Here's the next installment of the story! I'm sorry I made you guys wait so long, but I suddenly got really busy. I can tell by your reviews you're all really excited for the arc reactor story, but there's another story before that one! I've started working on the team's views on Tony and I've got two of them done so far!

As ever, I hope you all enjoy and I hope to hear from all of you again :D

"Tony?" Pepper mumbled as she blindly typed her passcode into Tony's lab. She had woken up a few minutes ago, looked to see that the clock read 3 a.m. and noticed that the spot next to her was vacant. Tony was an early riser, but this was a little bit obnoxious, even for him. So she had pulled on her robe and headed down to the only place Tony would be at this hour—his lab.

He was working on the suit again, a new one this time. He already had two completed suits-one that he used and a back-up in case something failed in the first suit-but he always had new ideas flowing through his mind, so Pepper really couldn't say she was surprised.

"What are you doing up?" she asked, moving closer to him. She rested a hand on his shoulder but he didn't stop his work. Not a good night then.

It wasn't the first time he'd had a bad night. Nightmares kept him up often, about being too late to save her at the expo, Afghanistan, Stane, and recently the sensation of floating in space and knowing he was about to die. Plus he was still trying to deal with Coulson's death, something she knew had hit him really hard.

"I'm working on a new suit. I should have one on the ship, just in case," he said, not even bothering to look at her.

"Tony," she protested, putting her hand on his chest and putting pressure on it. She would never be able to move him by herself, but he took the hint and stepped away, turning to look at her. She searched his eyes, completely devoid of the normal arrogance. Instead, she found hurt hidden within, and behind that, a fear driving him to build, build, build. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. I just want to be prepared," Tony said, turning back to his work. She leaned against the table behind her, knowing it was better to wait then harass him. She could tell him that he could trust her, but he already knew that. She could tell him that he couldn't hide from whatever was bothering him, but he knew that too. It was strange being in his lab when there was no music and no conversation between Tony and Jarvis. He worked on the boot a little longer, not even bothering to wake up any of the other helper robots. Finally he set the tool down.

"They think I'm weak," he said, turning to her. "That without my suit, I'm nothing. And they're right. If I were attacked right now, I wouldn't be able to do a single thing. Ivan proved that."

Pepper had worried that something like this might happen. There was a reason that heroes never worked together—teams like theirs required instant chemistry because they were usually formed once the need was there. They couldn't go out and fight if they couldn't trust each other to watch the other's back and none of them just freely gave out that trust. And if there was one thing Tony was terrible with above all others, it was first impressions. He was snarky, he talked back, he defied authority, and in the end, he usually got what he wanted. It would take a while for the team to understand that there was usually a good reason for what he did. And until they got to that point, harsh words would be exchanged. She had just been hoping to avoid this.

"Tony, you're never weak," she told him. He scoffed.

"Tell that to the good Captain

Oh now they were getting into all sorts of complications. She knew Howard had raised Tony on Captain America stories until Tony had learned to hate both of them. When they had pulled the captain from the ice, Tony had gone to see him. It had been him who had worked with S.H.I.E.L.D on how to remove the ice and revive Steve and then had never returned to see him.

"What did exactly did he say?" Pepper had to believe Tony was blowing this out of proportion. From what she had heard of Steve, he wasn't brutal.

"'Big man in a suit, take that away and what are you?'" Tony said bitterly, turning back to look at his boot, but he didn't pick up his tools again. His words held the practiced tone that came when someone had repeated the words over and over in their head until they were engraved in their skull.

Pepper managed to hold back her flinch. Right. Iron Man was nearly invincible. Tony Stark? He was human. "Tony, everyone always tries to separate you from Iron Man, but you proved that was impossible to do. How can they separate the two of you when it was from your mind and your hands that Iron Man came from? Besides that, you proved that you are capable of survival by yourself. You came back from Afghanistan alive, even after everyone thought you were dead."

She moved closer to him and wrapper her arms around him to rest her head on his shoulder.

"They don't know you yet Tony. They say the first things that pop into their mind, whether or not they know it's true. Give them time."

She felt his muscles relax slightly underneath her and knew she had at least slightly penetrated his despair. He turned, so that he could wrap his arms around her. The arc reactor hummed quietly in her ear.

"Besides, I bet you didn't say very nice things either," she said, deciding it was safe to bring a lighter mood into the room.

"Who? Me? Nah, only compliments come out of this mouth."

Pepper smiled, glad that the old Tony was back. The real proof that he was recovering would be if he got up the next night to get more work done on the suit.

"Right. So what exactly is your plan? Build a suit for every place you've ever been?"

"Something along those lines. A couple for the base, a couple for this tower, a couple back in Malibu, and one to carry with me when I go out in public."

"Have you developed anything new outside of the case you make Happy cart around?"

"No, but it's been in the back of my mind for a while now. I did make it lighter after the last repairs. I was thinking about for my new suit…"

And for the next hour, she let Tony talk out his ideas, even though she had very little to contribute. About a half hour into their talk, he woke Jarvis up and started pinging ideas off of him. She smiled as he started working again, instructing Jarvis to turn on some music and reminding him not to let anybody (especially her) turn it off.

"I'll leave you boys to it. I'm going back to bed." She kissed Tony on the cheek and went to go leave, but Tony caught her wrist. She looked back at him.

"Thanks," he told her. She moved back to give him another kiss.

"Sometimes we need help to see the truth. I'll always be here for that," she promised, then ambled her way back up to bed.

She smiled when she rolled over the next night and found the bed occupied by a warm being, a soft blue light bathing her face as she fell back asleep.