Sitting under the stiff sheets Jane thought back to the last time she was in such a position—the day she met Coulson. So much had changed since then, yet she was nowhere closer to finding any answers. Closing her eyes she let her head fall back onto the pillow and let out a long sigh. The room's television was on and she could just make out the words of the news anchor, reporting the events of the day.
"Still no official reports have been made as of yet, but many of our viewers have theories of their own as to what the mysterious object unearthed in the arctic may be." Jane slowly opened her eyes and focused on the screen where a woman was standing on a sidewalk, a microphone in her hand.
"So tell us, what do you think was found in the ice?" The blonde woman asked as she held the microphone out for a middle aged man with a portly belly and cut off jean shorts. "I'm telling you, its aliens!" He drawled emphatically. "Y'all may think I'm crazy, but I had a buddy who was in New Mexico when all that funny business was goin' on. He saw it with his own eyes, beings comin' right outta the sky! They ain't gonna fool me, I promise you that!"
In the background Jane could see a group of teenagers running through the streets holding up signs stating that the whole thing was just a government conspiracy. Others were waving American flags and many others simply bustling about, but the whole block, it seemed, was buzzing with activity.
"I don't care what they say it is that they've gone and found up there, but unless they show me proof right in front of my own eyes, I won't believe a word of it!" The heavily accented man continued, taking full advantage of his few moments of stardom.
"Well there you have it folks, all of this is explained by happenings of extra-terrestrials!" The reporter woman added lightheartedly, turning back towards the camera. "Right now we are going to take a quick commercial break, but when we come back we should get a chance to find out exactly what it is that has been lodged in the ice all this time. I'm Monica Howard and you're watching KHLQ 10." The screen cut away from the woman's large smile and in its place an animation about toothpaste appeared.
Jane slowly reached across the bed to grab the remote from the side table and pressed mute, silencing the overly enthusiastic jingle about the spectacular taste of spearmint. The door to her room squeaked open and she saw Tony Stark enter, followed by Jessica who was holding a clipboard and a syringe of medication.
"What, no running to hug me and profuse thanking me for saving your life? Very rude don't you think, Wallace?" Tony commented sarcastically when Jane said nothing upon his entering the room.
"The sedation is still wearing off, that wouldn't be possible Mr. Stark." Jessica replied as she made her way to Jane's IV and inserted the medication. Jane's reply, however, was simply to answer his comment with a middle finger in the air and a knowing smirk on her face.
Tony chuckled and leaned against the window sill, looking out at the streets and buildings below. "Well I guess it's nice to know it didn't harm your delightful sense of endearing charm now isn't it."
"Well of course." Jane replied with a smile. "You'd get awfully bored with no one to return the favor." After a brief pause she added, "And I don't think prodding and poking around a person's most vulnerable and sensitive collection of nerves just for the fun of it constitutes as 'saving my life'."
Tony turned away from the window and placed his hands in his pockets. "While it was indeed interesting, I'm not sure 'fun' is the word I would use to describe it."
"Well in any case, you figured out how to fix it, so that's all that matters right?" Jane asked after a moment's silence.
Tony's smile faded before he finally replied, "About that, I'm afraid the news isn't quite what we were hoping for." Jane felt her stomach flip, hearing his words. "We looked all around, there's nothing else we could have looked at."
"And you found nothing." Jane said, finishing his sentence.
"Well no, not entirely, it's just that the answer isn't one you're going to like." He answered.
Jane shifted and sat up in the bed, her face serious. "Well, you might as well tell me. I'm not made of glass; I won't shatter just because something doesn't go the way I wanted it to."
Tony didn't answer right away, and looked at Jessica until she took the hint and exited the room, taking her clipboard with her. "I inspected every bit of the device closely, but in the end, I would advise against removal, at least for now. Whoever implanted it did so in a way that it is basically hard wired into your nervous system."
"Okay, so what does that mean? Why can't it be removed, couldn't you just sever the link between the machine and my nerves?" Jane asked, eyebrows furrowed.
Tony breathed deeply and exhaled. "Well ideally yes, we would need to detach it from your brain stem. At the very top of the device two probes were implanted into your skin, just at the base of your neck. These act as neural wires directly linking your brain to the machine. Now removing these themselves could theoretically be possible. The only problem is that before we could safely do this we would want to remove the similar probes from along the spinal column. These act the same as the ones I mentioned before, but they create a super speed highway for the neurons from your brain to the rest of your body. The difference, however, is that these are intertwined very deeply into the spinal column."
Jane sat in silence, taking in all of his words but not fully processing them all. "So why would removing these be so impossible? I mean, I understand you're saying it would be difficult, but difficult doesn't mean there is no hope of success."
"Yes, I will admit, I do think there is a possibility that these probes could be removed, however I don't think the benefits outweigh the risks. Which, coming from me says quite a bit I might add. Even the very slightest mistake or off calculation would leave you paralyzed and there is nothing we could do about it." Tony said, taking a seat in one of the room's chairs.
Jane took a deep breath, trying to accept what he was telling her. "What about what you said before, about the top probes? You said those would be easier to remove, so couldn't you just remove those first? Then you could disable the rest of it and remove it easily."
"I've considered that as well." Tony said lounging back into the chair. "But this isn't any ordinary tech we're dealing with here. This thing is, in a sense, a living and breathing organism. Without completely disassembling it I have no way of figuring out exactly what its purpose is and I'm just afraid that if we tear it away from your brain, which is essentially our only way of controlling it, that it could wreak an even greater havoc on you."
"What are you saying?" Jane said with a nervous laugh. "That if removed it would go into self-destruct mode and blow me up?" She asked, astounded and stunned.
