The battle was over, the war was won...

...and despite the Man of Iron's exclamation of need for shawarma and sleep, the team quickly found themselves back on the hellicarrier for debriefing and medical aid.

Glancing around at the rest of the team, the engineer winced in sympathy as he took in the deep gashes and swelling bruises forming on each member. The only one that appeared to have come out unscathed from the battle was Bruce, but Tony knew that was only because of the side-effects of having the jolly green giant as a co-pilot. Ignoring the tightening of his own chest and rather worrying buzzing sound coming from the arc reactor, the brunette whirled around to face the leather clad Director, and sighed. He was much too tired to pretend to listen to the man, and the flickering light coming from his chest was really starting to worry him; not that he would ever let anyone know.

"Not that this is an excellent waste of time," he smirked, cutting the Director off mid-sentence. "But I really do have other stuff to be getting on with; suits to repair, bills to send out for property damage, the usual. So if you do mind."

Glaring at the migraine inducing brunette, Fury snapped. "Sit that arse back down Stark, before I suddenly decide that it will be a great partner for my boot."

Not even half way out of his seat, chocolate brown eyes connected with a singular almost pitch black one, and frowned. Sitting back down, the billionaire flipped off the smirking archer, and decided that if he couldn't leave, then he was at least going to be as annoying as possible. Sneaking a peak at the ever stiff solider hanging on to the Director's every word, Tony grinned maliciously. Snatching up the pen some idiot had decided that he may need, the brunette made quick work of pulling of apart, leaving only the shell in his hands. Discretely ripping a small section of the paper of the note pad the same idiot had given him, Tony slyly slipped it into his mouth and began to chew.

Clint was in near hysterics by this point. Bitting his lower lip to keep any noise he may produce from escaping, blue eyes slid over to catch a similar look on Bruce's face, whilst Natasha barely let her lip twitch. Thor eyed the others with slight curiosity. He did not find any of what the Director was saying amusing, so it baffled him as to what was setting off the rest of his team.

The only pair that remained oblivious to the upcoming events was the one eyed man, and the target himself.

Waiting for the leather wearing man at the head of the table to turn and address Agent Hill, Tony took his chance and aimed. The people sitting at the table could have sworn that that one moment was purposefully slowed down just for their enjoyment. Watching as the globed up mess of paper and spit arched through the sky, soaring almost gracefully, Tony bit back his exclamation of success, as the ball hit its target dead on.

Sniggering as the spit ball landed, Natasha, Bruce and Clint snorted even harder as Fury turned back around just in time to see the ball land on the Captain's right cheek. Whipping around to glare at the dumbass he knew was at fault, Fury couldn't help but mentally snigger at the stunned look on Steve's face. He would never admit it, but the dumb founded look on the World War Two vet was just too funny for words.

Looking anywhere but the Director, Tony put on his best 'You and I both know that I did it, but can you really blame me?' look, and grinned happily.

Pulling himself back together, Steve rounded on the billionaire, and puckered his brow. "Can't you act like an adult for five seconds, Stark?"

Smiling proudly, Tony did the only thing he could think of, and stuck his tongue out. His chest was really starting to hurt, and if he couldn't get Fury to let them go soon, then he was going to just leave. Rolling his eyes at the brunette, Steve opened his mouth to retort, but was halted by the sudden sounds of clicking and whirling coming ever closer. Raising their heads to peer around the room, the team glanced around for the source of the sudden sound. The battle had ended only a few hours ago, and the last thing they wanted to find out, was that Loki had left something else for them to deal with.

Knowing what the sound was the moment it hit his ears, Tony dug his finger nails into the leather arm rests and paled dramatically.

"You ok Stark," Clint huffed, the archer being the only one to notice the engineer's sudden drop in colour. "You look like you just saw Death."

Agreeing with the agent, the rest of the group waited for a response, but received only a tightening of the knuckles and slight shudder in return. Frowning as the noise became closer and clearer, Natasha snapped her head to face the genius as it all suddenly fell into place.

