When Stark dropped like a sack of potatoes, Sam was out of his seat and rounding the table purely on reflex. Vision helped Rhodey pull Tony's chair out of the way so he could lie flat on the floor. Rhodey was commanding Tony to breathe while Sam checked his pulse. "Panic attack?" Rhodey asked.
"No, I think it's his heart." Sam shook Stark's shoulder roughly. "Stark! Come on, answer me man."
"Shit. Friday, medical emergency. Get a team up here, prep a jet, and alert the nearest hospital. And someone get the kids out of here, now," Rhodey ordered.
Stark went limp and Sam asked urgently, "Is there an AED anywhere?"
"Negative," Friday answered.
"Stark, we are going to have a talk about proper emergency medical supplies when this is over," he said as he straddled him and began chest compressions.
Rhodey could hear exclamations of dismay from the others, but all he could do was watch with his heart in his throat. The medical team arrived and had Tony on a stretcher within seconds. Sam got on and continued the compressions as they raced back out of the room.
Rhodey turned to Natasha. "Go with them? I can't move fast enough."
She nodded once, then hurried to follow.
A brief silence fell on those who remained in the room. "Is he going to die?" Wanda asked hesitantly.
"God, I hope not," Rhodey said, feeling old and tired. He slowly stood, trying not to think about Tony lifeless on the floor. "I'm going to the hospital. What the rest of you do is up to you."
"I'm going with you," Steve said immediately. "Everyone else stay here; we'll let you know what happens."
The hospital was only three minutes away by air so their helicopter arrived before the quinjet had cleared the landing pad. Rhodey had Friday land it in a nearby empty parking lot instead and, once they climbed out, directed her to return it to the compound.
It took Rhodey longer to trudge from the parking lot into the hospital than it had to arrive at the hospital, and he chafed at his limitations. When they entered the emergency department, Rhodey called Natasha. "We're here. Where will we find him?"
"I'll send Sam out to get you."
While Rhodey was distracted, Steve commandeered a wheelchair. "Get in. You look like you're going to fall over," he said as soon as Rhodey was off the phone.
"I could pull rank, but I won't," Rhodey grumbled.
Sam appeared while Rhodey was still settling in. "This way." He waited to say more until they had left the waiting room where a few curious onlookers might overhear. "They say he'll live. Suspected heart attack, but they're running tests to determine exactly what happened. He's not awake yet."
"Did his heart stop?" Rhodey asked, remembering Sam astride Tony.
"No, but the rhythm wasn't right."
Tony was secluded in a back corner of the emergency department, his shirt cut open, all sorts of wires attached to his chest and an oxygen mask strapped to his face. A doctor and two nurses conversed quietly by the bedside as they watched the readings on the half dozen monitors along the wall.
There wasn't space in the small room for the wheelchair to pull up on the other side of the bed, so Steve parked Rhodey at the end of it. Sam remained just outside the door, on guard.
Natasha handed Rhodey a clipboard. "You're just in time for the paperwork."
Rhodey sighed and began filling out the forms. It wasn't the first time and hopefully wouldn't be the last. "Is it normal that I know his social security number better than he does?" he asked with a sigh.
"For him? Yes," Natasha answered.
Rhodey was nearly finished with the paperwork when the doctor requested more details about Tony's cardiac history, like whether he'd had any such attacks before. While they talked, the nurses efficiently finished cutting Tony's clothes off, then draped a hospital gown over him.
When the doctor left the room the nurses were about to follow, but Rhodey asked, "Excuse me, can we take whatever is in his pockets? And his watch, too. He'd prefer that."
The nurses hesitated a moment, then the elder one shrugged. "For you? Sure thing."
Natasha helped them go through the clothes, saying, "I was his PA for a while. I know where he stashes things."
Steve had moved up the bed to stand where the doctor had been, first peering at the machine displays, then down at Tony.
The beeping from the monitors changed, the heartbeat and respiration numbers increasing slightly. Tony's hands twitched, then he gasped a little, and his eyes flew open.
"Hey, Tony, how are you-" Steve stopped when Tony's eyes grew wide and his breathing increased to almost a pant. He shifted on the bed as if trying to get away from Steve.
"Steve, back away. Now!" Rhodey commanded, hauling himself out of the wheelchair and using the bed to support himself as he took Steve's place at the bedside. "Hey, Tony, it's all right, you're all right," he said reassuringly, touching Tony's arm and waving at him slightly so his attention wouldn't stray toward the others in the room.
Tony relaxed a fraction, but his breathing was still rapid and somewhat erratic, and that seemed to set off something with his heart. One of the machines sounded an alarm, and the doctor and one of the two nurses rushed in. Rhodey got out of the way as quickly as he could, though he remained standing in the hopes that Tony would see him and stop freaking out.
"We'll have to sedate him if this is what happens when he wakes," said the doctor. Rhodey didn't know how to explain what had happened, so he let them do their work. After an injection into the IV line, Tony went limp again and the machines returned to their previous noises.
It was several more minutes before the doctor seemed to think the situation sufficiently under control for him to turn and talk to them. "We're going to take him to have some tests done, then he'll be moved to the ICU. Someone can take you to the waiting room there and we'll fetch you when he's settled in."
"With all due respect, one of us will need to accompany him. Security reasons," Steve said.
