2
His father had a dream once. His father had many dreams, and among just a few were world peace, world collaboration through the use of every countries best scientists, and that Tony would never attempt to put himself in the public eye without him being there to supervise.
Tony saw that only one of those dreams came true, and at the time it seemed the most impossible for any one to achieve. But in reality, they were closer still to achieving the second one then they ever would be the last one.
Because now, lying in a hospital bed with absolutely no memory of the events that had landed him here, he wished his dad was still here to babysit him, and that's something he thought he'd never say.
His mind was still spinning. Where was the team, were they worse off than him? He couldn't imagine so, or at least he tried not to imagine so. If they were any worse than him, they might would be...
He shook his head and closed his eyes shut, fighting off the pain that the painkillers wouldn't.
He was sore in every mentionable place on his body, but he hadn't taken time to assess the damage quite yet.
The door opened slowly and Tony's eyes darted towards it.
It was presumably his doctor, who wore a fake grin with white, almost blue-white, teeth. His hair was cut into a boy scout cut and he shook his head jokingly.
"Mr. Stark, how're we feeling?"
"I don't know how you're feeling. I know that I have a splitting headache and want to know what the hell happened to me, what hospital I'm in, and where the rest of the Avengers are."
The doctor's smile faded and he sighed.
Tony took this for bad news and his heart begun to race, "What happened to them? Tell me."
The doctor, discovering his panic, shook his hands and smiled, "No, no. nothing's gone wrong. I'm just sorry to hear the pain killers aren't treating you well. I apologize, we'll pump something stronger into you quick." he snapped his finger and winked, "But, uh, what happened, Mr. Stark...Well, it appeared to us you crashed directly into the side of a semi, and from that skid into the tunnel walls. Your rear crashed into the wall and another car, unable to stop, hit you in the side, luckily they hit you on the passenger side, otherwise, you may not have lived."
Tony was silent and unresponsive for a minute before he looked back up, "Where are the others?"
"Waiting to see you. I didn't want them disturbing any sleep you got, you've come out of a major surgery with very minimal damage surprisingly. There was a metal rod in you shoulder, luckily it wasn't as deep or damaging to the surrounding tissues as we thought. You've come out of this very lucky you know."
"Can you let the others in?"
There was something about hearing and believing for Tony, if he couldn't see they weren't dead and they would provide the same story to him as he just fed him, he'd believe it. Without proof, he would deny it until the day he died.
"Sure, one last thing, I'm Dr. Larson if you need anything. I'll just go grab your personal belongings they salvaged from the crash. All charges against you have been dropped but I believe an officer will be seeing you later about it. Now, which friend would you like to see?"
"All of them."
"I'm afraid that at your state, our hospital has a strict one at a tim-."
Tony cut him off mid sentence with a snarl, "Look, you go bring them all in and I promise not to self mutilate and sue you for malpractice. Do you really want to join that rodeo with Stark Industries and Iron Man?"
The doctor swallowed and smiled nervously. " I've always thought that rule was...unnecessary."
He left in a flurry of white coat-tails and the door closed quietly behind him. Tony stared at the door.
What had happened to him? He'd been in a total of three car accidents his entire life, and all of them he remembered. It was a wonder how he'd never gotten into an accident while 'under the influence' but of course, Pepper had always been there, and if she couldn't get to him, JARVIS always called a taxi while giving a monotone lecture that he knew he wouldn't remember in the morning.
He couldn't have been drunk. Did he just have amnesia? Maybe it was someone else's fault. He sure would like to be able to pin it on somebody else.
The door opened again, but this time, not slowly. The door vaulted open like it was on a spring and Tony felt the air hit him full force against his open and fresh wounds.
He was met with not only a puffy-eyed Pepper, but as well, a determined Captain America.
Tony's first instinct was to smile, but it came out as a frown instead and he lowered one eyebrow.
"You better have a good reason for all this." Steve murmured, idly inspecting his wounds and injuries from afar, they looked far more grievous than they actually were.
"I'm sure I can come up with one from now to whenever my release date is. I'm sounding like a prisoner more and more each day."
Pepper's half-sob half-scream made it's way out of her mouth like a hideous gargle and she wrapped her arms around his aching neck, and though he flinched, he made no move to push her away.
