The line was inserted, and she'd started running fluids when she paused to consider antibiotics.

"Anything besides the sulfa allergy Jarvis? In terms of antibiotics."

"No known allergies besides that one," Jarvis confirmed.

"Okay," she sighed to herself. "Should probably get a chest x-ray, but I've never done that before on someone unconscious," she admitted. "And I don't even know what his x-rays are supposed to look like. Do you have a comparison image of his baseline Jarvis?"

"Of course," he replied, and on the nearest screen, an image of Tony's chest appeared.

She blinked at it. "What the hell." She traced the outline of the arc reactor. "Okay, I understand why Dr Leary was so panicky about Tony. This is... a mess," she settled on. "I mean, I knew his lung capacity was reduced, but seeing it like this... is there a lateral one?"

Jarvis switched the image.

Miranda just blinked at it.

"Remind me to yell at Tony later. Because..." she shook her head. She didn't have words for that. She honestly didn't know how the man was still alive, let alone functioning as a superhero.

"Antibiotics," she muttered to herself, trying to get the image out of her mind. Miranda knew it would be there every time she closed her eyes for the next week at least.

She hung the antibiotics alongside the saline, and injected a painkiller and an antipyretic for good measure.

She went over the checklist, using her finger to keep track. "Oxygen, fever reduction, antibiotics, fluids... am I missing anything Jarvis?"

"I am not qualified to say," he told her.

"Oh, I should probably draw blood for labs," she said. "Not sure if a culture would show anything, but I'll bet you his electrolytes are off from his lifestyle. I bet he hasn't had anything but coffee and liquids for the last couple of days, and not enough enough of those."

Jarvis chose not to respond, which was answer enough.

Miranda drew the blood samples, and set them aside. That was one thing she couldn't do.

"Jarvis, can you arrange to have someone from SHIELD collect the samples in the morning and run them?"

"Of course."

"Thank you," she sighed, holding back a yawn. "What time is it," she muttered, feeling the sleep weighing down on her now that the adrenaline had worn off.

"It's now 3:34 am. I woke you at 2:47 am."

She shrugged. "Not bad then. I think I'm going to take a nap. The alarms are on the monitor if anything goes wrong, but if he wakes up and tries to sneak out, let me know okay? He can't override me when it comes to his health, right?"

"Correct," Jarvis confirmed.

"Great," she said, yawning. She climbed into the bed next to Tony's, making sure she could see the monitor displaying the vital signs.

"Oh, and if he shows signs of waking up, let me know."

"Of course," Jarvis said graciously, and then Miranda slipped back into sleep.

Jarvis didn't wake her up, and she got up on her own around 7am. Tony looked about the same, but his fever was down thanks to the drugs, and his colour was better.

He showed signs of stirring, so she replaced the oxygen mask with a nasal cannula. She figured she had a better chance of keeping that on him.

In the meantime, a SHIELD courier showed up to take the blood samples, and the Tower started to awaken. Steve stopped by before heading out on his morning run, and his eyes were sad, even if he didn't say it. Miranda shooed him out, telling him that he would be the first to know if he woke up. Bruce wandered in a bit later, looking bleary eyed and confused, but happy that Tony was getting proper medical care, and not 'half assed stuff that I can get away with in developing countries' as he so poetically put it.

Natasha was away on a mission, and Thor could have gone to sleep after his midnight foray, but one could never be sure. Clint had a habit of sleeping in until at least noon if he didn't have anything to do, so she wasn't expecting him to show up any time soon, and if he did, it wouldn't be through the door, but rather through the air vents he was so fond of.

It was getting to be mid-morning by the time Tony actually awoke, and blinked at her.

"You're an idiot," she told him as soon as he focused on her.

He only rolled his eyes at her, and closed them again. She glanced at the monitor. "You're not sleeping, so don't think you can ignore me."

He didn't open his eyes, so she poked him. "I will poke you with something sharper," she noted. "There are needles around here."

"What do you want woman?" he sighed, heaving his eyes open and staring at her.

"You're an idiot," she repeated.

Tony looked away. "You said that. But that's a well known fact. Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?"

"I have a question. Why didn't you come to me when you knew you were getting ill?"

He didn't look back at her.

"Tony," she prodded. "I'm not sure what you're expecting me to do, but I don't give up that easily. Do you know why SHIELD recruited me?"

He shook his head slightly. "Wasn't in the file. Can't hack something that doesn't exist."

