A/N. Hi :) Here's the answer to your cliff hanger from last chapter. Enjoy :D

CHAPTER XXXI

In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Blink. Inhale. Blink. What was next? Oh, right. Exhale. Eyes blinked open. Vision was fuzzy, body was numb, and hearing was down. Arm tried to move. No luck. Other arm? No luck.

Cough. OW FUCK THAT HURT! Oh God, everything hurt… Cough again. Hearing suddenly became a little clearer. Vision suddenly stopped fizzing. Oh. There was a screen. That explained the fuzziness. Cough- OW!

"Wha-?" he managed before coughing again. Oh God, make the pain STOP. He couldn't move. Everything hurt. Breathing hurt. The ringing was starting to go away.

"Graham! Graham can you hear me?"

"Betty?" he managed weakly.

"Oh my God you're alive!" She sounded like she had tears in her eyes. She was panting too. Was she running? "Thank God! Oh Thank God!'

"What… happened?"

"No time to explain! Pepper's in danger!"

"What?" he tried to sit up but cried out when it became excruciatingly painful and white flashes danced before his eyes.

"Don't move! You'll hurt yourself more! It's a miracle you're still alive!"

"H-how?"

"Pepper sent her armour to you." There was the sound of muffled feet pounding on stairs. "I guess it managed to save you just in time. Can't talk now, but listen closely!"

Betty burst onto the helipad, having run faster than she ever had in her life. The robot still held Pepper over the edge by her waist and Justin Hammer's voice was emanating from the droid. He was probably gloating (from a safe distance, of course). But for this she was glad, otherwise she might have had time to run here all the way from the lab.

"Hey Hammer!" she shouted. The robot turned its head one hundred and eighty degrees. That was creepy on SO many levels. "Go fuck yourself." She raised her right arm which was gloved in some sort of project Bruce and Tony had been working on and left in the lab she had been in before. She opened her palm and fired. A bright red laser shot out from her hand and zapped the robot, slicing its head off in one go. It fell to its knees and Pepper managed to clamber back onto the roof despite still being in its grip.

Betty ran forward and sliced off both of its arms, releasing her friend. She then proceeded to cut up the robot into little pieces before throwing them off the edge – just because she could. She kicked the helmet off as hard as she could as if it were a soccer ball. "Got to Hell."

Pepper nearly tackled Betty in a hug. "Thank you. Thank you." They were both breathing hard and the brunette still had the metal glove on but neither cared. They pulled away and Pepper put a hand to her ear. "Graham? Are you there?'

"Uhn- yeah. Barely."

"We'll be right down."

"Don't… ugh, bother… mmm… with the s-stairs. I'll sent the- suit up." His speech was broken and somewhat garbled and interrupted by groans and grunts of pain, but he got the message across.

Both women immediately began protesting but the next thing either of them knew, the Rescue suit was floating in front of them. Pepper turned to Betty. "Do you want to do the honours?"

"No thank you. This glove was enough for me. It's your suit."

"Suit yourself." She shrugged. "Wait, I didn't-"

Betty laughed. "I know, Pepper. I know."

The CEO literally jumped into her suit, having it mold around her before she turned around and grabbed Betty gently. She slowly flew them down to the ground next to where Graham was lying with several people (namely Happy and the policemen) surrounding him and his giant crater he'd created from his fall.

Once the girls were armour free, they rushed to the fallen student's side. "Graham? Hun, it's going to be okay," Betty tried to reassure while wiping her tears with the back of her sleeve. "You're okay. You saved us."

"I…" he coughed, "fuck. I mean… I saved… the da-" he hicciped before grimacing painfully.

Pepper nodded, her own tears streaming down her face. "Yes," she agreed. "You saved the day. You're a real hero."

"We… all… did." Blood began trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Betty and Pepper panicked. "Officer, what's wrong with him?!" Mrs. Banner demanded.

The nearest cop cleared his throat. "Well, he seems to have several broken ribs but no punctured lungs, which is good. He sprained his wrist and he's got one hell of a concussion but if we get him to the hospital right now he should be fine."

