Please bear with me as I try to remember how to do the writing thing. lol

Characters and original story belong to Marvel

Title is from "Clumsy Card House" by Blue October

This is purely for entertainment

A/N: The joke at the end is a reference to my first one-shot "The Future Freaks me Out," because apparently I just like referencing it in all my larger works.

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Chapter 14: By the Way, By Your Side I'll Stay

(If That's Okay)

"Tony?" Pepper didn't even give him time to blink the sleep from his eyes. "How are you feeling?"

With a groan he heaved himself up to sit and was surprised at how easily he managed. His muscles were still wasted and sluggish, but they listened and moved how he had intended. The sudden absence of pain as he moved was almost disturbing after so long in its presence. Even his stomach, which just recently had ached so bad he could barely manage the awful slurry Bruce had pressed on him to help his body readjust to real food, was suddenly not screaming at him in protest. "I feel... good?" It came out more of a question, and he looked to Pepper for the answer.

A bright smile bloomed over her face and she reached out to feel his forehead and brush her fingers through his hair. "Carol brought back some medicine for you, do you remember?"

The flickering image of Carol leaning over him, hair lit up like fire, resurfaced in his mind.

"Yeah, I think so, maybe," he offered, grasping for any other memory he may have. Vaguely, he thought he remembered an argument.

Almost as though summoned by the thought of her, -although it was more likely she was summoned by an actual monitor on his vitals- the sharp, unmistakable thunk of a soldier in combat boots heralded the arrival of the woman in question moments before she burst into his room without even the pretense of knocking.

"Good, you're awake." She crossed straight to his bed to shove her hand onto his forehead much like Pepper had, but her hand was significantly colder than Pepper's and he flinched back with a shout of protest.

"Hey! Personal space, Doctor Icy Hot!"

She said nothing, having already gathered his wrist instead and turned to stare at the clock, but a smile tugged at her lips as she mutely counted the seconds and measured his heart rate. They sat in awkward silence until she finished her count and released his wrist.

"I think he'll be fine." This announcement was punctuated by her straightening up and crossing her arms in clear satisfaction across her chest. Tony couldn't quite tell if she was being smug, or was just excited that her plan had worked so well.

"Of course I'll be fine," he snorted, like it hadn't been made perfectly clear to him how very far from fine he had actually been. Then, to change the subject he asked, "Space-girl was here, right? and what were you all fighting about?"

Carol deflated just a bit, dropping her hands back to her sides and blowing a strand of hair from her face.

"There was some... lively discussion about whether the Elixir was safe for Terrans-humans. Real ones, anyways, without something more supernatural in their veins." She paused here to shrug and Tony was reminded that he still hadn't received any real explanation of who she was or where her powers had come from. He wasn't even clear on what her abilities were beyond flying in space and glowing like a super powered nightlight. Before he could ask, she continued on. "Your friend wasn't too keen on using you as a Guinea pig. She wanted to find someone else to drink it first. I told her that was a waste of time and elixir, it's perfectly safe, but this went on until-"

Pepper's voice cut it. "-I drank some."

Tony gripped her hand instinctively and whipped his head around to face her with open horror. A heat rose on his face and twisted his heart.

"What?" she asked with false innocence, managing to look both guilty and proud at the same time- a look which Tony was much more accustomed to giving than receiving. "It stopped the arguing."

"W-What the hell were you think-"

"No." Her shoulders stiffened and her face hardened in the first real flicker of anger he'd seen since returning.

"What?"

"I said 'No,' Tony." She squeezed his hand back, just as hard. "You don't get to complain about people taking risks. Not right now. Don't you dare."

Tony closed his mouth, but they both knew he wasn't letting this go so easily. Not when it came to something as absolutely terrifying as Pepper putting herself in harms way for him.

-x-

Nebula made an appearance not too much later. In fact, Tony found himself wondering if she had been waiting out of sight for the blonde to leave, because Carol's heavy footsteps had hardly faded from Tony's ears when she stalked through the doorway. The image of her hovering around some corner, like a grouchy stray cat, was enough to make his lips twitch, and to make holding his mouth shut physically ache as he struggled not to voice any jokes.

Pepper was still seated in a plush chair beside him. Her legs tucked up underneath her, and her heels placed neatly on the floor beside it gave the impression she had no intentions of leaving any time soon. One hand still clasped Tony's, and the other held a paperback novel which she had just fished out of the nightstand. She was at least half-way through, according to the bookmark.

