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veldeiaTitle: Iron & Irony: Second Encounters
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Iron Man/House MD
Series: Sequel to Iron & Irony. (Has nothing whatsoever to do with Malt & Mockery.)
Spoilers: Late season 4 for House, but before the finale, so nothing big. Spoils all of Iron Man and Iron & Irony, of course.
Pairings: Tony/Pepper
Rating: PG-13
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
btsxbeta <3
Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing, except for a messed up mind that likes playing with other people's characters and universes.
Summary: Working for a superhero is dangerous business. When House and Pepper get kidnapped, they learn this the hard way. Of course, the part of the hero who needs to find and rescue them isn't all that easy, either.
4. "That is how it begins"
Goddamnit.
Tony had flown all the way from California to New Jersey, met up with Sitwell, and spent maybe half an hour talking to him and the people at Princeton-Plainsboro. Now he was flying homewards, feeling frustrated beyond words. He'd flown two and a half thousand miles there and back again, for a few short conversations that he could just as well have handled over the phone. Talk about impulsive behavior.
He so needed to pull himself together. If only he had the slightest idea of how to do it. They hadn't just taken Pepper, they had also taken House. Tony would never call House his friend, but he did admit that House was very intelligent and good at what he did - and he actually knew some facts which might potentially be used to harm Tony. Not that he cared the least bit about himself right now. The bastards had taken Pepper. And House. They would pay for it. Sooner or later, Tony would find them, and they'd be in so much trouble - except that it wasn't Tony who was going to find them, since no matter how he tried, now that he'd gotten the search underway, there didn't seem to be much of anything he could do himself.
He considered dropping by at the S.H.I.E.L.D. office in L.A., or going to Pepper's place again, but he knew that neither would do any good. Back to the mansion it was, then.
To his surprise, he found Rhodey there, waiting for him in his shop. He was holding one of the silvery War Machine gauntlets, turning it around and looking at it curiously. He quickly set it on the table as Tony landed.
"Hey, Iron Man! How was the East Coast?"
"Eastern. What're you doing here?"
"I figured you could use the company."
Tony took off his helmet and set it on the nearest table. "Yeah, I guess you might be right. I could use some pizza, too, and a beer."
"What do you know - I just happened to bring some."
"Wow, you're being nice... Wait - yeah, right, I get it. You're trying to bribe me because you want to do another test run."
"I definitely wouldn't mind that, but no, actually I'm bringing you food because Jarvis told me you've been living on candy bars, coffee and whisky for over a day now."
"Jarvis!" Tony groaned. "I'm going to re-program you as a telephone answering machine for this."
"Very well, sir. It'll come in handy once you pass out from excessive alcohol consumption combined with lack of food and sleep, and need me to take all your phone calls."
"You've got one very smart AI there," Rhodey said, grinning. "Get out of that suit, the pizza's getting cold."
Even though Tony was unwilling to admit it, Rhodey really was a lifesaver, and if his being here was thanks to Jarvis, then Jarvis deserved some credit, too. He'd had no idea of how hungry he was. Seemed like there really had been a point to all the snarking Pepper had done about Tony not being able to manage ordinary life without her. Then again, this wasn't a normal situation. Tony was a grown-up, it wasn't like he'd just waste away if there was no one around to feed him. That was a stupid thing for anyone to claim.
Two pizzas and several beers later Tony and Rhodey returned to the shop to take a look at Rhodey's armor. It wasn't as if Tony had anything better to do, and this would be a great way to pass the time and keep his mind off everything else. They spent the rest of the afternoon, and the evening, and a good part of the night working on it, first just fitting and adjusting in the shop, then doing a test run in the dark night sky, both of them wearing their suits.
The War Machine armor was performing perfectly - of course it was, since Tony had designed it. He still wasn't entirely sure about the design, though. It was even more weapon-like than the Iron Man armor, which was an idea that made him slightly uncomfortable. Then again, Rhodey was military. Weapons were a part of his job, no matter what. Tony also liked it that the suits were slightly different, with different strengths and weaknesses. They would complement each other well in battles.
At night, after Rhodey had left, Tony actually made it to his bed for a change - and lay awake for hours, thinking about the fact that he still hadn't gotten one single phone call with news about Pepper, or House, for that matter. Finally, he drifted into restless sleep.
