Eleanor's college days weren't necessarily stressful, but they were irritating. Her undergraduate schooling went quickly, and it was actually Pepper that had to convince her to attend her own graduation ("It's an important milestone!") but she was entering the last stretch of medical school, and it was much of the same.

She knew from the beginning that she was gifted with genius Stark-level intelligence, but Eleanor didn't enjoy the same things as her brother and father. She wasn't into robots and building weapons or dealing with mechanics. The closest thing she felt with them was an interest in prosthetics, and that wasn't anywhere close to the same as what they liked.

Maria Stark was a saint through and through. She realized that her youngest wasn't like the men of the family, and despite Howard's constant nudging towards a mechanical direction, Maria encouraged Eleanor to ignore him and do whatever she wanted. And what Maria Stark said, Eleanor listened.

"How's the Ph.D. coming along?" Pepper's voice rang through Eleanor's small apartment. Eleanor was tapping away on her laptop, multiple mugs of coffee surrounding her desk as she sighed out, "I told you that my first go around wasn't approved, right? Apparently, research involving telomerase and DNA and the manipulations of it can't be considered 'accurate' from a student. So I had to change it up, and now I'm finishing up my dissertation on artificial organs and junk like that."

Pepper hummed. "I can't say I understand, but how is everyone treating you there? I know that you have to be the youngest, right?"

Eleanor snorted before slamming her laptop shut and leaning back in her chair. "You remember how hard it was to get my internship right? And the residency? Imagine that times five including the occasional girl trying to get on my good side for Tony. Other than that, it's great."

It wasn't a secret that Tony's assistant worried about the younger Stark. With her boss being a self-destructive egomaniac, Pepper felt almost obligated to make sure that Eleanor didn't follow that road. Eleanor would be lying if she said she didn't like it - Pepper was one of her favorite people.

"We're planning on coming to the graduation, which you are going to," Pepper sternly asserted at the sound of Eleanor's protests. "El, this is something not many people get to do, and you're accomplishing it at your age. Please be happy for yourself."

The guilt coursed through her veins at those words. Pepper was a welcomed change to the dynamic between Eleanor and Tony, and occasionally Rhodey, and it was hard to have someone like her. Tony was supportive, there was no doubt about it, but he was also successful in his own right, dealing with the company and his own wild antics that sometimes it was difficult for the two to communicate. Pepper, however, made it a point to talk with Eleanor more than once or twice a week so that everyone could keep up with each other.

"I am, Pep," Eleanor sighed out, hunching over in her chair and rubbing her forehead. "I worked hard, found something I liked to do, and I'm damn good at it. I don't know... there's just certain times that I don't really, I guess, want to do this anymore. It's hard to explain."

The line was silent, and Eleanor was worried she said something wrong. She was going through what every twenty-two year old went through in college, right? At least, that's what she had read.

"Are you sure everything is okay, El?" Pepper's voice was soft. "I'm sure it wouldn't take a lot of convincing to get Tony and Rhodey together to come out there, you know?"

"You don't need to."

"But, if you're feeling down - "

"I'm not feeling down. I-I just haven't slept in about thirty hours because I've been working on this damn dissertation. I defend it next week so I've just been stressed," Eleanor tried to reason. No matter the loneliness or sadness she was feeling in the home stretch, she wouldn't feel any better if she were to uproot the others to fly all the way to Boston for her. And she especially didn't want Harvard Med to make a big deal about Tony Stark visiting before graduation.

"Look I gotta go, Pepper. I'll text you the graduation details. Love you, bye." Eleanor hung up quickly and placed her head in her hands.

She couldn't recall when it started exactly, but sometime during her time in medical school, Eleanor felt her attitude change. She thought it could've been after her initial research was rejected immediately despite her dissertation being finished, or maybe it could've been the time she started to feel ostracized from everyone here, she didn't know. What she did know is that she felt... weird.

Weird enough for her to realize her sleeping schedule was even worse and she wasn't eating as much as she used to. Weird enough to know that had trouble truly wanting to do anything; her pride was the only thing preventing her from giving up completely. Eleanor couldn't see herself as anything but a doctor or something in the medical field, and even as she sat there in the dim light of her apartment, she could only envision herself in scrubs.

Eleanor knew Pepper was worried about her. Eleanor was smart enough to know that she was going down a dark road that she might never come back from, but it was hard. Sometimes, she thought that maybe just sharing all of her doubts and issues, she would feel somewhat better. Or once she finally finished getting her Ph.D. she would feel better. Or if she moved back to Malibu, she would feel better. But, she didn't have someone she could just talk to whenever she wanted, she wasn't finished with her Ph.D. and she just tired of it, and she wasn't in Malibu.

Was Eleanor a little depressed? She wouldn't say so, but logically, she knew if she were to talk to a therapist or any other doctor, they would disagree with her. And when she would argue that it was just stress, they would say that it was the stress that most likely caused it.

Eleanor sighed again and reopened her laptop, trying to finish the rest of her dissertation.

"Tony, I'm worried about your sister."

Tony looked up from his tinkering to see his assistant. Quirking an eyebrow, he asked, "JARVIS hasn't said anything weird has happened to her. Why are you so worried?"

Pepper couldn't help but shift slightly. "She just doesn't seem... happy? I just finished talking with her and I think that she needs us - needs you to see her."

