Prompt: Penny is once more trapped under a building (part 2)
"Too much blood...Tony I can't...I don't know if we're going to make it in time." Bruce kept applying pressure, glancing up at the group in the jet.
Steve Rogers stood in the corner of the jet, Natasha at his side, her hand covering her mouth. She was staring down at the floor of the jet, taking deep, exaggerated breaths. He thought about touching her shoulder...trying to comfort her...but he didn't know if it would be welcome.
Clint had taken over flying the jet, switching places with Tony without a second thought, and Rhodey was copiloting, throwing worried glances back at his friend. They were all throwing worried glances over at Tony.
Tony was clutching his hair, bent over double, and if Steve didn't know any better, he would think the man was injured. Badly injured. But it was the girl...the sixteen-year-old girl bleeding out on the table, that was badly injured. Up until a moment ago, he'd touched the girl's cheek, murmuring reassurances in a tone that Steve has never heard him use. Now he looked like he was going to keel over.
"Get my fucking kid out of there!"
His kid. This girl was sixteen...Tony had still been kind of wild sixteen years ago. So...this girl...this was his daughter, Steve realized. She had to be. She had the dark hair and the brown eyes...she was using a suit he'd made for her, but Tony had told them that she had invented the web shooters and fluid herself. So she was smart. Smart enough to be the daughter of Tony Stark. Plus they'd never learned her real name. Never seen her face before that day.
The girl wasn't an Avenger. Tony had been clear about that. But she had helped them enough times to know that she was competent. No...not just competent. For a sixteen-year-old, she was incredible. Smart, quick on her feet...sweet, polite...she was a good kid and a great superhero. They'd all come to enjoy having her on missions. She certainly took orders better than her father.
He wondered why the girl called her dad Mr. Stark as Bruce and Sam worked, Bruce applying pressure as best he could and Sam putting something under her nose...oxygen. Why wouldn't she at least call him Tony...unless she didn't know? Maybe Tony had found out and was just waiting for the right moment to tell her? A needle was slipped into the crook of her arm and an IV started. She was in the best possible hands...but would it be enough?
"Thanks for getting me out, Mr. Thor." The girl's voice was breathless, but as soon as she'd opened her mouth, everyone had gone silent, Tony turning to look at the girl who was looking up at Thor. The god of thunder had carried the girl to the jet and his whole front was soaked in blood. He stared down at the girl, eyes wide in surprise. Thor has taken her hand, stopping the enhanced girl from squeezing and crushing the railing with her good hand.
He opened his mouth, eyes gentle, but the look died when the girl went limp, a monitor beside her suddenly beeping angrily...and then she went rigid, Thor's hand the only thing stopping her from slamming her head against the bed. Jaw tight, a noise escaped her mouth...a soft grunt that repeated, staying the same volume as Tony lunged for her.
Steve grabbed him before he could push Bruce or Sam out of his way, dragging him backward and ignoring the screaming. "I swear to god if you don't let me go, you asshole! I have to help her! Penny!" He choked on the name, elbowing Steve in the side. "Let me go!"
"Tony, you can't help her." Steve reminded him softly, holding him against his chest. "Let Bruce and Sam help. Just...let them work, Tony. We're almost to the compound. They're going to help her. It's okay."
She'd been laying in a heap under the concrete, shoulders down, back twisted so that her face was down but her stomach and lower back were flat...it was a wonder that her spine hadn't snapped. But the rebar had been the biggest probably. Broken ribs and a punctured lung were what Steve suspected. Broken left arm. Possible broken leg. But her stomach was the worst.
The rusty metal had gone through her hip and had been sticking out of her stomach at an angle...but Steve wasn't a doctor. He wasn't sure what had been punctured or what had been broken...all he knew was that any soldier that he'd ever known that had been shot in the stomach had died. Quickly. But Penny was enhanced.
He prayed that would be enough.
Don't let this child die. Not like this...she'd been crying.
Tony stopped fighting him and Steve had to hurry to wrap his arm around the man before he crumbled. Turning him, he pulled Tony against his chest. They weren't the closest of friends, and Tony had never accepted his comfort before. But as the jet touched down and Sam and Bruce wheeled her bed away, Thor relinquishing his grip on her hand for the first time and standing, lost, where the bed she been, Tony broke down.
