I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update...like two years too long actually oops? My job just sapped away any and all ambition for my writing. Yay McDonald's! -_- But you can thank Raign's version of 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' for this final chapter and hopefully an ending you'll all like. Thank you for all of you who have not forgotten this story :)

Realizations:

Knockin' on Heaven's Door:

Tony winced as his back protested the movement from bed to wheelchair.

Pepper stood off to the side and watched worriedly. Tony was being released today with strict rules to rest and wear the back brace he was currently sporting underneath his shirt.

Tony flashed her his trademark grin and she returned the smile.

She walked behind him and pushed him out of the room.

Tony was met by applause and cheers by the other Avengers as they headed outside the hospital.

Pepper helped him into the car while Ant Man shrank the wheelchair and put it on the dashboard.

Pepper nodded her thanks and climbed into the car.

On the way home, Tony's thoughts lingered on Steve. He had looked through all of the familiar faces around the hospital but hadn't spotted his. Was Steve still blaming himself or did he simply not wish to talk to him? Tony was going to find out.

The car pulled into the driveway and Ant Man flew up with Wasp and unshrank the wheelchair.

They helped Tony into it and went inside the house.

Hours dragged by as Tony adjusted to life in his house confined to the chair...even temporarily.

Tony wheeled himself into the kitchen late in the night. He was starving but didn't want to wake Pepper up.

Tony looked up at the crackers in the cabinet that taunted him.

Stretching his arm, he was caught off guard as he slid from the chair on to the floor.

Groaning in irritation, Tony started to pick himself off the floor only to be met with the familiar look of Steve's uniform in his face.

"Just the man I was hoping to see. Mind helping a guy up and not telling anyone else about this? " Tony asked him and flashed him a cheeky grin.

Steve sighed and carefully picked him up, setting him back in the chair.

"Awesome. Now mind handing me those crackers up there? It seems I lack a few inches."

Steve took in Tony's thin frame. Three weeks in the hospital and only one of those weeks with actual food left him lookig like a skeleton of his former self.

"Why didn't you ask Pepper for food?" Steve asked, handling him the box.

"Ha, he talks finally. I didn't ask Pep because I already have to see the sympathetic looks from everyone else and if I have to see it from my fiancé my heart'll break," Steve looked away, "Although you're a different story Steve. Something on your mind?"

"Why'd you do it?" Steve blurted out.

"Do what?" The question made no sense to him.

"Jump in front of those damn bullets! Why'd you have to take a hit meant for me? You don't owe me anything! "

"You're right, I don't owe you anything but neither do you. I took those bullets for you because I'm knockin' on heavens door," Tony nearly burst out laughing at Steve's confused face, "This arc reactor keeps my damaged heart beating every day and every day I wonder if it'll keep beating. I'm not going to live forever, that much I know so why not make my life worth something? I'll admit I was wallowing in self-pity before I was shot but when I saw that gun pointed at you I couldn't let you die. You're my friend Steve and a damn good Avenger."

Steve smiled, tears glistening in his eyes.

"Thank you Tony...for everything. "

-Fin-

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Thank you for reading this story despite the long wait on this last chapter. I quite miss that cartoon but I will always want to write fan fiction about it :)