THE NEXT INSTALLMENT IS HERE. I hope it lives up to your expectations. I was re-reading and I forgot how intense it was like WOW. Brace yourselves people. Lol no it will be fine just OMG KATIE STOP WRITING INCREDIBLY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTES NOBODY READS THEM ANYWAYS ok read on :)
A few days passed relatively calmly, and things were settling back to normal. Tony was back to leisurely tinkering, Steve was back to acclimating, and overall, things were back to the way they'd always been. At the moment, Steve was in the middle of a particularly interesting news article, when he heard his phone ring. After a bit of fumbling, he answered, face falling grim. Ending the call, he rose from the couch and made his way to Tony in the workshop. "We've got trouble," he stated, pointing a finger in the direction of the suits.
Tony looked up and groaned. "What now? God, some days I just really hate being a superhero..." He grumbled, heading over to his suits. "Send the details to Jarvis, and I'll meet ya there." Tony stepped into the workshop area designated simply to his suits, and got ready to head out on their mission. When he arrived there though, he wasn't expecting to see what he did. "Robo-kittens? Really?" he said over the com, somewhat cheerful that he was able to get out of the house. Nobody else on the team knew about his 'condition', and he wanted to keep it that way. Tony was hitting the badly designed metal cats left and right, and was dealing with a particularly difficult one when he heard the crackling over the com. The last thing he heard was a "Watch out, Iron Man," that was quickly drowned out by the searing pain shooting through every nerve in his body. The cat had moved at the last second, and Clint's specially designed (by Tony himself, of course) arrows that electrocuted attackers went through the suit and wedged itself painfully into Tony's ribcage. The arrows were fabricated to bite through the metal of robot-type attackers, but seemed to work just fine on Iron Man as well. Tony screamed when the arrow pierced his skin, but it turned into a sort of gurgling sound when the electric current shot through him, going straight through the arc reactor. The surge could not have been good for the technology, and Tony felt the bite of shrapnel beginning to move as the arc reactor shut down, before he completely blacked out.
Steve rolled his eyes at Tony's comment, knowing better than to underestimate any attacker. He had to admit that the choice of cats was a bit strange, however. The fight seemed to be going in the team's favor, and Steve was hoping to make this a short battle and head back home. When he heard Tony's shout though, he knew that wouldn't be in the cards today. As soon as he was free to do so, he made his way to Tony, dropping down and flipping open the face-plate of the suit.
Clint had a look of extreme guilt as he quickly made his way over to the pair. "Is he okay?! Christ, I just...I wasn't aiming for him, I swear, it moved, and oh my God, I killed Tony Stark." He paused, looking Tony over. "We've gotta get him out of here." He took a step back, calling in for help, then looked back to Tony, frowning. Several minutes passed before medics arrived, but when they did, they whisked Tony from the scene and took off without much of a word to the others.
Tony groaned, his eyes fluttering at the too bright lights. The sound of beeping and bustling surrounded him, and the dull ache in his body was manageable. He cracked open an eye and met soft blue ones. "Hiii," he said goofily, the pain meds making him feel like he were in the clouds.
Steve smiled a bit when Tony started coming around, but gave him a weird look after the greeting. He laughed softly, smoothing Tony's hair from his forehead. "Hey, there," he replied, smiling wider.
"I missed youuu," Tony said, pulling Steve's arm in for a sloppy kiss on the inside of his elbow. "Come lay with me," he asked, yanking his arm.
"I haven't gone anywhere," he replied, laughing once more. He gave Tony an amused look after the kiss, shaking his head. "I don't know if that's such a good idea, Tony. You just woke up from surgery." He ignored his own warning, however, allowing Tony to pull him down to the bed. "Guess we'll just need to be careful."
Tony sighed, pulling Steve closer and cuddling into his warmth. "Thanks," he whispered, falling asleep again almost immediately.
Fury was becoming more than a little tired of signing medical papers for the team. He'd anticipated injuries to be common, but Tony in particular had a nasty habit of turning up the most documentation. He grabbed his file from the drawer and flipped it open, skimming down to the medical section. When he reached it, he realized that the file had been altered since the last time he'd come into contact with it. "Stitches?" he read, then skimmed to the date. The only information he could find was the location of the stitches - his arm. The team was supposed to inform SHIELD of any injuries, simply to avoid complications in the event of a disaster occurring. Sighing heavily, he closed the folder and made his way to Tony.
