Hey Guys,

Sorry for the long wait I just had finals week! Hopefully I passed! I really am excited to start this story and really get deep into what's been going on inside my head! I have been contemplating writing the next chapter though, I really want to wait for the Iron Man 3 movie so my story can reach up to that point and finish sometime after that timeline. So I have to do some digging, but I'm sure we won't have to worry too much about how fast this story will come out. A HUGE shout out to my reviewer's teamXtrek and Insanity's Breaking Point I love to red what people have to say about my writing and can't wait to continue with this story!

All my love,

Emma

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(Lizzie POV)

I woke up with a start, struggling to remember where I was and how I got there. My brain took in the smell of used clothes, Axe body spray, smoke and gasoline. Ryan, his words said and unsaid rolling around my head, where was he now? I half expected him to be silently guarding me, but fear gripped at my heart, what if he was ratting me out somewhere. I brushed the thought away knowing my best friend would never betray me. I had to think logically, not like some crazy loon on the run. I was a normal teenage girl whose best friend was in class, a crazy physics class more than likely. I turned over in the small extra-long twin, the green comforter wrapping tighter around my legs. My head crunched on something. I pulled the half sheet of notebook paper from under my head the slightly familiar neat scrawl staring back at me.

Liz,

I have class till three today. Watch out for my roommates they are snoopy and will ask questions. Sorry. Be back as soon as I can.

I smiled looking at the small alarm clock on the night stand. It read 1:45 pm. I had an hour and fifteen minutes to do what I pleased in his dorm. The room was small. Smaller than anything I had ever stayed in, including the shitty apartment that I rented before signing on with SHEILD. It was ten and a half feet by 9 feet. He had a bed, desk, chair, a small dresser, mini fridge, night stand, a tiny book shelve above the desk and a closet. The walls were covered in posters of bikini clad women, computer schematics,Kiss, Aerosmith, and surprisingly the Avengers. It was dramatic picture of Tony zooming down in full Iron Man gear, Natasha standing behind him aiming her gun at something, Clint standing behind her arrows in his bow, Steve behind him pointing his shield held high, Thor was standing behind Steve his hammer in the air lighting coursing through it, I was behind Thor fire, water, and earth rippling up my arms, and finally behind me was the Hulk, his huge arms raised above him as if he was going to smash something next to me. I ignored the poster as much as possible sitting up in the small bed. I could hear people outside the room moving around as if they were just getting up as well. I quickly jumped out of the bed grabbing my duffle in front of the dresser pulling out my two towels. I streaked out of the room scrambling to find the bathroom; it was across the small living room in the obvious suite he lived in. No one was out of their respective room, I jumped into a small shower the water was warm and the only shampoo was of the male design so I skipped it for that day. I rushed back into Ryan's room my body and hair wrapped in a towel.

"Dude, who is that," I heard grumbled from outside the door. I sighed I had been spotted by the other life forms.

"What are you talking about?" a second voice asked his large feet booming across the room.

"Some chick just ran across our living room. Did I mention that she was naked?" the first voice said a certain chuckle in his voice.

"Adam, dude, I know it's been like three weeks since you got any, but seriously you can't just start imagining naked girls running around our dorm. It's going to get uncomfortable for everyone." The second one laughed. I head a scuffle and a few choice swear words that would have made Steve blush.

I heard two pairs of large feet stomp their way to Ryan's door. I quickly threw a t-shirt over my half way clothed body and threw open the door before they could reach it. I was greeted by two huge mountains each towering above me. They had to be related; each had sandy blonde hair, sharp chin lines, almond shape eyes and barrel size chests. I smiled sweetly running a hand over my wet mop.

"Hey guys," I blushed. "Sorry to cause all that confusion. I'm Taylor by the way."

"Nice to meet you Taylor," the one on the left said a wide smile on his lips. "I'm Alex."

"I'm Adam," the one on the right said nudging Alex in the side. I could see the small difference between them. Adam had bright green eyes, while Alex had dark blue eyes. "Where did you come from?"

I laughed at the question. Ryan was right, they weren't afraid to ask questions.

"I came from New Hampshire," I lied quickly almost making a nearly fatal mistake. "Concord, I'm here studying theater."

"Nice," Alex smiled again giving his supposed twin a look. "We're from South Dakota. I'm studying Physical Education and the bozo doesn't have a major yet."

"Are you guy's twins?" I asked looking between them. The clock on the wall told me I still had a hour to make up lies for these people.

"Duh," Adam smirked rolling his eyes. "Not to be to forward or anything but how did Ryan manage to land a girl like you?"

"What he means is that Ryan doesn't really talk to girls from your department. He is more of a…"

"Nerd-girl avoiding-homework doing-won't even look at a girl twice-geek," Adam finished for Alex smirking at me.