"Well, Doctor House, what do you say? I have heard you're brilliant at your work, so you must know exactly what to expect from the virus. You don't have to go through it."
Oh yeah, House knew a thing or two about their nanotech-enhanced hantavirus. If they really had it, and if this new strain was anything like the previous one, it would cause a disease very similar to hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. After a period of unremarkable flu-like symptoms, his lungs would begin to fill with fluid, and he'd slowly suffocate to death. Not the nicest possible way to go.
He could lie to Liu, tell him that he had information, but feed him complete fiction. House was a very good liar. He didn't doubt for one second that he wouldn't be able to convince them. But he'd only save himself if he did that, Stark's assistant - Potts - would still be in trouble, and they'd still both be stuck here. He might avoid certain death, but there was no way Liu would just cut him loose once he'd given him all the data he had. Also, House had his pride. He was a superhero's sidekick caught by the hero's enemies, after all. Giving in when the enemies first asked him to, even though it'd only be a ruse, would still feel like treachery.
"At least it'll put an end to my withdrawal," he answered Liu. "Can I please go back to my nice, quiet cell now?"
"Ah, you disappoint me. I'd have expected a man of your intelligence to make the right choice. Well, I'll ask you again later. Perhaps you will change your mind."
Liu's cronies picked House up from the surprisingly comfortable arm chair where he'd sat through this little interrogation. The whole scene had been somewhat different form what he had expected. The room was decorated with oriental carpets and vases, and Liu sat behind a tasteless mahogany desk, looking like an executive of some well-to-do business, or like a classic James Bond villain. If House hadn't been feeling so awful, he might've found the situation extremely amusing.
The thugs dragged him through the corridors, back to the bleak little cell. Potts was once again pacing to and fro, barefoot, since she'd finally taken off her heels.
"Well, what did you say to them?" she asked as soon as he was lying on his bunk again.
"I promised them my firstborn child, my grandmother's ashes, and all of Iron Man's secrets."
"You said no."
"Of course I did. What did you expect?"
"That you'd try to talk your way out of this, lie, cheat, whatever. It's what you're good at, isn't it?"
"I'm not sure it'd do us much good right now," House said, his eyes closed.
"And maybe it's better that you didn't, it would just complicate things. Tony's going to get us out of here. He'll find us and he'll break us out."
"He'd better, because otherwise, I'm handing him my resignation."
Again, they had nothing to do but wait. Being kidnapped really was incredibly boring. They still had no means to keep track of time. They were brought food, a noodle soup of some sort, which might have been good if he had been able to eat. At a seemingly random hour, the lights in their room went off. At least Potts stopped pacing, then, and settled down in her bunk.
To his surprise, House actually fell asleep at some point. He woke up again when the lights came on, in a sad imitation of a sunrise.
Then, they waited, and waited, and nothing happened.
They were taken to see Liu again, one at a time, just like the previous day, and they both said no. They were brought food twice. The first time, House actually managed to eat some - the second time, the smell of it was enough to make him so nauseous that he lost what he'd eaten earlier.
All in all, the only difference between the two days was that during the second day, House felt even worse. He was chilled but drenched in sweat, and the pain wasn't just in his leg, his entire body was achy by now. If he hadn't gone through this before, he might have thought he was dying, just completely falling apart. As it was, he knew he wasn't, but that didn't make him feel any better.
Finally, the lights went off again, signaling the end of their second day in their cell. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, and he was pretty sure Potts wouldn't, either, thanks to his constant shifting, gasping and groaning. On some level, he was glad they hadn't got any tools at hand, since he'd have leaped at the chance to inflict himself enough harm to take his mind off everything else. He considered just driving his fist into the wall as hard as he could, but that would've required moving, which he wasn't up to at the moment.
At some point during the night, she appeared by his bedside, and began dabbing at his forehead with a wet cloth. Since they had no extra pieces of cloth with them, it was most likely her sleeve. He didn't push her away. It didn't exactly make him feel better, but a tiny bit of relief was better than nothing at all.
Somehow, he actually managed to fall asleep. In the morning, he woke up with Potts dozing by his side, sitting on the floor, her head on his mattress.
So, maybe he had been wrong about her compassion not being genuine.
House was pretty sure that the worst of the withdrawal was finally over, but that meant that it wouldn't be long before the first symptoms of the nanovirus would start showing up. No matter how bad he felt at the moment, he figured he'd rather keep the withdrawal.
