I don't even know what this is. I was re watching Iron Man and after wards I went thru the deleted scenes and found one where Rhody wakes up in Afghanistan looking around, and then another where he is telling a general that he is going out to look for Tony one more time. So that is where this plot bunny came from. I hope you all like it and that it not to awful. Please review and tell me what you think.

Rhody stirred, his ears ringing, and everything hurt. It took his mind a bit to focus and think about what had happened. It then hit him, They had been attacked. Antoniqu had been attacked. He remembered seeing Tony out of her Humvee, calling to him. He remembered the desperation in her voice and she sounded scared.

He pushed himself up, as he made to look up thru the firing hole. He looked around, trying to find Tony. He pushed himself up out of the vehicle and started looking around. He saw her Humvee and felt his heart drop.

It was in piece's. He looked around, trying to see if she was nearby. He ran down a small hill. He saw a small crater. He turned and was met by an awful sight. There on the ground was her jacket, covered in blood and shrapnel holes. Rhody sunk to the ground, picking up the tattered piece of clothing. And for the first time in a while, he felt tears, rolling down his face.

Tony could be a royal pain, but he had never wanted this. He had never wanted her to be captured. To be taken away to one of the thousands of caves that littered these mountains. Rhody thought of all the story he had heard over the years about soldiers being captured and tortured and if they came back, they were never the same.

He was scared for her, if she lived for much longer. He had heard of injuries cause by close explosion fire. They called it the walking dead or something just as morbid. After a bit of silent tears, and sadness for his friend, he heard copters over head. And that was when the anger bloomed in his chest.

He should have been there for her. Should have just told the drama queen to suck it up, and that he would ride with her. He could have protected her and made sure that they couldn't take her and that she would be fine and continue going on as his weapons manufacturing, billionaire, player. But now she was being held somewhere in a dark dank cave. Someone was speaking, but he didn't hear anything.

"Coronal Rhodes? Are you all right? Coronal?" Rhody was picked up and helped to a chopper. But everything went by in a haze. All he could think about was her scared face, as bombs and bullets flew thru the air. How uncertain she looked. How scared she must have been, how scared she must be. He vowed then and there that he would find her. Even if it was just her body, he would bring something home. He would bring Tony.

1 week later:

Rhody made his way up to Stark Mansion. He was twitching, and all sorts of anxious about his visit. He had spent a good part of the past week searching for Tony, against his doctors wishes. But still no luck. He would have still been over there, but he had kept the army from releasing any information until he was able to get back and tell Pepper himself.

It had stayed out of the media, surprisingly. He was happy for it, but by the end of the week, the press would hear about her disappeared/kidnapping and would be all over the military. But really, he couldn't care less. All he cared about was Pepper and finding Tony.

He arrived sooner then he wanted, but knew he needed to be the one to tell her. He walked up to the door, ringing the bell and waited. He would usually just have Jarvis buzz him in, but it didn't feel right in this instance. After a bit, and contemplating ringing again, he heard rushed feet coming to the door. It was flung open by an excited Pepper.

But her face dropped suddenly when she saw that there was no one with him. He saw realization starting to set in, and Rhody tried to jump in before he was beaten to telling his message.

"Pepper. While we were over there, we were attacked, and." Pepper was covering her mouth, head shaking as her mind raced by the conclusion and tears rose, threatening to fall at even the slightest disturbance. "Pepper. She was taken. I was knocked out and when I woke up, she was gone." And that was it.

"Pepper cried out as she fell to the ground, her fears realized form the past week. Rhody got down to hold her. She was shaking with sobs, thoughts going thru her mind of all the bad things that were happening to Tony at that very moment. If she were even alive. Oh how could she think that. But, it was so possible and that brought another bought of teas as she thought about that.

"Pep. We are still looking, and I won't stop until I find her. And we will find her. Tony is many things, but a quieter isn't one of them. And she will fight to survive and make it out. We are going to find her. And I will bring her home. I promise Pep. I promise." They both sat there, trying to draw comfort, but finding that it was near impossible. But they had to. For Tony.

3 months later:

Rhody was on a helicopter looking out at what seemed to be the same stretch of dessert that they had been going over for hours. This was quite possible one of the last trips he was going to be able to look for his friend. Everyone around him had pretty much given her up for dead, even Pep. But he didn't. Wouldn't. He had to hold onto hope, what little there was.

Over off in the distance, he saw it. What looked to be an explosion. He instructed the pilot to head in that direction, annoyed that it would be another hour before they got there. But he sat there, waiting. Hoping. If that was a test fire gone bad, then there might be smugglers, then maybe, even if Tony wasn't with them, maybe they could point them in the right direction.

As they approached, Rhody was scanning the ground, when he saw something. At there height it was a big dot. Grabbing the radio, he held it out of the copter, trying to hear what it was. And he heard it. The dot was crying out for help. His heart leaped, but then he quelled a bit of his excitement, because why would they find Tony. It would be to much of a coincidence. So they got closer and as they did, Rhody was able to make out more of what the person was saying.

"Hay! Hay! I'm American! I'm American! Hey!" Rhody couldn't wait any longer. Even if it wasn't Tony, it was an American who needed help. Or they were flying into a trap, so he got his gun ready, hoping he didn't need to use it.

"Put it down right here." A few minuets latter they were on the ground and Rhody was off running. As he got closer, he saw the figure, fall to the sand, and put there hand up in a peace sign. And that's when it hit Rhody. "Tony." He ran faster towards the figure he hoped was his best friend. "Tony!"

He finally got to the person and, and it was her. She was alive. Rhody got down and hugged her, feeling her body shake from her sobs. He heard her saying something. "I thought. I, I thought, I was never gonna. And now your. Your really here." Her rambling went on and it broke his heart.

"Yeah Tony. I'm here and your safe. And this time, your riding with me." He felt her node into his chest. The marines finally arrived, and Rhody lifted her up and set her down on the stretcher. The last thing she said confused him. "Don't let them pull it out. Just don't" She seemed to have passed out, after that, which wasn't probably good. Not he really couldn't blame her.

They soon got back to the chopper and were up in the air, flying the last twenty minuets to check out the explosion they had seen. As they went there medic checked over Tony and found something really strange.

"Um. Cornall? Your friends with Miss Stark. Right?" He nodded, not really understanding. "Well I was just wondering if you have ever seen this before?" The medic lifted her shirt and there was the weirdest thing he had ever seen.

In her chest was this glowy thing, and there was lots of scarring around it. All Rhody could do was shake his head. He had never seen that and made a note to ask her about it when she woke up. His eyes were draw to the other scars on her body, that seemed far to knew, some of the wounds, not even scarred yet. And it made him sick.

What made it worse was when the medic reached out to touch the glowy chest thing. He couldn't help but reach out and stop him. "It could be hurting her. If I remove it, we can make sure it isn't killing her." Rhody just shook his head.

"No. It could be helping. And before she passed out, she told me not to remove something, and I have a feeling she didn't want this removed, It is the most obvious." The medic just shrugged and went to doing other things, hoping that whatever the thing was, it wasn't killer her.

Soon after that they arrived at what seemed to have been a compound, and boy was it a sight. There was debris and fire everywhere. The entire compound was in shambles.

"What could have done this? It awful." Rhody looked out to see everything destroyed. Nothing was left. He smiled to himself. He had been right. Tony seemed to have fought her way out. And did she have a mean swing. He looked down at his sleeping friend, feeling a weight fall from his shoulders.

"Who else but Antoniqu Stark."