Pepper shrugs off the apology with another gentle squeeze of fingers and an attempt at a Tony Stark Special, turning someone's apology into dry humor to try and divert feelings. "Don't be, his handwriting is horrific."
But she's not Tony, she's Pepper, and the attempt is so hollow, she could strike it and use it like a dinner bell. So she goes with what she knows, practical reassurance that silently acknowledges the deeper meanings of a seemingly simple statement. This is about so much more than just Tony's penmanship.
"He can't always read his own handwriting," she says, refusing to think of him in any past-tense ways because he's not dead. Pepper doesn't know that, not for certain. She knows he survived Thanos eliminating half of the universe. She knows he's alive on a distant planet. The rest is just hope, and also fear, the kind that will jump to the most outrageous outcomes and call them possible because the alternative is unthinkable.
"Fortunately, making sense of it is something I used to get paid to do, so there was significant motivation to figure it out when he wasn't there." Even though her eyes are ringed in pink, her gaze is steady as she bends slightly to catch Brigitte's gaze, if she can. "I can help you, if you want?"
He wasn't there, I know this pain. Pepper does know a rough outline of at least part of what she suspects is behind Brigitte's words, because she had sat at a desk, with Tony missing - and by many presumed dead - in Afghanistan, with screen after screen of digitally-rendered notes that didn't all make sense. She had looked upon pieces of him left behind, and while she had refused to believe he was dead, she had also numbly acknowledged that if he never came back, there were things on those screens that would go unrealized, things that would become unanswerable questions and unsolvable mysteries.
I can help you, you don't have to do it alone. She'd had Rhodey then, someone who understood and shared the core of her pain, love, even though his was love for his best friend and hers was love for her boss in not-professional ways. Rhodey's also one of her dearest friends, so their connection is strong independently of Tony. Pepper doesn't have the same independent connection to Brigitte, but it doesn't matter. If she wants it, Brigitte can have Pepper with her to know and understand the core of their shared pain, who recognizes that Brigitte's love is love for her father-figure, and Pepper's is love for her chosen life partner.
no subject
But she's not Tony, she's Pepper, and the attempt is so hollow, she could strike it and use it like a dinner bell. So she goes with what she knows, practical reassurance that silently acknowledges the deeper meanings of a seemingly simple statement. This is about so much more than just Tony's penmanship.
"He can't always read his own handwriting," she says, refusing to think of him in any past-tense ways because he's not dead. Pepper doesn't know that, not for certain. She knows he survived Thanos eliminating half of the universe. She knows he's alive on a distant planet. The rest is just hope, and also fear, the kind that will jump to the most outrageous outcomes and call them possible because the alternative is unthinkable.
"Fortunately, making sense of it is something I used to get paid to do, so there was significant motivation to figure it out when he wasn't there." Even though her eyes are ringed in pink, her gaze is steady as she bends slightly to catch Brigitte's gaze, if she can. "I can help you, if you want?"
He wasn't there, I know this pain. Pepper does know a rough outline of at least part of what she suspects is behind Brigitte's words, because she had sat at a desk, with Tony missing - and by many presumed dead - in Afghanistan, with screen after screen of digitally-rendered notes that didn't all make sense. She had looked upon pieces of him left behind, and while she had refused to believe he was dead, she had also numbly acknowledged that if he never came back, there were things on those screens that would go unrealized, things that would become unanswerable questions and unsolvable mysteries.
I can help you, you don't have to do it alone. She'd had Rhodey then, someone who understood and shared the core of her pain, love, even though his was love for his best friend and hers was love for her boss in not-professional ways. Rhodey's also one of her dearest friends, so their connection is strong independently of Tony. Pepper doesn't have the same independent connection to Brigitte, but it doesn't matter. If she wants it, Brigitte can have Pepper with her to know and understand the core of their shared pain, who recognizes that Brigitte's love is love for her father-figure, and Pepper's is love for her chosen life partner.