Warning for depictions of non-graphic gun violence

Chapter 18: Code Silver

"You get killed, walk it off," Steve snarled. Only Tony's intense focus on the screen in front of them prevented him from bursting out laughing. Between Clint's scans, his awkward interactions with Natasha, and the debacle with his father, yesterday had proved fraught with emotional turmoil. Playing stupid video games helped get his mind off of all that.

"That's not how this game works," Quill pointed out.

"Yeah. If you get killed, your teammates have to keep fighting without you," Clint reminded him.

"Which lowers chance of success," Natasha added.

"I know, I know. I just thought it'd be a badass thing to say."

"Yes. Very macho of you, Steve," Tony drawled just as an alien blasted his avatar's right arm off. "Aaaand I'm dead."

"Serves you right for making fun of me," Steve retorted.

Tony thought about arguing back, but he was interrupted by a new voice. This voice blared throughout the room with as much urgency as a synthesized voice was capable of producing, "Code Silver. Code Silver. Code Silver."

"Uhhh, does anyone know what that means?" Quill asked. Everyone shook their heads. Tony had never heard such a term used before. Steve stood and started for the door, presumably to go ask around and find out what was going on. He barely made it two steps before Happy swung the door open violently. He and Peggy tore into the room; she drew the blinds over the windows facing the hallways while he locked the door and turned to face the assembly of confused children.

"Away from the door," he instructed with forced tranquility, ushering them all towards the other side of the room. He herded them behind the couch that faced the door and gestured from them to sit down, effectively hiding them from view of anyone glancing into the room. Peggy shut off the TV, waltzed up to Steve, and disconnected his port access from the IV pole while he spluttered inquiries about why this was necessary. She lifted the oxygen tank off its perch on the pole and thrust it into Steve's lap before rolling the stand away so it sat alone across the room.

"What was that for?" Steve asked accusingly. "I wasn't informed my antibiotics were being terminated prematurely."

"Shhh," Peggy hushed with a finger to her lips.

"What's a code silver?" Thor asked again. Based on the precautions Happy and Peggy had just taken, Tony hazarded a guess it indicated nothing good. The seven kids and two nurses sat in a haphazard circle between the back of the couch and the wall opposite the door to the common room. Tony found himself sandwiched between Parker and Natasha, across from Peggy and Steve who now clutched his oxygen tank to his chest like Tony used to cuddle Jarvis when he was upset. Clint sat next to Natasha, the two of them pressed so closely together they could have been conjoined twins. Beside Parker sat Happy, then Quill and Thor, both clearly confused and afraid but trying not to show it.

Happy and Peggy engaged in a nonverbal sparring match by solely exchanging glares, arguing over who would get stuck with the duty of explaining the situation. Happy lost. "Anyone with their phone on them, silence it now," he ordered. Trembling hands reached into pockets and switched off ringers. Tony all but knew what was happening at this point, but he wanted to hear it from Happy just to be sure. The nurse gulped before delivering the information, which did nothing to assuage the building anxiety among them. "A code silver means someone with a weapon has entered the hospital."

"Where in the hospital?" Quill asked, voice quivering.

"Not on this floor," Happy said calmly.

"But he could easily get here," Parker pointed out. Tony noticed the boy was already shivering.

"We're on lockdown until further notice," Peggy informed them. "It's not that easy to get through that locked door."

"Bucky and Nick are in the chemo clinic right now," Steve said. "Are they gonna be okay?"

"They're locking down everything until security and the police apprehend him," Happy informed them. "Bucky and Nick are doing exactly as we are."

"That doesn't mean they'll be safe," Clint whimpered.

"We're as safe as we can be. We really need to be quiet," Peggy stated. A silence so thick it could've suffocated them descended over the room. Tony met eyes with Steve and observed his own panic mirrored in the other boy's gaze. He often thought that things couldn't get much worse than living in a hospital, yet here they were, cowering from a threat to their lives that had nothing to do with illness. The stress of not knowing anything more than the fact an armed and dangerous person prowled the hallways gnawed at his insides. The sound of Parker's rapidly worsening breathing shattered the silence, accompanied by an occasional harsh wheeze from Steve's lungs. Happy placed a hand on Parker's shoulder to steady him and the boy leaned into the contact. Natasha and Clint clutched each other's hands with enough grip strength to turn their fingertips purple.

