With a heavy sigh the man leaned forward and pressed his forehead into the seat in front of him. His eyes were closed as he was attempting to block out the scenery around him as the car sped through the streets of New York. He reached up and pressed his fingers to his temples, hissing slightly under his breath as that sent an explosion of pain through his already pounding head.

"You alright back there, Tony?" The driver, Happy, asked looking in the mirror.

The named man groaned at this new noise but replied anyway, "Yeah, yeah. I'm good. I just really need to get back home."

Tony gripped the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger and wondered to himself when everything had gotten so hard to handle. It seemed that just walking into work set him on edge, and by the end of the day he was aching to simply return home and knock back a few drinks. Being CEO of a major company had always been hard, but he had managed it without issues until recently. Perhaps it was his split with Pepper, or the fact that the anniversary of his fathers death was coming up, or maybe it was something completely unrelated. Did it really matter though? Tony thought not.

His press conferences had been just as they always had, he flirted and smiled and was his constant snarky self. Every once and a while he would bring home a woman just to keep up his appearances, as awful as that sounded. It was obvious however, at least to himself, that things were not the same. Those evenings in which he was alone were full of depressing thoughts and attempts to drink away the feelings. He was so unlike himself. In fact, he didn't even know who Tony Stark really was anymore.

"Hey, man. We're here." Happy spoke softly, as if he knew of the pounding in Tony's mind.

With a grunt the billionaire threw open his door, "Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

Just as he was about to step out of the car, his driver and friend spoke again, "Try to take care of yourself, okay, Tony?"

"Uh-huh. You got it." Tony gave him the 'okay' sign with his fingers as he shut the car door behind him.

Tony sauntered his way up the sidewalk and quickly entered in the code for the building. The door sung open and he stepped inside, grateful for the blast of AC that greeted him. He kicked his shoes off and spoke aloud, "Afternoon, Jarvis."

"Hello, sir." The AI responded instantly, "You have visitors."

Tony's eyebrows knit together in confusion and he frowned while replying, "Where are they?"

"They are all in the living room up in the penthouse."

Stark blinked and shuffled his way to the elevator, confused as all hell. Why would people be here? He had no recollection of inviting anyone over and it was strange that they would have arrived before even he did. As far as he knew, there was no reason for people to be in his home at all.

Stepping off the elevator and into the spacious living room of the top floor, Tony raised an eyebrow at the people there. His head of security Natasha Romanoff was perched on the arm of the couch, directly to the left of her was one of the other security high-ups Clint Barton. His assistant, and former girlfriend, Pepper Potts was seated next to Clint with her hands folded tightly in her lap. His 'science bro' Bruce Banner was sitting on one of the arm chairs, looking very uncomfortable. Steve was sitting on the floor behind the coffee table, reading the newspaper.

The chatter and action in the room ceased the moment Tony walked in. He instantly felt awkward with everyone's eyes on him and quickly made his way over to the bar while calling over his shoulder, "What the hell guys? Did someone die?"

"No." It was Steve who replied to him, "Not yet anyway."

Tony raised a single eyebrow at the statement while pouring himself a generous amount of scotch. He decided not to ask if anyone wanted some seeing as they could just get it themselves if they were so inclined. Stark tipped back the drink and downed half of it in one pull. "So who's on their death bed?"

"You are." Steve answered for the room again.

Snorting, the man took the only open arm chair and replied, "Well I feel mighty spry for a man who is apparently dying."

"Tony." It was now Pepper who spoke, and the man realized with shock that there were tears falling from her eyes, "Please drop your attitude. We are all here for you."

The headache that had calmed down slightly after his first drink returned in full at her statement. What the hell did that mean? He took another sip of the burning beverage and waited for them to continue.

Natasha leaned in closer to him and said in an emotionless tone, "We have all noticed the way your drinking habits have picked up and we fear that you have developed a problem."

Before he could stop himself he barked out a laugh, "A problem? What are you talking about? I'm perfectly fine."

"No," she continued, "You aren't. We know that something is wrong and we need to get your habits under control before you kill yourself."

Another voice, Pepper's, chimed in before he could defend himself, "I knew that you would never agree to a rehab, but I found a group therapy class that meets three times a week. It's completely private and everyone who is there has their own issues to worry about. No one is going to mind the fact that the CEO of Stark Industries is there."

Tony stared at them all for a moment then he laughed heartily, "This is a stupid joke."

"Tony," Banner spoke up for the first time, face sonic, "This is no prank."

Slowly the smile fell from his lips as he looked around the room. The expressions ranged from grief-stricken to exhausted to blank stares but they all had that concerned look in their eyes. Tony felt his hand shake as he set the glass on the table, as if this could prove that he had no issue with his drinking. Swallowing hard, he spoke, "I don't need this. Your concern is unnecessary."

"You do need it." Natasha was replying now, as Pepper was unable to because of her efforts to choke back sobs, "And you haven't much of a choice. We already enrolled you in the therapy. You start tomorrow night." She held out a pamphlet to him.

Tony took it without question but did not look at it. He knew that it was probably just information about the place and directions on how to get there. Honestly, he didn't care. He wasn't going to go but he knew enough that he should nod and agree, or else they would never go away. "Okay."

"Happy will be here to be sure that you go. You are not going into work tomorrow; instead you will be staying here and relaxing. Steve is going to be coming with incase he has to drag you to the car." Natasha crossed her arms, signaling that she had read his mind and that there was no way out.

With a sigh, he leaned forward and picked up his drink. He swallowed the rest of it in one gulp then nodded his head at the people in the room. Great, just fucking great.