A/N: Sorry for the wait. I went away for the weekend an didn't have internet access so I couldn't update. I'm going away again for a week on Friday. I will try to get an update for you guys everyday this week. I will try for Friday too, but it might be a stretch. We'll see. Thank you so much for all of your reviews. I really hope you're enjoying the story. I really love reviews (as I'm sure anyone does), but they also help me to update faster. So please read and review.

The Field of Heaven

Chapter 8

Tony had arrived at an old, abandoned warehouse and met Captain America, Thor, and Black Widow. Iron Slash's drones surrounded them, constantly fighting, but there was no sign of Iron Slash himself. They soon destroyed all of the drones and began to search the warehouse. They looked through the entire warehouse and eventually ended up on the roof.

Tony had the facemask of his helmet open and was still in a lot of pain, but he was suffering through it. Suddenly, a jolt of pain shot through him. He winced and brought his hand to his lower, left abdomen. They all looked over at Tony and saw the look of pain in his face.

"Are you alright, Stark?" Steve asked as he shifted his shield from his left hand to his right.

Tony let out a small groan. "Yeah. I'm fine." Tony winced again, his hand still covering the spot through the armor where his wound was. Tony felt a wetness slowly leaking out of the bandage, and knew that he was slowly loosing blood. His face went pale as he winced again.

"You don't look fine." Natasha said, turning to face Tony. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I just…" Tony searched for a lie, but he couldn't find one. He settled for the truth. "I um… got sliced by a knife yesterday."

"It appears that you need to be more careful around knives." Thor said as he spun his hammer around in his hand.

"I didn't cut myself." Tony winced again letting out another groan. "Some idiot threw it at me."

"What?" They all said in unison, and looked at each other, not believing that that had just happened.

"How?" Steve asked, taking them out of the trance they were in.

"Some guy was hitting on Pepper and I told him to back off, but he didn't want to. SO first he punched me and then he threw a knife at me." Tony explained, now feeling the blood seep through his neoprene under suit.

"You humans have such strange was in dealing with your problems." Thor said, confused at why someone would ever throw a knife at any one else.

"Yeah. Well, some people just don't respect others." Tony said as he winced again and started to feel a little light headed from the obvious loss of blood. His face turned even paler. He closed his eyes and tried to endure the pain.

"Why didn't you tell Fury no when he called?" Natasha asked.

"He didn't really give me a chance to talk." Tony said with his eyes still closed. "Plus, this Iron Slash guy captured Pepper."

"Does she know you came even though you have just been hurt?" Steve asked, knowing Pepper would never agree to him go on a mission hurt.

"She said it was fine." Tony said as he slowly opened his eyes again to look at Steve.

"You need to go home, Stark." Natasha said with concern in her eyes.

"I said I'm fine." Tony raised his voice a little, feeling blood run down his left leg. He had defiantly ripped a few stitches, if not all by now.

"Sir, Miss Potts is calling." Jarvis's voice came through the helmet.

"Patch her through, Jarvis." Tony said, trying to smile.

"Tony!" Pepper screamed into the phone. She was out of breath and sounded scared.

"Pepper, what's wrong?" Tony said, concerned with what she would say.

"It's Dean, my ex-boyfriend. He broke into the house and now his trying to find me. Tony help!"

"Where are you Pepper?"

"I'm in the workshop, hiding from him. Tony, please hurry."

"I'm on my way Pep. Hold on." Tony said as the call ended and he looked to his fellow Avengers. "I have to go. Pepper's in trouble."

"What's wrong?" Steve asked.

"The same guy that threw that knife at me broke into my house and is after her." Tony said and closed his facemask.

"Be careful mortal." Thor warned. "Watch out for flying knives."

Tony nodded and took off, flying towards his house. It didn't take long for him to get there. He flew threw in through the garage and saw Pepper crouched behind the couch. She looked over at Tony, who had opened his facemask to reveal his very pale face.

"Tony." Pepper stood up and walked over to him. She pulled him into a hug, feeling him wince and hearing him let out a small moan. She pulled back and noticed how pale his face was. "Are you ok? You don't look so good."