Rhodey almost felt like he should've stayed at the Stark Mansion overnight. There were guest rooms, it wouldn't have been the first time - but he knew there was a limit to how much babysitting Tony would accept. The fact that he had actually admitted he needed company was a small victory in itself.
The next morning, Rhodey wondered whether he should just call Tony right away, or wait and see what would happen. He decided to wait. Better not overdo the concerned friend thing - a quarrel between him and Tony was the last thing they needed in this situation.
He checked with his military contacts who he'd asked for help on the case, but just like before, all they did was shake their heads and throw up their hands. They didn't have anything, because they couldn't do anything. This really wasn't their case. Tony had made this S.H.I.E.L.D. business, which effectively shut out everyone else. They'd either need to coordinate their actions with S.H.I.E.L.D. - which would be useless, since S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't need their help - or risk stepping on some very big toes. Rhodey told them "Thank you anyway", and put away the phone.
He couldn't help thinking back to the days when it'd been Tony who had been missing. The fact that Rhodey had already gone through something like this didn't make it any easier. The memories were as clear as yesterday, and it had been just the same. The first days had been filled with frantic action, setting the search in motion, pulling all possible strings to get as many men on the case as he could. They were starting to be past that phase already.
When there had been no results, it'd become harder and harder to keep the searches going, to convince people that there was any point in searching at all. Slowly, almost everyone had started to get used to the state of things, started to believe that Tony wasn't coming back. Rhodey and Pepper had been among the last to still believe that he wasn't dead, and even that had been part denial. Rhodey wondered how long it'd take before people started feeling that there was no point in looking for Pepper anymore.
His cell phone startled him out of his introspection. He was half-expecting it to be Tony, but it wasn't. Instead, the caller ID revealed it was a certain S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Rhodey hadn't thought he'd ever need to talk to again.
"Sitwell?"
"Hello, Colonel Rhodes. Have you been in contact with Mr. Stark lately?"
"Well, yeah, I was with him until midnight last night, why?"
"Last night, but not today? He's not answering his phone."
"He's not?" Rhodey felt an instant pang of worry, although it was likely that Tony was just ignoring his phone or sleeping like a log.
"I've tried it several times. The thing is, I've finally got news about the missing people. We have a possible location. It's in the Qilian mountains, in China."
"China?" Rhodey repeated, not sure whether that made any sense. "Anyway, that's great news! Look, I really need to check if Tony's all right, but I'll call you back asap."
Tony didn't answer Rhodey's calls, so he drove to the mansion. Jarvis greeted him at the door. "Colonel Rhodes. I'm glad you're here. Something has come up, and Mr. Stark is quite distressed."
He found Tony in the living room, sitting on the couch, staring at a blank TV screen, looking like he was ready to strangle the first person to come within reach.
Rhodey knocked on a wall to announce his presence. "Tony?" he asked cautiously.
Tony jumped, clearly startled, and turned his head to face Rhodey. His expression was so torn that Rhodey had never seen anything quite like it. "Rhodey - I... They..." Tony grimaced and shook his head. "You need to see this for yourself. Jarvis, replay."
The screen came to life with a picture showing a small, stone-walled room with two people: Pepper and House. She was standing next to a small bunk, her arms crossed, her expression anxious. House sat on the floor, looking pale and in pain. Rhodey could also see the shadows of a few other people, who were out of the camera's view.
"Torture us all you want, we won't tell you anything!" Pepper said, sounding rebellious and entirely fearless. Rhodey had always known she was strong of character, but he was impressed nevertheless.
"Torture you? Oh, no, that would be cruel," one of the out-of-sight people said in a smooth, dangerous voice. "No, we'll do no such thing. We're simply going to wait and see. I believe you are familiar with a certain nanovirus? Based on a Brazilian strain of hantavirus? You were both infected, soon after you were captured."
"That's enough, Jarvis," Tony said, sounding choked.
"Oh, man..."
"Yeah. It came in this morning. There it was, in my inbox, just like that, with a message saying that if I don't want them to suffer and die, I can show up at the international airport in New Delhi, within two days, alone, without my armor or any weapons. Turn myself in, in exchange for their lives."
