So ladies and gentlemen, we come to a close of this epic adventure I've put myself and these wonderful characters through...

'What are we doing here?' Rhodey asked as they landed at Maya's facility.

'I have something I need to finish here, can you to get back to Pepper, tell her everything is ok?' Tony asked as he walked toward the entrance of the building allowing his suit to unravel itself away from him.

'When are you coming back?' Rhodey asked.

'I'm not sure; I don't know how long this will take.' Tony explained. 'I'll catch up with you soon.'

Rhodey nodded and took off, leaving Tony to his business.

'Stark tower, Agent Romanov.' The driver announced.

Natasha stepped out, 'thank you, I won't be long.'

The driver nodded.

Natasha took out her cell phone, 'Pepper, can I come up?' she made her way to the lobby, 'I'm coming up now.' She replaced her phone and made her way to the elevator; she pushed the button for the top floor and leaned back against the elevator wall. She knew Tony wouldn't be here yet, but Pepper would be.

The doors opened and Pepper welcomed Natasha with a warm smile and a hint of confusion.

'I didn't expect to see you, is everything ok?' Pepper asked softly. 'Please come in.'

Natasha tried to offer a smile, 'Yes, everything is fine,' but the gut wrenching feeling consumed her more than she cared to admit. Her training and expertise however, offered a façade of calm which she hoped Pepper wouldn't be able to see through.

'I just had a few questions, about Tony's recovery.' She said earnestly.

'I figured as much,' Pepper said quietly, she led her guest to the living area and motioned for her to sit.

'What can you tell me about the serum?' Natasha asked looking intently at Pepper, studying her face, her reactions.

Pepper shifted uncomfortably in her spot, 'not much, unfortunately, he didn't tell me much and I didn't ask.'

Pepper poured a glass of water for each of them.

'Was this the doctor who administered the serum?' Natasha pulled up an image of Maya Hansen on her cell phone and handed it to Pepper.

She took it from her and looked at the photo; she nodded, 'why?'

'Intel we recovered from the Mallen case over the last few days indicates she was responsible.' Natasha explained taking her phone back.

'And you think she may have compromised Tony's treatment?' Pepper asked flatly.

Natasha considered her words carefully, 'I have reason to believe that the serum may have been deliberately administered to Mallen, I also think it best to know all the facts before arriving at conclusions.'

Pepper nodded; 'of course, but what would Dr Hansen have to gain?' she looked at her guest intently.

'Maybe her gain was Tony's infection, he rewrote the virus, he corrected the mistakes.' Natasha offered.

'You think she needed him to fix the virus?'

'That's what it looks like, we're looking into it.' Natasha added.

The two women sat in silence, Jarvis finally broke the uneasiness.

'Miss Potts, Colonel Rhodes has arrived.' Jarvis announced.

Natasha stood up at the announcement, 'keep an eye on Tony.' She said to Pepper and took her leave.

Pepper nodded, 'of course, thank you.' She walked Natasha to the elevator; Rhodey stepped into the room as Natasha took his place in the elevator. They nodded at each other and Natasha pushed the button and looked away as the doors closed, she had what she needed, and she was right.

'What was that about?' Rhodey asked as he poured himself a glass of water from Tony's bar.

'She thinks that Dr Hansen needed Tony to fix the virus, that this was all planned.' She looked down at the glass of water in her hand, 'what do you think?'

Rhodey leaned against the bar, 'you know Tony would examine all possible outcomes of an equation, I'm sure he knew what he was doing.' He noticed that Pepper's worry wasn't alleviated, he cleared his throat, 'hey, he seems fine to me; I mean he can do some pretty freaky stuff now, but other than that, same old Tony.' He offered a smile.

Pepper nodded finally, 'where is he?'

'He said he had something he needed to take care of, he wanted me to tell you that everything was ok.' Rhodey said with a smile.

'So it's finished then?' Pepper sighed, 'it's over?'

Rhodey nodded, 'Everything is fine now.'

They sat together discussing the eccentric man who brightened both their lives, Pepper smiled, a small burden was lifted, a sense of normality was restored, she could tell Rhodey felt the same, he finally smiled whole heartedly, she knew that despite the nagging feeling that something wasn't right, that she had Tony back, she would fight for him and fight beside him to make sure that there was nothing that could come between them.

'Maya.' Tony said quietly as he stepped into her office closing the door behind him.

She looked up from her computer; a small smile crept across her face. She leaned back in her chair and folded her hands in her lap. 'Tony.'

'The serum wasn't stolen was it?' Tony said taking a seat in front of her.

He smile disappeared, she looked away from him, 'what do you know?'

Tony's face hardened, 'I didn't think anything of it when you came to see me, but the more and more I looked into your research the more I found flaws in your story,' he pulled out his cell phone and brought up some images of the storage rooms and the surgery where the procedure was performed, he handed it to her, 'the secure location of the serum was designed and implemented by three of the best security personnel in this country,' he smiled weakly, 'there's no way two common employees would have been able to hack that.'

Maya looked Tony in the eyes, 'what are you asking of me?'

'Why did you do it?' he asked simply.

'My funding was cut, Tony.'

'You could have asked me for help with that.' Tony said quietly.

She shook her head, 'you wouldn't have invested your time or money unless you saw a reason to.'

'You don't know that.' He replied.

