seren_ccd | Tight Coupling: Chapter 9

Title: Chapter 9 - 096 Motion
Series: Tight Coupling
Rating: PG
Pairing: Tony/Pepper-ish, movieverse
Word Count: 1887
Disclaimer: Still not mine. All Marvel's.
Summary: Panic buttons and valuable employees.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing! I'm really enjoying writing this.

If asked, his co-workers would have probably said that Danny Morgan hadn't moved from his workstation in at least three days. In truth it was probably closer to four. He alternated between watching the stock ticker and tapping away on his computer. Late on the fourth day, he leaned back in his chair and went completely still. He looked down at the keyboard and then up at the stock ticker.

He sat back up abruptly and pulled up the Stark Industries Employee Directory onscreen and searched for Pepper Potts' phone number.

He found it and dialed. He tapped the edge of the desk as it rang. It took him to voicemail.

"Umm, Miss Potts. Pepper. This is Danny. Morgan. I. I need to speak to Mr Stark if possible. Or you. I think I've figured something out and if I'm right... Well, I just hope I'm not. Ahh, call me back please. Thank you."

He put the phone down and hoped he was wrong.

***

At the same time...

Pepper exited the elevator into the Stark Industries lobby. The striking older woman at the Information Desk smiled warmly at her.

"Hello dear, long day?" Bev asked with a sweet smile.

"Aren't they all?" Pepper replied. "How about you?"

"Oh, I'm having the time of my life. I've been sending all of the calls asking for Iron Man straight through to the PR department," Bev smiled wickedly. "I think they're going to ambush me later and string me up."

"I take it there's a lot of interest in Iron Man," Pepper said.

"Interest? Honey, I've got people asking to have his baby or could he possibly come and help retrieve their kitten/puppy/guppy out of a tree," Bev told her. "I haven't laughed so hard in ages."

"Well, at least that's something I guess," Pepper said laughing.

"And how is trouble?" Bev asked.

"Troublesome," Pepper stated.

Her Blackberry chimed from within her purse. She tried to rummage through her purse to find it while awkwardly holding her briefcase at the same time. She absently said 'Bye' to Bev at the information desk and could feel the PDA thrumming when suddenly,

"Miss Potts!" a man yelled.

Pepper let the Blackberry fall from her fingers and turned around to face Marcus Hake. The usually well-groomed young man had hair flying about his face and his tie was loose. The straps of his messenger bag had rucked up his jacket and shirt.

"Bev, call Security," Pepper murmured.

"Already done sweetie," Bev murmured back.

"Dr Hake," Pepper cautiously addressed him.

He raised his eyebrows as he approached her.

"Is this how it goes? You have Adam fire me?" Hake said casually. "I honestly expected something more dramatic."

"I understand that you may be upset.." Pepper tried to say.

"Upset?" he repeated smiling calmly. "Not at all. I'm relieved to be honest."

"Oh?" Pepper said steadily. She could see a security guard coming close out of the corner of her eye.

"Well, of course Pepper. Stark Industries isn't the only company out there. I'll easily land on my feet," Hake broke off slightly to look at the security guard with an amused expression. He turned back to Pepper and smiled. "The things I'll be able to do. You really have no idea."

Hake turned to the security guard.

"Just saying farewell to a co-worker I promise," he reassured the guard. He turned back to Pepper.

He held out his hand for Pepper to shake. Pepper eyed it. Then reached out to take it. The grip was a bit too firm and her eyes snapped up to Hake's. His smile wasn't quite so calm anymore.

"The things I'll be able to do," he repeated quietly. He let her hand go. "Be seeing you Miss Potts. My regards to Mr Stark of course."

Marcus Hake nodded to Bev and the guard and calmly walked out of the lobby.

"You know, I was half hoping he'd say we'd rue the day we let him go," Bev remarked dryly.

Pepper chuckled a bit and grasped her briefcase tightly.

***

It wasn't until she arrived at the Stark Mansion and was walking inside that she realised she'd missed a call earlier. She wandered into the living room and began to rummage through her purse again. She was so lost in the action she didn't hear Tony come up behind her.

"Busy day Miss Potts?"

"Sweet Jesus!" she yelled and whirled around to glare at the man. "What?! Don't do that! What is wrong with you?"

"With me?" Tony said innocently pointing to his chest. He was clad in his usual uniform of dirty wife-beater and jeans, the arc-reactor glowing cheerfully through the ripped hole. "There's not a thing wrong with me. I'm not the one who was manhandled in the lobby of my building."

"What are you talking about?" Pepper said, wondering who told him about Hake.

"Oh? Not remembering are we?" he said sarcastically. "Let me help. I get a call from security telling me that a recently fired employee left in a bit of a huff but not before he accosted my assistant. Sound familiar?"

Pepper realised that at some point her jaw had dropped. She quickly shut it and swallowed.

"Bernie called you?" she asked.

"No, he called - wait his name is Bernie? Who names their kid Bernie? And no, Jarvis took the call. So, let's see. Bernie calls Jarvis, who in turn tells me. So that makes me what?" Tony asked her, his face suddenly resembling the mask he occasionally wears.

