Chapter 2
As soon as his feet touched the runway, the suit was off in seconds and there were nurses waiting for him with a stretcher so he could lay down the Captain. As soon as he was out, they were already rushing him to the infirmary in the tower. He had built it shortly after their first mission, when he had realized they may come away from some fights with more than bumps and bruises.
He is quick to follow, calling after the team he hired, saying he need samples of his blood, when he can spare it. Who they are assuming is Steve is bleeding quite profusely and does not look like he’s in any condition to have a sample taken. If anything he looks like he needs a few transfusions. But, Tony is prepared for that, and knows that the infirmary is not only staffed with capable hands, but that they have everything they’d need, including enough ORs that every member of the team could go into surgery at once. While it seemed overkill most days, it never hurt to be prepared.
As soon as he’s sure he isn’t needed, he gets out of their way, answering as many questions as he has answers to, tells JARVIS to give them access to only his medical chart, and stations himself in front of the one way mirror that looks into the OR Steve’s currently occupying. As he monitors their progress, he tells JARVIS to keep track of the team and alert him if he’s needed. Otherwise he wants JARVIS to analyze Steve’s condition and go over the data recorded about the blast.
Tony is immensely proud of JARVIS and allows him time to work through what he asked of him as he watches the doctors. He can’t say for certain what they’re doing, but he assumes he was right about the internal injuries. There is a moment when he can see the little line on one of the monitors go flat and Tony’s breathing halts. The room is a flurry of motion as they break out the paddles and Tony is left helpless to watch as they try to save the man- boy’s life.
Tony’s not sure exactly what the team would do without him. He’d become such a staple in their little rag tag bunch that he would actually miss him if he were gone. More than that though, he’d slowly become something Tony would reckon to be a friend. Any bickering they had was just that, bickering. It had been a long time since they had seriously fought about anything important, and Tony could remember that specific fight. It had been shortly after the day Pepper had broken up with him.
Tony is not proud of how he handled that, but honestly, it could have been worse. It had been after a particularly long battle where he had come back with JARVIS auto piloting him because he was pretty sure he’d broken a leg and an arm and the protocol specified any harm that would prevent him from optimally piloting the suit unless overridden. He chose not to override it.
He had gone straight to the infirmary, taking over three hours to get all patched up. Even then, he was committed to a bed and told to stay the night for observation. The entire team had been exposed to an aerosol and they wanted to keep an eye on how their lungs were healing. It was after that that Pepper had come to see him. Tony and JARVIS had a long time rule not to tell Pepper what happened in certain fights. If he broke a bone, she didn’t know about it until it was being set by a doctor. JARVIS only gave her updates on the fight when Tony gave the okay, and most of the time he okayed it. There had only been a handful of times when he’d really been in any danger of actual harm, and this just happened to be one of them.
She had come in dry eyed, but he could tell from her lack of makeup she had had to remove it so no one could outwardly see the signs of her having been crying. It made his heart clench, but what really got him were her eyes. They looked so pained, but there was something hard underneath them. Not her usual determination, or anger, but something that made his heart speed up. It was resolved.
She had tried to explain it to him, but her initial word had jolted him like a slap in the face and he hadn’t caught a lot of the rest. She must have realized that because soon they were just there in silence. Pepper had kissed him on the cheek and walked out after that. He had been left alone to his own devices.
Pepper wrote him an email, it wasn’t clinical as he had expected and sounded very much like her speaking voice, which just reminded Tony of how he’d probably never be on the receiving end of that tone for a long time, if ever again. The email had said that she would be moving to D.C. for a few months, and remaining head of the company, unless Tony saw fit to have her removed. She said she couldn’t handle him fighting everyday and not knowing what was happening to him, or if he’d be okay. She wanted stability, she wanted a family, she wanted safety, and she couldn’t count on two of those things from the billionaire, even if the mention of family had been new to him.
The worst part was, Tony didn’t blame her. He understood perfectly. The email had gone on to say that she would still be there for him, if he needed her she’d be there, but that she couldn’t handle her heart being tested so often. She wouldn’t know what to do if she lost him completely, and so she was backing off. She would still continue to be his friend, but understood that they would need to spend some time apart, and so that’s what she was doing. Part of him wanted to be angry, but a larger part of him just tacked this onto the long list of people who he fucked up in one way or another. Or really a list of people who couldn’t love him like he’d loved them. Howard had forever taken the championship spot though, coming out at number one.
