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Damn. Fury calling them couldn't be good. It's only been a day and a half since Tony had come home from the hospital, and he was still in the same shape as he was. His ribs were healing nicely, and Steve had let Tony into his lab today to his relief, because quite frankly Steve was tiring of his attitude.

He followed Natasha to the conference room down a floor, where Clint, Bruce, and Thor were waiting. A telephone set lay in the middle of the table, the caller I.D. blinking: FURY

Steve stared at the phone for a moment, almost dreading what the director on the line was going to tell them. He wasn't ready to go out on a mission yet, not with Tony still hurt. He had to make sure the genius didn't do anything stupid.

"Well since no one else has bothered to answer it yet," Clint rolled his eyes and leaned forward, pressing the speaker button on the phone. "Avengers here," he drawled.

Natasha gave him a look before glancing to the phone. "All but Stark are present, sir."

Fury ignored the two comments and went on, "We've got a situation."

Natasha winced and kept her gaze on Steve as she replied, "Go ahead."

"An agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. leaked information to a powerful adversary of ours. HYDRA ring any bells?" Fury's voice was curt and devoid of any of his usual snark. He was pissed.

Clint groaned. "What now?"

"Codes were released oceanwide to Japan for nuclear missiles made specifically for major parts of America," the director began, "and naturally, the ship block is full of HYDRA goons."

"Do you need all of us? Minus Tony, that is?" Steve asked hesitantly.

"Does the nuclear missile part not get through your head, Mr. Stark-Rogers?" he snapped.

Steve clenched his jaw, not saying anything else for a moment.

"Alright. You want us there to take care of the HYDRA goons," Bruce spoke up, rubbing his forehead.

"No, I want you to riverdance," Fury mocked, a vein on his head looking like it about to burst. "Yes, and then you get those codes, you infiltrate the base, and you disable the nuclear systems. Got it?"

"We're on it, sir," Natasha stated.

"Get in the Quinjet and get the hell out there. Take care of it."

"If I may, sir, I'd like to request to stay behind. Iron Man is still recovering, and-" Steve was cut off.

"To my knowledge, Tony is quite capable of managing through a few bits of amnesia and chest pain, Rogers." Fury interjected.

Steve frowned in irritation. "Right. Yes, sir."

Natasha watched Steve's expression. "Sir, it would be in Iron Man's best interests if the Captain-"

"Captain America is to be on this mission. End of story," Fury interjected firmly before the line disconnected. A moment later coordinates began popping up on the computer screen nearby, and Bruce went to check for the information that the director was apparently sending to them.

Steve slumped in the chair. "Shit."

"Now, don't get your tighty whities in a twist, Captain." Clint told him assuredly. "Jarvis will watch Tony."

"Oh, a computer is going to stop Tony from doing something that can hurt himself? I feel really great about that." Steve said sarcastically. "Bruce, how much time do we have?"

"We've got about half an hour until we need to leave," Bruce informed the group, as he was typing away at the computer.

"Better tell Tony," Clint shrugged at Steve. "Set down the ground rules for him and all that. No blowing shit up while we're gone."

Rolling his eyes, the super solider turned to head out of the room in order to find Tony, who was most likely down in the lab at this point.

"Super," Steve muttered darkly, standing up and heading to the exit. He went back upstairs to where the mini-lab was. Tony favored his work area in Malibu the most, but since he hasn't been cleared for travel, he's stuck with what he's got. As he neared the door, he could clear as a bell hear Tony jabbering to Jarvis with notes.

"Jarvis, what was I doing here?" Steve felt his heart clench at Tony's tone. It was frustrated, stubborn, and...desperate.

"Sir, if I may induce, your vitals are higher than what is considered safe for you." the AI replied, "I suggest that you try to relax."

He took that moment to walk in. "You should heed his advice."

Tony's head snapped towards the door way, but only for a moment. His attention was back to the screen in front of him in an instant. "I'm fine, thanks," he muttered.

