Wow! I was so amazed at all the reviews and attention you guys gave my story, I was inspired to write another chapter. I've gotten a couple of different ideas, one to expand the little stories within Paranoid, and another to do the same kind of idea as Paranoid, but from the perspective of different Avengers' members. I thought about it and decided to do both! I'm not sure if I'm going to alternate between the two ideas or just do one and then the other. What do you think?
This little one shot follows the first story in Paranoid, where Tony didn't have time to fix the suit. They might vary a little bit from what was originally written, but hopefully not enough to turn you away.
Input is always loved. Enjoy :]
"Mr. Stark, please! If you don't lie still, we will restrain you!"
"I'd like to see you try!" The words have force behind them, but even through the video screen, Pepper can see his glazed eyes, see the nausea lurking just below the surface, hear the slight slur of his words. Whatever had happened, she could tell Tony had quite the concussion.
"Tony," she said quietly, but Tony had always been able to pick her voice out in a crowd. His eyes dart up to hers, then continue their roam around the room. In the best of times, Tony had trouble keeping his focus on one thing. With a concussion, he was bound to be trying to pick out just one thing that would remain still when he looked at it. "Settle down. They're just trying to help."
"But I need to get home," he protested. His protests were weaker this time, and the doctors around him relaxed, finally able to attend to his other wounds.
"I'm right here Tony. I'm not going anywhere."
"But…there's repairs. To the suit. Need to be done." Right, always the repairs. She could see some of the doctors smirking, thinking he was incapable of doing anything right now, but she had seen him make repairs to the suit while mildly sedated, drunk, and injured before. He never made a mistake.
"You won't be going anywhere for a day, so Iron Man can wait another day," Pepper told him, putting her own force behind the words. His eyelids were flickering shut. She was so close…
And then everything went to hell. Even months later, Pepper never really remembered seeing all of what happened. What she did remember was a flash of light, a booming thunder, and wave of scalding hot air. Underneath everything, she remembered a voice yelling her name.
When she woke up a day later, she knew something had gone terribly wrong. The last thing she remembered was watching Tony while he was lying in a hospital bed, but now she's the one in the bed and Tony is the one watching her. As soon as her eyelids open, Tony is standing up, moving closer to her, clutching her hand. She's awake enough to see his twitches of pain, but not awake enough to connect the dots.
"What happened?" she asks instead.
Turns out that someone had planted a bomb in the Stark Tower she had been occupying at the time. When the bomb had gone off, the majority of the floor she had been on had been demolished but by some lucky happenstance, her office managed to stay mostly intact. She was now the recipient of a concussion, some minor burns, and a sprained wrist.
Of course, that was only half of the story. She learned the rest of it from Natasha, who had been the one to chase after Tony when he flew out of the ship to come after her. The doctors, unprepared for the sudden violence from their nearly docile patient, had been caught off guard. With some help from Jarvis, he had locked down the hallways, allowing himself free range to get to his armor. The suit was barely functional, but he had put it on anyway, and barely made it to her before it quit working. He had found her and pulled her from the office, getting her to safety even as the majority of the ceiling crumbled, caving in the area where she had been laying. Of course, that wasn't enough for Tony Stark. He then went back into the building, pulling out as many survivors as possible before S.H.I.E.L.D showed up. When Tony refused to leave, even though he and the suit were barely moving, Steve had knocked him out and then went back to helping with damage control.
Tony had beat Pepper back to consciousness by a few hours. His injuries before he had flown out to save her had been a broken rib, an intense concussion, and some bad bruising. After saving her, he added on extreme exhaustion, two more broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and several burns.
She gave his hand a squeeze. "Hey. It's going to be okay. We're okay," she said reassuringly.
"Right. I know," he said, smiling at her, but the smile was shaky.
He would dream he was too late to save her for months after, but the doctors learned to never doubt Tony when he said he was functional enough to fix his suit.