A/N: you are now speaking to someone who finally owns a laptop again and just spent half her day happily writing 6,000 words of the book (very, very happy chapters, might i add)

anyway, so i watched the first episode of the Loki show and WHEN I TELL I CRIED— i won't spoil anything but if anyone wants to talk about it in the comments, i'm down

alright so this one of the last four chapters of the book and let me just warn y'all, it ain't too happy towards the end

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"Adelaide...she's been shot."

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MALIBU, CALIFORNIA

Tony had been nervous before, but this was different.

Sure, he thought, it's just Pepper. He could ask her over the phone if he wanted to. She would probably say no then, but it'd save him from a few angry glares. No, no this was good. This was, in fact, great. It was romantic, it was thoughtful, it was everything he had been lacking for the past decade or two all wrapped up into one giant bam with a bow on top.

In other words, it could not have possibly been more like Tony Stark.

Pepper thought they were coming to Malibu for a conference. When they arrived, he forcibly took her to the beach for a nice walk— her words not his. He personally thought it was an awkward walk. Considering the fat diamond in his pocket, he had a hard time discussing cheeses with her.

When evening fell, he took her to a ridiculously expensive and over the top restaurant with a beautiful view of the ocean from their outside table.

"Have I mentioned you look beautiful tonight?" Tony said as he pulled out her chair for her. She laughed a little.

"Only like a million times," she said, tilting her head up to look at him. He paused for a moment, smiling at her. He looked at her— like really looked at her. And he wondered if she was worth letting his heart malfunction a bit each time he saw her. He decided of course she was. She was worth that and so much more.

"And it's still not enough," he mumbled. He held her gaze for another beat before taking his own seat across from her. Almost immediately, a waiter approached them.

"Good evening," he greeted politely, "My name is Jared and I will be your waiter for this evening."

"Hello, Jared," Tony said, "What's that short for, by the way? Jaredala? Jaredonimo?"

"Er, no, sir. Just...Jared," he said awkwardly. Tony just looked at his glass and shrugged as if he had been let down.

"Well I'm Tony. Short for Anthony," he said, "And this is Pepper. Short for Virginia."

The waiter looked between them, slightly caught off guard. When his manager had told him that Tony Stark had booked a table, Jared had pitied the waiter who would have to serve the billionaire all night. To his fear, he was the one assigned to Tony Stark's table. He could only hope for a tip that would cover the teasing and confusing humor that came with the whole billionaire package.

Pepper just smiled at him as if she had barely even heard her boyfriend.

"Jared, a bottle of your finest champagne, please," she said. Jared nodded.

"Right away, ma'am," he said and left in a hurry.

Pepper turned to her date, "You were scaring him." Tony hardly even looked up from the menu he had hidden his face behind.

"I was breaking him in. Like you do with your heels," he shrugged.

"You can't treat people like shoes," she said.

"They always say, treat people the way you would want to be treated, don't they?" he mumbled distractedly.

"So you wouldn't mind being treated like shoes?"

Tony finally put the menu down and leaned forward in his seat as he looked out at the ocean. Pepper watched him as he thought hard.

"What kinda shoes are we talking about here?"

Pepper rolled her eyes, shaking her head with a smile.

"Like Testoni or Vietri? And the type of leather is very important too," he said in all seriousness, "I'm just not a faux leather kind of guy, you know?"

"Oh, I know," she said, "Like crocodile leather."

"Exactly," he said.

"Studded with diamonds," she continued.

"Studded with diamonds," he agreed.

"Covered in mud," she teased.

"Okay I like the diamonds, but let's circle back to the mud," he said. Pepper smiled at him. They were both leaning forward on the table, propping their heads up with their hand under their chin.

"Pepper..." he started, "I mean, I gotta say...There's no one else I'd rather talk about shoes with for that long. But my point — which I'm getting to — is that...that you're incredible. I'm incredible. There's just so much incredible going on at this table here...we should really do something about it, don't you think?"

"And what should we do about it?" she asked him with a smile.

"Are you ready to order?" Jared asked, interrupting them. Tony continued to look at Pepper.

"Jaredonimo, was it?" Tony said, picking up his menu again. Jared refrained himself from reminding the business magnate that his name was written right there on his name tag. "No, we're not ready. We were kind of in the middle of something here. You feel that? Electricity crackling. And then you just came and pulled the plug. Crackle, pop— fizz."

"Sorry, sir. I-I can come back," the poor waiter said.

"You better," the billionaire said.

Jared left pretty quickly after that.

"Now," Tony said, leaning forward on the table again, "Where were we again?"

"Something about there being a lot of incredible between the two of us," she said.

"Right. Right, incredible...incredible...Okay, here's the deal. Pepper...we've been through everything. I mean everything. Like the time I flew into space and didn't think I'd come back. Or the time I almost got electrocuted at the Grand Prix. And didn't you breathe fire at some point?"

"Is there a point to all this?" she smiled.

"Diamond studded leather shoes always have a point. Even if it's a bit muddy at first. So point. My point is...life is short. But...it feels better with you. Everything feels better with you, really. For example. The ocean is...pretty, but it's beautiful with you. I'm incredible, but more incredible with you. And I just can't imagine my life without you."

"So you're saying that we make a good team?" she grinned.

"Exactly. Bingo. Stole the words right out of my mouth. We make a great team, Pepper," he said honestly, taking her hands into his, "And I can't help but wonder if—"

This time, it wasn't Jaredonimo who had done the interrupting. It was his phone. He thought he had put both of their phones on silent.

"Sir, this is an emergency call from Happy Hogan," FRIDAY informed him. Immediately, the air around then changed from relaxed and playful to worried and tense. Happy wouldn't have made an emergency call unless something was seriously wrong.

