One Month Later – Somewhere in the Afghan desert

Tony was lying on the ragged bed, his arms behind his back, staring at the ceiling. His right hand moved subconsciously tapping the arc reactor in his chest. Tap tap tap tap...

"You know," said Yinsen, "the fact that you will continue that annoying tapping won't mean that the wires in your chest will suddenly disappear."

Tony stopped what he was doing and turned his head towards Yinsen, who was shaving, looking into the broken mirror softly humming a tune to himself.

"Sorry," Tony said, "I was just lost in thought. Sometimes I don't even realize I am doing it."

"You know Stark, they are not going to be playing this game with you for much longer. I think they have reached their limit, and believe me they are not going to take no for an answer," Yinsen told him, his voice solemn and serious.

"What else can they do, kill me? Maybe I will welcome that. I am already wired to this car battery, I am already a living machine," Tony said angrily back to Yinsen.

"You only think that because you haven't thought everything through. You only say that because you think you have nothing to lose anymore, but I can assure you that these people will always find that one thing you have left and they will make sure it's destroyed. All that, just so they can see you suffer." Yinsen finished his speech and looked back into the broken mirror.

Tony turned away from him, thinking whether or not he should believe Yinsen. Thinking if he really had anything else to lose. All of a sudden Tony heard voices outside and the door opened with a loud bang against the wall. Like many of the other times before, Tony got up and put his hands behind his back.

"Mr. Stark," said the leader, always the same man. "I hope you have had the time to think over our little proposition."

"My answer is the same as always. I would rather have you kill me than help you build those missiles," Tony spat back in his face.

The man only looked at Tony, slightly smiling at him. That was odd. Usually when Tony said no, he would fly into a rage, commanding his men to drag Tony and have him tortured. But this time he was only smiling which made Tony all the more nervous.

"I was afraid you would say that," the man calmly said to Tony, "which I why I brought you this." The man took out of his pocket a newspaper article, handing it to Tony to read.

The article was recent, from an American newspaper. Tony could feel his stomach drop. It was a picture of Lily, a picture taken months ago at a gala they had both attended. In the picture Lily could be seen smiling at the camera with a champagne glass in her hand. Tony looked up in disgust, the smile still present on the man's face.

"What have you done?" Tony asked in a whisper.

"So far, nothing. But if you continue to refuse us your help, I can assure you we can do something about it Mr. Stark. After all, I hear that it is she who designed the Jerico weapon. I am sure that if we asked her, she would know how to put one together."

"You would never be able to get to her," Tony told him.

"Mr Stark, we got you didn't we? And you were surrounded by the military and tons of armoured steel. What makes you think we won't be able to get to her?"

Tony said nothing. He simply looked down at Lily's picture, wishing with all his heart that this nightmare would be over.

"Let me put this in simple terms Mr. Stark," the man said once more. "If you refuse to build the missile we will simply ask your little girlfriend to do it, and believe me when I say that we will not be as gentle with her as we were with you. Think about Mr. Stark."

The man gave Tony one last look before turning and leaving Tony and Yinsen alone once again. Yinsen came to stand behind Tony, looking at the picture behind his shoulder.

"Do you understand now what I mean Stark?" Yinsen asked Tony as he moved to stand in front of Tony. Yinsen looked at the picture one more time. "She is very beautiful Tony. Just build the missile. I am sure you know that even if you do build it they will kill you, but at least she will be safe," Yinsen told him.

Tony just looked at Yinsen.

"No Yinsen. I will not build the missile. We will not die in this cave all alone. We are going to escape," Tony said with a sudden determination in his voice. He took the newspaper article, carefully folding it and putting it in his jacket. He was determined that he would not die in this cave, cold and alone and leave Lily behind all on her own. Besides, he still owned her a big apology for the fight they had before he left, and he intended to carry his apology through. He was determined to see Lily again.

Two Months Later – Malibu, California

Lily was sitting behind Tony's desk, overlooking the entire Stark Industries. It's been three months since Tony got kidnapped in Afghanistan and nobody knew anything about him. No phone calls, no money, not even a ransom request. It had been a surprise for everyone, including Lily, to find out that Tony had left with his attorney the documents necessary that stated that in case anything happened to him, Lily would get full control over his assets and over Stark Industries. Which is what Lily was doing at the moment. For the last three months Lily had showed up at Stark Industries, ready to work, trying to keep everything from falling apart. Everyone was saying what an amazing job she was doing of keeping everything together but they know that inside she was falling to pieces.

Lily turned back to the papers in her hand, trying to see if she could get some proper work done. She was interrupted when she heard the office door opening. She saw Obadiah standing there, with Pepper following behind him. Lily sighed. She knew what he was there for.

"We need to talk," Obadiah said, walking in the room sitting beside Lily on the desk.

"I know what this is about Obadiah. The answer is no. The answer will always be no," Lily managed to say between her teeth.

"It been three months Lily," he said. "If the kidnappers had any intentions of contacting us they would have done it already. You know as well as I do that the chances of Tony being alive are practically nonexistent."

