FanFic.nl

Being a Stark [Superfamily]

Chapter 35

Tony’s flying. His body is weightless, he’s seeing nothing more than clouds. There’s no wind touching his face. He must be in the suit. He must be on his way somewhere. Maybe he fell asleep?

“JARVIS?”

His voice is hoarse. He blinks a few times but it feels like his eyelids are not moving at all.

Tony looks around. His head feels dizzy, like he’s been drinking too much. But he doesn’t feel drunk. Not really. He feels… good? In a way? There’s no pain, not even in his wrist. He touches it for a moment. Then he realizes he’s not in his armor.

It’s just him. And he’s flying.

It’s nice.

“JARVIS?” he asks, not remembering if he’s gotten an answer yet. He moves forward for a bit, somehow knowing how to do that. He somehow feels that he’s moving forward, but there’s no surface, nothing else indicating that he’s moving again. He keeps on going, it’s probably just an illusion. He goes on, and on, until suddenly the light disappears and he’s hovering in a starry sky.

He stops again, looking behind him. The light is still right there; there’s a straight line that divides the two places. Tony tries to turn back, but no matter how much he tries to get there, the light seems to be getting further away from him. So he stops, turns back to the dark.

“Tony.”

It’s not shouted, nor actually spoken. It’s almost as if it’s coming straight from his head. Tony looks around for a bit, seeing nothing other than stars. He reaches out a hand, and much to his surprise he can actually take one of these stars between his fingers.

“What the…?”

“Tony.”

Tony makes another sharp turn, but once again the sound only seems to emerge from his head. He sighs, and takes the star closer to his eyes to inspect it. It’s just a little ball of light. It’s not warm, nor does it buzz or anything else like that. It’s just… there.

He lets go of it again. The star hovers a bit in the air. Then, suddenly, a shape seems to emerge from it. Tony flies back a bit when he sees somebody standing next to him.

“Tony,” it says, sounding just like the thing in his head. Tony hovers forward a bit, reaching out his hand again to have a touch. Once it makes contact with the dark figure, it lightens up for a bit before shifting into an actual person. Somebody Tony recognizes.

Steve, his mind tells him. Tony automatically puts a hand on the man’s cheek, slowly caressing his skin as their eyes make contact.

“Steve?” he asks, just to be sure. The figure nods.

“It’s me, honey. You need to wake up, okay?”

“But I am awake?” Tony shakes his head. Steve does the same, putting a hand on top of Tony’s against his cheek.

“Just do it for me, okay?”

But then he disappears again, seemingly dissolving in a light blue smoke. Tony gapes at it with an open mouth, but then he clears his throat and blinks a few times. Surely, Steve will be back, he won’t just leave like that. Tony moves forward, reaching for another star. This time, he puts the little thing against his lips, suddenly feeling the need to give it comfort, to watch over it. He’s feeling very protective over this particular little star that he doesn’t really want to let go of it, either.

Eventually he does. It falls out from his hands, hovering into the air for a few short seconds until another figure appears. Tony reaches out for it immediately, getting figure a little bit smaller than him in front of him. Tony takes a deep breath at the warm feeling he’s getting while looking at him.

“Dad, hey,” Peter says with a smile. Tony smiles back. He pulls the kid into a strong hug, taking in his scent but noticing that here isn’t any on him. That’s odd. “I need you to wake up, okay? For me? Can you do that?”

Tony wants to nod, to say yes. But he doesn’t know if he can do that.

“Just focus on my voice,” Peter says as if he’s read Tony’s mind. The man nods, holding out his hand until it’s touching Peter’s. He squeezes his fingers, feeling Peter squeeze in return. Good, that means it’s real. He hovers forward, following Peter. “Good, you’re doing good.”

Suddenly, there’s somebody grabbing his other hand. With a quick look he sees it’s Steve. He’s back! Good! That’s just… great. His two favorite people holding on to him, both of them giving him a calm smile.

“Tony, just take a deep breath, okay?”

He frowns, then. He can’t remember that he’s been having it difficult to breathe? He doesn’t let go of their hands, but does try to take a deep breath. It’s as if he hasn’t been breathing at all since he’s here, because taking that gulp of air suddenly brings him into a coughing fit.

