While Tony was at home with Grace, Happy and Pepper were at Stark Industries. Tony recently made Happy the head of the security, and Happy was taking it very seriously.

Pepper, however, noted that complaints among the staff had risen by three hundred percent. Happy thought it meant someone was hiding something.

And, then, Pepper's four o'clock meeting arrived — a man she used to work with who would ask her out all the time, so Happy stayed close.

She met him, and he'd changed immensely. He was presenting his idea to her — Extremis. He showed her a projected image of his brain in real time. "Now, Extremis harnesses our bioelectrical potential, and it goes... here." He points at it. "This is essentially an empty slot, and what this tells us is that our mind — our entire DNA, in fact — is destined to be upgraded."

Meanwhile, Happy was waiting outside the office. He got a call on his tablet from Tony, and it took him a while to answer it as he wasn't good with the tech yet. He held the tablet up high, trying to get his face on the camera. He succeeded in only showing the top half.

"Is this the forehead of security?" Tony asked.

"What?" Happy lowered the tablet. "You know, look, I got a real job. What do you want? I'm working, I got something going on here."

"What? Harassing interns?"

Happy rolled his eyes. "Let me tell you something; you know what happened when I told people I was Iron Man's body guard? They laughed in my face -" Tony, appropriately, laughs "- I had to leave while I still had a shred of dignity. Now I got a real job, I'm watching Pepper."

That's exactly what Tony was calling to hear in the first place. "What's going on? Fill me in."

"For real?"

"Yeah."

Happy sighed. "Alright, so she's meeting up with this scientist. Rich guy, handsome."

"Right."

"I couldn't make his face at first, right? You know I'm good with faces."

Tony glanced across the table at Grace, who was mostly preoccupied with the lunch he'd just made her. "Oh, yeah, yeah; you're the best."

Happy continued. "Yeah. Well, so I run his credentials — I make him Aldrich Killian. We actually met the guy back in... where were we in '99? The science conference?"

Tony thought for a moment as Grace looked up at him. "Switzerland," he replied.

"Right, right, exactly."

Tony frowned. "Killian? No, I don't remember that guy."

"Of course you don't," Happy replied. "You were a bit busy with-"

"There's a child present," Tony cut in quickly.

"No, I wanna know," Grace protested.

Tony shook his head. "Unimportant. Go, Hogan."

Happy sighed. "At first it was fine, they were talking business, but now it's, like, getting weird. He's showing her a big brain."

"A what?"

"Big brain, and she likes it. Here, let me show you. Hold on... See?" But all Tony could see was Happy.

"Look at what? You watching them? Flip the screen, and then we can get started."

"I'm not a tech genius like you. Just- Just trust me, get down here."

"I can't." He had Grace; he couldn't just take her to Stark Industries with him, out in public like that. "Flip the screen, then I can see what they're doing."

"I can't! I don't know how to flip the screen! Don't talk to me like that anymore. You're not my boss." Tony, meanwhile, was looking for Killian in a separate program. "Alright, I don't work for you. Now, I don't trust this guy. He's got another guy with him, he's shifty."

Tony found nothing amiss. "Relax."

"Seriously?"

"I'm just asking you to secure the perimeter. Tell him to go out for a drink or something."

"You know what? You should take more of an interest in what's going on here. This woman is the second best thing that's ever happened to you, and you're just ignoring her."

"He's right," Grace piped up.

Tony glanced at her, then looked back at Happy. "A giant brain?"

Happy sighed. "Yeah, there's a giant brain, there's a shifty character. I'm gonna follow this guy. I'm gonna run his plates, and if it gets rough, so be it."

Tony smiled a little. "I miss you, Happy."

"Yeah, I miss you, too — but the way it used to be. Now, you're off with the super friends, I don't know what's going on with you anymore. The world's getting weird-"

"Hey, I-I'd hate to cut you off. Do you have your taser on you?" Tony walked over and put his tablet in the fridge.

"Why?"

"I think there's a gal in HR who's trying to steal some printer ink, you should probably go over there and zap her."

