Wow. Well, this certainly isn't the news I was expecting to come back to...
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Lara wasn't sure what she was expecting to find when she arrived at Avengers Tower, but it certainly wasn't this amount of chaos. Several groups had meshed and converged on the place. First, there was the media. Although the press conference had ended quite a while ago, they were still hanging around, likely hoping to corner either Tony Stark or one of the Avengers into an interview as they walked in. Similarly, there were the gawkers. They were the people who hung around the Tower hoping to have an encounter with a hero. There were always gawkers but given the excitement of the past couple of days, there was a much higher ratio of them.
Next there were the people who were supposed to be there. I.e. Stark Industries employees, restaurant and hotel staff, people who worked in the other offices in the building, etc. Some of them would sometimes cross over into gawker territory, but today they couldn't be bothered. The large amount of people just standing around created the nuisance for them. They had to fight to get to the elevators and exits. The last thing they wanted was for one of the Avengers to walk in. All it would do would be to add to the chaos and probably cause a stampede.
Finally, there was the Peoples Unity Church. They, as usual, had parked themselves in the middle of the lobby and were refusing to leave. The police, SI security, and S.H.I.E.L.D. had taken notice of this activity right away and had surrounded the group. However, instead of chanting sermons and accosting passersby, the members of the church were rather calm. They sat facing outwards in a circle that was about forty people in circumference. They all had their arms linked and anytime an authority figure asked them to move, they'd just say "no," not bothering to follow it up with anything else. Since they weren't actively attacking anyone, officers and agents for all the agencies were hesitant to try to physically engage with them. After all, they were having trouble controlling the gathered crowd while monitoring the Peoples Unity Church. They didn't need to add a violent confrontation on to that mess.
Boy, it was a mess. It was usually pretty easy to get to the elevators from the Grand Central Terminal entrance. However, the flow of the crowd was so thick that Lara had trouble breaking away from it. She was sure that she had shoved more people than was probably necessary and stepped on quite a few people's toes. She didn't apologize for it, though. After all, she wasn't the one who had turned the lobby into a mosh pit.
The stream of people zig-zagged around the room. It was almost as if no one knew where they were going or what they were supposed to be doing. As a result, Lara ended up getting pushed closer to the middle of the room, where the Peoples Unity Church had gathered. No matter how much she tried to resist, she ended up getting pushed further and further until she was close enough to catch a glimpse of one of the people sitting in the circle and recognize him. How could she not? She was married to him for three years.
"Dante?"
He immediately looked at her. He tried to get up, but the two people sitting next to him refused to unlink their arms and thus kept him down. For one, Lara found herself grateful for the Peoples Unity Church. Dante gave her a sort of apologetic look.
"I can't talk now. Can you wait up?" Lara's mouth dropped.
"Are you kidding me?" she said. "No!"
"Why not?" The utter confusion on Dante's face only served to fuel Lara's anger.
"You know what?" she said. "I'll tell you why in court." She then turned on her heel and started ripping through the crowd, ignoring it's current completely. Even though Dante was literally being held down by the Peoples Unity Church, his voice still managed to follow her.
"Court?" he questioned. "What did I do? Hey! I'm talking to you! Hey!"
The elevator doors couldn't close fast enough. First, she needed to make sure Pepper had control of the situation. Then she needed to talk to Cabe about the Dante situation. Already, she could feel a headache throbbing behind her eye sockets.
Going back to the waiting area he had occupied before, Tony listened as Steve explained all of what happened over the past few hours and his concerns for Romanoff. Honestly, Tony was left in a little bit of a state of disbelief. The idea of Romanoff losing her cool just seemed impossible. He couldn't even create a clear image of that in his mind. She fought a tantrum-ing Norse God and dealt with aliens invading the streets of New York without barely batting an eye. The idea of her being scared just sounded ludicrous. At least it would be if Steve didn't mention one detail.
"I get that she's upset," Steve said. "I would be, too, if it were you, but I feel like she just took it too far. I get that she and Barton are as close as family and I get that she just lost Coulson, but it doesn't mean you respond like that."
"Actually, it does." Steve gave Tony a look. "I'm serious. When someone hurts someone you love, you want to hurt them back, and the fact that she just lost Coulson probably added fuel to the fire. The threat of not having any family anymore is scary to some people, and that's what Natasha was being threatened with."
"I get that," Steve said. "I just said that I got it, but I still think she could've been a little more controlled than she was."
"A lot of time control isn't an option," Tony said. "If the person responsible for my parents' deaths were in this room right now, do you think I'd be able to take it? No, of course not. I'd beat Howard back to death in a heartbeat."