"Ryan play's football through, right?" I asked slightly offended that these two didn't really respect my best friend.

"Oh yeah, he's the best full back around and we like having him on the team." Alex started again looking straight into my eyes.

"But, he's never been one for the girls. He always talks about his classes or computers or the superheroes, which are usually above the heads of any girl that wants to talk to him."

"Oh really," I smirked thinking about the level of girls who went to college. They were probably all either in the sports marketing department or education, they were right anything Ryan said was usually very difficult to understand especially when he was nervous.

"Not that we're trying to offend you." Adam smirked back. I was starting to like this kid; he was a less smart version of Tony. The cockiness was in full force, the brains were yet to be seen.

"No offense taken. I actually find nuclearphysics to be fascinating, especially when applied to the bedroom." I winked. "Any way boys I need to finish getting ready before the boy gets back."

"Holy-"I slammed the door before Adam could finish his sentence. I slid down the door silently laughing in the thought that I had just made my best friend a legend to his two roommates.

/*/*/*/

I waited another hour and five minutes before Ryan got back to the dorm. You could hear the protest of the twins as he walked into the room. He ignored them pounding his way to the door. I had been ready for the day eons ago and had started searching the room. As he opened the door I was currently under his bed examining the hard drives and monitors that were stuffed under there. I couldn't imagine what kind of electric bill his room was running alone.

"I'm guessing that they saw you?" He questioned right away his face in a half smile.

"Yep," I shrugged moving from under the bed to the desk chair. He sat down on his bed rubbing his temples lightly as if he had a headache.

"What's the story? I have all your transfer papers ready along with a full file in any school system you choose."

"My name is Taylor, from Concord, New Hampshire. I would probably pick a school there. I want to get a degree in Theatre now or something of that sort. I want to be as far away from my other majors as possible that could be a possible search tactic."

"But, wouldn't they guess you wouldn't choose your majors? And how likely do you think that they will start searching through transfer students on every college campus?" Ryan grinned.

"Not every school in the nation just here in Iowa, they expect me to come here." I sighed leaning back in the chair. "I might have to go somewhere else."

"Not an option." Ryan said sternly typing away on his laptop, the printer hidden under the piles of computer parts and various other things on his desk suddenly coming to life spilling out papers and pictures. "I have this place on lockdown. You need to be a better hacker than me to get into your file. Or the fake file I created. You wont come up on normal searches, your buried deeper than most would suspect."

"Then how are the admissions people supposed to see my file?"

"If they have the proper IP address than they can view your files as much as they want. No passwords or firewalls, those are just for outside invaders."

"I guess you think of everything. When do I move in?" I smirked hoping to catch a place close to Ryan.

"The second semester started yesterday. We can go down to admissions and get you all settled. I made your birth certificate and social security. We need to go see my friend for your ID, otherwise from this moment on your Taylor Garner." Ryan's said his fingers still speeding across the keyboard.

"What is Allen my dad or something?" I laughed looking at the legal papers spilling out of the covered printer.

"You wish." He smirked shutting his laptop. "Let's go get you into real college."

"Ok," I smiled grabbing his hand.

/

(Tony's POV)

"What are you doing?" Pepper asked me her fingers making their way through my hair. I shrugged putting the tablet down on the nightstand, multiple search databases running in time with my heart beat.

"Searching for her," I huffed. I knew it was pointless to sit and watch the machine go through every profile; JARVIS would notify me the moment it happened.

"You don't like my idea?" she asked nuzzling herself under my arm onto my chest. I cringed slightly trying to hide my pain from the person I wanted to be closet too. The skin Lizzie had healed just days before was still tender, but at least I could walk now.

"No, I like your idea." I shrugged. "Bruce is a different story. He forgave her the moment she was back in his arms, everyone else forgave her the moment we got her back to normal; she just needs to forgive herself now. Bruce can't see that. All he can see is a girl trying to run away from her problems. She needs this time to be away from all the drama in our lives."

"How long do you think that could be?" Pepper questioned the sleepiness of her tone suggesting more than she would ever say.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I had never thought how long it could take for her to feel as if she had punished herself enough. My brain franticly started doing the calculations, the possibilities, everything that she would ever think off. Years, she was planning on being gone for years. I sucked in a deep breath causing Pepper to jump back from my arms. She hovered above me, her fingers lightly touching my chest.

"Did I hurt you?" she cried her eyes searching mine.

"No, I might know where to look for her now." I mumbled reaching for the tablet again closing my engines and starting up new ones.

"Where do you think she could be?"

"She's nineteen, looking for a new place to start over, isn't it obvious?" I scoffed.

