And Tony Stark again...

I stood by the window at the Stark International private airfield. As a child I think I spent more time here and in the air, than at home or in the playground. I watched the birds circling above, the clear blue skies mocked me with cruel irony. I grimaced at my sallow reflection in the glass.

'How long until touch down?' I asked impatiently turning away from the window.

'ETA is seven minutes Mr Stark.'

I nodded, 'thank you.' I walked back into the lobby and sat down. Anxiety had started to creep into my mind. The sound of the engines alerted me to their arrival. I stood up abruptly; a familiar overwhelming sensation of vertigo flooded me. I pushed it away, no time for that now.

I stood by the security doors and watched the plane come in for landing.

My mind raced, I could barely contain myself, Pepper was only minutes away from being in my arms. I fought back the nausea, not now.

'Mr Stark, you're free to step onto the tarmac now.' The man on the ground announced.

I nodded a quick thank you in his direction and made my way out. I stood at the doors eagerly waiting for Pepper to step off the plane.

Moments later the door opened and I saw Pepper making her way down the stairs followed by Happy, the flight crew behind them carrying their luggage.

Her beautiful smile was infectious, I felt my own face slip into a comfortable smile, she ran up to me and threw her arms around me.

'Tony.' She breathed against my neck.

I knotted my fingers through her hair, 'I love you so much.' I whispered.

I gently pulled away so that we could make our way to the waiting car, I shook Happy's hand. An unspoken understanding was always easy to come to between the two of us. He nodded and offered a smile.

'I thought we should spend some time here, I know how much you like it.' I explained to Pepper.

She smiled, 'I do.'

'Bruce is already here.' I explained to Pepper as we sat down in the limo, 'we've made some break throughs, and I thought it would be better to do things here.'

'Close to home.' She said quietly.

I nodded; her words were laced with several meanings. I could only imagine that she knew why we were here. The drive was silent, Happy and Pepper exchanged several quick glances, I could see concern in both their eyes. I tried to ignore it. There would be time to discuss this later, for now I was glad to be going home.

Bruce and I sat in my lab downstairs. So many memories were sealed in the walls and the windows of this house. I felt alive and at home. My mind was able to focus on the task at hand.

'I do like this much more than your tower.' Bruce said with a laugh.

'It's got everything I need.' I said stretching my arms in front of me, 'so this is what I've come up with so far, I need you to check it.' I swiped the files over to his screen.

I observed his reaction as he read, he turned to look at me, 'I think this may work.' He smiled.

'Is it correct?' I asked eagerly.

'Of course it's correct, when are you wrong?' Bruce looked back at the files and read and re read my hypothesis.

'I'm not on my best game lately.' I said as lightly as I could.

'Don't let yourself think like that, that's when you'll fail.' Bruce advised, he looked back at me, 'you're calculations are correct, everything looks fine.'

I nodded, 'good, let's get it up and running, I want to have something ready to test by the end of the day.'

'You know I love crazy experimentation, but I don't think it's a good idea to trial this on yourself this soon.' He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.

I shook my head, 'don't back out on me now, Banner, I need you.' I stood up and paced up and down, 'I can't do this on my own, believe me, if I could I would.'

It killed me to make admissions of my own weakness.

'I can't do much of anything on my own these days; do you know what that's like?' I leaned against the desk, I bowed my head, 'in a few weeks I won't be able to program Jarvis, in a few months I won't be able to feed myself.'

Bruce looked down at his feet, 'I understand, but Tony, this could go so wrong.'

'I know.' I said quietly, 'but I need to try, I don't have the luxury of time to waste on trials.'

'I'll get started.' Bruce said finally.

I nodded, 'thank you.'

'Thank me if I don't kill you.' Bruce said nervously.

'I need to see Pepper, I'll be back.' I said quietly.

'Take your time, I'm going to spend some time on this, I want to see what else we can look at.' Bruce explained.

'I'll be back soon.' I explained, I made my way up to see Pepper, I knew she would be busy unpacking and getting settled back in to the Malibu home.

She stood outside on the balcony, her red hair shone in the sun.

I made my way to her and gently pulled her to me, 'hey.' I whispered.

'Hey.' She whispered back.

We stood together looking out over the ocean, the beauty was overwhelming. I felt a lump forming in my throat; I swallowed hard and pushed the anxiety away.

'I don't want to lie to you, Pep, I have no idea how this is going to turn out.' I said quietly.

She nodded, she leaned her head against my chest, she looked up at my, her blue eyes begged me for answers.

'If this doesn't work, in a few weeks…' I couldn't bring myself to say it.

'I know Tony, I've seen the symptoms.' She closed her eyes, 'I don't want this moment to end.'

I nodded, I lay my chin on her shoulder, 'you know, you'll be feeding me soon, and rubbing my belly in bed.' I smiled.

