FIC: Her Place in the World
Aug. 1st, 2009 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ficwizeTitle: Her Place in the World
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wizefics
Recipient: Written forxenokattz for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
marvel_crossing ficathon.
Fandom: X-men Movieverse/Iron Man Movieverse
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Extrapolation of characteristics from only vague movieverse facts. (Or, I don't know Pepper that well and did my best to fake it.) Allusions to movie violence.
Summary: Pepper Potts figures out her place in the world. And it's no where that she thought it would be.
Disclaimer: I don't own either fandom and don't make money doing this.
A/N: Many thanks topdantzerl2 and second_batgirl for both holding my hand as I wrote and then for the beta reading. All remaining errors are mine. Also, I totally fail at being timly for my own ficathon. So sorry!
It was raining. Ororo could feel it pressing down on here even from the center of the mansion. It was a totally natural rain and not of her causing, but she could feel it settling in for the night and she welcomed it. It soothed her, and not much in the last week had been soothing.
The mansion was in a state of total disrepair. One of the students - she didn't even know which one - had tacked plywood over it, hiding some of the bullet holes that still riddled the door. The kitchen was unusable. The island was torn to shreds, shards of marble and Formica littering the floor. The stove was unusable, and unsafe. Ro made a mental note to order a replacement the next day and to try and get the gas repaired. The refrigerator had been overturned, the groceries inside spoiled and rotting.
Dropping her pen, Ro dropped her head into her hands and fought back tears. She still needed to order food for Jean's wake. Xavier was weak from his ordeal at Stryker's hands, Scott was barely functioning in his grief, Logan was doing his best to take some of the duties off her hands, but he had no idea how the school ran. Kurt - Kurt was a Godsend, and Ororo knew there was an irony in that statement, but she didn't care.
Even so, there was just too much to handle.
Ororo didn't even know where to start. She had children who were traumatized and angry parents demanding to know what had happened to them. Worse, she had children who had been kidnapped and tested upon. She had no idea what to do.
Hot tears streamed down her face, blurring her vision. A knock on the door made Ro dash her hands over her eyes and take a deep breath. "Come in."
"Sorry to bother you." Kurt pushed the door open and came inside with a steaming mug of tea. "I thought you might like this." His voice was quiet and softly accented, but his tail twitched, giving away his agitation.
"You're not a bother." Ro managed a weak smile. "Thank you for the tea. I was just trying..."
"Jah." Kurt smiled. "You were trying to make everything right again."
"I can't do that, can I?" Ro asked, embarrassed to feel tears stinging her eyes again. "There's no way to make this better, is there?"
"No." Kurt answered honestly. "We can't go back. Only forward."
"I don't know what to do," Ro admitted. "I don't know how to make them feel safe. We're not safe."
An alarm punctuated her statement and Ororo was on her feet before she'd even had a conscious thought. Feet pounded in the hallway and Ororo hit the intercom. "Logan!"
"I'm on it." His familiar growl answered her and she moved towards the door.
"Kurt. Make sure that the kids are okay, please."
The blue mutant nodded and vanished in a puff of sulfuric smoke. Ro rushed down the stairs, her feet a blur of movement. "Logan, who is it?"
"One person. A woman. She's walking up the front walk towards the door."
"Are you sure?" Ro reached the landing at the same time as Logan. He snorted.
"Positive. She's alone."
Ororo opened the door before the lone woman could knock on it, startling her. "Can I help you?"
The woman bit her lip, and Ororo was suddenly aware that the other woman was young, no more than 25 at the most. "Umm, hi. This is probably going to sound really weird…"
"You've come to the right place, then." Logan pulled the door open and the girl stepped back, clearly a bit alarmed at his appearance. Of course, the broken windows and boards covering the front of the mansion probably did little to ease her impressions. "What do you want?"
Logan. Be nice. The Professor's voice sounded in Ororo's mind and she saw Logan twitch slightly, but neither of them relaxed.
The girl took a deep breath like she was steeling herself and then blurted out. "My name is Virginia Potts and I'm a mutant. I didn't know I was… and I'm not really sure how, but last week…" She faltered, looking between them for some sort of reaction. When none was forthcoming, she blew out a long breath. "So, here I am."
Professor? Ororo asked, uncertainly. The absolute last thing any of them needed at the moment was more uncertainty.
She's telling the truth.
Again the Professor spoke to them and Ororo glanced at Logan. He shrugged and stepped back. "It ain't my house."
Almost reluctantly, Ororo moved aside. "Come inside, my dear. Virginia, was it?"
Virginia nodded, hitching up the duffel bag that was slung over her shoulder. "Call me Pepper."
******************
"Pepper, you're going to be late!"
"No, I 'm not." Pepper bounded down the last two stairs into her living room and grinned at her dad. "I'm ready, let's go!"
He rolled his eyes and reached to ruffle her hair. Ducking, Pepper protested. "You'll mess it up, Dad. And then I'll have to fix it and we will be late!"
"Do you have your homework?" Pepper nodded and solemnly held up her backpack. "Did you study for your test?"
"Yep. I'm going to ace it."
Her dad raised an eyebrow and held open the door for her. "You're awfully confident. It's nice to see."
"I know." Pepper walked outside towards their car. She climbed inside the passenger side and buckled her seat belt. "But, I just feel really good about it."
Her dad eyed her suspiciously as he got in the car and turned the engine on. "You're wearing a dress, Pepper."
"Nothing gets by you, huh?" She grinned and ducked again as he reached over to tweak her ponytail. "Stop, Dad!" She pushed his hand away and he chuckled.
"Is there a boy I should know about?"
"Can't I just wear a dress because I want to? I am a girl, you know." Pepper sniffed. She could feel her face flushing as her dad continued to give her knowing glances.
"Sure, if that's the story you're telling. I can bye it."
They rode for a few minutes without speaking. Pepper played with the radio buttons until she found a Guns n'Roses song.
"Slow down." Pepper said suddenly, looking up from the dashboard.
"Why? Did you forget something?"
"No. Dad, slow down. Please!"
Alarmed, he hit the brakes. "Pepper, what's wrong?"
Before she could answer, a truck swerved into the intersection, missing their car by less than a foot. It barreled past them, before jumping the curb and slamming into a light pole. The pole cracked in the force of the blow and toppled slowly, pulling down electrical wires that crackled on the street in the middle of the intersection. Her father slammed on the breaks, skidding to a halt before the bumper hit the live wires. He was ashen as he glanced over at his daughter. "Are you all right?"
Pepper stared at the truck in horror, but she managed to nod. "That was almost us."
Glancing over his shoulder, her father stared at the truck. His voice was shaking. "How did you know?"
"I don't know." Pepper turned to look at him. "I just knew."
******************
Charles was staring out of the window. It had been years since he'd struggled with his telepathy, but he'd never been through an attack like he had the past week. He struggled to keep the thoughts of his students out of his mind, but even so, he couldn't block out the overwhelming sense of fear. The latest alarm certainly hadn't helped. He had heard some of the younger children crying in the hallway as Bobby, Piotr and Kitty had tried to comfort them.
A knock on his door made him turn his chair. "Come in."
Ororo opened the door and led in the newest member of the household. "Professor, this is Pepper. Pepper, this is Professor Charles Xavier."
"A pleasure to meet you, sir." Pepper came forward and held out her hand. It startled Charles and he reached for her automatically. Few people ever offered to shake his hand, as if by somehow being in a wheelchair he was incapable of such an act. Even fewer willingly touched a mutant.
