Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, and no profit is being made. The stories are for entertainment purposes only.

Author's Note: Each of the 'Chapters' in this fiction are actually missing scenes or alternate universe scenes based on the series by lilsmartass on AO3 called "First Impressions and Second Chances", and will make ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE if you don't read those stories first. The series page is: /series/30998, and the first story, "Iron Man Yes, Tony Stark….Not Recommended" is at: /works/576665.

A Late Night Call

by kerravon

(A missing scene from lilsmartass' story "Iron Man, Yes, Tony Stark, Not Recommended" at AO3 works/576665)

James Rhodes groans as the phone jolts him out of a sound sleep, then quickly snatches it off the nightstand. He's always been able to wake up fast, often so rapidly that callers didn't even realize he'd been sleeping. "Rhodes here," he snaps professionally, sitting up and mentally readying himself for an emergency response as he notes the 02:54 on the bedside alarm clock.

"What's up, Sugarplum?" carols the familiar tones of his old friend, something…off about the greeting that he can't quite put his finger on, but it disturbs him on a visceral level.

He falls back on his pillow as he tries to figure it out. "The sky," he replies automatically as he ponders, staring at the ceiling. Then it hits him; Tony sounds sober. Several internal alarms blare at the realization, and the colonel is suddenly sitting bolt upright on the side of his bed. "What's wrong?" he demands, not willing to let Tony divert into his usual babbling.

"Wrong? I never said anything was wrong." The wavering uncertainty in Tony's voice indicates otherwise, and Jim narrows his eyes.

Yeah…no. Rhodes isn't buying it. Now that he's truly listening, he can hear the strained note in his friend's banter, the lilt that is just enough off to kick his 'Tony alarm' up another notch. Time to cut to the chase, then start working on damage control for whatever mess the genius has gotten into this time. "You never ring me at this time of night when you're still sober."

"Night?" comes the surprised response. Rhodey closes his eyes, relaxes slightly, and sighs. It was moments like these that he really wished Tony and Pepper had worked out; when they were a couple she'd never allowed the inventor to stay so long in his workshop that he forgot the time of day.

The pilot's eyes fly open again at Tony's next sentence. "Oh yeah. Sorry. I was working on a…"

"Wait, Tony! Did you just apologize?" he blurts in shock, then tries to cover his surprise with a joke. "Wow, having Captain America as a house guest has finally taught you some manners."

Apparently Rhodes has inadvertently stumbled onto part of the problem, because not only does Tony not snark back, but he suddenly sounds more strained. The pilot winces at the forced laugh that emits from the phone receiver after a moment of telling hesitation. Tony recovers quickly though, and launches with fake cheerfulness into, "I guess. Listen. Cupcake. I just had a question for you."

"No," he responds on autopilot, distracted by trying to work out what was wrong. Because something was wrong. Badly wrong, with an 'I'm being held hostage against my will but can't tell you about it' overlay to every word that sets his teeth on edge.

"What?" The single word is choked out in a combination of shock and hurt that Rhodey hasn't heard from Tony since the night Pepper left.

'What the hell?' The colonel jams his phone up against his ear as he bolts from the bed and starts snagging the pieces of his uniform from where he dropped them a few hours ago. He clearly needs to deal with this in person. Meanwhile, he makes his own tone even more joking to try and snap the sensitive genius out of this…whatever this is. "The only time you ever ask me anything in that tone of voice is when you want me to do something that could get me court martialled or arrested, usually both."

He locates his pants draped over a chair, grabs them, and begins tugging them on, only to stop in alarm as the billionaire whispers pleadingly, almost tearfully, "Rhodey….please?"

That's it. No more attempts at subtlety or humor. He flips into 'Commanding Officer' mode and flat out demands, "What's wrong? Where are you?" If he's been kidnapped again, Rhodes is going to rip out the perpetrators' livers and eat them with fava beans.

"No, no. I'm fine. I just...I wanted to ask you something," Tony interjects hurriedly, trying unsuccessfully to reassure his best friend. No, that wasn't happening, not tonight.

"You can ask me anything." 'Shirt, shirt…ah, there it is!'

"I...Rhodey...how...howdoyoumakepeoplelikeyou?" The hesitance followed by the rushed word salad makes the pilot button his shirt even faster.

"Again, Tony," he reponds with false calm, not able to make heads or tails of the question. "Slower, OK?"

Despite the reasonable reply, Tony takes offense. "Don't talk to me like that! I'm not...I'm not..." he splutters, and Rhodey has a sudden mental image of a rain-soaked, shivering kitten hissing at potential rescue.

"I know. I know you're not," he soothes gently. What Tony is 'not' right now, is rational. His verbal level suggests that he hasn't slept in days, but he hasn't even mentioned his current project. From years of experience, Rhodes knows that means the genius is currently brooding more than working. "But I need you to slow down." He takes meticulous care to keep his tone quiet and reassuring as he grabs a pair of clean socks, concentrating intensely on his friend's reply as he pulls them on.

Even so, he can barely make out the inventor's shamed question, "How do you make people like you?"

