Full of apprehension, Tony watched as House discharged the EMP.

Contrary to what he'd expected, he actually felt it hit him, like a small electric shock. All the lights blinked out, leaving them in pitch-dark.

It took Tony a few seconds to realize that it was really, completely dark. No blue glow. Despite the shielding, his arc reactor had failed. He could already feel the worsening pain in his chest. For some reason, no one else had noticed, or something had gone wrong, because no one was helping him. He could've been alone in the dark for all he knew. He tried to call out for help, but, of course, he couldn't shout when he couldn't breathe on his own.

He grabbed the arc reactor, yanked it out, shook it, smashed it hard against his palm, but it stayed dead. There was nothing he could do.

A horrible, sharp, tearing pain pierced his heart.

Then, he died.

He woke up to see House standing next to his bed, the EMP-device in one hand, his finger over the switch. And he set it off.

Instantly, the whole device exploded in a huge ball of fire and lighting. The air was full of smoke, everyone in the room was screaming in pain, their clothes on fire, including Tony, who couldn't do anything but lie helplessly in his bed and burn alive.

And he woke up again. The third time, he realized that this was completely ridiculous and he had to be dreaming, but it didn't help. Instead, it made things worse: it removed all the realistic limitations that had been there before.

Since he knew it was a dream, Tony was able to watch as they detonated the device and the EMP went wide, far wider than he'd expected, sweeping through the hospital. Omnipresent, he saw how all electronic equipment shut down, how patient after patient died as their life-support failed - an old man who was in a coma slipping away, the life of a pretty, young girl snuffed out as she lay on the operating table with her chest cut open... And it spread even wider. Outside the hospital, he saw cars stop dead in the streets, neon signs and streetlights go out, chaos and mayhem breaking out everywhere, until there was nothing but darkness...

The next time, he found himself standing beside his own body, witnessing himself go into cardiac arrest. Kutner picked up the paddles and tried to defibrillate him, but instead of fixing his heart, the electric shock completely fried the arc reactor, which stopped working too, and so, he died again.

Tony was starting to feel like he was the main character in a computer game where the goal was to keep him alive, and the one playing the game couldn't get it right no matter what they did, so they had to keep reloading again and again. Or like he was stuck in Groundhog Day, or that one episode of Xena the Warrior Princess, except that there was nothing he could do to influence what was going on.

After everything even remotely realistic had already happened, the scenarios got even more absurd: House was about to launch the EMP, when the door to the room opened, and Obadiah Stane stepped through. First, he used the sonic device to paralyze everyone and shot them in cold blood - Pepper, Rhodey, House, all of them. Then he walked to Tony's bedside, told him "You thought you won, but you never will!" and pulled out the arc reactor.

On one hand, Tony desperately wanted to wake up and get out of this endless loop of nightmares. On the other, he was terrified of learning the truth. What if it was like one of these worst case scenarios, or even worse?

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Like House had expected, the event itself wasn't nearly as dramatic as his introduction had suggested. There was hardly anything to see or to feel. The device fizzled and threw a few sparks, and the lamps directly above it blinked out. Without them, the middle of the room, the area around Stark's bed, was left in a dimmer light than the rest, the soft blue glow of the arc reactor standing out clearly.

"Wow," House whispered soundlessly to himself. If the EMP had turned off those lights, then its range really had been just as limited as Stark had said. Estimating from the darkened area in the ceiling, House could visualize how it had emanated from the device in a sphere that just reached each wall of the room. Very precise. He was genuinely impressed. And everything looked promising so far.

"That's it?" Kutner broke the silence, sounding dumbstruck and somewhat disappointed.

"Yup. Roll end credits. Let's go home," House replied the dumb question with a dumb answer. "But wait, look, oh my God, there's a patient on that bed! I wonder if he's all right?"

The stupefied stillness lasted for a few more seconds, and then - finally - his team dashed into action. Kutner knocked on the door leading out and shouted for Taub to get in. As he and the nurses started rushing to the room with the medical equipment, House turned towards Stark.

