Chapter 6: On the steps of Death's door?

Warning: contains fluff scene (Or at least my attempt at it)! Not meant as Slash, repeat: not meant as Slash!

PLEASE READ!: I slightly rewrote Chapter 4 (Afghanistan) and Chapter 5 (Changing Everything)! I would really appreciate it if you would read them again and give me a feedback!

So and now: Enjoy! ^_^

Tony sat in his new tower in New York City, the first place he could call his. But it was not complete without his family and only Yinsen's company was keeping him from storming into SHIELD's HQ to drag Phil, Clint and Natasha to the tower and give them their rooms – and fuck Fury!

But his personal physician took over the role to play something like an adviser, together with Jarvis and Pepper, and hindered him from doing incredible stupid things.

Speaking of the Eye Patch: after Tony had reintroduced himself to the world, the Director of SHIELD had visited him to ask him if his bodyguard – Iron Man – would like to join, what he called the Avengers Initiative in the future. Tony had said he would talk with Iron Man about it (or more precisely, he would think about it) and Fury had even surprised him by asking him to become an official consultant for SHIELD. His first thoughts had been along the line of 'Oh now you're asking?' and had said he would later make a decision.

But back to the topic of Phil, Clint and Natasha: despite his family still working for SHIELD they upheld their tradition to at least meet once a month to walk through the town and enjoying each other's company. Sometimes they would even come to the tower and they would do a sleepover with movies and unhealthy food.

Until one day Tony wasn't there…

"Tony? Where are you?" shouted Clint through the floor getting no answer he turned to the ever-present AI. "Jarvis, do you know where Tony is?" "I am deeply sorry, but sir ordered me not to tell you of his current position in the building." Jarvis answer made the three smile – even though he couldn't tell where Tony was exactly, he had at least told them that he was in the Tower and so Natasha searched on the balcony, Clint in the bedroom and Phil in the workshop. They found no one.

"Maybe he is with Yinsen in the medical area?" Natasha suggested as the met up in the living room. "Then why are we still standing here? Let's go and look! Tony has never missed one of our meetings without at least saying something beforehand!"

Together they made their way to Yinsen's domain, once there they barged in through the door surprising a half-clad Tony and Yinsen who was studying some information on a medical record. Tony stiffened and when he realised who it was, tried to cover the area around his arc reactor. But he had been to slow. The group of three marched forward and Phil grabbed Tony's arms firm but not painfully and uncovered the device that held their fourth family member alive. Spreading from the arc reactor were small black crisscross lines.

"What is that?" Phil demanded to know. Tony bowed his head and avoided their staring.

"You should tell them Tony. They have a right to know." Yinsen said gently to which Tony just nodded. "I know…"

Slowly he raised his head and his eyes meet Phil's, the pain and sadness in them causes Phil to take a deep breath. "I… I am dying."

This sentence caused the already heavy atmosphere in the room to double so that you could cut it with a knife if you tried. Natasha was the first to ask of the three. "What do you mean?!"

In an unconscious move Tony raises his hand to the arc reactor and explained: "You know that the arc reactor needs palladium to work and this is also poisoning me… I am so sorry!" A tear escaped his normally calm face; Phil then took a step forward and hugged him. "There is nothing to be sorry for – except that you could have told us. We will find a way to solve this." Tony grabbed the older man's suit in a death grip as he mumbled into the jacket with a cracked voice: "I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I've tried every combination, every permutation of every known element. None of them can replace the palladium core." He laughed a broken laugh "The thing that is keeping me alive is killing me slowly…"

"Don't say that! What has become of the cocky little brother that always crawled through the air duct systems to terrify the new recruits and piss of Fury?!" Clint said harshly as he stepped closer towards Tony who still held onto Phil. "He is gone into vacation." came the weak reply. Now Natasha took the initiative and grabbed him at the shoulder closest to her to get his full attention. "Maybe we can find something at SHIELD. You told us that Howard had been a member of SHIELD and there is a possibility that we can find something to help you, младший брат!"

Tony looked up at the red head and gave a weak smile. "Tasha… thanks."

"Well since this is sorted out, we can go to work." Phil said in a business-like tone which made the others smile and nod. "I can try to give Tony something that would buy you all a bit more time for your search but it isn't a permanent solution." suggested Yinsen.

