Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story.

Summary: Tony finds himself sick and has to be taken care of. Who better to help him than his husband, Steve, and best friends, Bruce and Jarvis.

Warning: This is M/M. If you aren't into that sort of story, please don't read this. Use of foul language can be found in here as well.

"Babe, you alright?"

"Yeah Steve. Just a little tired. I'm gonna go on up and grab a shower before bed."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'll see you in a bit."

Tony leaned in and gave Steve a kiss on the cheek before turning towards the elevator that would take him up to their pent room. Steve watched after him, unsure. The fact they hadn't properly kissed had him worried more than the fact that Tony was actually going to go to bed instead of working in his lab.

"Steve?"

"Huh?!"

He turned his attention towards Clint and blinked.

"I was asking about the meeting with Fury tomorrow. What time are we supposed to meet up for that and what exactly are we meeting about? I mean, the last attack that we've been through was two weeks ago. Surly he's not asking us to take on something else this soon. Natasha hasn't fully healed yet and I'm sure Thor wouldn't mind being with Jane a little longer. Not to mention you and Tony..."

"Yeah, I'm not sure what Fury wants, but hey, the time is 0800. I'm gonna head up and get some shut eye. You better too."

With that, Steve walked off in the direction Tony had gone not ten minutes ago and headed up to the pent room after calling the elevator. He couldn't turn his eyes away from the scene as he went up. New York was just so beautiful at night. He still had so much of it to see, but he was slowly working his way around the city with the help of Tony. He frowned once again at Tony's odd behavior and stepped off the elevator and into their room. He looked over and saw that Tony had made it to bed, but he wasn't so sure about the shower when he saw that Tony was lying in the same clothes he had on earlier.

"Tony?"

He moved over to his husband of three years and gently touched his foot.

"Tony?"

Tony didn't even stir. His breathing was deep for someone asleep, but Steve knew that touching Tony's foot was a sign to Tony that it was Steve asking him to wake up and not to be afraid. Steve was worried when he called again and still Tony didn't move. He had to believe that maybe Tony was just that tired and soon began pulling off his husband's clothes before his own. Steve took a quick shower and returned to the bedroom and watched Tony sleep for a while. He sighed and then moved to his side of the bed and laid down.

"Good night Babe."

He didn't expect a reply and didn't receive one.

*****Avengers*****

"Why is it so hot in here? Jarvis?" Steve asked as he woke up the next morning.

"The temperature outside is 73 degree sir. The temperature in the room is at 62 degrees."

"How is that possible Jarvis? It's almost hard to breathe."

Steve frowned and pulled away from Tony and sat up. As he walked towards the bathroom to take care of his morning routine, he noticed it was remarkably cooler than when he was in bed.

"Thanks for fixing that Jarvis."

"I haven't done anything sir."

Steve blinked in confusion, but finished up in the bathroom before moving towards his closet. As he selected his usual T-shirt and khaki pants, he heard whimpering coming from the bedroom. He moved out of his closet to see what was going on. There on their bed, Tony was twitching and breathing funny.

"Babe?" Steve called out to Tony.

Not getting a response, other than more whimpering, Steve moved over to Tony's side of the bed and gently laid a hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Hey, Babe? Tony wake up. Geez, you're burning up! Jarvis! Get me Tony's vital signs, please!"

"His heart rate is 140 over 90. His current pulse is 120/bps. His body temperature is at 103.7. I'd suggest taking him to a hospital or calling for Dr. Banner."

"Yes, call Bruce, please. Tony? Babe I need you to open your eyes for me. Tony can you hear me? Open your eyes."

Not ten minutes later there was a ding from the elevator.

"Jarvis said you called? What's going on?"

"It's Tony. I can't wake him up and he's burning up."

Bruce quickly went into doctor mode and asked Jarvis to repeat Tony's vital signs.

"Geez, we got to get that fever down. Help me get him into the bathroom. I'll be right back."

