I. Cannot. Belive. This. It took me over SEVEN MONTHS to get one lousy chapter posted! SEVEN! It does not make me happy. BUT, I bet you guys are! :D I finally updated! And I have semi-good reason for why. My kindle, where I had the last few chapters FINISHED and this whole story was COMPLETE, BUT my Kindle BROKE, there for not allowing me access to the story :( And I totally got stumped on how to finish it again. Thankfully, I got over it.

Disclaimer: Um what? O.o

Howard hitched a ride with the ambulance, since he was the father. The paramedic's words rang throughout his head. They were losing him. The entire ride to the hospital, he couldn't stop worrying about how they might lose him. They couldn't. Tony was all that he had left! He already lost his wife, he didn't need to lose his son too.

He wouldn't be able to handle it. Not this time.

Howard regretted taking a ride with the ambulance. They let him hold his hand and everything, but that gave him no comfort. Not even when Tony opened his eyes just before they arrived at the hospital. Sure he didn't respond or anything, but he just stared at him. They both did.

That is, until the doctors had to rush him into critical care. Where Howard wasn't allowed.

"I'll be right here!" He shouted towards his panicked looking son. "I promise!"

Howard was fully aware of Tony's fear of hospitals. He knew it wasn't the simple fear of the needles, which he knew Tony didn't like, but he was almost positive it had to do with all the bad things that Tony's been through in hospitals. His mom…his heart implant, and plenty of times for other stuff. Nothing ever went well in hospitals for Tony.

So he hated leaving Tony alone when they went to hospitals. He knew it was necessary, and not allowed in the first place, but he couldn't help but feel like he was abandoning his post as father.

The others arrived soon after, all of them being escorted to rooms of their own. It was no doubt, going to be busy, saying everyone was pretty much required to visit a hospital or doctor, for tests. Considering the bank robbery and tear grenades.

Pepper demanded to share a room with Tony, but the doctors denied her demands. Even when she threatened them. They said it had something to do with him being under critical watch until he was stabilized. Unless she needed critical care, they were only going to lend her a room with a few other patients from the bank.

To say in the least, Pepper was not happy.

She cheered up when she was at least with Rhodey and Roberta. Some others were there too, saying the hospital had to jam some rooms together. They were just glad it was a big hospital, considering the usual ones.

Howard was offered a room, but he denied medical attention. He really felt in unnecessary for everyone to attend to all of these tests. When they could just ask them if they were hurt or not. So, he denied it for all that he was. He was going to wait in the waiting room, for his son. No one was going to tell him otherwise. He promised he'd be there. He wasn't going to break that promise.

Pepper, Rhodey, and Roberta were soon admitted out of the hospital, and joined Howard in the waiting room. Pepper more antsy than anyone. She paged through some magazines, paced, tried to nap, and attempted to chat. Nothing really worked to sooth her nerves though.

She resorted to chewing her lip.

After almost twenty minutes of constant silence, Rhodey looked over at Pepper who sat between him and Howard. "Pepper, what happened in there?"

They still haven't heard anything on Tony, not even his condition. So far, as far as they were concerned, the only injury he had was a gun wound to leg. Pepper knew otherwise.

Pepper looked down. She really wasn't ready to relive it, but not even the doctors could sum up what had happened correctly. Someone might as well tell them.

Though, she decided to take her own sweet time doing so. She spoke in slow, long sentences as she told the story of what happened. She only told them what she knew of, and nothing else. By the time she finished, she'd begun pacing again.

Howard hadn't spoken a single word since Pepper finished her story. By the sounds of it, Tony had a ton of blood loss. And that wasn't really the best thing. It worried him. It worried to no end. His mind kept flashing back to when Maria died. To when he thought Tony was dead…

At some point, they had actually gotten two more visitors for Tony. You'd think it'd be more family from Roberta's side, saying Tony met lots of them when he lived with them, but it wasn't. It wasn't even school friends.

Instead it was Penelope and her mother.

They smiled when they saw Pepper. Penelope sat on Pepper's lap, upon her permission of course, and Penelope's mother pulled a seat close by to Pepper.

Penelope was almost an exact mini clone of her mother. And they both looked as if they couldn't hurt a fly. They looked too innocent.

Her mother smiled warmly at Pepper, and even placed a comforting hand over Pepper's. She was definitely one of those 'born to be a mom' type.

"Thank you, for keeping her safe." She said, smiling some more. "I was so worried, I'm glad she had you."

Pepper smiled back, but she honestly didn't feel worthy of her thanks. Tony was the one that kept her safe. Not her. Tony was the one that saved her, that was there for her, he was the one that kept her safe. Not her. That was all Tony. She didn't deserve the thanks. Tony did.