"Barton's not dead," Steve pointed out.
"Yet," Tony added.
"He could still make a recovery," Steve said.
"Yeah, he could, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it." Tony looked down at the ground. They still hadn't heard from any doctors or nurses about Barton's condition, nor had Romanoff or Hill returned from wherever in the hospital they had disappeared to (which was likely the quarantine area.) The longer time dragged on without any news, the more anxious Tony felt. He didn't understand why. It's not like he was Barton's best friend or anything, but he still felt bad for him. He didn't deserve to die this way. No one did.
Slowly, Tony felt Steve's hand come down on top of his. Steve gently ran a thumb over the back of Tony's hand as he looked up. When their eyes met, all Tony could see was a reassuring warmth emanating from those blue-green irises.
"He's going to be okay." The way Steve said that almost made Tony believe him. Keyword: almost. Tony felt a frown tug at his lips.
"You don't know that," Tony said. "You can't know that. You didn't see the way he looked at all." Steve moved his hand so that way his and Tony's fingers were more firmly interlocked and gave it a squeeze.
"You're right," he said. "I don't, but I do know that Barton's a lot tougher than we probably give him credit for. A man who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with gods and monsters would have no trouble getting over a simple bug." Tony snorted in disbelief.
"It's not that simple," he said.
"It is." Steve moved his hand to rest gently on Tony's shoulder. "Trust me."
He could and he did trust Steve. It felt almost impossible not to. The way he said things with so much conviction always made people want to believe him, even if it was something impossible like a non-enhanced human being able to survive against an incurable biological weapon. (Seriously, a snowball had a better chance in Hell.) The way Steve said it just made Tony want to trust it and believe in it. The way Steve was looking at him also helped. One look into Steve's eyes could always make the corners of Tony's lips rise into a smile. It was an amazing feeling.
It didn't last, though. For half a second, Steve's eyes drifted away from Tony's and that was all it took for the atmosphere to completely change.
"Hill."
Tony turned to look behind him while Steve stood up. Sure enough, Commander Hill was striding down the hallway, just as purposeful as ever. It was a safe bet that she was coming from the quarantine area. Tony started to stand as well, anxiety building in the pit of his stomach. He tried to determine by the way Hill carried herself whether the news was good or bad. However, it was useless. Hill was as stoic and calm as ever, with not a single feature betraying that image. She remained non-pulsed, even as she made eye contact with the two of them.
"Captain Rogers," she said as she stepped in front of them. "Mr. Stark, I'm surprised that you're still here." Tony frowned.
"Of course, we're still here, Commander," Steve said graciously. "Barton's a member of our team. We want to know that he's okay."
"You wouldn't happen to have any information to pass on about that, would you?" Hill sighed.
"He's stable," she said. "According to Dr. Wayne, he's slowly stopped deteriorating, but he hasn't been improving either. Only time will tell. He's not the one you should be worried about, though."
"What do you mean?" Steve asked.
"It seems Agent Romanoff has decided to take Stark's place in quarantine," Hill said. "She ran in without a protective suit."
"What is she nuts?" Tony exclaimed automatically. Steve shut his eyes and let out a breath.
"No," he said. "She's just scared for her friend. He looked Hill in the eye. "It's not contagious at this point, right? She'll be fine?"
"We can't be sure that Subarian was telling the truth," Hill admitted. "If the virus is still active, though, I'd rate her chances as better than most."
"And we should take your word for that?" Tony questioned.
"She survived being exposed once," Hill said. "I'm sure she can survive it again." Tony wanted to point out how unlikely it was for a person's immune system to be able to fight of diseases as dangerous as Ebola and H5N1, but for the sake of everyone's sanity, he decided it would be best not to bring that up, especially right now.
"Let's hope you're right," Steve said.
"Both of you are free to go," Hill said. "You don't have to stick around here."
"What about Barton?" Tony asked.
"He's taken care of," Hill assured. "Dr. Wayne is continuing to monitor him along with Romanoff and we have doctors and agents monitoring the situation. If anything happens, we'll know."
"And you'll tell us, right?" Hill nodded.
"I'll keep you updated." Tony didn't feel he could trust that assurance, but that was probably the best he was going to get out of Hill, so he had to accept it."
"Thank you," Steve said. "For all of your help through this." Hill nodded.
"The Avengers is a valuable asset to S.H.I.E.L.D.," she said. "Even if we haven't gotten the chance to test you out properly yet, it's our duty to protect you."
"Still, thank you." For a second, Tony thought he saw the corners of Hill's lips rise a bit, but it must have been a trick of his imagination.
