Hell…

That was the only explanation. She had died and gone to Hell. What other explanation could there be. Shit like this didn't happen to normal people, why was it always happening to her. So, dead. She had to be dead, right? She always knew that if there was a God (other than Thor) that her dark little soul would end up there.

Kinda thought there'd be more fire. And you know, maybe brimstone and and angry, horned demon (angel Toni, Lucifer was once an angel). Well, the hot part was correct, there was less heat and humidity in the Amazon..

Toni bit back an angry sigh, it wouldn't do any good, nobody would hear it anyway. Well the Cloak would if it were paying attention.

It (he,she?) had been stretched out protectively over its master since Toni had finished her backwoods field surgery. She shuddered, Never again.. She was never doing that again, she'd rather go another round of war with Cap then to yank a freaking tree from a human body again.

In what world is that normal!

Her body was aching from the fall, from the stress of being stranded here for over a day already. From the screams of her teammate as she tried valiantly to sew him back together.

Night had fallen hours ago, she had to scour around to find enough wood before darkness fell to sustain the fire overnight. There was no way in Hell she would walk alone in these woods in the night, there wasn't even enough light from the moon above to break through the massive trees so the forest floor was a black abyss.

Toni tossed another log onto the fire and reclined back against the base of a tree. That should keep it going for another few hours. Enough time for her to catch a quick nap, she didn't want to risk a deep slumber out here, anything could happen. They could be attacked by gigantic butterflies or some weird shit.

Plus, Stephen could wake and need her and she wanted to make sure she was readily available should he need anything. That man had been through basically torture and if he so much as wanted a fingernail trimmed she'd find a way to build nail clippers out of her suit.

She glanced over to where he was lying, he hadn't moved a muscle in what she thought was about twelve hours. One would have thought he was dead if not for the slow rise and fall of his chest. The shaking had stopped once he lost consciousness (before she had even fully removed the unwanted limb, get it? Limb? Eh, bad joke Toni.. From his shoulder) and he had been still ever since.

She was debating on whether she should try to rouse him or to just let him wake naturally. Other than checking his pulse about fifty times she had mostly left the man alone but he would need to drink something soon, and eat a bit. This planet was so hot and humid, she'd been drenched in sweat since she'd been awake, and she knew the last thing the Doc had was that sip of water she gave him earlier.

To rouse or not to rouse, that is the question.

She couldn't let him dehydrate, not with the shape he was already in, she had to at least try to keep him as physically healthy as possible. Not sure how healthy you could be after being impaled, but she had to try. And she knew that the morphine could make you hella thirsty (she was fairly acquainted with it).

Toni could see the beads of sweat rolling down Stephen's forehead, he hadn't felt overly warm on her last check so she hoped it was from the humidity. Or possibly the weight of the Cloak stretched out protectively over him was the cause. It looked like it would be heavy and warm, not something you wanted in this jungle heat, but her attempts to dislodge it had ended with her getting slapped pretty harshly.

The Cloak seem like it was angry with her after the limb incident. When she had pulled it out and Stephen fainted she could have sworn it was glaring at her for causing its master more pain. It wasn't like she could have controlled it, it was better he passed out anyway, at least he wouldn't feel it while she doused the wound with water. The Cloak however, had been slapping at her since, her efforts to appease it were going nowhere.

Luckily, Stephen's prediction of a nicked thoracoacromial had turned out to be wrong, other than some expected bleeding it had gone fairly well. Toni had cleaned and inspected the wound as best she could, she could see the broken clavicle bone but could do nothing about it. After repeated rinses she stitched the opening on his chest closed like he told her and packed the gauze and the tube into his back, leaving enough space to remove the gauze tomorrow.

She wanted to find a better way to make him comfortable, it looked miserable lying on the hard ground, but first she was going to try and wake him up, he could rest more after he drank and ate a little. First she had to make the angry guardian trust her intentions.

Rising, she gave her stiff back a nice crack. God she felt like an old pile of dog shit, she should have known after forty everything would roll downhill. Maybe it was time to restart the Extremis program again, she had put it on the backburner during their civil war and just never came back around to it. That could fix her creaky bones.

She pulled another log onto the fire, she wanted to get some more drinking water ready for them. Jarvis had included some water purifying tablets in the armor as well as some antibiotics, (she would really have to do something nice for him when she made it back), but she'd rather save those for a desperate situation. Boiling would be fine for now, it wasn't easy to get the helmet to heat to that point but if she was anything it was adaptable.

She took one of the water bladders and moved toward Stephen. The Cloaks collar snapped to face her, making her halt.

"Easy…" she raised her hands, "Look, I'm not going to hurt him. Earlier was not my fault! You try having an inanimate object shoved through you and see how you feel! You'd be in pain too!"

The Cloak rose menacingly before her, raising its left side to show the rip in the cloth.

"Ok, I get it, you're hurt to, but human pain is different, our bodies can't handle that much trauma. We're not immortal, we bleed, we hurt, we can die! I did what I could with what I have, I know you care about him and that you're trying to protect him, but I'm not the enemy here. So please stop trying to hit me and let me look at him."

Cloak rippled, but seemed to consider her words. It floated back beside Stephen and didn't slap her as she knelt down but it was watching her closely.

He looked a mess, the entire left side of his body was a deep purple bruise. The cuts she had bandaged looked well, there was no bleeding there was no redness or puffiness that she could see. The broken leg was encased in her boot, so she wasn't going to check on it at the moment. Tomorrow when he was less dopey with morphine they could tackle that task together. She didn't want to risk moving his hand either, it was giving her the most worry.

