I think you know the full title by now, so I'm just going to leave this area blank...well, except for this.

And this: I think this chapter doubles as a "what the-I know he's Tony Stark and this is the Iron Man origin story, but how the fibvsiu did he survive all this?!" situation study because I think I bring up a few fair points (...andthenmakeanexplanationfori t hem...BAM! take that Jon Favreau and whoever scripted this thing ;P) What say you, people?

Chapter Four: For His Protection

Tony didn't see his visitor this time, but he knew he/she was there, disrupting the flow of things in his favour. For one, he should have died out there.

He should have died out there many times over. But no, he survived while his entire caravan dedicated to protecting was taken out one by one. And when it was finally his turn to be shot-since he would have rather died trying to fight back than cower in some vehicle that he didn't even design that probably would have exploded soon and caused a really nasty death by fire or suffocation than the relatively quick death of a hail of bullets-none of the pieces of shrapnel did the damage they were supposed to.

Well, yeah, they did, in a way. But at such close range and velocity, they should have managed to pierce his heart at least. And, yes, he knew he went into shock, but the whole near-death thing and surgery without clean utensils or, you know, anesthesia was remarkably painless. Not to mention the fact that he was brought back to life and sustained on some old, junkie car battery that looked like it had seen its best days twenty years ago. He lugged that thing around for awhile, so he was fairly sure that made him a good judge of its character-if one wanted to ignore his already extensive credentials in math and engineering and physics and so on-and there was no way it could generate that much power for even that long of a time frame.

Then, his prototype of a suit kept him safe from everything-aside from a few bruises-even a bazooka missile, but totally broke apart when he crash landed into a sand dude when he wasn't even flying or rather falling that fast. Also, on a side note, sand dunes were not as soft as they look.

And, then, very conveniently, he gets picked up and taken home by Rhodey not more than a few hours after his escape when he could have died from heat exhaustion long before dehydration or starvation became too much of a problem.

So, yeah. Death totally averted by his guardian angel who never showed his face.

Actually, there was one person he had his suspicions of. Ho Yinsen. He was the one to revive him while they were both in the caves-the reason exactly why he was there and for how he managed to stay for so long or get captured at the same time was also pretty suspect-and his whole "stalling" techniques probably saved his life, too. Also, the guy had lied to him before about his family and had some pretty odd talents.

The only problem was he didn't want to think that his savior could possibly die, especially when he had promised Tony could never do anything to harm him. And Yinsen's death-yeah, completely his fault which would mean that Tony could harm him. Which would make another lie he was told. And a dead savior but he really did not want to believe that was true or even think about it because...well, because of obvious reasons.

But, then again, that doesn't explain how, when he got home after the press conference to sleep in a real bed, he found a neat little package wrapped up for him with a nice red bow on that real bed of his.

"Jarvis, has anyone been in my room recently?" he asked before he stepped any further because he might do some reckless and dangerous stuff, but he wasn't stupid.

"No, sir. Video feeds show no record of any visitors within the time frame the sensors picked up the sudden arrival of your mysterious gift,"

"And it's definitely not a bomb or something?"

"Heat scans indicate the answer to be a no,"

"Then I suppose I have to open it to figure out what it is," he eventually said.

"May I suggest extreme caution, sir?"

"I'm getting the feeling that won't be necessary, Jarvis, but I appreciate the concern," he murmured, sitting down beside it and slowly putting his hands on either side delicately to pull the bow off with as little jostling as possible. The ribbon slid neatly into a line and he threw it over the shoulder. He wasn't a big fan of silky things unless they were on someone, and then he took much more care in disposing them.

Licking his lips, he touched the top and yanked it off in a single motion, squeezing his eyes shut as he waited for something to go off in his face.

But nothing did.

He blinked and leaned over to peer inside, laughing out of relief and absurdity as he lifted out that stupid car battery. Inscribed on the side of it was a message for him in a flowery script. 'A reminder for those many days and nights you may not wish to remember but cannot forget, so let this now instead remind you that someone cares'.

He never mentioned it to Pepper, nor the fact that the two people who cared about him the most tried to show him two positives of the entire event in oddly similar gestures; one by proving he has a heart and the other by giving him the chance to show he has one.