The next day, the Avengers alarm went off.
Miranda was sitting at Tony's bedside, reading while he designed something on his tablet, and he dropped it immediately to sit up and throw his covers off.
"No way in hell," she bellowed, throwing her book down on the bed. Tony, who already had his legs hanging over the side, opened his mouth to protest.
She cut him off with a glare. "I will handcuff you to this bed."
"I can pick handcuffs," he countered.
"I'm sure you can," she replied, grinning. "I'm not intending for them to hold you there, but simply slow you down. Don't test me Tony. You are not going out there. You were critically ill yesterday, and are only marginally better today."
He flagged, slouching back on his pillow.
"But they need me," he protested.
"Thor is on earth, and you know perfectly well that he can provide air support. If anything, you will only collapse halfway through and will be a liability. Do you want to do that?"
"No ma'am," he mumbled.
"Quite right," she agreed, patting him on the shoulder. "I'm going to check on what it is, and make a cup of tea. Would you like one?"
"What is it with people and tea? You're British, I get that, but Bruce has his tea thing too. You'd probably get along well. You've met, right? Yes, of course you have. He told me about it, because I do listen sometimes." He paused, frowning. "No, I don't want tea."
She examined him. "Fine. But you had damn well better be in that bed when I get back. Jarvis, let me know if he tries to leave."
With that she turned her back on Tony, and headed off the the tiny kitchen on the medical floor. Tiny being relative, because nothing in a building made by Tony Stark could be actually tiny. She checked her SHIELD email and turned on the news to find the Avengers beating up large gooey creatures. She shuddered. They were going to make an enormous mess.
With her tea in hand, she headed back to Tony's bed, fingers crossed that he was still there so she wouldn't have to kill him.
He wasn't there.
"I'm going to kill him," she announced to the room at large.
"Apologies," Jarvis said, and he sounded like he meant it. "Mr Stark overrode your orders to inform you if he left."
"Of course he did. Where is he now?"
"I have been forbidden to give you that information." Jarvis actually sounded sorry about that too.
"Has the Iron Man armour been dispatched?" she countered.
"Yes."
"Is Tony in the armour yet?"
"I cannot tell you that."
"Can you show me heat signatures inside the Tower?"
Jarvis paused, considering it. "Yes," he concluded, pulling up a floorplan of the Tower on the nearest holographic projector, red dots highlighting heat signatures.
"Okay, that's me," she said, pointing. "Who's that?" she asked, pointing to another, two floors down.
"Miss Potts."
She pointed to someone on the second floor. "That one?"
"Support staff."
"Can you identify if any of them have temperatures higher than normal?"
"Of course," Jarvis replied, and he sounded pleased about that, like he was waiting for her to ask.
Only one red dot remained, on one of the upper floors that functioned as R&D. Of course.
"Has the armour been sent to the floor that heat signature is on?" Miranda asked.
"Yes."
"Gotcha," she muttered. "Let's designate that X, okay Jarvis. Let me know if X gets anywhere else. I'm going to go meet him."
She grabbed a sedative and a wheelchair and set off for the lift. She would be bringing Tony back, come hell or high water.
Just before reaching the floor, Jarvis informed her that X had not gotten anywhere, which was both good, and bad. Good because Tony wasn't escaping, but bad because he wasn't moving.
When the lift arrived, she pushed the wheelchair just enough into the hallway, and went stalking down in her socked feet, because hell yes she was sneaking up on him.
It really wasn't needed, since he apparently knew she was coming, a blueprint of the tower on his Stark Pad. He looked only slightly guilty.
"I thought I could make it," he muttered. Miranda examined him. He was flushed and out of breath, and she wouldn't be surprised to see if his blood pressure tanked.
"Do I need to use the sedative?" she asked him, holding it up.
He shook his head.
"I swear if you move in the two minutes it takes me to get the wheelchair, I will stab you so fast you won't know what hit you."
He stuck his tongue out at her, but that was the extent of his protest.