Chapter Text
Pepper Potts was intimately acquainted with Tony Stark’s antics. She’d stood by him for years, escorting one night stands out in the morning, plying him with pizza and alcohol to coax him into meetings, or to eat after spending two days straight inventing without sleep or food.
She wasn’t acquainted with his bedside, or the slow rise and fall of a chest that was littered with scars underneath the hosptial gown, each carrying a story that he would never tell, as they were earned in a cave where many, though not all, of Tony’s demons were born.
They had thought he was in the clear after getting the shrapnel removed. Pepper remembered watching the surgery with Jim, “clutching her pearls” as Tony would mock later. There wasn’t any more danger from slivers of metal threatening to shred his heart. He had a composite put in his chest, and everything had healed.
But Tony Stark had a heart, and it had broken.
FRIDAY had told Pepper it was takotsubo cardiomyopathy. The doctors had told her the same, but that it was often referred to as “broken heart syndrome”. Inordinate amounts of stress on an already weakened heart and lungs could trigger a reaction that was identical to a normal heart attack, though without the blocked arteries. It was the kind of heart attack that claimed people when their loved ones died.
There was no surgery to be done, only medications and bedrest, and Pepper’s promise to keep him out of stressful situations, which was ironic considering he’d be stressed when he woke up to find her at his bedside.
His hair needs a trim, Pepper mused, as his mouth twitched in his sleep. She had to fight the urge to run her fingers through the brown mess that was in dire need of a comb. She couldn’t be that person anymore. Had chosen not to. Had chosen someone else.
But there was no one else for him. At least no one with executive power over Tony’s welfare. Even though they had broken up, Pepper was still firmly written into his living will, and when she had gotten the call from a hospital in upstate New York she hadn’t hesitated to drive up. It was Tony. It would always be Tony, even if they weren’t together.
“You drew the short straw,” a voice rasped, and Pepper jumped when she realized that Tony was awake, though his eyes were closed.
He looked...tired. New lines had appeared around his mouth and his crow’s feet seemed more pronounced. He was toeing the line of gaunt, and Pepper wondered whose ass she’d have to kick for this. From what she had gathered from Jim and Vision, Steve Rogers was first in line.
“I’m here because I want to be,” Pepper chided, though there was no heat in her tone.
He’d scared her. This wasn’t Iron Man in the line of fire. This wasn’t a villain that could be fought against, not a drug that could be removed from her system with some experimenting. This wasn’t their house collapsing into the Pacific. This was Tony being painfully fragile and so damned human.
“What happened?” He slurred, finally opening his eyes.
Pepper’s heart broke when he looked at her. Tony Stark said so much with his eyes, and his reflected what the doctors had said. His heart was broken, and anyone with a brain could see it. While Tony wasn’t hers anymore, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t see the world burn on his behalf.
“You had a heart attack,” she managed to say without crying. Again.
“Huh,” he murmured, closing his eyes with a sigh. He didn’t seem particularly shocked by the fact.
“Did you know it was going to happen?” Pepper asked, managing to keep the accusation out of her tone, but only just.
“I’d had some chest pain after a fight. My left arm had gone numb, but I tallied it under getting my ass beat by a Russian popsicle,” he growled, and Pepper twitched when his heart monitor began beeping as his heart rate kicked.
“Tony,” Pepper pleaded, and he was looking at her again, vulnerability written plainly across his face and shining out of brown eyes. “You need to avoid stress. It was a different kind of heart attack. The doctors said you’re healthy, aside from the scarring,” she trailed off, gesturing at his chest.
The damage to his heart and lungs from the arc reactor went unsaid.
“Then how did I have a heart attack?” Tony quipped, sullen. There was the Tony she knew. Only he looked far more broken than she remembered. But he was breathing heavily, and his heart rate was stabilizing, and she found that she could breathe easier before tackling the next part.
Oh, he wouldn’t like her explanation one bit.
“It was takotsubo cardiomyopathy,” she hedged, then took a bracing breath and squared her shoulders. “Or Broken Heart Syndrome.”
She could see the gears turning in that brilliant brain of his. She knew he’d heard of it, possibly mocked it at one point. Old women died of broken hearts. Only people who had hearts could have them broken.
“That’s ridiculous,” he sighed, but didn’t seem to have the energy to fight. “Patently ridiculous.”
“You’re on bed rest,” Pepper said, her voice firm. Even though she’d already arranged to leave him with Vision and Jim, who could hardly take care of themselves, let alone a recent heart attack survivor, she felt the need to give him marching orders before they went back to their very separate lives. “For at least a month. No suits, no flying off to Fiji.”
Tony turned his head to glare at the opposite wall, leaving Pepper to stare at the delicate shell of his ear, that she’d spent more than one night tracing with...well, she couldn’t think of that anymore. He seemed to sink into the bed, radiating defeat and misery. She didn’t think the doctors would have to worry about him going against orders.
“Done,” he croaked, still not looking at her.
“You’ll be on medicines. A fair amount of them. Ideally taking it easy will be the answer, but if not...well, they mentioned transplants, but I wanted to wait until you woke up.”
His shoulder twitched, the only indication that he’d heard her.
“Tony, look at me,” she pleaded, not sure if she could deal with his scorn when she’d almost lost him in such a human way.
“I think you should leave,” he said in lieu of looking at her, his voice quieter than she’d ever heard it. “I appreciate it. But I don’t think I can do this. Not right now.”
If he’d been at full strength, Pepper would have dug her Jimmy Choos in and refused. But he was so damned vulnerable, so pale in contrast to the hospital gown. She didn’t want to stress him out. She didn’t want to cause him any more pain.
“Okay Tony,” she conceded, then gathered her purse and stood. “Vision will pick you up once you’re discharged.”
Tony’s slight nod was the only indication he gave that he’d heard.
Sighing, Pepper tucked a lock of hair behind her ear then turned to the door, reaching it in three strides. Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder, her voice soft.
“I’m glad you’re alive, Tony,” she said in parting, then left him to his thoughts and his recovery. Her part was done.