Disclaimer is in chapter one.

A/N: Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy :)

6. The Take-back

A few days later, after the incident in the kitchen, Tony returned from his workshop. He'd gotten entirely caught up with a new project. No, that was a lie. It was more along the line of a continued yearly project that he only returned to once a year around his daughter's birthday.

Every year Tony built his little girl a gift as if she was still around to squeal with joy at the sparkling wrapping paper and the contents within. The rarely heard from rational part of Tony knew that he was wasting his time, that there was literally tons of other waiting projects that he should devote his time on, but try as he might, he couldn't make himself stop or even throw the damn presents out. All ten of them were carefully kept in a hidden section of his workshop that only he knew of.

So busy had he been with his newest design for his child that Tony was completely shocked to notice the entirety of his team all but camping out in the hallway leading to his floor of private labs. "Whoa," Tony jumped inelegantly over Steve's massive legs where he lay snoring loudly with his head in Natasha's lap. The red-headed spy was eyeing him with no emotion on her face whatsoever, and Tony scrambled backwards with no little fear of her somehow trying to kill him with her mind.

"Not that I don't like a good team-exercise, in fact group sleeps are kinda my thing –did I ever tell you about the time I had a lovely visit from this female volleyball team, okay not important – my point is, if you all wanted to sleep together, I have a big bed." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and grinned.

"So you're you again." Natasha said tonelessly, adding a second later with a deadpan tone, "How nice."

Tony kept the grin on his face and didn't comment, too busy cataloging the other people lying more or less asleep on his floor. Bruce was sitting opposite Natasha, his bespectacled face leaned forward with his chin on his chest and he looked about as tired as Tony suddenly felt. Next to him sat Clint, like Natasha, he too was awake but he didn't meet Tony's gaze as his hands were busy whittling something or other.

"Did I know he could do that?" Tony asked nobody and turned his attention to the most important of the people present: Pepper. She was sitting in an awkward pose right next to his glassdoors and for the life of him, he had no idea why a) he hadn't noticed her tall frame until now and b) why she hadn't used her override codes to enter his workshop.

Finally Tony's exhausted mind caught up to him and he glanced back at his team. "Why are you even here?" He slowly began making his way over to his girlfriend, intent on getting her to bed. "You've got rooms with actual beds and it can't be comfortable staying on the floor for longer than absolutely necessary."

"You kicked us out," Clint muttered and Tony frowned. Tony looked like he actually tried to remember it, but then shrugged and muttered something about simply being too tired to bother. His usual curiosity along with his disbelief burned brightly in his red-rimmed eyes and he looked up at the nearest camera to speak with JARVIS. "Jay, what's Birdman talking about?"

"Sir," JARVIS' tone was a tad apologetic, and it seemed to confuse Tony even more, "Three days and 12 hours ago, you told your fellow Avengers team to vacate the tower before your return. Miss Potts intervened mid-move and ever since their discussion the team has – barring other obligations – kept vigil in the hallway outside your preferred workshop."

"Huh." Tony rubbed his chin, absentmindedly reminding himself that he really needed a good shave. He smelled his armpit and grimaced, a shower wouldn't go amiss either.

"That's all you have to say?" Natasha asked, having somehow managed to untangle herself from the sleeping American icon and stepping closer to him while he was distracted. "We've tried getting your attention, but you ignored us for days."

"Soundproof rooms," Tony pointed out and hurried along when it looked like the spy wanted to say more, "and I darkened my end of the glass. You may have been able to see me, but I couldn't see anything. Sorry."

"No, we're sorry." Clint had risen as well and flanked his partner's side with a serious look in his eyes as he finally met Tony's. A fresh round of anger rushed through every fiber of Tony's being, but excellent actor that he was, his face twisted into a confused grin and let the anger burn through him.

"Okay. Apology accepted, let's never speak of it again or whatever. I'm hungry, anyone else hungry? Go on, I'm just gonna wake up Pep and convince her that we need to eat before hitting the sack so she won't end up hitting my sa—"

"Thank you, Stark, we get the picture," Natasha interrupted and grabbed a now slightly relieved-looking Clint and disappeared within a blink of an eye. Steve, who'd awoken in the meantime, nodded seriously at Tony and left without saying anything.

Tony looked down at Bruce, who suddenly lifted his head and sent him a tired smile. "About time you came up for air. Another few hours and I would've had to ask the Other Guy for help."

"You're overreacting, Brucie," Tony smiled widely, and gestured in the direction the others had gone. "Go on, Big Guy, like I said I just need a minute with Pepper and I'll join you for some much needed grub."

Bruce got to his feet, eyes never leaving Tony's. For a long while nothing was said, but then the scientist smiled a little and shrugged awkwardly. "It's okay to miss her, Tony. The others didn't know or forgot, and they're sorry. If you ever want to talk about…" He trailed off at the frozen smile on his friend's face and nodded when Tony didn't respond. "Pepper was worried about you; she really tore into Clint when JARVIS told her what happened."

Tony didn't react and with a sigh, Bruce left as well. Tony slumped up against the nearest wall, fighting off the sting in his eyes. He'd sworn years ago to never cry again and he was still trying to follow that oath.

He'd overreacted to Clint's taunts, and he'd known it the second he'd gotten a moment to himself again. To be fair, Tony had never been good at handling emotions, let alone his own and they always flared up this time of year. The memories of Susanna, and Darcy caused him to lose the ability to sleep, eat or even think properly and that combo always made him a little unstable. Being too proud to actually apologize, since the others had crossed the line in Tony's mind, he told JARVIS to get Pepper to stop them from leaving before it was too late and then began his latest invention slash gift to his little girl and didn't return to the present until apparently days had passed.

Darcy…Even thinking her name put the promise to not cry to the test, but with one last effort, he managed and he turned to wake Pepper.

0o0o0

TBC...