Pepper had just been to a short meeting in the morning and Happy parked the car at the exact same moment as a massive bang went off. Glass hammered down on the roof of the car and black smoke and hot fire stood out of the windows at the top of Stark Tower. Pepper hurried out of the car and took her hand over her mouth in shock as she saw where the explosion had been, Tony's workshop. The fire alarm was deafening, but Pepper could hear the screaming people running out from the tower. All of them placed themselves on the other side of the street to watch. Happy had also made it out of the car and sent Pepper a confused look. It didn't take much time before sirens blended in together with the alarm and there were police and firemen everywhere. The firemen ran inside to start evacuating and the policemen tried to keep everyone away, including the paparazzi. This will make one hell of a front page, Happy thought to himself. Pepper tripped on her heels over to the other side of the road to search for Tony. She caught a glimpse of Steve, Bruce and Natasha, but there was no sign of Tony. The masses of people were overwhelming, Pepper tried moving amongst them, but it was like swimming against the current. She gave up and walked back towards the tower, but she got stopped by a policewoman. She tried to tell Pepper that it wasn't safe, that there might be another bomb, that it could be a terrorist attack. Pepper tried to push her aside, but then she felt a warm hand on her cold shoulder and quickly turned around. She met Steve's eyes, and they had a look she couldn't quite place. Emptiness? Soreness? It didn't matter since she didn't even get to blink before it was gone and they lightened up.

"Where's Tony?" He asked with a smile, but deep inside he knew, and that was what his eyes had told her.

"I-I think… Steve, I think Tony is still in there" She frowned and almost started crying.

Steve's jaw dropped as what he had frightened virtually got confirmed by Pepper. He had been right when he counted floors and concluded with that the thick smoke came from Tony's workshop.

"Well… that wasn't too bad, was it?" Tony lay on his back between the shattered glass on the floor, waiting for Jarvis to answer.

"Considering that you wanted to create as much damage as possible, Sir… no" A grin passed Tony's face right before he winced when found out that the whole front wall was off and that the chilly air was in fact very chilly. It was early in the morning, so the night air hadn't quite vanished yet. Then he noticed that he was actually injured, severely injured.

The glass hadn't just shattered out on the floor, it had fastened to Tony's skin as well. There were small and large pieces of glass shards everywhere, his face, arms, stomach, everywhere. Some were really deep down and had made seriously big cuts which bled tremendously. He found out very fast that moving wasn't something to recommend, so he just stayed where he was and watched as smoke filled the room and his expensive equipment being on fire. Either someone had to come and rescue him, or he had to walk down to the training centre and take the functional elevator from there. Since moving hurt, that would be just what he'd do. He turned over to his stomach and lifted himself up with his hands, it resulted in the shards drilling further into them, but he continued until he was on his feet. He walked staggering towards the door leading to the stairs while glass crunched under his sneakers and smoke went down in his lungs. Tony coughed and supported himself at the door handle as the door went up. He shuffled on towards the stairs and had a firm grip around the handrail as he took his first step down.

"Sir, your vitals are dropping and you are losing a fair share of blood, should I call for someone?" Jarvis tried to get contact with Tony, but he just continued staggering down the stairs.

There was no need for Jarvis to tell Tony that his vitals were dropping, he knew, he absolutely knew. Calling for someone sounded like a good idea, but for some reason his legs just continued down the stairs without Tony's approval. There were several times when he almost stumbled, but he made it down to the elevator and literally fell into it when it opened. He was a bit skeptical, but the chance of a second elevator failing wasn't really big, and also, walking the stairs wasn't an option. He saw himself in the mirror that surrounded the elevator and his eyes widened at the sight, was that really him? There were blood and glass shards all over his body, he was literally twinkling because of the glass. His white t-shirt had gone all red and the only possible way to recognize him was that his hair was still the same. He didn't notice the alarm until now, and it was incredibly deafening. He didn't hear the ding of the elevator but he felt that it stopped and pushed on the door so that when it slid open he came crashing on to the floor. Once again the glass shards bored into his skin, making even more blood stream out. He managed to get up again with a roar and then he got to the door by doing some sort of running. He supported himself at the doorframe with his elbow and took a minute before he slung it open and limped out towards the masses of people. Some people in uniforms tried to stop him, but it was only halfhearted attempts as they quickly moved away when he waved his hand at them. He must've been looking like a maniac since people moved away shocked and terrified when he entered the horde of people, or was it mentally disturbed sheep, he couldn't really tell the difference. He tried to moan Pepper's name, but it was so low and mumbling that no one got it. He did it a few more times until one person recognized him and stopped him. The woman in front of him laid her hand under his cheek and pulled it up so that his eyes met hers. Natasha.