To his annoyance, he quickly realized that there was hardly anything he could say about Stark's condition right now. The cumbersome protective clothing House wore kept him from doing anything he'd normally have done. Even if he'd had a stethoscope, which he hadn't, he wouldn't have been able to listen to anything since his ears were covered - besides, if there was a background hum from the arc reactor, it would have been an ear-splitting experience anyway. Almost the same went for trying to check his patient's pulse: the gloves covering his hands were too thick for him to feel much of anything. So, basically, before they got the monitors online again, he couldn't even tell if Stark still had a heartbeat. Berating himself mentally for not thinking about this earlier, House joined the others in setting up everything.

Good thing that the EMP had worked so well. Since it had been so small-range, they had perfectly working power outlets in the room. The fact that they had plenty of light made things easier too, because having to rely on flashlights and portable lamps would've slowed them down. With four doctors and three nurses in the room, their work was quickly done.

As soon as they had the leads attached, the EKG monitor bleeped an alarm, showing ventricular tachycardia with a heart rate of 164. So, apparently the patient still had a heartbeat, but probably not for long, unless they did something to fix the rhythm.

Kutner had already grabbed the paddles, but House held out a hand in a stop-sign, palm outwards. "Hold your horses, my daredevil Defibrillist," he ordered. He eyed Stark's upper body, his gaze stopping at the silvery arc reactor gleaming in the dimmed light. Shocking someone who had an inbuilt magnet/generator/whatever in their chest had "bad idea" written all over it. "Let's try drugs first. Start him on amiodarone," House decided. Kutner frowned at him. That wasn't going by the book, but following rules blindly never was House's thing.

"His fever's spiked," Thirteen shouted, catching House's attention. He checked the reading - 106.8. Not good. Definitely not good.

"We can't have that. Acetaminophen for the fever... And someone get a blood sample, run to the lab and stare at it for a while. I'd like to know what the hell's going on in there."

House had no idea what was going on in Stark's body. Was the VT due to the high fever, or was it a sign of his heart failing because of the disease, or were both effects of their shot at "treating" the thing? House could see three options. One, the EMP had done nothing, which meant that the symptoms were a sign that the disease was getting worse, and might kill Stark in a matter of minutes. Two, the EMP had worked and deactivated the nanovirus, and now Stark's immune system had to fight the mess still left in his body, which would explain the fever quite well. Three, the EMP had caused something unexpected, like made all the nanoviruses explode - but House would've expected even worse and stranger symptoms from some freak reaction like that.

He glanced at the EKG again. Still VT, but the heart rate had slowed down, and at least it hadn't deteriorated into ventricular fibrillation yet, which was promising. After the drugs had been administered, there wasn't a whole lot they could do but wait and see. House reckoned that if Stark started getting better, then the EMP had probably worked, and if he kept getting worse, then it hadn't. Then again, it was also possible that he'd survive the disease even if the EMP had done nothing at all. So, unless Stark's blood gave some clue, they couldn't be sure what had happened.

First, House had a puzzle that he couldn't solve because he simply couldn't understand it. Now, if the patient started getting better, he wouldn't know why. This had to be the single most frustrating case he had ever had.

"What's going on?" Colonel Rhodes asked commandingly, stepping away from the wall and closer to Stark's bed. "Did it work?"

"How should I know?" House answered sardonically. "I just work here."

"I'm not taking any of that from you," Rhodes grumbled. "Just tell me, is he going to get better?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. Only time will tell."

Time gave them hope. It only took some minutes before Stark's heartbeat settled into a stable sinus tachycardia. "Sorry, Defibrillator-Man, you can put those away," House told Kutner, who'd been standing frozen in his place, with the paddles at ready, all through the scene. "Too bad, you won't be able to add 'getting zapped when trying to defib a guy with an arc reactor' to your list of heroic feats, after all."

