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veldeiaOops. Sorry for the delay! Can't blame my beta for this one: I was actually so stupid that I completely missed the beta'd chapter attachment in an email... But here it is, anyway: second-last chapter (possibly my favourite in this story, since, well, you know, I'm hurt/comfort and arc reactor obsessed, so... Duh). I've got the last chapter back already, too, so will be posting it soon-ish, during the weekend, I think.
Title: Iron & Irony: Second Encounters
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Iron Man/House MD
Series: Sequel to Iron & Irony. (Has nothing whatsoever to do with Malt & Mockery.)
Spoilers: Late season 4 for House, but before the finale, so nothing big. Spoils all of Iron Man and Iron & Irony, of course.
Pairings: Tony/Pepper
Rating: PG-13
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
btsxbeta <3
Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing, except for a messed up mind that likes playing with other people's characters and universes.
Summary: "I never knew getting kidnapped would be this boring." -Gregory House
--- "You don't know anything about Tony! I would give my life for him if I had to - but I won't. He's going to get us out of here." -Pepper Potts
--- "Okay, this could be a problem." -Tony Stark
9. "What's wrong with him?"
During the last few days, House had felt more than once that he'd reached the end of his rope, but there was always more to come. And here he was, once again, thinking it couldn't possibly get any worse: lying on the damp ground, gasping for breath, one hand clenching his thigh in a death grip.
Stark and Potts had been going on about the Iron Man armor and whatever Liu had done to it, and now they were discussing Stark's friend Rhodes, who had apparently been with Stark in a suit similar to his. House couldn't have cared less. He was already dreading the moment when the two of them would get all mushy and declare their undying love for each other and start sucking at each other's faces. It would come sooner or later, there was no helping it.
Maybe he'd better remind them of his presence, to delay the inevitable at least a bit. "Hey, Mr. Superhero Man, what's the plan of action?" he called out.
"Well, Stupendous Superdoc, my extremely cunning plan can be summarized with two words: we walk."
"You could summarize that - with just 'walking' - and you'd have it in one word, genius. And that's your master plan? You expect two people - with clearly compromised cardiopulmonary functions - to do a marathon across the mountains?" House sneered. The coughing fit that followed his words underlined them nicely.
"We're not that far from civilization. If you had the backbone to get up, you would've already noticed the lights at the far end of the valley. There's people living here. I reckon it'll take us about an hour to cross the distance. I'll escort the two of you there, and then I'll come back to look for Rhodey, and to pick up what remains of my suit."
Gritting his teeth together, House pushed himself to a seated position and looked around. The stars and Stark's chestpiece gave enough light that he could get an idea of the surroundings. They were lying on a meadow at the edge of a valley. A rugged dirt road ran through it, apparently all the way to the base where they'd come from. Further down, there was more vegetation, some bushes and trees and, just like Stark had said, there were lights at the other end of the valley. Only a few of them, probably a small, isolated village.
Stark and Potts had already stood up, and they walked over to where House was, she leaning heavily on him. Since Stark had stripped off all his armor, he was now wearing only the dark undersuit.
"Sorry, Stark - even spandex doesn't make you look - like a real superhero," House told him, struggling to his feet.
"It's not spandex. Besides, I bet a white coat wouldn't make you look like a real doctor, either," Stark commented.
"Why would I want to look - like a doctor? If I did, everyone would just come to me - complaining about how sick they are."
"So, instead, we have you complaining about how sick you are, which is a whole lot better," Stark said, and offered House his hand. House took it, because it was the rational thing to do.
"Oh, shut up, both of you!" Potts cried out. "I'm too tired - to listen to you two - doing that insult swordfighting thing again!"
"Insult swordfighting?" Stark repeated, sounding impressed. "Pepper, I had no idea you even played computer games, let alone classics like Monkey Island!"
"Potts is full of surprises - I can tell you that - after the days we spent together - and the sex was great, too," House quipped.