The man sobbed into Steve's shoulder, hands in fists as he clutched the back of Steve's shirt. "She's going to die." Tony choked out. "She's only sixteen...it's my fault…"
"It's not your fault." Steve murmured, a firm hand on the man's back. Natasha approached, a gentle hand resting on Tony's shoulder.
"That girl is one of the strongest I've ever met. If anyone can survive this, she can." Nat told him, dropping her head against Tony's, and for a long time, the three of them stood like that. Not moving. Steve held his friend as tightly as he dared, Natasha leaned against his shoulder, and on the other side of the jet, Thor stared down at the blood on the floor, arms limp at his sides.
"Tony? Do you want to go get cleaned up?" He asked after a moment. "I can go check on her. See how Bruce and Sam are doing?"
Tony nodded dumbly, quieter than Steve had ever seen him. Steve kept an arm around him, leading him out of the jet, Natasha and Thor following until they reached the Medbay. Rhodey and Clint were already there, hands clutched in their laps, both silent and grim.
Without arguing, Tony stepped into the bathroom, the door locking behind him, and Steve and his group joined the other two. "They took her back without saying anything," Clint informed him, face so pale it looked ashen. "She was still seizing…"
"Bruce and Sam are both with her," Rhodey spoke up. "The whole med team is here...they're all working on her."
Would it be enough?
The first time Steve had met Spidergirl had been in Germany. And he'd been impressed. The girl had taken a beating and kept on fighting. She'd managed to take out Sam and Bucky by herself. And she'd saluted him. Told him she was a big fan. Then, the first time they'd worked together, she had been almost painfully eager, listening to his every command as if she were a soldier herself.
Sure, she had sounded young, but if pressed, he would have put her in her early twenties. Probably a college student.
She hasn't even graduated from high school.
Tony joined them after a few moments, dropping into a chair beside Rhodey. He had cleaned up some, but his shirt was still bloody, eyes still red-rimmed. He didn't make eye contact with any of them, just clutched his hands in his lap and stared at them, jaw tight. "Bruce and Sam are with her. She's in surgery." Rhodey told him, and the man nodded. And so they all sat in silence. Waiting.
Sam stepped out of the double doors after about an hour...the time had somehow flown by, and Steve stood when his friend entered the room. He was wearing clean clothes, face drawn in a grimace.
Tony didn't even look up.
Had he given up?
Sam took a chair beside Steve who sat back down. Waiting.
She had called for help at 4:23.
They'd gotten to her at almost 5:30.
Steve had left his teammate to bleed out alone for an hour after she'd asked for help. No matter what anyone else thought, this was on him.
"They're still trying to stop the bleeding." Sam finally spoke, voice hoarse. "It's...it's bad. They were able to knock her out and the pain medicine they use for Steve works on her so...there's that."
More silence.
"She needs blood. A lot of it."
"Is anyone a match?" Natasha asked. Sam nodded his head toward Steve.
Sam seemed to be in shock...why had it taken him that long to tell him!? "Okay. Let's go." Steve jumped up, and Sam stood slowly. Shakily. He led him back through the double doors and into a room where he shakily put a needle in Steve's arm.
"Sam?" He asked as the blood started to drip into a bag.
"She's just a kid...she woke up. Was screaming. Begging for Tony." He put a hand to his head, flinching. "He called her his kid."
"Sam, are you okay?" He asked as his friend slumped back against the wall. The man sighed, then put a hand up to the back of his head. It came back bloody. "Sam! We need to get…"
"No." His friend pointed at him, expression fierce. "Don't you even think about interrupting them. That little girl needs every bit of help she can get! She's dying, Steve. She's enhanced and her body's fighting it...but we left her under a building for almost an hour. I'll be damned if I'm going to take away one of her doctors for a mild concussion and a cut."
Steve didn't have an answer. This was on him. He'd left her. He was the leader of this team! She'd asked for help and he'd told her to wait.
He may have killed Tony's daughter.
