Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers
Warnings/Tags: Medical Inaccuracies, Creative License, Post-Avengers (2012), Not Canon Compliant After That Movie, Avengers Tower, Hospitals, Near Death Experiences, Blood and Injury, Protective Avengers, Domestic Avengers, Implied/Referenced Torture, Serious Injuries, Arc Reactor, Swearing.
Cross-posted on my AO3 with a collage.
They'd been sent on a quick and easy mission. Clint, Steve, Tony and Thor, that is. The archer had dubbed it as a 'guys trip away' even though the only similarity to such a trip was the fact that there were…well, men going. Steve had sighed heavily at that comment and seemed to be praying for freedom, whilst the other two high-fived Clint.
The quartet had successfully taken out the weird space alien monster when it happened. Everything went dark.
—LINE BREAK—
When Clint came around, he found himself laying on a cold and dirty floor next to Steve and Thor. The man renowned for his sight, spotted multiple trans darts on the two, no doubt to keep the physically strongest (minus the Hulk) Avengers out for the count. He was in the process of pulling the darts out and pocketing them so he had something to stab people with -even if they were quite small- when he heard footsteps and stood up to face their captor. There was a loud click as the door opened, Clint had no time to confront the man as he hastily caught Tony, who was being thrown inside. The door slammed closed with a resounding bang as Clint settled Tony's head in his lap, taking in the unconscious man's injuries.
The genius came to about ten minutes later, he went to move, but the hand combing through his hair gently pushed him back down. Cinnamon eyes darted towards a grimacing Clint before they fell shut once again but the archer knew he was still awake, just resting.
"Wanna tell me what's going on?" Clint asked moments later, "how'd we get here, Tones?"
"We were ambushed at the camp when we were getting ready for sleep," Tony murmured quietly after waiting a minute to collect his thoughts, "we weren't ready. I was out of the suit, you'd put your arrows away and had all but collapsed on your sleeping bag. Steve and Thor had put their weapons down too. They went down first. Shot full with enough tranqs to kill a baby elephant. You woke up but got cracked 'round the head…I was trying to get my suit on, but they tackled me down…tied me up. Wanted me awake. So they could get straight on with torture, I suppose." He tried to chuckle cynically but it turned into a cough,
"Tony," Clint sighed, "what did they do to you?"
"Used me as a punching bag." Tony murmured as he gingerly lifted his slightly ripped t-shirt up, revealing purpling and yellowing skin. Clint sucked in a deep breath with a hiss to it,
"God, Tones. You've definitely got some damage to your ribs too." Tony just hummed in agreement and let his eyes flutter shut.
—LINE BREAK—
They came and dragged him away again, knocking Clint down as he tried to stop them. He slapped the wall in frustration. He began to pace, his hands running anxiously through his hair as he moved. He focused on his breathing to counteract the oncoming panic.
"He's not trained to take torture," He rambled to no one, "I mean sure, he can handle it. Take Afghanistan for example. Doesn't mean he's capable of dealing with the aftermath." He somewhat gently kicked Steve and Thor in an 'attempt' to bring them to consciousness. "Come on you two. This isn't the time to be sleeping."
Time passed by at a snails speed as Clint paced around the cell, taking in each nook and cranny, whilst making a note on possible exits. All while he was freaking out about Tony, who'd been gone for a good two hours.
—LINE BREAK—
There was a reason Clint was called Hawkeye. His eyes picked on the slight increase of Thor's breathing and so he moved over to the god's side, waiting for his eyes to open.
"Don't move a muscle. If they know you're awake, you'll be shot full of drugs again." Clint hissed the minute he saw Thor open his eyes,
"Tell me what has occurred, my friend." Thor murmured in a surprisingly quiet tone that no one knew existed within the large man. Clint complied and halfway through, Steve woke up. Neither were up to normal standards as their bodies were still passing on the drug making their movements sluggish and next to none.
"Clint…where's Tony?" Steve asked moments later causing the sandy-haired blond to lose his gentle expression as a narrowed frown fell in place.
—LINE BREAK—
He had no time to catch Tony as the genius was thrown back into the cell just under the three-hour mark. Clint hastily stumbled to the ground to check on the unconscious billionaire.
"What do you want from him?" He shouted making a note of all the visible injuries peeking through his tattered clothes.
"To hear his begging and pleading," Is all the man said and Clint could feel the anger coursing through himself and the two playing unconscious,
"He needs medical attention!" Clint all but cried out, "He'll bleed out otherwise." The man grunted but seconds later, a first aid kit was thrown inside,
"We don't want him dead." The bald man answered before giving a shark's grin, "yet."