Pepper, Betty, and Happy sighed in relief. "What are we waiting for?" the chauffeur asked.

"The paramedics," the officer answered.

"Oh."

"Maybe we should get you two checked out as well."

Pepper and Betty exchanged glances. "Not yet. There's something we have to do first."

Felicity giggled and Justin sucked on her neck and they rolled around on the bed. She meowed before they rolled again and fell right off before bursting out laughing.

The door to his bedroom was thrown open and several armed SHIELD agents ran inside, followed closely by a very pissed Pepper Potts and Betty Banner.

Felicity and Justin tore themselves apart and gathered the sheets around them as they took in what was going on. Slowly, they both raised their hands. Two SHIELD agents grabbed them and pulled them to their feet while they desperately tried to hide their naked bodies with the same sheet from all these people.

"Hey, hey, easy now! We didn't do anything wrong!" Justin tried to reason with one hand up while the other clutched the sheet tightly.
Pepper walked right up to him with her arms crossed. "Jarvis, play the recording."

Suddenly, Hammer's voice began playing through Pepper's phone. "BOO! Did I scare you? Haha, either way, Ms. Potts, you are surrounded. So why don't you get out while you still can?"

"This is just bad publicity for you Hammer! And you have chosen the absolute worst time to do this!"

"I know! That's why I'm doing it! All of your precious Avengers are out trying to find their missing teammate and his girlfriend and YOU, my friend, are defenseless."

"The press are all around the Tower! You'll kill them all!"

"Every war has casualties."

"HAMMER!"

"Whoops, my bad. But you had your chance. No one will recognize these drones as my own. They look completely different. So I get to destroy SI without anyone believing that I destroyed SI. It's a win win! For me, I mean. If you don't come out with your hands up, I'll be forced to detonate the Tower. It would be such a shame to have to kill you, Virginia. We could have been amazing business partners."

"Go to Hell!"

"Have it your way."

The recording stopped. Justin laughed nervously. "I'm sure this is just some big misunderstanding! We can work something out! I- Oh! Geez!" He was grabbed by the arm and shoved forward. "Watch it! Don't manhandle the merchandise! He and Felicity were led out of the mansion Justin lived in, complaining and whining and denying everything.

Pepper and Betty high-fived.

The CEO, the nuclear scientist, and said CEO's bodyguard, sat in the hospital waiting room for hours. Pepper sighed and held her head in her hands. "I should never have put him up there. I should have left him on the ground."

Betty placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's not your fault. He had the best vantage point up there and he was confident in his skills. You believed in him. There's no way that could be wrong."

"But I-"

"Pepper. Listen to me. I'm Bruce's wife. I know how to talk people out of guilt better than anyone."

The red head sucked in a breath before nodding shakily. "Right. Of course, you're right. But… you know what?"

"What?"

"I have an idea. It's… kind of a useless one, but it might be able to help Tony and the others find Steve and Tania."

"What is it?" Happy asked, curious.

"I'm going to have Jarvis fix up the suit and then send it to Tony. He's been working on my suit since the whole Mandarin thing since he doesn't want to build his own and take time away from spending time with me, but at the same time he wants me to be safe so he upgraded mine to be just like the Mark Forty-Two. I can control it from afar and call it at will with certain motions as well as send it away." She sniffed. "I can control it from afar and send it to help out with the Avengers if they ever need back-up."

"That's a good idea Pepper. I mean, you never know when something like that could come in handy, right?"

"Right. Jarvis? Deploy Rescue Mark Two and send it back to the lab for modifications. As soon as possible, send it to Tony's location."

"Yes, Ms. Potts."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "I suppose we should call Jane, keep her up to date."

"Also a good idea," Betty agreed. She took out her phone and checked to see if the astrophysicist was on Skype. She was. "Perfect." She held the phone out in front of her so that all three of them were on camera with Pepper in the middle.

Jane's face popped up on screen. "Hey, what's-? Holy crap! What happened to you guys?"