So as soon as he could be on his feet, he was, but from there it was the workshop. He didn’t come out for two weeks. No one could reach him, and since no one else knew they had broken up, they all still assumed that Pepper was looking out for him. Not even Natasha noticed, and that's saying something. She could predict every celebrity scandal months ahead of time, and knew who in the public eye was gay, abusive, or otherwise. So for her to have missed this was huge. They were all under the pretenses that Tony was just very engaged in a project. Not even Bruce knew, and Tony kept him in the loop with everything. For the most part, Tony told JARVIS to tell him it was a surprise. Which wasn’t exactly a lie, Tony had been very surprised.
It took Steve to finally figure it out, and that was mostly on accident. Steve had a habit of wandering around and sketching when no one was looking. When he wasn’t pummeling the shit out of punching bags, or learning about technology, he was sketching one of the team, a landmark, or something from his past. It took two weeks for Steve to makes his way down to the lab and decide to sketch Tony. If Steve had come any later, Tony’s not sure he would have lasted much longer.
When Steve found him, Tony was drunk and draped over Dummy who was supporting most of his weight as he picked reached for his welding equipment. Even Steve knew that in order to weld you had to wear a special helmet.
“JARVIS, should he be doing that? I don’t think that’s safe.” Steve whispered as he edged his way closer to the scientist. Tony hadn’t known he was there yet and was intent on welding something.
“No, Sir. It’s very dangerous and I would appreciate if you would step in as Sir has been ignoring my recommendations. I would have said something earlier but he disabled my ability to contact any of the others.” JARVIS responded just as quietly as Steve had. Tony only knew this because after the incident he had watched the security tape from the night before.
Quickly Tony had had the equipment taken from him and was being ushered out of the room altogether. By ushered he meant carried. Discreetly of course, he wasn’t paraded through the communal or made to explain himself to anyone, but he was taken right to his floor, protesting the entire way.
Once there he was put directly into bed and tucked in. From the video he could see a lot of crying and drunken sputtering until he was completely wrapped up into his bed and the lights were off. After that Tony was out like a light, but Steve wasn’t through. He went right back down to his lab and continued his conversation with JARVIS. For about three days no one in the tower had heard JARVIS’s voice, but they hadn’t been too concerned since any task they asked him to complete was done anyway, just without the interaction. Even Banner had made due without the voice and not been alerted to any strict difference.
Being in his lab, Steve had asked JARVIS to walk him through the steps it would take to allow his voice throughout the tower again. Tony hadn’t just commanded him not to speak, he had actually disabled JARVIS’s program from interacting or reaching the system through the hardware, so Steve had the arduous task of rewiring the entire thing. It took him two and a half hours to put it together correctly. Afterwards, he had asked JARVIS why Tony was acting this way, which is when he learned that Pepper and Tony had broken up.
To his credit, Steve didn’t say anything about it to the others. He acted perfectly, deceived even Natasha, which Tony thought was impossible, and went to bed. He was waiting until the next morning when he got him up at nine in the morning and took him to Tony’s sparring area. Tony had been extremely irritable, hungover, and nervous, because more than anything, he did not want to discuss his mental state with Captain Fucking America before noon and sober. So he had silently committed himself to not saying a damn thing. Which worked for a time, but as Steve made him spar, Tony realized that that in itself was manipulation. Steve wasn’t letting him win, but he wasn’t hitting at full strength either. He was giving Tony a fight when he needed one. One that hadn’t turned verbal, but Steve knew that at some point Tony’s resolve would crumble and he’d talk. And if not, he’d pester JARVIS for more than enough information.
But the thing is, Tony was wrong, and the questions never came. Instead, Tony fought until he physically felt he couldn’t, and Steve worked in a way to beat him soundly without making him exert all that much more than he was. Hooking a foot behind his knee Steve caused them both to tumble and made sure he was starring the genius straight in the eye without really pinning him. Tony’s breathing was fast and laborious. The only sound echoing off the walls. Steve kept the silence for a few more moments, allowing him to regain partial breath before speaking.
