Chapter Five

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Things suddenly started moving almost breathtakingly fast. Pepper found out when Tony stuck his head into her office where she was still talking to the Stark lawyers on the phone.

"Hey, Pep, do me a favor. Drag this legal thing out as long as you can, okay? We need time to bring Cap's girl back to life."

"What?" Pepper had all but shrieked, very nearly dropping the phone, but Tony was already far down the hallway and she was left trying to explain her sudden yelp to the attorney on the other end of the line.

Nobody actually told either Natasha or Clint - they just seemed to know. Tony made a mental note to check the cameras and make sure they hadn't been tapped. Clint gave Steve a thump on the shoulder and asked how he could help, and Natasha promptly materialized in her Natalie Rushman persona to help Pepper with the legal issues.

Because of Tony's experiences with his arc reactor, Pepper had ensured that a full-fledged medical facility was maintained in the tower, with local physicians on call. At Steve's request, Bruce gladly agreed to help with the proposed procedure. Even though he was not a full-fledged doctor, he had experimented with recreating the serum for years, and had a personal and professional interest in the situation.

The only major discrepancy of opinion was in regards to the post-operation room.

Tony went all out, having JARVIS look up architectural and interior design typical of the late 1940's, trying to create an environment which would be familiar and reassuring if this whole harebrained scheme actually worked - if Peggy ever regained consciousness. He didn't expect Steve's adamant reaction when he pulled up the proposed plans.

"No."

"What?" Tony blinked, squinting at the blueprints on the screen, hunting for a reason for the captain's refusal. "Why not? Look, I've hunted around on Ebay and I can get everything I need on there. Maybe we can disguise the heart rate monitor as a radio…" Tony flicked images left and right on the holo-screen, trying to decide how to hide the medical sensors. Maybe he could invent a medical scanner and incorporate it into JARVIS?

"I don't care how accurate you can make it. We're not lying to her." Steve's eyebrows were pulled almost halfway down his face, and he was speaking in his most stern tone.

Across the lab, Bruce straightened up in surprise and laid down a medical text. "Steve? You okay? We're just trying to make it a little more familiar…"

"We're not lying to her," Steve repeated firmly, before turning his back and almost fleeing out of the lab. Tony and Bruce shared mystified glances.

"Um, that went well," Bruce finally decided, peering over the tops of his glasses and leaning out the door to watch the retreating captain. "What happened to him?"

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"Hey, Cap?"

Of all the people in the world Steve least wanted to talk to right then, Tony made the top of the list. Resignedly, he put on a neutral expression and turned his head towards his friend. "Yeah, over here."

Stark Tower wasn't just the residence of Tony Stark and the rest of the Avengers; it was also the home of a multibillion dollar corporation. Thousands of people flooded in and out of the lower floors each week: office workers, janitors, foreign representatives and more. These people needed things like packages, furniture, paper towels, ink jets, staples and lightbulbs, not to mention all the materials Tony Stark required for his own experimentation and the daily life of the Avengers. All these things were brought in by delivery trucks every week and unloaded at the big docks under the tower. Nobody ever went in there for any other reason.

That was why Steve had come here. Seeing as it had been three hours since his overreaction in the lab, he figured Pepper or Bruce hadn't let Tony ask JARVIS where he was until now. Either that, or JARVIS didn't have heat and motion sensors down here - an oversight he doubted Tony's paranoia would allow.

"What on earth are you doing way down here?" grouched Tony good-naturedly, sinking down to sit on the floor next to Steve. "I thought you must've cut and run to Minnesota or something."

Steve shook his head halfheartedly but didn't answer, looking out into the gloom of the huge loading dock, vaguely lit with the glow from Tony's flashlight. He hadn't bothered to bring a light with him - super soldier eyes had pretty good night vision.

"Something's bothering you," Tony finally stated. He fidgeted with the flashlight, causing the beam to swing wildly back and forth. "It can't be easy to have had your girlfriend go down in a plane. I'd go crazy if it were Pepper."

Silence fell into place between them, though it was a little less strained after Tony's genuine, if uncertain, attempt at empathy. The flashlight beam swung around the vast dimness of the loading dock, and both men followed it with their eyes for a moment.

"I always said I didn't remember crashing," Steve startled himself by saying. He hadn't meant to, but suddenly he couldn't stop. "It was true at first, but every now and then I'll wake up and remember a little more. I tried to put her down in one piece, I tried everything I knew, but I was never much of a pilot."

Tony turned toward him, surprised at the sudden turn the conversation, but Steve didn't stop speaking, staring ahead into the darkness.

