A/N OK, bonus. Didn't expect to get this done so quick but had an unexpected amount of free time today and it was one of the easier chapters to write. It's slightly shorter than I normally like but it ends at a very natural point in the story so hopefully it works OK.

As always, my thanks for reviews and follows. All very much appreciated.

Chapter Five

"Jarvis…is there any coffee worthy of the name anywhere in the tower at the moment?"

"Judging by Mr Barton and Dr Banner's earlier reactions, I would say not Sir."

"Find any place in the city that's open and can deliver me a large pot of decent coffee. Pay them whatever it takes to get it here five minutes ago."

"I will do what I can Sir"

Steve never ceased to marvel at the way a machine could understand Tony's abstract instructions – most of the time they barely made sense to human beings.

"It's going to be a long night," Tony was addressing the area where Steve had been stood just a few short moments ago so Steve went back and stood there – he knew it didn't really make any difference but it felt rude not to.

"So….invisible man….who are you?" Tony's gaze was shifting between where Steve was standing and the holographic screen; it was clear his thoughts were churning all the data he had so far as he drew up various analyses and figures…. "I don't know if you can hear me…"

"Oh I can Tony. We need to be careful here, this may be the longest conversation we've ever had. Trust you to get chatty when I can't answer back."

"…..but I'm guessing that, since it's you who's been making the coffee around here, you've had ample opportunity to harm us if that was your intention…."

"Can't fault that logic. Who knew coffee was so important?"

"…and judging by the mess we made last night, I think you may do a lot more than just make the coffee around here…"

"While I can't deny that's nice to hear, you should stop now or you're going to be seriously embarrassed when you do remember."

"….so why's someone or something gone to so much trouble to hide you? Why can't I remember? They've got some serious tech at work here…."

"Believe me, I'm dying to tell you and there's a lot more than coffee at stake."

Tony suddenly stilled as though something had occurred to him. He turned to the screen and began to run calculations. He worked furiously, completely absorbed in what he was doing before, finally, a sweep of his hand sent the information from the one screen to a 3D image of the Iron Man suit, overlaying the chest plate and arc reactor with what looked like an additional component of some kind, a little (to Steve's eyes) like a camera lens suspended in an intricate frame.

"Jarvis, run device simulation on the data from the phased signature. How long till auto-repair is complete?" he frowned, "….And where's my coffee?"

"Running simulation: 3 minutes to completion. Auto-repair: 1 hour 14 minutes to completion. Coffee arriving now, Sir."

"Good work J, you're a life-saver." Tony said as Dummy approached clutching a large thermal jug of much-needed caffeine. "Drop that Dummy and I'm reprogramming you as a toaster and giving you to Thor." The machine gave an alarmed squawk and slowed its movements to be doubly sure of keeping the coffee safe.

The genius showed a distinct lack of intelligence as he grabbed a stained coffee cup and wiped it around with a cloth that looked far from clean itself before snatching the jug from Dummy and pouring from it: He took a large gulp.

"How have you never poisoned yourself Tony?"

Results from the simulation started to display on the screen: Tony scanned them, made some adjustments and re-ran the tests. He refilled the filthy mug and, stopping only to take another mouthful of coffee from time-to-time, feverishly worked on the elements of whatever he was creating to add to the suit.

Finally, he seemed to get the outcome he wanted. He removed the additional element from the holographic suit and split the virtual representation into its component parts – separating some of them out, he instructed Jarvis to process these via his automated production system for immediate manufacture as specified. Looking at the remainder, he hunted around the lab, picking up a variety of objects as he went: A variety of wires and other materials, a soldering iron and several screwdrivers were amassed, which he then placed on the workbench.

Another swift hand movement on a different area of the holographic representation brought back up the scan of the phased energy signatures throughout the tower – homing in on the lab area he noticed that his unknown companion had moved around to the other side of the workbench. He turned to face it.

"Well it looks like I've got your attention."

"It's not like I've got anywhere else to be – not for the moment at any rate." Despite the progress Tony had made through the night, Steve was becoming increasingly anxious that it was only a matter of time before Yustis returned to collect him for his hearing and he hoped desperately he'd have a chance to communicate what was happening before that occurred.

More than that, he'd spent the last two hours watching how Tony worked, his amazement and admiration growing exponentially with every passing moment. Having never previously had the chance to watch the inventor in his true environment, he had to admit it was a genuine privilege to actually see the man being the genius he always boasted he was: He sincerely wanted to have more opportunities to do so again in the future, all assuming he (and the World) had one.

Tony was progressing with the construction; his hands worked furiously as he built his creation. He started to describe his thought processes and the theory behind what he was doing: When he got to what he considered to be a particularly exciting bit he started to wave his hands around wildly as though sketching his thoughts in the air.…

"You might want to be careful with that screwdriver…"

"Oh shit!"

"….told you to be careful."

Blood mopped up with the dirty cloth used to wipe the coffee cup and a bit of paper towel functioning as (what Steve hoped, but doubted, was) a temporary bandage, the now slightly less animated description of what he was doing continued.

Steve understood about two words in five.

"You really don't remember me do you Tony?"

It seemed to Steve as if Tony's arc reactor was acting a bit like a TV antenna swaying in the wind; once in a while it was in the right place to pick up a signal and that's when he became visible briefly. Tony was trying to create an adapter that would keep some of the output from the reactor focussed in the right place – with the suit acting as an insulator so Tony himself was protected from the changed frequency: "No use creating something to see what's going on if the process kills me" he grinned.

"I think we can both agree that would be preferable."

His theory was that the specific nature of the "Type 3 signature" (Steve eventually realised that meant him) effectively suppressed all knowledge, both physical evidence and memory, of whatever it was hiding….Tony likened his gadget to swapping a solid wall for glass, it wouldn't disable the barrier but he should at least be able to see through it.

"You're the genius Tony, I hope you're right."

Dawn had long since broken and daylight was starting to stream in through the small secured windows that ran around the top of the lab. Tony had been awake for close to 24 hours straight and was running purely on caffeine and the adrenaline of invention: Steve found himself concerned and grateful (on this occasion) for the fact this was pretty much normal behaviour for him.

Finally, shortly after 6.30am, the new addition to the suit was completed as Tony clipped the last elements of the frame into position. Donning his suit but not closing the faceplate, he lifted the object from the workbench and clipped it on to the front of the chest plate. He carefully attached the specially designed connectors and made sure they were properly engaged.

After a couple of minor adjustments and checks, he began the power-up sequence on what he'd termed a 'phase modulator'; he watched carefully as it homed in on its assigned frequency whilst Jarvis was monitored for any feedback that might disrupt his creator's arc reactor with orders to disable the device immediately should that happen.

"Signals aligned Sir."

"I know," breathed Tony as the image of the man he'd seen only in brief instants previously stood before him. The figure was translucent, like a ghost, but the image was clear and he was looking back at him with an expression that seemed to be a mix of concern and hope.

And then his senses were assaulted by an array of memories, flooding back one after another…

…a shield…

…blue…red…white…

…fighting…

…arguments…

…orders…

…a leader…

…a friend?

Shaking his head slightly to clear it a little of the onslaught of images vying for his immediate attention. He looked straight at the man and said:

"Cap?"

"Are you alright Tony?"

"Steve. Yeah, I'm…er…fine. But what the hell happened to you?"