With not many more words being exchanged, Hill turned and went back the way she came, most likely to continue to monitor the situation with Barton and Romanoff. Since they had the go-ahead to leave, Steve and Tony started making their way back towards the main entrance of the hospital. Hill had informed them that the S.H.I.E.L.D. car that had brought her, Steve, and Romanoff to the hospital would be available to take them back to Avengers Tower, which was a relief considering that neither Steve nor Tony had their cell phones or exact change on them.
On the ride back, Tony forced himself to relax. Steve was okay. Barton and Romanoff were in safe hands. The bastards who did this had been arrested. There was nothing to worry about. He was safe and holding on tight to his boyfriend's hand. Nothing was wrong.
The world was ending again. At least, that was the impression Tony got when he saw the sheer number of cop cars and news vans surrounding the Tower. His eyes immediately went up to the sky, scanning it carefully for portals with sky-whales and Chitauri soldiers spilling out of it. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened, but that didn't quell any of the alarm that was building up inside Tony.
Given the large media presence, Tony instructed the S.H.I.E.L.D. driver to pull into the parking garage underneath the Tower, rather than dropping them off out front. They passed dozens of flashing lights and reporters with microphones screamed at them as they ran at the car, but once they were past the security gate, there was no longer anyone on their tail. Both Steve and Tony thanked the S.H.I.E.L.D. driver as they got out of the car, and Tony felt a little guilty that he couldn't tip the guy or even at least reimburse him for the fee he was going to have to pay to leave the parking garage. However, it couldn't compare to the guilt he was feeling for leaving his cellphone on the charger in his room.
As he and Steve got in the elevator, Tony couldn't help but wonder what the hell happened. Obviously, the Avengers had been attacked. That was enough to warrant the police and media presence, but Tony had a feeling something else was going on; something bad. He just hoped he hadn't left Pepper in a bad position as he hit the button for the forty-fourth floor.
Since Tony knew the override codes for the elevator, he could program it to take them up to Stark Industries' executive floor without making any other stops. The doors opened and Tony almost blasted out of the elevator before he remembered that he still had Steve with him. He put a hand on the door to keep it from closing before turning back to Steve.
"The override is still active," Tony said. "If you hit the button for the penthouse, it'll take you there. When you get up there, have JARVIS stop the elevator and get your key. If you put it in the keyhole like normal, it'll turn off the override and no one will be able to get up there."
"What about you?" Steve asked.
"I have the override code," Tony dismissed. "I'll be fine."
"No," Steve said. "Will you be alright going in there on your own?" Tony's eyebrows knitted together.
"Of course, I'll be alright," he said. "I do this all the time."
"You sure?" Steve asked. "Because I can go with you if you're not okay." Tony felt his cheeks warm and his lips curve up at the sentiment.
"I appreciate that," Tony said. "But I'll be fine. I just need to talk to Pepper really quick, then I'll be right up, okay?" Steve nodded.
"Alright," he said. "But can I have a kiss before you go?" Tony smirked.
"Do you even need to ask?" Tony turned around so he was fully facing Steve and their lips collided within moments. The kiss was very chaste, but both were very reluctant to pull away, especially since this was the first kiss they'd had in almost a week. However, like all good things, it had to come to an end – this time in a comedic way as the elevator doors began to close on Tony, who had taken his arms away from the door to wrap them around Steve's shoulders. Tony let out a little yelp as he pulled back and pushed the door open again.
"Are you okay?" Tony wasn't sure if he should be proud that Steve sounded so breathless, but either way, he nodded.
"I'm fine," he assured. "We probably shouldn't try that again." Steve snorted.
"Too bad," he said. "That was a good time." Tony smiled.
"I can give you an even better time," he said. "But first I have to take care of this." Steve nodded in understanding.
"Alright," he said. "I'll see you in a bit."
"See you in a bit," Tony promised before taking his hand off the door and turning in the direction of Pepper's office. A pang of sadness rippled through his chest as he heard the elevator doors slide closed and he had to remind himself that it would be a few moments at best. He was probably worrying too much. Nothing would be wrong, and he would be able to go back to Steve in no time.
Oh, how wrong he was.
The door to Pepper's office was open and her assistant wasn't at his desk, so Tony took that as an invitation to walk right in. His suspicions were immediately proven right as several people had gathered in the room including Happy, Cabe, Pepper's assistant, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent (judging by the eagle insignia on the blonde woman's uniform), a cop, a half-dead homeless woman sprawled out an unconscious on one of the couches, and of course, Pepper herself. She was sitting at her desk with her eyes shut and was rubbing her temples. From the scene, Tony could only guess at what was happening.
