I sure do love it when Stitches randomly gains in popularity again (':

Oh wow, I guess nobody liked my teaser chapter Thirty-Three

What's up, give my Twitter a follow cus I'm funny as fuck and have like 30 followers ): @_marie_mcg_

We all know what happens in Afghanistan...

Tony comes back 128 days later

There's not much that Tony can remember, but there's also not much that Tony can forget. He can remember how hot it was inside the cave, that sort of mix of heat and humidity that once you start sweating, it seems to immediately evaporate. Sometimes, the heat became unbearable, unable to sit, unable to move, unable to talk or walk or sleep. The heat made you sweaty, sticky, smelly it made you mourn the cold, the feel of rain on your skin or snow on your tongue.

And God did Tony miss the coldness of New York, he missed the way New York seemed to smell; of street vendors and sewers; and when did he ever think he would admit that? That he missed such a city that only ever brought him tragedy and pain? Of a city so full of dull, grainy weather and loud traffic? But he did. Tony missed how New York shone at night, he missed how loud the city that Tony grew up in was, he missed dreary dark clouds that he use to watch roll into the city through his Warehouse window. He missed New York rain.

By the time Tony admitted to missing the rain, the water boarding began. As much as Tony is a chatterbox, a spitfire without a pause button, he wasn't a snitch. Stark Mansion was a chamber of secrets and Tony had become the gatekeeper to them all. Tony had so many things to say but his loyalty was built in stone, even if the locality was undeserving, Tony would rather die than to become a traitor to a company that his father had worked so hard to make what it is.

Tony was never sure what was worst in the caves, if it was the unbearable heat or the chilling cold, or maybe the torture and water boarding. But whatever it was, he survived it all. He was strong and resilient and sober for the first time in an awful long time and despite his aching lungs and bruised, pulsing flesh, Tony didn't crack under the pressure, under the beatings or water boarding or starvation.

It wasn't the first time that Tony had been kidnapped, oh no, of course not. It had happened once when Tony was 8 and then again when he was 10. He was young and scrappy and barely hitting puberty, barely knowing what it was like to survive on your own in the outside world, especially when you've lived most of your life inside of bricked buildings and sky scrapping walls. They didn't hurt him, or not intentionally at least, but they did hold onto him for ransom and by the time it took Maria to beg Howard to pay it, Tony was often trapped for weeks.

Tony thought about those times a lot as he waited in the caves, plotting an escape after what had to be weeks that had passed and there looked to be no means of anyone coming to rescue him. Tony hadn't expected anything different. Obie may have been swiping his messes under the carpet for years but he's been looking for opportunities to grabble for the company since Howard died. The kidnapping of Tony was the perfect opportunity to grab the company, tell the presses they were searching, throwing money at all sorts of field agents and search rescue teams, slowing inch his way into the favours of board members, all while Tony suffered and died in these caves.

And like fuck was Tony going to let himself die there, not when Tony had escaped death so many times that Tony and death were great acquaintances. Tony was not going to sit about and just wait to die, not when there was so much more that Tony wanted to do. There was still so much to see, to accomplish, projects to finish and places to visit and people to talk to, smile at, hug tightly, kiss passionately on the cheeks, lips, soft forehead kisses and butterfly soft kisses under the chin the way he use to kiss Steve when they were young and dumb and still didn't know what love was.

So he fought his way out of the caves.

And then he was stranded in the desert. Until of course, by some miracle or because maybe someone up there thought Tony deserved a sliver of luck, he was found.

"Next time, you're travelling with me."And there's nothing that Tony can say because he doesn't know what to say, or how to say it; no sassy, snarky remark or a gushy love letter written in the sand that he has stumbled over to get to Rhodey, to just touch and feel and be held by someone who Tony had thought he would never be able to see, to feel, to hear again. He collapsed, right there, right then, in the boiling sand that burned his exposed knees and the sun that he had been following for miles and miles setting behind the humps of golden sand. Gloved, frantic hands coming to catch him as he falls.

And that's the last thing he remembers.

The next time Tony is conscious, he's in an air carrier, hooked up to all sorts of beeping machines, a trail of wires coming from his body, his mouth dry and feeling like it's stuffed with cotton wool. It's such a familiar moment, of waking up from a deep unconsciousness, of a beeping heart monitor and aching from head to toe. It's so familiar and Tony feels like he's reliving the explosion all over again but somehow, this feels so much worse.

When Tony reawakens, he's being talked to by an army doctor. He's tall and broad and stony faced but he seems to talk to Tony with at least a sliver of empathy because Tony may have been shaped for war but it wasn't a physical war. It was a war of ability, of business and manipulation and spiralling mental health. A mental, realistic war. He wasn't built for combat, he was only human, after all. A broken, human blessed with a brain that makes him useful to keep around but cursed with a bountiful of bad luck.

Starvation. Dehydration. Broken shoulder. Broken wrist. Bruised hip. Internal bleeding. Strongly recommends to take a vacation from work, no operating heavy machinery, no drinking, no drugs, accept for these drugs; these will make you sleepy, the other will keep you up, this one will dull the pain, this one will take you to far off places. Tony's heard it before, he knows the drill, it doesn't mean he'll do as he's told.

By the time the air carrier has landed back on American soil, he's never more glad to be home. And isn't that so strange? For Tony to call a place a home when he's spent so many years living in houses but not in a home? It's not just the thought of being in his own bed, in his own clothes, under his own bed sheets that has Tony's toes curling, it's the thought that he'll be out of sight of the constant concerned stares that everyone seems to give him. It's almost as if nobody has seen Tony Stark in a wheelchair before, jeez.

