Steve's POV
Bruce gasped at the red,raw skin that covered his entire left side. Nat gave a sigh of disapproval.
"It's honestly not as bad it looks" he whined squirming under Bruce's prodding fingers. Bruce nodded his head, "Some topical unaesthetic will probably help with the pain. Did you ice them at all?" Tony just pursed his lips and Bruce sighed. He eyed the raw skin that was disappearing into the hem of his pants.
"My pants are staying on!" Tony quipped, Bruce shook his head, rolling his eyes.
"He needs some antibiotic cream, Jarvis?" He said picking up a tube of some ointment and handed it to me motioning for me to smear it up on his burns.
"There is Soframycin in the bathroom on sir's floor" Jarvis replied. "I'll go get it, do we need to wrap it in gauze?" Nat asked getting up. "No I think it's better to leave it be for now" Bruce said distractedly while looking for something else in his medicine bag.
I uncapped the tube, squeezing out a generous amount onto my fingers, I smeared it across his skin, He shivered and winced "That's cold!" Tony muttered his eyebrows scrunching up.
"You can handle it" I told him using my other arm to guide him to turn more towards me. He gave me full on pout glaring.
"Stop being a baby, stark!" Clint snickered from the door. "If you are a good boy, maybe we will give you some ice cream afterwards" He said holding up a tub of honey walnut ice cream. The flavors everything came in today! I waited for Tony's remark, sure that it was going to be some kind of threat, But when he said nothing, I looked back at him, and saw his eyes locked onto something Bruce was holding, a syringe for the blood draw. Bruce had said his blood count was dangerously close to becoming a serious situation the last time. But we all had agreed to make sure he took his iron shots and oral pills on time. But as it turns out that wasn't the case. So there was a good chance it had gotten worse, especially if Jarvis had felt the need to mention it.
"Tony, come on baby, you have done this before" I said trying to quell his rising anxiety. He was unconsciously edging away from Bruce. I moved to grab him before he made a run for it. Putting my hand around his shoulders careful to avoid the sticky medicine on his torso, I moved closer to him.
"Tony, look at Steve buddy" Bruce said palming the syringe to hide it from Tony's vision but he was frozen in place, so I moved my hand cupping his cheek and turning him to face me.
Bruce was efficient as ever and had pulled Tony's hand onto his lap and uncapped the syringed in matter of seconds. I could feel tony begin to hyperventilate, "Breathe, Honey" I told him, he had gone rigid in my arms. I felt him wince as the needle pierced his skin; he made no sound just pushing his face into my chest. "You are okay, it's over" I repeated over and over again until I felt his breath even out.
"Are we even now?" He asked, his voice muffled from being pressed into my chest.
I kissed his head, "Thank you" I told him and felt him nod against me. Natasha had come back holding the antibiotic cream, she took Bruce's place on the table in front of tony as he left to test the blood. She applied a generous amount on his burnt skin and dipped her hand below the elastic waistband of his pant smearing the cream on his hips. Tony whined as he pulled away. She had also brought a blanket from our room, which she draped over our laps after pulling Tony's legs onto the couch.
Tony's POV
At least Steve was not angry with me anymore I thought to myself as Nat dropped the blanket over us. I squirmed under the blanket trying to get more comfortable, the antibiotic cream was icky and sticking to everything. A generous helping of ice cream was waved in front of me "This is for being a good boy" Clint said smirking ,I considered throwing the ice cream back at his face, but why waste it, so I just simply took it from him.
Thor arrived just in time the food was delivered. Impeccable timing that man had whenever there was food involved. Clint and Nat made the plates and brought them over to us placing them on the table.
"So what do you want to watch?" Steve asked me keeping their promise of letting me pick the movie tonight. I chose 27 dresses. Chick flicks were always fun. Now all we had to do was wait for Bruce to come back so we could start the movie and eat the food.
Mid argument between Thor and Natasha about why pop tarts were not ideal for dinner Bruce came up holding papers in his hands, looking sullen. He placed the papers on the arm chair out of my field of vision. He pursed his lips, looking at me, I didn't even want to hear what the test read.
Steve straightened up tightening his arms around me, "what's the verdict, Bruce?" Nat asked placing a jug of water onto the tale by the empty glasses.
"Okay, so your hemoglobin count has dropped, it was 8.1 the last time we tested it. This time it is 6.6. Tony that's….. not good." I shrugged, Steve sat up straighter now all his attention focused on Bruce "so what do you recommend?" He asked. I tried to tune them out, burying myself into the blanket Steve's hand automatically going to my hair.
