A/N Here's another one-shot I wrote last year and forgot about. I found it the other day and figured I'd go ahead and post it. Also, I know there are a bunch of stories like this out there but I couldn't help but write my own. Hope you guys like it. :)

Do You Have a Family?

He was there, in the last place he ever wanted to be.

He was in a cave, in the middle of the desert, in Afghanistan.

Tony took in the horrid sight of the room where he had spent three months in captivity. This time he was alone. Yinsen wasn't there and Tony didn't know where he was. What he did know was they would be coming for him soon.

As if on cue, the door flew open and a group of men brandishing guns entered the room, firing a few shots into the air. Tony put his hands behind his head, as he had been taught. The leader of the group said something that was obviously a command but Tony couldn't hope to understand it since it was spoken in Arabic.

"I can't understand you. I don't know what you want me to do," Tony replied.

Tony's response seemed to anger the man and he turned and rattled something off to the men that had come with him. Two men came forward, grabbed Tony's arms, and dragged him from the room. Tony didn't resist them, knowing that if he did, it would just be that much worse for him.

Tony was led down the hallway, passing several of what appeared to be storage rooms. Some of them were empty, while others were full of his weapons. There was one room, though, that held something different and as soon as Tony looked inside he wished he hadn't.

There, sprawled on the floor, was Yinsen; a bullet hole in his forehead. His lifeless eyes seemed to stare at Tony accusingly, almost as if they were asking why he hadn't saved him.

Tony's face drained of color and he froze where he was. The men holding him tried to drag him forward but all this served to do was break Tony's trance and cause the billionaire to snap.

"No. No! No! Yinsen! Yinsen! No! No! Yinsen!" he cried but the men ignored him and continued to drag him along.

A few tears slipped down his face. His one and only friend was gone and he was alone in that place.

His thoughts were interrupted as he was brought to a halt just outside of a room. Tony looked inside to see the worst thing, next to Yinsen's dead body, that he could see in that place.

There, in the center of the room, was a tub of water. Tony suddenly felt something in his hands and he looked down to see a car battery in his arms. Distantly, he wondered why he hadn't noticed the battery before as he stared at the wires that ran from it to his chest, where they connected to the electromagnet that was keeping the shrapnel out of his heart.

He was shaken from his thoughts as the men began to drag him toward the water. Terror seized him and he did the only thing his panic stricken mind could come up with. He struggled. He fought tooth and nail to escape, to get away from the torture that was sure to come. Memories of being held underwater, until his lungs burned and the wires sparked, flashed through his mind.

"No! No, please! Please, no!" he cried as he fought but the hands restraining him only gripped him tighter.

"No!"

He struck out and felt a small sense of satisfaction as he felt his fist connect with someone. He sent another punch and felt another connection. The hands released him, but his victory was short lived as a new pair of hands, these stronger than the others, grabbed his arms and pinned them to his chest. He tried to twist free but the hands hung on and after a moment he was completely restrained. He couldn't get away.

"Please," he whimpered. "Please."

For a moment, everything seemed to stop, then he heard a voice speaking to him. After a moment, he realized that not only was the voice obviously female and calling him by his first name, but she was speaking English. A second later, he heard a collective shout. His eyes flew open and he sucked in a deep panicked breath as he crashed back into awareness and reality reasserted itself once more.

)()()(

One second everything had been fine and the next, chaos had taken over. What was originally a nice peaceful evening turned into a nightmare, literally.

The team was spending the evening together. The six of them had eaten dinner and afterward they had gathered in the living room to watch some movie Tony had turned on. Tony was stretched out on one end of a sofa. Bruce was sitting at the other end by Tony's feet. Clint was in a recliner next to Tony's end of the couch and Natasha was perched on one of the arms of Clint's chair. Steve and Thor were sitting opposite of the recliner on the remaining sofa.

About half an hour into the movie, Bruce looked over to see that Tony had fallen asleep. Bruce smiled softly at Tony's peaceful expression before returning his attention to the movie.

They were about halfway through the film, when some guns were fired on the movie and a few characters began speaking what sounded like Arabic or some other Middle Eastern language. Bruce, being the closest to Tony, was the first one to hear it. It was a low groan. Bruce looked over at Tony but the billionaire seemed to still be peacefully asleep. Bruce thought he had imagined it but as he watched, Tony's face scrunched up and he groaned again, much louder than the first time. It was loud enough that the rest of the team heard it too. All eyes snapped to Tony's face. Tony's head was turning from side to side and he began mumbling, which quickly turned into talking.