"That would be appreciated Doctor. Natasha and Clint, you two will try to search the old fashioned way through SHIELD for clues concerning thing from Howard Stark, Tony you will hack SHIELD as low profiled as you can and I will search in old files." Phil divided the tasks and everyone nodded in acceptance. Natasha and Clint immediately left to go after their assigned task, shooting one last reassuring glance to Tony who now looked a bit more hopeful than before. Yinsen turned to his medical equipment and worked on the temporary solution while Tony and Phil left together the room. "You could have told us you know." Phil said as they walked to Tony's workshop from where he would hack SHIELD together with Jarvis' help. Tony raised his hand and ran it through his already dishevelled hair. "I didn't want you to worry about me. You are my family and I didn't want to force you to watch me slowly dying." Phil stopped in his track, which Tony did then too and looked with an unreadable expression at his charge. "Tony… I told you when you wanted to 'return to the living' that we would always be there for you and that includes staying by your side in times like these. I would never abandon you and I know Clint and Natasha would agree with me and I am sure you would do the same for us if the roles were reversed." "Of course!" "Then why didn't you tell us?!" cried Phil, throwing away his calm mask and letting his concern and sadness slip through. Tony let his head hang down – he understood that he should have told them, it wasn't his decision to make if they should stand by his side or if they should stay away, he knew that! "I'm sorry." Phil again stepped forward and hugged Tony but this time he buried his face in the hair of the younger man. "Never do this again, promise me!" "I promise." "Good. Now lets get to work." And they let each other go exchanging one last look of understanding and parted their ways – Tony into his lab and Phil to SHIELD's HQ.

"We found something!" exclaimed an excited Clint with Natasha in tow. He carried a heavy looking box into the living room of the tower where Phil, Yinsen and Tony were looking through different SHIELD files. The three looked up at the exclamation and hope was visible in their faces. They hadn't found anything of value in the SHIELD files till now and even with the temporary solution of Yinsen, Tony slowly got worse. Clint put down the box on the wooden coffee table while Natasha perched herself on the arm of the couch. "What is in it?" asked Tony and a grin spread over his big brother's face. "Stuff from Howard. Maybe there is something in there that can help us!"

Together they worked through the 'stuff' – research concerning various things but none of them important to their situation and some old film reels. Phil digged out an old movie projector and they all sat down around Tony while it played.

At first it just seemed like unnecessary talking in it the part came where suddenly Howard began to speak to Tony.

"Tony. You are too you young to understand this right now so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you. And someday you will realise that it represent a whole lot more than just peoples inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time. But one day you will figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be, my greatest creation… is you!"

The film finished and they all sat in silence, assessing Tony's reaction who seemed to be shocked by his father's words. Then without some kind of warning he jumped out of his seat and strut out of the room. The others hurried to follow him fearing he would lock himself in his lab or something of the kind but instead of walking towards the workshop he aimed for the elevator. "Tony! Where are you going?"

"To fetch the solution!" They exchanged baffled expressions and followed him to the floor where his office was. Pepper gave the group a strange look and followed them into Tony's office where the genius was taking apart the old model of the Stark Expo. Clint, Natasha and Phil realised what he wanted to do and helped him. Together they had it in four parts relatively quick and Yinsen and Pepper helped them to carry the parts to Tony's lab. After that was done, Pepper left them knowing that this close group wouldn't want her to be there right now even if they were slowly integrating her into their little family.

Once alone they rebuilt the model and Tony asked Jarvis to make a holographic projection out of it.

He disposed of some parts till he was satisfied and put it together, revealing a rediscovered element. "The proposed element should serve as a suitable replacement for the palladium sir." stated Jarvis. A wide grin spread over everyone's face as they heard the good news. "Excellent!" "But it is impossible to synthesise." "Uhuh." was all Tony had to say to that and was already up and moving around. "Get ready for major remodelling fellas!" The others stared at Tony as he started to pound down the walls with a heavy hammer. "Has he finally lost his mind?" whispered Clint to Natasha who just punched him on the arm. Fascinated they watched as Tony 'remodelled' his whole workshop, revealing the cables in the walls and constructing a strange device. He shooed them out of the room as he switched on the laser and directed the beam at the prepared piece of metal while Clint, Natasha, Phil and Yinsen stood in front of the glass doors and continued to watch in awe.

"Congratulations sir. You created a new element." stated Jarvis as Tony picked up the finished core replacement and was immediately surrounded by his family. "Knew you could do it!" Clint patted Tony on the back; Natasha and Yinsen smiled at him and Phil looked extremely proud and ruffled Tony's hair. "Good job!"

After Jarvis had analysed the new element and deemed it useable, Tony replaced the arc reactor with a newer model, which had the new element as a core.

They threw a small party after that to celebrate their success and the fact that SHIELD hadn't found out about their stealing classified things. Even if Fury would find out one day and fire the three SHIELD Agents, they would always have a place at Tony's side who would just put them on his pay role and would welcome them with open arms if they decided to live with him since he had already prepared rooms for them for when that day would come.