2416/Heroism-from-Home

Heroism-from-Home
Date of Scene:	11 July 2020
Location:	Avengers Mansion - Medical
Synopsis:	Tony and Pepper discuss the Brainiac battle's result.
Cast of Characters:	Tony Stark, Pepper Potts

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Tony Stark has posed:
With the Brainiac ship now sinking into the Atlantic, Tony leans back more in his medical bed, eyes closing, while he talks to JARVIS. "Alright, so send the recovery teams, and get a scope on where it is, and any additional information out there."

Tony's been sitting up in his bed in the Avengers medical, with a whole system around him of mixed hologram and VR. His headset is one of the larger and bulkier ones, because he doesn't have any use of his left arm. Most of the direction has to come from gestures and eye movements, and Tony's been frustrated with the lack of use of left hand more than once. He issues a few more directions while leaving his eyes closed, head leaned back, giving his eyes a break from the considerable eye-strain.

He's been piloting an Iron Man suit remotely, in an extremely high-stress situation, and while he would never show it to anyone on the mission, it's showing up physically, where only one person is present to view it - Pepper.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper's been on the phone with the City Council, the mayor, conferencing with the governor so the area is tracked both with ATC and helicopters kept discretely out of the way so proactive measures can be done quickly and cleanly. That did mean that areas of the city had to be cordoned off and evacuated, and while it was not ideal, it undoubtedly saved many lives.

Between that call and reporters picking up on the fact that Stark Tower had been 'attacked', Pepper's tried to enlist the aid of the PR department, giving them the company line, and still some enterprising things manage to get a hold of her.

Throughout Tony's stint on the drone, Pepper's had her back to him more than a few times in order to give him the ability to concentrate, as well as her needing her own bit of concentration.

Because really? Cat videos?

Pepper is still on the phone with the mayor's office when she catches the vestiges of orders coming from the medbed behind her, and twisting around slowly, she's looking over her shoulder while still on the phone. She's momentarily distracted, and she has to catch herself, as noted by the moment of stammering her acknowledgment to his words.

"Okay, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.. no, thank you for your help. Yes, I'll let Mr. Stark know. Yes.."

It's sadly another couple of minutes as she tries to disengage before she can give Tony her full attention, and when she is done with that call, she walks back towards the hospital bed. She'd obviously been home to change, shower, and look presentable. Little did she know that there'd be conference calls during a war with aliens! (Again!)

The phone is set deliberately to silence, and there's that brief, flickering hesitancy that she gets before broaching that all too familiar, "Tony?" The 'you okay' hangs in the air, unneeded to be spoken.

Her head cants as she watches as he lays there, eyes closed for those few moments. "I'm going to assume you're done? You did it?"

Reaching for the headset, she's not seeing any telemetry coming across on the monitors, though she can't (obviously) see the HUD. "Let me get this off of you."

Tony Stark has posed:
Tony clicks his tounge against his teeth, without opening his eyes. He lifts his right hand to show a thumbs up to her. He's starting to allow himself to come down off of the high of the extreme situation.

"Fought the big bad guy and everything. Saved the city with the team." A pause. "Even from a medical bed on painkillers, I'm the hero," Tony says, smiling to himself, and finally opens his eyes some to take her approach in. There's a very brief movement of his dark eyebrows in puzzlement at what she's reaching for, but he figures it out a moment later and holds still to allow her to remove the complex headset. He'd had a TIME getting it on one-handed earlier and had gotten her help, so this only makes logical sense to get help for removal.

"I need to recalibrate that thing, I have a headache right here," Tony sighs, lifting his hand to show across his temples. "But, you know. Fighting Brainiac was the priority over how well my headset was fitting."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper smiles at the thumbs up acknowledgment and as she undoes some of the straps, loosening up the bands, she nods at his words. Her own tones are quiet, and hold that undercurrent of both pride and amusement.

"So, what you're telling me is, you helped lead a team while you were hopped up on painkillers while lying in medical bed. With a headache.. and you still.." She lets out a soft laugh as she carefully takes it off of him and sets it down on the side table, right next to the bed.

