Day 17 Pepper's POV

Tony's Workshop

I've been living in this house for so long, I don't have any idea what day it is on the outside. All I know are the numbers. 17 days since he left me, since I lost myself to the everlasting pain that is the absence of him. I barely get up to eat anything anymore.

I can't breathe. I gasp in the air, trying to take a breath in, but it's as if my lungs aren't inside my body anymore. My heart is missing. I can't feel my heartbeat, I can't hear it.

Sometimes I wonder if I am dead.

But no, I can still feel it, the stabbing pain of emptiness that never goes away. And in death, isn't there no pain?

I still have the hallucinations. I lie on the couch, just enduring, when I feel a caress on my cheek, the feel of a warm callused hand stroking, brushing my lank hair away from my neck, warm breath on my brow, and the stubble of his beard as he kisses my neck. I take comfort in the mirages, for they give me something to fight for. For even in the all consuming pain, I haven't given up hope. He will come home.

Day 18 Rhodey's POV

Sand. And heat. These are the only things I have seen during this endless search. We hadn't found him.

Sometimes I think this is all just some grand joke that he is playing on us that he is really in Las Vegas or somewhere equally exciting, laughing his head off at the fact that he had fooled us while he drank liquor and gambled. But then reality sets in, and I remember the sight of blood on the sand. It turned the sand a dark red, centering on a suit jacket. Tony's jacket, soaked through with blood. His blood.

I shuddered slightly in my seat. I was on the flight back to L.A. to see Pepper. I wanted to see that she was all right, that she had not...

I couldn't even think about it. If she had given in and killed herself, it would destroy Tony. Even if he came back alive and well, if Pepper were dead, not with him to support him, it would devastate him. He would not survive a week without her. If he were ever to her cold and lifeless, he would end it. He would end his life, because I truly believe he cannot live his life without Pepper.

Day 19 Pepper's POV

My resolve hardened as I glanced at the evening news while wrapped up on the couch down in the workshop.

I needed to get out, and go back.

My continuing absence from Stark Enterprises was causing a lot of mania in the press. Mania I didn't want to deal with, and that I didn't want...him to deal with. When he comes back. So I need to keep the company running as smooth as I can, while he's gone. I will go and deal with the issues and trivial duties I need to do, the bare minimum. So I can come home and stop acting that everything's fine. Because it's really not. I can come back and curl up and just keep living.

I uncurled from my ball on the couch with this goal, and made my way shakily to the door. I opened the door and made m way upstairs, my bare feet cold on the stone steps. I stopped at the doorway to my room, looking down the hall to the master bedroom. I looked back and forth from my door to his door for a few seconds, then sighed. I went into my room, and got a couple of suits that were suitable for the office, and grabbed my two favorite pairs of stilettos. I would be sleeping in his room for the time being.

A/N: I am so sorry for the delay. I was buried in midterms. But with Thanksgiving Break coming, I might have time to write two more chapters. The next one should be up by tomorrow, or Monday. But I will post another before I have to go out of town. Review ppl! With lots of reviews, I write faster! -K