Coulson POV

There weren't many things that could get a major reaction out of Phil Coulson. But it was taking everything in his training for him to keep calm as he and his team ran out to where the Hulk had landed, a limp and very injured Holly in his gigantic grip. At the creature's growl, he held out his arms to the team behind him, to slow them. No need to make the Hulk see them as threats.

"Hulk, we're friends. Remember? Friends. We want to help Holly. Can we see her?"

Hulk regarded Coulson for a moment before taking a few massive steps forward, towering over him. It seemed strange that for someone capable of easily taking on an Asgardian as well as a Chitari army would be so careful. Phil kept his breathing even, his eyes not averting from the Hulk's face. If he showed fear, that could provoke the beast, despite the quiet scientist he normally was. "Help Jedi."

Coulson reached out with both arms and let the Hulk deposit Holly's limp form into his arms, his heart breaking at the sight of blood coming from her ears and nose. He shouldn't have pushed her into this. Why hadn't he seen the entire thing as a trap from the start? Was she going to pay for his mistake? "Yes, we will help Jedi."

May stepped forward. Her eyes were narrowed, her hands fisted the only sign of her distress over her old friend's injuries. "Go smash those robots. Make them pay, Hulk."

The green giant grinned before leaping off back toward the castle.

"Director, here, I have a biobed." Simmons said, pulling the repulsor lift emergency bed behind her. "Oh bloody hell, look at her."

"Concentrate on fixing it, Simmons. Let's get her inside, out of the cold and stable. May, bring up Holly's file, we need her blood type. If we need to, Trip or myself can donate."

Trip looked grim, looking down at Holly in the bed. "The serum will help, won't it, sir?"

"I hope so. We'll have to do the rest." He touched the earpiece in his ear. "Cap, what's your situation in there?"

"Last bit of clean up, mostly by the Hulk. There's no Doom here. It was a set up. What's Holly's condition?"

"We need to get her out of here. It'd be helpful to have Dr. Banner back to assist Simmons. We're going to have to get to at least Germany to the nearest SHIELD medical center. There's a doctor there we can trust." He paused and took in Simmons' actions, reading the woman's body language. "We need to hurry."

"You heard him people, Doom isn't here, let's evac."

Tony POV

Tony had been around the block a time or two and had seen his share of messed up shit. His childhood wasn't the best, though he was sure it would have been worse if it hadn't been for the Dugans. He'd made his fair share of mistakes. Hell, he'd probably made enough mistakes to account for most of the Eastern Seaboard. But this, almost pushing Holly back into her old lifestyle felt like one of the worst.

He looked up at her lying asleep in the medical unit bed of Coulson's plane, bruised and bandaged and knew she would probably kick his ass for feeling guilty. It really hadn't taken much to encourage her back into the hero lifestyle. She was doing it before he was. But looking at her there, all he could see was when she had broken her arm at 12. A break caused by falling off her bike he'd thought for years but turned out to be a break caused while earning her second black belt. Or the dislocated shoulder from a car accident in London that was actually a healing bullet wound when she was barely 19.

He'd taken over for Rogers who was getting something to eat at Bruce's insistence. Capsicle hadn't left her side since the whole thing happened. Practically before either, the two had been thick as thieves on the plane. That was something he was going to have to watch. Maybe he hadn't been the best of pseudo big brothers but if Cap was looking at her as something more than another hero, he'd set him straight.

"Oh, hello Mr. Stark. I'm just checking on Holly."

"Come on, how many times do I have to tell you? Mr. Stark was my father. I'm Tony. Just Tony. Well not just, but you get the gist. And you're Jemma. Are you like Jem, truly outrageous?"

He couldn't help but smile a little at the fluster on the young English doctor's face. "I can be at times, I'm sure." She checked a few things on her pad and then looked at another machine. "She's going to be just fine you know. You and Captain Rogers don't need to worry. She's healing quite well."

"Shouldn't have to be in here at all." He grumbled, standing up and stretching. "Can't believe Doom did a bait and switch after all that. Arrogant ass."

"I'm actually not surprised. Why would he want to risk himself when he could just build more robots?"

"Excellent point, Dr. Outrageous."

