' ' I have pepper spray! ' '

[aisuyoukai]

Here's a rather long excerpt from the Iron Man novel (written by Peter David). I wrote it up for someone wanting to know more about Pepper, and thought I would share further. Enjoy~!

In all the years that Pepper had been working for Stark Industries, she'd never thought she would hit a point in her life where it would all seem so alien to her.

She was beginning to think that she would never make a good spy. She sucked at being nonchalant. James Bond could stroll through enemy headquarters in a tuxedo and look like he belonged there. Pepper, who was exactly where she belonged, walked stiffly and nervously, glancing all around, jumping at every passing, "Hey, Pepper," from a colleague, and looking exactly what she was: a thief in the night.

She hadn't felt this uncomfortable and ill at ease since she had first arrived at Stark Industries. Having become fed up with the emptiness of a life spent standing around and smiling, Virginia Potts had willingly left her modeling days behind to get a job as a low-level administrative assistant at SI because, well, that was what was available for someone with a BA in accounting. She remembered the day she'd been doing a routine check on some project financial numbers that had passed across her desk. It should have been nothing, a mere rubber stamp, since hers were the fourth set of eyes to look them over. But she'd caught something, and it niggled at her and bothered her until she'd become convinced that the financial projections for the project were just flat-out wrong. She'd brought it to the attention of her supervisor who had brushed her off, told her she was mistaken. The thing was, if he'd checked her math and made that pronouncement, she'd have accepted it. But he didn't. He just dismissed her concerns out of hand.

Virginia Potts didn't respond well to being dismissed out of hand.

In a breach of protocol that she was fully aware might cost her her job, she had moved with sharklike determination over her supervisor's head to the general manager. The general manager said, "These numbers were crunched by Tony Stark, so why don't you just take it up with him?" When she said she was going to do exactly that, he informed her in a loud voice that she was fired. She had ignored him, propelled by her sense of moral indignation, and steamrolled into Stark's office. He had been sitting with behind his desk, feet propped up, a drink in his hand, chatting with some woman on the phone (Pepper had never found out who). He had looked up, stunned, as Virginia Potts burst in, waving a sheaf of numbers and demanding to be heard. Stark's secretary had called security, and two bulky men had walked in, prepared to haul her out. In a voice that had carried all the way down the hall--Tony Stark swore to this day that he still had a ringing in his ears from it--she had bellowed to the guards, "Don't you touch me! I have pepper spray!"

Tony Stark had burst out laughing. The laughter did nothing to lighten the besieged Ms. Potts's mood, but Stark--having hung up on the woman he'd been chatting up--came around his desk and waved off the guards. He was still chuckling as he looked over the sheets that she had been clutching. Then he stopped chuckling. His eyebrows knit together the longer he stared at the totals in the section that she had circled in an accusing red pencil.

"Wow," he said softly. "I flipped two numbers. The whole projection is off. How the hell did I miss this?"

"Maybe you had too much to drink," she had said pointedly, considering he was still holding a drink.

"There's not enough liquor in the world for me to have had too much to drink," he had said, which was her first lesson in the fact that it was almost impossible For Tony Stark to take offense at anything. He seemed to thrive on insults. Stark shook his head as he studied the numbers. "What department do you work in again?"

"Technically, none. Mr. Folan just fired me."

"Did he now." He looked in her eyes and smirked. "Pepper spray?"

"Yes, well, I lied about that."

"I know. That's why it was so funny. You're the world's worst liar. I've never seen someone fail so spectacularly."

"Fine," she had said in exasperation. "I'm a terrible lair. Always have been."

"Considering the number of people I'm surrounded by who try to lie to me on a daily basis, that's actually a very useful commodity to me. I could use someone who can't help but be truthful." He had looked at one of the security guards. "Bob..."

"My name's Tom, sir."

"Good for you. Escort Miss 'Pepper' Potts here to her new office. The big one, next door to mine."

"That's Mr. Folan's office, sir," said Tom. "What do I tell Mr. Folan?"

Stark smiled. "Tell him he can have Miss Potts's old desk."

"I--I don't understand," she had said.

"You, Miss Pepper Potts, are going to be my personal assistant. I need someone who will cover my back while never lying to me. You want the job?"

"I..."

"Beats unemployment. Huge salary that I'll come up with during a drunken haze. Come on, Pepper... you know you want it."

"Okay, but..." Her voice had gone stern. "You've got to stop calling me Pepper."

He had smiled and instead replied, "You'll get used to it."

And she had.