Chapter 23: Mystery Visitors

"With everything that's been going on, I completely forgot to ask about Clint's scan results," Tony told Steve that evening after the news report.

"So you're asking me?"

"Yeah. You always know what's happening."

"I do?" Steve didn't sound convinced.

"Well, you always know more than I do. They trust you," Tony stated.

"And they don't trust you?"

"Not as much. I'm still less familiar than you are."

"That doesn't mean nobody trusts you."

"I didn't say that. I just said they trust you more. Do you know anything about Clint or not?"

"No. I honestly don't. I know he and his parents had an appointment with Dr. Potts about the results the day after the Code Silver, but I have no idea what they talked about."

"Does he usually tell you the verdict when he gets scan results?"

"I'm not sure I can say that with confidence. We've both been coming to Gravesen for a long time, but that doesn't mean we're always admitted at the same time."

"Has he been acting in a way that indicates…something bad?" Tony asked. "You know his baseline better than I do."

"No. My best guess would be he's on track with where they want him to be on this treatment and they're continuing as planned. But my best guess being correct isn't a given."

"Of course not, but it's all I have at the moment."

"Why don't you ask Clint?" Steve questioned.

"Do you think he'd answer?"

"If you asked? Yeah, of course. There's no reason he'd ignore you or lie if you just asked him how he'd doing. That's a perfectly reasonable thing to do."

"I guess so…it just seems really personal."

"We live in a hospital at the moment, Tony. Nothing is really personal."

"Yeah, but when we're together it seems like talking about our illnesses in any way that's not joking is kind of taboo."

"We just try our best to make sure that's not all we talk about," Steve corrected.

"Okay. I'll ask him tomorrow."

"Good idea. And if you speak to your dad again, tell him I said thank you for what he did. I've never seen Bucky so enraged. But I've also never seen him as excited as he was when Zola said your dad helped fund them."

"I will. It was killing me knowing so many people like them would suffer and not being able to do anything about it."

"Yeah, me too. Thankfully your dad was able to do something about it. I see where you get it from."

"Get what?"

"Your protective streak."

"Huh?" Tony didn't think he possessed anything of the sort.

"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Everyone has seen the way you are with Parker."

"What way?"

"Let's just say that it's no surprise he latched onto you after that panic attack."

"He latched onto Happy first," Tony clarified.

"Happy's an adult. But when Happy forced him off, he went straight for you."

Tony couldn't deny that's what had happened. But he didn't think it was necessarily evidence of a protective streak. Steve was the one who extended himself to make everyone feel welcome and safe. But it was just possible that he wasn't the only one capable of doing so.

~0~

The next morning, the energy in the ward was tangibly different. The air of anticipation weighed down on Tony like a heavy fog, but exactly what they awaited he had no idea. He caught nurses and doctors whispering to each other far more than usual, but he couldn't decipher what they said. Naturally, Natasha knew more, and she asked if anyone else knew what was up.

"We are to have visitors today," she announced.

"How do you know that?" Steve asked.

"I learned it," she explained vaguely. Tony figured that meant her eavesdropping skills surpassed his own.

"Do you have any idea who?" Bucky questioned.

"Somebody important."

"Well that narrows it down," Tony sighed. This whole notion of mystery visitors distracted him from asking Clint about his scan results. He was not about to let that fall to the back burner.

"Do you know why?" Steve asked. "Is it related to what happened yesterday? Or the Code Silver somehow?"

"I do not know," she answered.

"Any idea when we can be expecting these visitors?" Tony asked.

"What, you need time to put on your makeup?" Bucky teased.

"I'll hit you," Tony warned.

"No you won't."

"Whatever. Anyone know where Clint is?"

"His room," Natasha replied. Tony nodded and set off to pay him a visit. He knocked gently on the door and Clint invited him in.

"Hey Tony," he greeted.

"Hi."

"What are you doing here?"

"I, ummm…I just wanted to ask how your scans went. I know you were really nervous and I just wanted to make sure you were okay now." The words barely tumbled out of his mouth, but Tony thought he got his point across.

"Oh," Clint said with a slight smile. "They were good actually. Right on track with what Dr. Potts wanted."

A breath he didn't know he was even holding in rushed out of his chest in one fell swoop. "That's great."

"Yeah it is. What's going on with everyone else? I know you're not the first one up."

"Apparently Nat overheard that we're going to have visitors," Tony said.

"Really? Who?"

"No idea. Want to come with us to find out?"

"Sure."

They headed back and rejoined the other assembled residents. "Any updates?" Tony asked.

"Nope," Steve replied. Out of the corner of his eye, Tony saw Heimdall pick up the phone. Tony got the sense that whatever was happening today was about to happen very soon. However, what he didn't expect was to be specifically invited to the occasion.

"Kids, gather your friends and come with me," Heimdall instructed. Natasha and Clint set off for Nick's room, Steve for Thor's, and Bucky for Quill's. Tony went first to Parker. The kid instantly brightened up at the prospect of a mystery visitor and an invitation to go somewhere with Heimdall. Next, he knocked on Bruce's door and explained the situation again.

"Heimdall asked you to get everyone to follow him?" Bruce asked to clarify.

"Yeah," Tony confirmed. "Don't ask for any more details because I don't know. I'm assuming we're going to find out soon enough."

