No one could have warned us that any of this would have ever happened. It was like with Iron Man, who knew a trip to Afghanistan to release a big weapon would unleash a Black Sabbath song.

Only in the cave, I never expected it to happen. Not like this anyway.

Everything was going to hell.

Remember how Isabella and I kept getting skinnier and skinnier as time went on. Remember how her body stopped working correctly, and stopped menstruation. The bottles that Loki had to bring her every month to keep it going. Most of all getting rid of the arc reactor in her chest so that her body wouldn't have any complications when having children.

Remember the cold, the freezing nights, the two of us cuddling into the thin blanket trying the hardest to stay warm.

It was all catching up to the human body, all the stress, the changes in temperatures, the extended starvation of each of our ribs slowly becoming visible. Our energy from day to day slowly becoming slimmer, the amount of activity we could do lessening over the time in this cave.

Only it wasn't catching up with mine. Yet.

Isabella, who because of her bad eating habits and the over exausting sleeping schedule from when she was in college, only to be put here made the affects slam her way sooner. The second vial that Loki had given her, the one to heal her chest and therefore the reactor, only worked when it extended over a large amounts of energy in the body. So it was using a lot of energy that was already being drained out of her body to heal her chest.

It started using energy she no longer had anymore. So then, last week it finally all came down. Somewhere around noon or early afternoon while I was tinkering with something, when she was gardening fainted and fell to the floor. I heard the clutter, and thinking she just tripped simply walked over.

Only to find her on the floor, passed out.

I of course had a panic attack, which I had to push down the best I could, and ran to her. Most people would assume that a person would have seen the signs, but all the signs of fainting were in normal everyday life at this point. Isabella was already pale, already yawned a lot, already experiences slight dizziness at times. Normally when that happens she'll just go lay down, but this time no.

I checked her pulse and it was light, but there. I cursed myself for not doing the examination that I normally would do this morning. We had gotten up late and I had forgotten it.

I layed her on the ground, ripped up her shirt collars, and the waist to her pants, grabbed the blanket took it to her, lifting up her legs and putting them on the bundle. Even though she was breathing, just to be sure, I lifted up her chin.

In that one minute that she was passed out, it felt like hours. We didn't have doctors, no medicine, nothing I could give her to fix this. I couldn't drive her to the ER, or call 911 to help with this. The only resource I had to go for help was

"Loki" I screamed as loud as I could panicked. He could come, he would know what to do.
Immediately after I called he appeared in one of the corners of the walls.
The prince without missing a beat came over and slightly reposition Isabella's body.
"Anthony, what happened"
"I don't-I don't know. S-she just passed out. Her pulse is there but it's weak and."
Loki put a hand out shushing me

"It's alright Tony, I'm not angry. How long has she been passed out."

"Maybe a minute." I said, still barely able to keep it together.
He nodded before touching his palm to her face and murmuring something I couldn't hear.
Then right as he took it off, Isabella's eyelids started fluttering. Her fingers and toes twitched, and a moment later her eyes opened revealing the beautiful chocolate brown pupils that I loved to see, slightly dazed looking but okay.
The pupils that turned right to me as I was hovering over her.

"Tony?" She asked, "whats wrong, what happened."

Then after I carried her to bed to rest, I talked with Loki.
"You two have been down here too long, it's consequences are just beginning."
"What are you saying? We've been down here, what, a year and five months. Yes, a while. Isabella and I haven't had any issues like this."
"Isabella's suffering from extreme malnutrition, and the prolonged cold, her body is taking its toll. Not to mention having to cleanse her body of all the shrapnel in her chest. From here forward, until we get you two out, her condition is only going to get worse."

I was stricken, worse. How could anything be worse than the last hour of my life.
But I accepted it, something like this was bound to happen. but now.
"What's going to happen?"
Loki looked at me warily as if trying to figure out what to tell me.

"Isabella's going to get more and more ill. She won't have much energy. Her bones are frail. The potion for getting rid of the shrapnel made things worse. In the next few hours she'll have the beginnings of a fever, in a few days the nausea will set in. About two weeks extended movements will be nearly impossible for her. More headaches, with an intenser velocity. Her body is going to get weaker, and weaker, and will continue so until she gets the proper help from your midguardian healers."

I swallowed thickly, feeling the impending doom of what would happen to her if we didn't get out soon, what Loki didn't tell me.

"What can we do."

Loki looked just as sad as I did, but continued hopefully.

"Get her to rest as much as she can, it'll help her in the temporary healing. Give her smaller more frequent meals, tomorrow I'll come with whatever potions and things I can bring with me to help. Keep her warm. Nothing too exciting for her, alright. Meanwhile I'll be working as hard as I can to ensure you get out as fast as I can, preferably before the worst.

Then he left, leaving me alone with her. I sat next to the bed, and next to her. I thought of everything, of the past year in the cave, the years before that. I thought about Steve, Bucky, and the Winter Soldier. I thought about the Avengers. I thought about trees, grass, cars, rainstorms, sidewalks, and sunlight. I thought about Happy and Rhodey.

I thought about Isabella, and her quirkiness, and how the scarlet blush came into her cheeks. I thought of her laugh, and the way her eyes lit up when she was happy.
I thought of her gardening, and cooking, and all the interesting conversations she had. I thought about how her life was in college, and doucheward, and her parents.
Of how kind and smart she was, not to mention more patient than I've ever met anyone.

I loved her so, so much. Now as I looked at her body, cheeks sullen, skin pale. Sharp corners where there should be softer edges. Her bony hands and wrists. The haziness in her eyes when she'd first opened them after she passed out. I thought of how I had thought she was thin when we first got in here, compared to the pile of bones that held her soul in right now. I deserved this kind of fate, Merchant of Death all the way, but her. She had done literally nothing bad to anyone at anytime since she was born, only bad things being done to her. From her parents divorce, to her mom not being the best mom, to her parents, to switching schools, to doucheward, not to mention everything following the devils spawn.

I knew that if this was what happened with Isabella was true, I was going to do everything to make it easier, slower, she wouldn't do that much in day to day life but be comfortable. Isabella would fight me on this, and I expected it. Her life was worth the argument. It would be long tiring, but I didn't want to loose Isabella. I didn't want to have her last moments of life be in the prison. I could give her that much, if we made it out she would be okay. It was easy to fix with resources, nearly impossible without them. But I would do whatever it took to make sure she lasted until then.

I knew if it didn't, then Isabella's fate would become mine as well. It wouldn't matter then though. Because she would be gone, and I would be alone all over again. The thing that made me feel like the sun was something she built in her shed for me would no longer exist for my love anymore. I couldn't do anything about it, not much anyway. Maybe have her live a month longer, Loki had told me than the expected rate. She would last two and a half months verses the one and a half.

All I could do was pray to the god that I knew existed, that we would leave here. At the very least that she would leave here. That she would get to live.

For now all I'm able to do is hold her close, her cute hands that fit right in mind. Enjoy the warmth that her body is somehow still able to provide. Trace the weird mark on her wrist, and love her as much as I could. Love her with my entire heart, mind, and soul, because thats all I could give her. That wasn't enough.

I clutched her and sobbed, just cried.

Why... out of all the people in this world that this had to happy.

Why

why her.