On the morning of the third day of their captivity, Pepper woke up sitting on the cold stone floor, her head in the crook of her arm, which rested on House's bunk. She stretched, feeling sore all over from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. She didn't even remember falling asleep. She did remember him falling asleep though, which had been a huge relief to them both.
House was awake already, and he was staring at her, a crooked grin on his face. "You'll need to be careful, Potts, or Stark will get jealous of me. Just wait until I tell him you've been giving me sponge baths..."
"First of all, that wasn't a sponge bath, and secondly, if we get out of here alive, I doubt Tony's going to care about the details. So, am I over-interpreting, or are you actually feeling better?"
"Aside from a splitting headache and a thigh that feels like it's got a Rottweiler hanging from it by his teeth, yeah, I'm great."
"Glad to hear that," she said, hoping it sounded every bit as genuine as it was.
Even though they hadn't talked a whole lot during the two days they'd spent here, not least because House had been so sick most of the time, Pepper already felt like they'd known each other for years. Like old acquaintances who weren't exactly friends, but nevertheless shared so much that it couldn't be ignored. Two very different people brought together by life-changing circumstances. On top of that, she felt like she'd known House for years because at times, he reminded her of Tony. She was so used to exchanges that were nothing but wit and quips and bad puns that talking to House often felt so familiar it made her miss Tony horribly.
How she missed him - and how silly it now felt that she'd been avoiding any serious conversations with him, that she hadn't really talked with him about the way she felt. Why on Earth wouldn't she want a relationship with him? Wouldn't a continuous roller coaster ride of worry and relief be a better choice than giving him the cold shoulder and trying to repress whatever she felt? On the other hand, wasn't it a rather bad sign that it seemed to take a life-and-death situation before she could actually admit to herself how much she loved him?
As ridiculous as it was, she was worried for Tony. He would blame himself for this, and drive himself over the edge trying to figure out what had happened to her. She knew what he was like when he had his mind set on something: obsessive to the point of forgetting everything else. At least he had Rhodey and Happy around to keep him sane, and to make sure he slept and ate.
She and House had the day's first meal, and a few hours after that, exactly like on the previous days, the thugs came to take her to see Liu.
Pepper had heard Liu's name before. One of the scientists who had been involved in the previous nanovirus nightmare had mentioned it to Tony, and he had told her. Liu had supposedly been responsible for that incident as well, although Tony had suspected that he hadn't been the one pulling all the strings. There were references to an international organization known as the Ten Rings, who had also had something to do with Tony's captivity in Afghanistan. Who they were and what they wanted was still a complete mystery to everyone, even though S.H.I.E.L.D. had been trying to figure them out ever since Tony had given them the first leads.
As always, Liu sat behind his impressive desk, smiling his dangerous smile. It was strange, she thought, that he didn't seem the least bit concerned or annoyed that she and House kept insisting they'd rather die than talk. It was almost as if he didn't care if they died without telling him a thing. Cold cruelty she might have expected, but this was more like complete indifference. Why had he gone through the trouble of capturing them, if he didn't actually want the information?
"And how are we today, Miss Potts?" Liu asked conversationally. "Still feeling defiant? Or perhaps a bit sick?"
"Just sick of seeing your smug face," she told him in her most vehement voice. "And my answer is still no."
The truth was, now that she thought about it, she did feel slightly under-the-weather, but she didn't know if it had anything to do with the virus. The circumstances weren't exactly beneficial, either. As she stood up from the chair to leave the room, she was struck by a bout of dizziness, not bad, but bad enough that it forced her to lean on the armrest. It didn't go unnoticed.
"Ah. See? That is how it begins," Liu said. "I have witnessed this virus in action, and it is not pleasant. You still have time to prevent it from advancing any further. Please, Miss Potts, think of this rationally. You are a young, intelligent, and beautiful woman, it would be stupid of you to give your life for someone like Tony Stark."
She gripped the armrest tightly with both hands, not out of vertigo, but anger. "You don't know anything about Tony! I would give my life for him if I had to - but I won't. He's going to get us out of here."
She believed it, she really did. He would come. She knew Tony, and she knew he'd get them out, whatever it took, or die trying. The only question was, would he get here in time?
"I wouldn't count on it," Liu said, as if answering her thoughts. "You can feel it yourself that you are running out of time. I will ask you again tomorrow, but by then, it may already be too late. Should you change your mind, you can knock on your door to contact the guards whenever you feel like talking to me again."
