Special thanks to everyone who reviewed today! I can't tell you how nice it was to come home from work to find an inbox filled with reviews and other notifications! I'm so happy to have people like you guys reading my fics! I hope you will all keep reading and reviewing and enjoying this story! Now, enough of me being sappy, ON WITH IT!
I woke to the feeling of the hair on my head being rubbed the wrong way. I let my eyes flutter open, my eyes finding dull, pain filled silver orbs. "Your hair is too long," Nights stated, very slowly, enunciating every syllable carefully.
"It is?" I asked, reaching up a hand to feel. She nodded, slowly.
"It's past regulation. You need to get it cut," she said, once again being very careful with her pronunciation.
"Yeah, I guess I do," I said. "How long have you been awake?" I asked.
"Twelve hours," she said. I jerked up.
"That long?! What time is it?" I asked.
"About eight AM."
"But I checked the clock two hours ago. I didn't see your eyes open," I said.
"It took a while to figure out how to open them again. It took even longer to figure out how to talk. It's still giving me problems," Nights said, turning her head slowly to look out the window.
"What do you mean? You're having trouble moving?" I asked.
"Everything but my head. And there's weird things flashing around in my head too. It feels like I've got one of the SHIELD programs up on a computer, except the computer is in my brain and it's playing across my vision," she said, turning her head slowly to look at me.
"I didn't think it'd do that."
"Didn't think what would do that?" Nights asked, tripping a bit over the "th" sound. I sighed.
"What's the last thing you remember?" I got up and turned my chair around, sitting back down on it and putting my arms on the back rest.
"Walking out of the garage after meeting Bucky," she said. I nodded.
"After that your nose, eyes and ears started bleeding and then you passed out. We took you to the hospital, apparently the radiation finally decided to come get you. It liquidated most of your brain stem before we finally got an experimental drug that Tony was testing, called permeolycine, into your system. It looked like it stopped the damage from going further for a while, but then we had to start upping the dosage because your brain would start deteriorating again. We don't know why."
"Wouldn't that have completely destroyed my brain though? How am I awake now?" Nights asked.
"You were declared brain dead. We thought you were about to die. But then Tony told us about this thing that Stark Industries had been developing when it was still making weapons. He believed that he could restructure it so that it could perform the duties of the damaged parts of your brain, while stopping further injury. You got out of surgery last night around ten."
"So I have a… what in my head?" she asked.
"To be honest I'm really not sure what it is. All I know is that it's the reason I'm having a conversation with you and not spouting a monologue from the pulpit of a church with a full casket a few feet away," I said.
"Was I really that close to dying?" she asked. I nodded.
"How long have I been out?"
"Two months," I said.
"That explains why your hair is so long. Is everyone okay?" she asked.
"Everyone is fine. They're going to come see you later," I said.
"Later being now," Tony said, walking into the room with a large blue orchid.
"Hello beautiful," he said, dropping to place a kiss on her cheek. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Like shit," she said, as he placed the orchid by her bedside.
"Yeah well, that's normal," he said.
"They pretty much invaded your entire head. It's going to hurt quite a bit for a while, but it shouldn't last for too long," Banner said, walking in. "Here, I thought you might need this," he said, holding out a crocheted hat for her.
Her arms twitched, her expression concentrated, if not a little pain-filled. I grabbed the hat instead. "What's it for?" I asked.
"They had to cut off all her hair in order to get the Star system in," Tony said. An expression of disappointment filled Nights face briefly before she quickly hid it. If I hadn't been watching her face, I would've completely missed it.
"I figured you'd want something to keep you warm" Banner explained.
"Thank you," Nights said.
"Oh please, who needs a hat? All she needs is a little dark chocolate!" Clint said, from the doorway. He lifted a bag of the stuff to show her before walking over and depositing it on the bed.
"Dark mildly sweet chocolate, right?" she asked, her expression hopefully.
"Of course. How you doing princess?" he asked, placing a soft kiss on the bandages wrapped around her head. She smiled.
"Been better. Been worse too. But I've definitely been better," she said.
"Well don't worry, you're going to be okay again soon," he replied, patting her lightly on the shoulder.
"She's already looking a lot better to me," Natasha said, walking into the room. "You're looking great for someone who just underwent major brain surgery sixteen hours ago," she said.