"Isn't that-"

"Anthony Stark! I'm going to kill you when I get my hands on you!"

Closing his eyes as the shrill tone echoed through the carrier, startling many of the agents and support staff working on the floor. Raising an eyebrow at the words, Fury turned to the main entrance just in time to catch a long legged red head and three bots make their way in. Leaning over the table to get a better look of the entrance way, Clint eyed the red faced woman at the door and smirked. "This is going to be good."

Nodding in agreement, Natasha kept her gaze on the billionaire's personal assistant; waving the Director off as he stood to address the new person on his ship. "I want to see where this is going," she mumbled, as if that was reason enough.

Unsure if the woman had seen them and was ignoring them, or just had tunnel vision for her boss, the entire room watched as Pepper Potts stalked her way across the floor; the three, one armed robots trailing behind.

"I can't believe you!" she screeched, making more than one agent flinch. "I leave town for twenty-four hours, and you decide that it's a good time to fly through a portal with a bomb strapped to your back!"

Forcing the chair around, Pepper stared down at the now calm and composed face of her boss and growled. Knowing that this was going to take time that he didn't have, Tony glanced up at the woman and plastered a smile that he knew she could see through, on to his face. "Pepper!" he exclaimed, jumping up just so that she could no longer intimidate him by looming over. "I was just about to send you a text. The Tower's going to need a repair job-"

"A text?" Waving her hand in front of the still babbling genius, Pepper puckered her brow and stared at the man disbelievingly. "You run off to play hero with your friends-"

"Team mates," Tony interjected, the words not missed by anyone bar the woman in front of him.

"- miss a very important meeting with the company's managers," she continues. "Not send anyone a single word to let us know where you are or what's going on, and then leave us to find out off the god damn news, that you're going to fly into deep space with no air and a missile strapped to your back, and you were just about to send me a text?! "

Staring down at the hyperventilating woman, Tony couldn't help but blurt out, "It wasn't strapped to my back."

Throwing her hands up into the air, Pepper was two seconds off throwing her phone at the idiot's forehead, when the deep commanding voice of the Director of SHIELD caught her attention.

"Not that it isn't amusing to see Stark being taken down a few knots," Fury called out, standing from his position at the table. "But just how did you come to be here?"

Finally taking in stock of her surroundings, Pepper felt the beginning stages of a blush threaten to take over her cheeks, before stomping it down repeatedly. Ignoring the grinning idiots still in their battered costumes, the red head stalked her way around the table and held out her hand to the man.

"You must be Director Fury," she stated, showing everyone there exactly why she was Tony's PA. "I apologise for the interruption, but there were some party's back on land that were interested as to Mr Stark's whereabouts. Jarvis had been given an access code and tracking device by Agent Coulson in case of emergency, and piloted the jet to bring me here."

Glancing around the woman, Fury took in the sight of the genius currently being smothered by the portable AI's. "And the robots?"

Staring at the small huddle herself, Pepper let the worry from the last couple of hours wash away as she watched the creator interact with his creations. "Jarvis wouldn't take off until they were secured and fastened in the cargo. Apparently they were tearing the R&D apart after seeing watching the footage and Jarvis loosing connection with the suit. You was almost inconsolable when I got there, Jarvis kept saying that they were worried about their 'Mommy'."

Snorting loudly, Steve glanced over at the brunette and raised an eyebrow. "Mommy?" he grinned; the rest of the team sniggering at the title. "You let your robots call you 'Mommy'?"

Chucking a glare over his shoulder, Tony continued to pat Dumee as he rested his claw against the inventor's side. "So what if I do?"he growled, his bots chirping away happily as he did so. "I gave them life, raised them, taught them right from wrong. Isn't that what a mother's suppose to do?"

Smiling jokingly at the other brunette, Bruce eyed the over affectionate robots and chuckled, "Well if you're so happy to be play mum, then there must be a dad."

