Willow jerked awake right before the part of her nightmare that always had Pepper slipping out of her grasp. She hated how detailed it was becoming. Every single time she couldn't be saved. Every single time it made Willow sick to her stomach.

She tried to shake herself awake fully, but couldn't quite manage. She saw Happy curled up beside her, sleeping peacefully. She didn't know how he was doing that, if it was true. His snores definitely made it sound true. She pulled the microphone back to her mouth from where it had fallen on the floor.

"Tony?"

Silence.

"Tony? You okay?"

Silence.

She looked over at the screen and saw his heart still beating softly, up and down on the monitor.

"I'm here," he said, his voice tired.

"Go back to sleep. Sorry."

"You go back to sleep, butthead."

"Not a chance," she admitted.

Willow let her eyes close though, against her better judgment, still clutching the mic in her hands. It was her only link to Tony and she wasn't letting it go.

"Is Nebula still there?"

"I don't have anywhere to go, Ms. Danvers," her voice came through.

She seemed just as tired as Tony.

"Just checking."

She wasn't sure how long it was that she sat there never truly asleep, but eventually Happy woke up and went in search of food. She picked at what he handed her, not paying attention to anything else but the monitor.

"Gimme," he commanded.

He held out his hand for the microphone and she jerked it out of his way. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, I see that. Humor me."

Willow carefully unfurled her fingers and she winced when they moved. It hurt to breathe anymore. Any movement felt weird, almost foreign.

Happy sat up and patted his shoulder for her to lay down, knowing she wasn't going to leave the lab. Before she closed her eyes, she watched the monitor and checked the time.

22 hours since she'd left Carol a message and received no answer. Tony could wait a little longer. She'd be there soon. She had to be.

"Pepper still hasn't called back?" Tony asked suddenly, his voice getting raspier by the minute.

"No," Willow answered quietly.

They were now working on hour 36 and Tony was running out of food and water. The fact that he even had any should have made her laugh, but nothing about this was funny. Only he would think far enough ahead to put snacks in his suit.

Her brain was starting to realize something the rest of her wasn't willing to accept yet. It was becoming a real possibility she may have to listen to her friend die.

She wiped the tears that hadn't stopped falling for the last hour out of exhaustion. It was mostly quiet, but every now and then she would let out a whimper and Tony would moan, like it was hurting him to hear her in pain.

"Call her again."

"Of course," she conceded.

She knew she should stop, just tell him the truth, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. He was probably catching on, but there was no way she could bring herself to cause hurt him like that.

Every time they did get to hear her voice, they'd smile for a minute before letting the misery take back over. Those couple of seconds were all that was keeping them sane, but it wouldn't last much longer.

1. Up. Down. 2. Up. Down. 3. Up. Down.

She'd started counting his heartbeats and listening to him breathe somewhere around hour 42. She'd start over again when she forgot what number she was on, her other thoughts distracting her. She never made it past 90 or so. It gave her something to do and she felt like somehow she was keeping him alive. Not that it was even remotely real.

Hour 47. Tony was officially out of everything. It wasn't how she'd imagined any of this, not that she ever let her mind go there for too long. She'd lost people before, but it was always quick and painless. For the other person, at least. This was a horrible way to die. It wasn't fair. None of it was. He was alone, except for Nebula.

The speakers started to give a high-pitched whine, making Willow sit up straighter. It was almost like feedback, but it was different. Obnoxiously loud, but different.

"Tony," she screamed, "can you hear that?"

"Yeah," he shouted back. "I think..."

The noise got louder and louder until they couldn't hear the monitor beeping anymore. Happy and Willow covered their ears.

Then it stopped and Tony sounded like he was running. Willow wasn't even sure how that was possible right now. It had to be the adrenaline. She just prayed if he was running away from something he was fast enough to get away. They stared at the screen waiting for anything that might tell them what was happening.

"Ms. Danvers?" F.R.I.D.A.Y asked.

"Yeah?"

"It appears your sister has arrived on Titan."

Happy screamed and picked her up off her feet, twirling her around the room. She all but collapsed in his arms, the weight of all that had happened in the last two days melting away for a second.

"Oh my God," she rejoiced.

"Nope, just me," Carol teased.

Happy laughed and pulled the mic to his mouth, Willow still attached. "You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice."

"Hey, Happy. Hey, Will."

Willow's whole body tightened as it remembered the tension that had been crushing her for the last decade. She was relieved Tony would be alright and that her sister hadn't been swept up in whatever had happened, but she'd still left her all alone on this huge planet. The one person who was never supposed to do that to her had betrayed her.

