"I can't concentrate, there's too many people here." Kara Gunnarssen looked up as she heard a Quinjet come in for a landing. A leather-clad figure jumped off of the descending ramp before it had finished setting down and hurried over to them. "Clint, how long a trip to the Helicarrier or to the nearest base?"
Clint Barton tore his eyes away from the still figure lying on the ground in a widening pool of blood. "Half hour, give or take."
"He doesn't have a half hour. Tony, we can use your clean room."
"We can? Gee, Doc, nice of you to ask," Stark snarked.
"Get over yourself. Bruce, you have medical supplies in the tower, don't you?"
"Yes, the infirmary is fully stocked. You don't want to take him there?"
"No, his system is fully exposed with these injuries. They may be immune to most Earth-bugs but I don't want to risk it." Kara looked around. Clint was gesturing over two S.H.I.E.L.D. ground troopers who were carrying a stretcher. "Can Nat land that thing on your tower anywhere, Tony?" she asked with a nod to the Quinjet. "I'm assuming she's flying it."
"Yeah, I've got a helipad on the back face, opposite my launch area."
"Great. Let's get moving, people!"
She stood, keeping one hand on the downed man's abdomen as they lifted him. Jogging along beside him as he was carried to the Quinjet, she continued to feed him energy. Thor strode beside her. "My lady, can you save him?"
"Honestly, Thor, if we can't stop him from leaking energy, I don't know. I'm still scanning him and seriously hope something jumps out at me soon."
"Jumps out? What is in him that would jump out?"
Kara sighed. "It's a term…ah, never mind."
... ...
Tony Stark barked orders at Jarvis as he flew back to his tower, then grinned as Jarvis informed him that 'Miss Potts' had been listening in on his open communication and had already anticipated and implemented his instructions. He really needed to give her a higher title. He chuckled to himself. Or get his act together and propose. "Thanks, Jarvis. I'll thank Pepper when I arrive."
Pepper's voice came through the link. "You can thank me now. By the sounds of things you're going to be too busy to remember when you arrive."
"No joke. He looks bad, Pep. Seriously. If he were human I'd wonder not what truck, but how many trucks hit him. Since he's not, I don't even want to imagine what it took to do that much damage. If whatever it was gets to Earth, we're screwed."
"Thor taking it pretty hard?"
"Surfer boy is beside himself. Big Bad Norse god looks like he's going to cry."
"Tony, be nice. He loves his brother."
"I am being nice. I'm letting them get my clean room full of blood and guts, aren't I?" He frowned when she didn't respond. "Sorry, I'm rattled too, I guess." He touched down and stepped around the apparatus that would remove his armor. "Jarvis, I'm staying armored in case reindeer games comes to and decides to, uh, act out."
"Very good, Sir."
He flipped up his visor as he entered through the sliding door and made his way to the clean room. The Quinjet's engines were barely audible over the soundproofing once the doors had closed behind him. The reconstruction crew had done a good job. The elevator doors slid apart just as he ordered the clean room's doors to remain open. "This way, boys and girls," he called out. Pepper was standing inside the room, a worried frown on her face. "Thanks, beautiful," he said quietly and leaned over to give her a quick kiss. It was awkward in the armor, but he really needed to let her know how much he appreciated her.
Pepper blushed, whether it was at the public display of affection or the compliment, he wasn't sure. "You're welcome," she told him.
The troopers came in carrying the stretcher. Dr. Gunnarssen hovered on one side, her hand resting on Loki's abdomen. Thor was hanging over her shoulder. Bruce Banner was on the other side, holding an oxygen mask over their patient's nose and mouth. The broken god's condition must have deteriorated. "Damn. I can't believe it, but I'm actually feeling sorry for him."
"That's because you're a good man, Tony Stark," Pepper told him, reaching up to touch his cheek.
"Yeah, well, don't tell anybody. You'll ruin my rep." He looked back toward the door as Hawkeye and the Black Widow entered. Nat looked grim and Clint looked…conflicted? Weird. The troopers deposited Loki on the examination table and left, taking the bloody stretcher with them. "What next?" Tony asked the room in general.
Banner spoke up. "I'm going to try and stitch this…what did you call it?"
"Meng mein," Kara supplied.
"Right; together, and see if that helps."
"Sir?" Jarvis asked. "Dr. Miller and his trauma team have arrived from New York Presbyterian. Shall I direct them to your location?"
He glanced at Pepper who nodded. "Absolutely, put the elevator on express for them," he told the AI. "The head of NYP's trauma department, huh? You've got strings to pull I didn't know about?"
She smiled. "It pays to be nice to people at charity events."
... ...
Kara groaned as she felt the patient's energy drop even lower. She looked over at Thor speculatively. "Thor, how badly do you want to save your brother?"
"I would do most anything, should it not bring harm to another."
"Good, 'cause I have a crazy idea."
"Uh, Kara, is this as crazy as your experiments on my other?" Bruce asked.
"No, not that crazy. But you have to admit, that was successful."
"Sure, if you call trashing the gymnasium a success."
"But I brought you out of it, didn't I?" she asked. "Oh, never mind that now." Kara turned back to Thor. "Loki is not just losing blood, he's losing energy. I've been trying to push energy into him, but there isn't enough of what he needs in Earth's environment to do much good. The energy I'm reading from the meng mein is, well, unearthly. The only source I can really feel besides what little he still has is in you. I'd like to try to transfer a little of your energy into him in the hopes that it will jump start his ability to heal himself."