Among the older kids, equal levels of terror and stress manifested. Steve's wheezing continued, though it didn't spiral and shut down like it had the day of Bucky's surgery. Quill soundlessly mouthed the words to some song Tony couldn't recognize, and Thor slipped into repeated absence seizures. Tony's defibrillator fired what he guessed was around fifteen minutes into the lockdown. He let out a strangled gasp as the shock caught him off guard and clamped a hand over his mouth, the other flying to his chest.

"What's wrong?" Happy asked without saying a word. Tony forced a deep inhale and catalogued his symptoms. No lingering chest pain. No vertigo. He was probably fine. Tony shook his head and swept off Happy's inquiry, mouthing "fine" repeatedly as if by saying it enough he could force it upon reality. Nothing about this was fine.

His eyes leapt to Thor as he slipped into his fourth absence since the lockdown began. Tony recognized that as a definitively bad sign. Frequent absence seizures he'd learned often preceded…he didn't even finish the thought before Thor's eyes rolled back in his head and his every muscle tensed up impossibly tight. Fortunately, Quill managed to cushion the impact of his head against the floor with his hand. With his other, he floundered blindly for something soft to put under his head. Since they couldn't reach any of the blankets on the sofa from here, Tony offered up his tee shirt as quickly as he could work it off his torso.

Their biggest problem, however, was the impossibility of keeping a seizing Thor silent. They couldn't restrain his flailing limbs, so they beat against the floor with moderate thumps, all the while a strained gurgling emanated from his throat.

"Please be a short one, please be a short one," Tony heard Happy whispering under his breath. Tony's internal clock in its current state of accuracy estimated the duration of Thor's seizure at around seventeen hours and forty one minutes. Alternatively, zero point two milliseconds. One or the other. Peggy continuously glanced towards the door during Thor's seizure, clearly on high alert for any sign of motion outside. They couldn't see anything past the blinds, but Tony imagined the door being forced open by some criminal with murderous intentions would draw their attention.

At last, Thor's convulsions slowed to a stop. Quill returned Tony's shirt only slightly damp with saliva. He put it back on anyway because he was cold and he didn't like feeling exposed. Together, Happy and Quill rolled Thor into the recovery position on his side. At least they wouldn't have to worry about him making noise for the foreseeable future…unless he suffered back-to-back seizures. But as far as Tony had seen, Thor had never seized twice in such a short time period before, so he tried to convince himself there was no way they'd be in lockdown long enough for him to suffer another.

Happy and Peggy repeatedly checked their devices for updates on the situation, but neither received any. Either circumstances remained stagnant or they'd deteriorated into something so horrible that the people in charge couldn't even manage to distribute information. Tears streamed down Clint's face, and Natasha stared at her feet as if looking away might summon the threat into the center of their circle. Tony almost wished he could go the same way as Thor: pass out and not have to worry about what terrible things might happen to them in the near future. He thought of Bruce and where he might be right now. Ideally, he'd been in session and had an adult governing the lockdown process. If he'd been alone in his room…well, a nurse would have run to him like Happy and Peggy had run to the common room to guide all of them in here…right? Tony refused to picture Bruce having to handle this all on his own. He also refused to picture Bucky and Nick anywhere but safe in Darcy and Jane's embrace. They were definitely not slumped in the comfy armchairs of the chemo clinic with bullet holes dripping blood down their foreheads. Tony hadn't even heard any gunfire, so maybe whoever it was carried something far less deadly but still enough to warrant a Code Silver.

