Tony woke up the next morning to unbearable pain.

He had forgotten to take any pain pills and his leg was absolutely throbbing. Tears erupted in his eyes as he fought to sit up. The pain sent sparks up his spine and he was forced to collapse against the pillows. For a split second his mind fogged over from the pain and he reached for his phone. His thumb trembled over the screen trying to find someone to call to help him. His mind told him to ask Jarvis to summon Steve from downstairs. But as he went through his almost empty contact list, his brain suddenly cleared and his world crashed when he remembered that he was completely alone.

With shaking hands Tony sat up and peeled the brace off of his leg, screaming through clenched teeth the whole time. Pins and needles stabbed the limb as soon as he started tugging and the appendage jerked uncontrollably. When the brace was finally off, Tony tossed it across the room and he fell, panting against the sheets. It was hard to breathe past the throbbing and soreness but he fought. When his brain finally registered the pain was getting no better, he allowed himself to drift back into unconsciousness.

Tony debated demolishing his doorbell when he woke up to the sound. It wasn't necessarily the sound that bothered him, it was the unconscious hope that surged through his chest every time he heard it. His heart would thud, excitedly hoping someone had returned for him. Hoping the team would be standing outside, shouting apologies and talking about how they'd missed him and didn't mean to leave. Hoping Pepper would be standing tall in her heels behind the door, explaining how she had just broken up with Happy because she realized her heart still loved Tony. Hoping it would be Rhodey when he opened the door, silently pulling him into a big hug as they both cried into each other's shirts. He tried not to think about how long it had been since he'd been hugged.

The doorbell ringing again hurled him out of his thoughts and brought him to the next concern of how he would even get to the door. Tony eyed the wheelchair abandoned on the side of his bed and sighed.

Opening the front door, he frowned when he saw it was Happy standing on the other side, a guilty look on his face and hat in hand. "Hey boss," Happy smiled nervously.

"Don't call me that," Tony said flatly. There was an awkward moment when the two simply stared at each other. Tony snapped out of his swirling thoughts and wheeled backwards to let the man in.

Happy walked in awkwardly and stood stiff as if this was not a building he had been in a hundred times before. A building he had once called home. Tony took pity on him and gestured him to the living room in front of them. Instead of transferring to the couch, Tony simply rolled up next to it, unsure if he would be able to support himself with the pain that was slowly taking over his senses. It felt horrible to have his leg bent on the wheelchair's footrest but he did not want to show any weakness in front of Happy. It was funny, he would have gladly asked the man to wipe his ass for him a few years ago, but now the trust and comfort they had with each other was washed away. He could barely look the man in the eye.

"What happened?" Happy finally said into the silence, gesturing to Tony's wheelchair.

Tony looked down and picked a thread off his sweatpants. "Accident on the job," he huffed, feeling self conscious.

Happy nodded, accepting the answer. "I'm sorry," he blurted.

Tony looked up at the man's sad face but quickly forced his gaze to the window- Happy had the superpower of looking so pathetic that anyone would almost always take pity on him and Tony didn't want to fall for it.

Happy sighed loudly. "Pepper-"

"I'm not mad," Tony interrupted. Narrator: He was, in fact, mad.

Happy looked up in surprise. "You're not?"

Tony shook his head, still looking out the window. "No, I'm not. I'm happy Pepper found someone. She never liked my superhero stuff and I'm...glad, that she found someone who was not forced to disappoint her."

"That means so much to me, Tony," Happy smiled wide. "These past three years, she's made me so happ-"

Tony froze. "How long?"

Happy quickly turned red when he realized his mistake. "You've been together for three years? I was dating Pepper for two of those," Tony growled.

"Well, not together," Happy sweated. "We just dated."

"Did you have sex with her?" Tony asked suddenly.

Happy grimaced which was an answer enough. "That's actually what I came to talk to you about." Tony finally looked Happy in the eye. "She's pregnant."

Tony couldn't breathe.

"And she wants you and Rhodey to be the kid's godfathers."

The air in the room was suddenly sucked out. He couldn't breathe.

"I just haven't been able to get in contact with Rhodey, so I was hoping you could talk to him. I assume he's angry over this whole-"

"Rhodey's dead," Tony said unknowingly.

Happy's face paled in a matter of seconds. "What?" he whispered.

"Rhodey's dead. He's dead and you need to leave," Tony choked. He wheeled over to Happy and started forcing him out the door. "He's dead. He's dead. He's dead," Tony chanted under his breath. When the door slammed shut, Tony sat frozen in the middle of the room. "Rhodey's dead. Rhodey's dead. He's dead," he whispered in a trance.

His best friend is dead and his girlfriend is pregnant with his friend's kid. It wasn't so much Pepper was pregnant with Happy's kid, it was more so that she was pregnant at all. Despite Tony's wish for kids, Pepper had argued adamantly with him that she never wanted any children. It was an argument that happened at least once a month, especially once the Avengers moved in and Tony got to learn what it was like to have a family.

Tony wondered what changed her mind. Or was it less the fact she didn't want to have kids, and more so that she didn't want to have them with him? She couldn't even entertain the idea of having Tony's DNA in something that came from her. She hated him that much. And now she wanted him to be the child's godfather? Or maybe she just wanted Rhodey, who was way more responsible, but didn't want to cause an argument so she asked them both? He had so many questions, but deep down he didn't want to know the answers to them.