Upon arriving, the room was empty, aside from Tony, who was currently fast asleep. He needed the story on the stitches, but decided to allow him to rest, for now. He took matters into his own hands and crossed the room, then tilted Tony's arm to the side. He found the stitches he was looking for, but he found the rest of the angry red scars, as well. Scowling, he placed Tony's arm back and left the room before calling together a meeting with the team and heading back to base.
When he got to base, he wasted no time. He was in the meeting room less than thirty seconds after arriving, swinging the door open and slamming it shut behind him. The team was silent as they watched him enter, sending looks to one another to see if anyone knew the cause of his anger. Fury turned, then, spotting his target, marched his way over to Steve. "You think you're a leader? You think you've got things under wraps around here? Think again, Captain. You've known all along, haven't you? About Stark?" He eyed Steve angrily, watching as the other sank back at the mention of Tony. "I thought as much. As a member of this team, it is your responsibility to report any misbehavior of other members, is it not?" He waited for a response, and when Steve remained silent, his anger grew. "Is it not?" he repeated.
"Yes, sir" Steve returned, eyes going hard.
"So when you found out that Stark was cutting himself? That there were stitches in his arm due to a suicidal episode? You didn't think that was necessary information, did you?" The team had drawn back from Steve at this point, and had begun watching in awe. Now everyone knew Tony's secret. Steve's lips formed a firm line.
"No, sir, I didn't. That's private information that has little to do with team affairs. Frankly, you shouldn't even know about it."
"I shouldn't know? I shouldn't know?" he replied, looking as though he was two seconds from giving Steve a good punch to the face. "I'm going to talk to Stark," he finished, storming back out of the room as quickly as he'd entered.
Steve was nearly shaking with anger by the time Fury had left the room, and it took him a few seconds to cool off before he could face the others. He turned slowly, meeting each of their eyes. "Well, I guess you're in on the secret," he said, eerily quiet
_.
Tony groaned when he felt his shoulder being shaken. "What the...?" He sat up a bit and found himself face to face with the one and only very furious director Fury. "What's up?" he asked, trying to hide his arm a bit - it was too exposed in this room.
"Wake up, Stark, we've got things to discuss. Rather, I'll be doing the talking, and then you'll get my final verdict." He pointed to Tony's arm. "Found out about your extracurricular activities. Needless to say, I'm not pleased. We were already wary of putting you on the team, Stark. You've always been on shallow ground, and this isn't helping your case. If you can't handle yourself, how do we know that you have anyone else's back? You're a hazard to the team. You're a hazard to yourself. You've made yourself a liability. We can't have any loose ends on this team. As of this moment, you're off the team. No exceptions." He folded his arms, staring down at him angrily.
"WHAT? HOW THE HELL DO YOU EVEN KNOW THIS STUFF?" Tony was so angry, he was shaking. He jumped up from his bed and nearly fell, but ended up staying vertical by some small miracle. "You can't do that. You can't take this away from me-you...NO. I WON'T LET YOU." At that moment, Tony went primal, only wanting to get his way. He launched himself at Fury, and somehow managed to grab his handgun out of it's holster, and he held it up, backing against the bed, pointing it at Fury. "You take that back right now or I'll pull it, I swear I will." When Fury's eyes didn't even change, Tony was LIVID. "FINE." Tony pulled the gun up to his temple and took off the safety. "Take it back," he said dangerously, finger on the trigger. This time, there was true fear in Fury's eyes.
"Okay Tony, put the gun down. Just-put it down." He heard the door slip open behind him and panicked, turning his head quickly to see who was entering. The team, after hearing from Steve what was happening, had decided to intervene and made their way to the hospital. Steve was the first to enter, and when he saw Tony, he stopped dead in his tracks.
"Tony, no" he voiced quickly, drawing Tony's attention to him. "Hey," he continued in a steady but quick voice, "Hey, let's talk for a second, okay? You tell me what's going on. I'd like you to put the gun down, but I won't make you. Let's just talk."
Tony made a small choking sound, somewhere between and cough and a sob. "I-I can't Steve. I can't." he whispered. His hands were shaking and everyone looked absolutely terrified. "He said he's taking me off the team. He's taking it away. I NEED IT Steve. I need it. Don't let him take it from me." Tony was babbling, and most of what he was saying made no sense, but Steve nodded anyways. At this point, a nurse came running in with a sedation needle, but she squeaked when she saw Tony and the gun. "Sir you should..." Tony screamed at her "GET OUT," and she left the syringe on the floor, quickly departing. Bruce picked up the medicine and held it lightly in his hand, the cap still on the needle. Tony was relatively distracted with Steve, and he began inching behind Tony, so hopefully he could get him with the needle without him pulling the trigger first. Steve gave Bruce a warning look but continued talking with Tony. At some point, Tony starting sobbing, and his hands were shaking so violently, it looked like he might drop the gun. Steve was still talking to him, but nothing Tony was saying made any sense. When Steve told Tony not to leave him, Bruce went in for the kill. He lunged at Tony and yanked the gun from his loose grip, flipping on the safety before sliding it far across the floor towards the door and away from Tony. Tony tried to fight Bruce's grip, but Bruce pulled off the cap on the needle with his teeth, sinking it into Tony's exposed neck and pushing the barrel, injecting the medicine. It was about three seconds before Tony went limp in Bruce's arms, and he pulled him onto the bed, pulling the covers up over him. He sat himself in a chair, putting his head in his hands and willing the shaking to stop, trying to get the Hulk under control.