"You, too, Pepper." Her hand was warm, her grip was firm, and her smile was genuine, if tenuous. "Please, have a seat."
Ororo hesitated, but the Professor motioned for her to join them. "You've already met Ororo Munroe, and Logan, I believe."
Pepper glanced towards the door where Logan still lingered, but turned to meet the Professor's eyes when she answered. "I did. Thank you for seeing me without an appointment."
It was such an incongruous statement that Charles smiled. Here he sat, his home in shambles, his students in crisis, and barely in his own mind, but proprieties must be observed. Opening his mouth, he nearly launched into his usual speech about offering a haven to mutant kind, but he closed it with an audible click, unable to tell such a blatant lie when the hallway outside his office still bore the scars from a bomb blast that drove ice shards into the wall. "Not a problem," he finally managed. "I wish it were under better circumstances."
Pepper bit her lip, eyebrows drawing together. She looked at Ororo and then at Xavier before clearing her throat. "I… don't really have any idea of what's going on. But, I can see that something is terribly wrong here." She paused and took a deep breath. "I didn't even know I was a mutant until last week. I'm sure you know more than I do, but…"
She stopped. "One minute I was fine and the next minute I was writhing on the floor. My roommates were trying to figure out what was wrong and then ten minutes later, I was fine. But they were both having some sort of seizure."
Xavier closed his eyes, inundated with guilt. He swallowed. "That was…"
"… how you found out?" Ororo interrupted him. Professor, don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault. It was Stryker. And Magneto.
Oblivious to the exchange, Pepper nodded. "Yes.
The room fell into silence, Ororo and Charles both lost in their own thoughts. Finally Pepper cleared her throat. "But, I don't know exactly how I'm a mutant."
"I beg your pardon?" Ororo blinked, the young redhead coming back into focus.
"I don't know how I'm a mutant." Pepper repeated. "I mean, I'm almost 26. Shouldn't my mutation have been clear to me at puberty?"
Charles cleared his throat. "Yes. I'm sorry, Pepper. You've come at a bad time."
Pepper nodded. "I guessed."
"Could we perhaps discuss this in a day or two? You are welcome to stay here."
She hesitated before taking a deep breath and offering, "Can I help with anything?"
When Charles stayed silent, Ororo sighed. "I doubt that you could hurt."
******************
"I'm so proud of you, sweetheart." Pepper's dad drew her into a warm hug. "I can't believe my little girl is all grown up."
"Thanks, Dad." Pepper hugged him hard, not caring that it was epically uncool to actually like her parents. When she stepped back, her graduation gown swished around her calves and her mother motioned for her to stand next to her father.
"Picture op!"
"Mom," Pepper protested, but she was grinning and willingly enough went to stand beside her father for the camera. Her mom counted aloud and when she got to two, Pepper spun to press a kiss to her father's cheek. The flash went off and Pepper eased back. In her heels, she was as tall as her father and he turned to smile at her. He chuckled, and reached into his pocket, pulling out a long jewelry box.
"For you." He held out his arm and Pepper's mom slid under it. Her hair was the same shade as Pepper's, though speckled with threads of gray. "Your mother and I got it for your graduation gift."
Pepper took the box, pausing long enough to lean in and press a kiss to her mother's cheek. Turning, she moved towards the bay windows so she could see it in the light. Flipping it open she saw a diamond tennis bracelet.
She gasped, tears springing to her eyes. "Mom! Look."
Her mother laughed and came over to help her fasten it on her wrist. "I know what it looks like. I helped pick it out."
"It's beautiful."
Her mom smiled and for a minute it was like looking into the future. "Yes, you are."
Pepper sighed. "Well. Let's go! I've got a graduation to get to. A speech to give. A life to get on the road."
"A full scholarship to Berkley." Her dad fished his car keys out of his pocket. "We couldn't be more thrilled for you, Pep."
"Or surprised," her mother teased. "Who could have ever guessed that the 10 year old who told me that school was boring would some day graduate valedictorian of her class?"
Pepper shrugged and linked arms with her mom as they went out to the car. "Things just clicked."
"What's your secret?" Her dad asked, opening the car.
"Good genes." Pepper winked and climbed in the backseat. Her notes were in her pocket, her new bracelet was on her wrist, and the world was her oyster.
"Good answer."
******************
Bobby had no idea what to make of the woman he found in the kitchen the following morning, or rather the back half of her that was sticking out of the pantry. He was pretty sure he didn't recognize those legs, though. "Umm, hi?"
There was a shriek and a clatter of something before the mystery woman spun around. She had red hair, pulled back into a ponytail, and lots of freckles. "You scared me!"
"Sorry?" Bobby cleared his throat. "Listen, not to be rude or anything, but – who are you?"
"Oh, I’m sorry. I'm Pepper." She stuck out a hand, pulling it back quickly to remove the yellow latex glove, before reaching to shake his hand again. "I got here last night."
Bobby automatically shook her hand. "Oh. Umm, that's nice, I guess."
"So." Pepper smiled at him. "Who are you?"
Bobby could feel his face heat up as he cleared his throat. "Oh, sorry. I'm Bobby."
"Nice to meet you, Bobby."
Bobby went to sit on one of the counter stools, his eyes automatically avoiding the spray of bullet holes marking his near death the week before. "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning." Pepper was so matter of fact that Bobby blushed again.
"Why?"
"Because it needs to be cleaned up." Pepper's voice was mumbled since she was back in the pantry again. There was more rustling and she emerged with a garbage bag and a wrinkled… something that had probably been edible once. "This place is a disaster. It looks like a war zone."
"It was." Bobby spoke before he had time to reconsider his words. When Pepper stared at him in amazement, he stumbled to his feet again. "I should go."
"All right, but before you do…" Pepper reached for him, but didn't actually touch him since she was once again wearing the yellow gloves. "Do you know who I should talk to about getting the appliances replaced? The stove is a disaster and I think it'd be easier to buy a new fridge than try and piece that one back together." She gestured at the broken appliances and Bobby looked at them, taking in the slash marks and the bullet scars for the first time since returning home.
He didn't even realize he was shaking until he felt Pepper put her arm around his shoulder. "Hey, I'm sorry. It's all right, Bobby. I can figure it out."
"You should probably talk to Kurt." Bobby managed. "I think he's helping Ro, since Scott… isn't up to it."
"Kurt, right." Pepper squeezed his shoulder lightly and Bobby suddenly realized that he was being hugged by a very attractive woman while he fell apart. Clearing his throat, he pulled away.
"Actually," Bobby managed. "I can help for a while. Classes are cancelled until after the… funeral."
Pepper stilled, eyes widening. "I don't know anything about a funeral."
"It's for Dr. Gray, Scott… um, Mr. Summer's fiancé. She… died last week." Bobby was mortified to feel his eyes well up with tears. Turning away from her, he gripped the remnants of the tile on the island, fingers automatically tracing along the scars. A piece of it broke off under his fingers and he straightened. "Do you have an extra set of gloves?"
Wordlessly, Pepper handed him another set of gloves, and together the set about straightening up the kitchen. Piles of broken dishes and rotting food were swept up. Cabinet doors were taken down, and when Piotr walked by and saw what they were doing, he came in.
"Pete, this is Pepper. She's helping." Bobby shrugged, not really knowing exactly what that meant. Piotr looked down at her and solemnly stuck out his hand.
"Piotr Rasputin. Nice to meet you."
Pepper smiled. "You too."
"Here." Bobby handed him a screw driver and pointed at the top hinges on the cabinets that he couldn't reach without climbing on the counters. "If you're not busy."
