Chapter 9

Tony stirred and rolled over. He felt his sofa bedding under him. He pulled the blanket over his head and curled up in a ball. He wanted to go back to sleep. He pulled the blanket tight around him. The sunlight shone down on the bed and started to warm the room up.

After a bit Tony pulled the blankets off him. He was too hot. He laid on his back for a while. Just staring up at the ceiling. The bed looked too big. He didn't like it. He felt small laying there in the massive bed that he and Pepper shared. That reminded him. Where was Pepper?

He slowly rolled over and put his legs out and onto the cold floor. He got up and his legs shoke under him.. He walked to the door and notice the mirrior. He looked at himself. He looked terrible he had to admit it. His bag under his eyes had bags. And he looked very pale, like he was going to throw up. He sighed and pick up a shirt from the floor and covered the mirrior. He walked down to the stairs and went down to the living room floor, wanting to get something to eat and alone. He didn't want to be without her. He walked down the stairs and opened the door to the floor.

He heard voices coming from around the corner and in the living room. Tony listen in.

'Thank you Steve and Bruce if you hadn't been awake I can only imagine the worst,' Peppers voice came from around the corner. What was she on about? He walkd around the corner and everyone turned around to look at him.

'Tony your awake, it's ok your find,; Bruce said, he was sat on the sofa. Seriously what were these guys on about? Were they on drugs? Tony thought. He rubbed his eyes. Oh, he remembers now. He looked up at Steve, who smiled at him.

'Tha… Than… Thanks,' Tony managed to say. Steve nodded. Everyone was silent, not knowing what to say. He walked to the kitchen and got a glass of water. He turned and everyone was staring at him.

'What?' Tony said. Pepper saw the he had put his mask up again. She could see he was his normal self again, but only on the outside. She knew that Tony was breaking, he had already broken and she knew it would take a long time to put him back together. Tony stared at everyone.

'Your freaking me out guys,' Tony said and went to sit back on the sofa next to Bruce.

'Tony… do you no remember…. You… well you tried to commit suicide,' Bruce said. Tony looked down. Of course he remember but it doesn't mean that he wants to talk about it. He shrugged and turned the TV on. What showed but on the screen shocked him. All the rest of the Avengers and Pepper stared at the screen.

'Report say that Tony Stark, Iron Man, tried to commit suicide only yesterday afternoon. Picture shows that The Tony Stark, stood on the edge of the roof of The Stark Tower trying to commit suicide. Lucky when Tony Stark did jump, Captain America was there to save the day,'

The reporter said. Pictures came up of Tony stood on the roof of his Tower. He could see how he looked, god the press had good zoom on their cameras, Tony thought… He could see how he had let his mask slip and he could see tears in his eyes. Oh god, Steve must have seen it all. Yesterday was kind of a blur to Tony and he didn't really remember that much. But Steve must remember everything. Everything Tony had said to him. Tony wondered how Steve had been able to keep it together. But then he thought about it. He had jumped. He really had jumped. He was so stupid, why would he try take his own life? Yeah he knew that his life had been bad. Nightmares about his father beating him, his father thinking he was unworthy and how he would talk about Steve so much that Tony would hate this man, who had just saved his life. He had said he hated Steve for being so amazing in his father eyes. Oh god.

Tony put his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands. He shut his eyes tightly.

'Tony… are you ok?' Steve said leaning forward in his chair.

'Yeah, I'm fine… I just… don't want to talk about it ok,' Tony mumbled into his hands. Pepper sat next to him and rubbed his back. Tony shook his head.

'Where is Toy Stark now? Is he mentally stable to be one of earths mightiest hero's anymore? Can Iron Man real defeat this? Who knows. Iron Man was the one who fell up into the portal and stopped the alien attack last year, but can he really be trusted and stable to be Iron Man?'

The report continued. Did n-one realise that Tony didn't want to listen to this dumb reporter. No-one turned it off and the report continued.

'Tony Stark is mentally unstable and shouldn't be trusted to be Iron Man anymore,' A guy said.

'So you don't think he should be Iron Man anymore?' The reported asked.

'No, I think that he tried to take his own life is enough to say he should not be Iron Man, the person who tries to save everyone else's lives when he doesn't want his own life,' The guy said. The reporter turned back to look down the camera.

'Well this wouldn't be the first time that Tony Stark has suffered from depression, when only a few years ago Tony Stark had a break down in a press meeting, that he had arranged just after he got out of the Afghanistan cave, telling everyone he is cancelling Stark Industries and will not be building weapons anymore. Many people still don't know what happened in the Afghanistan cave but we can say that Tony Stark changed and left his old self down in that cave…' The reported was about to continue but Tony had had enough.

'Will someone turn this shit off!' Tony shouted at them, making everyone jump. Clint jumped forward and grabbed the remote, turning to TV off. Tony was shaking. He jumped up and walked to the bar. Everyone watched him, as Tony grabbed a bottle of scotch as stormed off down to his lab. They had all been to listening to the news reporter, and they all wanted to know more about Tony's break down in the press meeting. Only Pepper knew that he didn't have a break down because she was the only one there, except for Agent Coulson.

Natasha could see tears in Peppers eyes. Natasha stood up and went to sit next to her. Natasha hugged Pepper, as she cried into Natasha shoulder. Clint blinked at Natasha, Clint couldn't believe it, Natasha was never to comforting type. Steve looked at them and then at Bruce.

'Give him some time. Will go down to see if he is ok in a bit. He just needs time to calm down,' Bruce says and Steve nods.

Tony needed time to calm down, yeah Bruce was right. He wasn't in the best mood to go and talk to him. They knew Tony would be down there working on whatever he works on. They would go down in about two hours, letting Tony calm down and relax a bit.

Sorry for the late update on the last chapter. I'm terribly sorry. I hope you liked this chapter and the chapters to come. I promise to update soon. Please review and I love you all