Just off the shore of Little Talbot Island State Park, S.H.I.E.L.D sent 2 of their best agents along with a recently defrosted Captain, to investigate a sudden flood of energy that seemed to wipe out half of the woodlands. Upon inspection, however...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter 19.
"Loving and fighting, Accusing, denying, I can't imagine a world with you gone, The joy and the chaos, the demons we're made of, I'd be so lost if you left me alone / They took you away on a table, I pace back and forth as you lay still, I pull you in to feel your heartbeat, Can you hear me screaming, "please don't leave me", / I don't wanna let go, I know I'm not that strong, I just wanna hear you, saying "baby, let's go home", Let's go home, oh I just wanna take you home, Hold on I still want you, Come back, I still need you."
- Hold On, Chord Overstreet.
_
Five weeks.
It had been five weeks since Lily and Tony had a real heart-to-heart about their family lives, and Tony had tried so hard to avoid that video. Because whenever he watched that video, he found himself confused, angry and drunk, and he was trying to do better. To be better. He'd promised Lily as much, in order for her to not tell Pepper he had to be better.
And for five weeks, he was.
New York was not helping him heal; although that wasn't the only issue he had, it's what he'd use as his scapegoat if necessary. Whilst the Avengers Tower was always busy, people rushing down the long hallways now that he building was completely repaired, a constant influx of people coming and leaving the building, the loud traffic that could be heard if he opened a window, or stood out on a balcony, the upper floors of the tower were very quiet.
Clint had been off-grid for a while, Natasha and Steve were spending more and more time in Washington D.C working with the S.T.R.I.K.E team, Thor had not been back to Earth since he left with Loki and Bruce was currently in India, quietly finishing up some ties there without drawing the attention of Thaddeus Ross. Sure, he had agreed to quietly let Banner go after the Battle of New York, but he was still on the man's radar, and Tony would happily protect the only other man whom he could speak semantics with. The fact it would annoy Ross only added to his enthusiasm.
Pepper, whom he had appointed as the CEO of Stark Industries after the mishap of almost dying last year - palladium poisoning could be a real bitch - may as well of lived on their private jet. She was constantly flying back and forth between New York and Washington DC where she'd been overseeing the building work of a new Stark Tower, but she spent most of her time at the Stark Industries HQ in Los Angeles. Whilst Pepper had asked him to join her, he didn't want to sit and explain how the place brought back bad memories of Obadiah Stane and everything leading up to his attempted murder, followed by the revelations he'd made afterward about someone who was supposed to be his friend.
