"So, why am I here?" Tony asked, sitting down in the not-so-comfortable chair. He had to admit, he was a little nervous. Not long ago, he had taken a psych evaluation for SHIELD, and he knew this meeting with Fury had something to do with it. The billionaire tapped his fingers against the arm rest of the chair that he sat in.

Fury sighed and opened up a file on his desk. "Stark, your psych evaluation came back," he began. "I'm sorry, but you're unfit for the Avengers."

Tony's eyes widened. What the hell was Fury talking about? He stood up from the chair, but tried his best to keep his composure. "What do you mean 'unfit for the Avengers'? I'm fit for anything!" He paused. "Look, Fury, I'm better now. Shrapnel's all gone and I've toned down the suit tinkering. I'm better." After what had happened with Aldrich, he promised Pepper he would spend more time with her and get himself better. That led to him stabilizing the Extremis that was injected into her, and getting the shrapnel out of his chest. Now he was trying his best to spend as much time out of the lab as possible. Hell, it had been a couple weeks since he last tinkered with a suit.

"Stark, your mental health is not any better," Fury explained. "You still have the anxiety attacks at the mention of New York." Hearing the city's name made the billionaire take a deep breath. "And the evaluation shows that it hasn't gotten any better since your encounters with Aldrich or afterwards. You need to get that anxiety under control before you can come back to the team." His voice was stern, but he also showed concern for Tony.

The billionaire shook his head. "Fury, I don't need help. I'm fine now. I've stopped the obsessive tinkering of the suits. C'mon, I'm better."

"Wormhole," Fury said, looking up with his one eye.

Tony only blinked once.

"How'd it feel to be up in that wormhole, Stark? How did you survive that? You must have been pretty scared up there."

"Okay!" Tony almost yelled, feeling his breath shorten. He took a few deep breaths, remembering when Harley had told him to breathe. "Fine. I get it. I'm all screwed up still after what happened in New York. I still don't sleep at all. I stare up at the ceiling. And I tried talking about to Banner, but he fell asleep right at the beginning of the story."

Fury sighed. "You do realize he's not that kind of doctor, right?"

"Yes, I realize that." Tony looked away for a few moments. He was getting better. He could feel it. It was just the topic of New York and the night he thought Pepper had died that freaked him out. Never had he told anyone this, but when Pepper was out of town one night, he had an awful nightmare about her actually being dead. Extremis never saved her. When he awoke, he was in a sweat and couldn't breathe. It took him ten minutes just to calm down. And Harley never helped the anxiety when he called and brought up New York. "Fury, I'll get better. Just let me be on the team."

The Director shook his head. "Tony, what do we do if you have an anxiety attack while out on a mission? What happens then?" He paused. "Get help first, then come back to me. Find a therapist, get medication. Something that'll help you out."

Tony didn't want to hear any more of this. With that, he exited Fury's office and made his way down the hallway of the SHIELD base. This wasn't even fair. Sure, he was still getting worked up about certain things, but he was a changed man. He wasn't as obsessive as before, he was spending more time with the woman he loved the most, and he no longer had shrapnel trying to crawl it's way into his heart. A changed man. Did nobody else seem to notice that? And he wasn't the only one on the team with issues. So he had anxiety attacks sometimes. Big deal. It didn't mean he was unfit to be on the team again.

The frustrated superhero made his way out to his car and got in. For a few moments, he just sat there. Fix the anxiety, and he was back on the team.

Easy enough, right?

Later that evening, Tony sat in the lab in Stark Tower for the first time in two weeks. There was only one suit here that he had made after he destroyed all the others. Here there wasn't much to tinker with. Most of his things were at the mansion, and that place was now just a pile of rubble. To take his mind off the fact that he had been denied acceptance onto the Avengers team, he began to add improvements onto the suit. He knew that if Pepper found him here, she wouldn't be all that happy. But this was keeping his mind off of things. Off of everything. No one really seemed to understand that being in the lab was his escape. He used it to get away from everything and relax.

"Sir, Harley is on the line," JARVIS spoke up.

Tony sighed and picked up his phone. "What do you want, kid?" he asked, keeping the thin cell-phone between his shoulder and ear as he continued tinkering with the suit.

"You know that weapon you gave me to protect myself from a bully and ended up using on that guy that attacked us?" the young boy asked.

"Um, yeah," Tony replied.

"Think you could send me another?"

Tony winced as a wire shocked him. "Dammit," he muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"So about the weapon..."

"Sorry, kid. Kinda a one-time deal. Can't you just tell an adult that another kid is bothering you?"

"I did," Harley replied.

"Who?"

"You."

Tony sighed. "There's gotta be someone else. Look, I can't send something like that through the mail, you know."

Harley replied, "So come here and give it to me."

"Sorry, no can do."

"C'mon, Mechanic. Besides, you owe me. That watch was limited edition and now my sister is going to kill me because I gave it to you and you broke it."

Damn. The kid kind of had a point. "Hey, I didn't break it."

"Whatever. Doesn't change the fact that I gave it to you to borrow and now it's broken. You owe me."

"I'll talk to you about it later, okay? You're, er, cutting out."

"No I'm not. I can hear you just fine."

"C-n't u-stand...you." Tony hung up the phone and sat it down on the work bench. For a few more minutes, he sat there, tinkering with whatever could be tinkered with on the suit. After getting shocked a few more time by wires, he finally gave up and turned away from the Iron Man suit. He couldn't even concentrate on something he loved. All because he was denied acceptance onto the team. Since when were a few anxiety attacks harmful to being on a superhero team? He did fight off Aldrich and his team of Extremis super soldiers, after all. He fought that night like he did the day of the alien invasion in New York.

The wormhole...

He almost died...

Pepper didn't pick up the phone...

A one way trip...

Tony's breath caught in his chest, and for a few moments it heaved. With shaky hands and legs, he ran out of the lab and clumsily climbed the stairs. He needed a place to think. A cold place where he could think. He was too hot right now. Sweat dripped down from his forehead. When he got to the final step after what seemed like minutes of climbing the small set of stairs, he tripped and slid down the stairs on his stomach. For a few moments, he had to just lay there and regain his breath. God, he hated this. Tony felt so weak when he was in this state. This was what was keeping him from the team. He wanted his head to be back to normal so he could fight alongside his superhero friends.

"Tony?" Pepper called from the top of the stairs. "Oh my god..."

To be honest, I have no idea where this fic is going. I saw Iron Man 3 last night and absolutely loved it. New favorite Marvel movie at the moment.

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter. Not sure when I'll be updating again 'cause of school and RP blogs. But hopefully if enough of you review, there will be an update this weekend c: