A/N: So this is a rather embarrassing turn of events. I posted this this morning before I left for work, not realizing that it, apparently, had decided to eat my edits, chew them around, and spit out what I had originally put into the edit box... including Gabrielle Day's and my final chat boxes from where we wrapped up the final scenes last night. Woooow. Edit fail. Now I have to remember all the awesome things I said this morning while I was still half asleep and writing the notes...

First off, thank you to those that reviewed my the story when it was posted in its entirety. Granted, that was not how it was supposed to be, but your words were kind and we do appreciate them. Now, the non spoiler version lol.

The only thing of any consequence that I remember writing this morning was a bit of a warning that we tend towards the comic cannon in this only in the sense that Tony Stark has not announced he is Iron Man. Everything else remains the same, and I have faith in your brilliant minds that you will be able to fill in the gaps in the movies on your own. Obviously, Steve knows. Tony knows Steve. Pepper knows them both. Etc etc...

On to the actual fic that looks to have a much more realistic word count this afternoon! Lesson learned: no updating before waking up. It's not a good life choice.

Measure of a Man

The deep growl of the engine was a satisfying sound and Tony Stark let the purring sound wash over him longer than was absolutely necessary before turning the key and letting the garage fall into silence. He popped the door open and pushed it the rest of the way with his foot. "Honey, I'm home!" he called, grinning.

"Welcome back to California, sir." Jarvis' calm voice greeted.

"Did you miss me?" Tony asked, pulling a small duffel out of the back seat.

"For the mere moments you were not addressing me, of course." Jarvis responded.

"Every second a torture, I'm sure. Are the kids home?"

"No, sir. Captain Rogers and Ms. Potts have stepped out." If Jarvis hesitated, which he never did, it might have been at that moment. Tony paused.

"What? Stepped out? They knew I'd be back around...now."

"Yes, sir. It was prudent to have Captain Rogers called away momentarily and Ms. Potts elected to go with him. You have a visitor. In the lab."

The momentary elation that had washed over Tony disappeared just as quickly. "Visitor?" he questioned slowly, not really wanting the answer. He'd thought he might sit down to a drink with his friend, a bit of conversation, and eventually his large, plush bed that seemed to still be calling for him up the stairs. Calling, but muddled by understanding that someone was in his lab. Someone that he had not authorized to be in there, most likely. Few people could find a way around his authorization and sadly he was sure he knew who was waiting for him.

"Yes, sir." Jarvis confirmed.

Tony curved his mouth into a slightly sardonic smile and took the elevator up to the main floor where he dropped his bag on the floor and went straight to the bar to pour himself a drink. The ice cubes clinked against the glass until the amber liquid rose above them, and he downed it before covering the ice cubes again. Feeling more fortified, he sauntered down the stairs and into the lab. At the bottom he leaned a hip against the wall and gasped in false shock. "Well goodness me. Really, a phone call would have sufficed, Fury. You needn't have come all the way out here just to welcome me home. I have friends for that. And such a surprise. If I'd know you were here I would have brought two drinks down."

Nick Fury gazed evenly at him from his one functioning eye, never once glancing at the drink in Tony's hand. "I've heard rumors that you've been working on a project, Stark. Something about a chip that can be inserted into the brain that remotely accesses information."

"You shouldn't read the tabloids, Fury, they do nothing but lie," Tony said with a smirk and took another long swig of his drink.

The elder man did what he could to resist an aggravated expression. He didn't entirely succeed as he watched the engineer drop down into a seat to stare lazily at him. "My information is reliable."

"So? What do you want?" Fury motioned over one shoulder and Tony's dark eyes followed. What they came to rest on nearly made him drop his glass. "Is that what I think it is?" he managed. There was a body under that sheet, hooked up to equipment he wasn't sure he'd used in years. If he had, he hadn't been conscious enough to remember. He felt anger rise within him, the alcohol doing nothing to douse it. "You put a body in my lab?"

"If you mean body as in dead, no. If you mean body as in experimental, then yes." Fury said. "I need you to finish your tests on the chips. Integrate a prototype into this brain and get me the information I need from him."

Tony set his now empty glass on a counter and pushed past Fury to stand by the gurney. The motionless figure underneath the thin sheet gave Tony goosebumps, the way the fabric clung to the chin and nose to give the face form. He yanked the sheet back to look at the body beneath. The face was gaunt, dark shadows under both eyes and green bruising on the cheekbones said the man's last waking hours had not been happy ones. Fine, blond hair was matted down with dirt and blood. He might have been handsome in a lean, European sort of way if he didn't look more than half way dead. "Who the hell is he?" Tony asked.

