Authors' Note: I wish I owned 'em. But sadly no, I'm not THAT innovative... I simply admire... Anywho, AU-ish. And yes this is a copy and paste from my earlier fic, ReWrite:Ironman. But the ending of this chapter is a twist, because this is what I originally wanted to do. :)
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"Stay Put!" It was a simple order. Really, even a dog could follow such a simple order. This entire situation could technically blamed on him, all his fault. He didn't head to the warnings; He said his weapons needed to be tested in the environment that they'd actually be used in. Why he, himself, himself had to come? Showmenship, and the fact that Obadiah was breathing down his neck. Though James hadn't known that til AFTER the fact.
"TONY!" He called, returning to the humvee that he left his unarmed friend in. The humvee was riddled with holes, from killing the poor officers set to drive him back to the base. James had came running after the first explosion had taken out the humvee in front. As he was approaching, the gun fire immediatly started and took out everyone within the second humvee except for Tony. He reached the window to find the billionaire genius staring in awe at the carnage, there was raw fear in his eyes. Something James had never seen in his friend's eyes before.
He told Tony to stay put while he handle the situation, stay put until he returns. Rhodes had gone into the mist, firing at the returning fire while trying to maintain perimeter to keep Tony safe. That was the mission right now, the man was infact a major asset to the United States government in general.
He and the few remaining soldiers had been holding things down for a few seconds, until another explosion happened from where he had just left. He turned around and made a mad dash back to the humvee where Tony was. Or at least where he thought Tony was.
Of course, Tony didn't follow the damn order. He never listened, and it was going to get him killed. Rhodes began searching around furiously, trying to figure out where he went. He was no where within the humvee, that was certain. Rhodes then began to search the surrounding area, firing a few rounds here and there to keep the unknown enemy at bay.
"Tony!" He yelled as he rounded the humvee and spotted the person he was looking for on the ground. He wasn't that hard to spot, being the only one there wearing an armani business suit. It stood out against the desert. Rhodes made a mad dash towards the man, crashing to his knees beside Tony.
"Fuck me..." The colonel swore, something he NEVER did, as he looked down at his friend. A thin coat of dust layered the man before him, his eyes were wide open in shock, there was a few cuts across his face, but worse of all was when he looked over the rest of his body. Rhodes found a flowering blood spot right in the middle of the white dress shirt Tony had been wearing. It was partially opened in the middle, where his heart is, and found the armor that he had been wearing was pierced, badly.
For a moment he was captivated merely by the sight of the wound, but after that moment he returned to battle mode. He rose his gun up into firing range and stood guard. There were still bullets flying, and dust clouding everything, but most of it seemed on the other side of the trashed humvee.
He felt a tug on his pants leg and glanced down. Tony was staring right at him, his right hand had a tight grip on the fabric of Rhodes' pants. Pure fear and agony conved in his eyes, as it looked like he was struggling to breathe.
"Hold on." That was all he was able to make before remembering once more that there was a battle going on still. "Its' gonna be alright. Just stay awake Tony." He said, training his eyesight away again from his dying friend and focused on keeping anyone else from finishing the job. It was all he could do at the moment with all considering. If he tried to stop the bleeding, he and Tony would both be dead.
An eternity passed before there was nothing but silence. The adrenaline James had pumping through his veins had died down slightly, and fatigue began to set in ten-fold. He lowered his rifle with a sigh and glanced down.
Tony was still gripping his pants leg like it was a lifeline. The color from his face faded though, but his eyes were open still, even if it was only half way. His once white shirt was now completely red, and there was a small pool beneath him, leaking out onto where James' was sitting as well.
"Tony?" His glazed over stare shifted slowly over to Rhodes. James finally thought it was safe enough to set down his rifle and then straddle one knee over Tony's waist, he was now sitting on his knees with Tony underneath him. He then began carefully to remove the suit jacket, and work on the dress shirt. In no time his hands were covered in the red sticky liquid that was Tony's blood. There was so much. Too much.
"Stay with me now, It won't be much longer." Rhodes was talking more to reassure himself then Tony, who seemed for the most part out of it completely. One of the soldiers appeared at his side then.
"Colonel, theres no one left. Everyone's dead." The quivering voice said, trying to sound calm, but their facade was transparent. "Just stand guard til the back up arrives." Rhodes grounded out as he lifted the body armor off of Tony and gasped.
"Request ETA on back-up." Rhodes said immediatly as he saw the pool of blood which was Tony's chest. The center of the wound seemed to be at the center of his chest just where his heart was. It looked almost like a spiral design of punctures, both deep and artifical, but all filled with metal shrapnel.
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The humvees arrived in what seemed like an eternity later. Rhodey was babbling to Tony, anything to keep his eyes open, but they were closing slowly, and the colonel knew there was nothing he could do. Tony's hand was growing cold, and pale, and it was scaring Rhodey far more then he care to admit.
