AN: This is a short update, but maybe the next one will be longer and I know it will be if I go with the chapter I've already got written.

Anyway I hope you enjoy!

"Don't waste it. Don't waste your life, Tony."

"What? What was that?" Pepper asked as she continued massaging her husband's back.

"I said, 'Don't waste it, Don't waste your life, Tony.' " He felt Pepper's hands still a little then they continued on.

"Was that something someone said to you?" she asked.

Tony nodded, "Yeah, Yinsen."

"The man you were held captive with in Afghanistan?"

"One and the same."

"When did he say that to you?" Tony had only opened up to her recently about his captivity in Afghanistan. He had told her a lot about the man he had simply known as Yinsen from Gulmira. He had told her some of the things the man had said to her but try as she might, Pepper couldn't remember him ever telling her those words by the man who had saved her husband's life.

Tony sighed, "Literally just a second before he died. Actually, his words were 'Don't waste it, Don't waste your life, Stark.' But here lately when I've been dreaming about him, besides the dream definitely being in black and white, I've noticed that he calls me Tony instead of Stark. Yinsen only ever said Tony once or twice and always called me Stark every other time."

"So," she began after a moment of silence, "Are you having any other dreams about Afghanistan I should know about?"

"Mmm, no I'm not. Just Yinsen."

"Why do you think you're dreaming about him after all this time?"

"I don't know why but dreaming about him has been making me think."

"About?"

He shrugged, and turned over, effectively ending the massage. He reached out, taking Pepper's hand, and pulled her to sit down beside him, "About whether or not I've done what he asked me to do, or if I have wasted the last ten years."

Silence fell over them as Pepper considered what she should say as a response to his musings, "Tony, you're worried that you haven't done enough to honor what he asked from, so let me ask you this. Do you consider Iron Man and everything you've done as Iron Man to be a waste?"

"Do you consider us, you and me, to be a waste?"

"No! Oh, honey, no of course not!" he blurted, then quickly added, "Other than the time I wasted seeing what I had in you, I'd never consider us or with you being with you a waste!" He laid his hand on her stomach, "And I definitely don't consider us making this little guy a waste."

She smiled at him, "Well, then I think you have your answer about how he'd see what you've done with your life."

"Yeah, maybe."

"Tony… there's no maybe. You've done everything you can to honor what he asked of you. I didn't know him, but from what you've told me about him, I believe he would be proud of you."

"I hope so. I hope he would," he replied, his mind heavy on Ultron.

Knowing what he was thinking about, she put her hand on top of his, and murmured, "I know so… because I am."