"Have you ever heard of Sherlock Holmes? Brilliant detective from London? His best mate John Watson ran a blog about the cases he solved. Seriously, the guy was a genius. Stubborn as hell though, and he liked to take crazy risks to prove a point. Sound familiar?"

Tony narrowed his eyes at her. "I may have heard of him. Isn't he dead?"

Miranda's smile faded. "Yeah. Apparently it was suicide. He jumped off a building."

"You don't sound convinced," Tony observed.

She shook her head. "I'm not. I patched that man up more than anyone else in London except for maybe John. I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't do something like that. He was a detective, right? And just before he dies, there's this huge court case and supposed conspiracy. Besides, I fixed him up. He always fought. He didn't want to die."

Tony glanced away. "Is there a point to this?"

"SHIELD recruited me because I could make Sherlock Holmes get treated. And just as important, I could keep him calm when his best friend was hurt. Most of the paramedics in London were terrified of him, for a good reason. But me?" She shrugged. "I could handle him. That's why SHIELD hired me. And you are no more difficult or annoying than Sherlock Holmes. You're a bit more medically complicated, but it's nothing I can't handle."

"I'm guessing a god is something new though," Tony noted wryly, his head lolling to one side.

She shrugged. "Thor's a giant puppy. And just like a puppy, you have to distract him if you want to do anything."

Tony snorted, and it turned into a cough.

She held a cup of water out for him when he finished.

"So why didn't you come to me?"

He accepted the water and drank half of it before setting it down and tapping his finger on his chest. She'd seen him do it before, when he was nervous or stressed. He'd tap out a rhythm on the arc reactor, like he was reassuring himself it was still there.

"Stark men are made of iron," he whispered.

She was pretty sure it wasn't directed at her, so she didn't respond to that.

He shrugged finally, removing his hand from his chest, instead looping his fingers through the IV tubing. She left it alone. Unless he removed it, it was fine. "Wasn't a big deal," he said finally, and she only levelled a look at him.

"Bullshit," she enunciated clearly.

Tony grinned at her. "It never starts out as a big deal. And most of the time, it doesn't turn into a big deal." He shrugged. "Balance of probability. Most of the time it is fine, so I can't worry about it. I can't worry about every thing that may be wrong with me, because I'd never get anything done. I'd have to spend the rest of my life in a bubble, or the suit." He shrugged again, resigned. "I can't do that."

She tilted her head. "Okay. I get that. But there's a difference between, oh, having a cold, and letting it develop into pneumonia. You need to figure out at what point it does become a big deal, and prepare accordingly. Isn't that what Jarvis is for?"

Tony smirked at her. "Not what I programmed him for, but yes, he does tend to be useful when it comes to that."

"And this time?"

"Came on fast. Less than a day from my baseline to this," he said, gesturing to the bed.

"Oh, speaking of which, I need to get a chest x-ray. I didn't do it when you were unconscious, because you know, the whole inhale and hold it thing, and you were not up for doing it while unconscious."

"I'm not going to autograph it for you," he told her, and they both knew it was a bad attempt at a joke.

She sighed dramatically. "Oh, I suppose I'll have to suffer through."

Miranda had Jarvis display the two x-rays side by side.

"Those don't look... good," Tony admitted.

Miranda glared at him and jabbed the images with her pen. "Cloudy! Cloudy, cloudy, patchy, cloudy!"

Tony attempted a smile. "Pneumonia. Oops."

"Oops is right. You are not leaving this bed until this," she jabbed at the newest x-ray, "Looks like this," she jabbed at the baseline x-ray.

"But that'll take forever," Tony whined.

Miranda placed her hands on her hips and glared at him, daring him to argue with her. "I'm sorry, but did I or did I not discover you collapsed in your kitchen?"

Tony scowled. "How am I supposed to know?" He considered it. "How did you get me here anyway?"

She smirked. "You were carried."

His face paled, which was surprising given his current level of paleness. "By who?"

"Thor."

Tony relaxed slightly.

Miranda raised an eyebrow at that. "So Thor is okay, but who's not? Steve?"

Tony blushed slightly. He mumbled something under his breath.

"Tony Stark!" she exclaimed. "Now, you will stay in this bed or I will get Captain America himself to come babysit you. And you know that he will give you his disappointed face, and I have seen stronger men than you crumple under that face."

Tony seemed visibly pained by that. He folded.

"Fine," he muttered.

Miranda patted him on the shoulder. "Good choice."