They took a lot of blood. He didn't care. They could have all of it. So he ate the cookies and drank a full gallon of orange juice and then went back to the waiting room, all of them gathered around Tony...all of them waiting.
Bruce came out five hours later. He was wearing a clean white coat...he must have changed. There must have been so much blood...Steve could see it on his shoes. "Tony?" The man glanced up, eyes dead and red-rimmed.
"Is she going to survive?"
"I don't know," Bruce admitted. "There was a lot of infection. She lost...she lost quite a bit of blood and...her body is healing as best it can. If it weren't for her DNA…". He shook his head, and Steve dropped his head in his hands.
"I'm so sorry." He whispered, and then felt all eyes turn to him.
"Cap, it wasn't…" Nat started, but he shook his head.
"I made a bad call."
"I should have known something was wrong," Tony spoke up for the first time, voice rough. Pained. "I know her...I could tell...if I had been paying more attention I would have known." He ran a hand over his face, trying to wipe discreetly at his eyes. "This is on me, Cap. Not you. I brought her into this."
"She was doing this before you ever recruited her, Tones." Rhodey reminded the man.
"I have her set up in one of the private rooms," Bruce spoke up once more, hands clasped tight in his lap. "The stomach injury is the most severe...she also had a punctured lung and five broken ribs. Her left arm was broken in two places. Her right ankle is broken, and her knee was dislocated. I have a breathing tube in, and she's on antibiotics to fight the infection. Right now...now it's up to her."
"Can I sit with her?" Tony asked, hoarse. Afraid. Steve felt like he was intruding somehow.
"Of course." Bruce nodded, and Tony followed the man out of the room.
Steve stayed away from the Medbay for the next few hours, focusing on debriefing with the team and cleaning his shield. Showering. Talking to Shield with Nat and Clint. And then he had nothing else to do. So he changed into a clean t-shirt and khakis and went into the Medbay. Into Penny's room.
It was nearly five am. None of them had slept...none of them except Penny, of course. Steve found the team in the waiting room when he entered, all of them changed into their regular clothes. Nat had a book in her hand, but she was clutching it too tightly. Clint was scrolling through something on his phone, but his eyes kept straying to the doors that led to Penny's room. Thor...Thor was staring at the floor, motionless. Statuesque.
Steve stepped through the double doors and made his way down the hallway, searching his way through the maze of hallways until he found her door...it was open. And Tony was sitting beside her, fingers gripping the ones on her right hand. "I'm right here, baby. I'm here. You're going to be okay." He was whispering, voice catching. "I'm so sorry...Pen...I'm sorry. We're going to get you better. Don't be afraid. I'm here. You're not alone." Steve leaned against the wall beside her door, eyes shut. He didn't feel like he ought to be there. He was intruding. This was Tony's daughter.
But Steve was the Captain of the Avengers. He'd made a bad call...that girl was here because of him.
Waiting until Tony took a break from whispering to the girl, he slipped into the room, clearing his throat and pretending not to notice when Tony wiped his eyes, sniffing. "You should get some sleep." He suggested, sure the man wasn't going to listen. He was right. There was no response. "How is she?"
He could see how she was. There was a breathing tube in her throat, mouth open around a bright blue bite block. One ankle was in a cast, as was her left arm. And her head was wrapped in a white bandage. Otherwise, she could have been sleeping, a blanket draped over her, coming up to her chest. The ventilator was breathing for her, the soft hum of air and machinery filling the room.
"Bruce said it's up to her now…" Tony almost choked on the words. "He said...he said she might be able to hear us so, uh…" He waved a hand at the girl and sniffed again, obviously uncomfortable with having Steve there.
Steve sat down on her other side anyway, reaching out and resting a hand over the cast, his touch as light as possible. "So...Penny, huh?" He chuckled a little., making his voice as light as his touch. "It's nice to officially meet you, Penny." Steve glanced up at Tony who didn't so much as move. "I'm Steve...although I guess you know that." He swallowed. "I...I need you to wake up, kiddo. I need to apologize to you in person. You...you did a great job. You're going to make one hell of an Avenger, Penny."
"Language, Cap." Steve chuckled, shaking his head at the sad smile on Tony's face.