The doctor seemed like he wanted to argue but Steve crossed his arms over his chest and the doctor chuckled and shook his head ruefully. "I apologize, for a moment I forgot who I was dealing with. Yes, one of you may accompany him. Just stay out of the way when we ask you to."
"Of course," Steve said. He turned to Rhodey and Natasha. "Who should stay with him?"
"I can," Natasha said. "Any of you will turn too many heads."
"Fine," Rhodey agreed. He gave her Tony's watch, keeping Tony's phone for himself. "Friday can send for help if it's needed," he said. "Just in case."
All too soon Tony was being wheeled away and a different nurse than they'd seen before was leading the rest of them to the waiting room outside the intensive care unit. They had the room entirely to themselves.
Steve started pacing, Sam lounged on one of the couches, and Rhodey called Pepper, realizing no one had thought to contact her yet. The phone rang four times before she picked up. "Rhodey. What happened?" she sounded resigned.
"What makes you think something happened?"
"You don't call me directly unless something has happened. And it must be bad; you're stalling."
Rhodey took a deep breath and explained what they knew. He could almost feel her shocked disbelief as she listened. "Isn't he too young for a heart attack?"
"With as much damage as he's had to his chest? I don't find it that hard to believe."
"I just- God, Rhodey, we could have lost him." She sounded teary.
He sighed and wearily rubbed his face. "Believe me, I know."
She took a deep breath. "I'll have his cardiologist call the hospital. Is there anything else I can do?"
"I don't think so." He paused. "I'll call if . . . anything happens."
"Thank you, Rhodey."
He let his phone fall into his lap and stared blankly at the wall for several long minutes, remembering how Tony fell against him on the way to the floor and everything after. Eventually he was distracted from his reverie by Steve's restless pacing. "What's eating you?" he demanded.
Steve stopped, then began pacing in the other direction. "I don't understand what happened when Tony woke up."
Rhodey scoffed. "Really, Rogers? Think about it for just a second: he's disoriented, his chest is killing him, and you're standing over him. What do you think that reminded him of?"
Steve stopped stock-still. "Oh God," he said miserably.
Sam looked between them curiously. "Now I'm the one who needs the play-by-play, because there is something going on here that I'm not getting."
Rhodey shook his head disbelievingly. "Rogers, what did you tell them about Siberia?"
Steve sighed and sank into a chair near Rhodey and facing Sam. "I told them that Stark came, Zemo got him upset, and we fought."
Sam nodded. "There were a few more details, but yeah, that was the gist."
Rhodey turned to Sam. "Did he mention the video of Barnes assassinating Tony's parents?"
"Yep."
"And Tony went berserk? Managed to blow away Barnes' metal arm?"
"Yeah, that was mentioned."
"How about that Rogers beat Tony bloody with his shield, then smashed the arc reactor?"
"That's new to me," Sam said slowly, glancing at Steve.
"He beat me bloody, too," Steve added lamely.
"You fractured his fucking sternum, left his suit without power, and stranded him there alone. If it weren't for his AI calling for help when the suit went offline, he wouldn't have made it out of Siberia," Rhodey said frostily.
"That's cold," Sam said.
"I . . . didn't know that part," Steve said softly.
Rhodey continued. "And despite all that, he put his ass on the line to make it possible for you to come back and not be in jail. He thinks we need you. I'm not so sure anymore."
An uneasy silence settled on the room, unbroken until a nurse came to lead them to Tony's room. "He's just waking up from the sedation," she said, pushing Rhodey's wheelchair while Sam and Steve followed single-file, passing several empty rooms until they reached the one farthest from the waiting room. "We can only allow one person in the room at a time until the doctor approves more visitors."
Natasha was beside the bed when they arrived, talking to Tony, whose eyes were closed. An array of monitors decorated the wall on either side of the head of the bed, a dizzying amount of information scrolling across them, very little of which Rhodey could understand. Natasha squeezed Tony's hand and approached the doorway. "Next," she said lightly, her expression solemn.
Rhodey didn't even look at the others, he just wheeled himself into the room. "Hey, man," he said softly as he took Tony's hand. Tony's eyes slowly opened and fixed on him. "How are you feeling?"
Tony tried to answer, but the oxygen mask was in the way. Rhodey briefly lifted it so Tony could speak. "Lousy," he admitted.
"Yeah, I'll bet," Rhodey said once the mask was back in place. "Rest easy, we've got you."
Tony clung to Rhodey's hand and closed his eyes again.
The nurse-who introduced herself as Natalie, which made Rhodey glance back at Natasha with a raised eyebrow-came in several times to check the monitors and make some notes, then asked Rhodey if he needed anything before she left. His answer was always no.
He'd been sitting with Tony for close to an hour before the doctor reappeared. "If you don't mind coming to the hallway for a moment, I'd like to give you an update on what we know."
Tony was sleeping peacefully, so Rhodey didn't mind moving himself into the doorway.
The doctor got right down to business. "The preliminary diagnosis is still a heart attack, though there are some inconsistencies in the test results. We have communicated with his cardiologist and sent all test results for examination in case his prior history can explain what we're seeing. He is being medicated as is appropriate for a heart attack for now and he seems to be responding well. We will need to continue monitoring him for at least 24 hours; what happens after that depends on what the test results show."
"What sort of inconsistencies?" Sam asked.
"We found no blockages in his coronary vessels that would explain the symptoms. Anything else I would rather not talk about until I discuss it with his cardiologist."
"But for now he is stable," Natasha said.
"For now," the doctor agreed.