Oh, there’s something stuck in his throat, he thinks.

“Try to breathe, Dad,” Peter tells him. He feels a few pats on his back while he tries to get through the fit. But he keeps on coughing.

He wants to tell him that he can’t, that there’s something in the way, but when he feels again, he finds that whatever has been in his throat is now gone. He coughs some more, letting everything out that has been piling inside.

“Good, you’re doing good honey,” Steve says, still holding on to his hand. “Just follow our voices, okay?”

Tony nods, letting Peter and Steve pull him along to where they want him to go. He turns his head once more, shortly. The light side is far away now, barely even visible. It’s alright, though. The stars are more beautiful to look at for now.

“Try and open your eyes.”

Tony shakes his head. Suddenly, Steve and Peter are gone. So are the stars. What’s going on? He tries to feel around but there’s something holding his hands. He tries to shuffle a bit; realizing he’s lying down in a bed? What is going on?

“Mr. Stark, are you with us?” another, unfamiliar voice asks. Tony lifts his head up to the source of the sound, but doesn’t speak. He can’t, his voice doesn’t want to help. Instead he nods. Yes, he’s with them. Though he doesn’t know where exactly it is. It couldn’t be this darkness. “You’ve been in surgery, sir. You returned to your room this morning, and you’ve been asleep ever since. Can you open your eyes for us?”

Tony shakes his head. He has no idea where his eyes are. Somebody squeezes his hand.

“C’mon, Dad,” Peter says on his right. Tony lets out another cough as he tries to fight through it. He needs to find his eyes, how does he open them? But, he knows where they are. They’re on his face. The problem is that they’re feeling extremely heavy. As if something has been dropped on top of it.

“Tony, just try,” Steve says next to him. Tony’s left hand is pulled up and suddenly pressed against a pair of lips. He’s confused; why is Steve actually here? Isn’t he supposed to be in Wakanda? He can’t be sitting right next to him, can he? That was just a dream, right?

His eyes fly open nonetheless. The shock stronger than whatever is keeping his eyelids down. He blinks a few times; the lights have been dimmed, which is good. Tony tries to lift up his head, to see where everybody is. The first person he catches is Peter, smiling at him. He looks pale, as if he hasn’t been sleeping at all. Tony pulls his hand out of his to put it against his cheek. Peter closes his eyes and leans into the touch.

“Welcome back, Dad,” he says. Tony can’t speak, his throat hurts when he tries. So he just nods and blinks once. Then he turns to his left, where, much to his surprise, Steve is actually sitting. He’s in a wheelchair, wearing a hospital gown. There’s an IV-bag attached to his arm and he, too, looks a bit pale

Tony frowns, he wants to ask what happened. When he tries to think of what he remembers last, it’s mostly blurry. He’s aware that he’s in the same room he’s been in for the past few days. When he looks outside, he sees that it’s raining. He’s surrounded by doctors, none of which he can really tell by name – Dr. Palmer handed his case to the specialists, so he hasn’t seen her in… he doesn’t even know.

“What day is it?” he asks, voice raspy. It’s mostly just breathy sounds, but somehow Peter understands him.

“It’s the eighteenth of November, Dad,” he says. “You’ve been here for about ten days now.”

“You were being monitored, but your condition was getting worse,” the Doctor adds. Tony tries to remember his name, but he can’t. His eyes widen when, next to him, he sees Dr. Cho herself.

“There are still some tests being made. You, on the other hand, are going to be getting better now. I just wish I had been here sooner so I could have used the cradle,” she admits. Tony nods at her, telling her it’s okay. She couldn’t have known after all.

“We had a tough time, with you being unable to get on the transplant list. Luckily, Mr. Rogers decided to help. Even more luckily that he was a match, too.”

Tony turns back to Steve. It’s weird, seeing him like this. Tony watches his hand resting in Steve’s and wonders if he should pull away. He’s sure Steve is expecting everything to be fine now, but it’s not, really. They’re not fine. Too much has happened.

But he shouldn’t bring that up now, right?