Stark let go of House's hand. He lost his balance and fell back to the ground, jarring his leg painfully in the process, but oh, the look on Stark's face! That had been completely worth it.
Potts groaned wordlessly, let go of Stark and started staggering away from the two of them, towards the signs of civilization.
"Pepper, wait!" Stark yelled, caught up with her in a few quick strides and gave her his arm again. "I know he was just pushing my buttons, I would never really believe something like that."
"Of course you wouldn't," Potts answered.
"Hey, I'm still on the ground," House called out after them. Sure, he could've gotten up on his own, maybe even taken a few steps to join the other two, but this was more fun.
"We could just leave him there, couldn't we?" Stark asked Potts in a low voice.
"I heard that," House commented.
"No, we can't just leave him," Potts said. "Let's go help him up - and then, can we please cut the bickering - and get going?"
The cutesy couple turned around and started walking towards House, Potts with an arm around Stark's shoulders. As he looked at them, House noticed something that was slightly off. A symptom! He felt instantly more curious about whatever Liu had done to Stark.
"Stark," House said, and pointed at the arc reactor. "That little light of yours is usually brighter than that, isn't it?"
It took Tony a few seconds to realize what House was saying, and that he wasn't just poking more fun at him.
He looked down. House was right. The arc reactor's light looked noticeably dimmer. Tony didn't think it was failing, he would've felt that. He ran his thumb over it. A part of the surface felt wrong - not hard and metallic, but grainy, like it was covered with dust. Just the way his armor had been when he'd stripped it off. That was why the light looked different: it was partially clouded.
"Shit."
His subconscious working faster than his conscious mind, he took hold of the device, twisted, and yanked it out of his chest, unplugging it in one swift move.
"Tony! Wait, no, stop!" Pepper cried out, and grabbed his forearm tightly, as if trying to force him to reverse the gesture.
He held the glowing chestpiece at an arm's distance, staring at it with wide eyes, just as shocked as she was at what he'd done.
"No, Potts, I think Stark's got a point," House said from where he was sitting.
"Tony?" Pepper said, in a slightly shaky voice.
He had a point, yes, and now that the rest of his mind had caught up with the fast-acting undercurrent, he knew what it was, too. "The chestpiece is something that can be replaced with another power source of some sort, but if this spreads to the base plate, I'm done for. And this is the only sure way I can prevent it from spreading any further," he explained. "If it already has, then..."
Then that would be it, there would be nothing they could do. End of story. Liu would win. Not that it wasn't the most likely outcome anyway - they had a very short window of opportunity for finding a replacement, and he couldn't see any realistic way for them to succeed in it.
"But... How long can you last without it?" Pepper asked, her fingers squeezing his arm so tightly it was starting to hurt.
House had struggled to his feet, and he took an awkward step towards them. "We don't know for sure, because there's been no way to test it without harming him," he answered Pepper's question. Tony nodded to let her know that House knew what he was talking about. "It's likely that his heart will stop before the shrapnel has moved enough to cause serious new damage."
"I'd say fifteen minutes, tops, before I pass out," Tony added, doing his best to keep his voice casual. He wasn't feeling anything yet, just a slight tightness about his chest that was often there even in normal circumstances.
"Come on, there's no time to waste," House said, and placed a hand on Tony's shoulder to keep himself upright. "The chances are that the people living out there have something you can use for batteries."
Pepper finally let go of Tony's forearm, and snatched the unusable, contaminated arc reactor from him. "It's going to be all right," she told him, and put her arm around his waist. "We'll fix it. We're all going to make it. We've come this far already."
Tony gave both her and House an arm, and they started stumbling forwards. It was hard to imagine how they could've been any more pathetic and miserable than this - a few minutes of walking, and they were all gasping for breath, all swaying on their feet, only just able to keep each other upright. By the feel of it, his heart was trying to do somersaults in his chest. He'd estimated earlier that the settlement was an hour's walk away. He knew for a fact that he hadn't got that long.