"No." Piotr went to work readily enough. "The younger kids are with Kitty and Rogue."
Bobby grunted as he pried a mangled drawer off its tracks, the utensils inside joining other salvageable items as they cleaned out the cabinets. "They've been sticking close to you. Must be driving you nuts."
Piotr shrugged. "They are still scared. They trust me to take care of them."
Pepper looked between the two boys hesitantly. "Can I ask what happened?"
Bobby's jaw clenched and he didn't look up from the drawer he was cleaning out. "Soldiers."
"What?" Pepper sounded aghast and Bobby looked over at her. "Those are actual bullet holes?"
"What did you think they were?" Bobby asked stupidly. "We were attacked in the middle of the night." He pointed to the island. "I was down there. Logan killed the soldier, but not before he did all this."
"And the younger kids?"
Piotr pulled off one of the cabinet doors and broke it in half along the crack running through it. He tossed it aside with a clatter. "Most of them escaped with me and Kitty."
Pepper pressed a hand to her mouth, heedless of the grime on the rubber glove. "And the rest of them?"
"Taken to be part of some experiment." Bobby answered bitterly.
"Oh, my God."
******************
"Oh, my God!" Pepper hung up the phone and spun around to her roommate. "I got the job!"
"Of course you did." Cassie, her roommate, turned the page of her magazine calmly. "You have the most amazing luck."
"It's not luck." Elizabeth, their third roommate, protested as she entered the room. "Congratulations, Pepper!"
"Thanks!" Pepper grinned. "I know it's only an internship, but it's at Stark Industries! It's going to look great on my resume."
"I can't believe it." Beth sat on the other end of the sofa from Cassie, pausing long enough to whack Cassie's leg with a magazine and glare at her meaningfully. "You got this because you went to a bookstore the other night?"
"Yep." Pepper stepped over Cassie's leg while Cassie grumbled good-naturedly. "I just ran into the head of the Finance Department and we struck up a conversation."
"And then she invited you to apply for a job." Cassie pointed out.
"Well, we were talking about the Arc Reactor," Pepper shrugged. "I think I impressed her because I knew about their projects."
"You only know about that because you dated that physics major a few months ago."
"Quit being a jealous cow." Beth ordered Cassie, winking at Pepper. "Pepper really wanted to know about that reactor thing."
Cassie grinned. "You mean she really wanted to know whether or not what's-his-name was as pretty without his clothes on as he was with them."
"That's enough." Pepper scowled between them. "First, I learned about the arc reactor because I wanted to know more about it. I kept dreaming about it, remember?" When they both nodded obediently, she continued. "Second, his name was Mark. And third… he was even prettier naked than he was dressed."
All three girls dissolved into shrieks of laughter. "So when do you start?" Cassie asked when they had all calmed down.
"Next week." Pepper clasped both of their knees. "Get dressed ladies! We're going out to celebrate."
"Fine." Cassie stood up to go and change clothes. "But the next time you meet someone randomly who can give someone a job, make sure it's for me."
******************
"Excuse me, Ms. Munroe?" Pepper stuck her head through around Ororo's office door, looking decidedly nervous. Ro felt a stab of guilt; she had honestly not spared their new visitor a second thought after she'd shown her to a bedroom.
"Yes, Pepper, come in. And call me Ororo, please."
"Thanks." Pepper came in and sat down nervously. "I was hoping you could tell me what happened last week."
Ororo stilled, her fingers pressing against her desk. "I'm sorry," Pepper continued, "but some of the kids were talking… and I just… need to know."
"It's all right." Ro sighed, turning to look outside her window. "You heard about the attempted assassination of the President last week, I'm sure."
"The news said it was a mutant."
"It was." Ro turned to meet Pepper's eyes. "Come with me."
Pepper followed Ro out of the office and Ro lead her towards some stairs. "The mutant who attacked the President wasn't acting of his own free will. He was forced to do it, by the military."
"I can't believe it." Pepper whispered and Ro gave her a sharp look.
"Not all of us can pass as regular humans. People fear what they don't understand."
Rebuked, Pepper stayed silent as they went down the stairs and around a corner. Along the way, they passed several groups of children, all of them quiet and withdrawn. They stared at Pepper distrustfully, looking to Ororo for reassurance. The white haired woman smiled and stopped to offer quiet comfort. The storm goddess kept her eye on their visitor, noting with some relief that Pepper didn't seem to be outwardly reacting to the more obvious mutations. She looked, but she didn't cringe, and when she could, she smiled at the children.
"Not everything is as it seems." Ororo opened the door. "Meet Kurt Wagner, recently of the Munich Circus."
Whatever Pepper was expecting, Ororo was fairly certain it hadn't been a blue-furred, yellow eyed man with a tail. Pepper's eyes grew wide. "Oh, Bobby said I should talk to you about getting repairs done in the kitchen."
It was Ororo's turn to be surprised. Even some of the children had initially been afraid of Kurt, despite his soft spoken manner. Pepper just seemed surprised to be meeting him so abruptly.
Kurt looked at Ororo for explanation and she shrugged. "Kurt can certainly help you with anything that you need. If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my office."
Ororo left abruptly and Pepper watched her go with a bemused expression.
"Do not worry, she is not angry." Kurt stepped forward, his tail swishing behind him. "She has a lot on her mind, trying to prepare the funeral tomorrow."
"Jean Gray." Pepper confirmed, eyeing him from the corner of her eye. "Did you know her well?"
"No." Kurt sighed. "I met her only last week. She saved me."
"From what?"
"The man who wanted me to kill the President." Kurt's tail twitched more violently as he moved towards a table where he'd lain out stacks of bills that he was trying to sort. Pepper followed him and took a seat in one of the extra chairs. For a while, she watched as Kurt worked, and he finally glanced back up at her. "I didn't mean to do it."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't you want to know how they made me?" Kurt asked, his voice a mixture of defensive bitterness and resigned self-loathing.
Pepper reached instead for a stack of paper, filing them as she went into "urgent" and "can wait" piles. "I volunteered for two years at a Rape Crisis Center when I was in college. I know how manipulative and awful people can be to each other. If you want to talk to me, I'll listen, but you don't owe me an explanation, Mr. Wagner. Some of the kids have told me a bit about what went on – how Professor Xavier was kidnapped, how Dr. Gray died." She met his gaze and reached out to gently rub the top of his hand, her fingers sliding over the short blue fur easily.
Touched, Kurt put his other hand on top of hers and squeezed gently. "You said that you are a mutant?"
"Yes." Pepper frowned. "But I don't think my powers are as big and flashy as some of the ones I've seen here. There's a girl upstairs who makes fireworks, did you know that? It's so beautiful."
"Do you mind if I ask you what you can do?" Kurt asked curiously and Pepper smiled at him. She pulled her hands free and went back to work on the stacks and stacks of paper awaiting some attention.
"This." She said simply.
******************
The phone rang. From where she sat at the table, finishing her very last paper for her very last class in college, Pepper froze. Beth came around the corner and reached for the still jangling contraption.
"Don't." Pepper's voice sounded thick to her own ears. "Don't answer it."
"Don't worry," Beth promised. "I'll tell them that you're busy."
Pepper's vision grayed and she could only sit and listen to Beth's half of the conversation.
"Hello? … No, I'm sorry, she can't come to the phone right now. … Well' she's busy at the moment, can I take a message? … Who is this? … What? Oh, my God."
Beth dropped the phone and spun to look at Pepper. Her eyes were already filled with tears and her fingers shaking as she came around the kitchen island to the table where Pepper sat. "Pepper, sweetie. It's the police."
