(Not the most exciting chapter after so long away, but next one will have more Nebula and Tony, and the Cheesburger scene!)

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Title from "Home" by Blue October

Characters belong to Marvel

Chapter 13: Smile at me Baby Take my Breath Away

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Tony's eyes cracked open to a light so brilliant it burned. He sucked in a pained hiss through his teeth.

"Tony?" A voice, so familiar and beloved that it tore straight through the aches and lingering fog, and he desperately forced his burning eyes to work.

"Pepper?" he breathed so softly even he could barely hear it, like he hardly dared speak his hope aloud.

The blurry visage before him made a strangled noise of joy and a face was pressed against his so close he gave up trying to make out details and instead focused on just breathing in the cool scent of her favorite shampoo. He'd missed that somehow faint but still over-the-top fruity smell more than he would have ever imagined.

"It's okay, Tony," she whispered into his hair. He could feel her shaking against him as she leaned over the hospital bed, so mindful of the IV's in his arm and wires across his chest, even in her current state. It nearly melted his heart. "It's okay, they found you. You're gonna be okay."

"Yeah," he grinned back and made do pressing a quick kiss to the corner of her jaw as she refused to let him pull back enough so he could do it properly. His own hand lifted to run slowly through her hair as he let her mumble reassurances he was only half-listening to, too caught up in the elation of having her, alive and whole and real, in his arms. She probably didn't believe this any more than he did right now, and he was enjoying the sound of her voice, letting it wash over him like a cooling wave.

Far too soon for his liking she pulled away, just far enough to look him in the eyes and make him miss her warmth. "How are you feeling?" she asked, her soft hands still cradling his face like she was afraid he may break if she held too hard or vanish if she let go.

"Like I need a shower."

A laugh that sounded more like a sob shook Pepper's entire body. "You do," she admitted with a rueful shake of her head. "You really, really, do."

She leaned back in, and Tony gladly gathered her back up into his arms.

"And a toothbrush." Her voice cracked as she breathed into his ear.

"Yeah, well, you don't smell so great yourself, Miss Potts," he lied, thinking he could spend the rest of the day with his nose buried in her much-too-fruity and slightly greasy hair.

When she pulled away again his mind felt clearer than it had in days, and he craned his neck, peeking around her in search of a familiar blue face. He was met with nothing but the pale and pastel colors of the recovery room, and an empty bed beside him.

"Where's Space-girl?" The edge of panic which took over his voice surprised even him, a strange terror stirring in his chest that he could not quite explain, but Pepper -who had seen him at his best, and his worst, and every swatch of color he had in between- only smiled softly and stroked one thumb along the stubble that lined his jaw.

"She's Okay, I promise. I think she's with her friend."

The inexplicable fear died back, and he forced his hand to let go of the railing he hadn't even realized he'd grabbed. "Friend?"

A new voice broke in, deep and low, and familiar in a different sort of way that reminded Tony of how deeply tired he was. "Sais he's captain of that ship you were on. He came here with Thor, during the battle."

Steve was leaning against the door fame, body slouched into a poor attempt at nonchalance that only highlighted how awkward he felt. Tony had been so caught up in his own little moment of bliss he hadn't even noticed the old soldier enter.

"Thor's here?" Tony heard himself ask. Blatantly sidestepping the hundred other questions he wanted to ask the almost-stranger before him.

Steve's mouth pressed into a thin line, like he was biting his lips as he lost the very same battle on his end. "Yeah. A little worse for the wear. You've got a lot of catching up to do."

That was funny coming from the supersoldier, but instead of turning the wash of irritation in the back of his throat into a customary sarcastic reply, Tony renewed his grip on the rails of his hospital bed.

"Then what are we waiting for?" he grunted out as he struggled to heave himself up.

"Tony." Pepper's hands pressed him gently back down. "Tony please don't. Not yet. You're not well-"

"I'm fine." He swatted her hands away, furious that he couldn't be allowed even these few minutes of peace to adjust to the fact that he had somehow survived, and Pepper along with him by some cosmic miracle. But the universe wouldn't wait. If there was even a sliver of a chance that he could make this right, then it wasn't over. And he couldn't rest until it was.

"You can barely even stand." A new voice joined the opposition, the unmistakable whir of electronics served as a dead giveaway for his identity.

Tony paused in his feeble struggling to shoot Rhodey a look of betrayal, but knew he wasn't going to win now. He'd try for a stalemate then. He hardly had any pride left to protect at this point. "So get me a wheelchair," he snapped. "And push me."

-x-

The briefing was a predictable disaster. It ended with him collapsed on the floor while the remaining Avengers scrambled around in a panic. His complaints at being hauled right back to a recovery bed were only met with a new needle being slid into his arm and the unmistakable feeling of being forced into unconsciousness. A wave of sorrow and loss which he could not quite account for swelled up in him as the warm pressure of Pepper's hand in his own faded away, along with the rest of the waking world.

When he woke again his limbs were buzzing like thousands of ants were tap-dancing on his every nerve, and the meeting room was quiet and empty. His right hand was hot and sweaty where Pepper stubbornly cradled it in her own.

He gave a low groan, and the sound of a book snapping closed gave him the impression he'd been out for a while. Pepper always liked to read when she was interned at his sickbed. She claimed they did it often enough that she had officially designated it as her reading time, and made plenty of progress that way. Happy had once told him that she was prone to making strange mistakes -tiny little oversights in her work that she would never otherwise make- when she was busy trying to keep an eye on his biorhythms, so she had stopped attempting to work and fell back to reading novels while fretting over him.

"Where is everyone?" Tony asked.

Pepper paused to look over her shoulder as though she didn't already know that there was no one there to see. "They left. That girl that brought you back..."