Well, it could be worse than this, he thought, when his knees gave in under the weight of the two people leaning on him, the pain, and the dizziness. At least he had Pepper by his side.
A thing as simple as walking was almost more than Pepper could take right now, and no matter how she hated putting any extra stress on Tony, she had no choice but to lean on him. She knew House was doing the same. They'd already stretched themselves beyond what she'd have thought possible when they'd made their way through the tunnels in the base, and tried to distract Liu.
Once Tony lost his balance, all three of them fell.
"Damn," he cursed breathlessly. "Sorry about that."
He tried to get up again, only to collapse to the ground for a second time. "Damn," he repeated.
House grabbed Tony's wrist, held it for a while, frowned, and moved his hand to Tony's neck. He shook his head. "I've no idea how you were still on your feet, let alone supporting the two of us, when I can't even get a radial pulse. That's got to count as a superpower. I can tell you for sure that if you keep trying to get up, you're just going to faint."
Tony sighed in resignation. "I guess this is it, then."
"Don't say that!" Pepper told him, and moved closer to him, cradling him in her lap. He was trembling slightly, all his muscles tense.
She held out the hand in which she was still clutching the detached arc reactor. If they could just plug it back in temporarily - but they couldn't. She realized that her fingers had actually left dents in the metal. As she looked at the device, the glow flickered and went out. She let her hand droop, and dropped the reactor on the ground.
"That's not going to explode, is it?" House asked.
"It would've already, if it was going to," Tony answered wearily.
Pepper glanced at the lights at the other side of the valley towards which they'd been walking. It didn't look like they were any nearer than before.
"Maybe I could walk over there, to fetch help," she suggested.
"You, walk, on your own? In what fantasy world do you live, Potts?" House said. "Besides, even if you could, it'd still be too slow. You'd have to go there and back again in less than five minutes."
"All right, all right, I get it," she told him angrily, her breath catching in her throat as she raised her voice. "If you've got - nothing constructive to say - just shut up and leave us be."
"Okay, I'll close my eyes, put my hands over my ears, and hum really loud. Just let me know when the sentimental stuff's over."
"Don't worry, won't take long now," Tony mumbled. His breathing had slowed down slightly, but it had also turned shallow. Even though he wasn't the type to give up easily, there was hardly any point in fighting, when there was no hope left.
"Tony, I..." Pepper began, running her fingers through his damp hair.
"Pepper, you already told me - the last time I was dying - but it lead to nothing," Tony said, sounding like he was barely able to speak anymore. "If you don't mean it, I don't want to hear it."
"Tony, shush," she said, and moved over so that she could hold him in a proper hug.
House was saying something in the background, but she ignored him. It couldn't be anything important. She wasn't going to waste Tony's last moments listening to that insensitive idiot.
She pulled Tony close and pressed her mouth over his. It probably wasn't much of a kiss by his standards, both their lips were cracked and dry, and she simply had no strength to make it a very passionate one. Seeing as they were both having more or less trouble breathing, she also couldn't sustain it for very long.
As she withdrew, he slumped limply against her. His eyes were closed, and she couldn't hear his breathing anymore.
"Tony?"
She placed a hand on his chest, just below the empty socket, but she couldn't feel a thing, not the faintest sign of life.
After all they'd been through, after all they'd both done to help each other, he was gone, just like that. Nothing, no sickness, no worry, no fear that she'd endured during the last few days could even begin to compare to what she felt now.
With Jarvis offline, Rhodey had no navigation. Instead, he took the suit high above the mountains and checked the view. Once he got high enough, he could actually see the level ground beyond the mountain range, and the distant lights of a city. That was where Tony would've gone, if everything was all right. If everything wasn't all right, then he might be anywhere in the mountains, with or without Pepper and House, and spotting them would be difficult in the dark and without the advantage the HUD would've normally given.