Steve took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, then shot a look at Fury before walking over to the bed. Natasha moved to Bruce's side, quietly calming and praising him. Thor and Clint stayed by the door, exchanging concerned looks before turning their attention back to the scene before them. Steve sat on the edge of the bed, talking quietly to Tony, despite him being knocked out. He knew he should be talking with Fury, trying anything to reason with him, but at the moment, he couldn't pull himself from Tony's side. This was the closest he'd come to losing him, and until they got the gun away from him, Steve had been genuinely scared. He let his hand move to Tony's cheek and held it there for a moment before sighing and standing. He turned, facing Fury, and gave him a solid stare. "I need a word with you. Alone." He watched him for a few seconds before turning and walking past Thor and Clint and out into the hall.
Fury gave a curt nod and followed, ready to rip Captain Sparkle Pants a new one. They got outside and he was ready to start yelling, but the Captain beat him to it.
"Does the term private affair mean absolutely nothing to you? I certainly hope you got what you came for. What will you do without his help? Tony provides SHIELD with ninety percent of its technology. You'd be lost without his services, don't pretend that you wouldn't be. You need him on this team just as much as we do. He's a good fighter and a better defender, and by God, you should be ashamed of yourself for kicking him while he's down." Steve glared heavily, ignoring the fact that there were nurses staring and that he'd left the hospital room door wide open. "So how about we make a compromise? You leave him on the team without restrictions, and I'll keep an eye on him, exactly like I have been. In case you weren't paying attention in there, I feel like I've been doing a damn good job, and I'm not going to let you tear apart everything we've worked to put back together."
Fury sputtered a bit, hating being talked down to, but knew he couldn't win. "He needs to be out of commission until he gets the go ahead from his therapist. I'm placing him on suicide watch until further notice. He will need to have an agent with him at all times, so I propose perhaps pushing moving day up a bit?" Fury knew that Tony had offered the Avengers to move in and thought it actually wasn't a half bad idea. "It was wrong of you to keep this from me, Captain. These are things that I need to know. In the future, this will not happen again."
"You're right, it won't," he replied with an accusing bite, but he nodded in agreement to the plan. Having some extra help wouldn't be such a bad thing, and it would be nice to have more people around. "Are you going to make the announcement, or should I?"
Fury contemplated, but decided Steve was probably better off dealing with Tony in this state, although he hated to admit it. "Go ahead, Captain. Go talk to him and make sure he's stable, because if anything happens to him it's on YOUR ASS. I've warned you. Call a team meeting and deal with them, I don't have time for this kind of shit. You are required to give me hourly updates on Stark's condition until further notice. Get the whole team in the tower and running shifts so that he's never alone, and I won't require him to stay in a hospital until he gets the go ahead. If you can't make that happen, he's staying here. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind." Steve stumbled away, presumably going forth to gather Tony's support system. This was so not what they needed right now, but Fury trusted Steve to do the right thing, so he left him to it, wandering off to find some much needed caffeine.
Steve shut the door behind him, leaning against it for a moment before pressing off and folding his arms, looking the rest of the team over. "So...guys." He sighed quietly, lowering his arms and loosening up a bit. "I'm sorry for keeping this from you. It's what Tony wanted. You all shouldn't have had to find out like this, but I do appreciate the help more than you know. I've got a pretty big favor to ask of you all. Fury's bending a little and letting Tony stick around, but I'm going to need all of you to make that happen. He wants everyone to shift moving time to...well, now. Tony's to be watched 24/7 until further notice. I know it's a lot to ask, and I'll understand if you don't want in, but those are the rules that have been set."