"You don't need to worry about that. He's catatonic, but he may have information vital to protecting several of my agents. Just hook him up and let me know when I can get to whatever is floating around there." Fury said, pointing his finger and twirling it in the direction of the man's head.

"It's not ready," Tony said suddenly, feeling a sense of rising panic. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want to be forced into this.

"Then make it ready."

"I'm not a doctor."

"I'm sure you have a few on staff."

"I-"

"Just do it, Stark. I have ways of making you, but I'd prefer to play nice." He didn't like it. He didn't like how Fury manipulated is work, his creations. He could feel the anger, the argument coming, but he knew he had no choice in this. He and Fury were often at a very uncomfortable standstill between the two of them, both needing certain things from the other and not being overly fond of asking. There was always a certain amount of demand involved, and this was Fury's turn. Tony would get his, he knew, but that didn't make the times that Fury would make his demands any easier on his pride. Or the creeping suspicion that this excursion was less-than-legal.

"Jarvis, call Pepper back here. Tell her I need her."

"Call me as soon as you have it working." Fury said as he turned and headed for the door. He paused halfway up the stairs. "It's a good vintage, that bourbon." Fury said with a smirk before vanishing from sight.

Tony counted backwards from ten, reminded himself that anything he threw would be breaking his own stuff and that Pepper wouldn't like it, and counted backwards from ten again. He cursed vehemently and flung an empty beaker with alarming force, the glass shattering against the far wall.

Pepper's voice filled the room. "Tony? Are you all right? What was that?"

"Nothing," he said a bit too quickly. "Where are you? I need you."

"We're on our way back. We thought we'd be back before you got home. You made good time from the airport."

"Yeah."

"Tony, are you sure you're alright? You sound distracted."

"Do you remember that brain surgeon's name? The blonde. Green eyes. I met her a few years ago in... Where did I meet her? England? No... Switzerland! Was she Swiss?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, as if Pepper were biting her tongue. Finally she managed, "Vaguely," but nothing more.

"She was vaguely Swiss? Can you do that?" Tony asked.

"I vaguely remember she was an American by the name of Eleana Lewis and she was in Switzerland for a medical conference where you were unveiling a new Stark technology." Pepper said with a bit of a bite to her tone.

"Ah. Yes. Eleana. Lovely woman. Very large endowment." Tony said. He heard a shift on the other end of the line and added quickly, "to the charity hosting the event. You're almost back, right? Steve's with you?"

"I'm here," Steve's voice came over the apparent speaker phone. "What's going on, Tony?"

"Fury," the inventor said, as if it explained it all. In a way it did, but in the other way, it only raised more questions. "I'm going to get some things squared away. See you two in a few." He hung up before they had a chance to answer. He reached for his glass blindly and then remembered that he'd thrown it at the long-retreated Nick Fury and it was lying in shards by the door. He really should call Dr. Lewis, but first he needed a drink. Well, another drink, as it were. He moved up the stairs silently, thankful to be away from the inanimate body that occupied his workspace. It gave him the chills and he preferred to keep his distance. He moved with motions long rehearsed as he poured himself another drink. "Jarvis, dial in Eleana Lewis," he instructed the AI before settling down on a bar stool.

"Sir, it is getting a bit late..."

"Because Fury cared when he left a body in my lab. What the hell else am I supposed to do with it? I need a brain surgeon and she's the only one I keep on retainer."

"One might ask why you keep a brain surgeon on retainer..."

"Just call her," Tony growled as he downed the glass. This was going to be a long night. Damn his tolerance to alcohol.

Tony leaned against the counter, drink in hand while the phone rang and rang and rang. He almost had Jarvis hang up when he finally heard the click of a pick up.

"Please tell me you remember that I'm a brain surgeon, not a shrink, and calling me at this ungodly hour of the morning is not acceptable." Eleana's cool voice greeted him.

"Hello, Eleana dear. I'm not actually sure what time of the morning it is where you are, seeing as how I'm not sure where you are. You sound lovely and unruffled as ever, and not the least bit like you were sleeping." "Whether or not I was sleeping is beside the point. It's two thirty in the morning, Stark, and I'm in New York. Where I live. If you wanted to call me you should have done so while you were here." Eleana said.

Tony sipped his drink. "How would you like a free trip to California?"

"No, thank you."

"What if I say pretty please?"