Rhodey descended near to where he'd come from. He'd fly slow and close to the ground, just in case. He could take the time, it wasn't as if he was in a hurry. If Tony had already left the mountains, he would probably come back for Rhodey. At the least, he'd wait at their rendezvous point, at the airport where the jet was. Rhodey was pretty sure he could find his way there even without Jarvis. An airport was easy to spot from the air, after all.
He flew through a mountain pass, into one valley, through that and into another one. There, he spotted a tiny, bright light on the ground, not far from him. Of course, his first thought was that it was Tony's arc reactor. As he looked, it disappeared from view, but it had been enough to give him a clue of where they were. Rhodey headed towards that spot as fast as he could.
When he got nearer, he could make out three figures, all of them sitting on the ground. House was staring straight at him, waving his hands in the air, to catch his attention, for what little good the gesture did in the dark. Pepper and Tony didn't even seem to have noticed his approach. They weren't looking his way, they were unmoving and caught in a somewhat awkward-looking hug - awkward, because it seemed like Pepper was supporting all of Tony's weight. It was weird considering the fact that it was Pepper who was supposed to be sick.
Pepper only looked up at Rhodey when he touched down right next to them. Tony didn't as much as turn his head. He was way too still.
Rhodey took off his pretty much useless helmet and stepped closer to his friends.
"Rhodey," Pepper greeted him, her voice barely above a whisper and heavy with emotion.
"I told you I could see him, but did you listen? Oh, no, you just had to have your larger-than-life, tear-jerking, schmaltzy moment," House muttered from where he was sitting.
"Pepper, what's going on? Is everyone all right?"
She shook her head slightly, and buried a hand in Tony's hair - his head was resting against her shoulder.
"What's wrong with him?"
"His..." Pepper looked at Rhodey, and he could see her gaze settle on the War Machine armor's arc reactor. "Rhodey!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide. "Is that like the one Tony has?"
"Yeah, it is," Rhodey nodded. "It's an exact duplicate, just in case he should need a backup... Damn! That's what's wrong? What the hell's happened to him?"
Pepper didn't waste time explaining. "Get it out, quick," she told him, and lowered Tony gently to the ground. Rhodey could see that there was nothing but a gaping hole in his chest where the reactor should've been.
He pulled off his gauntlets and, with hands that suddenly felt incredibly clumsy, fingered the front of the suit, fumbling for the locks that would release his suit's chestpiece. It only took seconds, but it felt like a small eternity. Rhodey had no idea how long Tony had been without the device - was he too late already?
He handed the glowing arc reactor to Pepper, who instantly turned to Tony, and without hesitation, with movements that clearly told she had done this before, attached it to its proper place.
Still, as far as Rhodey could see, there was no change. Tony looked just as lifeless as before. Pepper rested a hand on his chest, the loss and desperation on her face clear in the soft light of the reactor.
"Oh, move aside, Potts," House told her, sounding as sardonic as ever. He pushed her aside to take her place by Tony's side. "This calls for doctorly stuff."
He checked the pulse at Tony's neck, and without telling what he had or hadn't found, with no word of explanation, balled his hand into a fist and struck Tony in the chest, right below the arc reactor.
Tony drew in a sharp breath, coughed a few times, and went on breathing.
"Don't try that at home," House said. "Almost never works. I've told him - he needs an inbuilt defibrillator - in that device, but noo, he's too busy designing things - that'll get him into trouble - to waste time on anything - that might get him out of it."
"Ugh, that's not a voice I'd like to wake up to," Tony mumbled sleepily. "Quit whining, House, or I'll cut down your salary."
"You owe me a bonus, actually. I just saved your life," House said.
"Hey, you don't get all the credit, doc. It took all three of us," Rhodey noted.
Tony opened his eyes, and stared at the three people grouped around him, his gaze going from House to Pepper to Rhodey. He brought his hand to the replacement arc reactor in his chest, tapped at it with his fingers, and went on to rub at the spot below it, where House had hit him.
