Surprise, surprise, I'm alive and kicking! Still depressed, so I apologise for any medical inconsistencies, spelling/grammar/punctuation mistakes in this chapter.

A huge thank you goes to all those beautiful souls who reviewed and asked me to continue this, and dare I say to Jimenush in particular, for being lovely despite the fact that I kept being a complete asshole about this story. Enjoy!

He felt light, as if he was flying through the air, being easily carried through the clouds by one of his suits. He looked down. The suit was nowhere to be seen, but Pepper and Rhodey were there, so it had to fine, didn't it?

But wait, why is Pepper crying? Rhodey, not you too buddy!

They both seemed to be in so much distress that they didn't even notice him standing right in front of them. Pepper's petite body was shaking with sobs, while Rhodey was wasting his time trying to comfort her. He looked like he needed some mental support himself, and inevitably, his efforts went to waste. Tony spoke to them, put a hand on Pepper's shoulder and playfully smacked Platypus on his arm, but nothing happened…

What the hell is going on? Pepper! Peps! Please, look at me, honey! What did I do wrong this time? I'm sorry, just look at me…

Tony stood there for what seemed like a century to him, receiving no reaction from either of the two people he considered his greatest friends and support. Resignedly, he turned around to walk away. He made one step back and suddenly he was inside…an operating theatre? What the hell…What the hell?! But the door…there was no door, how is that possible? You don't enter rooms without going through doors!

He was about to run. To run away from all this confusion and helplessness, but as soon as he made the first step, he froze. There were doctors gathered around someone, cursing loudly in Chinese, shouting orders, passing various implements around and there was someone in the middle of this disorganised and panicked swarm of bodies. This someone was him.

But what? How? Pepper, help…

He looked at the monitors around the table, he saw the faces of the doctors, heard the desperation in their voices and that's when he knew. It failed, he was dead, because of his own folly and hubris. More importantly, he had lied to Pepper. He had told her he would be okay, he had told her they would finally find some peace, and that she would no longer have to be constantly worried about him. He had failed. The last thing Pepper heard from him was a lie.

God, give me one more minute. Please, just to say that I'm sorry. I'll go, I won't put up a fight when the time comes, but just give me a minute, half a minute even…

He remembered the conversation he had with Pepper in his old office. She gave him half a minute, and now it was his turn to grant her this little bit of time. But he couldn't. He was dead.

All he could do, was walk through the wall again, sit on the floor clinging to Pepper's calves with his invisible hands and cry. He had never been afraid of death, but that was before he found an actual reason to live. He used to think that since death is nothing, it cannot hurt you, but now he felt more hurt than ever. Pepper, his Pepper would forever think of him as a stubborn, selfish liar.

Suddenly the world started spinning. He tried to hold on to Pepper, not knowing what was going on. She kept sobbing uncontrollably, grasping the sleeve of Rhodey's shirt even harder than before. Her beautiful blue eyes were now red from crying and her cute, freckled cheeks were stained with tears, that would constantly refuse to stop flowing. Tony needed to do something to stop this madness, but his body, or whatever was left of him now, refused to obey. He didn't even have time to register a flash of bright light, before everything around him disappeared.

XXXXXXX

Pepper was never one to let other people dictate her life. She was an independent woman, a successful CEO and her own person, and nobody ever could prevent her from achieving what she wanted. Except for when she had to stand behind a piece of transparent glass and watch her boyfriend, he best friend die because of her. Her whole world fell apart when that one, only line she cared about, went flat on the monitor, when she saw the panicked expressions on the faces of the doctors.

Her knees buckled under her weight, and had it not been for Rhodey catching her in time, she would have experiences a very intimate encounter with the linoleum covered floor. As she propped herself against his strong arms, she could tell that he was also far from calm. His face was working as if he was about to cry, and his usually calm demeanour was momentarily replaced by an expression of sheer panic. That said something, coming from a soldier.

She couldn't see what was happening for a moment. Doctor Wu was frantically waving his arms, clearly giving orders to his subordinates, and trying to get back in control of the situation. Pepper's head was swimming. Although Rhodey tried to drag her away from the glass window, her feet remained fixed on the ground, her glare focused on the motionless body on the table. Everything seemed as if she was watching it through a plastic bag, hazy and lacking focus. Commotion, she could say there was a lot of commotion. Various metal instruments were being passed around the table that Tony was lying on; she could see a new, ominous-looking piece of machinery was brought in. Suddenly everyone apart from Dr Wu took a step back. The man seemed to be concentrating on something really hard. His body was obstructing Pepper's view of Tony, but the movement of shoulder indicated that he was working on something diligently. Suddenly he took a step back and slumped in a chair standing in the corner of the operating theatre. Pepper started sobbing, that was it , Tony was gone and there was nothing they could do to fix it. Unexpectedly, Dr Wu raised his hand with his thumb and index finger forming an 'o'. The line on the monitor was not flat any more. Tony was fine. Or was he?