"Tony," Pepper started her tone sending icicles down my spine. "I don't want you to look for her."

I looked at my girlfriend every instinct in my body telling me to give her some sarcastic remark, my famous crooked smile and continue searching for my best friend's girl, but somehow I knew that she was right. Pepper loved Lizzie on a different level than most of us did. She saw past every act of kindness, every smile or laugh and knew that sometime tough choices needed to be made to see what people really needed. Lizzie needed this time to figure out what was going on with herself before she could figure out what was going on here.

"Your right," I smiled slightly looking at the person I loved most in the world. "It just might be a little harder to explain to Bruce."

"I didn't even explain my reason to you." She cocked an eyebrow.

"You didn't have to." I kissed her forehead sliding off our bed.

"You could just wait to tell him in the morning." She smiled holding on to my hand.

I shrugged letting her go walking out the door, my pajamas swishing across the tiled floor. My cold feet padding down the hallway, I could distantly hear two people arguing in Russian. I made a mental note for JARVIS to translate it later. I walked past Thor's door hearing his booming laughter joined by Jane's smaller giggle, I then passed Steve's door which was slightly ajar revealing a cuddling couple whispered sweet nothings to each other. My stomach almost fell to the floor. Bruce wasn't going to be able to stay her after I told him. He couldn't be surrounded by these couples, he would be miserable. I was violating a serious Bro Code here. Bruce was asking me to help him and I was shutting him down faster than a nerdy girl at Victoria Secret molding search. He answered the door before I could rethink my choices.

"Tony," his surprised face turning into joy "Did you find her?"

"No," I smiled slightly regretting my manner at once. "I agree with Pepper."

"What do you mean you agree with Pepper?" he asked green like ink spilling into his eyes.

"I mean that I think we should let her be. We should let her come back to us on her own." I shrugged taking a slight step back snapping my fingers three times alerting JARVIS that I might be in trouble.

"I can't believe this. What if Pepper left without a trace, wouldn't you go crazy trying to find her?" he questioned calmly, but a green tinge was creeping up his arm.

"Yes, but I don't think she would ever feel need to leave." I blurted my words trying to find there way back as soon as I spoke them.

"So you're saying this is my entire fault?" he grunted.

"No," I exclaimed looking down the hall at Steve half his body in the hall the other half still in his room.

"IT'S MY FAULT!" he spat the green filling his entire eye. I could hear his shirt ripping, I instantly reminded myself to fix the material in his shirts as well. I mean the man had plenty of pants now, but he was running out of shirts faster than I had calculated.

"Bruce, she took the ring that's a good sign that she will come back some day." I explained trying to calm down the emerging beast.

"You should let me take it from here, Merchant of Death." Thor winked swinging his mighty hammer at the Hulk. He roared in defiance as Thor lunged at him. They tumbled around the room until a crash of glass caused me to run into the destroyed room. I watched as my friends fell stories below me. Both master assassins charged into the room, Clint jumping out the window as soon as he assessed the damage. Natasha stayed with me, surveying my condition before snapping orders at me.

"Don't even think about putting on the suit."

"Wouldn't dream of it sweetheart." I smiled looking at the fierce redhead.

"What did you do to set him off?" she questioned moving away from the new hole in our home.

"I told him that I wasn't going to help him find Lizzie. She needs to come back her on her own." I shrugged trying to figure how long it would take some contractors to fix the hole.

"We agree with you. The rest of us talked about it." She said fixing her eyes on something in the distance.

"I'm surprised you're in on it." I laughed.

"If I was her, I would want the same thing. When you love someone it makes you weak and we're not used to having that taken away from us without our consent. Loki took more this time and it's going to be awhile before she can accept it." Natasha responded the hard look in her eyes making me slightly sick.

"Who took more from you?" I asked not expecting much.

"The Soviet bastards who took my parents, the same people who created me into this monster, the same people that would kill him the moment they find out that he loves me." She whispered her hard eyes melting slightly.

"Natasha," I started but couldn't finish as her gun was against my throat.

"Breath a word of this to anyone and I will not hesitate next time." She hissed her face millimeters from mine. I nodded agreeing to anything in that moment. She let go the look back into her blue steel eyes. "Sorry."

"No worries," I scoffed secretly noting to get her back some day. "But if Clint really loves you I think you should return the favor."

"Love is for children." She responded harshly gripping her ear as someone spoke to her. "The Hulk is down on High Island. They'll have him back within the hour; no deaths or injuries reported and as of right now the media was not gotten wind of the incident."

"Good," I smiled walking out of the room letting the red head follow me. "Give it a chance."

"You think we're safe?" she threw at me the anger and fear clear in her eyes.

"For now," I nodded not knowing how wrong I was.