"Not bad, guys," he said appreciatively. Coming from him, Rhodey knew that was about the highest praise they could get.
"Teamwork, Tony," Rhodey said. "I told you it's a good idea."
Chapter 10
Title: Iron & Irony: Second Encounters
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Iron Man/House MD
Series: Sequel to Iron & Irony. (Has nothing whatsoever to do with Malt & Mockery.)
Spoilers: Late season 4 for House, but before the finale, so nothing big. Spoils all of Iron Man and Iron & Irony, of course.
Pairings: Tony/Pepper
Rating: PG-13
Beta:
btsxbeta <3Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing, except for a messed up mind that likes playing with other people's characters and universes.
Summary: "I never knew getting kidnapped would be this boring." -Gregory House
--- "You don't know anything about Tony! I would give my life for him if I had to - but I won't. He's going to get us out of here." -Pepper Potts
--- "Okay, this could be a problem." -Tony Stark
9. "What's wrong with him?"
During the last few days, House had felt more than once that he'd reached the end of his rope, but there was always more to come. And here he was, once again, thinking it couldn't possibly get any worse: lying on the damp ground, gasping for breath, one hand clenching his thigh in a death grip.
Stark and Potts had been going on about the Iron Man armor and whatever Liu had done to it, and now they were discussing Stark's friend Rhodes, who had apparently been with Stark in a suit similar to his. House couldn't have cared less. He was already dreading the moment when the two of them would get all mushy and declare their undying love for each other and start sucking at each other's faces. It would come sooner or later, there was no helping it.
Maybe he'd better remind them of his presence, to delay the inevitable at least a bit. "Hey, Mr. Superhero Man, what's the plan of action?" he called out.
"Well, Stupendous Superdoc, my extremely cunning plan can be summarized with two words: we walk."
"You could summarize that - with just 'walking' - and you'd have it in one word, genius. And that's your master plan? You expect two people - with clearly compromised cardiopulmonary functions - to do a marathon across the mountains?" House sneered. The coughing fit that followed his words underlined them nicely.
"We're not that far from civilization. If you had the backbone to get up, you would've already noticed the lights at the far end of the valley. There's people living here. I reckon it'll take us about an hour to cross the distance. I'll escort the two of you there, and then I'll come back to look for Rhodey, and to pick up what remains of my suit."
Gritting his teeth together, House pushed himself to a seated position and looked around. The stars and Stark's chestpiece gave enough light that he could get an idea of the surroundings. They were lying on a meadow at the edge of a valley. A rugged dirt road ran through it, apparently all the way to the base where they'd come from. Further down, there was more vegetation, some bushes and trees and, just like Stark had said, there were lights at the other end of the valley. Only a few of them, probably a small, isolated village.
Stark and Potts had already stood up, and they walked over to where House was, she leaning heavily on him. Since Stark had stripped off all his armor, he was now wearing only the dark undersuit.
"Sorry, Stark - even spandex doesn't make you look - like a real superhero," House told him, struggling to his feet.
"It's not spandex. Besides, I bet a white coat wouldn't make you look like a real doctor, either," Stark commented.
"Why would I want to look - like a doctor? If I did, everyone would just come to me - complaining about how sick they are."
"So, instead, we have you complaining about how sick you are, which is a whole lot better," Stark said, and offered House his hand. House took it, because it was the rational thing to do.
"Oh, shut up, both of you!" Potts cried out. "I'm too tired - to listen to you two - doing that insult swordfighting thing again!"
"Insult swordfighting?" Stark repeated, sounding impressed. "Pepper, I had no idea you even played computer games, let alone classics like Monkey Island!"
"Potts is full of surprises - I can tell you that - after the days we spent together - and the sex was great, too," House quipped.
Stark let go of House's hand. He lost his balance and fell back to the ground, jarring his leg painfully in the process, but oh, the look on Stark's face! That had been completely worth it.
