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Tony and Bruce watched intently as Dr. Cho examined Pepper silently, periodically breaking away to scroll pen-written notes in a manila file she'd freshly created for her own records. Occasionally, she'd pull a digital voice recorder out of her scrubs pocket and dictate a few soft sentences into it in Korean.
Finally, she turned to face both men, her face pensive. Tony watched her, waiting for her to speak. But his impatience got the best of him, and an expectant, "Well?" escaped his lips.
Dr. Cho smiled politely. "You said she was poisoned by the Black Dragon venom?" she asked. "How so?"
"Injection," Bruce answered. "We found the cap to a syringe that had some residue in it."
"We've got the security tapes being reviewed for any suspicious activity," Tony said.
"So you have no way of knowing how much, or when," she replied regretfully. "Only that it's caused damaged, but didn't manage to kill her."
"So, what are your impressions, doctor?" Bruce asked.
"Well, what you described over the phone was pretty accurate, from what I see," she began. "But, Mr. Stark. To bring your wife back from a condition such as this one will require..." she stopped for a moment, to study Tony's face, which hadn't changed its expectant expression. She flicked her eyes back to Pepper's face instead, and pursed her lips. "I...wish I could tell you that we could bring her back to normal in the time you've told me you expect to, but I'm afraid..."
"Fuck the deadline," Tony blurted out flatly. "Don't even talk about that. I just want to know- can...you...help her?" he asked, clasping his hands together, and looking at her pointedly.
Dr. Cho chewed her lip in thought and glanced back and forth between the two men. Then she began nodding in the affirmative. "Yes," she said simply. "Yes, I believe I can."
A wide smile broke out across Tony's face, and his eyes lit up. He clapped his hand over Bruce's shoulder and squeezed it jovially. Bruce smiled at his friend, and then at Dr. Cho.
"Doc?" Tony said, with much relief. "That's the best news I've heard in months."
XxXxXxXxXx
For the next several weeks, Dr. Cho, Tony, and Bruce worked together to formulate a plan to get Pepper on the road to recovery. Dr. Cho administered a few small procedures regarding nerve cell regrowth, the results of which had been rendered originally by the experiments she'd done in her lab back home. She was confident that she'd be able to replicate those results in Pepper. And, from what her findings had told her, she was correct, when days later, she saw some marked improvement in Pepper's occipital nerve function. This meant that if Dr. Cho could keep making progress like she had, Pepper would stand a much greater chance of regaining her vision. And if the nerve cells were successfully rebuilt, then that boded well for healing Pepper's brain. Hopeful news, given permanent blindness and brain damage were the two main concerns.
The doctors who had been overseeing Pepper's care up to the point of Dr. Cho's arrival balked at first about introducing another physician into her treatment, but soon backtracked, as they marveled over the lab reports that she'd brought with her showing her experiments. They instantly wanted to be of assistance, making her Pepper's primary physician, as a result.
Tony and Bruce had thought that their pains-taking work with nanobot technology had been all for not, but Dr. Cho had urged them to keep their work going, as she believed it would be of use. She'd been looking for a way to quickly regenerate cells, faster than cultures in petri dishes and test tubes, at any rate. And she was confident the nanobots would provide the vehicle to create that kind of regeneration- being programmed to reconstruct new cells from the DNA of the sampled cells. Useful, since she knew time was of the essence, even though Tony had insisted she disregard the originally imposed deadline. She knew it would be much easier to treat newer injuries rather than older ones. And Pepper needed every advantage.
Original deadline be damned, within weeks, the new progress was showing promising results in short order, and he knew it would be enough to take to the board, stave off Dianna Wardly's termination of Pepper's position and stop the potential liquidation of his company. He couldn't be happier, given the circumstances.
Which is why, when the alleged "disregarded" deadline had in fact rolled around, Tony strutted in to Stark Industries headquarters like a cock on a walk, with his two doctor friends in tow, ready to present their results to the board. They'd compiled all of their collective work into a lengthy presentation guaranteed, in their minds, to stun and amaze even the most skeptical of board members- I.E., Dianna Wardly.
And, on the subject of Dianna Wardly, the goon she'd employed to derail Tony and Bruce's plans, and to poison Pepper, had been ID'd as none other than Rocco Martinova, a Russian-born emigrant to the UK (his family had moved there when he was a child) who was a contract killer with connections in the black market weapons trade. In truth, though, he was really a virtual jack-of-all-trades in the crime world in that, given the size of the check, there really wasn't anything he wouldn't do. And he was good at staying elusive. Interpol, the FBI, and Scotland Yard had been hot on his trail for years, but could never quite get close enough to apprehend him. Soon after the foible of leaving the syringe cap behind in Pepper's room practically made him, he vanished, protecting himself and Dianna from the authorities, making the connection of the business relationship even harder to trace. But as soon as Tony was alerted to who he was, he knew exactly who had contracted him. He just couldn't prove it. Not yet.
"Greetings, all," Tony bellowed that morning, as the three entered the expansive room, finding all of the board members seated in their respective high-backed leather chairs in anticipation of the day's proceedings. He flashed them all a toothy grin as the two doctors set up their presentation. Clasping his hands together, he rubbed them eagerly, eyeing them all intently. He let his gaze fall and linger on Dianna, and she sniffed indignantly and averted her eyes away from him.
"Well, here we all are," Tony purred, once he saw they were ready to get underway. "And I must say, I, for one, have been waiting with bated breath for this day to come, as I'm sure you all have been."
"Get to the point, Stark," Dianna ordered in annoyance.
"Patience, Dianna. There'll be a question and answer period at the end. I know you're dying to see what we have," he goaded.
Dianna huffed again in defiance.
