Christine was crying at that point and Stephen patted her on the shoulder comfortingly.
"What the…" Tony gasped. Everyone's eyes were wide and they had horrified expressions on their faces. No one spoke for a long time.
"How are you alive?" Bruce asked after a while. Stephen shrugged his shoulders and looked at the floor, avoiding eye contact.
"I shouldn't be." He said dryly.
"The fact that you were able to survive that and come out without permanent injuries is… unreal." Bruce said.
Stephen slowly looked up and stared at Bruce with a blank expression on his face.
"Who said anything about not having permanent injuries." He said. He didn't say it like a question; it wasn't one.
Dr. Palmer was running next to a stretcher, glancing back at its contents with worried, tear filled eyes.
Strange's head rolled from side to side as he was wheeled through the emergency room. Multiple, deep cuts ran over his face. The oxygen mask he was using was already filling with blood. His left eye was completely closed and had swelled to three times it size.
Doctors were screming and rushing him to the operating room. Strange's hands were visible for a split second; the were completely bandaged, but an almost black red liquid was already seeping through them.
Dr. Stranges eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell unconscious.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Peter asked. "Are you going to die?!"
"Peter, he sitting right there." Tony gestured with his hand towards Stephen. "He's fine."
Stephen gulped and rubbed his hands together as Christine patted his back.
Strange had been moved from the operating room to another room just for patients. He was sleeping peacefully with a slight turn of his head now and then. For the most part he had been cleaned up, but some blood still sept through the various bandages on his face. His left eye was still swelled up, but it wasn't as bad as before.
Strange slowly opened his eyes and started panting, his eyes darting around for the room for something familiar.
"Hey." Christine said next to him. Strange slowly, painfully turned his head and looked at her.
"It's okay. It's going to be okay." She whispered to him. Her eyes were red and swollen like she had been crying, and the bags under her eyes revealed how little sleep she had been getting.
Stranges confused expression was quickly replaced with horror as he saw his hands. His arms where bandaged to the wrist, but instead of bandages on his hands was something much worse. A large contraption was holding many pins that were lodged deep into his hands. Deep, bloody cuts ran all over his hands, the stitches still visible. His arms were resting on soft pillows hat were dangling in the air from ropes connected to the ceiling.
"What is that thing?" Clint asked.
"It's a fixator to help heal nerve damage and torn ligaments." Stephen shrugged. He was looking out the window, refusing to look at the screen. Refusing to see those horrible things again.
"W-w-what d-did they d-d-do?" His voice shook.
"They rushed you in a chopper. But it took a little while to find you. Golden hours for nerve damage went by while you were in the car." Her voice kept cracking like she was trying not to cry.
"What did they do?!" He screamed, causing Christine to flinch.
"11 stainless steel pins in the bones. Multiple torn ligaments. Severe nerve damage in both hands. You were on the table for 11 hours."
"Look at these fixators." Strange whimpered in disgust.
"No one could have done better."
"I could have done better." He whispered.
Strange scrolled through his hands X-Rays.
Christine sat next to Strange in the hospital and helped him shave.
A nurse slowly unwrapped his bangaded, revealing the scars that will permanently be a part of his hands.
Everyone in the room immediately turned and looked at Stephens hands. Stephen was so grateful he had the common sense to put gloves on earlier.
He tried to move them, even a little, but failed. Instead his hands started trembling like crazy.
"No. No." Strange gasped. A humorless chuckle escaped his lips.
"Give your body time to heal." Nick said.
"You've ruined me." Strange growled.
"Why are you so ungrateful? They saved your life." Sam asked.
"Sam." Steve sighed.
"What? I'm just asking a question." Sam shrugged.
"How long until I'm..." Dr Strange's voice drifted off. He was sitting at a large table with ten other people. All of them were head doctors, or managers, or CEO's.
"Dr. Strange... those tissues are still healing." A doctor said.
"So speed it up. Pass the stent under the brachial artery under the radial artery." He growled.
