A/N : Hello! Thanks for putting up with the lack of updates! I am again putting it off because this is all going incredibly shit! YAY! Oh well. I might update the next few in bulk so you can put up with the terribleness and find out what happens..

Anyway, not a lot else to say. Have fun reading!

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Chapter 26 : Panic Attacks.

Pepper POV.

"How can you even begin to blame Tony?" Jake asked Mom incredulously with a expression mixed with hilarity and anger.

"Honey, I'm not blaming anyone-"

"Stop arguing because of me!" Evelyn cried out all of a sudden. Making everyone in the room jump. No one, especially Tony and I, expected Evelyn to bound out of herself like that. Sweeping her fingers through her hair and trying to keep the increasingly visible tears from flowing; determined not to go back on her word.

"Evelyn, go back upstairs." Tony sighed, beginning to step over to Evelyn and guide her out of the room. By the time he gently placed his palms on her shoulders she unexpectantly threw him off.

"It's not Dad's fault. So don't even begin to blame him, okay?"

"Sweetheart, I wasn't blaming your father. I think you should go upstairs now and let the adults talk this over." Mom asked her quite patronizingly. I think all of us internally cringed as to what Evelyn's response would be.

"No." Evelyn snapped back with a dead pan tone, her expression a little unreadable. Tony stood by a proud smirk gracing his features.

Things can only hopefully get better.

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Tony POV.

Everything was nearly set. The whole of SHEILD and Fury were obviously involved -that was the unfortunate side. Fury trying to have complete control of the situation. But still, I supposed we needed his 'protection' if that's what you would like to call it.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on Hammer. Rip him apart in revenge of him ripping my daughter apart, my daughter who will always be my little girl no matter how grotesque the abuse inflicted upon her was. Ensuring she would have a totally different behaviour, band of emotions and future for the rest of her life. None of us will ever forgive him for that.

Gladly a little while later JARVIS notified me Rhodey was just pulling in the drive as we spoke. Abandoning a stack of paperwork Pepper finally made me sit down to and sign, groaning profoundly with each signature I scribbled carelessly.

"Rhodey! Oh, Platypus. I've missed you!" I smiled at my best friend opening the glass front door.

"You missed me? Hang on... This text you sent me," Rhodey laughed digging his phone out of his leather jacket's pocket and held it up before chuckling at the text I sent him a few hours ago : "'Sour patch; drop your heels and grab your skates, there's a road trip with the band of merry men to Boston. Bring those jazzy leg warmers from the 90's too, War Machine needs a bit of 90's lovin'.'"

"Yep. But I'm afraid the whole band of merry men are coming." I sarcastically groaned at him just as Pepper clopped down the stairs in those ridiculous heels of her's again. I had to admit she waltzed around in them so effortlessly showing off her desirable long, nine mile long, slender, slightly tanned legs.

"Rhodey, how are you?!" Pepper smiled excitedly bringing Rhodey into a hug.

"I'm good, I'm good. What about you? How's... Evelyn?" Rhodey hugged Pepper back, but timidly asked the last question. Some part of me sensed Rhodey's nearly undetectable fright. The same fright all the men in the house had felt so far, fright of Evelyn being intimidated by the people she loved the most.

"I'm fine, thank you, Rhodey. Mostly pretending she's okay, we think. But y'know... It'll get better." Pepper sighed hopelessly crossing her arms across her chest.

"Of course it will... Oh, hey Ro. How's it going?" Rhodey took Rowan under his arm, just as my son wandered up too meet his honory Uncle Rhodey, mussing up his already messy hair just like everyone else did. But this was Uncle Rhodey so it didn't really matter to Rowan at all.

"Quite shit, if you ask me."

"Watch your mouth, young man." Pepper scolded Rowan while I just let a laugh bubble from my lips.

"Ah, we brought them up so well, Pep!" I laughed at the typical irony of Rowan busting out the cussing when his grandparents are here.

"Rowan?! Can you come here a minuet, please?!" Clarissa called from the kitchen, making us all cringe and then laugh at Rowan's expression. I playfully shoved him in the right direction, earning one hell of a look.

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Evelyn?"

"Yeah, Dad?" Evelyn sat up from her slouched position on the bed.

"Mind if we talk? You got a second?" Looking behind me Pepper followed me into her bedroom as I edged in. Evelyn shifted into a more guarded behaviour. Although earlier on she said she was done crying about what happened, the puffy redness around her eyes told us otherwise. Which was understandable. I knew Evelyn wouldn't be able to switch off her emotions just like that over such a big crisis.

"We need to ask you what you want to do?" Pepper asked Evelyn timidly sitting next to her on the bed. I pulled up the swivvley chair from her desk.

"Want to do?" Evelyn repeated looking from me to Pepper in slight confusion.

"About school? School break is ending soon and MIT are expecting you there. But we can get things like tutors and your dad has all of the things downstairs so you won't miss out any practical lessons, it'd be like your own private MIT classes?" Pepper tucked some hair behind Evelyn's ear.

"I want to go. I need to, I can't stay around the house all of the time. It's just not helping anyone." Evelyn muttered wringing her hands out.

"Are you sure?" I asked her. Not able to gain some eye contact with Evelyn. Pepper read my unconvinced expression.

"Yeah... I am sure. Move on right? Don't dwell on the past or whatever."

"Moving on takes a lot of effort, honey and this is still very recent." Pepper said.

"Can you just please go along with what I want? Seeing as your doing your own thing in the mean time." Evelyn suddenly spat back.

