Chapter 9: Amii
Amii looked up from her papers as her phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen and saw a message from Tony asking where she was. The clock on the phone showed that it was well past 9pm. Amii scrunched her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair…she had been so deeply focused on her work that she hadn't even realized how late it was. She quickly responded to the text "On my way home. Have got some exciting news!" as she grabbed her coat from the floor where she had absentmindedly dropped it. She cursed under her breath as she realized her keys had ended up under the desk and she got down on her knees to retrieve them. She had had something of an epiphany earlier in the day and had rushed back to work halfway through her lunch date with Sue Storm. She had found a way to get the arc reactor out of Tony's chest without the shrapnel or the increasing toxicity of his blood killing him thanks to something that Sue had said to her in the afternoon.
"Got it!" she said as her fingers found her key ring. She got up, grabbed the papers on her desk, stuffed them into her overflowing satchel that looked like it might rip at the seams at any moment and was opening her door when she heard a tap-tap on her window. She stopped, puzzled, as her office was 35 stories above street level. The tapping grew harder and when she opened the window and there was Tony waving at her, a crooked smile on his lips. He wooshed past her into the office as a mess of snow and cold air streamed into the building and closed the window behind him. "So, what's the exciting news? What are you doing here so late? You know I don't like being away from you for too long… this place and you look like a mess" said Tony in his usual rapid-fire fashion as he strutted around the office, peeking at the whiteboard full of scribbles in her room. "What are you doing here?" asked Amii, "I was just leaving for home". "It would take too long for you to drive home in this weather, so I thought I'd drop by" said Tony just as there was a knock on the office door, "Ah ha, right on time" he added as he pressed the button to retract his suit and stepped to the door, laughing at the confused look on Amii's face.
He opened the door as Happy walked in with a large basket and a "Hello, Ms. Singh". "Happy, you are so dependable. You make me happy. Thanks for delivering this, now scoot. I need some alone time with the beautiful, no…messy, doctor here" said Tony as Happy placed the basket on the floor and left with a smile, a wink and a bow. "Now, what is all the excitement about?" asked Tony, unpacking the basket. "What is all this?" asked Amii. "Dinner" Tony replied "I guess you are pretty hungry" he added laughing as Amii's stomach rumbled loudly at the mention of food. "I got us some pizza and we can have a picnic here". The smell of hot pizza was irresistible and Amii grabbed a slice out of Tony's hands and bit off a large piece rather ungracefully, plomping down on the sheet that Tony had laid down on the floor. She finished one slice and took another as Tony opened up a bottle of chilled wine and poured her a glass. He took out a large flask of chlorophyll and drank about half of it before asking "So, spill it…what is all the excitement about?". Amii looked at the man she adored and noticed that he looked wan and tired. Tony had had to up in intake of the awful concoction that kept his blood toxicity levels down so much that he could barely stomach real food anymore. Despite all his bravado, Amii knew that he was in pain and was losing hope of making it past Christmas that year. She gently touched Tony's cheek, a tear sliding down her cheek, and said "I think I found a way to get that awful reactor out of your chest without killing you in the process. That is what I have been working on for the last month and today a chance encounter with Sue Storm gave me the critical piece of the puzzle that had been missing so far. We can make you whole again, Tony!...and you won't ever have to drink that hideous stuff".
Tony sat up in attention, the scientist in him taking over "Tell me more" he said, taking Amii's papers out of her bag and spreading them all over the floor. "You see, we found a way to get the shrapnel out, but we could not figure out what to do with that giant hole in your chest as taking the reactor out would kill you in the process" Amii said, the excitement visible on her face and in her voice "but there is a way to get past that hurdle. There is this scientist, a Dr. Helen Cho, in Korea who is working on a machine that can recreate human tissue! Sue was gushing about how amazing it all was at a demo she had been to with the rest of the Fantastic Four where Dr. Cho was able to completely repair injuries from accidents, fire, gunshot, etc. I am certain that her machine could fix that hole in your chest too." "J.A.R.V.I.S. get me all the information on Dr. Helen Cho and her device" said Tony and one of the walls in the office turned into a giant projector where the AI ran through Dr. Cho's background, her past and current research and also managed to find a video of the top-secret demo that Sue had mentioned. "Wait, how did you get that video" asked Amii. "Oh its just a little device I planted in one of the SHEILD servers a while back" said Tony non-chalantly. "You hacked into SHEILD?!" asked Amii incredulously "Well someone has to keep a watch on the watchers and who best to do it than yours truly. But keep your voice down, Fury has eyes and ears everywhere and we don't want him to find out" chuckled Tony as Amii shook her head in and rolled her eyes in disbelief.
Tony was scanning through Amii's diagrams for the electromagnet they had been designing to hold the shrapnel back during surgery. He was firing instructions at J.A.R.V.I.S. and, just like that, he had become impervious to everything else, totally focused on the task. Amii smiled. She loved seeing him like that – focused, in charge and in his element – and she kicked her shoes off, stretched her legs and drank the wine that was chilling in a bucket of ice. She had dozed off when Tony's voice brought her back "I think you got it, sweetheart!" he was beaming "Dr. Cho's device completes our plans. Come on! We need to go home and get you into something halfway decent. We are leaving for Korea. I have all our plans loaded into J.A.R.V.I.S and I have emailed Dr. Cho about our arrival." 'Huh!" was all Amii could say before Tony grabbed her into a giant hug and kissed her with passion "Looks like we will have many Christmases together now!" he added before kissing her again, tears of joy and relief streaming down both their faces.
