Pepper.
Tony didn't care if New York was safe if Pepper got caught in crossfire.
To hell with the Big Apple.
The Avengers had been fighting with a terrorist organisation who thought it could come into the city and call it, its own. They could, but only if they met the Avengers first. Things hadn't gone to plan, Stark Tower had been targeted and Natasha went down with a nasty wound to her leg. Steve and Tony eliminated the risk eventually, but Fury had escalated Tony's adrenaline by notifying him, very calmly, that Pepper had been injured during the battle at the offices, telling him not to worry and SHIELD agents were on their way to pick her up. Tony hung up midway, dropped the bodies he was carrying and left to pick up another one.
But he told himself, Pepper was not going to be another body for the count.
"What's my ETA JARVIS?"
"30 seconds, sir."
For the first time, Tony felt fear, gut wrenching fear. Flashes of Pepper's body darkened his eyes. Cold, unmoving, her eyes saying what she could no longer.
If he was too late.
For ten years he'd taken her for granted, never said thank you, please, sorry, but god, if Pepper was still there, he would say them for every day of his life and mean it. His PA was his reason, the light in his reactor, and the gold in Iron Man.
"Sir, Stark Tower is directly ahead."
"Where's Pepper?" The urgency in Tony's voice could have cut a diamond.
"I believe she is at the reception door, sir."
"Give me a reading of her vitals."
As the percentages flashed across the screen, Tony almost lost control of the suit.
Pepper was alive.
Tony's never been worried or scared, because the world lays in his hands and he can do whatever, but he can't control his heart, it lies in Pepper's hands.
And Pepper is the one thing to Tony Stark which is worth saving.