Chapter 5.
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Iron Man/House MD
Series: Sequel to Iron & Irony. (Has nothing whatsoever to do with Malt & Mockery.)
Spoilers: Late season 4 for House, but before the finale, so nothing big. Spoils all of Iron Man and Iron & Irony, of course.
Pairings: Tony/Pepper
Rating: PG-13
Beta:
btsxbeta <3Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing, except for a messed up mind that likes playing with other people's characters and universes.
Summary: Working for a superhero is dangerous business. When House and Pepper get kidnapped, they learn this the hard way. Of course, the part of the hero who needs to find and rescue them isn't all that easy, either.
4. "That is how it begins"
Goddamnit.
Tony had flown all the way from California to New Jersey, met up with Sitwell, and spent maybe half an hour talking to him and the people at Princeton-Plainsboro. Now he was flying homewards, feeling frustrated beyond words. He'd flown two and a half thousand miles there and back again, for a few short conversations that he could just as well have handled over the phone. Talk about impulsive behavior.
He so needed to pull himself together. If only he had the slightest idea of how to do it. They hadn't just taken Pepper, they had also taken House. Tony would never call House his friend, but he did admit that House was very intelligent and good at what he did - and he actually knew some facts which might potentially be used to harm Tony. Not that he cared the least bit about himself right now. The bastards had taken Pepper. And House. They would pay for it. Sooner or later, Tony would find them, and they'd be in so much trouble - except that it wasn't Tony who was going to find them, since no matter how he tried, now that he'd gotten the search underway, there didn't seem to be much of anything he could do himself.
He considered dropping by at the S.H.I.E.L.D. office in L.A., or going to Pepper's place again, but he knew that neither would do any good. Back to the mansion it was, then.
To his surprise, he found Rhodey there, waiting for him in his shop. He was holding one of the silvery War Machine gauntlets, turning it around and looking at it curiously. He quickly set it on the table as Tony landed.
"Hey, Iron Man! How was the East Coast?"
"Eastern. What're you doing here?"
"I figured you could use the company."
Tony took off his helmet and set it on the nearest table. "Yeah, I guess you might be right. I could use some pizza, too, and a beer."
"What do you know - I just happened to bring some."
"Wow, you're being nice... Wait - yeah, right, I get it. You're trying to bribe me because you want to do another test run."
"I definitely wouldn't mind that, but no, actually I'm bringing you food because Jarvis told me you've been living on candy bars, coffee and whisky for over a day now."
"Jarvis!" Tony groaned. "I'm going to re-program you as a telephone answering machine for this."
"Very well, sir. It'll come in handy once you pass out from excessive alcohol consumption combined with lack of food and sleep, and need me to take all your phone calls."
"You've got one very smart AI there," Rhodey said, grinning. "Get out of that suit, the pizza's getting cold."
Even though Tony was unwilling to admit it, Rhodey really was a lifesaver, and if his being here was thanks to Jarvis, then Jarvis deserved some credit, too. He'd had no idea of how hungry he was. Seemed like there really had been a point to all the snarking Pepper had done about Tony not being able to manage ordinary life without her. Then again, this wasn't a normal situation. Tony was a grown-up, it wasn't like he'd just waste away if there was no one around to feed him. That was a stupid thing for anyone to claim.
Two pizzas and several beers later Tony and Rhodey returned to the shop to take a look at Rhodey's armor. It wasn't as if Tony had anything better to do, and this would be a great way to pass the time and keep his mind off everything else. They spent the rest of the afternoon, and the evening, and a good part of the night working on it, first just fitting and adjusting in the shop, then doing a test run in the dark night sky, both of them wearing their suits.
The War Machine armor was performing perfectly - of course it was, since Tony had designed it. He still wasn't entirely sure about the design, though. It was even more weapon-like than the Iron Man armor, which was an idea that made him slightly uncomfortable. Then again, Rhodey was military. Weapons were a part of his job, no matter what. Tony also liked it that the suits were slightly different, with different strengths and weaknesses. They would complement each other well in battles.
At night, after Rhodey had left, Tony actually made it to his bed for a change - and lay awake for hours, thinking about the fact that he still hadn't gotten one single phone call with news about Pepper, or House, for that matter. Finally, he drifted into restless sleep.