Potts groaned wordlessly, let go of Stark and started staggering away from the two of them, towards the signs of civilization.
"Pepper, wait!" Stark yelled, caught up with her in a few quick strides and gave her his arm again. "I know he was just pushing my buttons, I would never really believe something like that."
"Of course you wouldn't," Potts answered.
"Hey, I'm still on the ground," House called out after them. Sure, he could've gotten up on his own, maybe even taken a few steps to join the other two, but this was more fun.
"We could just leave him there, couldn't we?" Stark asked Potts in a low voice.
"I heard that," House commented.
"No, we can't just leave him," Potts said. "Let's go help him up - and then, can we please cut the bickering - and get going?"
The cutesy couple turned around and started walking towards House, Potts with an arm around Stark's shoulders. As he looked at them, House noticed something that was slightly off. A symptom! He felt instantly more curious about whatever Liu had done to Stark.
"Stark," House said, and pointed at the arc reactor. "That little light of yours is usually brighter than that, isn't it?"
It took Tony a few seconds to realize what House was saying, and that he wasn't just poking more fun at him.
He looked down. House was right. The arc reactor's light looked noticeably dimmer. Tony didn't think it was failing, he would've felt that. He ran his thumb over it. A part of the surface felt wrong - not hard and metallic, but grainy, like it was covered with dust. Just the way his armor had been when he'd stripped it off. That was why the light looked different: it was partially clouded.
"Shit."
His subconscious working faster than his conscious mind, he took hold of the device, twisted, and yanked it out of his chest, unplugging it in one swift move.
"Tony! Wait, no, stop!" Pepper cried out, and grabbed his forearm tightly, as if trying to force him to reverse the gesture.
He held the glowing chestpiece at an arm's distance, staring at it with wide eyes, just as shocked as she was at what he'd done.
"No, Potts, I think Stark's got a point," House said from where he was sitting.
"Tony?" Pepper said, in a slightly shaky voice.
He had a point, yes, and now that the rest of his mind had caught up with the fast-acting undercurrent, he knew what it was, too. "The chestpiece is something that can be replaced with another power source of some sort, but if this spreads to the base plate, I'm done for. And this is the only sure way I can prevent it from spreading any further," he explained. "If it already has, then..."
Then that would be it, there would be nothing they could do. End of story. Liu would win. Not that it wasn't the most likely outcome anyway - they had a very short window of opportunity for finding a replacement, and he couldn't see any realistic way for them to succeed in it.
"But... How long can you last without it?" Pepper asked, her fingers squeezing his arm so tightly it was starting to hurt.
House had struggled to his feet, and he took an awkward step towards them. "We don't know for sure, because there's been no way to test it without harming him," he answered Pepper's question. Tony nodded to let her know that House knew what he was talking about. "It's likely that his heart will stop before the shrapnel has moved enough to cause serious new damage."
"I'd say fifteen minutes, tops, before I pass out," Tony added, doing his best to keep his voice casual. He wasn't feeling anything yet, just a slight tightness about his chest that was often there even in normal circumstances.
"Come on, there's no time to waste," House said, and placed a hand on Tony's shoulder to keep himself upright. "The chances are that the people living out there have something you can use for batteries."
Pepper finally let go of Tony's forearm, and snatched the unusable, contaminated arc reactor from him. "It's going to be all right," she told him, and put her arm around his waist. "We'll fix it. We're all going to make it. We've come this far already."
Tony gave both her and House an arm, and they started stumbling forwards. It was hard to imagine how they could've been any more pathetic and miserable than this - a few minutes of walking, and they were all gasping for breath, all swaying on their feet, only just able to keep each other upright. By the feel of it, his heart was trying to do somersaults in his chest. He'd estimated earlier that the settlement was an hour's walk away. He knew for a fact that he hadn't got that long.
Well, it could be worse than this, he thought, when his knees gave in under the weight of the two people leaning on him, the pain, and the dizziness. At least he had Pepper by his side.