Pepper dropped the smiled and shook her head. "I couldn't possible accept that…I wasn't the one that helped her. That was Tony."

But Penelope's mother disagreed. "And I know that, but you are the one that brought her to me. You deserve my thanks, just as much as he does."

She pulled something out of her bag and handed it to a cautious Pepper. She smiled. "Don't worry, it's a harmless get well card. Penelope wanted to give it to him."

"Yeah!" Penelope said. "I drew him a picture!"

Penelope seemed happy enough, but Pepper assumed that she was smart enough to know how to hide her real emotions. She had to be scared from what she'd had just gone through and she was a real trooper coming back to it. Not specifically the bank, but to Tony, who could be directly related to the horrible time at the bank in her young eyes. Especially since she was pretty much in the center of the true horror of what could happen in a bank robbery.

Penelope bounced on Pepper's lap, bringing Pepper from her thoughts.

"He's going to love it!" Penelope giggled.

"I bet!" Pepper responded, glad for a little distraction.

"Yeah, mommy let me draw it before we came!"

After a while, Penelope's mother decided it was time to go. But she first had a few things to say.

"I hope this wouldn't be too much of a burden, but…can one of you please update me on his condition, for her sake?" She gestured to the happily talking Penelope. "She's seems to have grown quite attached…"

Roberta nodded her head, "No problem. Give me your number and I'll be sure to call."

The woman smiled. "Oh, I'm Jenny, by the way." She wrote down her number on a notepad she had in her bag and slipped it to Roberta.

"Roberta." She replied.

The woman nodded and reached for Penelope's hand. "Come on sweetie, time to go."

"I don't wanna! I wanna see Tony!" Penelope complained. "Please can we stay?"

"Sweetie, daddy's probably worried sick at home, we should go make sure he's alright." Jenny answered. "I'd love to say and give him the letter in person, but sweetie, he already has plenty of visitors as it is."

Penelope pouted but left with her mother, waving at Pepper.

Rhodey and Roberta left by the time it was dark out. There entire day, wasted because of the bank robbery, and the waiting room. Pepper wouldn't leave no matter what Howard tried. She just stubbornly sat, her arms crossed, and her chin jutted out, refusing to leave.

Howard had to admit, that was something he liked about her. She was good for Tony. She wouldn't be to giving or to selfish with him. That's why he hoped the two actually got together after this whole ordeal. He didn't really want to pry into his son's love life, but he was pretty sure she was a keeper.

Pepper had eventually fell asleep. Howard, on the verge of doing so. Though he was genuinely worried why he hasn't heard a peep from a single doctor. Did that mean they lost him, and didn't want to give him the news yet? But wasn't that part of their job? To tell them the honest truth? No matter how hard it was to say it?

He was about ready to tell the receptionist to have them call his home about the news of his son's condition, despite his feelings against it, but the doctor's footsteps stopped him.

Pepper woke up in an instant, as if she had a 'Tony's doctor' sensor in her head. She watched to doctor approaching them.

"You Howard Stark?" The doctor asked.

Howard nodded eager for answers.

"Tony Stark is…"

Pepper shot up. "Don't you dare tell me he's dead!" She snapped. "I'm not in the mood!"

The doctor looked surprised by her outburst. "Uh…no! I wasn't going to say that!" He defended. "He's fine! Well, alive, but fine."

"Please just get to the point. How is he?" Pepper said, sitting back down.

The doctor listed off Tony's injuries, and his condition. He even apologized for not getting to them sooner. He said Tony underwent multiple surgeries to get the bullets out, then stiches and patching up. Not to mention the multiple blood transfusions they had to give him. By the time the doctor finished explaining everything, Pepper was standing and ready to visit him.

Apparently Tony was still unconscious from the medicine they had to use for surgery. But a visit was a visit. They finally got to see him.

And hopefully he didn't look as bad as she thought he would.

Okay, I hope that was good enough for the LONG wait! :) I hope it was crappy. ;p

Let's all pray that this doesn't go unposted for another 7 months! I would feel really crappy for leaving you guys hanging for so long.

Fun Fact: I'm a cold person. (Not in a mean way) I'm always cold when It's really warm inside. Unless it's unbearingly hot, I will say that it's cold.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but my Xbox Live account, wasn't working and wouldn't sign me in unless I gave it my email and password, which I found out, my whole profile was put on a email that DIDN'T EXIST! So there was no way to sign in. So i had to make a whole new profile, and give up my 4,000 gamer points. :( I'm not happy. Seriously what system allows that kind of thing to be put on NONEXISTENT EMAILS? You'd think they'd send you a confirmation email first...

Anyways, rant over!

Hugs and Love, SilverPedals!