Seeing as I started writing this fic before I saw Age of Ultron (spoilers ahead), we're going to pretend that stuff that we found out about Clint hasn't happened. This is my universe for a while and in my universe, the whole farmhouse thing and everything that goes along with said farmhouse, has never happened. And neither has Nat and Bruce. Cuz WHATWEREYOUTHINKINGJOSS?

I was soooo looking forwards to Age of Ultron and to say I felt let down by it is a bit of an understatement, so just to clarify, this fic is set just after The Winter Soldier in a universe where Age of Ultron never happens. So however you feel about these characters now, dial back a couple of films, because that's where they are right now.

Oh and thanks so much for the reviews. Means a lot to me xx

Chapter 2

-o-

"What are you looking for?" Pepper asks for what feels like the twentieth time as Tony frantically pulls out drawer after drawer in Bruce's lab. Technically it was still Tony's lab, the whole building belonged to Tony, but it was the workspace that Bruce had pretty much taken over since moving into Stark Tower and so the label had kind of stuck.

Whilst it wasn't official, since New York, Bruce Banner had practically moved into the Tower full time, which, Pepper knew, was pretty much what Tony had been hoping for. Although he hadn't so much come out and said it, remodelling the Tower so that each member of the Avenger Initiative had their own suite and giving them all an open invitation to stay in said suite whenever they liked, was kind of a giveaway.

So far, Bruce had been the only real taker, and while Pepper didn't see that much of him - he spent most days in his lab and pretty much kept to himself, she could see how much Tony liked having a kindred spirit around. He finally had someone to talk science with. Bruce was also one of the few people who could relate to what Tony been through in New York.

Pepper hadn't realised how hard it had hit Tony. How much he'd struggled to process what had happened that day. Tony was, both literally and figuratively, a genius when it came to building ostentatious, impenetrable defences around himself, but still. She knew Tony better than anyone. She had been by his side through the worst life had to throw at him and had seen him pick himself up and dust himself off every time. On the outside, nothing fazed him. Everything just bounced off the hard, flashy shell of his defences, but underneath, deep in his core, he was really just a soft, squishy mess of insecurity borne of his father's seeming indifference. Pepper knew this, maybe better than Tony did himself, and yet somehow, she still hadn't realised just how much of a mess he'd become since joining Coulson's gang of Super-People - although the forty or so new suits he'd built and subsequently destroyed since New York should have been a pretty big clue.

So having Bruce around was good for Tony, and so far, good for Bruce too. The Tower had become a kind of sanctuary. Somewhere safe for him to live and work in peace. A place where even the army wouldn't dare to turn up uninvited, and as yet, despite Bruce's initial concerns about a certain angry green visitor turning up uninvited too, they had been Hulk free.

Clint Barton was another frequent guest, often arriving without announcement and leaving for one top secret S.H.I.E.L.D mission or another without goodbyes. Clint had his own home somewhere, presumably, but liked to declare loudly that there was "no-one to stock the refrigerator at home", and that Tony "always bought in the good stuff". Tony groaned and grumbled and complained loudly in return, but Pepper knew that really, Tony didn't mind one bit. He did always buy the good stuff, and he didn't begrudge anyone a single thing. Tony Stark was many things, but cheap was not one of them.

Thor spent most of his time on Earth with Jane Foster down in New Mexico, but there had been the odd time when he had stayed at the Tower - mostly when Jane and Eric Selvig were away working as he didn't really have anywhere to go. It wasn't like the God of Thunder was really going to be checking himself into a Holiday Inn any time soon. Pepper liked Thor a lot. He was unreserved and gregarious, and completely without agenda which was such a breath of fresh air, and while she was quickly getting used to having the others around the place, she thought she would never get used to the sight of a real life, freshly-showered god wandering round the hallways of her home dressed in nothing but a small towel and a friendly smile.

Modesty was more of a human trait than Asgardian, it seemed, but it was only Tony who seemed to mind. Pepper had no problem whatsoever with Thor making himself entirely at home in the tower.

The only two Avengers who hadn't used their suites so far were Steve Rogers, who was currently using a S.H.I.E.L.D apartment in D.C. as his base, and Natasha Romanoff. Steve and Tony hadn't had the most auspicious of starts to their working relationship and although on much better terms now, they still didn't always see completely eye to eye. The handful of times Pepper had spent any time with Steve, she had found him dry-humoured and amiable, and polite to a fault – although everyone seemed polite compared to Tony - and she'd thought that it would actually do him good to spend some time at the Tower, to have a little down-time. He'd been through a lot, they all had, but Steve had pretty much had his whole world ripped from under him and although she knew he was a battle-hardened soldier, had lived through the Second World War and survived all the horrors that had thrown at him, in reality, he wasn't really much more than a kid. A sweet-hearted, endlessly brave kid who had lost everything and everyone who had ever meant anything to him, and Pepper's heart ached for him.

Then there was Natasha.

Pepper hadn't forgiven her yet, nor was she looking to any time in the future. She knew it had been Natasha's mission to recruit Tony, that she had only been following orders, but Pepper had trusted her, confided in her, and after what had happened with Obadiah, these days, she found it very difficult to forgive such brazen deceit.

"Tony. Please just stop for a minute!" Pepper yells in frustration, and in reply Tony pushes past her like she's not even there and heads for another work station. He's been like this for days, ever since he found the H.Y.D.R.A data from the original Helicarrier he's been like a man possessed, barely sleeping, surviving on protein bars and coffee - working frantically around the clock in a desperate attempt to get at least one of his proto-type suits operational, and Pepper feels like screaming. It's her fault - well, not all her fault, and it was all mostly justified, but he blew up the suits for her. Tony destroyed his life's work and left his team-mates exposed and vulnerable all because she didn't understand what he was going through, and now they desperately needed him, and he couldn't help.

Now Tony won't let her help him either.

He may not have a working suit, but he's sure got his armour back on, and Pepper wonders if he'll ever take it off again.

"Tony, please. At least tell me what you are looking for."

Tony stops for a moment and Pepper thinks that she's finally got through to him, realising how wrong she was when he mutters something about a bathroom cabinet and walks straight past her and out into the hallway.

Surveying the mess that Tony has left behind, she swallows hard against the lump in her throat. They've been trying to get hold of the others for days, and then JARVIS showed them the news reports of Director Fury's shooting. Half an hour ago she watched a live feed of three Helicarriers shooting themselves down above the Triskellion building in D.C. with Tony hyperventilating by her side, gripping her hand so tightly she feared he might break her fingers, but even that wasn't the worst of it. Soon after came the footage of a body falling hundreds of feet from the smoking wreckage of the last crippled Helicarrier. A body clad in a red, white and blue uniform...

Sitting down on an overturned crate, Pepper rests her head in her hands and tries her hardest to not let herself get swept away in the whirlwind of what was happening around her - she was the calm one, the port in the storm. Steadfast, reliable Pepper. If she couldn't be this, she was no use to Tony. No use to anyone.

"Miss Potts?" JARVIS's voice calls quietly and pepper sighs. "What now?"

"Colonel Rhodes has just arrived at the penthouse." The A.I tells her.

"Thank God." Pepper replies. "Let him in." And getting to her feet she begins picking her way through the mess that Tony has made of the lab and heads towards the elevator. The Tower had been on lockdown since Tony had found the data, no-one in, no-one out, but if anyone could stop Tony going into a full meltdown, Rhodey could.

Rhodey had the one thing Tony needed more than anything.

Rhodey had an operational suit.