Hey guys! I'm deciding to write a new story about the aftermath of Iron Man 3! I thought that it would give me something else to think about other than my other story Iron Man: The Autobiography of Tony Stark! Yeah, it's not the best intro chapter but I'm not that great at starting a story. So I guess here it is! Please review and I hope you like it.
4 weeks after the Mandarin fight ended
Well, it's been three weeks and things aren't turning out to be as bleak as I thought it would be after all. I found the Extremis cure for Pepper and things are finally calming down a bit in my crazy world. Pepper forced me, literally forced me, to go see a doctor about my PTSD and nightmares and I must say, I know this is going to sound crazy especially for me, that the medication he gave me is doing miracles. I've been able to get full night sleeps without nightmares and I haven't had an anxiety attack in 2 weeks! But now that I don't have Iron Man, I have absolutely nothing to do, not even down in the workshop.
"Why don't you invite some of the Avenger's over, Tony?" Pepper suggested out of the blue one day.
"No. There is absolutely no way that is going to happen!" I told her. I mean, what would they do if they come to see me? They would blow up now that I'm not Ironman anymore!
"Well, it's driving me crazy seeing you sit here all day, so I myself will arrange this if you like it or not," she told me.
"But whyyy?" I asked her and I pouted out of the room down to my workshop.
"JARVIS, open up project 22B," I asked JARVIS.
"At your request sir." The files and diagrams opened up showing the arc reactor and its structure. I've been looking at seeing how hard it would be to take the arc reactor out of me because honestly, I can't take it anymore. All it does is cause pain and annoy me to no end, not to mention it's a horribly annoying night light. I've found ways to take it out, but they aren't any safer than open heart surgery. But look what I'm saying! I have had open heart surgery in a cave with no medication without any anesthetics! How much riskier can this be? I even have one of the world's best heart surgeon picked out! The only thing is, I haven't told anyone about this, even Pepper. I think it's a good idea to get it out so I wouldn't have to worry about it failing on me anymore like last time, but what would she think? Maybe I'll tell her later when everyone else is over and see what they think because I can't make up my mind. I really need to ask soon or else I'm scared I will back out of this whole thing. I hope no one comes over any time soon so I can just tell Pepper…
"Tony! They're coming over in an hour!" Pepper called from upstairs. Are you serious? I thought she was joking when she said she was really going to do it! I run up the stairs to really see if she's serious.
"Are you serious?" I ask her.
"Yes! Bruce, Clint, Natasha, Steve, Thor, and even Rohdey are coming," I let out a sigh.
"Isn't Thor supposed to be wherever he lives anyways?" I say bluntly.
"Clint told me he was here and so I invited him, so you better get ready!" she told me all too cheerfully.
"Oh joy, now everyone can know and be mad at me," I muttered under my breath.
"What did you say?" Pepper asked as I went upstairs.
"Nothing, nothing at all!" I yelled back. Well this is going to be fun.
I was lying on the couch watching TV when I heard the doorbell ring.
"Tony, can you get it? I'm making dinner," Pepper yelled from the other room. I got up without answering, not thrilled people were already coming 20 minutes early. I opened the door and saw Bruce standing there.
"Hey Bruce! Missed you pal!" I greeted him. He was actually the one and only person I wanted to see.
"Hey! How've you been?" he replied.
"Getting better, you?" he was the only one that knew about what was going on in my life other than Rohdey and Pepper.
"Pretty good. It's good to see you alive and well still," he jokingly said.
"Ha ha. So funny," I said as I closed the door behind me, "Make yourself at home…" I was interrupted by another knock at the door. Great, more people. Can't I just talk to Bruce for a minute? I turned around and opened the door and low and behold, it was Clint and Thor.
"Brother Tony! It has been so long! It is great to see you again!" boomed Thor.
"Hey Thor, make yourself at home," I gestured with my hand inside and he walked in with a huge grin on his face.
"What's up Clint? You've been doing well?"
"Yeah, pretty good. Yourself?" he asked.
"Good, good. Come on in!" I said to him.
"Natasha should be here any minute. She wasn't too far behind us. There she is," Clint said as we heard a car door shut.
"I'll be in in a minute," I told him. Natasha came walking up the sidewalk with her usual expressionless look.
"Hello Stark," she greeted.
"How have you been?" I asked really not knowing whether or not she was happy or upset with me.
"The usual," she replied. Who knows what the usual is because I sure don't. That's when I seen Steve walking up to the door.
"Hey look, it's Capsicle!" I said, happy to avoid the conversation with Natasha, as she walked in the door.
"Boy, I didn't miss that," Steve chuckled.
"What have you been up to lately?" I asked putting my arm around his shoulders, trying to be cheerful about him and the others being here.
"Not much, still trying to figure out technology," and he rambled on, and on, and on. We walked inside to see everyone talking to each other which was good. We all sat down and started talking about what was going on in our lives.
"So Stark, we heard that you're done being Iron Man," Clint started.
"Is it true, brother Tony? We would all miss you," Thor added. I looked around, all eyes were on me. I mean I've thought about it, going back to being Iron Man.
"I'm not really sure yet if I am or not," I replied. Please don't ask why, please…
"Why wouldn't you?" asked Steve.
"First reason, I don't want to put Pepper in danger anymore. Second, and don't pity me when I say this," should I really tell them about my PTSD? I mean, it's a real reason why I don't want to go back. I can't make it any worse than it is but I don't think I can make it any worse with the medication now. I guess I should tell them, they have the right to know, "I have PTSD. I've had it since after New York. It really hit me hard and I never got help even though Pepper wanted me to until two weeks ago. But since then I've been doing fine. So all in all I might go back I might not." They all sat there in silence, not knowing what to say.
"Well this is getting awkward, lets change the subject," said Clint as he broke the silence. We talked about a lot of random things; TV shows, movies, books, technology, new, things going on in SHIELD, almost everything.
"It's time for dinner everyone!" Pepper told us all as she walked into the room. We all gathered into the kitchen and settled down to the table and started eating. Well, I guess this is going to have to be my time to ask everyone. Or should I not? No, I have to ask now or else I never will. Here we go…
Please review guys! Constructive criticism welcomed!