Bruce knew that Loki wasn't exactly human. But with the combination of blood loss, malnourishment, fatigue, and still-healing previous injuries he was astonished that Loki was still attempting to fight them off. Hell, he was amazed Loki was even still conscious, god or not.
The raven-haired man was kicking out weakly as Thor laid him down on the stark-white medical bed, throwing loosely-clenched, blind punches in every direction and still screaming. His voice was hoarse and rough with tears, begging for death in a way that even had Bruce's stoic that-kind-of-doctor mode trembling slightly. But he couldn't think about that right now. He couldn't let himself dwell upon what could have possibly driven the frail man to such thoughts right now. His struggles were growing weaker by the minute. They were running out of time.
Bruce whirled around to grab the heartrate monitor behind him and slammed right into a grey-faced Clint. Surveying the room briefly, he noticed each and every Avenger circling the bed around Loki.
"Everyone out." Bruce barked. His tone left no room for arguments, save for Tony and Thor.
"You said I could help!"
"He is my brother!"
Bruce counted to ten as he fetched the heart rate monitor and attached the leads to Loki's chest, blocking his feeble attempts to fight him off.
"Tony, yes, I need you. Get me a Green-Alert sedative. Thor, I will let you stay in here if you stay out of my way. Loki is dying and I need the fucking room. Everyone else, get out." Bruce growled. Tony appeared at his side with a syringe of clear liquid, moving to hold down Loki's arm as instructed while Bruce injected the sedative into a vein. Tony looked up to Thor briefly, who had stepped back closer to the door, his face a pale shade of sickly green as he watched Loki's movements begin to slow, the frantic wailing of the heart rate monitor along with them.
"You might not wanna see this buddy," Tony's voice had an odd edge to it, "but there's a bathroom down the hall for when you need to puke."
With Loki now limp on the bed, Bruce moved a light over the bed and actually began to examine his mangled wrists; as quickly as he could.
He'd known what he was doing.
There were multiple slashes, reckless-looking and deep enough to require some stitches, but they looked like child's play compared to the large gashes over the veins on each of his wrists. He'd cut the skin open and went straight for the vein.
"We need to put a tourniquet on each of his upper arms. I'm going to tie it very tight to slow the bleeding. JARVIS, I need you to set a repeating twenty-minute timer. Tony, each time that JARVIS gives the signal that the timer has gone off I need you to loosen the tourniquets."
"Certainly, Sir." JARVIS's voice came from the ceiling while Tony nodded.
"Right," Bruce murmured, readying a tray of tools beside him, "fuck, okay that sedative stopped him from struggling but somehow he's still awake. I need to give him some anesthetic. This is gonna hurt otherwise."
"Right, let's get him some Propofol or something," Tony muttered, disappearing for a few seconds as Bruce slid on a pair of gloves.
"Here," Tony was back, handing Bruce a full vial of opaque white liquid, "There's 40mg in there."
"Might need more, he's not human after all," Bruce muttered as he injected the anesthesia into Loki's arm. Loki inched his head to the side, his eyelids going droopy but not quite falling under. Bruce waited a few minutes, cleaning the medical utensils on the tray as he kept a close eye on the heart rate monitor. Tony brushed some of the sweaty hair away from Loki's face.
"Okay, give me 20mg. We'll administer it slowly." Tony handed him a fresh syringe. Bruce injected 5mg at a time. 15mg later and Loki slipped into unconsciousness.
"Okay, now for the hard part."
-oOo-
An hour and fifteen minutes later, Bruce finished the last suture in Loki's left wrist, peeled off his bloodstained gloves, wiped his forehead free from anxious sweat, and all but collapsed into a nearby chair.
"Fuck." was all he could think to say. Tony remained uncharacteristically silent. Thor had left as soon as the procedure had started, darting out into the hall with a considerably greener face.
"Okay. Okay that's..that's not how I envisioned my night going. Fuck." Tony looked up at him then, concern in his features. Bruce mentally shook himself. Gosh, Tony's been weird ever since Loki showed up.
"Okay, fuck I'm going to go talk to the others. Can-can you finish up here? I need to calm down." Tony nodded.
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
"Good. Good. 'Night Tony. Jesus." Tony gave a halfhearted salute in response.
Exiting the infirmary Bruce was met with the four questioning gazes of his remaining teammates. He gave a heavy sigh and plopped down in a chair along with their clustered group.
"How is Loki?" Thor's voice seemed small.
"He's...physically he's stable now. We drained the blood and clots from his tissues and had to suture the vein where he tore it. Luckily he didn't tear the vein in half completely. That would have been a much more complicated surgery. The blade he used only cut it open, and I was able to close it off. He heals much faster than humans so I used a dissolving suture."
"What is a dissolving suture?" Thor asked.
"They will dissolve in his body instead of having to be removed." Thor nodded solemnly.
"After that, I sutured his wrists, and the other gashes as well. Not all of them needed stitches, but quite a few did. Tony is wrapping his arms now."
"Why...why did he..." Thor couldn't seem to finish his sentence.
"I don't know. I noticed older scars of the same nature when I first was treating him. As well as...well. I don't know. What I do know, is that it's clear he has been doing this for quite some time. And people don't self-harm for no reason. He's in pain. Horrible pain. It's likely that he reached a breaking point. No one knows what really happened during the battle or before it, but what is clear is that Loki wasn't in control of himself. At least not completely. The only way to find out is to ask him when he wakes up, which is why I left Tony with him." Steve raised an eyebrow at that.
"Oh, don't be stupid, Steve. It's plain and clear that Stark and Loki have a close bond. Anyone could see it." Natasha quipped.
"Give it a few weeks and they'll be banging," Clint muttered. Thor whirled around to face him, thunder rumbling in the distance, and Bruce took that moment to realize it was storming outside.
"I left Tony in there because Loki trusts him, and he needs someone he trusts when he wakes up. Maybe he'll tell Tony why he did it." Bruce explained before Thor could start yelling at Clint.
"Can I see him?"
"I-yes. You can. But...I hate to say this but it's probably best if you're not there when he wakes up." Thor's face contorted in pain, as though Bruce's words had physically harmed him.
"I don't. Shit, Thor, I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I'm not. But we all know you and Loki have your issues. It's not just you, I don't think should be there when he wakes up. I think it should just be Tony. Loki's clearly very damaged, both emotionally and physically. He needs to get to a more stable place before he has to deal with the presence of everyone." Thor hung his head. Outside, lightning cracked even closer and Bruce cringed. But when Thor raised his head, his expression was calm.
"Friend, I will heed your words. They are wise ones. I have been un-wise for much too long, and I have hurt my brother greatly. I do not wish to continue this. I will return to Asgard for some time. I will return when Loki is ready." Steve put his hand on Thor's shoulder.
"That's a brave choice, Thor, this can't be easy for you," he said.
"How will you know when Loki is ready for you to return?" Natasha asked eyes narrowed slightly.
"Heimdall sees all. I trust him to inform me when the time is right." Thor answered. "I do request that I be allowed to..to see him once now? To say goodbye." Bruce nodded.
"Sure, sure. He's sleeping right now. He probably will be for a while. I think we're going to move him to Tony's floor. You could carry him there if you're careful."
"Aye, I shall. Thank you, my friend."