Moving hurt. Staying still hurt. Even just thinking about any of it physically hurt.
Darcy would have killed for some high dose painkillers right then, but the mean nurse (who was probably nice under different circumstances) said that they needed her fully conscious so she could give her statement.
The first time this was said, Darcy still had a full dosage of Vicodin in her system and thought they were asking for a kidney. As she slowly gained back her ability to think, she realized that somehow she had confused kidney for statement. An hour later she realized that she would have rather given up her kidney if it meant she could be knocked out again.
Aside from the nurse coming in every so often, Darcy hadn't seen anyone else. There was a brief commotion outside the door when she first opened her eyes, which at the time time she had assumed were people fighting over her kidney. That didn't make much sense to her later on, and that's when she vaguely recalled hearing a familiar, high-pitched voice doing a lot of yelling.
When Darcy was appropriately in her right mind and properly in pain with only extra strength Tylenol to keep her company, the nurse returned, this time with two visitors.
Her best friend, looking like she had been worrying too much and not getting much sleep, and Tony Stark, who surprisingly didn't look as chipper and awake as usual either.
Jane rushed immediately to Darcy's side, practically collapsing on top of her. That's the moment when Darcy first noticed her injuries. Mainly because Jane was pressing on all of them in her embrace. With a gentle tug and reminder that Darcy was hurt, Tony pulled her friend away and sent Darcy a brief nod in acknowledgment.
"Stark," Darcy said in response and she attempted a sarcastic salute with her right arm. Her arm did not comply though and flopped like a half-drunk fish on top of her blanket. That startled her enough to start looking for where she had actually been hurt. Earlier she'd been too high on pain medication to actually locate the source of the pain. She'd just known she was hurting. A lot.
Even without Jane crushing her to death, though, she was still having a hard time breathing.
"You broke your arm," Jane said, voice cracking, and Darcy lifted up the thick layers of blankets to see that her left arm indeed was in a cast. A green cast actually.
"My choice," Tony said with a knowing smirk that went unnoticed by Jane.
"And you have two cracked ribs, but nothing was punctured," Jane continued. Her face scrunched up like she was trying not to cry. "And... and you have a concussion, but no damage was done to the brain." Then she proceeded to burst into tears making the next words she said completely inaudible.
Darcy looked at Tony, and Tony looked at Darcy, neither prepared to handle this sobbing woman. Darcy wasn't entirely sure she was allowed to move, and Tony... well Tony was incapable of human feelings.
The nurse present, who had been standing off to the side to give them some privacy, just clicked her tongue at them both and then wrapped Jane in a hug.
Tony looked on in obvious discomfort before turning back to Darcy. "So, in other words, you'll be fine."
Darcy snorted. And then cringed because it made her stomach hurt. "Thanks boss."
"Oh," Tony started, waving his hands, showing for the first time real emotion with widening eyes and flared nostrils. "No way. I may have some leadership capacity but I'm in no way your boss. This..." he said, motioning to her injuries, "is not... my fault."
Darcy just rolled her eyes. "Of course it's not your fault. It was those two psycho scientists." She paused at this, contemplating. "It was the two scientists, wasn't it?"
Tony nodded, somberly.
Her face split into a wide grin. "So I was right?"
"Only you would be so excited about being right in a situation like this," Jane sniffed, finally halting her crying. "Especially when you guys got hurt, there are more important things to be concerned with."
Darcy moved to sit up in her bed, and the nurse quickly rushed to her side to help. "That's not true. Tony would be exactly the same," she said, jabbing a thumb towards the billionaire who didn't disagree. She shifted slightly, trying to not put much pressure on her ribs, and frowned. "Wait... who else got hurt?"
Tony remained silent, but Jane startled rambling off the people. "Those lab techs that sit next to us in HR meetings, and that receptionist on floor three - the one with the weird hair?" Darcy recognized who Jane was talking about, and motioned for her to continue. "And then Dr. Banner of course."
Darcy froze. "Wait, what? What happened to Bruce?" She turned her head to Tony for explanation, but he was avoiding her eyes. She looked back to Jane in alarm. "Is he okay?"
Bruce couldn't be hurt. He was indestructible. He was the Hulk! He had saved her life so many times and to think that he was...
Jane frowned at Darcy. As far as she knew, Darcy had only met him once or twice. She didn't know that Darcy went to his and Tony's lab daily. Darcy hadn't not told her on purpose, she just hadn't wanted to make Jane feel guilty for why she needed to escape to the other lab in the first place.
"Dr. Banner is stable now," Jane said, flicking her gaze to Tony as if that would somehow enlighten her to the situation.
"Stable?" Darcy shrieked. Stable meant that previously, he had not been stable. Her hands started to shake as she started to untangle herself from her bed sheets.
"Darcy!" Jane scolded, "You need to stay in bed. You're hurt."
Darcy swatted her friend's protests away and worked at figuring out had to push down the rails that were caging her in on both sides. "No," she grunted, straining over a rail to feel for buttons. "No, I need to..."
"Here," Tony said walking up to the bed and then in the blink of an eye he'd disable the rail. He smirked at Darcy, amused to see her exasperated expression. Stupid geniuses. When Darcy went to stand though, he held up his hands to stop her. "Whoa there. How about we get you a wheelchair and take you to see him?"
Usually she would object to any suggestion from Tony Stark, but as it were, Darcy's head was starting to feel a little woozy so she just nodded, slouching back onto her bed with a groan. Then she looked around for the nurse, but sometime in the last minute she must have slipped out.
"Uh, I guess I'll go find one?" Jane asked, sounding somewhat uncertain.
"I think that would be a wise decision given your friend's seeming desire to further injure herself," Tony said sarcastically.
Darcy shot him a look and then softened her features into a smile for Jane. "Thanks."
Welp... I have been sucked into the vortex that is Tumblr you guys! That, and midterms, are the main reasons that I have been mostly absent in updating this story. So... come follow me on Tumblr (same name on here) as I fangirl over some of my favorite TV ships and freak out over unexpected cliffhangers. (You also have my permission to message me about updating my fics. It would be quite deserved, really.) You can even request fics on there if you want.
So... at least one more chapter after this one. And then I'll continue working on this series. I'm on Spring Break right now, so hopefully I'll get more time to work on some chapters!
I just wanted to update this so you wouldn't be left on a cliffhanger for longer than necessary!
Feedback is welcome. It feeds my writer soul.