Thank you so much for all the kind reviews, you certainly do know how to give inspiration to someone! Hope you'll like THE 15 CHAPTER :D

Pepper stood outside of the OR and held tightly around herself. It was as if she was right back to the day when Tony laid on the operation table, ready to get the arc reactor out of his chest. She didn't have the opportunity to watch this time, but it didn't matter, she didn't want to this time, this time was different. Footsteps were heard further down the hallway and Pepper looked up from the floor. Rhodey appeared around the corner, halfway dragging a young boy after him.

"Rhodey, what are you doing?" Pepper squealed and ran towards them to take the boy away from him. "Who is this?" She hissed at Rhodey through gritted teeth.

"He was in the helicopter, I've got no idea who he is" He whispered back.

"Hey, it's not like I can't hear you down here" The boy whispered back, trying to mimic them.

"So, would you tell me who you are, where you're from and why you're here?" Pepper led him to a chair and sat down in the one next to it.

"My name is Harley, I'm from Rose Hi-" He was interrupted by Pepper, squealing once again.

"Toney has talked about you, a lot actually, I know very well who you are" Her face cracked into a big smile, mostly because she was happy to get her mind on something else, but also because she had been curious of this boy.

Harley and Pepper talked together for a while, Harley shooting small, insecure glances at Rhodey every now and then. Pepper had to remind herself on talking to him later. After an hour had passed, Pepper started to get a bit worried of how it was going with Tony, and in the end Harley's words got only a blur. She had to actually ask him to stop talking and wait while she dragged Rhodey aside.

"Why is it taking so long?" A solid frown was planted on her face.

"It was pretty severe, Pepper" He said matter-of-factly.

Pepper gave him a slight nod, looked away and bit her lip, afraid Rhodey would see she was about to crack. Then she heard footsteps in the hallway again and the one and only Captain America was the one to appear around the corner this time. He walked towards them with quick steps, seemingly worried about something.

"It's really bad out there, the radio signals are cut and there's no way we can get away from here within the next few hours" He was heaving for breath after he obviously had been running.

"Well… it's not like we were to leave anyways" Pepper mumbled.

She went slowly back to her chair next to Harley and sat down with her head heavy of thoughts. The rain slammed heavily towards the window on the wall opposite of her, and she started wonder what would happen if there was an outage. What if there was an outage? Oh god, what if there was an outage… And just as the terrifying thought really started to mess with her mind, a blinding light filled the whole room the four people were in, and then it went black. Pepper felt her heart fall rapidly and she headed for the door to the OR straight away, filled with angst and fear of what might happen in there. A firm grip around her shoulder woke her up and made her take her hand away from the doorknob. She turned around to see into Rhodey's dark, trustful eyes and just as she saw how sad they looked, the reality swept over her and the tears finally let go for real. She hugged Rhodey tightly as he started to stroke her hair awkwardly.

"It's fine, c'mon, you're smart, you know they have generator to keep the OR ready for any moment. This isn't just a hospital, you know this is special" And Pepper did know, no one had asked any questions, they knew about him and it, this was set up by S.H.I.E.L.D.

She gave him just a slight nod and buried her face into his shoulder, all her tears making his jacket wet. Steve had taken Pepper's seat next to Harley, and had started talking to him slightly, his politeness still present in the worst of times. He could see that he was very confused about what was happening, but tried his best on getting him to other thoughts.

"Isn't anyone going to worry about you?" Steve asked, placing his elbows on his knees and bending down to get a better look on the boys face in the dark.

"Nah… well, my mom's going to worry maybe, but she won't mind if I'm gone for a couple of days. I don't mind when she's gone for a couple of days, so…" Harley replied plainly.

Steve felt his heart pinch, he couldn't tell much about his parents, they died when he was a young boy, but having parents that don't care about you… he didn't know what was worse. The lights slowly turned on again after several times of blinking, and the thing all of them had been waiting on for so long finally happened, a doctor came out of the door to the OR. He took a long, deep breath before slowly opening his mouth to bring them the news.

