June 14, 2008- three years before the Avengers were formed- One year after Tony Stark became Iron Man
Tony stood anxiously in front of the altar, Rhodey stood beside him with a reassuring smile. An instrumental of 'Once upon a December' was playing softly in the background.
"How do I look?" asked Tony in a hushed whisper.
"Almost as good as me," Rhodey joked. Tony gave him a sideways glare.
"Relax; you look amazing but not as amazing as she will."
"I'll try," Tony said taking a deep breath as the string quartet began to play 'Yellow' and the sound of the doors at the back of the church opened. A hushed murmur arose from the guests as he resisted the urge to turn around and look.
The words "Where is she?" caught his attention and he quickly turned around to see Pepper at the back of the church with a distraught look on her face. Fear filled him as he ran to the bride's room.
"Olivia!" he yelled opening the door. The room was empty beside a couch, vanity, an empty dress bag and a mess of beauty supplies. Tony walked in slowly. Something on the vanity caught his eye. A letter addressed to him, it read:
Dear Tony,
Please know that I do love you more than anything else but I can't go through with this. With you being Iron Man it'd be too dangerous to even consider starting a family or living in peace. Please understand that I will never forget you and will always love you but I can't marry you. You will never see me again
Love always,
Olivia
Tony let out a sob as he angrily pushed every bottle of perfume, hair product and make up pallet of the vanity. He sank down to the floor clutching the letter, tears rolling down his face. He'd told himself he'd find her and they'd talk about this, he couldn't lose her. He just couldn't.