The second the man was gone, Steve and Thor stood up and gathered around Tony with horrified expressions as they took in the bleeding man. Clint ripped Tony's ruined top off and began to wrap his torso with the bandages. Covering up the bruised and broken ribs along with the deep cuts and blatant stab wounds, whilst leaving the arc reactor peeking out. Even with several layers of thick white bandages, crimson managed to seep through. He wrapped Tony's right ankle and left wrist, which had both been sprained, possibly cracked or broken too. Clint could do little for the cut trailing down his right temple and across his cheekbone as there were no plasters.
"We need to get going." Steve murmured staring down at the feverish and injured friend, "he's not going to be able to handle another session let alone survive."
"I have summoned Mjölnir," Thor exclaimed back to his normal speaking volume, "Friend Steve, you shall use the door as your shield."
"That would work." Steve nodded, "Clint, you get Tony as you don't have a weapon. Stay between Thor and I." Mjölnir flew into Thor's hand much quicker than expected,
"She was close." Thor murmured clutching the hammer, "our tents should be nearby."
"We'll make our way back there. Call for help. Hopefully, SHIELD is looking for us."
—LINE BREAK—
They made there way out. Thor was in front sending lightning down on the fools that had dared anger the God of Thunder, briefly, Clint found himself noting how Thor had quickly gone from his typical golden retriever puppy to the God of Thunder. Then there was Steve, who was throwing the metal door about like it was a baseball bat and weighed as little as a feather.
They were running through the woods when Tony woke up and insisted on moving without help, Clint obliged as he needed to pick up stones to throw at their pursuing captors. There would later be jokes about him becoming a caveman.
"We are near," Thor announced as he landed after taking a quick look in the air, though it was difficult, he had been able to spot their campsite.
"And we seem to have lost them," Steve added as they slowed their running to a careful and steady walk.
A crashing sound sent the trio into a defensive stance.
"Tony!" Clint shouted having noticed the genius on the ground shivering almost fitfully, "Stay awake!" He turned towards the other two, his hand on Tony's forehead, "he's burning up."
"Thor, grab him, I'll run on ahead and try to get ahold of a radio." Steve shouted as he ran off, the other two began to run after him as Thor carried the unconscious man.
—LINE BREAK—
"Is anyone there? This is Captain America, Steve Rogers. We're in desperate need of medical attention and backup." Steve stated into the radio quietly panting, there was no response, only the static from the radio could be heard, "Come in. I need backup and medical."
"Roger that Rogers."
"Nat?"
"Yeah, it's me. ETA five minutes." Natasha informed from the other side of the radio before her voice became gentle and she dropped the professional facade, "What's happened, Steve?"
"Tony. He's been tortured. We were captured but they just wanted him." The blond's voice swam with worry, "Nat, he's-"
"He's not breathing!" Thor shouted as he and Clint came into the clearing, cutting off whatever Steve was going to say as they entered the clearing. The soldier dropped the radio and rushed over to where Thor was gently placing Tony down as Clint checked the man over, noting the uncomfortably large patches of crimson against white bandages.
"Go faster!" Natasha could faintly be heard through the abandoned radio shouting at the pilot.
"Dear god, they fucked with his arc reactor. How did I not notice this before?" Clint snarled breathlessly as they watched uselessly as the technology flickered once. Twice. With a final flicker, it shut off. Steve was surging to his feet and grabbing the radio.
"We need an arc reactor ASAP!"
"We have plenty in the first aid kits on the jet. ETA 109 seconds."
"Come on, Tony. Come on." Clint could be heard hissing under his breath as he tried to put the reactor back into place. "Come on, come on." He turned to Steve, "How long?" He shouted,
"ETA?"
"Seventy seconds." Overhead, the sound of the Quinjet could be heard.
Natasha and Bruce came rushing out followed by EMT's. Bruce fell to his knees beside Tony and immediately set to replacing the genius' arc reactor. With the blue glow back, Bruce managed to find a heartbeat. It was very faint though.
"Let's get him to the hospital." The doctor stated as Tony was being lifted and moved onto the Quinjet.
—LINE BREAK—
"He's losing a lot of blood!"
"He's flatlining!"
"We're losing him."
—LINE BREAK—
"Stand back…Clear."
"Again."
"Clear."
"Again."
"Clear!"
"Heartbeat regulated."
—LINE BREAK—
The team were switching amongst themselves so only three of them were pacing whilst the other three sat slumped in the uncomfortable hospital seats. They were aware that he hadn't been breathing for a minute and 49 seconds. They were also aware that they'd been waiting for Tony for four hours and two minutes without a word on his condition. The red light above the operating room seemed to blink demonically at the group of worried (and terrified) Avengers.
—LINE BREAK—
"Hand me the defibrillator!"
"Here."
"Stand back! Clear,"
"Again, Doctor."
"Clear!"
"Stable!"
—LINE BREAK—
Everyone was exhausted, but they hastily stood to attention when the tired doctor walked towards them six and a half hours later. the red light above finally switching off its' eery glow. The fatigued but kind smile on the doctors face had them slumping in relief as the tension tightening their shoulders faded.
