Chapter 3: Whatta Man
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"Don't take him for a sucker 'cause that's what he's about
Every time I need him, he always got my back
Never disrespectful 'cause his mama taught him that
What a man…"
…..
POV: Tony Stark
This might be the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
Shifting the thin black box from hand to hand, I contemplate whether it would be easier to chuck the sleek top of the line Samsung out the car window and build a new one from scratch or actually use the inferior technology. Its firm weight in my palm taunts me, reminding me of our desperation. After another moment of consideration, I tuck it in my pocket, vowing to look into it later.
The seats in the shuttle van are stiff against my back. I stretch out, trying to rid myself of mounting exhaustion from the last five or so hours. It doesn't work, the ache setting in deeper than before.
The driver said the ride to Piedmont Fayette Hospital would only take about 10 minutes. That was 10 minutes further away from the fake people on the fake set of a fake movie about real us in fake Georgia complete with fake people driving a fake van with real me and real Peter in it on our way to a fake hospital to see a real wizard.
I remember when the weirdest thing that happened to me was being kidnapped by terrorists.
"That" I reason to myself, "would be much preferable to this."
Constant worry prevails in my mind, resurfacing in a tumult of never ending thoughts. What was happening in real life? Thanos was on the verge of invading Earth when Strange had snatched us all away. I might be biased, but that left New York quite vulnerable, not that I don't trust others to protect the city, I just prefer to do it myself. That way if anything goes wrong it's my fault and no one else has to carry that blame.
But that thought nagging at my brain wasn't as bad as the other…
Pepper.
She was somewhere (oh I hope somewhere safe) very likely worried about me…
She has to be safe.
The entire city could burn or half of its population die, but if anything happened to her it would destroy me. In a very real sense, I'm not me without her. She is a piece of my world. I count my blessings everyday she's alive, breathing beautiful alive and somehow in love with me after all the stupid shit we've been through.
She's amazing.
"...no more surprises…"
I've got to make it back for her. I promised.
I think back on our plan. Right now it wasn't much. We needed to go find Strange which had worked out in our favor so far.
Peter and I had been talking outside until the heat threatened to boil us alive, pushing us back inside the movie studio. All was calm upon reentry, with most everyone being at lunch, so sneaking through the sets hadn't been a problem. My suit had lost all functionality at that point, as had Peter's. It was pointless to keep them on until we could find a way to fix them. So, we snuck around back through the studio looking for a bathroom to change in. It also wasn't hard to find an unused closet tucked away behind props. We stashed our suits there for protection.
Wandering back through the set, we almost literally stumbled upon a group of crew members talking about someone named Benedict and a head injury.
Everyone was all about these fake names here. Robert or Bob is what they kept calling me. Or sometimes Downey..? I'm not sure. I know the kid's fake name is Tom, and I figured that Benedict must be Strange after we found this group.
They asked us if we wanted to join them in going to check on him after what happened on set today. It was only a 10 minute drive anyways, they had explained to me, and no one had complained at a chance to get out of the heat, even if it was just for a few minutes. We readily agreed and wound up in the backseat of this uncomfortable van heading to Piedmont Fayette Hospital to see my least favorite and concurrently favorite wizard.
The kid was sprawled on the seat opposite from me, legs propped up on the seat in front of him, engrossed by the phone in his hand. I smirk a little, remembering him shoving the phone in my face right before we'd entered the changing room, demanding I hack into it. He had said the facial ID must not work on it because it hadn't unlocked for him.
I responded by grabbing the top of his mask and pulling it off. The facial ID unlocked upon seeing his face and Peter hadn't said much more to me.
The kid is a genius, but we all have our moments.
But, speaking of people I worry about…
The kid always seems to find himself in the thick of things. If aliens hadn't interrupted our day in New York, Peter likely would have stumbled upon some low level crime and accidentally started a fire somewhere. After all, this is Peter-got-bit-by-a-radioactive-spider-on-a-field-trip-Parker. If he had a normal week I might actually start believing in God.
But here we are, stuck somewhere in the cosmos of reality. I'd rather be with about 1000 other people before I'd want the kid to be here with me, not that I don't like him or that I don't think he'd be a great source of help.
It's more like if anything drastic happened to him on my watch I'd probably fling myself off an appropriately tall building, sans-suit.
For both our sakes I'd rather not do that.
As if the universe detected my thoughts and wanted to test their sincerity, Peter makes a choking sound in his seat, like he just swallowed a piece of gum. I snap around with a sense of urgency to see both his hands and his face pasted against the window as though looking into an aquarium shark tank.
"MJ!?" He shouts.