"Cap! Over here!" She yelled so that Tony actually felt like wincing, but he didn't, this was vulnerability to the utmost of what Tony would show to the public. He didn't need to be pitied.

In a few seconds Steve were at the place with Pepper pattering right behind him. They were both delighted to see Tony, but Pepper couldn't anything to it when a squeal escaped her lips because of the red t-shirt. It was enough for Tony and he lost his balance and felt right into Steve's arms. How ironic that he was having Tony in his arms once again out here at basically the same place as last time. They didn't even like each other that much. Tony was a high-tech genius who made electronic things all the time, while Steve struggled with understanding the smart phone he had got from him. He just didn't understand why they would call it a smart phone… Tony bled so much that it actually started running down the arms of Steve's leather jacket, and he quickly understood that he, once again, had to act fast.

"We need to get him to a hospital, there's loads of ambulances here, so it shouldn't be a problem" Natasha told Steve with the normal and relaxed tone she always had, and which pissed Pepper off. How could she be this calm now?

"Nooo" Tony moaned with closed eyes. "Please, no hospital, please. Promise me" Pepper got a bit taken aback, Tony saying please and asking for someone to promise him? Not often!

She turned to Steve who saw the pleading look on her face. Did she actually mean that? Was she on his site on this one? This couldn't be fixed with a couple of patches, or stings, not to talk about how long it would take to remove the shards and how painful it would be for Tony. He shuddered slightly at the thought. Tony's opinion mattered to him, of course, but when that so obviously wasn't the best for him, should he pay attention to it? He gave Pepper a confused look back, as if he didn't know what to do at all. They didn't have anywhere to take him anyways, all of the avengers lived in the Stark Tower which was currently filled up with all sorts of people in uniforms. Steve didn't see another option and started walking towards the ambulances with Tony's arm hanging around his neck.

"N-no, you can't, I won't, stop" Tony laid all his weight on Steve's shoulders and let his feet get dragged along the ground to stop him.

"This is for your best, come on, you can't seriously believe that you're going to be okay if we don't take you to a hospital?" Steve waited for an answer, but there never came one.

"Ouch! Be careful!" Tony dragged himself away from Pepper who sat with tweezers and took out the glass shards bit by bit. "And by the way, this isn't far from being okay Captain Worry" Tony looked up at Steve who sent him an irritated look back.

Tony was far from okay, anyone could tell that. His skin was pale and he was shivering cold, even though the house had been warmed up by now. He sat with a towel in his mouth which he almost tore apart every time Pepper dragged out a new shard, and it didn't help much to know that when twenty was gone, there were about a thousand left. Also he had lost a lot of blood, but at least Tony had made them agree with him that it wasn't so much he needed transferring. Oh, how much a pleading look can do to you, he thought and looked at Pepper. He couldn't anything too it but feeling a bit dizzy and flaccid though. The explosion had somewhat gone out of the dimension he had planned for, but at least it did the job, there was no way in hell he could fly around and be a superhero now.

"Aaah!" He screamed as a large shard that had been deep into his skin was dragged out.

"Hey, Tony, you're the one who wanted this. It's just as bad for me as it is for you, I am no doctor so don't expect for me to do this right and comfortable for you. At least you get to be in my house for the next days, you should be pleased" Pepper was absolutely right, but the pain was excruciating and that was a fact. Screaming actually helped.

Tony let his eyes go from place to place in the little kitchen. Pepper's house was small, but nice indeed. It didn't look like someone had actually lived there at all, and that was almost right. Pepper had spent a lot of time at the Stark Mansion, she even had her own room to crash in after work that she had used a lot. After they got together she hadn't been there at all, not that Tony knew of at least. Then they moved to the Stark Tower for a while, and then back to the Stark Mansion again before it got destroyed and they moved back to New York. Both of them were used to travelling and moving, so it hadn't really been that bad, the sad part was that Tony's house laid on the bottom of the sea, something he wasn't too happy about. He shook it off and sighed, sitting still like this was really boring, she had to be finished soon. Why was Steve still there by the way? Maybe he was waiting for a thank you or something? That wouldn't happen in a million years, he almost took Tony to the hospital, he had no clue of how eager the doctors would be at investigate the arc reactor. The whole hospital would be an FBI investigation in two seconds, they would find out about Harlan and then they had to find out themselves how it actually works to put an electromagnet into someone's chest. They would most likely get S.H.I.E.L.D, and that would put Fury on edge. Tony would be forced to tell all about the arc, his own idea that no one else was supposed to have, and he would be like a pincushion to the doctors with syringes. When he tried to resist, they would tie him up and…and. All the thinking, and what he was thinking off made an attack come up to the surface. He had had his eyes closed for a while and when he opened them he realized his head was in his hands and that he had cringed together as best as he could on the chair he sat on. When he took his hands away and looked up with bloodshot eyes he saw Pepper and Steve looking at him terrified. The towel dropped to the floor as Tony's hands started shaking and he was getting short of breath.