Darcy suddenly appeared and looked at the screen. "Dang. You all look like you've been hit by a bus. Like, fifty times." Her eyes grazed over the three of them. "Hey, where's Graham cracker? He's like, ice breaker extraordinaire."

Pepper looked down, leaving Betty to explain what happened. When she was finished, both girls in Puente Antigo were speechless. After a few more seconds of stunned silence, Jane slammed her papers down on her desk. "Okay that's it. We're catching the first flight to New York."

"Oh, Jane, you don't have to-"

"I know. I want to."

"Me too!" Darcy butted in. "I'm missing out on all the fun!"

"I'll invite Eric too," Jane continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "Maybe we can help find Steve and Tania."

"Guys, that's really nice of you, but-"

"Don't you try and get us not to come now! Because we're coming and that's final. I don't care if your Tower was destroyed and I have to sleep in a hammock over a bunch of rubble, I'm coming over there."

"So am I!"

"Thanks guys," Pepper smiled. "But what about your research?"

"It has officially been put on hold."

"I can't expect you to-"

"Pepper. We're coming. Deal with it." Jane cut off the chat.

Pepper sighed. "Well then, it appears we have three guests coming over."

"Make that four," Happy raised his hand. "I'm not leaving your side Pepper. I've been doing a terrible job at… well, my job. And I need to make up for it. I thought that because you were in the Tower, I didn't need to be on the clock – but I was wrong. I'm sorry Pepper."

"Don't worry Happy, I'm fine. And I was safe inside the Tower. I just… left it without telling you."

"Well either way, I'm staying. I want to help find Steve and Tania too. They're like… closer than acquaintances but I don't see them often enough to call them close friends so they're just…"

"Friends?"

"Yeah. Friends."

"Alright. Thank you Happy." She grabbed his hand. "You are doing a marvelous job."

Before he could say anything back, a doctor came into the waiting room and said, "Graham Banks?"

The three of them stood up and ran over to him. "That's us. Is he okay?" Betty asked immediately.

"Yes, he's fine. He's in a couple casts and he's resting. He'll heal with time."

"How much time?"

"He should be completely healthy in six to eight weeks."

Happy whistled. "He goes back to school next week. Can he walk?"

"I wouldn't recommend it for a little while but he can. It would just be very painful."

"For the whole eight weeks?"

"Gradually the pain will decrease but essentially yes, for the whole eight weeks."

"Damn. How long does he have to stay in the hospital?"

"I'd say at least two weeks."

"He won't like that," Pepper mumbled. "Dr. Yiu," she read his nametag, "Avengers Tower has some of the most advanced technology in the world – that includes medical technology. If you let us take him home he'll be extremely well taken care of, I assure you."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Potts, but it's not hospital policy to let patients go earlier than is recommended by a doctor." He tapped his nametag with the pen in his right hand. "Just like it's not hospital policy to let people use cell phones."

The three of them exchanged glances. Whoops.

"There must be some way to convince you," Betty tried. "I'm a doctor! Does that help?"

He raised an eyebrow. "A medical doctor?"

"Well… no, but-"

"Then I'm afraid not."

"So what you're saying is, if we had a medical doctor at the Tower you'd let us take him?" Pepper asked.

"I suppose-"

"What about Dr. Foster? Dr. Selvig?"

"Happy, they're astrophysicists."

"Oh, right."

"It would be nice to have Bruce here…" Betty mumbled, thinking about her husband across the ocean. It hadn't hit her until now how much she missed him.

Happy suddenly spoke up. "Wait! My brother! Royce! He's a doctor! A real- er," he faltered at Betty's sudden glare, "I mean, medical doctor. If he came into the Tower to watch over Graham, would that be okay?'

Dr. Yiu pushed his lips to the side in thought. "Hmm… I suppose… I'll have to get back to you on that. In the meantime, would you like to see him?"

"Yes please!" They all nodded frantically. The doctor led them around several corridors before dropping them off at Graham's door. "Don't overwhelm him," he warned. "And he's sleeping. He's also on a lot of medication so if he wakes up, he's probably going to be a little loopy."