"Nebula," Tony supplied the Space-girl's real name in her prompting pause. Pepper was always more comfortable using real names, she said they felt more respectful. Tony liked nicknames, they felt more familiar.

"Nebula," she nodded, committing the name to memory no doubt. "She said she knew where Thanos would be."

A burst of terror tore through the last of the drowsiness which fogged his mind. "What?!" He heaved himself up from his pillow and reached for the wheelchair which had been set not too far from his bed, dragging it closer.

"It's okay," Pepper grabbed the chair and pulled it away before he could haul it close enough. His weakened limbs barely managed to put up a fight as it was tugged away, as gently as Pepper could manage.

"What the hell are they thinking!? They can't go after him, he'll-" Tony gave up grabbing for the chair and leaned back to run his hands through his hair and settle the frantic beating of his heart. "They can't- They don't know what they're getting into."

How long had they been gone? He had to be there. He had to do something. They didn't know what they were getting into. They- He was beginning to lose control of his breathing and gasped like a fish plucked from the water. Pepper grabbed his shaking wrists and held him steady, her thumbs rubbing small circles on the backs of his hands, grounding him, dragging his mind back into the present before he tipped too far away.

"They'll be okay," she said, but she didn't sound very convincing. "They have Carol, and Thor, and... they'll do it together, you don't need to worry."

He peeled one feintly trembling hand from his face to stare at her.

"Just give them a chance."

-x-

When they did return, Tony was ready and waiting. He'd rolled his wheelchair to the doorway leading from the landing grounds some while ago, and spent the remaining time catching his breath. It took more effort than he was willing to admit, especially after insisting so hard that Pepper not push him the entire way. He was restless and anxious, and needed something to do with his hands, no matter how exhausted he was.

The remaining avengers, -a somewhat sad and scraggly group by Tony's somewhat uncharitable estimation- spilled into the doorway with heavy boots and no air of triumph. Thor didn't even look up at the wheelchair bound man as he passed, just ripped a nearby cabinet open and dragged out a bottle of something that Tony was sure was alcoholic -just as sure as he was that it didn't belong there- and then vanished further into the compound, taking a deep swig as he went.

"What happened?" Tony demanded, scanning the bodies before him.

In the back, slipping in like a shadow so that Tony nearly missed her, Nebula stalked across the room. Dried blood was spattered up the side of her face, ugly and stark against the blue skin and silver plates on her cheek. There were smear marks in the blood like she had wiped at it at some point, but not bothered to finish cleaning it off. She didn't look up as she passed either, not even when Tony rolled his chair forward a pace and tried to catch her eyes through the crowd.

"Who's hurt?!" The furious question was directed at anyone who would answer.

Steve, who's head was hung low like he'd only just dragged himself from the battlefield of Wakanda paused to regard him with heavy eyes. "No one." The super soldier cast a glance in the direction Nebula had vanished, clearly guessing the source of Tony's panic. "Thor cut off his head. He didn't even put up a fight."

It wasn't hers then. But the breath of relief that should have come with finding the team returned unharmed was replaced with a creeping certainty that this would come at a much greater cost.

"But Tony-" Steve paused and his heart dropped again before he even heard the words. "The Stones- He destroyed them. We can't undo this."

-x-

The new woman, Carol, hadn't returned with the others. According to Rhodey, she had left the group after Thanos was proclaimed dead and the Infinity Stones lost, in search of some sort of elixir that would help him heal. Bruce had informed him, eyes downcast and mumbling so that he might have been speaking to the floor instead, that while Tony had made it back alive, the trip and his injuries from the battle with Thanos had done some damage which may have had some more permanent effects; Most notable of these were his kidneys, which were all but failing entirely, and his heart, which had developed a slight but alarming arrhythmia that hadn't faded even with the dehydration gone.

The promise of this medicine getting him out of his sick bed early was enough to keep his mouth shut about how little he cared for being babied in the mean time. Aided strongly by the thick, foggy headache that seemed to chase him in and out of dreams while he struggled to stay awake for long enough to even finish one episode of the TV shows Happy had recorded for him.

At some point he came up to the sound of arguing over his bed. The deep timber of Nebula's growl offered some surprise as she snapped something out, and so did the softer, steady hum of Carol's answer. Pepper's voice would cut in occasionally, too, growing increasingly anxious as the disagreement continued. All attempts to rouse himself enough to understand what they were fighting about only ended in further confusion; something about Terrans and half-breeds, the Tesseract, and celestial gods he had never heard of before. Being met with only nonsense for all his efforts to struggle awake, he gave up, and let their voices fade back to a steady background murmur, pouring over his mind like a stream tumbling over rocks.

When he woke again the argument had ended and hands were tugging him upright, gently shaking his shoulders to rouse him further. "Tony," Pepper's voice was soft, and her breath was warm against his ear. "Tony, I need you to wake up and drink this." With some effort he forced his eyes open. Carol was leaning over his bed, her hair glowing so brilliantly in the evening sun he thought for a moment that he was back on the ship, and everything between his rescue and now a very vivid dream. But Pepper felt solid and real where she pressed against his shoulder and held him up, and Nebula was nowhere to be found. At least, there was no blue smudge in the edges of his vision to give her away. She must have left after he'd fallen back asleep.

The edge of a bottle was pressed against his lips and he swallowed something fizzy and lukewarm, and strangely devoid of flavor. He said something to Pepper that he immediately forgot, though it was important, he was pretty sure, and with it said he settled back to sleep. This time he sunk into the heavy darkness entirely rather than endlessly bobbing along at the surface of unconsciousness.

End

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Chapter 14 Preview: "...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..."

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-Slides chapter under door and scurries off like a cockroach-