"Why?" he asks softly. The billionaire usually didn't even notice, much less care, if the whole world hated him, and when he did, he used his 'asshole mask' as a defense mechanism to prevent anyone from discovering his weakness.

"Don't be angry with me," Tony blurts, begging, reading something into the one-word question that Jim is certain he didn't put there. "Don't. I know I'm...I know. I'm trying to fix it OK. Please." The normally loquacious industrialist is actually so distraught that he's at a loss for words.

Now Rhodes is picturing a bedraggled, soaking-wet, abused kitten cowering behind a dumpster, and tempers his voice accordingly. "I'm not angry with you, but I want to know what brought this on. You've never changed for anybody. Why now?"

There's an uncomfortable pause, then Tony mutters in humiliation, "Because Rogers thought I was hitting on him today and I was just trying to be nice."

That didn't add up. Rhodes, lacing his shoes, allows a small bit of his confusion to seep into his next query. "Today? But you've lived together for weeks."

Another prolonged silence as Tony uncharacteristically pauses to choose his words. "Yeah...we don't really...y'know talk."

That makes even less sense. These people live together, work together, and go into battle together. How could they not talk? They're a team! He does his best to consolidate his reaction into words. "How? You're the Avengers, surely you-"

"I am not an Avenger. I'm a consultant." Despite his friend's valiant attempts to sound nonchalant, the words are absolutely dripping with shame and hurt and rejection.

"What?!" The Air Force officer manages to keep both the anger and the outrage out of his voice, but just barely. Tony took on a suicidal mission in the name of these so-called 'Avengers', has been handling their press for weeks, let them live in his own home, and now they've kicked him to the curb?

"Sorry," comes the almost tearful reply.

What. The. Everloving. Hell.

Rhodes snags his coat and strides determinedly towards the door. Whatever is happening in that tower is about to receive his personal attention. "I'm coming over."

"You don't need to-" Tony starts, but Rhodey can tell by his tone that he's almost sagging in relief.

Gritting his teeth, he repeats, "I'm. Coming. Over."

"Alright." Now his friend sounds resigned.

Rhodey isn't sure what's going on in the engineer's head, so he tries, "I won't be long."

"Yeah." More resignation. What the…?

'Oh, for crying out loud,' Rhodes thinks as he gets it. "Tony, this is not to avoid answering your question. I promise OK."

Another pause, but then Tony sounds actually grateful. Bingo. "Alright. Thanks."

"I'm on my way." He disconnects the call as he slips into the driver's seat of his car, grateful that he's currently in New York and that the traffic is the lightest at this time of night. He should make it to Tony's tower in 30 minutes or less. Even so, angry as he is, he's going to need both hands for the wheel to keep from having an accident.

He tries to organize his thoughts as he drives, and maybe get a handle on the situation that he's about to walk into. Tony seems to like these people enough to care what they think about him. Knowing his friend, the billionaire has probably not only given them rooms in his home, he's probably given them suites. Maybe even floors. Tony had been so exited about his team moving into Stark Tower, especially Rogers. He snorted. The inventor always responded to situations like this by building or buying everything he could think of. It must be like Christmas every day in Avengers Tower.

Or, it would be if Tony had his choice. But apparently he doesn't since he's not an Avenger? Despite the press conferences, helping to pay for the rebuild of Manhattan, donating living quarters to the team, showing up to all the battles, and volunteering for a suicide mission during the Battle for Manhattan, he apparently still doesn't meet SHIELD's standards. What does he have to do to qualify? Sacrifice his first-born child?

Rhodes' eyes widen as something clicks. Rogers. Tony sounded off from the very beginning of the phone call, but got much more defensive the moment the Air Force Colonel had joked about Rogers teaching the billionaire some manners, and almost broke down completely when he admitted that the Captain thought Tony was 'hitting' on him. In fact, that is almost certainly the reason he wants to know how to make people like him. 'People' in this case means Rogers.

Now, James Rhodes makes no attempt to hide the fact that his childhood hero was Captain America. Heck, the man is probably the reason he went into the military to begin with. Still, he has nothing on Tony's inner fanboy, no matter how much the industrialist tries to deny it. Growing up with a father that not only knew the Captain, but idolized him, how could Tony not put Rogers on a pedestal? After all, Howard had apparently made no attempt to hide the fact that his search for the super soldier was more important than his own son. Then Tony's godmother, the Captain's sweetheart, had filled the child's head with so many stories of 'daring do' that hero worship was pretty much inevitable. Over the years Tony has hidden it beneath layers of cynicism and snark, but Rhodey knows that it's there. Being on a team of superheroes with the man himself must have been a dream come true…until he was told he wasn't on the team at all.

Rhodey sees red, and pushes the accelerator down just a bit more. Hopefully Tony is just overtired and has misread an innocent comment or two, but the colonel doubts it. If he's right, and Rogers has been mistreating his friend, Rhodes and 'The Captain' are going to have words.

He snorts, a corner of his mouth quirking up in black humor as he pulls into the garage under Tony's tower. 'Well, I guess I might just get my childhood wish. Before this day is done, I might just meet Captain America.'