"I would hardly say you're fine," Steve stated as he ventured further into the lab, his eyes flickering over the various papers and plans scattered about. It appeared that Tony had been vigorously trying to figure out his work, without much progress so far.

The genius raked a hand though his dark hair. "This is impossible," he made a pinching motion to minimize the screen in front of him.

"No one said it would be easy. Just give it time."

"Time," Tony repeated harshly. "Time is a bitch. Time is screwing with my head."

Steve scoffed lightly. "Yeah, trust me. I know how you feel."

Tony blinked at Steve for a moment, seemed to realize who he was talking to, and then shrugged. "Sorry."

"Its okay," Steve assured him, and then hesitated. "Um...Fury called. There's a mission in Japan; a nuclear threat notice."

"Nuclear threat," Tony repeated. "Sounds messy."

Steve sighed. "Probably," he murmured. "Myself and the others have to leave in thirty minutes."

"Right," Tony's eyes flicked to where the Iron Man suit was stored for just a moment, but then he looked back to his computer screen. "Have fun storming the castle or whatever," he muttered, nearly pouting.

"You're not going to argue?" Steve asked incredulously.

"I am I that bad? At this point I feel like I've just gotten worse." Tony threw his hands up in the air. "I can't satisfy anyone."

The captain rolled his eyes. "Maybe that head injury did something good after all."

At that, Tony went quiet and Steve could see him retreat. He mentally kicked himself for pulling that card. Maybe Tony's big mouth was wearing off on him? "I'm sorry."

"Meh."

"Meh? What does meh mean?"

"Meh," Tony explained nonchalantly, "means simply...'meh'."

"Oh, right. Got it," Steve mocked.

"Well," Tony stated after a moment, eyes scanning over a report on his screen. "You'd better go then. Don't want to be late, right, Spangles?"

Steve blinked. Spangles? That was the stupid nickname that Tony used for him all the time, before the accident- at least, Steve always said it was stupid, when in reality, he sort of liked it when the genius used the name. Had he just remembered that? "Tony..."

"See you later, yep."


Fuck,Tony thought as the nickname let slip through his lips. He managed to practically kick Steve out with a quirk to, but it was clear he was suspicious. Of course he was. According to him, Tony hadn't remembered anything yet.

But now, Tony's been remembering all kinds of things. Voices, flashes, even explosions. It felt like a too real movie that kept freezing and fritzing in his head. It was unintelligible and he could hardly make out much sense. Instead, he stored everything in one area of his brain, piecing together what he could. A lot were with Steve, but the rest of the Avengers were there too.

In his flashbacks, the Avengers seemed to know him inside and out. But he doubted that he would ever really let friends into his "inner" self. He had no idea what he'd told Steve, either. These guys may not know him at all. They cared about selfless Iron Man saving the world along their side, and the Tony who wore that mask was gone for an extended vacation that could turn into permanency.


Steve backed out of the lab, a frown still etched on his features. Tony had remembered, hadn't he? He was remembering things, and was probably acting too damn stubborn to tell anyone about it, he figured. The thought sort of pissed him off, really. Did Tony not realize how big of a deal this was? Did he not realize he had a husband who was praying with everything he had that Tony would remember something?

Apparently the genius didn't care.

Clenching his hands into fists, Steve headed towards their little wing of the house to grab his go bag for this mission they were leaving for, now fuming with annoyance.

Natasha could tell right away that telling Tony that they were leaving didn't go well. "Hey, are you ready?"

Steve slung his bag over his shoulder and nodded. "Yes, I'm ready."

His voice was flat. "Tony didn't take it well?"

"He was fine."

"So what's the matter? You look pissed." Natasha asked.

Steve seemed to check himself, and his face went calm. Sad, but calm. "I think he's remembering things."

"And you're...mad about that?" Natasha was confused.

"He won't tell me that he's remembering things." he explained, "He called me Spangles."