“Yeah, Steve’s O positive, meaning that he could donate!” Peter adds happily. “It was crazy, he just arrived here and you just- you passed out and it was-! I mean, we were panicking at first because we got a call in the middle of the night about you being in coma, but suddenly we heard Steve yell from over the line that he was a willing donor and stuff!”

Peter talks excitedly, but it doesn’t really get to Tony. He’s mostly tired, wanting nothing more than to just sleep it off, catch a few hours and eventually get back to his workshop. It’s been too long since his fingers have been busy!

The doctors check him for a little while. There’s another blood sample, a look into his eyes and a quick check in his mouth. After that, they make sure his vitals are alright before they leave him alone again in the room.

“We can’t stay for long. We’ve already been here half an hour and it’s only one hour at a time,” Peter warns him the moment the doctors are gone. He fishes out a tablet from his bag and hands it to Tony. “I thought you might want this for a little while?”

Tony smiles, taking it from his son’s hands with a thankful nod. With his hands now freed from both their grasps, it’s easier to move around again. But, before he can turn the tablet on, he drops it on his legs, pulls down the blanket and takes a good look at his stomach.

A large bandage is put on. It’s a bit bloodied, but it seems dry for now. When he touches it, he doesn’t feel pain but mostly just uneasiness.

“Yeah, that’s a piece of Steve you got in there, isn’t that cool?” Peter asks, clearly too enthusiastic about it. Next to Tony, Steve just shrugs.

“Preparing for the surgery wasn’t easy. They needed to make contact with Dr. Cho to get the anesthetics right and even then I still woke up during the surgery. Didn’t feel any pain so that’s that at least,” Steve explains. After Tony covers himself back up, Steve reaches for his hand again, holding it close to his chest. “When you passed out I thought I had come too late. You looked so awful, Tony.”

Tony raises an eyebrow. Steve rolls his eyes.

“You really have trouble staying serious, don’t you?” he asks. Tony then shrugs as well. He wants to pull his hand away, to keep Steve from thinking too positively about them here. But not right now; the man just saved his life in a complete selfless act.

He doesn’t meet Steve’s eyes. Not at all. It’s probably also how he discovers the handcuffs around Steve’s left hand. The ones that attach him to his wheelchair. Once he sees Tony stare at it, Steve sighs.

“It’s alright, Tony. I knew it would happen if I would come here,” he admits. “They’re only doing their job, after all.”

Tony doesn’t notice his breathing speeding up, but he can feel his heartbeat rising. His eyes stay glued on the cuffs, his brain unable to understand why it’s attached to Steve, of all people. Who ratted him out? Who was so heartless as to report Steve to the authorities?

Tony turns to Peter, to see what he’s thinking about it. But, in the time he’s been unconscious, Peter surely has already gotten used to the idea. He’s probably not as surprised about it. Still, Tony can catch a glimpse of sadness in his eyes as he desperately avoids looking at the cuffs.

They stay in silence for the next twenty minutes. After that, Peter gets ready to head back home. He sits up, walks to the side to put on his coat, and puts his stuff back into his bag. Steve doesn’t move at all. His hand is no longer holding Tony’s since he’s been on the tablet ever since. When Tony has asked to see Steve’s scar from the surgery, all he’s finding is a dark pink red line. Something that looks like a week-old suture. Not something that happened the day before.

The tension is strong when a nurse comes to pick up Steve and bring him back to his own room – where-ever that is. At the door, Tony can see the officers standing there. They don’t look comfortable at all at the idea that they have to guard the one and only Captain America. Tony wishes they just wouldn’t have arrested him.

“There’s another meeting for the accords in two weeks,” Steve suddenly says before he’s rolled away. “It’s probably the last one needed. If that one goes well, our team will go free.”

Tony nods, understanding what Steve is trying to say. He’ll go along for now, without a fight. But if there’s no change after that meeting, he won’t be so nice anymore. Tony doesn’t want him in a cell for the rest of his life, so he’ll probably not be there to help against his escape.

Then Steve is out of the room. Peter stands there for a little moment, eyes averted from the scene. There’s tears threatening to roll out. Tony reaches out for him, indicating that he needs to come close. Peter drops his bag again and sits on the side of the bed, allowing Tony to hug him tightly. It’s not an easy position, given the immobilization he’s currently in.