"Holy shit," he said. "I know homelessness is a problem, but we don't solve it by running them over." All eyes turned towards him. Relief came across Pepper and Happy's faces.
"Tony," Pepper said as she stood up and rounded her desk. The two of them shared a brief hug. "You're alright?" she asked as she pulled back.
"I'm fine," he assured. "You're not."
Pepper looked down and let out a long breath. Before she could find the right words to explain, Cabe jumped in to help her out.
"Freeman got in front of the press and tried to defame you and the other Avengers," she said. "I got him offstage before he could do anything irreparable, but I think it's safe to say we still took a hit."
"Are you serious?" Tony questioned. Pepper slowly nodded.
"I don't know what happened," she said. "I helped him plan out that press conference. I had no indication or any clue that he was even going to try something as ridiculous as going off like that."
"Back up," Tony said. "When did this happen? What press conference?"
"The one this morning," Pepper said. "Didn't you see it?"
"Did I see the press conference while I waited in quarantine to find out if I was dying again or not?" Tony asked. "No, Pepper, I did not."
"Tony," she said, bringing a hand to her forehead. "This is serious."
"Yes," Tony said. "And I can see that everyone in this room is taking it seriously, especially Sleeping Beauty over here." As he gestured over to the woman lying across the couch, a groan escaped her lips.
"I called in sick," Lara said. "Don't tell me how to live my life."
"You have to be alive to have a life," Tony pointed out. Lara glared at him as she forced herself to sit up.
"Shut up," she grumbled.
"Never," Tony said before becoming slightly concerned. "Wait, why are you here if you're sick?"
"I didn't sleep last night," she explained. "I couldn't stop worrying and it kept me up."
"Well, I'm alive," Tony said. "No need to worry about party plans. You can go ahead and cancel the parade." Lara rolled her eyes.
"Whatever," she said. "I'm just here feeling guilty about the fact that I didn't stay with Pepper and all that time I spent not sleeping could have been spent keeping an eye on Freeman."
"That again?" Pepper said. "How many times do I need to tell you that you're not responsible for this?"
"I had a bad feeling, Pepper," Lara said. "I should have listened to it and stayed with you."
"And what exactly would that have changed?" Lara frowned.
"I might have caught something that you missed," she said, but her defense came off weaker than it already was as a yawn forced its way-out mid-sentence.
"Trust me, you wouldn't have." Tony turned his attention to the blonde S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. "You were just about to pass out when you left last night. Pepper and I were still fairly alert when you left and neither of us noticed anything suspicious with Freeman."
"It's still my fault," Lara muttered.
"Quit blaming yourself, or you're fired." Lara shot Tony a look but didn't protest further. Tony looked back at Pepper. "How far did he go?"
"Not that far," she said. "Like Cabe said, she pulled him offstage before he could do any serious damage."
"You fired him?"
"Yes."
"And you had him arrested?"
"No." Pepper crinkled her nose. "Why would he be arrested?"
"Well, there's a huge police presence here," Tony said. "One can only assume…"
"Other than some minor slander – which can be taken up in civil court – Mr. Freeman hasn't committed any crime," the cop said. "We have no cause to arrest him. We're here because of the Peoples Unity Church." Tony brought the palm of his hand to his face.
"Oh God," he said. "What did they do now?"
"They've been protesting in the lobby since just after the press conference," Cabe said. "They've been sitting out there and have been refusing to move." Tony let out a sigh of exasperation.
"Great," he said. "Just… Great."
"For the most part, we've managed to break up the protest and bring most of the people involved into custody," the cop said. "However, other than that one guy who violated a restraining order, we can't charge anyone with anything worse than criminal trespass."
"Yes," Tony said. "Charge them, please. I'm sick of this."
"Just pressing charges against them won't make them stop," Cabe said.
"I know," Tony said. "But actions need to have consequences. Charge them."
"Yes, sir," the cop then nodded and left, likely to pass the request on to his superiors. Tony looked around the room.
"Anything else I need to know?" he asked.
"Yeah," Cabe said. "You look terrible. Go get some rest."
"Are you sure I'm the one you should be saying that to?" Tony gestured to Lara, who looked close to passing out again; barely even acknowledging what was going on around her.
"Oh, she's clearly exhausted," Cabe said. "But so are you. When was the last time you slept?"
"At night," Tony responded.
"Last night?" Cabe questioned. "The night before?" Tony still didn't answer her. Pepper gave him a concerned look.
"Can you even remember the last time you slept?" Tony frowned.
"No," he begrudgingly admitted. Pepper sighed.
"Go upstairs," she said. "Get to bed. I've got things handled here."