“It isn’t strictly my business, I know. I am sorry Pepper broke up with you. I have not told the team, and won’t unless it impacts them in some way, which means whether you feel up to it or not, you will have to get your act together. JARVIS is functioning again, and if you get an inkling to shut him up again I swear to god I will be in that lab faster than you can solve an equation. I worry about you, and so would the team. I can not have you being this reckless, or really reckless at all but I know some of it is a part of who you are.” Steve took a very patriotic breath and glanced away momentarily before resuming, “You are an important member of this team and are need both on and off the field. I will not have you jeopardizing the functionality of this team. If, in the next three days, there is a mission, I do not want you on it unless absolutely necessary. I want you to sleep, eat as much food as you humanly can, and spar with as many people as possible as often as possible. If you don’t want to talk to me that’s fine. If you don’t want to talk to the team, that’s also fine. But Tony,” Steve was staring at him point blank, concern radiating off of him, but with an undertone of steel that meant he was in no way messing around, “you should talk to someone.”
The words escaped Tony before he really thought about them. “The one person I really talked to walked out two weeks ago.” Apparently, that settled it for Steve and Tony found himself being hugged by 200 and some pounds of pure patriotic muscle.
“Sir, Captain Rogers has sustained several broken bones, a punctured lung, a minor concussion, and severe blood loss from the blast. But as you noticed, he has apparently reverted back to what looks to be a younger version of himself. His form has decreased in muscle mass, leaving him a mere 120 pounds. And there is something else Sir.” A holographic display appeared before him, showing all the previously mentioned injuries. Beside it appears both the list from his file and the Smithsonian. “It appears the Captain has completely reverted to his pre serum self because he is showing signs of Asthma, Scoliosis, Fallen Arches, Heart Arrhythmia, Ulcers, Partial Deafness, and Pernicious Anemia. His blood shows absolutely no trace of the serum whatsoever and has seemed to have contracted everything that had been fixed. Sir, with all the additional injuries, it is a miracle he is still alive.”
By this point Tony’s eyes were wider than they had probably ever been in his life. He stared at the figure in the OR and realized that even with all their flashy tech, it may not be enough to keep Steve alive. No one had been able to replicate the serum, and regardless, it looked like SHIELD had lost its one fine example of Erskine's formula and hope of replicating it.
“JARVIS, how are the others doing? And check social media, was anyone filming what happened to Steve? The press cannot under any circumstances learn of his new condition. Or old I guess. Got it? And how are you coming with the data from the blast?” The scientist left the OR with barely another glance at its main occupant. He needed to work on solving this fast if he had any real hope of recovering and surviving.
“Agent Romanov has told me that they are finished with the masses and are now just combing through and making sure no one missed one. Doctor Banner is already back to his regular form and is receiving a ride here from Thor. As for social media, no, there is no video of the Captain’s transformation other than the one we possess. If one pops up, it will be taken down immediately.” Tony kept moving, making his way back to the runway to wait for Thor and Bruce. “And the data is being analyzed, but I’m afraid there isn’t a lot at the moment. It will take me an hour to fully process the entirety of the data collected, and even then, I’m not sure what effect the absence of the serum will have on the Captain’s body in the meantime. Thor and Doctor Banner will arrive in three minutes.”
Tony nodded absently at that and blew out a breath of air. “Alright, now, for now, please order pizza. Usual order, even if Steve’s out, he may want at least something when he comes to, and I’m sure Bruce would eat it if… the man’s always hungry, it’ll be fine. I’m going to go take a quick shower since I probably won’t have that luxury for the next few days. When Bruce arrives send him to my floor. Say it’s urgent. And tell Thor when the food arrives.” There is a confirmation from the AI before Tony sets off to scrub himself raw. If the feeling in his gut is anything to go by, this will take a while, and probably a lot of time they don’t have, so getting out all the necessities of human grooming while you’re still in the grace period is something he will have to get out of the way.
Bruce is waiting in his living room when he comes out of his room in fresh clothing. His bathroom branches off from his bedroom, and there is another one on the floor so guests don’t have to go through his room to use it. The Doctor is sitting in one of his recliners aimed at the wall currently covering up the giant television he rarely watches anymore. The Doctor’s hand is holding up his chin and his eyes are closed as he dazes off. Entering the room, Tony heads straight for the bar, pouring himself at least three fingers of scotch without really looking.
Bruce opens his eyes then, drifting back to look him in the eye as he downs the whole glass in one gulp, and then slams it back down on the bar. He doesn’t pour himself anymore, but walks over to the other scientist and throws himself down on the couch near him, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling as he talks.