"It's possible. Experimental and expensive, but possible." The doctor responded.
"All I need is possible."
Dr. Strange was entered into surgery once more. Christine Palmer followed slowly behind, looking scared.
Surgeons hovered over his unconscious from, trying to desperately fix his hands.
.
"Up. Up. Show me your strength." Dr. Strange's physical therapist. They were sitting at a table and Strange had on a contraption that pulled all of his fingers into a fist. He was supposed to be fighting against it opening his hand up wide. He could barely do it at all.
"Are your hands still like that?" Steve asked. He and a few others looked over to see that Stephens hands were, in fact, shaking.
"No." Stephen lied and hid his hands in the folds of his tunic.
"Ah! It's useless." Strange growled and gave up.
"It's not useless, man, you can do this."
"Then answer me this, bachelor's degree." Strange growled. "Have you ever known anyone with nerve damage this severe to do this, and actually recover?"
"Is there anyone that you haven't insulted?" Wanda asked.
Stephen shrugged his shoulders and smirked.
"One guy, yeah. Factory accident, broke his back. Paralyzed. His leg wasted away. He had pain in his shoulder from the wheelchair. He came in 3 times a week. But one day he stopped coming. I thought he was dead. A few years later, he walked past me on the street."
"He walked?"
"Yeah, he walked."
"That's impossible." Bruce said.
"Yeah. If he had paralysis to that degree he wouldn't have been able to move, let alone walk." Shuri said.
"Show me his file."
"It will take me awhile to pull the files from the archive. But if it proves your arrogant butt wrong, it's worth it."
.
Strange tried washing his hands, but they wouldn't stop trembling.
Strange stood in front of his mirror with shaving cream completely covering his chin. He gripped his razor with two trembling hands and slowly pressed it up to his cheek. His hands didn't stop shaking for a second. He gave up and tossed the razor aside.
Strange was writing on a piece of paper with his shaky hand, talking to someone on his computer.
"I looked at all your research. I read all the papers you've sent, but... none will work. I... I don't think you realize how severe the damage is, I…"
"Look, here's the thing, I…" Strange argued to the doctor he was talking to on the computer.
"At best, I'd try and fail."
"Look, I understand. Here's the thing. I…"
"What you want from me is impossible, Stephen." the doctor snapped.
"Come on…" Strange pleaded.
"I've got my own reputation to consider."
"Etienne, wait."
"I can't help you…" The doctor said as he hung up.
"No. No, no, wait!" Strange shouted. But it was too late; he had already hung up. Strange slammed his arms down on the table and shoved the papers he was writing on off the desk in frustration.
"Wow. Does he throw temper tantrums like that on a regular basis?" Tony asked Christine.
"hey-" Stephen said.
"He used too. All. The. Time." She drawled.
"Okay, that's a little unfair." Stephen said.
"You don't anymore, but admit. You used to be a little… what's the right word… dramatic."
"Gee. Thanks."
"Hi." Chrisines voice called. She came into his apartment and set groceries on his table. Strange didn't even look up. "He won't do it?"
Stephen just slowly shook his head."He's a hack. There's a new procedure in Tokyo. They culture donor stem cells and then harvest them and 3D-print a scaffold. If I could get a loan together, just..."
"Stephen…" Christine pleaded.
"A small loan, 200,000."
"Stephen. You've always spent money as fast as you could make it but now you're spending money you don't even have. Maybe it's time to consider stopping."
"No. Now is exactly the time not to stop. Because, you see, I'm not getting any better!" He screamed.
"But this isn't medicine anymore. This is mania. Some things just can't be fixed." Christine pleaded.
"Life without my work…"
Tony found himself nodding his head a little. He understood what it was like to care only about his work, and feel like nothing else mattered but it.
"Is still life. This isn't the end. There are other things that can give your life meaning."
"Like what? Like you?" Stephan growled. Christine flinched back, and Stephan glared at her.
"Wow. Please tell me you dumped him for that comment." Nat said.
"We weren't really a couple back then." Christine said.