I follow his gaze out the far window to see a billboard advertisement picturing a beautiful slender girl poised in a trapeze hoop. Everything from her bright pink hair to the purple costume lining her form are the very definition of sharp, graceful beauty. The contrast of the dark billboard behind her gives the impression that she's twirling through the air. She is absolutely stunning, and apparently Peter thinks so too. Funny I never thought he was much into models...or girls at all for that matter.
"Just because she's the same ethnicity as the King of Pop doesn't mean she is. She doesn't even look like him-" I try before being interrupted.
"No! No, MJ she's...uh...a girl I go to school with. But that's her! I'm sure of it!" Peter turns back towards me after we pass the sign on the freeway.
"Oh man...I don't like this universe Mr. Stark...we need to get out of here."
"Yeah, no argument here."
The van slows and bumps over an entryway to a large parking lot. Piedmont Fayette Hospital doesn't exactly scrape the sky like buildings in New York, but it certainly has a large presence on the otherwise tree-filled countryside. Orange brick surrounded by greenery and an extravagant entrance define the structure. Blue glass windows dot its many walls.
We park along a far wall and hustle toward a side door. For the first time since falling through that portal, I'm actually grateful for the crew members. They seem to know exactly where they're going, as if they're here a lot.
A nurse greets us at the door.
"Hey y'all, if you don't mind just following me through here. We just had a bunch of y'all come through so we were expecting ya!" Her voice is thick with a southern accent, another painful reminder of how far from home we are.
She holds the door open while we pass by, a bright smile plastered to her face.
A warm lobby filled with people smiling and enjoying their day definitely didn't greet us on the other side of the door. Instead, a plain gray hallway full of fluorescent lights and old hospital equipment greets us coldly.
The nurse rushes to the front of our cluster and ushers us through swinging doors at the end of the hallway, effectively routing our path of travel.
"Just so you know, we have a fully trained professional staff to work with patients of your caliber. We take our jobs very seriously and there won't be any picture requests or paparazzi of any sort." She recites as though reading off a page while leading us through the halls effortlessly.
"And here we are! I'll just have y'all wait here until the next nurse comes to getcha, okay? Great!" She smiles at us one by one as we enter a waiting room. I nod my head at her, stride into the waiting room, and lock eyes with the angelic seamless face of Captain Steven Rodgers.
I almost choke, my heart palpitating in my chest.
How is he here?
It's been so long since I've seen him.
I don't want to see him.
Not here…
Not now.
Not in front of the kid.
Oh god...oh god...oh...
...wait, this isn't reality my brain reminds me.
Right. Not Bruce Banner proved that. This must be Not Steve Rodgers.
I take a steadying breath, my nerves tingling with anxiety.
This isn't the man who betrayed you. You're fine.
My shoulders twitch into a half shiver-half shrug as I shake myself out of my daze. Peter looks up at my movement but doesn't say anything.
Not Steve looks up at our arrival and smiles wide and welcoming. He jumps to his feet, rushing over to us like a friend meeting another friend.
"Bob, glad you could come. They haven't brought us any news yet." Not Steve reaches his hand toward mine. I receive it with a stiff hand of my own, staring in his eyes. Nothing but sympathy, warmth, and care shines back from his blue gaze.
"Well, no news is good news right?" I say twitching my lips into a half-hearted smirk.
"That's what they say." Not Steve agrees easily. "Well, we can get you both a seat here. Hopefully the doctor comes out soon."
Yellow pasty walls try to persuade a calm feeling, but it doesn't take a therapist to read the unease in the room.
They've been here too long. Why hasn't news come sooner? Just a bump on the head doesn't warrant hours of emergency procedures. Faces I don't recognize reflect the thoughts in my head, all around the room it's quiet, tense.
So we take our seats and join the vigil.
At long last, a different nurse comes into the waiting room.
"Party for Cumberpatch?" She announces with a small sympathetic smile. Her tired eyes, messy hair, and wrinkled green scrubs tell how much she's been working. Hopefully working hard on making Strange okay.
Not-Steve is first to act.
"Yes that's us...well, all of us." He gestures around the waiting room with the dozen or so people from set waiting anxiously.
"Okay, we'll take three of you at a time." She makes eye contact with me, as if sensing my anxiety.
"I'll go, and Bob why don't you come with...and uh I guess Tom you come too." Not-Steve decides.
We all stand and follow the nurse through the doorway.
A short walk and she brings us to a room with the door ajar. She pauses before leading us in, her hand on the knob.
"We're very sorry about how circumstances turned out. We were hoping he would have woken up by now."
My mouth goes dry, my tongue turning to lead. "Excuse me what?"
She locks her gaze onto mine, her eyes defensive, ready to reason and calm me down. "Sir, the patient was brought to us in profound unconsciousness. By the time we started working on his head injury he was already in a comatic state. We've tried stimulants to arouse him, but so far the results have been inconclusive."