"I agree," Thor said almost before she'd finished talking.
"Crap, Doc, you could kill Thor, and for what? Him?" Clint muttered.
"I'm not going to kill Thor. Though it may hurt some, you'll have to lay down, Thor. Clint, I will stop before I do him any harm. I am not going to sacrifice the life of a healthy man to save one who may die anyway."
"Barton," Nat said as his face twisted and he opened his mouth to retort. "Let's go wait on the roof, you need to chill."
"Tony, we need another lab table, or an arm chair for Thor, he's definitely going to be woozy."
"Jarvis?"
"Yes, Sir. Lab table to your right, four yards."
"Got it." Kara looked up as Tony rolled the table over behind her. "Okay, point break, get your godly butt on the table. I'm going to lose the suit, I don't think he's going to be trying anything any time soon."
"On your back, please, Thor," Kara added as several strangers entered the room. "If he does, Tony, I'll put him under. It wouldn't take much at this point."
"Someone call for a trauma team?" a sharply dressed forty-something man asked.
... ...
Pepper walked over, her hands outstretched. "Roger! Thanks so much for coming. Your team can prep over there."
"No problem," Dr. Miller responded. His team moved over to the prep area and began opening bags of what looked to be operating room wear. "So, who is our…holy shit. Seriously, Pepper? Isn't that the bastard that trashed Manhattan? Why in hell do we want to save him?"
"Because, Dr. Feel Good," Tony interjected in a sarcastic tone. "He's got intel on something that could make that invasion look like a kiddy parade. If he doesn't make it, we're going to be sitting ducks."
"Okay, good enough. Let's go folks," Miller said to his team, holding out his arms so they could pull a gown over him. "What is she doing?" he asked, nodding towards Kara.
Pepper considered how to explain it. "Uh, Dr. Gunnarssen is a holistic energy specialist. The Asgardian physiology relies more on certain types of energy than they do on the physical body. If the energy isn't restored, nothing we can do for him surgically will make a difference."
"Gunnarssen? Kara Gunnarssen?" he asked.
Kara was holding one hand over Thor's abdomen and the other just over where Bruce was working on Loki's mystery organ with an intent look on her face and didn't answer. "Yes," Pepper told him. "She needs all her concentration," she added. "And this is Dr. Bruce Banner, he's also a bit busy…"
"No problem. I've heard of them both and their work. What should we focus on?"
Dr. Banner glanced up. "He's got at least one collapsed lung, looks like a great deal of blood in there. If you could aspirate and inflate it, that would be extremely helpful. After that, take a look at his skull. I'm concerned about fluid on the brain, you may need to go in and relieve the pressure if Kara's treatment doesn't have a strong enough effect soon enough. Everything else is broken bones. Other than moving any rib splinters away from organs, I don't think we should worry about them yet."
"Got it. You heard the man, team, let's get busy."
... ...
Thor clenched his teeth as he felt energy being pulled from his meng mein. It was the worst pain he'd ever felt, but if it would save his brother, he'd bear it. He looked over at Loki's battered face. "Fight my brother," he said. "Fight to live, I beg you." Loki's eyelids flickered, he could swear it. "I think," he began then broke off with a groan. "I think it's helping," he gasped.
Kara Gunnarssen looked at his face. "How much pain are you in?" she asked.
"Very little," he lied.
"Right. Little, my foot. I'm sorry, I didn't think it would be this bad."
"I do not care, my lady. Did you see? He moved, just a bit, but he moved."
"Whoa," Dr. Banner said. "This is amazing."
"What's happening?" Kara asked.
"The areas I already stitched…the edges seem to be knitting together and it's pushing out the stitches."
"Try holding the other pieces together with your hands, leave off trying to fix it, let's see if it will heal itself now."
"Got it."
Thor tried to sit up to see what was happening and slipped back down flat on the table. "My lady? Is it helping?"
She turned to him. "I think it is, we've got some hope now, at least."
"Thank the gods."
... ...
Tony frowned as he watched over the trauma surgeon's shoulder. Loki's mouth began to move, it looked as though the man was trying to speak. He edged in closer and bent to listen. The eyes fluttered open and fastened on his. "Stark?" he gasped.
"Yeah. You need to relax, let the doctors work."
"Cannot. Tell my…Thor. Cube and scepter…" he faded out, then took a rattling breath and began again. "Cannot be near each other. Or the gauntlet. Tell Odin. Enemy can open…gate with them." Loki's whole body shuddered. "Tell them, swear it."
"Fine, relax, get better, and you can tell them yourself."
"Dying. Swear it."
"I swear I'll tell them. And you aren't dying, not if we can help it." Reindeer games had the nerve, and more to the point, the energy, to laugh. That was a good sign, wasn't it?
"Your pitiful doctors cannot save a dying god," Loki choked.
"Shut up, and rest. I'll pass on the message to Thor and Odin, okay?" Loki didn't respond, but his body relaxed. "Thor, did you hear that?" He looked over at the other lab table. Thor was unconscious. "Oh, shit. Uh, Kara?"
"He's fine. He finally passed out from the pain, but his energy is already starting to regenerate. You can come around here and push him out of the way, if you don't mind."
"No problem."
"Look at that, Kara. The damn thing is almost whole."
"I see it. My crazy idea wasn't so crazy, admit it."
"You were right. Again."