With that, Bruce ran for the bathroom and started a lukewarm bath. When he returned, he and Steve managed to get Tony up and into the bathtub. Tony woke with a start, but he was trapped in Afghanistan and thought he was being forced through water torture again.

"No. No! Not again. I can't go through this again."

"Tony! It's Bruce and Steve. We're trying to get your fever down. Can you hear me? Tony!"

Tony fought as well as he could, but he wasn't feeling very well and his strength was quickly demising.

"Tony? Hey!"

Steve felt his husband give up the fight and go lax. He thought this a tactical maneuver, but when Tony didn't spring the surprise attack, he knew something was wrong.

"Banner, he's not breathing. He's not breathing!"

"Let's get him out quickly. Jarvis, can you call Clint and ask him to bring up several bags of ice?"

"Yes Dr. Banner."

Jarvis did as requested; Bruce and Steve were left to attend their friend. Bruce quickly laid Tony out on the bathroom floor and had Steve breathe into his lungs for him while he checked his pulse and did compressions.

"Come on Tony. Don't do this to me." Steve said as he pulled away waiting for Bruce to check.

Tony came back to them, coughing greatly though he hadn't swallowed any of the water. The sound of the elevator dinging once more brought Clint up with ice.

"What's going on? Why do you need so much ice? Are you having a party up here?"

"No Barton, it's Tony. I need you to start rolling ice into towels and give them to me."

"Tony? How many are you going to need?"

"We gotta get this fever down, give me five for now, but I'll need another to wipe his body down. Jarvis, what's his fever looking like now that he's had a warm bath?"

"It's 104.4 now sir."

"Shit! Give me the ice."

Steve moved Tony back onto the bed and Bruce placed the ice in various locations on Tony's body, Steve held onto Tony hand as he watched his husband shake from cold and call out for him to save him.

"I'm right here Tony. I'm right here. Everything's okay Babe. It's okay."

"Do we know how he got sick in the first place?" Clint asked.

"I'm not sure. I can say he hasn't been in the lab for a while."

"Yeah, I guess you would know a little better than I would, Bruce. All I can remember is that he was tired a lot this week. Last night, he didn't really eat anything and he told me he was supposed to be going for a shower and then bed. The thing is I found he'd just gone straight to bed."

"Can anyone think of a time he might have contracted something?"

The three of them thought for a moment, but none of them could come up with an answer.

"Crap! We've got that meeting with Fury. There's no way I'm leaving Tony though. Especially like this."

"I understand what you mean Steve. Clint, you'll have to go in for us and debrief Fury."

"Oh come on Bruce...Fine." Clint remarked after the looks he received. "Is there anything else I can do before I go?"

"No, we're all set. You go ahead. Take Widow with you." Steve said without taking his eyes from his husband.

Clint nodded his head and left the room back the way he'd arrived.

"I'll have to go down to my lab to get some medicine that should help reduce the fever. I'll need to take some blood to test and see what exactly we're dealing with. You watch him until I get back. Continue with the ice treatment and I'll be back as soon as I can." Bruce said and left.

Steve wasn't going anywhere so he continued to softly talk to Tony and wipe his sweating brow. He hated this wasn't something he could easily defeat. He thought back to the last time that Tony was seriously ill. That wasn't a picnic then either. Granted at that time it was a quicker fix as it was palladium poisoning his blood stream from the very device he was using to stay alive. Once Tony figured out how to replace that he hadn't had anything more than a stomach ache here or there. This was the first time Tony was really sick and Steve wasn't sure he knew how to handle it. Shaking his head, Steve took Tony's hand and kissed it softly.

"Steve…" Tony called softly.

"I'm right here Tony. You're gonna be okay."

Tony frowned softly and opened his eyes slowly. He was confused as to where he was, but he saw the look on Steve's face and tried to sit up.

"What's wrong? What's going on?"

"No, stay down. You're sick and I'm not sure what to do. Bruce has gone off to get you some medicine and I'm just trying to get your fever down."

"Oh… sick?" Tony looked confused and looked around. "Where are we?"

"Yeah, Bruce will run some tests to find out what's wrong exactly, but hopefully it's just the flu and not something serious. We're in our room."

