@winterspiderpurrs and @illogicalkat 12 hour shifts -- not including getting ready for, driving to, and then driving home -- are a DRAIN! I just got home and will have a less than 9-hour turnaround, but. WORTH IT.
I'm running off of 4 hours of sleep, this is going to LOOK like that 😅
Virginia Potts, beta second child of two beta parents, had never had major aspirations when she worked through her business master's, but she wanted to be the very best that she could. Her beta older brother had gone lawyer, she chose business. With a head for numbers and business savvy, and above all, a drive for professional perfection, Majoring in and pulling Bachelor degrees for Marketing, Finance, Accounting, as well a minor in Psychology had been an enjoyable challenge.
Landing a spot within the Stark Industries Accounting department, beating hundreds of other applicants, was a surprise, but not a shock. After all, she was GOOD at what she did. So good, that when she spotted discrepancies in minor subsidiaries (only found because she was checking over a co-worker's spreadsheet. Excel wasn't for everyone) she was handpicked to do work for bigger accounts. Unknown to her at the time, it was Tony Stark himself who picked her.
More discrepancies were found, fingers pointed, and skeletons unearthed. The figurative heads of a handful of board members were rolled, and Virginia, now nicknamed "Pepper" by Tony, once again gained a new job title, one Personal Assistant to the CEO of Stark Industries.
It was a challenge, one that Pepper wasn't sure she'd be able to handle. Smoothing ruffled feathers when Tony ran late for a meeting, or picking up the pieces after the social explosion that was Tony would exhaust ANYONE.
But then came Tony's last alcohol and cocaine-fueled business party, and subsequent paparazzi photos. Pepper all but threatened to quit if he didn't check himself into rehab and sober up.
Out of spite, he picked the most underfund one he could find, and threw money at them to get his own private office area so he'd be more likely to be left alone while he worked.
And then he fell for that parasite, Peter Parker.
During telephone conferences, Tony talked about him day in and day out. Pepper had never done a background check so thoroughly as she did for Peter.
Biochemistry engineering drop out, dead family all around, a massive amount of debt, eviction, and in rehab for a heroin addiction.
Pepper did her best to keep Tony busy, but Peter seemed to be there at every turn. When she physically showed up for document signatures instead of having Tony e-sign via JARVIS, he was sitting on the incredibly worn sofa right next to Tony. When she was present for private conference calls, Peter was waiting for Tony right after.
She had thought that bringing in prototypes from R&D for Tony to work on would keep him away from Peter for a short while. They were proprietary.
That backfired when she discovered that he and Peter were tinkering with the prototypes to keep their minds off the withdrawal shakes company secretor not.
In a high-risk, last ditch effort to separate them, Pepper arranged for them to fly out to a small expo and conference in Las Vegas, one they usually didn't even acknowledge, because they were typically filled with start-up companies with little gadgets that were nowhere within the SI wheelhouse.
Pepper's plan was to keep Tony BUSY, but her plan didn't account for Tony impulsively sneaking off with a leased jet instead of one of his own, leaving for the conference two days early, and taking Peter with him.
It took a day and a half to realize he'd going missing, and by the time Pepper tracked them down, they were drunk, high, and JUST MARRIED. She caught them stumbling out, hand in hand, giggling their asses off.
There was a REASON Pepper kept a folio full of NDA contracts with her at all times. By the time Pepper had every employee in the chapel sign an NDA, Tony and Peter had once again disappeared. It wasn't until several hours later that she found them, being loaded into an ambulance after the crash.
Pepper was only a LITTLE ashamed at herself for being disappointed that Peter was mostly unharmed.
This time, Pepper did t have to twist his arm to check into rehab again, and this time a higher-end facility. But, in her opinion, over-generous to pay for more rehab for Peter, too. And least it was a different medical facility.
Between making sure Tony's sobriety stuck this time, and running the company in his stead, it was nearly three months later that Pepper was able to corner Peter in the facility and serve him the NDA and divorce papers.
Finding him curled up on a couch, unhealthily thin, save for the growing bump in his midsection, shriveled up and kind of sympathy she may have had. He was NOT using that baby to sink the business she had poured her life into.
Afterwards, she spent her days taking care of the company, but also not allowing Tony to wallow in his depression. He'd gone stone cold sober, and needed something, someONE, to be the focus of his attention, because Peter wasn't contacting him.
Allowing herself to become more to Tony Stark seemed to be the culmination of every step she took to get where she was. But no, that final step had been Tony making her the CEO of his own company so he could devote his attention to R&D. She BASKED in it, never having felt more powerful in her life.
If Pepper had known then what she knew now, if she'd known what she'd be facing, she'd have stood right over Tony's shoulder, breathing down his neck to guarantee that he signed the divorce papers, and would have then followed him down to a notary to make SURE the papers were filed.
As it stood, Pepper did NOT have being blindsided by Tony's team of lawyers in her calendar today. Dammit.
I all but fell asleep typing this and my phone went from 31% to 16% 🥴