Out Of Time

thirty-seven

Upon arriving home, Happy had to help Y/N to her room, after she had refused Tony's help. Tony went down to the workshop while Pepper and Natalie got to work with fixing the whole Monaco incident. Once Y/N was alone, she had JARVIS sound proof the room and she called Coulson.

"Agent Rogers, how are-"

"First, I'm pissed that I wasn't informed that Romanoff would be added to the mission. Second, I'm injured and really need a way out."

"I saw the footage. Are you okay?"

"No. The doctor wants me off of my foot for at least a week. How am I supposed to do anything with a bum foot?"

"Use it to your advantage."

"For what? Tony is dying! There's nothing left for me to do! Unless there is and you're just hiding the plan from me."

"Y/N-"

"I'm so done with this! I'm done with SHIELD!" Tears formed in her eyes. "I just want to go home... I just want my brother... I can't-I can't do this, Phil," she cried. "I can't watch him die. Everyone else has died. I can't watch the man I love die."

Meanwhile, Rhodey came by to talk to Tony about the situation in Monaco. He found Tony in the workshop, sitting in one of his cars while JARVIS showed him information on the man who attacked him, Ivan Vanko.

"Tony, you gotta get upstairs and get on top of this situation right now," Rhodey demanded. "Listen. I've been on the phone with the National Guard all day, trying to talk them out of rolling tanks up the PCH, knocking down your front door and taking these." He pointed to the suits standing along the wall. "They're gonna take your suits, Tony, okay? They're sick of the games. You said nobody else would possess this technology for 20 years. Well, guess what? Somebody else had it yesterday. It's not theoretical anymore." Rhodey walked up to Tony, who was sweating and pale. Rhodey set a hand on his friends shoulder. "Are you listening to me? Are you okay?"

Tony looked at Rhodey, clearly not okay. He hit Rhodey's arm before plastering a small smile on his face. "Let's go," Tony said, sliding over to the other side of the car to get out. He opened the door, grunting in pain as he went to stand up but fell.

"Hey, hey," Rhodey quickly ran up and caught him. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I should get to my desk." Rhodey began helping him to the desk. "You see that cigar box?"

"Yeah."

"It's palladium." Tony fell into the chair, grunting in pain, and took out his arc reactor as Rhodey opened the box.

Rhodey turned around to see the arc reactor letting off smoke. "Is that supposed to be smoking?"

"If you must know, it's neutron damage. It's from the reactor wall."

Rhodey carefully took the reactor from Tony and took the palladium out, inspecting it. "You had this in your body?" Ignoring him, Tony grabbed a new piece of palladium and the reactor and turned away from Rhodey. "And how about the high-tech crossword puzzle on your neck?"

"Road rash. Thank you." Rhodey leaned back against the table and watched Tony put the reactor back in and start drinking a green liquid. Tony noticed that is friend was watching him. "What are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at you. You wanna do this whole long gunslinger act and it's unnecessary. You don't have to do this alone."

"You know, I wish I could believe that. I really do. But you've gotta trust me. Contrary to popular belief, I know exactly what I'm doing."

"Oh, really? Okay."

"I'm telling you-"

"What about Monaco?"

"What about Ivan Vanko blowing himself up during an escape attempt? I crushed his tech with my hand. It's gone. And that fight on the- on the track-"

"It was too close, Tony. You know that. Y/N is upstairs with stitches in her foot and a burn on it too. Happy and Pepper were on the track too, we're lucky that nothing happened to them. There are people in your corner Tony. But that was too close."

"It was kind of close." Tony sighed, looking up at Rhodey. "Tell me what to do coach."

"First, you need to go upstairs and make a statement. Let them know that Iron Man is back and that you're ready to be a team player. Second, thank Natalie and Pepper for saving your ass with the press right now. And third, you need to actually apologize to Y/N." Tony looked away from Rhodey. "I've seen the way you look at her... and Pepper. You can't have both. And, if you kept going the way you're going, you may not have either."