Pepper indiscriminately threw pieces of clothing from her wardrobe into an open suitcase, too angry and upset to concentrate on what they were. She just needed to get away from here, away from Tony so she could begin to sort all this out in her head. Pepper closed the suitcase, not caring that items of clothing were hanging out around the edges. She grabbed the handle of the suitcase and went to leave the bedroom she shared with Tony when suddenly Tony himself was standing in the door way.
He looked at her, then down at the suitcase in her hand and then back at her. "Whatcha doing?" he asked evenly.
"I'm going home," said Pepper unevenly.
"You are home."
"Home to my apartment in LA."
"But, that's in LA," Tony protested.
"I realise that," said Pepper coldly.
Tony shoved his hands in his pockets and regarded her steadily. "I don't want you to go."
Pepper's lips thinned. "I can't talk to you right now."
"I realise you're mad at me-"
"And do you even have the first idea why?" she bit out.
Tony grimaced and gave a little shrug. "I shouldn't have done what I did."
"Why?" she demanded to know, not convinced Tony had the first idea. "Why shouldn't you have done what you did, Tony?"
"Because, ah, because it, um-"
Pepper's jaw hardened. "That's what I thought." She pushed passed him and headed for the elevator.
Tony was immediately chasing after her. "Pepper, wait."
Pepper jabbed at the button to close the door. "No," she said angrily.
The door slid shut just as Tony managed to jam his foot in the way to stop it closing completely.
"Tony, get your foot out of the way," said Pepper in annoyance.
"No, we need to talk," said Tony as he leapt into the elevator with her.
"Get out!" she commanded him.
"Too late," said Tony and quickly pressed the button.
"I don't want to be around you right now," said Pepper, pressing the open doors button, intent on leaving if he wouldn't.
"I know, but we need to talk about what happened," said Tony, as he pressed the button to close the doors again.
"Oh, now you want to talk," said Pepper in frustration, continuing to press the open button, "before you were just sticking things in my ass without even asking me." She closed her eyes and groaned. "How can that be even worse than it sounds?"
"You need to understand why I did it," said Tony urgently just as the elevator made a strange grinding noise and a red light came on over the floor panel. He pressed a couple of buttons and nothing worked on the pad at all now.
Pepper frowned. "What's wrong, what's happened?"
"I don't know," said Tony. He looked up. "Jarvis, check on elevator 3B."
"Bite me, numb nuts."
Pepper eyes went wide. "What's wrong with Jarvis?"
Tony wrinkled his nose. "I was trying to fix something in his persona unit and things aren't going to plan."
Pepper put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Pretty much the story of your life right now, isn't it, Tony? You meddle in things that aren't broken in the first place and make things a hundred times worse. Tell me we're not stuck in this elevator."
Tony made a face and pressed a few more buttons, but nothing was happening. He gave her a regretful look. "We're stuck in the elevator."
Pepper groaned and covered her face with her hands. "I don't believe this!"
"No, no," said Tony quickly, "this is good, I can have a chance to explain."
Pepper dropped her hands away from her face and glared at him. "And you think you can do that and all this will be alright?" she asked in disbelief.
Tony lifted a shoulder. "I'd like to give it a shot."
"There is nothing you can say to make this alright, Tony," said Pepper tightly. "We had that whole conversation about give and take and my feelings on the security issue," she said, feeling the sting of frustrated tears, "and you didn't take away anything from it, did you? I talk, but you don't hear me."
"Of course, I hear you," said Tony in frustration. "You didn't want a hamster ball, so no hamster ball."
Pepper put her hands on her hips. "You don't get it, do you?"
"Then help me get it," Tony pleaded with her. "What I did I only did it to make sure you're safe. I'm finding it hard to apologise for that."
Pepper bit her bottom lip, knowing Tony didn't have the first clue about how he was and how it impacted on others. She'd always known that about him and accepted it, but now that they were together, there was a real fear starting to eat away at her. "Everything about you is so big, Tony," said Pepper hopelessly, "so over the top and sometimes I feel like-" She stopped abruptly.
Tony took a quick step towards her. "Sometimes you feel like what?"
Pepper took an unsteady breath. "Like if I'm not careful you're going to consume me so there is nothing left," she said in frustration. "I'm just a girl from a little town in New Hampshire and you're Tony Stark. Plus it wasn't bad enough that you're a billionaire genius, now you have to be Iron Man as well."
Tony looked startled. "You-you think I'm better than you?"
She scowled at him. "No, of course not, you idiot." Only Tony would think of that first. "I think you're bigger than me and if I let you, you'll take me over completely."
Tony looked really confused now. "I have no idea what that means."
"Everything about you is larger than life, Tony," she said, "and sometimes I'm not sure I can compete with that, that I'm just going to be swept up in the Tony Stark persona so there is nothing of me left." She glared at him. "And a stunt like this, where you completely ignore my wishes and do whatever you want to me doesn't help change my mind.
Tony was just staring at her like she'd grown two heads. "Pepper," he said in disbelief, "no one holds their own against me like you do."