"What do you mean? Please don't keep anything bottled up, any concerns tell someone." Pepper kept calm though this mini-outburst. Mood swings were quite common as an after effect for a rape victim; I knew this because I Googled it.

"Your going to find him. Find him and then god knows what! What if anyone got hurt? Dad, what if you got hurt? I wouldn't forgive myself because I would blame myself. What if we're identifying your dead body in a matter of hours?!" Evelyn began to cry, tears spilling over. Quickly trying to catch them with her fingertips. My heart erupted in a fit of mixed emotions. Tenderness, adoring and melancholy emotions rumbled throughout my veins spring me into that all to familiar fatherly mode.

"Hey, hey! Come on, how am I going to get hurt? I'm Iron Man, right?" I chuckled dryly, leaping off the chair in an instant crouching down in front of Evelyn. Bunching her hands up, enclosing them in between mine pressing them to my mouth with a quick kiss.

"Honey, I'm doing this for you. So you can move on with your life and not have to fear if he may be waiting around the next corner to hurt you again."

Next to us, Pepper wore a tiny smile.

"You can't guarantee that though. You can't promise me you'll come home okay that night. 'Cause what if you don't? Superman has his kryptonite, right?" Evelyn sniffled finally meeting my eyes with her heartbroken ones.

"Evelyn, sweetie, I have gold titanium alloy wrapped around me, I'll be fine. It'll be like a drive through on the hellicarrier. In 'n' out. If you don't mind me saying, Superman is about as straight as a round-a-bout, he wears tights and then underwear on top. At least I know what goes first. My weaknesses are you guys and I keep you safe, so what is there to be afraid of?" I cracked another smile. Evelyn just leaned forward looping her arms around my neck. Digging her nose in the crook of my neck, my skin receptors picking up her hot quick breath.

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Bruce?" I called out from the triangular conference meeting like table on the hellicarrier. Everyone was here. Steve now dressed in his usual get up of his spangled Captain America uniform minus the hood/helmet thing, Clint and Natasha sat around me in their agent uniform loading up her guns and Clint storing all of his arrows away, Rhodey stood around fully clad in the War Machine armour except from the helmet stored under his arm.

Thanks to the new upgrades to the Mark 7, I could easily walk out of it, and then when I wanted walk back into it's unravelled form where all of the plates of metals and screws would all bind together around me all suited up and ready to go. This was such a better solution to having the bots take the armour off of me. Thor wasn't here, he had urgent matters to attend to in Asgaurd, probably something somehow connected to Loki.

And so far, Bruce wasn't too keen on turning all big and green again.

"Yes, Tony?" Bruce ever so patiently replied walking back over to me over the noise and professional chatter of the hellicarrier's main room of action, Maria Hill could be found waltzing up and down the elevated isles of the vast amount of space beyond me through all the computers, Fury consulting with Coulson and general chatter with one another.

"Not suiting up with the rest of us again then?"

"No. I don't think so, Tony. The-the Other Guy isn't so good at keeping a low profile." Bruce stated dryly staring down at his tablet.

I sighed loudly in disappointment again.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"Um. Well, I'll probably be in the lab. Waiting for you all to get back and for the debrief." Bruce grinned. In the next few minuets Bruce politely excused himself to go and work in the lab.

Behind me, Fury, Coulson and Hill began to talk. Talking about how big this capture or fixing agent or whatever you would like to call going to find Hammer could escalate. They began to discuss press and what they could do if the news reporters turned up with their camera crews to find The Avengers in a backstreet alley beating Hammer half to death. It was then New York was brought up.

I heard increasingly blurred voices behind me. Nor was I too sure who said them.

"-Not like the wormhole Stark flew into, it's just Hammer."

"-Exactly, no ones flying into a wormhole. No ones sending a nuke into space and falling back down unconscious."

"-We may be unprotected in the world, as we've just found out, but it won't be like New York!"

"-Hill's right. There may be other threats, other people wanting to target each and every one of them but this is Hammer. And Hammer doesn't possess much power."

I'm just a man in a can. I can't protect the things I care about. I lied.

Their voices behind me faded out and suddenly everything became like a movie.

Hyperventilation suddenly made small gasps of oxygen begin to wheeze in and out of my lungs, my throat turned very dry and constricted. Panic spread throughout my body in a thin but irritatingly uncomfortable sheen along my palms, face, neck and under my clothes.

What was happening to me? Tremors shook across my panicking frame.

Before anyone could notice too much, I launched myself out of my seat.

Fumbling my way down the hallway despite my trembling legs, heaving chest and panicky state, I reached a doorway and wrenched it out of my way. Not at all taking in any surroundings, I headed into the room blurred by my vision. I felt as if this was an out of body experience.

My bleach white knuckles turned impossibly whiter as my hands clenched into fists, wrapping into myself as I slid down the now closed door. Pulling my knees up to my chest and letting my head fall forward onto my knees, my erratic hyperventilation didn't cease one bit. Panic crushed down like a tsunami over me again and again realising this was all too very real and I couldn't do it. Didn't know if I could do it. An unimaginable amount of increased panic struck in a nauseas wave when I heard voices and footsteps over the sounds of my deafening heartbeat and breathing.

"Tony?" It was then I absorbed where I was. Bruce called my name tentatively with concern just as the tears threatened to spill over. Pull it together, Tony.

"Banner, what's-?" Steve's puzzled voice came quieter from behind Bruce from what I could tell.