XXXXXXX

They said they would let Pepper and Rhodey in, but only for a moment. It was a very complicated and dangerous surgery and Tony was lucky to make it out alive. Worried friends and relatives were at the bottom of the list of things he needed right now. Peace and a sterile, bacteria-free environment were at the very top.

Pepper and Rhodey were still both shaken by the events that transpired hours earlier. It took her a while to stop crying. She felt ashamed when she looked back at those few excruciatingly long minutes. By the end of the ordeal Rhodey's jacket was soaked with her tears, and it took her another few to let go of him. He didn't seem to mind, he just silently rubbed circles into her back as a sign of comfort, but she was still hoping that seeing Tony for the first time since the surgery wouldn't set off another bout of crying and panic.

But cry she did when they entered the room where Tony was laying motionless on the bed. Even if she tried, Pepper wouldn't be able to count the various cabled and monitors surrounding Tony's still form. His body looked so small and unimportant amongst this amalgam of all-things technical, that for the first time ever, he seemed to be at odds with technology. If any single one of those machines decided to stop working for a mere second, the genius could die. Puff, just like that. Die and be gone forever, as it seemed he would, only a few hours ago. Pepper's heart constricted momentarily at the though, but when she saw a nurse, sitting in a plastic chair, observing all the machinery carefully, she realised that perhaps her worries were unfounded.

Rhodey stood in the doorway, as if somebody had fixed him in place. He had seen Tony bullied at school, he had seen him beg the military medics to leave the arc reactor alone when they found him in the Afghan desert, but never before had he seen Tony as vulnerable as this. He could just stand there and stare with his mouth wide open, not minding the discomfort caused by the surgical mask he was wearing.

Pepper let go of his hand. She needed to be by Tony's side, she had forced him into this after all. He may never admit it, but she knew it was by her doing that he risked his life. The moment she took a step towards the bed, the nurse rose from her chair and mutely stopped Pepper in her track. She just shook her head and pointed at the door silently, as if to not disturb Tony's peace.

Tears welled up in Pepper's eyes again. She didn't want to have to leave so soon. What if Tony woke up and needed her to be there? What if...? What if...? She ignored all the pessimistic scenarios running through her head and cast one last glance at Tony. She knew he wasn't moving. He couldn't be moving, the smell of anaesthetics in the air told her that. At least Dr Wu did a good job, with that, but she could still swear that when she said 'I love you Tony' out loud as she was going out, Tony's finger twitched.

XXXXXXX

White. There was a lot of white. And light which made his eyes hurt. He kept them closed for a while longer, not wanting to have to face whatever nightmares were waiting for him out there. Once he did find the courage, everything still seemed blurry. He couldn't distinguish any shapes, any sounds. There was only white. But he was dead after all, so white made sense, didn't it?

He cocked his head slightly to the right. The white disappeared. There was a shape right next to him. It looked familiar, but he couldn't recall where he remembered it from. The shape contrasted with the background and Tony couldn't shake off the feeling that it meant something bad. He tried to focus immediately, after all it was reasonable to be ready when danger decided to attack. It took him a good while to achieve his goal. His head hurt and for the first time since he woke up, he was capable of feeling something more than just the terrifying light-headedness. Something further down his body, probably where his heart should be, felt really heavy, as if it was trying to crush his ribcage and squeeze all life out of it.

Well, it's already too late for that, Tony mused to himself.

His attention returned to the shape as soon as he decided that worrying about the discomfort wouldn't help anyhow. Now he could distinguish parts of whatever was seated next to him. There seemed to be a corpus, with a head attached to it. But the head was really weird. It had two huge somethings sticking out of it…like ears. But what kind of a person would have ears like this? Another thing on the head were eyes. Big, black eyes accompanied by a warm smile. What the hell?

And then Tony saw it. The shape, which he now mentally associated with some sort of animal, was holding a bright red square, with gold letters carefully inscribed on it: GET WELL SOON, TONY .

There was only one person who would bring him a get-better card, who would even bother to waste a minute of her life for sitting beside him in hospital. But this thing holding the card, didn't look like Pepper at all! Somebody hurt her, this thing hurt her and now she was gone because of him! Was it an alien? Or…what if it's Extremis? What if I hadn't really cured her? Pepper, Pep, Pepsi, Pepperpot…

Tony desperately wanted to protest out loud, to ask somebody for an explanation. The moment he opened his mouth, a pained cough ripped through his body, as he choked on something obstructing his airway and all that was on his mind for those few brief seconds was just, somebody please, please, please take this damn thing away. Without realising it himself, he kept struggling against the device in his throat, and before he had time to register what was happening, tears of guilt and frustration appeared in the corners of his eyes. His Pepper was gone because of Iron Man, he almost died because of Iron Man, he wanted to die, because of what happened to Pepper. Why did they have to keep him alive, just to put him through all this pointless suffering without anyone to live for and look forward to seeing?

The shape was still holding the card and staring at him. He wanted to destroy it, it wasn't Pepper, it was some sort of a monster. He didn't like monsters and he wanted his Pepper back. Having realised that there were no potential weapons around, the genius lashed out with his arms, to attack the opponent sitting in the chair beside him. He stopped halfway in his tracks, as searing pain tore through his chest. Tony was scared to move even an inch, when the physical anguish brought on memories of his torments in Afghanistan, but even staying in this position hurt too much. Pain turned into desperation, and there was a short way to walk from desperation to pure, dangerous panic.