She paused in the middle of opening the book to greet Nebula with a smile. "Nebula, you're back."

The greeting was ignored by the alien in favor of her standing at the foot of Tony's bed, arms crossed tightly and a disapproving frown on her face as she stared down her nose at him.

"You're well." It almost sounded like an accusation, but Tony was fairly sure it was really a search for confirmation.

"Yep!" He brought his arms up, lifting Pepper's hand with his. "No gills, not green, no surprise super powers- that one's a little disappointing if I'm being honest. I'll be up and working on my tap dancing any day now." A squeeze from Pepper's hand let him know what she thought of that, and he dropped his arms sheepishly back to the bed. Maybe no tap dancing in his near future.

Nebula's arms somehow tightened and her lips twisted into a different kind of frown. "I forgot how much you talk when you're awake," she grumbled under her breath. Still, she seemed to relax in a way Tony couldn't really describe, and it warmed him a little to know she had been so worried about him. He shoved aside the little worm of guilt that was squirming inside.

"No really, I'm feeling a lot better. You look like you're doing well Space-girl." The image of her face splattered with blood and strained into a terrifyingly blank expression flashed through his mind for the thousandth time. "They haven't roped you into any patrols yet, have they?"

"I've been busy helping the fo- helping Rocket repair the ship. Your technology here is barbaric, we've had to rewire it several times from the lines burning out."

Now that he looked, he could see some grease like stains on her arms and the edges of her clothes.

Tony's mouth opened to launch some complaint about her overdoing it, but he managed to catch himself before the words came out in front of Pepper. She would definitely smack him with her book and call him a hypocrite. He would probably deserve it. But where he had spent the majority of his time back on Earth crammed into a bed and kept off his feet, he knew Nebula had barely stepped off the death trap of a ship they had been stranded on before she turned around and lead the Avengers straight back to the stars, to confront her father who had caused all of this to begin with.

That little worm of guilt thrashed and wriggled more violently. He shoved it aside again and desperately tried not to let it show on his face. They were alive. He needed to focus on that. Her face had already lost the sunken, starving appearance, and the deep dark circles that had pooled under her eyes their last days on the Milano had faded, though if he looked carefully he could still see them lingering faintly, like a bruise refusing to heal. He wondered briefly if they ever really went away, or if she carried them around with her everywhere like Steve did his. He wondered if she had them even as a child. Another joke bubbled up from his chest- something about them being the only bags she carried with her when she left home- but even in his head it just sounded mean, and a little sad, and he kept it to himself.

Apparently satisfied that he was alive, Nebula gave a tiny nod and used the lull in conversation to turn for the doorway.

A cold terror tugged at his chest again, reminiscent of the fear he had felt when he'd first woken up and found her not there. "You're not leaving, are you?"

She gave him a strange look, then glanced around the room like it might provide some answer before settling back on him. "I need to return to working on the ship," she said slowly.

"No, I mean," Tony paused and chewed his lip and his fingers twitched in Pepper's grip. She squeezed his hand again, more gently this time, and it was enough to recenter him. "I mean, you're not leaving Earth yet?"

Understanding flickered over her face for a moment, followed closely by a surprised sort of confusion. There was another lull as she glanced away and seemed to mull something over in her head.

"Where else would I go?" Her words slipped out through her teeth like a challenge, like she thought he was mocking her somehow. Tony couldn't help but feel that she almost looked embarrassed, by the sharp angles of her shoulders and a pinch to her lip.

"I-" Tony stuttered briefly, his brain still fuzzy and lagging and his tongue heavy. The ease that had developed between them on the Milano was suddenly abscent. All the walls that had broken down were hastily thrown back up the second they were no longer half-way through Death's door. A tiny piece of him stung at the idea that she didn't trust him, but he supposed a lifetime of... whatever she had lived through, he was sure he couldn't even guess at half of it, wouldn't just vanish in a few weeks.

Again, a voice that sounded a lot like Pepper called him a hypocrite for ever expecting as much, even subconsciously.

Pepper, bless her saintly heart with a thousand perfectly toasted bagels, and may she never stub her toe on an end table again, quietly spoke up to save Tony's frazzled mind in its flounderings.