"Right. One heck of an Avenger. But first, you have to wake up. That's an order. Because I need to apologize to you. I made a bad call. I...you asked for help and I made you wait and...I should never have done that. I should have made sure you were okay first. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Penny didn't even flinch.
"What did she mean? About her homecoming dance?" He asked after a moment. Tony exhaled, squeezing the girl's hand.
"She stopped some asshole in a wingsuit from stealing all of our tech...it was on one of my planes. A few weeks before...she'd messed up. Almost got a bunch of people hurt. It wasn't all her fault but...I took her suit away. I was trying to teach her a lesson, you know? Figured that she had to realize that she was a superhero with or without the suit. It uh...it backfired, of course. Like most of my plans." Tony sighed, obviously bitter. "I guess that's what she meant. I didn't know. She never...she never told me what happened before she took the guy down Called himself The Vulture." Tony rolled his eyes. "Idiot. Still...the kid...she did good. Took him down on her own."
Tony fell asleep in his chair about an hour and a half later, head thrown back against his chair. Steve nodded off not long after, and when he woke, it was to Bruce ushering them out so they could change her bandages...check her over. So they did...they showered and ate, and then they went back to her room, her room a revolving door for the Avengers, minus Vision and Wanda who were...on vacation? Maybe? Steve wasn't sure.
Everyone visited. Thor sat silently at her side for a long time, staring holes into the floor. Clint asked questions. Where she went to school. How she'd gotten her powers. No one answered him...he was asking Penny. And Steve and Tony would wait until she could speak for herself. Natasha read to her in Russian and English, fairy tales. Novels...reports. And Tony...Tony talked to her. Held her hand. When Steve took a break, he'd always come back to find him whispering to her. Telling her that she would be okay. Promising that he was with her. Begging her to wake up.
Telling her he loved her.
Four days in and something happened. Infection or...something. Steve didn't understand. He wasn't a doctor. He was a soldier. But the girl's temperature skyrocketed and she had more and more trouble breathing, whimpering and squirming despite the pain medicine being pumped into her veins. No matter what Bruce gave her, no matter how much he tried to develop better antibiotics...she was getting worse. Her fever rose. And rose. Her body got weaker and weaker.
On the sixth day, Steve entered the room only to freeze in the doorway.
Tony was sitting in her bed, her head resting on his chest, the fingers of her right hand resting on his. "Alright, baby. It's okay." Tony whispered, a sob catching in his throat as he dropped his head to rest on the top of hers. "I'm here. I'm right here. You...you just...just let go if you need to. I'm still here. I won't leave you." His shoulders shook, tears dripping down his cheeks as he held her. "You're my hero, you know that, Spidergirl? Always have been. And…" He sniffed, swearing under his breath. "May thinks you're at an intern conference. I've been faking email messages from you...sorry. Maybe we should think about telling her one day." He was so gentle, shifting her just a little so that her head rested against his shoulder and he pressed his lips to her hair. "Let go if you need to. It's okay. I'm here. I'm right here, baby."
Steve left.
Penny didn't let go.
The girl clawed her way back to the land of the living. First, the fever broke. Then they removed the tube. She could breathe on her own, but they kept an oxygen mask over her face. Then she opened her eyes. She wasn't responsive, but she stared at the ceiling for long moments at a time as Tony and Steve and, at times, the others, spoke to her. Tony kept her up to date on the antics of someone named Ned and Steve told her war stories...the funny ones. They were the constants, rarely leaving except to shower, eat, or, for a few hours at a time, sleep.
She'd been asleep for a week and a half the first time she seemed to respond to them. Steve glanced up at her during one of his stories and his words died in his throat when he saw her eyes on him, blinking tiredly. "Penny?" He asked.
He still didn't know her last name. Tony hadn't told him another thing about her. But he knew her first name. He planned on using it. Tony jerked his head up. "What?" Then he turned to look at Penny. "Pen? Kiddo? Can you hear me?" She blinked a few times, eyes narrowing as if she was confused, and then she nodded.
Tony clamped a hand over his mouth, a smile breaking through, eyes watering. "Good...good, kiddo. I'm glad." She opened her mouth under the oxygen mask but he put a hand on her hair. "Don't try to talk just yet, honey. Just...you just rest, okay?"