"Don't." Pepper said again. Determinedly, she finished making her last edit and hit save. Then she hit pint. "Don't tell me anything."
"Oh, baby, I'm sorry, but I have to. It's your parents."
The wall of denial that Pepper had built around her crashed down and for a moment all she could hear was the sound of the printer buzzing as each page of her carefully crafted thesis ran out from the end.
"There was a car accident."
That should be the last page of it. "Pepper, they were both killed."
Pepper reached for the stack of paper and it slipped through her trembling fingers and scattered on the ground. She sobbed once and then she was in Beth's arms as her friend held her and rocked her through the news. The only problem was that somehow, in some way, it wasn't news. But with the phone still dangling from the cord on the wall and Beth's tears mingling with her own, Pepper couldn't pretend it wasn't real any longer, either.
It took the rest of the day to make arrangements for Pepper to fly home. Beth and Cassie were both going with her. As Cassie packed for the three of them, Beth ran over to the campus and informed the Dean of Students what had happened. She also turned in all of their final projects.
"Poor Pepper." Dean Schmidt commiserated as he accepted the stack of papers from Beth. "It's lucky for her that she finished everything so early this term."
"Right now, sir," Beth replied stiffly, "I don't think any of us is lucky."
The Dean flushed. "You're right, of course. Please, give her our condolences. And let her know that all of you can take your time moving out of the student housing."
"Thanks." Beth hurried back to her apartment, unsurprised to find Pepper staring at the wall from where she sat beside the suitcase Cassie was filling for her. "Everything is taken care of at the school. Nothing to worry about, okay?"
"I got a job." Pepper's voice broke. "In the Finance Office as Stark Industries. I hadn't told anybody yet, because I wanted to tell my parents first. They were supposed to be here in two days, for graduation."
Pepper wasn't sure who started crying first, but she found herself in the middle of a huddle of arms and tears and she hugged back as hard as she could, knowing that nothing ever lasted.
******************
"Here." Scott felt something being pressed into his hand and he looked down to see a strange redheaded woman handing him a glass. He took it automatically. The woman smiled at him, sympathetically. "You look like you needed a drink."
"Thanks." Scott coughed lightly, clearing his throat. "You must be Pepper Potts. Ro's told me how much you've helped." He looked back over the balcony railing, watching as the last of the funeral guests took their leave, and took a deep and grateful swallow of whatever beer she had given him.
"I've not done much." Pepper shrugged. "Everyone is doing their fair share."
Scott snorted, but it was more the memory of annoyance than any real emotion. "I don't know about that. It used to take an act of God to get some of these kids to clean their own room. I've heard that you just about have the whole place back together."
"They wanted to help." Pepper shrugged, sipping from her own drink. "I think they want things to go back to normal."
Scott's jaw tightened and he took another drink, longer this time.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Pepper touched his arm. "I didn't know her, but it's clear that she was well loved. She must have been an amazing woman."
"She was." Scott managed, throat tight.
"I didn’t know that I was a mutant, before last week." Pepper said suddenly. "I just thought I was lucky. I always seemed to know what was going to happen just before it happened. I knew how to read people – so I knew how to anticipate what they were going to do, what they would want me to do."
Scott stared at her, completely thrown by the sudden change in the conversation.
"Then, I woke up one day and just knew that my parents were somehow in danger. I even called my mom." Pepper took a deep breath. "They were fine. They were going to go antiquing later that morning, after a late brunch. But, I knew something was wrong, I just didn't know what." She bit her lip. "I was afraid I'd sound like a lunatic, so I hung up and went to work on a paper."
"What happened?" Scott asked, curious despite himself.
"The police called that afternoon. My parents had been killed in a car crash."
"I'm sorry." Scott said automatically.
"So was I." Pepper reached up to wipe her eyes. "I thought it was my fault. Sometimes, I still think it's my fault."
"You couldn't have known."
"I did know. I've done enough research since coming here that I realize that I'm a clairvoyant. I see things that no one else can see, know things that I shouldn't know. But, sometimes, I think that you can't change what's going to happen, no matter what you know or do."
Scott just stared at her, his mouth open slightly and Pepper blushed. "I really am sorry. If there is anything I can do, I hope you'll ask." She hurried away, leaving him looking after her for a long moment.
"Quite unusual, isn't she?" A voice rumbled behind him and Scott turned to see Hank. The compassion on his old friend's face finally pierced the numb reserve that had kept Scott together and he choked out a sob. "Come, my old friend. Ms. Potts has ordered enough spirits for us to drown at least some of our sorrows."
Scott let Hank lead him back into the house. "Okay with me."
******************
Dear Ms. Potts:
I cannot express to you how much you helped us in our hour of need. I am so sorry that I was unable to discuss your mutation with you and provide you any answers. It is a difficult thing - learning who we are. For most of us, it a journey that begins at puberty. In your case, despite the delay in determining that you were one of us, I strongly suspect the same is true.
Your strength and compassion are the traits that make you memorable, the traits that make you human. None of us have any doubts that you will change the world, Ms. Potts, and we are all humbled and grateful that you took the time to offer your compassion to us when we most needed it.
I understand that you are working at Stark Industries. I hope that you will not consider it amiss that I have contacted several of your supervisors and provided them with my recommendation that you be considered for a promotion. Many of them are old colleagues and friends and I hope that my suggestion will be to your benefit.
Know always, that you have a place where you are welcome with us.
Sincerely,
Charles Xavier
Pepper folded the letter and slid it into her purse. She had been back in California for three weeks and not much in her life had changed. Beth and Cassie were the only people in the world, besides those at Xavier's, who knew she was a mutant. The anti-mutant fervor that was sweeping the country convinced Pepper that, for now at least, that was the best course of action.
Sighing, she turned back to her computer. She hoped that Xavier's letter might smooth over some of the upset she had caused that morning by pointing out an accounting error that would have resulted in millions of wasted dollars, but she wasn't holding her breath. She'd only found the mistake as a result of her mutation refusing to leave her alone until she'd located it. It was so subtle that it wasn't a surprise that the twenty-five or so superiors above her had missed it. Still, she had seen the angry and embarrassed expressions and hoped that this wouldn't prove to be a case of shooting the messenger.
"Excuse me, but are you the infamous Ms. Potts?" A voice from the top of her cubicle made her look up and she shot to her feet, jaw dropping.
"Mr. Stark!" He was every bit as good looking as he seemed from his photos, even more so once he smiled at her.
"I understand that I owe you a debt of gratitude for saving my company millions of dollars."
Pepper floundered for a moment, before smiling. "I found a mistake, sir. That's all."
"That's not all!" Tony declared dramatically. "You found one of my mistakes. I've only ever made two others. At least, when it comes to math."
Pepper's brows drew together and she wondered if he'd shown up to fire her personally.
"I have a proposition for Ms. Potts. A legitimate one, actually, and I don't make many of those to beautiful women. I need someone with your brains and instinct on my team."
"I am on your team, sir."
"No, you're here in finance. I want you to work for me. Personally. I want you to organize my life. Do you have any experience with that sort of thing?"
Pepper blinked and cleared her throat, thinking of the letter in her purse. "Yes, sir. I do."
"Great, then you're hired. Can you start now?" Tony leaned forward. "There's a… thing."
"What kind of thing?" Pepper asked, sitting down long enough to turn off her computer and gather her belongings.
"The kind of thing that you'll handle from now on." Tony waited for her and then led her through the maze of cubicles towards the bright afternoon sun. Dazed, Pepper took a deep breath. She had no idea where her life was going, but deep in her bones, she felt that it was on the right track.