"Uhm, I want to do more tests, the level at which his hemoglobin dropped in just a few days is not normal. It doesn't correlate with just iron deficiency anemia" Bruce said thoughtfully. "But his iron levels are also low. So we will continue the iron shots. The oral pills won't help at this moment."
"You think something else might be causing his blood counts to drop?" Nat asked her hand finding my foot under the blanket and wrapping around it. Bruce nodded his head looking intently at me.
"What can be the causes?" Steve asked
"The most common cause of acute anemia is trauma, and all I can think of is that he already has iron deficiency anemia, which reduced his blood count…and it reduced further after the battle"
I could feel all eyes on me, I glared back at them before reaching for my ice cream just so I have something to do. I felt Steve go rigid for a moment before he moved forward on the couch, lifting me up from his side where I was resting.
"Could the trauma be internal?" He asked urgently, taking the ice cream cup from my hands and placing it on the table.
"What the hell, Steve!" I grumbled my hands following his hands back to the cup. He caught my hands and pulled me completely upright on the couch.
"Yes, it's possible" Bruce said, moving forward to sit on the table in front of me. Steve captured both my hands in one of his, as he pulled my feet down dropping the blanket on the floor all in one swift motion that it made my head spin.
Before I had a chance to say anything, Steve's other hand was pulling the waistband of my pants on the left side down to reveal the large red bruise that was nicely blending in with the burn. "I noticed this last night" I tugged my hands out of his grasp letting my pants ride back up, "Steve!" I scolded "What the hell are you doing" I glared at him, he didn't seem to be even the slightest affected by it, he was too busy studying Bruce's expression .Who looked truly worried now.
Steve's POV
"Tony! I think you are bleeding internally. I need to see it again." Bruce said firmly, Tony sat rigidly unmoving.
"babe, come on, you could be seriously injured." I tried to reason with him.
Bruce got up motioning for Clint to go with him. " I need to get a few supplies, we will be right back" he said, both of them leaving.
"Tony, look at me" Nat said moving to sit next to Tony on his left. She waited until he looked up. "if you are injured, you need to tell us, we only want to help you. Do you really believe we are going to hurt you?" he nodded his head no leaning backwards his head hitting my chest. I wrapped my hands around him, and moved one hand to his pants, testing to see if he would protest. He didn't, so I pulled his pant down, Natasha tugging it off completely, leaving him only in his boxers. He shivered at the loss of warmth, I pulled the blanket up around his shoulders. Turning him so that he was lying down with his head on my lap.
"I hate this" he whined, "I feel fine, I really don't want to do this Steve"
"I know you, Tony. You must be in a lot of pain. We are going to do whatever it is that needs to be done, and then we are all going to watch your movie okay? It will be over before you know it. I promise" I told him running my hand up and down the nape of his neck.
I looked up as Bruce and Clint came back carrying a few things. They set them down on the table as Bruce resumed his position in front of Tony on the edge of the table holding a blood pressure apparatus. He indicated to me to lift Tony up into a sitting position.
"okay, so here's what's going to happen. I am going to check your blood pressure, if it is anything below 90/60 then this discussion is over and we are going to medical. If it's above that then we are going to manage this situation here. Either ways you need a blood transfusion and that is not up for debate. Okay?" if Tony was pale then, you should see him now, he turned white as a sheet, I was afraid he was going to pass out.
"Tony, I know this is hard for you but it has to be done okay?" Clint said for once not being playful.
He nodded yes, lifting his arm for Bruce to take. He looked up at me, the panic in his eyes was disheartening but at least he was not resisting. The last time they had to give him a blood transfusion due to blood Loss post battle, the team of doctors had to sedate him just to hold him still. I leaned him against me tucking his head below my chin. Bruce strapped the cuff in place, pumping the machine to get a read. The instant relief on bruce's face was enough to know that his BP was not too low.
Sighing he removed it, and gave a small smile, "looks like we are having our movie night after all" he said. Getting up he moved the medical bag from the table and placing on the floor he said "I think we can have our dinner and movie now, I will place the iv for transfusion once we get him settled into bed before sleeping." I nodded my head as nat passed us the plates and Jarvis started the movie. As predicted Tony drifted off after having eaten most of what was on his plate. But even as he fell into a restless slumber the hold he had on my shirt didn't loosen.