Tony/Delaney
“I’m fine, Foggy. There’s no reason to be worried about me,” Delaney said into the phone she had tucked under her chin. After SHIELD fell, Maria Hill had suggested Stark hire her as the Avengers’ doctor. In the almost two years she’d been with them, she’d only met the billionaire in passing, never speaking directly.
“Are you sure? Last time you said that, robots were attacking Sokovia!” Foggy screeched.
Delaney rolled her eyes. “And I told you, I wasn’t with the Avengers then. I was safely tucked away with Pepper.” What she hadn’t told him was that she had spent many all-nighters keeping an eye on Pietro Maximoff after Dr. Cho saved him. The young man’s condition had been uncertain for days afterwards. She had even grown close to Wanda, who had spent many of those nights with her.
She could just picture Foggy’s face as he tried to argue, but he couldn’t; she had been safe. “Just...let me know if you need anything?”
“I will,” Delaney said before Foggy hung up. Their friendship had been hard since he had met Karen. What was she supposed to do when he found his soulmate? She certainly wasn’t going to mope about and wait for her soulmate.
She didn’t have time to reflect on that particular thought as FRIDAY’s voice brought her back to reality. “Doctor, your presence is requested in the labs.”
“Thank you.” Delaney had almost gotten used to the feminine voice by now.
When she entered the labs, she hadn’t expected to see Stark frantically typing away at a keyboard while Bruce stood off to the side, a pained look on his face. “How long’s he been doing that?” she asked, gesturing at the billionaire.
“Half hour, forty-five minutes tops. According to FRIDAY, he’s been awake for ninety-six hours. Caffeine and sheer willpower are the only things keeping him awake,” he said.
Delaney cursed under her breath. “I’ll be right back,” she said before running out of the R&D labs and down the hall into her lab. It didn’t take long to find what she was looking for before rushing back.
“What are you giving him?” Bruce asked, looking at the syringe and vial in her hands.
“Hydroxyzine,” Delaney said as she measured the dose. “He’ll get a healthy amount of sleep for the first time in years.”
“Mr. Stark,” she said calmly as she walked towards Tony, “it’s time for you to sleep.”
Just as she stood at his elbow, the billionaire flapped his hands at her. “No shots!” he said, backing away.
Delaney raised her eyebrows. In college, she had worked as a bartender, assuming she would meet her soulmate that way. She didn’t even suspect that her soulmate would turn out to be an impossible patient.
“Mr. Stark,” she tried again. “If you don’t have enough sleep, your tech isn’t going to be very good, is it?” Delaney held up the syringe, now filled with sedative. “Can you be good and let me help you? This will help you go to sleep and get some rest, okay? I promise it’s not going to hurt you.”
Without warning, DUM-E’s arm swung across Stark’s workstation and sent a mug clattering to the floor, making Stark’s head snap around to look at the source of the noise.
Perfect opportunity. Without a second thought, Delaney yanked down the top of Stark’s pants and injected him in the ass, despite his yelp of protest.
“Thanks, DUM-E,” she said and smiled when the robot made a happy whirring sound. She couldn’t help her quiet laugh when she spotted her handwriting just above the injection site. “Well. Mr. Stark,” she said as she helped her soulmate over to the cot in the far corner of the lab, Bruce chuckling quietly as he assisted her, “it looks like I own your ass.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Argh!” Tony flailed awake, finding himself on the cot in his lab. “FRIDAY!”
“Yes, Sir?” the cool Irish voice responded.
“Did I dream it, or did a beautiful woman say my words just before she stabbed me in the ass?”
“Dr. Evans did indeed say your words just before injecting you with a sedative, Sir,” FRIDAY replied.
“I know her. Don’t I? Why haven’t I spoken to her before? What was with the needle in the ass? Oh!” Tony’s eyes went wide and he scrambled up. “The AI, that was it, I figured out the programming…”
“Don't you fucking well dare,” an icy voice said, and he whirled to see Delaney standing in the doorway. “Did you learn nothing from Ultron?”