Heimdall led them out of the ward, which in itself was exciting. They went all the way to the top floor and stood outside a large bay window in a hallway that looked down on the landing pad of another, shorter section of the hospital. "Are we expecting a helicopter?" Bucky inquired.

"Something like that," Heimdall said mystically. Many other figures Tony didn't recognize, some adult patients staying at Gravesen, others staff he hadn't interacted with, gathered around this window and several others. What on Earth was approaching this landing pad that piqued the interest of so many people? He was Howard Stark's son, he'd seen plenty of helicopters before. It would take more than that to genuinely excite him.

"Any idea what's going on?" Tony whispered to Steve.

"None whatsoever."

"Good. At least I'm not the only one." After a few minutes of nothing happening, they loosened their crowding around the window and some of them turned away. Clint and Natasha kept their eyes glued to the landing pad, waiting for whatever it was.

"I'm so confused," Thor admitted.

"Me too," Quill said. "Why are so many people here? Isn't this a fire hazard? Or a germ hazard?"

"Probably," Bucky scoffed. He was nearly cut off by the first exhilarated gasp from one of the window watchers.

"What is that?!" Clint asked in disbelief. All the kids immediately rushed back to the window to see what all the fuss was about. Tony's jaw nearly fell open when he saw an actual real-life hovercraft descending towards the landing pad that he knew up to this point had only seen ordinary helicopters.

"I've never seen anything like it," Steve said. The machine lowered itself almost silently, without the roar of a massive engine or whirr of rotor blades. Tony was afraid to blink because he thought it might reveal this was all in his imagination.

"Holy shit," Parker stated.

"Holy shit is right," Bucky said.

"What's the matter with you kids? You never seen a spaceship before?" Tony didn't tear his eyes away from the spectacle before him, but he recognized the voice as that of Gravesen's president Dr. Lee.

"No I haven't," Parker admitted, though it appeared Dr. Lee had already moved on.

"What the fuck is a spaceship doing here?" Nick questioned.

"I would venture to guess it's carrying these mystery visitors," Tony suggested.

~0~

The Gravesen residents didn't get to meet the occupants of the spaceship immediately, of course. Whatever they were here for involved the higher-ups at the hospital, not some random patients. Tony couldn't even see the visitors deplane and enter the building; the spaceship itself blocked his view. He spent a minute or two scrutinizing the craft and he could not discern any identifying information, no national flag painted on the side or anything.

"Well, either we keep asking around or we accept that we're never going to know who flew here in a freaking futuristic spaceship or even what they're doing here," Bucky said.

"Or we could spy," Nick said flippantly.

"On who?" Steve questioned.

"Dr. Lee," Natasha suggested. "Or Dr. Potts or Dr. Rhodes. Any doctor here with international fame."

"Which one of us is going to go?" Bucky asked.

"I'm in," Nick stated.

"Me too," Nat added.

"I think we have to cap it at two people; any more and it's hardly a spy mission. More like a vengeful hoard of information seekers," Tony explained.

"Just because they said it first doesn't mean they should get to do it," Parker complained.

"Yeah, we should choose based on skills," Bucky said. "And Nat clearly has more of those in this department than any of us."

"What?" Nick sounded offended that he wasn't awarded that title.

"Um, guys," Clint's uncharacteristically quiet statement was completely drowned in the escalating argument.

"Natasha is the best at figuring things out by listening to people," Thor admitted.

"I can be just as sneaky as she can."

"You've got to stick your head out farther to peek around corners," Quill pointed out.

"That's not exactly my fault!"

"Guys!" Clint repeated, more urgently this time. "We don't need to fight over who's sneakier because we don't even need to spy to gather intel."

"Why not?" Quill asked.

"We can just ask her." Clint pointed out a young girl that had wandered in unnoticed and was watching their conversation with fascination.

"Who's the new girl?" Tony asked suspiciously. She was dressed in a style unfamiliar to him, but the mere fact that she snuck in here without any of them—except apparently hawkeyed Clint—noticing her arrival suggested remarkable stealth skills. Or possibly just their lack of attention to their surroundings.

"Are you finished?" she asked with a hint of an accent Tony vaguely recognized.

"I think so, why?" Steve asked. Tony noticed how he automatically stepped forward so he stood at the forefront of their little group, between everyone else and the stranger.

"While your argument was rather interesting, I didn't sneak away from my brother to play with kids that are just going to fight all the time," she explained.

"Wait, you snuck away from your brother?" Steve questioned. Tony understood his obvious concern—this girl couldn't be older than Clint, and certainly shouldn't be wandering around a hospital by herself.

"Oh don't look so scared. He knows I can take care of myself. This isn't the first hospital business trip I've tagged along on, and they're usually pretty boring. My brother will be too busy to even notice I'm gone. That's why I came here; I always find the pediatric ward. You guys are almost always the only ones who don't spend all their time moping."

"Excuse me?" Tony was still mystified at who this person was and how she arrived here. They certainly did their fair share of moping, but he had no way of knowing how things were on the adult wards.

"Who's your brother?" Bucky asked. "And what exactly are you doing here?"

"He's here to talk shop about preventing another situation like the Vibranin crisis," she explained.

"That only answers like, half my question. You can't just show up here in a spaceship and not explain where you came from."

"I'm Shuri. My brother is the king of Wakanda."