Tony set his things down and leaned back in his seat. "She said she didn't want to see us until graduation," he pointed out, bitterness seeping through his tone. He'd be a liar if he said he didn't notice what Pepper was saying. Each time he spoke with Eleanor, she seemed more and more defeated? Sad? Aloof? He couldn't place a word on it, but he definitely knew his little sister wasn't acting like normal. "And I don't think it'll make anything better if we suddenly surprise her."

Pepper chewed her lip thoughtfully, and Tony rubbed a hand down his face. Eleanor was graduating in about two weeks (she made sure she didn't have to stay any longer than she should) and he wanted to respect her wishes despite how much he hated them.

"What if you happen to have an important meeting in Boston?" Pepper suggested hopefully. "One that you have to go to, and you just so happen to run into her? Tony, I really think she needs someone right now."

Tony should've said no. Eleanor would've wanted him to say no, and he could already imagine her reaction ("I told you not to come, you idiot!") but perhaps it was his own worry and his own selfishness that made him grin at his assistant. "I'm so glad I hired you. Oh, make sure Rhodey shows up - Ellie is gonna be pissed and she doesn't yell at me as much when he's there."

Eleanor jerked awake at the sound of a knock on her door. Blearily, she sat up from the couch and shoved her notebooks off of her chest before stumbling to open the door.

"Surprise," Tony chimed with a singsong voice, Rhodey grinning next to him, prompting Eleanor to slam the door shut. "Oh come on, Ellie, open up so your favorite people can visit!"

"I explicitly said 'not until graduation', didn't I?" Eleanor answered, opening the door again, Tony pushing through and kissing her on the side of head. Rhodey followed after giving her a tight hug, "Sorry, El. We had some business in Boston so we thought we'd stop by."

Business, my ass. "Pepper talked to you, didn't she?"

"No," the two men in front her objected quickly, and Eleanor rolled her eyes fondly, dramatically throwing her arms out. "Well, here's my place. I would say sorry about the mess, but I didn't know you guys were coming."

The three of them eyed the room in disdain as they could see the large amount of dishes piling up, papers strewn everywhere, and a blanket and pillow on the couch, indicating she spent most nights in the living room. At Rhodey's pointed look towards the couch, Eleanor yawned and shrugged. "I can only sit in my room for so long."

Tony and Rhodey shared a look before nodding at each other, Eleanor staring at them suspiciously. "What just happened?"

Tony grabbed her by the shoulders and directed her to her bedroom. "You, my dear sister, are going to get ready, and the three of us are going to go out. If you don't want lots of cameras, I'd wear something like a hat or a mask."

"I'm not wearing a mask."

"Hat, it is, then."

Eleanor grumbled at him before shoving him out of her room to get changed, not missing the wide smirk on his face.

"So what it is that we're doing?" Eleanor asked as the three walked, walked, around Boston. Rhodey bumped shoulders with her. "Whatever you want to do. I don't come to Boston a lot so I don't know what to do around here."

"Yeah, Ellie," Tony cut in. "We came to visit you so be a generous host and show us around."

"Don't hosts usually invite their guests?"

"Not this host."

Eleanor just sighed and readjusted her hat and sunglasses (how could anyone hide like this?) before dragging the two into her favorite cafe, mumbling, "You're paying for my lunch."

Tony grinned and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

It was a long day, and Eleanor was tired, and she was feeling much lighter than she had in a long time. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but Pepper did her a huge favor by sending her brother and Rhodey here. She showed them all of her favorite hang out spots (there wasn't many), and even showed them a little around campus. She surprisingly let them read bits and pieces of her dissertation, in which Rhodey just nodded along while Tony analyzed everything, making her nervous.

"El, this is... wow, I don't even know what to say," Rhodey told her, awe in his voice that made her shift uncomfortably. "I obviously can't understand all of it, but the gist of it - you know this is genius and groundbreaking, right?"

Eleanor huffed out a laugh. "Yeah, I guess. I'm still upset about not being able to go all the way through with my other piece."

Rhodey nodded understandingly at her, and the two waited for Tony's reaction.

She wasn't sure when her brother's approval started mattering so much to her (definitely when Mom and Dad died), but she definitely didn't want him reading everything she'd written. It was on a whim that she allowed them to, the happy feeling from the day they had pushing her to do it, but now she was feeling the anxiousness.

It wasn't as if Tony shot her down anytime she did something. In fact, he was the most supportive person she had, and maybe she relied too much on his stamp of approval, but without it, she would toss everything away and start anew.

Tony looked up from her computer and gave her a firm nod with a soft look in his eyes. "This is great, Ellie. They should hand you the degree as soon as you finish," he declared, and she gave him a small smile. "We're so proud of you. I'm so proud of you."

He drew her into an unexpected hug that knocked the breath out of her. Alarmed, she looked to Rhodey who held the same proud smile that adorned her brother's face, and Eleanor felt tears prick her eyes involuntarily. She gripped Tony tightly, a small sob escaping her lips. She didn't know why she was crying. Stress? Relief? Happiness? She couldn't pinpoint it, but whatever the reason, her heart felt lighter, and she was feeling the best she had in months.

Tony pulled away and wiped the tears from her face, tucking her hair behind her ears. "We'll clean this place up - it's a dump, sorry - while you go get some sleep. I know you've been stressing out over this whole dissertation thing, and you're starting to look like a raccoon."

Eleanor gave a wet chuckle before nodding at the two of them. She gave each of them a kiss on the cheek before collapsing on her bed.

She wasn't suddenly feeling one hundred percent after the visit, but she was definitely feeling better.