Author:
wizeficsRecipient: Written for
xenokattz for marvel_crossing ficathon.Fandom: X-men Movieverse/Iron Man Movieverse
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Extrapolation of characteristics from only vague movieverse facts. (Or, I don't know Pepper that well and did my best to fake it.) Allusions to movie violence.
Summary: Pepper Potts figures out her place in the world. And it's no where that she thought it would be.
Disclaimer: I don't own either fandom and don't make money doing this.
A/N: Many thanks to
pdantzerl2 and second_batgirl for both holding my hand as I wrote and then for the beta reading. All remaining errors are mine. Also, I totally fail at being timly for my own ficathon. So sorry!It was raining. Ororo could feel it pressing down on here even from the center of the mansion. It was a totally natural rain and not of her causing, but she could feel it settling in for the night and she welcomed it. It soothed her, and not much in the last week had been soothing.
The mansion was in a state of total disrepair. One of the students - she didn't even know which one - had tacked plywood over it, hiding some of the bullet holes that still riddled the door. The kitchen was unusable. The island was torn to shreds, shards of marble and Formica littering the floor. The stove was unusable, and unsafe. Ro made a mental note to order a replacement the next day and to try and get the gas repaired. The refrigerator had been overturned, the groceries inside spoiled and rotting.
Dropping her pen, Ro dropped her head into her hands and fought back tears. She still needed to order food for Jean's wake. Xavier was weak from his ordeal at Stryker's hands, Scott was barely functioning in his grief, Logan was doing his best to take some of the duties off her hands, but he had no idea how the school ran. Kurt - Kurt was a Godsend, and Ororo knew there was an irony in that statement, but she didn't care.
Even so, there was just too much to handle.
Ororo didn't even know where to start. She had children who were traumatized and angry parents demanding to know what had happened to them. Worse, she had children who had been kidnapped and tested upon. She had no idea what to do.
Hot tears streamed down her face, blurring her vision. A knock on the door made Ro dash her hands over her eyes and take a deep breath. "Come in."
"Sorry to bother you." Kurt pushed the door open and came inside with a steaming mug of tea. "I thought you might like this." His voice was quiet and softly accented, but his tail twitched, giving away his agitation.
"You're not a bother." Ro managed a weak smile. "Thank you for the tea. I was just trying..."
"Jah." Kurt smiled. "You were trying to make everything right again."
"I can't do that, can I?" Ro asked, embarrassed to feel tears stinging her eyes again. "There's no way to make this better, is there?"
"No." Kurt answered honestly. "We can't go back. Only forward."
"I don't know what to do," Ro admitted. "I don't know how to make them feel safe. We're not safe."
An alarm punctuated her statement and Ororo was on her feet before she'd even had a conscious thought. Feet pounded in the hallway and Ororo hit the intercom. "Logan!"
"I'm on it." His familiar growl answered her and she moved towards the door.
"Kurt. Make sure that the kids are okay, please."
The blue mutant nodded and vanished in a puff of sulfuric smoke. Ro rushed down the stairs, her feet a blur of movement. "Logan, who is it?"
"One person. A woman. She's walking up the front walk towards the door."
"Are you sure?" Ro reached the landing at the same time as Logan. He snorted.
"Positive. She's alone."
Ororo opened the door before the lone woman could knock on it, startling her. "Can I help you?"
The woman bit her lip, and Ororo was suddenly aware that the other woman was young, no more than 25 at the most. "Umm, hi. This is probably going to sound really weird…"
"You've come to the right place, then." Logan pulled the door open and the girl stepped back, clearly a bit alarmed at his appearance. Of course, the broken windows and boards covering the front of the mansion probably did little to ease her impressions. "What do you want?"
Logan. Be nice. The Professor's voice sounded in Ororo's mind and she saw Logan twitch slightly, but neither of them relaxed.
The girl took a deep breath like she was steeling herself and then blurted out. "My name is Virginia Potts and I'm a mutant. I didn't know I was… and I'm not really sure how, but last week…" She faltered, looking between them for some sort of reaction. When none was forthcoming, she blew out a long breath. "So, here I am."
Professor? Ororo asked, uncertainly. The absolute last thing any of them needed at the moment was more uncertainty.
She's telling the truth.
Again the Professor spoke to them and Ororo glanced at Logan. He shrugged and stepped back. "It ain't my house."
Almost reluctantly, Ororo moved aside. "Come inside, my dear. Virginia, was it?"
Virginia nodded, hitching up the duffel bag that was slung over her shoulder. "Call me Pepper."
"Pepper, you're going to be late!"
"No, I 'm not." Pepper bounded down the last two stairs into her living room and grinned at her dad. "I'm ready, let's go!"
He rolled his eyes and reached to ruffle her hair. Ducking, Pepper protested. "You'll mess it up, Dad. And then I'll have to fix it and we will be late!"
"Do you have your homework?" Pepper nodded and solemnly held up her backpack. "Did you study for your test?"
"Yep. I'm going to ace it."
Her dad raised an eyebrow and held open the door for her. "You're awfully confident. It's nice to see."
"I know." Pepper walked outside towards their car. She climbed inside the passenger side and buckled her seat belt. "But, I just feel really good about it."
Her dad eyed her suspiciously as he got in the car and turned the engine on. "You're wearing a dress, Pepper."
"Nothing gets by you, huh?" She grinned and ducked again as he reached over to tweak her ponytail. "Stop, Dad!" She pushed his hand away and he chuckled.
"Is there a boy I should know about?"
"Can't I just wear a dress because I want to? I am a girl, you know." Pepper sniffed. She could feel her face flushing as her dad continued to give her knowing glances.
"Sure, if that's the story you're telling. I can bye it."
They rode for a few minutes without speaking. Pepper played with the radio buttons until she found a Guns n'Roses song.
"Slow down." Pepper said suddenly, looking up from the dashboard.
"Why? Did you forget something?"
"No. Dad, slow down. Please!"
Alarmed, he hit the brakes. "Pepper, what's wrong?"
Before she could answer, a truck swerved into the intersection, missing their car by less than a foot. It barreled past them, before jumping the curb and slamming into a light pole. The pole cracked in the force of the blow and toppled slowly, pulling down electrical wires that crackled on the street in the middle of the intersection. Her father slammed on the breaks, skidding to a halt before the bumper hit the live wires. He was ashen as he glanced over at his daughter. "Are you all right?"
Pepper stared at the truck in horror, but she managed to nod. "That was almost us."
Glancing over his shoulder, her father stared at the truck. His voice was shaking. "How did you know?"
"I don't know." Pepper turned to look at him. "I just knew."
Charles was staring out of the window. It had been years since he'd struggled with his telepathy, but he'd never been through an attack like he had the past week. He struggled to keep the thoughts of his students out of his mind, but even so, he couldn't block out the overwhelming sense of fear. The latest alarm certainly hadn't helped. He had heard some of the younger children crying in the hallway as Bobby, Piotr and Kitty had tried to comfort them.
A knock on his door made him turn his chair. "Come in."
Ororo opened the door and led in the newest member of the household. "Professor, this is Pepper. Pepper, this is Professor Charles Xavier."
"A pleasure to meet you, sir." Pepper came forward and held out her hand. It startled Charles and he reached for her automatically. Few people ever offered to shake his hand, as if by somehow being in a wheelchair he was incapable of such an act. Even fewer willingly touched a mutant.
"You, too, Pepper." Her hand was warm, her grip was firm, and her smile was genuine, if tenuous. "Please, have a seat."