"You are more than welcome to stay here as long as you like." That part of Pepper that worked like a radar to zero in on the insecurities of those around her was often a source of trouble for Tony. It's hard to get away with much around someone who can call out a lie before you even tell it. And God help the idiot that stares her dead in the eyes and sais 'I'm fine,' because no Earthly force could save them. Not that any higher power had ever helped him when he did it. "There's plenty of rooms, and it's the least we could do for bringing Tony back."

For the first time since she'd entered Nebula turned her dark eyes to regard Pepper. Her lips pressed into a straight line and she worked her jaw like she wanted to say something. She was probably going to argue that she hadn't done anything, a statement that would definitely set off Pepper's bullshit alarm. Pepper didn't take well to needless self-depreciation. Maybe Nebula could sense this, because after another moment's deliberation, she gave a grunt that could have meant anything and turned on her heel to leave.

"Hey Space-girl?"

Nebula paused in the doorway, but didn't turn back.

"Thanks for staying."

She stepped out of the doorway and vanished down the hall in the direction of the docks.

Tony gave a sigh and leaned back against his pillow, rolling his head to look at Pepper. "She can be a bit quiet but-"

"I actually really like her," Pepper interrupted him, flicking her book open one-handed and settling back in her chair to continue where she had last left off. Clearly done with this conversation for now.

A smile broke out on his face and he gave her hand a playful shake before closing his eyes. He was still pretty tired. Maybe another nap. Just a short one.

-x-

By two in the afternoon he was shaken awake again so Bruce could look him over. After much poking and prodding, note scribbling and shining lights in his eyes, Bruce declared whatever Carol had done as a success. The biologist-turned-begrudging-team-doctor informed him that his organs were no longer failing, and his newest arrhythmia had vanished.

"In fact," Bruce added, waving his glasses around in one hand so he could wipe some sweat off his forehead with the other, like he had spent the last twenty minutes jogging around the compound instead of sitting in an office wheelie chair and jabbing at a defenseless man in a hospital bed, "Once you get some calories and nutrition in you, you may be healthier than you were before."

He'd said it with a tiny smile that did little to distract from the deep shadows under his eyes and new wrinkles etched into his face. Tony felt a sickness settle into his stomach at the thought of coming out of all of this unharmed. 'Survivor's guilt,' sang a voice in the back of his head. It sounded a bit like Steve, in his Captain America tone which was sure and self possessed and much too understanding for any normal human being.

As if he sensed Tony's unease, Bruce redoubled his efforts at a reassuring smile. It just made the crow's feet at the corners of his exhausted eyes deepen, and made Tony think that maybe Bruce wouldn't be so tired if their other doctor was here, and not a pile of dust on the other side of the universe. That lead to some other thoughts about people who had been turned to dust and Tony quickly steered his mind to other things.

-x-

Despite his near miraculous escape from another certain death, and the removal of his IV drip and various monitors, he hadn't been released from bedrest yet. His organs were recovered, but his body still needed to rebuild its stores of fat and all the muscle he had lost.

By three that afternoon he was back to catching up on his T.V. shows with little else to do. Pepper had refused his request for a tablet so he could at least work while he was in bed. And several attempts to switch to a news channel when no one was paying attention had resulted in the remote being taken away from him.

"You need to rest Tony," Pepper had said, with the grace to look at least a little guilty about what she was doing, but there was a hardness to the set of her jaw that told him she would not be changing her mind any time soon. "You won't do any good for anyone until you recover, so please just try to rest."

The images he had managed to catch before she had wrestled the remote from him didn't make him feel like he should be resting.

-x-

By three thirty, Happy made an appearance. It was the first time Tony had seen him in person since his return, and his surprise only doubled when the man held up a brown paper bag with grease stains on the side, and the unmistakable smell of grease and melted cheese flooded the room.

"They said you were well enough to try some solid food." A wrinkle formed at the corner of the man's mouth as it twisted into a small but genuine smile. The kind that Happy seemed to reserve for only the quiet sort of moments where no one would believe it later.

Pepper tapped Tony's arm lightly. "When we gave you the Elixer Carol brought, you wouldn't close your eyes until we promised to get you some."

A bold smile broke over his own face as he felt his stomach nearly do cartwheels at the thought of food. Real, solid, greasy food! Not that slurry of nutrition and protein crap that Bruce had concocted. It tasted like someone had sent unripe Broccoli through a rock tumbler. The biologist had not been amused at the comparison when Tony had told him as much straight to his face.

