Wow so i was blown away by the amount of response this story got. Thank you all so much. If i didn't pm you i apologize, my computer is a little tempermental at the moment cuz of Sandy. But just a heads up the first bit of this is a dream within his nightmare, i apologize if this confuses anyone but italics will be our Tony Nightmare verse and regular will be the real world so i hope that helps you keep up enough. So enjoy, i apologize for the shortness of this one as well but it needed to end where it ended and you'll see why.

Chapter 2: Tony's Hell Hole

As his suit began to shut down and fall to the ground Tony didn't care. 'Let me die. I'm already dead without her' he thought as tears shamelessly fell down his face. As Tony impacted with the ground by the expo pavilion, the blow rendered him unconscious.

As he slept he felt at peace and thought himself beyond salvation. Pepper was his savior and she was gone and now so was he and he'd search forever until he found her. But as he thought this he heard a voice call out to him and the sound was the most beautiful music he'd ever heard uttered.

'Tony.'

'Pepper?'

'Tony.' The voice called again.

'Where are you?' He asked desperately.

'Tony.' She called once more.

Tony turned around to face the sound and that's when he saw her. She looked like a goddess. Tony ran to her but it seemed as though he was moving in slow motion until he could move no more.

'I love you Tony' She said with a sad smile.

'I'm sorry Pepper. I'm so sorry I never told you. I'm so sorry I wasn't brave enough to tell you I love you too. Please just take me with you. I can't live without you in my life.' His voice rasped. He was almost to Pepper. Tony reached out his hand to grab hold of her hand and she did the same. Their fingers touched and for a brief moment she smiled at him and everything seemed right again. In the next instant a breeze came and Pepper disappeared with it. The sky turned black and Tony was falling again speedily heading toward a pit of flames, the same flames that had taken Pepper. As his body hit the flames he awoke and saw Happy asleep on a chair beside him.

He looked around and saw the white walls and then the black cast on his arm that cut off just above his elbow.

'Happy.' His voice rasped from lack of hydration. 'Happy.' Tony rasped louder. Happy jumped awake and looked to Tony.

'Hey Boss.' Happy said.

'Pepper?' Tony asked needing to know if he really hadn't been able to save his one true love. Happy looked away and swallowed sadly. He looked back to Tony and shook his head no, unable to manage words. Tony looked away as the bitter tears of reality streamed down his face. 'I want to go home.'

'Boss, you have PTSD and a broken arm not to mention a few bruised ribs. You need to stay here so-"

"No. I need Pepper.' Tony argued.

'She's gone Tony.' Happy said sternly. 'Pepper is not coming back, she's gone, she's dead Tony.'

Tony was quiet before speaking a moment later. 'I never told her how I felt about her.'

'She knew.'

'But I never said anything. I chickened out and I never got to tell her.' Tony replied guiltily.

'She loved you, Boss just the way you are, she knew how you felt.'

'Take me home Happy.' Tony responded coldly shutting out Happy. Happy sighed and got up to walk out of the room and go find the doctor to talk about Tony's release.

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"What exactly happened here Ms. Potts?" asked the doctor glancing once to his patient that was sweating and blinking uncontrollably.

"I…I'm not quite sure. I was talking on the phone with him one second and the next JARVIS is telling me he's passed out. What's going on Doctor Downey? Is he going to be okay?"

"From what we can tell, and this is all preliminary, Mr. Stark is locked within his subconscious. I've seen this happen before but not at this high level of intensity that Mr. Stark is enduring. He's reliving a dream that will appear very vivid to him, when he finally wakes up he may even believe his dream was reality because of the high level intensity he's experiencing it at. I'm unable to tell you how long MR. Stark will remain locked in. It could be anywhere from a few hours to possibly even a few weeks. It's all circumstantial at this point. We aren't able to do very much for him due to his uh…heart…circumstances. We should be able to tell you more once his blood work up comes back."

"So what can you do for him?" Pepper asked remaining stoic until the moment she could be alone with Tony.

Dr. Downey sighed and said, "We can give Mr. Stark an IV to keep him hydrated and monitor his brain activity but I'm afraid at this point in time,…waiting is the only other thing we can do." Pepper nodded and walked over to Tony sitting beside him and slipping her warm hand into his cold one.

She looked at his face and noticed how he looked to be in so much pain. His usual playful features were contorted in pain. She noticed a single tear begin to fall from his eye and that was when her heart really broke. "God Tony, come on wake up. It's not real, none of it is real. Come back Tony, please I need you; I can't do this without you." But her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Okay that's it for today, thanks again for reading and for all the support i've gathered so far. See you next time with an update.