Author's Note: I haven't written any fanfiction in quite a while, and wasn't planning to, but then I saw Iron Man and there was this idea and it just wouldn't go away. The idea was that there was a huge missed opportunity for lots and lots of hurt/comfort between the end of the big final fight and the press conference where Tony reveals his identity as Iron Man. So, here I am, filling in the gap. Missing scenes for the movie. Sort-of AU, of course, since I don't know what really happened.

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"Mr. Stark? Tony? Tony!"

Pepper stopped shouting and looked around. There were small electrical fires blazing here and there, smoke rising from the ground. The explosion had left her ears ringing so loud that she couldn't hear her own voice, even though she was shouting at the top of it.

She'd just managed to get out before the reactor had gone boom. That had probably been the world record of sprinting in high heels. And now, she was going to break it.

There was an emergency stairway leading to the roof. That was where she'd last seen Tony. He had told her to punch it even though it'd been obvious that he was too close to the overloading reactor, way too near to avoid the blast. But she'd punched it, because his desperate tone had made it clear enough that there was no other way.

He might be dying, he might be dead already... No, he wouldn't be.

"Tony? Tony!"

She knew he wouldn't hear her shouting if she couldn't even hear it herself. If he was okay – and of course he was, he had to be – his ears would be buzzing even worse than hers. And even if he'd answer, most likely she wouldn't be able to hear it.

Shouting his name again nevertheless, she ran up the stairway, her heels hardly touching the steps. Miraculously, she managed not to trip.

The first thing she saw on the roof was Obadiah Stane, or what was left of him. Bits and pieces of melted and blackened armor, and charred flesh buried among it. If he was still alive, he was probably hoping he wasn't. She couldn't have cared less. She ran past him.

"Tony?"

There! She saw him. At the other end of the roof, a red and gold figure much smaller than Stane and his hulking armor, lying on the ground in an odd posture. She ran even faster, covering the last few feet in a leap that would've been impressive even without the skirt and the heels.

Compared to Stane, Tony looked okay, but that wasn't much of a comfort to her. Sure, he was still in one piece and not burned at all, but there was blood on his face, and there was no way she could tell what injuries he had inside the dented and battered armor... She couldn't even see if he was breathing. The arc reactor on his chest was still glowing, but she was sure the light looked fainter than usual. And he was so still.

She knelt next to him and held a shaky hand over his face – and could feel the air flowing against the back of her hand. Oh, thank God! He was breathing. He was alive. He was alive and he would be all right.

She felt so relieved that she had to sit down for a while. As she did so, it came to her how very, very worried she had been of him. He was her boss, their relationship was strictly professional – but she had been every bit as worried as she would've been of a close relative, a very dear friend or...

Her cell phone cut her introspection short. It was Rhodes. He sounded just as worried as she felt.

"I'm fine, Tony's unconscious and I don't know how badly hurt he is, but he's alive," she assured him. "We need to get him to an ambulance... Oh!"

Tony had opened his eyes.

"Miss Potts. Didn't I make it clear enough last time? No ambulances."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Tony Stark felt the force of the explosion tossing him across the air, his un-armored head hitting the ground painfully, and then, of course, everything went dark.

The darkness was pleasant enough. He knew it was the easy part. It was the waking-up part that was always painful.

Except that this time, there might not be a waking-up part. He'd been running on reserve power already, the Mark I chestpiece failing under the huge energy drain of the battle. It would go, and so would his heart.

Maybe he was already dead. Maybe this was the afterlife. Pretty damn boring an afterlife, though. All the religious types had been telling him he'd end up in Hell for all the bad stuff he'd done... This couldn't possibly be it, where were the blazing fires and the devils with pitchforks?

He wasn't a religious person. Science was his one true religion, and he believed that death would be nothing more than the end. The end of his life. He didn't want it to end quite yet. No, now was definitely not a good time. He'd just began to understand what he should do with his life.

"Tony? Tony!"

All right, he was most definitely not in Hell, with Pepper Potts shouting his name like that. Maybe the other place... But then again, there weren't any angels about either.

Pepper. One more reason why he definitely did not want this to be the end. He wanted to stay around to apologize for the mess he'd gotten her into, and to actually get her that martini with extra olives in it.

He didn't want it to end. Not yet. He wouldn't give up this easily.

"Tony?"

And maybe it wouldn't end. He wasn't supposed to be alive. The chestpiece couldn't possibly be working anymore. Nevertheless, he was starting to feel the the dozens of bruises he'd gotten during the fight.

Yeah, it was the waking-up part that was painful.

Pepper was speaking. "...he's alive. We need to get him to an ambulance..."

He was alive. He opened his eyes, to see her worried face hovering right above him.

"Oh!" she breathed, her eyes wide with surprise.

He couldn't stand seeing her so worried. Besides, all in all, he wasn't that badly hurt. He'd hit his head pretty hard, possibly a concussion, there was a pain in his side telling that if he hadn't broken a rib or two, at least they were spectacularly bruised... But considering he'd thought he'd be dead for sure, that was mighty fine. So, he took a deep breath and tried to keep his voice casual.

"Miss Potts. Didn't I make it clear enough last time? No ambulances."

"But Mr. Stark, you..."

"All I have is a few cuts, bumps and a badly bruised ego. Nothing Tylenol won't fix."

She was probably right, he probably could use some medical attention, but it really didn't matter. His primary concern was the arc reactor in his chest, and no first aid team in the world would be able to fix that. He didn't know how it was still holding, but he was definitely living on borrowed time. He'd have to figure out something and fast.