Dented Iron (Hiatus)

Rebuilding

The Avengers and Selvig walk to the center of a footbridge. Alex is carrying a briefcase holding the tesseract, preparing to give it to Thor.

They all watch as Thor and Loki disappear. Each of the members shakes hands, Banner and Alex enter her car and set off back to the tower, to a normal life. Alex still had a world of things to do, but she was willing to do it.

Alex enters the penthouse where Pepper and Rhodey are standing. Alex has a new blueprint out to fix the tower, while simultaneously fixing the rest of New York. All in all, Alex is happy to be alive, and happy that Pepper and Rhodey are here with her.

Alex wishes that could be the end of it. That she could say everything was perfect, but that was beyond the truth.

It was December, beautiful snow falls on the cold ground. And Alex couldn't sleep. Not for the first time in her life, not for the first time in the last several months or the first time this week.

Her life was a continuous cycle, sleep, wake up with nightmares, go to the lab, work on one of her hundreds of projects, try to sleep, wake up, panic attack, lab, nightmares, lab... It was exhausting.

Right now, she was sitting at her desk in her personal lab of Stark Tower. She would have gone back to Malibu, and she thought about it several times, but she didn't have the time to relax.

Alex tossed up the files on the Avengers, the files that she had from Shield. Rogers was having fun as an agent, Romanoff was like his personal babysitter, along with Sharon.

Sharon and Alex had only ever met a few times when they were children but as adults, they didn't see each other. Sharon and Alex were two very different people. For instance, Sharon was obsessed with the idea of Captain America and Alex was not.

A childhood of similar stories led the two-to-two different paths.

Unlike most people in the world, Alex grew up with money, lots of it. She lived in a mansion that had butlers and servants, many of whom served as Alex's only friends. Even as a young girl Alex had a figurative suit of armor around her.

Alex was always a very smart child-a regular chip off the old block-and that was made immediate by the number of science fair trophies and medals gracing the young girls room.

By the age of seven Alex was already smarter and more creative than kid twice her age, hell even adults three times her age. But no matter how smart she was, there was one person who was always smarter, her father. It was his shadow that Alex lived in, even years after her fathers death, she lived in his shadow. Even now, there is still one or two people who have to compare her to the man.

Howard Stark was most famous for his work on a top-secret team and agency to create the world first super soldier. And to Howard, Alex had a lot to live up to.

But not to her mother, not to Maria Stark, she was a kind and thoughtful woman who nurtured Alex and her dreams. Her mother didn't have to tell Alex that Captain America would get up, that he would do what was right, that he was a real hero. No to her mother, Alex was perfect.

Alex's eyes glared at the file of Rogers. The Golden Boy. She understood that she was not the best with working on a team, that she was better alone. But so was Banner, and as far as Alex could figure, both Romanoff and Barton were lone workers. They were assassins for Christ sake.

She flipped through all the others, none of them had the same file that she did. Her assessment was still ringing in her mind 'not recommended'.

"of course, a man who has no idea what has happened in the last 70 years would be perfect for the team" she grumbled. Alex tossed those files away; she hadn't searched through anything else from SHIELD since the day on the carrier.

She had so much else to worry about.

"Jarvis, how long until Manhattan is completely rebuilt?"

"Still a few more months ma'am. However, the buildings are all in working condition and roadways are complete."

"Only cosmetic fixes left" she muttered "good"

"Stark Industries and Damage Control are working very hard" a voice rang out from behind Alex. She jumped slighty and whirred around to see Pepper.

"you weren't in bed"

Alex nodded, she remembered a few weeks ago when she had one of the worst nightmares possible. Pepper tried to wake her up and she, unable to contain herself lashed out. She hadn't meant to hurt Pepper, but even just looking back now she could still see some of the bruises.

"I'm sorry..."

Pepper walked closer her eyes watching Alex closely "you need to talk to someone; this isn't going to get better. You promised no more secrets"

Alex looked up, "I don't think you want to know it"

Pepper looked a little hurt "of course I do. Do you know how hard it is to see you flying off is? How worried I am that one day you won't come back?"

"telling you wont make things better..."

"then tell me why your building all of this?" she pointed to the suit parts lying around the room.

"Pep, I can't... I can't sleep..."

"then tell me why? Please" Pepper stepped closer and Alex, still debating agreed, she had so much to do and she was exhausted, she realized she couldn't do it alone anymore.

"okay... can we go back to bed?"

The two women went back to the bedroom.

"you can't do everything alone anymore. You need people"

Alex nodded "I know... I know it's just so hard."

"lets just start in the beginning, whatever you want to talk about. How about your mom?"

Alex smiled, she didn't even know where to begin or how she began but she did and soon Alex was passed out, her mother's song playing over the speakers in the room.