Tony, Tony

NINE

With a few more pulses from a handheld laser device, Tony put the finishing touches on the next phase of his nervous breakdown. He clicked a couple buttons on his watch and smiled. "Ok, Jarvis. Turn on the program."

"Yes, Mr. Stark." (Jarvis said that.) "I've aggregated all known audio clips of Miss Pepper's voice into the program."

"Good. Thank you, Jarvis." But it was bad.... Bad, bad, bad. Bad Jarvis! Don't you have a conscience?

"Hello, Pepper." Tony called out across the room to the dented pepper grinder that had become his world. He poured a glass of champagne for each of them.

"Hi, Tony. I need you to sign these forms, Tony. Why are you always late, Tony?" To Tony, that five inch pepper grinder might as well have been the real Pepper Potts. Oh, and Happy was there too.