Somehow, he found himself in his old bedroom he'd shared with Pepper. It was down the hall from his current one, which was smaller since he now slept alone. His hands unconsciously wheeled himself into the walk in closet and towards his old drawer. He tried to snap himself out of his daze but his hands continued to open the drawer and reach inside. His heart thudded when he pulled out a small square box and opened it up to reveal the ring inside.

Tony had picked out the ring about three months before all of this happened, intending on popping the question to Pepper when the time was right. He just knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, growing old and eventually convincing her to have children- start a family. The ring was actually his grandmother's and he got it engraved with "Proof you are Tony Stark's heart" as a play on her gift to him all those years ago.

Looking at it now, he wanted to vomit. Had he been that stupid? That naive to think she would want to be tied down to him? That she would see that beautiful future of them in his head? She and Happy had been together for three years, but how long before that did she lose her love for him? How long had he been thinking about that ring when she was next to him, thinking about how to tell him it's quits?

Tony forced himself to calm down and moved himself to the workshop. His arm had been better lately and he needed the distraction of work. As the holograms lit up and his bots came to life, he found a brief feeling of satisfaction wash over him.

"Hello, Boss," Friday said and Tony jumped. He had her disabled in most areas of the house so it wasn't often he heard her voice. He was tired of her nagging him about his bad habits, and frankly the loss of Jarvis was still painful for him.

"Hey, Fri. Anything new?" He asked, wheeling over to the desk.

"Hello, Boss. You have 14 new emails," she said before each one appeared before him.

Tony scanned through the long messages. More funerals, more damage, more bills. One email caught his eye- it was about pardoning the Rogues. It was from an anonymous email address but Tony could easily guess who sent it. He scanned through it and wanted to laugh. They wanted a pardon on the grounds that 'they didn't mean to hurt anyone' and 'Captain America doesn't have a bad bone in his body'. It would never go through and probably wouldn't even be worthy of a trial. Tony trashed it.

Another message that caught his eye was from his main bank. It was a letter telling him to file for bankruptcy because in about a month's time if his bills kept up, he would be bankrupt. Tony put his head in his hands. He would never willingly take money from important things like medical bills of victims or city damages, but a small part of him wished he could just say no to it all. He wished he could shout a loud 'leave me alone' to the world.

But he knew he couldn't. The world depended on Tony Stark. The world needed his money, because that's all he was good for. No one cared that it didn't grow out his ass. No one cared that despite his previous look of spending his money on large parties and worthless things, he actually used it for good, for important things. No one cared that behind the large dollar signs, there is actually a person. Well, a soon to be homeless person.

Tony spent the rest of the evening on the phone with his bank, selling his estates and pulling money from wherever he could. It was when they told him he would have to sell the Avengers Compound to finish funding the city damages he decided to take a break.

That led to a call with Ross. He hated the man so much, but there was a part of him breaking when he realized he was going to have to lose his home, their home. He couldn't do it.

"We want it," Ross said after Tony's long speech. It was precisely what Tony wanted him to say. He knew Ross wouldn't like the idea of the bank having the Avengers Compound in their possession. He and the UN would jump at that offer of control. "We'll buy it from you for $500 million."

It was less than Tony spent building it, but since Ross was letting him continue to live there, he accepted the offer. He should have known he would grow to regret it.

Fury showed up not too long after that call, appearing on Tony's couch as the man wheeled himself into the living room. Tony only sighed.

Nick raised his eyebrow slightly at the wheelchair. "What happened?"

"Accident on the job," Tony muttered. "What do you want?" He changed the subject quickly.

Nick's eye lingered on the chair but he moved his eye back to Tony's when he accepted he would receive no further information from the genius. "I need you to catch me up with all of...this."

Tony's eyes squinted. "This? What is this?"

Nick rolled his eye. "The Civil War...Ross. I don't know what's going on."

Tony scoffed. "The leader of the nosiest organization on the planet doesn't know what's going on?" Tony repeated skeptically.

Nick sighed, his shoulders hunching slightly. "I told you Shield fell. And i've been dealing with something...a whole lot bigger than this. I've looked at news articles but even they don't know what caused all of this. I'd like to hear it from you."

Tony was almost scared of the vulnerability he saw in Nick's eyes. His mind floated to a time where Nick was a main part of the Avengers. The missions, the decisions, the plans all went through him. Tony wondered if the Civil War would have happened if Nick, Maria, and Agent were still part of the team. "Fine," he said. "Only if you do me a favor."

That was how Tony got Nick to fix his brace for him. He guided the man on the correct tools and where to tighten, while he swallowed several pills when Nick's back turned. While Tony was gaining a bit more control over his left hand, it still shook terribly when faced with things that require lots of coordination like using small bolts or holding a pen. When they were finished, Tony snapped the brace onto his leg and stood, desperate to be out the chair.

Immediately he swayed upon standing, exhausted after such a long day. "We had a deal," Nick reminded.

Tony's rapidly closing eyes fluttered as the man's hand waved. "Yeah, just...Friday?" Tony would be mad at himself in the morning when he realized that in giving Nick access to Friday's database, he was giving Nick way more information than he was comfortable with sharing. But for now, he closed his eyes and allowed his pill cocktail to drag him to sleep.

As Tony slept on the workshop couch, Nick took a seat and started from the beginning. He watched security cameras, listened to phone calls, and even watched Siberia through Iron Man's helmet recording. For once though, he knew he was going to use this insider knowledge for the good reasons.