Something flickered in Tony's eyes, a smile twitching at the corner of his mouth before he adopted a penitent pose. "Don't build accidentally homicidal AIs?"
Delaney chuckled without humor, crossing her arms. “You can’t charm your way out of this one, Tony,” she quipped.
“You think I don’t realize the consequences of what I did? I know what I’m doing, Doctor,” he said, nothing in his tone that even hinted at the joking man Hill had described. This was a man whose conscience had grown heavy with the lives his creation had taken. “You think I’m rebuilding Ultron. Why would I? He killed JARVIS!”
Delaney couldn’t speak; it took everything in her not to try to cry. She too had grieved for JARVIS. She had never thought of him as a program, he had been more than that. She remembered the nights she was homesick in the beginning, when JARVIS had consoled her to the best of his ability, had talked with her until she fell asleep. Even though she still heard his voice frequently, Vision wasn’t JARVIS. He never would be. “I’m sorry,” she said finally. “I’ll just go. If you need anything, you should notify FRIDAY.” It wasn’t until she was halfway down the hall until she let the tears fall.
“Dr. Evans, you are upset,” an all too familiar voice said.
Delaney made herself smile. “I’ll be just fine, Vision.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Over the next few days, the other Avengers began to take notice that Tony was spending much more time locked up in his labs than usual and that Delaney was much less friendly than usual. It didn’t take long for Bruce to crack.
“Tony’s her soulmate,” he admitted over breakfast one morning.
“I’d cry a lot too if Stark was my soulmate,” Clint muttered into his coffee.
“Clint!” Wanda gasped, swatting at him. “No wonder she is upset. He does not seem to want her.”
“It’s not that,” Bruce disagreed. “I heard them talking, after they met. He brought up JARVIS.”
“Were the doctor and JARVIS close?” Vision asked as he stood nearby.
Bruce smiled. “When Delaney first came here, the organization she had devoted her life to was gone, she couldn’t go back to a family she didn’t have. JARVIS was her first friend here.”
“And Ultron killed him,” Sam said, realization on his face. “She blames Stark for the death of her friend. The Vision sounds like him, but he isn’t JARVIS.”
None of the Avengers present spotted Delaney standing in the doorway until she spoke. “Nice to know for sure there’s no such thing as privacy with you lot,” she managed to say before heading towards Tony’s labs.
~~~~~~~~~~
“I’m resigning,” she said as the lab doors slid open.
“What? Why?” Tony asked, alarmed. He turned toward her and stood in front of the screen he was working on.
“You’re not happy with me here. Everything reminds me of JARVIS. Your teammates, though they mean well, don’t know the meaning of privacy. It’s time for me to go home,” she said gently. “My friends will be happy. They’ve been begging me to quit SHIELD and superheroes for a while now. I’m sure you can find someone to take my job easily enough.”
“Don’t leave. At least not yet,” Tony asked. “Please. I want to show you something.”
“Make it quick? I have a lot of things to pack,” Delaney said softly.
“Meet TONTO and JEEVES,” Tony said. With a flick on the remote in his hand, two holograms sat in front of her. They were curiously underdeveloped, almost as if done on purpose.
“Hello!” and “Hi!” were parroted at her by surprisingly young voices. They were both British and sounded as though they were young children.
“Hi there,” Delaney said hesitantly.
“You created them,” Tony told her. “When you knocked me out, I was building TONTO’s ‘brain’, so to speak. When you left, I realized how nice it was to just have him. He didn’t have to do anything. He was just there.”
Delaney stared at Tony in wonder. “So you made JEEVES the same way?”
Tony nodded. “I wanted to show you that not everything I make is dangerous.”
Delaney wiped away the tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks. “Thank you for showing me this. I...I need to go pack,” she said.
