Chapter 8
Even after Bruce's suggestions to open the doors to the workshop, Natasha was solid as a rock in her decision, saying she was too far in to back down. It would make her look weak, and that was something she must not allow.
Tony's hands were shaking as he attached the final wire to his new electronic explosive, worried he would do something wrong again and embarrass himself in front of Natasha.
Rhodey had called earlier, after Bruce had called him, asked him to call Tony and talk him out of trying to open the doors.
Rhodey had threatened to come to the tower himself if Tony wouldn't stop on his own, so Tony lied and told him he would stop.
Tony put down a plastic mat, just like Jarvis had told him to do the last time, and then he gripped the controller in his hand. He lifted his finger above the button, trying to will it to come down.
"Sir, Colonel Rhodes is in the lobby," Jarvis said over the speakers.
That was it, he had to do it now, if Rhodey came up, he'd never get back into the workshop.
Tony pressed down on the button and hall lit up with electricity.
He flew back into the wall as the explosion let loose on the door, rocking the hallway with waves of electricity.
Rhodey got off the elevator onto the main floor of the building when he heard the explosion. He found Clint Barton sitting at the elevated bar stools eating a granola bar when he entered the kitchen area.
"What was that?" he said, forgetting a polite greeting.
"Probably your idiot, Tony," Clint said, jumping off his stool and leading Rhodey down a hall towards the workshop.
The air felt electrified and the ground was static filled, a thin smoke allowed minimal sight once they got within a few meters of the door and the smoking bomb case attached to the unscarred doorknob.
"Well, that's not good," Clint said, loosing his usually light, cool manner, when he saw Tony up against a wall on the opposite side of the room.
Rhodey grabbed Tony's arm, Clint followed unspoken orders and grabbed his other arm.
"Has he always been this insane?" Clint said as they walked toward the medical wing of the tower.
"Unfortunately, yes," Rhodey said with an annoyed glance at Tony.
"I figured..." Clint said, as if he were finally adding the last piece to an unsolved puzzle.
The first thing he registered was the unfamiliar beep of a machine.
He thought to himself, when did I go to sleep? and is that my alarm clock?
"Tony, Tony, come on man, wake up,"
A distant voice came from somewhere, Tony wondered if it was Natasha. He really hated her.
Then he fell back into a seemingly endless sleep.
"Is he okay?" That was definitely Pepper.
He knew her voice anywhere. At the sound of her, his eyelids crept opened, finding a plain white room and a bunch of strawberry blond hair framing the most beautiful face he'd ever seen.
"Hi," Tony said, his voice tired and rather happy.
"Hi," Pepper said, pushing Rhodey out of the way, claiming the spot next to Tony.
"Where am I...?" Tony asked suspiciously, his eyes flying around the room at a leisurely pace, seeing Pepper, Rhodey, and a lot of white objects that seemed too bright.
"You're still in the tower, we're in the medical wing," Pepper said.
"The bomb... The doors, where's Natasha?!" If Tony had seemed calm before, he was anything but it now. His eyes widened in anger at the memory of his doors being locked by the evil assassin.
"She unlocked the doors," Pepper said quietly.
Tony brought a hand up to pinch his nose, "Why." he asked.
"She figured it would do you more harm to have them closed than to open them," Pepper said, then continued, "I also threatened to have her removed from the tower."
Pepper seemed proud that she had found a weak spot on the assassin.
"I should apologize, right?" Tony asked, knowing he may have been a bit caught up in his work before. Taking that out on Natasha when she was trying to help was probably not the greatest way to thank her.
"Yes," Pepper replied with a smile.
Clint entered the door, no doubt having been listening through the sound sensors the entire time, "And if you ever set off another explosion in the tower, I will personally shot you in the leg."
"Got it," Tony said, then Clint awaited the snarky remark that was sure to follow, "Legolas."
There it is.
"When can I leave?" Tony asked, since last time he left the medical wing before he was excused, Fury was rather furious (pun intended.).
"Whenever, they were only keeping you until you woke up," Pepper replied, tucking his loose hair behind his ear.
Rhodey and Clint saw that as their cue to leave, and they did.
"So, wanna see my plans for the Mark 52?" Tony asked eagerly, now that he could go back to his workshop.
Pepper rolled her eyes, then looked back at him, "No, don't show me it. If I see it, it'll remind me that you may need to use it, and that, Tony, freaks me out!" Pepper finished.
"I'm not going anywhere," Tony said, lifting her chin with the tip of his finger.
"Promise?" Pepper joked.
"I'll consider it," Tony replied, kissing her on the cheek.
"Now I'm out of here," Tony said, lifting himself off the bed and onto his feet.
"You're terrible," Pepper teased, joining him by the door.
"Ya, but that's why I have you, you're perfect, I'm terrible, put us together and you have two decent people," Tony remarked, as they entered the main room of the tower.
"Decent?" Pepper asked, "That's worse than the tower being 12% mine!" she said, reminiscing on past remarks made by Tony.
He smiled at the memory, "Okay, then you can be perfect, and I'll be decent."
"Hmm... Okay, deal," Pepper replied, as if it were a very important decision.
"Haha," Tony said, as she turned and left to do work in her office.
He waited until her door clicked shut, then raced down the hall to his workshop.
"DADDY'S HOME!" Tony said as quietly as he could.
His robots all spun round happily.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Dummy, I missed you!" Tony said, giving his robot a pat on the head.
NOT THE END!
Worry not, my tiny friends. -Thor
Haha, anyway, can't wait to continue the story. Let me know, seriously, if you would like me to focus on continuing this story, because I'm thinking it'd be nice to take a break from this and focus on my Avenger's Tower story for the moment.
Although, if you guys would like this to stay daily, I most definitely will do it for you :D!
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-MarvelLuver