Willow shook her head furiously when Happy put it under her mouth. She crossed her arms over her chest, letting go of the microphone.

"So, uh, what's the GPS say? Be here at 10? Maybe 10:30?"

Carol laughed loudly and Willow found she was smiling at the sound without meaning to.

"Be there soon, Happy. I promise."

"Thank you, Carol," Happy said for Willow.

"You're welcome."

There was some jostling and they realized their part of the conversation was over. The other group was talking amongst themselves, but they couldn't tear themselves away from the sounds either.

"Is it just you guys?" Carol asked.

"Yeah, uh, just us," Nebula answered. "Now."

Willow could hear Carol adjusting different seat belts in whatever kind of ship she'd gotten. She seemed satisfied after a minute and a deep whirring noise took over. Willow reached over and turned down the volume.

"Hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Yes, Ms. Danvers?"

"We're going to take a nap. Scare the shit outta us with the alarm system or something if they get into any trouble."

She grabbed Happy's hand and lead him to the small living area right next to the lab.

"Yes, ma'am."

The lights dimmed and Happy pulled a blanket off the back of one of the couches to wrap them both up in. It wasn't long before that same awful nightmare was back.

It felt like it hadn't been any real time and all the alarms were going off. She jumped straight up and looked around for the source, but her mind was still too foggy to make sense of it. Happy was right beside her and he didn't look he was faring much better.

"Ms. Danvers," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said, cutting the alarms off. "you asked to be alerted..."

"Yeah, sorry. What's going on?"

"Captain Rogers is approaching."

"Captain Rogers?"

"And several others," she tacked on.

Willow rushed over to the nearest monitor and F.R.I.D.A.Y. switched the view so she could see what was happening. It was definitely Steve, Thor, Bruce, and Nat. Her face fell when she didn't see anyone else with them.

She couldn't make her feet move, she was still basically asleep, so she waited impatiently for them to find her and Happy. Their voices were sending shockwaves to her heart. She'd assumed they were all gone too and even though she wished there was more of them to greet her, this was good enough for now. Tony would fix it.

"Oh my God," Rhodey screamed the minute he saw her, "Willow?"

She held out her arms as he tackled her back onto the nearest chair. She was more than a little thrilled to be wrapped up in him. He'd always been happy to be her Tony stand-in and today didn't seem to be any different. She let go of all she'd been holding onto and started to sob. Rhodey held her quietly as she got it all out, no one brave enough to ask any questions yet.

She sat back eventually and looked to the rest of the group, giving them an uncomfortable laugh. She hated looking weak in front of anyone, but these were her friends. Mostly. She stood up and walked over to Thor, who was holding out his arms for her.

She touched his face where a simple, leather patch was covering his eye. No one said a word, though. They just stared down at their hands as she gave Thor a hug and then moved back to her spot next to Rhodey.

"Umm," she started lamely. "Is anyone gonna tell me what the hell just happened?"

"Where's Pepper?" Rhodey asked, like it had hit him suddenly.

"She's—uh—she's...," Willow stuttered, getting choked up again.

"Tony?" Natasha asked.

"He's on his way," Happy interjected.

Everyone let out a breath they clearly didn't know they'd been holding. It was obvious Willow wasn't the only one who thought Tony was the answer to their prayers.

"You're the only ones here?" Steve asked, looking around.

Willow wasn't sure who he was hoping for, but it was just them. She just nodded, not sure how else to answer him. He leaned back further in his chair.

"Willow," she said, thrusting a hand forward to introduce herself properly.

"Steve," he replied, shaking her hand.

"You two haven't met before?" Thor finally spoke up.

"Nah. Team Iron Man," she said as an answer.

It just seemed to confuse him though. He hadn't been here for the fight, so that made sense.

"Best friends for life and all that," Bruce piped up.

"And all that," she repeated with a smile.

"Well, someone better start talkin'," Happy interrupted again. "Because the humans in the room would really like to know what's going on."

He pointed to himself and Willow, like they didn't already know who he was talking about. Now it was their turn to look uncomfortable. She knew exactly why too. They'd messed up. They were responsible for fixing the messes and they'd clearly made one. Or failed. Otherwise, they wouldn't all be in this position. Tony had failed too, but Willow had learned a long time ago she'd forgive him for anything. Right now, they just needed him back. They just needed to put it all back the way it was. That's all that mattered.

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