This is my apology from me to you for not updating as much as I should... It's nice and long and hopefully good! :) I miss posting stories on an almost frequent basis...

Disclaimer: IMAA is not mine, nor is anything else in fact.

"Is he in any pain?" Pepper asked, trying to look over the doctor's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Miss Potts," The person standing in her way said. "We can't have family hovering."

The instant she handed him over, it was like everyone turned on her. Everyone that had come to discuss the completion of the fixed invention, that being: Roberta, Pepper, and Rhodey, had been strictly kicked out of the room they carried Tony into. Pepper had demanded more than once that she be in the room when they proceeded to attempt to turn Tony back to normal. Fury had insisted that for best results and cooperation on Tony's part, they couldn't have close family and friends hovering and asking questions. Which mad absolutely no sense at all, but apparently them being in the room changed the results of it all.

"I'm not hovering!" She insisted. "I'll just sit on one of the chair against the wall!"

"I'm sorry, but you're not allowed in there."

She growled as she stepped forward only to be pulled back by none other than Rhodey. "Pepper, calm down. Tony will be fine. The next time we see him, he'll be back to normal."

"What if it goes wrong, and he needs me? Us?" Pepper asked. "I was supposed to be in there!"

She didn't think that she felt so strongly about it. When Hill led them back to the room, she thought she was going to hold him in case he woke up and panicked, but what happened was anything but. Some scientist that had been in the room during the whole conversation yanked Tony from her arms, surprisingly that hadn't woken up the snoozing toddler, and told her to wait outside.

She instantly panicked and tried to break into the room, demanding to be let in. It didn't only surprise Rhodey and Roberta, but herself as well. She knew she cared for Tony, probably more than what was healthy, but she never knew to what extent. It was then that she realized that she would do anything to keep him safe, and away from harm's way.

When the door closed behind one of the doctor's that was 'keeping watch', her recent confidence faded away the instant she knew they weren't letting her in with him. She'd feel a lot better if Rhodey or Roberta were let in, but they were completely cut off.

"I know, and I'm going to make sure that they hear from us when it's over." Rhodey replied. "But you need to calm and down and trust that nothing will go wrong."

Deep breaths, just breathe. She thought to herself. Breathe, Potts.

A loud noise emanated from behind the door Tony and others were behind. Her finally calmed breathing picked up again, leaving her lightheaded and hot in the face. "Let me in!"

As if on command the door opened. A stream of smoke mixed with steam rushed out from the open door. She didn't wait for permission to push aside the doctor ahead of her to go inside to see what happened. Coughing, she fanned the air with her hand.

Her eyes instantly scanned the room, desperately looking for the cause of her worries. Mere seconds later, her gaze fell on the form of her best friend. Her heart nearly stopped from what she saw. Her hands shook as she took a step forward, not bothering to care that quite a few people were yelling at her to get out, but not risking taking physical action against her.

Blue-eyes watched her with curiosity, a slight hint of pain in his eyes as well. She approached him slowly, still not sure what to think exactly. She didn't know what to expect; for him to heal and turn back to normal completely, for everything to fail and end up hurting him in some way, or no effect at all.

Either one, she wouldn't have really been one hundred percent ready or prepared.

The device laid in bits and piece on the ground nearby, smoke still rising from the metal pieces. She bent down to pick up one of the larger pieces and glanced over at Tony as she did.

"Tony?" She found her voice. "A-are you hurt?"

The blue-eyed boy looked down at himself. "I need Band-Aid…"

He rose his still small hand towards her, where blood was dripping down his palm. The instant the still little boy spoke, doctors and scientists alike began to move their feet. Tony was handed to Roberta as they said something about getting bandages and Band-Aids for the cut on Tony's palm.

"What happened?" Rhodey asked.

In short, the instant after they injected Tony with the device, it overheated and they tried to throw it to a safe distance, but it didn't make it very far. And still, they haven't seen any results as to if it worked or not.

"What about Tony, we just bring him home and act as if nothing happened?" Pepper asked when they were being sent home.

Hill looked to the redhead directly. "There's nothing else we can do. At this point the only idea we had, didn't work."

"Isn't there something else we could do?"

This time it was Director Fury who spoke. "I'm sorry things didn't work out. But I think it's best for everyone if we called it a day."

"But Tony's still a baby!" Pepper demanded. "He's supposed to be 17 years old! He's supposed to be graduating next year! What about everything else! He can't do any of that as a little kid!"

"Pepper, calm down." Roberta said, both for the redhead's sake and the sleeping Tony's sake. "They'll think of something."

"But mom, Pepper's right. If Tony doesn't go to school, he'll be kicked out and won't graduate." Rhodey argued. "And that means he won't be able to take over his dad's company."

Roberta sighed. "Now's not the time to argue."

"Your mother's right," Hill said, "I know things didn't work out. I know it's important to get him back to normal, but for now we need to come up with something else."

"Just head home, we'll look over what Tony had written down and see if we could do anything to fix it." Director Fury said.

The two teens had no choice but to accept.

…

Twenty-four hours later and they knew one thing for sure. Tony was a very, very sleepy boy. He had only woke up three times to eat and use the bathroom. Other than that, he slept peacefully on Roberta's bed.

They returned to the Rhodes' home shortly after being told that there was nothing more that could be done. Tony was still sleeping at that point and only opened his eyes for a moment when Rhodey told him that Pepper had to go home. He said goodbye, gave her a hug, and even a little kiss on her cheek because to him, it was bed time.

Then he'd gone back to sleep, not a care in the world. About two hours later he woke up for dinner, went back to bed only to wake up an hour later to go use the toilet. The third time he woke up was when Rhodey had been going to bed and he demanded a hug and a kiss goodnight, which Rhodey gave to him and tucked him back into his mother's bed, where Tony refused to leave.