"The - the ship slammed through the ice and I was thrown into the windshield. It must've broken from the impact because the water came in and I," he swallowed convulsively, "I couldn't move. Must've been pinned down by the steering console or broken my back or something, and the cold didn't help. I couldn't see the water - couldn't see anything. It was pitch black or maybe I'd gone blind from the blow on my head - but I knew it was getting colder and colder and closer and closer…"

He paused and gazed straight through a stack of boxes with eyes that were looking back over seventy years.

"I don't actually remember drowning," he quietly finished. "Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll wake up and remember that too. I can handle all that - it was my choice to go down, but the thought of her…"

Tony had no idea what to say to all this. It was not how he'd planned the conversation going. As far as he knew, he was now the only person who had ever heard Captain America's side of the story of that day. He scooted a little closer to the other man and watched the beam of his flashlight play against the other wall.

Steve chuckled suddenly. It was a strained, sad sound, but the wistful smile on his face was genuine. "She had no sense of fear, you know? I've seen her hang halfway out of an airplane under enemy fire without a safety harness. But to be helpless, knowing she was going down, locked in a tube - it must have been terrifying. How did she even get in there, anyway?"

That was the one question nobody knew the answer to. Somehow, in a crashing airplane, Peggy Carter had ended up inside a tube which could only be opened and closed from the outside. Tony shook the thoughts out of his brain. This conversation had got way off track from where he'd expected. Time to do some rerouting.

"I had JARVIS hunt down the security feeds from when you woke up. Looks like you had a major freak-out. That why you don't want us setting up a 1940's era recovery room?"

Steve, pulled from the thoughts of Peggy's crash, leaned his head back against the cold cement wall. "I thought it was Hydra who had me, trying to get me to let down my guard. It wasn't until I got outside that I realised…" he trailed off, hunting for words before shrugging a little and squaring his shoulders. "Anyway, I don't want to lie to her. She deserves that much."

Tony nodded sagely, the effect somewhat ruined by the fact that he was shining his flashlight up his nose. "True. Curious though: which will freak her out more, a room that looks like what she's used to, or a modern hospital room?"

It was a valid point, and having had some time to calm down, Steve recognized it as such. Together they worked out a compromise. Sitting on the cold cement floor, they went through schematics and equipment on Tony's tablet until they were mutually satisfied. "We're not trying to lie to her," Tony pointed out. "We're just trying to make it so she won't punch a hole through the side of Stark Tower or have a heart attack from culture shock."

Finally, the problem settled, Tony lurched ungracefully to his feet. "Wow, that cement's cold. JARVIS, remind me to do something about that sometime."

He waited a moment, listening to the empty air and then scowled. "Steve, remind me to install the vocal interface for JARVIS down here. If we're going to spend much time in the loading dock, I want my AI to join in the fun."

Turning, Tony only made it a couple of yards before Steve's voice came from the dark behind him.

"Tony, should we even try?"

Tony stopped short and turned back, eyebrows raised. "Um, hello, yeah. Why? Cold feet? It could be the cement..."

"We can't go around reviving people left and right. If it works on Peggy, will it work on other people? Who decides which people should live or die?" It was a problem that had kept Steve up at night, ever since they'd decided to try the transfusion. He was only one man, with an admittedly limited amount of blood. If this worked, he couldn't possibly save everybody.

Tony tossed the flashlight rapidly from one hand to the other, creating a strobe-light effect. "You have a problem with that?" he asked finally.

Steve got to his feet, facing his friend. "It's like playing God, Tony. It's not responsible. We don't even know - what if she'd rather not be brought back? What if she's happy where she is? Will she be a medical freak like me for the rest of her life?"

Silence fell, so profoundly that the captain could hear his own heartbeat hammering in his ears. He desperately wanted Peggy back - he could not articulate how much he wanted her back. But at the same time, was it even the right thing to try? Steve suddenly dreaded the next words out of Tony's mouth.

Tony finally walked towards him, stopping just outside arm's length. He tilted his head a little, examining the captain's face before nodding once, firmly. "I'm her legal next-of-kin. You don't have to make this one, Cap. I'll accept the consequences."

The two men stared into each other's eyes for a long moment, and then Tony spun around lightly on one heel, stalking toward the exit. "Hanging halfway out of an airplane, huh?" he called back, "Sounds like a story you haven't told me yet."

Steve took long steps and caught up easily, slowing so he matched his friend stride for stride. "Oh, you don't know the half of it. I'll tell you about it sometime. Your dad was there too; he was flying the fool plane. Best civilian pilot I ever saw - until I met his son."

Unreasonably touched, Tony shoved through the door just ahead of Steve, and turned down the hallway toward his lab. A hand caught him on the shoulder and he paused.

"By the way, Tony," Steve's voice was just the slightest bit husky. "Thanks."

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Thought I'd give you a little Tony-Steve friendship. I feel like they have a surprising amount in common, but they tend to approach things from opposite points on the spectrum, which could be why they clash so often.

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