"I'm going to get the doctor," Steve said, jumping up and hurrying out of the room to find Bruce.
He leaned against the wall in the hallway for nearly ten minutes, hands over his mouth, whispering 'thank you, thank you' over and over. Then he went to get Bruce.
After that, Penny got better every hour, it seemed. She got a little of her strength back. Was able to sit up. Drink smoothies. Take medicine. She slept a lot at first, but Tony never left her side. Even when she slept. He had to be dragged away to shower and sleep…
Steve barely left her side either.
The other visited as often as they were allowed. Which was for about an hour a day, once a day. Penny seemed happy to see them...and confused. Still, she didn't seem awake enough to be asking questions and trying to make sense of anything so she just smiled and talked with them.
It had been two weeks since the mission, and it was a rare morning where Tony was asleep on the sofa in the corner of the room. Penny was reclining in bed, drinking a smoothie and half-watching the TV mounted to the wall. Steve hadn't really been alone with her, not since she'd woken up, but now, with Tony asleep, this was the closest he was going to get.
"Penny?" He asked, getting the girl's attention.
"Hm?" She asked, blinking heavily. She was already tired.
"I...I need to talk to you." Her eyes widened, and he made his smile soft and reassuring. "It's nothing bad."
"Oh...okay." She glanced over at Tony as if hoping he would wake and rescue her. "Um...is everything okay?"
"Yeah. Everything's fine. I just...I needed to apologize now that you're awake."
"Apologize?" She asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting up a little. He put a hand on her shoulder, pushing her to sit back.
"Just...stay put." He urged with a smile, not making it a command, but a suggestion. "Bruce said you need to stay in bed. Keep resting. Stay still. How are you feeling?"
"Um...sore. But fine." She hurried to assure him.
"Good. Now. Back to my apology."
"You don't have to apologize." She held up her good hand. "It was my fault."
"No. It was not." He shook his head. "Nothing about this was your fault. You called for help. I'm leading the team...and I didn't try to find out if you were seriously injured. I didn't check up on you. I let myself get distracted. And I...I am so sorry." Her eyes lowered to her lap and she pressed her lips together, looking uncomfortable. "Penny?"
"Does this mean...do you not want me to work with you guys anymore?"
"Hey. Look at me for a second." He reached out, resting a light hand on her shoulder. She did after a moment, barely managing to meet his eyes. "I'll admit...when I found out how old you were...I was pretty upset. But you have more than proven yourself. Even if you aren't technically an 'Avenger' yet, you're part of the team." She blinked at him. "Your dad recruited you...and maybe you were recruited a little too early…" Her eyebrows furrowed and she looked around in confusion.
"Wait...what?"
"You were only fourteen or fifteen when you started this. That is too young. But you're in this now."
"No...wait...Cap…"
"You can call me Steve, Penny." He invited, hoping to put her at ease.
"Right...sorry. Steve. Um...you said that my dad recruited me?"
"Yes. I'm sorry...I know it's a secret." He gestured to Tony who was still snoring softly on the chair. "But I went to Rhodey...with the way Tony was acting I figured it out pretty quickly." Rhodey had been really surprised at first, but then he'd smiled, chuckling a little.
"I guess you figured it out. Just don't tell anyone."
"I promise, your secret is safe with me," Steve told her. He meant it, even if he thought the others might be starting to suspect something was going on.
"Knew...knew what?" She asked.
He frowned, glancing over at Tony who hadn't stirred. "That...that Tony is your father…" He trailed off, taking in Penny's huge eyes. "Tony is not your father." She shook her head and he released a breath, swearing that he was going to get back at Rhodey. "Right."
"My dad's name was Richard Parker." She told him after a moment, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. He nodded. "I live with my aunt May. She...she doesn't know."
"Why are we telling Cap your life story?" Tony asked then, yawning and rubbing his eyes as he sat up, moving closer to Penny's side, looking her up and down...checking on her. She smiled at him when he pushed some hair behind her ear.
"Rhodey told Steve that you were my father." She told him with a soft laugh. Tony sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Damnit Rhodey...not again."
Thank you for reading!