Without you (Tony Stark - Pepperony)

Chapter 2 - Nightmares

"We're losing him!" One of the doctors working on restarting Tony's heart yelled urgently through the muffled array of panicked sounds that surrounded the famous billionaire playboy turned superhero. His arc reactor had switched off meaning nothing was stopping the shrapnel from entering towards his heart. There was only a matter of time left to save Tony Stark, and the medic team were running out of options.

"Mulligan work on stopping the bleeding," the same doctor ordered, retrieving the defibrillator. nobody had any intention of giving up on this special patient.

All the while Pepper, after being treated for her minor injuries and cuts was left in incredible worry for Tony. Guilt ran through her that he sacrificed his life to protect her. There was no way he was as selfish as everyone made him out to be. Why else would he try to die in her place. "Tony you can pull through... I know you can.." The anxious assistant of the great Stark mind, muttered repeatedly. Hoping for a miracle. But the doctors had been trying to revive Tony for so long. Was there any chance for a miracle left?

Not from where she was standing.

Tony may have come back from the impossible before, when he escaped three months in captivity. But it was clear to anyone what was happening this time. Tony Stark was dying.

"Clear!" The doctor, ordered above the noise of the resuscitation room, pressing the defibrillator to the genius' chest.

Nothing happened. Tony had fallen into cardiac arrested.

Again and again the doctor tried sending shocks through Tony, attempting at restarting his heart. Never giving up. Hoping they'd save him in time before death caught up with him..

"Dr Lane we have to call it!" The nurse assisting with the emergency procedure spoke out in support of the other doctors' words of insistence. There was no way Tony could come back now. It was too late. "He has been in cardiac arrest for a period too long for a chance of resuscitation to be possible!"

But the first doctor still kept going. He could have been dismissed for his refusal to comply with the decision of the rest of his team. Dr Lane was not just about to let THE Tony Stark die with a simple car crash as the cause. "This man once saved my life! And I'm going to make damn well sure I repay the favour by doing the same for him!"

As the frantic efforts to continue to try and save the patient went on, Tony lay still on the clinical bed, the monitor giving out a constant high pitched sound as his heart failed to respond to any of the help offered to restart it. Not even a single breath of air was inhaled or exhaled from his lungs. And doubt grew whether he was going to survive this.

"Please Tony.." Pepper begged in a whisper, gripping onto the jacket Tony had worn that night. It had all been going to so well, even if he was drunk by the end of it. The jacket still smelt like him, with that rich cologne he always had on. Only when she slid her hand into the jacket pocket did Pepper hear the crinkling of paper inside. "What the..?" With curiosity in her eyes, Pepper took out the paper as she draped her boss' jacket over her arm.

She was unable to stop the tears from falling, or the laugh that sounded so natural, reading over the list on the slightly coffee stained note entitled, 'Things Pepper doesn't like me doing & anything I need to remember about her.'

A bulletpoint that Tony wrote which brightened Pepper's heart if only for a moment, was about two things that Pepper had reminded him about time and time again, 'Remember Pepper is ALLERGIC to STRAWBERRIES, and her birthday is the same day as last year.'

For some reason Pepper felt touched by what she was reading, maybe she just had to admit it. She was in love with Tony Stark, even without trying he had the ability to melt her heart. And it was painstakingly horrible in ways Pepper couldn't possible describe knowing Tony might not live through this for her to tell him how she felt. "Don't leave me like this Tony...you're all I have too you know..."