Wow It has been quite a while since I've updated this story. I got caught up in school and work and I'm really really sorry it took me forever to upload this chapter. Anyways, I feel like this chapter was somewhat crappy I really wasn't sure what else to write with it,but I did try my best to make it good.

Sadly I don't own Iron man or any marvel characters :(

It was a little after 4:30 pm the next day and Pepper was in the kitchen making a list of some things she needed to get at the grocery store. She wasn't very fond of leaving Tony alone given the state he was in but she needed fresh food to make her famous soup, and she wasn't willing to take him with her either. Rhodey was still at the military base and Happy was the one that was going to be taking her to the store so she made sure that Jarvis called her if anything happened. She put her coat on and made her way towards the living room were Tony had been laying on the couch for most of the day, his fever had still stayed at 102.5 degrees and made no progress. She had decided that he looked somewhat better and that she would wait a little bit more on taking him to the clinic. When he had woken up in the morning Pepper made them breakfast and they spent some time together watching movies and playing some super Mario kart games on the Wii. Their quality time had come to an end when Pepper noticed she needed to buy some fresh vegetables for her soup.

"OK so I'll be back in a little bit, I already told Jarvis to call me if anything happens." She stoked his damp hair, as someone would do to a sick child. "You should take a shower if you're feeling up to it, it'll make you feel somewhat better."

"Uh-huh" Tony managed to speak, as he lay on the couch, eyes glued to the t.v screen while he played one of his old favorite games, Banjo Kazooie.

"OK, call me if you need anything." Pepper smiled at him before she went out the door, he looked slightly better than before.

"Yeah." Tony replied not seeing that she had already left. "OK, no more interruptions it's just you and me Kazooie." Tony said getting lost in the game.

At 6:30 pm Tony decided he was done playing, and realized Pepper hadn't come home yet.

"Hey J, what's going on, where's Pep?" Tony asked while turning off the t.v.

"It seems there is a storm in progress and traffic seems to be heavy, she still has yet to arrive at the store." Jarvis spoke, his voice filling the silent mansion as Tony listened to what he said.

"Wow, must be really bad then. Start the shower and make it as hot as possible." He got up slowly feeling a little light-headed,walked up to a window and looked outside.

It had gotten dark by now, trees were moving freely, the howling of the wind could be heard, the rain was coming down heavy as every 10 seconds thunder would roar and slightly shake the mansion. After a few minutes mesmerized by the storm, he went upstairs to his bedroom and made his way to the shower. Opening the door to the bathroom he saw that the condensation had started to build up on the mirrors, knowing that the shower was nice and hot for him just the way he likes it at times like these. As he undressed himself he cleaned the fog off the mirror and stood watching himself intently through it.

" I look like crap." Tony said sighing.

Still watching himself intently, he observed that his reflection was smiling devilishly at him, startling him. He took a step back, closed his eyes and counted to 10. As he reached to 10 he slowly opened his eyes and looked at himself again through the mirror.

"What the hell?" Tony mumbled to himself, seeing nothing wrong with his reflection.

He shrugged it off as nothing, telling himself it was just were his eyes had been plastered to the t.v. for a long time, and stepped into the steaming hot shower.

Stepping out of the shower at 7:20 pm, Tony felt better than he was before, his headache had subsided and his nose wasn't as stuffy anymore. He went into his room and put on a pair of pj pants and an old AC/DC t-shirt, then ruffled his hair dry with the towel.

"Jarvis has Pepper arrived at the store yet?" Tony asked, sitting down at the edge of the bed.

"Indeed sir, in fact she is on her way home, but there still seems to be a fair amount of traffic due to the storm." Jarvis coolly replied.

Tony nodded at Jarvis' answer and went towards the stairs deciding that he would wait for his girlfriend in the living room. Walking halfway down the stairs the lights started to dim at first and then flicker until they went out.

" Jarvis turn on the back up lights will you" Tony commanded the A.I., sitting down on the couch.

After a minute Jarvis replied, " Sir, there seems to be a problem with the back up lights as well."

Sighing, Tony made himself comfortable on the couch, " That's fine, I really don't want to fix them right now. Let me know when Pepper is almost at the house."

