This fic has been hounding me for a month, and I figure the best way to get myself to finally finish it is to start posting. This fic follows the same storyline as Absence, if you read that (also, French Fries started as a little two-sentence mention in chapter two of this fic). Speaking of Absence, there are a few things I should note: this fic is rather angsty. I do not do alternate universe, so Tony and Pepper will not be a couple by the end of this. This chapter and the last will basically follow the movie, and will not be entirely original scenes. If you don't like any of these things, stop reading now.

This chapter may not be the most interesting, but I promise it gets better (and a good deal longer). Enjoy. :)

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Divergence

Chapter One

"Bells"

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The fact that he didn't mention sex, or women, or fancy singles' bars, or blonds, or high skirts and low tops, or anything even remotely related to any of the above the first moment he got off the plane should have tipped her off that something was amiss. What else could Tony Stark be expected to want after three months spent in captivity where, most likely, there was not a single female in sight?

Even if that didn't set off any bells in her head, some should have gone off when he asked the reporters to sit on the floor like first-graders at story time, when he spoke in sincere and heartfelt tones about his father, the American soldiers and having his eyes opened. It was unfamiliar, coming from him, there was no doubt about that, but still Pepper Potts was completely blindsided when he stood up, moved to the microphones, and finally got to the point of the press conference he had so adamantly insisted upon.

"Effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International -" Pepper's heart stopped and her jaw fell open as Obadiah ushered him away from the podium. She barely caught the end of his sentence. "- until such a time as I can decide what the future of this company will be, what direction it should take, one that I am comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country and the world." The last few words faded out as Obadiah took over. Pepper never heard what he said before running out of the room after her boss.

As she caught up to him, the security guards at the door preventing any reporters from following them, any thoughts of protesting, or asking if he was joking fell away. She was at a complete loss for words, and she almost couldn't believe what she had just heard. This was Tony Stark - the Tony Stark - the son of Manhattan Project, weapons designer Howard Stark, who had lived his entire life with an unwavering faith that the best weapons were the means to peace and prosperity. And now all of that was just… gone in an instant.

But as she followed him out the doors and back to the car, she realized that it wasn't in an instant - whatever had brought him to this decision had three months to develop. Her protesting mind quieted 

when she realized this, when it sank in that he had not simply been missing until yesterday, but that he had been a prisoner until yesterday. He had seen his weapons turned against innocent people, against himself. He hadn't yet told her - or anyone else, she suspected - what had happened over there, but Pepper now realized that whatever it was, seeing the destruction and death his weapons had caused with his own eyes, for the first time, had done something to him. She could only guess that whatever terrors he had experienced must have been more awful than she could imagine.

When they were in the car, after he told Happy to take them to his office, she sighed, and turned to him. "Are you sure about this?"

He met her eyes, holding them resolutely. "I have never been more sure of anything in my entire life."