A thing as simple as walking was almost more than Pepper could take right now, and no matter how she hated putting any extra stress on Tony, she had no choice but to lean on him. She knew House was doing the same. They'd already stretched themselves beyond what she'd have thought possible when they'd made their way through the tunnels in the base, and tried to distract Liu.
Once Tony lost his balance, all three of them fell.
"Damn," he cursed breathlessly. "Sorry about that."
He tried to get up again, only to collapse to the ground for a second time. "Damn," he repeated.
House grabbed Tony's wrist, held it for a while, frowned, and moved his hand to Tony's neck. He shook his head. "I've no idea how you were still on your feet, let alone supporting the two of us, when I can't even get a radial pulse. That's got to count as a superpower. I can tell you for sure that if you keep trying to get up, you're just going to faint."
Tony sighed in resignation. "I guess this is it, then."
"Don't say that!" Pepper told him, and moved closer to him, cradling him in her lap. He was trembling slightly, all his muscles tense.
She held out the hand in which she was still clutching the detached arc reactor. If they could just plug it back in temporarily - but they couldn't. She realized that her fingers had actually left dents in the metal. As she looked at the device, the glow flickered and went out. She let her hand droop, and dropped the reactor on the ground.
"That's not going to explode, is it?" House asked.
"It would've already, if it was going to," Tony answered wearily.
Pepper glanced at the lights at the other side of the valley towards which they'd been walking. It didn't look like they were any nearer than before.
"Maybe I could walk over there, to fetch help," she suggested.
"You, walk, on your own? In what fantasy world do you live, Potts?" House said. "Besides, even if you could, it'd still be too slow. You'd have to go there and back again in less than five minutes."
"All right, all right, I get it," she told him angrily, her breath catching in her throat as she raised her voice. "If you've got - nothing constructive to say - just shut up and leave us be."
"Okay, I'll close my eyes, put my hands over my ears, and hum really loud. Just let me know when the sentimental stuff's over."
"Don't worry, won't take long now," Tony mumbled. His breathing had slowed down slightly, but it had also turned shallow. Even though he wasn't the type to give up easily, there was hardly any point in fighting, when there was no hope left.
"Tony, I..." Pepper began, running her fingers through his damp hair.
"Pepper, you already told me - the last time I was dying - but it lead to nothing," Tony said, sounding like he was barely able to speak anymore. "If you don't mean it, I don't want to hear it."
"Tony, shush," she said, and moved over so that she could hold him in a proper hug.
House was saying something in the background, but she ignored him. It couldn't be anything important. She wasn't going to waste Tony's last moments listening to that insensitive idiot.
She pulled Tony close and pressed her mouth over his. It probably wasn't much of a kiss by his standards, both their lips were cracked and dry, and she simply had no strength to make it a very passionate one. Seeing as they were both having more or less trouble breathing, she also couldn't sustain it for very long.
As she withdrew, he slumped limply against her. His eyes were closed, and she couldn't hear his breathing anymore.
"Tony?"
She placed a hand on his chest, just below the empty socket, but she couldn't feel a thing, not the faintest sign of life.
After all they'd been through, after all they'd both done to help each other, he was gone, just like that. Nothing, no sickness, no worry, no fear that she'd endured during the last few days could even begin to compare to what she felt now.
With Jarvis offline, Rhodey had no navigation. Instead, he took the suit high above the mountains and checked the view. Once he got high enough, he could actually see the level ground beyond the mountain range, and the distant lights of a city. That was where Tony would've gone, if everything was all right. If everything wasn't all right, then he might be anywhere in the mountains, with or without Pepper and House, and spotting them would be difficult in the dark and without the advantage the HUD would've normally given.
Rhodey descended near to where he'd come from. He'd fly slow and close to the ground, just in case. He could take the time, it wasn't as if he was in a hurry. If Tony had already left the mountains, he would probably come back for Rhodey. At the least, he'd wait at their rendezvous point, at the airport where the jet was. Rhodey was pretty sure he could find his way there even without Jarvis. An airport was easy to spot from the air, after all.