“I’m sorry, I’m so happy that you’re going to get better. But I also didn’t want Steve-“ he doesn’t finish. Tony just pats his shoulder, pressing a quick kiss against his hair. “It’s just- he came to save you, and now they’ve taken him into custody. They’ll transport him away this evening.”

Tony nods, still unable to speak. He lets out a long sigh, allows Peter to pull back. The two look at each other for a moment before Tony points his finger at Peter’s chest.

“I’m doing fine, Dad,” Peter says, understanding what he’s asking. “Harry’s going to school now. It’s actually quite funny, because he’s got the biggest crush on MJ, and she’s being completely awkward around him.”

Tony smiles when he sees Peter do the same, despite his tears. He lifts his hand up until it’s in Peter’s hair, and then he pulls him forward again. A short kiss is pressed against the teenager’s forehead. After that, he lets go of him.

You go home, son. Go enjoy your evening.

He doesn’t need to say it, but Peter understands it either way. He stands up to take his bag again. Then he starts walking to the opened door. He gives Tony one last look, then a wave. Tony nods at him with a smile. After that, Peter’s walking out.

Tony goes through his tablet for a little bit longer. After that, he just lies his head back down. He falls asleep faster than ever.

There are some more tests over the next few days. The doctors are quick in realizing his new liver is fast in stabilizing itself again. As a regenerating organ, one would expect it to take a while for it to get to a good size that would be considered normal. As it is, it’s only after three days that they come up with the CT that shows him a picture of a seemingly three-month-old transplanted liver.

“It’s amazing,” Dr. Cho says, though she’s not as surprised as the other doctors. “Your liver is working just as well as Steve’s. It’s burning through your medications more quickly than they used to so we’re going to have to change your dose again.”

“Any change in another part in the body?” Tony asks. It’s a genuine question, one he’s been wondering ever since this morning when he walked towards the bathroom and accidentally broke the sink. When he looked into the mirror, he couldn’t help but notice the slight change in size of his muscles. They’re not as big as Steve’s, but they’re still lager than he can remember.

“It does seem like the serum has… merged a little bit with your DNA. With your blood passing through the liver to be cleaned, it’s basically spreading the small amount of serum you’ve got over all of your body.”

Tony takes the CT-picture to have a good look at it. Meanwhile, the nurse starts pulling away the bandage to clean his wound, only to snort when she sees the state of it.

“It’s incredible,” she says. Dr. Cho nods.

“You’re not healing as quickly as Steve, but your suture shouldn’t be looking like this yet. It’s truly fascinating.”

Tony hands her the picture again. His left wrist moves with ease again. That’s good. So do his fingers. There’s no stiffness in them anymore.

“Is it temporary?” he asks. Dr. Cho shakes her head, hands still holding Tony’s chart.

“We don’t know,” she admits. “For now, it doesn’t seem like it. But the amount you have is significantly smaller than Steve.”

Tony nods, though he’s not particularly sure what to think of this. He’d been expecting that he would be staying in here for another two weeks or so, but after what the other doctor just told him… It seems like he’ll be home by the end of the week. Though, regular check-ups with Dr. Cho will be necessary. While she’s no expert on the Super Soldier serum, she’s the one who knows most about it other than Bruce, and Tony’s not seeing him anywhere around.

Another part of suddenly having a small glimpse of Steve’s powers is at how augmented everything is. If this isn’t even close to what Steve is feeling, Tony really feels sorry for the man. He’s constantly on edge, hearing noises from too far away to even smelling what his neighbor is eating in the room next to him. He’s no longer in ICU, having been brought over to a private room on a transplant-recovery department. His visiting hours are much better now, though given that Pepper still has a company to look after, she’s not here as often as she was when his survival wasn’t guaranteed. He’s not expecting Peter tonight, having told him to take a day off, swing around town for a bit. Though he wouldn’t be surprised if he would pass by just for a few minutes before visiting hours are over.