Her eyelids were heavy, but she managed to keep them up somewhat, just enough to see that she was in some sort of a cell with transparent glass covering one wall. Opposite of the cell she was in lay Eric, still unconscious, but without a scratch. She returned her attention to herself, and slowly put her wrist up to her mouth and whispered.

"Activate"

"Where the hell are they?" Clint muttered.

"They should've been right here" Bruce looked around with a confused look, trying to find the droids, but obviously, he would've seen them if they were there.

"Are you sure they can't move anywhere?" Natasha spoke up.

"All I know is that the Director said they would be right here, in central park, probably shattered into a million pieces we would have to clean up and store away some place" Bruce scratched the back of his head, unsure of what to do.

Just as he had said that sentence, he realized what a big mistake he had done. Of course the Avengers wouldn't be sent on a job to clean up after a villain had failed, there would be more to this.

"Justine" He blurted out, and the two other shot him a weird glance. "Justine Hammer was the one who hurt Tony. She made droids, like her father. Revenge?" He looked distantly at Natasha.

"Or finish his work…" She was deep into her thoughts. "We need to get to Stark Industries!"

Pepper stood on the outside of Tony's room, looking at him being hooked up to a thousand different cables and monitors that a thousand doctors where touching and adjusting. She had been in there for several hours watching him, but the doctors and nurses had been in there very frequently the last of them, so she decided to leave. There was no need to be a Tony Stark to understand that something was wrong even though the doctors wouldn't say a word. Pepper looked over at the soft couch leaning towards the wall, it was occupied by Harley sleeping in Steve's lap, who was also half asleep, at the moment. Several couches was leaned towards the same wall, and Pepper really wanted to lay down on one of them and drift off, but she couldn't take her eyes away from Tony, she didn't dare to. Suddenly she saw a change in the movements of the doctors, they all put their hands up and took one step away. Their shoulders lowered and they walked slowly out of the room. Pepper's heart jumped, this wasn't good, was it? One of the doctors walked over to Pepper while the rest spread all over the place.

"He's stable. The arc reactor was flickering again, but he's stable for the moment" A small, kind smile crossed the doctors lips.

"Thank you" Pepper whispered hoarsely, dismissing the doctor.

He's stable… nothing more nothing less. Pepper looked at the fragile body in the bed, surrounded by blankets and pillows which made him look even smaller and more vulnerable. His skin was still on a paler scale than the bedding and it was creepy watching him like that, despite everything they had been trough lately. Rhodey must've seen the thoughtful look on Pepper's face, because suddenly he was there, right next to her.

"He said you can go in to him again, if you'd like to that is" He said with a soft, calming voice, trying his best not to press Pepper to do anything she didn't want to.

"Yes please" She smiled at him and then walked slowly and insecurely back into Tony's room.

He was in the ICU, attached to an endotracheal tube helping him to breathe. An IV helped giving him intravenous and then there were a whole load of other stuff linked to monitors telling his heart rate and everything else important. Pepper couldn't care less, she only cared about the fact that this was not how Tony was supposed to look like. He didn't fit in these surroundings. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined this, she hadn't ever thought about the she would ever be sitting in a hospital, watching the ones she loved suffer. Her hand found Tony's and she gently stroke its back. She thought for a moment that she felt it twitch, but convinced herself that it was just her mind playing tricks with her. Then she felt it again, and this time it was there, definitely. She was quick up on her feet, her hands shivering in excitement as she still held Tony's, desperate to get another sign from him. The beating of her heart was so fast and so loud she swore another person could've heard it. For a moment she stopped breathing as she saw a pair of warm brown eyes slowly cracking open, and she let it out shakily afterwards. Her heart was filled up with joy and relief at the sight and she was just inches from pulling Tony into an embrace and hug him as tight as she could. At first he looked happy, if only for just a few seconds, but then he suddenly panicked and his hands went to the big tube coming out of his mouth. Tony gagged and doubled over, it was clearly a movement that took away the little of energy that his body maintained as pain and confusion swept over his face. He tried to scream, but with a big tube shoved down his throat, it was close to impossible. Only small, choked sounds left his body as he was desperately trying to figure out of everything. He stared at the tube, clutching it in his hands and trying to drag on it, but it only made things worse, he couldn't breathe! Pepper didn't reach the panic point herself before a whole load of doctors and nurses were filling the room again and she was slowly pressed out of the situation. Not until now did she hear the awful sound of the monitors beeping, it was more than she could take at this point so she willingly walked out of the room, thinking she could watch it all from the outside anyways. Then the blinds were shut and Pepper was left staring at the glass wall with her mouth open. She stood only a couple of meters from it and to her left stood Harley in front of Steve who had his hands firmly placed on his shoulders. They both had that same questioning look on their face, a questioning look filled with concern. Rhodey came down the hall with a cup of coffee in his hands, only to drop it when he saw the terrified faces of his company. Hot, black coffee splattered over his shoes as the cup hit the floor, but he didn't care, he just ran for Pepper.