"No. No! No! Yinsen! Yinsen! No! No! Yinsen!"

Tony's voice grew in volume until he was almost shouting and, to their horror, tears began to stream down his face. He sounded so broken that Bruce's heart clenched. What he didn't know, was that all of the others had similar reactions.

"Tony!" Bruce yelled in an attempt to wake him.

Tony didn't wake up but he did settle just a bit. The reprieve lasted but a moment, however, before everything went south, then came apart at the seams, then unraveled, then went completely to pot.

Tony freaked out.

He began to thrash and scream at the top of his lungs. "No! No, please!"

Bruce all but leapt off the couch and grabbed Tony by the shoulders, shaking him and calling his name to try to wake him, but once again it did no good.

"Please, no!"

Clint was the next to reach Tony's side. He stood beside Bruce holding Tony down in an effort to keep him from flailing around. As soon as the archer touched him, though, Tony began to struggle even harder.

"No!" Tony shrieked.

He managed to free his arm and without warning, sent a perfectly aimed right hook flying straight at Bruce, catching the scientist in the face. Bruce released Tony and stumbled back as blood gushed from his nose. Fortunately, Bruce was controlled enough to not 'Hulk-out,' as Tony called it.

Clint was soon to follow as Tony struck out once more and caught the archer in the jaw. Clint cursed and fell back from the unexpected ferocity of the blow. He sat dazedly on the floor, hand holding his aching jaw. When he pulled his hand away, there was blood on it from his newly acquired split lip.

With Bruce and Clint out of commission, Tony was free to begin thrashing on the sofa again. He writhed and flailed, fighting someone or something only he could see.

Steve leapt forward and grabbed both of Tony's wrists, crossed them, and pushed them down, pinning them to Tony's chest. Tony continued to struggle against him but Steve held firm, causing Tony to go slack. That, however, was not a good thing because as soon as Tony stopped fighting he spoke. Or rather, he pleaded.

"Please. Please," he whimpered.

Everyone in the room froze. They had never heard that tone come from Tony before. They had heard pretty much everything from sarcasm to sincerity but never had they ever heard him sound like that. He sounded terrified and completely broken. It took them all a moment to actually accept that that voice had actually come from Tony, their Tony. Their Tony, who was always making some sort of crack, who never shut up, who was never fazed by anything, was laying trapped in a nightmare that was so horrible that he was reduced to begging for help.

Natasha was the first to act. She moved to stand by Tony's head and leaned over the armrest of the couch so that she was looking down into Tony's face.

"Tony! Tony, wake up!" she said in a commanding voice. She softened her voice as he flinched and whimpered again. "It's not real. Whatever you're seeing is not real. Come on, wake up."

"This is not working," Thor said worriedly as Tony remained trapped in the nightmare's clutches.

"Maybe we should all try it together," Steve suggested. He was at a loss as to what to do.

Having exhausted all other ideas, the team agreed and on the count of three they all shouted Tony's name.

Tony violently jolted awake. His eyes darted all around in panic as he desperately gasped for air. After a moment, his eyes locked briefly on Steve, who was still holding him down. Then his eyes flicked up to Natasha standing over him with Thor behind her. Finally, his gaze came to rest on Bruce and Clint, who were standing behind Steve, their faces bloody.

Sure that he was safe and not in Afghanistan, Tony squeezed his eyes shut as he slowed his quick, raspy breathing. He was still panting but was much more in control when he opened his eyes again. He heard noise and turned to look at the TV, which was still playing the movie they had been watching. One of the characters on the screen was speaking Arabic and Tony suddenly knew where his nightmare, or rather flashback, had come from. Unfortunately, the sound of the all too familiar language brought said nightmare forcibly to the forefront of his mind and he felt his stomach roll.

"Let me up," he whispered to Steve who still had yet to release him.

"Are you with us?" Clint asked.

"Let me up!" Tony said desperately.

Steve must have seen something in his eyes because he released Tony and stood back.

Tony leapt off the couch and ran to the kitchen that was connected to the living room. The other Avengers followed right behind him and arrived in the kitchen just in time to see Tony double over the sink and lose his dinner.

