Chapter 25.

"Please change it back."

Tony went up a channel, setting the remote on the side table. Steve was finally waking up, his head sliding from side to side, his eyelids fluttering. His one good eye was hazy.

"Easy there, Cap." Tony put a hand on his shoulder. "One of your eyes is… well, gross."

Steve groaned. "I feel like I got hit by a truck."

"If I remember correctly, you've been hit by several trucks."

A smile tugged his lips.

Tony had a quip lined up, but it died.

His friend was badly beaten, one eye swollen shut, bruises, abrasions, and gashes covering his body. Tony had never seen him like this. Steve had always seemed invincible, but maybe that was because he was usually giving his all. He knew he would be almost completely better tomorrow, and back to fighting shape within two or three days, but it had only been two hours since their fight.

It was fresh. It was brutal.

Tony said, "How does it feel to get your ass kicked three times in a row by a normal guy?"

"I was going easy on you."

Tony's response came out soft, genuine. "Thank you."

"Anytime."

They sat in silence for a little while. Steve gradually woke up, one eye open, watching an old cartoon. Tony kept looking back at him, worried he would fade at any moment. And that it would be his fault. As much as they argued, as much as Steve's moral high ground annoyed him, he couldn't imagine a world without Captain America in it.

Steve spoke first, "Natasha told me you blew up the Deltaran fleet."

"Had a little vengeance left in me."

"You had a powerful missile hidden away. Why didn't you use it on us?"

"I could build another one, if you really want me to."

Steve snorted, and then flinched, "Oww."

Tony folded his arms, locking in some heat, stopping himself from fiddling with the fresh scabs on his knuckles. "I think I still had a little control, when it came down to it. There were a lot of things I could have done. I guess I was going easy on you, too."

"Doesn't feel like it." Steve hesitated, one eye flickering toward Tony, "Why did you come after me so hard?"

Tony sat back. He had been thinking about that while he waited for Steve to wake up.

He let himself be painfully honest.

"You and I are opposites in some respects. The worst parts of me hated the best parts of you."

Steve said nothing for a time, focusing on the TV.

And then, "How is Pepper?"

Tony fought through a wave of guilt, but his voice broke, "Well, she woke up before you. I think this might be something it takes us a while to work through. She may have mentioned… a break."

"It wasn't your fault."

"It was at least partially me. Some part of me." Tony put his hand gently on Steve's shoulder, unsure which one was broken. "Speaking of Pepper, I should switch rooms again. I think Bruce was on the way up to see you."

"We're not opposites, Tony. And the door's always open," Steve said, as the door closed behind Tony. He added, "Metaphorically."

Tony chuckled.

It would take a while for things to go back to normal, but it seemed their friendship would survive.

He ran into Bruce at the end of the hall. Bruce had a bundle of flowers in his hand.

"Wow. Confessing your love?"

"When you visit people in the hospital, you bring flowers," Bruce said.

"I missed that memo." Tony hesitated. "And I'm sorry, by the way."

"I know." Bruce tapped him on the shoulder, smiling, and walked on.

Tony turned, "Now might not be the time to bring it up, but this is why we need a global defense system. I scrapped Overwatch. But I had an idea for something a little less intrusive."

Bruce crinkled his brow, intrigued, maybe a little concerned.

"I'm calling it Ultron."

"Ultron?"

"I think the focus should be outward, not inward. Cap showed me that." Tony headed for the elevator. "I'll need your help, if anything comes of it."

"You're the most frustrating human being I've ever met."

Tony shot him finger guns as the elevator doors closed.

XxX

Steve drifted in and out of consciousness. He felt better every time he woke up, astounding the doctors, so he did his best to let the sleep take him. He had nowhere to be, anyway.

Bruce came by, brought flowers, sat with him while he slept.

Tony came back twice, appearing in the chair, by the window. He was guilty. Steve rarely saw him show so much humility, never imagined he had it in him.

It was late at night, when Steve was sitting up in bed stretching his arms out, that Nat finally showed up.

She hovered in the doorway, nodding toward the flowers on the nightstand, "Secret admirer?"

"You bring flowers when you visit someone in the hospital," Steve said. "If you're here to steal my clothes, they already locked them up."

She snapped her fingers, "Knew I shouldn't have stopped for coffee." She meandered through the room, surveying the TV, the window, the bed controls. "Nicer than the one they had you in last time. You think you might actually spend the night? Or was there another planet you wanted to visit?"

"Fresh out of Asgardians," Steve said. "How is Clint?"

"He's fine. I drove him to the airport. He's taking all his vacation days at once." Natasha sat on the end of his bed, feet dangling, looking at the dark window. "How do you feel?"

"Better every hour."

"Your face is back, mostly. Your eye is still a little droopy." Natasha turned those intense green eyes on him, scrutinizing. "He really did a number on you."

"It was the suits, mostly. For the record, I was winning."

She smiled.

He smiled.

"How do we know Tony is really back to normal?" Natasha wondered.

"I'm not sure. I guess we just have to trust it. He's had plenty of chances to kill me since then."

"Did he tell you why he went after you?"

"Yeah, he did."

She waited, and then nodded to herself. "Guy stuff, I get it."

He said, "I think we-"

But she cut him off.

Natasha hugged him.

It was sweet, brief, warm.

When she pulled away she had beautiful look on her face. It gave him the powerful, irreplaceable feeling of being loved.

"I'm gonna hang out, keep watch," Natasha said, sliding into the chair by his bed.

Steve lay in bed, settling in, watching her until the quiet started to pull him under. Natasha placed her hand over his, stroking his palm with her thumb, while he drifted off.

XxXxX

Bruce pulled up to the house around midnight. It was a three-hour drive from the city, and even longer when he was exhausted. The Hulk had really taken it out of him today.

But this was important. It had to be now.

He knocked, pacing in the cold, leaving his little cooler on the porch to avoid jostling it.

Dr. Freeman answered the door in his robe. Bruce had called to let him know he was coming, but he must have gone back to sleep in the meantime.

"Come in, come in. You must be freezing."

Bruce stepped into the warm living room, comforted by how similar it was to the last time he was here. "Sorry to keep you up. I just didn't want to let the samples degrade."

"No apology necessary." Freeman waited by the kitchen table.

Bruce set his cooler on the counter, carefully removing four vials of blood, and bringing them over to Freeman. "I collected them about six hours ago."

Freeman took a vial, lifting it gently to eyelevel. "We have plenty of time, but I think I should get started on this tomorrow."

Bruce crossed his arms, watching Freeman pack the cooler with more dry ice. "I appreciate that. I lost control again today… It was a little longer this time, about ten minutes. But for that ten minutes it was like falling through a void."

He shuddered.

Freeman put a hand on his shoulder. "You have good friends to help you. Now that Captain Rogers is on board, we should be able to expedite this to a trial phase."

Bruce said nothing. His desperation had driven him to an extreme that he was uncomfortable with. He took the blood while Steve was unconscious in his hospital bed. He sat with him, pretended to be his friend, and stole his blood while he slept.

Freeman never had to know.

And if this worked, neither did Steve.