A/N Thank:

Silvertongued Dreams- I'm so sorry it took so long to respond! I wasn't sure at first, but I looked it up and sure enough that was her name. I'm glad you enjoyed it and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

Silverpedals1402- Thank you! I'm super glad you enjoyed it! I hope this chapter is as entertaining. ;)

PercyJacksonLover14- Haha, thanks! I'm glad you like it!

UltraRed55- Yeah, but the east coast got it a ton worse with Sandy. And yes, Rhodey must remember! But will he? Mwahaha. :D

imaAvenger- Haha, thanks! Here's another helping! ;)

Carpetbakr- Because... I am evil! (ominous clap of thunder and lightning) And yeah, that's great, but I feel sorry for the east coast, with so many displaced and suffering from Sandy. Hurricanes! Why must you be so mean? And aw... :3

I've been swamped with work lately. If I'd know I was going to be so busy (and then the situation with wifi) I would have posted the chapters before school started, or waited until I had time, so I'm sorry to inconvenience y'all with the wait. I have a little bit of free time, so after this I'm getting caught up on all of the awesome stories I've missed. :)

Things start speeding up soon, 'promise. :D

Chapter Five

Pepper bounded up the steps leading to the sweet sanctuary of her home, fumbling fingers brandishing a silver key from her pink side pouch and thrusting it into the lock. She tried to shove the door open before it was unlocked in her haste, taking a moment to insert the key and twist it properly, listening for the satisfactory click in the lock mechanism before she shoved the door open. The constriction in her chest tightened as she dove inside, slamming the door behind her and blocking out the cacophony of the city.

Tony Stark.

Pressing her back to the door, she slid to the carpet, folding her arms around her legs and propping her chin on her knees, the perpetual feeling of melancholy and fear that something was missing at an all time high, the only difference that now she knew why. She focused her sight on a blank space on the opposite wall, as though this would help her visualize him better, looking for solace in her memories. She tried to remember his voice, his looks and attire, his attitude and personality, anything and everything she could remember.

The more she seemed to recall, the more vertiginous and surreal the memories seemed to become. Everything was spinning as her mind attempted to comprehend what it had long since concluded was the impossible, a mere figment of her imagination. A whole other life situated around a man that didn't even exist! She was oh so terrified that it was going to slip away once again, leaving her as clueless and naive as before, as the images were still at times blurry and the conversations indecipherable.

Two parts of her subconscious were locked in fierce battle with one another; the part that cried This is ridiculous! You've gone insane! and the part that countered with You know it has to be true. She couldn't latch onto either specific one, instead unable to maintain any solid ground in her thoughts. It all confused her...

Then, sudden, everything became sharp and clear as though she had burst through a dam holding back the memories, assuaging her confusion. With a gasp she realized she could remember everything about the strange reality, just as easily as she could summon the memories of school the previous day. Walking by the Stark Tower every weekday for years on her way to school, wondering if a boy up there her age was looking down on the pedestrians... Her first encounter with the closest thing America had to royalty, and befriending two new teens, finding herself thrown in the middle of the establishment of a team that would saves hundreds of lives and, eventually, the world. The gargantuan difference in the two worlds was astonishing, and she found herself yearning for the New York that only her new-found memories could provide her with. And this man, this technological genius, the epitome of selflessness and courage, Tony Stark was behind it all. Her best friend. A knight in shining red armor.

With tremulous hands, she lurched for her phone.

IMAAIMAAIMAA

"Dad..."

David Rhodes accepted his beaming son with inviting arms, tugging Rhodey to his chest before releasing the boy and stepping back to look at him.

"Oh, it's so good to see your smiling face again. Look at you," the man said, chest swelling with pride, "you've gotten so much taller!"

Indeed, Rhodey had grown several inches in the year since he had seen his father. Likewise, David had changed in appearance. His face was leaner, his arms were thicker and more muscular than he remembered, and his posture was pure perfection, holding the man up with a bold confidence; someone might as well have glued a meter stick to his neck and back. Besides that, his clothes were crisply ironed, his flannel shirt tucked and a belt looped around his waist. Somehow, Rhodey knew that the days of his dad running around in a baggy t-shirt and cargo shorts, shooting hoops with him at the local gym, were over. A bit sulkily, he wondered how else the war had changed him.

David's sight focused on a point just beyond his son, his almond brown eyes sparkling. Turning, the teenager saw his mother walking towards them before his father hurried forwards, scooping his wife into his arms and giving her a kiss that made his son groan in disgust and turn away, making Roberta and her husband chuckle.

Half an hour later, settled in the living room and plates heaped with coconut creme pie on their laps, David was playing catch up with his family, asking about what he had missed. Roberta, although acting calm and composed, was obviously ecstatic to have her husband home, safe at last. When she looked at him, her eyes lit up with a sparkle Rhodey hadn't seen in them in a long time.

The man didn't seem to want to dwell much on the occurrences of the war, but he couldn't seem to hear enough about the life of his family that he had missed. Instead, he kept twisting the conversation around to focus on his wife, then Rhodey, asking about school, the house improvements and the debate team.

After a while, after the conversation had turned to the law firm, Roberta shifted on the sofa uneasily, reluctant to digress to bad news. David nearly choked when he was informed someone had broken into the attorney's office and had ransacked her files.

"It's ludicrous what these masked idiots will do these days!" David exclaimed, sinking into the chair and spooning some pie into his mouth. Rhodey cleared his throat. No time to tell about bad news like after other bad news, and it was better to tell him himself before others told him.

"The Academy had a bomb threat called in a few weeks ago."

This time David did choke. After much coughing and back pounding, he turned to his son. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. The NYPD bomb squad was called in to deactivate the bomb, but we all had to evacuate the school."

His father shook his head in disbelief. "Maybe we should have a unit stationed here, as well. I had no idea things had escalated to this point." His words hung in the air like the dwindling lights from an explosion of fireworks as everyone realized just how much David was in the dark about the city and his own family.

After a few moments of awkward silence, the teenager's cell phone began to play a snippet of a guitar solo, his ringtone. Checking the caller ID, he didn't recognize the number, although there was something vaguely familiar about it. Before he could answer, however, he felt his mother's hand on his forearm.

"Could you please put that away? Your father just returned home," she said, chastising him softly.

"I'll only be a minute..."

He cringed at the stern look she gave him. Consenting to put away his phone, he clicked the mute button and tucked it in his jacket pocket.

It was probably just a wrong number anyway.