked as though nightmares were about to take him, not even flinching as his grip tightened.

By the time the sun rose the next morning, her throat was beginning to ache, and she was just about to admit to herself that she would have to stop, when his eyes opened and she fell silent. "Good morning."

"Morning." Tony greeted, releasing her hand. "I've never heard you sing before."

Pepper looked away, a faint blush staining her cheeks. "It's not something I tend to do in public."

"You should." Tony said. "You've got a beautiful voice."

It was the most sincere compliment she'd ever had from him – in fact, it may have been the first (straight) compliment she'd ever had from him – and her blush deepened. "Thank you. How are you feeling?"

"Like a new man." Tony said flippantly. "Did you sleep last night?"

Pepper didn't answer, and he nodded.

"I didn't mean watch over me all night, you know."

"I didn't want to take any chances." Pepper said, standing. Putting some distance between them helped the blush immensely, but she couldn't help feeling a slight chill at the same time.

A hand landed on her shoulder and she started, as he pulled her into a one-armed hug. "You're the best, Pepper." He murmured. "Don't know what I'd do without you."

He held her there for a second longer, and she could have sworn he pressed a kiss against her hair, but he had released her before she could respond.

"Schedule a meeting with Obadiah for this afternoon." Tony told her. "And then go and get some sleep. And rest your voice as well – if you lose your voice, there won't be anyone to tell me I'm being an idiot."

"As always, Sir, I am touched."

Pepper smirked slightly as they both looked towards the ceiling.

"If you lose your voice," Tony repeated, "there won't be anyone but Jarvis to tell me I'm being an idiot."

"And I suppose Rhodey and Happy are your imaginary friends, are they?" Pepper asked hoarsely.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Go and get some sleep, Pepper."

Pepper nodded. "Will that be all, Mr Stark?"

Tony smiled, and this morning, it actually reached his eyes. "That will be all, Miss Potts."