The expression on Tony’s face could only be described as heartbroken. “Take this with you, at least.” He handed her a USB stick. “It’s JARVIS’ original programming. It’s not the same, but it’s the best I can give you.”
Delaney took the gift, handled it as it it was the most precious gift she could ever have. “Thank you, Tony,” she said and kissed him on the cheek before leaving his lab.
Up in the vents, Clint was mentally kicking himself. “Guys,” he muttered. “We seriously fucked up.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Dels,” Matt said as Delaney was unpacking her last box.
“Admit it, you’re happy I’m not patching up superheroes anymore,” she said, nothing in her voice showing the sadness brewing in her mind.
“I didn’t say that,” he laughed. “I’m serious. I’m sorry things didn’t work out with Stark.”
Delaney chose not to respond. She dug the USB stick Tony had given her out of her pocket. She eyed the desktop computer she had set up thoughtfully. “Matt, do you mind? It’s JARVIS…”
“Go ahead. I’d like to meet him,” Matt said.
Delaney took a steadying breath before plugging it in. It didn’t take long for her to hear the voice she thought she’d never be able to hear again.
“Good afternoon, Dr. Evans.”
Matt didn’t even have to make up an excuse as to why he had to go out late that night.
~~~~~~~~~~
Delaney was barely back into the swing of normal life as a doctor when Rhodey showed up at Metro-General. “You have to come back,” was his opener.
“You’re not my patient anymore, Rhodey,” she said as she headed to the break room.
“This isn’t about me, Delaney. It’s about Tony. He doesn't sleep, he barely eats. He’s miserable without you,” he went on, easily keeping up with her.
“Mr. Stark has gone his entire life not knowing I exist. I think he can manage,” Delaney said as. she turned towards Rhodey. “Besides, he does that anyways.”
“Please. He doesn’t work, he doesn’t spend time in his labs. He hardly leaves his penthouse. He’s going to drink himself to death.”
Delaney crossed her arms. “What do you expect me to do? I have a good life. I’m not being attacked by supervillains every other week. I feel safe.” She didn’t want to admit that she too was miserable, guilty that she in one way hated that her friends were happy: Matt had found Claire and Foggy had found Karen.
“Just...come by once. After that, I'll leave you alone,” Rhodey said before walking away.
“What was that all about?” Claire asked as she came out of the break room.
Delaney slumped against the wall. “Tony fuckin’ Stark,” she said weakly.
Claire nodded in understanding. “‘Nuff said.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Please pick up, please pick up. Delaney stood in the lobby of SI, a StarkPhone to her ear and her heart pounding. “Oh thank God. Pepper, I know you probably hate me right now, but--”
“Rhodey talked to you, I know. I'll be right down.”
“Thank you,” Delaney said before Pepper hung up. It was weird, being back at SI. Instead of simply walking down the hall and busying herself in her labs in nothing more than hastily thrown on sweats, she was stuck waiting in the lobby, extremely uncomfortable in her current attire.
“You never wear heels,” came Pepper’s voice from behind her in a surprised tone.
Delaney smiled and turned around. “I did when you interviewed me,” she said in a teasing tone. Sighing, she pushed her glasses up higher on her face. “I'm sorry for leaving, I really am. It was just too much. JARVIS, Vision, Tony…”
Pepper suddenly pulled her into a hug. “I'm just glad you’re back. They’re all a mess,” she said, leading Delaney onto the elevator and up to the residential floors of the Tower.
“They are?” Delaney was surprised. She was never that close to any of the Avengers, barring Wanda and Bruce. Clint hated medical, Natasha usually steered clear of her, Steve and Thor never needed much medical attention if any.
“Bruce feels horrible. He thinks he’s the reason you left,” Pepper explained.
“Of course not!” Delaney said, horrified that her friend could even think that. “I just...thought it was for the best. It seemed Tony was unhappy, Vision reminded me of JARVIS…” she trailed off.
It dawned on her that the elevator was climbing way too high for the residential floors. “You’re not taking me to see the team.”
