Full summary: A fight between Iron Man and a mysterious new villain gone wrong leads to Rhodey getting hurt and slipping into a coma. Tony tries to find and capture the villain who caused Rhodey's accident, but can he handle the pain of having his best friend in the hospital and tracking down a rogue criminal, or will he lose his mind?

Everything seemed to be moving so slowly. The bullet flying through the air, him trying to push the debris from the fallen wall off of him to be able to protect his friend, the bullet penetrating his skin and the young African-American boy falling to the ground, blood beginning to stain his clothes. Why he had walked into the middle of all the action without the War Machine armor was beyond him, but once he saw the shot he managed to panic enough to push enough wall off of him to get to Rhodey.

"Rhodey! No!" Iron Man bent over the fallen body. He looked positively lifeless compared to his youthful self. Tony immediately scooped him up and brought him to the hospital.

"He's been shot, he needs immediate care!" Tony explained, shoving Rhodey into the doctor's arms. They scattered to get him onto a gurney and into an emergency room to remove the bullet and try their best to patch up the torn muscle and tissue.

"You know there's been a lot of Iron Man and injured persons here lately," The nurse said as she rushed after the doctors. Tony went to a private area where it was safe to take the armor off and quickly trudged in the direction his friend was whisked off to. The doctors told him not to go in, and Tony knew they were in the middle of cutting him open anyways, so he didn't bother. So the doctor gave him a synopsis of the case and told Tony that his friend may have a chance to survive, since the wound was so fresh and the bullet hadn't much time before he was rescued before it secreted its poisonous juices, which is what initially kills the victim (that and the bullet ripping through the tissues of important organs). Since he had gotten in so early, the chances were higher than normal but it didn't mean that he should have too high hopes because even if they got the bullet out he'd still be in a coma for who knows how long.

Tony went to the waiting room to let it soak in. Pepper, having been at the systems chair, rushed over to the hospital to console her friend. But once she got there, Tony was gone.

She tried calling his phone, but he wouldn't answer. She tried texting him, but he wouldn't answer. She tried plain tracking his signal, but he was nowhere.

It seemed that Tony had completely managed to vanish.

~…~

Severing all contact with the rest of the world, Tony went to the deepest part of the darkest alley and curled up into a ball, hugging his legs to his chest, burying his head in the crevice between his legs and his torso, he let his tears of self-blame fall as he mumbled to himself that he was a failure. He mumbled to himself that it was all his fault and that if he hadn't been so careless, Rhodey wouldn't have been at such risk. Maybe if he hadn't been so weak and foolish his friend wouldn't be cut open right now. It was his fault, everything was his fault.

~…~

After a few hours passed, Pepper began to worry about where Tony went. She began searching through all the possible places he could've went; she spent hours looking for him if she hadn't finally heard a mumbling voice coming from the alley near the hospital. She went down deep until she found him stowed away in a corner. She sighed and helped him up.

"Tony, I know you're not okay." She said.

"I don't need to be okay, I need Rhodey to be okay." Tony brushed past her and found his way back home, leaving Pepper standing there, watching him blame himself for everything.

~…~

Once Tony walked through the front door, he discovered that Roberta was about to depart for the hospital. Tony stopped only for a moment and then brushed past her, rushing for his room. Tony tried to ignore Roberta's pleas and questions as he walked up the stairs, but just couldn't anymore.

"Tony, how did this happen?" she asked one more. Tony felt an anger building up inside him.

"Because I wasn't there when he needed my help and I let him down!" Tony cried. Roberta looked confused for a moment, then filled with despair again.

"What were you doing?" she asked. Tony was silent. He didn't want to tell her it was because he's Iron Man and he's a danger to his friends more than he is a protector to them; that'd just make matters worse.

"...I don't know. Look, what's done is done. I just need to be alone." Tony said as calmly as was possible at the moment.

"How could you not know, Tony? Tell me the truth, please, I want to know!" Sadness was written deep in Roberta's eyes. Tony became angry once more.

"If I could tell you, believe me, you'd have known by now." Tony walked into his room, slamming the door behind him. As much as he wasn't telling her so he could stay Iron Man, it was just to protect someone who'd been good to him so far.

As he walked back from slamming his door, he passed the mirror and saw his reflection out of the corner of his eye. He stopped and turned to face himself. He stared at his reflection, shaking with anger as he balled his fists. He clenched his teeth and punched the mirror. The mirror smashed to pieces onto the floor, leaving his knuckles caked with blood. He went over to his desk and sat angrily. He rested his head his hands and let his silent tears fall onto the desktop. It was all his fault and he knew it. He heard a knock on his door. It sounded light, like the person knocking was trying to be polite. Tony didn't move. He heard the door quietly open and light footsteps come near him. A warm hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Tony, please…" She said softly. She tried to look for the right words, but couldn't find them. She noticed the smashed mirror and his bloody knuckle. She wasn't dumb; she realized what had happened. She didn't know whether she should start cleaning his hand or picking up the pieces of mirror. She instead grabbed the boy's bloody hand with both of her hands. He turned to face her, shaking with tears.

