Special Needs: A Bruce and Natasha FanFic

Chapter 46: Over the Ohio

Summary: Tony says good morning to Pepper in his own unique way. Something is very wrong with the Ohio River and the Roebling Bridge isn't much better. Adam/Hulk and Clint handle the small stuff. Tony arrives late.

Notes: Sorry, for the tardiness, but at least it's here for the weekend! Many thanks to Autumn-Froste, who beta read after a very long drive, and her partner for helping with the truck and trailer details. Also, thanks to my two science nerds who helped with both the earthquakes and suggestions on the proper Iron Man armors. It's a technical thing.

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Tony had taken his time getting his act together after breakfast because he didn't want to bug Pepper till after 7:45am. He knew from experience that she might rise early, but she didn't want to be pestered till after she'd had coffee. Since he wasn't there to hand it to her, he was giving her an extra ten minutes before he texted.

Tony had typed "Good morning, Sweet Cheeks," almost a half hour ago, but he diplomatically waited till 7:55am to hit "send."

He didn't have to wait long for the one-word answer from Pepper: "Skype."

He was on it (doubling down on the encryption in record time) and grinning at Pepper's freshly scrubbed, semi-caffeinated face, which was beautiful and smiling back at him from under some slightly messy bedhead hair—also quite beautiful in his opinion. "So, did Scott take all his little friends with him or do we need to build them their own little farm?"

She shook her head, "No, he took all the girls with him, or I wouldn't have gone back into the commons area." She sipped her coffee languidly and stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "Well, there's no way that is all you want to talk about. What's going on?" she finally asked and took a longer drink from her coffee mug.

"My, you're to the point, and here I am feeling all chatty," he said with a grin. "First, thank you for playing Fairy Godmother and best facilitator and matchmaker in the world."

"Don't forget appointment-maker, intern wrangler, and ring relayer," she added while leaving out the part about espionage in the department store from yesterday morning. "But I did have help. Hap did his usual solid job, and it's been nice having Nick here as backup and Romanoff wrangler, too."

"Really, why is Fury there? Doesn't he have some important former spymaster stuff to do?" asked Tony. "Not that I'm turning down any help he has to offer."

"He came to talk to Nat and stayed for the party. They're working on some missing person cases. Two of Helen's assistants have disappeared."

"Oh, not Sang and Drury I hope," he said with a grimace.

"Yes, Sang and Duri," she corrected. "I need to check on Lupita Tomás, too. She's not been in and hasn't called."

"Crap! All of them were with us after Bruce's episode last summer when we had Helen there to help," Tony realized as he quickly connected the obvious dots. He ran his hand over his moustache as he thought. "Any details?"

"Sang and Duri were supposed to be on holiday to Japan, so they weren't missed for several days, but beyond that, nothing was reported till they missed work. S.H.I.E.L.D. is on it now, but we've not had an update yet," Pepper reported. Also, if we can't find Lupita, we'll be reporting her missing today. If S.H.I.E.L.D. is too busy to look into her case, I may not be able to talk Natasha out of doing the legwork," Pepper said as she rubbed her forehead, anticipating what a headache that would be.

"We can't let her do that," Tony blurted, but he knew no one was going to stop Natasha if she put her mind to something. "I mean, there are too many weird coincidences already. If someone is looking for information on Bruce, she's got a target on her back already. If they want a piece of Bruce . . . well, she'd be bringing one right to them," he concluded with an uncomfortable squirm in his seat.