"Well, Doctor House, what do you say? I have heard you're brilliant at your work, so you must know exactly what to expect from the virus. You don't have to go through it."
Oh yeah, House knew a thing or two about their nanotech-enhanced hantavirus. If they really had it, and if this new strain was anything like the previous one, it would cause a disease very similar to hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. After a period of unremarkable flu-like symptoms, his lungs would begin to fill with fluid, and he'd slowly suffocate to death. Not the nicest possible way to go.
He could lie to Liu, tell him that he had information, but feed him complete fiction. House was a very good liar. He didn't doubt for one second that he wouldn't be able to convince them. But he'd only save himself if he did that, Stark's assistant - Potts - would still be in trouble, and they'd still both be stuck here. He might avoid certain death, but there was no way Liu would just cut him loose once he'd given him all the data he had. Also, House had his pride. He was a superhero's sidekick caught by the hero's enemies, after all. Giving in when the enemies first asked him to, even though it'd only be a ruse, would still feel like treachery.
"At least it'll put an end to my withdrawal," he answered Liu. "Can I please go back to my nice, quiet cell now?"
"Ah, you disappoint me. I'd have expected a man of your intelligence to make the right choice. Well, I'll ask you again later. Perhaps you will change your mind."
Liu's cronies picked House up from the surprisingly comfortable arm chair where he'd sat through this little interrogation. The whole scene had been somewhat different form what he had expected. The room was decorated with oriental carpets and vases, and Liu sat behind a tasteless mahogany desk, looking like an executive of some well-to-do business, or like a classic James Bond villain. If House hadn't been feeling so awful, he might've found the situation extremely amusing.
The thugs dragged him through the corridors, back to the bleak little cell. Potts was once again pacing to and fro, barefoot, since she'd finally taken off her heels.
"Well, what did you say to them?" she asked as soon as he was lying on his bunk again.
"I promised them my firstborn child, my grandmother's ashes, and all of Iron Man's secrets."
"You said no."
"Of course I did. What did you expect?"
"That you'd try to talk your way out of this, lie, cheat, whatever. It's what you're good at, isn't it?"
"I'm not sure it'd do us much good right now," House said, his eyes closed.
"And maybe it's better that you didn't, it would just complicate things. Tony's going to get us out of here. He'll find us and he'll break us out."
"He'd better, because otherwise, I'm handing him my resignation."
Again, they had nothing to do but wait. Being kidnapped really was incredibly boring. They still had no means to keep track of time. They were brought food, a noodle soup of some sort, which might have been good if he had been able to eat. At a seemingly random hour, the lights in their room went off. At least Potts stopped pacing, then, and settled down in her bunk.
To his surprise, House actually fell asleep at some point. He woke up again when the lights came on, in a sad imitation of a sunrise.
Then, they waited, and waited, and nothing happened.
They were taken to see Liu again, one at a time, just like the previous day, and they both said no. They were brought food twice. The first time, House actually managed to eat some - the second time, the smell of it was enough to make him so nauseous that he lost what he'd eaten earlier.
All in all, the only difference between the two days was that during the second day, House felt even worse. He was chilled but drenched in sweat, and the pain wasn't just in his leg, his entire body was achy by now. If he hadn't gone through this before, he might have thought he was dying, just completely falling apart. As it was, he knew he wasn't, but that didn't make him feel any better.
Finally, the lights went off again, signaling the end of their second day in their cell. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, and he was pretty sure Potts wouldn't, either, thanks to his constant shifting, gasping and groaning. On some level, he was glad they hadn't got any tools at hand, since he'd have leaped at the chance to inflict himself enough harm to take his mind off everything else. He considered just driving his fist into the wall as hard as he could, but that would've required moving, which he wasn't up to at the moment.
At some point during the night, she appeared by his bedside, and began dabbing at his forehead with a wet cloth. Since they had no extra pieces of cloth with them, it was most likely her sleeve. He didn't push her away. It didn't exactly make him feel better, but a tiny bit of relief was better than nothing at all.
Somehow, he actually managed to fall asleep. In the morning, he woke up with Potts dozing by his side, sitting on the floor, her head on his mattress.
So, maybe he had been wrong about her compassion not being genuine.
House was pretty sure that the worst of the withdrawal was finally over, but that meant that it wouldn't be long before the first symptoms of the nanovirus would start showing up. No matter how bad he felt at the moment, he figured he'd rather keep the withdrawal.
