Infinity

Chapter 60

Marlie's POV

I dragged Tony all the way up the stairs and down the hall to the closed door next to our bedroom. He gives me a questioning look, but I just return it with a sly smile as I get out my phone and hit record.

"You're seriously going to record this?" He is looking at me with an amused expression.

"Yep." I say as I open the door and back in so I can catch his reaction. Oh am I so glad that I got this on camera. Tony's reaction is priceless. His face goes from pure shock, to annoyance, to disgusted in a matter of seconds. He is also completely speechless for a good thirty seconds as he takes in the room.

He eventually finds his voice and he looks me dead in the eye. You would think I just killed his childhood pet, with the look he is giving me. "Marleena Rose Edwards! What did you do!?!?"

I can't help but burst out laughing. Once I finally get control of myself I look up at him and see that his expression is only slightly less horrified. "So? Did I win?"

"What do you think?" He says with an even higher amount of sarcasm than usual. I turn the recording off and put my phone in my pocket. "You're deleting that video." I just smirk in response, knowing full well that he will never be able to get rid of this video with all the precautions I made.

We spend the rest of the evening, baking Christmas cookie and watching Christmas movies. We even managed to get into a flour war, that Tony initiated. It has been one of the best nights we've had in a long time.

I made Tony come to bed with me. I know he is having trouble sleeping, but his body needs rest. I laid awake in his arms, refusing to sleep until he does. After about a hour his breathing changes and I know, that he is finally asleep. I quickly fell asleep soon after.

I look around and see that I'm standing in the strange yellow empty world again. I start walking around trying to figure out what is going on. I suddenly hear movement behind me and I turn around and see a podium. I walk up to it and see six colored stones arrayed in a circle. It's the same colored stones as my other dreams. I examine the podium and the stones carefully. The stones look normal, but on the podium, I found that three out of the six stones are surrounded by a faint glowing circle. The blue one, yellow one, and green one are all circled, while the red one, orange one, and purple one are not. I also notice that engraved on the front of the podium is the word 'Infinity'.

I'm about to brush my fingers over the word, when I'm suddenly grabbed from behind. I can't make out who just grabbed me, but their golden gloved hand is wrapped tightly around my throat. The gloved hand squeezes tighter, completely cutting off my air. Just as I'm about to loose consciousness, I shoot straight up in bed panting.

It was just a dream. I have to keep reminding myself of this as I sit up in bed trying to catch my breathe. After a moment I realize that Tony is gasping and groaning in his sleep next to me. I shove my dream aside and turn to him. He looks completely terrified as he twitches and mumbles inaudible things.

I lean over him and gently try and wake him up. "Tony." He groans again and I just shake him a little harder. "Tony. Tony."

"Marlie, no." He whimpers in his sleep as his breathing picks up.

"Ton..." I try to keep waking him but I'm abruptly interrupted by a suit grabbing me from behind and pushing me against the headboard. I panic. After the dream I just had the simple act of grabbing me from behind, throws me right back in and I cry out in fear and I cover my face with my hands.

My cry must have woken Tony, because I feel him quickly jump into action beside me. "Power down!" I hear him say and then metal clanking. I slowly bring my hands from my face and the suit in pieces on the floor. "I must have called it in my sleep. That's not supposed to happen. I'll recalibrate the sensors." His breathing is becoming more and more shallow as he speaks.

I realize that he is starting to have a panic attack. So I briefly push aside my panic and get up from the bed. "Can we just... Just let me... Just let me catch my breath. Hey, don't... Don't go. Alright? Marlie..." He is becoming more and more panicked, but I would never leave him like this.

I round the bed and push him so he is sitting on the bed. I lean down so we are at eye level and grab both of his hands in my own. "Tony, breathe. I'm not going anywhere." He tries to listen but he is having a full blown panic attack now. "Hey, look at me." He does. "I want to try something okay." I don't wait for him to respond before I begin leading him through an exercise that should help him through. "Tony, I want you to find five things you can see." He gives me a strange fearful look but does as I say. "Now four things you can hear. Three things you can touch." His breathing begins to slow back down as I continue. "Two things you can smell. And one thing you can taste."

By the time I'm finished he seems to be back in control, but we still stay in this position for a few more minutes, before he pulls me onto the bed with him. We lay down on the bed with me buried in his arms. "Thank you." I hear him mumble through my hair.

I look up at him. "Your welcome Tony." I give him a small smile.

"Where did you learn that?" He asks.

"When I was a kid, I had some panic attacks myself and that was the best way to get me out of them." I shrug.

He looks at me with concern in his eyes. "I didn't know that."

"Yeah, well they stopped before I even met Howie and its never come up in conversation so..." I trail off.

Tony doesn't know what to say so he just pulls me closer to him and we both lay their enjoying each others company. After a while he does speak up again. "I'm sorry the suit scared you. Don't worry I'll fix it."

"It's alright Tony. It didn't hurt me it just scared me. The dream that I just had didn't help either." I mumble into his chest.

At my words I feel him tense and the pull away enough so he could look me in the eye. "You had a dream. I'm sorry. I was so focused on my dream that I didn't even realize. Do you want to talk about it?"

I give him a sweet smile. "It's fine Tony really. I've been having dreams like this a lot. It's no big deal." I try to shrug it off, but my words just make him more concerned.

"You've been having these dreams a lot? You should've told me."

I was sweet with how concerned he looked, but it was completely unnecessary. "Tony, I'm serious it's fine. They're just strange dreams, that I can't make sense of. Normally, they just leave me tired and confused. This was the first one that scared me."

My words only made him look slightly less concerned, but thankfully he relented. "Okay, but remember, I'm here for you just as you've been here for me. I care about you Marlie and I want to be there for you." He pulls me back into his chest and I can feel the coolness of the arc reactor against me cheek.

I close my eyes as the exhaustion of the nights events starts to over come me. "I know Tony, it's one of the reasons I love you." I don't have time to comprehend what I just said, because I'm asleep before he has a chance to respond.