I clear my throat, getting rid of a lump that formed. "Can we see him?" I demand with softness.
"Of course, I'll be waiting right here." She turns the knob and ducks her head, looking towards her shoes as we enter.
Sunlight streams into the room, unabashed. It illuminates a gray chair in the corner and warm wood flooring. There's nothing remarkable about the white walls or the myriad of electric plugs connecting the hospital bed to the wall. No, there's nothing inherently wrong with the way the room smells like antiseptic or even how I hate that smell because of overexposure to hospitals. The thing that my mind doesn't want to see, what it wishes were fake like everything else, is Strange looking completely unresponsive and motionless on the bed.
I barely know Strange. I just met him today like...a few hours ago? God, I need to look at a clock. Regardless, he looks terrible. There's a white bandage covering half of his face, red blooming from behind it. The slow rise and fall of his chest is almost imperceptible if it weren't for the small sounds of air escaping his parted lips.
I'm horrified. The wizard is the only one I know of who can use the infinity stone and get us back to reality. And, if what the nurse said is true, He's. In. A. Coma.
I could scream.
Actually, cut that last thought. I will scream. Later, when Peter's not around. For now I store all my emotions away and run a hand over my face.
An arm makes contact with my shoulder, making me jump. It's Not-Steve, a sympathetic smile on his face.
"Hey, it's not your fault Bob. It could have happened to anyone." He comforts. It doesn't work. My mind can't differentiatw him from Real-Steve. It's too much.
"Yeah, I'm going to go sit down. Thanks." I nudge his hand off me and move to the unoccupied chair by the bed.
I hear Peter's voice faintly as he strikes up a conversation with Not-Steve, but I zone it out. I'm staring at Strange, I can't tear my eyes away from the redness growing behind that bandage. Bringing my hands together at my mouth, I try to steady my breathing.
In…
Out…
In…
God, this really is the least ideal situation to be in. I would literally rather face an army with my team behind me than be stuck somewhere with the only way out beyond my understanding. I rarely feel useless. It's just not in my nature. Right now though...I feel pretty damn useless. I could invent and build and research for years before I would even come close to breaching the same level of complex science as the time stone.
And by then would it even matter?
What would be left of my world if/when we ever made it back?
The door to the room clicks shut. Interrupted from my thoughts, I look up to see that Not-Steve is absent and only Peter and I remain in the room with Strange.
"He seems nice...for you know...not being Captain America." Peter says. He moves his head slightly to the left, staring at Strange. "Hey, Mr. Stark, look!" he says urgently. I follow the point of his finger to Dr. Strange's chest where a faint green light now glows through the hospital sheets.
Brow furrowed, I move the edge of the sheets down until the vivid green light is obstructed only by Strange's thin hospital gown.
"Holy shit, that's his magic necklace! Is it opening another portal? Can we go back home through it? Is it going to make a green one? Because we came through an orange one right?" Peter rattles off as fast as he can in his frantic voice.
"Kid, what are you even talking about?"
"Sorry, I was thinking about this game Ned and I played forever ago. See you make these portals all over and some are orange and some are blue and you can go through the orange ones or the blue ones-"
I give Peter a look. He abruptly shuts up.
A knock sounds on the door and the nurse returns, opening the door a crack. I see the faces of three more crew members behind her.
"Y'all mind switching these folks out for a bit?" She asks sweetly.
"Of course." I say running my hands down my side.
"Oh I see you found his necklace." She responds, pushing the door open. "We weren't able to get that off. Is it some kind of weird prop y'all are using?"
"Yeah, something like that." I smirk back.
She lets the others in as Peter and I move to leave.
"Oh yeah, we were going to ask about that. Did he have flammables in his costume? Something was sparking and letting out a lot of steam. Not exactly sanitary, or safe for that matter, to be in a hospital room." she adds with a slight tilt of her head. "Due to insurance and safety procedures, we had to dispose of everything. Well, everything except for the necklace, which we couldn't remove. We do have a contract with Pinewood Studios for when things like this happen so we can pay for any damages or replacements."
"Great." I say passing through the doorway. "Thank you."
…
The sun had long set by the time we got back to the studios. Long shadows, left at dusk, grew until they swallowed the landscape. Thick darkness was interrupted only briefly by the twinkling of fireflies and then not at all. I didn't want to find out what other mysteries lay hidden beyond the din of headlights on the small Georgia highway we made our way back through the gates.
Few words were said until the shuttle van pulled up to a line of trailers alongside one especially large studio building.
"Tom, Bob, here y'all are. Anything we can do for you gents tonight?" The driver announces distantly from the front of the van.
