Trigger

By: InitialA

Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Marvel universe.

"Really? Tied to a chair? The only way this could be more cliché is if you were twirling your moustache and glaring at me through your monocle," Tony's voice said as the wall crumbled under his blast.

"Tony!" Pepper yelled. "No, stop, it's a—"

He tripped the trigger. It was so loud. Everything went hot, very hot, and very, very loud; and the only way Pepper knew she was screaming was how raw her throat felt. She screamed, and the force of the explosion sent her through the air, and the warehouse crumbled around them, and she prayed to whatever gods were listening for it to be over.

Someone was shaking her. Her head felt funny, fuzzy and dizzy all at once. Everything felt… warm. And cold. A little prickly, but that faded and then nothing replaced that. So much ringing… "…per… pepper… Pepper!"

Tony sounded so far away. Why? He'd just been there. Right? Weren't they meeting at LaGuardia to take the jet to the D.C. site? He was coming from the shipyard where they were fixing the helicarrier. "Pepper, please wake up, c'mon."

Wake up… but she was so tired… she was never this tired. Not even after wrangling him all night during one of his benders. Her eyelids felt like they were made of lead, did she really need to wake up? "Tony…" Even speaking was hard, and her voice was a gravelly whisper.

"Pepper, come on, I need you to stay with me. We're gonna get out of this, alright?"

He sounded worried. Tony Stark, worried. That was the day. She did all the worrying. She grinned, but why was it so hard? She managed to open her eyes, a little. Everything was orange. Tony's face was blurry. "Hi…"

"Hey. There, see? It's fine. I'll get you out of this. Just have to… get you out of this." She heard the rockets fire and crash into something. "Pepper, can you feel your legs?"

Feel?

Her head was starting to hurt now. The fuzziness was going away, being replaced with throbbing pain. When had her head gotten so heavy, anyway? It would be so much easier to… Her head lolled to the side. The suit's gloves were warm as he moved her head to look at him. "No, no, no, Virginia, you can't do that to me, don't you dare. Look at me. Stay awake, stay with me."

"You… never… call… Virginia…"

"Yeah, well, I slipped. C'mon. Do I have to boss you around again? Pepper! Ms. Potts, I need you to stay awake for me!"

He sounded so uncharacteristically serious that she made her eyes open. His face swam into clarity. His lips were moving again, but the ringing was growing louder in her ears and it was hard to hear him. Someone had muted the sound. He looked angry, and worried, and scared all at once. He looked over his shoulder, and yelled something. It was all so muffled, like someone had stuffed her full of cotton balls. "Tony."

He looked back at her. Everything was moving in slow motion. She just needed to sleep, and then she'd be fine. She needed to tell him that. It was really, really important. She needed to sleep. He had to know it would be okay, as long as she got to sleep. She smiled, her eyes closing. Just like every night before they went to bed… "Love you…"