Holly POV

The next thing she knew, she was in the medical bay of the Bus from what she could tell, hooked up to machines. She felt her whole body was broken and wondered just how badly she'd been injured. Her face felt tight and her arm heavy in bandages. She felt cold oxygen being given to her via a cannula. She blinked, more difficult with the left being a touch swollen and tried to look around. What happened? Where was everyone?

An alert went off and immediately Jemma was at her side. The young English doctor who had bombarded her with questions about the Peggy Carter gave her a gentle smile. "Holly, you're awake! Lovely. How do you feel?"

"Like a robot used my body to redecorate?" She groaned, even talking hurt, her mouth and throat dry. Overall, she felt like shit. "What happened?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" Without asking, Jemma fed her a few ice chips that felt like heaven.

"Banner...the Hulk shielding me from the bots. Where's Bruce? Is he okay?"

"Calm yourself. Dr. Banner is just fine. He got you out of the castle and then went back in and did what he does best and destroyed all he could." Jemma soothed, giving her a few more chips.

Relieved, Holly relaxed against the pillows. "He called me Tiny Jedi."

"The creature, the Other Guy as Dr. Banner calls him, isn't terribly vocal but does speak from time to time. He brought you right to us, placed you in the Director's arms and headed back in to smash."

"What about everyone else? Anyone else hurt?"

"Everyone is fine. Minor injuries thankfully from such a fight but we were able to defeat Dr. Doom's immediate plans and shut down the remaining bots. I'm sorry to report that Dr. Doom wasn't even at the Castle."

"We'll get him. He'll try again and we'll get him."

Holly turned her head to see Coulson entering the medical bay. "Director. I'm sorry I endangered the team, sir. I should have known I wasn't ready for a fight like this. I'm not an Avenger." She struggled to try and sit up more, her SHIELD training screaming at her that one did not lounge in a bed, even a hospital bed when addressed by the Director. Her body however wasn't cooperating and her left arm was pretty much useless and she felt so groggy.

"At ease. No apologies needed, Holly. You did very well for someone who doesn't normally fight homicidal robots let alone with a team or after 12 years." Coulson held out his hands to tell her to stop trying to sit up.

"Can't help but notice that I'm the only one in the medical bay."

"That was because it seems the bots were programmed to focus on the biggest threat. It seems your skills with your lightsaber were deemed such. I would have to agree, you are quite the swordswoman!" Jemma encouraged with her ever present smile. "They went after you only after you and Black Widow exposed the weakness in their strategy programming."

"But really it's because the rest of us were conscious and stubborn about not needing medical help." Tony's voice came from the doorway as he sauntered in after Coulson, a rather nasty bruise on his face. "Barton practically broke his ass getting thrown by one of the Bots into Romanov who is still cursing him out in Russian for nearly crushing her. I think it had something to do with his addiction to Krispy Kremes."

His face became serious as he got to her bedside and he took her uninjured hand and affectionately brushed back her hair. "You scared me, Sparky. I don't like being scared. It was almost as bad as that time Coulson didn't wear a tie. The horror!"

Holly felt herself choke up. Tony hadn't called her Sparky in years, since she was little. He'd been so proud of how fast she caught on to what she was taught, he said she was so bright that she threw off sparks. "You haven't called me that in a while."

"I haven't exactly been the best honorary brother, the last few years, have I?" His eyes didn't quite meet hers. Tony, for all his egotistical acting was deep down his own worst critic. The perception of ego he gave to the outside world was unconscious compensation for his own self view, no doubt instilled early on by Howard. Thankfully it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been thanks to her father.

"You'll always be the best, Ony."

That made the older man's face soften immensely and give her hand a squeeze. When she had first been learning to talk, much to the consternation of her parents, uncle and brother, her first word had been an attempt to say Tony, which ended up being Ony. It stuck.

"And in that case, I'd better start showing off.. You are staying at the Tower to recover. No arguments. We have state of the art medical facilities and you'll be bedbound for a while anyway. You can help me create a better saber for you and be with family. Pepper is texting me constantly about when we're going to get you home. She's worried."

Her chest seized up a bit, thinking about even being close to NY after so long. "Tony...I can't..."

