Gene sighs, because he knows that Pepper's not going to give up. He'd halfway hoped that she'd come to find him, deep down, although most of him wanted to just disappear, fade out of the world into the Dreaming or something beyond.

"You are," he says, raising his head, "the most stubborn person I've ever met. And considering that we both know Tony, that's saying something."

It's not a direct response to what she'd said, but at least it's progress, of a kind.