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Chapter 27 - Sideways Thank You

The Doctor walked down the hallway wearing his best, three piece suit. He had a pair of shorts and a white shirt of Tony's on his arm. His hair was sticking up in all of the right places.

"Hey, Doc'!"

He turned to see Lewis, wearing his best suit, running up to him. He smiled as he put his hand on his shoulder. "Hey. The groom! Are you ready for this?"

Lewis smiled. "I am. How is Howie? I'm hearing crazy things."

"He's going to be alright. Pete just rang me. They are watching him very closely and it's not a bad idea for us to get there today. I want to look over everything and make sure no one missed something."

Lewis nodded his head. "Let me walk with you. Taking Tony some clothes?" They continued to walk down the hall.

"Yeah. I'm going to hold him through the ceremony. He doesn't need to put weight on that leg for a bit."

Lewis nodded his head.

The Doctor stopped walking. "Yesterday, in the cupboard. Well….. it happened again. This time it was worse. I think. I'm not certain. How long was it until I could speak yesterday?"

Lewis shook his head. "I have no idea. I'm not a walking stop watch, like yourself. How bad was it?"

The Doctor bit his lip. "Bad. I couldn't sit up for a bit. Scared the hell out of Rose. Well, and me, too. What the hell do you think it going on?"

Lewis shook his head. "Did you pick up something at the hospital?"

The Doctor closed his eyes tightly. "Shit. I haven't even thought of that. What the hell have I possibility exposed everyone to? My infant son to? Fuck!"

Lewis patted his chest. "Calm down. Let's work the problem. Don't let it wind you up. That helps nothing. Let me have a think on this. What is going on after the wedding?"

"Reception. And neither one of us can get out of it."

Lewis thought as he started walking down the hallway again. "Do this. You already have a brain scan. Draw some blood and have the computers work on it while we are busy. That way it will be ready when we are finished."

The Doctor nodded his head. "That's a good idea. Is anyone else doing this?"

"I have no idea. I don't think anyone else is shagging on this ship but me and you."

The Doctor sighed. "It could be just when someone gets really excited. Not just the shagging. It hasn't happened but twice when we shagged."

Lewis looked surprised at him, "Hmm… and wow. We need to ask and see."

"Oh, I don't want to alarm everyone unless I know something is really wrong."

They walked through the doors of the med bay, then the main room and entered the hallway to the rooms for the patients. They walked into Tony's room to find Stark sitting in there with him. They were watching the football game again, together. Stark was already wearing his suit.

The Doctor and Lewis smiled at one another. Stark and Tony both jumped as a kick was saved from going in the goal.

Lewis spoke, "That was a good play. I saw it live, yesterday."

Stark stood up and smiled. "You know, after you understand the rules, this isn't that bad."

Tony laughed, "I converted him, John. For the win!"

The Doctor laughed. "Well done, Comrade. I brought you some clothes for Lewis' wedding. I'll hold you the entire time so you won't be on your leg."

Lewis teased. "Doc' is 'One' and Tony will be 'Half.' How about that?"

Stark pointed at him, "Lewis is worth Ten and a half men. Impressive."

The Doctor chuckled, "How is your leg feeling?"

Tony looked at it. "It feels really good. Cold. But good."

"I don't want you putting any weight on it yet." He told him.

Tony laughed, "Hey, I don't want to put weight on it yet. It will hurt!"

Stark patted Lewis on the shoulder. "How you feeling? I can find you an escape pod someplace if you need to make a quick exit."

Lewis rolled his eyes. "I'm good. But, thank you."

The Doctor carefully helped Tony on with his shorts. "Alright?"

Tony nodded his head, as he put on the shirt he had brought him. The Doctor sat on the side of the bed and looked at him. "Tony. Can we talk about you climbing up on the ladder?"

"Am I in trouble?"

He smiled, "No, Tony. What happened? Did you misjudge your distance?" He reached up and took the metal device off the side of Tony's forehead. Looked at it and pressed a few buttons, then reattached it to the top of Tony's knee.

Tony watched him and then looked back up at him.

"Well?" The Doctor asked.

"I don't know John. I just climbed up the ladder and slipped."

"You slipped? Your hand came off of the rail? Or did you miss the rail?"

Stark shook his head. "What does it matter?"

"There might be something else going on that I need to make sure hasn't affected Tony." He explained.

Tony thought, "John. I have no idea. I'm sorry. I just remember climbing up. Then I fell. Then Logan and Legate ran to help me."

The Doctor nodded his head. "It's important, Tony. How clear is it in your mind, now?"

Tony sighed, "It's strange. I keep seeing it over and over."

"Can I do something? It won't hurt. I'd like to see it. I can look in your mind and see what you see. It will feel strange, but I won't hurt. Do you trust me?"

Tony smiled, "How do you do that? Will you have to use a machine?"

He smiled and shook his head. "No. Just me. Are you sure it's alright?"

Tony looked at him seriously. "John. I know you would never hurt me."

He smiled, "That's right. Okay. I'm going to just put my hands on your face. Alright? Close your eyes. Think about what happened. You'll feel me when I step into your mind."

Stark and Lewis watched as the Doctor looked in Tony's head. After a few moments, both of them opened their eyes and looked at one another. The Doctor took his hands off of Tony's face.

Tony looked at him in surprise. "Okay, John. That was cool!"

The Doctor chuckled at him. "Cool, huh?"

Tony smiled at him. "What did you see?"

"Huh. That's interesting." The Doctor said as he bit his lip. "You were looking at Legate and not the bar you should have grabbed. You simply missed it. You had no sensation of touching the bar. That explains why you fell facing foreword. Interesting."

