Manhattan was silent. No cars were honking or blaring music obnoxiously. Instead it was just the silence of an entire city sleeping. After the Chitauri had left and the excitement of the day had worn off everyone who had a home went there and those who didn't stayed with people that did. And they all slept.
Even in the broken remains of Stark Tower were six extraordinary people were currently residing had this same silence. That night was the best night sleep that some of the people in that room have had in years. They were all deep and dreamless as nights come. It was a strange sort of peace but it was peace all the same.
One that they knew wouldn't last.
"Natasha, Barton, Doctor." Steve greeted as he made his way downstairs in a pair of sweats that brandished the Stark logo on them proudly.
"Morning Captain." Doctor Banner said in return barely looking up from the cup of tea he was nursing. "I see you decided to sleep in too."
Steve checked the clock that hung loosely on the wall. 8:45 wasn't really classified as sleeping in by most peoples standards but when it came to those four it was like they fell into a small coma.
"Did you see how Starks doing?" Clint asked from the couch were he was taking stock of Natasha's injuries better than he had the last night.
"You mean Sleeping Beauty?" Steve asked proud of himself for the reference. "I passed by his room to check on him and he showed no signs of being awake anytime soon." Normally he would have been annoyed by someone wasting the day away sleeping but for Tony, especially after having died the day before, was willing to cut him some slack.
"You see that's were you're wrong." Came the voice of Tony Stark from the speaker system that amazingly survived the beating Stark Tower took.
"Stark were are you?" Natasha asked looking around for a camera or a microphone to be directing her voice at.
"I'm working. Not surprised you didn't catch my trick there Steve. Pillows under the blanket is a fairly modern trick." His voice was filled with sarcasm and a joking tone that surprised most and worried the rest.
The attending Avengers went down the broken stairway that led to the glass wall of Tony's workshop were he was inexplicably pounding a hole into the floor with a hammer almost larger than he was. Pounding in the code letting them in they all stood a reasonable distance away from the man with a sledgehammer.
"Uh Tony?" Steve asked between hammer strikes. "What are you doing?"
With a final strike the floor crumpled beneath him. "Repairing my suit. Maybe building a new one altogether. Not sure yet." Tony rambled distractedly. "All I know is that I ran out of circuit boards for putting my little guardian angel in there."
"I attempted ordering new ones but Sir was very adamant." The british voice of Jarvis rang in. "May I also say that Sir has been awake for the past 72 hours?"
"Tattle tale." Tony yelled up at the ceiling, a sight quite odd if there hadn't been an A.I. system to yell at. He then turned his attention to the four people staring at him. "Hey were did Goldilocks go?"
Unsure how to go about what seemed like an erratic, sleep deprived Tony Stark Natasha just went the take-no-bullshit tactics. "He went to go see Jane. Now what is this about not sleeping for three days?"
He waved them off casually before ripping what he was looking for from the floor with a shower of sparks erupting around him. "Look I would love to have a deep heartfelt chat with all of you about the 'issue'." He said with air quotes around the issue to show how little he thought of it as being a problem. "And I know I sound like a drug addict for saying this but I can go to sleep whenever I want to."
He wandered off to the other side of the workshop were three suits were laid out and ready to be assembled. The others followed him looking closely at the two suits that were in shambles and the one that looked like the beginnings of a new project.
"Tony I really think that you should slow down." Bruce said almost patronizingly calm. "You did almost,"
"Die." Tony finished as he sat behind one of many desks and beginning to instal the new hard drive into the helmet. "Well news flash guys it wasn't an almost. Thanks to Green Giant though I'm still here and that," he blew off some dust from the part he recently dug up, "is what I would like to focus on. Being alive and my suits not the aliens, not the wormhole in the middle of the freaking sky. Just being alive."
"Sir there is someone at the door." Jarvis spoke calmly.
"Saved by the bell." Tony threw the piece down carelessly on the table before bounding up the stairs to answer the door since Pepper wasn't there to do it for him.
The four Avengers stood speechlessly still staring at the place that Iron Man used to be. "I honestly have no words." Natasha said.
"Well I have some." Clint said crossing his arms. " He's a time bomb. Soon enough he is going to blow."
Before anyone could agree a lone gunshot rang from above.
