Author's note: hey'ya there, peeps. I don't need to preface any of this with an apology for an update lag (imagine that!), because this is a NEW story. :D

This is a collaboration between 4persephone and myself, as usual for all but my own two ficlets, and it's kinda a long addendum to In Absence. Ton y and Pepper and Aaron are all back in LA, but despite being home, things aren't perfect yet. Which is how life is. So this is our invitation to you peek inside the lives of these two with us.

As for updates, well, I'M mostly free now (except I'm going through a cycle where I want to reread every book I own), but 4persephone's gonna be having a baby here soon (feel free to leave congratulations for the soon-to-be new mama here), and we don't exactly know how our writing sessions will be going after that. Hopefully, she'll be up late with baby a lot, since she's a few timezones ahead of me.

Anyway, enjoy, and we'll update as we can. :D Reviews are appreciated, as always.

Disclaimer: if I owned Iron Man or anyone associated with it, I'd probably still write fanfic, but then it wouldn't be fanfic. It'd be canon. Lucky for the Iron Man 'verse I'm on the outside looking in. Credit Stan Lee, Universal, Marvel, and whoever else for intellectual property. Credit Jon Favreau, Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, et al for bringing them to life.

Pepper Stark is at ease in the lavish office, even as she sits with scary propriety on the edge of her chair, back straight. She scans the paper in front of her with a frown, not liking what she sees.

No, that's not quite true. To be more accurate, Pepper can't quite believe what she sees.

She closes the file folder and slides it towards one Gary Larson, Tony's personal lawyer. "I'd like to see the real post-nuptial agreement, please."

"Pardon me?" Gary looks up from the stack of papers sitting in front of him on the desk.

"I believe you must have our file mixed up with some other insanely wealthy – or possibly just plain insane – newlywed billionaire." Not that Pepper believes that for an instant, but without Tony present, she has no one else to express her disbelief to. When she'd called him at the office as she'd been leaving the house, he'd told her he'd be on his way himself. But he's not here yet…though that might be a good thing. She can probably convince Gary to see reason.

This kind of…largesse…is not in Tony's best interests. And not only is she his personal assistant – and therefore responsible for looking after his best interests – but she's his wife. The job description is more or less the same. The fact that this agreement offends her on some indefinable personal level is beside the point.

Gary frowns and looks at the innocuous manila folder lying on his desk. "I assume you reached the section outlining alimony and the division of property in the event of a divorce."

"Yes." Pepper crosses her legs and leans forward to rest her hands on the desk. "It's your job to keep him from doing things like this, Gary."

Gary's expression is wry as he nods a little. "Mr. Stark and I have had several long discussions about the document, yes."

"In which you talked a lot, he nodded, and then repeated his original directions." Pepper sighs. This does have "classic Tony" written all over it, and if she steps back and looks at the situation, it's kinda...cute. However, his fortune is not a letterman's jacket that he can give to his best girl.

"Mrs. Stark, I'll be the first to admit I find the specifics of this agreement a bit extreme...but part of my service to Mr. Stark on this matter was to make sure this document would be legally uncontestable by anyone - including those on the Board of Directors. His reasoning and documentation of why this is not an unreasonable amount was difficult argument to combat."

"Difficult because he didn't let you get a word in edgewise, or because he poured on the charm?"

"Why couldn't it have been that I was just right, Pepper?" Tony strolls in the door, Gary's secretary fluttering in his wake. His hair and tie are both out of order, but his eyes are relaxed…something that's not always the case recently when he's been at the office. Especially when he's been there without her.

Gary looks a little relieved. "I'm sorry we started without you, Sir..." He looks to Pepper. "He suspected the two of you might have some things to discuss once you had a chance to see this."

"Mmm..." Pepper watches Tony sit down in the chair beside her. Well, he slouches into it, another indicator of his mood. If he's taken a reading of her own mood, he doesn't seem concerned.

"I think we're going to need a minute, Gar." Tony says the words lightly.

Pepper sees a rare opportunity to get her husband home early. "Actually Mr. Larson, I suggest we schedule a meeting to wrap this up tomorrow afternoon. Aaron has a bit of a cold today and could use some extra 'Dad' time. Besides, it would probably be wise for Tony and me to discuss this at length over dinner tonight."

"Pepper...why come back tomorrow if we can wrap this up today?"

The look she gives him is silent but to the point. He straightens in his seat and sighs. "There's no way in hell I'm persuading you to sign today, is there?"

"I'd like to discuss the specifics with you," she replies mildly. It's a polite way of agreeing with him.

Tony sighs, looking momentarily weary, though, she's quick to note, not particularly surprised. Then he looks over at Gary. "How does 3 pm tomorrow look for your schedule?"