'Tony. Tony, I need you to calm down, you're fine,' a voice whispered. He knew that voice and he knew that touch. Somebody was caressing his cheek delicately, in exactly the same manner that always helped him lose all the tension. 'Honey, I promise it's alright, I'm right here,' the voice continued. Whomever it belonged to, helped him lay back down, being so gentle and careful, that images of Pepper immediately started dancing before his eyes. Literally.

Tony couldn't believe it. A fiery storm of red hair appeared right in front of his face, accompanied by a pair of intelligent, worried eyes and a mouth covered by a surgical mask. Pepper. But how? What? The billionaire closed his eyes for a moment, unable to comprehend what was going on around him. Not a single thing made sense. He had tried doing math in his head, but he even failed at that. When he finally found the courage to lift his eyelids again, Pepper's face was still there, as worried as before. He wished he could raise himself up in the bed somehow, to kiss her, hold her close and never let go, but none of these things were going to happen any time soon, he realised. Nuzzling his head closer to her touch was all he was capable of, and maybe it was just Tony's imagination, but Pepper seemed a bit more relaxed thanks to this little gesture. Himself, he was constantly focused on the touch, to make sure that this wasn't all just a dream. The discomfort in his chest was extraordinary, but the overpowering relief and love he was feeling were stronger than the pain. Once he was fairly sure that he wasn't dreaming, the fear on his face was replaced with such pure bliss and happiness, that his red-headed angel started worrying that maybe they had dosed him with too many painkillers.

She felt like crying herself. Tony looked so helpless and vulnerable amongst the pale blue hospital bedding, plastic tubes and the countless beeping monitors. She couldn't help but wonder whether he would remember what had happened during the surgery. Given his panicked behaviour, it seemed more than likely, but she couldn't quite understand his evident hostility towards the big stuffed rabbit that she had sat in a chair on the opposite side of the bed. She thought it would be a nice gesture, after all Tony seemed to think that rabbits were a perfect gift for any and all occasions. Besides, she decided that it was very cute, and the fact that it had a clearly distinguishable pair of hands made it somehow more appropriate than the one he got for her.

Pepper was terribly confused, alternating her attention between Tony and the stuffed bunny. She would never have suspected that his dislike of the toy would upset her so much. He kept gazing at it, as if it was about to attack him, and Pepper instinctively started stroking his unkempt hair, to offer the much needed comfort. Tony raised his eyes up at her, evidently trying to get some sort of explanation as to the nature of the hostile object on his third. Despite herself, Pepper found his confusion extremely adorable; it was unbelievable how a man could know so much about things most people didn't even realise existed, but at the same time be unable to recognise a simple toy.

'Honey, it's okay. You do realise that it's just a plush rabbit?' The grimace on Tony's face hasn't changed a bit. 'Don't you…?'

The billionaire wanted to punch himself. Seriously, how stupid can a genius get? He had done many weird things in front of Pepper, but the bunny incident was more serious than anything ever before. Having forgotten about the piece of plastic that somebody had very unkindly stuffed down his throat, he tried to retort with a snarky comment in his defence. Shit. Not a good idea. The obstruction prevented him from talking again, only that this time, it was a million times worse. His chest burned from all the coughing; the sensation was so strong, that the billionaire thought that unless it stopped immediately, he would literally cough his lungs out any second now. That was rather problematic.

Before he found the time to do so however, someone's hands were on him, holding his down on the bed, without exerting any actual pressure. This person seemed to be talking as well, but Tony couldn't recognise the voice. His head was fuzzy already, and the heavy Chinese accent didn't help with distinguish the words spoken. Fortunately, not struggling actually helped, and it seemed to him that the risk of dying right on the spot was gone. Suddenly, the petite figure clad in blue garments was replaced by someone taller, this time easily recognisable.

'It's good to see you awake Mr. Stark,' Dr Wu said quietly. Tony could swear that his voice was trembling slightly, but he couldn't think of a reason for this, and quickly dismissed the thought. 'Just lay back and try to relax. This will go out in a moment, don't worry.' Tony was still incredibly tense, and it was Pepper's petite fingers wrapping themselves around his hand, rather than the doctor's words that actually helped him relax. His consciousness must have faded for a moment, because the next thing he was aware of, was sitting in a half-upright position and having the doctor stare right into his eyes.

Thanks for reading, I REALLY hope you liked it. Let me know by leaving a review, would you? They make me happy, and I need cheering up. Although I appreciate constructive criticism more than anything else, so feel welcome to be critical too :)

Since I'm here, I'll make two other annoucments to those of you read my other stuff:

1)I think I'll abandom Mightier Than the Sword. It's a bad OOC story, so it doesn't need to be continued.

2) You're welcome to check out my tumblr: marvelphilosopher dot tumblr dot com.

Thanks for reading again, I hope you enjoyed it ;)