Phone Calls to Nowhere||Drabble
(Inspired by this deleted scene/comment)
The ringing took forever before it finally connected. It switched to his voicemail, and she let out a quiet sigh. “You've reached Stark's phone. I'm not answering now. Leave a message and I might call back later,” the message played out, then a beep. She choked back a hysterical laugh, shaking her head. “Mr. Stark… you’re supposed to have an appointment with yet another company you don’t care about today. And any other day I’d be dragging you out of bed and throwing some woman whose name you couldn’t bother to remember out of your bed. But it’s not… any other day…” she hung up before she could babble anything else.
Two days later, and it was hitting voicemail automatically. “You've reached Stark's phone. I'm not answering now. Leave a message and I might call back later.”
“Mr. Stark, you should really change your voicemail. I-I just… wanted to let you know… I cleared your schedule for the next two weeks. But you have work to do, so try to be back before then?”
“You've reached Stark's phone. I'm not answering now. Leave a message and I might call back later.”
Pepper choked back the tears, trying to be professional. Her voice was almost coherent as she spoke, “T-Tony. Three weeks…”
“You've reached Stark's phone. I'm not answering now. Leave a message and I might call back later.”
How many times had she called? How many times had she heard that same line? She couldn’t even count anymore, as a month and a half passed. She didn’t bother to hide the tears, either. The voicemail wasn’t a relief, not now. “Please pick up… next time, please,” she whispered before hanging up the phone. She waited twenty minutes, then called again. She knew exactly what would happen, but that didn’t stop her from sobbing any harder when it went straight to voicemail. She threw her phone across the room, a fit of anger overtaking her.
It was twenty minutes later when she finally picked it up and hung up the call.
She resolved not to call his phone for a week after that. She made it two days. She had to at least pretend that he was there, that she could talk to him properly. It was the only thing keeping her together at this point. She took a deep breath before she hit dial, trying to keep herself calm. “Ya missed me. Check back later.” “Tony… You have missed plenty of work by now. Can’t you come home? The company needs you. I… I need you.”
Two and a half months in, and Obediah had put her on official leave from the company. He said she was to take a “mental health break,” and maybe come back when she felt better.
She ended up calling Tony’s phone and ranting about it to him, to his ghost, to nothing, for a solid ten minutes before she realized that even that wouldn’t help. She hung up mid-sentence, embarrassed about her actions, and tried to move on.
Nothing helped. Nothing distracted her. Tony’s voice on the voicemail helped keep her calm when nothing else seemed to work.
Two days before they announced Tony’s rescue and return, she made her last call to his phone. “You've reached Stark's phone. I'm not answering now. Leave a message and I might call back later.” “…..I love you, Tony Stark.” It was whispered, barely heard, but she spoke the words that she wished she could have said to him in person.
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