"Oh." Tony frowned a little more as he tried to remember what happened, but his brain wasn't working on all cylinders and it hurt to try to force the thoughts to come up.

He moaned a bit as he tried to shift into a more comfortable position and his left leg started to cramp up. He gasped at the pain and tried to lift up again.

"What? What is it Tony? Talk to me." Steve asked.

"Cramp… leg." Tony responded with another twitch and grasped Steve's hand tightly. "...hurts."

"Which leg? I'll rub it out."

"...my left." Tony moaned and squeezed Steve's hand again.

Steve squeezed Tony's hand and then released it so that he could move down to his leg in order to see about getting Tony's leg to relax. Tony gasped as Steve tried to stretch out his leg. He wanted to just fold it back in, but that wasn't bringing relief so he left it to his husband to make it better. Steve started gently stretching his leg out and rubbing the muscle. He could feel the muscle's tightness and tried working the muscle in a way that it'd release it strong hold. After five minutes, Tony could feel the cramp releasing and he fell back onto his pillow with a sigh.

"Thank you." Tony said and wanted to cry.

He felt like crap and he didn't even know what he did to bring this on. He wasn't even sure what this was.

"You're welcome." Steve replied as he moved back up to lay beside his husband.

He gently kissed Tony on his left temple and took his hand in his own. Tony squeezed it tightly and turned his head into Steve's shoulder.

"We'll find out what's wrong. Don't worry." Steve said.

Tony merely nodded his head a bit and closed his eyes as he couldn't hold them open any longer.

"Sorry I took so long. How's he holding up?"

Bruce quickly made his way to Tony's side after exiting the elevator with his bag in tow.

"He was up and talking to me a little while ago. Tony, you still awake?" Steve reported.

When he didn't get a response, he turned to look at Tony. The two of them, technically three, watched as Tony soon fell into convulsions. Steve moved out of the way while Bruce quickly turned him in the correct way to help a person that was having seizures, keeping Tony from biting his own tongue. They waited a minute and a half for the seizure to stop.

"Sir has stopped breathing. Heart rhythm has slowed significantly and has now stopped."

"Tony?! No!" Steve moved off the bed and followed Bruce's instructions to breathe for Tony as they started CPR.

"Jarvis, can you shock his heart?"

"Yes Dr. Banner."

There was a pause as they waited for Steve to move back from Tony. They saw the result of Jarvis shocking Tony when his body jerked.

"Resume CPR." Jarvis said as he waited for a time to shock Tony again.

Steve and Bruce continued CPR and waited for Jarvis to ask them to remove their hands so that he could shock Tony again. The process went on for two minutes before Tony finally came back to them.

"Oh God. Tony?" Steve asked cautiously.

A small moan came from the man, but that was all. Bruce returned to his bag pulling out a syringe filled with a substance and moved over to Tony in order to inject him with it.

"This should help lower his fever which will then reduce the chance of another seizure."

He injected the substance and the two of them backed away to see if it was going to help. Bruce placed the used needle in a canister that he collected used needles in and went over to check Tony's pulse for himself. Jarvis had Tony's vitals up in the room for the two of them to monitor, but Bruce still wanted to check the old fashion way.

"He should sleep the rest of the day. Right now that's what he needs most. I'm gonna take a blood sample and go down to my lab to see what exactly we're looking at."

Steve nodded his head and went to lie down beside his husband again. Bruce quickly took the sample and left to head to his lab.

"Agents Romanov and Barton have returned Captain Rogers."

"Thanks Jarvis."

"Agent Barton is requesting an audience with you."

"I can't leave Tony. Not right now Jarvis."

"I can monitor Sir's vital from here and alert you and Dr. Banner should anything come up. Until Dr. Banner can tell us what exactly is going on with Sir, there isn't much you can do for him. I've also taken the liberty of monitoring your vitals and your glucose levels are reaching a low point. Perhaps you can speak with Agent Barton as well as eat something."

Steve shook his head not really surprised.

