First of all thank you for all the reviews and story alert thingies! I usually reply but there was too many so I'm just gonna say thanks now :D… please keep reviewing and let me know if you've any ideas… and most importantly, enjoy!

Chapter 2 – Heart Burn

Tony sat up in bed and placed his flat palm on the chest plate on his breast; it felt as though it was heating up from the inside but the sides of the metal chamber that was holding the new element in his chest felt more like it was cooling down. Rapidly. He winced as the icy sensation started to spread through his chest towards his neck and got to his feet slowly,

"JAR-VIS", he managed to splutter before the pain in his chest became unbearable and he collapsed to the floor in a barely conscious state.

"Yes Sir".

Tony tried to prise the glowing element from his chest but it felt too hot to touch, he coughed as the strange cold yet hot sensation spread up his throat, "JARVIS, I need- I ne- Pepper. Get Pep-", everything went black.

Pepper Potts pushed in the code to enter the Stark residence and was greeted by a familiar buzz as JARVIS started up,

"Good morning Miss Potts".

"Morning JARVIS", Pepper smiled, she still found it odd to be talking to a computer.

Her heels clip-clopped on the marble floor as she made her way through the rubble; Tony still hadn't gotten around to tidying the place up. That'll be my job today then, thought Pepper as she scanned the living room for her what? Boss? Boyfriend? She smiled involuntarily at the very thought of Tony Stark being her boyfriend. It felt so young, so innocent. And that certainly wasn't Tony.

As Pepper hopped over a large hole in the floor she heard a low moan coming from the bedroom. Her first thought, of course, was that Tony must be with someone, a female someone, after all Tony wasn't known for his polite ways and respect for women, and so she hung back a moment. But as the moans became louder she decided to chance it and take a look.

"Tony I-", Pepper stopped mid-sentence as she observed the site in front of her; Tony was lying on his back, the thing in his chest seemed to be spluttering and fading, like a dying light bulb, and his face was contorted into a look of desperation and pain. He looked up as Pepper knelt down beside him,

"Pepper", he got up onto his elbows, "Ow".

The redhead's hands floated about awkwardly in the air as she tried to decipher what to do, "Tony, are you ok?" she gestured to the flickering object in his chest, "Is it supposed to be doing that?"

"No", he tried to get up but found that he was too weak, "Give me a hand here will you?"

Pepper helped him to his feet and felt his forehead; it was covered with a fine layer of sweat,

"God Tony, you're burning up!"

He waved a dismissive hand in her direction, "I'm fine, just a little-", he bent at the waist and gripped his chest but quickly pulled his hand away as it began to singe on the element keeping him alive, "I need to get this out", he tapped the blue orb.

Pepper sat him down on the bed and nodded, threading a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "O-okay, what do I have to do?"

Tony swallowed hard and made a claw shape with his hand, "You have to twist it and pull. And try not to send me into cardiac arrest this time", he tried to smirk but his face betrayed his pain.

Pepper nodded, "Okay", she started to reach for the glowing circle but Tony's hand gripped her wrist,

"Don't touch it", he warned.

"But I have to to get it out".

"It's too hot. You'll have to go down to the garage and grab some pliers".

"Right", Pepper stood up and made her way to the staircase that led down towards the basement.

"Pep?"

She turned at the sound of the nickname he hadn't used in years, "Yes?"

"Hurry".

Pepper tried to smile but it ended up a grimace and she made her way downstairs. Tony inhaled deeply and struggled to stay conscious as the hot-cold pain shot through his entire body like sparks of electricity, causing his fists to clench and his toes to curl.

Pepper reappeared a few moments later with an armful of pliers and tweezers and god-knows what else. She plonked them down on the bed beside Tony and he began to rifle through them quickly; he picked up a highlighter pen from the pile and raised a quizzical eyebrow towards Pepper,

"And what am I going to do with this?"

Pepper rolled her eyes and shrugged, "I don't know! I just picked up whatever I could find!"

Tony raised his eyebrows and picked up a pair of silver pliers with a shaking hand; he held them in front of his chest and opened them out. Before he could do anything Pepper grabbed them out of his hands.

Tony frowned, "Hey!"

"I'll do it, your hands are all slippery and you're shaking", she leaned in and hovered the pliers over his chest piece.

"I thought you never wanted to do anything like this ever again?"

Pepper's eyes widened and she smiled, "Well, yeah. But I'm not going to watch you butcher yourself either".

She slotted the pliers into the flickering element and twisted it gently. Tony yelled but Pepper continued to twist it.

"Do- do not become a doctor… ever!" Tony panted heavily as Pepper began to pull the element from it's metal casing. He winced as it slid out noiselessly and sighed as Pepper placed it on the bedside table.

She looked at the shimmering blue object with wide eyes, "That's not the palladium core is it?"

Tony shook his head, "The palladium was poisoning me".

"And this was better? It really didn't seem better".

Tony laughed breathlessly, "Yeah, it was better. Until now".

"So you'll have to make something else to er-", she made a gesture with her hands that looked uncannily like some sort of sex position, "-slot in?"

"I can't", he touched the edges of the metal hole in his chest and looked at the now dim blue object on his bedside table, "That was my last resort".

Thanks for reading!

Please review, it lets me know how I'm doing :)

More chapters soon