“Steve used his body and shield to localize the blast of the grenade like bomb. When the dust cleared he didn’t look like himself, and when we got back here JARVIS confirmed my suspicion. Steve no longer has the serum running through his veins. He has reverted entirely back to his pre serum self, thereby contracting all his previous ailments as well as the injuries he actually sustained from the blast. JARVIS is still analyzing the data from the blast and we will know more in about 40 minutes, but Bruce. You and I both know that the only thing that will really save him is for us to pump the serum back into him.” Bruce didn’t move from his seat and nothing about him changed except for his eyes. They widened to such a point it would have been comical if it wasn’t so serious.
They sat in silence for several minutes before Bruce eventually spoke. “I’m not sure this is something I can help you with. You damn well know what happened the last time.” Bruce’s voice was weary and strained. Of course Tony knew what he was asking, and moreover, who he was asking.
“You don’t think I know what I’m asking you? This isn’t some experiment I think we should run in the lab, or some half assed idea I think we could make reality, this is saving Cap’s life. Who knows what will happen to him now that he isn’t aided by the serum? He was frozen for seventy years. How will his brain deal with that? I’m not asking you to abandon your beliefs, but what I am asking for is your help. And when we do recreate the serum, we will use it on Steve and then destroy it. Unless, that is, you would like to run some further tests in relation to the other guy, because that is the only reason I would let it be kept around.” Bruce held Tony’s gaze and scrutinized it under his own. Tony’s eye held nothing but determination and something that looked a lot like the look Steve would get when facing down a mass of combatants. Tony had to physically relax himself so he wouldn’t tense under Bruce’s gaze. It was the first time the man had seriously nailed him with unshakable gaze. It would have been unnerving if Tony wasn’t completely serious.
“What makes you think we’ll succeed? People have tried and failed for the last seventy years. Hell, this isn’t even the first time I’ve considered it! What makes you think we won’t turn the Captain into something like me, or worse, Blonsky?” This time the steel behind Bruce’s voice and eyes was gone. Tony knew he had won, that Bruce would help, but he needed some kind of assurance that they wouldn’t fail.
“We are two of the smartest people in the world. Regardless of ego, it is the truth. Where you had limited funding and the weight solely on your shoulders, I have the money and brains to at least try to keep up. We will not figure this out by striving for “the benefits of humanity” or the other garbage we have heard dozens of maniacs spout over the last few months. We will do this because we have to, because Steve is relying on us.” He took a breath and paused, shifting the conversation. “Now, I suggest you take a shower and then meet me with the rest of the team. The shower, because who knows when we’ll come out of the lab, and I waited to alert the team until I’d told you. So I’d appreciate if you were there when I broke the news.”
Bruce nodded and stood up, following Tony to the elevator. Tony was headed to the communal floor while the other scientist was making a pit stop at his floor for the recommended shower. Tony had learned to pay little mind to what Bruce wore but smirked when he exited the elevator. For their entire conversation the man had been wearing shorts and nothing else. Now that Tony could see the back it brightened his mood for a moment, seeing the pink bedazzled letter spelling out TAP THAT ASS. He could spot Clint’s work anywhere.
The others were in the infirmary, getting minor scrapes and sprains taken care of when Tony arrived on the communal floor. He occupied himself with checking over JARVIS’s findings until the pizzas arrived. By then Bruce was done with his shower and Thor had come back from the doctors with only a minor cut along the side of his arm that had needed bandaging. Bruce’s hair was sopping wet but that didn’t stop his curls from springing right in front of his eyes. There was a large stain on the back of his blue button up and he passed Tony and sat himself down at the counter, which Tony was sitting on.
“You know there’s a hair dryer in your bathroom. Each floor is fully equipped.” Bruce shot Tony a look just as both Romanov and Barton entered the room. The team was together, or as together as circumstances allowed, and that was good enough for the scientists.
“Alright everyone, might as well get down to business. I would eat quickly though, as you may not feel like eating after a little while.” The pizzas were passed out and everyone dug in.
They were all seated at a counter that separated the kitchen from the living area of the room, with chairs and a TV. Clint was perched between the refrigerator and the toaster, stripped of his uniform and freshly showered as well. It seemed everyone but Thor had a dampness to their hair, though Natasha had taken the time to straighten hers. He watched them from his vantage point, a habit that Tony had gotten used to over the last few months.
