If They Knew All About You

That Glorious Next Morning

There was something to be said for a bed that stood on the 68th floor of a highrise. Very little of the noise that was so signifying for New York City, for Manhattan especially, could reach him up there. It might even be cozy if the room hasn't been that bright. God, he missed Jarvis. He hadn't really slept all that much. A few hours of passed out drunken rest, but a splitting headache wouldn't let him fall back to sleep. He had some painkillers in the drawer on his nightstand. Those might have taken care of it but he relished the soft hammering of his head. Sweet punishment for his weakness and his pathetic drunken outing. What the fuck had he been thinking? Pepper was probably out of her mind with worry and pissed as hell that he had just taken off. It likely hadn't helped that he had ordered FRIDAY to rejected any incoming calls until further notice when he had bolted from the Compound the night before. He turned and came to rest on his side. The view over the Manhattan Skyline was spectacular as ever. The sky was clear and the winter air so clean he could almost see the earth's curvature from up there. With most of the rooms on his personal floors were still messed up from that Ultron fiasco, he had avoided coming back to the Tower for quite a while. Even his teammates' constant presence at the Compound and everything that came with it, had been more bearable than the sight of the destruction. He'd never even implemented FRIDAY in the penthouse. The loss of JARVIS was still too fresh. Sure. Vision. But that wasn't the same.

At his arrival the night before, the absence of an AI in the penthouse turned out to be a relief though. He had no desire to turn on the lights. Honestly, he wasn't even sure there were any light switches installed. JARVIS had been managing the Tower and Tony didn't need anyone but him to turn on whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. Walking through the ruins of what he and Pepper had built was a lot more bearable in the dark. But now it was morning. Sunlight was streaming in from the outside and with no AI to dim the windows all that was left for him was to face a new day. Tony's glance was still directed at the windows but his eyes were glazed over. He wasn't really focussing on anything. The urge to pick up his phone kept popping into his mind, again and again, only to be blicked away. He could feel it lying behind him next to his pillow, just waiting to be picked up. 5 more minutes. 5 more minutes of peace. His phone was where FRIDAY was waiting to tell him that he had a million missed messages. Well, probably... He bit his lip. Or maybe there weren't any messages and that scenario where Pepper stayed behind to make sure he was okay after he basically told her to piss off to LA was all in his mind. She had left before.

Well, if she hadn't left right when he had told her to leave to Compound, the pathetic display he had put on last night would certainly have done the trick in the meantime. Urgh. He closed his eyes and rubbed his hands over his face. A couple more minutes of the sweet pain piercing his brain. He needed that. He deserved that. With another deep sigh, he dropped his hand from his face, turned around and looked at his phone, reality just lying in wait.

"Alright, FRIDAY. What did I miss?"

"Sir, it's 9:24 am. There are 64 missed calls in your log, I have messages left with 51 of those calls. 48 of the calls were received from Miss Potts, 11 calls from Colonel Rhodes, 2 from Mr. Barton and the most recent 3 from Captain Rogers."

Tony grit his teeth. A sudden rush of relief came over him. Nope. He turned to lie on his back and ran his hands through his hair, fingers knotting around the strands of hair. No, he didn't get to feel happy that he had managed to keep his friends up all night trying to reach him. What the fuck was wrong with him...

"FRIDAY, is Potts still at the Compound?"

"Boss, my sensors at the Compound have placed Miss Potts in your lab for the last 13 hours."

He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. Jackass.

"Tell her I'm fine." His voice low. "Tell her I can't see her today, but that I'll be in touch."