Eyes flashing at the mention of the AI's Father, Pepper shot a glance at her boss and grinned. "Actually," she spoke, her voice betraying none of the amusement she found in the whole situation. "Their 'Daddy' is on his way now. Jarvis sent him the coordinates when he picked me up. He should be here any minute."

The colour that had only just fully returned to the billionaire's face, drained once more at the mention of his partner. Pepper was known to go off the rails when he did something stupid, yell at him for a while, and then act like nothing happened. But his partner was much worse. Knowing that there wasn't much time to waste, Tony motioned for his bots to back off, and almost ran around the table in his haste to get to the smirking Director and his smug PA. "Where's the jet you came in on?"

Folding her arms across her chest, Pepper tilted her head slightly and said merely smiled. Of course she would think that he deserved this. Whirling around to face the Director, Tony mentally cringed, but did his best to look like he was not begging. "Fury!" he shouted, startling a poor intern as they walked past. "Fury, listen, I know that we got off on the wrong foot-"

Mimicking the petite red head, Fury stared down at the panicking man and smirked. "No amount of grovelling is going to make me help you Stark. Not out of this one."

Feeling the ever increasing sense of dread clench his chest even tighter than it was before, Tony let the smile on his face fall, and balled his hands up into tightly wound fists. "I will give you one million dollars if you stick me on a jet in the next ten seconds and send me off to Fiji."

"Not happening, Stark."

"Two million."

Growling at the look he received in return, Tony raced over to the main screens, and swept his hands across the panels; his fingers typing at speeds that had even the IT personnel stopping and starring. Cursing as the live footage of the docking bay came up on the screen to his left, Tony slid back over to the table and eyed each of his new team mates with a seriousness that almost had most of them believing that there was a very real danger heading their way.

"We have a situation," he announced, his no-nonsense tone causing even the lethargic Thor to sit straight and pay attention. "There is someone about to enter the Bridge that is going attempt to kill one of your members. They will try to persuade you and tell you that it's for the greater good, but this is a lie. He will be heavily armoured, and have weapons, but if you aim for the back of the knees, you can take him down."

Rolling her eyes at the dramatics of it all, and the fact that most of the team seemed to be at least taking the idiot's words into consideration, Pepper opened her mouth to tell them not to worry, when the faint sounds of something heavy continuously hitting the metal floor made its way into the room.

Reefing the super soldier into a standing position, Tony shoved the Captain's shield into his hands, before motioning for the others to do the same.

"Anthony Howard Stark!"

Squeaking at the rather loud bull-roar, the billionaire motioned one last time for the others to get ready, before clutching the front of his chest. The flickering of the arc reactor was becoming worse, and if he didn't fix it soon, it wouldn't matter what his partner did to him...

Not sure what was going on, Natasha glanced over at her SHIELD partner, and shrugged. They were all still aching from the battle with Loki, and none of them had felt like sitting through the debriefing, much less going through this; but if there really was a threat, they would tackle it head on.

Lifting their weapons in preparation, the team watched as a bulkier, less colourful version of the Iron Man clunked its way into the Bridge. Yelping at the sight, Tony dived under the table, much to everyone's amusement.

Glancing at the glowing red eyes of the suit in front of them, the team could honestly not see a possible threat. The guns on its shoulders remained pointing upward, and from what they could see there was no other weapons currently trained on them. Even Pepper and Fury's reaction towards the sight of the metal man did nothing to tell the group otherwise.

Poking his head up from behind the desk, Tony flung a pen at the back of Thor's head, and motioned wildly at the Norse God to start fighting. "What are you waiting for?" he shrieked, his usually tamed hair frizzing with static electricity. "Have at thee!"

Lowering her gun, Natasha watched as the three bots Pepper had brought with her, happily rolled across the floor and over to the new addition. "Hey guys," she muttered, watching as the others lowered their own weapons. "I think this is 'Daddy'."

Nodding in agreement, Steve put his shield back down, and lowered himself back into his seat. "Stark get out from under the table, you have a visitor."

