On The Edge (Science Bros)

Two

The two scientists ended up inside, sitting on the couch in the living room, a blanket draped around Tony's shaking shoulders. Pepper rushed in, after receiving a call from Bruce.

"Thank God," she breathed when she saw the two men. Tony jumped up to his feet, his mind still buzzing, and the couple embraced.

"Are you okay, Tony?" She pulled the two of them to the couch next to Bruce and rubbed his back reassuringly.

Tony swallowed, "Yeah," he lied.

"Why didn't you call me?"

"I, um, I did. I- it wasn't the real you and you kept telling me to jump and um..." Tony looked at his hands.

Pepper clasped them, "It's okay. I'm here now. I'm real."

Tony nodded, "Auditory hallucinations," he reminded himself.

"Bruce told me that you stopped taking your medicine. Care to explain?"

"F.R.I.D.A.Y, um, didn't remind me, and so I stopped taking them." Tony glanced at Bruce, wondering what else he had told his girlfriend.

"Okay. That's okay, Tony."

"I'm trying, Pepper!" Tony shouted, his eyes wild again.

"What did you hear, Tony?" Pepper asked, jumping up to calm her boyfriend down. She held his wrists together to restrain him from leaving and tugged him back onto the couch. "You."

"What did I say?" Pepper probed. Bruce marveled at her patience with Tony, and wandered how many times she'd dealt with his antics before. Tony glanced at Bruce, "That I need to get a hold of my life," Tony explained guiltily.

"No you don't. You're okay now, that's all that matters," she assured him.

Tony ran a hand through his hair. "Can we go to bed?" He sounded like a groggy five year old, asking his mother for permission.

"Yeah, honey," she pulled him up, glancing at Bruce, "Thank you, Bruce," she nodded.

"Of course," he allowed them to get onto the elevator, before taking the stairs up a floor to a guest room, knowing that there was no way he was leaving his friend alone again tonight.

***

"Tony," Pepper chided, looking pointedly at the inch wide paper cup that had just passed to her boyfriend. He bit the inside of his lip, but swallowed the pills down with orange juice without arguing. "Right, sorry."

"Tony, I asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. last night why she wasn't reminding you to take your medicine." Tony locked eyes with her. "And she told me that she had been reminding you, and that you had told her that you were taking them." His eyes flicked down to his plate. "Why weren't you taking your medicine, Tony?" she asked, sliding his hands across the table towards herself.

"I-"

"Tony, you know that you have a mental illness. You told me that you wanted to get better. I know that you were avoiding taking the very stuff that would have helped you do just that. I don't need to know why, but I can't always be here when you need help. I think you need to tell more of friends so that they can help support you when you need it."

"Pepper, I-"

"I'm not saying now, I'm just saying that I think it's in your best interest to do so."

"Yeah, yeah. Okay..." Tony pushed away his half eaten plate and made his way to the lab on the fourth floor.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y, contact me if Tony doesn't eat his meds, or goes back onto the roof please," Pepper ordered once he had left the room.

"Yes ma'am," the robot replied.

"And tell me if anyone shows up unscheduled, or if Tony makes any calls or if he does anything you think is drastic if I'm out, please." Pepper went into her office, looking at her meetings for the day. She was going to have to leave at six. Maybe I'll call Bruce to come over and he can watch Tony... she thought, biting her lip nervously as she logged into get email.

After hours of emailing back and forth between CEO's and bankers, with Pepper checking in on Tony excessively with the security cameras in the lab. It upset her that he was struggling so much, all the while never accepting anyone's help. His hallucinations were getting worse, he wasn't taking his meds, he wasn't functioning like he used to. He needed more support if he was going to continued to isolate himself from everyone.

"Hey, Bruce," Pepper said, holding the phone between her ear and shoulder as she packed her briefcase for her meeting. She had lost track of time and was going to be late soon.

"Hey, Pepper, is everything okay over there?" Bruce asked, stopping his analysis of their latest results.

"Yeah, yeah, thankfully. Listen, I have a meeting from six to eight across town. Can you come hang out with Tony until I can get back? I need to be there in," she glanced at her watch, "Twelve minutes."

"If I leave now, I can probably get there in ten. Um," he cast his eyes around the room. His main lab assistant, Aaron, gave him a quizzical look as the other interns continued working. Bruce pulled his phone down and addressed Aaron, "Can you hold down the fort for a couple hours?"

"Is this about the thing from last night?" Aaron asked, wanting to know where his boss was running off to again.

"Yeah," Bruce sighed.

"Then yeah, see you tonight."

Bruce put the phone back in his ear, mouthing thank you to Aaron. "Pepper? Yeah, I'm on my way now."

Still on the phone with Pepper, but now on the road, Bruce asked, "How is he today?"

"It's complicated. He didn't eat lunch, but that's not really different for him. I just need you to make sure that he eats something for dinner tonight, and takes his medicine. They're in the medicine cabinet in the kitchen, in one of those weekly organizers. And try to talk to him, please, I don't really know what else to tell you."

"Did you figure out why he wasn't taking his meds?" Bruce asked. He had received an email from Pepper earlier that day about Tony purposefully not taking his medicine.

"No. I was hoping he'd tell you." Pepper pressed her lips together. "Thank you, Bruce."

"Yeah, anytime."