Okay here's another filler chapter. I'm sorry it's the second one but it's all leading up to something.

Disclaimer: I dont own Iron Man or Bruce Wayne

The walk down the wall seemed to last forever as Happy made his way to the ICU nurses station.

"Hi I'm here to see Virginia Potts," Happy said nervously.

"Okay; just follow me," the nurse behind the counter smiled.

Happy nodded as the nurse got up and signaled to follow her. They walked down another hall and past a set of corridors.

"I hope you don't mind the walk. Ms. Potts is roomed in our private section of the ICU. Mr. Wayne has requested that she be placed in a room in a far more secluded area. Mr. Wayne is such a nice man, he wants the best for the people he cares the most about," the nurse said speaking highly of Bruce.

"That's Bruce alright," Happy replied.

"You and Mr. Wayne are close I presume?"

"Oh yeah we go way back. Bruce, Pepper, and I went to school together. We lived in the same neighborhood back in New England. Bruce was my first real friend when I first moved to the upper east coast the summer before my freshmen year of high school. He introduced me to Pepper who he grew up with and we've been friends ever since. But I haven't seen him in years. After high school Bruce moved to New York and Pepper and I moved out here to California. I just saw him for the first time in about eight years,"

"That's sweet; anyways this is her room. Call me if you need anything," the nurse said sincerely.

The nurse left happy alone and he stared up at the vast oak wood door. He took a few deep breaths and turned the knob. It was dark inside with the blinds drawn close but there were still some sunlight seeping through the cracks. Pepper was asleep; she looked peaceful after what she's been through. Happy walked over and stood by her bedside. Her now shaved head was wrapped with gauze and her right leg was sporting an ironically red cast. She also had some bruises and scratches on her arms and neck. Happy sighed as he brought up a chair to sit by Pepper. He sat down and grabbed her right hand giving it a slight squeeze. He felt a slight movement from her and he was amazed.

"Pepper?" Happy asked softly.

There was no response so Happy squeezed her hand again. And once again he got a slight squeeze back.

"Pepper?" he asked again softly.

There was no response for a while and Happy was crestfallen. After awhile he watched as Pepper began to stir and her eyes fluttered open. He watched as her eyes looked around frantically as she tried to register where she was. Happy gave a weak smile when her eyes settled on him.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," Pepper replied softly giving Happy a weak smile.

"I'm glad you're okay,"

"Yeah me too. How bad is it?"

"The nurse said you have a herniated disc and some broken ribs that will repair itself. You also have a few broken bones in your right leg and you suffered some intracranial hemorrhaging," Happy replied.

"And my baby?" Pepper asked.

"He's doing just fine."

"How's Rhodey doing?"

"He'll be okay."

"And Tony? Where is he? We need to talk. I need to…" Pepper trailed off.

"He's here but he's not here," Happy struggled with his words trying to be careful with what he was trying to say.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Tony won't be coming to see you for a while."

"I'm sorry Happy I'm not sure if I understand."

"There's no easy way for me to say this but, there was an accident half an hour ago," Happy began to say.

"What? What happened? Is he okay?" Pepper asked bewildered with the news.

"It's a long story but I'll try to explain it to you in a nut shell. After the whole incident we couldn't find you so we had SHIELD and company investigators looking for you. No one could find anything so we went to the security room to review the surveillance videos. We were reviewing the security tapes from the break-in and we saw that it was O'Hara, Shepherd, and Williams who came after you. Tony got pissed and he went looking for them. I'm not entirely sure what happened or what he did but he was piloting a Boeing 747 that crashed and burst into flames in the Stark Industries parking lot. He's in surgery right now and I don't know what his condition is. He was in a pretty bad shape when they pulled him out from under a pile of flaming debris. No one knows what happened up there on that plane, only Tony. But he did say that O'Hara and Shepherd were dead and that Williams got away. He asked about you but we still didn't know about your whereabouts. And then I ran into Bruce, he's the one who told us you were here. He told us that he found you and called in for a hit and run."

"Bruce found me?"

"Yeah; he said that he was supposed to meet you but you never showed and he was going to be late for his flight back to New York. He said he saw when you got hit."

Pepper closed her eyes as she remembered that night. The sound of screeching tires and the feeling of her body flying into the air was still haunting her.

"Can you check on Tony later; see how he's doing. There is so much that we need to talk about."

"Yes I will. I'm going to go now to give the others a chance to see you okay,"

Pepper closed her eyes and nodded. Happy got up and walked back down the hall to the waiting room. He pointed Kristine and Greg in the direction of her room and sat down next to Rhodey.

"How is she?"

"She's looking good. She looks so tired though."

"Well of course; she's been through a lot."

"Yeah you're right."

"Did she ask about Tony?"

"Yeah; I told her."

"What did she say?"

"She didn't say much; just that they needed to talk."

--

"These temporary skin grafts will hold until it starts to scab over. Then we need to perform a debridement (surgically removed) before we can put permanent skin grafts on Mr. Stark's neck and chest. If I place the skin grafts carefully then scarring should be at a minimal," Dr. Reyes said as the nurse took notes in Tony's charts.

"What about his blunt force trauma to the head?" the nurse asked.

"From what we know it's an open head trauma which will require some stitches but can you have one of the interns take him down to CT. His shoulder separation will not require surgery since its only a stage I separation. We need a cast on his right leg and when that's done get an intern to take him to his room in ICU," Dr. Reyes said as he began to stitch up the gash in Tony's forehead.

"No problem doc," the nurse replied closing up Tony's charts.