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Chapter 3

The events that conspired to make Tony's homecoming a disaster, where no body's fault.

Bucky had to be in court, to testify against Crossskull, but Cat had said that she come early to deal with the paperwork from the act.

However none of them had realised that there was a killer flu going around SHIELD. And even if they had, they would have thought Cat was immune. Unfortunately they were wrong.

"I'm really sorry." Cat croaked. "But..."
"Don't worry." Steve said, sighing. "I can get Sam or Sharon to cover."

Cat's snort was spoilt by the snort sprayed out of her nose.

"Sharon's stuck up here too. Fury's placed the whole Hellicarrier in isolation until he gets to the bottom of this."

"Right," Steve sighed. It would have to be Sam. But besides objecting morally even louder than Cat on the subject, Sam had little or no training in the use of the system.

"I could ask Gyrich." Cat suggested, tentatively. "He's a pain in the neck, but he understands the sys-"
"no." Steve interrupted, a little too quickly. "Tony's coming home today."
"That's why I'm offering." Cat said, exasperatedly.

Steve shook his head.

"We'll manage. Green is for aliens, yellow for mutants, blue for technology, red for magic, and orange for other."
Cat nodded. She looked so miserable that Steve felt obligated to try and cheer her up.

"Just remember coughs and sneezes spread diseases,"
"and Hitler's empires with eases." Cat laughed, which descended into a coughing fit. She hung up.

Crystal had left before dawn. She left a note.

He's started drinking soon afterwards, or maybe he'd never stopped from the night before. He wasn't sure.

She'd taken Luna with her. He wasn't surprised.

He picked up the bottle.

Huh. Empty.

He staggered to his feet, and headed for the kitchen.

"You O.K.?" Rhodey asked for about the millionth time. He didn't seem comfortable in the car and kept fidgeting and glancing at Tony, as though expecting him to burst into flames or into tears, or something.

He nodded, still gazing out the window.

It was a lot to take in. Three years missing. Three years in a coma, after a car accident.

They hadn't said so, but the looks people had given, the tests Hank had run, told him he must have been drunk when it happened. Rhodey had told him that Steve had yanked him out of.

Suddenly he realised something.

"This isn't the way home."

Rhodey grinned.
"Figured you'd want to go back to the Avenger's home."

"But," Tony protested, "That's in the heart of new York."

Rhodey shifted even more uncomfortably.

"Not anymore."

He sighed. "Don't know how much anyone told you, but last year, there was a disaster."
"At Stamford." Tony supplied.

Rhodey grinned, properly for the first time.

"Yeah, they mentioned that happened in your world too. Guess you overheard the nurses talking about it and..."

He shook himself. "Anyway, after that there was an idea for a superhuman registration act. The Avengers-"
"including you?" Tony asked,

"Including me." Rhodey confirmed. "Supported it and took on the administration of it. Got to hand it to Cap, he really knows what he's doing."
"But Cap would never support an act like that." Tony protested. "He'd say it went against the rights our founding fathers fought for."

Rhodey suddenly became very interested in the view from the window as he muttered,

"Guess he had his reasons." He suddenly sat up straight. "We're here."

The huge mansion rose out of the midst of grounds, and was vaguely familiar.

"Isn't this the X men's base?"

"Used to be." Jim corrected him. "The school moved to San Francisco, got a new base there. Xavier donated use of it for the Avengers as the mansion was kinda wrecked."

Tony nodded. He remembered the mansion been wrecked and remembered what had happened after it. He withdrew into himself.

Rhodey sighed, evidently feeling guilty. He glanced out of the window, fighting the desire to ask Tony if he was alright.

The Front of the mansion was coming to view and he could see the welcoming committee.

Pepper was there, of course, wearing a new suit in honour of the occasion. Clint stood, despite the pain it caused him, without his stick and in uniform. Steve was standing near the back, his mask half on, half off. He remembered that Cat was off sick, despite this sounding like a contradiction in terms, and the Winter Soldier was in court, so Steve would be doing all the administration for the act on his own. Hank and Jan were standing there, or more accurately standing on Thor's shoulder, who stood next to the Beast.

Spiderman and Falcon were both out on patrol, so they were absent.

Jarvis stood, watching for the car, reminding Rhodey of a nervous mother waiting for the school bus.

Hank had spotted them and was signalling to the others. They were all waving.

Tony had spotted them and was starting, uncertainly, to wave back. Rhodey remembered when Clint returned to the mansion, fresh out of hospital and more vulnerable than he'd let any of them believe. It was virtually identical.

And the next bit that happened was identical too.

A grey blur, that was the only description for it, launched out of the mansion, and collided with the assembled Avengers.

As the chaos broke out, Jarvis stepped over and opened the door of the car.

"Mr. Stark." The voice was warm and welcoming. "Welcome home."

And it was good to be.

TBC