"I am not declaring him dead Obadiah, I told you that before. Until I see his body I refuse to declare him death. The search will continue until Tony appears, and I don't care what you or any other person has to say about it. Now, is that all? Because I really need to go over these papers."

Obadiah took the hint as he stormed angrily out of the room. Pepper closed the door and made her way towards Lily.

"I think you are doing the right thing," Pepper said. "None of us want to see Tony declared dead. We must keep the hope alive."

"By "us" you mean me, you and Rhodey. Everyone else, the board, even Stane, wants Tony to be declared dead. The minute he is dead they will start eating each other for every single piece of asset," Lily said.

"Tony left everything to you," Pepper reminded her.

"You know as well as I do Pepper that is they decide to make that document invalid they could. I am not family, I am not anything. They would take everything back," Lily told her.

Pepper sighed before giving Lily the folder she had in her hands. "You need to look over this," she told Lily. "Also, you mother is outside, she wants to see you."

"My mother?" Lily asked as she looked up from her papers. "I have literally seen my mother two times in the past year. What could she possible want with me now?"

"I don't know," Pepper said. "She doesn't look so good though. Maybe you should really see her."

"Alright, tell her to come in," Lily said as she got up from the chair and made her way towards the couch.

"Right this way Mrs. Navodlom," said Pepper leading Lily's mother into the room. Pepper smiled and asked Lily if she wanted anything else before leaving the room. Her mother stood there looking at her briefly before making her way to the couch and sitting down.

"Hi mom," said Lily, "I have a lot of stuff to look over, so please if you could be brief."

"I just came to see how you are doing Lily, I thought that after what happened you might have at least reach out to me, to help you," her mother told her.

Lily couldn't help but stare at her in disbelief. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"You wanted to help me, you wanted me reach out to you? How can you say that? How can you dare say that?" Lily asked her. Her mother watched her with an unchanging expression.

"All those years you have stood by, and let my father treat me the way he did, all that time you did nothing to stop it," Lily almost yelled, looking straight at her mother.

"You don't understand," her mother said, "you never understood any of it."

Her mother sighed and looked out the window. "I knew we should have just left you at an orphanage that day, we should have never taken you in."

Lily stared at her mother for a moment unsure of what she just heard. "What did you just say?" Lily asked her.

Her mother turned her head towards her, an horrified expression on her face.

"I'm not your daughter?" Lily asked again.

Her mother turned her gaze towards the floor, not bearing to look at Lily any longer and slowly shook her head. "We found you on our doorstep," her mother whispered. "We just found you there one morning. We never wanted children, we never wanted any children but then you turned up and you looked at me with so much love in your little eyes...and I... I wasn't able to just leave you in an orphanage, and I guess perhaps I wasn't able to be the mother you deserved either. I'm sorry Lily, I never meant for you to find out in this manner."

Lily starred at her for a moment and slowly got up. She made her way to the desk got her purse and walked out of the office. She could see Pepper staring at her with a look of concern from behind her desk and she could faintly hear her mother's voice calling her name, but she didn't stop. She didn't stop and she kept on walking.

It was already dark outside when Lily got to the mansion. All the lights were out and she didn't bother telling Jarvis to turn them back on. She reached for the phone in the dark and dialed the only number she could think off. The person on the other line picked up after two rings.

"Hello," answered Anna in an agitated tone. She knew already who was calling.

"Anna," Lily whispered, "I really need you to come over, I really need you?"

"Lily, you told me you were fine. You assured me time and time again that you were doing fine."

"This isn't about Tony, this is something else. Please Anna, I need you," Lily begged.

For a moment everything was quiet on the other line. "I'll take the next plane out. I'll be there as soon as I can, I promise."

Lily hanged up and sat down on the couch, curling herself into a ball. Anna. Her best friend Anna. Throughout the years that's what Anna remained, her most dear friend. When Lily decided to came back from London, Anna decided to stay. She had already met someone there and had a pretty good life. Anna was the first to call Lily when she heard about Tony. She had offered to catch the first flight and be with Lily, but Lily assured her that everything was fine. That she could handle being by herself here. But now, after what her mother told her, she felt that she was losing it. She needed someone there with her. The first person she would have gone to would have been Tony, and it hurt her so much knowing that he wasn't there.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment. At least it felt like a brief moment to Lily. She opened her eyes and she could see the bright Malibu sun shining over the endless sapphire sea.

She could see Pepper from the corner of her eye looking at her with an anxious expression on her face.

"I am so glad you are up Lily," Pepper said. "I wasn't sure if I should wake you or not but..."

"What is the matter Pepper?" Lily asked her sitting up. She could feel a strong headache coming on.

"Well, the first thing is that Anna called and wanted me to let you know that she already landed in Malibu, and the second is..." Lily could see Pepper's anxiety on her face.

"Pepper, what happened?"

Pepper let out a deep breath. "They found him Lily. Rhodey is bringing him home."

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