Tony ignored her, and proceeded to begin speaking. But just then, his phone began to ring. He fumbled for it in his suit jacket breast pocket, and yanked it out. He frowned at the screen, and then his eyes went wide, his breath catching in his chest as soon as he saw the name -Cedars-Sinai Hospital.
"Uh, doc?" he said, with trepidation.
She glance over at him and realized his alarm. She left Bruce, who could see Tony's look of concern and quickly stepped in to take over the presentation.
Tony and Dr. Cho stepped off to the side, away from Bruce. She watched anxiously as he swiped his thumb across the screen and put the phone to his ear. "Hello?" he said shakily.
"Mr. Stark?" a female voice said on the other end of the line. "It's your wife, sir. It was urgent that I call you. She's begun to have some problems."
"P-problems?" Tony stuttered breathlessly. Dr. Cho frowned at the words but stayed silent.
"Yes, sir," the woman confirmed. "Her body. It began to spasm a short time ago. She's had some highly irregular brain activity, her heart rate is quite erratic, and her breathing...it's almost like she's...she's trying to wake up, or something."
Tony gasped. He put a hand over his mouth and handed the phone to Dr. Cho. He shook his head in disbelief, barely comprehending the conversation the doctor was having with the nurse on the other end of the line. Phrases like, "expected reaction", "monitor continued activity, but do not interfere", and "promising signs" fell into his ears and back out again. The doctor thanked the nurse and hung up before she turned to face Tony, who looked positively stunned, and had collapsed in a nearby chair as she'd been speaking.
He looked up to see her coming back his way, his eyes full of hope. "How is she? What's happening?" he asked urgently, in a hushed tone, as Bruce was a short distance away, addressing the board members.
"We need to leave for the hospital as soon as possible," the doctor replied. "Dr. Banner can stay to finish the presentation, but we need to go. Now."
Tony read the look in her eyes, and his own expression changed from one of cautious elation to one of urgent concern. He nodded. "Go tell him. I'll get the car," he said. They nodded to each other in understanding, and went their separate ways.
XxXxXxXxXx
When they'd arrived back at the hospital, all of the commotion had died down, which both relieved and disappointed Tony. The doctor had explained to him on the way over that this could be the very first signs of Pepper's recovery. Episodes like this one were bound to happen as new synapses in her brain were created and certain nervous system functions began to work properly again. This was the first episode of its kind, and he was sure it would have been terrifying to watch. Yet, he regretted not being there to see it at the same time. Pepper had been lying in this hospital bed for what seemed like an eternity, and he'd have given anything to be there for her at that moment, to witness these new signs of life in her.
The ventilator hissed and beeped, and he watched her chest rise up and down for a moment, as Dr. Cho checked her over and made new notes in her file. "Hey, baby," he murmured to her, before bending to kiss her cheek. "You scared me for a minute, there. But you're getting better. You're on your way, Pep. That's what the doc says, anyway." He grasped her hand in his, and squeezed it affectionately, using his other to brush her bangs to the side.
A moment later, he suddenly felt a soft little squeeze back, almost undetectable, but enough to cause him to freeze and shoot his gaze down to their joined hands. It soon happened again, and he startled. "Doc!" he cried, standing up, but keeping a hold of her hand.
Dr. Cho rushed to his side, glancing from him to Pepper and back again. "What is it?" she urged.
"My hand! She squeezed my hand! Just now!" he replied excitedly.
"Mr. Stark, you have to understand," she began. But Tony cut her off, raising a finger in front of him as warning.
"No. Oh no. Nu-uh. Not this time," he cautioned. "Don't tell me that this is just what coma patients..."
Then Pepper's body jerked in a spasm, and then another, and another, and he stopped talking, the both of them staring at her with wide eyes. The EKG machine began to beep frantically, and the ventilator sped up, struggling to keep pace with Pepper trying to independently breathe.
"Keep talking to her!" Dr. Cho ordered, as she summoned the nurses and began to prep the room as a precaution for some emergency procedures. "That seems to encourage her to want to respond!"
Tony nodded, and turned to cup his wife's cheek. "Pepper? Honey? Can you hear me?" he asked her hopefully. "Come on, baby. I know you're in there. Come on. Open those eyes. Please," he pleaded, watching her body seize and spasm violently.
Pepper's chest heaved laboriously, her eyes rolling forward and back behind her closed lids. Tony put the back of his hand to his mouth, while keeping her hand in his other, the scene overwhelming him with emotion. He wondered if she was in pain in this struggle. It didn't look to be the most comfortable experience, as every muscle in her body contracted hard and then relaxed, over and over, in random order.
And then, all at once, her whole body relaxed, and the EKG soon slowed its pace down to match her slowing heart rate. Her breathing resumed its natural rhythm, and the ventilator began its typical hiss and beep, just as if the previous moment had never occurred.
Tony realized suddenly that he wasn't alone in witnessing this, and turned around to see a group of doctors and nurses, intently watching the goings-on, standing at the ready around them for whatever could have occurred. He breathed a heavy sigh and collapsed in to a bed side chair, still gripping Pepper's hand in his.
Dr. Cho moved first from the group, coming to his side to comfort him with a gentle pat on his shoulder. He smiled weakly and nodded at her.
"It may not seem like it," she said. "But this is exactly what we need her to do. Each episode brings her closer to full recovery. Her body is reacting to the treatments. The signals from the new nerves are just starting to form, and the brain is connecting the dots. I promise you. This is all for the greater good."
Tony brought an anxious fist to his lips, and nodded. "I know, Doc," he said softly. "But that doesn't make it any easier to watch."
"No, I would suppose not," she said, in a soft, sympathetic tone.