Tony whistled as he watched Coulson drag in a body, Bruce banner going to help.
"here did you find this little artifact, huh?" Tony joked as the agent and the doctor grunted, lifting the body onto the table. Tony inspected the man who was now lying not eh operation table: dark hair, a pro of full lips, parted slightly, eyes framed with fairly thick lashes.
"He tried breaking in for Fury," Agent Coulson explained, wiping sweat from his forehead- it was rally hard dragging a dead body, after all- "and he wasn't complying, so Fury shot him."
"Yeah shot him dead," Tony smirked, leaning not eh operation table to get a closer look at the man, "who is he?" Coulson shrugged.
"Don't know for sure," he answered, " he could be one of our guys, but it wouldn't make sense for him to break into his own building-"
"He could be one of your guys?" Tony interjected, "so you really have no idea? How many people even work here?!"
"- or he could be a spy, trying to break in for top secret information and the like," Coulson ignored Tony's comment, going on about who or what the guy could be. Half of the ideas were completely insane and they all knew that some of them just were not possible in the first place.
"So… shall we do an autopsy?" Bruce suggested, shrugging his shoulders as he pulled out a pair of rubber gloves from a package on a nearby desk, pulling them on. Tossing one to Tony, he said, "Um, we'll have to put our findings in your records, right? For analysis or what have you?" Coulson gave a curt node, swiveling on his heel dn exited the lab, the door sliding closed behind him. The gloves snapped as Tony pulled them on, wiggling his fingers.
"Shall we get digging then?" he joked Bruce cracking a smile as he layer out an expanse of tools- scalpels, drills, mirrors, anything that was available. Carefully, he picked up a scalpel, the metal gleaming under the lights, then tossed ti to tony, who caught it between his fingers, twirling it like a pencil.
"So, we'll have to do bloodwork if we want to figure out who this guy is," Bruce said. Tony nodded to the hole in his chest, the bullet wound.
"Shouldn't we take that bullet out first?" he asked. Bruce nodded- he often had trouble focusing, so it ws likely he missed the fact that the man had been shot.
"Yeah, we probably should do that," he agreed, going to lean over the bullet hole, scalpel and tweezers in hand to dig it out. Tony, meanwhile, was moving the head from side to side, inspecting the skin for any wounds or bruises.
"I'm telling you right now," Tony commented, "If I were gay, I would totally do this guy, you know what I'm saying?" Bruce chuckled.
"But you have Miss Potts, remember?" Bruce joked, "or do you have a sudden bout of amnesia?" Tony laughed.
"Yeah, pepper would get mad," he said with a friendly smile, pressing his fingers against the man's neck, "Just to make sure, the guy has no pulse."
"That's kinda why he's here, Mr. Stark," Banner said as he leaned over the wound, holding the mirror inches between his face and the body.
"Just thought I would make sure," Tony said, "you can never be too careful, you know?" As Tony got put o retrieve a flashlight to look inside, neither he nor banner noticed it.
The body's lip had twitched slightly, head lolling to the side.
"Now," Tony said, approaching the wound, flashlight poised for action, "where am I shining this thing?" Bruce guided his arm so he was right above the hole, a few inches from the mirror her held.
"Just keep it there," Bruce said simply, leaning over the body once again, "it looks like the bullet went in deep." Dried blood outlined the hole itself, the red becoming crusty and brown against the dark blue of the trench coat.
"Alright, well, let me know when you want to switch, alright?" Tony said, biting his lip, "because digging through bodies is something i've always wanted to do." Bruce gave him a quizzical look.
"Was that something I heard come out of your mouth?" he laughed.
"Just dig, man," Tony said, turning his attention back to the job at hand. While they were focusing on the wound though, they didn't noticed the fingers twitch slightly, slide ever so slowly across the metal table.
"Alright, move the flashlight slightly to the left-" The fingers flexed.
"Cn't you see it fine when it's over here?"
"Yes, well, do you ant to get the bullet out or not?" The hand was now clenching and unclenching- but of course, they were to enrolled in what they were doing to notice.
"Alright, alright," Tony moved the light ever so slightly, rolling his eyes.
"I'm gonna need new tweezers," Banner said, picking up the mirror and holding it right against the body, "these are not working for me." Tony scoffed.
"and you decided this when you were fingers deep in muscle and guts?" he chuckled, walking over to retrieve a new pair for his lab partner. While he searched through the tools, Banner had extracted the tweezer, wiping the blood off on his lab coat. The fingers on the hand were now splayed out, shaking slightly. All of a sudden, Tony heard a small moan, although it was too faint to be clear. It might have been his or Banner's stomach's grumbling for all he knew.
"Getting hungry, huh?" Tony asked.
"What do you mean?" Banner asked, placing the mirror and tweezers back on the table. Tony scowled- Bruce had a habit of not cleaning the supplies fully, "Now we have to disinfect everything all over again!"
"It's gonna be used again anyway," Banner shrugged off Tony's complaint, "and besides, Fury doesn't care what we do in the lab. He never even comes in here except to tell us when we have to fight aliens." Tony was about to answer, when the noise came again, louder this time.
"Are you sure you aren't hungry or something?" Banner hook his head, picking up a bigger scalpel, the metal gleaming in his hand.