"He's in a stable condition," She murmured, "He'll be alright. Mr Stark's a stubborn one that's for sure." Everyone managed to crack a small and amused smile, "We did lose him though. An unhealthy amount of time, not that it's healthy anyway."
"How many times?" Natasha asked and the doctor sighed, rubbing at her nose,
"Six." She whispered, "We lost him six times. Someone up there clearly wants him to stay alive."
"What were the chances?" Steve asked with a horrified expression, "What were the chances that he'd live?"
"12%." She told him, "you can go see him, but he won't wake up for a good few hours." She passed Bruce the clipboard, "If you don't mind, I need to go get some rest. Don't worry, he'll be fine." Absently as she passed, she patted Thor on the arm.
"He had a 12% chance of survival." Bruce all but whispered with a shake of his head and a somewhat maniacal chuckle after reading through the papers, "that son of a bitch."
"Bruce?" Clint asked in confusion,
"Nothing can kill that man. He's too stubborn to die." Bruce looked up at the group, "He died six times, Clint. Seven including when we were on our way to you. He shouldn't be alive. Those injuries…Clint…he should by all rights be dead." Everyone sucked in a deep breath at those words. Tony had once again defied the end.
—LINE BREAK—
When he woke, he found himself in a hospital room surrounded by boring white walls. Around the room, Tony saw his team strewed across the room. They were all fast asleep and had clearly been waiting on him. Hell, Steve, Thor and Clint were still in their old clothes. He kept quiet as to not wake them up and closed his eyes as he tried to recollect the happenings of the past few days…
They had gotten back to their small campsite. Two tents surrounding a small fire pit. Clint and Tony were sharing the smaller tent because both refused to sleep in the same one as Thor and Steve. The two baseline humans preferred it when they weren't shoved to the side of the tent without any warmth and when they were also cuddled like a teddy bear.
The quartet had settled down around the burning glow of warmth after having just eaten. Their weapons were placed just outside their tents, close but slightly out of reach. Then it happened. Too quickly for anyone to react. It certainly didn't help that the group were exhausted from such a long fight.
Steve and Thor promptly collapsed to the ground with numerous small darts sticking out of their backs and necks; Clint stood and tried to grab hold of his gun, put a hard hit to the head had him unconscious on the ground seconds later. Tony didn't even have the chance to stand up before he was being tackled off of the log he had been sitting on. His face was shoved roughly into the dirt as his hands were tied behind his back along with his legs and a bag thrown over his head. He was picked up and thrown over someone's shoulder.
There was a loss of time before the bag was taken off and he found himself hanging from the ceiling by his wrists. A bald man stood in front of him grinning maliciously.
"Wakey wakey sleeping beauty. We're going to have some fun," He patted Tony's cheek mockingly, before bringing it around and slapping the genius causing the shackles to pull harshly on his wrists as he dangled.
The rest was a blur. Just a series of punches and kicks and intense pain. Then he was being dragged and then everything was black for a few minutes before he woke to a gentle hand running through his hair and a familiar face.
He was dragged away again and there was more pain. There was a blinding agony in his stomach. Pain. Pain. Pain. He couldn't breathe. There was a tug on his arc reactor. He was suddenly back to 2008 when Obadiah was yanking out the arc and stealing it. He was breathless. The shrapnel was inching its way closer to his heart. He sucked in a deep breath when it was pushed back in with force. Out again. In again. Out again and in again but it didn't click. They hadn't put it back into place. There was a knife trailing down his torso. Light was fading and everything was blurry. The pain was too much and the darkness was settling in.
Everything after happened in flashes. Clint was there. Thor and Steve too. There was a forest. They were running. He was on the ground. It was too hot. Too cold. Then…nothing.
—LINE BREAK—
That was all Tony could remember. He tried to sit up in his bed but all the action did was pull a long pained hiss from him.
"Hold still, котенок." Natasha murmured, "best not do it yourself, you've got a lot of injuries. Let's take it steady." She pressed the button on the side, raising the bed until Tony nodded that he was comfortable.
"Thanks, Nat." He croaked out and she handed him some water.
Being the only two awake, they simply stayed silent as Natasha held one of Tony's hands and gently rubbed circles with her thumb as they waited for either sleep or someone else to wake.
—LINE BREAK—
Soon the others were waking up and fussing over Tony, who wasn't at all amused.
"I'm fine. I'm fine. Clint, I do not need you to hold my glass whilst I drink from it. Steve, stop looking so uncomfortable, you won't hurt me by putting your arm on the bed rail. Brucie Bear, please stop your creepy staring, I'm fine." Tony rambled, "Thor…why are you guarding the door? No one's going to attack. Natasha, I love you and all but you're crushing my hand a bit."