Bruce walked over to Tony and laid a comforting hand on his back while he heaved into the sink. After losing all of his dinner and a few minutes of dry heaving, Tony was done. Bruce steadied Tony as the billionaire weakly braced his arms on the counter and caught his breath. A moment later, Clint appeared beside them holding a cloth. He wet it then started gently rubbing it over Tony's mouth, face, and neck. If Tony wasn't so weak and halfway out of it he would have felt embarrassed by the treatment, but as it was the cool cloth felt good as it wiped the sweat from his face and neck. So Tony closed his eyes and let it sooth away the dark memories.

Once Clint was done, Tony opened his eyes and saw Bruce holding a glass of water out to him. He took it and rinsed his mouth out before gulping the water down as if he had just come out of the desert (which, in a way, he had).

"Thanks," he said quietly as he handed the glass back to Bruce. "Did I do that?" Tony asked, motioning to Bruce's nose.

Bruce nodded as he got a paper towel, wet it, and proceeded to rinse the blood from his face.

"You've got a wicked right hook," Clint said as he too removed the drying blood from his chin.

"Sorry," Tony said.

"Not your fault," Clint said, waving him off.

"Yeah, it's no problem. The other guy just about has this healed up anyway," Bruce added.

Once they were done, Bruce and Clint gently gripped Tony's arms and helped him stagger back into the living room. They sat him back down on the couch before they each took a seat on either side of him. The others followed suit, finding seats on the remaining furniture.

"That was some nightmare," Steve said.

"Wasn't a nightmare," Tony said. He mentally cursed himself. He hadn't meant to say that. It had just slipped out. It was bad enough they had witnessed his flashback, they didn't need any more information. It was a little late for that now, though.

"Then what was it?" Clint asked, already suspecting the truth from his own personal experience.

Tony didn't want to answer. He had every intention of remaining silent but to his horror, he found himself answering Clint's question. What was wrong with him?

"It was a flashback. Sort of."

"A flashback of what?" Bruce asked, not entirely sure he wanted to know. Whatever happened to affect Tony Stark to this degree couldn't be anything but bad. Very bad.

Tony didn't want to answer that question either. He didn't want to talk about it and he didn't want them to know. He struggled to come up with something to say, panicking as his mind stubbornly stayed blank. He needed to deflect and divert the conversation, change the subject, flee the room and hide, something, but as he looked around and met each of their eyes, he saw nothing but concern in them. They were his friends and they cared about him. If he couldn't trust them with this then who could he trust? So Tony took a leap of faith.

"You've all read my SHIELD file."

It wasn't really a question but they all nodded anyway.

"You all know that I was taken and held captive by terrorists for three months, and I built the first suit in order to escape."

Once again they all nodded. They knew all of that from his file but that was about all they knew. There weren't any details in the records, just the big things. Seeing how reluctant Tony was, they were beginning to understand that there were no details because Tony hadn't ever given any.

"So the flashback was from your captivity?" Bruce asked.

Tony nodded not meeting anybody's eyes, instead staring at the muted TV.

Everyone became acutely aware of what had just been on the TV. The pieces clicked into place for them. Gun fire, Arabic, no wonder Tony had had a nightmare.

"Tony… before you woke up, you yelled a name," Bruce said slowly, afraid to push too far but wanting to know just the same.

Tony knew what name Bruce was referring to but he still hoped he was wrong. This was one area he definitely didn't want to talk about right now, and maybe not ever. But he didn't stop Bruce from continuing.

"You were calling for someone named Yinsen."

Tony flinched at the name. He really didn't want to talk about this but they had a right to know, and Yinsen deserved to be remembered.

"He was my only friend in a place full of enemies. For three months, he was my fellow prisoner, my translator, my confidant, and the only non-hostile person in those caves. He was a doctor and he was the one who operated on me and saved my life after that missile blew up in my face. He implanted an electromagnet, powered by a car battery, in my chest to keep the shrapnel out of my heart and later he helped me build and install the arc reactor to replace the car battery. He was also the one who gave me the kick in the butt that convinced me to fight back instead of laying down and giving up. He helped me build the suit. He helped me escape. He was all I had… For those three months, he was all I had."

Tony broke off as he fought for control of his emotions.

None of the others missed the fact that Tony kept saying 'was' instead of 'is.'

"What happened?" Bruce whispered, already knowing the answer.

"The day I escaped, Yinsen was helping me into the suit. He had to button me up then initialize the power sequence but our captors were coming. I had expected as much, so I rigged the doors. A couple of guys found that out the hard way when they tried to open them. It bought us some time but not enough. They were coming and the initialization was taking too long. Yinsen said he was going to buy me some time. I told him to stick to the plan but he wouldn't listen. I wanted to stop him but I couldn't move yet. He grabbed a gun off one of the dead men and took off to confront the terrorists. He was a doctor, not a soldier."