There is a touch of concern, though, in regards to that headache, and green eyes flicker towards the monitor. Not that she could truly see any minor changes, but she'd be pretty okay at identifying the biggies. Maybe. Reaching out to touch the spot that he'd indicated, if he allowed it, she'd brush the bits of hair sticking to his head at the temples.

"Headache fighting Brainiac. Sort of makes sense?" She's teasing, but gently and with that softly amused undercurrent.

"I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep the Mayor from knowing about your injures so he can give you a commendation or something later." Not kidding. It's in the works!

Tony Stark has posed:
"I got injured fighting Brainiac. It's easy, Pepper," Tony teases her. And it's not a lie. Tony isn't a fan of lies, and wouldn't suggest she lie either. "Usually the mayor doesn't ask for specifics, at any rate, and neither would anyone else. Although you know how I feel about accepting physical awards. Talk them out of that, please."

Tony left his eyes closed while he spoke, resting his vision from the eye strain of the long use of the virtual displays.

"Also, I shut off the painkillers a while ago. Observe how lucid I'm being," Tony adds, with a gesture of right hand. He's not wrong, not at all: compared to the night before, he's very alert and sharp. Even if some sharpness is colored with a pain that he's tamping down.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper doesn't lie per se. She is very good at spinning, however. Not SHIELD level spinning, which can go to ridiculous lengths, but she's not bad. The hole in Stark Tower is one of her better PR spins. And with the battle, with the sight of Iron Man on footage? Her fingers play with the hair there for a moment longer before she retrieves it and places both hands in front of her on the bedside, and she nods. "That works. And they won't. They'll thank you and then you say a few words, and we get to go home." He goes home, she goes .. back to her apartment.

Pain.. there's that moment when she does come back to that realization, and her words come out a little quicker, "I can get the doctor, He can give you something for the pain, so you can sleep. I mean, there's no reason why not." Under those bandages, he's probably turning a world of purple with bruising now.

Tony Stark has posed:
"I'll live: and so will everyone else," Tony answers with some rather heroic firmness, and brief laugh. Things are less funny when there's pain involved, it's tempering his sass. "All worth it." For sure.

Tony opens his eyes as she draws away from touching his hair, tracking her hand as she moves back. "I think I can resume the painkillers from here," Tony says, looking to his console and reaching out to it, and then thinking better of it.

"JARVIS, resume the painkillers, would you?"

"Done, Mr. Stark."

Tony gives Pepper an appraising look, and moves his right hand over towards her to grip the edge of her sleeve and tug it a little, "The world's saved, no need to frown so deeply, Ms. Potts," Tony teases her.

Pepper Potts has posed:
She's proud of him. There are days when it seems like he's just a normal guy, albeit a CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation, and then the next minute, he's.. a hero. A hero doing things that people couldn't begin to imagine. It's those days when her heart feels like it'll beat out of its chest at the sight of him. Pride. Well, pride mixed in with a bunch of fear that one day.. that one day will come.

Not today, though.

Pepper nods her head in approval as the request for Jarvis comes through, finally, and she bites at her bottom lip a little before she lifts her hand that was being tugged on. Just a little, but there's a motion. She breathes a laugh, showing off her freckles on her cheekbones, the relief and humor reaching her green eyes. There's that moment when she reaches out to give his hand a squeeze.

"So I see, Mr. Stark. I held your calls. Let me know when you want your messages."

Tony Stark has posed:
"You know what? I think JARVIS would //love// all my messages," Tony opines, giving her one of his patented Stark finger-gun, while making a bit of a face. Urgh, messages. That's what AI and APs are for, clearly. "...To filter out the good ones, or at least ones from all the single ladies whose lives I've saved today," Tony adds, in his sort of cursory teasing way. It's just the usual playboy brash mode he can sometimes go into.

And having caught maybe the edge of the softened glow to her of pride made him think of that. Not necessarily other women. But attractive women in a general way.

Things are a little confusing. It's /Pepper/. So.