Tony happily accepted the bag while Pepper greeted Happy and asked a few questions about what the other Avengers were up to. He was only half-listening to the conversation which really gave him little information beside who was currently in and out of the compound, busy fiddling with the edge of the paper bag and lost instead in fuzzy memories about a conversation on a dim ship and thoughts about something missing.

In a rare but beautiful moment of perfect timing and cosmic alliance, a flash of blue caught his eye through the glass panel of his medical bay that it shared with the meeting room from his first day back.

"Space-girl!" He shouted so suddenly that Pepper jumped in her chair.

Nebula had been stalking through the far end of the meeting room, probably heading to the communal kitchen. It was an easier route to go through the compound than around it from the repair room the Milano would have been moved to. At his shout, she paused and made eye contact with him with a less than amused face.

Tony waved one arm dramatically to signal her in. Through the glass and across the distance, he watched her give Pepper and Happy each a quick calculating look. He waved more frantically when she appeared to be leaning on the side of ignoring him and continuing to wherever she'd been headed. With a roll of her eyes she relented and changed her rout to approach his room instead.

She entered the room with a set to her shoulders and her dark eyes glittering under lowered brows, like she half-expected this to be some sort of ambush. Happy just shuffled easily out of her way to stand near Pepper instead, his hands clasped loosely behind his back like they often were when he didn't have anything productive to do in the moment and was waiting for either his next job or an excuse to leave to present itself.

"Th'hell do you want, Sleepin' Beauty?"

It was Tony's turn to jump when a sharp voice spoke up. He hadn't even seen the talking raccoon until he entered the room at Nebula's side. He was probably with her the whole time, but obscured by the furniture in the meeting room. Small patches of grease and ash were smeared across his suit and fur, matching those on Nebula.

"Oh God," Tony groaned, unable to resist any sort of snipe. "It's Paddington Bear again."

The supposed pilot curled a lip at him and tilted his chin. "The name's Rocket, Numb nuts."

Rocket... why did that sound familiar...

There was a pause, and then. "Oh! We ate your food. You had some... creative warnings on some of it."

Nebula had translated a few of them for him during the endless idle hours on that ship.

The talking raccoon- Rocket-'s tail twitched and his lip curled for a moment, but when he finally opened his mouth he just snorted. "Ah, it was crappy stuff anyways. Better wasted on some dirt-planet dweller like you who doesn't know what the good stuff taste like. I just hate when Quill gets his grubby little Ravager hands into my things."

No one said anything about how his voice cracked over his lost teammate's name.

"What did you want?" Nebula echoed Rocket's initial question. Her tone was warring between impatience and indifference as if she couldn't decide which was safer to use in front of this audience.

"Ah, yes!" Tony lifted the greasy paper bag and shook it lightly. "I have a promise to keep!"

She narrowed her eyes at the crinkling bag. "What are you talking about?"

"Cheeseburgers! I told you as soon as we got back to Earth-"

Nebula interrupted him flatly. "I don't want any... 'cheesburgers.'"

Rocket gave a small chuckle.

Tony ignored him and started unrolling the bag. "That's just because you haven't had one before. Besides, it's tradition for surviving near death experiences and-" He paused and frowned down at the paper bag. "There's only one?"

A glance up at Happy and Pepper revealed the pair watching him with matching expressions of confusion.

"I didn't realize you wanted-..." Pepper started and derailed herself. "You were near-hysterical at the time, and hardly making sense. I just asked him to get one for you."

A subtle unhappiness flickered across Happy's face. The man was practical enough to know this wasn't any kind of mistake on his end of things, but he also took enough pride in his work that Tony knew he'd be bothered by this for a while.

Tony swallowed thickly and stared at the single cheeseburger for another moment before forcing a smile back onto his face. "Ah, no problem!" He exclaimed maybe a bit too cheerfully. "We'll just order another one! I can wait."

Happy stiffened a bit and Pepper chewed her bottom lip. "That may take a bit longer than usual," she murmured. "And you really need to eat, Tony."

Like a dirty traitor, his stomach chose that moment to give a small growl. The smell of real food that filled the air had apparently been enough to wake it up. He really was hungry.

The sound of footsteps snapped him back to the present to find Nebula, apparently deciding the conversation was over, was heading for the door.

"Wait!" he shouted, yanking the cheeseburger out of the bag and holding it out towards her before she could complete her escape. "Share? We can go halvsies."