"Do you have any idea how scared we were?" Clint whispered staring at Tony with wide eyes,
"Well, I can kind of guess." He murmured pointedly looking at each of the concerned faces staring at him, "Anyway, can we go home now?"
"No!" Bruce all but shouted, "For god sake Tony, you died multiple times. You had a 12% chance of survival!"
"…okay…I see your point…but, as you can see I am alive and well-" He raised his arms to gesture at himself only to wince and withhold a quiet whimper as he pulled slightly on the many stitches holding his stab wound together.
"Oh yeah, you're just peachy." Natasha snapped, "but you know what, if you insist that you're ready to go home, then please," she stood up to give him some room and opened her arms, "try and get out of this bed and walk over to where Thor is."
"Nat? What are you doing?" Steve asked with wide eyes,
"No." Bruce intercepted, "let him try."
"Fine." Tony snarked, "I'll show you."
No one was sure who it was more painful for. Tony, who was whimpering as he tried to move, or the others who were watching the injured man struggle.
"Alright, alright. Stop! Tony, stop!" The redheaded woman shouted,
"I'm almost there-"
"You aren't even touching the ground, Tony. Just stop it." Bruce growled with a bit of green flashing in his eyes, "just stop."
"Bruce…I don't like hospitals." Tony whispered minutes later with his wide cinnamon eyes, "I just want to go home."
"I know you do, but Tony, you need to stay here until the doctors discharge you."
"Fine." Tony snapped looking away from them, "you guys should go home now." He added moments later, looking at them from the corner of his eye with concern in his voice, "you all look exhausted and should get some rest."
"Good idea." Several of them murmured,
"You better still be here in the morning, Tony," Clint stated with a warning glare.
—LINE BREAK—
Tony stayed in the hospital for two more days. He hated it, but the others all but demanded he stay. Yet on the fourth day, he couldn't do it. He had to leave. So on the fourth morning, several hours before the team had said they'd be coming to meet him, Tony found himself struggling to his feet and changing into the clothes he'd convinced Happy Hogan to bring when his ex-bodyguard and driver came to visit. Getting the top on was incredibly painful and difficult, but getting his jogging bottoms on was even more of a battle. He grabbed the crutch that was beside him, he could use one due to his broken arm -both his arm and leg had been broken, not sprained.
He slowly made his way to reception to sign any and all forms, so he could quickly get home.
"Mr Stark, I really do advise that you stay another few nights."
"Thanks, Doc, but I really insist that I go home."
"Okay. But it's against medical advice."
"I know." Tony murmured finishing signing the forms and as he began to move towards the exit, he waved his cast covered wrist at his doctor, who was shaking her head at him, "Thank you, Doc, I'll be sure to send you a fruit basket."
—LINE BREAK—
He exited the taxi and entered the Tower, going up to the communal floor.
"Hey…" He murmured when he entered the kitchen where the team were eating,
"Tony."
"You didn't tell me I couldn't discharge myself yesterday -you did all the other days, but not yesterday so ha!"
"Take a seat then." Clint muttered patting the seat next to him,
"How are you feeling this morn, Anthony?" Thor asked moments later,
"Alright, Thor, just a bit tired and still sore."
"Understandable and that's why you should still be in that hospital bed moaning about wanting to come home." Snarked Bruce as he sipped on his green tea,
"Whatever. Maybe I just need to be in a comfortable environment that doesn't smell of disinfectant and illness. Just leave me be, Brucie, I want to curl up as much as I can on the couch with a blanket and the TV playing something."
"Then let's do that." Steve murmured with a gentle smile.
—LINE BREAK—
Several hours later, Tony was fast asleep spread across the couch with his head in Natasha's lap and his feet in Clint's. He was covered by a blanket and surrounded by his friends, which was all he had wanted since he first woke up in the hospital.
"Can't remember seeing him so relaxed." Steve noted, "even in the hospital, unconscious and drugged up, he wasn't at all relaxed."
"I suppose we can let him off for sneaking back home against medical advice and ours." Clint added looking at Bruce,
"I suppose we can." The doctor murmured with a shake of his head,
"We should get him to bed, though."
"Allow me." Thor exclaimed albeit quietly as he stood and carefully lifted the sleeping genius into his arms and headed towards the elevator to take Tony to his room.
Minutes later the god returned and the group resumed watching the third Harry Potter movie. Every hour though one by one, they'd sneak out and check on Tony. They tried to do it without the others noticing, of course, they failed, but they continued to check on Tony because he was their friend and their family.
Here's my tumblr if you're interested, it also has the story collages: anxious- - -soul (no spaces between the dashes but sucks and wouldn't allow the dashes without spaces)
Anyway,
Thank you for reading,
Hope you enjoyed this,
Please review,
No hate -don't like, don't read
Bye~