Author's Note: Okay! Special bonus for you guys this week. Not only is the update longer than usual but there's a special pre-Heroes & Demons one-shot closely attached to this chapter. It's called "May 24th" and it can be read before or after the chapter. Extra points for those who figure out why. ^_^ Enjoy and please read and review!

Rhodey thought there would never be enough words to describe how he felt when he laid eyes on his best friend after he had escaped from captivity. Tony was alive. Bruised, bloody, dehydrated, and filthy, but alive. Relief didn't even to come close to summing up his emotions.

But no matter how similar it was to now – just replace sand with snow – that was different.

He'd had hope then.

No matter how foolish his commanders and most everyone else had thought he was being, Rhodey had had genuine hope that he would see his friend again, and, at first, it was the same the second time the billionaire had disappeared. In the beginning, Rhodey was sure Tony had simply overstayed his time in New York after the in-person meeting with the board. He'd even thought it was a good thing. After the months of watching his friend drift in an aimless PTSD and alcohol induced haze, going out was the first sign of normalcy for Tony. Rhodey could not have even begun to imagine that he might have found him in the middle of the Afghan desert, only to loose him in America.

He would have liked to think of himself as an optimist, but over three years was enough for anyone to lose hope. Three years of watching the military and Stark Industries in turmoil. Three so-called anniversaries of not even having time to properly morn for fear that another would follow in his footsteps. It all chipped away at Rhodey, to the point where acceptance had become not just a reasonable conclusion; it was the only way to keep his sanity.

Now, with no hope to fuel anticipation, Rhodey was left with nearly nothing but anger. Only that, too, was a woeful understatement. He was pissed off. Pissed off with Tony for letting him believe he was dead, with Pepper for not telling him the truth after all the times she'd listened to him talk about the man. Most of all, Rhodey was pissed with himself for ever believing his friend was dead in the first place.

But when he finally saw him, passed out against the side of a rundown building, half hidden by snow and shadows, for a moment all the fury in the world was gone, completely replaced by overwhelming relief. Pepper was already moving out of the car before Rhodey fully stopped it mid-empty streets with nothing but the emergency lights and parking break. She knelt at his right, frantically feeling for a pulse.

"He's alive," Pepper declared. "Just barely, but..."

Rhodey was also moving, throwing one of Tony's arms around his shoulder and haulling him up. "Open the back door."

When his friend was safely inside, the airman took one long look at him, feeling an odd sort of mix of amazement and disgust at all the terrible changes that the other man had gone through over the years. Finally tearing his eyes away from him, Rhodey started the car again.

"We need to get him to a hospital," he said decisively, pulling out onto the main road. The bulk of the storm had passed, and traffic was almost non-existent in the middle of the night, but the roads were still bad enough that he had to be extremely careful.

Pepper fidgeted. "They're going to figure out who he is. He didn't want..."

"And it's always about what he wants?" Rhodey gave her a harsh look. "How about what his friends want? Like for him to actually survive this latest stupidity."

There was a sharp intake of breath, as if Pepper had been in a haze all this time and was only now coming out of it. He felt something akin to that himself.

"I... I'm sorry," she said apologetically, her face pained. "I'm just... I... I'm sorry. You're right. Of course he should be in a hospital."

He said nothing, focusing all his attention on driving and breathing. The funny thing was, he understood perfectly well. Rhodey may not have had any idea how long they had known each other – he suspected it wasn't long – but he knew Tony, knew how the man could getter under one's skin and convince you that the sky was red and the moon was made of cheese. Pepper was clearly an intelligent and reasonable person, but Tony had obviously done a number on her already. Rhodey shook his head. He needed to get them to New York Presbyterian in one piece, or the whole ordeal would have been one enormously ironic and bitter joke.

He told Pepper to call ahead, so by the time they arrived at the emergency entrance, there were doctors waiting with a stretcher and questions. Rhodey took the lead, walking briskly by the stretcher through the automatic doors and answering questions about Tony's addiction and medical history as far as he could remember it. When the doctors tore open the coat and stared at the arc reactor with a mixture of wonder and horror, he had to think fast.

"Pace maker," he said simply. "It has nothing to do with this. Work around it, and don't touch it. You might end up killing instead of saving him."

The one who seemed to be in charge looked like he wanted to tell the colonel to shove it and let them do their jobs, but instead he nodded. "We need a name for the chart. I.D. if you have it."

"Howard." Pepper stepped in, only a few paces behind them. "His name is Howard... Potts."

The man in the white coat gave her a quizzical look but jotted it down anyway. "We're going to take him in to get checked out. You can both sit in the waiting area if you like, but you can't go in until he's stable."

"When will that be?" Rhodey demanded.

"We won't know that until we have a look at him." The doctor sounded like he was explaining an extremely trivial fact to a child. "Wait here."

They wheeled him away, and Rhodey had to fight the urge to run after them and insist on staying. By the look of her, Pepper felt the same. She was nervous, fidgeting and biting her lip every few minutes. He was still angry, but it was waning. The logical part of his mind that had been forced to think clearly enough to answer the doctors' questions was beginning to reassert control. She was not malicious and had meant well, and she looked as afraid for Tony as he was, though he was trying to hide it.

Pacing and looking at the clock every few minutes didn't help matters. Fifteen minutes felt like an eternity, but finally the doctor returned, a dark look on his face. Rhodey immediately whirled to face him, and Pepper, who had sat down in a waiting room chair, shot to her feet.