He leaned in closer, his free hand smoothing back some hair near her forehead. "Sparky, listen to me. I need you to stay for a while. Alright? You don't have to go out into the city or see anything. We'll black out all the windows if need be. Eddie would kick my ass if I just let you head back to California alone. Let me help you. Please." He spoke quietly and honestly.

"Can I think about it? Wrap my head around it at least?"

He gave her a nod and she knew no matter what, she was bound for Avengers Tower in NY. But at the very least, she was being given the illusion she had a choice which was more than Tony gave most people. He moved back and returned to his normal self. If there was such a thing as normal for Tony Stark. "It's good to see you awake. Captain Worrywart can finally stop pacing a hole in Coulson's plane."

She furrowed her brow, wincing as she assumed she had a few cuts and bruises that made the motion hurt. "Steve?"

"He's been quite concerned for your wellbeing, Holly." Jemma spoke up. "He sat with you for hours."

"Wait, how long have I been asleep? What happened that would have him that worried?"

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't tell you. You had a rather nasty concussion that required us to put you in a medically induced coma. Your arm was only strongly contused, the shoulder knocked out of joint. We also had to surgically go in to repair your rather shattered ribcage. And the corresponding internal bleeding and punctured lung. We had to replace 3 of your ribs and part of your sternum at the hospital in Munich. Do you remember Dr. Gruber? After SHIELD fell, he went back to being a civilian surgeon and he did your surgery with Dr. Banner and myself assisting."

"Replace with what?" She was feeling fuzzy as her hand moved and felt her entire midsection covered in medical coverings. Simmons was amusing in her babbling but with as fuzzy as she felt, it was hard to follow along.

"Artificial ribs made of adamantium."

That threw her. So now she had some of the most indestructible metal on earth as ribs? Neat."Okay, thanks, I guess. Where are we? It doesn't feel like we are flying."

"We've been at a former SHIELD base outside of France waiting for you to wake up before we continued back to the States. We didn't want to stay in Munich longer than we had to. There's a chance Doom could have contacts there." Coulson explained. "You were out a little longer than we expected."

"How long?"

"Just 4 days."

She tried to take a deep breath to keep herself calm from all the new information and grimaced as her body protested the movement. "That's why Steve was worried?"

"No, he was worried because Commandos are family, remember?" Coulson said gently. "Captain Rogers has taken quite the shine to you and your connection to his past."

"He's just sweet, that's all."

"Sorry, Sparks, Coulson's right. Rogers tends to be a bit of a loner but not with you. Which reminds me, I need to threaten him on behalf of your father, pardon me." With that, he headed for the door.

"Tony!" Holly called out, sounding pitifully weak. "Don't you dare. I will kick your ass, new ribs or not!"

"Ooh, did someone say ribs?" Clint sauntered in just as Tony left, dressed in civilian clothes. "Hey Hot Lips. I thought I heard you threatening Stark. Tasha will be happy, it's boring being the only ones doing that." He moved over to the bed, gently sitting on the edge on her good side, his eyes searching hers. "How do you feel?"

"Better than ever. Just wanted to hibernate for a while, see why bears like it so much. You?"

He chuckled. "Have I mentioned I've missed you?" He brushed her cheek with his knuckles, the smell of the fletching oil always there a comfort. "Stupid robots had to mess with our fun."

"Yeah, they don't seem to appreciate a good battle and cheat."

"Agent Barton, sir, Holly really does need her rest and I need to go over a few things medically. I will let you know when she can have visitors again." Jemma spoke up, nervously. Even though SHIELD was in a strange place at the moment, she still regarded him as the senior agent he was. It was obvious in many ways why Coulson had chosen her for his team. It'd be a waste of talent to have her stuck in a lab somewhere.

He nodded at Jemma. "Sure doc." He turned back to Holly. "Alright, you get some rest and I'll make sure Stark behaves himself around Cap. When you are feeling better, you aren't going to believe what gossip I've heard in the last couple days."

"That Bobbi is back with Hunter?"

He sighed, looking up to the ceiling in frustration at being out-scooped. "How?"

"Body language, silly bird. It's obvious."

He chuckled. "Yep. Missed you." He leaned in and kissed her forehead. "Rest. I'll let Tasha know you're okay."