TONY'S DAUGHTER GETS TAKEN HOSTAGE (PART 2)
Jessica didn't wake up to pain. She didn't wake up to confusion. She woke up only to one thing.
Her eyes struggled open and she croaked out, "…Natasha?"
Half-asleep in the chair next to her bed in the med bay, Tony jerked awake. Seeing his daughter's eyes for the first time in days, warm relief flooded his system. He grasped at her hands and brought them to his lips, kissing gratefully, trying not to cry.
"Jessie. Jessie, thank God. You're here. You're back, it's okay."
"Dad…" Jess got out. "Where's…Nat?"
Tony managed a single laugh. "I'm fine too, thanks for asking."
"I remember…" Jess wheezed, "he was gonna…kill her. She….she was crying."
"Shh, shh, shh. Everything's okay now, baby girl."
Jess looked at her father and brought as much strength as she could muster to her words. "Where is she, Dad?"
Tony pursed his lips, but he didn't look away. "Natasha is fine."
"Where is she?"
Conveniently, JARVIS had alerted the others to Jessica's awakening, and the med bay flooded with a group of Avengers. Desperately, Jess counted them — Thor, Clint, Steve, Bruce. Nat? Where was Nat?
Immediately, and almost forgetting to be delicate with the broken little Stark, the team descended upon her bedside, gushing with relief. Steve took her bruised face in his hands and kissed her forehead. Bruce frantically scanned her heart monitor and vitals to make sure she was okay. Thor practically ripped her hands out of Tony's grasp and warmed them up between his, squeezing softly. Clint gently clapped her thigh.
He smiled. "Morning, sunshine."
"I can't tell you how happy we are to see you," Steve said. "These last few days.…we've been worried sick. Taking shifts to make sure you wouldn't be alone when you woke up."
Thor laughed. "This is true, although I do believe your father has successfully stood guard since your admission."
"We lost you once," Steve said. "No one's leaving your side this time."
"Guys," Bruce said. "Slow down a little. BP and pulse rising, we've gotta keep her steady."
"Natasha," Jess said before anyone could intervene. "I need to see her."
The room looked to Tony, waiting on his command. Tony sighed.
"She's not here. Mission."
"Bullshit," Jessica snapped. "She wouldn't leave me, not like this. Please, I have to know."
"She's safe," Clint assured her. "She found you and took down the men keeping you hostage. Cap backed her up. Everyone's okay."
Jessica's eyes welled. Tears of absolute, ecstatic relief. "I need to see her."
"Afraid that's not possible, Jessie." Tony's face was hard. "You two need some time apart. Obviously, keeping her close just puts you in harm's way, which, by the way, is exactly what I said would happen. Somehow, you convinced me it'd be okay. But this —" Tony gestured to Jessica's body, neatly positioned in the hospital bed, "—is not okay."
"You kicked her out?" Jessica demanded. "Didn't you? You kicked her out!"
"Tony…" Bruce warned.
Slowly, Thor placed a hand on Jessica's shoulder. "Perhaps we should take a couple of deep breaths, my dear?"
"Even after she found me, saved me," Jessica said, her breaths running thinner with every word, "you kicked her out!"
"You mean after she got you captured and tortured by the KGB within an inch of your life?" Tony shot back. "Yeah, I kicked her out."
"Tony," Bruce said again, harder. "Bring it down a notch."
"The most important thing is that she's safe," Steve tried to convince Jess. "I give you my word, Jess, she's completely safe."
"Not a scratch," Clint added. "Your girl's tough."
Seemingly unable to hear any of their comforts over the desperation and fury roaring in her ears, Jessica shook her head. She begun to rip at the tubes stuck in her arms and the oxygen around her face, scrambling to get off the bed and take to the streets in search of Natasha. All at once, the team reacted, pulling her back down and restraining her against the mattress. She was so weak they could hardly feel her struggle, but shared concerned looks nonetheless.
"Jessica, stop," Bruce said. "I don't want to restrain you."
"I need to see her!" Jess cried, still resisting. She writhed around, never still enough for anyone to get the IV back in her arm or the oxygen tube back in her nose. Her heart monitor went wild, glowing red with warning.
"Get her down," Bruce ordered, "or she's gonna crash."
Steve and Thor took her arms, pinning them to the mattress. They shared an equally panicked look — scared to hurt her, scared to let her hurt herself. Clint pressed down on her legs. Tony took a fumbled step back, grabbing the wall like he was about to faint. And still, Jessica thrashed, her head moving back and forth frantically. She had started to sob, her face a mess of sweat and tears and bruises.