"We're still working on him," the doctor glanced between them and rattled off a list of ailments that sent chills down Rhodey's spine. "The good news is he's not dead. If he wakes up – and that's a big 'if', considering what your friend did to himself – I'd say he won't be up for visitors for a several hours. Mid-morning at the earliest."

"What... what are his chances?" Pepper clearly wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer but had to ask regardless.

"Honestly? With this level of damage, I wouldn't guess above fifty percent."

"Can you give us a minute?" Rhodey took Pepper's elbow and guided her to the far corner, well out of earshot. "You need to go home," he said firmly. "Go home, dry off, and if you still have anything on the armor in your house, delete or shred them. You have no idea what you walked in on. There's serious damage control to be done, and the less you have, the better."

"It can wait!" she argued. "He needs..."

"You can't do anything here." She looked struck, and he had to amend. "I'll explain things later, but trust me, it's for his safety and yours. You've got to get rid of those records."

She pressed her lips together and swallowed hard. "I don't want to leave him."

"Then come back when everything's... cleaned up." Despite his anger, Rhodey was touched. "I'm going to stay here and make a call." Her head shot up instantly at that, and Rhodey held up a hand. "I know he doesn't want anyone to know. You might have promised to stay quiet, but I didn't. He can blame me, if he wants to."

To his surprise, she didn't argue. "You're calling Captain Danvers, aren't you?"

"Yes." Rhodey was both impressed and slightly surprised by her perceptiveness. "Sooner or later, this is going to come out. The world is too small for... for him to disappear, and she deserves to hear it from me rather than see him on the eleven o'clock news."

Pepper nodded. "I'll be back soon." She started for the door, then paused and turned. "Colonel... Rhodey... I'm sorry."

He wanted to say that it was okay, but it really wasn't, and he couldn't lie. "Go home, Pepper," he repeated. "Clear the files and come back. He's probably going to want to see you."

When she was gone, he stalked to the corner of the waiting room and sank down. It was mostly empty, but still he looked around carefully before flipping open his phone and dialing. It took five rings before an annoyed sleepy voice answered.

"Do you know what time it is?" Carol demanded. "Two in the fucking morning!"

The three hour time difference had not, in fact, crossed Rhodey's mind when he'd dialed. He hadn't looked at a watch in hours and had no real feeling for the time that had passed during their search beyond the fact that it was completely dark outside and had been for a while. The search took hours, followed by another for the drive to the hospital and almost as long for him to finish dealing with the doctors and convince Pepper to go home.

He'd called her the second he could, and damn, it was good to hear her voice.

"Carol," he breathed. Now that she was on the line, he had no idea how to get the words out so he spoke as plainly as he could. "It's Tony. He's here. He's alive."

"What?"

For an instant, Rhodey had a clear image of her half-awake but shocked face and messy golden hair as she pushed herself up in bed. Her free hand was tugging, holding the sheets close to her chest. He shook off the image, insanely inappropriate for the moment or any other, really.

"You heard me." The forced bluntness helped. "Tony's alive."

She made a noise that was a clear sound of disgust. "Are you fucking shitting me, Rhodes?" He could practically hear the scowl on her face. "Are you fucking shitting me!"

"No." He was surprised at how calm he sounded. "I'm with him now. We're at the hospital."

"Hospital?" He heard shifting as she rose. "What did the idiot do to himself?"

"Alcohol poisoning," Rhodey replied bluntly. "Exposure, cirrhosis, heart damage, frost bite, and God knows what else. Doctors said something like... fifty-fifty."

"What the hell do they know," she grumbled. "Can you put him on?"

"Not right now. Doctor's said he might wake up in the later part of the morning, but probably not sooner." Even if he was awake, I'm mad, but not enough to hand him over to you. He smiled but tried not to let her hear it.

"Call me as soon as he does, then. If I don't pick up, I'm already in the air."

That caught his attention. "You're not flying up here."

"Rhodes…"

"You're not." He switched to the authoritative commander voice. "Even if you could somehow get a flight out here considering the storm…"

"I'll hijack an F-22 Raptor if I have to."

"You won't. Even if you could, you have a different job, remember? That's still on the table, Carol. It's even more important now that Tony's back."

There was a sharp and clearly angry intake of breath, followed by a harsh, "Yes, sir."

Rhodey winced. "Don't do that."

"Yes, sir. Whatever you say, sir."

She might as well have been saying 'fuck you'. Actually, Rhodey had learned fairly quickly that that was exactly what she was saying. He sighed. "I know you want to see him," and believe me, I want you here, "and you will, but you know how important this is."

"Fine," she bit out. "But I am sending someone your way. A doctor who actually knows what he's doing. I don't know who I'd trust in that place, and this guy knows how to be discrete."

He was about to tell her that it was fine, that this was one of the best hospitals in New York, but there was no point. Rhodey figured it was better to let her feel like she was contributing instead of arguing.

"Thank you," he said.

There was a long pause, then her tone turned milder. "Are you okay, Jim?"

"Me?" Rhodey could barely begin to wrap his mind around the question. "I... I don't know."

"Well, take care of yourself. I mean it."

Despite himself, he smiled. "Yes, ma'am." He was about to hang up before a final thought came to him. "Carol?"

"Yeah?"

"No more May 24th."

"No more May 24th," she agreed without protest.