Getting nothing more than a muffled reply, the group opted, instead to watch as the face plate lifted upward, revealing a dark skinned man with dark brown eyes and a no-bullshit attitude. Patting the bots gently on the arm, the man thudded his way over to the table and stared down as if he could see the man curled up beneath it. "Anthony Howard Stark, you get your arse out from under that table right now."

Feeling something shake against his leg, Bruce reached down under the table, and grabbed hold his fellow scientist by the shirt. Dragging him back out, the doctor smiled half heartedly, as he deposited the squirming brunette in front of the suit clad man and sat back down.

Glaring down at the pouting brunette, the newest addition thought of every possible word he could say to the idiot, before sighing deeply and turning to the silent PA standing beside the Director. "Did you bring the thing I asked?"

Nodding, Pepper shifted forward, opening her shoulder bag as she did so. "This is the second last one," she mumbled, pulling out a shiny new arc reactor as she did so. "So when we get back, he's going to have to make some more up. Jarvis also said that there was some extensive damage done to his chest before he was disconnected from the suit, so we need to be check for cracked or broken ribs. There shouldn't be any damage to the reactor's wall, but if there is, I've got some electrical tape in my bag till we get home."

Bowing his head in agreement, the armoured man gently picked the still silent man up from the floor, and propped him up against the table. The colour had yet to return to the engineer's face, and for the first time since they had all sat down, the group could actually see that the man was in pain.

Eyeing the man before him, Tony tried to smile warmly, but instead felt like it came out a grimace. "I'm sorry, Rhodey," he muttered, his hands clenching tightly to the edge of the table. "I know that this wasn't what we planned for this weekend."

Leaning down, Rhodey placed a swift, tender kiss on his partner's brow, and sighed. "Lift your hands up."

Doing as he was told, Tony whimpered in pain as the movement caused his chest to shift in an unpleasant way. Waiting as Rhodey pulled the shirt up and over his head, Tony glanced over at the rest of the shocked room and smirked. "What? You never seen me without a shirt on? That would actually be a surprise, seeing as the net's littered with photos of it. There's a couple of Youtube videos of me completely stark too; actually there's a lot of me stark, since I am Stark, but you know what I mean."

Taking in the massive purple and black bruises crisscrossing the billionaire's top half, Bruce held back a deep need to yell and scream. "Tony," he chocked, unable to tear his gaze away from the sight. "Why didn't you tell us that you were in pain? There is medical staff on board, we could have had you patched up and on the good stuff ages ago."

Watching his partner's eyes glaze over at the mention of doctors and hospitals, Rhodey slid his eyes over to the scientist and shook his head. "Tony and hospitals don't mix."

Filing that piece of information away for later, the team watched as the pair shifted, revealing the arc reactor to them, in all its flickering glory.

"Is that supposed to be doing that?" Clint muttered, eyeing the glowing circle with distrust.

Between the 'seriously' look Pepper was throwing him, and the 'are you really that stupid?' one that Rhodey was, Clint decided that the silent answer was 'no. No it wasn't.', and quietly sat back to watch the proceedings. Rolling her eyes at the blonde, Natasha offered her assistance, but was instantly shot down by a smouldering glare from Pepper. The time the agent had spent in Stark Industry was still fresh in both of their minds, and neither was ready to face that just yet.

Deciding that it was probably just best to let the trio be, the rest of the room watched on quietly as the armour clad man removed his gauntlets and placed them on the table. "Do you want me or Pepper to do it?"

Glancing over at his assistant, Tony scrunched his face together as if he tasted something bad. "You do it. Last time I let that she-devil near it, she played operation with my ticker and sent me into cardiac arrest."

Raising an eyebrow, Pepper ignored the jab, and moved her attention to the nimble fingers slowly unlocking the fading light and pulling it out of its place in the genius's chest. Hissing as the cool air seeped through into his chest cavity, chocolate brown eyes watched as the light finally died, and the painful sensation of the shards freely moving through his chest returned once more.