He flew through a mountain pass, into one valley, through that and into another one. There, he spotted a tiny, bright light on the ground, not far from him. Of course, his first thought was that it was Tony's arc reactor. As he looked, it disappeared from view, but it had been enough to give him a clue of where they were. Rhodey headed towards that spot as fast as he could.
When he got nearer, he could make out three figures, all of them sitting on the ground. House was staring straight at him, waving his hands in the air, to catch his attention, for what little good the gesture did in the dark. Pepper and Tony didn't even seem to have noticed his approach. They weren't looking his way, they were unmoving and caught in a somewhat awkward-looking hug - awkward, because it seemed like Pepper was supporting all of Tony's weight. It was weird considering the fact that it was Pepper who was supposed to be sick.
Pepper only looked up at Rhodey when he touched down right next to them. Tony didn't as much as turn his head. He was way too still.
Rhodey took off his pretty much useless helmet and stepped closer to his friends.
"Rhodey," Pepper greeted him, her voice barely above a whisper and heavy with emotion.
"I told you I could see him, but did you listen? Oh, no, you just had to have your larger-than-life, tear-jerking, schmaltzy moment," House muttered from where he was sitting.
"Pepper, what's going on? Is everyone all right?"
She shook her head slightly, and buried a hand in Tony's hair - his head was resting against her shoulder.
"What's wrong with him?"
"His..." Pepper looked at Rhodey, and he could see her gaze settle on the War Machine armor's arc reactor. "Rhodey!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide. "Is that like the one Tony has?"
"Yeah, it is," Rhodey nodded. "It's an exact duplicate, just in case he should need a backup... Damn! That's what's wrong? What the hell's happened to him?"
Pepper didn't waste time explaining. "Get it out, quick," she told him, and lowered Tony gently to the ground. Rhodey could see that there was nothing but a gaping hole in his chest where the reactor should've been.
He pulled off his gauntlets and, with hands that suddenly felt incredibly clumsy, fingered the front of the suit, fumbling for the locks that would release his suit's chestpiece. It only took seconds, but it felt like a small eternity. Rhodey had no idea how long Tony had been without the device - was he too late already?
He handed the glowing arc reactor to Pepper, who instantly turned to Tony, and without hesitation, with movements that clearly told she had done this before, attached it to its proper place.
Still, as far as Rhodey could see, there was no change. Tony looked just as lifeless as before. Pepper rested a hand on his chest, the loss and desperation on her face clear in the soft light of the reactor.
"Oh, move aside, Potts," House told her, sounding as sardonic as ever. He pushed her aside to take her place by Tony's side. "This calls for doctorly stuff."
He checked the pulse at Tony's neck, and without telling what he had or hadn't found, with no word of explanation, balled his hand into a fist and struck Tony in the chest, right below the arc reactor.
Tony drew in a sharp breath, coughed a few times, and went on breathing.
"Don't try that at home," House said. "Almost never works. I've told him - he needs an inbuilt defibrillator - in that device, but noo, he's too busy designing things - that'll get him into trouble - to waste time on anything - that might get him out of it."
"Ugh, that's not a voice I'd like to wake up to," Tony mumbled sleepily. "Quit whining, House, or I'll cut down your salary."
"You owe me a bonus, actually. I just saved your life," House said.
"Hey, you don't get all the credit, doc. It took all three of us," Rhodey noted.
Tony opened his eyes, and stared at the three people grouped around him, his gaze going from House to Pepper to Rhodey. He brought his hand to the replacement arc reactor in his chest, tapped at it with his fingers, and went on to rub at the spot below it, where House had hit him.
"Not bad, guys," he said appreciatively. Coming from him, Rhodey knew that was about the highest praise they could get.
"Teamwork, Tony," Rhodey said. "I told you it's a good idea."
Chapter 10