"No," he said, "why do you ask? Are you hungry?"
"I swear i could hear it," Tony muttered, "I'm probably just imagining things though." Then it came again. Both scientist froze on the spot, clutching some sort f medical instrument. They exchanged nervous glances.
"I definitely heard that," Bruce agreed with Tony. Just as Tony was about to open his mouth there was a sharp inhale of breath, although he knew it wasn't Banner- the man was standing right on front of him and his mouth was clamped shut, eyes wide with surprise.
"What was that?" Banner asked. Warily, Tony turned. The body was still lying on the table, and it was totally not possible that it was the one breathing. Bruce gave him a strange look, "The man is dead, there is no way he would be able to-"
Halfway through his explanation, the body suddenly lurched, chest heaving as the dead man pushed himself upright. Since it was rushed and poorly executed, he fell of the examination table, mouth agape as he gasped for air, sweat beading on his face.
"….breathe," banner finished nervously, gulping down his statement.
"Really?" Tony mocked in a panic, "then why did it just fucking move?!" He held one of the scalpels out in front of him like a sword, ready to slash if he needed to.
"I- I don't know!" Banner stammered as he took a cautious step towards the man, "l-lucky shot?"
"H sis lucky, alright," Tony agreed in exasperation, "because he should be dead!" The man was on his hands and knees now, gasping for breath as if he were a fish out of water, cheeks puffing as he inhaled and exhaled quickly. Slowly, he tried standing, using the examination table for support, his hands shaking violently.
"Sweet Lord…" Banner mumbled.
"…. of the Rings…." Tony added on in astonishment, watching as the man leaned his head back, rolling his shoulders back and forth, cracking his knuckles. He was still breathing quite heavily, although it wasn't as forceful as before. The bullet was still in his chest though. Turning, the man looked taken aback at seeing the two scientists staring at him in wonder.
"Oh!" he said cheerfully, a smile spreading on his face, "didn't see you there!"
"Sure…" Tony swallowed nervously, adam's apple bobbing.
"Sorry about that," he apologized, "it took a little longer then expected, you know?" Carefully, the two men took a few steps back, Bruce knocking int the cart in the process, the wheels squeaking as it rolled a few feet back behind them. The man raised an eyebrow, "Is everything alright?"
"Stark, we should notify Fury," Banner said out of the corner of his mouth. Tony nodded.
"Most definitely," he agreed. The man put his hands on his hips, widening his stance.
"Listen," he cleared his throat.
"No, no!" Bruce cut in, holding a hand out in front of him, "we need to bring you in for questioning, because….. what the hell?!"
"What, never seen anyone come back to life?" the man scoffed.
"No, actually," Tony shrugged, then realized, "actually need mind, I have. But he was stuck in a block of ice forty years after World War Two." The man nodded, licking his lips.
"Whatever," he said, "anyway-"
"Who are you?" Banner asked defensively.
"Captain Jack Harkness," he answered matter-of-factly, "and yourself? Wait don't answer that. I already know. Doctor Banner and Tony Stark, correct?"
"How…?"
Jack tapped his temple gently, "I have extensive files on everyone around the world, as eel as my colleagues at Torchwood, so…. yeah. That's how."
"Torchwood?" Tony asked, "what is that?"
"Nothing of your concern, my friend," Jac grinned, shoving his hands in his coat pockets, "now would you mind showing me the way out? I really need to get bak to the ol' HQ."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but we assure you, you aren't going anywhere-" Bruce threatened, stopping short as Jack rolled his eyes, groaning with boredom.
"Why does everyone always have to say that?" he muttered to himself. Tony cocked his head in confusion- he got that that often, huh?
"Well, look at you!" Tony blurted, pointing in Jack's direction. Jack smirk, a coy smile spreading across his face.
"I do look good, don't I?" Jack said, then shook his head, adding "Whatever, listen, i don't have time to waste with you two trying to rip me apart. I need to get the blue cube Toshiko was talking about and get back to HQ."
"Toshiko?" Bruce asked, "is that some sort of car brands now?" Tony shrugged.
"Maybe," he said, placing the scalpel back on the table, "I mean, they have all sorts of cars nowadays-"
"No! Toshiko is a person- one of my colleagues at Torchwood! Now shut up or I will shoot!"
"How did we go from cars to shooting?" Tony asked as Jack suddenly whipped out a gun, silver and extremely futuristic looking by his standards, "What model is that?"
"A De-Mat gun, my friend, from the fifty first century," JAck said simply, placing his finger on the trigger. The barrel began to glow a soft blue, and Tony noticed it was the same color s the Tesseract- Was that the blue cube he mentioned?
"And what does a De-Mat gun do" Bruce asked nervously, swallowing hard.
"Rips a hold in the fabric of space and matter so i can escape," JAck explained with a laugh, then pointed it at the floor. Immediately, a square hole appeared in the floor of the lab and JAck gave a small wave before jumping, his yell echoing off the wall, leaving the two scientists to stare at it in wonder, unsure of what to do next.
"D-Do we follow him?" Tony asked meekly.
"We should warn Fury," Bruce answered, "because that guy is definitely an interesting specimen."
"He had really nice hair too," Tony added, more to himself then Bruce, although it didn't really matter at this point. They still had a hole to fix.