Pepper only smiled. “I never said I was,” she said as the doors slip open and gently pushed Delaney out and into Tony’s penthouse.
“Pepper!” Delaney gasped. “FRIDAY! Open this door right now!”
“I’m sorry, Doctor. Miss Potts has locked down the elevator until further notice.”
“Fine,” Delaney huffed. “Tony?” she called out. Where is that man?
“He’s in bed,” a young voice supplied. “Do you remember me? I’m TONTO!”
Delaney smiled. “Thank you, TONTO. Where’s JEEVES?”
“Mr. Stark isn’t so happy, Doctor,” a second voice said in a stage whisper.
Delaney found Tony laying in his bed, ridiculously drunk. “When was your last shower?” No response, only unintelligible grumblings. “Get up,” she said, hands on her hips.
“Don’ wanna. Go ‘way,” Tony slurred as he rolled away from Delaney, pushing his face into his pillow. “No’un’ll ever love me. Ev’n my soulmate ran ’way.”
Delaney took a deep breath and willed herself not to cry. “Well, Tony,” she started, inwardly cringing at her shaky voice. “Maybe I was scared. I couldn’t possibly be your perfect match. I’m too...plain. I’m just boring old Delaney. I don’t party, I’m not fashionable, and I’ve looked after egotistical superheros for a living for the last two years.” She wiped angrily at the tears spilling onto her cheeks. “Damn it,” she muttered.
“Deserve better than me,” he said, voice muffled by the pillow.
Delaney paused and stared down at him. “How about I decide that while you clean up, hmm?” she offered. She laughed when he shook his head and pushed his face deeper into the pillow, reminding her of a child faking sickness. “Up,” she said, voice hardening. “Or do I have to ask Pepper for help?”
“...no,” Tony muttered before sitting up. He certainly did look awful; a small part of Delaney just wanted to hug him, but the more logical part of her knew he needed proper care first.
“Okay,” Delaney said with a smile. “Good. Now go take a shower. Then we’ll see if we can get a little food in you.”
In the amount of time it took Tony to shower and eat, Delaney had stalled long enough. She really didn’t want to have this conversation, but she knew it had to happen.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she said, going over to him and plucking the bottle of scotch out of his hand. “I didn’t come back here to clean you up just to see you destroy yourself again.”
“I didn’t ask you to,” he said back as he stood. “You left, remember? You didn’t want to be here!”
Delaney laughed humorlessly. “I knew we were going to go back to how we treated each other before. I couldn’t be a professional and work and live in the same building as my soulmate, so I left.”
“Screw professional. I was never good at that anyway,” Tony said as he crossed his arms. “So you move in with another guy instead? ‘Cause that’s a mature response. Not that I’m ever a mature response, but we’re not talking about me.”
Delaney stared at him. “Matt is my friend! I was the only one there for him when we were growing up! He was the blind kid at the orphanage that no one wanted to help, so I did. I could’ve gone anywhere for med school. I stuck with him, I took care of him until his soulmate came along. It’s what I do. I take care of people when they don’t have the sense to take care of themselves.”
Tony looked down and dropped his arms to his sides, embarrassed. “Why would you move in with him?” he asked, his voice soft.
“Because he wouldn’t let me say no. He said ‘let me do what you’ve always done for me’,” Delaney said, a small smile working its way onto her lips.
Taking a look at him, Delaney couldn’t help but soften up. “Tony, look at me,” she said, gently touching his face. He slowly lifted his head, taking his time in looking her in the eyes.
Screw it, she thought. It’s not like I have anything to lose. Delaney then leaned in, dropping her hands to his shoulders as their lips met. It wasn’t like anything she could’ve imagined kissing her soulmate would be, the sudden feeling that everything was okay, that nothing bad was going to happen as long as she was with him. She pulled back and opened her eyes to see him staring back at her, feeling him holding her close.
“I’m sorry. So, so sorry,” he whispered before kissing her again.