"Okay, that's enough for now. I'm basically finished with the back anyways, let's get you in bed" Pepper ruffled his hair and took his arm to help him up.

Tony looked incredibly distant to her, his eyes didn't move at all, as if a veil of thoughts covered his eyes. She led the shivering man into bed and put a thin duvet over him, just so that it wouldn't be too much of a pressure on the remaining shards. As if on command Tony's eyes closed and he went off to dreamland.

"He's going to be okay, there's one of these attacks again. Happy said he had one not long ago, I guess it's because of his lack of sleep, so that he's actually sleeping now is a really good sign" Pepper whispered to Steve who stood in the door together with her. They watched Tony as if he was their little child.

"Are you going to be okay Pep…Ms. Potts?" Pepper actually had to giggle a bit, he was always being so polite.

"I guess so, thank you for asking Captain" She said back with a playful smile.

"Well, it's getting late… I guess they're finished over at the Stark Tower by now" Steve gave her a slight nod and got out of the house before she could see that his ears got all red. What was that about?

Tony coughed vaguely when he woke up before he saw Pepper asleep in a chair next to the bed and tried to be as quiet as possible, but it was too late.

"Hey you, how are you feeling?" Pepper said with a light smile. It was early and she probably hadn't slept too much.

"Taken the circumstances?" He sat up and hesitated a bit to see an annoyed look at Peppers face. "I'm okay" He said tiredly. Nothing more, nothing less he thought.

Pepper took a hand at his hair and bent closer to him as her she let it slip down to his cheek.

"God, you're hot!" She squealed and backed away, looking horrified at Tony.

"Well, that's not news" Tony raised an eyebrow cockily.

"Jerk" Pepper mumbled back, right now it was better to play along than to make it worse for him with showing that she worried. "I mean you're warm, I think I've got some aspirin here somewhere, at least I hope so" Pepper scratched her forehead and disappeared out of the room.

And in that exact moment, Tony felt it himself. It was just like yesterday, he was flaccid and dizzy, but now there was also fever, nausea and a headache. He threw the white, thin duvet away and slowly sank down on the pillow again. There were red spots here and there on the sheets which was a bit creepy, but it wasn't hard for him to fall asleep again. This time he was conscious of the fact that he closed his eyes and tried to sleep, which led to nightmares. He got pictures of the arc reactor being installed into his body, and Pepper being hurt, but his hands and were tied up to a table so he couldn't do anything. Unexpectedly there was intense pain, he stumbled over, tried to get out of a little room that slipped down to the ground and suddenly he was in his suit, not completely conscious, just enough to see that he was falling from the sky to the ground. The Hulk got him and locked his arm around him, he couldn't get free and the minute before he was about to get crushed he woke up. Tony tried to catch his breath as he sat up and the room started spinning. Had he been asleep for long? It was dark outside the last time he woke up, and it still was, except from the street lights. The nightmare had driven him even more exhausted, sleeping didn't help to relax anymore. Tony heard Pepper coming towards the room from the kitchen and he tried to look as ok as possible.

"Good news, I found some-" Pepper dropped the two bottles with painkillers when she looked up so that the pills went rolling out on the floor. She ran towards Tony and sat down next to him, placing her palm on his forehead. "How did it manage to get this much worse in ten minutes?" She asked concerned.

Tony sat in the middle of the bed in a lotus position, there was blood streaming down from several of the cuts and the color of his body was the same as the sheets he was sitting on. He was swaying slightly and his eyes was all bloodshot and blank.

So that was how long I slept. Tony didn't know what to answer, but he had promised not to hide anything for her anymore, so he wouldn't either.

"Nightmares, they're driving me crazy" He stared into her eyes, waiting for a reaction, but there was nothing. Then she closed her eyes and sighed hopelessly.

"That's why you never got to sleep that night?" She said through gritted teeth with her eyes still closed.

"Well… yes. And I haven't slept since either" Puppy eyes met Pepper, but she couldn't see them.

"Tony, that's two days ago!" She had opened her eyes now and they were filled with despair.

"Ok, I slept from last night till now, right?" A fake smile passed Tony's lips.

"You are incredible, you and I are going to get rid of this problem, together" She took his hand and remembered that he was actually sick when she felt how warm and sweaty it was. "Now, take two of this and then we'll continue with picking out glass from your body" She took two pills and gave them to Tony while she smiled sympathetically.

Tony quickly sat up which made his head almost explode. He was breathing rapidly and his shirt was soaked in sweat. His hair laid flat against his face and he was shaking incredibly much. He covered his eyes with his hands and moaned.

"I can't do this anymore"

Sooo, are you still there guys? Want me to keep writing? Tell me! :)