"I'm hanging up the phone now."

"Wait! No, I need your help on something. I pay your outrageous retainer fee for a reason, don't I?"

"The great Tony Stark needs help... Hell, this isn't one of those calls is it? I thought I made it clear that being on retainer did not entitle you to one of those calls."

"One of...?" He couldn't help but grin. He heard the front door open and the tapping of Pepper's heels. The sound of her voice - irritated as it was - calling his name brought him back to the point. "No, this is business. Purely business. The plane will be ready in an hour. I need you to be on it."

The pause hung in the air, and for a split second Tony thought she might actually refuse. He heard soft tapping, like a pen against paper. "Very well. Send me a file with whatever information you have on whatever it is you want me to do. I don't like surprises."

The click of her hanging up came just as Pepper rounded the corner, Steve merely steps behind her. "Tony?" Pepper questioned.

Tony forced a wicked grin. "Some welcoming party you lot are. Kick off without me and leave me with the worst party crasher in history." "Maybe not history." Steve said.

"You wouldn't say that if you see what the gift was," the inventor grumbled. "Drink?"

"I thought Fury had said we had a short furlough. What did he want with you?" Steve asked, glancing warily towards the stairs that led to the lab.

Tony shrugged and gulped the last sip of his drink down. "I really do hate him." He reached for the bottle to pour another, but Pepper plucked the glass from his tingling fingers.

"You look like you could use a bite to eat. I know you didn't eat on the plane and it sounds like we're in for a long night."

"You offering to cook?"

"I'm offering to order pizza in."

"We could have Famous Rays if you're willing to wait a few hours," Tony said with a grin spread ear to ear.

"From New York? Tony, you're not sending a plane to New York just for pizza."

"You're right. That would be silly. But, if I have a plane in New York coming here anyway, we might as well. Hold still," he told Steve, who managed to look adorably confused as Tony took his picture with his cell phone.

"What was that for?" Steve asked.

"Bargaining." Tony replied.

Pepper frowned. "Why do you have another plane coming here from New York?" she asked.

"Because I need the brains that will be on it." Tony said, wincing at his own word choice. He let out a deep breath. "Okay. Time to get to work, Pepper and Steve took half a moment to turn, look at each other, and decide neither of them were comfortable with the turn of events. They followed Tony down the stairs anyway, no matter if it be because he'd implied that they should or just morbid curiosity as to what Fury had dropped in his lap this time. Pepper was just grateful the house seemed mostly in tacked. Often the SHIELD director's visits somehow ended in mass property damage done by the property owner himself. She sighed when glass crunched under her pretty black Louboutins and she found a shattered glass on the floor. "Is this what I heard on the phone? You said it was nothing."

"That is nothing... comparatively."

She rolled her eyes, but then stopped short, a gasp leaving her throat in a strangled sort of way. "Is that...? Is he...?"

"He's alive, for now," Tony murmured, sitting down at his computer and fingers flying faster than either of his companions could follow. "I'm supposed to keep him that way."

"Why is his face covered if he isn't dead?" Pepper asked.

Steve moved towards the body and echoed Tony's earlier action of pulling back the sheet. His eyes widened and he ran a hand through blond hair, causing strands to fall onto his forehead. "Because I don't think keeping him alive equates with having him wake up, does it?"

"Well, if he happens to wake up, it might be better for him." Tony said.

"You can't do this," Steve said. "This man's suffered serious trauma, Tony, he needs a hospital."

"Thank you, Dr. America, for apprising me of the situation."

"What does Fury expect you to do with him?"

"You mean to him, don't you? He expects me to bring in a brain surgeon, open up his skull, and implant a device that I still haven't perfected that is - in theory - supposed to be able to stream brain data into visible format." Tony stopped typing, running his hands through his dark hair and landing them over his eyes, rubbing hard.

"I know I've missed a lot, but that can't be legal," Steve murmured.

Tony snorted. "I think we're past legal on this, Cap. Listen, I don't want to be a part of this, but, please, if you have any further options I'm very open to hearing them."

"What data does he want? Couldn't we get him help and then just ask him for the information?" Steve asked.

Tony shot him a disbelieving glance. "You're kidding, right? Look at him. God only knows how long Fury's had him on ice, probably trying to do just that. He's got some sort of information that could compromise S.H.I.E.L.D. agents."

"And if he doesn't make it through the process of the implant?" Pepper asked.

"Then I tried and Fury can't take any of my toys."