Stark's fever had come down a bit as well, but it was still dangerously high. Despite repeated attempts, they couldn't rouse him, though he did respond to pain, trying to withdraw his hand when House pinched his finger. It wasn't unexpected that he was unconscious, not after the way he'd taxed his already exhausted body, working on the EMP device through the night. Then again, slipping into a coma would not be an encouraging sign.

Taub returned from the lab to tell them that "I could still spot nanoviruses in his blood."

"So it didn't work?" Stark's assistant exclaimed, sounding desperate.

"Still can't tell," House replied, annoyed both at her and the uncertainty of the situation. "It might be inactive and just waiting for its doom even though it's still there." But, House thought to himself, at least it showed the bugs hadn't been blasted into tiny bits or anything like that, so it ruled out option number three.

"If it's inactive, then we can't get it anymore, can we? It's no longer contagious?"

"If, then yes. But it's a big If. Very iffy."

"Actually... I really don't care," Potts muttered, and started pulling off her gloves.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Worried out of her wits, Pepper waited and stared as the doctors worked on Tony. She didn't know if the EMP had done what it was supposed to, since she really hadn't known what to expect. She also couldn't follow what was going on. Tony was still unconscious and looked every bit as sick as before. The only things she could understand were Kutner grabbing the paddles, which looked like a bad sign, and the fact that Tony's fever was even higher than before. She felt useless, just standing here like this. She guessed Rhodes felt the same way, and his outburst at House made that even clearer.

When Taub returned and told that there still were nanoviruses in Tony's blood, she felt like all her hopes had been crushed, but then House pointed out that this might be good. The nanoviruses might be inactive. If they were, then she would be safe even without the protective clothing. And if they weren't, well, then Tony was going to die, wasn't he? She had always considered herself a more or less realistic and practical person, and definitely not a Romeo and Juliet -scale hopeless romantic. Yet now she found herself thinking that if Tony was going to die, she really couldn't care less about her own health.

She pulled off one protective glove, then the other, and opened the hood, which contained the air filtering system. By this time, Rhodes had realized what she was up to, and tried to stop her, grabbing both her arms in a strong grip and pinning them against her sides. "Miss Potts! Pepper! Are you out of your mind?"

"Rhodey, you're too late," she told him. "I've already exposed myself to the air."

He knew she was telling the truth. He let go of her arms, and shook his head at her. "I hope you know what you're doing," he said.

"Now we're going to have to keep you in isolation as well, Miss Potts," Thirteen pointed out. "Maybe for quite a long time, too, since we don't know exactly how the disease progresses in the early stages, when will the nanoviruses show up in blood samples, and so on."

Pepper hadn't even thought about that, but she didn't care. At the moment, this felt like the right thing to do. She felt better than a moment ago, not as helpless, and energetic, with an unexpected adrenaline rush that doing something so extreme, more than a bit crazy, had caused. She stripped off the rest of the protective clothing, and stood there, in nothing but her regular clothes.

With everyone else staring at her in a stunned silence, she crossed the room to Tony's bedside, and then forgot that there was anyone else in the room. She swept back the damp hair from his forehead. It felt so hot with fever that he was practically radiating warmth. In the dim light, the arc reactor's glow cast strange bluish shadows on his pale face, in a horrible illusion that made him look like he was dead. She covered the reactor with her hand. It felt cool to the touch, unlike the skin around it. The changed light wasn't much better, though - now Tony's face looked gray instead of blue and white.

A chair appeared behind her, apparently brought there by Rhodes. She sat down on it, and took Tony's hand between hers, intertwining her fingers with his. She couldn't have done any of this properly if she'd still been wearing the protection, and if Tony was going to die, this was the way things should be, with Pepper by his side, until the very end.

In the room around her, people gradually returned to action. House sent away the nurses ("Don't you have anywhere else to be?"), and set his team to run some more tests. Pepper stayed where she was, so that they had to work around her, but they didn't complain.