Ororo hesitated, but the Professor motioned for her to join them. "You've already met Ororo Munroe, and Logan, I believe."
Pepper glanced towards the door where Logan still lingered, but turned to meet the Professor's eyes when she answered. "I did. Thank you for seeing me without an appointment."
It was such an incongruous statement that Charles smiled. Here he sat, his home in shambles, his students in crisis, and barely in his own mind, but proprieties must be observed. Opening his mouth, he nearly launched into his usual speech about offering a haven to mutant kind, but he closed it with an audible click, unable to tell such a blatant lie when the hallway outside his office still bore the scars from a bomb blast that drove ice shards into the wall. "Not a problem," he finally managed. "I wish it were under better circumstances."
Pepper bit her lip, eyebrows drawing together. She looked at Ororo and then at Xavier before clearing her throat. "I… don't really have any idea of what's going on. But, I can see that something is terribly wrong here." She paused and took a deep breath. "I didn't even know I was a mutant until last week. I'm sure you know more than I do, but…"
She stopped. "One minute I was fine and the next minute I was writhing on the floor. My roommates were trying to figure out what was wrong and then ten minutes later, I was fine. But they were both having some sort of seizure."
Xavier closed his eyes, inundated with guilt. He swallowed. "That was…"
"… how you found out?" Ororo interrupted him. Professor, don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault. It was Stryker. And Magneto.
Oblivious to the exchange, Pepper nodded. "Yes.
The room fell into silence, Ororo and Charles both lost in their own thoughts. Finally Pepper cleared her throat. "But, I don't know exactly how I'm a mutant."
"I beg your pardon?" Ororo blinked, the young redhead coming back into focus.
"I don't know how I'm a mutant." Pepper repeated. "I mean, I'm almost 26. Shouldn't my mutation have been clear to me at puberty?"
Charles cleared his throat. "Yes. I'm sorry, Pepper. You've come at a bad time."
Pepper nodded. "I guessed."
"Could we perhaps discuss this in a day or two? You are welcome to stay here."
She hesitated before taking a deep breath and offering, "Can I help with anything?"
When Charles stayed silent, Ororo sighed. "I doubt that you could hurt."
"I'm so proud of you, sweetheart." Pepper's dad drew her into a warm hug. "I can't believe my little girl is all grown up."
"Thanks, Dad." Pepper hugged him hard, not caring that it was epically uncool to actually like her parents. When she stepped back, her graduation gown swished around her calves and her mother motioned for her to stand next to her father.
"Picture op!"
"Mom," Pepper protested, but she was grinning and willingly enough went to stand beside her father for the camera. Her mom counted aloud and when she got to two, Pepper spun to press a kiss to her father's cheek. The flash went off and Pepper eased back. In her heels, she was as tall as her father and he turned to smile at her. He chuckled, and reached into his pocket, pulling out a long jewelry box.
"For you." He held out his arm and Pepper's mom slid under it. Her hair was the same shade as Pepper's, though speckled with threads of gray. "Your mother and I got it for your graduation gift."
Pepper took the box, pausing long enough to lean in and press a kiss to her mother's cheek. Turning, she moved towards the bay windows so she could see it in the light. Flipping it open she saw a diamond tennis bracelet.
She gasped, tears springing to her eyes. "Mom! Look."
Her mother laughed and came over to help her fasten it on her wrist. "I know what it looks like. I helped pick it out."
"It's beautiful."
Her mom smiled and for a minute it was like looking into the future. "Yes, you are."
Pepper sighed. "Well. Let's go! I've got a graduation to get to. A speech to give. A life to get on the road."
"A full scholarship to Berkley." Her dad fished his car keys out of his pocket. "We couldn't be more thrilled for you, Pep."
"Or surprised," her mother teased. "Who could have ever guessed that the 10 year old who told me that school was boring would some day graduate valedictorian of her class?"
Pepper shrugged and linked arms with her mom as they went out to the car. "Things just clicked."
"What's your secret?" Her dad asked, opening the car.
"Good genes." Pepper winked and climbed in the backseat. Her notes were in her pocket, her new bracelet was on her wrist, and the world was her oyster.
"Good answer."
Bobby had no idea what to make of the woman he found in the kitchen the following morning, or rather the back half of her that was sticking out of the pantry. He was pretty sure he didn't recognize those legs, though. "Umm, hi?"
There was a shriek and a clatter of something before the mystery woman spun around. She had red hair, pulled back into a ponytail, and lots of freckles. "You scared me!"
"Sorry?" Bobby cleared his throat. "Listen, not to be rude or anything, but – who are you?"
"Oh, I’m sorry. I'm Pepper." She stuck out a hand, pulling it back quickly to remove the yellow latex glove, before reaching to shake his hand again. "I got here last night."
Bobby automatically shook her hand. "Oh. Umm, that's nice, I guess."
"So." Pepper smiled at him. "Who are you?"
Bobby could feel his face heat up as he cleared his throat. "Oh, sorry. I'm Bobby."
"Nice to meet you, Bobby."
Bobby went to sit on one of the counter stools, his eyes automatically avoiding the spray of bullet holes marking his near death the week before. "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning." Pepper was so matter of fact that Bobby blushed again.
"Why?"
"Because it needs to be cleaned up." Pepper's voice was mumbled since she was back in the pantry again. There was more rustling and she emerged with a garbage bag and a wrinkled… something that had probably been edible once. "This place is a disaster. It looks like a war zone."
"It was." Bobby spoke before he had time to reconsider his words. When Pepper stared at him in amazement, he stumbled to his feet again. "I should go."
"All right, but before you do…" Pepper reached for him, but didn't actually touch him since she was once again wearing the yellow gloves. "Do you know who I should talk to about getting the appliances replaced? The stove is a disaster and I think it'd be easier to buy a new fridge than try and piece that one back together." She gestured at the broken appliances and Bobby looked at them, taking in the slash marks and the bullet scars for the first time since returning home.
He didn't even realize he was shaking until he felt Pepper put her arm around his shoulder. "Hey, I'm sorry. It's all right, Bobby. I can figure it out."
"You should probably talk to Kurt." Bobby managed. "I think he's helping Ro, since Scott… isn't up to it."
"Kurt, right." Pepper squeezed his shoulder lightly and Bobby suddenly realized that he was being hugged by a very attractive woman while he fell apart. Clearing his throat, he pulled away.
"Actually," Bobby managed. "I can help for a while. Classes are cancelled until after the… funeral."
Pepper stilled, eyes widening. "I don't know anything about a funeral."
"It's for Dr. Gray, Scott… um, Mr. Summer's fiancé. She… died last week." Bobby was mortified to feel his eyes well up with tears. Turning away from her, he gripped the remnants of the tile on the island, fingers automatically tracing along the scars. A piece of it broke off under his fingers and he straightened. "Do you have an extra set of gloves?"
Wordlessly, Pepper handed him another set of gloves, and together the set about straightening up the kitchen. Piles of broken dishes and rotting food were swept up. Cabinet doors were taken down, and when Piotr walked by and saw what they were doing, he came in.
"Pete, this is Pepper. She's helping." Bobby shrugged, not really knowing exactly what that meant. Piotr looked down at her and solemnly stuck out his hand.
"Piotr Rasputin. Nice to meet you."
Pepper smiled. "You too."
"Here." Bobby handed him a screw driver and pointed at the top hinges on the cabinets that he couldn't reach without climbing on the counters. "If you're not busy."
"No." Piotr went to work readily enough. "The younger kids are with Kitty and Rogue."