"It was still wrong for me to say, though." Stephen said with an apology in his eyes. She smiled and gave him a small nod.
"And this is the part where you apologize." Her voice cracked when she spoke.
"This is the part where you leave." Stephan spat.
"Fine. I can't watch you do this to yourself anymore." She said sadly.
"Too difficult for you, is it?" He said sarcastically.
"Yes. It is. And it breaks my heart to see you this way."
"No. Don't pity me."
"I'm not pitying you."
"Oh yeah? Then what are you doing here? Bringing cheese and wine as if we're old friends going for a picnic? We are not friends, Christine. We were barely lovers. You just love a sob story, don't you? Is that what I am to you now? Poor Stephen Strange, charity case. He finally needs me. Another dreg of humanity for you to work on. Fix him up and send him back into the world, heart is just humming… You care so much! Don't you?!" At the end of his rant he was screaming on the top of his lungs.
"Goodbye, Stephen." Christine said as tears rolled down her cheeks. She turned and hurried out, slamming the door behind her. Stephan growled and rested his hands and his forehead on his window. He walked past the papers he knocked onto the floor earlier. On them were countless attempts of him trying and failing to write his own name.
"That wasn't very nice of you." Peter says.
"I know." Stephen sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"How was this even filmed, anyway? I don't remember any cameras." Christine asked.
"Magic works in mysterious ways." Wong said.
Stephan sat in his empty apartment. He sold most of his furniture in an attempt to get money for surgery. He slowly opened a package that was sitting on the floor. In it was the reporter of the man who had recovered from the spinal injury. There was a bright sticky note with the words "I TOLD YOU SO!" on them.
Stephan glanced at the note with a thoughtful, almost hopeful, expression on his face.
.
Multiple men ran around a basketball court, dodging each other and shooting hoops.
"Come on, man! Where is the competition?"
"You talk a lot!"
They shouted playfully at each other. Stephan slowly walked up on the other side of the fence, watching them play.
"What are you doing?" T'Challa asked. "No offense, but I dont think youre in any condition to play basketball."
"Ha! Strange playing basketball." Tony snorted. "That I'd pay money to see."
Someone jogged up next to Strange to grab his water bottle. He was about to get back to the game when Stephen spoke.
"Your name is Jonathan Pangborn, C7-C8 spinal cord injury, complete." He said.
"Who are you?" Jonathan asked.
"You were paralyzed from the mid-chest down. Partial paralysis of both hands." Strange said.
"I don't know you." Jonathan shook his head.
"I'm Stephen Strange. I'm a neurosurgeon. Was a neurosurgeon."
"Actually, you know what, man?" Jonathan interrupted him. "I think I know you. I came to your office once. You refused to see me. I never got past your assistant."
"You were untreatable." Stephan argued.
"No glory for you in that, right?" He mocked.
"You came back from a place there is no way back from! I... I'm trying to find my own way back." Stephan slowly held up his hands so Jonothan could see them shaking.
A couple of people tilted their heads to try to look at Stephens hands from the corner of their eyes. Stephen kept his hands hidden.
"Hey, Pangborn, you in it or not?" Someone called. Jonathan stared at strange for a moment before signalling for them to go on without him.
"Alright." Jonathan said quietly, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one could hear him. "I'd given up on my body. I thought my mind was the only thing I had left. I should at least try to elevate that. So I sat with gurus, and sacred women. Strangers carried me to mountain tops to see holy men. And finally, I found my teacher. And my mind was elevated. And my spirit deepened. And somehow…"
"Your body healed?" Stephan asked hopefully.
"Yes. And there were deeper secrets to learn then, but I did not have the strength to receive them. I chose to settle for my miracle, and I came back home. The place you're looking for is called Kamar-Taj. But the cost is high."
"How much?"
"I'm not talking about money. Good luck." Jonathan said and walked away.
"That wasn't ominous at all." Bucky said sarcastically.
"What was he talking about?" Steve asked.
"You'll see." Stephen said.