Rhodey almost felt like he should've stayed at the Stark Mansion overnight. There were guest rooms, it wouldn't have been the first time - but he knew there was a limit to how much babysitting Tony would accept. The fact that he had actually admitted he needed company was a small victory in itself.
The next morning, Rhodey wondered whether he should just call Tony right away, or wait and see what would happen. He decided to wait. Better not overdo the concerned friend thing - a quarrel between him and Tony was the last thing they needed in this situation.
He checked with his military contacts who he'd asked for help on the case, but just like before, all they did was shake their heads and throw up their hands. They didn't have anything, because they couldn't do anything. This really wasn't their case. Tony had made this S.H.I.E.L.D. business, which effectively shut out everyone else. They'd either need to coordinate their actions with S.H.I.E.L.D. - which would be useless, since S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't need their help - or risk stepping on some very big toes. Rhodey told them "Thank you anyway", and put away the phone.
He couldn't help thinking back to the days when it'd been Tony who had been missing. The fact that Rhodey had already gone through something like this didn't make it any easier. The memories were as clear as yesterday, and it had been just the same. The first days had been filled with frantic action, setting the search in motion, pulling all possible strings to get as many men on the case as he could. They were starting to be past that phase already.
When there had been no results, it'd become harder and harder to keep the searches going, to convince people that there was any point in searching at all. Slowly, almost everyone had started to get used to the state of things, started to believe that Tony wasn't coming back. Rhodey and Pepper had been among the last to still believe that he wasn't dead, and even that had been part denial. Rhodey wondered how long it'd take before people started feeling that there was no point in looking for Pepper anymore.
His cell phone startled him out of his introspection. He was half-expecting it to be Tony, but it wasn't. Instead, the caller ID revealed it was a certain S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Rhodey hadn't thought he'd ever need to talk to again.
"Sitwell?"
"Hello, Colonel Rhodes. Have you been in contact with Mr. Stark lately?"
"Well, yeah, I was with him until midnight last night, why?"
"Last night, but not today? He's not answering his phone."
"He's not?" Rhodey felt an instant pang of worry, although it was likely that Tony was just ignoring his phone or sleeping like a log.
"I've tried it several times. The thing is, I've finally got news about the missing people. We have a possible location. It's in the Qilian mountains, in China."
"China?" Rhodey repeated, not sure whether that made any sense. "Anyway, that's great news! Look, I really need to check if Tony's all right, but I'll call you back asap."
Tony didn't answer Rhodey's calls, so he drove to the mansion. Jarvis greeted him at the door. "Colonel Rhodes. I'm glad you're here. Something has come up, and Mr. Stark is quite distressed."
He found Tony in the living room, sitting on the couch, staring at a blank TV screen, looking like he was ready to strangle the first person to come within reach.
Rhodey knocked on a wall to announce his presence. "Tony?" he asked cautiously.
Tony jumped, clearly startled, and turned his head to face Rhodey. His expression was so torn that Rhodey had never seen anything quite like it. "Rhodey - I... They..." Tony grimaced and shook his head. "You need to see this for yourself. Jarvis, replay."
The screen came to life with a picture showing a small, stone-walled room with two people: Pepper and House. She was standing next to a small bunk, her arms crossed, her expression anxious. House sat on the floor, looking pale and in pain. Rhodey could also see the shadows of a few other people, who were out of the camera's view.
"Torture us all you want, we won't tell you anything!" Pepper said, sounding rebellious and entirely fearless. Rhodey had always known she was strong of character, but he was impressed nevertheless.
"Torture you? Oh, no, that would be cruel," one of the out-of-sight people said in a smooth, dangerous voice. "No, we'll do no such thing. We're simply going to wait and see. I believe you are familiar with a certain nanovirus? Based on a Brazilian strain of hantavirus? You were both infected, soon after you were captured."
"That's enough, Jarvis," Tony said, sounding choked.
"Oh, man..."
"Yeah. It came in this morning. There it was, in my inbox, just like that, with a message saying that if I don't want them to suffer and die, I can show up at the international airport in New Delhi, within two days, alone, without my armor or any weapons. Turn myself in, in exchange for their lives."
On the morning of the third day of their captivity, Pepper woke up sitting on the cold stone floor, her head in the crook of her arm, which rested on House's bunk. She stretched, feeling sore all over from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. She didn't even remember falling asleep. She did remember him falling asleep though, which had been a huge relief to them both.