Gary flips open the daily schedule book sitting on his desk. "I'll have thirty minutes to see you at 3:15 pm tomorrow. As long as we're talking about signing and not redrawing, that'll be fine."

Pepper's voice is dry. "We'll call in the morning if we have to redraft it."

Having her own personal bodyguards is still something she's getting used to. Pepper collects hers outside the law offices. Happy's with them, which helps. It means she can relegate them as something that belongs to Tony and focus on composing arguments for the coming discussion. It's a task, because all her disagreements thus far total to "the Board of Directors won't like it."

Well, there's also the phrase "media frenzy," but that's even less helpful than bringing the Board into things. Besides, given his shaky relationship with most of the members of the Board at the moment, bringing them into any discussion makes her feel as if she's using them as a threat.

By the time they've reached the relative privacy of the car, Pepper's still got nothing but the feeling in her gut that makes her very uncomfortable about signing the document upstairs. Even the copy of it in her hand seems conspicuous.

Tony doesn't share her feelings about the matter. He's too distracted by their fussing son to notice much of anything else. "I thought you may have been overstating...but he is looking pretty snotty," he says as he takes the boy from Kara, their certified black belt nanny/baby bodyguard. She moves around to sit up front with Happy. Tony barely notices as he allows Pepper to get into the car first. "Think we need to get his pediatrician to make a house call again?"

The corners of Pepper's lips turn up. "He doesn't have a fever and he's eating fine. The doctor's just going to recommend we encourage extra fluids."

"You sound certain." Tony tries to clean up Aaron's face with a Kleenex, which makes the infant start squalling.

"I already called," Pepper admits, because this at least is something that's easy to explain her reaction to. She's a first time mother and her baby is sick; she calls a doctor. Problem solved. "He said that if things haven't started to clear up in another twenty-four hours to go ahead and bring him in. In the meantime, it is allergy season."

Tony nods as he chases Aaron's nose with the tissue. The little boy is tossing his head and still squalling at the top of his lungs. "He didn't seem to have so many respiratory infections in Savannah. Do you think maybe the drier climate's not setting well with him?"

"We can put a humidifier in the nursery and see if it helps, but probably we should all just start washing our hands more often. Here, let me." Pepper takes Aaron and the tissue away from Tony. Aaron - like any infant – doesn't like having his nose wiped. However, the best way around that is to just get it done...and Tony's trying to be nice about it.

She ignores the baby's indignant whining long enough to clear his breathing passages, then hands him back to his father. The puppy dog look that Aaron produces – once he's no longer under threat of having his nose wiped - makes her roll her eyes. "Oh no you don't. You're too young to be this good at imitating your uncle's hang dog expression."

"I prefer to think he's been learning from the master, Pepper." Tony pops the first few buttons on his dress shirt then slouches down on the wide seat and settles Aaron against his chest. "Com'on, little man. A nap is just what you need."

This seems to be the right course of action; as his cheek comes to a rest against Tony's chest, the baby almost immediately stops fussing. Pepper watches as Aaron takes such a deep sigh that his little body shudders before relaxing. She just soaks in the scene with a sense of contentment and the knowledge that she is so lucky. "He's been missing you lately, since you started this marathon of corporate meetings at the office. I think I'm going to start scheduling a half hour longer in your lunch break to bring him up for a visit."

Tony nods. "The good news is the paperwork tsunami should start receding soon. All but one of the project teams is back on target, and all the department heads have been briefed." He lets out a jaw-splitting yawn before resting his own head back against the seat.

Pepper reaches over and starts combing her fingers through his hair. "Maybe I should be putting Aaron and you down for a nap when we get home. That way you'll be rested up for our epic battle later."

Tony groans. "Can't we just solve it by a game of darts, or maybe rock/paper/scissors?"

"You cheat." His hair is getting slightly too long again. Time to schedule another appointment with his hairdresser.

"You do realize this is one of those times that I'm going to be what you so charmingly call 'Stupidly Stubborn?'" he warns her cautiously.

"Yeah. I figured that out. I guess I'll just have to be annoyingly pigheaded in return."

"Face it, Pep: you and I have always had a talent for intense negotiation..." He's grinning a little as he says that, cracking one of his eyes back open, and Pepper can see by his evil little smirk that he's recalling the last time her contract had to be renewed.

"That's why I referred to it as an epic battle." She leans down to kiss the tip of his nose, then slides down on the seat herself so that she can rest her head on his shoulder. "Other than our seeing less than eye to eye, how's your day been?"

"Long. Boring? How hard would it be to hide two bodies in our backyard?"

"That depends on how deep you dig the graves." Her lips curve up into a smile. "Who do I need to be sending e-mails to?"

Tony sighs. "No one. They're not wrong, as irritating as that is, just really, really annoying..."