"Hmm-uh, no, we're good! Great, uh thanks for the ride!" I stutter. I nudge Peter in the seat beside me and gesture for the door as I stand from my seat. "Come on kid."
Peter follows me and we unceremoniously exit the van. A few halfhearted waves and they're gone.
"Now what?" The kid mumbles, kicking a rock at his feet.
I make a short "tsk" sound before beginning to stride down the street. Each trailer has a light above the door making the road look one BBQ away from being a friendly, approachable neighborhood.
Not sure as to where I am going, I scan our surroundings, for what I don't know. Peter trudges behind me silently.
We walk for about five minutes, my desperation mounting. There's too many things going through my head...too much to worry about. That's when a sign on one of the trailer doors catches my eye.
"Hey!" I stop abruptly. "Look!" The kid's eyes shoot right up to where I point.
"Tom Holland." I read out loud.
"That's fake me!" Peter exclaims.
"Yeah!" I agree.
"This must be fake mine!" He gestures wildly to the rest of the trailer.
"Your logic is blowing my mind. Come on, let's check it out." I stuff my hand in my pocket as we approach the door.
I don't know what I expected the inside of a teenage movie star's trailer to look like, but it's not this.
A putting green runs from the entrance down half of the trailer, taking up most of the walking space within. Sleek wooden countertops complement silver appliances in the kitchen and the furniture further in. A few pictures of a family are hung on the wall along with a very large one of a dog. The interior is spotless...much too clean to belong to a teenage boy. Everything creates a modern wealthy vibe, but a modest type of wealthy. Like a hipster with a rich daddy.
"Mr. Stark…" Peter says from beside me. "I have a golf set." His eyes are glued to the putting green.
"Tom Holland must be pretty well off." I scoff, bending down to sniff the wood of the countertop. It looks like real mahogany.
"Oh, and I have all this stuff! Look at that couch!" A flurry of dark hair wizzes past me as Peter literally flings himself on one of the luxury couches.
"Ahhh this is nice. Mr. Stark, come try this out!"
I start to head for the couch, but stop short halfway across the small trailer room. What am I supposed to tell the kid? If Strange doesn't wake up we're screwed.
It's quiet for a moment. Peter's voice sounds again.
"You must be pretty worried about that wizard guy. Do you...uh...think he's going to be okay?"
I sigh and finish my journey to the couch. The seat indents as I settle my weight into it. It is extremely comfortable.
"I don't know kid." I clasp my hands together. "I don't know."
"Well it's going to be alright right? We'll figure it out. I mean, you're Tony Stark! You're literally the smartest person I know. If anyone could find a way out of this place it would be you."
I glance at the kid to see him gazing at his shoes, his face turning red, hands playing with the hem of his t-shirt.
Something deep inside my heart melts. Who even is this kid, and why does he place 100% of his trust and faith in me?
I reach my hand to his shoulder, his head raising at the touch. Our eyes lock and I reassure him.
"Yeah, kid of course we're going to figure this out." I say, emphasizing each word for him. "You're right, I always figure things out. I'm going to need your help this time though."
Light enters the kid's eyes. "Really?" He asks breathlessly.
"Yeah, so go grab that laptop on the counter for me while I go get our suits from the set."
Peter beams back at me.
"You got it Mr. Stark!" He leaps up to comply.
"We've got a lot of work to get done tonight." I smile after him.
…..
AN:
Wazzupp my dudes?
Hope you liked this chapter! It was a bit of a slower chapter so it took me like 8 years to write I swear *eye roll*
BUT OH NO! WHAT ARE OUR BOYS GONNA DO? THEY'RE STUCK IN OUR UNIVERSE! O.O
Yeah, it's gonna keep getting interesting for them as they find out more and more about our world. In fact the next chapter is one of my favorites so be sure to tune in!
Thank you 3000 to the reviewers and favorite-ers! Y'all are the real bees knees :) 3
~Gamma
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Review replies:
Grammarosprey:
Hahaha I actually have no idea! XD XD I just assume it's like any other company and that people are just generally rude to coworkers, but IDK! Poor Peter tho XD
Thank you! 3
I.D.'s Fantasy:
Mehehehehe we'll see! *insert evil smirk* THAT WOULD BE A HUGE PROBLEM OMG! They would seriously need some help XD XD
Thanks dude! :D
Rosecato:
Thank you so much! I so appreciate it! :)
Idiotgenius4:
Hahah I'm glad you're liking it! And yeah, I tend to think that the more chaotic the more fun and whack it can be XD Hopefully it's a good time for all parties (except maybe Peter, Tony, and Strange). OMG THAT WOULD BE SO FUNNY! I hadn't really thought about it...but I guess we'll find out :)
Harpy Hippogriff:
Thank you! I hope this update fills your expectations! :) :) 3