We are not soldiers!

Steve suddenly understood what Tony had meant when he had said that on the helicarrier.

"The suit initialized and I took off to the entrance, taking out guys as I went, but I wasn't fast enough. I made it to the entrance only to find Yinsen there with half a dozen bullet holes in him."

Clint squeezed Tony's shoulder, Bruce closed his eyes, Steve looked away, Natasha's lips pressed into a thin line, and Thor's hands clenched into fists at the raw pain on Tony's face.

"He was still alive," Tony forced out. "He managed to warn me in time for me to dodge a rocket that was shot at me. He was dying and he still managed to save my life. Again. I tried to save him. I told him to get up, that we had to stick to the plan. He told me that was always the plan. He had told me once before, that he had a family and he would see them when he left there. I told him he had to get up so he could see his family. Turns out his family was dead. He had never planed to escape those caves alive, and he didn't want to. After everything he had done for me, I was never going to be able to repay him. All I could do was thank him. Thank him for my life, for saving me… The last thing he ever said to me was 'don't waste your life' and that is what I have tried to do ever since. Shutting down the weapons production, becoming Iron Man, saving the world, all of it was so that his sacrifice would be worth something."

"And it was," Steve said. "Without you, this team wouldn't have worked. You pulled us together after the shambles on the helicarrier. You figured out where Loki was going and you came up with the plan."

"Yeah, and without your help, the helicarrier would have crashed," Clint added.

"And you flew that nuke through the portal, not only saving New York but stopping the invasion as well," Natasha reminded him.

"Aye, we would not have been able to apprehend my brother without your help, Stark," Thor said with a nod.

"And you showed me that maybe I'm not a monster after all. You were the first person I met that not only wasn't afraid of me, but you thought the other guy was cool. You gave me friends again, Tony. You gave me a home. Not a place to live, although you gave me that too, but a home. You showed me I didn't have to run anymore, and I can never tell you how grateful I am to you for that," Bruce said earnestly.

"You've helped all of us, Tony. Whether it was just giving us a place to live or helping those of us that are culturally challenged," Steve said referring to him and Thor. "I think Yinsen would be proud of who you have become, I know we are."

The others nodded.

"Thanks guys," Tony said sincerely.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, until Steve spoke once more.

"Tony, there's something else," Steve began hesitantly. The way Tony had struggled and pleaded had bothered him. He had heard men sound like that before. Men that he had helped rescue during the war. "Before you woke up, you went ballistic. You started fighting us and screaming. Tony, I've heard people sound like that before and they all only had one thing in common."

Clint knew exactly what Steve was thinking as did Natasha for they had both seen it before as well. Bruce being the genius he was had his suspicions, while Thor was completely lost.

"Tony, were you tortured?" Steve asked. Being held by terrorists for three months Steve would have been surprised if Tony hadn't been tortured but he still had to ask.

"I was held captive by terrorists for three months, what do you think they did to me? Hand feed me grapes while I laid on a bed of rose petals?" Tony asked, but there was no bite to his words, just a desperate attempt to avoid giving a direct answer.

"How bad?" Bruce whispered.

"Not as bad as it could have been. It was only in the beginning, when I refused to build the missile. Later when I was 'working' they left me alone, since I was doing what they wanted. Even when they did tort- try to persuade me, they didn't do anything permanent or maiming. They couldn't. They needed me to be able to work and build their missile. I couldn't do that with broken bones or something like that, so they didn't do anything major."

Clint finally couldn't take Tony's nervous and deflecting rambling anymore. "Tony, just answer the question or tell us you don't want to, but stop talking in circles," he didn't say it harshly but it still sounded that way to his own ears.

"Water-boarding," Tony said. "They water-boarded me."

"I do not understand," Thor said. "They made you go swimming?"

"That's boogie boarding," Bruce corrected, trying to get his mind off of the picture of Tony being practically drowned. He really didn't need to 'Hulk-out' at the moment. "Water boarding is when someone has water poured, or a wet cloth draped, over their face so that they can't breathe."

Thor's eyes widened and his hands clenched into fists.

"A cloth would have been good. Well, not good, but better," Tony mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Clint asked. He needed to know what his friend went through.