"What? Are you going to tell me 'everything's fine, it's going to be okay'? Well, don't bother because you're dead wrong. Everything that's happened today is all my fault. I could have saved him; it could have gone differently. It's all my fault…" The boy dropped his head back onto the desk.

"Tony, it's not your fault. You couldn't move, there was too much debris on top of you. You couldn't move until it was too late. Please, don't blame yourself for this." She begged him softly.

"It is. It is my fault. I could have avoided getting crushed, and I could have saved him from being shot. I could've made everything go differently. It could've all been okay now, but it's not. I always end up losing the people closest to me…Pepper, please, just…just get away from me before something happens to you like it did everyone else I care about. I-I just can't lose you." He pointed towards the door.

"Tony, nothing's going to happen to me. I'm perfectly safe, I promise you." She tried to assure him. He stood and gripped her shoulders tightly.

"No, Pepper….please, don't bother with me anymore. If I lost you…." He turned and hid his tears from her. She was grateful that he cared for her that much.

"Tony, you'd never let anything bad happen to me, okay? Please, I hate to see you like this." She begged. The boy dropped to his knees on the floor and threw his head in his cupped hands as to hide his tears from the world.

"Please, just leave me to suffer." He cried. Pepper walked over to him and bent down next to him on the floor and placed her hand gently on his shoulder.

"Tony, the doctor said that there's still a chance that Rhodey was going to make it. Maybe we should be a little more optimistic about it." Pepper said.

"Yeah. The doctor also said there was still a chance he wasn't going to make it." Tony said angrily. Pepper sighed. It was going to be hard to cheer him up.

"Tony, there's always going to be a good way and a bad way to look at a situation. Those who only look at the bad side live miserably, while those who are positive live happily. Now wouldn't your dad and Rhodey, and Roberta, and your mom, all want you to be happy instead of miserable?" Pepper said. Tony's sobs stopped and he stood, a sour expression forming in place of the sad one. Pepper stood after him.

"I don't want to have hope anymore, Pepper. I've tried that, but all that happens in the end is me losing someone somehow. I'm done with this, I don't want to feel this pain over and over again. I-I just can't take it anymore." He explained.

"Tony, you can't be so sour about everything. If you just tried to see the bright side of things you wouldn't be as upset. And it won't hurt you to go to the ones you still have. You still have friends, like Happy, and Whitney and you always have Roberta, and," Pepper explained, suddenly taking Tony's hands in hers. "and I'll always be here for you. There's nowhere in the world I'd rather be then right here, with you. So please, Tony, let me in, because your friends can help you more than you think."

"I don't want to anymore! Every time I do that I end up losing them. I don't' want to go through that pain again. I'm done with it, okay?"

"Tony, please, please don't give up so easily! The doctors are fixing Rhodey up as best they can as we speak. He's going to be fine. Don't give up hope so easily, I hate seeing you sad like this. I miss happy Tony, the Tony that made me laugh on a daily basis, the Tony that was always overprotective of me. I'm scared right now too, Tony, believe me, but I need the real Tony right now, and I need him badly. So please, come back." Pepper said, placing a hand on Tony's cheek. Tony was silent in thought for a moment. He finally released a long, white-flag type sigh.

"I guess you're right. My mom always told me that people who are happy in life get very far with themselves, and work hard. She told me to always be happy, no matter what happens. I told her I promised I would." Tony explained.

"Well, see? There you go. Think of the positives. Rhodey could...no, will, make it through this and hey, with luck he'll come out of a coma sooner than expected. And one thing you can always be happy about is that you always have me, and you always will." Pepper said. Tony smiled and wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

"Thanks, Pepper. You're always too good to me." Tony said. Pepper hugged him back.

"Tony, I could never hate you. I love you." Pepper said as she hugged him. Tony released a little so he could see her face. She smiled at him.

"I…I love you, too…" Tony replied. He leaned in and kissed her. Pepper was shocked for a moment but then kissed him back.

"I'll never let you go, ever…" Tony whispered to her as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"No, don't ever let go of what you have, Tony." She whispered back. Tony felt warm tears start to fall down his cheeks once more. Then he felt his phone go off. He dropped his grip on Pepper and looked at his phone. It was the hospital. He sighed deeply and answered the call.

Soo yeah, I posted this as a one-shot a long time ago and kinda left it hanging. I figured maybe someday I'd make it into a chapter story and guess what, now I am…I've really been wanting to post another chapter story for IM:AA lately since I haven't done one in a while. So here we are…review?