Short one today. I'm starting to catch up to myself so I think I'll space out the updates a bit more. I just hate keeping you guys in suspense. And yesterday I barely wrote anything because I just couldn't find the motivation but I'm working on it.

Thank you guys so much for reading and reviewing!

Words: 1,676

"Hey, Princess," Sam greets Ada with a sigh, falling heavily into the chair by her bed. The room was empty beside them. The others had convinced Tony and Pepper to go home together and he'd promised to stay with her. It had been like pulling teeth, though. Tony was determined not to let Ada out of his sight and Pepper could barely bring herself to leave the girl's side for more than a few minutes. But Sam doesn't blame them, she's their daughter now and they'd received bad news. The infection got worse so the doctor upped the antibiotics. They don't know if it's working yet.

"No rush or anything, but maybe think about waking up soon?" It's been three days since the accident. Dr. Anderson says the coma won't be cause for worry for a few more days. Ada suffered bad head trauma, her body was only trying to heal itself. "Tony's looking closer and closer to a heart attack every day." Closing his eyes, Sam shakes his head at himself. "Don't worry about us though, yeah? Just focus on you right now."

They'd removed the bandage that was wrapped around her head, replacing it with a small one just over the incision above her right ear. The side of her head is shaved about three inches up and five inches back. The rest of her hair is a little knotted and starting to become greasy, but Pepper had said something about bringing a brush back with her.

"I think it looks badass," Sam says aloud with a small grin. "I think you will too."

Her oxygen stats hadn't changed. Dr. Anderson had told them not to worry because they hadn't decreased. Sam was a little annoyed that the man seemed the see the good in everything. Nothing about this situation is good. Though, he supposes it's a good trait to have as a doctor.

"You know, something I didn't expect to happen happened yesterday." Sam continues, letting out a huffed laugh. "Loki asked how you were. I mean, he looked as uninterested as Clint reading a book, but...I don't know. I'm not going to try to understand him."

Moving his hand from where he'd been playing with the edge of the blanket, Sam takes Ada's hand. "You know, you're my only real challenge in Mario Kart," He chuckles but the sound is weak. "I mean Clint's okay and Steve's getting better but...So, whenever you're ready, just open those crazy blue eyes of yours and you can go back to beating my butt."

"Of course, I'll never admit that you're better than me-" Sam cuts himself off when he feels the limp hand in his twitch. "Ada?" Nothing.

Just then the door opens and a nurse walks in. A normal occurrence. It happens more since they started Ada on more meds to fight the infection.

"Hey," Sam says to get her attention. "She moved her hand."

"Huh," The nurse hums, moving to the other side of the bed with furrowed brows. "Well, that's normal. Could just be a spasm." Leaning over, she takes Ada's hand from his gently and looks to the teenager's slack face. "Ada?" When nothing happens, she speaks again, still talking to the sleeping girl. "Ada, can you squeeze my hand?"

After another moment of nothing, the nurse, Regina, her badge reads, carefully places Ada's hand back by her side. "It's possible it was her. If you were talking she could've reacted to your voice. But it was most likely just a simple twitch."

Nodding, Sam tries not to look to disappointed and lets the woman continue with her job.

"It's okay, little lady, I know you'll wake up when you're ready."

Sometime later the door slides open again and Sam turns, more than half expecting to see Tony. There's a protest already on his tongue, ready to tell the man to get more than a few hours rest. But he doesn't see Tony, he sees Peter. "Hey, kid."

"Hey," Peter greets while quietly closing the door behind him.

"Unless my watch is wrong, it's not visiting hours," Sam says but has no intention of making the boy leave.

"I waited for someone to walk out the door and stuck around the back of the nurse's station." Peter tells him without prompting, taking a seat in the other chair.

Snorting, Sam nods. "Smart."

"Yeah, I just thought, 'what would Ada do?'." At her name, both turn to gaze at the sleeping teenager as if hoping she would wake at the sound.

"Here," Sam stands from his seat with his hands braced on the arms. "I've talked to her about my day, your turn."

Peter doesn't hesitate like he did the first time. He easily swaps seats with Sam and starts filling Ada in on what's happened since the last time he saw her.

