Heey guys! It's been *coughcoucgh* four *coughcough* days since last update.. OMG IT'S TOO MUCH. When I see how this goes I start wondering about how it's going to be when school starts again... Anyways, thanks for staying tuned and for all the reviews!

If it was one thing Pepper had learned out of being a business woman it was to remain calm. Anger could flow through the whole of her body, but it would never surface and no one would ever notice that she was even a bit irritated. Now this was something else, and she couldn't suppress it this time. Her eyes had blackened and they were cold and hard, she quickly turned around to exchange looks with Tony, but that didn't happen. His eyes were frozen on the man in front of them and they were also showing extreme anger, but Pepper saw something else in them that she had never ever seen before, something that didn't fit into Tony's warm, brave, brown eyes. Fear and terror. Behind the mask of anger Pepper could catch a glimpse of pure terror against the man who stood right in front of them. Tony had turned in to stone, completely unable to move at all. Don't do anything to me, don't do anything to me, leave me alone, go away, no more, it's enough! Tony tried to get back to real life, but he couldn't, he just couldn't shake himself out of the gaze he had on the man that had just interrupted their important conversation. Pepper alternated between watching Tony and the two men that stood with wet shoes in the middle of her living room and waited for either of them to do something. She understood that Tony, who's mouth had now dropped, would not be the one to say something first.

"Take her out" The smallest of the two men nodded quickly and walked towards Pepper and took a firm grip around her arm.

"Let. Her. Go" Tony said warningly, his eyes were still frozen on the man in front of him, though he didn't actually look him in the eyes, he looked distant, like he did when he got one of those attacks.

Another firm grip found place around Pepper's other arm, this time it was Tony who held on to her. The other man did an attempt at dragging her with him, but it was futile. Tony had such a hard grip around her that moving her would be just the same thing as trying to move a mountain. It actually started hurting a bit for Pepper and she tried to get eye contact with him to show him that it did, but his gaze was just as frozen now as before. What was just a glimpse of fear had now become almost the whole of his expression, he was terrified, and he didn't want to be alone with the man, she understood that, but he had to do this.

"Tony, it's okay, they won't hurt me, they won't hurt you, just let me go with him" She had managed to break loose from the other man's grip and put her hand on Tony's shoulder who finally looked up at her and released his own grip.

Pepper couldn't anything to it but release a sigh of relieve when he did, that would become a bruise eventually, she just knew. Seconds later she was on her way out of the house and in to a large, black range rover. It was heartbreaking to walk out of there and see Tony sit on that sofa looking like a child whose parents just left him alone in the park, but she understood that it was something important even though she was still furious on the man that just strutted into her house and thought he owned it.

"Don't look so terrified, you do remember who gave you all of those bruises and rashes and wounds, don't you?" Tony didn't reply, he just staggered backwards on the sofa as the man came closer and closer. Why wouldn't he back off? "I knew you were self destructive, it was one of the reasons for why you weren't approved for The Avengers Initiative, but this much? Do you realize you could've killed yourself only by the fact that the bomb slammed you into the wall?" He wasn't kidding when he said he had an eye on him all the time, but this was way too close to stalking.

"I-I... it wasn't supposed to..." Tony's brain wouldn't cooperate and everything just came out as a horrified whisper.

He was soon reaching the end of the sofa, and he was about to stand up on his feet and get away when the big guy suddenly stood tall over him and reached a finger out for the arc reactor. Tony wanted to launch forward and tackle the idiot, but his shortness of breath quickly reminded him that he wasn't one hundred percent healed yet. The finger touched the contraption and Tony's hand was at his arm at once, holding so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"D-don't... don't you dare touching me Fury!" Anger had now taken over some of the fear that was inside of him and he felt that he actually could launch forward and give him a fist right in his face.

"Hey, hey, hey, relax Stark. I am just coming to say that I expect you back in New York in maximum two days, if you're not there by then... I'll drag you back there myself" Fury's voice wasn't threatening or low anymore, it had a high, sarcastic tone as he always had when he demanded something he knew no one would like. "You need to get back Tony. I believe Senator Stern is going to ask questions again soon, and I've already told you that you're not the centre of my universe, so you'll have to fix that yourself. Just an advice... clean yourself up until then" He backed off of Tony and sat down next to him, suddenly much more serious. "She's going to ask you a lot of questions, so you should be prepared to talk about the fact that you killed a S.H.I.E.L.D member" He referred to Pepper.

