So I haven't been around for a while and I'm sorry! Turns out university is hard and requires you to do some work. I'm going to try and update my stories little by little so here's a little one-shot to tide you over until then, set pre-Iron Man.

There was warmth, quiet, and the kind of drowsy sleepiness you get when someone you love is holding you tight or you're wrapped up in blankets and just on the verge of falling asleep.

But there wasn't complete quiet; there was something else in the distance, far off and warm, and then another sound, a steady droning. It reminded Pepper of hearing her parents' voices down in the hall when she was still in bed, reassuring and familiar. She'd had strange dreams, of white horses and talking rats and dark hooded figures.

Her mind was foggy and there was a cloud of confusion over her as Pepper tried to focus on that warm sound that seemed far off but was getting closer the more she focused on it.

The sound came in bits and pieces, and Pepper realised that it was someone's voice, someone trying to talk to her through the confusion.

'"A bottle was circling the group. Well, actually it was half a tin, and Death hadn't quite worked out what was in it or in the rather larger tin that was bubbling on the fire of old boots and mud".'

That voice… Pepper knew that voice, she heard that voice daily. She tried to make a word, but all that came out her throat was a strangled 'urrrrh.'

The voice stopped, and then there was warmth and pressure on her hand.

'Pepper?'

She opened her eyes and immediately closed them again. Too bright, too much light and whiteness burning her retinas.

'I know it's bright in here, Pep. But come on, just open your eyes and look at me and I'll let you go back to sleep,' came the voice.

Pepper steeled herself, and opened her eyes.

The ceiling was white and harsh against her eyes. Pepper felt like a baby bird opening their eyes for the first time and being confused by what they see. She turned her head towards the other sound, the droning sound which now was starting to sound more like beeping.

There was a machine to her left and if Pepper squinted she could see what looked like small mountains forming on the screen. No… not small mountains, a heartbeat.

Then Pepper recognised the other items on the wall. The oxygen mask, the emergency bell, the drip stand.

She was in a hospital.

Pepper's head snapped back to her other side and tried to sit up, panicking, but warm hands gripped her shoulders and gently eased her back down.

'It's okay, get your bearings and relax,' she heard.

Pepper looked up at the speaker; at those warm brown eyes she'd recognise anywhere that were now bloodshot and filled with worry.

'Tony?' she mumbled, her voice sounding like gravel.

Tony Stark flashed her a little smile and Pepper could see a book abandoned on her bed, the book he'd been reading to her from. Soul Music.

'I didn't know you were a Terry Pratchett fan,' Pepper said, stretching her aching fingers out to touch the book and its well-worn cover.

'I think everyone's a TP fan,' Tony replied, picking up a glass of water with a straw in it and pressing it against her lips.

Pepper opened her mouth and drank slowly, relishing the cool taste of the water on her tongue.

'Plus it was either that or Wuthering Heights,' Tony continued, 'and I can't pronounce most of the words in that. Remind me to get this place a better book collection.'

'Will do,' Pepper said, opening her eyes properly now and releasing the straw from her mouth.

Tony took her hand and smiled softly at her. 'How are you feeling?' he asked.

'Confused,' Pepper replied. 'What am I doing here? What happened?'

'You fell asleep on my sofa and I couldn't wake you up,' Tony said, watching her face carefully.

Pepper frowned, trying to kick-start her memory. She remembered sitting on Tony's sofa with a blanket over her knee, sorting through her emails. She remembered feeling hot and feverish suddenly, and asking JARVIS to turn the lights down. Actually, now that she thought about it, that was the last thing she remembered.

'What's wrong with me?' she asked part of her not wanting to know the answer.

'Meningitis,' Tony said softly. 'You're in Intensive Care, Pep. But you're going to be fine, we caught it in time and they're blasting you full of antibiotics. You'll be back to bossing me around in no time.'

Pepper's breath caught in her throat and she involuntarily squeezed Tony's hand in fear. Tony held her other hand and squeezed them. 'Hey, it's okay,' he said. 'You're gonna be fine, absolutely fine. And I'm not just saying that to make you feel better, you really are.'

'How long was I out?' Pepper asked.

'A few days,' he replied, running his thumbs over the back of her hands.

'But… you'd gone out,' Pepper said, remembering something else. 'You'd left the state; there was that meeting in DC…'

'I got halfway to the plane and realised I'd left my wallet behind,' Tony said. 'So I drove all the way back expecting to find you pissed at me and instead I found you on the floor curled in a ball and shaking all over.'

'And you couldn't wake me up?' Pepper asked.

'No,' he replied. 'So I phoned the ambulance and they brought you straight down here.'

Pepper leaned her head back against the pillow and closed her eyes, suddenly realising how tired she was.

'I'll let you get some sleep,' Tony said, squeezing her hands again and letting go, standing up and stretching his legs.

'No,' Pepper said, eyes snapping open as she reached for him. 'I mean… if you don't mind that is, could you maybe stay and read to me some more?'

'You need to sleep, Peps,' Tony said, not unkindly.

'And I will,' she replied. 'But I'm still feeling a bit shaky and I'd… I'd like you to stay.'

Tony smiled at her and dropped back into the chair he'd been sitting on.

'Okay,' he said. 'But just for a bit, you need to sleep.'

'Yes, boss,' she said, smiling softly and closing her eyes as Tony started to read again.

'"They hadn't asked him who he was. None of them had names, as far as he could tell. They had… labels, like Stalling Ken and Coffin Henry and Foul Ole Ron'…"

When Pepper woke up again, she knew instinctively it was night even though there were no windows in her room. Now there was less brightness she could see outside of her room towards the rest of the bay and the Nurse's Station.

There was a nurse next to her, she realised, writing down her blood pressure on the chart at the end of her bed. When she noted Pepper was awake she smiled warmly at her.

'I'm sorry, dear. I didn't mean to wake you,' she said quietly.

'That's okay,' Pepper replied with a smile of her own.

'Let me know if you need anything, or if you want me to kick him out,' the nurse continued. 'We don't usually allow visitors to stay this late but you were very ill and he was adamant.'

Pepper looked down at her bed, noticing for the first time that the pressure on her hand was still there.

Tony's head was resting on her legs and his torso was slumped across the bed while his bottom half remained in the chair, fast asleep. Someone had put a pillow under his head and a blanket around his shoulders and his cheeks were sleep-pink in the dim light.

'Thank you,' Pepper said to the nurse, who smiled again and left the room.

Pepper squeezed Tony's hand gently and he made a noise and shifted a little, brow furrowing. Then he stilled and his face relaxed.

Pepper closed her eyes, and then she fell asleep too with a line from Soul Music that she vaguely remembered Tony reading floating behind her eyelids.

'Sometimes the only thing you could do for people was to be there.'

Fin.