The group is still a bit shell-shocked. They'd been completely unaware of Tony's issues. "I'm in," Bruce said immediately, and the rest of the group followed suit. "Whatever Tony needs," Bruce added. So they spent the next hour planning out how they would all have shifts with Tony, day and night, and discussed with Steve in more detail what was really going on. Steve informed the team of Tony's recent occurrences, and shared the best ways he found to deal with him at this stage. It was agreed that everyone would get one shift a day, and if you couldn't make yours, you'd need to switch with someone. Steve would be 'on call' at all times, so if there was an emergency, he was to be contacted immediately. At the end of every day, they would come together and discuss anything they felt was important to share, so that Steve could send a report to Fury. Tony would be included in this meeting. More than one person can be with Tony, so if it isn't your shift it's okay, but someone was required to be with him at all times. At night, they decided whoever was on duty would sleep in his bed (because God knows they've been closer than that, with everything the team's been through). Steve wrote all the rules down and printed out a copy for everyone (Tony would be proud that he used three fingers on each hand to type) and told them to get their things together and into the mansion. Tony wasn't expected out of the hospital for at least another day, so they had until then. Steve had practically moved in already. Once the team dispersed, Steve trudged off to the hospital wing where Tony was located.
Steve took a seat close to the bed, allowing himself to relax a little. He was uncomfortable with just how comfortable hospital settings were beginning to feel. He let his eyes fall on Tony, his lip pouted open in sleep. He let his hand curl around Tony's, then slipped his eyes shut.
Steve lost track of the amount of time that passed, busying himself with counting dots on the ceiling and tiles on the floor. Just as he'd reached the 75th tile, his hand received a light squeeze. He looked quickly to Tony, whose eyes were just beginning to flutter open. "Hey," he said quietly, squeezing his hand back. "I've got to talk about some things with you. Is it alright if I go ahead? Or do you need more rest?" Tony shook his head, willing Steve to continue. "I talked with Fury. He...well, you're not off the team. Not quite. You're kind of on probation, though, so I'd watch my step. The only way I could make sure he'd keep you around was by making some compromises. The rest of the team has to move in. You're to have at least one of us monitoring you at all times, even at night." He grimaced at that, still not fond of having to give up his side of the bed, now that he was accustomed to sleeping there. Sighing softly, he continued. "We're going to have meetings at the end of each day, and you will be included. We have to have group discussions on how you've been doing so that I can report back to Fury. It's unfair, but it's all I could get. The others, though... they're more than willing to help. They really are looking out for you, Tony. Bruce spoke up in a heartbeat, as soon as I passed on the information from Fury. Everyone else followed quickly after. We're all in. Are you?"
Tony sighed. He felt groggy and grumpy and just generally awful. He knew this was his best shot though, and he was in no place to argue. "Okay," Tony said quietly. He hated being helped. Outright hated it. But these were his friends and they wanted to do it. Tony took Steve's hand, mindful of his IV's. "I'm sorry," he whispered, pulling the hand up to his face. "I'm sorry, and I think...I think I can deal with this compromise. Thank you," Tony suddenly felt shy, hiding his face in Steve's big hand.
Steve sighed softly, cradling Tony's hand in his own. "I've told you before, and I'll continue to say it - you don't have to apologize, and you definitely don't need to thank me. Just..." He frowned, meeting Tony's eyes. "Don't ever make me talk a gun out of your hand again." He dropped his gaze to Tony's hand, then gave it a light squeeze. Steve looked tired, and more than a little distraught. "That's something I absolutely never want to see again," he mumbled, running a hand back through his hair. He sighed once more and leaned back, returning his attention to Tony.
Tony nodded in agreement, "Me either," he admitted, feeling ashamed. "You guys are too nice to me..." he thought aloud, and loved the way his stomach flip-flopped at the thought that the entire team was moving in just so they could help him. It would be a pain in the ass, yes, yes it would, but it showed how much his friends really cared, and he hadn't felt that good in as long as he could remember. The sound of Steve softly snoring alerted Tony to the fact that the super soldier had dozed off, leaning on his hand in a way that would leave a crook in his neck in the morning. Tony was fully awake though, so he spent the time thinking about his relationship with Steve. What did it mean? They hadn't done any more than holding hands-but Tony wanted more. He wanted everything, everything that was Steve. He wanted to take him on dates and walk on the beach, and wine and dine him until they both dropped. For once, it wasn't even about sex. It was about spending time with someone you really care about. It was odd, but it was nice. He liked it. Steve's snoring was soothing though, and Tony found himself having trouble keeping his eyelids open, before he gave in and fell into a peaceful sleep.
So I'm thinking there might be one or two more chapters of this, I haven't decided yet. I've basically gotten my angst out and the next chapter there will be STONY yay :) Thank you for all the support-Lexie and I reallyreally appreciate it. You guys are the best!