Steve used his free hand to mop her hair back. He held his palm there, pressed gently again her forehead, so that Bruce could get the oxygen back in her nose.
"Look at me," Steve said. He had his stern yet comforting Captain America voice on. "Jess, I need you to look at me."
Still breathing raggedly, but adequately restrained, Jess met Steve's eye. She struggled too much through her tears and painful breath to say anything.
Steve smiled. "It's gonna be okay."
Jessica could only cry. Her eyes read, no it won't.
"Do I ever lie to you?" Steve asked.
"I have to—" Jess rasped, "—Nat."
"I know, doll. I know."
"You can't—I can't—"
"It's okay."
"I love her."
At that, Steve paused. His heart gave a pang of guilt — letting Tony keep Jess and Natasha apart felt like his only option. Jess was his daughter. The one person he loved, needed, more than anything else in the world. He couldn't lose her, or even bear the thought of it. Especially now it had almost happened.
The room cast their gaze to Tony, still propping himself against the wall. He looked awful. Clearly hadn't slept since Jess was admitted, hadn't showered, hadn't shaved. Hadn't come to terms with how close he came to losing her. He seemed to be having some kind of silent, withdrawn panic attack. Seeing this, Bruce walked across and guided Tony back into his chair. Slowly, he helped him into sitting. But Jessica was his patient. She needed his help first.
Carefully, Bruce re-inserted Jess's IV. She flinched, or tried to, but Thor's grip was too strong for her to get out of it. Bruce pulled out a sedative.
He said, "Jess?"
After a moment, she met his eye, but her own panic made it hard to focus for long.
"Everything's going to be okay. I'm just gonna give you something to relax."
Jessica gave an agitated half-sob, but Bruce had already injected the sedative. She was out within moments.
Even still, Steve, Thor and Clint looked to Bruce for orders.
Bruce nodded.
They all released Jess from her restraints, gently repositioning her limp arms and legs. Thor even lifted her head to smooth out her hair, which had fallen into messy tangled strands all over the place. He rested her back down on the pillow.
Finally, Bruce dared approach Tony. He spoke very softly.
"Tony…she has to see Natasha."
Lips pursed into a thin line to stop them from quivering, Tony shook his head.
Bruce sighed. "I know you're scared, but Jess is safe now. Until she sees Nat —"
"I said no," Tony snapped. He took a deep breath. "And that's the end of it."
Steve sighed. "Tony—"
"Out." When no one moved to leave, Tony stood up and roared, "NOW!"
The rest of the team, exchanging solemn looks and weary sighs, slowly slipped away, until Tony and Jess were alone again in the med bay.
Tony took his daughter's hand. At least when she was unconscious, she didn't have to see him cry.
xxx
It didn't take long for Jess to figure out that screaming and fighting wouldn't get her far. She endured the next week and a half in that hospital bed, staring vacantly at a speck across the room. She had the team — her family — in to see her multiple times every day. They brought games and books and movies. Bruce kept her on the mend. And yet, no matter how much she would've liked to bring them some comfort, she couldn't even muster a smile.
It wasn't that she didn't believe their reassurances that Natasha was alive and well. It was that, until she got to see Natasha; touch her, hold her, kiss her; for herself, she couldn't believe it. And being stuck in the tower, without her, for what her father asserted would be forever, destroyed Jess a little bit more every day.
Bruce and Tony moved her from the med bay into her room, still on bed rest, but surrounded by more comforts. For Jessica, it changed nothing. Just another place without Natasha. Just another place longing helplessly to see her.
She was completely and utterly miserable, as much as they tried to help, and as much as she tried to make them think otherwise. She's sleep all day and all night, or she wouldn't sleep for days at a time. She'd forget to eat if it wasn't prompted. She'd lose hours staring into space, convinced she was somehow falling and unable to catch herself.
More than once, she'd try to find another loophole in JARVIS's security matrix to bust herself out of the Tower and find Natasha herself. Unsurprisingly, Tony expected as much, and she never managed to get far.
One day Steve and Thor came to her room after a joint workout, as they often did. Jess's door was closed and the lights were off, but that rarely meant she was still asleep. As gently as an Asgardian god could muster, Thor knocked twice.
"Little Stark? Eager for a bit of company?"
At Jess's silence, Steve and Thor shared a helpless look. They pushed the door open.
Jessica was perched on the window bed across her room, staring out through layers upon layers of bulletproof glass at the city through a crack in the curtains. She hardly seemed to register their approach.