Stark crossed his arms, "This is fascinating. Is he telepathic, too?"

Tony looked up at Stark. "I'm a what?"

The Doctor kissed the top of Tony's head. "No, he's not. Thank you, Comrade."

Lewis pointed to the Doctor. "Go do what we chatted about on the way here so it will be ready when we're done."

The Doctor sighed as he took off his jacket. "Here. Hold this for me, Comrade. I'll be straight back."

Stark quickly spoke up. "I'll join you, man."

They walked down the hallway together into another room.

"What's up?" The Doctor asked him as he unbuttoned and rolled up his sleeve.

Stark looked surprised at him. "What's up with me? Or you? You look like you are about to get a shot or something."

The Doctor shook his head as he sat down and opened a drawer to a cabinet. He pulled out a needle and everything he needed to draw blood with.

Stark looked surprised. "Wow. Now that looks like stuff I'm familiar with."

"Not everything is different in space." The Doctor told him as he cleaned his own arm. He took the cover off of the needle and prepared to put it in his arm.

"Damn, man. Stop. Let me help you." Stark sat down and took over. The Doctor handed him the needle and looked surprised. After he put on some gloves, he drew the blood out of the Doctor's arm just like any doctor would have done.

"How do you know how to do this?"

Tony's full attention was on drawing the blood from him. "Ahh… long story. How many of these do you want?"

"Three." The Doctor told him.

Tony nodded his head. "Three. What's up? Feeling alright?"

"I'm having moments of….ummm…. a blank mind. Does that make sense?"

Tony glanced at him. "Huh. What causes that? A telepathic thing?"

"I'm not sure. It's happened twice now. And normally, I would know."

Tony finished up, pulled the needle of the Doctor's arm and put a cotton ball on the area. The Doctor pulled his arm up and watched Tony clean up everything.

Tony made a face. "Well, it's really not a long story. You already know most of it. My chest plate that you removed. It was made using palladium in the core. After that first year, year and a half maybe, it started leaking into my blood stream. I could feel it, after about 18 months, it might had always done it and I just noticed I then. I got online and found out how to draw blood on myself so I could look at it under a microscope and see how much it was in my blood stream. I ended up making a palladium checker to monitor the levels in my bloodstream. It was already up in the 60s when I finally spoke to you about it. 72% the day of the surgery."

The Doctor shook his head. "Palladium in the blood stream. That explains why I found that. I guessed it was something to do with the arc, but I didn't realize you had been keeping such a close eye on it."

"I needed something that would be a heavy enough element to continue running. It's the same thing with the arc we put at your place. Palladium. Wave of the future. Nearly the death of Stark."

The Doctor smiled, "Have you checked your levels lately? The medicine I put you on should have washed that out by now."

"It's been gone for days. It slowly decreased. I should have told you, but….I … hell I don't know why I didn't." Tony told him as he opened a cabinet, took out a bandaid and put it on the Doctor's arm.

"I know why you didn't. The same reason I keep things to myself. It makes you feel in control of something."

Stark shook his head. "I can't say that was it. I had prepared myself to die. I had everything in order. My company….I was about to hand it off to someone. My assets, everything! Rhodey was gone. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that he hadn't came back to complain about it. And believe me, he could find something to complain about with everything. So, it couldn't be too bad. I was ready. Then, you fall out of the damn sky, give me a new heart and life is back to normal. As if nothing ever happened."

The Doctor rolled his shirt down and rebuttoned it as he looked at Tony. Then he realized what he was on about. He chuckled. "Let me see it. It must have really done a hell of a good job to get you this wound up."

Stark turned around. "See! You speak my language! Right! Look at this shit." Stark took off his jacket and handed it to the Doctor. He pulled his oxford out of his trousers and t-shirt and pulled them up to expose his chest.

It looked as if nothing had ever happened. The Doctor nodded his head. "Brilliant! That looks really good."

Stark rubbed his chest. "It still tingles. What is that?"

"Hair growing back. It will tingle for a while. You only have to apply it once. Did you put it anywhere else?"

"I had a scar, under my arm from where the original suit cut me and I had to have stitches. I also used it on my forehead. I had a scar from a fight I was in when I was a teenager. But, that isn't the craziest thing about it. Guess what I did."

The Doctor shook his head. "I couldn't imagine."

Stark put himself back together and the Doctor handed him back his jacket. "I had a tattoo. I wanted to have it removed for years. I knew they would find out about my chest, so I just didn't do anything about it. I put this shit on the tattoo and it was gone when I checked a bit ago. Is that supposed to happen with your weird alien ass goo?"

The seriousness of the discussion had made the Doctor uncomfortable until he heard those words. He doubled over laughing hysterically.

Stark looked surprised at him, "What?"

The Doctor was laughing so hard he barely speak. "That's the funniest shit I've ever heard. Ass goo?"

Stark rolled his eyes, and then laughed with him. "For the record, I wasn't on my ass."

The Doctor continued to laugh, "For the record, I didn't pull it out of my ass! Oh wow. Wouldn't that be nice to be able to pull Cicatrix Instaurab put out of my ass? Ass goo? That's a hell of lot easier to say than Cicatrix Instaurab. I might start calling it that."

Stark leaned on the cabinet and shook his head. "This was sideways, man. I am trying to say thank you. I don't look like Frankenstein's monster any longer. If I can get this shit straightened out with Pepper, I can get her opinion on it."

The Doctor wiped tears from his eyes. "This was the best thank you. Cheers, mate."

They shook hands and started back to Tony's room. The Doctor put his arm on Stark's shoulder, "I suppose I should put some ass goo on my brother's leg." Then he started laughing hysterically again.

Stark threw up his hands. "You are such a damn child."

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