The hearing in D.C. didn't really go as well as Tony hoped.

Senator Stern led the whole thing, and he wanted Tony to hand over the Iron Man technology to the military — as if he would ever be stupid enough to do that. Other countries could get and/or copy the technology, and then where would America be?

That's right — screwed.

Then, Stern thought he was gonna get Rhodey on his side, which obviously didn't work. And then Justin Hammer, the CEO of Hammer Industries and Tony's rival, decided to throw his hat in the ring. Tony just brought up footage of him and the US government attempting to recreate his Iron Man tech.

As if anyone could do that any time soon. If anyone is going to do it, it'll be Grace in a few years. He wouldn't be surprised if she did it before she graduated high school; she is his daughter after all.

And she's going to have to live without her father any day now.

As he examines the palladium core that's slowly killing him, Jarvis is giving him the rundown of what the meeting in D.C. did for him in the press. At least they aren't talking about Grace anymore.

Grace.

Happy and Pepper will be there for her when he's gone. They were the last time. She'll be fine.

But the company — her future — might not be. Not with the government after his tech, not with just any person who would decide to step in as CEO.

As he's thinking, Pepper walks in.

"Is this a joke?" she asks, carrying a clipboard and seeming very angry.

Tony finishes his drink in one gulp. "What?"

"What are you thinking?" Her heels click on the floor as she walks towards him where he sits behind his desk. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking I'm busy-" he rolls away from the desk and turns in his chair "-and you're angry about something." He stands and begins walking to the other end of his lab. "Do you have the sniffles? I don't wanna get sick."

She follows him, ignoring his question. "Did you just donate our entire modern art collection to the- to the-"

"Boy Scouts of America? Yeah." He messes with the digital figures projected around him as if on an invisible screen, manipulating them — mostly to give him something to do with his hands. "This is a worth-while organization — I didn't physically check the crates, but, basically, yes. And it's not our collection, it's my collection, no offense."

"No," Pepper says, still following Tony as he walks. "You know what? I'm think I'm actually entitled to say our collection, considering the time that I put in — at least five years curating that."

"You did?" Tony says. "It was a tax write-off. I needed that." He also needed to get it off his hands. No sense in keeping it if he was going to die soon. Might as well give it to someone who can use it.

Pepper sighs. "You know, there's only about 8,011 things that I really need to talk to you about." She continues following him into another part of the lab, where his robots are being kept.

"Dum E," Tony says to one of the robots, lightly hitting it, "Hey, stop spacing out. The Bridgeport's already machining that part."

Pepper stops. "The Expo is a gigantic waste of time."

Tony puts his hands on her shoulders as he walks past her. "I need you to wear a surgical mask until you're feeling better. Is that okay?" He's already dying, so who knows what a cold would do to him.

She coughs and starts following him again. "That's rude."

"Well, I don't want Grace getting sick," he says, which technically isn't a lie.

"This is not about Grace, and you know it. Don't pull that card with me just so you can get away with things."

Tony mostly ignores what she said, just using it to change the subject again. "Aside from her, there's nothing more important to me than the Expo. It's my secondary point of concern, which is basically my second primary because Grace is always my primary."

"I know." She evens sounds sick. "But the Expo is your ego gone crazy."

Tony, right as she says that, finds a painting of Iron Man leaning up against the wall. He picks it up. "Wow. That's modern art right there. That's going up."

"You've got to be kidding," Pepper says, rolling her eyes.

"Grace paint this?" Tony asks. She's recently gotten into her art phase. "I'm putting it up right now. It's vital."

Pepper snorts dryly. "Grace's preferred medium is colored pencils. Her art of you — which boosts your ego way too much, by the way — is exclusively on the fridge."

"Well, give her a year or two." He stops. "I should get her a painting set. With an easel and canvas and stuff."

Pepper sighs. "Tony, Stark Industries is in complete disarray, do you understand that?"

Tony scoffs. "No — our stocks have never been higher."

"From a managerial standpoint-"

"You are-"

"Let me-"

"If it's messy, let's double back-"

"Let me give you an example-"

"Let's move on to another subject." He heads over to a painting, going to take it down to put up the Iron Man painting.

"Oh, no, no, no, no," Pepper says, "you are not taking down the Barnett Newman and hanging that up."

He starts doing it anyway. "I'm not taking it down, I'm just replacing it with this." He knocks over a vase when he stands on the table.

Pepper sighs yet again. "Okay, fine. My point is, we've already awarded contracts-"

"Yeah-"

"-to the wind farm people-"

"Don't say 'wind farm,' I'm already feeling gassy-"

"-and to the plastic plantation tree, which was your idea by the way-"

"Right-"

"Those people are on payroll-"

He finishes up with his painting swap and turns, still standing on the desk. "Everything was my idea-"

"-and you won't make a decision!"

"I don't care about the liberal agenda any more. It's boring. Boring. I'm giving you a boring alert." He hops off the desk. "You do it."

Pepper looks at him in confusion. "I-I do what?"

Tony claps his hands together, seemingly getting an idea. "Excellent idea — I just figured this out: You run the company."

Pepper nearly laughs. "Uh, yeah, I'm trying to run the company."

"Well, stop trying to do it and actually do it-"

"You won't give me the information-"

"I'm not asking you to try-"

"-in order to-"

"I'm asking you to physically do it. I need you to do it-"

"I'm trying to!"

"You're not listening to me!"

"No, you're not listening to me-!"

"I'm trying to make you CEO, why won't you let me?!"

Pepper actually goes quiet, absolutely bewildered and gobsmacked. "Have you been drinking?"

"Chlorophyll," Tony says.

Pepper closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Tony, I understand that you have a lot of things you want to do. Okay? I understand you want more time to spend with Grace because she's shut up here all the time-"

"Pep-"

"-but this is not the answer."

"No. I can't do this anymore," he replies. "I don't want to. You're right, I am too busy for this. I have other things that I need to worry about. I can be Iron Man and a dad, but I can't be a CEO, too." He won't be able to do any of that soon, but she's practically just handed him a reason, and he's going to use it.

"Tony... are you sure?"

He nods, putting his hands on her shoulders. "I hereby irrevocably appoint you chairman and CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately." He pauses, steps back. "Yeah, done deal. Okay?" He walks off as she just stands there, unable to say or do anything. "I've actually given this a fair amount of thought, believe it or not."

And he has, every time he thought about who was capable enough — who he trusted enough — to run Stark Industries until Grace grew up. Then, it would be hers, if she wanted it.

A robot brings him a tray with glasses and champagne on it. He just keeps talking and pouring the drinks. "Doing a bit of headhunting, so to speak, trying to figure out who a worthy successor would be. And then I realised it's you. It's always been you." In a hundred different ways, Pepper Potts. A hundred different ways. He's never loved someone the way he loves her, and it's a shame she'll never know that.

Why ask Grace now if he's only going to die soon after? Why do that to her? Why do that to Pepper?

He turns to her, but she says nothing. So, Tony fills the silence. "I thought there'd be a legal issue, but, actually, I'm capable of appointing my successor. My successor being you." He holds a glass out to her. She doesn't take it. "Congratulations?" She won't even step towards him. "Take it, just take it."

He walks over to her as she sits down on the chair next to her. She looks like she's going to cry, but she's starting to smile at the same time. "I don't know what to think."

Tony puts the glass in her hand. "Don't think, just drink." They clink glasses, and they drink. Tony sets down his glass and swallows quickly, as he's just remembered something. "Oh, and, by the way, taking care of Grace as needed is still in your job description."

She laughs. "Well, I would refuse if it wasn't."

Tony smiles.