Natasha ate with grace that seemed unnecessary when eating pizza of all things, but kept her street clothes cleaner than Thor, who was covered in sauce the moment he opened his boxes. He even had pepperoni in that golden mane of his, and Tony swore there was some right between his eyes. How he managed to do that, Tony could only guess.
Of all of them, Bruce was the quietest and fastest. He polished off three pizzas in under fifteen minutes, drank an entire two liter bottle of Coke, and then slowed to Tony’s pace of a few bits every couple of minutes. He looked tired, anxious of the upcoming conversation, but overall better than when he’d first gotten here.
Tony waited until everyone had at least packed away a pizza and a half before he told them the news. He was right. Clint didn’t touch his pizza after hearing what had happened, though Thor steam plowed right through the meal. Natasha had paused for his quick brief before eating a few more slices and giving it a rest. Bruce was the only one who had actually eaten enough before the news and didn’t have to slow down from his pace, as it was already slower than what he had been doing minutes ago.
“So how exactly did this happen? And how is Cap? The docs didn’t tell us as they usually do.” Clint asked first, breaking the silence. Natasha cautiously said nothing and watched the two scientists. Bruce deferred to Tony on that one.
“He’s in surgery. He broke several bones, a punctured lung, and several other injuries from just the blast itself. The recording showed him throwing himself on top of the bomb and using his shield to contain as much of the blast as possible. If what Bruce has said before about the serum being based off a form of radiation, then that means whatever it was was absorbed by the serum running through his veins. I don’t know the original purpose of the bomb, so I would have to say that the side effect of Steven returning to his previous size had got to have something to do with how the grenade was meant to originally operate. But since we know he no longer had the serum in his system, that means that there is nothing to prevent his old ailments from coming back. The docs say he’s already showing signs of his heart defect and asthma. If we let this continue for much longer, he runs the risk of dying for any number of reasons out of our hands. Which is why Bruce and I are going to try and recreate the serum.” Here they were met with dead silence.
“If I am correct, hasn’t humanity failed at its attempts to recreate what ran through the Captain’s veins? I recall a mission some time ago with a green fellow and a huge head that claimed he had been doing the same. Is it even possible?” Thor’s input was unexpected, but welcome and voiced pretty much what Banner had asked earlier.
“Yes, people have tried and failed to recreate the formula, but Bruce and I have several years experience in the fields relating to the serum itself. If we put our heads together, and study the bomb, we should be able to crack this. Besides. Bruce had a habit of taking regular samples of Steve’s blood in case he ever needed a transfusion. We’ve got plenty in stock that we can run tests on. We just wanted to update you first before we ran off to our super secret lair, and warn you of what to expect.” Here Bruce interrupted Tony, “We know you’ve read his file, but there were a few things left off the docket.” The scientist nodded before adjusting his glasses and listing everything as though he had the document in front of him.
“Before the serum Steve had asthma, scoliosis, a heart defect, was partially deaf, was color blind, possessed fallen arches, pernicious anemia, and ulcers. He was also known to catch every disease under the sun and currently has several non related injuries. While Tony and I are in the lab, I would like someone to be monitoring him at all times and be there when he first wakes up. There’s no telling what he’ll remember and what he won’t. We need someone there with him, to stall him so I can run some tests and ask questions. He should be out of surgery in an hour or two.” The doctor glances sheepishly around the table, not sure who to ask about the first round of babysitting.
“I’ll take the first shift. But I think JARVIS should monitor all of his readings and report to a doctor the moment anything happens. If it’s true and he really doesn’t have the serum, then he will need to be under constant medical supervision, not just friendly.” Tony couldn’t say he was surprised. Natasha knew that Steve would be heavily drugged directly after surgery and extremely unlikely to wake up for the first watch. It made sense she’d ask to go first if just to get it out of the way.
“I volunteer my services for the second shift. If there is anything I can do to help to help our friend I will gladly.” Thor’s booming offer was loud enough Tony swore the Chinese had gotten wind.
“Well, with that settled, I guess Bruce and I are heading to the lab. Come on Bruceykins, lets go save the world again.” Tony basically dragged the physicist after him and down into the depths of the sciency lab.