"You know what Fury? There's something that isn't as it should be right there... Why would he use his whole name, tell me that he was both a doctor and a physicist and use his own home to operate me in? S.H.I.E.L.D could've done it in a million other ways so that the chances of me killing him were close to zero, but you didn't" Tony's voice had now gotten on a threatening tone.

"It didn't even occur to any of us that you were capable to just kill someone out of anger Stark, we didn't think you would sink so low. It was Harlan's idea, and it was an easy way to do it" Fury sighed aloud. "Not more than two days, and then you'll have to be back at the Stark Tower"

He didn't really say any more than that, he just left. Tony sat stiff in the sofa, waiting for the fear to completely vanish and for his pulse to slow down. He was alive and sort of unharmed, and then his thoughts went to Pepper and he panicked slightly, not knowing if she was unharmed, but she came back on the sofa seconds after and turned on the TV without throwing as much as one little glance at Tony.

"Iron Man is still alive, but sources are telling that he is recovering from the explosion at the Stark Tower which we now have got confirmed that he was involved with. When Tony Stark aka. Iron Man can't even protect himself, can we trust him to protect us?" Pepper silently turned the TV off again, but she continued staring blankly at the black screen.

"We need to talk" Tony didn't understand what there was to talk about, they knew this was going to happen, they absolutely did. "Everything, not one single thing is going to be omitted Tony. You are going to tell me everything you haven't told me yet" Now her eyes were fixated on him, her eyes telling that she probably knew more than Tony had told her already.

"I still see creepy pictures from the last years... uhm, and the anxiety attacks are still as threatening as they were before, my whole body is soar because of the wounds, but I'll live... I think the explosion sent me right into the wall, and because of that my back has an enormous bruise that hurts a lot, there's rings surrounding my heart and keeping it from beating without the arc reactor, I had planned to go back as Iron Man all along... let's see... I think that's all!" He said all of it really fast so that Pepper didn't have the chance to hear all of it.

Tony knew he didn't tell her about Harlan, because telling her would mean admitting to himself that he was a murderer and that he actually had done it.

"Rings, what rings, why didn't you tell me? I sorted out about you going back to Iron Man myself, but what would happen if you suddenly laid there on the ground without the arc reactor and I wouldn't understand anything? Why do you do this?" Pepper was frustrated and scared, why couldn't he think about what was the best for him just for once?

"He wants me to go back to New York within two days..." Tony didn't want to talk about all of those things that was supposed to mean a lot, so he tried to change topic, and he succeeded.

"Well, I was sort of planning to ask you if you wanted to go back anyways. Was that all he came to tell you?" It was strange how Pepper suddenly had calmed down and was all casual again.

"mmm" Tony mumbled.

"Huh, that was weird, he usually has something important to tell when he actually shows up in person" Okay, she was still digging, he hadn't succeeded.

"He said that Senator douche bag is planning on asking me questions again, bet it's the same questions as the lady on the news asked" Tony had a somewhat worried look on his face, something Pepper noticed.

"Come on, you outsmarted him once, you can do that again. As you said, he's a douche bag and he doesn't know how to play a game" She knew encouraging him to do something stupid was wrong, but she also knew that it was the only thing that worked.

Tony thought about it for a while. He had outsmarted him once, that was true, but that time he hadn't hurt himself which was the obvious problem now. How was he going to get away with that? Saying that if saving the country meant that he had to get a few scars, it was worth it? Hey... that may actually work! Everyone thought of him as a philanthropist, so why not?

"No, you're right, he doesn't. I'm going to take him down before I've even walked in the door to that courtroom" Suddenly he sounded extremely optimistic, and Pepper understood that she shouldn't have encouraged him, but what was done was done, and in one way or another it would turn out good, hopefully...

Good, one problem solved, then it was all the others. Their conversation got interrupted of a certain Nick Fury, and that conversation was pretty important to both of them, she had to try and resume it.

"About the anxiety attacks-" Pepper started slowly, but she didn't get to finish.

