"Stay still," Tony says as he readies the scissors. Steve's hand goes rigid in his, it was almost as if he was holding the hand of a granite statue. "Okay" he sighs, "Not that still. I meant, keep yourself in place"
"Sorry" Steve mumbles, relaxing his hand slightly.
"Let's just get this done." He says, reaching for the man's hand again.
He does his best not to focus too much on the metal spine impaling Steve's palm, but instead of removing the man's glove. It's a bit of a struggle to cut through the thick fabric of the glove and not pull on the spine. The blades slip and pull as they cut through the blood soaked fabric.
The glove is peeled away from Steve's skin, piece by painstaking piece. Carefully Tony uses the scalpel and the forceps to cut out the parts of the glove that had begun to heal into the skin. He shuts his mind off to Steve's small gasps and groans of pain, focusing only on what was important; removing the spine and glove before it causes more damage.
It almost feels like working down in his lab after a while. He gets into a groove, working away at the hand methodically.
When the glove is finally removed Tony sits back in the chair and takes a deep breath. "Onto the spine now."
Tony eyes the spine. It was probably too smooth for him to get a good grip on to put it out by hand, and it would probably be dangerous. He turns to the tools laid out beside him, working out which one would probably be best.
In the back of his mind, he had that nagging thought that maybe he should've taken a first aid class. He'd never thought he'd needed to, and these days he doesn't really have the time. Any injures he got before becoming Iron Man he could either ignore or have someone take care of. Now he finds himself regularly helping his teammates deal with their injures, despite having a fully paid medical team and facility. Turns out he wasn't the only one around with deep-seated trust issues.
Admittedly, it was kind of nice to know that his friends trusted him enough to come to him for help with things like this.
Tony picks up a pair of tweezers with a heavy tooth. "This is going to hurt," he says, laying his hand on Steve's tight.
"Doesn't it always?" Steve huffs, giving him a small smile.
He grips the spine and pulls. But the thing doesn't budge. He keeps attempting to get it out, testing out pulling it both ways to no luck. It wasn't moving. He tries spinning it to see if there was any movement that way, but the spine stayed in place.
"Shit." he says, "I think it's either barbed, or really stuck in there."
"Y-you don't say" Steve groans through clenched teeth.
"Maybe if I cut the spine?" he thinks out loud. Tony looks at the tools beside him. None of them were suitable for cutting metal as thick as the spine was, he would probably have to run down to his lab and get one of his work tools.
Then something occurs to him.
"This, uhhh, this might sting a bit" he mumbles, moving in closer to Steve's hand to get a better look at the spine. With his gloved hand, he runs a finger across the surface of the spine. Steve lets out a choked breath as the touch moves the spine. "Sorry"
He pulls back, running his fingers together. There was something coating the spines, something slippery. Some sort of protective lubricant.
"J, can you tell me what this stuff is made out of?" he asks.
A few seconds go by.
"I'm sorry, Sir. I can't find a match for the substance, it appears to be of alien nature." JARVIS responds.
"Well, that makes things a little tricky. But maybe not impossible." He says.
Tony gets up and walks over to the sink and fills a small cup with water. Then returns to Steve's side. He grabs one of the cotton swabs and sets it in the water. "Universal solvent." He explains to Steve, who just gives him a small, pained nod.
With the wet swab, he cleans the spine and the tweezers he had used. Satisfied, he tosses the swab into the small bin waiting by his side.
He dries his hands on the small handtowel and picks up the tweezers to try again.
Tony grips the spine firmly with the tweezers and pulls.
But the spine still doesn't budge.
"Damn it" he mutters, setting down the tweezers. "Well, water doesn't work. Let's move on to alcohol." He grumbles, looking through all the items he'd set out. "Why is everything in plain white packaging with bland text? I can't find anything. Remind me to find a better supplier for the medical supplies"
He finds what he was looking for. Antiseptic wipes. He fills the small packet over and reads the fine print. "Isopropyl alcohol. Yes." Hopefully the alcohol with break down the lubricant. If not, he'll try vinegar next.
Tony tears open the little packet and pulls out the antiseptic wipe. He cleans the spine and the tweezers. It's almost unnoticeable, but the more he cleans the spine with the wipe, the more friction he can feel.
Tossing the wipe in the bin he once again picks up the tweezers. He grips the spine firmly with the tweezers and pulls.
And the spine slides free from the hand. Tony lets out a sigh of relief. The spine wasn't barbed or stuck, it was fairly easy to remove. "Now," Tony huffs, dropping the spine onto the dish beside him, "let's get to removing the other hundred or so spines"
It still was probably going to be a long night, but at least they knew how to remove them now.
Steve groans miserably.
"I know, sweetheart. We'll go get burgers after this, promise."
The End
Notes: For the Steve|Tony|Bucky Bingo prompt "Impaled Palm" [O5] (Card 1)
Also for the Hurt/Comfort Bingo Round 11 prompt Taking Care of somebody [G1]