"Of course sir.", Jarvis replied.

Well, might as well catch up on some sleep. Tony thought to himself as he lay on the couch, slowly closing his eyes. Throughout the day Tony had took a nap somewhere in the afternoon, falling asleep with Pepper by his side. Hesitant about taking a nap Pepper had assured him that she would wake him up immediately if she noticed something wrong, he slept peacefully.

Tony fell asleep feeling very confident of himself that he wouldn't have another fucked up nightmare.

The crackling sound of thunder woke Tony up with a start making him sit up on the couch. He took in his surroundings and noticed that the lights were still off.

"Jarvis, what time is it?" Tony quietly spoke, hoping that if the A.I replied it would mean that he was fully awake and not dreaming.

"It is 8:00pm sir. I should also mention that Miss Potts has arrived back from the store and is in the kitchen preparing some soup." At the sound of Jarvis' voice echoing through the mansion, Tony felt relieved knowing that he was awake.

Hearing that Pepper was back from the store, Tony smiled and walked towards the kitchen where he could see some lights that were coming from candles. Pepper was standing over the stove stirring her soup that was in the pot, two candles each placed on the sides of the stove giving her access to see what she was doing.

"Hey" Tony said as he walked up behind her, reaching over to plant a kiss on her cheek. "Why didn't you or Jarvis wake me?"

"Because you needed the rest." Pepper answered back giving him a sweet smile. "I'm guessing the back up lights don't work either huh?"

"Yeah, I'll go down and see what's wrong with them." Tony mumbled as he was making his way down the hallway that led to the stairs to his lab until Pepper stopped him.

"Wait, you need a flashlight, how else are you going to see down there?" Pepper asked, starting to look for a flashlight.

"I don't need one. See." Tony said with a smile on his face as he tapped on the arc reactor. Pepper just rolled her eyes and watched as her genius boyfriend slowly disappeared down the darkened hallway.

I guess I should've gotten a flashlight. Tony mumbled to himself. Although the reactor provided light, it wasn't as bright as he thought it would be, and he hoped that he wouldn't trip on anything that was laying on the floor. Jinxing himself, he bumped into a chair that he had left a couple days ago when he was supposedly cleaning and forgot to move it from there.

"Ah, son of a bitch." As he flashed his reactor to the chair to see where it was so on his way back he wouldn't run into it, he saw a life size clown sitting down on it. Jumping back as if he were electrocuted, he stared at the clown dumbfounded as to how it got there. If anything thing scared or creep-ed out the great Tony Stark, it would definitely be clowns. He hated them, never understood how little kids could have so much fun with them at circuses or parties, to him they looked downright creepy as hell even with that smile always plastered on their face.

Stark stood there staring at the clown still unable to move, he started to notice that the painted smile now seemed to mock him, the upturned mouth smug and unpleasant. Its face was chalk white that looked like it was made from wax, tiny bells were sewn throughout it's clothes, Tony was certain he saw malice in its eyes.

Finally snapping out of it Tony's eyes left the clowns and found his voice, "That's not funny Pepper, you bought this...life size clown as a get well present? I told you that those things creep me out."

Poking her head through the hallway, Tony could see with his arc reactor the confused look she had. "What are you talking about? I didn't buy you a present, besides I even think clowns are creepy too."

"Well then who the hell put this-", turning around to gesture at the clown, Tony noticed that the chair was empty. He could feel his heart rate speed up a little bit. Pepper still stared at him confused as she slowly walked up to him

"Hey, look...you still have a fever the lights can stay off, come sit down the soup is done already." Pepper spoke to him as calmly as she could, grabbing a hold of his hand.

"No that's fine I have to fix them either way, I just need sleep that's all." Tony replied quietly giving her a half smile. He let go of her hand and proceeded down the stairs to his lab.

Once he was down to the last step, he entered his access code on the door and went in his lab and headed straight to a circuit box that was hooked on a wall, as he opened it he saw that everything was fried. "Great." Tony huffed out. It would take him a while to fix it, but he needed a good amount of light so he could see what he was doing. As he was closing the circuit box he heard faint giggling by the steps that he had just come down from. He automatically thought it was Pepper for some reason, "Hey Pep be careful on the steps, I don't want you tripping on anything." The genius spoke loudly as he was still trying to close the box with what little light he had.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you!." It was obvious to him that Pepper wasn't anywhere near the steps as her voice sounded to be coming from the living room.