"They had this tub of ice water and they would push my head under until I couldn't hold my breath any longer. Then they would let me up just long enough to take a breath before they put me back under again. And as if that wasn't bad enough. The wires from the car battery were exposed where they connected to the electromagnet in my chest. When they got wet they started sparking. So I guess I was actually water-boarded and electrocuted at the same time," Tony finished.

The room was completely silent. Surprisingly it was Thor who spoke first.

"Thank you, my friend, for entrusting this to us. I know how hard it must have been for you."

"Yeah, thanks for telling us Tony," Clint added.

"We'll live up to that trust too," Steve promised.

"And if anyone betrays that trust, I'll kill them," Natasha said. The others weren't entirely sure if she was serious or not, but they decided they probably didn't want to know. The whole 'ignorance is bliss' thing was sounding pretty good.

"This will never leave the five of us, right guys?" Bruce said, breaking the uncomfortable and somewhat scary silence.

There were nods and affirmations from the rest of the team.

Tony met all of their eyes. Something passed between them and they realized that this whole ordeal had just brought them even closer to each other. There was a higher level of trust between them than there had been before. For one long, silent, serious moment they all acknowledged this fact to themselves and to each other.

But eventually, Tony decided there had been enough heart-to-hearts for one evening.

"All right, if we're all done being touchy-feely how about we see what's on TV shall we?"

He picked up the remote and began flipping through channels, ultimately stopping on a Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoon. Cartoons were safe. Nobody objected to the choice and for the next hour the team watched cartoons, and actually enjoyed most of them, until the late hour began to wear on them. Steve's huge yawn didn't escape Tony's attention nor did the fatigue on the others' faces.

"Why don't you guys go to bed and get some sleep," Tony suggested.

"I'm not tired," Clint said.

"I'd like to stay up for a while yet," Bruce added.

"I am quite interested in this program," Thor said motioning toward the TV where Bugs and Daffy were having yet another 'Duck season, Rabbit season' argument.

"Me too," Steve agreed.

Tony looked over at Natasha, who was curled up on the recliner.

"I will go to bed when I want to, not when you tell me to," Natasha snapped but there was no real bite to her words.

Tony knew what they were doing and he was grateful. They were staying up to keep him company and so he wouldn't have to be alone. He needed to do something later to thank them and he already had a pretty good idea what he was going to do.

Clint would be surprised when one day he received a package addressed to him and opened it to find it was the new bow he had been wanting.

Steve would be pleased when he entered his room to find that it had been redecorated in early nineteen-forties décor.

Natasha might not be irritated when she discovered that the round's-per-minute in her guns had been increased and the magazines modified to hold more rounds, thus allowing her to shoot faster and longer before having to reload.

Bruce would be forever grateful when he awoke from a 'Hulk-out' to find that the pants he was wearing stretched (instead of ripping) to accommodate the Hulk, then shrank to still fit Bruce after he 'dehulked.'

And Thor would be overjoyed to suddenly discover a cabinet in his room that was filled to the brim with boxes of pop-tarts and was regularly restocked.

Although he wouldn't tell them he was the one behind the little 'gifts,' they would still know that Tony was responsible.

Because only Tony could afford to just go out and buy Clint's bow.

Only Tony could redecorate a room in the tower and manage to keep it a surprise for Steve.

Only Tony was stupid enough to even think about sneaking into Natasha's room and stealing her guns so he could tinker with them.

Only Tony was brilliant enough to create a fabric that could take the Hulk's abuse while also beating the pants (no pun intended) off spandex.

And only Tony would come up with the idea of putting a pop-tart stash in Thor's room.

They wouldn't ever outright say it to him but they would still manage to subtly express their gratitude to Tony.

Such as when Clint would meet Tony's eyes, whenever he mentioned his new bow.

Or when Steve would make sure to voice that his room made him feel like he had a little piece of his old life back.

Or the fact that Natasha didn't kill him for taking her guns.

Or the big, bright smile that Bruce would have when he woke up after a 'Hulk-out' to find himself still clothed.

Or how Thor would enter a room with a box of pop-tarts in his hand and his mouth stuffed full and loudly declare how much he loved the things.

They would each thank Tony in their own little way.

Tony looked around at his friends, each of them having fallen asleep in the living room. He yawned as sleep pulled at him and instead of feeling the fear of sleep, that he usually felt after a nightmare, he felt relaxed and secure. Here, surrounded by his friends, he felt safe to surrender to sleep once more.

Do you have a family, Stark?

"Yes, Yinsen. As a matter of fact, I do," he whispered softly as he slipped into a peaceful and dreamless sleep.

Let me know what you think! :)