A single shot rang out, reverberating through the floor and the walls. Tony couldn't pinpoint where it came from. The sound was loud, but he had no idea how much the loudness of the shot corresponded to proximity of the shooter. A second shot. Then a third and fourth in quick succession. A stabbing pain arced its way through Tony's thigh as a small foot viciously kicked at him. He turned to the source of the assault just in time to watch Parker dive into Happy's lap using Tony as a springboard. Parker's eyes were closed so tightly Tony thought his lids might crumble under the pressure. His breathing before had sounded panicked, but now all he managed were wretched gasps of air almost as bad as Steve's during an asthma attack. Even Happy's strong embrace failed to quell the violent tremors wracking Parker's frame.

"Shhh," Happy soothed, rocking the boy back and forth ever so gently. His placation failed to drown out the mumbled words spilling out of Parker's mouth, "Not again not again notagainnotagainnotagain." The repeated syllables faded into a whimper after a fifth gunshot made Parker flinch so hard he knocked into Happy's jaw with the top of his head.

He watched Steve stare at Parker like a person would watch a news story about a tsunami wiping out a peaceful beachside village. Natasha's thousand yard stare still had not deviated and Thor remained motionless on the floor at the center of the circle, oblivious to the hell unfolding around him.

Tony, his own anxiety heightened tenfold by Parker's near hysteria, thought of his parents of all things. He tried to remember the last thing he said to them, hoping with all his heart it was something good. It wasn't, he realized. The memory of his last in-person conversation with his father resurfaced: the one where Howard had warned him to stay away from Natasha for some unspecified reason and Tony shouted at him for being prejudiced. It had only been a day, so he hadn't gotten around to making amends after that, but nor had Howard extended an olive branch. Maybe he was back to pretending he didn't have a son. What would he say if he found out Tony had been killed in a hospital shootout?

He pulled out his phone and typed out a text message, wondering if his father would even read it before this lockdown concluded one way or another. "I'm sorry," was all he wrote before shoving the device back in his pocket. Thor gradually began to stir, and Quill placed a hand over his mouth to stifle a postictal groan. "You've gotta be quiet, buddy," he whispered in his ear. Thor managed a weak nod and fell silent. On the other hand, Happy's continued efforts had achieved no such tranquility in Parker. The kid looked like he barely clung to consciousness, chest heaving with each panicked exhale. His hands, locked tight over his ears, shuddered more erratically than Tony's racing heart.

"You gotta breathe, kiddo," Happy uttered fruitlessly. Parker was far beyond the possibility of anyone talking him down. Tony doubted he could even hear them. Hurried, heavy footsteps sounded in the hallway outside the room. Were the police giving chase, or just sweeping the halls in search of their target? Tony bit his lip in anticipation as the noise faded into the distance. An eternity passed before anything more eventful than Thor's awakening occurred. Then, Peggy received a message, which she read while every eye in the room except Parker's bored into her.

"All clear," she finally announced. Tony released a breath he hadn't known he was holding.

"Is everyone okay?" Happy asked her, still clutching a trembling Parker.

She hesitated. "Rhodes is down."

"What?" the question escaped Tony's mouth without him consciously telling it to.

"He's alive," she clarified. "Wounded, but alive."

"How bad?" Steve questioned.

"I don't know. But I can go find out." She set off, leaving Happy the only adult in charge of seven shaken children.

"I can't believe that just happened," Quill squeaked. Natasha had finally looked up from her feet but remained completely silent. Thor sat up, rubbing his head sheepishly.

Parker's breathing eased just enough for him to resume muttering, but he showed no sign of returning to lucidity any time soon. "Not again not again not again," the chorus drilled into Tony's mind like a screwdriver. He didn't particularly want to consider why a thirteen-year-old would beg 'not again' upon hearing hostile gunshots.

"What's wrong with him?" Clint asked, his tone blunt but laced with concern.

"Parker's having a panic attack," Happy informed him steadily. "But it's going to be okay. He just needs some time."

"That was…really scary," Steve admitted. He still hadn't relinquished his grip on his oxygen tank.