"I'll be ok." Tony said, trying to smile, but failing miserably.

They heard footsteps coming down the stairs to the workshop. Tony and Pepper both turned their head and saw Dean Williams come down the stairs and bang on the glass door.

"Open this door, Ginny." Dean screamed while still pounding.

Tony stepped in front of Pepper, blocking her from harm's way. "Get out of here, before someone gets hurt." Tony said, putting the faceplate down to look more intimidating, and hide the paleness of his face.

"All I want is one kiss from Ginny. Is that really too much to ask for." Dean pleaded. "One last goodbye. I promise. That's all I want."

"Maybe you have short term memory loss or something, but Pepper is engaged. You know, like to be married." Tony practically screamed at him.

"So?" Dean asked as if being engaged meant nothing. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Pepper screamed from over Tony's shoulder. "It has everything to do with everything."

"How do I know you're not just lying to get me to leave?" Dean leaned against the glass as he looked over Tony's shoulder at Pepper. "I want to see the ring." He demanded.

Pepper looked down at the ring on her finger as Tony turned around to face her and whispered to her softly so Dean couldn't hear. "Did you call the police?"

Pepper looked from her ring to Tony and nodded.

"Good." Tony nodded back. "When they get here Jarvis will tell them to come down here and arrest him. Right Jarvis?" Tony confirmed with his AI.

"As you wish sir." Jarvis replied before going on. "However, I do recommend you remove the suit immediately and sit down, sir. The excessive loss of blood and continued-"

"Mute." Tony interrupted Jarvis and turned to look at Pepper again. "Give me the ring. I'll just distract him for a minute until the police get here."

Pepper nodded as she slipped off her ring and placed it in Iron Man's hand. Tony took it and slowly walked over to the glass door separating him from Dean.

"Here's your proof." Tony held out his hand for Dean to look at the ring.

"That's not an engagement ring." Dean looked at the ring quizzically. "That's just a ring that has the same colors as Iron Man."

"I'll have you know that I made this ring myself." Tony raised his voice. "It's a one of a kind engagement ring that you'll never have the luck of seeing again."

Tony saw four police officers come down the stairs and arrest Dean. Before they left, one of the officers turned to Tony and asked, "Do you need anything else, Mr. Stark?"

"No that will be all officers. Thank you." Tony smiled behind his faceplate as he watched the officers lead Dean away. He then turned, walked back over to Pepper, and slid her ring back on her finger as he moved the faceplate to reveal his very pale face.

"Tony-" Pepper breathed as she looked up at him. "You're as pale as a ghost."

"I feel like a ghost too." Tony joked as he walked over to the robots to take off the suit.

Once out of the suit, Pepper could see the red trail of blood that had seeped through the neoprene suit. The trail ran all the way down his left leg from his abdomen. All she could do was stare at him with her mouth wide open.

"Are you just going to stare at me like that, or are you going to help me get out of this?" Tony said motioning to his suit.

Pepper sighed heavily before walking over to unzip the back of Tony's neoprene suit. He turned around and Pepper pulled the suit off his arms and down to his waist. The dressing had pulled off with the suit, revealing the very red wound. It had stopped bleeding, but there was dried blood all around it. Pepper pulled the suit down the rest of the way and Tony stepped out slowly. She then saw that his entire left leg was covered in dried blood and his boxers were plastered to his thigh with blood.

Pepper slowly looked up at Tony. "This is… a lot of blood Tony."

"I thought I felt something running down my leg." Tony said trying to make Pepper stop thinking about it.

"You need to take a shower." Pepper said as she turned Tony around and pushed him towards the elevator.

Once upstairs, Pepper deposited Tony in the shower and threw his blood covered boxers in the hamper. She then found him a new pair of boxers from his closet. She handed him a towel when he got out of the shower and then his boxers once he was dry. He slowly slipped them on and let Pepper lead him to bed. She put a new dressing on and then pulled the covers over him.

"Try to get some sleep, Tony. I'll be right here if you need anything." She kissed him on the forehead and then climbed in bed next to Tony, eventually drifting off to sleep.