Thor and Steve wandered over to the window and tried to mask their concern at Jessica's appearance. The bags under her eyes indicated she was having another episode of insomnia. The colour seemed to have drained from her face. Her clothes hung off of her. Steve folded his arms, leaning against the wall.
"Can't sleep again, huh?"
"It's just the anti-infection stuff Bruce has me on," Jess said. "Makes me a little nauseous."
Thor clapped her on the back. "Nothing a hearty meal can't fix! How about some breakfast?"
"Mm." Jessica didn't really seem to hear the question. "Yeah."
"Yeah?" Thor grinned. "Fantastic! I'll be right downstairs finding something to prepare. Steve, if you would be so kind to escort my honoured guest down when she feels fit?"
Steve nodded. "Will do."
Thor gave a final excited grin before leaping off to the kitchen to prepare Jessica a breakfast she hardly remembered agreeing to. Once he was gone, she frowned.
"Wait, what did I say yes to?"
"Breakfast. Thor seems very keen to get you eating properly, and he's not the only one."
Jessica looked back out the window. "I'm sorry. I'm just…not hungry. Maybe when I'm off all the meds Bruce has me taking it'll go back to normal."
"Well, that's one possibility, but I'm not so sure Bruce's meds are entirely to blame."
Jessica didn't even have the energy to sigh, so she just closed her eyes. After several moments, she opened them again, and simply said, "I'm sorry."
"No." Steve sat down across from her on the window seat. "Don't be. That's not what I meant."
"It's what Dad means," Jess muttered. "Pretty sure he'd rather I blame the meds."
"Rather than what?"
"Rather than blaming him."
Steve paused. "Do you?"
Jessica shook her head once, slowly. "No. He's scared. He almost lost me. But me, I…I lost her."
"She's okay, Jessica."
"'Okay', but not here. What does 'okay' mean if I don't even get to—"
Jessica cut herself off at the first threat of tears, holding her breath for a moment to compose herself. Steve's heart ached watching her stifle the pain, willing in that moment to do absolutely anything it took to make it all better. He'd whisk her away, or he'd break down every wall in the Tower, to bring Natasha back to her.
"Jessica." Steve gave her a softer, more penetrating look. "You can't keep going like this. Every time I see you, it feels like you're further away."
Jessica sniffled. "No, I'm doing better. I am."
"'Better' isn't the word Bruce likes to use. He calls it 'stable'."
"Well," Jessica coughed out a half-laugh. "It's not like I'm leaving here any time soon, and it's sure as hell not like Natasha is gonna barge through those doors any minute, so screw it. I'm stable. What more do you want from me?"
"I want to see you smile, Jess! I want to knock on your bedroom door without being scared you've collapsed, or hurt yourself, or worse. I'm not gonna tell you that your dad knows best, and I promise I'll have your back when you're ready to confront him, but in the meantime, we need you healthy. Please, Jessica. You're our girl. You're family. We want to help you, doll, however we can. Let us."
But his words just made Jessica's eyes well up more. She had to look away. "I'll try."
Only after Steve had coaxed her into bed with a glass of milk and was convinced she'd finally fallen asleep did he leave. As much as he wanted to lie next to her, watching over her to make sure she got some proper rest, he knew there was a more pressing matter at hand.
Luckily, Thor was still in the kitchen preparing a breakfast banquet, while Tony manoeuvred around him in attempt to get his morning smoothie underway. Clint sat at the kitchen table, absently finishing off some cereal while reading through his tablet. Bruce must've been down in the lab already. Steve stopped once he'd made it to the middle of the room. He folded his arms.
"We need to talk."
Without looking up from his smoothie, Tony sighed. "I'm guessing this isn't about the poker game I definitely did not cheat at two weeks ago?"
"She's dying up there, Tony."
"No," Tony said, distractedly swiping sliced strawberries into the blender. "She's surviving up there. Big distinction."
"She's miserable."
"And alive, did I mention?"
"I can only imagine what you're going through, having come so close to losing her, but enough is enough. This is torture."
Tony sucked his teeth, trying not to look pissed off. "You call it torture, I call it protection." He whipped the blender on, making it impossible for Steve to respond.
Finally, Steve said, "Just let them see each other for God's sake. Jess needs to know her girlfriend is safe — she needs to see it."
"Her what?" Tony said. "Her girlfriend? You've gotta be kidding me."
"Oh, they're not girlfriends anymore? Because you say so?"
