Here ya go! Any suggestions are welcome! Hope you like it!
They only made it halfway to the couch before Tony fell to his knees, grabbing his chest.
"Are you okay?" Bruce asked kneeling beside his friend who was breathing hard, face twisted in pain.
"Yeah, it's the arc reactor. It's still shorting out." Tony managed through clenched teeth.
"After you call Fury, I'm taking a look at that. This has gone on long enough."
To Bruce's surprise, Tony nodded. After a few moments, the tension melted away from Tony's expression and he went to get back up. His knees buckled and Bruce barely caught him. Leaning on Bruce for support, Tony was able to make it back to the couch. He sat down heavily, wiping sweat from his flushed face. Bruce handed him his phone. Tony searched through the contacts for a moment and then stopped.
"Who's number is this? It says 'The Lady friend'. You have one of those?"
Crap. Bruce grabbed the phone from his friend's hand.
"Why are you even in the T's? You're supposed to call Fury, remember?"
"Can't a man be curious?"
Bruce found Fury's number quickly and pushed dial, shoving the phone back in Tony's hands.
"Fury. You called?" Tony said. Bruce could barely hear Fury's voice on the other line.
"Tony. Surprised you're awake. Bruce told me you were pretty sick." Fury said.
"I'm fine."
"You don't sound fine."
"Whatever. Bruce said you had a question for me."
"Well, Miss Potts and Natasha are having a difficult time deciding what blueprints are more efficient. They like the design of them all, though they're leaning towards the first two. They wanted to know what ones will probably be best for the power the helicarrier can exert."
Tony thought for a moment and then his face scrunched up and his free hand went to his chest.
"The first two. Those are the best…Bruce stop it."
Bruce was motioning for Tony to let him see the arc reactor.
"Thanks, Stark." Fury said. Then there was a pause and a different voice was on the line.
"Tony, how are you? Fury said you were sick."
Bruce finally got Tony to lift up his shirt. The skin around the arc reactor was red and inflamed. He was beginning to think the infection fueling Tony's fever was caused by the device that was keeping him alive. How ironic. He had been hoping it was just a passing thing; that the fever would burn itself out. Unfortunately that didn't seem likely anymore given it had been rising so much. The ibuprofen had helped some but the fever was still there, although suppressed.
"Pepper, I'm fine."
"God, Tony, you sound awful. How high is your fever?"
"Seriously, it's nothing."
"Don't avoid the question. How high is it?"
Tony huffed.
"I don't know, like a hundred."
JARVIS's voice cut in.
"Your core body temperature is one hundred and three point nine, sir."
"Thank you JARVIS." Pepper said sarcastically.
"You could hear that?" Tony asked.
"Yes. Now I want you to get some rest. I will be back in a few hours."
"Right. Bye Pepper."
"Bye Tony. Feel better."
Tony closed the phone and Bruce took it back before he could go through the contacts again.
"Okay, we're going down to the lab. I'm going to have a look at the arc reactor."
Tony sighed and Bruce held out his hand to help Tony up. For once, Tony actually took it and unsteadily got to his feet.
The lab was dark when they arrived, just as Bruce left it.
"JARVIS, lights please."
The lights clicked on and Tony entered the code to unlock the door. With a loud noise, it opened up and Bruce made Tony lie down on the large chair that resembled a dentist's.
"Take your shirt off." Bruce said. Tony raised his eyebrows and whistled.
"Well aren't you mister eager beaver there. Not even Pepper has said that to me."
Bruce rolled his eyes and Tony took off his shirt. Bruce then proceeded to attach an EKG to monitor Tony's heart activity.
"Is all this really necessary?" Tony asked sarcastically, picking one off that had just been put on his chest, the sticky goo getting all over his fingers. Bruce yanked it out of his fellow genius's hand and put it back where it was supposed to be. Once the monitor was beeping away, Bruce turned back to Tony. Tony smiled jokingly, showing all his teeth.
"Alright, here we go."
Bruce unscrewed the arc reactor and gently pulled it out. It unplugged itself and the heart monitor sped up. He examined the device for any abnormalities, and finding none, handed it to Tony to hold on to.
"Looks like that part's fine."
"I know." Tony said. "I think it's the piece it attaches to that's been causing problems."
So Bruce peered into Tony's chest cavity. He immediately spotted the problem. A strand of one of the wires to the plug for the arc reactor was poking out into some soft tissue.
"I found it."
Bruce took some small pliers and reached in. He had a hard time grabbing the wire but he managed to bend it back and tuck it into its rightful place. When he was done, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"The wire is back in place, but the tissue it was poking into is infected from the aggravation. There's pus everywhere and believe me, it's not the regular pus. The infection is why you have a fever."
"Well, pour some alcohol on it." Tony suggested.
"Tony, I can't pour alcohol into your infected chest cavity."
"I could drink it."
"Shut up."
Bruce decided instead to give Tony antibiotics and put the arc reactor back into its place.
"Okay, your fever shouldn't be getting any worse now. It might linger, though, until the infection is fully gone."
"Fabulous." Tony said. The two went back upstairs and Tony lay back on the couch, falling asleep once again. Bruce sat back in his chair and this time, he managed to fall asleep. It seemed like he had just closed his eyes when he was woken by JARVIS.
"Agent Fury and Pepper Potts are at the door. They will be upstairs in approximately one minute and twenty eight seconds."
"Thank you JARVIS." Bruce said, stretching as he stood up. Tony was still asleep. Bruce put his hand on his forehead. It was still warmer than it should be, but it seemed the fever had gone down a bit.
"JARVIS, what's his temperature?"
"One hundred and three."
"Thank you."
At least it had gone down point nine degrees, Bruce thought. Suddenly the elevator opened. Bruce instantly put his finger to his mouth to keep them quiet, and the two entered the room, their feet barely making a sound. Pepper went right to Tony, putting her hand on his forehead as Bruce had just done.
"How is he?" She whispered. "He feels awfully warm."
"He's doing better. A wire was poking into the soft tissue in his chest from the arc reactor causing an infection. I fixed that a few hours ago. His fever's going down some."
Pepper sighed in relief and stood back up. Fury turned to Bruce.
"We've chosen the first two designs. The helicarrier is on its way to be fixed."
Bruce smiled.
"Finally. Sorry about the damage, by the way."
Fury shook his head with a chuckle.
"Just don't do it again."