"Well, tomorrow's supposed to be my half day at the office but I could just bring along Aaron and a playpen, and camp in your office for the entire day. That way you'd get to see him when you're not in meetings, and I'd be on hand to help smooth things over with the 'annoying but not wrong' people."

Tony's eyes light up with something like hope, but then he looks down at the little boy lying on his chest and sighs deeply.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea, Pepper –"

"It is." Her hand slides from his hair to his cheek. "And not just because he helps to relax you. Look at how easily he's stopped fussing. I've had to wait until he gets more tired than stubborn before I can get him to nap."

"Yeah, but he's already sick. Bringing him into a building full of new germs seems a little dangerous. Everything I've read on the subject says preemies take longer to build up their immune systems."

"Yes. They do. That doesn't mean you need to seal them in a sterile bubble." She shifts her head on his shoulder so that she can see his face better. "Getting more sleep would help him get over this faster, Tony. Besides, it'd only be for a few hours." She tilts her head back down into a position that doesn't strain her neck before offering her ultimatum. "It's either that, or you could start coming here in the mornings as normal and then returning to the house by two with the rest of your work."

"You know that they want me more accessible than that, Pepper." Tony's voice is aggrieved.

"Yes, I do. And I'm trying to find a compromise. In the end though we'll decide on what's best for our family, and everyone else is just going to have to deal with it." She pokes him lightly in the shoulder. "You don't have to try and make up for nine months of missed work in the first month back at home, you know. If you keep up this pace much longer, you're going to collapse."

Tony shrugs. "There's just so much that needs doing. Believe me, I don't want to keep these kind of hours. But someone has to deal with the current mess. While I was out Human Resources hired some real fucking idiots."

Charming he might be, but when it came down to it, a people person Tony was not. She just has to smile at his declaration. "Tomorrow's my half day," she repeats. "Let me deal with the problem people, Tony. It's what I do best."

He finally gives in, nodding his head as he stifles another yawn. "All right. You and the sprout can join me tomorrow, and while we're there you can help me figure out how to fire that asshole from Public Relations. He can't seem to grasp the concept of 'absolutely no baby photo-spreads.'"

Pepper's mouth tightens. "This has been a recurrent conversation between the two of you?"

Tony looks bashful and starts mumbling something about wanting to get the post-nup signed before he told her something that would really get her on the warpath. "Yeah. He says we're idiots to ignore how much the stock could go up with the positive publicity. And he's shared that thought with several members of the Board, who've then tracked me down to add their own two-cents."

Tony watches, half-mesmerized, as Pepper's nostrils flare. It's not often that she gets this upset and it's not with him. It's a treat, really, to watch. "Leave the 'idiots' to me," she repeats, in a tone that promises a primly delivered but unforgettable speech in somebody's future.

Tony nods, more than happy to hand this over so Pepper can do her worst. "Just be warned, they're not going to back down easily. After all, what 'harm' is there in me letting him 'play a part in the dynasty' like my parents did with me?"

"The difference is that it was another world then," Pepper says, though she tries not to sound upset.

Tony's expression is wry. "You're preaching to the choir, Pep. Remember?" What Tony doesn't say is what Pepper realizes after a moment that he can't bring himself to. Namely that the argument the Board is using is especially difficult for Tony to combat.

His parenting choices are being subtly compared to those of his parents. They're daring him to criticize the way he was raised, and he doesn't want to do that. It's a blatant emotional manipulation that only increases Pepper's sense of resentment.

"Tony..." She doesn't know what to say, because there are so many ways in which they still trip over each other and each other's feelings. But something needs to be said, if only to help ease his mind. He's struggling so hard to be a good father, and good husband, and good businessman, and it's taking a toll he won't admit to. Saying something now is the least she can do. "Your parents...in a way they had it easier. No one was pressuring them to put their infant on the cover of US Weekly. No one would have even thought about it back then. When they did release photos of you, it was because you'd done something important...and it was to Popular Mechanics. What the PR department wants us to do is something completely different. They don't want to focus on anything that Aaron has achieved. They're asking us to use him. And for all that your parents did expose you to the media, I can't see that it was ever about using you to make themselves look better."

Tony nods. "And I know all that logically. But with certain people in this debate it's like talking to a brick wall."

"You should have told me about this sooner," Pepper gently chides him. Her eyes are too understanding; they can probably see every ounce of his weariness with the whole ordeal. "People expect you to do your duty by the company. But I'm the mother, and after the way I took off last winter, no one is going to be too surprised if I become unreasonable and put my foot down about this. They're still treating me with kid gloves, half-afraid that I'm going to take off again if I get too upset. Yes, it's condescending at times, but we can still use that to our advantage, Tony."

He nods. "I think you're right. Though I'm also thinking after this next project launches in another month you and I should take a long weekend as well."

