Always Been You | Tony Stark

Captiolo (3) Tre ~ He's Back

It had been about three months since anyone had last seen Tony Stark. My leg had healed a great amount at this point, and I was finally able to properly walk on the bionic leg Tony had made me a while ago. I was still living at Tony and Pepper's place but was working on finding my own apartment, though I probably wouldn't officially move out until after what's going on with Tony is resolved.

Speaking of which, I tried helping Rhody out as much as I could, but to no avail. At this point, even I was starting to waver at the thought of whether or not Tony was alive. Rhody said the air force was allowing only a few more searches before they officially stopped looking for him, and I was terrified about what would happen if they did.

I woke up to my phone ringing its loud and obnoxious ringtone. I blindly reached for it, almost knocking it off of my nightstand in the process. I glared at the screen, reading how it was Rhody who had chosen death from waking me up at...

4:57 am.

This man had the balls to call me at 4:57 am knowing the risk, so something big would have had to happen for him to call me this early.

I answered the phone, trying to wake my brain up at least a bit so I can chew his ass out.

"I swear to god Rhodey you better be calling to tell me that Tony has been found or else I am hanging up and then kicking your ass in the morning. Why the actual hell did you call me at almost 5 am?!"

"Well, it's good to hear your voice too Peg." A familiar voice chuckled on the other end of the line.

"No way..." I whisper, shooting up in bed and deftly searching for the switch to turn on the bedside lamp.

"As much as I would have loved to see it does this mean Rhodey gets a free pass at getting his ass beat?"

"Tony!?" I gasped, still not believing what I was hearing.

"Who else calls you Peg? I couldn't sleep so I stole Rhode's phone."

"Only you call, asshole, only you." I chuckled. Tony had made the joke shortly after I woke up from the accident about how now I would have to have a peg leg, and had since been calling me Peg. It's kinda stuck at this point with him, but when other people say it, Tony has them forcibly removed from wherever we are and threatens to ruin them.

It's safe to say he's a bit protective.

"How are you doing? Have you called Pepper yet? Or your aunt? Do you want me to go wake them? When are you coming home?" I shot off questions, my hand running threw my hair as I maneuvered around my bed, searching for where I threw my prosthetic leg so I could get up and put actual clothes on.

"Relax, Peg, relax. I'm all good, just got a scrape here and there I'll be fine. I think we'll be home in... about four or five hours. I would have called sooner but everyone was keeping me busy and all. As for Pepper, you should probably leave her alone for now. I'll call her at a more reasonable hour so she doesn't have to worry about getting Morgan back to sleep. I also don't get my head chewed off again."

I chucked at that remark, stopping what I was doing and putting my leg beside me on the bed.

"So, why did you call me first? I would have thought you would have preferred to wake your aunt or Pepper at the asscrack of dawn than me."

"I just..." There was silence on the other side of the line while he thought of what to say. "Unlike Pepper, I know where I stand with you. You may mainly be Pepper's best friend, but you're one of mine too, and I couldn't call Rhody since this is his phone and he's asleep beside me. As for Liv, I have a feeling she already knows, so you're kinda all I have left."

I stayed quiet for a minute, just absorbing his words. This wouldn't be the first time Tony Stark had shown his vulnerable side to me. When he and Pepper started dating, he would ask me things about what she would like, and when they started having their problems I was one of the people besides Rhody he would talk to about it. He said he liked talking to me since I could get both perspectives of a situation.

The two of us have known each other for a long while, and while we may not have been close at first, he ended up becoming one of my best friends. The same was with Tony and Pepper's relationship, with them starting as boss-employee, then friends, then something more. I was always in the background of their relationship, watching it grow. Until it started to slowly decay.