"Well it is a possibility, I couldn't say for sure. But whoever did this definitely knew what they were doing so I wouldn't put it past them to install a safety catch. And for all we know it could be essential to keeping you alive." He answered.
Jane rubbed her palm over her eyes. "Well isn't that just wonderful." She said, more to herself than to Stark. "Can't know what it is until it's off, but can't get it off until we know what it is. Delightful."
"Look, it isn't entirely all bad, I mean sure you may not have gotten all the answers you were looking for, but at least now you don't have to worry about wondering if it can or can't be removed." Tony added, "You can move on with your life, get back to normal, whatever the hell that is."
Jane let out a small laugh, frustration building within her. "Right, because that's just as simple as can be."
Tony sat back up in his chair and said, "Sure it may not be what's normal to everyone else, but it isn't like this will stop you from ever accomplishing the things you want to do, or living an ordinary life."
"No it just means I'll be living every day wondering if I've got a ticking time bomb in me that will one day blow me to Istanbul." Jane paused, trying to keep her frustration from becoming full on anger. "It's just—this was my one chance, my one clue to figuring out who I was before all this happened. Now it's just back to being the freak whose part robot…" She trailed off.
"Seems fine to me." Tony said.
"Maybe to you," Jane snapped back. "But you don't get it. You have no idea what it's like to be betrayed by own body. To be forced to go on living knowing that the very thing that could be keeping you alive could also be the very thing trying to kill you." She closed her eyes, her jaw clenched, trying not to let her frustrations get the best of her.
Tony just looked at his hands in his lap as he listened to her words in silence. That was where she was wrong, he did know what it was like; he knew exactly what it was like. He gave her a moment after finishing speaking and then without a word slowly pulled of his jacket until she could see the arc reactor glowing in his chest.
"Wha-what's that?" Jane questioned upon seeing the odd light emanating from under his shirt.
"It's the thing that's keeping me alive but also slowly killing me—or at least it was until I finally found a solution to that problem." He somberly replied.
Jane's breath caught in her chest as her last remarks quickly raced through her mind. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't know" She stuttered, meanwhile internally berating herself for being so inconsiderate. Thinking back she vaguely remembered seeing something about it on one of the TV's while at L7 and wondered how she could have forgotten such a peculiar fact.
Tony didn't seem to want to divulge more details and Jane didn't want to pry further so the two sat in silence. To alleviate the uneasiness in the room Jane diverted her eyes to the muted TV, only halfway paying attention to what was happening. The blonde reporter was talking again, in the midst of the crowded street as a black van turned the corner and was trying to make its way down the street. This van, it seemed, was what everyone had been waiting for as the crowds were soon gathered around it, making it increasingly difficult for it to progress towards its destination. Eventually the van made it to the entrance of the building where the reporter was standing and several men in suits got out and made their way to the back door of the van.
There were several police officers gathered as well, all trying to keep the onlookers away from the men trying to unload whatever it was that had been found. Using a large cart the men struggled to unload the very large object amidst the throng of people straining to get a look at what was hidden in what looked to be some sort of cooling box.
Through the shakiness caused by the camera man trying to get a closer look, Jane could see what looked like a blue and red shield peeking out from under a thick layer of ice. It was obvious that everyone else had seen it as well, as the bustling crowd soon became a chaotic frenzy, everyone conversing excitedly. The importance of the event was lost on Jane and she wondered what the shield with the star meant. When the camera panned back to the reporter her face looked excited and utterly astounded. Her lips were moving quickly, but Jane couldn't make out what she was saying.
A headline soon appeared below the woman's face stating the mysterious object was presumed to be Captain America's shield. Jane had no idea who this captain was supposed to be, but she was intrigued by the fact that while it was presumed to be a shield recovered from the ice, the piece they were now transporting from the van to the building was much larger—large enough in fact to hold the entire owner of the shield as well.
Another man emerged from the van, and reporters with cameras quickly flocked to him, their flashes illuminating his face. He raised his hands to calm the commotion and then spoke to the crowd all together once that had calmed down. Jane couldn't tell what he was saying but assumed he was giving the official announcement as to what was found. When he was done the crowd once again erupted into a frenzy, one even greater than before. The blonde reporter returned to the screen, her expression one of total shock. The caption below her changed to read "Cap is back! Mystery in the arctic confirmed to be Captain America."
"Question," Jane said to Tony who hadn't been watching the newscast. "Who is Captain America?"
"What?" Tony asked, looking up at her with a confused look. "Why?"
Jane grabbed the remote and clicked off the mute button.
"In an unexpected turn of events, today has definitely become one that no one would have seen coming." The reporter halfway shouted, trying to overcome the roar of the crowds behind her. "There are still a lot of unanswered questions but we do have confirmation from an official source that the object recovered from the ice is indeed none other than the famous Steve Rogers!" She continued on to explain the history of how he had gone missing during WW2 and no one knew where he was until now. The men who were transporting the frozen man and shield had long since gone into the building where onlookers were unable to follow, but the screen kept replaying the clip where you could catch a glimpse of the shield.
Tony stood staring at the screen, his back to Jane, not moving at all. "Well, who is he?" Jane reiterated again.
Slowly Tony turned around to face her, his face ashen white. She was taken aback by his reaction to the news story and added, "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Mumbling under his breath he replied, "That's because I have." Without any further explanation he quickly headed out the door, letting it hang open behind him.
Jane's eyebrows were furrowed, confused by his strange words. "I guess I'll see you later then." She said after him, even though she knew he couldn't hear her. She turned back to the television, hoping to make some sense as to what the whole ordeal was about.