This is going to be a lighter tone than I've previously done, so it may not be as well written.

I figured it'd would be a good pick me up after Chapters 1&2 :)

Make sure not to get too comfortable here because this tone won't last long. Hope you enjoy it while it lasts though :P

Chapter 4: upgrade

"Rhodey... how long have I been out for?"

"Well, T, I mean, it just kind of-"

"How long?"

"2 weeks."

2 weeks since Andros showed up.

Over 2 years of a life that never took place. So many things that he had never done... he had never went with Gene to stop Doom and save his dad. He had not fought Whitney again. He never fought aliens and he had never reclaimed his company by stopping Justin Hammer.

He couldn't believe it was just a huge lie.

In truth, he didn't even know what was real.

xXxXx

It had been a full week since he had woken up. Roberta arrived around 5 minutes ago to take him home, but since it was 1:00 in the afternoon, his friends were still at school.

Roberta's picking me up... because my dad is still gone...

His blood started to boil. The things he wanted to do to him - 'the one true Mandarin'. His rage continued to grow just thinking about it. He had just exited the hospital and was lost in his anger fueled thoughts, when he had noticed that his redhead had cut class to be standing outside waiting for him.

His rage slipped away when his blue eyes had found her hazel ones. The anger, the hatred... gone.

"Hey, Tony."

"Hey Pep."

xXxXx

Is this real?

Tony had lost himself in the idea while working on a neural interface upgrade at his workbench. The world around him had seemed so real when he had been trapped in the Mainframe, every detail was so precise. The genius could not help but wonder if AIM was watching him assemble his latest creation, and if they were, what they might plan to do with it.

"Tony, are you in here?" a soft voice called out from the entrance.

As soon as Pepper entered the room, Tony felt at peace again.

She can't be hurt again.

In order to successfully achieve that goal, he had continued to work on her armor in his spare time. Regardless of the memories he retained from his latest 'adventure', the Rescue suit had still retained the exact same design. The overall strength and protection of it however, were vastly upgraded.

Rescue... yet another thing that never took place.

He had lost himself in his thoughts again; feelings of fear and confusion clouding his mind, but as soon as his blue eyes fell on her hazel ones, he realized that it didn't matter. What really mattered was keeping her safe.

"Where were you at school today? Did you spend the entire day here again? Why didn't you answer my calls? I sent texts too, but you still didn't respond to them!"

The inventor pulled out his phone and sure enough - 84 missed calls and 167 unread text messages.

"I was working on something?" he asked to see if the statement would be an okay response, with her immediate response being a glare.

I need to tell her.

She continued walking closer to him, and when they were finally within arm distance of each other, the genius reached his arms around her waist and pulled her into a tight, yet gentle hug from his seated position.

"I assume Rhodey wasn't so pleased when you started holding him like this."

The redhead's words made the inventor nervously smile while he processed his response.

"I... well... he gave me a quick one, I guess. It wasn't really that big of a deal or anything," he replied, keeping his tight grip around her. The boy knew his words had achieved their goal when he looked up to see the color of her cheeks resemble his armor.

Hearing her... seeing her again... Tony could barely hold back. He knew that it was not actually her inside the glorified virtual reality, but it did not make it easier to forget all of the experiences.

"Pepper, I need to, um, I need to say something," the genius began; her freckled face moving down towards him to show that she was listening.

Just three words...

It was so simple in theory.

"I've felt this way for a long time, but I just wasn't sure what it really was... until the day that Andros showed up."

Just say it.

"I know you're still dating Happy... but I..."

Inhaling deeply and eyeing his friend to ensure she was still listening, he spoke the words.

"Pepper, I love you."

On a somewhat unrelated note, season 2 of the show has been removed from the Canadian Netflix :(

But back on topic - the next chapter is going to be the start of another character's story arc, so you'll have to wait for Chapter 6 for the follow up to this :P

Chapter 5: The Journey - coming soon :)