She slapped the side of my leg, 'don't even joke about that.' She said quietly, though she couldn't supress a laugh.

'Too soon?' I asked with a laugh.

She shook her head, still giggling; she turned to face me, her back pressed against the railing. She pulled me closer to her, a grin spread across her face, our faces were inches away from each other; I could smell her hair, her perfume. The aroma intoxicated me. I closed my eyes, foreheads touching.

'Tony.' She breathed.

'I'm so scared I'm going to lose myself.' I hear myself say.

Never would I have admitted something like this, let alone to another person, but Pepper was not just another person. She was my Pepper, the love of my life, the only one I who stood by me in all my darkest hours and in all my flaws.

'You're not, I won't let you.'

She placed her hands on my face, I tried to look away from her, but she gently eased my face toward her.

'I won't let that happen, I'll be here, reminding you every day.' She kissed my lips, 'of who you are always.'

I pulled her into my body, I breathed her perfume in. I couldn't even bring myself to speak, I felt disgusted in myself. She already wore so many of my burdens, I was a complete jerk doing this to her.

She shook her head, as if she knew what I was thinking, 'I'm always here for you, no matter what, and don't you dare think that you shouldn't be telling me this because of some deluded thought you may have about burdening me.'

I laughed, 'I can't imagine ever having lived without you.'

'And you'll never have to.' She smiled back at me.

She turned around and let me hold her again, I sighed, I felt a relief wash over me; we stood on the balcony looking out over the ocean.

'How do you feel?' She asked breaking the silence.

'Today has been a good day.' I said quietly.

She pulled my arms tighter around her, 'what have you come up with?'

'So far, I've found something which I think, if I'm right, will suppress the effects we've seen thus far, and hopefully it will slow it down enough for me to find something more permanent.' I explained, still holding on to her.

'So you're hopeful?' She asked curiously.

I took a deep breath, I didn't want to lie, but I couldn't tell her how little faith I truly put in my work.

'Tony?' She encouraged.

I cleared my throat, 'theoretically it should work, but honestly, I don't know, my mind isn't as it used to be, I'm worried.'

'Bruce is working on it with you?' She asked.

I nodded, 'he's making sure I don't create a second hulk.'

Pepper laughed, 'well that's a relief.'

'I need to know that if anything goes wrong, that you forgive me.' I whispered in her ear.

She turned around so quickly she nearly knocked me off balance.

'Forgive you?' she asked looking at me intently.

'For failing with the extremis, for failing you, for being a jerk, basically for everything you've had to put up with.' I looked at her.

'You brought me here because you think you're not going to survive this.' She said harshly.

I knew this wasn't a question, I looked at the panic stricken features which looked back at me, she shook her head, wide eyed.

'It's a real possibility I won't survive this.' I didn't know whether this was my malfunctioning brain forcing me to speak this way, or just pure exhaustion. I never told anyone the truth the way I just spat it out to Pepper. I could tell she was taken aback by the sudden truth telling Tony Stark.

'What do you mean?' she asked quietly.

'The symptoms you've been seeing are neurological, which means that over time it's going to start affecting me physically too.' Her eyes never left mine, 'which means, in a few weeks I'm probably going to start losing memory, and by a few months I'll be completely brain dead.' I continued.

She pulled away from me; she turned to look at the ocean, she buried her face in her hands. She started to sob.

'The Extremis is taking over and the symptoms are my body's way of saying that it's not coping.'

She stayed silent.

'I need to know that you will forgive me for this.' I couldn't think of anything else to say.

She offered no reply; she offered no words of comfort. I silently nodded to myself, I made my way inside. I stopped to look at her before I left. She stood with her back to me, crying. 'I'm sorry I couldn't be who you wanted me to be, Pep.'

I walked away, I stopped down the hall. I looked around at the house which was my home, anger burned within me. I slammed my fist into the wall; I was torturing her. I hated myself.

'Sir?' Jarvis called me.

'Yes.'

'Is everything ok?' He asked quietly.

'No, no it's not Jarvis.' I replied.

'Is there anything I can do?' he asked.

I laughed, 'no, thanks though.'

'Of course, sir.'

I made my way down to the lab; there was nothing else I could do here, I told Pepper what I needed to tell her. I fulfilled my selfish need to have her know. I felt like a jerk, but I was secretly relieved. It made things easier knowing that I wasn't lying, or having to dance around her when discussing something with Bruce. I had made hundreds if not thousands of mistakes in my lifetime, but this was my time to rectify them, and as much as she hated me for it, I felt like I had done the right thing. I only hoped that she would come to understand that, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day.

I hope everyone enjoyed this, the next few chapters see some action in relation to the antigen which Tony and bruce are working on :)