"I just... want to //not// be working on a crazy android's brain disruption for a little while," Tony says, adusting the topic, and trying to poke her hand with his forefinger. He's been prone to these comfortable, friendly contacts with her lately, without seeming to even be aware of it. "You would think that wouldn't be a huge ask, and yet my life is rather interesting."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper smiles indulgently, the humor still playing on her face. She's nodding in that 'yes, yes, sure' way, accenting each of his points until he gets to that 'single ladies' section before her head shifts to a quick, and worded, "No." She's pretty sure they'll figure out a way to get to him. They always do. Super models and their agents who think Tony can get them somewhere, open some doors... a little shmooze, dinner.. and she's taking out the trash. Again.

She looks down again as he pokes at her hand and breathes that soft exhale before she forms that oft-used bit of composure. The one that Tony never seems to notice.

"That would be nice, yes," she readily agrees. "Which is why I think when you're ready to leave this bed, we should go to the California office while the Tower is being re-" -built. "Renovated. Try and make it less interesting for a week or two."

Tony Stark has posed:
"It's okay, you can say 'rebuilt,'" Tony says, picking up on where she was going with that statement. "But I want to oversee the lab part of it. I mean, it's sort of an opportunity to redo the sections of the lab, and I've had some old schematics that I have a great excuse to push through into production up there. I wanted to install a section in the floor on the north end-- but it should work just as well on the south--" Where the big hole is. "--that'll do more management of the suits through the replicator and storage," Tony chatters. The work on suits is probably going to return: that isn't 'work' or 'saving the world' to Tony. It's not the same: wanting to do something and //having// to force the creativity and problem-solving because the world is going to collapse. Art vs. PRESSURE.

Though Tony does evolve under pressure quickly, he also takes a lot of damage from it. "Also I think I need to help restore pieces of Genosha and Mutant Town. We recovered them, but they're Pym-sized."

Pepper Potts has posed:
"And there's the car," Pepper reminds. She knows that the thoughts in the fore are the ones that he's been lying in his bed thinking about, turning over and over in his mind, and she nods her acquiescence. "I have the plans for the builder," she's been busy! "Nothing you don't have already. I'll call him to let him know you'll be making changes to the layout and for him to hold off. He's pulling permits anyway."

It's an easier topic than fighting, and even then there are times when Pepper feels that's a lost cause. She'll keep on him, though. Someone has to.

She shakes her head, her expression quizzical. There's even a touch of a brow crease added for good measure. "How? I mean, you just can't flop a piece of the city back and lay it until it all lines up perfectly. I.. I just can't see it as anything but starting over. The people are back, and that's the important part."

Tony Stark has posed:
"I can't just put it back? Don't tell me what I can and can't do, there. I'm Tony Stark," Tony teases her in return, laughing a little bit, but shakes his head. He'd rub his goatee a little and his cheek but he's trailing that IV around and just lets the hand rest near her forearm instead, loose and relaxed there.

"The people are still itty-bitty, and sizing of people has always been a difficult nightmare, with the danger levels, which -- Pym decided on a hell of a time to go off on whatever adventure he's on." Tony doesn't like praising Pym in any way, but in this case? Of course it's Pym's specific niche, and Tony's not completely unaware of that.

"You know, I am... feeling these delicious drugs now," Tony comments. He IS indeed mellowing out. "That nap might even be possible. Get one too, you worked hard today," Tony reminds her, letting his eyes close again, and some release and relaxation work its way into his features and body. "Rest up for going to /europe/-- after I'm healed up, mind. Driving's no fun one-armed...."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper laughs at the posturing, her expression shifting back and away from that mask to that touch of affection. He's a charmer, she knows it. "Right. I'll put 'moving mountains' back on your 'can do' list in the morning."

She listens to him, she almost always does in order to learn more in order to be in a position to understand more. "Still no sign. The the daughter's no help, I'm guessing." Statement rather than question as Pepper can see him begining to succumb to the soporific qualities of a good painkiller. That, and his body really does need to heal.

"No pain, huh?" That's a good thing. "I think you should nap. I'll be here." Reaching out to touch his hand as it rests near her arm, she finally sits down on the chair. "You need the rest more than I do. Particularly for Europe." She's not going to say she's unhappy about the upcoming trip. "You saved the world today."

As his eyes close again, and the pain begins to leave his body a little less tense, Pepper is able to relax a little more herself. If she'd told her younger self that this would be her life now, she'd never believe it. She'll be here when he wakes.