A/N: Man, I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to finally be updating this fic! As for this chapter, there isn't happening much, really, but I didn't wanna leave this part out. I always felt like Pepper and Maya bonded before the scene in the hotel room—it just seemed kinda intimate to me—so tried to explore that a little. Can only hope this update doesn't disappoint.

The subcutaneous implant in his forearms that allowed the armor to communicate with his nervous system and help it follow his commands worked perfectly. Much to Tony's relief. This was the moment he had been preparing for. In the event that Pepper was ever in danger he programmed it that she would be safe from harm. No one was usually able to go into the suit, if it was not calibrated for them. No one except Rhodey. But there it was, flying in separate pieces towards Pepper, its ceramic and silicon infused plates expanding over her body, wrapping around her like a cocoon.

Tony covered his face with his bare arms, groaning when his back slammed into the wall and he fell to the ground. He sat up, spotted Maya laying on the floor, apparently unconscious—or dead? No, she couldn't be. She was not supposed to die. Not because of him. No one was supposed to die because of him, or even be harmed. That feeling weighed so heavy on his heart that all the tension in his body succumbed to sorrow. Tony retreated, leaning back. But just as he did, there was a sound that made him look up. The ceiling was falling apart, cracking, and those cracks were becoming bigger and bigger until they became caves.

That was when he thought this was it. He was going to be buried under this huge mansion that had not been a home to him until the day Pepper had finally moved in. His life would end, a life that had not meant anything to him, until Pepper had made it her life too. She meant everything to him. She and that tiny human they had created—he loved it so much, even though it was not even born yet. So if he was going to die now, at least he knew they were going to live; kept safe by that prehensile technology that he had been stupid enough to put before his relationship. How ironic that the thing that had driven Pepper and him apart over these last few months... was now saving her life.

There was a moment when he had accepted his fate, and that he was going to get crushed by debris—bones broken, his skull smashed—but then the suit came to lean over him and cover him from the rubble, and Tony was so taken aback, he needed a second to remind himself that this was not his armor protecting him because he had programmed it to, it was Pepper. Her first instinct was not to run, to get out of the danger he had gotten her into, but to protect him. And while he had not actually expected her to leave him, just like that, the fact she had reacted immediately, using the suit for his protection, came as a surprise to him. A welcoming surprise.

The armor retracted, revealing her face. "I got you," she said in that tone of voice that spoke of her relief, and with all the signs of love in the little sparkle in her eyes.

"I got you first," he answered, letting it linger for a moment, then hastily got up as he said, "Like I said, we can't stay here."

The helicopters moved in, shooting a few more missiles, and they were hit by another blow. Tony was thrown back against the sofa while Pepper just covered her face with her hands.

"Move," he said, "Right behind," as he jumped over the back of the couch and tried to catch up to her. And he almost got to. Almost.

There was a loud cracking sound, like a frozen river breaking up in spring, and when Pepper turned around, she saw that the cast concrete of what used to be their living room floor had given way beneath Tony's feet, like shifting sands. She looked at her boyfriend, and he looked back at her. The gaping chasm between them was as deep as alpine crevasse, like the mouth of a monstrous creature, ready to swallow them.

"Get her. I'm gonna find a way around," Tony urged her to leave him and get to safety, but Pepper was glued to the spot, staring at him with a face full of worry.

Did he even realize what he was doing? What he was asking her to do? He was just a human there, no superpower, no radiation, no serum, nothing. Just a man, not even in a can now, and he was asking her to leave him behind while the world was literally falling apart around him. Tony was always so worried about not being good enough, that he wasn't cut out to be a hero, not like the other Avengers, but he would forever be a hero in her eyes. He didn't need a suit to prove that, not to her anyway. But at the end of the day, he was still a human being just like her, nothing but flesh and bones, and he could lose his life right now if she left him to deal with his fate.

"Stop stopping," he pleaded. "Get her. Get outside." And when she still wasn't moving, he yelled at her. "The baby, Pepper!" She had to run. Save it. Him. Her. Whatever it was. It had to survive, even if he wasn't going to be around to see it.

Pepper wanted to do something but couldn't think of anything. She wanted to say something, to share a few more words that could very well be the last words she ever said to him, but even that she couldn't think of. Her head wasn't empty, though, it was full, like her life with Tony was flashing before her eyes and she couldn't get it to stop, to stop thinking about the possibility that he wouldn't survive this. And then, when he mentioned the baby, her motherly instincts seemed to kick in, a surprising force she was feeling for the first time, and all her head told her to do now was to run as far away from him as she could.

Helping Maya up from the floor, Pepper snaked her arm around her to steady her and hurried to the nearest possible exit. It was a strange feeling to be walking around in one of Tony's suits, after all this time of seeing him be Iron Man. She had kind of assumed it would do all the work for her, but the palm-mounted repulsor blasts didn't respond at all as she put her hand up. Tony made it look so easy. She had no idea how to operate the suit. Did she have to manually release a safety switch, enter a firing sequence code or pull a trigger? The big glass door at the end of the hallway came closer, and she was still swearing silently when the particle beam suddenly fired off. The blast was so powerful that the two women darted right through the window.