She stopped, turning a disgusted look on him, like he had just asked if she wanted a sip of the slurry Bruce had been giving him up until this point. "I don't want-" she growled, but he barreled right over her refusal.

"One bite, then?" he bargained, not sure why he suddenly sounded so tired and desperate and trying to reel himself back into a normal tone for a conversation. "Just one. I haven't even opened it yet. No cooties."

Her frown deepened and he pressed on.

"Come on. I made a promise. I'm not going to eat this until you try it. I'll starve first, you know I will."

Her brows flattened to level him with a sharp look, but it wasn't like they hadn't had this same argument before. She could hardly accuse him of bluffing when he had been stubborn enough to do it before. Briefly her eyes flicked over to Pepper, as though waiting for her to step in and contradict Tony, to threaten to tie him down and force him to eat, but Pepper, -may that ugly little tomato plant she was growing on the back patio grow a hundred feet tall and give her the best tomatoes this world had ever known- said nothing.

With Pepper taking no side -which was as good as taking his side- tony waved the burger and lifted his eyebrows at the space-girl until she caved with one last threatening growl.

"Fine!" She was at his side in two angry strides and snatching the offending food item out of his hand. "If it'll shut you up and get me some peace."

Not even Rocket offered a sarcastic comment as she unwrapped a corner and took a small but somewhat vicious looking bite. For a half a second, maybe not even that long, something flickered across her face that Tony could almost call approval, like a surprised sort of happiness. He wouldn't have caught it at all if he hadn't been watching her so intently. Even quicker than it appeared, it vanished, replaced with a haunted look and a darting glance around the room. It was as though she expected someone to jump out of the corner and scream 'gotcha!' for daring let her face slip from it's constant frown.

Something cold and angry twisted inside of him at the sight. It wasn't right. Thanos was dead, but he had little doubt it was the Titan's shadow that had his daughter flinching.

He couldn't fight a ghost, however desperately he wished to. It was an endeavor he had wasted a shameful amount of his life trying to do, so with no target to aim at his rage solidified into a resolve to instead fix the damage however he could. That meddling part of him that Pepper claimed was ultimately nothing but a compass pointed squarely at an early grave was awake and running at full speed. Someday he was going to see her smile. For real. Without it immediately being chased away by pain and fear. Someday she would know happiness not tainted by fear of retribution.

He'd make sure of it.

She stiffly handed the remaining burger back to him. "It was fine."

"Knew you'd like it." He offered her a toothy grin and crammed the ominous feeling squirming around his guts into a box labled 'to deal with later when people aren't watching and analyzing my every move like I'm knocking on Death's door.' It was a fairly well-used box.

One last frown was all she spared him before she turned for the door and made her escape, Rocket at her side.

"You're sharin' food with a Humie now, Nebula? That's disgusting, you know."

"Shut up."

From his seat on the bed, Tony could see her angle her next stride so she clipped her companion roughly in the leg.

"Didn't you share a toothbrush with yours?"

"THAT IS COMPLETELY UNTRUE!" The Build-A-Bear's fur seemed to puff out at he sputtered up at her. "Who the hell spilled? Was it Gams?! I knew she couldn't keep her D'asted mouth shut. She used it too,- did she tell you that?"

Their arguing faded out of hearing as they left his room and resumed their earlier course through the compound, and Tony tried really hard not to think about lingering shadows and shared toothbrushes as he took his own bite of his burger. It was a little cold now, but he could hardly remember the last time he had tasted real food, and most of his worries temporarily faded away.

End Ch 14

Chapter 15 Preview: "...As far as she could tell, there was no real purpose to these 'television dramas,' but Tony insisted she 'give them a try' and Rocket, for some inconceivable reason, took his side.

A burst of laughter came from the uplift from where he sat on an overstuffed sofa across the room. Perhaps she had let him rise too far in her opinion..."

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Full disclosure, the last chapter and about half of this one was written over a year ago. At the last second I decided I wanted to put the cheeseburger scene a the end of that chapter instead of the next one, because I wanted it from Tony's POV. But then it got too long and I wound up splitting it anyways so... I'm sorry.

Next chapter should be titled 'Into the Ocean' and largely be about Nebula, Rocket, and Rhodney, if all goes as planned, and I can start expanding the world and other characters a bit.

-OMaM