Pepper nodded her head. "Good to know."

The trio stepped into Graham's room quietly while Dr. Yiu went off to discuss their suggestion. Pepper and Betty each took a chair on either side of the bed while Happy opted to stand over his boss' shoulder.

Pepper took Graham's hand in hers and cried some more. He was bare chested but torso was so completely wrapped in bandages that he looked like a mummy. His right arm was also bandaged and there was a visible lump on the back of his head. Both of his biceps were bruised and his lip was split.

Despite all this, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully. But that might be because it was drug-induced. His lower half was covered by a blanket and his left wrist was in a brace. Hair was matted and messy and he was a little paler than normal.

"I'm sorry," Pepper mumbled before she full on started crying. "I'm so sorry!" She laid her head against the bed and sobbed into the sheets as Happy rubbed her back comfortingly.

"Oh Pepper…" Betty whispered as she watched her friend. The happily married wife gently brushed Graham's brown hair away from his face, running her fingers through it softly.

He was rather handsome. With chocolate brown eyes to match Tania's, tanned skin, hazelnut light brown hair, toned muscles, towering height of at least six feet two inches, and chiseled jaw, he was sure to be catching all the ladies' attention at school. And his heart… it was just so big. He wanted to help people. He wanted to be a hero not for the glory or the fame, but because he could do good for his country. Betty nearly started crying just thinking that but she held the tears at bay.

The three of them sat there for several minutes until the doctor came back. None of them had moved an inch. "Well," Dr. Yiu started, "your suggestion… was approved."

Everyone snapped their heads up. "Really?" Pepper asked, hands clasped together under her chin.

Dr. Yiu nodded reluctantly. "Really."

"Yay!"

"But you can't take him until tomorrow."

"Aww…"

"Visiting hours will be over at eight. Then you must all go home unless you are family."

"But what if he wakes up in the middle of the night with no one he knows?" Betty protested.

"Are any of you family?"

"No."

"Then you can't stay overnight. I'm sorry."

Betty stood up angrily. "His father is MIA, his mother is on her way to jail, and his sister has been kidnapped! And you're telling me we can't stay here because we're not family?! The Avengers are one giant family and you can't kick us out because this guy has no one else! What kind of heartless person are you?"

The doctor's blank face crumbled a little. "I am truly sorry, but I cannot break the rules. But I… well… I cannot break… the rules."
Pepper's face lit up. "I understand."

Dr. Yiu looked relieved and nodded, leaving them in peace. "A nurse will be back to check on him regularly."

When he was gone, Pepper turned to the others. "He can't break the rules, but we can break the rules."

"Ohh…" Betty and Happy chorused.

"Even so, I think only one of us should stay here."

"I'll do it," Betty volunteered. "You need to be back at the Tower to welcome our guests when they arrive, if they arrive tonight, and Happy said he wouldn't leave your side, so I'll stay here while you two go back. But… not right now. Right now I think Graham needs all of us."

They nodded in agreement and sat around their fallen friend. "You know Betty," Pepper started, "you have quite the temper there."

Mrs. Banner blushed. "I know. In that sense, I'm kind of like my dad."

"I think it's fitting. You are the calmest of us all and yet, when provoked, you're also the most deadly."

She laughed quietly. "I don't know about that. But I do have a bit of a temper. Bruce says I turn red when I'm angry, the same way he turns green."

"So you're like a She-Hulk?" Happy teased.

Pepper and Betty laughed, but it was the brunette who answered. "I guess… I hope that's not my super hero nickname, like Rescue or Sonata or Black Widow. She-Hulk… I don't know, I feel like I'd have to be an actual Hulk to deserve that title."

"You never know what the press will come up with these days," Happy said, pursing his lips and looking away as if to teasingly suggest that he would sell the name to the paparazzi.

Pepper slapped his arm playfully. "Don't scare her like that Happy. If anything, her name would be Mother Nature."

"Or the Red Hulk."

They continued suggesting names back and forth like this while Betty slumped in her chair. She wondered if this was how Tania felt when the Avengers did the exact same thing.