"Doctor Banner, Mister Stark's heart rate is rapidly declining." Well, that was unwelcome news to Bruce. He turned to Natasha.

"Go get the crash cart from the other room. You know what it looks like, right?" She nodded, even as she took off. As he spoke, the monitor beside Tony sounded its alarm. Bruce fought down panic and swore long and fluently in at least three separate languages. He reached across Tony's chest and disconnected the arc reactor before turning to Steve.

"You know CPR, right?" Steve nodded, more than a little panicked himself.

"Good, do it." Bruce barked out, his voice an octave lower than normal. He turned and moved to the other side of the room, even as Steve started compressions. He was going to ream Tony a new one after this stunt. He dug out what he needed and rushed to the head of Tony's bed.

"Thor, see that machine over there? Bring it here." He waved a hand out to indicate what he wanted as he tipped Tony's head back with the other hand. He wasn't very gentle as he inserted the endotracheal tube, time was of the essence. As it was, Bruce was doing everything he could to keep the Hulk at bay. He reached over to the machine Thor had brought and hooked it up to Tony. Good, that was taken care of. The ventilator would feed Tony oxygen, one less problem to worry about at the moment. He turned swiftly, almost slamming into Natasha. She held out the paddles to him, gel already on. One day he would ask Natasha how she knew so much, but today was not that day. Turning to Steve he waved the other man off. He rubbed the paddles together and placed them against Tony's chest, hating how it made his friend's body jerk. Bruce looked up hopefully at the screen, frowning when it didn't have the results he wanted. He nodded at Steve to continue.

"Damn it, Tony." He snarled, rifling through the drawers of the cart, finally pulling out what he wanted. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Thor, standing off to the side and looking very confused. Well, he couldn't address that now. He ripped open the package in his hands. Bruce waved off Steve once more, sliding the needle into Tony's heart and injecting. He picked up the paddles once more, this time getting the results he wanted. There was a collective sigh of relief as Tony's heart stuttered back into life. He still didn't like how hot Tony felt, but they could handle that. He quickly reconnected the arc reactor, still leaving it hanging from the wires.

"Steve, Thor. There's a large tub in the other room, bring it in here. Fill it was the coldest water you can get and the rest of the ice." He said. He turned to find Natasha looking at him with a peculiar expression.

"Can you go grab towels and another pair of boxers for him?" The woman nodded and slipped out. Bruce braced himself against the bed and sighed.

"Damn it, Tony, you're lucky I have such good control." He muttered. He reached up and smoothed back Tony's sweaty hair. Thor and Steve had returned with the tub and had begun filling it. Between the two of them it didn't take long. Bruce checked the arc reactor cavity before taping plastic into place and securing the reactor.

"Steve, can you get him in the tub? Gently, and you're going to need to hold him up in it. And watch the tubing." He elected to leave Tony's boxers on, what modesty he was preserving he didn't know. Steve nodded and was extremely gentle when handling the engineer, Bruce expected nothing less. As soon as Tony was settled into the tub, Steve knelt beside it to hold him upright, the captain spoke.

"Bruce, is he going to be alright now?" Steve's voice was hesitant, and his concern was evident on his face and in his voice. Bruce paused, kneeling on the other side of the tub.

"This should bring his temperature down, that's the main concern right now. The infection is far along, but I'm confident we can overcome that as well." Bruce tried to speak with confidence. He was trying to put his team at ease. Thor still looked very confused, and finally he spoke.

"What has happened?" Bruce couldn't recall the last time Thor spoke so quietly, usually the god was loud and boisterous. It occurred to Bruce that maybe he hadn't seen illness before. Bruce turned and looked up at Thor.

"Tony has an infection. It's serious. He also has a very high fever from the infection, and it's causing his body to shut down. I'm not going to lie, Thor, it looks pretty bad. But Tony was healthy beforehand, and he's strong. He should pull through." When he was finished addressing Thor, he turned back to Tony and felt his skin.

"His temperature has dropped." He said, relieved. Steve smiled, and Thor looked a little less concerned. Natasha walked in just in time to hear Bruce's words and she cracked a small smile. She laid out the towels and draped the clean underwear over an empty chair. He had decided to leave Tony in for a few more minutes.

"I'm going to call Pepper. And then tell Coulson we'll be unavailable for a while yet. Do you know when Clint is due home?" Natasha spoke even as she pulled out her cell phone.

"Tomorrow." Steve answered, even as she strode out into the hall to make the calls. She didn't take long and was soon back in the room, kneeling beside Bruce.

"Pepper's flying in tomorrow, she's not happy. Coulson says he's got the X-Men and Fantastic Four on call, we're covered for a few days. He also said he'll be around tomorrow to check on us. And Tony. He doesn't sound happy either." She hugged her arms to herself as she spoke. It told them how worried she was. Bruce nodded, feeling Tony's forehead once more.

"Let's get him out and dried off." He said, Natasha standing up with him. Steve carefully extracted Tony from the tub and held him while Natasha and Bruce grabbed towels and dried him off. They waited until Steve set Tony down to strip him of his boxers and slide new ones on. Bruce grabbed a sheet and spread it over Tony's legs. He peeled back the plastic sealing Tony's chest cavity and really inspected it. He pulled out the packing and checked that as well. It was looking alright. Not the best, but Bruce conceded it could look worse. He packed it with fresh gauze and reapplied cream to the area around the casing. He then pulled the sheet up to Tony's chest and settled down on a chair. Natasha tapped him on the shoulder and he turned. She held up two fresh IV bags and he nodded. He checked his watch and wasn't very surprised to find it had passed dinner. He looked over at Natasha as she changed out the IV bags.

"You all should go get something to eat. And you should get some rest. It's going to be a long night." Bruce said. Natasha nodded as she finished, turning to Steve for direction.

"One of us will bring you down something, Bruce. And then someone will come and relieve you so you can rest as well in a couple of hours." the captain said, and the rest nodded. They were used to deferring to him in battle, and it had carried over to most other situations. Bruce sank into the chair as the rest of the team departed.

"Tony, you may not believe it, but you have a hell of a lot of luck." He said softly, settling in for the long haul.