With the faceplate lifted, Pepper looked to the side to see if Maya was okay, and then turned her gaze away, as the porch roof, which projected in circular shape directly over the entrance, crumbled to dust. The entire building was collapsing right in front of her eyes, and Tony, he was still inside. She didn't know where he was, if he was close behind or far away from her. She called out for him, hoping to hear his voice. It was the only thing she allowed herself to feel right now—hope. But as she saw what was happening to their home, the place that was meant to keep them both safe, it was almost impossible not to let hope slide away and allow doubt to fill the silence.

Sir, Miss Potts is clear of the structure, Tony heard JARVIS say, and exhaled the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He wasn't safe yet, as the suit had yet to get to him, but Pepper was. He'd fucked up, God, he really had, but at least she didn't have to pay for it. Pepper and their baby was safe. That was all he needed to know, before calling back the suit to try to save his own life. He took out one of the helicopters with the repulsors, and then another one, but as it fell down from the sky, it crashed right into the building, taking everything down with it—Tony's cars, the robots, his grand piano, it all plunged to the bottom of the ocean. He did too, unable to find something to hold on to. And then he was trapped, trapped under the rubble, fighting to break free and get out of the water so he could breathe properly.

The mansion was in ruins, and Pepper had stood by helplessly, watching as the helicopter exploded and made the whole building collapse, like a house of cards. Desperate to assure herself of Tony's fate, she climbed over smouldering timber and piles of fallen masonry, and picked her way hastily through endless lumps of jagged, burning-hot steel and concrete, as fast as her shaky legs were able to carry her. Standing at the edge of the cliff, she looked down and realized there was nothing left but debris. Her boyfriend was nowhere to be seen. Pepper's face stretched into a grimace as a cry of agony tore from her, and then she broke down and began to cry, sobbing out loud to the point where it was hard to breath and even harder to compose herself.

A few minutes passed in which her world seemed to stop turning. Every sound, every smell, even that rank odor of smoke and the acrid stench of burned construction materials—plastics, paint, plasterboard, insulation—faded. And in the silence, she realized that she was not alone. One hand draped over her pregnant belly, Pepper gazed down, with tears running down her face. Please be okay, she thought, and choked back a sob. "Mommy's here." Her voice was small, as if she had to squeeze it up from the depths, flat, strengthless. Then she felt Maya's hand on her shoulder, heard her whispering her name, and she looked up at her, instantly feeling the need to just run away and hide from the world.

"Are you okay?" The sound of sirens rose faintly in the distance, turning Maya's attention away for a moment. When she looked back at Pepper, she sighed. "That must be the fire trucks. I'm sure an ambulance is on its way, too."

"I-I'm okay," Pepper lied. Her legs were wobbly and she swayed against waves of nausea, but she managed to stand. Although the ground had stopped shaking, she dreaded that another tremor could come at any time. "We can't stay here." Her balance was dramatically compromised, as she walked, and she felt like she was still trembling, her head getting a little woozy.

"My turn now," Maya said, putting her arm around Pepper's waist to steady her. When they reached the parking lot in front of the house, she gestured her to sit down on the curb. "So, how far along are you?" she asked, smiling at the look of surprise on Pepper's face. "I heard the M-word."

Pepper let out a deep sigh and ran a hand through her hair, biting her lip, as she tried not to start crying again. "A little over four weeks," she answered. Her heart used to pump love and joy when she thought of Tony and their life together, but now a darkness bore down upon it. It was consuming her in one vicious gulp. "I only told him yesterday and now he's... He..." Pain exploded behind her eyes, her chest heaved and her breath quivered, and then she bent over and touched her forehead to her knees. Great sobs shook her body.

Maya rushed to sit down next to her. She ran a hand over her hair, down her neck to her back, where she moved it in small, soothing circles and after a moment Pepper did seem to relax. "It's gonna be okay," Maya encouraged her, as she lightly patted her head with the other hand, while Pepper sobbed into her shirt. She waved away the paramedic approaching them, watched as firemen gathered around to take care of the situation. "I'm sure they already have a team of divers down there, looking for him."

Hitching in several short breaths, Pepper managed to stay the flood of tears that of course had to be followed by hiccups.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Maya cupped her cheeks and jaw, and her thumb stroked the dampness from Pepper's face. Then she took her hands in hers, rubbed her thumbs over her palms to calm her. "Hold your breath and swallow," she said in a comforting manner. "That's good. Now, exhale and then take a long, slow, deep breath and do it all over again. Just breathe."

Pepper's emotions were scattered all over the place and yet a sense of calm washed over her as Maya squeezed her hands and spoke softly to her. She closed her eyes, focusing on regaining control until the hiccups completely stopped and she was able to breathe normally again. As she looked back at Maya, she could even force a smile.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"You're welcome," Maya whispered back, answering her smile with one of her own.