Toni tried to recall details she had read in Stephen's file, about the aftermath of his accident. She wasn't certain, but she thought he had some metal fused into the bones of his hands to help hold them together. That didn't do her any good, but it concerned her that the metal could have broken or (God forbid) shattered and he had pieces of shrapnel floating in there.

Toni would have liked to check the wound on his back but she was afraid to move him, when she and the Cloak had laid him down she placed some of the cloth Jarvis had gifted her with underneath to keep dirt from getting in. His body was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, he didn't feel warm so most likely it was from the heat. She looked like a wet dog at the moment.

"Stephen?" Toni gently called, "Stephen, wake up. Open your eyes for me Doc. Come on."

She gave a light shake to his good shoulder making him moan, "I know Doc, it hurts, but come on. I need you to wake up now, you need to drink or you'll get dehydrated. Wakey, Wakey." She nudged him again.

"Mmmm, Toni?" His good eye cracked open but rolled around wildly, "Whasit? Mmm, what's going on? Wong! Wong, ring the alarm! Beyonce! Chicken in the farm!"

Holy shit! Wow, he wasn't kidding. He is a lightweight with drugs, she thought. It'd be fun to get him buzzed sometime.

"Doc, doc come on, look at me. It's Toni, I need you to wake up so you can drink this."

"Toni..?" He squinted, "Where's your goatee?"

"What! Hey, I wax my face every month, it's like a newborn baby bum. You're the one with the peachy fuzz doc. You with me yet?"

"Ooooh, that's the other universe.. You're a man in that one.. Mmmm, whyzit so hot? Have I been on fire?"

Toni whistled, "Wooo, I am never giving you drugs again.."

"Okay.." Stephen agreed.

"Here," Toni opened the water and tilted his head up, "Slow sips Doc."

He tried to use his good arm to take the bottle from her and ended up spilling some over his face and getting a nose full of water. He choked, going into a coughing fit.

"Shit!" Toni jerked the bottle back, "Easy Doc, I said slooow!"

The Cloak flew forward menacingly and gave her a hearty slap, right across the cheek, "Ooow!" She dropped the bottle, losing half her water across the ground, "That wasn't my fault asshole!"

She held her cheek, the stinging radiating from her lip to her brow. That wasn't a light tap, it felt more like a punch, the damn red monster slapped the shit out of her, hard... Her eye was watering from the force and when she rubbed a finger over her lip there was a smear of blood. There was the familiar warmth in her nostril to, no doubt there'd be blood there as well.

"You didn't need to do that…" she whispered, giving the little bastard her best glare.

She rose and walked back to the tree she was resting against earlier. A swipe of her nose showed a little blood. Toni sighed wearily, there'd be a nice bruise tomorrow, and a potential black eye. A shame Jarvis didn't give her some kind of ice pack.. Why were people always hitting her in the face, or trying to choke her.. Obie, Loki, Thor.. Why was she everyone's punching bag?

Resting her uninjured cheek on her knees she gazed into the fire, the water was beginning to boil, she'd need to refill the bottle she'd dropped after it cooled but right now she couldn't be bothered. Maybe if she fell asleep she'd wake up back in the tower and this would just be a bad dream.

She sniffed, it wasn't really her fault, but she should have known he was thirsty and may try to take the bottle. She deserved the slap, she was supposed to be helping him..

Toni was roused from her thoughts by a rustling sound, she glanced over to make sure the Cloak wasn't going to slap her again and saw that the rustling was Stephen, rolling to his good side. Trying to get up..

Alarmed, she bolted to her feet, "Doc!" she ran to him, "Doc stop! You're going to hurt yourself , please! Lie back down!"

The Cloak beat her to him, trying to roll him onto his back but Stephen lashed out with his broken hand, pushing it away. "Stop!" he yelled.

The Cloak froze, backing away.

"Doc, are you-"

"Don't! Don't.." he said quietly.

He grimaced, pulling himself up enough to send a seething look at the Cloak, "Why did you do that..? That.." he gasped, "That wasn't her fault.. You shouldn't have hit her.."

Cloak floated toward him, "Don't! Just, leave me be. That.. That was uncalled for. You-you need to apologize." Stephen glared at it.

The Cloak looked truly regretful, the collar hanging low, it floated over to Toni where it hovered a moment before wrapping itself around her. Almost like a hug, it lifted an edge and stroked her bruised cheek before it drifted away behind a tree.

Stephen coughed weakly, then lay back against the ground, "Toni.. Toni, I'm sorry. It shouldn't have-"

"Shhh, Doc it's ok. It's just trying to protect you. Are you alright, you could have did serious damage trying to get up like that!"

"I'm fine.. Ish. But I think I'm gonna go pass out now.."

"Doc?"

"I'm fine, just a little too much at once. Everything hurts. So I'm just gonna lay here and pray you're generous enough to give me another dose of morphine."

"That I can do." Toni smiled.

She managed to get him to drink the rest of the water she had for him and gave him a half dose this time since it made him kinda wacky. The Cloak was sulking behind a tree and her water was cooling off the fire. She was feeling bored, she needed something constructive to do or she'd go crazy.

She watched Stephen lying awkwardly on the ground and got an idea, she looked at the huge blade grass surrounding them, each one as wide as her thigh and as tall as she is. The plot forming in her mind, Toni got her machete and cut down the massive stalks. She rolled each one tightly til she had a mound of small springs, the she stretched out several more flat on the ground and placed the rolled pieces inside. She pulled the flat pieces together and tied the ends, making a nice firm pillow.

Pleased with her little creation she went to place it under Stephens head.

"Mmmm. Thank you. That feels nice.." he mumbled.

"Don't mention it Doc…" Toni said.

She went back to her tree and decided she would try to get in a nap before morning. Tomorrow she would work on finding a way off this freaking planet, because it didn't look like anyone would be coming to their rescue..