Bobby grunted as he pried a mangled drawer off its tracks, the utensils inside joining other salvageable items as they cleaned out the cabinets. "They've been sticking close to you. Must be driving you nuts."
Piotr shrugged. "They are still scared. They trust me to take care of them."
Pepper looked between the two boys hesitantly. "Can I ask what happened?"
Bobby's jaw clenched and he didn't look up from the drawer he was cleaning out. "Soldiers."
"What?" Pepper sounded aghast and Bobby looked over at her. "Those are actual bullet holes?"
"What did you think they were?" Bobby asked stupidly. "We were attacked in the middle of the night." He pointed to the island. "I was down there. Logan killed the soldier, but not before he did all this."
"And the younger kids?"
Piotr pulled off one of the cabinet doors and broke it in half along the crack running through it. He tossed it aside with a clatter. "Most of them escaped with me and Kitty."
Pepper pressed a hand to her mouth, heedless of the grime on the rubber glove. "And the rest of them?"
"Taken to be part of some experiment." Bobby answered bitterly.
"Oh, my God."
"Oh, my God!" Pepper hung up the phone and spun around to her roommate. "I got the job!"
"Of course you did." Cassie, her roommate, turned the page of her magazine calmly. "You have the most amazing luck."
"It's not luck." Elizabeth, their third roommate, protested as she entered the room. "Congratulations, Pepper!"
"Thanks!" Pepper grinned. "I know it's only an internship, but it's at Stark Industries! It's going to look great on my resume."
"I can't believe it." Beth sat on the other end of the sofa from Cassie, pausing long enough to whack Cassie's leg with a magazine and glare at her meaningfully. "You got this because you went to a bookstore the other night?"
"Yep." Pepper stepped over Cassie's leg while Cassie grumbled good-naturedly. "I just ran into the head of the Finance Department and we struck up a conversation."
"And then she invited you to apply for a job." Cassie pointed out.
"Well, we were talking about the Arc Reactor," Pepper shrugged. "I think I impressed her because I knew about their projects."
"You only know about that because you dated that physics major a few months ago."
"Quit being a jealous cow." Beth ordered Cassie, winking at Pepper. "Pepper really wanted to know about that reactor thing."
Cassie grinned. "You mean she really wanted to know whether or not what's-his-name was as pretty without his clothes on as he was with them."
"That's enough." Pepper scowled between them. "First, I learned about the arc reactor because I wanted to know more about it. I kept dreaming about it, remember?" When they both nodded obediently, she continued. "Second, his name was Mark. And third… he was even prettier naked than he was dressed."
All three girls dissolved into shrieks of laughter. "So when do you start?" Cassie asked when they had all calmed down.
"Next week." Pepper clasped both of their knees. "Get dressed ladies! We're going out to celebrate."
"Fine." Cassie stood up to go and change clothes. "But the next time you meet someone randomly who can give someone a job, make sure it's for me."
"Excuse me, Ms. Munroe?" Pepper stuck her head through around Ororo's office door, looking decidedly nervous. Ro felt a stab of guilt; she had honestly not spared their new visitor a second thought after she'd shown her to a bedroom.
"Yes, Pepper, come in. And call me Ororo, please."
"Thanks." Pepper came in and sat down nervously. "I was hoping you could tell me what happened last week."
Ororo stilled, her fingers pressing against her desk. "I'm sorry," Pepper continued, "but some of the kids were talking… and I just… need to know."
"It's all right." Ro sighed, turning to look outside her window. "You heard about the attempted assassination of the President last week, I'm sure."
"The news said it was a mutant."
"It was." Ro turned to meet Pepper's eyes. "Come with me."
Pepper followed Ro out of the office and Ro lead her towards some stairs. "The mutant who attacked the President wasn't acting of his own free will. He was forced to do it, by the military."
"I can't believe it." Pepper whispered and Ro gave her a sharp look.
"Not all of us can pass as regular humans. People fear what they don't understand."
Rebuked, Pepper stayed silent as they went down the stairs and around a corner. Along the way, they passed several groups of children, all of them quiet and withdrawn. They stared at Pepper distrustfully, looking to Ororo for reassurance. The white haired woman smiled and stopped to offer quiet comfort. The storm goddess kept her eye on their visitor, noting with some relief that Pepper didn't seem to be outwardly reacting to the more obvious mutations. She looked, but she didn't cringe, and when she could, she smiled at the children.
"Not everything is as it seems." Ororo opened the door. "Meet Kurt Wagner, recently of the Munich Circus."
Whatever Pepper was expecting, Ororo was fairly certain it hadn't been a blue-furred, yellow eyed man with a tail. Pepper's eyes grew wide. "Oh, Bobby said I should talk to you about getting repairs done in the kitchen."
It was Ororo's turn to be surprised. Even some of the children had initially been afraid of Kurt, despite his soft spoken manner. Pepper just seemed surprised to be meeting him so abruptly.
Kurt looked at Ororo for explanation and she shrugged. "Kurt can certainly help you with anything that you need. If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my office."
Ororo left abruptly and Pepper watched her go with a bemused expression.
"Do not worry, she is not angry." Kurt stepped forward, his tail swishing behind him. "She has a lot on her mind, trying to prepare the funeral tomorrow."
"Jean Gray." Pepper confirmed, eyeing him from the corner of her eye. "Did you know her well?"
"No." Kurt sighed. "I met her only last week. She saved me."
"From what?"
"The man who wanted me to kill the President." Kurt's tail twitched more violently as he moved towards a table where he'd lain out stacks of bills that he was trying to sort. Pepper followed him and took a seat in one of the extra chairs. For a while, she watched as Kurt worked, and he finally glanced back up at her. "I didn't mean to do it."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't you want to know how they made me?" Kurt asked, his voice a mixture of defensive bitterness and resigned self-loathing.
Pepper reached instead for a stack of paper, filing them as she went into "urgent" and "can wait" piles. "I volunteered for two years at a Rape Crisis Center when I was in college. I know how manipulative and awful people can be to each other. If you want to talk to me, I'll listen, but you don't owe me an explanation, Mr. Wagner. Some of the kids have told me a bit about what went on – how Professor Xavier was kidnapped, how Dr. Gray died." She met his gaze and reached out to gently rub the top of his hand, her fingers sliding over the short blue fur easily.
Touched, Kurt put his other hand on top of hers and squeezed gently. "You said that you are a mutant?"
"Yes." Pepper frowned. "But I don't think my powers are as big and flashy as some of the ones I've seen here. There's a girl upstairs who makes fireworks, did you know that? It's so beautiful."
"Do you mind if I ask you what you can do?" Kurt asked curiously and Pepper smiled at him. She pulled her hands free and went back to work on the stacks and stacks of paper awaiting some attention.
"This." She said simply.
The phone rang. From where she sat at the table, finishing her very last paper for her very last class in college, Pepper froze. Beth came around the corner and reached for the still jangling contraption.
"Don't." Pepper's voice sounded thick to her own ears. "Don't answer it."
"Don't worry," Beth promised. "I'll tell them that you're busy."
Pepper's vision grayed and she could only sit and listen to Beth's half of the conversation.
"Hello? … No, I'm sorry, she can't come to the phone right now. … Well' she's busy at the moment, can I take a message? … Who is this? … What? Oh, my God."
Beth dropped the phone and spun to look at Pepper. Her eyes were already filled with tears and her fingers shaking as she came around the kitchen island to the table where Pepper sat. "Pepper, sweetie. It's the police."