"I think it's better if I…"
"Tony." He stopped as soon as he caught sight of the stern expression on Pepper's face. "Don't. Go to bed."
He sighed, fully knowing there was no way he was going to win this argument. Besides, he already promised Steve that he'd be up in a few minutes and honestly, he'd rather cuddle with his boyfriend than try to handle this catastrophe.
"Alright," he said to Pepper before turning to Happy. "Can you take her to one of the guest rooms?" He gestured to Lara. "I doubt she can get herself home like this."
Happy nodded before moving to shake Lara's shoulder. She was startled back into alertness but didn't lash out, which was both a good thing and a testimony to how tired she really was. She allowed Happy to help her stand up but refused any assistance outside of that and let Tony lead the way out the door. Happy followed as well, likely to make sure Lara didn't pass out on the way to the elevator. Luckily, the movement was enough to keep her conscious until they got inside the elevator.
Tony didn't need to enter the override code again as Happy had his key. It took a few moments for the elevator to reach the penthouse as it was ten floors above them. In those few moments, Lara managed to slump against the wall and fall asleep. When it stopped, Happy had to lift her into a fireman's carry while Tony led them to the first-floor guest room. He held the door open for Happy as he carried Lara inside and placed her down on the bed. She didn't stir and both Happy and Tony were careful to be as quiet as possible as they left the room and shut the door.
After that, not much happened. Tony and Happy chatted for a bit before Happy had to go back downstairs. They said their goodbyes before Tony headed for the local elevator. Briefly, he considered checking to see if Bruce was around before deciding against it. He didn't want to keep Steve waiting any longer, even if going to Steve also meant falling into the cold, cruel clutches of sleep. For Steve, he would face anything. So, he hit the button for his and Steve's apartment and waited for the elevator to come to a stop.
So for those of you who don't know (and if that is the case, I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you) the actor who portrayed T'Challa/the Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman, passed away of colon cancer last Friday, August 28th, 2020. I had no idea he was sick, and it sounds like not a lot of other people did either. It's heartbreaking that he passed away so young - at the age of 43 - and now I certainly know I won't be able to watch Endgame without crying ever again. I mean, Tony and Natasha's deaths were sad, but at least Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson are still alive. Now that we know that's the last time we'll see Chadwick as T'Challa ever again... Oooff! That hurts my heart! I also learned following his death that he was the guy who played Jackie Robinson in the movie 42, and I remember thinking to myself while I was watching it "Damn, this guy is good! I hope I see him in other things someday!" Little did I know, I did. My heart goes out to his family and I wish them all the best in this difficult time. Rest in power, Chadwick. You deserve it.
Now, I should probably get on to why it took me so long to put out this chapter. The most simple explanation is, well, life happened. You'd think because I'm an unemployed twenty-three-year-old living off disability benefits, I'd have all the time in the world to write. I wouldn't blame you. I thought that, too. However, that just isn't the case.
Let's start with the pandemic because it's kind of the elephant in the room. To be clear, I wrote and posted that storyline with Clint getting infected months before the Coronavirus even first popped up. I had no idea this was going to happen and if it makes you uncomfortable to read those chapters again, I don't blame you. I'm a little uncomfortable reading those chapters myself. (Though my discomfort centers around the fact that I'm pretty sure now I got a lot of things wrong about quarantine and isolation, but I'm not a medical professional, so that was bound to happen.) My mental health - like so many others' - took a nosedive after the pandemic started and it's been really hard to motivate myself to even get out of bed, nevermind write. My physical health also hasn't been good. I haven't gotten the virus yet, but I've had other health issues to deal with and it's been a little hard to get in to see an actual doctor since this crisis started. So, yeah, that's been impeding my ability to write, too. I know, this is all excuses, but to be fair I have up to chapter forty-seven completed and you are going to have two solid months of uninterrupted posting, so really it's not that bad.
Yes, you heard me right. I have two months' worth of chapters guaranteed ready to go. I have all of the little dates that are in one way or another important to me covered. However, I should note that I'm not going to try to post in November or December because even with the pandemic, those are going to be busy times for me, so just stay tuned and hopefully I'll have a return date for you all before I have to disappear into the aether again. Apologies for the long note. It's just been a long time and I've missed posting so much! I hope you all are still enjoying this story and please comment, review, kudos, fave, and follow this story if you do!
Special thanks to mfaerie32, Bookdragon777, jessica19951, and SavageAngel7 on FFN for all the support, and sweet_as_suga and babystark on AO3 as well.
Remember kids, long live the king. You will always be in our hearts, Chadwick Boseman.
Originally posted to FFN on 9/1/20.