"Fine Jarvis. Let him know I'm on my way."

"Very good sir."

Steve stood to his feet and walked over to Tony to watch him a minute before turning to head to the elevator that would take him down to the community kitchen.

"How was the meeting?" Steve asked once he walked within sight of the two agents.

"I'll get to that in a minute. How's Tony?" Clint asked.

Steve looked at the two of them for a minute and had to look skyward to ward off the tears that wanted to escape his eyes. He cleared his throat and looked back at them.

"We… we almost lost him a couple times. His fever was so high he had a seizure and his heart stopped and he stopped breathing ..."

Steve stopped and frowned as he tried to remember why the hell he left his husband's side, until his stomach growled and he looked back at Clint.

"We got him back, but we still don't know what's going on. Bruce took blood and is in his lab trying to find out. So… what about the meeting?"

"I'm sorry Rogers." Natasha said as she walked up to Steve to rest a hand on his shoulder. "You know Tony better than any of us, but we all know Tony'll be alright."

Steve nodded and looked away. This was harder than he thought. He walked over to the refrigerator and found something to make a sandwich out of. While he ate, he listened to what Fury wanted.

"Seems there's a mission that he needs Tony on, but with him out of commission Fury's gonna send the two of us. He wants to be kept updated on Tony's condition."

"He'll find out when we do. When are you two supposed to head out?" Steve asked.

"We leave soon, but I was hoping to find out what's going on with Tony before then." Clint responded.

Steve sighed and got up to put away his plate and throw away the six empty bottle of water he drank.

"Bruce will let us know when he finds something. I'm gonna head back up and sit with Tony. "Good luck on your mission. Be careful."

Clint and Natasha nodded before watching Steve head off. The two of them had to get ready for their mission so they went off to their separate quarters.

"Meet you back here in twenty. Hopefully we'll hear something about Tony before we go." Clint said.

Natasha nodded her head and left.

"Well, luckily it is just the flu. Unfortunately, there's nothing he can take to make it all better. Only thing we can help him with are the aches and pain. We can also try and keep the fever down, but it's up to his body to fight this one. We'll just have to hope it can do that. I worry though because Tony hasn't really been taking care of himself and I'm sure this is how the flu became this bad." Bruce reported.

"So we have to just wait it out?" Steve asked.

"It's all we can do. Keep him comfortable, as well as fed, and lots of rest." Bruce explained.

Steve nodded as he ran his fingers through his husband's hair.

"I'm pretty sure he'll manage to rest on his own. We'll probably have a battle with feeding him though." Steve said.

"Well, we're not sure how long we'll be, but keep us posted on his condition. I'm sure he'll be alright. Here's hoping the mission won't take that long and he'll be back to his old annoying self again." Clint responded.

Steve looked from Tony to Clint and raised an eyebrow before turning his attention to Tony once more when he started coughing. Sweat was accumulating all over Tony's face and neck and Steve calmly wiped what he could through Tony's coughing spell. Clint and Natasha both wished Tony well before they took off. Bruce helped sit Tony up while Steve continued to wipe him down with ice. Tony shivered through the whole process, but he didn't wake from his much needed slumber.

*****Avengers*****

"How are you feeling?" Steve asked Tony when he woke up.

"Better. Thank you." Tony replied.

It had been four long weeks since Tony's fight with the flu. There was lots of upset stomach and vomiting. He only managed to scare them one other time with a seizure as his temperature hit an all time high before they managed to get it back down. Steve was beside him the whole time with help from Bruce.

"I'm so glad." Steve said with tears in his eyes.

Even he had to admit to being scared he was going to loose Tony a few times. Tony took his hand and leaned against him.

"Any chance I could get one of those sponge baths?" Tony asked while lifting his eyebrows suggestively.

"Anything for you." Steve replied and pressed a kiss against Tony's temple. "Anything."

Tony smiled and sighed contently.

"Thank you for loving me."

"Always." Steve responded.

Thank you for reading. If you wish to leave a review, please do. I thank you in advance. Until next time...