A/N: Found time to put some ideas down on paper. Trying to keep it interesting, so let me know if it just falls off the deep end and dives right into snooze-ville. Ending a story is a bit harder for me since my brain keeps supplying me with more situations and scenarios that fit.

Also, thanks to all the reviews and follows and favorites. Didn't really post this with any expectations, just thought it was time to throw my ideas onto the internet and see if it motivated me to finish it. So THANKS everyone! Cool and humbling experience this has been.

Disclaimer: Once again, they are not mine. Sadness.

Sleep-laden eyes struggled to open. Somehow, the thin pieces of flesh that protected his eyeballs from being assaulted by flashes of light felt like lead. A soft brush on the back of his hand soothed his aching brain and the man struggled to ascertain answers to questions now filling his fog-filled mind. The struggle became too much and he decided to fall back into the calming abyss from which he had climbed out.

The recesses of his mind gave way once again to semi-consciousness and the man resumed his quest to open his eyes. Light blasted his retinae and his brain automatically slammed his eyelids back down. A groan attempted to break free from his body, but he couldn't tell if it actually escaped or not. He could feel a presence under his hand, still and warm.

Slowly prying his eyes open for a second time, Tony blinked in his surroundings. The cheap, white, stucco ceiling tiles materialized first. Rolling his eyes down, he found that the unknown weight under his hand was the hand of one Virginia 'Pepper' Potts. He idly rubbed his thumb over the skin on which it resided, a soft "Pep" on his lips.

Pepper jumped at the sudden motion on her hand. Tony watched, amused, as her tired brain tried to understand why she had been awaken. Her eyes soon drifted to her hand - the one Tony had continued to rub, although the effort was tremendous and he wasn't sure he was actually moving his thumb a lot - before snapping up to his face.

"Tony?" He did his best to smile at his beloved. "Oh Tony! You're awake!" Pepper gingerly cupped his head between her hands and kissed him. The kiss didn't last long, but it left Tony breathless all the same. He lazily smiled again. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" The chastisement did little to dim Tony's spirits. "I thought I'd lost you." He closed his eyes, breathing in her scent, relishing in her closeness as her forehead pressed lightly onto his. He drifted, comforted by her closeness. Too soon, she was gone and a flurry of activity surrounded him.

Tony tried to pay attention to everything going on around him, but he found it harder and harder to follow along, the buzzing in his ear growing in volume and the pain in his head ratcheting higher, nausea joining the party as well. He closed his eyes, trying to regain the peace from when he first awoke.

"Tony?... Tony?"

Pepper stood aside as doctors and nurses came flooding into Tony's room. Once she had had her private moment with him, she knew that he needed to be checked over and had pressed the call button to alert the medical staff. She didn't expect there to be so much hubbub, though.

She noticed Bruce come in and had sidled up beside her, watching their friend and the activity around them. They both noticed the deep pain lines that set in between Tony's brows and the tightness of his closed eyes.

After the first few days, Tony had been moved out of the ICU and was allowed more visitors. The doctors said he was healing nicely - no infections so far. On Day Three, the specialists had come in and Tony had once again gone into surgery to fix his hand and back. This was the first time he had properly woken up since Bruce had found a way to sedate him five days ago and, though Pepper knew Tony needed the rest, she wanted him to wake up and talk to her and reassure her things were going to be fine, because as much as she trusted the doctors - and they had been incredibly wonderful so far! - she needed to see and hear it from the man himself.

"Tony?... Tony?" He didn't respond. The heart monitor jumped higher and higher and his breathing sped up. Pepper watched the orchestrated dance of the doctors and nurses surrounding her boyfriend, each movement purposefully choreographed to work around each other without distracting or interrupting another. A valve fiddled with here. A monitor checked there. Fluids and hoses there and there. Soon, the pain lines around Tony's eyes and mouth smoothed out and the pervasive beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound left, as doctors and nurses filed out of the room.