"Hello?" he said, answering the phone.

"T-Tony, you have to get back here right now," came Happy's worried voice, "Adelaide..."

"What?" he said, feeling everything around him disappear the second he heard her name. His heart began beating in his throat. "What happened to Adie?"

"Adelaide...she's been shot."

—————

"I don't care what you have to do, but find me a flight, damn it!" he shouted into the phone before hanging up.

The billionaire was pacing his hotel room as he tried to get a flight back to New York. But, by sheer bad luck, New York was facing the worst snowstorm in nearly a decade and all flights in and out had been cancelled.

"I understand all the flights are cancelled, but this is an emergency," Pepper reasoned with a shaky voice. With every phone call, she grew more and more worried that they might not make it back to New York in time.

Tony nearly threw his phone across the room.

"Anything?" Pepper asked him. He ran his hand down his face in anger.

"No. You?"

Pepper pursed her lips, shaking her head. He cursed under his breath. His head was pounding like it always did when he was nervous. But this time...this time he was scared. Honest to god scared. All he could think about was being there with Adie right now, right this minute but he had to be all the way in Malibu, almost 3,000 miles away from her and stranded without a way back.

"Tony..." Pepper said gently, "I'm sure she's fine. Happy's with her."

"She was shot, Pepper!" he shouted, his voice breaking. He thought about the last words he'd said to her. "I can't— I can't do this again. I can't lose her, Pepper. I can't—"

Pepper wanted to tell him they wouldn't, but even she wasn't sure this time. Without seeing her, she had no idea what was happening over there in New York. It didn't help that the worst thoughts and images were running through her head.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Pepper made another call.

"May?" she said in a small voice.

"Oh, Pepper," the woman breathed in relief, "I was just about to call you."

"Are you there with...with her?" she asked quietly. If she spoke any louder, she might start crying.

"I-I am."

"How is she? Please be honest."

"She's...The doctors say she's in a critical condition. She needs blood, but with the whole state in a blackout a-and because of the spike in hospitalizations...the blood banks are low on blood. We're all getting tested to see if we match her blood type, but please get here as fast as you can. She's going to need you when she wakes up."

Pepper sniffled, wiping her tears from her face.

"We'll be there," she said confidently, "J-Just please look after her until we are, okay?"

"Of course," the woman replied.

"Pepper, come on. We're leaving," Tony said, lifting up their suitcase. They both had just grabbed the first bag and blindly threw in stuff. The rest of their things they would have mailed to them later. It wasn't their main concern right now. Pepper looked up at him, her eyes filling with hope.

"You found a flight to New York?" she breathed.

"No. To Jersey," he said. His face was set. All he was focused on was getting on that plane and flying to New Jersey as humanely fast as possible. He'd find a way to get to New York from there.

He just prayed he wouldn't be too late.

—————

QUEENS, NEW YORK

The hospital was in chaos.

With the state-wide blackout, they were running everything on their backup generator which meant all the unnecessary things had been switched off such as the lights in the hallway.

So Happy, May, Ned, and Vivian all sat in their plastic chairs in the dark hallway as people hurried left and right past them.

The doctors had said Peter would be fine. He didn't have internal bleeding, but he had broken two ribs and needed twelve stitches across his abdomen. He was in the room right now, getting stitched up. May had repeatedly asked them if he was going to be okay and the nurses reassured her that he would be fine with some bed rest.

Adelaide, on the other hand...

She was in the ICU as the doctors operated on removing the bullets from her body. She was in critical condition and nowhere close to regaining consciousness. She needed O- blood fast, but with all the patients coming in with the strange new illness, the hospital was low on blood and the nearby blood banks were too.

The storm was raging outside, angrier than ever. The blackout showed no signs of ending. Things were at their worst and they weren't showing signs of getter better.

Happy, May, Ned, and Vivian had all gotten tested for their blood type but none of them matched Adelaide's. Peter was out of the question— he had lost a lot of blood as it was. But without the blood, the doctors were limited in what they could do to save her.

A passing by nurse stopped in front of them.

"May?" she said, making the woman look up, "Your nephew is ready to see you now. He's resting, but you can get a few minutes in there before the medication knocks him out."

May nodded, "Thank you."

The nurse nodded and left. May sniffled, glancing at Happy. He nodded.

Slowly, she stood up and turned the corner where Peter's room was on the right side. After knocking once, she let herself inside. His tired brown eyes watched her wearily as she walked toward him. She sat down at his feet and stared at the ground.

"May...it wasn't my fault," he said quietly.

"I know," she sniffled, "You did the best you could, hon."

"How is she?" he asked. May swallowed painfully.

"She's going to be fine," the woman said in a shaky voice. Peter closed his eyes.

"May," he said. Tears surfaced her eyes.

"She's not good, Peter. The doctors said...they said she needs blood."

"Then I'll give mine," Peter said immediately, trying to push himself into a sitting position. Pain immediately shot up his side and he was forced to let his head fall back onto his pillow. May shook her head.

"Not you. You've lost too much blood already," she said. Peter gritted his teeth. She was right. He hated feeling this useless.

"Can I see her?" he asked quietly. May pressed her lips into a thin line.

"She's in the ICU right now," she told him, "I promise I'll let you know the second we're allowed to see her, okay? But, right now, I need you to rest."

If he hadn't been heavily drugged, Peter never would have been able to fall asleep.

But sometime after May left the room, he found himself losing the fight and falling asleep.

—————

A/N: these kids have been through hell, man

anyway, i think you guys can sense that there's more sadness coming so be prepared next loki day! lots of tissues are advised

three more chapters to go! i can't believe we are SO close to the end of this book you guys!! i think you guys will think the ending is bittersweet :,)

question: what kind of cliffhanger do you think the book will end on?

see you next week!