"Don't." Pepper said again. Determinedly, she finished making her last edit and hit save. Then she hit pint. "Don't tell me anything."
"Oh, baby, I'm sorry, but I have to. It's your parents."
The wall of denial that Pepper had built around her crashed down and for a moment all she could hear was the sound of the printer buzzing as each page of her carefully crafted thesis ran out from the end.
"There was a car accident."
That should be the last page of it. "Pepper, they were both killed."
Pepper reached for the stack of paper and it slipped through her trembling fingers and scattered on the ground. She sobbed once and then she was in Beth's arms as her friend held her and rocked her through the news. The only problem was that somehow, in some way, it wasn't news. But with the phone still dangling from the cord on the wall and Beth's tears mingling with her own, Pepper couldn't pretend it wasn't real any longer, either.
It took the rest of the day to make arrangements for Pepper to fly home. Beth and Cassie were both going with her. As Cassie packed for the three of them, Beth ran over to the campus and informed the Dean of Students what had happened. She also turned in all of their final projects.
"Poor Pepper." Dean Schmidt commiserated as he accepted the stack of papers from Beth. "It's lucky for her that she finished everything so early this term."
"Right now, sir," Beth replied stiffly, "I don't think any of us is lucky."
The Dean flushed. "You're right, of course. Please, give her our condolences. And let her know that all of you can take your time moving out of the student housing."
"Thanks." Beth hurried back to her apartment, unsurprised to find Pepper staring at the wall from where she sat beside the suitcase Cassie was filling for her. "Everything is taken care of at the school. Nothing to worry about, okay?"
"I got a job." Pepper's voice broke. "In the Finance Office as Stark Industries. I hadn't told anybody yet, because I wanted to tell my parents first. They were supposed to be here in two days, for graduation."
Pepper wasn't sure who started crying first, but she found herself in the middle of a huddle of arms and tears and she hugged back as hard as she could, knowing that nothing ever lasted.
"Here." Scott felt something being pressed into his hand and he looked down to see a strange redheaded woman handing him a glass. He took it automatically. The woman smiled at him, sympathetically. "You look like you needed a drink."
"Thanks." Scott coughed lightly, clearing his throat. "You must be Pepper Potts. Ro's told me how much you've helped." He looked back over the balcony railing, watching as the last of the funeral guests took their leave, and took a deep and grateful swallow of whatever beer she had given him.
"I've not done much." Pepper shrugged. "Everyone is doing their fair share."
Scott snorted, but it was more the memory of annoyance than any real emotion. "I don't know about that. It used to take an act of God to get some of these kids to clean their own room. I've heard that you just about have the whole place back together."
"They wanted to help." Pepper shrugged, sipping from her own drink. "I think they want things to go back to normal."
Scott's jaw tightened and he took another drink, longer this time.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Pepper touched his arm. "I didn't know her, but it's clear that she was well loved. She must have been an amazing woman."
"She was." Scott managed, throat tight.
"I didn’t know that I was a mutant, before last week." Pepper said suddenly. "I just thought I was lucky. I always seemed to know what was going to happen just before it happened. I knew how to read people – so I knew how to anticipate what they were going to do, what they would want me to do."
Scott stared at her, completely thrown by the sudden change in the conversation.
"Then, I woke up one day and just knew that my parents were somehow in danger. I even called my mom." Pepper took a deep breath. "They were fine. They were going to go antiquing later that morning, after a late brunch. But, I knew something was wrong, I just didn't know what." She bit her lip. "I was afraid I'd sound like a lunatic, so I hung up and went to work on a paper."
"What happened?" Scott asked, curious despite himself.
"The police called that afternoon. My parents had been killed in a car crash."
"I'm sorry." Scott said automatically.
"So was I." Pepper reached up to wipe her eyes. "I thought it was my fault. Sometimes, I still think it's my fault."
"You couldn't have known."
"I did know. I've done enough research since coming here that I realize that I'm a clairvoyant. I see things that no one else can see, know things that I shouldn't know. But, sometimes, I think that you can't change what's going to happen, no matter what you know or do."
Scott just stared at her, his mouth open slightly and Pepper blushed. "I really am sorry. If there is anything I can do, I hope you'll ask." She hurried away, leaving him looking after her for a long moment.
"Quite unusual, isn't she?" A voice rumbled behind him and Scott turned to see Hank. The compassion on his old friend's face finally pierced the numb reserve that had kept Scott together and he choked out a sob. "Come, my old friend. Ms. Potts has ordered enough spirits for us to drown at least some of our sorrows."
Scott let Hank lead him back into the house. "Okay with me."
Dear Ms. Potts:
I cannot express to you how much you helped us in our hour of need. I am so sorry that I was unable to discuss your mutation with you and provide you any answers. It is a difficult thing - learning who we are. For most of us, it a journey that begins at puberty. In your case, despite the delay in determining that you were one of us, I strongly suspect the same is true.
Your strength and compassion are the traits that make you memorable, the traits that make you human. None of us have any doubts that you will change the world, Ms. Potts, and we are all humbled and grateful that you took the time to offer your compassion to us when we most needed it.
I understand that you are working at Stark Industries. I hope that you will not consider it amiss that I have contacted several of your supervisors and provided them with my recommendation that you be considered for a promotion. Many of them are old colleagues and friends and I hope that my suggestion will be to your benefit.
Know always, that you have a place where you are welcome with us.
Sincerely,
Charles Xavier
Pepper folded the letter and slid it into her purse. She had been back in California for three weeks and not much in her life had changed. Beth and Cassie were the only people in the world, besides those at Xavier's, who knew she was a mutant. The anti-mutant fervor that was sweeping the country convinced Pepper that, for now at least, that was the best course of action.
Sighing, she turned back to her computer. She hoped that Xavier's letter might smooth over some of the upset she had caused that morning by pointing out an accounting error that would have resulted in millions of wasted dollars, but she wasn't holding her breath. She'd only found the mistake as a result of her mutation refusing to leave her alone until she'd located it. It was so subtle that it wasn't a surprise that the twenty-five or so superiors above her had missed it. Still, she had seen the angry and embarrassed expressions and hoped that this wouldn't prove to be a case of shooting the messenger.
"Excuse me, but are you the infamous Ms. Potts?" A voice from the top of her cubicle made her look up and she shot to her feet, jaw dropping.
"Mr. Stark!" He was every bit as good looking as he seemed from his photos, even more so once he smiled at her.
"I understand that I owe you a debt of gratitude for saving my company millions of dollars."
Pepper floundered for a moment, before smiling. "I found a mistake, sir. That's all."
"That's not all!" Tony declared dramatically. "You found one of my mistakes. I've only ever made two others. At least, when it comes to math."
Pepper's brows drew together and she wondered if he'd shown up to fire her personally.
"I have a proposition for Ms. Potts. A legitimate one, actually, and I don't make many of those to beautiful women. I need someone with your brains and instinct on my team."
"I am on your team, sir."
"No, you're here in finance. I want you to work for me. Personally. I want you to organize my life. Do you have any experience with that sort of thing?"
Pepper blinked and cleared her throat, thinking of the letter in her purse. "Yes, sir. I do."
"Great, then you're hired. Can you start now?" Tony leaned forward. "There's a… thing."
"What kind of thing?" Pepper asked, sitting down long enough to turn off her computer and gather her belongings.
"The kind of thing that you'll handle from now on." Tony waited for her and then led her through the maze of cubicles towards the bright afternoon sun. Dazed, Pepper took a deep breath. She had no idea where her life was going, but deep in her bones, she felt that it was on the right track.
