A/N: Guys, I love you all so much. I love you more than the Son of Coul loves Capsicle. I love you all more than Thor loves his Poptarts. Will you marry me? Seriously. We can get married in a Vegas drive-thru wedding and then have our honeymoon at Comic-Con.

Anyway, I REALLY appreciate everything so far. I woke up in the foulest of moods the day after I posted the first chapter and my mood instantly brightened when I saw all of the support. Thank you all so much.

Once Bruce joined Pepper in her company car, they were instantly whisked away to the nearest "airport" just to find a small jet with Tony's name written all over it. When they boarded and finally took off, Pepper seemed incredibly relieved, as if all was right with the world and she could go about her business in a few moments. Bruce had taken that time of calmness to ask about Tony's condition. Pepper had answered that not too long after arriving at Stark Tower, Tony had become nauseous. At first she had thought that it was exhaustion, but things had gotten worse. His vomit was soon died red with blood, he was hungry but could not eat, he had headaches and had ran a high fever, and his wounds from the battle were still not healed properly.

Tony definitely had radiation poisoning.

The rest of the flight was quiet. Pepper had fallen asleep from her own exhaustion, leaving Bruce to his thoughts. He had spaced out for so long that he did not realize that the jet had landed and a company car had arrived to drive them to Stark Tower. When they arrived, they swiftly moved towards the elevator and stood still as they were transported higher into the tower. Bruce wasn't surprised at the short trip in the elevator. After all, the tower's highest floors were probably in repair at the moment. This was probably not the safest environment to keep a sick man, but he knew that Pepper was probably too afraid to move him.

The elevator door opened to reveal a hall with several bedrooms. Pepper asked for Bruce to shower before they entered Tony's room, not wanting his already weak immune system to catch something from the great wilderness that is Africa. Bruce complied and not too long after met with Pepper in front of the elevator.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a quarantined room with a handful of doctors running about, talking over lab equipment. A doctor arrived and gave the pair masks to cover their mouths and asked them to at least wash their hands. Pepper walked behind the doctor, wringing her hands nervously and taking a sudden interest in her own moving feet. Bruce was pushing past doctors to get to the one person whom he could consider a friend.

There he was, true to Pepper's word; pale, thin, hair wet with sweat, and completely sick.

"Tony," Pepper spoke to him softly as she walked in front of Bruce and towards his bed. "Tony, I brought him. He's here."

Tony slowly turned his head towards their direction, his eyes a husk of what they once were that made Bruce's heart stop. Breathe, Banner. Breathe. Tony lips twitched weakly upward at the sight of the man.

"Brucie!" Tony's unnaturally soft voice cracked, obviously not having used it in a while. "I'm so glad you're here!" He turned his attention to the doctors that had stopped to watch him speak.

"All of you can leave now. I don't need all of you incompetent bastards running around while Doctor Banner is here actually doing work." Tony bolted up as he started coughing into his hand, red staining it more and more. Bruce placed his hands on Tony's arms and softly pushed him back into bed.

"Um, excuse me please?" Bruce called to the doctors. "I think you all can go home today. I need to run some tests. Perhaps I could use you all tomorrow."

Bruce wasn't entirely sure if he had the authority to do so, but the doctors left almost immediately. Either they were tired of not having a good result or they were tired of Tony's shenanigans.

It was probably the latter.

Within minutes, the room was suddenly silent, large, and empty; its only occupants being Tony, Pepper, and Bruce.

Bruce immediately went to work, his mind focused on nothing but the project at hand. He had found a Geiger Counter nearby and had started running it over Tony's body.

"So," Tony coughed again. "How did your African Hell-Hole treat ya?"

"Tony! Shut up and lie down," Pepper scolded. "You need to rest and Doctor Banner needs to concentrate."

Bruce chose to ignore Tony. He knew that if he granted him an answer, that it would be Tony's cue to start up a giant rant that he would continue until he knocked himself unconscious. He didn't think Pepper would be too happy with him, so instead he busied himself with his readings and his recordings as JARVIS gave him a place to record and showed him all of the data collected so far. Bruce finished up several minutes later and placed the Geiger Counter back on its counter.

"So, Doc? What's the news? Is it going to be a boy or a girl?"

Pepper lightly slapped at his arm, trying not to harm him. "Tony! Can't you ever take your health seriously?"

"Well, I have some good news and bad news," Bruce said, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with his shirt. Tony seemed unfazed while Pepper looked like she was going to drop dead then and there.

"The good news is that you only have 2 Gy, or two hundred rads, of radiation. With the proper treatment of Potassium Iodide, you should be just fine." Pepper let out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding. Tony looked a little disappointed.

"Well, that's not very dramatic." Pepper hit him again. "Does that mean that I don't get a Hulk?"

"No, Tony. It would be impossible for you to have a Hulk."

"Damn."

"Wait, then what's the bad news?" Pepper asked, fear stirring in her voice once more.

"Well," Bruce said as he put his glasses back on his face, a small smirk rising on his face. "The bad news is that he'll be up and running soon."

SO. MUCH. RESEARCH.