Happy sighed. "Nice."

~~~~

Pepper tells Aldrich no. He flirts — subtly — but he leaves. Happy takes a picture of his license plate, then Pepper drives back home. Outside, she sees the lights on in Grace's room through her tightly closed curtains. The lights are on in the main room of the house, too.

The more noticeable thing, though, is the giant, stuffed bunny sitting outside the mansion — so giant it can't fit inside.

She walks into the living room, seeing Tony. "I'm sorry I'm late. I was-" She cuts herself off, realizing Tony is in his Iron Man suit. "What the-? What is that? You're wearing this in the house now? What is that, like, Mark 15?"

Actually, forty two, but he doesn't say that. He stands, walking over to her. "Something like that. You know everybody needs a hobby."

"Oh, and you have to wear your hobby in the living room?"

"Grace thinks it's cool."

"Grace likes to paint you in it, and it's easier when she has a life-size reference," Pepper points it.

"Exactly," Tony argues. "She likes to paint me in it, ergo she thinks it's cool." He continues before Pepper can reply. "Speaking of Grace, has she mentioned wanting anything for Christmas to you? I already have present number one in mind, and she said she needed a Harry Potter box set, and- oh! By the way: Did you see your Christmas present outside?"

"I don't know how I could have missed it," Pepper replies. "Is it gonna fit through the door?"

"Well actually, that's- it's a good question. I got a team of guys coming tomorrow, they're gonna blow out that wall." He gestures somewhere off the to side.

"Okay..." Pepper replies, taking off her shoes.

Tony sighs. "I don't wanna harp on this, but did you like the custom rabbit?"

"Did I like it?" Pepper replies, almost as if she's asking herself.

"Nailed it, right?"

"I... appreciate the thought very much." She walks closer and puts her hands on the suit's shoulders. She was late, and Aldrich made her flustered earlier. Tonight is date night — which is why Grace is in her room — and she feels a little guilty. But Tony doesn't seem to mind, and she doesn't want to mention Aldrich, especially when she doesn't have to. She looks into the eyes of the suit. "So... why don't you lift up that face mask and give me a kiss?

Tony hits the helmet a little. "Huh. Dang it. No can do. You wanna just kiss it on the-the facial slit?"

Pepper is undeterred. "Well, why don't I run down to the garage and see if I can't find a crowbar to get it open?"

Tony begins to panic as she walks away, towards the lab. "Crowbar. Yeah." He quickly comes up with a lie. "Oh, except there's been a, uh, a radiation leak.

Pepper laughs a little. "I'll take my chances."

"That's risky." She just continues, and Tony follows. "At least let me get you like a Hazmat suit or a Geiger counter or something like that-"

And then she sees Tony not in the suit behind her, but in his lab, doing pull ups.

He turns. "Busted."

Pepper sighs. "This is a new level of lame."

"Sorry."

She looks over and sees a plate of mostly eaten food. "You ate without me already? On date night?" She could obviously understand him making something for Grace already, but they always eat together on date night.

Tony gestures to the suit. "He was just-"

"You mean you?"

"Well, yeah. I just mean we were just... hosting you while I finished up a little work."

"Uh-huh."

"And yes, I had a quick bite. I didn't know if you were coming home or if you were having drinks with Aldrich Killian."

Any guilt that Pepper still felt goes pretty much goes completely out the window. "What?"

"What?"

"Aldrich Killian?" she says incredulously. "What, are you checking up on me?"

"Happy was concerned."

Pepper doesn't buy it. "No, you're spying on me."

"I wasn't-"

"I'm going to bed." She turns and begins to leave.

"Hold on. Come on. Pep," Tony says. She keeps walking.

He's losing her. He screwed up, and she's mad at him, and he's losing her. Happy was right when he said she was the second best thing to ever happen to him — and one of the best things to ever happen to Grace. He can't ignore his problems anymore, not now that they're affecting his relationship with Pepper.

"Hey, I admit it!" he says. "My fault. I'm sorry." Pepper stops, and he continues — no beating around the bush, just laying it out there. "I'm a piping hot mess. It's been going on for a while, I haven't said anything." She starts walking back toward him, easily sensing his sincerity. "Nothing's been the same since New York."

"Oh really?" Pepper deadpans. "Well, I didn't notice that — at all."

Tony sighs. "You experience things and then they're over, and you still can't explain them. Gods, aliens, other dimensions... I... I'm just a man in a can, Pep. The only reason I haven't cracked up is probably because Grace and you, you know, moving in — which is great. I love you, I'm lucky. But, honey, I can't sleep. You go to bed, I come down here — I do what I know, I tinker. But threat is imminent, and I have to protect the two things that I can't live without. That's Grace and you. And my suits, they're uh..."

"Machines," Pepper finishes, her expression and attitude softened now.

"But they're part of me."

"A distraction," Pepper corrects.

"Maybe," Tony admits. Then, he walks over and gently grabs her hand. "Come here, let me show you this." He takes her to a back corner of the lab, where a smaller, purple Iron Man suit is sitting. "This is... Savior. It's Christmas present number one. Not just for Grace, but for me, too. It-It basically just runs on autopilot. She can't really do much with it without my permission. It's got it's own AI, too — Sai. Savior's Artificial Intelligence. Not very creative, but it'll do. And it's not entirely finished yet..."

Pepper smiles softly, wrapping her arms around him. "She'll love it, Tony. And... And I get wanting to protect her. I really do. I want to, too, and I think this is great. But you need a break. You can't run yourself ragged like this."

He sighs again. "I know."

"She wouldn't want you to."

"I know."

Pepper kisses him. "And to answer your earlier question, she did mention wanting a new laptop."

Tony smiles. "Then, it's a done deal."

~~~~

That night, for Pepper, Tony stayed in bed. He fell asleep.

He had a nightmare.

The missile, the portal, running out of oxygen. The pain of being certain he was leaving his child fatherless. Of leaving Pepper, just when he'd got her. Just when everything was looking up.

This time, he wasn't going to fall back out of the portal. He wasn't going to survive.

He was agitated, breathing heavy, gasping, moving. Pepper woke up and put her hand on his arm. "Tony. Tony." He wouldn't wake up.

The suit thought she was hurting him. It thought she was a threat, and it did what it was programmed to do.

It flew over, right to Pepper and grabbed her arm, ready to attack.

Tony woke up and scrambled out of the bed. "Power down!" The suit listened, and he hit it with the closest thing to him, breaking it. Pepper sat up, gasping for breath. Tony sat down on the bed, shaken, too. "I must've called it in my sleep. That's not supposed to happen. I'll recalibrate the sensors." Pepper got up to go. "Can we just- just let me- just let me catch my breath, okay? Don't go. Don't go, alright?"

"I'm going to sleep downstairs," she replied, pillow and blanket in hand. "Tinker with that."

Tony fell back on the bed, still trying to breathe.