"Umm, informed?" Pepper guessed.

"Aaanh!" he said loudly. "Wrong answer. It makes me the last to know! Why is that Miss Potts?"

"Okay! Stop. First," Pepper said holding up a hand and frowning. "He didn't accost me. He approached me and said a few cryptic things about how he was actually relieved to be leaving and that he was free to do anything thing now. Then he shook my hand. Then he left. That's it. No one was accosted and I was planning on telling you about it at some point."

"At some point? Yeah, not good enough Potts," Tony said. He studied her. Actually swiped his eyes all along the length of her body. If she hadn't recognised the determined I've-got-a-puzzle-I'm-going-to-figure-out look in his eyes, she might have blushed at the studied look he gave her. (Oh, who was she kidding? She blushed.) He reached for her purse. "Hand over the purse Pepper."

"What? Tony Stark stop it!" she spluttered and they began a tug of war over her simple black purse. "See, this is accosting!"

Tony manoeuvred his fingers under hers and managed to unhand the purse in a few seconds.

"Ha!" he yelled in triumph. He hurried to the stairs leading down to his workshop. He hit a few buttons absently on the keypad and practically ran down the stairs.

Pepper stared after him for a second and then walked briskly over to the glass door and entered her security code. Nothing happened. Pepper stared at the door. She blinked and tried again. Again, nothing happened.

"Jarvis?" she called out calmly.

"Yes Miss Potts?" he answered.

"Is there any particular reason that my security code isn't working?" she asked.

"Yes, there is a reason Miss Potts," the AI answered.

Pepper waited. Then gritting her teeth asked, "May I have the reason please?"

"Tony asked me to keep you out Miss Potts," he said. "I do apologize."

"Right. Jarvis?" Pepper said.

"Yes Miss Potts?"

"If you do not unlock this door in under 15 seconds, I swear to you I will play the dance scene from Short Circuit," Pepper informed him. "Repeatedly."

Silence.

Then the keypad beeped and the door opened.

"Thank you Jarvis," Pepper said. She stormed down the stairs and walked over to the worktable where Tony was leaning over what looked like the taken apart insides of her Blackberry.

"What have you done?" she gasped.

"Jarvis, I thought I told you to keep her out," Tony said.

"She threatened me with Johnny 5 and the Bee-Gees, Tony, " Jarvis said. "I may be a highly advanced Artificial Intelligence being, but I'm not invulnerable."

"Completely useless," Tony muttered.

"Tony, what are you doing?" Pepper asked.

"I've added an alarm to this. A panic button of sorts," he said. He carefully put all the pieces back together and snapped everything into place and then handed it to her. Pepper gingerly held the Blackberry and looked at it. Then she looked up at him.

"Just press the 'q' and 'w' at the same time and someone will be there," he explained.

"Someone?" she said arching an eyebrow.

"Yeah, someone," Tony said suddenly turning away and straightening up his tools, as though he was uncomfortable. "But it only works if you push it."

Pepper watched his face as he put various things into drawers and then she looked back down at the PDA in her hand.

"Tony," she said softly.

"Hey," he said still arranging the tools. "Don't think this is anything special. I'd do this for any of my employees."

"Is that right?" Pepper said trying not to smile like an idiot.

"Absolutely. Bertha? In HR? Last week," he told her.

"Bertha retired five years ago," she informed him.

"Point is, you should be safe," he said finally turning back to her and catching her eyes. "You're a valuable employee Pepper."

"Well, thank you Mr Stark," Pepper said with a small quirk of her lips.

"You're welcome Miss Potts," he grinned back.

Pepper turned to head back upstairs with her new and improved Blackberry.

"Oh, hey," Tony called. "You might be missing a few of your newer messages. Sorry 'bout that."

Pepper frowned as she headed up the stairs. Then shrugged. If it was important, they'd call her back.

***

Danny Morgan paced back and forth in his apartment. He checked his phone again for any messages, even though he hadn't let it out of his sight all evening. He walked over to his work station and sat down. Then stood back up. He headed towards the door when his phone rang.

"Hello?" he answered quickly without looking at the caller id.

He froze at the sound of the voice on the other end. He swallowed heavily.

"You," his voice broke a bit. "You shouldn't have used it. I know you did."

He listened to the answer and then shaking his head said, "No. It wasn't ready. And it wasn't supposed to be used like that."

He paused again.

"I don't care about the money! I've stopped work on it. It's not going to be finished and I'll make sure no one ever finds it."

He listened to the other person. His hands began to shake.

"You wouldn't dare. I've already told other people about it. Whatever issues you're having now is not my problem. It can't predict everything!"

He paced the length of his room again listening.

"Look!" he said loudly. "Don't threaten me! I'm hanging up!"

Danny turned off the phone and looked blindly around his room. His gaze landed on a pair of glasses next to his computer. He walked over and picked them up. Danny collapsed into his chair and stared blankly at the wall, phone in one hand, the glasses in the other.