Her face buried into the crook of his neck, he held her. If it was one person who could make him feel guilty, it was certainly no spandex clad mutant adorning the red white and blues.
His heart sank and bit his next witty remark back, and that's when Cap knew he had him.
He folded his arms across his wrinkled sweatshirt, and Tony just had to stop and ask himself if it was possible for a sweatshirt to even get wrinkled.
"Tony...you don't know what it's like to sit and scream at a computer for six hours straight."
Tony gave him a 'look'.
Steve bit his lip, "Maybe you do, but that's not the point, Stark." His tone became firm again and his eyes lost the gloss that had been glazed on them, his words were no longer sugar coated. "Where the hell did you even go off to? We worried fucking sick."
"Woah, woah, vocab. Choice words."
"Knock that off. Listen to me for once, if I have to curse every other word, if that's what it takes to get you to actually listen, I'll do it. Tony...Anthony...Thor and Banner checked the tower four times while I screamed at your little...what'd you call it? AE?"
"AI. Artificial Intelligence.." Tony thought about ending his sentence with something smart like, 'I've thought about giving you a similar nickname myself, AS, Artificial Strength.' Or something along those lines, but decided against it and swallowed his pride.
"Right. I asked Jarvis a total of twenty-three times to 'Locate Anthony Stark. Locate Anthony Stark. Locate Anthony DAMN Stark.
I almost heard him crying himself, he just kept looking, searching, pulling up crash reports to see if your description matched any of the reports. And finally he said, 'Mr. Rogers, I'm looking. I am. I think I have a tab on his current vehicle however, something is overriding my connection.' And do you know what he finally found out was the cause? Your damn AD/CC music!"
"AC/DC..."
"Whatever it is! Damn it, you're not getting it. You'll probably never get it. Where did you go? Why were you half way across New York? Why did you crash? Answer me, Stark!"
Tony didn't answer, he squeezed his hand on Pepper's shoulder harder and she gathered herself together, wiping her eyes to breath shakily beside him.
"All this and you can't even give me an answer.."
"I don't have one, Steve."
"You know what the media's saying don't you? Of course not, here. Have one." He threw a magazine onto his lap as softly as possible, his eyes laced with concern when he remembered the hidden wounds beneath the blankets.
Tony didn't even flinch, he simply picked the magazine up. It was crumpled slightly from Steve using it as a stress ball but it was readable.
'Stark Industries CEO Running Out Of Time, Or Running Himself Into The Ground?'
Tony quirked an eyebrow before opening the magazine and flipping to the main article, after scanning it over briefly he was met with the one sentence that explained it all.
'Our best sources, a highly praised doctor (whose chosen to remain anonymous) and an equally praised scientist (who also is choosing to remain anonymous) have both proven through a few scenarios that it is very likely, and almost impossible to dispute, the possibility that Anthony Stark, Stark Industries CEO, could have, at the time of the crash, may have been heavily influenced with multiple, potentially dangerous drugs...'
He shut the magazine, and when he looked back up, Steve was gone and Pepper was sitting beside him, looking at him quietly, almost pleading him to deny the article.
"Pepper, you know me. I'd never.."
She nodded, "I just needed to hear you say it."
"Where's everyone else?"
"Fighting with the doctors and each other about your release date, or the cops about how much damage you're responsible for. They're really just trying to put everything off until tomorrow for you..They sent Steve and I to check on you. We're all so worried."
Tony looked away momentarily, the pity irked him. Almost disturbed him. He wanted to get up and parade around, show off how fine he was. But he knew that would be impossible so long as all his strength was lost to a hug.
"How long have I been in here?"
"Since yesterday afternoon. It took us until last night to figure out what hospital you were in though..they couldn't call us until later...Tony, I should really go, you need your rest, and I need to discuss the damages you're responsible for and-"
"Charges have been dropped.."
"How'd you.."
"The doctor."
Pepper was silent, but moved to the doorway, opening the door slowly, "I love you, Tony."
"I love you, Pepper. And...I'm so sorry.."
She looked into his eyes and turned away, "Don't ever do this to me again."
She flicked the lights off and the door closed softly, and all that was left was the soft light illuminating off the screen as a black and white movie played. He knew the name of it. The Seventh Seal.