After he’s alone in his room again he decides to get out of bed for a moment. Just because the scar is healing faster than it should be doesn’t mean that it still isn’t hurting. He groans when he pushes himself upright. When they were alone, before the nurse came by, Dr. Cho told him that his healing process reminds her a bit of Peter’s after the Goblin’s attack. Of course, she couldn’t compare it completely since, once again, Peter’s had a full dose of venom and Tony just has a small bit of it.

He’s starting to form a headache again. His thoughts are going much faster than before, and he finds that he can’t quite catch up to it after a while. With input coming from everywhere, he can understand what Peter meant when he said that the lenses on his suit help him focus more. It almost feels like Tony needs one of those of his own. Oh, shit, what has become of him…?

He hears footsteps half a minute before there’s a knock on the door. By the sound of the heels, he figures it’s probably Sharon given how fast she’s walking. She’s called a little while earlier, but she couldn’t come back yet. Tony didn’t blame her for it; she was on a SHIELD-mission and she couldn’t compromise it. Though she came close to it, he thinks.

“Tony, are you in there?” she asks. Tony, who realizes he’s standing in the bathroom staring at his own face, shakes himself awake a bit and turns back around.”

“Yes, just come in,” he says, voice still raspy. The door opens while he walks back to his bed. Suddenly there are arms surrounding him and a girl about his size hugging him tightly. He chuckles a little bit, patting her back. “Here’s my Munchkin.”

“You asshole, don’t you ever almost die again when I’m not here!” she hisses at him, punching him on the shoulder. Tony loses his balance for a moment, but she holds him back.

“Yeah, fine, next time I’ll wait to die until you’re by my side, how’s that?” he jokes, rubbing his shoulder. Sharon punches him again.

“You’re not funny at all!” she returns, though there’s a small smile on her lips. Good, that’s what Tony was trying to achieve. “Actually, I just came from Norway. There was a crashed ship there we needed to check out.”

“What’s so special about a crashed ship?” Tony asks with a frown. He pulls away from Sharon to sit himself back down on the bed. Sharon takes place on the seat next to him and pulls up the files.

“I’m not really supposed to be showing you this, but it kind of involves a friend of yours,” she admits. Tony gives her a confused look before opening up the file, taking a look inside. “It’s not just a ship; it’s a spaceship.”

There’s pictures of the crash site, a ship as big as Stark Tower itself, landed on an open field. There’s smoke everywhere, people being evacuated away from it, dressed in clothing that don’t seem from this century.

“Asgardians,” Sharon explains while nodding. She then points towards one man with long dreadlocks and a sword hanging over his back. “According to this guy, their home has been destroyed. They were going to build a new home somewhere in Norway. But they encountered an enemy ship and they’ve lost their King and Prince somewhere in Space.”

“Their King being Odin?” Tony asks, going to the next page. Sharon shakes her head.

“No, according to them Odin is dead. Thor is the new king. They said that, whoever this new enemy is, he threw Thor away into space like he was nothing. Loki then used some leverage to convince him to let everybody go.”

Tony looks through the pictures. There’s a woman in a white suit looking like she’s about ready to fly back in space and kick somebody’s ass. Then there’s another few aliens that don’t seem to fit in with the Asgardians. The last page he comes by is a familiar face. His eyes open wide.

“You recognize her, don’t you? She’s been in SHIELD’s custody for a while before. How she got on the ship is unclear since last we knew she was still on Earth.”

The picture is in black and white, but he can just easily imagine the bright purple color of her hair. Though, due to a long time away it seems like the brown is already coming back. She looks like she’s been into battle, wearing a suit that makes her look ready for the arena. Tony takes a deep breath, remembering what it is she could do.

“Tony, SHIELD never really told us much about this girl. What’s the deal with her?”

Tony looks up at his cousin. He doesn’t really think it’s a good idea to keep it quiet.

“She came down with the Chitauri on the day of the invasion. When I destroyed the base, they all died except for her. Which is why SHIELD took special interest in her,” he explains. He pulls up his tablet and logs in to his hidden files. There he brings up her case. “The Hulk found her, kicked her ass, but she didn’t die despite it. So we took her in. She was watched almost the entire time by one of our team to make sure she wouldn’t break free.