At this moment, it's been about 24 hours, and he'd finally woken up longer to than to just eat or go to the bathroom. Though, he was eating a cookie in the living room while Rhodey did homework.

"You like doing homewahk," Tony commented liking crumbs off his little fingers. "You always doing it."

Rhodey glanced over at him. "No, I just have to do it."

"Why?"

"So I'll get a good grade in class."

Tony stepped down next to Rhodey and sat down so he was practically squishing against the teen. "Can I do homewahk?"

Rhodey paused, thinking of all the homework Tony needs to do. That led him to thinking about yesterday's events. They were so excited to get Tony back to normal, but they were only let down in the end. "I could write down some of the problems from the book if you want."

Tony shook his head. "I want to do that one!"

Rhodey looked over to the pile of homework he had in front of him. Tony was pointing at one of his physics worksheets that had a lot of diagrams on them. Rhodey shook his head. "Want me to make you a copy?"

Tony nodded vigorously. "Yeah!"

Even though he knew Tony was still a genius, he was still appalled that the blue-eyed boy was actually excited to do some homework—the hardest subject for Rhodey at that.

He walked off and instead of making a copy, he just grabbed the sheet he grabbed for Tony when they received it as he had been doing since Tony was first turned into a baby. He returned and handed it to him along with a pencil.

"I don't like pencil!" Tony shouted, throwing the pencil across the living room. "I want cwayon!"

Rhodey sighed, but did as Tony asked to keep the boy quiet so he could focus. "Here."

Tony cheered and began to diligently work on his homework with red crayon. Rhodey silently cheered because ever since Tony woke up about an hour or two ago, he hasn't stopped bothering him. It was Rhodey this, Rhodey that. At that point, Rhodey was really wishing Pepper was here, because not only was she more tolerant with Tony than he was, Tony actually listened to her better. But alas, the redhead couldn't make it because she took a mental health day off of school and everything today.

He understood her feeling. She was man and upset about the results of yesterday. She had hoped and hoped that nothing would go wrong, and maybe nothing had, but absolutely nothing had happened! She expected at least something would happen. Maybe he would get younger, or a little older, but not the same.

But nothing happened.

After so much work and so much time nothing had happened.

"I'm done!" Tony sang, placing the paper over Rhodey's work.

Rhodey glanced over it, and was slightly surprised that Tony wasn't lying. Although a little sloppy and had a few doodles of cars on the side, it was finished. "Whoa, good job, Tony!"

Tony beamed at the compliment, "Can I do anotha one?"

Rhodey shrugged, "Why not?"

Tony glanced at his pile. He pointed to a rubric Rhodey received from his English class. "This one!"

Rhodey raised an eyebrow, "You sure? That's an essay, you have to write a report."

Tony scrunched up his face. "Ew!"

"I'll take that as a 'no.'" Rhodey chuckled.

"No!" Tony echoed. He started to look at the few other options for homework, picking up a few to check and see if they looked 'fun'. Though, he was still indecisive about three minutes later. At that point though, he was yawning and stretching on the floor, his eyes dropping again.

"You tired?" Rhodey asked, noticing how tired he was.

Tony shook his head, "No."

"Come on," Rhodey said holding his arms out, "let's get you in a bed."

Even though the boy had been stubborn about it just moments ago, he seemed awfully willing to go along with it then. Rhodey carried his friend to Tony's room and placed him in the bed. After putting some warm blankets on him, he was forced by Tony's demands to give him a hug and a kiss.

Hugs and kisses with children, weren't new. He knew when he was little, he could hardly ever go to sleep without a hug and kiss from at least one of his parents. But with Tony, it was definitely new. Even just a few days ago, Tony blatantly refused any form of tuck in unless he was just about passed out. Or it was Pepper. It was still hard getting used to this Tony. It was harder knowing, that as far as they know, Tony could be like this for a long time.

"Night," he whispered as he walked out the door to go finish his homework.

…

It was getting late, she knew, but she couldn't refuse a visit. Even if it was her choice to stay back for a little bit and give herself space, it was hard to leave Tony alone for long. Though, she knew he wasn't alone and Rhodey was there along with Roberta, she couldn't help but want to be there.

It was strange. It's been a couple weeks, and yet she could hardly think of when Tony was himself. Not a baby, but a teen. He wasn't talking with a weird baby accent that could hardly pronounce the 'R's' in his sentences. It was hard to think that he was anything but a walking, talking baby.

She sighed, and just wished that Tony would be back to normal again as she knocked on the door. She didn't bother to wait for a response, because at this point, she knew she was welcome anyways. Stepping into the house, she removed her shoes and put her bag down.

"Rhodey!" She called out.

She walked into the house in search for her two friends. Soon she found Rhodey practically drooling on his English essay, so she passed him by. Waving to Roberta who was cooking dinner, she went in search for Tony, who was normally at the door waiting for her.

When she saw that his door was shut, she realized that he was most likely sleeping. So, she decided to check on him to see if he was sleeping peacefully. Opening the door quietly, as to not wake up the sleeping baby, she peeked in.

Only to just slam it shut not moments later with a shocked shout.

There you go! Hope this was enough to make up for putting my stories off...

Fun Fact: I cannot stand the smell, taste, and even thought of ham...ugh! It makes me gag!

So, joining speech, wasn't my brightest idea...Not only am I freaking terrified of it, it makes me SO BUSY! And now drivers lessons...Great... ^^"

I hope to update something else sometime soon. Maybe Wednesday...it's really one of my only free days other than friday this week...

Hugs and Love, SilverPedals!