"It... doesn't matter, you have so much to think about and I don't want your pretty, little head to bother with it. I'll just get some medicine for it and-"

"Tony, you can get medicine, but remember that this is a mental problem and... Do you want to know what I did when I got scared in those elevators?" Tony looked expectantly on her. "I closed my eyes really hard, and then I counted to ten while I took five deep breaths, when I opened my eyes again it was okay. There were still big, scary men in there, and the elevator was still closed and going either up or down, but it was okay because I knew that I could breathe, and as long as I could... I had to be ok" Pepper was lying, when she was little and afraid of going into elevators she had rather walked the stairs. At some point she had told herself to grow up and deal with it and after that it was ok, but she hoped for this to work too, as this was something quite different.

Tony nodded slowly, he wasn't all sure if it would help, but he would take any advice at this moment.

"It doesn't make sense that I'm supposed to be claustrophobic though, I've had anxiety attacks in the middle of a big room" This made Pepper's brain work at full speed.

"I guess you feel trapped... The arc reactor, you talked about some rings that prevent the heart from beating... Maybe you feel like your life is depending on the arc reactor when you deep down don't want it in your life anymore?" This made Tony's brain work at full speed, and in the end it agreed to Pepper's explanation.

He sighed loudly and laid back down in Pepper's lap, right now it actually felt like thing was going to get better, it was just that one thing...

One, two, three... breath... four... breathe... five, six, seven, eight, nine... breathe... ten. Ok, maybe eleven. Tony opened up his eyes that were squeezed shut and realized that he actually was breathing, a bit ragged, but oxygen went down his lungs and when he remembered to let it out, it went out again too. He didn't feel trapped anymore, he didn't feel like he couldn't move, breathe or do anything at all, he felt free. Pepper came in the same moment as he got completely calm and put down a plate with two toasts on it. Tony couldn't have cared less about what was on them though, he started to feel much better so that he could now focus on something else than the pain, even though feeling how hungry he was, was pain too. His plate was empty in seconds, while Pepper's wasn't even touched, she was talking in her cell phone with some reporter again. She raised her eyebrows against her plate did one fast nod against it, trying to tell Tony that it was meant for him. Tony, however, didn't buy it, two plates for four toasts? In my ass. His eyebrows rose too and he gave Pepper a dull look. She waved it off and went back to her conversation. Once again Tony got bored of it and headed into the kitchen when he suddenly stopped and backed a few steps back again so he could look properly out of a window. What was the Rolls Royce doing here? He had not agreed to go back to New York already, it was two days too early, he wouldn't leave until the very last second he had to. His stomach wrenched at the thought, so much that it actually felt like a wave of nausea. He walked back again to the couch and sat silently down next to Pepper. It took him exactly two seconds to throw himself her way, grab her phone and throw away on the floor.

"I'll buy you a new one" He added to his movement when he saw Pepper's shocked face. "I'm not going back Pepper... not yet" His face turned into a frown and Pepper felt like just squeeze him in her embrace, but something held her back.

"Why?" She blurted out, but she regretted it at once, she should've just respected his wish and kept quiet.

"Because what you said worked, and what if it won't when I'm back in New York and everything reminds me of the existential fact that the arc reactor is powering me and my life?" He sounded genuinely upset.

"You don't know if that's going to happen, Tony-"

"But what if it does, then what?"

"Then we'll see... It's not the end of the world Tony. For now this is working and let's believe it will when we get back too" She smiled softly to him, something that always worked reassuring. "Oooh, you thought... Happy was just here to give us the food, we can wait for another two days Tony" Now a lighter, more playful smile was on her lips.

"Good, great... I need more of those toasts then!" Pepper rolled her eyes and put her plate in his lap before she took the empty one out in the kitchen to fill it up again.

Pepper mentally checked if she had everything she needed, before she walked into the bedroom where she had left Tony with his newly washed clothes, telling him to dress up before they were going back. When she came back into the room he had put on his jeans and shirt. His shirt was unbuttoned and because of that she could see the bandage had blood scattered on it. Pepper sent Tony a confused and upset look, hoping to get the same back, but the only thing she got was a tired gaze.

WHAT!? What sort of way is that to end a chapter!? This will be the last chapter with a bit of whump and angst in it until the last chapters, since I sort of have an idea of how this is going to continue and end. I'm wondering if I should make a Sherlock Holmes fanfic when I'm finished with this, it would be so awesome too challenge my mind a bit and you know... make up my own little mystery and learn how to write in different ways, you know with the old language and everything. Anyways, review and tell me what you think! :)