"The nickname you love/hate?" she raised an eyebrow, "he may be just going off his list of Captain America jokes that he's sure to have been working on since he figured out who you were."

"No, its different."

"Is it?"

"Yes, Nat," Steve snapped as he pushed by her to leave the room. "I think myself of all people would know."

"I wasn't trying to-"

"Just don't," Steve glanced over his shoulder to give her a look and he shook his head. "Don't talk about it anymore. I don't want to."

She sighed. "Fine then." A pause. "Ready to go?"

Steve nodded curtly and went to the landing spot at the top of Stark Tower. Already Thor, Bruce in his stretchy pants, and Hawkeye were set. The Quinjet was there, and steve was grateful for that.

"What did Tony say?" Clint asked. Not even Clint's grin could lift his spirits, so he stalked past the group without a word.

The archer blinked when Steve moved away. Ah. So, that talk apparently had not gone well. "Awkwaaaard..." he muttered before he turned. "So I say we get out of here. Fury'll kick our asses if we're late."

"Then shut your rambling and go," Natasha muttered as she stepped onto the waiting Quinjet, followed by Bruce and Thor.


Tony could hear the Quinjet taking off, and he took that chance to toss the sling off around him. "Jarvis, have you completed the scan?"

"It will be finished in approximately 3 minutes." The British-accented computerized voice answered.

Tony nodded absently. He'd programmed medical diagnoses into Jarvis's harddrive as much as he could, and the scan may help him determine whether his memory would return completely. The part in his brain responsible for his memories had been looked at during his MRI back at the hospital, and they said there was nothing for them to see, or fix, for that matter. But he didn't trust doctors.

"Sir?"

"Yes?"

"The scan is complete. Results will be displayed momentarily."

His holo-screen was suddenly filled with charts, graphs, and calculations. He sorted out the important ones, copied to another screen, and he looked at what he got. He had nothing.

"There was nothing I could detect that would affect your memory status, sir. Neurological scientists call this a 'retrograde amnesia', in which-"

Tony stopped listening. This meant that he'd have to do this alone AND blind. There was no engineering invention, no scientific miracle...just Tony and his overloaded mind.


"You okay, Steve? You seem-"

"I'm fine."

"Are you-"

"Fine."

Bruce sighed and shut up, looking away from Steve. So much for attempting to talk. He felt slightly awkward, not knowing what to do.

Clint slid his gaze to Natasha. "Got this baby under control?" he asked from his pilot seat beside her.

"Got it."

"Alright." Clint leaned back in his chair before he pulled out his cell phone, sending a text to Tony.

Don't blow up anything while we're gone. And I swear to god, stop pissing off the Cap! It makes him annoying to work with. -CB

What did I do? I didn't argue with him. -T Tony's text reply confused Clint. Then what was pissing off the Captain?

He glanced behind at Steve, who was staring out the small window.

"Tony says hey," Clint told him. It was a lie, but Clint needed to see his reaction. Steve looked to him, saw that he was texting, and just grunted before once again averting his gaze. Oh, yeah. It definitely had something to do with Tony.

My observation skill says different. -CB

Well. I didn't do anything. -T

Clint rolled his eyes at this reply, not believing it. Something happened, and he wanted to know what it was. "Tony promises not to blow up the lab," he stated and slid his gaze towards Steve, who merely grunted again. Hmm. Interesting.

Don't believe you. -CB

Coming from the guy who tried to duct tape a waffle onto Fury's eye patch while he was sleeping. -T

Clint started in surprise. No one knew about that but he and Tony; they'd sworn on it. No way Tony would have told Steve because husband or not the solider would've told someone else, and Clint would never have been able to live it down. But Tony wouldn't have remembered that, unless...

Holy shit.

Tony, how could you have known that? –CB

Not especially happy with this chapter, but it filled in some areas and such. Plus some foreshadowing is involved. Any guesses what Tony plans to do when the Avengers on the mission?