The Chitauri arrived through the portal. They attacked the city, buildings were destroyed, people were hurt. The Avengers fought them with everything they had. They worked as a team — a good one, too.

Selvig snapped out of his mind control. Natasha got up to the portal. Hulk flung Loki around like a rag doll. Selvig told Natasha he built in a safety to cut the power source.

They could close it with Loki's scepter.

More Chitauri and Leviathan kept coming out of the portal. They would never be able to defeat them all, not with the way they were fighting.

The government decided to override Fury's command. They used one of Shield's planes to fire a missile into the city. Fury told Tony.

Natasha got Loki's scepter, told everyone she could use it to close the portal. Steve told her do it. Tony told her to wait.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" Steve shouted.

"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute," Tony replied. "And I know just where to put it."

Now, he's on the under side of it, pushing it up towards the portal, using all the power in his suit.

Steve looks on from the ground. "Stark, you know that's a one-way trip?"

"Yeah, I'm aware."

"What about...?" Steve trails off, not wanting to say her name in case Tony didn't want the others to know about her.

And, knowing what Steve's asking, Tony hesitates. He already planned this all out two years ago — what would happen to her when he was gone. And if he doesn't sacrifice himself to save all these people... how could he live with himself? Grace would want it this way — maybe not now but later. She would understand.

Tony says, "Nat, tell Grace and Pepper that I love them, okay?"

"Tony-"

"Just do it. Please."

She takes a shaky breath. "Okay."

Then, he talks to Jarvis. "Save the rest for the return, J."

"Shall I call Miss Potts?" Jarvis asks.

Tony's getting rapidly closer to the portal — to space. "You might as well." But she doesn't pick up.

He flies into the portal, communications cutting out. The suit powers down as the missile hits the Chitauri ship. It explodes.

Grace will be proud. He tells himself that as he looks at the ship's glorious destruction, almost like fireworks behind set off. He tells himself that, even as she grows up without him, she'll be proud of him. He repeats it over and over until he fades into unconsciousness.

~~~~

Down on the ground, everyone waits for Tony to fly back out, but he doesn't. He's no where to be found. Steve regrettably says, "Close it."

Natasha, with a slight hesitation, shoves the scepter into the power source, and the portal begins to close.

Then, when only a small opening is left, a figure falls out. Tony. Steve smiles. "Son of a gun!"

But Thor quickly becomes concerned. "He's not slowing down." He starts to fly up to catch him, but Hulk beats him to it, jumping up and plucking Tony out of the air. He sets him down, and Thor rips off his helmet.

His eyes are closed. Steve's heart drops. "Come on, Stark," he says. That little girl is going to be fatherless. Steve can't accept that. Not now. Not when he's right there.

Then, Hulk roars in Tony's face.

He wakes up, startled. "What the-? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

Steve smiles, relieved. "We won."

Tony smiles, too. "Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's-Let's just take a day- Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

Steve laughs. Thor looks at Stark Tower. "We're not finished yet."

Tony nods. "And then shawarma after."

~~~~

Pepper picked up Grace from Malibu, where she'd been painting and playing with Happy the entire time. Pepper called periodically to tell her what was going on, and Tony called once. Happy had handed her the phone.

"Dad?" Grace asked, taking the phone. Her hair was a mess — her bangs were going in all directions — and she had paint on her hands. She'd been painting the skyline that she could see out her window.

She could hear the smile on her father's voice as he replied. "Hey, sweetheart. How are you?"

"I'm good," she said. She was starting to become hopeful, thinking that he was coming to get her or just coming home.

"Good, that's good." Then, her hopes were dashed with just two words — and the way he said them. "Listen, I-"

"You're going to fight," she said. It wasn't a question. "Things went bad, didn't they?"

"Yeah. Yeah, they did. Coulson, he, uh..." he sighed. "Coulson is gone, sweetheart."

There was a sharp intake of breath. Tears began to spill. Her heart ached. In her head, she heard him say, "Catch you on the flip side." But she took a shaky breath, focusing on the future instead of what had already happened. "Are you going to get hurt?"

"I don't know. But I love you, okay?" She only sighed in response, tired of the fighting. Of him putting himself in danger. He chuckled. "Come on, at least tell your old man you love him."

She relented. "I love you, Dad."

He turned serious. "I'm gonna do everything I can to get back to you, but... sometimes that's not enough."

"I wish it was."

He sighed. "I know. I'm sorry."

"I love you," she said again, a lump in her throat.

"I love you, sweetheart."

"Bye."

"Bye."

The next time he spoke to her was when she and Pepper arrived back at the construction site that was Stark Tower. She ran to him, and they hugged. He was all smiles.

"I kinda destroyed the tower a little bit in the fight," he said.

Pepper rolled her eyes and kissed him. "I knew you would."

He looked at Grace. "Your room was unharmed, though. Actually, it looks even better now." He winked, so she ran upstairs to look at it.

The walls were a light purple, and the bed was a queen, with a comforter to match. It was a trundle, so she had drawers under it, and the headboard was all shelves for her books. Across from it was her dresser with a TV mounted over top. On the wall next to her bed was the entrance to her walk-in closet. And in the corner, a little art studio.

There was desk, an easel, and new canvas. New paints, pencils, colored pencils, and even mediums she'd never used before — like pastels and charcoal — were sitting on the desk. Tony walked in behind her, and she turned to him, a huge smile on her face. She ran to him and hugged him for the second time that day. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Tony laughed. "Well, I figured you needed a place to create all those art pieces that'll be hanging in all the art museums someday."

A few days later, the new tower was unveiled. Not Stark Tower this time, but it had a new name.

The Avengers Tower.