"Thank you," Nights said. Nat nodded, handing me a book, its title indicating it was some kind of teen romance.
"For you to read to her later," she said. "Is that the new Ally Carter book?" Nights asked.
"Of course," Natasha replied.
"Thank you," Nights said, a smile on her face.
"Hey, what? Did you not like my gift? I thought you loved chocolate!" Clint complained.
"I do love chocolate. Which is why I'm going to be eating it while Steve reads to me," she said. Clint nodded, appeased.
"Better be careful. All that sugar will short out the computer in your head," Sam said from his place in the doorway.
"Hiya Sam," Nights said.
"You gonna make it?" he asked.
"By the skin of my teeth," she replied, a smile in place.
"Good," he said with a nod, pulling a large stuffed bear from behind his back and placing it next to her on the bed. Nights' eyes widened in delight.
"Here, use this to learn how to squeeze again," he said.
"You got it," Nights replied, her eyes glued to the fluffy object beside her.
"So, how're the more technical bits of the Star system going?" Tony asked.
"My vision is currently being assaulted with all of your files and the constant shifting around of them is making my head pound even worse," Nights complained.
"Yeah, having all that information at your fingertips and floating across your vision is a little discombobulating at first, but you get used to it and you learn how to keep up," he said.
"Is that why you're so fragmented?" Nights deadpanned.
"See, I don't get it. I save your life and sixteen hours later you're back to teasing me?" Tony complained.
"Of course. Teasing you is fun, almost as fun as teasing Sam," she said.
"Woah, don't you start now shorty, otherwise I'm taking that bear back."
"Yes Sam," Nights said.
"Hey you're listening to him now? Does that mean I should threaten to take the Star system out of your head if you don't be good?" Tony asked.
"Try it and my last action will be to replace Jarvis with a computerized version of my consciousness and I will haunt you wherever you go for the rest of your days," Nights threatened.
"We should've wired your attitude out," he said.
"You love my attitude," Nights argued.
"It gets old."
"So does you being an ass."
"I…"
"Don't deny it. Even Pepper says you're an ass," Nights said.
"She does not," Tony defended. Nights raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, maybe she does," Tony conceded.
"She totally does."
Clint chuckled and Natasha smiled. Even Banner had a smile on his face as he pushed his glasses further up on his nose. Sam quirked the corner of his mouth up.
"Good to have you back Snippy," he said.
"Glad to be back," Nights said.
"I hate to interrupt the conversation, but Nights, can you move at all?" Banner asked.
"Only things that are above my shoulders and only with great pain and difficulty," Nights said. Banner nodded.
"The Star system is probably still calibrating and you're probably still getting used to it. You're most likely going to need a lot of physical therapy so you can learn how to move again. It's kind of different with the system being in your head, isn't it?" he asked.
"It's really different." He nodded.
"Eh, don't worry. I'll help you figure it out again," Tony said.
"You'd probably drop me on my face."
"I would not. Jarvis would keep me from doing that," he said. Nights' expression remained unchanged.
"We'll all help you figure it out. But right now you should probably sleep," Steve said.
"Sleep does sound nice," Nights conceded.
"Oh, don't forget to plug this in," Tony said, tapping a cord that ran from an outlet all the way to a place at the bottom of Nights' spine.
"What?" Nights and I asked.
"You gotta charge the battery for the Star system. Otherwise, you're going to be walking along the street and suddenly you're going to pitch forward in a coma because the power went out. So make sure to plug in every time you sleep," he said.
"Got it," Nights said.
"Okay, we'll see you all tomorrow," I said, pushing everyone out the door, much to their protests. Finally though, I managed to get the door shut. I turned back to Nights.
Her eyes were closed, a peaceful expression on her face as her chest rose and fell in an even rhythm, her steady breathing indicating she was asleep. I smiled, walking over and rubbing the back of my hand across her forehead gently. "Sweet dreams," I said, kissing her on the forehead.
Ugh, so happy Nights is awake again, I missed writing her snippy responses. I don't think I'm going to let her go comatose again, that was way too difficult. Anywho, good news! I actually watched Age of Ultron yesterday (Finally!) so potential hiatus averted! I'll be writing to get this fic lined up with that now so we should start getting into that soon. Once again, thank you so much for reading, and if you reviewed THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING! Please, continue to read and review and I will see you lot tomorrow. Bya!