It's the first time in two months Tony has even suggested not working on a Saturday, which Pepper's smart enough to recognize as sign that he's closer to serious exhaustion than even she realized.

'So say yes and take a couple days off. He'll probably sleep through the first 24 hours but I can live with that, if it means having him with no distractions the other 48.'

"What did you have in mind?" she asks as she tries to settle back down. "Just hanging around the house, or a short trip to one of the other houses?"

"Home is fine. Though I also wouldn't object to a trip up the coast if we could manage to find a hidey-hole away from the phones and Paparazzi."

"I could start looking for a little house to rent somewhere around San Francisco," she offers. "We could spend a few days wandering around Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf…do the tourist thing from behind hats and sunglasses."

Tony nods. "That would be fun, though you and the monkey will definitely need to slather on the sunscreen."

Pepper smiles. "That could probably be arranged."

Tony's smile grows a little warmer. "I could probably even be convinced to help you in said application."

"Yeah?" She has to grin as his arm snakes around her waist. "You wouldn't have any ulterior motives for that offer, would you, Mr. Stark?"

"I might," he admits without the faintest hint of guilt.

"I've been warned about men like you," she teases him. "You with your good looks, and your sweet talk."

"Warned, huh?" He leans over to kiss her gently.

"Yeah..." she murmurs against his lips.

"About what?"

"That you're hard to dissuade once you've put your heart into something." Which is something that she tries not to let get to her. They...she...is still trying to work through her issues. Not that Tony has been anything but patient and supportive, but she's getting impatient with herself. She knows she has his heart in her hands, knows that she's given him more of herself than she's ever given anyone else. But just like there's something about the contract she's supposed to sign, there's something she can't quite identify that's holding her back from surrendering everything to him, including her fears.

"I suppose at times I can be a little bit stubborn," Tony acknowledges, aware enough of the tension tightening her frame to shift from a sensual to a comforting touch. "But then I tend to know a damn good thing when I see it."

"Trust me, I'm not complaining." It's a lot of responsibility though, trying to keep from hurting him. With that in mind, she makes a conscious effort to relax against him again. It's not him that's making her tense, it's her own perceived shortcomings. "Maybe I'll join you for a nap when we get home." That way he won't feel like she's trying to pull away.

"You, me and the munchkin all cuddled up and unconscious? Follow that with steak on the grill and this is a plan I can totally get into." He grins and carefully offers Pepper back her sleeping son as Happy slows the car. The new security gates loom in front of them, waiting to verify their driver's identity. The need for the gates had become glaringly apparent almost from the moment they'd arrived back in LA; the mob waiting outside of Edwards Air Force Base had been monumental, and really only held back because the base was government property and no one had really wanted to deal with that trespassing charge.

Anyway, this new, lower set of gates had been needed to keep even the most long-range cameras out of sight from the house. Pepper waits with resignation for Aaron to stir as the car comes to a stop, and he does fuss a little and wipe his snotty nose on her shirt, but a hand to the back of his head calms him and he falls still once more. "We might actually get him indoors without waking him," she murmurs to Tony.

Tony nods as they move past the first set of gates. The house is within view in seconds. "I'll get the doors so you won't jostle him. Are you going to put him in the nursery this time, or in the master bassinet?"

"I thought I'd put him in the nursery. It'd be nice to be able to talk without being afraid of waking him up." Things have been hectic since they've gotten back, but Pepper's tried to ensure that the habits they started in Georgia continue here. Even if they only got fifteen minutes a day to speak honestly and frankly with each other, it was more than worth it in the long run. They both needed those short reality checks in order to keep up to date with each other.

Tony nods. "Also better in case I start snoring. Not to mention Jarvis won't wake Aaron for any emergency phone calls."

They're dropped off in front of the house minutes later. Tony does get the front door and predictably, Jarvis's subroutines kick into gear the moment the door closes behind them. "Welcome home, Mr. Stark -" he says at full volume.

Tony raises a finger to his lips. "Hold out on the usual run down, old man, until the munchkin is tucked in."

"Affirmative sir." Jarvis promptly falls quiet.

Pepper smiles. "Why don't you go get dinner out of the freezer and put it on the thaw board so it's ready to cook when we get up?" she suggests softly. "I'll meet you in the bedroom once I get Aaron down."

By the time Pepper emerges from the nursery, it's to find Tony's work clothes in puddles on the floor of the master bedroom. He's not in the room though, and she follows his voice down the hall. "No, no, no. You've still got an error in the specs. I told you to fix this last week."

She sighs and addresses the overhead comm system. "Jarvis, block all non-emergency calls once he gets off the phone. Unless Mick calls long distance or there's blood directly involved we're unreachable for the rest of the evening."