I firstly need to apologise to those of you who have read the most recent Chapter 9, 10 and 11, as you may notice they are gone and replaced by the one's I am uploading now. There was some kind of error in my files and they uploaded the wrong thing! This is the right one, so please enjoy and review if you can lol!

Tony leaned against the cold door which stood between him and Pepper. This was the hardest decision he's ever had to make, but he knew it was the right one.

He gave himself a few minutes to get composed, and then headed back to his team.

'We need a plan.' Bruce said firmly.

'You think we don't know that, what options do we have?' Natasha said flatly, 'Live and lose Tony, or die and probably lose Tony anyway.' She said.

Tony stood at the door watching them argue, 'no one has to die.' He finally interjected.

They stopped to look at him, no one really knowing what to say.

'I've got a plan, and if I'm right, everything will work out favourably.' He explained.

'Well, good. What is it?' Steve asked.

Tony took a seat by Thor.

'We're going to go in and take him out.' Tony said simply.

They all looked at him with quizzical looks.

'If it was that easy, wouldn't we have done that by now?' Natasha asked.

Tony laughed, the rest of the team looked at each other. Bruce, for one, looked incredibly uncomfortable.

'There's nothing easy about it, and we couldn't do it before because we didn't have this.' He placed a one of his tablets in the middle of the table. They leaned in to look.

'These are the schematics for the building directly adjacent to this one.' Tony explained.

Thor's eyes widened, 'he's been here the whole time?'

Tony nodded, 'I would assume so. He sent this to me a few days ago.' He handed a small envelope to Steve. He opened it and glanced at the note. Natasha read over his shoulder.

Three days to make your choice Mr Stark

-W.B

'What choice, Tony?' Natasha asked eyeing him.

'That's not important.' He replied, 'what is important is that we now know that's he's here.' He tapped the screen.

'How are we doing this?' Bruce asked.

Tony stood up, his face beaming with a dazzling smile, 'that's where you come in Romanov.'

She nodded, the agent in her always coming first. 'What do you need me to do?'

'Can you bring in the Hawk?' Tony asked, dropping his gaze from hers to focus on a map he was bringing up on his tablet.

'Done, where do you want us?' she asked.

'Bring him in, we'll debrief when he gets here.' Tony said smiling.

Tony Stark's infectious good mood lightened the hearts of his team. Natasha took off to make her call to Clint, and the rest of them chatted light heartedly amongst themselves. Tony stood at a distance watching them, he had a plan. He had inadvertently become the leader of this team, the team which was working around the clock to save his life. He shook his head; his subconscious was alive, thoughts crept into his mind.

Big man in a suit, take that away, what are you? His response to this question was witty, humorous and full of lies. He took to heart what he had said, because it was the truth.

Was he worthy of leading this team? He didn't know, but he knew that they had let him, they expected him to lead them, and he would. If only because his own arse was on the line. But he knew that wasn't true either. He did it because he cared about these people, his friends? He did it because Pepper would expect him to, and she'd be proud.

He sighed heavily, catching the attention of his team.

'You ok?' Bruce asked, looking at him sideways.

'Sure, where's Romanov?' Tony asked energetically. He tried to mask his anxiety as much as possible. He did it his whole life, now was no exception.

'Right here.' She said walking into the room.

'He'll be here in ten.' She advised.

'Perfect.' Tony replied. He gently play punched Natasha in the shoulder and took a seat by Thor. 'Is anyone else hungry? I think we should get Shawarma, I can't be the only one wanting to eat.' He stood up again throwing his hands in the air dramatically at the lack of enthusiasm from his team.

'Still hung up on the Shawarma, I see?'

Tony turned to see Clint standing there, a wide grin on his face.

Tony laughed and shook his hand enthusiastically. 'Good to see you.' He said.

Cling laughed. 'I thought you'd never invite me to this party.'

'Romanov said you were a mood killer.' He spoke quietly, looking sideways at Natasha.

She shook her head. 'If anyone's a mood killer, it's you, Tony.' She walked over to him, 'Mr "I'm all tough and I get kidnapped for the attention".' She mocked.

Tony grunted, 'I'm offended Romanov, that was mean.' He feigned sadness.

'Still the same team, I see.' Clint laughed.

Bruce, Thor and Steve looked at each other. The look of confusion made Tony laugh. He found Clint and Natasha to be the only two people which seemed to look at life the same way he did. Bad things happened, and you just dealt with it and moved on. The others? Well they revelled in the misery, the fear and uncertainty; they thrived on these emotions to drive them. Tony understood that everyone focussed in a different way, and their way just didn't suit him.

'So what's the plan?' Clint spoke, holding his hand up to Tony, who he could see was about to interrupt, 'after the Shawarma that is.' He added.

Tony and Natasha laughed.

They had Tony's new favourite food delivered and they ate, for a few hours they laughed and talked, not mentioning the mission which lay around the corner, nor did Tony let his mind wander, he enjoyed his Shawarma and his friends. He enjoyed feeling completely at ease with the world and his life. He knew that when this was over, a change would come.