"No kidding," Tony choked out. He dared to peek at his phone to see if his father had replied to the text message. An undeniable feeling of rage swelled within him when he saw it—the man left him on read. Howard didn't even deign to ask what the apology was for or blindly accept it.

"What do we do now?" Quill asked.

"Well, they gave us the all clear. I want you all to go back to your rooms and stay there until we understand what happened and can give you more information. I don't want anyone wandering around the ward, okay?"

"Okay," several voices assented.

"Are you crazy? I don't want to be alone," Quill countered.

"What about Parker?" Natasha asked genuinely.

"I've got him," Happy said. Parker buried his face in the nurse's chest and Tony's heart clenched in a way that had nothing to do with its physical defects.

"Quill's right," Clint said. "Can't we all just stay here so we're together?"

"Safety in numbers. That's a thing, right?" Thor mumbled.

"You're all safe now. We did exactly what we were supposed to do and they gave us the all clear. Whoever it was, they caught them and they're not a danger to us anymore," Happy assured.

Tony checked his phone once again to see if his father had just taken a long time to formulate a response, but still nothing. He did, however, receive a phone call from his mother approximately ten seconds later. He walked over to the other side of the room and answered, "Hey Mom."

"Oh my God, Tony, you're alive," she blurted out, clearly overwhelmed with relief.

"Yeah. Yeah, Mom, I'm good," he told her, wondering how she knew his life had even been in danger in the first place.

"It was on the news. Some man busted into Gravesen Hospital with a gun. They showed footage from outside…so many police cars. I was scared to death! Especially after your father got that text…"

"Wait, he showed you that?" Tony asked. He tried to keep his voice relatively quiet to avoid disturbing his friends, but the thought of that text made him raise his voice.

"Yes. He didn't know what you were talking about, only that you must be in danger if you said that without prompting. Tony, how close did he get to you? Where are you? Are you alone?"

"Slow down Mom, I'm okay. I swear." Though he couldn't say the same for Parker, now clinging to Happy's scrubs like a baby chimpanzee. "I'm in the common room with Nurse Happy and a couple other patients. None of us are hurt."

"…That's good. But how close, Tony?"

"We heard some gunshots, but I have no idea how close to us they were. There were footsteps in the hall at some point, but I don't know whose. All I know is Dr. Rhodes is hurt."

"Rhodes? How bad?"

"I don't know. Nurse Peggy got the news, and she went to go find out exactly what's going on. I'll text you when I know more."

"Okay. Okay…good. It'd be a shame if he…" she didn't finish the statement. She didn't need to. A despicable thought wormed its way into Tony's head: if Rhodes died, that eliminated his father's motivation for keeping Tony at Gravesen. Between that and the shooting, Howard just might transfer him to keep him away from Nat as he'd threatened. But Tony wouldn't allow himself to be ripped away from his friends like that, especially after what they'd just suffered together.

"I'm gonna go now, Mom, and wait for news with everyone, okay?"

"Okay. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"I love you."

"Love you too." Tony hung up and headed back to the circle. He was pleased to note Parker's breathing had slowed, though it remained far from normal and he still hadn't opened his eyes or released Happy.

"Your mom?" Steve asked.

"Yep. She saw the footage of outside the hospital on the news and freaked out," Tony explained.

"Rightfully so," Quill added.

"Do they know who the shooter is?" Thor asked.

"She didn't say."

"How could anyone do such a terrible thing?" Steve asked no one in particular. Tony shook his head in disbelief. Everybody flinched at the sound of the door swinging open, but relaxed when they realized it was only Peggy.

"What's the scoop?" Happy asked. He adjusted his position and turned ever so slightly, eliciting a broken whimper from Parker. Happy snapped back to exactly how he sat before and the boy quieted.

"Rhodes took a bullet in the back," Peggy said solemnly. "It…I…I talked to Heimdall. He saw it happen. It…the bullet's lodged near his spinal cord."

"He—he's paralyzed?" Tony questioned.

"They don't know yet. Dr. Strange is working on extracting it…but paraplegia is a possibility."