Unplugging the reactor quickly, Rhodey ignored many startled sounds of agents gagging, and gently placed his hand inside the cavity. Gasping at the feeling of being one lung short, Tony grinned down at the hand slowly skimming around the sides of the reactor's home. "I know that I said I wanted you in me Platypus, but this isn't what I was imagining."

Chucking at the lame joke, Rhodey silently asked the red head for some tape, before glancing up at his partner and smiling. "Well this is the only way that is happening until you're fully healed and able to chase the trio around the lab; so if I were you, I'd sit back and enjoy it."

Groaning, Tony glanced over his shoulder, and frowned at the eyes still staring at him intently. "Seriously? What is it that has you lot so fascinated? I know it's not my stunning good looks."

Watching as another piece of tape made its way inside the cavity, Steve glanced up at the brunette and gaped. "You're being put back together with sticky tape."

Pinning the solider with a withering glare, Tony hissed lightly as the base of the cavity was pressed a little too hard, before turning back to the blonde and sneering. "No shit Sherlock. Are there any other brilliant deductions you wish to make?"

"But it's sticky tape."

Knowing that the Captain was trying to make a point, but not wanting the man to win, Tony pointed at the brunette to his left and grimaced. "He uses super glue; the scary lady over there has been known to use flossing string and staples; I have footage of Cupid using duct tape and cling wrap; lightning boy over there probably uses leaves and bark; and don't even get me started on you Capsicle. My dad may not have been the best, but when it came to you, he couldn't shut up. I know every little wound you ever had, and every way that you set about fixing it."

Blushing lightly at the threat, Steve glanced around the rest of the team, and was surprised to see that none of them were the least bit fazed by what the engineer had just spouted out. Catching the Captain's questioning look, Bruce smiled faintly, and shrugged. "Super glue is a get way to cover a wound, and it doesn't leave possible contamination and blood samples lying around."

Nodding in agreement, Natasha voiced her own opinion. "You use whatever you have on hand. If a staple gun means the difference between you and death; you do it."

Murmuring in agreement, the rest of the group turned around just in time to watch Rhodey connect the last cord into Tony's chest, and slowly click the reactor back into place. Gasping heavily, the billionaire leant forward, transferring his grip from the table to the metal clad shoulders in front of him, and moaned deeply.

"I need to find a new element that doesn't taste so much like coconut," he muttered.

Paying no attention to her now safe boss, or his husband, Pepper rooted back through her bag once more, and pulled out a small mountain of gauze and padding. "I have the Stark medical staff on standby for when we return, but just to be safe we really should wrap that chest up."

Securing his husband against his chest, Rhodey hummed in agreement, but made no move to do so. It had been too long since he had been in the same vicinity as the egotistical man that he had fallen in love with; and now that said man was no longer dying, Rhodey felt that he had every right to just stand there and hold him. The footage of the battle had nearly sent him to an early grave, and with Jarvis unable to get in contact with the genius, Rhodey had felt like his whole world had been shattered...

"I nearly lost you today," he muttered, his breath tickling the top of his lovers head. "You went off like you usually do, and all I could do was watch from the side lines."

Lifting his head to face his husband in the eye, Tony felt his heart beat painfully, as he took in just how much the last couple of hours had affected the man he cared more than anything else. Taking no notice of the pain that flared across side, Tony lifted his hand, and gently used the pad of his thumb to wipe away the lone tear trickling down the soft, unblemished cheek. "I am so sorry."

It was the first time that many of the people on the Hellicarrier had ever heard the great Tony Stark apologize, and if they hadn't been there to hear it for themselves, none of them would have believed it. But as they watched what they had always seen as a playboy billionaire silently shuffle out of the room; his arm wrapped securely around the War Machine, whilst the three bots and Pepper trailed behind, the members of SHIELD and more importantly the Avengers, wondered just how much of this change in character would change the dynamics of their team...

...and ultimately, the future.