"Hey Pep, you didn't happen to bring that Cheeseburger I asked for, did you?"Tony is shouting over the turbines of the air carrier, famous dark shades thrown on to shield him from the glaring New York sun. It's May now. He's been gone for so long.

"What the hell do you think you were playing at?"She's angry, she's furious, she's exasperated, she's...she's unbelievably breathtaking looking as she storms onto the runway from the car and Tony never thought he'd be able to look at Pepper again. But here she is. In all her glory.

"Ah yes, I'll make sure to tell my kidnappers not to kidnap me next time, Pepper, don't worry. Maybe they'll listen if I add on a please or a pretty please. Flutter the eyelashes a bit, get the waterworks going, that usually works, right?"

"Tony."It's Rhodey's stop it voice, the voice he use to use back at MIT when Tony was being a bit too much of a show-off or a bit over the top. Tony looks at him offended, a squawk of a protest building in his throat because hey, you'd think people would be happy that Tony is still cracking jokes after such a traumatic experience but Pepper beats him to it.

"How- how are you even alive?"Tony is watching closely, he's always been watching closely but this time it's not due to his raging paranoia but because he's missed watching the way peoples faces move as they talk. He's missed the way Pepper can be so emotional, not in her face but in her eyes. She's always so professional in her face, in her stature and how she presents herself but she's always had a weak spot in her eyes.

And surely everybody has their weak spots, something that just gives everything away. Whether that's the way you stand, the way you look, how your eyes move or your finger twitches, whether you're revealing a hidden emotion, telling a lie, hiding a secret. Everybody has a weak spot and Peppers just so happen to be her eyes. She may be a very strong, independent woman but she's easy to tears and it's the unshed tears in her eyes that give her away, that with one blink from her or one wince of pain from Tony will send her over the edge; a flood of tears. And Tony honestly doesn't think he could take that.

"Must've owed God a few favours, I guess."He cracks a smile, going to dip his sunglasses  to flash her a wink but forgetting about one of his faithful new injuries that Tony can surely add to the growing list of 'Bones, Bruises and Scars That Tony Has Acquired Since Birth; Physical, Emotional and Psychological'. He winces at the shooting pain that seems to soar through him and it's too late to stiffen his wince of pain before Pepper is gasping, the tears brimming her eyes. "Pepper, don't, I'm fine. Look at me! Alive and kicking."

"Barely."Her scoff is watery.

"Stay optimistic, Ms Potts, or I may have to fire you."Tony waggles his finger in that way he has seen Obie use towards him, all condescending and dripping with superiority. But Tony is using it teasingly because he would never fire Pepper and truth be told, Tony doesn't even know where to start when it comes to firing people, he usually gives that job to Pepper and wouldn't that be awkward for Pepper to have to fire herself. "I think I ought to fire you for not bringing that cheeseburger, however, I've been starved in a cave, Pepper!"

"Get in the car, Tony."The soft demeanour as seemed to faded momentarily from Rhodeys tone of voice and isn't Tony so happy for that? Because he'd rather be barked at and chastised than sweet talked and whispered to like a broken doll. Tony shrugs off the help that Rhodey and Pepper reach out to do and gets into the car with only a few hisses of pain. Pepper slides into the seat beside him and Rhodey climbs up front with Happy.

"Good to see you boss. I brought that cheeseburger you asked for."Happy lowers his sunglasses as he looks at Tony through the rear view mirror, holding up a paper Burger King bag. Happy looks equally as distressed as what Rhodey and Pepper do but he's smart enough not to be as over baring as the latter.

"Now this is a man that truly loves me! I could kiss you Happy but I don't think you swing that way."

"Anything to make you happy, Boss."

"Oh you charmer, stop it."Tony winks through his shields at Happy, earning himself one in return and god, doesn't it feel good to flirt again. The car starts and begins to drive and they're not even off the runway before Pepper begins to speak up.

"You've a press conference to go to first, an interview after that and then there's a brief. You've missed a lot since your...absence. Stane wants you caught up to speed and get you straight back to work. The StarkTab production was put on hold, they had to push the new Stark Expo to fall instead of summer and don't even get me started on the military department, Stane has been up to his eyeballs without you."

"The old cunt wouldn't even come to pick me up but he can arrange fucking press conferences and interviews before I've even left Afghanistan. Fucking typical."Pinching the bridge of his nose with his working hand, sliding deeper into the cool leather seats of the car. He's not even been on American soil for half an hour before the demands have started rolling in.

He has thought he'd have at least a day or two to get back onto his feet, grab his bearings, figure out left from right, have a good scope on what he's missed, what's been said about him, read the articles of crying past lovers and hateful competitors that all of a sudden think of Tony as a 'good man with a great heart' now that he's assumed dead. But no, he's being thrown in with the sharks, in the deep end of the swimming pool, head first into a starving lion enclosure.

Fed to the wolves of the media

"I'm sorry, Tony."And she means it, Tony knows because this isn't her fault, Pepper is just the messenger. He sighs, rubbing his hand down his face because he's just so tired and he was stupid to think he would be given a break. Rhodey is silent up front and Tony knows that's not a good thing.

"Cheeseburger first."

Hey hey hey boys and girls and those in between. I hope you liked this chapter cus I was absolutely DESTROYED writing this! But I loved it and I hope you guys loved it to!

Please tell me what you thought and what you look forward to in the next couple of chapters.

What did you think about my twist on the Afghanistan event?

How do you think Steve coped with Tony's kidnapping and do you think his act will change towards him?

What do you think Tony and Steve have in store for their future?

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Peace✌🏼