A/N: Thanks so much for those who read and even more so to those who reviewed. I'm so glad you are enjoying this story. :) Next chapter should be up by Tuesday and if you're also reading How Tony Broke His Head, that chapter will be up later today or early tomorrow. As always, reviews are very much appreciated.

Chapter Two

It's the craziest thing sometimes, Tony thinks when he's home alone, both Lizzy and Jake napping for the day.

The hurt hits so hard it's almost as if Tony's being slammed to the ground by that car again.

Only this time, Tony knows that Lee is nowhere around to break his fall…or help block the hurt.

It hits so hard it takes Tony's breath away, and the worst part about that sort of pain is that Tony can't take a pill to take it away.

But now that he has his family, and now that they are safe, maybe Tony can open the box back up.

It's scary, to wonder what he'll find there.

He knows he'll find a coin, and a belt buckle. Everything else well.

It's up in the wind.

"Go go go!" Tony yelled, wheeling down the court, glad that his players kept their feet firmly underneath the bench. It had take a few incidences but all his players had finally gotten in the habit of avoiding coaches wheels.

Their point guard, a small freshman named Leo, threw the ball behind his back to their wing, a tall junior named Josh. Josh in turned lobbed it over to Nate who jumped and gently placed the ball in the basket.

"Now get back!" Tony did an about face and wheeled back. The team hurried back, trying to stop the fast break. They were holding onto their lead by a thread and this game would determine if his team would continue their run at State.

John, or Mouse, as everyone had taken to calling him for his twitchy and quiet demeanor, hummed in excitement.

"Are you blind?" Mouse suddenly yelled, springing out of his chair and yelling at the ref as he passed. They had given the ball to the other team when none of Tony's players had been anywhere near the out of bounds ball, "Cause you can use my glasses if you can't see!"

The ref turned around, "Coach, might want to control your assistant."

Tony, who had been giving a quick word of advice to Josh, turned to look at his assistant with a kind of "what the heck" expression on his face.

Mouse, whose brain had just caught up with what his mouth had just done, did a quick about face and sat back down, burying his face in his hands.

"I need a Vicodin before I stroke," Mouse lamented, "Oh dear goodness Tony. This was so much easier to handle when we were losing all the time."

Tony wheeled over and laughed at his friend, "You gonna control that mouth of yours before we get a technical foul Mouse?"

"I think I'll stick to stats, thank you very much," Mouse glanced up before covering his face, "Tell me how it ends. I can't watch anymore."

Tony glanced once more at his friend before nudging a freshmen to Mouse's left, "Tell me if he has a coronary, got it Sean?"

"Yes Coach," Sean smiled, despite the nervousness he felt due to the close game.

Tony turned to wheel away but glanced over his shoulder when Mouse let out a loud "Blind! Blind!" at the refs once more.

"Final warning," the ref glared at Mouse.

"Mouse!" Tony yelled his own warning, his face stuck somewhere between a smirk and a look of complete utter amazement, "Shut it!"

"Oh my, oh my," Mouse seemed to finally come back to himself. Tony tried not to laugh but he couldn't help it when Mouse's face completely fell.

"You gonna be okay Mouse?" Tony asked his normally twitchy, but quiet, assistant.

"My mother would be so ashamed," Mouse practically cried before covering his beat red face.

"About time," Tony whispered, proud of his assistant.

Now, they just had to win this game.

Google offered no help whatsoever.

But then, Tony hadn't expected much when he put "How to search for your origins when you had a mysterious past".

Maybe "How to find yourself when you were lost" would provide better search results.

Nope, nothing there.

Tony had gotten the coin and the belt buckle for the box and had started there.

The belt buckle wasn't special, at least not to anyone but Tony, but it offered no help. A couple of sites sold the belt that Tony had and none of the help desks from the company had been able to give him the answers he wanted without a search warrant.

That had almost frustrated Tony to the point of not looking anymore but then Tony still had the coin.

And the coin was a bit more special than Tony had anticipated.

"Stop."

"Stop!"

"Please, stop," Tony pushed his head back against the pillow as pain radiated from his legs, up his back and into his soul, "Please."

He might be groveling. He might be pleading like a blubbering fool.

But at the time, Tony didn't care. He could only focus on the all consuming pain that was in his body right now.

But the pain wouldn't stop.

"Almost Deuce, just a little more for today."

Tony bit his lip and tried to think of any moment other than this.

He hated physical therapy. With a passion. He didn't want to move his lower half- it hurt enough when Tony was just sitting there, and here were these crazy people moving it so that he could "start regaining his range of motion".

"Guys!" Tony bit his lip-hard-hoping that this would end before Brooke came back into the room. It was bad enough that he was crying in front of two guys. He didn't want to add Brooke to that list.

"Almost," was all the stupid therapist kept saying.

If Tony had had enough breath, he would explain just what he thought about the word almost.

But he didn't so instead he just smiled, because what else could he do?

A challenge coin.

The name was helpful, sure, Tony guessed, but then names usually were.

But a name didn't tell Tony what the coin meant to him before and what it meant that he had it now.

The Secretary of the Navy.

The United States Navy.

Was Tony in the military? Did that explain the scars on his head and the way he knew how to fight and shoot?

But then Tony would have ID. He would have been missing. AWOL.

Away without Leave.

But Tony had left without anything really, and no one had been there to find him.

Which raised a whole bunch of questions. If Tony had left, and he hadn't been in the military, then why did he have the coin?

A challenge coin.

If only hope was easier to hold onto.