"Oh, and I fed Athena. She uh, she hissed at me, but she ate the food." Peter can basically hear Sam grinning. "I think MJ might have better luck." Face falling, Peter sighs and turns in time to see Sam's own smile dropping. Peter was tired of talking. He wanted to listen. Listen to his friend's voice, her laugh. Wants to hear her sarcastic remarks and stupid jokes. Wants to see her roll her eyes at him. He wants her to wake up and be okay.

Happy and May stop by when it's visiting hours. They stay for a bit, talking amongst each other, sure to include Ada in the conversation even if she can't answer.

Pepper is the one too comes back, having all but drugged Tony to make him stay home. Once everyone leaves, she makes herself as comfortable as possible next to her daughter's bed. It's difficult, but she eventually falls to sleep.

"See this fluctuation right here?" Dr. Anderson asks, pointing to a bunch of squiggly lines on a screen next to Ada's bed. "That's a seizure." He tells Tony and Pepper but is quick to cut in. "And I know that sounds scary, but it's small, something that can be managed with medication."

"Okay," Pepper nods, gripping her fiancé's hand tighter. "You said something about her breathing?"

"Yes," Anderson nods. "Ada's lungs are getting stronger and since we've recently removed the chest tube, I would like to see how she's breathing without the ventilator again today."

Five days since the accident. Ada hasn't woken up. Tony and Pepper take turns staying the night. Pepper does what she can for work from their apartment and the hospital, it's a good distraction. Tony is either by Ada's side or home getting sleep. Well, trying. He wouldn't leave if he had a choice, but Pepper and everyone else would drag him out if he didn't. They nearly had to once or twice. Maybe three times.

Anderson asks them if they want to step out, they tell him no. It's simple and they learn Ada is breathing better but not enough to remove the ventilator. "If she keeps improving like this, I would say we can take it out in two days. But I can't promise that."

"Thank you, anyway." Pepper tries to smile and sees the doctor out.

Many of the others stop by when they can. MJ, Ned, and Peter all appear at times that definitely aren't visiting hours. They've perfecting sneaking in. But most of the nurses smile and act like they don't see them anyway.

Connie is Ada's day time nurse. Pepper and Tony like her. She's kind, always talks to Ada while she's with her. Checking her Iv's or shifting her around the bed. She talks to whoever is visiting the girl with a compassionate smile.

The infection finally started reacting to the antibiotics. It wasn't gone but Anderson says they're keeping a close eye on it and assured them the meds were working. The breathing tube was set to come out soon. Things were starting to look better. Until they aren't.

There's another bleed in Ada's brain they have to take her back to surgery to fix.

Tony and Pepper are the only ones there. They don't tell the others because they know they'll only want to be there and it wouldn't do any good.

This surgery doesn't take nearly as long as the first one. Dr. Anderson is once again leading them to their kid's room, explaining that everything has been fixed. He thinks it was another seizure, so they're upping her anticonvulsants in hopes to prevent this from happening again.

Peter's a little miffed that they didn't say anything about it until after but his ill feelings don't last long. Only a day later, the ventilator comes out. Ada is breathing well enough on her own. The oxygen mask only stays on for twelve hours before they replace it with a nasal cannula.

Ada's health is at a stable enough point that Dr. Anderson has her moved out of the ICU and into a normal patient recovery room. One without visiting hours or occupation limits. Tony thought he'd be happier about that but if he has to listen to Sam and Clint bickering or the latter's horrible jokes one more time, he will break the window and throw them out of it.

It's after Pepper's gone and Tony has kicked everyone else out. He's sitting at Ada's side, holding her hand, reading some book Pepper had brought and left. His thumb his running over Ada's knuckles absentmindedly when suddenly, he feels her hand tighten around his own.

Welp….thoughts?

I've snuck into the ICU before, just like Peter lol. Oops, sorry.

Man, these teasers are hard. I either have nothing I think is good or way to many choices.

Teaser: Bringing her hand up, Tony holds it securely between both of his own

I'm sure there's something else I wanted to say but I've forgotten. Oh well, until next time!

'-'