Lifting his head and slightly turning it to the side he could still hear giggling, only this time it was followed by a jingling noise that seemed to be getting closer and louder each time. He could feel his blood turn cold and his heart beating faster, bringing goose bumps to his arms as he knew that the dainty sound of the bells were to let him know that the clown was near. The ex playboy stood there frozen not knowing what to do until a flash of lightning illuminated the whole lab for two seconds, giving him a chance to see that nothing was there in front of him. The giggling had stopped but the sound of the bells where still getting louder and closer. Again lightning lit the room up for a few more seconds, this time Tony took advantage and looked around the whole room but saw nothing.

Screw this, Tony thought to himself. He quickly closed the circuit box shut and jogged his way to the glass door. Before reaching the door he ran into what felt like a person and fell down on his butt. As if on que lightning struck again bringing the whole place to light as Tony tried to see who or what he ran into, again he saw nothing. He was beyond creeped out already, running into what felt like a person and noticing that nothing was there really scared the shit out of him. Slowly getting up on shaky legs he quickly walked to the door and typed in his code. Once the door opened he took the stairs two at a time almost falling a couple times until he reached the top and tried to casually make his way to the living room while catching his breath.

He saw Pepper's shadow figure and he felt a little bit relieved just knowing that she was there. Taking a seat next to her on the couch he sighed and saw that she was on her phone. As she looked up at him he felt that same pit in his stomach like last time and his blood immediately went cold again seeing that the figure he assumed was Pepper had actually been of the clown. The smile on the clown's face looked sinister, low humming could be heard as it penetrated Tony's ears. The terrified genius quickly stood up but didn't know where to go. Was he really going to be able to hide away from this in his own house? His legs felt like jelly as he stood there not knowing what else to do but stare in shock.

Slowly the clown stood up, making the bells jingle. Its body was stiff. It moved slow but with purpose. Each step it took, Tony took a step back not letting the damned thing get closer to him. He tried to call out to Pepper, nothing but a whisper escaped his lips. Tony could still hear the humming in his ears and it was making them hurt so he put his hands on his ears trying to not hear the humming that just grew louder each time.

"Come Play with me. I won't hurt you." Hearing those words coming out of the clowns mouth sent shivers down Tony's back. He blinked one hard time and as he opened them he came face to face with the clown. The most creepiest laugh filled up Tony's ears making them ache in pain. He couldn't take it anymore, the pain was unbearable, he slowly found his voice, "Pepper...Pepper!". Tony was to busy trying to not hear the laughter of the clown that stood right in front of, he didn't see Pepper come out of the bathroom from upstairs.

"Tony? What's wrong?" As soon as Pepper had heard her boyfriend call her name she knew something was wrong. Seeing Tony holding his hands to his ears clearly in pain made her heart ache, but she didn't know why he had that terrified look on his face. She made her way down the steps and quickly took a hold of his hands and she could feel heat radiating off of him as she gently shook him. "Tony it's OK, open your eyes." Pepper tried to assure him that everything was fine.

Tony hadn't noticed that Pepper was in front of him until slowly the creepy laughter died down and the pain subsided. He could hear Pepper's voice assuring him everything was OK, so he slowly opened his eyes and met hers.

"Hey are you OK?" Pepper asked.

Tony realized the clown was gone and it was just Pepper standing in front of him. He stared at her for awhile until he felt light-head and let his eyes roll in the back of his head as he fell down to the floor and his body started to convulse.

"Tony!" Pepper knelt down next to him trying to hold him still so he wouldn't hurt himself with anything.

The last thing Tony could hear was Pepper telling Jarvis to call 911 until he fell unconscious.

So I hope you guys like this chapter, I think maybe one more chapter to go until this story is done. I don't know about you guys but I sure as hell don't like clowns at all, I guess that's why I decided to write this chapter about a clown because I think most people think clowns are creepy. Anyway please review let me know if you guys liked it or what you guys thought of it, have a nice 4th of July! :)