"Peppers' gonna kick my ass, if you don't make it back to the States. She scares me, you know? But she's perfect for you..." Rhodey was rambling off, keeping his attention on Tony. One hand pressed hard onto Tony's chest -in attempt to stop the bleeding- and the other hand holding Tony's, squeezing it every few moments, which would be returned with an ever weakening squeeze, until the last squeeze there was no return. There was a thick glaze over Tony's eyes, and they were only a crack open.
"Colonel. Step aside." The medics rather forcefully pushed him off and away from Tony, who was immediatly loaded onto a stretcher and into the back of one of the Humvees. The last remaining soldier from the ambush stepped up behind Rhodes.
"Come on, We gotta get going." He said, helping the numb Rhodes up. Blood covered his hands and forearms up to his elbows, as well as the front part of his knees. He stumbled, in shock, to the Humvee and unconciously got in as the rescue team sped away from the remains of the convoy.
--
Tony was gone from his sight as soon as they returned to the base, rushed off to the medical wing. He was taken to the same area, but was sat down in one of the small rooms where they do the physicals in. He hadn't said a word on the way back, he couldn't get the image of Tony bleeding right infront of him out of his mind. The medic casted it off as shock, and ordered him to take a shower, and sleep with the help of two sleeping pills. He warned Rhodes if he tried to return before the orders were carried out he would be strapped to a bed and they would give him a heavy sedative.
--
Rhodes returned twelve hours later, feeling better with the change of cloths, a shower, and at least nine hours of sleep. He counted that towards those sleeping pills they gave him, they were heavy duty. He walked into the ICU area, and found several soldiers resting from previous missions, and awaiting for their trip back to the States or to Germany for proper treatment and to be discharged honorably.
He passed the beds of the sleeping injuried one by one, searching for Tony. He finally was at the end of the line, but there was no sign of Stark. He sighed, thinking the worst, but then out of the corner of his eye he spotted the man. He was prone on the bed, hooked up to probably more machines then all the other injuried men combined. Rhodes slowly approached him, and realized it was really Tony. His chest was wrapped tightly, and He had at least one heart monitor, an oxygen monitor, a ventilator, a catheter, a dialysis machine, and an IV/blood transfusion hooked up and into him. There was an oxygen canal resting over his mustache, and plugged into his nose.
If he weren't so pale, Rhodes would have thought the wound wasn't as bad as it was. But he was as white as the sheet they laid over his midsection and feet. It didn't help though, none in the least. He had never seen Tony hurt so badly before, and if it weren't for the heart monitors beeping slowly and steadily, He would have thought Tony was dead.
"He's stable for the moment." The medic behind him scared him, he jumped a foot and turned around quickly.
"I'm sorry." The medic apologized.
"You wanted to know how he was doing, I bet?" She said calmly. Rhodes simply stared at her, waiting for her to continue. "Well, Since your the closest thing to his family. You should be okay..." She started, her tone unnervingly calm. "Mr. Stark has suffered severe damage to his chest and heart. Every one of his ribs is fractured, broken, or shattered. The RPG that hit him, was designed to go right through his armor, and the shrapnel from both the RPG and his ribs are littered in his chest now. We were able to take out much of it, but there are some in his lungs and heart that there was too much at risk to remove then. He had already lost alot of blood, and we are trying to keep him stable enough for a move to our base in Germany. They have better equipment then we do to handle such a delicate precedure. And we also need to get Mr. Stark a strong enough to withstand it." The medic explained.
Rhodes only turned back to Tony, trying not to cry. "What are his chances of surviving this surgery?" Rhodes asked, his voice oddly calm for the torrents of emotion that were raging inside him right at this moment.
"Slim... 30 of survival the surgery if they get it all, If Its worse then we originally thought, the chance is cut in half. But without the surgery he'll be dead in a week, tops. The shrapnel are heading towards his heart, and if they pierce that, hes gone. We've lowered his heart rate as far as we can without killing him or causing brain damage, hoping that will slow the process enough for us to strengthen his body at the same time." She explained. Rhodes nodded numbly, still getting a sick feeling to his stomach.
--
The medic had brought him a chair, since he was adamant to staying with his friend, though Tony wasn't going to wake up any time soon. He had taken residence in that chair, and spent the time staring at Tony with a level of guilt he never felt before. It was like a pressure was crushing his chest, and he couldn't nor wouldn't move it.
Two hours past before he felt a buzzing in his pocket. He pulled out the object -his cellphone- and red the ID. Pepper. He sighed heavily and flipped it open and held it to his hear.
"Colonel Rhodes, Where is Mr. Stark? He should have called me by now with news on how the demonstration went and when he would be back exactly!" Pepper said before he got a word in.
"Pepper..." He brought his hand to his face, pinching the bridge of his noise with his index finger and thumb, trying to figure out the right words to put it.
"Something's happened." Was all he said for a moment.
"What?" She asked, her tone changed from irritated to concerned in a half second flat.
"The...The...convoy was attacked." He stuttered slightly, his voice breaking only slightly. "And...Tony, He's hurt...badly."
"How bad?" She asked, sounding like she was biting back a sob.
"They don't know...if he will... if he will... make it." He couldn't quite bring himself to saying the actual words. He didn't want to face the fact that he could quite possibly lose his friend in this desert.
TBC