The next time he woke, Tony felt more coherent in his confusion. There were so many things he needed to know - Was Steve okay? Was he okay? Why was Pepper crying? They all took a backseat to the aching agony that settled in his chest as his body began to wake as well.

Pepper was instantly there, stroking his cheek and murmuring softly to him as her other hand danced through his hair. He melted into her touch, straining his ears to hear her words as the pain rescinded to a more bearable level. Slowly, achingly, he tried to raise his hand to cup her face as well - after so many days, he just wanted to touch her - but when the pain became too much, he settled for brushing against her hips. She shifted, hand leaving his face and he was pretty sure he whimpered at the loss, but soon felt her hand in his and all was forgiven.

"Tony?" He shifted his eyes to look into hers, not noticing they had strayed to their hands. He tried to voice out a "Pep" in return, but it seemed to catch in his throat, water pooling in his eyes. "Oh Tony." She leaned down farther so that their foreheads were touching. "It's okay. I've got you. You're home. You're safe."

He breathed in her perfume and soaked up her caresses as he let a few beads of moisture escape. He honestly wasn't sure if he'd ever see her again and Pepper being present when he awoke bolstered his heart more than he could hope to express. He didn't know what he would ever do without this woman in his life. He took a few minutes before he gathered himself together and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

Pepper slowly pulled away from their embrace only to return with a glass of water and a straw. Tony sipped gratefully, but slowly. He knew his chest was messed up - he remembered that much - and choking on water didn't seem like a good idea right now.

"How long?" It was funny. He knew he had mouthed the words and knew he had forced air out of his lungs and through his throat and vocal cords like usual, but no sound emitted. He tried again. Twice. Nothing happened besides a tingling sensation in his throat and a rising panic in his chest.

Pepper didn't notice a problem at first. When Tony opened his mouth and no words came out, she just thought he was trying to gather his strength or thoughts or both. When he repeated the process with the same results and his heart monitor started rising, her eyebrows knit in confusion.

"Tony, it's okay. Calm down. What's wrong?" His chest was heaving and his breath was stuttering. "Where does it hurt?"

He didn't calm down and his mouth kept opening and closing like a fish out of water. Panicking at his panicked state, Pepper pushed the call button.

Bruce rushed in before the doctors, yelling to get Pepper's attention. "Pepper! Pepper! What's wrong? Tony!?"

The hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her panic attack and she focused on Bruce. "What? I-I don't know what happened, Bruce."

Bruce gently pushed Pepper out of the way as he concentrated on his friend. "Tony! Tony, calm down! What's wrong?"

Tony continued to gape and tried to grab at his throat - the movement only halted by the extra pain that now coursed through his entire body. The pain also seemed to snap him from his own panic, eyes honing in on his friend.

"Tony, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong. I need you to breathe, okay? Do it with me. In... Out... In... Out..." Tony started to follow along with Bruce's exaggerated breathing. Once his anxiety had lessened and he got his own breathing got under control, the man looked helplessly up at his friend. The look in his eyes causing Pepper's own to once again fill with water.

"Better?" The man nodded his head. "Good. Now, carefully, what's wrong?" Tony just shook his head, eyes pleading for understanding. "Tony, talk to me, please." He just shook his head some more, eyes momentarily filling up with the pain the movement caused while imploring Bruce to realize what he was trying to convey.

Bruce turned to talk with Pepper about what had happened when Tony grabbed his arm, squeezing twice. Looking back at Tony - his eyes closed, face taut with pain - his mind suddenly flashed back to the Quinjet, Tony's minimal responses to Natasha, and pieces started to fall into place.

"Tony?" His eyes snapped back open to Bruce's. "Tony, can you talk?" Eyebrows crinkled minutely, fear tinging the brown orbs. Bruce felt the pressure on his arm increase once, twice. Two weak, but distinct, motions.

Bruce's heart sank.

Tony Stark was mute.