Lea took a sip but no more than that. It was getting harder to ignore the armor the longer she was in the plane, and she could almost feel the Extremis thickening her blood, trying to scrub her raw and finish remaking her how she was programmed.

Tony kept glancing at her as the trip continued.

"I already called to let Brucey know that we're on our way back," he said. "I'm sure he's going to want to take a look at you."

"That's... yeah, sure," Lea said, because she knew she couldn't convince Tony not to have her checked over. "He'll find some, uh, interesting stuff."

Tony looked at her.

"Interesting how?" he asked, half curious and half wary.

"I, uh, might have gotten a little... upgrade." That was making her want to pull her hair out, and Lea put her head down in her hands again.

"Upgrade?" Tony asked. "Like what kind of upgrade? Implants, prosthetics, what? An Extremis upgrade?"

"Extremis upgrade," Lea said, hissing. "God, it feels like it's trying to scrub me raw inside."

Tony nodded and pulled out one of his super-tablets.

"We'll get to work on an antigen as soon as we're back in the lab," he promised. "For now I can probably make a patch to make it easier."

"Won't be fast enough." Lea sneaked a peek over at his armor. "How much longer until we land?"

"Maybe an hour," Tony replied. "Can't go any faster without stealing a quinjet, and I already promised Clint I wouldn't do that again this month. More trouble than it's worth, most of the time."

Lea swore and got up, starting to pace the plane. It wasn't very long, but she couldn't sit still any longer.

Tony just watched her, keeping an eye on her. And he discreetly sent a message to Bruce letting him know about what was going on.

As soon as the plane landed, Lea pushed the door open and was down onto the ground in seconds, not even waiting for the stairs. She needed to get away from temptation before she did something stupid.

Tony didn't stop her, but made sure to keep her in his sights, just in case. He wasn't going to lose her again, not so soon after getting her back. The conviction of that thought surprised him, and he uncomfortably filed it away for Never.

Lea did head for the car parked at the airstrip. She knew she had to go back to Stark Tower; things would get worse before they got better, she suspected.

Tony followed her, getting into the car as well. He sent a quick, habitual grin to Happy before the driver took off towards the tower.

Lea couldn't hold still for the trip, twitching in her seat and scratching at her skin from time to time, in one place almost breaking skin.

When Tony noticed that, he caught her hand.

"Stop," he said. "I don't care how fidgety you are, quit it."

"You don't get it," Lea said, though she made no move to take her hand back. "This is driving me insane."

"And I think I know by now that you're stubborn enough not to let it beat you," Tony retorted. "Quit scratching."

"Fine, let me get a few tons of sand to shove through your veins," Lea retorted.

"I almost did," Tony shot back. He dug into the side panel of the door and came back out with a smartphone. "Here, play with this if you're so twitchy. It's the beta model."

Lea started playing with it, at first just testing all the apps and stuff on it. But shortly before they got to the Tower, she started actually taking it apart.

Tony watched her take it apart, a bit interested. He could do the same thing, of course, but everyone's style was slightly different.

Lea had it apart in under five minutes, though she had to stash the pieces when Happy parked the car.

"Bruce knows?" she asked tersely, flipping a piece of the phone between her fingers.