House was awake already, and he was staring at her, a crooked grin on his face. "You'll need to be careful, Potts, or Stark will get jealous of me. Just wait until I tell him you've been giving me sponge baths..."
"First of all, that wasn't a sponge bath, and secondly, if we get out of here alive, I doubt Tony's going to care about the details. So, am I over-interpreting, or are you actually feeling better?"
"Aside from a splitting headache and a thigh that feels like it's got a Rottweiler hanging from it by his teeth, yeah, I'm great."
"Glad to hear that," she said, hoping it sounded every bit as genuine as it was.
Even though they hadn't talked a whole lot during the two days they'd spent here, not least because House had been so sick most of the time, Pepper already felt like they'd known each other for years. Like old acquaintances who weren't exactly friends, but nevertheless shared so much that it couldn't be ignored. Two very different people brought together by life-changing circumstances. On top of that, she felt like she'd known House for years because at times, he reminded her of Tony. She was so used to exchanges that were nothing but wit and quips and bad puns that talking to House often felt so familiar it made her miss Tony horribly.
How she missed him - and how silly it now felt that she'd been avoiding any serious conversations with him, that she hadn't really talked with him about the way she felt. Why on Earth wouldn't she want a relationship with him? Wouldn't a continuous roller coaster ride of worry and relief be a better choice than giving him the cold shoulder and trying to repress whatever she felt? On the other hand, wasn't it a rather bad sign that it seemed to take a life-and-death situation before she could actually admit to herself how much she loved him?
As ridiculous as it was, she was worried for Tony. He would blame himself for this, and drive himself over the edge trying to figure out what had happened to her. She knew what he was like when he had his mind set on something: obsessive to the point of forgetting everything else. At least he had Rhodey and Happy around to keep him sane, and to make sure he slept and ate.
She and House had the day's first meal, and a few hours after that, exactly like on the previous days, the thugs came to take her to see Liu.
Pepper had heard Liu's name before. One of the scientists who had been involved in the previous nanovirus nightmare had mentioned it to Tony, and he had told her. Liu had supposedly been responsible for that incident as well, although Tony had suspected that he hadn't been the one pulling all the strings. There were references to an international organization known as the Ten Rings, who had also had something to do with Tony's captivity in Afghanistan. Who they were and what they wanted was still a complete mystery to everyone, even though S.H.I.E.L.D. had been trying to figure them out ever since Tony had given them the first leads.
As always, Liu sat behind his impressive desk, smiling his dangerous smile. It was strange, she thought, that he didn't seem the least bit concerned or annoyed that she and House kept insisting they'd rather die than talk. It was almost as if he didn't care if they died without telling him a thing. Cold cruelty she might have expected, but this was more like complete indifference. Why had he gone through the trouble of capturing them, if he didn't actually want the information?
"And how are we today, Miss Potts?" Liu asked conversationally. "Still feeling defiant? Or perhaps a bit sick?"
"Just sick of seeing your smug face," she told him in her most vehement voice. "And my answer is still no."
The truth was, now that she thought about it, she did feel slightly under-the-weather, but she didn't know if it had anything to do with the virus. The circumstances weren't exactly beneficial, either. As she stood up from the chair to leave the room, she was struck by a bout of dizziness, not bad, but bad enough that it forced her to lean on the armrest. It didn't go unnoticed.
"Ah. See? That is how it begins," Liu said. "I have witnessed this virus in action, and it is not pleasant. You still have time to prevent it from advancing any further. Please, Miss Potts, think of this rationally. You are a young, intelligent, and beautiful woman, it would be stupid of you to give your life for someone like Tony Stark."
She gripped the armrest tightly with both hands, not out of vertigo, but anger. "You don't know anything about Tony! I would give my life for him if I had to - but I won't. He's going to get us out of here."
She believed it, she really did. He would come. She knew Tony, and she knew he'd get them out, whatever it took, or die trying. The only question was, would he get here in time?
"I wouldn't count on it," Liu said, as if answering her thoughts. "You can feel it yourself that you are running out of time. I will ask you again tomorrow, but by then, it may already be too late. Should you change your mind, you can knock on your door to contact the guards whenever you feel like talking to me again."
Chapter 5.