"It's almost dark." Pepper paused. "How are they even gonna find him? I mean, if he is alive, he's trapped underneath—"

"Yeah, but the suit—"

"There's too much... Tony's buried under tons of concrete, at the bottom of the Pacific, and I didn't see him come out of the water. He must've come up for air."

Maya's face turned to worry, but before she could say anything, a reporter approached them, asking Pepper for a statement.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Maya launched herself off the curb and onto her feet, and stepped right into the space between Pepper and the man with the microphone, protecting her from the intruder. "This woman just lost the man she loved. Give her some privacy for God's sake!" Stunned, the reporter backed off and turned around to his camera man, saying a few words that made Maya roll her eyes. "Is this what you have to put up with all the time?" she asked. "How d'you do that?"

Pepper shrugged her shoulders. Sometimes she wondered the exact same thing. Being Tony Stark's girlfriend, and the CEO of his multi-million dollar company, surely was a lot to handle, emotionally and physically, especially when things were out of control, but she would not change it for the world. She would give anything to be able to turn back time right now, rewind to the moment in bed when they were together. Happy. Safe.

"So you really think Tony's—"

"I don't know," Maya cut her off before Pepper could finish her question. "But I thought you think that he's..."

"I'm on hormones. I don't know what to think," she answered desperately, sighing, as she got up. "I feel like... It feels like... like he's gone. Like this is it. This is the day I've been waiting for, you know... dreading." Her eyes went searching for the man in charge of the rescue mission, the captain, whoever she had to talk to to get answers. When she spotted him, she took a deep breath and walked over to him. "Any luck?"

Shaking his head, he sighed. "There's too much debris down there. Turbid conditions. Visibility is reduced to less than five feet to as deep as 30 feet, especially now that my men have to operate in the dark." He paused, looking Pepper deep in the eyes, so hopeless, helpless, and afflicted. "It doesn't look good, ma'am. We can't find a body and we cannot find a suit. Nothing."

"Which means he's alive, right?"

"Or he was swept out to sea. We really can't be sure."

"Then why do you sound so sure?" she asked, her voice strained, almost angry. She didn't want to be angry. That poor man was just doing his job, and certainly the best he could, but she was so scared. She often got mad when she was scared.

"There is nothing else we can do. Not tonight."

"And what about tomorrow?"

The guy shifted uncomfortably on his feet, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid he's gone," and then hurried off.

Pepper wondered if he did that, knowing she needed to be alone right now, like people usually did upon hearing such bad news, or because he was simply afraid she would rip his head off. She closed her eyes and tried to stay calm, to not break down again. She even dared to hope, deep down. There was not much left to hope for, she knew that, but the worst thing was feeling it. She felt that Tony was gone—dead—and she had never felt this way before, not even when he'd been kidnapped for months. She had always had a feeling that he was still alive, but not today. Not tonight.

Walking to the edge of the cliff, the only spot where she felt like she could really be by herself, away from all the people swarming round, she stared out towards an empty sea, wishing to wash away all the loneliness within her. As she moved even closer to the precipice, the clinging sound of metal draw her attention. She looked down to her feet and spotted one of Tony's Iron Man masks. It was noticeably scarred from the explosion, and it only reminded Pepper that a suit could never really protect Tony from the dangers of reality.

She picked it up, cupping it in her hands, and looked at it for a moment. Then her fingers tenderly caressed the faceplate, as though she was really touching his face. She imagined the softness and warmth of his skin, but the metal in her hands was hard and cold. It could not have been long since he was gone, she had completely lost track of time, but she missed him so much already. The thought of having to live without him was almost unbearable. Lifting the mask to her face, against her forehead, she closed her eyes, silently asking—begging—him to come back to her. To them.

And then Pepper heard a little beeping sound, like an alarm. And as she saw the small red light at the inside of the helmet, the glimmer of hope she painstakingly had hung on to, became a small flickering flame, and she didn't hesitate to put the mask on.

"Stark secure server. Retinal scan verified."

"Pepper, it's me."

The second she heard Tony's voice, a round of fresh tears welled in her eyes and she took a sharp intake of breath, gasping in shock and surprise.

"Got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time, so... First off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way. That was selfish and stupid and it won't happen again. Also, it's Christmas time. The rabbit's too big. Done. Sorry. And I'm sorry in advance because... I can't come home yet. I need to find this guy. You gotta stay safe. That's all I know."

Pepper's smile cut right into her cheeks as she listened to his message. She didn't really focus on what he said, only on the sound of his voice. Closing her eyes, she let out a deep breath. Thank God! He was okay—safe—and their baby would not have to grow up without a father. Wherever he was, he was alive. That was all that mattered to her. And once they were reunited, she would never let him go ever again.

"Take care of our baby until I get back. God, what am I even saying? You will always take care of it, like you have always taken care of me." He paused. "You know, I think I set a bad example for our kid tonight... I just stole a poncho from a wooden Indian."

She chuckled, eyes glassy with tears.

"I love you, Pepper," he said, sighing deeply. It was the last thing he said to her.

"I love you too," she whispered emotionally, spreading her hands protectively over her still-flat belly. "We both do... Daddy," she said ever so softly and smiled.