"What the hell happened?" Rhodey said under his breath, not because he had been running, but because his heart was hammering faster than ever in his chest.

"I- I... He just… woke up" Pepper whispered.

"Come here, let them do their job and then you can do your" Pepper looked at Rhodey with a confused expression as he took his arm around her neck and forced her to go with him down the hall. "You need to sleep, and right now that is your job, okay?" Pepper shook her head, but then Rhodey stopped as a sign of rejecting her protest. "If you want to help Tony, this is what you do. He hates it when you worry, and it'll only get worse if you stay awake not knowing what's going on in there. As said… let them do their job" Rhodey had both of his hands on her shoulders now, looking her deeply into her eyes.

"With one condition" Pepper had now put her hands on Rhodey's shoulders to, to show that she was still Pepper and had her rights. "I'll be sleeping on the couch right over there" She said firmly and nodded with her head towards the couches lined up against the wall.

Rhodey sighed but then nodded shortly in agreement, it was fair, he thought. Pepper shuffled over to the place, feeling how tired she really was and how heavy her eyelids were. She lay down on the couch, it was soft but uncomfortable without any pillows or blankets of any sort. It didn't take long before there was a blanket and two pillows there, however, Rhodey have it to her with a smile that didn't quiet reach his sad eyes. She nodded in gratefulness and lay back down, feeling slightly more comfortable. The only thing making her uncomfortable now was the hundred millions of thoughts about Tony and the fact that she could still hear frantic voices and coughs and beeping from his room. She tried hard to sleep, but simply couldn't, and it ended up with her shifting way too often. After some time she laid with her face against the wall and tried to fake sleeping, she got rather shocked when a hand suddenly shook her shoulder.

"Can I lie here?" A tired child voice asked.

"Of course, get under here" Pepper almost melted at Harleys question and lifted up the blanket to invite him to sleep with her.

It didn't take long for the boy to sleep heavily, his chest raising and lowering in big, steady motions. Shortly after, Pepper was asleep too.

Pepper woke up to the sound of several men arguing.

"I am not listening to you, I do what I want, and I am out of here, right now"

"Oh, you are definitely not"

"Yep, immide-"

"God, can't you care about your own health for just one s-"

"Dammit, I hate this place and you can't hold me here if I don't want to be here!"

Pepper slowly rose from her bed, careful not to wake up the boy sleeping next to her. The first thing she did was to give one of the windows a quick glance, it was actually pretty nice outside, everything covered in snow and the sun shining bright between the soft clouds. She felt slightly lighter and actually a bit happy, even better when she saw that the blinds to Tony's room were up. Then she saw his bed through the glass wall and noticed he wasn't there anymore, only the cables hanging everywhere and the monitors showing nothing. She stressed towards the door and slung it open with all the power she had when she saw Tony standing in a combat ready position towards Rhodey and Steve, fully clothed in a nice suit and looking completely unharmed.

"Tony! What the…"

Just had to put in something cute with Harley and Pepper, ehheh. So hope you liked it, once again :)