'I needed to get the trials underway,' her eyes gleamed with determination to plead her case, 'the results could have been astounding, I could have helped so many people, genetic regeneration, people in the same position you were in.' She pleaded with Tony to understand.

Tony stood up; running his hand through his hair.

'You made this work Tony, you did it.' She stood up and walked over to him, she tried to take hold of his arm.

He shrugged her away, 'people died, because of what you did.' He said firmly.

'I'm sorry about that, but I never would have gotten your help if you didn't have the push.' She tried to explain.

Tony turned around briskly, 'I could have been killed.'

'He never would have killed you, I made sure of that.' She said in the same pleading tone.

'You planned all of this.' Tony said quietly. He didn't even need to question her, he knew the answer.

'I had no choice.' Maya stepped closer to him.

A thick blanket of silence fell over the office. Tony tried to contain his anger, he turned away from her; leaning his arm above him against the door, 'You always have a choice; you just made the wrong one.' He said finally.

Maya stepped between him and the door, her face inches away from his. He could feel her breath on him; she cupped his cheek in her hand.

'Stop it.' He pulled her hand away, he closed his eyes. Betrayal, just like Stane all over again.

'Tony, you're brilliant, you're the only one who could have done this, and look at the results, you're here, alive and walking, it's amazing.' She turned him to look at her.

'And what if I didn't work this out, who would have cleaned up your mess then?' Tony stepped closer to her, 'did you think about that?'

'I had no doubt that you would work it out.' She said quietly, 'and you did.'

Tony took hold of her and moved her out of his way, 'I'm only sorry it came to this, Maya, you were a good friend.' He stepped passed her and opened the door, three police officers came through and cuffed her.

He didn't look back as he walked away; he could hear her calling after him, screaming for him, he didn't feel anything but relief that she would be put away for the lives she destroyed, including his.

'Romanov, you're back.' Clint said with a cheery tone.

Natasha entered the observation deck of the helicarrier and took a seat beside him.

'Where is everyone?' she asked quietly.

'Gone for the night, Steve's got a date, a blonde girl from the café near Stark's tower.' Clint informed with a cheeky grin.

Natasha smiled back, 'well that's good, he needs to get out into the world.'

Clint smiled, 'yes, and what about you, Romanov?'

She turned to face him, 'what about me?'

'Are you stepping back into the world, or are you going to continue sulking?'

'I'm not sulking.' She offered simply.

'You're sulking.' Clint confirmed with a slight nod.

Natasha rolled her eyes, 'why aren't you out in the world, Barton?'

'Because I'm fine right here, besides, someone needs to be here to cheer you up.' He gently bumped her shoulder with his.

Natasha smiled this time, 'well, I think a drink would cheer me up, let's go.' She motioned to the door, Clint followed her, whether he was there as a confidant, a comrade or a drinking partner, in the end he would always follow her and he would always be there to cheer her up, because Natasha Romanov was a soldier, a master assassin, but above all she was a friend, who cared more than she would ever let on, and this sign of "weakness" in her eyes, made her an even better agent in everyone else's.

Night fell upon New York, Pepper sat beside the window looking out over the skyline. Her mind ran a marathon, the events of the last few weeks plagued her conscience, thoughts of all that was nearly lost, thoughts of all that had changed. The one thought however which never found any consolation, 'Tony was injected with the same serum Mallen was.' Natasha was concerned, she would never show it if it weren't serious, and that thought alone terrified Pepper. Natasha was so worried that even her years of soviet spy training couldn't hide the fear in her eyes. What was going to happen to Tony? She stressed herself out with worry, she consciously pushed out all thoughts of the fight, the conversations, she closed her eyes and blinked them away.

She heard the elevator doors open, and waited for Tony to join her. Moments later he wrapped his arms around her, kissing her neck. She held onto his arms.

'I missed you.' He whispered in her ear.

He walked around to sit beside her on the couch, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and Pepper turned to look at him lacing her fingers between his.

'Are you ok?' Pepper asked quietly.

Tony leaned forward and kissed her forehead, 'I am now.' He smiled.

'Tony, I wanted to apologise to you, about the Steve situation.' She pulled back so they were sitting face to face.

'There's nothing to apologise for, Pep.' Tony said softly.

'There is.' Pepper said shaking her head, 'I put you in a really bad position.'

'I would do anything for you, anything.' Tony said simply.

'I know, and it shouldn't be that way, I really appreciate what you did, and I never got to thank you.' Pepper kissed Tony's hands.

'And you will never have to, I do what I do because I love you, and that's as simple as it is.' Tony smiled.

Pepper looked at him, she couldn't help but smile, the journey which they survived together, the man Tony had become, his maturity, his strength in every situation overwhelmed her. She pulled him close, in silence they sat in the dark room looking out over the city skyline, their city. Tony and Pepper. For always.

So this is the end...I aim to write a few shorts as a continuation to this piece which I will aim to tie up any loose ends, please let me know how you found this ending, if anyone would like to suggest anything I have missed or anything which you believe wasn't tied up nicely, please let me know, keeping in mind that I will be writing more, a few shorts or a few chapters to continue on! I also thought about writing a whole new adventure tied in to this story, but a sort of seperate sequel :)

Thank you for following, reading, favouriting and reviewing. You've all been amazing, you've trully inspired me and helped me on my own journey to focus and continue with writing!

Please let me know what thoughts are on this finale :)

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