"Because were that the case, Rodgers, it would mean that my daughter's girlfriend practically sent her to the slaughterhouse!"
"That's not fair." Steve looked to Thor and Clint for backup. "Guys, come on. This is insane."
Thor stopped his meal preparations. He leant against the kitchen counter and sighed. "In my culture, a father's bond is a sacred thing. Sacred. Naturally, I am reluctant to see the Stark bond fractured on any account, but I must confess…it is nothing short of tragic to see our dear Jessica so ravaged by despair."
"And Clint?" Steve asked. "What do you think?"
Clint held up his hands. "It's not up to me, Cap. If it were my girl, I'd be lucky to be doing half as well as Tony over here."
"But you're the only one who's seen Natasha since it happened. You told me she's barely hanging in there. Why won't she just come see her?"
"Because." Clint sighed. "Her girlfriend gets kidnapped, held hostage, almost dies. Dad kicks her out. Far as she's concerned, the punishment fits the crime."
"The punishment is cruel." Steve glanced back to Tony. "On both of them."
"I'm not punishing my daughter," Tony spat.
"You've been punishing her the minute we wheeled her in to the med bay."
"Hey!" Tony snapped. "Don't tell me how to take care of my baby girl, you got that? If it were anyone but Widow — any other woman — who'd put Jess's life on the line, you'd do the exact same thing. Okay, she's miserable. Trust me, I know that, and it kills me. But give it time and she'll be okay."
Steve shook his head. "Even if that's true, she's going to do something to hurt herself before we can even begin to get that point."
"The hell are you talking about?"
"Don't you see it? Natasha is Jessica's rock, and she's hers. Just in the time they've been together, Jess has grown. She's become stronger, bolder, more confident in her abilities. Nat's let her guard down, dropped every facade she's every had, found a soft centre behind all that training and trauma. Clint," Steve turned back to him. "You must've seen that."
Clint rubbed at the back of his neck. "Yeah. I've seen it. But Nat doesn't trust herself right now to keep Jess safe. She's not ready."
"She will be, as soon as she has the green light." Steve turned to Tony again. "They're a part of each other now, whether you like it or not. You can't keep doing this. Please."
Tony returned Steve's glare for as long as he could. The smoothie in the blender had already started to clump up, getting more sour and soggy by the minute. Tony pushed it away. He wasn't hungry anymore.
"I need to think," he said, before storming off for the elevator.
Steve, Clint and Thor looked at each other. All there was left to do now was wait.
xxx
Exactly one week later, Steve knocked on Jess's door knowing something she didn't. He could hardly stifle a grin, waiting for her to let him in. She must've been in one of her long sleep episodes, so he had to wake her up.
"Hey there, kid. Rise and shine."
"Mm…" Jess mumbled. "What's happening?"
"C'mon, let's get you dressed and showered. Bruce said you're well enough to start moving around again."
He waited for her in the bedroom while she showered and put some clothes on, hastily pulling the covers up on her bed and opening the curtains. She was done fifteen minutes later, hair wet and her movements still partially laboured, but at least a tiny part of her was intrigued by Steve's enthusiasm.
He led her downstairs, carefully guiding her by the arm and taking it nice and slowly.
"You okay, doll? Pain's alright?"
"It's fine. Just haven't gone this far in a while. What are we doing?"
It was then that the elevator doors opened up on the lounge room. Jessica did not notice the sofas, or the chairs, or the bar counter, or the flat screen T.V. She was hardly aware of Bruce, Thor, Clint and Tony waiting there for her. In fact, all she was aware of in the entire world was one Natasha Romanoff, planted in the middle of the room.
Jessica's lips parted. "Is this…are you—?"
"I'm here, baby," Natasha said.
Completely abandoning Steve in the elevator and recovering body be damned, Jess crashed across the lounge and threw herself into Natasha. The women clung so tightly together, crying profusely with such utter joy and relief, that nothing else in the room mattered. Jessica's body struggled to stay up, shaking and squeezing madly, so Natasha held on tighter, holding Jessica close against her body. They pulled back only to kiss; messily, passionately; like they were afraid the moment would end at any second and they'd wake up in separate beds. If it was a dream, it was a sweet one, and Jessica was not ready to wake up.
Steve wandered over to Tony. The both of them watched Jessica's face over Nat's shoulder, beaming wildly, a hundred years taken off her eyes, and had to smile.
"You did the right thing," Steve said.
"Mm." Tony's face was hard. "Careful, Rodgers. Anything goes wrong now, it's on you."