"Tony, this is about a human life, not electronics that-"

"I know," the inventor snapped, dark eyes flashing momentarily. He took a breath and his tone softened. "I know, Steve. I don't like it any better than you do."

No one spoke for the next bit of time. The only audible sounds were contained to Tony's fingers against the keyboard, his occasional curse when something went awry, and the steady beeps and whoosh of the machines keeping the unnamed, comatose man alive. Jarvis alerted them sometime later, pulling Pepper out of the near doze that she had fallen into on the couch in the lab, of the arrival of a visitor. Eleana Lewis descended the steps in all of her glory, looking irritated as she clutched two boxes of pizza. "I'm flying commercial back, do you hear me? There was no pilot."

"You brought the pizza. You are a goddess." Tony said.

Eleana arched a slender eyebrow, green eyes flashing and tousled blonde hair spilling over her shoulders. "I swear to God, Stark, if the only reason you had me drag myself across the country was to bring you pizza I will kill you and they will never find your body."

"Not the only reason. There's him." Tony said, jerking a thumb at Steve.

Eleana set the pizza boxes down and turned her weary gaze on the others in the room, surprise crossing her fair features. "Good Lord. Men that good looking do exist. At least your job comes with a nice view, Miss Potts. It's...nice to see you again."

"Dr. Lewis," Pepper answered somewhat icily. "What Mr. Stark means is that he needs your help with the gentleman behind Mr. Rogers."

Eleana's shoulders visibly sagged. "Mr... Rogers? Really?"

Steve flashed an oblivious, pearly smile. "Steve Rogers. Pleased to meet you, ma'am," he greeted, extending his hand to her.

She melted instantly.

"How does he do that?" Tony murmured to the redhead at his side.

"He's sincere. You should try it some time," she answered testily.

"What did I do?"

No one answered him as Eleana moved to what she assumed was a patient. "What happened, you finally get that body guard of yours hurt beyond your own knowledge? Oh my. What did you do to him, Stark?"

"Unfortunately, he arrived that way. Must have been shipped USPS and alas, without a warranty." Tony replied.

Eleana's gaze flickered up to his before dropping back to the man. She pulled the sheet to half way down his body, exposing his bare torso, which bore more extensive bruising. "I have to say you didn't select a very viable test subject for this first run. I didn't think you'd even finished a first round of testing on the data-mind. And even if you have finished a first round...recently, why now? Why in the basement of your house and not in a legitimate facility where I would have all the proper tools and assistants? What the hell are you playing at here?" Eleana demanded.

"She's quick." Steve said.

Tony glared at him before glaring at her. "I don't pay you to ask questions." he said.

"For the past two years you've paid me for the honor of having my name on your pay roll." Eleana growled.

"Jarvis will monitor him and I'll assist you. You did read the information as I sent it, didn't you?" Tony said, side stepping her questions.

"I did."

"Can you do it?"

"Of course I can do it." She paused, glancing down at the deadly still man on the table. "You have to swear to me that if anything - and I do mean anything - goes wrong, I won't be held legally accountable. I want it in writing, Stark."

"You'll have it."

"I want it before I start."

"Does he have that kind of time?"

Eleana stopped, checking a few vitals. The sigh she gave was answer enough. "You two are my witnesses," she growled. "Is it ready?"

Tony glanced back at his computer screen, glared at it momentarily, before shaking his head. "As ready as it'll be for this."

Tony had Steve help him move the body to a place in the lab where Dr. Lewis would be able to reach the equipment she needed. Eleana returned from scrubbing up and shooed Steve away. "This is going to take a while. I trust you can give us some music to create this Frankenstein by, right, Jarvis?"

"Of course, Dr. Lewis."

Tony grabbed Steve by the elbow and shoved a slide into his hand. "While the good doctor and I are busy, maybe you can track his print. Have Pepper help you. Maybe we can find out what his story is."

"She's mad at you."

"Well, I guess that's what happens when you mix business and pleasure, but Eleana's a big girl, she'll get over it."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Pepper, not Eleana."

"She's not mad at me. Potts, you're not mad at me, are you?"

"Why would I be mad?" came the flat answer.

"See?" Tony grinned with a shrug. "She'll help you with the computer search. Dr. Lewis, shall we begin?"

"If we must. There's a storm rolling in. I hope you have reserve power incase we get kicked offline?"

"I do."

"Then we're ready."

TBC

So, I know I wrote this last time, but as my computer decided it was hungry for words, I have to write it again. Please feed the writers. We love reviews XD