Rhodes stopped by her side, and stood there silently, looking at Tony as well, and resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. He stayed there for some time - could've been an hour, could've been five minutes - and then, squeezed her shoulder and let go. "I've got to go away again for a while, I promised I'd be in touch with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Okay," Pepper mumbled. As she watched him walk out, she wondered if Rhodey could guess anything, if he could see that things had somehow changed between her and Tony, and what he would think about it. But she quickly forgot the thought, placing it in the folder in her mind labeled "later", which she would consider thinking about once Tony got better.

More time passed. She didn't bother keeping track of it. At one point, Kutner addressed her, telling her that things were actually looking better for Tony, and that the worst was probably over. She rewarded the good news with a smile, but didn't say anything.

After another timeless while of sitting there, his hand held between hers, Tony grasped her hand.

Pepper jumped, startled by the sudden sign of life from him. She stood up, her hand still in his, and looked at his face. He was gazing towards her, his eyes feverishly bright and clearly unfocused, and his expression surprised and confused.

He lifted her hand with his onto his chest, over the arc reactor, and with his other hand, pointed first at himself and then at her, calling to mind his earlier drawing. He still looked confused, or maybe in doubt, eyebrows raised inquiringly.

Feeling more conscious than before of the fact that there were others in the room with them, Pepper smiled at Tony. "Yes, Tony. I meant it. And we're both still alive."

Tony seemed content with that, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep. Somehow, she thought, he looked better now. More relaxed, with less furrows on his brow.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Hey!" Doctor James Wilson exclaimed, as Greg House grabbed the larger half of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"It's for medical purposes," House answered. "I can't remember when I last ate. I might just pass out on the floor of your office any minute now."

Knowing House and the case he was suddenly working on, Wilson thought it was probably true, too. When House got really interested about a case, he wouldn't let little things like sleep or food distract him. But Wilson wasn't about to give up this easily. "Amber made these for me, you know."

"Oh, and you think she guessed I was going to come along when you're eating and pick the bigger half, so she poisoned it? That sneaky bitch!" House said, and bit into the sandwich.

Wilson sighed. Why did he even try? They ate in silence, and House stole what remained of Wilson's coffee before he could drink it himself. Well, it was probably cold and tasted awful anyway. Then, House just sat there, unusually silent, staring at Wilson expectantly. Yeah, Wilson could easily guess what this was about. "All right, I'll ask. How's your superhero?"

"I can't tell you, that's top secret. Men in Black would appear and sweep our memories if I did."

"Oh, come on, House, I know you're burning to tell me!"

"But how badly do you want to know?"

"I'm not the one who's fanatic about this sort of stuff," Wilson said, stood up and took a few steps as if to leave the room.

"Well, all right," House said, not so surprisingly, and Wilson returned to his chair. "He's not super, but he's getting better," House told smugly.

"It's not really thanks to you, though, is it? I mean, it was HPS, so what could you do? Or did you come up with some unheard-of drug that's not yet past trials?"

"Well..." House raised his eyebrows and smirked. "You could say that."

"It was HPS, wasn't it?"

"You could say that, too."

"So, it wasn't! That explains. I was wondering how you'd be this fascinated about a hantavirus infection, but I thought it was just the patient that made the case cool... What was it, then?"

"That's something I really can't tell you," House said, his tone slightly more serious.

"I heard rumors about people getting evacuated from the rooms surrounding Stark's, what was that about?"

"Engineering project. He was bored. It was pretty neat, actually. You know, he really is a genius. I think he might be almost as smart as I am!"

"Since when have you started liking hypocritical wannabe world-savers?" - which was what House had called Stark earlier, when he and Wilson had last discussed the subject.

"I haven't. But Stark's cool."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Author's Note: Wow! This story has now been favorited more than any other story I've written, and is on its way to become my most reviewed story ever, too. Thank you, everyone. :D And no worries, this was definitely not the last chapter, there's at least two more still to come, though there's probably going to be less angst and more fluff there. I'm a bit surprised at myself, actually. Before this (and my other Iron Man story), I was almost allergic to writing anything even remotely romantic, but here I am, totally enjoying writing it! Whee. :)