“Until Fury decided that she could be a part of the team, instead. You know, with Thor back in space, he probably figured the team could use another alien. Everybody agreed, but I just- I never really trusted her. To be honest; she scared me, okay?”

Sharon takes the tablet from him as she pulls up video files of some of the rescues Yael has done in the past. There’s not a lot, and she’s never recognizable due to the outfit.

“She took the codename Element – thought we could get in trouble if we called her ‘Avatar’ so we didn’t use that opportunity. But after a while, she pulled a Phoenix on us. She lost control, the Hulk had to take her out. She lost her memories ever since and somehow befriended both Deadpool and my Son.”

“Holy crap, that’s intense,” she admits. “It sucks that SHIELD keeps these things hidden from us.” Tony just shrugs in response and takes the tablet back from her.

“Has she spoken yet?” he asks. Sharon shakes her head.

“Not really, she seems somewhat in shock.” Then Sharon’s phone goes off again. A sigh comes from both of them as Tony closes the file again and locks the tablet once more. “Carter here.”

Tony takes a deep breath. He’s got a feeling that things are about to get much worse now. Thor’s gone, Loki’s out there somewhere again. A full civilization from outer space now seeking refuge on Earth… It’s getting closer and Tony’s feeling like he’s completely out of time to stop it now. He should have known, should have perfected the Ultron-project and tried again. He should have prepared the world more than this.

Sharon sighs next to him. Tony blinks at her. She hangs up the phone.

“You heard about the explosion in Midland Circle, right?” she asks. Tony nods, remembering reading about it this morning. He asked Vision if he would take a look, but according to him there wasn’t anything there to be found anymore. The only news he had to give was the passing of Daredevil – the guy who had disappeared for a while but only returned for this last gig.

“The action’s just coming from everywhere, isn’t it?” he asks as Sharon starts to collect her things. She just laughs nervously.

“You don’t say. I suppose I should go and see what they need me for. Are you going to be alright here?”

Tony shrugs with a smirk.

“Nowhere I can go for now,” he says in defeat. Sharon just smiles sadly at him before leaning forward to kiss his cheek. Then she pulls on her white coat again and hurries back to the door.

“Be safe, couz,” she tells him. Then she hurries out, taking her files and everything else with her. Tony doesn’t respond. Instead he takes a deep breath and tries to calm his entire body down. Being nervous isn’t going to help him get out of here, after all. He looks up at his IV-bag, seeing that the thing is nearly empty. He just wishes he could take it out.

He could really use a talk with Steve now, a way to pull him back into reality. Somebody to tell him that it’s going to be alright. But Steve isn’t here, he’s in prison. Locked up because he wanted to help Tony, to save his life.

At least he’s not at the Raft. That would have been much worse. They’re just waiting for the trial until after the business with the accords are done.

But crap, he still can’t shake the idea of Thor being gone. Loki, he doesn’t care too much about, but Thor always seemed invincible to him. If this person can bring him down, what use is he, a mere human, in rescuing the world when it’ll come. And it’ll eventually come. There’s no more denying that.

He takes a few deep breaths and keeps on looking at his IV.

This isn’t going to work. He can’t do anything here. Without another thought, he closes the line to prevent it from leaking everywhere. Then he grabs some tissues from the table, rips off the bandage on his arm and pulls the catheter out. It doesn’t hurt at all, so he presses on it for a moment to stop it from bleeding. After making sure that there won’t be any unnecessary blood loss, Tony hurries to his closet where he takes out a fresh pair of clothing Peter brought along a few days back. He puts it on with difficulty because of the large scar on his torso.

If I wanted the logo of a car on my body, I would have chosen Audi, he thinks to himself, hating the Mercedes-resembling symbol on his skin. He has trouble putting on his shoes, but eventually he’s ready. Putting up his hood and throwing the bag over his shoulder and after leaving a note for the nurses, he opens the door to check if there’s anybody in the hallway.

It’s empty.

With a small grin, he exits the room. And after that, the hospital.

He’s got work to do, after all.

Reacties:

Er zijn nog geen reacties op dit verhaal.