Hey, guys! Just giving you a short little intro to the sequel for "A Very Pepperony Christmas in New York". More to come soon! This is just a taste. A flash forward, if you will...

Tony stared silently through the glass, his heart threatening to shatter into a million pieces. He watched as her chest rose and fell rhythmically in time to the blip of her weakened heart rate on the EKG. His jaw was clenched, and he was fighting the urge not to fall to the floor in a heap of raw agony. He felt frozen, paralyzed, as though time had stopped.

"Mr. Stark?" he heard someone say next to him. It was a nurse, dressed in teal-colored scrubs, with red hair pulled back into a pony-tail. She had a kind face, round in shape, with bright, blue eyes, both friendly and sympathetic at the same time. Irene, his weary mind recalled. Happy's Irene. She was holding a clipboard with an open manila file sitting on the top.

He briefly turned his head to acknowledge her presence, nodded weakly, and then went back to the previous object of his gaze.

Irene watched him for a moment before speaking, her heart breaking for the man standing beside her, not at all a resemblance of the man she'd seen at his wedding, which now just seemed like a distant memory. "Um, the doctor wanted me to go over with you the schedule of treatment. Is now a good time?" she said softly, wincing.

"As good a time as any," Tony replied, barely able to summon enough breath to even mutter the words.

"As you know, her condition has been changed from critical to critical but stable, since we've been able to stabilize her blood pressure and normalize her heart rate, although it is still somewhat weak. But we've currently got her medically sedated. She's sustained a lot of injury, as you know. We hope to be able to take her off the ventilator within the next few days. But we need to make sure the lung that collapsed is stable enough now to function on its own before we do that..." Irene quietly rattled on for a few moments, but Tony didn't register much more than "Monitor her progress," "long road to recovery", and "continued stay in the ICU until her condition improves vastly". He couldn't stop the voice in his mind. How could this have happened? Why didn't I go with her? How will I ever be able to forgive myself?, he thought.

Irene finished talking, but noticed that Tony really wasn't paying much attention. "Um, do you have any questions?" she asked awkwardly.

"When can I..." Tony said, his voice breaking from the lump in his throat. He cleared his throat and tried again. "When can I go in there? I want her to know I'm here. Please. I just need to hold her hand," he begged in a choked whisper. Tony swiped at a tear coming down his cheek and gritted his teeth. He shifted his gaze to Irene, his eyes pleading. "Please," he whispered.

The nurse nodded. "Now that she's out of surgery, and settled in, I'm sure it would be fine," she said. "Just let me get the okay from the attending physician, okay?"
Tony nodded weakly and watched her walk away. He turned back toward the glass and waited until she came back a few minutes later.

"I've got the okay, Mr. Stark," she said. She walked to the door and pushed it open for him. "Hit the call button if you need anything."

Tony thanked her and walked into the room. He braced himself, trying keep his composure. There was a chair sitting next to the bed, and he quickly walked to it collapsing into it. His eyes teared up and he leaned forward. "I'm so sorry," he murmured, beginning to sob. He grabbed a bandaged hand and kissed it, letting the tears fall. "Oh God! I'm so sorry!" he gasped. He held the hand now in both of his, holding the back of it to his lips. His shoulders shook as he sobbed silently, and he moved the back of her hand now to his cheek, pressing it to his face tenderly. He rubbed the inside of her forearm gently as he moved his eyes to her face. It was barely recognizable, as both eyes were blackened and swollen shut, her nose was broken and had bruised severely from the bridge out to underneath her eyes. A splint holding the place where they had corrected the break was taped with medical tape to her nose. She had a heavy gauze bandage wrapped around her head where they had done emergency surgery to stop the hemorrhage in her brain and relieve the pressure on her skull. The breathing tube was still down her throat and her lips were purple and puffy. Her lower body had a thick plaster cast from the top of her hips to the middle of her thigh, with drainage tubes running from underneath it out to collection bags. It was frightening to him to see her like this. All he wanted to do was to keep holding her hand, waiting for even the slightest sign she was going to be okay. He ached for her to start looking like Pepper- his Pepper- again.

"I'm here, baby," he whispered. "I'm not leaving you. Not again. I'm here, okay?" Tony smiled through his tears. "But I need you to be here, too. Please don't leave me, Pepper. Please, I..." his voice was choked off by new tears burning his eyes. He swiped at them and swallowed hard. "You know I can't live without you. So come back to me, Pep. Wherever you are? Just...just come back to me, honey," he pleaded.

He pressed her hand to his lips again and kissed it tenderly. He rose up and laid a gentle kiss on her bandaged forehead, stroking her hair and looked at her lovingly for a few moments, his brow furrowed with worry. He slowly sat back down and gazed at her silently, grasping a hold of her hand again, and gently rocking back and forth, trying to soothe the hurt from the gaping wound in his soul.